{"id":"01KG8AMEAH8MKEYBY48HVV0PKA","cid":"bafkreigekz2bkk3t6eyw73d5npic4nexqmghu26a76mc7dkmnszzwklrge","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1528,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1467,"text":"Superadded to these, were four capacious pockets on the outside; one\r\npair to slip books into when suddenly startled from my studies to the\r\nmain-royal-yard; and the other pair, for permanent mittens, to thrust\r\nmy hands into of a cold night-watch. This last contrivance was regarded\r\nas needless by one of my top-mates, who showed me a pattern for\r\nsea-mittens, which he said was much better than mine.\r\n\r\nIt must be known, that sailors, even in the bleakest weather, only\r\ncover their hands when unemployed; they never wear mittens aloft, since\r\naloft they literally carry their lives in their hands, and want nothing\r\nbetween their grasp of the hemp, and the hemp itself.—Therefore, it is\r\ndesirable, that whatever things they cover their hands with, should be\r\ncapable of being slipped on and off in a moment. Nay, it is desirable,\r\nthat they should be of such a nature, that in a dark night, when you\r\nare in a great hurry—say, going to the helm—they may be jumped into,\r\nindiscriminately; and not be like a pair of right-and-left kids;\r\nneither of which will admit any hand, but the particular one meant for\r\nit.\r\n\r\nMy top-mate’s contrivance was this—he ought to have got out a patent\r\nfor it—each of his mittens was provided with two thumbs, one on each\r\nside; the convenience of which needs no comment. But though for clumsy\r\nseamen, whose fingers are all thumbs, this description of mitten might\r\ndo very well, White-Jacket did not so much fancy it. For when your hand\r\nwas once in the bag of the mitten, the empty thumb-hole sometimes\r\ndangled at your palm, confounding your ideas of where your real thumb\r\nmight be; or else, being carefully grasped in the hand, was continually\r\nsuggesting the insane notion, that you were all the while having hold\r\nof some one else’s thumb.\r\n\r\nNo; I told my good top-mate to go away with his four thumbs, I would\r\nhave nothing to do with them; two thumbs were enough for any man.\r\n\r\nFor some time after completing my jacket, and getting the furniture and\r\nhousehold stores in it; I thought that nothing could exceed it for\r\nconvenience. Seldom now did I have occasion to go to my bag, and be\r\njostled by the crowd who were making their wardrobe in a heap. If I\r\nwanted anything in the way of clothing, thread, needles, or literature,\r\nthe chances were that my invaluable jacket contained it. Yes: I fairly\r\nhugged myself, and revelled in my jacket; till, alas! a long rain put\r\nme out of conceit of it. I, and all my pockets and their contents, were\r\nsoaked through and through, and my pocket-edition of Shakespeare was\r\nreduced to an omelet.\r\n\r\nHowever, availing myself of a fine sunny day that followed, I emptied\r\nmyself out in the main-top, and spread all my goods and chattels to\r\ndry. But spite of the bright sun, that day proved a black one. The\r\nscoundrels on deck detected me in the act of discharging my saturated\r\ncargo; they now knew that the white jacket was used for a storehouse.\r\nThe consequence was that, my goods being well dried and again stored\r\naway in my pockets, the very next night, when it was my quarter-watch\r\non deck, and not in the top (where they were all honest men), I noticed\r\na parcel of fellows skulking about after me, wherever I went. To a man,\r\nthey were pickpockets, and bent upon pillaging me. In vain I kept\r\nclapping my pocket like a nervous old gentlemen in a crowd; that same\r\nnight I found myself minus several valuable articles. So, in the end, I\r\nmasoned up my lockers and pantries; and save the two used for mittens,\r\nthe white jacket ever after was pocketless.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPBJ6WR7ZB9FQD50J7CN","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMEAH476BRDR0489K8BYX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.201Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.237Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}