{"id":"01KG8AMEAHSE8X27QVTS9ZW38G","cid":"bafkreigsmvyhwfiynx6cmamxp66wuuzcv3f3kizeuc3x4e4yl6cdhw4gei","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1219,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1157,"text":"CHAPTER VII.\r\nBREAKFAST, DINNER, AND SUPPER.\r\n\r\n\r\nNot only is the dinner-table a criterion of rank on board a man-of-war,\r\nbut also the dinner hour. He who dines latest is the greatest man; and\r\nhe who dines earliest is accounted the least. In a flag-ship, the\r\nCommodore generally dines about four or five o’clock; the Captain about\r\nthree; the Lieutenants about two; while _the people_ (by which phrase\r\nthe common seamen are specially designated in the nomenclature of the\r\nquarter-deck) sit down to their salt beef exactly at noon.\r\n\r\nThus it will be seen, that while the two estates of sea-kings and\r\nsea-lords dine at rather patrician hours—and thereby, in the long run,\r\nimpair their digestive functions—the sea-commoners, or _the people_,\r\nkeep up their constitutions, by keeping up the good old-fashioned,\r\nElizabethan, Franklin-warranted dinner hour of twelve.\r\n\r\nTwelve o’clock! It is the natural centre, key-stone, and very heart of\r\nthe day. At that hour, the sun has arrived at the top of his hill; and\r\nas he seems to hang poised there a while, before coming down on the\r\nother side, it is but reasonable to suppose that he is then stopping to\r\ndine; setting an eminent example to all mankind. The rest of the day is\r\ncalled _afternoon_; the very sound of which fine old Saxon word conveys\r\na feeling of the lee bulwarks and a nap; a summer sea—soft breezes\r\ncreeping over it; dreamy dolphins gliding in the distance. _Afternoon!_\r\nthe word implies, that it is an after-piece, coming after the grand\r\ndrama of the day; something to be taken leisurely and lazily. But how\r\ncan this be, if you dine at five? For, after all, though Paradise Lost\r\nbe a noble poem, and we men-of-war’s men, no doubt, largely partake in\r\nthe immortality of the immortals yet, let us candidly confess it,\r\nshipmates, that, upon the whole, our dinners are the most momentous\r\nattains of these lives we lead beneath the moon. What were a day\r\nwithout a dinner? a dinnerless day! such a day had better be a night.\r\n\r\nAgain: twelve o’clock is the natural hour for us men-of-war’s men to\r\ndine, because at that hour the very time-pieces we have invented arrive\r\nat their terminus; they can get no further than twelve; when\r\nstraightway they continue their old rounds again. Doubtless, Adam and\r\nEve dined at twelve; and the Patriarch Abraham in the midst of his\r\ncattle; and old Job with his noon mowers and reapers, in that grand\r\nplantation of Uz; and old Noah himself, in the Ark, must have gone to\r\ndinner at precisely _eight bells_ (noon), with all his floating\r\nfamilies and farm-yards.\r\n\r\nBut though this antediluvian dinner hour is rejected by modern\r\nCommodores and Captains, it still lingers among “_the people_” under\r\ntheir command. Many sensible things banished from high life find an\r\nasylum among the mob.\r\n\r\nSome Commodores are very particular in seeing to it, that no man on\r\nboard the ship dare to dine after his (the Commodore’s,) own dessert is\r\ncleared away.—Not even the Captain. It is said, on good authority, that\r\na Captain once ventured to dine at five, when the Commodore’s hour was\r\nfour. Next day, as the story goes, that Captain received a private\r\nnote, and in consequence of that note, dined for the future at\r\nhalf-past three.\r\n\r\nThough in respect of the dinner hour on board a man-of-war, _the\r\npeople_ have no reason to complain; yet they have just cause, almost\r\nfor mutiny, in the outrageous hours assigned for their breakfast and\r\nsupper.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPBJG3KRS5HQ4VYKZ12X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMEAH9R52VAS3GRBAQ0TH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.201Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.239Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}