{"id":"01KG8AMEARJ64EYY2JNF1C6A25","cid":"bafkreidqhvq3yer7d7ha4eu6qmip3wvtwbawmk574m6ckvc6bvuetnlicm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1695,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1639,"text":"Maecenas listening to Virgil, with a book of Aeneid in his hand. Taking\r\nthe liberty of a well-wisher, he would sometimes gently criticise the\r\npiece, suggesting a few immaterial alterations. And upon my word, noble\r\nJack, with his native-born good sense, taste, and humanity, was not ill\r\nqualified to play the true part of a _Quarterly Review_;—which is, to\r\ngive quarter at last, however severe the critique.\r\n\r\nNow Lemsford’s great care, anxiety, and endless source of tribulation\r\nwas the preservation of his manuscripts. He had a little box, about the\r\nsize of a small dressing-case, and secured with a lock, in which he\r\nkept his papers and stationery. This box, of course, he could not keep\r\nin his bag or hammock, for, in either case, he would only be able to\r\nget at it once in the twenty-four hours. It was necessary to have it\r\naccessible at all times. So when not using it, he was obliged to hide\r\nit out of sight, where he could. And of all places in the world, a ship\r\nof war, above her _hold_, least abounds in secret nooks. Almost every\r\ninch is occupied; almost every inch is in plain sight; and almost every\r\ninch is continually being visited and explored. Added to all this, was\r\nthe deadly hostility of the whole tribe of\r\nship-underlings—master-at-arms, ship’s corporals, and boatswain’s\r\nmates,—both to the poet and his casket. They hated his box, as if it\r\nhad been Pandora’s, crammed to the very lid with hurricanes and gales.\r\nThey hunted out his hiding-places like pointers, and gave him no peace\r\nnight or day.\r\n\r\nStill, the long twenty-four-pounders on the main-deck offered some\r\npromise of a hiding-place to the box; and, accordingly, it was often\r\ntucked away behind the carriages, among the side tackles; its black\r\ncolour blending with the ebon hue of the guns.\r\n\r\nBut Quoin, one of the quarter-gunners, had eyes like a ferret. Quoin\r\nwas a little old man-of-war’s man, hardly five feet high, with a\r\ncomplexion like a gun-shot wound after it is healed. He was\r\nindefatigable in attending to his duties; which consisted in taking\r\ncare of one division of the guns, embracing ten of the aforesaid\r\ntwenty-four-pounders. Ranged up against the ship’s side at regular\r\nintervals, they resembled not a little a stud of sable chargers in\r\ntheir stall. Among this iron stud little Quoin was continually running\r\nin and out, currying them down, now and then, with an old rag, or\r\nkeeping the flies off with a brush. To Quoin, the honour and dignity of\r\nthe United States of America seemed indissolubly linked with the\r\nkeeping his guns unspotted and glossy. He himself was black as a\r\nchimney-sweep with continually tending them, and rubbing them down with\r\nblack paint. He would sometimes get outside of the port-holes and peer\r\ninto their muzzles, as a monkey into a bottle. Or, like a dentist, he\r\nseemed intent upon examining their teeth. Quite as often, he would be\r\nbrushing out their touch-holes with a little wisp of oakum, like a\r\nChinese barber in Canton, cleaning a patient’s ear.\r\n\r\nSuch was his solicitude, that it was a thousand pities he was not able\r\nto dwarf himself still more, so as to creep in at the touch-hole, and\r\nexamining the whole interior of the tube, emerge at last from the\r\nmuzzle. Quoin swore by his guns, and slept by their side. Woe betide\r\nthe man whom he found leaning against them, or in any way soiling them.\r\nHe seemed seized with the crazy fancy, that his darling\r\ntwenty-four-pounders were fragile, and might break, like glass retorts.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3MFENWE9QH4GT9XM2M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMEAPGPS4E86T8E8EBRY9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMEAR5TC5KHV0RJ27SAGH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.208Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.792Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}