{"id":"01KG8AMEARWNAR10BMSQZ9C3XH","cid":"bafkreiazevaxouge5g3dlnyhcgp62md7yczchakbdb3w6a5ci6jdx7qxcm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1814,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1751,"text":"CHAPTER XII.\r\nTHE GOOD OR BAD TEMPER OF MEN-OF-WAR’S MEN, IN A GREAT DEGREE,\r\nATTRIBUTABLE TO THEIR PARTICULAR STATIONS AND DUTIES ABOARD SHIP.\r\n\r\n\r\nQuoin, the quarter-gunner, was the representative of a class on board\r\nthe Neversink, altogether too remarkable to be left astern, without\r\nfurther notice, in the rapid wake of these chapters.\r\n\r\nAs has been seen, Quoin was full of unaccountable whimsies; he was,\r\nwithal, a very cross, bitter, ill-natured, inflammable old man. So,\r\ntoo, were all the members of the gunner’s gang; including the two\r\ngunner’s mates, and all the quarter-gunners. Every one of them had the\r\nsame dark brown complexion; all their faces looked like smoked hams.\r\nThey were continually grumbling and growling about the batteries;\r\nrunning in and out among the guns; driving the sailors away from them;\r\nand cursing and swearing as if all their conscience had been\r\npowder-singed, and made callous, by their calling. Indeed they were a\r\nmost unpleasant set of men; especially Priming, the nasal-voiced\r\ngunner’s mate, with the hare-lip; and Cylinder, his stuttering\r\ncoadjutor, with the clubbed foot. But you will always observe, that the\r\ngunner’s gang of every man-of-war are invariably ill-tempered, ugly\r\nfeatured, and quarrelsome. Once when I visited an English\r\nline-of-battle ship, the gunner’s gang were fore and aft, polishing up\r\nthe batteries, which, according to the Admiral’s fancy, had been\r\npainted white as snow. Fidgeting round the great thirty-two-pounders,\r\nand making stinging remarks at the sailors and each other, they\r\nreminded one of a swarm of black wasps, buzzing about rows of white\r\nheadstones in a church-yard.\r\n\r\nNow, there can be little doubt, that their being so much among the guns\r\nis the very thing that makes a gunner’s gang so cross and quarrelsome.\r\nIndeed, this was once proved to the satisfaction of our whole company\r\nof main-top-men. A fine top-mate of ours, a most merry and\r\ncompanionable fellow, chanced to be promoted to a quarter-gunner’s\r\nberth. A few days afterward, some of us main-top-men, his old comrades,\r\nwent to pay him a visit, while he was going his regular rounds through\r\nthe division of guns allotted to his care. But instead of greeting us\r\nwith his usual heartiness, and cracking his pleasant jokes, to our\r\namazement, he did little else but scowl; and at last, when we rallied\r\nhim upon his ill-temper, he seized a long black rammer from overhead,\r\nand drove us on deck; threatening to report us, if we ever dared to be\r\nfamiliar with him again.\r\n\r\nMy top-mates thought that this remarkable metamorphose was the effect\r\nproduced upon a weak, vain character suddenly elevated from the level\r\nof a mere seaman to the dignified position of a _petty officer_. But\r\nthough, in similar cases, I had seen such effects produced upon some of\r\nthe crew; yet, in the present instance, I knew better than that;—it was\r\nsolely brought about by his consorting with with those villainous,\r\nirritable, ill-tempered cannon; more especially from his being subject\r\nto the orders of those deformed blunderbusses, Priming and Cylinder.\r\n\r\nThe truth seems to be, indeed, that all people should be very careful\r\nin selecting their callings and vocations; very careful in seeing to\r\nit, that they surround themselves by good-humoured, pleasant-looking\r\nobjects; and agreeable, temper-soothing sounds. Many an angelic\r\ndisposition has had its even edge turned, and hacked like a saw; and\r\nmany a sweet draught of piety has soured on the heart from people’s\r\nchoosing ill-natured employments, and omitting to gather round them\r\ngood-natured landscapes. Gardeners are almost always pleasant, affable\r\npeople to converse with; but beware of quarter-gunners, keepers of\r\narsenals, and lonely light-house men.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3M4AHHCAW4MDTNFNN5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMESE38R0JX4GDHSX303C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.208Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.887Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}