{"id":"01KG8AMESBBG8ZM6B2RBSMSNCH","cid":"bafkreig7zvvgt7seggf24oanmeruxtddtybyhv7ev5hoqg3jhmki6ng674","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2127,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":2063,"text":"CHAPTER XIV.\r\nA DRAUGHT IN A MAN-OF-WAR.\r\n\r\n\r\nWe were not many days out of port, when a rumour was set afloat that\r\ndreadfully alarmed many tars. It was this: that, owing to some\r\nunprecedented oversight in the Purser, or some equally unprecedented\r\nremissness in the Naval-storekeeper at Callao, the frigate’s supply of\r\nthat delectable beverage, called “grog,” was well-nigh expended.\r\n\r\nIn the American Navy, the law allows one gill of spirits per day to\r\nevery seaman. In two portions, it is served out just previous to\r\nbreakfast and dinner. At the roll of the drum, the sailors assemble\r\nround a large tub, or cask, filled with liquid; and, as their names are\r\ncalled off by a midshipman, they step up and regale themselves from a\r\nlittle tin measure called a “tot.” No high-liver helping himself to\r\nTokay off a well-polished sideboard, smacks his lips with more mighty\r\nsatisfaction than the sailor does over this _tot_. To many of them,\r\nindeed, the thought of their daily _tots_ forms a perpetual perspective\r\nof ravishing landscapes, indefinitely receding in the distance. It is\r\ntheir great “prospect in life.” Take away their grog, and life\r\npossesses no further charms for them. It is hardly to be doubted, that\r\nthe controlling inducement which keeps many men in the Navy, is the\r\nunbounded confidence they have in the ability of the United States\r\ngovernment to supply them, regularly and unfailingly, with their daily\r\nallowance of this beverage. I have known several forlorn individuals,\r\nshipping as landsmen, who have confessed to me, that having contracted\r\na love for ardent spirits, which they could not renounce, and having by\r\ntheir foolish courses been brought into the most abject\r\npoverty—insomuch that they could no longer gratify their thirst\r\nashore—they incontinently entered the Navy; regarding it as the asylum\r\nfor all drunkards, who might there prolong their lives by regular hours\r\nand exercise, and twice every day quench their thirst by moderate and\r\nundeviating doses.\r\n\r\nWhen I once remonstrated with an old toper of a top-man about this\r\ndaily dram-drinking; when I told him it was ruining him, and advised\r\nhim to _stop his grog_ and receive the money for it, in addition to his\r\nwages as provided by law, he turned about on me, with an irresistibly\r\nwaggish look, and said, “Give up my grog? And why? Because it is\r\nruining me? No, no; I am a good Christian, White-Jacket, and love my\r\nenemy too much to drop his acquaintance.”\r\n\r\nIt may be readily imagined, therefore, what consternation and dismay\r\npervaded the gun-deck at the first announcement of the tidings that the\r\ngrog was expended.\r\n\r\n“The grog gone!” roared an old Sheet-anchor-man.\r\n\r\n“Oh! Lord! what a pain in my stomach!” cried a Main-top-man.\r\n\r\n“It’s worse than the cholera!” cried a man of the After-guard.\r\n\r\n“I’d sooner the water-casks would give out!” said a Captain of the\r\nHold.\r\n\r\n“Are we ganders and geese, that we can live without grog?” asked a\r\nCorporal of Marines.\r\n\r\n“Ay, we must now drink with the ducks!” cried a Quarter-master.\r\n\r\n“Not a tot left?” groaned a Waister.\r\n\r\n“Not a toothful!” sighed a Holder, from the bottom of his boots.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3HTMCJF8V136ARKCBX","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMESE0AY10NPM1B7CV7ED","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMESEFY44G6S4000QEA6Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.675Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:44.042Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}