{"id":"01KG8AMET990P6664V268K9WC9","cid":"bafkreidzpou65fuxrazjhkxcr453hunigcapdxlpebroravo7wyufpozku","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13479,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":13416,"text":"the cruise they were hard at work. At what? Mostly making chests of\r\ndrawers, canes, little ships and schooners, swifts, and other\r\nelaborated trifles, chiefly for the Captain. What did the Captain pay\r\nthem for their trouble? Nothing. But the United States government paid\r\nthem; two of them (the mates) at nineteen dollars a month, and the rest\r\nreceiving the pay of able seamen, twelve dollars.\r\n\r\nTo return.\r\n\r\nThe regular days upon which the barbers shall exercise their vocation\r\nare set down on the ship’s calendar, and known as _shaving days_. On\r\nboard of the Neversink these days are Wednesdays and Saturdays; when,\r\nimmediately after breakfast, the barbers’ shops were opened to\r\ncustomers. They were in different parts of the gun-deck, between the\r\nlong twenty-four pounders. Their furniture, however, was not very\r\nelaborate, hardly equal to the sumptuous appointments of metropolitan\r\nbarbers. Indeed, it merely consisted of a match-tub, elevated upon a\r\nshot-box, as a barber’s chair for the patient. No Psyche glasses; no\r\nhand-mirror; no ewer and basin; no comfortable padded footstool;\r\nnothing, in short, that makes a shore “_shave_” such a luxury.\r\n\r\nNor are the implements of these man-of-war barbers out of keeping with\r\nthe rude appearance of their shops. Their razors are of the simplest\r\npatterns, and, from their jagged-ness, would seem better fitted for the\r\npreparing and harrowing of the soil than for the ultimate reaping of\r\nthe crop. But this is no matter for wonder, since so many chins are to\r\nbe shaven, and a razor-case holds but two razors. For only two razors\r\ndoes a man-of-war barber have, and, like the marine sentries at the\r\ngangway in port, these razors go off and on duty in rotation. One\r\nbrush, too, brushes every chin, and one lather lathers them all. No\r\nprivate brushes and boxes; no reservations whatever.\r\n\r\nAs it would be altogether too much trouble for a man-of-war’s-man to\r\nkeep his own shaving-tools and shave himself at sea, and since,\r\ntherefore, nearly the whole ship’s company patronise the ship’s\r\nbarbers, and as the seamen must be shaven by evening quarters of the\r\ndays appointed for the business, it may be readily imagined what a\r\nscene of bustle and confusion there is when the razors are being\r\napplied. First come, first served, is the motto; and often you have to\r\nwait for hours together, sticking to your position (like one of an\r\nIndian file of merchants’ clerks getting letters out of the\r\npost-office), ere you have a chance to occupy the pedestal of the\r\nmatch-tub. Often the crowd of quarrelsome candidates wrangle and fight\r\nfor precedency, while at all times the interval is employed by the\r\ngarrulous in every variety of ship-gossip.\r\n\r\nAs the shaving days are unalterable, they often fall upon days of high\r\nseas and tempestuous winds, when the vessel pitches and rolls in a\r\nfrightful manner. In consequence, many valuable lives are jeopardised\r\nfrom the razor being plied under such untoward circumstances. But these\r\nsea-barbers pride themselves upon their sea-legs, and often you will\r\nsee them standing over their patients with their feet wide apart, and\r\nscientifically swaying their bodies to the motion of the ship, as they\r\nflourish their edge-tools about the lips, nostrils, and jugular.\r\n\r\nAs I looked upon the practitioner and patient at such times, I could\r\nnot help thinking that, if the sailor had any insurance on his life, it\r\nwould certainly be deemed forfeited should the president of the company\r\nchance to lounge by and behold him in that imminent peril. For myself,\r\nI accounted it an excellent preparation for going into a sea-fight,\r\nwhere fortitude in standing up to your gun and running the risk of all\r\nsplinters, comprise part of the practical qualities that make up an\r\nefficient man-of-war’s man.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVX0Y5ACYRJ3VWH0EVJM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AME7KGQPGH42G56FFWHQK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMET94P4CTRTY1BF234WZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.705Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:54.696Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}