{"id":"01KG8AMETCDG605FXYP80NP202","cid":"bafkreids6pizlhqq5hq5vnoqmj4e6axxmte5362nlfls6w6effwts3baym","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7990,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7930,"text":"store-rooms of the Purser, where large quantities of goods of every\r\ndescription are to be found. On board of those ships where goods are\r\npermitted to be served out to the crew for the purpose of selling them\r\nashore, to raise money, more business is transacted at the office of a\r\nPurser’s Steward in one _Liberty-day_ morning than all the dry goods\r\nshops in a considerable village would transact in a week.\r\n\r\nOnce a month, with undeviating regularity, this official has his hands\r\nmore than usually full. For, once a month, certain printed bills,\r\ncalled Mess-bills, are circulated among the crew, and whatever you may\r\nwant from the Purser—be it tobacco, soap, duck, dungaree, needles,\r\nthread, knives, belts, calico, ribbon, pipes, paper, pens, hats, ink,\r\nshoes, socks, or whatever it may be—down it goes on the mess-bill,\r\nwhich, being the next day returned to the office of the Steward, the\r\n“slops,” as they are called, are served out to the men and charged to\r\ntheir accounts.\r\n\r\nLucky is it for man-of-war’s-men that the outrageous impositions to\r\nwhich, but a very few years ago, they were subjected from the abuses in\r\nthis department of the service, and the unscrupulous cupidity of many\r\nof the pursers—lucky is it for them that _now_ these things are in a\r\ngreat degree done away. The Pursers, instead of being at liberty to\r\nmake almost what they pleased from the sale of their wares, are now\r\npaid by regular stipends laid down by law.\r\n\r\nUnder the exploded system, the profits of some of these officers were\r\nalmost incredible. In one cruise up the Mediterranean, the Purser of an\r\nAmerican line-of-battle ship was, on good authority, said to have\r\ncleared the sum of $50,000. Upon that he quitted the service, and\r\nretired into the country. Shortly after, his three daughters—not very\r\nlovely—married extremely well.\r\n\r\nThe ideas that sailors entertain of Pursers is expressed in a rather\r\ninelegant but expressive saying of theirs: “The Purser is a conjurer;\r\nhe can make a dead man chew tobacco”—insinuating that the accounts of a\r\ndead man are sometimes subjected to post-mortem charges. Among sailors,\r\nalso, Pursers commonly go by the name of _nip-cheeses_.\r\n\r\nNo wonder that on board of the old frigate Java, upon her return from a\r\ncruise extending over a period of more than four years, one thousand\r\ndollars paid off eighty of her crew, though the aggregate wages of the\r\neighty for the voyage must have amounted to about sixty thousand\r\ndollars. Even under the present system, the Purser of a line-of-battle\r\nship, for instance, is far better paid than any other officer, short of\r\nCaptain or Commodore. While the Lieutenant commonly receives but\r\neighteen hundred dollars, the Surgeon of the fleet but fifteen hundred,\r\nthe Chaplain twelve hundred, the Purser of a line-of-battle ship\r\nreceives thirty-five hundred dollars. In considering his salary,\r\nhowever, his responsibilities are not to be over-looked; they are by no\r\nmeans insignificant.\r\n\r\nThere are Pursers in the Navy whom the sailors exempt from the\r\ninsinuations above mentioned, nor, as a class, are they so obnoxious to\r\nthem now as formerly; for one, the florid old Purser of the\r\nNeversink—never coming into disciplinary contact with the seamen, and\r\nbeing withal a jovial and apparently good-hearted gentleman—was\r\nsomething of a favourite with many of the crew.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS32203GH1TAYAPC2ZQ9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMETJWTSQZ18CD5QTFNJR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.708Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:49.226Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}