{"id":"01KG8AMETJWTSQZ18CD5QTFNJR","cid":"bafkreic3n64zlngfodzgae4inym6ss3xrngw4kcn5dugfm5egzus5pm7hi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7936,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7877,"text":"CHAPTER XLVIII.\r\nPURSER, PURSER’S STEWARD, AND POSTMASTER IN A MAN-OF-WAR.\r\n\r\n\r\nAs the Purser’s steward so conspicuously figured at the unsuccessful\r\nauction of my jacket, it reminds me of how important a personage that\r\nofficial is on board of all men-of-war. He is the right-hand man and\r\nconfidential deputy and clerk of the Purser, who intrusts to him all\r\nhis accounts with the crew, while, in most cases, he himself, snug and\r\ncomfortable in his state-room, glances over a file of newspapers\r\ninstead of overhauling his ledgers.\r\n\r\nOf all the non-combatants of a man-of-war, the Purser, perhaps, stands\r\nforemost in importance. Though he is but a member of the gun-room mess,\r\nyet usage seems to assign him a conventional station somewhat above\r\nthat of his equals in navy rank—the Chaplain, Surgeon, and Professor.\r\nMoreover, he is frequently to be seen in close conversation with the\r\nCommodore, who, in the Neversink, was more than once known to be\r\nslightly jocular with our Purser. Upon several occasions, also, he was\r\ncalled into the Commodore’s cabin, and remained closeted there for\r\nseveral minutes together. Nor do I remember that there ever happened a\r\ncabinet meeting of the ward-room barons, the Lieutenants, in the\r\nCommodore’s cabin, but the Purser made one of the party. Doubtless the\r\nimportant fact of the Purser having under his charge all the financial\r\naffairs of a man-of-war, imparts to him the great importance he enjoys.\r\nIndeed, we find in every government—monarchies and republics alike—that\r\nthe personage at the head of the finances invariably occupies a\r\ncommanding position. Thus, in point of station, the Secretary of the\r\nTreasury of the United States is deemed superior to the other heads of\r\ndepartments. Also, in England, the real office held by the great\r\nPremier himself is—as every one knows—that of First Lord of the\r\nTreasury.\r\n\r\nNow, under this high functionary of state, the official known as the\r\nPurser’s Steward was head clerk of the frigate’s fiscal affairs. Upon\r\nthe berth-deck he had a regular counting-room, full of ledgers,\r\njournals, and day-books. His desk was as much littered with papers as\r\nany Pearl Street merchant’s, and much time was devoted to his accounts.\r\nFor hours together you would see him, through the window of his\r\nsubterranean office, writing by the light of his perpetual lamp.\r\n\r\n_Ex-officio_, the Purser’s Steward of most ships is a sort of\r\npostmaster, and his office the post-office. When the letter-bags for\r\nthe squadron—almost as large as those of the United States mail—arrived\r\non board the Neversink, it was the Purser’s Steward that sat at his\r\nlittle window on the berth-deck and handed you your letter or paper—if\r\nany there were to your address. Some disappointed applicants among the\r\nsailors would offer to buy the epistles of their more fortunate\r\nshipmates, while yet the seal was unbroken—maintaining that the sole\r\nand confidential reading of a fond, long, domestic letter from any\r\nman’s home, was far better than no letter at all.\r\n\r\nIn the vicinity of the office of the Purser’s Steward are the principal\r\nstore-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","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS32203GH1TAYAPC2ZQ9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMETCDG605FXYP80NP202","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.714Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:49.156Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}