{"id":"01KG8AMFC6T9BEE3MNFVR13YAW","cid":"bafkreiaynspy6waidxkhhgeabkvpr5bdcejd3sdmghzgevh4fhm2s7ye24","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2683,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":2633,"text":"once. After cutting and slashing at them a while, we jumped back to our\r\nguns, and again went to jerking our elbows.\r\n\r\nMeantime, a loud cry is heard of “Fire! fire! fire!” in the fore-top;\r\nand a regular engine, worked by a set of Bowery-boy tars, is forthwith\r\nset to playing streams of water aloft. And now it is “Fire! fire!\r\nfire!” on the main-deck; and the entire ship is in as great a commotion\r\nas if a whole city ward were in a blaze.\r\n\r\nAre our officers of the Navy utterly unacquainted with the laws of good\r\nhealth? Do they not know that this violent exercise, taking place just\r\nafter a hearty dinner, as it generally does, is eminently calculated to\r\nbreed the dyspepsia? There was no satisfaction in dining; the flavour\r\nof every mouthful was destroyed by the thought that the next moment the\r\ncannonading drum might be beating to quarters.\r\n\r\nSuch a sea-martinet was our Captain, that sometimes we were roused from\r\nour hammocks at night; when a scene would ensue that it is not in the\r\npower of pen and ink to describe. Five hundred men spring to their\r\nfeet, dress themselves, take up their bedding, and run to the nettings\r\nand stow it; then he to their stations—each man jostling his\r\nneighbour—some alow, some aloft; some this way, some that; and in less\r\nthan five minutes the frigate is ready for action, and still as the\r\ngrave; almost every man precisely where he would be were an enemy\r\nactually about to be engaged. The Gunner, like a Cornwall miner in a\r\ncave, is burrowing down in the magazine under the Ward-room, which is\r\nlighted by battle-lanterns, placed behind glazed glass bull’s-eyes\r\ninserted in the bulkhead. The Powder-monkeys, or boys, who fetch and\r\ncarry cartridges, are scampering to and fro among the guns; and the\r\n_first and second loaders_ stand ready to receive their supplies.\r\n\r\nThese _Powder-monkeys_, as they are called, enact a curious part in\r\ntime of action. The entrance to the magazine on the berth-deck, where\r\nthey procure their food for the guns, is guarded by a woollen screen;\r\nand a gunner’s mate, standing behind it, thrusts out the cartridges\r\nthrough a small arm-hole in this screen. The enemy’s shot (perhaps red\r\nhot) are flying in all directions; and to protect their cartridges, the\r\npowder-monkeys hurriedly wrap them up in their jackets; and with all\r\nhaste scramble up the ladders to their respective guns, like\r\neating-house waiters hurrying along with hot cakes for breakfast.\r\n\r\nAt _general quarters_ the shot-boxes are uncovered; showing the\r\ngrape-shot—aptly so called, for they precisely resemble bunches of the\r\nfruit; though, to receive a bunch of iron grapes in the abdomen would\r\nbe but a sorry dessert; and also showing the canister-shot—old iron of\r\nvarious sorts, packed in a tin case, like a tea-caddy.\r\n\r\nImagine some midnight craft sailing down on her enemy thus; twenty-four\r\npounders levelled, matches lighted, and each captain of his gun at his\r\npost!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3RR4R8SYRASCT3K24X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFC6WKYGRGKS5AQM62A4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFCCCT8JYPHH7EHDK894","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.278Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:44.552Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}