{"id":"01KG8AMFC6WKYGRGKS5AQM62A4","cid":"bafkreighhe3pb72ynbqrvo35u5tqtb5z7bm5uzt2byrgwdmawi6ttctikm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2641,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":2583,"text":"round my head in such an indiscriminate way. Besides, ours was a\r\nflag-ship; and every one knows what a peculiarly dangerous predicament\r\nthe quarter-deck of Nelson’s flag-ship was in at the battle of\r\nTrafalgar; how the lofty tops of the enemy were full of soldiers,\r\npeppering away at the English Admiral and his officers. Many a poor\r\nsailor, at the guns of that quarter-deck, must have received a bullet\r\nintended for some wearer of an epaulet.\r\n\r\nBy candidly confessing my feelings on this subject, I do by no means\r\ninvalidate my claims to being held a man of prodigious valour. I merely\r\nstate my invincible repugnance to being shot for somebody else. If I am\r\nshot, be it with the express understanding in the shooter that I am the\r\nidentical person intended so to be served. That Thracian who, with his\r\ncompliments, sent an arrow into the King of Macedon, superscribed “_for\r\nPhilip’s right eye_,” set a fine example to all warriors. The hurried,\r\nhasty, indiscriminate, reckless, abandoned manner in which both sailors\r\nand soldiers nowadays fight is really painful to any serious-minded,\r\nmethodical old gentleman, especially if he chance to have systematized\r\nhis mind as an accountant. There is little or no skill and bravery\r\nabout it. Two parties, armed with lead and old iron, envelop themselves\r\nin a cloud of smoke, and pitch their lead and old iron about in all\r\ndirections. If you happen to be in the way, you are hit; possibly,\r\nkilled; if not, you escape. In sea-actions, if by good or bad luck, as\r\nthe case may be, a round shot, fired at random through the smoke,\r\nhappens to send overboard your fore-mast, another to unship your\r\nrudder, there you lie crippled, pretty much at the mercy of your foe:\r\nwho, accordingly, pronounces himself victor, though that honour\r\nproperly belongs to the Law of Gravitation operating on the enemy’s\r\nballs in the smoke. Instead of tossing this old lead and iron into the\r\nair, therefore, it would be much better amicably to toss up a copper\r\nand let heads win.\r\n\r\nThe carronade at which I was stationed was known as “Gun No. 5,” on the\r\nFirst Lieutenant’s quarter-bill. Among our gun’s crew, however, it was\r\nknown as _Black Bet_. This name was bestowed by the captain of the\r\ngun—a fine negro—in honour of his sweetheart, a coloured lady of\r\nPhiladelphia. Of Black Bet I was rammer-and-sponger; and ram and sponge\r\nI did, like a good fellow. I have no doubt that, had I and my gun been\r\nat the battle of the Nile, we would mutually have immortalised\r\nourselves; the ramming-pole would have been hung up in Westminster\r\nAbbey; and I, ennobled by the king, besides receiving the illustrious\r\nhonour of an autograph letter from his majesty through the perfumed\r\nright hand of his private secretary.\r\n\r\nBut it was terrible work to help run in and out of the porthole that\r\namazing mass of metal, especially as the thing must be clone in a\r\ntrice. Then, at the summons of a horrid, rasping rattle, swayed by the\r\nCaptain in person, we were made to rush from our guns, seize pikes and\r\npistols, and repel an imaginary army of boarders, who, by a fiction of\r\nthe officers, were supposed to be assailing all sides of the ship at\r\nonce. 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","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3RR4R8SYRASCT3K24X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFC66F5VYB101F971Y2A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFC6T9BEE3MNFVR13YAW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.278Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:44.612Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}