{"id":"01KG8AMFCC3A7SHEDT59P9Y2RH","cid":"bafkreiehiddphr5thjk4yyixo4gqox7toqrcwr2rz5x6feulmsvkkd3d2m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2880,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":2809,"text":"see that the ship’s life-buoys are kept in good order.\r\n\r\nIn men-of-war, night and day, week in and week out, two life-buoys are\r\nkept depending from the stern; and two men, with hatchets in their\r\nhands, pace up and down, ready at the first cry to cut the cord and\r\ndrop the buoys overboard. Every two hours they are regularly relieved,\r\nlike sentinels on guard. No similar precautions are adopted in the\r\nmerchant or whaling service.\r\n\r\nThus deeply solicitous to preserve human life are the regulations of\r\nmen-of-war; and seldom has there been a better illustration of this\r\nsolicitude than at the battle of Trafalgar, when, after “several\r\nthousand” French seamen had been destroyed, according to Lord\r\nCollingwood, and, by the official returns, sixteen hundred and ninety\r\nEnglishmen were killed or wounded, the Captains of the surviving ships\r\nordered the life-buoy sentries from their death-dealing guns to their\r\nvigilant posts, as officers of the Humane Society.\r\n\r\n“There, Bungs!” cried Scrimmage, a sheet-anchor-man,[2] “there’s a good\r\npattern for you; make us a brace of life-buoys like that; something\r\nthat will save a man, and not fill and sink under him, as those leaky\r\nquarter-casks of yours will the first time there’s occasion to drop\r\n’ern. I came near pitching off the bowsprit the other day; and, when I\r\nscrambled inboard again, I went aft to get a squint at ’em. Why, Bungs,\r\nthey are all open between the staves. Shame on you! Suppose you\r\nyourself should fall over-board, and find yourself going down with\r\nbuoys under you of your own making—what then?”\r\n\r\n [2] In addition to the _Bower-anchors_ carried on her bows, a frigate\r\n carries large anchors in her fore-chains, called _Sheet-anchors_.\r\n Hence, the old seamen stationed in that part of a man-of-war are\r\n called _sheet-anchor-man_.\r\n\r\n\r\n“I never go aloft, and don’t intend to fall overboard,” replied Bungs.\r\n\r\n“Don’t believe it!” cried the sheet-anchor-man; “you lopers that live\r\nabout the decks here are nearer the bottom of the sea than the light\r\nhand that looses the main-royal. Mind your eye, Bungs—mind your eye!”\r\n\r\n“I will,” retorted Bungs; “and you mind yours!”\r\n\r\nNext day, just at dawn, I was startled from my hammock by the cry of\r\n“_All hands about ship and shorten sail_!” Springing up the ladders, I\r\nfound that an unknown man had fallen overboard from the chains; and\r\ndarting a glance toward the poop, perceived, from their gestures, that\r\nthe life-sentries there had cut away the buoys.\r\n\r\nIt was blowing a fresh breeze; the frigate was going fast through the\r\nwater. But the one thousand arms of five hundred men soon tossed her\r\nabout on the other tack, and checked her further headway.\r\n\r\n“Do you see him?” shouted the officer of the watch through his trumpet,\r\nhailing the main-mast-head. “Man or _buoy_, do you see either?”\r\n\r\n“See nothing, sir,” was the reply.\r\n\r\n“Clear away the cutters!” was the next order. “Bugler! call away the\r\nsecond, third, and fourth cutters’ crews. Hands by the tackles!”\r\n\r\nIn less than three minutes the three boats were down; More hands were\r\nwanted in one of them, and, among others, I jumped in to make up the\r\ndeficiency.\r\n\r\n“Now, men, give way! and each man look out along his oar, and look\r\nsharp!” cried the officer of our boat. For a time, in perfect silence,\r\nwe slid up and down the great seething swells of the sea, but saw\r\nnothing.\r\n\r\n“There, it’s no use,” cried the officer; “he’s gone, whoever he is.\r\nPull away, men—pull away! they’ll be recalling us soon.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3RR4R8SYRASCT3K24X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFCCA88HTN81EETFX0S7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFCCHCNB68C2JRZ5292W","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.284Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:44.710Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}