{"id":"01KG8AMFD6E466JBFWT855125Y","cid":"bafkreifk5cqlqzdosxxhqfewp57wq2pgo4hxtzzhrbrs4htfkftrhss25i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14439,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":14389,"text":"CHAPTER XC.\r\nTHE MANNING OF NAVIES.\r\n\r\n\r\n“The gallows and the sea refuse nothing,” is a very old sea saying;\r\nand, among all the wondrous prints of Hogarth, there is none remaining\r\nmore true at the present day than that dramatic boat-scene, where after\r\nconsorting with harlots and gambling on tomb-stones, the Idle\r\nApprentice, with the villainous low forehead, is at last represented as\r\nbeing pushed off to sea, with a ship and a gallows in the distance. But\r\nHogarth should have converted the ship’s masts themselves into\r\nTyburn-trees, and thus, with the ocean for a background, closed the\r\ncareer of his hero. It would then have had all the dramatic force of\r\nthe opera of Don Juan, who, after running his impious courses, is swept\r\nfrom our sight in a tornado of devils.\r\n\r\nFor the sea is the true Tophet and bottomless pit of many workers of\r\niniquity; and, as the German mystics feign Gehennas within Gehennas,\r\neven so are men-of-war familiarly known among sailors as “Floating\r\nHells.” And as the sea, according to old Fuller, is the stable of brute\r\nmonsters, gliding hither and thither in unspeakable swarms, even so is\r\nit the home of many moral monsters, who fitly divide its empire with\r\nthe snake, the shark, and the worm.\r\n\r\nNor are sailors, and man-of-war’s-men especially, at all blind to a\r\ntrue sense of these things. “_Purser rigged and parish damned_,” is the\r\nsailor saying in the American Navy, when the tyro first mounts the\r\nlined frock and blue jacket, aptly manufactured for him in a State\r\nPrison ashore.\r\n\r\nNo wonder, that lured by some _crimp_ into a service so galling, and,\r\nperhaps, persecuted by a vindictive lieutenant, some repentant sailors\r\nhave actually jumped into the sea to escape from their fate, or set\r\nthemselves adrift on the wide ocean on the gratings without compass or\r\nrudder.\r\n\r\nIn one case, a young man, after being nearly cut into dog’s meat at the\r\ngangway, loaded his pockets with shot and walked overboard.\r\n\r\nSome years ago, I was in a whaling ship lying in a harbour of the\r\nPacific, with three French men-of-war alongside. One dark, moody night,\r\na suppressed cry was heard from the face of the waters, and, thinking\r\nit was some one drowning, a boat was lowered, when two French sailors\r\nwere picked up, half dead from exhaustion, and nearly throttled by a\r\nbundle of their clothes tied fast to their shoulders. In this manner\r\nthey had attempted their escape from their vessel. When the French\r\nofficers came in pursuit, these sailors, rallying from their\r\nexhaustion, fought like tigers to resist being captured. Though this\r\nstory concerns a French armed ship, it is not the less applicable, in\r\ndegree, to those of other nations.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVX0EHKR6PT0YQ81325T","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFD6GXV15EJA54ETEQ94","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.310Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:55.871Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}