{"id":"01KG8AMFEWFBW6JN6XWC2G32KF","cid":"bafkreidqak5k2nt4e4kfxywmwppnlemjpe4hgocx4b77xdwilukqjrroxm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8497,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":8435,"text":"one who has seen much of midshipmen can truly say that he has seen but\r\nfew midshipmen who were not enthusiastic advocates and admirers of\r\nscourging. It would almost seem that they themselves, having so\r\nrecently escaped the posterior discipline of the nursery and the infant\r\nschool, are impatient to recover from those smarting reminiscences by\r\nmincing the backs of full-grown American freemen.\r\n\r\nIt should not to be omitted here, that the midshipmen in the English\r\nNavy are not permitted to be quite so imperious as in the American\r\nships. They are divided into three (I think) probationary classes of\r\n“volunteers,” instead of being at once advanced to a warrant. Nor will\r\nyou fail to remark, when you see an English cutter officered by one of\r\nthose volunteers, that the boy does not so strut and slap his dirk-hilt\r\nwith a Bobadil air, and anticipatingly feel of the place where his\r\nwarlike whiskers are going to be, and sputter out oaths so at the men,\r\nas is too often the case with the little boys wearing best-bower\r\nanchors on their lapels in the American Navy.\r\n\r\nYet it must be confessed that at times you see midshipmen who are noble\r\nlittle fellows, and not at all disliked by the crew. Besides three\r\ngallant youths, one black-eyed little lad in particular, in the\r\nNeversink, was such a one. From his diminutiveness, he went by the name\r\nof _Boat Plug_ among the seamen. Without being exactly familiar with\r\nthem, he had yet become a general favourite, by reason of his kindness\r\nof manner, and never cursing them. It was amusing to hear some of the\r\nolder Tritons invoke blessings upon the youngster, when his kind tones\r\nfell on their weather-beaten ears. “Ah, good luck to you, sir!”\r\ntouching their hats to the little man; “you have a soul to be saved,\r\nsir!” There was a wonderful deal of meaning involved in the latter\r\nsentence. _You have a soul to be saved_, is the phrase which a\r\nman-of-war’s-man peculiarly applies to a humane and kind-hearted\r\nofficer. It also implies that the majority of quarter-deck officers are\r\nregarded by them in such a light that they deny to them the possession\r\nof souls. Ah! but these plebeians sometimes have a sublime vengeance\r\nupon patricians. Imagine an outcast old sailor seriously cherishing the\r\npurely speculative conceit that some bully in epaulets, who orders him\r\nto and fro like a slave, is of an organization immeasurably inferior to\r\nhimself; must at last perish with the brutes, while he goes to his\r\nimmortality in heaven.\r\n\r\nBut from what has been said in this chapter, it must not be inferred\r\nthat a midshipman leads a lord’s life in a man-of-war. Far from it. He\r\nlords it over those below him, while lorded over himself by his\r\nsuperiors. It is as if with one hand a school-boy snapped his fingers\r\nat a dog, and at the same time received upon the other the discipline\r\nof the usher’s ferule. And though, by the American Articles of War, a\r\nNavy Captain cannot, of his own authority, legally punish a midshipman,\r\notherwise than by suspension from duty (the same as with respect to the\r\nWard-room officers), yet this is one of those sea-statutes which the\r\nCaptain, to a certain extent, observes or disregards at his pleasure.\r\nMany instances might be related of the petty mortifications and\r\nofficial insults inflicted by some Captains upon their midshipmen; far\r\nmore severe, in one sense, than the old-fashioned punishment of sending\r\nthem to the mast-head, though not so arbitrary as sending them before\r\nthe mast, to do duty with the common sailors—a custom, in former times,\r\npursued by Captains in the English Navy.\r\n\r\nCaptain Claret himself had no special fondness for midshipmen. A tall,\r\novergrown young midshipman, about sixteen years old, having fallen\r\nunder his displeasure, he interrupted the humble apologies he was\r\nmaking, by saying, “Not a word, sir! I’ll not hear a word! Mount the\r\nnetting, sir, and stand there till you are ordered to come down!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJSTQ2QAVRMYHGQ0ES9NA","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFEWJRX4Y93EKX2895FA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFEYWNDP6ZVGQG2F76KT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.364Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:49.746Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}