{"id":"01KG8AMFYGZYE9YQVM6SZJ70HG","cid":"bafkreidv7ej7n5dgzkbb36yrkrp6vzv4e7iennygyo24qptmhrl7vjadlq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3543,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":3470,"text":"CHAPTER XXIII.\r\nTHEATRICALS IN A MAN-OF-WAR.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Neversink had summered out her last Christmas on the Equator; she\r\nwas now destined to winter out the Fourth of July not very far from the\r\nfrigid latitudes of Cape Horn.\r\n\r\nIt is sometimes the custom in the American Navy to celebrate this\r\nnational holiday by doubling the allowance of spirits to the men; that\r\nis, if the ship happen to be lying in harbour. The effects of this\r\npatriotic plan may be easily imagined: the whole ship is converted into\r\na dram-shop; and the intoxicated sailors reel about, on all three\r\ndecks, singing, howling, and fighting. This is the time that, owing to\r\nthe relaxed discipline of the ship, old and almost forgotten quarrels\r\nare revived, under the stimulus of drink; and, fencing themselves up\r\nbetween the guns—so as to be sure of a clear space with at least three\r\nwalls—the combatants, two and two, fight out their hate, cribbed and\r\ncabined like soldiers duelling in a sentry-box. In a word, scenes ensue\r\nwhich would not for a single instant be tolerated by the officers upon\r\nany other occasion. This is the time that the most venerable of\r\nquarter-gunners and quarter-masters, together with the smallest\r\napprentice boys, and men never known to have been previously\r\nintoxicated during the cruise—this is the time that they all roll\r\ntogether in the same muddy trough of drunkenness.\r\n\r\nIn emulation of the potentates of the Middle Ages, some Captains\r\naugment the din by authorising a grand jail-delivery of all the\r\nprisoners who, on that auspicious Fourth of the month, may happen to be\r\nconfined in the ship’s prison—“_the brig_.”\r\n\r\nBut from scenes like these the Neversink was happily delivered. Besides\r\nthat she was now approaching a most perilous part of the ocean—which\r\nwould have made it madness to intoxicate the sailors—her complete\r\ndestitution of _grog_, even for ordinary consumption, was an obstacle\r\naltogether insuperable, even had the Captain felt disposed to indulge\r\nhis man-of-war’s-men by the most copious libations.\r\n\r\nFor several days previous to the advent of the holiday, frequent\r\nconferences were held on the gun-deck touching the melancholy prospects\r\nbefore the ship.\r\n\r\n“Too bad—too bad!” cried a top-man, “Think of it, shipmates—a Fourth of\r\nJuly without grog!”\r\n\r\n“I’ll hoist the Commodore’s pennant at half-mast that day,” sighed the\r\nsignal-quarter-master.\r\n\r\n“And I’ll turn my best uniform jacket wrong side out, to keep company\r\nwith the pennant, old Ensign,” sympathetically responded an\r\nafter-guard’s-man.\r\n\r\n“Ay, do!” cried a forecastle-man. “I could almost pipe my eye to think\r\non’t.”\r\n\r\n“No grog on de day dat tried men’s souls!” blubbered Sunshine, the\r\ngalley-cook.\r\n\r\n“Who would be a _Jankee_ now?” roared a Hollander of the fore-top, more\r\nDutch than sour-crout.\r\n\r\n“Is this the _riglar_ fruits of liberty?” touchingly inquired an Irish\r\nwaister of an old Spanish sheet-anchor-man.\r\n\r\nYou will generally observe that, of all Americans, your foreign-born\r\ncitizens are the most patriotic—especially toward the Fourth of July.\r\n\r\nBut how could Captain Claret, the father of his crew, behold the grief\r\nof his ocean children with indifference? He could not. Three days\r\nbefore the anniversary—it still continuing very pleasant weather for\r\nthese latitudes—it was publicly announced that free permission was\r\ngiven to the sailors to get up any sort of theatricals they desired,\r\nwherewith to honour the Fourth.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSBWVB672XQ56H8G5AZ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGEBXE09QTSB18189489","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.864Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:45.370Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}