{"id":"01KG8AMFZ3F5T6XKNCGG6MMG39","cid":"bafkreifofrwebfnpgnuzmrkn7d7jemol4tc3prduqffn2ozayoopgmhb6y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14923,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":14849,"text":"“Who talks of luffing?” roared a roystering fore-top-man. “Keep our\r\nYankee nation large before the wind, say I, till you come plump on the\r\nenemy’s bows, and then board him in the smoke,” and with that, there\r\ncame forth a mighty blast from his pipe.\r\n\r\n“Who says the old man at the helm of the Yankee nation can’t steer his\r\n_trick_ as well as George Washington himself?” cried a\r\nsheet-anchor-man.\r\n\r\n“But they say he’s a cold-water customer, Bill,” cried another; “and\r\nsometimes o’ nights I somehow has a presentation that he’s goin’ to\r\nstop our grog.”\r\n\r\n“D’ye hear there, fore and aft!” roared the boatswain’s mate at the\r\ngangway, “all hands tumble up, and ’bout ship!”\r\n\r\n“That’s the talk!” cried the captain of gun No. 1, as, in obedience to\r\nthe summons, all hands dropped their pipes and crowded toward the\r\nladders, “and that’s what the President must do—go in stays, my lads,\r\nand put the Yankee nation on the other tack.”\r\n\r\nBut these political discussions by no means supplied the staple of\r\nconversation for the gossiping smokers of the galley. The interior\r\naffairs of the frigate itself formed their principal theme. Rumours\r\nabout the private life of the Commodore in his cabin; about the\r\nCaptain, in his; about the various officers in the ward-room; about the\r\n_reefers_ in the steerage, and their madcap frolickings, and about a\r\nthousand other matters touching the crew themselves; all these—forming\r\nthe eternally shifting, domestic by-play of a man-of-war—proved\r\ninexhaustible topics for our quidnuncs.\r\n\r\nThe animation of these scenes was very much heightened as we drew\r\nnearer and nearer our port; it rose to a climax when the frigate was\r\nreported to be only twenty-four hours’ sail from the land. What they\r\nshould do when they landed; how they should invest their wages; what\r\nthey should eat; what they should drink; and what lass they should\r\nmarry—these were the topics which absorbed them.\r\n\r\n“Sink the sea!” cried a forecastle man. “Once more ashore, and you’ll\r\nnever again catch old Boombolt afloat. I mean to settle down in a\r\nsail-loft.”\r\n\r\n“Cable-tier pinchers blister all tarpaulin hats!” cried a young\r\nafter-guard’s-man; “I mean to go back to the counter.”\r\n\r\n“Shipmates! take me by the arms, and swab up the lee-scuppers with me,\r\nbut I mean to steer a clam-cart before I go again to a ship’s wheel.\r\nLet the Navy go by the board—to sea again, I won’t!”\r\n\r\n“Start my soul-bolts, maties, if any more Blue Peters and sailing\r\nsignals fly at my fore!” cried the Captain of the Head. “My wages will\r\nbuy a wheelbarrow, if nothing more.”\r\n\r\n“I have taken my last dose of salts,” said the Captain of the Waist,\r\n“and after this mean to stick to fresh water. Ay, maties, ten of us\r\nWaisters mean to club together and buy a _serving-mallet boat_, d’ye\r\nsee; and if ever we drown, it will be in the ‘raging canal!’ Blast the\r\nsea, shipmates! say I.”\r\n\r\n“Profane not the holy element!” said Lemsford, the poet of the\r\ngun-deck, leaning over a cannon. “Know ye not, man-of-war’s-men! that\r\nby the Parthian magi the ocean was held sacred? Did not Tiridates, the\r\nEastern monarch, take an immense land circuit to avoid desecrating the\r\nMediterranean, in order to reach his imperial master, Nero, and do\r\nhomage for his crown?”\r\n\r\n“What lingo is that?” cried the Captain of the Waist.\r\n\r\n“Who’s Commodore Tiddery-eye?” cried the forecastle-man.\r\n\r\n“Hear me out,” resumed Lemsford. “Like Tiridates, I venerate the sea,\r\nand venerate it so highly, shipmates, that evermore I shall abstain\r\nfrom crossing it. In _that_ sense, Captain of the Waist, I echo your\r\ncry.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWG1Q56K09ESP8DXKERA","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFZ3SEC107HGQ7ET38K7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFZ3RH3EM4KJ1048J2PJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.883Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.710Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}