{"id":"01KG8AMGEBNDRNA8DV1QEY5VMN","cid":"bafkreigjf6a6lswiwuqiqvwd3prdb2zpi2df3coqqdy5u3my6mf7mc7vgi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3692,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":3635,"text":"come round to be stationed in the tops, and at the various halyards and\r\nrunning ropes about the spar-deck, could not be permitted to partake in\r\nthe celebration, there accordingly ensued, during the morning, many\r\namusing scenes of tars who were anxious to procure substitutes at their\r\nposts. Through the day, many anxious glances were cast to windward; but\r\nthe weather still promised fair.\r\n\r\nAt last _the people_ were piped to dinner; two bells struck; and soon\r\nafter, all who could be spared from their stations hurried to the\r\nhalf-deck. The capstan bars were placed on shot-boxes, as at prayers on\r\nSundays, furnishing seats for the audience, while a low stage, rigged\r\nby the carpenter’s gang, was built at one end of the open space. The\r\ncurtain was composed of a large ensign, and the bulwarks round about\r\nwere draperied with the flags of all nations. The ten or twelve members\r\nof the brass band were ranged in a row at the foot of the stage, their\r\npolished instruments in their hands, while the consequential Captain of\r\nthe Band himself was elevated upon a gun carriage.\r\n\r\nAt three bells precisely a group of ward-room officers emerged from the\r\nafter-hatchway, and seated themselves upon camp-stools, in a central\r\nposition, with the stars and stripes for a canopy. _That_ was the royal\r\nbox. The sailors looked round for the Commodore but neither Commodore\r\nnor Captain honored _the people_ with their presence.\r\n\r\nAt the call of a bugle the band struck up _Hail Columbia_, the whole\r\naudience keeping time, as at Drury Lane, when _God Save The King_ is\r\nplayed after a great national victory.\r\n\r\nAt the discharge of a marine’s musket the curtain rose, and four\r\nsailors, in the picturesque garb of Maltese mariners, staggered on the\r\nstage in a feigned state of intoxication. The truthfulness of the\r\nrepresentation was much heightened by the roll of the ship.\r\n\r\n“The Commodore,” “Old Luff,” “The Mayor,” and “Gin and Sugar Sall,”\r\nwere played to admiration, and received great applause. But at the\r\nfirst appearance of that universal favourite, Jack Chase, in the\r\nchivalric character of _Percy Royal-Mast_, the whole audience\r\nsimultaneously rose to their feet, and greeted hire with three hearty\r\ncheers, that almost took the main-top-sail aback.\r\n\r\nMatchless Jack, _in full fig_, bowed again and again, with true\r\nquarter-deck grace and self possession; and when five or six untwisted\r\nstrands of rope and bunches of oakum were thrown to him, as substitutes\r\nfor bouquets, he took them one by one, and gallantly hung them from the\r\nbuttons of his jacket.\r\n\r\n“Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!—go on! go on!—stop hollering—hurrah!—go\r\non!—stop hollering—hurrah!” was now heard on all sides, till at last,\r\nseeing no end to the enthusiasm of his ardent admirers, Matchless Jack\r\nstepped forward, and, with his lips moving in pantomime, plunged into\r\nthe thick of the part. Silence soon followed, but was fifty times\r\nbroken by uncontrollable bursts of applause. At length, when that\r\nheart-thrilling scene came on, where Percy Royal-Mast rescues fifteen\r\noppressed sailors from the watch-house, in the teeth of a posse of\r\nconstables, the audience leaped to their feet, overturned the capstan\r\nbars, and to a man hurled their hats on the stage in a delirium of\r\ndelight. Ah Jack, that was a ten-stroke indeed!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSBWVB672XQ56H8G5AZ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGEB726PSQF9WXXDMQMX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGE19W9KGNENTKKG4YD8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.371Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:45.345Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}