{"id":"01KG8AMGGHQECRY3K5Z548P6ZA","cid":"bafkreihpuocn7d4apoio4riumjy5wtv7hatg6n7py3xlnmvavscv3n6yze","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15259,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":15203,"text":"leave the ship on the sea—still with the land out of sight—still with\r\nbrooding darkness on the face of the deep. I love an indefinite,\r\ninfinite background—a vast, heaving, rolling, mysterious rear!\r\n\r\nIt is night. The meagre moon is in her last quarter—that betokens the\r\nend of a cruise that is passing. But the stars look forth in their\r\neverlasting brightness—and _that_ is the everlasting, glorious Future,\r\nfor ever beyond us.\r\n\r\nWe main-top-men are all aloft in the top; and round our mast we circle,\r\na brother-band, hand in hand, all spliced together. We have reefed the\r\nlast top-sail; trained the last gun; blown the last match; bowed to the\r\nlast blast; been tranced in the last calm. We have mustered our last\r\nround the capstan; been rolled to grog the last time; for the last time\r\nswung in our hammocks; for the last time turned out at the sea-gull\r\ncall of the watch. We have seen our last man scourged at the gangway;\r\nour last man gasp out the ghost in the stifling Sick-bay; our last man\r\ntossed to the sharks. Our last death-denouncing Article of War has been\r\nread; and far inland, in that blessed clime whither-ward our frigate\r\nnow glides, the last wrong in our frigate will be remembered no more;\r\nwhen down from our main-mast comes our Commodore’s pennant, when down\r\nsinks its shooting stars from the sky.\r\n\r\n“By the mark, nine!” sings the hoary old leadsman, in the chains. And\r\nthus, the mid-world Equator passed, our frigate strikes soundings at\r\nlast.\r\n\r\nHand in hand we top-mates stand, rocked in our Pisgah top. And over the\r\nstarry waves, and broad out into the blandly blue and boundless night,\r\nspiced with strange sweets from the long-sought land—the whole long\r\ncruise predestinated ours, though often in tempest-time we almost\r\nrefused to believe in that far-distant shore—straight out into that\r\nfragrant night, ever-noble Jack Chase, matchless and unmatchable Jack\r\nChase stretches forth his bannered hand, and, pointing shoreward,\r\ncries: “For the last time, hear Camoens, boys!”\r\n\r\n     “How calm the waves, how mild the balmy gale!\r\n      The Halcyons call, ye Lusians spread the sail!\r\n      Appeased, old Ocean now shall rage no more;\r\n      Haste, point our bowsprit for yon shadowy shore.\r\n      Soon shall the transports of your natal soil\r\n      O’erwhelm in bounding joy the thoughts of every toil.”\r\n\r\n\r\nTHE END.\r\n\r\n\r\nAs a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails\r\nthrough the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing,\r\nnever-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she\r\nis but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High\r\nAdmiral. The port we sail from is for ever astern. And though far out\r\nof sight of land, for ages and ages we continue to sail with sealed\r\norders, and our last destination remains a secret to ourselves and our\r\nofficers; yet our final haven was predestinated ere we slipped from the\r\nstocks at Creation.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWG17TEBKS4V1SR41TF7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGGHSX1QF45GAXRDDS3V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGGS2PWS9QPVABVAQ53A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.441Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:57.366Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}