{"id":"01KG8AMGGHSX1QF45GAXRDDS3V","cid":"bafkreiagdegxn6rq7l3kraasegfhpb6duydppdprf7wbqvzdabmi3kydwe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15211,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":15149,"text":"CHAPTER XCIII.\r\nCABLE AND ANCHOR ALL CLEAR.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd now that the white jacket has sunk to the bottom of the sea, and\r\nthe blessed Capes of Virginia are believed to be broad on our\r\nbow—though still out of sight—our five hundred souls are fondly\r\ndreaming of home, and the iron throats of the guns round the galley\r\nre-echo with their songs and hurras—what more remains?\r\n\r\nShall I tell what conflicting and almost crazy surmisings prevailed\r\nconcerning the precise harbour for which we were bound? For, according\r\nto rumour, our Commodore had received sealed orders touching that\r\nmatter, which were not to be broken open till we gained a precise\r\nlatitude of the coast. Shall I tell how, at last, all this uncertainty\r\ndeparted, and many a foolish prophecy was proved false, when our noble\r\nfrigate—her longest pennant at her main—wound her stately way into the\r\ninnermost harbour of Norfolk, like a plumed Spanish Grandee threading\r\nthe corridors of the Escurial toward the throne-room within? Shall I\r\ntell how we kneeled upon the holy soil? How I begged a blessing of old\r\nUshant, and one precious hair of his beard for a keepsake? How\r\nLemsford, the gun-deck bard, offered up a devout ode as a prayer of\r\nthanksgiving? How saturnine Nord, the magnifico in disguise, refusing\r\nall companionship, stalked off into the woods, like the ghost of an old\r\nCalif of Bagdad? How I swayed and swung the hearty hand of Jack Chase,\r\nand nipped it to mine with a Carrick bend; yea, and kissed that noble\r\nhand of my liege lord and captain of my top, my sea-tutor and sire?\r\n\r\nShall I tell how the grand Commodore and Captain drove off from the\r\npier-head? How the Lieutenants, in undress, sat down to their last\r\ndinner in the ward-room, and the champagne, packed in ice, spirted and\r\nsparkled like the Hot Springs out of a snow-drift in Iceland? How the\r\nChaplain went off in his cassock, without bidding the people adieu? How\r\nshrunken Cuticle, the Surgeon, stalked over the side, the wired\r\nskeleton carried in his wake by his cot-boy? How the Lieutenant of\r\nMarines sheathed his sword on the poop, and, calling for wax and a\r\ntaper, sealed the end of the scabbard with his family crest and\r\nmotto—_Denique Coelum?_ How the Purser in due time mustered his\r\nmoney-bags, and paid us all off on the quarter-deck—good and bad, sick\r\nand well, all receiving their wages; though, truth to tell, some\r\nreckless, improvident seamen, who had lived too fast during the cruise,\r\nhad little or nothing now standing on the credit side of their Purser’s\r\naccounts?\r\n\r\nShall I tell of the Retreat of the Five Hundred inland; not, alas! in\r\nbattle-array, as at quarters, but scattered broadcast over the land?\r\n\r\nShall I tell how the Neversink was at last stripped of spars, shrouds,\r\nand sails—had her guns hoisted out—her powder-magazine, shot-lockers,\r\nand armouries discharged—till not one vestige of a fighting thing was\r\nleft in her, from furthest stem to uttermost stern?\r\n\r\nNo! let all this go by; for our anchor still hangs from our bows,\r\nthough its eager flukes dip their points in the impatient waves. Let us\r\nleave 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","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWG17TEBKS4V1SR41TF7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGGHQECRY3K5Z548P6ZA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.441Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:57.306Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}