{"id":"01KG8AMH2Q7PPFRDX4YQ5BV3QG","cid":"bafkreie3ka5jdccl6sa7722kc2pp7ahwh5wiwchzglov7b22uselkpmwvy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4214,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4141,"text":"ship, and so proved himself that night. I owe this right hand, that is\r\nthis moment flying over my sheet, and all my present being to Mad Jack.\r\nThe ship’s bows were now butting, battering, ramming, and thundering\r\nover and upon the head seas, and with a horrible wallowing sound our\r\nwhole hull was rolling in the trough of the foam. The gale came athwart\r\nthe deck, and every sail seemed bursting with its wild breath.\r\n\r\nAll the quarter-masters, and several of the forecastle-men, were\r\nswarming round the double-wheel on the quarter-deck. Some jumping up\r\nand down, with their hands upon the spokes; for the whole helm and\r\ngalvanised keel were fiercely feverish, with the life imparted to them\r\nby the tempest.\r\n\r\n“Hard _up_ the helm!” shouted Captain Claret, bursting from his cabin\r\nlike a ghost in his night-dress.\r\n\r\n“Damn you!” raged Mad Jack to the quarter-masters; “hard down—hard\r\n_down_, I say, and be damned to you!”\r\n\r\nContrary orders! but Mad Jack’s were obeyed. His object was to throw\r\nthe ship into the wind, so as the better to admit of close-reefing the\r\ntop-sails. But though the halyards were let go, it was impossible to\r\nclew down the yards, owing to the enormous horizontal strain on the\r\ncanvas. It now blew a hurricane. The spray flew over the ship in\r\nfloods. The gigantic masts seemed about to snap under the world-wide\r\nstrain of the three entire top-sails.\r\n\r\n“Clew down! clew down!” shouted Mad Jack, husky with excitement, and in\r\na frenzy, beating his trumpet against one of the shrouds. But, owing to\r\nthe slant of the ship, the thing could not be done. It was obvious that\r\nbefore many minutes something must go—either sails, rigging, or sticks;\r\nperhaps the hull itself, and all hands.\r\n\r\nPresently a voice from the top exclaimed that there was a rent in the\r\nmain-top-sail. And instantly we heard a report like two or three\r\nmuskets discharged together; the vast sail was rent up and down like\r\nthe Vail of the Temple. This saved the main-mast; for the yard was now\r\nclewed down with comparative ease, and the top-men laid out to stow the\r\nshattered canvas. Soon, the two remaining top-sails were also clewed\r\ndown and close reefed.\r\n\r\nAbove all the roar of the tempest and the shouts of the crew, was heard\r\nthe dismal tolling of the ship’s bell—almost as large as that of a\r\nvillage church—which the violent rolling of the ship was occasioning.\r\nImagination cannot conceive the horror of such a sound in a\r\nnight-tempest at sea.\r\n\r\n“Stop that ghost!” roared Mad Jack; “away, one of you, and wrench off\r\nthe clapper!”\r\n\r\nBut no sooner was this ghost gagged, than a still more appalling sound\r\nwas heard, the rolling to and fro of the heavy shot, which, on the\r\ngun-deck, had broken loose from the gun-racks, and converted that part\r\nof the ship into an immense bowling-alley. Some hands were sent down to\r\nsecure them; but it was as much as their lives were worth. Several were\r\nmaimed; and the midshipmen who were ordered to see the duty performed\r\nreported it impossible, until the storm abated.\r\n\r\nThe most terrific job of all was to furl the main-sail, which, at the\r\ncommencement of the squalls, had been clewed up, coaxed and quieted as\r\nmuch as possible with the bunt-lines and slab-lines. Mad Jack waited\r\nsome time for a lull, ere he gave an order so perilous to be executed.\r\nFor to furl this enormous sail, in such a gale, required at least fifty\r\nmen on the yard; whose weight, superadded to that of the ponderous\r\nstick itself, still further jeopardised their lives. But there was no\r\nprospect of a cessation of the gale, and the order was at last given.\r\n\r\nAt this time a hurricane of slanting sleet and hail was descending upon\r\nus; the rigging was coated with a thin glare of ice, formed within the\r\nhour.\r\n\r\n“Aloft, main-yard-men! and all you main-top-men! and furl the\r\nmain-sail!” cried Mad Jack.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSEG0NG7XBMK0AZEKS5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMH2NS0NBS4B6TVVDCKE6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMH2Q4BZ8EEMD19AFZ8MW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.023Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:45.943Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}