{"id":"01KG8AMH38NSAEFHXXF489G7W6","cid":"bafkreidu3xd3xauatsru57a4cuslmibu3zdxyz4mzll4y3azofqfmuoqzi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4548,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4485,"text":"CHAPTER XXVIII.\r\nEDGING AWAY.\r\n\r\n\r\nRight before the wind! Ay, blow, blow, ye breezes; so long as ye stay\r\nfair, and we are homeward bound, what care the jolly crew?\r\n\r\nIt is worth mentioning here that, in nineteen cases out of twenty, a\r\npassage from the Pacific round the Cape is almost sure to be much\r\nshorter, and attended with less hardship, than a passage undertaken\r\nfrom the Atlantic. The reason is, that the gales are mostly from the\r\nwestward, also the currents.\r\n\r\nBut, after all, going before the wind in a frigate, in such a tempest,\r\nhas its annoyances and drawbacks, as well as many other blessings. The\r\ndisproportionate weight of metal upon the spar and gun decks induces a\r\nviolent rolling, unknown to merchant ships. We rolled and rolled on our\r\nway, like the world in its orbit, shipping green seas on both sides,\r\nuntil the old frigate dipped and went into it like a diving-bell.\r\n\r\nThe hatchways of some armed vessels are but poorly secured in bad\r\nweather. This was peculiarly the ease with those of the Neversink. They\r\nwere merely spread over with an old tarpaulin, cracked and rent in\r\nevery direction.\r\n\r\nIn fair weather, the ship’s company messed on the gun-deck; but as this\r\nwas now flooded almost continually, we were obliged to take our meals\r\nupon the berth-deck, the next one below. One day, the messes of the\r\nstarboard-watch were seated here at dinner; forming little groups,\r\ntwelve or fifteen men in each, reclining about the beef-kids and their\r\npots and pans; when all of a sudden the ship was seized with such a\r\nparoxysm of rolling that, in a single instant, everything on the\r\nberth-deck—pots, kids, sailors, pieces of beef, bread-bags,\r\nclothes-bags, and barges—were tossed indiscriminately from side to\r\nside. It was impossible to stay one’s self; there was nothing but the\r\nbare deck to cling to, which was slippery with the contents of the\r\nkids, and heaving under us as if there were a volcano in the frigate’s\r\nhold. While we were yet sliding in uproarious crowds—all seated—the\r\nwindows of the deck opened, and floods of brine descended,\r\nsimultaneously with a violent lee-roll. The shower was hailed by the\r\nreckless tars with a hurricane of yells; although, for an instant, I\r\nreally imagined we were about being swamped in the sea, such volumes of\r\nwater came cascading down.\r\n\r\nA day or two after, we had made sufficient Easting to stand to the\r\nnorthward, which we did, with the wind astern; thus fairly turning the\r\ncorner without abating our rate of progress. Though we had seen no land\r\nsince leaving Callao, Cape Horn was said to be somewhere to the west of\r\nus; and though there was no positive evidence of the fact, the weather\r\nencountered might be accounted pretty good presumptive proof.\r\n\r\nThe land near Cape Horn, however, is well worth seeing, especially\r\nStaten Land. Upon one occasion, the ship in which I then happened to be\r\nsailing drew near this place from the northward, with a fair, free\r\nwind, blowing steadily, through a bright translucent clay, whose air\r\nwas almost musical with the clear, glittering cold. On our starboard\r\nbeam, like a pile of glaciers in Switzerland, lay this Staten Land,\r\ngleaming in snow-white barrenness and solitude. Unnumbered white\r\nalbatross were skimming the sea near by, and clouds of smaller white\r\nwings fell through the air like snow-flakes. High, towering in their\r\nown turbaned snows, the far-inland pinnacles loomed up, like the border\r\nof some other world. Flashing walls and crystal battlements, like the\r\ndiamond watch-towers along heaven’s furthest frontier.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSHTQQRAP3YZ2NTWXT8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMH33Z9JDQ25H8KY4N3BF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.040Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.127Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}