{"id":"01KG8AMHP1V4477DT0R4HRRYPT","cid":"bafkreibvxuq7gom5vmfz3pszin7pyie3jqmyn4zkmqejh64hnv26aghzbu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4880,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4815,"text":"furnished with but one tube, multiply the fatal bullets, as the naval\r\ncat-o’-nine-tails, with a cannibal cruelty, in one blow nine times\r\nmultiplies a culprit’s lashes; so that when a sailor is ordered one\r\ndozen lashes, the sentence should read one hundred and eight. All these\r\narms are kept in the brightest order, wearing a fine polish, and may\r\ntruly be said to _reflect_ credit on the Yeoman and his mates.\r\n\r\nAmong the lower grade of officers in a man-of-war, that of Yeoman is\r\nnot the least important. His responsibilities are denoted by his pay.\r\nWhile the _petty officers_, quarter-gunners, captains of the tops, and\r\nothers, receive but fifteen and eighteen dollars a month—but little\r\nmore than a mere able seamen—the Yeoman in an American line-of-battle\r\nship receives forty dollars, and in a frigate thirty-five dollars per\r\nmonth.\r\n\r\nHe is accountable for all the articles under his charge, and on no\r\naccount must deliver a yard of twine or a ten-penny nail to the\r\nboatswain or carpenter, unless shown a written requisition and order\r\nfrom the Senior Lieutenant. The Yeoman is to be found burrowing in his\r\nunderground store-rooms all the day long, in readiness to serve\r\nlicensed customers. But in the counter, behind which he usually stands,\r\nthere is no place for a till to drop the shillings in, which takes away\r\nnot a little from the most agreeable part of a storekeeper’s duties.\r\nNor, among the musty, old account-books in his desk, where he registers\r\nall expenditures of his stuffs, is there any cash or check book.\r\n\r\nThe Yeoman of the Neversink was a somewhat odd specimen of a\r\nTroglodyte. He was a little old man, round-shouldered, bald-headed,\r\nwith great goggle-eyes, looking through portentous round spectacles,\r\nwhich he called his _barnacles_. He was imbued with a wonderful zeal\r\nfor the naval service, and seemed to think that, in keeping his pistols\r\nand cutlasses free from rust, he preserved the national honour\r\nuntarnished. After _general quarters_, it was amusing to watch his\r\nanxious air as the various _petty officers_ restored to him the arms\r\nused at the martial exercises of the crew. As successive bundles would\r\nbe deposited on his counter, he would count over the pistols and\r\ncutlasses, like an old housekeeper telling over her silver forks and\r\nspoons in a pantry before retiring for the night. And often, with a\r\nsort of dark lantern in his hand, he might be seen poking into his\r\nfurthest vaults and cellars, and counting over his great coils of\r\nropes, as if they were all jolly puncheons of old Port and Madeira.\r\n\r\nBy reason of his incessant watchfulness and unaccountable bachelor\r\noddities, it was very difficult for him to retain in his employment the\r\nvarious sailors who, from time to time, were billeted with him to do\r\nthe duty of subalterns. In particular, he was always desirous of having\r\nat least one steady, faultless young man, of a literary taste, to keep\r\nan eye to his account-books, and swab out the armoury every morning. It\r\nwas an odious business this, to be immured all day in such a bottomless\r\nhole, among tarry old ropes and villainous guns and pistols. It was\r\nwith peculiar dread that I one day noticed the goggle-eyes of _Old\r\nRevolver_, as they called him, fastened upon me with a fatal glance of\r\ngood-will and approbation. He had somehow heard of my being a very\r\nlearned person, who could both read and write with extraordinary\r\nfacility; and moreover that I was a rather reserved youth, who kept his\r\nmodest, unassuming merits in the background. But though, from the keen\r\nsense of my situation as a man-of-war’s-man all this about my keeping\r\nmyself in the _back_ ground was true enough, yet I had no idea of\r\nhiding my diffident merits _under_ ground. I became alarmed at the old\r\nYeoman’s goggling glances, lest he should drag me down into tarry\r\nperdition in his hideous store-rooms. But this fate was providentially\r\naverted, owing to mysterious causes which I never could fathom.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSQJ82MYXAJSAP25AZ9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP5Y73TR3BBCJ8TTQTV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.641Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.641Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}