{"id":"01KG8AMHP5A406DFJSGPR3BJEA","cid":"bafkreicjefhveeynnt3llc32ljckja7nb5lo3a5d3fo7u2mnlusbyv6ioy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5038,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4989,"text":"our gunner always wore a fixed expression of solemnity, which was\r\nheightened by his grizzled hair and beard. But what imparted such a\r\nsinister look to him, and what wrought so upon my imagination\r\nconcerning this man, was a frightful scar crossing his left cheek and\r\nforehead. He had been almost mortally wounded, they said, with a\r\nsabre-cut, during a frigate engagement in the last war with Britain.\r\n\r\nHe was the most methodical, exact, and punctual of all the forward\r\nofficers. Among his other duties, it pertained to him, while in\r\nharbour, to see that at a certain hour in the evening one of the great\r\nguns was discharged from the forecastle, a ceremony only observed in a\r\nflag-ship. And always at the precise moment you might behold him\r\nblowing his match, then applying it; and with that booming thunder in\r\nhis ear, and the smell of the powder in his hair, he retired to his\r\nhammock for the night. What dreams he must have had!\r\n\r\nThe same precision was observed when ordered to fire a gun to _bring\r\nto_ some ship at sea; for, true to their name, and preserving its\r\napplicability, even in times of peace, all men-of-war are great bullies\r\non the high seas. They domineer over the poor merchantmen, and with a\r\nhissing hot ball sent bowling across the ocean, compel them to stop\r\ntheir headway at pleasure.\r\n\r\nIt was enough to make you a man of method for life, to see the gunner\r\nsuperintending his subalterns, when preparing the main-deck batteries\r\nfor a great national salute. While lying in harbour, intelligence\r\nreached us of the lamentable casualty that befell certain high officers\r\nof state, including the acting Secretary of the Navy himself, some\r\nother member of the President’s cabinet, a Commodore, and others, all\r\nengaged in experimenting upon a new-fangled engine of war. At the same\r\ntime with the receipt of this sad news, orders arrived to fire\r\nminute-guns for the deceased head of the naval department. Upon this\r\noccasion the gunner was more than usually ceremonious, in seeing that\r\nthe long twenty-fours were thoroughly loaded and rammed down, and then\r\naccurately marked with chalk, so as to be discharged in undeviating\r\nrotation, first from the larboard side, and then from the starboard.\r\n\r\nBut as my ears hummed, and all my bones danced in me with the\r\nreverberating din, and my eyes and nostrils were almost suffocated with\r\nthe smoke, and when I saw this grim old gunner firing away so solemnly,\r\nI thought it a strange mode of honouring a man’s memory who had himself\r\nbeen slaughtered by a cannon. Only the smoke, that, after rolling in at\r\nthe port-holes, rapidly drifted away to leeward, and was lost to view,\r\nseemed truly emblematical touching the personage thus honoured, since\r\nthat great non-combatant, the Bible, assures us that our life is but a\r\nvapour, that quickly passeth away.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBSZVDMKXC0Z6HSEH30","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP58X7WNGR8WT47H79X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.645Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.683Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}