{"id":"01KG8AMHP5NH02X4YVR17D8BTD","cid":"bafkreiemxu2dsk5whzz2ae5r3p2gmbynkhba7unnl5kvqbycvznv7l4mdy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4720,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4663,"text":"“Here, _you_, sir!” cries little Mr. Pert eagerly catching hold of the\r\nskirts of an old sea-dog, and trying to turn him round, so as to peer\r\nunder his tarpaulin. “Who are _you_, sir? What’s your name?”\r\n\r\n“Find out, Milk-and-Water,” was the impertinent rejoinder.\r\n\r\n“Blast you! you old rascal; I’ll have you licked for that! Tell me his\r\nname, some of you!” turning round to the bystanders.\r\n\r\n“Gammon!” cries a voice at a distance.\r\n\r\n“Hang me, but I know _you_, sir! and here’s at you!” and, so saying,\r\nMr. Pert drops the impenetrable unknown, and makes into the crowd after\r\nthe bodiless voice. But the attempt to find an owner for that voice is\r\nquite as idle as the effort to discover the contents of the monkey\r\njacket.\r\n\r\nAnd here sorrowful mention must be made of something which, during this\r\nstate of affairs, most sorely afflicted me. Most monkey jackets are of\r\na dark hue; mine, as I have fifty times repeated, and say again, was\r\nwhite. And thus, in those long, dark nights, when it was my\r\nquarter-watch on deck, and not in the top, and others went skulking and\r\n“sogering” about the decks, secure from detection—their identity\r\nundiscoverable—my own hapless jacket for ever proclaimed the name of\r\nits wearer. It gave me many a hard job, which otherwise I should have\r\nescaped. When an officer wanted a man for any particular duty—running\r\naloft, say, to communicate some slight order to the captains of the\r\ntops—how easy, in that mob of incognitoes, to individualise “_that\r\nwhite jacket_,” and dispatch him on the errand. Then, it would never do\r\nfor me to hang back when the ropes were being pulled.\r\n\r\nIndeed, upon all these occasions, such alacrity and cheerfulness was I\r\nobliged to display, that I was frequently held up as an illustrious\r\nexample of activity, which the rest were called upon to emulate.\r\n“Pull—pull! you lazy lubbers! Look at White-Jacket, there; pull like\r\nhim!”\r\n\r\nOh! how I execrated my luckless garment; how often I scoured the deck\r\nwith it to give it a tawny hue; how often I supplicated the inexorable\r\nBrush, captain of the paint-room, for just one brushful of his\r\ninvaluable pigment. Frequently, I meditated giving it a toss overboard;\r\nbut I had not the resolution. Jacketless at sea! Jacketless so near\r\nCape Horn! The thought was unendurable. And, at least, my garment was a\r\njacket in name, if not in utility.\r\n\r\nAt length I essayed a “swap.” “Here, Bob,” said I, assuming all\r\npossible suavity, and accosting a mess-mate with a sort of diplomatic\r\nassumption of superiority, “suppose I was ready to part with this\r\n‘grego’ of mine, and take yours in exchange—what would you give me to\r\nboot?”\r\n\r\n“Give you to _boot?_” he exclaimed, with horror; “I wouldn’t take your\r\ninfernal jacket for a gift!”\r\n\r\nHow I hailed every snow-squall; for then—blessings on them!—many of the\r\nmen became _white-jackets_ along with myself; and, powdered with the\r\nflakes, we all looked like millers.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSHTQQRAP3YZ2NTWXT8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP5BDHFNM7RM0ZS6CTD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP1186WMAZ56JXT3E3W","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.645Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.328Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}