{"id":"01KG8AMHPMZXV1REMRQ8BP1T3X","cid":"bafkreif3fiairgax62iwstry4ohos5mfzpbwowz7z6ynrxf6oifewsnfgu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5119,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":5039,"text":"CHAPTER XXXII.\r\nA DISH OF DUNDERFUNK.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn men-of-war, the space on the uppermost deck, round about the\r\nmain-mast, is the Police-office, Court-house, and yard of execution,\r\nwhere all charges are lodged, causes tried, and punishment\r\nadministered. In frigate phrase, to be _brought up to the mast_, is\r\nequivalent to being presented before the grand-jury, to see whether a\r\ntrue bill will be found against you.\r\n\r\nFrom the merciless, inquisitorial _baiting_, which sailors, charged\r\nwith offences, too often experience _at the mast_, that vicinity is\r\nusually known among them as the _bull-ring_.\r\n\r\nThe main-mast, moreover, is the only place where the sailor can hold\r\nformal communication with the captain and officers. If any one has been\r\nrobbed; if any one has been evilly entreated; if any one’s character\r\nhas been defamed; if any one has a request to present; if any one has\r\naught important for the executive of the ship to know—straight to the\r\nmain-mast he repairs; and stands there—generally with his hat\r\noff—waiting the pleasure of the officer of the deck, to advance and\r\ncommunicate with him. Often, the most ludicrous scenes occur, and the\r\nmost comical complaints are made.\r\n\r\nOne clear, cold morning, while we were yet running away from the Cape,\r\na raw boned, crack-pated Down Easter, belonging to the Waist, made his\r\nappearance at the mast, dolefully exhibiting a blackened tin pan,\r\nbearing a few crusty traces of some sort of a sea-pie, which had been\r\ncooked in it.\r\n\r\n“Well, sir, what now?” said the Lieutenant of the Deck, advancing.\r\n\r\n“They stole it, sir; all my nice _dunderfunk_, sir; they did, sir,”\r\nwhined the Down Easter, ruefully holding up his pan. “Stole your\r\n_dunderfunk!_ what’s that?”\r\n\r\n“_Dunderfunk_, sir, _dunderfunk_; a cruel nice dish as ever man put\r\ninto him.”\r\n\r\n“Speak out, sir; what’s the matter?”\r\n\r\n“My _dunderfunk_, sir—as elegant a dish of _dunderfunk_ as you ever\r\nsee, sir—they stole it, sir!”\r\n\r\n“Go forward, you rascal!” cried the Lieutenant, in a towering rage, “or\r\nelse stop your whining. Tell me, what’s the matter?”\r\n\r\n“Why, sir, them ’ere two fellows, Dobs and Hodnose, stole my\r\n_dunderfunk_.”\r\n\r\n“Once more, sir, I ask what that _dundledunk_ is? Speak!” “As cruel a\r\nnice——”\r\n\r\n“Be off, sir! sheer!” and muttering something about _non compos\r\nmentis_, the Lieutenant stalked away; while the Down Easter beat a\r\nmelancholy retreat, holding up his pan like a tambourine, and making\r\ndolorous music on it as he went.\r\n\r\n“Where are you going with that tear in your eye, like a travelling\r\nrat?” cried a top-man.\r\n\r\n“Oh! he’s going home to Down East,” said another; “so far eastward, you\r\nknow, _shippy_, that they have to pry up the sun with a handspike.”\r\n\r\nTo make this anecdote plainer, be it said that, at sea, the monotonous\r\nround of salt beef and pork at the messes of the sailors—where but very\r\nfew of the varieties of the season are to be found—induces them to\r\nadopt many contrivances in order to diversify their meals. Hence the\r\nvarious sea-rolls, made dishes, and Mediterranean pies, well known by\r\nmen-of-war’s-men—_Scouse, Lob-scouse, Soft-Tack, Soft-Tommy,\r\nSkillagalee, Burgoo, Dough-boys, Lob-Dominion, Dog’s-Body_, and lastly,\r\nand least known, _Dunderfunk_; all of which come under the general\r\ndenomination of _Manavalins_.\r\n\r\n_Dunderfunk_ is made of hard biscuit, hashed and pounded, mixed with\r\nbeef fat, molasses, and water, and baked brown in a pan. And to those\r\nwho are beyond all reach of shore delicacies, this _dunderfunk_, in the\r\nfeeling language of the Down Easter, is certainly “_a cruel nice\r\ndish_.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBPHSV899ME5H8KT35J","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHPY55Z50YPW42TDPG09","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.660Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.723Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}