{"id":"01KG8AMHTS8QVXEVX3JFAX3KBZ","cid":"bafkreialoqncskjwniyqxgsz33hazgbgn77k73kqmftfqur5scxou7tsci","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10649,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":10581,"text":"the bottom of my heart. But my pity was almost aroused into indignation\r\nat a sad sequel to one of these gladiatorial scenes.\r\n\r\nIt seems that, lifted up by the unaffected, though verbally unexpressed\r\napplause of the Captain, May-day had begun to despise Rose-water as a\r\npoltroon—a fellow all brains and no skull; whereas he himself was a\r\ngreat warrior, all skull and no brains.\r\n\r\nAccordingly, after they had been bumping one evening to the Captain’s\r\ncontent, May-day confidentially told Rose-water that he considered him\r\na “_nigger_,” which, among some blacks, is held a great term of\r\nreproach. Fired at the insult, Rose-water gave May-day to understand\r\nthat he utterly erred; for his mother, a black slave, had been one of\r\nthe mistresses of a Virginia planter belonging to one of the oldest\r\nfamilies in that state. Another insulting remark followed this innocent\r\ndisclosure; retort followed retort; in a word, at last they came\r\ntogether in mortal combat.\r\n\r\nThe master-at-arms caught them in the act, and brought them up to the\r\nmast. The Captain advanced.\r\n\r\n“Please, sir,” said poor Rose-water, “it all came of dat ’ar bumping;\r\nMay-day, here, aggrawated me ’bout it.”\r\n\r\n“Master-at-arms,” said the Captain, “did you see them fighting?”\r\n\r\n“Ay, sir,” said the master-at-arms, touching his cap.\r\n\r\n“Rig the gratings,” said the Captain. “I’ll teach you two men that,\r\nthough I now and then permit you to _play_, I will have no _fighting_.\r\nDo your duty, boatswain’s mate!” And the negroes were flogged.\r\n\r\nJustice commands that the fact of the Captain’s not showing any\r\nleniency to May-day—a decided favourite of his, at least while in the\r\nring—should not be passed over. He flogged both culprits in the most\r\nimpartial manner.\r\n\r\nAs in the matter of the scene at the gangway, shortly after the Cape\r\nHorn theatricals, when my attention had been directed to the fact that\r\nthe officers had _shipped their quarter-deck faces_—upon that occasion,\r\nI say, it was seen with what facility a sea-officer assumes his wonted\r\nseverity of demeanour after a casual relaxation of it. This was\r\nespecially the case with Captain Claret upon the present occasion. For\r\nany landsman to have beheld him in the lee waist, of a pleasant\r\ndog-watch, with a genial, good-humoured countenance, observing the\r\ngladiators in the ring, and now and then indulging in a playful\r\nremark—that landsman would have deemed Captain Claret the indulgent\r\nfather of his crew, perhaps permitting the excess of his\r\nkind-heartedness to encroach upon the appropriate dignity of his\r\nstation. He would have deemed Captain Claret a fine illustration of\r\nthose two well-known poetical comparisons between a sea-captain and a\r\nfather, and between a sea-captain and the master of apprentices,\r\ninstituted by those eminent maritime jurists, the noble Lords Tenterden\r\nand Stowell.\r\n\r\nBut surely, if there is anything hateful, it is this _shipping of the\r\nquarter-deck face_ after wearing a merry and good-natured one. How can\r\nthey have the heart? Methinks, if but once I smiled upon a man—never\r\nmind how much beneath me—I could not bring myself to condemn him to the\r\nshocking misery of the lash. Oh officers! all round the world, if this\r\nquarter-deck face you wear at all, then never unship it for another, to\r\nbe merely sported for a moment. Of all insults, the temporary\r\ncondescension of a master to a slave is the most outrageous and\r\ngalling. That potentate who most condescends, mark him well; for that\r\npotentate, if occasion come, will prove your uttermost tyrant.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTJS0E9FQHG061ZQ54GF","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHTS5F5RNNY53S8VMXEZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.793Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:51.733Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}