{"id":"01KG8AMHV16SQHT8083SZGDG3X","cid":"bafkreial7q7w5xszxfnhkkufkxzdyilndz2e6wtgrrwnft4i7sgafytuke","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11054,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":11002,"text":"CHAPTER LXIX.\r\nPRAYERS AT THE GUNS.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe training-days, or general quarters, now and then taking place in\r\nour frigate, have already been described, also the Sunday devotions on\r\nthe half-deck; but nothing has yet been said concerning the daily\r\nmorning and evening quarters, when the men silently stand at their\r\nguns, and the chaplain simply offers up a prayer.\r\n\r\nLet us now enlarge upon this matter. We have plenty of time; the\r\noccasion invites; for behold! the homeward-bound Neversink bowls along\r\nover a jubilant sea.\r\n\r\nShortly after breakfast the drum beats to quarters; and among five\r\nhundred men, scattered over all three decks, and engaged in all manner\r\nof ways, that sudden rolling march is magical as the monitory sound to\r\nwhich every good Mussulman at sunset drops to the ground whatsoever his\r\nhands might have found to do, and, throughout all Turkey, the people in\r\nconcert kneel toward their holy Mecca.\r\n\r\nThe sailors run to and fro-some up the deck-ladders, some down—to gain\r\ntheir respective stations in the shortest possible time. In three\r\nminutes all is composed. One by one, the various officers stationed\r\nover the separate divisions of the ship then approach the First\r\nLieutenant on the quarter-deck, and report their respective men at\r\ntheir quarters. It is curious to watch their countenances at this time.\r\nA profound silence prevails; and, emerging through the hatchway, from\r\none of the lower decks, a slender young officer appears, hugging his\r\nsword to his thigh, and advances through the long lanes of sailors at\r\ntheir guns, his serious eye all the time fixed upon the First\r\nLieutenant’s—his polar star. Sometimes he essays a stately and\r\ngraduated step, an erect and martial bearing, and seems full of the\r\nvast national importance of what he is about to communicate.\r\n\r\nBut when at last he gains his destination, you are amazed to perceive\r\nthat all he has to say is imparted by a Freemason touch of his cap, and\r\na bow. He then turns and makes off to his division, perhaps passing\r\nseveral brother Lieutenants, all bound on the same errand he himself\r\nhas just achieved. For about five minutes these officers are coming and\r\ngoing, bringing in thrilling intelligence from all quarters of the\r\nfrigate; most stoically received, however, by the First Lieutenant.\r\nWith his legs apart, so as to give a broad foundation for the\r\nsuperstructure of his dignity, this gentleman stands stiff as a\r\npike-staff on the quarter-deck. One hand holds his sabre—an\r\nappurtenance altogether unnecessary at the time; and which he\r\naccordingly tucks, point backward, under his arm, like an umbrella on a\r\nsun-shiny day. The other hand is continually bobbing up and down to the\r\nleather front of his cap, in response to the reports and salute of his\r\nsubordinates, to whom he never deigns to vouchsafe a syllable, merely\r\ngoing through the motions of accepting their news, without bestowing\r\nthanks for their pains.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTJYF04A0665MPBYMDBW","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJGBH9F3C20P4JF3GFA0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.801Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.141Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}