{"id":"01KG8AMJGBRX4NTQ7MDD8RX8A1","cid":"bafkreigm4fkk46hdqhtmdwplfz3xlzytyxu52r7w4zwh3htma2c6ib64qy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11243,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":11178,"text":"CHAPTER LXX.\r\nMONTHLY MUSTER ROUND THE CAPSTAN.\r\n\r\n\r\nBesides general quarters, and the regular morning and evening quarters\r\nfor prayers on board the Neversink, on the first Sunday of every month\r\nwe had a grand “_muster round the capstan_,” when we passed in solemn\r\nreview before the Captain and officers, who closely scanned our frocks\r\nand trowsers, to see whether they were according to the Navy cut. In\r\nsome ships, every man is required to bring his bag and hammock along\r\nfor inspection.\r\n\r\nThis ceremony acquires its chief solemnity, and, to a novice, is\r\nrendered even terrible, by the reading of the Articles of War by the\r\nCaptain’s clerk before the assembled ship’s company, who in testimony\r\nof their enforced reverence for the code, stand bareheaded till the\r\nlast sentence is pronounced.\r\n\r\nTo a mere amateur reader the quiet perusal of these Articles of War\r\nwould be attended with some nervous emotions. Imagine, then, what _my_\r\nfeelings must have been, when, with my hat deferentially in my hand, I\r\nstood before my lord and master, Captain Claret, and heard these\r\nArticles read as the law and gospel, the infallible, unappealable\r\ndispensation and code, whereby I lived, and moved, and had my being on\r\nboard of the United States ship Neversink.\r\n\r\nOf some twenty offences—made penal—that a seaman may commit, and which\r\nare specified in this code, thirteen are punishable by death.\r\n\r\n“_Shall suffer death!_” This was the burden of nearly every Article\r\nread by the Captain’s clerk; for he seemed to have been instructed to\r\nomit the longer Articles, and only present those which were brief and\r\nto the point.\r\n\r\n“_Shall suffer death!_” The repeated announcement falls on your ear\r\nlike the intermitting discharge of artillery. After it has been\r\nrepeated again and again, you listen to the reader as he deliberately\r\nbegins a new paragraph; you hear him reciting the involved, but\r\ncomprehensive and clear arrangement of the sentence, detailing all\r\npossible particulars of the offence described, and you breathlessly\r\nawait, whether _that_ clause also is going to be concluded by the\r\ndischarge of the terrible minute-gun. When, lo! it again booms on your\r\near—_shall suffer death!_ No reservations, no contingencies; not the\r\nremotest promise of pardon or reprieve; not a glimpse of commutation of\r\nthe sentence; all hope and consolation is shut out—_shall suffer\r\ndeath!_ that is the simple fact for you to digest; and it is a tougher\r\nmorsel, believe White-Jacket when he says it, than a forty-two-pound\r\ncannon-ball.\r\n\r\nBut there is a glimmering of an alternative to the sailor who infringes\r\nthese Articles. Some of them thus terminates: “_Shall suffer death, or\r\nsuch punishment as a court-martial shall adjudge_.” But hints this at a\r\npenalty still more serious? Perhaps it means “_death, or worse\r\npunishment_.”\r\n\r\nYour honours of the Spanish Inquisition, Loyola and Torquemada!\r\nproduce, reverend gentlemen, your most secret code, and match these\r\nArticles of War, if you can. Jack Ketch, _you_ also are experienced in\r\nthese things! Thou most benevolent of mortals, who standest by us, and\r\nhangest round our necks, when all the rest of this world are against\r\nus—tell us, hangman, what punishment is this, horribly hinted at as\r\nbeing worse than death? Is it, upon an empty stomach, to read the\r\nArticles of War every morning, for the term of one’s natural life? Or\r\nis it to be imprisoned in a cell, with its walls papered from floor to\r\nceiling with printed copies, in italics, of these Articles of War?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTJYG42KGH7X4DHPS9V9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJG8JF9M5C9NXPJW406V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.483Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.282Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}