{"id":"01KG8AMJWKAX809T99458K9ZW4","cid":"bafkreig7wucnz6oh7uj3has6tzpu3erjsvflkisrjavxcohfm2qgrrs4l4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5929,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.271Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":5862,"text":"CHAPTER XXXVII.\r\nSOME SUPERIOR OLD “LONDON DOCK” FROM THE WINE-COOLERS OF NEPTUNE.\r\n\r\n\r\nWe had just slid into pleasant weather, drawing near to the Tropics,\r\nwhen all hands were thrown into a wonderful excitement by an event that\r\neloquently appealed to many palates.\r\n\r\nA man at the fore-top-sail-yard sung out that there were eight or ten\r\ndark objects floating on the sea, some three points off our lee-bow.\r\n\r\n“Keep her off three points!” cried Captain Claret, to the\r\nquarter-master at the _cun_.\r\n\r\nAnd thus, with all our batteries, store-rooms, and five hundred men,\r\nwith their baggage, and beds, and provisions, at one move of a round\r\nbit of mahogany, our great-embattled ark edged away for the strangers,\r\nas easily as a boy turns to the right or left in pursuit of insects in\r\nthe field.\r\n\r\nDirectly the man on the top-sail-yard reported the dark objects to be\r\nhogsheads. Instantly all the top-men were straining their eyes, in\r\ndelirious expectation of having their long _grog fast_ broken at last,\r\nand that, too, by what seemed an almost miraculous intervention. It was\r\na curious circumstance that, without knowing the contents of the\r\nhogsheads, they yet seemed certain that the staves encompassed the\r\nthing they longed for.\r\n\r\nSail was now shortened, our headway was stopped, and a cutter was\r\nlowered, with orders to tow the fleet of strangers alongside. The men\r\nsprang to their oars with a will, and soon five goodly puncheons lay\r\nwallowing in the sea, just under the main-chains. We got overboard the\r\nslings, and hoisted them out of the water.\r\n\r\nIt was a sight that Bacchus and his bacchanals would have gloated over.\r\nEach puncheon was of a deep-green color, so covered with minute\r\nbarnacles and shell-fish, and streaming with sea-weed, that it needed\r\nlong searching to find out their bung-holes; they looked like venerable\r\nold _loggerhead-turtles._ How long they had been tossing about, and\r\nmaking voyages for the benefit of the flavour of their contents, no one\r\ncould tell. In trying to raft them ashore, or on board of some\r\nmerchant-ship, they must have drifted off to sea. This we inferred from\r\nthe ropes that length-wise united them, and which, from one point of\r\nview, made them resemble a long sea-serpent. They were _struck_ into\r\nthe gun-deck, where, the eager crowd being kept off by sentries, the\r\ncooper was called with his tools.\r\n\r\n“Bung up, and bilge free!” he cried, in an ecstasy, flourishing his\r\ndriver and hammer.\r\n\r\nUpon clearing away the barnacles and moss, a flat sort of shell-fish\r\nwas found, closely adhering, like a California-shell, right over one of\r\nthe bungs. Doubtless this shell-fish had there taken up his quarters,\r\nand thrown his own body into the breach, in order the better to\r\npreserve the precious contents of the cask. The by-standers were\r\nbreathless, when at last this puncheon was canted over and a tin-pot\r\nheld to the orifice. What was to come forth? salt-water or wine? But a\r\nrich purple tide soon settled the question, and the lieutenant assigned\r\nto taste it, with a loud and satisfactory smack of his lips, pronounced\r\nit Port!\r\n\r\n“Oporto!” cried Mad Jack, “and no mistake!”\r\n\r\nBut, to the surprise, grief, and consternation of the sailors, an order\r\nnow came from the quarter-deck to strike the “strangers down into the\r\nmain-hold!” This proceeding occasioned all sorts of censorious\r\nobservations upon the Captain, who, of course, had authorised it.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBSSH44KR7WYJ1891ZM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJWD8023ABN4PTAFJ3F4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.875Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:47.485Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}