- description
- # Whitehaven
## Overview
This subsection, titled "Whitehaven," is an extracted text segment from [israel_potter.txt](arke:01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW), a file within the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It spans lines 4435-4447 of the source text and was extracted on January 30, 2026.
## Context
The subsection is part of [CHAPTER XVI. THEY LOOK IN AT CARRICKFERGUS, AND DESCEND ON WHITEHAVEN.](arke:01KG8AJJ2BDJ8N0FXM1C21XVSG). It follows the subsection [AND DESCEND ON WHITEHAVEN](arke:01KG8AK7MY0ZMRSHPGXZGA55RZ), which describes the preparations and approach of Paul Jones and his men to Whitehaven. It is succeeded by the subsection [The first fort](arke:01KG8AK7N010M8KSB384TDC9X7), which details Paul Jones's landing and initial actions to seize the fort.
## Contents
The text provides a vivid description of the harbor at Whitehaven at low tide, depicting approximately three hundred grounded vessels "crowded together, in one dense mob." The ships are characterized by their "sooty hue," "black yards," and "sailless, raking masts," resembling a "forest of fish-spears." The passage also describes a fort flanking the grounded fleet, with batteries raised from the beach and a disordered heap of "small rusty guns" at its base, overlooked by mounted cannon.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:48.341Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Whitehaven
- end_line
- 4447
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:55.385Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4435
- text
- About three hundred of these vessels now lay, all crowded together, in
one dense mob, at Whitehaven. The tide was out. They lay completely
helpless, clear of water, and grounded. They were sooty in hue. Their
black yards were deeply canted, like spears, to avoid collision. The
three hundred grimy hulls lay wallowing in the mud, like a herd of
hippopotami asleep in the alluvium of the Nile. Their sailless, raking
masts, and canted yards, resembled a forest of fish-spears thrust into
those same hippopotamus hides. Partly flanking one side of the grounded
fleet was a fort, whose batteries were raised from the beach. On a
little strip of this beach, at the base of the fort, lay a number of
small rusty guns, dismounted, heaped together in disorder, as a litter
of dogs. Above them projected the mounted cannon.
- title
- Whitehaven