- description
- # The Commodore and his Secretary
## Overview
This section, titled "The Commodore and his Secretary," is an excerpt from a larger work, likely a book or manuscript. It details the duties and perceived importance of a commodore's private secretary aboard a ship, drawing on the narrator's observations and a humorous anecdote. The text was extracted from the file `white_jacket.txt` and is part of the `Melville Complete Works` collection.
## Context
This section is located within [Chapter VI of an unnamed work](arke:01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD), which focuses on the officers and crew of a man-of-war. It follows a previous section, also titled "CHAPTER VI. THE QUARTER-DECK OFFICERS, WARRANT OFFICERS, AND BERTH-DECK UNDERLINGS OF A MAN-OF-WAR; WHERE THEY LIVE IN THE SHIP; HOW THEY LIVE; THEIR SOCIAL STANDING ON SHIP-BOARD; AND WHAT SORT OF GENTLEMEN THEY ARE." ([arke:01KG8AKTGR8XV55WSTC76NSQ24]), and precedes a section titled "The Captain" ([arke:01KG8AKTHC8FS4A2E7ZRD6YACY]). The text was extracted from the file `white_jacket.txt` ([arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY]), which is part of the `Melville Complete Works` collection ([arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW]).
## Contents
The text describes the secretary's role as the commodore's amanuensis and writer of dispatches. The narrator initially assumed these duties were significant, but a humorous incident involving a note about serving pickles with dinner reveals the mundane nature of some of the secretary's tasks. This anecdote serves to illustrate the narrator's evolving understanding of the commodore's direct involvement in shipboard affairs.
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- 2026-01-30T20:49:48.118Z
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- description_title
- The Commodore and his Secretary
- end_line
- 947
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 925
- text
- I was a long time in finding out what this secretary’s duties
comprised. But it seemed, he wrote the Commodore’s dispatches for
Washington, and also was his general amanuensis. Nor was this a very
light duty, at times; for some commodores, though they do not _say_ a
great deal on board ship, yet they have a vast deal to write. Very
often, the regimental orderly, stationed at our Commodore’s cabin-door,
would touch his hat to the First Lieutenant, and with a mysterious air
hand him a note. I always thought these notes must contain most
important matters of state; until one day, seeing a slip of wet, torn
paper in a scupper-hole, I read the following:
“Sir, you will give the people pickles to-day with their fresh meat.
“To Lieutenant Bridewell.
“By command of the Commodore;
“Adolphus Dashman, Priv. Sec.”
This was a new revelation; for, from his almost immutable reserve, I
had supposed that the Commodore never meddled immediately with the
concerns of the ship, but left all that to the captain. But the longer
we live, the more we learn of commodores.
- title
- The Commodore and his Secretary