- description
- # The Ward-room Officers
## Overview
This is a section titled "The Ward-room Officers" from the novel *White-Jacket* by Herman Melville. It describes the social dynamics and composition of the ward-room officers on a frigate. The section appears in 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."
## Context
This section is extracted from the text file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY), and is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It is located within [Chapter VI](arke:01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD) of the novel. It follows the section titled [The First or Senior Lieutenant](arke:01KG8AKTGRQ8VWD72NXD2YKXCK) and precedes the section titled [Warrant or Forward officers](arke:01KG8AKTGRBP5XZRV4PAC0A4FT).
## Contents
The section describes the ward-room officers' table and the composition of the ward-room itself, which resembles a long corridor in a hotel with doors leading to private apartments. The author recalls seeing the Chaplain playing chess with the Lieutenant of Marines in the ward-room. The ward-room officers include the junior lieutenants, Sailing-master, Purser, Chaplain, Surgeon, Marine officers, and Midshipmen’s Schoolmaster. The author characterizes them as an agreeable club, with diverse characters who engage in discussions about sea-fights, storming fortresses, mathematics, classical literature, surgery, and pious counsel. The section concludes by noting that these gentlemen associate on a footing of perfect social equality.
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- The Ward-room Officers
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- He presides at the head of the Ward-room officers’ table, who are so
called from their messing together in a part of the ship thus
designated. In a frigate it comprises the after part of the berth-deck.
Sometimes it goes by the name of the Gun-room, but oftener is called
the Ward-room. Within, this Ward-room much resembles a long, wide
corridor in a large hotel; numerous doors opening on both hands to the
private apartments of the officers. I never had a good interior look at
it but once; and then the Chaplain was seated at the table in the
centre, playing chess with the Lieutenant of Marines. It was mid-day,
but the place was lighted by lamps.
Besides the First Lieutenant, the Ward-room officers include the junior
lieutenants, in a frigate six or seven in number, the Sailing-master,
Purser, Chaplain, Surgeon, Marine officers, and Midshipmen’s
Schoolmaster, or “the Professor.” They generally form a very agreeable
club of good fellows; from their diversity of character, admirably
calculated to form an agreeable social whole. The Lieutenants discuss
sea-fights, and tell anecdotes of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton; the
Marine officers talk of storming fortresses, and the siege of
Gibraltar; the Purser steadies this wild conversation by occasional
allusions to the rule of three; the Professor is always charged with a
scholarly reflection, or an apt line from the classics, generally Ovid;
the Surgeon’s stories of the amputation-table judiciously serve to
suggest the mortality of the whole party as men; while the good
chaplain stands ready at all times to give them pious counsel and
consolation.
Of course these gentlemen all associate on a footing of perfect social
equality.
- title
- The Ward-room Officers