- description
- # Introduction to "Killing Time in a Man-of-War in Harbour"
## Overview
This entity is an introductory section titled "Introduction," extracted from [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY). It serves as the opening passage for [CHAPTER XLII. KILLING TIME IN A MAN-OF-WAR IN HARBOUR.](arke:01KG8AJS2XNNYG8VJ0DMZ113C3).
## Context
This introduction is part of a larger literary work, likely a novel, and is housed within the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It was programmatically extracted from its source file between lines 6503 and 6514. It precedes a section discussing [tattooing among sailors](arke:01KG8AKV4ZZ0WFRQY0SF6GY61W).
## Contents
The text describes various methods sailors used to pass time in harbor, beyond reading, as many were illiterate. It highlights their skills in needlework, specifically mentioning the creation of elaborate shirts adorned with patriotic American symbols like eagles, anchors, and stars. The passage humorously notes that wearing these shirts was akin to "hoisting the American colors."
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:49:48.626Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Introduction to "Killing Time in a Man-of-War in Harbour"
- end_line
- 6514
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 6503
- text
-
Reading was by no means the only method adopted by my shipmates in
whiling away the long, tedious hours in harbour. In truth, many of them
could not have read, had they wanted to ever so much; in early youth
their primers had been sadly neglected. Still, they had other pursuits;
some were experts at the needle, and employed their time in making
elaborate shirts, stitching picturesque eagles, and anchors, and all
the stars of the federated states in the collars thereof; so that when
they at last completed and put on these shirts, they may be said to
have hoisted the American colors.
- title
- Introduction