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By Jack Joseph Smith

The head stockmen was frightened by power Which is why he had been picked To record our hours of hellish resemblance I too feared the First Mate But I gathered the weight And explained with alarm, "whatever harm comes to Mam must be entered in the legger" While the head stockmen was up on a tier Knowing the reason no doctor was here to tend her And his face was frozen in fear For what I had said Ment he would have to confront His terror of the mate Which I well knew he would not be able to do So I called him on it Saying with him we would all ride it out I said, "we will tell the mate, that Mam must be saved." My case was absurd But not blurred For it made all aware That as well as the fear A developed reason for hate could be molded against the mate As the stockmen knew For this scene to be entered in the legger Would surely gain on the Captain's brain as well as the mate's An aftermath bait Concerning their seagoing fate And incidently an American against rule might make them wonder about the fucker That wanted their ass up on the stake marking their time toward the assunder While, "your crazy," called the headstockmen "And what about Mam?" asked the seamen all around "She's in pain," And five holes down from the sun without a gun They voted to beat her to death

Original Scan

Page 5

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker tries to make the stockman record harm to Mam and confront the mate, recounting fear, defiance and a vote to beat the suffering sheep to death.

The speaker treats an entry in the ship's record as a possible way to hold officers accountable. The argument fails to protect Mam. The stockman's fear and the speaker's insistence expose the limits of solidarity under the mate's authority.

Claude

A typed version of the Mam episode: the speaker insists that 'whatever harm comes to Mam / must be entered in the legger', the head stockman is 'frozen in fear', and the seamen ask 'And what about Mam?' The page ends 'They voted to beat her to death'.

Recording the sheep's suffering in the ship's log becomes the speaker's way of challenging the mate. The flat last line shows how quickly that protest gives way to the crowd's decision.