58 20 1 1 106 83 ^ vague report, was , ^ of course, nothing against its secret currency.
^ Such a New Chapter rumor once started on the
gun-decks agan in reference to almost
anyone below the rank of a commissioned

officer would, during the period era assigned to
this narrative, have seemed not altogether
defi wanting in ^ credibility plausability plausibility ^ at least to the tarry
old wiseacres of a man-of-war crew.
And indeed a man of Claggart's
accomplishments, without any prior nautical
experience entering the navy at mature
life, as he did, and neccessarily alloted
to at the start to a true? the lowest ^ no xx his noble grade in it . ;
a man who never alluded to
his prior life ashore; these
circumstances &c
^ This was something which in the
dearth of all exact knowledge as to his real
anticedents antecedents , opened ^ to the invidious a somewhat wide
mysterious field for invidious
doubt and surmise / a wide field,
however vague, for unfavorable invidious doubt
and surmise.
——//——
58 20 1 1 106 83 ^ vague report, was , ^ of course, nothing against its secret currency.
^ Such a New Chapter rumor once started on the
gun-decks agan in reference to almost
anyone below the rank of a commissioned

officer would, during the period era assigned to
this narrative, have seemed not altogether
defi wanting in ^ credibility plausability plausibility ^ at least to the tarry
old wiseacres of a man-of-war crew.
And indeed a man of Claggart's
accomplishments, without any prior nautical
experience entering the navy at mature
life, as he did, and neccessarily alloted
to at the start to a true? the lowest ^ no xx his noble grade in it . ;
a man who never alluded to
his prior life ashore; these
circumstances &c
^ This was something which in the
dearth of all exact knowledge as to his real
anticedents antecedents , opened ^ to the invidious a somewhat wide
mysterious field for invidious
doubt and surmise / a wide field,
however vague, for unfavorable invidious doubt
and surmise.
——//——

Transcribed by: John Bryant