{"id":"01KF7FPMHYYSR3CW1M0D4ZK2GY","cid":"bafkreigl7yegxdb7zwt4b5aqjzn4efdfnpjoo53pvxst6nd2vxq443t52m","type":"chapter","properties":{"end_line":12034,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.078Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"The Shark Massacre.","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":11974,"text":"CHAPTER 66. The Shark Massacre.\r\n\r\nWhen in the Southern Fishery, a captured Sperm Whale, after long and\r\nweary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general\r\nthing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting\r\nhim in. For that business is an exceedingly laborious one; is not very\r\nsoon completed; and requires all hands to set about it. Therefore, the\r\ncommon usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a’lee; and then send\r\nevery one below to his hammock till daylight, with the reservation\r\nthat, until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept; that is, two and\r\ntwo for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall mount the deck\r\nto see that all goes well.\r\n\r\nBut sometimes, especially upon the Line in the Pacific, this plan will\r\nnot answer at all; because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather\r\nround the moored carcase, that were he left so for six hours, say, on a\r\nstretch, little more than the skeleton would be visible by morning. In\r\nmost other parts of the ocean, however, where these fish do not so\r\nlargely abound, their wondrous voracity can be at times considerably\r\ndiminished, by vigorously stirring them up with sharp whaling-spades, a\r\nprocedure notwithstanding, which, in some instances, only seems to\r\ntickle them into still greater activity. But it was not thus in the\r\npresent case with the Pequod’s sharks; though, to be sure, any man\r\nunaccustomed to such sights, to have looked over her side that night,\r\nwould have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and\r\nthose sharks the maggots in it.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, upon Stubb setting the anchor-watch after his supper was\r\nconcluded; and when, accordingly, Queequeg and a forecastle seaman came\r\non deck, no small excitement was created among the sharks; for\r\nimmediately suspending the cutting stages over the side, and lowering\r\nthree lanterns, so that they cast long gleams of light over the turbid\r\nsea, these two mariners, darting their long whaling-spades, kept up an\r\nincessant murdering of the sharks,* by striking the keen steel deep\r\ninto their skulls, seemingly their only vital part. But in the foamy\r\nconfusion of their mixed and struggling hosts, the marksmen could not\r\nalways hit their mark; and this brought about new revelations of the\r\nincredible ferocity of the foe. They viciously snapped, not only at\r\neach other’s disembowelments, but like flexible bows, bent round, and\r\nbit their own; till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again\r\nby the same mouth, to be oppositely voided by the gaping wound. Nor was\r\nthis all. It was unsafe to meddle with the corpses and ghosts of these\r\ncreatures. A sort of generic or Pantheistic vitality seemed to lurk in\r\ntheir very joints and bones, after what might be called the individual\r\nlife had departed. Killed and hoisted on deck for the sake of his skin,\r\none of these sharks almost took poor Queequeg’s hand off, when he tried\r\nto shut down the dead lid of his murderous jaw.\r\n\r\n*The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel;\r\nis about the bigness of a man’s spread hand; and in general shape,\r\ncorresponds to the garden implement after which it is named; only its\r\nsides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrower than\r\nthe lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible; and when\r\nbeing used is occasionally honed, just like a razor. In its socket, a\r\nstiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long, is inserted for a handle.\r\n\r\n“Queequeg no care what god made him shark,” said the savage,\r\nagonizingly lifting his hand up and down; “wedder Fejee god or\r\nNantucket god; but de god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin.”\r\n\r\n\r","title":"The Shark Massacre."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.886Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.886Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}