{"id":"01KF7FPTBC9RRP9D4CQDY74RWD","cid":"bafkreig4rf3gp6w34bq6tyfalmwezhrf6xyjfnq5ixc3ynlnmrkumeqcpm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":20313,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.456Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 12","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":20246,"text":"“I will wager something now,” whispered Stubb to Flask, “that some one\r\nin that missing boat wore off that Captain’s best coat; mayhap, his\r\nwatch—he’s so cursed anxious to get it back. Who ever heard of two\r\npious whale-ships cruising after one missing whale-boat in the height\r\nof the whaling season? See, Flask, only see how pale he looks—pale in\r\nthe very buttons of his eyes—look—it wasn’t the coat—it must have been\r\nthe—”\r\n\r\n“My boy, my own boy is among them. For God’s sake—I beg, I\r\nconjure”—here exclaimed the stranger Captain to Ahab, who thus far had\r\nbut icily received his petition. “For eight-and-forty hours let me\r\ncharter your ship—I will gladly pay for it, and roundly pay for it—if\r\nthere be no other way—for eight-and-forty hours only—only that—you\r\nmust, oh, you must, and you _shall_ do this thing.”\r\n\r\n“His son!” cried Stubb, “oh, it’s his son he’s lost! I take back the\r\ncoat and watch—what says Ahab? We must save that boy.”\r\n\r\n“He’s drowned with the rest on ’em, last night,” said the old Manx\r\nsailor standing behind them; “I heard; all of ye heard their spirits.”\r\n\r\nNow, as it shortly turned out, what made this incident of the Rachel’s\r\nthe more melancholy, was the circumstance, that not only was one of the\r\nCaptain’s sons among the number of the missing boat’s crew; but among\r\nthe number of the other boat’s crews, at the same time, but on the\r\nother hand, separated from the ship during the dark vicissitudes of the\r\nchase, there had been still another son; as that for a time, the\r\nwretched father was plunged to the bottom of the cruellest perplexity;\r\nwhich was only solved for him by his chief mate’s instinctively\r\nadopting the ordinary procedure of a whale-ship in such emergencies,\r\nthat is, when placed between jeopardized but divided boats, always to\r\npick up the majority first. But the captain, for some unknown\r\nconstitutional reason, had refrained from mentioning all this, and not\r\ntill forced to it by Ahab’s iciness did he allude to his one yet\r\nmissing boy; a little lad, but twelve years old, whose father with the\r\nearnest but unmisgiving hardihood of a Nantucketer’s paternal love, had\r\nthus early sought to initiate him in the perils and wonders of a\r\nvocation almost immemorially the destiny of all his race. Nor does it\r\nunfrequently occur, that Nantucket captains will send a son of such\r\ntender age away from them, for a protracted three or four years’ voyage\r\nin some other ship than their own; so that their first knowledge of a\r\nwhaleman’s career shall be unenervated by any chance display of a\r\nfather’s natural but untimely partiality, or undue apprehensiveness and\r\nconcern.\r\n\r\nMeantime, now the stranger was still beseeching his poor boon of Ahab;\r\nand Ahab still stood like an anvil, receiving every shock, but without\r\nthe least quivering of his own.\r\n\r\n“I will not go,” said the stranger, “till you say _aye_ to me. Do to me\r\nas you would have me do to you in the like case. For _you_ too have a\r\nboy, Captain Ahab—though but a child, and nestling safely at home now—a\r\nchild of your old age too—Yes, yes, you relent; I see it—run, run, men,\r\nnow, and stand by to square in the yards.”\r\n\r\n“Avast,” cried Ahab—“touch not a rope-yarn”; then in a voice that\r\nprolongingly moulded every word—“Captain Gardiner, I will not do it.\r\nEven now I lose time. Good-bye, good-bye. God bless ye, man, and may I\r\nforgive myself, but I must go. Mr. Starbuck, look at the binnacle\r\nwatch, and in three minutes from this present instant warn off all\r\nstrangers: then brace forward again, and let the ship sail as before.”\r\n\r\nHurriedly turning, with averted face, he descended into his cabin,\r\nleaving the strange captain transfixed at this unconditional and utter\r\nrejection of his so earnest suit. But starting from his enchantment,\r\nGardiner silently hurried to the side; more fell than stepped into his\r\nboat, and returned to his ship.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 12"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPNZVQN0MWH12S4195JDT","peer_label":"Chapter 124","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPNZVQN0MWH12S4195JDT","peer_label":"Chapter 124","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"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"},{"peer":"01KF7FPTDNZAA6JDW8X3HMB18E","peer_label":"Chunk 13","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KF7FPTC965E8RP7X3EZK0RK2","peer_label":"Chunk 11","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.773Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:28.832Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}