{"id":"01KF7FPTG1EQC86TVBVZXDG8ZW","cid":"bafkreic57dampjz5r5bp56lpgp3lyqzajinktdzl6zkdd25ofhbx2fmh6e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":20592,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.458Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 17","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":20514,"text":"unusual; the only strange thing about them seemed to be, that Starbuck,\r\nalmost the one only man who had ever ventured to oppose him with\r\nanything in the slightest degree approaching to decision—one of those\r\ntoo, whose faithfulness on the look-out he had seemed to doubt\r\nsomewhat;—it was strange, that this was the very man he should select\r\nfor his watchman; freely giving his whole life into such an otherwise\r\ndistrusted person’s hands.\r\n\r\nNow, the first time Ahab was perched aloft; ere he had been there ten\r\nminutes; one of those red-billed savage sea-hawks which so often fly\r\nincommodiously close round the manned mast-heads of whalemen in these\r\nlatitudes; one of these birds came wheeling and screaming round his\r\nhead in a maze of untrackably swift circlings. Then it darted a\r\nthousand feet straight up into the air; then spiralized downwards, and\r\nwent eddying again round his head.\r\n\r\nBut with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon, Ahab seemed\r\nnot to mark this wild bird; nor, indeed, would any one else have marked\r\nit much, it being no uncommon circumstance; only now almost the least\r\nheedful eye seemed to see some sort of cunning meaning in almost every\r\nsight.\r\n\r\n“Your hat, your hat, sir!” suddenly cried the Sicilian seaman, who\r\nbeing posted at the mizen-mast-head, stood directly behind Ahab, though\r\nsomewhat lower than his level, and with a deep gulf of air dividing\r\nthem.\r\n\r\nBut already the sable wing was before the old man’s eyes; the long\r\nhooked bill at his head: with a scream, the black hawk darted away with\r\nhis prize.\r\n\r\nAn eagle flew thrice round Tarquin’s head, removing his cap to replace\r\nit, and thereupon Tanaquil, his wife, declared that Tarquin would be\r\nking of Rome. But only by the replacing of the cap was that omen\r\naccounted good. Ahab’s hat was never restored; the wild hawk flew on\r\nand on with it; far in advance of the prow: and at last disappeared;\r\nwhile from the point of that disappearance, a minute black spot was\r\ndimly discerned, falling from that vast height into the sea.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight.\r\n\r\nThe intense Pequod sailed on; the rolling waves and days went by; the\r\nlife-buoy-coffin still lightly swung; and another ship, most miserably\r\nmisnamed the Delight, was descried. As she drew nigh, all eyes were\r\nfixed upon her broad beams, called shears, which, in some\r\nwhaling-ships, cross the quarter-deck at the height of eight or nine\r\nfeet; serving to carry the spare, unrigged, or disabled boats.\r\n\r\nUpon the stranger’s shears were beheld the shattered, white ribs, and\r\nsome few splintered planks, of what had once been a whale-boat; but you\r\nnow saw through this wreck, as plainly as you see through the peeled,\r\nhalf-unhinged, and bleaching skeleton of a horse.\r\n\r\n“Hast seen the White Whale?”\r\n\r\n“Look!” replied the hollow-cheeked captain from his taffrail; and with\r\nhis trumpet he pointed to the wreck.\r\n\r\n“Hast killed him?”\r\n\r\n“The harpoon is not yet forged that ever will do that,” answered the\r\nother, sadly glancing upon a rounded hammock on the deck, whose\r\ngathered sides some noiseless sailors were busy in sewing together.\r\n\r\n“Not forged!” and snatching Perth’s levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab\r\nheld it out, exclaiming—“Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold\r\nhis death! Tempered in blood, and tempered by lightning are these\r\nbarbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the\r\nfin, where the White Whale most feels his accursed life!”\r\n\r\n“Then God keep thee, old man—see’st thou that”—pointing to the\r\nhammock—“I bury but one of five stout men, who were alive only\r\nyesterday; but were dead ere night. Only _that_ one I bury; the rest\r\nwere buried before they died; you sail upon their tomb.” Then turning\r\nto his crew—“Are ye ready there? place the plank then on the rail, and\r\nlift the body; so, then—Oh! God”—advancing towards the hammock with\r\nuplifted hands—“may the resurrection and the life——”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 17"},"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":"01KF7FPTBFEBZVSEQY7NG39A53","peer_label":"Chunk 18","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KF7FPTC7TNPPTR434ABV24HC","peer_label":"Chunk 16","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.942Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:28.918Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}