{"id":"01KF7FPTK5RKVD48XZSZ89X825","cid":"bafkreibait6w4tsk7eww6iohuwtfxjfankopkvdwxec777b2xbasm23pmi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17318,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:21.438Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":17262,"text":"Cooper,” but “The Merchant.” In short, this ancient and learned Low\r\nDutch book treated of the commerce of Holland; and, among other\r\nsubjects, contained a very interesting account of its whale fishery.\r\nAnd in this chapter it was, headed, “Smeer,” or “Fat,” that I found a\r\nlong detailed list of the outfits for the larders and cellars of 180\r\nsail of Dutch whalemen; from which list, as translated by Dr. Snodhead,\r\nI transcribe the following:\r\n\r\n400,000 lbs. of beef. 60,000 lbs. Friesland pork. 150,000 lbs. of stock\r\nfish. 550,000 lbs. of biscuit. 72,000 lbs. of soft bread. 2,800 firkins\r\nof butter. 20,000 lbs. Texel & Leyden cheese. 144,000 lbs. cheese\r\n(probably an inferior article). 550 ankers of Geneva. 10,800 barrels of\r\nbeer.\r\n\r\nMost statistical tables are parchingly dry in the reading; not so in\r\nthe present case, however, where the reader is flooded with whole\r\npipes, barrels, quarts, and gills of good gin and good cheer.\r\n\r\nAt the time, I devoted three days to the studious digesting of all this\r\nbeer, beef, and bread, during which many profound thoughts were\r\nincidentally suggested to me, capable of a transcendental and Platonic\r\napplication; and, furthermore, I compiled supplementary tables of my\r\nown, touching the probable quantity of stock-fish, etc., consumed by\r\nevery Low Dutch harpooneer in that ancient Greenland and Spitzbergen\r\nwhale fishery. In the first place, the amount of butter, and Texel and\r\nLeyden cheese consumed, seems amazing. I impute it, though, to their\r\nnaturally unctuous natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the\r\nnature of their vocation, and especially by their pursuing their game\r\nin those frigid Polar Seas, on the very coasts of that Esquimaux\r\ncountry where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of\r\ntrain oil.\r\n\r\nThe quantity of beer, too, is very large, 10,800 barrels. Now, as those\r\npolar fisheries could only be prosecuted in the short summer of that\r\nclimate, so that the whole cruise of one of these Dutch whalemen,\r\nincluding the short voyage to and from the Spitzbergen sea, did not\r\nmuch exceed three months, say, and reckoning 30 men to each of their\r\nfleet of 180 sail, we have 5,400 Low Dutch seamen in all; therefore, I\r\nsay, we have precisely two barrels of beer per man, for a twelve weeks’\r\nallowance, exclusive of his fair proportion of that 550 ankers of gin.\r\nNow, whether these gin and beer harpooneers, so fuddled as one might\r\nfancy them to have been, were the right sort of men to stand up in a\r\nboat’s head, and take good aim at flying whales; this would seem\r\nsomewhat improbable. Yet they did aim at them, and hit them too. But\r\nthis was very far North, be it remembered, where beer agrees well with\r\nthe constitution; upon the Equator, in our southern fishery, beer would\r\nbe apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the mast-head and boozy in his\r\nboat; and grievous loss might ensue to Nantucket and New Bedford.\r\n\r\nBut no more; enough has been said to show that the old Dutch whalers of\r\ntwo or three centuries ago were high livers; and that the English\r\nwhalers have not neglected so excellent an example. For, say they, when\r\ncruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the\r\nworld, get a good dinner out of it, at least. And this empties the\r\ndecanter.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPP17HF5335B3J1XQ3BBR","peer_label":"The Decanter","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPP17HF5335B3J1XQ3BBR","peer_label":"The Decanter","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":"01KF7FPTBQ7CNXRJCFBPVQBDNY","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:22.059Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:31.174Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}