{"id":"01KFNR86RYNCWDN4XZFRKDDE0M","cid":"bafkreig6zvye6zio2quxslu7i6q3mjyimwy43b5sutgzjgldvd33g4mpke","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4815,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.922Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":4749,"text":"terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart, O\r\nBulkington! Bear thee grimly, demigod! Up from the spray of thy\r\nocean-perishing—straight up, leaps thy apotheosis!\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 24. The Advocate.\r\n\r\nAs Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling;\r\nand as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among\r\nlandsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, I\r\nam all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby\r\ndone to us hunters of whales.\r\n\r\nIn the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish\r\nthe fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is not\r\naccounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions. If a\r\nstranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society,\r\nit would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were\r\nhe presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; and if in emulation\r\nof the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperm Whale\r\nFishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed\r\npre-eminently presuming and ridiculous.\r\n\r\nDoubtless one leading reason why the world declines honoring us\r\nwhalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to a\r\nbutchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, we\r\nare surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that is\r\ntrue. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been\r\nall Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honor. And\r\nas for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye\r\nshall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally\r\nunknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm\r\nwhale-ship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. But\r\neven granting the charge in question to be true; what disordered\r\nslippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable\r\ncarrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to\r\ndrink in all ladies’ plaudits? And if the idea of peril so much\r\nenhances the popular conceit of the soldier’s profession; let me assure\r\nye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery, would\r\nquickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whale’s vast tail,\r\nfanning into eddies the air over his head. For what are the\r\ncomprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and\r\nwonders of God!\r\n\r\nBut, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it\r\nunwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding\r\nadoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn\r\nround the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!\r\n\r\nBut look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of\r\nscales; see what we whalemen are, and have been.\r\n\r\nWhy did the Dutch in De Witt’s time have admirals of their whaling\r\nfleets? Why did Louis XVI. of France, at his own personal expense, fit\r\nout whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some\r\nscore or two of families from our own island of Nantucket? Why did\r\nBritain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties\r\nupwards of £1,000,000? And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of\r\nAmerica now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world;\r\nsail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen\r\nthousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships worth,\r\nat the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into our\r\nharbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How comes all this, if\r\nthere be not something puissant in whaling?\r\n\r\nBut this is not the half; look again.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84E5QTCH1DXXJAMQAJ8E","peer_label":"24","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84E5QTCH1DXXJAMQAJ8E","peer_label":"24","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR871B6Y3MWSK7KMEGC9NN","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.459Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:14.948Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}