{"id":"01KFNR86TT184EBCF9VBQQ9TWX","cid":"bafkreiapkhgrvegts4wxfuzn4y26dnkd72bv3lbwxff2bpv2w2h3ciklhm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1006,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.891Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":942,"text":"never fancied broiling fowls;—though once broiled, judiciously\r\nbuttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who\r\nwill speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled\r\nfowl than I will. It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old\r\nEgyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the\r\nmummies of those creatures in their huge bake-houses the pyramids.\r\n\r\nNo, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast,\r\nplumb down into the forecastle, aloft there to the royal mast-head.\r\nTrue, they rather order me about some, and make me jump from spar to\r\nspar, like a grasshopper in a May meadow. And at first, this sort of\r\nthing is unpleasant enough. It touches one’s sense of honor,\r\nparticularly if you come of an old established family in the land, the\r\nVan Rensselaers, or Randolphs, or Hardicanutes. And more than all, if\r\njust previous to putting your hand into the tar-pot, you have been\r\nlording it as a country schoolmaster, making the tallest boys stand in\r\nawe of you. The transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a\r\nschoolmaster to a sailor, and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and\r\nthe Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it. But even this wears off\r\nin time.\r\n\r\nWhat of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom\r\nand sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed,\r\nI mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel\r\nGabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and\r\nrespectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain’t\r\na slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may\r\norder me about—however they may thump and punch me about, I have the\r\nsatisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is\r\none way or other served in much the same way—either in a physical or\r\nmetaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is\r\npassed round, and all hands should rub each other’s shoulder-blades,\r\nand be content.\r\n\r\nAgain, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of\r\npaying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single\r\npenny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must\r\npay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying and\r\nbeing paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable\r\ninfliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But _being\r\npaid_,—what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man\r\nreceives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly\r\nbelieve money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no\r\naccount can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign\r\nourselves to perdition!\r\n\r\nFinally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome\r\nexercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck. For as in this world,\r\nhead winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if\r\nyou never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the\r\nCommodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from\r\nthe sailors on the forecastle. He thinks he breathes it first; but not\r\nso. In much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many\r\nother things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it. But\r\nwherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a\r\nmerchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling\r\nvoyage; this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the\r\nconstant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in\r\nsome unaccountable way—he can better answer than any one else. And,\r\ndoubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand\r\nprogramme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in\r\nas a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive\r\nperformances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run\r\nsomething like this:\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849AZNBWE9DYJRZR7PSA","peer_label":"Chapter 1. Loomings","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849AZNBWE9DYJRZR7PSA","peer_label":"Chapter 1. Loomings","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":"01KFNR86VHPQX4KJJV2KKZ27RM","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR86SZN6MSZPB4XHWGMMHW","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.460Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:14.959Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}