{"id":"01KFNR8703G6PF02RZHAKQYCA9","cid":"bafkreiaxuupft2c5pxqjaaqkz622bct6p2tlcg5kj3ebjveancsnt2cwti","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4251,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":4159,"text":"CHAPTER 19. The Prophet.\r\n\r\n“Shipmates, have ye shipped in that ship?”\r\n\r\nQueequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were sauntering away from\r\nthe water, for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts, when the\r\nabove words were put to us by a stranger, who, pausing before us,\r\nlevelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question. He was but\r\nshabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a\r\nblack handkerchief investing his neck. A confluent small-pox had in all\r\ndirections flowed over his face, and left it like the complicated\r\nribbed bed of a torrent, when the rushing waters have been dried up.\r\n\r\n“Have ye shipped in her?” he repeated.\r\n\r\n“You mean the ship Pequod, I suppose,” said I, trying to gain a little\r\nmore time for an uninterrupted look at him.\r\n\r\n“Aye, the Pequod—that ship there,” he said, drawing back his whole arm,\r\nand then rapidly shoving it straight out from him, with the fixed\r\nbayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object.\r\n\r\n“Yes,” said I, “we have just signed the articles.”\r\n\r\n“Anything down there about your souls?”\r\n\r\n“About what?”\r\n\r\n“Oh, perhaps you hav’n’t got any,” he said quickly. “No matter though,\r\nI know many chaps that hav’n’t got any,—good luck to ’em; and they are\r\nall the better off for it. A soul’s a sort of a fifth wheel to a\r\nwagon.”\r\n\r\n“What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.\r\n\r\n“_He’s_ got enough, though, to make up for all deficiencies of that\r\nsort in other chaps,” abruptly said the stranger, placing a nervous\r\nemphasis upon the word _he_.\r\n\r\n“Queequeg,” said I, “let’s go; this fellow has broken loose from\r\nsomewhere; he’s talking about something and somebody we don’t know.”\r\n\r\n“Stop!” cried the stranger. “Ye said true—ye hav’n’t seen Old Thunder\r\nyet, have ye?”\r\n\r\n“Who’s Old Thunder?” said I, again riveted with the insane earnestness\r\nof his manner.\r\n\r\n“Captain Ahab.”\r\n\r\n“What! the captain of our ship, the Pequod?”\r\n\r\n“Aye, among some of us old sailor chaps, he goes by that name. Ye\r\nhav’n’t seen him yet, have ye?”\r\n\r\n“No, we hav’n’t. He’s sick they say, but is getting better, and will be\r\nall right again before long.”\r\n\r\n“All right again before long!” laughed the stranger, with a solemnly\r\nderisive sort of laugh. “Look ye; when Captain Ahab is all right, then\r\nthis left arm of mine will be all right; not before.”\r\n\r\n“What do you know about him?”\r\n\r\n“What did they _tell_ you about him? Say that!”\r\n\r\n“They didn’t tell much of anything about him; only I’ve heard that he’s\r\na good whale-hunter, and a good captain to his crew.”\r\n\r\n“That’s true, that’s true—yes, both true enough. But you must jump when\r\nhe gives an order. Step and growl; growl and go—that’s the word with\r\nCaptain Ahab. But nothing about that thing that happened to him off\r\nCape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights;\r\nnothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar\r\nin Santa?—heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver\r\ncalabash he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last\r\nvoyage, according to the prophecy. Didn’t ye hear a word about them\r\nmatters and something more, eh? No, I don’t think ye did; how could ye?\r\nWho knows it? Not all Nantucket, I guess. But hows’ever, mayhap, ye’ve\r\nheard tell about the leg, and how he lost it; aye, ye have heard of\r\nthat, I dare say. Oh yes, _that_ every one knows a’most—I mean they\r\nknow he’s only one leg; and that a parmacetti took the other off.”\r\n\r\n“My friend,” said I, “what all this gibberish of yours is about, I\r\ndon’t know, and I don’t much care; for it seems to me that you must be\r\na little damaged in the head. But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab,\r\nof that ship there, the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all\r\nabout the loss of his leg.”\r\n\r\n“_All_ about it, eh—sure you do?—all?”\r\n\r\n“Pretty sure.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84CE7EM5NH1Z65GKW0D3","peer_label":"19","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84CE7EM5NH1Z65GKW0D3","peer_label":"19","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":"01KFNR86TF9K8X1S6ZSEGJFNSK","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.751Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:14.933Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}