{"id":"01KFNR8709RC20NNZP27Q35S71","cid":"bafkreiawf7xpnhzo7ufdyuu6vv56zka3lwnp3y4vhrk4hmmumjbfk6zb6u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3462,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.909Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":3380,"text":"to know what whaling is, as thou tellest ye do, I can put ye in a way\r\nof finding it out before ye bind yourself to it, past backing out. Clap\r\neye on Captain Ahab, young man, and thou wilt find that he has only one\r\nleg.”\r\n\r\n“What do you mean, sir? Was the other one lost by a whale?”\r\n\r\n“Lost by a whale! Young man, come nearer to me: it was devoured, chewed\r\nup, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a\r\nboat!—ah, ah!”\r\n\r\nI was a little alarmed by his energy, perhaps also a little touched at\r\nthe hearty grief in his concluding exclamation, but said as calmly as I\r\ncould, “What you say is no doubt true enough, sir; but how could I know\r\nthere was any peculiar ferocity in that particular whale, though indeed\r\nI might have inferred as much from the simple fact of the accident.”\r\n\r\n“Look ye now, young man, thy lungs are a sort of soft, d’ye see; thou\r\ndost not talk shark a bit. _Sure_, ye’ve been to sea before now; sure\r\nof that?”\r\n\r\n“Sir,” said I, “I thought I told you that I had been four voyages in\r\nthe merchant—”\r\n\r\n“Hard down out of that! Mind what I said about the marchant\r\nservice—don’t aggravate me—I won’t have it. But let us understand each\r\nother. I have given thee a hint about what whaling is; do ye yet feel\r\ninclined for it?”\r\n\r\n“I do, sir.”\r\n\r\n“Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live\r\nwhale’s throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!”\r\n\r\n“I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to do so; not to\r\nbe got rid of, that is; which I don’t take to be the fact.”\r\n\r\n“Good again. Now then, thou not only wantest to go a-whaling, to find\r\nout by experience what whaling is, but ye also want to go in order to\r\nsee the world? Was not that what ye said? I thought so. Well then, just\r\nstep forward there, and take a peep over the weather-bow, and then back\r\nto me and tell me what ye see there.”\r\n\r\nFor a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not\r\nknowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest. But\r\nconcentrating all his crow’s feet into one scowl, Captain Peleg started\r\nme on the errand.\r\n\r\nGoing forward and glancing over the weather bow, I perceived that the\r\nship swinging to her anchor with the flood-tide, was now obliquely\r\npointing towards the open ocean. The prospect was unlimited, but\r\nexceedingly monotonous and forbidding; not the slightest variety that I\r\ncould see.\r\n\r\n“Well, what’s the report?” said Peleg when I came back; “what did ye\r\nsee?”\r\n\r\n“Not much,” I replied—“nothing but water; considerable horizon though,\r\nand there’s a squall coming up, I think.”\r\n\r\n“Well, what does thou think then of seeing the world? Do ye wish to go\r\nround Cape Horn to see any more of it, eh? Can’t ye see the world where\r\nyou stand?”\r\n\r\nI was a little staggered, but go a-whaling I must, and I would; and the\r\nPequod was as good a ship as any—I thought the best—and all this I now\r\nrepeated to Peleg. Seeing me so determined, he expressed his\r\nwillingness to ship me.\r\n\r\n“And thou mayest as well sign the papers right off,” he added—“come\r\nalong with ye.” And so saying, he led the way below deck into the\r\ncabin.\r\n\r\nSeated on the transom was what seemed to me a most uncommon and\r\nsurprising figure. It turned out to be Captain Bildad, who along with\r\nCaptain Peleg was one of the largest owners of the vessel; the other\r\nshares, as is sometimes the case in these ports, being held by a crowd\r\nof old annuitants; widows, fatherless children, and chancery wards;\r\neach owning about the value of a timber head, or a foot of plank, or a\r\nnail or two in the ship. People in Nantucket invest their money in\r\nwhaling vessels, the same way that you do yours in approved state\r\nstocks bringing in good interest.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR847Z5PK5KBJXR1EFBJCD","peer_label":"16","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR847Z5PK5KBJXR1EFBJCD","peer_label":"16","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":"01KFNR870W7X7544AVHSRYVEP8","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR86TKGTNFTK3Z0M8PHXEQ","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.560Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:15.321Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}