{"id":"01KFNR870QXZHCP82JFR9BVW93","cid":"bafkreifqfum745akat4mp3kueafwxgjgrbrqsk7pa2sypcunegkfgoazre","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3778,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.915Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":3712,"text":"does not trouble himself much about his ship in port, but leaves her to\r\nthe owners till all is ready for sea. However, it is always as well to\r\nhave a look at him before irrevocably committing yourself into his\r\nhands. Turning back I accosted Captain Peleg, inquiring where Captain\r\nAhab was to be found.\r\n\r\n“And what dost thou want of Captain Ahab? It’s all right enough; thou\r\nart shipped.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, but I should like to see him.”\r\n\r\n“But I don’t think thou wilt be able to at present. I don’t know\r\nexactly what’s the matter with him; but he keeps close inside the\r\nhouse; a sort of sick, and yet he don’t look so. In fact, he ain’t\r\nsick; but no, he isn’t well either. Any how, young man, he won’t always\r\nsee me, so I don’t suppose he will thee. He’s a queer man, Captain\r\nAhab—so some think—but a good one. Oh, thou’lt like him well enough; no\r\nfear, no fear. He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab;\r\ndoesn’t speak much; but, when he does speak, then you may well listen.\r\nMark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the common; Ahab’s been in\r\ncolleges, as well as ’mong the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders\r\nthan the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than\r\nwhales. His lance! aye, the keenest and the surest that out of all our\r\nisle! Oh! he ain’t Captain Bildad; no, and he ain’t Captain Peleg;\r\n_he’s Ahab_, boy; and Ahab of old, thou knowest, was a crowned king!”\r\n\r\n“And a very vile one. When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did\r\nthey not lick his blood?”\r\n\r\n“Come hither to me—hither, hither,” said Peleg, with a significance in\r\nhis eye that almost startled me. “Look ye, lad; never say that on board\r\nthe Pequod. Never say it anywhere. Captain Ahab did not name himself.\r\n’Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed mother, who died\r\nwhen he was only a twelvemonth old. And yet the old squaw Tistig, at\r\nGayhead, said that the name would somehow prove prophetic. And,\r\nperhaps, other fools like her may tell thee the same. I wish to warn\r\nthee. It’s a lie. I know Captain Ahab well; I’ve sailed with him as\r\nmate years ago; I know what he is—a good man—not a pious, good man,\r\nlike Bildad, but a swearing good man—something like me—only there’s a\r\ngood deal more of him. Aye, aye, I know that he was never very jolly;\r\nand I know that on the passage home, he was a little out of his mind\r\nfor a spell; but it was the sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump\r\nthat brought that about, as any one might see. I know, too, that ever\r\nsince he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale, he’s been a\r\nkind of moody—desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all\r\npass off. And once for all, let me tell thee and assure thee, young\r\nman, it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad\r\none. So good-bye to thee—and wrong not Captain Ahab, because he happens\r\nto have a wicked name. Besides, my boy, he has a wife—not three voyages\r\nwedded—a sweet, resigned girl. Think of that; by that sweet girl that\r\nold man has a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm\r\nin Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his\r\nhumanities!”\r\n\r\nAs I walked away, I was full of thoughtfulness; what had been\r\nincidentally revealed to me of Captain Ahab, filled me with a certain\r\nwild vagueness of painfulness concerning him. And somehow, at the time,\r\nI felt a sympathy and a sorrow for him, but for I don’t know what,\r\nunless it was the cruel loss of his leg. And yet I also felt a strange\r\nawe of him; but that sort of awe, which I cannot at all describe, was\r\nnot exactly awe; I do not know what it was. But I felt it; and it did\r\nnot disincline me towards him; though I felt impatience at what seemed\r\nlike mystery in him, so imperfectly as he was known to me then.\r\nHowever, my thoughts were at length carried in other directions, so\r\nthat for the present dark Ahab slipped my mind.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"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":"01KFNR86SFHWS0WYZBJRK5ERM9","peer_label":"Chunk 8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.541Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.920Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}