{"id":"01KFNR871J5M7KR3X20R2KYPBJ","cid":"bafkreiejhgj55xxsi55thrtb3g6lc26zmqp6oadcmwyladgjjmp2v6mg7e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2860,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.905Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":2797,"text":"the water. Hiding his canoe, still afloat, among these thickets, with\r\nits prow seaward, he sat down in the stern, paddle low in hand; and\r\nwhen the ship was gliding by, like a flash he darted out; gained her\r\nside; with one backward dash of his foot capsized and sank his canoe;\r\nclimbed up the chains; and throwing himself at full length upon the\r\ndeck, grappled a ring-bolt there, and swore not to let it go, though\r\nhacked in pieces.\r\n\r\nIn vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a\r\ncutlass over his naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and\r\nQueequeg budged not. Struck by his desperate dauntlessness, and his\r\nwild desire to visit Christendom, the captain at last relented, and\r\ntold him he might make himself at home. But this fine young savage—this\r\nsea Prince of Wales, never saw the Captain’s cabin. They put him down\r\namong the sailors, and made a whaleman of him. But like Czar Peter\r\ncontent to toil in the shipyards of foreign cities, Queequeg disdained\r\nno seeming ignominy, if thereby he might happily gain the power of\r\nenlightening his untutored countrymen. For at bottom—so he told me—he\r\nwas actuated by a profound desire to learn among the Christians, the\r\narts whereby to make his people still happier than they were; and more\r\nthan that, still better than they were. But, alas! the practices of\r\nwhalemen soon convinced him that even Christians could be both\r\nmiserable and wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father’s\r\nheathens. Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor; and seeing what the\r\nsailors did there; and then going on to Nantucket, and seeing how they\r\nspent their wages in _that_ place also, poor Queequeg gave it up for\r\nlost. Thought he, it’s a wicked world in all meridians; I’ll die a\r\npagan.\r\n\r\nAnd thus an old idolator at heart, he yet lived among these Christians,\r\nwore their clothes, and tried to talk their gibberish. Hence the queer\r\nways about him, though now some time from home.\r\n\r\nBy hints, I asked him whether he did not propose going back, and having\r\na coronation; since he might now consider his father dead and gone, he\r\nbeing very old and feeble at the last accounts. He answered no, not\r\nyet; and added that he was fearful Christianity, or rather Christians,\r\nhad unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty\r\npagan Kings before him. But by and by, he said, he would return,—as\r\nsoon as he felt himself baptized again. For the nonce, however, he\r\nproposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans. They\r\nhad made a harpooneer of him, and that barbed iron was in lieu of a\r\nsceptre now.\r\n\r\nI asked him what might be his immediate purpose, touching his future\r\nmovements. He answered, to go to sea again, in his old vocation. Upon\r\nthis, I told him that whaling was my own design, and informed him of my\r\nintention to sail out of Nantucket, as being the most promising port\r\nfor an adventurous whaleman to embark from. He at once resolved to\r\naccompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the\r\nsame watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my\r\nevery hap; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of\r\nboth worlds. To all this I joyously assented; for besides the affection\r\nI now felt for Queequeg, he was an experienced harpooneer, and as such,\r\ncould not fail to be of great usefulness to one, who, like me, was\r\nwholly ignorant of the mysteries of whaling, though well acquainted\r\nwith the sea, as known to merchant seamen.\r\n\r\nHis story being ended with his pipe’s last dying puff, Queequeg\r\nembraced me, pressed his forehead against mine, and blowing out the\r\nlight, we rolled over from each other, this way and that, and very soon\r\nwere sleeping.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84CMXKRHHR3SS6XGH875","peer_label":"Chapter 12. Biographical","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84CMXKRHHR3SS6XGH875","peer_label":"Chapter 12. Biographical","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":"01KFNR871W01RAZ1TY3VAS0K6F","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.618Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.992Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}