{"id":"01KFNR887D51ADR152SBDEY1ZW","cid":"bafkreicrhpwrngzwxnc3kypza7xy5r72zzwyosw5ru5sibob2nz2xqkgrq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8477,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.429Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":8417,"text":"similar fright? I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.\r\n\r\nI will now refer you to Langsdorff’s Voyages for a little circumstance\r\nin point, peculiarly interesting to the writer hereof. Langsdorff, you\r\nmust know by the way, was attached to the Russian Admiral Krusenstern’s\r\nfamous Discovery Expedition in the beginning of the present century.\r\nCaptain Langsdorff thus begins his seventeenth chapter:\r\n\r\n“By the thirteenth of May our ship was ready to sail, and the next day\r\nwe were out in the open sea, on our way to Ochotsh. The weather was\r\nvery clear and fine, but so intolerably cold that we were obliged to\r\nkeep on our fur clothing. For some days we had very little wind; it was\r\nnot till the nineteenth that a brisk gale from the northwest sprang up.\r\nAn uncommon large whale, the body of which was larger than the ship\r\nitself, lay almost at the surface of the water, but was not perceived\r\nby any one on board till the moment when the ship, which was in full\r\nsail, was almost upon him, so that it was impossible to prevent its\r\nstriking against him. We were thus placed in the most imminent danger,\r\nas this gigantic creature, setting up its back, raised the ship three\r\nfeet at least out of the water. The masts reeled, and the sails fell\r\naltogether, while we who were below all sprang instantly upon the deck,\r\nconcluding that we had struck upon some rock; instead of this we saw\r\nthe monster sailing off with the utmost gravity and solemnity. Captain\r\nD’Wolf applied immediately to the pumps to examine whether or not the\r\nvessel had received any damage from the shock, but we found that very\r\nhappily it had escaped entirely uninjured.”\r\n\r\nNow, the Captain D’Wolf here alluded to as commanding the ship in\r\nquestion, is a New Englander, who, after a long life of unusual\r\nadventures as a sea-captain, this day resides in the village of\r\nDorchester near Boston. I have the honor of being a nephew of his. I\r\nhave particularly questioned him concerning this passage in Langsdorff.\r\nHe substantiates every word. The ship, however, was by no means a large\r\none: a Russian craft built on the Siberian coast, and purchased by my\r\nuncle after bartering away the vessel in which he sailed from home.\r\n\r\nIn that up and down manly book of old-fashioned adventure, so full,\r\ntoo, of honest wonders—the voyage of Lionel Wafer, one of ancient\r\nDampier’s old chums—I found a little matter set down so like that just\r\nquoted from Langsdorff, that I cannot forbear inserting it here for a\r\ncorroborative example, if such be needed.\r\n\r\nLionel, it seems, was on his way to “John Ferdinando,” as he calls the\r\nmodern Juan Fernandes. “In our way thither,” he says, “about four\r\no’clock in the morning, when we were about one hundred and fifty\r\nleagues from the Main of America, our ship felt a terrible shock, which\r\nput our men in such consternation that they could hardly tell where\r\nthey were or what to think; but every one began to prepare for death.\r\nAnd, indeed, the shock was so sudden and violent, that we took it for\r\ngranted the ship had struck against a rock; but when the amazement was\r\na little over, we cast the lead, and sounded, but found no ground. * *\r\n* * * The suddenness of the shock made the guns leap in their\r\ncarriages, and several of the men were shaken out of their hammocks.\r\nCaptain Davis, who lay with his head on a gun, was thrown out of his\r\ncabin!” Lionel then goes on to impute the shock to an earthquake, and\r\nseems to substantiate the imputation by stating that a great\r\nearthquake, somewhere about that time, did actually do great mischief\r\nalong the Spanish land. But I should not much wonder if, in the\r\ndarkness of that early hour of the morning, the shock was after all\r\ncaused by an unseen whale vertically bumping the hull from beneath.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84CAYPVDAGJP9WFFMPME","peer_label":"45","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84CAYPVDAGJP9WFFMPME","peer_label":"45","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":"01KFNR88AAXRVS91SSWGCGVBR5","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88AA2Z1APG4AYMDW3PFZ","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.921Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.883Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}