{"id":"01KFNR88875391738Q55VVN3S7","cid":"bafkreiexcgxymvrgxjjugwan77q2d5cfylm5fyrmspp4zk5ilz53j3st7i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6467,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.416Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":6429,"text":"token is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for where there is\r\nsmoke, must be fire. But neither great Washington, nor Napoleon, nor\r\nNelson, will answer a single hail from below, however madly invoked to\r\nbefriend by their counsels the distracted decks upon which they gaze;\r\nhowever it may be surmised, that their spirits penetrate through the\r\nthick haze of the future, and descry what shoals and what rocks must be\r\nshunned.\r\n\r\nIt may seem unwarrantable to couple in any respect the mast-head\r\nstanders of the land with those of the sea; but that in truth it is not\r\nso, is plainly evinced by an item for which Obed Macy, the sole\r\nhistorian of Nantucket, stands accountable. The worthy Obed tells us,\r\nthat in the early times of the whale fishery, ere ships were regularly\r\nlaunched in pursuit of the game, the people of that island erected\r\nlofty spars along the sea-coast, to which the look-outs ascended by\r\nmeans of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house.\r\nA few years ago this same plan was adopted by the Bay whalemen of New\r\nZealand, who, upon descrying the game, gave notice to the ready-manned\r\nboats nigh the beach. But this custom has now become obsolete; turn we\r\nthen to the one proper mast-head, that of a whale-ship at sea. The\r\nthree mast-heads are kept manned from sun-rise to sun-set; the seamen\r\ntaking their regular turns (as at the helm), and relieving each other\r\nevery two hours. In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly\r\npleasant the mast-head; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is\r\ndelightful. There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks,\r\nstriding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while\r\nbeneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters\r\nof the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous\r\nColossus at old Rhodes. There you stand, lost in the infinite series of\r\nthe sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship\r\nindolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you\r\ninto languor. For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime\r\nuneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras\r\nwith startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into\r\nunnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt\r\nsecurities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what\r\nyou shall have for dinner—for all your meals for three years and more\r\nare snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare is immutable.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849M33V0R24XW8NAKS9R","peer_label":"35","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849M33V0R24XW8NAKS9R","peer_label":"35","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":"01KFNR888KRV5QN5QWEBNACPZG","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88EF239PY1Y7E0WMZ6MD","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.999Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.706Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}