{"id":"01KFNR888KRV5QN5QWEBNACPZG","cid":"bafkreibazg5tyrqrten7v7z7kd2tzid77pca5l2xsetojmdz7wt2kl4cva","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6519,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.416Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":6461,"text":"uneventfulness 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\nIn one of those southern whalesmen, on a long three or four years’\r\nvoyage, as often happens, the sum of the various hours you spend at the\r\nmast-head would amount to several entire months. And it is much to be\r\ndeplored that the place to which you devote so considerable a portion\r\nof the whole term of your natural life, should be so sadly destitute of\r\nanything approaching to a cosy inhabitiveness, or adapted to breed a\r\ncomfortable localness of feeling, such as pertains to a bed, a hammock,\r\na hearse, a sentry box, a pulpit, a coach, or any other of those small\r\nand snug contrivances in which men temporarily isolate themselves. Your\r\nmost usual point of perch is the head of the t’ gallant-mast, where you\r\nstand upon two thin parallel sticks (almost peculiar to whalemen)\r\ncalled the t’ gallant cross-trees. Here, tossed about by the sea, the\r\nbeginner feels about as cosy as he would standing on a bull’s horns. To\r\nbe sure, in cold weather you may carry your house aloft with you, in\r\nthe shape of a watch-coat; but properly speaking the thickest\r\nwatch-coat is no more of a house than the unclad body; for as the soul\r\nis glued inside of its fleshy tabernacle, and cannot freely move about\r\nin it, nor even move out of it, without running great risk of perishing\r\n(like an ignorant pilgrim crossing the snowy Alps in winter); so a\r\nwatch-coat is not so much of a house as it is a mere envelope, or\r\nadditional skin encasing you. You cannot put a shelf or chest of\r\ndrawers in your body, and no more can you make a convenient closet of\r\nyour watch-coat.\r\n\r\nConcerning all this, it is much to be deplored that the mast-heads of a\r\nsouthern whale ship are unprovided with those enviable little tents or\r\npulpits, called _crow’s-nests_, in which the look-outs of a Greenland\r\nwhaler are protected from the inclement weather of the frozen seas. In\r\nthe fireside narrative of Captain Sleet, entitled “A Voyage among the\r\nIcebergs, in quest of the Greenland Whale, and incidentally for the\r\nre-discovery of the Lost Icelandic Colonies of Old Greenland;” in this\r\nadmirable volume, all standers of mast-heads are furnished with a\r\ncharmingly circumstantial account of the then recently invented\r\n_crow’s-nest_ of the Glacier, which was the name of Captain Sleet’s\r\ngood craft. He called it the _Sleet’s crow’s-nest_, in honor of\r\nhimself; he being the original inventor and patentee, and free from all\r\nridiculous false delicacy, and holding that if we call our own children\r\nafter our own names (we fathers being the original inventors and\r\npatentees), so likewise should we denominate after ourselves any other\r\napparatus we may beget. In shape, the Sleet’s crow’s-nest is something\r\nlike a large tierce or pipe; it is open above, however, where it is\r\nfurnished with a movable side-screen to keep to windward of your head\r\nin a hard gale. Being fixed on the summit of the mast, you ascend into\r\nit through a little trap-hatch in the bottom. On the after side, or\r\nside next the stern of the ship, is a comfortable seat, with a locker\r\nunderneath for umbrellas, comforters, and coats. In front is a leather\r\nrack, in which to keep your speaking trumpet, pipe, telescope, and\r\nother nautical conveniences. When Captain Sleet in person stood his\r\nmast-head in this crow’s-nest of his, he tells us that he always had a\r\nrifle with him (also fixed in the rack), together with a powder flask\r\nand shot, for the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales, or\r\nvagrant sea unicorns infesting those waters; for you cannot\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"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":"01KFNR88EEDR226D3BGWM3WKY1","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88875391738Q55VVN3S7","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.782Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.638Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}