{"id":"01KFNR88972DEE54A2FD6P7BT4","cid":"bafkreifqtis3kxcbeitpu3nfplu2pjx6qpgv3zndnu4sbokboyw3caugqm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8365,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.428Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":8307,"text":"this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full\r\nas much bolstering as error. So ignorant are most landsmen of some of\r\nthe plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some\r\nhints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the\r\nfishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still\r\nworse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.\r\n\r\nFirst: Though most men have some vague flitting ideas of the general\r\nperils of the grand fishery, yet they have nothing like a fixed, vivid\r\nconception of those perils, and the frequency with which they recur.\r\nOne reason perhaps is, that not one in fifty of the actual disasters\r\nand deaths by casualties in the fishery, ever finds a public record at\r\nhome, however transient and immediately forgotten that record. Do you\r\nsuppose that that poor fellow there, who this moment perhaps caught by\r\nthe whale-line off the coast of New Guinea, is being carried down to\r\nthe bottom of the sea by the sounding leviathan—do you suppose that\r\nthat poor fellow’s name will appear in the newspaper obituary you will\r\nread to-morrow at your breakfast? No: because the mails are very\r\nirregular between here and New Guinea. In fact, did you ever hear what\r\nmight be called regular news direct or indirect from New Guinea? Yet I\r\ntell you that upon one particular voyage which I made to the Pacific,\r\namong many others we spoke thirty different ships, every one of which\r\nhad had a death by a whale, some of them more than one, and three that\r\nhad each lost a boat’s crew. For God’s sake, be economical with your\r\nlamps and candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of\r\nman’s blood was spilled for it.\r\n\r\nSecondly: People ashore have indeed some indefinite idea that a whale\r\nis an enormous creature of enormous power; but I have ever found that\r\nwhen narrating to them some specific example of this two-fold\r\nenormousness, they have significantly complimented me upon my\r\nfacetiousness; when, I declare upon my soul, I had no more idea of\r\nbeing facetious than Moses, when he wrote the history of the plagues of\r\nEgypt.\r\n\r\nBut fortunately the special point I here seek can be established upon\r\ntestimony entirely independent of my own. That point is this: The Sperm\r\nWhale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously\r\nmalicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in, utterly destroy,\r\nand sink a large ship; and what is more, the Sperm Whale _has_ done it.\r\n\r\nFirst: In the year 1820 the ship Essex, Captain Pollard, of Nantucket,\r\nwas cruising in the Pacific Ocean. One day she saw spouts, lowered her\r\nboats, and gave chase to a shoal of sperm whales. Ere long, several of\r\nthe whales were wounded; when, suddenly, a very large whale escaping\r\nfrom the boats, issued from the shoal, and bore directly down upon the\r\nship. Dashing his forehead against her hull, he so stove her in, that\r\nin less than “ten minutes” she settled down and fell over. Not a\r\nsurviving plank of her has been seen since. After the severest\r\nexposure, part of the crew reached the land in their boats. Being\r\nreturned home at last, Captain Pollard once more sailed for the Pacific\r\nin command of another ship, but the gods shipwrecked him again upon\r\nunknown rocks and breakers; for the second time his ship was utterly\r\nlost, and forthwith forswearing the sea, he has never tempted it since.\r\nAt this day Captain Pollard is a resident of Nantucket. I have seen\r\nOwen Chace, who was chief mate of the Essex at the time of the tragedy;\r\nI have read his plain and faithful narrative; I have conversed with his\r\nson; and all this within a few miles of the scene of the catastrophe.*\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"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":"01KFNR88AA2Z1APG4AYMDW3PFZ","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR889HTTE2AXPP702BYXGT","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.842Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.438Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}