{"id":"01KFNR889D3A2RG3N25DM4CS2S","cid":"bafkreihoq6zg6a6amxuvqhwkw3occsxjjdr4auqabit4ae4euyb3zaszxm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9383,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.436Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":9321,"text":"uncanonical Rabbins, indulged in mundane amours.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 51. The Spirit-Spout.\r\n\r\nDays, weeks passed, and under easy sail, the ivory Pequod had slowly\r\nswept across four several cruising-grounds; that off the Azores; off\r\nthe Cape de Verdes; on the Plate (so called), being off the mouth of\r\nthe Rio de la Plata; and the Carrol Ground, an unstaked, watery\r\nlocality, southerly from St. Helena.\r\n\r\nIt was while gliding through these latter waters that one serene and\r\nmoonlight night, when all the waves rolled by like scrolls of silver;\r\nand, by their soft, suffusing seethings, made what seemed a silvery\r\nsilence, not a solitude; on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen\r\nfar in advance of the white bubbles at the bow. Lit up by the moon, it\r\nlooked celestial; seemed some plumed and glittering god uprising from\r\nthe sea. Fedallah first descried this jet. For of these moonlight\r\nnights, it was his wont to mount to the main-mast head, and stand a\r\nlook-out there, with the same precision as if it had been day. And yet,\r\nthough herds of whales were seen by night, not one whaleman in a\r\nhundred would venture a lowering for them. You may think with what\r\nemotions, then, the seamen beheld this old Oriental perched aloft at\r\nsuch unusual hours; his turban and the moon, companions in one sky. But\r\nwhen, after spending his uniform interval there for several successive\r\nnights without uttering a single sound; when, after all this silence,\r\nhis unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery, moon-lit jet,\r\nevery reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit\r\nhad lighted in the rigging, and hailed the mortal crew. “There she\r\nblows!” Had the trump of judgment blown, they could not have quivered\r\nmore; yet still they felt no terror; rather pleasure. For though it was\r\na most unwonted hour, yet so impressive was the cry, and so deliriously\r\nexciting, that almost every soul on board instinctively desired a\r\nlowering.\r\n\r\nWalking the deck with quick, side-lunging strides, Ahab commanded the\r\nt’gallant sails and royals to be set, and every stunsail spread. The\r\nbest man in the ship must take the helm. Then, with every mast-head\r\nmanned, the piled-up craft rolled down before the wind. The strange,\r\nupheaving, lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows\r\nof so many sails, made the buoyant, hovering deck to feel like air\r\nbeneath the feet; while still she rushed along, as if two antagonistic\r\ninfluences were struggling in her—one to mount direct to heaven, the\r\nother to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal. And had you watched\r\nAhab’s face that night, you would have thought that in him also two\r\ndifferent things were warring. While his one live leg made lively\r\nechoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a\r\ncoffin-tap. On life and death this old man walked. But though the ship\r\nso swiftly sped, and though from every eye, like arrows, the eager\r\nglances shot, yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night. Every\r\nsailor swore he saw it once, but not a second time.\r\n\r\nThis midnight-spout had almost grown a forgotten thing, when, some days\r\nafter, lo! at the same silent hour, it was again announced: again it\r\nwas descried by all; but upon making sail to overtake it, once more it\r\ndisappeared as if it had never been. And so it served us night after\r\nnight, till no one heeded it but to wonder at it. Mysteriously jetted\r\ninto the clear moonlight, or starlight, as the case might be;\r\ndisappearing again for one whole day, or two days, or three; and\r\nsomehow seeming at every distinct repetition to be advancing still\r\nfurther and further in our van, this solitary jet seemed for ever\r\nalluring us on.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR8328JSZS08HA694NZ7A0","peer_label":"50","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR8328JSZS08HA694NZ7A0","peer_label":"50","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":"01KFNR88G49DC1Z9EZMB9R2JAF","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88FEYW06KA4XX233VE0G","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.988Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.670Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}