{"id":"01KFNR88A1TAX0W5CK40JFV8NP","cid":"bafkreicr2lufzqlnphtctsq4k337mugaenakct2adxnajvqkcueonr6xci","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8974,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.433Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":8908,"text":"stood erect there, and with intensely eager eyes gazed off towards the\r\nspot where the chase had last been descried. Likewise upon the extreme\r\nstern of the boat where it was also triangularly platformed level with\r\nthe gunwale, Starbuck himself was seen coolly and adroitly balancing\r\nhimself to the jerking tossings of his chip of a craft, and silently\r\neyeing the vast blue eye of the sea.\r\n\r\nNot very far distant Flask’s boat was also lying breathlessly still;\r\nits commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead, a\r\nstout sort of post rooted in the keel, and rising some two feet above\r\nthe level of the stern platform. It is used for catching turns with the\r\nwhale line. Its top is not more spacious than the palm of a man’s hand,\r\nand standing upon such a base as that, Flask seemed perched at the\r\nmast-head of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks. But little\r\nKing-Post was small and short, and at the same time little King-Post\r\nwas full of a large and tall ambition, so that this loggerhead\r\nstand-point of his did by no means satisfy King-Post.\r\n\r\n“I can’t see three seas off; tip us up an oar there, and let me on to\r\nthat.”\r\n\r\nUpon this, Daggoo, with either hand upon the gunwale to steady his way,\r\nswiftly slid aft, and then erecting himself volunteered his lofty\r\nshoulders for a pedestal.\r\n\r\n“Good a mast-head as any, sir. Will you mount?”\r\n\r\n“That I will, and thank ye very much, my fine fellow; only I wish you\r\nfifty feet taller.”\r\n\r\nWhereupon planting his feet firmly against two opposite planks of the\r\nboat, the gigantic negro, stooping a little, presented his flat palm to\r\nFlask’s foot, and then putting Flask’s hand on his hearse-plumed head\r\nand bidding him spring as he himself should toss, with one dexterous\r\nfling landed the little man high and dry on his shoulders. And here was\r\nFlask now standing, Daggoo with one lifted arm furnishing him with a\r\nbreastband to lean against and steady himself by.\r\n\r\nAt any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous\r\nhabitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect\r\nposture in his boat, even when pitched about by the most riotously\r\nperverse and cross-running seas. Still more strange to see him giddily\r\nperched upon the loggerhead itself, under such circumstances. But the\r\nsight of little Flask mounted upon gigantic Daggoo was yet more\r\ncurious; for sustaining himself with a cool, indifferent, easy,\r\nunthought of, barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the\r\nsea harmoniously rolled his fine form. On his broad back, flaxen-haired\r\nFlask seemed a snow-flake. The bearer looked nobler than the rider.\r\nThough truly vivacious, tumultuous, ostentatious little Flask would now\r\nand then stamp with impatience; but not one added heave did he thereby\r\ngive to the negro’s lordly chest. So have I seen Passion and Vanity\r\nstamping the living magnanimous earth, but the earth did not alter her\r\ntides and her seasons for that.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile Stubb, the third mate, betrayed no such far-gazing\r\nsolicitudes. The whales might have made one of their regular soundings,\r\nnot a temporary dive from mere fright; and if that were the case,\r\nStubb, as his wont in such cases, it seems, was resolved to solace the\r\nlanguishing interval with his pipe. He withdrew it from his hatband,\r\nwhere he always wore it aslant like a feather. He loaded it, and rammed\r\nhome the loading with his thumb-end; but hardly had he ignited his\r\nmatch across the rough sandpaper of his hand, when Tashtego, his\r\nharpooneer, whose eyes had been setting to windward like two fixed\r\nstars, suddenly dropped like light from his erect attitude to his seat,\r\ncrying out in a quick phrensy of hurry, “Down, down all, and give\r\nway!—there they are!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84DWNMZE862AT9EMY2FD","peer_label":"48","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84DWNMZE862AT9EMY2FD","peer_label":"48","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":"01KFNR88BEKY1NVRE1TS0NV9X0","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88DES0AE5VN9JRPRBTPV","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.985Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.709Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}