{"id":"01KFNR88AC7GYBA5HV7FM86TS3","cid":"bafkreiczu3pvlmsbfcmqghvuanwrbswu36nsuvexbb7qijfuwobblvuzle","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10200,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.442Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":10137,"text":"“All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the officers, forward and\r\naft, especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway; at\r\nwhich last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge, after\r\nbreaking through the bulkhead below. But the hours of darkness passed\r\nin peace; the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the\r\npumps, whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary\r\nnight dismally resounded through the ship.\r\n\r\n“At sunrise the Captain went forward, and knocking on the deck,\r\nsummoned the prisoners to work; but with a yell they refused. Water was\r\nthen lowered down to them, and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were\r\ntossed after it; when again turning the key upon them and pocketing it,\r\nthe Captain returned to the quarter-deck. Twice every day for three\r\ndays this was repeated; but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling,\r\nand then a scuffling was heard, as the customary summons was delivered;\r\nand suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle, saying they were\r\nready to turn to. The fetid closeness of the air, and a famishing diet,\r\nunited perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution, had constrained\r\nthem to surrender at discretion. Emboldened by this, the Captain\r\nreiterated his demand to the rest, but Steelkilt shouted up to him a\r\nterrific hint to stop his babbling and betake himself where he\r\nbelonged. On the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up\r\ninto the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain\r\nthem. Only three were left.\r\n\r\n“‘Better turn to, now?’ said the Captain with a heartless jeer.\r\n\r\n“‘Shut us up again, will ye!’ cried Steelkilt.\r\n\r\n“‘Oh certainly,’ said the Captain, and the key clicked.\r\n\r\n“It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the defection of\r\nseven of his former associates, and stung by the mocking voice that had\r\nlast hailed him, and maddened by his long entombment in a place as\r\nblack as the bowels of despair; it was then that Steelkilt proposed to\r\nthe two Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst\r\nout of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed with\r\ntheir keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements with a\r\nhandle at each end) run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail; and if\r\nby any devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship. For\r\nhimself, he would do this, he said, whether they joined him or not.\r\nThat was the last night he should spend in that den. But the scheme met\r\nwith no opposition on the part of the other two; they swore they were\r\nready for that, or for any other mad thing, for anything in short but a\r\nsurrender. And what was more, they each insisted upon being the first\r\nman on deck, when the time to make the rush should come. But to this\r\ntheir leader as fiercely objected, reserving that priority for himself;\r\nparticularly as his two comrades would not yield, the one to the other,\r\nin the matter; and both of them could not be first, for the ladder\r\nwould but admit one man at a time. And here, gentlemen, the foul play\r\nof these miscreants must come out.\r\n\r\n“Upon hearing the frantic project of their leader, each in his own\r\nseparate soul had suddenly lighted, it would seem, upon the same piece\r\nof treachery, namely: to be foremost in breaking out, in order to be\r\nthe first of the three, though the last of the ten, to surrender; and\r\nthereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might\r\nmerit. But when Steelkilt made known his determination still to lead\r\nthem to the last, they in some way, by some subtle chemistry of\r\nvillany, mixed their before secret treacheries together; and when their\r\nleader fell into a doze, verbally opened their souls to each other in\r\nthree sentences; and bound the sleeper with cords, and gagged him with\r\ncords; and shrieked out for the Captain at midnight.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR848CJHT30V0G0Y4QYWRF","peer_label":"54","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR848CJHT30V0G0Y4QYWRF","peer_label":"54","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":"01KFNR88E86T68BQ3Y1GVN4K6M","peer_label":"Chunk 9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88GA0AR6HQYSVBF4NMN8","peer_label":"Chunk 7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.953Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.565Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}