{"id":"01KFNR88ARD5P84BD5JXYFE58C","cid":"bafkreifncrv3ysckwvwb6gxxi7l45r3tf4w4xd5ov52dpa4rxiqs45suby","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10884,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.447Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":10818,"text":"CHAPTER 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in\r\nStone; in Mountains; in Stars.\r\n\r\nOn Tower-hill, as you go down to the London docks, you may have seen a\r\ncrippled beggar (or _kedger_, as the sailors say) holding a painted\r\nboard before him, representing the tragic scene in which he lost his\r\nleg. There are three whales and three boats; and one of the boats\r\n(presumed to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity) is\r\nbeing crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale. Any time these ten\r\nyears, they tell me, has that man held up that picture, and exhibited\r\nthat stump to an incredulous world. But the time of his justification\r\nhas now come. His three whales are as good whales as were ever\r\npublished in Wapping, at any rate; and his stump as unquestionable a\r\nstump as any you will find in the western clearings. But, though for\r\never mounted on that stump, never a stump-speech does the poor whaleman\r\nmake; but, with downcast eyes, stands ruefully contemplating his own\r\namputation.\r\n\r\nThroughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and Sag\r\nHarbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and\r\nwhaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm\r\nWhale-teeth, or ladies’ busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and\r\nother like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous\r\nlittle ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough\r\nmaterial, in their hours of ocean leisure. Some of them have little\r\nboxes of dentistical-looking implements, specially intended for the\r\nskrimshandering business. But, in general, they toil with their\r\njack-knives alone; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor,\r\nthey will turn you out anything you please, in the way of a mariner’s\r\nfancy.\r\n\r\nLong exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man\r\nto that condition in which God placed him, _i.e._ what is called\r\nsavagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I\r\nmyself am a savage, owning no allegiance but to the King of the\r\nCannibals; and ready at any moment to rebel against him.\r\n\r\nNow, one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic\r\nhours, is his wonderful patience of industry. An ancient Hawaiian\r\nwar-club or spear-paddle, in its full multiplicity and elaboration of\r\ncarving, is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon.\r\nFor, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a shark’s tooth, that\r\nmiraculous intricacy of wooden net-work has been achieved; and it has\r\ncost steady years of steady application.\r\n\r\nAs with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white sailor-savage. With the\r\nsame marvellous patience, and with the same single shark’s tooth, of\r\nhis one poor jack-knife, he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not\r\nquite as workmanlike, but as close packed in its maziness of design, as\r\nthe Greek savage, Achilles’s shield; and full of barbaric spirit and\r\nsuggestiveness, as the prints of that fine old Dutch savage, Albert\r\nDurer.\r\n\r\nWooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the small dark slabs of\r\nthe noble South Sea war-wood, are frequently met with in the\r\nforecastles of American whalers. Some of them are done with much\r\naccuracy.\r\n\r\nAt some old gable-roofed country houses you will see brass whales hung\r\nby the tail for knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is\r\nsleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. But these knocking whales\r\nare seldom remarkable as faithful essays. On the spires of some\r\nold-fashioned churches you will see sheet-iron whales placed there for\r\nweather-cocks; but they are so elevated, and besides that are to all\r\nintents and purposes so labelled with “_Hands off!_” you cannot examine\r\nthem closely enough to decide upon their merit.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84F3VYSKZ9XR316R4219","peer_label":"57","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84F3VYSKZ9XR316R4219","peer_label":"57","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":"01KFNR88B5TWR2YFM0N7H29KQ1","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.864Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.594Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}