{"id":"01KFNR88B8G3332WKM79WFQ4KT","cid":"bafkreicdb2f2yziw57hjn6kx2folyye5c6idw7gi2ks63il4kmyzx232tq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6232,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.414Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":6177,"text":"CHAPTER 34. The Cabin-Table.\r\n\r\nIt is noon; and Dough-Boy, the steward, thrusting his pale\r\nloaf-of-bread face from the cabin-scuttle, announces dinner to his lord\r\nand master; who, sitting in the lee quarter-boat, has just been taking\r\nan observation of the sun; and is now mutely reckoning the latitude on\r\nthe smooth, medallion-shaped tablet, reserved for that daily purpose on\r\nthe upper part of his ivory leg. From his complete inattention to the\r\ntidings, you would think that moody Ahab had not heard his menial. But\r\npresently, catching hold of the mizen shrouds, he swings himself to the\r\ndeck, and in an even, unexhilarated voice, saying, “Dinner, Mr.\r\nStarbuck,” disappears into the cabin.\r\n\r\nWhen the last echo of his sultan’s step has died away, and Starbuck,\r\nthe first Emir, has every reason to suppose that he is seated, then\r\nStarbuck rouses from his quietude, takes a few turns along the planks,\r\nand, after a grave peep into the binnacle, says, with some touch of\r\npleasantness, “Dinner, Mr. Stubb,” and descends the scuttle. The second\r\nEmir lounges about the rigging awhile, and then slightly shaking the\r\nmain brace, to see whether it will be all right with that important\r\nrope, he likewise takes up the old burden, and with a rapid “Dinner,\r\nMr. Flask,” follows after his predecessors.\r\n\r\nBut the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck,\r\nseems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all\r\nsorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his\r\nshoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right\r\nover the Grand Turk’s head; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching\r\nhis cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so\r\nfar at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other\r\nprocessions, by bringing up the rear with music. But ere stepping into\r\nthe cabin doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether, and,\r\nthen, independent, hilarious little Flask enters King Ahab’s presence,\r\nin the character of Abjectus, or the Slave.\r\n\r\nIt is not the least among the strange things bred by the intense\r\nartificialness of sea-usages, that while in the open air of the deck\r\nsome officers will, upon provocation, bear themselves boldly and\r\ndefyingly enough towards their commander; yet, ten to one, let those\r\nvery officers the next moment go down to their customary dinner in that\r\nsame commander’s cabin, and straightway their inoffensive, not to say\r\ndeprecatory and humble air towards him, as he sits at the head of the\r\ntable; this is marvellous, sometimes most comical. Wherefore this\r\ndifference? A problem? Perhaps not. To have been Belshazzar, King of\r\nBabylon; and to have been Belshazzar, not haughtily but courteously,\r\ntherein certainly must have been some touch of mundane grandeur. But he\r\nwho in the rightly regal and intelligent spirit presides over his own\r\nprivate dinner-table of invited guests, that man’s unchallenged power\r\nand dominion of individual influence for the time; that man’s royalty\r\nof state transcends Belshazzar’s, for Belshazzar was not the greatest.\r\nWho has but once dined his friends, has tasted what it is to be Cæsar.\r\nIt is a witchery of social czarship which there is no withstanding.\r\nNow, if to this consideration you superadd the official supremacy of a\r\nship-master, then, by inference, you will derive the cause of that\r\npeculiarity of sea-life just mentioned.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849HCCG5EHQ8V8KC06MB","peer_label":"34","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849HCCG5EHQ8V8KC06MB","peer_label":"34","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":"01KFNR8881E7G9XREJZD7EXYF3","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.933Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.570Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}