{"id":"01KFNR88DNV8WW7P4VP7RP7BJN","cid":"bafkreig7xgjuaesw7lzys5w7lxi5wstwprrhmji5or6cugi5gbsif62oce","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9917,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.440Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":9858,"text":"head like a Roman, and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled\r\nhousings of your last viceroy’s snorting charger; and a brain, and a\r\nheart, and a soul in him, gentlemen, which had made Steelkilt\r\nCharlemagne, had he been born son to Charlemagne’s father. But Radney,\r\nthe mate, was ugly as a mule; yet as hardy, as stubborn, as malicious.\r\nHe did not love Steelkilt, and Steelkilt knew it.\r\n\r\n“Espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the\r\nrest, the Lakeman affected not to notice him, but unawed, went on with\r\nhis gay banterings.\r\n\r\n“‘Aye, aye, my merry lads, it’s a lively leak this; hold a cannikin,\r\none of ye, and let’s have a taste. By the Lord, it’s worth bottling! I\r\ntell ye what, men, old Rad’s investment must go for it! he had best cut\r\naway his part of the hull and tow it home. The fact is, boys, that\r\nsword-fish only began the job; he’s come back again with a gang of\r\nship-carpenters, saw-fish, and file-fish, and what not; and the whole\r\nposse of ’em are now hard at work cutting and slashing at the bottom;\r\nmaking improvements, I suppose. If old Rad were here now, I’d tell him\r\nto jump overboard and scatter ’em. They’re playing the devil with his\r\nestate, I can tell him. But he’s a simple old soul,—Rad, and a beauty\r\ntoo. Boys, they say the rest of his property is invested in\r\nlooking-glasses. I wonder if he’d give a poor devil like me the model\r\nof his nose.’\r\n\r\n“‘Damn your eyes! what’s that pump stopping for?’ roared Radney,\r\npretending not to have heard the sailors’ talk. ‘Thunder away at it!’\r\n\r\n“‘Aye, aye, sir,’ said Steelkilt, merry as a cricket. ‘Lively, boys,\r\nlively, now!’ And with that the pump clanged like fifty fire-engines;\r\nthe men tossed their hats off to it, and ere long that peculiar gasping\r\nof the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of life’s\r\nutmost energies.\r\n\r\n“Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band, the Lakeman went\r\nforward all panting, and sat himself down on the windlass; his face\r\nfiery red, his eyes bloodshot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his\r\nbrow. Now what cozening fiend it was, gentlemen, that possessed Radney\r\nto meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state, I know\r\nnot; but so it happened. Intolerably striding along the deck, the mate\r\ncommanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks, and also a\r\nshovel, and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a\r\npig to run at large.\r\n\r\n“Now, gentlemen, sweeping a ship’s deck at sea is a piece of household\r\nwork which in all times but raging gales is regularly attended to every\r\nevening; it has been known to be done in the case of ships actually\r\nfoundering at the time. Such, gentlemen, is the inflexibility of\r\nsea-usages and the instinctive love of neatness in seamen; some of whom\r\nwould not willingly drown without first washing their faces. But in all\r\nvessels this broom business is the prescriptive province of the boys,\r\nif boys there be aboard. Besides, it was the stronger men in the\r\nTown-Ho that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the pumps;\r\nand being the most athletic seaman of them all, Steelkilt had been\r\nregularly assigned captain of one of the gangs; consequently he should\r\nhave been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly\r\nnautical duties, such being the case with his comrades. I mention all\r\nthese particulars so that you may understand exactly how this affair\r\nstood between the two men.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"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":"01KFNR88E9G15HGJHMSK6CGN3A","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR889GNWTPC2PCY234YJ6V","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.079Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.473Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}