{"id":"01KFNR88E9G15HGJHMSK6CGN3A","cid":"bafkreiezpbnyy53wxrmhjkvehle46tzsnhwwllumxlx6ag5ucwoxbadi3m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9977,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.440Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":9910,"text":"Town-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\n“But there was more than this: the order about the shovel was almost as\r\nplainly meant to sting and insult Steelkilt, as though Radney had spat\r\nin his face. Any man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship will\r\nunderstand this; and all this and doubtless much more, the Lakeman\r\nfully comprehended when the mate uttered his command. But as he sat\r\nstill for a moment, and as he steadfastly looked into the mate’s\r\nmalignant eye and perceived the stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him\r\nand the slow-match silently burning along towards them; as he\r\ninstinctively saw all this, that strange forbearance and unwillingness\r\nto stir up the deeper passionateness in any already ireful being—a\r\nrepugnance most felt, when felt at all, by really valiant men even when\r\naggrieved—this nameless phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over\r\nSteelkilt.\r\n\r\n“Therefore, in his ordinary tone, only a little broken by the bodily\r\nexhaustion he was temporarily in, he answered him saying that sweeping\r\nthe deck was not his business, and he would not do it. And then,\r\nwithout at all alluding to the shovel, he pointed to three lads as the\r\ncustomary sweepers; who, not being billeted at the pumps, had done\r\nlittle or nothing all day. To this, Radney replied with an oath, in a\r\nmost domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his\r\ncommand; meanwhile advancing upon the still seated Lakeman, with an\r\nuplifted cooper’s club hammer which he had snatched from a cask near\r\nby.\r\n\r\n“Heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps, for\r\nall his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating Steelkilt\r\ncould but ill brook this bearing in the mate; but somehow still\r\nsmothering the conflagration within him, without speaking he remained\r\ndoggedly rooted to his seat, till at last the incensed Radney shook the\r\nhammer within a few inches of his face, furiously commanding him to do\r\nhis bidding.\r\n\r\n“Steelkilt rose, and slowly retreating round the windlass, steadily\r\nfollowed by the mate with his menacing hammer, deliberately repeated\r\nhis intention not to obey. Seeing, however, that his forbearance had\r\nnot the slightest effect, by an awful and unspeakable intimation with\r\nhis twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man; but it\r\nwas to no purpose. And in this way the two went once slowly round the\r\nwindlass; when, resolved at last no longer to retreat, bethinking him\r\nthat he had now forborne as much as comported with his humor, the\r\nLakeman paused on the hatches and thus spoke to the officer:\r\n\r\n“‘Mr. Radney, I will not obey you. Take that hammer away, or look to\r\nyourself.’ But the predestinated mate coming still closer to him, where\r\nthe Lakeman stood fixed, now shook the heavy hammer within an inch of\r\nhis teeth; meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable maledictions.\r\nRetreating not the thousandth part of an inch; stabbing him in the eye\r\nwith the unflinching poniard of his glance, Steelkilt, clenching his\r\nright hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back, told his\r\npersecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he (Steelkilt) would\r\nmurder him. But, gentlemen, the fool had been branded for the slaughter\r\nby the gods. Immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant\r\nthe lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch\r\nspouting blood like a whale.\r\n\r\n“Ere the cry could go aft Steelkilt was shaking one of the backstays\r\nleading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their\r\nmastheads. They were both Canallers.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"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":"01KFNR8896FCTSKVFYNZAEKWPJ","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88DNV8WW7P4VP7RP7BJN","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.011Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.497Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}