{"id":"01KFNR88EF239PY1Y7E0WMZ6MD","cid":"bafkreibj43azxbqit62qn4xdsjzrrtxgwejs4pbi7jyvrqnenlrammngci","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6436,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.416Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":6379,"text":"CHAPTER 35. The Mast-Head.\r\n\r\nIt was during the more pleasant weather, that in due rotation with the\r\nother seamen my first mast-head came round.\r\n\r\nIn most American whalemen the mast-heads are manned almost\r\nsimultaneously with the vessel’s leaving her port; even though she may\r\nhave fifteen thousand miles, and more, to sail ere reaching her proper\r\ncruising ground. And if, after a three, four, or five years’ voyage she\r\nis drawing nigh home with anything empty in her—say, an empty vial\r\neven—then, her mast-heads are kept manned to the last; and not till her\r\nskysail-poles sail in among the spires of the port, does she altogether\r\nrelinquish the hope of capturing one whale more.\r\n\r\nNow, as the business of standing mast-heads, ashore or afloat, is a\r\nvery ancient and interesting one, let us in some measure expatiate\r\nhere. I take it, that the earliest standers of mast-heads were the old\r\nEgyptians; because, in all my researches, I find none prior to them.\r\nFor though their progenitors, the builders of Babel, must doubtless, by\r\ntheir tower, have intended to rear the loftiest mast-head in all Asia,\r\nor Africa either; yet (ere the final truck was put to it) as that great\r\nstone mast of theirs may be said to have gone by the board, in the\r\ndread gale of God’s wrath; therefore, we cannot give these Babel\r\nbuilders priority over the Egyptians. And that the Egyptians were a\r\nnation of mast-head standers, is an assertion based upon the general\r\nbelief among archæologists, that the first pyramids were founded for\r\nastronomical purposes: a theory singularly supported by the peculiar\r\nstair-like formation of all four sides of those edifices; whereby, with\r\nprodigious long upliftings of their legs, those old astronomers were\r\nwont to mount to the apex, and sing out for new stars; even as the\r\nlook-outs of a modern ship sing out for a sail, or a whale just bearing\r\nin sight. In Saint Stylites, the famous Christian hermit of old times,\r\nwho built him a lofty stone pillar in the desert and spent the whole\r\nlatter portion of his life on its summit, hoisting his food from the\r\nground with a tackle; in him we have a remarkable instance of a\r\ndauntless stander-of-mast-heads; who was not to be driven from his\r\nplace by fogs or frosts, rain, hail, or sleet; but valiantly facing\r\neverything out to the last, literally died at his post. Of modern\r\nstanders-of-mast-heads we have but a lifeless set; mere stone, iron,\r\nand bronze men; who, though well capable of facing out a stiff gale,\r\nare still entirely incompetent to the business of singing out upon\r\ndiscovering any strange sight. There is Napoleon; who, upon the top of\r\nthe column of Vendome, stands with arms folded, some one hundred and\r\nfifty feet in the air; careless, now, who rules the decks below;\r\nwhether Louis Philippe, Louis Blanc, or Louis the Devil. Great\r\nWashington, too, stands high aloft on his towering main-mast in\r\nBaltimore, and like one of Hercules’ pillars, his column marks that\r\npoint of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go. Admiral\r\nNelson, also, on a capstan of gun-metal, stands his mast-head in\r\nTrafalgar Square; and ever when most obscured by that London smoke,\r\ntoken is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for where there is\r\nsmoke, must be fire. But neither great Washington, nor Napoleon, nor\r\nNelson, will answer a single hail from below, however madly invoked to\r\nbefriend by their counsels the distracted decks upon which they gaze;\r\nhowever it may be surmised, that their spirits penetrate through the\r\nthick haze of the future, and descry what shoals and what rocks must be\r\nshunned.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849M33V0R24XW8NAKS9R","peer_label":"35","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849M33V0R24XW8NAKS9R","peer_label":"35","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":"01KFNR88875391738Q55VVN3S7","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.114Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.691Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}