{"id":"01KFNR88EX9A07HYJCH3BCTN6Q","cid":"bafkreiehvaulqps2k52kkmyexgzsesjwga4sv3jcj67h3xjzixoqdrswge","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10404,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.444Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 12","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":10343,"text":"whales have christenings? Whom call you Moby Dick?’\r\n\r\n“‘A very white, and famous, and most deadly immortal monster, Don;—but\r\nthat would be too long a story.’\r\n\r\n“‘How? how?’ cried all the young Spaniards, crowding.\r\n\r\n“‘Nay, Dons, Dons—nay, nay! I cannot rehearse that now. Let me get more\r\ninto the air, Sirs.’\r\n\r\n“‘The chicha! the chicha!’ cried Don Pedro; ‘our vigorous friend looks\r\nfaint;—fill up his empty glass!’\r\n\r\n“No need, gentlemen; one moment, and I proceed.—Now, gentlemen, so\r\nsuddenly perceiving the snowy whale within fifty yards of the\r\nship—forgetful of the compact among the crew—in the excitement of the\r\nmoment, the Teneriffe man had instinctively and involuntarily lifted\r\nhis voice for the monster, though for some little time past it had been\r\nplainly beheld from the three sullen mast-heads. All was now a phrensy.\r\n‘The White Whale—the White Whale!’ was the cry from captain, mates, and\r\nharpooneers, who, undeterred by fearful rumours, were all anxious to\r\ncapture so famous and precious a fish; while the dogged crew eyed\r\naskance, and with curses, the appalling beauty of the vast milky mass,\r\nthat lit up by a horizontal spangling sun, shifted and glistened like a\r\nliving opal in the blue morning sea. Gentlemen, a strange fatality\r\npervades the whole career of these events, as if verily mapped out\r\nbefore the world itself was charted. The mutineer was the bowsman of\r\nthe mate, and when fast to a fish, it was his duty to sit next him,\r\nwhile Radney stood up with his lance in the prow, and haul in or\r\nslacken the line, at the word of command. Moreover, when the four boats\r\nwere lowered, the mate’s got the start; and none howled more fiercely\r\nwith delight than did Steelkilt, as he strained at his oar. After a\r\nstiff pull, their harpooneer got fast, and, spear in hand, Radney\r\nsprang to the bow. He was always a furious man, it seems, in a boat.\r\nAnd now his bandaged cry was, to beach him on the whale’s topmost back.\r\nNothing loath, his bowsman hauled him up and up, through a blinding\r\nfoam that blent two whitenesses together; till of a sudden the boat\r\nstruck as against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the\r\nstanding mate. That instant, as he fell on the whale’s slippery back,\r\nthe boat righted, and was dashed aside by the swell, while Radney was\r\ntossed over into the sea, on the other flank of the whale. He struck\r\nout through the spray, and, for an instant, was dimly seen through that\r\nveil, wildly seeking to remove himself from the eye of Moby Dick. But\r\nthe whale rushed round in a sudden maelstrom; seized the swimmer\r\nbetween his jaws; and rearing high up with him, plunged headlong again,\r\nand went down.\r\n\r\n“Meantime, at the first tap of the boat’s bottom, the Lakeman had\r\nslackened the line, so as to drop astern from the whirlpool; calmly\r\nlooking on, he thought his own thoughts. But a sudden, terrific,\r\ndownward jerking of the boat, quickly brought his knife to the line. He\r\ncut it; and the whale was free. But, at some distance, Moby Dick rose\r\nagain, with some tatters of Radney’s red woollen shirt, caught in the\r\nteeth that had destroyed him. All four boats gave chase again; but the\r\nwhale eluded them, and finally wholly disappeared.\r\n\r\n“In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port—a savage, solitary\r\nplace—where no civilized creature resided. There, headed by the\r\nLakeman, all but five or six of the foremastmen deliberately deserted\r\namong the palms; eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double\r\nwar-canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other harbor.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 12"},"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":"01KFNR88GTH5K49Z86APT4PP7A","peer_label":"Chunk 13","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR889MTS8N35N8AGSVW8SA","peer_label":"Chunk 11","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.135Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.690Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}