{"id":"01KFNR89J62AXD51N1BBHZ1HJJ","cid":"bafkreibrdcmsqo2564zbnu5eawyyaukbhu3fvsxgtf4wep2q4o5jd47yoa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12417,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.733Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":12364,"text":"Pequod could not hope to reach her. So the signal was set to see what\r\nresponse would be made.\r\n\r\nHere be it said, that like the vessels of military marines, the ships\r\nof the American Whale Fleet have each a private signal; all which\r\nsignals being collected in a book with the names of the respective\r\nvessels attached, every captain is provided with it. Thereby, the whale\r\ncommanders are enabled to recognise each other upon the ocean, even at\r\nconsiderable distances and with no small facility.\r\n\r\nThe Pequod’s signal was at last responded to by the stranger’s setting\r\nher own; which proved the ship to be the Jeroboam of Nantucket.\r\nSquaring her yards, she bore down, ranged abeam under the Pequod’s lee,\r\nand lowered a boat; it soon drew nigh; but, as the side-ladder was\r\nbeing rigged by Starbuck’s order to accommodate the visiting captain,\r\nthe stranger in question waved his hand from his boat’s stern in token\r\nof that proceeding being entirely unnecessary. It turned out that the\r\nJeroboam had a malignant epidemic on board, and that Mayhew, her\r\ncaptain, was fearful of infecting the Pequod’s company. For, though\r\nhimself and boat’s crew remained untainted, and though his ship was\r\nhalf a rifle-shot off, and an incorruptible sea and air rolling and\r\nflowing between; yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine\r\nof the land, he peremptorily refused to come into direct contact with\r\nthe Pequod.\r\n\r\nBut this did by no means prevent all communications. Preserving an\r\ninterval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam’s\r\nboat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to\r\nthe Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it\r\nblew very fresh), with her main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at times\r\nby the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be pushed\r\nsome way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper\r\nbearings again. Subject to this, and other the like interruptions now\r\nand then, a conversation was sustained between the two parties; but at\r\nintervals not without still another interruption of a very different\r\nsort.\r\n\r\nPulling an oar in the Jeroboam’s boat, was a man of a singular\r\nappearance, even in that wild whaling life where individual\r\nnotabilities make up all totalities. He was a small, short, youngish\r\nman, sprinkled all over his face with freckles, and wearing redundant\r\nyellow hair. A long-skirted, cabalistically-cut coat of a faded walnut\r\ntinge enveloped him; the overlapping sleeves of which were rolled up on\r\nhis wrists. A deep, settled, fanatic delirium was in his eyes.\r\n\r\nSo soon as this figure had been first descried, Stubb had\r\nexclaimed—“That’s he! that’s he!—the long-togged scaramouch the\r\nTown-Ho’s company told us of!” Stubb here alluded to a strange story\r\ntold of the Jeroboam, and a certain man among her crew, some time\r\nprevious when the Pequod spoke the Town-Ho. According to this account\r\nand what was subsequently learned, it seemed that the scaramouch in\r\nquestion had gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the\r\nJeroboam. His story was this:\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849PPRB7Q4H6NXHN75A6","peer_label":"70","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849PPRB7Q4H6NXHN75A6","peer_label":"70","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":"01KFNR89W0571FM70BBMSQ76SM","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.290Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.742Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}