{"id":"01KFNR89K40MCAT56ZS5C60MRS","cid":"bafkreicckchc3r35w6hsun5kidh3htkojtmjyo2inxvrspeajulsgbcgui","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12826,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.737Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":12761,"text":"CHAPTER 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk\r\nover Him.\r\n\r\nIt must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm Whale’s\r\nprodigious head hanging to the Pequod’s side. But we must let it\r\ncontinue hanging there a while till we can get a chance to attend to\r\nit. For the present other matters press, and the best we can do now for\r\nthe head, is to pray heaven the tackles may hold.\r\n\r\nNow, during the past night and forenoon, the Pequod had gradually\r\ndrifted into a sea, which, by its occasional patches of yellow brit,\r\ngave unusual tokens of the vicinity of Right Whales, a species of the\r\nLeviathan that but few supposed to be at this particular time lurking\r\nanywhere near. And though all hands commonly disdained the capture of\r\nthose inferior creatures; and though the Pequod was not commissioned to\r\ncruise for them at all, and though she had passed numbers of them near\r\nthe Crozetts without lowering a boat; yet now that a Sperm Whale had\r\nbeen brought alongside and beheaded, to the surprise of all, the\r\nannouncement was made that a Right Whale should be captured that day,\r\nif opportunity offered.\r\n\r\nNor was this long wanting. Tall spouts were seen to leeward; and two\r\nboats, Stubb’s and Flask’s, were detached in pursuit. Pulling further\r\nand further away, they at last became almost invisible to the men at\r\nthe mast-head. But suddenly in the distance, they saw a great heap of\r\ntumultuous white water, and soon after news came from aloft that one or\r\nboth the boats must be fast. An interval passed and the boats were in\r\nplain sight, in the act of being dragged right towards the ship by the\r\ntowing whale. So close did the monster come to the hull, that at first\r\nit seemed as if he meant it malice; but suddenly going down in a\r\nmaelstrom, within three rods of the planks, he wholly disappeared from\r\nview, as if diving under the keel. “Cut, cut!” was the cry from the\r\nship to the boats, which, for one instant, seemed on the point of being\r\nbrought with a deadly dash against the vessel’s side. But having plenty\r\nof line yet in the tubs, and the whale not sounding very rapidly, they\r\npaid out abundance of rope, and at the same time pulled with all their\r\nmight so as to get ahead of the ship. For a few minutes the struggle\r\nwas intensely critical; for while they still slacked out the tightened\r\nline in one direction, and still plied their oars in another, the\r\ncontending strain threatened to take them under. But it was only a few\r\nfeet advance they sought to gain. And they stuck to it till they did\r\ngain it; when instantly, a swift tremor was felt running like lightning\r\nalong the keel, as the strained line, scraping beneath the ship,\r\nsuddenly rose to view under her bows, snapping and quivering; and so\r\nflinging off its drippings, that the drops fell like bits of broken\r\nglass on the water, while the whale beyond also rose to sight, and once\r\nmore the boats were free to fly. But the fagged whale abated his speed,\r\nand blindly altering his course, went round the stern of the ship\r\ntowing the two boats after him, so that they performed a complete\r\ncircuit.\r\n\r\nMeantime, they hauled more and more upon their lines, till close\r\nflanking him on both sides, Stubb answered Flask with lance for lance;\r\nand thus round and round the Pequod the battle went, while the\r\nmultitudes of sharks that had before swum round the Sperm Whale’s body,\r\nrushed to the fresh blood that was spilled, thirstily drinking at every\r\nnew gash, as the eager Israelites did at the new bursting fountains\r\nthat poured from the smitten rock.\r\n\r\nAt last his spout grew thick, and with a frightful roll and vomit, he\r\nturned upon his back a corpse.\r\n\r\nWhile the two headsmen were engaged in making fast cords to his flukes,\r\nand in other ways getting the mass in readiness for towing, some\r\nconversation ensued between them.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84CG6NN2X4A7ZDMVQ0MA","peer_label":"73","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84CG6NN2X4A7ZDMVQ0MA","peer_label":"73","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":"01KFNR89SJGFN5Q5EH4A07SNN5","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.267Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.834Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}