{"id":"01KFNR89KE8T8KZB4JRSCVP5NJ","cid":"bafkreie36mdc2okvpt5h57zu6pavkg3cw76akw2f52wlf62p22xihanta4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11504,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.724Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":11440,"text":"dripping down his motionless flanks into the sea. His heart had burst!\r\n\r\n“He’s dead, Mr. Stubb,” said Daggoo.\r\n\r\n“Yes; both pipes smoked out!” and withdrawing his own from his mouth,\r\nStubb scattered the dead ashes over the water; and, for a moment, stood\r\nthoughtfully eyeing the vast corpse he had made.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 62. The Dart.\r\n\r\nA word concerning an incident in the last chapter.\r\n\r\nAccording to the invariable usage of the fishery, the whale-boat pushes\r\noff from the ship, with the headsman or whale-killer as temporary\r\nsteersman, and the harpooneer or whale-fastener pulling the foremost\r\noar, the one known as the harpooneer-oar. Now it needs a strong,\r\nnervous arm to strike the first iron into the fish; for often, in what\r\nis called a long dart, the heavy implement has to be flung to the\r\ndistance of twenty or thirty feet. But however prolonged and exhausting\r\nthe chase, the harpooneer is expected to pull his oar meanwhile to the\r\nuttermost; indeed, he is expected to set an example of superhuman\r\nactivity to the rest, not only by incredible rowing, but by repeated\r\nloud and intrepid exclamations; and what it is to keep shouting at the\r\ntop of one’s compass, while all the other muscles are strained and half\r\nstarted—what that is none know but those who have tried it. For one, I\r\ncannot bawl very heartily and work very recklessly at one and the same\r\ntime. In this straining, bawling state, then, with his back to the\r\nfish, all at once the exhausted harpooneer hears the exciting\r\ncry—“Stand up, and give it to him!” He now has to drop and secure his\r\noar, turn round on his centre half way, seize his harpoon from the\r\ncrotch, and with what little strength may remain, he essays to pitch it\r\nsomehow into the whale. No wonder, taking the whole fleet of whalemen\r\nin a body, that out of fifty fair chances for a dart, not five are\r\nsuccessful; no wonder that so many hapless harpooneers are madly cursed\r\nand disrated; no wonder that some of them actually burst their\r\nblood-vessels in the boat; no wonder that some sperm whalemen are\r\nabsent four years with four barrels; no wonder that to many ship\r\nowners, whaling is but a losing concern; for it is the harpooneer that\r\nmakes the voyage, and if you take the breath out of his body how can\r\nyou expect to find it there when most wanted!\r\n\r\nAgain, if the dart be successful, then at the second critical instant,\r\nthat is, when the whale starts to run, the boatheader and harpooneer\r\nlikewise start to running fore and aft, to the imminent jeopardy of\r\nthemselves and every one else. It is then they change places; and the\r\nheadsman, the chief officer of the little craft, takes his proper\r\nstation in the bows of the boat.\r\n\r\nNow, I care not who maintains the contrary, but all this is both\r\nfoolish and unnecessary. The headsman should stay in the bows from\r\nfirst to last; he should both dart the harpoon and the lance, and no\r\nrowing whatever should be expected of him, except under circumstances\r\nobvious to any fisherman. I know that this would sometimes involve a\r\nslight loss of speed in the chase; but long experience in various\r\nwhalemen of more than one nation has convinced me that in the vast\r\nmajority of failures in the fishery, it has not by any means been so\r\nmuch the speed of the whale as the before described exhaustion of the\r\nharpooneer that has caused them.\r\n\r\nTo insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooneers of this\r\nworld must start to their feet from out of idleness, and not from out\r\nof toil.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84G9CMHE1NQVXFWQQHZJ","peer_label":"61","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84G9CMHE1NQVXFWQQHZJ","peer_label":"61","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":"01KFNR89PFVNQ5V8Y4P5CE39Q2","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.293Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:20.107Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}