{"id":"01KFNR89KG4KM0NC95WYZ5AJTT","cid":"bafkreihkzosqgbh27cj4cz2blr4sk3ojmnic4edrja7o6qfe4mzsqiplqu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12679,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.735Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":12613,"text":"feet below the level of the deck, the poor harpooneer flounders about,\r\nhalf on the whale and half in the water, as the vast mass revolves like\r\na tread-mill beneath him. On the occasion in question, Queequeg figured\r\nin the Highland costume—a shirt and socks—in which to my eyes, at\r\nleast, he appeared to uncommon advantage; and no one had a better\r\nchance to observe him, as will presently be seen.\r\n\r\nBeing the savage’s bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar\r\nin his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to\r\nattend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead\r\nwhale’s back. You have seen Italian organ-boys holding a dancing-ape by\r\na long cord. Just so, from the ship’s steep side, did I hold Queequeg\r\ndown there in the sea, by what is technically called in the fishery a\r\nmonkey-rope, attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his\r\nwaist.\r\n\r\nIt was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we\r\nproceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both\r\nends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow\r\nleather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time,\r\nwere wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both\r\nusage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should\r\ndrag me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature\r\nunited us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I\r\nany way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond\r\nentailed.\r\n\r\nSo strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then,\r\nthat while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to\r\nperceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock\r\ncompany of two; that my free will had received a mortal wound; and that\r\nanother’s mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited\r\ndisaster and death. Therefore, I saw that here was a sort of\r\ninterregnum in Providence; for its even-handed equity never could have\r\nso gross an injustice. And yet still further pondering—while I jerked\r\nhim now and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten\r\nto jam him—still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of\r\nmine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in\r\nmost cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a\r\nplurality of other mortals. If your banker breaks, you snap; if your\r\napothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills, you die. True,\r\nyou may say that, by exceeding caution, you may possibly escape these\r\nand the multitudinous other evil chances of life. But handle Queequeg’s\r\nmonkey-rope heedfully as I would, sometimes he jerked it so, that I\r\ncame very near sliding overboard. Nor could I possibly forget that, do\r\nwhat I would, I only had the management of one end of it.*\r\n\r\n*The monkey-rope is found in all whalers; but it was only in the Pequod\r\nthat the monkey and his holder were ever tied together. This\r\nimprovement upon the original usage was introduced by no less a man\r\nthan Stubb, in order to afford the imperilled harpooneer the strongest\r\npossible guarantee for the faithfulness and vigilance of his\r\nmonkey-rope holder.\r\n\r\nI have hinted that I would often jerk poor Queequeg from between the\r\nwhale and the ship—where he would occasionally fall, from the incessant\r\nrolling and swaying of both. But this was not the only jamming jeopardy\r\nhe was exposed to. Unappalled by the massacre made upon them during the\r\nnight, the sharks now freshly and more keenly allured by the before\r\npent blood which began to flow from the carcass—the rabid creatures\r\nswarmed round it like bees in a beehive.\r\n\r\nAnd right in among those sharks was Queequeg; who often pushed them\r\naside with his floundering feet. A thing altogether incredible were it\r\nnot that attracted by such prey as a dead whale, the otherwise\r\nmiscellaneously carnivorous shark will seldom touch a man.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84F5XSSB9Y6NYRZZS5MA","peer_label":"72","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84F5XSSB9Y6NYRZZS5MA","peer_label":"72","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":"01KFNR89V7BJ6G8ZCSGDNFQ9S8","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89NDBMX32SWR429F6QSV","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.175Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.698Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}