{"id":"01KFNR89KTKQ1SBZ1SFPE4727P","cid":"bafkreiedacu7vj3ikxe2du2wxevqsficxnnc3da4tpsqktlkgtwkvt7cqa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12556,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.734Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":12495,"text":"Moby Dick, and the havoc he had made. Greedily sucking in this\r\nintelligence, Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against attacking the\r\nWhite Whale, in case the monster should be seen; in his gibbering\r\ninsanity, pronouncing the White Whale to be no less a being than the\r\nShaker God incarnated; the Shakers receiving the Bible. But when, some\r\nyear or two afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted from the\r\nmast-heads, Macey, the chief mate, burned with ardour to encounter him;\r\nand the captain himself being not unwilling to let him have the\r\nopportunity, despite all the archangel’s denunciations and\r\nforewarnings, Macey succeeded in persuading five men to man his boat.\r\nWith them he pushed off; and, after much weary pulling, and many\r\nperilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last succeeded in getting one iron\r\nfast. Meantime, Gabriel, ascending to the main-royal mast-head, was\r\ntossing one arm in frantic gestures, and hurling forth prophecies of\r\nspeedy doom to the sacrilegious assailants of his divinity. Now, while\r\nMacey, the mate, was standing up in his boat’s bow, and with all the\r\nreckless energy of his tribe was venting his wild exclamations upon the\r\nwhale, and essaying to get a fair chance for his poised lance, lo! a\r\nbroad white shadow rose from the sea; by its quick, fanning motion,\r\ntemporarily taking the breath out of the bodies of the oarsmen. Next\r\ninstant, the luckless mate, so full of furious life, was smitten bodily\r\ninto the air, and making a long arc in his descent, fell into the sea\r\nat the distance of about fifty yards. Not a chip of the boat was\r\nharmed, nor a hair of any oarsman’s head; but the mate for ever sank.\r\n\r\nIt is well to parenthesize here, that of the fatal accidents in the\r\nSperm-Whale Fishery, this kind is perhaps almost as frequent as any.\r\nSometimes, nothing is injured but the man who is thus annihilated;\r\noftener the boat’s bow is knocked off, or the thigh-board, in which the\r\nheadsman stands, is torn from its place and accompanies the body. But\r\nstrangest of all is the circumstance, that in more instances than one,\r\nwhen the body has been recovered, not a single mark of violence is\r\ndiscernible; the man being stark dead.\r\n\r\nThe whole calamity, with the falling form of Macey, was plainly\r\ndescried from the ship. Raising a piercing shriek—“The vial! the vial!”\r\nGabriel called off the terror-stricken crew from the further hunting of\r\nthe whale. This terrible event clothed the archangel with added\r\ninfluence; because his credulous disciples believed that he had\r\nspecifically fore-announced it, instead of only making a general\r\nprophecy, which any one might have done, and so have chanced to hit one\r\nof many marks in the wide margin allowed. He became a nameless terror\r\nto the ship.\r\n\r\nMayhew having concluded his narration, Ahab put such questions to him,\r\nthat the stranger captain could not forbear inquiring whether he\r\nintended to hunt the White Whale, if opportunity should offer. To which\r\nAhab answered—“Aye.” Straightway, then, Gabriel once more started to\r\nhis feet, glaring upon the old man, and vehemently exclaimed, with\r\ndownward pointed finger—“Think, think of the blasphemer—dead, and down\r\nthere!—beware of the blasphemer’s end!”\r\n\r\nAhab stolidly turned aside; then said to Mayhew, “Captain, I have just\r\nbethought me of my letter-bag; there is a letter for one of thy\r\nofficers, if I mistake not. Starbuck, look over the bag.”\r\n\r\nEvery whale-ship takes out a goodly number of letters for various\r\nships, whose delivery to the persons to whom they may be addressed,\r\ndepends upon the mere chance of encountering them in the four oceans.\r\nThus, most letters never reach their mark; and many are only received\r\nafter attaining an age of two or three years or more.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"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":"01KFNR89NDBMX32SWR429F6QSV","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.165Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.595Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}