{"id":"01KFNR89M6TEGR8NCXPAWF22KQ","cid":"bafkreiafwgo5ghof43bhrrnv2kd2k3xgltei2d2e47hanpo7hc4f4t3ism","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15604,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.766Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 45","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":15522,"text":"the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the\r\nostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but\r\nLoose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what\r\nare you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 90. Heads or Tails.\r\n\r\n“De balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam.”\r\n_Bracton, l. 3, c. 3._\r\n\r\nLatin from the books of the Laws of England, which taken along with the\r\ncontext, means, that of all whales captured by anybody on the coast of\r\nthat land, the King, as Honorary Grand Harpooneer, must have the head,\r\nand the Queen be respectfully presented with the tail. A division\r\nwhich, in the whale, is much like halving an apple; there is no\r\nintermediate remainder. Now as this law, under a modified form, is to\r\nthis day in force in England; and as it offers in various respects a\r\nstrange anomaly touching the general law of Fast and Loose-Fish, it is\r\nhere treated of in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle\r\nthat prompts the English railways to be at the expense of a separate\r\ncar, specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty. In the first\r\nplace, in curious proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is\r\nstill in force, I proceed to lay before you a circumstance that\r\nhappened within the last two years.\r\n\r\nIt seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one\r\nof the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and\r\nbeaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from\r\nthe shore. Now the Cinque Ports are partially or somehow under the\r\njurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle, called a Lord Warden.\r\nHolding the office directly from the crown, I believe, all the royal\r\nemoluments incident to the Cinque Port territories become by assignment\r\nhis. By some writers this office is called a sinecure. But not so.\r\nBecause the Lord Warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his\r\nperquisites; which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of\r\nthem.\r\n\r\nNow when these poor sun-burnt mariners, bare-footed, and with their\r\ntrowsers rolled high up on their eely legs, had wearily hauled their\r\nfat fish high and dry, promising themselves a good £150 from the\r\nprecious oil and bone; and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their\r\nwives, and good ale with their cronies, upon the strength of their\r\nrespective shares; up steps a very learned and most Christian and\r\ncharitable gentleman, with a copy of Blackstone under his arm; and\r\nlaying it upon the whale’s head, he says—“Hands off! this fish, my\r\nmasters, is a Fast-Fish. I seize it as the Lord Warden’s.” Upon this\r\nthe poor mariners in their respectful consternation—so truly\r\nEnglish—knowing not what to say, fall to vigorously scratching their\r\nheads all round; meanwhile ruefully glancing from the whale to the\r\nstranger. But that did in nowise mend the matter, or at all soften the\r\nhard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of Blackstone. At\r\nlength one of them, after long scratching about for his ideas, made\r\nbold to speak,\r\n\r\n“Please, sir, who is the Lord Warden?”\r\n\r\n“The Duke.”\r\n\r\n“But the duke had nothing to do with taking this fish?”\r\n\r\n“It is his.”\r\n\r\n“We have been at great trouble, and peril, and some expense, and is all\r\nthat to go to the Duke’s benefit; we getting nothing at all for our\r\npains but our blisters?”\r\n\r\n“It is his.”\r\n\r\n“Is the Duke so very poor as to be forced to this desperate mode of\r\ngetting a livelihood?”\r\n\r\n“It is his.”\r\n\r\n“I thought to relieve my old bed-ridden mother by part of my share of\r\nthis whale.”\r\n\r\n“It is his.”\r\n\r\n“Won’t the Duke be content with a quarter or a half?”\r\n\r\n“It is his.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 45"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","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":"01KFNR89MB10182QEKFB837HSW","peer_label":"Chunk 46","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89PB7YDYZZZ27ZABW0GJ","peer_label":"Chunk 44","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.210Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.870Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}