{"id":"01KFNR89NDBMX32SWR429F6QSV","cid":"bafkreigi6isz7oy46shid6lqyekvxpkbtjxfnr6s4t7l63zmzimtewdynu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12619,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.735Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":12549,"text":"officers, 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\nSoon Starbuck returned with a letter in his hand. It was sorely\r\ntumbled, damp, and covered with a dull, spotted, green mould, in\r\nconsequence of being kept in a dark locker of the cabin. Of such a\r\nletter, Death himself might well have been the post-boy.\r\n\r\n“Can’st not read it?” cried Ahab. “Give it me, man. Aye, aye, it’s but\r\na dim scrawl;—what’s this?” As he was studying it out, Starbuck took a\r\nlong cutting-spade pole, and with his knife slightly split the end, to\r\ninsert the letter there, and in that way, hand it to the boat, without\r\nits coming any closer to the ship.\r\n\r\nMeantime, Ahab holding the letter, muttered, “Mr. Har—yes, Mr. Harry—(a\r\nwoman’s pinny hand,—the man’s wife, I’ll wager)—Aye—Mr. Harry Macey,\r\nShip Jeroboam;—why it’s Macey, and he’s dead!”\r\n\r\n“Poor fellow! poor fellow! and from his wife,” sighed Mayhew; “but let\r\nme have it.”\r\n\r\n“Nay, keep it thyself,” cried Gabriel to Ahab; “thou art soon going\r\nthat way.”\r\n\r\n“Curses throttle thee!” yelled Ahab. “Captain Mayhew, stand by now to\r\nreceive it”; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck’s hands, he\r\ncaught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the\r\nboat. But as he did so, the oarsmen expectantly desisted from rowing;\r\nthe boat drifted a little towards the ship’s stern; so that, as if by\r\nmagic, the letter suddenly ranged along with Gabriel’s eager hand. He\r\nclutched it in an instant, seized the boat-knife, and impaling the\r\nletter on it, sent it thus loaded back into the ship. It fell at Ahab’s\r\nfeet. Then Gabriel shrieked out to his comrades to give way with their\r\noars, and in that manner the mutinous boat rapidly shot away from the\r\nPequod.\r\n\r\nAs, after this interlude, the seamen resumed their work upon the jacket\r\nof the whale, many strange things were hinted in reference to this wild\r\naffair.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 72. The Monkey-Rope.\r\n\r\nIn the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale,\r\nthere is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. Now hands\r\nare wanted here, and then again hands are wanted there. There is no\r\nstaying in any one place; for at one and the same time everything has\r\nto be done everywhere. It is much the same with him who endeavors the\r\ndescription of the scene. We must now retrace our way a little. It was\r\nmentioned that upon first breaking ground in the whale’s back, the\r\nblubber-hook was inserted into the original hole there cut by the\r\nspades of the mates. But how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that\r\nsame hook get fixed in that hole? It was inserted there by my\r\nparticular friend Queequeg, whose duty it was, as harpooneer, to\r\ndescend upon the monster’s back for the special purpose referred to.\r\nBut in very many cases, circumstances require that the harpooneer shall\r\nremain on the whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is\r\nconcluded. The whale, be it observed, lies almost entirely submerged,\r\nexcepting the immediate parts operated upon. So down there, some ten\r\nfeet 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","title":"Chunk 1"},"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":"01KFNR89KG4KM0NC95WYZ5AJTT","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89KTKQ1SBZ1SFPE4727P","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.267Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.794Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}