{"id":"01KFNR89PA4H33580EXXA56YMQ","cid":"bafkreie2w2x2q6uge74ypuxe376ailhrnzivvdxuw5ca4bgugkjs2ln6tu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":16040,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.769Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":15986,"text":"and carry it home in that manner; the shortness of the season in those\r\nIcy Seas, and the sudden and violent storms to which they are exposed,\r\nforbidding any other course. The consequence is, that upon breaking\r\ninto the hold, and unloading one of these whale cemeteries, in the\r\nGreenland dock, a savor is given forth somewhat similar to that arising\r\nfrom excavating an old city grave-yard, for the foundations of a\r\nLying-in Hospital.\r\n\r\nI partly surmise also, that this wicked charge against whalers may be\r\nlikewise imputed to the existence on the coast of Greenland, in former\r\ntimes, of a Dutch village called Schmerenburgh or Smeerenberg, which\r\nlatter name is the one used by the learned Fogo Von Slack, in his great\r\nwork on Smells, a text-book on that subject. As its name imports\r\n(smeer, fat; berg, to put up), this village was founded in order to\r\nafford a place for the blubber of the Dutch whale fleet to be tried\r\nout, without being taken home to Holland for that purpose. It was a\r\ncollection of furnaces, fat-kettles, and oil sheds; and when the works\r\nwere in full operation certainly gave forth no very pleasant savor. But\r\nall this is quite different with a South Sea Sperm Whaler; which in a\r\nvoyage of four years perhaps, after completely filling her hold with\r\noil, does not, perhaps, consume fifty days in the business of boiling\r\nout; and in the state that it is casked, the oil is nearly scentless.\r\nThe truth is, that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a\r\nspecies are by no means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be\r\nrecognised, as the people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew\r\nin the company, by the nose. Nor indeed can the whale possibly be\r\notherwise than fragrant, when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high\r\nhealth; taking abundance of exercise; always out of doors; though, it\r\nis true, seldom in the open air. I say, that the motion of a Sperm\r\nWhale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented\r\nlady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken the\r\nSperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be\r\nto that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh,\r\nwhich was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great?\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 93. The Castaway.\r\n\r\nIt was but some few days after encountering the Frenchman, that a most\r\nsignificant event befell the most insignificant of the Pequod’s crew;\r\nan event most lamentable; and which ended in providing the sometimes\r\nmadly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying\r\nprophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own.\r\n\r\nNow, in the whale ship, it is not every one that goes in the boats.\r\nSome few hands are reserved called ship-keepers, whose province it is\r\nto work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale. As a general\r\nthing, these ship-keepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising\r\nthe boats’ crews. But if there happen to be an unduly slender, clumsy,\r\nor timorous wight in the ship, that wight is certain to be made a\r\nship-keeper. It was so in the Pequod with the little negro Pippin by\r\nnick-name, Pip by abbreviation. Poor Pip! ye have heard of him before;\r\nye must remember his tambourine on that dramatic midnight, so\r\ngloomy-jolly.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84F9V753K1RB4Z4DYEA9","peer_label":"Ambergris","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84F9V753K1RB4Z4DYEA9","peer_label":"Ambergris","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":"01KFNR89MAKMNZC9EHW87XG6D3","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89MRSKRXKKA8720NK8F3","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.273Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.689Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}