{"id":"01KFNR89PBD3E01B3VSJTV6FEV","cid":"bafkreibrjctejtyhbkikpepwlgjkgme7slxph4gif4we4f5ikxuoiyywcy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14917,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.762Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 32","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":14856,"text":"there. By these means, the circumnavigating Pequod would sweep almost\r\nall the known Sperm Whale cruising grounds of the world, previous to\r\ndescending upon the Line in the Pacific; where Ahab, though everywhere\r\nelse foiled in his pursuit, firmly counted upon giving battle to Moby\r\nDick, in the sea he was most known to frequent; and at a season when he\r\nmight most reasonably be presumed to be haunting it.\r\n\r\nBut how now? in this zoned quest, does Ahab touch no land? does his\r\ncrew drink air? Surely, he will stop for water. Nay. For a long time,\r\nnow, the circus-running sun has raced within his fiery ring, and needs\r\nno sustenance but what’s in himself. So Ahab. Mark this, too, in the\r\nwhaler. While other hulls are loaded down with alien stuff, to be\r\ntransferred to foreign wharves; the world-wandering whale-ship carries\r\nno cargo but herself and crew, their weapons and their wants. She has a\r\nwhole lake’s contents bottled in her ample hold. She is ballasted with\r\nutilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kentledge. She\r\ncarries years’ water in her. Clear old prime Nantucket water; which,\r\nwhen three years afloat, the Nantucketer, in the Pacific, prefers to\r\ndrink before the brackish fluid, but yesterday rafted off in casks,\r\nfrom the Peruvian or Indian streams. Hence it is, that, while other\r\nships may have gone to China from New York, and back again, touching at\r\na score of ports, the whale-ship, in all that interval, may not have\r\nsighted one grain of soil; her crew having seen no man but floating\r\nseamen like themselves. So that did you carry them the news that\r\nanother flood had come; they would only answer—“Well, boys, here’s the\r\nark!”\r\n\r\nNow, as many Sperm Whales had been captured off the western coast of\r\nJava, in the near vicinity of the Straits of Sunda; indeed, as most of\r\nthe ground, roundabout, was generally recognised by the fishermen as an\r\nexcellent spot for cruising; therefore, as the Pequod gained more and\r\nmore upon Java Head, the look-outs were repeatedly hailed, and\r\nadmonished to keep wide awake. But though the green palmy cliffs of the\r\nland soon loomed on the starboard bow, and with delighted nostrils the\r\nfresh cinnamon was snuffed in the air, yet not a single jet was\r\ndescried. Almost renouncing all thought of falling in with any game\r\nhereabouts, the ship had well nigh entered the straits, when the\r\ncustomary cheering cry was heard from aloft, and ere long a spectacle\r\nof singular magnificence saluted us.\r\n\r\nBut here be it premised, that owing to the unwearied activity with\r\nwhich of late they have been hunted over all four oceans, the Sperm\r\nWhales, instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached\r\ncompanies, as in former times, are now frequently met with in extensive\r\nherds, sometimes embracing so great a multitude, that it would almost\r\nseem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and\r\ncovenant for mutual assistance and protection. To this aggregation of\r\nthe Sperm Whale into such immense caravans, may be imputed the\r\ncircumstance that even in the best cruising grounds, you may now\r\nsometimes sail for weeks and months together, without being greeted by\r\na single spout; and then be suddenly saluted by what sometimes seems\r\nthousands on thousands.\r\n\r\nBroad on both bows, at the distance of some two or three miles, and\r\nforming a great semicircle, embracing one half of the level horizon, a\r\ncontinuous chain of whale-jets were up-playing and sparkling in the\r\nnoon-day air. Unlike the straight perpendicular twin-jets of the Right\r\nWhale, which, dividing at top, fall over in two branches, like the\r\ncleft drooping boughs of a willow, the single forward-slanting spout of\r\nthe Sperm Whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist, continually\r\nrising and falling away to leeward.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 32"},"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":"01KFNR89MQ55XY83KXH5VYTV15","peer_label":"Chunk 33","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89NR7SRD13C2W32NHV1M","peer_label":"Chunk 31","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.315Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.803Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}