{"id":"01KFNR89PES8CHN06HPB0V4HH4","cid":"bafkreifljcyuexf6zil4ha2iqcbyysoihqw3m3uq2gdwepawbsm2afru24","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11311,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":11253,"text":"CHAPTER 61. Stubb Kills a Whale.\r\n\r\nIf to Starbuck the apparition of the Squid was a thing of portents, to\r\nQueequeg it was quite a different object.\r\n\r\n“When you see him ’quid,” said the savage, honing his harpoon in the\r\nbow of his hoisted boat, “then you quick see him ’parm whale.”\r\n\r\nThe next day was exceedingly still and sultry, and with nothing special\r\nto engage them, the Pequod’s crew could hardly resist the spell of\r\nsleep induced by such a vacant sea. For this part of the Indian Ocean\r\nthrough which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively\r\nground; that is, it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises, dolphins,\r\nflying-fish, and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters, than\r\nthose off the Rio de la Plata, or the in-shore ground off Peru.\r\n\r\nIt was my turn to stand at the foremast-head; and with my shoulders\r\nleaning against the slackened royal shrouds, to and fro I idly swayed\r\nin what seemed an enchanted air. No resolution could withstand it; in\r\nthat dreamy mood losing all consciousness, at last my soul went out of\r\nmy body; though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will,\r\nlong after the power which first moved it is withdrawn.\r\n\r\nEre forgetfulness altogether came over me, I had noticed that the\r\nseamen at the main and mizzen-mast-heads were already drowsy. So that\r\nat last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars, and for every\r\nswing that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering\r\nhelmsman. The waves, too, nodded their indolent crests; and across the\r\nwide trance of the sea, east nodded to west, and the sun over all.\r\n\r\nSuddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes; like vices my\r\nhands grasped the shrouds; some invisible, gracious agency preserved\r\nme; with a shock I came back to life. And lo! close under our lee, not\r\nforty fathoms off, a gigantic Sperm Whale lay rolling in the water like\r\nthe capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy back, of an Ethiopian\r\nhue, glistening in the sun’s rays like a mirror. But lazily undulating\r\nin the trough of the sea, and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his\r\nvapory jet, the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of\r\na warm afternoon. But that pipe, poor whale, was thy last. As if struck\r\nby some enchanter’s wand, the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all\r\nat once started into wakefulness; and more than a score of voices from\r\nall parts of the vessel, simultaneously with the three notes from\r\naloft, shouted forth the accustomed cry, as the great fish slowly and\r\nregularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air.\r\n\r\n“Clear away the boats! Luff!” cried Ahab. And obeying his own order, he\r\ndashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.\r\n\r\nThe sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and\r\nere the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the\r\nleeward, but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few ripples\r\nas he swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed,\r\nAhab gave orders that not an oar should be used, and no man must speak\r\nbut in whispers. So seated like Ontario Indians on the gunwales of the\r\nboats, we swiftly but silently paddled along; the calm not admitting of\r\nthe noiseless sails being set. Presently, as we thus glided in chase,\r\nthe monster perpendicularly flitted his tail forty feet into the air,\r\nand then sank out of sight like a tower swallowed up.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84G9CMHE1NQVXFWQQHZJ","peer_label":"61","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84G9CMHE1NQVXFWQQHZJ","peer_label":"61","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":"01KFNR89MZEA9JDGANMFR22136","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.232Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.520Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}