{"id":"01KFNR89PKKJHJA4XKMK3EGETP","cid":"bafkreibv22kziuhtmgvtsldymky3izjpx2yo5hrpljjq6jpkvappunibde","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14148,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.751Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 16","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":14095,"text":"been some other unknown reason in the present case fully to account for\r\nthe ulceration alluded to. But still more curious was the fact of a\r\nlance-head of stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron,\r\nthe flesh perfectly firm about it. Who had darted that stone lance? And\r\nwhen? It might have been darted by some Nor’ West Indian long before\r\nAmerica was discovered.\r\n\r\nWhat other marvels might have been rummaged out of this monstrous\r\ncabinet there is no telling. But a sudden stop was put to further\r\ndiscoveries, by the ship’s being unprecedentedly dragged over sideways\r\nto the sea, owing to the body’s immensely increasing tendency to sink.\r\nHowever, Starbuck, who had the ordering of affairs, hung on to it to\r\nthe last; hung on to it so resolutely, indeed, that when at length the\r\nship would have been capsized, if still persisting in locking arms with\r\nthe body; then, when the command was given to break clear from it, such\r\nwas the immovable strain upon the timber-heads to which the\r\nfluke-chains and cables were fastened, that it was impossible to cast\r\nthem off. Meantime everything in the Pequod was aslant. To cross to the\r\nother side of the deck was like walking up the steep gabled roof of a\r\nhouse. The ship groaned and gasped. Many of the ivory inlayings of her\r\nbulwarks and cabins were started from their places, by the unnatural\r\ndislocation. In vain handspikes and crows were brought to bear upon the\r\nimmovable fluke-chains, to pry them adrift from the timberheads; and so\r\nlow had the whale now settled that the submerged ends could not be at\r\nall approached, while every moment whole tons of ponderosity seemed\r\nadded to the sinking bulk, and the ship seemed on the point of going\r\nover.\r\n\r\n“Hold on, hold on, won’t ye?” cried Stubb to the body, “don’t be in\r\nsuch a devil of a hurry to sink! By thunder, men, we must do something\r\nor go for it. No use prying there; avast, I say with your handspikes,\r\nand run one of ye for a prayer book and a pen-knife, and cut the big\r\nchains.”\r\n\r\n“Knife? Aye, aye,” cried Queequeg, and seizing the carpenter’s heavy\r\nhatchet, he leaned out of a porthole, and steel to iron, began slashing\r\nat the largest fluke-chains. But a few strokes, full of sparks, were\r\ngiven, when the exceeding strain effected the rest. With a terrific\r\nsnap, every fastening went adrift; the ship righted, the carcase sank.\r\n\r\nNow, this occasional inevitable sinking of the recently killed Sperm\r\nWhale is a very curious thing; nor has any fisherman yet adequately\r\naccounted for it. Usually the dead Sperm Whale floats with great\r\nbuoyancy, with its side or belly considerably elevated above the\r\nsurface. If the only whales that thus sank were old, meagre, and\r\nbroken-hearted creatures, their pads of lard diminished and all their\r\nbones heavy and rheumatic; then you might with some reason assert that\r\nthis sinking is caused by an uncommon specific gravity in the fish so\r\nsinking, consequent upon this absence of buoyant matter in him. But it\r\nis not so. For young whales, in the highest health, and swelling with\r\nnoble aspirations, prematurely cut off in the warm flush and May of\r\nlife, with all their panting lard about them; even these brawny,\r\nbuoyant heroes do sometimes sink.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 16"},"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":"01KFNR89MYMMCDMAMDQWHA5PNF","peer_label":"Chunk 17","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89PVB6EMTQQ5YGMV63ZK","peer_label":"Chunk 15","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.426Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.631Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}