{"id":"01KFNR89RECTX8TWRM7B4MYE64","cid":"bafkreicph2jq2tqh5wvv6cvw3lcsuolau64diwst4h337clb44za2trhf4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11252,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.721Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":11216,"text":"cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes,\r\nand brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany, than you\r\nwill hear over the half-inch white cedar of the whale-boat, when thus\r\nhung in hangman’s nooses; and, like the six burghers of Calais before\r\nKing Edward, the six men composing the crew pull into the jaws of\r\ndeath, with a halter around every neck, as you may say.\r\n\r\nPerhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for those\r\nrepeated whaling disasters—some few of which are casually chronicled—of\r\nthis man or that man being taken out of the boat by the line, and lost.\r\nFor, when the line is darting out, to be seated then in the boat, is\r\nlike being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a\r\nsteam-engine in full play, when every flying beam, and shaft, and\r\nwheel, is grazing you. It is worse; for you cannot sit motionless in\r\nthe heart of these perils, because the boat is rocking like a cradle,\r\nand you are pitched one way and the other, without the slightest\r\nwarning; and only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy and\r\nsimultaneousness of volition and action, can you escape being made a\r\nMazeppa of, and run away with where the all-seeing sun himself could\r\nnever pierce you out.\r\n\r\nAgain: as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and\r\nprophesies of the storm, is perhaps more awful than the storm itself;\r\nfor, indeed, the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm; and\r\ncontains it in itself, as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal\r\npowder, and the ball, and the explosion; so the graceful repose of the\r\nline, as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought\r\ninto actual play—this is a thing which carries more of true terror than\r\nany other aspect of this dangerous affair. But why say more? All men\r\nlive enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their\r\nnecks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death,\r\nthat mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.\r\nAnd if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would\r\nnot at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before\r\nyour evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84GKB4MQ2YHQR7JV12KA","peer_label":"60","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84GKB4MQ2YHQR7JV12KA","peer_label":"60","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":"01KFNR89XH74FYVP7AFG5AC1D6","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.463Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.922Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}