{"id":"01KFNR89TTGF7CMT3J77CZP6DV","cid":"bafkreihppil3z3ndvjccifijrtlowjl3ea3mp6v7jqgcoc3cb3772mlpwq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15716,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.767Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":15650,"text":"CHAPTER 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud.\r\n\r\n“In vain it was to rake for Ambergriese in the paunch of this\r\nLeviathan, insufferable fetor denying not inquiry.” _Sir T. Browne,\r\nV.E._\r\n\r\nIt was a week or two after the last whaling scene recounted, and when\r\nwe were slowly sailing over a sleepy, vapory, mid-day sea, that the\r\nmany noses on the Pequod’s deck proved more vigilant discoverers than\r\nthe three pairs of eyes aloft. A peculiar and not very pleasant smell\r\nwas smelt in the sea.\r\n\r\n“I will bet something now,” said Stubb, “that somewhere hereabouts are\r\nsome of those drugged whales we tickled the other day. I thought they\r\nwould keel up before long.”\r\n\r\nPresently, the vapors in advance slid aside; and there in the distance\r\nlay a ship, whose furled sails betokened that some sort of whale must\r\nbe alongside. As we glided nearer, the stranger showed French colours\r\nfrom his peak; and by the eddying cloud of vulture sea-fowl that\r\ncircled, and hovered, and swooped around him, it was plain that the\r\nwhale alongside must be what the fishermen call a blasted whale, that\r\nis, a whale that has died unmolested on the sea, and so floated an\r\nunappropriated corpse. It may well be conceived, what an unsavory odor\r\nsuch a mass must exhale; worse than an Assyrian city in the plague,\r\nwhen the living are incompetent to bury the departed. So intolerable\r\nindeed is it regarded by some, that no cupidity could persuade them to\r\nmoor alongside of it. Yet are there those who will still do it;\r\nnotwithstanding the fact that the oil obtained from such subjects is of\r\na very inferior quality, and by no means of the nature of\r\nattar-of-rose.\r\n\r\nComing still nearer with the expiring breeze, we saw that the Frenchman\r\nhad a second whale alongside; and this second whale seemed even more of\r\na nosegay than the first. In truth, it turned out to be one of those\r\nproblematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort of\r\nprodigious dyspepsia, or indigestion; leaving their defunct bodies\r\nalmost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil. Nevertheless, in the\r\nproper place we shall see that no knowing fisherman will ever turn up\r\nhis nose at such a whale as this, however much he may shun blasted\r\nwhales in general.\r\n\r\nThe Pequod had now swept so nigh to the stranger, that Stubb vowed he\r\nrecognised his cutting spade-pole entangled in the lines that were\r\nknotted round the tail of one of these whales.\r\n\r\n“There’s a pretty fellow, now,” he banteringly laughed, standing in the\r\nship’s bows, “there’s a jackal for ye! I well know that these Crappoes\r\nof Frenchmen are but poor devils in the fishery; sometimes lowering\r\ntheir boats for breakers, mistaking them for Sperm Whale spouts; yes,\r\nand sometimes sailing from their port with their hold full of boxes of\r\ntallow candles, and cases of snuffers, foreseeing that all the oil they\r\nwill get won’t be enough to dip the Captain’s wick into; aye, we all\r\nknow these things; but look ye, here’s a Crappo that is content with\r\nour leavings, the drugged whale there, I mean; aye, and is content too\r\nwith scraping the dry bones of that other precious fish he has there.\r\nPoor devil! I say, pass round a hat, some one, and let’s make him a\r\npresent of a little oil for dear charity’s sake. For what oil he’ll get\r\nfrom that drugged whale there, wouldn’t be fit to burn in a jail; no,\r\nnot in a condemned cell. And as for the other whale, why, I’ll agree to\r\nget more oil by chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours,\r\nthan he’ll get from that bundle of bones; though, now that I think of\r\nit, it may contain something worth a good deal more than oil; yes,\r\nambergris. I wonder now if our old man has thought of that. It’s worth\r\ntrying. Yes, I’m for it;” and so saying he started for the\r\nquarter-deck.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84A4MFDTF9ZTN0749XH4","peer_label":"The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84A4MFDTF9ZTN0749XH4","peer_label":"The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud","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":"01KFNR89TD8B3NK6FCZN00S01N","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.460Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.619Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}