{"id":"01KFNR89XH74FYVP7AFG5AC1D6","cid":"bafkreihlmfybbjfzlj6ofdq5swshhwycyk6i7lgc2iwvmqpfjofnom6yaq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11222,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.721Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":11165,"text":"rather bulky freight for a craft whose planks are but one half-inch in\r\nthickness; for the bottom of the whale-boat is like critical ice, which\r\nwill bear up a considerable distributed weight, but not very much of a\r\nconcentrated one. When the painted canvas cover is clapped on the\r\nAmerican line-tub, the boat looks as if it were pulling off with a\r\nprodigious great wedding-cake to present to the whales.\r\n\r\nBoth ends of the line are exposed; the lower end terminating in an\r\neye-splice or loop coming up from the bottom against the side of the\r\ntub, and hanging over its edge completely disengaged from everything.\r\nThis arrangement of the lower end is necessary on two accounts. First:\r\nIn order to facilitate the fastening to it of an additional line from a\r\nneighboring boat, in case the stricken whale should sound so deep as to\r\nthreaten to carry off the entire line originally attached to the\r\nharpoon. In these instances, the whale of course is shifted like a mug\r\nof ale, as it were, from the one boat to the other; though the first\r\nboat always hovers at hand to assist its consort. Second: This\r\narrangement is indispensable for common safety’s sake; for were the\r\nlower end of the line in any way attached to the boat, and were the\r\nwhale then to run the line out to the end almost in a single, smoking\r\nminute as he sometimes does, he would not stop there, for the doomed\r\nboat would infallibly be dragged down after him into the profundity of\r\nthe sea; and in that case no town-crier would ever find her again.\r\n\r\nBefore lowering the boat for the chase, the upper end of the line is\r\ntaken aft from the tub, and passing round the loggerhead there, is\r\nagain carried forward the entire length of the boat, resting crosswise\r\nupon the loom or handle of every man’s oar, so that it jogs against his\r\nwrist in rowing; and also passing between the men, as they alternately\r\nsit at the opposite gunwales, to the leaded chocks or grooves in the\r\nextreme pointed prow of the boat, where a wooden pin or skewer the size\r\nof a common quill, prevents it from slipping out. From the chocks it\r\nhangs in a slight festoon over the bows, and is then passed inside the\r\nboat again; and some ten or twenty fathoms (called box-line) being\r\ncoiled upon the box in the bows, it continues its way to the gunwale\r\nstill a little further aft, and is then attached to the short-warp—the\r\nrope which is immediately connected with the harpoon; but previous to\r\nthat connexion, the short-warp goes through sundry mystifications too\r\ntedious to detail.\r\n\r\nThus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils,\r\ntwisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. All the\r\noarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; so that to the timid\r\neye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest\r\nsnakes sportively festooning their limbs. Nor can any son of mortal\r\nwoman, for the first time, seat himself amid those hempen intricacies,\r\nand while straining his utmost at the oar, bethink him that at any\r\nunknown instant the harpoon may be darted, and all these horrible\r\ncontortions be put in play like ringed lightnings; he cannot be thus\r\ncircumstanced without a shudder that makes the very marrow in his bones\r\nto quiver in him like a shaken jelly. Yet habit—strange thing! what\r\ncannot 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","title":"Chunk 1"},"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":"01KFNR89RECTX8TWRM7B4MYE64","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89TAD0THZS2Y0QGNABC4","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.433Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.737Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}