{"id":"01KFNR8B68ME8EZ3M293BBBJNY","cid":"bafkreihv6fdqulu7va7ybchcxcicju2eersykff4tqm6gnf5ys7nqo5sxy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":16664,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.395Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":16605,"text":"hiding the pots; every cask is out of sight; all tackles are coiled in\r\nunseen nooks; and when by the combined and simultaneous industry of\r\nalmost the entire ship’s company, the whole of this conscientious duty\r\nis at last concluded, then the crew themselves proceed to their own\r\nablutions; shift themselves from top to toe; and finally issue to the\r\nimmaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as bridegrooms new-leaped from\r\nout the daintiest Holland.\r\n\r\nNow, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and\r\nhumorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics;\r\npropose to mat the deck; think of having hanging to the top; object not\r\nto taking tea by moonlight on the piazza of the forecastle. To hint to\r\nsuch musked mariners of oil, and bone, and blubber, were little short\r\nof audacity. They know not the thing you distantly allude to. Away, and\r\nbring us napkins!\r\n\r\nBut mark: aloft there, at the three mast heads, stand three men intent\r\non spying out more whales, which, if caught, infallibly will again soil\r\nthe old oaken furniture, and drop at least one small grease-spot\r\nsomewhere. Yes; and many is the time, when, after the severest\r\nuninterrupted labors, which know no night; continuing straight through\r\nfor ninety-six hours; when from the boat, where they have swelled their\r\nwrists with all day rowing on the Line,—they only step to the deck to\r\ncarry vast chains, and heave the heavy windlass, and cut and slash,\r\nyea, and in their very sweatings to be smoked and burned anew by the\r\ncombined fires of the equatorial sun and the equatorial try-works;\r\nwhen, on the heel of all this, they have finally bestirred themselves\r\nto cleanse the ship, and make a spotless dairy room of it; many is the\r\ntime the poor fellows, just buttoning the necks of their clean frocks,\r\nare startled by the cry of “There she blows!” and away they fly to\r\nfight another whale, and go through the whole weary thing again. Oh! my\r\nfriends, but this is man-killing! Yet this is life. For hardly have we\r\nmortals by long toilings extracted from this world’s vast bulk its\r\nsmall but valuable sperm; and then, with weary patience, cleansed\r\nourselves from its defilements, and learned to live here in clean\r\ntabernacles of the soul; hardly is this done, when—_There she\r\nblows!_—the ghost is spouted up, and away we sail to fight some other\r\nworld, and go through young life’s old routine again.\r\n\r\nOh! the metempsychosis! Oh! Pythagoras, that in bright Greece, two\r\nthousand years ago, did die, so good, so wise, so mild; I sailed with\r\nthee along the Peruvian coast last voyage—and, foolish as I am, taught\r\nthee, a green simple boy, how to splice a rope!\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 99. The Doubloon.\r\n\r\nEre now it has been related how Ahab was wont to pace his quarter-deck,\r\ntaking regular turns at either limit, the binnacle and mainmast; but in\r\nthe multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been\r\nadded how that sometimes in these walks, when most plunged in his mood,\r\nhe was wont to pause in turn at each spot, and stand there strangely\r\neyeing the particular object before him. When he halted before the\r\nbinnacle, with his glance fastened on the pointed needle in the\r\ncompass, that glance shot like a javelin with the pointed intensity of\r\nhis purpose; and when resuming his walk he again paused before the\r\nmainmast, then, as the same riveted glance fastened upon the riveted\r\ngold coin there, he still wore the same aspect of nailed firmness, only\r\ndashed with a certain wild longing, if not hopefulness.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR8380YKNGSF7KBSA9YC6S","peer_label":"Stowing Down and Clearing Up","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR8380YKNGSF7KBSA9YC6S","peer_label":"Stowing Down and Clearing Up","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":"01KFNR8B95N3G4T8GKX7CV8N1C","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B4XQ3CC6M98A2S8RNSQ","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.828Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.668Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}