{"id":"01KFNR8B7H0A41G35R64MMMP0G","cid":"bafkreihvbyaftio2reaef7ys43yw3qnnxosvmgoo4lbftwlbihmmfyoffu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":21021,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.417Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":20956,"text":"frail gunwales bent in, collapsed, and snapped, as both jaws, like an\r\nenormous shears, sliding further aft, bit the craft completely in\r\ntwain, and locked themselves fast again in the sea, midway between the\r\ntwo floating wrecks. These floated aside, the broken ends drooping, the\r\ncrew at the stern-wreck clinging to the gunwales, and striving to hold\r\nfast to the oars to lash them across.\r\n\r\nAt that preluding moment, ere the boat was yet snapped, Ahab, the first\r\nto perceive the whale’s intent, by the crafty upraising of his head, a\r\nmovement that loosed his hold for the time; at that moment his hand had\r\nmade one final effort to push the boat out of the bite. But only\r\nslipping further into the whale’s mouth, and tilting over sideways as\r\nit slipped, the boat had shaken off his hold on the jaw; spilled him\r\nout of it, as he leaned to the push; and so he fell flat-faced upon the\r\nsea.\r\n\r\nRipplingly withdrawing from his prey, Moby Dick now lay at a little\r\ndistance, vertically thrusting his oblong white head up and down in the\r\nbillows; and at the same time slowly revolving his whole spindled body;\r\nso that when his vast wrinkled forehead rose—some twenty or more feet\r\nout of the water—the now rising swells, with all their confluent waves,\r\ndazzlingly broke against it; vindictively tossing their shivered spray\r\nstill higher into the air.* So, in a gale, the but half baffled Channel\r\nbillows only recoil from the base of the Eddystone, triumphantly to\r\noverleap its summit with their scud.\r\n\r\n*This motion is peculiar to the sperm whale. It receives its\r\ndesignation (pitchpoling) from its being likened to that preliminary\r\nup-and-down poise of the whale-lance, in the exercise called\r\npitchpoling, previously described. By this motion the whale must best\r\nand most comprehensively view whatever objects may be encircling him.\r\n\r\nBut soon resuming his horizontal attitude, Moby Dick swam swiftly round\r\nand round the wrecked crew; sideways churning the water in his vengeful\r\nwake, as if lashing himself up to still another and more deadly\r\nassault. The sight of the splintered boat seemed to madden him, as the\r\nblood of grapes and mulberries cast before Antiochus’s elephants in the\r\nbook of Maccabees. Meanwhile Ahab half smothered in the foam of the\r\nwhale’s insolent tail, and too much of a cripple to swim,—though he\r\ncould still keep afloat, even in the heart of such a whirlpool as that;\r\nhelpless Ahab’s head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least\r\nchance shock might burst. From the boat’s fragmentary stern, Fedallah\r\nincuriously and mildly eyed him; the clinging crew, at the other\r\ndrifting end, could not succor him; more than enough was it for them to\r\nlook to themselves. For so revolvingly appalling was the White Whale’s\r\naspect, and so planetarily swift the ever-contracting circles he made,\r\nthat he seemed horizontally swooping upon them. And though the other\r\nboats, unharmed, still hovered hard by; still they dared not pull into\r\nthe eddy to strike, lest that should be the signal for the instant\r\ndestruction of the jeopardized castaways, Ahab and all; nor in that\r\ncase could they themselves hope to escape. With straining eyes, then,\r\nthey remained on the outer edge of the direful zone, whose centre had\r\nnow become the old man’s head.\r\n\r\nMeantime, from the beginning all this had been descried from the ship’s\r\nmast heads; and squaring her yards, she had borne down upon the scene;\r\nand was now so nigh, that Ahab in the water hailed her!—“Sail on\r\nthe”—but that moment a breaking sea dashed on him from Moby Dick, and\r\nwhelmed him for the time. But struggling out of it again, and chancing\r\nto rise on a towering crest, he shouted,—“Sail on the whale!—Drive him\r\noff!”\r\n\r\nThe Pequod’s prows were pointed; and breaking up the charmed circle,\r\nshe effectually parted the white whale from his victim. As he sullenly\r\nswam off, the boats flew to the rescue.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR85HWN9BZZ5RJPNHTDQTZ","peer_label":"133","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR85HWN9BZZ5RJPNHTDQTZ","peer_label":"133","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":"01KFNR8B731G6R9N3SXZ1MN28F","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B9DDPVV5EGAS4H56ZZA","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.812Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:19.060Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}