{"id":"01KFNR8B99X36HZ6AGZC7E05FB","cid":"bafkreihzdiqa4ndbm6zmqclqujn3drdpvx6g4bnwhmphexiio5cer2duue","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":21613,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.422Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":21532,"text":"quarter, so that now being pointed in the reverse direction, the braced\r\nship sailed hard upon the breeze as she rechurned the cream in her own\r\nwhite wake.\r\n\r\n“Against the wind he now steers for the open jaw,” murmured Starbuck to\r\nhimself, as he coiled the new-hauled main-brace upon the rail. “God\r\nkeep us, but already my bones feel damp within me, and from the inside\r\nwet my flesh. I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!”\r\n\r\n“Stand by to sway me up!” cried Ahab, advancing to the hempen basket.\r\n“We should meet him soon.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye, sir,” and straightway Starbuck did Ahab’s bidding, and once\r\nmore Ahab swung on high.\r\n\r\nA whole hour now passed; gold-beaten out to ages. Time itself now held\r\nlong breaths with keen suspense. But at last, some three points off the\r\nweather bow, Ahab descried the spout again, and instantly from the\r\nthree mast-heads three shrieks went up as if the tongues of fire had\r\nvoiced it.\r\n\r\n“Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, Moby Dick! On deck\r\nthere!—brace sharper up; crowd her into the wind’s eye. He’s too far\r\noff to lower yet, Mr. Starbuck. The sails shake! Stand over that\r\nhelmsman with a top-maul! So, so; he travels fast, and I must down. But\r\nlet me have one more good round look aloft here at the sea; there’s\r\ntime for that. An old, old sight, and yet somehow so young; aye, and\r\nnot changed a wink since I first saw it, a boy, from the sand-hills of\r\nNantucket! The same!—the same!—the same to Noah as to me. There’s a\r\nsoft shower to leeward. Such lovely leewardings! They must lead\r\nsomewhere—to something else than common land, more palmy than the\r\npalms. Leeward! the white whale goes that way; look to windward, then;\r\nthe better if the bitterer quarter. But good bye, good bye, old\r\nmast-head! What’s this?—green? aye, tiny mosses in these warped cracks.\r\nNo such green weather stains on Ahab’s head! There’s the difference now\r\nbetween man’s old age and matter’s. But aye, old mast, we both grow old\r\ntogether; sound in our hulls, though, are we not, my ship? Aye, minus a\r\nleg, that’s all. By heaven this dead wood has the better of my live\r\nflesh every way. I can’t compare with it; and I’ve known some ships\r\nmade of dead trees outlast the lives of men made of the most vital\r\nstuff of vital fathers. What’s that he said? he should still go before\r\nme, my pilot; and yet to be seen again? But where? Will I have eyes at\r\nthe bottom of the sea, supposing I descend those endless stairs? and\r\nall night I’ve been sailing from him, wherever he did sink to. Aye,\r\naye, like many more thou told’st direful truth as touching thyself, O\r\nParsee; but, Ahab, there thy shot fell short. Good-bye, mast-head—keep\r\na good eye upon the whale, the while I’m gone. We’ll talk to-morrow,\r\nnay, to-night, when the white whale lies down there, tied by head and\r\ntail.”\r\n\r\nHe gave the word; and still gazing round him, was steadily lowered\r\nthrough the cloven blue air to the deck.\r\n\r\nIn due time the boats were lowered; but as standing in his shallop’s\r\nstern, Ahab just hovered upon the point of the descent, he waved to the\r\nmate,—who held one of the tackle-ropes on deck—and bade him pause.\r\n\r\n“Starbuck!”\r\n\r\n“Sir?”\r\n\r\n“For the third time my soul’s ship starts upon this voyage, Starbuck.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, sir, thou wilt have it so.”\r\n\r\n“Some ships sail from their ports, and ever afterwards are missing,\r\nStarbuck!”\r\n\r\n“Truth, sir: saddest truth.”\r\n\r\n“Some men die at ebb tide; some at low water; some at the full of the\r\nflood;—and I feel now like a billow that’s all one crested comb,\r\nStarbuck. I am old;—shake hands with me, man.”\r\n\r\nTheir hands met; their eyes fastened; Starbuck’s tears the glue.\r\n\r\n“Oh, my captain, my captain!—noble heart—go not—go not!—see, it’s a\r\nbrave man that weeps; how great the agony of the persuasion then!”\r\n\r\n“Lower away!”—cried Ahab, tossing the mate’s arm from him. “Stand by\r\nthe crew!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR85GMZ5CEWAKR35G2W28B","peer_label":"135","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR85GMZ5CEWAKR35G2W28B","peer_label":"135","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":"01KFNR8B9NFHAGXAAMZQ8FFYH4","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B539238820X5WEYG2XG","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.916Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:19.339Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}