{"id":"01KFNR8BAA8X037CY6BG2TBQV6","cid":"bafkreihpb6mr5pshenug2ab6atbehbyugab2ims3kvvknduvxopsa2o3tu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":21204,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.418Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":21136,"text":"CHAPTER 134. The Chase—Second Day.\r\n\r\nAt day-break, the three mast-heads were punctually manned afresh.\r\n\r\n“D’ye see him?” cried Ahab after allowing a little space for the light\r\nto spread.\r\n\r\n“See nothing, sir.”\r\n\r\n“Turn up all hands and make sail! he travels faster than I thought\r\nfor;—the top-gallant sails!—aye, they should have been kept on her all\r\nnight. But no matter—’tis but resting for the rush.”\r\n\r\nHere be it said, that this pertinacious pursuit of one particular\r\nwhale, continued through day into night, and through night into day, is\r\na thing by no means unprecedented in the South sea fishery. For such is\r\nthe wonderful skill, prescience of experience, and invincible\r\nconfidence acquired by some great natural geniuses among the Nantucket\r\ncommanders; that from the simple observation of a whale when last\r\ndescried, they will, under certain given circumstances, pretty\r\naccurately foretell both the direction in which he will continue to\r\nswim for a time, while out of sight, as well as his probable rate of\r\nprogression during that period. And, in these cases, somewhat as a\r\npilot, when about losing sight of a coast, whose general trending he\r\nwell knows, and which he desires shortly to return to again, but at\r\nsome further point; like as this pilot stands by his compass, and takes\r\nthe precise bearing of the cape at present visible, in order the more\r\ncertainly to hit aright the remote, unseen headland, eventually to be\r\nvisited: so does the fisherman, at his compass, with the whale; for\r\nafter being chased, and diligently marked, through several hours of\r\ndaylight, then, when night obscures the fish, the creature’s future\r\nwake through the darkness is almost as established to the sagacious\r\nmind of the hunter, as the pilot’s coast is to him. So that to this\r\nhunter’s wondrous skill, the proverbial evanescence of a thing writ in\r\nwater, a wake, is to all desired purposes well nigh as reliable as the\r\nsteadfast land. And as the mighty iron Leviathan of the modern railway\r\nis so familiarly known in its every pace, that, with watches in their\r\nhands, men time his rate as doctors that of a baby’s pulse; and lightly\r\nsay of it, the up train or the down train will reach such or such a\r\nspot, at such or such an hour; even so, almost, there are occasions\r\nwhen these Nantucketers time that other Leviathan of the deep,\r\naccording to the observed humor of his speed; and say to themselves, so\r\nmany hours hence this whale will have gone two hundred miles, will have\r\nabout reached this or that degree of latitude or longitude. But to\r\nrender this acuteness at all successful in the end, the wind and the\r\nsea must be the whaleman’s allies; for of what present avail to the\r\nbecalmed or windbound mariner is the skill that assures him he is\r\nexactly ninety-three leagues and a quarter from his port? Inferable\r\nfrom these statements, are many collateral subtile matters touching the\r\nchase of whales.\r\n\r\nThe ship tore on; leaving such a furrow in the sea as when a\r\ncannon-ball, missent, becomes a plough-share and turns up the level\r\nfield.\r\n\r\n“By salt and hemp!” cried Stubb, “but this swift motion of the deck\r\ncreeps up one’s legs and tingles at the heart. This ship and I are two\r\nbrave fellows!—Ha, ha! Some one take me up, and launch me, spine-wise,\r\non the sea,—for by live-oaks! my spine’s a keel. Ha, ha! we go the gait\r\nthat leaves no dust behind!”\r\n\r\n“There she blows—she blows!—she blows!—right ahead!” was now the\r\nmast-head cry.\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye!” cried Stubb, “I knew it—ye can’t escape—blow on and split\r\nyour spout, O whale! the mad fiend himself is after ye! blow your\r\ntrump—blister your lungs!—Ahab will dam off your blood, as a miller\r\nshuts his watergate upon the stream!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"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":"01KFNR8BA7RAGW5EWXQSF6AT5R","peer_label":"Chunk 9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8BA2DK3RVSMZBSXMG56N","peer_label":"Chunk 7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.918Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.903Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}