{"id":"01KFNR8BB7BT9F8HN96TGS3ZC4","cid":"bafkreifjqtpurp2beimzmxkhd5ejlf63fzopnx5i5qcvqaf6xvrlfzsii4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":19787,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.411Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":19720,"text":"compasses pointed East, and the Pequod was as infallibly going West.\r\n\r\nBut ere the first wild alarm could get out abroad among the crew, the\r\nold man with a rigid laugh exclaimed, “I have it! It has happened\r\nbefore. Mr. Starbuck, last night’s thunder turned our compasses—that’s\r\nall. Thou hast before now heard of such a thing, I take it.”\r\n\r\n“Aye; but never before has it happened to me, sir,” said the pale mate,\r\ngloomily.\r\n\r\nHere, it must needs be said, that accidents like this have in more than\r\none case occurred to ships in violent storms. The magnetic energy, as\r\ndeveloped in the mariner’s needle, is, as all know, essentially one\r\nwith the electricity beheld in heaven; hence it is not to be much\r\nmarvelled at, that such things should be. Instances where the lightning\r\nhas actually struck the vessel, so as to smite down some of the spars\r\nand rigging, the effect upon the needle has at times been still more\r\nfatal; all its loadstone virtue being annihilated, so that the before\r\nmagnetic steel was of no more use than an old wife’s knitting needle.\r\nBut in either case, the needle never again, of itself, recovers the\r\noriginal virtue thus marred or lost; and if the binnacle compasses be\r\naffected, the same fate reaches all the others that may be in the ship;\r\neven were the lowermost one inserted into the kelson.\r\n\r\nDeliberately standing before the binnacle, and eyeing the transpointed\r\ncompasses, the old man, with the sharp of his extended hand, now took\r\nthe precise bearing of the sun, and satisfied that the needles were\r\nexactly inverted, shouted out his orders for the ship’s course to be\r\nchanged accordingly. The yards were hard up; and once more the Pequod\r\nthrust her undaunted bows into the opposing wind, for the supposed fair\r\none had only been juggling her.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, whatever were his own secret thoughts, Starbuck said\r\nnothing, but quietly he issued all requisite orders; while Stubb and\r\nFlask—who in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his\r\nfeelings—likewise unmurmuringly acquiesced. As for the men, though some\r\nof them lowly rumbled, their fear of Ahab was greater than their fear\r\nof Fate. But as ever before, the pagan harpooneers remained almost\r\nwholly unimpressed; or if impressed, it was only with a certain\r\nmagnetism shot into their congenial hearts from inflexible Ahab’s.\r\n\r\nFor a space the old man walked the deck in rolling reveries. But\r\nchancing to slip with his ivory heel, he saw the crushed copper\r\nsight-tubes of the quadrant he had the day before dashed to the deck.\r\n\r\n“Thou poor, proud heaven-gazer and sun’s pilot! yesterday I wrecked\r\nthee, and to-day the compasses would fain have wrecked me. So, so. But\r\nAhab is lord over the level loadstone yet. Mr. Starbuck—a lance without\r\na pole; a top-maul, and the smallest of the sail-maker’s needles.\r\nQuick!”\r\n\r\nAccessory, perhaps, to the impulse dictating the thing he was now about\r\nto do, were certain prudential motives, whose object might have been to\r\nrevive the spirits of his crew by a stroke of his subtile skill, in a\r\nmatter so wondrous as that of the inverted compasses. Besides, the old\r\nman well knew that to steer by transpointed needles, though clumsily\r\npracticable, was not a thing to be passed over by superstitious\r\nsailors, without some shudderings and evil portents.\r\n\r\n“Men,” said he, steadily turning upon the crew, as the mate handed him\r\nthe things he had demanded, “my men, the thunder turned old Ahab’s\r\nneedles; but out of this bit of steel Ahab can make one of his own,\r\nthat will point as true as any.”\r\n\r\nAbashed glances of servile wonder were exchanged by the sailors, as\r\nthis was said; and with fascinated eyes they awaited whatever magic\r\nmight follow. But Starbuck looked away.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR85HB8J447E0DZTW7DRQ6","peer_label":"125","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR85HB8J447E0DZTW7DRQ6","peer_label":"125","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":"01KFNR8B8QCXS23MVRMWVS4JY3","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B5NJ4NQG4DQM1RAVTQ7","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.995Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.939Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}