{"id":"01KFNR8BC9J848DK6ZSG66D2RV","cid":"bafkreiffsd5nelotiuk6uisalqjsme2ejy2upce4solbht3yqyzvmbpvuu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17250,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.397Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":17188,"text":"That ship—well called the “Syren”—made a noble experimental cruise; and\r\nit was thus that the great Japanese Whaling Ground first became\r\ngenerally known. The Syren in this famous voyage was commanded by a\r\nCaptain Coffin, a Nantucketer.\r\n\r\nAll honor to the Enderbies, therefore, whose house, I think, exists to\r\nthe present day; though doubtless the original Samuel must long ago\r\nhave slipped his cable for the great South Sea of the other world.\r\n\r\nThe ship named after him was worthy of the honor, being a very fast\r\nsailer and a noble craft every way. I boarded her once at midnight\r\nsomewhere off the Patagonian coast, and drank good flip down in the\r\nforecastle. It was a fine gam we had, and they were all trumps—every\r\nsoul on board. A short life to them, and a jolly death. And that fine\r\ngam I had—long, very long after old Ahab touched her planks with his\r\nivory heel—it minds me of the noble, solid, Saxon hospitality of that\r\nship; and may my parson forget me, and the devil remember me, if I ever\r\nlose sight of it. Flip? Did I say we had flip? Yes, and we flipped it\r\nat the rate of ten gallons the hour; and when the squall came (for it’s\r\nsqually off there by Patagonia), and all hands—visitors and all—were\r\ncalled to reef topsails, we were so top-heavy that we had to swing each\r\nother aloft in bowlines; and we ignorantly furled the skirts of our\r\njackets into the sails, so that we hung there, reefed fast in the\r\nhowling gale, a warning example to all drunken tars. However, the masts\r\ndid not go overboard; and by and by we scrambled down, so sober, that\r\nwe had to pass the flip again, though the savage salt spray bursting\r\ndown the forecastle scuttle, rather too much diluted and pickled it to\r\nmy taste.\r\n\r\nThe beef was fine—tough, but with body in it. They said it was\r\nbull-beef; others, that it was dromedary beef; but I do not know, for\r\ncertain, how that was. They had dumplings too; small, but substantial,\r\nsymmetrically globular, and indestructible dumplings. I fancied that\r\nyou could feel them, and roll them about in you after they were\r\nswallowed. If you stooped over too far forward, you risked their\r\npitching out of you like billiard-balls. The bread—but that couldn’t be\r\nhelped; besides, it was an anti-scorbutic; in short, the bread\r\ncontained the only fresh fare they had. But the forecastle was not very\r\nlight, and it was very easy to step over into a dark corner when you\r\nate it. But all in all, taking her from truck to helm, considering the\r\ndimensions of the cook’s boilers, including his own live parchment\r\nboilers; fore and aft, I say, the Samuel Enderby was a jolly ship; of\r\ngood fare and plenty; fine flip and strong; crack fellows all, and\r\ncapital from boot heels to hat-band.\r\n\r\nBut why was it, think ye, that the Samuel Enderby, and some other\r\nEnglish whalers I know of—not all though—were such famous, hospitable\r\nships; that passed round the beef, and the bread, and the can, and the\r\njoke; and were not soon weary of eating, and drinking, and laughing? I\r\nwill tell you. The abounding good cheer of these English whalers is\r\nmatter for historical research. Nor have I been at all sparing of\r\nhistorical whale research, when it has seemed needed.\r\n\r\nThe English were preceded in the whale fishery by the Hollanders,\r\nZealanders, and Danes; from whom they derived many terms still extant\r\nin the fishery; and what is yet more, their fat old fashions, touching\r\nplenty to eat and drink. For, as a general thing, the English\r\nmerchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler. Hence,\r\nin the English, this thing of whaling good cheer is not normal and\r\nnatural, but incidental and particular; and, therefore, must have some\r\nspecial origin, which is here pointed out, and will be still further\r\nelucidated.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849R93YVRZV44VYTQ6VY","peer_label":"The Doubloon","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849R93YVRZV44VYTQ6VY","peer_label":"The Doubloon","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":"01KFNR8BCAH7AQ17NT69MC0HQA","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8BBT3ZZATNPY0CJ8VBK7","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.885Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.625Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}