{"id":"01KFNR8BCAH7AQ17NT69MC0HQA","cid":"bafkreigv2f6sw3fc2ht2auojed3v6qigqgs64qk7sgu5g63i5qgyquhjru","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17293,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.397Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":17243,"text":"in 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\nDuring my researches in the Leviathanic histories, I stumbled upon an\r\nancient Dutch volume, which, by the musty whaling smell of it, I knew\r\nmust be about whalers. The title was, “Dan Coopman,” wherefore I\r\nconcluded that this must be the invaluable memoirs of some Amsterdam\r\ncooper in the fishery, as every whale ship must carry its cooper. I was\r\nreinforced in this opinion by seeing that it was the production of one\r\n“Fitz Swackhammer.” But my friend Dr. Snodhead, a very learned man,\r\nprofessor of Low Dutch and High German in the college of Santa Claus\r\nand St. Pott’s, to whom I handed the work for translation, giving him a\r\nbox of sperm candles for his trouble—this same Dr. Snodhead, so soon as\r\nhe spied the book, assured me that “Dan Coopman” did not mean “The\r\nCooper,” but “The Merchant.” In short, this ancient and learned Low\r\nDutch book treated of the commerce of Holland; and, among other\r\nsubjects, contained a very interesting account of its whale fishery.\r\nAnd in this chapter it was, headed, “Smeer,” or “Fat,” that I found a\r\nlong detailed list of the outfits for the larders and cellars of 180\r\nsail of Dutch whalemen; from which list, as translated by Dr. Snodhead,\r\nI transcribe the following:\r\n\r\n400,000 lbs. of beef. 60,000 lbs. Friesland pork. 150,000 lbs. of stock\r\nfish. 550,000 lbs. of biscuit. 72,000 lbs. of soft bread. 2,800 firkins\r\nof butter. 20,000 lbs. Texel & Leyden cheese. 144,000 lbs. cheese\r\n(probably an inferior article). 550 ankers of Geneva. 10,800 barrels of\r\nbeer.\r\n\r\nMost statistical tables are parchingly dry in the reading; not so in\r\nthe present case, however, where the reader is flooded with whole\r\npipes, barrels, quarts, and gills of good gin and good cheer.\r\n\r\nAt the time, I devoted three days to the studious digesting of all this\r\nbeer, beef, and bread, during which many profound thoughts were\r\nincidentally suggested to me, capable of a transcendental and Platonic\r\napplication; and, furthermore, I compiled supplementary tables of my\r\nown, touching the probable quantity of stock-fish, etc., consumed by\r\nevery Low Dutch harpooneer in that ancient Greenland and Spitzbergen\r\nwhale fishery. In the first place, the amount of butter, and Texel and\r\nLeyden cheese consumed, seems amazing. I impute it, though, to their\r\nnaturally unctuous natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the\r\nnature of their vocation, and especially by their pursuing their game\r\nin those frigid Polar Seas, on the very coasts of that Esquimaux\r\ncountry where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of\r\ntrain oil.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"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":"01KFNR8BBRFH0SCJGTW65681E9","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8BC9J848DK6ZSG66D2RV","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:07.064Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.699Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}