{"id":"01KFNR8BCH58M9T8WM3ZJ4FR95","cid":"bafkreid5hp7ub7sbmvsfntku76tzt2psbf724mhoxqyxpcveuk2q7y5ri4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17016,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.396Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":16950,"text":"“And he took that arm off, did he?” asked Ahab, now sliding down from\r\nthe capstan, and resting on the Englishman’s shoulder, as he did so.\r\n\r\n“Aye, he was the cause of it, at least; and that leg, too?”\r\n\r\n“Spin me the yarn,” said Ahab; “how was it?”\r\n\r\n“It was the first time in my life that I ever cruised on the Line,”\r\nbegan the Englishman. “I was ignorant of the White Whale at that time.\r\nWell, one day we lowered for a pod of four or five whales, and my boat\r\nfastened to one of them; a regular circus horse he was, too, that went\r\nmilling and milling round so, that my boat’s crew could only trim dish,\r\nby sitting all their sterns on the outer gunwale. Presently up breaches\r\nfrom the bottom of the sea a bouncing great whale, with a milky-white\r\nhead and hump, all crows’ feet and wrinkles.”\r\n\r\n“It was he, it was he!” cried Ahab, suddenly letting out his suspended\r\nbreath.\r\n\r\n“And harpoons sticking in near his starboard fin.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye—they were mine—_my_ irons,” cried Ahab, exultingly—“but on!”\r\n\r\n“Give me a chance, then,” said the Englishman, good-humoredly. “Well,\r\nthis old great-grandfather, with the white head and hump, runs all\r\nafoam into the pod, and goes to snapping furiously at my fast-line!\r\n\r\n“Aye, I see!—wanted to part it; free the fast-fish—an old trick—I know\r\nhim.”\r\n\r\n“How it was exactly,” continued the one-armed commander, “I do not\r\nknow; but in biting the line, it got foul of his teeth, caught there\r\nsomehow; but we didn’t know it then; so that when we afterwards pulled\r\non the line, bounce we came plump on to his hump! instead of the other\r\nwhale’s; that went off to windward, all fluking. Seeing how matters\r\nstood, and what a noble great whale it was—the noblest and biggest I\r\never saw, sir, in my life—I resolved to capture him, spite of the\r\nboiling rage he seemed to be in. And thinking the hap-hazard line would\r\nget loose, or the tooth it was tangled to might draw (for I have a\r\ndevil of a boat’s crew for a pull on a whale-line); seeing all this, I\r\nsay, I jumped into my first mate’s boat—Mr. Mounttop’s here (by the\r\nway, Captain—Mounttop; Mounttop—the captain);—as I was saying, I jumped\r\ninto Mounttop’s boat, which, d’ye see, was gunwale and gunwale with\r\nmine, then; and snatching the first harpoon, let this old\r\ngreat-grandfather have it. But, Lord, look you, sir—hearts and souls\r\nalive, man—the next instant, in a jiff, I was blind as a bat—both eyes\r\nout—all befogged and bedeadened with black foam—the whale’s tail\r\nlooming straight up out of it, perpendicular in the air, like a marble\r\nsteeple. No use sterning all, then; but as I was groping at midday,\r\nwith a blinding sun, all crown-jewels; as I was groping, I say, after\r\nthe second iron, to toss it overboard—down comes the tail like a Lima\r\ntower, cutting my boat in two, leaving each half in splinters; and,\r\nflukes first, the white hump backed through the wreck, as though it was\r\nall chips. We all struck out. To escape his terrible flailings, I\r\nseized hold of my harpoon-pole sticking in him, and for a moment clung\r\nto that like a sucking fish. But a combing sea dashed me off, and at\r\nthe same instant, the fish, taking one good dart forwards, went down\r\nlike a flash; and the barb of that cursed second iron towing along near\r\nme caught me here” (clapping his hand just below his shoulder); “yes,\r\ncaught me just here, I say, and bore me down to Hell’s flames, I was\r\nthinking; when, when, all of a sudden, thank the good God, the barb\r\nript its way along the flesh—clear along the whole length of my\r\narm—came out nigh my wrist, and up I floated;—and that gentleman there\r\nwill tell you the rest (by the way, captain—Dr. Bunger, ship’s surgeon:\r\nBunger, my lad,—the captain). Now, Bunger boy, spin your part of the\r\nyarn.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"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":"01KFNR8BCA9YBZED6J914NNDZ4","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:07.246Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.884Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}