{"id":"01KFNR8BEWPWEGD2H3W6HG495X","cid":"bafkreicvhxgtt33wzc5dg6mv2zgmdpmgoeedr73vgfqsy3c26ornec2xjy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":20562,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.415Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":20494,"text":"rope, sir—I give it into thy hands, Starbuck.” Then arranging his\r\nperson in the basket, he gave the word for them to hoist him to his\r\nperch, Starbuck being the one who secured the rope at last; and\r\nafterwards stood near it. And thus, with one hand clinging round the\r\nroyal mast, Ahab gazed abroad upon the sea for miles and miles,—ahead,\r\nastern, this side, and that,—within the wide expanded circle commanded\r\nat so great a height.\r\n\r\nWhen in working with his hands at some lofty almost isolated place in\r\nthe rigging, which chances to afford no foothold, the sailor at sea is\r\nhoisted up to that spot, and sustained there by the rope; under these\r\ncircumstances, its fastened end on deck is always given in strict\r\ncharge to some one man who has the special watch of it. Because in such\r\na wilderness of running rigging, whose various different relations\r\naloft cannot always be infallibly discerned by what is seen of them at\r\nthe deck; and when the deck-ends of these ropes are being every few\r\nminutes cast down from the fastenings, it would be but a natural\r\nfatality, if, unprovided with a constant watchman, the hoisted sailor\r\nshould by some carelessness of the crew be cast adrift and fall all\r\nswooping to the sea. So Ahab’s proceedings in this matter were not\r\nunusual; the only strange thing about them seemed to be, that Starbuck,\r\nalmost the one only man who had ever ventured to oppose him with\r\nanything in the slightest degree approaching to decision—one of those\r\ntoo, whose faithfulness on the look-out he had seemed to doubt\r\nsomewhat;—it was strange, that this was the very man he should select\r\nfor his watchman; freely giving his whole life into such an otherwise\r\ndistrusted person’s hands.\r\n\r\nNow, the first time Ahab was perched aloft; ere he had been there ten\r\nminutes; one of those red-billed savage sea-hawks which so often fly\r\nincommodiously close round the manned mast-heads of whalemen in these\r\nlatitudes; one of these birds came wheeling and screaming round his\r\nhead in a maze of untrackably swift circlings. Then it darted a\r\nthousand feet straight up into the air; then spiralized downwards, and\r\nwent eddying again round his head.\r\n\r\nBut with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon, Ahab seemed\r\nnot to mark this wild bird; nor, indeed, would any one else have marked\r\nit much, it being no uncommon circumstance; only now almost the least\r\nheedful eye seemed to see some sort of cunning meaning in almost every\r\nsight.\r\n\r\n“Your hat, your hat, sir!” suddenly cried the Sicilian seaman, who\r\nbeing posted at the mizen-mast-head, stood directly behind Ahab, though\r\nsomewhat lower than his level, and with a deep gulf of air dividing\r\nthem.\r\n\r\nBut already the sable wing was before the old man’s eyes; the long\r\nhooked bill at his head: with a scream, the black hawk darted away with\r\nhis prize.\r\n\r\nAn eagle flew thrice round Tarquin’s head, removing his cap to replace\r\nit, and thereupon Tanaquil, his wife, declared that Tarquin would be\r\nking of Rome. But only by the replacing of the cap was that omen\r\naccounted good. Ahab’s hat was never restored; the wild hawk flew on\r\nand on with it; far in advance of the prow: and at last disappeared;\r\nwhile from the point of that disappearance, a minute black spot was\r\ndimly discerned, falling from that vast height into the sea.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight.\r\n\r\nThe intense Pequod sailed on; the rolling waves and days went by; the\r\nlife-buoy-coffin still lightly swung; and another ship, most miserably\r\nmisnamed the Delight, was descried. As she drew nigh, all eyes were\r\nfixed upon her broad beams, called shears, which, in some\r\nwhaling-ships, cross the quarter-deck at the height of eight or nine\r\nfeet; serving to carry the spare, unrigged, or disabled boats.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR85HWH9HN24BMXKFAYMN7","peer_label":"131","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR85HWH9HN24BMXKFAYMN7","peer_label":"131","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":"01KFNR8B8F76CPBCQ5S6KFTQCW","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8BEQVWJF82VBEP3QCZ48","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:07.163Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.912Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}