{"id":"01KFNR8CGDA2NHYHXATSCAS5SS","cid":"bafkreia6obsiyftlqawiabhzvwubcibc3nmdwxxixtkjd4pw3gl2o7burq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":21967,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:07.812Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":21899,"text":"infatuation, or fidelity, or fate, to their once lofty perches, the\r\npagan harpooneers still maintained their sinking lookouts on the sea.\r\nAnd now, concentric circles seized the lone boat itself, and all its\r\ncrew, and each floating oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning,\r\nanimate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the\r\nsmallest chip of the Pequod out of sight.\r\n\r\nBut as the last whelmings intermixingly poured themselves over the\r\nsunken head of the Indian at the mainmast, leaving a few inches of the\r\nerect spar yet visible, together with long streaming yards of the flag,\r\nwhich calmly undulated, with ironical coincidings, over the destroying\r\nbillows they almost touched;—at that instant, a red arm and a hammer\r\nhovered backwardly uplifted in the open air, in the act of nailing the\r\nflag faster and yet faster to the subsiding spar. A sky-hawk that\r\ntauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home\r\namong the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommoding Tashtego there;\r\nthis bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between\r\nthe hammer and the wood; and simultaneously feeling that etherial\r\nthrill, the submerged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his\r\nhammer frozen there; and so the bird of heaven, with archangelic\r\nshrieks, and his imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole captive\r\nform folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like\r\nSatan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of\r\nheaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it.\r\n\r\nNow small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen\r\nwhite surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the\r\ngreat shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.\r\n\r\n\r\nEpilogue\r\n\r\n“AND I ONLY AM ESCAPED ALONE TO TELL THEE” Job.\r\n\r\nThe drama’s done. Why then here does any one step forth?—Because one\r\ndid survive the wreck.\r\n\r\nIt so chanced, that after the Parsee’s disappearance, I was he whom the\r\nFates ordained to take the place of Ahab’s bowsman, when that bowsman\r\nassumed the vacant post; the same, who, when on the last day the three\r\nmen were tossed from out of the rocking boat, was dropped astern. So,\r\nfloating on the margin of the ensuing scene, and in full sight of it,\r\nwhen the halfspent suction of the sunk ship reached me, I was then, but\r\nslowly, drawn towards the closing vortex. When I reached it, it had\r\nsubsided to a creamy pool. Round and round, then, and ever contracting\r\ntowards the button-like black bubble at the axis of that slowly\r\nwheeling circle, like another Ixion I did revolve. Till, gaining that\r\nvital centre, the black bubble upward burst; and now, liberated by\r\nreason of its cunning spring, and, owing to its great buoyancy, rising\r\nwith great force, the coffin life-buoy shot lengthwise from the sea,\r\nfell over, and floated by my side. Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost\r\none whole day and night, I floated on a soft and dirgelike main. The\r\nunharming sharks, they glided by as if with padlocks on their mouths;\r\nthe savage sea-hawks sailed with sheathed beaks. On the second day, a\r\nsail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the\r\ndevious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing\r\nchildren, only found another orphan.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE ***\r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n\r\nUpdated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will\r\nbe renamed.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR85GMZ5CEWAKR35G2W28B","peer_label":"135","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR85GMZ5CEWAKR35G2W28B","peer_label":"135","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":"01KFNR8CG3B1G6XHR6SDMCZ9CV","peer_label":"Chunk 8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8CGEWY66GMTNX72GZDTG","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:08.282Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.996Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}