{"id":"01KG8AKWWSDGBEE8QYY4Q2GJ9W","cid":"bafkreifkmjm6df67dnwlhbu42r3yf64srfmchdeg65kuvzgmvc3pzdimye","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1079,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.534Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":1004,"text":"CHAPTER VIII.\r\nThey Push Off, Velis Et Remis\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd now to tell how, tempted by devil or good angel, and a thousand\r\nmiles from land, we embarked upon this western voyage.\r\n\r\nIt was midnight, mark you, when our watch began; and my turn at the\r\nhelm now coming on was of course to be avoided. On some plausible\r\npretense, I induced our solitary watchmate to assume it; thus leaving\r\nmyself untrammeled, and at the same time satisfactorily disposing of\r\nhim. For being a rather fat fellow, an enormous consumer of “duff,” and\r\nwith good reason supposed to be the son of a farmer, I made no doubt,\r\nhe would pursue his old course and fall to nodding over the wheel. As\r\nfor the leader of the watch—our harpooner—he fell heir to the nest of\r\nold jackets, under the lee of the mizzen-mast, left nice and warm by\r\nhis predecessor.\r\n\r\nThe night was even blacker than we had anticipated; there was no trace\r\nof a moon; and the dark purple haze, sometimes encountered at night\r\nnear the Line, half shrouded the stars from view.\r\n\r\nWaiting about twenty minutes after the last man of the previous watch\r\nhad gone below, I motioned to Jarl, and we slipped our shoes from our\r\nfeet. He then descended into the forecastle, and I sauntered aft toward\r\nthe quarter-deck. All was still. Thrice did I pass my hand full before\r\nthe face of the slumbering lubber at the helm, and right between him\r\nand the light of the binnacle.\r\n\r\nMark, the harpooneer, was not so easily sounded. I feared to approach\r\nhim. He lay quietly, though; but asleep or awake, no more delay. Risks\r\nmust be run, when time presses. And our ears were a pointer’s to catch\r\na sound.\r\n\r\nTo work we went, without hurry, but swiftly and silently. Our various\r\nstores were dragged from their lurking-places, and placed in the boat,\r\nwhich hung from the ship’s lee side, the side depressed in the water,\r\nan indispensable requisite to an attempt at escape. And though at\r\nsundown the boat was to windward, yet, as we had foreseen, the vessel\r\nhaving been tacked during the first watch, brought it to leeward.\r\n\r\nEndeavoring to manhandle our clumsy breaker, and lift it into the boat,\r\nwe found, that by reason of the intervention of the shrouds, it could\r\nnot be done without, risking a jar; besides straining the craft in\r\nlowering. An expedient, however, though at the eleventh hour, was hit\r\nupon. Fastening a long rope to the breaker, which was perfectly tight,\r\nwe cautiously dropped it overboard; paying out enough line, to insure\r\nits towing astern of the ship, so as not to strike against the copper.\r\nThe other end of the line we then secured to the boat’s stern.\r\n\r\nFortunately, this was the last thing to be done; for the breaker,\r\nacting as a clog to the vessel’s way in the water, so affected her\r\nsteering as to fling her perceptibly into the wind. And by causing the\r\nhelm to work, this must soon rouse the lubber there stationed, if not\r\nalready awake. But our dropping overboard the breaker greatly aided us\r\nin this respect: it diminished the ship’s headway; which owing to the\r\nlight breeze had not been very great at any time during the night. Had\r\nit been so, all hope of escaping without first arresting the vessel’s\r\nprogress, would have been little short of madness. As it was, the sole\r\ndaring of the deed that night achieved, consisted in our lowering away\r\nwhile the ship yet clove the brine, though but moderately.\r\n\r\nAll was now ready: the cranes swung in, the lashings adrift, and the\r\nboat fairly suspended; when, seizing the ends of the tackle ropes, we\r\nsilently stepped into it, one at each end. The dead weight of the\r\nbreaker astern now dragged the craft horizontally through the air, so\r\nthat her tackle ropes strained hard. She quivered like a dolphin.\r\nNevertheless, had we not feared her loud splash upon striking the wave,\r\nwe might have quitted the ship almost as silently as the breath the\r\nbody. But this was out of the question, and our plans were laid\r\naccordingly.\r\n\r\n“All ready, Jarl?”\r\n\r\n“Ready.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ6BH6MH34DBJR6WAAM1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWWSR5FYC3CKKTKHFK7Q","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.353Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.679Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}