{"id":"01KG8AKWWWMYPFMYVS0P04EXPN","cid":"bafkreialb26jxpok5htaq6eabgah6iu5mw6sgbtu6jf36xyfjocyenlwte","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1192,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.534Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":1129,"text":"CHAPTER IX.\r\nThe Watery World Is All Before Them\r\n\r\n\r\nAt sea in an open boat, and a thousand miles from land!\r\n\r\nShortly after the break of day, in the gray transparent light, a speck\r\nto windward broke the even line of the horizon. It was the ship wending\r\nher way north-eastward.\r\n\r\nHad I not known the final indifference of sailors to such disasters as\r\nthat which the Arcturion’s crew must have imputed to the night past\r\n(did not the skipper suspect the truth) I would have regarded that\r\nlittle speck with many compunctions of conscience. Nor, as it was, did\r\nI feel in any very serene humor. For the consciousness of being deemed\r\ndead, is next to the presumable unpleasantness of being so in reality.\r\nOne feels like his own ghost unlawfully tenanting a defunct carcass.\r\nEven Jarl’s glance seemed so queer, that I begged him to look another\r\nway.\r\n\r\nSecure now from all efforts of the captain to recover those whom he\r\nmost probably supposed lost; and equally cut off from all hope of\r\nreturning to the ship even had we felt so inclined; the resolution that\r\nhad thus far nerved me, began to succumb in a measure to the awful\r\nloneliness of the scene. Ere this, I had regarded the ocean as a slave,\r\nthe steed that bore me whither I listed, and whose vicious\r\npropensities, mighty though they were, often proved harmless, when\r\nopposed to the genius of man. But now, how changed! In our frail boat,\r\nI would fain have built an altar to Neptune.\r\n\r\nWhat a mere toy we were to the billows, that jeeringly shouldered us\r\nfrom crest to crest, as from hand to hand lost souls may be tossed\r\nalong by the chain of shades which enfilade the route to Tartarus.\r\n\r\nBut drown or swim, here’s overboard with care! Cheer up, Jarl! Ha! Ha!\r\nhow merrily, yet terribly, we sail! Up, up—slowly up—toiling up the\r\nlong, calm wave; then balanced on its summit a while, like a plank on a\r\nrail; and down, we plunge headlong into the seething abyss, till\r\narrested, we glide upward again. And thus did we go. Now buried in\r\nwatery hollows—our sail idly flapping; then lifted aloft—canvas\r\nbellying; and beholding the furthest horizon.\r\n\r\nHad not our familiarity with the business of whaling divested our\r\ncraft’s wild motions of its first novel horrors, we had been but a\r\nrueful pair. But day-long pulls after whales, the ship left miles\r\nastern; and entire dark nights passed moored to the monsters, killed\r\ntoo late to be towed to the ship far to leeward:—all this, and much\r\nmore, accustoms one to strange things. Death, to be sure, has a mouth\r\nas black as a wolf’s, and to be thrust into his jaws is a serious\r\nthing. But true it most certainly is—and I speak from no hearsay—that\r\nto sailors, as a class, the grisly king seems not half so hideous as he\r\nappears to those who have only regarded him on shore, and at a\r\ndeferential distance. Like many ugly mortals, his features grow less\r\nfrightful upon acquaintance; and met over often and sociably, the old\r\nadage holds true, about familiarity breeding contempt. Thus too with\r\nsoldiers. Of the quaking recruit, three pitched battles make a grim\r\ngrenadier; and he who shrank from the muzzle of a cannon, is now ready\r\nto yield his mustache for a sponge.\r\n\r\nAnd truly, since death is the last enemy of all, valiant souls will\r\ntaunt him while they may. Yet rather, should the wise regard him as the\r\ninflexible friend, who, even against our own wills, from life’s evils\r\ntriumphantly relieves us.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ68JSJZDEC46QHC61X7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWWWGYX6BZJZJ52M3QCF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.356Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.462Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}