{"id":"01KG8AKX6V07HE8S56HABVJCJ1","cid":"bafkreictrh3yhey67bpqixb3mjml2x3glezmtnvkyiidh2kvviw2czsshq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3938,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":3865,"text":"CHAPTER XXI.\r\nA WHALEMAN AND A MAN-OF-WAR’S-MAN\r\n\r\n\r\nThe sight of the whales mentioned in the preceding chapter was the\r\nbringing out of Larry, one of our crew, who hitherto had been quite\r\nsilent and reserved, as if from some conscious inferiority, though he\r\nhad shipped as an _ordinary seaman,_ and, for aught I could see,\r\nperformed his duty very well.\r\n\r\nWhen the men fell into a dispute concerning what kind of whales they\r\nwere which we saw, Larry stood by attentively, and after garnering in\r\ntheir ignorance, all at once broke out, and astonished every body by\r\nhis intimate acquaintance with the monsters.\r\n\r\n“They ar’n’t sperm whales,” said Larry, “their spouts ar’n’t bushy\r\nenough; they ar’n’t Sulphur-bottoms, or they wouldn’t stay up so long;\r\nthey ar’n’t Hump-backs, for they ar’n’t got any humps; they ar’n’t\r\nFin-backs, for you won’t catch a Finback so near a ship; they ar’n’t\r\nGreenland whales, for we ar’n’t off the coast of Greenland; and they\r\nar’n’t right whales, for it wouldn’t be right to say so. I tell ye,\r\nmen, them’s Crinkum-crankum whales.”\r\n\r\n“And what are them?” said a sailor.\r\n\r\n“Why, them is whales that can’t be cotched.”\r\n\r\nNow, as it turned out that this Larry had been bred to the sea in a\r\nwhaler, and had sailed out of Nantucket many times; no one but Jackson\r\nventured to dispute his opinion; and even Jackson did not press him\r\nvery hard. And ever after, Larry’s judgment was relied upon concerning\r\nall strange fish that happened to float by us during the voyage; for\r\nwhalemen are far more familiar with the wonders of the deep than any\r\nother class of seaman.\r\n\r\nThis was Larry’s first voyage in the merchant service, and that was the\r\nreason why, hitherto, he had been so reserved; since he well knew that\r\nmerchant seamen generally affect a certain superiority to\r\n_“blubber-boilers,”_ as they contemptuously style those who hunt the\r\nleviathan. But Larry turned out to be such an inoffensive fellow, and\r\nso well understood his business aboard ship, and was so ready to jump\r\nto an order, that he was exempted from the taunts which he might\r\notherwise have encountered.\r\n\r\nHe was a somewhat singular man, who wore his hat slanting forward over\r\nthe bridge of his nose, with his eyes cast down, and seemed always\r\nexamining your boots, when speaking to you. I loved to hear him talk\r\nabout the wild places in the Indian Ocean, and on the coast of\r\nMadagascar, where he had frequently touched during his whaling voyages.\r\nAnd this familiarity with the life of nature led by the people in that\r\nremote part of the world, had furnished Larry with a sentimental\r\ndistaste for civilized society. When opportunity offered, he never\r\nomitted extolling the delights of the free and easy Indian Ocean.\r\n\r\n“Why,” said Larry, talking through his nose, as usual, “in _Madagasky_\r\nthere, they don’t wear any togs at all, nothing but a bowline round the\r\nmidships; they don’t have no dinners, but keeps a dinin’ all day off\r\nfat pigs and dogs; they don’t go to bed any where, but keeps a noddin’\r\nall the time; and they gets drunk, too, from some first rate arrack\r\nthey make from cocoa-nuts; and smokes plenty of ’baccy, too, I tell ye.\r\nFine country, that! Blast Ameriky, I say!”\r\n\r\nTo tell the truth, this Larry dealt in some illiberal insinuations\r\nagainst civilization.\r\n\r\n“And what’s the use of bein’ _snivelized!”_ said he to me one night\r\nduring our watch on deck; “snivelized chaps only learns the way to take\r\non ’bout life, and snivel. You don’t see any Methodist chaps feelin’\r\ndreadful about their souls; you don’t see any darned beggars and pesky\r\nconstables in _Madagasky, I_ tell ye; and none o’ them kings there gets\r\ntheir big toes pinched by the gout. Blast Ameriky, I say.”\r\n\r\nIndeed, this Larry was rather cutting in his innuendoes.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQS28BC5SY05CSW1RGD9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKX6V6RRYW9CPSENKC5V3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.675Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.747Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}