{"id":"01KG8AKXGZBZ58NSJ9P1VPB2XD","cid":"bafkreieefhtklsaodook6fk7wz262rlbeivf6tniclszabgjx2g4546f6a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1786,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.534Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":1716,"text":"CHAPTER XVI.\r\nThey Are Becalmed\r\n\r\n\r\nOn the eighth day there was a calm.\r\n\r\nIt came on by night: so that waking at daybreak, and folding my arms\r\nover the gunwale, I looked out upon a scene very hard to describe. The\r\nsun was still beneath the horizon; perhaps not yet out of sight from\r\nthe plains of Paraguay. But the dawn was too strong for the stars;\r\nwhich, one by one, had gone out, like waning lamps after a ball.\r\n\r\nNow, as the face of a mirror is a blank, only borrowing character from\r\nwhat it reflects; so in a calm in the Tropics, a colorless sky\r\noverhead, the ocean, upon its surface, hardly presents a sign of\r\nexistence. The deep blue is gone; and the glassy element lies tranced;\r\nalmost viewless as the air.\r\n\r\nBut that morning, the two gray firmaments of sky and water seemed\r\ncollapsed into a vague ellipsis. And alike, the Chamois seemed drifting\r\nin the atmosphere as in the sea. Every thing was fused into the calm:\r\nsky, air, water, and all. Not a fish was to be seen. The silence was\r\nthat of a vacuum. No vitality lurked in the air. And this inert\r\nblending and brooding of all things seemed gray chaos in conception.\r\n\r\nThis calm lasted four days and four nights; during which, but a few\r\ncat’s-paws of wind varied the scene. They were faint as the breath of\r\none dying.\r\n\r\nAt times the heat was intense. The heavens, at midday, glowing like an\r\nignited coal mine. Our skin curled up like lint; our vision became dim;\r\nthe brain dizzy.\r\n\r\nTo our consternation, the water in the breaker became lukewarm,\r\nbrackish, and slightly putrescent; notwithstanding we kept our spare\r\nclothing piled upon the breaker, to shield it from the sun. At last,\r\nJarl enlarged the vent, carefully keeping it exposed. To this\r\nprecaution, doubtless, we owed more than we then thought. It was now\r\ndeemed wise to reduce our allowance of water to the smallest modicum\r\nconsistent with the present preservation of life; strangling all desire\r\nfor more.\r\n\r\nNor was this all. The upper planking of the boat began to warp; here\r\nand there, cracking and splintering. But though we kept it moistened\r\nwith brine, one of the plank-ends started from its place; and the\r\nsharp, sudden sound, breaking the scorching silence, caused us both to\r\nspring to our feet. Instantly the sea burst in; but we made shift to\r\nsecure the rebellious plank with a cord, not having a nail; we then\r\nbailed out the boat, nearly half full of water.\r\n\r\nOn the second day of the calm, we unshipped the mast, to prevent its\r\nbeing pitched out by the occasional rolling of the vast smooth swells\r\nnow overtaking us. Leagues and leagues away, after its fierce raging,\r\nsome tempest must have been sending to us its last dying waves. For as\r\na pebble dropped into a pond ruffles it to its marge; so, on all sides,\r\na sea-gale operates as if an asteroid had fallen into the brine; making\r\nringed mountain billows, interminably expanding, instead of ripples.\r\n\r\nThe great September waves breaking at the base of the Neversink\r\nHighlands, far in advance of the swiftest pilot-boat, carry tidings.\r\nAnd full often, they know the last secret of many a stout ship, never\r\nheard of from the day she left port. Every wave in my eyes seems a\r\nsoul.\r\n\r\nAs there was no steering to be done, Jarl and I sheltered ourselves as\r\nwell as we could under the awning. And for the first two days, one at a\r\ntime, and every three or four hours, we dropped overboard for a bath,\r\nclinging to the gun-wale; a sharp look-out being kept for prowling\r\nsharks. A foot or two below the surface, the water felt cool and\r\nrefreshing.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ6BY3TBWWBMJCY4NWEY","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXGZ6ZS3SBBPZ5RKHJ21","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.999Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.678Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}