{"id":"01KG8AM41DDTM9RAQMFNAE6R2V","cid":"bafkreia7toewejaffg7agjeqa2cydazsonytnuj3qoqx5c7wduuhioim5e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1453,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":1387,"text":"is proverbial, frequently extending over a period of four or five years.\r\n\r\nSome long-haired, bare-necked youths, who, forced by the united\r\ninfluences of Captain Marryatt and hard times, embark at Nantucket for\r\na pleasure excursion to the Pacific, and whose anxious mothers provide\r\nthem, with bottled milk for the occasion, oftentimes return very\r\nrespectable middle-aged gentlemen.\r\n\r\nThe very preparations made for one of these expeditions are enough to\r\nfrighten one. As the vessel carries out no cargo, her hold is filled\r\nwith provisions for her own consumption. The owners, who officiate\r\nas caterers for the voyage, supply the larder with an abundance\r\nof dainties. Delicate morsels of beef and pork, cut on scientific\r\nprinciples from every part of the animal, and of all conceivable shapes\r\nand sizes, are carefully packed in salt, and stored away in barrels;\r\naffording a never-ending variety in their different degrees of\r\ntoughness, and in the peculiarities of their saline properties. Choice\r\nold water too, decanted into stout six-barrel-casks, and two pints of\r\nwhich is allowed every day to each soul on board; together with ample\r\nstore of sea-bread, previously reduced to a state of petrifaction, with\r\na view to preserve it either from decay or consumption in the ordinary\r\nmode, are likewise provided for the nourishment and gastronomic\r\nenjoyment of the crew.\r\n\r\nBut not to speak of the quality of these articles of sailors’ fare,\r\nthe abundance in which they are put onboard a whaling vessel is almost\r\nincredible. Oftentimes, when we had occasion to break out in the hold,\r\nand I beheld the successive tiers of casks and barrels, whose contents\r\nwere all destined to be consumed in due course by the ship’s company, my\r\nheart has sunk within me.\r\n\r\nAlthough, as a general case, a ship unlucky in falling in with\r\nwhales continues to cruise after them until she has barely sufficient\r\nprovisions remaining to take her home, turning round then quietly and\r\nmaking the best of her way to her friends, yet there are instances when\r\neven this natural obstacle to the further prosecution of the voyage\r\nis overcome by headstrong captains, who, bartering the fruits of their\r\nhard-earned toils for a new supply of provisions in some of the ports\r\nof Chili or Peru, begin the voyage afresh with unabated zeal and\r\nperseverance. It is in vain that the owners write urgent letters to him\r\nto sail for home, and for their sake to bring back the ship, since it\r\nappears he can put nothing in her. Not he. He has registered a vow: he\r\nwill fill his vessel with good sperm oil, or failing to do so, never\r\nagain strike Yankee soundings.\r\n\r\nI heard of one whaler, which after many years’ absence was given up for\r\nlost. The last that had been heard of her was a shadowy report of her\r\nhaving touched at some of those unstable islands in the far Pacific,\r\nwhose eccentric wanderings are carefully noted in each new edition\r\nof the South-Sea charts. After a long interval, however, ‘The\r\nPerseverance’--for that was her name--was spoken somewhere in the\r\nvicinity of the ends of the earth, cruising along as leisurely as ever,\r\nher sails all bepatched and be quilted with rope-yarns, her spars fished\r\nwith old pipe staves, and her rigging knotted and spliced in every\r\npossible direction. Her crew was composed of some twenty venerable\r\nGreenwich-pensioner-looking old salts, who just managed to hobble about\r\ndeck. The ends of all the running ropes, with the exception of the\r\nsignal halyards and poop-down-haul, were rove through snatch-blocks, and\r\nled to the capstan or windlass, so that not a yard was braced or a sail\r\nset without the assistance of machinery.\r\n\r\nHer hull was encrusted with barnacles, which completely encased her.\r\nThree pet sharks followed in her wake, and every day came alongside to\r\nregale themselves from the contents of the cook’s bucket, which were\r\npitched over to them. A vast shoal of bonetas and albicores always kept\r\nher company.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPEC9ESE5GQQSYRWJRGQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM41DCMRBCDZX2PS6J15S","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM41RG5HEFZ8PV1HWMG4B","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.669Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:33.734Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}