{"id":"01KG8AP32CGMV57K92M0ED0XK5","cid":"bafkreiflhhsxjrcf65k6hqoqg76m4bru5c6vojyymk4abmydrram25qz3e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17246,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.774Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":17186,"text":"other aloft in bowlines; and we ignorantly furled the skirts of our\r\njackets into the sails, so that we hung there, reefed fast in the\r\nhowling gale, a warning example to all drunken tars. However, the masts\r\ndid not go overboard; and by and by we scrambled down, so sober, that\r\nwe had to pass the flip again, though the savage salt spray bursting\r\ndown the forecastle scuttle, rather too much diluted and pickled it to\r\nmy taste.\r\n\r\nThe beef was fine—tough, but with body in it. They said it was\r\nbull-beef; others, that it was dromedary beef; but I do not know, for\r\ncertain, how that was. They had dumplings too; small, but substantial,\r\nsymmetrically globular, and indestructible dumplings. I fancied that\r\nyou could feel them, and roll them about in you after they were\r\nswallowed. If you stooped over too far forward, you risked their\r\npitching out of you like billiard-balls. The bread—but that couldn’t be\r\nhelped; besides, it was an anti-scorbutic; in short, the bread\r\ncontained the only fresh fare they had. But the forecastle was not very\r\nlight, and it was very easy to step over into a dark corner when you\r\nate it. But all in all, taking her from truck to helm, considering the\r\ndimensions of the cook’s boilers, including his own live parchment\r\nboilers; fore and aft, I say, the Samuel Enderby was a jolly ship; of\r\ngood fare and plenty; fine flip and strong; crack fellows all, and\r\ncapital from boot heels to hat-band.\r\n\r\nBut why was it, think ye, that the Samuel Enderby, and some other\r\nEnglish whalers I know of—not all though—were such famous, hospitable\r\nships; that passed round the beef, and the bread, and the can, and the\r\njoke; and were not soon weary of eating, and drinking, and laughing? I\r\nwill tell you. The abounding good cheer of these English whalers is\r\nmatter for historical research. Nor have I been at all sparing of\r\nhistorical whale research, when it has seemed needed.\r\n\r\nThe English were preceded in the whale fishery by the Hollanders,\r\nZealanders, and Danes; from whom they derived many terms still extant\r\nin the fishery; and what is yet more, their fat old fashions, touching\r\nplenty to eat and drink. For, as a general thing, the English\r\nmerchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler. Hence,\r\nin the English, this thing of whaling good cheer is not normal and\r\nnatural, but incidental and particular; and, therefore, must have some\r\nspecial origin, which is here pointed out, and will be still further\r\nelucidated.\r\n\r\nDuring my researches in the Leviathanic histories, I stumbled upon an\r\nancient Dutch volume, which, by the musty whaling smell of it, I knew\r\nmust be about whalers. The title was, “Dan Coopman,” wherefore I\r\nconcluded that this must be the invaluable memoirs of some Amsterdam\r\ncooper in the fishery, as every whale ship must carry its cooper. I was\r\nreinforced in this opinion by seeing that it was the production of one\r\n“Fitz Swackhammer.” But my friend Dr. Snodhead, a very learned man,\r\nprofessor of Low Dutch and High German in the college of Santa Claus\r\nand St. Pott’s, to whom I handed the work for translation, giving him a\r\nbox of sperm candles for his trouble—this same Dr. Snodhead, so soon as\r\nhe spied the book, assured me that “Dan Coopman” did not mean “The\r\nCooper,” but “The Merchant.” In short, this ancient and learned Low\r\nDutch book treated of the commerce of Holland; and, among other\r\nsubjects, contained a very interesting account of its whale fishery.\r\nAnd in this chapter it was, headed, “Smeer,” or “Fat,” that I found a\r\nlong detailed list of the outfits for the larders and cellars of 180\r\nsail of Dutch whalemen; from which list, as translated by Dr. Snodhead,\r\nI transcribe the following:\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AMA9433SB46CYBDQNF1KV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP32C6SM8VSBSAFN1KBTF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP32J9A0ZK8WCSXHSD19Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:31.212Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:54.600Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}