{"id":"01KG8AP35NKHSK6TR4JG513ZK8","cid":"bafkreibj34xbrf3pd4ewkfbwn5a5dlke7xtlblobtvgsrydyx4s3fmwhjq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6677,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.768Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":6595,"text":"CHAPTER 36. The Quarter-Deck.\r\n\r\n(_Enter Ahab: Then, all._)\r\n\r\nIt was not a great while after the affair of the pipe, that one morning\r\nshortly after breakfast, Ahab, as was his wont, ascended the\r\ncabin-gangway to the deck. There most sea-captains usually walk at that\r\nhour, as country gentlemen, after the same meal, take a few turns in\r\nthe garden.\r\n\r\nSoon his steady, ivory stride was heard, as to and fro he paced his old\r\nrounds, upon planks so familiar to his tread, that they were all over\r\ndented, like geological stones, with the peculiar mark of his walk. Did\r\nyou fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed and dented brow; there also,\r\nyou would see still stranger foot-prints—the foot-prints of his one\r\nunsleeping, ever-pacing thought.\r\n\r\nBut on the occasion in question, those dents looked deeper, even as his\r\nnervous step that morning left a deeper mark. And, so full of his\r\nthought was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now at the\r\nmain-mast and now at the binnacle, you could almost see that thought\r\nturn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely\r\npossessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward mould of\r\nevery outer movement.\r\n\r\n“D’ye mark him, Flask?” whispered Stubb; “the chick that’s in him pecks\r\nthe shell. ’Twill soon be out.”\r\n\r\nThe hours wore on;—Ahab now shut up within his cabin; anon, pacing the\r\ndeck, with the same intense bigotry of purpose in his aspect.\r\n\r\nIt drew near the close of day. Suddenly he came to a halt by the\r\nbulwarks, and inserting his bone leg into the auger-hole there, and\r\nwith one hand grasping a shroud, he ordered Starbuck to send everybody\r\naft.\r\n\r\n“Sir!” said the mate, astonished at an order seldom or never given on\r\nship-board except in some extraordinary case.\r\n\r\n“Send everybody aft,” repeated Ahab. “Mast-heads, there! come down!”\r\n\r\nWhen the entire ship’s company were assembled, and with curious and not\r\nwholly unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not unlike\r\nthe weather horizon when a storm is coming up, Ahab, after rapidly\r\nglancing over the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes among the crew,\r\nstarted from his standpoint; and as though not a soul were nigh him\r\nresumed his heavy turns upon the deck. With bent head and half-slouched\r\nhat he continued to pace, unmindful of the wondering whispering among\r\nthe men; till Stubb cautiously whispered to Flask, that Ahab must have\r\nsummoned them there for the purpose of witnessing a pedestrian feat.\r\nBut this did not last long. Vehemently pausing, he cried:—\r\n\r\n“What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?”\r\n\r\n“Sing out for him!” was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed\r\nvoices.\r\n\r\n“Good!” cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones; observing the\r\nhearty animation into which his unexpected question had so magnetically\r\nthrown them.\r\n\r\n“And what do ye next, men?”\r\n\r\n“Lower away, and after him!”\r\n\r\n“And what tune is it ye pull to, men?”\r\n\r\n“A dead whale or a stove boat!”\r\n\r\nMore and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving, grew the\r\ncountenance of the old man at every shout; while the mariners began to\r\ngaze curiously at each other, as if marvelling how it was that they\r\nthemselves became so excited at such seemingly purposeless questions.\r\n\r\nBut, they were all eagerness again, as Ahab, now half-revolving in his\r\npivot-hole, with one hand reaching high up a shroud, and tightly,\r\nalmost convulsively grasping it, addressed them thus:—\r\n\r\n“All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a white\r\nwhale. Look ye! d’ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?”—holding up a\r\nbroad bright coin to the sun—“it is a sixteen dollar piece, men. D’ye\r\nsee it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM6RFYHFJY2G9HNFMZJMM","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP358FX8JBREVBAJVVJYZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:31.317Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:44.302Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}