{"id":"01KG8AP3Y0K5SF4968RZ101G44","cid":"bafkreiauf2q6w4hq6t55bzpuucdsytadw6x6ai43qsbgkrxod3hxvwemda","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12616,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":12572,"text":"CHAPTER 72. The Monkey-Rope.\r\n\r\nIn the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale,\r\nthere is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. Now hands\r\nare wanted here, and then again hands are wanted there. There is no\r\nstaying in any one place; for at one and the same time everything has\r\nto be done everywhere. It is much the same with him who endeavors the\r\ndescription of the scene. We must now retrace our way a little. It was\r\nmentioned that upon first breaking ground in the whale’s back, the\r\nblubber-hook was inserted into the original hole there cut by the\r\nspades of the mates. But how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that\r\nsame hook get fixed in that hole? It was inserted there by my\r\nparticular friend Queequeg, whose duty it was, as harpooneer, to\r\ndescend upon the monster’s back for the special purpose referred to.\r\nBut in very many cases, circumstances require that the harpooneer shall\r\nremain on the whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is\r\nconcluded. The whale, be it observed, lies almost entirely submerged,\r\nexcepting the immediate parts operated upon. So down there, some ten\r\nfeet below the level of the deck, the poor harpooneer flounders about,\r\nhalf on the whale and half in the water, as the vast mass revolves like\r\na tread-mill beneath him. On the occasion in question, Queequeg figured\r\nin the Highland costume—a shirt and socks—in which to my eyes, at\r\nleast, he appeared to uncommon advantage; and no one had a better\r\nchance to observe him, as will presently be seen.\r\n\r\nBeing the savage’s bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar\r\nin his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to\r\nattend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead\r\nwhale’s back. You have seen Italian organ-boys holding a dancing-ape by\r\na long cord. Just so, from the ship’s steep side, did I hold Queequeg\r\ndown there in the sea, by what is technically called in the fishery a\r\nmonkey-rope, attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his\r\nwaist.\r\n\r\nIt was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we\r\nproceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both\r\nends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow\r\nleather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time,\r\nwere wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both\r\nusage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should\r\ndrag me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature\r\nunited us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I\r\nany way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond\r\nentailed.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM8GRP8ZDM4P83Q4ACX29","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP3Y06TWVQDGXNSK71RDG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:32.096Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:50.008Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}