{"id":"01KG8AP5VCWQG2ESSH9CZ0P2KG","cid":"bafkreiheqb66hjgttbkmq5jlvn3r4tmzdmpyzdtfamtdudfudxmnzitc4e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8753,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.768Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":8678,"text":"“On the lee-beam, about two miles off! a school of them!”\r\n\r\nInstantly all was commotion.\r\n\r\nThe Sperm Whale blows as a clock ticks, with the same undeviating and\r\nreliable uniformity. And thereby whalemen distinguish this fish from\r\nother tribes of his genus.\r\n\r\n“There go flukes!” was now the cry from Tashtego; and the whales\r\ndisappeared.\r\n\r\n“Quick, steward!” cried Ahab. “Time! time!”\r\n\r\nDough-Boy hurried below, glanced at the watch, and reported the exact\r\nminute to Ahab.\r\n\r\nThe ship was now kept away from the wind, and she went gently rolling\r\nbefore it. Tashtego reporting that the whales had gone down heading to\r\nleeward, we confidently looked to see them again directly in advance of\r\nour bows. For that singular craft at times evinced by the Sperm Whale\r\nwhen, sounding with his head in one direction, he nevertheless, while\r\nconcealed beneath the surface, mills round, and swiftly swims off in\r\nthe opposite quarter—this deceitfulness of his could not now be in\r\naction; for there was no reason to suppose that the fish seen by\r\nTashtego had been in any way alarmed, or indeed knew at all of our\r\nvicinity. One of the men selected for shipkeepers—that is, those not\r\nappointed to the boats, by this time relieved the Indian at the\r\nmain-mast head. The sailors at the fore and mizzen had come down; the\r\nline tubs were fixed in their places; the cranes were thrust out; the\r\nmainyard was backed, and the three boats swung over the sea like three\r\nsamphire baskets over high cliffs. Outside of the bulwarks their eager\r\ncrews with one hand clung to the rail, while one foot was expectantly\r\npoised on the gunwale. So look the long line of man-of-war’s men about\r\nto throw themselves on board an enemy’s ship.\r\n\r\nBut at this critical instant a sudden exclamation was heard that took\r\nevery eye from the whale. With a start all glared at dark Ahab, who was\r\nsurrounded by five dusky phantoms that seemed fresh formed out of air.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 48. The First Lowering.\r\n\r\nThe phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side\r\nof the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity, were casting loose the\r\ntackles and bands of the boat which swung there. This boat had always\r\nbeen deemed one of the spare boats, though technically called the\r\ncaptain’s, on account of its hanging from the starboard quarter. The\r\nfigure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart, with one white\r\ntooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese\r\njacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black\r\ntrowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness\r\nwas a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and\r\ncoiled round and round upon his head. Less swart in aspect, the\r\ncompanions of this figure were of that vivid, tiger-yellow complexion\r\npeculiar to some of the aboriginal natives of the Manillas;—a race\r\nnotorious for a certain diabolism of subtilty, and by some honest white\r\nmariners supposed to be the paid spies and secret confidential agents\r\non the water of the devil, their lord, whose counting-room they suppose\r\nto be elsewhere.\r\n\r\nWhile yet the wondering ship’s company were gazing upon these\r\nstrangers, Ahab cried out to the white-turbaned old man at their head,\r\n“All ready there, Fedallah?”\r\n\r\n“Ready,” was the half-hissed reply.\r\n\r\n“Lower away then; d’ye hear?” shouting across the deck. “Lower away\r\nthere, I say.”\r\n\r\nSuch was the thunder of his voice, that spite of their amazement the\r\nmen sprang over the rail; the sheaves whirled round in the blocks; with\r\na wallow, the three boats dropped into the sea; while, with a\r\ndexterous, off-handed daring, unknown in any other vocation, the\r\nsailors, goat-like, leaped down the rolling ship’s side into the tossed\r\nboats below.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM7BAHD6KHZQ7E983N9CC","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP5VCBBR6B5629ZVG8TBW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP5VQH1G4TDKEAFQT7CYV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.060Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:46.276Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}