{"id":"01KG8AP5XVETKM3W9882HT69A0","cid":"bafkreih2sigykol7x2ofa37dnqmqhe5zz7qe7bgatkq6s3uwsp22hpeejm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14111,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":14049,"text":"then over and over slowly revolved like a waning world; turned up the\r\nwhite secrets of his belly; lay like a log, and died. It was most\r\npiteous, that last expiring spout. As when by unseen hands the water is\r\ngradually drawn off from some mighty fountain, and with half-stifled\r\nmelancholy gurglings the spray-column lowers and lowers to the\r\nground—so the last long dying spout of the whale.\r\n\r\nSoon, while the crews were awaiting the arrival of the ship, the body\r\nshowed symptoms of sinking with all its treasures unrifled.\r\nImmediately, by Starbuck’s orders, lines were secured to it at\r\ndifferent points, so that ere long every boat was a buoy; the sunken\r\nwhale being suspended a few inches beneath them by the cords. By very\r\nheedful management, when the ship drew nigh, the whale was transferred\r\nto her side, and was strongly secured there by the stiffest\r\nfluke-chains, for it was plain that unless artificially upheld, the\r\nbody would at once sink to the bottom.\r\n\r\nIt so chanced that almost upon first cutting into him with the spade,\r\nthe entire length of a corroded harpoon was found imbedded in his\r\nflesh, on the lower part of the bunch before described. But as the\r\nstumps of harpoons are frequently found in the dead bodies of captured\r\nwhales, with the flesh perfectly healed around them, and no prominence\r\nof any kind to denote their place; therefore, there must needs have\r\nbeen some other unknown reason in the present case fully to account for\r\nthe ulceration alluded to. But still more curious was the fact of a\r\nlance-head of stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron,\r\nthe flesh perfectly firm about it. Who had darted that stone lance? And\r\nwhen? It might have been darted by some Nor’ West Indian long before\r\nAmerica was discovered.\r\n\r\nWhat other marvels might have been rummaged out of this monstrous\r\ncabinet there is no telling. But a sudden stop was put to further\r\ndiscoveries, by the ship’s being unprecedentedly dragged over sideways\r\nto the sea, owing to the body’s immensely increasing tendency to sink.\r\nHowever, Starbuck, who had the ordering of affairs, hung on to it to\r\nthe last; hung on to it so resolutely, indeed, that when at length the\r\nship would have been capsized, if still persisting in locking arms with\r\nthe body; then, when the command was given to break clear from it, such\r\nwas the immovable strain upon the timber-heads to which the\r\nfluke-chains and cables were fastened, that it was impossible to cast\r\nthem off. Meantime everything in the Pequod was aslant. To cross to the\r\nother side of the deck was like walking up the steep gabled roof of a\r\nhouse. The ship groaned and gasped. Many of the ivory inlayings of her\r\nbulwarks and cabins were started from their places, by the unnatural\r\ndislocation. In vain handspikes and crows were brought to bear upon the\r\nimmovable fluke-chains, to pry them adrift from the timberheads; and so\r\nlow had the whale now settled that the submerged ends could not be at\r\nall approached, while every moment whole tons of ponderosity seemed\r\nadded to the sinking bulk, and the ship seemed on the point of going\r\nover.\r\n\r\n“Hold on, hold on, won’t ye?” cried Stubb to the body, “don’t be in\r\nsuch a devil of a hurry to sink! By thunder, men, we must do something\r\nor go for it. No use prying there; avast, I say with your handspikes,\r\nand run one of ye for a prayer book and a pen-knife, and cut the big\r\nchains.”\r\n\r\n“Knife? Aye, aye,” cried Queequeg, and seizing the carpenter’s heavy\r\nhatchet, he leaned out of a porthole, and steel to iron, began slashing\r\nat the largest fluke-chains. But a few strokes, full of sparks, were\r\ngiven, when the exceeding strain effected the rest. With a terrific\r\nsnap, every fastening went adrift; the ship righted, the carcase sank.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM941CJW7PJZQ3TCBVZ3M","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP5XVKRZ79CNTEK9J5XRV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP5Y15QDGX76BW1J6J19K","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.139Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:51.457Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}