{"id":"01KG8AP5Z4E5QXVJZQWRT2TR0C","cid":"bafkreiae4lglw4uo2z4dc53xaeunvptnyzy6j45nvcgaszd3m3u5obtr4i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":19790,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.774Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":19722,"text":"compasses, the old man, with the sharp of his extended hand, now took\r\nthe precise bearing of the sun, and satisfied that the needles were\r\nexactly inverted, shouted out his orders for the ship’s course to be\r\nchanged accordingly. The yards were hard up; and once more the Pequod\r\nthrust her undaunted bows into the opposing wind, for the supposed fair\r\none had only been juggling her.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, whatever were his own secret thoughts, Starbuck said\r\nnothing, but quietly he issued all requisite orders; while Stubb and\r\nFlask—who in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his\r\nfeelings—likewise unmurmuringly acquiesced. As for the men, though some\r\nof them lowly rumbled, their fear of Ahab was greater than their fear\r\nof Fate. But as ever before, the pagan harpooneers remained almost\r\nwholly unimpressed; or if impressed, it was only with a certain\r\nmagnetism shot into their congenial hearts from inflexible Ahab’s.\r\n\r\nFor a space the old man walked the deck in rolling reveries. But\r\nchancing to slip with his ivory heel, he saw the crushed copper\r\nsight-tubes of the quadrant he had the day before dashed to the deck.\r\n\r\n“Thou poor, proud heaven-gazer and sun’s pilot! yesterday I wrecked\r\nthee, and to-day the compasses would fain have wrecked me. So, so. But\r\nAhab is lord over the level loadstone yet. Mr. Starbuck—a lance without\r\na pole; a top-maul, and the smallest of the sail-maker’s needles.\r\nQuick!”\r\n\r\nAccessory, perhaps, to the impulse dictating the thing he was now about\r\nto do, were certain prudential motives, whose object might have been to\r\nrevive the spirits of his crew by a stroke of his subtile skill, in a\r\nmatter so wondrous as that of the inverted compasses. Besides, the old\r\nman well knew that to steer by transpointed needles, though clumsily\r\npracticable, was not a thing to be passed over by superstitious\r\nsailors, without some shudderings and evil portents.\r\n\r\n“Men,” said he, steadily turning upon the crew, as the mate handed him\r\nthe things he had demanded, “my men, the thunder turned old Ahab’s\r\nneedles; but out of this bit of steel Ahab can make one of his own,\r\nthat will point as true as any.”\r\n\r\nAbashed glances of servile wonder were exchanged by the sailors, as\r\nthis was said; and with fascinated eyes they awaited whatever magic\r\nmight follow. But Starbuck looked away.\r\n\r\nWith a blow from the top-maul Ahab knocked off the steel head of the\r\nlance, and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining, bade\r\nhim hold it upright, without its touching the deck. Then, with the\r\nmaul, after repeatedly smiting the upper end of this iron rod, he\r\nplaced the blunted needle endwise on the top of it, and less strongly\r\nhammered that, several times, the mate still holding the rod as before.\r\nThen going through some small strange motions with it—whether\r\nindispensable to the magnetizing of the steel, or merely intended to\r\naugment the awe of the crew, is uncertain—he called for linen thread;\r\nand moving to the binnacle, slipped out the two reversed needles there,\r\nand horizontally suspended the sail-needle by its middle, over one of\r\nthe compass-cards. At first, the steel went round and round, quivering\r\nand vibrating at either end; but at last it settled to its place, when\r\nAhab, who had been intently watching for this result, stepped frankly\r\nback from the binnacle, and pointing his stretched arm towards it,\r\nexclaimed,—“Look ye, for yourselves, if Ahab be not lord of the level\r\nloadstone! The sun is East, and that compass swears it!”\r\n\r\nOne after another they peered in, for nothing but their own eyes could\r\npersuade such ignorance as theirs, and one after another they slunk\r\naway.\r\n\r\nIn his fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his\r\nfatal pride.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AMC17YJ3CH7J5C33ABZTE","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP5Z4QJ367CSVE3508QH7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.180Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:56.506Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}