{"id":"01KG8AP6HQVYNDM1ZNGNF2HBRZ","cid":"bafkreihbyscoxsho2uflhe3kkwycyuzmfrjulsu7xwpzsegzyb7kbm7fgu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3413,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.764Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 46","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":3327,"text":"the marchant service to me again. Marchant service indeed! I suppose\r\nnow ye feel considerable proud of having served in those marchant\r\nships. But flukes! man, what makes thee want to go a whaling, eh?—it\r\nlooks a little suspicious, don’t it, eh?—Hast not been a pirate, hast\r\nthou?—Didst not rob thy last Captain, didst thou?—Dost not think of\r\nmurdering the officers when thou gettest to sea?”\r\n\r\nI protested my innocence of these things. I saw that under the mask of\r\nthese half humorous innuendoes, this old seaman, as an insulated\r\nQuakerish Nantucketer, was full of his insular prejudices, and rather\r\ndistrustful of all aliens, unless they hailed from Cape Cod or the\r\nVineyard.\r\n\r\n“But what takes thee a-whaling? I want to know that before I think of\r\nshipping ye.”\r\n\r\n“Well, sir, I want to see what whaling is. I want to see the world.”\r\n\r\n“Want to see what whaling is, eh? Have ye clapped eye on Captain Ahab?”\r\n\r\n“Who is Captain Ahab, sir?”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye, I thought so. Captain Ahab is the Captain of this ship.”\r\n\r\n“I am mistaken then. I thought I was speaking to the Captain himself.”\r\n\r\n“Thou art speaking to Captain Peleg—that’s who ye are speaking to,\r\nyoung man. It belongs to me and Captain Bildad to see the Pequod fitted\r\nout for the voyage, and supplied with all her needs, including crew. We\r\nare part owners and agents. But as I was going to say, if thou wantest\r\nto know what whaling is, as thou tellest ye do, I can put ye in a way\r\nof finding it out before ye bind yourself to it, past backing out. Clap\r\neye on Captain Ahab, young man, and thou wilt find that he has only one\r\nleg.”\r\n\r\n“What do you mean, sir? Was the other one lost by a whale?”\r\n\r\n“Lost by a whale! Young man, come nearer to me: it was devoured, chewed\r\nup, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a\r\nboat!—ah, ah!”\r\n\r\nI was a little alarmed by his energy, perhaps also a little touched at\r\nthe hearty grief in his concluding exclamation, but said as calmly as I\r\ncould, “What you say is no doubt true enough, sir; but how could I know\r\nthere was any peculiar ferocity in that particular whale, though indeed\r\nI might have inferred as much from the simple fact of the accident.”\r\n\r\n“Look ye now, young man, thy lungs are a sort of soft, d’ye see; thou\r\ndost not talk shark a bit. _Sure_, ye’ve been to sea before now; sure\r\nof that?”\r\n\r\n“Sir,” said I, “I thought I told you that I had been four voyages in\r\nthe merchant—”\r\n\r\n“Hard down out of that! Mind what I said about the marchant\r\nservice—don’t aggravate me—I won’t have it. But let us understand each\r\nother. I have given thee a hint about what whaling is; do ye yet feel\r\ninclined for it?”\r\n\r\n“I do, sir.”\r\n\r\n“Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live\r\nwhale’s throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!”\r\n\r\n“I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to do so; not to\r\nbe got rid of, that is; which I don’t take to be the fact.”\r\n\r\n“Good again. Now then, thou not only wantest to go a-whaling, to find\r\nout by experience what whaling is, but ye also want to go in order to\r\nsee the world? Was not that what ye said? I thought so. Well then, just\r\nstep forward there, and take a peep over the weather-bow, and then back\r\nto me and tell me what ye see there.”\r\n\r\nFor a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not\r\nknowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest. But\r\nconcentrating all his crow’s feet into one scowl, Captain Peleg started\r\nme on the errand.\r\n\r\nGoing forward and glancing over the weather bow, I perceived that the\r\nship swinging to her anchor with the flood-tide, was now obliquely\r\npointing towards the open ocean. The prospect was unlimited, but\r\nexceedingly monotonous and forbidding; not the slightest variety that I\r\ncould see.\r\n\r\n“Well, what’s the report?” said Peleg when I came back; “what did ye\r\nsee?”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 46"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK7FP6P1V67V3ATJHHZ83","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP6HT7X40HW6RW4QZ60KY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP6HZ8TEMHDM8KVBP66B9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.775Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:41.295Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}