{"id":"01KG8AP78C5E7GNQERS474BY5D","cid":"bafkreihqiifhsqnuqzi4q54lsfxumjhhelzd26ndpi7ui2jv7rlklns3ie","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15075,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":15020,"text":"wonted duty was now altogether dispensed with. They chiefly attended to\r\nthe shouting part of the business. “Out of the way, Commodore!” cried\r\none, to a great dromedary that of a sudden rose bodily to the surface,\r\nand for an instant threatened to swamp us. “Hard down with your tail,\r\nthere!” cried a second to another, which, close to our gunwale, seemed\r\ncalmly cooling himself with his own fan-like extremity.\r\n\r\nAll whaleboats carry certain curious contrivances, originally invented\r\nby the Nantucket Indians, called druggs. Two thick squares of wood of\r\nequal size are stoutly clenched together, so that they cross each\r\nother’s grain at right angles; a line of considerable length is then\r\nattached to the middle of this block, and the other end of the line\r\nbeing looped, it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon. It is\r\nchiefly among gallied whales that this drugg is used. For then, more\r\nwhales are close round you than you can possibly chase at one time. But\r\nsperm whales are not every day encountered; while you may, then, you\r\nmust kill all you can. And if you cannot kill them all at once, you\r\nmust wing them, so that they can be afterwards killed at your leisure.\r\nHence it is, that at times like these the drugg, comes into\r\nrequisition. Our boat was furnished with three of them. The first and\r\nsecond were successfully darted, and we saw the whales staggeringly\r\nrunning off, fettered by the enormous sidelong resistance of the towing\r\ndrugg. They were cramped like malefactors with the chain and ball. But\r\nupon flinging the third, in the act of tossing overboard the clumsy\r\nwooden block, it caught under one of the seats of the boat, and in an\r\ninstant tore it out and carried it away, dropping the oarsman in the\r\nboat’s bottom as the seat slid from under him. On both sides the sea\r\ncame in at the wounded planks, but we stuffed two or three drawers and\r\nshirts in, and so stopped the leaks for the time.\r\n\r\nIt had been next to impossible to dart these drugged-harpoons, were it\r\nnot that as we advanced into the herd, our whale’s way greatly\r\ndiminished; moreover, that as we went still further and further from\r\nthe circumference of commotion, the direful disorders seemed waning. So\r\nthat when at last the jerking harpoon drew out, and the towing whale\r\nsideways vanished; then, with the tapering force of his parting\r\nmomentum, we glided between two whales into the innermost heart of the\r\nshoal, as if from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene\r\nvalley lake. Here the storms in the roaring glens between the outermost\r\nwhales, were heard but not felt. In this central expanse the sea\r\npresented that smooth satin-like surface, called a sleek, produced by\r\nthe subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods.\r\nYes, we were now in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the\r\nheart of every commotion. And still in the distracted distance we\r\nbeheld the tumults of the outer concentric circles, and saw successive\r\npods of whales, eight or ten in each, swiftly going round and round,\r\nlike multiplied spans of horses in a ring; and so closely shoulder to\r\nshoulder, that a Titanic circus-rider might easily have over-arched the\r\nmiddle ones, and so have gone round on their backs. Owing to the\r\ndensity of the crowd of reposing whales, more immediately surrounding\r\nthe embayed axis of the herd, no possible chance of escape was at\r\npresent afforded us. We must watch for a breach in the living wall that\r\nhemmed us in; the wall that had only admitted us in order to shut us\r\nup. Keeping at the centre of the lake, we were occasionally visited by\r\nsmall tame cows and calves; the women and children of this routed host.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM9QTW0CQ4W3PGZQ03J0B","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP78AX473TQJZA3NTPVCK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP78AF4MS7ABJ4DY518JV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:35.500Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:52.596Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}