{"id":"01KG8AP7V16GZ6W04W1817P4PJ","cid":"bafkreibicd2fbteatq7ycnixnnku7rv7reiy4bsbfwd5logwqvgr22k5xe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5014,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.765Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 73","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":4967,"text":"him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some\r\norganizations seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than\r\nfrom ignorance. Outward portents and inward presentiments were his. And\r\nif at times these things bent the welded iron of his soul, much more\r\ndid his far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child,\r\ntend to bend him still more from the original ruggedness of his nature,\r\nand open him still further to those latent influences which, in some\r\nhonest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often\r\nevinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. “I\r\nwill have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a\r\nwhale.” By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and\r\nuseful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the\r\nencountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more\r\ndangerous comrade than a coward.\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye,” said Stubb, the second mate, “Starbuck, there, is as\r\ncareful a man as you’ll find anywhere in this fishery.” But we shall\r\nere long see what that word “careful” precisely means when used by a\r\nman like Stubb, or almost any other whale hunter.\r\n\r\nStarbuck was no crusader after perils; in him courage was not a\r\nsentiment; but a thing simply useful to him, and always at hand upon\r\nall mortally practical occasions. Besides, he thought, perhaps, that in\r\nthis business of whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits\r\nof the ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly\r\nwasted. Wherefore he had no fancy for lowering for whales after\r\nsun-down; nor for persisting in fighting a fish that too much persisted\r\nin fighting him. For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical\r\nocean to kill whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for\r\ntheirs; and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew.\r\nWhat doom was his own father’s? Where, in the bottomless deeps, could\r\nhe find the torn limbs of his brother?\r\n\r\nWith memories like these in him, and, moreover, given to a certain\r\nsuperstitiousness, as has been said; the courage of this Starbuck which\r\ncould, nevertheless, still flourish, must indeed have been extreme. But\r\nit was not in reasonable nature that a man so organized, and with such\r\nterrible experiences and remembrances as he had; it was not in nature\r\nthat these things should fail in latently engendering an element in\r\nhim, which, under suitable circumstances, would break out from its\r\nconfinement, and burn all his courage up. And brave as he might be, it\r\nwas that sort of bravery chiefly, visible in some intrepid men, which,\r\nwhile generally abiding firm in the conflict with seas, or winds, or\r\nwhales, or any of the ordinary irrational horrors of the world, yet\r\ncannot withstand those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors,\r\nwhich sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an enraged\r\nand mighty man.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 73"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK7FP6P1V67V3ATJHHZ83","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP7TS6KM5PP5QXH8WHSBS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP902G8SV8F7FJ41X67XQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:36.097Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:43.625Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}