{"id":"01KG8AP8ZZ6WPJCH7SSQEA6P65","cid":"bafkreigpmvvp5zitpmhxk7r2wiywcyqt2w4gsfsmkzlwzhuy5effsbk24u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5142,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.765Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 76","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":5092,"text":"peculiar disposition; for every one knows that this earthly air,\r\nwhether ashore or afloat, is terribly infected with the nameless\r\nmiseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it; and as in\r\ntime of the cholera, some people go about with a camphorated\r\nhandkerchief to their mouths; so, likewise, against all mortal\r\ntribulations, Stubb’s tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of\r\ndisinfecting agent.\r\n\r\nThe third mate was Flask, a native of Tisbury, in Martha’s Vineyard. A\r\nshort, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales,\r\nwho somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally\r\nand hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of\r\nhonor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered. So utterly lost\r\nwas he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic\r\nbulk and mystic ways; and so dead to anything like an apprehension of\r\nany possible danger from encountering them; that in his poor opinion,\r\nthe wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse, or at least\r\nwater-rat, requiring only a little circumvention and some small\r\napplication of time and trouble in order to kill and boil. This\r\nignorant, unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little waggish in\r\nthe matter of whales; he followed these fish for the fun of it; and a\r\nthree years’ voyage round Cape Horn was only a jolly joke that lasted\r\nthat length of time. As a carpenter’s nails are divided into wrought\r\nnails and cut nails; so mankind may be similarly divided. Little Flask\r\nwas one of the wrought ones; made to clinch tight and last long. They\r\ncalled him King-Post on board of the Pequod; because, in form, he could\r\nbe well likened to the short, square timber known by that name in\r\nArctic whalers; and which by the means of many radiating side timbers\r\ninserted into it, serves to brace the ship against the icy concussions\r\nof those battering seas.\r\n\r\nNow these three mates—Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, were momentous men.\r\nThey it was who by universal prescription commanded three of the\r\nPequod’s boats as headsmen. In that grand order of battle in which\r\nCaptain Ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend on the\r\nwhales, these three headsmen were as captains of companies. Or, being\r\narmed with their long keen whaling spears, they were as a picked trio\r\nof lancers; even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins.\r\n\r\nAnd since in this famous fishery, each mate or headsman, like a Gothic\r\nKnight of old, is always accompanied by his boat-steerer or harpooneer,\r\nwho in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance, when the\r\nformer one has been badly twisted, or elbowed in the assault; and\r\nmoreover, as there generally subsists between the two, a close intimacy\r\nand friendliness; it is therefore but meet, that in this place we set\r\ndown who the Pequod’s harpooneers were, and to what headsman each of\r\nthem belonged.\r\n\r\nFirst of all was Queequeg, whom Starbuck, the chief mate, had selected\r\nfor his squire. But Queequeg is already known.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 76"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK7FP6P1V67V3ATJHHZ83","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP902XBV284CSR3SJQB1A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP90289YVPH5DPTSPKXF5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:37.279Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:42.816Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}