{"id":"01KJNXJQX2ZVJ7TN6BZ72A6SH9","cid":"bafkreib5fkt7zkcnitqwaheji4gveutzxcgjb3izy5z27cnhw5ajatjcwu","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":378261,"char_start":370305,"chunk_index":52,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1989,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast.\r\n\r\n“It’s a white whale, I say,” resumed Ahab, as he threw down the\r\ntopmaul: “a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for\r\nwhite water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out.”\r\n\r\nAll this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked on with even\r\nmore intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at the mention of\r\nthe wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if each was\r\nseparately touched by some specific recollection.\r\n\r\n“Captain Ahab,” said Tashtego, “that white whale must be the same that\r\nsome call Moby Dick.”\r\n\r\n“Moby Dick?” shouted Ahab. “Do ye know the white whale then, Tash?”\r\n\r\n“Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes down?” said the\r\nGay-Header deliberately.\r\n\r\n“And has he a curious spout, too,” said Daggoo, “very bushy, even for a\r\nparmacetty, and mighty quick, Captain Ahab?”\r\n\r\n“And he have one, two, three—oh! good many iron in him hide, too,\r\nCaptain,” cried Queequeg disjointedly, “all twiske-tee be-twisk, like\r\nhim—him—” faltering hard for a word, and screwing his hand round and\r\nround as though uncorking a bottle—“like him—him—”\r\n\r\n“Corkscrew!” cried Ahab, “aye, Queequeg, the harpoons lie all twisted\r\nand wrenched in him; aye, Daggoo, his spout is a big one, like a whole\r\nshock of wheat, and white as a pile of our Nantucket wool after the\r\ngreat annual sheep-shearing; aye, Tashtego, and he fan-tails like a\r\nsplit jib in a squall. Death and devils! men, it is Moby Dick ye have\r\nseen—Moby Dick—Moby Dick!”\r\n\r\n“Captain Ahab,” said Starbuck, who, with Stubb and Flask, had thus far\r\nbeen eyeing his superior with increasing surprise, but at last seemed\r\nstruck with a thought which somewhat explained all the wonder. “Captain\r\nAhab, I have heard of Moby Dick—but it was not Moby Dick that took off\r\nthy leg?”\r\n\r\n“Who told thee that?” cried Ahab; then pausing, “Aye, Starbuck; aye, my\r\nhearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that\r\nbrought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye,” he shouted\r\nwith a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose;\r\n“Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor\r\npegging lubber of me for ever and a day!” Then tossing both arms, with\r\nmeasureless imprecations he shouted out: “Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him\r\nround Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom,\r\nand round perdition’s flames before I give him up. And this is what ye\r\nhave shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land,\r\nand over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin\r\nout. What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do\r\nlook brave.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye!” shouted the harpooneers and seamen, running closer to the\r\nexcited old man: “A sharp eye for the white whale; a sharp lance for\r\nMoby Dick!”\r\n\r\n“God bless ye,” he seemed to half sob and half shout. “God bless ye,\r\nmen. Steward! go draw the great measure of grog. But what’s this long\r\nface about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale? art not\r\ngame for Moby Dick?”\r\n\r\n“I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too, Captain\r\nAhab, if it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow; but I\r\ncame here to hunt whales, not my commander’s vengeance. How many\r\nbarrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain\r\nAhab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market.”\r\n\r\n“Nantucket market! Hoot! But come closer, Starbuck; thou requirest a\r\nlittle lower layer. If money’s to be the measurer, man, and the\r\naccountants have computed their great counting-house the globe, by\r\ngirdling it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch; then,\r\nlet me tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great premium _here!_”\r\n\r\n“He smites his chest,” whispered Stubb, “what’s that for? methinks it\r\nrings most vast, but hollow.”\r\n\r\n“Vengeance on a dumb brute!” cried Starbuck, “that simply smote thee\r\nfrom blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing,\r\nCaptain Ahab, seems blasphemous.”\r\n\r\n“Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. All visible objects, man,\r\nare but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the\r\nundoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth\r\nthe mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man\r\nwill strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach\r\noutside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is\r\nthat wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond.\r\nBut ’tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous\r\nstrength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable\r\nthing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the\r\nwhite whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me\r\nof blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the\r\nsun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of\r\nfair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my\r\nmaster, man, is even that fair play. Who’s over me? Truth hath no\r\nconfines. Take off thine eye! more intolerable than fiends’ glarings is\r\na doltish stare! So, so; thou reddenest and palest; my heat has melted\r\nthee to anger-glow. But look ye, Starbuck, what is said in heat, that\r\nthing unsays itself. There are men from whom warm words are small\r\nindignity. I meant not to incense thee. Let it go. Look! see yonder\r\nTurkish cheeks of spotted tawn—living, breathing pictures painted by\r\nthe sun. The Pagan leopards—the unrecking and unworshipping things,\r\nthat live; and seek, and give no reasons for the torrid life they feel!\r\nThe crew, man, the crew! Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this\r\nmatter of the whale? See Stubb! he laughs! See yonder Chilian! he\r\nsnorts to think of it. Stand up amid the general hurricane, thy one\r\ntost sapling cannot, Starbuck! And what is it? Reckon it. ’Tis but to\r\nhelp strike a fin; no wondrous feat for Starbuck. What is it more? From\r\nthis one poor hunt, then, the best lance out of all Nantucket, surely\r\nhe will not hang back, when every foremast-hand has clutched a\r\nwhetstone? Ah! constrainings seize thee; I see! the billow lifts thee!\r\nSpeak, but speak!—Aye, aye! thy silence, then, _that_ voices thee.\r\n(_Aside_) Something shot from my dilated nostrils, he has inhaled it in\r\nhis lungs. Starbuck now is mine; cannot oppose me now, without\r\nrebellion.”\r\n\r\n“God keep me!—keep us all!” murmured Starbuck, lowly.\r\n\r\nBut in his joy at the enchanted, tacit acquiescence of the mate, Ahab\r\ndid not hear his foreboding invocation; nor yet the low laugh from the\r\nhold; nor yet the presaging vibrations of the winds in the cordage; nor\r\nyet the hollow flap of the sails against the masts, as for a moment\r\ntheir hearts sank in. For again Starbuck’s downcast eyes lighted up\r\nwith the stubbornness of life; the subterranean laugh died away; the\r\nwinds blew on; the sails filled out; the ship heaved and rolled as\r\nbefore. Ah, ye admonitions and warnings! why stay ye not when ye come?\r\nBut rather are ye predictions than warnings, ye shadows! Yet not so\r\nmuch predictions from without, as verifications of the foregoing things\r\nwithin. For with little external to constrain us, the innermost\r\nnecessities in our being, these still drive us on.\r\n\r\n“The measure! the measure!” cried Ahab.\r\n\r\nReceiving the brimming pewter, and turning to the harpooneers, he\r\nordered them to produce their weapons. Then ranging them before him\r\nnear the capstan, with their harpoons in their hands, while his three\r\nmates stood at his side with their lances, and the rest of the ship’s\r\ncompany formed a circle round the group; he stood for an instant\r\nsearchingly eyeing every man of his crew. But those wild eyes met his,\r\nas the bloodshot eyes of the prairie wolves meet the eye of their\r\nleader, ere he rushes on at their head in the trail of the bison; but,\r\nalas!"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV9JR5QVCDKHMH41830J","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV8861P977B7BE45JR4K","peer_label":"daggoo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5AVK8ESBJRYHE60R6R4","peer_label":"lance","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM529XJRPQXV0DC58V32N","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM53WAZ179VTYY5W66JFN","peer_label":"cape horn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographic_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM55CS3YA2N4A8SMM8090","peer_label":"ahabs vengeance","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5JK1MRSMS38B966SNBK","peer_label":"norway maelstrom","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographic_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM68NG22P10510TH8VP7V","peer_label":"wall","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM53DESFRX1RNEA3DF93P","peer_label":"grog","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"beverage","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5SHMNASD9BKM5480ZGC","peer_label":"pequods harpooneers","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6D6A6RY706GSYTRX09Y","peer_label":"steward","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM615MT22NMXS78PF8JA9","peer_label":"chilian","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6ADM8X2DF2EHM0V7AM6","peer_label":"cape of good hope","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographic_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6RGSGVA00PS9Q3W74WQ","peer_label":"inscrutable malice","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5TFDAWZ5JSYHQGTN7R7","peer_label":"pequods seamen","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6DANRWRH4M1N3CXC1DN","peer_label":"nantucket market","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"economic_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.418Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.682Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:02:10.339Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}