{"id":"01KJNXJQYH7W3ZCX6D7VD0TX6B","cid":"bafkreibvgoc43gep7tvtuh2hv6p2yf3a737hj3ub65ukxnucy62swx3ppe","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":449196,"char_start":441343,"chunk_index":62,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1964,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"\r\nIt was the middle-watch: a fair moonlight; the seamen were standing in\r\na cordon, extending from one of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to\r\nthe scuttle-butt near the taffrail. In this manner, they passed the\r\nbuckets to fill the scuttle-butt. Standing, for the most part, on the\r\nhallowed precincts of the quarter-deck, they were careful not to speak\r\nor rustle their feet. From hand to hand, the buckets went in the\r\ndeepest silence, only broken by the occasional flap of a sail, and the\r\nsteady hum of the unceasingly advancing keel.\r\n\r\nIt was in the midst of this repose, that Archy, one of the cordon,\r\nwhose post was near the after-hatches, whispered to his neighbor, a\r\nCholo, the words above.\r\n\r\n“Hist! did you hear that noise, Cabaco?”\r\n\r\n“Take the bucket, will ye, Archy? what noise d’ye mean?”\r\n\r\n“There it is again—under the hatches—don’t you hear it—a cough—it\r\nsounded like a cough.”\r\n\r\n“Cough be damned! Pass along that return bucket.”\r\n\r\n“There again—there it is!—it sounds like two or three sleepers turning\r\nover, now!”\r\n\r\n“Caramba! have done, shipmate, will ye? It’s the three soaked biscuits\r\nye eat for supper turning over inside of ye—nothing else. Look to the\r\nbucket!”\r\n\r\n“Say what ye will, shipmate; I’ve sharp ears.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, you are the chap, ain’t ye, that heard the hum of the old\r\nQuakeress’s knitting-needles fifty miles at sea from Nantucket; you’re\r\nthe chap.”\r\n\r\n“Grin away; we’ll see what turns up. Hark ye, Cabaco, there is somebody\r\ndown in the after-hold that has not yet been seen on deck; and I\r\nsuspect our old Mogul knows something of it too. I heard Stubb tell\r\nFlask, one morning watch, that there was something of that sort in the\r\nwind.”\r\n\r\n“Tish! the bucket!”\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 44. The Chart.\r\n\r\nHad you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin after the squall that\r\ntook place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his\r\npurpose with his crew, you would have seen him go to a locker in the\r\ntransom, and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea\r\ncharts, spread them before him on his screwed-down table. Then seating\r\nhimself before it, you would have seen him intently study the various\r\nlines and shadings which there met his eye; and with slow but steady\r\npencil trace additional courses over spaces that before were blank. At\r\nintervals, he would refer to piles of old log-books beside him, wherein\r\nwere set down the seasons and places in which, on various former\r\nvoyages of various ships, sperm whales had been captured or seen.\r\n\r\nWhile thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his\r\nhead, continually rocked with the motion of the ship, and for ever\r\nthrew shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow, till\r\nit almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and\r\ncourses on the wrinkled charts, some invisible pencil was also tracing\r\nlines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead.\r\n\r\nBut it was not this night in particular that, in the solitude of his\r\ncabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts. Almost every night they were\r\nbrought out; almost every night some pencil marks were effaced, and\r\nothers were substituted. For with the charts of all four oceans before\r\nhim, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies, with a view to\r\nthe more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul.\r\n\r\nNow, to any one not fully acquainted with the ways of the leviathans,\r\nit might seem an absurdly hopeless task thus to seek out one solitary\r\ncreature in the unhooped oceans of this planet. But not so did it seem\r\nto Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents; and thereby\r\ncalculating the driftings of the sperm whale’s food; and, also, calling\r\nto mind the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular\r\nlatitudes; could arrive at reasonable surmises, almost approaching to\r\ncertainties, concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that\r\nground in search of his prey.\r\n\r\nSo assured, indeed, is the fact concerning the periodicalness of the\r\nsperm whale’s resorting to given waters, that many hunters believe\r\nthat, could he be closely observed and studied throughout the world;\r\nwere the logs for one voyage of the entire whale fleet carefully\r\ncollated, then the migrations of the sperm whale would be found to\r\ncorrespond in invariability to those of the herring-shoals or the\r\nflights of swallows. On this hint, attempts have been made to construct\r\nelaborate migratory charts of the sperm whale.*\r\n\r\n\r\n  *Since the above was written, the statement is happily borne out by\r\n  an official circular, issued by Lieutenant Maury, of the National\r\n  Observatory, Washington, April 16th, 1851. By that circular, it\r\n  appears that precisely such a chart is in course of completion; and\r\n  portions of it are presented in the circular. “This chart divides the\r\n  ocean into districts of five degrees of latitude by five degrees of\r\n  longitude; perpendicularly through each of which districts are twelve\r\n  columns for the twelve months; and horizontally through each of which\r\n  districts are three lines; one to show the number of days that have\r\n  been spent in each month in every district, and the two others to\r\n  show the number of days in which whales, sperm or right, have been\r\n  seen.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBesides, when making a passage from one feeding-ground to another, the\r\nsperm whales, guided by some infallible instinct—say, rather, secret\r\nintelligence from the Deity—mostly swim in _veins_, as they are called;\r\ncontinuing their way along a given ocean-line with such undeviating\r\nexactitude, that no ship ever sailed her course, by any chart, with one\r\ntithe of such marvellous precision. Though, in these cases, the\r\ndirection taken by any one whale be straight as a surveyor’s parallel,\r\nand though the line of advance be strictly confined to its own\r\nunavoidable, straight wake, yet the arbitrary _vein_ in which at these\r\ntimes he is said to swim, generally embraces some few miles in width\r\n(more or less, as the vein is presumed to expand or contract); but\r\nnever exceeds the visual sweep from the whale-ship’s mast-heads, when\r\ncircumspectly gliding along this magic zone. The sum is, that at\r\nparticular seasons within that breadth and along that path, migrating\r\nwhales may with great confidence be looked for.\r\n\r\nAnd hence not only at substantiated times, upon well known separate\r\nfeeding-grounds, could Ahab hope to encounter his prey; but in crossing\r\nthe widest expanses of water between those grounds he could, by his\r\nart, so place and time himself on his way, as even then not to be\r\nwholly without prospect of a meeting.\r\n\r\nThere was a circumstance which at first sight seemed to entangle his\r\ndelirious but still methodical scheme. But not so in the reality,\r\nperhaps. Though the gregarious sperm whales have their regular seasons\r\nfor particular grounds, yet in general you cannot conclude that the\r\nherds which haunted such and such a latitude or longitude this year,\r\nsay, will turn out to be identically the same with those that were\r\nfound there the preceding season; though there are peculiar and\r\nunquestionable instances where the contrary of this has proved true. In\r\ngeneral, the same remark, only within a less wide limit, applies to the\r\nsolitaries and hermits among the matured, aged sperm whales. So that\r\nthough Moby Dick had in a former year been seen, for example, on what\r\nis called the Seychelle ground in the Indian ocean, or Volcano Bay on\r\nthe Japanese Coast; yet it did not follow, that were the Pequod to\r\nvisit either of those spots at any subsequent corresponding season, she\r\nwould infallibly encounter him there. So, too, with some other feeding\r\ngrounds, where he had at times revealed himself. But all these seemed\r\nonly his casual stopping-places and ocean-inns, so to speak, not his\r\nplaces of prolonged abode."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKZBGV5QSFPD19S2BQF68","peer_label":"captain ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW8ZMHF9GR0N2T6VN53V","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZWNWH9124159G96R4Q9","peer_label":"indian ocean","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ocean","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5STDKZ8TTB44TKEQ2CR","peer_label":"cabaco","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5VASWG4KF6WR7HTB28F","peer_label":"chapter 44 the chart","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5V8P22JZGSZ43RSAFT0","peer_label":"cordon seamen","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM5YX8Z9ZZAZ7MWXZM0Z4","peer_label":"archy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6EY5G7AR0NR26GY1SPQ","peer_label":"log-books whaling","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"artifact","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6ETR1N9DDS66911B23K","peer_label":"monomaniac thought ahabs","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6RPW6EMG80X6FNM4VY5","peer_label":"migratory charts of the sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6NHA4NB50FP81TC7TY2","peer_label":"lieutenant maury","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6H5QZV1BT1H71GZQZJV","peer_label":"national observatory washington","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"organization","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6S122NQJTY32FXQZQDD","peer_label":"sea charts","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"artifact","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM60ZN4CGAK7X1D3550F2","peer_label":"after-hold pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM731E0JT8CB08R61K069","peer_label":"official circular maury 1851","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7BE6TMT8030QKBM7YKS","peer_label":"volcano bay","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM768SHJWYX51KYM01T0V","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7R9S96T6R349ZWRCXTZ","peer_label":"whale veins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM81F4DBW6ZDH8SAVC78S","peer_label":"japanese coast","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographical_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM79EJF9V8H1R063271QS","peer_label":"feeding ground whaling","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"location_type","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7X689KYPS00QHEJWP68","peer_label":"seychelle ground","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:25.689Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.729Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:02:39.384Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}