{"id":"01KJNXJQYHQ6Z50HY9BJFHGNYN","cid":"bafkreigoaht3xorkysuwby7dpvxxmvhsga3nlhk7jqdukugzdbxk7tbsyy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":512920,"char_start":505316,"chunk_index":71,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1901,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"flung upon the sea. The jets of vapor no longer blended, but tilted\r\neverywhere to right and left; the whales seemed separating their wakes.\r\nThe boats were pulled more apart; Starbuck giving chase to three whales\r\nrunning dead to leeward. Our sail was now set, and, with the still\r\nrising wind, we rushed along; the boat going with such madness through\r\nthe water, that the lee oars could scarcely be worked rapidly enough to\r\nescape being torn from the row-locks.\r\n\r\nSoon we were running through a suffusing wide veil of mist; neither\r\nship nor boat to be seen.\r\n\r\n“Give way, men,” whispered Starbuck, drawing still further aft the\r\nsheet of his sail; “there is time to kill a fish yet before the squall\r\ncomes. There’s white water again!—close to! Spring!”\r\n\r\nSoon after, two cries in quick succession on each side of us denoted\r\nthat the other boats had got fast; but hardly were they overheard, when\r\nwith a lightning-like hurtling whisper Starbuck said: “Stand up!” and\r\nQueequeg, harpoon in hand, sprang to his feet.\r\n\r\nThough not one of the oarsmen was then facing the life and death peril\r\nso close to them ahead, yet with their eyes on the intense countenance\r\nof the mate in the stern of the boat, they knew that the imminent\r\ninstant had come; they heard, too, an enormous wallowing sound as of\r\nfifty elephants stirring in their litter. Meanwhile the boat was still\r\nbooming through the mist, the waves curling and hissing around us like\r\nthe erected crests of enraged serpents.\r\n\r\n“That’s his hump. _There_, _there_, give it to him!” whispered\r\nStarbuck.\r\n\r\nA short rushing sound leaped out of the boat; it was the darted iron of\r\nQueequeg. Then all in one welded commotion came an invisible push from\r\nastern, while forward the boat seemed striking on a ledge; the sail\r\ncollapsed and exploded; a gush of scalding vapor shot up near by;\r\nsomething rolled and tumbled like an earthquake beneath us. The whole\r\ncrew were half suffocated as they were tossed helter-skelter into the\r\nwhite curdling cream of the squall. Squall, whale, and harpoon had all\r\nblended together; and the whale, merely grazed by the iron, escaped.\r\n\r\nThough completely swamped, the boat was nearly unharmed. Swimming round\r\nit we picked up the floating oars, and lashing them across the gunwale,\r\ntumbled back to our places. There we sat up to our knees in the sea,\r\nthe water covering every rib and plank, so that to our downward gazing\r\neyes the suspended craft seemed a coral boat grown up to us from the\r\nbottom of the ocean.\r\n\r\nThe wind increased to a howl; the waves dashed their bucklers together;\r\nthe whole squall roared, forked, and crackled around us like a white\r\nfire upon the prairie, in which, unconsumed, we were burning; immortal\r\nin these jaws of death! In vain we hailed the other boats; as well roar\r\nto the live coals down the chimney of a flaming furnace as hail those\r\nboats in that storm. Meanwhile the driving scud, rack, and mist, grew\r\ndarker with the shadows of night; no sign of the ship could be seen.\r\nThe rising sea forbade all attempts to bale out the boat. The oars were\r\nuseless as propellers, performing now the office of life-preservers.\r\nSo, cutting the lashing of the waterproof match keg, after many\r\nfailures Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then\r\nstretching it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the\r\nstandard-bearer of this forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding up\r\nthat imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness. There,\r\nthen, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly\r\nholding up hope in the midst of despair.\r\n\r\nWet, drenched through, and shivering cold, despairing of ship or boat,\r\nwe lifted up our eyes as the dawn came on. The mist still spread over\r\nthe sea, the empty lantern lay crushed in the bottom of the boat.\r\nSuddenly Queequeg started to his feet, hollowing his hand to his ear.\r\nWe all heard a faint creaking, as of ropes and yards hitherto muffled\r\nby the storm. The sound came nearer and nearer; the thick mists were\r\ndimly parted by a huge, vague form. Affrighted, we all sprang into the\r\nsea as the ship at last loomed into view, bearing right down upon us\r\nwithin a distance of not much more than its length.\r\n\r\nFloating on the waves we saw the abandoned boat, as for one instant it\r\ntossed and gaped beneath the ship’s bows like a chip at the base of a\r\ncataract; and then the vast hull rolled over it, and it was seen no\r\nmore till it came up weltering astern. Again we swam for it, were\r\ndashed against it by the seas, and were at last taken up and safely\r\nlanded on board. Ere the squall came close to, the other boats had cut\r\nloose from their fish and returned to the ship in good time. The ship\r\nhad given us up, but was still cruising, if haply it might light upon\r\nsome token of our perishing,—an oar or a lance pole.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 49. The Hyena.\r\n\r\nThere are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed\r\naffair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast\r\npractical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more\r\nthan suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own.\r\nHowever, nothing dispirits, and nothing seems worth while disputing. He\r\nbolts down all events, all creeds, and beliefs, and persuasions, all\r\nhard things visible and invisible, never mind how knobby; as an ostrich\r\nof potent digestion gobbles down bullets and gun flints. And as for\r\nsmall difficulties and worryings, prospects of sudden disaster, peril\r\nof life and limb; all these, and death itself, seem to him only sly,\r\ngood-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side bestowed by the unseen\r\nand unaccountable old joker. That odd sort of wayward mood I am\r\nspeaking of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation;\r\nit comes in the very midst of his earnestness, so that what just before\r\nmight have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part\r\nof the general joke. There is nothing like the perils of whaling to\r\nbreed this free and easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy; and with\r\nit I now regarded this whole voyage of the Pequod, and the great White\r\nWhale its object.\r\n\r\n“Queequeg,” said I, when they had dragged me, the last man, to the\r\ndeck, and I was still shaking myself in my jacket to fling off the\r\nwater; “Queequeg, my fine friend, does this sort of thing often\r\nhappen?” Without much emotion, though soaked through just like me, he\r\ngave me to understand that such things did often happen.\r\n\r\n“Mr. Stubb,” said I, turning to that worthy, who, buttoned up in his\r\noil-jacket, was now calmly smoking his pipe in the rain; “Mr. Stubb, I\r\nthink I have heard you say that of all whalemen you ever met, our chief\r\nmate, Mr. Starbuck, is by far the most careful and prudent. I suppose\r\nthen, that going plump on a flying whale with your sail set in a foggy\r\nsquall is the height of a whaleman’s discretion?”\r\n\r\n“Certain. I’ve lowered for whales from a leaking ship in a gale off\r\nCape Horn.”\r\n\r\n“Mr. Flask,” said I, turning to little King-Post, who was standing\r\nclose by; “you are experienced in these things, and I am not. Will you\r\ntell me whether it is an unalterable law in this fishery, Mr. Flask,\r\nfor an oarsman to break his own back pulling himself back-foremost into\r\ndeath’s jaws?”\r\n\r\n“Can’t you twist that smaller?” said Flask. “Yes, that’s the law. I\r\nshould like to see a boat’s crew backing water up to a whale face\r\nforemost. Ha, ha! the whale would give them squint for squint, mind\r\nthat!”\r\n\r\nHere then, from three impartial witnesses, I had a deliberate statement\r\nof the entire case."},"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":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKYQT8NKB1JV9WAZTZ7F3","peer_label":"cape horn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographical_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKSZYY4PZZGTPZ89W34AF","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV9JR5QVCDKHMH41830J","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM4GAXRYAK5F89KANABJS","peer_label":"squall","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weather_event","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM4PSM34YFBQDM95GKZ43","peer_label":"chapter 49 the hyena","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM4GV2J0374F18J8YK5DC","peer_label":"whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"marine_animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM4QZJH65S3EXKYAQC8ZA","peer_label":"lantern","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"lighting_device","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM4G5GJ3WK3HAPP8T9QA2","peer_label":"whaling boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM593YGTRYXMPBXHM90S3","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"marine_animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM4VN9K0QA2TMBZ42JS6H","peer_label":"waif pole","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:04.477Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.729Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:02:05.422Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}