{"id":"01KJNXJQYHSBSA8CDHFZ8A7PHB","cid":"bafkreiffjonscgogz2gqnu3y7vhdrnojcdfovg5rp5p4vlheovzqbtfwve","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":463372,"char_start":455704,"chunk_index":64,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1917,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"and moreover to take away any incredulity which a profound ignorance of\r\nthe entire subject may induce in some minds, as to the natural verity\r\nof the main points of this affair.\r\n\r\nI care not to perform this part of my task methodically; but shall be\r\ncontent to produce the desired impression by separate citations of\r\nitems, practically or reliably known to me as a whaleman; and from\r\nthese citations, I take it—the conclusion aimed at will naturally\r\nfollow of itself.\r\n\r\nFirst: I have personally known three instances where a whale, after\r\nreceiving a harpoon, has effected a complete escape; and, after an\r\ninterval (in one instance of three years), has been again struck by the\r\nsame hand, and slain; when the two irons, both marked by the same\r\nprivate cypher, have been taken from the body. In the instance where\r\nthree years intervened between the flinging of the two harpoons; and I\r\nthink it may have been something more than that; the man who darted\r\nthem happening, in the interval, to go in a trading ship on a voyage to\r\nAfrica, went ashore there, joined a discovery party, and penetrated far\r\ninto the interior, where he travelled for a period of nearly two years,\r\noften endangered by serpents, savages, tigers, poisonous miasmas, with\r\nall the other common perils incident to wandering in the heart of\r\nunknown regions. Meanwhile, the whale he had struck must also have been\r\non its travels; no doubt it had thrice circumnavigated the globe,\r\nbrushing with its flanks all the coasts of Africa; but to no purpose.\r\nThis man and this whale again came together, and the one vanquished the\r\nother. I say I, myself, have known three instances similar to this;\r\nthat is in two of them I saw the whales struck; and, upon the second\r\nattack, saw the two irons with the respective marks cut in them,\r\nafterwards taken from the dead fish. In the three-year instance, it so\r\nfell out that I was in the boat both times, first and last, and the\r\nlast time distinctly recognised a peculiar sort of huge mole under the\r\nwhale’s eye, which I had observed there three years previous. I say\r\nthree years, but I am pretty sure it was more than that. Here are three\r\ninstances, then, which I personally know the truth of; but I have heard\r\nof many other instances from persons whose veracity in the matter there\r\nis no good ground to impeach.\r\n\r\nSecondly: It is well known in the Sperm Whale Fishery, however ignorant\r\nthe world ashore may be of it, that there have been several memorable\r\nhistorical instances where a particular whale in the ocean has been at\r\ndistant times and places popularly cognisable. Why such a whale became\r\nthus marked was not altogether and originally owing to his bodily\r\npeculiarities as distinguished from other whales; for however peculiar\r\nin that respect any chance whale may be, they soon put an end to his\r\npeculiarities by killing him, and boiling him down into a peculiarly\r\nvaluable oil. No: the reason was this: that from the fatal experiences\r\nof the fishery there hung a terrible prestige of perilousness about\r\nsuch a whale as there did about Rinaldo Rinaldini, insomuch that most\r\nfishermen were content to recognise him by merely touching their\r\ntarpaulins when he would be discovered lounging by them on the sea,\r\nwithout seeking to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance. Like some\r\npoor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man, they\r\nmake distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they\r\npursued the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary thump\r\nfor their presumption.\r\n\r\nBut not only did each of these famous whales enjoy great individual\r\ncelebrity—Nay, you may call it an ocean-wide renown; not only was he\r\nfamous in life and now is immortal in forecastle stories after death,\r\nbut he was admitted into all the rights, privileges, and distinctions\r\nof a name; had as much a name indeed as Cambyses or Cæsar. Was it not\r\nso, O Timor Tom! thou famed leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so\r\nlong did’st lurk in the Oriental straits of that name, whose spout was\r\noft seen from the palmy beach of Ombay? Was it not so, O New Zealand\r\nJack! thou terror of all cruisers that crossed their wakes in the\r\nvicinity of the Tattoo Land? Was it not so, O Morquan! King of Japan,\r\nwhose lofty jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snow-white\r\ncross against the sky? Was it not so, O Don Miguel! thou Chilian whale,\r\nmarked like an old tortoise with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back! In\r\nplain prose, here are four whales as well known to the students of\r\nCetacean History as Marius or Sylla to the classic scholar.\r\n\r\nBut this is not all. New Zealand Tom and Don Miguel, after at various\r\ntimes creating great havoc among the boats of different vessels, were\r\nfinally gone in quest of, systematically hunted out, chased and killed\r\nby valiant whaling captains, who heaved up their anchors with that\r\nexpress object as much in view, as in setting out through the\r\nNarragansett Woods, Captain Butler of old had it in his mind to capture\r\nthat notorious murderous savage Annawon, the headmost warrior of the\r\nIndian King Philip.\r\n\r\nI do not know where I can find a better place than just here, to make\r\nmention of one or two other things, which to me seem important, as in\r\nprinted form establishing in all respects the reasonableness of the\r\nwhole story of the White Whale, more especially the catastrophe. For\r\nthis is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full\r\nas much bolstering as error. So ignorant are most landsmen of some of\r\nthe plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some\r\nhints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the\r\nfishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still\r\nworse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.\r\n\r\nFirst: Though most men have some vague flitting ideas of the general\r\nperils of the grand fishery, yet they have nothing like a fixed, vivid\r\nconception of those perils, and the frequency with which they recur.\r\nOne reason perhaps is, that not one in fifty of the actual disasters\r\nand deaths by casualties in the fishery, ever finds a public record at\r\nhome, however transient and immediately forgotten that record. Do you\r\nsuppose that that poor fellow there, who this moment perhaps caught by\r\nthe whale-line off the coast of New Guinea, is being carried down to\r\nthe bottom of the sea by the sounding leviathan—do you suppose that\r\nthat poor fellow’s name will appear in the newspaper obituary you will\r\nread to-morrow at your breakfast? No: because the mails are very\r\nirregular between here and New Guinea. In fact, did you ever hear what\r\nmight be called regular news direct or indirect from New Guinea? Yet I\r\ntell you that upon one particular voyage which I made to the Pacific,\r\namong many others we spoke thirty different ships, every one of which\r\nhad had a death by a whale, some of them more than one, and three that\r\nhad each lost a boat’s crew. For God’s sake, be economical with your\r\nlamps and candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of\r\nman’s blood was spilled for it.\r\n\r\nSecondly: People ashore have indeed some indefinite idea that a whale\r\nis an enormous creature of enormous power; but I have ever found that\r\nwhen narrating to them some specific example of this two-fold\r\nenormousness, they have significantly complimented me upon my\r\nfacetiousness; when, I declare upon my soul, I had no more idea of\r\nbeing facetious than Moses, when he wrote the history of the plagues of\r\nEgypt.\r\n\r\nBut fortunately the special point I here seek can be established upon\r\ntestimony entirely independent of my own."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.729Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.729Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}