{"id":"01KJNXJR0DBW9GRJ16VHC8BA7W","cid":"bafkreicdmgu7lkpgkn6xa4dou7spv5rzwpy7sx5x2tpj5qbbilf4hhcnci","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":640919,"char_start":632994,"chunk_index":89,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1982,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.\r\nAnd if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would\r\nnot at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before\r\nyour evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 61. Stubb Kills a Whale.\r\n\r\nIf to Starbuck the apparition of the Squid was a thing of portents, to\r\nQueequeg it was quite a different object.\r\n\r\n“When you see him ’quid,” said the savage, honing his harpoon in the\r\nbow of his hoisted boat, “then you quick see him ’parm whale.”\r\n\r\nThe next day was exceedingly still and sultry, and with nothing special\r\nto engage them, the Pequod’s crew could hardly resist the spell of\r\nsleep induced by such a vacant sea. For this part of the Indian Ocean\r\nthrough which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively\r\nground; that is, it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises, dolphins,\r\nflying-fish, and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters, than\r\nthose off the Rio de la Plata, or the in-shore ground off Peru.\r\n\r\nIt was my turn to stand at the foremast-head; and with my shoulders\r\nleaning against the slackened royal shrouds, to and fro I idly swayed\r\nin what seemed an enchanted air. No resolution could withstand it; in\r\nthat dreamy mood losing all consciousness, at last my soul went out of\r\nmy body; though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will,\r\nlong after the power which first moved it is withdrawn.\r\n\r\nEre forgetfulness altogether came over me, I had noticed that the\r\nseamen at the main and mizzen-mast-heads were already drowsy. So that\r\nat last all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars, and for every\r\nswing that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering\r\nhelmsman. The waves, too, nodded their indolent crests; and across the\r\nwide trance of the sea, east nodded to west, and the sun over all.\r\n\r\nSuddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes; like vices my\r\nhands grasped the shrouds; some invisible, gracious agency preserved\r\nme; with a shock I came back to life. And lo! close under our lee, not\r\nforty fathoms off, a gigantic Sperm Whale lay rolling in the water like\r\nthe capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy back, of an Ethiopian\r\nhue, glistening in the sun’s rays like a mirror. But lazily undulating\r\nin the trough of the sea, and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his\r\nvapory jet, the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of\r\na warm afternoon. But that pipe, poor whale, was thy last. As if struck\r\nby some enchanter’s wand, the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all\r\nat once started into wakefulness; and more than a score of voices from\r\nall parts of the vessel, simultaneously with the three notes from\r\naloft, shouted forth the accustomed cry, as the great fish slowly and\r\nregularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air.\r\n\r\n“Clear away the boats! Luff!” cried Ahab. And obeying his own order, he\r\ndashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.\r\n\r\nThe sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and\r\nere the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the\r\nleeward, but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few ripples\r\nas he swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed,\r\nAhab gave orders that not an oar should be used, and no man must speak\r\nbut in whispers. So seated like Ontario Indians on the gunwales of the\r\nboats, we swiftly but silently paddled along; the calm not admitting of\r\nthe noiseless sails being set. Presently, as we thus glided in chase,\r\nthe monster perpendicularly flitted his tail forty feet into the air,\r\nand then sank out of sight like a tower swallowed up.\r\n\r\n“There go flukes!” was the cry, an announcement immediately followed by\r\nStubb’s producing his match and igniting his pipe, for now a respite\r\nwas granted. After the full interval of his sounding had elapsed, the\r\nwhale rose again, and being now in advance of the smoker’s boat, and\r\nmuch nearer to it than to any of the others, Stubb counted upon the\r\nhonor of the capture. It was obvious, now, that the whale had at length\r\nbecome aware of his pursuers. All silence of cautiousness was therefore\r\nno longer of use. Paddles were dropped, and oars came loudly into play.\r\nAnd still puffing at his pipe, Stubb cheered on his crew to the\r\nassault.\r\n\r\nYes, a mighty change had come over the fish. All alive to his jeopardy,\r\nhe was going “head out”; that part obliquely projecting from the mad\r\nyeast which he brewed.*\r\n\r\n*It will be seen in some other place of what a very light substance the\r\nentire interior of the sperm whale’s enormous head consists. Though\r\napparently the most massive, it is by far the most buoyant part about\r\nhim. So that with ease he elevates it in the air, and invariably does\r\nso when going at his utmost speed. Besides, such is the breadth of the\r\nupper part of the front of his head, and such the tapering cut-water\r\nformation of the lower part, that by obliquely elevating his head, he\r\nthereby may be said to transform himself from a bluff-bowed sluggish\r\ngalliot into a sharppointed New York pilot-boat.\r\n\r\n“Start her, start her, my men! Don’t hurry yourselves; take plenty of\r\ntime—but start her; start her like thunder-claps, that’s all,” cried\r\nStubb, spluttering out the smoke as he spoke. “Start her, now; give ’em\r\nthe long and strong stroke, Tashtego. Start her, Tash, my boy—start\r\nher, all; but keep cool, keep cool—cucumbers is the word—easy,\r\neasy—only start her like grim death and grinning devils, and raise the\r\nburied dead perpendicular out of their graves, boys—that’s all. Start\r\nher!”\r\n\r\n“Woo-hoo! Wa-hee!” screamed the Gay-Header in reply, raising some old\r\nwar-whoop to the skies; as every oarsman in the strained boat\r\ninvoluntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke\r\nwhich the eager Indian gave.\r\n\r\nBut his wild screams were answered by others quite as wild. “Kee-hee!\r\nKee-hee!” yelled Daggoo, straining forwards and backwards on his seat,\r\nlike a pacing tiger in his cage.\r\n\r\n“Ka-la! Koo-loo!” howled Queequeg, as if smacking his lips over a\r\nmouthful of Grenadier’s steak. And thus with oars and yells the keels\r\ncut the sea. Meanwhile, Stubb retaining his place in the van, still\r\nencouraged his men to the onset, all the while puffing the smoke from\r\nhis mouth. Like desperadoes they tugged and they strained, till the\r\nwelcome cry was heard—“Stand up, Tashtego!—give it to him!” The harpoon\r\nwas hurled. “Stern all!” The oarsmen backed water; the same moment\r\nsomething went hot and hissing along every one of their wrists. It was\r\nthe magical line. An instant before, Stubb had swiftly caught two\r\nadditional turns with it round the loggerhead, whence, by reason of its\r\nincreased rapid circlings, a hempen blue smoke now jetted up and\r\nmingled with the steady fumes from his pipe. As the line passed round\r\nand round the loggerhead; so also, just before reaching that point, it\r\nblisteringly passed through and through both of Stubb’s hands, from\r\nwhich the hand-cloths, or squares of quilted canvas sometimes worn at\r\nthese times, had accidentally dropped. It was like holding an enemy’s\r\nsharp two-edged sword by the blade, and that enemy all the time\r\nstriving to wrest it out of your clutch.\r\n\r\n“Wet the line! wet the line!” cried Stubb to the tub oarsman (him\r\nseated by the tub) who, snatching off his hat, dashed sea-water into\r\nit.* More turns were taken, so that the line began holding its place.\r\nThe boat now flew through the boiling water like a shark all fins.\r\nStubb and Tashtego here changed places—stem for stern—a staggering\r\nbusiness truly in that rocking commotion.\r\n\r\n*Partly to show the indispensableness of this act, it may here be\r\nstated, that, in the old Dutch fishery, a mop was used to dash the\r\nrunning line with water; in many other ships, a wooden piggin, or\r\nbailer, is set apart for that purpose."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.956Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.956Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.956Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.956Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZWNWH9124159G96R4Q9","peer_label":"indian 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