{"id":"01KJNXJR1R7ZPGTM1SS0MBP5CB","cid":"bafkreiaakpcga5nehhvqceg6244sq7la7x7ae66a6miv5qqid3lycjjg3i","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":704542,"char_start":696759,"chunk_index":98,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1946,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"and lowered a boat; it soon drew nigh; but, as the side-ladder was\r\nbeing rigged by Starbuck’s order to accommodate the visiting captain,\r\nthe stranger in question waved his hand from his boat’s stern in token\r\nof that proceeding being entirely unnecessary. It turned out that the\r\nJeroboam had a malignant epidemic on board, and that Mayhew, her\r\ncaptain, was fearful of infecting the Pequod’s company. For, though\r\nhimself and boat’s crew remained untainted, and though his ship was\r\nhalf a rifle-shot off, and an incorruptible sea and air rolling and\r\nflowing between; yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine\r\nof the land, he peremptorily refused to come into direct contact with\r\nthe Pequod.\r\n\r\nBut this did by no means prevent all communications. Preserving an\r\ninterval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam’s\r\nboat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to\r\nthe Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it\r\nblew very fresh), with her main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at times\r\nby the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be pushed\r\nsome way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper\r\nbearings again. Subject to this, and other the like interruptions now\r\nand then, a conversation was sustained between the two parties; but at\r\nintervals not without still another interruption of a very different\r\nsort.\r\n\r\nPulling an oar in the Jeroboam’s boat, was a man of a singular\r\nappearance, even in that wild whaling life where individual\r\nnotabilities make up all totalities. He was a small, short, youngish\r\nman, sprinkled all over his face with freckles, and wearing redundant\r\nyellow hair. A long-skirted, cabalistically-cut coat of a faded walnut\r\ntinge enveloped him; the overlapping sleeves of which were rolled up on\r\nhis wrists. A deep, settled, fanatic delirium was in his eyes.\r\n\r\nSo soon as this figure had been first descried, Stubb had\r\nexclaimed—“That’s he! that’s he!—the long-togged scaramouch the\r\nTown-Ho’s company told us of!” Stubb here alluded to a strange story\r\ntold of the Jeroboam, and a certain man among her crew, some time\r\nprevious when the Pequod spoke the Town-Ho. According to this account\r\nand what was subsequently learned, it seemed that the scaramouch in\r\nquestion had gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the\r\nJeroboam. His story was this:\r\n\r\nHe had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of Neskyeuna\r\nShakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, secret\r\nmeetings having several times descended from heaven by the way of a\r\ntrap-door, announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial, which he\r\ncarried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of containing\r\ngunpowder, was supposed to be charged with laudanum. A strange,\r\napostolic whim having seized him, he had left Neskyeuna for Nantucket,\r\nwhere, with that cunning peculiar to craziness, he assumed a steady,\r\ncommon-sense exterior, and offered himself as a green-hand candidate\r\nfor the Jeroboam’s whaling voyage. They engaged him; but straightway\r\nupon the ship’s getting out of sight of land, his insanity broke out in\r\na freshet. He announced himself as the archangel Gabriel, and commanded\r\nthe captain to jump overboard. He published his manifesto, whereby he\r\nset himself forth as the deliverer of the isles of the sea and\r\nvicar-general of all Oceanica. The unflinching earnestness with which\r\nhe declared these things;—the dark, daring play of his sleepless,\r\nexcited imagination, and all the preternatural terrors of real\r\ndelirium, united to invest this Gabriel in the minds of the majority of\r\nthe ignorant crew, with an atmosphere of sacredness. Moreover, they\r\nwere afraid of him. As such a man, however, was not of much practical\r\nuse in the ship, especially as he refused to work except when he\r\npleased, the incredulous captain would fain have been rid of him; but\r\napprised that that individual’s intention was to land him in the first\r\nconvenient port, the archangel forthwith opened all his seals and\r\nvials—devoting the ship and all hands to unconditional perdition, in\r\ncase this intention was carried out. So strongly did he work upon his\r\ndisciples among the crew, that at last in a body they went to the\r\ncaptain and told him if Gabriel was sent from the ship, not a man of\r\nthem would remain. He was therefore forced to relinquish his plan. Nor\r\nwould they permit Gabriel to be any way maltreated, say or do what he\r\nwould; so that it came to pass that Gabriel had the complete freedom of\r\nthe ship. The consequence of all this was, that the archangel cared\r\nlittle or nothing for the captain and mates; and since the epidemic had\r\nbroken out, he carried a higher hand than ever; declaring that the\r\nplague, as he called it, was at his sole command; nor should it be\r\nstayed but according to his good pleasure. The sailors, mostly poor\r\ndevils, cringed, and some of them fawned before him; in obedience to\r\nhis instructions, sometimes rendering him personal homage, as to a god.\r\nSuch things may seem incredible; but, however wondrous, they are true.\r\nNor is the history of fanatics half so striking in respect to the\r\nmeasureless self-deception of the fanatic himself, as his measureless\r\npower of deceiving and bedevilling so many others. But it is time to\r\nreturn to the Pequod.\r\n\r\n“I fear not thy epidemic, man,” said Ahab from the bulwarks, to Captain\r\nMayhew, who stood in the boat’s stern; “come on board.”\r\n\r\nBut now Gabriel started to his feet.\r\n\r\n“Think, think of the fevers, yellow and bilious! Beware of the horrible\r\nplague!”\r\n\r\n“Gabriel! Gabriel!” cried Captain Mayhew; “thou must either—” But that\r\ninstant a headlong wave shot the boat far ahead, and its seethings\r\ndrowned all speech.\r\n\r\n“Hast thou seen the White Whale?” demanded Ahab, when the boat drifted\r\nback.\r\n\r\n“Think, think of thy whale-boat, stoven and sunk! Beware of the\r\nhorrible tail!”\r\n\r\n“I tell thee again, Gabriel, that—” But again the boat tore ahead as if\r\ndragged by fiends. Nothing was said for some moments, while a\r\nsuccession of riotous waves rolled by, which by one of those occasional\r\ncaprices of the seas were tumbling, not heaving it. Meantime, the\r\nhoisted sperm whale’s head jogged about very violently, and Gabriel was\r\nseen eyeing it with rather more apprehensiveness than his archangel\r\nnature seemed to warrant.\r\n\r\nWhen this interlude was over, Captain Mayhew began a dark story\r\nconcerning Moby Dick; not, however, without frequent interruptions from\r\nGabriel, whenever his name was mentioned, and the crazy sea that seemed\r\nleagued with him.\r\n\r\nIt seemed that the Jeroboam had not long left home, when upon speaking\r\na whale-ship, her people were reliably apprised of the existence of\r\nMoby Dick, and the havoc he had made. Greedily sucking in this\r\nintelligence, Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against attacking the\r\nWhite Whale, in case the monster should be seen; in his gibbering\r\ninsanity, pronouncing the White Whale to be no less a being than the\r\nShaker God incarnated; the Shakers receiving the Bible. But when, some\r\nyear or two afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted from the\r\nmast-heads, Macey, the chief mate, burned with ardour to encounter him;\r\nand the captain himself being not unwilling to let him have the\r\nopportunity, despite all the archangel’s denunciations and\r\nforewarnings, Macey succeeded in persuading five men to man his boat.\r\nWith them he pushed off; and, after much weary pulling, and many\r\nperilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last succeeded in getting one iron\r\nfast. Meantime, Gabriel, ascending to the main-royal mast-head, was\r\ntossing one arm in frantic gestures, and hurling forth prophecies of\r\nspeedy doom to the sacrilegious assailants of his divinity."},"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":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM529XJRPQXV0DC58V32N","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCR48C7MQ7NF5Q3VG8W6","peer_label":"town-ho","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCX7W4SRB8R0059W6C4X","peer_label":"gabriel","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMD0BRG52XD9E1VKWQN4H","peer_label":"macey","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMBSMRW2SH5RSHYCXPMVH","peer_label":"captain mayhew","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMBR5H49E23M7S4R427K0","peer_label":"jeroboam","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCQYDZTN6EZ76M1FJMRK","peer_label":"archangel gabriel","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"mythological_figure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMBTF673X435ZDQ3FVRFG","peer_label":"neskyeuna shakers","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_community","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMD09NVYYRFFMABGSDS9A","peer_label":"laudanum","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"substance","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMD0NTV64946SQNW38E3Y","peer_label":"seventh vial","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"prophetic_object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMSYRY2H6VWVWTB3Z3904","peer_label":"shaker god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:38.377Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.832Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:03:45.332Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}