{"id":"01KJNXJV6PHM0PMB93M8Y4S2ZD","cid":"bafkreid6oo57zp4ggt64thpeawgegwbezhkw6m2zrfq2oal6pb2hzpbglm","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":726035,"char_start":718047,"chunk_index":101,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1997,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"whale.”\r\n\r\n“Enough,” replied Starbuck, “only don’t hit him again, but—”\r\n\r\n“Oh, I never hurt when I hit, except when I hit a whale or something of\r\nthat sort; and this fellow’s a weazel. What were you about saying,\r\nsir?”\r\n\r\n“Only this: go down with him, and get what thou wantest thyself.”\r\n\r\nWhen Stubb reappeared, he came with a dark flask in one hand, and a\r\nsort of tea-caddy in the other. The first contained strong spirits, and\r\nwas handed to Queequeg; the second was Aunt Charity’s gift, and that\r\nwas freely given to the waves.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk\r\nover Him.\r\n\r\nIt must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm Whale’s\r\nprodigious head hanging to the Pequod’s side. But we must let it\r\ncontinue hanging there a while till we can get a chance to attend to\r\nit. For the present other matters press, and the best we can do now for\r\nthe head, is to pray heaven the tackles may hold.\r\n\r\nNow, during the past night and forenoon, the Pequod had gradually\r\ndrifted into a sea, which, by its occasional patches of yellow brit,\r\ngave unusual tokens of the vicinity of Right Whales, a species of the\r\nLeviathan that but few supposed to be at this particular time lurking\r\nanywhere near. And though all hands commonly disdained the capture of\r\nthose inferior creatures; and though the Pequod was not commissioned to\r\ncruise for them at all, and though she had passed numbers of them near\r\nthe Crozetts without lowering a boat; yet now that a Sperm Whale had\r\nbeen brought alongside and beheaded, to the surprise of all, the\r\nannouncement was made that a Right Whale should be captured that day,\r\nif opportunity offered.\r\n\r\nNor was this long wanting. Tall spouts were seen to leeward; and two\r\nboats, Stubb’s and Flask’s, were detached in pursuit. Pulling further\r\nand further away, they at last became almost invisible to the men at\r\nthe mast-head. But suddenly in the distance, they saw a great heap of\r\ntumultuous white water, and soon after news came from aloft that one or\r\nboth the boats must be fast. An interval passed and the boats were in\r\nplain sight, in the act of being dragged right towards the ship by the\r\ntowing whale. So close did the monster come to the hull, that at first\r\nit seemed as if he meant it malice; but suddenly going down in a\r\nmaelstrom, within three rods of the planks, he wholly disappeared from\r\nview, as if diving under the keel. “Cut, cut!” was the cry from the\r\nship to the boats, which, for one instant, seemed on the point of being\r\nbrought with a deadly dash against the vessel’s side. But having plenty\r\nof line yet in the tubs, and the whale not sounding very rapidly, they\r\npaid out abundance of rope, and at the same time pulled with all their\r\nmight so as to get ahead of the ship. For a few minutes the struggle\r\nwas intensely critical; for while they still slacked out the tightened\r\nline in one direction, and still plied their oars in another, the\r\ncontending strain threatened to take them under. But it was only a few\r\nfeet advance they sought to gain. And they stuck to it till they did\r\ngain it; when instantly, a swift tremor was felt running like lightning\r\nalong the keel, as the strained line, scraping beneath the ship,\r\nsuddenly rose to view under her bows, snapping and quivering; and so\r\nflinging off its drippings, that the drops fell like bits of broken\r\nglass on the water, while the whale beyond also rose to sight, and once\r\nmore the boats were free to fly. But the fagged whale abated his speed,\r\nand blindly altering his course, went round the stern of the ship\r\ntowing the two boats after him, so that they performed a complete\r\ncircuit.\r\n\r\nMeantime, they hauled more and more upon their lines, till close\r\nflanking him on both sides, Stubb answered Flask with lance for lance;\r\nand thus round and round the Pequod the battle went, while the\r\nmultitudes of sharks that had before swum round the Sperm Whale’s body,\r\nrushed to the fresh blood that was spilled, thirstily drinking at every\r\nnew gash, as the eager Israelites did at the new bursting fountains\r\nthat poured from the smitten rock.\r\n\r\nAt last his spout grew thick, and with a frightful roll and vomit, he\r\nturned upon his back a corpse.\r\n\r\nWhile the two headsmen were engaged in making fast cords to his flukes,\r\nand in other ways getting the mass in readiness for towing, some\r\nconversation ensued between them.\r\n\r\n“I wonder what the old man wants with this lump of foul lard,” said\r\nStubb, not without some disgust at the thought of having to do with so\r\nignoble a leviathan.\r\n\r\n“Wants with it?” said Flask, coiling some spare line in the boat’s bow,\r\n“did you never hear that the ship which but once has a Sperm Whale’s\r\nhead hoisted on her starboard side, and at the same time a Right\r\nWhale’s on the larboard; did you never hear, Stubb, that that ship can\r\nnever afterwards capsize?”\r\n\r\n“Why not?\r\n\r\n“I don’t know, but I heard that gamboge ghost of a Fedallah saying so,\r\nand he seems to know all about ships’ charms. But I sometimes think\r\nhe’ll charm the ship to no good at last. I don’t half like that chap,\r\nStubb. Did you ever notice how that tusk of his is a sort of carved\r\ninto a snake’s head, Stubb?”\r\n\r\n“Sink him! I never look at him at all; but if ever I get a chance of a\r\ndark night, and he standing hard by the bulwarks, and no one by; look\r\ndown there, Flask”—pointing into the sea with a peculiar motion of both\r\nhands—“Aye, will I! Flask, I take that Fedallah to be the devil in\r\ndisguise. Do you believe that cock and bull story about his having been\r\nstowed away on board ship? He’s the devil, I say. The reason why you\r\ndon’t see his tail, is because he tucks it up out of sight; he carries\r\nit coiled away in his pocket, I guess. Blast him! now that I think of\r\nit, he’s always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.”\r\n\r\n“He sleeps in his boots, don’t he? He hasn’t got any hammock; but I’ve\r\nseen him lay of nights in a coil of rigging.”\r\n\r\n“No doubt, and it’s because of his cursed tail; he coils it down, do ye\r\nsee, in the eye of the rigging.”\r\n\r\n“What’s the old man have so much to do with him for?”\r\n\r\n“Striking up a swap or a bargain, I suppose.”\r\n\r\n“Bargain?—about what?”\r\n\r\n“Why, do ye see, the old man is hard bent after that White Whale, and\r\nthe devil there is trying to come round him, and get him to swap away\r\nhis silver watch, or his soul, or something of that sort, and then\r\nhe’ll surrender Moby Dick.”\r\n\r\n“Pooh! Stubb, you are skylarking; how can Fedallah do that?”\r\n\r\n“I don’t know, Flask, but the devil is a curious chap, and a wicked\r\none, I tell ye. Why, they say as how he went a sauntering into the old\r\nflag-ship once, switching his tail about devilish easy and\r\ngentlemanlike, and inquiring if the old governor was at home. Well, he\r\nwas at home, and asked the devil what he wanted. The devil, switching\r\nhis hoofs, up and says, ‘I want John.’ ‘What for?’ says the old\r\ngovernor. ‘What business is that of yours,’ says the devil, getting\r\nmad,—‘I want to use him.’ ‘Take him,’ says the governor—and by the\r\nLord, Flask, if the devil didn’t give John the Asiatic cholera before\r\nhe got through with him, I’ll eat this whale in one mouthful. But look\r\nsharp—ain’t you all ready there? Well, then, pull ahead, and let’s get\r\nthe whale alongside.”\r\n\r\n“I think I remember some such story as you were telling,” said Flask,\r\nwhen at last the two boats were slowly advancing with their burden\r\ntowards the ship, “but I can’t remember where.”\r\n\r\n“Three Spaniards? Adventures of those three bloody-minded soldadoes?\r\nDid ye read it there, Flask? I guess ye did?”\r\n\r\n“No: never saw such a book; heard of it, though. But now, tell me,\r\nStubb, do you suppose that that devil you was speaking of just now, was\r\nthe same you say is now on board the Pequod?”\r\n\r\n“Am I the same man that helped kill this whale? Doesn’t the devil live\r\nfor ever; who ever heard that the devil was dead? Did you ever see any\r\nparson a wearing mourning for the devil?"},"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":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7FYGEVGFQ4E21HMH9XZ","peer_label":"crozetts","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographical_location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2MWSD9JK6ZKV9HEMKJR","peer_label":"right whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZBGV5QSFPD19S2BQF68","peer_label":"captain ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6EP73PJRV763QA81RVY","peer_label":"fedallah","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN8PYBJF3B35BCJ79KGX4","peer_label":"aunt charity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNDVVM916YPKF1GGTQTGZ","peer_label":"sharks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMW3AMJCC5Z0PM6SYGE7K","peer_label":"stubbs boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMW07JB4XF2S0Z7GZWFQ7","peer_label":"flasks boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFE9KHYW1R9V6TDGSE3H","peer_label":"the devil","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"mythological_figure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNM8HQFVTQAHT6A3032S6","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN8RRTTKNT19E81CVEEPW","peer_label":"sperm whales head","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFRXMR1SFG8XEEANWCJB","peer_label":"asiatic cholera","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"disease","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNGJEKYEZMZ0N951VWA8B","peer_label":"three spaniards","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"literary_work","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMYNZNY4YDJGT6RE1KHG8","peer_label":"chapter 73","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP2W8YPA1QKRKKY5JR4B3","peer_label":"john","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ2AYRQEK74XJH8KSTPW3","peer_label":"fresh blood","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ3471DQ5076VRDJNGT3X","peer_label":"tusk","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFS9A97VR9DYQWY64KX6","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_individual","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXRZWF9ZH99AFVQ8T78X7A","peer_label":"stubb and flask kill a right whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXZ3J0Q6CB549NK50Z9M29","peer_label":"tea-caddy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:13.227Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.062Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:14.429Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}