{"id":"01KJNXJV6ZXG8PP0JX360CV2W4","cid":"bafkreiaikjvyz67tgwsjmtiu7w23dp5g6ermaafzw5eiti5as446knvf2i","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":782234,"char_start":774299,"chunk_index":109,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1984,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"world.\r\n\r\nApply this spinal branch of phrenology to the Sperm Whale. His cranial\r\ncavity is continuous with the first neck-vertebra; and in that vertebra\r\nthe bottom of the spinal canal will measure ten inches across, being\r\neight in height, and of a triangular figure with the base downwards. As\r\nit passes through the remaining vertebræ the canal tapers in size, but\r\nfor a considerable distance remains of large capacity. Now, of course,\r\nthis canal is filled with much the same strangely fibrous substance—the\r\nspinal cord—as the brain; and directly communicates with the brain. And\r\nwhat is still more, for many feet after emerging from the brain’s\r\ncavity, the spinal cord remains of an undecreasing girth, almost equal\r\nto that of the brain. Under all these circumstances, would it be\r\nunreasonable to survey and map out the whale’s spine phrenologically?\r\nFor, viewed in this light, the wonderful comparative smallness of his\r\nbrain proper is more than compensated by the wonderful comparative\r\nmagnitude of his spinal cord.\r\n\r\nBut leaving this hint to operate as it may with the phrenologists, I\r\nwould merely assume the spinal theory for a moment, in reference to the\r\nSperm Whale’s hump. This august hump, if I mistake not, rises over one\r\nof the larger vertebræ, and is, therefore, in some sort, the outer\r\nconvex mould of it. From its relative situation then, I should call\r\nthis high hump the organ of firmness or indomitableness in the Sperm\r\nWhale. And that the great monster is indomitable, you will yet have\r\nreason to know.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin.\r\n\r\nThe predestinated day arrived, and we duly met the ship Jungfrau,\r\nDerick De Deer, master, of Bremen.\r\n\r\nAt one time the greatest whaling people in the world, the Dutch and\r\nGermans are now among the least; but here and there at very wide\r\nintervals of latitude and longitude, you still occasionally meet with\r\ntheir flag in the Pacific.\r\n\r\nFor some reason, the Jungfrau seemed quite eager to pay her respects.\r\nWhile yet some distance from the Pequod, she rounded to, and dropping a\r\nboat, her captain was impelled towards us, impatiently standing in the\r\nbows instead of the stern.\r\n\r\n“What has he in his hand there?” cried Starbuck, pointing to something\r\nwavingly held by the German. “Impossible!—a lamp-feeder!”\r\n\r\n“Not that,” said Stubb, “no, no, it’s a coffee-pot, Mr. Starbuck; he’s\r\ncoming off to make us our coffee, is the Yarman; don’t you see that big\r\ntin can there alongside of him?—that’s his boiling water. Oh! he’s all\r\nright, is the Yarman.”\r\n\r\n“Go along with you,” cried Flask, “it’s a lamp-feeder and an oil-can.\r\nHe’s out of oil, and has come a-begging.”\r\n\r\nHowever curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the\r\nwhale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old\r\nproverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing\r\nreally happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did\r\nindubitably conduct a lamp-feeder as Flask did declare.\r\n\r\nAs he mounted the deck, Ahab abruptly accosted him, without at all\r\nheeding what he had in his hand; but in his broken lingo, the German\r\nsoon evinced his complete ignorance of the White Whale; immediately\r\nturning the conversation to his lamp-feeder and oil can, with some\r\nremarks touching his having to turn into his hammock at night in\r\nprofound darkness—his last drop of Bremen oil being gone, and not a\r\nsingle flying-fish yet captured to supply the deficiency; concluding by\r\nhinting that his ship was indeed what in the Fishery is technically\r\ncalled a _clean_ one (that is, an empty one), well deserving the name\r\nof Jungfrau or the Virgin.\r\n\r\nHis necessities supplied, Derick departed; but he had not gained his\r\nship’s side, when whales were almost simultaneously raised from the\r\nmast-heads of both vessels; and so eager for the chase was Derick, that\r\nwithout pausing to put his oil-can and lamp-feeder aboard, he slewed\r\nround his boat and made after the leviathan lamp-feeders.\r\n\r\nNow, the game having risen to leeward, he and the other three German\r\nboats that soon followed him, had considerably the start of the\r\nPequod’s keels. There were eight whales, an average pod. Aware of their\r\ndanger, they were going all abreast with great speed straight before\r\nthe wind, rubbing their flanks as closely as so many spans of horses in\r\nharness. They left a great, wide wake, as though continually unrolling\r\na great wide parchment upon the sea.\r\n\r\nFull in this rapid wake, and many fathoms in the rear, swam a huge,\r\nhumped old bull, which by his comparatively slow progress, as well as\r\nby the unusual yellowish incrustations overgrowing him, seemed\r\nafflicted with the jaundice, or some other infirmity. Whether this\r\nwhale belonged to the pod in advance, seemed questionable; for it is\r\nnot customary for such venerable leviathans to be at all social.\r\nNevertheless, he stuck to their wake, though indeed their back water\r\nmust have retarded him, because the white-bone or swell at his broad\r\nmuzzle was a dashed one, like the swell formed when two hostile\r\ncurrents meet. His spout was short, slow, and laborious; coming forth\r\nwith a choking sort of gush, and spending itself in torn shreds,\r\nfollowed by strange subterranean commotions in him, which seemed to\r\nhave egress at his other buried extremity, causing the waters behind\r\nhim to upbubble.\r\n\r\n“Who’s got some paregoric?” said Stubb, “he has the stomach-ache, I’m\r\nafraid. Lord, think of having half an acre of stomach-ache! Adverse\r\nwinds are holding mad Christmas in him, boys. It’s the first foul wind\r\nI ever knew to blow from astern; but look, did ever whale yaw so\r\nbefore? it must be, he’s lost his tiller.”\r\n\r\nAs an overladen Indiaman bearing down the Hindostan coast with a deck\r\nload of frightened horses, careens, buries, rolls, and wallows on her\r\nway; so did this old whale heave his aged bulk, and now and then partly\r\nturning over on his cumbrous rib-ends, expose the cause of his devious\r\nwake in the unnatural stump of his starboard fin. Whether he had lost\r\nthat fin in battle, or had been born without it, it were hard to say.\r\n\r\n“Only wait a bit, old chap, and I’ll give ye a sling for that wounded\r\narm,” cried cruel Flask, pointing to the whale-line near him.\r\n\r\n“Mind he don’t sling thee with it,” cried Starbuck. “Give way, or the\r\nGerman will have him.”\r\n\r\nWith one intent all the combined rival boats were pointed for this one\r\nfish, because not only was he the largest, and therefore the most\r\nvaluable whale, but he was nearest to them, and the other whales were\r\ngoing with such great velocity, moreover, as almost to defy pursuit for\r\nthe time. At this juncture the Pequod’s keels had shot by the three\r\nGerman boats last lowered; but from the great start he had had,\r\nDerick’s boat still led the chase, though every moment neared by his\r\nforeign rivals. The only thing they feared, was, that from being\r\nalready so nigh to his mark, he would be enabled to dart his iron\r\nbefore they could completely overtake and pass him. As for Derick, he\r\nseemed quite confident that this would be the case, and occasionally\r\nwith a deriding gesture shook his lamp-feeder at the other boats.\r\n\r\n“The ungracious and ungrateful dog!” cried Starbuck; “he mocks and\r\ndares me with the very poor-box I filled for him not five minutes\r\nago!”—then in his old intense whisper—“Give way, greyhounds! Dog to\r\nit!”\r\n\r\n“I tell ye what it is, men”—cried Stubb to his crew—“it’s against my\r\nreligion to get mad; but I’d like to eat that villainous\r\nYarman—Pull—won’t ye? Are ye going to let that rascal beat ye? Do ye\r\nlove brandy? A hogshead of brandy, then, to the best man. Come, why\r\ndon’t some of ye burst a blood-vessel? Who’s that been dropping an\r\nanchor overboard—we don’t budge an inch—we’re becalmed. Halloo, here’s\r\ngrass growing in the boat’s bottom—and by the Lord, the mast there’s\r\nbudding. This won’t do, boys. Look at that Yarman!"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKW8ZMHF9GR0N2T6VN53V","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV9JR5QVCDKHMH41830J","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMD5K85WQBCQGAD5AZXPW","peer_label":"white whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFPAB9KDJTFDRQ70X2J0","peer_label":"fishery","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"industry","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP7652FN00KRVMXMNQSBG","peer_label":"organ of firmness or indomitableness","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ35MGBQ962V2N2RD3BCB","peer_label":"brain sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ3TVZZZ4XAAP84BXNEDK","peer_label":"phrenology","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ6YZH3EK6NEQQXKYZX8G","peer_label":"spinal cord sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ7V5ECF8Q55P0YW1EQER","peer_label":"derick de deer","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQGMXSMZNX4SRGWGE9204","peer_label":"oil-can","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"container","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQH6YKWRMYP7BNXJ5VMQ7","peer_label":"bremen","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQNRCSQHH0NYDN1VTAHAB","peer_label":"lamp-feeder","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ0QGC2EPHW7WKEFK2B8A","peer_label":"hump sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ757K3VWJ43QG55KTS9Q","peer_label":"chapter 81","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXTX9GR4BRJNR7E4RP2JNV","peer_label":"starboard fin humped old bull","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQDE95ZE8PG0S7ERYA34Q","peer_label":"jungfrau","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXW48HA4TXQKFVWMMVK1G7","peer_label":"clean one fishery term","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXYRV48SDB9GQQGV0YWYAA","peer_label":"whale pod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_animals","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXYXDKRQYMEVDAQQVC205E","peer_label":"german boats","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXZ08V4C4G2EJCEAQ4XX6F","peer_label":"humped old bull","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.881Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.071Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.031Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}