{"id":"01KJNXJV72ZS1SFE65NEG9JPXC","cid":"bafkreic2p3lgij7a6zxdnewg3zhgutomoekuvzbnnooyblqw4v6k7ddyiu","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":817557,"char_start":809785,"chunk_index":114,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1943,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"whale mentioned in the book of Jonah merely meant a life-preserver—an\r\ninflated bag of wind—which the endangered prophet swam to, and so was\r\nsaved from a watery doom. Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all\r\nround. But he had still another reason for his want of faith. It was\r\nthis, if I remember right: Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the\r\nMediterranean Sea, and after three days he was vomited up somewhere\r\nwithin three days’ journey of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris, very much\r\nmore than three days’ journey across from the nearest point of the\r\nMediterranean coast. How is that?\r\n\r\nBut was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within\r\nthat short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried him round by\r\nthe way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the passage\r\nthrough the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up\r\nthe Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the\r\ncomplete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of\r\nthe Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any\r\nwhale to swim in. Besides, this idea of Jonah’s weathering the Cape of\r\nGood Hope at so early a day would wrest the honor of the discovery of\r\nthat great headland from Bartholomew Diaz, its reputed discoverer, and\r\nso make modern history a liar.\r\n\r\nBut all these foolish arguments of old Sag-Harbor only evinced his\r\nfoolish pride of reason—a thing still more reprehensible in him, seeing\r\nthat he had but little learning except what he had picked up from the\r\nsun and the sea. I say it only shows his foolish, impious pride, and\r\nabominable, devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy. For by a\r\nPortuguese Catholic priest, this very idea of Jonah’s going to Nineveh\r\nvia the Cape of Good Hope was advanced as a signal magnification of the\r\ngeneral miracle. And so it was. Besides, to this day, the highly\r\nenlightened Turks devoutly believe in the historical story of Jonah.\r\nAnd some three centuries ago, an English traveller in old Harris’s\r\nVoyages, speaks of a Turkish Mosque built in honor of Jonah, in which\r\nMosque was a miraculous lamp that burnt without any oil.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 84. Pitchpoling.\r\n\r\nTo make them run easily and swiftly, the axles of carriages are\r\nanointed; and for much the same purpose, some whalers perform an\r\nanalogous operation upon their boat; they grease the bottom. Nor is it\r\nto be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm, it may possibly\r\nbe of no contemptible advantage; considering that oil and water are\r\nhostile; that oil is a sliding thing, and that the object in view is to\r\nmake the boat slide bravely. Queequeg believed strongly in anointing\r\nhis boat, and one morning not long after the German ship Jungfrau\r\ndisappeared, took more than customary pains in that occupation;\r\ncrawling under its bottom, where it hung over the side, and rubbing in\r\nthe unctuousness as though diligently seeking to insure a crop of hair\r\nfrom the craft’s bald keel. He seemed to be working in obedience to\r\nsome particular presentiment. Nor did it remain unwarranted by the\r\nevent.\r\n\r\nTowards noon whales were raised; but so soon as the ship sailed down to\r\nthem, they turned and fled with swift precipitancy; a disordered\r\nflight, as of Cleopatra’s barges from Actium.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, the boats pursued, and Stubb’s was foremost. By great\r\nexertion, Tashtego at last succeeded in planting one iron; but the\r\nstricken whale, without at all sounding, still continued his horizontal\r\nflight, with added fleetness. Such unintermitted strainings upon the\r\nplanted iron must sooner or later inevitably extract it. It became\r\nimperative to lance the flying whale, or be content to lose him. But to\r\nhaul the boat up to his flank was impossible, he swam so fast and\r\nfurious. What then remained?\r\n\r\nOf all the wondrous devices and dexterities, the sleights of hand and\r\ncountless subtleties, to which the veteran whaleman is so often forced,\r\nnone exceed that fine manœuvre with the lance called pitchpoling. Small\r\nsword, or broad sword, in all its exercises boasts nothing like it. It\r\nis only indispensable with an inveterate running whale; its grand fact\r\nand feature is the wonderful distance to which the long lance is\r\naccurately darted from a violently rocking, jerking boat, under extreme\r\nheadway. Steel and wood included, the entire spear is some ten or\r\ntwelve feet in length; the staff is much slighter than that of the\r\nharpoon, and also of a lighter material—pine. It is furnished with a\r\nsmall rope called a warp, of considerable length, by which it can be\r\nhauled back to the hand after darting.\r\n\r\nBut before going further, it is important to mention here, that though\r\nthe harpoon may be pitchpoled in the same way with the lance, yet it is\r\nseldom done; and when done, is still less frequently successful, on\r\naccount of the greater weight and inferior length of the harpoon as\r\ncompared with the lance, which in effect become serious drawbacks. As a\r\ngeneral thing, therefore, you must first get fast to a whale, before\r\nany pitchpoling comes into play.\r\n\r\nLook now at Stubb; a man who from his humorous, deliberate coolness and\r\nequanimity in the direst emergencies, was specially qualified to excel\r\nin pitchpoling. Look at him; he stands upright in the tossed bow of the\r\nflying boat; wrapt in fleecy foam, the towing whale is forty feet\r\nahead. Handling the long lance lightly, glancing twice or thrice along\r\nits length to see if it be exactly straight, Stubb whistlingly gathers\r\nup the coil of the warp in one hand, so as to secure its free end in\r\nhis grasp, leaving the rest unobstructed. Then holding the lance full\r\nbefore his waistband’s middle, he levels it at the whale; when,\r\ncovering him with it, he steadily depresses the butt-end in his hand,\r\nthereby elevating the point till the weapon stands fairly balanced upon\r\nhis palm, fifteen feet in the air. He minds you somewhat of a juggler,\r\nbalancing a long staff on his chin. Next moment with a rapid, nameless\r\nimpulse, in a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming\r\ndistance, and quivers in the life spot of the whale. Instead of\r\nsparkling water, he now spouts red blood.\r\n\r\n“That drove the spigot out of him!” cried Stubb. “’Tis July’s immortal\r\nFourth; all fountains must run wine today! Would now, it were old\r\nOrleans whiskey, or old Ohio, or unspeakable old Monongahela! Then,\r\nTashtego, lad, I’d have ye hold a canakin to the jet, and we’d drink\r\nround it! Yea, verily, hearts alive, we’d brew choice punch in the\r\nspread of his spout-hole there, and from that live punch-bowl quaff the\r\nliving stuff.”\r\n\r\nAgain and again to such gamesome talk, the dexterous dart is repeated,\r\nthe spear returning to its master like a greyhound held in skilful\r\nleash. The agonized whale goes into his flurry; the tow-line is\r\nslackened, and the pitchpoler dropping astern, folds his hands, and\r\nmutely watches the monster die.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 85. The Fountain.\r\n\r\nThat for six thousand years—and no one knows how many millions of ages\r\nbefore—the great whales should have been spouting all over the sea, and\r\nsprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep, as with so many\r\nsprinkling or mistifying pots; and that for some centuries back,\r\nthousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the\r\nwhale, watching these sprinklings and spoutings—that all this should\r\nbe, and yet, that down to this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter\r\nminutes past one o’clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D.\r\n1851), it should still remain a problem, whether these spoutings are,\r\nafter all, really water, or nothing but vapor—this is surely a\r\nnoteworthy thing.\r\n\r\nLet us, then, look at this matter, along with some interesting items\r\ncontingent."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.074Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.074Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}