{"id":"01KJNXJV7WBY5B1VNYV6WETS57","cid":"bafkreiblqbv7y553vptco4btkxnqcp6j3l4vchvvj4mnld2uqn4or5gwca","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":915998,"char_start":908007,"chunk_index":128,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1998,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"species are by no means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be\r\nrecognised, as the people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew\r\nin the company, by the nose. Nor indeed can the whale possibly be\r\notherwise than fragrant, when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high\r\nhealth; taking abundance of exercise; always out of doors; though, it\r\nis true, seldom in the open air. I say, that the motion of a Sperm\r\nWhale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented\r\nlady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken the\r\nSperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be\r\nto that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh,\r\nwhich was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great?\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 93. The Castaway.\r\n\r\nIt was but some few days after encountering the Frenchman, that a most\r\nsignificant event befell the most insignificant of the Pequod’s crew;\r\nan event most lamentable; and which ended in providing the sometimes\r\nmadly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying\r\nprophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own.\r\n\r\nNow, in the whale ship, it is not every one that goes in the boats.\r\nSome few hands are reserved called ship-keepers, whose province it is\r\nto work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale. As a general\r\nthing, these ship-keepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising\r\nthe boats’ crews. But if there happen to be an unduly slender, clumsy,\r\nor timorous wight in the ship, that wight is certain to be made a\r\nship-keeper. It was so in the Pequod with the little negro Pippin by\r\nnick-name, Pip by abbreviation. Poor Pip! ye have heard of him before;\r\nye must remember his tambourine on that dramatic midnight, so\r\ngloomy-jolly.\r\n\r\nIn outer aspect, Pip and Dough-Boy made a match, like a black pony and\r\na white one, of equal developments, though of dissimilar colour, driven\r\nin one eccentric span. But while hapless Dough-Boy was by nature dull\r\nand torpid in his intellects, Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at\r\nbottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness\r\npeculiar to his tribe; a tribe, which ever enjoy all holidays and\r\nfestivities with finer, freer relish than any other race. For blacks,\r\nthe year’s calendar should show naught but three hundred and sixty-five\r\nFourth of Julys and New Year’s Days. Nor smile so, while I write that\r\nthis little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy;\r\nbehold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king’s cabinets. But Pip loved\r\nlife, and all life’s peaceable securities; so that the panic-striking\r\nbusiness in which he had somehow unaccountably become entrapped, had\r\nmost sadly blurred his brightness; though, as ere long will be seen,\r\nwhat was thus temporarily subdued in him, in the end was destined to be\r\nluridly illumined by strange wild fires, that fictitiously showed him\r\noff to ten times the natural lustre with which in his native Tolland\r\nCounty in Connecticut, he had once enlivened many a fiddler’s frolic on\r\nthe green; and at melodious even-tide, with his gay ha-ha! had turned\r\nthe round horizon into one star-belled tambourine. So, though in the\r\nclear air of day, suspended against a blue-veined neck, the\r\npure-watered diamond drop will healthful glow; yet, when the cunning\r\njeweller would show you the diamond in its most impressive lustre, he\r\nlays it against a gloomy ground, and then lights it up, not by the sun,\r\nbut by some unnatural gases. Then come out those fiery effulgences,\r\ninfernally superb; then the evil-blazing diamond, once the divinest\r\nsymbol of the crystal skies, looks like some crown-jewel stolen from\r\nthe King of Hell. But let us to the story.\r\n\r\nIt came to pass, that in the ambergris affair Stubb’s after-oarsman\r\nchanced so to sprain his hand, as for a time to become quite maimed;\r\nand, temporarily, Pip was put into his place.\r\n\r\nThe first time Stubb lowered with him, Pip evinced much nervousness;\r\nbut happily, for that time, escaped close contact with the whale; and\r\ntherefore came off not altogether discreditably; though Stubb observing\r\nhim, took care, afterwards, to exhort him to cherish his courageousness\r\nto the utmost, for he might often find it needful.\r\n\r\nNow upon the second lowering, the boat paddled upon the whale; and as\r\nthe fish received the darted iron, it gave its customary rap, which\r\nhappened, in this instance, to be right under poor Pip’s seat. The\r\ninvoluntary consternation of the moment caused him to leap, paddle in\r\nhand, out of the boat; and in such a way, that part of the slack whale\r\nline coming against his chest, he breasted it overboard with him, so as\r\nto become entangled in it, when at last plumping into the water. That\r\ninstant the stricken whale started on a fierce run, the line swiftly\r\nstraightened; and presto! poor Pip came all foaming up to the chocks of\r\nthe boat, remorselessly dragged there by the line, which had taken\r\nseveral turns around his chest and neck.\r\n\r\nTashtego stood in the bows. He was full of the fire of the hunt. He\r\nhated Pip for a poltroon. Snatching the boat-knife from its sheath, he\r\nsuspended its sharp edge over the line, and turning towards Stubb,\r\nexclaimed interrogatively, “Cut?” Meantime Pip’s blue, choked face\r\nplainly looked, Do, for God’s sake! All passed in a flash. In less than\r\nhalf a minute, this entire thing happened.\r\n\r\n“Damn him, cut!” roared Stubb; and so the whale was lost and Pip was\r\nsaved.\r\n\r\nSo soon as he recovered himself, the poor little negro was assailed by\r\nyells and execrations from the crew. Tranquilly permitting these\r\nirregular cursings to evaporate, Stubb then in a plain, business-like,\r\nbut still half humorous manner, cursed Pip officially; and that done,\r\nunofficially gave him much wholesome advice. The substance was, Never\r\njump from a boat, Pip, except—but all the rest was indefinite, as the\r\nsoundest advice ever is. Now, in general, _Stick to the boat_, is your\r\ntrue motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when _Leap from\r\nthe boat_, is still better. Moreover, as if perceiving at last that if\r\nhe should give undiluted conscientious advice to Pip, he would be\r\nleaving him too wide a margin to jump in for the future; Stubb suddenly\r\ndropped all advice, and concluded with a peremptory command, “Stick to\r\nthe boat, Pip, or by the Lord, I won’t pick you up if you jump; mind\r\nthat. We can’t afford to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would\r\nsell for thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama. Bear that in\r\nmind, and don’t jump any more.” Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted,\r\nthat though man loved his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal,\r\nwhich propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.\r\n\r\nBut we are all in the hands of the Gods; and Pip jumped again. It was\r\nunder very similar circumstances to the first performance; but this\r\ntime he did not breast out the line; and hence, when the whale started\r\nto run, Pip was left behind on the sea, like a hurried traveller’s\r\ntrunk. Alas! Stubb was but too true to his word. It was a beautiful,\r\nbounteous, blue day; the spangled sea calm and cool, and flatly\r\nstretching away, all round, to the horizon, like gold-beater’s skin\r\nhammered out to the extremest. Bobbing up and down in that sea, Pip’s\r\nebon head showed like a head of cloves. No boat-knife was lifted when\r\nhe fell so rapidly astern. Stubb’s inexorable back was turned upon him;\r\nand the whale was winged. In three minutes, a whole mile of shoreless\r\nocean was between Pip and Stubb. Out from the centre of the sea, poor\r\nPip turned his crisp, curling, black head to the sun, another lonely\r\ncastaway, though the loftiest and the brightest.\r\n\r\nNow, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the\r\npractised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore. But the awful\r\nlonesomeness is intolerable. The intense concentration of self in the\r\nmiddle of such a heartless immensity, my God!"},"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":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKYGCZNXREK07X11VQXHV","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM37BGJ4EBHZ5Q1YQPREQ","peer_label":"pip","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3Y01SQ5YR3EQNR1GG38","peer_label":"dough-boy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMETZY33Y5RA0RRSVBKDX","peer_label":"whaleboat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"vessel","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMWVY75R4B8PCJ7PMWSY4","peer_label":"whale line","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFAQQ2SBNMY4HSYG9541","peer_label":"tolland county","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"administrative_division","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFH1B5A5R6J25F395AJC","peer_label":"chapter 93 the castaway","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_chapter","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ365NJA95HDTB5W2QVBT","peer_label":"boat-knife","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFN0F26EWWFTGTWRN97Z","peer_label":"indian town","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ0T4691CEWXH5SVDJRRM","peer_label":"ambergris affair","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXPYR3R68PKNH6BKXCHQS6","peer_label":"ship-keepers","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"crew_role","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ2DQBVGV7MECX22FHC1X","peer_label":"stubbs after-oarsman","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"crew_role","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ0XJC4JTNXEE8QHWBA7V","peer_label":"alexander the great","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"historical_person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQE1FXE9MQ4172A5GE175","peer_label":"fragrance","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.512Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.100Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:04.630Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}