{"id":"01KJNXJV8FZGB3QWS7Z1ZKFC32","cid":"bafkreihz2g6zwltzkpfh6sl3put4ad23o67lhe2nwoyyrtl7yeggzbacv4","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":972974,"char_start":965121,"chunk_index":136,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1964,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"this old great-grandfather, with the white head and hump, runs all\r\nafoam into the pod, and goes to snapping furiously at my fast-line!\r\n\r\n“Aye, I see!—wanted to part it; free the fast-fish—an old trick—I know\r\nhim.”\r\n\r\n“How it was exactly,” continued the one-armed commander, “I do not\r\nknow; but in biting the line, it got foul of his teeth, caught there\r\nsomehow; but we didn’t know it then; so that when we afterwards pulled\r\non the line, bounce we came plump on to his hump! instead of the other\r\nwhale’s; that went off to windward, all fluking. Seeing how matters\r\nstood, and what a noble great whale it was—the noblest and biggest I\r\never saw, sir, in my life—I resolved to capture him, spite of the\r\nboiling rage he seemed to be in. And thinking the hap-hazard line would\r\nget loose, or the tooth it was tangled to might draw (for I have a\r\ndevil of a boat’s crew for a pull on a whale-line); seeing all this, I\r\nsay, I jumped into my first mate’s boat—Mr. Mounttop’s here (by the\r\nway, Captain—Mounttop; Mounttop—the captain);—as I was saying, I jumped\r\ninto Mounttop’s boat, which, d’ye see, was gunwale and gunwale with\r\nmine, then; and snatching the first harpoon, let this old\r\ngreat-grandfather have it. But, Lord, look you, sir—hearts and souls\r\nalive, man—the next instant, in a jiff, I was blind as a bat—both eyes\r\nout—all befogged and bedeadened with black foam—the whale’s tail\r\nlooming straight up out of it, perpendicular in the air, like a marble\r\nsteeple. No use sterning all, then; but as I was groping at midday,\r\nwith a blinding sun, all crown-jewels; as I was groping, I say, after\r\nthe second iron, to toss it overboard—down comes the tail like a Lima\r\ntower, cutting my boat in two, leaving each half in splinters; and,\r\nflukes first, the white hump backed through the wreck, as though it was\r\nall chips. We all struck out. To escape his terrible flailings, I\r\nseized hold of my harpoon-pole sticking in him, and for a moment clung\r\nto that like a sucking fish. But a combing sea dashed me off, and at\r\nthe same instant, the fish, taking one good dart forwards, went down\r\nlike a flash; and the barb of that cursed second iron towing along near\r\nme caught me here” (clapping his hand just below his shoulder); “yes,\r\ncaught me just here, I say, and bore me down to Hell’s flames, I was\r\nthinking; when, when, all of a sudden, thank the good God, the barb\r\nript its way along the flesh—clear along the whole length of my\r\narm—came out nigh my wrist, and up I floated;—and that gentleman there\r\nwill tell you the rest (by the way, captain—Dr. Bunger, ship’s surgeon:\r\nBunger, my lad,—the captain). Now, Bunger boy, spin your part of the\r\nyarn.”\r\n\r\nThe professional gentleman thus familiarly pointed out, had been all\r\nthe time standing near them, with nothing specific visible, to denote\r\nhis gentlemanly rank on board. His face was an exceedingly round but\r\nsober one; he was dressed in a faded blue woollen frock or shirt, and\r\npatched trowsers; and had thus far been dividing his attention between\r\na marlingspike he held in one hand, and a pill-box held in the other,\r\noccasionally casting a critical glance at the ivory limbs of the two\r\ncrippled captains. But, at his superior’s introduction of him to Ahab,\r\nhe politely bowed, and straightway went on to do his captain’s bidding.\r\n\r\n“It was a shocking bad wound,” began the whale-surgeon; “and, taking my\r\nadvice, Captain Boomer here, stood our old Sammy—”\r\n\r\n“Samuel Enderby is the name of my ship,” interrupted the one-armed\r\ncaptain, addressing Ahab; “go on, boy.”\r\n\r\n“Stood our old Sammy off to the northward, to get out of the blazing\r\nhot weather there on the Line. But it was no use—I did all I could; sat\r\nup with him nights; was very severe with him in the matter of diet—”\r\n\r\n“Oh, very severe!” chimed in the patient himself; then suddenly\r\naltering his voice, “Drinking hot rum toddies with me every night, till\r\nhe couldn’t see to put on the bandages; and sending me to bed, half\r\nseas over, about three o’clock in the morning. Oh, ye stars! he sat up\r\nwith me indeed, and was very severe in my diet. Oh! a great watcher,\r\nand very dietetically severe, is Dr. Bunger. (Bunger, you dog, laugh\r\nout! why don’t ye? You know you’re a precious jolly rascal.) But, heave\r\nahead, boy, I’d rather be killed by you than kept alive by any other\r\nman.”\r\n\r\n“My captain, you must have ere this perceived, respected sir”—said the\r\nimperturbable godly-looking Bunger, slightly bowing to Ahab—“is apt to\r\nbe facetious at times; he spins us many clever things of that sort. But\r\nI may as well say—en passant, as the French remark—that I myself—that\r\nis to say, Jack Bunger, late of the reverend clergy—am a strict total\r\nabstinence man; I never drink—”\r\n\r\n“Water!” cried the captain; “he never drinks it; it’s a sort of fits to\r\nhim; fresh water throws him into the hydrophobia; but go on—go on with\r\nthe arm story.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, I may as well,” said the surgeon, coolly. “I was about observing,\r\nsir, before Captain Boomer’s facetious interruption, that spite of my\r\nbest and severest endeavors, the wound kept getting worse and worse;\r\nthe truth was, sir, it was as ugly gaping wound as surgeon ever saw;\r\nmore than two feet and several inches long. I measured it with the lead\r\nline. In short, it grew black; I knew what was threatened, and off it\r\ncame. But I had no hand in shipping that ivory arm there; that thing is\r\nagainst all rule”—pointing at it with the marlingspike—“that is the\r\ncaptain’s work, not mine; he ordered the carpenter to make it; he had\r\nthat club-hammer there put to the end, to knock some one’s brains out\r\nwith, I suppose, as he tried mine once. He flies into diabolical\r\npassions sometimes. Do ye see this dent, sir”—removing his hat, and\r\nbrushing aside his hair, and exposing a bowl-like cavity in his skull,\r\nbut which bore not the slightest scarry trace, or any token of ever\r\nhaving been a wound—“Well, the captain there will tell you how that\r\ncame here; he knows.”\r\n\r\n“No, I don’t,” said the captain, “but his mother did; he was born with\r\nit. Oh, you solemn rogue, you—you Bunger! was there ever such another\r\nBunger in the watery world? Bunger, when you die, you ought to die in\r\npickle, you dog; you should be preserved to future ages, you rascal.”\r\n\r\n“What became of the White Whale?” now cried Ahab, who thus far had been\r\nimpatiently listening to this by-play between the two Englishmen.\r\n\r\n“Oh!” cried the one-armed captain, “oh, yes! Well; after he sounded, we\r\ndidn’t see him again for some time; in fact, as I before hinted, I\r\ndidn’t then know what whale it was that had served me such a trick,\r\ntill some time afterwards, when coming back to the Line, we heard about\r\nMoby Dick—as some call him—and then I knew it was he.”\r\n\r\n“Did’st thou cross his wake again?”\r\n\r\n“Twice.”\r\n\r\n“But could not fasten?”\r\n\r\n“Didn’t want to try to: ain’t one limb enough? What should I do without\r\nthis other arm? And I’m thinking Moby Dick doesn’t bite so much as he\r\nswallows.”\r\n\r\n“Well, then,” interrupted Bunger, “give him your left arm for bait to\r\nget the right. Do you know, gentlemen”—very gravely and mathematically\r\nbowing to each Captain in succession—“Do you know, gentlemen, that the\r\ndigestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably constructed by Divine\r\nProvidence, that it is quite impossible for him to completely digest\r\neven a man’s arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take for the\r\nWhite Whale’s malice is only his awkwardness. For he never means to\r\nswallow a single limb; he only thinks to terrify by feints. But\r\nsometimes he is like the old juggling fellow, formerly a patient of\r\nmine in Ceylon, that making believe swallow jack-knives, once upon a\r\ntime let one drop into him in good earnest, and there it stayed for a\r\ntwelvemonth or more; when I gave him an emetic, and he heaved it up in\r\nsmall tacks, d’ye see."},"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":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM529XJRPQXV0DC58V32N","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFP1GBEX9W8QC426K4ZT","peer_label":"samuel enderby","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNGJ0JXDFKGGJ4BMCK7W6","peer_label":"captain boomer","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP72RS6KTPBYG1DWQSYF1","peer_label":"fast-line","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFS84JPYF0E2XDFX7JKX","peer_label":"dr bunger","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ25R3PRKWBS40J3DV3TZ","peer_label":"captain boomers arm injury","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"injury","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ26VHB9PZEV2G0664HYC","peer_label":"captain boomers ivory arm","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"prosthetic_limb","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ35KNHCS5T33NXCS2PHS","peer_label":"mounttops boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ35TRTKJHZFMNZ1ZGC7P","peer_label":"marlingspike","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQB6KN9NH4445RMHNV574","peer_label":"jack-knives","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ695P91K9Q2HNV5DZ6J9","peer_label":"whaling harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ99MPHRKD818FBW7RS5C","peer_label":"whale digestive system","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"biological_system","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ7VCYNSAVXZ1MXGB64DM","peer_label":"ceylon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXR7JK4D3QPT80EHPT87Z8","peer_label":"pill-box","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"container","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFHZ4Z79KCPJNST2ZG9N","peer_label":"mr mounttop","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXR8CVMDYX0AVX1ETRMSD9","peer_label":"juggling fellow of ceylon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXRD3EDM4F5205EFZ1F25E","peer_label":"dr bungers skull cavity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"physical_trait","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXT5N2GDEPJ7D8WABANE1B","peer_label":"divine providence","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXT9DXSKBDXFR0XAST2DSY","peer_label":"dr bungers mother","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXRD42RSGGPAKVPMB2HT8Z","peer_label":"emetic","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"medical_substance","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXTXDHW0JPVYRZKQP3MZPZ","peer_label":"carpenter","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:03.743Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.119Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:07.826Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}