{"id":"01KJNXJV9K9Y9V9XXYXC92CXM2","cid":"bafkreieivuzhq7rjw5d34dol3lc46vshjwoe5mbupujmkjqw7y4vj7xywe","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":1113913,"char_start":1105913,"chunk_index":156,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":2000,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"now.”\r\n\r\n“Sir!—in God’s name!—sir?”\r\n\r\n“Well.”\r\n\r\n“The anchors are working, sir. Shall I get them inboard?”\r\n\r\n“Strike nothing, and stir nothing, but lash everything. The wind rises,\r\nbut it has not got up to my table-lands yet. Quick, and see to it.—By\r\nmasts and keels! he takes me for the hunch-backed skipper of some\r\ncoasting smack. Send down my main-top-sail yard! Ho, gluepots! Loftiest\r\ntrucks were made for wildest winds, and this brain-truck of mine now\r\nsails amid the cloud-scud. Shall I strike that? Oh, none but cowards\r\nsend down their brain-trucks in tempest time. What a hooroosh aloft\r\nthere! I would e’en take it for sublime, did I not know that the colic\r\nis a noisy malady. Oh, take medicine, take medicine!”\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 121. Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks.\r\n\r\n_Stubb and Flask mounted on them, and passing additional lashings over\r\nthe anchors there hanging._\r\n\r\n“No, Stubb; you may pound that knot there as much as you please, but\r\nyou will never pound into me what you were just now saying. And how\r\nlong ago is it since you said the very contrary? Didn’t you once say\r\nthat whatever ship Ahab sails in, that ship should pay something extra\r\non its insurance policy, just as though it were loaded with powder\r\nbarrels aft and boxes of lucifers forward? Stop, now; didn’t you say\r\nso?”\r\n\r\n“Well, suppose I did? What then? I’ve part changed my flesh since that\r\ntime, why not my mind? Besides, supposing we _are_ loaded with powder\r\nbarrels aft and lucifers forward; how the devil could the lucifers get\r\nafire in this drenching spray here? Why, my little man, you have pretty\r\nred hair, but you couldn’t get afire now. Shake yourself; you’re\r\nAquarius, or the water-bearer, Flask; might fill pitchers at your coat\r\ncollar. Don’t you see, then, that for these extra risks the Marine\r\nInsurance companies have extra guarantees? Here are hydrants, Flask.\r\nBut hark, again, and I’ll answer ye the other thing. First take your\r\nleg off from the crown of the anchor here, though, so I can pass the\r\nrope; now listen. What’s the mighty difference between holding a mast’s\r\nlightning-rod in the storm, and standing close by a mast that hasn’t\r\ngot any lightning-rod at all in a storm? Don’t you see, you\r\ntimber-head, that no harm can come to the holder of the rod, unless the\r\nmast is first struck? What are you talking about, then? Not one ship in\r\na hundred carries rods, and Ahab,—aye, man, and all of us,—were in no\r\nmore danger then, in my poor opinion, than all the crews in ten\r\nthousand ships now sailing the seas. Why, you King-Post, you, I suppose\r\nyou would have every man in the world go about with a small\r\nlightning-rod running up the corner of his hat, like a militia\r\nofficer’s skewered feather, and trailing behind like his sash. Why\r\ndon’t ye be sensible, Flask? it’s easy to be sensible; why don’t ye,\r\nthen? any man with half an eye can be sensible.”\r\n\r\n“I don’t know that, Stubb. You sometimes find it rather hard.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, when a fellow’s soaked through, it’s hard to be sensible, that’s\r\na fact. And I am about drenched with this spray. Never mind; catch the\r\nturn there, and pass it. Seems to me we are lashing down these anchors\r\nnow as if they were never going to be used again. Tying these two\r\nanchors here, Flask, seems like tying a man’s hands behind him. And\r\nwhat big generous hands they are, to be sure. These are your iron\r\nfists, hey? What a hold they have, too! I wonder, Flask, whether the\r\nworld is anchored anywhere; if she is, she swings with an uncommon long\r\ncable, though. There, hammer that knot down, and we’ve done. So; next\r\nto touching land, lighting on deck is the most satisfactory. I say,\r\njust wring out my jacket skirts, will ye? Thank ye. They laugh at\r\nlong-togs so, Flask; but seems to me, a long tailed coat ought always\r\nto be worn in all storms afloat. The tails tapering down that way,\r\nserve to carry off the water, d’ye see. Same with cocked hats; the\r\ncocks form gable-end eave-troughs, Flask. No more monkey-jackets and\r\ntarpaulins for me; I must mount a swallow-tail, and drive down a\r\nbeaver; so. Halloa! whew! there goes my tarpaulin overboard; Lord,\r\nLord, that the winds that come from heaven should be so unmannerly!\r\nThis is a nasty night, lad.”\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 122. Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning.\r\n\r\n_The main-top-sail yard_.—_Tashtego passing new lashings around it_.\r\n\r\n“Um, um, um. Stop that thunder! Plenty too much thunder up here. What’s\r\nthe use of thunder? Um, um, um. We don’t want thunder; we want rum;\r\ngive us a glass of rum. Um, um, um!”\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 123. The Musket.\r\n\r\nDuring the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at the Pequod’s\r\njaw-bone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by\r\nits spasmodic motions, even though preventer tackles had been attached\r\nto it—for they were slack—because some play to the tiller was\r\nindispensable.\r\n\r\nIn a severe gale like this, while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock\r\nto the blast, it is by no means uncommon to see the needles in the\r\ncompasses, at intervals, go round and round. It was thus with the\r\nPequod’s; at almost every shock the helmsman had not failed to notice\r\nthe whirling velocity with which they revolved upon the cards; it is a\r\nsight that hardly anyone can behold without some sort of unwonted\r\nemotion.\r\n\r\nSome hours after midnight, the Typhoon abated so much, that through the\r\nstrenuous exertions of Starbuck and Stubb—one engaged forward and the\r\nother aft—the shivered remnants of the jib and fore and main-top-sails\r\nwere cut adrift from the spars, and went eddying away to leeward, like\r\nthe feathers of an albatross, which sometimes are cast to the winds\r\nwhen that storm-tossed bird is on the wing.\r\n\r\nThe three corresponding new sails were now bent and reefed, and a\r\nstorm-trysail was set further aft; so that the ship soon went through\r\nthe water with some precision again; and the course—for the present,\r\nEast-south-east—which he was to steer, if practicable, was once more\r\ngiven to the helmsman. For during the violence of the gale, he had only\r\nsteered according to its vicissitudes. But as he was now bringing the\r\nship as near her course as possible, watching the compass meanwhile,\r\nlo! a good sign! the wind seemed coming round astern; aye, the foul\r\nbreeze became fair!\r\n\r\nInstantly the yards were squared, to the lively song of “_Ho! the fair\r\nwind! oh-ye-ho, cheerly men!_” the crew singing for joy, that so\r\npromising an event should so soon have falsified the evil portents\r\npreceding it.\r\n\r\nIn compliance with the standing order of his commander—to report\r\nimmediately, and at any one of the twenty-four hours, any decided\r\nchange in the affairs of the deck,—Starbuck had no sooner trimmed the\r\nyards to the breeze—however reluctantly and gloomily,—than he\r\nmechanically went below to apprise Captain Ahab of the circumstance.\r\n\r\nEre knocking at his state-room, he involuntarily paused before it a\r\nmoment. The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that—was burning\r\nfitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door,—a\r\nthin one, with fixed blinds inserted, in place of upper panels. The\r\nisolated subterraneousness of the cabin made a certain humming silence\r\nto reign there, though it was hooped round by all the roar of the\r\nelements. The loaded muskets in the rack were shiningly revealed, as\r\nthey stood upright against the forward bulkhead. Starbuck was an\r\nhonest, upright man; but out of Starbuck’s heart, at that instant when\r\nhe saw the muskets, there strangely evolved an evil thought; but so\r\nblent with its neutral or good accompaniments that for the instant he\r\nhardly knew it for itself.\r\n\r\n“He would have shot me once,” he murmured, “yes, there’s the very\r\nmusket that he pointed at me;—that one with the studded stock; let me\r\ntouch it—lift it. Strange, that I, who have handled so many deadly\r\nlances, strange, that I should shake so now. Loaded? I must see. Aye,\r\naye; and powder in the pan;—that’s not good. Best spill it?—wait."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZBGV5QSFPD19S2BQF68","peer_label":"captain ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV9JR5QVCDKHMH41830J","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXPZ1GD40M1RSRP76Y3MHQ","peer_label":"compasses","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"navigational_instrument","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFS8PCRYXCXQ4TMAZ194","peer_label":"typhoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weather_event","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ0EGWWTDSDV32FZJTX0Y","peer_label":"jaw-bone tiller","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_component","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFS9GCX2Y4BX3NQQ0DW9","peer_label":"marine insurance companies","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"organization","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP9NJKVQPSW6GJ1RTHAMX","peer_label":"ahabs state-room","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"cabin","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNH8PJQYFQRDTHKAK0TY9","peer_label":"lightning-rod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"safety_device","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ25S6JYQPP4PMM3AQ2NE","peer_label":"helmsman","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"role","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFFZZRHDKFZJ4ZPFR4BF","peer_label":"main-top-sail yard","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_component","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFKW8F5B63JWGH42QBFK","peer_label":"anchors","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_component","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFH0RMVSV16STYFWZM44","peer_label":"forecastle bulwarks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ614HHZTQ58VFJ8X8RMA","peer_label":"studded stock musket","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"firearm","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ0MSC7XYMMENB3F49HQZ","peer_label":"sails","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_component","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ25NZ26VS5M6YGYZAKQ4","peer_label":"muskets","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"firearm","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.685Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.155Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:10.970Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}