{"id":"01KJNXJVBA0AWD7H36JV1X8KPY","cid":"bafkreic5yksbpcgz7dqtap3fsbjh46dxl3esgn4qaaer6gqopbaaxd52bu","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":1234884,"char_start":1226908,"chunk_index":173,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1994,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"the lines around him, the half torn body of the Parsee was seen; his\r\nsable raiment frayed to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old\r\nAhab.\r\n\r\nThe harpoon dropped from his hand.\r\n\r\n“Befooled, befooled!”—drawing in a long lean breath—“Aye, Parsee! I see\r\nthee again.—Aye, and thou goest before; and this, _this_ then is the\r\nhearse that thou didst promise. But I hold thee to the last letter of\r\nthy word. Where is the second hearse? Away, mates, to the ship! those\r\nboats are useless now; repair them if ye can in time, and return to me;\r\nif not, Ahab is enough to die—Down, men! the first thing that but\r\noffers to jump from this boat I stand in, that thing I harpoon. Ye are\r\nnot other men, but my arms and my legs; and so obey me.—Where’s the\r\nwhale? gone down again?”\r\n\r\nBut he looked too nigh the boat; for as if bent upon escaping with the\r\ncorpse he bore, and as if the particular place of the last encounter\r\nhad been but a stage in his leeward voyage, Moby Dick was now again\r\nsteadily swimming forward; and had almost passed the ship,—which thus\r\nfar had been sailing in the contrary direction to him, though for the\r\npresent her headway had been stopped. He seemed swimming with his\r\nutmost velocity, and now only intent upon pursuing his own straight\r\npath in the sea.\r\n\r\n“Oh! Ahab,” cried Starbuck, “not too late is it, even now, the third\r\nday, to desist. See! Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that\r\nmadly seekest him!”\r\n\r\nSetting sail to the rising wind, the lonely boat was swiftly impelled\r\nto leeward, by both oars and canvas. And at last when Ahab was sliding\r\nby the vessel, so near as plainly to distinguish Starbuck’s face as he\r\nleaned over the rail, he hailed him to turn the vessel about, and\r\nfollow him, not too swiftly, at a judicious interval. Glancing upwards,\r\nhe saw Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo, eagerly mounting to the three\r\nmast-heads; while the oarsmen were rocking in the two staved boats\r\nwhich had but just been hoisted to the side, and were busily at work in\r\nrepairing them. One after the other, through the port-holes, as he\r\nsped, he also caught flying glimpses of Stubb and Flask, busying\r\nthemselves on deck among bundles of new irons and lances. As he saw all\r\nthis; as he heard the hammers in the broken boats; far other hammers\r\nseemed driving a nail into his heart. But he rallied. And now marking\r\nthat the vane or flag was gone from the main-mast-head, he shouted to\r\nTashtego, who had just gained that perch, to descend again for another\r\nflag, and a hammer and nails, and so nail it to the mast.\r\n\r\nWhether fagged by the three days’ running chase, and the resistance to\r\nhis swimming in the knotted hamper he bore; or whether it was some\r\nlatent deceitfulness and malice in him: whichever was true, the White\r\nWhale’s way now began to abate, as it seemed, from the boat so rapidly\r\nnearing him once more; though indeed the whale’s last start had not\r\nbeen so long a one as before. And still as Ahab glided over the waves\r\nthe unpitying sharks accompanied him; and so pertinaciously stuck to\r\nthe boat; and so continually bit at the plying oars, that the blades\r\nbecame jagged and crunched, and left small splinters in the sea, at\r\nalmost every dip.\r\n\r\n“Heed them not! those teeth but give new rowlocks to your oars. Pull\r\non! ’tis the better rest, the shark’s jaw than the yielding water.”\r\n\r\n“But at every bite, sir, the thin blades grow smaller and smaller!”\r\n\r\n“They will last long enough! pull on!—But who can tell”—he\r\nmuttered—“whether these sharks swim to feast on the whale or on\r\nAhab?—But pull on! Aye, all alive, now—we near him. The helm! take the\r\nhelm! let me pass,”—and so saying two of the oarsmen helped him forward\r\nto the bows of the still flying boat.\r\n\r\nAt length as the craft was cast to one side, and ran ranging along with\r\nthe White Whale’s flank, he seemed strangely oblivious of its\r\nadvance—as the whale sometimes will—and Ahab was fairly within the\r\nsmoky mountain mist, which, thrown off from the whale’s spout, curled\r\nround his great, Monadnock hump; he was even thus close to him; when,\r\nwith body arched back, and both arms lengthwise high-lifted to the\r\npoise, he darted his fierce iron, and his far fiercer curse into the\r\nhated whale. As both steel and curse sank to the socket, as if sucked\r\ninto a morass, Moby Dick sideways writhed; spasmodically rolled his\r\nnigh flank against the bow, and, without staving a hole in it, so\r\nsuddenly canted the boat over, that had it not been for the elevated\r\npart of the gunwale to which he then clung, Ahab would once more have\r\nbeen tossed into the sea. As it was, three of the oarsmen—who foreknew\r\nnot the precise instant of the dart, and were therefore unprepared for\r\nits effects—these were flung out; but so fell, that, in an instant two\r\nof them clutched the gunwale again, and rising to its level on a\r\ncombing wave, hurled themselves bodily inboard again; the third man\r\nhelplessly dropping astern, but still afloat and swimming.\r\n\r\nAlmost simultaneously, with a mighty volition of ungraduated,\r\ninstantaneous swiftness, the White Whale darted through the weltering\r\nsea. But when Ahab cried out to the steersman to take new turns with\r\nthe line, and hold it so; and commanded the crew to turn round on their\r\nseats, and tow the boat up to the mark; the moment the treacherous line\r\nfelt that double strain and tug, it snapped in the empty air!\r\n\r\n“What breaks in me? Some sinew cracks!—’tis whole again; oars! oars!\r\nBurst in upon him!”\r\n\r\nHearing the tremendous rush of the sea-crashing boat, the whale wheeled\r\nround to present his blank forehead at bay; but in that evolution,\r\ncatching sight of the nearing black hull of the ship; seemingly seeing\r\nin it the source of all his persecutions; bethinking it—it may be—a\r\nlarger and nobler foe; of a sudden, he bore down upon its advancing\r\nprow, smiting his jaws amid fiery showers of foam.\r\n\r\nAhab staggered; his hand smote his forehead. “I grow blind; hands!\r\nstretch out before me that I may yet grope my way. Is’t night?”\r\n\r\n“The whale! The ship!” cried the cringing oarsmen.\r\n\r\n“Oars! oars! Slope downwards to thy depths, O sea, that ere it be for\r\never too late, Ahab may slide this last, last time upon his mark! I\r\nsee: the ship! the ship! Dash on, my men! Will ye not save my ship?”\r\n\r\nBut as the oarsmen violently forced their boat through the\r\nsledge-hammering seas, the before whale-smitten bow-ends of two planks\r\nburst through, and in an instant almost, the temporarily disabled boat\r\nlay nearly level with the waves; its half-wading, splashing crew,\r\ntrying hard to stop the gap and bale out the pouring water.\r\n\r\nMeantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego’s mast-head hammer\r\nremained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping him as\r\nwith a plaid, then streamed itself straight out from him, as his own\r\nforward-flowing heart; while Starbuck and Stubb, standing upon the\r\nbowsprit beneath, caught sight of the down-coming monster just as soon\r\nas he.\r\n\r\n“The whale, the whale! Up helm, up helm! Oh, all ye sweet powers of\r\nair, now hug me close! Let not Starbuck die, if die he must, in a\r\nwoman’s fainting fit. Up helm, I say—ye fools, the jaw! the jaw! Is\r\nthis the end of all my bursting prayers? all my life-long fidelities?\r\nOh, Ahab, Ahab, lo, thy work. Steady! helmsman, steady. Nay, nay! Up\r\nhelm again! He turns to meet us! Oh, his unappeasable brow drives on\r\ntowards one, whose duty tells him he cannot depart. My God, stand by me\r\nnow!”\r\n\r\n“Stand not by me, but stand under me, whoever you are that will now\r\nhelp Stubb; for Stubb, too, sticks here. I grin at thee, thou grinning\r\nwhale! Who ever helped Stubb, or kept Stubb awake, but Stubb’s own\r\nunwinking eye? And now poor Stubb goes to bed upon a mattrass that is\r\nall too soft; would it were stuffed with brushwood! I grin at thee,\r\nthou grinning whale! Look ye, sun, moon, and stars! I call ye assassins\r\nof as good a fellow as ever spouted up his ghost."},"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":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM529XJRPQXV0DC58V32N","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV8861P977B7BE45JR4K","peer_label":"daggoo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV9JR5QVCDKHMH41830J","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXPZ2QFETNS15QE0HXAXBD","peer_label":"mast-head","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFZWDFFAVZN5D4PSG4ZH","peer_label":"parsee","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFEBGARK540AZKRKFTC9","peer_label":"hearse","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ361ZZ02SCCEMJ9ZYS5M","peer_label":"oars","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ6ZRD1MFA55AQ91RE2QB","peer_label":"bowsprit","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ3TMKTZ6VP6FSSTYJJ9S","peer_label":"whaling line","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ9A4SWRD9AQ8WC2KMPYN","peer_label":"irons","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXRF7DZB13VCXZCPRJZ6TC","peer_label":"oarsmen","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXS2MKKF5B6PVFRKRHN4GZ","peer_label":"sharks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ2G6SE3XMPHVHFPK1FDA","peer_label":"ahabs whaleboat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXTZ19FF3YYRK49QJ9V8FS","peer_label":"red flag","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"signal_device","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXXQY6W3SJA90FYP3KJQTG","peer_label":"lances","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:06.724Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.210Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:07.774Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}