{"id":"01KJNXJVBANKXB8KRWQNNPZ5NP","cid":"bafkreiblyie4rccusz6r2wqgxjhiqh3srvadc4nd55zrfxjyoty2rwpu4u","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":1213236,"char_start":1205259,"chunk_index":170,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1995,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"tremendous charge. Seizing that opportunity, Ahab first paid out more\r\nline: and then was rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it again—hoping\r\nthat way to disencumber it of some snarls—when lo!—a sight more savage\r\nthan the embattled teeth of sharks!\r\n\r\nCaught and twisted—corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons\r\nand lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came flashing\r\nand dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab’s boat. Only one\r\nthing could be done. Seizing the boat-knife, he critically reached\r\nwithin—through—and then, without—the rays of steel; dragged in the line\r\nbeyond, passed it, inboard, to the bowsman, and then, twice sundering\r\nthe rope near the chocks—dropped the intercepted fagot of steel into\r\nthe sea; and was all fast again. That instant, the White Whale made a\r\nsudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines; by so\r\ndoing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of Stubb and Flask\r\ntowards his flukes; dashed them together like two rolling husks on a\r\nsurf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the sea, disappeared in a\r\nboiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the odorous cedar chips of\r\nthe wrecks danced round and round, like the grated nutmeg in a swiftly\r\nstirred bowl of punch.\r\n\r\nWhile the two crews were yet circling in the waters, reaching out after\r\nthe revolving line-tubs, oars, and other floating furniture, while\r\naslope little Flask bobbed up and down like an empty vial, twitching\r\nhis legs upwards to escape the dreaded jaws of sharks; and Stubb was\r\nlustily singing out for some one to ladle him up; and while the old\r\nman’s line—now parting—admitted of his pulling into the creamy pool to\r\nrescue whom he could;—in that wild simultaneousness of a thousand\r\nconcreted perils,—Ahab’s yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards\r\nHeaven by invisible wires,—as, arrow-like, shooting perpendicularly\r\nfrom the sea, the White Whale dashed his broad forehead against its\r\nbottom, and sent it, turning over and over, into the air; till it fell\r\nagain—gunwale downwards—and Ahab and his men struggled out from under\r\nit, like seals from a sea-side cave.\r\n\r\nThe first uprising momentum of the whale—modifying its direction as he\r\nstruck the surface—involuntarily launched him along it, to a little\r\ndistance from the centre of the destruction he had made; and with his\r\nback to it, he now lay for a moment slowly feeling with his flukes from\r\nside to side; and whenever a stray oar, bit of plank, the least chip or\r\ncrumb of the boats touched his skin, his tail swiftly drew back, and\r\ncame sideways smiting the sea. But soon, as if satisfied that his work\r\nfor that time was done, he pushed his pleated forehead through the\r\nocean, and trailing after him the intertangled lines, continued his\r\nleeward way at a traveller’s methodic pace.\r\n\r\nAs before, the attentive ship having descried the whole fight, again\r\ncame bearing down to the rescue, and dropping a boat, picked up the\r\nfloating mariners, tubs, oars, and whatever else could be caught at,\r\nand safely landed them on her decks. Some sprained shoulders, wrists,\r\nand ankles; livid contusions; wrenched harpoons and lances;\r\ninextricable intricacies of rope; shattered oars and planks; all these\r\nwere there; but no fatal or even serious ill seemed to have befallen\r\nany one. As with Fedallah the day before, so Ahab was now found grimly\r\nclinging to his boat’s broken half, which afforded a comparatively easy\r\nfloat; nor did it so exhaust him as the previous day’s mishap.\r\n\r\nBut when he was helped to the deck, all eyes were fastened upon him; as\r\ninstead of standing by himself he still half-hung upon the shoulder of\r\nStarbuck, who had thus far been the foremost to assist him. His ivory\r\nleg had been snapped off, leaving but one short sharp splinter.\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye, Starbuck, ’tis sweet to lean sometimes, be the leaner who he\r\nwill; and would old Ahab had leaned oftener than he has.”\r\n\r\n“The ferrule has not stood, sir,” said the carpenter, now coming up; “I\r\nput good work into that leg.”\r\n\r\n“But no bones broken, sir, I hope,” said Stubb with true concern.\r\n\r\n“Aye! and all splintered to pieces, Stubb!—d’ye see it.—But even with a\r\nbroken bone, old Ahab is untouched; and I account no living bone of\r\nmine one jot more me, than this dead one that’s lost. Nor white whale,\r\nnor man, nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper and\r\ninaccessible being. Can any lead touch yonder floor, any mast scrape\r\nyonder roof?—Aloft there! which way?”\r\n\r\n“Dead to leeward, sir.”\r\n\r\n“Up helm, then; pile on the sail again, ship keepers! down the rest of\r\nthe spare boats and rig them—Mr. Starbuck away, and muster the boat’s\r\ncrews.”\r\n\r\n“Let me first help thee towards the bulwarks, sir.”\r\n\r\n“Oh, oh, oh! how this splinter gores me now! Accursed fate! that the\r\nunconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate!”\r\n\r\n“Sir?”\r\n\r\n“My body, man, not thee. Give me something for a cane—there, that\r\nshivered lance will do. Muster the men. Surely I have not seen him yet.\r\nBy heaven it cannot be!—missing?—quick! call them all.”\r\n\r\nThe old man’s hinted thought was true. Upon mustering the company, the\r\nParsee was not there.\r\n\r\n“The Parsee!” cried Stubb—“he must have been caught in——”\r\n\r\n“The black vomit wrench thee!—run all of ye above, alow, cabin,\r\nforecastle—find him—not gone—not gone!”\r\n\r\nBut quickly they returned to him with the tidings that the Parsee was\r\nnowhere to be found.\r\n\r\n“Aye, sir,” said Stubb—“caught among the tangles of your line—I thought\r\nI saw him dragging under.”\r\n\r\n“_My_ line! _my_ line? Gone?—gone? What means that little word?—What\r\ndeath-knell rings in it, that old Ahab shakes as if he were the belfry.\r\nThe harpoon, too!—toss over the litter there,—d’ye see it?—the forged\r\niron, men, the white whale’s—no, no, no,—blistered fool! this hand did\r\ndart it!—’tis in the fish!—Aloft there! Keep him nailed—Quick!—all\r\nhands to the rigging of the boats—collect the oars—harpooneers! the\r\nirons, the irons!—hoist the royals higher—a pull on all the\r\nsheets!—helm there! steady, steady for your life! I’ll ten times girdle\r\nthe unmeasured globe; yea and dive straight through it, but I’ll slay\r\nhim yet!”\r\n\r\n“Great God! but for one single instant show thyself,” cried Starbuck;\r\n“never, never wilt thou capture him, old man—In Jesus’ name no more of\r\nthis, that’s worse than devil’s madness. Two days chased; twice stove\r\nto splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil\r\nshadow gone—all good angels mobbing thee with warnings:—what more\r\nwouldst thou have?—Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he\r\nswamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the\r\nsea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh, oh,—Impiety\r\nand blasphemy to hunt him more!”\r\n\r\n“Starbuck, of late I’ve felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that\r\nhour we both saw—thou know’st what, in one another’s eyes. But in this\r\nmatter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this\r\nhand—a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This\r\nwhole act’s immutably decreed. ’Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion\r\nyears before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act\r\nunder orders. Look thou, underling! that thou obeyest mine.—Stand round\r\nme, men. Ye see an old man cut down to the stump; leaning on a shivered\r\nlance; propped up on a lonely foot. ’Tis Ahab—his body’s part; but\r\nAhab’s soul’s a centipede, that moves upon a hundred legs. I feel\r\nstrained, half stranded, as ropes that tow dismasted frigates in a\r\ngale; and I may look so. But ere I break, ye’ll hear me crack; and till\r\nye hear _that_, know that Ahab’s hawser tows his purpose yet. Believe\r\nye, men, in the things called omens? Then laugh aloud, and cry encore!\r\nFor ere they drown, drowning things will twice rise to the surface;\r\nthen rise again, to sink for evermore. So with Moby Dick—two days he’s\r\nfloated—tomorrow will be the third."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKV9JR5QVCDKHMH41830J","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFMZB7ZT3JXVSMW83X8F","peer_label":"carpenter","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNGHPXFGV1TMWD4BHE52R","peer_label":"ahabs ivory leg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"prosthetic_limb","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNBY6TYGBH2RTHE8NCW9T","peer_label":"flasks boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFFZS2J3YJFB531HCE39","peer_label":"stubbs boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN7T6ZWVNWB6JV139HSAA","peer_label":"ahabs boat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_boat","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ3TMKTZ6VP6FSSTYJJ9S","peer_label":"whaling line","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6CV5BE5PG01N0MSHZ9Z","peer_label":"lance","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFZWDFFAVZN5D4PSG4ZH","peer_label":"parsee","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFPA13QV007PGN5RZ3PA","peer_label":"white whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXRJ0348XWW5W0ZNE0NMT2","peer_label":"the ship","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXS3Z5SY5719CH4T09FJ36","peer_label":"the fates","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXTCME4Z5A03C2T0RJQFJQ","peer_label":"mariners","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXTSVTVE444Z5HC240KHTT","peer_label":"maelstrom","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"natural_phenomenon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXTCS3VQNV4TNRVB7R3J2X","peer_label":"good angels","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXV13G4HRBZ0XVR2WXDA0X","peer_label":"evil shadow","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:00.745Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.210Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:02.584Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}