- description
- # The Doubloon
## Overview
This entity is a chapter titled "The Doubloon" from the novel *Moby Dick; Or, The Whale* by Herman Melville. It is the 99th chapter in the book, positioned between [A Squeeze of the Hand](arke:01KFNR849DMXDSPAZ50XP0A861) and [The Decanter](arke:01KFNR84FVC0WD1JAZWMH0XRHF). The chapter spans lines 16950 to 17350 in the source text file and is composed of eight text chunks, each representing a segment of the narrative. It was extracted and structured as part of a digital archiving process on January 23, 2026.
## Context
"The Doubloon" appears in [Moby Dick; Or, The Whale](arke:01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D), a 19th-century American novel first published in 1851, renowned for its complex symbolism and narrative depth. This chapter is part of a larger collection of materials related to the novel, including the full text, structural divisions, and metadata, all organized under the [Moby Dick](arke:01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV) collection. The chapter follows a scene of communal labor and camaraderie among the crew and precedes a reflective historical digression, marking a transition in tone and thematic focus.
## Contents
The chapter centers on Captain Ahab’s fixation on Moby Dick, revealed through his intense interrogation of Captain Boomer of the English whaler *Samuel Enderby*, who lost an arm to the White Whale. Ahab’s obsessive pursuit contrasts with Boomer’s pragmatic decision to abandon the hunt. The narrative shifts to a detailed account of the *Samuel Enderby*, honoring the historical contributions of the Enderby whaling house to global sperm whaling. The chapter includes a digression on the lavish provisions of Dutch whalers, based on an imagined historical source, underscoring themes of excess, cultural tradition, and the physical demands of whaling. The text concludes with a metafictional reflection by the narrator, Ishmael, questioning his own authority to describe the whale’s anatomy, setting the stage for the next chapter’s exploration of the whale’s skeleton.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-23T15:45:41.210Z
- description_model
- Qwen/Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
- description_title
- The Doubloon
- end_line
- 17350
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-23T15:40:57.912Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 16950
- title
- The Doubloon