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White Jacket, a novel by Herman Melville |
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Chapter 81. How They Bury A Man-Of-War's-Man At Sea |
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_ CHAPTER LXXXI. HOW THEY BURY A MAN-OF-WAR'S-MAN AT SEA Quarters over in the morning, the boatswain and his four mates stood round the main hatchway, and after giving the usual whistle, made the customary announcement--"_All hands bury the dead, ahoy!_" In a man-of-war, every thing, even to a man's funeral and burial, proceeds with the unrelenting promptitude of the martial code. And whether it is _all hands bury the dead!_ or _all hands splice the main-brace_, the order is given in the same hoarse tones. Both officers and men assembled in the lee waist, and through that bareheaded crowd the mess-mates of Shenly brought his body to the same gangway where it had thrice winced under the scourge. But there is something in death that ennobles even a pauper's corpse; and the Captain himself stood bareheaded before the remains of a man whom, with his hat on, he had sentenced to the ignominious gratings when alive. "_I am the resurrection and the life!_" solemnly began the Chaplain, in full canonicals, the prayer-book in his hand. "Damn you! off those booms!" roared a boatswain's mate to a crowd of top-men, who had elevated themselves to gain a better view of the scene. "_We commit this body to the deep!_" At the word, Shenly's mess- mates tilted the board, and the dead sailor sank in the sea. "Look aloft," whispered Jack Chase. "See that bird! it is the spirit of Shenly." Gazing upward, all beheld a snow-white, solitary fowl, which-- whence coming no one could tell--had been hovering over the main-mast during the service, and was now sailing far up into the depths of the sky. _ |
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