- description
- # CHAPTER XIII. OUR DESTINATION CHANGED
## Overview
This is a chapter from the novel [Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas](arke:01KG8AJ7VM7B8YZ2568YF8PQ5J) by Herman Melville. It is identified as "CHAPTER XIII. OUR DESTINATION CHANGED" within the novel's structure. The chapter was extracted from the source file [omoo.txt](arke:01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ) as part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.
## Context
The chapter is positioned between [CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW](arke:01KG8AJH0CXEMQ2MH5YQ0Y216Q) and [CHAPTER XIV. ROPE YARN](arke:01KG8AJH07MQM35VETZATZ3R3G) within the narrative of *Omoo*.
## Contents
This chapter describes events aboard the ship, including the death of a sailor and the subsequent burial at sea. The narrative includes details of the crew's reaction to the death, the performance of burial rites, and the relating of sea tales. The chapter also recounts a specific story told by the ship's carpenter about a fever-stricken voyage to India, where phantom sightings and supernatural occurrences plagued the crew.
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- 2026-01-30T20:49:06.709Z
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- description_title
- CHAPTER XIII. OUR DESTINATION CHANGED
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- 1622
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- 2026-01-30T20:47:33.380Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1577
- text
- always kept locked, was supposed to contain money. Someone volunteered
to break it open, and distribute its contents, clothing and all, before
the captain should demand it.
While myself and others were endeavouring to dissuade them from this,
all started at a cry from the forecastle. There could be no one there
but two of the sick, unable to crawl on deck. We went below, and found
one of them dying on a chest. He had fallen out of his hammock in a
fit, and was insensible. The eyes were open and fixed, and his breath
coming and going convulsively. The men shrunk from him; but the doctor,
taking his hand, held it a few moments in his, and suddenly letting it
fall, exclaimed, “He’s gone!” The body was instantly borne up the
ladder.
Another hammock was soon prepared, and the dead sailor stitched up as
before. Some additional ceremony, however, was now insisted upon, and a
Bible was called for. But none was to be had, not even a Prayer Book.
When this was made known, Antone, a Portuguese, from the Cape-de-Verd
Islands, stepped up, muttering something over the corpse of his
countryman, and, with his finger, described upon the back of the
hammock the figure of a large cross; whereupon it received the
death-launch.
These two men both perished from the proverbial indiscretions of
seamen, heightened by circumstances apparent; but had either of them
been ashore under proper treatment, he would, in all human probability,
have recovered.
Behold here the fate of a sailor! They give him the last toss, and no
one asks whose child he was.
For the rest of that night there was no more sleep. Many stayed on deck
until broad morning, relating to each other those marvellous tales of
the sea which the occasion was calculated to call forth. Little as I
believed in such things, I could not listen to some of these stories
unaffected. Above all was I struck by one of the carpenter’s.
On a voyage to India, they had a fever aboard, which carried off nearly
half the crew in the space of a few days. After this the men never went
aloft in the night-time, except in couples. When topsails were to be
reefed, phantoms were seen at the yard-arm ends; and in tacking ship,
voices called aloud from the tops. The carpenter himself, going with
another man to furl the main-top-gallant-sail in a squall, was nearly
pushed from the rigging by an unseen hand; and his shipmate swore that
a wet hammock was flirted in his face.
- title
- CHAPTER XIII. OUR DESTINATION CHANGED