- description
- # CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW
## Overview
This is a chapter from the novel [Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas](arke:01KG8AJ7VM7B8YZ2568YF8PQ5J) by Herman Melville. It recounts the death and burial at sea of two crew members. The chapter was extracted from the source text file, [omoo.txt](arke:01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ), as part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.
## Context
The chapter is positioned between [CHAPTER XI. DOCTOR LONG GHOST A WAG—ONE OF HIS CAPERS](arke:01KG8AJH07KZ0YK7CZAGYMT88C) and [CHAPTER XIII. OUR DESTINATION CHANGED](arke:01KG8AJH0CDDKJEC8KBGVYN06B) within the narrative of *Omoo*.
## Contents
The chapter describes the narrator's experience with the death of two sick crew members. One of the deceased occupies the bunk next to the narrator, and the narrator recounts the experience of finding the man dead. The chapter details the preparations for burial at sea, including stitching the body into a hammock with kentledge (pig iron) at the feet, and the somber ceremony of sliding the body off a plank into the ocean. The narrator observes the crew's lack of mourning for the deceased, who was apparently unpopular, and notes their immediate concern with the disposal of his chest.
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- 2026-01-30T20:49:08.228Z
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- description_title
- CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW
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- 1576
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- 2026-01-30T20:47:33.380Z
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- text
- CHAPTER XII.
DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW
The mirthfulness which at times reigned among us was in strange and
shocking contrast with the situation of some of the invalids. Thus at
least did it seem to me, though not to others.
But an event occurred about this period, which, in removing by far the
most pitiable cases of suffering, tended to make less grating to my
feelings the subsequent conduct of the crew.
We had been at sea about twenty days, when two of the sick who had
rapidly grown worse, died one night within an hour of each other.
One occupied a bunk right next to mine, and for several days had not
risen from it. During this period he was often delirious, starting up
and glaring around him, and sometimes wildly tossing his arms.
On the night of his decease, I retired shortly after the middle watch
began, and waking from a vague dream of horrors, felt something clammy
resting on me. It was the sick man’s hand. Two or three times during
the evening previous, he had thrust it into my bunk, and I had quietly
removed it; but now I started and flung it from me. The arm fell stark
and stiff, and I knew that he was dead.
Waking the men, the corpse was immediately rolled up in the strips of
blanketing upon which it lay, and carried on deck. The mate was then
called, and preparations made for an instantaneous’ burial. Laying the
body out on the forehatch, it was stitched up in one of the hammocks,
some “kentledge” being placed at the feet instead of shot. This done,
it was borne to the gangway, and placed on a plank laid across the
bulwarks. Two men supported the inside end. By way of solemnity, the
ship’s headway was then stopped by hauling aback the main-top-sail.
The mate, who was far from being sober, then staggered up, and holding
on to a shroud, gave the word. As the plank tipped, the body slid off
slowly, and fell with a splash into the sea. A bubble or two, and
nothing more was seen.
“Brace forward!” The main-yard swung round to its place, and the ship
glided on, whilst the corpse, perhaps, was still sinking.
We had tossed a shipmate to the sharks, but no one would have thought
it, to have gone among the crew immediately after. The dead man had
been a churlish, unsocial fellow, while alive, and no favourite; and
now that he was no more, little thought was bestowed upon him. All that
was said was concerning the disposal of his chest, which, having been
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- CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW