- end_line
- 12951
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 12893
- text
- been accelerated by his confinement in this heated furnace below; and
whether many a sick man round me might not soon improve, if but
permitted to swing his hammock in the airy vacancies of the half-deck
above, open to the port-holes, but reserved for the promenade of the
officers.
At last the heavy breathing grew more and more irregular, and gradually
dying away, left forever the unstirring form of Shenly.
Calling the Surgeon’s steward, he at once told me to rouse the
master-at-arms, and four or five of my mess-mates. The master-at-arms
approached, and immediately demanded the dead man’s bag, which was
accordingly dragged into the bay. Having been laid on the floor, and
washed with a bucket of water which I drew from the ocean, the body was
then dressed in a white frock, trowsers, and neckerchief, taken out of
the bag. While this was going on, the master-at-arms—standing over the
operation with his rattan, and directing myself and mess-mates—indulged
in much discursive levity, intended to manifest his fearlessness of
death.
Pierre, who had been a “_chummy_” of Shenly’s, spent much time in tying
the neckerchief in an elaborate bow, and affectionately adjusting the
white frock and trowsers; but the master-at-arms put an end to this by
ordering us to carry the body up to the gun-deck. It was placed on the
death-board (used for that purpose), and we proceeded with it toward
the main hatchway, awkwardly crawling under the tiers of hammocks,
where the entire watch-below was sleeping. As, unavoidably, we rocked
their pallets, the man-of-war’s-men would cry out against us; through
the mutterings of curses, the corpse reached the hatchway. Here the
board slipped, and some time was spent in readjusting the body. At
length we deposited it on the gun-deck, between two guns, and a
union-jack being thrown over it for a pall, I was left again to watch
by its side.
I had not been seated on my shot-box three minutes, when the
messenger-boy passed me on his way forward; presently the slow, regular
stroke of the ship’s great bell was heard, proclaiming through the calm
the expiration of the watch; it was four o’clock in the morning.
Poor Shenly! thought I, that sounds like your knell! and here you lie
becalmed, in the last calm of all!
Hardly had the brazen din died away, when the Boatswain and his mates
mustered round the hatchway, within a yard or two of the corpse, and
the usual thundering call was given for the watch below to turn out.
“All the starboard-watch, ahoy! On deck there, below! Wide awake there,
sleepers!”
But the dreamless sleeper by my side, who had so often sprung from his
hammock at that summons, moved not a limb; the blue sheet over him lay
unwrinkled.
A mess-mate of the other watch now came to relieve me; but I told him I
chose to remain where I was till daylight came.
- title
- Chunk 2