White Jacket; Or, The World on a Man-of-War

  CHAPTER LXXXI.

  HOW THEY BURY A MAN-OF-WAR'S-MAN AT SEA.

  Quarters over in the morning, the boatswain and his four mates stoodround the main hatchway, and after giving the usual whistle, made thecustomary 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. Andwhether it is _all hands bury the dead!_ or _all hands splice themain-brace_, the order is given in the same hoarse tones.

  Both officers and men assembled in the lee waist, and through thatbareheaded crowd the mess-mates of Shenly brought his body to the samegangway where it had thrice winced under the scourge. But there issomething in death that ennobles even a pauper's corpse; and theCaptain himself stood bareheaded before the remains of a man whom, withhis hat on, he had sentenced to the ignominious gratings when alive.

  "_I am the resurrection and the life!_" solemnly began the Chaplain, infull canonicals, the prayer-book in his hand.

  "Damn you! off those booms!" roared a boatswain's mate to a crowd oftop-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-matestilted the board, and the dead sailor sank in the sea.

  "Look aloft," whispered Jack Chase. "See that bird! it is the spirit ofShenly."

  Gazing upward, all beheld a snow-white, solitary fowl, which--whencecoming no one could tell--had been hovering over the main-mast duringthe service, and was now sailing far up into the depths of the sky.