{"id":"01KG8AJH0CXEMQ2MH5YQ0Y216Q","cid":"bafkreieykbv4nxp5dkkjsv5545wwo7fbz6ugwxtrmv2esoedpznao4qm6m","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW\n## Overview\nThis 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.\n\n## Context\nThe 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*.\n\n## Contents\nThe 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.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:08.228Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW","end_line":1576,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:33.380Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1529,"text":"CHAPTER XII.\r\nDEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW\r\n\r\n\r\nThe mirthfulness which at times reigned among us was in strange and\r\nshocking contrast with the situation of some of the invalids. Thus at\r\nleast did it seem to me, though not to others.\r\n\r\nBut an event occurred about this period, which, in removing by far the\r\nmost pitiable cases of suffering, tended to make less grating to my\r\nfeelings the subsequent conduct of the crew.\r\n\r\nWe had been at sea about twenty days, when two of the sick who had\r\nrapidly grown worse, died one night within an hour of each other.\r\n\r\nOne occupied a bunk right next to mine, and for several days had not\r\nrisen from it. During this period he was often delirious, starting up\r\nand glaring around him, and sometimes wildly tossing his arms.\r\n\r\nOn the night of his decease, I retired shortly after the middle watch\r\nbegan, and waking from a vague dream of horrors, felt something clammy\r\nresting on me. It was the sick man’s hand. Two or three times during\r\nthe evening previous, he had thrust it into my bunk, and I had quietly\r\nremoved it; but now I started and flung it from me. The arm fell stark\r\nand stiff, and I knew that he was dead.\r\n\r\nWaking the men, the corpse was immediately rolled up in the strips of\r\nblanketing upon which it lay, and carried on deck. The mate was then\r\ncalled, and preparations made for an instantaneous’ burial. Laying the\r\nbody out on the forehatch, it was stitched up in one of the hammocks,\r\nsome “kentledge” being placed at the feet instead of shot. This done,\r\nit was borne to the gangway, and placed on a plank laid across the\r\nbulwarks. Two men supported the inside end. By way of solemnity, the\r\nship’s headway was then stopped by hauling aback the main-top-sail.\r\n\r\nThe mate, who was far from being sober, then staggered up, and holding\r\non to a shroud, gave the word. As the plank tipped, the body slid off\r\nslowly, and fell with a splash into the sea. A bubble or two, and\r\nnothing more was seen.\r\n\r\n“Brace forward!” The main-yard swung round to its place, and the ship\r\nglided on, whilst the corpse, perhaps, was still sinking.\r\n\r\nWe had tossed a shipmate to the sharks, but no one would have thought\r\nit, to have gone among the crew immediately after. The dead man had\r\nbeen a churlish, unsocial fellow, while alive, and no favourite; and\r\nnow that he was no more, little thought was bestowed upon him. All that\r\nwas said was concerning the disposal of his chest, which, having been\r","title":"CHAPTER XII. DEATH AND BURIAL OF TWO OF THE CREW"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ7VM7B8YZ2568YF8PQ5J","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJH07KZ0YK7CZAGYMT88C","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJH0CDDKJEC8KBGVYN06B","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:34.412Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:10.412Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}