He was going aloft to fit a strap round the main
top-masthead, for ringtail halyards, and had the strap and block, a
coil of halyards, and a marline-spike about his neck. He fell from the
starboard futtock shrouds, and not knowing how to swim, and being
heavily dressed, with all those things round his neck, he probably
sank immediately. We pulled astern, in the direction in which he fell,
and though we knew that there was no hope of saving him, yet no one
wished to speak of returning, and we rowed about for nearly an hour,
without the hope of doing anything, but unwilling to acknowledge to
ourselves that we must give him up. At length we turned the boat's
head and made towards the vessel.
Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at sea. A
man dies on shore; his body remains with his friends, and "the
mourners go about the streets;" but when a man falls overboard at
sea and is lost, there is a suddenness in the event, and a
difficulty in realizing it, which give to it an air of awful
mystery. A man dies on shore- you follow his body to the grave, and a
stone marks the spot. You are often prepared for the event.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67