authority.

"If a sailor who knows he is dying, has a captain who pleases him,
he is very likely to send a message by the surgeon to beg a visit--not
often to trouble his commander with any commission, but merely to say
something at parting. No officer, of course, would ever refuse to grant
such an interview, but it appears to me it should always be volunteered;
for many men may wish it, whose habitual respect would disincline them
to take such a liberty, even at the moment when all distinctions are
about to cease.

"Very shortly after poor Jack dies, he is prepared for his deep-sea
grave by his messmates, who, with the assistance of the sailmaker, and
in the presence of the master-at-arms, sew him up in his hammock, and,
having placed a couple of cannon-shot at his feet, they rest the body
(which now not a little resembles an Egyptian mummy) on a spare grating.
Some portion of the bedding and clothes are always made up in the
package--apparently to prevent the form being too much seen. It is then
carried aft, and, being placed across the after-hatchway, the union
jack is thrown over all. Sometimes it is placed between two of the guns,
under the half deck; bat generally, I think, he is laid where I have
mentioned, just abaft the mainmast. I should have mentioned before, that
as soon as the surgeon's ineffectual professional offices are at an end,
he walks to the quarter-deck, and reports to the officer of the watch
that one of his patients has just expired. At whatever hour of the day
or night this occurs, the captain is immediately made acquainted with
the circumstance.

"Next day, generally about eleven o'clock, the bell on which the
half-hours are struck, is tolled for the funeral, and all who choose