Sailors Have
An Unwillingness To Wear A Dead Man's Clothes During The Same Voyage,
And They Seldom Do So Unless They Are In Absolute Want.
As is usual after a death, many stories were told about George.
Some had heard him say that he repented never having learned to swim,
and that he knew that he should meet his death by drowning.
Another
said that he never knew any good to come of a voyage made against
the will, and the deceased man shipped and spent his advance and
was afterwards very unwilling to go, but not being able to refund,
was obliged to sail with us. A boy, too, who had become quite
attached to him, said that George talked to him during most of
the watch on the night before, about his mother and family at home,
and this was the first time that he had mentioned the subject during
the voyage.
The night after this event, when I went to the galley to get a light,
I found the cook inclined to be talkative, so I sat down on the spars,
and gave him an opportunity to hold a yarn. I was the more inclined
to do so, as I found that he was full of the superstitions once more
common among seamen, and which the recent death had waked up in his mind.
He talked about George's having spoken of his friends, and said he
believed few men died without having a warning of it, which he supported
by a great many stories of dreams, and the unusual behavior of men before
death.
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