--'we therefore commit
his body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for the
resurrection of the body, when the sea shall give up her dead, and the
life of the world to come,' &c. At the commencement of this part of the
service, one of the seamen stoops down, and disengages the flag from the
remains of his late shipmate, while the others, at the words 'we commit
his body to the deep,' project the grating right into the sea. The body
being loaded with shot at one end, glances off the grating, plunges at
once into the ocean, and--
"'In a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into its depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.'
"This part of the ceremony is rather less impressive than the
correspondent part on land; but still there is something solemn, as
well as startling, in the sudden splash, followed by the sound of the
grating, as it is towed along under the main-chains.
"In a fine day at sea, in smooth water, and when all the ship's company
and officers are assembled, the ceremony just described, although a
melancholy one, as it must always be, is often so pleasing, all things
considered, that it is calculated to leave even cheerful impressions on
the mind.
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