A Hanging Offense by Buckner F. Melton Jr

Author:Buckner F. Melton, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2008-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The bodies stayed aloft for an hour. After that long they were certainly dead. Then they were lowered to the deck and prepared by the crew for interment.

Spencer, as a midshipman, was placed in a coffin that the carpenter’s mate built from two mess chests. He, like Mackenzie, was in full-dress uniform, lacking only his sword, for his offense denied him that honor. The two other bodies were sewn into hammocks that were weighted with shot.

Arrangements weren’t complete until nightfall. A little tension remained, a slight fear of the darkness, but not much, for the whole crew’s demeanor had improved dramatically. Now the lanterns gleamed brightly, candles pouring a soft illumination onto the spar deck. The remains lay amidships—Spencer’s the farthest aft, then Cromwell’s, then Small’s, in order of rank.

The service began, coming, of course, from the Book of Common Prayer, the prayer book of America’s all-but-official Episcopal Church. The crew stood at quarters as Captain Mackenzie, who had removed his executioner’s hat, now took on the role of priest. The candlelight played on the pages as he spoke the stately phrases, the language reminiscent of Shakespeare, suggesting, quite apart from their content, a permanence greater than that of the ocean itself. “I am the resurrection, and the life,” he began with the words from the Gospel of St. John. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Onward he read, the crew making the responses as the service directed, the voices calm and assured. At last Mackenzie came to the final words of the service, one of the stronger, more beautiful prayers in a book whose prayers are nearly all strong and beautiful.

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, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who at his coming shall change our vile Body, that it may be like his glorious Body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

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