Saturday, April 05, 2014

Grizzly chores after the battle

All around the ship, the growling of handy-billy pumps swelled. Hoses were dropped overboard and streams of water set flowing against all surfaces. Slowly the stubborn knots of flesh clotting the ship's thousands of crooks and crevices, the drying splashes of blood, were washed away. All hands received a "ditty bag" and were ordered to identify the dead, remove their dog tags and personal effects, place a five-inch dummy shell down the front of their dungarees, cinch their belt tight, and ease the body over the side. The San Fransisco had no chaplain aboard, so there was no ceremony to any of this.

(from Neptune's Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer)

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