Sømandens våde grav, s. 103-167 - Handels- og Søfartsmuseet

Denne artikel tilegner jeg overlæge (psykiatri) Eivind Haga, Stavanger, som
gav mig tilskyndelsen til undersøgelsen.
Artiklen er opbygget på grundlag af mellem 6 og 7000 kildesteder, hentet fra
min ekscerptsamling »Sømandsliv i sejlskibstiden«. Det er desværre umuligt her
at redegøre for mine kilder.
En tak for hjælp vedrørende visse teologiske spørgsmål retter jeg til provst
Knud Th. Tofte (t), Skibby, og til bibliotekar Morten Boesen, Helsingør.
The Sailor's Watery Grave
Summary
This rather sombre tale of death and burial at sea is based on the sailor's own
thoughts about life and death, heaven and heil, especially in the age of the
sailing ship.
That a sailor's life, particularly in the olden days, was a perilous affair is only
too true. The incidence of shipwrecks was enormous and there were also
numerous other causes of death such as scurvy, yellow fever and other diseases,
falling onto the deck or into the sea from the rigging, being washed overboard
etc.
There was an ancient belief that the sea was heathen and filled with Satan's
angels in the form of mermen and mermaids, cruel monsters and serpents,
man-eating sharks etc, and that these dark powers continued to demand
human victims. Thus sailors would not learn to swim, because they thought that
once they had fallen into the sea it was impossible to avoid their fate anyway.
Neither did they dåre to rescue a comrade who had fallen overboard, since he
now belonged to the sea. When a sailor died of some illness in his bunk or fell
to the deck and got crushed he also belonged to the powers of the sea and had
to be surrendered to them immediately, or »buried« as it was called. When a
captain according to tradition is still expected to go down with his sinking ship
it is because he and the ship belong to these powers.
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