. . . I remember one day the sharks were especially bad and had lingered close to our ship all day. Being only eleven years of age I did not know the reason why, but the next morning I got up early as I would not sleep and slipped up on deck just in time to see the sailors prepare a body for burial in the ocean. This was the reason the sharks had been following us. Whenever anyone died on board the ship it was [p.151] necessary to bury him in the ocean for the sharks would wreck the boat. Another morning just as it was coming daylight the cannons roared and everyone rushed on deck to see what was the matter and we were told it was the Fourth of July. . . . [p.152]
BIB: Boulton, Eliza. [Journal Excerpt] IN The David Baldwin & John Boulton Families of Birmingham, England, Written by Larry Hibbut. pp. 151-52. (FHL)
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