The Fever Epidemic
An epidemic fever rages among the crew, with three-fourths of those infected dying. The bilious fever spreads due to the change of atmosphere, stench, heat, bad provisions, and despair. The conductors decide to abandon their conquests, rendering artillery useless and blowing up walls before returning to Jamaica. The narrator finds himself threatened with the same symptoms and knows he stands no chance of survival in the cockpit’s intolerable heat and smell.
The Rejected Petition
Knowing the cockpit will be deadly, the narrator writes a petition to Captain Oakum requesting permission to stay among the soldiers on the middle deck for better air. The captain refuses, ordering him to continue in the surgeon mates’ place or remain in the hospital, which is even more offensive and suffocating. Instead of submitting, the narrator prevails upon the soldiers to admit his hammock among them. When Crampley learns of this, he reports the disobedience to the captain, who gives Crampley power to return the narrator to his proper berth.
Rescue from Suffocation
Enraged by this revenge, the narrator’s fever increases violently. While gasping for breath, he is visited by a sergeant whose broken nose he had repaired after a battle. The sergeant offers his berth on the middle deck, enclosed with canvas and aired by a port-hole. The grateful halberdier has no other bed than a hencoop during the passage. The narrator accepts and is treated with tenderness, though his illness continues to worsen and his life is despaired of. Six or seven men die daily and are thrown overboard.
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