Chapter 25, Another Three Shovefuls Of Earth From Sweden Summary

In Chapter 25, Captain Lorentz prepares the eighth funeral on ship that is to be held for Inga Lena. He follows his manual on how to bury corpses on board, pondering over her burial in the context of differences between his and her life that has been spent on fields or in barns yet finding her grave in the ocean. She would not be registered anywhere. Her only mark on earth would be her children. He has spent his life sailing, even though he is sixty years old. Knowing there is no escape from death he pretends to live for ever and in the best way he can.

Inga Lena's funeral is on a sunny day at the beginning of June, on the Atlantic Ocean. Peasants gather around her body...