Burials at sea

[Arthur John Harvey]

R235941 in 1942 I was serving as a JOS (Junior ordinary seaman) age just sixteen years having put my age on by one year, the ship was a troopship (Highland Princess) with three thousand troops aboard bound for Durban. One day the bosun called me and said it was about time to learn my trade, hence, I assisted him to prepared a RAF officer for sea burial including the final stitch through the nose; we used a Red Ensign for covering as a RAF ensign was not readily available. At my age I did not have any rum after the burial and amazingly over sixty years later his daughter contacted me through emails and I was able to assure her that her father had a proper burial.
Mentioning Durban I had the pleasure of hearing the Lady in White singing the convoys in and out.

[Peter Harrison]

In my 20 years I never witnessed a burial at sea.However in 1951 us abs were painting the hospital on the Highland Brigade. in the mortuary of the hospital was a lead lined coffin so I would guess the family of any deceased passenger would expect their relative returned home.And maybe Royal Mail would just dump the crew overboard.

[Nigel Smith]

The last burial at sea I witnessed was in 1971 on the Southern Cross. The ship slowed at 0600 and the body was commited to the deep. Very few people were aware that a burial had taken place, hence the early morning despatch. The Master was Captain Wheatley.

[Captain Kong]

I have poured my Mothers ashes into the sea off Walney Island where she was born, and said the appropriate words .
Also I poured the ashes of two brothers, Guy and Alan, friends of mine, both seafaring men, into the sea off the Mull of Galloway again with the appropriate words.
At one of them, Guy, the sea was like a sheet of blue glass, not a ripple. beautiful sunny day. As I started the service, the head of a Seal slowly rose above the water and stayed motionless watching throughout, I said the words, and poured the ashes into sea and then scattered some roses from the family. The Seal, motionless throughout, then slowly sank beneath the water not even making a ripple. It was as if he was waiting to welcome Guy to the deep. A very moving moment.

[Keith Moody]

during the late 1950`s we were coming home on the P & O R.M.S. Arcadiafrom Australia, on board were a Fijian Prince and his 3 wives, he was coming to England to meet up with the Queen, he got on in Sydney but between Fremantel and Bombay he became very ill and was put into the ships hospital where myself and another steward took 4 hour watch`s looking after him, wiping his body down with cool clothes, and feeding him through a pipe in his nose to his stomach, this carried on for a few days then one day i came off watch and within a few minute the other steward followed me down and said the old prince had died.
He was put in the cold rooms in the storage areas of the ship and off-loaded in Bombay and flown back to Fiji for a proper ceromony and burial. we were thanked by the wives and if ever in Fiji we should visit the palce, i believe that the whole story was in "The Illustrated London News." I didn`t go back to Fiji until 2000 and then only stayed for an hour whilst the aircraft was re-fueled
keith moody.
NZ Ruahine 1955-6
P&O Arcadia 1956-9
BTC Canterbury
BTC Maid of Orleans
BTC Hampton Ferry
Currie. MV England
Clyde ship. MV Goodwin
P&O Canberra 1961 maiden voyage

[john mc dermott]

Very interesting thread, i find myself going back into the archives to find something of interest to read .

[Mike R868356]

I was on the Andes in 1969 and only a few days out on a West Indies cruise an old boy died, he was dispensed over the side. As per your description, I was always told the nose stitch was to make sure they were deceased. The ship was stopped at 7am for the burial at sea, those of the crew involved all received a dram.

[Gerald Farr]

I was probably fortunate in not having to go through a burial at sea but I did have to attend the scattering of ashes at sea. When the Manager of our Liverpool shipping office passed away it was found that one of his final wishes was to have his ashes scattered at sea. I understood that he had worked in the same office from when he first started work as the office boy until his death as the office manager. As a mark of respect to his long service the company agreed and the urn was duly delivered to our ship. The weather was not favourable for the first few days but once it had cleared up the Captain decided to have the small service on the next Sunday. So at about 1100hrs we assembled on the poop deck in our whites, even though there was hardly a breeze blowing it was still deemed prudent to scatter the ashes and wreath over the lee side. The short service over, the wreath was thrown into the sea and the ashes tipped out of the urn, only for most of it to be blown back over the poop deck and all taking part. With the breeze blowing across the ship it must have created an updraft so he had to be hosed off the ship which I suppose comes to the same thing anyway, the ashes went into the sea.

[michael hooper]

in october 1960 i was an AB on the shell tanker ALUCO crossing the pacific from the panama canal to yokosuka japan.roughly halfway across an old AB died.he had no family so he had to be buried at sea.me and the store keeper were assigned the job of sewing him into the canvas with a couple of heavy shackles at his feet.we did the job forward under fhe focsle.and yes we put the last stitch through his nose.he had a proper burial at sea.the ALUCO was not a super tanker just a small crew and for a while there was an air of gloom about the ship.he was one of the lads and we missed him.i was on her for a year good ship and a good crew.

[Bryan Portwig]

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