Originally Posted by
Captain Kong
Hi John,
Burials at sea are still allowed, I have been on many cruise ships and they still bury the dead if requested,, A lot of Americans do that as the cost of a Funeral in the States is extremely expensive., Some are placed in the Fridge to take home, again very expensive,
There are certain regulations on sea burials depending on locality and within certain limits.
On the south coast of England a few years ago, a company started burials at sea, taking out a coffin and doing the deed. But after a while some coffins were washed up on beaches following storms in the Channel, That kind of burial has now been stopped I believe, But in the Oceans it still goes on.
Cheers
Brian .,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
By country[edit]
Australia[edit]
Burial at sea within Australian territorial waters, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf is covered by the Environmental Protection (Sea Dumping Act) 1981 administered by the federal Department of the Environment. A permit is required for burial of bodies at sea. Permits are usually only granted in cases of a strong connection to the sea, for example long serving navy personnel. The body must not be embalmed or placed in a casket, it may only be sewn into a weighted shroud. The burial must be in water deeper than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and not interfere with shipping, fishing or undersea communications. Australian Defence Force vessels engaged in armed conflicts or emergency situations are exempt from these requirements.[11]
No permit is required to scatter ashes at sea.
United Kingdom[edit]
Burial at sea was a method hypothetically suggested by the then Medical Officer of Health for Liverpool, Dr Duncan Dolton, in which unburied bodies could be buried at sea during any extended strike by gravediggers union the GMWU during the Winter of Discontent. The suggestion caused great alarm amongst the public and helped prompt a resolution to the strike.[citation needed]
British colonial burials at sea of the 18th and 19th century involved wrapping the deceased in sail cloth weighted with cannonballs. The tradition continues with New England burials at sea, using a patented biodegradable handmade Atlantic sea burial shroud with authentic 37.5 cannonballs as ballast, smelted in Massachusetts at the historical Civil War foundry that has supplied Old Ironsides ([12]) since before the war of 1812.
United States[edit]
A funeral director is not required for the burial of cremated remains at sea. However, full body burials require specific preparation to ensure the body or coffin sinks quickly. The Environmental Protection Agency regulations for full body burials at sea in the United States require that the site of interment be 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) from land and at a depth of at least 600 feet (180 m). California prohibits whole body burial within its state-asserted three-mile limit. Off the eastern coast of the United States, the closest sufficient depths are off Long Island (75 miles/121 km), Ocracoke (20 miles/32 km), and Miami (5 miles/8.0 km). This may require travel in excess of 30 miles (48 km) for a suitable site.[13] Sufficient depth is within 10 miles or less at many harbors along the U.S. west coast, including San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Fort Bragg, Eureka, and Crescent City, all in California.[14] The United States Navy inters intact remains from Norfolk and San Diego only.[15] The United States Navy requires a metal casket for intact remains, but full body burial in a suitably weighted shroud is also legal. The United States is similar to many countries which permit the spreading of cremation ashes within their Exclusive Economic zone - when spreading ashes from a ship which is registered in a different country, the regulations and reporting procedures for the ships flag state need to be complied with once the vessel is in international waters, that is, outside 12 nautical miles. Ships follow the London convention principles, as opposed to MARPOL regulations, as the ash is intentionally taken on board for discharge at sea, as opposed to ash generated on passage from the ship's incinerators. It should be further considered that on 1 January 2013, MARPOL Annex V will come into force, which prevents discharge of a ship's incinerator ash.
People buried at sea[edit]
Main article: List of people buried at sea
A few notable burials at sea:
Sir Francis Drake (1540–1596) (body in lead coffin off the coast of Portobelo, Panama)
Christopher Newport (1561-1617) (body buried in the Indian Ocean)
Edward Winslow (1595–1655) (buried at sea near Jamaica on 8 May 1655)
Numerous RMS Titanic victims (1912) (picked up by rescue ships, whose remains were too damaged to preserve or for whom the rescuers lacked sufficient embalming materials, were buried at sea)
Dudley Pound (1877–1943) (cremated ashes scattered)
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) (cremated and ashes scattered in the sea off England)
Edwina Mountbatten (body placed in a coffin and then buried in the English Channel).
Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962) (Following his execution in Israel, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea over the Mediterranean, in international waters. This was done because Israel did not want such a person buried in its soil, and also did not want a grave elsewhere that might have become a place of pilgrimage for other Nazis.)
Janis Joplin (1943–1970) (cremated at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, and her ashes scattered into the Pacific ocean)
Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) (cremated ashes scattered)
Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) (ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean)
Steve McQueen (1930–1980) (cremated and ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean)
Dennis Wilson (1944–1983) (body buried in the Pacific Ocean off California with special intervention by President Reagan)
Peter Lawford (1923–1984), actor, was cremated and ashes originally buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery; they were later removed and scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
Rock Hudson (1925–1985) (cremated ashes scattered)
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) (cremated, and ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean)[18]
Stan Getz (1927–1991) (cremated, and ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean off Malibu, California)
Vincent Price (1911–1993)[19] (ashes scattered off Point Dume in Malibu, California)
Gene Kelly (1912–1996) (cremated ashes scattered)
Robert Mitchum (1917–1997) (cremated ashes scattered)[20]
John F. Kennedy, Jr (1960–1999) (scattered into the Atlantic Ocean by the U. S. Navy off Martha's Vineyard)
DeForest Kelley (1920–1999) (ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean)
Doug Henning (1947–2000) (cremated, and ashes scattered into the Pacific Ocean of Redondo Beach, California)[21]
Werner Klemperer (1920–2000) (cremated ashes scattered)
Sir Edmund Hillary (1919–2008) (cremated, and ashes scattered in New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf)[22]
Leyla Gencer (1928–2008) (ashes were scattered into the Bosphorus)
Osama Bin Laden (1957–2011)[23] One U.S. official stated that "finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult."[24] It was also done to prevent his burial place from becoming a "terrorist shrine".[25]
Dick Clark (1929-2012) (cremated and ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean)
John Carradine (1906-1988), full body burial into the Indian Ocean by his family.
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) (cremated, ashes scattered into the Atlantic Ocean from the U. S. Navy cruiser Philippine Sea)[26]
Atholl MacGregor, Hong Kong's chief justice, died on hospital ship from Hong Kong for England
Robin Williams (1951–2014) (cremated the day after his death, ashes scattered in San Francisco Bay)
