Mike Sales wrote:Burial at sea appeals to me. Sewn into a sailcloth shroud with a couple of cannonballs and a last stitch through the septum, laid on a hatch board, tilted over the bulwarks.
HMS Gurkha circa 1974 at sea in the North Atlantic on a NATO exercise during rough-ish seas. One of our crew was carrying some stores down a ladder and slipped, and broke his neck. Died almost instantly. Only in his early 20s - as was I.
His body was put into cold storage and his family contacted via radio to MOD and they were happy for us to bury the body at sea. He was lain on a board having been stitched into a canvass bag along with a couple of surface practice shells. (Just shell-shaped 4.5" cast iron). There was a White Ensign draped over.
We all mustered on the upper deck in full uniform and witnessed the ceremony at attention. The captain said some fitting words and the board tipped so the weighted body slid from underneath the ensign, and it hit the water with a splash and sank from view whilst two sailors "piped the still" on their boatswain's calls.
A very moving experience, and not one I've forgotten.
I can easily imagine it was very moving. Interesting to hear burial at sea was still done in 1974. My knowledge of it is from reading stuff like the Hornblower novels (by the father of John Forrester of Effective Cycling).
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
