The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-04-06
DREAD Of DEATH At SEA.
BODIES COMMITTED TO THE
DEEP AT NIGHT
Melancholy Caused by Deaths on
Board Ocean Steamers-Efforts Of
Captains to Keep knowledge Away.

There is no place where death is
more unwelcome than on board pas
senger steamer, says the Daily Mail,
and between the death and burial of a
sea traveller the melancholy influence
of the event extends to every one on
board. The limitations of space are
very likely responsible in part for this,
for there is the feeling that until the
body has been cast into the arms of
the sea there is no getting away from
it.
Sailors dread a death on board their
vessel as much as anything, and when
one occurs they are all anxiety to rem
der the body the last service: and this
fact is frequently responsible for the
haste and scant consideration with
which burials at sea are too often
conducted. But the days of such GER
emonies are fast dying and efforts are
now being made which will permit of
a body being carried for the remain
der of the journey after death, and
properly buried on land.
Even now it is generally only sailors
and steerage passengers who are bur
led at sea, and frequently these are
cast to the waves without so much as
the vessel slowing up, and within an
hour or two of their death.
Often enough death occurs in q YES
sci without the fact becoming known
to more than one or two of the crew
or steerage passengers Every effort
is made to keep the event secret, and
in the stiffness of night, when better
class passengers are comfortably curl
ed up in their hunks a little band of
men, moving like shadows across the
deck, bear a body from below, and,
while the vessel is ploughing the sea-
the mortal remains wrapped in can
vass or inclosed in a crudely made box
are quietly slipped over the ships side
into the mysterious deep.
The presence of a dead body aboard
has sometimes not even been suspected
by the passengers until some one has
noticed the sharks that are following
for it is no mere sailors story that the
sharks know when a ship contains a
corpse vessel carrying a dead body
and passing through waters frequent
ed by sharks is almost sure to be fol-
lowed by one or more of these fishes, If
it does not outspeed them.
Rather than bury corpse while the
sharks are following a vessel the cap
tain will sometimes have the body
placed in an ice chamber, and full
steam put on the engines until the big
hungry fishes have dropped astarn COM
pletely
In one case a body was actually Gre
mated on board by the captains or
ders because of the sharks. But the
sharks are not often obstacles to the
prompt burial, and, generally speaking,
when death occurs at sea the body is
slipped into the water at night with
none to witness the proceeding but a
couple of the crew and the captain.
who reads an abridgement of the ser
vice from the prayer book.
The manner of burial, of course, dc.
Ponds greatly upon the captains own
feelings in respect to the dead, and it
must be acknowledged that these feel
| ings are in some cases all that they
should be. Some captains have the
greatest objection to dumping body
into the sea, and when it is unavoid-
able will do their utmost to conduct the
ceremony with all possible reverence
and respect.
For all that there is always the feel
ing of the ships crew and the melar-
choly effect of the presence Of corpse
to be Ieckoned with, and the argument
| that more consideration is due to the
| living than the dead often prompts a
| captain to dump a steerage passen-
ger in the dead of night without men
| tioning the event to more than a coup
| lie of hands.
Thus it often happens that while g
concert or a private theatrical perfor-
nance is going on in the saloon, The
! captain is engaged making arrange
ments for the burial of some unfortu-
nate creature.