Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-05-01
DEATH ABOARD SHIP.
RCW BURlAlS AT SEA FROM OCEAN
LINERS ARE MANAGED.

Passengers Are the Victims - Eff
forts to Cheat the Sharks.
There is no place where death is mere
unwelcome than ON board a passenger
steamer, and between the death and
burial of Il sea traveller the melancholy
influence of the event extends to every
Oh. 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 CT
the sea there is no getting away from
il. So spake a man who has crossed the
Atlantic ocean many times and who on
more than one occasion had been pas
senger on one of the big liners when
death had claimed victim from among
those on board.
Sailors dread 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 often responsible foI the haste
and scant consideration. with which
burials at sea are too often conducted.
But the days of such ceremonies are
fast dying, and efforts are now being
made which viii permit of the body be-
ing carried for the remainder of the
journey after death and properly buried
ON land.
Even now it is generally only sailors
and Storage passengers who are buried
at sea, and frequently these are cast to
the waves without so much as the YES
sci being slowed down and within an
hour or two of their death.
Often enough death occurs in ves-
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 curled up in
their hunks, Il little band of men, NOV
ing like shadows across the deck, bear a
body frCm below, and, while the vessel
is blowing the sea, the mortal remains
wrapped in canvas or inclosed in n
crudely made box, are quietly slipped
over the ships side into the mysterious
deep.
The presence of dead body on board
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
sharks know when a ship contains a
corpse. y vessel carrying dead body
and passing through waters frequented
by sharks is almost sure to be followed
by one or more of those fishes, if IL does
not Outspeed them.
Rather than bury corpse while
sharks are following a vessel the captain
Will sometimes have the body placed in
the ice chamber and full steam put on
the engines until the hungry fishes have
dropped astern completely.
In one case at least body was &C
tually cremated on board by the cap
tain's orders because of the sharks. But
sharks are not often obstacles to prompt
burial, and, generally speaking, when
death occurs at sea, the body is slip
ped into the water at night with none
to witness the proceeding but couple
Of the crew and the captain, who reads
an abridgment of the service from the
prayer book.
The manner of burial of course de-
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 a dead
body into the sea and, when it is I'M
avoidable, Will do their uttermost 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 melan-
choly effect of the presence of a corpse
to be reckoned with, and the argument
that more consideration Is due to the
living than the dead often prompts q
captain to dump steerage passenger
in the dead of night without mention
ing the event to more than couple of
hands
Thus it often happens that while a
concert or a private theatrical perform
ance is going on in the saloon the cap
tain is engaged making arrangements
for the burial of some unfortunate crea-
ture.