Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-05-11

There is no place where death is
more unWelcome than on board a pas
senger steamer, and between the death
and burial of a sea traveller the
melancholy influence of the event eX-
tends to everyone 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 nc 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
render 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
ceremonies are fast dying and efforts
are now being made which will permit
of body being carried for the re-
mainder of the journey after death
and properly buried on land.
Even now it is generally only sail
ors and steerage passengers who are
buried at sea, and frequently these
are cast to the waves without so much
as the vessel being slowed down and
within an hour or two of their DEATH
Often enough a death occurs in
vessel 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 bet
ter class passengers are comfortably
curled up in their hunks, little band
of men, moving like shadows across
the deck, bear a body from below, and
while the vessel is blowing the sea
the mortal remains, wrapped in canvas
or inclosed in a crudely made box,
are quietly slipped over the ships side
in the mysterious deep.
The presence of a dead body on
board has sometimes not even been
suspected by the passengers until
someone has noticed the sharks that
are following, for it is no mere sailors
story that sharks know when a ship
contains a corpse. A vessel carrying
a dead body and passing through
waters frequented by sharks is almost
sure to be followed by one or more
of those fishes if it does not outspeed
them.
Rather than bury corpse while
sharks are following a vessel, the cap
tain 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.
actually cremated on board by the
captains orders because of the
sharks. But sharks are not often
obstacles to prompt burial, and, gen
orally 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
infringement 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
feelings 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 unavoidable 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 melan-
choly effect Of the presence of corpse
to be reckoned with, and the argu-
ment that more consideration is due
to the living than the dead often
prompts captain to dump" a steer
age passenger in the dead Of night
without mentioning the event to
more than couple Of hands.
Thus il often happens that while
concert or a private theatrical per-
| Torrance is going on in the saloon the
captain is engaged making arrange
ments for the burial Of some unfor-
| tunate creature.-Cincinnati En-
quirer.