The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-02-16
BURIAL At SEA.
II Casts a Gloom Over the Whole Sh 'p's
Company

Company.
There is no place where death Is
more unwelcome than on board a pas
scnger steamer, and between the death
and burial Of a sea <Nvcler the mel
ancholy Influence Of the event extends
to every one on board. The limitations
OF space are very likely responsible in
part for this, for thcr" 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 n death on board their
vessel as much as anything, and when
one occurs they are all anxiety to ren-
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 con
Quoted. But the days of such cerc-
monies are fast dying. and efforts are
now being made which will permit OF
body being carried for the remainder
of the journey after death. and proper
~ buried on land.
Even now it is generally Only sailors
and steerase passengers who are
buried at sea, and frequently these are
east to the waves without so much as
the vessel being slowed down, and
within an hour or two of their death.
Often enough death occurs in a
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, a little band
Of men, moving like shadows across
the deck, bear body from below. AID
while the vessel Is ploughing the sea,
the mortal remains wrapped in canvas,
or inclosed in crudely made box, are
quietly slipped over the ships side into
the mysterious deep.
The presence Of the dead body on
board has sometimes not even been
suspected by the passengers until some
one had noticed the sharks that are
following; for it is no mere sailors
story that sharks know Wien a ship
contains corpse. \ 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 outspecd
them.
Rather than bury a corpse while
sharks are following Il vessel. a captain
Will sometimes have the body placed
in the ice-chamber and full steam put
on the engines until the hungry fishes
have dropped astcrn completely.
In one case at least a body was ac-
tually cremated on board by the cap
tains orders because of the sharks
Bet sharks arc not often obstacles of
prompt burial. ana generally speaking,
when death occurs at sea the body
is slipped into the water at night with
none to witness the proceeding but
couple of the crew and the captain,
who reads an abridcmcnt of the ser
vice from the prayer book.
The manner of burial, of course, de-
pends 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"
dead body into the sea. and when it is
unavoidable will do their uttcrmost 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 mclan-
choly effect of the presence of 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 stccrage passcng-
or in the dead of night without men
tioning the event to more than couple |
of hands.
Thus it often happens that while q
concert or private theatrical per |
formancc IS going OH in the saloon. the
captain is engaged making arrange
mcnts for the burial Of some unfor
tunate creature.-London Mail.