Death on a Passage ?

[swagman]

IMHO all this is a bit over the top.
If someone died or were seriously ill then I suggest you contact the authorities by radio / satphone. They will divert a commercial ship to pick up the person / body and you can then deal with it in a more normal way.
JOHN

[Cormorant]

I recall reading the story of an oldtime sea captain who died while halfway round the world. They preserved his body in a barrel of brandy and brought him home for burial.

All the more reason to keep a barrel of brandy on board, if you don't already have one!

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Springbok

Needs good planning and your story must be foolproof

Or you might have problems. This from the lighter side of cruising and the subject - Eileen Quinn, cruising songstress who's been known to sing at George Town Exumas and SSCA Gams: Eileen Quinn - music for sailors ... and normal people

If I Killed The Captain (from Mean Low Water)

...when the prop has snagged a net
it's me who's over the side
he says, "now darling, change the zinc
while you're down there for the ride"
I hold my tongue, I look for strength
from powers up above
for patience is the better part
of duty, honor, love

but if I killed the captain
really, who would know?
we're two weeks out of port
we've got one more week to go
and all that it would take
is a timely little shove
how swift the course the heart may run
to hatred from true love
true love, true love...

[Cormorant]

I had to fact-check my poor old memory. . . . It was Lord Nelson himself brought home in a barrel of brandy -- but not halfway round the world, only from Trafalgar where he gloriously met his end.

snopes.com: Body Found in Barrel
(partial copy-and-paste below)

The most famous instance of preservation by immersion in alcohol was the casking of the remains of Lord Nelson in the ship's brandy stores after his death during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. That much is true — Nelson was, in effect, pickled to get as much of him home in as decent a state as possible. But not in rum, as would later be claimed in lore. No, Nelson had been immersed in brandy for shipment home. At Gibraltar the fluid was replaced with wine.

According to baseless hearsay, when the barrel was opened in England, it was considerably less than full. (In reality, Nelson arrived fairly topped up.) This gave rise to the story that sailors aboard the Victory had been unwilling to let a little thing like a decomposing dead Admiral get between them and their daily swigging and thus had been siphoning off generous helpings, eventually draining the funerary cask dry. Thanks to this bit of lore, the British Navy has come to use the term "tapping the Admiral" for getting an unauthorized drink of rum via a surreptitious straw.

Nelson wasn't the only famous Brit whose remains were casked in booze to get them home. When Prince Henry of Battenberg died from malaria on a British expeditionary force to West Africa in 1895, his body was transported back to England for a royal burial in an improvised tank made from biscuit tins and filled with navy rum.

The remains of less-famous personages have also been transported in this manner. In 1857, Nancy Martin of Wilmington, North Carolina, was on a year-long cruise with her father and brother when she died at sea. The menfolk put her body into a large cask after first tying it to a chair and nailing the chair to the bottom of the barrel to prevent her from floating or sloshing. Whiskey, rum, and wine were poured in, then the barrel was sealed and stored belowdecks. Upon return to dry land, Nancy was buried, still in her booze-filled cask, in Oakdale Cemetery.

[MarkJ]

I'm certainly not wasting plonk, rum or brandy of my dead bodies.
Come on Sea Life for an adventure and if you die its over the bloody side. No need for canvas, no nose ring. Just a kick in the pants after I've checked the pockets.

[Capt Phil]

On a short trip aboard a seine boat from Powell River down past Texada Island back in the '50s, we had agreed to take the chief of the Sliaman (sp?) indian village just north of Powell River along with us to Stillwater, a small ferry terminal in the PNW. The chief had spent several hours in the pub in PR and we put him down in the bunk in the wheelhouse for the 6 hour trip. Sometime around 2:00 am, he awoke and tried to climb the ratline ladder leading to the top of the wheelhouse where the steering station was. I saw him go over out of the corner of my eye and heard him hit the bulwark on his way down. Into neutral and came about to pick him up. I sounded the horn to raise the deckhands who launched the skiff to pick him up. They located the body lying face down in he water but he was too heavy to get the body into the skiff. It took the best part of an hour to rig a line off the power block to hoist the body aboard. Once on deck, I called the marine operator who patched me through to the RCMP in Powell River who, after asking us to confirm there were no vital sign we could detect, directed us to Stillwater where we were met by the coroner and a couple of RCMP constables. About 2 hours of questioning each of us individually, we were released from custody. About a week later we all had to appear at a Coroners Inquest in Powell River to testify about the event. As I recall, there would have been a very heavy fine and possibly jail time had we not reported the death as soon as was practicable after it occurred. It is a very unpleasant experience to have a death aboard but if you show a good faith effort to notify the nearest local authorities as soon as you can you should be OK. I'm sure practices vary from country to country and if the tragedy happens offshore, the process of the country who flags the vessel would prevail I would think. Hopefully, none of you will be faced with those issues... Capt Phil

[s/v Moondancer]

If you bury them at sea take photographs for the coronor or investigating authorities and log all radio transmisions...It will make your story more believable.

[Capt Phil]

Photos would certainly help, wish we had had a camera... might have made the whole event easier, I suspect... CP

[captainKJ]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I'm certainly not wasting plonk, rum or brandy of my dead bodies.
Come on Sea Life for an adventure and if you die its over the bloody side. No need for canvas, no nose ring. Just a kick in the pants after I've checked the pockets.

don't forget to check the neck, wrists, and fingers for jewelry after you check the pockets,,,

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I'm certainly not wasting plonk, rum or brandy of my dead bodies.
Come on Sea Life for an adventure and if you die its over the bloody side. No need for canvas, no nose ring. Just a kick in the pants after I've checked the pockets.

In the past 10yrs, I've had a number of my mates planted at the 100 fathom line off St David's Head, East End. If the grey undertakers dont get um on the way down, the groupers soon do.
As the old fisherman around here say, "I took them all these years, now its give back time"

[David M]

At the very least, I would try to reach the authorities ahead of arrival in the next port and ask them what they recommend. Take photos as proof and log everything.

[Charlie]

What happens if someone is washed overboard? It would be hard to document the case except that you would do a man overboard and then go on from there.

On another note I would like to be buried at sea when the time comes. Lat 38 had a few letters about this not too long ago -- there were certain state and fed laws that had to be adhered to but there was no enforcement from any agency.

[captainKJ]

in case you or any body is interested

Burial at Sea State by State Popluar Ports

[Pete7]

Many years ago whilst I just learning to dive, I was sat on the boat when a girlie diver popped up to say she had found this really pretty black onyx type of cylinder about 9 inches tall and promptly passed it up on board. Her expression of horror when we explained what she had actually picked up wasn't forgotten quickly.

Oh and the onyx cylinder, well it went straight back were it belonged.

Since sports divers can easily reach 50m, deep water only please folks.

Pete

[RiverRat]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Many years ago whilst I just learning to dive, I was sat on the boat when a girlie diver popped up to say she had found this really pretty black onyx type of cylinder about 9 inches tall and promptly passed it up on board. Her expression of horror when we explained what she had actually picked up wasn't forgotten quickly.

Oh and the onyx cylinder, well it went straight back were it belonged.

Since sports divers can easily reach 50m, deep water only please folks.

Pete

Okay. I'll ask. What was it?