Burials at Sea at the Needles??

graham

graham

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i read an articl;e at the weekend from the free yachtie paper "All at sea"

It was an entertaining read in fact .I picked it up in the marina office at Portishead.

One article had me checking the date but no its August not April Apparently the Local Coroner for the Isle of White is trying to ban burials at sea at the Needles. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Not surprisingly the buggers tend to reappear on local beaches causing upset to the finders and costing thousands in wasted police and pathologists time.(Seagulls enjoy it though)

Its unbelievable to me that bodies would be ditched so close to shore.Personally I think that they should be at least 20 miles offshore.Though to be honest I think that the whole process is barbaric ,i would not like to think of it next time Im tucking into a crab sandwich.

Please someone tell me this is a wind up???
 
My old man wants his ashes to be sprinkled in the Solent, so that he can muck up everybody's topsides.

Poses some interesting Colregs questions: presumably a floating corpse would be deemed a vessel not under command, but would the boat from which the burial is conducted have to display an "A" flag?

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
but would the boat from which the burial is conducted have to display an "A" flag?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.... but only a very small one.....

Or maybe if it was the skipper visiting Davey Jones locker, they'd have to show two black balls - vessel NUC... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Or perhaps if they forgot to untie the lanyard, do you think it would be two cones point to point... vessel engaged in fishing?
 
Re: It is a bit close in

with rather strong currents. It appears that yer current crop of undertakers are a bit rubbish at doing the job and a fair few bods have returned to the beach.

This causes a major problem and cost to the old bill. They get a call that a bodies on the beach and they have to treat the whole thing as a potential crime. They're a bit p*ssed of about it.

One of the wifes cousins set off to spread his dads ashes in his favorite Thames side park. Some of dad ended up on the park but a fair bit, as a result of the blustery wind and rain and said cousins lack of nous viz a viz the weather, ended up stuck to the cousin. That lot went down the shower drain. His dad would have laughed his head off.
 
Re: It is a bit close in

Our local lifeboat was doing an ashes scattering a few years back when one of the pilotboats seeing it proceeding at dead slow ahead courteously altered course to pass astern and motored straight through the ashes and wreaths before realising what was going on /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Im sure as the departed was presumably an old serafarer he or she would have seen the funny side.

Ive asked my wife to flush my ashes down the loo as the sewer outfall is further offshore than the lifeboat normally goes for a scattering.
 
Have a look at your charts! There's a bit (if memory serves - the charts are on the boat - and I'm NOT!) to the South East of the Needles that recommends no anchoring. Now you know why.

Be a bit much getting your anchor stuck down there.
 
Yep, the boat that does them sails out of Keyhaven with a roller arrangement on the back of the boat. The coffin is draped in a Union Jack and the boat plus usually a boat or two containing mourners drives about 3 miles off and dumps the stiffy overboard.

If you are interested in the details, which I'm sure you are, the head and feet of the body are supposed to be encased in concrete to ensure said stiffy remains on the bottom. The coffins are dumped in the spoil ground which used to be immune from trawlers 'cos of the rough bottom but now the area gets a working over by trawlers with chains in front of net. As a consequence the crabs and lobsters dine well out there. There are usually about a dozen burials a year, I believe.
 
You could always scatter ashes at sea from a helicopter. The RAF got the Navy to lend us a Sea King and we bunged Dad out of the sonobuoy drop hole from it.

Word of warning. The paperwork and certification process for design, manufacture, development and certifying the "Dad's Ash Dispensing Device" for attachment and flight on one of Her Majesty's warplanes weighed more than he did at the end! But The Royal Navy were fantastic.

Many thanks to the Royal Navy.

Ken Gill /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Some years ago, my son had a 'holiday' job on this boat & at one commital, the casket actually floated away!
Relatives were somewhat bemused & upset by subsequent MOB procedures which took some time to recover onboard.
A bit of spare anchor chain finally did the trick.
 
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