They say that only two things are certain in this life, Taxes, and Death. My stories of death on the ocean wave have certainly shaken up some old bones this week and prompted fellow seadogs to recall their stories of body bags and taking the final plunge. I have been surprised by the number of people that recall the same incidents that I experienced.
Here are a few of them.
Harry B. Bonning
Memories from Orsova
In any six-month period anywhere in the world where you have an accumulation of a couple of thousand people – passengers and crew – someone will die. In retrospect, I think we had about one a month on average – usually passengers as most were elderly. Some became ill on board and were cared for by the ship’s Surgeon and it was rare that the cause of death was not known. Consequently, a choice had to be made as to what happened to the body. We had no dedicated cold storage space for bodies, so if the intent was to land the body at the next port, then a refrigeration space had to be cleared to store the body until arrival. This of course required complete disinfecting afterwards before it could be used as a storeroom again.
Sometimes, usually on a long passage and if a relative was on board to give permission, there would be a burial at sea. The Bosun and Sailmaker would prepare a canvas shroud (for which I am told they were given a bottle of P&O crew rum) and very early in the morning the ship would be brought to a complete halt. If there was a minister on board he would be invited to attend and say prayers. There would be the relative, the Captain or Staff Captain, the Surgeon and Duty Assistant Purser. A couple of AB’s would have the body on a board on the aft rail and on the appropriate wording “We now commit his/her body to the deep” would raise the board and the body would drop and sink into the sea.
Not everyone was buried at sea though. On one occasion as we came into Japan a passenger passed away. The wife was on board and the body landed. Our first port of call was Kobe where we landed the body to the care of the agents. Our next port was Yokohama. On the day of departure, the agent came on board with a small box wrapped in brown paper and handed this to me. It was still warm. The widow had had her husband cremated and then she had flown back to the UK with the request that the ashes be returned to the ship so her husband at least could complete his cruise. That went in my safe all the way back to the UK when it was handed to our shore staff.
I only recall one crew member passing away. An elderly Goanese waiter was found dead in a crew alleyway shortly before we were due to leave Honolulu. The Goanese are Catholics and they were adamant that he should be taken ashore and given a Christian burial and not buried at sea. The Captain wanted to get underway but there was near mutiny below decks and the Goanese refused to let the Pilot off if he did not take the body ashore for burial and to that extent blocked the access to the Gunport door. Some agreement was reached and the body was taken ashore but I believe the senior Goanese PO, the Chief Pantryman, was never employed by P&O again.
Dianne Brabham
Was just telling a friend about dying and burying at sea! He thought I was winding him
Up! And totally didn’t believe the stiff sweepstake!! What were we like!! there was definitely a board up in the pig I remember being quite shocked!
Nicholas Lysandrou
Yes we had a world cruise sweepstake. We use to pick the one that would die first. That was a restaurant sweepstake. Someone always won it. Never did a world cruise without a death. In the days of old one woman brought her parrot with her. The parrot made the whole cruise, the woman did not.
Mark Moore
On the Oriana, you were guaranteed at least a couple of passengers pegged it nearly every trip. It was the night gang's job to move the bodies around. also down a couple of burials at sea on there. And got a bottle of rum to share between us
Rember one time they'd changed things in the hospital instead of the slabs coming straight out they'd put them so they slid out at an angle. Without telling us so we pulled the top slab out and of course, it tipped down and about 14 stones of dead weight landed straight on us. We all ended up on the deck with this guy on top of us. There was mayhem as you can imagine. The doctor was going crazy about the body the mate was screaming about us all being pissed plus we were trying to get the guy of the 2 other ab's who were pinned under him. They were screaming and shouting. What a fcuking racket. After about 20 minutes we managed to get things sorted and the mate told us to leave ( well to ) off. Give the mate his due he sent us down a bottle of rum. And never heard no more about it. Such good memories.
Graham Bond
On one cruise in the early eighties we had 7 deaths and the morgue I believe only had room for 4. They were put in what was called the Brine Room in the engine room. In simple terms, this was where all the ice liquid was pumped to the freezers and fridges so it was like a huge freezer. I did witness a burial at sea port aft lower deck. I also heard a story about somebody accidentally doing the burial before the family arrived and when the actual burial ceremony took place it was a huge bag of potatoes that was launched - maybe an old sea story but believable.
Greg Sinclair
I think we had seven people die on a five-month trip on Oriana in 1970-71. The trip included three x month-long Caribbean cruises with older American people.
One man died on the gangway, boarding in San Francisco. We were late leaving while the authorities decided whether he was in England or America. We buried him at sea that night.
Terry Williams
I remember the Island Princess incident. The ship had just left dry dock (Bethlehem Steel), and had no passengers on board. Emergency Stations were called and the watertight doors started to close as alarms rang throughout. The ship's surgeon had the unenviable task of dealing with the trapped crew member, after which I believe one or two large whiskies were consumed by all involved.
Paolo Nonnis
The crew member, who died on IP in the watertight door leading to the crew mess, was the drummer with the Cristiano trio. I was on vacation in Italy with the Sardinians and it happened before Xmas...I don't recall his name. Very sad story also for the shoppie who found him there......
Frank Taylor
Hello David I was a Deck boy o/s on Oriana 1974, have enjoyed your blog thank you. I was up at the crew pool minutes after the sad incident with the American Passenger. I remember the rumours and then finding out that one of the Asian crew had sadly gone overboard. You mentioned burials at sea, the Deck boys gathered to watch it from B deck, unfortunately, the Galley disposed of large bags of rubbish at the same time! On a happier note, when I was working as the Bridge Seaman, there was a Bell boy who was irritating the Junior Ratings, we had a letter placed on his bunk telling to go on fog watch . At 12.00 next day, while on duty on the bridge, where he was up on the focsle head wearing his life jacket looking out to clear blue skies, looking for fog, I shared my watch with the Chief Officer, who seeing me in fits of laughter and after pointing to the bow, he decided to invite the Captain to share the joke, who then phoned the Bell boy and told him to stand on the bridge wing as he would have a better view........Happy days.
Thank you all for your memories
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years ago were were waiting for our first cruise to arrive - betsy ross she was 5 days overdue when the mermoz called into port - durban - and had to disembark a deceased passenger ! not a nice way to way to start your first ever cruise - which in its own right was a disaster i caught up with the mermoz again in capetown
own at the beginning of my 3rd cruise