CapeCodTimes.com – DA: Body in net was buried at sea
Backstory — early this week a commercial fishing boat pulled a body up in its nets about 20 miles east of Cape Cod, called the Coast Guard, and brought the body ashore for identification. Identification was performed and yesterday the district attorney said the corpse was one of two Bay Staters buried at sea in recent years, and this body was one of them (buried in 2001).
Images of a canvas-wrapped corpse, with a ballast stone at its feet, sliding off a plank and from beneath a flag, down to Davy Jones’ Locker …
Chilling if you think about it. Me? I hope to be cremated and scattered on the sea myself (I have my own elaborate ritual planned involving a bluefish blitz), but slip me over the side to become crab food? The creepiest part — especially for the poor fishermen clearing the net, was this:
“The corpse was in good condition, according to Walsh, with skin and face still intact. The only thing missing was a foot, he said. “I cannot believe it was in the water for six years,†Walsh said.
“O’Keefe said the circumstances of the burial were such that it is “very understandable†that the body would be in good shape. He declined to disclose any more about the circumstances of the burial out of respect for the family’s privacy. “
I feel for the family. Having one’s loved one exhumed in such a way has to be very difficult. One would assume a burial at sea is a very final act. Now they have to do it again.
Here’s the Navy FAQ on burial at sea.
Ha, got you beat…mine is virtually identical but involves blitzing bluefin tuna.
Of course the problem is by making it harder to accomplish the wish, I suspect I raise the likelihood of ending up mixed with clay in the cat litter dish…
Yeah, but does your cremation plan involve having your loved ones scatter your ashes in the blitz, then catch one of the fish and eat it?
“Yum. Dad sure spiced up that bluefish.”
Before my cremation I’m going to season myself w/ a garlic barbecue sauce & have them throw in some onions & basil. Want to send the sea-beasts into a frenzy!
Oh God! here I was afraid that you had sworn of blogging.
And THEN, you spot the piece on the deadguy in the local blue fish wrapper.
My man, you just rule. the cites on burial at sea made this post, David.
As for me, slather me up in butter, fuel my panga and oversrap it with av gas, then start it, aim it for the outer buoy off Point Loma, and set me off, but at the last minute torch my boat so that I go gloriously aflame into the Hawaiian sunset. and play the funeral music from the Kirk Douglas flick “The Vikings” real loudly so that everyone knows, I’m gone.
My dog doesn’t have to be sacrificed with me, but it’s a thought.
Jim “the grandson of Sven and Lars” Forbes