![]() ![]() Eastman has had burial parties ranging from one person to 30, sometimes including a minister. Beth waited to scatter his ashes on his 62nd birthday, Aug. He was stricken and died at one of Tim's little league games on May 27. Eastman said.īeth Riley had waited 21/2 months to scatter Tom's ashes. The family has the ashes for a very long time, and they have a service to get rid of ashes," Mr. of Eastman's Fishing Parties out of Seabrook, N.H., said the number of burials at sea is increasing every year, though no one advertises the service and no numbers are available. Richard's son caught a 34-pound hake to win the boat pool his father had caught a 35-pounder one year earlier at the same spot. The party said a few words before spreading his ashes. Tower took nine friends and relatives of Richard to sea for his burial last year. "His wishes were to bring him to a place 68 miles offshore that's where he caught the most fish of his life." "He was one of my best customers - 30 times a year," Mr. Tower and others in the fishing business do some burials every year, often for long-time customers like Richard. ![]() For example, one man wanted his ashes spread near a cliff where he was married, said Tim Tower, who operates a deep-sea fishing business out of Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine. In contrast, the timing and site for a civilian burial at sea usually is determined by some special connection or moment for the deceased. Bodies must be in weighted coffins with holes drilled in them.Ĭoffinless Navy burials in which the flag-drapped body slides over the side into the ocean are conducted for health reasons and only in wartime, Ms. Most at-sea burials by the Navy are of cremated remains, said Jan Davis, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington. The Navy will bury them at sea, but only while a Navy ship is on official maneuvers, which means the family cannot be present. Springer said.Ĭoffins are out, except in the military, and then only under strict guidelines. Some presumably scatter only part of the 61/2 pounds of ashes - a shoe box full - and keep the rest, Mr. Many, such as the Rileys, undoubtedly held their own private services. No figures were available for 51 percent of the cremations because relatives kept the ashes. Jack Springer, executive director of the Cremation Association of North America in Chicago, said a 1995 survey of members showed the ashes from about 11 percent of the country's 480,000 cremations that year were scattered over land or water. Burials at sea off the New England coast, and no doubt up and down the East and West coasts, are not unusual. Tom's wish is shared by many who feel a special love for the sea. "This was our backyard," Beth said of the bay. The Rileys once lived in Hull, near Hingham, and he had his boat on the water as often as possible He wanted his ashes spread in the place where he had some of his most enjoyable moments - on the water. She and Tom, who lived in Loudon, N.H., had discussed such a burial many times, she said. Then it was 10-year-old Tim's turn.įinally, Beth emptied the box, and the remainder of Tom Riley's ashes scattered in the wind. Then Tia, 21, also teary-eyed, took some and tossed them into the water. Tearfully, she reached in and took out a handful of her husband's ashes and scattered them into Massachusetts Bay. Standing on the rear deck of the Hingham ferry, her children at her side, Beth Riley watched the water rush by for a moment, then opened the small white box labeled "crematorium."
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