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By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN Times Senior Correspondent
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 22, 1999
If the family of John F. Kennedy Jr. decides to bury him at sea, they will be following an ancient practice that is gaining popularity.
The sight of a flag-draped body sliding into the ocean is relatively rare, but thousands of cremated remains today are scattered over water or sunk to the depths in specially designed urns.
Many of those who choose the sea as their final resting place are Navy veterans and "outdoors people who liked to fish or look at the water," said Richard Sorensen, owner of Gee & Sorensen Funeral Home in St. Petersburg.
Another big factor is cost -- a landside funeral with casket, service and internment can run $5,000 or more compared to about $1,000 for cremation and disposal at sea.
"The scattering of remains at sea has risen because the amount of cremation has risen," said John Hauschild, officer manager of the Neptune Society in California. Almost 25 percent of those who die now in the United States are cremated -- compared with 15 percent in 1987 -- and a growing number of those opt to have their ashes disposed of at sea, especially in coastal areas such as Florida and California.
"This is a tasteful, dignified" alternative to burial in a cemetery or mausoleum, said Maryann Yannon, manager of the Neptune Society of Palm Harbor. Her company, which serves nine counties in the Tampa Bay area, scatters 420 to 450 cremated remains a year over water -- about a fourth of the number of "cremains" it handles.
Authorities said Wednesday that they had found the bodies of Kennedy, his wife and sister-in-law in the submerged wreckage of the Piper Saratoga in which they had been flying to Martha's Vineyard. Although detailed funeral plans have not been announced, the Kennedy family reportedly is considering burial at sea -- a tradition as old as man's complex relation with the oceans around him.
Centuries ago, the bodies of Norse chiefs were set adrift in specially built death ships. Countless sailors and adventurers, including the explorer Sir Francis Drake, rest in the depths. In the Solomon Island, bodies are placed on reefs to be eaten by sharks, while in other island cultures, they are wrapped in cloth and weighted done with rocks.
For U.S. military veterans and retirees, active-duty personnel and their dependents, burial at sea has long been an attractive alternative. The U.S. Navy coordinates the burial of either cremains or casketed bodies, which are taken to sea aboard naval vessels.
"The ceremony depends on the size of the ship -- if it's a large ship that has a chaplain on board he'll preside or else it will be a commanding or executive officer," said Chief Petty Officer James Gorham, who works in the Navy's mortuary affairs section in Great Lakes, Ill.
"Everybody turns out in dress uniform, and there will be an honor guard to give the traditional three volleys."
The services are simple but dignified and tailored to the religion of the deceased. A typical Christian ceremony might include these words:
"Unto almighty God we commend the soul . . . of our departed shipmate, and we commit his remains to the deep."
The Navy sends the family photographs or a videotape of the service, along with a U.S. flag and a nautical chart showing the exact location of the burial. Because all of the ships are on active duty and could be at sea for months, relatives are not allowed aboard with one exception.
Each Dec. 7, the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a ship from the Mayport naval base near Jacksonville takes guests on a ceremonial cruise. Last year, officers conducted full military services for 12 people as family members watched.
The Navy does not keep count of how many burials it conducts, although Mayport alone had about 75 last year. There is no charge, but the family must pay to have the remains transported to Florida or one of four other naval bases -- Norfolk, San Diego, Hawaii or Bremerton, Wash. The typical wait for a funeral service is two to four months, depending on the availability of a ship leaving port.
More than 90 percent of the remains taken to sea by the Navy or private vessels have been cremated. However, some families still opt for what are called "full-body burials." In such cases, the funeral home must follow strict federal regulations for modifying the casket to make sure the lid doesn't pop open or the coffin bob around in the water.
The casket must be weighted with 100 pounds of ballast (rocks or sandbags are most commonly used) and 12 6-inch holes must be drilled into the lid and bottom, allowing water to seep in as further counterweight. The casket then must be sealed with five metal shipping bands.
In most coastal areas of the United States, full body burials must be at least 3 nautical miles from land and in water no less than 600 feet deep. While that isn't a problem in the Atlantic or Pacific, boats carrying caskets into the shallower Gulf of Mexico have to go out more than 100 miles to reach the required depth. Such a journey can take a full day and drive up the cost of a burial by $2,000.
Dave Zalewski, a Madeira Beach charter boat captain, says he has handled only three full-body burials over the past eight or 10 years. By contrast, he scatters as many as 1,000 cremains a year, most recently this past Tuesday. He charges $295 if relatives go along or $50 if he disposes of the remains himself. (Because cremains pose no health hazard, family members can also scatter ashes on their own anywhere on land or sea.)
Cremated remains destined for the ocean can either be placed in weighted, water-tight containers or water-soluble urns that allow the ashes to eventually dissipate. While the lower cost is a big reason for the popularity of scattering ashes at sea, the age-old lure of the ocean is a factor, too.
"The very first one I did 15 years ago," Zalewski said, "was a man who went to the beach every morning for his exercise."
-- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.