[News] Body Washed Up Seaford Beach

[Lenny Rider]

I've been toying with the idea of a burial at sea from Newhaven, but maybe not now. Has there been any conclusive investigations into these incidents? I did discover an incident on the Isle of Wight that led to questions in Parliament and the rules being tightened about the body bag.

They don't do it now from there, the Ministry decree that locally, ie most of Sussex, you have to go to an area beyond the Needles at IOW, so we use a very good firm out of Lymington in the New Forest.

Unfortunately without going into specifics, the coffin for a burial at sea has to have minimum specification, the fact the Co Op boat didn't go out far enough was only half the story, for the coffin to break up so easily and the body get washed back means it wasn't sufficiently weighted.

 

[VAL1850]

Sounds like part of the story Peter James. DeadTomorrow....

 

[dazzer6666]

Ashes scattered at sea maybe?

I’m considering that……the guy I do most of my charter fishing with is booked out for this from time to time

 

[Lenny Rider]

Ashes scattered at sea maybe?

I’m considering that……the guy I do most of my charter fishing with is booked out for this from time to time

The RNLI at Shoreham do it for a donation, depending on the size of that, family members can sometimes go out on the boat with the ashes.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

My Dad was buried at sea by the Royal Navy in 1998. The instructions from HMS Nelson chaplaincy were very specific. He was cremated at Worthing Crem, and then ashes then taken by the undertaker. A small casket was made with a piece of lead at the bottom, holes drilled into the four sides. The ashes put into a linen bag inside.
Securicor collected the casket from the undertakers to deliver it to Portsmouth and a couple of weeks later a motor launch, complete with bugler, and chaplain, buried it by Spithead Fort. The extra cost wasn't too bad.
His name is in a Book of Remembrance in St Anne's church in Portsmouth Dockyard under the date.

Any ex-Navy veteran is entitled to this.

 

[Chicken Run]

My Dad was buried at sea by the Royal Navy in 1998. The instructions from HMS Nelson chaplaincy were very specific. He was cremated at Worthing Crem, and then ashes then taken by the undertaker. A small casket was made with a piece of lead at the bottom, holes drilled into the four sides. The ashes put into a linen bag inside.
Securicor collected the casket from the undertakers to deliver it to Portsmouth and a couple of weeks later a motor launch, complete with bugler, and chaplain, buried it by Spithead Fort. The extra cost wasn't too bad.
His name is in a Book of Remembrance in St Anne's church in Portsmouth Dockyard under the date.

Any ex-Navy veteran is entitled to this.

My children have strict instructions to scatter my ashes into outer space!

 

[Withdean South Stand]

My Dad was buried at sea by the Royal Navy in 1998. The instructions from HMS Nelson chaplaincy were very specific. He was cremated at Worthing Crem, and then ashes then taken by the undertaker. A small casket was made with a piece of lead at the bottom, holes drilled into the four sides. The ashes put into a linen bag inside.
Securicor collected the casket from the undertakers to deliver it to Portsmouth and a couple of weeks later a motor launch, complete with bugler, and chaplain, buried it by Spithead Fort. The extra cost wasn't too bad.
His name is in a Book of Remembrance in St Anne's church in Portsmouth Dockyard under the date.

Any ex-Navy veteran is entitled to this.

Thank you for sharing this story - it's the type of quiet, enduringly respectful gesture you hear too little of in the modern world.

 

[BrightonCottager]

They don't do it now from there, the Ministry decree that locally, ie most of Sussex, you have to go to an area beyond the Needles at IOW, so we use a very good firm out of Lymington in the New Forest.

Unfortunately without going into specifics, the coffin for a burial at sea has to have minimum specification, the fact the Co Op boat didn't go out far enough was only half the story, for the coffin to break up so easily and the body get washed back means it wasn't sufficiently weighted.

Thank you @Lenny Rider for this info. I did quite a lot of research about this earlier this year for my will, but the fact that Newhaven isn't an option anymore didn't come up. I'd twigged the requirements about coffins, bodybags and weights etc. I'm not keen on the good people of Brighton breathing in the toxins of my cremating body nor someone finding my body on Seaford or Sandown beach so it'll have to be a woodland burial!

 

[Algernon]

If you tipped your loved one's ashes down a toilet anywhere along the Sussex coastline wouldn't it end up a DIY burial at sea anyhow albeit one without cost and inconvenience and possible sea sickness.

 

[Lenny Rider]

My Dad was buried at sea by the Royal Navy in 1998. The instructions from HMS Nelson chaplaincy were very specific. He was cremated at Worthing Crem, and then ashes then taken by the undertaker. A small casket was made with a piece of lead at the bottom, holes drilled into the four sides. The ashes put into a linen bag inside.
Securicor collected the casket from the undertakers to deliver it to Portsmouth and a couple of weeks later a motor launch, complete with bugler, and chaplain, buried it by Spithead Fort. The extra cost wasn't too bad.
His name is in a Book of Remembrance in St Anne's church in Portsmouth Dockyard under the date.

Any ex-Navy veteran is entitled to this.

I had the honour of looking after one of the last Dunkirk veterans, to sit and listen to his eulogy knowing what he went through as a young man, but what he went in to achieve in his life, was truly humbling

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

If you tipped your loved one's ashes down a toilet anywhere along the Sussex coastline wouldn't it end up a DIY burial at sea anyhow albeit one without cost and inconvenience and possible sea sickness.

If you have no interest in dignity, and the sanctity of human life, not to mention the sensibilities of the bereaved, it sounds perfectly reasonable

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

If you have no interest in dignity, and the sanctity of human life, not to mention the sensibilities of the bereaved, it sounds perfectly reasonable

I'm not sure there's much in it, H. We put my dad's ashes in the ground earlier this week at the church where he was a sidesman for 26 years. They were in a clear plastic bag ffs, they blew partly over my mum as the deacon shook them into the hole, he then picked out a bit of weed that had landed in them. The whole thing was a farce for what it all cost (about £8k from start to finish). Dignity and sanctity, what a load of bollocks, when you're gone you're gone. My daughter will not be spending £8k on me. £8 tops and flush me down the bog will do. Chin chin, no ice in the cider

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm not sure there's much in it, H. We put my dad's ashes in the ground earlier this week at the church where he was a sidesman for 26 years. They were in a clear plastic bag ffs, they blew partly over my mum as the deacon shook them into the hole, he then picked out a bit of weed that had landed in them. The whole thing was a farce for what it all cost (about £8k from start to finish). Dignity and sanctity, what a load of bollocks, when you're gone you're gone. My daughter will not be spending £8k on me. £8 tops and flush me down the bog will do. Chin chin, no ice in the cider

I suspect we share a similar view.

I could be left out in the garden for the birds for all I care.

But it would upset the family.

Especially if I move around at night time. Which I probably would.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I've been toying with the idea of a burial at sea from Newhaven, but maybe not now. Has there been any conclusive investigations into these incidents? I did discover an incident on the Isle of Wight that led to questions in Parliament and the rules being tightened about the body bag.

Of course there are. The police have to investigate sudden deaths and provide reports for HM Coroner, who will then hold an inquest.

Sadly the coast of East Sussex, with its many high cliffs, has always been a favoured spot for those who feel they can't do it any more. Last time I looked, the figure for Beachy Head was just over 20 fatalities per year, but far, far more people than that go there, sit and think about it for a while and then either change their minds or are rescued by the chaplains, police or members of the public before they can jump.

Or sometimes people just decide to walk into the sea and let things happen.

Tragic, but there you go. Probably doesn't get reported much because there are guidelines for the media around suicide deaths, to try and avoid encouraging others to do the same.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Of course there are. The police have to investigate sudden deaths and provide reports for HM Coroner, who will then hold an inquest.

Sadly the coast of East Sussex, with its many high cliffs, has always been a favoured spot for those who feel they can't do it any more. Last time I looked, the figure for Beachy Head was just over 20 fatalities per year, but far, far more people than that go there, sit and think about it for a while and then either change their minds or are rescued by the chaplains, police or members of the public before they can jump.

Or sometimes people just decide to walk into the sea and let things happen.

Tragic, but there you go. Probably doesn't get reported much because there are guidelines for the media around suicide deaths, to try and avoid encouraging others to do the same.

A very dear friend, now no longer with us , was talked down by a Chaplain at Beachy Head. *

This suicide issue and the non mention of it now in the media is a huge issue for me. There is a mental health/suicide epidemic in this country, regardless of the colour of their rosette, ie it won’t change anytime soon despite the change of regime on 4th July, and whilst I don’t want to float conspiracy theories on here, one I think the establishment are secretly both ashamed and concerned about is the suicide figures and two the mental health aspect opens up the other can of worms about the great ‘Anti Depressant’ gravy train, with a reported 15 % of the adult population on AD’s it is a multi million perhaps even billion industry for the drug companies.

How many people on these drugs would be better served off them?, and with a fit for purpose and fully staffed NHS get more effective help through face to face counselling?

Apologies to go off piste NSC but being at the coal face so to speak I see the irreparable damage suicide does to not only the deceased but the friends and family each person leaves behind.

*Thankfully is probably not the word but he died from a heart attack rather than at his own hand.

 

[mikeyjh]

I had the misfortune to find my neighbours mother in the river below our house a few months ago - I have lot of empathy for anyone who finds themselves in this position. Given those of us not in a profession that may require training for this sort of eventuality, it's a difficult thing to process. Phoning the house to share the news (she had been missing for a few hours) was a difficult thing to do, watching the mountain rescue retrieve her, spending the day with her body in our porch and 'welcoming' my neighbour for him to come and ID her later on means it's not the sort of day one forgets. The image of her body in the river was imprinted on the front of my brain for some time. It's even weirder because living where we do means that you end up knowing people all over the shop, so I knew some of the mountain rescue and the undertaker.

I only share this because it's kind of cathartic for me, the subject came up and, as you can imagine, one tends not to talk about it in the local.....