What they say at a sailor's funeral. Funeral traditions around the world

The American Indians, many peoples of Africa, the ancient peoples inhabiting Siberia had a custom to send the deceased in a boat down the river, which carried its waters to the sea or ocean. People believed, and in some parts of the world they still believe that this way of sending a loved one on the last distant earthly journey will help the soul to ascend to the gods faster. And the native house in which the deceased lived and where his relatives remained to live will thus be protected from evil spirits.

We find the reflection of these beliefs both in Egyptian culture and in the mythologies of other cultures in the form of the concept of the origin of the sea, the appearance of the earth from the sea, the separation of heaven from earth. According to the religious beliefs of the Egyptians, there was another world under the earth, which was called the Duat. It abounded with terrible fiery lakes, poisonous snakes and monsters. So that the deceased could overcome the obstacle, special funeral boats were built. In the image of a boat on which the sun god sailed. A sarcophagus with a mummy was installed under a canopy. The boat was painted green - the color of sprouting ears of corn, a symbol of the resurrection from the dead in the afterlife.

Funeral boat from the tomb of Amenhotep II

Funeral rituals go back, first of all, to the ethno-cultural tradition of a particular region. But in the course of the development of civilization, rituals arose that were not associated with national, geographical or religious affiliation, but with the type of activity of the deceased. Such, say, are the funerals of sailors or military men. For centuries, people were buried far from their native shores. Here is a description of the burial in 1528 in the waters of the Moluccas Sea of ​​Captain Elcano from the flotilla of Magellan: “The sailors carry an oblong bundle with stones tied to it to the stern and put it on a greased board. lift the plank. There is a splash." According to the traditional rite of sea burial, the famous English navigator Francis Drake was buried. His lead coffin was lowered into the ocean off the coast of Nombre de Dios to the roar of ship's cannons. as a sign of special respect for Drake, several captured Spanish ships were sunk in the same place (England was at war with Spain at that time). With great honors, they lowered into the sea off the coast of New Brittany Captain Bruny d'Entrecasteaux, who died while searching for the missing expedition of La Perouse. Later, the sand was replaced with solid ballast, and the shroud was replaced with the flag of the state under which the ship sails.

Today, burial of a body at sea is not so common. If death happens on a passenger ship, then the body is stored in a special refrigerator, which is equipped with all modern passenger liners. Cremation may be used on warships and submarines on long voyages. For this, special furnaces operating on diesel fuel are installed. Yet the ritual of burial at sea continues to exist in many parts of the world. Although there are countries where such burial is prohibited, for example in the Netherlands. But even in this country there are many people who choose this particular method of burial for themselves. As a rule, these are those whose life in one way or another was connected with the sea. The bodies of Dutch people who opt for sea burial are transported to the UK by an English vessel, since the legal regulations of this country come into force on a Dutch ship, drilling platform or aircraft.

In the UK, sea burial is legal. Every year, 15-20 dead Europeans say goodbye in this way. Here you can "deliver the body to the sea" in the town of Newhaven or near the island of Wight. Before immersion, holes are made in the coffin for the penetration of sea water into them. Then, with the help of steel ropes, a concrete slab is attached to the bottom of the coffin.

In England, there are a number of restrictions: the body of the deceased cannot be embalmed because of the danger of releasing toxic substances that adversely affect marine life, in particular mussels. English instructions for burial at sea also provide for the mandatory provision of a certificate that the deceased does not have AIDS or the hepatitis virus.

In Russia, burial in water is also permitted by law. Here is what the law "On Burial and Funeral Affairs" says: burial can be carried out by committing the body (remains) of the deceased to the earth (burial in a grave, crypt), fire (cremation followed by burial of an urn with ashes), water (burial in water in order , determined by the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation).

In the United States, direct burial of a body at sea depth is permitted by law. In this case, the body of the deceased can be buried at least 150 miles from the nearest coast, outside state borders. But this method of burial has its drawbacks. It is not uncommon for bodies to be washed ashore by sea currents or fishing trawlers to lift coffins from the bottom of the sea. Therefore, as an alternative to the direct burial of the body in sea waters, there are other methods. For example, scattering ashes after cremation over the sea surface or burying an urn with ashes on the seabed. Another method of burial of the ashes of the deceased is proposed in the United States, which, among other things, is used to restore natural reefs. The ashes are mixed with cement and cast into a mold with a diameter of about one meter. It is a hollow hemisphere with holes. A bronze tablet with the name of the deceased, dates of birth and death, and an epitaph is attached to the hemisphere. The funeral home donates the artificial reef to a conservation organization, which submerges the underwater monument to a depth of about 100 meters, 12 miles from shore. Artificial reefs are inhabited for several days by small inhabitants of the deep sea, within three months colonies of polyps settle on them. In this way, artificial reefs are used to create new habitats for marine organisms and help restore the seabed ecosystem.

A long time ago, the inhabitants of the islands and coasts, due to lack of space on earth, already buried their dead in the sea, setting fire to it. Now, due to the rapid growth and settlement of mankind around the world, ancient customs are gradually being revived. The heads of state understand that the problem cannot be solved alone.

So, cremation ovens are often installed on submarines - and in the event of the sudden death of one of the crew members, his body is burned right there. Upon arrival at the port, relatives are given an urn with ashes.

As for ordinary ships, just a few decades earlier, the corpses were placed in a bag along with something heavy (most often a stone) and dumped directly into the sea. This was done in order not to slow down the ship, because the voyage was already long. Another reason was the superstitions of sailors, who believed that the dead on the ship was unfortunate, and rotting meat, moreover, for medical reasons, was dangerous to health. Nowadays, large ships, as a rule, have their own mortuary: there the body is frozen and awaits delivery to the home port, where it is taken for a forensic examination.

However, this applies not only to the followers of Christianity. Sharia prohibits Muslims from giving their bodies to the sea - the dead must reach land under any circumstances. If there is no morgue on the ship, and it is impossible to save or quickly deliver the deceased to the shore using a helicopter, it is performed over the corpse, which consists of washing, wrapping in a shroud, a special prayer, reading talkin, etc.). After that, the deceased is enclosed in boards, tied up and released to the shore - in the hope that even among the infidels there will be at least one humble son of Allah who will bury the dead.

But on the coast, burial in the sea is a purely voluntary matter. For example, in China, with a population of one and a half billion citizens and rapidly rising property prices, a typical funeral costs $16,000. For this reason, the authorities are conducting active propaganda, promising to pay the family of the deceased up to $ 1,300 if people agree to cremate the deceased and scatter his ashes over the sea, which is considered shameful and humiliating in China.

On the contrary, in the United States in recent years it has become fashionable to ride the deceased and those who came to say goodbye to him, on a boat or on the river. True, river burial is only part of the rite, and the body still ends up in the ground or in a cremation oven. However, innovations in the States are not uncommon: the seabed is also positively regarded as a romantic last resort (the first such burial can be called).

In the not-too-distant future, sea and river funerals will no longer be an out-of-the-ordinary event, according to funeral service firms. Now the idea that one's own body or the remains of a loved one will be fed to fish seems monstrous to people. However, in the ground, bodies decompose for decades, and there is no more free space. So very soon burial at the bottom will be considered as one of the most suitable options for getting rid of the body.

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Discharge of radioactive waste into the sea for the purpose of disposal (dumping).

Dumping is a term with a special meaning; it must not be confused with clogging (contamination) with debris or emissions through pipes. Discharge is the delivery of waste to the open sea and its disposal in specially designated areas. From barges exporting solid waste, the latter are dumped through bottom hatches. Liquid waste is usually pumped through a submerged pipe into the ship's turbulent wake. In addition, some waste is buried from barges in closed steel or other containers.

The burial of radioactive waste at the bottom of the seas and oceans has been practiced since the advent of nuclear reactors on ships. The United States was the first to do this in 1946, then Great Britain - in 1949, Japan - in 1955, the Netherlands - in 1965. The first marine burial ground for liquid radioactive waste appeared in the USSR no later than 1964; of course, there are no official data on this.
Radioactive waste was walled up in special containers, which theoretically are not destroyed by sea water and deep pressure.

According to the recommendations developed by the IAEA, they should be buried at a depth of at least 4000 m, at a sufficient distance from continents and islands, away from the main sea routes and in areas with minimal sea productivity, that is, where there is no commercial fishing and other marine animals.
In the West, information about burial sites indicating the exact coordinates, depth, mass, number of containers, etc. available not only to specialists, but also to independent researchers. The calculations of official experts are quite optimistic: within 500 years, even with the existing levels of discharges at one site, individual exposure doses should not reach significant values. However, this opinion is not shared by all experts, and at the IX consultative meeting of the members of the London Convention in 1985. it was not possible to develop a unified approach to the problem of burial at the bottom of the seas and oceans.
The USSR joined this convention 15 years ago. The Goskomgidromet of the USSR was appointed responsible for issuing special and general permits for the discharge of radioactive waste (in agreement with the Ministry of Fisheries).

The burial technique itself is characteristic. It is believed that the containers are not subject to destruction by water and pressure, are completely sealed, and the contact of their contents with the environment is excluded, at least for a certain period. In practice, the containers were simply thrown into the water, and if they did not sink ... they were shot.
There is also such a technique of burial. Radioactive waste is stored on decommissioned ships of the Navy and the Ministry of Marine Fleet, and when there is nowhere to put containers with waste, the ships are towed into the ocean and - with the blessing of the USSR Ministry of Health - drowned.
That is exactly what happened in 1979. towed a barge loaded with solid radioactive waste. The captain reported an emergency: the barge had disappeared, an empty cable dangled behind the stern of the tug. The created commission could not get from the captain when and at what point he lost the barge with the secret cargo. However, the disputes in the commission were mainly about who, together with the captain, would be responsible for what happened: the Navy or the Ministry of the shipbuilding industry. The instructions that existed at that time were contradictory, so they argued for the future: who is responsible for such incidents in the future. The question of finding a barge and preventing radiation contamination of the region was of much less concern to the members of the commission.
The IAEA norm on the contents of flooded containers is also not observed. According to eyewitnesses, one of the containers contains at least a hundred spent fuel assemblies from the Lenin icebreaker's nuclear plant. In 1984 in the Abrosimov Bay near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, a floating container with a radiation level of 160 R/h was discovered. After "refinement" it was flooded here.
It is not serious to compare with the recommendations of the IAEA and the depth of flooding of radioactive waste in the area of ​​Novaya Zemlya. Instead of the prescribed minimum of 4000m, they range from 18 to 370m. Meanwhile, this area is adjacent to the inhabited archipelago, close to the continent, actively used sea routes pass here, fish and sea animals are fished.
Liquid radioactive waste was dealt with quite simply: they were dumped in the western sector of the Barents Sea, sometimes in squares where minesweepers fished. What an agreement with the Ministry of Fisheries! Until very recently, we considered the Arctic region our inland sea and managed it as we wanted or knew how. The inhabitants of Novaya Zemlya are very concerned about nuclear repositories off the coast of the archipelago. Fifth Extraordinary Session of the Murmansk Regional Council in August 1991 demanded that the archipelago and adjacent water areas be opened for scientific research, in which international experts, for example, from Greenpeace, could participate.
In 1992 The office of the President of Russia declassified data on pollution of the northern and Far Eastern seas: "In 1959-1992, our country dumped liquid radioactive waste with a total activity of about 20.6 thousand curies into the northern seas and solid - a total activity of about 2.3 million curies. In the seas of the Far East, these values ​​were respectively: 12.3 and 6.2 thousand curie. According to experts, the potential danger is posed by the reactors of nuclear submarines and the nuclear icebreaker Lenin. In total, 12 reactors and their parts were flooded without nuclear fuel (including three Far East) and seven emergency conditions with unloaded nuclear fuel (all in the North)".
These data are submitted by Russia to the secretariat of the London Convention and to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Undoubtedly, we or our descendants have a lot of work to do to decontaminate the seas and oceans, including the recovery of sunken or flooded nuclear-powered ships, as well as containers with radioactive waste resting at shallow depths.

Disposal of radioactive waste in the seas from the facilities of the Northern Fleet and the Murmansk Shipping Company
Since 1959, the Northern Fleet has regularly buried radioactive waste in the Barents and Kara Seas. Solid and liquid radioactive waste, nuclear reactors, including those with unloaded fuel, were flooded. In addition, radioactive waste from the nuclear icebreaker fleet of the Murmansk Shipping Company (MMP) was buried in the Barents and Kara Seas. According to the latest estimates, the total activity of all radioactive materials buried in the Barents and Kara Seas was 38450 TBq. The Navy also flooded radioactive waste in the Sea of ​​Japan, the Pacific Ocean, the White and Baltic Seas.

Liquid radioactive waste
Reactor loop waters and other LRW have been dumped into the seas since 1959. The last disposal, LRW in the sea, was carried out on November 1, 1991. This practice may be resumed if no acceptable solution is found. According to the requirements for the discharge of LRW, established by the USSR Navy in 1962, the specific activity for long-lived radioisotopes should not exceed 370 Bq/l, for short-lived radioisotopes - 1850 kBq/l. Whether these requirements were met is unknown.

An analysis of the practice of disposal of LRW in the seas shows that the most highly radioactive waste was disposed of in three regions of the northern part of the Barents Sea. LRW with a lower concentration of radionuclides were flooded near the coast of the Kola Peninsula. Map 1 shows the areas of LRW disposal in the Barents Sea.

From 1959 to 1991 LRW with a specific activity of 3.7 TBq were buried in the White Sea, 451 TBq in the Barents Sea, and 315 TBq in the Kara Sea. LRW with an activity of 430 TBq were dumped into the sea as a result of accidents in spent nuclear fuel storage facilities, on submarines and on the Lenin nuclear icebreaker. The total activity of liquid radioactive waste buried in the White, Barents and Kara Seas is 880 TBq (23771 Ci).

Since 1987, LRW from nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet has been processed on the Amur tanker equipped with a treatment plant. After cleaning, the water was drained overboard. Since the start of operation, Amur has processed and dumped 975 tons of LRW into the sea.

LRW was also disposed of from floating technical bases with project number 1783A (Vala class) and from the special tanker MMP Serebryanka.

Solid radioactive waste
The Northern Fleet sank 17 ships and lighters in the Kara and Barents Seas carrying solid radioactive waste, including parts of reactor plants and other contaminated equipment of various levels of activity. Basically, SRW is packed in metal containers. These SRW are medium- and low-level and consist of contaminated metal parts of the reactor compartments of nuclear submarines, clothing and equipment used for work with nuclear installations. In addition, 155 large objects were flooded, including circulation pumps, generators and other parts of nuclear installations. Part of the SRW was placed on ships and lighters and sunk along with them.

Between 1965 and 1991 solid radioactive waste was flooded in 8 different areas along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya and in the Kara Sea. The areas of flooding in the Kara Sea are shown on map 2. In these areas, SRW was flooded by the Northern Fleet and MMP maintenance vessels.

According to the White Paper, 6508 containers with SRW were sunk in the Kara Sea, 4641 of which were sunk by the Northern Fleet. According to MMP documents, 11,090 containers were sunk in the sea. The shipping company buried 1867 containers separately and 9223 containers were placed on ships and lighters and sank along with them.

During the first radioactive waste disposal operations in the 60s, many containers did not sink, they remained on the surface. The team that carried out the burial operation, as a solution to the problem, shot containers from the ship to facilitate the process of flooding. This took place in the Abrosimov Bay on the southeast coast of Novaya Zemlya. Moreover, there have been reports of containers floating in the Kara Sea. One of them was found on the coast of Novaya Zemlya. Later, the problem was solved by the fact that the containers with radioactive waste were initially given negative buoyancy (loaded with stones).

In addition to the SRW flooded in the bays along the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya, in the Barents Sea, near Kolguev Island, the ship "Nikel" was buried. The ship was loaded with 18 objects with a volume of 1100 m3 with a specific activity of 1.5 Tq.

A total of 31,534 m3 of SRW with a total activity of about 590 TBq was flooded: 6,508 containers, 17 ships and lighters, and 155 large objects.

Disposal of nuclear reactors
13 reactors from nuclear submarines were buried in the Kara Sea. Six reactors were disposed of with unloaded spent nuclear fuel. All reactors were removed from nuclear submarines that suffered serious accidents. The reactors were so damaged and the level of radioactivity high that it was not possible to unload the nuclear fuel. The reactors were flooded with unloaded fuel. In addition, three reactors from the Lenin nuclear icebreaker were also buried at sea.

The reactors were stored from one to 15 years after the accident, after which they were buried in the Kara Sea. 5 of the reactors cut from the nuclear submarine were filled with a hardening mixture based on furfural to prevent the release of radioactivity into the marine environment. According to the estimates of Russian NPP designers, such filling will prevent SNF contact with sea water for periods of several hundred (up to 500) years. Since there is very little information on the technical condition of buried reactors, there was a great deal of uncertainty about the assessment of their total activity. Very approximate calculations were made by Russian experts based on the data given in the White Paper, where the total activity of nuclear submarine reactors with unloaded fuel was estimated at 85 PBq. Later calculations show that the activity is 37 PBq.

Many countries with access to the sea carry out marine burial of various materials and substances, in particular soil excavated during dredging, drill slag, industrial waste, construction waste, solid waste, explosives and chemicals, and radioactive waste. The volume of burials amounted to about 10% of the total mass of pollutants entering the World Ocean. The basis for dumping in the sea is the ability of the marine environment to process a large amount of organic and inorganic substances without much damage to the water. However, this ability is not unlimited. Therefore, dumping is considered as a forced measure, a temporary tribute to the imperfection of technology by society. Industrial slags contain a variety of organic substances and heavy metal compounds.

Household waste contains on average (by weight of dry matter) 32-40% of organic matter; 0.56% nitrogen; 0.44% phosphorus; 0.155% zinc; 0.085% lead; 0.001% mercury; 0.001% cadmium. During the discharge, the passage of the material through the water column, part of the pollutants goes into solution, changing the quality of the water, the other is sorbed by suspended particles and goes into bottom sediments. At the same time, the turbidity of the water increases. The presence of organic substances often leads to the rapid consumption of oxygen in water and not caustically to its complete disappearance, the dissolution of suspensions, the accumulation of metals in dissolved form, and the appearance of hydrogen sulfide.

The presence of a large amount of organic matter creates a stable reducing environment in the soil, in which a special type of interstitial water appears containing hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, metal ions. Benthic organisms and others are affected to varying degrees by the discharged materials. In the case of the formation of surface films containing petroleum hydrocarbons and surfactants, gas exchange at the air-water interface is disrupted. Pollutants entering the solution can accumulate in the tissues and organs of hydrobiants and have a toxic effect on them. Dumping materials dumping to the bottom and prolonged increased turbidity of the added water leads to death from suffocation of sedentary forms of benthos. In surviving fish, mollusks and crustaceans, the growth rate is reduced due to the deterioration of feeding and breathing conditions. The species composition of a given community often changes.

When organizing a system for monitoring the discharge of waste into the sea, the determination of dumping areas, the determination of the dynamics of pollution of sea water and bottom sediments is of decisive importance. To identify possible volumes of discharge into the sea, it is necessary to carry out calculations of all pollutants in the composition of the material discharge.

In some areas, urban waste is not flooded from barges, but is discharged into the ocean through special pipes; in other areas they are dumped into landfills or used as fertilizer, although the heavy metals in the runoff may cause adverse effects in the long term. A wide range of industrial wastes (solvents used in pharmaceutical production, waste acids of titanium dyes, alkaline solutions of oil refineries, calcium metal, layered filters, salts and chloride hydrocarbons) are dumped from time to time in different places.

What harm does the dumping of such materials cause to marine organisms? The turbidity that appears when the waste is dumped, as a rule, disappears within a day. The soil dumped in suspension covers the inhabitants of the bottom with mud in the form of a thin layer, from under which many animals get out to the surface, and some are replaced a year later by new colonies of the same organisms. Household sludges with a high content of heavy metals can be toxic, especially when combined with organic matter, an oxygen-reduced environment is formed; only a few living organisms can exist in it. In addition, the sludge may have a high bacteriological index. It is obvious that industrial waste in large volumes is hazardous to the life of the ocean and therefore should not be dumped into it.

The dumping of waste into the ocean, as such, still needs to be carefully studied. With reliable data, materials such as soils may still be allowed to be dumped into the sea, but other substances, such as chemicals, should be prohibited. When organizing a system of control over waste discharges into the sea, the definition of dumping areas, the determination of the dynamics of water pollution and bottom sediments is of decisive importance. To identify possible volumes of discharge into the sea, it is necessary to carry out calculations of all pollutants in the composition of the material discharge. Deep-water areas of the seabed can be identified for this purpose on the basis of the same criteria as in the choice of sites for urban landfills - ease of use and low biological value.

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10. Hanford, USA

No matter how much they say that “a sailor's grave is the sea”, every sailor dreams of being buried on land, so that his relatives have somewhere to come to commemorate him. The Japanese were no exception - each naval base had its own cemetery, where the dead and dead sailors were buried. However, during the Second World War, many Japanese sailors went to the bottom with their ships, and symbolic graves became the place of their memory.

Special naval cemeteries began to be created at the main Japanese naval bases in the 19th century. In such places, the dead and dead sailors were solemnly buried, but they had one difference from the classical cemeteries of the European type. The fact is that according to Japanese tradition, once a year it is customary to commemorate the souls of the deceased. This ceremony was also officially held in naval cemeteries, but it turned out that it was not very convenient to commemorate those who died in a naval battle or catastrophe if the graves were scattered throughout the country, or the sea never gave up the body. Then, memorial cenotaphs began to be installed in cemeteries - symbolic graves without the ashes of the dead. Unlike classical monuments to lost ships and sailors, which exist both in the West and in Japan, these were precisely symbolic graves, objects of commemoration of the dead.

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Yokosuka: cenotaph of the crew of the battlecruiser Tsukuba, who died in an explosion of ammunition on January 14, 1917.
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Yokosuka: individual graves.
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Yokosuka: annual commemoration ceremony.
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After Japan's defeat in World War II, the official naval commemoration ceremony was canceled as "militaristic ritual". However, by that time the Japanese fleet was no longer there, so the cemeteries were unattended. In Kura, the cemetery was completely in ruins - in the summer of 1945 it was badly damaged during the American bombing, and then a strong typhoon walked through it. But veterans who survived the horror of the war remained in the country, and relatives of the sailors who went to the bottom along with the ships - these people continued to look after the cemeteries, periodically gathering to commemorate the fallen.

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Kure: view of the memorial cemetery. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of the crew of the battleship Yamato. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of the crew of the battleship Hyuga. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of the crew of the aircraft carrier Hiyo. This monument was erected in 1983 in Kyoto. In 1995, it was moved to Wakayama, and in 2002 it was installed in a cemetery in Kure. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of the crew of the cruiser Aoba. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of the crews of the cruiser Mogami (left) and patrol ship No. 82 (right). Author's photo

During the American occupation and in the first years after it, they tried not to advertise this activity, fearing accusations of militarism. Only in the early 1970s, new cenotaph memorials began to be mass-installed in cemeteries in memory of those who died in World War II. At the same time, the crews of large warships usually had separate cenotaphs, and the crews of small ships were often commemorated in whole units. More general cenotaphs were also installed - for example, in memory of the dead submariners or the missing on the island of Guadalcanal.

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Kure: cenotaph of the crews of the cruiser Itsukushima and the gunboat Hiei, who died in 1894 in a naval battle with the Chinese at the mouth of the Yalu River. Installed in 1895 in another place, they were moved to the cemetery in 1981. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of submarine crews of the Kure naval district. Author's photo

Kure: cenotaph of the crew of the destroyer Shimakaze. The ship was lost on November 11, 1944, the monument was erected on November 11, 1965. Author's photo

Kure: The grave of British sailor George Tibbins. The only grave protected by a grate installed before 1945 - apparently to avoid incidents. Now the grave is looked after as carefully as the graves of Japanese sailors. Author's photo

Kure: A memorial to those who fell in the Great East Asian War (the official Japanese name for the Pacific War). Installed on January 25, 1947 - the first monument to appear at the memorial cemetery in Kura after the war. Author's photo

From the beginning of the 70s, sailors of the Japanese Navy began to take an official part in the care of memorial cemeteries and annual memorial ceremonies. However, to this day, memorial cemeteries are run by public organizations, and the Navy has no official relation to them. The presence at the annual memorial ceremonies of the naval guard of honor, the orchestra and the highest ranks of the naval bases is due solely to the desire to develop friendly relations with the local population. Caution in matters related to World War II is still an integral part of Japanese politics.

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General view of the cemetery in Sasebo. Author's photo

The cenotaph of the submarine crews of the Sasebo Naval District. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the battleship Haruna. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the battleship Hatsuse, who died on May 15, 1904 on the mines of the Russian minzag Amur. In the same cemetery there is a cenotaph of the crew of the battleship Yashima, who died along with the Hatsuse. Author's photo

Most likely, for the same reasons of political correctness, the former naval cemetery in Yokosuka is renamed "Mamonzan Cemetery", the cemetery in Kure is called "Nagasako Park", and the cemetery in Sasebo is called "Higashiyama Park". And only the smallest and most inconspicuous Naval Cemetery in Maizuru continues to be called the "Naval Cemetery in Maizuru." At the same time, only in Yokosuka, the former naval cemetery still allows burials of private individuals on its territory, while this is prohibited in other cemeteries.

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Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the aircraft carrier Hiryu, scuttled by the Japanese after the Battle of Midway in 1942. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the Zuiho aircraft carrier. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the aircraft carrier Taiyo. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crews of the cruiser Chokai, sunk on October 25, 1944 in the Battle of Samar Island, and the destroyer Fujinami, which was lost two days later along with all the crew and sailors rescued from the Chokai. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the cruiser Myoko. Author's photo

The most notable monuments on the territory of the memorial cemeteries are the cenotaphs of the crews of the lost ships. But there are also cenotaphs of the coastal units of the fleet, as well as military branches (for example, submariners). There are also common cenotaphs for those who died in wars and conflicts. In addition, until 1941, cenotaphs were erected in cemeteries for the dead and those who died as a result of accidents and even epidemics. Preserved in naval cemeteries and individual graves. So, on the territory of the memorial cemetery in Kure there are 92 collective memorials, 157 individual graves of Japanese sailors and the grave of the English naval sailor George Tibbins, who died in 1907 during the visit of his ship to Japan. In total, about 130,000 dead sailors are commemorated at the former naval cemetery in Kura.

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Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the cruiser Haguro. A porthole, raised from a sunken cruiser, is embedded in the pedestal. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the cruiser Yahagi, who died on April 4, 1945, along with the battleship Yamato. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crews of destroyers of the 27th destroyer division: Ariake, Yugure, Shiratsuyu, Shigure. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the destroyer Hatsuyuki. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the destroyer Wakaba. Author's photo

Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the destroyer Warabi, who died in a collision with the cruiser Jintsu in 1927. Surmounted by a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon, this is one of the most unusual cenotaphs in memorial cemeteries. Author's photo

Memorial cenotaphs look different - from luxurious works of cemetery architecture to modest structures that can be confused with individual graves. There were no rules when installing them - everything was clearly determined by the tastes and financial capabilities of those who ordered this or that cenotaph. As a result, the monument to the naval construction team may look more impressive than the monument to the crew of an aircraft carrier. Older monuments usually look more modest than newer ones, and almost all individual graves are made in the form of identical stone pillars.

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Sasebo: cenotaph of the crew of the destroyer Sugi. Author's photo

The final resting place worries many even during his lifetime. For our resort, and not only, this topic is very relevant. There is less and less land, places in cemeteries are becoming more and more expensive. And the very appearance of many cemeteries causes shivering. Those who have been to Sochi cemeteries know firsthand that they are overcrowded - very often there are subburials, a coffin on a coffin, we really do not have places for expanding churchyards. In addition, there are a lot of abandoned graves, and fences are made by someone as finances allow. In some places, grass in human height and impassable mud. What can I say, you have to see it...

At one time, the idea of ​​​​a crematorium was exaggerated, but so far it has not passed. Burying on the moon, in space, closer to God, as international millionaires have now come up with, is also unaffordable. Readers approached our editorial office with a proposal - why not organize a maritime cemetery? Narodnaya Gazeta tried to consider the idea suggested by our readers.

Ashes in the sea
The high death rate and the ever-dwindling amount of land for burials make us think hard. For the city of Sochi, with its high concentration of population and lack of land, this is generally a problem. One of the ways out would be to organize a crematorium, this topic is still being discussed at town planning councils. But here everything, by and large, rests on the economic issue and the mentality of citizens. Surveys have shown that at the initial stage, the percentage of cremations (it is still a new, unusual thing) will be a maximum of 15% of the dead, which will include unclaimed, rootless bodies.

Meanwhile, maintaining a crematorium is costly. Officials also say that a crematorium has already been built in Novorossiysk, which plans to serve the entire Krasnodar Territory. And with a competent approach, in the case of the dying will and desire of relatives, a trip there can be organized literally within one day. Therefore, with the crematorium, most likely, the issue will not be resolved with us. Nevertheless, the problem with burials needs to be solved as soon as possible, the cemeteries in Sochi are overcrowded, and soon there will simply be nowhere to bury.

Our readers see a way out of the situation in the organization of a marine cemetery
The expanses of the Black Sea will make it possible to implement such an idea, as it is known that it is a huge reservoir of hydrogen sulfide. Below a depth of 150-200 meters, we have hydrogen sulfide in the sea, the so-called "dead zone", where there are no living beings and all organic matter decomposes. Including due to this factor, the ecosystem of the sea tends to self-purify. Someone can say why we need a second river Ganges? But will the whole idea go sideways? Here I would like to clarify that hydrogen sulfide is a gas that completely dissolves everything that gets to the depth of its occurrence. It turns out, no matter how strange it may sound, economical management, and environmental standards would be observed. Yes, and we are all reasonable people, and no one would make sea cemeteries in places of tourist congestion and from a moral point of view.

Recently, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratyev, proposed equipping empty coastal areas from Sochi towards Gelendzhik. Where it is impossible to create a tourist infrastructure, maritime cemeteries could be organized in between. And the local population could earn on the provision of funeral services.

And how are they?
By the way, China is seriously interested in the topic of burials at sea. In the central city of China's Guangdong province, a cemetery site costs $1,200 per square meter. It is even more expensive than luxury apartments. But in Shanghai, Shaoxing, or Wenzhou, the authorities will pay you $320, $800, or $1,290 to scatter the ashes of the dead at sea. Even the cost of the boat ride and the flower petals with which the ashes are mixed are included. In the tradition of the US Navy, the most distinguished are also buried at sea.

The charter of the Navy allows both the body in the coffin to be thrown into the water and the ashes to be scattered. The farewell ceremony is accompanied by a religious ritual (if the person professed one or another religion) and ends with three shots from a mourning platoon of seven people. In the UK and Ireland, burial of a body at sea is permitted in certain parts of the North Sea, which requires a special permit. In the Hawaiian Islands, such burials have a long tradition among the indigenous population and are still practiced today. It turns out that the topic of sea burials is not new and could be a way out of the situation with oversaturation of local cemeteries for Sochi.

The tradition of burial in the sea originated in ancient times and existed among a variety of peoples.
All this had its own background - beliefs that the path to the other world leads through water or about the arrival of ancestors by sea. The Vikings had a burial of a person in a special funeral boat, which was set on fire before sailing. In Russia, where many Varangians lived, the body of the leader was placed on a ship, which was set on fire by the closest relative of the deceased.

Rest in style
Sea burial is now gaining popularity in the scientific field as well. Being buried at sea is also becoming very fashionable. In contrast to the theory of Charles Darwin about the origin of people from ape-like ancestors, there is another one - humanity came out of the water. The latter is currently very popular. If a person did not get down from the tree, but came out of the water, it turns out that it would be more harmonious to find his last refuge in it. This idea is supported by many psychologists. Burials at sea are morally easier to endure than burials in the ground.

- Lowering the coffin into the ground, slowly throwing the earth is very difficult, just like cremation, many are afraid of this. And a sea burial has a milder effect on the psyche, one of the psychologists of the resort clarified for Narodnaya Gazeta Sochi.

Indeed - a fenced area, a boat, solemn music, a beautiful coffin in the form of a pearl shell, which is lowered into the sea, flower petals floating around - all this may look unusual for us, but beautiful. If we develop this topic further, then we can still organize the installation of a floating monument and obtain a special certificate, where there will be certain coordinates of the burial. It is possible to equip a coastal zone with memorial tables and pavilions in a suitable way for a commemoration, where you can mourn for those who have passed away with a beautiful view of the sea and dolphins swimming nearby ...

There is an idea that this would be especially interesting for foreigners (to be buried in the Black Sea, and in general in the sea, for many of them - status, beautiful and unusual). And this, in addition to solving the problem with cemeteries in general, would also be additional income for Sochi residents. After all, the relatives of the deceased will come to them at sea graves, buy something, settle somewhere. Buried, and then also a paid trip on a boat for commemoration and visits - this is a whole industry of unusual funerals.

Underwater rocks
However, the organization of maritime cemeteries is not so simple in our country. This business has its pitfalls. Alexander Mamlai, director of the Sochi Municipal Budgetary Institution “Department for the Organization of Funeral Affairs,” agreed that there was a rational grain in the idea of ​​sea burials, and explained that it would not be easy to implement such a project.

“There is legislation in force, but it does not say a word about burials at sea,” Alexander Mamlai explained, “so we can discuss a lot, but until it is written down at the legislative, federal level, all this is useless.

It turns out that in order to launch a project with maritime cemeteries, it is necessary to redraw the legislation at the Federation level. Whether parliamentarians will agree to this is a question. Meanwhile, the problem with our Sochi churchyards, where there is no place to bury, needs to be addressed. I would like our government to quickly pay attention to it and find a way out.