What Is a Sea Burial? An Interview with Captain Brad White

Captain Brad White is the founder of New England Burials At Sea – also known as National Burials At Sea – which is used by the Navy, EPA and many funeral homes across America. New England Burials At Sea is an innovative and contemporary way to explore an old tradition. It is green, economical and – -perhaps most importantly — a celebration for the descedant by the next of kin.

Credit: ©NewEnglandBurialsAtSea.com – Captain Brad White

Oz: What is the New England Burials at Sea ?

Brad: We started in 2005 and [have]  grown quickly to operate from Maine to Miami, [as well as] from San Francisco to San Diego. Our name is National Burials At Sea because we work with people from coast to coast. Often times, somebody might pass away in Florida and come back to New England, or die in the Chesapeake and want to be buried in San Diego. We’re able to handle those ash scattering or full-body burials at sea requests — typically within 48 hours. We’re closed with about 100 of funeral homes, the EPA and many others.

Oz: How did you get involved with New England Burials at Sea ? 

Brad: Burials at sea are a 300 year old tradition, so there’s nothing new with that. However, we repositioned and re-marketed the celebration of life versus the sadness of a passing. So it’s more about somebody’s life, than somebody’s death.

“Burials at sea are a 300 year old tradition, so there’s nothing new with that. However, we repositioned and re-marketed the celebration of life versus the sadness of a passing.”

I received my Captain’s license in 2005. I was taking some folks out for a general charter and somebody said, “hey can you spread Uncle Chuck’s ashes?”  And I said, “Sure.” So one became 20, [then] became 200 rather quickly — it became a real business.

We are [a] white-gloved-service, with very clean vessels, properly uniformed, licensed and insured people. Every event is different, but they all have the same goal: a beautiful, memorable and affordable event at sea.

Captain Brad White’s Top 3 Tips for Choosing Burials at Sea:

1) Select a port of departure so that your [specific] wishes are fulfilled. There are over 30 or 40 ports in the U.S.

2) It is important to state your wishes.

3) Share your thoughts and ideas no matter how general or specific they are.

Our events, typically, [cost] about one-third the price of a funeral. What’s important is that we’re a friend of the funeral director — we’re not a competitor, because the funeral director will often send the family away without any final plans for the cremated remains. Of [the] 3.5 million deaths per year in America, 40-50% [are] being cremated. That’s a lot of people that end up on the mantel-shelf at home for a year, and then three on the sports closet behind the tennis rackets. At year five, we get the phone call.

Our service is a beautiful, final punctuation point to one’s life. We often are scattering out by the whales and the dolphins. In America, there are 175 million people that live within 10 miles of the water. Many of those folks have an incredible passion for the sea and want to become part of the earth again — to travel the world forever. That’s what we offer.

“Many of those folks have an incredible passion for the sea and want to become part of the earth again — to travel the world forever. That’s what we offer.”

Oz: Do you see the differences between people who choose full body burial and people who choose ash scatterings? 

Credit: ©NewEnglandBurialsAtSea.com – Captain Brad White

Brad: Yes, it’s clearly a difference between someone that wants a traditional burial verses a cremation. Some of the older folks can’t yet accept cremation. Or [there’s a] religious reason they don’t want fire.

And some don’t want to want to be embalmed — to have a casket and be in the ground forever. We find that people choose the full-body burials at sea because they have a real love for the ocean — which covers two-thirds of the earth by the way — [and] they do not want to leave a footprint in a cemetery with chemicals and metal and all the stuff that goes along with a traditional funeral. But they want to have their life celebrated. And we do everything authentically, back to World War I — from the way the shroud is made, to the cannon balls that weigh it down.

“…we do everything authentically, back to World War I — from the way the shroud is made, to the cannon balls that weigh it down.”

Oz: That lead me to my next question: what holds the body down in a full-body burial at sea ?

Brad:The EPA and Naval regulations are at least 150 pounds. So what will happen is, when the Atlantic sea burial shroud that we’ve designed and developed deploys over the side of the vessel, it sinks very rapidly because there are over 42 inches of air-holes that let air and gasses escape, [letting] sea-life enter. The cannonballs — we use 155-160 lbs in total to exceed the regulations — weigh it down. After [some time], the only things left are the cannonballs, which make their own reef — a shelter for future life.

“After [some time], the only things left are the cannonballs, which make their own reef — a shelter for future life.”

We are also socially responsible when it comes to preferences. We don’t use any glues that have animal fats in them, no synthetic[s]. We try to be as green as possible.

Today, [people] want to talk about [end-of-life] and share with their family what their final wishes are going to be. [Much] more so than they did five years ago. For instance, out of 100 clients that call us every couple of weeks, 30 percent have it all mapped out.

As a matter of fact, we had a lady who wanted to plan her burial at sea sea six weeks in advance. I said we can’t accept that while you’re still alive. She was a convention-planner. She wanted all the details to be taken care of so that the family won’t have the stress when the time comes. We can plan a full body burial in couple of hours, in many cases for a full-body we have to go 100 miles round-trip to get out to 600 feet of water.

Oz: Are there any particular people who choose burials at sea ? Or do you get folks from all walks of life?

Credit: ©NewEnglandBurialsAtSea.com – Captain Brad White

Brad: All walks of life, [including many with] religions you would not think [accept] a burial at sea, like Jewish and Catholic. Anything and everything goes, from people celebrating by having a good Scotch, or simply throwing an Oreo cookie overboard because grandma loved Oreos.

“Anything and everything goes, from people celebrating by having a good Scotch, or simply throwing an Oreo cookie overboard because grandma loved Oreos.”

[It’s] a place where everybody can congregate and talk, eat drink and be merry. The common thing is that the descendant, or the next of kin, agrees that [the] mom, dad, sister, or cousin would [have] want[ed] it this way. People have scripted out that they want to be buried at sea because the ashes go north to Nova Scotia, then over to Europe, [then] down past Africa [to] catch the Gulf Stream in the Caribbean, [to] then come back.

We are also working on a place [where] people can memorialize with an underwater burial reef.

Oz: Are there any folks you don’t take out to sea?

We were asked if we would and could do a burial at sea for the recent Boston bomber. We thought long and hard about it and respectfully declined because of the controversy that would arise out of our sacred burial grounds. The actual funeral home asked us; it was the wish of the State. His body stayed around for weeks [without being] embalmed because of Muslim tradition — and they wanted it out of the State.

Oz:  Is there anything else you would like our readers to know ?

Brad: We [even] had a movie starlette come to do a scattering at sea for her uncle and aunt, [specifically] to be scattered together with their two German Shepherds. It’s totally permissible to do that. Every single event [is] different and unique, there’s never really been a request that was so far-fetched or outlandish that we wouldn’t do it. We had a number of requests for a Viking burial at sea, with a flaming arrow shot into a boat [that then] burns up and brings the deceased to the bottom of the sea.

Well, we haven’t done [that] one yet — but we have an Olympic archer who looks great in a loin cloth and can hit a pack of cigarettes at two hundred yards with a bow and arrow. We don’t say no. We just figure out how to do it, as long as it’s lawful.

Oz: Thank you for interviewing with SevenPonds!

Brad: Thank you. 

Related Links:

• 30 Seconds of New England Burials At Sea
• Ash Scattering Information
• Frequently Asked Questions