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Burial at sea
22 August 2018 11:14 amI've been wondering what on earth Raoul is going to do with those bodies (given my earlier description of the wreck, there had to be some left on board, even if the majority of crew managed to get out on deck and were lost in the chaos that followed).
I was somewhat dismayed to learn that burial at sea is apparently specifically prohibited under current French law, and is so obscure that people actually debate over what is an appropriate term for it - apparently if someone dies on board ship, you're supposed to seal the coffin and take them back to land for disposal. (I cannot imagine why; hygiene concerns?)
However, I did find confirmation that "jadis lors", people who died on board ship were allowed to drop the bodies overboard, given the lack of preservative facilities at the time.
As for the date of this law: the actual CGCT referred to appears to date only from 1996, but presumably amalgamated previous legal requirements... Anyway, Raoul definitely doesn't have any facilities for preserving corpses, so whatever the state of the law circa 1883 he would be justified in taking emergency measures for the sake of the survivors' welfare. I was originally wondering more along the lines of what, if any, religious rites would be observed, in the absence of a priest (in "Gone With the Wind", Ashley officiates at the Catholic burial of Gerald O'Hara despite not even being Catholic...)( Read more... )
I was somewhat dismayed to learn that burial at sea is apparently specifically prohibited under current French law, and is so obscure that people actually debate over what is an appropriate term for it - apparently if someone dies on board ship, you're supposed to seal the coffin and take them back to land for disposal. (I cannot imagine why; hygiene concerns?)
However, I did find confirmation that "jadis lors", people who died on board ship were allowed to drop the bodies overboard, given the lack of preservative facilities at the time.
As for the date of this law: the actual CGCT referred to appears to date only from 1996, but presumably amalgamated previous legal requirements... Anyway, Raoul definitely doesn't have any facilities for preserving corpses, so whatever the state of the law circa 1883 he would be justified in taking emergency measures for the sake of the survivors' welfare. I was originally wondering more along the lines of what, if any, religious rites would be observed, in the absence of a priest (in "Gone With the Wind", Ashley officiates at the Catholic burial of Gerald O'Hara despite not even being Catholic...)( Read more... )