California's Funeral Sails

The idea is old and really quite romantic. In the 9th century, deceased Viking VlPs were laid out in their own longboats and floated off to Odin in funerary flames. Today's cremation and deep-sixing are no longer simultaneous, somewhat diminishing the dramatic impact. But in California, burial at sea is once again becoming the with-it way to go.

Californians by the thousands are registering for membership ($15 per person, $25 per couple) in burial-at-sea clubs that for an additional fee provide pickup, cremation and the scattering of ashes at sea. Such clubs as the Telophase Society (the largest, with 9,000 members) and the Neptune Society (7,000) each conduct an average of 50 seafaring funerals every month.

Romantic appeal aside, the big reason for the sudden chic of sea burial is economics. Says Charles Denning, founder of the Neptune Society: "For the past hundred years undertakers have made a rich living by selling tin boxes that rust in the ground, pink gowns and booties, and scenic plots overlooking freeways." These standard "hole-in-the-ground" funerals, he notes, cost $1,200 to $1,900. Burial at sea runs a mere $250 a throw.

50 a Trip. For that sum, says Denning, Neptune offers "a real first-class service. The crew is at full dress, the ship is pointed into the wind, and all the engines are dead." The flag is lowered to half-mast, and the captain reads Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" (the 107th Psalm is optional), while a black-draped crew member sprinkles the loved one's remains into the Pacific from a ceramic Grecian urn. For an additional $250, as many as 20 relatives and friends can attend the scattering from the deck of Neptune's bar-and-galley-equipped yacht K'thanga. Telophase eschews even such limited funeral frippery. It charters a boat, makes no provision for guests, stores ashes in boxes and scatters 50 to 60 people per voyage.

With Neptune and Telophase enjoying such good business, old-fashioned undertakers are jumping aboard. In San Diego, all 32 licensed mortuaries will now provide sea service if requested, some for as little as $187.50. In Huntington Beach, Dilday Bros. Funeral Directors estimate that some 30% of their trade now involves a watery finale. Dilday charges $350, but because the scattering is done from a private plane, three family members are allowed along for the ride at no extra charge.

Other funeral directors, incensed at having the ground so suddenly cut out from under their industry, are trying to blockade the burial-at-sea societies in the courts. Telophase is currently facing charges of unfair competition and a civil suit for not complying with the regulations of the California Cemetery Board. What is unfair, it seems, is that Telophase does not hold title to either a cemetery or a crematorium, has not posted a $25,000 endowment bond insuring proper plot care, and refuses to hire a licensed staff cemetery broker. "We have a chapel and an embalming room, and they cost money," objects one San Diego funeral director. "We have to provide certain things, and so should they." "All we want to do is haul ashes to sea," counters Telophase Attorney Tom Sherrard, "and brokers want to sell plots and mausoleum crypts."

In an effort to stem the legal assault of the Cemetery Board and the funeral directors, Neptune's board of directors recently acquired a full-time mortician, an embalmer and a broker. But Telophase refuses to bend, and has boldly filed a countercomplaint against the Cemetery Board, charging excessive harassment. Says Neptune's Denning: "Telophase is a real maverick. We applaud them in their fight."

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