Burial at sea

Burial at sea, a simple yet most impressive and dignified ceremony, is the most natural means of disposing of a body from a ship at sea. It is still the custom to sew the body into a hammock or other piece of canvass with heavy weights, formerly several cannonballs, at the feet to compensate the tendency of a partly decomposed body (as would be the case in the tropics) to float. To satisfy superstition, or to ensure that the body is actually dead, the last stitch of the sailmaker's needle is through the nose.

The only naval officer to have commanded ships in all the marine wars fought by India,Vice Admiral Rustom Khushro Shapoorjee Ghandhi, nicknamed RKS or simply called Rusi, wished to return to the sea which had given him so much. He jested: "I enjoyed fish all my life; now let the fish enjoy me.” Four days after his passing away on December 23, 2014 at age 90 his immediate family and a few friends sailed from Lion Gate on INS Vipul, 40 miles into the Arabian Sea. With synchronized precision the naval pall bearers carried the coffin, his three children Sandy (named Phiroze), professor emeritus of law at Reading University, Dr Yasmine Hilton, chairman, Shell companies in India, and medical practitioner Dr Delna Ghandhi jointly said some Zoroastrian prayers and placed his kusti beside him with an item each one treasured. The nailed coffin was then slid into the sea. (In the second picture, his coffin being lowered into the sea).

Characteristically unconventional, Ghandhi was the first naval officer to return to the ocean and the Navy had to do research as a precedent was created. The Navy acknowledged him with three rounds of gunfire when white uniformed officers stood at attention, the Last Post played and Ghandhi went into the waters forever.