The Sea Their Graves: An Archaeology of Death and Remembrance in Maritime Culture (New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology)

Like other groups with dangerous occupations, mariners have developed a close-knit culture bound by loss and memory. Death regularly disrupts the fabric of this culture and necessitates actions designed to mend its social structure. From the ritual of burying a body at sea to the creation of memorials to honor the missing, these events tell us a great deal about how sailors see their world. Based on a study of more than 2,100 gravestones and monuments in North America and the United Kingdom erected between the seventeenth and late twentieth centuries, David Stewart expands the use of nautical archaeology into terrestrial environments. He focuses on those who make their living at sea--one of the world's oldest and most dangerous occupations--to examine their distinct folkloric traditions, beliefs, and customs regarding death, loss, and remembrance. A classic of its typethe closest comparison is the legendary Weibusts Deep Sea Sailors , and I would hazard to suggest that this book may come to hold a similarly important place in the scholarship of maritime ethnography.Joseph Flatman, author of Ships and Shipbuilding in Medieval Manuscripts This innovative study provides an important analysis of Anglo-American mariners attitudes toward death, the dead, and commemoration. It will be valuable to all interested in historic maritime culture and mortuary practices, and reveals a distinctive mariner subculture which also influenced their families back home.Harold Mytum, author of Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Prehistoric Period Like other groups with dangerous occupations, mariners have developed a close-knit culture bound by loss and memory. Death regularly disrupts the fabric of this culture and necessitates actions designed to mend its social structure. From the ritual of burying a body at sea to the creation of memorials to honor the missing, these events tell us a great deal about how sailors see their world.Based on a study of more than 2,100 gravestones and monuments in North America and the United Kingdom erected between the seventeenth and late twentieth centuries, David Stewart expands the use of nautical archaeology into terrestrial environments. He focuses on those who make their living at seaone of the worlds oldest and most dangerous occupationsto examine their distinct folkloric traditions, beliefs, and customs regarding death, loss, and remembrance. David J. Stewart , assistant professor of nautical archaeology at East Carolina University, is a contributor to Burial at Sea . A volume in the series New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology, edited by James C. Bradford and Gene Allen Smith This study advances understanding of British and American maritime culture by exploring memorialization practices. Interpretations are based on analysis of more than 2,000 maritime memorials from Great Britain and the United States. Research reveals three major themes in Anglo-American maritime memorialization. First, memorials show a striking concern for the dangers of life at sea. Numerous memorials describe the perils of the natural world and the group values that mariners developed to cope with the possibility of sudden death. Second, maritime communities faced the problem of commemorating those who never returned from the sea. Many sailors were lost at sea or died aboard. In the vast majority of such cases, the body was never returned home, and many did not receive a proper burial. As a result, family members and fellow sailors created memorials to honor the lost and to symbolically lay the deceased to rest. Evidence indicates, however, that such attempts were not entirely satisfactory. Many epitaphs lament the fact that empty graves cannot provide an adequate substitute for missing bodies. Finally, investigation reveals a significant increase in maritime religious sentiment beginning in the late eighteenth century, linked to religious reform movements. The prevalence of religious imagery and inscriptions on maritime memorials during this time, however, probably does not indicate that most sailors became religious. Rather, most religious maritime memorials were erected by sailors' families, who turned to religion as a source of comfort when faced with the deaths of loved ones at sea Table of Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Preface and Acknowledgments 14 1 Introduction 18 2. “Death Stands Ready at the Door”: The Dangers of Maritime Life 51 3. Values for a Dangerous World 87 4. “The Natural Sepulchre of a Sailor”: Burial at Sea As Ritual Performance 122 5. “Was Never Since Heard Of”: Remembering the Missing 150 6. “Rocks and Storms I’ll Fear No More”: The Anchor and the Cross 184 7. Conclusions: A Living Tradition 219 Notes 238 Bibliography 256 Index 270 Death Stands Ready At The Door : The Dangers Of Maritime Life -- Values For A Dangerous World -- The Natural Sepulchre Of A Sailor : Burial At Sea As Ritual Performance -- Was Never Since Heard Of : Remembering The Missing -- Rocks And Storms I'll Fear No More : The Anchor And The Cross -- Conclusions: A Living Tradition. David J. Stewart. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.