Assalamualaikum and welcome back to Orange Shots.
One more common question that I've received on my videos
is regarding what sea burials are.
How do you bury someone at sea?
Is it a real thing or not?
First of all, let me tell you
sea burial is a real thing.
But it isn't always done.
Since you guys want to know what it is,
today's video will be about exactly that.
So, let's start.
Death onboard is a natural phenomenon.
Where there's life, there's bound to die as well.
And it's no surprise that we are sometimes
in the middle of the sea
and we might have someone who's just passed.
I'm not saying it's common, but it happens,
and if you ask me,
which I know you will in the comments,
I'm going to tell you in advance.
Yes. I have witnessed people dying onboard.
People dying onboard is a real tragedy.
Where there's life, death is inevitable.
There's no denying it.
Whoever comes into this world has to leave it as well, it's a fact.
But when we think of someone dying far away from family,
away from their loved ones,
who can't see them;
when that someone, during their last moments, cannot see their family
it feels very sad.
If, ALLAH forbid, someone passes while onboard
it isn't just a tragedy for their family,
it's equally as big a tragedy for us.
Because it's a lot more difficult to care for someone who has just passed.
It's not easy if you ask me;
to take care of the dead. But sometimes we have to do it.
There always comes a time when we have to do it.
Earlier, I told you that sea burials are a fact,
but they are never our first option.
Our first resort isn't to bury at sea,
instead, we try our best to send that person's body back home.
Right now, I'm at the upper deck alley of our ship,
and there's a reason why I came here.
This door you see behind me is the hospital door.
Next to it is the medical locker.
And usually, when someone passes, this is their first stop.
This is our ship's hospital.
Ship hospitals aren't very big, especially on cargo ships.
They're not huge.
Usually, they're one or two-bed hospitals.
I'm not going to call this a full- fledged hospital, because it's not.
We don't have all the facilities available in a regular hospital,
but we do have quite a few.
We can provide medical first-aid,
we have life-saving drugs or LSDs.
We administer LSDs, and we try our very best
to save a life in danger.
We also have doctors ashore.
We call them and ask them for advice,
we keep updating them,
on the patient's condition.
But despite all that, sometimes, a life cannot be saved.
This can be someone's first and last place of death.
If someone passes, we cannot keep them in the hospital for long.
Because that's when the body starts to decompose.
We don't leave the body here, then.
We take the body to the poop deck.
After, God forbid, the actual death of a person,
they're brought here.
This is called the poop deck of a ship.
We have air available here, water
we have all the connections here.
Normally, this is where a body is prepared for burial.
or for storage.
Because we obviously can't send someone home when we're in the middle of the sea.
Until and unless we call some port.
We can't send the body home until we reach a port.
So either we embalm the body to store it in our cold storage,
or we have to ready to deliver it to a port.
In case of a sea burial,
this is still where the body is prepared.
There are different steps to it,
but I'm obviously not going to go into all of them
because they're irrelevant to this video.
Anyway, I wanted to show you this area
because it's probably going to be a body's
second or third-last stop.
Right now, I'm at the ship's provision store.
This door here is the lobby door of our freezers.
This area has all our refrigerators and freezers.
Under usual circumstances,
we only have our food stored here.
But ALLAH forbid, in case of any death,
the body has to be kept in this very store/lobby.
Right now, I'm standing inside the lobby.
It's pretty cold, actually.
On this side is the vegetable room,
that's our fish room, and that's our meat room.
As I open this, you can actually see the fog
it's actually the "frost" of the refrigerator.
This place in front of me inside the lobby,
if, ALLAH forbid (we don't want that to happen),
someone passes, we store the body here.
We actually have to make room for the body.
And after cleansing, etc. when the body is ready,
we keep it here until we're able to send it back home.
In extreme cases, and I repeat,
in very, very extreme cases,
we're forced to perform a sea burial
i.e., we have to bury a body at sea.
You must be thinking, "Zahid, what are those extreme conditions,
where you have to bury a body at sea?"
Number 1: when the deceased doesn't have a next of kin.
Number 2: extreme circumstances where
ALLAH forbid, we're forced to remain at sea for a long time period
which is, by all means, possible.
We might not be able to reach the next port on time.
The body may decompose during that time.
And then, in very very rarely extreme cases,
if the deceased's country isn't open for some reason, with flights closed, etc.
Like the current COVID-19 situation, another extreme case.
In cases like these, to save the deceased from decomposing,
we have to bury a body at sea.
This, in itself, is a different procedure.
The first part is to
consult the responsible authority,
in case it's not the deceased's next of kin;
we consult that authority,
notifying them about the burial
(if we're facing certain circumstances).
In case the deceased's next of kin is present,
we call them and tell them
we have to perform a sea burial.
And obviously, we ask them
about the rituals they would want performed before the sea burial.
And once those things are out of the way;
this is the ship's railing. I'm only showing you one side,
we have one available at the port side
we have one at the back. So depending on the weather,
the captain has to select where the sea burial must be performed.
Once that is decided,
we have to install a platform at the chosen railing.
One end of the platform must pivot at the railing,
the other end must be for lifting the body onto the platform.
Once that platform is constructed,
the body is brought over here
and laid on the platform,
we perform the necessary rituals.
The body is usually wrapped in a white cloth, or whatever we have available.
And then, most importantly,
something heavy is tied to the deceased's body bag.
The weight must be heavy enough
to not ever let the body float. It must tie the body down.
That is disrespectful to the deaceased.
The bodybag must also be pierced with holes for air.
You must be thinking, "What's the air for?"
When someone dies, their body emits all sorts of gases.
If those gases don't escape the bag,
it could explode.
That way the body will start floating again.
We don't want that.
That's why we need to make holes in the bodybag
for the gases to escape out of.
Once all the rituals are performed,
we make sure the platform the body is lying on has a sliding platform below it,
like tyres, i.e.,
a wooden platform with tyres under it.
And once everything is ready,
The body is lifted and placed feet down
so that it can slide and fall into the ocean.
And that's the last time the body is seen onboard.
Most importantly, for the next of kin, for authorities,
and for everyone interested, we take pictures of the burial.
Simultaneously, we note the position of the sea burial,
in case the deceased's next of kin wish to perform more rituals,
they know exactly
where their family member was buried at sea.
I'm not going to call today's video exciting, because it really wasn't.
It wasn't exciting, but it was informative for sure.
And surely, you learned about a new aspect of our lives.
That you found out that people do actually die onboard,
and how they're dealt with when they (ALLAH forbid) do.
It was a very different topic indeed, but
death is a reality of life. We can't escape it.
So I'm happy I was able to tell you about a phenomenon such as this.
And I'm also happy that you (hopefully) learned something new,
that you learned something new about the kind of lives we live.
So if you guys liked this video,
and you enjoyed the information I gave you,
please don't forget to like the video,
share it, and subscribe to the channel.
Take good care of yourselves, remember me in your prayers.
With tons of love to my Orange Shots family,
and to-be Orange Shots family.
Take very good care of yourselves.
This is Orange Shots, I'm Zahid Nisar.
Stay happy, stay safe.
Assalamualaikum.
ALLAH Hafiz.