Burial at sea: How a molehill on the seabed can be yours for eternity

Until the 1960s, only navvies and members of Germany's so-called Water Police were eligible for sea burial, though the law, which dates from the Nazi era, did allow certain exceptions, which Hahn demanded for himself, eventually asserting his claim in a Hamburg court. Photos: Ulrich Perrey/dpa

There are many misconceptions about what burials at sea entail, says Captain Horst Hahn, who dismisses one common assumption that ashes, once scattered into the deep blue, drift on the waves and wash up somewhere exotic where the deceased always wanted to go in their lifetime.

"That's nonsense," says the 89-year-old from Hamburg, who has become a pioneer of burial at sea. "When we die and are cremated, we are ground to powder in something like an oversized coffee grinder," says the captain, comparing the process to the gruesome ending of Max and Moritz, a popular 19th century children's book.