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Message: [QUOTE="Bob Godfrey, post: 79838, member: 136612"] The Californian had no facilities for the safe transportation of dead bodies. Neither did the Carpathia and, for that matter, neither did the Titanic. It was an accepted risk of sea travel that if you died in mid-ocean you would be buried at sea. And is not that still the case - if an airliner comes down in the ocean your chances of ending up buried alongside your ancestors in a country churchyard are not good. The Carpathia of course needed to head for New York without further delay, while the Californian could probably have followed the currents and located bodies without too much difficulty. But what then? If they did catch up with the drift, there would be not a few but hundreds. An impossible situation for a vessel not equipped for a specialised task on that scale. Lee, I think it's safe to say that the crowds watching Astor's funeral procession were motivated by curiosity rather then affection. Millionaires might be admired, but they are rarely loved! You ask whether the 1st Class bodies received preferential treatment. Initially, yes. [I]All[/I] the bodies found were recovered, and in no particular order (there was no way of knowing their status until after recovery). The intention had been to embalm and bring ashore all the bodies (of passengers at least) but there were coffins for 1st Class, while the rest were bagged. As I stated above, at one point when the necessary materials had been exhausted [I]every [/I]body was buried at sea, but when more ships and more supplies arrived the policy reverted to embalming for all. When the official recovery operation had ended a few bodies, some after months adrift, were recovered by ships engaged in the normal business of Atlantic crossings. These were always buried at sea as was the normal custom. [/QUOTE]

Verification: In which year did the Titanic sail?