For Those Buried at Sea

Memorial Day is set aside to honor all who fell in war for the cause of human liberty throughout our history.

One of the traditions of Memorial Day is the reading or the reciting of the WWI poem “On Flanders Fields,” which is an evocative memorial to those who fell in the trenches and battlefields of that war. It is associated with the tradition, then, of the wearing of red poppies to remember that terrible cost.

The poem below does the same thing, but it specifically remembers those sailors and Marines who were killed in action at sea and were then buried at sea because of the exigencies of ongoing war.

Read this. Read it out loud. It is short, but it is very powerful. The losses at sea were particularly great in both of the 20th century’s worldwide wars.

The Veterans Site honors all those who rest beneath the waves. We can not visit them like their brothers who fell on the battlefields of Europe or the islands on the Pacific, but they are also on our minds this Memorial Day.

This poem is called ‘In Waters Deep’ and was written by Eileen Mahoney.

Rest in peace all who went to sea and rest easy until you are called to Captain’s Mast on the Last Day.

‘In Waters Deep’

In ocean wastes no poppies blow,
No crosses stand in ordered row,
There young hearts sleep…beneath the wave…
The spirited, the good, the brave,
But stars a constant vigil keep,
For them who lie beneath the deep.
‘Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer
On certain spot and think, “He’s there.”
But you can to the ocean go…
See whitecaps marching row on row;
Know one for him will always ride…
In and out…with every tide.

And when your span of life is passed,
He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.”
And they who mourn on distant shore
For sailors who’ll come home no more,
Can dry their tears and pray for these
Who rest beneath the heaving seas…
For stars that shine and winds that blow
And whitecaps marching row on row.
And they can never lonely be
For when they lived…they chose the sea.

In the video below, you can hear this poem read aloud as you read about the many ships that have been sunk with sailors and Marines aboard over the years.