05/24/2025
"In ocean wastes no poppies blow. No crosses stand in ordered row. There young hearts sleep beneath the wave..."
They were lost with their ship, boat, or aircraft, succumbing to violent conflict with an enemy or vanquished by the awesome power of wind and wave. They perished alone or alongside shipmates. They were buried at sea with appropriate ceremony or doomed to descend to the bottom ever entombed with the ship that was their home and sanctuary.
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In Waters Deep
In ocean wastes no poppies blow,
No crosses stand in ordered row,
There young hearts sleepā¦ beneath the waveā¦
The spirited, the good, the brave,
But stars a constant vigil keep,
For them who lie beneath the deep.
āTis true you cannot kneel in prayer
On certain spot and think. āHeās there.ā
But you can to the ocean goā¦
See whitecaps marching row on row;
Know one for him will always rideā¦
In and outā¦ with every tide.
And when your span of life is passed,
Heāll meet you at the āCaptainās Mast.ā
And they who mourn on distant shore
For sailors whoāll come home no more,
Can dry their tears and pray for these
Who rest beneath the heaving seasā¦
For stars that shine and winds that blow
And whitecaps marching row on row.
And they can never lonely be
For when they livedā¦ they chose the sea.
Ā©2001 by Eileen Mahoney
Image: Coast Guardsmen aboard Coast Guard manned USS Callaway (APA-35) pay final respects to a lost shipmate prior to burial at sea, January, 1945 (Coast Guard photo)
