My Dad served on the cruiser Brooklyn & the aircraft carrier Monterey in WWII. He told me about burials at sea during the war. He said that they would take the deceased sailor or all the body parts that they could find & sew him up in a canvas with a 5" shell at the feet. Then, the body was put on a hatch cover & covered in an American flag. After the appropriate words & a rifle salute, the hatch cover would be tipped up ( holding on to the flag) and the body would slide out from underneath it into the briney deep. Since they don't allow that anymore, I will have to commit his ashes to the deep when the time comes.