Storing a Body at Sea

Portsmouth is a city on the southern coast of England. They have a naval base there and a historic dockyard area with a few old ships that you can get on. One of the ships is the HMS Victory which was the flagship for the Royal Navy during the Battle of Trafalgar. During this battle, a famous Admiral was killed—Admiral Lord Nelson. But England won the battle and established their supremacy in the seas. The problem was that Nelson wanted his body taken back to England for burial rather than being buried at sea. In order to keep the body preserved for the 3 month journey back to England, they put it in a cask full of brandy. Here’s a picture of the actual cask. Apparently that worked pretty well.

Here’s a picture of the HMS Victory.