Canadian Funeral Firm Writes Ode to Titanic Undertakers

BURNABY, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian funeral services company is the latest to tap into the renewed interest in the Titanic with a dedication in its annual report to the role undertakers played in the ocean disaster.

Loewen Group Inc.. used two pages of its 1997 annual report to the activities of its Halifax, Nova Scotia affiliate, Snow & Co., in helping to collect the bodies of those who did not survive the wreck.

"John Snow and his staff boarded a steamer and headed for the accident site, where they prepared over 300 bodies retrieved from the icy Atlantic," according to the report issued in preparation for Loewen's May 14, shareholders' meeting.

The report includes a black and white archival picture of the Snow staff posing with horse-drawn hearses. Loewen, which owns or operates more than 1,110 funeral homes in the U.S. and Canada, purchased the Halifax company in 1985.

"Their legacy of commitment and dedication at the time of the Titanic disaster is maintained to this day, and reflects the fine tradition of the funeral service profession of caring for the dead and caregiving to the living," the report reads.

About 1,500 people were killed when the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Many of the victims whose bodies could be retrieved were buried in Halifax.

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), April 13, 1998

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-- Thomas M. Terashima (titanicShack@yahoo.com), May 14, 1998.