The mystery surrounding the arrival of three German funerary urns containing human ashes has been solved after a Dutch company said they had accidently fallen overboard during a sea burial.

Company Trip Scheepvaart specialises in scattering ashes at sea but last Friday’s mission went wrong when the box of three or four urns was lost.

Spokesman Dirk Roos told RTL Nieuws that German ashes are often scattered in Dutch waters because of the stricter rules about disposing of human remains in Germany. ‘The family can opt for a joint scattering at which they are not present and is cheaper than a complete on-board ceremony,’ he said.

The urns in question were due to be opened at sea and the ash scattered to the winds but the ‘box fell in the water’, he said. The crew did not report the accident back at base.

‘When we realised the urns came from our ship, we immediately approached the German crematorium,’ Roos said. ‘We thought the relatives should be the first to know.’

The ashes of one of the three urns found on a Dutch beach have now been scattered at sea, RTL said.

Scheveningen-based Trip Scheepvaart has been organising ash-scattering ceremonies at sea since 1962.