A former Premier has revealed how he plans to be buried at sea in a metal coffin to create an artificial coral reef which future generations of divers can visit.

Dr. David Saul - who ran the Island as leader of the United Bermuda Party from 1995 to 1997 - has devised an environmentally-friendly plan which will see divers carry his body to a custom-made casket pegged to the ocean floor.

The box - designed by Dr. Saul and built by Dennis Correia of Correia Construction Company - is due to be lowered into its resting place nine fathoms (54ft) down in Devonshire Bay within the next few weeks.

It is covered in holes small enough to allow fish inside. “The fish have got to get in to enjoy the banquet,” said Dr. Saul.

“They will clean my body right down to my bones and some of them will crush the bones. The bones will eventually turn to coral themselves.”

Dr. Saul, 66, plans to dive down and check the casket at its location some 400 metres off Devonshire Bay once a year until his death.

“I'll probably make 90 but that's immaterial,” he said.

“My great grandchildren could swim down there to it and say ‘there's great grandpa down at that reef'.”

The ex-politician and father-of-two has had to wait more than 19 months to get the final permission from Government to carry out his unusual plan, which is carefully detailed in his will and which he says has left his family “bemused”.

Sea burials in Bermuda usually have to be at a depth of 100 fathoms (600ft).

Dr. Saul, a keen diver, fisherman and kayaking fan, said the metal coffin, which weighs about 600lb and cost around $5,000, will quickly attract coral polyps which will attach themselves to the surface and grow to form a reef.

The watery grave will provide a habitat for sealife including fish, lobsters and crabs and will be easily reachable by divers, due to the relatively shallow depth.

Dr. Saul, a prostate cancer survivor, told The Royal Gazette: “It's been proven that many a large, large coral reef had its beginnings on a Coca Cola tin or a bottle. It needs to have its beginnings on something that's obviously not toxic.

“I got so much while I was alive from the sea that when I have gone I'd like to be continuously giving something back to the sea. One of the ways of doing it is putting your body in a metal box and put it to sea. It's doing no harm to anyone.”

He added: “I wouldn't want to go in very ordinary fashion. What I don't want is to depart and for people to say ‘wasn't he just ordinary'.”

Dr. Saul conceived the scheme 18 years ago. He said: “I'm going to put the box down well in advance of the fateful day. I thought ‘wouldn't it be great to give something back to the sea'. My artificial reef is my idea of something interesting.

“To me, it's a far more practical way of being interred than going in a church yard and taking up valuable space.”

As a former Premier, Dr. Saul's funeral is likely to take place at Hamilton Cathedral before his body is transported to Devonshire Bay by the Bermuda Regiment. There, a party will be laid on for mourners.

“I have put away $10,000 for a great party,” said the ex-Finance Minister. “People will have a drink and eat a sandwich and someone will blow a bugle.”

His body will be placed in a sack and taken underwater by fellow divers from the British Sub-Aqua Club.

“I hope someone is witty enough to play along with it and put my dive belt on,” he said. “The end where I'm going to be inserted, it's a piece of steel that's lifted upwards like a guillotine and I will be put in and the guillotine will be closed. I will be easily moved in situ.”

He said his wife Christine planned a more traditional sea burial for herself “in the old Royal Navy style” and admitted his scheme was “all extremely humorous if you have a morbid sense of humour”.

He said: “I didn't want to do anything that was either illegal or not aesthetic. Well off the south shore where people do not swim or dive this box will sit. Eventually, in a very short space of time it will be unrecognisable.

“In 25 years it will probably still look like a box but it will be covered in soft and hard corals.

“Every year I will dive down to it and photograph it so we have a record of the coral and the coral growth. Every year I will lift up the trap there to check it to make sure it's still working and shine my flashlight inside to make sure someone else hasn't occupied it in the meantime.”

He said he was “fairly certain” his family would comply with his wishes. “Why not?” he added.

He has already tested out the box and said he felt “nothing”.

“It was no more than lying in bed. I live in Devonshire Bay and I look out of the window and there's the sea. I have spent a good portion of my life on top of it or underneath it. This is the way I want to say farewell.

“It's probably a first in Bermuda. It's certainly the first Premier of a country who has done it.”

Wendy Tucker, director of Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, of which Dr. Saul is a founding trustee, said: “It's a good thing because it creates its own environment and fish start to congregate around it. It helps the environment. It's an unusual idea but it's certainly a good idea.

“His heart is in the ocean so it's very appropriate for him to be doing this.”

Mr. Correia said it was the most unusual commission he had received. “This is brand-new to us but nothing David says surprises me.”