What is the origin of the saying; "Crossed over the bar"? having to do with someone who has died?

Question

Military? Coast Guard?

Answer 1

"The origin for this saying comes from the old sailing ship days.
Just outside every port or harbour in the world there is a strip of sand called
the bar which is formed by the tides and if you don’t cross it at the right time
of the tide you can ground the ship with disastrous consequences. This is
known as “Crossing the Bar”. It signifies that you have completed your voyage across the
stormy tempestuous ocean and have entered the relative peace and tranquillity of the harbour
and now the celebrations can begin."

Answer 2

In an un-developed harbor, where the port village is on a river, the sand and other sedimentary debris washed down the river is spread along shore (littorally, literally). Ocean waves may sometime strike the shore perpendicularly, but that changes with the weather; the prevailing currents may be oblique, but they are along the shore in effect. Over the years this forms the shallow area, the bar, where the tide turns back and forth and the sediment falls out. And eventually the quiet water behind it. Of course dredging changes these patterns. While I appreciate the poetic image in the other answer, I feel the phrase in the language comes from the earlier circumstance, when large ships were obliged to anchor out and send in longboats and lighters (the same thing,but organised for cargo). In this situation, the rowed boat "crossing the bar" would very often be the last view of the passenger from the shore. That person would no longer be among the villagers (trips in those days may take three years, and were not guaranteed in any sense).So the dead person may be said to have crossed the bar, beginning the great voyage of the after-life; disappearing from the local community.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Bar