Outdated Sea Traditions

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Oceanride007

One navigational tradition, used from time to time, particularly to unfamiliar/primitive shore and using nothing better than compass course, is to steer a course, say, 5 Deg North of the destination, then when the shore is observed, turn South.

This method called "hand railing" in some walking groups, (don't know nautical word), solved the problem to the ancient mariner, if his DR not spot on, "Which direction shall I go"?


Does any one have a nautical word for it.

Dunno... but in the early 70's I sailed with an 84 year old AB by the name of Charlie Boyd Davidson... one of the Boyds from Eden, NSW.... brilliant seaman.. did he have a story or two...
He had sailed on lumber schooners from the PNW to Oz and NZ pre WW1... US flag with not a US citizen aboard... Norwegian skippers ... SOP upon landfall was to sail south for a day or two.... if you didn't find the port you were looking for you would then sail north......

[Oceanride007]

Other Nav traditions, not sure if ships still do them:
Check Magnetic/Gyro compass error at sunrise & sunset.
Check accuracy of chronometer.
Don't suppose theres any need for a celestrial running fix.

Others tasks included dips of all fuel, ballast, FW, Cofferdam, Bilge. Lots of automation now, but I wonder.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Sailing to new lands, planting a flag and claiming the place (and locals!) for your King seems to have gone out of fashion a bit.......

[Island Time O25]

Is champaign bottle still broken at ship's launch or had that tradition died out?

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Lepke

A captain purposely going down with his ship happened as recently as WWII in the RN. Numerous USN Captains went down, but generally with heavy losses and not necessarily on purpose. Then the submariners, usually everyone went down.
No women on board is still practiced in commercial fishing. They keep the fish away. I know of no polite way to explain the reasoning....
Never start a trip on Friday is still believed among many fishermen, me included.

Actually that's not really true anymore just look at SIG Hansen on the FV northwestern he has his daughter on the boat with him and she actually works just as hard as the other deckhands

[nimblemotors]

You would think this is outdated, but the Chinese are doing just that today!

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Sailing to new lands, planting a flag and claiming the place (and locals!) for your King seems to have gone out of fashion a bit.......

[rgscpat]

Sailing an offset and then paralleling a coast in order to more surely arrive at a given port is a valid piloting technique when one's position is uncertain; in ages past, bad weather could make position fixes impossible to determine for days on end, leading to increasing uncertainty in one's dead reckoning track. That problem is unlikely in the electronic era, but offsets are still useful for clearing hazards... and nowadays we hear of electronics being so accurate that some silly skippers navigate a bit too directly to a buoy!

[rgscpat]

How about firing a gun from each boat when the Commodore's yacht arrives in the anchorage? That's in the original Chapman's.

[Seaworthy Lass]

A long outdated tradition/practice that still hasn't been dropped:

Using a sheet bend or double sheet bend to secure two lines together .

SWL

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Oceanride007

One navigational tradition, used from time to time, particularly to unfamiliar/primitive shore and using nothing better than compass course, is to steer a course, say, 5 Deg North of the destination, then when the shore is observed, turn South.

This method called "hand railing" in some walking groups, (don't know nautical word), solved the problem to the ancient mariner, if his DR not spot on, "Which direction shall I go"?


Does any one have a nautical word for it.

Good navigational technique.

[Stu Jackson]

Must be a bear for zeehag to sail without a woman onboard.

[roverhi]

'Small beer' and rum were probably issued for health reasons. Water kept in wooden kegs for months could grow some interesting critters. Mixing the water with rum or drinking 'small beer' killed off the bad critters. Using alcohol to make water safe to drink is a practice that goes back to ancient times. The Greeks mixed water with their wine for just such purpose. The old phrase for an alchoholic was someone who drank straight, undiluted wine. Of course, the Greeks may have just been trying to cut the flavor of the resin they used to seal their wine jugs that also flavored the wine, Retsina.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Dunno... but in the early 70's I sailed with an 84 year old AB by the name of Charlie Boyd Davidson... one of the Boyds from Eden, NSW.... brilliant seaman.. did he have a story or two...
He had sailed on lumber schooners from the PNW to Oz and NZ pre WW1... US flag with not a US citizen aboard... Norwegian skippers ... SOP upon landfall was to sail south for a day or two.... if you didn't find the port you were looking for you would then sail north......

Brilliant, given the prevailing SE trades, finding the port would be a resting up time prior to unloading.

For the non-Australian folks, the Boyds were prime movers in the old whaling town of Eden, New South Wales, which was once considered for the capital of that State. A very long maritime history there, sort of like New Bedford, Mass.

Ann

PS. to Zeehag, I've never mentioned it, but I like your word games, as "furycames" and "stupidstitions". Thanks. They coalesce important characteristics of the words they replace. Excellent.

A

[JPA Cate]

And now, back to Wotname's thread.

If the various punishments for being a drunken sailor (as mentioned in the song, "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?" were to be enforced, there'd sure be a bunch of unhappy sailors around Oz, just think of it:

-first soaking wet (put him in the scuppers with a hose pipe on him)
-exhausted (put him in the long boat till he's sober)
-bleeding (shave him in the belly with a rusty razor)

No, the Pittwaterites would NOT be amused at all.

There's another verse: put him in charge of an Exxon tanker, but that's not traditional...

Just imagine it.

Ann

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Oceanride007

Figure Heads of Busty bare breasted maidens were thought to quell a savage sea.

So it wasn't all negative for women.

Uhm, well, according to my spouse, the origin of the figurehead was...in acient times, when a new ship was christened, they would tie a sacrificial virgin to the bow sprit, to appease the Gods.