Outdated Sea Traditions

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by kas_1611

"Not having a woman on board" is an odd one as without females on board in olden days the surname Gunson or Gunnerson may never have developed.

In Nelson's time the gunnery crews literally ate, slept and "made merry" by their guns. When the ship was in port often ladies would join the gun crews and naturally enough small gunners were a frequent result. Trouble was that the lady probably didn't know which of the crew was the father and if the little one was actually born on board (which did happen quite often) the father's name on the birth certificate, written by the ships medic or captain, would frequently be A.Gun or A.Gunner.

From this Gunson (Gunnson) or Gunnerson developed and we also get the term "son of a gun" as a slightly less demeaning version of "bastard".

Sometimes it is the quirky, old traditions that put the fun into sailing but there are some could easily go the way of the dodo and no one would notice or care.

I think as a Skipper it is your responsibility to the crew under you to ensure everyone is safe and accounted for before you leave a stricken vessel so I say "A Captain goes down with his ship" should be modified to "A Captain is the last to leave the ship" but the principle is still the same.

Only other one I can think of is this whole "raising and lowering the ensign" business. I don't think I have ever actually witness anyone doing that in the evening although I am sure there must be some people that do it religiously. I'm just not one of them. I only take my ensign down when I finally leave the boat at the end of my stay.

Keiron

Actually many (amongst them us) practice following the proscribed flag traditions.. Here in Denmark the flag is raised at sunrise (by custom 8 am copenhagen time), and taken down at actual sundown. Unless sunrise is after 8 am in which case the actual sunrise is followed.



There are several (very long) threads here on CF about flag traditions and what flies where .




Interesting subject - always good for a hundred posts or so




WWe all still tend to say we''re ""going to the head"" although I doubt if many of uus crawl out under the bowsprit for this..

[nigel1]

According to some, Winston Churchill stated that the traditions of the Royal Navy were "Rum, Sodomy and the lash"
This quote was thought to have arisen from an old catch phrase dating back to the 1800's to describe sailors
“Ashore it’s wine, women and song; aboard it’s rum, bum and concertina.”

[barnakiel]

They are all outdated, that's what makes them tradition!

Here, I have given up dragging under the keel. And whipping.

b.

[SaltyMonkey]

Never step onto a boat with your left foot first.

[SaltyMonkey]

My favorite is the ol' never sail on a Friday. Except you can sail on a Friday afternoon because Friday began 12 noon civil on Thursday according to traditional Nautical time. Or you could sail in the morning according to Astrological time because Friday started at Noon on Friday till Saturday.

Nautical time - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[farshore]

Perhaps you presuppose that all sailors see the world through the same prism associated with the electronic cruising age....? Others maybe saw(see) it very differently and would not change traditions. Here's a quote from one that did.
"To be truly challenging, a voyage, like life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind know to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea--"cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen and the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you really know what the sea is all about. "I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas but can't afford it.." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security". And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine--and before we know it our lives are gone. what does a man really need---really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, and six feet to lie down in--and some form of working activity that yields a sense of accomplishment. that's all--in the material sense. and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention away from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where the lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where then lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?" Sterling Hayden 1916-1986

[zeehag]

i will not start a trip on friday , nor will i whistle on board nor abandon ship to leave it floating in midocean. i was taught capt goes down with ship.
and what salty sed about friday is the word....
happy sails

[jdazey]

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.

The "no women on board" isn't still practiced in any commercial fishing I know about. My wife would certainly dispute the notion that women keep the fish away. She does all the cleaning and freezing and doesn't feel like there's any shortage

[s/v Beth]

Rabbits! Now there is a tradition secure in science!
BTW, some of the best fisherpeople on my boat have been teenage girls...
And I always carry banannas- good for smoothies.

[Saleen411]

The banana thing always struck me as odd. So here's a bit of background ....



Banana Ban

image: http://www.snopes.com/food/graphics/bananas.jpg



Claim: Bananas on a fishing boat are unlucky.

image: http://www.snopes.com/images/content-divider.gif


image: http://www.snopes.com/images/legend.gif

LEGEND
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Origins: We can't say how far back this superstition goes, but at least among sport fishermen there exists a belief that bananas on a boat are unlucky.

The sea offers plenty of opportunities for turns of ill luck. Fishing boats run aground or become lost. Mechanical failures result in boats floating helplessly adrift. Crew members become deathly sick from mysterious illnesses. Foul weather sweeps in. Any and all of these have been at various times attributed to bad luck.

image: http://www.snopes.com/luck/graphics/banana.gif

Banana While the superstitions involving fishermen and their boats are almost too numerous to mention, one particular entry in that category appears to attach almost solely to those who engage in sport (rather than commercial) fishing.

Bananas are deemed unlucky by recreational fishermen and those catering to that trade. Usually this rumor takes the form of the fish not biting on the day when bananas were discovered onboard, but mechanical breakdowns and other mishaps are also pointed to.

Some in the fishing charters business extend their distaste for the fruit to include not only banana ingestibles (fresh or dried chips of banana, banana muffins, plus anything banana flavored) but even to items bearing the word "banana" or anything evocative of it, such as Fruit of the Loom underwear, Banana Republic apparel, and Banana Boat sunscreen. (The prohibition against Fruit of the Loom underthings is particularly baffling because that clothier's logo depicts an apple, leaves, green grapes, currants, and purple grapes, with nary a banana in sight.)

In 2001 The New York Times quoted Rick Etzel of Montauk, New York, captain of The Breakaway, as saying: "Fishermen believe bananas are bad luck. Something about a shipload of bananas that carried some weird bacteria which killed everyone on board. Maybe fictitious, but some people take the banana thing very seriously. A few years back, a guy on one of my
image: http://cdnx.tribalfusion.com/media/c...oices_i_UR.png


image: http://cdnx.tribalfusion.com/media/c...choices_UR.png





charters showed up wearing a Banana Republic T-shirt. Another guy in the group went up to him with a knife and slashed the logo."

When the fishing starts out bad and stays that way, charter boat captains are likely to interrogate their clients of the day as to whether any of them might have brought a banana aboard. When the offending item is found — be it the fruit itself, a banana muffin, or a tube of Banana Boat suncreen — it is quickly flung overboard. Almost immediately, say those who have performed such exorcisms, the boat's luck turns around — the fish begin biting and a good day at sea is enjoyed by all.

No clear reason exists as to how this superstition came to be. Common explanations include:
When top-heavy ships of earlier eras would sink, precious little other than the bananas they'd carried would be found floating on the surface, thereby leaving some to conclude conveyance of the fruit itself had led to these naval mishaps.
Spiders, snakes, and other poisonous vermin living among bananas carried in the hold would, on long haul trips, expand their horizons by infesting other parts of the ship.
Because the speediest sailing ships were used to get bananas to their destinations before they could spoil, those attempting to fish from them never caught anything while trolling.
Fisherman became ill after eating the fruit.
Other fruits would spoil more quickly when bananas were being shipped along with them, causing folks to deem bananas "bad luck." (Actually, it wouldn't have been ill fate that resulted in the spoilage of other foodstuffs, but instead the ethylene gas emitted by bananas as they ripen.)
Crew member injured by slipping on discarded banana peels.
Fisherman misses landing the big one due to a case of "the runs" caused by bananas he'd ingested.
Banana oil rubs off onto the hands of fisherman, thereby "spooking" the fish.
Early anglers in Hawaii would embark upon lengthy fishing trips in dugout canoes provisioned with (along with other food items) bananas. The farther they went, the fewer the fish, causing some of them to mistake correlation for causation.
Barbara "yes we have no bananas" Mikkelson

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by Wotname

The captain goes down with the ship.
.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-fWDrZSiZs

I will go down with this ship!

[Saleen411]

Are we talking traditions or SUPERSTITIONS?.....seems like more of the latter.

[Steadman Uhlich]

"Changing the name of a boat is bad luck."

I have seen so many awful names on recreational boats that I would NEVER own them, just because of the current name that someone else picked.

While I like humor, some of the names seem to me (subjective opinion of course) to be ridiculous (their goal) and some in such poor taste (a matter of taste, of course) that I would not feel good sailing on that boat, or even being seen on it (due to offensive names).

Luckily, there is the "Name Changing Ceremony" tradition to counter this.

[zeehag]

maritime traditions equate to stoopidstishuns.. one and same.

[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.