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Old 29-05-2015, 21:14   #1
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Outdated Sea Traditions

It seems that many of the older traditions of the Sea are giving way to the more modern ways life. Things like never having women on board or not leaving port of a Friday!

What in you view are the ones least practiced today by the recreational sailor (cruiser) - or even CF member

And should some of these be re-introduced??????

I'll start the ball rolling.

The captain goes down with the ship.

This was always(?) considered self evident and in lore - was rarely violated - at least in certain Royal naval circumstances; perhaps it was really less common than tradition suggests...
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Old 29-05-2015, 21:17   #2
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

We sail with bananas all the time.
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Old 29-05-2015, 23:01   #3
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

We even go bananas sometimes!

Wottie, I think one reason women were not welcome on board is because the men felt guilty when they saved themselves and chucked the women and children into the sea. Also, they were considered bad luck, and I'll wager some CF'ers might agree with that, too.

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Old 29-05-2015, 23:02   #4
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

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Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate View Post
We even go bananas sometimes!

Wottie, I think one reason women were not welcome on board is because the men felt guilty when they saved themselves and chucked the women and children into the sea. Also, they were considered bad luck, and I'll wager some CF'ers might agree with that, too.

Cheers,
I suspect also that women on board for long voyages caused jealousy and even fights as other sailors without access to said women resented the favors bestowed on the other men.
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Old 29-05-2015, 23:20   #5
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

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.
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Old 30-05-2015, 01:38   #6
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

Evenstar has a point there, how much bad luck it would be to have the crew fighting over a woman....Yuck!

The Friday deal is a mystery to me.

Ann
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Old 30-05-2015, 01:57   #7
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

The parbuckling of matelots seems to have fallen into disuse.
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Old 30-05-2015, 02:16   #8
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

Twas a sad day indeed...........source Black Tot Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black Tot Day (July 31, 1970) is the name given to the last day on which the Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration (the daily tot).

In the 17th century the daily drink ration for English sailors was a gallon of beer. Due to the difficulty in storing the large quantities of liquid that this required in 1655 a half pint of rum was made equivalent and became preferred to beer. Over time drunkenness on board naval vessels increasingly became a problem and the ration was formalised in naval regulations by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740 and ordered to be mixed with water in a 4:1 water to rum ratio and split into two servings per day.[1]

In the 19th century there was a change in the attitude towards alcohol due to continued discipline problems in the navy and in 1824 the size of the tot was halved to a quarter pint in an effort to improve the situation. In 1850 the Admiralty's Grog Committee, convened to look into the issues surrounding the rum ration, recommended that it be eliminated completely. However rather than ending it the navy further halved it to an eighth of a pint per day, eliminating the evening serving of the ration.[2] This led to the ending of the ration for officers in 1881 and warrant officers in 1918.[citation needed]

On December 17, 1969 the Admiralty Board issued a written answer to a question from the MP for Woolwich East, Christopher Mayhew saying "The Admiralty Board concludes that the rum issue is no longer compatible with the high standards of efficiency required now that the individual's tasks in ships are concerned with complex, and often delicate, machinery and systems on the correct functioning of which people's lives may depend". This led to a debate in the House of Commons on the evening of January 28, 1970, now referred to as the 'Great Rum Debate', started by James Wellbeloved, MP for Erith and Crayford, who believed that the ration should not be removed. The debate lasted an hour and 15 minutes and closed at 10:29pm with a decision that the rum ration was no longer appropriate.[3]

July 31, 1970 was the final day of the rum ration[4] and it was poured as usual at 6 bells in the forenoon watch (11am) after the pipe of 'up spirits'. Some sailors wore black armbands, tots were 'buried at sea' and in one navy training camp, HMS Collingwood, the Royal Naval Electrical College at Fareham in Hampshire there was a mock funeral procession complete with black coffin and accompanying drummers and piper.[5] The move was not popular with the ratings despite an extra can of beer being added to the daily rations in compensation.[6]

A special stamp was issued, available from Portsmouth General Post Office, with the slogan "Last Issue of Rum in the Royal Navy July 31, 1970".[7]

Black Tot Day was subsequently followed in two other Commonwealth navies (the Royal Australian Navy having already discontinued the rum ration, in 1921): (i) March 31, 1972 was the final day of the rum ration in the Royal Canadian Navy; and (ii) February 27, 1990 was the final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy.
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Old 30-05-2015, 02:21   #9
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

The RN only won battles cos the lower deck were well pissed on rum... them latins only had crappo wine...

The history of rum is quite interesting

The US navy gave it up between about 1900/1914...
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Old 30-05-2015, 02:39   #10
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

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

So it wasn't all negative for women.
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Old 30-05-2015, 02:44   #11
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

A nice one sometimes enjoyed on some vessels carrying passengers was "Captains drinks" just before the evening meal.
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Old 30-05-2015, 02:54   #12
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

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Figure Heads of Busty bare breasted maidens were thought to quell a savage sea....
A bit like a bulbous bow?
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Old 30-05-2015, 02:55   #13
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

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The US navy gave it up between about 1900/1914...
1914... A Hundred Years Dry: The U.S. Navy's End of Alcohol at Sea - USNI News
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Old 30-05-2015, 03:41   #14
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

"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
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Old 30-05-2015, 03:57   #15
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Re: Outdated Sea Traditions.

FWIW,

I happened to be working in England when the tot was eliminated. There was a lead tech in the establishment who was a retired chief from the RN, and he was mightily distressed by the event. Not because folks were gonna have to face the sea sober, but because if a chief couldn't take the tot away from a misbehaving sailor as a minor punishment there wasn't a practical replacement to set them straight. He predicted a downturn in discipline... dunno if it eventuated, though.

One must wonder what the alcohol content of that early rum was? A pint of overproof would paralyze lots of folks!

Cheers,

Jim
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