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Superstitions


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Redhand, I'm glad you brought up the red-sky thing, but I was going to ask about that one....I see plenty of red sky in the morning and our weather is blasted monotonous, aye, the local puritans run screaming at the barest bit a' precipitaion so unused are they to water falln from the sky. 'Fraid it will dampen their nachos I imagine. Dilute the margaritas....speaking of which......

walked around the Queen Mary one afternoon lookin for ghosts......must have been their day off..........union?

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I 'eard a story about wreckers, or blokes wot stand ashore with lanterns to fool incomin' ships into thinkin' they were lighthouses and runnin' aground, then plunder 'em. The story went that the spirits o' the crew of a wrecked ship came ashore an' killed all but one o' a gang o' wreckers...can't remember any details, though. Interestin' ghost stories from ships, eh?

LA

That story sounds like one I have heard coming from the Jersye Shore, notorious wreckers as they was.

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Another one I've heard; tossing money overboard will bring on the wind (paying King Neptune, or the likes). Apparently, during the war of 1812, a privateering captain was being chased by a larger frigate in a dead calm. The captain tossed a silver dollar overboard and suddenly the wind blew hard and allowed the privateer to escape under reefed sails. The captain made a comment that he should have asked for change.

As for the whistling, a BMC on a Coast Guard Cutter I was on this summer said that boatswain mates were the only ones allowed to whistle on a boat. This made sense to me, what with the bo's'un's pipe and all. Whistling was supposed to bring foul winds, whereas tossing money overboard were supposed to bring fair winds.

Coastie04 :ph34r:

She was bigger and faster when under full sail

With a gale on the beam and the seas o'er the rail

sml_gallery_27_597_266212.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

I've also heard losing a mop or bucket overboard is a bad omen.

When starting a voyage, don't look back to the shore.

Wearing the clothes of a dead man before the voyage has ended is bad luck.

Never speak the name of the dead, it would call them to you.

A knife stuck into the main mast would summon a favorable wind.

Never say, drown or sink while at sea.

Some pirates tattooed open eyes on their eyelids so as to never be caught asleep.

An earring would boost your stamina and endurance.

Killing a seagull or albatross would bring death, the only counter to this was to wear the bird around your neck until landfall, then give the bird a Christian burial. If not, the bird was hung about the offenders neck and he and the bird were tossed to the sea, for a discussion and trial by Neptune. " Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"

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Foxe thumps head on desk...

Old hands know where I'm coming from...

Foxe

"With this Fore-Staff he fansies he does Wonders, when, God knows, it amounts to no more but only to solve that simple Question, Where are we? Which every chi'd in London can tell you." - Ned Ward The Wooden World Dissected, 1707


ETFox.co.uk

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  • 1 month later...

Need to resurrect this thread, I'm needin' more info on this... and if ya got sources, lit 'em too!

Thankee Kindly....

Truly,

D. Lasseter

Captain, The Lucy

Propria Virtute Audax --- In Hoc Signo Vinces

LasseterSignatureNew.gif

Ni Feidir An Dubh A Chur Ina Bhan Air

"If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me." Deuteronomy 32:41

Envy and its evil twin - It crept in bed with slander - Idiots they gave advice - But Sloth it gave no answer - Anger kills the human soul - With butter tales of Lust - While Pavlov's Dogs keep chewin' - On the legs they never trust... The Seven Deadly Sins

http://www.colonialnavy.org

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William,

Why do you think I try to always be on the ship before you?

:lol:

Truly,

D. Lasseter

Captain, The Lucy

Propria Virtute Audax --- In Hoc Signo Vinces

LasseterSignatureNew.gif

Ni Feidir An Dubh A Chur Ina Bhan Air

"If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me." Deuteronomy 32:41

Envy and its evil twin - It crept in bed with slander - Idiots they gave advice - But Sloth it gave no answer - Anger kills the human soul - With butter tales of Lust - While Pavlov's Dogs keep chewin' - On the legs they never trust... The Seven Deadly Sins

http://www.colonialnavy.org

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cross-eyed, no... redheaded, yes... this is also why I try my damn'dest to greet you first...

And as for the women thing... I'll ignore the superstition as long as they do the necessary thing to calm the seas....

Truly,

D. Lasseter

Captain, The Lucy

Propria Virtute Audax --- In Hoc Signo Vinces

LasseterSignatureNew.gif

Ni Feidir An Dubh A Chur Ina Bhan Air

"If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me." Deuteronomy 32:41

Envy and its evil twin - It crept in bed with slander - Idiots they gave advice - But Sloth it gave no answer - Anger kills the human soul - With butter tales of Lust - While Pavlov's Dogs keep chewin' - On the legs they never trust... The Seven Deadly Sins

http://www.colonialnavy.org

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One good old tradition of the New England coast (and repeated in variations in many other places): If it rains while the sun is shining, then the Devil is beating his wife with a codfish.

What the Hell that means, exactly, I have never been able to ascertain.

Red Sea Trade

In days of old when ships were bold just like the men that sailed 'em,

and if they showed us disrespect we tied 'em up and flailed 'em,

often men of low degree and often men of steel,

they'd make you walk the plank alone or haul you 'round the keel.

--Adam and the Ants

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  • 3 weeks later...

Found this book the other day at my local library

A Cavalcade of Sea Legends - Michael Brown

It's an older book full of different stories about sea monsters, superstitions, and famous voyages. Some of it is pretty interesting.

I start to wonder

with me pockets full of plunder,

is there more to life at sea

than piracy? NO!

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Sea cucumber :blink: ..... it squirts!

http://www.myspace.com/oderlesseye
http://www.facebook....esseye?ref=name
Noquarter2copy.jpg
Hangin at Execution dock awaits. May yer Life be a long and joyous adventure in gettin there!
As he was about to face the gallows there, the pirate is said to have tossed a sheaf of papers into the crowd, taunting his audience with these final words:

"My treasure to he who can understand."

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  • 1 month later...

Looking at the following quote makes ut easy to understand why sailors and pirates would be superstitious..

~~~~

Yet a sailor's life is at best, but a mixture of a little good with much evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with the revolting, the sublime with the commonplace, and the solemn with the ludicrous.

~~~~

The only one I came across was superstition about renaming a ship without proper ceremony of one kind to put the "soul" of the previous name at rest.

Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants won't help....

Her reputation was her livelihood.

I'm a pirate, love. By nature and by choice!

My inner voice sometimes has an accent!

My wont? A delicious rip in time...

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