Superstitions

[Zephyr]

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?

[Revenge]

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.

[Coastie04]

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

[Red Dog]

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"

[Fox]

Foxe thumps head on desk...

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

[kass]

Welcome back, Mr. Foxe!

[Dorian Lasseter]

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

Thankee Kindly....

[William Brand]

It's considered unlucky;

...3. to meet someone with red hair, a clergyman, or a cross-eyed person on the way to the harbor.

And what if your Captain is a redhead?

Or worse, a cross-eyed, redheaded, clergyman.

[The Doctor]

I can see him now, straddled over a grave. A rabbit in one hand, a knife in the other. "Which one of the eight feet do ye want, gov'ner?!"

[Dorian Lasseter]

William,

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

[William Brand]

Heeeeey...

I am not cross-eyed.

[William Brand]

And our boat is crawling with women.

[Dorian Lasseter]

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....

[Red Sea Trade]

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 Dog]

Dang, I'm screwed. I'm a redheaded revrend. My father always said I was bad luck.

[Capn_Enigma]

If it rains while the sun is shining, then the Devil is beating his wife with a codfish.

Is this the same as "The Fish- Slapping Dance"?

[Captain Jim]

Fish slapping dance on You-Tube.

The live-action shot. You can't launch a ship this way but you can launch one o' yer mates.

[Captain Every]

In the Russian Imperial Navy they beleived that scratching the mast will bring good wind. I wonder if it was got by Russian sailors from abroad, being originally England or Dutch superstition?

["hellfire" Marie]

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.

[oderlesseye]

Sea cucumber ..... it squirts!

[Red Cat Jenny]

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.

[Jacky Tar]

"Red Cat Jenny, did ye know that shipbuilders would lay a silver coin beneath a ship’s mast; the coin is suppose t' protect the ship and crew from storms! There are legends and superstitions about every part of the ship."

[Desert Pyrate]

I don't post here much... but yeesh. Not only are we resurrecting an old thread when there's a new version on the same front page of the topic, but the last post is referring a superstition mentioned on the first page OF THIS VERY THREAD.