Salty Superstition
So abundant are sailing superstitions
That we've divided ours into superstitions that bring bad luck and Good Luck into two pages |
This page deals with all the things you might want to avoid
Salty Superstition deeply pervades the cruising community. When to set sail, what comes aboard even behavior underway is scrutinized by salts and woe to the sailor who disregards a telling sign. Ignore them at your peril is the unspoken warning.
OK, we are talking myth here. Or are we? The story goes that the British navy, in an attempt to dispel the "Never Begin a Voyage on Friday" myth had a ship laid up on a friday, splashed it down on a friday, named it the HMS Friday and hired a Captain named Friday. The HMS Friday was said to set sail on a friday never to be heard from again.
Sailing for adventure holds an element of risk even in these modern days of people finding gadgets.
The farther we get from mainstream society the deeper the trouble we can encounter.
Still true today but imagine hundreds of years ago setting sail to unknown lands on uncharted seas.
Many sailors never returned from their journeys and that's fodder for the superstition mill.
Salty Superstition is heeded religiously by some and scoffed at by others but it's a rare voyager who hasn't at least heard of some of these and many hold fast to the lore and plan voyages accordingly "just in case". Even the scoffers have often adopted at least some of the salty lore, why take any chances, right?
Sailing your own boat or during a caribbean sail boat charter it's fun to talk to other boaters about these enduring tales.
Prior to Departure
- Red heads and flat footed people bring bad luck to a ship if they are encountered while you are going to the ship. If you speak to them before they speak to you the bad luck is erased.
- Avoid clergymen and cross eyed people as you approach the ship as they are bringers of misfortune.
- Encountering an overturned washbasin on your way to departure brings misfortune.
- Renaming a boat (unless certain protocals are followed).
- A stone thrown over a departing vessel dooms the ship and ensures she will never return
- Naming a boat with a word that ends in "A"
- If the bottle fails to break during the launching ceremony
- Beginning a voyage on Friday or on the 13th of the month.
- Seeing rats leaving the ship (If the rats want off.....)
- Losing a bucket at sea
- Sailing on a green boat
- To have someone die aboard the ship.
- Killing an albatross or a dolphin.
- Sighting a cormorant or curlew.
- Bells heard at sea mean someone aboard will die.
- A shark following the ship. It is rumored that sharks can sense when someone is close to death.
- To cross an area where a ship has sunk.
- Saying the word drown while at sea can bring on the event.
- Whistling while underway can whistle up a storm.
- Crush egg shells before tossing them overboard so that witches can't use them as boats to get to your vessel.
- Opening tin cans upside down can cause capsize as can a shoe left upside down on board.
- Flowers on board could later be used as a funeral wreath.
- Gulls at sea are said to hold the souls of sailors who were lost at sea. Killing a gull will bring bad luck.
- Looking back once your ship has set sail is bad luck says one Salty Superstition.
- Throwing stones into the sea will cause waves and great storms.
- Women on board anger the sea but not, apparently, if they're naked. Naked women calm the sea.
- Priests are unwelcome guests aboard as they perform funerals.
- Black travelling bags bring misfortune to a sailor
- Cutting your hair, beard or nails at sea is just asking for trouble.
- Boarding the ship with your Left Foot first starts the whole journey off on the wrong foot.
- Lighting a cigarette with a candle can spell doom to a sailor.
- Elmo's Fire surrounding a sailor's head means he'll die within a day.
- Wearing the color red can bring bad luck.
- Throwing the cat overboard is a definite no no and will bring the ship and the souls she carries to all kinds of disaster.
- If garments of a dead sailor are worn by another sailor during that journey, the ship and all who man her are in peril.
- A dog near fishing tackle can bring bad luck.
- Don't pass a flag through the rungs of a ladder.
- Repairing a flag on the quarterdeck heralds misfortune.
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Bringers of Bad Fortune
Believers and scoffers alike, beware the telling sign. For Salty Superstition of the good variety go to
Good Luck Superstition
Check Out our sailing travels in Mexico at Sailing Blog
