Contrary to popular beliefs, sailors are not superstitious. That’s claptrap the college folklorists made up to sell books. We are no more liable to think a bogyman is haunting our boat than the average person.
In my esteemed opinion, sailors are among the more rational of God’s creations.
Just note:
- Sailing on a Friday is bad juju.
- Please do not come aboard with bananas – same as above.
- Please! No whistling
- It’s bad luck to disturb Blackie, our cat mascot; he brings us good luck.
- No sky pilots, or bead jinglers, are allowed on board ( ministers to the uninitiated).
- Never say anything bad about Davy Jones’ Locker. It’s where all our lost items go, and we’d like to have a chance at recovering them.
- Oh. One last thing, Jonah’s will be deep-sixed over the side. So, if you’re a Jonah, are worried that you might be a Jonah, or have ever been called a Jonah – don’t come near us!
haha! Thank you for debunking that superstitious myth!
I love this, Lou.
Where does the term deep-sexed originate? Is that to do with sea mines or something. I ask because it sometimes gets used in the kitchen when an item needs to be scraped from the menu. That or 86’ed which is another mystery term.
To deep-six something is to throw it into the depths. You may be aware that the author Samuel Clemens started off as a riverboat pilot, his pen name was Mark Twain. Mark twain like deep- six are marks showing depth on the leadsman’s line. The lead was a weight attached to a rope that had makes in it gauged for depth in fathoms and both mark twain and deep-six were marks at specific depths. Deep six was the mark for six fathoms. Each fathom was equal to six feet of depth. Taking these readings was important to ensure that there was enough water beneath the keel that the ship would not run aground. Thirty-six feet of depth was pretty secure, and anything consigned to that depth had ” gone to Davy” – that is gone to Davy Jones.
Thank you so much for the intriguing lesson. Now, I know how to not get my hull stuck! Cheers, Lou! Have a great weekend!
Actually the rules about babanas and disturbing the cat seem very sensible.
I never thought much about it till about seven years ago – I’ve never seen a banana on any boat I sailed on. And then I realized that I don’t remember them on Navy deployments either, but that was the ’60’s things may have changed.
Good stuff