Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

I have heard that its unlucky to set sail on a Friday and unlucky if a vessel is renamed while she is in the water.

I have heard my dad says the same thing, only thing is that if you are in the service, any day that you are scheduled to the boat/ ship is a bad day, I suppose...!!

As for the renaming, that is usually done when the boat is in port, or under servicing, so I suppose there is some to what you've mentioned, Opa Brit.

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

It was for a long time viewed as bad luck to have women onboard ships, whether this superstition still exist or not. I don't know.

The Oceans provide with other myths; the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil's Triangle south of Japan. The Bermuda Triangle is also related to the myths/legends of the Atlantis. Since Plato wrote down the thing about a high developed society which disappeared beneath the ocean, people have been searching for the Atlantis.

Funny you should mention that, 13. When Singapore was embarking on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), the train system, the main engineers, were guys from Holland, particularly the underground tunneling. Stories had it that they too, were aversed to having women's presence in the tunnel during the tunneling process- bad luck I was told. What happened was, during the process, the PR director of the project, a woman, wanted to inspect and tour the underground section. All the entourage was cleared, except for her, the only woman in the group- reason given was safety reasons...

Well, you do have women serving on board vessels nowadays, even submarines... what can I say, buddy...

Originally Posted by zhaldev

The legend of Bermuda triangle used to be a hot topic back in school those days.many stories were told of its magnetic field to suck up anything that come near its range.then there were stories of ship wreck and airplane crashes who dare venture near it,i don't know how but we believed in many things back then.

And about superstitions no country is as superstitious as India.As an ancient country and civilization it comes with varied superstition one can imagine.However their are many superstitions which has scientific reasons or say it teaches science in very common, popular,acceptable ways.for ex.Like plucking of a flower at night is considered a sin.

Interesting that you've mentioned about plucking flowers at night, zhaldev... This is what I understand from my Indian Singaporean friends- Treees are living things, too (It has been been proven scientifically ) and they have spirits residing in them, especially after sundown. So disturbing them after dark would not be a good idea, because you would be disturbing the spirits- So don't go plucking flowers at night...

Originally Posted by viper2007

Funny you should mention that, 13. When Singapore was embarking on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), the train system, the main engineers, were guys from Holland, particularly the underground tunneling. Stories had it that they too, were aversed to having women's presence in the tunnel during the tunneling process- bad luck I was told. What happened was, during the process, the PR director of the project, a woman, wanted to inspect and tour the underground section. All the entourage was cleared, except for her, the only woman in the group- reason given was safety reasons...

Well, you do have women serving on board vessels nowadays, even submarines... what can I say, buddy...

There are many women serving onboard naval vessels around the world; what about all those merchant ships and other work related vessels? Another thing with this superstition; it must have been an odd feeling on all the ships, transporting immigrants if the people working on these ships were superstitious about to have ladies onboard

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

There are many women serving onboard naval vessels around the world; what about all those merchant ships and other work related vessels? Another thing with this superstition; it must have been an odd feeling on all the ships, transporting immigrants if the people working on these ships were superstitious about to have ladies onboard

Hmm, nobody seems to have difficulty in handling that, I suppose...

As to why this superstition exist, I am somewhat curios... Perhaps someone has the answer to this. Any help would be most appreciated...

Sailors have a long tradition of superstition; looking for any edge they could find to give them comfort on stormy nights at sea. There are so many facets the ancient sailor´s life that he has no control over—the sea, the weather – that he seemed to seize control over any aspect he could. Women were considered bad luck, and that having a woman on board a ship when it was at sea would anger the sea gods, bringing on horrible weather and rough water.

The most ironic twist to the "women on ship are bad luck" superstition was the flip side of the coin, a superstition that had women being good luck in connection with the ship. Put this together with the power of a bare chested woman to "shame nature" and keep the waves away, and you have the reason behind the popularity of topless women depicted as figureheads on many sailing ships.

Keeping women off of a working ship, and like many superstitions in the work place comes from a very sensible origin. The fact is while in some cases there were rules against women on board ship (not passenger ships, however) it was more often due to the distracter factor than any superstition. A woman on board a ship full of men on a months-long voyage could bring on all sorts of headaches for the captain, not to mention the woman.

A smoker not accepting the 3rd light has a basis of fact. During WW1 a sniper would see someone strike a match and take the first light, he would take aim as the second smoker took the 2nd light and when someone took the 3rd light BANG, he took the shot.

According to a law of the Danish King Christian the 4th (1577 - 1648) it was said: Women and pigs must not be held on board His Majesty the King's ships

That has changed - women are serving today on board Danish Navy vessels. And let's face it, the pigs have always been on board.

Originally Posted by Freyja

According to a law of the Danish King Christian the 4th (1577 - 1648) it was said: Women and pigs must not be held on board His Majesty the King's ships

That has changed - women are serving today on board Danish Navy vessels. And let's face it, the pigs have always been on board.

LOL Oh blimey LOL

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

I have heard that its unlucky to set sail on a Friday and unlucky if a vessel is renamed while she is in the water.

Friday was named after the Norse goddess Frigg, or Frigga. She was the wife of the god Odin. In early times, Friday was regarded as a lucky day, and an especially good one on which to get married. But in early Christianity, Frigg was regarded as a witch; her day unlucky because it was the day of the week Jesus was crucified. Becoming a deeply-rooted superstition among sailors, it became bad luck to set sail on a Friday.