Superstition and the Sea

July is National Learn to Sail month! Why not start by reading up on some weird sailing superstitions? For example:

Daring Death: Flowers, coffins, and ministers

Why have everything you need to host a funeral on your ship if you don’t want a funeral on your ship? Duh. For the same reason, a ship’s bell sounding on its own or even a wine glass ringing are unlucky because they sound like church bells. A possibly related superstition warns against bringing black suitcases on board, and some sailors expand this to all luggage. It might be that black bags look like body bags, but nobody’s really sure on the origin of this one.

Visit my blog for more sea superstitions and some watery writing prompts, such as:

Love wins. Ministers and flowers don’t only mean funerals. So what if you had a ship’s captain who noticed too late that some idiot brought on board the rose his sweetheart gave him, and some other sailor happens to have a degree in divinity. You can throw the rose overboard, but sailors, not so much. (At least, you’re not supposed to.) Could a ship beat its bad luck by instead using the rose and minister to stage a wedding? Sailors’ superstitions are clear about forbidding women on board, for various reasons, including misogyny and also misogyny. But maybe a couple of mates might not mind being…mates? At least long enough to go through the ceremony and cancel the bad luck. Fake marriage trope, anyone?

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