Superstitions

A bunch of my friends are mates on charter boats (not licensed or anything, just rigging lines and such). A few of them mentioned that they’re not allowed to bring bananas onboard. I looked it up and found a lot of stupid looking superstitions. Are there any in the professional industry or are they just washed up garbage?

I’ve heard plenty of other ones but I haven’t heard the banana one yet.

Just looked it up, I guess it’s a recreational fishing thing.

Things that used to be allegedly be bad luck include:

Women on board
The color blue
Bananas
Whistling "You’ll whistle up the wind, you fool!"
Sailing on a Friday

These traditions are now kept only on recreational fishing boats and sailboats. Professional mariners simply don’t have time to be concerned with superstitions anymore.

[QUOTE=Slick Cam;181775]

These traditions are now kept only on recreational fishing boats and sailboats. Professional mariners simply don’t have time to be concerned with superstitions anymore.[/QUOTE]

There’s still a few guys out there…‘professional mariners’ that are plenty concerned with it. I used to have a captain that always had a hard on for the whistling thing.
I worked on another boat where the coffee mugs were supposed to be hung a certain way. I forget the rhyme or reason. Growing up on sport fishing boats the banana one was always a hot button issue.

Coffee cups hung with the open end facing aft, worked on a tug between Seattle and Honolulu, all the coffee cups had to face aft so that we wouldn’t sink, our barge capsized and eventually sank so I guess it doesn’t work

[QUOTE=Slick Cam;181775]Whistling “You’ll whistle up the wind, you fool!”[/QUOTE]

Stabbing the mast and saying “black pig” are both also supposed to bring wind.

I haven’t seen a ship without bananas. They are usually ignored long enough to end up in banana bread.

[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;181781]Stabbing the mast and saying “black pig” are both also supposed to bring wind.[/QUOTE]

LMAO, well I guess you don’t have to worry about keeping people from doing that too often. Must be from old sail ships when you are getting close to running out of salt meat.

here’s a list

  1. Re-naming a boat
    It is bad luck to change the name of the boat. If you do, you must have a de-naming ceremony and officially christen the boat again.
  1. Tattoos
    When tattooing became popular at sea a rooster and a pig were often tattooed onto sailors’ feet. It was believed these animals would prevent the sailors from drowning by showing them the way to shore.
  1. Blood
    It is unlucky to set off at the start of the fishing season without having first shed some blood in a fight or in an accident.
  1. Fishing nets
    When setting fishing nets it is good luck to use an odd number
  1. Caul
    Having the caul of a new-born child on board a ship was meant to prevent anyone from drowning. This meant that cauls were often purchased by sailors before a voyage. (A caul is a harmless membrane that covers the face and head of a newborn baby. It is very rare).
  1. Hat overboard
    Losing a hat overboard was an omen that the trip would be a long one.
  1. Egg shells
    Egg shells had to be broken into tiny pieces once an egg was cracked open. This was meant to stop witches coming to the ship to sail in the pieces of shell.
  1. Personal grooming
    Anyone aboard who trimmed their nails, cut their hair or shaved their beard brought bad luck to the ship.
  1. Feet
    Flat-footed people were unlucky on board a ship, and were also avoided by sailors before they boarded.
  1. Women
    Women were bad luck on board because they distracted the crew, which would anger the sea, causing treacherous conditions as revenge. However, conveniently for the male crew, naked women calmed the sea, which is why so many figureheads were women with bare breasts.
  1. Non-sailing days
    It was bad luck to sail on Thursdays (God of Storms, Thor’s day) or Fridays (the day Jesus was executed), the first Monday in April (the day Cain killed Abel), the second Monday in August (the day Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed), and 31 December (the day on which Judas Iscariot hanged himself).
  1. Watch your mouth
    Some words and sayings brought about bad luck on board, including “drowned”, "goodbye” and “good luck”. Things to do with the land were believed to be bad luck if mentioned, such as the church, pigs, foxes, cats, and rabbits.
  1. No whistling
    Whistling or singing into the wind was forbidden as it would “whistle up a storm”
  1. No farewell
    It was bad luck for seafaring men’s wives to call out to them or wave goodbye once they stepped out the door to leave for a voyage.
  1. Stirring tea with a knife or fork would invite bad luck
  1. As would turning a loaf of bread upside down once it had been cut

These two seem to be superstitions that existed on land as well as at sea:

  1. Red-heads
    Like flat-footed people, red heads were believed to bring bad luck to a ship. If you met one before boarding, the only way to mitigate the bad luck was to speak to them before they could speak to you.
  1. Salt
    It was bad luck for one crewman to pass the salt pot to another directly. Presumably one could put it down and the other could pick it up.
  1. Fishy
    In order to encourage fish to be caught, Scottish fishermen would begin their fishing session by throwing one of the crew members overboard and then hauling him back on
  1. Bananas
    No bananas on board. They were believed to be so unlucky they would cause the ship to be lost. Whole cargoes of bananas were especially frightening for sailors.

I personally do not follow any but I also don’t wash my coffee mug during a voyage…mostly because I like the patina

I got another one.
Not sure if its only in my region, but I remember it was bad juju to mess with a sunfish (mola mola). Any other fishermen hear that one?

The whistling superstition was the one I have heard the most. It still bugs me when I hear people whistle. . . . and what about not paying the whore. . . I mean evening’s entertainment. . . . that was supposed to bring bad luck to the vessel. . . I have never been a fisherman, so many of those are lost on me. . .

My first job on the water was on a commercial fishing boat over 50 years ago but I still remember the captain giving me a tour of the galley and admonishing me to make sure I stacked the canned goods right side up. An upside down can would portend the ship turning over and sinking. And of course bananas were strictly forbidden.

[QUOTE=Ctony;181815]I got another one.
Not sure if its only in my region, but I remember it was bad juju to mess with a sunfish (mola mola). Any other fishermen hear that one?[/QUOTE]

The first few times I read that I thought you said your “religion” and I thought it was very weird that a religion cared about sunfish.

Norwegian Sealers, when they existed, had a lot of superstitions to contend with. The main being;

  1. Always make turn to Stbd. when leaving the wharf for the sealing grounds, (NEVER to Port)
  2. Never leave port on the 13th of the month. Especially not on a Friday 13th.

In the 1970s the authorities, in their wisdom, (or to spite the Sealers?) set the approved sailing date from Aalesund for the Western Ice at 13th March. (This to accommodate the annual refresher course about humane killing, using the “hakapike”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakapik)
They would all sail 10 min. or so after midnight on the 14th.

One year sailing day fell on Friday, 13th March. One skipper not from a traditional sealing village decided to sail on that day, even turning to Port. He let everybody know that he did not believe in all that superstition BS.

He was the first to fill his boat with seal skins and head home. Of course he let everybody know; “I told you so”.
The boat disappeared on the way home without a trace, or “Mayday”. The case is still unexplained to this day.

Besides all the “normal” superstitions among fishermen they also had a thing about umbrellas, which was strictly banned on a Sealing boat.
One much remembered story is about a journalist boarding a Sealer while carrying an umbrella. He was unceremoniously thrown overboard. He was not even pulled on board again, but dragged to the wharf before being pulled out, cold but alive.
To counteract the curse they had to get a whore to piss on the windlass.

You’re also not supposed to polish the bell. The Navy does, but they don’t care about bad luck or bad weather.

[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;181843]The Navy does, but they don’t care about bad luck…[/QUOTE]

They don’t need to, they have enough inexperience/incompetence that far outweighs luck

I read that the bell ringing by itself (specifically in a storm) or sounds the resembled bell ringing were bad luck if on accident

Well as a red haired, flat-footed, serial whistler with a liking for bananas, maybe I should pursue a different career…
I even polished the bell once.

You’re also not supposed to polish the bell. The Navy does, but they don’t care about bad luck or bad weather.