Sailors Superstitions

Bringers of Bad Fortune -

• Beginning a voyage on Friday or on the 13th of the month.
• Losing a bucket at sea brings ill fortune.
• Sailing on a green boat.
• Killing an albatross or a dolphin.

See more like this at http://www.vacation-lists.com/salty-superstition.html

 

If you encounter a red-haired person en-route to your boat, speak to them before they speak to you or prepare for a disastrous voyage.

Shaving, cutting hair, trimming nails is bad luck.

See more like this at http://uk.boats.com/boat-content/2013/04/ten-top-seafaring-superstitions-for-sailors-and-boaters/

 

Never step onto or off a boat with your left foot first.

Tattoos and piercing are said to ward off evil spirits, hence sailors’ love for ink.

See more like this at http://www.dockwalk.com/Essentials/HotTopics.aspx?id=23170

 

See also http://www.dtmag.com/Stories/Weird%20Stuff/08-06-feature.htm

And http://www.shipwreck.net/oid/Nov12-maritimesuperstitions.php

The Yorkshireman's motto

Ear all, see all, say nowt,
Eat all, sup all, pay nowt,
And if tha ivver does owt fer nowt –
do it fer thissen

from alt.usage.english

Therein lies the rub

Q: What's a rub?

 

A1. I was always given to believe that a "rub" was a feature of a bowling green such as a ridge or hump that serves as an obstacle to make the game more difficult, now regularised in crown green bowls. Hence its use to mean an obstacle more generally.

From alt.usage.english

 

A2. Shakespeare , Hamlet

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life

The phrase uses "rub" in its less common definition as "obstacle" or "snag" rather than the more common usage of applying pressure to a surface