I grew up in a navy family. Here are a few Canadian Navy superstitions/traditions that still survive. There are a few duplicates from above, but sometimes, repetition is a good thing, because it shows what's truly important.
* Naval toasts. A search for Lord Nelson's Toasts should get them all, but the idea was, every night when you had your rum ration, you'd do a certain toast depending on the day of the week. My personal favourite was "To our wives and sweethearts... may they never meet". Another good one is "To a bloody war... and a fast promotion".
* The first time a sailor crosses the equator, he is basically stripped down, and feathered in a weird hazing ceremony. Nowadays, the tradition is a bit different (because there are women on board, see), but it's still basically a friendly hazing festival. It's a universal one, because it guarantees that soldiers will pay attention to their location (a good thing in the sea!)
* "Pig of the Port". While at sea, sailors contribute part of a fund into a pot. A NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) who is recently married is made judge. Once the ship pulls into port, the men fan out and try to bring the ugliest woman back to the ship for "intimate encounters". There is a big party. The NCO picks the ugliest/nastiest/disgusting woman on board. If that woman's date seals the deal, the man wins the pot.
* You never wear a hat in the mess or galley. If you do, you have to buy drinks for everyone in the room (my brother did this as a kid, cost my dad a fortune).
* It is a point of pride to out-drink non-naval military types. Navy men tend to identify more with fellow navy men, even if they are from a different nation, over army-types.
* The ranking NCO on board gets to determine one of the weekly meals each week. The captain gets another choice. The cook often picks one or two other sailors each week to pick a meal they want (often for morale reasons).
* Smuggling. Sailors are natural smugglers. In modern terms, their weapons are not allowed to be inspected by foreign nations, meaning they were prime locations for smuggling goods, duty-free. I've heard stories of torpedoes "disappearing" from their tubes, and those tubes being stuffed with christmas presents, alcohol, and tobacco. How this would translate into the fantasy genre, I have no clue.
* Sonar men always get to pick the music, because they usually have the best taste in tunes. (According to my father, this is because most sonar men got the position because they are musicians, and are often very picky about "bad music").
* Sailors salute differently than soldiers do, with their palms facing inwards. This is because the inside of their hands were often caked with grease and machine oil, as well as coal and soot. They hate being saluted by civilians "in the army way" as a result.
* A ship is a ship. Call it a boat at your own peril. Ships are always women, even if they have a man's name. The paintings on a ship should be selected by the crew, if not actually done by the crew. All weapons need names, and should have the nickname on them.
* Woe to any sailor who doesn't know about knots. This is even in the modern navy. It doesn't matter what you do - if you don't know how to tie knots, you will lose respect. Strangely, while sailors today have to know how to swim, many are not very good swimmers. Historically, many refused to learn, figuring it'd be better to die quickly than to linger on in the freezing waters.
* Do not brag about your ship's combat experiences. It brings bad luck upon the ship. As an aside, my dad's ship caught fire about a decade ago - the largest ship fire since the seocnd world war. He has said approximately two sentences regarding the fire, because of this rule.
* Purely a Canadian tradition: any sailor who shows up an American sailor or soldier will get free drinks. My dad's buddy went to an American naval school (invited by the US Navy) and quickly graduated top of his class. He gets free drinks because of this. Uniquely Canadian tradition, that.
* Also Canadian tradition: while sailors have free reign of the television (first come, first served sort of thing), if there's a hockey game on, guess what? That's what's on. Sailors, much like soldiers, make sports a high priority.
* In that vein, each ship often winds up developing a weird past time. Sometimes, everyone on board starts playing baseball. Or soccer. Or get strangely addicted to ping pong. Or foosball. Or running laps. Or lifting weights. Or rapping. Or limericks. Or...
* Not a tradition, per se, but I've noticed that on every ship, the cook is the biggest, baddest-looking guy on the ship. And inevitably, he's also a softie. About half the ships I've visited, the cook also has a pink apron. I don't know why this is.
* Navy types who are not assigned to a ship have less status than those on ship.
