Pirate Superstitions?

[Bob Aberton]

A blue hull is bad luck (fisherman's superstition, actually, I believe - if you go to Maine, you'll never see a blue lobsterboat).

Whistling at sea brings up a wind - in calms, this was a good thing; in storms, a bad thing.

Sometimes ships which suffered more than the usual share of bad luck became considered unlucky; ships which drowned many sailors were usually described as "hungry."

Gold coin under the mast for good luck (already addressed, I think?)

"Jonahs" were unlucky people who tended to bring their bad luck with them.

When a dead sailor was sewed up in canvas for burial at sea, a stitch was put thorugh his nose so that he could not return.

 

[krichaiushii]

I believe that you can find pirate superstitions at www.piratesinfo.com as well as other pirate information.

 

[GMSkarka]

Red sky at night, sailors delight
Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

That's not a superstition.

It's actually just a rhyme to remember some basic weather-predicting skills:

When the western sky is especially clear, there is often a red sunset That's because the sun is low in the sky and its light passes through dust and pollution particles in the lower atmosphere. This is especially true if an area of high air pressure is present. This sinking air holds air contaminants near the earth. These particles "scatter" the colors of sunlight and cause the red sky. In the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere weather systems most often approach from the west. Since high pressure generally brings fair weather, red skies at sunset indicate that clear weather is approaching, which would "delight" a sailor.

However, if the sky is red in the eastern morning sky, then the high pressure region has already passed, and an area of low pressure may follow. Low pressure usually brings clouds, rain or storms, a warning for sailors.

GMS

 

[Hand of Evil]

Isn't there a rhyme "Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning" ?

That's it! I can never remember the way to place it but I should because the delight was the red light district!

 

[green slime]

That's it! I can never remember the way to place it but I should because the delight was the red light district!

I was always told it was:

Red Sky at night,
shepard's delight.
Red Sky in the morning,
sailors take warning.

 

[Bagpuss]

Women onboard a ship make the sea angry.

Not sure about that one since many ships routinely carried women on board.

The expression 'Son of a gun' comes from the fact the place women gave birth on ship was the gun deck between the guns. Most Royal Navy ships carried several women on board usually the wives of officers, gunners and sailors, who would also act as cooks, tailors and the like, even though their were regulations against it, so they rarely appeared in the ship muster books. There are a number of famous female pirates, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read for example.

So having a woman onboard couldn't be that unlucky or else every ship would have sunk.

 

[Amos_Sten]

When a dead sailor was sewed up in canvas for burial at sea, a stitch was put thorugh his nose so that he could not return.

This was more to do with preventing desertion amognst pressganged crews. By putting the stich through the person you could pretty much guarentee that they weren't faking it or had bribed the surgeon.