S J Hambleton wrote: > <De-lurk> > > This may seem a little superstitious but I was always of the > understanding that to re-name a boat was considered bad luck? > > I was talking to a colleague t'other day and they said that there was > an old ritual that involved burning a paper boat as part of a renaming > ceremony to appease the "God of boat renaming badluckness".Apparently > the ceremony was used by canal folk many decades ago if a commercial > boat was renamed, i.e. if it changed owners and they needed to make > the alteration for business reasons. > > Is this correct or just another waterborne myth?
I think I read somewhere that this came from the days of wooden sailing ships. The name thereof was usually carved directly onto the hull, thus changing the name involved hacking out the chunk of wood with the name on it and bunging in a new piece with the new name. This tended to weaken the hull, and hence made the ship more likely to break up in mid-ocean, to the discomfiture of the crew. I make no comment as to the veracity of this tale, or whether it went from sailing ships to anything afloat, and am /still/ waiting for Uncle Marvo to change the name of his floating caravan from "Morning Glory" to "Pikea II". -- Dave Larrington <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk> While you were out at the Rollright Stones, I came and set fire to your Shed.
