Superstitions at Sea: Good Luck, Bad Luck & Death Omens for Pirates and Sailors (#110)

Because of the dangers faced by sailors and fishermen, there are countless superstitions around safety and luck on the sea. While most no longer apply, I’m guessing that some still linger in the back of some sailors’ minds...

(This episode may have been inspired by seeing the trailer for the new comedy show ‘Our Flag Means Death’ which has Taika Waitit and Rhys Darby in it – for any fans of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ out there - and looks amazing and I need to see it!)

Good Luck

Naked women on board were completely welcome. That's because naked women "calmed the sea". This is why ships' typically had a figure of a topless women perched on the bow of the ship. Her bare breasts "shamed the stormy seas into calm" and her open eyes guided the seamen to safety.

Swallows seen at sea are a good sign, as are dolphins swimming with the ship.

Tattoos and piercing are said to ward off evil spirits. A pierced earlobe on a sailor meant that he had sailed around the world or had crossed the equator. Superstitious sailors wore gold hoop earrings because they believed it brought good fortune. Some believed that the gold possessed magic healing powers or that it served as a protective talisman that would prevent the wearer from drowning.

Tattoos were also seen as lucky. Seafarers would usually tattoo a nautical star on their bodies as the North Star represented a signal that they were nearing home. 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.

It's good luck to spit in the ocean before you sail.

Coins thrown into the sea as a boat leaves port is a small toll to Neptune, the sea god, for a safe voyage,

Horseshoes on a ship’s mast will turn away a storm.

Cats brought luck. Sailors believed cats could start storms with the magic stored in their tails so they always kept them well fed and contented. If a ship's cat came to a sailor, it meant good luck.

A male child to be born on a ship was good luck (probably not for the child). This is where the term "Son Of A Gun" comes from - Male children born on the ship were referred to as "son of a gun" because the most convenient place to give birth on deck (if you weren't too afraid of having a woman on board) was on the gun deck. 

St. Elmo's fire is the discharge of static electricity from points on a ship, such as masts and spars. According to some superstitious sea stories, if one flame appears, it means bad weather is coming. If two flames appear, it means the weather will be clear.

Pouring wine on the deck will bring good luck on a long voyage.

Dolphins swimming with the ship are seen as a good sign.

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning" the old saying goes. A red sunset indicates a beautiful day to come, while a red sunrise indicates rain and bad weather.

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.

Bad Luck

Women were said to bring bad luck on board because they distracted the sailors from their sea duties. This kind of behaviour angered the intemperate seas that would take their revenge out on the ship. 

Don't cut nails or hair at sea! Cuttings of nail and hair were offerings to Prosperine, the Roman Goddess of the infernal regions, and it would make Neptune angry to have offerings to somebody else made in his domain. Doing so would bring bad luck.

There are particular days when you shouldn't set sail:

• Fridays: Fridays have long been considered unlucky days, likely because Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday.
• Thursdays: Thursdays are bad sailing days because that is Thor's day, the god of thunders and storms.
• First Monday in April: The first Monday in April is the day Cain slew Abel
• Second Monday in August: The second Monday in August is the day the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
• 31st December (the day on which Judas Iscariot hanged himself).

Superstitious sailors believe that the only good day to set sail is Sundays.

Seamen that hadn't paid their debts were blamed for storms and any other misfortunate events that would occur on the ship.

Avoid people with red hair when going to the ship to begin a journey. Red heads were thought to bring bad luck to a ship if you happened to encounter one before boarding. However, if you speak to the redhead before they get the chance to speak to you, you're saved.

Whistling - One widespread and universal superstition forbids whistling in the wheelhouse or anywhere onboard for that matter. Whistling onboard will raise a gale, hence "whistling up a storm".

Scottish Fisherman, landing a left boot rather than a fish is considered the ultimate in bad luck. Whenever a left boot showed up in the catch inside a trawling net, fishermen would instantly spit on it before tossing it back into the water. On the other hand, those same Scots considered the right boot to be a sign of good fortune. Coming up with a right boot in the net was looked upon as favourable and the boot would be fastened to the mast in the belief that it would bring good fortune to the fishing expedition.

It is bad luck to name a ship for an engaged woman as this will make the ship jealous.

Sailors believed that if a cat licked its fur against the grain it meant a hailstorm was coming; if it sneezed, rain was on the way; and if it was frisky, the wind would soon blow.

Killing a swallow, albatross, gull or dolphin will bring bad luck. Seabirds were thought to carry the souls of dead sailors and it is considered bad luck to kill one. However, it is considered good luck if you see one.

Priests are not lucky to have on a ship.They dress in black and perform funeral services.

It’s bad luck to change the name of a boat. Boats develop a life and mind of their own once they are named and Christened. If you do rename the boat- you absolutely must have a de-naming ceremony: write the soon-to-be-exorcised name on a piece of paper, fold the paper, and place it in a small cardboard or wooden box. Burn the box. Scoop up the ashes and throw them into the sea on an outgoing tide. If you live on a lake, do it at night and only during a new moon. River dwellers should send the ashes downstream. 

A rabbit or salmon found on board the boat was one of the stranger nautical superstitions and would have prevented a fisherman from sailing that day.

Atlantic seamen in the West Indies had a bizarre superstition related to swine. Pigs themselves were held at great respect because they possessed cloven hooves just like the devil and the pig was the signature animal for the Great Earth Goddess who controlled the winds. As a result, these fishermen never spoke the word "pig" out loud, instead referring to the animal by such safe nicknames as Curly-Tail and Turf-Rooter. It was believed that mentioning the word "pig" would result in strong winds. Actually, killing a pig on board, the ship would result in a full-scale storm.

When the clothes of a dead sailor are worn by another sailor during the same voyage, misfortune will befall the entire ship.

If the ships cat approached a sailor and then went away, it was bad luck.

To see rats leaving a ship is bad luck.

To name the boat with a word ending in "a" is bad luck.

Bananas have long been thought to bring bad luck, especially on ships. At the height of the trading empire between Spain and the Caribbean in the 1700's, most cases of disappearing ships happened to be carrying a cargo of bananas at the time.

One theory suggests that because bananas spoiled so quickly, transporters had to get to their destination much quicker. Fisherman thus never caught anything while bananas were on board. Another danger caused by bananas fermenting so quickly, was that in the heat of the storage hull, bananas would produce deadly toxic fumes.

Another theory on the perils of bananas at sea (though there are tons) is that a species of deadly spider would hide inside banana bunches. Their lethal bite caused crewman to die suddenly, heightening the fear that banana cargo was a bad omen.

Many boaters continue to avoid bananas at sea, some even avoiding banana smelling sun tan lotion.

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.

Losing a hat overboard was an omen that the trip would be a long one.

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.

Stirring tea with a knife or fork would invite bad luck.

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.

Omens of Death

It is said that a ship’s bell that rings without human aid is an omen of death.

Disaster will follow if you step onto a boat with your Left Foot first.

A stone thrown from a vessel putting out to sea ensures she will never return.

If a cat was thrown overboard, a storm and very bad luck and maybe death would follow.

The word "drown" can never be spoken at sea or it may summon up the actual event. At sea, some words must be strictly avoided to ensure the ship and crew's safe return. These include obvious ones like "drowned" and "goodbye". If someone says "good luck" to you, it is sure to bring about bad luck. The only way to reverse the curse is by drawing blood, so usually a good punch in the nose will do. 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.

A shark following the ship is a sign of inevitable death

Manta rays, also known as devilfish or sea devils, were feared as much as sharks, for sailors believed these sea creatures could attach themselves to a ship’s anchor and drag her under the waves to Davy Jones’ Locker.