A recent thread about the suffix -ship led me to muse about ships that sail the sea (by whatever motive power!).

Why do we call a ship a "she", even if it's named after a man?

And why do we christen a ship by breaking a bottle of champagne against its bow? Does it tie in with the new, virgin ship being a "she", with the bottle a hymen symbol?

quote:

Why do we call a ship a "she", even if it's named after a man?

One reason must be because, in days of sail, they often went their own sweet way, regardless of the wishes of the man in charge!

Here is what I found..From the website readyayeready.com

One of the oldest customs still practised is that relating to the launching of a new ship. The oldest reference to this custom is that of an Assyrian tablet, believed to have been carved about 2100 B.C., on which the inscription tells of the building of Noah's Ark, and of the launching that a yoke of oxen was sacrificed. In similar manner the Fiji islanders and the Samoans made human sacrifice to the sharks, which to them were gods, and washed down their new canoes in the victims' blood. Viking legends tell of young men being crushed in sacrifice under the keels of ships being launched.

A later development, probably about the 14th century, was the custom of toasting the new vessel from silver wine goblets. The goblets were thrown into the sea to prevent further toasts, possibly of bad omen, being drunk. For reasons of economy a wine bottle was substituted in 1690. It was usual for a prince or other male member of royalty to smash the bottle against the bow, but after 1811 the honour was given to prominent ladies. A free swing was traditional until a spectator was injured and sued the Admiralty, and from that time a lanyard has been secured to the bottle. This is not always the case, at least on this continent; Mrs. Eisenhower, launching the world's first atomic-powered submarine U.S.S. Nautilus at Groton, Conn., in January 1954, used a champagne bottle without a lanyard. Some Canadian shipyards use a form of mechanical cradle containing a champagne bottle.

The custom is partly religious and partly pagan in origin, and it is by no means correct to assume that champagne is the only liquid used; it is currently in fashion, but in the past all alcoholic beverages have been employed, and even pure water has made the occasional appearance, especially in Moslem countries. It is still very much in the nature of sacrifice to smash a bottle of good liquor or wine.

quote:

One of the oldest customs still practised is that relating to the launching of a new ship. The oldest reference to this custom is that of an Assyrian tablet, believed to have been carved about 2100 B.C., on which the inscription tells of the building of Noah's Ark, and of the launching that a yoke of oxen was sacrificed. In similar manner the Fiji islanders and the Samoans made human sacrifice to the sharks, which to them were gods, and washed down their new canoes in the victims' blood. Viking legends tell of young men being crushed in sacrifice under the keels of ships being launched.

One has to wonder. Assyrians (or Akkadians, Babylonians) did not carve tablets, they wrote upon the moist clay with a stylus. Most of the cuneiform tablets we have are the result of the buildings in which they were stored being burned (usually as a result of war).

I know of no Assyrian tablet that mentions Noah's ark, an artifact that is only mentioned in the Hebrew Old Testament. There are marked similarities between parts of the Tale of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah and the Flood.

Not sure about Fijians, Somoans, or Vikings, but I'd take anything from this point on with a grain of salt.

quote:

Originally posted by goofball:
The custom is partly religious and partly pagan in origin, ...

Pagans can be religious, too!

Tinman

I would suggest that paganism is as true a religion as any other (and more gentle than many). All religions, without a single expection, are based on belief, not fact, and people will believe what they choose to believe (or what they have been brought up to believe).

If the followers of all religions had to back up their religious tenets with provable facts before being allowed to follow the religion, then all religions would soon disappear.

Add to that that Assyrian wasn't a literary language as early as 2100 BCE: the dialect was called Akkadian then, and Assur wasn't yet an important city. The account of Noah's ark in the Epic of Gilgamesh has Ut(a)napishtim (Ziusudra/Noah/Deucalion) killing cattle for their meat, presumably for food on board ship; it doesn't sound like a sacrificial offering.

yikes...The bilboes <yes thats the correct spelling for the plural> were drawn and the info I posted was shredded. I thought a website dedicated to the news and history of the Canadian Navy would be somewhat historically accurate with its postings. Maybe the person who wrote it got in the way of too many champagne bottles. Sorry Wordnerd.