Mudcat Café Message

sj

User Name	Thread Name	Subject	Posted
The Admiral	Folklore: Shantying on Military Ships (52* d)	RE: Folklore: Shanteying On Military Ships	17 Jun 08
I can only go along with you Tom. I did make enquiries via The Greenwich Maritime Museum and The Royal Navy Museum some time back without any reponse to the positive. Whistling was banned ('said to be unlucky but I think it was because whistling could be confused with Bosuns Pipes) and for much the same reasons; orders could be drowned out by song. Why would you need worksongs when you had several hundred men working the gear compared to a Merchant ships 40 or so? It should also be stated that RN ships were much better equipped with capstans etc with which to work the gear as well. Although as it has already been pointed out, it is nearly impossible to prove a negative, I heard this rumour many years ago and disagreed with it then... Tony

Post to this Thread -

Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.
* Click on the linked number with * to view the thread split into pages (click "d" for chronologically descending).

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.