4 minute read
Wine
Why cheap cava ought to be a smash hit with shipping
Sam Chambers looks at the traditions of bashing booze against newbuilds
Before a ship slides from its berth into the water, it must first get hit on—by a bottle of booze, usually champagne.
The tradition of christening a new ship for good luck and safe travel goes way back. Many ancient seafaring societies had their own ceremonies for launching a new ship. The Greeks wore olive branch wreaths around their heads, drank wine to honour the gods, and poured water on the new boat to bless it. The Babylonians sacrificed an ox, the Turks sacrificed a sheep, and the Vikings and Tahitians offered up human blood.
These events almost always had a religious tone to them, and the name of a favoured god or god of the seas was often invoked. In the Middle Ages, two friars would often board British ships before their maiden voyage to pray, lay their hands on the masts and sprinkle holy water on the deck and bow.
The religious aspect of ship christening died off in Protestant Europe after the Reformation, especially in Great Britain. Some member of the royalty or nobility would instead join the crew for a secular ceremony of drinking from the ‘standing cup’—a large goblet, usually made of precious metal and fitted with a foot and a cover—and solemnly calling the ship by her name. After taking a drink, the presiding official would pour what liquid was left onto the deck or over the bow and then toss the cup over the side of the vessel, to be caught
by a lucky bystander (or sink into the ocean). As Britain became a maritime power and its growing navy required more ships, the practice of discarding the expensive cups fell out of favour. For a while, they were caught in a net for reuse, but eventually, the whole ceremony was replaced by the breaking of a wine bottle across the ship’s bow.
Ship christening in the young United States borrowed from contemporary English tradition. The launch of the USS Constitution in 1797 included the captain breaking a bottle of Madeira wine on its bow. Over the next century, the ritual of breaking or pouring of some ‘christening fluid’ remained, but the fluid itself varied wildly. The USS Princeton, Raritan and Shamrock were all christened with whiskey. The USS New Ironsides was double-christened, first with a bottle of brandy and then with Madeira. Other ships were teetotalers, and launched with water or grape juice. The USS Hartford was christened three times, with water from the Atlantic Ocean, the Connecticut River and Hartford Spring. The USS Kentucky was launched with spring water by her official sponsor, but as the battleship slipped into the water, onlookers gave her a baptism more fitting of her namesake state and bashed small bottles of bourbon against her sides.
It’s not clear how champagne came to be the favoured fluid. The Secretary of the Navy’s granddaughter christened the USS Maine, the navy’s first steel battleship, with champagne in 1890. The shift to that particular sparkling wine might have been meant to coincide with the new era of steel, or it may just have just come into vogue because of association with power and elegance. In the UK, Queen Victoria is recorded to have first bashed a champagne bottle against a ship the following year.
When Prohibition went into effect in the US, ships went sober again and were launched with water, juice or, in at least one case, apple cider. Champagne came back with the passage of the 21st Amendment and has stuck around since.
Champagne bottles are basically booze-filled tanks. They have to stand up to the enormous pressure the wine creates inside them, so their glass is very thick, and breaking them is no easy task hence why much of the ceremony these days is automated with the switch of a button. But it only takes a small defect, a slight imperfection in the glass, to compromise a bottle’s strength. Bigger bottles have a higher probability of a natural defect, but any size bottle can be prodded along towards breaking if the wine has bigger bubbles, and hence more internal pressure. Many shipbuilders insist that cheap cava creates a more spectacular display as it is much bubblier that champagne.
In Japan, meanwhile, elaborate ship launch ceremonies tend to involve sake. In non-Covid times, the public are often allowed to attend these grand affairs, something not to be missed when you next have a chance to visit East Asia. ●
Camilla’s Curse
TODAY, IT’S CONSIDERED bad luck if the bottle of champagne doesn’t break on the ship. In 2007, the duchess of Cornwall attempted to smash a bottle of champagne against the hull of the Queen Victoria cruise ship in the UK, but the bottle didn’t break. A few weeks later, nearly 80 passengers became sick with a contagious stomach bug. They called it ‘Camilla’s Curse’ and pointed the finger at the duchess for failing to break the bottle against the ship properly, thus dooming the ship’s passengers to a bad case of a stomach bug.
Maritime CEO has been at one ship naming ceremony where the bottle failed to break repeatedly - presciently it was for the first ship of Hong Kong owner John Koo’s short-lived Orient Steamship venture, a company that was quick to obliterate.
Obviously, it’s all superstition, but to avoid the bad luck, people have come up with a variety of ways to ensure that the bottle breaks. Scoring the bottle beforehand with a glass cutter is one common way to ensure the bottle will bust on the hull of the ship. ●
