Ship christening

In the face of the vast, almost unfathomable seas, even the mightiest battleship seems small! The writer Joseph Conrad was not wrong to describe ships as 'living creatures', as a ship on the high seas 'speaks' to sailors in a certain way, be it through creaking frames, groaning steel or creaking wood, flapping sails and many other familiar sounds.
In China and Japan, a line connecting the ship to the land is torn almost like a kind of 'umbilical cord' when the ship is launched. Ships were baptised in Mesopotamia as early as the fourth century BC. The Greeks and Romans did the same. In addition to sometimes seemingly cruel rituals of the ancient world, good wine was often involved, which was poured over the planks of a ship to make the gods friendly.

Even today, it is primarily about goodwill and luck for the ship and its crew in the face of unpredictable future elements. Some see it as superstition and some as a beautiful tradition.
Other people, on the other hand, see the proper christening of a ship as a very serious and necessary fact. These people can provide evidence that a ship with a problematic christening or even without a christening could be a bad omen. They can point, for example, to the Titanic, which was never christened, or to the tragic fate of the nuclear Russian submarine 'K-19', the pride of the Russian navy, at whose christening the bottle of Champagne would not break, even after repeated attempts.

Among seafarers, caution rather than superstition is considered a desirable companion. A proper baptism is therefore simply part of general prudence.

The Klabautermann on the other hand, a friendly little ghost who moves into every new ship to play tricks on a lazy crew and help a good crew as well as the ship, is generally not taken quite so seriously.

The christening of the imperial private yacht Meteor in New York in 1902 showed just how important a ship christening can be apart from a successfully smashed bottle. The Emperor had intended that a bottle of sparkling wine should be used for the christening instead of champagne by the American President's daughter Alice Roosevelt. However, the clever representative of Moët & Chandon in the USA, George Kessler, managed to replace the sparkling wine with a bottle of Moët, contrary to the plan. At the following banquet, champagne was served instead of sparkling wine. This was considered a first-class scandal for the Kaiser, who then had his ambassador recalled and sparked a huge political sabre-rattling between Germany and France.

It often happens that a bottle of champagne simply won't shatter. On the surface, it is then cheerfully dismissed as a silly, unimportant superstition. Secretly, however, many people are worried about it. It is therefore no coincidence that the thick glass of the champagne bottles is sometimes professionally (and secretly) weakened by scratching in the run-up to the christening and is first practised 'unofficially' before some christenings so that nothing goes wrong at the 'real' christening.

When a ship is renamed, it is also important to first say goodbye to the old name with champagne. The old name must be carefully removed everywhere and without exception (bow, stern, lifebuoys, lifeboat, etc.). This is followed by the libation, where a bottle of the best champagne is poured over the planks of the ship from the bow - to the last drop and without even a sip for the crew! It is considered a gesture of melancholy farewell and is done with dignity. So you need at least two bottles of champagne for this ceremony, because afterwards, of course, it is tradition to celebrate properly.

The christening of the ship begins with a speech that goes something like this: "I christen you with the name ....... I wish the crew a safe voyage at all times and the ship always a hand's breadth of water under its keel!".

On large ships, a lady (men were traditionally not wanted for the job of christening until the 19th century - ladies are still preferred today) chops a line with an axe, which releases the bottle of champagne on another line to fly towards the bow. On small ships/boats, the champagne is also hurled directly at the bow on the line. Some people even smash the bottle against the bow by hand.

On small yachts and other boats, it is perfectly permissible to pour a bottle of champagne over the deck to the last drop while standing at the bow after the toast (again, without even a sip for the lady or the crew). This is a sensible rule, especially as a smashing champagne bottle could cause unnecessary damage to the boat - a bottle the size of a magnum, jeroboam or even a rehoboam could possibly even sink it.

After the christening, many captains have the remains of the bottle stowed on board, where they must remain as long as the ship bears the name.

It should also be noted that aerospace ships are of course also christened. Even the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701B) from the famous 'Star Trek' was ceremonially christened with a futuristic 'Dom Perignon, vintage 2265'.

 

 

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