MV OCEAN PROMETHEUS

The  ' MV Ocean Prometheus '  with its Korean and Myanmese crew was once again docked at birth #1. She has been here many times and the crew knows me well. The Myanmar cook asked me where I had been the last time and I'll say a bit more about him in the next blog.

' Prometheus ' is the name of a Greek ' fire god ' and ' friend of mankind.'

When I walked into the officer's mess room I noticed this plaque commemorating the ship's christening (baptism) on the wall.  Now we know that christening new ships has an ancient  history as the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians all held ceremonies to ask the gods to protect sailors.

By the 1800s the christenings of ships began to follow a familiar pattern. They became great public events, with large crowds assembled to witness the ceremony. As the most elite of wines, champagne became the standard wine of wines.  The tradition developed that a female would do the honors and be named the sponsor of the ship.  Maritime superstition  held that a ship that wasn't properly christened would be considered unlucky. A champagne bottle that didn't break was a particularly bad omen.

There is a recent story called ' The Curse of Camilla.'  In December 2007, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall,  and wife of England's Prince Charles, christened the 2,014 passenger ship ' MV Queen Victoria ' in Southampton, England.  The event was marred by the fact that the champagne bottle didn't break - a bad omen in the superstitious seafaring trade.  The first cruises of the ' MV Queen Victoria were marred by outbreaks of a viral illness causing intense 'vomiting bug' that afflicted passengers. The British press was buzzing with tales of the " Curse of Camilla."

In the modern world, it's easy to scoff at superstitious sailors, yet  there is still a lot of superstition among them.   On one occasion they have told me not to whistle on board the ship because it causes bad luck!  On the other hand, the people stricken aboard the MV Queen Victoria would probably put some stock by superstitious stories regarding ships and champagne bottles!

In connection with this story, I'd want to end this blog with the question, ' What is Biblical baptism? ' The answer is, "A symbol of washing by water that points to the washing away of our sins by the blood  of Jesus Christ "