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Why do people 'christen' ships with champagne? · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye,
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Speaker 1: welcome to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
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Speaker 1: so very much for tuning in. Today's episode is about
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Speaker 1: rituals in a way, a ritual that we've probably all
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Speaker 1: heard of, but one that's that's kind of mysterious when
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Speaker 1: you get right down to it. What are we talking about?
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Speaker 1: No spoilers, but stay tuned for like I don't know
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Speaker 1: two minutes or or read the title of the show. Hi,
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Speaker 1: I'm Ben, Hey Ben, it's me. No, you know. When
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Speaker 1: you sent this topic over, my immediate response was yeah, huh.
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Speaker 1: I always wondered about that. What's the deal with people
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Speaker 1: smashing bottles of champagne on ships? Ships and champagne? Who knew?
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Speaker 1: We knew, We didn't know, and now we we now
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Speaker 1: we knew, Now we know, You will know soon alongside
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Speaker 1: are knowing? Yes, yes, Uh. Today's episode is about what's
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Speaker 1: called christenings. Uh. Chris needs can happen for many reasons,
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Speaker 1: but this episode is specifically about the practice of christening
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Speaker 1: a ship. Uh. And we have our own version of
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Speaker 1: christening for every episode we record. I say we call
1:33
Speaker 1: it caseying, after our super producer casey pegrom, Does that
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Speaker 1: mean I get smashed up against the side of the ship.
1:40
Speaker 1: I haven't worked out the details yet. Well, I I
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Speaker 1: await the details with great interest. I have devised sort
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Speaker 1: of a pulley system with a hoist and sort of
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Speaker 1: like a harness that we're gonna put you in. We're
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Speaker 1: gonna swing you like a human wrecking ball into the
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Speaker 1: side of the SS. Ridiculous is history, which is a thing.
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Speaker 1: I'm glad we have a ship anyway, We've called it
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Speaker 1: a ship show before, but yes, today we are talking
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Speaker 1: about ships now. As you may remember, it's we all
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Speaker 1: have this image in our heads, right a boat or
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Speaker 1: a vessel. A ship has been built, it's complete, it's
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Speaker 1: ready to slide into the briny blue, and right before
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Speaker 1: it does, someone walks up to the ship, usually with
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Speaker 1: great pomp and circumstance. They take a big old bottle
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Speaker 1: of bubbly, usually champagne, and they smash it against the
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Speaker 1: whole Everybody cheers, and then the ship goes into the
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Speaker 1: water and off to adventure on the high seas. But
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Speaker 1: how did this get started? Where where did this come from? Where?
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Speaker 1: How old is this ceremony? I guess that's a good
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Speaker 1: place to start. It is and you know, it's funny.
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Speaker 1: I just before we even get into that, I think
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Speaker 1: it's really interesting that the term christening and still what's
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Speaker 1: used because christening is it's like baptism. It's like a
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Speaker 1: religious term. That's what they do to babies when they
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Speaker 1: you know, dip them in the holy water and like
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Speaker 1: a Catholic ceremony. I've heard interchange that is the same thing, right,
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Speaker 1: isn't baptizing and christening sort of the same thing, Like
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Speaker 1: christening is the Catholic equivalent of a baptism. I believe
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Speaker 1: that christening is part of a baptism. It's the it's
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Speaker 1: the naming ceremony. It's where you give the kid a
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Speaker 1: Christian name during the baptism. There you go. And when
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Speaker 1: I was looking up christenings of ship videos, uh, the
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Speaker 1: naming is also a big part of it. That's when
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Speaker 1: they unveil the name of the ship. Like the SS
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Speaker 1: ridiculous history, but yeah, it's super old. It goes back
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Speaker 1: to like the Egyptians, the Greeks and even the Romans,
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Speaker 1: and it was all about calling on like their particular
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Speaker 1: sea gods to protect the cruise of these newly constructed
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Speaker 1: ships UM, because they were going out into the great unknown,
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Speaker 1: and oftentimes these were very dangerous voyages and it was
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Speaker 1: all about a safe return. UM. In Greece, they would
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Speaker 1: put alive branches around their heads and drink wine UM
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Speaker 1: and sacrifice wine into the water as like an offering
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Speaker 1: to to the gods. It was kind of a form
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Speaker 1: of a blessing um the vessel, right. And they had
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Speaker 1: religious kind of shrines that were carried on board UM,
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Speaker 1: various kind of little trinkets that represented certain aspects of
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Speaker 1: the gods UM, and that was something you see on
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Speaker 1: Greek and Roman ships. But this actually carried further than
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Speaker 1: that even into the Middle Ages, this practice of carrying
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Speaker 1: shrines aboard these ships. They were particularly located in the
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Speaker 1: quarter deck. It's just a little bit of frame of reference.
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Speaker 1: The quarter deck UM would be the area under the
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Speaker 1: main mast where you would often see the captain standing.
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Speaker 1: And that's still UM what it's called today on you know,
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Speaker 1: more modern naval ships UM in the United States Navy,
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Speaker 1: and it still has a lot of ceremonial significance, as
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Speaker 1: we know with a lot of these old nautical terms
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Speaker 1: like bozen right, huh, did I get it right that time,
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Speaker 1: ben Um. These terms have been around for a long time,
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Speaker 1: as have a lot of the traditions of seafaring folk
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Speaker 1: right a long time. Indeed, we mentioned the Egyptians, the Romans,
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Speaker 1: the Greeks, but we should also mention the Babylonians. There
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Speaker 1: is a written record from Babylon dating back to the
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Speaker 1: third millennium BC that describes a process of what we
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Speaker 1: would call christening today. In this case, they get a
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Speaker 1: little weird with it. They have some of the sacrifices
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Speaker 1: that we were just talking about. All they say, openings
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Speaker 1: to the water, I stopped, I searched for cracks and
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Speaker 1: the wanting parts. I fixed three sorry of bitumen. I
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Speaker 1: poured over the outside to the gods. I caused oxen
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Speaker 1: to be sacrificed. Maybe there's something a little lost in
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Speaker 1: translation there. I think it's interesting that the writer says
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Speaker 1: I caused oxen to be sacri ficed, rather than I
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Speaker 1: sacrifice oxen. How do you how do you cause oxen
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Speaker 1: to be sacrificed? Do you just sort of like put
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Speaker 1: them in a dangerous situation. I think you probably hit
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Speaker 1: them over the head with a very large hammer or
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Speaker 1: axe and that's the cause that you have brought upon
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Speaker 1: them something a little more Rube Goldberg, guest, but they
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Speaker 1: were doing their best. Wouldn't that be fun? I love
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Speaker 1: the idea of Rube Goldberg esque sacrifices where you have
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Speaker 1: like some sort of uh. It makes me think of
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Speaker 1: this movie called Taxidermia where spoiler alert, I guess for
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Speaker 1: a really old, not super old, but like at least
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Speaker 1: ten or fifteen year old art house film. The guy
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Speaker 1: taxidermys himself with this insane machine that he builds so
6:42
Speaker 1: he's able to like you know, pull the levers and
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Speaker 1: then like all this crazy stuff happens and he ends
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Speaker 1: up taxidermy himself. But that is neither here nor there,
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Speaker 1: and so there we are. We know, in ancient history
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Speaker 1: there were tons of rituals and ceremonies that varied in
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Speaker 1: their specifics, but they all had the general goal of
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Speaker 1: ensuring the ship's safety at sea. However, eventually Christening went secular,
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Speaker 1: which is why I think to your point, well, it's
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Speaker 1: it's weird that it keeps the same name for the
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Speaker 1: term because now, you know, a lot of people don't
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Speaker 1: associate it with religion. But how did it go from
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Speaker 1: this vast swath of religious ceremonies to a more kind
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Speaker 1: of secular ritual process thing. Bit. Yeah, it's like we said,
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Speaker 1: I mean, there were various kind of flavors of this
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Speaker 1: that all had roots in religion, but as we see
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Speaker 1: them kind of catching up to comparatively more modern religions
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Speaker 1: like Judaism and Christianity, UM, you saw slight changes to
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Speaker 1: these rituals. For example, Christians and Jews would use wine
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Speaker 1: and water um as as an offering, kind of similar
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Speaker 1: to what you would see um as communion kind of
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Speaker 1: situation where they would ask God to to safeguard them
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Speaker 1: against the hazards of of the sea. Um. And I've
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Speaker 1: even seen another example we so we heard about the
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Speaker 1: Greeks wearing wreaths of laurels or olive branches rather around
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Speaker 1: their heads, and that um green plant aspect of it
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Speaker 1: is also something that survived in modern Christening ceremonies. We
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Speaker 1: will have like a wreath of some kind of green
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Speaker 1: plant that you put on the ship and that's meant
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Speaker 1: to signify safe return. So yeah, I mean they would
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Speaker 1: even call upon saints uh. And oftentimes clergy would be
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Speaker 1: involved in these Christening ceremonies um. And then if we
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Speaker 1: look at the Ottoman Empire, Uh, they would offer up
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Speaker 1: prayers to Allah uh and they would sacrifice live animals.
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Speaker 1: And if I'm not mistaken, the earliest reference to christening
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Speaker 1: or kind of blessing a ship was in ancient Greece,
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Speaker 1: and that it was a reference on a stone carving
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Speaker 1: that was discovered that talked about sacrificing Oxen. And the
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Speaker 1: Vikings on the other hand, Um, as we know, we've
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Speaker 1: we've debunked some Viking myths, but there still is a
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Speaker 1: lot out there about them being some pretty bloodthirsty types. Uh.
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Speaker 1: And this certainly speaks to that. Uh. They actually would
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Speaker 1: offer human sacrifices, supposedly because they they are their gods
9:16
Speaker 1: were you know, kind of the grumpy types, and they
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Speaker 1: needed to give them a little extra something to calm
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Speaker 1: those uh those seas. Uh. Whenever I hear about vikings
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Speaker 1: and ships, I think of one of the coolest, most
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Speaker 1: metal pieces of mythology in Norse folklore, the nag far
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Speaker 1: or nag for e. I'm not sure how to pronounce it.
9:40
Speaker 1: It's Old Norse for nail farer. Have you guys heard
9:43
Speaker 1: about this? It's this boat made out of entirely out
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Speaker 1: of fingernails and toe nails of corpses, and it comes
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Speaker 1: out at Ragnarok. Yeah, oh man, we should just start
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Speaker 1: a metal band anyhow, Yes, you're right. It makes sense
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Speaker 1: that people would have religious ceremonies before they set off
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Speaker 1: into the ocean because it was such a dangerous place.
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Speaker 1: It's still a very dangerous place now, but we have
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Speaker 1: to remember before the days of GPS, in fact, before
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Speaker 1: the days of accurate world maps, these people were literally
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Speaker 1: setting off into the unknown. In many cases they needed
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Speaker 1: all the help they could get. And if we fast
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Speaker 1: forward to the Reformation in Europe, we see that there
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Speaker 1: was a division that began between Catholic countries and the Protestants.
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Speaker 1: In Catholic countries, people maintained what we would call the
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Speaker 1: liturgical part of a christening right, and that kind of
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Speaker 1: petered out in the Protestant areas of Europe. By the
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Speaker 1: seventeenth century, English launchings were overwhelmingly a more secular thing.
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Speaker 1: If we look at, for example, the sixteen ten christening
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Speaker 1: of the Ship of the Line Prince Royal, then we
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Speaker 1: we see some very interesting differences between christening in this
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Speaker 1: day and age versus a christening and say, ancient Babylon.
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Speaker 1: I'm setting you up for this quote because the word
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Speaker 1: poop is in here twice and it makes the nine
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Speaker 1: year old and me delighted. Oh man, I'm happy to
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Speaker 1: be a part of delighting your inner nine year old man. Way,
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Speaker 1: that sounds weird. Uh, it's weird, Yep, it really is,
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Speaker 1: but it's thankfully, thankfully, everyone has all the context they
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Speaker 1: need to know that it's only a little bit weird. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: So here's this quote. The noble prints, accompanied with the
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Speaker 1: Lord Admiral and the great lords, were on the poop
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Speaker 1: where the standing great Jilt cup guilt cup, and it
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Speaker 1: was said Jilt was ready filled with wine to name
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Speaker 1: the ship so soon as she had been afloat according
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Speaker 1: to ancient custom, and ceremony performed at such times, and
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Speaker 1: heaving the standing cup overboard His Highness then standing yet
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Speaker 1: again upon the poop, selected with a selected company only
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Speaker 1: besides the trumpeters. Uh, with a great deal of expression
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Speaker 1: of princely joy, and with the ceremony of drinking in
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Speaker 1: the standing cup through all the wine. These are very
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Speaker 1: convoluted sentences, and I love it. Uh. Let's see where
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Speaker 1: were we And the ceremony of drinking in the standing
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Speaker 1: cup through all the wine forwards towards the half deck,
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Speaker 1: and solemnly calling her by name of the Prince Royal,
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Speaker 1: the trumpets sounding the while with many gracious words. To me,
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Speaker 1: gave the standing cup into my hands. Okay, what's all
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Speaker 1: this about? A standing cup? Ben? This is like a
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Speaker 1: large cup with with legs that the some kind of
12:42
Speaker 1: weird flex or what what are we talking about here? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: so a standing cup maybe better known as a loving cup,
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Speaker 1: And this is just to give you the picture here, folks.
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Speaker 1: A loving cup is a big, big, two handled cup
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Speaker 1: and the way people used to party at banquets back
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Speaker 1: in the day. Everybody, this is pretty gross to me,
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Speaker 1: but it was a different type. Everybody would take this,
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Speaker 1: this big two handed cup, and each guest would take
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Speaker 1: a drink from it, and then they would pass it
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Speaker 1: and someone else would drink from it. So I guess
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Speaker 1: as long as your first or second in line, it's
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Speaker 1: not that gross. But a standing cup is a kind
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Speaker 1: of loving cup, and they're usually they're usually crafted from
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Speaker 1: a fairly precious metal, think gold, silver, et cetera. And
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Speaker 1: when we're talking about the standing cup christening, here's what happens.
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Speaker 1: A ship begins to slide down into the ocean, and
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Speaker 1: then whomever's in charge, I think in the case we
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Speaker 1: just read that was the Prince of Wales, that official
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Speaker 1: will take a sip of wine from this big, big
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Speaker 1: cup and then they'll pour the rest of it somewhere
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Speaker 1: on the ship. And often the cup is thrown over
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Speaker 1: the side, and then it's like salvage rules. If you
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Speaker 1: are willing to dive into the water for the cup,
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Speaker 1: then it's yours. But something happens when we hit the
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Speaker 1: scale of economy. So navies are growing larger and larger
14:10
Speaker 1: over time, more and more boats are being launched. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: someone in the English government says, we can't keep making
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Speaker 1: these enormous expensive cups and just throwing them over the side.
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Speaker 1: We gotta get a net or something. That's literally what
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Speaker 1: they said. Yeah, I mean that's what they call like
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Speaker 1: a lost leader at that point. I mean, it really
14:31
Speaker 1: is kind of a massive investment in this ceremony. And
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Speaker 1: as the navy expanded more and more, um this became
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Speaker 1: a ridiculous expense. And you know, we we know that
14:44
Speaker 1: militaries and uh and navies aren't exactly known for their
14:47
Speaker 1: frugality a lot of times, but this was even this
14:50
Speaker 1: is a bit much. It makes me the modern equivalent,
14:52
Speaker 1: makes me remember those really expensive self heating coffee cups
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Speaker 1: that the the the military kept buying because they kept
14:58
Speaker 1: breaking and they had I spent like some of like
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Speaker 1: several million dollars on like these self heating coffee cups.
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Speaker 1: At least those were kept and keeping people's beverages warm.
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Speaker 1: These things were literally chucked over the side. It's really interesting, Ben,
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Speaker 1: the standing cup, I'm looking at images of these. Also,
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Speaker 1: by the way, Loving Cup probably my favorite Rolling Stone
15:16
Speaker 1: song off of Exile in Main Street, really really good song.
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Speaker 1: And it's sort of like a chalice. Wouldn't you call it?
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Speaker 1: Like something something of a chalice, very gilded and bejeweled. Yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: who doesn't love a good chalice? Well I don't because
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Speaker 1: I'm terrified of touching metal. But you know, to look
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Speaker 1: at I'm sure it's it's fun for people. What about
15:34
Speaker 1: a bone chalice? Ben, would you would you would you
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Speaker 1: hang with a bone challice? Dope? Yeah, I put it
15:38
Speaker 1: on my fingernail. Ship. So we see this evolution, right,
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Speaker 1: we see things are becoming increasingly secular. We know wine
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Speaker 1: is often involved, and eventually wine becomes the beverage of
15:58
Speaker 1: choice for a time. But fast forward to the modern day,
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Speaker 1: you'll notice that we typically as a species are using champagne.
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Speaker 1: Where did that come from? Well, in, we still aren't
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Speaker 1: quite sure. We we know a little bit about it,
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Speaker 1: so maybe we can dive in there. Dive in. Sorry,
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Speaker 1: So the United States borrowed their christening tradition from what
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Speaker 1: they what they saw people doing in England back in seven.
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Speaker 1: The christening of the USS Constitution did uh involve the
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Speaker 1: breaking of a bottle, but it wasn't champagne yet, it
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Speaker 1: was madeira. Have you is that how you say? Have
16:48
Speaker 1: you guys ever had that? Yeah? I think it's like
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Speaker 1: a dessert wine, which doesn't necessarily mean that it's super sweet,
16:54
Speaker 1: but it's something along the lines of port. It's called
16:56
Speaker 1: a fortified wine. That makes sense because my totally unrelated
17:02
Speaker 1: one of my favorite restaurants ever this place in London
17:05
Speaker 1: called St. John. Uh. The the chef a guy named
17:09
Speaker 1: Fergus Henderson. You guys would love this guy if you
17:12
Speaker 1: haven't heard of him before. He's whimsical. He's famous for
17:15
Speaker 1: quote unquote traditional British cooking and this guy always has
17:21
Speaker 1: these brunch dishes that for some reason come with a
17:25
Speaker 1: glass of this wine specifically. Okay, wow, he's an interesting
17:29
Speaker 1: looking fellow. He has very rosy cheeks. Think he's been
17:32
Speaker 1: drinking a lot of this wine himself over the years,
17:34
Speaker 1: and really Harry Potter circular type glasses, and very fond
17:38
Speaker 1: of pinstriped suits. It would appear I gotta look more
17:41
Speaker 1: into this guy. He is a very fascinating looking gentleman.
17:44
Speaker 1: If you find the time. There is a video somewhere
17:48
Speaker 1: that I can't find anymore, which is him telling people
17:52
Speaker 1: how to make a mayonnaise, and he talks in these weird,
17:55
Speaker 1: like almost susy in terms about how you have to
17:58
Speaker 1: listen to manonnaise when it talks Jewish you're making it.
18:01
Speaker 1: I just look, this is just me asking for someone
18:04
Speaker 1: to help me find that video. I've looked everywhere. I
18:06
Speaker 1: want to hear the Mannies. I will. I will take
18:08
Speaker 1: this on as a personal charge. Um, But you're right then,
18:11
Speaker 1: I mean the that that that christening of the USS
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Speaker 1: Constitution was a really important hallmark because of not necessarily
18:20
Speaker 1: the christening fluid per se, which is a term that
18:24
Speaker 1: was used, but the breaking of a bottled spirit right. Uh.
18:29
Speaker 1: And that's sort of where we really start to see
18:31
Speaker 1: it go in this direction. Um, because the actual fluid,
18:35
Speaker 1: the juice, the christening juice, varied from christening to christening. Um.
18:41
Speaker 1: You would see, for example, whiskey used sometimes uh in
18:46
Speaker 1: the christenings of the U. S. S. Princeton, Uh, the
18:49
Speaker 1: Raritan or the Shamrock. Those were all ships that were
18:53
Speaker 1: christened with whiskey. Um. The U. S. S. New Iron
18:56
Speaker 1: Side was actually christened twice, first with brandy and then
19:01
Speaker 1: with again madeira wine. There were also uh this is
19:05
Speaker 1: interesting too. I watched the video about this this morning
19:07
Speaker 1: from the history guy I think is his name he
19:10
Speaker 1: where he's really a this adorable, professorial looking gentleman who
19:13
Speaker 1: wears a bow tie and he has a lot of
19:15
Speaker 1: really great history videos on YouTube. But he was talking
19:18
Speaker 1: about how the temperance movement sort of also changed, uh,
19:23
Speaker 1: the trajectory of christening because there were a lot of
19:26
Speaker 1: alcohol free christenings. This is earlier than that. But then
19:29
Speaker 1: you know later this this kind of came back around
19:31
Speaker 1: again and folks would use things like grape juice. Water
19:34
Speaker 1: was really popular. We even know about some uses of
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Speaker 1: holy water. Um. The U. S. S. Hartford was a
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Speaker 1: ship that was christened no less than three times uh,
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Speaker 1: and it was sprinkled with water from the very ocean
19:46
Speaker 1: that it was bound for the Atlantic um and also
19:50
Speaker 1: the Connecticut River and a spring in Hartford, Connecticut. Yeah,
19:55
Speaker 1: and therein we find the vestiges of something called sympathetic magic.
20:02
Speaker 1: It's where you perform a ritual using objects or particular
20:07
Speaker 1: actions that are somehow symbolically associated with the thing you're
20:12
Speaker 1: trying to influence. So simply put, that means that if
20:16
Speaker 1: you have a ship that's going into the Pacific, you
20:20
Speaker 1: christen it with water from the Pacific, right, and now
20:23
Speaker 1: the ship sort of belongs to it and is of it.
20:27
Speaker 1: But all the high minded ancient rituals aside, people were
20:32
Speaker 1: still partying. One great example of this is the christening
20:36
Speaker 1: of the USS Kentucky. Officially, this craft was supposed to
20:41
Speaker 1: be christened with spring water, but as the ship it
20:45
Speaker 1: it's a battleship. As it actually goes into the water,
20:48
Speaker 1: the people who are watching the christening, maybe they're a
20:51
Speaker 1: little overserved or something, they get out of hand and
20:55
Speaker 1: they start bashing little bottles of bourbon against the side.
20:59
Speaker 1: So they had their own christenings. You know, it's a
21:02
Speaker 1: big deal, it's a party. But again, like I said,
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Speaker 1: we we see all these different fluids used for christenings.
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Speaker 1: How did Champagne win the day? Well, first, it's it's fancy.
21:14
Speaker 1: We already kind of associate champagne with celebrations right back
21:20
Speaker 1: in we know that the Secretary of the Navy's granddaughter
21:25
Speaker 1: christened the Navy's first steel battleship with champagne. And there
21:31
Speaker 1: are some people who say, like there's a great mental
21:33
Speaker 1: philost article about this. There are some people who conjecture
21:37
Speaker 1: that the shift to Champagne may have been intentionally coinciding
21:44
Speaker 1: with the new era of steel. But I don't know
21:48
Speaker 1: about you. Personally, I think there's a stronger argument that
21:52
Speaker 1: people just felt like Champagne was fancier and more important. Right,
21:57
Speaker 1: you don't want to do mad Dog? What was that? Terrible?
22:01
Speaker 1: What's that? Why? It's like a mad dog? Is the
22:04
Speaker 1: stuff you're thinking of? I believe, yes, yes, that's correct.
22:07
Speaker 1: Comes in like flavors like blueberry and uh and and
22:10
Speaker 1: and razzleberry and uh and and you know any berry.
22:14
Speaker 1: It's all berry flavored stuff. But it really tastes like
22:16
Speaker 1: cleaning liquid the snawsberry. But you see what I'm saying,
22:22
Speaker 1: It's because champagne was a celebratory drink, you know, and
22:28
Speaker 1: we we know that There's another instance just a year later,
22:34
Speaker 1: when Queen Victoria launches the HMS Royal Arthur, she also
22:39
Speaker 1: smashes a bottle of champagne against the whole So maybe
22:46
Speaker 1: maybe they used champagne because there was royalty involved. We
22:50
Speaker 1: don't know for sure, but John Graves, who is the
22:53
Speaker 1: curator of ship History at the National Maritime Museum, he
22:56
Speaker 1: falls into this school of thought because, of course, you know,
23:00
Speaker 1: if you have the queen christening a ship that is
23:03
Speaker 1: named after royalty, maybe they just thought good old Atlantic
23:08
Speaker 1: ocean water wasn't wasn't fit to do the job. Now,
23:12
Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking. Everybody's vaguely familiar with US
23:15
Speaker 1: history is saying, hey, you know, christening ships with alcohol
23:20
Speaker 1: is all well and good, but what do you do
23:25
Speaker 1: when you need to christen his ship and alcohol is illegal? Exactly.
23:29
Speaker 1: I hinted at this earlier in the episode that prohibition
23:33
Speaker 1: was going to play a role in the evolution of
23:35
Speaker 1: this ritual. It's absolutely true. Prohibition outlawed alcohol. As we know,
23:41
Speaker 1: and therefore it wasn't something that could be publicly used
23:45
Speaker 1: in these very public ceremonies. So we started to see
23:50
Speaker 1: much more use of juices like apple cider, and also
23:55
Speaker 1: again water from from the specific body of water the
23:58
Speaker 1: ships we're going to be destined for. UM. Champagne did
24:02
Speaker 1: make a comeback stronger than ever with the passage of
24:05
Speaker 1: the twenty one Amendment, and that really was the kind
24:08
Speaker 1: of moment that solidified it UM and and it stuck around,
24:12
Speaker 1: and it kind of became the go to Christening fluid.
24:15
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep using that. I love that uh. And
24:18
Speaker 1: Ben you pointed out off Mike Um that there is
24:21
Speaker 1: a an alternative called cava, which is something that I
24:25
Speaker 1: think neither of us were particularly familiar with. But it's
24:27
Speaker 1: a Spanish bubbly wine UM that actually has a higher
24:33
Speaker 1: um bubble content. I don't know how to say that,
24:37
Speaker 1: but that's a good thing for Christening because you want
24:39
Speaker 1: a higher pressure uh in the in the bottle, because
24:44
Speaker 1: that's gonna make it more likely to break because these
24:46
Speaker 1: bottles aren't designed to break that. You don't want to accidentally,
24:50
Speaker 1: you know, bump your champagne ball and have it go
24:52
Speaker 1: exploding everywhere. These things are under a lot of pressure,
24:55
Speaker 1: and that's why those corks oftentimes have that little cage
24:58
Speaker 1: thing that you have to untwist um. But you know
25:01
Speaker 1: modern Christenings, when you see folks do this, they even
25:03
Speaker 1: have these special little nets they put the champagne in
25:06
Speaker 1: because nobody wants to get glass in the water. That's
25:08
Speaker 1: not cool, especially if you're you know, a responsible boater. Um. So, yeah,
25:14
Speaker 1: you want a clean break when you smash this thing.
25:17
Speaker 1: And so oftentimes what is done as well is they'll
25:19
Speaker 1: pre score the bottle with like a glass cutter um,
25:23
Speaker 1: and that is what helps to kind of break evenly
25:25
Speaker 1: and not just shatter and shoot shards of glass every
25:28
Speaker 1: which where. Yeah, cava is much more effervescent than champagne.
25:35
Speaker 1: As you said, it's it's bubbli er, but it's not
25:37
Speaker 1: technically champagne. It's kind of like, uh, you know, you
25:42
Speaker 1: may think you have anxiety, but if it's not from
25:46
Speaker 1: the anxiety region of France, it's just plain old unease. Wait, casey,
25:52
Speaker 1: how do I pronounce anxiety and French? It was close
25:58
Speaker 1: six out of ten, four point five out of ten
26:00
Speaker 1: if we're being honest, Yeah, you're you're absolutely right. No,
26:04
Speaker 1: there is a science to this, because it turns out
26:07
Speaker 1: that people actually spent thousands of years figuring out how
26:11
Speaker 1: to make bottles that don't break easily. It's sort of
26:15
Speaker 1: the point, and we know that there was in some
26:24
Speaker 1: cases a lot writing on the successful rupture of the
26:29
Speaker 1: bottle on the first try. It's kind of like a
26:32
Speaker 1: very high stakes high five you don't want to miss
26:35
Speaker 1: and have to go again. In the New York Times
26:39
Speaker 1: November eighteen nine, we see an account of a battle
26:45
Speaker 1: cruiser for the U. S. Navy named the Main and
26:48
Speaker 1: it was christened in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This is
26:52
Speaker 1: a description of that granddaughter of the Secretary of the
26:56
Speaker 1: Navy that I mentioned earlier, and this discription emphasizes just
27:01
Speaker 1: how much is writing on getting this right the first try.
27:06
Speaker 1: The granddaughter in question is Alice Tracy will Murdin. And
27:10
Speaker 1: here's the quote. It's a great name, by the way,
27:13
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot. Miss Wilmandine will have the precious
27:17
Speaker 1: quart bottles secure to her wrist by a short bunch
27:19
Speaker 1: of ribbons, which will serve the same purpose as a sword.
27:22
Speaker 1: Not It is of the utmost importance that the bottle
27:25
Speaker 1: be broken on the first throw, for the blue Jackets
27:27
Speaker 1: will declare the vessel is unmanageable if she has permitted
27:30
Speaker 1: to get into the water without first being christened. It
27:33
Speaker 1: is consequently a matter of deep interest to the old
27:35
Speaker 1: shell Backs to learn that Miss Wilmerding has performed her
27:39
Speaker 1: task successfully. Blue Jackets, shell Backs, It's a different world, man,
27:44
Speaker 1: it really is. What is a shell back? Is that
27:46
Speaker 1: some sort of fashion item. I just hope it's pronounced
27:49
Speaker 1: shell back and not like sheiel bach or shiel bow.
27:53
Speaker 1: Well we'll probably get yelled that either way. But you
27:55
Speaker 1: know what, every day is a shining new penny, as
27:58
Speaker 1: Holly Fry would say from stuff you us in history class. Uh.
28:01
Speaker 1: There's another really great quote UM in from the next
28:04
Speaker 1: day's paper, UM that provides a little bit more detail
28:09
Speaker 1: behind the christenings ceremony. UM. Fifteen thousand people on the
28:13
Speaker 1: word of the watchman. As the gate swarmed about the
28:15
Speaker 1: red hall of the giant battleship, on the decks of
28:18
Speaker 1: all the assembled vessels in the upper stories, and on
28:21
Speaker 1: the roofs of all the adjacent buildings. The raised platform
28:24
Speaker 1: at the point of the mains rambow was prettily draped
28:28
Speaker 1: with flags and flowers, and upon it General Tracy and
28:31
Speaker 1: Mr Whitney stood a party of ladies, La La. Prominent
28:35
Speaker 1: among them was the Secretary's granddaughter's Alice wilmoding with her mother. Yeah,
28:40
Speaker 1: we see the high ritual of this, right, the high
28:43
Speaker 1: dudgeon of the whole thing, and this point by point
28:48
Speaker 1: description lets us know that this is a big deal.
28:51
Speaker 1: But when we talk about christenings, we have to we
28:53
Speaker 1: have to realize that it's still a big deal today.
28:57
Speaker 1: You know, if you get a chance to go check
29:00
Speaker 1: out the christening of a vessel, please do. You'll probably
29:03
Speaker 1: have a great time and you'll see a new iteration
29:06
Speaker 1: of a very very old story. So let's get down
29:11
Speaker 1: to brass tacks or brass champagne bottles. All right, these
29:14
Speaker 1: all these aren't all going to work. I've seen there's
29:17
Speaker 1: I've seen brass champagne bottles before, those really like s,
29:20
Speaker 1: you know, the really fancy ones on the top shelf
29:23
Speaker 1: at the liquor store that are like, you know, they
29:26
Speaker 1: look brassy. I think we can go with that, all right, Hey,
29:29
Speaker 1: thanks man. Yeah, let's let's get back to the practicalities
29:34
Speaker 1: that we mentioned. Just a little bit earlier. It's it's
29:38
Speaker 1: tough to break a champagne bottle, and it should be tough,
29:42
Speaker 1: like you said, No, they have to stand up to
29:44
Speaker 1: enormous pressure, which means their glass is by necessity very thick.
29:51
Speaker 1: We found a great article in the BBC interviewing a
29:54
Speaker 1: guy named Mark me Downick who is a material scientist
29:57
Speaker 1: at the King's College, London, and he's the one who
30:02
Speaker 1: talks about how to prepare a champagne bottle. First, he says,
30:07
Speaker 1: you want a bigger bottle because a bigger bottle is
30:09
Speaker 1: going to have a higher likelihood of carrying a natural defect.
30:15
Speaker 1: And I believe this is the same article that provides
30:18
Speaker 1: the inside tip on how to kind of weaken the
30:22
Speaker 1: bottle in advance, right, like what you were talking about
30:24
Speaker 1: scoring it. I think, yeah, that's right. You can use
30:27
Speaker 1: just a glass cutter, which is I think it's just
30:30
Speaker 1: a handheld thing that you would use to like like
30:32
Speaker 1: if you're like a cat burglar, you know, and you
30:33
Speaker 1: wanted to like cut a hole in a window like
30:35
Speaker 1: in the movies. Uh, maybe that's with like a shard
30:39
Speaker 1: of diamond. I don't know, but yeah, you can definitely
30:41
Speaker 1: this is something that wouldn't be some kind of like
30:43
Speaker 1: massive industrial machine and you can just kind of etch
30:46
Speaker 1: around the neck, which I believe is the weakest point. UM.
30:50
Speaker 1: We talked a bit off Mike too about the really
30:52
Speaker 1: fascinating history and tradition of sabraje, which UM are our
30:59
Speaker 1: fellow podcast susters and friends Lauren Vogel Baumb and Annie
31:02
Speaker 1: Reese did for a YouTube video UM back in the
31:05
Speaker 1: day when we were doing YouTube videos, which is the
31:07
Speaker 1: practice of taking a bottle of champagne and cleanly hacking
31:12
Speaker 1: the top off of it with a saber. Uh. And
31:15
Speaker 1: to producer Casey Pegram actually witnessed this in person and
31:19
Speaker 1: all has to do he helped make the video, and
31:21
Speaker 1: it all has to do with the angle and hitting
31:23
Speaker 1: it at the perfect point of attack where it's it's weakest. Casey,
31:27
Speaker 1: can you speak to that just a little bit. It's
31:29
Speaker 1: been a while, so I I, you know, I may
31:30
Speaker 1: get the details wrong here, but I seem to recall
31:32
Speaker 1: it had something to do with not cutting straight across,
31:34
Speaker 1: but slightly at an angle, and getting that angle just
31:37
Speaker 1: right ensured that you would get a clean cut the
31:40
Speaker 1: you know, the rest of the bottle would not move
31:42
Speaker 1: Is that correct, Ben? Do you remember this? Yeah, like
31:46
Speaker 1: you don't want to send the bottle flying. You wanted
31:47
Speaker 1: to kind of like you want to just like lop
31:49
Speaker 1: the top off and you know, make it very satisfying,
31:52
Speaker 1: clean cut. Yeah, exactly. You You need to make sure
31:55
Speaker 1: that you're holding the bottle securely, or that you're maybe
32:00
Speaker 1: you have someone else holding it, because gosh, what a
32:04
Speaker 1: classic doof if you're if you're standing there with a
32:07
Speaker 1: saber and you accidentally drop the bottle you're trying to open.
32:14
Speaker 1: You also need to make sure the bottle is chilled.
32:17
Speaker 1: You want the neck to feel frozen to the touch.
32:20
Speaker 1: That's why a lot of times you'll see somebody take
32:22
Speaker 1: the bottle out of a bucket of ice. There's also,
32:26
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to get us too far
32:28
Speaker 1: off topic, but there's a whole thing about the bottle's
32:32
Speaker 1: welding line and you need to you need to follow
32:35
Speaker 1: the welding lines with the blade. And it's impressive to see, right,
32:40
Speaker 1: I have personally not subraged. Is that the right way
32:46
Speaker 1: to say? I have personally not subraged a bottle yet?
32:49
Speaker 1: Have you guys? I have not, but it does seem Uh,
32:53
Speaker 1: it's super intriguing and it seems very satisfying because Lauren
32:57
Speaker 1: actually showed us the piece that they got to keep
33:01
Speaker 1: and it's super cleanly broken, like it's it's like smooth
33:05
Speaker 1: on either side. And that's the thing about the way
33:08
Speaker 1: this relates to the christening. I mean, there's different ways
33:11
Speaker 1: of doing and I think I've seen it where people
33:13
Speaker 1: hold it from the neck and literally smash the fat
33:16
Speaker 1: part of the bottle against the boat. I've seen examples
33:19
Speaker 1: where people tie the bottle to a rope because you
33:23
Speaker 1: gotta remember a lot of these ships are massive and
33:25
Speaker 1: you can't get right up on them. Um, So they
33:28
Speaker 1: would swing the bottle from the dock on a rope
33:31
Speaker 1: and then hit the side of it. And the way
33:33
Speaker 1: to go about that, uh is apparently to use a
33:36
Speaker 1: very rigid rope like something more like that you would
33:39
Speaker 1: tie um, you know, nautical lines with, as opposed to
33:42
Speaker 1: something that has flexibility, because if it has kind of elasticity,
33:46
Speaker 1: that will soak up some of the impact that you
33:48
Speaker 1: need to actually break this this bottle. So there you
33:52
Speaker 1: have it. Christening is an ancient tradition and through the
33:57
Speaker 1: long game of telephone known as human history, it has
34:01
Speaker 1: transformed over time, but its roots are so very deep
34:07
Speaker 1: in our society. Also, if you are a person who
34:12
Speaker 1: doesn't get super into booze, or if you're a person
34:16
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to waste champagne, you can consider a
34:19
Speaker 1: couple of other christening traditions. For instance, in Japan, instead
34:24
Speaker 1: of a bottle of champagne, people tend to use a
34:29
Speaker 1: special silver axe to cut the lines that hold the
34:34
Speaker 1: ship away from the water, so you have the ceremony,
34:38
Speaker 1: but instead of smashing a bottle, someone cuts the line,
34:41
Speaker 1: the ship goes into the water, and the ship's owner
34:44
Speaker 1: gets to keep the acts they were never throwing it
34:47
Speaker 1: into the ocean. Dude, I love a good ceremonial acts.
34:50
Speaker 1: Why don't we rattle off a couple of extra bonus
34:52
Speaker 1: facts here at the end that I quite enjoyed. In
34:55
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, lou Henry Hoover christened the Akron, but
35:01
Speaker 1: he didn't use any kind of liquid at all. Um.
35:04
Speaker 1: He christened it with a flock of pigeons that was
35:08
Speaker 1: released to fly over the ship. So you know, we
35:10
Speaker 1: we think of the liquid christening as being sort of
35:13
Speaker 1: the only way it's done, but that's just not the case.
35:15
Speaker 1: As is the case with the christening of the Titanic
35:18
Speaker 1: or the lack of christening, because there's sort of like
35:22
Speaker 1: a urban legend that's floated around. Uh pun absolutely intended,
35:27
Speaker 1: um saying that the Titanic met its demise because it
35:31
Speaker 1: was never christened properly. But ben, as you know, um,
35:36
Speaker 1: neither were any of the other ships in the White
35:38
Speaker 1: star Line. Correct. Yeah, yeah, that's correct. And honestly, not
35:45
Speaker 1: every ship in the White star Line sank, so it
35:48
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like christening was crucial to the vessels. However,
35:53
Speaker 1: as we've said in the past, there is a lot
35:54
Speaker 1: of superstition and folklore in the maritime world, and it
35:59
Speaker 1: is true that one of the people who broke the
36:01
Speaker 1: supports for the Titanic at at the launch of the
36:05
Speaker 1: vessel did sustain fatal injuries while he was working. And
36:10
Speaker 1: so if you believe in certain maritime superstitions, and that
36:14
Speaker 1: could be taken as a bad omen. But here's the
36:17
Speaker 1: part that this is interesting to me. Okay, every death
36:21
Speaker 1: is a tragedy, right beyond words, it is interesting that
36:27
Speaker 1: at the time of the Titanics launch and after the launch,
36:32
Speaker 1: people were looking at this death as a very bad
36:34
Speaker 1: thing when we consider that ancient quote unquote christening ceremonies
36:40
Speaker 1: did sometimes evolve human sacrifice, like the Vikings. Right, Yeah,
36:44
Speaker 1: that's right, And I guess I'd be much more likely
36:46
Speaker 1: to support you know, sacrificing a little a little of
36:50
Speaker 1: the devil's nectar rather than you know, a human person.
36:54
Speaker 1: So I think we've come a long way. And I
36:56
Speaker 1: also support the kind of secularization of all of this.
36:59
Speaker 1: The it's still kind of has echoes of this religious ceremony, um,
37:05
Speaker 1: you know, and the fact that it's still called a
37:07
Speaker 1: christening I think speaks volumes to how much staying power
37:10
Speaker 1: a lot of these uh, these rituals have. Um. But
37:13
Speaker 1: this has been an interesting one, Ben, Like I said,
37:15
Speaker 1: when you send me this topic, I was like, huh,
37:17
Speaker 1: I've always wondered what the deal was with that, And
37:19
Speaker 1: now we know. And now you two fellow ridiculous historians
37:23
Speaker 1: also know what we know. And so we're we're in
37:26
Speaker 1: the same boat. I don't know where we go. It's
37:31
Speaker 1: not like it's thank you, Ben, You're so supportive. I
37:33
Speaker 1: appreciate that. I'm gonna start today by thanking you Ben
37:36
Speaker 1: first and foremost for being a pal and for being
37:39
Speaker 1: supportive of my bad dad jokes and and and and
37:42
Speaker 1: non punny puns and all of the all of the things. Um,
37:46
Speaker 1: you're you're a good guy man, and I'm glad to
37:48
Speaker 1: be on this voyage of ridiculous historical discovery with you,
37:53
Speaker 1: my friend. Back at you all, I also was the
37:57
Speaker 1: last thing I have to say about this is I
38:01
Speaker 1: love pop and circumstance. I keep trying to find a
38:04
Speaker 1: better phrase for it, but it encapsulates it. I love
38:07
Speaker 1: the ceremonies of the rituals, the superstition. It's all very
38:10
Speaker 1: fun to me. I think we should start christening more things.
38:14
Speaker 1: When I got my newest car, I was seriously thinking,
38:19
Speaker 1: is there something I could smash against this that you
38:21
Speaker 1: know wouldn't hurt the car? And I couldn't come up
38:24
Speaker 1: with anything. But let us know what other things you
38:28
Speaker 1: think should be christened, or let us know what other
38:31
Speaker 1: strange christening folklore you found. And as always, thank you
38:36
Speaker 1: for listening, No, of course, thank you for going on
38:39
Speaker 1: a another another strange historical voyage. And shout out, of
38:44
Speaker 1: course to the man on the quarter deck of our podcast,
38:48
Speaker 1: super producer Casey Pegram. Huge thanks to Alex Williams, who
38:51
Speaker 1: composed our theme. Christopher Hassiota is here in spirit, Jonathan Strickland,
38:54
Speaker 1: that Rascal of the High Seas, of of of Quister
38:59
Speaker 1: dum Um. And who else did I miss anybody? Oh?
39:02
Speaker 1: Of course, uh researchers saysciate extraordinarire gay Bluesier. So you
39:07
Speaker 1: might be asking yourself, where can I tell you guys
39:09
Speaker 1: about my Christening story? We'd love to hear it. We're
39:13
Speaker 1: all over the internet. You can find us on Facebook,
39:15
Speaker 1: you can find us on Instagram. You can find us
39:17
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I think, uh, not just as a show,
39:20
Speaker 1: but as individuals, that's right. If you wish. You can
39:23
Speaker 1: find me on Instagram exclusively. I am at how Now
39:26
Speaker 1: Noel Brown. You can follow my quarantine cooking adventures and
39:30
Speaker 1: hikes and or my and my kids always changing hair color.
39:34
Speaker 1: And you can find me taking various strange adventures at
39:39
Speaker 1: Ben Boling on Instagram and various I guess Reddit calls
39:43
Speaker 1: them shower thoughts on Twitter, where I am at Ben
39:47
Speaker 1: Bowling hs W Bombayage. Folks, We'll see you next time.
40:03
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
40:06
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,