Featured Image Credit: Theo Wargo/Getty/Joe Raedle/Getty
Topics: News, Travel, US News, World News, Cruise ship
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, Travel, US News, World News, Cruise ship
A passenger has revealed the one word that is strictly taboo to say on board a cruise ship.
If there's one thing that most people know about sailors, it's that they have a reputation for being a superstitious bunch.
There are any number of nautical superstitions, and given just how vast and dangerous the ocean is, it's pretty understandable.
For example, you shouldn't whistle or sing into the wind or you could 'whistle up a storm'.
Advert
Setting sail on the day of a bad biblical event such as Cain killing Abel or Judas hanging himself is also a no no.
And while we're on biblical references, having a 'Jonah' on board is never good, a 'Jonah' being an individual who brings bad luck down on a vessel.
But there is also at least one superstition which is particular to cruise ships.
TikToker Marc Sebastian went on the nine-month-long Ultimate World Cruise with Royal Caribbean for 18 nights, and found out there is one word which is taboo.
So what is this word?
Well, somewhat unsurprisingly, it's 'Titanic'.
Given that this is the White Star cruise liner which infamously sank on its maiden voyage, that's not really a story that you would want to evoke while on a cruise ship.
And if the reaction is anything to go by, this isn't some old superstition which no-one believes, people were genuinely taken aback when Sebastian mentioned the ill-fated ship.
In a video, he said: “I brought it up to an entire room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than the Titanic — when I tell you that utensils dropped. Waiters gasped. It’s dead silent.”
Luckily, after he brought it up his friend Nadine was able to fill him in, whispering to him: "You’re not allowed to talk about the Titanic.”
The TikToker pointed out: “Well, it wasn’t like that was in the f*cking handbook.”
It may not have been, but surely it's not a huge leap that it might be seen as a bit of a faux pas to mention a cruise ship infamous for sinking while on a cruise ship?
Nautical superstitions are as alive now as they have ever been.
TikToker joethesailor documents his life working as an officer on container ships, and in one video shows just how pitch black it gets at night when you're at sea.
He revealed how some people believe you should never go out alone at night, which seems sensible.
Asked by someone what the scariest thing he'd seen was, he replied: "A white figure on the bridge wing at 3am. Confirmed by my lookout too. Stayed for about 4 minutes then walked right across the front windows then went."