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View Full Version : A ship named 'Friday'.


miguel
08-19-2007, 11:50 PM
Years ago I read an intriguing story in Readers Digest, allegedly true, that has a Liverpool connection. Can anyone throw any light on it? As all sailors know it is unlucky for a ship to set sail on a Friday.
During the 2nd World War there was such reluctance by sailors to sail on a Friday the Ministry for War (now The Ministry of er, Defence) decided to end such silly superstition once and for all. So, they built a small warship at Cammel Lairds.
They laid its keel on a Friday. They launched it on a Friday. The called it 'Friday' (not sure SS or MV) and it set sail on its maiden voyage on a Friday -
- neither it nor its crew were ever seen again. So I am told. Over to you.
jimmy
10-07-2007, 03:07 AM
Read articles stating the fact that there was never an HMS FRIDAY in the Royal Navy, I believe the story of HMS FRIDAY was a joke told by Dave Allen on one of his shows in the 70s.
ChrisGeorge
10-07-2007, 04:27 AM
Years ago I read an intriguing story in Readers Digest, allegedly true, that has a Liverpool connection. Can anyone throw any light on it? As all sailors know it is unlucky for a ship to set sail on a Friday.
During the 2nd World War there was such reluctance by sailors to sail on a Friday the Ministry for War (now The Ministry of er, Defence) decided to end such silly superstition once and for all. So, they built a small warship at Cammel Lairds.
They laid its keel on a Friday. They launched it on a Friday. The called it 'Friday' (not sure SS or MV) and it set sail on its maiden voyage on a Friday -
- neither it nor its crew were ever seen again. So I am told. Over to you.

Hello Michael

Check out the websites thrown up by the Google search I have just done on the "HMS Friday myth." (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%22HMS+Friday%22+myth&spell=1)

All the best

Chris
miguel
10-08-2007, 12:43 AM
Oh well. It seemed like a good story! (smile). Lots of other good ones, which are true.
ChrisGeorge
10-08-2007, 02:12 PM
Hi Michael

Yes indeed. I was an organizer and also spoke at a War of 1812 symposium in Baltimore on Saturday and we heard an interesting talk by Ellen Wilds on "Holes in History" in which she was talking about difficult it is to separate verifiable fact from legend and distortions of the truth. Whole reputations have been built on claims that can't be verified. For example, the symposium I was talking about was at the museum of the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore where flagmaker Mary Pickersgill made the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore. What she did is documented and yet the better known flagmaker is Betsy Ross, with some million or so Google hits who cannot be shown to have made the first American stars and stripes... it was apparently all made up at the time of the centennial in 1876 by a descendant.

Chris