Yesterday I found a cool story that I’m having trouble verifying if it ever really happened or not. It’s one of those things where if it’s mentioned at all online, it’s generally the exact same text - meaning they all came from a common source. Anyway, the story involves nautical superstitions against Friday, and an attempt to overcome them:

The reluctance of seamen to sail on a Friday reached such epic proportions, that in the 1800s the British Government decided to take strong measures to prove the fallacy of the superstition. They laid the keel of a new vessel on Friday, selected her crew on a Friday, launched her on a Friday and named her HMS Friday. They then placed her in command of one Captain James Friday and sent her to sea for the first time on a Friday. The scheme worked well, and had only one drawback … neither ship nor crew was ever heard from again.

The site I nabbed that from claims that this ship isn’t listed on any of the major ship registers from that century, but who knows. For me, it’s not especially important whether it really happened, because it’s a great little story - a nice little example of a modern fairy-tale in it’s own right. Although, there is a very small reference to it on this page of the BBC site that lends credence to it’s being a real historical event.

1. This other site says that a prominent London insurance company began refusing to insure ships which set sail on Friday the 13th.
2. How Stuff Works has a halfway decent article on why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky.
3. Snopes, the “urban legends” site has a much crappier article on the subject. I never like their articles though.