Customs and traditions of the Royal Navy

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A corps of drums of the Royal Marines Band Service marching near HMS Duncan. Corps of drums are commonly found in the Royal Navy and Commonwealth navies, being an integral part of British naval music.
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There are many customs and traditions associated with the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. Many of these traditions have carried on to other Commonwealth navies, such as Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand. These include formal customs such as separate crests associated with ships, ensigns and fleet reviews. There are also several less formal customs and traditions, including Naval slang commonly referred to as Jack Speak and the traditional games of Uckers and Euchre.

Heraldry

Ensigns

Main article:
British Naval ensigns

Commissioned ships and submarines wear the White Ensign at the stern whilst alongside during daylight hours and at the main-mast whilst under way. When alongside, the Union Jack is flown from the jackstaff at the bow, but can only be flown under way on special circumstances, i.e. when dressed with masthead flags (when it is flown at the jackstaff), to signal a court-martial is in progress (when it is flown from the starboard yardarm), or to indicate the presence of an Admiral of the Fleet, including the Lord High Admiral or the Monarch (when it is flown from the highest hoist).[1]

Ships badges

See also: Naval heraldry § Royal Navy

The

Naval Crown
adorns the top of all the badges. The frame is gold rope. Originally, different classes of ships had different shapes, but currently all ships and submarines have a circular design. Shore establishments have an offset square design.

Ceremonial

The Royal Navy uses a number of unique ceremonies which often have their origins in the days of sail.

Colours

This is the formal ceremony of raising or lowering of a ship's ensign and jack when in port or at anchor. All shore establishments only fly the White Ensign.

HM ships, when lying in home ports and roads, are to hoist their colours at 0800 from 15th February to 31st October, inclusive, and at 0900 from 1st November to 14th February inclusive, but when abroad, at 0800 or 0900 as the Commander in Chief shall direct;[2]

The lowering ceremony is referred to as "Sunset" or "Evening Colours" if sunset occurs after 2100.[2] It may be accompanied by the "Sunset" bugle call. Ships at sea fly the White Ensign continuously.[3]

Divisions

King George VI inspects Divisions aboard HMS Ramillies during the Second World War.

A formal parade of a ship's or shore establishment's company. At the Britannia Royal Naval College, the "Lord High Admiral's Divisions" is a parade held in the presence of the monarch or his representative.[4]

Pipe the side

A ceremonial greeting by a guard of honour on the arrival of a flag officer or the commander of another ship, members of the royal family or foreign officers in uniform. The actual piping is done using a boatswain's call and consists of a low note, rising to high and falling to low again, lasting for twelve seconds on a single breath.[5]

Pipe the still

A signal made boatswain's call which brings a ship's company to attention, especially for the "Colours" ceremony or when saluting a passing warship. A second call of "carry on!" returns the company to their duties.[5]

Fleet reviews

Main article:
Fleet Review

The

Charles De Gaulle at over 200 feet longer than HMS Invincible.[6]

Service nicknames

Cunard's red and black or the eponymous Blue Funnel Line
, while the Royal Navy's funnels are plain grey.

Naval salute

Originally subordinates would remove their headgear to a superior. In a book called New Art of War, printed in 1740, it is stated that;

When the King or Captain General is being saluted each Officer is to time his salute so as to pull off his hat when the person he salutes is almost opposite him.

During the age of sail, ships' officers were always worried about mutiny and it therefore became custom that whenever an officer approached, the rating would prove that he was not armed.[citation needed] This was done by knuckling the forehead and later evolved into the modern Navy salute with the hand at 45 degrees, palm facing in. The reason that the palm faces in is because sailors' hands were covered in tar from the sheets and rigging and it was considered unseemly to show an officer or a member of the Royal family a dirty palm.[11]

Toasts

The Toasts of the Royal Navy are a set of traditional drinking toasts.

Day Toast Alternates[12]
Sunday "Absent friends" "Absent friends and those at sea"
Monday "Our ships at sea" "Our native land. King and country"
Tuesday "Our sailors" (prior to 2013, "Our men") "Our mothers. Health and wealth"
Wednesday "Ourselves" (usually with the informal reply "for nobody else will concern themselves with our well-being!") "Ourselves. Our Swords. Old Ships"[nb 1]
Thursday "A bloody war or a sickly season" "The King"
Friday "A willing foe and sea-room" "Fox hunting and old port. Ships at sea"
Saturday "Our families" (prior to 2013, "Our wives and sweethearts," usually with the reply "May they never meet!") (no alternative)

In June 2013 the Tuesday and Saturday toasts were officially changed under orders from the Second Sea Lord, Vice-Admiral David Steel, to reflect the fact that women had been at sea in the Royal Navy for nearly two decades. Officially the Tuesday toast is now "our sailors" and the Saturday toast is "our families".[13]

While most of these toasts are self-explanatory, "a bloody war or a sickly season" refers to the desire and likelihood of being promoted when many people die: during war or sickness.[14] In addition, when referring to "Old Ships" (alternate toast for Wednesday), "ships" is referring to 'shipmates'.[12]

On completion of the daily toast, it was often customary to conclude with the following tribute. "But the standing toast, that pleased the most was, to the wind that blows the ship that goes, and the lass that loves a sailor" - Charles Dibdin (1740-1814).

The toasts are typically given by the youngest officer present at the mess dinner.

William IV
, who had narrowly missed cracking his head several times on low deckheads when serving in the Royal Navy.

Affiliation

Ships will engage in a number of affiliations. It is often misunderstood that ships are named after places when normally they are associated with the local lord e.g. the Duke of Marlborough. There were however a number of vessels named after places during World War II after schools, cadet units and charities. At one time every Sea Cadet unit in the UK had an affiliated ship (with the exception of Kettering, which is affiliated with 800 Naval Air Squadron; Yeovilton, now disbanded; and Yeovil unit which, due to its location on RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron), is affiliated with 848 Helicopter Squadron). However, now that Sea Cadet units outnumber Royal Navy vessels, this is no longer possible.

Naval slang

See also:
A.T.L. Covey-Crump

The RN has evolved a rich volume of

Limey, from the lime juice given to British sailors to combat scurvy – mainly redundant in use within the Royal Navy. Royal Marines are fondly known as Bootnecks or often just as Royals.[9]

Uckers and Euchre

Ludo that is traditionally played in the Royal Navy.[17]
It is fiercely competitive and rules differ between ships and stations (and between other services).

pubs in Cornwall and Devon.[citation needed] It is similar to Trumps
, and equally competitive. Euchre involves nominated partners, is played only with the nine card and higher, apart from the two of spades – called the "Benny" – (making 25 cards in all) and uses the eight and seven cards as a score board. The winner is the first team to score 15.

Songs and marches

There are several songs that are commonly associated with the Royal Navy including "Heart of Oak" (the official quick march) and "Rule, Britannia!".[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Ships here meaning 'shipmates'"

References

  1. ^ "Use of the Union Jack at Sea". Flags of the World. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  2. ^ a b "para9136". BRd2 (PDF). Royal Navy. April 2017. p. 91-16.
  3. ISBN 978-1844861446
    .
  4. ^ Jolly 2014, p. 140
  5. ^ a b Jolly 2014, p. 336
  6. ^ "French top gun at Fleet Review". The Times. London. 26 June 2005. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
  7. ^ Admiralty Manual of Seamanship. HMSO. 1964.
  8. ^ "FAQs;Royal Navy's nickname". National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 29 June 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-9514305-2-1
    .
  10. ^ "Naval Slang". Royal Navy. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  11. ^ "Why the Royal Navy? | Unique Traditions, Customs and Culture".
  12. ^ a b "RN Toasts – Tin Trousers". Tin Trousers. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  13. ^ Coghlan, Tom (22 June 2013). "Navy bans historic toast to the 'wives and sweethearts'". The Times. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  14. ISBN 978-1-4259-8446-5
    . Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  15. ^ A. Metaxas, "Metaxas' Personal Authoritative Manual on Naval Traditions"
  16. ^ "The joy of 'Jackspeak'". Today. 28 September 2011. BBC Radio 4.
  17. ^ David, George (4 October 2019). "Naval board game uckers still rules the waves". The News (Portsmouth). Retrieved 10 December 2023.

External links

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