Why are ships launched by breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow?
A web search on “champagne ship launch” resulted in a wonderful but sadly incomplete pamphlet from the U.S. Naval Historical Center called Ships of the United States Navy: Christening, Launching and Commissioning by retired Vice Admiral E.B. Hooper. This PDF document (you’ll have to download it) is also notable for a fantastic photograph of Betty Ford smashing the heck out of a champagne bottle on a nuclear submarine. Christening a new ship with wine or holy water has obvious religious overtones, but the practice pre-dates Christianity. A Babylonian narrative from the third millennium BC replaces a bottle of Dom with a couple of heifers: Openings to the water I stopped; I searched for cracks and the wanting parts I fixed: Three sari of bitumen I poured over the outside; To the gods I caused oxen to be sacrificed The practice of breaking a bottle
