Boats are called “she” because they are traditionally been given female names, typically the name of an important woman in the life of the boat's owner, such as his mother, wife, girlfriend, or blow –up sheep. It was thought all ships were once named after goddesses, and later on, to important mortal women when belief in people realised that people such as Father Christmas, God and Fairies were the subject of a person’s vivid imagination, both real and virtual.. Interestingly, although male captains and sailors historically attributed the spirit of a benevolent female figure head to their ships, having women on board was considered to be very bad luck at sea.
On our first morning we were overtaken by a narrow boat named “Red Rebel”. This boat was not a proper fully bodied red, as in a bottle of claret but more like a reddish brown as in a bottle of HP sauce.
The people on board Steve and Sue had no communistic or rebellious facets about them. Steve didn’t sport a pony tail, was lacking in tattoos and earrings, wore the regulation, proper inflatable life jacket and looked if though he was wearing a pin stripe suit. Sue was smartly dressed, had her hair done up in a bun. However Steve’s life jacket was red and Sue’s lip stick was bright red so maybe there was some credence in the name of their boat and if they both had red underwear on, it would have confirmed our suspicions. Just as we passed them on the railway embankment wall at Purley we suddenly saw a recently painted Ban the Bomb sign about ten feet high---a sure sign of the commies and we wonder who had painted it? And where there any in close proximity to it?
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