Note 1684 — Chapter X · NAVIGATION.

By what ceremonies a ship-launch was accompanied in antiquity, I have nowhere discovered. Those which take place on the occasion in modern Greece are extremely pleasing, and may, perhaps, have had a classical origin. A crown of flowers “is suspended from the prow of a vessel when it is first launched, and the ‘καρόβακηρι,’ or master of the ship, raises the jar of wine to his lips as he stands upon the deck, and then pours it on the ground. Surely, nothing can be more beautifully classical; and it were to be wished that we could trace some part of a ceremony that takes place with us upon the same occasion to this source, and not consider it as an imitation of one of the most sacred rites of our religion.” Douglas, p. 65.