Naked Figureheads Calmed Stormy Seas

During the Age of Sail, sailors often considered women aboard ships bad luck, but they made a striking exception for female nudity: they believed a woman baring her breasts could calm stormy seas. Roman writer Pliny the Elder recorded a version of this belief in Natural History in AD 77, claiming that a woman uncovering herself could lull a storm at sea. This old superstition may help explain why bare-breasted or semi-naked female figureheads became popular after the 1780s.

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