Quote:Back in the 18th Century, legend has it, the British Navy had had enough of the 13/Friday/Friday 13th superstion which was popular among sailors - "Never sail on a Friday" ... "A ship launched on a Friday was an unlucky ship" .... that sort of thing. To put an end once and for all to the foolishness, a ship to be named HMS Friday was built. Her keel was laid on a Friday, she was built with 13 compartments, she mounted 13 guns, she was launched on a Friday, and she was commissioned on a Friday. Her crew list was announced on a Friday, and on a Friday 13th, with a James Friday as her Master, she set off on her maiden voyage. No sign of the ship has been noted since.
Not surprisingly, since she never existed in the first place! There never was an HMS Friday.
This story is told in quite a few places on the web, but the date is given as anything between "in the 18th century" to "100 years ago", which is a clue that we're dealing with a fantasy here. Friday has always been an unlucky day for sailors and fishermen - and the Navy was generally sensible enough not to upset its crews by gratuitously doing anything that they would expect to bring bad luck.
Interestingly, the idea of Friday
13th being specially unlucky seems to be quite modern. There are no known references to this till quite late in the 20th century.
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