Tall stories

About the risks of getting married on a lightship Every year several hundred weddings take place on light vessels. Seamen's yarns tell that there has not been one separation of one of these marriages to date. Maybe that is because the happy couple together with their marriage licence, sign a document that states, should the marriage fail, the guilty partner has to return to be keel hauled. The crew members apparently only negotiate the speed of this keel haul after a "speed up payment" of at least 11 crates of beer ... ;-)) One registrar comments as follows: "I approve of the idea that couples, when getting married, sign up to being keel hauled, should they separate. But it should be communicated by the crew in appropriate form i.e. with a document or such like. This would surely be passed on and be appreciated by marriage candidates. As matters stand though, it could be that couples expect things from the registrar, which he can not oblige with." What do you think? This seems to positively scream for keel hauling the registrar, so he learns that keel hauling is not anything desirable. For all land lovers: Keel hauling means that an offender is tied up with a rope round his waist and lowered into the water. One crew member holds one end of the rope on the port side of the ship, another crew member has the other end of the rope on the start board side. The offender will be pulled from one side under boat (its keel) to the other. The time this takes depends on how fast the seamen on the ends of the rope are pulling. With especially vile offences it can happen, the keel hauling is done from bow to stern....