Appendixes — Crossing in Scandinavian Waters 231 



same took place with any of the foremast hands entering the Mediterranean 

 for the first time. — W. Augustowsky ( Riga ) . 



(Mariner's Mirror (London) August 1912. v. 2, no. 8, p. 253.) 



Sailors' Sea Baptism. In some earlier numbers the ceremony of baptism on 

 passing Cape Kullen at the entrance of the Sound has been discussed {M.M. 

 1912, pp. 31, 62, 126, 253 ) . The sailors and passengers on board who for the 

 first time passed those rather impressive rocks had to be ducked three times 

 into the sea from the main yard arm, or to pay a certain sum of money to the 

 old sauors, for brandy, beer, etc. The oldest testimonies of those ceremonies 

 (called h0nse for Kullen) go back to the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, and sailors from the Baltic provinces stul used to baptize each other at 

 this place up till our time, although it has been transformed into a regular 

 baptism of the Line (see my treatise in the year-book of the Handels-og 

 S0fartsmuseum pa Kronborg 1928, pp. 58-68). 



Kullen was the most popular place for sea-baptism in Northern waters 

 during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Another 'international' 

 place, where the baptism was performed, was the Island of Bokn (by the 

 Dutchmen called Buk van Raa), south of Bergen, Norway. Elsewhere there 

 are a lot of places where local traditions of baptism have been maintained. 

 From other European waters similar places are weU-known. The most pop- 

 ular of them were, it seems, Pointe du Raz (Brittany), Barles (or Berlengas, 

 near Lisbon), and Gibraltar. 



I possess material on the custom from the following places: 1, Kullen; 

 2, H0nsepoUen (Island of Sams0); 3, Island of Bornholm; 4, Cape Skagen 

 ( Scaw ) ; 5, Bokn; 6, Nordkap ( North Cape ) ; 7, Nordkyn; 8, Cape Lindesnses; 

 9, Hoburgen (Island of Gotland); 10, Landsort; 11, Jungfrun (Island in Kal- 

 marsund ) ; 12, Länge Jan ( south point of the Island of Öland ) ; 13, Utklippan 

 (near Karlskrona); 14, Cape Ristna (Island of Dago); 15, Domesnäs; 16, 

 Travemünde (near Lübeck); 17, bridge. Firth of Forth (Danish ships); 

 18, the Channel (Baltic sailors); 19, Dover; 20, Scilly Islands; 21, Land's 

 End; 22, Pointe du Raz; 23, Saint-Malo; 24, Arguenon (river); 25, Raz Blan- 

 chart; 26, Cape Finisterre; 27, Berlengas; 28, Cape St Vincent; 29, Gibraltar; 

 -30, Messina; 31, Dardanelles; 32, St Goar (town on the Rhine); 33, Donaus- 

 trudel ( swirl in the river Danube ) . 



As I am working on this subject, I would like to ask your readers, if they 

 <;an provide me with some more material from the mentioned places or from 

 others. References to any hterature on the subject are also welcome. 



Henning Henningsen 



(Hr. Henning Henningsen's address is: Maritime and Trade Museum, 

 Kronborg, Elsinore, Denmark. — Ed. ) 



(Mariner's Mirror (London) May 1954. v. 40, no. 2, p. 161-162.) 



Sailor's Baptism est Scandinavian Waters. — I do not agree vwth the con- 

 clusion reached by the author of the article imder this heading which ap- 

 peared in The Mariners Mirror of August 1954. 



