Pride of Hawaii gets a Godfather

[HumanCookie]

Will Someone nominate me to be Godfather of NCL PEARL, Please. :D

 

Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye will officially name NCL America’s newest ship on May 20 in Los Angeles. Pride of Hawaii is the third of NCL’s U.S.-flag fleet and built under the ‘Hawaii Cruise Ship Initiative’ legislation sponsored by Inouye and passed by the U.S. Congress in February 2003.

‘Senator Inouye is the father of this project and its most steadfast supporter and the introduction of Pride of Hawaii is its crowning event. So there can be no one more fitting than he to name our newest U.S.-flag ship,’ said Colin Veitch, president and ceo of NCL Corp.

‘I have always believed in the potential of Hawaii as a major cruise destination and I am very pleased that, thanks to NCL, at last this has happened,’ Inouye said in a statement. The senator acknowledged the ‘tremendous commitment’ from NCL and from ‘its partners in organized maritime labor,’ the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration, among others.

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According to sea traditions, it's okay for a ship to have a Godfather. Although in recent history, it's customary for women to christen ships.

 

From http://www.nn.northropgrumman.com/Reagan/About_the_Christening/christening_tradition.htm

 

Excerpts:

Few modern rites have a 4,000-year old tradition. Yet the ritual of ship christenings reaches that far back in recorded history. Ship christenings in the days of the Vikings were marked by the spilling of blood, human sacrifices and incantations by high priests to appease the gods. The Greeks and Romans later used water as a token of purification in blessings of the ship and her crew, officers, passengers and cargo. Many historians agree that a libation of wine – offered as the vessel hit the water – became a substitute for the earlier blood sacrifice.

The ceremony of christening a British ship was invariably performed by a male member of the Royal Family or by a dockyard commissioner until 1811 when King George IV introduced the first lady sponsor. For more than a century, the tradition throughout the world has been that women christen ships.

 

Why should women have all the fun?