Why Associate Pipes and the Ocean?

[Effortlessdepths]

I'm going to chime in with a Chinese medicine/folk medicine point of view and I hope it adds to everything that you all have said.

Tobacco is drying in nature, reducing dampness in the body, and that's definitely something that would help you more easily stay acclimated to spending so much time on the sea.

 

[Philosopiper]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. All these practical reasons sound right. I suppose sailing is the perfect kind of activity to become associated with pipes--having a lot of downtime in the middle of nowhere and so on.

But then why isn't the pipe-smoking farmer, say, just as common? Why doesn't that image have the same symbolic significance as the pipe-smoking sailor? It's that symbolic significance that makes me curious--as if sailors, because of something special about sailing/the ocean and pipe-smoking themselves, and not just for practical reasons, were meant to be associated with pipes.

I like the idea that grandeur of the ocean links up with the nature of the ritual of pipe-smoking, the mind-state it involves, the aesthetic interests of the kind of person who smokes pipes.

 

[Effortlessdepths]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. All these practical reasons sound right. I suppose sailing is the perfect kind of activity to become associated with pipes--having a lot of downtime in the middle of nowhere and so on.

But then why isn't the pipe-smoking farmer, say, just as common? Why doesn't that image have the same symbolic significance as the pipe-smoking sailor? It's that symbolic significance that makes me curious--as if sailors, because of something special about sailing/the ocean and pipe-smoking themselves, and not just for practical reasons, were meant to be associated with pipes.

I like the idea that grandeur of the ocean links up with the nature of the ritual of pipe-smoking, the mind-state it involves, the aesthetic interests of the kind of person who smokes pipes.

I think what it is, is that the Ocean was the end of the Old World. America was discovered, along with this newfangled devil's weed. The farmer gets no props because that's been done, that's the ordinary, the regular. But the sailors, they risked it all and left for the high seas, to find America, etc.... so much more romantic and adventurous, it's no wonder sailors and pipes are associated and not farmers and pipes. Farmers are in the background. That's not to say one is more important than the other, just that one is less ordinary, and of course human beings get bored easily so anything out of the ordinary is more welcome than not.

 

[anotherbob]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. All these practical reasons sound right. I suppose sailing is the perfect kind of activity to become associated with pipes--having a lot of downtime in the middle of nowhere and so on.

But then why isn't the pipe-smoking farmer, say, just as common? Why doesn't that image have the same symbolic significance as the pipe-smoking sailor? It's that symbolic significance that makes me curious--as if sailors, because of something special about sailing/the ocean and pipe-smoking themselves, and not just for practical reasons, were meant to be associated with pipes.

I like the idea that grandeur of the ocean links up with the nature of the ritual of pipe-smoking, the mind-state it involves, the aesthetic interests of the kind of person who smokes pipes.

round here the pipe smoking farmer is a thing

 

[Philosopiper]

round here the pipe smoking farmer is a thing

No doubt-- but I get the impression that that image isn't nearly as classic as that of the pipe-smoking sailor.

 

[anotherbob]

No doubt-- but I get the impression that that image isn't nearly as classic as that of the pipe-smoking sailor.

well the sailors were probably one of the first groups to even try tobacco at least widely.

 

[mso489]

I visited a small whaling museum in upstate New York a few years ago while my wife and her friend shopped. The museum had a lot of good relics -- harpoons, rope work, a small boat or two, some rigging. In among the exhibits was one depicting the sea chest of a typical worker-bee sailor. As with a sailor's sea bag today, it had to hold all of his worldly possessions and personal effects that weren't back home with his family, if any. One of the items was a small drawstring cloth bag of tobacco. I was pleased to see that, while they hadn't searched out an actual pipe from the era, they added a Missouri Meerschaum hardwood to the kit, which seemed like a fair choice for the purpose. A clay pipe might have served too. Speaking of rope work, my dad could splice rope in a professional way and also did a fine monkey's fist, a tight little woven ball of the several strands of a single line (length of rope).

I've been wondering lately if I served on the last class of commissioned U.S. Navy ships with a wood hull, U.S.S. Gallant, MSO 489, with a hull entirely of Washington spruce, built in Tacoma, Washington. This was to make the hull anti-magnetic against magnetic mines, along with a degaussing system that electronically served the same purpose. MSO stands for minesweeper ocean going.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No doubt-- but I get the impression that that image isn't nearly as classic as that of the pipe-smoking sailor.

That came more from Popeye than it did Melville.

 

[workman]

I visited a small whaling museum in upstate New York a few years ago while my wife and her friend shopped. The museum had a lot of good relics -- harpoons, rope work, a small boat or two, some rigging. In among the exhibits was one depicting the sea chest of a typical worker-bee sailor. As with a sailor's sea bag today, it had to hold all of his worldly possessions and personal effects that weren't back home with his family, if any. One of the items was a small drawstring cloth bag of tobacco. I was pleased to see that, while they hadn't searched out an actual pipe from the era, they added a Missouri Meerschaum hardwood to the kit, which seemed like a fair choice for the purpose. A clay pipe might have served too. Speaking of rope work, my dad could splice rope in a professional way and also did a fine monkey's fist, a tight little woven ball of the several strands of a single line (length of rope).

I've been wondering lately if I served on the last class of commissioned U.S. Navy ships with a wood hull, U.S.S. Gallant, MSO 489, with a hull entirely of Washington spruce, built in Tacoma, Washington. This was to make the hull anti-magnetic against magnetic mines, along with a degaussing system that electronically served the same purpose. MSO stands for minesweeper ocean going.

In the national history museum here there are also examples of sailors' kits. One is a belt with loops and pockets for various utensils. In it there is a tiny clay pipe, really small, that some fishermen would take with them to sea. These guys were not really sailors, they were fishermen. They rowed their boats some miles off coast and fished with individual lines and rowed back home to sleep a couple of hours and then rowed back out. That tiny bowl must have been a precious thing.

 

[tobefrank]

That came more from Popeye than it did Melville.

I was going to say, it’s all this guy’s fault:

But I guess there is also this guy:

 

[madhatt]

I recently read Iain Gately's book about tobacco. He mentioned that Sir John Hawkins' crew were the first to introduce tobacco to England in 1565 (the leaves and the act of smoking). Portuguese and Spanish sailors were smoking even earlier than this.

 

[Brendan]

 

[anotherbob]

I was going to say, it’s all this guy’s fault:
View attachment 104237
But I guess there is also this guy:
View attachment 104238

that 2nd guy is smoking some high nic blend look at those eyes

 

[PipeIT]

Look we all know what the truth is! LOL ?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Look we all know what the truth is! LOL ?

View attachment 104499

Yep

Even Ahab took no comfort in smoking his pipe at sea and threw it overboard.

 

[Bax Burley]

I'd always heard that sailors would be less hungry if they smoked a pipe while going about their working day.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'd always heard that sailors would be less hungry if they smoked a pipe while going about their working day.

As well as chewing. Time was set aside for smoking when the smoking lamp was lit to prevent on board fires especially on whaling ships.

 

[rajangan]

A) Tobacco is awesome.

B) Air cargo prices were really high when tobacco first spread around the globe.

 

[Winterreise]

The most common archeological item to be found when it comes to pirate was clay pipe , i know this is not a WHY just a fun fact.

 

[Chris81]

I associate pipe smoking with lumberjacks (I was born in the Alps) or with very posh people from the city, lawyers, diplomats and so on... but I've never associated it with sailors until recently, probably because I was born far from the sea.

Edit: oh yes, Popeye... true, I also associate it with sailors now that I think about it. I hate when people call me Popeye though... yuck.