Why Associate Pipes and the Ocean?

[Philosopiper]

The idea of the pipe-smoking sailor is classic. But presumably this association isn't mere historical accident, and there is some reason why pipe-smokers are led to the water, and those who sail are led to pipe-smoking. What do you think is the association between pipes and the ocean, or pipes and sailing?

 

[anotherbob]

Several things. One is sailing was a boring and stressful job. Imagine how much chain smoking you'd do stuck out on the ocean for months on end. And the rest other people can talk about....

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Found this: Smoke on the Water: Tobacco, Pirates, and Seafaring in the Early Modern World - https://www.intoxicatingspaces.org/2019/12/09/smoke-on-the-water-tobacco-pirates-and-seafaring-in-the-early-modern-world/

 

[Streeper541]

I was a sailor for over a decade, and none of 3/4+ smokers on any of the crews could ever figure out the answer to that question. ?

As for piping, only myself and two other Coasties during my time ever smoked a pipe aboard any of the cutters I sailed on. Tobacco use was mostly cigarettes, cigars & chew... in that order.

 

[mso489]

Being a one-time fleet enlisted sailor myself, I have to report that Minepac (minesweeper Pacific) sailors smoked cigarettes exclusively. I didn't smoke nails, just a cigar now and then when ashore. I now regret I didn't have a pipe at the time, as a sort of individual statement when "the smoking lamp" was lit. In the days when pipes were more general among sailors, I think it was because they are relatively better in the wind than nails, and a little less susceptible to spray. The old square rigger sailors bought their tobacco in cloth bags with draw strings, and apparently this preserved it sufficiently for long months at sea. Loose tobacco was cheaper than cigars or cigarettes, as it is today. Pipes probably enhanced quiet times at sea when conversation and yarn telling was a principle form of entertainment. Smoking a pipe while telling a story provides dramatic pauses while you sip your pipe and assume evocative expressions before pressing on with your tale.

 

[Inspired Idler]

I like to think the meditative nature of the sea and it's rhythms complement pipe smoking very well.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Nicotine addiction and being stuck around barrels of tobacco being shipped for weeks and months at a time.

 

[SBC]

I'm looking at the tin art of my Windjammer, Sextant, Black Frigate, and John Marr, as I type.

Some practical / situational answers were already suggested:

(1) sans the opportunity to occupy his time in all the ways that landlubbers can, the sailor smoked.

(2) ships laden with cargos of tobacco from the New World sort of invite the use of that with which they are laden.

These are almost certainly true answers of a certain question. But I'm not sure that they are answers to your question. Your question is of the poetic sort. Why is it that the shade of sehnsucht evoked by the sea seems so fittingly adorned by pipe smoking?

Realistically, the historical fact that sailors smoked (perhaps for the reasons mentioned above) contributes to the association in our mental imagery.

But having said that, have we said all that can be said? Does the association in our mental imagery owe nothing to anything other than that history?

Is it in any way supported by a deeper association? I think so.

The sea in its vastness and power -- and in its mirroring of the firmament -- evokes in us a memory of The Transcendent.

Pipe smoking, for its part, is a deeply personal incense, offered upward, toward The Transcendent. It strikes me as more personal than incense offered from a censer, because, having taken it into yourself, you exhale it out from yourself. Remember that the Hebrew word for "breath" and "spirit" is the same, and that God "breathed" life into Adam. Incese that we breathe out is as our very spirit, offered up out of ourselves to God.

The sea, as the second greatest type of The Transcendent (after the heavens), is fittingly associated with pipe smoke, a uniquely meaningful type of our prayers, our very soul, offered up to The Transcendent.

That's my initial stab at an answer. Now to pick one of the tobaccos I mentioned in my first line and find some Youtube loop of waves and seagulls and creaking ropes and the slap of water against a hull, so that I can pretend for a moment that I'm not landlocked in the upper midwest...

 

[didimauw]

I always picture groups of sailors or pirates scooping into a barrel full of tobacco.

 

[Chasing Embers]

When they weren't smoking their pipes at the appropriate time, when the smoking lamp was lit, they would chew to avoid burning the ship down and to stave off hunger as they worked.

 

[philobeddoe]

Pre rolled cigarettes weren’t around in the canvas sail days. I would imagine that it was just easier to fill a pipe and go on about your duties than to try to roll a cigarette every time you wanted a smoke on a ship.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Pre rolled cigarettes weren’t around in the canvas sail days. I would imagine that it was just easier to fill a pipe and go on about your duties than to try to roll a cigarette every time you wanted a smoke on a ship.

Very similar to now. When my hands are busy at work, I've got a pipe going when I can't manage a cigarette.

 

[That Guy]

I've discovered this little piece of heaven on my way to work in the morning. Been stopping here for about a month now and smoking my pipe. Pipe smoking is calming and relaxing. Watching the sun rise over the water and hearing the water and seeing all the wild life is also. It goes hand and hand for me. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but a nice morning smoke hits the spot.

 

[workman]

They were stuck on those ships for months and often years at a time. Work was hard and discipline strict. They were infested with lice and fleas and the food was bad. Pretty much everything was total misery.
Of course they smoked!
+it goes well with grog, I imagine.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

View attachment 103979View attachment 103980View attachment 103981View attachment 103982I've discovered this little piece of heaven on my way to work in the morning. Been stopping here for about a month now and smoking my pipe. Pipe smoking is calming and relaxing. Watching the sun rise over the water and hearing the water and seeing all the wild life is also. It goes hand and hand for me. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but a nice morning smoke hits the spot.

In a more philosophical sense, smoking on the shore combines all of nature's elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. It's rather comforting to some.

Personally, I enjoy being near water more than on or in it.

 

[That Guy]

Personally, I enjoy being near water more than on or in it.

Same here. There is a long pier that goes out probably a hundred yards and I'll walk out there every now and then but mostly I sit on a bench right near the shore. You will see wild river dolphins, manatees, and fish jumping out of the water and on land there will be rabbits, cranes and curious squirrels wondering if you have something to give them LOL.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Same here. There is a long pier that goes out probably a hundred yards and I'll walk out there every now and then but mostly I sit on a bench right near the shore. You will see wild river dolphins, manatees, and fish jumping out of the water and on land there will be rabbits, cranes and curious squirrels wondering if you have something to give them LOL.

I enjoy sitting on/near golf course water holes.

A golf course is God's version of man creating nature.

Watching critters and people is a great way to pass time and just enough of a distraction while in deep thought.

 

[BlackSwampPiper]

Perhaps the varied travels made it more reasonable to have a pipe on hand. Aside from cigars getting wet and ruined, the pipe makes it simple to sample the various tobaccos available, in any form.

 

[bullet08]

'Cause after walking on the water, Jesus lit a nice bowl of Balkan to sit and rest by the shore.

 

[hauntedmyst]

I associate pipe smoking with the land and the ocean with getting eaten by a shark (thankls Mr. Spielberg), crappy salt water and jelly fish stings.