Strange customs amongst the Scarborough shipbuilders
The following was found in Bakers history of Scarborough : Whilst a ship was being caulked(made watertight) any passing woman had to be kissed : The custom didn't last for long!
Caulking kiss - for several years before and some years after 1787, the carpenters employed in the shipyards at Scarborough had a custom as follows - when the seams of a new ship were being first caulked, each man had his portion of the work marked off, where he was stationed until the caulking was completed. The man who worked nearest to the stern was, by indispensible custom, obliged to demand a kiss of every female who might happen to pass by during the caulking. If a lady refused the favour , she had to compound by giving something to purchase oil to rub the "riming iron", that it might more easily enter the seams. If the lady did not comply with either of the requests, the carpenter was compelled by his companions to take the kiss or be "cobbed" by them. Neither inhabitants nor visitors were exempt from this tax, and those females who chose to pay seldom estimated the value of a kiss at less than a shilling. Shipbuilding is no more at Scarborough, and with its departure has gone this free and somewhat intrusive saluation.
OTHER ARTICLES
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• Life in the Old Town of Scarborough and harbour - the fishing families
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• Children of the fishing families in Scarborough
• The port of Scarborough in the late 15th Century
• Scarboroughs Sir Edward Harland - The renowned Belfast Shipbuilder
• Scarborough pleasure boats - the Bilsdale, Coronia and Royal Lady
• Witches and black cats in the Old Town in Scarborough - superstitions
• The U-Boat campaign in the First World War
• William Cammish - log book of the Aurora - a Scarborough merchant ship
• Watching for ships by the harbour walls in Scarborough
• Tunny fishing in Scarborough in the 1930's
• Filey and the gales of 1860,1867,1869 AND 1880
• Shipbuilding at Scarborough - the wooden barques and schooners
• Stories of human interest from the sea port of Scarborough
• Scarboroughs Heyday of Inns,smuggling and illicit stills
• Some Scarborough sailing ships - Mercia and A.I.
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