Recently, a member of Cruiserlog shared information about how to cook the perfect egg (link) and another member replied that we must all make sure to break the shells lest a witch take a little boat ride in them! On the thread, a third member shared the delightful story From Charles Leland ‘Gypsy Sorcerer’, published in 1891 (link) about a girl who thew out an unbroken egg shell so the witches could have boats too. She was later rescued by such a witch.

Humm…

In the 1500’s, it was a common superstition that if you didn’t break up the eggshell, a witch would snatch it up, use it as a boat, sail out to sea, and cast spells that would cause storms and sink ships! In the 1840’s the Irish who emigrated to America would break eggshells to keep the Irish Fairies who’d accompanied them to America from going home by eggshell boat.

Eggshells by Elizabeth Fleming (1934)

Oh, never leave your egg-shells unbroken in the cup;
Think of us poor sailor-men and always smash them up,
For witches come and find them and sail away to sea,
And make a lot of misery for mariners like me.

They take them to the sea-shore and set them on the tide –
A broom-stick for a paddle is all they have to guide
And off they go to China or round the ports of Spain,
To try and keep our sailing ships from coming home again.

They call up all the tempests from Davy Jones’s store,
And blow us into waters where we haven’t been before;
And when the masts are falling in splinters on the wrecks,
The witches climb the rigging and dance upon the decks.

So never leave your egg-shells unbroken in the cup;
Think of us poor sailor-men and always smash them up;
For witches come and find them and sail away to sea,
And make a lot of misery for mariners like me.

—

photo by Mark H. Anbinder under creative commons license