Can Skippers conduct marriage ceremonies

[tobywgray]

I was intrigued by a question posed whilst on passage from St Peter Port to Weymouth the other day. An un-married member of my crew asked whether skippers of yachts had the authority to marry people while at sea. I understand masters of ships do have that authority. Do yachtmasters?

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[BrendanS]

The captain of a ship can marry a couple, but only for the duration of the trip. The couple then have the marriage validated under normal processes once they reach land

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[Sybarite]

The simple answer is no.

There was a thread on this subject a few months ago.

Mind you marrying somebody for the duration of the voyage only opens some interesting possibilities.

I wonder also if a skipper could divorce a couple as well?

John



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[PerL]

I investigated this matter for my own marriage two weeks ago on an old schooner in the Stockholm archipelago. A Swedish captain doesn't have a licence to marry people by default. They do however belong to a category (together with judges and city officials) which will almost automatically be granted such a licence upon request. Therefore, a lot of captains do have a licence to marry people but not all. In my case, none of the captains employed to sail old sailing ships in Stockholm had a licence, but we were lucky to have a jesuit priest act as the ship's priest for the ceremony.

The catholic church considers marriage to be a sacrament and is therefore not happy to allow wedding ceremonies ouside of church except under exceptional circumstances which - in our case - was that all catholic churches were booked. In protestant religions, marriage is to be blessed, but is not a sacrament and can therefore be performed pretty much everywhere.

Incidentally, marrying under sail on a three mast vessel was a brilliant experience. We chartered the ship for 24 hours, stayed on board overnight and got a nice sailing lesson the day after with all our guests. It can really be recommended. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.segelfartygskompaniet.se/english/> Segelfartygskompaniet</A> has some pictures of the ship - Najaden.

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