You should read Redmond O'Hanlon's book Trawler. If you mention the R word and do not immediately use the counter spell of Cold Iron, then you are likely to be dumped overboard. Sailors superstitious, surely not!!
I've heard this before, and not just from the Westcoun'ry. There is apparently something dubious about the apparently fetching range of "Ship's Cats" available from Nauticalia - they are made from bunnies pelts, which does very little for your good fortune at sea. Allegedly.
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.crystaltwo.co.uk/>Crystal II in Pictures</A>
In the Royal Navy, a rabbit is a present for someone ashore back home that you've more than likely RAS'd (ie. nicked) in the first place. Hence the expression 'Has it got ears on?'.
Not to be confused with a grabbit and/or a gizzit, which are of course acquired buckshee.
<hr width=100% size=1>At the end of the day - Sunset.
Nah . . . it's Patsy's m'luvva, pertickler if they do come from West Looe.
Still, there's one worse . . . couldn't figure what the aroma was from under my nav bunk in a surgeon's Swan 37 (dirtiest afloat) for a season or more.
Finally, when we came to gut it for layup, a glutinous mass was found with an unmistakable green Societe wrapping outside.
'Oh, I wondered who'd nicked that whole cheese of Rocquefort,' complained said owner