WORLD : Women to Go to Sea in Royal Navy

LONDON — Britain’s highest-ranking naval officer today said women will soon serve on Royal Naval vessels, ending a centuries-old tradition under which a figurehead was the only female aboard Britain’s fighting ships.

First Sea Lord Adm. Julian Oswald predicted that the decision will be happily accepted by male swabbies, despite a belief among old sea dogs that the presence of a woman on a ship can bring bad luck.

“A few sailors are superstitious, but it is not only women that are bad luck at sea,” he told a news conference. “It is vicars and black cats and chaps with double-barreled names and all sorts of things, so I don’t think we can exclude (women) on that ground.”