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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
The gloved hand pauses before dispatching the champagne bottle toward the gleaming hull, and a royal voice pronounces the baptismal words: "May God bless her and all who sail in her." Ships have been female in English since at least 1375, according to the Oxford English Dictionary; but one traditional endorser of their sex has decided to neuter the fleet. Lloyd's List, since 1734 the daily gazette of world shipping news, is going over from "she" to "it." It tried the change four years ago but surrendered...
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