My 'name'/user ID is the name of the oceanic water spirit of Germanic lore:
(copied from
my site)
[1] Klabautermann Lore
The Klabautermann is a creature from the beliefs of fishermen and sailors of Germany’s north coast, the Netherlands, and the Baltic Sea, and may represent a third type of kobold or possibly a different spirit that has merged with kobold traditions. Belief in the Klabautermann dates at least to the 1770s. – Wiki: Kobold
The Klabautermann also never appears at anchor or in a light breeze, but only in a severe storm of about force 11* (60 knots), with a matching sea state of about 15 feet. When the Klabautermann appears, the boat and its crew are in serious trouble. His appearance is a foreboding and dreaded warning of the worst to come, as in the old German folk song about a boat going down on the North Sea Doggerbank with all hands. All my sailing friends including my grandfather, the old windjammer sea captain, agree with this interpretation.
*11 – violent storm, 12 – hurricane
I can’t say I ever saw the Klabautermann myself, but I heard and felt him around me on at least three significant moments. He is the sailor’s personification of the powers of nature in a severe storm. If you ever sailed under those conditions, with storm jib and try sail, or just lay hove to, with hopefully enough sea room downwind, you know what I am talking about. There is so much power in the rigging, that shrouds and stays begin to vibrate vigorously and shake the entire boat. Everything begins to shake and quiver, everything hums, whistles and screeches. The noise is horrendous, on deck and even worse below decks.
If you happen to be on watch, you have to yell at the top of your voice to be heard, while below decks everything begins to rattle: pots are clanking, dishes are clinking, silverware is tingling. It sound as if someone, though invisible, is having a big and loud drunken party below. Sail bags fall off their shelves with a loud thud, cabinet doors will eventually open, disgorging their contents with an unbelievable crash. It is mayhem! And when the boat falls off a specially big wave, the bell on the foremast rings, one eerie ring only…
The Klabautermann has arrived! You can’t see him, but you hear him for sure, and you hope he won’t take the boat down. It is a bad situation that sailors dread.
So you see, there is nothing funny about a Klabautermann. He is no good luck charm and does not look like the jolly old fellow with a corn cob pipe. How landlubbery can you get!
I grew up in northern Germany between the Baltic and the North Sea, where I sailed and worked on all kinds of ships/boats. Even worked in a shipyard. Since coming to the US, I have sailed trans-Atlantic twice (on a 45’ schooner and a 60’ classic racing yawl).
…
Wikipedia admits basing their Klabautermann info on one source only, which, however, is never identified. So, how much trust do you boaters out there have in something like that? But worst of all, it totally fails to explain how the Klabautermann got his name, what he stands for and implies:
The Klabautermann is the sailor’s/fisherman’s personification of the loud, intimidating noises of nature in a severe and threatening storm at sea. A visit from him mostly means the end for the boat and crew. – Richard Zollitsch (zollitsche canoe adventures)