History Main / MarriedAtSea

** Stephen Maturin had wanted to marry Diana Villiers aboard the H.M.S. ''Shannon'' in ''The Fortune of War'', and the captain was preparing to do it (he even had the proper passages marked in the Book of Common Prayer) when he was interrupted by the imminent ship-to-ship duel with the U.S.S. ''Chesapeake''.

** Played straight at the end of ''The Surgeon's Mate'' when Stephen and Diana are married by William Babbington (former Aubrey's PluckyMiddie and later on [[NumberTwo trusty lieutenant]], now newly promoted to the captaincy of HMS ''Oedipus''), while crossing the English channel, having just escaped from France, thus restoring her British citizenship and allowing her to disembark in England. Turns out that Babbington is CrazyPrepared and even knows that the wedding procedure is just before the section on [[BurialAtSea burial service]] in his manual. They subsequently married again in church in a NoodleIncident between ''The Letter of Marque'' and ''The Thirteen Gun Salute'', because their first wedding was not recognized as canonical by the Catholic Church, which is a rather important point for Stephen.

* In Creator/JamesClavell's ''Literature/GaiJin'' Captain Marlowe of HMS ''Pearl'' officiates the wedding of Malcolm Struan and Angelique Richaud. Although Marlowe professes some doubts, these are related only to the fact that both Malcolm and Angelique are still legally minors ''and'' bridegroom's mother Tess Struan [[ParentalMarriageVeto expressly forbade the marriage]], so he's unsure "''if the marriage would stick''". (The novel is set in the 1860s, when both Royal Navy ship captains and British merchant navy masters still had uncontested right to perform perfectly legal weddings aboard their ships.) The wedding is then subjected to review by Admiral Ketterer, commanding officer of his squadron, who grudgingly rules the marriage legal from the Navy's point of view, as there's [[AintNoRule no mention of age limit]] in the section on weddings in the Naval Regulations. Whether Tess Truan (who wields [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney rather enormous informal]] influence in Hong Kong) would succeed in challenging its legality in civil court is still left open - and rendered moot by subsequent developments.

* In Creator/JamesClavell's ''Literature/GaiJin'' Captain Marlowe of HMS ''Pearl'' officiates the wedding of Malcolm Struan and Angelique Richaud. Although Marlowe professes some doubts, these are related only to the fact that both Malcolm and Angelique are still legally minors ''and'' bridegroom's mother Tess Struan [[ParentalMarriageVeto expressly forbade the marriage]], so he's unsure "''if the marriage would stick''". (The novel is set in 1860s, when both Royal Navy ship captains and British merchant navy masters still had uncontested right to perform perfectly legal weddings aboard their ships.)

* The ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' series has two such weddings; at the end of ''The Surgeon's Mate'', Stephen and Diana are married by his newly promoted young friend William Babbington, while crossing the English channel, having just escaped from France, thus restoring her British citizenship and allowing her to disembark in England. Later, in ''Clarissa Oakes'' Jack marries the title character, a runaway convict from Australia to one of his midshipmen, thus giving her some legal protection and eventually aiding in her pardon.
** but note that the wedding of Clarissa Oakes is actually carried out by an ordained clergyman, on a ship in British service, and so is unquestionably legal (apart from there being no reading of the banns), and the couple leave the ship soon after. The Maturin/Diana wedding is carried out as a quasi-legal expedient in time of war, and it is clear that they subsequently marry in Church, Maturin being a Catholic.

** RedHerringShirt couple Kazumi and Daigo are married at sea for the fairly simple reason that their ''whole society'' has been driven from their home and is currently a wandering fleet. They opt to share Kazumi's surname, as Daigo's keeping his secret as a [[NominalImportance as a last resort]]. As a wedding gift, Hinjo promotes them both to nobility, on the basis of not being backstabbing scumbags like [[AristocratsAreEvil the entire rest of the nobility.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has one where the MauveShirt couple was promoted to nobility, on the basis of not being backstabbing scumbags like the entire rest of the nobility. They, unusually, went with the bride's name - the groom's name is being kept as a last line of defense.
** The ceremony was also conducted by Durkon, an actual priest (albeit a cleric of Thor).
*** They asked him to marry them rather than Hinjo (a Paladin and their ruler so also qualified for weddings) since they thought Hinjo might not like the fact that the bride was [[ShotgunWedding six weeks pregnant]]

* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. Calculon: "As a doctor and captain of this hospital ship, I now pronounce you man and wife with six months to live."

* In Creator/JamesClavell's ''Literature/GaiJin'' Captain Marlowe of HMS ''Pearl'' officiates the wedding of Malcolm Struan and Angelique Richaud. Although Marlowe professes some doubts, these are related only to the fact that both Malcolm and Angelique are still legally minors ''and'' bridegroom's mother Tess Struan [[ParentalMarriageVeto expressly forbade the marriage]], so he's unsure "''if the marriage would stick''". (The novel is set in 1860s, when both Royal Navy ship captains and British merchant navy masters otherwise still had uncontested right to perform perfectly legal weddings aboard their ships.)

* The original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' plays this very straight, with Captain Kirk marrying a soon-to-be-doomed couple and making mention of the "tradition" of captains marrying passengers to each other. (Of course, this is TheFuture, and he is the highest civil authority on a ship billions of miles in deep space, so it's perhaps not unnatural for him to be allowed to perform a duty like this.) Kirk's speech at the beginning of the wedding is paraphrased whenever a Federation officer officiates a wedding in later series.

* In the RealLife legality of marriage performed by ship's captain varies according to the legislation of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_state flag state]] of the ship. There are some jurisdictions in which captains are not allowed to perform regular weddings, but can perform wedding in a 'case of emergency' (definition of ''emergency'' again depending on the national law - and [[FridgeLogic it can be presumed]] that in most of vehicle-related emergency situations TheCaptain would not give very high priority to someone's wedding ceremony - so the emergency most often would be the ''in articulo mortis'' LastWishMarriage when one of the spouses-to-be is dying), in some it even applies to [[TheSkyIsAnOcean captains/pilots in command of airliners]] - the logic being that they're ClosestThingWeGot to a representative of the government onboard a ship.

* In the RealLife legality of marriage performed by ship's captain varies according to the legislation of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_state flag state]] of the ship. There are some jurisdictions in which captains are not allowed to perform regular weddings, but can perform wedding in a 'case of emergency' (definition of ''emergency'' again depending on the national law - and [[FridgeLogic it can be presumed]] that in most of emergency situations TheCaptain would not give very high priority to someone's wedding ceremony), in some it even applies to [[TheSkyIsAnOcean captains]]/pilots in command of airliners - the logic being that they're ClosestThingWeGot to a representative of the government onboard a ship.

* In the RealLife legality of marriage performed by ship's captain varies according to the legislation of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_state flag state]] of the ship. There are some jurisdictions in which captains are not allowed to perform regular weddings, but can perform wedding in a 'case of emergency' (definition of ''emergency'' again depending on the national law - and [[FridgeLogic it can be presumed]] that in most of emergency situations TheCaptain would not give very high priority to someone's wedding ceremony), in some it even applies to [[TheSkyIsAnOcean captains]]/pilots in command of airliners - the logic being that they're ClosestThingWeGot to a representative of the governemnt onboard a ship.

*** Picard almost marries Riker and Troi in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', but the events of the film prevent this. They end up married anyway, but they decide to move the ceremony to Betazed. According to the dialog, the plan was to have a Betazoid ceremony where everyone present is naked (cue Picard heading to the gym).

* Played as GallowsHumor in Creator/TimPowers' ''Literature/{{Declare}}''. While Cassagnac, Andrew, and Elena are hiding out in a kind of barge in East Berlin just after WorldWarII, Andrew and Elena finally say that they love each other. Cassagnac laughs and says "This is the spirit for dying. The captain of a ship can perform marriages -- and so I hereby pronounce you two man and wife. Kiss the bride quick, Andrew, before you die."

** Done for real when [[spoiler: Jim and Pam]] run away from their big wedding, to have [[MyOwnPrivateIDo their own private ceremony]] [[GenreSavvy first...]] on the nearest sightseeing-boat.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has one where the MauveShirt couple was promoted to nobility, on the basis of not being backstabbing scumbags like the entire rest of the nobility. They, unusually, went with the bride's name - the groom's name is being kept as a [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy last line of defense]].

** Responsible for one of the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome finest lines in history]]: "I now pronounce you husband and wife - proceed with the execution."

[[folder:Film]]

* {{Downplayed|Trope}} at the end of Disney's ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid''. They're married by a priest, not a captain.

* In ''PiratesOfDarkWater'', a [[MadScientist mad alchemist]] fell in love with Ren (because [[ReplacementGoldfish he reminded her of his father Primus]]), and asked the BigBad to marry them in exchange for turning over Ren's {{Macguffin}}s. He indulged her, although as he confided to Ren, "[[DeathThreat I wouldn't expect much of a honeymoon...]]"

* A variation is presented in ''[[{{Temeraire}} Empire of Ivory]]'' where the ''captain'' of a refugee-packed dragon transport is being married [[spoiler: to the captain of one of the dragons on board]]. Given that they were [[ShotgunWedding in a bit of a rush]] the ship's chaplain is deemed the only one legally fit to do so.

* Esteban and Francesca are married aboard the ''S.S. Tipton'' in the ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody Suite Life on Deck]]'' episode "Mother of the Groom."

* Esteban and Francesca are married aboard the ''S.S. Tipton'' in the ''[[TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody Suite Life on Deck]]'' episode "Mother of the Groom."

* In an episode of ''GilligansIsland'', the Howells learn via a radio report that the minister who married them was never ordained and thus, they believed themselves to be unmarried. They tried to rectify this by having the Skipper marry them on a raft, but after bickering for awhile, they call the wedding off. They soon learn that the radio report was in error and had named the wrong minister. (The irony here is that, according to the law, even if their minister ''was'' a fake, the Howells themselves would still have remained legally married, since they had believed him to be genuine at the time. See [[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_450a.html this Straight Dope entry for more details on the subject.]] But then [[RuleOfFunny it's ''Gilligan's Island'']].)
* Lampshaded on ''TheLoveBoat'', when Captain Steubing performs a mass wedding on (IIRC) the Valentine's Day cruise to Mexico. He specifically says that the Mexican government granted him special permission for the occasion.

* Marcy's wedding to her second husband in ''MarriedWithChildren''. She made the mistake of allowing Al Bundy to make all the arrangements and soon found him cutting corners to save (and pocket) money. Among the things he did was forgo a minister and hire the captain of a garbage scow to perform the marriage via CB radio.

* Played with on ''HappyDays''. Fonzie and Jenny Piccolo attend a Halloween party held aboard a ship dressed as a bride and groom. The captain of the ship is dressed as a priest, so they decide to have a pretend wedding. Hilarity ensues when the marriage is initially declared legal and binding, but is resolved later.

* Mork of ''MorkAndMindy'' is asked by a pair of teenage friends to perform their secret wedding, justified by the fact that, as Mork rationalized it, he came on a ship, he was the only person on that ship, so he must have been the captain.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]