Why Navy sailors don't wash their coffee mugs

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel The Times reports that sailors drink out of filthy mugs for a few reasons, most notably as a means to fend off bad luck, to proclaim their seniority (the sailor with the filthiest mug has been here the longest, et cetera), or simply as a matter of taste. Regardless, cleaning another sailor’s mug is a definite no-no. “You clean a mug of one, it’s a death sentence for that person,” wrote one Reddit poster cited in the Times piece.