John Pledger: Breaking the Bottle

"Getting the bottle to break is another problem but an equally difficult one where we'd built a ship for the Indian navy called the Kurpan. It was a frigate and the Indians don't have anything to do with alcoholic drink so they didn't like the idea of a bottle being broken on their ship and they said they wanted a coconut to be used so we had to rig up a coconut. Now, it may not sound very technical but believe me, to try and make a coconut break but at the same time still have its capability of retaining coconut milk until it breaks is really something. We tried dozens of coconuts, you know, with saw cuts this way and saw cuts that way. Anyway, it worked in the end but that was the most unusual one. I'd never come across that before."