Random questions about Liveships (spoilers Farseer, LST and TM)

[Narya]

Having messed around in boats for 50 years, I'd say the upside down hatch is a very bad thing, all superstition aside. Seawater weighs 64 pounds per square foot, so a three foot square hatch under a foot of water would have to hold up 576 pounds. (For you non-imperialists, a meter-square hatch, under 30 cm of water would have to hold up 260 kg.) A hatch is generally built to be larger than the opening, and to lie across it, so that it won't be pushed through the hole by the weight of the water. The more the water pushes down on it, the more water-tight it becomes. An upside down hatch would have to have very strong fasteners to hold up any water (or any person walking on it) and would likely be leaky.

Not putting a bucket on top of a closed hatch that some unsuspecting person might come up thru is, well, common sense.