Yesterday we asked, What does “lucky bag” mean and where did the term originate?

From the early days of sailing, the lucky bag was a colloquialism for the ship’s lost and found. At the end of a journey sailors would reach into the lucky bag and retrieve treasures believed to have been lost at sea by other sailors.

More recently, the lucky bag holds two meanings in the U.S. Navy:

1. Its a small storeroom or large locker where the master-at-arms stows articles of clothing, bedding, personal items and other miscellaneous objects found on deck.

2. It also is the term used for the United States Naval Academy yearbook dedicated to the graduating classes. A traditional Lucky Bag has a collection of photos taken around the academy and photographs of each graduating officer along with a single paragraph written by a friend describing the individual. Each year every midshipman and graduating officer receives a Lucky Bag and it’s archived by both the U.S. Naval Academy and the USNA Alumni Association.