Appealing though it may be, the humor12-myth of a ship's captain presiding over the nuptials of dewy-eyed couples has for most of the last century been pretty much just that. And yet the demand for weddings at sea has grown to the point that some cruise lines, operating under foreign flags and laws, have found ways to perform legal unions in international waters with the ship's captain as officiant.

Nobody really knows how long ago this notion arose, or why ship captains are thought to have more power than, say, airline pilots or train conductors. Most likely it has to do with the fact that ocean crossings have always been longer than the typical flight or train ride, and that amorous assignations were known to flourish on the high seas. Who better to legalize them than the commander of the ship?

The Navy sought to define a captain's powers at sea in its 1913 Code of Regulations, which states: "The commanding officer shall not perform a marriage ceremony on board his ship or aircraft. He shall not permit a marriage ceremony to be performed on board when the ship or aircraft is outside the territory of the United States."

Of course movies have never let facts get in the way of a good story line. Films like "Anything Goes" (1956), "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" (1965), the 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap" and "Pirate Radio" (2009) are examples. Even Capt. James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise got it wrong. As he noted in a "Star Trek" episode in 1966, "Since the days of the first wooden vessels, all ship masters have had one happy privilege: that of uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony."