The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-09-02
Marine SuperstitiOns.
WEIRD ELECTRICAL CIVILIZATIONS OF THE SEA-
IErom the London Telegraph.l

WEIRD ELECTRICAL CIVILIZATIONS OF THE SEA.
From the London Telegraph
Indeed marine superstitiOns shon,d not
be hard to kill. for they are not very nu-
Inerous. A large number have been
fathered on sailors by land-writers, but
they want the true ring; the salt flavor is
lacking. and il is easy to perceive that their
narrators never were ailoat. The really
nautical superstition is unmistakable. IL
j. born of the seaiaring life. and the spirit
OF Il speaks as surely OF blue water and the
association together for months at a
time of briny minds in dim and
resonant interiors As the lurching, rolling
gait, the toughened hands swinging
athwartships, tell of the ocean sailor, the
sca-iockey used TO such hurdle races a. the
Pacific i'm storm offers, or 10 such mad gall
loping as the roaring and revolving storm
forces upon bim. There is the old super
stition about Films, for instance. The
Finlander makes a very good, quiet, re-
speetable sailor, but both English and
American seamen agreed, for some reason
not easily determinable, to look upon him
as A sort of magician, and TO fear him and
treat him respectfully for that reason.
MANY stories used to be related of him.
He is usually depictured a. Yellow
haired man in sealskin cap. full OF
predictions and always right in his prophe-
swing. In some ships, when there was a
Finn aboard. it was customary TO nail a
horseshoe to the foremost TO neutralize any
prediction he might utter that was likely to
be injurious to the ship or crew. lie was
occasionally credited with the power OF
getting drunk as often as he liked through
Il. ok, of
rum, the contents Of the bottle never di-
mimshing no matter how often he put ii
to his lips, and he has been known to stand
the bottle on a table before him and talk to
| IL. Finland ships. too, were always
thought able to obtain fair wind when
ever they chose, and, with studding sails
aloft and allow, overhaul and pass YES
sells beating in the same direction against
| gale. Dana tells story OF captain
| who threatened TO confine a Finn in the
| forepeal, il he did not make fair wind
for the ship. The wind remaining dead
ahead convinced everybody that the Finn
refused to give in, whereupon he was
bundled into the iorepeak and left there
| without food The Finn held out for Z
while, but, unable to stand the imprison
ment any longer, ordered the wind TO shift
which it did, and the yellow-haired magi
clan was liberated. How such supersti
ton rs this arose it is impossible to say
but 1t is easy to see that it belongs TO tn,
ocean, and must have had its origin in the
forecaste Ii is as salt in its way n the
notion OF Sunday entertained by a ship's
carpenter, who considered that he fulfilled
all the Sabbath obligations laid upon hin
by combing his hair and mounting a pail
| n, I...l L.
, would not give a chew OF tobacco for tn,
chances OF man who considered that til,
) maintopsaIl looked white on that day.
} OF all the superstitions of the sea tin
} most ineligible are those which gathe
Q about the weird electric eXhaIations Gale,
{ composants: A green, faint, and sepul
I chrai light, shining AT yardarm or boom
end on Ia pitch-black night and amid a gal
s OF wind, might well puzzle and agitate tn
J, simple heart OF seaman staring aloft at il
Shakespeare cmbodies the shining appear
I ance in the person Of Ariel, and spiritual
e lies 1t by his own conception: ''Now OF
the beak, now in the waist, the deck. il
3 every cabin, | flam'd amazement; some
G time I'd divide. And burn in man,
= places; on the topmast, the yard
c and bowsprit, would fame distinctly
: then meet and join" It is quite posi-
: Bile that one finds here the groundwork O
the belief formerly entertained that .sSt
e Elmo's lires," or composants, as they ar
D usually called. were women who took thi
D form to bewilder seamen. There are sto
? ries OF sailors giving chase to composant
( following II from lower yardarm to tn,
: truck, and then being spirited off by tn
|, figure OF female that suddenly CLEANED
Y out In the darkness with the composan
: shining on her hair Ike star. Anothe
j superstition was that composants were TN
: souls OF seamen that had died aboard th
I ship, and who In flaming form haunte,
: those yards and spars upon which the
had often when in life hung on by theii
!. "eyelids." No sailor liked one OF thos
] lights to shine upon him. II the reflection
fell upon his face he would 90 below
with the conviction that something eyi
. was sure to happen to him. AS TO tn
Flying Dutchnlan, II Is doubtful whethe
Jack ever sincerely IN his heart believed II
that apparition; but Of Friday the marin,
dread was habitual; dead bodies and par
sons were looked upon as fateful; and /,
drown q cat was certain way Of provok
ing disaster, Dayy Jones belonged I.