Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-01-31
SOME EXPLODED SUGGESTIONS.
Hsv Mariners Catch the AlbatrosS and
Make Pillows with the Feathers.

81 was much interested, p" said am old
sailor TO a reporter, ''by an article on the
superstitions of sailors. But | must con-
feas that | was no less amused than in
terested. All the old time superstitions
and beliefs which have chiefly owed their
existence TO the exaggeration of the poets
were resurrected, S to speak, and laid to
NE charge of the sailor Of the present
day. Nothing could be more absurd.
The sailor of today is no more supersti-
Nous than the average landsman, and as
. rule a great deal more practical and
matter-of-fact. Go ON board ship and
study the rigging and fitting. There is
not a rope rove in a block or a plank laid
without the most precise calculation and
fOrethought. A sailor never sits down to
do a job, from making a beckett for a
bucket to splicing an eight stranded wire
rope, without first having worked the
whole thing out in his mind. There's
hut one way of doing things you'll hear
ne old bo'sun say, and that is the right
way
1.-The fellow that said in that article
Mat a sailor won't allow m albatross to
he killed. for fear of ia luck, had evidently
never rounded the Horn. Why, when I
went to sea first l was full of that Rhine
Il the Ancient Mariner When we
Aeared Staten Island | looked with all my
eyes for the bird. When one did appear
ailing majestically along without Tapping
its large wings once in half an hour, l
felt a chill of reverential awe and stood
With my mouth wide open, a whole PAN
srama of Gustave Dore's illustrations Of
The poem fitting through my mind.
"'What are We doin' ther,' suddenly
yelled the mate. is that maxim sennit?
Il I've TO speak to ye agen I'll make ye
sradde that spanker boom for a week.
Here, jump down into my room an get
NY fishin' lines; dye hear? Skip And
he mates heavy sea boot emphasized his
words. When l returned to the deck
With the lines, Here says he, git aft
there, you lazy lubber, and catch an
albatross. l promised that wife of mine
hat I'd bring her an elder down piller
his v'y'ge.'
"'Catch an albatross!' l echoed, para
Yktu tflloi ~ tht NllbuElhs
If We don't skip an hold yer jaw
Tl- Here, give me that, you BOBBY
And the mate took the line from me and
he'd me aft TO show me how to catch al
hatross. This is a very simple operation.
An ordinary strong fishing line is pro-
alred and a strong hook attached TO the
End imbedded in a piece Of tempting fat
pork. 1t is paid out astern, n piece of
cork keeping the line ahoat. No sooner
does the alhatross perceive the delicious
norsel than he makes q downward
swoop. Why, you never saw a prctticr
SIGHT than the euiptical sweep the huge
birds make, their wings stretched out as
stiff as a board. Never a flap, sir. One
wing just dashes up the water near the
bobbing pork and then the bird wheels
around again and drops in the water. In
amoment the bait is swallowed and then
the fight begins. have seen four men
find il Il hard job to haul in an albatross,
for it extends its wings and catches the
wind; and sometimes they won't rise.
but stretch out their wings and hold
water, and then something goes, the hook
n the line, maybe.
.'But they generally get the big birds
aboard. They kill them there and skin
mem. The wings they Use for orna-
ments, and the heads are hung over the
stern and allowed to drag in the water,
which soon leaves the skull As clean ms "A
whistle. The softer feathers are used To
make pillows or beds, but the skins make
beautiful fur cloaks. You see, after
plucking the feathers out "a lovely down
remains on the skin which looks, for all
the world, like white fur. Why, sir, |
have at home two Of the prettiest curly
headed little rogues Of girls you ever saw,
and they each have a coat Of albatross
fur. They're the envy Of every one in
that quiet little country town in the east.
There isn't much superstition about
that, is there? Why, I've caught as
many as twenty albatrosses on a voyage.
OF course, there are many captains who
will not allow them 10 I've caught for hu-
manity's sake. Others, again. like 10
catch them. and attach a piece Of tin or
wood, with the name Of the vessel and
the latitude and longitude on ii. to the
leg, then let them go.
''Then, again, in tie article referred
TO, the sea gull is spoken of as a weather
prophet. Now, / don't see why what is
really true should be caked "A sailors SUI
perstition.' There never was anything
truer than the English notion that these
birds take 10 the land before a southeast
or southwest wind sets in. These winds
always bring rain 10 those coasts, and
long before they break the sig is overcast
and the air moist. Ii is Just such weather
that draws the ehthworms from their
holes, and what more delicious dish is
there for a sea gull than the dainty earth
worm. Why, the fields are covered with
Sea gulls at such times, and yet a purely
natural occurrence is called a sailors SUI
perstition.
"Another superstition that on my first
voyage | found was exploded among
sailors was the belief that the stormy
petrol never rests, and that its appearance
indicates a coming storm. There is nc
doubt they are remarkably restless little
creatures, but they rest on the water and
plume their feathers the same MS any
other birds. As 10 their appearance in
dicating a storm I've never given thu
thing much notice; but this | know, anC
that is, that | have seen them flying
around the ship in the calmest as well a
in the stormiest weather.
"No, sir, the old superstitions don
o.