Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-07-16
SAILOR suPERsTlTloNs.
Queer stories of the Effect of Dead Bodie.
on ShipbOartI.

on Shipboard.
1t is an old sailors superstition that a
ship that carries dead body on board is
always sure to have trouble before the
cruise is over, and many time has this
remark been applied by the 81 told you
SOS" aboard the Enterprise. 1T has
never been known to ia l" is a verdict
to which the very large majority agree
without question.
In queer old book now out of date
this question is asked: "Doth a dead
body in shippe cause the shippe to sail
slower or and if it does, what is thought
to be the reason thereof?" The
answer given, although not perhaps
quite all one would desire, is cleverly
enought put to admit of repetition:
"The ship is as sensible of the living as
of the dead, and as the living makes it
go the faster, so the dead make it not go
the slower, for the dead are no phemoras
to alter the course of her passage,
though some there be that think so, and
that by kind of mournful supersti-
ton"
This is quite as lively, however, as
most Superst tionS on shore and there is
more or less of shade of probability
about it. Those who favor the dead
claim that if the eerie knowledge of the
immediate neighborhood of dead body
weighs upon Jacks spirits by constant
Iy reminding him of that unpleasant
fact which he likes to forget-that there
is only plank between him and eter-
nity-it will surely affect his power of
work, and therefore 'cause the shippe
to sail slower" To those who can not
entertain an idea of the superstition,
there may possibly be more or less of
reasonableness in the above idea.
The dead light" is the name given to
the air port shutters, which are always
put in and well secured at nightfall and
whenever bad weather is expected, and
to the uninitiated the order to put in
the dead lights carries more or less of
the disagreeable with it. The story is
told of a gentleman coming around
Hatteras when it was blowing half
gale of wind with considerable sea,
who. upon hearing the order to put in
the dead lights, rushed off to his berth
in fever of repentance and began say
ing his prayers, or at least what he
thought were his prayers, with such
rapidity and in so loud voice as to at
tract his next-door neighbor, who, think
ing that something must certainly be
the matter with his friend, whom he had
never before known to go to the length
he had then reached, rushed in to the
others room to find out what it was all
about and was still more surprised to
find that it was not his prayers but the
Greek alphabet he was repeating. Fear
and hurry to prepare for the next world
had proved rather too much for faith
full adherence to what was taught him
in his Sunday-school days, although
upon his friend intrusion he said: THE
ship is going down, and Pm praying to
be saved"
This yarn is no worse than that of the
learned divine to whom the story is told
that he devoutly thanked Heaven when
ever he heard men cursing and swearing
in the forecastle. 1t appears that the
captain had frequently impressed it upon
him that such was the nature of the sail
or man that he never was profane when
he was in danger of drowning, so that, If
he ever heard an unusually heavy
amount of swearing, he could rest as
sured that matters would soon assume a
more favorable aspect. In consequence
of this, whenever there were appear
ances of particularly bad weather, the
clergyman always walked quietly for
ward and patiently awaited the profane
language that experience told him he
would soon hear coming from the mems
quarters. When he had heard enough,
he would walk aft with a satisfied air,
feeling assured in his mind that no
danger was to be apprehended.
This swearing is one Of Jacks silly
habits, and he is never particular about
waiting for an object to decorate with
his expletiyes, but is quite like the
Scotchman in the story, who ''didna
sweer at ony thing in particular, but just
gaed ia the middle of the road and swore
at large. IN. Y. Times.