The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-07-14
SAILORS JONKHS.
JACKS SUPERSTITIONS HAD STRANGE
FORMS IN EARLY DAYS.

Disfavor on Sailing Vessels.
Lieutenant j. d. Jerrold Kelley gives
an interesting chapter of "Superstitions
Of the Sea" i'll Tho Century. After
studying them fairly we'll lie doubts if
modern sailors arc moro supcrstitious
than any other class with equal training
and opportunities. He believes that
everybody is leavencd with supersti-
ton, notably the noisiest scoffers and
| those mountcbanl1s, tho Thirteen clubs,
| for these gentry protest too much 1t
| seems to be Il human instinct, modified
by racial inhcritances and developments.
In the youth of the world its manifesto
| tions were the earliest recorded utter
| ances of men concerning the visible
| phenomena of the universe, and its grip
| OH simple words was an outgrowth of
| the fear of the unknown. Of all people
sailors must deal at first hand, and help
| lessly to some degree, with the most
| unknowablc, uncomfortable of material
| problems, the sea- and it is only nat
ural that their folklore should be in
| part land stories fitted with sea mean
ing and in part of blind explanation of
sea phenomena, both being maintained
valorously by the grewsome conscrva-
tism of the seaman, even after rational
| causes come to the rescue
In earlier days superstition was as
much Il part of every ship as the water
| she was TO float III, for it entered with
| tho wood scarfed into her keel and
climbed to the flags and garlands way
ing ut her mastheads. 1t ran riotously
at her launching, controlled her name
her crew and cargoos 1t timed her
| days and hours of sailing and conveyed
her voyages. 1t summoned apparitions
for her i'll fortune and evoked portents
and signs for her prosperity. 1t made
winds blow foul or fair, governed her
successful ventures and arrivals, and
when her work was done promised Il
port of rest somewhere off the shores of
Fiddlor's Green, where all good sailors
rest cternally or threatened foul moor
ings deep in the uncanny locker of Davy
Jones of ballad memory.
In many countries stolen wood was
mortised into the keel as it made the
ship sail faster at night, though if the
first blow struck III fashioning this keel
drew fire the shipwas doomed to wreck
upon her maiden voyage. Silvcr-usu-
allya coir-placcd i'll the mainmast step
went for lucky ventures, and misguided
indeed was the owner who permitted
any of the unlucl>y timbcrs to enter into
the construction. Something of the cerc-
monious character given to launchings
survives to this day. Where OF old ships
We're decked with flowers and crowns Of
leaves flags how flutter. The libation
poured on tho deck the publication by
the priest, the amounting with egg and
! sulphur, find their eXcmplars i'll the
well aimed and wasted magnums which
are shattered OH the rcceding cutwatcr as
the craft, released from the ways, slips,
we'll creased, into the sea. The Jar of
wine put to his lips by the captain and
then emptied on deck, the cakes and
ale set before the crew, the stoup of
Wine offered to passcrsby Oh the quay
and tho refusal of which was an evil
omci-all arc realized in these sat,dc.-
lustrums by the builders feast in the
mold loft. Lawyers, clcrgymcn and
women are ever looked at with disfavor
OH sailing ships as sure to bring i'll luck
lawyers undoubtedly from the antip-
athy Of sailors to the class, a dislike so
pronounced that ''sca lawyer" is Il very
bitter term of rcproach, and land
shark" is Il synonym. Clergymcn-
| priests and parsons-are unluclly proba-
| bly, because OF their black gowns and
their principal duty OH hipboard-that
! OF consoling the dying and burying the
dcad-though possibly because the devil
the great storm raiser, is their especial
enemy and sends tnmpcsts to destroy
! them. Omcn-who may reason out
their OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES that ship is
the last place for them, on perhaps be-
! cause OF the dread of witches, for of all
! spell workers in human form none is so
! dreaded as tho female brewers of hell
/ broth Like the priests Of the middle
! ages, they can raise prime quality of
storm by tossing sand or stones in the
| air and, like Congrcvc's Lapland sorccr-
| ess, are supposed to live by selling con-
trary winds and wrecked vessels. Ger
tain families could never get sea en-
! ploymcnt under their own surnamcs,
not even such members as were born
with cauls. for they Were tabooed,
barred. And many animals-harcs,
pigs and black cats, for cxample-could
neither be carried nor mentioned on
shipboard, save under very stringent
conditions. Scarborough wives kept a
black cat i'll the house to assure their
husbands lives at sea, but on voyages
every black cat carried gale III her
tail, and if she became unusually frolic-
| some 4 storm was sure to follow
Years ago on board the flagship
Franklin, up the Mediterranean, we
| had a warm that illrctrntcd :. c,,r,.i,,o1 90