Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1894-10-11
SAILORS st PERSTITION.
THEY HAD STRANGER FORMS IN
EARLY DAYS THAN NOW.
WOOD MoRTIsED INTO THE KEEL
LAWYERS, WOMEN AND CLERGY
MEN LOOKED AT WITH DISFANoR.

I4Itul tenant y. L. Jti ltil ENCIltN SANN0
an interesting chapter of "Superstitions
of the Sea in the July number of The
Century. After studying them fairly
we'll. he doubts If modern sailors are
more superstitious than any other class
with equal training and opportunities.
| believe that everybody is leavened with
superstition, he says, notably the noisiest
scoffers, and those mounte banks, the
Thirteen Clubs, for these gentry protest
too much Il seems to be a human in
stinet, modified By racial inheritances
and developments. In the youth of the
world its manifestations We're the earliest
recorded utterances OF men concerning
the visible phenomena of the universe,
and il grip on simple words was an
outgrowth of the fear OF the unknown.
OF all people sailors must deal at first
hand. and helplessiS to some degree, with
the most unknowahle, uncomfortable of
material problems, the sea, and it Is only
natural that their folklore should be, in
part land stories fitted with sea mean
ings. and in part blind explanations of
sea phenomena being maintained
vigorously by the guesome conservatism
of the seaman, even after rational causes
come to the rescue.
In earlier days superstition was as much
part of every ship as the water she was
to float in; for it entered with the wood
scarfed into her keel, and climbed to the
flags and garlands waving at her mast
heads it ran riotously at her launching,
controlled her name, her crew, and car
goes; it timed her days and hours of sail
ing, and conveyed her voyages. 1t sum
moned apparitions for her illfortune,
and evoked portents and signs for her
prosperity; it made winds blow foul or
fair, governed her successful ventures and
arrivals, and, when her work WAS done,
promised a port Of rest somewhere off the
shores of Fiddler's Green, where all good
sailors rest eternaly, or threatened foul
mooring7 deep in the uncanny locker of
Dayy Jones of ballad memory.
In many countries stolen wood was
mort i,ed into the keel, as it made the
ship sail faster at night; though if the
first blow struck in fashioning this keel
drew fire, the ship was doomed 10 wreck
upon her maiden voyage. Silver usually
coin placed in the mainmoststep went
for lucky ventures, and misguided indeed
was the owner who permitted any of the
unlucky timbers 10 enter into the con-
straetjon. nothing Of the ceremoni-
Gus character given to launchings sur
wives 10 this cay: y here OF old ships We're
decked with flowers and crowns OF leaves,
flags now tlutter the libation poured on
the deck the pu7itication by the priest,
the amounting with egg and sulphur, find
their eXemplars in the well-ained and
wasted magnums which are shattered on
the receding cut-water a the craft, re-
leased from he ways, slips, Wellgreased,
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 ST pup OF wine offered
to passers-by on the quay, and the re-
fusal of which was an evil omen-all are
realized in these sadder lustrums by the
builders feast in the mold loft
Lawyers, clergymen, and women are
ever looked at with disfavor on sailing
ship as sure to bring iIl-luck-lawyers,
undou btedly, from the antipathy OF
sailors to the class, dislike so pronounc-
ed hat sea lawyer is very bitter term
of reproach and Gland shark is sym
onym. Clergymen- priests and parsons
are unlucky, probably because of their
black gowns and their principal duty on
shipboard that of consoling the dying
and burying the dead-though possibly
because the devil, the great storm raiser
is their especial enemy, and sends tenn
pests TO destroy them. Women-who
may reason out their unpopularity?-sav
that ship is the last place for them, or
perhaps because of the dread of witches
for of all spell-workers in human form,
none is so dreaded as the female brewers
of hell-broth. Like the priests of the
middle ages, they can raise prime quail
ity of storm by tossing sand or stones in
the air, and, like Congreves Lapland
sorceress, are supposed TO live by sell
ing contrary winds and wrecked vessels.
Certain families could never get sea-
employment under their own surnames,
NOT even such members as were born With
cauIs, Tor they were tubooed, barred; and
many animals hares, pigs, and black
cats, for example could neither be car
RED nor mentioned on shipboard, save
under very stringent conditions. Scar
borough wives kept black eat in the
house to assure their husbands lives at
sea; hut on voyages every black cat car
rIed gale in her tHll, ana If she became
unusually froIicsome storm was sure to
follow. Tears ago. on board he flagship
=. ~ loo =