The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-17
SAILORS SUGGESTIONS.
They Had Stranger Forms in Early
Days Than Are Now Manifested.

Lieut.. J. D. Jerrold Kelley gives an in
Sea" in the July number of the Century.
After studying them fairly well, he
doubts if modern sailors are more super
stitious than any other class with equal
training and opportunities. / believe that
everybody is leavened with superstition,
he says, notably the noisiest scoffers and
those mountebanks, the Thirteen clubs,
for such gentry protest too much. 1t
seems to be a human instinct, modified by
racial inheritauces and developments.
In the youth of the world
its manifesto were the earli-
est recorded utterances of men concern
ing the visible phenomena of the uni
verse, and its grip on simple words was
an outgrowth of the fear of the unknown.
OfaQ people, sailors must deal at first
hand, and helplessly to some degree, with
the most unknowable, uncontrolla ole of
material problems-the sea-and it is
only natural that their folklore should
be, in part, land stories fitted with sea
meanings, and in part blind explanations
of sea phenomena-both being maintained
valorously by the grewsome 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 masthead IL ran riotouSly at her
launching, controlled her name her crew
and cargoes it timed her days and hours
Of sailing, and conveyed her voyages 1t
summoned apparitions for her ill-fortune,
and evoked portents and signs for her
ffvr. H. Il
fair, governed her successful ventures
and arrivals, and. when her work was
done, promised port of rest somewhere
of the shores of iddler's Green, where
all good sailors rest eternally. or threat
ened foul mornings 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 al night; though, if the first
blow struck in faShioning this keel drew
fire, the ship was doomed to wreck upon
her maiden voyage. Silver usually
COIN placed in the mainmaSt-step went
for lucky ventures, and misguided, in
deed. was the owner who permitted any
OF the unlucky tim bers TO enter into the
construction. Something of the ceremoni-
Gus character given to launchings sur
wives to tnis day; wnere of old ships
were decked with flowers and crowns Of
leaves, flags now futter. the libation
poured on the deck, the publication by
the priest, the amounting with egg and
sulphur, find their eXemplars in the well
aimed and wasted magnums which are
shattered on the receding cut-water as
the craft, released from the ways. slips,
well creased, into the sea the Jar of wine
put to his lips by the capstan, and then
emptied on deck, the cakes and ale set
before the crew, the stoupo Of wine offered
20 passers-by on the quay, and the refusal
of which was an evil omen-all are
realized in these sadder lustrlms by the
builders feast IN the mold loft
Lawyers, clergYmen and women are
ever looked at with disfayor on sailing
ships as sure to bring Ill luck-lawyers,
undoubtedly, from the antipathy Of sail
Tors TO the class, "A dislike 80 pronounced
that 'sea lawyer is a very bitter term
of reproaoh and land shark" is a syno-
nym. Clergymen-priests and parsons
are unluckY, probably because Of their
black gowns and their principal duty on
shipbOara- that Of cOusO.ing the d lying
and burying the dead-tlOugh possibly
because the devil. the great storm raiser,
is their especial enemy. and sends temp
ests 10 destroy them. WOmen--WhO may
reason out their unpOpularity{ - save
that q ship is the last place for them. or
perhaps because o. the d read " witches
Tor u al spell workers in human form
none rs W dreaded 40 tho female brew.
ers u he'll broth. Like the priests " The