Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-07-25
SAILORS JONAHS.
JACKS SUPERSTITIONS HAD STRANGE
FORMS IN EARLY DAYS.

Stolen Wood Mortised Into the Keel to
Make the Vessel Sail Faster-Lawyers,
Women and Clergymen Looked at With
Disfavor on Sailing Vessels.
Lieutenant J. D. Jerrold Kelley gives
an interesting chapter of 'Superstitions
Of the Sea- in The Century. After
them fairly well he doubts If
modern sailors are more superstitious
than any other class with equal training
and opportunities He believes that
everybody is leavened with supersti
ton, notably the noisiest scoffers and
those mountebanks, the Thirteen clubs,
for these gentry protest too much. 1t
seems to be a human instinct, modified
by racial inheritances 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
on 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
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 conserva-
tism of the seaman, even after rational
causes come to the rescue. =.
In earlier days superstition was as
much a 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 way
ing at her mastheads. Itran riotously
at her launching, controlled her name,
her crew and cargoes. 1t timed her
days and hours Of sailing and conveyed
her voyages It 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 a
port of rest somewhere off the shores Of
Fiddler's Green, where all good sailors
rest eternally, 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 in fashioning this keel
drew fire the ship was doomed to wreck
upon her maiden voyage. Silver-usu-
ally coin-placed in the mainmast step
went for lucky ventures, and misguided
indeed was the owner who permitted
any of the unlucl1y timbers to enter into
the construction. Something of the cere-
monious character given to launchings
survives to this day. Where of old ships
were decked with flowers and crowns OF
leaves flags now futter. The ibation
poured on the deck, the publication by
the priest, the amounting with egg and
sulphur, find their exemplars in the
we'll aimed and wasted magnums which
are shattered ON the receding cutwater 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 ano
ale set before the crew, the stoup Of
wine offered to passersby on the quay
and the refusal of which was an evil
omen-all are realized i'll these saddel
lustrums by the builders feast in the
mold loft. Lawyers, clergymen ant
women are ever looked at with disfavol
on sailing ships as sure to bring ill lucl
Lawyers undoubtedly from the antip
athy of sailors to the class, a dislike 81
pronounced that "sea lawyer" is very
bitter term of reproach, and 'lant
shark" is a synonym. Clergymell-
priests and parsons-are unlucky proba
bly, because of their black gowns an(
their principal duty on shipboard-tba
of consoling the dying and burying thu
dead-though possibly because the devil
the great storm raiser, is their especia
enemy and sends tempests to destroy
them. Women-who may reason ou
their unpopularity?-save that ship il
the last place for them, or perhaps he
cause of the dread of witches, for of al
spell workers in human form none is 81
dreaded as the female brewers of bel
broth. Like the priests of the middle
ages, they can raise q prime quality O
storm by tossing sand or stones i'll thu
air and, like Congreve's Lapland sorcer
ess, are supposed to live by selling con
trary winds and wrecked vessels. Ger
tain families could never get sea EN-
ployment under their own surnames
not even such members as were BON
with cauls. for they were taboosd
barred. And many animals-hares
pigs and black cats, for example-coul(
neither be carried nor mentioned OF
shipboard, save under very stringen
conditions. Scarborough wives kept
black cat in the house to assure thei
husbands lives at sea, but on voyage
every black cat carried a gale in he
tail, and if she became unusually frolic
some a storm was sure to follow.
Years ago ON board the flagship
Franklin, up the Mediterranean, W
had yarn that illustrated survival Q
this antipathy to certain forms of ami
NAL life. Two old quartermasters wer
heard during the morning Watcn Ok
changing in the cockpit dismal expert
ences of their dreams the night before
One was particularly narrowing, for tn
narrator wound up with: "And | say
Bill, was never so afeared in my life
When I woke up, it seemed as true a
day, and was all of tremble like n
asp ON leaf. "
"What' that?'' said the other. 'Pip
down. Don't mention that reptile
He's hoodoo on shipboard. ;"
Figureheads were at first images @
gods and later of saints and sea heroe
and were held in high reverence, an
the eyes glaring from each bow Of
Chinese junk enable the boat to voyag
intelligently, for ''no have two eyes
how can see? No can see, how can do?'
is the shibboleth Of their sailors. Ships
bells were blessed, and today if a mis-
take in their striking is made by str7
Secret of Living Long.
The necessity Of relative harmon
throughout the entire physical systel