The Irish standard., 1894-07-14
SAILORS SUIPERSTlTyONS.
They Had Stranger Forms in Early
Days Than Are Now Mantle ste q.

They Had Stranger Forms in Early
Days Than Are Now Mantle ste q.
Stolen Wood Mortised Into the Keel to
Women and Clergymen Looked at
with Disfavor on Sailing-yesseIs.
Lieut.. j. D. Jerrold Kelley gives an
interesting chapter Of ''Superstitions
of the Sea- in the Century. After
studying them fairly we'll, he doubts if
modern sailors are more superstitious
than any other class with equal train
ing and opportunities.
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 mastheads; it ran riotously at her
launching, controlled her name. her
crew and cargoes; IL timed her days
and hours of sailing and conveyed her
voyages; it summoned app&ritions for
her ill-fortune 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
port of rest somewhere off the shores
of 'Fiddler's Green. where all good
sailors rest eternally, or threatened
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 at night; though if the
first blow struck in fashioninf; this keel
drew fire, the ship was doomed to
wreck upon her maiden voyage. Silver
usually a coin) placed in the mainmast-
step went for lucky ventures, and mis-
guided indeed was the owner who per-
mitted any of the unlucliy timbers to
enter into the construction. Something
of the ceremonious character given to
launchings survives to this day; where
of old ships were decl1ed with flowers
and crowns of leaves, flags now futter;
the ibation poured ON the deck, the
publication by the priest, the anoint-
ing with egg and sulphur, find their
exemplar3 i'll the well-ai,ned and wasted
u
receding cut-water as the craft, re-
leased 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 passers-by on the quay, and
the refusal of which was an evil omen
all are realized in these sadder lus-
drums by the builders feast in the
mold-loft.
Lawyers, clergymen and women are
ever looked at with disfavor on sailing
ships as sure to bring ill-luck-lawyers,
undoubtedly, from the antipathy of
sailors to the class, dislike so pro-
nounced that 'sea-lawyer" is a very
bitter term of reproach, and Gland
shark" is a synonym. Clergymen--
priests and parsons-are unlucky, prob
ably because of their blac'- 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 tempests to destroy
them. Women-who may reason out
their nnpopularity? 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 a prime
quality of storm by tossing sand or
stones in the air, and, like Congreve's
Lapland sorceress, are supposed to live
by selling contrary winds and wrecked
vessels.
Certain families could never get sea
employment under their own sur
names, not even such members as
were born with cauls, as they were
tabooed, barred; and many animals
hares, pigs, black cats. for example
could neither be carried nor mentioned
on shipboard, save under very stringent
conditions. Scarborough wives kept
a black cat in the house to assure their
husbands lives at sea; but on voyages
every black cat carried gale in her
tail, and if she became unusually frol-
icsome storm was sure to follow.
Years ago, on board the flagship Frank
lin, up the Mediterranean, we had a
yarn that illustrated survival of this
antipathy to certain forms of an
imals, Two old quartermasters were
heard during the morning watch ex-
changing in the cockpit dismal ex-
periences of their dreams the night be-
fore. One was particularly narrowing,
for the narrator wound up with: ''And,
say, Bill, was never SO afeared in
my life; when woke up it seemed rs
true as day, and was all Of a tremble
like an asp on ley::"
'sWhat's that?" said the other. ''Pipe
down; don't mention that reptile; he's
q hoodoo on shipboard."
Figure heads were ut tirst images of
gods, and later of saints and sea-heroes:
and were held in high reverence, and
the eyes g1aring from each bow of
Chinese junk enable the boat to voy-
age intelligently-fo mo have two
eyes, how can see? No can see, how
can do?' is the shibboleth of their sail
II ~