The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-07-18
SAILORS JONAHS.
JACKS SUGGESTIONS HAD STRANGE
FORMS IN EARLY DAYS.


an interesting chapter of "Superstitions
of the Sea- in The Century. After
studying them fairly we'll he doubts II
modern sailors are more superstitious
than any other class with equal training
and opportunities. He believes that
everybody is leavened with superstl-
ton, notably the noisiest scoffers and
those mountebanks, the Thirteen clubs,
for these gentry protest too much. 1t
seems to be 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 It's 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
unknowable, 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 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. 1t ran riotously
at her launching, controlled her name,
her crew and cargoes 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 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 II the
first blow struck in fashioning this keel
drew fire the ship was doomed to wreck
upon her maiden voyage. Sllver-usu-
ally coin-placed i'll the mainmast step
went for lucky ventures, and misguided
indeed was the owner who permitted
any Of the unlucly timbers to enter into
the construction. Something of the cere-
monious character given to launchlngs
survives to this day. Where of old ships
were decked with flowers and crowns Of
leaves flags now fiutter. The libation
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 Oh deck, the cakes and
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 in these sadder
lustrums by the builders feast in the
mold loft. Lawyers, clergymen and
on sailing ships as sure to bring i'll luck
Lawyers undoubtedly from the antip-
athy Of sailors to the class, dislike so
pronounced that ''sea lawyer" is a very
bitter term of reproach, and "land
shark" is synonym. Clergymen-
priests and parsons-are unlucky proba
bly, because of their black gowns and
,,,,i I,,fr IN, bof
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 unpOpularity?-s that a ship is
the last place for them, or perhaps be-
cause of the dread of witches, for Of all
dreaded as the 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 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-
not even such members as were born
with cauls. for they were tabooed,
barred. And many animals-hares,
pigs and black cats, for example-could
neither be carried nor mentioned on
shipboard, save under very stringent
conditions. Scarborough wives kept
black cat in the house to assure their
husbands lives at sea, but on voyages
every black cat carried a gale in her
tail, and If she became unusually frolic-
some storm was sure to follow.
Years ago on board the flagship
Franklin, up the Mediterranean, we
had yarn that illustrated a survival of
this antipathy to certain forms of ami
NAL life. Two old quartermasters were
heard during the morning watch ex-
changing in the cockpit dismal expert
ences of their dreams the night before.
One was particularly narrowing, for the
narrator wound up with: "And l say,
Bill, l was never so afeared in my life
When l woke up, it seemed as true as
day, and was all of tremble like an
asp on leaf "
whats that?'' said the other. "Pipe
down. Don't mention that reptile
He's hoodoo on shipboard.
Figureheads were at first images of
gods and later of saints and sea heroes
and were held in high reverence, and
the eyes glazing from each bow Of
Chinese junk enable the boat to voyage
intelligently, for ''no have two eyes,
how can see? No can see, how can do?'
is the shibboleth of their sailors. Ships