The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-12-07
SOME SEA-F(LkS' FANC|ES.
The Same Childish Ioxie eo~.,~~
Christians and PagaAs Alfke
Dealing With the Unknown-
ketfches and Saints Are Smashed.

superstitions, Why, the merchant
marine is full Of them Not so much ca
before the days of steam. perhaps. but
there's enough left 70 make the captain. :
life msrry-go-round"
30 said James J. Ferris. for many years
the United States shipping commissioner
In Ola Slip. Ha WAS an American sailor
IN inc good old days Of sails and spavs
and knows thoroughly TIE traditions and
dialect OF the sea-
For instance" he continued. when
the Mallory liner LeonA reached the port
OF New York last May, after q fearful
nre IN the Storage. the sailors refused
10 touch the burned and charred bodies
slowed IN the ocastle-thirteen of them
and the ambulance force had TO get spe-
Cal men 10 remove them. The crew was
composed of Italians. and their super
sutton explains their inhumanity. You
can induce mariner OF that race to
touch corpse. They have a notion thar
the ghost or any dead body they handle
VIII haunt them TO eternity. All the Lat
IN races that follow the sea--Italians,
spanlards anc Portuguess-are steeped
with superstition. They all have the
same horror Of any dead on board.
know. too. Of many cases where the sail
ors OF this race. after long and unavail-
Ing prayers to the Virgin Mary In times
OF heavy storms. have risen in mutiny
AGAINST the heavenly powers and smashed
all the images OF the blessed mother they
could find on the ship. And they do 1t to
tEis day, just the same as the black
neathen in the wiids Of Africa will take
the fetch they worship and break 1t into
smithereens IL they don't get the right
kind of answer to their prayers.
You see. the same logic governs Chris
tian and Idolater. The savage argues
that II he carefully attends to all the du-
ties imposed on him by the priest or
fetch man Of his tribe, and presents
his fetch with gifts and sacrifices. and all
that sort Of thing, then the fetch is
bound by a heavenly obligation to stand
BY him when he gets into trouble Of any
Kind and pull him out. He claims that
there Is the same responsibility resting
on the Fetch, Or god, he worships, TO
look out for him as .here In on the wor-
shipper to attend to his end OF the BUSH
ness. When the fetch doesn't come to
time the savage considers the contract
broken and his next step Is to smash the
image OF his careless divinity.
Now, the Virgin Mary has always been
the special patron saint OF seafaring men.
Her shrines are In all the seaport towns
OF Catholic Christendom, and every Cath
olic sailor puts himself under her care.
When she doesn't deliver them promptly
enough in times Of peril they take the
same superstitiouS revenge as the saw
age.
They don't make any better sailors"
he continued. ''the world over than the
Scandinavians, but they are loaded to tho
guards with superstition. remember one
time We were beating up from the gulf
OF Mexico with q good three-master.
when squall sprung up. and a clever lad
In the crew fell from yard and died.
He came Of good family in Maine. and
the three Americans In the crew decided
we'd take the body home, instead of feed
ing Il to the sharks. We slowed the poor
boy on the forward deck, but we couldn't
keep q man jack OF those ghost-fearing
Scandinavians on the Lookout. 1t took all
the arsenal we had aboard. too. to keep
them down till we reached New York.
"Now, in this matter Of a corpse on
shipboari." the veteran skipper proceed
ed, "John Chinaman Is Just as fiercely
superstitious the other way. It's a big
plank in Els religious platform to see that
every Chinaman's body, after he Is dead.
is taken home and buried I'm its native
soil. and Chinese crew will mutlny
quicker than wink il any white captain
drops one Of their dead overheard. An
old mate Of mine was telling me the other
Celestial crew on a voyage back from
Hong Kong. It was before the passage
OF that Chinese exclusion law, and this
vessel did a rushing business In trans
porting Cinnamon to San Francisco.
When about two days cut one OF these
passengers died. and It was not discov-
cred by the officers Of the vessel for four
teen days. They're powerful slick about
keeping their secrets.
when the body was a. last discovered
the captain ordered 1t overheard. The
p;gtails, both passengers and crew. were
sullen, and gathered N ominous-looking
groups about the ship. On the second day
after the crew rose. and there was the
very devil Of war dance for an hour.
The officers were vastly outnumbered.
but well armed. When they got the mu-
tineers under, after o fierce fight, they
found four of them dead. SIX scalded.
while two had leaped overheard 10 escape
an officers knife.
"But, after ALL Ferris ratified on.
when It comes to an all-around stock CT
moss-grown saperstittons. the Spanish
sailor gets the medal He has about all
OF that sort Of stun that every other fell
low has. and q good deal OF private lug
gage too. Next time you hear that any
vessel Of tho Spanish navy Is In port. get
near enough to cover her with spy
glass about sunset, and you'll see per-
fermance that's been going on for about
400 years. Centuries ago. when the Span
iards ruled the wave. q Spanish n1an-of-
war was lost under curious circumstan-
ces The ship was jumping ahead before
a lively Levant breeze. when suddenly the
heavens grew dark with a CT ming squali.
The seamen hurried quickly to their sta
items to shorten sail Tie vessel heeled
over under her bellying canvas. and tho
sailors tugged a. the clew lines. but not
sheet would start.
"As last resort the haiyards were cut