The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-10-15
HOODOOS OF THE SEA.
SOME OF THE SUGGESTIONS OF SALT
WATER SAILORMEN.


A Snsszs to the Left Is Tatal-Horse-
Shoe II Fetish Of Good Luck -Superrtition
rs to Women Being OIL Board.
Men who go down to the sea in ships
may not be more superstitious by ma
ture than their fellows, but in that
wonderful expanse of sky and water
the smallest incident Of mysterious
nature is magnified into an omen. That
mariners of the olden time invested
the. sea with supernatural powers and
misunderstood its messages Is not sur
prising, since modern science and the
most enlightened understanding fail to
account for its battling vagaries. That
Is why strange bird settling on the
masthead Of ship at sea causes a
panic among the crew. not a man Of
whom would dare to harm the stranger
guest for fear of shipwreck and death.
The Spanish sailor has no prejudice
against starting out on a voyage on
Friday, that being the day on which
Columbus started on his voyage of dis
covery English and American sailors
will not sail on that day If they can
help IT, They would consider the whole
trip hoodooed by such beginning
A sneeze at sea would hoodoo the
ship unless it happened to turn to the
right, when 1t brings good luck Sail
ors have faith in odd NUM- ers, and
naval gunners carry out this belief in
the number of times they fire a salute.
Whistlng for wind is another favor
lite superstition of the man before the
mast. This is trick when ships are
becalmed as whistles rash bids
tempests roar" A 'capful of wind or
"a bagful' usually defines the quantity.
The horseshoe is still popular con-
tribution by sailors to the fetish of
good luck. A distinguished precedent
is given for this. Lord Nelson believ-
ed in the luck of the horseshoe, and
had one nailed to the mast of his ship
Victory.
A peculiar superstition is that il wo-
men are taken on board voyaging
ship some disaster will follow. This
may be the reason why no government
ship is allowed to carry women pas
scngers, Sailors, too, prefer ship
that has masculine name, or is call
ed after some man, or is geographical.
A line Of steamers will often employ
certain selection of names to the eX-
clusion Of all others. The Cunard
steamers end all their names with
ia feminine terminal but one that
has been the reverse of disastrous,
since that line has never lost ship.
Captains are quite as superstitious as
their crews. being Of better education,
and that may account for the names of
sailing vessels being identical with
that OF wife or sweetheart. Certain
names are known in the history of nau-
teal nomenclature as hoodoos. They
have been painted over and other
names substituted, but bad luck at
tended the ship. and not even recon-
structIon saved it. Then, if the name
must be feminine, the crew want some
thing they are familiar with. One old
tar who was told the name Of new
ship was the Aurora said:
why don't they leave poetry to the
navy folk and stick to the Susannahs
and Mary AIMS and Jemmas of my
day? Aurora. How is a plain able
seaman to answer hail with such a
mouthiul as that behind his teeth?'
Sailors cling to thel, superstitions
with tenacity worthy of better
cause. Possibly it is more from custom
rather than from an actual belief in
their efficacy. The man at the wheel
will tell you that he cannot steer
straight If there lie cross-eyed pas
senger on board, And he repeats .
charm Of words to annJl the evil.