Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-09-04
TARs' STRANGE BELIEFS.
Supersti tons of Men of the Sea Almost
Numberless.

last Saturday and refused to be budged
the news was spread broadcast, yacht
racing sailors shook their heads and
whispered that the craft was sure to be
unlucky. One of the men in the vl;ln-
ity of Tebo's basin went so far as to
say that such an exploit so soon after
the launching was a sure indication That
the Shamrock would win. Nobody
threw this human collection of super
.stitions overheard because his hearers
also lived in glass houses.
When the Shamrock was launched
she, TOO, went on nautical spree and
tried to sink a passing barge. South
Brooklyn heard this and also said:
-''She, too, is sure to be unlucky," but
none would commit himself as to which
would win.
This superstition of sailor folk has
existed so long that not only landsmen,
out bandsHnen on warships believe in
the signs and tokens. Some of the
yacht-racing sailors are as foolish in
the belief in hoodooed vessels as were
the P0lynesian fishermen who made
sacrifices to Veranomautom and Torila
for a good breeze. The modern fisher
men still make sacrifices of horse to
their fish gods.
Among the things still considered
unlucHy are women, cats and sky pilots
or ministers ON board ship, and re-
Gently a crew mutinied on being asked
to go to sea with bride.
Hundreds of miles of articles have
been printed to show that a vessel UNI
lucky at birth remained so through her
career, when in reality it is the other
way. There are numbers of instances
cited to prove the truth of this state
ment.
The present Defender was a double
action, finely rivited, 18-karat success
at getting into most horrible mess
from the time the Herreshoff workmen
began to wedge her up for launching
until she defeated the Goulds' Vigilant
and finally won from Valkyrie III.
She did more than any cup defender
from the days of the Magic, the first
boat to defend the trophy that the
schooner yacht America won in Eng
that Lord Dunraven was willing to ac-
>cept any excuse to leave the country.
It may be recalled that the Defender,
while being launched, stuck on the
ways at Bristol, and it became neces-
sary to block her UP again before she
could be lowered to her natural ele
ment. All the old cronies, some of
n II nYs
step out of bed left foot first in the
morning, held UP their hands in horror
and shouted. "She's hoodooed." Even
-tars who believe that wind always
comes when one whistles predicted all
the disasters along the beach to the
poor, misguided racer, and took aboard
fresh cargoes of waterfront rum as a
sort of I-tOld-you-so habit ' nen the
Defender met accidents, until on Aug
% of the year in which she was
launched, she met with her eleventh
and ran aground near the southwest
end of Hog island ait the entrance to
Bristol Bay. AS a lucky craft since
that time, nearly four years ago, the
Defender has been remarkable. She
since then, but won from the Valkyrie
III. as she liked, and if there be any
thing in sailor superstition no unlucky
boat could have done that, no matter
how great her speed.
Another boat put down in the book
of superstitiOns as an unlucky racer
was the schooner Columbia, the first
of that name to make a bid for Amer
fca's cup hOnors. All the predictions
in the list of untime1y endings were put
down for her in 1871, when she be-
1oEged to Franklin Osgood. She and
the SapphO were known to be the two
fastest schooners in the world, but J..
Livonia didn't think so and challenged
for the Americas cup. The Columbia
sailed like a witch in those days, but if
there was a sandbar or other obstruc-
ton within hailing distance she was
sure to cultivate it's acquaintance.
Racing sailors gave her a wide berth
and predicted a sudden and possibly
unprovided death for her crew when
she finally was chosen to meet the
Livonia for the blue ribbon of the sea.
The Columbia won the first two races
with ease, but on the third became dis
abled and had to finish under head
sails, the Livonia winning The
Sappho, which was owned by w. P.
Douglass, stepped in, it being impos-
sible to repair the Columbia in time,
and made even shorter work of the
Englishnfan than Osgood's schooner
had done. Lester Wallack acquired
the Columbia after that and sailed her
for Is consecutive years without pay
ing marine doctors penny for any
''unlucky" exploits
In the merchant marine, as well as
warships and yachts, the galley yarn of
''unlucky birth, unlucky at death" has
been knocked in the head. The White
Star line steamer Britannia has no
rival in the world at money-making,