The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-03-25
Not o "Hoodoo."

the sea is one to the effect that if, at
the launching of ship. a bottle of
water instead Of bottle of wine is
broken over her bows at the ceremony
OF naming, this will make her unlucky
herself, and capable of bringing i'll luck
to other ships with which she is asso-
clated. TO use the current expression
OF the mariners, the vessel will be
"hoodooed." Such superstition seems
incredible, yet it was actually urged as
a reason why the battle ship Kentucky,
which was recently launched, should be
named with wine. The Governor of
kentucky, to whom the ceremony was
committed, properly insisted on the use
bottle, OF salt water, was broken over
the vessels bow flask of the purest
water, brought from spring on the
farm on which President Lincoln was
born.
A gentleman who was lately naval
officer furnishes the Union Signal with
facts which show that not only is there
no reason to entertain this notion, but
that experience may even be said to
point In the opposite direction.
He calls attention to the fact that one
of the 'sluckiest'' of American ships
doubtless luck because, as a rule, she
was navigated with skill-was the Con-
stitution, or "Old Ironsides," which
was launched in 1897, and has just cell
ebrated her centennial anniversary
afoat. The Constitution was "chris-
tened" with water taken from a spring
on Coop's Hill, in Boston, and another
bottle, of sal water, was broken over
her flgurehead as she left the ways.
Next to the Constitution the most
brilliant record of any United States
ship now af1oat is probably that Of the
Hartford, which was built at the Char
lestown navy yard, and launched Nov.
%, 1858. She was the flagship of Far
ragut, and in the battles below New
Orleans was hit over 140 times by shot
and shell from the Confederate works.
Notwithstanding she was in good trim
for the great battle of Mobile Bay.
where Farragut was dashed to her
mast.
The Hartford never had an accident
and is called by the sailors the 'sluck-
lest ship that floats" She was named
by young lady, who broke over her
bottle Of water from the Connecticut
river, near Hartford, and Admiral
Preble, then a lieutenant, broke a bot
tie Of salt water over her bows.
In the contrast to these two cases. a
list Of nine government vessels is Civ
en-, all of which had wine spilled upon
their bows at their launching, and all
of which have been deemed especially
"unlucky." Among them were the
President, blown up on the Potomac
river: the Maine, destroyed by a mine
in Havana harbor. and the Texas.
new ship, which has already had so
many accidents that she is known to
the sailors as the "hoodoo.''
The Constitution and the Hartford
would have been just as fortunate, and
the others just as unfortunate. if the
ancient custom of breaking a bottle
of liquid at their launching had been
omitted altogether. And we might, with
some reason, adopt the ceremony
which is employed by the japanese,
and which consists in the 'liberating of
three doves at the vessels bows as she
leaves the ways. With the japanese,
as with us, the white dove is the en-
blem of peace; and this pretty cere-
mony is poetic expression of the hope
that the vessel may never have to be
used in war. 5.-" .,.,z