The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-07-12

| L
! of superstition The winds murmur it;
| the waves whisper it in their Kissing
spray. Even the lights of the deep
those weird. phospnorescent signals that
| play at night about the rigging of a ship
are to the sailor the beacons of the SUI
pernatural
One of the most beautiful and poetic
superstitions of the sea is that the souls
of lost mariners inhabit the stormy pet
rels, and fly about giving warning of i'm
pending calamity, or attempting to save
the shipwrecked and castaway.
The old sailor who for many years
shipped on East India merchantmen, be-
ing in a reminiscent mood the other
evening, lighted his pipe, tipped back
his chair and began:
1T was aboard the Dreadnaught,
bound from Liverpool to Rio Janeiro,
that the strange thing happened which
l am about to relate. We had encounter
ed the variable winds that are frequent
north of the Northeast trades. The
ship was close-hauled. and was heading
as near the course as the wind would
allow
"In the middle watch of the night
the man at the wheel suddenly cried
out, for a bird had flown in his face.
The ship was Immediately taken aback,
and on paying her off so as to get a
good full again, it was found that she
had broken off about a point. In a
quarter Of an hour the same thing oc
CURED, and the ship broke off another
point. his happened the third time.
Then the officer of the watch began
to think that something strange was
astir, and he let the ship continue as
she was heading Suddenly we caught
a glare of light almost dead ahead.
AS the breeze had freshened, the ship
was going along through the water pref
ty well, and we rapidly raised the light,
which we found to be ship on fire; and
we were enabled to pick up the boats
with the crew, which had left the ship
about an hour before, or at the time
when the petrol first flew in the face of
the man at our wheel.
Next morning the stormy petrol was
found dead on our deck The soul of
the lost sailor had brought its message
and done its work"
A very pretty story" l said; but
sailors are proverbially superstitious.'
Why shouldn't they be-" retorted
the old sailor with degree of warmth.
They get closer to nature than land
lubbers; and in all ages the men who
have lived close TO nature are the ones
who believe in the supernatural They
are farther away from this world and
closer to the next
DO you know how superstitious sail
ors are about cat? I'll tell you story
about that While in Colombo, Ceylon,
the native sircar gave the steward OF
our vessel, an English merchantmen, the
Warwick, a beautiful little kitten, which
soon became the pet of all on board.
just before we struck the Northeast
trades we had two or three days calm
| was on deck in charge of the watch
one night, when suddenly the most I'M
earthly yells came from over the stern
OF the vessel 1t was too dark TO see
anything, but after listening for few
minutes l came to the conclusion that
the cat had fallen or jumped overheard
in At. and was then clinging to the
rudder; and as the ship bobbed up and
down, OF course it took poor kitty under
water AS she rose up again the cat
would let out a fearful howl Soon the
cries ceased.
Next morning the steward was hunt
ing for the cat. Where in the Kingdom
of Neptune is that cat?' he growled,
laughingly replied: Why, I saw the cat
last night going away to leeward on al
broom handle Good Lordr cried the