The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-24
An Old Skipper Tells of Sea
 SuperstitiOns
SOME NAMES ARE FATAL
A Little Steamboat Named City of Bangor After One Foundered of Same Name Is Followed
 by III Luck.

steamboat City of Bangor after her, and she had more than her share of bad luck until she was given a new name.
 Bangor is a lucky city. sure but the name doesn't seem to bring luck to ves- sels. Katahdin was a lucky name, as we have seen by the long life and good record of the famous old Boston and Bangor steamboat The brig Katahdin was lucky, too, going safe and making money for many years, although they lost her finally off Cape Cod She was too old to be out in winter weather deep loaded with coal There's steam Katahdin now, a coal carrier and she seems to go well and safe and there are other vessels of that name
 James A. Garfield was an unlucky name, two or three vessels bearing it having been lost before their time Daniel Webster was another unlucky name take notice, however, that Bible names generally bring good luck, and I never knew of an unlucky vessel named Faith, Hope or Charity
 Not in the matter of names alone, but in regard to many other things, sailors are as superstitious as of old. Last sum- mer two sailors with their dunnage bags slung over their backs, followed a ship ping master down a Bangor pier to go on board an old hooker, deep loaded with lumber, that lay waiting for her crew and stores. Just as the party reached the pier head a gray rat made its way along the taut bow hawser from the vessel to the wharf. The first sailor stopped short in his tracks, dropped his bag and de- clared:
 That settles it! You don't get me aboard that hookerl"
 The sailors mate a stllnid 1ookinp Swede, coaxed, and the shipping master swore, threatened and argued, but all to no avail. The superstitious tar would not join the vessel.
 She's as good as gone" he declared They're all done for when rats begin to leave 'em. And he shipped in another vessel
 The Swede went along in the rat-de- serted schooner, and nothing happened to her, and ever since that day the shipping master has been cursing the jacks who go by signs and telling stories of vessels that have survived all sorts of bad omens. Some of the stories are interesting, but more so are those told by an old salt who has survived the perils of 40 years at sea and settled down in Bangor to spend his declining days in peace and comfort.
 You don't think there's anything in signs?' queried the old man. Well, there is-lots. There was the brig Starlight. that lost her second mate. The second mate dreamed the night before she sailed that he saw himself standing beside his coffin, and when he came into Gillogly' S place next day to take a parting drink with us he told of 1t, and we all advised him to get another berth. He said he guessed 1t would be all right in the brig But it wasn't. She sailed from Bangor to Port Spain, and soon ran into bad weather. While he was helping to reef the mainsail the footropes parted under him and that was the last of poor Jimmy
 There was the bark Solferino as pret- ty and sound a little vessel as eyer left this port. She sailed on a Friday. draw ing 13 feet, and the cook killed a black cat the night before she sailed This made the men nervous, and they said so but the mate he took a handspike to them, and, being anchored off. with all the boats up and dashed and the river full of floating ice, there was no chance to leave her, for two days out she went down in a nor easter and all hands with her.
 Now, man of sense and with the fear of God in him will get clear of a good deal of hard luck and keep af1oat longer than some of these smart Johnnies There was Ned Hengler, who shipped in the brig Rainbow, gay old West India hooker Ned he lived right here in Bangor and had good folks, who went to church reg
 lar and kept sober. The day before the brig was to sail Ned he felt kind O dump ish and he couldn't tell why. Long to- ward night he shook the feeling off and started down over the hill from the Hampden road to the river with his bag on his back. It was a clear moonlight night, and the tide would serve in an hour from the time Ned started from hao To AoI hill and could hear the tug whstling for the vessels to get out their hawsers- , them that was going out in tow. "All at once he felt soft touch on his arm, and he turned round. There in the moonlight stood his old mother as had been in her grave eight years She looked just as natural, Ned said, as she used to when she stood at their door waving him goodby when as a young fellow he went on his first trips. She looked kind of sad and coaxing at him. and gently led him back over the hill moving as softly as a | shadow, and at the top of the hill she pointed toward home. Then she faded | away out of sight like a puff of smoke. | Ned stood there minute or two, not able to stir out of his tracks, and then he picked up his bag from where he had | dropped 1t and went home. It was the | middle of August, but he felt cold and 1 shivery, and the first thing he did was to | say his prayers. The Rainbow sailed without him, and she was never heard of l again.
 1 And there was Tom Scott. No one can | say but what he was a man of sense He was the best that ever sailed out of this port, and he could lick any two men in 1 fair fight. He was as hard headed as they make 'em, but he wouldn't sail in the old schooner Harvest Home, ever after he'd got his dunnage aboard and had turned in for the night Why? Well
 he dreamed that 1t was low water-dead low water-and that's about the worsi thing sailor man can dream of the nigh, before starting for anywhere He woke up and just as he opened his eyes he fell
 a hand passed across his face. First Inc ! thought it was 70 fat tail, for the olt
 sled was f''l of rats, but the hand came again, soft as feather, kind of smooth
 ing his face, and he said 1t felt to hin like he hand of death. That was enough
 ~. om turned out. got his duds and wen
 ashore quick while the rest were snoring She sailed in the morning and all they 1 ever saw of her afterward was some pin, boards from her deckoad and one of tn, l quarter boards with her name on it. l don't believe in being too fussy, but | i pays a man to take a hint once in { 1 while"
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