SAILORS' SUPERSTITIONS.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 62, 11 September 1908, Page 8

SAILORS' SUPERSTITIONS.

There are several weighty reasons, from the sailors' point of view, for the coming to grief of the Hawea(says the Sydney Daily Telegraph). First of all the ship's cat deserted at Newcastle. This caused great concern amongst the men, who as a class are intensely snperstitioiis. A further cause for apprehension was the circumstances that the* few rats on the ship disappeared in unaccountable fashion, just before the trip was entered upon. This is also regarded as unlucky. The crowning misfortune happened on July 28th. An albatross was seen sailing' round the vessel for hours. Then, with a sudden swoop, it smashed into the funnel and dropped on the deck, dead. That happening clinched matters. Every man on the ship knew that some trouble or other was inevitable. On the following day the shaft snapped, and the vessel was helpless. But ■fiber© is a silver lining to every cloud. The chief steward, something of a philosopher in his way, while sharing the superstitious fears of his comrades, abstracted one of the wingbones of the dead bird, and made a pipe-stem of it. He exhibited the pipe to somo friends. "Do you knojW," he said,; "it makes the swoetost smoke that over was."