A SUPERSTITION OF THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 57, 4 September 1937, Page 27

A SUPERSTITION OF THE SEA

.The following ' advertisement ap* peairedjn the "Morning Post" for August 21, 1779: "To the gentlemen of the Navy, and ..other going long voyages to sea. To be disposed of, a child's caul. Enquire at the Bartlet Buildings Coffee House in Holborn. N.B. To avoid unnecessary trouble, the price is twenty guineas." To those who, like Sir Joseph Porter, X.C.8., "stick close to their desks and never go to sea," this, advertisement may seem a little surprising; but it is based on a well-known superstition of the sea, which was explained by Dr. C, J, S. Thompson in the "News Chronicle." A cauf is the thin membrane occasionally found covering the head of a baby «t birth, and. probably because of it» rarity, it i? traditionally supposed to bring good luck. There was an old saying, "Born with a caul, no misfortune befall." - Cauls were highly valued, %nd even venerated, at the time of the Roman Empire, &nd Roman midwives are said to have made no

'scruple of robbing a baby of its caul and selling it to a lawyer for a high price. The lawyer would wear the caul over his chest, in the firm belief that, by so doing, he would become more eloquent and more successful in his cases.

One of the most ' interesting super, stitions associated with the caul is its reputed power of preserving the person who carried it from death by drowning, and it was once believed that the presence of a caul on board a vessel was sufficient to avert disaster. This accounts for the advertisement in the "Morning Post" quoted above. Dr. Thompson also said that, at the time of the submarine menace to merchant shipping during the war, cauls were again in demand, and were eagerly sought for by sailors in the regions of the London docks. "Some were advertised in the papers, and prices ranged from £15 to £20, but whether they really did bring safety and good luck to their new owners, we shall never know."