SEA SUPERSTITIONS

Evening Star, Issue 19127, 19 December 1925, Page 18

SEA SUPERSTITIONS

liß IEIFLUEMCE OH KOKH SAILORS [By “ A.H.8.,” in ‘ Manchester Guardian.’] Twenty-five years ago a seaman’s life was full of superstitions, but to-day there are practically none. They went out of date with halyards, sheets, and chanties. Only among fishermen and the few square-rigged sailormon who are left will you find the old charms, ghosts, and traditional superstitions of the seas. No modern Jack has any place or time for such things. Ho is as different from the old order of the sea as the ships are different. Ho would bo considered childish and out of date did ho voice them, just as much as the sailor of square rig would have been considered unlucky and a menace to tho welfare of the ship did he not voice and believe in them. Tonlay a seaman asks of his shipmate on joinin«r; “Is she a workhouse?” Years aco ho would have asked: “Is she a lucky ship?” The other question would have been superfluous. All ships were workhouses then. Tho luckiest of all seamen is bo who is born into the world with a caul. That man can’t possibly be drowned providing he wears his caul always. The caul is worn round the neck in a little bag, night and day. It is never taken off—that would destroy tho luck. If you weren’t born lucky you could always acquire luck by wearing some relation’s caul, or by purchase, and therefore you had three stages of luck whore the caul was concerned. I have no authentic data as to how the three different stages worked out, but I remember as a boy having it explained to me by an old shellback. Born with a caul, you couldn’t be drowned nor could a shark get you. Wearing a relation’s caul you couldn’t be drowned, but the shark might get you. Wearing a bought caul you were just lucky, and might be drowned if you couldn’t swim. of course, was wearing his own caul, and no doubt had to show how superior it was as a charm over acquired cauls. Irishmen are tho greatest believers in the caul charm. I remember ono who told me he was wearing his grandfather’s. Both his grandfather and father had worn it all thenyears at sea, and neither of them had been drowned. Ho stated this with pride and with conviction in the power of the canl, but he told me later that his grandfather had been knifed by a Greek before he was thirty, and his father had fallen off a topsail yard and broken his nock, so apparently the caul was of no use against a fight or an accident. At one time you could find in most of our seaports a shop, somewhere in Sailortown, where they sold cauls all ready to wear. There was ono such shop in Rateliffo Highway, kept by a Jew. He ( did quite a fantrade till a sailor, who was either sceptical about tho caul as a charm or did not trust tho Jew, opened the little silk hag and found no caul. The deception became known to all seamen, ano ever after when a sailor was drowned someone was sure to remark; “He must have been wearing a Jew’s canl.” At ono time seamen wore always pictured wearing earrings. _ Sailors and gipsies always wore earrings, were always tanned, but you could tell the shellback by his tattooed hands and his rolling gait. I’ve often been told by shore people that earrings prevent deafness. Jack didn’t wear them for tliat reason. His superstition was that they preserved his eyesight, which _ was of much greater importance to him than hearing. When I first went to sea whistling was at times a dreadful crime, and often I have felt the weight, of a rope’s end for doing; it. Tim only time you can whistle with impunity is in a calm. To a seaman a head wind is preferable to no wind at all, but woe betide you if you were caught whistling when a fair wind was blowing. Buporstititions were not confined to the men before the mast. Tho captains and officers were olten as bad :is the men.

Tho old Welsh captain with whom I served my time was tho most superstitious man 1 ever know at sea. During a calm he would stand on tho poop for hours facing the direction from which he wanted the wind to come, and whistle gently through his teeth. Wo boys would do the same down tho waist, giggling at one another and thinking whet a fool wo were making of tho old man, but he never noticed it, “Not ton loud now, boys,”_ ho would say. “ Goodness to gracious only knows where the wind will come from, and if it is a head wind we don’t want much of it.” Ho believed that tho louder you whistled the more wind you got. Whistling had to be used ah tho proper time only; at any other time it was punishable. Another way of raising the wind was to throw money overboard. As onr old man wa,s Welsh, he preferred whistling; but T. have often heard tho story of Ihe American skipper who bought a gale of wind for half a dollar, and remarked to his mate: “Wind's cheap hero, mister. I should have asked for change.” Omens of approaching storms were very common. Your sailor of rho last generation was quite a good weather prophet. Weather signs which to tne modern meteorologist explain atmospheric phenomena were looked upon by tho old shellbacks as supernatural. A halo round the moon was always the forerunner of a storm. Given certain other weather conditions it is. Rut th*«e other conditions weren’t considered; the halo was enough. Last night the moon had a golden ring, And to-night no moon we sec. There you have Wordsworth giving the superstition. A lunar how was always sure to bring disaster to the ship. The rainbow was sure to bring good weather, but tho other brought disaster to the ship or to someone on board. Why this should have been so I don’t know They aro both caused by the same atmospheric conditions, except that the sun’s rays give you one and the moon’s ray the other. Elmo’s Fire, or Corposant Light, was also a sign of disaster. This came of small particles of phosphorescence which collected on tho mast heads or yard-arms on dark nights when the humidity was very great. I thing tho St. Elmo’s Fire was the strongest of all sea superstitions. I have known men refuse to go aloft when it was to be seen, and, what is more, tho mates didn’t drive them.

Friday was for a long time a very unlucky day to put to sea, but Friday is considered an unlucky day ashore as well. I’ve seen a whole ship’s company refuse to go to sea on a Friday, and I’ve seen the same ship’s company refuse to go to sea on the 13th day of the month. To-day Friday is the sailing day of some of our western ocean liners,' and. if possible, the tramp steamer will make it her sailing day also. Week-ends in port cost money—harbor dues, dock dues, wages, and fond—and no work is done. At sea she has no does to nay and is eating up the distance to her destination. The worst enemy of superstition is economy.