Page 1 Advertisements Column 5

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 807, 23 January 1903, Page 1

The steamship Corinthie is hauDted. A. man who fell down her hold is now in hospital in a precarious condition; at Hobart the boatswain was killed by the hoisting machinery ; in Wei ington, on Friday, a fireman fell down the engineroom and broke his thigh, and on Saturday a man was killed while coaling her. The sailorman has for time immemorial been the most superstitious of beings, the most ardent believer in Jonahs and ghosts. History and fiction are full of the tales of *• hoodoos ” and curses on ships. It is not surprising to learn that nobody will take the boatswain’s place. Probably if this series of accidents had occurred on a vessel 100 years ago, before the day of the motor and the telegraph, every sailor would have deserted It is possible that the accidents are merely a ghastly series of coincidences, but probability points to something else We cannot admit the existence of a ' hoo doo,” so that the process of exhaustion appears to lead to a conviction that there is oross carelessness on board. Men do not°persistently fall down holds and engine rooms, or get consistently mangled m machinery, unless there is gross_ laxity somewhere. This may be the Cormthic s hoodoo. It is astonishing how soon a "curse” on a ship is worked out when care and attention to detail b6CQWB the order of the day,-Truth,