Superstitions of Seamen
Superstitions of Seamen
ALTHOUGH the ocean steamer has removed some of the superstitious ideas among seamen, still to this day there are hosts of sailors on steamships as well as on sailing vessels, who are filled with them. It is necessary to mingle freely with seamen to win from them their experiences of the strange apparitions they have seen and of the many Jonahs with whom they have been shipmates.
The landlubber has his superstitions as well as the sailor. Many of my strange notions came to me long before I started to sea. Born and brought up among the negroes in Barbados, rocked in a mammy’s arms, one of the first things I remember is the story of the obeah man told me by the faithful colored servants of my father. This ubiquitous obeah man wascalled on at all times by my nurse to help her in bringing me into a state of subjection. I believe such a being did exist. Often when a child I have listened to stories of the duppy (a ghost) and believing them I was afraid of the least noise I heard at night. Even to this day I find it difficult to overcome these superstitious ideas of my early boyhood days.
Some time ago a friend almost induced me to live in Everett, Massachusetts. I had made up my mind to pack my traps and move out there, but dear me! when I saw the trees in Woodlawn Cemetery through the back windows so close to the house, no amount of favorable reasoning could persuade me to live there. No wealth could entice me to walk alone through a graveyard at night. Not that I believe the dead can harm me, but simply there is a feeling that comes over me which I cannot master. I was told that if I were to point my hand or throw a stone at a ghost, the arm would stiffen and remain so forever. I believed this and had not the pluck to throw anything in the direction of a rustling noise at night. Fright and anger forced me to overcome it.
While serving on the U. S. S.Alliance, oneof our shipmates died in “Rio”. His body was taken aft on the quarter deck and placed on boards resting on two ward room chairs. The American Ensign was spread over the whole. It was my anchor watch from twelve o’clock midnight, to four in the morning. There were four of us on watch, one from each part of the ship; namely, a forecastle man, a foretopman, a maintopman and an afterguard. The officer of the deck was lenient and allowed us to sleep on deck providing one man remained awake and watched near the corpse. The forecastle man, as he belonged to the forward end of the ship, was detailed to keep the first watch and we were to relieve each other hourly until our four hours were ended.
Being a maintopman it was my watch from two to three o’clock. At four bells the foretopman roused me from my slumbers where I had coiled myself on deck between the fife rail and mainmast. The officer of the deck was on the poop with the quartermaster; the Captain’s orderly had gone forward; I was standing forward of the corpse in close proximity to the after eight inch gun. I tried to think of everything except my duty. The very thoughtof being alone with a dead man, though there were living mortals close at hand, made me feel uneasy.
I had scarcely been ten minutes on watch when I observed the ensign covering the dead body move as though a cat or a dog were under it. A cold feeling came over me, my heart began to thump, I expected to see my departed shipmate stand up and hail me. The cold perspiration fell from my brow. I started to edge my way forward taking a backward step, when I saw a head peep out from under the flag. The handspikes belonging to the gun were under the gun carriage. I was tempted to haul one of them out and throw it at the ghost, but fearing my hand and arm would stiffen, I hesitated. Just then I heard a tittering on the opposite side of the deck, and looking in that direction I saw my watch mates and the Captain’s orderly laughing at my expense. I realized that a joke had been played on me, and angered through fright beyond self control, I quickly hauled out the heavy handspike and struck at the would be ghost. My aim was poor. I struck the chair at the foot of the corpse and the whole thing rolled over on deck. Theanchor watch and Captain’s orderly quickly arranged the body on the boards and had just re-covered it with the flag, when the officer of the deck reached the break of the poop and inquired the cause of the disturbance. The forecastle man who had played the spectre, readily replied, “We’re catching a rat, sir!” My arm did not stiffen and since then I have thrown stones where I have heard strange noises at night, and struck at uncertain objects in the dark.
It is readily seen that, brought up in such an atmosphere of fetichism I credited all the stories of superstition any sailor cared to relate. I have known men relate yarns about ghosts in which they implicitly believed.
While in a sailor’s boarding house in Antwerp, some of the crew of an American ship which had arrived from San Francisco with grain, declared that the ship was haunted. Every man had a story to tell of his encountering a ghost on that voyage. It was said that while the men were asleep this creature of another world would enter the forecastle and rub its cold hands over the faces of the men. It was rumored in the grog shops that theapparition in the form of a man would walk aft on a stormy night just as the bell was struck at the close of a watch, and relieve the wheel. The officer of the watch would be annoyed to find the ship off her course, and looking aft, would find the ship without an helmsman. This occurred so often, the men declaring a man clothed in oilskins had relieved them, that the Captain ordered his officers to be present and hear for themselves the disembodied soul repeat the course as it relieved the wheel. So ended the tricks of this goblin, who was afraid to encounter more than one man.
There is a vast difference between the sailors of a wind-jammer and those of a steamer. The fireman and coal passers of these iron monsters began their sea careers as men and have not spent their youthful days in the forecastle. They hear nothing of the superstition of the sea, except what are told by the few remaining “old shell backs.”
I have sailed with a Captain who would dare do anything, but had not the courage to sail on Friday. No favorable weather could induce him to start his mudhook on this day. He told the story of losing his first command; how hesailed on that unlucky day from London to the Colonies and on the following Sunday his ship was run into and sank in the English Channel. This day on which “Our Saviour” was crucified has lost its horror among the majority of the English speaking seamen. The steamer is the cause of the change. There is no time lost in loading and discharging these iron hulks. As soon as their hatches are filled, be it Friday or any other day, they stir a lather under their sterns and speed away for another port. There is an old Captain on our coast who told me that he uses every device and frames all excuses, to avoid sailing on Friday. Now and again we meet a few old salts who still cling to the belief in the ill luck that comes from sailing on this unlucky day, but to most seamen the idea is too absurd to be entertained. Still among the Italian and other Southern European sailing vessels, it is yet held in superstitious fear. Once while in the harbor of Montevideo, I witnessed a carnival held on board a Spanish gun-boat, theInfanta Isabel, on Good Friday. The yards were cockbilled and at dinner the crew hauled an effigy of Judas out to the end of the jib-boom and hanging it just clear of thewater, they subjected it to every abuse their imaginations could invent. Even the officers stood on the forecastle head and riddled it with shot from their revolvers. The effigy remained there till dark; finally besmeared with tar and oil, they set it alight and let it blaze away. With all discipline relaxed they ended the day with a lively fandango.
Another form of superstition is that of catching birds at sea. I have sailed with a Captain who allowed no one on his ship to meddle with birds of any kind even though they were fromterra firmablown from their native soil and were resting on his vessel. He had a horror of some evil attending his voyage if any feathered creature was caught or disturbed while perched upon his craft.
Another captain, though not quite so strict, forbade our catching the albatross. We were in Southern Latitudes, where they were plentiful and seemingly hungry. One of our crew, a South African half breed, secretly hooked a large one. He took the bird under the forecastle head, wrung its neck, plucked it, and disposing of the feathers so that no one aft could see them, with hard tack, salt and pepper, dressedit for cooking. That night as soon as he knew the old colored cook was soundly sleeping, he quietly slipped into the galley and baked it. It being cold, the cook kept his fire all night to warm his room which opened into his kitchen. It was fortunate the wind was dead aft, for the man on the forecastle head, standing his lookout, declared the sweet smelling savor emanating from the oven gave him a gnawing at the bottom of his stomach. At eight bells when the watch went below, they rallied around the feast; but to their disappointment and surprise, the albatross proved an unpleasant diet. The flesh was rancid and fishy. It rather pleased the Peruvian Spaniard, however, for clothed in his oilskins and seated on the forecastle deck he hauled the pan between his legs and without stirring, devoured the whole bird. Next day it began to blow harder, the old ship rocked and rolled, we lost several watches furling and reefing sail, and the blame of all the bad weather was heaped upon Joe for killing the albatross. No one aft ever knew about it. Fortunately for Joe they did not, or he would have been half murdered.
Another superstition is about the disobedientprophet Jonah. No sooner does the head wind greet the wind-jammer, than there is a Jonah declared on board. If many misfortunes overtake a ship it is felt by all, both forward and aft, that someone who has inherited the prophet’s ill luck, is among the ship’s company. I once saw a captain strike a seaman and in the vilest language call him a “d— Jonah,” because the wind hauled ahead as soon as he, poor fellow, took the wheel. During his next watch below he was made to stand on the forward house and scratch the foremast till he brought a fair wind. Good luck was on his side, for the wind soon hauled aft again and remained steady for some days. He was no longer declared the Jonah.
A sailor once told me that while making a trip to the West Indies from New York, the second mate of his vessel rushed on deck in the night, and running forward, pointed to leeward shouting, “She’s calling for me, I must go to her.” They had to struggle severely to hold him from jumping over the side. He declared he saw his wife on the ocean calling to him for help. He quieted down, but his vision troubled him. He remembered the date andhour he had seen the apparition, and when the ship arrived in Trinidad, he received word from New York of the death of his wife. She had passed away the very day and hour he heard her calling to him. Is this superstition? Every sailor to whom he told this story, implicitly believed it was the spirit of his dead wife calling to him.
I had a friend, an old sea captain, who is now dead, having lost his life by being washed overboard in a heavy gale. Often he related this story in my hearing:
“I was on a Norwegian bark coming around the Horn, bound to Liverpool from ’Frisco. One night the old bark was hove to. The lookout man had to stand his watch on the after house, where he was safe from being washed overboard. About three o’clock in the middle watch the lookout reported to the mate that a woman was coming over the bow. Sure enough. There stood a woman in white by the lee cat head, waving something in her hand as though she were calling them. Every time the ship courtesied and dipped, the woman waved the thing in her hand violently. We managed to get the watch on deck at eight bells, but not a manwould dare go forward of the poop. When daylight came the woman disappeared. For two days the crew kept aft in fear declaring the ship was haunted, but on the third day when the gale had weakened and the sea subsided, a man was sent to loose the jib. While on the jib-boom he discovered from whence the creation came.
“Our old vessel had a splendid figure head. It was a woman painted white, holding a wand in her hand. The heavy seas broke it away from its fastenings and jammed it erect between the jib-boom guys while the pitching of the vessel made the wand seem as though someone was beckoning. It was a difficult matter even then for the old skipper to make some of his men believe the apparition they saw was the figure head jammed between the guys.”
It is a known fact that men have refused to sail in ships because the rats were leaving. When a youngster, suffering privation in New York City, I saw four apprentices and the steward desert from an English full rigger because they claimed the ship would be lost at sea, for the rats were jumping into the river they were so anxious to leave the vessel. I do not know if she reached another port but I know that I feltgrateful to the rats. One of the boys having more clothes than he cared to carry, gave me an old coat which was a God-send to me at that time. I needed it badly.
There are many other superstitions of which I could write. Every sailor has at some time whistled for a breeze. Most of us have objected to having a parson on board, believing he would prove a Jonah. We have seen sharks persistently follow the ship when there has been a dead body on board in anticipation of a great feast.
Are you superstitious, dear reader? Then know that your great-great-grandfather or some other relative was an old salt.