Page images
PDF
EPUB

British Museum an interesting leaden anchor with two flukes bearing a Greek inscription. Its date is about 50 B. C., and it was found off the coast of Cyrene. The invention of the anchor with two flukes is attributed by Pausanius to Midas, by Pliny to Eupalamas, and by Strabo to Anacharsis. Diodorus Siculus states that the first anchors were wooden tubes filled with lead, while another classical writer says that before the introduction of metal anchors lumps of stone with a hole through the middle for the attachment of the cable were used. Some very primitive kinds of anchors are in use at the present day in different parts of the world.

Ships' anchors cost from five to seven cents a pound, so that a 6,000 pound anchor, which would be a very large one, would cost, even at the lowest price, about $300; and the big ship that required an anchor of that size would carry two of them. The two big anchors carried by a ship of, say, 2,000 tons would weigh from 4,800 to 5,000 pounds each. The anchors of merchant vessels are painted or tarred. Whenever the vessel is painted the anchors are painted also to preserve them from rust. But on yachts and various smaller craft galvanized anchors are used, which, of course, do not require painting. vanized iron anchors have been made for torpedo boats in the navy, but, generally speaking, their use is confined to pleasure craft. A galvanized anchor costs nearly as much again as one not galvanized.

Gal

The galvanizing preserves the anchor from rusting and makes it more sightly in appearance, and prevents it from dripping rusty water and so staining and marring decks and other surfaces with which it might come in contact. Anchors weighing 1,400 pounds have been galvanized, such anchors being for very large steam yachts.

MYTHS OF ANCIENT MARINERS.

Sailors' yarns have always been celebrated for their imaginative character. Those of to-day, however, have no opportunity for favorable comparison with the stories told by mariners of antiquity. The latter were able to count upon an inexhaustible public credulity, nothing

which they could possibly invent being too monstrous or unusual for belief. Their tales presumably did much to augment the fears of the sea which were commonly entertained in those days, giving birth to many of the myths of the ocean. They told about the strange land inhabited by lotos eaters, who fed upon the fruit of forgetfulness and lost all memory of country and friends. Beyond was the terrible land of the one-eyed giants, called Cyclops, they said, while elsewhere were to be found the strange islands where the enchantresses Circe and Calypso lived. These islands were in the narrow western Mediterranean, and beyond was the Cimmerian land, where the people lived in darkness always, inhabiting gloomy caves.

There were the Sirens also, whose song was death. They were condemned to die when a man should pass them without stopping. Ulysses accomplished this by putting wax in his ears. So they were changed into rocks of Sorrento, where they still exist, a terror to mariners. The Sirens typify the surf, whose harmonious murmurs are often the death music of the sailor. In like manner the Cyclops represent the Storm Fiend, as their names show. Brontes is the roll, Steropes the flash, and Argis the whiteness of lightning. Likewise the snaky Gordons are thought to be figurative representations of the white capped and angry waves. Not less to be feared were the dreadful Symplegades-huge moving rocks which were fabled to crush ships passing between them. It has been surmised that the tradition respecting these rocks was derived from the floating icebergs, which during the glacial period must have issued from the Black Sea; but this seems hardly likely.

SEA MYTHOLOGY.

Neptune, called Poseidon by the Greeks, was the mythological god of the sea; son of Saturn and Cybele; brother of Jupiter and Pluto; father of Triton, Polyphemus, Phoreus and Proteus.

Sirens were sea-maidens, who, according to Homer, dwelt in an island between aea and Scylla, near the southwest coast of Italy, and sang with such sweetness

that the mariners who heard them forgot their country and died in an ecstacy of delight.

Nereides were fifty sea-nymphs, attendant on Neptune. They were the daughters of Nereus and Doris, and are usually represented as young and handsome virgins riding on dolphins.

Mermaid was a fabled sea-maiden having the upper part like that of a woman, and the lower like that of a fish.

SEA SUPERSTITIONS.

The spread of knowledge in modern times has removed many of the absurb notions peculiar to seamen; but, as a class, they may still be considered among the foremost believers in the supernatural.

During tempests at Malta it is usual to ring all the bells in the Roman Catholic churches for an hour, that the winds may cease and the sea be calmed. This custom also prevails in Sicily and Sardinia. There is a Cornish legend that the bells of Bottreaux church were sent by ship, but when the vessel was in sight of the town the blasphemy of the captain was punished by the loss of his ship. The bells are supposed to lie in the bay, and announce by strange sounds the approach of a storm. A belief is still widely entertained in the virtues of a child's caul (a thin skin covering the head of some children when born), as a preservation against drowning and shipwreck. An advertisement only recently appeared in the New 'York papers addressed to mariners, reading thus: "For safeguard at sea; a child's caul for sale, price, twentyfive dollars." Rats leaving a ship are considered indications of misfortune. Porpoises when they play about the ship are supposed to foretell storms. Carrying dead bodies in ships has always been a sore point with sailors, and the sight of even an empty coffin works upon their prejudices. Such, Nelson found, was the case, when one was sent to him by a brother officer, made of the mainmast of the French ship L'Orient, to remind the illustrious hero that amidst all the glory that surrounded him he was but mortal. Nelson received the present in a

proper spirit, and had the coffin placed in his own cabin in the Vanguard, but the crew could not bear to have the obnoxious memorial in sight, and it was accordingly ordered to be sent below. It is considered "unlucky" to lose a water bucket or mop at sea. Children on board are regarded with favor by seamen, as likely to bring good luck.

There are Polish and Russian Hebrews who refuse to travel on a steamship with only one smokestack, and claim it is not safe. It used to be the belief that sailing

on a Friday was to court certain disaster. Old sailors will still dwell upon the legend of the ship that was commenced on a Friday, finished on a Friday, named the Friday, commanded by Captain Friday, sailed on a Friday, and-foundered on the same luckless day with all hands, as a warning that the day the Saviour was crucified should be henceforth accursed or kept holy, according to the bent of the considering mind. Among the Spanish, Italian, Austrian and Greek sailing vessels, Friday is still held in superstitious awe. On Good Friday a regular carnival is held on these vessels at which an effigy of Judas is subjected to every imaginable indignity.

It does not take a long series of misfortunes overtaking a ship to convince her crew that a lineal descendant of Jonah and an inheritor of his disagreeable disqualifications is a passenger. Such a person might at times be placed in a disagreeable and even dangerous predicament. A Chinese custom is that of throwing into the ocean, when friends are about to sail away, thousands of pieces of paper, each piece bearing on it a written

prayer.

Why a sailor hates a cat is not very evident, but nautical tradition is against the little animal and Jack Tar will have none on board. To carry one is a sure way to bring disastrous gales. The sailor calls weak tea cat-lap; a short sleep a cat-nap; a breath of wind a cat's-paw; a greater amount of breeze a cat's-skin. When he associates poor puss with unpalatable tea, unsatisfactory sleep and insufficent wind, it is no wonder he is prejudiced against

her.

Sailors formerly had great veneration for odd numbers,

a belief still traceable in the number of guns fired for salutes. Sneezing to the left was a serious matter, though a sneeze to the right was not so bad. Themistocles once detained his ships on account of the bad luck that he feared would follow a sneeze. Shetlanders are

particularly sensitive on this point.

The sailor is convinced that a ship's bell will toll, however firmly lashed, when the doomed vessel sinks beneath the wave. The belief in the efficacy of whistling to raise the wind is widespread, and has been held in Greenland, India, China, Sweden and Europe generally. It is said that care must be taken to whistle at the right moment. If it be done in a calm a pleasant breeze will come, but if it be done when there is already wind it will arouse a hurricane. hurricane. Petrels, or Mother Carey's chickens, near a ship is taken as a sign of storm. The horseshoe is still a popular contribution by sailors to the fetish of good luck. A peculiar superstition is that if women are taken on board a voyaging ship, some disaster will follow. Sailors prefer a ship that has a masculine name, or is called after some man, or is geographical. Certain names are known in the history of nautical nomenclature as hoodoos. They have often been painted over and other names substituted, but bad luck attended the ship and not even reconstruction saved it. If the name must be feminine the crew want something they are familiar with. Hence there were formerly Susannahs, Mary Anns and Jemimas among sailing vessels.

Something of the ceremonious character given to launchings survives to this day. The champagne bottle at the steamship's launching is a modern necessity. The prefix "City of" in the nomenclature of vessels is viewed with dread by seafaring men. Marine insurance underwriters sometimes fight shy of vessels whose names end in "a." The man at the wheel still cannot steer straight if there is a cross-eyed passenger on board, and he repeats this charm of words to annul the evil:

"St. Peter! St. Peter! Pray give us a charm, Against the bad eye that would do us a harm."

« PreviousContinue »