Perhaps the first old belief to go was that sailing on a Friday was to court certain disaster. All old sailors dwell with unholy gusto 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 to all reckless shipowners and skippers never again[255] to run counter to the eternal decrees that the day upon which the of the world was crucified should be henceforth accursed or kept holy, according to the of the considering mind. But steam has changed all that. When a steamer’s time for loading or discharging began to be reckoned not in days but in hours, the notion of detaining her in port for a whole day in to an idea became too ridiculous for entertainment, and it almost immediately died a natural death. This, of course, had its effect upon the less hastily worked sailing , although there are still to be found in British sailing ships masters who would use a good deal of to avoid sailing on that day. Among the Spanish, Italian, Austrian, and Greek sailing vessels, however, Friday is still held in most superstitious . And on Good Friday there is always a regular held on board these vessels, the yards being allowed to hang at all sorts of angles, the gear flung dishevelled and loose, while an of Judas is subjected to all the abuse and that the lively imaginations of the seamen can devise. Finally, the effigy is besmeared with , a rope attached to it which is then rove through a block at the main yard-arm, it is set alight, and amid the yells and execrations of the seamen it is slowly swung aloft to and blaze, while the excited use up their remaining energies in a wild dance.
Another that still survives in sailing vessels everywhere is, strangely enough, connected with the prophet Jonah. It is, however,[256] confined to his bringing misfortune upon the ship in which he sailed, and seldom is any made to his engulphing by the prepared great fish. 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. So deeply rooted is this idea that when once it has been aroused with respect to any member of a ship’s company, that person is in evil case, and, given fitting opportunity, would actually be in danger of his life. This of religious , cropping up among a class of men who, to put it mildly, are not for their knowledge of , also shows itself in connection with the paper upon which “good words” are printed. It is an unheard-of misdemeanour on board ship to destroy or put to common use such paper. The man guilty of such an action would be looked upon with horror by his shipmates, although their current speech is usually and beyond belief. And herein is to be found a curious distinction between seamen of Teutonic and Latin race, excluding Frenchmen. Despite the superstitious the former pay to the written word, none of them would in time of dream of rushing to the opposite extreme, and after madly abusing their Bibles, throw them overboard. But the excitable Latins, after their patron saint to aid them in the most agonising tones, repeating with haste such prayers as they can remember, and the most
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