60 FISHERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



36. SUPERSTITIONS. 



The causes of superstition. — It is customary among writers to give fishermen credit for an 

 extraordinary amount of credulity and superstition. There are among the fishermen superstitious 

 men, just as there arc among their kindred on shore; while, on the other hand, the more intelligent 

 and practical men among them, especially those born in the United States, are, perhaps, among the 

 least superstitious of men, certainly as little credulous as any class of sea-faring men. It is not 

 unusual to find the master of a fishing vessel, while humoring the prejudices of his crew, himself 

 thoroughly incredulous as to the power of any supernatural influences over the movements of the 

 vessel or the success of the voyage. 



Mr. J. P. Gordy thus writes concerning some of the superstitious notions among the Gloucester 

 fishermen : 



" I will not undertake to say to how many causes superstition may be due. but one cause, at 

 least, every one will admit — a weakness of imagination and reason. Whenever you find a mind 

 too weak to form such a conception as law, yon find a mind which, if left to itself, will be super- 

 stitious. The development of the religious notion may modify the form of the superstition, but 

 with that I do not propose to deal, since it is at present among fishermen in too varying proportions 

 to make valid any conclusions that may be drawn therefrom. Now, in most circles of society the 

 weaker minds are not left to themselves. They borrow the opinions as they do the manners of the 

 highest culture and the best intellects in the circles in which they move. Those pronounce super- 

 stitions ridiculous and they echo their laugh. Even then the thoughts in their minds answering 

 to abstract terms have a grotesqueuess that would deserve to be called superstitious had not that 

 name come to indicate a peculiar class of grotesque ideas. Now fishermen are very emphatically 

 left to themselves. They have as little culture, as little contact with culture, as any class in the 

 land. The most intelligent among them are prevented by their limited opportunities for inter- 

 course from wielding the influence which naturally belongs to power, and superstition, as a rule, is 

 the natural result. This is especially so when you take into consideration another cause which 

 works with peculiar force among fishermen. I think that among people whose mental structure 

 inclines them that way superstitions are more or less prevalent according to the frequency with 

 which they come in contact with variable and incalculable events. Superstitions are. due, in part 

 at least, to the cause-seeking instinct; and when a 7>ew phenomenon appears, or an old one at times 

 and under circumstances which cannot be predicted, this instinct demands satisfaction. Now, of 

 all classes in the world, fishermen deal with phenomena with the cause of which they are most 

 thoroughly unacquainted. When and from what quarter the wind will blow ; when and why fish 

 will be abundant : why the schools are large at some times and small at others — are questions they 

 cannot answer. These are the facts which determine their success and upon which their observa- 

 tion is constantly directed, and unless the fisherman has the balance of mind w hich enables a man 

 of strength to hold Iris judgment in suspense, he is likely to assign a cause which, if realized in 

 his imagination, is almost certain to be a superstition. From these three causes, therefore — their 

 lack of intelligence and culture, their lack of contact with these, and their constant observation of 

 irregular facts — fishermen as a class arc extremely likely to be superstitious." 



Without further discussion as to the causes of superstition, we will consider some of the most 

 common and widespread superstitions — such as may be found on any fishing vessel, and such as 

 are always firmly believed in by many of the crew. We shall speak particularly of the supersti- 

 tions prevalent among the Gloucester fishermen. Among the fishermen of European birth, so 

 many of whom may be found on the whaling and other vessels on the coast of California, entire!. 



