HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 37 



had jumped into the sea. The only depressing influence 

 was the obstinate lightness of the wind, which caused our 

 progress to be miserably slow. Talking about Friday, we 

 were one day discussing the superstitions connected with it 

 among sailors, when Mr. Thompson, our builder, told us 

 that his father had once laid the keel of a large vessel and 

 launched and sailed on this unpropitious day, and yet she 

 was the luckiest vessel he ever built. Snow, however, 

 followed on the other side, and proved by his log that, 

 curiously enough, not only the sailing, but every mishap 

 from the dismasting to the burning of the unlucky schooner 

 in which he served, had happened on a Friday. So deeply 

 engrained is this superstition in sailors that Jack seems 

 positively unhappy if nothing occurs to justify it. Sensible 

 commanders accordingly, however much they ridicule the 

 prejudice or feel tempted to defy silly prognostications, 

 avoid, if possible, leaving port on this day in deference to 

 the men, for the simple reason that for a sailor to anticipate 

 disaster is almost equivalent to courting it. 



