Sailors' superstitions: Difference between revisions

The origins of many of these superstitions are based in the inherent risks of sailing, and [[luck]], either good or bad, as well as portents and [[omen]]s that would be given associative meaning in relation to the life of a mariner, sailor, fisherman, or a crew in general. Even in the 21st century, "fishers and related fishing workers" in the U.S. have the second-most dangerous occupation, trailing only [[lumberjack|loggers]].<ref name=Dangerous>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/4326676/dangerous-jobs-america |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |title=The Most Dangerous Jobs in America |first=David|last=Johnson |date=May 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519135125/http://time.com/4326676/dangerous-jobs-america/ |url-status=live |archive-date=May 19, 2016 |access-date=2016-05-23}}</ref>

The [[albatross]] as a superstitious relic is referenced in [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s well-known 18981798 poem ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]''. It is considered very unlucky to kill an albatross; in Coleridge's poem, the narrator killed the bird and his fellow sailors eventually force him to wear the dead bird around his neck.

[[File:20000 squid holding sailor.jpg|thumb|right|132px|An illustration from the original 1870 edition of ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaSeas]]'' by author [[Jules Verne]].]]

[[Davy Jones' Locker|Davy Jones]] is a popular character in sailor's lore, especially of the gothic fictional variety. [[Davy Jones' Locker]] is an [[idiom]] for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors. It is used as a [[euphemism]] for death or burial at sea (to be ''sent to Davy Jones' Locker'').<ref>{{cite web|title=Davy Jones's Locker |work=Bartleby.com |publisher=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. |date=2000-01-01 |url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/29/D0042900.html |access-date=2006-07-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506031727/http://www.bartleby.com/61/29/D0042900.html |archive-date=May 6, 2006 }}</ref> The origins of the name are unclear, and many theories have been put forth, including an actual David Jones, who was a [[pirate]] on the Indian Ocean in the 1630s;<ref>{{cite book| last = Rogoziński| first = Jan| location = Hertfordshire |publisher=Wordsworth Reference| title = The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates| isbn = 1-85326-384-2| date = 1997-01-01| url = https://archive.org/details/wordsworthdictio00rogo}}</ref> a pub owner who kidnapped sailors and then dumped them onto any passing ship;<ref name="courant">{{cite web | last = Dunne | first = Susan | title = Davy Jones Legacy | work = The Hartford Courant | date = 2006-07-07 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/1073312401.html?dids=1073312401:1073312401&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+7%2C+2006&author=SUSAN+DUNNE%3BCourant+Staff+Writer&pub=Hartford+Courant&edition=&startpage=D.1&desc=DAVY+JONES%27+LEGACY+%3B+FROM+DEFOE+TO+DEPP%2C+NAUTICAL+LEGEND+STILL+SCARY+AFTER+280+YEARS%3B+PIRATES+OF+THE+CARIBBEAN | accessarchive-dateurl = https://archive.today/20130131145852/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/1073312401.html?dids=1073312401:1073312401&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+7,+2006&author=SUSAN+DUNNE;Courant+Staff+Writer&pub=Hartford+Courant&edition=&startpage=D.1&desc=DAVY+JONES'+LEGACY+;+FROM+DEFOE+TO+DEPP,+NAUTICAL+LEGEND+STILL+SCARY+AFTER+280+YEARS;+PIRATES+OF+THE+CARIBBEAN | url-09-30status }}{{Dead= dead link| archive-date =November 2023January |bot=InternetArchiveBot31, 2013 |fix access-attempteddate =yes 2006-09-30 }}</ref> the incompetent [[Duffer Jones]], a notoriously [[myopic]] sailor who often found himself over-board;<ref name="jones">{{cite book | last = Shay | first =Frank | title = A Sailor's Treasury |publisher= Norton |id = ASIN B0007DNHZ0}}</ref> or that Davy Jones is another name for [[Satan]];<ref name="courant"/> or "Devil Jonah", the biblical [[Jonah]] who became the "evil angel" of all sailors, who would identify more with the beset-upon ship-mates of Jonah than with the unfortunate man himself. Upon death, a wicked sailor's body supposedly went to Davy Jones' locker (a chest, as lockers were back then), but a pious sailor's soul went to [[Fiddler's Green]].<ref name="courant"/> This nautical superstition was popularized in the 19th century.<ref name="fable">{{cite web| last = Brewer| first = E. Cobham| title = Davy Jones's Locker.| work = Dictionary of Phrase and Fable| date = 1898-01-01| url = http://www.bartleby.com/81/4705.html| access-date = 2006-04-30| archive-date = 2006-05-06| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060506132744/http://www.bartleby.com/81/4705.html| url-status = live}}</ref>

Bairbre Ní Fhloinn critiques this line of thought concluding it to be reductionist and insulting to the intelligence of fishermen; however, she does admit it may be a factor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ní Fhloinn|first=Bairbre|title=Cold Iron aspects of the Occupational Lore of Irish Fishermen|publisher=UCD|year=2018|isbn=978-0-9565628-7-6|pages=237–238}}</ref> {{cn span |text=Sailors are well aware of the inherent risks of sailing, and even in the 21st Century, "fishers and related fishing workers" in the U.S. have the second most dangerous occupation.<ref |datename=AprilDangerous 2024}}/>