nourishing obscurity

In the light of the history of the Costa Concordia, two of my favourite stories are:

Ghosts of the Great Lakes

• The Great Lakes are not without their ghost ships either. In September of 1678, the Griffon left Lake Michigan’s Green Bay… and vanished. Yet in following years, several sailors claimed to have seen the Griffon afloat on the lake.

• The famed Edmund Fitzgerald, an ore freighter which sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975 losing all 26 of its crew, was sighted by a commercial vessel 10 years later.

• A recreational diver exploring the depths of Lake Superior in 1988 came upon the wreckage of the steamer Emperor. Swimming inside the old wreck, the diver swears he saw the ghost of a crewman lying on a bunk who turned and looked at him.

Faces in the Water

James Courtney and Michael Meehan, crew members of the S.S. Watertown, were cleaning a cargo tank of the oil tanker as it sailed toward the Panama Canal from New York City in December of 1924. Through a freak accident, the two men were overcome by gas fumes and killed.  

As was the custom of the time, the sailors were buried at sea. But this was not the last the remaining crew members were to see of their unfortunate shipmates. The next day, and for several days thereafter, the phantom-like faces of the sailors were seen in the water following the ship.

This tale might be easy to dismiss as maritime legend if it weren’t for the photographic evidence. When the ship’s captain, Keith Tracy, reported the strange events to his employers, the Cities Service Company, they suggested he try to photograph the eerie faces – which he did.

And no focus on the sea would be complete without a look at the words of wisdom superstitions of the sea.  Here are some of them again:

# Jury’s out on the efficacy of the black cat onboarad. 

#  A ring around the moon is often thought to portend approaching rains, while a rising moon during a storm means the skies will soon clear. If a partial moon is tipped downward, rain is also on the way, with the reverse suggesting fair weather ahead.

#  Pouring wine on the deck will bring good luck on a long voyage.

#  Respect the albatross, beware the petrel.

#  Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailors’ warning.

#  Never leave port on a Friday – leave on a Sunday.

#  What the sea wants, the sea shall have.

#  You should never rename a boat.

#  Priests, flowers or women on the ship do not augur well unless it is a half-naked woman of wood on the prow.

#  Carry no bananas on board.

#  Never start a voyage on the first Monday in April.

# Avoid people with red hair when going to the ship to begin a journey.

#  Don’t start a voyage on the second Monday in August.

#  Starting a cruise on Dec. 31 is bad.

Sailors do tend to follow these or at least are uneasy when they don’t, including yours truly.  While I’d go under a ladder out of sheer defiance, I wouldn’t defy the sea – it would seem foolhardiness so to do.

Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport