Controlling the weather

Recently I was reading a ship’s log of a ship of the Dutch East India Company and found a remarkable little story. Mind you, especially seafarers in those days were usually very superstitious people. The log described in some detail the damage done to the ship, sails and rigging by a storm that lasted already for over a week. And then this little sentence that said: After deliberations it was decided to dump the clergyman overboard and indeed soon after that the weather immediately improved…

5 Likes

only those that read considerable volumes of ‘uncensored’ history would realize how precarious life was (is) in times gone by.

on a related note; do you realize the last ‘official’ sighting (logged) of the flying dutchman was 1957 i think?

If the dude had kept his mouth shut instead of saying “Repent, repent you sinners…” he may have survived the storm.

2 Likes

A Jonah is a long-established expression among sailors, meaning a person (either a sailor or a passenger) who is bad luck, which is based on the Biblical prophet Jonah. Superstition dictates that Clergymen are considered bad luck, as they are all of Jonah’s ilk. Redheads and women are also to be avoided as well as passengers!

Redheads are worth the trouble.

So the story goes. Wild…

Whistling is bad luck, it brings wind.
But if you were becalmed in a sailboat it could help to scratch the mast and whistle to bring wind.

Song dedicated to our beloved redheads.