SUPERSTITION OF THE SEA

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 184, 21 August 1937, Page 15

SUPERSTITION OF THE SEA

The folldwing advertisemeit appeared in the Morning Post for August 21, 1779* "To t^ie gentlemen of the Navy, and ofchers going long voyages to sea. To be disposed of, a child's caui. Enquire at the Bartlet Buildings Coffee HonSe in Holborn. 2ST.B. To avold unnecessUry trouble, the price is twenty gulneas.,, To those who, like Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., "stick close to their desks and never go to*sea," this advertisement may seem a little surprising* but it is based on a wellknown snperstition of the sea, which wa* explained .by Dr. C. J. S. Thomp-sc-n. A caul is the thin membrane occa1 sk>naHy found covering the head of a baby at birth, and, probably because of its rarity, it is traditionally snpposed to bting good luck. There was an old saying, "Born with a caul, no 3risfortune befall." Cauls were highly valned, and even venerated, at the time of the Boman Empire, and Boman tuidwives are said to have mado no eernple of robbing a baby of its^caul

and selling it to a Iawyer for a higb price. The lawyer would wear the caul ovc-r his chest, in the ilrm belief that, by so doing, he would become mere oloquent and more successful in his ccses. One of the most interesting superstitions associated with the caul is its reputed power of preserving th^ person who carried it from death by drowning, fftfd it was once believed that the pvesence of a caul on board a vessel was sufficient to avert disaster. This aceounts for the advertisement in the Morning Post, quoted • above. Dr. Thompson also said that, at the time of th9- „"*jbmarine menace to merchant shippfefg during the War, cauls were again in demand, and were eagerly sought for by sailors in the regidns of the London docks. "Some were adveitised in the papers, and prices ranged from £15 to £20, but whether they really did bring safety and good luck to their new owners we shall never know."