The Jonah

[Red_Dawn]

I was recently clued in to the concept of the Jonah in my quest to figure out why an otherwise non-evil crew would dump their shipmate John on the first available island*. Apparently, the Jonah is a sailor who gets blamed for every unlucky thing that happens on board that can't be explained by human error. I'd like to know more about this concept as it was in the Golden Age.

What could get someone accused of being a Jonah? Was it a common sailor belief? How much would a Jonah's fate depend on whether he was on a RN, merchant, or pirate ship? What more can you guys tell me about the Jonah? Were they even called the Jonah back then? If it helps, John's meloncholic and unpopular.

Thanks!

* No, it's not a marooning; it's closer to a "he goes or we mutiny" situation.

[Mission]

You know, I don't believe I have never seen reference to this in any of the period sailor's accounts I've read. The only place I can recall seeing it was in Master and Commander.

[Red_Dawn]

Somehow, I'm not surprised. Prior to now, I'd only seen the term on a Civil War re-enactor's and he was re-enacting a soldier. I only know of the Master and Commander connection because I googled Jonah+sailor last night.

Still, is it assuming too much to guess that there might've been a similar concept of a sailor whose presense is associated with the ship's bad luck? "The weather's been bad, we b. near died from a case of ship fever, the captain had his #&& bitten by a manatee, and all of this happened after John joined the crew! He's cursed, I tell you!"

[Dutchman]

oh geez, i ran across this years ago and it was a different name but same concept. It was very prominent during the witchcraft era and new england ships were notorious for this practice. Common curses were sometimes blamed on a poor sailors family misfortunes. His wife lost a child, he is cursed because his wife is a witch or something along those lines. This poor sailor was blamed for such things as halyards parting, food or water spoiling, another sailor loosing his best rigging knife over when the Jonah walks by, being calmed etc.... just common misfortunes rather than witchcraft or curses. I hope this helps some

[Mission]

I'm not saying it didn't exist, only that I don't recall reading about it in any of the period Journals I've read. For a list of such, you can check my Zotero Library.

[Tartan Jack]

In case anyone doesn't catch the reference look up "The Book of Jonah" and the events preceding the whale/fish.

[Red_Dawn]

Thanks, guys!

I'm not saying it didn't exist, only that I don't recall reading about it in any of the period Journals I've read.

Sorry about that; I misunderstood your post.

oh geez, i ran across this years ago and it was a different name but same concept. It was very prominent during the witchcraft era and new england ships were notorious for this practice. Common curses were sometimes blamed on a poor sailors family misfortunes. His wife lost a child, he is cursed because his wife is a witch or something along those lines. This poor sailor was blamed for such things as halyards parting, food or water spoiling, another sailor loosing his best rigging knife over when the Jonah walks by, being calmed etc.... just common misfortunes rather than witchcraft or curses.

Sort of a human bad-luck charm. Good reason for John to keep his mouth shut about his angsty past, too.

[Gunpowder Gertie]

It seems to me that it was mentioned in the novel Moby Dick.

[Fox]

The OED offers these examples of pre-GAoP Jonahs:

1612 T. Lavender Trav. Certaine Englishmen Pref. to Rdr. C j, [He] thought it best to make a Ionas of him, and so cast both him and his books into the Sea.

1663 J. Spencer Disc. Prodigies (1665) 369 They were always presumed the Jonas's which raised all the storms in the State.

1679 Established Test 9 One of the Jonahs that was‥ heaved over the Decks to allay the Tempest.

Though I must agree with Mission that I can't recall ever reading of a GAoP era outcast 'Jonah' of the kind you describe.

[John Maddox Roberts]

This concept was used in the novel "The Sand Pebbles." Granted it took place on the Yangtse River Patrol in the 1920s, the concept goes back a ways. The character Jake Holman (played by Steve McQueen in the movie)boards the boat and soon things start going wrong. The sailors conclude he's a Jonah. So: New crewman boards a ship where life was previously uneventful, bad things start to happen, and the new guy gets blamed for it, He's a Jonah. Understandable sailors' superstition, plus it has Biblical precedent.

[Red_Dawn]

The OED offers these examples of pre-GAoP Jonahs:

1612 T. Lavender Trav. Certaine Englishmen Pref. to Rdr. C j, [He] thought it best to make a Ionas of him, and so cast both him and his books into the Sea.

1663 J. Spencer Disc. Prodigies (1665) 369 They were always presumed the Jonas's which raised all the storms in the State.

1679 Established Test 9 One of the Jonahs that was‥ heaved over the Decks to allay the Tempest.

Now I know why a non-evil crew would abandon someone on an island; because the evil alternative is to toss him overboard during a storm! D:

Though I must agree with Mission that I can't recall ever reading of a GAoP era outcast 'Jonah' of the kind you describe.

Sorry, I'll clarify was I said. I wasn't thinking the Jonah would automatically be the outcast so much as the unpopular guy would be more likely to be considered the Jonah than the well-liked guy.

[Daniel]

Just happened across a possible example of the Jonah superstition. While in the hands of Cocklyn's gentlemen of fortune at Sierra Leone, William Snelgrave encountered a pirate named Ambrose Curtis, who said that Snelgrave's father 11 years before had "used him severely for being an unlucky boy." This is in Stephens' Captured by Pirates, p. 122. It wouldn't make much sense to abuse a boy merely for having bad luck himself, so that would suggest that by "unlucky" Snelgrave's father meant that he brought bad luck to others.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

The Indian Captivity of O.M. Spencer gives a good account of a suspected Jonah on the Great Lakes ca. 1790s. It's on Google books, I thought I had saved it but couldn't find it. I'll try to post a link later, gotta get back to the forge while the weather is cooler.

Here is the book, Jonah reference on p. 153

http://books.google.com/books?id=w2ZJAAAAIAAJ&q=jonah+aboard#v=onepage&q=jonah%20aboard&f=false

Bo

Edited June 21, 2011 by Capt. Bo of the WTF co.

[Tartan Jack]

The concept is present both before and after. Plus, sailors were probably more Biblically "literate" (to us a bad phrase) than many are today. They would have instantly understood the allusion, whether they had known it or not. What we don't know of is a specific IN-period reference.

They couldn't say the chapter, verse, and possibly not even the book. But, even the illiterate knew the stories better than most people today.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Tartan Jack