the strongest belief in the existence of
spirits; and all their stories and traditions tend to confirm this
superstition. How often have I known them huddled together in the
night, telling stories of feats of danger and desperation! a ghost or
spirit is generally brought into the history. Nothing suits these
daring set of men better than a solemn narrative of a supernatural
achievement, and a supernatural escape; but to be charming, it must
have a tinge of the horrible. _Shakespeare_ would have recognized some
of these men as his kindred, and they him as a relation. Good luck and
ill luck, lucky days and unlucky days, as well as lucky ships, attach
themselves strongly to a sailor's mind. A remarkable instance of this
we have in our ill-fated frigate _Chesapeake_. Ever since the British
ship, _Leopard_, fired into this American frigate, in a period of
profound peace, and caused her to strike her colors, and which led to
her being boarded; and her men to be mustered by compulsion, and some
of her crew taken and carried forcibly on board the Leopard, one of
which was afterwards hanged; after this deep wound on our country's
honor, this frigate was ever after viewed as _unlucky_, and shunned
accordingly.

In confirmation of this nautical curse, she met with a series of
disasters during the war, which were not attributed to ill management,
but to ill luck. Thus, one time she was coming up the harbor of
Boston, from a cruise, where she lost spar after spar, and topmast
after topmast; and when in full sight or the town, and not much wind,
over board went her fore-top-mast, and several men were drowned in
their fall from the rigging. This was not attributed to lack of
judgment, but to ill luck. When this ill-omened ship lay in Boston
harbor, previous to her last and fatal cruise, she could not get men;
and that from the impression on the minds of sailors, that _she was an
unlucky ship_. This operated to her final misfortune; for her crew was
made up of every thing that offered. Her captain was a stranger to his
crew, and to his officers; his first lieutenant lay at the point of
death when she sailed; her motley crew mutinied, on account of their
pay, before they weighed anchor; her brave, I had like to have said
rash commander, sailed out in a great hurry; her cables were not quite
stowed away, nor other things arranged in their places, when she bore
down on the cool and orderly Shannon; and to crown all, her intrepid
command