Springfield Globe Republic

The Sailors and the Hen.
Sailors are usually credited with a good deal of superstition. The following story from the Eastport Standard is a case in point. The steamer New Brunswick of the International line recently had a succession of hard voyages. Head winds and storms were encountered on the trips between St. John and Boston. She was due in Eastport on Friday, but did not reach that port until Sunday noon. The sailors and some of the officers at last concluded that there was a Jonah on board and began to look for the cause of the steamer's ill luck.
It seems that some time ago the steamer's freight included a coop of hens. During the passage, one of the hens got out and as the owner could not get her back into the coop without danger of letting others escape, he gave the hen to one of the deck hands, who kept her in a box on the main deck. There is a superstition among the sailors that if a hen is carried under a tub, head down, the vessel will encounter head winds as long as the hen is aboard. Concluding that a hen in a box was just as ill an omen as a hen in a tub, the crew began to mutter and the deck hand was compelled to put his hen ashore. Since that the steamer has had favorable weather and the crew are happy.--Boston Traveler