G J C Bois

Jersey Maritime Folklore (2nd edition) G J C Bois

The traditions of sailors and fishermen of Jersey, from those of the foreshore to those of the inshore fishermen and deep sea mariners. From the Middle Ages the island of Jersey has been heavily engaged in all aspects of maritime activity. Apart from its inshore activities and trading with England, France and other European neighbours, from the 16th century its fishing fleets were working the Grand Banks and in the following three centuries trading in all the major oceans of the world. This fostered shipbuilding and the island became one of the major shipbuilding centres in Europe during the age of sail. As with many of the island's activities, these were out of all proportion to its small size in a period of rapid growth, both in the Channel Islands and in Europe in general. The traditions of the deep sea were held in common with other mariners from elsewhere in Europe and other countries bordering the Atlantic, so this work focusses on the inshore and foreshore traditions, some of which may have been held in common with other maritime communities but others which may be unique to the islands or to Jersey. Some traditions, such as those concerning pork and pigs, may be the residue of much earlier pre-Christian beliefs, but many were concerned with practical matters. In particular the sayings relating to sea states, the states of the tide and the weather. Other traditions were simple superstitions concerned with avoiding misfortune, in a precarious relationship with a capricious partner, the sea. Included in this book are photographs from the end of the 19th century, when sail was giving away to steam, with radical consequences for shipbuilding and other maritime trades in the island. Many of those working on iron steamships had worked on the earlier wooden sailing ships and would have been familiar with the sailors' superstitions and customs. These photos set the mood for a time of change in the islands and for the progress from one era to another in maritime and social history, and they set the scene for the descriptions of beliefs of earlier generations of seamen, many of which were still current even into the first decades of the 20th century.