Captain Basil Hall recounts an incident of 'whistling for a wind' in his 'Fragments of Voyages & Travels'. Serving onboard the Endymion in 1810, the frigate sighted a strange brig and a chase started, which continued through the night and into the next morning, with the brig slowly pulling away; at this point Hall states that the ships company started to 'whistle for a wind' -
"......one might also have thought that the ship was planted in a grove of trees, in the height of spring time, so numerous were the whistlers. This practice of whistling for a wind is one of our nautical superstitions, which, however groundless and absurd, fastens insensibly on the strongest minded sailors at such times. Indeed I have seen many an anxious officer's mouth take the piping form, and have even heard sounds escape from lips which would have vehemently disclaimed all belief in the efficacy of such incantation.
But it would be about as wise a project to reason with the gales themselves, as to attempt convincing Jack that as the wind bloweth only when and where it listeth, his invoking it can be of no sort of use one way or the other. He will whistle on, I have no doubt, in all time to come when he wants a breeze, in spite of the march of intellect...."
It seemed to work - during the afternoon the "trace of a breeze" was felt, upon which "...the whistlers redoubled their efforts". Hall continues - " ..whether the wind, if left alone, would have come just as soon I do not venture to pronouce; but certain it is that, long before sunset our hearts were rejoiced by the sight of those flying patches of wind, scattered over the calm surface of the sea, and called by seamen cats-paws....one by one the sails were filled".
The chase, incidentally, continued for a long time before they finally overhauled the brig, which proved to be a privateer from St Malo.
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