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IN THE KNOW FOR for OCT/NOV 2021
When an 11-Year-Old Went Whaling in the Early 1900s THE AMAZING STORY I HEARD FROM A SENIOR CAPTAIN IN 1965
I’ve shared quite a few stories from all throughout my career as a Merchant Mariner, but before my career had really begun, I was a student at the Maritime College of Fort Schuyler in 1965. Luckily, we didn’t spend all our time in one building. Alongside the academy, there was a pier where the school’s training ship was docked. Each summer, the entire cadet core would transition from classroom training and would move on board for a live experience of operating and navigating the 600-foot ship named the Empire State IV. (We called it “The Gray Whale” since it was painted gray.) Early on, I heard about an “Old Seadog” named Captain Pete Olsen who lived full time on the ship. He was in his late 70s and was tattooed from head to toe. He told us his personal life stories that made you feel like you were right there with him. The routine manner in which cadets met him was from the demerits they received, which were turned in to Captain Olson to work off. He would happily assign these “poor souls” laborious work assignments to work off their demerits. I met Captain Olsen in a slightly unconventional way. During my second semester of school, I was training to become a signalman to replace the senior signalman in the academy. To do so, I had to understand Morse code and alphabetical flag signals, being trained directly under the last signalman. One day, we saw Captain Olsen, at a distance, and the senior cadet signalman said to me, “That old man is a wealth of knowledge and has a long history of nautical expertise for one to learn. One of many stories you have to have him tell you is about his experience as an 11-year-old on board a whaling ship”. Not long after that, I was working on the signaling equipment in the forward storage area. Captain Olsen surprised me and handed me waxed sail twine and said, “Let me show you how to do repairs on these flags and ropes.” I hoped this would be a good time to hear his account of what it was like as a very young man on a whaling ship.
Having posed that question, Captain Olsen responded, speaking in his Norwegian accent. “Many years ago, as an 11-year-old, I went to sea on a whaling ship that traveled the icy, frigid waters of the North Atlantic where they hunted whales. I served as a cabin boy and stood by to do whatever the captain needed. Hunting wales is not done by the large mothership, but rather by the sailors in the smaller boats that get lowered off the mother ship to head out and chase the great mammals. Each boat consisted of six to seven sailors whose job was to harpoon these monsters and bring them back to the mothership for processing.” He went on to say, “Imagine how dangerous this work was! Many of these ships never returned home, and when they did, often fewer crew members returned.” Looking me straight in the face, he went on to say, “Cadet Orton,” then with a long sigh, he continued, “I remember the ships crews and boats being launched from mothership after the sailor in the crow’s nest had sighted whales. Off they went into the dark, grey seas and the chase was on! Before long, the wind picked up, and the waves got higher and steeper as the hunter boats disappeared over the horizon into what was now an ice-filled sea. After several hours, as the weather continued to deteriorate, three of the boats seen on the horizon were struggling to get back, leaving one noticeably gone. We “Early on, I heard about an ‘Old Seadog’ named Captain Pete Olsen who lived full time on the ship. He was in his late 70s and was tattooed from head to toe. He told us his personal life stories that made you feel like you were right there with him.”
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managed to hoist the three boats back on the ship and experienced a long night of very harsh, bitter cold, stormy weather set in.
“By mid-morning, the whaleship captain ordered the three boats back out in hope of finding the lost boat. Over the horizon they went searching through the ice and icebergs to find what they saw in a distance to be the fourth boat overturned on an iceberg. They headed directly to that location to find that the boat had been pulled up by the crew and the oarsman to create a shelter to protect them from the previous night’s harsh storm. “Now, the weather again started to turn, and all four boats were now out of view from the mothership. Knowing they would not get back to the mothership, they began to turn the other three boats to use as shelter and protection. For two long days, all four boats were marooned on the iceberg well beyond the distance of the mothership. Finally, the weather began to subside, and they all returned the to the mothership successfully.” At that point, he was done with his story. I sat there mesmerized; in my mind, having sailed in those boats, being overturned on an iceberg, knowing the kind of men these guys were was quite overwhelming. I looked at the wrinkles on his face and looked at his tattoos and thought the senior cadet signalman really made an understatement about this man to me. Eventually, I had my own artic adventures and stories to tell. In the spirit of the holiday and winter season, I’ll tell you about mine the next time, and it’s not about Santa Clause!
–Captain Lance
What Type of Softener Do I Need? Talk to Us if You Have Hard Water
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re already using our filtration systems, but when friends ask you about your fancy water over the holidays, you might want this handy guide to help explain your choice to them. Hard water is characterized by its concentration of hard minerals, like iron, and contaminants. Now why wouldn’t you want iron in your water? While iron may be important for your diet, it’ll wear down your home’s pipe system and cause all kinds of other issues, like the following:
Water softeners work to remove iron, calcium, magnesium, and other metal ions from hard water. Softener systems have a tank containing thousands of tiny resin beads that hold electrically charged ions that are full of sodium from the water softener salt. The beads weaken the chemical bonds of the minerals in the hard water by attracting the metal ions from the water. As the water passes through the system, the metal ions are replaced with sodium ions. The system’s regeneration cycle will wash out the calcium and other metal ions from the beads. The water softener that is best for you really depends on which one works best for your hard water situation. How much metal is found in your water test will determine how hard your water is. You’ll also want to factor in the size of your house and how much water you and your family use.
From there, our experts can help you determine which type of water softener you need.
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Dry, itchy skin and other skin problems
For more information on water softener systems, call the expert diagnosticians and water problems solvers at Watercure USA. We offer free water testing and over 30 years of experience working with water softeners in the Buffalo area. Don’t be shy — give us a call today!
Soaps not lathering well
Laundry not coming as clean as it should Mineral deposit buildup on fixtures and appliances that use water Difficulty heating or cooling your water
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LANCE: 716-912-9939
DREW: 716-946-3598
NAUTICAL PHRASES YOU DON’T HEAR ANYMORE
Oktoberfest Soft Pretzels Inspired by Tasty.co
We love sharing Captain Lance’s stories about sailing, but if you really want to travel back in time, try out one of these old sailor sayings! Try These Out at Your Next Holiday Party! ‘THE SUN IS OVER THE YARDARM.’ This phrase essentially means, “It’s time for the first drink of the day.” The yardarm refers to the spar on a mast from which sails are set. It’s one of the highest points of a traditional square-rigged sailboat. Once the sun rose past the yardarm, the captain often allowed his sailors and officers to have their first drink of the day. Because voyages would last over months, they wouldn’t drink water, but watered-down beer or ale. ‘BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA …’ When you’re “between a rock and a hard place,” you’re probably faced with two difficult and unappealing choices. But when you’re “between the devil and the deep blue sea,” you’re faced with two dangerous choices. The “devil” is also the seam between the deck planking and the top plank of the ship’s side. Since it was required to be watertight, it needed filling regularly, which required sailors to stand on the very edge of the deck or even suspended over the side. That’s certainly a dangerous place to be! ‘CUT AND RUN!’ Some people say that this getaway phrase came from the ships making a hasty departure by cutting the anchor rope and running with the wind. ‘LET’S GET UNDERWAY.’ You’ve got us — this one is still used today, but you probably didn’t know it was a nautical saying first! The “under” is likely to have meant “on the,” and the “way” is the forward progress of the ship, so it actually means “on their way.” ‘I’M ON MY BEAM ENDS.’ “On your beam ends” means “toughen up” or “in a bad situation.” The beams were the horizontal timbers of a boat, so if the ends of those beams were touching the water, you were in imminent danger of capsizing. The meaning depends on who’s saying the phrase to whom. If someone tells you to get on your beam ends, it means to harden yourself. If you say you’re on your beam ends, it means you’re in a bad situation.
Ingredients • 1 1/2 cups warm water • 1 tbsp salt • 1 tbsp sugar • 1 packet active dry yeast
• 4 1/2 cups flour • 3 tbsp oil, divided • 2/3 cup baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten • Coarse salt, for sprinkling
Directions
1. In a bowl, combine water, salt, and sugar. Add yeast and let rest for 5 minutes. Add flour and 2 tbsp oil, then mix thoroughly into a dough. 2. Remove the dough from the bowl. Coat bowl with remaining oil, then return the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside in a warm place for 1 hour. 3. Preheat oven to 450 F. 4. Cut dough into 8 pieces. Roll them into thin ropes, then twist ropes into pretzel shapes. 5. In a large pot, boil water. Add baking soda, then boil each pretzel for 1 minute, flipping halfway through. 6. Transfer pretzels to a baking sheet. Brush them with egg and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 10–15 minutes. Enjoy!
Quote of the Month
“Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.” C. S. Lewis
We hope you loved learning about these like we did! But if someone gets tired of your sailor lingo at Thanksgiving, we hope we didn’t put you between the devil and the deep blue sea.
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INSIDE This Issue
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A Story of Whaling in the Early 1900s as an 11-Year-Old
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How Do I Know If I Need Soft Water?
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Awesome Sailor Phrases Nearly Lost to Time Oktoberfest Soft Pretzels
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Corn Mazes Date Back to Ancient Greece?
A HISTORICAL LOOK AT THIS WACKY FALL TRADITION Corn Mazes Date Back to Ancient Greece?
Exploring a corn maze is a great way to get outside and enjoy the fall season with friends and family — but who came up with the idea of wandering around a corn field for fun? As it turns out, outdoor mazes are an ancient tradition, and the American corn maze of the ‘90s sprouted from the mazes of 17th-century European gardens. Don’t believe it? Here’s a quick tour of corn maze history.
This story isn’t the first recorded example of a maze or labyrinth — according to the World History encyclopedia, “[L]abyrinths and labyrinthine symbols have been dated to the Neolithic Age in regions as diverse as modern-day Turkey, Ireland, Greece, and India, among others” — but it’s perhaps the most famous ancient tale. If you’ve ever navigated a Halloween corn maze staffed by ghouls and ghosts, you can see the parallels! GARDEN ART TO GET LOST IN Mazes formed from bushes began popping up European gardens in the 17th century. They were a popular artistic feature of upper-class gardens in England, more for looking at than solving. One famous example is the half-mile-long Hampton Maze, which was planted in 1690 and still stands today. THE CORN MAZE: AN AMERICAN INVENTION Garden mazes eventually hopped the pond to America but didn’t become interactive puzzles until Don Frantz, Creative Director of the American Maze Company, came on the scene. In 1993, Frantz created the “first ever cornfield maze for private and public entertainment” to attract college kids in Pennsylvania. Today, every small-town corn maze is a descendant of his “Amazing Maize Maze.” To learn more about that wacky history, visit AmericanMaze.com.
THE MINOTAUR AND THE MAZE Have you heard of Theseus
and the Minotaur? This ancient Greek legend tells the story of the hero Theseus, who ventured into an elaborate maze to kill the half-man, half- bull imprisoned there. The monstrous Minotaur was known to eat heroes, and the labyrinth was known to trap them, but Theseus managed to slay
the Minotaur and find his way home with the help of a string that he unspooled as he walked.
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DREW: 716-946-3598
LANCE: 716-912-9939
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