Coffee...
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Sprinkman
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I was in PA a while back and visited the Strasburg Railroad Museum. They had coffees that were served on the rails back in the day. Bought one, Reading Company / New Jersey Central Coffee, it was blahh. The one i really liked was from the Pennslvania Railroad.
I drink my coffee black and like it strong, this was good stuff.
I drink my coffee black and like it strong, this was good stuff.
Spent a number of years in distribution dept. of a large chemical plant, at least a third of that time was on the barge docks. When a tow of 5to 6 barges came in, we worked shifts around the clock for up to 48 hours transferring hazardous materials to/from said barges. You could always get a cup of coffee in the galley 24 hours/day. The crews on these boats were almost all cajuns and their coffee was memorable. Having spent some time at Ft Polk, La., it didn't take long to re-develop my taste for chicory coffee. Unfortunately my Dr. limits my coffee intake today, but still like a black cup when nobody's lookin.
Really humorous, but rather long story about tug boats and coffee, but to fully appreciate the tale, you need a description of the difference between a river tugboat and an intercoastal tug boat.
Our barge traffic traversed the semi-unsheltered water of the Intercoastal canal and could experience a bit of rough water. At one point in time, we could not sign enough boats to handle the traffic and the company contracted a Mississipy tugboat named the Margaret Lewis. The river boats differed from our normal boats in that the wheelhouse is mounted on a tall hydraulic lift similar to a service station single post lift with access only by an outside stairway. The wheelhouse on both type boats are probably the height of two story building above water level; three stories from galley or engine room to wheelhouse.
Access to the wheelhouse on our usual boats is either an exterior fixed stairway on either side or you can come up interior stairs during rough weather and are full width of the boat; about 25' square. The wheelhouse on the ML was about 8' square. Another difference is the wheelhouse of the normal boats have a large leather like couch directly behind the wheel where the crew can come up and enjoy a cup of coffee and the elevated view during idle time en-route. The Margaret Lewis wheelhouse had no seating at all and it was really crowded if a 2nd person entered.
On the first trip down, the skipper of the ML complained that the rough water of the bays caused he wheelhouse to sway back and forth so badly that it almost made him seasick. They welded an angle iron framework to steady it up, since there were no low bridges, so no need for the hydraulics.
Now for the coffee! The captain of the Margaret Lewis came in one day to get his spotting instructions and was cursing a blue streak. Every other word was the name of one of his deck hands. It seems that this deck hand wanted to spend a lot of time crammed into the very cramped wheelhouse jabbering in the captain's ear ad nauseam. It was a particularly cold, rainy trip and after a couple of hours of chatter, to get a brief spell of silence, he sent the deck hand to the galley to bring him a cup of coffee about 0300; wind was blowing a gale and it was raining steadily when the door opened and the deck hand handed the captain his coffee. The captain was impressed, took a sip of hot coffee, and asked deck hand how in the world he managed to bring that very full cup of coffee up three decks, the last one via an outside staircase, without spilling a drop. The answer (in my best cajun imitation) was, "Well cap, dat wuz easy. At de bottom of de stairs, I jus took a big mout full and when I got to de top, I jes put it back."
Really humorous, but rather long story about tug boats and coffee, but to fully appreciate the tale, you need a description of the difference between a river tugboat and an intercoastal tug boat.
Our barge traffic traversed the semi-unsheltered water of the Intercoastal canal and could experience a bit of rough water. At one point in time, we could not sign enough boats to handle the traffic and the company contracted a Mississipy tugboat named the Margaret Lewis. The river boats differed from our normal boats in that the wheelhouse is mounted on a tall hydraulic lift similar to a service station single post lift with access only by an outside stairway. The wheelhouse on both type boats are probably the height of two story building above water level; three stories from galley or engine room to wheelhouse.
Access to the wheelhouse on our usual boats is either an exterior fixed stairway on either side or you can come up interior stairs during rough weather and are full width of the boat; about 25' square. The wheelhouse on the ML was about 8' square. Another difference is the wheelhouse of the normal boats have a large leather like couch directly behind the wheel where the crew can come up and enjoy a cup of coffee and the elevated view during idle time en-route. The Margaret Lewis wheelhouse had no seating at all and it was really crowded if a 2nd person entered.
On the first trip down, the skipper of the ML complained that the rough water of the bays caused he wheelhouse to sway back and forth so badly that it almost made him seasick. They welded an angle iron framework to steady it up, since there were no low bridges, so no need for the hydraulics.
Now for the coffee! The captain of the Margaret Lewis came in one day to get his spotting instructions and was cursing a blue streak. Every other word was the name of one of his deck hands. It seems that this deck hand wanted to spend a lot of time crammed into the very cramped wheelhouse jabbering in the captain's ear ad nauseam. It was a particularly cold, rainy trip and after a couple of hours of chatter, to get a brief spell of silence, he sent the deck hand to the galley to bring him a cup of coffee about 0300; wind was blowing a gale and it was raining steadily when the door opened and the deck hand handed the captain his coffee. The captain was impressed, took a sip of hot coffee, and asked deck hand how in the world he managed to bring that very full cup of coffee up three decks, the last one via an outside staircase, without spilling a drop. The answer (in my best cajun imitation) was, "Well cap, dat wuz easy. At de bottom of de stairs, I jus took a big mout full and when I got to de top, I jes put it back."