Cold.
Peredelkino, outside of Moscow
It’s c-o-l-d!
All the
cold weather we’ve been having in New England has caused me to think back when
I was really cold…. and Russia
These guys were very athletic, and
good at cross-country, and we flew across the fields like greased
lightning. One guy carried a flask of
pepper vodka in his backpack, and when we’d stop, he’d offer everyone a
swig.
Fortunately, the outing did not
include any exotic Soviet female spies, a la Bond, nor even any of the grungy
kind of real KGB agents who usually
tailed us.
But I remember
it being really COLD.
I was assigned as Naval Attaché in Moscow USSR
Most of our trips consisted of
catching the midnight train from Leningrad Station en route Leningrad (now St. Petersburg
Our job was to observe as much as
possible of the construction of new warships at the many shipyards in and
around Leningrad Neva River
Some of the time, we would park our
Niva and get out and walk, often in heavy snow, to get the best look at a
particular intelligence target.
The KGB knew when we had filed to
travel to Leningrad
Usually our routine included a walk
along Lieutenant Schmidt’s Embankment of the Neva , where we could see a lot of ships tied up all along
the embankment. The
KGB assigned a crew of “goons” to keep an eye on us there. The head goon was a fellow we called
“Fats.” He had followed
generations of western attachés.
Slogging in that snow along Schmidt’s
Bank was a cold exercise.
Sometimes we would be driving to view
various shipyards, and stop for a lunch break at Harry’s Pie Shop. Its real name, in typical Soviet fashion,
was probably “Lunch Shop No. 237” or such. Harry’s was a place that turned out
really greasy pirozhki, little pastries,
stuffed with shredded cabbage or meat. And
if it were meat, you didn’t want to know any more about the meat. They served these little pies with
glasses of hot tea, loaded with sugar. Or,
you could walk outside the shop and find a little man with a portable tank,
selling kvass or beer. Kvass
is a lightly-fermented drink made from stale bread. The beer was watery and fairly tasteless. If you decided to buy a glass of kvass
or beer, it would set you back about ten cents U.S.
So, out of the cold we would come, to
stand at the high tables in Harry’s, and eat a couple of pastries and drink
sugary tea. Then, back we
would go to the snowy world of Leningrad
Russians wear marvelous fur hats,
which are quite comfortable in cold weather. However, there is an ethic that they
observe: Real men don’t put
the flaps down until it is “Minus
dvadsat gradusov” or –20° C.,
which equates to –4° F. Russians say that only drunks and students put the
flaps down in warmer temperatures.
And now we
live on Cape Ann in Massachusetts
.Winter swimmer in the Neva
USS Sablefish
Submarines. Life
in a diesel submarine on patrol could be very cold. We were
assigned to patrol a barrier up off Iceland
We would
patrol at best sonar listening depth—maybe 150 feet—for several hours, and
then, when it was dark, we’d come to periscope depth, and if the coast was
clear, we’d put up our snorkel and light off our diesel engines and charge the
batteries.
In the North Atlantic it
is usually pretty rough, so the snorkel valve would open and shut as the waves
hit it. If the valve would
stay shut for a minute or so, the engine, which required a lot of air to
operate, would suck the air out of the submarine, and particularly out of your
ears, until it got to such a vacuum that it would shut down the
engines. (That may explain why I wear hearing aids today. That and the
guns.)
Difficulty charging meant that we tried to
economize on that battery. In addition to proceeding at about three knots,
we kept the heaters on only the bare minimum, and we didn’t use water except to
drink. It was really cold
in that boat. No showers,
no shaving.
Soon it would come time to surface,
and we’d race up to the bridge and set the watch. In those waters, the heavy waves were
usually crashing over the bridge, so you wore full immersion suits, and you
strapped yourself on to your station so a wave wouldn’t wash you
overboard. There were just
two lookouts and the officer of the deck up there, and it could be cold, and
wet.
We made a long snorkel transit one
time during the winter, from waters off Iceland to Massachusetts Bay .
It was near zero degrees F. when we surfaced and motored on the surface toward Salem , MA
We’d been at sea for a couple of
months, and since we were entering port the next day, and we’d eaten all the
potatoes stored in the officers’ shower, we could take showers. Even though the
shower was only 30 seconds long, it was hot and wonderful!
[Portions of the foregoing were originally
published in my Blog of May 9th, 2011.]
Now, the Personal Navigator has books and papers to offer:
Seamen's and
Boatmen's Manual, The; Original and Revised by J.K. Davis, Chaplain, Troy , N.Y. New
York , NY 58 Canal Street
Household, The; Weekly Supplement to the
Detroit Free Press, 1882--Bound volume for the
whole year of 1882, 52 issues 1882 Detroit , MI Southern Plantation tale about Aunt Polly. Whose fingers
were prone to stick to things that she fancied. Her mistress thought Aunt Polly
had secreted some newly made sausage in a special place, but alas, it was a
long black snake! Interesting letter
from a "Cherokee" from Indian Territory . Recipe for Mashed Salt Cod from Oleta
in Sacramento , Cal.
Oyster Pie from Mrs. S.M.C. in English, Ind. "Hellespont" in Michigan Bismarck ,
Dakota Territory sends recipe for Cracknels
and Irish Cabbage. "Hums" in Tombstone , Arizona Albany
Travel Diary
of Mrs. Harry Worcester, 1954 handwritten by Worcester, Mrs. Harry
1954. West Swanzey, NH: ephemera 28 pp. 10 x 16 cm. Leather "Travels Abroad" Diary: Mrs. Harry Worcester
records trip she and husband took from Keene, NH to NYC, thence from Idlewild
Airport via KLM Lockheed Constellation first to Gander, Nfld, then to London,
then to Brighton by train; Banquet at Strand Hotel; met Mayor Dudley; back to
London, tour, then by train to York, touring, visit The Shambles, on to
Edinburgh; touring Scotland, then to Glasgow and steamer to Belfast, N.
Ireland; train to Dublin; Dun Laoghaire then steamer to Holyhead, and train
for Caernarvon, Wales;
Criccieth to Bristol, then London; flight to Chaumont, France; Harry visited
places where he trained during World War I; Neuf Chateau, Verdun; Paris,
Chalons-sur-Marne; sleeper train to Basel, CH, then Lucerne, Zurich, then
another sleeper for Calais; rough crossing to Folkestone, then to London;
flight home on KLM Connie to Shannon, Gander and Idlewild. Green leather Travel Diary (only 28
pages of entries) with unused pencil in loop, very good. (7644) $30.00.
Travel/Ephemera
Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net
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