My traveling hats - Around the World in 98 Days

[Shanghailander]

Around the World in 98 Days

This time, after five days at home, I head for Philadelphia. I’m sailing on freighter, bound for Liverpool, and will be gone for 98 days. I’ll have autumn in England, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and spring and summer in Australia and New Zealand. I’m packing three pairs of pants and three hats.

There have been discussions about "if you could only take one hat..." This is an impossibility. My Panama would look ridiculous in London in November. On the other hand, the fedora will be too hot to wear to Bondi beach in Sydney in summer.

I will be hiking, touring, and have a few speaking engagements. No one hat will do, especially given the weather. So I have decided to take the travel Panama, for that ferocious Australian sun, and a midnight blue Biltmore Royal tear drop fedora. The third hat, which is for my 256 mile long hike through England’s Pennines, Cheviots, and Yorkshire Dales, is a visored cap with a puggaree. I could have stuffed a newsboy’s cap in as well, but as my luggage is well past 120 pounds (55 of which are copies of the book I have written) I had to draw the line somewhere.

My cabin is large enough to qualify as a suite on any of the cruise ships I have been on. Here’s a shot of the sleeping area of the cabin.

This is an actual working freighter, so there is no white gloved service in the dining room, no bingo or horseracing, no climbing wall or surfing pool, no Broadway style entertainment. Here’s a shot of us underway in the North Atlantic, showing the deck cargo.

With the advent of the container ship, the old, classic freighter, with cabins and superstructure amidships, and cranes on deck, is gone. Instead of carrying a crew of 120 or larger, and up to 30 or 40 passengers, we have a crew of 24. There is one other passenger apart from me. Now, we all know that if this was a 1930s movie, that other passenger would be a tall, attractive blonde woman, running away from some trouble or another, and at least one of the crew would be involved in some sort of sinister scheme. But with my luck, the other passenger is a middle aged guy just like myself. And as for the crew, they are quite a mix of nationalities, but are as friendly and as welcoming as one could hope them to be. Oh well – at least I will have plenty of time to catch up on my reading, and I can indulge in long chats with the captain about sea travel, navigation, and what it was like in the old days!

 

[Shanghailander]

My Traveling Hats - Belgium

We dock in the huge port of Antwerp, in Belgium, after a ten day North Atlantic crossing. Fortunately, no U-boats, though the lifeboat drill, in which we must climb into a boat tipped at 45 degrees, throwing your drysuit down ahead of you, was interesting.

In Belgium, I see a grand total of two hats. Both, coincidentally, rich brown fedoras. The first is worn by an elderly gentleman in a suit, on the train platform in Brussels. Since he is hauling a large suitcase, he could be a tourist like me. The second is a Belgian I meet at the exchange office.

I ask him about his hat, and he tells me that it is rare for Belgians to wear one. Then I find out his fedora was purchased at Walt Disney World in Paris, and is the "Indiana Jones" model. He tells me there is only one hat shop in the country that he knows of - in Brussels, run by some Turks, and the hats there are "very cheap."

Off to Liverpool next - it will be a two day trip by the freighter.

.

 

[Red Beard]

I'm getting a real kick out of these posts. It sounds like you're on a good old fashioned adventure. Have a good time out there!

 

[Aerol]

What a wonderful adventure!

I can't wait to read the next intallment.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

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I am also very impressed with this. Have a wonderful trip and fair weather. Check in often.

 

[Serial Hero]

Wow, a great couple of threads. This just makes me want to go down to the docks right now and catch the next tramp steamer up the coast.

Why did you choose cargo ship? Afraid to fly, or just trying to recreate the golden age of travel. Ether way, great photos and stories.

 

[Dinerman]

It looks like fun!

 

[geo]

Very interesting! How do you book passage on a freighter? I always wanted to cross the pond on a ship, but not on a cruise liner.

 

[jimmy the lid]

...

I'd be interested to know this, as well. Is there some sort of outfit that serves as a central clearing house for booking passage on freighters? This has always been a fantasy of mine, and the photos and travelogue are prodding me towards taking some action!

 

[Feraud]

What an interesting post and way to travel! Keep us updated on your trip. Include as many photos as you can.

 

[RBH]

Great fun !

Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

 

[Serial Hero]

Very interesting! How do you book passage on a freighter? I always wanted to cross the pond on a ship, but not on a cruise liner.

I just found this:
http://www.vagablogging.net/03-05/freighter-ship-travel-faq.html

 

[Shanghailander]

Well, I have just completed a 13 day, 286 mile hike through some of the most incredible terrain of England - some of it pretty inhospitable. And I have seen virtually no hats - not even those cloth newsboys you always see English farmers and country dwellers wearing.

Here is a shot of me with my modern Havelock the day I scaled Pen y Ghent - one of the only two days out of the 13 in which it was sunny.

I walked through wild moors, over mountains, along rivers, streams, and waterfalls, saw lots of wildlife and domestic animals, met a lot of people, got lost a few times, caught in a number of storms, took some falls, but generally had a good time and feel great about the physical accomplishment. This walk made my ascent of Kilimanjaro, when I was 15 years younger, look like a cake walk.

Of course there were storybook English villages, quaint country hotels, and pubs with real, hand pulled ales.

I am in Aberdeen, now, waiting for the overnight ferry to take me to the Shetland Islands, my next stop. Then it will be train travel throughout Britain for the next two weeks before going on to Hong Kong.

 

[Shanghailander]

Well, I lied - this farmer was wearing a hat, but it was not very English. Many farmers in my part of Pennsylvania wear the same design.

As for freighter travel, several agencies handle the bookings, though no one agency handles all the various lines.

Its a great way to travel if you like solitude or want to catch up on writing or reading.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Excellent stuff, Shanghailander. I would love to have that much time in the English country.

 

[John in Covina]

Super adventure!

Thanks for the posts and congradulations on the trip it should be filled with a lifetime of good memories!

With a little luck you should find some additions to your wardrobe along the way!

Best wishes and keep the entries and pix coming!:eusa_clap

 

[Shanghailander]

If you run the cord to the back instead of over the front, they don't look so strange. And they do work.

Amen! Today, I took the Highland Chieftain down from Aberdeen and got off at Carlisle. It was WINDY! Having learned my lesson my hat was secured before I left the train. Once I got out of the station, LOOK OUT! It was so blustery my hat was blown off three times - one time the button actually ripped out through my shirt buttonhole - fortunately after I had caught the hat.

The funniest episode was when a gust from behind blew it out in front of me. As the hat reached the end of the cord, it curved to the left and around the pedestrian walking on my left - the cord nearly garroted him!

Today, I saw two guys wearing hats - both Americans working in the offshore drilling industry in the North Sea. One, a Texan, was wearing some Tilley travel hat, the other - you guessed it - a baseball cap.

Hats, real or otherwise, are very rare here in the UK. Today, a woman on the street I met in a town about fifty miles away saw me and recognized me - I was, of course, wearing a Royal blue fedora both times.

Greg, currently in Carlisle, England.

PS I have been out of news contact for four weeks now. What is happening with the World Series?

 

[Canadave]

Edit Cardinals up 2-1 (over Tigers), game 4 rained out last night.
UPDATE: ...now up 3-1.

ST. LOUIS -- Patches of drizzle and warmer temperatures remain in the forecast for St. Louis all day Thursday until close to midnight local time, when a band of steady showers will likely roll through -- providing a seemingly optimistic window of opportunity to play Game 4 of the World Series at 8:27 ET tonight following Wednesday's rainout.

As expected, a light rain began to fall about at about 3 p.m. local time. It would appear that the worst weather would be in the interim between the conclusion of a game Thursday night and the start of Game 5 on Friday night.

"You're going to have drizzle most of the day off and on, a couple of spotty showers," said Scott Connell, meteorologist for local NBC affiliate KSDK-TV. "Tonight, you may just be having drizzle until midnight, and if they want to play in the drizzle, you're not going to know until later this afternoon.

"It might be like last night, except 10 to 12 degrees warmer. Then that whole band sets up tonight between 10 and midnight, and probably closer toward midnight, and it will be with us all day [Friday] until between 5 and 7, when the back edge of that should be moving out of St. Louis. There won't be a break [in the rain] during that time."

Major League Baseball officials called Wednesday night's game at around 10:30 p.m. ET, having waited a couple of hours in hopes that those rains would move through the area. The weather system stalled at that point, and it became only the 19th postponement due to rain in World Series history.

Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's vice president of baseball operations, said in making that announcement that the chances of playing Games 4 and 5 on Thursday and Friday would be "dicey," but there seems to be more hope today.

"That's our line of thinking, too, like [Wednesday] night but less wet -- I'm giving it better than even odds they'll get the game in," said Matt Chambers, meteorologist at CBS affiliate KMOV-TV. "We'll have serious rain in the morning and midday [Friday], but probably pushing to the Illinois side by 4 p.m. That new stadium can take an impressive amount of water. I feel good about [Friday] and OK about tonight."

As of now, if the games are played as scheduled in St. Louis these two days, there will be no travel day if the best-of-seven Series returns to Detroit for the games originally slated, if necessary, on Saturday and Sunday nights. The Cardinals hold a 2-1 lead, with Jeff Suppan of St. Louis scheduled to start against Detroit's Jeremy Bonderman.

"You don't care what the conditions are. It's the World Series," Cardinals outfielder Preston Wilson said after Wednesday's game was called off. "You'd play it if it was in a swimming pool right now. We want to play. And both teams have to play in the conditions, so it's not like one has an advantage over the other. You want to get out there and play. But as it is, we have to wait till [Thursday] and go from there."

Fans who had tickets to Thursday night's scheduled game at Busch Stadium will need to use those, and fans who had tickets to Wednesday's postponed Game 4 will use those for Game 5 on Friday night -- as long as rain does not interfere further.

The local meteorologists shared the same view that regardless of what happens Thursday night, baseball would not be in jeopardy here on Friday and Saturday nights.

Single-day postponements in World Series history

Date Postponed Teams/Site Game Reason

Oct. 5, 1903 BOS (AL) @ PIT 4 Rain
Oct. 9, 1903 BOS (AL) @ PIT 7 Cold
Oct. 12, 1903 PIT @ BOS (AL) 8 Rain
Sept. 4, 1918 BOS (AL) @ CHI (NL) 1 Rain
Oct. 14, 1925 WAS @ PIT 7 Rain
Oct. 4, 1931 STL (NL) @ PHI (AL) 3 Rain
Oct. 1, 1936 NYY @ NYG 2 Rain
Oct. 3, 1941 NYY @ BKN 3 Rain
Oct. 7, 1951 NYY @ NYG 4 Rain
Oct. 4, 1956 NYY @ BKN 2 Rain
Oct. 9, 1962 SF @ NYY 5 Rain
Oct. 10, 1971 PIT @ BAL 2 Rain
Oct. 17, 1972 CIN @ OAK 3 Rain
Oct. 20, 1976 CIN @ NYY 4 Rain
Oct. 9, 1979 PIT @ BAL 1 Rain
Oct. 27, 1981 LA @ NYY 6 Rain
Oct. 26, 1986 BOS @ NYM 7 Rain
Oct. 19, 1996 ATL @ NYY 1 Rain
Oct. 25, 2006 DET @ STL 4 Rain

"If the drizzle is bad enough tonight, even though it's not a heavy steady rain, if it's enough where they think it's borderline, call it early, because they know [Friday] night they'll get it in and Saturday will be a perfect night," Connell said.

It would seem to be a moot point now based on the almost certainty that at least Friday's game will be played -- and probably Thursday night's -- but Solomon said Wednesday night that if the games at Busch are delayed until the weekend, Commissioner Bud Selig has the discretion to use Monday as a travel day with the possible games in Detroit being pushed back to Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

"That decision still has to be made," Solomon said.

Major League Baseball has now required four rainouts this postseason, matching the total rainouts it had experienced previously since the 1995 expansion to a three-round format. The Cardinals had to deal with two rainouts in the National League Championship Series against the Mets -- Game 1 at Shea Stadium and Game 5 at Busch. The Tigers and Yankees were rained out of Game 2 in the American League Division Series in New York.

It was the first World Series postponement since Game 1 of the 1996 Series between the Yankees and Braves at Yankee Stadium.

The last long rain delay in the World Series was 1975, when Game 6 of the Red Sox-Reds Series was postponed for three days in Boston. That turned out to be the game Carlton Fisk won with a homer down the left-field line at Fenway Park in the bottom of the 12th inning to force Game 7. The Red Sox, of course, lost the Series.

Game 6 of the 1962 Fall Classic between the Yankees and Giants at San Francisco was also delayed three days. And Game 4 of the 1911 World Series between the New York Giants and Philadelphia A's at Philadelphia was delayed a whopping six days.


Multiple-day postponements in World Series
1911: NYG at PHI (AL) -- Game 4
Postponed six days (Oct. 18-23) due to rain
1962: NYY vs. SF -- Game 6
Postponed three days (Oct.12-14) due to rain
1975: CIN vs. BOS -- Game 6
Postponed three days (Oct. 18-20) due to rain
1989: OAK vs. SF -- Game 3
Postponed 10 days due to an earthquake
2001: NYY vs. ARI -- Start of Series
Pushed back one week (to Oct. 27) due to postponements after Sept. 11th attacks.

The 1962 Series, which also included a Game 5 rainout at Yankee Stadium, took 13 days to play as the Yankees defeated the Giants in seven games.

On Wednesday night, it took one hour and 52 minutes before MLB called off the game.

"We didn't have a definite time to do it, but it became apparent the front was not going to move through," Solomon said. "We anticipated the front going through earlier, as early as 8 p.m. [CT]. It was clear, with no rain behind it. So we waited. Then it was 8:30, then it was 8:45 and then it was 9. It stalled in front of us. There was no magic time to it, but after a while, it became apparent we couldn't get started."

Previously, 18 World Series games had been rained out since 1903, but only three since 1981, when Game 6 of that World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers was also washed out at Yankee Stadium. Those last three World Series postponements were all in New York, including Game 7 of the 1986 Series between the Red Sox and Mets at Shea Stadium.

No World Series game has ever been shortened because of rain.

"There's a real touchy situation where neither the Commissioner of Baseball, nor the Cardinals, nor the Tigers, want to see a shortened World Series game," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "And I respect the [heck] out of [the Commissioner] for that. I don't want to play for six months to go to the World Series and have it decided in five innings. Neither does [Cards manager] Tony La Russa. And most importantly, neither does the Commissioner."

Mark Newman is enterprise editor for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

David

 

[Shanghailander]

The Shetland Islands

Virtually no hats here. The captain of a small boat, who takes me around to the sea cliffs in the south of the island, wears a fisherman’s hat, but there is nothing about it which marks it as Scottish or from the Shetlands – I think these same caps are seen on Greek fishermen in the Mediterranean. I must cut an odd sight as I walk around Lerwick, the main town, in my fedora. [060122 UK P1010063]

These cliffs are home to thousands of sea birds, but now, in the fall, only a few thousand remain. [P1010054]

 

[Shanghailander]

York
From Shetland, I head south by ferry to Aberdeen, then take the Highland Chieftain to Carlisle (where my wind cord saves my fedora three times in as many minutes) and on to York, a medieval walled city in the north of England. In the museum there, I listen to a talk about Victorian ratcatchers, men who used to go to farms and catch rats, being paid by the number they caught. They used traps, ferrets (rats are deathly afraid of ferrets, I was told) and terriers, as well as traps, to catch them. This fellow is wearing a hat typical of a northern country agricultural worker. It is not a hat specific to rat catchers, but more of an everyday beater which used to be worn by agricultural laborers before the Second World War. [P1010105]