The Thermostat thread got me thinking about a book by a U.S. Naval
salvage officer assigned to Massawa harbor in Eritrea during WWII. This
was during the hot season, when, prior to the British capturing it, the
port had typically been closed down. Our American decided that, in
order to accomplish his salvage tasks, they'd continue working....
Evidently it never gets cold in Massawa. He'd already salvaged a
scuttled Italian built dry dock, and one day he was checking the air
temperature using a thermometer his wife had sent him. He recorded a
temperature approximately 6 feet above the bottom of the dock of 149
degrees (the temperature of the steel dock floor was 163 degrees), and
Massawa has, according to the author, the highest humidity year round of
anywhere on the globe.
Anyway, with temperatures like that, he reported that while pumping out
a scuttled German ship, they were trying to keep the engines running the
pumps from overheating. Deciding that any restriction was too much,
they "pulled out the thermostats and tossed them into the Red Sea".
I guess that's the exception that proves the rule. I think I'll keep my
thermostat in, thank you. :-)
Best Regards
David Sosna
|