Thursday June 3rd, 2021
Happy Birthday! Ginny Lanae, and John Michael!
(You know who you are).
So, I can’t but imagine how Harrison Odjegba Okene may have felt on June 3rd, 2013 having survived 60 hours in a sunken tugboat toilet, Jascon-4, that capsized on 26 May 2013 in heavy seas, while stabilizing an oil tanker filling at a Chevron platform about 20 miles off the Nigerian coast. https://gcaptain.com/stuck-in-a-shipwreck-jascon-4-cook-discusses-unlikely-survival/
The tug came to a rest upside down 98 ft below the surface. In total darkness, Okene felt his way into the engineer's toilet where he found a bubble of air sufficient to keep him alive. He pulled together a platform of a mattress and other materials to keep the upper part of his body above water, thereby reducing heat loss. Harrison was the fortunate one; as eleven others of the 12-man crew died.
Three days after the accident he was found by South African divers employed to investigate the scene and recover the bodies. Shocked to find anyone still alive; one of the divers heard him tapping against the hull, they fitted Okene with a diving helmet so he could breathe while being transferred into a closed diving bell for decompression from saturation, and returned to the surface.
I’ll bet he had a cold pint or three of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout the first thing, as not surprisingly Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is the No.1 beer in Nigeria according to this website: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Nigerian+beer.
And the healthiest too, the world over: https://twistedfood.co.uk/guinness-good-health-benefits-drink
I’ve predominantly drunk/drank Guinness stout since our trip to Ireland in 2003, maturing my taste buds away from the smooth, almost-black, much-advertised TV sitcom- ‘pint’ of Guinness Draught that everybody in the world is then thought to drink (and most do), into Guinness Extra Stout and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (if you can find it). Extra Stout, apparently, is the original Guinness stout first brewed in 1821. It is carbonated and does not share the thick creamy white head of the popular draft version; Extra Stout has a beige-colored head on it. The beers do not taste the same.
Should you ask for Guinness Extra Stout by name in a restaurant or pub, it’s likely the server (unless they’re well-educated in Guinness-ese) will bring you a Guinness Draught thinking that is what you wanted. But it is not. Extra Stout comes in a dark-brown glass bottle in 11.6 ounce and 22-ounce sizes (as far as I know) and not in kegs. It has become so popular in the Roseau Municipal Liquor Store, it’s hard to keep on-hand.
The last time I was in Boston, 2019, our party stopped at an Irish pub in Quincy soon after our arrival from ‘Minnesoter’ and, t’irsty’ as I was, ordered Extra Stout instead of Draught. They wouldn’t serve me as Guinness Draught was their mainstay. I choked it down, me body revoltin’; the next one reviving my memory of draught-days past and went down a tad easier than the first. Luckily Alex, my traveling companion that trip, and I found a liquor store down the street from our motel in Hull, that sold Guinness Extra Stout by the case and in 22-ounce bottles too! Hoo-rah! I bought just enough to see me through our stay that weekend, and not a drop more -- (except what I could stuff in a backpack for day-to-day survival.)
Either my taste buds changed in recent years (the past 10) or Guinness has changed the recipe a bit to appease the soft-mouthed sophisticates spoiled by the smooth taste of Draught, because I thought I discovered a subtle change in it. Sales of Extra Stout versus Draught must have plummeted in the US, and in order to save the market, maybe they tweaked it away from its true robust flavor, just sayin’. (Could be I’m just old too.)
However, I confess I have had to replace Extra Stout with Schmidt beer because of basic economics. Schmidt isn’t a bad beer, really. I know real beer drinkers allow for such grand expenditures under the heading of ‘groceries,’ but I could no longer justify buying filet mignon when New York Strip was far less than its price per pound and went down just as easily. I paid $7 more for twelve 11.6-ounce bottles of Extra Stout (or Draught, same price) than I paid for thirty 12-ounce cans of Schmidt. Alas, it just didn’t add up spending that kind of money every week, for something I was just ‘renting.’
I’ll bet Okene thought cold Schmidt tasted just as good as Extra Stout, after all the excitement of his miraculous rescue wore off and the heat of summer wore on.
An a-stout article that more than beerly created a desire to stop by with a Guinness for ye.
ReplyDeleteLOL. You win best reply, Mr. Cocoa Pops! ;)
DeleteOoooh, dat would be swell, eh.
ReplyDeleteThere's a writer's garret overlooking Glandore Harbour in Cork County. They serve Guinness downstairs. You can get inspiration there to write your novel, perhaps about a man who quits his job in the toy factory and starts hand making Red River carts.
ReplyDeleteI just have to ask: Exactly how did you manage/justify the tale of a sunken boat and morph it into most of the post on Sir G? Don't answer that.
ReplyDeleteSerendipity actually. I originally had this site in my May 27th Almanac folder as a possibility, as it occurred on May 26, 2013; I thought I could tie it in somehow, but did not. Looking at it again, seeing as it would be June 4th, I figured this guy would still be recovering from his brush-with-death 9 days later; you don't get over something like that in just a couple weeks and if he was me, a cold beer or two -- or three, yes -- would be celebratory every day for the rest of my blessed life.
DeleteCurious about what Nigeria's beers were called, I was astonished and ecstatic to learn that, yes, Nigeria's Number One beer -- according to that site -- was indeed my favorite beer, "Guinness Foreign (or otherwise) Extra Stout". Ask the wife, even she thought I had loosened a screw or two, when I bounded up the steps to tell her of my happy discovery.
So it worked, wondrously.