Hello class. You may recall that last week we studied islands: Pine Island, Wolf Island, Brandt Island and Goodspeed Island. Real or imagined, they are all familiar places in our community. I also mentioned a few streets of note. Today’s lesson will take a deeper dive into the streets of Mattapoisett.

            Sorry folks, but once a teacher, always a teacher.

            Since that column, I have been thinking a lot about streets in general and here in particular. One doesn’t think much about streets unless yours is not plowed in the winter, or they can cost you an arm and a leg to repair your car after an encounter with a pothole, but streets are very interesting. They may be called roads, lanes, paths, avenues, boulevards, highways, byways, arteries, ways, parkways, freeways, thoroughfares, rows, terraces and so on.

            They all have names. Main Street is a common name. There seems to be one in every town. According to the U.S. Census, there are almost 11,000 Main Streets in the U.S.A. We have one. Alas, it is not the most popular street name in the country. Park Street is and we have three of those – a Lane, a Place and a Street. Main Street is tied with First Street for the second-most-popular name. We have one of those also. It is off Hollywood Road near Second and Third Streets just off Avenue A. Got all that?

            The shortest street in the country is McKinley Street in Bellefontaine, Indiana. It’s just 30 feet long. By the way, the longest street is Colfax Avenue in Denver. It has been called “the longest, wickedest street in America.” They must have stolen that designation from Boston’s Washington Street, which starts in the city and goes to the Rhode Island line. It’s wicked long. In fact, there are six distinct Washington Streets in the city of Boston. Lord help any first responder on an emergency call.

            First responders back here at home must be on the ball too. A perusal of Mattapoisett’s list of streets reveals some interesting facts. Did you know there are eight streets with the name Bay in them? Bay Road, not to be confused with Bayview Avenue, Bay Shore Drive, Bayberry Lane and three Bay View Avenues – Cd, Ms, and Bd (whatever those letters mean), and just plain Bay Street.

            There is a Beach Street and a Beach Road. Not to be confused with Beech Tree Lane or Beech Wood Road. Back to the islands: There is Brandt Island Road, Brandt Island Avenue, Brandt Island Shores, and Island View Avenue.

            Tree names are popular. Perhaps you live on Cedar Point Avenue, Cedar Street, Cedar Road, or Cedarcrest Avenue. There are three Highland Avenues – Pc, Bb and a Highland View. Confused yet? I am! Hope your GPS is working if you were to come home late one night and turn onto Field Street instead of Fieldstone Drive or Fieldcrest Lane.

            There must be a lot of holly in town because there is Holly Lane, Holly Hollow Lane, Holly Street, and Holly Wood Road, which is not the aforementioned Hollywood Road.

            I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the four Oaklands: the Street, the Terrace, the Way and the Avenue. Plus, the Pines … Pine Island Road, Pine Ridge Lane, Pine Road and Pine Street.

            And, of course, the famous Pigwackett Lane. There is only one of those.

            Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.

Thoughts on…

By Dick Morgado

            Brad Hathaway isn’t taking any more donations of stamps, thank you, but the longtime Mattapoisett activist remains eager to keep his Quaker Missions going.

            Hathaway was recently recognized as one of the recipients of an annual award from the American Philatelic Society, the national gold standard of stamp collectors.

            “I can’t go to Ohio because of my health,” he said, referring to the APS event that will recognize Luff Award recipients, but he will go to Rhode Island next month where a stamp club involved in his longtime cause will honor him.

            Established in the memory of former APS president John N. Luff, the Luff Award has since 1940 been the most prestigious award that the American Philatelic Society can bestow upon living philatelists. Hathaway was highlighted with other Luff Award recipients in the July issue of American Philatelist, the world’s longest continuously published philatelic magazine.

            Nearly an 80-year philatelist with life memberships in both the American Philatelic Society and the Hawaiian Philatelic Society and 30 years in the New Bedford Stamp Collectors Club, Hathaway launched his effort to use his stamp-collecting pastime as a vehicle for philanthropy in 1997.

            “I did it through my (Quaker) meeting in Mattapoisett. It was beautiful because they allowed me to just take over, make all the decisions,” he recalled.

            Minus red tape, Hathaway was able to streamline decisions and put together a program that raised and distributed $105,000 for causes such as third-world countries and Native Americans for voluntary service that aids stamp collecting and collectors.

            “Some of it went right here in town,” he said, noting a member of his Quaker church that needed assistance. “We paid her taxes one year with it.”

            Hathaway’s involvement in stamp collecting saw him serve on the SEAPEX committees formed by New Bedford and Cape Cod-based clubs and the committee for the initial issue of the Moby Dick stamped envelope in New Bedford.

            Upon his 1997 retirement as a local newspaper columnist, Hathaway launched Quaker Missions, collecting mostly used stamps from Quakers worldwide and also from an Arizona-based prisoner looking to help the cause. Assisted by local volunteers from other faiths, Hathaway prepared stamp packets and sold them for $7.

            The Interchurch Council of Greater New Bedford presented Hathaway with its Sydney Adams Award “for distinguished service in ecumenical ministry.” Several times in the waning years, the bulk of sales were transferred to Quakers, first in California and then in Indiana, where it continues to this day.

            The family wants to be very clear that the project has ended. Hathaway continues to receive stamp donations that he has to find a way to discard. He had a sale scheduled and had to cancel because he was in the hospital.

            The limitations of Parkinson’s disease and a recent diagnosis of kidney failure requiring dialysis have thrown roadblocks in Hathaway’s path, but they have not changed his attitude toward giving. In the face of these challenges, he remains optimistic, even jovial in his laughter at the calamity inside and around him.

            Pointing to piles and piles of stamps in his house, Hathaway says, “this is getting ready for the sale, this is how far I got.”

            The extensive collection represents donations including but not limited to that of a New York-based company focused in a particular part of a collection and donated the rest, some to Hathaway’s cause and another portion to a Rhode Island-based stamp club where Hathaway’s cousin is a member and has held auctions of Hathaway’s collection.

            “That money would go to me, which in the beginning would go to Quaker Missions, now still active – they’re still going to be selling but this time for the (Mattapoisett) Land Trust,” he explained.

            The remaining stamps will yet be sold to fund the Mattapoisett Land Trust scholarship that exists in memory of his wife Priscilla. Hathaway says $15,000 has been raised toward the annual scholarship.

            The scholarship, which is not payable until after the first semester of college, was awarded for the first time this year in the amount of $1,000 to 2023 Old Rochester Regional High School graduate Jed Dupree, who won two Gold Key awards at the state level and planned to attend Mass College of Art this fall.

            As a founder of the Land Trust with Priscilla, Hathaway is determined to attend next April’s 50th anniversary of the land-protection organization.

            Oh, and in between his medical appointments, Hathaway is still walking. He isn’t planning another 25,000-mile journey around the globe, but determination fuels his continued walk to help those living on it.

By Mick Colageo

            Novice sailor Cal Currier’s victorious solo trek from Marion across the Atlantic Ocean last summer was always going to have a sequel challenge, a sail this summer across the Mediterranean Sea from Portugal to Greece.

            Last month, the grandson of veteran sailor Bill Saltonstall experienced his greatest adventure on that sequel trip with his father, James Currier, aboard.

            Docked over the winter in Lagos, Portugal, following the celebrated, month-long, 2022 voyage from Marion, Argo, the Tartan-brand, 30-foot sailboat that Cal had bought for $12,000 from 90-year-old Sandy Van Zandt in Noank, Connecticut, departed for Athens.

            This time he had his father James Currier, an experienced sailor, with him.

            On the fourth day of the journey, “a lovely day” according to James, it had just turned dark at 10:40 pm local time. “We were in a bad spot,” he said, calling it the “worst spot since leaving Marion” due to 12 to 18 knots wind on shore.

            “Everyone suggested we stay close to shore to avoid the Orcas,” he said of the whales known to attack boat rudders.

            Tides were racing one way and winds the other, resulting in confused wave patterns. With an onshore breeze, the Curriers turned on the motor to give Argo a little more boost and started steering by hand.

            “We just wanted to be in control,” said James, noting it had started to drizzle. “I happened to have the tiller in my hand, which is really rare.”

            Having gotten some water and dirt in the engine, the fuel filters needed changing so the crew left engine running while listening and all the while, trying to get a wave from Gibraltar Point.

            “The tiller hit me in the stomach,” said James, who looked back wondering if he was dragging a line. “Cal stood up and he said, ‘It’s the Orcas.’ There were some serious waves, and it was dark. We had studied up on the Orcas and were prepared.”

            The advice in this time of crisis in strange waters and seven to eight hours from the next daylight was to try to get an English-speaking voice on the radio and at the same time, turned off the engine, take down the sails and “become as uninteresting as possible.”

            Argo was following a catamaran 40 minutes ahead on a VHF signal.

            They were advised to pack some dirt or sand and throw it into the water to ward off the whales.

            Cal’s brother Wesley, age 19, was aboard and throwing dirt into the water from the side of Argo, which as a Tartan 30 is 30 to 60 inches above the water line. A head came up, 3 to 5 feet from Wesley’s nose.

            “There appeared to be two to three of them that were hitting our rudder. They didn’t touch the propeller and they didn’t touch the windvane. They knew what they were doing, they only hit the rudder,” said James.

            Contacts came on the radio after seven minutes, and since Argo hadn’t been hit in two minutes, the crew put the sails back up. A look below would reveal that the metal of the tiller of the rudder was all bent.

            Wesley was hanging off the back end to look at the damage but would not have been able to fix it. A salvage boat was sent 80 minutes later, and between midnight and 2:00 am local time, Argo was towed to safety.

            “Had the Orcas hit the boat a couple more times, they could have broken the rudder – could have had a situation where water was coming in,” said James.

            Two French sailors in a smaller Zodiac boat reported a whale attack at 10:00, and Argo was attacked at 10:45. There were two to four more hours to wait on the weather before wind would have driven boat to Trafalgar Point.

            When they arrived, they saw a line of boats in the Barbate marina, and half of them had lost their rudders to Orcas. A morning dive to check the extent of the damage revealed that the metal of the rudder had been bent to starboard (right) side, other parts bent port (left) side.

            James said the Barbate marina had no airport, nor a bus stop, it only exists to service boats before they go into the Strait of Gibraltar.

            Having only spent $19,000 on Argo ($12,000 to buy it and $7,000 to prepare it for the cross-Atlantic journey), the $5,000 to $7,000 price tag for a new custom rudder was a bit much.

            The Curriers cut their losses and sold Argo in Barbate for $500 U.S.

            Despite the many redundancies built into Cal’s cross-Atlantic trip last summer, he did need one very strange connection to solve a problem when out at sea by himself. As he was in the Azores and needed to use Argo’s motor, the boat got louder and the noise concerned Cal to the point he texted his father, who happened to be in Newfoundland enjoying dinner at a wedding.

            “At that moment, van Zandt butt-dialed Bill (Saltonstall) … got on Bill’s phone. (van Zandt explained) ‘that’s just the mid-bearing between the engine and the stuffing box, pack white grease …’ I texted Cal … five minutes later, that worked.”

            For that successful journey across the Atlantic, Cal was recognized with awards from the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) of England with the Jester Award for doing great things offshore in small boats and from the Cruising Club of America (CCA) with the Young Voyagers Award at the New York Yacht Club in March.

            A competitive high school volleyball player in Palo Alto, California, Cal in the splendid case of irony decided upon these adventures to take up sailing as a second high school sport.

By Mick Colageo