In break-bulk days (pre Container) U.S. Lines put the S.S. AMERICAN JURIST into Searsport, Maine to lift a cargo of potatoes in sacks to feed the post war German populace. With a considerable number of sacks to be handled manually, the Searsport stevedores rigged up a slide/chute with a counter to slide the sacks down into the hold. Upon arrival in Rotterdam it was noted there was a shortage of several bags on outturn. It was then that a ship's crewman remembered that he witnessed several Maine longshoremen sliding down the chute thereby counting themselves as sacks of potatoes. Mystery solved! So whether you like them baked, mashed or fried - they are just plain spuds.
tjs
(Above excerpted from Eagle Blue Vol. 2 No. 16 -January 29, 2007)
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