Friday, August 18, 2017

Ex-Harvard Neurobiologist who Champions Unsung and Forgotten Black explorer Dies at 73



Ah Mateys', as thou salt mist fills the air, Nope! This AIN'T racing related per sei...

Dagg Nabit! Just cannot stop Thyself! Especially when I've got more important matters to  attend, like swabbing thou proverbial Decks...

Yet carrying on in my current Seafaring theme, whilst simply unable to type fast enough, especially since my nucelz' keep getting in the way; Hya! Another rogue wave's sent me another message in a bottle.

As I'm sitting on various Seafaring  Yarns here in Nofendersville, which all seem connected, having begun the year by listening to a fantastico book about the ill fated USS Jeanette trapped in the Polar Ice. during the race to discover the North Pole by Sea

As the Jeanette's mission was backed by Publishing Tycoon James Gordon Bennett,  Jr. Yeah, that Bennett, as in the Gordon Bennett Cup races!

As who'd Ah Thunk It! That Messer Bennett would have preceded Jay PISSENBOOTZ' Penske's antics by over a century in New York, leading to his permanently moving abroad No less!

Not to mention a nebulous Lusitania connection, whilst learning of another famous person who died aboard the infamous Titanic, courtesy of 'Ol Fathead Jay Leno, when piloting his Mercer Raceabout to tie-in with his driving Scotty the "Iceman" (2.0) Dixon's Indy Car sled at Phoenix International Raceway.

Yet instead, this is about the unheard of Harvard neurobiologist and explorer S. Allen Counter, who I've only learned about after his passing at the relatively young age of 73. As he sounds like he was a truly fascinating & inspiring person!

Dr. Samuel  Allen Counter, Jr., who grew up in the segregated city of Boynton Beach, Florida, who'd been fascinated with the mystery Black explorer Matthew A. Henson, ultimately set about restoring Henson's rightful place in history, Dovetailing with his work in Greenland, studying the Inuit's hearing losses, and ultimately leading to  discovering the descendants of Henson' and Peary's.

Having subsequently recounted his adventures in his 1991 book titled North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo, which sounds quite interesting.

As I'm presuming the name of fabled North Pole explorer
Robert E. Peary and his 1909 Arctic expedition to the top 'O the world's known, but who, including Thyself has ever heard of Matthew A. Henson?

And while History recognized Peary for then discovering the North Pole, albeit by land, not sea, it was actually Henson who got there some 45mins ahead of the esteemed Peary, for which Henson described in his 1912 memoir, 'A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, noting how Peary rebuffed his attempted hand shake culminating their momentous achievement...