takes place, the night of October 21, 1904.  Also referred to as the "Incident of Hull" or "The Russian Outrage," the Russian Fleet mistakes several British fishing boats for Japanese Imperial Navy submarines at Dogger Bank and fires on them.  Three British sailors die and a number are wounded.  There is nearly war between Britain and Russia but the situation is defused through diplomatic channels.  Later a memorial statue is erected in Hull honoring the fallen sailors.

     Dogger Bank, outlined in red.  From the Dutch, "dogge" for fishing boat, the area is a large sandbank in the North Sea about 100 kilometers off the English (Yorkshire) coast.

My grandfather was born in Yorkshire and raised in housing for the poor on Bunker Hill, Withernsea, overlooking Hull and the Dogger Bank, until he was sixteen and had the money to emigrate.  Scavenging on the beach along the shore (? See comment) in Hull after a storm was a favorite sport, shipwrecks being a common occurrence and source of income in the area, but it was not enough to satisfy an ambitious young man, and my grandfather decided to take his chances in America where he founded a trucking company (commencing of course with horses and wagons before his men unionized and became Teamsters), and did a brisk trade in moving and hauling War Memorials at the beginning.

My grandfather's mother (my great grandmother) DINAH, was a Methodist who preached The Good Word in the fields and the factories (now you know where ADAM BEDE comes from), and it was the Good Word of working hard and trusting God and my grandfather did and came to America.  

I grew up on Lake Erie, as you know, the shallowest and least great of the Great Lakes, in many respects.  Shallow, so that storms come up more quickly and thus there are more shipwrecks.  Like the Dogger Bank.  You run aground, you can't get going again.  But we don't give up, we don't stop.  Work hard, trust God, never stop.  I need you to keep going so I will.  I'll get out of bed if you will.  In fact, I'm only up because I assume that you already are, and I don't want you to think I'm sluffing off, or I'm some slacker, or not trying hard enough. 

But listen: I'm not as smart as you and I don't know as many words as you or as many good jokes, but I'm trying.  I'm dancing as hard as I can.