Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-02-21
New York Paper Tells Wonderful
Yarn Of Capt. Hanson Gregory.
Former Rockland, Me-, Man and
Once Commander Of the Schooner
Hardscrabble.


hearing, but when he caught the word
"doughnut" he laughed and nodded.
That's me- said he.
Invented Holes Only.
The Cap'n does not claim to have
invented the recipe for doughnuts.
His invention was the hole. On the
assumption that the name is based
primarily upon the shape Of the deli
cacy the Cap'n should be celebrated
in verse and prose. AS for the name
"doughnut'' itself, not even Capt.
Gregory could help us out. He does
not know the derivation, any more
than Noah Webster or any Of the
other photographers.
It's older than I am" was his
first statement, made without reflec-
ton but on second thought, he was
not sure that he had heard that term
in his boyhood
Il wouldn't say but what they called
them fried cakes" said he.
! On the distinction between dough-
nuts and crullers, however, he was
emphatic.
1.-The doughnut is round. with a
hole, and the cruller is long" he stat
ed with finality.
And the man who has fried dough-
nuts off and on all the way from
Rockland, Me-, to New York, and back
again, trip after trip, ought to know.
"Cruller," although it comes from
old Dutch and Anglo-Saxon, he re-
CARDS as a new-fangled term.
Called Them Twisters.
MY mother used to make them Of
long thin strips of dough, doubled
over and twisted" he explained, land
when l was a boy we used to call 'em
twisters. l noticed that they were apt
to soak fat. and that the doughnuts,
which in those days were cut square
or diamond shapes. did not cook in the
middle. You couldn't get them done
inside without scorching the outside,
SO l tried cutting them out with a
biscuit cutter, and making hole IN
the center The idea spread like wild
/ fire. The captains wife used to fry
doughnuts sometimes on our trips. but
after she ate mine she wouldn't make
any more.
when l got home told my mother
hole and sent them around to the
| neighbors. People all around began to
make them that way. One of my
friends told me l ought to get out a
cutter with a ring inside for the hole,
and have it patented; but I didn't
know anything about patents, and
never thought of such thing"
| For the Cap'n was only a boy at that
time. Master of ship at 10, he
served his apprenticeship before the
mast and in the galley. He first went
to sea when only 10. on the Ivan
hoe" which ran between Rockland
Me-. and New York. Important as his
career of ships cook was. it was a
brief one, and before he was through
with the 'Ivanhoe." he had been sail
or cook, mate and captain.
| Capt Gregory was born at Camden
Me-. Nov 20, 1881. After leaving the
Ivanhoe, he became master of a
schooner called the "Hardscrabble, =
which was built for him, and which
he commanded for six and one-half
years.
Schooner HardscrabbIe.
"You know Camden" he inquired
| ''Well, do you know the power house
between Camden and Rockland, not
far from Glencove. as they call il
now?-it was Clam Cove in my day.
was born in house right near there
on the road that leads to Blackington'
Point. There was a hill called Hard
scrabble hill, and 1 named the schoon-
err after it. She ran between New
York and Richmond, Va.
There's just one thing I'd like to
tell you about Richmond" he broke
off, you've heard Of Libby Prison
that was famous in the Civil War:
Well, Libby was man l knew as
we'll as ever knew anyone. He oo-
flee and store, and the prison took its
name from him, as it never should
have done. I had thousands and
thousands Of dollars worth Of bust
ness with him. and he was fine man
His name ought never to be connected
with any prison"
The cap'n was more concerned over
this injustice to his associate than he
was over the shipwreck in which he
and a crew of q came near losing
their lives. After many voyages to
the British Isles and South America
in the bark Helion, he became master
Of the Donati, which sprang a leal;
while rounding Cape Horn. and went
down. The crew was rescued by the
Commodore, out of Boston. and taken
to California, when the captain made
his way back east, and he became
master Of the Cephas Starrett of
Rochland, Of which he was part own
er. In 1867 he left the sea to go into
business
Memory Recipe.
The cap'n makes no more dough-
nuts. but he remembers the recipe.
1--WE got it here" he said, when
asked for the recipe, tapping his fore
head. but you'd better try it before
you tell 1t to anybody else, it's been so
long since I used it,
In my day we used to make 'em
with molasses, because sugar was not
so plentiful as it is today. 1 read
something in the paper the other day
what I should think would be a good
idea. You know doughnuts are apt
to soak fat, and this is said to take
them when they're first done, right
NJ AkAn <1