“In our blessed and enlighten century the most things were achieved by a smoking man”
Mikhailo Lomonosov
“How many great people have kept calm, sense of mission and pursuit of ambition – all those qualities very important for a human being… by using tobacco”
John B. Campbell
“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times”
Mark Twain
OLD PIPE
Please don’t think that I’m preaching smoking. The society is fighting this habit, and with the certain share of success. Especially, here and now in America, a native land for tobacco and smoking.
Personally, I don’t smoke for a long time, since I entered the land of a New World, besides, the smell of a tobacco smoke is very unpleasant to my palate. But I used to smoke. I had 18 pipes. All of them are kept at my daughter’s house. I switched into pipe smoking in my mature age, before that I smoked cigarettes. And I started smoking relatively late, after WWII. The fact is that while on the ships the smoking was allowed in a specially equipped place – usually on an aft, in the open air and obeying this rule was strictly enforced. The only exception was “alert status one” and only for those whose quarters were on the open deck and during daylight: seaman gunners, torpedo men, and signal-men. As soon as the loud fight bells start announcing general quarter, I flew over four deck stages into the ship’s conning control tower putting my helmet on while running and tucking my sailor hat over the belt, after that I closed all the windows with armor protection and positioned myself behind the steer wheel. In the control tower nobody ever smoked. Apparently, that’s why I smoked my first cigarette on the V-day. According to the naval tradition, those who didn’t smoke were getting chocolate and since I was a “kiddo” it was perfectly OK with me. And according to the same tradition, only cigarettes were distributed on the navy ships. Strictly rustic tobacco was distributed only at shore battle units and in the Army. For safety, no roll-up cigarettes were allowed, especially the more so, even under a mild air blow from the rustic tobacco roll-ups whirl of sparks were outpouring. Upon my discharge from the Navy and unlike some of my shipmates I didn’t become a heavy smoker. Bound by my professional duty, I had an access to good quality cigarettes and I pipe smoking was absent from my mind. For whatever reason, the image a seaman in people’s mind is inseparable from a pipe in his mouth, especially, an image of a captain.
Let me assure you that this is not so. As historians proclaim even pirates didn’t smoke, rather chewed tobacco or sniffed it. Out of all my captain friends only two smoked pipes. I switched into pipe smoking while working up North. Many Northen captains smoke pipes due to their professional distinctiveness – your hands are always kept in warmth and a wind won’t turn cigarette into a whirl of sparks. I saw it myself. Since then I’ve become used to it.
But smoking pipe is a ritual by itself which I learned later. My first pipe was presented to me by Captain Sapogov. A descendant from the noble old family of Arkhangelsk fishery merchants, Alexander Ivanovich was a great encyclopedist, wonderful guitar player and a real connoisseur of Russian art songs.
I reported to his ship “Askold” as a First Mate. During the very first voyage he invited me over to his stateroom, poured tiny shots with cognac and the same size cups with thick coffee and then, elegantly exposing his pinky while holding his cup said with the Northern accent: “Say, you Mikhailo, either don’t smoke your cigarettes during your watch or switch into a “sopelka” (Russian slang word for “pipe”). Look how much ash you’ve scattered around, - and he put in front of me a small box with a slightly curved pipe and chiseled lid on the end, - Go ahead, take it. This is a real briar, but first you’re gonna have to smoke it off, otherwise you’d kill the taste. You see, a pipe is like a dog – whatever you name it that’s the way it’ll behave. From now on you can’t lend it out nor present it. Let alone, throwing it away – very bad sign, you’ll get sick”. That’s how my first pipe came about, it’s been long time since it was smoked off and burnt up, which I still cherish and treasure. After that… here we go, I’ve learned that one can’t smoke the same pipe all the time ‘cause it gets tired. I also learned that during a day one should change few pipes. Since I smoked not more than three or four times a day I decided to stick with the English option: three pipes – morning, afternoon, and evening. That’s how I acquired the taste of it. My pipes were kept in a special case, each had its own brush and a tobacco in a special pouch. The pipe tobacco is good for pipes only, you can’t use it in a roll-up cigarettes nor can you stick it into a smokes’ cartridge; it went through a special processing and possesses a distinguished thick aroma. Because of my natural curiosity I started to express my interest in the history of smoking, thus I learned a lot of interesting facts. The history of smoking accounts for more than three thousand years starting from Aztecs and ancient Indian tribes. The clay and stone pipes found in burial hills and graves are highly prized as museum relics. Especially valuable are private collections. In Central America as well as in North America pipes were made out of soft red clay, catlinite. In South America, as a rule, pipes were made out of wood. Generally, most of the pipes were made in a form of figurines of people and animals, very meticulously and finely finished. Ancient Mayas, for some reason, made their pipes in a form of male genitals. The famous Indian “pipe of peace” represented a tomahawk with a smoking shank. The smoking found its way to Europe after discovery of the New World and for a rather long period of time it was considered as a “devilish” activity for which one could land up in jail. Hence, pipes with the head of Mephisto emerged. Widely accepted tobacco smoking started in England in 19th century and soon it evolved into a really profitable income item. Within one hundred years after discover of America, the smoking spread all over the world. Clay pipes manufacturing started in accordance with the special license. In Denmark a Royal Chinaware Factory was busy making pipes. Pretty soon Holland caught up with England. The first Russian who started smoking pipe was Peter the Great who was studying shipbuilding in Holland. He came back to Russia with a bagful of tobacco and a dozen of Dutch pipes. The second smoker became “Min Hertz”, his Highness Duke Menshikov. And then, His Imperial Majesty’s Edict followed “to smoke pipes and to shave beards”. And that’s when Russia blanketed with smoke. The East and Asia followed after that – compliments and assistance of Portugal and Spain. That’s where they started making pipes with amber mouthpieces. And that’s where the smoking acquired a new shape – they started flowing smoke through fragrant water, and this is how hookah came about. For the nobility, the hookah pipes were inlayed with precious jewels. In rich palaces a new position emerged, “chibukshi”, a hookah specialist who could prepare fragrant water by adding to it all kinds of aromatic essences. In Istanbul, at the palace-museum Topkapi, one can see such a collection of hookah pipes that it would never be inferior to the famous pieces of jewelry. In China, hookah turned into a very long mouthpiece with a tiny cup on the end, for a ball of opium. Japanese were making pipes from bones in a form of figurines, called “netzke”. They are very expensive and are subjects for collecting. In Africa, they used to make pipes out of bones, tusks, bamboo and dried up pumpkin, “kolebas”. And all the African pipes are very diverse and they are considered to be a folk art. But generally, pipes are made from nut-tree, pear tree and cherry-tree, but not from oak tree because of its bitterish flavor. The first American farmers used to make their pipes from corn cobs after their one year of drying. But all the wooden pipes suffered from shortcomings – they all burned through pretty fast and the china ones were very fragile and burned fingers. Pipes from soft mineral came about. Its name was “sea foam” – an age long mixture of dead shellfish and sand, it’s also called afrodite or seniolite. It’s mined near the shores of Turkey and East Africa at the deep lead sea. This material can very well be processed and polished. Nowadays, the main bulk of all smoking pipes are made out of briar tree, this is one of the variety of black tree (Erica Arborea), they use 80-100 years old roots only. Good quality pipes are very expensive. It does not mean that they don’t make pipes from other different materials, but really good pipes have a seal and a certificate. And by the way, pipes with lids are made, as a rule, for sailors. When I bought another “briar” in Hamburg I found a message in a that box which said: “The ashes from yours cigarette, can become your ashes”. A truer words were never spoken. But one pipe I never lost nor through away. My daughter stores it in a huge mug depicting one-eyed pirate, a typical Stevenson’s John Silver. Even now it still holds its unforgettable flavor. I took a smell of my pipes and it seemed to me the old man Silver gave me a wink. But I didn’t light a pipe and I won’t recommend you to do it.
Michael Lander
