Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • This is a foghorn that says SS Midway.

  • RICK HARRISON: OK. [music playing]

  • I got this over 50 years ago, and we took it up

  • to my folks' summer cabin on a lake,

  • and it used to be our come home call.

  • Did you have any neighbors?

  • Yeah.

  • Did it piss them off?

  • [laughter]

  • [fog horn]

  • It has a pump action and the bellows inside

  • make an extremely loud noise which would

  • be good for a boat in the fog.

  • I would like to get about $3,000.

  • The minimum I'd take would be a thousand.

  • RICK HARRISON: This ship is named

  • after the Battle of Midway-- - Right.

  • --which was basically the turning point

  • of World War II in the Pacific. [music playing]

  • We had broken the Japanese code and we

  • knew they were preparing to attack somewhere,

  • but we could figure out where.

  • So we sent out messages and codes

  • we knew the Japanese had already broken,

  • saying our water desalinization system was broken on Midway.

  • So in the broken Japanese code that we were intercepting,

  • one of their messages said the code name

  • for the island they were going to attack,

  • their water supply is broken.

  • So we immediately knew that they were going to attack Midway,

  • and that's why we ended up winning.

  • So, does it work?

  • Well, it worked for 50 years, but doesn't work now.

  • [music playing]

  • Well, what those things have in them, they have--

  • RICHARD: Bellows.

  • Yeah, and they are made with leather.

  • They rot out.

  • I mean, leather just does not stand the test of time,

  • no matter where you're at. - Right.

  • Foghorns like this are a necessity.

  • They warn smaller vessels that a large ship is coming their way.

  • I wish this thing was in working condition,

  • but hey, it's still cool.

  • What you want to do with it?

  • RICHARD: I'd like to sell it.

  • All right.

  • And how much do you want for it?

  • Well, I'd like to get 3,000.

  • [music playing]

  • If you buy this thing for 3,000,

  • I'm going to start making them in the back.

  • [laughter]

  • This would have not been on that ship.

  • [whoosh]

  • These things were made right around 1900.

  • And during World War II, the battleships

  • had the latest technology.

  • They didn't have one of these.

  • So how about 1,500?

  • [laughter]

  • No.

  • Quite frankly, I wouldn't buy it.

  • Who knows what it's from.

  • I mean, there could have been some town named Midway.

  • [laughter]

  • Thanks for coming in.

  • It's just nothing I could really use, though.

  • I'm sorry. RICHARD: OK.

  • Thank you. - All right.

  • Thanks, man. - Appreciate it, buddy.

  • RICHARD: Yeah, thanks.

  • It's neat, but there's no story to go with it.

  • And therefore, it's too hard to sell.

This is a foghorn that says SS Midway.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it