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Speaker 1: Welcome to the ten Minute Storyteller. That's me Bill Simpson,

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Speaker 1: your host, narrator and author. We here at the ten

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Speaker 1: Minute Storyteller endeavor to entertain you with tall tales or

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Speaker 1: rendered swiftly and with the utmost empathy. We pledge to

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Speaker 1: pack as much entertainment, emotion and exploration into the human

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Speaker 1: condition as ten minutes will permit mini novels on steroids.

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Speaker 1: This week we meet Liam. Liam works for the aa

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Speaker 1: PT Animals Are People Too. It's a tough job, as

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Speaker 1: daily he has to make sure livestock animals are being

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Speaker 1: treated humanly before destruction. Prior to this employment, Liam worked

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Speaker 1: as a deckhand on freighters that circled the globe. He

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Speaker 1: led a wild, care free life, boozing and whoring his

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Speaker 1: way from Boston to Bangkok to Buenos Aires until that

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Speaker 1: day on the Black Sea off the coast of Romania,

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Speaker 1: counting sheep. Liam works for AAPT Animals Are People Too.

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Speaker 1: His is a nasty job. On good days, Liam visits

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Speaker 1: livestock ships to make sure conditions onboard are not entirely

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Speaker 1: barbaric for the animals. On bad days, he visits slaughterhouses

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Speaker 1: to make sure animals are being destroyed. According to the

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Speaker 1: most recent government regulations, its brutal work. As every single

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Speaker 1: day Liam sees perfectly peaceful contrite domestic farm animals like cows, goats, sheep,

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Speaker 1: and chickens stunned into submission with either a stun gun

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Speaker 1: or a captive bolt before having their necks severed. Now,

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Speaker 1: the following account tells the story of why Liam does

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Speaker 1: this work. Liam grew up in Boston and Dublin. His

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Speaker 1: father was often away at sea, a ship's captain for

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Speaker 1: Themersed shipping line. Liam was a tall, strapping, good looking

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Speaker 1: kid with a lilting Irish brogue that charmed the girls

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Speaker 1: and entertained the boys. He possessed a fabulous wanderlust, and

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Speaker 1: from his mid teens he often set off on solo

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Speaker 1: journeys to distant ports. The lad might venture down to

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Speaker 1: the corner store to buy his mother a pack of

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Speaker 1: SIGs and not return for a fortnight. She worried some

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Speaker 1: at first, but soon realized Liam was her husband's son

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Speaker 1: and so new it would be a fool's errand to

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Speaker 1: try and hold the lad captive. He needed wide open

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Speaker 1: spaces the way eagles need wings. Liam traveled the world

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Speaker 1: on freighters carrying cars from Tokyo to Los Angeles, televisions

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Speaker 1: from Shanghai to New York, wheat from Chicago to Oslo.

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Speaker 1: He worked as a crewman, swabbing decks, painting hulls, cleaning latrines,

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Speaker 1: peeling potatoes. Any work would do, as long as he

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Speaker 1: could be at sea en route to some fearn port,

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Speaker 1: and once back on land money in his pocket, Liam

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Speaker 1: drank and hoard until penniless, then back aboard another ship

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Speaker 1: bound for another port. And in this free, willing way

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Speaker 1: he passed his late teens. In most of his twenties,

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Speaker 1: he caught the clap more than one, brawled regularly, and

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Speaker 1: lived almost exclusively on beer, whiskey and meat. Any beer, whiskey,

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Speaker 1: or meat would do. Pig, cow, lamb chicken, bacon, burgers, chops, fried,

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Speaker 1: boiled or barbecued. Liam lived hard. Liam gave little thought

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Speaker 1: to the past, present, or future. He gave even less

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Speaker 1: thought to the meaning of life or what his role

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Speaker 1: might be here on the planet Earth. He just wanted

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Speaker 1: to feel the sea breeze on his face, taste the

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Speaker 1: salt air on his tongue, lift a pint with any

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Speaker 1: like minded fellow, and screw every lady of the night

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Speaker 1: from Bangkok to Boston, where he dropped anchor a couple

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Speaker 1: times a year to hug his mama and visit the dentist.

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Speaker 1: Now a few years back, in the late summer, Liam

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Speaker 1: found himself in Odessa on the Black Sea. He stayed

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Speaker 1: several weeks as the weather was fine, the bar's friendly,

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Speaker 1: and the girls dagga for his American greenbacks. But when

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Speaker 1: his dough ran low, he had to make a quick

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Speaker 1: run across the Black Sea on a small freighter carrying

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Speaker 1: grain to Constanta on the east coast of Romania. His

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Speaker 1: meager paycheck for this short haul lasted but a few days.

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Speaker 1: He needed another ship, and without delay, so Liam signed

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Speaker 1: on as a cooks helper on the Queen's hind Quarter,

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Speaker 1: an enormous livestock carrier registered in Palau. The idea of

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Speaker 1: living on board with fifteen thousand captive sheep bound for

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia wasn't exactly Liam's idea of a first class

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Speaker 1: sea adventure, but sometimes in life you can't be too choosy.

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Speaker 1: The Queen's Hindquarter left Constanta in late October for the

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Speaker 1: eight day passage to Jetta. The voyage would take them

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Speaker 1: across the Black Sea, through the Bosporus, over the Sea

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Speaker 1: of Mamara, through the Dardanelles, and into the Aegean. From there,

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Speaker 1: the massive ship, transporting fifteen thousand beasts to their demise,

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Speaker 1: would steer south into the Mediterranean until it reached the

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Speaker 1: Suez Canal at Port said. Once clear of the canal,

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Speaker 1: the hind quarter would sail through the Gulf of Suez

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Speaker 1: and into the Red Sea, finally docking in Jetta on

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Speaker 1: the Arabian coast. Now Liam found this itinerary to his liking.

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Speaker 1: He looked forward to passing through the straits and the

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Speaker 1: locks of the Siuez. This would be his first visit

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Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia. He felt certain if he could get

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Speaker 1: laid there, he could get laid anywhere. Still, he would

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Speaker 1: have much preferred to haul cars or electronics, or even

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Speaker 1: foul smelling fertilizer to live animals. All those live animals

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Speaker 1: behind bars packed together asked to elbow, gave him the

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Speaker 1: he bee gebis. Before he even reached the top of

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Speaker 1: the gangplank, he heard those thousands of sheep bleating and

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Speaker 1: buying their constant laments. Freaked Liam out. Made his skin crawl,

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Speaker 1: as it definitely sounded like the stupid animals were petrified,

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Speaker 1: terrified out of their heads with fear, stress, and uncertainty.

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Speaker 1: If he'd had a roll of cash on his person,

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Speaker 1: he would have abandoned ship and awaited a quieter passage.

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Speaker 1: But before he even reached his bunk, anchors were raised,

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Speaker 1: lines unleashed, and the dock left behind. Liam barely had

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Speaker 1: time to stow his gear, find the galley, and begin

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Speaker 1: his duties when suddenly the general alarm sounded. At first,

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Speaker 1: the galley staff ignored the noisy blasts, with one of

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Speaker 1: the cooks assuring the others it was just the captain

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Speaker 1: checking out the emergency systems. But then quite obviously, the

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Speaker 1: hind quarter began to list to starboard enough list to

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Speaker 1: send pots, pans, dishes, and cups sliding and crashing to

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Speaker 1: the galley floor. The alarms continued and orders issued for

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Speaker 1: all crew to report topside immediately. By the time Liam

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Speaker 1: reached the main deck and went out into the open air,

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Speaker 1: the ship had healed over far enough to make it

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Speaker 1: difficult to stand without hanging on to a wall or

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Speaker 1: a rallying. The October morning was brisk, the sky cloudless,

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Speaker 1: and deep blue. Liam could hear the trapped sheep bleeding

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Speaker 1: and buying over the chaos. In confusion, he wondered if

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Speaker 1: he might somehow release the animals from their pens, give

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Speaker 1: them a fighting chance, as clearly the Queen hind Quarter

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Speaker 1: was soon to roll over entirely and soon thereafter sink.

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Speaker 1: The enormous livestock carrier did exactly that just minutes later,

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Speaker 1: but not before all crew members went overboard into life rafts.

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Speaker 1: With no human lives lost. Thirty two sheep were saved,

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Speaker 1: pulled into rowboats, wet, shivering and scared witless. The remainder

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Speaker 1: of the fifteen thousand sheep aboard the Queen hind Quarter

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Speaker 1: locked behind bars in their watery cells, or lost, all

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Speaker 1: drowned in the Black Sea after a great deal of terror,

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Speaker 1: thrashing and suffering. So that some humans somewhere might have

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Speaker 1: a bit of mutton with their rosemary roasted potatoes. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening to this original audio presentation of Counting Sheep

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Speaker 1: narrated by the author. If you enjoy today's story, please

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Speaker 1: take a few seconds to rate, review, and subscribe to

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Speaker 1: this podcast, and then go to Thomas William Simpson dot

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Speaker 1: com for additional information about the author and to view

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Speaker 1: his extensive cannon. The Ten Minute Storyteller is produced by

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Speaker 1: Andrew Flaglici and Josh Colodney and as part of the

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Speaker 1: Elvis Duran Podcast Network in partnership with IH Productions. Until

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Speaker 1: next time, this is Bill Simpson, Your ten Minute Storyteller,