Knowledge is sure to prove useful in one way or another.

It always tells.

The foreign news was then received by wire from Cape Race, and the taking of successive "steamer news" was one of the most notable of our duties.

I liked this better than any other branch of the work, and it was soon tacitly assigned to me.
The lines in those days worked poorly, and during a storm much had to be guessed at.

My guessing powers were said to be phenomenal, and it was my favorite diversion to fill up gaps instead of interrupting the sender and spending minutes over a lost word or two.