Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / For Sale By Owner

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For Sale By Owner · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Hey, they're constant listener. Before we dig into another curious
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  Speaker 1: tour through the Cabinet today, I wanted to let you
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  Speaker 1: know about a brand new podcast we've put together called
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  Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals. It's a ten part journey into the weird
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  Speaker 1: and unusual experiences that happened to Betty and Barney Hill
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  Speaker 1: back in nine, experiences that have given us just about
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  Speaker 1: every bit of alien abduction folklore we have today, lost time,
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  Speaker 1: stopped watches, brightly lits exam rooms. Strange Arrivals is written
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  Speaker 1: and hosted by author Toby Ball and produced by me
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  Speaker 1: and the team at My Heart. The first weekly episode
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  Speaker 1: landed on March thirty one, but it's such a fascinating
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  Speaker 1: ride that I wanted to make sure you didn't miss
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  Speaker 1: a moment of it. Stick around after today's episode for
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  Speaker 1: the Strange Arrivals trailer. You're going to love it. And
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  Speaker 1: now let the show begin. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Island,
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  Speaker 1: living palm trees, blue waters, and coconut drinks with those
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  Speaker 1: little paper umbrellas in them. It all means rest and relaxation,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't it. But not all islands are a sandy slice
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  Speaker 1: of heaven. Most don't even exist in tropical climates. Their
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  Speaker 1: environments can be too harsh for humans to live there,
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  Speaker 1: or they may just be too small. That's not the
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  Speaker 1: case with the principality of Sea Land, though, residing off
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  Speaker 1: the coast of Suffolk, England. Seland was founded in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forty three. During World War Two, the British military used
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  Speaker 1: it as the location for the first of four planned
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  Speaker 1: naval forts. They called the fourth their HM Fort Roughs
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  Speaker 1: or Roughs Tower. It was meant to provide defense against
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  Speaker 1: Nazi aircraft that were dropping mines in local estuaries you
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  Speaker 1: used by supply ships at the time. Up the three
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  Speaker 1: hundred Royal Navy personnel lived on the island. After the war,
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  Speaker 1: they returned to their homes and Sea Land was left
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  Speaker 1: practically deserted, but Rough's Tower still remained. The funny thing
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  Speaker 1: about the island was that it was only seven nautical
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  Speaker 1: miles off the coast of Suffolk, placing it just outside
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  Speaker 1: United Kingdom territory. Sea Land existed in international waters. Once
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  Speaker 1: the British Royal Navy had left Roughs Tower and the
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  Speaker 1: island on which it stood were up for grabs. It
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  Speaker 1: remained abandoned until the mid nineteen sixties, when Jack Moore
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  Speaker 1: and his daughter Jane took control of the tower. They
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  Speaker 1: planned to use it as a new broadcast location for
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  Speaker 1: a London based pirate radio station. Two years after their takeover,
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  Speaker 1: a rival pirates station owner named Roy Bates came ashore
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  Speaker 1: and claimed the island for his own station, Radio Essex.
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  Speaker 1: He had been thwarted by the British government once already
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  Speaker 1: after attempting to take over another abandoned naval fort. Rather
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  Speaker 1: than get into a long drawn out fight, Jack and
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  Speaker 1: Jane left. Bates brought in all the equipment he needed
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  Speaker 1: to get a station off the ground, but never used
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  Speaker 1: any of it. Radio Essex stalled because Bates saw an alternative.
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  Speaker 1: He was now the de facto king of an empty island.
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  Speaker 1: He used his power to declare Seeland's independence from England
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  Speaker 1: and to start his own nation. Bates was left alone
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  Speaker 1: for the most part. In nineteen sixty seven, he brought
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  Speaker 1: along his wife Joan, his daughter Penelope, and his son
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  Speaker 1: Michael and a few of their friends to live peacefully
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  Speaker 1: on the island. However, the British government got worried to
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  Speaker 1: them Sea Land was a ticking time bomb, even though
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  Speaker 1: Bates and his family had no intention of going to
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  Speaker 1: war with the entire British military, so England deployed helicopters
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  Speaker 1: to drop bombs on nearby structures as a warning. A
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  Speaker 1: tug about carrying a crew of Navy workmen drove by
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  Speaker 1: the island as well, taunting the family. Roy's son Prince Michael,
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  Speaker 1: fired a few warning shots in their direction. The men
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  Speaker 1: retreated A short time later. Bates, who was still a
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  Speaker 1: British citizen by the way, received a summons to appear
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  Speaker 1: in courts. If convicted, he faced to have the penalty
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  Speaker 1: under the British Firearms Act, but Bates no longer resided
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  Speaker 1: in England. By living on an island in international waters,
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  Speaker 1: he'd committed no crime that could be prosecuted by English
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  Speaker 1: courts and was released. He and his family continued to
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  Speaker 1: live on Sea Land well into the nineteen seventies, when
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  Speaker 1: he drafted a constitution, created a national flag, and even
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  Speaker 1: developed Sealand's own currency. Unfortunately, someone was lying in wait
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  Speaker 1: to knock him off his perch. Alexander Achenbach had worked
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  Speaker 1: alongside Bates early on. He was a lawyer from Germany
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  Speaker 1: as well as the Prime Minister of Sealand. He'd wanted
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  Speaker 1: to convert the island into a luxury resort, complete with
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  Speaker 1: hotel and casino, even trying to convince Bates to join him,
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  Speaker 1: but the former pirate radio DJ had no interest in
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  Speaker 1: things like that. Achenbach took matters into his own hands.
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  Speaker 1: He hired German mercenaries to infiltrate the island and captured
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  Speaker 1: Joan and Michael. Bates, however, had been prepared. He had
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  Speaker 1: been stockpiling weapons in case of another attack, which he
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  Speaker 1: used against Achenbach and his men. He charged his former
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  Speaker 1: friend and business partner with treason against the country, demanding
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  Speaker 1: thirty five thousand dollars in restitution. A German diplomat traveled
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  Speaker 1: to Sealand and negotiated Achenbach's return. Bates let him go
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  Speaker 1: and revoked his passport. Twenty years later, when it came
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  Speaker 1: to light that fake Sealand passports were being issued to
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  Speaker 1: help traffic drugs and launder money from Russia and Iraq,
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  Speaker 1: the family revoked all remaining passports in circulation, but that
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  Speaker 1: didn't stop people from applying for passports anyway. Despite Roy's
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  Speaker 1: death in two thousand twelve and his wife's death in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, the Principality of Seland continues to receive
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  Speaker 1: thousands of passport requests each year, which is pretty strange
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  Speaker 1: for an island that isn't even a real island. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Sealand wasn't discovered in ninety it was built. It was
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  Speaker 1: actually forty ton offshore platform constructed by the British military.
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  Speaker 1: The platform itself is one sixty eight feet long by
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  Speaker 1: eight feet wide, and it sits upon two sixty ft
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  Speaker 1: tall concrete columns, and those columns are hollow inside. Each
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  Speaker 1: one is subdivided into seven floors, with each floor providing
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  Speaker 1: living quarters, a dining hall, and storage space for fresh
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  Speaker 1: water and of course weapons. Sea Land may not have
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  Speaker 1: been a tropical haven like other islands, but two soldiers
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  Speaker 1: in World War Two, and of course, to the Bates family,
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  Speaker 1: it was certainly home sweet home. In the Superman film,
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  Speaker 1: Lex Luthor played by Gene Hackman, tells his assistant that
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  Speaker 1: stocks may rise and fall, Utilities and transportation systems may collapse.
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  Speaker 1: People are no good, but they'll always need land, and
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  Speaker 1: they'll pay through the nose to get it. Gregor McGregor
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  Speaker 1: was no lex Luthor, but he did have what everyone
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  Speaker 1: wanted land. He was born in Glengal, Scotland, on Christmas Eve,
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighties six. His father was a respected sea captain
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  Speaker 1: for the East India Company, and Gregor himself was the
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  Speaker 1: great great nephew of Scottish folk hero Rob Roy. When
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  Speaker 1: he turned sixteen, he joined the British Army, just as
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  Speaker 1: the Napoleonic Wars were getting under way. He spent an
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  Speaker 1: entire year defending the town of Kent from a French invasion,
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  Speaker 1: a feat which earned him a promotion to lieutenant. It
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  Speaker 1: was also during this time when Gregor met Maria Bowder.
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  Speaker 1: Her father was an admiral with the Royal Navy and
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  Speaker 1: she came from a wealthy family. The two were married
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  Speaker 1: in June of eighteen o five, and Gregor returned to
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  Speaker 1: the Fray. He purchased the rank of captain, a common
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  Speaker 1: practice between the seventeenth and nineteen centuries, and then continued
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  Speaker 1: to fight. Unfortunately, the fighting followed him off the battlefield.
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  Speaker 1: After a particular the nasty spat with a superior officer
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  Speaker 1: in Portugal, he was discharged and retired from the army.
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  Speaker 1: Back at home, he and Maria moved to Edinburgh, where
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  Speaker 1: Gregor underwent some changes. He started calling himself a colonel
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  Speaker 1: and traveling around in a colorful coach while wearing a
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  Speaker 1: badge associated with a Portuguese military order. When he spoke
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  Speaker 1: to neighbors and rich elites, he referred to himself as
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  Speaker 1: Sir Gregor McGregor, Baronet, and boasted of his relation to
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  Speaker 1: dukes and earls. But his domestic life, as strange as
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  Speaker 1: it had become, would be short lived. In December of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eleven, Maria passed away. Along with her, also went
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  Speaker 1: Gregor's wealth and status. For a brief moment, he considered
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  Speaker 1: rejoining the military, but that was made more difficult by
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  Speaker 1: the circumstances surrounding his prior discharge. Instead, Gregor traveled to
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  Speaker 1: South America, where he joined in the Venezuelan War of Independence.
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  Speaker 1: General Francisco day Miranda immediately took a liking to Gregor,
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  Speaker 1: who had positioned himself as a soldier of fortune, and
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  Speaker 1: gave him his own allien to command during the war.
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  Speaker 1: He also took a new wife, Josepha, and continued to
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  Speaker 1: fight on behalf of the Venezuelans during their crusade. By
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  Speaker 1: the end, however, he was forced to retreat and eventually
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  Speaker 1: found his way to the Mosquito Coast in modern day
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  Speaker 1: Nicaragua and Honduras. There, King George Frederick Augustus gave Gregor
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  Speaker 1: his own country. It was called the Poias, named for
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  Speaker 1: the Poyer people who lived along the nearby Black River,
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  Speaker 1: and then Gregor, newly crowned as Prince of Poias, returned
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  Speaker 1: to London to the upper crust. The Prince was an
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  Speaker 1: exotic conversation starter. He found himself invited to dinner parties
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  Speaker 1: and social events, But he had also come back on
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  Speaker 1: a mission. The Poyers had sent him to recruit investors
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  Speaker 1: on their behalf. Gregor was now in charge of a
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  Speaker 1: country with its own government and a modest army. His
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  Speaker 1: hope was to wou colonists back to the Mosquito Coast
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  Speaker 1: and take advantage of the abundance of natural resources that
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  Speaker 1: could provide. Gregor had come prepared with paperwork that explained
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  Speaker 1: everything from the banking system to the designs of the
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  Speaker 1: military uniforms. There was even a coat of arms. To Gregor,
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  Speaker 1: Poias was perfection. It was everything a rich colonist could want,
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  Speaker 1: and he did his best to make them want it.
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  Speaker 1: He provided testimonials and pamphlets to both British and Scottish settlers,
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  Speaker 1: encouraging them to purchase in one hundred acre increments for
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  Speaker 1: eleven pounds each. He also sold commissions to the Pous
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  Speaker 1: Army to his fellow veterans for a sizable amounts. To
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  Speaker 1: help sell his new venture, he hired publicists to write
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  Speaker 1: up ads in popular newspapers and gave interviews to local journalists.
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  Speaker 1: But his land wasn't just open to rich citizens and
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  Speaker 1: military men. He wanted British businesses and banks to set
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  Speaker 1: up shop and Poias as well. Everyone was welcome and
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  Speaker 1: there was plenty of land to go around. He explained
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  Speaker 1: it all in his three hundred fifty five page guide
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  Speaker 1: book titled Sketch of the Mosquito Coast, including the Territory
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  Speaker 1: of the Poias. The illustrations within portrayed the land as
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  Speaker 1: bus sailing with tradeships and fishermen. There was an opera
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  Speaker 1: house and even a cathedral. The first group of settlers
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  Speaker 1: arrived in eighteen twenty two on the shores of the
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  Speaker 1: Black River and were shocked, to say the least Poias was. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: in sight, it just wasn't the site they were expecting.
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  Speaker 1: There were no banks or opera houses anywhere. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: there was almost nothing but endless jungle in all directions.
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  Speaker 1: The environment could not sustain livestock, and to colonize the
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  Speaker 1: area to make it livable would have taken much more
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  Speaker 1: money on top of what everyone had already spent. The
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  Speaker 1: Powyers couldn't help them either. They had no idea who
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  Speaker 1: the newcomers were or why they'd come. They hadn't sent
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  Speaker 1: Gregor to negotiate on their behalf. They had no army,
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  Speaker 1: no coat of arms, and no democratic government. As Gregor
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  Speaker 1: had claimed, he did procure the land from King George
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  Speaker 1: Frederick Augustus, as he had told his investors, but for
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  Speaker 1: the paltry sum of rum and jewelry. Everything else he'd
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  Speaker 1: said about the country had been a lie. Gregor McGregor,
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  Speaker 1: the Prince of Poias, had pocketed two hundred thousand pounds
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  Speaker 1: in one of the most successful confidence schemes ever conducted.
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  Speaker 1: He'd sold British and Scottish settlers land in a fake country,
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  Speaker 1: and then disappeared to Paris to try his luck again.
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  Speaker 1: The French government eventually caught on. They stopped the grift
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  Speaker 1: from going further and caught Gregor hiding out in the
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  Speaker 1: French countryside. He stood trial, but was never convicted, and
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  Speaker 1: he never learned his lesson either. He tried multiple times
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  Speaker 1: to recreate the scheme in different ways, procuring loans and
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  Speaker 1: funds from banks and hapless investors, but none of them
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  Speaker 1: could capture the magic of his first and most successful attempt.
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  Speaker 1: Many years later, Gregor eventually returned to Venezuela and was
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  Speaker 1: made a full citizen there. He died extremely wealthy and
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  Speaker 1: holds an infamous place in history as one of the
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  Speaker 1: most successful conmen to have ever lived. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com and until next time, stay curious. Yeah. On
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  Speaker 1: September six, Betty and Barney Hill cut their vacation short
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  Speaker 1: and decided to drive home. They were having difficulty finding
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  Speaker 1: their way around the city, and Barney decided he just
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  Speaker 1: wanted to drive home, Knowing that they would arrive at
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  Speaker 1: their home on New Hampshire Sea Coast at about two
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  Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. What they saw that night in
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  Speaker 1: the New Hampshire sky would change everything. I begin walking
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  Speaker 1: across the highway, looking up at the object with the binoculars,
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  Speaker 1: putting them down, thinking my aunt's saying, this can't be true.
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  Speaker 1: I don't believe it. A light in the sky. At first,
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  Speaker 1: she thought of a falling star, but she realized that
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  Speaker 1: following stars don't fall upwards, and that's what this one
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  Speaker 1: was doing. Two years later, the Hills would undergo hypnosis.
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  Speaker 1: How about did you regress that? I started telling, well,
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  Speaker 1: I just look back to a starting point of Montreal.
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  Speaker 1: A sinister story would emerge. She's trying to start the
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  Speaker 1: car walked stat because I think, well, I can't get
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  Speaker 1: away for this. I guess if I get the card
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  Speaker 1: or like a brother than Wits of Hide that became
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  Speaker 1: known the world over. Doctor Simond gave me a post
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  Speaker 1: upnotic suggestion. He said, if I wanted to, I could
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  Speaker 1: sketch the star mapp but if I didn't want it,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't have to. So about two weeks later I
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  Speaker 1: sketched it. Their account has been scrutinized under the influence
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  Speaker 1: of hypnosis, especially if you're highly hypnotize herbal you are
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  Speaker 1: even more receptible to contamination and distortion by scientists, skeptics, theorists,
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  Speaker 1: and believers. She wound up building a total of more
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  Speaker 1: than twenty three dimensional models and was able to find
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  Speaker 1: one and only one pattern that matched what Betty had drawn.
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  Speaker 1: What happened on that night journey in? Were the Hills
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  Speaker 1: confused about what they saw? Or did they have an
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  Speaker 1: encounter with beings not of this world? From My Heart
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  Speaker 1: Radio and Aaron Manky's Grimm and Mild, this is Strange Arrivals.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to Strange Arrivals March thirty one on the I
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  Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.