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Bomb's Away · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. As World War Two was
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  Speaker 1: coming to an end, US forces were making plans to
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  Speaker 1: invade the Japanese mainland. On August six, after months of
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  Speaker 1: air raids conducted against the Japanese people, the United States
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  Speaker 1: dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima, followed by another bomb
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  Speaker 1: over Nagasaki a few days later. Hundreds of thousands of
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  Speaker 1: civilians were killed. Those who survived were subjected to horrible
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  Speaker 1: side effects such as cancer and severe burns, while children
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  Speaker 1: born in the aftermath had numerous complications and birth to
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  Speaker 1: x and While those two bombs remain the only times
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  Speaker 1: nuclear force has been used during war, countries all over
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  Speaker 1: the world continue to threaten mass destruction with similar weapons
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  Speaker 1: to this day. In fact, in nineteen fifty eight, a
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  Speaker 1: nuclear incident occurred in a very unexpected location, South Carolina,
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  Speaker 1: and most people have never heard of it. In March
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  Speaker 1: of that year, a Boeing B forty seven bomber departed
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  Speaker 1: Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia bound for the
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  Speaker 1: United Kingdom. Safely tucked inside its cargo bay was a
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  Speaker 1: Mark six nuclear bomb, an explosive based on the original
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  Speaker 1: bomb that leveled Nagasaki thirteen years earlier. The bomber's mission
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  Speaker 1: was simple, fly over Great Britain, deliver the payload, and
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  Speaker 1: continue on to a base in North Africa for refueling.
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  Speaker 1: Anti briefing. During the flights, Air Force Captain Bruce Kolka
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  Speaker 1: was called by the pilot of the plane, Captain Earl Kohler.
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  Speaker 1: Earl noticed a life in the cockpit, indicating the bomb
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  Speaker 1: harness locking pin hadn't engaged, meaning the bomb could roll
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  Speaker 1: about the cabin freely in the event the plane suddenly
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  Speaker 1: shifted too hard in one direction. He sent Bruce to
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  Speaker 1: the cargo area to fix the pin. With no easy
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  Speaker 1: way to re engage the pin, Bruce took hold of
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  Speaker 1: the straps keeping the bomb in place. As he pulled
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  Speaker 1: himself up, he accidentally triggered the emergency release pin. The
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  Speaker 1: bomb fell out of its harness and down to the
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  Speaker 1: bomb bade doors below. Thankfully, it didn't detonate, but the
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  Speaker 1: impact combined with the object's massive weight and forced the
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  Speaker 1: bay doors open. The bomb plummeted toward the earth from
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  Speaker 1: fifteen thousand feet above. Meanwhile, in mars Bluff, South Carolina,
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  Speaker 1: two young girls were playing with their cousin near a
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  Speaker 1: playhouse their father had built for them in the woods
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  Speaker 1: next to their home. The bomb hit the playhouse and
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  Speaker 1: when it went off, it disintegrated the structure. Both girls
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  Speaker 1: were thrown back, and their father, a former woolwarts to paratrooper,
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  Speaker 1: was also injured, as were his wife and son. Seven
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  Speaker 1: buildings within the vicinity saw significant damages as well. A
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  Speaker 1: nuclear blast is capable of decimating anything within sixteen square miles,
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  Speaker 1: and yet not a single person died. The only structure
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  Speaker 1: that fell was the playhouse in the woods. And how
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  Speaker 1: could it be simple? The bomb hadn't been loaded with
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  Speaker 1: its nuclear core, which was still up above on the plane.
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  Speaker 1: The B forty seven's mission hadn't been to eradicate the
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  Speaker 1: United Kingdom, but to use it as a testing site.
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  Speaker 1: Despite our differences, we haven't been at war with England
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  Speaker 1: in many many years. During the nineteen fifties, the United
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  Speaker 1: States and the UK worked out a deal which would
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  Speaker 1: allow the US Air Force to test nuclear bombs on
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  Speaker 1: British soil. In order to record the accuracy of the drops.
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  Speaker 1: This time, though, the plane hadn't even left United States
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  Speaker 1: airspace before the problem was noticed, nor had its danger
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  Speaker 1: as cargo been primed for a full scale nuclear assault. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: when the Mark six landed on the South Carolina playhouse,
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  Speaker 1: the regular explosives inside detonated, which obliterated that playhouse and
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  Speaker 1: left an impressive seventy ft crater in the family's backyard.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said before, no one was killed, although the
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  Speaker 1: injuries the family endured earned them roughly fifty dollars from
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  Speaker 1: the US government close to half a million dollars today,
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  Speaker 1: the crater is still there too, indicated by a historical
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  Speaker 1: marker and an access sign. So even though the United
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  Speaker 1: States hasn't dropped in nuclear bomb on another country in
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  Speaker 1: almost eighty years, it was responsible for the first and
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  Speaker 1: hopefully last nuclear attack on its own soil. The U
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  Speaker 1: S S C Dragon was a skate class nuclear powered submarine,
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  Speaker 1: meaning it was designed to be smaller and cheaper to
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  Speaker 1: produce for the U. S. Navy than other subs like
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  Speaker 1: the U S S Nautilus. It was launched in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight and ran until it was decommissioned in During
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  Speaker 1: those twenty six years, the Sea Dragon conducted a series
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  Speaker 1: of missions on behalf of the United States military. It
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  Speaker 1: made quite a name for itself thanks to its smart
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  Speaker 1: and resourceful crew, led by Captain George Peabody Steel. The
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  Speaker 1: second the Sea Dragon, was built as an attack sub
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  Speaker 1: intended for Arctic waters, meant to destroy enemy submarines near
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  Speaker 1: and under the Polar ice cap. For her first mission,
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  Speaker 1: the Sea Dragon was ordered to travel from the Atlantic
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  Speaker 1: Ocean to the Pacific via the North Pole. She was
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  Speaker 1: supposed to navigate through the Davis Strait between Greenland and
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  Speaker 1: Canada before entering the Perry Channel in the Canadian Arctic.
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  Speaker 1: This route was more commonly known as the Northwest Passage,
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  Speaker 1: and very few ships had ever made it through successfully.
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  Speaker 1: Almost every ship Antarctic explorer who attempted it in the
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  Speaker 1: past had ended up turning back, deterred by the massive
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  Speaker 1: amounts of ice blocking the way. The Sea Dragon, though,
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  Speaker 1: was different. It had no intention of going through the ice.
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  Speaker 1: It would instead slip beneath it. Now. This of course,
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  Speaker 1: presented its own problems. Since no large vessel above or
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  Speaker 1: below the water had ever navigated the passage before. No
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  Speaker 1: one knew what to expect. Charts and maps of the
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  Speaker 1: area were almost non existence, and the passages depth was unknown.
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  Speaker 1: There was a good chance the Sea Dragon could get
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  Speaker 1: stuck in a channel that was either too narrow or
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  Speaker 1: too shallow to pass through, and the mission would be over. However,
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  Speaker 1: rather than relying on sonar to help guide them through,
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  Speaker 1: Captain Steele decided to supplement modern technology with something a
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  Speaker 1: little more old school. He pulled out his copy of
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  Speaker 1: Sir William Edward Perry's eighteen nineteen journal, which described the
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  Speaker 1: methods he used in navigating the channel. Steele also had
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  Speaker 1: a dedicated team on board whose job it was to
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  Speaker 1: chart all icebergs they passed so they could find their
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  Speaker 1: way back, as well as make things easier for the
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  Speaker 1: next sub to attempt the trip. It took almost a month,
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  Speaker 1: but after a series of close calls with some massive icebergs,
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  Speaker 1: the us SC Dragon successfully completed its journey through the
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  Speaker 1: Northwest Passage on August one of nineteen sixty. Four. Days later,
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  Speaker 1: it arrived at the North Pole. Now Captain Steele didn't
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  Speaker 1: just want the Sea Dragon to be the third submarine
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  Speaker 1: to have ever reached the North Pole. He wanted his
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  Speaker 1: trip there to be special, so he enlisted the crew
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  Speaker 1: to participate in a unique test of skill and ingenuity.
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  Speaker 1: He had them draw out a large diamond on the ice,
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  Speaker 1: a baseball diamond that alone would have made the voyage
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  Speaker 1: unique for sure, the first baseball game ever played at
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  Speaker 1: the North Pole, but Captain Steele took the idea even further.
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  Speaker 1: He had the crew set up the diamond as close
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  Speaker 1: to the pole as possible. The result was a baseball
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  Speaker 1: game unlike any other. It literally couldn't be played anywhere
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  Speaker 1: else on Earth. Because of the diamond's position, the batter
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  Speaker 1: who hit a home run would end up circumnavigating the
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  Speaker 1: globe as he rounded the basis. A ball hit into
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  Speaker 1: right field would cross the international dateline into the next day,
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  Speaker 1: while a ball hit to left field was caught on
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  Speaker 1: the same day. However, if it was thrown to first base,
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  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be caught until tomorrow. It gets better, though,
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  Speaker 1: If a fly ball was caught in right field, then
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  Speaker 1: the batter wouldn't technically be out until the next day. However,
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  Speaker 1: a ball thrown to second or third base would have
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  Speaker 1: been thrown back in time twenty four hours. So now
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  Speaker 1: a game that normally took a few hours to play,
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  Speaker 1: ended up taking several days until a winner could be declared.
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  Speaker 1: Now a lot of sports announcers like to say that
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  Speaker 1: it all comes down to how the game was played,
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  Speaker 1: but just this once something different. It took priority over
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  Speaker 1: the skills of the players. It's not always how you
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  Speaker 1: play the game that makes the difference, but where you
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  Speaker 1: play it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.