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Tunnels · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  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 are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. They were surrounded and
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  Speaker 1: had been for months. The Ottoman Empire had been spreading
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  Speaker 1: westward for decades, and by three it had arrived on
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  Speaker 1: the doorstep of Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire.
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  Speaker 1: If the city fell, the dam would burst and the
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  Speaker 1: Ottomans would roll through like a wave. They had sent
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  Speaker 1: for help. Of course, King John the third of Poland
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  Speaker 1: was most likely on his way with an army to
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  Speaker 1: free them, to push back the sea of red flags
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  Speaker 1: and golden crescents. But King John hadn't arrived, and they
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  Speaker 1: weren't sure much longer they could hold out against an
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  Speaker 1: army of nearly one hundred thousand warriors. The siege of
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  Speaker 1: the city had been going on for two months now,
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  Speaker 1: and you have to wonder if the people of Vienna
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  Speaker 1: ever felt relief from that overwhelming sense of anxiety. They
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  Speaker 1: were in danger and at risk, and the thought that
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  Speaker 1: the Turks might breach the walls and kill them was
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  Speaker 1: all too real and present. It hung over them like
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  Speaker 1: a dark cloud in fact, but the real danger wasn't
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  Speaker 1: above them, It was beneath the walls themselves. You see,
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  Speaker 1: the Turks had been using their time outside the city
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  Speaker 1: to dig tunnels. Rather than continue to launch themselves headlong
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  Speaker 1: into solid, sturdy walls, they had decided going under them
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  Speaker 1: would be more productive. So while the people of Vienna
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  Speaker 1: were waiting for help, their enemy was creeping up slowly
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  Speaker 1: beneath them. During the day, the soldiers inside the city
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  Speaker 1: watched and waited. They were observant and careful and patient.
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  Speaker 1: But at night there were fewer eyes on the enemy army,
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  Speaker 1: and that's when the Turkish diggers did most of their work.
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  Speaker 1: They could make a bit more noise, and they had
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  Speaker 1: the cover of darkness to hide their movements in and
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  Speaker 1: out of the tunnels. Another group of people who worked
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  Speaker 1: through the night were the bakers in the city. If
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  Speaker 1: the people were going to have fresh bread each morning,
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  Speaker 1: that meant long nights of grinding, kneading and baking it.
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  Speaker 1: And it was during one of those long quiet nights
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  Speaker 1: when the bakers thought they heard something odd. It was
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  Speaker 1: almost like the sound digging, but it seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: coming from nearby, which was impossible, and then it clicked.
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  Speaker 1: The digging was coming from beneath the building they were in,
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  Speaker 1: beneath the very city itself. They rushed out and alerted
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  Speaker 1: the soldiers on duty, and the warning was sounded throughout Vienna.
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  Speaker 1: When they routed the Turkish diggers and examined the tunnels,
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  Speaker 1: they were shocked to discover at least ten large explosive
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  Speaker 1: devices just waiting to be detonated. Somehow, against all odds,
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  Speaker 1: they had discovered their enemy's plan before it was too late,
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  Speaker 1: and put a stop to the invasion. Soon after, King
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  Speaker 1: John of Poland arrived and the city launched its counter
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  Speaker 1: attack against the Ottomans, and they won. They won the battle,
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  Speaker 1: and in the coming years they put an end to
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  Speaker 1: the westward expansion of that red and yellow crescent flag.
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  Speaker 1: Those bakers were heroes, but they were also relieved citizens,
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  Speaker 1: and they wanted to celebrate right along with everyone else.
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  Speaker 1: So they got to work crafting a special treat one
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  Speaker 1: that would mark their victory over the Turks. What they
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  Speaker 1: created was something new and different, a pastry designed to
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  Speaker 1: mimic the central icon of their enemies flag. They called
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  Speaker 1: it the kip Fell, which meant crescent in German. It
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  Speaker 1: was a smash hit too, so much so that it's
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  Speaker 1: still around today, although we know it by a different name.
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  Speaker 1: Entirely the Croissant. Henry worked on the same ship as
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  Speaker 1: his brother Sam, because that's what older brothers do, right.
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  Speaker 1: They walked a little ahead and hold the door open
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  Speaker 1: for the people they love. And boy did Sam love Henry.
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  Speaker 1: They were young. Sam was twenty three, just three years
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  Speaker 1: older than Henry, and they were adventurous. They had managed
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  Speaker 1: to get work on a ship, and Sam had worked
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  Speaker 1: his way up to steersman. Their work took them all
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  Speaker 1: over and they had a lot of fun meeting new
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  Speaker 1: people and learning new things, but there were also moments
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  Speaker 1: of trouble. One of their co workers was a man
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  Speaker 1: named Brown, and Brown apparently had a checkered past as
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  Speaker 1: a troublemaker. In the course of their daily work, Henry
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  Speaker 1: discovered that Brown didn't care for him much, but he
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  Speaker 1: did his best to avoid the man, which he did
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  Speaker 1: until one day while Sam was at the helm guiding
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  Speaker 1: the ship. That was when Brown lost control and punched
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  Speaker 1: young Henry. And that wasn't a good idea. Not only
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  Speaker 1: did Sam love his brother, but he was protective of him.
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  Speaker 1: When he heard of what happened, Sam walked away from
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  Speaker 1: the helm and left the ship on its own, located Brown,
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  Speaker 1: and then laid him out cold with a powerful punch.
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  Speaker 1: It solved one problem, but it created another. Sam and
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  Speaker 1: Brown couldn't stay on the same ship any longer, so
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  Speaker 1: when the ship docked for the night in the same
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  Speaker 1: town as Sam's older sister, he left the crew and
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  Speaker 1: spent the night in town. I imagine they had dinner
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  Speaker 1: that evening, caught up on everything that had already happened
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  Speaker 1: since they last spoke, and maybe shared some laughs. Eventually, though,
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  Speaker 1: Sam went to bed, and when he did, he fell
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  Speaker 1: into a dark, tense dream. In it, he was standing
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  Speaker 1: in the living room downstairs. All of the furniture had
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  Speaker 1: been pushed out of the way, and in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the room was a coffin resting on a pair
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  Speaker 1: of chairs. The coffin was the sort that's been covered
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  Speaker 1: in a sheet of glossy metal, and the top half
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  Speaker 1: was open for viewing. So Sam crept closer. Inside he
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  Speaker 1: found his brother, Henry. He looked peaceful, and a small
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  Speaker 1: bouquet of white flowers rested on his chest. At the
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  Speaker 1: center of that white bouquet was a single red flower,
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  Speaker 1: red like blood. Sam awoke in a panic. He rushed
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  Speaker 1: to his sister's room, shook her awake, and then told
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  Speaker 1: her what he had seen. It was just a dream.
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  Speaker 1: She told him it was nothing to worry about, but
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  Speaker 1: of course dreams like that don't go away easily or quickly.
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  Speaker 1: The following day, Sam watched as the ship he had
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  Speaker 1: worked on for so long with his brother pulled out
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  Speaker 1: of port. He boarded a different one a short time
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  Speaker 1: later and followed Henry's ship from a distance. The plan
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  Speaker 1: was to wait until the captain could find a replacement
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  Speaker 1: for Brown, and then it would be safe for Sam
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  Speaker 1: to rejoin Henry on the ship. Except that never happened.
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  Speaker 1: On June, and explosion rocked the lead ship and two
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  Speaker 1: fifty passengers and crew were instantly killed. One of the survivors, however,
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  Speaker 1: was young Henry. He had been thrown high into the
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  Speaker 1: air by the explosion and then landed in the wall
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  Speaker 1: are far from the ship, but he was brave, and
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  Speaker 1: even though he was injured and horribly burned, he swam
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  Speaker 1: back to save others. By the time sam ship arrived,
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  Speaker 1: Henry had been found and removed to a hospital for
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  Speaker 1: emergency care. His lungs had been scorched by the steam
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  Speaker 1: and his body was broken to pieces inside, but he
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  Speaker 1: had saved so many others, and as a result, a
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  Speaker 1: number of crew had gathered to hold vigil around him
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  Speaker 1: as he slowly died before their eyes. And that's the
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  Speaker 1: scene Sam walked in on when he finally arrived. When
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  Speaker 1: Sam showed up the next day for the crew funeral,
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  Speaker 1: he walked into a large room filled with a dozen pale,
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  Speaker 1: wooden coffins, all except one. In the middle of the room,
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  Speaker 1: resting on two chairs was a metal coffin. Inside it,
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  Speaker 1: Sam found Henry. It turns out so many crew members
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  Speaker 1: thought of Henry as a hero that they all pitched
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  Speaker 1: in and upgraded his coffin. As Sam's it over his
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  Speaker 1: brother's body. People milled in and out of the rows
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  Speaker 1: of coffins, paying their respect. It was a somber moment,
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  Speaker 1: and the air was heavy with pain and grief. But
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of that, an elderly woman stepped through
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  Speaker 1: the crowd and approached Henry's coffin. Then she placed a
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  Speaker 1: bouquet of white flowers on his chest and walked away.
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  Speaker 1: Sam glanced at them. Sure enough, right in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the white flowers was a single red one red
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  Speaker 1: like blood. The experience altered Sam's life completely. He wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: be content to work as a steersman for much longer. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to leave his mark on the world, to
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  Speaker 1: create something beautiful by telling stories, and he did. I
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  Speaker 1: can't help but wonder if the loss of his brother
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  Speaker 1: fueled that lifetime of writing that he left behind for
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  Speaker 1: future generations to enjoy, writings that included reflections of his
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  Speaker 1: time on the ship with his brother dressed up in
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  Speaker 1: fictional characters. Of course, yes, that loss was painful, but
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  Speaker 1: it helped to create a man now known as a
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  Speaker 1: legend of American literature. Sam you see, was Samuel Clemens,
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  Speaker 1: but most of us would more easily recognize his pen name,
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  Speaker 1: Mark Twain. 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.