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Quite a Catch · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Giuseppe was a fisherman, and when he came
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  Speaker 1: to the United States just before nineteen d he wasn't
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  Speaker 1: dreaming of anything else except maybe some children to inherit
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  Speaker 1: his work, ethic, his courage, and what he knew about
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  Speaker 1: the world. In short, his legacy. That would be a challenge, though,
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  Speaker 1: because Giuseppe had left his own roots behind. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Giuseppe and his wife rosal Lee got married just a
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  Speaker 1: year before leaving their home town on the coast of Sicily.
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  Speaker 1: It was a place where fishing was a way of life.
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  Speaker 1: Ancient cisterns for fermenting fish still tell the story of
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  Speaker 1: just how long people have been passing down that livelihood,
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  Speaker 1: and in some ways Giuseppe was holding onto that history.
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  Speaker 1: He was destined to spend his life working hard as
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  Speaker 1: a fisherman, but he saw a future for himself, his wife,
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  Speaker 1: and his trade as he raised his fortunes catch by
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  Speaker 1: catch in a new land. At the turn of the
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  Speaker 1: twentieth century, there was a string of travelers leaving their
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  Speaker 1: town and heading to a new home a small village
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  Speaker 1: twenty five miles north of San Francisco called Martinez, California,
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  Speaker 1: and they weren't alone. Between eighteen ninety and nineteen, more
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  Speaker 1: than half of their Sicilian town immigrated to the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Most landed in New York City. But the hustle and
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  Speaker 1: bustle wasn't their goal, and they set their sights on
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  Speaker 1: sunny summer coasts of the Pacific. Giseppe heard about how
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  Speaker 1: good the fishing there was without batting an eye. His
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  Speaker 1: young family was on a train across the continent, headed
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  Speaker 1: for California, but it wasn't new seas they owned. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: Sicilian fishermen like Giuseppe were mostly working the Sacramento River
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  Speaker 1: netting salmon. The catch was good, but it was hard work,
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  Speaker 1: and that was fine with Giuseppe. Hard work was what
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  Speaker 1: he knew best. Like so many Americans, Giuseppe and Rosalie
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  Speaker 1: traveled with their newborn daughter, the first of a streak
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  Speaker 1: of nine children who would be raised together. And if
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  Speaker 1: Giuseppe was hoping for sons, he wouldn't be disappointed. He
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  Speaker 1: and his wife would raise five, practically a fleet of fishermen.
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  Speaker 1: So he got to work teaching what he knew to
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Michael, Vincent's, Joseph, and Dominic. As the Sicilian fishing
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  Speaker 1: family grew, they went looking for new waters. They went
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  Speaker 1: south to the wharfs of the bigger city, San Francisco,
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  Speaker 1: and they left salmon behind for other kinds of commercial fish,
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  Speaker 1: like sardines that could be packed and sold through city canaries.
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  Speaker 1: After all, Sicilian fishermen had developed tools that were uniquely
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  Speaker 1: effective at catching small fish, like the lampara net that
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  Speaker 1: swings open wide like a glove to catch whole schools
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  Speaker 1: of fish at once. It was just the kind of
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  Speaker 1: technique that made new American businesses work. And when I
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  Speaker 1: say work, I mean it. The work was harder than ever.
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  Speaker 1: And Giuseppe's last three sons, Vincent, Joseph, and Dominic, well,
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  Speaker 1: they weren't so keen on taking up their father's legacy.
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  Speaker 1: They had prospects though, Because they were in a booming city.
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  Speaker 1: The two youngest boys got jobs as paper boys, they're older.
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  Speaker 1: Sister Marie remembers once when she went downtown she saw
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  Speaker 1: them on their paper routes, but not exactly on them.
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  Speaker 1: They weren't diligently running along to deliver the papers. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they had taken one of the newspapers, crumpled it into
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  Speaker 1: a melon sized ball, and started a game of catch,
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  Speaker 1: throwing it back and forth across a wide, busy San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco street. Not only were they not fishing, they weren't
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  Speaker 1: even working. And things got worse when their brother, Vince,
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  Speaker 1: took a left turn into an American pastime that his
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  Speaker 1: father didn't value at all. He abandoned fishing for baseball.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, Vince was good enough that he got pulled
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  Speaker 1: into the local team, the San Francisco Seals, and his
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  Speaker 1: younger brothers, well, they followed in his path instead of
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  Speaker 1: their fathers. But Vince didn't last all that long. He
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  Speaker 1: was more of a charmer than a slugger. It wasn't
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  Speaker 1: all that bad. He did make it into the major leagues,
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  Speaker 1: but then he said the kind of record that most
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  Speaker 1: people don't want for their legacy, the most strikeouts in
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  Speaker 1: one year. Fortunately for Vince, many more players would go
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  Speaker 1: on to break that record in the coming years, but
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  Speaker 1: Giuseppe could only shake his head when his son couldn't
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  Speaker 1: even succeed at the game he chose over the trade
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  Speaker 1: he rejected. Things didn't go that way for Dominic, though,
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  Speaker 1: With his round glasses and short stature, he became known
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  Speaker 1: as the Little Professor, and he found his success in
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  Speaker 1: a college town Boston. Playing center field for the Red Sox,
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  Speaker 1: he smashed down records of his own. In ninety nine,
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  Speaker 1: he had a hitting streak of thirty four games. Today
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  Speaker 1: in that record remains unbroken, and it wasn't the only
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  Speaker 1: sports legacy that Dominic left in Boston, because he turned
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  Speaker 1: his stardom into a major hall when he helped found
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  Speaker 1: a new England team for a different sport, the Boston Patriots.
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  Speaker 1: Vince and Dominic succeeded, and along the way they played
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  Speaker 1: their part in building new American pastimes that could be
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  Speaker 1: shared by American families and passed down from one generation
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  Speaker 1: to another. They offered their fellow Americans a different kind
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  Speaker 1: of catch from their father's sardines, But in their father's eyes,
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  Speaker 1: both were overshadowed by their middle brother, Joseph, because what
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  Speaker 1: he had achieved in baseball outshone them all. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he outshone everyone, not just in their family, but in
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  Speaker 1: the history of the sport. Joseph even broke his little
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  Speaker 1: brother's record with his own unequaled hitting streak, going fifty
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  Speaker 1: six games in. Joseph's success put his parents in comfort
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  Speaker 1: for the rest of their lives, and it put the
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  Speaker 1: Sicilian family name in the history books to be passed
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  Speaker 1: down from one generation of baseball fans to the next,
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  Speaker 1: and Joe's family name DiMaggio. The origin of the city's
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  Speaker 1: name is unknown. It's even unclear who the first settlers
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  Speaker 1: in the area were, but needless to say, it's old
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  Speaker 1: nestled alongside a river that empties into the nearby sea.
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  Speaker 1: The town became a thriving commercial epicenter, surviving even when
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  Speaker 1: larger and more powerful cities fell to ruins. Merchants everywhere
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  Speaker 1: came through the port for trade or to supply their
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  Speaker 1: ships for more distant travels. The fertile surrounding lands and
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  Speaker 1: markets brought in ships and travelers from all over the world.
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  Speaker 1: With so much to offer, it became one of the
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  Speaker 1: most powerful maritime republics of its day. But with all
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  Speaker 1: that power and strategic location came the need to defend
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  Speaker 1: themselves against those looking to take it. The list of
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  Speaker 1: leaders and countries who sought to control the port appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be endless. It seemed that no sooner had they
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  Speaker 1: fought off one attack, that they had to fight off another.
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  Speaker 1: Now it may have been that they had fierce soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: or that they had a mind with another nearby and
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  Speaker 1: very powerful city, but one thing is certain. They had
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  Speaker 1: a formidable fleet and widely used naval rams, an underwater
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  Speaker 1: extension of a ship's bow resembling a beak covered with metal.
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  Speaker 1: As you might imagine, these rams were quite effective at
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  Speaker 1: punching holes in enemy ships. Aside from the threat from
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  Speaker 1: invaders looking to take their land, the ports also faced
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  Speaker 1: another enemy, pirates. Over time, the pirates from a particular
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  Speaker 1: country became so prolific that already sizeable fleet they had
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  Speaker 1: had to be expanded, and with the growing number of
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  Speaker 1: men brought in for the ships, the city grew as well.
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  Speaker 1: Eventually the fleet had grown to the point where they
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  Speaker 1: offered their services to their neighbors. On one occasion, they
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  Speaker 1: helped defeat a large navy. On another they came to
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  Speaker 1: the aid of a great nobleman conquering a fleet of pirates.
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  Speaker 1: The gold they earned for those services had been enormous,
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  Speaker 1: and the city used it to fund elaborate construction projects.
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  Speaker 1: One of those buildings was a church. You see, rivalry
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  Speaker 1: between cities prompted each to build more extravagant structures than
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  Speaker 1: their neighbors, and places of worship became the pinnacle by
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  Speaker 1: which each city was measured. Construction of an elaborate cathedral
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  Speaker 1: began just outside the city walls as a demonstration that
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  Speaker 1: they were not afraid of any future attacks. The site
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  Speaker 1: had originally housed a smaller church, but it had never
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  Speaker 1: been finished. Over the next couple of centuries, the new
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  Speaker 1: cathedral was expanded. Restorations began after a fire sometime later.
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  Speaker 1: But through all of this the cathedral lacked one thing,
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  Speaker 1: a bell tower. The trouble was it couldn't afford it,
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  Speaker 1: because while the city still flourished, the money from that
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  Speaker 1: long ago pirate battle had been spent. Funding came from
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  Speaker 1: a different source. A wealthy widow gave money toward the project, and,
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  Speaker 1: in typical competitive fashion, plans for the tallest bell tower
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  Speaker 1: in existence began. But as construction started, there were already problems.
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  Speaker 1: Despite the best architects, the tower was far from perfect.
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  Speaker 1: The city had other issues to deal with. Two a
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  Speaker 1: century of battles delayed finishing the tower, and then there
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  Speaker 1: was also the matter of the city shoreline, which had
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  Speaker 1: moved farther away due to silt deposits. But the builders
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  Speaker 1: were persistent and finally completed the project, albeit two hundred
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  Speaker 1: years later. The tower, made of white marble, stands on
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  Speaker 1: five feet tall inside our eight stories and seven bells,
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  Speaker 1: one for each note on the musical scale. But the
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  Speaker 1: tower isn't the only breathtaking feature of the city. There
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  Speaker 1: are over twenty other historic structures, including bridges, churches, and
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  Speaker 1: yes more towers, all funded from those earlier maritime battles.
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  Speaker 1: There's a square where knights were once headquartered, and the
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  Speaker 1: city became a hub for education too. In fact, Galileo
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  Speaker 1: was once a professor of mathematics at the local university,
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  Speaker 1: one of the oldest around. But this day it's the
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  Speaker 1: main cathedral and bell tower that this Tuscan city is
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  Speaker 1: known for. The City of Pisa. Oh and one more thing,
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  Speaker 1: there are actually three bell towers in Pisa, not one,
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  Speaker 1: and the other two have something extraordinary and common with
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  Speaker 1: their more famous sibling, both of them also lean. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,