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Shore Thing · 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. To the last, I
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  Speaker 1: grapple with the from hell's heart. I stab at thee
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  Speaker 1: for hate's sake. I spit my last breath at the
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  Speaker 1: These are the last words spoken by ahab Herman, Melville's
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  Speaker 1: obsessed whaling captain, who spent years hunting the white whale
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  Speaker 1: that took his leg. Moby Dick is a cautionary tale
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  Speaker 1: about the price of fanaticism, how it can cloud our judgment.
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  Speaker 1: But even though the book was already thirty years old
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  Speaker 1: by the time some Scottish whalers found their own Moby Dick,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't seem to let it stop them from suing
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  Speaker 1: the animal for fame and fortune. Whalers from Dundee, major
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  Speaker 1: whaling port on the eastern coast of Scotland, often hunted
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  Speaker 1: in the Arctic. However, the winter months had brought in
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  Speaker 1: cold that prevented them from sailing to their usual waters
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  Speaker 1: up north, so instead they decided to hunt closer to home.
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  Speaker 1: Their local newspaper had been reporting for weeks on a
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  Speaker 1: whale sided in the area, first in the river, then
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  Speaker 1: in a narrow inlet known as the Firth of Day.
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  Speaker 1: Not long into their first trip, they spotted the humpback whale,
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  Speaker 1: just the kind of animal that would net them a
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  Speaker 1: small fortune once harvested for its blubber and bones. They
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  Speaker 1: hurled harpoons at it, hoping to injure it enough so
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  Speaker 1: they could tow it to shore, but the whale had
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  Speaker 1: other plans. It towed to rowboats and two steamboats instead
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  Speaker 1: for miles down the Scottish coast. The whalers worked until
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  Speaker 1: morning trying to reel in the massive humpback, but it
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  Speaker 1: eventually snapped the ropes on the harpoons and swam away.
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  Speaker 1: Unbeknownst to the men on the boats. However, the whale
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  Speaker 1: had taken on too much damage. One week later, some
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  Speaker 1: fishermen found it floating just off the coast of Stonehaven,
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  Speaker 1: toward the north of Scotland. They brought it ashore, where
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  Speaker 1: a local anatomy professor named John Struthers took its measurements.
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  Speaker 1: The whale that had led the men of Dundee on
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  Speaker 1: an all night chase was forty ft long with eleven
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  Speaker 1: and a half foot long flukes. This was one of
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  Speaker 1: the largest whales ever captured on record. A windfall, to
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  Speaker 1: say the least, but not in the way that they
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  Speaker 1: had expected. Rather than strip it of its skin and
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  Speaker 1: bones as with other whales, a local oil merchant named
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  Speaker 1: John Wood paid to have the whale brought to his yard.
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  Speaker 1: It took twenty six hours and twenty horses to card
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  Speaker 1: it to Woods property. From there, he charged visitors a
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  Speaker 1: small price to gaze upon the whale, like a kind
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  Speaker 1: of sideshow curiosity. Over twelve thousand people paid to see
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  Speaker 1: it on the first day. Of course, even though the
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  Speaker 1: winter cold may have slowed the whales decay, it didn't
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  Speaker 1: completely stop it. Three weeks later, the routing carcass was
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  Speaker 1: stinking up the neighborhood and Dr Struther's returned to dissect
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  Speaker 1: what was left. Would charge spectators to watch. Struthers removed
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  Speaker 1: the whale skeleton, and when the dissection was done, the
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  Speaker 1: whale's flesh was embalmed. Not one to give up on
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  Speaker 1: his cash cow or cash whale in this instance, would
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  Speaker 1: had the whole animal reassembled over a wooden frame so
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  Speaker 1: that it could be toured all over Britain. The tay
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  Speaker 1: whale traveled through Ireland, Liverpool, London and finally rested back
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  Speaker 1: home in Dundee. For decades, the whale remained on display
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  Speaker 1: for the folks of Dundee as well as visiting tourists
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  Speaker 1: to see the creature that had taken a group of
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  Speaker 1: sailors on an all night hunt. Today, the whale skeleton
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  Speaker 1: is still on display in Dundee's McManus Museum, although its
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  Speaker 1: skin has long since fallen away. It hangs from the
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  Speaker 1: ceiling far from the waters at once swam as a
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  Speaker 1: reminder of our brutal passed and that it doesn't take
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  Speaker 1: a lost leg to drive one man's obsession. Some times,
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  Speaker 1: all he's after is a quick buck. From nineteen thirteen
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  Speaker 1: to nineteen forty, popular comic strip by Arthur Momon, also
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  Speaker 1: known as Pop showed the unsuccessful exploits of a family
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  Speaker 1: struggling to measure up to their wealthy neighbors. The strip,
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  Speaker 1: titled keeping Up with the Joneses, inspired that popular saying
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  Speaker 1: still used to this day to describe the endless pursuit
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  Speaker 1: of a higher social status as compared to others. Although
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  Speaker 1: the saying became popular while the strip was in circulation.
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  Speaker 1: The name Jones was used as a comparative benchmark long
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  Speaker 1: before that, going all the way back to the eighteen fifties.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, a man named Whittaker Wright spent much of
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  Speaker 1: his life keeping up with the Joneses around that time,
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  Speaker 1: when he was living in both the US and England.
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  Speaker 1: While living in Philadelphia in the eighteen eighties, Right made
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  Speaker 1: his money as a promoter of silver mining companies in
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  Speaker 1: Colorado and New Mexico. His goal was to get investors
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  Speaker 1: to fund expeditions into the minds, presumably to harvest the
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  Speaker 1: supposed silver inside. The shareholders for these companies didn't make
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  Speaker 1: any money, but Right certainly took home a sizeable paycheck
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  Speaker 1: With a small fortune to his name. He eventually moved
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  Speaker 1: back to England, where he started the London and Globe Company.
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  Speaker 1: This was another venture into mining, except this time it
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  Speaker 1: dealt with stocks and bonds pertaining to the minds rather
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  Speaker 1: than straight investments. By the eighteen nineties, Right had accumulated
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  Speaker 1: enormous wealth for himself and his family, and he felt
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  Speaker 1: it only proper to use that wealth to elevate his
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  Speaker 1: status within the upper crust of English Society. The first
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  Speaker 1: thing he bought was a yacht, which was one of
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  Speaker 1: the fastest ever built at the time. Next, he purchased
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  Speaker 1: two estates in Surrey, one named Lee Park and one
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  Speaker 1: named South Park Farm. They were enormous properties and he
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  Speaker 1: developed them into one massive estate known today as Whitley Park.
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  Speaker 1: Whilly Park would become famous for its thirty two room mansion,
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  Speaker 1: complete with its own observatory, personal theater, and a fifty
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  Speaker 1: horse set of stables. There were also three man made lakes,
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  Speaker 1: which got right into hot water with locals who didn't
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  Speaker 1: appreciate the nine thousand acres of farmland that he drowned
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  Speaker 1: when making them. Aside from the lakes, observatory, and theater,
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  Speaker 1: Whitley Park also boasted its own race track known as
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  Speaker 1: the Velodrome, as well as a hospital meant just for
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  Speaker 1: Mr Wright and his loved ones. But the most unique
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  Speaker 1: room in the house, and the one he was most
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  Speaker 1: proud of, was the smoking room. The smoking rooms domed
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  Speaker 1: ceiling was made almost entirely of glass. Outside right had
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  Speaker 1: an aquarium constructed where guests could pass the time by
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  Speaker 1: puffing on cigars while watching fish swim by. Visitors would
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  Speaker 1: access the room by descending stairs that led down and
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  Speaker 1: out of the main house and into the lake. That's right,
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  Speaker 1: the lake. The roof aquarium outside of right smoking room
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  Speaker 1: was actually one of the lakes, and the fish swimming
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  Speaker 1: by lived inside it. The whole structure was built underwater.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone looking out at the lake from the shore would
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  Speaker 1: only see a statue of Neptune seemingly rising out of
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  Speaker 1: the water. It was attached to the top of the dome,
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  Speaker 1: and if there were people smoking down below, smoke would
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  Speaker 1: often waft out from the statue's mouth, which acted as
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  Speaker 1: a kind of ventilation shaft. Rights estate and his unique
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  Speaker 1: eye for underwater architecture made him very popular among Victorian elites. However,
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  Speaker 1: his shady business practices would soon catch up with him.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen o four, he was convicted of fraud for
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  Speaker 1: funneling money from one of his companies to another that
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  Speaker 1: had been on the verge of bankruptcy. Investors had been
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  Speaker 1: duped out of their returns, and Right couldn't bear the
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  Speaker 1: thought of spending seven years in prison. He passed away
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  Speaker 1: just after the trial ended, and his estate was quickly
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  Speaker 1: sold off. A man named Lord Piery bought it all,
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  Speaker 1: which seemed kind of fitting. You see, Lord Pierry knew
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  Speaker 1: all about oceanic architecture. In fact, he would go on
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  Speaker 1: to play a huge role in building another large structure
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  Speaker 1: that would eventually end up living beneath the waves, that structure,
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  Speaker 1: the Titanic. 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. Yeah,