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Ships Ahoy · 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 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. It only took four months
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  Speaker 1: to build, but by the time it launched from Philadelphia
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  Speaker 1: in April of seventeen eighty, the U S S. Saratoga
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  Speaker 1: was one of the finest sloops to ever sail during
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  Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War. She was sixty eight feet long and
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  Speaker 1: weighed one fifty tons. With a complement of eighty six officers,
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  Speaker 1: Her armament consisted of sixteen nine pounder guns as well
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  Speaker 1: as two four pounder guns, allowing her to protect herself
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  Speaker 1: and the ship she escorted from the Delaware River to
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  Speaker 1: England and everywhere in between. Their first mission had been
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  Speaker 1: to accompany the male ship Mercury from Philadelphia to Europe. However,
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  Speaker 1: the Sarasota's crew had been untrained and the ship proved
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  Speaker 1: unstable on the high seas. As a result, it was
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  Speaker 1: relieved of its duties so it's captain, John Young could
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  Speaker 1: whip his men into shape while awaiting further orders. He
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  Speaker 1: taught them how to run the ship as a team
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  Speaker 1: and operate the guns, turning the Saratoga into a formidable
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  Speaker 1: vessel despite her size. They spent the next year sailing
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  Speaker 1: in pursuit of enemies along the Eastern Seaboard, capturing British
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  Speaker 1: cargo ships and escorting them back home to have their
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  Speaker 1: contents sold, bringing much needed funding to the Continental Army.
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  Speaker 1: After several successful missions, including a recent recapture of a
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  Speaker 1: British brig named Providence, it was time for the U. S. S.
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  Speaker 1: Saratoga to return to Philadelphia for some minor repairs, and
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  Speaker 1: then it would begin the biggest mission of its career.
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  Speaker 1: In December of seventeen eighty, Captain Young and his crew
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  Speaker 1: set out for the Caribbean, their destination the Isle of Hispaniola,
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  Speaker 1: where they'd received word that a cash of French military
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  Speaker 1: supplies were awaiting transportation back to America. Once the ship
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  Speaker 1: reached the tropical waters off the coast of the island,
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  Speaker 1: one of the merchant men aboard spotted a British sale
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  Speaker 1: not far from their position. The Saratoga went to investigate,
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  Speaker 1: and when they got close enough, they fired a four
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  Speaker 1: pound shot across the ship's bow. Now identified as the Resolution,
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  Speaker 1: the enemy ship turned to attack. The return fire didn't
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  Speaker 1: do much damage to the Saratoga, but Captain Young's crew
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  Speaker 1: managed to seriously injure the other vessel, forcing them to surrender.
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  Speaker 1: He sent a small prize crew to take the Resolution
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  Speaker 1: up to Delaware for processing, an auction escorted by the Saratoga.
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  Speaker 1: They reached their destination on New Year's Day of seventy one,
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  Speaker 1: dropped off the Resolution and set sail once again for
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  Speaker 1: the Caribbean. Hours later, as they reached Florida, the Saratoga
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  Speaker 1: caught another enemy ship, the Tonian. After an intense struggle,
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  Speaker 1: towards the end of January, the Saratoga arrived on the
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  Speaker 1: coast of Haiti with a Tonian in tow. The prize
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  Speaker 1: ship was handed over to the French Admiralty Court, while
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  Speaker 1: the Saratoga awaited the French military supplies that it had
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  Speaker 1: originally come for. The governor of a local French colony
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  Speaker 1: asked the Saratoga to accompany the other Continental frigates in
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  Speaker 1: the harbor on their way to Jamaica, which Captain Young
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  Speaker 1: was only too happy to oblige. After all, his job
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  Speaker 1: wasn't just to capture enemy ships, but to escort allies
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  Speaker 1: to safety as well. A full month passed before the
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  Speaker 1: convoy of frigates and merchant ships left the coast of
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  Speaker 1: Haiti one last time, bound for the Cabbean. Three days
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  Speaker 1: into their journey, however, they spotted two sails off to
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  Speaker 1: the west. The Saratoga took off in pursuit of the
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  Speaker 1: rogue ships, one of which surrendered right away. Captain Young
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  Speaker 1: tasked a crew headed by his midships men, a man
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  Speaker 1: named Pinfield, with commandering the latest prize. Young and the
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  Speaker 1: Saratoga planned on going after the other ship. Penfield watched
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  Speaker 1: as the Saratoga pursued the second ship when high winds
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  Speaker 1: nearly capsized his newly acquired vessel. Correcting the ship only
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  Speaker 1: took a few minutes, but by the time he had
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  Speaker 1: studied it and glanced back up at the ocean, the
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  Speaker 1: Saratoga was gone. It hadn't faded off into the horizon
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  Speaker 1: or sailed out of view behind something larger. It had
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  Speaker 1: simply disappeared utterly and completely, and the Saratoga, along with
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  Speaker 1: its crew and Captain Young, we're never seen again. Curious.
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  Speaker 1: When the first commercial electrical telegraph debuted in eighteen thirty seven,
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  Speaker 1: it heralded a new era of long range communication. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: knows about Samuel Morse and his system of dots and dashes,
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  Speaker 1: but it was the device created by William Cook and
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  Speaker 1: Charles Wheatstone that really put the telegraph on the map.
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  Speaker 1: Their telegraph consisted of a series of needles that pointed
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  Speaker 1: to letters on a board with the help of electromagnetic coils.
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  Speaker 1: For early operators who didn't want to bother learning a
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  Speaker 1: whole new language, the Cook and wheat Stone telegraph proved
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  Speaker 1: easy to use, and thus it was widely adopted. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it's use in catching the murderer John tay well In
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  Speaker 1: probably helped the public and other organizations accept the telegraph
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  Speaker 1: in their daily lives. But no invention, no matter how useful,
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  Speaker 1: stays the same forever it is iterated upon. To increase
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  Speaker 1: efficiency and reduce cost, The Cook and Wheatstone system was
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  Speaker 1: easy to use, but it was expensive to maintain. It
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  Speaker 1: also took longer to send simple messages. The Morse code system,
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  Speaker 1: while appearing more difficult to learn at first, was eventually
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  Speaker 1: adopted and understood by skilled technicians who could distinguish letters
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  Speaker 1: by the length of intervals between clicks. Then they would
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  Speaker 1: write out the messages longhand on a piece of paper.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, the technology still had a room to grow,
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  Speaker 1: and in eighteen fifty one one man had a theory
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  Speaker 1: about how to transmit messages all over the world even faster.
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  Speaker 1: It required no special code or training. His idea let
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  Speaker 1: mother nature do the work. Jacques Toussain Benois was a
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  Speaker 1: French occultist with a fascination for how animals communicated. For example,
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  Speaker 1: he suggested that when snails made it, they secreted a
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  Speaker 1: special fluid that allowed them to talk to one another telepathically.
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  Speaker 1: He called it sympathetic communication, and he believed the connection
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  Speaker 1: worked immediately anywhere in the world, no matter how far
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  Speaker 1: apart the snails were. Benois, however, had no money to
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  Speaker 1: construct his snail telegraph, so he convinced a Paris gym
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  Speaker 1: owner named Monsieur Tree to provide him a place to
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  Speaker 1: stay and a small allowance. After having convinced him how
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  Speaker 1: important it was that he brought his work to fruition.
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  Speaker 1: A year went by and Tria demanded to see what
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  Speaker 1: his hospitality had earned him. Ben Wat showed him what
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  Speaker 1: he had been working on. He'd built a scaffold using
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  Speaker 1: wooden beams about ten ft long. Atop the beams were
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  Speaker 1: twenty four bulls made of zinc which had been lined
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  Speaker 1: with cloth drenched in copper sulfate. Glued to the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of each bowl was a snail linked to a different
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  Speaker 1: letter of the alphabet. It also constructed an identical machine,
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  Speaker 1: except in each of its bowls were the mates of
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  Speaker 1: the snails in the first machine. Whenever he tapped a
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  Speaker 1: snail on one device, the corresponding snail on the other
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  Speaker 1: device would react. At least that was the idea. Benois
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  Speaker 1: demonstrated his contraption to Tria as well as to a
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  Speaker 1: journalist from a popular conservative publication at the time. He
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  Speaker 1: instructed each of the men to stand behind one of
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  Speaker 1: the device is and tap out a word, one snail
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  Speaker 1: at a time, while ben Wah would await the message
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  Speaker 1: at the other device and repeat it back to them
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  Speaker 1: when they finished. The journalist was floored by what he witnessed.
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  Speaker 1: He called it a revelation. Tria, however, wasn't convinced to
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  Speaker 1: him it didn't work as advertised. Tria had spelled out
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  Speaker 1: the word jim nas, which ben Wat transcribed as jim
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  Speaker 1: No eight. The inventor also had a habit of strolling
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  Speaker 1: up and down the aisle formed between the two devices
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  Speaker 1: to monitor how the men were operating it, which didn't
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  Speaker 1: sit well with his skeptical investor. Tria figured the whole
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  Speaker 1: operation to be a sham. He ordered a second demonstration
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  Speaker 1: to be conducted in the coming days, which Ben Wah
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  Speaker 1: happily agreed to. Except the demonstration never happened. You see,
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  Speaker 1: when the big day finally arrived, Ben Wat was nowhere
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  Speaker 1: to be found. He'd slipped away, leaving Tria and the
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  Speaker 1: journalist high and dry with a bunch of snails to
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  Speaker 1: clean up. In hindsight, the whole idea it turned out
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  Speaker 1: to be too good to be true, if only a
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  Speaker 1: Tria had gotten the message. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious,