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CLASSIC: Nosy Boraha: The Pirate's Paradise (And Cemetery) · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, we are returning to you with a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: bit of an epilogue to our continuing fascination with pirates.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Did you know, friends and neighbors, that there was a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: pirate's paradise once upon a time?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot like the wild West wasn't quite
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: as wild as people think. Do check out our previous
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: episode on that. It turns out that pirates depicted in
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: fiction often bear very little resemblance to the real life
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: historical ones. And in our previous conversations about some of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: history's most ridiculous pirates, we mentioned the quite egalitarian, dare
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: we say democratic, ways that the pirates organized their society,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and I believe we hinted at something of a pirate paradise.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, folks, Let's roll the tape. Ridiculous Histories, a production
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio. Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeart Radio.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Are with a hard, are a vast and ahoy, fellow
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians, Welcome to the show. Today, we're diving into piracy.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I guess diving is an accidental pun. There. Hi, my
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: name is Ben, my name is no.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Do were pirates known for their diving skills?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: They were maritime, you know, I would I would think
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: they would go to a great length to stay as
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: dry as possible.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: They were known for their non consensual diving skills when
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: they had to walk the plank.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Oh I felt bad about that one. No,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: it's very I think we all feel bad about that,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: but we feel great about our super producer. Give it
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: up for Casey Pegre. Now, none of us here in
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the studio, and hopefully none of you have been involved
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: in acts of IRL piracy. Let's be honest. It is
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, and in these our modern days, many people
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: are digitally pirating things. I was about to say, I
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: think we've all probably downloaded a Torrent or two in
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: our day. We're not advocating that here, but you may
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: remember that very pointed trailer where I told you about
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: how piracy does hurt people. You wouldn't download a car,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: which you wouldn't download a car. That's where you wouldn't
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: steal a car. That's right. So we're not talking about
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: that kind of piracy. We're talking about a much much
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: more brazen form of piracy. And I want to start
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: the show off by talking about the fact that in
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: this age of political correctness, and you know, people getting canceled.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Why aren't people talking more about how pirates probably aren't
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the best role model for little kids. You know, you
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: still can pirate hats and you know, pirates swords and
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: little eye patches with the Jolly Roger on.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: His sports team.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: It's a sports team. It's a lego set, you know.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It's a it's a series of lego sets.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: It's a series sets. It's a kid's cartoon. Remember the
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Pirates of Dark Water? Remember that?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Oh deep cut. I loved it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I loved it. I liked it too. They were sort
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: of like future pirates.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: They were some apocalyptic sci fi pirates, you know. Uh,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it's it's funny, Casey, you were mentioning that off the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: air as well. You specifically said, aren't pirates due to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: get canceled, which I thought was a great point. Man.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: It just seems like they get up to a lot
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: of stuff that's not so great, you know.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: The lowest of hijinks. So nowadays we romanticize pirates. However,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: this was not always the case, and we should point
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: out now that there are active pirates existing around the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: world right some based in Somalia, so based off different coasts,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and these folks are not romanticized, but we have in
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: our collective brains, we have this idealized, romanticized concept of
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a pirate, a swashbuckler, you know what I mean, A
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: lovable rogue. This romanticization begins in eighteen eighty three. It's
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: weird because we can pinpoint the exact moment where it began.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: It began, arguably with Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So Treasure Island comes out, and you guys remember Treasure Island,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: right of.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Course, swashbuckling adventures on the high seas. I believe long
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: John long John Silver. You know, all of the kind
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: of like tropes of pirate ness were sort of solidified
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: in that one book and then it was taken and
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: run with and everything from the Pirates of Dark Water
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: to the Disney Treasure Island to everything. Who knew that
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: would work.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: It's a film franchise based on a ride, and I'll
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: admit the ride's pretty dope, but it you know, when
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you're a kid, but it's it's problematic. It is definitely,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: as you guys said, romanticizing things. But yeah, Treasure Island
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: has this tremendous influence on how we think of pirates today.
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  Speaker 1: It includes all those things that we consider cliches or
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: mandatory parts of a pirate story, Treasure maps that have
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: an X on the spot, one legged sailors who have
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a trusty parrot, you know what I mean, all the hits,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: all the all that slow cool jazz. But if we
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: look at real pirates, we see a lot of dissonance
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: between what they actually were and what Hollywood would have
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: us believe. When we engage with things like talk like
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a Pirate Day or watching Pirates of the Caribbean nineteen
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: or whatever, whichever one, they're wrong. How far are they
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: into that? How many? How many?
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Well, Johnny Depp got canceled briefly, and I think he okay,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: now I can't remember because I think it maybe turned
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: out that his estranged wife was actually being abusive towards him.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I saw that pop up in the press and then
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: it kind of went away. So that's yet to be determined.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I know he's not in the next one, but they're
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: doing it without him. They're doing it without him.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Are they just gonna get Keith Stewart to do it?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not you mean Keith Richards.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: That's the one. Yeah, one of the Keith, one of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the Keith. I'm not discriminatory when it comes to Keith.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I just good a guy named Keith in there. Give
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: him some dreadlocks, put him in the film.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just kind of prop him up with a bottle
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: of rum.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Is Keith Stewart a famous for series though? That's just
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I think that's a guy who went to my high school.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: It's possible we had kind of a Keith Richard's vibe.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know any famous Stuart's except for John Stewart,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Rod Stewart. We're okay, well you got me there. He
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: did not go to oscool.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, yeah, it's amazing this kind of this
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: kind of vision, this pop culture phenomenon exists. But we
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: can we can set the stage for today's show by
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: looking at pirate fact versus pirate fiction. First things first,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the life of a pirate was grip. They were ruthless.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: This was a time of homicide. This was a time
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of murder. If you think a captain Jack Sparrow realized
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: in real life he could have never become the captain
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: of a pirate ship. He would have been killed by
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: his crew.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Was it for wearing eyeshadow?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I think it was less less the the coal liner
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and more the profound commitment to running away.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Oh that's right, because pirates didn't run away. If anything,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: they ran towards things, right, That's what they That's what
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: they had to do. You know, they had to they
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: had to capture these ships. We know that the most
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: famous pirates were probably not the most successful as well.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: We also see this whole Bury treasure thing. You know,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: it probably happened several times, but it was not common.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: It was not normal. These guys. Pirates didn't live super long.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: They weren't like long term thinking, you know what I mean.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: It's like one of the guys selling drugs and the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: wire is not wondering about what he's going to do
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: when he's eighty because he doesn't think he'll make it there.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Only here's the thing, Ben, Some pirates did kind of
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: live the equivalent of a Twilight Years retiring to Florida
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: kind of situation, didn't they They did.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: They did nail on the head. This is something that
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the three of us recently found out about. Because we're
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: all right, we understand that Hollywood doesn't depict a lot
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: of the truths about pirates, like the whole walking the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: plank thing are and I made. Those are kind of
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Hollywood creations, but some pirates did make it. Some pirates did.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: As you say, Nol have a retirement plan. There is
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  Speaker 1: a small island off the coast of Madagascar that we
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: call Nosey Burraja today weird, it's weird, it's a weird one.
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  Speaker 1: In the past it was known as the is Sainte Marie. Casey,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: could you help us out with that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you'll stall Mari. That sounds about right, Casey, and
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Ben on the case whoa and noul I thank you.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that, Ben, but you nailed it in the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: first place. We just got a little bit of confirmation
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: from our resident, what do you call him, a Francophone. Yeah,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Casey Pegram, Casey Pegrim, the.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Man, the myth, the legend. And speaking of men, myths
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and legends, there was in the Indian Ocean again, just
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: off the coast of Madagascar, a real life pirate paradise. Yeah.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: When about in the neighborhood of one thousand pirates weren't
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: out pirrating, they can't. This was kind of their summer home.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You know they're off season paradise. There was a map
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: from seventeen thirty three that was discovered of this area
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: and it was simply headed with the Island of Pirates.
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  Speaker 2: It is near the East Indies trade route, very very
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: centrally located to where these folks would have been pillaging
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  Speaker 2: and pirrating and looting and raping their way across the
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  Speaker 2: high seas. It was very convenient and it was the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: perfect place to it. It was like a real life
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  Speaker 2: treasure island in theory anyway, right, because it was perfect
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: tucked away location where they could hide all of their
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: ill gotten booty. I like saying booty, right right. Yeah.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Since a pirate named Adam Baldridge started making that his
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: base in sixteen ninety one, this became a home away
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  Speaker 1: from home or in some cases a legit first home
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: for a lot of pirates and it went on until
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  Speaker 1: seventeen nineteen with a pirate named John pro There were
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: multiple reasons for this tiny island to be attractive to pirates.
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  Speaker 1: They first off enjoyed proximity to multiple trading routes. You
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. This ships would be returning from
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the East Indies with fresh goods, fine fine clothing, spices
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and so on. And then it had a bunch of
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: bays and inlets that were protected geographically from storms. It
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: was situated in quiet, easy water. It had tons of fruit.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: You could just live off the land if you had to.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: And so a bunch of or make their own rum
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: or make their own rum. Oh that's probably more important
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: than the fruit. That was a big That was a biggie,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I think yeah, I think you're right.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: And they lived in these little huts, right, They were
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: like little wooden huts, and each one was marked with
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: an emblem or one of you know, the pirate the
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: ubiquitous pirate flags, which presumably would have been different designs
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: for the different crews that were under serving under these
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: different captains. And also, wouldn't you think, man, that some
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: of these factions wouldn't necessarily be like vying for the
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: same stuff, Like there wasn't necessarily like an overall brotherhood
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: of pirates. To my understanding, it was sort of like
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: every man, every crew for themselves kind of situation. And
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: yet they managed to coexist on this island, That's true.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Quite a few of them managed to coexist, So maybe
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: they had kind of a truce situation. But we're talking
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: legendary real pirates, William Kidd, Robert Culliford, Henry Avery, Abraham,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Samuel Thomas, two and so on. The island had a
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: main town called Embodi Futatra, which is a mouthful. And
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  Speaker 2: they also had family here, you know. They they met
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: women who were native to the area, and they had children,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: and they evolved this sort of non criminal lifestyle, but
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: they took a bunch of stuff with them. So the
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: island today remains allegedly home to massive amounts of missing
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: loot or as you prefernal booty, booty, booty hard d.
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  Speaker 2: So we're talking gold, we're talking coins, works of art,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: religious artifacts, precious stones, and legend has it that the
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: treasure of William Kidd is still buried somewhere in this
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: pirate island, in the bay near the main town, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: people have been hunting around this area for buried treasure
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: for decades and decades and decades and decades. But one
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: thing that really fascinated us was the culture that sprang
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: up on this island, particularly that there is an actual
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: pirate cemetery that's nuts, there's actually there, you know, like
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: the whole nine. They are tombstones.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: They're weird messages and codes and skulls and there's actually
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: there's skulls inscribed on the tombstones.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Totally, and that whole Jolly Roger imagery. Yes, so it's
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: not a huge one. It's on a hill shaded by
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: palm trees and it overlooks the ocean and pretty small.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Only about thirty real life irl pirates are buried there,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: and they were buried there because they were residents of
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: this island. This was their home away from their home
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: on the high Seas, I guess. And you can still
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: go visit this site today.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you can go tour it the same way
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that you could see another local attraction. It's only about
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: three or four dollars to go us. There's a small
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: pathway behind this long way wall which is south of
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the capital, and signs from there will lead you to
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the cemetery. There's a small hut where you can pay
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: your entrance fee and you can learn more about the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: pirates that are buried in the in the area, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: then you can walk over to Saint Pierre. The problem
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: is that over the years, surprise, surprise, not a lot
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of people have put time into taking care of the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: gravestones on the grave site. So a lot of a
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: lot of graves and crips were damaged because because of
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: a very understandable crime. I have to say, guys, if
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I grew up in this area, or if I were
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: interested in being around pirates and finding their treasure, I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: would totally mess with their graves because I would figure
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: they would be buried with their stuff. Because again I
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: have like a goonies level understanding of real pirates.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, to be fair, that's probably one
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: of the more historically accurate pirate films that's out there,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: right right right. Mine was Pippy long Stocking or Pippy
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: long Stocking. I do she was? She was she a pirate.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: She wasn't a she was on a pirate ship. There
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: was a pirate, I believe. I believe she served under
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: some sort of pirate and she had a monkey, right
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: I think?
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So, you know, I mainly remember her hair. But it's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: it's true, though, this is one of the misc inceptions
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: that's leading to pretty serious damage to this real life
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: pirate cemetery. Pirates didn't again, they didn't really bury treasure.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: It could happen, but it was not commonplace instead. Just
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: imagine if you listening and Casey and Noel and I
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: are all together and we're pirates. We're sailing the high seas,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and we rob a ship and we get our booty
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: with the hard tea. Then we're going to keep it
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: on this ship, and then later we'll divide it up
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: amongst ourselves. Again, this idea of buried treasure comes from
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Treasure Island, and the X marks the spot. The whole
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: nine largely fictive. The only person we know for sure
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to bury anything was Captain Kidd, and the entire reason
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: he buried his treasure was to keep it away from
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the Governor of New York. He buried it outside of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: New York, I don't know, like Yonkers or something. I'm kidding.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: He didn't do it in Yonkers.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: So one of the I don't know, slightly more well known,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: certainly not as well of them as Billy. The kid
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: pirates that was laid to rest in this graveyard and
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: spent a lot of time on this island was a
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: French Corsair by the name of Olivier Lavasier or a
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: ka LaBouche, LaBouche LaBouche.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Casey, can we get a sound effect for that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Of course, that means the mouth. I don't know if
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: he has some sort of weird snaggletooth kind of situation
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: going on, or if he just talked too much. But
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: apparently dead men tell no tales. But here's the thing,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: LaBouche did tell tales after his passing, in the form
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: of a cipher. I know you're a fan of a
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: good cipher, and we're not talking about a freestyle rap, ben,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: are we no?
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: But fun fact, I am actually very scarily to freestyling. Yeah,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: we're talking about a cipher is in a code. So
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: he's executed in seventeen thirty for as many, many, many
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: many crimes as a scaly wag, a buccaneer and so on.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: But apparently, moments before his execution he yelled, find my treasure,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the one who may understand, and hurled a necklace into
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the crowd. And this necklace had sort of a note,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: but it was actually a cipher is a seventeen line
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: coded message. And you can see you can see photographs
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: of this cipher on a great article by Magellan Times.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: The cipher itself remained It's unsolved today, right, No one's
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: cracked it.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: I believe that's true, and not that it wasn't attempted,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: because maybe it's just maybe no one's figured it out yet.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, on the same article there is like a
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: key with some of the little symbols and what letter
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: they're present, But obviously it didn't do the trick.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: And not for nothing people have been trying to find
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: this for such a long time. There's a guy named
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Barry Clifford who is a real life treasure hunter and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: somewhat successful too. That that's nuts to me. Do you
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: guys think about that. We're here in our podcast studio
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and we're we're having a lovely time making shows and
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: exploring these stories, but this guy is actually out hunting treasure.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I gotta say, if I had to pick another job,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: no offense to you guys, but I would totally be
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: a treasure hunter. Would you guys be in like if
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: we had a chance of finding treasure.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Like Steve Zisu's style, Yes, well he was more like
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: a naturalist, like a figure, but yeah, I'd be down,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: especially if you knew a good area to look. Where
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: might that be?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: It's almost as though we've been talking about what might
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: have been a hotbed of pirate activity. It boggles the
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: boggles the mind, and it boggles Barry Clifford's mind to
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: the point where he decided, surely there are remnants of
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: sunk in pirate galleys and all of the accompanying booty
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: littered throughout Sant Marie. He told The Daily Mail in
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: twenty fifteen that pirates had more money than they could
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: spend in ten lifetimes. So surely there's stuff squirreled away
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: in these little lagoons or you know, in caves or
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: what have you. Right, yeah, yeah, so surely he must
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: have had complete success, and he is now a very
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: wealthy man.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Right he changed his name to Jeff Bezos. No, he
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: goes on and he says, he's like, yeah, you know,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: back in the day, if you were a pirate, this
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: island's where you would go. It's where all the pirates
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: hung out.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Why is this guy so haggard sounding.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: He's lived a hard life, you know what I mean.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: He doesn't wear sunscreen, so that's the secret. It's very apparently,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: it's very bad for your throat not to wear sunscreen.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: But he has been exploring the island for almost well
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: more than twenty years, and during this time, he's found
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: thirteen separate distinct ship and you can see you can
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: see photos, you can see some of the stuff that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: he's that he's extracted from these crash sites or these
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: uh oh, some of these ships were probably scuttled too,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: if their damage was too great. And I know you
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: love that word.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Scuttle, but scuttle, but would be rumors if I say scuttled,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: but I said scuttled.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Some of these ships were scuttled. I know that's one
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: of your favorite.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Words, is but it would have been funny if you
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: had said, I know some of these ships were scuttled, but.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: It would have been yeah, it's true. The jokes that
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: would have been everybody who's seen Hunger Games, go ahead,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: kiss your fingers, do the uh what what was that motion?
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Oh that's I always thought of that as sort of
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: like a badass like sign off, like I'm out yeah.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think both of us have done
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that in social situations before. But anyway, Yes, he has
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: not found treasure. Clifford has not. He has, however, found
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: religious artifacts. He's found ships, of course, and pieces of ships.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: One of his big one of his big recoveries was
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: an early statue of Jesus Christ from the thirteenth or
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: fourteenth century. So who knows whether you have a dream
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: job or something that's just sort of a means to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: an end right now, maybe a career in treasure hunting
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: is for you. It takes some dedication, and it sounds
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: like it takes a lot of overhead, but I would
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: personally love it. I would love it if someone listening
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: now actually found buried treasure, you know what I mean,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: because even we know it was super unusual. No, it's
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: largely a myth, but that doesn't mean it's totally a myth.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: The treasure's out there right Also hashtag no oak.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Island Remind me about Oak Island again?
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Then the Oak Island money Pit. We did a show
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: on this for stuff they don't want you to know,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and the Oak Island money Pit in Nova Scotia is
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: thought to be a site of largely unrecovered buried treasure.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Now this has also become a reality show phenomenon, so
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the producers got involved and now you will see all
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: kinds of here you go scuttle butt at about what's
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: actually in the ground there.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Thanks for doing that for me, Ben.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Hey Man, I got your back. So some things have
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: been carbon dated. Some people have claimed that they found something,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: but they haven't found any significant treasure. The thing is,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: there are real buried treasures out there, and I would
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I would love to be a part of finding one.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: So you know, hit us up, Hit us up on
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians if you have a If you have a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: pitch for a likely sight of buried treasure, you can
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: find us on Facebook where we are Ridiculous Historians.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: It's a group that we have. You might have heard
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: of a time or two. We tend to mention it.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: You can join just simply by saying Ben in my name,
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: and the same way you might some and a genie
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: in some sort of secret cave.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And of course there you will also see our good
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: friends Superducer, Casey Pegrim and Christopher Hasiotis, among others. You know,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I noticed some of our coworkers are sort of stealth
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: hanging out on that page.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Have you seen that? Totally a lot of Larkin.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram. If
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you want to get a peek behind the curtain, you
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: can follow. You can follow us on our personal instagrams.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I am at Ben Bolin.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: I am at Embryonic Insider and big thanks to super
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: producer Casey Pegrim. As always thanks to Alex Williams who
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: composed our theme. Thanks to our Here in Spirit cohort
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Christopher Hasiotis, who is one day going to see the
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: light about how amazing a movie Mandy is.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And let us know about your favorite pirate throughout history, And.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Let me know was Pippy Longstocking a pirate? I don't know.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I forget, it was a long time ago. We'll see
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: your favorite shows.