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CLASSIC: How Admiral Horatio Nelson Ended Up Dead in a Barrel of Brandy · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Phil Ridiculous Historians. Welcome back to our weekly classic episode.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had a moment where you thought, if
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I don't change my ways, I'm gonna end up dead
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in a barrel of brandy?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Totally happens to me every day. Is what makes me
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: fly right, Ben and live clean?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: There we go, right. We are big fans of larger
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: than life historical figures, and this episode from twenty nineteen
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: features none other than the naval legend Admiral Horatio Nelson.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Not to be confused with Horatio Hornblower. That's a different person.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: That's a different person, Okay, right on.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: That is a fictional person, a British Royal naval captain
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: during the Napoleonic Wars, from a series of novels from
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties by C. S.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Forrestern. I wonder if some of Admiral Nelson's real life
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: maritime adventures informed that character. What do you think?
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's entirely accurate.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: So okay, this guy dies on October twenty first, eighteen
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: oh five. He is shot while standing on the deck
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of his ship, and his crew is left with a dilemma,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a real pickle. How do they bring his body back to.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Bury it home. Yeah, why don't we jump right in?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Well, here we
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: are again, friends and neighbors. It is a Friday afternoon
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: here in the studio. We are off to adventures historical
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and contemporary. And this weekend we may be tapping the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Admiral sampling a bit of Nelson's blood.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm definitely gonna do that, like immediately after we
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: record this. And I don't mean getting vampiric right up
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: in the pub right, this is this is a little
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: bit different.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tapping the Admiral is not poking military right right.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: It's also known it's a phrase from the Royal Navy.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It's also called bleeding the monkey or sucking the monkey,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: which I think are both kind of weird. Yeah.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I did not come across the hose Ben, which is
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: your name, and your.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Knowls's true And we're joined with our super producer, Casey Pegram.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Casey and I have had a very very very scant
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: amount of sleep. So if there are any inaccuracies or
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: weirdness in today's episode, that's on me and Noel. Thank you,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and I hope your back doesn't hurt after carrying us
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: through this one.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Man. You know, I love it when you're a little punchy,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: whether it be from emerging from crazy jet lag or
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: dare I say, still in the throes of it, or
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: being a little sleep deprived. I always find you a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: fun and punchy character. Thanks man, Thanks, I appreciate it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: And likewise, of course, tapping the admiral, what does that mean?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: What's that refer to?
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: It is when you drink liquor or any kind of
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: fermented beverage directly from the cask using a straw.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's it, And that's also what they what they're
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: referring to when the members of the Royal Navy say
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: bleeding the monkey or sucking the monkey, which still seems
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: woefully inadequate in comparison to tapping the admiral. That sounds classy,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: even though drinking straight up liquor from a barrel through
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a straws maybe not the classiest thing. It seems, dare
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: we say, slightly barbaric. But that's life at sea, you know.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, goodness, boy, will you get a load
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: of some life at sea, some harrowing life at sea
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in this particular story. So why don't we start from
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the beginning, Yes, to introduce our main character, the admiral
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: in question.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, there is a specific admiral to whom the British
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Royal Navy is referring to as Admiral Horatio Nelson, and
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Admiral Horatio Nelson is a pretty larger than life figure, right, Yeah.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Larger than life legacy wise, but in terms of his stature,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I think he was under six feet tall.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes he was. He was not NBA status right.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: He eventually became the first Viscount Nelson and the first
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Duke of Bronte. He was born on the twenty ninth
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of September seventeen fifty eight in Norfolk, England. He was
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the sixth of eleven children.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: See I feel like that matters, I really do. Some
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: of the greatest men and women in history have been
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: part of big families because they have to figure out
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: how to like scrap and you know, carry their own weight,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you know, among all of the competition, whether they're vying
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: for their parents' affection or just like learning how to
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: do stuff right right, or.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: They're in some cases fighting for food, which was not
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Nelson's situation.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: As far as we don't know. We don't think so either.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Yet at the age of twenty. By the age of twenty,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: he already had command of his own ship, which was
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: the Albemarle, and he became a very important figure during
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the outbreak of the French Revolution in seventeen ninety two.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Mm.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Yep, it's absolutely true. Now this guy had been this
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: guy hit the high seas by the age of twelve,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: that's right. So by the age of twenty, this was
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: not his first maritime rodeo.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: No, you're right, but still at twenty, that's a pretty
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: big responsibility. Like you said, he joined the Merchant Marines
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: and that was during the the fight against the Americans
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: during the War of Independence.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he even took part in a failed scientific
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: expedition to the Arctic. He was living life, you know.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: But you're bringing this sword a pivotal point in his
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: life because it was during his twenties, during these French
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: revolutionary wars, that he began to exhibit a tactical talent,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: a knack for command. He was considered remarkable and a genius.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And in seventeen ninety seven, on Valentine's Day, which was yesterday, right,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: he had his huge crowning achievement at the Battle of
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent. How did that go down?
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he really exhibited some mobility to think outside the
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: box militarily when he decided that he would break line
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: with the actual commander of the British fleet, which sounds
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: to me a little bit like disobeying.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Orders in subordination.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: And apparently if they would have lost this particular battle,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: he would have gotten his wrists slapped or you know,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: dare I say, been put in the stockades.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: He would have been booted out, he would have been
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: court martials, that's right.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: But instead it proved to be his crowning achievement, like
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: you said, or at least one of his early claims
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: to fame. So what ended up happening was he saved
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the British from defeat at the hands of the Spanish,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: who had them licked in terms of number, in terms
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: of sheer volume of troops. Would you call them troops
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: when they're at sea? They're not really troops at sea,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: are there? They're more they're sailors.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: I guess they're the enemy.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: They that's all the matters, That's all the matters.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: It's also weird how whenever you hear a historical account
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that refers to a group of actual human beings as
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: just the French or the Spanish, it sounds like they're
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: way more insidious than they actually are.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: It's true. So instead of that court martial that he
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: was just cruising four, he got knighted.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Yes he did, he did, and he continued on this
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: upward trajectory career wise, he did not have a perfect record,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and he did not escape unscathed. He was wounded in
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: July seventeen ninety.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Seven in a grizzly turn.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, the way that you'll hear it phrased. For instance,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: in a great article we read on history Collection dot
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: co by Alexander Meddings, a whiff of grape shot shredded.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: His arm shredded, and most of what was left of
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: it had to be amputated to prevent infection from spreading
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and grape shot For anyone who does it, do we
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: talk about what this is?
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: I think we did. I mean, it's sort of the
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: equivalent of like buckshot, but it's like steel balls like
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: that spread out and just literally rip into everything at
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: viscerate flesh and bone.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's a number of small iron
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: balls fire all together at once.
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  Speaker 2: You shoot that from a cannon, not like a musket
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: or something, right, Yeah, exactly.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Exactly, And when they're assembled they look like a cluster
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: of grapes, very very nasty ammunition. So get this. This
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: is I think this is cool. After he had his
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: right arm cut off, he kept issuing commands while he
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: was on the surgery bed. And keep in mind, in
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the late seventeen hundred, surgery is very very dangerous.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and another important player in this story is, in fact,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: his surgeon, who will come into the picture when we
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: get into the kind of the main focus of the story. Absolutely.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, like you said, he had the arm amputated,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: he survived, which was incredibly rare in any kind of amputation.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: And he got into stand up pretty much as a
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: result of this.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he made some good banter on the on the
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: surgery bed and also had a nice little pet name
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: for what was left of of his arm.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, he called it his fin and is adorable. It's weird.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: It's definitely military humor, and it's also nautical humor. It's
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: also nautical humor. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: that if he had not pursued a military fame, you know,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: maybe he could have gotten into the stand up circuit.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, got a little bit of a running
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: start into that field, because I don't think it really
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: picked up steam until like the you know, the Catskills
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: kind of era. Right, Well, there were gestures, that's true,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: that's true, But this is he was doing more bits
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: though he was doing.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Right, this is way before vaudeville. And if you would
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: like to learn more about vaudeville and you haven't checked
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: it out yet, do listen to our two part episode
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: on the history of stand up with our pow Wayne Fetterman.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and please don't hold it against us that for
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the first whole half of the first episode, my mic
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: is not on.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: It was saved. It it gets saved, It.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Did get saved. It's just it's not our it's not
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: our best body represented. No, it's definitely not. But it's
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: such a good episode that we had to push it
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: out there. Really recommend you giving that one a listen.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So, despite the sad, tragic misstep of not going immediately
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: into comedy, Nelson did try to make something of his life.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: He in seventeen ninety eight. Just a year later he
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: held the rank of rear admiral. He scuppered Napoleon's navy.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, scuppered. He's scuppered, which is is deliberately sinking
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: a ship, kind of like scuttling.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: But is it scuttling where you deliberately sink your own ship?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Is there a differentiation? I know there's a lot of
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: very specific like foundering or to founder is when a
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: ship is filling with water and sinking. So he scuppered,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: they foundered. He scuppered, they foundered, and ultimately the ships
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: were scuttled. That's right, Yes, we got there. Oh my gosh.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, if you're in the navy, please feel free to
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: write to us about this. We want to learn. But
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: these are great words, they really aren't. So this victory
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: of his stranded the French in Egypt. This was the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: first step in establishing the British Empire's dominance of the seas.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And this also made Nelson, by the way, a friggin hero.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: He was straight seahorse teeth as far as the rest
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of the country was concerned.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean he put himself in harm's way.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: He was there like out there putting himself in harm's
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: way with the troops side by side, not like commanding
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: from some bunker or something like that. Like he was
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: right there and then he survived. So, like I said,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: because of the fact that you typically would die in
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: agony from some horrible infection, this probably instilled people with
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: this sense of him as being some kind of indestructible superman.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: I'm editorializing here of it, but that's what it seems
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: like to me.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Sure man. Yeah, he was the Muhammad Ali of the seas,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. People thought that he could
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: do no wrong. People thought he was a national hero,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and he pretty much was. So let's fast forward through
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: his career and let's go to the Battle of Trafalgar
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: on October twenty first, eighteen oh five. And this is
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: when things take a turn for the worse.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because you can't outrun the reaper forever, especially when
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: you're like in a live fire zone with terrifying stuff
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: like grape shot flying everywhere. So the Battle of Trafalgar
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: was between the French and the Spanish, and when I
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: say between, I mean the English were like between them.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: They were in the mix there, right, And it was
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: a huge naval victory for the British because it completely
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: if they owned the seas before, they had complete dominance
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: and obliterated Napoleon's desire and any future hope that he
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: had of controlling these waterways the English Channel. Right, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: there was going there would be no Napoleonic invasion of
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Britain after the Battle of.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Trafalgar right right, and the Spanish are still in the mix.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: As we said, they outnumber the British with thirty three
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: ships to Britain's twenty seven. But Nelson was going to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: use his tactical prowess to outsmart the Spanish. Essentially, so
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: instead of putting his ships in a line, just making
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: them all sail together in a line, he ordered them
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: to form two perpendicular columns that cut through the enemy's
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: line because they had just a straight line at two
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: crucial points in the center. And here's where he got
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: He started styling on it, as we would say in
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the early two thousands. Wait, quick slang check casey. Do
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you remember when people would say styling on it? Absolutely
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: was that in the early two thousands, Yeah.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Maybe even earlier. It's I don't know that one seems
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: like it's been around for a.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Long time, no sense of time.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I don't either. It could be from you know,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: six months ago.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: I have no idea.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was from the early eighteen hundreds. Maybe he
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: said I'm going to style on him.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: I'm just thinking subtitle from Barry Linden. By what means,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Redmond Berry acquired the style and title of Barry Lindon.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: So he was styling that on the way back in
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: like the eighteenth century.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: So that reminds me of people being able to be
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: styled as something like his Royal Highness and so on.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: So maybe there is a precedent to that. Oh, casey
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: on the case indeed, indeed, so this is what he
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: does that's we could count as styling on people. He's
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: on the deck. Nelson is on the deck of the ship,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and he does not remove his insignia, his indicators of office.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: And when you don't remove your indicators of office and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: you're standing on a ship deck.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: It's like you got a big old target painted on
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: your back, a metal shape target or an array of
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: tiny metal shape targets that if you were a sharpshooter
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: on one of the enemy ships, that's who you would
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: shoot for, because it's like, you know, it would bring
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: it would drive the troops into disarray, and chaos would
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: create chaos, right, because that's the person who's calling the plays.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: You put an end to that, dude, and then everyone
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: else just kind of goes running and they don't know
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: what to do. There's no order.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: So it's ballsy, it's kutspa.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: It's like, hey, come at me the Spanish, right.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: That's exactly right. So he knew this was a possibility.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: But he stayed on deck with a guy named Captain Hardy,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and he was he was trying to instill bravery in
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: his men. He was yelling at them, you know, don't
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: worry about all the blood around you. Fight, fight with me,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Fight for Britain. And around one pm in that afternoon,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the battle started around noon. Around one pm that afternoon,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: this Captain Hardy guy looks around and he sees that
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Admiral Nelson has indeed been fired upon. A musketball has
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: passed through his shoulder and lodged in his spine. And
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: this is when in the Admiral gasp and famously says
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: they have and he succeeded. I am dead, I am dead,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I am dead. I am dead before being carried below
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: decks back to the surgeon's quarters.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the surgeon was a brilliant man, as discussed before,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: by the name of William Beatty, who they had him
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: ferried below deck and realized that all hope was was
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: pretty much lost. He I don't know was he did
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: he die? Was he dead on arrival when they when
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: they found him, when he got to him, or did
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: you think he died a little bit below deck?
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Uh, he died a little bit below deck, his last
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: words being thank God, I have done my duty. Too
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: cold and my country.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: What a guy.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So he died, you know, with no regrets regarding
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: his actions because he he felt that, from what we
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: can surmise, he felt that the same rules that he
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: applied to the pople under his command applied to him
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: as well. So if I'm going to send you to die,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: then I'm dancing with the reaper myself.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: That's so rare. Like if we think about we're talking
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: to get back to Kubrick. You know what Casey was
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: talking about. The movie Paths of Glory is all about
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: these commanders making these life or death choices from their
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: posh you know, villas and with no real sense of
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: what's going on on the ground. So in these days,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: when was that casey, when it was paths of that's
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: World War one. That's World War one.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'm making the decisions basically to give themselves,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: you know, earn and rank in the military.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Earn rank. Yeah, and that's I don't know, like I'm
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: not not to throw any military leaders into the bus.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: That's that's certainly not how all of them are. But
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: that's sometimes the impression that I get of some of
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: the high level commanders. And this guy was not that
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: way at all. He was right there in the trenches
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: with his men and he literally took one for the team.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: He did, indeed. And so there ends the life of
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Horatio Nelson and first Viscount Nelson. He dies on the
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: twenty first of October eighteen oh five, aged forty seven,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: at the Battle of Trafalgar, and really, not to be
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: all bait and switchy, this is where the ridiculous part
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of today's episode begins because the late admiral's men, who
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: by the way, adored this guy, were trying to figure
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: out how they could take him back to Britain for
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the burial that they felt he deserved.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: She got to remember. I mean they were far from home,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: and sea travel is not quick. I mean it was
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: they were like a two month's journey or something like
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: that back to Britain.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, two months journey away. The fleet was almost crippled
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: because of the damage they had taken during the conflict.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: And then that's when this surgeon, Irish will William Beattie,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that's when he has his own light bulb moment.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: He really does. One thing they do you have that
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: acts as a as a dam fine preservative is alcohol.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: What they had were some barrels of brandy, and so
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Beatie had the idea that they could stick this diminutive man,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: who was thankfully not a very very tall man. They
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: were able to shove him into this barrel of brandy,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: and they added a few extra things to maybe make
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: him smell nice, I guess, like camphor and what else
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: been mirror mror, you know, like Frankinson of course, of course,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: and then they sealed him up in there to prepare
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: for the long journey home. Yep.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: And it was a slow crawl because of the terrible
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: shape of the ships, and it wasn't a perfect solution.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: This surgeon had a brilliant innovative solution, but it was
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: not perfect because as the body decayed over the course
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of the two month voyage, he caused a buildup of
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: pressure within the vat and.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Then from like asses and stuff being emitted from the
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: body corpse parts.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, and it caused the lid of the barrel to pop.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: That scared the hell out of some people. And one case,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: there's a report that a sailor who was sitting near
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the barrel thought that Nelson had.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Risen surely stinking drunk, right, stinking drunk zombie admiral walking
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: the decks of this ramshackled ship. That's a pretty pretty
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: spooky image right there.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and here's where we find a strange legend about
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: this journey. So they do eventually reach Gibraltar, right, and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the surgeon says, Okay, we're gonna transfer this guy to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: an actual coffin. After this point, rumors started circling scuttle
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: butt hearsay, and the rumors said that the sailor's aboard
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: his ship, the HMS Victory, had been drinking from this
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: barrel of brandy.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Wait tapping the admiral, yes.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Literally tapping the admiral putting little straws in the cask
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and just taking a little nip for the entire length
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: of the journey. And this meant that again according to
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the rumors, that by the time they arrived at Gibraltar,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: they had drank the entire barrel of brandy. Now, Ben,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: surely that would have caused some upset stomachs, right, one
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: would imagine.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, that just does not seem very sanitary at Well.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: We have to wonder. There are so many there are
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: so many different spirits that are distilled with other dead
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: bodies in them, like spirits with snakes in.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: The bottle, or straps, that's true.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Or mice, I guess tequila worms. Well, I think a
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: worm is less agreed. I think that's true. But that's
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I don't you know. We're we're not brilliant Irish surgeons yet,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: so we can't speak to the safety of drinking corpse brandy.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: But we can say it's a it's a weird flex.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I would call that a weird flex bigtime. So what
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: what happens next?
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Really they get his body back. Reports circulate in the
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: British press that Admiral Nelson has died and it is
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: a national tragedy because yeah, not only did his men
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: love him, he was, like you said, a national hero
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: or hero and just you know, considered to be the
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: bravest of the brave, and many tears were shed, including
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the tears of the reigning monarch at the time.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and just like we had discussed an earlier episode
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: with Christopher Hasiotis about George Washington, almost immediately after news
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of Nelson's death is official, people begin building his legend,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Because of the way his
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: body was initially transported, His legend spreads into the world
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: of drinking culture. Navy Rum becomes known as Nelson's blood,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: even though they were they put him in brandy And
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: did you see that was that was one of the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: differences too, That was like a significant difference.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: I did. So once the victory actually gets back to Britain.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: As I said earlier, the news of Horatio's demise was
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: pretty much out there and one of the first ships
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: to get there was called the HMS Pickle, which is
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: which is really adorable. It's an adorable It's an adorable
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: name for it for a ship. I like it very much.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: So Yeah, then George the third you know, in the
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: throes of Sadness was quoted in saying that they had
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: lost more than they had gained. And by the way,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: on that ship, I think they had one hundred and
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: two casualties the British did overall at Trafalgar, and then
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: ninety six people survived. Back to William Baty's credit, he
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: amputated the arms or the limbs of eleven men and
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: nine of them survived, So his acumen as a surgeon
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: was unimpeachable.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Which is, by the way, that is a fantastic ratio
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: for this time, almost unbelievably. So, yeah, it's true the Pickle.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: The Pickle reached Britain before Nelson's Pickled Body did. I
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: do want to point out for any popular musicians in
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the audience today that the Pickle's name was originally the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: HMS Sting. So if you were a musician who happens
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: to go by the name Sting, you're listening to our
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: show and you're thinking, what's my new brand name? You
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: know what's my new change?
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Pickle?
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Pickle, not pickles, just pickle.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: That's really cute. I'm into that. That's a great rockstar
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: name because it's bold, because it's so cute sounding and.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: You get the flavor. It promotes synesthesia when you say it.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. What happens if you have a
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: cut on your finger and you spill pickle juice on it?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: What does it do? Stings?
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Stings, they're connected, Oh man, all the pieces are coming together.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: That's a really good point. So it was a little
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: bit of a tangent there, but it's advice to you
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: if you're listening sting. And as you said, Noel George
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the third is beside himself. He is lachrymose. And when
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the body finally arrives, William Beatty, the faithful surgeon, performs
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: an autopsy, takes that musketball out of the guy's body.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: He's been transferred to a second lead lin coffin, and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: then he's finally moved to a wooden casket, and on
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: January ninth, eighteen oh six, at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: his funeral is held.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: And fun fact, the musketball in question is actually mounted
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: in like a hinged lockett kind of situation with a
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: piece of golden rope that I believe was from one
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: of Admiral Nelson's uniforms. But I'm not quite sure if
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I see that here, and it's part of the Royal
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Collection Trust, so I'm not sure. I'm not seeing if
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: you can actually get a look at it, or if
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: it's in any kind of museum. But it definitely exists.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: But yeah, our crestfallen monarch, you know, says we will
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: spare no expense for the funeral of this great man.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Right boy George three makes the call, and this funeral
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: ends up costing around modern terms one point two million
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: US dollars. But they would say that's money well spent.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: And now we have a little bit of liquor science.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: We talked about navy rum, which had its own reputation,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: but then we also mentioned that Nelson's body was kept
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in brandy and ethanol technically, which at the time was
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: called spirit of wine. That all goes down to the
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: surgeon William, because Irish Will. I've just decided to call
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: him Irish Will. I know a guy that I call
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Irish Will. He is Irish, by the way, and he's
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: fine with the name.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. I'm okay with this nickname. Okay, great,
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: so Irish Will. The surgeon he knows that if he
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: wants the body to have the best chance of surviving
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: this grueling two month journey, he should try to use
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: the liquor on board that has the strongest alcohol proof,
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: the highest alcohol content.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Right. But if that didn't work, it was politically safer
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: for him to use navy rum. Because get this, folks,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: At this time, it was commonly known, not just by
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: members of the navy, but by members of the regular
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: public that the best way to preserve a body at
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: sea was in navy rum.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: They didn't use navy rum though, right, No, they used brandy. Ah, okay,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: but so they not have any They had both, but
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: he figured that the higher alcohol content one would do
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the job better.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the brandy and ethanol. And also, imagine we have
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: to empathize with him a little bit. Imagine what a
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: huge responsibility it is if that guy's body had been
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: lost at sea, or if he, as the surgeon, had
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: done something that was seen as disrespectful, or if he
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: had been seen as kind of dropping the ball on
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: this got him. It would have been very, very bad
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: for his reputation and his career. So he was motivated
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to do his level best, and people asked him at times,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: why didn't you use rum instead of brandy? And numerous
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: reports of the time said that he did use rum,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: because of course he did. Everyone assumed, you know, that's
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: what you use. And that's how navy rum came to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: be called Nelson's blood. That's how people came to call
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: drinking liquor from a cask tap in the Admiral Oh,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I guess for a side note, we do have a
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: quote where Beady in what eighteen oh seven finally gets
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: sick of everybody needling him about this brandy versus rum thing.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: A very general but erroneous opinion was found to prevail
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: on the victory's arrival in England that rum preserves the
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: dead body from decay much longer and more perfectly than
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: any other spirit, and ought therefore to have been used.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: But the fact is quite the reverse, for there are
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: several kinds of spirits much better for that purpose than rum,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: and as their appropriateness in this respect arises from their
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: degree and strength, on which alone their antiseptic quality depends.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Brandy is superior spirit of wine, however, is certainly by
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: far the best when it can.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Be prokilled, and that is a very well read quote
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: kudos snool from Batty's book Authentic Narrative of the Death
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: of Lord Nelson.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Just and then of being like his claim to fame anyway,
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: he wrote a whole book about it. He y, you know,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: this was like something that he gained some notoriety for
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: for a good reason. I mean, he was Johnny on
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: the Spot with Pickle in the body. He was so
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: good at his job as a surgeon. I think he's
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: the real star of the show here amputating limbs left
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: and right. But ultimately Batty lost his fight for accuracy
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: because people love this rum idea so much that they
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: just went with it. And that's why, despite Nelson never
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: being pickled in rum, people started calling this stuff Nelson's blood.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: And that's why to this day there's still pubs across
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: England called the Lord Nelson. That's right. I believe I've
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: heard of a few of those. Here's a little tidbit
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: to and the show with. On January seventeenth and twenty eighteen,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Sotheby's sold something called a grog chest, a very small
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: velvet lined plush chest that contain it was like his
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: liquor kit. Basically, it had glasses flasks, and you know,
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: containers that were used to hold grog, which would have
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: been a particular type of alcoholic beverage that sailors are
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: known for drinking. There's a lot of tiki drinks that
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: are tight that are called grogs.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Oh man, and speaking of tiki drinks, speaking of grog
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: in general, it might be time for the three of
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: us to call it a day. Thank you so much
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: for journeying with us through the life and death of
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Lord Horatio Nelson. We also want to mention, on an
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: unrelated note, there's an excellent article in Smithsonian called Lord Nelson,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Hero and cad by Michael Ryan. We didn't have time
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: for it today.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Why was he a cat?
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: He's a cat man. There was a in two thousand
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: and four people discovered letters that darkened his honor.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Cliff, hang us with that man. We've been building this
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: guy up, but some kind of giant among men, and
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: now all of a sudden you're gonna impeach his his
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: pristine reputation posthumously. That's hurt that's hurtful, man, That is hurtful. Dude.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: We'll have to leave the dark legacy of Admiral Horatio
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Nelson for another day.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: He's just not the best husband.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: That's fair. Well, okay, that's you know, often great men aren't.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: That's true. That's true.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: Not giving him a pass, but this has been a
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: fun one and interesting story for sure. And I don't
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: know you want to be pickled in brandy when you go.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: No man, I'm a shot in the space kind of guy.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Shot in sem is very expensive.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Ben, I'm really waiting for the price to break.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I've been taking care of myself till that part.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: That's fair.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: So we want to say thanks to our super producer,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram, Thanks of course to Gabe, our research associate.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme. Thanks to you,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Benjamin Bolan, my Sleepy Sleepy co host and dear friend.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to tapping the Admiral with you shortly.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: And thanks to you, Noljaman Brown, I look forward to
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that as well. This ends today's episode, but not our show.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Please tune in next time when we explore the strange
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: tale of Heavy Water and Operation Will Operation Freshmen, but
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: also Operation gun Runner. What are we talking about?
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you next time for more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.