Latest / Ridiculous History / How Admiral Horatio Nelson Ended Up Dead in a Barrel of Brandy

Transcript

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

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