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Tree Huggers · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. In eighteen o seven, about a
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  Speaker 1: third of the way through the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark found
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  Speaker 1: itself in an interesting situation. It already controlled Norway, Greenland, Uteland, Slush,
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  Speaker 1: Big Holstein in Germany and Iceland. In addition, it commanded
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  Speaker 1: a formidable navy with three thousand members in its fleet,
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  Speaker 1: and that navy was preparing to defend itself against the French.
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  Speaker 1: The Danish army was already planning for a land attack
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  Speaker 1: from Napoleon's forces. The navy, however, was in a tougher spot.
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  Speaker 1: You see, the British needed access to the Baltic Sea.
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  Speaker 1: They were using it as a trade route. The Baltic
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  Speaker 1: was also home to the resources needed for building English warships,
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  Speaker 1: and up to then the Danes had been allowing the
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  Speaker 1: British safe passage through the Baltic, especially since their presence
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  Speaker 1: also benefited allies like Sweden and Russia against the French. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: there was a serious fear of France taking over Denmark
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  Speaker 1: now that Prussia had finally fallen. English Foreign secretary Charles
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  Speaker 1: Gray had secretly tried to build an alliance between Denmark, Britain,
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  Speaker 1: and Sweden against France for several years, but had failed
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  Speaker 1: to make progress. Meanwhile, France was sending its own people
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  Speaker 1: into Denmark to secure the country's armies against the British.
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  Speaker 1: There were even rumors that the Danish might go along
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  Speaker 1: with the French after all, fearing the loss of Denmark
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  Speaker 1: to Napoleon, who dozen English ships were sent in July
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen oh seven to Kantagat, a sea on the
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  Speaker 1: eastern Danish coast. Their mission was simply to watch for
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  Speaker 1: any aggression on the part of the Danish navy and
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  Speaker 1: intervene if necessary. Meanwhile, a British delegate had also slipped
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  Speaker 1: into Copenhagen to try and convince Denmark to hand over
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  Speaker 1: its navy to English control. As discussions carried on, Napoleon
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  Speaker 1: got his own affairs in order. He tried to convince Alexander,
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  Speaker 1: the First of Russia to join Denmark and Portugal in
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  Speaker 1: fighting against Britain. In other words, both the British and
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  Speaker 1: the French were playing tug of war with a neutral Denmark,
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  Speaker 1: who wouldn't choose to fight with either side. Expecting the worst,
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  Speaker 1: England chose to act first. By August of eighteen o seven,
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  Speaker 1: England had assembled around four hundred warships off the coast
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  Speaker 1: of Denmark, with roughly twenty five thousand troops awaiting orders.
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  Speaker 1: They attempted to negotiate a treaty with Denmark in return
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  Speaker 1: for its warships, and promised military support and even to
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  Speaker 1: return the ships once the war was over. The following day,
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  Speaker 1: Napoleon issued an ultimatum to Denmark go against England or
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  Speaker 1: prepare for an invasion. The Danish refused to choose, so
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  Speaker 1: the British ordered them to hand over their ships, and predictably,
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  Speaker 1: Denmark said no. What resulted was the Battle of Copenhagen,
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  Speaker 1: a conflict lasting from mid August until the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: September in eighteen o seven between England and Denmark. The
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  Speaker 1: British fired Congreve rockets at the city, the same kinds
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  Speaker 1: of rockets whose red glare would inspire Francis Scott Key
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  Speaker 1: to write The Star Spangled Banner seven years later. The
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  Speaker 1: rockets caused much of the city to burn, and countless
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  Speaker 1: buildings were reduced to ash and rubble. By the time
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  Speaker 1: the dust had settled, the British had lost several hundred men. Denmark,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, fared much worse. About two hundred
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  Speaker 1: civilians were killed, along with a few thousand Danish soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: and despite their best efforts, they were forced to surrender
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  Speaker 1: the entire Danish navy to the British. Now, warships that
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  Speaker 1: were still being constructed were destroyed, while the existing vessels
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  Speaker 1: were commandeered by the British and sailed away. The defeat
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  Speaker 1: severely crippled Denmark and wound up forcing them to join
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  Speaker 1: forces with France anyway. Although now without a navy to
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  Speaker 1: fix the situation, Crown Prince Frederick the sixth did everything
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  Speaker 1: he could to secure the materials necessary to rebuild his fleet.
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  Speaker 1: Every oak tree in Denmark was declared property of the Crown.
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  Speaker 1: He planted thousands of oak trees all over the country,
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  Speaker 1: knowing it took on average about two thousand oaks to
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  Speaker 1: make one ship. Although he knew the trees wouldn't be
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  Speaker 1: fully grown for some time. The Crown Prince probably didn't
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  Speaker 1: realize how much ship building would advance over the next
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  Speaker 1: two centuries. Navies went from using wood to steal, which
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  Speaker 1: meant that all those oak trees were no longer necessary. Still,
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  Speaker 1: that didn't stop Denmark from tracking their growth. Around two
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  Speaker 1: thousand seven, two centuries after the battle, Queen margret To
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  Speaker 1: the second, received a call from her Royal Forestry Commissioner
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  Speaker 1: with an important message. Her oak trees. They told her,
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  Speaker 1: We're finally ready. A six ft six inch man wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: find the cockpit of a British World War Two fighter
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  Speaker 1: jet a comforting place, but in this instance, the pilot
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  Speaker 1: had no trouble with being taller than the average human,
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  Speaker 1: let alone the average fighter pilots. He did, however, crash
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  Speaker 1: land in Libya, where he lived out his own action
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  Speaker 1: movie sequence, crawling away from a flaming jet with a
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  Speaker 1: fractured skull before the jets leaking fuel tank exploded, injuries
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  Speaker 1: that led the pilot to a new calling, espionage. It
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  Speaker 1: all began with a diplomatic post at the British Embassy
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  Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. In the after math of Pearl Harbor.
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  Speaker 1: There he took on the role of an assistant air
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  Speaker 1: at Tache. And while James Bond has infused our mind
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  Speaker 1: with romantic notions of being a spy, including luxury cars
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  Speaker 1: with machine guns built into the headlights, our spy started
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  Speaker 1: out in something a little less glamorous public relations, but
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  Speaker 1: the James Bond life would follow. Being tall, handsome and
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  Speaker 1: remarkably persuasive, he found his way into the finer things
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  Speaker 1: in spy work, cocktail parties, finger foods, and well women.
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  Speaker 1: Numerous friends noted that, like Double O seven himself, this
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  Speaker 1: spy like to socialize his way into the good graces
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  Speaker 1: of established women, from actresses and heiresses to powerful congress women.
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  Speaker 1: That isn't all he was doing, though. He also sweet
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  Speaker 1: talked himself into the inner circle of the most important
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  Speaker 1: Americans of the day, Harry Truman, for instance, and that
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  Speaker 1: powerhouse of an American family, the Roosevelt's. In fact, he
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  Speaker 1: spent at their family residence at Hyde Park, charming the
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  Speaker 1: socks off anyone he engaged in conversation. All the while
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  Speaker 1: he was sending notes and telegrams back to England detailing
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  Speaker 1: what the political climates in America looked like. And how
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  Speaker 1: that would affect British interests. Yes, in politics, friends spy
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  Speaker 1: on friends as much as they spy on their enemies.
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  Speaker 1: It's safe to say that working as a spy was
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  Speaker 1: a better fit for our hero than the pilot seat,
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  Speaker 1: although it took a crash to set him in a
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  Speaker 1: new direction. But in the end, even spying wasn't quite
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  Speaker 1: the right fit. Now he still had one more path
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  Speaker 1: yet to walk. If his time as a pilot was
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  Speaker 1: act one and Act two was his time as a spy,
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  Speaker 1: then we now have to turn our attention to Act three,
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  Speaker 1: since the life of this particular person fits nicely into
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  Speaker 1: that classic three act structure, and this final act was
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  Speaker 1: the one that would set him apart from all the rest,
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  Speaker 1: moving him from a notable historical figure to practically a
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  Speaker 1: household name. You see, our pilot turned spy eventually became
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  Speaker 1: a writer. Even as he danced his way through civilized
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  Speaker 1: American society, there was still time to scribble down his stories,
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  Speaker 1: and he began to publish articles. He would also all
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  Speaker 1: too appropriately write the screenplay for a film that had
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  Speaker 1: many parallels from his own life, an actual James Bond movie,
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  Speaker 1: But none of that cemented what would become the lasting
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  Speaker 1: legacy of this larger than life man because his big
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  Speaker 1: break as a writer came in nineteen sixty one, over
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  Speaker 1: a decade after his service in World War Two, and
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  Speaker 1: that big break was a children's book about a boy
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  Speaker 1: and an enormous piece of fruit. The success of this
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  Speaker 1: adventure story eventually turned into many more successes in the
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  Speaker 1: publishing world. Soon to follow were other now classics, like
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  Speaker 1: the story about a boy who earns a trip to
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  Speaker 1: the local chocolate factory, or another child's adventure with giants.
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  Speaker 1: Then all of them cemented this pilot turned spy turned
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  Speaker 1: writer as perhaps one of the greatest children's authors to
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  Speaker 1: have ever lived. In the end, he may have embodied
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  Speaker 1: the title of his James Bond screenplay You Only Live Twice,
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  Speaker 1: But if you ask me, he may have miscounted, because
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  Speaker 1: his was a life that was certainly lived thrice and
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  Speaker 1: his name rowled doll. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the world of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.