Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Winged Wonder

Transcript

Winged Wonder · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Everyone has a dream when you're young. It
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: might be to become an astronaut or a firefighter, or
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to play in a rock band in front of thousands
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of screaming fans. We live with our heads in the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: clouds because we don't want to face what's waiting back
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: for us on Earth. Reality. Reality has a nasty way
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of knocking down our dreams, sometimes for good, but not
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: for all. Brook Burbley, whenever his dreams were squatted out
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of the sky, he simply aimed higher. Albert Burblinger, let's
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: call him AL for short, was born in the city
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of Ulm in seventeen seventy in the Kingdom of Prussia
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: now part of Germany. The youngest of seven children, Al's
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: parents were poor. His father worked in the city's armory,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: which Al would often visit when he was younger. As
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a result, he got a good look at the kinds
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of tools and machines that his father worked with. They
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: might have been the inspiration for Al's dream of becoming
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a watchmaker. However, when he was thirteen years old, his
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: father passed away. It's unclear what had become of his mother,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: although it's probably safe to say that she was also gone,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: because Al was sent to an orphanage until he became
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: an adult. He never let go of his love of mechanics, though,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: but his new guardians had other plans. He was forced
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to apprentice with a local tailor, with the goal of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: one day establishing him as a tailor in his own right.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: But Al didn't want that. He wanted to build things,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and not just watches. In his spare time, he tinkered
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: with various inventions, such as they prosthetic device meant for
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: those who had suffered from foot amputations. In fact, in
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: eighteen o eight, he created the first ever jointed leg prosthesis.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: But soon Al began setting his sights higher, much higher.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: He grew a preoccupation with the concept of human flight.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It all happened when he started watching how owls soared
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: through the sky. He noted the shapes of their wings
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and how they spread out when the owls took flight.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And then he got to work. He built something akin
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to a hang glider, which would allow him to fly
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: short distances from the tops of vineyard walls and cottages.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: There and Ulm. Others in town didn't think that he
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: could do it, though. The Guild of Tailor's even tried
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to expel him for his lack of focus on his trade.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He was fined for wasting his time on his inventions,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: but Al refused to give up. King Frederick, the first
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: of Rtemburg even promised him funding if he could prove
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that his idea worked now. That original plan was to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: leap from the all ministers one meter high roof, but
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: few people believed that he would be successful. Instead, he
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: was instructed to jump from a seven meter tall scaffold
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: that had been constructed on top of a thirteen meter
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: high wall overlooking the Danube River. His goal was to
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: land on the other side of the river, a distance
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of about forty and so on May eighteen eleven, Al
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: strapped into his glider as the King, his sons, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the Crown Prince of Bavaria looked on Al. However, I
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: couldn't do it. He told everyone his glider had broken
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and that the flights would have to wait until the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: next day. But the King was leaving then to attend
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: some royal business. His brother, Duke Heinrich, stayed to watch
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that event the following afternoon. So finally, on May thirty one,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the time had come. Hours went by as Al waited
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: for the winds to die down enough for him to
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: safely launch himself. He had planned to jump at four pm,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: but one hour later, everyone, including the Duke, felt that
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: they had waited long enough. A police officer, also sick
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: of the delay, shoved Al off the wall, and the
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: rest was history, but not in a way that aspiring
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: aviator had hoped for. He dropped like a stone into
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the river below and had to be fished out by
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: actual fisherman, and he was booed and jeered. His reputation
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: was irreparably tarnished, and he not only lost the public's goodwill,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: but he also lost their business. He was no longer
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: a tailor nor an inventor. Albrook Berblinger died without a
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: single sent to his name at the young age of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: fifty eight. Hundreds of years later, however, his work was
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: eventually vindicated. For one, experts realized that there was little
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to no chance that he would have ever gotten the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: glider in the air so close to the Danube, as
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the river created a down draft that would have kept
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: his wings grounded. And second, researchers inspected his design and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: found no flaws. In fact, had he taken off from
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: a more appropriate location, he most likely would have succeeded.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: All he needed was a better launching spot and some
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in urgement from his neighbors a little wind beneath his wings.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: At the top of the world resides the North Pole,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: comprised of the Arctic Ocean and numerous land masses, many
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of which are covered in ice. In June seventy one,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the USS Polarists left New York to become the first
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: vessel to reach the North Pole. The expedition was led
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: by Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall, with backing from the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: United States government. The ship's crew included the sailing master,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: engineers cook and astronomer, as well as chief scientist Amial
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Vessels and Frederick Meyer, the ship's meteorologist. The two German
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Men were highly educated and skilled, which made them valuable
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: assets on the voyage, but it also rendered them insufferable
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to everyone else. Bessels and Meyer didn't think too highly
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: of most of their fellow crew, especially Commander Hall, who
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: they felt was not smart enough to lead them. With
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: half the crew being German and the other half being
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: made up of Americans, Swedes, and Danes, the ship was
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a veritable melting pot, one that seemed to be getting
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: more heated by the day. Things started off okay, with
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the ship chugging along on its way north. However, by October,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Commander Hall began to feel sick. He'd gotten a stomach
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: ache after drinking a cup of coffee, which grew into
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: delirium and partial paralysis. Dr Bessels tried to treat him,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: but Hall wouldn't let him. He didn't trust him at all.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: In fact, he believed that Vessels and the German side
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of the crew were plotting against him. Specifically, he felt
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: that they had poisoned him, but there was no proof.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: His condition had gotten so bad by early November that
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: he had no choice but to allow vessels to administer treatments,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: but sadly it was too late. Hall succumbed to whatever
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: had been plaguing him on November eight. He was buried
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: in a small basin off the northwestern coast of Greenland
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: called Thank God Harbor. The crew still attempted to reach
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the pole that June. Three of the Polaris's whale boats
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: were dispatched to navigate the icy waters, and one after
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the other, each boat was destroyed by the ice. Even
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the Polaris itself couldn't find a safe route to the pole,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: and the main objective of the whole voyage was abandoned.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: The ship eventually turned around and headed south back towards home,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: but months had passed since their attempt at the pole,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and more ice had now moved into the waters they
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: were traveling through. The Polaris collided with a berg on
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the evening of October fifteenth and began taking on water.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: The new commander, sailing Master Sydney Buddington, told everyone to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: toss cargo onto the nearby ice to reduce weight on
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the ship. Nineteen crew members, including Inuit hunters who had
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: been on board, abandon the ship as well, and spent
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the night huddled together on the ice, expecting the Polarist
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to sink to the bottom of the ocean. The following morning, though,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: they woke up to find that the Polarists was about
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: ten miles away and still a boat. It turned out
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: that the leak wasn't as bad as they had originally thought. Unfortunately,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: this group was stranded and the Polarists wasn't coming back
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for them. They had some food and a few small boats,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: but little else to survive. Luckily, the Inuit hunters knew
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: how to keep everyone alive. They built igloos from the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: ice and caught seals that kept everyone well fed for
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: some time. For months, they endured a harsh Arctic winter
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: as the ice drift itself. One of the boats was
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: broken down to create a fire. A crew member fashioned
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a deck of cards from some paper so that people
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: could play games, and as time went on, animosity between
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the Germans and the others increased, so much so that
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: it was believed that the armed Germans might kill one
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: of the hunters. The group also had to contend with
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: their ice flow breaking up beneath them. Sometime or on April,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: all nineteen survivors piled into the one remaining lifeboat and
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: floated onward, hoping for a miracle, and on April eighteen
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: seventy three, it finally came when they caught sight of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a ceiling ship out in the distance. They were soon
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: picked up. After having drifted a total of eighteen hundred
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: miles over the course of six months, everyone had survived,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: along with those who had remained on the Polarists. They
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: were eventually rescued by a whaling ship that July. Once
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: all parties were back on dry land and inquiry was
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: held to determine the truth behind Captain Hall's death, there
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough evidence to pinned on vessels, so it was
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: declared that Hall had died of a stroke instead, although
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the accusations followed vessels around for the rest of his
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: life and probably for good reason. In nineteen sixty, almost
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: one years after the expedition, an author who had been
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: writing Hall's biography requested to travel to Thank God Harbor
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and exhume the body. He wanted to see for himself
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: what had caused the captain's death. The corpse was in
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: very good condition due to the perma frost around the coffin,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and the writer was able to take samples of Hall's bone, hair,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and finger nails back for testing. The results revealed the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: shocking truth behind the Captain's untimely demise arsenic and lots
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of it too. Vessels suddenly became a prime suspect once again,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: especially when it came out that both men had been
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: pursuing the same woman back in New York, a sculptor
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: named Vivey Reem. Vessels had most likely been jealous of
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Captain Hall when it became clear that Realm had preferred
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the latter's company to the not so good Doctors. But
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Vessels was gone. He had died in eight when he
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: was only forty years old, ironically from a stroke, the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: same cause that was declared by the inquiry committee investigating
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Captain Hall's death. Some might call that karma, me I
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: just see it as a stroke of bad luck. I
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com and until next time, stay curious,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: ye