Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Ship Happens

Transcript

Ship Happens · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Menkey'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. In sixteen fifty, English theologian Thomas Fuller coined
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the phrase it's always darkest before the dawn. It means
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: things often seem hopeless or their bleakest, just before they
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: turn around for the better. Ulysses Has Grant, for example,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: quit the army in eighteen fifty four when he was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: only thirty two years old. He went off to Missouri
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to become a farmer and a leather trader, but he
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: couldn't cut it. His family suffered, he'd drink heavily and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: almost lost everything. Then in eighteen sixty one, America became
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: embroiled in a bloody civil war, and Grant, with few
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: other opportunities, decided to rejoin the military, and he proved
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: himself to be a strong leader, winning battles against the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: South and working his way up until he was promoted
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to lead the entire Union army. Eventually, he was even
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: elected President of the United States, a far cry from
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the failure he almost became. History is full of stories
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: like this, with people in dire circumstances on the brink
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of disaster until the tide's turn in their favor, and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: this happened quite literally in fifteen sixty eight. That year,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the Dutch and King Philip the Second of Spain began
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a major conflict with each other that would become known
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: as the Eighty Years War. The Dutch were vying for independence,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and by the time the war was over, they had
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: lost at least a hundred thousand soldiers plus an unknown
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: number of civilian casualties. One of the more important battles
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: heard in fifteen seventy three in the South Holland city
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of Leiden. Spain's forces were considerable, numbering amount fifteen thousand
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: compared to the Dutchess eleven thousand. However, despite their numbers,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Spain wasn't prepared for what they encountered upon entering Leiden.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The Spanish, under the command of Francisco da Valdez, began
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: their invasion in October of fifteen seventy three. They got
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: off to a rough start almost immediately, though they couldn't
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: dig trenches due to the loose soil, and the city
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: had established formidable defenses in advance of their arrival. Backing
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the Dutch rebels were the Scottish, the English, and the French,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: who all worked together and put up an admirable fight
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: for over six months. And then in April of fifteen
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: seventy four, the rebels tried to give the city a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: break by sending an army to the Netherlands to distract Valdez.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: The Spanish officer stopped the siege for a bit to
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: attend to this splintered faction, but another general took care
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of things and wiped them out first. The Spanish restarted
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: this age the following month, and things looked grim for
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the Dutch. Supplies were running out, the rebels had lost
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: ground and their casualties were growing. William of Orange, the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: leader of the Dutch revolt, sent a carrier pigeon to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the city, begging them to hold on for just another
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: few months until he could bring them reinforcements. And William
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: had more than troops. He had a plan. He would
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: break the dikes that had long protected the city from
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: flooding by the North Sea, and with the dike's gone,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the north Sea would wash over the land, allowing the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Dutch fleet to rush in and relieve Leiden. Two ships
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: were stockpiled with supplies and food for Lydens citizens ready
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to go. The dikes were breached and the rebel fleet, well,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: it didn't go anywhere. The water wasn't high enough to
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: let them travel as far as they needed to, about
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: fifteen miles. The ships could only go small distances before
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: encountering an enemy vessel or a dike that needed to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: be cut down. At one point, things got so dire
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in enlightened that the townsfolk hungry and desk Britt called
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: for a surrender. The reinforcements that they had been promised
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: hadn't arrived yet, and their outlook was bleak. Thousands had
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: starved to death already, but the mayor employed everyone to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: wait for help to arrive. He even suggested that they
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: eat his arm to stay alive. The people of Leightden
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: did hold on, knowing that they'd be killed by the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Spanish if they all gave up. Finally, on October one,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: storms brought heavy rains and powerful winds to the area,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the dikes were overrun and Lighten was flooded. The Spanish
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: men on the ground abandoned their posts and fled as
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the waters rose, while those on ships retreated before the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Dutch fleet showed up. On October three, rebel ships finally arrived,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: sailing into the streets and feeding the weakened people of
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Leightden with herring and white bread. William of Orange's plan
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: had actually worked, although it had taken longer than expected,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and all they had needed was a little help from
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Mother Nature. These days, I'm betting that just about everyone
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: is familiar with the idea of steampunk. Stories like Mortal
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Engines bring these worlds to life, built up clockwork machines
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: operating with cogs and cranks, churning out smoke like factory billows.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: It looks pretty cool, as impractical and impossible as it is,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: although it's not totally impossible. In fact, there was a
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: short time in Europe when the reality of these mechanics
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was full steam ahead, even becoming the livelihood of many inventors,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and one such man was James Cox, and like many
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of his contemporaries, he was a man of many talents.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: He was a jeweler and a goldsmith, which is where
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: he found a capital to foray into the wonderful world
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of automata. Using his other skill sets, James became known
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: for creating clockwork curios encrusted with jewels and gold. He
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: referred to them as sing songs, since they well sang
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: songs in addition to all their other abilities. Not unlike
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a wind up toy. Today, all you had to do
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: was turn the crank or twist the knob and watch
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: as the creation came to life, running its cycle until
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: it was ready to be started again. And while the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: British public was more or less interested in these creations,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: it was new lands in the Far East that James
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: targeted for his primary market. Even the Chinese emperor at
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the time was a satisfied customer of james Cox, purchasing
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a large mechanical chariot that he kept at his court.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: James made so much money from his sales to the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Far East that he was instrumental in reducing the British
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: trade deficit, alongside another chief export of the time, t Unfortunately,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: only one of these items would stand the test of
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: time as the Eastern market saturated. Though James fell on
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: hard times and decided to open up his own curiosity
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: museum in the Great Room met Spring Gardens in London.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And honestly, I feel like that was a move I
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: can get behind. Curiosities need to be shared right there
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: in his museum. Tickets to see his clockwork oddities carried
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: an exorbitant price, but one the public was willing to pay.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: The exhibit became such a hit that had appeared in
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: numerous novels and plays of the time, and became a
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: favorite of patrons like British writer Samuel Johnson. And by
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: this time James had constructed his most famous work, the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Peacock Clock, featuring three life size peacocks that could dance
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and preen as if they were alive. Only these peacocks
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: were made of gold, silver and gems. Staying with the
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: general theme, he also worked with John Joseph Merlin to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: create a silver swan that could lift its wings, swim
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and catch a fish in its beak. Both pieces ended
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: up on display at the Hermitage Museum in Russia, purchased
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: by Catherine the Great. At its zenith, the London Curio
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Museum may have even displayed the severed head of Oliver Cromwell.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Although I'm happy to report that it wasn't modified with
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: any steampunk functions. It did not sing or wink either,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: at least not that we know of. Unfortunately, in a
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: volatile national economy, James soon found his fortune turned to dust,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: declaring bankruptcy as his plea for royal patronage fell on
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: deaf ears. Many of the pieces were sold by lottery,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and James was left more or less right back where
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: he had started. Richer in experience and knowledge, for sure,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: but not in funds. A few years later he declared
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: bankruptcy yet again. You see, while James Cox had a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: brilliant mind for mechanics and musical whimsies, he could not
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: maintain a sustainable income in a marketplace that was, believe
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: it or not, already flooded with mechanical birds that sang
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: and dance. James remained in business as a retailer following
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: his second bankruptcy until his death in eighteen hundred. Like
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: many artists of his day, he died with very little
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: money to his name, only to have his work grow
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in value long after his death, and the handiwork of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: James Cox is still changing hands for large sums of
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: cash today. Back in two thousand twelve, for instance, a
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: large musical clock that had previously been owned by the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Egyptian king Farouk sold for nearly six hundred thousand dollars.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Who knows what James might have spent that sort of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: money on back in his day, but I'm willing to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: bet that whatever it was, it would have danced, saying
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and maybe even flapped its wings. I hope you've enjoyed
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious one