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Lend Me Your Ear · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. I want you to imagine something for me.
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  Speaker 1: I think you can picture it if I give you
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  Speaker 1: a few key ideas. The time is the day after Thanksgiving.
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  Speaker 1: The setting is your local big box store, and the
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  Speaker 1: context is massive best of the year sales on all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of hot items like flat screen TVs, WiFi enabled toasters,
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  Speaker 1: and the latest mobile devices. Now you might be thinking
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  Speaker 1: that I'm describing Black Friday, and you'd be right. But
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  Speaker 1: it's the image that comes with the name of massive
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  Speaker 1: crowds trampling each other in the mad rush to acquire
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  Speaker 1: the items on their list at the best possible prices
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  Speaker 1: that I need you to hold onto, because sure, that's
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  Speaker 1: a pretty recent American tradition, but that sort of behavior
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  Speaker 1: is much much older, and one period in history that
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  Speaker 1: was filled with it was the eighteenth century. That's because
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  Speaker 1: after about two and a half centuries of discovering and
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  Speaker 1: exploring and exploiting the New World, there were a few
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  Speaker 1: European superpowers that couldn't seem to stop bumping into each
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  Speaker 1: other as they did it. Part of the problem was
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  Speaker 1: that back in the mid seventeen hundreds, the way European
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  Speaker 1: countries viewed the resources in North America was by thinking
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  Speaker 1: of it as all limited. There was only so much
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  Speaker 1: to go around, and if England was bringing stuff back home,
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  Speaker 1: then Spain or France was missing out, so naturally things
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  Speaker 1: got messy. The Anglo Spanish War that ended in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine also came with a treaty, the Treaty of Seville,
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  Speaker 1: and one of the powers granted to Spain was the
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  Speaker 1: ability to board British merchant vessels that were running trade
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  Speaker 1: routes between the Americas and England if they felt that
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  Speaker 1: those merchants were snatching up the limited resources they themselves
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  Speaker 1: had claim to. And that's why in seventy one, near Havana,
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  Speaker 1: a Spanish coast guard ship called the Isabella pulled up
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  Speaker 1: alongside an English merchant vessel called the Rebecca, and Spanish
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  Speaker 1: troops came aboard. The captain of the Rebecca, a guy
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  Speaker 1: named Robert Jenkins apparently wasn't entirely on the up and up,
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  Speaker 1: if you catch my drift. The Spanish found illegal cargo,
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  Speaker 1: conflict ensued and in the process, good old Captain Robert
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins lost his ear, well not entirely. It was cut off,
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  Speaker 1: for sure, but he didn't lose it. In fact, he
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  Speaker 1: picked it up and saved it, and from that moment
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  Speaker 1: on it became sort of a trophy that he showed
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  Speaker 1: to people when he wanted to express his hatred of
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  Speaker 1: the Spanish. Well as was want to happen, Tensions between
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  Speaker 1: England and Spain continued to grow. Now, the story is apocryphal,
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  Speaker 1: so take it with a grain of salt, and it's
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  Speaker 1: not entirely clear how much is legend and how much
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  Speaker 1: is fact. But it said that during the debates in
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  Speaker 1: the English Parliament, Captain Jenkins actually showed up and, wanting
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  Speaker 1: to demonstrate just how monstrous and evil the Spanish were,
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  Speaker 1: showed everyone his old shriveled ear floating inside a pickling jar,
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  Speaker 1: and that they say was the straw that broke the
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  Speaker 1: camel's back. England went to war with Spain in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine. It was a conflict that lasted until seventeen
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  Speaker 1: forty eight, and over that nearly decade long fight to
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  Speaker 1: the costs were steep. England lost the most at over
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  Speaker 1: four hundred ships and thirty thousand soldiers and sailors, but
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  Speaker 1: Spain felt the pain as well, losing nearly two hundred
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  Speaker 1: ships and forty men. Decades later. That brief bit of fighting,
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  Speaker 1: one on a long list of similar wars over the centuries,
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  Speaker 1: earned a name from historians, and it's still used today,
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  Speaker 1: a name that comes from one of the most of
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  Speaker 1: his are pieces of information from the whole ordeal, regardless
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  Speaker 1: of whether it really happened or not. They call it
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  Speaker 1: the War of jenkins Ear, which of course is more
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  Speaker 1: than a little curious. We started today's tour with an
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  Speaker 1: introduction to Robert Jenkins, his severed ear, and the war
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  Speaker 1: that some say came about as a result of his
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  Speaker 1: anger towards the Spanish. But while I can find no
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  Speaker 1: record that Jenkins himself fought in the war that bore
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  Speaker 1: his name, a good number of others certainly did. One
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  Speaker 1: of them was Edward, born in London in four Edward
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  Speaker 1: didn't really need to put himself in danger His father
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  Speaker 1: served as Secretary of State to King William the Third
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  Speaker 1: and was a member of the British House of Commons
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  Speaker 1: for over thirty years. So it's fair to say that
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  Speaker 1: Word could have settled into life as the son of
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  Speaker 1: a well known politician and simply called it a day. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he joined the military. His first experience was at the
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  Speaker 1: young age of sixteen, when he took a position on
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  Speaker 1: a Royal Naval battleship called the h M S Shrewsbury.
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  Speaker 1: And you know what, Edward took the life at sea
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  Speaker 1: remarkably well. In fact, the world of the navy almost
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  Speaker 1: felt like second nature to him. The next few years
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  Speaker 1: saw him quickly rising up through the ranks, moving from
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  Speaker 1: ship to ship as his experience and responsibilities grew. By
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  Speaker 1: seventeen o six, at just twenty two years of age,
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  Speaker 1: he was a captain of his own ship, the h
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  Speaker 1: MS Dolphin, and patrolling the Mediterranean for the Royal Navy.
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  Speaker 1: After that it was the West Indies and then onto
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  Speaker 1: the Baltic Honestly, if Edward had hoped to see a
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  Speaker 1: bit of the world as part of the Navy, he
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  Speaker 1: was getting his wish and then some so when he
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  Speaker 1: left the waves behind for the Halls of Parliament in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen twenty one. It's hard to blame him, and that's
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  Speaker 1: where in the seventeen thirties he caught win of a
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  Speaker 1: disgruntled captain by the name of Robert Jenkins and his
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  Speaker 1: severed ear. When the subsequent war with Spain began, Edward
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  Speaker 1: was back at sea. He was a vice admiral by then,
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  Speaker 1: sitting at the second highest rank in the Navy, and
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty nine he managed to capture the heavily
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  Speaker 1: armed Spanish port of Porto Bello in Central America. More
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  Speaker 1: surprising was just how he got it, using just six ships.
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  Speaker 1: He made him a national hero. There were medals made
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  Speaker 1: and victory celebrations in London, and if you've ever found
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  Speaker 1: yourself walking through the Porto Bello area of London, it
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  Speaker 1: has that name because of Edward. You're going to have
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  Speaker 1: to pardon the pun here, but clearly he was making waves.
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  Speaker 1: There were other victories to follow. Edward and his fleet
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  Speaker 1: continued to move around the perimeter of the Spanish holdings
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  Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, adding more reasons to celebrate his career
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  Speaker 1: to an already long list. In seventeen forty one, He
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  Speaker 1: even set his sights on Cuba, but the invasion failed
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  Speaker 1: because of the mistakes of another British officer, General to
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  Speaker 1: Miss Wentworth. But there were other things to remember about Edward.
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  Speaker 1: He refined the training among his sailors, making them more
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  Speaker 1: flexible to unforeseen circumstances and ultimately making the entire navy
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  Speaker 1: more capable. In fact, he was so obsessed with improving
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  Speaker 1: how things were done that he instilled that passion directly
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  Speaker 1: into the Royal Navy, where it persisted for generations. Oh
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  Speaker 1: and one other thing. During his time at sea. In
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  Speaker 1: seventeen forty, Edward gave an unusual order. He decided that
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  Speaker 1: his sailors should dilute their rum, literally watering it down
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  Speaker 1: to make it last longer and be less potent. And
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  Speaker 1: since he was known for wearing a stiff overcoat made
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  Speaker 1: of a material called grogram, which had earned him the
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  Speaker 1: nickname Old Grog, this new diluted rum took on the
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  Speaker 1: same name Grog. Edward was one of the best, and
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  Speaker 1: his skill and insight inspired all of the men and
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  Speaker 1: women who served under him, and that included one young man,
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  Speaker 1: a twenty two year old landowner from the Virginia Colony,
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  Speaker 1: who received an officer's commission in seventeen forty on order
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  Speaker 1: from that colony's Lieutenant governor, and was sent to serve
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  Speaker 1: on Edwards flagship, the h M S. Princess Caroline. And
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  Speaker 1: this young officer, whose name was Lawrence, would manage to
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  Speaker 1: survive two years of brutal conflict during the War of
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  Speaker 1: Jenkins Ear and eventually made his way home in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: forty two. He married a year later, and then took
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  Speaker 1: over running his father's estate in seventeen forty three when
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  Speaker 1: the older man died, on a state that Lawrence named
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  Speaker 1: in honor of his beloved Admiral Edward Vernon. When Lawrence
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  Speaker 1: died in seventeen fifty two, he passed that estate onto
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  Speaker 1: his half brother George, and it's been a part of
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  Speaker 1: American history ever since. The Estate of Brothers Lawrence and
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  Speaker 1: George Washington Mount Vernon. 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 Mankey 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. Yeah,