Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 33 - Surviving Clipperton Island
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to an Airwave media podcast. Hi everybody, and
- 0:18Speaker 1: welcome back to Who Did What Now? The history podcast
- 0:20Speaker 1: that is not your history class with me Katie Charlwood,
- 0:25Speaker 1: your one year older host, birthday girl and reader of books.
- 0:32Speaker 1: So it was my birthday a couple of days ago
- 0:34Speaker 1: and I had I had the best time. I had
- 0:40Speaker 1: the absolute best time. It has literally been such a
- 0:45Speaker 1: long time since I truly enjoyed a birthday. And oh,
- 0:50Speaker 1: I stayed in the most amazing hotel. But if you
- 0:54Speaker 1: get the chance, if you're in Edinburgh and you want
- 0:57Speaker 1: to stay in a boutique hotel that is absolutely amazing,
- 1:00Speaker 1: ridiculous and you have your own butler, go stay in
- 1:03Speaker 1: the House of Gods. I cannot recommend this hotel enough.
- 1:07Speaker 1: They were absolutely amazing to me. I had some issues
- 1:11Speaker 1: trying to like organize stuff through, like some of the
- 1:15Speaker 1: technical stuff, because I am, like, I'm okay with technology,
- 1:20Speaker 1: but I'm not super with stuff. And they managed to
- 1:24Speaker 1: sort a bunch of stuff out for me that I
- 1:26Speaker 1: really needed. And honestly, they have been absolutely fantastic every
- 1:29Speaker 1: step of the way, and it is one of the
- 1:31Speaker 1: most beautiful places I have ever stayed in. Yes, absolutely amazing.
- 1:36Speaker 1: I have the best time. And then I saw my
- 1:40Speaker 1: cousins I hadn't seen and when I saw them during
- 1:43Speaker 1: the summer, like but like, I'm trying to do better
- 1:47Speaker 1: when it comes to family because I have got such
- 1:49Speaker 1: a habit of like disconnecting myself. Like part of it,
- 1:53Speaker 1: I know is from like the ADHD and the anxiety
- 1:57Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But and it's it's so easy
- 2:00Speaker 1: to become separate and to become your own thing, especially
- 2:04Speaker 1: when you grow up and you go in different directions.
- 2:07Speaker 1: But luckily for me, my cousins are cool and I
- 2:11Speaker 1: got to make some TikTok friends, which was really exciting
- 2:14Speaker 1: because that's the great thing about the internet, like you
- 2:16Speaker 1: can connect everywhere. And I want to thank everyone who's
- 2:20Speaker 1: been leaving your Apple podcast reviews. They have been awesome.
- 2:28Speaker 1: I actually charted in Ireland again for the first time
- 2:31Speaker 1: in a good while, which was really exciting for me.
- 2:35Speaker 1: And that's the thing about reviewing. When you review, when
- 2:38Speaker 1: you say something, when you give the five stars and
- 2:40Speaker 1: you say something about the podcast, it actually helps boost
- 2:45Speaker 1: me up the charts. And it's basically from a business end,
- 2:49Speaker 1: it's so like but anyway, I know what you're thinking,
- 2:52Speaker 1: you're thinking quite your jib or jabber, in fact me,
- 2:55Speaker 1: In fact you, I will. But first we're going to
- 2:58Speaker 1: get a source on. So this week we're discussing a
- 3:01Speaker 1: horror story left out of the history books, Clipperton Island.
- 3:08Speaker 1: So our sources are Clipperton A History of the Island,
- 3:12Speaker 1: The World Forgot by Jimmy Skaggs Bibliography, The Ilton il
- 3:17Speaker 1: Pasion Jnal de la Society de Osceonistice by s Just,
- 3:25Speaker 1: the Clipperton Island Case by Edwin D. Dickinson, and also
- 3:29Speaker 1: the Clipperton Project. We also have squalowdivers dot com, Theaminteresting
- 3:35Speaker 1: dot com, and Atlas Obscura dot com. So Clipperton Island
- 3:40Speaker 1: is like this tiny island just off the west coast
- 3:44Speaker 1: of Mexico. It is ridiculously remote this way island and
- 3:49Speaker 1: the East Pacific is difficult to reach. The land is
- 3:53Speaker 1: basically barren, there's no fresh water, and it has really
- 3:58Speaker 1: dangerous reefs like all around it. For the most part,
- 4:02Speaker 1: people generally forgot that Clipperton Island, you know, existed. I mean,
- 4:06Speaker 1: it's really interesting to like, I don't know, people who
- 4:09Speaker 1: are like animals because it's got birds and crabs, and
- 4:13Speaker 1: you know, I assume fish because it's a fucking island,
- 4:16Speaker 1: but him's to say so. For the most part, Clipperton
- 4:20Speaker 1: is generally ignored. The island itself was originally discovered by
- 4:25Speaker 1: Alvera Savedra Theern in fifteen twenty eight on an expedition
- 4:29Speaker 1: commissioned by renowned fucking ursehole heronand Cortes, the Spanish conquistador. Basically,
- 4:36Speaker 1: they were trying to find a root to the Philippines.
- 4:38Speaker 1: They found us instead. Anyway, they ignored it. By seventeen eleven,
- 4:42Speaker 1: it was rediscovered by the French, so Martin de Charson
- 4:46Speaker 1: and Michel du Baugages they drow up a map of
- 4:50Speaker 1: the island and they claim it for France, and in
- 4:53Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight France basically officially claims the island. And
- 4:57Speaker 1: you're thinking, okay, so the Spanish and the French are
- 5:02Speaker 1: iron up this island. Why the fuck is it called Clipperton. Well,
- 5:05Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked, because I'll tell you. It's named
- 5:08Speaker 1: after John Clipperton, an English pirate and privateer, and he
- 5:14Speaker 1: fought the Spanish and like the seventeen hundreds, and because
- 5:17Speaker 1: the area was known to be a bit treacherous. They
- 5:20Speaker 1: say that he used it as like a base for
- 5:24Speaker 1: his rage, because nobody would ever want to get fucking
- 5:26Speaker 1: near it AnyWho. So in the mid to late eighteen
- 5:29Speaker 1: hundreds bunch of places are trying to claim this island.
- 5:32Speaker 1: The US try to claim it onto the Guano Islands.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Active eighteen fifty six, Napoleon tries annexa as part of
- 5:39Speaker 1: the French colony of Tahiti. So in eighteen ninety seven,
- 5:43Speaker 1: the French navies traveling past and they're like, what the
- 5:46Speaker 1: fuck is that? There was an American flag on that
- 5:48Speaker 1: island that's definitely ours. They go over there, there's three
- 5:52Speaker 1: fellows working for the Guano people, and they're like, mate,
- 5:57Speaker 1: what the actual fuck, And they say Laisonville, always saying
- 6:01Speaker 1: these only lands and no flag, no American flag. The
- 6:08Speaker 1: US authorities have to denounce this act, like, oh no, mate,
- 6:13Speaker 1: we didn't really mean to. But like a month later,
- 6:17Speaker 1: Mexico sending a gunboat to Annexit and be like, no, actually,
- 6:22Speaker 1: this is our island. Sorry, France and United States of America,
- 6:27Speaker 1: this is our island. Now piss off. And then like
- 6:30Speaker 1: a colony is established and like a bunch of military
- 6:34Speaker 1: governors are posted there and in nineteen oh six the
- 6:37Speaker 1: last military governor was Ramon or Not. And you're probably thinking,
- 6:40Speaker 1: why are people really interested in this really tiny island
- 6:46Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere in the East Pacific. See,
- 6:49Speaker 1: the thing is it was really valuable because it was
- 6:52Speaker 1: covered in shit. So let me tell you about Clapperton.
- 6:55Speaker 1: So basically, the island doesn't really have any native like
- 6:58Speaker 1: plants really a lot to this island. It doesn't really
- 7:02Speaker 1: have any natural vegetation. So coconut palms were introduced in
- 7:07Speaker 1: like the eighteen nineties by the guano miners. But like
- 7:11Speaker 1: other than that, it's kind of like grass and thickets,
- 7:15Speaker 1: not exactly useful. What the island does have, though, is
- 7:20Speaker 1: a bunch of animals. So it's got geckos and skinks,
- 7:23Speaker 1: which are reptiles. These bright orange crabs called the Clipperton
- 7:27Speaker 1: clap called the Clipperton crab, which is, you know, pretty cool.
- 7:31Speaker 1: You got crab named after you. Good for you. But
- 7:33Speaker 1: most of all, it has a fucked ton of birds.
- 7:37Speaker 1: What kind of birds carry well, I'm going to tell
- 7:39Speaker 1: you because some of the names are really fucking hilarious.
- 7:42Speaker 1: So they have white turns masked boobies, sooty turns, brown boobies,
- 7:48Speaker 1: brown noddies, black noddies, great frigatebirds, coots, martins, cuckoos, and
- 7:55Speaker 1: yellow warblers. But not only that, docs like to visit
- 7:58Speaker 1: every now and again too, So it's got let's get
- 8:00Speaker 1: loads of birds. Why are you telling me all about
- 8:03Speaker 1: these birds? So not only are the names of the
- 8:05Speaker 1: birds incredibly humorous, it's also what made the island so attractive.
- 8:10Speaker 1: Why the reason Cliverton Island was such a viable property
- 8:15Speaker 1: was because it was covered in shit. So you've got
- 8:18Speaker 1: thousands of years of compacted seabird droppings which are worth
- 8:24Speaker 1: their weight in gold. Because as we know, what does
- 8:28Speaker 1: poo do fertilizes It makes very good fertilizer. So in
- 8:36Speaker 1: nineteen oh six, the British Pacific Island Company acquires the
- 8:40Speaker 1: rights to guano deposits there. They acquired the rights to
- 8:44Speaker 1: collect shit. In conjunction with the Mexican government, they build
- 8:49Speaker 1: a mining settlement and also erect a lighthouse under the
- 8:54Speaker 1: orders of President Porphyrio Diaz. Oh. Also, so basically one
- 8:59Speaker 1: hundred men and women were deposited on the island. That's
- 9:03Speaker 1: like men, women and children. Effectively, the men were sent
- 9:07Speaker 1: first and then their wives and children followed. And because
- 9:10Speaker 1: you know, there isn't really a lot of you know,
- 9:12Speaker 1: food or like animals or supplies, pigs were introduced. But
- 9:17Speaker 1: pigs are smart and don't really want to be eaten,
- 9:19Speaker 1: so there wasn't too many of them able to get
- 9:22Speaker 1: and so their survival actually relied on supplies coming in
- 9:28Speaker 1: from al Capulco, a Capilco, a Capolco every two months,
- 9:33Speaker 1: so you know, they're they're you know, mining their guano.
- 9:36Speaker 1: The colony was really at its best about nineteen ten.
- 9:39Speaker 1: So at some point between the Mexican Revolution kicking off
- 9:43Speaker 1: and damn First World War happening, everyone just kind of
- 9:47Speaker 1: forgot about Clipperton and without any explanation whatsoever, ships just
- 9:53Speaker 1: stopped coming. The thing is this community was absolutely dependent
- 9:56Speaker 1: on so the residents of this practice inhospitable island, they
- 10:02Speaker 1: were absolutely dependent on the mainland for like food and information.
- 10:07Speaker 1: So like they had no idea about either war, like
- 10:10Speaker 1: no fucking clue, and their supplies are just dwindling. So
- 10:16Speaker 1: there's a shipwreck on the island in nineteen fourteen. It's
- 10:18Speaker 1: an American ship. You know, the rescue for them comes
- 10:21Speaker 1: pretty quickly, so they're like, hey, we'll take you to safety,
- 10:25Speaker 1: and offer us to take you know, the islanders to safety,
- 10:28Speaker 1: and Ramone's like, fuck this for a game of soldiers, No,
- 10:34Speaker 1: I do not want to do that. Because he's convinced
- 10:37Speaker 1: that this is some sort of trickery, some sort of
- 10:38Speaker 1: ruse to basically capture and claim the island because it's
- 10:44Speaker 1: still a disputed territory, he decides to just expel every
- 10:48Speaker 1: British person from the island, so he sends the last
- 10:51Speaker 1: British man and his family away with the Americans and
- 10:55Speaker 1: the other Islanders. They vote to stay with Ramon Raod,
- 10:58Speaker 1: which needless was a terrible fucking idea. Needless to say,
- 11:04Speaker 1: supplies start getting very scarce very quickly. So the months
- 11:09Speaker 1: turn into years, and by nineteen fifteen, there are twenty
- 11:13Speaker 1: six people left on the island. You've got thirteen soldiers
- 11:17Speaker 1: and then twelve women and children all together, and also
- 11:21Speaker 1: one dude who had barricaded himself in the lighthouse, Victoriano Alverez.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Food wise, food wasn't really in abundance for the islanders. Basically,
- 11:32Speaker 1: they had a couple of coconuts that would sort of
- 11:35Speaker 1: drop each week. Their main sources of nutrition were birds,
- 11:39Speaker 1: bird eggs, and fish. And this may surprise you, but
- 11:42Speaker 1: there isn't exactly a lot of eminse in a coconut
- 11:45Speaker 1: or in a brown booby egg. So yeah, and as
- 11:49Speaker 1: time progresses, the islanders start dropping like flies, especially the
- 11:54Speaker 1: adult men who are succumbing to scurvy. They keep dying,
- 12:00Speaker 1: so they have to bury them really deep in the
- 12:02Speaker 1: sand to basically make sure the crabs don't eat them,
- 12:04Speaker 1: which is you don't want to see a crab eat
- 12:07Speaker 1: your friend. I mean, I can only hope the Clipperton
- 12:10Speaker 1: crab is not as terrifying as a coconut crab, because
- 12:13Speaker 1: those things are fucking terrifying. Have you seen a coconut crab?
- 12:16Speaker 1: I never want to be within at least six feet
- 12:18Speaker 1: of a coconut crab. There should be at least one
- 12:21Speaker 1: mouse between me and a coconut crab those things. No,
- 12:27Speaker 1: I would rather deal with a mouse than a coconut crap.
- 12:30Speaker 1: And moose are scary too. I don't even like horses
- 12:33Speaker 1: that much. I think they're terrifying. So it gets to
- 12:36Speaker 1: the point where there are five men left on the island,
- 12:40Speaker 1: all of them suffering from malnourishment and vitamin deficiency, and
- 12:45Speaker 1: they've only got one boat on the island and they
- 12:48Speaker 1: don't have enough fuel to take it all the way
- 12:50Speaker 1: over to Alcapolco, and they know they can't row it
- 12:53Speaker 1: because everyone's fucking sick. So Captain Arnaud says a passing
- 12:58Speaker 1: ship in the distance and thinks, all right, we're going
- 13:01Speaker 1: to do it. And he's like, right, okay, this is
- 13:03Speaker 1: our chance. So he convinces three other soldiers to join
- 13:08Speaker 1: him in a row boat and try and row over
- 13:10Speaker 1: to this ship in the distance to get help. And
- 13:13Speaker 1: so they head out. They're rowing out towards this distant ship,
- 13:17Speaker 1: but the waves are so powerful, a bunch of the waves,
- 13:22Speaker 1: and Raymond's eight year old son, who are watching them
- 13:26Speaker 1: go and hoping that they're going to save them, that
- 13:28Speaker 1: they're going to find help and save them. And as
- 13:31Speaker 1: the men are desperately paddling away, the sea swallows the boat.
- 13:36Speaker 1: The islanders left watching that watch the boat and the
- 13:39Speaker 1: men vanish between the waves, and you're thinking this has
- 13:43Speaker 1: to be the lowest point. No, no, no, we're going
- 13:47Speaker 1: to go deeper into this basement of despair. It gets worse.
- 13:51Speaker 1: A few hours later, a hurricane appears offshore, and between
- 13:57Speaker 1: you know, the loss of her husband and a fucking
- 14:00Speaker 1: hurricane coming towards the island, Captain Arnaud's heavily pregnant widow
- 14:06Speaker 1: goes into labor with her fourth child, so all of
- 14:09Speaker 1: the women and the children they take refuge in this
- 14:13Speaker 1: sort of basement in the Arnaud's house, and during a
- 14:18Speaker 1: hurricane on a practically abandoned island, in a cramped basement,
- 14:23Speaker 1: Alicia Rovira Arnaud gives birth to a son, whom she
- 14:28Speaker 1: names Angel, and to prove not everything is so fucking
- 14:32Speaker 1: horrific in the world, both mother and baby survive. But
- 14:35Speaker 1: when the storm clears, the islanders come up from the
- 14:38Speaker 1: basement and their homes in the buildings are fucking destroyed.
- 14:42Speaker 1: And at this point there were no men left on
- 14:44Speaker 1: the island. And at some point during this chaos, the
- 14:47Speaker 1: lighthouse door finally opens and outcomes Alvarez, the only adult
- 14:53Speaker 1: man left alive on the island. Alvarez, who you may
- 14:57Speaker 1: remember earlier as the lighthouse keeper who basically hid the
- 15:00Speaker 1: fuck away, goes down to the shattered remains of the settlement,
- 15:06Speaker 1: collects all the guns and chucks them in a fucking lagoon,
- 15:10Speaker 1: saving one for himself, you know, and in a completely
- 15:15Speaker 1: rational move, declares himself king of the island. So Alvarez
- 15:20Speaker 1: the King of Clipperton Island, and he begins this. I
- 15:24Speaker 1: know you're going to be surprised to hear this, but
- 15:27Speaker 1: he is a horrific, fucking tyrant. And so begins Alvarez's
- 15:32Speaker 1: reign of terror, in which he enslaves, murders, and rapes
- 15:36Speaker 1: the women and children he basically used them for whatever
- 15:39Speaker 1: he wanted, whenever he wanted, and one mother and daughter
- 15:44Speaker 1: who refused to obey him. In a show of power
- 15:47Speaker 1: and fucking insanity, he points his rifle at them, rapes them,
- 15:52Speaker 1: and then shoots them. And because you know, at this point,
- 15:55Speaker 1: time is an illusion, and everyone else basically is the
- 15:59Speaker 1: very least gets beaten by this man. Over the next
- 16:02Speaker 1: few the excruciating months, Alvarez uses and abuses whichever person
- 16:08Speaker 1: he wants. When he's bored of the twenty year old
- 16:11Speaker 1: Alte Gracia Quiroz, he moves on to thirteen year old
- 16:15Speaker 1: Rosalia Nava, and when he's done with her, the twenty
- 16:19Speaker 1: year old Tasa Randon. Albarez kept most of his threats
- 16:22Speaker 1: for the captain's widow, Alesia Rovera Arnaud, and he constantly
- 16:28Speaker 1: told her that he would kill her the moment anyone
- 16:31Speaker 1: from the outside world showed up, because he knew damn
- 16:34Speaker 1: well she was going to fucking tell about everything he did.
- 16:37Speaker 1: And this disgusting cycle continues for like two years, and
- 16:42Speaker 1: for some reason, the only adult woman he hadn't gone
- 16:45Speaker 1: after was a Lithia Rivera Arnaud. Why as I was
- 16:48Speaker 1: lighthouse keepers doing mental things though, what is it about
- 16:51Speaker 1: a lighthouse that just drives people bananas? So basically, mid
- 16:55Speaker 1: July nineteen seventeen, Albarez is just his bored with the
- 17:00Speaker 1: three I don't want to say women, because one of
- 17:03Speaker 1: them is a fucking child. She's thirteen, I know she
- 17:05Speaker 1: must be like fifteen at this point, I think, but
- 17:07Speaker 1: still a fucking child. So h and he decides to
- 17:11Speaker 1: sit his sights on the last remaining adult women for
- 17:15Speaker 1: who he hasn't touched so far. Alithia Ravia are not
- 17:20Speaker 1: so when he forces Tirasa back to back to you know,
- 17:26Speaker 1: the settlement at gunpoint, he informs Alicia that she's going
- 17:32Speaker 1: to present herself at his hut by the lighthouse the
- 17:35Speaker 1: following morning. So eighteenth of July nineteen seventeen. It's the
- 17:39Speaker 1: morning time. Alicia heads towards the lighthouse with her seven
- 17:44Speaker 1: year old son, Romond Arnold Junior, accompanied by Tairraza. So
- 17:49Speaker 1: when they get there, Alvarez is just chilling. He's roasting
- 17:53Speaker 1: a bird on a wee spit he's made outside the lighthouse,
- 17:56Speaker 1: and he's happy as larry until he realizes that Tarrasa
- 17:59Speaker 1: is there too. He's like, what the fuck are you
- 18:01Speaker 1: doing here? And as he's trying to shoe her away,
- 18:05Speaker 1: she runs directly into the lighthouse keeper's hut and grabs
- 18:09Speaker 1: the hammer. Alicia gives her this like signal and she
- 18:13Speaker 1: runs toward Alvarez and whacks him with the fucking hammer.
- 18:17Speaker 1: Two hands, just big swing. Tearsa is just swinging this
- 18:21Speaker 1: hammer at Alvarez, and Alicia sends her son to run
- 18:24Speaker 1: to the hut, and Will Tears is done and Will
- 18:26Speaker 1: Tears is swinging at him. Alvarez manages to grab an
- 18:30Speaker 1: axe and he starts chasing after Alicia, who is yelling
- 18:35Speaker 1: at her son to grab his rifle before he can
- 18:37Speaker 1: get his hands on it. And as Alvarez is chasing
- 18:40Speaker 1: after Alicia, one last swing from Tearsa gets him right
- 18:44Speaker 1: in the head and knocks him to the ground, So
- 18:47Speaker 1: Alvarez is quite probably dead at this point. However, tears
- 18:52Speaker 1: A just isn't done yet. She is overcome with emotions,
- 18:56Speaker 1: you know, because she's finally having some power over her user.
- 19:01Speaker 1: And although Alvarez is quite probably dead at this point,
- 19:04Speaker 1: somebody manages to grab a knife and they are stabbing
- 19:08Speaker 1: and slashing and beating him like some met called overkill,
- 19:12Speaker 1: but I think they just really wanted to make sure
- 19:15Speaker 1: he was absolutely fucking dead, and frankly, he deserved worse
- 19:19Speaker 1: for what he did. As they stand over the frankly
- 19:23Speaker 1: mutilated body of the dictator of Clipperton, Little Ramon notices
- 19:29Speaker 1: something in the distance, something the islanders have not seen
- 19:33Speaker 1: in at least two years. A ship, an actual ship,
- 19:37Speaker 1: basically this gunboat. The USS Yorktown was patrolling sort of
- 19:41Speaker 1: the coast of North and South America because there were
- 19:44Speaker 1: rumors that the Germans had established a secret radio and
- 19:48Speaker 1: submarine base in the Pacific Ocean, and in a crazy
- 19:53Speaker 1: random happenstance, Clipperton, Ireland is on Yorktown's route, and in
- 19:59Speaker 1: their minds, this wee island with a colony and a
- 20:03Speaker 1: lighthouse would be a perfect hiding spot for the Germans.
- 20:07Speaker 1: So the USS yorktown circles the island, but like it's
- 20:11Speaker 1: a massive fucking gumboat. So they try and send this
- 20:13Speaker 1: small boat ashore. But because you know, the island is
- 20:16Speaker 1: treacherous and there's dangerous coral reefs. Oh and by the way,
- 20:20Speaker 1: I forgot to mention, there's sharks. There is shark infested water.
- 20:24Speaker 1: So mmm mm hmm. Nobody wants to be going in that.
- 20:28Speaker 1: So the women and children on this island they see
- 20:31Speaker 1: a flicker of hope, only for it to be extinguished
- 20:35Speaker 1: and this just brings down the home mood and this
- 20:38Speaker 1: is effectively the last straw for the women on the island.
- 20:41Speaker 1: And after seeing this boat retreat, the women have a
- 20:43Speaker 1: serious conversation about what they're going to do now, and
- 20:47Speaker 1: the plan is to end their lives, to just stop
- 20:52Speaker 1: the suffering. And the main issue they're trying to work
- 20:54Speaker 1: out is whether they should just shoot themselves or let
- 20:57Speaker 1: themselves drown in the lagoon. Luckily, it doesn't come to
- 21:01Speaker 1: that because the American ship makes a second attempt to
- 21:06Speaker 1: get their boat to shore, and the second so when
- 21:10Speaker 1: the Americans arrive, Alicia meets them and basically explains that
- 21:15Speaker 1: they need to get off there now, like they need
- 21:17Speaker 1: to get out of there yesterday. So the crew take
- 21:20Speaker 1: woman to back the settlement to collect you know, whatever left,
- 21:23Speaker 1: and the others go and investigate the lighthouse and see
- 21:27Speaker 1: the body. Effectively, the Americans notice that all of the
- 21:31Speaker 1: children are small, you know, are all small for their
- 21:34Speaker 1: ages because you know, they're suffering malnutrition. And the two
- 21:37Speaker 1: year old Angel or Not, he's got rickets which is
- 21:41Speaker 1: so severe he can't actually walk. So he is carried
- 21:45Speaker 1: to the boat by an eleven year old boy, Francisco.
- 21:48Speaker 1: And these sailors take the remaining survivors of Clipperton Island,
- 21:52Speaker 1: which are three women and eight children, back to the
- 21:56Speaker 1: USS Rocktown, and they leave Alvarez's body for the crabs.
- 22:01Speaker 1: Oh Also, in addition, furthermore, the captain of the Yorktown
- 22:06Speaker 1: he's like watching these people on the island get into
- 22:09Speaker 1: the boat with his soldiers, and he's like, what the
- 22:11Speaker 1: actual fuck. He's like, well, suspicious because he's convinced like danger, danger,
- 22:16Speaker 1: high voltage, you know what I mean. But once he's
- 22:18Speaker 1: informed of what happened, he's like absolutely one hundred percent
- 22:21Speaker 1: let's get these ladies back home. So the Yorktown basically stops,
- 22:25Speaker 1: you know, hunting for German u boats for a wae
- 22:27Speaker 1: minute and sets sail for Selena Cruz, Mexico because basically
- 22:32Speaker 1: because a few of the survivors had relatives there. But
- 22:35Speaker 1: not only were they doing that, they send a message
- 22:37Speaker 1: over the wireless to the British consulate in the city.
- 22:40Speaker 1: You know, it's trying to help locating relatives. I'm like,
- 22:43Speaker 1: on this ship, all the sailors they get like really
- 22:45Speaker 1: close to the kids. They're like, they get really fond
- 22:47Speaker 1: of the kids, which is like hard not to after
- 22:49Speaker 1: all this shit they've been through. So the ship anchors
- 22:53Speaker 1: on the twenty second of July nineteen seventeen, it's Selena
- 22:57Speaker 1: Cruz and serendipitously, this boat peers carrying none other than
- 23:03Speaker 1: Felix Rovera, Alicia's dad. So, like, over the last however
- 23:07Speaker 1: many years, he had been like consistently questioning Mexican authorities,
- 23:12Speaker 1: like where the fuck is my daughter? What's happened? But
- 23:15Speaker 1: he had been told over and over again that all
- 23:19Speaker 1: of the colonists on Clipperton had died. So Felix Rivera
- 23:23Speaker 1: is reunited with his daughter and his four grandkids. And
- 23:27Speaker 1: the sailors on this ship are so like moved by this,
- 23:32Speaker 1: like family reunion. They like burst into tears and like
- 23:36Speaker 1: the crew and as well, which is like so cute.
- 23:39Speaker 1: The crew did a whip around and they collected like
- 23:41Speaker 1: a fund to you know, help you know, the survivors
- 23:44Speaker 1: like start a new life because obviously they had absolutely
- 23:46Speaker 1: fuck all the locals heard about this, and they were
- 23:50Speaker 1: so grateful to like the American sailors and like they
- 23:53Speaker 1: throw a big party for them. Effectively, for the most part,
- 23:58Speaker 1: Clipperton Ireland hasn't really been inhabited by anybody, like except
- 24:03Speaker 1: for like the odd castaway or like some military stuff
- 24:07Speaker 1: or scientific expeditions like people studying birds and shit. However,
- 24:12Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seventy year old Armond or Not Junior
- 24:17Speaker 1: we visited Clipperton Island with a team of biologists led
- 24:21Speaker 1: by Jacques Coastal. But yeah, no one has settled on
- 24:25Speaker 1: Clipperton Ireland since since that, and you know, you can't
- 24:28Speaker 1: really blame them, to be honest, And so ends our
- 24:31Speaker 1: Tale of Clipperton Island, which is basically like the real
- 24:35Speaker 1: Lord of the Flies situation. If you liked my retelling
- 24:40Speaker 1: of this horrific tale, feel free to like and review
- 24:45Speaker 1: five stars what Apple podcasts wooh put me up them charts. Yeah,
- 24:50Speaker 1: I'm so sorry that was I mean, I'm not going
- 24:52Speaker 1: to see you like the story, like the retelling of
- 24:54Speaker 1: the story, because that is a horrific story. Let's face it,
- 24:57Speaker 1: so honestly that the reviews they read really really help.
- 25:01Speaker 1: And some of them, you guys, are funny. Actually, you
- 25:04Speaker 1: leave some really amazing reviews. They really cheer me up.
- 25:06Speaker 1: So what did we learn today? No amount of burds.
- 25:11Speaker 1: It is worth settling in an inhospitable island. Coral reefs
- 25:15Speaker 1: have been defeating the French since eighteen sixty eight. Um
- 25:18Speaker 1: crabs will eat you if given the chance. They don't
- 25:22Speaker 1: give a fuck. If the opportunity arises where you get
- 25:24Speaker 1: the option to be king of an island, don't be
- 25:28Speaker 1: a fucking tyrant because you will get your skull smashed
- 25:31Speaker 1: in with a hammer and you'll deserve it. Okay. So,
- 25:35Speaker 1: and of course it is that time of the show.
- 25:38Speaker 1: I was gonna say time of the evening. It is
- 25:40Speaker 1: the time of the show where we have recommendations time reading. Hi,
- 25:46Speaker 1: I'm gonna recommend going with the theme, I'm actually gonna
- 25:50Speaker 1: recommend you know what I call a good for her book.
- 25:55Speaker 1: It's done it. I'm gonna suggest you read Gone Girl
- 26:00Speaker 1: by Gillian Flynn. That is my reading thing for the week.
- 26:03Speaker 1: Go enjoy listening. I'm going to recommend a podcast called
- 26:09Speaker 1: tenfold More Wicked. It is historical, it is true crime is.
- 26:14Speaker 1: It is beautifully done. And I actually have two watching recommendations.
- 26:19Speaker 1: One that I've already seen and that I'm going to see.
- 26:22Speaker 1: So I watched the second season of Tiger King on
- 26:26Speaker 1: Netflix because I'm here for the drama and I fucking
- 26:32Speaker 1: love it. So watch that and I'm going to get emotional.
- 26:36Speaker 1: I always get emotional to this. In Ireland we have
- 26:38Speaker 1: a show called The Late Late Toy Show. It happens
- 26:41Speaker 1: once a year. It's usually the last Friday in November
- 26:46Speaker 1: because it's leading up to Christmas. There's the Late Late Show,
- 26:48Speaker 1: which America has its own thing, but the Late Late
- 26:51Speaker 1: Show has. It's hosted over here by a man called
- 26:55Speaker 1: Ryan Tubberdy, who we call call Toups. I don't enjoy Tubbs.
- 26:59Speaker 1: He is. I found him like he's not really a
- 27:02Speaker 1: joy to watch on the screen, except the only time
- 27:05Speaker 1: I can tolerate him is during the Toy Show. There's
- 27:08Speaker 1: always the joke running on Twitter about him doing like
- 27:11Speaker 1: lines of coke before each show because he has to
- 27:14Speaker 1: be so full of energy. Like the man cannot sing,
- 27:17Speaker 1: he cannot dance, but he gaze at loudly. He goes
- 27:21Speaker 1: for it. And I am one hundred percent here for that.
- 27:23Speaker 1: And also the Toy Show is like this glimmer of
- 27:27Speaker 1: hope in everything horrific it is, it is, it's and
- 27:30Speaker 1: it's thirteenth year here and it is like a national institution.
- 27:35Speaker 1: So they do this special show. Kids come on and
- 27:37Speaker 1: sing the kids like do toy reviews, and like they
- 27:41Speaker 1: talk about it properly, like they're like you like this
- 27:43Speaker 1: at nah And there's always one farmer kid, and we
- 27:46Speaker 1: have a role with the Toy Show. You do not
- 27:48Speaker 1: insult the children. You can make fun of Tubs or
- 27:51Speaker 1: any celebrity that shows up as much as you like,
- 27:53Speaker 1: you leave the children alone because the amount of amazing
- 27:58Speaker 1: stuff this show does. Like before Tubs came on board,
- 28:01Speaker 1: basically it would be the kids of the people who
- 28:04Speaker 1: owned the toy company and were related to the advertisers
- 28:09Speaker 1: and stuff like they would be the ones who got
- 28:11Speaker 1: to come in and play with the toys during this
- 28:14Speaker 1: special segment that come in and play with all the
- 28:16Speaker 1: toys and what Tubbs did. Instead of having that happen,
- 28:19Speaker 1: he ensured that children from the nearby hospital and hospice
- 28:25Speaker 1: come in and play for the toys for like a
- 28:26Speaker 1: couple of hours, giving them like some kind of joy.
- 28:31Speaker 1: Get an emotional Now, every time I think about it
- 28:33Speaker 1: makes me cry. I love the Lately Toy Show. It's amazing.
- 28:36Speaker 1: I'm probably going to do a minisore on it because
- 28:38Speaker 1: you know what I want to It's going to be
- 28:40Speaker 1: really fun. If you hear that cat that is Riley, Riley,
- 28:46Speaker 1: don't mind Riley, he's a nurse. Oh this is the
- 28:49Speaker 1: cat that went missing. Let me tell you about this
- 28:51Speaker 1: before I go, which is like a mile away anyway,
- 28:55Speaker 1: that's never hearn o there. But with that, I'm going
- 28:57Speaker 1: to usehush to some treats. Do you want to treat?
- 29:02Speaker 1: I love them? Really? What can I say? What can
- 29:04Speaker 1: I say? I'm a sucker for a broken meal? Yeah, yeah,
- 29:07Speaker 1: I hear you. So with that, I'm actually going to
- 29:09Speaker 1: bid you a duke so adios au Revoir of Waiters,
- 29:13Speaker 1: My friends, Bye bye,