Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / A Pirate’s Life for Me

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A Pirate’s Life for Me · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey'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. The lives of seventeenth and eighteenth
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  Speaker 1: century pirates have been glamorized by modern media. Hard drinking,
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  Speaker 1: fun loving ne'er dwells who charmed the ladies and challenged
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  Speaker 1: authority have graced pages and screens for generations. Well, reality
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  Speaker 1: says you shouldn't believe everything you read. Pirates never made
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  Speaker 1: anyone walk the plank, and they were often ruthless killers
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  Speaker 1: who didn't follow a code of honor. Pirates harmed anyone
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  Speaker 1: and everyone who got in their way, especially in pursuit
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  Speaker 1: of gold or jewels. They weren't endearing swashbucklers wearing too
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  Speaker 1: much eyeshadow. However, one thing Hollywood and publishing got right
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  Speaker 1: was the pirates need for freedom. They rebelled because they
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  Speaker 1: felt they were being controlled by governments that weren't working
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  Speaker 1: for them, high taxes and high poverty, left many people
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  Speaker 1: in dire straits, and piracy was their only way out
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  Speaker 1: of squalor. These men and women set out on the
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  Speaker 1: high seas to take control of their destinies and forge
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  Speaker 1: their own paths. Much like one pirate, Captain James Missan
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  Speaker 1: in the late sixteen hundreds, Massan had an idea for
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  Speaker 1: a land where pirates could truly be free, free from
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  Speaker 1: the tyranny of oppressive regimes and military interference. An oasis meant,
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  Speaker 1: as he described it, for vigilante guardians of the people's
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  Speaker 1: rights and liberties. Captain Mason had come from Provence, France,
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  Speaker 1: serving aboard the Worship Victois. His father had been a
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  Speaker 1: wealthy man, but Missan himself had little as he had
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  Speaker 1: numerous links to contend with. While on leave in Rome,
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  Speaker 1: he met a priest named Karachioli who accompanied him aboard
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  Speaker 1: the ship. Massan had lost faith in his religion as
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  Speaker 1: well as the papacy, and it seemed his new friend
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  Speaker 1: had too. The priest was a deist. He despised organized religion,
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  Speaker 1: believing it was being used as a tool to keep
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  Speaker 1: the classes in line. He often talked to me San
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  Speaker 1: and the crew about how man was born to be
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  Speaker 1: free and should always remain free. Massan agreed wholeheartedly, and
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  Speaker 1: eventually the crew did too. After the Victois captain was
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  Speaker 1: killed in action, the men of the ship declared Missan
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  Speaker 1: their new captain. His first order of business to abandon
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  Speaker 1: the military and begin a new chapter in their lives.
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  Speaker 1: They became pirates, calling no country home. Fighting for themselves
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  Speaker 1: and the family they'd created, they sailed to South Africa,
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  Speaker 1: where they freed slaves and invited them to join the
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  Speaker 1: crew as equals. The men also gained a reputation for
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  Speaker 1: how well they treated the captains of the ships they pie.
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  Speaker 1: It did unlike their more vicious counterparts, Misson and his
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  Speaker 1: men almost never killed anyone unless absolutely necessary. It would
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  Speaker 1: have been uncivilized. After a brief stay on an island
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  Speaker 1: off the East African coast, Captain and crew headed for Madagascar.
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  Speaker 1: It was there where Misan found his calling. He decided
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  Speaker 1: to establish a new colony, one where each man would
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  Speaker 1: have a little slice for himself and their joint efforts
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  Speaker 1: would go towards the betterment of the community. They called
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  Speaker 1: it Libertalia, sometimes known as Libertatia. They disowned their countries
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  Speaker 1: of birth, choosing to call themselves liberty Instead. A new
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  Speaker 1: language was born as well, piece together from the various
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  Speaker 1: languages and dialects of the incoming settlers, and it didn't
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  Speaker 1: take long for the town to grow. There was livestock, farmland,
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  Speaker 1: docks were built to conduct shipping business with other lands,
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  Speaker 1: and some pirates continued to do what they did best,
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  Speaker 1: plunder the fortunes of other ships. Everyone contributed, and everyone
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed the fruits of their labor Quali. Eventually, Massan and
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  Speaker 1: another leader, a privateer turned pirate named Thomas Too, attempted
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  Speaker 1: to shift their socialist government to a more democratic method,
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  Speaker 1: one where a leader would be chosen by the men. Unsurprisingly,
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  Speaker 1: Missan was elected without question, but his victory was short lived.
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  Speaker 1: Libertalia suffered an attack from the native people on the island,
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  Speaker 1: who killed a large portion of the settlers, including Carracioli.
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  Speaker 1: Missan and forty men fled with a fraction of their treasure.
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  Speaker 1: To suggested that he go to America to try again,
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  Speaker 1: but Massan had had enough. He couldn't bear to go
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  Speaker 1: through the trouble of starting yet another colony, and he
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  Speaker 1: never got the chance either. A captain and his remaining
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  Speaker 1: crew got caught in a bad storm. After the attack,
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  Speaker 1: the ship was lost, and with it one man's dream
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  Speaker 1: of a pirate utopia. There are some who say, Libertally
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  Speaker 1: it was a fictional land, one concocted from the mind
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  Speaker 1: of a British writer too scared to voice his progressive
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  Speaker 1: views in public instead, and it is said he wrote
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  Speaker 1: them in the form of a story about pirates and
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  Speaker 1: a fable land where they lived as free men. Still
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  Speaker 1: it hasn't stopped people for hunting for the proof. It's
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  Speaker 1: possible that somewhere out there is a remnant from James
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  Speaker 1: Messan's failed experiment, like a sign or a plaque, or
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  Speaker 1: the ruins of a Libertalian home. But even if there isn't,
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  Speaker 1: even if it was all just fiction, the dream of
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  Speaker 1: a place where people take care of one another lives
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  Speaker 1: on today. Inspiring for sure, and also more than a
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  Speaker 1: little curious. All life eventually ends. We hope we live
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  Speaker 1: long enough to see our children grow up start families
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  Speaker 1: of their own, before we pass away peacefully to a
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  Speaker 1: better place. As for our bodies, we have several choices.
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  Speaker 1: We can be buried in a cemetery or cremated and
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  Speaker 1: have our ashes preserve for our loved ones to cherish.
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  Speaker 1: There are even services out there that let us turn
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  Speaker 1: our ashes into diamonds, so the ones we love can
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  Speaker 1: keep us close wherever they are. But what about those
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  Speaker 1: who don't have people to care for them. Where do
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  Speaker 1: they go when they die? There was a question posed
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  Speaker 1: by one particular group for many years until someone came
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  Speaker 1: up with a solution in the eighteenth century, when one
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  Speaker 1: island became the final resting place for some of history's
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  Speaker 1: most colorful characters. The spot was located on Yel Santa Marie,
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  Speaker 1: a small island off the eastern coast of Madagascar in Africa.
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  Speaker 1: Il Santa Marie had it all, rich flora, interesting culture,
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  Speaker 1: and beautiful ocean views. It was the perfect place for
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  Speaker 1: pirates to kick back and relax as a kind of
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  Speaker 1: vacation spots. There were even a number of coves and
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  Speaker 1: bays where they could stash their ships out of view
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  Speaker 1: of merchant and military vessels going by. But Il Santa
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  Speaker 1: Marie was also an unavoidable spot along the trade routes,
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  Speaker 1: so pirates had plenty of targets who were flushed with
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  Speaker 1: valuable cargo to take advantage of as they passed by.
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  Speaker 1: The area was known as the Island of Pirates, and
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  Speaker 1: it was started by one man named Adam Baldridge. In
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  Speaker 1: Baldridge had been charged with murder in Jamaica and escaped
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  Speaker 1: prosecution to Yell Santa Marie. He didn't just start a
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  Speaker 1: new chapter of his life there, though, he began writing
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  Speaker 1: a whole new book. Within a year, Baldridge had become
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  Speaker 1: the head of his own organization, controlling commerce to and
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  Speaker 1: from the island and mediating conflicts between the local tribes,
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  Speaker 1: all for a price. And because other pirates found the
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  Speaker 1: island to be quite welcoming to their kind, Baldridge often
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  Speaker 1: rented them out to merchants willing to pay their high
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  Speaker 1: fees for their services. He didn't stay too long on
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  Speaker 1: the island, though, after it was discovered that he'd been
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  Speaker 1: selling the indigenous people as slaves. He fled to the
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  Speaker 1: American colonies, leaving his paradise behind. But despite the loss
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  Speaker 1: of its founder, Eel Santa Marie flourished. Almost a thousand
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  Speaker 1: pirates descended upon its shores over the next hundred years.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, that's a long time, and most pirates don't
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  Speaker 1: live to a ripe age. Those who died had to
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  Speaker 1: be put somewhere, and that's when it was decided a
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  Speaker 1: cemetery had to be erected to handle the deceased. A
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  Speaker 1: graveyard was established on a hilltop set off from the
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  Speaker 1: wooden huts of the village. It overlooked the water, providing
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  Speaker 1: the dead with a final resting place near their one
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  Speaker 1: true home. The open ocean. Headstones were erected as well,
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  Speaker 1: many of which had been etched with a skull and
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  Speaker 1: crossbones like the flags flown atop their ships when they
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  Speaker 1: were still alive. It said that William Kidd, the Scottish
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  Speaker 1: pirate captain who buried treasure all over the world, made
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  Speaker 1: e l Santa Marie his home for a time, and
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  Speaker 1: despite being executed in England in seventeen o one, with
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  Speaker 1: his body put on display over the River Thames for
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  Speaker 1: three years, Captain Kidd eventually made it back to Pirate Island.
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  Speaker 1: He was laid to rest in a cemetery inside a
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  Speaker 1: giant black tomb, but he was not made comfortable. Kid
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  Speaker 1: was oriented upright rather than lying down as punishment for
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  Speaker 1: his actions while he was still alive. Between the late
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  Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds and the early eighteen hundreds, any remaining pirates
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  Speaker 1: were forcibly removed from the El Santa Marie by the French,
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  Speaker 1: who reclaimed the island and turned it into a penal colony. Today,
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  Speaker 1: only about thirty headstones remain. However, despite its shrunken size,
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  Speaker 1: the graveyard at El Santa Marie represents the only pirate
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  Speaker 1: cemetery in the world and a grim reminder of a
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  Speaker 1: time when pirates ruled the high seas. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.