May 6, 2021 • 10 mins
When events are out of our control, all we can do is just make the best of it. The folks in our stories today did exactly that after life threw them some bizarre and unusual curveballs.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. Not long ago, the world witnessed an unimaginable site.
A cargo ship known as the Ever Given had gotten
stuck in Egypt's Suez Canal. Steered off its path by
an oncoming sandstorm, the freighter blocked over three d sixty
(00:50):
other ships from getting through the canal. The ordeal lasted
almost a week and had everyone wondering how such a
thing could have happened in the first place. Apparently few
remembered that the now had gotten blocked once before, with
a very different outcome. On June five, nineteen sixty seven,
Israel went to war against Egypt and Syria in what
(01:10):
came to be known as the June War. However, due
to the surprising length of the fight, it also went
by another name, the Six Day War. A conflict was
over by June tenth, with Egypt retreating west. However, as
they crossed the canal, Egyptian forces blocked it on both
sides to keep the Israelis from using it. What they
didn't realize was that their actions had inadvertently stranded a
(01:32):
convoy of fifteen ships traveling through the canal at the
same time. Every vessel dropped anchor as egypt sunk various
other boats and even destroyed a bridge to prevent Israeli access.
They also deployed underwater mines for good measure. The ships,
having originally come from places like Britain, America, Sweden, West Germany,
(01:52):
and Bulgaria, among others, were stuck. Crews used their radios
to reach family and loved ones to alert them of
what had happened, were forced to cease communications at the
request of the Egyptians. Times got tough after that first month,
which initially seemed like a vacation. As the days and
weeks wore on, however, crew men grew lonely and isolated.
(02:13):
Boredom eroded their mental health. The weeks turned into months,
and countries negotiated crew swaps for their respective ships. Though
they weren't moving, the vessels still required maintenance in order
to stay afloat, so one crew would stay on for
three or four months until another crew could be brought
in to relieve them. The men, with nowhere to go
and very little to keep themselves occupied, eventually got to
(02:34):
know each other in a way. Each vessel became like
a house in a small community, and that's how all
the crew members treated their situation. Every ship served a
different purpose. The largest one, with its enormous deck, became
a soccer field. The men watched movies on the Bulgarian
freighter and printed stamps on the polar ship, which the
Egyptian authorities were kind enough to honor as legal postage.
(02:58):
Many of the crew race lifeboats in the canal and
attended church services on board the West German ship, and
if they wanted to unwind, they took a dip in
the pool on the Swedish vessel. Supplies were delivered regularly.
During the brutally hot summer months. One could look out
at the ships and see hundreds of beer bottles floating
alongside their hulls. After a year without movement, the convoy
(03:20):
even created its own version of the Olympics, with the
various crews representing eight countries across fourteen sports. There was archery,
water polo, sailing, and even the high jump. And for
those who are curious, the Polish team took home the gold. Literally,
they had medals made and everything. The men from all
the ships had combined their resources to put the event
(03:43):
together and that's how they operated their small community, dubbed
the Yellow Fleet. They done it with everyone contributing for
the greater good. It was a fully functioning utopia on
the water and it stayed that way for eight years.
In ninety each it removed the blockade and opened up
the canal once again. The ships were free to return
(04:05):
to their countries of origin and business went back to normal,
but not for the men involved. They had made lifelong
friends during their years on the water. Back on land,
it had been a time of conflict and war, but
in the canal nobody fought. There were no land disputes
or enemy armies to contend with. Everyone helped one another.
(04:25):
They all pitched in toward a common goal of fun
and well being. Surviving crew members still meet up today,
swapping stories about the good old days, when times were simpler,
when their lives had stood still while the world continued
on without them, When the Yellow Fleet was the safest,
most prosperous, and peaceful nation in the world. It started
(05:00):
with an exorcism, not of a person though, no, this
was a set of clothing. But I can't blame anyone
for thinking that there was something dark and deeply wrong
about them, evil even now, as the story goes. They
had been passed down between three different teenage girls, but
it wasn't a happy hand me down situation. In fact,
none of the girls had ever even worn the clothes.
(05:22):
You see, each of them had died before they had
a chance to the clothes, then got passed onto the
next family who needed them, only to have their daughter
die in turn. And that's the kind of terrible string
of tragedies that can leave us feeling like there's a dark,
supernatural force at play moving behind the scene, a force
that needs to be stopped. So the families decided to
(05:43):
do something about it. They brought the clothes to a
priest for an exorcism, and in the winter of sixteen
fifty seven, the priest decided to burn them. Like I said,
I can't blame anyone for trying to put a stop
to the tragedies that were happening. But what happened next
was a disaster on an unbelievable scale. You see, all
of this was happening in a city where winter winds
(06:04):
were coming. On top of that, it had been a
particularly dry year. A drought had sucked down the river,
drained the wells, and left the city's buildings, as one
historian puts, it, dry as tinder. So you can see
where this is going, right. Their attempt to stop the
curse and banish the destructive forces backfired on them. Literally,
(06:25):
the embers of the fire floated up and a strong
wind caught them. The nearby temple caught first, and once
that went up, there was no stopping it. The fire
traveled as it raged from the temples, to the food
storage buildings to the wealthiest districts. Just when it seemed
like the fire was going to be put out in
one part of the city, the winds whipped up and
carried it to another district, and the streets were chaos.
(06:49):
When the prison caught fire, the doors were opened in
a moment of compassion to save the lives of the inmates,
but the terrified keeper of the city gates ordered the
huge wooden doors closed, try upping thousands inside even the
castle overlooking the city caught fire. Inside the stone walls
got so hot that all the gold stored in the
cellar just melted, and the gunpowder stored in the main
(07:12):
tower exploded, bringing the castle crashing down. One Rand remembered
carrying a lantern in mid day to light the way
through the streets that were darkened by smoke. Part of
the problem was how much of the city's land had
been marked out for the wealthy to build their huge estates.
Not enough of the city's area was set aside for
the homes of working people, leaving them packed together like
(07:34):
matches in a box. And the blaze went on for
three days. When the news spread about how it all began,
the fire got a memorable nickname, the Long Sleeves Fire.
It almost sounds playful, but there was nothing funny about
the scale of the disaster. In fact, it was more
devastating than the Great Fire of London in sixteen sixty six,
and became one of the worst city fires ever recorded.
(07:58):
About sixty of the city had been destroyed, and the
fire had no consideration for persons, status or prestige. Those
crowded neighborhoods burst into flames but so did almost a
thousand mansions more than three hundred temples, all of it
burned together. For the city, this was a turning point.
The medieval map had been burned away and the shape
(08:20):
of the modern city was drawn in its ashes. Temples
that were now seen as fire hazards were moved to
the outskirts. Rebuilding the castle was delayed, while priority was
given to rebuilding the homes of working people around wider streets.
A bridge was even built over the river from the
most crowded part of the city. If the residents there
ever had to evacuate in the future, now they would
(08:41):
have a path to safety. But that's not to put
too bright a spin on it. Yes there was new
building afterwards, but there's no denying that the fire was
an enormous tragedy, and of course the greatest loss was
the loss of life. Some historians placed the estimate at
one hundred thousand deaths. It's one of those painful ironies
(09:02):
from history that we see from time to time. It
started with an effort to stop what seemed like a curse.
Burn the clothes saved some lives, but in their attempt
to prevent something bad, they created something worse. That's not
the end of the story, though. The way the city
came back from a disaster of this scale is a
chapter in its history that gave it a new reputation,
(09:24):
because the people of the city came together and laid
the foundation for what would take the place of the
home they had lost, and the way that they had
rebuilt after so much destruction brought at least one historian
to call this home of renewal an indomitable city the
city of Edo in Japan, but that isn't the name
we know it by today. No. It's modern name came
(09:46):
in eighteen sixty nine, two hundred years after the fire,
because the city had become such a center of Japanese
life that the Emperor took up residence there, and despite
all the trials and turmoil of the past, it became
known as the Eastern Capital, or in other words, Tokyo.
(10:06):
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television
(10:29):
show and you can learn all about it over at
the world of Lore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Yeah,
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. Not long ago, the world witnessed an unimaginable site.
A cargo ship known as the Ever Given had gotten
stuck in Egypt's Suez Canal. Steered off its path by
an oncoming sandstorm, the freighter blocked over three d sixty
(00:50):
other ships from getting through the canal. The ordeal lasted
almost a week and had everyone wondering how such a
thing could have happened in the first place. Apparently few
remembered that the now had gotten blocked once before, with
a very different outcome. On June five, nineteen sixty seven,
Israel went to war against Egypt and Syria in what
(01:10):
came to be known as the June War. However, due
to the surprising length of the fight, it also went
by another name, the Six Day War. A conflict was
over by June tenth, with Egypt retreating west. However, as
they crossed the canal, Egyptian forces blocked it on both
sides to keep the Israelis from using it. What they
didn't realize was that their actions had inadvertently stranded a
(01:32):
convoy of fifteen ships traveling through the canal at the
same time. Every vessel dropped anchor as egypt sunk various
other boats and even destroyed a bridge to prevent Israeli access.
They also deployed underwater mines for good measure. The ships,
having originally come from places like Britain, America, Sweden, West Germany,
(01:52):
and Bulgaria, among others, were stuck. Crews used their radios
to reach family and loved ones to alert them of
what had happened, were forced to cease communications at the
request of the Egyptians. Times got tough after that first month,
which initially seemed like a vacation. As the days and
weeks wore on, however, crew men grew lonely and isolated.
(02:13):
Boredom eroded their mental health. The weeks turned into months,
and countries negotiated crew swaps for their respective ships. Though
they weren't moving, the vessels still required maintenance in order
to stay afloat, so one crew would stay on for
three or four months until another crew could be brought
in to relieve them. The men, with nowhere to go
and very little to keep themselves occupied, eventually got to
(02:34):
know each other in a way. Each vessel became like
a house in a small community, and that's how all
the crew members treated their situation. Every ship served a
different purpose. The largest one, with its enormous deck, became
a soccer field. The men watched movies on the Bulgarian
freighter and printed stamps on the polar ship, which the
Egyptian authorities were kind enough to honor as legal postage.
(02:58):
Many of the crew race lifeboats in the canal and
attended church services on board the West German ship, and
if they wanted to unwind, they took a dip in
the pool on the Swedish vessel. Supplies were delivered regularly.
During the brutally hot summer months. One could look out
at the ships and see hundreds of beer bottles floating
alongside their hulls. After a year without movement, the convoy
(03:20):
even created its own version of the Olympics, with the
various crews representing eight countries across fourteen sports. There was archery,
water polo, sailing, and even the high jump. And for
those who are curious, the Polish team took home the gold. Literally,
they had medals made and everything. The men from all
the ships had combined their resources to put the event
(03:43):
together and that's how they operated their small community, dubbed
the Yellow Fleet. They done it with everyone contributing for
the greater good. It was a fully functioning utopia on
the water and it stayed that way for eight years.
In ninety each it removed the blockade and opened up
the canal once again. The ships were free to return
(04:05):
to their countries of origin and business went back to normal,
but not for the men involved. They had made lifelong
friends during their years on the water. Back on land,
it had been a time of conflict and war, but
in the canal nobody fought. There were no land disputes
or enemy armies to contend with. Everyone helped one another.
(04:25):
They all pitched in toward a common goal of fun
and well being. Surviving crew members still meet up today,
swapping stories about the good old days, when times were simpler,
when their lives had stood still while the world continued
on without them, When the Yellow Fleet was the safest,
most prosperous, and peaceful nation in the world. It started
(05:00):
with an exorcism, not of a person though, no, this
was a set of clothing. But I can't blame anyone
for thinking that there was something dark and deeply wrong
about them, evil even now, as the story goes. They
had been passed down between three different teenage girls, but
it wasn't a happy hand me down situation. In fact,
none of the girls had ever even worn the clothes.
(05:22):
You see, each of them had died before they had
a chance to the clothes, then got passed onto the
next family who needed them, only to have their daughter
die in turn. And that's the kind of terrible string
of tragedies that can leave us feeling like there's a dark,
supernatural force at play moving behind the scene, a force
that needs to be stopped. So the families decided to
(05:43):
do something about it. They brought the clothes to a
priest for an exorcism, and in the winter of sixteen
fifty seven, the priest decided to burn them. Like I said,
I can't blame anyone for trying to put a stop
to the tragedies that were happening. But what happened next
was a disaster on an unbelievable scale. You see, all
of this was happening in a city where winter winds
(06:04):
were coming. On top of that, it had been a
particularly dry year. A drought had sucked down the river,
drained the wells, and left the city's buildings, as one
historian puts, it, dry as tinder. So you can see
where this is going, right. Their attempt to stop the
curse and banish the destructive forces backfired on them. Literally,
(06:25):
the embers of the fire floated up and a strong
wind caught them. The nearby temple caught first, and once
that went up, there was no stopping it. The fire
traveled as it raged from the temples, to the food
storage buildings to the wealthiest districts. Just when it seemed
like the fire was going to be put out in
one part of the city, the winds whipped up and
carried it to another district, and the streets were chaos.
(06:49):
When the prison caught fire, the doors were opened in
a moment of compassion to save the lives of the inmates,
but the terrified keeper of the city gates ordered the
huge wooden doors closed, try upping thousands inside even the
castle overlooking the city caught fire. Inside the stone walls
got so hot that all the gold stored in the
cellar just melted, and the gunpowder stored in the main
(07:12):
tower exploded, bringing the castle crashing down. One Rand remembered
carrying a lantern in mid day to light the way
through the streets that were darkened by smoke. Part of
the problem was how much of the city's land had
been marked out for the wealthy to build their huge estates.
Not enough of the city's area was set aside for
the homes of working people, leaving them packed together like
(07:34):
matches in a box. And the blaze went on for
three days. When the news spread about how it all began,
the fire got a memorable nickname, the Long Sleeves Fire.
It almost sounds playful, but there was nothing funny about
the scale of the disaster. In fact, it was more
devastating than the Great Fire of London in sixteen sixty six,
and became one of the worst city fires ever recorded.
(07:58):
About sixty of the city had been destroyed, and the
fire had no consideration for persons, status or prestige. Those
crowded neighborhoods burst into flames but so did almost a
thousand mansions more than three hundred temples, all of it
burned together. For the city, this was a turning point.
The medieval map had been burned away and the shape
(08:20):
of the modern city was drawn in its ashes. Temples
that were now seen as fire hazards were moved to
the outskirts. Rebuilding the castle was delayed, while priority was
given to rebuilding the homes of working people around wider streets.
A bridge was even built over the river from the
most crowded part of the city. If the residents there
ever had to evacuate in the future, now they would
(08:41):
have a path to safety. But that's not to put
too bright a spin on it. Yes there was new
building afterwards, but there's no denying that the fire was
an enormous tragedy, and of course the greatest loss was
the loss of life. Some historians placed the estimate at
one hundred thousand deaths. It's one of those painful ironies
(09:02):
from history that we see from time to time. It
started with an effort to stop what seemed like a curse.
Burn the clothes saved some lives, but in their attempt
to prevent something bad, they created something worse. That's not
the end of the story, though. The way the city
came back from a disaster of this scale is a
chapter in its history that gave it a new reputation,
(09:24):
because the people of the city came together and laid
the foundation for what would take the place of the
home they had lost, and the way that they had
rebuilt after so much destruction brought at least one historian
to call this home of renewal an indomitable city the
city of Edo in Japan, but that isn't the name
we know it by today. No. It's modern name came
(09:46):
in eighteen sixty nine, two hundred years after the fire,
because the city had become such a center of Japanese
life that the Emperor took up residence there, and despite
all the trials and turmoil of the past, it became
known as the Eastern Capital, or in other words, Tokyo.
(10:06):
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television
(10:29):
show and you can learn all about it over at
the world of Lore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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