April 16, 2019 • 9 mins
Most stories have something big and powerful at their core that gives them meaning, but it's often the little details that make them memorable. Both of today's tales fit that bill nicely.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. As World War Two was
(00:30):
coming to an end, US forces were making plans to
invade the Japanese mainland. On August six, after months of
air raids conducted against the Japanese people, the United States
dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima, followed by another bomb
over Nagasaki a few days later. Hundreds of thousands of
civilians were killed. Those who survived were subjected to horrible
(00:52):
side effects such as cancer and severe burns, while children
born in the aftermath had numerous complications and birth to
x and While those two bombs remain the only times
nuclear force has been used during war, countries all over
the world continue to threaten mass destruction with similar weapons
to this day. In fact, in nineteen fifty eight, a
(01:15):
nuclear incident occurred in a very unexpected location, South Carolina,
and most people have never heard of it. In March
of that year, a Boeing B forty seven bomber departed
Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia bound for the
United Kingdom. Safely tucked inside its cargo bay was a
Mark six nuclear bomb, an explosive based on the original
(01:39):
bomb that leveled Nagasaki thirteen years earlier. The bomber's mission
was simple, fly over Great Britain, deliver the payload, and
continue on to a base in North Africa for refueling.
Anti briefing. During the flights, Air Force Captain Bruce Kolka
was called by the pilot of the plane, Captain Earl Kohler.
Earl noticed a life in the cockpit, indicating the bomb
(02:01):
harness locking pin hadn't engaged, meaning the bomb could roll
about the cabin freely in the event the plane suddenly
shifted too hard in one direction. He sent Bruce to
the cargo area to fix the pin. With no easy
way to re engage the pin, Bruce took hold of
the straps keeping the bomb in place. As he pulled
himself up, he accidentally triggered the emergency release pin. The
(02:25):
bomb fell out of its harness and down to the
bomb bade doors below. Thankfully, it didn't detonate, but the
impact combined with the object's massive weight and forced the
bay doors open. The bomb plummeted toward the earth from
fifteen thousand feet above. Meanwhile, in mars Bluff, South Carolina,
two young girls were playing with their cousin near a
(02:47):
playhouse their father had built for them in the woods
next to their home. The bomb hit the playhouse and
when it went off, it disintegrated the structure. Both girls
were thrown back, and their father, a former woolwarts to paratrooper,
was also injured, as were his wife and son. Seven
buildings within the vicinity saw significant damages as well. A
(03:10):
nuclear blast is capable of decimating anything within sixteen square miles,
and yet not a single person died. The only structure
that fell was the playhouse in the woods. And how
could it be simple? The bomb hadn't been loaded with
its nuclear core, which was still up above on the plane.
(03:30):
The B forty seven's mission hadn't been to eradicate the
United Kingdom, but to use it as a testing site.
Despite our differences, we haven't been at war with England
in many many years. During the nineteen fifties, the United
States and the UK worked out a deal which would
allow the US Air Force to test nuclear bombs on
British soil. In order to record the accuracy of the drops.
(03:53):
This time, though, the plane hadn't even left United States
airspace before the problem was noticed, nor had its danger
as cargo been primed for a full scale nuclear assault. Instead,
when the Mark six landed on the South Carolina playhouse,
the regular explosives inside detonated, which obliterated that playhouse and
left an impressive seventy ft crater in the family's backyard.
(04:17):
Like I said before, no one was killed, although the
injuries the family endured earned them roughly fifty dollars from
the US government close to half a million dollars today,
the crater is still there too, indicated by a historical
marker and an access sign. So even though the United
States hasn't dropped in nuclear bomb on another country in
(04:39):
almost eighty years, it was responsible for the first and
hopefully last nuclear attack on its own soil. The U
(05:02):
S S C Dragon was a skate class nuclear powered submarine,
meaning it was designed to be smaller and cheaper to
produce for the U. S. Navy than other subs like
the U S S Nautilus. It was launched in nineteen
fifty eight and ran until it was decommissioned in During
those twenty six years, the Sea Dragon conducted a series
(05:23):
of missions on behalf of the United States military. It
made quite a name for itself thanks to its smart
and resourceful crew, led by Captain George Peabody Steel. The
second the Sea Dragon, was built as an attack sub
intended for Arctic waters, meant to destroy enemy submarines near
and under the Polar ice cap. For her first mission,
(05:44):
the Sea Dragon was ordered to travel from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Pacific via the North Pole. She was
supposed to navigate through the Davis Strait between Greenland and
Canada before entering the Perry Channel in the Canadian Arctic.
This route was more commonly known as the Northwest Passage,
and very few ships had ever made it through successfully.
(06:05):
Almost every ship Antarctic explorer who attempted it in the
past had ended up turning back, deterred by the massive
amounts of ice blocking the way. The Sea Dragon, though,
was different. It had no intention of going through the ice.
It would instead slip beneath it. Now. This of course,
presented its own problems. Since no large vessel above or
(06:26):
below the water had ever navigated the passage before. No
one knew what to expect. Charts and maps of the
area were almost non existence, and the passages depth was unknown.
There was a good chance the Sea Dragon could get
stuck in a channel that was either too narrow or
too shallow to pass through, and the mission would be over. However,
(06:46):
rather than relying on sonar to help guide them through,
Captain Steele decided to supplement modern technology with something a
little more old school. He pulled out his copy of
Sir William Edward Perry's eighteen nineteen journal, which described the
methods he used in navigating the channel. Steele also had
a dedicated team on board whose job it was to
chart all icebergs they passed so they could find their
(07:09):
way back, as well as make things easier for the
next sub to attempt the trip. It took almost a month,
but after a series of close calls with some massive icebergs,
the us SC Dragon successfully completed its journey through the
Northwest Passage on August one of nineteen sixty. Four. Days later,
it arrived at the North Pole. Now Captain Steele didn't
(07:32):
just want the Sea Dragon to be the third submarine
to have ever reached the North Pole. He wanted his
trip there to be special, so he enlisted the crew
to participate in a unique test of skill and ingenuity.
He had them draw out a large diamond on the ice,
a baseball diamond that alone would have made the voyage
unique for sure, the first baseball game ever played at
(07:55):
the North Pole, but Captain Steele took the idea even further.
He had the crew set up the diamond as close
to the pole as possible. The result was a baseball
game unlike any other. It literally couldn't be played anywhere
else on Earth. Because of the diamond's position, the batter
who hit a home run would end up circumnavigating the
(08:16):
globe as he rounded the basis. A ball hit into
right field would cross the international dateline into the next day,
while a ball hit to left field was caught on
the same day. However, if it was thrown to first base,
it wouldn't be caught until tomorrow. It gets better, though,
If a fly ball was caught in right field, then
the batter wouldn't technically be out until the next day. However,
(08:40):
a ball thrown to second or third base would have
been thrown back in time twenty four hours. So now
a game that normally took a few hours to play,
ended up taking several days until a winner could be declared.
Now a lot of sports announcers like to say that
it all comes down to how the game was played,
but just this once something different. It took priority over
(09:01):
the skills of the players. It's not always how you
play the game that makes the difference, but where you
play it. 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
(09:23):
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 show, and you can learn all about it
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. As World War Two was
(00:30):
coming to an end, US forces were making plans to
invade the Japanese mainland. On August six, after months of
air raids conducted against the Japanese people, the United States
dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima, followed by another bomb
over Nagasaki a few days later. Hundreds of thousands of
civilians were killed. Those who survived were subjected to horrible
(00:52):
side effects such as cancer and severe burns, while children
born in the aftermath had numerous complications and birth to
x and While those two bombs remain the only times
nuclear force has been used during war, countries all over
the world continue to threaten mass destruction with similar weapons
to this day. In fact, in nineteen fifty eight, a
(01:15):
nuclear incident occurred in a very unexpected location, South Carolina,
and most people have never heard of it. In March
of that year, a Boeing B forty seven bomber departed
Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia bound for the
United Kingdom. Safely tucked inside its cargo bay was a
Mark six nuclear bomb, an explosive based on the original
(01:39):
bomb that leveled Nagasaki thirteen years earlier. The bomber's mission
was simple, fly over Great Britain, deliver the payload, and
continue on to a base in North Africa for refueling.
Anti briefing. During the flights, Air Force Captain Bruce Kolka
was called by the pilot of the plane, Captain Earl Kohler.
Earl noticed a life in the cockpit, indicating the bomb
(02:01):
harness locking pin hadn't engaged, meaning the bomb could roll
about the cabin freely in the event the plane suddenly
shifted too hard in one direction. He sent Bruce to
the cargo area to fix the pin. With no easy
way to re engage the pin, Bruce took hold of
the straps keeping the bomb in place. As he pulled
himself up, he accidentally triggered the emergency release pin. The
(02:25):
bomb fell out of its harness and down to the
bomb bade doors below. Thankfully, it didn't detonate, but the
impact combined with the object's massive weight and forced the
bay doors open. The bomb plummeted toward the earth from
fifteen thousand feet above. Meanwhile, in mars Bluff, South Carolina,
two young girls were playing with their cousin near a
(02:47):
playhouse their father had built for them in the woods
next to their home. The bomb hit the playhouse and
when it went off, it disintegrated the structure. Both girls
were thrown back, and their father, a former woolwarts to paratrooper,
was also injured, as were his wife and son. Seven
buildings within the vicinity saw significant damages as well. A
(03:10):
nuclear blast is capable of decimating anything within sixteen square miles,
and yet not a single person died. The only structure
that fell was the playhouse in the woods. And how
could it be simple? The bomb hadn't been loaded with
its nuclear core, which was still up above on the plane.
(03:30):
The B forty seven's mission hadn't been to eradicate the
United Kingdom, but to use it as a testing site.
Despite our differences, we haven't been at war with England
in many many years. During the nineteen fifties, the United
States and the UK worked out a deal which would
allow the US Air Force to test nuclear bombs on
British soil. In order to record the accuracy of the drops.
(03:53):
This time, though, the plane hadn't even left United States
airspace before the problem was noticed, nor had its danger
as cargo been primed for a full scale nuclear assault. Instead,
when the Mark six landed on the South Carolina playhouse,
the regular explosives inside detonated, which obliterated that playhouse and
left an impressive seventy ft crater in the family's backyard.
(04:17):
Like I said before, no one was killed, although the
injuries the family endured earned them roughly fifty dollars from
the US government close to half a million dollars today,
the crater is still there too, indicated by a historical
marker and an access sign. So even though the United
States hasn't dropped in nuclear bomb on another country in
(04:39):
almost eighty years, it was responsible for the first and
hopefully last nuclear attack on its own soil. The U
(05:02):
S S C Dragon was a skate class nuclear powered submarine,
meaning it was designed to be smaller and cheaper to
produce for the U. S. Navy than other subs like
the U S S Nautilus. It was launched in nineteen
fifty eight and ran until it was decommissioned in During
those twenty six years, the Sea Dragon conducted a series
(05:23):
of missions on behalf of the United States military. It
made quite a name for itself thanks to its smart
and resourceful crew, led by Captain George Peabody Steel. The
second the Sea Dragon, was built as an attack sub
intended for Arctic waters, meant to destroy enemy submarines near
and under the Polar ice cap. For her first mission,
(05:44):
the Sea Dragon was ordered to travel from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Pacific via the North Pole. She was
supposed to navigate through the Davis Strait between Greenland and
Canada before entering the Perry Channel in the Canadian Arctic.
This route was more commonly known as the Northwest Passage,
and very few ships had ever made it through successfully.
(06:05):
Almost every ship Antarctic explorer who attempted it in the
past had ended up turning back, deterred by the massive
amounts of ice blocking the way. The Sea Dragon, though,
was different. It had no intention of going through the ice.
It would instead slip beneath it. Now. This of course,
presented its own problems. Since no large vessel above or
(06:26):
below the water had ever navigated the passage before. No
one knew what to expect. Charts and maps of the
area were almost non existence, and the passages depth was unknown.
There was a good chance the Sea Dragon could get
stuck in a channel that was either too narrow or
too shallow to pass through, and the mission would be over. However,
(06:46):
rather than relying on sonar to help guide them through,
Captain Steele decided to supplement modern technology with something a
little more old school. He pulled out his copy of
Sir William Edward Perry's eighteen nineteen journal, which described the
methods he used in navigating the channel. Steele also had
a dedicated team on board whose job it was to
chart all icebergs they passed so they could find their
(07:09):
way back, as well as make things easier for the
next sub to attempt the trip. It took almost a month,
but after a series of close calls with some massive icebergs,
the us SC Dragon successfully completed its journey through the
Northwest Passage on August one of nineteen sixty. Four. Days later,
it arrived at the North Pole. Now Captain Steele didn't
(07:32):
just want the Sea Dragon to be the third submarine
to have ever reached the North Pole. He wanted his
trip there to be special, so he enlisted the crew
to participate in a unique test of skill and ingenuity.
He had them draw out a large diamond on the ice,
a baseball diamond that alone would have made the voyage
unique for sure, the first baseball game ever played at
(07:55):
the North Pole, but Captain Steele took the idea even further.
He had the crew set up the diamond as close
to the pole as possible. The result was a baseball
game unlike any other. It literally couldn't be played anywhere
else on Earth. Because of the diamond's position, the batter
who hit a home run would end up circumnavigating the
(08:16):
globe as he rounded the basis. A ball hit into
right field would cross the international dateline into the next day,
while a ball hit to left field was caught on
the same day. However, if it was thrown to first base,
it wouldn't be caught until tomorrow. It gets better, though,
If a fly ball was caught in right field, then
the batter wouldn't technically be out until the next day. However,
(08:40):
a ball thrown to second or third base would have
been thrown back in time twenty four hours. So now
a game that normally took a few hours to play,
ended up taking several days until a winner could be declared.
Now a lot of sports announcers like to say that
it all comes down to how the game was played,
but just this once something different. It took priority over
(09:01):
the skills of the players. It's not always how you
play the game that makes the difference, but where you
play it. 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
(09:23):
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 show, and you can learn all about it
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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