November 28, 2024 • 9 mins
A pair of surprisingly curious international tales, ready for your enjoyment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 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.
(00:36):
If you ask the average American what they know about
Catherine the Great of Russia, they'll probably say nothing. And
that's a shame, because she was one of the more
effective rulers in Russian history. Catherine the greats was actually
Prussian and her original name was Sophie. After she married
into the Russian royal bloodline, she quickly took power and
transformed the country from a stalled feudal state into a
(00:59):
modern imperial power. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.
It's ironic that Americans don't know much about Catherine, because
they might just owe her their country. The story of
Catherine's involvement in the American Revolution starts in seventeen seventy
five with a man named Sir Robert Gunning. He was
the British ambassador to Russia at the time, and he
(01:20):
was given a difficult task request Russian military aid in America.
It was a tricky situation for two reasons. For one,
Sir Robert needed to keep the British monarch, King George
the Third from looking like he was begging, and second,
he really needed the request to be granted. The Americans
were doing much better than expected in the war. They
(01:41):
had both France and Spain on their side. Sir Robert
and his colleagues carefully drew up a ten point treaty
to present to the Russians, clarifying everything from the number
of troops they were asking for to how much the
troops would be paid. They wanted to come across as
competent and authoritative. Gunning first met with Catherine's foreign policy adviser,
(02:02):
Nikita Pannon, who gave Sir Robert the impression that England's
request would be granted. Why shouldn't two monarchs help each
other out, But the matter still needed to be approved
by Catherine herself. Sir Robert met with her and Nikita,
expecting to finalize the details of the arrangement, but he
failed to realize that Catherine had other plans. She treated
(02:24):
the request with some shock, and she would never agree
to send troops to America. She thought that the whole
America business was embarrassing. How could George have allowed it
to spiral so out of control? Nikita feigned shock as well,
claiming that he thought the request was to send troops
to Spain and not America. To add insult to injury,
(02:44):
Catherine dictated a letter for Sir Robert to deliver directly
to King George. She used over the top language to
make it clear to her fellow monarch where she stood.
She addressed it to my brother and claimed that the
American Revolution was and I quote, a rebellion which no
foreign power supports. Even so, she gave a firm no,
(03:05):
in writing, nor can I stop thinking about what should
have resulted from our own dignity if two monarchies and
two nations had thus joined of our forces simply to
calm a rebellion. In other words, she thought it would
look tacky for two monarchs to team up just to
defeat the Americans. Little did Sir Robert know he was
(03:25):
caught up in a larger web that Catherine was weaving.
Catherine wasn't necessarily for or against the Americans. She followed
the principles of the Enlightenment, which was an intellectual movement
in Europe at the time, emphasizing reason over superstition and
the rights of a common man within a monarchy. So
while she wouldn't have believed in the revolutionary concept of
(03:46):
American democracy, she would have seen George's heavy taxation of
the Americans as misrule. She also saw the opportunity to
broke her peace in Europe. By refusing to support the English.
She further isolated them as they were already at war
with France and Spain. You may have wondered why so
few foreign powers intervened in the American Revolution, while in
(04:08):
seventeen eighty Catherine formed the League of Armed Neutrality, a
diverse coalition of nations like Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, and the
Ottoman Empire that agreed to protect one another's shipping interests,
and they all agreed not to enter the war on
either side. By seventeen eighty three, England had no real allies,
(04:28):
and they agreed to end the war with both America
and France. The United States was born, and there was
peace in Europe. Catherine had established herself as a major
player in European politics, perhaps she would have behaved differently
if she had known how the future would unfold as
centuries later, the United States is Russia's greatest international rival. Oh,
(04:50):
how curious history can be. No joke at the expense
of an entire nationality is ever fair or good, whether
(05:11):
aimed at underrepresented groups who can't defend themselves, or countries
with a heritage that folks in a certain era had
prejudice against. These wise cracks can often be insulting, but
in very rare instances you can see how real events
from history might have helped make those jokes possible. Take,
for example, the Great Whisky Fire. It was a real
(05:32):
life tragedy that occurred in eighteen seventy five and one
of the largest fires in the Irish city of Dublin's history.
The fire began in Malone's Bonded Storehouse, a building in
the Liberties, a Dublin neighborhood known for its pubs and distilleries.
We don't know exactly what triggered the blaze, but in retrospect,
the situation was asking for trouble. Malone's storehouse alone held
(05:56):
some five thousand casks of undiluted whisky and others spirits.
This can be dangerous since the volatile, high proof spirits
give off flammable fumes that can seep through the wooden containers,
and on one hot summer evening in particular, those five
thousand casks were a powder keg waiting to go off.
Around eight pm that evening, smoke was seen drifting from
(06:18):
the storeroom. The first cask exploded, then another, and another,
a chain reaction of bursting barrels, each one spraying hot,
flaming liquor across the warehouse. Soon the entire building was
a billowing inferno. As the walls collapsed, a river of
flaming liquor was released. It flowed into the streets, igniting
everything in its path and plunging the liberties into chaos.
(06:42):
In addition to pubs and distilleries, the neighborhood had several
large tenement houses, as well as pens where livestock were housed.
Soon the streets were teeming with squealing pigs, galloping horses,
barking dogs, and entire families, all of them racing to
keep ahead of the spreading blaze. Meanwhile, a crowd gathered
to gawk at the fire. Some onlookers saw the river
(07:04):
of burning whisky as an opportunity for a free nightcap.
While people ran home to get pots and pitchers, others
simply knelt and cut the whisky in their hands or
scooped it into hats or boots, and this revelry continued
well after the authorities arrived on the scene. The police
quickly arrested the most inebriated onlookers, some of whom were
(07:25):
now trying to rescue barrels of whisky from buildings that
had yet to catch fire. Meanwhile, the Dublin Fire Brigade
got to work controlling the blaze. Captain James Ingram quickly
realized that the fire would be a challenge to contain.
Dousing the streets with water would simply cause the flames
to spread to new areas, since the burning liquor would
(07:45):
float on top of the water. He tried building dams
of gravel to block the flow, but the whiskey soaked
right through, carrying the flames with it. At that point,
Ingram realized he needed something thicker. In a burst of ingenuity,
he sent his men to the near by manure yards,
where the excrement created by the city's countless horse drawn
carriages was stored. The firemen came racing back with wheelbarrows
(08:08):
full of dung, which they dumped onto the street to
block the burning liquor, and this thankfully contained the blaze
while rendering the whisky undrinkable. The fire and the party
were finally over, but the cleanup was still getting started.
As dawn broke, authorities began to take stock of the damage.
Adjusted for inflation, six million euros worth of whiskey had
(08:30):
been destroyed, and that's not even accounting for the property
damage or the physical injuries. And thirteen people had been killed,
although curiously none of them suffered from burns or smoke inhalation.
In fact, they weren't directly affected by the fire at all.
All thirteen of them had died of alcohol poisoning from
drinking the undiluted whisky. History is full of tragic tales,
(08:54):
none deserving of a joke, So let's remember the Great
Whisky Fire of eighteen seventy five for what it really was,
an accident followed by a party that ended in a
curious disaster. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(09:18):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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 Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
(09:40):
stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 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.
(00:36):
If you ask the average American what they know about
Catherine the Great of Russia, they'll probably say nothing. And
that's a shame, because she was one of the more
effective rulers in Russian history. Catherine the greats was actually
Prussian and her original name was Sophie. After she married
into the Russian royal bloodline, she quickly took power and
transformed the country from a stalled feudal state into a
(00:59):
modern imperial power. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.
It's ironic that Americans don't know much about Catherine, because
they might just owe her their country. The story of
Catherine's involvement in the American Revolution starts in seventeen seventy
five with a man named Sir Robert Gunning. He was
the British ambassador to Russia at the time, and he
(01:20):
was given a difficult task request Russian military aid in America.
It was a tricky situation for two reasons. For one,
Sir Robert needed to keep the British monarch, King George
the Third from looking like he was begging, and second,
he really needed the request to be granted. The Americans
were doing much better than expected in the war. They
(01:41):
had both France and Spain on their side. Sir Robert
and his colleagues carefully drew up a ten point treaty
to present to the Russians, clarifying everything from the number
of troops they were asking for to how much the
troops would be paid. They wanted to come across as
competent and authoritative. Gunning first met with Catherine's foreign policy adviser,
(02:02):
Nikita Pannon, who gave Sir Robert the impression that England's
request would be granted. Why shouldn't two monarchs help each
other out, But the matter still needed to be approved
by Catherine herself. Sir Robert met with her and Nikita,
expecting to finalize the details of the arrangement, but he
failed to realize that Catherine had other plans. She treated
(02:24):
the request with some shock, and she would never agree
to send troops to America. She thought that the whole
America business was embarrassing. How could George have allowed it
to spiral so out of control? Nikita feigned shock as well,
claiming that he thought the request was to send troops
to Spain and not America. To add insult to injury,
(02:44):
Catherine dictated a letter for Sir Robert to deliver directly
to King George. She used over the top language to
make it clear to her fellow monarch where she stood.
She addressed it to my brother and claimed that the
American Revolution was and I quote, a rebellion which no
foreign power supports. Even so, she gave a firm no,
(03:05):
in writing, nor can I stop thinking about what should
have resulted from our own dignity if two monarchies and
two nations had thus joined of our forces simply to
calm a rebellion. In other words, she thought it would
look tacky for two monarchs to team up just to
defeat the Americans. Little did Sir Robert know he was
(03:25):
caught up in a larger web that Catherine was weaving.
Catherine wasn't necessarily for or against the Americans. She followed
the principles of the Enlightenment, which was an intellectual movement
in Europe at the time, emphasizing reason over superstition and
the rights of a common man within a monarchy. So
while she wouldn't have believed in the revolutionary concept of
(03:46):
American democracy, she would have seen George's heavy taxation of
the Americans as misrule. She also saw the opportunity to
broke her peace in Europe. By refusing to support the English.
She further isolated them as they were already at war
with France and Spain. You may have wondered why so
few foreign powers intervened in the American Revolution, while in
(04:08):
seventeen eighty Catherine formed the League of Armed Neutrality, a
diverse coalition of nations like Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, and the
Ottoman Empire that agreed to protect one another's shipping interests,
and they all agreed not to enter the war on
either side. By seventeen eighty three, England had no real allies,
(04:28):
and they agreed to end the war with both America
and France. The United States was born, and there was
peace in Europe. Catherine had established herself as a major
player in European politics, perhaps she would have behaved differently
if she had known how the future would unfold as
centuries later, the United States is Russia's greatest international rival. Oh,
(04:50):
how curious history can be. No joke at the expense
of an entire nationality is ever fair or good, whether
(05:11):
aimed at underrepresented groups who can't defend themselves, or countries
with a heritage that folks in a certain era had
prejudice against. These wise cracks can often be insulting, but
in very rare instances you can see how real events
from history might have helped make those jokes possible. Take,
for example, the Great Whisky Fire. It was a real
(05:32):
life tragedy that occurred in eighteen seventy five and one
of the largest fires in the Irish city of Dublin's history.
The fire began in Malone's Bonded Storehouse, a building in
the Liberties, a Dublin neighborhood known for its pubs and distilleries.
We don't know exactly what triggered the blaze, but in retrospect,
the situation was asking for trouble. Malone's storehouse alone held
(05:56):
some five thousand casks of undiluted whisky and others spirits.
This can be dangerous since the volatile, high proof spirits
give off flammable fumes that can seep through the wooden containers,
and on one hot summer evening in particular, those five
thousand casks were a powder keg waiting to go off.
Around eight pm that evening, smoke was seen drifting from
(06:18):
the storeroom. The first cask exploded, then another, and another,
a chain reaction of bursting barrels, each one spraying hot,
flaming liquor across the warehouse. Soon the entire building was
a billowing inferno. As the walls collapsed, a river of
flaming liquor was released. It flowed into the streets, igniting
everything in its path and plunging the liberties into chaos.
(06:42):
In addition to pubs and distilleries, the neighborhood had several
large tenement houses, as well as pens where livestock were housed.
Soon the streets were teeming with squealing pigs, galloping horses,
barking dogs, and entire families, all of them racing to
keep ahead of the spreading blaze. Meanwhile, a crowd gathered
to gawk at the fire. Some onlookers saw the river
(07:04):
of burning whisky as an opportunity for a free nightcap.
While people ran home to get pots and pitchers, others
simply knelt and cut the whisky in their hands or
scooped it into hats or boots, and this revelry continued
well after the authorities arrived on the scene. The police
quickly arrested the most inebriated onlookers, some of whom were
(07:25):
now trying to rescue barrels of whisky from buildings that
had yet to catch fire. Meanwhile, the Dublin Fire Brigade
got to work controlling the blaze. Captain James Ingram quickly
realized that the fire would be a challenge to contain.
Dousing the streets with water would simply cause the flames
to spread to new areas, since the burning liquor would
(07:45):
float on top of the water. He tried building dams
of gravel to block the flow, but the whiskey soaked
right through, carrying the flames with it. At that point,
Ingram realized he needed something thicker. In a burst of ingenuity,
he sent his men to the near by manure yards,
where the excrement created by the city's countless horse drawn
carriages was stored. The firemen came racing back with wheelbarrows
(08:08):
full of dung, which they dumped onto the street to
block the burning liquor, and this thankfully contained the blaze
while rendering the whisky undrinkable. The fire and the party
were finally over, but the cleanup was still getting started.
As dawn broke, authorities began to take stock of the damage.
Adjusted for inflation, six million euros worth of whiskey had
(08:30):
been destroyed, and that's not even accounting for the property
damage or the physical injuries. And thirteen people had been killed,
although curiously none of them suffered from burns or smoke inhalation.
In fact, they weren't directly affected by the fire at all.
All thirteen of them had died of alcohol poisoning from
drinking the undiluted whisky. History is full of tragic tales,
(08:54):
none deserving of a joke, So let's remember the Great
Whisky Fire of eighteen seventy five for what it really was,
an accident followed by a party that ended in a
curious disaster. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(09:18):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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 Worldolore dot com. And until next time,
(09:40):
stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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