September 30, 2021 • 9 mins
Two unique tales from one unique war. Enjoy this curious tour of duty.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manky'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. I want you to imagine something for me.
I think you can picture it if I give you
a few key ideas. The time is the day after Thanksgiving.
The setting is your local big box store, and the
(00:48):
context is massive best of the year sales on all
sorts of hot items like flat screen TVs, WiFi enabled toasters,
and the latest mobile devices. Now you might be thinking
that I'm describing Black Friday, and you'd be right. But
it's the image that comes with the name of massive
crowds trampling each other in the mad rush to acquire
(01:09):
the items on their list at the best possible prices
that I need you to hold onto, because sure, that's
a pretty recent American tradition, but that sort of behavior
is much much older, and one period in history that
was filled with it was the eighteenth century. That's because
after about two and a half centuries of discovering and
(01:29):
exploring and exploiting the New World, there were a few
European superpowers that couldn't seem to stop bumping into each
other as they did it. Part of the problem was
that back in the mid seventeen hundreds, the way European
countries viewed the resources in North America was by thinking
of it as all limited. There was only so much
to go around, and if England was bringing stuff back home,
(01:52):
then Spain or France was missing out, so naturally things
got messy. The Anglo Spanish War that ended in seventeen
twenty nine also came with a treaty, the Treaty of Seville,
and one of the powers granted to Spain was the
ability to board British merchant vessels that were running trade
routes between the Americas and England if they felt that
(02:12):
those merchants were snatching up the limited resources they themselves
had claim to. And that's why in seventy one, near Havana,
a Spanish coast guard ship called the Isabella pulled up
alongside an English merchant vessel called the Rebecca, and Spanish
troops came aboard. The captain of the Rebecca, a guy
named Robert Jenkins apparently wasn't entirely on the up and up,
(02:35):
if you catch my drift. The Spanish found illegal cargo,
conflict ensued and in the process, good old Captain Robert
Jenkins lost his ear, well not entirely. It was cut off,
for sure, but he didn't lose it. In fact, he
picked it up and saved it, and from that moment
on it became sort of a trophy that he showed
to people when he wanted to express his hatred of
(02:55):
the Spanish. Well as was want to happen, Tensions between
England and Spain continued to grow. Now, the story is apocryphal,
so take it with a grain of salt, and it's
not entirely clear how much is legend and how much
is fact. But it said that during the debates in
the English Parliament, Captain Jenkins actually showed up and, wanting
(03:16):
to demonstrate just how monstrous and evil the Spanish were,
showed everyone his old shriveled ear floating inside a pickling jar,
and that they say was the straw that broke the
camel's back. England went to war with Spain in seventeen
thirty nine. It was a conflict that lasted until seventeen
forty eight, and over that nearly decade long fight to
(03:37):
the costs were steep. England lost the most at over
four hundred ships and thirty thousand soldiers and sailors, but
Spain felt the pain as well, losing nearly two hundred
ships and forty men. Decades later. That brief bit of fighting,
one on a long list of similar wars over the centuries,
earned a name from historians, and it's still used today,
(03:59):
a name that comes from one of the most of
his are pieces of information from the whole ordeal, regardless
of whether it really happened or not. They call it
the War of jenkins Ear, which of course is more
than a little curious. We started today's tour with an
(04:29):
introduction to Robert Jenkins, his severed ear, and the war
that some say came about as a result of his
anger towards the Spanish. But while I can find no
record that Jenkins himself fought in the war that bore
his name, a good number of others certainly did. One
of them was Edward, born in London in four Edward
(04:49):
didn't really need to put himself in danger His father
served as Secretary of State to King William the Third
and was a member of the British House of Commons
for over thirty years. So it's fair to say that
Word could have settled into life as the son of
a well known politician and simply called it a day. Instead,
he joined the military. His first experience was at the
(05:10):
young age of sixteen, when he took a position on
a Royal Naval battleship called the h M S Shrewsbury.
And you know what, Edward took the life at sea
remarkably well. In fact, the world of the navy almost
felt like second nature to him. The next few years
saw him quickly rising up through the ranks, moving from
ship to ship as his experience and responsibilities grew. By
(05:31):
seventeen o six, at just twenty two years of age,
he was a captain of his own ship, the h
MS Dolphin, and patrolling the Mediterranean for the Royal Navy.
After that it was the West Indies and then onto
the Baltic Honestly, if Edward had hoped to see a
bit of the world as part of the Navy, he
was getting his wish and then some so when he
left the waves behind for the Halls of Parliament in
(05:54):
seventeen twenty one. It's hard to blame him, and that's
where in the seventeen thirties he caught win of a
disgruntled captain by the name of Robert Jenkins and his
severed ear. When the subsequent war with Spain began, Edward
was back at sea. He was a vice admiral by then,
sitting at the second highest rank in the Navy, and
in seventeen thirty nine he managed to capture the heavily
(06:16):
armed Spanish port of Porto Bello in Central America. More
surprising was just how he got it, using just six ships.
He made him a national hero. There were medals made
and victory celebrations in London, and if you've ever found
yourself walking through the Porto Bello area of London, it
has that name because of Edward. You're going to have
(06:36):
to pardon the pun here, but clearly he was making waves.
There were other victories to follow. Edward and his fleet
continued to move around the perimeter of the Spanish holdings
in the Caribbean, adding more reasons to celebrate his career
to an already long list. In seventeen forty one, He
even set his sights on Cuba, but the invasion failed
because of the mistakes of another British officer, General to
(07:00):
Miss Wentworth. But there were other things to remember about Edward.
He refined the training among his sailors, making them more
flexible to unforeseen circumstances and ultimately making the entire navy
more capable. In fact, he was so obsessed with improving
how things were done that he instilled that passion directly
into the Royal Navy, where it persisted for generations. Oh
(07:23):
and one other thing. During his time at sea. In
seventeen forty, Edward gave an unusual order. He decided that
his sailors should dilute their rum, literally watering it down
to make it last longer and be less potent. And
since he was known for wearing a stiff overcoat made
of a material called grogram, which had earned him the
nickname Old Grog, this new diluted rum took on the
(07:46):
same name Grog. Edward was one of the best, and
his skill and insight inspired all of the men and
women who served under him, and that included one young man,
a twenty two year old landowner from the Virginia Colony,
who received an officer's commission in seventeen forty on order
from that colony's Lieutenant governor, and was sent to serve
(08:07):
on Edwards flagship, the h M S. Princess Caroline. And
this young officer, whose name was Lawrence, would manage to
survive two years of brutal conflict during the War of
Jenkins Ear and eventually made his way home in seventeen
forty two. He married a year later, and then took
over running his father's estate in seventeen forty three when
the older man died, on a state that Lawrence named
(08:29):
in honor of his beloved Admiral Edward Vernon. When Lawrence
died in seventeen fifty two, he passed that estate onto
his half brother George, and it's been a part of
American history ever since. The Estate of Brothers Lawrence and
George Washington Mount Vernon. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
(08:51):
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 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
(09:13):
about it over at the world of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Welcome to Aaron Manky'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. I want you to imagine something for me.
I think you can picture it if I give you
a few key ideas. The time is the day after Thanksgiving.
The setting is your local big box store, and the
(00:48):
context is massive best of the year sales on all
sorts of hot items like flat screen TVs, WiFi enabled toasters,
and the latest mobile devices. Now you might be thinking
that I'm describing Black Friday, and you'd be right. But
it's the image that comes with the name of massive
crowds trampling each other in the mad rush to acquire
(01:09):
the items on their list at the best possible prices
that I need you to hold onto, because sure, that's
a pretty recent American tradition, but that sort of behavior
is much much older, and one period in history that
was filled with it was the eighteenth century. That's because
after about two and a half centuries of discovering and
(01:29):
exploring and exploiting the New World, there were a few
European superpowers that couldn't seem to stop bumping into each
other as they did it. Part of the problem was
that back in the mid seventeen hundreds, the way European
countries viewed the resources in North America was by thinking
of it as all limited. There was only so much
to go around, and if England was bringing stuff back home,
(01:52):
then Spain or France was missing out, so naturally things
got messy. The Anglo Spanish War that ended in seventeen
twenty nine also came with a treaty, the Treaty of Seville,
and one of the powers granted to Spain was the
ability to board British merchant vessels that were running trade
routes between the Americas and England if they felt that
(02:12):
those merchants were snatching up the limited resources they themselves
had claim to. And that's why in seventy one, near Havana,
a Spanish coast guard ship called the Isabella pulled up
alongside an English merchant vessel called the Rebecca, and Spanish
troops came aboard. The captain of the Rebecca, a guy
named Robert Jenkins apparently wasn't entirely on the up and up,
(02:35):
if you catch my drift. The Spanish found illegal cargo,
conflict ensued and in the process, good old Captain Robert
Jenkins lost his ear, well not entirely. It was cut off,
for sure, but he didn't lose it. In fact, he
picked it up and saved it, and from that moment
on it became sort of a trophy that he showed
to people when he wanted to express his hatred of
(02:55):
the Spanish. Well as was want to happen, Tensions between
England and Spain continued to grow. Now, the story is apocryphal,
so take it with a grain of salt, and it's
not entirely clear how much is legend and how much
is fact. But it said that during the debates in
the English Parliament, Captain Jenkins actually showed up and, wanting
(03:16):
to demonstrate just how monstrous and evil the Spanish were,
showed everyone his old shriveled ear floating inside a pickling jar,
and that they say was the straw that broke the
camel's back. England went to war with Spain in seventeen
thirty nine. It was a conflict that lasted until seventeen
forty eight, and over that nearly decade long fight to
(03:37):
the costs were steep. England lost the most at over
four hundred ships and thirty thousand soldiers and sailors, but
Spain felt the pain as well, losing nearly two hundred
ships and forty men. Decades later. That brief bit of fighting,
one on a long list of similar wars over the centuries,
earned a name from historians, and it's still used today,
(03:59):
a name that comes from one of the most of
his are pieces of information from the whole ordeal, regardless
of whether it really happened or not. They call it
the War of jenkins Ear, which of course is more
than a little curious. We started today's tour with an
(04:29):
introduction to Robert Jenkins, his severed ear, and the war
that some say came about as a result of his
anger towards the Spanish. But while I can find no
record that Jenkins himself fought in the war that bore
his name, a good number of others certainly did. One
of them was Edward, born in London in four Edward
(04:49):
didn't really need to put himself in danger His father
served as Secretary of State to King William the Third
and was a member of the British House of Commons
for over thirty years. So it's fair to say that
Word could have settled into life as the son of
a well known politician and simply called it a day. Instead,
he joined the military. His first experience was at the
(05:10):
young age of sixteen, when he took a position on
a Royal Naval battleship called the h M S Shrewsbury.
And you know what, Edward took the life at sea
remarkably well. In fact, the world of the navy almost
felt like second nature to him. The next few years
saw him quickly rising up through the ranks, moving from
ship to ship as his experience and responsibilities grew. By
(05:31):
seventeen o six, at just twenty two years of age,
he was a captain of his own ship, the h
MS Dolphin, and patrolling the Mediterranean for the Royal Navy.
After that it was the West Indies and then onto
the Baltic Honestly, if Edward had hoped to see a
bit of the world as part of the Navy, he
was getting his wish and then some so when he
left the waves behind for the Halls of Parliament in
(05:54):
seventeen twenty one. It's hard to blame him, and that's
where in the seventeen thirties he caught win of a
disgruntled captain by the name of Robert Jenkins and his
severed ear. When the subsequent war with Spain began, Edward
was back at sea. He was a vice admiral by then,
sitting at the second highest rank in the Navy, and
in seventeen thirty nine he managed to capture the heavily
(06:16):
armed Spanish port of Porto Bello in Central America. More
surprising was just how he got it, using just six ships.
He made him a national hero. There were medals made
and victory celebrations in London, and if you've ever found
yourself walking through the Porto Bello area of London, it
has that name because of Edward. You're going to have
(06:36):
to pardon the pun here, but clearly he was making waves.
There were other victories to follow. Edward and his fleet
continued to move around the perimeter of the Spanish holdings
in the Caribbean, adding more reasons to celebrate his career
to an already long list. In seventeen forty one, He
even set his sights on Cuba, but the invasion failed
because of the mistakes of another British officer, General to
(07:00):
Miss Wentworth. But there were other things to remember about Edward.
He refined the training among his sailors, making them more
flexible to unforeseen circumstances and ultimately making the entire navy
more capable. In fact, he was so obsessed with improving
how things were done that he instilled that passion directly
into the Royal Navy, where it persisted for generations. Oh
(07:23):
and one other thing. During his time at sea. In
seventeen forty, Edward gave an unusual order. He decided that
his sailors should dilute their rum, literally watering it down
to make it last longer and be less potent. And
since he was known for wearing a stiff overcoat made
of a material called grogram, which had earned him the
nickname Old Grog, this new diluted rum took on the
(07:46):
same name Grog. Edward was one of the best, and
his skill and insight inspired all of the men and
women who served under him, and that included one young man,
a twenty two year old landowner from the Virginia Colony,
who received an officer's commission in seventeen forty on order
from that colony's Lieutenant governor, and was sent to serve
(08:07):
on Edwards flagship, the h M S. Princess Caroline. And
this young officer, whose name was Lawrence, would manage to
survive two years of brutal conflict during the War of
Jenkins Ear and eventually made his way home in seventeen
forty two. He married a year later, and then took
over running his father's estate in seventeen forty three when
the older man died, on a state that Lawrence named
(08:29):
in honor of his beloved Admiral Edward Vernon. When Lawrence
died in seventeen fifty two, he passed that estate onto
his half brother George, and it's been a part of
American history ever since. The Estate of Brothers Lawrence and
George Washington Mount Vernon. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
(08:51):
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 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
(09:13):
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
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.