Making a Splash

It's sink or swim on today's tour through the Cabinet.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed 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. When we look back on the most impressive
feats of human engineering, we don't often think about what
went into making them possible. The Apollo eleven mission that
put Americans on the Moon back in nineteen sixty nine
took years of planning, development and testing. The Eiffel Tower

(00:51):
in France took over two years to build, while the
Statue of Liberty was completed after eight years of construction.
Greatness takes time. Unfortunately, the Swedish Royal Navy probably should
have baked one particular project just a little bit longer.
Modern Sweden is a country we often equate with neutrality
when it comes to political matters. They didn't take a

(01:11):
side during either World War, although there were times when
they made strategic policy and financial decisions when it benefited them. However,
back in the seventeenth century, Sweden was a formidable European empire.
It won many wars against countries like Poland and Russia,
thanks in large part to its ruler, King Gustavus Adolphus.

(01:32):
He reigned for twenty years, and for much of that
time he was at war. Heck, his father left him
three wars already in progress when he passed away in
sixteen eleven, pretty rough for a fresh seventeen year old.
Ascending to the throne around January of six to honor
Sweden's militaristic might, the king ordered the construction of some

(01:52):
new ships. A contract was signed with shipbuilders in Stockholm
to build a total of four ships, two with keel's
measuring one eight feet in length and two measuring one
hundred thirty five feet. Unfortunately, despite the contract, the king
couldn't make up his mind. He kept changing his order
and the ship builders ran into production problems because of that.

(02:13):
On top of that, the Swedish Navy lost ten ships
that year, meaning the original timeline had shrunk. The plan
was to start building two ships of a completely different size,
with keels now one twenty feet in length. Sadly, that
plan lasted only a short time until the king got
wind of Denmark's latest addition to their fleet. It seems
they were working on a ship with two gun decks,

(02:34):
unheard of in Sweden, but the king didn't care. He
couldn't go to war with a lesser ship, so he
forced the one ft vessel to be built with two
gun decks instead of one as originally planned. The ship builder,
Henrik Hybertson, said it couldn't be done. Then, he had
already prepared the lumber to build one large and one
small ship, and he was growing sicker by the day.

(02:55):
Hendrik died in seven, two years after the project had started,
but before he could see his creation in the water.
The work was then passed down to a colleague who
followed the king's orders. He doubled the size of the
gun deck, as well as the number of cannons on board,
from thirty six to almost seventy, and then he carved
numerous wooden ornaments like sculptures of soldiers, lions, crests, and

(03:19):
filigrees to adorn the ship. This not only extended the
construction schedule, but it also increased the ship's weight. Unfortunately,
due to the frenetic nature of its construction and the
untimely death of the ship's designer. It was believed that
no formal plans had ever been drafted. Henrik Hybertson most
likely increased the dimensions of the original ship in his mind,

(03:41):
but didn't write anything down, and it was a recipe
for a disaster. By the time it was completed in
sixty eight, the ship, dubbed the Vassa, was a force
to be reckoned with. It had been named after the
royal house from which the king had descended, and was
intended to carry three hundred soldiers into battle. August tenth
of sixty eight was the Big Day, the day that

(04:03):
Sweden and her enemies would see the future of naval
warfare in all its glory. The itinerary had the Vassa
carrying the small crew and honored guests from Stockholm Harbor
to a fortress nearby. After the guests were dropped off,
the ship would then travel to an island where it
would defend the Swedish Naval Reserve from Poland Lithuania. But

(04:23):
the trip was cut short by a lot. Minutes after
it touched the water, a strong wind caused the Vasa
to lean dangerously to port. A second gust knocked the
ship entirely over causing the lower gun decks to flood.
The Vassa wasn't able to recover, and twenty minutes later
it was completely underwater, taking thirty lives with it. Amazingly,

(04:45):
the ship was finally recovered in the nineteen sixties and
has since become the main attraction of a museum in
Sweden thanks to its remarkable state of preservation, and it's
also become a cautionary tale for business owners, entrepreneurs and
leaders everywhere who can learn a hard lesson from the
Vasa's demise that executive meddling can often sink ships. Kids

(05:19):
do stupid things growing up. They get together with their
friends and ride bikes without their helmets on, or light
fireworks in the street, or, in the case of one
time traveling teen, grab onto a passing car while writing
a skateboard. And such actions have led to a question.
We've all been asked at one point or another, if
all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do

(05:40):
it too? Well, Robert Emmett Oddlum didn't jump off a
bridge because of his friends, and he didn't do it
to impress someone he was attracted to. He did it
to prove a point. Robert was born in Ogdensburg, New York,
in August of eighteen fifty one. His brother had served
in the Union Army during the Civil War, and his sister,
shar At Oddlam Smith, was an activist for women in

(06:02):
the workplace. She also helped establish the practice of including
ingredients on product labels. Robert aspired to similar success as
his siblings, heading down to Washington, d c. In eighteen
seventy eight to start a swimming school. Among his pupils
were the children of politicians in generals, such as the
soon to be president James Garfield and Union General William T. Sherman.

(06:25):
His school did well for a while, and Robert helped
get the word out by performing athletic feats in the
Potomac River. He once swam a rowing course all by himself,
and he often challenged others to swimming races, betting as
much as five hundred dollars at a time. No one
ever took him up on the bet, but it didn't
stop Robert from showing off his skills. He once held

(06:45):
his breath underwater for over three minutes and even jumped
ninety feet from a bridge at Occoquan Falls in Virginia.
He became known for jumping from tall heights, plunging feet
first into the Potomac from his high as a hundred
feet above, and he did it without sustaining a single injury.
Of course, Robert was never satisfied. Eventually, his swim school

(07:07):
sank and he got a job as a lifeguard and
swim instructor at a Virginia hotel. But despite the setback,
he continued to perform feats of endurance, such as an
eighteen miles swim between the towns of Old Point, Comforts
and Ocean View. And yet, no matter how far he swam,
nor how high he jumped from, he still desired to

(07:27):
leave his mark on the world in a big way. Sure,
he was gaining fame for his various stunts, but he
wanted to make a splash, and that opportunity finally arrived
on May nineteenth of eight five. You see, Robert wanted
to be the first person to jump off the recently
completed Brooklyn Bridge in New York, a one thirty ft

(07:48):
drop into the East River. News of the jump spread
throughout the city in the days leading up to it.
He gave an interview for the New York Herald about
his reason for wanting to perform such a dangerous feat,
saying that he want to demonstrate something he had been
explaining to people for years. No one who jumps from
tall heights dies during the fall. He hoped that anyone
who witnessed his leap from the Brooklyn Bridge would know

(08:10):
how safe it was, for example, to jump into a
firefighter's net from the roof of a burning building. Well,
the day finally arrived and the police were out in
full force. They refused to allow Robert to perform his jump,
even though thousands of New Yorkers had arrived on the
bridge to watch it happen. They set up a checkpoint
and inspected every carriage crossing the bridge in hopes of

(08:33):
catching him before he could jump. The cops stopped one
particular cab on the bridge, then asked the person inside
about their reason for being there. The man said that
he planned to jump into the river without any issue.
The police had caught their man, or so they thought.
Several hundred feet behind that carriage was another one with
the real Robert inside. He snuck himself out onto the

(08:55):
railing while the officers were distracted and prepared for his death.
To find leap, he raised one arm over his head
to act as a rudder during his drop, and then
he stepped off the bridge. The cops tried to stop him,
of course, but they couldn't catch him in time. The
fall only took a few seconds. Robert was okay for
the first hundred feet, but then his body tilted a bit.

(09:16):
He didn't land feet first as he planned. He landed
on his right side, and after he slipped below the water,
his body pop back up face down. A rescue team
quickly pulled him out, and things looked grim. He wasn't moving.
Then after some time Robert came to. He asked if
the jump was okay, and the people looking after him

(09:36):
said he had done well. Sadly, it had gone worse
than he had thought. His body had suffered serious internal injuries,
and as blood spurted from his mouth, the rescue boat
sped towards land, after which an ambulance was called, but
it was too late. He was dead within the hour.
Robert Emmett ODDLM went down in history. Though as having
been proven right all along, it is rarely the drop

(09:59):
that kills you. It just seems that he forgot about
the landing. 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 Mankey

(10:21):
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.