August 10, 2021 • 11 mins
Humans have a way of getting themselves into some pretty amazing situations. In fact, the stories about that are more than a little curious.
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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. For many, death is a source of great anxiety.
We can't comprehend what awaits us on the other side,
and so we worry about what's going to happen to
us in the afterlife. For others, death is a comfort.
American artist and poet Joe Brainerd once jokingly wrote, death
(00:52):
has a very black reputation, but actually to die is
a perfectly normal thing to do. And he was right.
Death hands every day, and eventually it happens to every
single person on earth. Yet we still fear it. Not
Sarah Bernhardt, though she not only was unafraid of death,
it influenced how she lived her life. Henrietta Rosine Bernard
(01:14):
was a French actress born in eighteen forty four, although
she changed her name for the stage when she was
around eighteen years old. Her mother was a courtisan with
many powerful clients such as duke's politicians and other high
powered individuals. Bernhardt took to the theatrical lifestyle from a
young age. Her mother sent her to boarding school when
she was seven. It was there that she started In
(01:35):
her first play, she took on the role of a
fairy queen who dies, a chance for her to embrace
her dramatic side. Three years later, she began attending a
convent school in Versailles, again performing in theatrical productions. She
even considered becoming a nun for a short time until
her father's death in eighteen fifty nine. At the suggestion
(01:56):
of one of her mother's clients, Bernhardt pursued acting more seriously.
This surprised her as she had never considered the theater
as a career before. Over the years, she studied with
talented actors of her time, building up her theatrical skills.
One of her first acting coaches was recommended to her
by one of her mother's clients. His name, by the way,
(02:16):
was Alexander Duma, author of the Count of Monte Cristo.
With enough training, Sarah was able to reach the theater Francois,
with whom she performed for a year. Although it was
not meant to last. She had invited her sister Regina
to join her in an important event. In attendance was
the theater's leading actress, Zaire Natalie Martel, otherwise known as
(02:39):
Madame Natalie. Regina accidentally stepped on Madame Natalie's gown, which
infuriated her. Madame Natalie shoved Regina backwards into a stone
column and caused her to cut her forehead, prompting Sarah
to step in on her behalf. She screamed at the
older actress, getting so heated that she slapped her in
the face. Sarah was told to apologize, and she refused.
(03:01):
She had had enough of Madam Natalie and the theater
Francois and left the company shortly thereafter. It didn't impact
her opportunities, though Bernhardt spent two years at another theater,
the Gymnays, after which she moved on to the Odeon.
Her career had quite the upward trajectory, in fact, with
the actress going from minor roles to understudy all the
(03:22):
way to the leading lady. She earned rave reviews for
her dramatic performances, which extended beyond the stage. As it
turns out, Bernhardt was pretty dramatic behind closed doors as well.
For example, she slept in a satin lined coffin in
her bedroom by her window. She often laid in it
while studying a new role, and even slept in it overnight,
(03:42):
sometimes despite there being a huge, unused bamboo bed right
in the middle of the room. But no matter how
high she climbed or how strange her behaviors got, Sarah
never forgot about her family. She and Regina remained quite close,
so when Regina came down with tuberculosis, it was Sarah
who took care of her. She had her sister come
(04:03):
live with her, allowing her to rest in that big
bamboo bed in her bedroom. Sarah chose to sleep in
her coffin instead. One day, a manicurist had come to
treat the actress's hands. Regina urged the woman to come
in quietly as her sister was sleeping. The manicurists turned
to the armchair where she believed Sarah to be resting,
but instead saw her unconscious body in the coffin. The
(04:26):
woman ran out of the room screaming. After Regina passed
away from her illness, Sarah had her sister's coffin placed
in the bedroom beside her own until the undertaker could
come and retrieve it. On the day he and his
men arrived, they entered the room and found two coffins
side by side. The Master of ceremonies immediately called for
another hearse, believing that he was dealing with two dead
(04:48):
bodies and not just one. The men had just begun
moving Sarah's coffin when she suddenly arrived home, much to
their surprise. She had just been tending to her mother
when she walked in on the undertaker's men and hauling
her coffin away. The second hearse was dismissed and her
sister's coffin was taken as intended. Unfortunately, the papers got
(05:08):
wind of the incident, and Sarah was criticized for her
eccentric behavior in the press. To Sarah Bernhardt, death was
a part of life rather than something to be afraid of.
She embraced it and made it a part of who
she was. To her, it was normal, as normal as
sleeping in a satin lined coffin. And that, my friends.
(05:29):
It's curious the ocean can be unpredictable. One moment it's calm,
the waters gently lapping against the sides of your boat.
(05:50):
The next clouds overhead of darkened, and the wind is
stirring the waves, tossing your vessel around like a rag doll.
Countless ships in their crews have been lost at sea.
In sept Member of nine, a commercial fishing boat called
the Andrea Gale left Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts. It's captain, Frank
Tyne Jr. Had cast off for eastern Canada, but there
were no fish to be had there. Instead, he traveled
(06:12):
east to the Flemish Cap. He thought the fish situation
might be better. Unfortunately, a northeaster had moved into their position.
It boasted fifty six mile an hour winds and gusts
as highest seventy five. Due to the strange confluence of
conditions that aided in its formation, it became known as
the Perfect Storm. The Andrea Gale was last heard from
(06:32):
on the evening of October twenty before the ship and
its crew of six, including Captain Tyne, were lost forever.
The ocean is not something to underestimate. It can turn
on you in an instant, just like it did for
Nigerian cook Harrison O'Kenna in May of two thousand thirteen,
O'Kenny was working on a tug boat off the coast
(06:53):
of Nigeria with eleven other crewmates. They and several other
boats had been contracted by Chevron to stabilize one of
their oil tankers. O'kenna's tug boat was called the Jaskin four.
It was painted bright red and white, easy to spot
among the blue expanse of the ocean. With its toe
cable attached to the tanker, the Jaskin four, along with
(07:15):
the rest of the boats, puttered along the Gulf of
Guinea early in the morning of May before anyone else
was awake. O'Kenna got his day started. How he'd been
able to sleep at all was a mystery, as the
Jaskin four had been bobbing along the rough waters of
the Atlantic for some time. The waves were choppy, and
the cook had settled into the la tree to take
care of his morning business. Meanwhile, the other eleven members
(07:39):
of the crew were fast asleep, their doors bolted behind them.
It had been part of their security protocols Pirates in
the area had been known to board vessels and robbed
them or kidnapped their crew for ransom. On this morning, however,
pirates were the least of the Jaskin four's problems. The
ocean churned, kicking up a massive wave that struck the
tug boat on its side. It capsized and the hull
(08:01):
filled with water. Within minutes, the Jaskin four had slipped
beneath the waves for good. Several crew members attempted to
escape through a hatch leading to the deck, but the
rush of water swept them out to sea instead. Harrison
meanwhile struggled to get his bathroom door open. The pressure
from the water on the other side was strong, but
he finally did it, only to be carried down the
(08:23):
hall to another bathroom. He had to hold on to
one of the sinks to keep his head above water.
The boats eventually came to arrest upside down on the
sea floor, one hundred feet below the surface back up top,
A rescue mission was called immediately. Divers spent a whole
day attempting to reach the wreck. They knocked on the
hole and waited for a response, but nobody could hear
(08:46):
o'kennay knocking back or yelling for help. He was trapped.
Taking a bold risk, he swam out of the bathroom
in pitch black water, into the engineer's office, where he
found another pocket of air. This was a bigger space
with more room for him, but there was a new
problem facing him, hypothermia. The water temperature was freezing and
(09:08):
O'Kenna was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts. If
he didn't think fast, he would lose consciousness and die
before anyone found him. He was able to locate a mattress,
which he fashioned into a floatation device with the help
of some of the engineer's tools and the wall panels
around him. He also found cans of Coca cola to
stave off thirst. Okay A sat there waiting, waiting for
(09:29):
the oxygen to run out, for the water to fill
up the room, for hunger or thirst to catch up
with him, and then out of nowhere, he heard knocking
outside again. He banged on the walls and shouted, but
still no one was able to hear him. The Jaskin
Forest parent company had sent a salvage team to recover
the bodies of the lost crew. They spent an hour
(09:52):
cutting their way through the interior of the boat, then
searched room by room for bodies. Okay A caught a
flash of one of their head torches a a diver
entered the engineer's office. The diver grabbed his outstretched hand,
he didn't expect it to grab back. Frightened, the diver
soon realized what he was dealing with. Someone had survived
(10:12):
the sinking. O'kenn a thought that he'd been only down
there for twelve hours, but he couldn't believe what he
was told. It took some careful planning to bring him
home safely to the surface, but after sixty hours at
the bottom of the ocean, Harrison O'Kenna was finally free.
Once he returned home to his family in Nigeria, he
found another job as a cook, this time, though he
(10:35):
made sure that it was one that he could do
on dry land. He was never going to step foot
on a boat again, and I don't think any of
us could blame him. 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
(10:55):
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 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. For many, death is a source of great anxiety.
We can't comprehend what awaits us on the other side,
and so we worry about what's going to happen to
us in the afterlife. For others, death is a comfort.
American artist and poet Joe Brainerd once jokingly wrote, death
(00:52):
has a very black reputation, but actually to die is
a perfectly normal thing to do. And he was right.
Death hands every day, and eventually it happens to every
single person on earth. Yet we still fear it. Not
Sarah Bernhardt, though she not only was unafraid of death,
it influenced how she lived her life. Henrietta Rosine Bernard
(01:14):
was a French actress born in eighteen forty four, although
she changed her name for the stage when she was
around eighteen years old. Her mother was a courtisan with
many powerful clients such as duke's politicians and other high
powered individuals. Bernhardt took to the theatrical lifestyle from a
young age. Her mother sent her to boarding school when
she was seven. It was there that she started In
(01:35):
her first play, she took on the role of a
fairy queen who dies, a chance for her to embrace
her dramatic side. Three years later, she began attending a
convent school in Versailles, again performing in theatrical productions. She
even considered becoming a nun for a short time until
her father's death in eighteen fifty nine. At the suggestion
(01:56):
of one of her mother's clients, Bernhardt pursued acting more seriously.
This surprised her as she had never considered the theater
as a career before. Over the years, she studied with
talented actors of her time, building up her theatrical skills.
One of her first acting coaches was recommended to her
by one of her mother's clients. His name, by the way,
(02:16):
was Alexander Duma, author of the Count of Monte Cristo.
With enough training, Sarah was able to reach the theater Francois,
with whom she performed for a year. Although it was
not meant to last. She had invited her sister Regina
to join her in an important event. In attendance was
the theater's leading actress, Zaire Natalie Martel, otherwise known as
(02:39):
Madame Natalie. Regina accidentally stepped on Madame Natalie's gown, which
infuriated her. Madame Natalie shoved Regina backwards into a stone
column and caused her to cut her forehead, prompting Sarah
to step in on her behalf. She screamed at the
older actress, getting so heated that she slapped her in
the face. Sarah was told to apologize, and she refused.
(03:01):
She had had enough of Madam Natalie and the theater
Francois and left the company shortly thereafter. It didn't impact
her opportunities, though Bernhardt spent two years at another theater,
the Gymnays, after which she moved on to the Odeon.
Her career had quite the upward trajectory, in fact, with
the actress going from minor roles to understudy all the
(03:22):
way to the leading lady. She earned rave reviews for
her dramatic performances, which extended beyond the stage. As it
turns out, Bernhardt was pretty dramatic behind closed doors as well.
For example, she slept in a satin lined coffin in
her bedroom by her window. She often laid in it
while studying a new role, and even slept in it overnight,
(03:42):
sometimes despite there being a huge, unused bamboo bed right
in the middle of the room. But no matter how
high she climbed or how strange her behaviors got, Sarah
never forgot about her family. She and Regina remained quite close,
so when Regina came down with tuberculosis, it was Sarah
who took care of her. She had her sister come
(04:03):
live with her, allowing her to rest in that big
bamboo bed in her bedroom. Sarah chose to sleep in
her coffin instead. One day, a manicurist had come to
treat the actress's hands. Regina urged the woman to come
in quietly as her sister was sleeping. The manicurists turned
to the armchair where she believed Sarah to be resting,
but instead saw her unconscious body in the coffin. The
(04:26):
woman ran out of the room screaming. After Regina passed
away from her illness, Sarah had her sister's coffin placed
in the bedroom beside her own until the undertaker could
come and retrieve it. On the day he and his
men arrived, they entered the room and found two coffins
side by side. The Master of ceremonies immediately called for
another hearse, believing that he was dealing with two dead
(04:48):
bodies and not just one. The men had just begun
moving Sarah's coffin when she suddenly arrived home, much to
their surprise. She had just been tending to her mother
when she walked in on the undertaker's men and hauling
her coffin away. The second hearse was dismissed and her
sister's coffin was taken as intended. Unfortunately, the papers got
(05:08):
wind of the incident, and Sarah was criticized for her
eccentric behavior in the press. To Sarah Bernhardt, death was
a part of life rather than something to be afraid of.
She embraced it and made it a part of who
she was. To her, it was normal, as normal as
sleeping in a satin lined coffin. And that, my friends.
(05:29):
It's curious the ocean can be unpredictable. One moment it's calm,
the waters gently lapping against the sides of your boat.
(05:50):
The next clouds overhead of darkened, and the wind is
stirring the waves, tossing your vessel around like a rag doll.
Countless ships in their crews have been lost at sea.
In sept Member of nine, a commercial fishing boat called
the Andrea Gale left Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts. It's captain, Frank
Tyne Jr. Had cast off for eastern Canada, but there
were no fish to be had there. Instead, he traveled
(06:12):
east to the Flemish Cap. He thought the fish situation
might be better. Unfortunately, a northeaster had moved into their position.
It boasted fifty six mile an hour winds and gusts
as highest seventy five. Due to the strange confluence of
conditions that aided in its formation, it became known as
the Perfect Storm. The Andrea Gale was last heard from
(06:32):
on the evening of October twenty before the ship and
its crew of six, including Captain Tyne, were lost forever.
The ocean is not something to underestimate. It can turn
on you in an instant, just like it did for
Nigerian cook Harrison O'Kenna in May of two thousand thirteen,
O'Kenny was working on a tug boat off the coast
(06:53):
of Nigeria with eleven other crewmates. They and several other
boats had been contracted by Chevron to stabilize one of
their oil tankers. O'kenna's tug boat was called the Jaskin four.
It was painted bright red and white, easy to spot
among the blue expanse of the ocean. With its toe
cable attached to the tanker, the Jaskin four, along with
(07:15):
the rest of the boats, puttered along the Gulf of
Guinea early in the morning of May before anyone else
was awake. O'Kenna got his day started. How he'd been
able to sleep at all was a mystery, as the
Jaskin four had been bobbing along the rough waters of
the Atlantic for some time. The waves were choppy, and
the cook had settled into the la tree to take
care of his morning business. Meanwhile, the other eleven members
(07:39):
of the crew were fast asleep, their doors bolted behind them.
It had been part of their security protocols Pirates in
the area had been known to board vessels and robbed
them or kidnapped their crew for ransom. On this morning, however,
pirates were the least of the Jaskin four's problems. The
ocean churned, kicking up a massive wave that struck the
tug boat on its side. It capsized and the hull
(08:01):
filled with water. Within minutes, the Jaskin four had slipped
beneath the waves for good. Several crew members attempted to
escape through a hatch leading to the deck, but the
rush of water swept them out to sea instead. Harrison
meanwhile struggled to get his bathroom door open. The pressure
from the water on the other side was strong, but
he finally did it, only to be carried down the
(08:23):
hall to another bathroom. He had to hold on to
one of the sinks to keep his head above water.
The boats eventually came to arrest upside down on the
sea floor, one hundred feet below the surface back up top,
A rescue mission was called immediately. Divers spent a whole
day attempting to reach the wreck. They knocked on the
hole and waited for a response, but nobody could hear
(08:46):
o'kennay knocking back or yelling for help. He was trapped.
Taking a bold risk, he swam out of the bathroom
in pitch black water, into the engineer's office, where he
found another pocket of air. This was a bigger space
with more room for him, but there was a new
problem facing him, hypothermia. The water temperature was freezing and
(09:08):
O'Kenna was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts. If
he didn't think fast, he would lose consciousness and die
before anyone found him. He was able to locate a mattress,
which he fashioned into a floatation device with the help
of some of the engineer's tools and the wall panels
around him. He also found cans of Coca cola to
stave off thirst. Okay A sat there waiting, waiting for
(09:29):
the oxygen to run out, for the water to fill
up the room, for hunger or thirst to catch up
with him, and then out of nowhere, he heard knocking
outside again. He banged on the walls and shouted, but
still no one was able to hear him. The Jaskin
Forest parent company had sent a salvage team to recover
the bodies of the lost crew. They spent an hour
(09:52):
cutting their way through the interior of the boat, then
searched room by room for bodies. Okay A caught a
flash of one of their head torches a a diver
entered the engineer's office. The diver grabbed his outstretched hand,
he didn't expect it to grab back. Frightened, the diver
soon realized what he was dealing with. Someone had survived
(10:12):
the sinking. O'kenn a thought that he'd been only down
there for twelve hours, but he couldn't believe what he
was told. It took some careful planning to bring him
home safely to the surface, but after sixty hours at
the bottom of the ocean, Harrison O'Kenna was finally free.
Once he returned home to his family in Nigeria, he
found another job as a cook, this time, though he
(10:35):
made sure that it was one that he could do
on dry land. He was never going to step foot
on a boat again, and I don't think any of
us could blame him. 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
(10:55):
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 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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