No Loose Threads

Some people have accomplished great things and had their names carved forever in the record books. Others labored anonymously. Either way, though, you'll find their tales to be more than curious.

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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. While it might define logic, oftentimes the surest
path to military victory is the least obvious one, and
sometimes that path isn't even on the battlefield. Knowing the
odds were stacked against the American colonies and the Revolutionary War,

(00:50):
George Washington and Benjamin Talmidge relied on another facet of
war to try to turn the odds in their favor, espionage.
In fact, they created an entire spiring. It may well
have won the war for them, and from seventeen seventy
eight to seventeen eighty this spir ring was instrumental in
keeping Americans in control of their own destiny, known as

(01:11):
the Culper Ring. This approach was so secret that George
Washington himself ordered Talmadge to keep him in the dark
as to who the actual operatives were, all the better
to protect their identities. Of course, thanks to the Culper Codebook,
historians have since been able to decipher the messages that
were sent between various parties involving and keeping American intelligence

(01:31):
a few steps ahead of the British Army. It used
a numerical code system for common words, and once those
numbers were cracked, the story unfolded. For instance, seven to
seven referred to New York City, two to three meant gold,
and three five five meant lady. But three fifty five
may have meant much more than that. It may well

(01:53):
have referred to one specific lady, a lady who was
herself an American spy. It wouldn't be the first time
a woman had been overlooked by the enemy. Take, for instance,
a major leak sprung by British Major John Andre while
speaking of an impending attack on the Americans. Andre didn't
think twice about speaking freely in front of a housewife

(02:14):
named Lydia Dara, who listened intently and then relay the
news to George Washington. Andrea interrogated everyone in the house
after the leak came to light, everyone that is, except Lydia.
After all, surely all women held the same beliefs as
their husbands right. The lady of the Culbra ring, though
this Agent three is still unknown to this day, but

(02:37):
it's believed that she was a member of a high
ranking loyalist family in New York City, a hotbed of
British activity during the war. There she would have had
access to all the chatter of British nobility in the colonies.
And that's when the biggest intelligence breakthrough of the war surfaced,
thanks largely to the efforts of three fifty five, ever
overlooked in the company of her enemy, you see, will

(02:59):
reports right up with the British in the South. On
their return to New York City, the reports began coming
from an unnamed operative in the field. These reports claimed
that an American general was in cahoots with the British
and covering for Major John Andrea's comings and goings, and
the intelligence was clear about who that was. Benedict Arnold
was a traitor to the revolutionary cause, and this revelation

(03:22):
came by most accounts from Agent threeft. After all, most
other Culpra spies had already fled New York City by
that point, avoiding the heat from British counter intelligence. Yet
This breakthrough finding led to the arrest and execution of
Major John andre And, while Benedict Arnold escaped. The turning
point had well turned. In the aftermath of this massive

(03:45):
plot unraveling, the British began sweeping up anyone they even
remotely suspected. According to some reports, this may have included
Agent three fifty five, who was held aboard the prison
ship the HMS Jersey. There she gave birth to a
son and soon died amidst horrid conditions. Correspondence among the
Copra spy ring largely dried up after her death, leading

(04:07):
more credibility to the belief that it was the still
anonymous Agent three who was at the heart of it all.
Robert Townsend, the head of the Culpa ring at the time,
fell into a depression. Rumor has it that he was
romantically involved with Agent three, although with all the secrecy
surrounding their group, it isn't likely that we could ever
prove that. Whatever the case, Agent three and her fellow

(04:31):
spies learned a valuable lesson during their service. You never
know what you might hear when people think no one
is listening, whether it's searching the ocean's depths, or climbing

(04:56):
the tallest mountains. There are certain individuals who feel an urge,
a hung to push themselves to the extreme. They aren't
satisfied behind a desk or standing on the sidelines. They
feel a calling to challenge what's possible by accomplishing the impossible.
Perhaps none more than Donald Campbell. Campbell was born in Surrey, England,
on March twenty three, nineteen twenty one, to a speed

(05:18):
demon of a father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, had been a
Grand Prix racer and speed record holder on both water
and land. It seems his son was destined to follow
in his footsteps. Instead, Donald tried to join the Air
Force at the start of World War Two, but was
denied entry due to about of rheumatic fever when he
was younger. Instead, he supported the war effort by working

(05:40):
as an engineer on military vehicles. After the war was over,
a New Year's Eve of nineteen forty eight, Campbell's life
took a drastic turn. His father suffered a series of
strokes and passed away unexpectedly. He was only sixty three
at the time, still relatively young, but he'd led a
much longer life than most others in his line of work.

(06:00):
After his father's death, Donald joined up with his father's
chief engineer, Leo Villa, and the two continued Sir Malcolm's
work in setting speed records on land and water. Campbell
started in nineteen forty nine by racing his father's old powerboat,
the Bluebird K four. The K four was a hydroplane
which would glide across the water once it reached top speeds,

(06:21):
and as American racers started beating his father's existing records,
Campbell knew that he'd have to make some changes if
he hoped to compete, So he modified the K for
to reduce drag on the water, and in nineteen fifty
one he managed to reach one hundred seventy miles per hour.
If only his success had lasted on one unfortunate attempt
to break the record, The Bluebird K four was destroyed,

(06:43):
and it wasn't long before another racer had moved the
record up again. Campbell now had to beat one hundred
seventy eight miles per hour. He and Leo got to
work on a new Bluebird, one made of metal and
powered by a jet engine. Dubbed the Case seven. His
new hydroplane proved to be a roaring success. Between nineteen
fifty five and nineteen sixty four, Campbell set a whopping

(07:05):
seven world records and reached speeds as high as two
hundred and eighty six miles per hour. Now, he might
have had one eye on the water, but he also
had his other eye back on land. Several years earlier,
a racer named John Cobb had set a land speed
record of three hundred and ninety four miles per hour,
and Campbell was determined to beat it. He had a
new vehicle design called the Bluebird Proteus c N seven. Naturally,

(07:30):
it was blue colored, and in order to achieve speeds
as high as five hundred miles per hour, it was
shaped like a flattened submarine. It was his pride and joy,
a testament to British engineering, and the thing that would
zoom him out from behind his father's shadow. Campbell ran
some low speed tests in Sussex before transporting the c
N seven to the salt flats of Utah, where it

(07:50):
would really stretch its legs. But it was on the
sixth attempt when the car stretched a little too far
and crashed after reaching a blistering three hundred and sixty
miles per hour. Campbell survived with a fractured skull and
some bumps and scrapes, but the c N seven was totaled.
A new vehicle was built and in July of nineteen

(08:10):
four Donald headed to Australia where he set a new
record of four hundred and three point one miles per hour.
It was arousing success and well deserved after so many
failed attempts, but he still wanted to push things further,
and to do that he had to build a car
with a different kind of propulsion. Enter the Bluebird Mock
one point one, otherwise known as the rocket car. It

(08:32):
was designed to reach a top speed of eight hundred
and forty miles per hour with the help of two
Bristol Siddeley rocket engines. Just building the car and telling
people about it wasn't enough. He wanted to get the
word out by setting another record With the Bluebird Case seven,
he put in a Bristol Orpheus jet engine capable of
delivering forty pounds of thrust. After about of bad weather

(08:55):
and some unsuccessful tries in Lancashire, Campbell finally got his opportunity.
On January worth of ninety seven. He brought the Case
seven out to the middle of the lake and aimed
it towards the southern end. The engine fired and the
Bluebird took off like well a rocket seventy three ten.
Campbell couldn't be stopped. Literally. The first run had gone well,

(09:20):
and he wanted to go again, immediately, refusing to refuel
or wait for things to cool down. The Bluebird blazed
a trail across the water a second time, heating upwards
of three hundred and twenty miles per hour. But something
was wrong. The engine went out on this run, and
the vehicle touched down on the water, nose pointed downward,
and went into a full sumersault. The Case seven broke

(09:42):
apart as it skipped along the surface of the water.
Campbell was killed in the incident, and his body was lost.
It took thirty years for divers to find and recover
both the Bluebird and Campbell's remains from the lake. He
was still wearing his coveralls. Donald Campbell set out to
prove he was as brave and as daring as his
father before him, and he did. Sadly, he led his

(10:06):
success cloud his judgment, and he paid the ultimate price
for it. Sometimes when you feel the need for speed,
that's when you should stop and smell the roses before
they're left on your grave. 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

(10:28):
visiting Curiosities podcast 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.