The Knock-Out

On today's tour of the Cabinet, one group of people has a foggy experience, while then another has sees stars for the first time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
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 of Curiosities. The sea had become

(00:28):
as calm as glass, although I like the way the
captain of the ship described it better as level as
a parlor carpet. He later wrote, smooth and featureless, and
because this was the ocean and not some small lake, terrifying.
It had started on August two of n four, just

(00:49):
as the sun was setting, a darkness began to drown
out the daylight. A lookout on board the British steamship
known as the Mohican spotted a bright light on the horizon,
no bigger than a speck. As they watched, though, it
grew larger and larger, which is when they realized that
it was moving toward them over the surface of the

(01:10):
water like a ship, except well, when it arrived it
turned out to be a cloud of fog, larger than
their own vessel. It was unlike any fog they had
ever seen, though, because this stuff was glowing. Some of
the words they used were metallic and phosphorescent. To the

(01:32):
people on board, it seemed as if the entire ship
was on fire, but there was more. The steamer stopped
moving the moment the fog arrived inside. The navigator's compass
began to spin wildly, as if it were hooked up
to a small motor on the main deck. Sailors ran
about trying to figure out why the ship had stopped,

(01:53):
and when they checked on the large iron chains of
the anchor, they discovered that they were frozen to the
ship's metal deck. The sailors were terrified and ran back
and forth across the deck to inspect the ship. All
they could see, though, was fog. Pale, metallic, glowing fog.

(02:14):
Captain Urkhart tried to calm them, but it was all
just too much. The hair on the backs of their
necks was standing on end, and their bodies felt odd
and unsettled. According to the captain, everything fell silent on
the ship, with no engine running. The constant hum was gone,
but at the same time, the cloud of fog had

(02:36):
a way of muffling all other sounds, sort of like
that silence that happens during a gentle winter storm. It
was so quiet that it almost felt claustrophobic, as if
they were all wrapped in a pale blanket and were
slowly being smothered. And then half an hour after it arrived,
the fog moved on. The sailors watched it roll over

(02:58):
them until it was finally off their ship completely. Then,
just as it had begun, the glowing cloud of fog
just sort of drifted away, growing smaller as it distanced
itself from the Mohican, and then it was gone. No
one was sure what had happened back then, and to
be honest, no one is sure today. Perhaps it was

(03:21):
nothing more than an odd atmospheric anomaly, or maybe it
was something born of the sea, like the pent upstatic
charge you get when you rub a balloon on your head.
Something created that cloud of glowing fog. That much is clear,
but exactly how will forever remain a mystery. The truth

(03:41):
it seems it's more than a little foggy. John Sullivan
was known as the Boston Strong Boy. Born in eighteen

(04:03):
fifty eight to Irish immigrants, John grew up in the
South End of Boston. His parents wanted him to become
a priest, but during his first year of college, he
discovered two things. He loved to play baseball, and he
was really good at it. Sullivan dropped out of college
around eighteen seventy five and entered the world of professional baseball,

(04:24):
a journey that lasted about eight years. According to him,
That was about the time he switched over to a
new sport, boxing. He started out as part of a
boxing tour. He and five other men traveled the country
by train, stopping almost every day in a new place
to fight each other and sometimes even a local volunteer.

(04:46):
The tour lasted two hundred and thirty eight days, during
which time they participated in one nine five matches in
one hundred thirty six different places. Sullivan knocked out eleven
opponents during the tour. Now keep in mind this was
the late eighteen eighties. Sullivan sometimes fought bare knuckled, meaning

(05:06):
his opponents weren't always given the benefit of a padded
glove to the face. Then again, neither was Sullivan. That's okay.
Though he loved the sport and was considered the best
in the world during his time, and over the course
of his decade long career, he was only ever knocked
out once, which is how he lost his final match

(05:27):
in eighteen ninety two. In fact, which is sort of
true but not really. Yes, Sullivan was only officially knocked
out once, but someone else had laid the Boston strong
Boy out cold shortly before he retired. That fighter was
named Donahue. Donahue helped run a boxing school out of
the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. But in eighteen ninety two,

(05:49):
Sullivan had been participating in a small theater tour where
he boxed with others on stage in front of large crowds,
and a friend introduced him to Donahue. The thing is,
Donahue wasn't actually a boxer, but working in a boxing
school was a great way to pick up all the
tricks of the trade, sort of like how kids learned
things from their parents just by watching and practicing what

(06:12):
they see. Donahue, it turned out, was a quick study.
One night during this touring boxing exhibition, Sullivan called out
from the stage that he would beat any man who
came on stage. If he failed, he would pay them
a reward. But of course Sullivan never failed. He was
the Boston strong Boy after all. Most of the time

(06:33):
Sullivan would hit them once and they would fall over
and not get back up, but Donahue changed all of that.
They actually managed to last two full rounds before things
got interesting in the third when Sullivan caught Donahue with
a powerful blow to the face. But Donahue, unlike all
the other contestants that night, refused to go down. Instead,

(06:55):
all of that pain and rage became a sort of
rocket fuel ready to explode. With a savage scream, Dona
Hue lashed out and connected with the champions jaw. For
a brief instant, it looked as if nothing would happen. Then,
like a tall pine hit with the lumberjack's axe, the
Boston strong boy silently toppled over, hitting the canvas with

(07:19):
a sick thud. He was out. Cold boxers get knocked out.
We all know that, and while it's unusual for Sullivan
to have gone a decade without that happening to him
during an official match, we might be able to accept
that there were other moments when it could have taken place.
This theater match in was just that rare moment. Few

(07:42):
would ever be able to claim that they had seen
the champion felled by another fighter. The folks in this
audience became members of an elite crowd that night, because
of the knockout, sure, but also because of something else.
Like I mentioned before, Dona Hue wasn't a boxer. Amateurs
aren't supposed to be able to level a professional like that.

(08:04):
Could it have been a lucky punch, sure, but that
still wouldn't change the most surprising detail of all. John L. Sullivan,
the Boston Strong Boy, had been knocked out by a woman,
Mrs Hessey Donahue. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour

(08:26):
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 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

(08:47):
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.