Pocahontas married John Rolfe / Ripple Rock explosion - April 5

On this day in 1614, Pocahontas married colonist John Rolfe. / On this day in 1958, the peaks of an underwater mountain called Ripple Rock were destroyed in an explosion, so they would no longer pose a hazard to passing ships.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we're running two episodes from the History Vault. I
hope you enjoy. Greetings everyone, welcome to this Day in
History class, where we bring you a new tidbit from
history every day. The day was April five, sixteen fourteen.

(00:26):
A Native American woman named Matoaka, better known by her
nickname Pocahontas, married Jamestown colonists John Rolf. Pocahontas was the
daughter of Chief wahoom Seneca also called Poetan, the paramount
chief of the Palatine chiefdom known as Senecomico. The chiefdom
included about thirty Algonquian speaking tribes and what is now Tidewater,

(00:49):
Virginia and Virginia's eastern shore. In May sixteen o seven,
English colonists founded Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in
North America. Uh Pocahontas and Palatan didn't meet any English
colonists until late December of that year, when Captain John
Smith was captured by Palatin's brother and eventually taken to

(01:11):
Chief Powatin at where a Wacomako Palatin's capital. The story
goes that Pocahontas rescued him from his execution, but that's
likely not the truth back then, as it still happens today,
pocahontas power within the Palatin tradition was often played up.
Smith was given permission to leave where a Wacomaco in

(01:33):
six eight. Smith became the president of Jamestown. That same year,
Pocahontas was part of a delegation that went to Jamestown
to negotiate the release of several Native Americans who had
been captured. On that trip and on later envoys to Jamestown,
Pocahontas was mainly a symbol of Palatin's trust and Smith.

(01:53):
Pocahontas was pretty playful, and English writer William Straitchy even
described her doing cart wheels with English ways in Jamestown.
Relations between the English and the tribes were okay. At first.
Palatin sent food to the colonists and the colonists traded
with the Palatin people's but by the winter of sixteen
o eight relations had soured as the English demanded more

(02:16):
food that the tribes did not have. The first Anglo
Palatin War began, and Palatin moved his capital west. Pocahontas
was barred from visiting Jamestown, though she did still have
some interaction with the colonists, and Smith left Virginia because
of an injury in October sixteen o nine. But Pocahontas,

(02:38):
who would have been around fourteen and sixteen o nine
and sixteen ten, was getting older, wearing the clothing of
adults and getting tattoos. Pokehont Is, like other Palatin women,
could choose to marry whom she wanted. In sixteen ten,
Pocahontas married a Native American man named Cocoon, who was
a commoner but also some sort of warrior. It's not

(03:00):
clear where they lived or if they had children, but
English documentation in Native oral history show that Palatan was
happy with Pocahontas's choice and stayed close to his daughter
after the marriage. But during this time, the colonists were
expanding beyond Jamestown. In sixteen thirteen, Captain Samuel Argall found

(03:21):
out Pocahontas was living with the Pottawa Met tribes, and
with the help of the tribe, kidnapped her and held
her as ransom for the return of stolen weapons and
English captives. She was then taken to Jamestown and probably Henrico,
a nearby settlement. Accounts differ on how Pocahontas was treated
at this time. Some say she was treated well, while

(03:44):
others say she was raped. But it was during this
time when Pocahontas learned the English language, traditions, and religion,
and in sixteen fourteen she was baptized and given the
Christian name Rebecca. By the time an agreement was reached
for her release, Pocahontas had fallen in love with the
English colonist John Rolfe, who had introduced the tobacco crop

(04:06):
in Jamestown. Rolph asked Sir Thomas Dale, the deputy governor
of Virginia, for permission to marry Pocahontas. In a letter
to Dale, Rolph said that the marriage was not for
the unbridled desire of carnal affection, but for quote the
good of this plantation, for the honor of our country,
for the glory of God, for my own salvation, and

(04:29):
for the converting to the true knowledge of God in
Jesus Christ and unbelieving creature, namely Pocahontas. Palatan and Dale
agreed to the marriage and on our around April five,
six fourteen. Either Minister Alexander Whittaker or Richard Book performed
the ceremony. At that point, her first marriage ended, and

(04:54):
the couple had a son named Thomas. Although it's not
clear when, but pocahontas Is marriage to Raw brought about
a period of peace between the tribes and the colonists,
as Palatine called an end to the war. The Virginia
Company of London, which had funded the settling of Jamestown,
saw this unlikely pairing as a marketing opportunity and trotted

(05:14):
the couple out to England in sixteen sixteen. The English
upper class largely doated on her while she was there,
as her appearance was a spectacle to them, and she
was even presented at the court of King James the
First But in March sixteen seventeen, when Pocahontas and John
were about to head back to Virginia, Pocahontas died, possibly

(05:35):
of an upper respiratory illness or a dysentery. Soon, the
piece that their marriage had inside it would deteriorate, and
the Second Anglo Palatine War began in sixteen twenty two.
I'm Eves jeffco and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can learn

(05:56):
more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, book,
and Instagram at T d I h C podcast. Thank
you so much for listening, and I hope to see
you again tomorrow for more tidbits of history. Hey, hey, y'all,

(06:18):
welcome to This Day in History Class, a podcast for
people who can never know enough about history. I have
to say that I feel very comforted knowing that you
all are listening to me as I sit here and
record from my pretty dark and pretty cramped closet. So
thank you all, and I hope you're holding up. Will
Let's get into the show. The day was April five,

(06:43):
night the top of an underwater mountain known as Ripple
Rock was destroyed in an explosion. It was noted as
one of the largest non nuclear peacetime explosions ever. Ripple
Rock was located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada,
north of a city called Campbell River. It was in

(07:03):
a shipping channel called the Seymour Narrows, and it had
two peaks. At low tide, the south peak was only
about nine ft or two point seven meters below the surface.
Because it was so close to the surface but invisible
to ships, it was a huge hazard. On top of this,
there were dangerous tidal currents in the area around the peak.

(07:26):
Ripple Rock was responsible for the sinking or damage of
more than twenty large vessels and at least one hundred
smaller vessels. At least one hundred and fourteen people died
due to the rexit cost. It was clearly a dangerous obstacle,
but not everyone agreed on the destruction of the peak.
While some people wanted to get rid of Ripple Rock,

(07:48):
others advocated keeping it around in the hopes that it
could support a bridge to connect Vancouver Island to mainland
British Columbia. But in the end, the Canadian government decided
to destruc Roy Ripple Rock. In nine an attempt was
made to blow up the rock by floating a drilling
barge over it. The barge was held in place by

(08:09):
steel cables attached to concrete anchors that weighed one thousand
and one hundred tons or nine metric tons. Holes would
be drilled into the top of the rock and filled
with explosives so that the rock could be blasted away,
but the cables broke frequently. There was another attempt to
use a drill barge to blast the rock to pieces,

(08:32):
but water turbulence made the operation difficult and this attempt
was abandoned. But in nineteen fifty three the National Research
Council of Canada commissioned a feasibility study on tunneling into
the rock to plant explosives. This approach was approved and
the government hired Dolmage and Mason consulting engineers to plan

(08:52):
the project. The Northern Construction Company J W. Stewart Limited
in Boyle's Brothers Drilling Company got contracts for the project.
The plan was to sink a shaft on mod Island
Tunnel out below Seymour Narrows and drill two vertical shafts
up into the rock. Work began in November and lasted

(09:14):
for more than two years. Once the tunneling was done,
workers drilled so called coyote tunnels and the peaks of
the rock and placed explosives in them. At in the
morning on April five, Ripple Rock exploded. The blast reached
a height of one thousand feet. The explosion was broadcast
live on CBC. No environmental damage was reported in the area. Now,

(09:38):
the south peak is about forty five ft below the
surface at low tide. The north peak is about seventy
ft below the surface. I'm each Jeff Code and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If there's anything I missed, or something or
someone you really love to hear about on the show,
please send us a message on social media. That's on Facebook, Twitter,

(10:01):
our Instagram at t d I h C podcast, and
if you're so inclined, you can send us an email
at this day at I heart media dot com. Thanks
again for listening to the show, and we'll see you tomorrow.
For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart
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(10:21):
favorite shows.