October 20, 2025 • 20 mins
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We're diving into the hidden gem that is Block Island, a lesser-known spot off the coast of Rhode Island. This place is packed with fascinating history, from its unique whaling past to connections with pirates and even Amelia Earhart! It's like uncovering a treasure chest of stories, and who doesn't love a good pirate tale? Plus, we chat about how the local women took charge while the men were out at sea, showing some serious girl power. So grab your headphones and let's explore Block Island's quirky history together—trust me, you won't want to miss it!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Welcome to Talk with History.I'm your host Scott, here with my
wife and historian Jen.
Hello.
On this podcast we give youinsights to our history Inspired
World Travels YouTube channelJourney and examine history history
through deeper conversationswith the curious, the explorers and
the history lovers out there.Man, I have done that intro probably
(00:35):
hundreds of times and I stillmess it up real quick. Before we
dive into our topic, want tosay a quick thank you for the patience
to our regular listeners. Wemissed a week last week. This is
busy season for me in the Navyand yesterday was my first day off
in like two or three weeks.So, so I am exhausted. But this podcast,
(00:55):
recording this podcast withJen and for, for our audience, for
our listeners brings meenergy. So I'm very excited to, I
think it's been a few weekssince we've actually recorded cause
we batch record. So with that,we're talking about kind of a very,
a relatively unknown place inAmerica, unless maybe you're from
(01:18):
the Northeast, Block Island.So Block Island's pretty unique.
Well, one, you got to go upthere with American cruise lines.
Two, there's actually some,some pretty well known pieces of
history that have come out ofthere, whether it's the whaling stuff
that we've been talking aboutin the past, Nantucket, Martha's
(01:39):
Vineyard. Right. You know,some Jaws stuff that's, that's adjacent
to Block Island. A little bitof Amelia Earhart, a little bit of
pirates. So we're going to gothrough this, we're going to talk
about the history and we'regoing to talk about some of these
very interesting pieces ofthis lesser known kind of tourist
destination that's off theeast coast up, not too far from Nantucket
(02:00):
and Martha's Vineyard area. SoJen, tell us a little bit about Block
island, the, the backgroundof, of that and then we'll, we'll
dive right into it.
Yeah, and like you said, Inever really heard of Block island
before either. It's kind ofright off the coast of Long island
and before you get to Martha'sVineyard. So Martha's Vineyard and
(02:21):
Nantucket belong toMassachusetts. This is Rhode Island's
little island. And sobasically it's like Long island off
the coast of Long island isBlock Island. And then if you keep
going to the north east,you're going to hit Martha's Vineyard
in Nucket and everyone knowsMartha's Vineyard in Nantucket. They're
kind of popular, populartourist destinations. I would say
(02:43):
Block island is more like aninsider location. Like people know
it. If you're from that area,but it's kind of not well known outside
of there. Of course it's partof Rhode island. So it's Rhode Island's
little island. And Rhodeisland is the smallest state. It's
the first to call for theContinental Congress to denounce
the Crown. It's the 13th stateadmitted into the Union. But it's
(03:05):
as you know, it's the smalleststate, small estate in New England
and just this like a little,little roadie is what they call it.
So interesting storybackground for me when my first kind
of Rhode island experience.Right. So Navy. I've talked about
this on the podcast before.I've been up to the Rhode island
area, to Newport, Rhodeisland, multiple times throughout
my career. I think the firsttime we went there was probably 2005,
(03:25):
so 20 years ago. I remembergoing up there for some surface warfare
officer school training stuffand one of the, one of the briefs
they gave was they would ask,they asked the audience a bunch of
lieutenants or actuallyensigns and jgs at the time who had
a rental car. So a few of usraised our hands and they're like,
okay, in Rhode island, peopledon't really care about the left
(03:48):
green arrow, right. They'llcut in front of you if you pause
once the light turns from redto green and they're getting ready
to turn left and you'regetting ready to go straight. Normally
the person going straight getsthe right of way. They would, they
told us straight up if youpause, they're going to cut in front
of you or make eye contact orif you make eye contact, they're
(04:09):
going to cut in front of you.And we were like, is this for real?
And sure, it happened like tome multiple Times back in 2005. And
so ever since I've alwaysremembered that. So driving around
Rhode island, it's, it's alittle bit like driving in California,
but the roads are smaller, youknow, because it's just older out
there. So just a fun kind ofanecdotal personal story for Rhode
(04:31):
island for me.
And you're such a sailor.We're going to talk about sailors.
But your, your mouth. So. Yes.So this is like you said, this is
like the little island off ofRhode island. And it's, it's a pork
chop sized island. Now. Itdates back to 1614. They say that
Verrazzano from the VerrazanoBridge, one of the first Europeans
(04:51):
to explore the area, notedBlock island in his existence. So
he wrote it down. I'm passingthis Little island in 1524. But it
really wasn't until the Dutchnavigator, Adrian Block, stopped
there and in 1614. Now,remember, we talk about New York,
Hudson river, this is all,it's all the Dutch, right? It's the
(05:12):
Dutch who are the firstexplorers there. It's the Dutch who
kind of found all this area.The Dutch found New Amsterdam, which
is going to become New York.It's all a Dutch area. And so Adrian
Block, the Dutch navigator,will rediscover it in 1614, and it's
that it's named for him. BlockIsland. Adrian Block. Sixteen families
from the English colony ofMassachusetts are going to settle
(05:34):
Block island. And they do thisbetween 1661 and 1664. And that's
how it becomes part of thecolony of Rhode island, the English
colony and then part of one ofthe 13 original colonies.
And it's interesting to methat they decided to sell this island
and I assume I was. Was thewhaling stuff still prevalent then?
Or like, is there a reasonthat they kind of picked this kind
(05:57):
of off the coast type location?
So it was just the same thing.It was just a good port, like you
say, a good place to, youknow, put pull in ships because of
the harbors there. But it wasjust a, a good location before you
hit the land mass.
Okay.
Although Block island, wetalked about Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket during theRevolutionary War, Block island actually
(06:19):
stays neutral during theRevolutionary War. They don't take
a side. And they do that fortheir own protection because they're
invaded by privateers over andover again. And so the only way they
can really protect themselves,because you see this happen on Nantucket
and Martha's Vineyard wherethey're ransacked by the other side
(06:39):
because they've taken a side.This is the only way Black island
was able to protect themselvesand their people was to just not
take a side.
Yeah, I guess if you're notattached to the mainland, it's really
hard for whatever side youwould pick to defend you.
Yes.
So, yeah, that makes sense.
Yes. But Black island, youknow, it gets, it starts to get known
for the seafaring life andthen you get a lot of strong women
(07:02):
energy there. And peoplealways ask me, why is strong women
energy go hand in hand withthe seafaring life? It's because
the jobs, the seafaring jobs,whaling, fishing, are male dominated
jobs. So you have to get on aship and sail. And it's not like
these are day jobs, these aremonth jobs, year jobs. And so who's
(07:25):
left behind are the women. Andso the Women run the town. They're
going to vote, they're goingto set up commerce, they're going
to sell goods, they're goingto run the taverns. And you're going
to get a lot of this when thetemperance movement starts. And we've
talked about this in ourProhibition Museum podcast. If a
(07:45):
male in your family was tosuccumb to alcoholism, you'd lose
a lot of your income becausemen made the money for the family.
And if they're drinking theirpaycheck away, everybody's suffering.
The wife, the children,sometimes they're taking care of
their mother. And so nobody isable to make a living if they're
not bringing home the money.
(08:06):
Yeah. And. And you showedvideo, the Rebecca at the well statue,
and that was kind of. That wasput up in the town, Right. In this
little kind of trafficky kindof main area as. As kind of a call
to keep the men from drinking.Right. It's for horses, I think I
saw somewhere online, it's forhorses, for dogs and for men. Right.
(08:26):
And so there's. There'sdifferent spots, and horses, you
know, back in the day, coulddrink straight out of it, but it's
also. They would encourage themen to drink water instead of drinking
alcohol.
Yeah. So it's. Right. Thinkmen pull into port and they go right
to the tavern. Right. Havesome beer, have some ale. So it's
right there on that main roadof Block island, and it was put up
in 1896. So you can imagine,like, right at the turn of the century,
(08:49):
this is when whaling is at itshighest, and it's put up by the local
women's Christian temperancemovement. So these women who are
having a lot of informalpower, are putting up this statue,
Rebecca at the well. It's astory from the Bible, but it's a
water fountain. It's basicallyto drink water instead of beer. And
(09:09):
so they're trying to give itoption instead of the beer. And now.
Now it's just a historicstatue in the middle of Block Island.
They have replaced the waterfountains with flowers and things
like that, but it's stillpretty cool. And it ties back to
this whole idea of womenhaving a lot of influence here in
(09:30):
Block island, because womenhave a lot of influence in faring
life.
Yeah. Now, one of the thingsthat unfortunately, you didn't know
when you. When you went outand visited Block island the first
time was that a famous womanfrom history, and especially a famous
woman in aviation spent sometime there.
(09:53):
Yes. So I. It wasn't until mysecond Time there, because the first
time we pulled into Blockisland, we pulled into Old harbor,
which is that main side. Thesecond time we pulled into New Harbor.
New harbor is a little wayfrom that more popular area of Black
island, if you can say that,because Block island only has a thousand
residents and about 20, 000visit a day. But it's still not very
(10:16):
popular. The Narragansett Innin July of 1929, hosted a very famous
female aviator. Amelia Earharthad come to Block island, and she
was invited there by the U.S.navy, and they wanted to test out
their diving suits. So whenyou think of the diving bell, the
big helmet and the suit, theywanted to test them out on smaller
(10:40):
people, right? So she's not asbig as a male, so they wanted to
make sure it can still fit.And so they had to adjust the. The
wristbands for her and things.But she was able to walk on the floor
of the Great Salt Pond, iswhat they call it. That's that big
opening there on Block Island.She was able to walk on the bottom
of that and bring up aseashell and test it for them. So
(11:02):
pretty famous. She got that.
And you can actually, like,obviously we didn't have it in the
video because you're. When youmade the video the first time, you
didn't know about it,otherwise you probably would have
talked about it. But you can.You can just Google Amelia Earhart,
Block Island. And there'spictures of her, and it looks she's
sitting in the. In the kind ofdive suit, you know, with that helmet
nearby and all that stuff.It's really cool.
Yeah, they say she stayed outfor 12 minutes. She brought up a
(11:24):
clam to prove that she was onthe floor. And, yeah, they're very
famous photographs of her.This is before she makes her, you
know, some of her biggerflight expeditions. But she says
to reporters it was absolutelynothing. Many women have gone deeper
and stayed longer. So I likethat she's kind of humble about it.
Yeah. Well, and I think aboutit, too, what's cool about the background
(11:46):
and the history of that area.It's a little bit of like the prequel
to Rosie the Riveter, right?You think about World War II. The
men went off to war and thewomen went to work. They had to make
it happen and this and that.That first kind of prime example
for that, at least here in theStates, is the whaling history, is
Nantucket, is Block island,and all that stuff. Now, talking
(12:10):
about Amelia Earhart, a littlebit of a rebel, and we alluded to
Kind of how Block island triedto protect itself from marauders,
from people coming through. Sothere actually is some pirate history
on the island as well.
Yeah. So they do a very neatjob, Block island of bringing tourists
(12:31):
to in by doing a search forthese glass globes. The locals will
hide 500 glass globes allaround the island. They are free
for you. If you find it, youcan have it. And so kind of alludes
to this old history of piratesbearing their treasure there. You're
coming there to hunt fortreasure. So Captain Kidd, you would
(12:52):
know him as a Scottishprivateer. So privateers are kind
of balancing on that pirate.And being a part of the Royal Navy,
they're not either. Right.What happens is the Navy will pay
pirates to privateer, whichmeans you kind of represent the Navy,
but you're allowed to takeyour plunder, and that's how you
(13:15):
fund yourself. But yourepresent us, you defend us, and
you're still trying to fightthe enemy, but if you meet the enemy
and you can plunder what theyhave, you can keep it. So that's
kind of how you get paid. Sothat's why privateer is a little
bit on that. That gray area.And Captain Kidd was a very famous
one. They say that he landedin Block island, hid some buried
treasure in the late 1790s.And. And people still look for it
(13:39):
today, so you never know.
Yeah, it was really cool whenyou mentioned the. I think. I think
Block island on their website,they've got like a city website.
They call it the Glass FloatProject or something like that. And
it's cool. There's. You canjust. Again, another thing you can
Google. But there's. There's,like, very colorful glass globes.
They call them glass floats,and they're just kind of about the
size of a baseball, hollowglass. So I imagine that most of
(14:03):
them would float in water.Some of them are plain, just clear
glass. Some of them are verycolorful. And that's kind of a cool
thing that they do. And I'msure it's a way to entice people
to come back out to revisit ifthey want to come and look for, you
know, collect another glass, aglass float for that summer, for
that season. Because you cankeep them.
Absolutely. And I. I misspoke.Before, Captain Kidd hid his treasure
(14:26):
in the late 1690s because he.He's actually executed by London
in 1701 because he was bad,and he actually captured a British
captain. And so they werelike, wait, you're just running.
You're running around. So inthe late 1690s, he hid treasure.
Now they, there's a story thatsomeone had found some of it in the
1790s and there's still moreout there. But no, Captain, Captain
(14:49):
Kid was definitely gone by the1790s. So this is the 1690s.
And then with pirates, a lotof times come ghost ships and the
lore around, you know, justbeing a sea focused location.
Yes. And because this is soisolated, they have this five major
shipwrecks that happened hereat Block Island. They have two lighthouses
(15:11):
north and south of the island.And again, when we talk about females
having these dominated jobs, alot of times females worked in lighthouses
because it's really just acouple. And if the man gets sick
or if the man has to go away,I mean that light has to be manned
from dusk all the way to dawn.And so women would do that a lot
(15:32):
of times. And if somebody, ifa ship wrecks, one of you has to
man the light and one of youhas to go out and rescue. So women
sometimes would go out andrescue. That's very famous in Newport.
But there's these five famousshipwrecks that happen around Block
island. And one is called thePalatine Light. And, and it's this
famous ghost ship that you cansee burning because the legend is
(15:57):
there was a wreck of a Dutchimmigrant ship. Again, this is time
of the Dutch. The PrincessAugusta in 1738 caught fire and sank
near Block Island. And sothese German immigrants on the ship
were from the Palatine region.So they call it the Palatine Light.
And so people will say on aSaturday between Christmas and New
(16:18):
Year's Eve, they get reportsof seeing a burning ship out off
the coast of Block Island. Andso people still talk about that today.
There's famous ghost lorearound there. I saw some books about
it while I was there. So kindof neat to visit. It was not on my
list, but I had learned moreabout it and since going there, it
(16:40):
is neat because I don't thinkit's as touristy as Nantucket and
Martha's Vineyard. It seems tobe the real sailors that go there
because they're stopping therealong the way. So it's super neat
place to visit.
Now one of the last things,because we've done a bunch of Jaws
(17:01):
stuff and those videos aredoing well because 50th anniversary
and all that stuff. I thinkyou had mentioned that the gentleman
that inspired Quint in themovie Jaws, what was his name?
Mundus. Frank Mundus.
Frank Mundus. Okay, so the. SoFrank Mundus who inspired Quint's
character for the book andthen ultimately the movie actually
(17:23):
I think caught his largestshark just off of Block Island. Was
that right?
So, yes, Frank Mundus Quint,like you're talking about, in 1986,
he and another man caught a3,500 pound Great White, 28 miles
off of Montauk, 18 miles fromBlock island, still holds the record
(17:43):
not only for the largestshark, but the largest fish of any
kind ever caught by Rod and real.
That's crazy. And so obviouslyfor those watching the video, I'll
put up a picture of him and Ithink there's actually a picture
of him after his catch becauseit was that 1986. 1986. So there's
a picture because I've, I didit for some of our other videos,
but I just thought that was soneat. So there's Block island is
(18:06):
this kind of tiny little, notas well known destination spot in
the area, but there's a lot ofhistory there. And as we kind of
discover throughout thepodcast throughout us, getting to
travel around Amelia Earhartand pirates in whaling history and
some Jaws history. So it's, itwas really fun to see you get to
go there and just kind of likeyou said, wasn't on your list. But
(18:27):
if you're kind of consideringit or if you're doing an American
cruise line cruise, like thisis an opportunity that you could
have and go do.
Yeah, it's, it's. The islandis 7 miles by 3 miles. It spans a
mere 10 square miles. Sothere's not a lot there, but there's
a lot of trails, a lot ofplaces to walk, some great old historic
hotels that you can sit at andlook at the water. It really was
(18:50):
a relaxing place. I did enjoybeing at Block Island. It was like
a little jewel you don'treally know about. And so it was
super neat to go and visit.
And so for those listening,thank you again to our regular audience.
We're back at it, backrecording again. So busy season has
passed and we've got some,some fun topics coming up, some fun
opportunities that have openedup in the future for, for us. So
(19:12):
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share it with them. Thatreally is the best way to help us
grow and we appreciate you allevery day. We'll talk to you next
time.
Thank you.
This has been a Walk withHistory production. Talk with History
is created and hosted by me,Scott Benny. Episode researched by
(19:35):
Jennifer Benny. Check out theshow notes for links and references
mentioned in this episode.Talk with History is supported by
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thanks go out to thoseproviding funding to help keep us
going. Thank you to DougMcLiberty, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny,
Gail Cooper, Christy Coates,and Calvin Gifford. Make sure you
(19:57):
hit that follow button in thatpodcast player there and we'll talk
to you next.
Welcome to Talk with History.I'm your host Scott, here with my
wife and historian Jen.
Hello.
On this podcast we give youinsights to our history Inspired
World Travels YouTube channelJourney and examine history history
through deeper conversationswith the curious, the explorers and
the history lovers out there.Man, I have done that intro probably
(00:35):
hundreds of times and I stillmess it up real quick. Before we
dive into our topic, want tosay a quick thank you for the patience
to our regular listeners. Wemissed a week last week. This is
busy season for me in the Navyand yesterday was my first day off
in like two or three weeks.So, so I am exhausted. But this podcast,
(00:55):
recording this podcast withJen and for, for our audience, for
our listeners brings meenergy. So I'm very excited to, I
think it's been a few weekssince we've actually recorded cause
we batch record. So with that,we're talking about kind of a very,
a relatively unknown place inAmerica, unless maybe you're from
(01:18):
the Northeast, Block Island.So Block Island's pretty unique.
Well, one, you got to go upthere with American cruise lines.
Two, there's actually some,some pretty well known pieces of
history that have come out ofthere, whether it's the whaling stuff
that we've been talking aboutin the past, Nantucket, Martha's
(01:39):
Vineyard. Right. You know,some Jaws stuff that's, that's adjacent
to Block Island. A little bitof Amelia Earhart, a little bit of
pirates. So we're going to gothrough this, we're going to talk
about the history and we'regoing to talk about some of these
very interesting pieces ofthis lesser known kind of tourist
destination that's off theeast coast up, not too far from Nantucket
(02:00):
and Martha's Vineyard area. SoJen, tell us a little bit about Block
island, the, the backgroundof, of that and then we'll, we'll
dive right into it.
Yeah, and like you said, Inever really heard of Block island
before either. It's kind ofright off the coast of Long island
and before you get to Martha'sVineyard. So Martha's Vineyard and
(02:21):
Nantucket belong toMassachusetts. This is Rhode Island's
little island. And sobasically it's like Long island off
the coast of Long island isBlock Island. And then if you keep
going to the north east,you're going to hit Martha's Vineyard
in Nucket and everyone knowsMartha's Vineyard in Nantucket. They're
kind of popular, populartourist destinations. I would say
(02:43):
Block island is more like aninsider location. Like people know
it. If you're from that area,but it's kind of not well known outside
of there. Of course it's partof Rhode island. So it's Rhode Island's
little island. And Rhodeisland is the smallest state. It's
the first to call for theContinental Congress to denounce
the Crown. It's the 13th stateadmitted into the Union. But it's
(03:05):
as you know, it's the smalleststate, small estate in New England
and just this like a little,little roadie is what they call it.
So interesting storybackground for me when my first kind
of Rhode island experience.Right. So Navy. I've talked about
this on the podcast before.I've been up to the Rhode island
area, to Newport, Rhodeisland, multiple times throughout
my career. I think the firsttime we went there was probably 2005,
(03:25):
so 20 years ago. I remembergoing up there for some surface warfare
officer school training stuffand one of the, one of the briefs
they gave was they would ask,they asked the audience a bunch of
lieutenants or actuallyensigns and jgs at the time who had
a rental car. So a few of usraised our hands and they're like,
okay, in Rhode island, peopledon't really care about the left
(03:48):
green arrow, right. They'llcut in front of you if you pause
once the light turns from redto green and they're getting ready
to turn left and you'regetting ready to go straight. Normally
the person going straight getsthe right of way. They would, they
told us straight up if youpause, they're going to cut in front
of you or make eye contact orif you make eye contact, they're
(04:09):
going to cut in front of you.And we were like, is this for real?
And sure, it happened like tome multiple Times back in 2005. And
so ever since I've alwaysremembered that. So driving around
Rhode island, it's, it's alittle bit like driving in California,
but the roads are smaller, youknow, because it's just older out
there. So just a fun kind ofanecdotal personal story for Rhode
(04:31):
island for me.
And you're such a sailor.We're going to talk about sailors.
But your, your mouth. So. Yes.So this is like you said, this is
like the little island off ofRhode island. And it's, it's a pork
chop sized island. Now. Itdates back to 1614. They say that
Verrazzano from the VerrazanoBridge, one of the first Europeans
(04:51):
to explore the area, notedBlock island in his existence. So
he wrote it down. I'm passingthis Little island in 1524. But it
really wasn't until the Dutchnavigator, Adrian Block, stopped
there and in 1614. Now,remember, we talk about New York,
Hudson river, this is all,it's all the Dutch, right? It's the
(05:12):
Dutch who are the firstexplorers there. It's the Dutch who
kind of found all this area.The Dutch found New Amsterdam, which
is going to become New York.It's all a Dutch area. And so Adrian
Block, the Dutch navigator,will rediscover it in 1614, and it's
that it's named for him. BlockIsland. Adrian Block. Sixteen families
from the English colony ofMassachusetts are going to settle
(05:34):
Block island. And they do thisbetween 1661 and 1664. And that's
how it becomes part of thecolony of Rhode island, the English
colony and then part of one ofthe 13 original colonies.
And it's interesting to methat they decided to sell this island
and I assume I was. Was thewhaling stuff still prevalent then?
Or like, is there a reasonthat they kind of picked this kind
(05:57):
of off the coast type location?
So it was just the same thing.It was just a good port, like you
say, a good place to, youknow, put pull in ships because of
the harbors there. But it wasjust a, a good location before you
hit the land mass.
Okay.
Although Block island, wetalked about Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket during theRevolutionary War, Block island actually
(06:19):
stays neutral during theRevolutionary War. They don't take
a side. And they do that fortheir own protection because they're
invaded by privateers over andover again. And so the only way they
can really protect themselves,because you see this happen on Nantucket
and Martha's Vineyard wherethey're ransacked by the other side
(06:39):
because they've taken a side.This is the only way Black island
was able to protect themselvesand their people was to just not
take a side.
Yeah, I guess if you're notattached to the mainland, it's really
hard for whatever side youwould pick to defend you.
Yes.
So, yeah, that makes sense.
Yes. But Black island, youknow, it gets, it starts to get known
for the seafaring life andthen you get a lot of strong women
(07:02):
energy there. And peoplealways ask me, why is strong women
energy go hand in hand withthe seafaring life? It's because
the jobs, the seafaring jobs,whaling, fishing, are male dominated
jobs. So you have to get on aship and sail. And it's not like
these are day jobs, these aremonth jobs, year jobs. And so who's
(07:25):
left behind are the women. Andso the Women run the town. They're
going to vote, they're goingto set up commerce, they're going
to sell goods, they're goingto run the taverns. And you're going
to get a lot of this when thetemperance movement starts. And we've
talked about this in ourProhibition Museum podcast. If a
(07:45):
male in your family was tosuccumb to alcoholism, you'd lose
a lot of your income becausemen made the money for the family.
And if they're drinking theirpaycheck away, everybody's suffering.
The wife, the children,sometimes they're taking care of
their mother. And so nobody isable to make a living if they're
not bringing home the money.
(08:06):
Yeah. And. And you showedvideo, the Rebecca at the well statue,
and that was kind of. That wasput up in the town, Right. In this
little kind of trafficky kindof main area as. As kind of a call
to keep the men from drinking.Right. It's for horses, I think I
saw somewhere online, it's forhorses, for dogs and for men. Right.
(08:26):
And so there's. There'sdifferent spots, and horses, you
know, back in the day, coulddrink straight out of it, but it's
also. They would encourage themen to drink water instead of drinking
alcohol.
Yeah. So it's. Right. Thinkmen pull into port and they go right
to the tavern. Right. Havesome beer, have some ale. So it's
right there on that main roadof Block island, and it was put up
in 1896. So you can imagine,like, right at the turn of the century,
(08:49):
this is when whaling is at itshighest, and it's put up by the local
women's Christian temperancemovement. So these women who are
having a lot of informalpower, are putting up this statue,
Rebecca at the well. It's astory from the Bible, but it's a
water fountain. It's basicallyto drink water instead of beer. And
(09:09):
so they're trying to give itoption instead of the beer. And now.
Now it's just a historicstatue in the middle of Block Island.
They have replaced the waterfountains with flowers and things
like that, but it's stillpretty cool. And it ties back to
this whole idea of womenhaving a lot of influence here in
(09:30):
Block island, because womenhave a lot of influence in faring
life.
Yeah. Now, one of the thingsthat unfortunately, you didn't know
when you. When you went outand visited Block island the first
time was that a famous womanfrom history, and especially a famous
woman in aviation spent sometime there.
(09:53):
Yes. So I. It wasn't until mysecond Time there, because the first
time we pulled into Blockisland, we pulled into Old harbor,
which is that main side. Thesecond time we pulled into New Harbor.
New harbor is a little wayfrom that more popular area of Black
island, if you can say that,because Block island only has a thousand
residents and about 20, 000visit a day. But it's still not very
(10:16):
popular. The Narragansett Innin July of 1929, hosted a very famous
female aviator. Amelia Earharthad come to Block island, and she
was invited there by the U.S.navy, and they wanted to test out
their diving suits. So whenyou think of the diving bell, the
big helmet and the suit, theywanted to test them out on smaller
(10:40):
people, right? So she's not asbig as a male, so they wanted to
make sure it can still fit.And so they had to adjust the. The
wristbands for her and things.But she was able to walk on the floor
of the Great Salt Pond, iswhat they call it. That's that big
opening there on Block Island.She was able to walk on the bottom
of that and bring up aseashell and test it for them. So
(11:02):
pretty famous. She got that.
And you can actually, like,obviously we didn't have it in the
video because you're. When youmade the video the first time, you
didn't know about it,otherwise you probably would have
talked about it. But you can.You can just Google Amelia Earhart,
Block Island. And there'spictures of her, and it looks she's
sitting in the. In the kind ofdive suit, you know, with that helmet
nearby and all that stuff.It's really cool.
Yeah, they say she stayed outfor 12 minutes. She brought up a
(11:24):
clam to prove that she was onthe floor. And, yeah, they're very
famous photographs of her.This is before she makes her, you
know, some of her biggerflight expeditions. But she says
to reporters it was absolutelynothing. Many women have gone deeper
and stayed longer. So I likethat she's kind of humble about it.
Yeah. Well, and I think aboutit, too, what's cool about the background
(11:46):
and the history of that area.It's a little bit of like the prequel
to Rosie the Riveter, right?You think about World War II. The
men went off to war and thewomen went to work. They had to make
it happen and this and that.That first kind of prime example
for that, at least here in theStates, is the whaling history, is
Nantucket, is Block island,and all that stuff. Now, talking
(12:10):
about Amelia Earhart, a littlebit of a rebel, and we alluded to
Kind of how Block island triedto protect itself from marauders,
from people coming through. Sothere actually is some pirate history
on the island as well.
Yeah. So they do a very neatjob, Block island of bringing tourists
(12:31):
to in by doing a search forthese glass globes. The locals will
hide 500 glass globes allaround the island. They are free
for you. If you find it, youcan have it. And so kind of alludes
to this old history of piratesbearing their treasure there. You're
coming there to hunt fortreasure. So Captain Kidd, you would
(12:52):
know him as a Scottishprivateer. So privateers are kind
of balancing on that pirate.And being a part of the Royal Navy,
they're not either. Right.What happens is the Navy will pay
pirates to privateer, whichmeans you kind of represent the Navy,
but you're allowed to takeyour plunder, and that's how you
(13:15):
fund yourself. But yourepresent us, you defend us, and
you're still trying to fightthe enemy, but if you meet the enemy
and you can plunder what theyhave, you can keep it. So that's
kind of how you get paid. Sothat's why privateer is a little
bit on that. That gray area.And Captain Kidd was a very famous
one. They say that he landedin Block island, hid some buried
treasure in the late 1790s.And. And people still look for it
(13:39):
today, so you never know.
Yeah, it was really cool whenyou mentioned the. I think. I think
Block island on their website,they've got like a city website.
They call it the Glass FloatProject or something like that. And
it's cool. There's. You canjust. Again, another thing you can
Google. But there's. There's,like, very colorful glass globes.
They call them glass floats,and they're just kind of about the
size of a baseball, hollowglass. So I imagine that most of
(14:03):
them would float in water.Some of them are plain, just clear
glass. Some of them are verycolorful. And that's kind of a cool
thing that they do. And I'msure it's a way to entice people
to come back out to revisit ifthey want to come and look for, you
know, collect another glass, aglass float for that summer, for
that season. Because you cankeep them.
Absolutely. And I. I misspoke.Before, Captain Kidd hid his treasure
(14:26):
in the late 1690s because he.He's actually executed by London
in 1701 because he was bad,and he actually captured a British
captain. And so they werelike, wait, you're just running.
You're running around. So inthe late 1690s, he hid treasure.
Now they, there's a story thatsomeone had found some of it in the
1790s and there's still moreout there. But no, Captain, Captain
(14:49):
Kid was definitely gone by the1790s. So this is the 1690s.
And then with pirates, a lotof times come ghost ships and the
lore around, you know, justbeing a sea focused location.
Yes. And because this is soisolated, they have this five major
shipwrecks that happened hereat Block Island. They have two lighthouses
(15:11):
north and south of the island.And again, when we talk about females
having these dominated jobs, alot of times females worked in lighthouses
because it's really just acouple. And if the man gets sick
or if the man has to go away,I mean that light has to be manned
from dusk all the way to dawn.And so women would do that a lot
(15:32):
of times. And if somebody, ifa ship wrecks, one of you has to
man the light and one of youhas to go out and rescue. So women
sometimes would go out andrescue. That's very famous in Newport.
But there's these five famousshipwrecks that happen around Block
island. And one is called thePalatine Light. And, and it's this
famous ghost ship that you cansee burning because the legend is
(15:57):
there was a wreck of a Dutchimmigrant ship. Again, this is time
of the Dutch. The PrincessAugusta in 1738 caught fire and sank
near Block Island. And sothese German immigrants on the ship
were from the Palatine region.So they call it the Palatine Light.
And so people will say on aSaturday between Christmas and New
(16:18):
Year's Eve, they get reportsof seeing a burning ship out off
the coast of Block Island. Andso people still talk about that today.
There's famous ghost lorearound there. I saw some books about
it while I was there. So kindof neat to visit. It was not on my
list, but I had learned moreabout it and since going there, it
(16:40):
is neat because I don't thinkit's as touristy as Nantucket and
Martha's Vineyard. It seems tobe the real sailors that go there
because they're stopping therealong the way. So it's super neat
place to visit.
Now one of the last things,because we've done a bunch of Jaws
(17:01):
stuff and those videos aredoing well because 50th anniversary
and all that stuff. I thinkyou had mentioned that the gentleman
that inspired Quint in themovie Jaws, what was his name?
Mundus. Frank Mundus.
Frank Mundus. Okay, so the. SoFrank Mundus who inspired Quint's
character for the book andthen ultimately the movie actually
(17:23):
I think caught his largestshark just off of Block Island. Was
that right?
So, yes, Frank Mundus Quint,like you're talking about, in 1986,
he and another man caught a3,500 pound Great White, 28 miles
off of Montauk, 18 miles fromBlock island, still holds the record
(17:43):
not only for the largestshark, but the largest fish of any
kind ever caught by Rod and real.
That's crazy. And so obviouslyfor those watching the video, I'll
put up a picture of him and Ithink there's actually a picture
of him after his catch becauseit was that 1986. 1986. So there's
a picture because I've, I didit for some of our other videos,
but I just thought that was soneat. So there's Block island is
(18:06):
this kind of tiny little, notas well known destination spot in
the area, but there's a lot ofhistory there. And as we kind of
discover throughout thepodcast throughout us, getting to
travel around Amelia Earhartand pirates in whaling history and
some Jaws history. So it's, itwas really fun to see you get to
go there and just kind of likeyou said, wasn't on your list. But
(18:27):
if you're kind of consideringit or if you're doing an American
cruise line cruise, like thisis an opportunity that you could
have and go do.
Yeah, it's, it's. The islandis 7 miles by 3 miles. It spans a
mere 10 square miles. Sothere's not a lot there, but there's
a lot of trails, a lot ofplaces to walk, some great old historic
hotels that you can sit at andlook at the water. It really was
(18:50):
a relaxing place. I did enjoybeing at Block Island. It was like
a little jewel you don'treally know about. And so it was
super neat to go and visit.
And so for those listening,thank you again to our regular audience.
We're back at it, backrecording again. So busy season has
passed and we've got some,some fun topics coming up, some fun
opportunities that have openedup in the future for, for us. So
(19:12):
for those listening, thank youfor supporting us. Please reach out
to us at our website,talkwithhistory.com but more importantly,
if you know someone else thatmight enjoy this podcast, please
share it with them. Thatreally is the best way to help us
grow and we appreciate you allevery day. We'll talk to you next
time.
Thank you.
This has been a Walk withHistory production. Talk with History
is created and hosted by me,Scott Benny. Episode researched by
(19:35):
Jennifer Benny. Check out theshow notes for links and references
mentioned in this episode.Talk with History is supported by
ourfans@thehistoryroadtrip.com our eternal
thanks go out to thoseproviding funding to help keep us
going. Thank you to DougMcLiberty, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny,
Gail Cooper, Christy Coates,and Calvin Gifford. Make sure you
(19:57):
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