Episode 143 | We’ve Got Legs to Lose

We’re deep in Spooky Season, as Angie and Theresa share some tales to get us in the spirit. Theresa starts things off when she covers the sinking of the Andelana. This four-mast ship was safely anchored in Tacoma, Washington, when a storm hit, sinking the vessel in minutes without witnesses. All 17 men aboard were drowned. Then we have to unpack the tragedies that happen after it sinks... Angie outdoes herself when she covers Inês de Castro and Pedro (Peter 1 of Portugal). You might have already heard of Inês. She’s the skeleton queen of Portugal. It’s a rather sordid tale involving multiple civil wars fought for love. It’s just unfortunate for Peter 1, that his love lasts longer than his partner’s life span. These stories pair well with: The Haunted Queen Mary Lady Mary Howard

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, apodcast where two friends join forces weekly and
tell each other the history stories that we havecompulsively forced our spouse and members of our
household to learn. I am host one, I am Teresa, andthat is Angie. I am Angie. I did it again. One of

(00:37):
these days I won't cut you off. No, I mean, I didn'tthink you were going to say anything, so I figured
I'd just keep going. Actually, I was thinkingabout how usually I compulsively like overshare
all of the information about my story with myhusband, but this time I totally like word vomited
all over my son just a few minutes ago. I don't.Like, but to be fair, he asked. He was like, oh,

(00:59):
what's your story about this week? And I was like,opportunity. Well, you ask and I won't hold back.
Pretty much. Allow me. You're a captive audiencein the car, so here we go. You need to tell me if
you're losing focus on this. Just stare out thewindow and give mommy a moment. Just let me say my

(01:21):
piece, okay? And he, you know, he looks longinglyout the window like a teenager and like, you know,
in the film and they're the rain, they're drivingto their new town and the rain is like, yeah, and
he's in the back of the station wagon. You guys evenown a station wagon. Yeah, and it's not even
raining, but you know, I just, I'm looking at thisrealizing you took the whole episode. That means I

(01:46):
have to go. No, it wasn't me. Did I do the wholeepisode? You were a solo. You did Genghis Khan. Oh,
hot dog. Sure did. Yeah. So you get to go first thistime. Okay. All right. In which case, I'm going to
tell you the story of the Andalana. Andalana. Yep.There's no recognition floating through your

(02:10):
face, which is what I was hoping for. Just norecognition. I, okay. So I'm thinking of
something, but I think what I'm thinking of has avery different name. So what are you thinking of?
There is that Spanish ghost story about the womanwho like, the Yorona. Maybe the one who drowns

(02:32):
children. Yes. Yeah, that's the Yorona. Okay.Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. So I'm
assuming these are not related. No, no. Not at all.Okay. So my sources, historylink.org, the bark
Andalana disappears while lying at anchor atTacoma on January 14th, 1899 by Darryl C.

(02:57):
McCleary, South Sound Talk, few relics remain ofthe Andalana, Tacoma's largest maritime
disaster by Steve Dunkelberger. And prettygritty. I'm sorry. That's a name right there. I
mean, I wanted to rename him, but I think I wasfaithful. Then this is how I originally found out

(03:19):
about the story. There is an account on TikTok,pretty gritty tours, Tacoma's most cursed
object. I love that. That's amazing. I justrecently discovered that you can own, well, I
don't know that own is the right word, but you can bethe curator of cursed objects museums. And I,

(03:45):
fortunately, I know it's not late enough in lifefor me to do that, but like, how did I not know that
until just recently? I think if you had a museum ofcursed objects, it would be in your later part of
life. You could be three. Honestly. And it would belike, no, you're on your way out because this is
what you own. Yeah. Like, and how do you, I cannotwait to write my will for that. You're going to need

(04:11):
to start acquiring cursed objects. Right. Oh, Ihave a couple. Curating. Like I've got a couple of
things that Ian's brought home to me that I've beenlike, oh my God, that's amazing. And his
responses, I saw and thought this must be cursed.My wife wants it. Like, it's a Victorian doll. His
head spins all the way around on its own. One of themis a ring of what is supposed to be the like visage of

(04:36):
Jesus and his beard has dangly diamonds. Like thatjust sounds gaudy. It's as soon as I thought I was
like, I must have that. I will keep that forever.And he's like, yeah, that's what I thought. Wow.
That is. That is something you find in your greataunt's jewelry box. You're just like, she wanted

(04:57):
me to have this. Can we check again? Thanks, Edith.I always knew I was her favorite. I wished I wasn't,
though. I never did before now, but now I do. Allright. So anyhow, the Andalana. She is a four mast

(05:17):
square rigged bark, which is, I guess, a type ofboat. You're nodding like you already knew this.
Well, when you said four mast square rigged, Ithought, OK, we're dealing with a ship. But the
type of ship is a bark. OK. It's a bark-bark.Wolf-wolf. And it was built by R. Williamson and

(05:41):
Son in Workington, England, and that's done in1889 for the Andalina sailing ship company
limited of Liverpool, England. So we've got a tonof provenance for this thing. OK. By the time she's
10 years old, she weighs not that she kept growing.$5,395 ton. I realize I said that. Thank you for

(06:07):
that. I just had this visual of a mommy ship and adaddy ship, and they're proudly watching their
daughter learn how to float. When two ships loveeach other very, very much. Exactly. She's almost
304 feet in length and just over 42 feet of brim. Ilooked up what that meant before, a beam, 42.3 feet

(06:35):
of beam. And then did I retain it? No, I did not.Well, if she's 304 feet in length, then a beam would
be whipped. OK. Then what's 24.6 feet draft?Height? I don't know. Sure. Anyhow, one of those is

(06:56):
height, one of those is width. OK. The shipmasteris a man named George W. Stalling. He's 42. He's
from Nova Scotia. He's an experienced lifelongmariner. He's sailed the world. So this is, if
you're going to deal with somebody, Georgie Boy isour man. He's who you are in your back pocket, yeah?

(07:18):
Now, the Andalina arrived in Ballast at Tacomafrom Shanghai, and it did that on Monday, January
9th, 1899. And it had raced from Hong Kong to SanFrancisco, and that seems like a long distance. It
did it in 31 days. OK. It did that in 1892. I have allthese things because, for whatever reason, how

(07:42):
fast this thing could go was both long and short.She goes from New York to Yokohama, Japan in 119
days. Holy cow. I'm assuming we're going aroundhere, Del Fuego, still at this point? Or are we kind
of- I think so, yeah. I mean, you're definitely notgetting the ship picked up and carried over

(08:05):
Europe. Why was thinking across America? We'regoing around South America. I mean, that could
work too. I don't exactly know the route. Now, I'mcurious when the Panama Canal was built.
Obviously, I know it was built in whatever, butwhat did we do before then? Did we sail around big

(08:29):
objects, take more food with us? Yeah, or pick it upand carry it across land, I guess. Anyway, I don't
think you're carrying on the ship over land. Yeah,it doesn't picture that way. When it goes from New
York to Yokohama in 119 days, it's carrying a cargoof case oil in 1895. And then it gets from Shanghai

(08:52):
to Port Angeles. Port Angeles is in NorthWashington. It does that in 47 days. And then it
sails to Tacoma just days later. So that kind ofgives you, you're with me in time now. You know how
this ship has just been hauling ass. She'd be doingher thing. Right. So when she gets to Tacoma, she's

(09:14):
emptied of the steel and then prepared to fill theholes again with wheat that's going to
Queenstown. In, like, Australia? That's what Ithink so. But as soon as I saw your face, I'm like,
I'm not sure exactly where that is. But I thinkAustralia. I imagine there's more than one. You
know, there were there were mini queens. And lotsof towns. Right. But the vessel. So it's in Tacoma.

(09:42):
It is. We know where it was docked. It was docked onEureka dock at 535 Dock Street. It's a 400 foot, 130
foot wide warehouse facility that's operated byTacoma Warehouse and Elevator Company. Now, this
place holds 10,000 tons of grain. So it's got a lot.And they completely empty out the undelena for

(10:08):
this because they're getting ready to fill her tothe brim to send her all the way down yonder. Now,
okay, I'm sorry. I'm stuck on it being a warehouseand elevator company. You know, that did feel
weird to me, but I'm pretty sure it was like, this isthe industrial square of town. So we put all the
industrial stuff here, including the elevatorcompany. I mean, it checks. It does. I've just, my

(10:34):
brain is like, where do you put the elevator partsif you got 10,000 tons of grain? Not in the same
facility next door. Clearly. Obviously. This iswhere we keep the elevators. This is where we keep
the grain. Right. I mean, keep up with us. Read themap. I handed it to you. Now, to show you kind of the
depth and breadth of this facility, because I toldyou it held 10,000 tons, the undelena is getting

(11:01):
ready to take on 300 or 3,500 tons of grain. Okay.So, I mean, basically three big ass ships worth of
grain. Yeah. Okay. Now, when she arrived inTacoma, our man, Georgie Boy, Captain Staling, he
had a crew of 28 men. And this is including hisofficers. When they get into port, eight seamen,

(11:26):
plus the second and third mates signed off on thevessel and they go aboard some other cargo vessels
like the SS, Dorigo and the SS Henry failing. It'srumored that the andelina is pretty unstable
during heavy seas. And apparently this is becauseof she had some super tall mass and that just made

(11:47):
her just untenable for the situation. So, withthat in mind, the seamen, they're like, now we're
done. We're signing off. This is our stop. We'regoing to, we'll catch you late. And replacements
are pretty difficult to find and nobody reallywants to go aboard her. So, the captain makes some

(12:09):
decisions. He doesn't want the rest of the crew togo ashore while the ships import. He's like, you
guys are here. We've got a thing to do. It's going tobe too hard to replace you. Stay aboard. The only
person who is the exception of this rule is a mannamed Percy B Buck. He's an apprentice seamen.
He's allowed to leave for a face entry that he's gotand he's taken to Fannie Paddock Memorial

(12:34):
Hospital. Now it's Tacoma general. Okay. So, hegets, you know, he goes to shore to get it, to get a
space looked at. Now, on Friday, January 14th,1899, the Tacoma tug and barge company tugboat
Fairfield, that's the name of the tugboat, movedthe andelina to an anchorage in the middle of the

(12:57):
bay. And this is after she drops off her anchorthat's weighing three tons. She's got this long,
thick ballast logs that help keep her afloat.Those are chained to both sides of her hull to keep
the ship on an even keel while she's riding so muchhigher up out of the water. She's got nothing in her
cargo holds. Oh, right. That makes sense. And thenapproximately at 3.20 a.m. on January 15th, so we,

(13:25):
for Friday, Saturday, there was a violent squallthat swept into commencement Bay. And they're
saying that rains and wind gusts were in excess of40 miles per hour. So this was a pretty decent storm
that just swept in. The ship apparently started topitch and started to really sway with this blast

(13:47):
and the waves amplified the rolls because thehulls empty. And so it makes the ship seem more like
a cork floating in some rough waters rather than aboat. Because it's empty, right? She's empty. So
she's riding high. Okay. And we already know thatshe was pretty unstable in some rough seas. Now,

(14:09):
the ship seemed to really tug and strain againstthe chains that had moored into place, but
something ended up having to give. And the ship wasunder the waves by dawn. Its 17-member crew is
never seen again, and no witnesses saw whathappened. Okay. So just for my visual
understanding, it's got the ballast holders thatare keeping an even keel. This massive storm comes

(14:35):
in with 40-mile-an-hour winds, and it just sinksby morning and no one saw it sink. Correct. Okay.
That's where we are in the story. Okay. But I lovethe summary. Now, I just had to have the visual
because I'm thinking there would be some sort ofruckus being made. You would think, but also the

(14:58):
storm, I'm assuming, is a storm and loud on its own.And keeping everybody inside so they're not going
to really notice. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Yep. Now,news of the sinking rippled just quickly. It goes
all over the world. It appears in newspapers inCalifornia and even New Zealand. So this was

(15:20):
breaking news. Okay. Now, here is a quote from theSan Francisco call that came out the day after. It
said, there's no doubt when a terrible gale sprangup last night, she partly turned over. This lifted
her starboard blast log out of the water and theweight caused a defective link to break. Thus,

(15:45):
released from the log, the ship turned oversuddenly on her beam ends, and in another instant,
water was pouring down her hatchways. But thesewere loosely covered and afforded no protection
with her toppling mask and towering side to givethe gale full swing. The Andalina went over as
though she were a racing shell. How the seamenstruggled to escape can be imagined, but without a

(16:08):
doubt, they had scarcely leaped from their bunksinto the inflowing waters before their vessel had
struck the bottom, 23 and a half fathoms below thesurface. This is indicated by the fact that the
vessel did not drift from her mooring place butsank almost at the spot where she was moored last
night. With daylight this morning, the Andalinawas missed where she'd been riding, apparently

(16:32):
secure at dusk last night, but there was a blankstretch of water. Wow. And that part just really
got me. So the only evidence that gave anybody aclue was there was a lifeboat found on the shore, a

(16:53):
bobbing mooring log with its broken chain and amattress that had borne the name Andalina. That
was it. But at daybreak, the people who reallystarted to put the call out, there's a man named
Captain Sammel Dottie of the British four massedbark, Walter H. Wilson, and he'd been only a few

(17:14):
hundred yards away from the Andalina and henoticed the ship had vanished. Just woke up and the
person who was in the landing spot next to him, thetent was gone, but not a tent, not a camping. I know
it. I got the visual. All right. All right. So heassumed that the vessel had basically slipped
anchor and just drifted away. So being a good manand trying to figure out how to help, he and his crew

(17:43):
launched a dinghy and they row from Eureka dockwhere the Tugbett Fairfield had been moored. And
they're basically just trying to look and it'sthere that Captain Dottie enlisted the help of
Captain John E. Kenny, the Tacoma port surveyorand Captain Thomas S. Burley, master of the
Fairfield. And they're the ones that crossed theanchorage to investigate the Andalina

(18:05):
disappearance. And they end up not finding a traceof the vessel. The Fairfield then crossed to the
northeast side of the bay, one half mile fromBrown's point where they found that ballast log
with broken chains. And then that's when Burleyand Dottie discovered the lifeboat mattress that
had had the ship's name. They also found a couple ofoars that had washed up onto the beach. And that's

(18:31):
when they figured out what had probably happened.Okay. So further searched because people are like
there were 17 people on that dock, right? Everytime they go to search, it's fruitless. The
Fairfield returned to the anchorage after fourhours of grappling irons. And they've located the

(18:56):
Andalina lying broadside on the bottom about 500yards off the east end of St. Paul and Tacoma
lumberwark. St. Paul and Tacoma lumber companywharf. Captain Burley marked her position with
lighted buoy as a potential hazard for the anchorvessels, right? Because she's going to be

(19:18):
sticking up out of the water. Later that night, asecond lightboat and fog horn surfaced and
retrieved from the water. So Captain's Burley,Kenny and Dottie, they believe that the squalls
swept across commencement Bay that night becausethey were there. They saw the waves come or felt it

(19:39):
at least. And they think it struck the Andalinabroadside and that the ship probably keeled very
sharply starboard because again, she's ridinghigh. And that lift the port side ballast log out of
the water and the logs weight broke the mooringchain. Without that additional weight because
she's up on her side to stabilize it, the top heavyvessel capsized. And there were tons of water that

(20:04):
flooded her open holes and then she sunk like astone immediately. Yeah, in 200 feet of water.
Thank you for clarifying because I've beensitting here like, okay, you have these logs that
are designed to keep her even though. Like whathappened to them? Obviously, if one of them broke,
then the other one's toast. Now Captain Stallingand the 16 sailors, they've been trapped in their

(20:29):
birthing quarters and went down with the ship. Andwe only have the seaman apprentice Buck who
survived because he'd been hospitalized. Oh,wow. I bet he's got survivors, Gulp. Right. The
entire accident took only a matter of minutes,they believe. Yeah, okay. And the story remains

(20:51):
largely because it's the largest shippingdisaster in Tacoma, but also because the ship's
never been raised or salvaged. Oh, we just left itthere. They're there. They're still there on the
floor of commencement bay. And the TacomaHistorical Society Treasurer and author Deb

(21:12):
Freeman said they think they're still underthere. They think they can still find something.
Wow. Now, but is that the right thing to do? Well, Imean, I got a little bit more to go. Oh, let's go.
After learning about the disaster,quartermaster George Kennedy aboard the steam

(21:35):
ship Tacoma told the Seattle Post Intelligencerthat he had shipped with the Andalana on her last
voyage, but it's signed off at the vessel atShanghai. And he'd learned from a former shipmate
who'd signed off the ship to Tacoma that CaptainSterling, this is the worst part, had been locking
the crew in the forecastle at night to preventanyone from deserting and leaving the ship

(21:57):
shorthanded. So y'all are staying whether youwant to or not? Yep. And the quote is, they must have
gone down like rats in a trap without a chance tosave themselves. Good Lord. Now, the eight people
who had signed off the boat that I told you about thegame of story, their replacements had been hired,

(22:22):
but they had they were not due to report on boarduntil the day of departure. Because that makes
sense. So there were going to there's going to beeight new crew members. So they were just like,
well, there was my job. Yeah, but also good thing Ididn't like getting on that boat. Yeah. Now, the
Andalana was insured by Lord's Maritime of Londonfor $100,000. And because they're an insurance

(22:47):
company, they'd contracted with salvagers toexplore the likelihood and cost of raising the
vessel, which they thought is basically going tobe largely in damage as she went down so quickly and
cleanly. Okay. There were proposals for draggingthe ship into the shallow water where divers could
safely batten down the hatch covers and pump thesea water out while pumping in air, which seems

(23:11):
like an incredible feat in pre 1900. Yeah, okay.And they were thinking that once the mast spars and
ricking are removed, and this is going to weighlike 40 tons. And of course, I'm blindly blindly
blindly reading this from a paper acting like Iknow all. Yeah, like, of course, that's 40 tons

(23:33):
when you add it all together. I don't make sense.They thought that the ship with all that mass
removed would write itself and then just float tothe surface. Oh, they must be speaking from
experience. Okay. More experience than I've got.So I'm going to go with them on this one. And then
they had a dry dock prepared at quartermasterharbor and then would they move it into position

(23:57):
and assist in pulling me on the line back toservice. The vessel would then be refitted at
Doctin shipyards on Murray Island in King County.King County is the county that Seattle's in. Okay.
Now, all of these efforts failed. Shocking. Imean, I feel like they had the best of intentions

(24:21):
and more experience than I. They had procuredexpensive equipment and they brought it to the
wreck site on barges. So they did their best. Theyhad numerous grappling irons and they're all
affixed to the hull and cables are strung out on thefour most powerful tugboats and Puget sound. All
as the tugboats powered ahead, the cables unableto withstand the weight parted suddenly relieved

(24:44):
at the enormous burden. The tug short surgedforward, almost ramming a nearby dock. They don't
want to come up. Not at all. Now, apparentlythere's more temps to remove and raise the vessel,
but due to the water's depth, they're allunsuccessful and several people died. Of course.

(25:06):
We've got one notable one. It's a man named WilliamBaldwin. He's 45. He's a master mariner and a deep
sea diver from Seattle. Now, this is, he's what'scalled a hard hat diver. Are you familiar with
this? Are these underwater constructionpillows? Maybe. I don't think so. And so imagine
the old, tiny sea, like a sea suit. Like we'retalking the steam punk aesthetic. Yeah. Yeah.

(25:33):
That's what, okay. So that's what that is. So Iguess that makes sense because their hats are
hard. Right? Yeah. That's funny that you wouldcall it that. I love it. Okay. I mean, I didn't call
it that. I didn't know the name of it until this. SoI'm not saying you as in you, but that, that a person
would be like, yes, yes, hard hat. That's what youare. Yep. I mean, I just like, I'd be more hard
helmet, hard shell, hard cave. Yeah. You know, Ihad a like, that only covers the top portion of my

(25:58):
head. I like my jaw too. I like them to stay attachedto each other. Right. They look, they look better
as a matching pair. Love it. Now hard hat diversduring this time, they don't usually descend
beyond 150 feet because of the terrific waterpressure, but Baldwin, he's done three dives, the

(26:19):
Andalina at 200 feet deep. And that hadconstituted at a time a record for deep sea diving.
But unfortunately for Baldwin, the compressedair pump aboard the salvage bar was guaranteed to
deliver a pressure of 75 PSI and 95 PSI was requiredto ensure the diving suit remained properly

(26:40):
inflated at 200 feet. Okay. So we already see adiscrepancy here. Now during his fourth descent,
the gasket on the pump's third cylinder failed,the pressurized suit collapsed and Baldwin is
immediately crushed to death. Didn't see thatcoming. Neither did he. It's a good grief. Yeah.

(27:05):
And Pierce County coroner jury exoneratedBaldwin's dive crew stating that they'd done
everything possible to save his life after themishap occurred. It was Baldwin himself who had
inspected the air compressor the previous day andhe thought it was safe. That is unfortunate. He was
due to receive 35 grand for his daring efforts ifthe Andalina was saved. So, okay. And then he was

(27:34):
going for it. Reportedly, every piece, every timea piece of the Andalina has been recovered by
divers, they tend to die in two days. She's cursed.That's kind of what we're going for. Now, after
Baldwin dies, all further attempts to salvage, Ishould say serious attempts to salvage the

(27:56):
vessel, they're abandoned. There's a fewperfunctory plans to move the ship from where she
is because that could be a minor hazard, butnothing really comes fruition here. It's all
finally agreed that the Andalina couldn't besalvaged and she's left to be covered by tons of
silt flowing from the bay, from the PloallopRiver. And then to this day, the four-mast bark

(28:18):
lies rusting at the bottom of commencement bay asthe final resting place of 17 mariners. Wow. A
little bit more. You ready? Mm-hmm. Now,meanwhile, in Tacoma, same city, 1900, so just a

(28:38):
hop, skip, and a jump in time away, the overloadedstreetcar jumped the tracks and over 40 people
were crushed to death as it rolled down a hill.Okay. You're looking for the tie-in. I have a
suspicion and it would be wild if I was right. Carryon. What's your suspicion? The captain is in that

(29:02):
car. The captain went down with the boat. No, hedidn't. In my brain, he made it out. Okay. Well,
there's unnamed Tacoma resident who takes a pieceof the bloody wood and he ends up carving a scale
model of the Andalana and that model lives on atFoswather Seaport Museum. Now, the staff, they

(29:22):
can't get their electronics close to this thingwithout their tech going haywire. With the quote,
it will fry them. So, So this car accident, a pieceof wood from the street car accident, is carved
with a replica of the Andalana on it and it's nowsitting in the museum and you can't take your phone

(29:46):
near it. Basically. Cool. Now, like all disasterstories, there's been some close calls with the
Andalana as well that really feed into theretelling of its story, either as history or a
ghost story. I mean, it just feeds thisconspiracy, right? Now the captain had expected

(30:07):
his ship to be towed into the loading berth thefollowing day and he was invited to have dinner
ashore. The story goes that he declined the offersaying his place was aboard the ship and he would be
drowned just hours later. The ship's apprenticewho went ashore to the doctor and apparently was an

(30:28):
abscessed tooth, he was supposed to be there whenthe ship sank, which that's the bummer part. Now,
one of the more eerie stories of the Andalana isthat the dead were photographed in a single image.
A maritime photographer, Wilhelm Hester, hadtaken the photo the previous day and everybody in

(30:48):
the photo, including the dog, were all dead by thetime the photograph was printed. Good Lord.
That's not even a little bit creepy. The story goesthat Hester is just utterly devastated by this,
right? To the point where he refuses to photographan entire crew for the rest of his career. He

(31:10):
demands these. Yeah, he's like, you know what? Ifyou want a picture, I need one of you to step out. One
of you. He all can't be in my picture. Take the dog.And wow, the victims were JR Brown. He was a cook
from Barbados. E.H. Crow, first mate, 39 fromLondon, very Nova Scotia. James Daly, boatswain

(31:33):
mate, 42 of New York. Joseph M.A. Jo-Yer,apprentice, 19 from Austin, Belgium. E.G. Doe,
second mate, 33 from Blackpool, England. RichardReginald, Hange, apprentice, 18, Austin,
Belgium. H. Hansen, Abel Seaman, 31 from Sweden.Anton Jensen, Seaman, 30 from Denmark. Verney

(32:00):
Josse, Stewart, 37, Victoria, British Columbia.Edward Blitz, Seaman, 25. Riga, Russia.
Frederick Lindstorm, Seaman, 47 from Norway.John Nielsen, Seaman, 28 Norway. E. Ostrom,
Seaman, 28 Finland. August Simonsen, Seaman, 23from Holland. Charles Smith, boatswain mate, 49

(32:31):
from unnamed USA. George W. Staling, captain, 42,Anopolis, Nova Scotia. And Patrick William,
Seaman, 26, St. John's, Newfoundland. Wow. Thatis a... That's the story. That is a wide array of

(32:54):
sailors on that ship. Right? That's kind ofawesome. The cook was from Barbados, so the food
tasted good. They had spice. Yeah, they sure did.That was so funny. He said my first one was like,
ooh, he's from Barbados. I'm gonna eat that food.That's good. Right? Yeah, good for him. Yep. Wow.

(33:18):
Okay. I have no idea how to transition, so I'm justgonna take a hard left. Go for it. Believe it or not,
I only have three sources. Are you so proud of me? Idon't know. I mean, if one of them read it? No. Is it
good? Okay, so my... I'm gonna tell you the story ofan Aztec Astro. Are you familiar with this name? I

(33:42):
feel like I should be. Hmm, well, if you're not, Iwould be shocked by the end of the story. Okay, so my
first source and my biggest one was Google's Artsand Culture. I love that page and I never get to use
it for anything for the podcast, so I was happy thatthis was like an actual, like relevant, useful

(34:04):
moment for me. In Aztec Astro, the macabre tale ofthe skeleton queen by Holly Williams. This was an
article from April of 22 in the DVC, like just theironline resource, which I actually didn't use for

(34:25):
this first story, but the artwork was really fun.And then there is something called All Grave
History Association.com that has the tragicstory of an Aztec Astro. Okay. I thought it would be
really fun to do a love story for Spooky Season, sohere I am. You know, but I don't, I'm not surprised.

(34:48):
Right, okay, so if anything, my story is a bitmacabre, but it's very fun. So I'm gonna tell you
about Portugal's only skeleton queen, which Irealize implies other countries have had them. Is
this the one who dug up? Maybe. I gotta listen now,okay. Yeah, you gotta listen now. Okay, so, Inez

(35:09):
Acastro, she is born into a comfortable life in1325. She's the daughter of Pedro Fernandez
Acastro. He's the Lord of Lemos in Suria, and hislovely Portuguese noble mistress, Aldonca
Lorenzo Lorencho de Valadarres. Okay, oh, thankGod I got that name done. So Inez, she's this mixed

(35:35):
bag of descendancy of Galatian, Portuguese, andCastilian nobility. Like, she can sort of claim it
on all sides, and that behooves her. But like to becompletely honest, full of transparency here, I
don't know a ton of Portuguese history or theirgeographical regions very well, so for me, I felt
like a family tree would either be the most helpfulthing in the world or confuse me even more. So I just

(36:01):
was like, okay, I'm just gonna take what I need toknow for this story and learn everything later.
Because it is a pretty interesting timeline and apretty interesting cultural history to look
into. What I do know for sure though, is thateventually through the line of one of her family
trees, we'll eventually see Catherine ofArgonne. Okay, that's pretty cool. So some sort of

(36:24):
connection to a history we do know, right there,okay. So our girl, she is the illegitimate
daughter, not really sure if that makes adifference here in the grand scheme of things,
because regardless of her legitimacy, her familyconnections allow her to move in all the right
crowds and circles. So like, it doesn't reallymatter that she comes from the mistress and not the

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main life, like she's well cared for, she's placedin all the right places. Now, in 1339, she is
between 14 and 15 years old and she goes to Portugalto serve as a lady and waiting to constanza of
Castile, who is slated to wed the Prince ofPortugal. Yep, I know exactly where we're going

(37:07):
now. Okay, so his name is Pedro. He's born by, rightabout 1320. By 1327, his father, so, but he's only
seven at this point. His father is already incontract talks for marriage of both him and his
sister Maria. So he's like just already planningout their weddings, right? Okay, so at seven, he

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gets engaged to a one-blanch of Castile, while hissister Maria is engaged to the future alfons of
Castile, which also sounds like a reallyinteresting story. That's for a whole nother day
though. So Pedro's girl has moved to Portugal to beraised there, but within a couple of years, it's

(37:52):
determined that she is not marriageable. Sheshows, Blanche, this is Blanche you're talking
about. She's owned signs of mental illness, andadditionally, they think she is unsuitable to
carry a child. I feel like that was like her best wayout is just to start chewing on the castle walls or
something. Like eating drapes is my thought. Likegood for you, sister, you've got it, right? Yeah.

(38:16):
Yeah, and so Pedro... Believe your buddy rabbit.You can do it. So Pedro, for his part, is like, yeah,
thank you next, and the engagement is broken. Now,this part does come from with Pedia, and it is a bit
adjacent to my actual story, but it is reallyjuicy, so I had to share it. This part is really fun.

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So you're not going to remember any of these nextnames, but it is fun to say. In 1329, Peter's sister
Maria, who I mentioned earlier as the other childthat was up for marriage talks, she marries a man
called Alfonso of Castile. He can't keep it tohimself, and he begins an affair with the newly

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widowed, the Lenore de Guzman. And this neverreally sits well with Maria, but by 1334, she bears
a son, who will ultimately become Peter ofCastile, and that's a big deal for a different day.
Now, her husband, the king of Castile, Alfonso, herefuses to end the affair, and Maria does the smart

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move and returns home to Portugal in 1335, becausemy daddy's going to be pissed when he finds out what
you're doing. Okay, so now Alfonso, Maria'sflandering husband, he had previously been
married to the daughter of his cousin, and her nameis called, she is called Constanza. After only two

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years of marriage, he gets it annulled in 1327 sothat he can marry Maria, Pedro's sister. I'm
almost done. You're finally carrying on.Alfonso's cousin, her dad, is pissed. He sort of
wages a war for like the next two years, butmeanwhile, his daughter, Constanza, is being

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held hostage, I'm assuming by the Castilians,until the bishop, John Del Campo of Oliod, shows up
and mediates peace. Now, Maria, the one who ischeated on, her dad, also the father of Pedro, is
not happy that his daughter's treated this way inher marriage, so he forms an alliance with Juan

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Manuel, the father of Constanza. Okay, now dumb itdown for me, like I don't have a map. So, Constanza,
she is married. Yeah. Constanza's been cheated onby Alfonso. Right. Her dad, Juan Miguel, or excuse
me, Juan Manuel, he is pissed, he wages a war. In themeantime, that's something. That's gotta be

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really nice to be like, dad, he did me wrong, it'slike, get the troops. Pretty much, right?
However, in this whole, the whole time the war'sbeing fought, Constanza's being held captive.
Now, his friend and ally is Pedro and Maria'sfather, the king of Portugal. And he forms this

(41:13):
alliance with Juan Manuel, the father of youngConstanza who has been wronged. And he instead
arranges for Pedro to marry Constanza. He's like,look, my son has been in need of a bride anyway,
she'll be perfect, let's do this. She arrives inPortugal in 1339, 1340, with this beautiful

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lady-in-waiting Inez, which is where we startwith the birth of Inez. Okay. Okay, so now we're out
of Wikipedia and we're out of all of that familydrama. Now, so, Constanza of Castile, she of
course marries the then Prince Pedro. And likemany other royal marriages, this is obviously for
alliance. This is not because Prince Pedro andConstanza are madly in love with each other.

(41:59):
Right, yeah, no, they're doing it out ofobligation. Right, now history says that
initially the young prince, he's about 20 at thistime, he's pretty satisfied with his wife. In
fact, he thought her to be quite suitable. Okay,thanks, I guess. I mean, honestly, that could be
just, he could be a very withholding man, sosuitable could mean, damn! You know, and he's just

(42:26):
mother-train. I feel like it's a little bit of,well, she'll get the job done. Because it wouldn't
take long for Pedro's eyes to wander over toConstanza's gorgeous, lady-in-waiting Inez,
and it is said that it is love at first sight. Now,Inez, she is sort of known for her beauty. She has

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this golden hair with bright blue eyes and thissilky, milky white skin. So she is like the talk of
the town when it comes to pretty. And because Pedrois Pedro and he just cannot, he pretty much
straight away takes her as his mistress. However,this does not stop him from also finding his way

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into his wife's bed multiple times. He got lost. Sohe, you know, he is at least giving airs, right? She
gets pregnant at least three times in theirmarriage. Now, Constanza, she's no fool, and she
sees their love affair like plain as day. Like sheis very aware what is going on. So as the story goes

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that Constanza sees this and has this like strokeof genius and makes Inez the godmother to one of
their children, their son Louis, or Louis. Now,this is a solid move on her part because within the
Catholic church, a godparent is essentially apart of the family. And it turns the fairer, be a

(43:59):
fairer between Pedro and Inez and Festus. Oh,smart woman. Right? I'm like, hey, you're all with
you, right? Regardless of this, their romancecontinues because of course it does. Yeah, I mean,
just because we're siblings on paper doesn'tmean. Exactly. Now, this does a couple of things.

(44:22):
Their affair brings some exiled nobles back intothe circle of the future king, this young Pedro,
right? So Inez has a couple of brothers who forwhatever reason, unknown to me, likely this
previous war that had just been fought that Imentioned earlier, they had been exiled at this

(44:43):
time. And the bigger problem with these brothersthough is that their Castilian and the current
king is worried that once he dies, his line willlose power and the independence for their country
because of his son's willingness to be wooed by theCastilians. So he's like, ooh, this is
problematic. But they're back and they becomePedro's close friends and trusted advisors. The

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other thing that happens right around this time,so dad is like, oh, this is problematic, please
stop talking to them, like find new friends,please go out and play basketball with the guys
down the street, like that sort of thing, right?But he also figures out that his son is having an
affair with Mr. Cinez. And he is not necessarilyupset about the affair because boy's gonna boy,

(45:35):
and I'm sure the king has 14, Mr. Cinez, right?Right, he is still solely focused on the sphere of
influence with which his young son is working on. Imean, so, right. In 1344, the king having
discovered this love affair does the completelynormal angry king thing, and he banishes Cinez to

(45:57):
Albuquerque. Which is now in America. Yeah, thefirst time I read that honest to God, the only
visual I could have was Bugs Bunny coming out of theground. Yep. And I was like, I don't think that
Albuquerque. I mean, I can't not think that. I haveto really consciously try to push and believe

(46:20):
there is a original Albuquerque. Honest to God, Iliterally looked at my husband and said, well,
this story is false from the beginning becauseAlbuquerque is not anywhere else but the US. Can't
believe it any other way. Anyway, so it's thisbeautiful castle like way out on the Castilian
front here. So his hope is that he keeps them apartby space, right? A geographic barrier. Exactly,

(46:48):
but our boy Pedro, he cannot be stopped. So theystill meet in secret and Pedro sends her messages
like secret messages out of the castle using asmall wooden boat they could slip through the
castle's water ducts, which I think is very sweet.And this goes on for like a year. Okay, so that's got

(47:08):
some staying power to it. Right, Pedro's actualwife, Constanza, the girl this whole war was
fought over, dies just weeks after deliveringtheir third son. And because Pedro is Pedro and
can't think what the brain between his ears, helike immediately brings in as back to court and to

(47:32):
the great ire of his father, like his father, theking, right? And there is a huge fight between
father and son. Now, this part is a little bitconfusing to me, but it seems like the king
banishes her again and perhaps even several moretimes. And while he's banished her, he like gets to

(47:53):
work trying to arrange other noble marriages forPedro. And Pedro is not having it. And he
continually turns it down, he continually saysno, stating that he's still in mourning for his
beloved wife, which is absolutely- Absolutely,bupkiss, because if I'm in mourning for my wife,
I'm not going to be sneaking in my side piece.Exactly, right? Okay, so right around this time,

(48:21):
Pedro runs away and lives openly with Ines for like10 years. Now, in that 10 years, it's possible that
they were married in secret, but either way, theystart having kids. They have that least two sons,
and you know what that means. Now we've got asecession problem. We have a real problem, right?
Okay, so there's a secession problem, and there'salso these, excuse me, these rumors and these kind

(48:48):
of conspiracy theories floating around that theDeCastro family, which is Ines's family, are
planning to disinherit Pedro's actual sons, likehis true marriage sons, in favor of one of Ines and
Pedro's children. And so these rumors, they'refloating around. And like this goes on for about a

(49:09):
year that the king is being fed thesesuperstitions, or excuse me, these rumors and
these conspiracy theories that the properchildren are gonna be disinherited, and there's
all these ideas floating around with it, and he'snot happy. So he again, tries to separate the
lovers, but figures out that this is probablynever going to work, like ever because it hasn't

(49:34):
worked at all in the 15 years of the past you'vetried. So he does the logical thing, and he orders
the death of Ines, because nothing says I love myson more like murdering the mistress. I mean, this
is how you make sure to make, you know, you want yourstatues to be burned the moment you die. This is how

(49:54):
you do it. Right. So it's January of 1355, Pedro'sout hunting, three assassins, as well as the king,
go to the convent where Ines is like living, andthere's a bit of a scuttlebutt because the king
sees his grandchildren, Ines and Pedro'schildren, and he is like stricken with love for

(50:16):
them, like, oh my gosh, no, I can't do it because thechildren, right? Like he actually has some sort of
humanity to him, but he's got some reallypersistent assassins working for him, and
they're like, nope, this is what you hired us to do,so we're gonna do our job, and there's this whole
scuttle about it. Yeah, we only get at two things,drinking and killing, and we're out of beer.

(50:39):
Pretty much, and so the king basically just leavesthe room and says something to the effect of do
whatever you want, and so the assassins do justthat, they stab in his to death, they then
decapitate her, which at least one of her childrensees, and at this point, she is only 29 years old.

(51:00):
Pedro finds out, obviously, that his lady love hasbeen assassinated, and he declares not only
revenge, but civil war against Gerald Bette.Yeah, because this makes sense, honestly, like
good for you, Pedro, but unfortunately for him.Because his kid's having night terrors for the
rest of his life. Right, and they're not, I don'teven think the oldest one is 10 years old, like

(51:23):
they're young, right? Unfortunately for Pedro,he quickly loses this civil war. So like, so I'm
going great for him. But only like two years later,the king dies anyway, and Pedro takes the throne.
So I'm not really sure how Thanksgiving went inthose two years, but I feel like it must have been
awkward when the king did die, and Pedro does takethe throne because he already waged a civil war

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once. We love royal tabloids now. I know, that wasliterally my thought was like, oh my gosh, what was
the gossip mill like back then? Like, how did hiscoordination go? I'm gonna look into it. I'm so
curious about like what the town spoke and what theother nobles thought. I wanna read the graffiti on

(52:10):
the walls. That's what I want. Seriously, where isthe Reddit post on this? So, he does the thing, he
gets coordinated, he takes the crown, and there'stalk that like, as I mentioned earlier, that he is
going to disinherit Pedro's original children.So his own original children with Constanza in

(52:38):
favor of Inez and Pedro's children. I don't knowthat he ever actually does that because I wasn't
curious enough about his line of succession as Iwas what he does next. Now, as the story goes, he
declares Inez Queen. Do you remember, it's been atleast two years. There ain't much left. And the

(53:01):
story goes that he has her body exhumed and dressedin all of the finery that makes up a queen, right,
the crown, the gold beading and all of that on thegown, and then makes the entire court swear
allegiance and fealty to their new and very deadqueen. Some stories suggest that he even insists

(53:24):
that they all kiss the hymn of her gown because... Iwill follow her until death, but she's already
dead, so I don't need to follow her. But you have myown. Is it my death? I think. Questions. Then, six
years later, so this whole time Pedro's beenlooking for the assassins, right, like he's got a

(53:47):
beef to settle. Six years later, he finally findstwo of them and he gets his vengeance. He publicly
executes them by ripping their hearts out whilethey are still alive, one in the chest and one from
the back. And they say that's what he believed washow they destroyed his heart. Ripped the heart out

(54:07):
from the back? Yeah. There's a lot of things in theway. Yeah, well, Pedro's got years of built-up
vengeance. He's been thinking about this for along time. Yeah, right? Okay, so in 1360, to honor
his beloved, her body has moved from Coyumbria tothe royal monastery at Alcobaca where he has

(54:33):
commissioned two very ornate marble tombs withscenes of their lives carved out, which I think is
really pretty. The tombs are gorgeous. The tombssit opposite each other so they can gaze upon one
another in the afterlife. And I'm like, dang,that's so sweet, right? He dies of sickness since
1367, so. Dyes of sickness, didn't see thatcoming. Honestly, that was the simplest part of

(55:00):
the story. Like, when I looked that up, I was like,he had to go out in some blaze of glory war, right?
No, no, he was pretty sick the whole time, but itfinally took him out. Like, holy cow. Now, all that
to say, I have pictures of their tombs if you wouldlike to see them. Please, thank you. Okay. I'll see

(55:24):
if it would share the right thing. There we go. Sothe first one that you'll see is her tomb. Okay, so
this is, it's a marble carving that is veryornately done. She is laying on her back, you know,
where her face is obviously positioned towardsthe ceiling, but she has her gown, like the

(55:50):
marbling is done so beautifully that it looks likematerial. It's very, very sheer fabric. And then
there's a series of like six, seven angels wrappedaround her with their hands. On her. I think

(56:12):
they're cherubim, yeah. That's what I wasthinking. I mean, yeah. What's the difference
between cherubim and angels aside from size? Ithink specifically the cherubim or babies. Oh, I
think. I mean, you seem right there. That's hertomb. I'm curious about these little guys on the

(56:32):
bottom though, with the bald heads. I'm not surewhat those are. I should try to find another angle.
But anyway, here's her, his tomb. He is upright,getting ready to pull a sword from his Gabbard with
the same very flowy. His beard looks like he spentabout 10 minutes curling it to have those perfect
ringlets. Yes, it does. I was thinking it remindedme of Sumerian artwork of the Statuary, right? But

(57:00):
now that you say that, I can't get the image of himwith a curling iron out of my eye. It's that magenta
handled curling iron. It's got the wire that wrapsaround it so you get perfect ringlets. Exactly.
And then he's got the cherubim around him, butthey're more around his shoulders and elbow, so

(57:22):
that, I don't know, they're not by his feet sort ofdeal. I don't know if it's in there. At least not in
this picture. They might be in other pictures. I amonly showing you the top of his tomb, so it might be
different in the full scale. Wow. I mean, I had seenthe short versions of his story where it boiled him

(57:46):
down into just grave robbing. Nope, there's awhole Civil War and everything that's fought
about it. And at least we forget about Consanza,who a whole war was fought about her just because
somebody treated her poorly. You know, and when Ihear about that, I kind of go, that's actually a

(58:06):
fairly low reason for a Civil War. It's like, well,come on, peasants, let's get in front of the
cannons. We've got legs to lose. Do the thing.They, come on. He cheated on her, and so your king,
her father, said that you get to die now. Come on,come on. And now it's like, tough job. We're

(58:26):
looking at it like, there's so many bigger reasonswe could be fighting a war, but we've got, we've got
TikTok. Yeah, honestly, we've got TikTok, but Ilove knowing that I brought you a story that had not
one, but two wars fought over a woman. Yeah. I suredid. So that's the story of Pedro and Amiz. I had, I

(58:48):
adored it. If you are a, if you know a woman whoshould have a war fought over her, let alone two,
send this to her. Let her know you were thinking ofher. And then do the thing where you rate, review us
on the podcast platform of your choice. It helps usout. It, it really does. And on that note, goodbye.

(59:12):
Bye.