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194: American Revolution
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What does a one person submarine and a secret spy ring have in common? The American Revolution of course! This week we decided to learn a bit more about our neighbours to the south and take a deeper look at some of the events surrounding their independence.
Kelsey has the low down on Bushnell's Turtle, a submersible with a success rate of zero, that still managed to become world famous thanks to its inventors and pilots. Alanna shares the story of Anna Strong and the Culper spy ring, who were able to remain undetected thanks to some pretty ingenious methods of communication. Their contributions to the war effort and even their existence would not be revealed until centuries later.
We hope you enjoy this dose of American history, Happy belated 4th of July to all our American listeners and we will catch up with you all on the 25th! If you can't wait till then, join us over at patreon.com/Castlesandcryptids for lots of bonus content.
Darkcast promo of the week is Murder and Mimosas
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Transcript
Introduction to Darkcast Network
00:00:02
Speaker
Darkcast Network. Indie pods with a dark side.
Welcome to Castles and Cryptids
00:00:28
Speaker
Welcome back to Castles and Cryptids, where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic as fuck. And I'm Alanna. And I'm Kelsey. And we hope you understand we started our summer schedule.
Transition to Summer Schedule
00:00:43
Speaker
We weren't even sure what we had decided on, I think, by the time we got done our Patreon and everything. It's like, oh...
00:00:53
Speaker
I think originally we thought this one was going to come out the day we're recording it, which is the fourth. Yeah. We can totally record an episode the same day it was planned to come out, right?
00:01:06
Speaker
That's how that works. Well, that's basically what we've been forced to be doing the last couple weeks. And I know some people two or three days before and it doesn't seem to bug them.
00:01:17
Speaker
But I'm more of the camp where it's like better to have it a week or two ahead. I feel like, especially if you're. Yeah. professional one like because we so are but we're so professional fucking professional we got ourselves a patreon and everything
00:01:36
Speaker
yeah so hopefully you guys understand uh yeah but yeah we had to get our patreon yeah so we should our summer that's out Yeah, and we're moving to a summer schedule, if you
Recording Challenges
00:01:53
Speaker
didn't hear. So we'll be doing every second Friday for at least a couple months. We'll see how it goes. And um if we can get ahead and stuff, we might go back to every week maybe stay. Who knows?
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, feedback is always welcome. um But exactly, I think it's fine. It's something that we don't want to, you know, be rushed bringing stuff to you or to patreon yeah that's what we were just decided might be a little easier for a bit because we we enjoy recording and doing the episodes and uh we want to keep being able to put the same sort of effort and energy into each each episode that we release so hopefully nothing like this makes things a little bit easier
00:02:47
Speaker
Yeah, the same we just don't want to become some bitter old podcast hags.
00:02:55
Speaker
Who carry on for some reason, but nobody knows. oh You guys know Alana and I could never stop talking about things.
TV & Movie Discussions
00:03:05
Speaker
We just talked for like half an hour before we started recording.
00:03:12
Speaker
About nothing. Just like Seinfeld Oh, we've been watching Seinfeld again. But then I was like, why have we watched Curb Your Enthusiasm? Or have we watched it? And Pat was like, eh, doesn't care for Larry David.
00:03:28
Speaker
oh I never watched that one. I did watch Seinfeld, like, in the last couple years. I thought it was good. Yeah. But it's like... That's who he's based off of. It's basically the same show with the real Seinfeld.
00:03:42
Speaker
But Pat's so particular if he doesn't like a person or whatever. he just won't try a kind of the same way. um Like it the first couple times I tried to watch New Girl, i didn't love Zooey Deschanel.
00:03:58
Speaker
I'd watch movies with her in it, but I wouldn't watch a movie just because she's in it. ah so it took a couple... A couple tries before i like got into that one. And the same thing with the unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
00:04:13
Speaker
um Okay. I mean like pilots can be rough too. so i suppose I like they those both have, yeah especially new girl, up quite a good ensemble cast. So yeah, that's why I like that one. yeah Jake Johnson and his crazy podcast.
00:04:33
Speaker
I did just watch that movie you told me about self-reliance. Oh, okay, yes. That's the one, yeah. Him and Andy Samberg and people are trying to kill him.
00:04:47
Speaker
oh it's the one where people are trying to kill him, not the one where he's trying to find the time travel friend or whatever the other
Pet Anecdotes
00:04:53
Speaker
one is. I can't remember. No, I don't know what that is.
00:04:58
Speaker
I think another one he um directed, maybe. Yeah, he's been doing some different things. um Some weird ones. Hold on.
00:05:08
Speaker
I had to put child locks on... Well, when I first got him, because he was obsessed with opening cupboard doors, I had to put child locks on like all the cupboard doors that he could get at.
00:05:22
Speaker
And he knows how to open the one under the sink where all the chemicals are. i was like, you tiny little... baby cat should not be out of all of the cupboards that you learned how to open.
00:05:36
Speaker
Why? Yeah. my like And then does he do one thing once he opens it?
00:05:46
Speaker
Please stand by cat problems. Yeah. um Don't miss the days when the dog could get on the counter at her old place because of where the stairs were.
00:06:00
Speaker
You're like, yeah I'm cooking dinner, but I have to go to the bathroom. So for two and a half minutes, I will not be able to supervise everything. And it's like, I come back and I'm like, he's walking on the stove where like the burners are still on and he's just walking across it. And I was like, oh, great. One wrong step. And you're just going to burn your feet.
00:06:22
Speaker
my God. He's up there licking a raw chicken breast or something. I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with you? like Dogs leaping up and wolfing down ah fucking steak without chewing them. God, was that Fenrir or was that our last dog?
00:06:38
Speaker
That's so funny. I see the videos. I see the videos on Instagram where somebody's eating and I don't know, they have like half of a I don't know, maybe like a chicken burger or something. And the cat will come over and you'll be like, don't you do it. Don't you do it. And you just see the cat bite the other end of the chicken. And whoop, it's gone. And they're running away. It's like.
00:07:03
Speaker
Bastards. Yeah. Cat bastards.
00:07:09
Speaker
For sure. There was a cute scene with a ah cat. Yeah. in the accounted to that one with um batfleck and uh john bernthal and their brothers or whatever i i don't know i always forget what that one's about and then i'm like oh yeah he's like got ass syndrome acquired savant syndrome they always say it and then i'm like that spells ass because i'm a child but yeah he's got the ass
00:07:41
Speaker
Jon Bernthal's character like rescues a cat that he sees walk along the road. I don't know. It's cute. You'll have to watch it. and
00:07:49
Speaker
I don't know if I ever even saw the first one. so oh it's worth a watch. Yeah. but Anna Kendrick's in the first one. um Yeah. It's a good time.
00:08:03
Speaker
Sounds fun. It's like, I don't know, action-y and stuff too because... Why not? They beat people up.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yeah. Always makes things funner, right? Oh, yeah. It's all the John Wick movies are. We just watched that one, the ballerina one. That's probably why I couldn't think of the name of the... Fuck, you just told me what it was, too. that The ballerina vampire. Abigail.
00:08:32
Speaker
Abigail. Guys, I have no brain today. It's... My second, it's a third day on 10-hour workday, and I don't know who i am. lot My work was crazy this week.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, I say that like people don't work 12-hour days all the time. Yeah, my brother, he's sometimes working... He's working normally between 12 and he's done up to like 18 to 20 hour days. Who has?
00:09:07
Speaker
My brother. oh gosh. Yeah. That's a lot. He's normally working 10 to 12 and then certain days and things he'll have to work longer. certain jobs. they're doing like an overnight job.
00:09:23
Speaker
like cement pouring or something like that that he has to monitor um yeah he'll have to kind of stay on site with a like a reduced crew kind of thing right so like contracting construction type yeah yeah that makes sense totally different world than i am used to we're just out here trying to talk for a living we're like yeah it's fine we're so unique nobody else is doing it because we're Canadian try try to pay me to talk to my best friend for hours every day oh this is quote-unquote work have to go to work now
00:10:07
Speaker
I know. it's And it's fun. It's good when you can tell they're having fun. i just listened to the latest Amy Poehler's good... Oh, I just knocked my glasses off. Playing with my hair.
00:10:22
Speaker
Damn, blooper reel. That was great.
00:10:29
Speaker
This is why we need to record the video. Oh, no. um Oh, she had on Idris Elba. And they kept joking. and they They have the video on this because the Spotify sometimes has video now if you have video available for your podcast.
00:10:46
Speaker
Okay, yeah. Yeah, so she sits in her studio and she shows everyone her tiny little fake food she has sitting around the office. And today she and Idris Elba, when they got there, like basically dressed the same. They're wearing like a white shirt with like a a light blue blazer type jacket over and they kept joking about how it was like you know they both got the memo and she's like I try to je dress for who's coming in and then like at the end of the episode he's like do you watch like you know soccer football because sometimes they they trade shirts at the end of the game and then they both try to like get in each other's jacket and he like can't get it off he just rips it like the Hulk yeah and then she was like
00:11:29
Speaker
giggling and telling them that she's gonna bill him for it oh she's just cute they're just so fun good talk like yeah you're like oh i just want to put on this podcast and like laugh for a bit yeah awesome yeah well hopefully that's what people feel like with us like they're sitting in the room laughing with us um hanging out with us Yeah.
Canada Day & Independence Day
00:11:54
Speaker
Hopefully, because we are this dumb. Just use what you get. Oh, no. Oh, God.
00:12:04
Speaker
Well, I think we, yeah, we said that this originally was, we were planning this coming out, I think, July 4th, kind of around 4th July in our,
00:12:19
Speaker
ah
00:12:22
Speaker
i almost said her our country to the south but oh our neighboring code yeah our neighbor to the south uh in the us of a independence day yeah i know we said happy canada day on the patreon but that just because that came out yeah which is like four days before So yay, happy canada belated Canada Day and America Day. Yeah.
00:12:53
Speaker
Ameri-Canada ah ah america Canada. Day. Yes, we Canada. Remember that from 4? It's what Keanu Reeves, he plays the little um like Super Dave toy character and he's on motorcycle. do not i remember.
00:13:11
Speaker
Oh, it's great. Sounds something like Keanu Reeves would do. Yeah, so there's one line where he's like, can we do it or something? It's like, yes, we Canada!
00:13:23
Speaker
God, I love Keanu Reeves. Yeah, he's pretty great. Yeah, he's a little Canadian, so yes, yes, we claim him. Yeah, we claim all the nice people.
00:13:35
Speaker
yeah That's right. We're very, very proud, but also kind of humble about it, because we're weird that way. that We just love to like tell you who's Canadian. Yeah. Like, we invented them.
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah.
American Revolution Humor
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah, so we decided to do stuff around the American Revolution. um yeah i think originally it was like... dawn Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker
I mean, mine's not really an American Revolution crime. i Immediately discounts the theme.
00:14:10
Speaker
See, I looked up, like, events in the American Revolution, and then that's kind of how I i decided on what I wanted to cover. so yeah, mine isn't a crime, but it is it is centered around the American Revolution, so.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's... ah normal i feel like because we pick a topic and then it's like well it's like when you're talking yeah it's a war like there's yeah lots of stuff that and most things are going on are somewhat criminal or at least out of the ordinary it's like yeah it's definitely a different state of things so it's interesting um also weirdly speaking of revolution um somebody in the chat today like was like, oh, look at this driver's first name. And their first name was Renaissance.
00:15:00
Speaker
Oh, no.
00:15:04
Speaker
Tragedy. Yeah. ah Did I tell you about customer at work that I overheard her telling her?
00:15:17
Speaker
I think her kids were kind of like... They were going through checkout and kind of walking and browsing and looking at stuff, and the kids were kind of lagging behind her So she, like, called, like, hey, come come on, catch up.
00:15:30
Speaker
and And I can't remember what the one's name was, but her son, ah who looked to be maybe six or seven, was named Privilege. And I was like, what? o You named your child Privilege?
00:15:45
Speaker
Is this a name? And he's white? yeah I was like... This poor kid. name fucking privilege.
00:15:58
Speaker
Just... That's a thinker. That'd be like naming your child Nepo Baby or something. Like, nepotism! My baby's name is nepotism! Like... What?
00:16:12
Speaker
Oh my god, there was one on subreddit. It's so weird to me. so The subreddit, the Tragedy one, where tragedy is spelled like G-I-G-H. And I fucking can't remember exactly now. But yeah, it was like someone at the hospital.
00:16:27
Speaker
aortic valve. Well, that's pretty. We'll call her that. Or like catheter or something. Oh Bedpan.
00:16:36
Speaker
Someone named my daughter Bedpan. Or like, no the other two, the... um the same person was putting in the chat today, Mel was like, and then I also had one like that was like a, not like a Providence, but like, oh, like maybe, what are those ones that are all like chastity and like, yeah, it's like that certain religious type that all have with virtues. Oh, I stripper names.
00:17:01
Speaker
Right, and I'm like, the the one you just said is like the opposite of like naming it after a virtue, like, yeah, like prosperity or purity, um and you know. in you. I'm going name my child Sloth.
00:17:14
Speaker
Gluttony. Yeah. And what did you say it was Privilege? Yeah, that's fucked up. Privilege. So the first kid's name, I cannot remember now because the second I heard Privilege, it erased whatever the first kid's name was that she said.
00:17:30
Speaker
But I thought, oh, that's a weird name until she threw out Privilege. And then I was like wait, hold on a second. What's happening? but It was Poe Bitch. and Yeah. Because I was like, oh, that's her name. And then she was like, and privilege. oh Get over here. and I was like, what?
00:17:49
Speaker
It got worse. The second kid's name is worse than the first. And I thought the first was bad. I was like, damn, that kid's going to be applying for a name change or like going by a nickname as soon as they understand.
00:18:05
Speaker
but
00:18:07
Speaker
Yeah, we're all joking that the the pregnant co-worker should not take her name inspiration from the work chat. It's, yeah. Yeah.
00:18:19
Speaker
to Just look up tragedy. eig it's so there's so many ah good posts on that where you're like, they named them what? Like I was saying to Rain the other day, they were like,
00:18:31
Speaker
And then they realized their kid, their friend's kid had the initials WAP. Oh, no. Right now, that's not good. And someone replied that they, in a comment that they had to yell, you gave your kid the initials STD to the friends of theirs? How could you do that? Line up.
00:18:53
Speaker
I know, you have to think about initials, people. Initials are important. Oh, yeah. become my Become the ah high school or middle school bully that you always wanted to be and try and think of the worst things you can.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yes. To make sure your child's name passes for the test. Yeah, same ah thread. And somebody commented that they were going to, somebody who was going to have the initials, the baby was going to have the initials KFC.
00:19:18
Speaker
And they were like, oh, no daughter of mine is going to be finger licking good. And like you vetoed that. Yeah.
00:19:26
Speaker
oh And mine's still amp, which is fun. But my mom's spell vag.
00:19:34
Speaker
ah Mine's KDA, so I used to think Kraft Dinner A, because I'm KD. Oh, yeah. So I'd be like, Kraft Dinner I like it. Plus, when you get the monogram, I think they put the...
00:19:48
Speaker
last in the middle so then you might end up being cad
00:19:54
Speaker
i don't know people don't shoot things monogrammed anymore what do i know no get monogrammed tanky that you can blow your nose into what are we doing over here i can't afford that ever of course yeah oh my god uh anyway yeah This episode will still somehow be like two hours long and we both have some of the shortest things we've ever You're going to halfway through your short case and I'm going to like, Kelsey, now I have to pee.
First Submarine Attack
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah. Okay.
00:20:23
Speaker
Let's go. I have to tell you about the world's first submarine attack. love that. I do. i have to tell you about it.
00:20:38
Speaker
The first submarine attack. Sorry, I'm drinking root beer. ah It's making me burp.
00:20:48
Speaker
yeah oh That's funny. The last time I did the cruise thing, then my brother was joking that I was trying to put my sister off working on ships.
00:20:59
Speaker
I'm like, don't get on a submarine. he yeah Terrifying. there's no There's a submarine sequence in the newest Mission Impossible series.
00:21:11
Speaker
Where the submarine's at the bottom of the ocean he to go into it. Your sphincter is puckered the whole fucking time. It's ass-clutching. It's so scary. I'm a couple movies behind Mission Impossible, so I'm not caught up.
00:21:26
Speaker
But i will I will get there. oh no, I didn't want to give him my money, but Pat wanted to go see it in the air. Oh, fair, yeah. Yeah. yeah It was good, though. Yeah. I mean, it's like if you're go to see something big screen, that's a good movie to do it to.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. So I didn't know anything about this before. i guess submarines were first. American history. Sorry. Yeah, I kind of did. It was fun.
00:21:55
Speaker
ah Submarines were f first built by a Dutch inventor named Cornelius. I think it's Drabel. Oh my god, speaking of names.
00:22:05
Speaker
I know, bring back Cornelius. ah Really?
00:22:14
Speaker
It's so corny. And he invented the submarine in the early 17th century, but they were being used not during, yeah, not during, like, naval combat or wars.
00:22:30
Speaker
Um... I can imagine they were rudimentary at that point. Like, ships weren't that. Yeah, it's wild. um Yeah, a lot of ships were wood and stuff still, so we'll get into it.
00:22:45
Speaker
um Oh yeah, they all would have been. That's the 1600s. That's crazy. Wow. Yeah, I think this meant to say, like,
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's the 17th century, but then a lot of our stuff takes place in the 1700s or the 18th century. have an excerpt from Connecticut history that had basically some of the only real background I could find.
00:23:16
Speaker
um There's this gentleman, David Bushnell. ah He's our main character, main person we're focusing on. And he was born 1740.
00:23:28
Speaker
in a section of Saybrook that is now Westbrook. Okay, he's Coaster. Yes.
00:23:39
Speaker
He was the eldest of five children, he was still living at home. Oh, he was living at home and unmarried old age of 26. Okay. age of twenty-si uh damn male spinster right there yeah uh he lost his father and his two sisters in a span of just three years so a lot of tragedy oh tragedy who was that ah during the war i don't know like i said this like literally all that i could find
00:24:14
Speaker
And it's more than most stuff even said. So that's why just copy this. think that was part too. It's like, yeah, there's not a lot written on some of these people. Mm-hmm.
00:24:26
Speaker
Apparently his mother quickly remarried, ah kind of out of the custom at the time, because it's the 1700s, and also sort of out of necessity. ah She ended up leaving the or the farm, was left to David and his younger brother Ezra, and David ended up selling his half of the farm to his brother Ezra, and left to go study at you Yale College. Oh, wow.
00:24:54
Speaker
can't believe Yale's that old. God. Yeah.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, some universities are like hundreds and hundreds of years. It's crazy to me. Can you like how much was tuition? A nickel? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, a wooden nickel.
00:25:10
Speaker
A penny? Half a penny? Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, I'm so awkward today. Ignore me.
00:25:22
Speaker
ah Although the 31-year-old David was much older than the other applicants at the time, he was accepted and started going to Yale in 1771.
00:25:32
Speaker
And while a student, ah Bushnell, he experimented with methods to make gunpowder ah that was able to explode underwater, um which reportedly terrified onlookers because they like, what sorcery is this? We don't think it's possible.
00:25:51
Speaker
Yeah, what the fuck? How do you keep the gunpowder dry enough to explode? ah don't understand. He would, like, put it in something and, like, people just, like, had fun.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I just remember from um Outlander, they hadn't even vented matches yet because Brianna goes to, like, try and make these matches. And they're like, have fun playing with that phosphorus. The minute you expose it to air, it lights on fire.
00:26:18
Speaker
That's why you go... With the stuff, it exposes the phosphorus. and Is that how that works? I thought it was ignited by the friction. That's what's happening.
00:26:30
Speaker
ah Something because he like gives her John Gray, gives her this like jar of like some sort of phosphorus like stuff packed in like water to work on to try and make her matches.
00:26:44
Speaker
And yeah, it's they're like, don't blow yourself up! Yeah, I mean, it's up to all sorts of shenanigans.
00:26:55
Speaker
Oh, and like the shit, like the dig in shit pits to get the saltpeter to make gunpowder and stuff. It was like found under old outhouses and stuff. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Lovely. boy Yeah.
00:27:10
Speaker
uh yeah so this like confused the other students and then in april of 1775 his last year at yale news of the battles uh uh at lexington and concord electrified connecticut and the college ended up closing early because of this and he ended up moving back to his family's farm like where his brother was
00:27:35
Speaker
And Bushnell began working ah primarily on a machine that he would be able to use to set um underwater explosives without being spotted. Because now he wanted to like help in the war effort um with his ability to make gunpowder explode underwater now. So now he needed a way to deliver like the explosives without being spotted.
00:28:05
Speaker
Underwater. So i was like, mm, make a submarine.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah. And he wants to be able to blow people up in the water. Okay. Yeah. yeah So, like, submarines themselves already existed, but I think they were pretty, like, rudimentary and basic and wasn't anything that was very efficient or effective in to be like used in any sort of war effort it was just maybe you could like move it and that kind of stuff but it wasn't anything too um complicated but his ended up being right
00:28:52
Speaker
quite a lot different. So over the next year, what became known as the turtle, um him and his brother named it, which was the um the vessel, the um whatever you want to call it ah It started to take shape over different variations that they made.
00:29:12
Speaker
it was constructed out of oak wood that was bound with heavy wrought iron hoops, kind of like a barrel. so it's like a barrel kind of shape going up. And then it was, I guess, coated in a thick layer of tar, i think, to help with waterproofing.
00:29:28
Speaker
Okay, that's what I was wondering about. Yeah, how how a wooden structure would fare. But yeah, they did have ways of making them. Yeah. Like waterproof, I guess.
00:29:39
Speaker
Right. Like, um there was a pretty good description. i put pictures of it on the drive. It's actually kind of like cool to look at. People have done replicas of it. There's quite a few replicas that are sitting in different museums and stuff, which kind of show the inside.
00:29:57
Speaker
um so it's a little easier to imagine if you can see the pictures. um But they had a pretty good description on Alice Obscura that said a local clockmaker was brought in. His name was Isaac Doolittle.
00:30:14
Speaker
I just noticed that. ah He helped design and construct some of the most ingenious parts. About seven feet across in each direction, the whole thing was basically one giant cockpit.
00:30:28
Speaker
And the pilot were as one admirer put it, the adventurer concealed within. looks from this model like a man sitting inside man sized grenade.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, some people did. Some people now say it really did look like a grenade. um It's kind of crazy. And it's very small. Like you couldn't even fit two people in there.
00:30:55
Speaker
It's more of what we call submersible, I think, nowadays. Yeah, and those, you know, we know they're scary and they can be yeah dangerous um or unsafe, I should say.
Turtle Submarine Missions
00:31:08
Speaker
the one piloting would sit on like this chair that's kind of suspended sort of in the middle, accompanied ah by about half an hour's worth of breathable air. which you would replenish by ah going like rising again up to the surface.
00:31:25
Speaker
ah There was some stuff said it, it you had to like manually unclench. cap a couple of these bronze tubes in the ceiling that would like flow fresh air in other things that it was kind of set up like snorkels are where it has like a little weighted thing that like when you go underwater it just automatically plugs the air hole so that nothing gets through so yeah there was like a breathing thing but didn't have a lot of fresh air um or breathable air available um nope yeah
00:32:00
Speaker
Then there's also a complex series of pedals, cranks, and hand rudders that allowed said adventurer to move in all three dimensions to be able to sink and rise, move forwards and backwards in turn.
00:32:15
Speaker
And for daytime visibility, he could peer through a series of glass peepholes. um This is one of the things that drew me to it, I guess, and really stood out is because at night, um because of the limited air inside, they can't really have a fire or anything like that. And it's made out of wood. So how how would you see at night? Or how would you ah like...
00:32:42
Speaker
keep your vision and be able to steer in there. um well, they solved that problem after a few trials and ended up putting in um or you had to, like, go and get your bearings based on a barometer and a compass, which ended up being illuminated by foxfire, which is wood infested with a bioluminescent fungus, which would glow in the pitch black water, and then, like a flame, didn't use up any oxygen.
00:33:16
Speaker
So... Damn. They were literally using fungus as, like, glow-in-the-dark shit to be able to see... inside at night which I thought was crazy yeah might as well that's what they do at the bottom of the ocean we know now yeah that's so creative does that term sound familiar that's weird I've never heard of that I don't think I've ever heard it's oh there's there's a film sorry it said said wood infested by it with a bioluminescent fungus so i don't know I thought it was pretty clever
00:33:56
Speaker
Oh, this came up on a podcast because this movie was gay. Anyway, nope, that's... I was listening to Handsome Pod today and somebody asked them what gay coded movies they liked. And I'm pretty sure that's why the name Foxfire sounds familiar because they were talking about an Angelina Jolie movie.
00:34:16
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah, she's in this. Based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel, Foxfire Confessions of a Girl Gay. I don't know. i haven't seen it. um But, like, I've never heard of people harnessing bioluminescence in that way. That's crazy.
00:34:33
Speaker
Right? Like, I've heard of the whole, um
00:34:40
Speaker
like, the radium girls kind of thing where people were, like, doing the makeup or they were painting the watches. and um So they were aware of that kind of stuff, but I've never heard about, like...
00:34:54
Speaker
using the fungus and everything to like, in that way, I thought was kind of interesting and um inventive and creative. Yeah.
00:35:06
Speaker
yeah um Another set of what they called gizmos would allow them to automatically attach the ah underwater bomb at the keel of the ship and set off the clockwork mechanism inside that would later trigger the explosion. So it was on like a time delay so that they could get to safety. They wouldn't blow up as well.
00:35:29
Speaker
Why is clockwork so cool? Yeah.
00:35:32
Speaker
Even the word clockwork, I love it. Right? It's not a cell phone. Call the cell phone and the bomb goes off. No, it's so steampunky, you know? i don't know. Yeah.
00:35:44
Speaker
You're like, this bomb looks... It's not a robot, it's animatronic or a automaton. so Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah. Um... Yeah, so this is literally one of the sources I had from that Atlas Obscura thing that said Lee, who ended up being the pilot of it, um compared the submarine to a clam and modern onlookers might be reminded of a human-sized hand grenade. That's literally what my source said. So when you're like, it looks like a grenade, I'm like, it does.
00:36:17
Speaker
Well, especially in that one picture, because it even has a thing coming off the back that looks like the, ah guess where the pin is or where you hold it. Like, you know, it's the little knob part that comes off a grenade. gotta look at the pictures again, because the spin it's been a in a few days since I looked at them. Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:36:37
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know if that's like the oxygen thing or what. Yeah, yeah it did it's crazy It's little different in one of the other pictures, so it's hard to say. but Yeah, there's... I think a lot of these are the um like recreations based on the sketches and stuff. So there is... There's like three of them I think I ran across and they all look slightly different even though they're all supposed to be the same thing.
00:37:04
Speaker
So, right yeah. Depends on the museum that's like reconstructed it. Yeah. But as far as what Bushnell, the original designer, um thought it looked like, he believed the overall structure bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size joined together, thus its name, the turtle.
00:37:27
Speaker
So when you look up, like, the turtle submarine, this is what comes up. And it's affectionately known the term as the the turtle. So that's kind of cute. Let's see too turtley for the turtle club.
00:37:40
Speaker
Turtle, turtle. So there was a yeah, that's what the description that Alice Obscura had. um Some other information about it.
00:37:53
Speaker
yeah they had pretty good. I like that. Because other stuff was like, oh yes, using. Yeah. um Other stuff was like, yes, and it could go up and down and sideways, but it didn't tell you like how it did it or, um, yeah, it didn't talk about the air that kind of stuff. I was like, oh, that's interesting.
00:38:15
Speaker
like um But a lead ah ballast was used. It was affixed at the bottom to keep it more balanced and upright. Because again, because it's kind of like an oblong shape, it probably wouldn't want to stay upright in any way.
00:38:32
Speaker
so yeah, they did. Yeah, they did weight the bottom of it and that kept it more stable. ah Bushnell and his brother Ezra tweaked the craft repeatedly and Ezra was the main one that practiced piloting it actually um into up until he could maneuver it perfectly and um part lee this was because it required a lot of strength and stamina to steer and David the older brother was kind of more scientific and because Ezra had still been on the farm like for those six years and stuff he was a lot more strong and was able to keep up with
00:39:18
Speaker
Like, the demands of actually being able to steer it in water when it was actually, when they were testing it and stuff. Like, David just was not able to keep up with... You gotta have that strong arm steering, like, when your power steering goes out. Yeah, it's 100% your arms and stuff. Fuck.
00:39:36
Speaker
It was a lot, and he just couldn't keep up with it. So, the brother Ezra ended up being the main one to do it. Oh, Ezra. Yeah. bet he had some big guns. Finally...
00:39:49
Speaker
Probably, yeah. He's far strong. Yeah. yeah ah Finally, in September of 1776, it was put it time to put it to the real test against an actual target, which ended up being the Eagle.
00:40:04
Speaker
um no. Which was a warship. Yeah, i was like, oh, I didn't notice that before. Usually turtle won't win. Yeah.
00:40:16
Speaker
But before the attack could actually be carried out, Ezra ended up getting sick. um Not gravely ill or anything, but he just couldn't end up going through with it.
00:40:27
Speaker
And a replacement pilot. um ended up needing to be found. And I guess a bunch of people volunteered, but this one guy, Ezra Lee, ah he ended up getting chosen.
00:40:39
Speaker
and then unfortunately, he was only given a few practice runs at like navigating and steering um and piloting the turtle before he went into like combat with it.
00:40:51
Speaker
um Some stuff said it was like only a couple hours and other stuff said it was a month. I don't really know exactly the timeline. i'm just like, what do they mean by combat with it?
00:41:06
Speaker
I thought it was to try, I don't know, just to take the blowy, the explosive stuff and they can, they can launch it when they're in there too?
00:41:17
Speaker
No, like they'll have to attach it to like somebody's ship. So, like, they have to go right up beside the ship and, like, attach a bomb to it and then be able to get away before they're spotted. Okay. This is crazy. And they picked another Ezra? What the hell?
00:41:38
Speaker
Yeah. Weird. um Yeah, was like, that's what like, oh, his brother's name's Ezra. Oh, the other pilot's named Ezra. i was like, this is confusing. Tale of two Ezras.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah. ah So the attack occurred on the early morning of September 7th, 1776, when the turtle was used in attempts to attach these three time-delayed bombs to the hull of this British Admiral ah ship.
00:42:10
Speaker
um It was Richard Howe's ship, the warship, the Eagle, um and it was stationed in the New York Harbour. um And this is acknowledged as the first use of a submarine during warfare, um which is kind of cool. um yeah it's like a and he And this Ezra Lee guy is the first the first pilot ever like to you use a submarine. So that's kind of cool too.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's why I was kind of confused because some stuff said that the brother Ezra, he got sick the day before, which was apparently September 6th. And then it was the next day they had already chosen like Ezra Lee and they were like, yeah, he only had like a day to practice in the thing.
00:42:57
Speaker
And then other stuff said, oh, once he got chosen, like... They took him back to where they had developed it and he got to practice for a month. And I was like, but you told me the dates. It was September 6th and September 7th. So how was that a month?
00:43:11
Speaker
Like, don't know. And the fact they're both named Ezra just means like, yeah, it's probably the playing a game of telephone The history of it.
00:43:21
Speaker
yeah um but on this day september seventh the craft was piloted by ezrali who road for like after it got put in the water with him in it he ended up having to row um to get up to the eagle warship uh for about two and a half hours before he made it there so it was a lot they talk about like the stamina being able to row for two and a half hours straight and then you're gonna have to do whatever you need to do and then probably row another two and a half hours right because it has ors
00:43:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's got kind of, it looks like it has like, yeah, like canoeing oars at the side of it Flippers. Yeah.
00:44:08
Speaker
That's so crazy. Yeah. um So while he worked on attaching the bomb to the hull of the ship, he could actually see British soldiers on the deck above and hear them talking like he could hear what they were saying.
00:44:25
Speaker
Um, but because at this time, like, they weren't aware that something like this was possible or expecting anybody to use a submarine and attack them from the water in such a small, um, like, object, they weren't expecting or looking for any attacks coming from below. And because of that, the men failed to notice the turtle. Um, it was like right up against the ship.
00:44:50
Speaker
yeah And Lee had almost attached the bomb um to it successfully when he ran into a problem. i guess his tools were not able to penetrate a layer of iron sheathing or sheeting that um the ship ended up having on the hull.
00:45:08
Speaker
Like they were expecting it to be made out of wood and that he could just drill a hole and like attach it. But that didn't work and he wasn't able um or yeah um lee who was obviously tired from that like two and a half hours of rowing already didn't really have the strength or the knowledge of the um capability of the turtle ah to be able to find another entry point or like come up with a backup plan like he just didn't have enough experience or knowledge about it um so he decided to retreat which ended up catching the attention of the soldiers above who began following him um i don't know if they started like following him in the ship or what exactly they mean by they began following him
00:46:04
Speaker
But um he was able to stop them following him in their pursuit because he ended up dropping the bomb into the water and they saw him do that.
00:46:16
Speaker
So then they didn't want to go near the bomb. um so at least that bought him some distance yeah he was able to get away and they didn't know how long until the bomb was gonna go off and it ended up going off an hour later um and i guess both sides ended up watching as the detonation set a huge massive jet stream of water up into the air but ultimately didn't cause damage to anything
00:46:47
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, so it was like a huge explosion in the water and set up like this big geyser, but there was nobody near it. And then they were all kind of just like, okay, it exploded now.
00:47:01
Speaker
Darn. Anticlimactic. Yeah. Yeah, it kind of is um
00:47:08
Speaker
so The next week, the turtle was used several more times during during attacks against British ships on the Hudson River.
00:47:19
Speaker
But sadly, again, each tanant time, due to different reasons, it failed. um Most of the time it was operator error or because of, like, lack of skill.
00:47:31
Speaker
Just because, like, the people piloting had no idea... um or didn't have opportunity to practice enough with that kind of like vehicle or anything. um Yeah, it was a first. Pioneers. Yeah, yeah exactly.
00:47:48
Speaker
and the only ones who were ever really confidently able to operate the complicated submarine was its eventor Bushnell, and then especially the younger brother, Bushnell.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah. So he never got to do an actual mission? I don't think so. I think they mostly other people used it.
00:48:14
Speaker
Damn. um That's disappointing. Yeah, because it said... Yeah, because the one said Bushnell had become physically frail and was unable to pilot the turtle during any of its combat missions.
00:48:29
Speaker
So I don't know if that's meaning Ezra Bushnell. No, okay. Yeah. um During the Battle of Fort Lee, the turtle um was lost after the American sloop transporting it was sunk by the British. So that's why we only really have recreations of it is because the real, like, original one is actually gone.
00:48:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That would be old.
00:49:00
Speaker
Yeah, very, very old. Sorry.
David Bushnell's Contributions
00:49:05
Speaker
Only have a tiny bit more. Despite its unsuccessful attacks, um George...
00:49:13
Speaker
General George Washington gave Bushnell a commission as an army engineer. And ah I did read a couple things that said George Washington may have actually been on the banks, like watching the first use of the turtle, like when it failed um against the eagle, that like he may have been wash watching it at that time.
00:49:40
Speaker
ah So I don't really know. But he did know about it. And he ended up yeah commissioning David Bushnell as an army engineer.
00:49:52
Speaker
And ah Bushnell ended up later helping to develop drifting mines. And even later was noted to be helping working on to torpedoes and stuff. So ended up becoming a very important...
00:50:08
Speaker
person within the military engineering and everything. This is like the first step towards torpedoes and shit. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, yeah, so a lot of the torpedoes, and first off, I think the drifting mines were probably the first stage of, like, torpedo use.
00:50:28
Speaker
Um, they helped destroy British, um, frigates, and ended up ultimately causing a lot of damage on other British ships during this time.
00:50:40
Speaker
So, nice.
00:50:44
Speaker
Gordo just went, huh!
00:50:47
Speaker
ah okay It was so loud. a Sigh. The life of a cat. It's so exhausting. Sure. He's listening.
00:51:00
Speaker
After the war, he became commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that were stationed at West Point. Okay. his brother, Ezra Bushnell, I don't really know what ended up happening to him after, but he died in 1786.
00:51:20
Speaker
And um David ended up passing in 1826. So, yeah, his, and Ezra was younger than him, so his brother must have died at like, a fairly young age. I don't know what time, when he was born, but...
00:51:40
Speaker
but That's too bad. Wasn't one of them born around 1740 or whatever? i can see. Hold on. i know what year David was born, apparently. um seventeen Yeah, David was born in 1740. So 60, 70.
00:51:56
Speaker
so sixty seventy he died in his 80s? Yeah. In 86? Yeah, he was about 86. So, yeah I don't know how old his brother was, but his brother died 40 years before him.
00:52:11
Speaker
So his brother might probably have only been in his forty s Yeah. Or younger, which is really sad, I thought. um i thought it was kind of nice and cool that Ezra Lee, the one that originally piloted, um he earned a particular distinction as well.
00:52:34
Speaker
um as his ah obituary put it when he died in 1821 saying quote this officer is the only man of which it can be said that he fought the enemy upon land upon water and under the water um which I don't think is true anymore but at the time was definitely definitely an accomplishment yeah I mean yeah i mean Um, yeah, I thought that was kind of cool because that's a pretty big honor as well.
00:53:09
Speaker
Um, and then, yeah, i kind of said it a few times, but there's multiple reconstructions of the turtle that now sit on display at various museums around the world. I think there's like two or three of them that have different ones that they look kind of cool. If you look it up, it looks very, as you said, like steampunk, um,
00:53:29
Speaker
Lots of gears and levers. It's not much bigger than a person sitting in a in a hand grenade. We should use that picture for the for the episode post.
00:53:40
Speaker
Because I don't think I have any pictures. Bushnell's turtle. I just think that's funny. But yeah, that's all I have. Boom. Under an hour.
00:53:51
Speaker
And true to prediction, i have to go pee. That was very good, though. And we'll... Yeah, thanks. i I had fun looking it up.
00:54:04
Speaker
No, I never heard it. Yeah, I hadn't either. And I was like, bioluminescent mushrooms or fungi. I was like, that that's pretty hardcore.
00:54:16
Speaker
ah Yes. All right. we both We will be right back for part two. We will pee right back.
Murder and Mimosas Promotion
00:54:40
Speaker
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00:54:57
Speaker
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00:55:12
Speaker
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00:55:27
Speaker
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00:55:46
Speaker
All right.
Anna Strong and Culper Spy Ring
00:55:48
Speaker
I'm going to tell you about someone called Anna Strong and the Culper Gang.
00:55:54
Speaker
so okay i like to put it together it sounds like a band yeah yeah it is it is weird to try to look up crimes for topics like these and like if you just put in crime you might just get like people's farms being looted and stuff so i just was like oh all all all that came up was like war crimes and like oh um
00:56:28
Speaker
um yeah like these potential war crimes and uh yeah like prisoners of war and treatment and all this stuff i was like oh that's not what i'm intending No, it's like if you try to look up like true crimes in Argentina, but then they just give you like what the crime rate is if you move there because the stats Googled it.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah. And you have to be like murder case or like, yeah. Yeah. um So I kind of, yeah, did what we like to do before. And I was like, I'll see if there's any spies or cool things like that to talk about.
00:57:06
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then I had to be like, oh wait, did we cover this gal? Because then we had both done female spies as before. but oh yeah, yeah, we did.
00:57:20
Speaker
I did Virginia something. I think you did Elizabeth something. So i think we're good. I can't even remember. I know we did a case on it.
00:57:31
Speaker
It was on Patreon. Yeah, and it was a while ago. I know I could barely remember the name of the lady I covered, i think because they gave her a horrible nickname, which was the limping lady after she had to get a prosthetic leg.
00:57:47
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember that. But I looked at that. I think that was like, I think you might have done one from the. Fuck, what was the next war they had?
00:58:01
Speaker
That one with the slavery. Yeah. the civil war thank you was like uh the word is not coming to my head i could just kept thinking like confederate and like continental wow okay so this is anna strong she was born on april 14 1740 oh just like your guy wow what year baby boom um yeah what a good year
00:58:29
Speaker
baby boomm um She was an American patriot and worked as a spy in what was called the Culper Spy Ring. ah but first she was born Anna Smith in a place that I didn't look up the pronunciation for.
00:58:44
Speaker
Setauket. It's in New York. Yep.
00:58:50
Speaker
Who fucking knows? and mary Um, um, oh, he also had a weird name. It's either Sela or Sela. s S E L A H.
00:59:02
Speaker
I'm 10 out of 10 for me looking up things to pronounce them right.
00:59:08
Speaker
Especially you'd always know like when it's some small thing that there's like, well, the locals say it like this. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So she got married to him when she was 20, 1760.
00:59:19
Speaker
twenty seventeen sixty And he was a captain in the militia and a delegate to the first three provincial congresses in colonial New York. Whatever that means.
00:59:32
Speaker
Sounds pretty. Sounds pretty important. I just saw provincial and went, hey, we have those provinces.
00:59:41
Speaker
Damn, the U.S. trying to copy us?
00:59:46
Speaker
Privilege! Get back here!
00:59:50
Speaker
Sorry. so like I really, for the life of me, wish I could remember what the first kid's name was because it was also a terrible name. And I cannot remember it because as soon as she yelled, privilege, get over here. Then I was like, oh, your second kid's name, what? It had to be somewhere.
01:00:12
Speaker
yeah But it was still it it was it was a, was normal kid's name. it was just a really, oh, why'd you name your kid that? But then she came out with Privilege. And I was like, oh, so this is not just a one-off thing.
01:00:29
Speaker
That's rough. But at least the first one was still like a name, you know? It's a name I had heard before. It was just like, yeah. It would be like naming your child Cornelius nowadays. and This is their younger brother, Privilege.
01:00:48
Speaker
I don't get it. the This poor family. And his sister, arrogance. I don't know. i'm just like
01:00:57
Speaker
All these terrible traits. Yeah.
01:01:03
Speaker
Oh, God, one of them. No, I can't stop thinking about the subreddit now. There's so many bad ones. Oh, I'm sure it's endless. Shotgun? Troll all deleted.
01:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, they were like, Dallas. No, it's Cowboy. like, wait, what? I can't remember. I'm sorry. I'm getting off track. Okay.
01:01:27
Speaker
um reining it back in so anna and her husband uh selah i'm gonna say ah got together and start popping up children you know like they do yeah they had like um six living children um because they had had two babies that ah died in infancy, which is obviously common.
01:01:55
Speaker
um But yeah, they were doing pretty good, working on the kids when and when he was first suspected of spying, and they imprisoned him in the it said the sugar house of New York City.
01:02:08
Speaker
Don't know what that means. I don't know. Surprisingly didn't Google it for once. um But they keep sugar, they store sugar there.
01:02:19
Speaker
Maybe. um And they later moved him to be held on the HMS Jersey. So they did imprison him on a ship for a bit.
01:02:30
Speaker
um But then Anna was working her magic. She's bringing him food and she has wealthy family ah Tory connections. So like British loyalists.
01:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. Which I think that word has different connotations in Canada. But yeah, it meant like loyalists. um so she had that wealthy family you know friends in high places she can negotiate his release which is really good was gonna say who's helping her with these like six children yeah she's like come home i will work my fucking family's magic um so then yeah speaking of which he then goes off with the kids he gets released and then he takes the kids off to connecticut um
01:03:18
Speaker
Which I think was farther away from the, you know, like fighting and little bit safer. Yeah. um And Anna stayed home to take care of the property because speaking of property being looted and stuff, like, yeah, you couldn't just leave it alone.
01:03:35
Speaker
had to guard it.
01:03:39
Speaker
So but but boo then ironically, she decides to become a spy. Yeah.
Culper Spy Ring Operations
01:03:46
Speaker
She's like, i will be better at it than you ever were. Suspected of being. Yeah. I don't think he ever was one. but oh damn he wasn't right he was a captain in the militia i don't know uh she's like well we already got accused of it it's already attached your name might as well make it true yeah yeah it doesn't matter he's he's the side character in this story it's all about her and her group which is nice for once no
01:04:18
Speaker
um So she stayed home on the, they actually called it Strong's Neck and it was their hamlet on Long Island. um So that was a good ah cover for them to be in the thick of things, but also just be at her house.
01:04:35
Speaker
um And she was childhood pals with a Benjamin Tallmudge. So she was top of mind when he was tasked with creating a spy group.
01:04:47
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:49
Speaker
I know he thought of his female friend. Good for him. Yeah. ah So this major Benjamin Tallmadge was working yeah or he recruited an Abraham Woodhull and they would provide Washington with key information on British headquarters activity in the summer of 1778. So that's when it started. And then they would continue to supply all the information they could until the British left in 1783. Yeah.
01:05:18
Speaker
Which is yeah it's funny because we always think of it like because just because they signed the Declaration of Independence in 76 that that's like you know when everything stopped but it did not. it's yeah They're still fighting for their independence.
01:05:34
Speaker
It was named the Culper Ring for the code names of the leaders essentially. They were I'm just wording this wrong.
01:05:46
Speaker
So the codenames were Samuel Culper, aka Abraham Woodhull, and Culper Jr., which was a.k.a. Robert Townsend. um So, yeah, they were the ones that was named after.
01:06:02
Speaker
guess I just made up the name Culper ah for their codename. don't Yeah. um And there was other members. Their real names were Caleb Brewster, Austin Rowe, Hercules Mulligan,
01:06:17
Speaker
damn and some say hercules mulligan hercules that sounds like a draft beer or something
01:06:28
Speaker
something all right um and it may or may not have included um what was called she was called townsend's paramour known only today as Agent 355, but she's a very mysterious figure and not a lot is known about this Agent 355 and some sources say that she died in 1780, so wouldn't have been necessarily around to be part of it that whole time.
01:06:54
Speaker
Hard to say. I think I ran across when I was looking up stuff for the American Revolution. I think I ran across them because Robert Townsend sounds familiar. And then I remember looking up.
01:07:08
Speaker
Okay. Agent girl. Yeah. I love that name. It's so very vague. I was like, oh, that's cool. Yeah.
01:07:18
Speaker
Exactly. Like not even a code name, just agent number. Yeah, it would be nice to delve more into that. Cryptic things.
01:07:29
Speaker
We love it. yeah So cryptic, in fact, that even George Washington himself didn't know all their names of the group. And some were even kept so secret. It wasn't didn't come out until after the whole revolution was over until some correspondence was discovered in 1929.
01:07:49
Speaker
so Wow, that's a long time. almost the 50 year kind of thing that they do. The 50 year? Oh, because they can keep some stuff private for 50 years? Yeah. Yeah.
01:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, like they have certain certain things that are like... um Become public information after so long. Yeah. think But that's a long time. That's like a hundred and something years.
01:08:18
Speaker
oh yeah, and then they found some correspondence. Like their names were not written down anywhere. They were smart. Wow. Yeah, that made them they were a highly successful spy ring. They basically made a chain of communication, which we'll get into.
01:08:33
Speaker
um And although several members fell under scrutiny and or were arrested at some point, none were ever outed or executed. so Wow. Good for them. know they did good. Yeah.
01:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. um Plus they had a unique setup compared to ah like what mostly was single person, single trip kind of spy em missions where people would spies or scouts would go behind enemy lines to gather information straight from the source. And it was very dangerous.
01:09:04
Speaker
Okay. Like, like young Ian is an Indian scout on Outlander, but like, yeah you have to go behind enemy lines right into the, the den of the wolves or whatever.
01:09:18
Speaker
Um, and they knew that a, there was a former Yale classmate. There's Yale again. uh, a classmate of Talmadge's who's, who was called Nathan Hale and he had been caught and killed on one such mission.
01:09:35
Speaker
So Ben, uh, Talmadge was determined that that would not happen to his team. So, They all operated basically out of their own homes and businesses, which were peppered over New York, Long Island, and I think up into Connecticut as well.
01:09:51
Speaker
um They would gather intelligence at two main places, Townsend's Tavern and Dry Goods Store. I just want to say haberdashery. yeah score A general store.
01:10:05
Speaker
me
01:10:07
Speaker
ah Or they would do it at Mulligan's Tailor Shop, where ah both places where the redcoats were known to hang out. So they'd listen and they'd gather the information. They would be passed from one member to another in a chain all the way to Washington's HQ.
01:10:24
Speaker
Oh no, it's a game of telephones. Yeah, it kind of is, right? That's what I think I called it that somewhere, but... um Austin Rowe would come to the tavern and slash store to get supplies, ah because he also owned a business, a tavern on Long Island.
01:10:43
Speaker
um So from the first tavern, he would go to Woodhull's Setauket Farm, which was also on Long Island. So...
01:10:55
Speaker
That's how it gets from the first place. And then from the farm, ah the member, the Brewster guy, Caleb Brewster, rowed his whale boat across Long Island Sound to the Connecticut shore.
01:11:08
Speaker
um okay so Brewster would row his whale boat across the Long Island Sound and on his way, as he passed Anna's house, he could see her clothesline. So this is where she would signal to him if there was a message and where to find it um by way of putting things out on the clothesline.
01:11:25
Speaker
Really? What a secret code. Just be like, I'm doing my laundry. i know. I feel like I've heard people like offhandedly mention something like this, but but I had never heard of the whole scheme. I don't know if they this gets, you know, prominent taught in American schools because...
01:11:45
Speaker
Whatever. They like to keep out the fun stuff of history sometimes. Yeah. If I ever got to learn about people being spies in school and social studies, I would have paid a lot more attention.
01:11:57
Speaker
i know. would make history class so much more fun.
01:12:02
Speaker
Yeah. So, okay. So there's ah the signal. If a black petticoat was hanging on the line, it meant a message was waiting for him and to go meet the messenger.
01:12:14
Speaker
um For some reason I kept thinking it said a black negligee and I was like, I don't think they had those then. I don't think she'd be hanging it out in the line. her Her husband's in Connecticut.
01:12:28
Speaker
When she puts out a black brassiere and her ball gag. yeah She left her thong on the clothesline. Just a blowing in the wind.
01:12:39
Speaker
ah Anybody going down the river to see it. Hey boys, my husband's out of town. So are the kids. We kind of like put up a little, it's not really a clothesline. I think, well, it's kind of just wrapped around the porch or whatever.
01:12:57
Speaker
and like you can use it as a clothesline. I don't remember. Pat put it up. But then I do remember our neighbors were having like a party and then we was like, oh I had put out sheets to dry or something because it was like summer. And I was like, oh no.
01:13:09
Speaker
Like, it felt, like, gross. I was like, I gotta go get my dirty sheets, dirty-looking sheets off the line. I don't know. thought you gonna say underwear is hanging up there.
01:13:19
Speaker
No, God. Oh, hi! Oh, yeah, embarrassing. Um, okay. So, oh yeah.
01:13:31
Speaker
So the black petticoat was out, then there was a message and then there would be up to six white handkerchiefs also hung out on the line. And the number of which, uh, corresponded to which of the six codes coves, the, uh, the messenger would be waiting in. So that was where Brewster was to go to get the message. Okay.
01:13:52
Speaker
Wow. What if one of them accidentally blew off the clothesline? He couldn't find that guy that day. Yeah.
01:14:03
Speaker
But no, it seemed to work. they were They said they were very successful, which is like my next paragraph. Nobody's ever past going like, damn, this girl does a lot of laundry.
01:14:14
Speaker
She wears that petticoat a lot. Yeah. Don't they care what women were doing?
01:14:22
Speaker
Women were barely people. I know. I read that cool book about all the, like a bunch of female spies from the civil war. God damn it. Brain fart.
01:14:34
Speaker
Okay. So, oh yeah. The last leg was for Talmadge's dragoons. God, I love it when there's dragoons to carry the reports to Washington's headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey at the time, I guess.
01:14:50
Speaker
um like extremely effective and successful in their work. ah They were more successful than any other network in the war, apparently. um Wow. I don't know that there was many other networks. Like I said, I think it was mostly people, like single people doing it.
01:15:07
Speaker
Yeah. They did manage to foil the British as plans to attack the fresh French troops that had just arrived in Rhode Island one time.
01:15:18
Speaker
So that was good. And they caught secret communication between good old Benedict Arnold and the British. Ever heard of him? Yeah.
01:15:32
Speaker
Guess who meets him in Outlander? Claire!
01:15:39
Speaker
Alright. I'll put a dollar in the Outlander jar. I think you owe like nine dollars. I know! It's like Schmidt's douche jar. Speaking of New Girl.
01:15:52
Speaker
Or whenever we were. um Yeah, so... Okay, so what he was offering was to surrender the American fort at West Point in exchange for ah money and a command in the British Army.
01:16:07
Speaker
£20,000, in fact, was his price. Oh, that was probably a lot. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why he's known as one of the biggest... Turncoats or whatever, but they never, like, they found that out, so they did they foiled the plan, but I don't think they caught him in time to kill him then.
01:16:27
Speaker
don't know.
01:16:30
Speaker
uh i do know he gets caught eventually but yeah they gathered all kinds of intelligence uh such as sketches of forts ship arrivals departures troop activities strength positions and even morale also the status of british supplies um oh here's where i patted it with some lovely quotes
01:16:55
Speaker
The Culper Ring employed several methods of spycraft in its operations. In addition to providing the agents or his agents with code names, Talmadge devised a cipher system for their intelligence reports.
01:17:07
Speaker
Keywords and terms were encoded as a three digit number based upon their position in John Entick's The New Spelling Dictionary, a popular work of the day.
01:17:18
Speaker
So popular. I'm just going to kick back with my spelling dictionary.
01:17:25
Speaker
ah Those reports were also written with invisible ink that required a special chemical compound to be brushed over it to reveal the writing. Oh, classic spy shit. Classic spy shit.
01:17:37
Speaker
Give me that lemon juice. Yeah. yeah That's cool. um Then as I was writing the ah finishing up typing up the notes today then I was watching some the British show Taskmaster and they gave him the clue where the task where they had to secretly give a message to the Taskmaster guy without being caught giving the message and I was like spy shit yeah and one guy just went well now I've just panicked and opened a lemon he didn't know what to do
01:18:14
Speaker
Oh my god. ah So it said, moreover, the reports were frequently embedded in letters addressed to notorious Tory sympathizers on Long Island as an additional step to prevent their seizure by British troops inspecting material carried by Culper agents.
01:18:30
Speaker
So, although it was a reliable method of passing information, it was a bit slower than the spies would have liked in some of the more traditional methods, I guess. Yeah, because it's got go through so many layers.
01:18:44
Speaker
um and to further prove that this quote while this process protected the agents it slowed transmission of intelligence as when reports of an impending British raid on the headquarters of Talmadge's unit the second dragoons arrived after the raid and the capture of intelligence reports and operational funds locked in Talmadge's personal trunk at the scene so that came a little too late and yeah can't win them all Yeah, I don't think anything works 100% of the time, 50% of the time it works 100% of the time, or however that article goes.
01:19:28
Speaker
Alright, this is so funny. I'm almost done.
01:19:35
Speaker
We did it! Under two hours! i guess so, the first one's only 56 minutes. Set off the confetti canyon. Canyons?
01:19:45
Speaker
Cannons. I'm so tired. My eyes are glazing over. I probably look drunk right now. My eyes are so, like, narrow. I feel like I'm looking at you, like, squinting. Your scream froze when you had your hand on your forehead. and No, not again.
01:20:06
Speaker
no it's gone now but yeah it was speaking of looking tired it for a minute it was like oh um yeah yeah that's funny it's like yes this is the episode where you could tell castles and cryptids they just gave up no
01:20:22
Speaker
um no it's good it's good uh there just wasn't very much more on this one don't know um One of the Ring's most important contributions to the war effort was intelligence that saved... Oh, this is expanding on the the French troops that they saved.
01:20:44
Speaker
The fresh French troops.
01:20:47
Speaker
Townsend learned that British General Sir Henry Clinton was preparing some 8,000 troops to attack the French force of approximately 5,800 troops under General Jean-Baptiste Donachan de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau.
01:21:06
Speaker
Fuck, why French names so long? That had just arrived at Newport, Rhode Island on July 11th, 1780. After three months at sea, worn out and sick from the voyage, the French troops likely would have been no match for Clinton's battle-hardened force.
01:21:22
Speaker
Wow, they misspelled Townsend as Taoshend. Okay. Okay. Not my fault.
01:21:31
Speaker
Townsend hid his report on Clinton's plans in a letter to a well-known Long Island loyalist, which Roe transported past the sentries around New York City.
Impact of the Culper Ring
01:21:41
Speaker
It was delivered to Washington's headquarters in Morristown on July 21st.
01:21:45
Speaker
Upon receiving the report, Washington led his troops across the Hudson River and marched towards Manhattan. Oh, that sounds so weird nowadays. Marching towards Manhattan. yeah Learning of Washington's advance, Clinton returned with his troops to secure New York City, leaving Rochambeau free to rest and refit his troops.
01:22:07
Speaker
So that's good. Um, and after they all got to come home and all that, um, Anna was able to reunite with her husband and children.
01:22:18
Speaker
And then I was just gonna say, what's he doing in all this? He's just like, Hey wife, how's it going? She's like, I've been a spy for years. Him and like five people that are his help around the house are helping him take care of the children. You know, there's nannies and, oh yeah yeah, but, um,
01:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, they clearly weren't done, so they came home and made baby number seven. Now, speaking of names, let me give you the rundown of their children.
01:22:52
Speaker
Oh, no. Okay. Okay. Okay, no. They're not bad, did make me giggle. Gertrude. so Gertrude.
01:23:03
Speaker
Bethann. No, I had a grandma Gertrude.
01:23:08
Speaker
um Yeah, the first one I've never heard before, it's Keturah? I don't know. Kind like the dad's name. I don't know how say it. Never in my life. K-E-T-U-R-A-H.
01:23:23
Speaker
Keturah? Then, and the rest are quite normal. But let me just go through them. So, Keturah, Thomas Shepard, Margaret, Ben Franklin, William Smith...
01:23:39
Speaker
Will Smith. These are such a generic name. And baby number seven, George Washington Strong. Isn't that an awesome name?
01:23:51
Speaker
She named like two of them after the founding fathers. And then one of them just ends up being Will Smith, so also as a celebrity.
01:24:01
Speaker
oh when you When you only had biblical names to choose from, eh? good old Good old white names. Yeah, you're like, why do you have two first names?
01:24:15
Speaker
I'm like, good old white names. Poor Will Smith. Sorry, Will Smith.
01:24:20
Speaker
oh I heard a fun fact about him the other day. um or someone on How Did This Get Made was saying how, like... Because wasn't his character called Will on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Yeah. I think.
01:24:34
Speaker
Because he was like... I think so, yeah. He said something like, if you can get them to you know name your character the same name as your name, then at least 20 years from now, when people are yelling your character name down the street, it's your actual name and not like, Penelope!
01:24:51
Speaker
Privilege!
01:24:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'm pretty sure his Yeah, his name's gotta to be Will. I was so sad. I was like three three seasons into watching Fresh Prince when they took it off Netflix.
01:25:07
Speaker
Oh no. Yeah. So yeah, i wasn't watching it anymore. I don't remember how many seasons there are, I don't think there's anything too crazy. Like in some of those shows, they're like, and then they randomly replaced the mother or got rid of a sister. You know, you're like, what?
01:25:30
Speaker
They did. They replaced the mom. Or aunt. Aunt Viv. Is it that one? Oh, okay. I thought maybe that was the S.B. show. Okay. No.
01:25:44
Speaker
Yeah, they replaced the aunt and... okay That's stupid. Yeah. Just like that one on Sense8.
01:25:55
Speaker
They did that one so funny, though. Yeah. At least they acknowledged it. They're just like, hey, you look different. Did you get... He's like, yeah, I have a new barber. And they're like, oh great. Yeah. you look like a different person. And they're kind of like, ha, ha, ha, ha.
01:26:09
Speaker
Other than, yeah, most of them, like, that 70s show just up and replaced the sister and just pretended like it looked like the same person. Like, okay. They're both blonde, but still.
01:26:23
Speaker
um and ah and ah the one source said that Anna went by Nancy. so I was just like, well, that's a weird nickname. That's a totally different name.
01:26:37
Speaker
Yeah, what if I was just like, I'm Alana, I go by Nancy. Like, what?
01:26:42
Speaker
go like Those ones never make any sense. It's longer than your name. Or somebody said that Pearl is a nickname for Margaret. ah think I was the comments of something and I was like, that is weird.
01:26:58
Speaker
Why? No, I'd say Maggie is a nickname for Margaret. yeah yeah or like these are ones i've heard of yeah yep yep then you get those old-fashioned films where they just like it has nothing to do with the original name but that's apparently what we decided yeah
01:27:18
Speaker
oh um yep so that that's that's our episode
01:27:29
Speaker
I'm like, I'm sorry if it wasn't paranormally enough for you guys.
01:27:36
Speaker
but Oh no, this one I think was supposed to be true crime. so are true crime. Right, right. I think this one was supposed to be true crime. That's why we're like, American Revolution crimes, but Yeah.
01:27:49
Speaker
We can lean into the history of podcast. I know. Whenever it's going to be like war-themed crimes, I'm going to do spies. It's just what's going to happen. Yeah.
01:28:02
Speaker
They're just too cool. And I just got like fascinated with the thought of... bioluminescence fungus and then i was like okay i guess i'm covering a submarine like yeah how did you come across that again um i think after i tried looking up american revolution crimes and just came up with ah about a bunch of stuff about like war crimes i think i looked up um oh like um
01:28:34
Speaker
and weird weird moments in American Revolution um or um like funny maybe funny funny things in the American Revolution and stuff so I like i had like a few different things yeah and then people were commenting about yeah like a lot of like affairs that happened or just kind of like other stuff like that and was like oh none of these are super interesting and then um
01:29:06
Speaker
They were just like, yeah, this one guy built this tiny submarine and it failed every time they tried to use it, but it's still famous. And was like, what?
01:29:16
Speaker
I was like, okay, I gotta to look this up. And then when i saw the pictures, i was like, that thing looks wild. Yeah.
01:29:25
Speaker
Horror shit is wild. I forget what we were watching the other day and the like tactics to make these inflatable looking tanks and stuff so that people would think they had way more personnel and equipment and vehicles from afar. I was like, this bizarre that this actually happened in history. And up close, they shoot a gun at it and it just flies through the sky because it's deflating. You're just like, oh. Exactly. It just pops.
01:29:53
Speaker
Oh my God. Yeah. Good times. Good times, you guys. We can always find the weird parts. Yeah, do some weird stuff. History. Yeah. But we're going back to our paranormal-y creepy roots next week. Oh, yeah.
01:30:12
Speaker
Vampires. Yeah. Cases of the cold ones. I'm gonna, I don't have anything yet, so I'm excited to go looking for something because I don't know. Okay.
01:30:25
Speaker
What I'm gonna tell you. Yeah. When I decide on one of mine, I'll let you know who it is. Yeah, I feel like there's definitely some that come up in the true crime kind of world of people that like think they're vampires and stuff. So like it could go any direction.
01:30:42
Speaker
ah Yeah, there's a lot out there. A lot of different ways you can take it. So, yeah. It's always fun to misunderstand the assignment.
01:30:53
Speaker
Yeah.
01:30:56
Speaker
Eh. Gotta have fun. You can't, like, yeah block yourself into a corner too much. No. We never would.
Bi-Weekly Schedule Announcement
01:31:03
Speaker
We just do whatever we feel like. Yeah.
01:31:08
Speaker
Damn straight. And you love it. i almost saidd catch you guys next week, but we are bi-weekly now, so we will be coming out every second week.
01:31:22
Speaker
That's true. this one should The next one would be like the 25th, I think. Yeah. yeah Hang tight or visit us on Patreon. Yeah, we're gonna keeping up with our Patreon monthly episodes. If you guys miss us too much, you can join Patreon.
01:31:40
Speaker
plenty of episodes as long as our normal regular episodes here, sometimes two hours or more, depending on what we're doing. Then drop.
Patreon Exclusive Content
01:31:51
Speaker
ah conspiracy a couple days ago we also have movie reviews recaps watch along things hear our opinions on different true crime documentaries true do reddit stories over there lots of different things we don't yeah lots of things there we don't do over here necessarily exactly you can just be a little more unfiltered sometimes.
01:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, behind the paywall.
01:32:29
Speaker
All right. Well, we love you guys and keep it cryptic. Yeah. Bye. Bye.
Acknowledgments and Promotions
01:32:56
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Castles Encrypteds. We love all our listeners and appreciate every subscriber, every new review, every listen, rate, and download. Our music is by Kobe Off Air and our cover art is by Antonio Garcia.
01:33:10
Speaker
We are also a proud member of DirkCast Network where you can find the best and spookiest of all indie podcasts. Follow us on social media where we are at Castles Encrypteds on mostly all of the things, now including TikTok.
01:33:24
Speaker
Check out our bonus content on Patreon cryptid clashes, video mini-sodes of your hosts making asses of themselves, ask me anything, quizzes, other special episodes, and more.
01:33:37
Speaker
Starting at just $2 a month, you can get one to two extra episodes, depending on your level. We produce, edit, and research everything ourselves, and any support you can lend helps us to keep it cryptic.