Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: The majority of Americans will be pulled over by the
Speaker 1: police for speeding at least once in their lifetime. For
Speaker 1: some drivers, it happens every few weeks. These drivers do
Speaker 1: their best to stay calm in those situations, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how they can get the officer to let
Speaker 1: them off with just a warning. Maybe they break down
Speaker 1: crying to Gardner's sympathy. Maybe they pretend they had no
Speaker 1: idea they were speeding. Maybe they concoct an elaborate story
Speaker 1: as to why they need to get to where they're
Speaker 1: going in such a hurry. But one driver in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles in the early nineteen sixties has all of them beat.
Speaker 1: Before Los Angeles roads were as congested as they are now,
Speaker 1: officers could still catch a speeder or two, and such
Speaker 1: was the case early one morning, when an officer pulled
Speaker 1: a driver over for speeding and asked him to roll
Speaker 1: down his window. The driver complied, but he did not
Speaker 1: look happy. He seemed to be in a hurry. When
Speaker 1: the officer asked him where he was going, the man
Speaker 1: yelled back to my spaceship. Honestly, it seemed like the
Speaker 1: man was out of his mind. But beyond that, the
Speaker 1: officer had no idea what to make of him. The
Speaker 1: driver was unusually handsome, with quaffed hair that allowed for
Speaker 1: a single strand to fall stylishly across his forehead, and
Speaker 1: his outfit was very strange. The driver wore a bright
Speaker 1: green cart again of sorts, with gold rings on the
Speaker 1: cuffs and nothing underneath. On his lapel there was some
Speaker 1: kind of a pin shaped like a triangle. Not knowing
Speaker 1: what to make of it all, the officer asked for
Speaker 1: the man's and that's when it all came together. Somewhat flustered,
Speaker 1: he handed the id back, went to his vehicle for
Speaker 1: a moment to use his radio, and when the officer
Speaker 1: returned to the driver's window, he apologized, and then he
Speaker 1: held up his hand and spread his fingers down the
Speaker 1: middle in a strange salute. Live long and prosper He
Speaker 1: told the driver before sending him on his way. The driver,
Speaker 1: of course, was the actor William Shatner, already in costume
Speaker 1: as Captain James T. Kirk, headed to shoot the final
Speaker 1: season of the television classic Star Trek, and this curious
Speaker 1: story from Shatner's time on Star Trek reveals just how
Speaker 1: ubiquitous the show had already become. Almost anyone could recognize him,
Speaker 1: and if they somehow didn't, then being told his name
Speaker 1: made the pieces fall into place. But why did Star
Speaker 1: Trek have such an impact? Well? TV was still in
Speaker 1: its infancy, so every new show left a mark to
Speaker 1: some degree. With only three channels and set hours of programming,
Speaker 1: Americans bonded over every little detail of every story. However,
Speaker 1: Star Trek was unique among its peers, and not just
Speaker 1: because it took place on a spaceship. The show, created
Speaker 1: by producer Gene Roddenberry, portrayed a utopian vision of the
Speaker 1: future where humanity had put aside their differences, abandoned capitalism,
Speaker 1: and headed to the stars to seek out other civilizations. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it's little wonder that fans united so passionately around a
Speaker 1: show with that sort of message. Most people, both then
Speaker 1: and now believe that our world could become something better.
Speaker 1: To see it portrayed that way on the screen was
Speaker 1: both empowering and encouraging, and that's what has made Star
Speaker 1: Trek such a powerful vision, because nothing is more infectious
Speaker 1: than hope. And if that meant giving William Shatner a
Speaker 1: pass on a speeding ticket, well, I think that's the
Speaker 1: least we can do to an outsider. Australia is a
Speaker 1: hostile place, unforgiving desert heat, with wildlife that can seem
Speaker 1: like something out of a nightmare, especially if you're afraid
Speaker 1: of spiders. It's no surprise that the British chose this
Speaker 1: place for a penal colony while expanding their empire. Anyone
Speaker 1: sentenced to transportation would be sent to the colonies there,
Speaker 1: never to see their home again. But even for the
Speaker 1: Englishmen who saw Australia as a new vision of Hell,
Speaker 1: there was some hope. People had lived in Australia for
Speaker 1: a very long time, long enough that the arrival of
Speaker 1: a global superpower couldn't entirely extinguish them. To the Aboriginal
Speaker 1: people of this continent, the dry and inhospitable land was
Speaker 1: in hell. It was home. It was the British who
Speaker 1: brought hell with them. Transportation to penal colonies would fall
Speaker 1: out of fashion in the early nineteenth century colony by colony,
Speaker 1: although it still had some strange ripple effects even years later.
Speaker 1: In eighteen forty two, for example, explorer and Drew Petrie
Speaker 1: was traveling through Wide Bay by boat. Petrie already had
Speaker 1: amassed quite the reputation as an architect, and for a
Speaker 1: long time now he'd been supervising prisoners until his fascination
Speaker 1: with the landscape of Australia pushed him to become an
Speaker 1: accomplished explorer. These two parts of his life would come together.
Speaker 1: As his boat traveled the Mary River, he encountered a
Speaker 1: tribe of Aboriginals, likely the Kabi Kabi people, and saw
Speaker 1: someone among them who looked familiar. This was a white
Speaker 1: man of about thirty years of age. He was named
Speaker 1: Durham Boy and seemed perfectly at home with the Aboriginal people.
Speaker 1: He was clearly not a member of this tribe, but
Speaker 1: someone who traveled between tribes, speaking many different dialects. One
Speaker 1: dialect he did not know, however, was English. Petrie and
Speaker 1: his company had encountered a number of escaped convicts on
Speaker 1: their travels and saw it as their duty to bring
Speaker 1: back Durham Boy back to the English society. The man
Speaker 1: was understandably quite reluctant to return. He had come to
Speaker 1: Australia in the most adverse of circums stances and did
Speaker 1: not want to hand himself over to imprisonment. Durham Boy's
Speaker 1: English name was James Davis. He was born in Scotland
Speaker 1: and at the age of twelve had been sentenced to
Speaker 1: transportation for stealing from a church box. He served two
Speaker 1: years in New South Wales, only to be convicted for
Speaker 1: theft again and relocated to Moreton Bay, which is today
Speaker 1: known as Brisbane, and it was there still a teenager,
Speaker 1: in February of eighteen twenty nine that Davis made his escape,
Speaker 1: vanishing without a trace. Durham Boy lived for thirteen years
Speaker 1: among various Aboriginal tribes. Ripped from his home in the
Speaker 1: British Isles, He'd found a welcoming community of his own
Speaker 1: out in the wilds. Petri and company were persistent, though,
Speaker 1: and eventually they were able to convince Durhamboy to return
Speaker 1: to Brisbane. Since its days as a penal colony had
Speaker 1: come to an end, reintegration was difficult, though Durham Boy
Speaker 1: was unable to read or write English, so he had
Speaker 1: to relearn his native language, essentially from scratch. The colonial
Speaker 1: Australian press was eager to write about this escaped convict
Speaker 1: who had gone through such an adventure, making Davis a
Speaker 1: minor celebrity. Although we have no way of knowing for sure,
Speaker 1: it seems like he did not relish the spotlight. He
Speaker 1: was tight lipped about his experiences from the ages of
Speaker 1: seventeen to thirty, becoming just another local in Brisbane, and
Speaker 1: then his life began to change. He worked first as
Speaker 1: a blacksmith, and then with the opening of a crockery shop,
Speaker 1: he became a small business owner. His most profitable and
Speaker 1: perhaps controversial occupation was as a guide to settlers, showing
Speaker 1: colonists to desirable land out in Wide Bay. Now we
Speaker 1: have no way of knowing how his former companions among
Speaker 1: the Aboriginals felt about this, or if they had any
Speaker 1: opinion at all. His life seems in hindsight to be
Speaker 1: purely pragmatic, going from place to place in order to survive,
Speaker 1: and there are hints that he didn't completely forsake his
Speaker 1: Aboriginal life. While working in Brisbane, he would occasionally serve
Speaker 1: as a court interpreter for legal care involving aboriginal issues. Perhaps,
Speaker 1: in some small way he felt that he could protect
Speaker 1: the people who had given him a home all those
Speaker 1: years before. Or perhaps it was just another way to
Speaker 1: make money. We can never know for sure. Davis ultimately
Speaker 1: died a wealthy man, although much of his life remains
Speaker 1: a mystery to us today. Whether as an Australian Robinson
Speaker 1: Caruso or a tenacious opportunist, he serves as an example
Speaker 1: of the boundaries that still exist between indigenous and colonial powers.
Speaker 1: He lived a curious life in a difficult world, and
Speaker 1: for a brief moment, showed us that everyone wants the
Speaker 1: same thing, a place to belong. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at theworldoflore dot com, and
Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.