1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, 4 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:22,120 Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: Charles Joseph made cabinets, but he was a musician too. 7 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: He played the serpent, a wooden instrument in the shape 8 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: of a large s, but instruments were expensive in the 9 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: early eight hundreds, and Charles Joseph decided to make one 10 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: for himself. He followed the pattern of another Belgian craftsman 11 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: and soon enough had his own serpent ready for him 12 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: to play. But his budding talent for crafting musical instruments 13 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: wasn't the only thing he was nurturing. There was also 14 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:07,759 Speaker 1: his courtship with Marie. He met her when he turned 15 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 1: his talent for crafting intricate mechanical devices to the service 16 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: of a local factory. He made their spinning machines, and 17 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: he met to his future wife at the same time. 18 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:19,920 Speaker 1: After they were married, he was soon also nurturing his 19 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 1: young son Antoine Joseph. That was a bit of a mouthful, though, 20 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,679 Speaker 1: so the little boy was nicknamed Adolph, the first of 21 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: the family's eleven children, but one of just three who 22 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:32,680 Speaker 1: would grow to adulthood. It was a time of great 23 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:34,760 Speaker 1: loss for the family, but it was a time of 24 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,400 Speaker 1: change beyond them. The factory closed and they moved along. 25 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,039 Speaker 1: They made their way to Brussels, and that's where the 26 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: family serpent business really caught on. And then young Adolph 27 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: watched as his father's work turned from cabinets to clarinets. 28 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: Serpents were followed by flutes and then bassoons. Innovations and 29 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:57,560 Speaker 1: happy accidents were turning the small operation into a veritable 30 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: orchestra stockpile, and each new instrument had a twist, an 31 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: improvement over the reeds and the woodwinds of the past. 32 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:08,799 Speaker 1: Not all the accidents were happy, though, Remember those tragedies 33 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: that turned the family of eleven children to a family 34 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: of just three. Well, Adolph avoided a similar fate by 35 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: the thinnest whisker. For instance, he once fell down three 36 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: flights of stairs and landed hard on the stone floor 37 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: at the bottom. They say he cracked his head. Fortunately 38 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: he was able to recover and It was far from 39 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: the last of his close calls. Once he was burned 40 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: in a gunpowder explosion. I don't know the full story there, 41 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: but it doesn't sound safe. Or there's the time that 42 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: a falling stone from a roof came down on his head. 43 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: It left him with a scar that he would carry 44 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. At the age of three, 45 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,680 Speaker 1: he drank a cloudy white mixture. Maybe he thought it 46 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: was milk, but it turned out to be a poisonous 47 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: slurry of chemical sulfates that could have also killed him. 48 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: But somehow young Adolph survived after he almost drowned in 49 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,639 Speaker 1: a river. Once his mother said he is a child, 50 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: can them to misfortune, He won't live in the area. 51 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: The little boy became known as the little Ghost. It's 52 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: a sad testament to just how dangerous it was to 53 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: escape childhood unscathed. In those days. His hardhead and his 54 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: iron stomach were apparently only matched by the constitution of 55 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,760 Speaker 1: his lungs. A few stories said that on multiple occasions 56 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: he went to sleep with his room filled by the 57 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: poisonous fumes of new varnish. It was a familiar danger 58 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:29,440 Speaker 1: to the family of instrument makers. Maybe it was even 59 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: what had killed some of his brothers and sisters. Whatever 60 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,680 Speaker 1: the case, on each of those occasions, something happened that 61 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: kept young Adolph alive. It had to be a comfort 62 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: to his parents, especially since so many of their other 63 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 1: children didn't have Adolph's sheer luck. Not to mention his 64 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: resilience to bounce back from so much misfortune, but I 65 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: think we can all be glad that Adolph managed to 66 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: pull through. Maybe it was his personality. Some historians have 67 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: said that he was notably fiery, always pushing beyond whatever 68 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 1: ranks were around him and breaking down categories to find 69 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 1: something new. Maybe it was just his good bones. But 70 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: whatever combination of fate and toughness carried Adolf through his 71 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: kisses with death, it also protected the inventiveness of his 72 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: young mind. First, it was turned towards the world of 73 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: music itself. He trained at the Belgian Royal School of Music, 74 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 1: and by all accounts he was a star. Private lessons 75 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 1: on the clarinet made him a virtuoso, but he didn't stay. 76 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: Maybe it was a reminder of just how precious family 77 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:31,279 Speaker 1: can be in the midst of so much loss. But 78 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: something brought Adolf back home. The family workshop was a 79 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: place of tragedy, sure, but also a place of invention. 80 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,159 Speaker 1: And at fifteen Adolf wasn't just wowing people with his 81 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: clarinet skills. He was also showing off his instrument designs. 82 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:48,679 Speaker 1: But he was thinking beyond his father's woodworking. His first 83 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: exhibitions were of flutes and clarinets made in Ivory. When 84 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:54,360 Speaker 1: they came under the eye of the chief conductor of 85 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: the opera house in Paris, he wasn't impressed. He called 86 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:02,160 Speaker 1: Adolf's work barbarian instruments. But the young inventor got wilder 87 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: and more inventive. Still, the standard clarinet has seventeen keys. 88 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,719 Speaker 1: Soon Adolph was showing off a boxwood clarinet with twenty four. 89 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: One of the musicians in Brussels who saw it said 90 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,919 Speaker 1: that he would never play an instrument made by the 91 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: weedy little pupil. What came next was an instrument that 92 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:22,360 Speaker 1: put Adolph's name in mouths all around Brussels, than Paris, 93 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:25,239 Speaker 1: and then everywhere that people were making music in Europe. 94 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: Because he made his next bass clarinet in brass. He 95 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: gave it bends that followed the twists and turns of 96 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:34,360 Speaker 1: his own life. He gave it a sweet and haunting 97 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: honey tone that carried all the sorrow and joy and 98 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,920 Speaker 1: inventiveness of his father's machines and his family's losses. And 99 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,839 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty one, at the Belgian Industrial Exhibition, he 100 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: gave the world the testament to his creativity and the 101 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: prize one from his survival. And it was the thing 102 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: that would in turn survive him, to give life to 103 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,280 Speaker 1: songs and sounds beyond anything he could imagine, and it 104 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: would carry his name, the name of Adolph Sachs, the 105 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: inventor of the new clarinets in brass, the saxophone. The 106 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 1: lives of pirates have been written about and portrayed on 107 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: stage and screen for generations. They were bandits of the 108 00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: sea who took what they wanted, drank heavily, and killed 109 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,479 Speaker 1: people just for the fun of it. Some fairy tales 110 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: would have us believe they were incompetent fools, while popular 111 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 1: novels portrayed them as cunning cutthroats in search of buried treasure. 112 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:43,280 Speaker 1: But no pirate on record was quite like Benjamin. Benjamin 113 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 1: was born in England in the late sixteen hundreds. He 114 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: was relatively unknown until seventeen thirteen. When he started committing 115 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: acts of piracy on the high seas. Many of his 116 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: early efforts were focused on merchant ships sailing near the 117 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,240 Speaker 1: island of New Providence in the Bahamas, and he operated 118 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: exactly as you might expect. He and his crew with 119 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:05,159 Speaker 1: lion waits for the perfect moment when they would rob 120 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:09,479 Speaker 1: the vessels carrying goods to and from the islands. But 121 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: rather than command a massive sailing ship armed with cannons, 122 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: Benjamin and his men traveled by canoes and snuck onto 123 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:18,560 Speaker 1: ships in order to loot and rob them of their 124 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: goods before getting away. But after several years of flying 125 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: under the radar, Benjamin eventually upgraded from those little canoes 126 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:28,160 Speaker 1: to a ship called the Ranger. It was armed with 127 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: thirty cannons, making it the deadliest vessel in the Bahamas 128 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: at the time. The pirate captain traveled with quite the 129 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,679 Speaker 1: entourage back in the day, too. He built his crew 130 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: from a few dozen to almost three fifty across a 131 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,920 Speaker 1: fleet of five ships, and a second in command was 132 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,640 Speaker 1: pretty talented as well, none other than Edward Teach, better 133 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: known to history as Blackbeard, a vicious killer, despite no 134 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: verified accounts of him actually having killed anyone with his 135 00:07:55,400 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 1: own hands. Benjamin developed a reputation for himself as well, 136 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:03,720 Speaker 1: especially among the ships passing through the Bahamas, so much 137 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:06,320 Speaker 1: so that the Governor of South Carolina once sent an 138 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,000 Speaker 1: armed vessel of his own to take down the troublesome 139 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,560 Speaker 1: pirates and bring him back to face justice. But Benjamin 140 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:15,440 Speaker 1: fought back with his massive fleet of armed ships. The 141 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 1: governor's forces soon realized they were outgunned and fled in terror. 142 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: It seemed that Benjamin could not be stopped. However, although 143 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:26,520 Speaker 1: he behaved like a pirate, there was a code that 144 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: he followed. For example, he refused to attack ships of 145 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: the British Empire as he supported the country's economic policies. Instead, 146 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: he only went after enemies of the crown. He also 147 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: liked to drink a lot. On one occasion, he caught 148 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: a merchant ship sailing off the coast of Honduras. As 149 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 1: he and his men stormed the decks, they corralled the 150 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,079 Speaker 1: unlucky crew members, who didn't think that they would live 151 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: to see tomorrow. Swords were drawn, men wept. By the 152 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,560 Speaker 1: time it was over, Benjamin, Edward Teach, and the other 153 00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: crew of the Ranger had relieved the merchant vessel's crew 154 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: of everything they'd come for their hats, and amazingly no 155 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:09,199 Speaker 1: one was killed. According to the tale told by one 156 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: of the passengers who had witnessed the attack, Benjamin and 157 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: his men had gotten so drunk the night before they'd 158 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,880 Speaker 1: thrown all of their hats over the sides of their ship. 159 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 1: They had only boarded the other vessel to find replacements. Unfortunately, 160 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 1: not everyone agreed with Benjamin's Shenanigans nor his pirate code. 161 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 1: Growing tired of only attacking non English ships, they took 162 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: a vote and ousted him as captain. With no crew 163 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:36,839 Speaker 1: of his own and a bounty on his head by 164 00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:40,840 Speaker 1: various governments, Benjamin sought a pardon from King George the First, 165 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:45,160 Speaker 1: who granted it on one condition. The hunted now had 166 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: to become the hunter. The one time pirate was given 167 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: a new mission and a new purpose in life to 168 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: take down other pirates for the British Crown, especially his 169 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,839 Speaker 1: former crewmates. He even went after his old partner, the 170 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: legendary Blackbeard Benjamin Hornegold hunted pirates for almost two years 171 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,319 Speaker 1: until his new ship was destroyed in a hurricane. The ship, 172 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:11,880 Speaker 1: the captain, and all its crew were tragically Lost at Sea, 173 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:18,160 Speaker 1: hats and all. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 174 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 175 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 176 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:30,199 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky 177 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 178 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 179 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,040 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 180 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,680 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 181 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:45,720 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.