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Speaker 1: This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class is

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Speaker 1: and enter offer code history at check out a better

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Speaker 1: web starts with your website. Welcome to Stuff you Missed

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Speaker 1: in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast I'm crazy Vie Wilson and

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Speaker 1: I'm so uh late. This winter, you got to go

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Speaker 1: to the Cayman Islands National Museum in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Right,

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Speaker 1: actually been once before because you're a fancy vacation and

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Speaker 1: the fancy well, I'm a fancy vacationer. But this time

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Speaker 1: we were trying to vacation both fancily and frugally, which

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Speaker 1: is why we spent our time in Grand Cayman walking

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Speaker 1: around and going to the National Museum, which is not

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Speaker 1: a very expensive place to go if you are in

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Speaker 1: Grand Caymans. So I had been there once before, but

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Speaker 1: this time I took Patrick with me. The museum is

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Speaker 1: in the oldest public building in the Cayman Islands. It's

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Speaker 1: one of the very few nineteenth century structures still standing

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Speaker 1: on the islands because they are struck by hurricanes on

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Speaker 1: a regular basis. Um. While we were there, Patrick mashed

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Speaker 1: a button on one of the displays and it brought up.

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Speaker 1: It brought up this video on something called the wreck

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Speaker 1: of the ten Sale. And we started off being like,

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Speaker 1: that's a weird name for a ship, which is why

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Speaker 1: we watched it. And then as we watched this video,

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Speaker 1: we realized that the ten Sale was not the name

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Speaker 1: of the ship. It was ten Sale of ships. So

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Speaker 1: ten ships, a shipwreck of ten ships at once. It

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Speaker 1: was the biggest shipping disaster in Cayman Islands history. And

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Speaker 1: so naturally Patrick said, you should do a podcast on this.

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Speaker 1: So we are thanks to my vacation. So I love

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Speaker 1: a good vacation discovery too. I have them pretty often

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Speaker 1: when I'm on vacation. Uh. And this like the last

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Speaker 1: time I had been um in the museum, there was

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Speaker 1: nothing like that that really sparked my attention that this way,

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Speaker 1: but this one did. Uh. So, just so you have

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Speaker 1: uh some background on the Cayman Islands. These are a

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Speaker 1: collection of islands in the Caribbeans. South of Cuba and

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Speaker 1: northwest of Haiti, and they were uninhabited by humans when

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Speaker 1: Columbus sighted them in fifteen o three after he was

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Speaker 1: blown off course on his last voyage to the America's

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Speaker 1: There is no archaeological evidence of any indigenous people living

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Speaker 1: on these islands, but there certainly were lots and lots

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Speaker 1: of turtles, so Columbus named them last Tortugas. Later they

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Speaker 1: were renamed the camean Us, probably after the carib word

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Speaker 1: for cayman, the alligator like lizard that lives in Central

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Speaker 1: and South America, and this eventually morphed into being the

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Speaker 1: Cayman Islands. They are made up of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman,

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Speaker 1: and Cayman Brock. The Cayman Islands are now famous for

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Speaker 1: their banking and financial industries and being a place to

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Speaker 1: squirrel your money offshore to get it away from the taxman,

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Speaker 1: but until more modern times, the economy was based on

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Speaker 1: more local industries like rope making, and during the Golden

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Speaker 1: Age of piracy, they were also a popular haven for pirates,

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Speaker 1: including Blackbeard. This is what led Prince Philip to say

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Speaker 1: on a visit to dedicate a monument to this disaster

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Speaker 1: aren't most of you descended from pirates? Cracks me up.

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Speaker 1: I love Prince Philip so so the ocean around the

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Speaker 1: Cayman Islands is just full of shipwrecks. Unlike the larger

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Speaker 1: Caribbean islands like Haiti, Cuba, or Jamaica, the Caymans are

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Speaker 1: really flat and low to the ocean, so even in

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Speaker 1: good weather they can be hard to see from far away.

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Speaker 1: And they're also surrounded by really treacherous reefs and right

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Speaker 1: in the middle of a track for major hurricanes. And yet,

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Speaker 1: in spite of all this danger or and kind of

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Speaker 1: a non ideal uh topographical situation, during this part of history,

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Speaker 1: ships traveling back and forth between the Caribbean and Europe

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Speaker 1: routinely went around the Caymans rather than taking the much

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Speaker 1: more direct route between Cuba and Hispaniola. That bit of water,

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Speaker 1: which is known as the Windward Passage, is extremely rough

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Speaker 1: and very windy. I have been through the Windward Passage

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Speaker 1: four times. It has made me seasick every time, and

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Speaker 1: that was in like a great big ship with modern

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Speaker 1: stabilizing technology. So I cannot really imagine how horrible it

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Speaker 1: must have been to go through that little stretch between

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Speaker 1: Cuba and Hispaniola in like a a wooden sailing ship

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Speaker 1: from the eighteenth century. That sounds terrible me, yeah, probably

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a tummy twister. Yeah. So instead

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Speaker 1: of going through the windward passage, they would go the

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Speaker 1: long way around around the Cayman Islands, which could be

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Speaker 1: treacherous but okay if you gave it a wide berth,

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Speaker 1: and then once you got on the other side, gulf

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Speaker 1: stream would speed the ship along its way. So it

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Speaker 1: was a farther journey but easier than going through the

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Speaker 1: windward passage. It did not go so well one night

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Speaker 1: in sev though, and the story of this particular shipwreck

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Speaker 1: starts with the French Revolutionary Wars, during which France was

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Speaker 1: at or with a whole chunk of Europe, including Great Britain,

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Speaker 1: and along with everything else going on, the warring nation's

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Speaker 1: navies were naturally taking one another ships as prizes and

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Speaker 1: trying to protect their own shipping interest by providing naval

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Speaker 1: escorts for civilian vessels. In see the British Royal Navy

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Speaker 1: took the French frigate Inconstant as a prize, and after

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Speaker 1: taking it to Port Royal, Jamaica, the Navy gave it

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Speaker 1: a new crew and put it back into service as

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Speaker 1: the Convert, since there was already a ship named in

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Speaker 1: Constant in the Royal Navy, and the Convert was really

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Speaker 1: too lightly built to survive heavy heavy combat, so under

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Speaker 1: Captain John Lawford it was put into service as a scout,

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Speaker 1: a messenger and also is an escort for merchant convoys.

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Speaker 1: In January of SEO, the Convert was sent to the

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Speaker 1: west end of Jamaica to gather up a convoy and

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Speaker 1: escort it back to England. This convoy was originally scheduled

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Speaker 1: to leave at the end of January, but it was

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Speaker 1: postponed a couple of times, first by a request of

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Speaker 1: the Chief of Magistrates and Merchants, who thought that a

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Speaker 1: later departure date would be better for the merchant community

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Speaker 1: as a whole. Then it was delayed a little bit

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Speaker 1: longer because the winds were very light when they were

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Speaker 1: trying to set sail and it was not enough to

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Speaker 1: get the heaviest merchant ships out of the bay. And

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Speaker 1: when the convoy finally set sail on February six, it

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Speaker 1: had fifty eight ships and all but three of them

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Speaker 1: were bound for Europe and those three were going to

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Speaker 1: various American ports. This sounds like a huge, huge convoy,

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Speaker 1: but this size really wasn't unusual for a convoy at

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Speaker 1: this point in history, especially during wartime. Kind of like

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Speaker 1: a stick together. If you wanted to wait for a

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Speaker 1: military escort, you pretty much had to go when that

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Speaker 1: was going to be a aable to you. Lawford's orders

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Speaker 1: were to set the pace to that of the slowest ship,

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Speaker 1: and then to keep the convoy together at all costs,

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Speaker 1: and he did this by ordering all of the merchant

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Speaker 1: ships to stay behind the convert which would occasionally fire

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Speaker 1: its guns to warn merchants that started to creep ahead

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Speaker 1: of it. And under normal circumstances, a ship of this

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Speaker 1: era leaving Jamaica would pass the Caymans within twenty four hours,

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Speaker 1: and theoretically that should have been possible even with such

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Speaker 1: a large convoy. But one of the merchant vessels was

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Speaker 1: leaky and the convoy had to lie to twice while

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Speaker 1: it was bailed out, and even though they picked up

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Speaker 1: speed to try to make better time, when the sun

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Speaker 1: went down on the seventh they had seen no side

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Speaker 1: of land. This was a very dark, cloudy night, and

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Speaker 1: as midnight approached the sailing master, who was named Thomas Popowell,

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Speaker 1: calculated that they should be safely past the Caymans, with

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Speaker 1: at least seven leagues between the convoy and the treacherous reefs.

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Speaker 1: Papowell also suggested that they needed to alter their direction

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Speaker 1: a little bit to compensate for very northerly winds, so

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Speaker 1: that they would stay on their course, which was sort

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Speaker 1: of aimed at the western tip of Cuba, and based

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Speaker 1: on Papowell's recommendations, Lawford gave the order. Papa Well relieved

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Speaker 1: him for the night, and he went below. At about

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Speaker 1: three a m. Two shots were fired from one of

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Speaker 1: the civilian ships. Papawell went below, he woke La, offered up.

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Speaker 1: They went back up. Both of them thought that this

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Speaker 1: was a distress call from one of the ships behind them,

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Speaker 1: but when Lawford got on deck again, he realized that

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Speaker 1: several ships had passed the Convert in the night, apparently

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Speaker 1: without anyone aboard the Convert, realizing the shot had come

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Speaker 1: from one of the ships that was ahead of them,

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Speaker 1: not a ship behind them, and at the same time,

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Speaker 1: someone on watch called that there were breakers ahead. In

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Speaker 1: Lawton's words, they quote appeared in every direction and I

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Speaker 1: could not tell from the darkness of the night to

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Speaker 1: what extent they might run. So, knowing that the breakers

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Speaker 1: meant they were all in imminent danger, the Convert tried

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Speaker 1: to take a vase action. This was a really nimble ship.

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Speaker 1: It was a light and fast French ship, and according

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Speaker 1: to the captain, they really would have been fine. But

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Speaker 1: almost immediately Lawford realized that they were on an inevitable

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Speaker 1: collision course with one of the merchant ships that was

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Speaker 1: also right next to them. The two ships struck each

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Speaker 1: other and their crews managed to separate them, but only

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Speaker 1: for the Convert to then be struck again by the

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Speaker 1: other ship. And about this same time, Papawell tried to

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Speaker 1: sound the depth of the water, but as he did,

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Speaker 1: the Convert ground against the reef. The crew tried to

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Speaker 1: lighten the frigate by taking down the masts, but the

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Speaker 1: damage was already done. The bilge was filling up, and

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Speaker 1: the captain had to give the order to abandon ship.

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Speaker 1: And before we talk about what happened next, it's exciting

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Speaker 1: middle of the night shipwreck. Let's take a moment. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's take a moment and talk about a sponsor. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So it was clear even in the middle of the

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Speaker 1: night that that multiple ships had wrecked, and they started evacuating,

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Speaker 1: either with their own boats or with canoes that were

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Speaker 1: rowed out from the island. So survivors who were in

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Speaker 1: the water made rafts out of flatsam and jetsam to

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Speaker 1: try to get to shore, but the going was really rough.

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Speaker 1: It was the middle of the night, the sea was

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Speaker 1: extremely choppy, and the wind was blowing right at the reef,

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Speaker 1: so the ships that had avoided this pile up could

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Speaker 1: not risk approaching to assist, and sailors from the Convert

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Speaker 1: who managed to make it into the ship's boats were

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Speaker 1: picked up by other vessels. About twenty of the Converts

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Speaker 1: crew decided to wait aboard the disabled ship for rescue

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Speaker 1: rather than risk the canoe passage to land at night

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Speaker 1: in the dark. Yeah, I can kind of imagine them

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Speaker 1: being let you huh, that is not happening. Uh. The

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Speaker 1: men who made it to shore made huts and tents

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Speaker 1: from the wreckage and then used the Converts boats to

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Speaker 1: try to salvage provisions and other equipment, but there was

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Speaker 1: really not a lot they could do in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the night. The sharp coral was destroying their ropes

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Speaker 1: as they were trying to haul things, and the sea

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Speaker 1: was so rough that even really strong swimmers were having

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Speaker 1: trouble managing it. When the sun came up, they saw,

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Speaker 1: in Lawford's words, quote, a most melancholy scene, seven ships

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Speaker 1: and two brigs on the same reef, with the convert

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Speaker 1: a very heavy sea running, and the wind blowing directly

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Speaker 1: on the shore. Those seven ships and two brigs were

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Speaker 1: the William and Elizabeth, the more Haul, the Ludlow, the Britannia,

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Speaker 1: the Richard, the Nancy, the Eagle, the Sally, and the Fortune.

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Speaker 1: The Ludlow was sadly a fine new vessel on her

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Speaker 1: first voyage, according to an advertisement that had been placed

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Speaker 1: in Kingston, Jamaica the December before advertising its place in

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Speaker 1: the convoy and the more Haul so sadly was full

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Speaker 1: of quote, flour, ham, cheese and potatoes for sale, although

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Speaker 1: most of the perishables were lost after the wreck. I

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Speaker 1: feel like we should have a moment of silence for

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Speaker 1: them and cheese, well, and the potatoes. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of casserole it was lost at sea, not to belittle

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Speaker 1: the loss of the other things, but yeah, even with

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Speaker 1: the benefit of daylight, the conditions on the water weren't

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Speaker 1: much better than they had been during the night before.

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Speaker 1: Rough swells and the constant wind meant that even though

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Speaker 1: visibility was better, the forty eight undamaged ships in the

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Speaker 1: convoys still couldn't approach to offer any help. Locals from

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Speaker 1: the island spent the whole day of February eight in

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Speaker 1: a canoe based rescue operation, and by the time the

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Speaker 1: sun went down again, most of the survivors from the

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Speaker 1: wrecked ships had been brought to shore. Also on the

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Speaker 1: eight Lawford talked to fishermen into delivering a letter to

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Speaker 1: the unwrecked ships, instructing them to go westward to Hogsty

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Speaker 1: Bay on the Lee side of the island, which is

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Speaker 1: off of Georgetown. The water would be calm there and

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Speaker 1: they could all basically just wait at anchor for a

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Speaker 1: new escort. Nine of the ships did this, and the

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Speaker 1: rest of the convoy continued on unescorted. On the ninth,

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Speaker 1: Lawford set off from gun Bluff on the east end

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Speaker 1: of the Grand Cayman, where they were camped, to Georgetown,

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Speaker 1: planning to send word to the Admiralty and make arrangements

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Speaker 1: for the conboy. While he was there. This was basically

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Speaker 1: the opposite end of the island. He arrived on the

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Speaker 1: eleventh and posted his various letters to sort of give

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Speaker 1: you an idea of how small Grand Cayman is. He

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Speaker 1: did this on foot in two days, until you walk

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Speaker 1: the whole island. On the twelve he was met in

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Speaker 1: Georgetown with a petition signed by eight residents of Grand

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Speaker 1: Cayman who were asking for the passengers from the wrecked

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Speaker 1: vessels to be quote immediately removed from this island as

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Speaker 1: soon as possible. The huge influx of shipwreck survivors had

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Speaker 1: the residents pretty much panicked. There were only about nine

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Speaker 1: hundred people living on the island at this point, and

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Speaker 1: shipwreck survivors had increased the island's population by more than half,

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Speaker 1: so at least four hundred people now feel a little crowded,

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Speaker 1: a little crowded. On top of all that, in the

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Speaker 1: words of the petitioners, it was quote morally impossible for

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Speaker 1: the inhabitants to support themselves. This was because of a

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Speaker 1: huge hurricane had struck the islands the past October, so

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Speaker 1: it was sort of like we're in dire straight already,

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Speaker 1: and you guys have just made our population half again

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Speaker 1: as big we cannot manage this. In response to this petition,

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Speaker 1: Lawford divvied the survivors up. He sent them to the

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Speaker 1: ships at Hogstie Bay and wrote letters to their captains

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Speaker 1: repeating this quote morally impossible language. He begged the captains

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Speaker 1: to remove their ships immediately, and he also wrote introductory

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Speaker 1: letters to the Governor of Havanah requesting aid for any

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Speaker 1: of the ships that should make their way there on

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Speaker 1: route back to England. Having handed all this correspondence and arrangements,

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Speaker 1: Lawford then went back to the camp on gun Bluff,

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Speaker 1: and there he and about twenty of his men carried

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Speaker 1: out a salvage operation for the next six weeks. In

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Speaker 1: the end, they were able to get quite a lot

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Speaker 1: from the wreckage, including sales, rope, tools, ammunition, and artillery swords,

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Speaker 1: pikes and axes. Nearly everything perishable was lost, though, and

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Speaker 1: many of the Convert's original French cannons sank to the

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Speaker 1: sea floor. Only five men from Convert were killed in

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Speaker 1: the wreck, along with three people on other ships, one

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Speaker 1: of whom was the master of the Britannia. Several people

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Speaker 1: died of illness in the wake of the disaster, though

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Speaker 1: but considering that there were ten ships involved in this shipwreck,

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Speaker 1: the death toll was remarkably small. All nine of the

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Speaker 1: ships that had rendezvoused at Hogstey Bay and their newly

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Speaker 1: increased crew and passengers made it safely back to England.

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Speaker 1: Two of the others that left previously unescorted, they were

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Speaker 1: a little less fortunate. One was taken by a French

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Speaker 1: privateer and another was captured by the French Navy. And

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Speaker 1: then there are consequences, of course, because this incident had

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Speaker 1: been so huge and had involved a navy vessel, it

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Speaker 1: led to a court martial on April one. See The

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Speaker 1: court martial was held aboard the h M S Success,

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Speaker 1: which was anchored off Port Royal, Jamaica. Lawford's defense was

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Speaker 1: that this entire thing would have been completely prevented if

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Speaker 1: the ships and the convoy had stayed behind the like

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00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:04,080
Speaker 1: they were supposed to from the beginning. He insisted that

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Speaker 1: had the convert been at the front of the convoy,

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00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,359
Speaker 1: it was a nimble enough that it could have evaded

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Speaker 1: the reef and steered the rest of the convoy away

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Speaker 1: from it. Even if they had gotten as close to

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Speaker 1: the reef as they did before wrecking. The first Lieutenant

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Speaker 1: b Bogue and second Lieutenant William Earnshaw were questioned as well,

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Speaker 1: asked by the court to give their account of what

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Speaker 1: had taken place, and each was cross examined by Lawford,

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Speaker 1: who asked about whether they had seen the master of

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00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:32,760
Speaker 1: the ship used the sextant to figure out their latitude,

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00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:35,640
Speaker 1: whether the signals had been flown to instruct the other

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00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,320
Speaker 1: ships to stay behind them, whether they had the fire

303
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:41,000
Speaker 1: shots to warn ships to get back behind them, and

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00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:45,200
Speaker 1: additional questions of a similar nature that the third lieutenant

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Speaker 1: I also kind of want to say lieutenant every time

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Speaker 1: because we're talking about English people. Um. The third lieutenant

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00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,160
Speaker 1: was also called and sworn, but he had not been

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Speaker 1: on duty because of an injured arm, so he was excused.

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00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:01,680
Speaker 1: Mr Popplewell was question on the matter of the log book,

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Speaker 1: which had been found to contain no record of the

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00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:06,880
Speaker 1: distance traveled the day before the wreck. He was also

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00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,439
Speaker 1: questioned about his knowledge of the region and the route,

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Speaker 1: even though it hadn't been in the log. Papowell was

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Speaker 1: able to tell the court their latitude as of his

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Speaker 1: last reckoning, and he insisted that the difference in their

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00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,200
Speaker 1: position was because of unexpectedly strong currents that had carried

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Speaker 1: them off course during the night. Then there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of back and forth questioning on the matter of

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Speaker 1: the log book commission, and the master's mate and the

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Speaker 1: midshipmen were called, and Lieutenant bog was called for a

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Speaker 1: second time, and they were both cross examined, also by

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Speaker 1: the captain. None of them knew the reason for the

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00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:42,359
Speaker 1: omission and the log but they all had every reason

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Speaker 1: to believe, according to their statements, that the measurements had

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Speaker 1: been correct and that the sextant had been accurate. Then

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Speaker 1: Mr Davy, master of the ship's success, was called and

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Speaker 1: asked by the court to give the latitude where the

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00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:58,920
Speaker 1: wreck had happened. Lawford cross examined him, asking him how

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Speaker 1: he found the currents leading north from Jamaica to the

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Speaker 1: Caymans during his own voyages, and he said he found

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Speaker 1: them to be very strong and it had put them

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Speaker 1: off their reckoning by nine or ten leagues. I kind

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Speaker 1: of I like, you know, a Lawford's kind of like

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00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:16,720
Speaker 1: you you found this to be like extraordinarily strong current,

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Speaker 1: did you not? We shirted. In the end, Lawford and

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Speaker 1: his crew were acquitted, and here is the statement on

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Speaker 1: that quote, The Court, having thoroughly examined into the several

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Speaker 1: circumstances attending the same, and having maturely and deliberately considered

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Speaker 1: the whole, is of the opinion that the misfortune was

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Speaker 1: occasioned by a strong current setting the ships very considerably

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Speaker 1: to the northward, and they're reckoning. And doth therefore a

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Speaker 1: judge that the said Captain Lawford, commander of His Majesty's

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Speaker 1: late ship, the Convert, the officers and the company of

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Speaker 1: the said ship, be acquitted. And they are hereby acquitted accordingly.

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Speaker 1: And this incident didn't really effect Lawford's career. He continued

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Speaker 1: to command ships, and he eventually became an admiral. So

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00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 1: weather and science have dredged up lots of new information

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00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,879
Speaker 1: about this two twenty year old shipwreck. Shipwrecks plural of

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Speaker 1: ten ships uh in the last fourty y or so years.

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Speaker 1: Coral encrusted cannons started showing up around town on the

351
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,639
Speaker 1: east end of Grand Cayman in the nineteen seventies, and

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Speaker 1: the locals had lots of stories to tell about cannons

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Speaker 1: in the water where they had played as children. These

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00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:30,720
Speaker 1: weapons all board dates of seventeen eighty one, as well

355
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,600
Speaker 1: as French markings. An archaeological survey by the Institute of

356
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,920
Speaker 1: Nautical Archaeology in nineteen eighty confirmed that there were six

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00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,639
Speaker 1: more large pieces of artillery still in the sand. The

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00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,080
Speaker 1: weapons themselves all seemed like they probably came from the

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00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:48,399
Speaker 1: Convert uh it had kept its French artillery when it

360
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:51,119
Speaker 1: had been put into service for Britain, and a study

361
00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:53,800
Speaker 1: of the reef line the same year also found evidence

362
00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:57,000
Speaker 1: of where the Convert had to run aground. And still more,

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00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:01,000
Speaker 1: in that same year, Hurricane Allen unearthed more wreckage in

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00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,480
Speaker 1: that same part of the ocean. There are more than

365
00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,560
Speaker 1: twenty shipwrecks in the area, and surveys of all of

366
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,240
Speaker 1: them pinpointed six that are probably from the wreck of

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00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:15,000
Speaker 1: the Ten sail Ashore Archaeologists found all manner of pottery, shards, glass,

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00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 1: and naval hardware suspected to be from the survivor's camp.

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Speaker 1: As you recall, they gathered up stuff and built a

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00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,159
Speaker 1: camp out of the salvage wreckage, and then they did

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00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:27,119
Speaker 1: their salvage work for about six weeks from there. Field

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00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 1: work into all of this continued for about a decade,

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00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:33,480
Speaker 1: and then correspondence with naval scholars from France confirmed that

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00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,080
Speaker 1: the cannons that were there on the seafloor would have

375
00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:40,040
Speaker 1: been aboard the Inconstant before it was pressed into English service.

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00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: Margaret LEAKR. Denton and archaeologists serving with the Cayman Islands

377
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 1: and National Museum conducted a survey of cannon salvage from

378
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,600
Speaker 1: shipwreck sites and followed it up with an extensive underwater

379
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,919
Speaker 1: survey of thirty shipwrecks along a three mile stretch of

380
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,639
Speaker 1: sea floor near the east end. She identified one site

381
00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,560
Speaker 1: as the probable convert and a collection of others that

382
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:03,440
Speaker 1: are probably some of the merchant ships. And she found

383
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,480
Speaker 1: some other previously unknown shipwreck sites from the nineteenth and

384
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,920
Speaker 1: twentieth centuries in the process. So while looking for these

385
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,040
Speaker 1: additional history was unearth that happened. And when we were

386
00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:16,119
Speaker 1: saying that, you know that the ocean around the Cayman

387
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,720
Speaker 1: Islands is full of shipwrecks. Thirty shipwrecks along a three

388
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 1: mile stretch, Yeah, a lot of shipwrecks. That's one of

389
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: the reasons why if you go on vacation to the

390
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:30,360
Speaker 1: Cayman Islands, one of the things that will be advertised

391
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: is uh like snorkeling and scuba diving in shipwrecks. Glass

392
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,679
Speaker 1: bottom boat rides to like a shipwrecks. There's a lot

393
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,320
Speaker 1: of shipwrecks are an industry. Shipwreck tourism in addition to

394
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 1: hiding your money from from from taxa, from Texas, Okay.

395
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:51,919
Speaker 1: A couple of legends grew out of this shipwreck and

396
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,359
Speaker 1: have persisted until today. One is that in the years

397
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,679
Speaker 1: after the wreck of the Tame Sale, fashion completely changed

398
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 1: on island as locals retrieved bolts of identical class from

399
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 1: the wreckage and then used them to make their own clothing.

400
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:09,160
Speaker 1: I love that. I thought you might as have mentioned textiles.

401
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 1: The other legend is that there was a prince or

402
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 1: another dignitary aboard one of the ships, and George the

403
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:18,440
Speaker 1: third declared the islands to be free from taxes and

404
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,840
Speaker 1: the conscription out of gratitude. And this is almost certainly

405
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:24,560
Speaker 1: a made up story. Yeah, it's much more likely that

406
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:28,359
Speaker 1: there there were so few people in the Cayman Islands

407
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 1: for so many years that it wasn't They were not

408
00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 1: really making any kind of income for a long time.

409
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: Probably kind of grew from there. Queen Elizabeth the second

410
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:44,840
Speaker 1: visited the Island and unveiled a commemorative park in anniversary

411
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: of the massive shipwreck. And that is the story a

412
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,679
Speaker 1: lot of ships, so many ships. Well, and it's one

413
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: of those things where it's the wreck of ten Sale,

414
00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,760
Speaker 1: but there were so many other ships involved. Yeah, because

415
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: of the this giant convoy that when you think about

416
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,160
Speaker 1: how many people were kind of there at the next point,

417
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,119
Speaker 1: all at once while it was going down late in

418
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:14,680
Speaker 1: the night. I got this this book that was put

419
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,760
Speaker 1: out by the Cayman Islands National Archive and Cayman Free

420
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:22,400
Speaker 1: Press Um that collects reproductions of all these historical documents

421
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: about the wreck. And you can hear Captain Lawford's exasperation

422
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 1: when he's like writing out his his descriptions of what happened,

423
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,959
Speaker 1: of like, if only these stupid merchant ships had just

424
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,239
Speaker 1: stayed behind me like they were supposed to, instead of

425
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:40,960
Speaker 1: me having two babysit them like a bunch of little children,

426
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 1: none of this would have happened. Well, I also have

427
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 1: a question that's like how did no one notice? I

428
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 1: have that question also, and that was not satisfactorily answered

429
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: and any of the research that I did of like

430
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,160
Speaker 1: how nobody I feel like Papa Well, maybe should have

431
00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 1: taken some blame because wasn't he on Yeah he was happening. Yes,

432
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: what was he doing? Maybe he was napping. But even so,

433
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: there would have been other people on deck too. That

434
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,639
Speaker 1: is the weirdest part of this whole story is like

435
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 1: how at least nine ships got ahead of them and

436
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 1: and wrecked without anyone noticing that anyone was ahead of them.

437
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a dark night, but that does

438
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: seem a little. It seems like a lot. That seems

439
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: like a lot of ships to pass you in the

440
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: night without you noticing. So anyway, wreck of the fan

441
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:37,280
Speaker 1: sale thanks to my vacation. Hey, I also have some

442
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,399
Speaker 1: listener mails people share it. This is from Sarah, and

443
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:42,880
Speaker 1: Sarah says, Dear Tracy and Holly. I'm a big fan

444
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,080
Speaker 1: of the podcast and have been listening for years, but

445
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,919
Speaker 1: have never before written in. I love to listen as

446
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,119
Speaker 1: I walked the twenty minutes to the hospital each morning

447
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:52,359
Speaker 1: and back home each evening, as well as on runs

448
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,399
Speaker 1: with my dog Watson. I felt compelled to write in

449
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 1: after listening to your fabulous podcast on Elizabeth Blackwell. She's

450
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:01,919
Speaker 1: one of my favorite influential women of history and as

451
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 1: a female medical student. I greatly admire her for her

452
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 1: work for gender equality in the medical profession. Her life

453
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: story also resonates with me because I'm also a non

454
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 1: traditional medical student. I was an English major and went

455
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:17,199
Speaker 1: on to obtain my MPH before beginning medical school this

456
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 1: fall at RUSH. I'm also an incident in the Navy

457
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: and a recipient of a of an hp SP scholarship.

458
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 1: Luckily for me, Rush Medical College, named after Benjamin Rush,

459
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 1: who is featured in a saw Bones podcast, recruits many

460
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 1: non traditional students. At RUSH, I am one of the

461
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: student leaders of the a mw A, the American Women's

462
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: Medical Association. So I want to take some time to

463
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,720
Speaker 1: remark upon some of your statements regarding the percentage of

464
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:45,160
Speaker 1: female physicians currently in practice. You were correct that about

465
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 1: thirty five to thirty six percent of physicians are currently women. Notably,

466
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: this percentage will gradually increase over time as my generation

467
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,159
Speaker 1: joins the workforce, because most medical schools now enroll in

468
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,360
Speaker 1: equal proportion of men and women. However, I also wanted

469
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 1: to draw attention and to the representation of women in

470
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 1: certain specialties. You commented that you thought the percentage of

471
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 1: women physicians was higher because you see female GPS regularly.

472
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: This navy because the percentage actually is higher in primary care.

473
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:16,720
Speaker 1: Women are more represented in non surgical specialties and primary

474
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:18,960
Speaker 1: care as well as O B g y N. She

475
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: said has in pre sees of women residents are in

476
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: four specialties internal medicine, pediatrics, family practice, and O B

477
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: G y N. However, women remain underrepresented at higher levels

478
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 1: of academic medicine and executive positions. And then she cited

479
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,120
Speaker 1: her source for this information, which makes me very much

480
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 1: love Sarah. I just love it. She started in English

481
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 1: major that too, like I could not have gone from

482
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: that to becoming a medical student. I could not become

483
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 1: a medical student because I have problems with vomit. Source

484
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 1: was from past to present the changing demographics of women

485
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: in medicine from AO dot org. So back to the

486
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:03,199
Speaker 1: letter proper. The subject of women and specialties is a

487
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: heavily debated topic, as many people argue that these differences

488
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: are a disparity, where whereas others speak to differing gender

489
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 1: roles and attributes that drive women to these fields and

490
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 1: not others. I personally believe that women should be granted

491
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 1: every opportunity to pursue the specialty of their choice without

492
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: fear of discrimination because of their gender, and that all

493
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 1: physicians should be granted the opportunity to have both meaningful

494
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: home lives and pursue their career aspirations. I hope this

495
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 1: email wasn't too long, No, it was not. And then

496
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: just be feel free to share if these togethers will

497
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 1: be interested that keep up the good work. Oh and

498
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:41,120
Speaker 1: then also pictures of a puppy. Thank you, Sarah. That's

499
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: really cool. It is really cool, and I I I

500
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: think I knew the basics of the said that there

501
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: are more women in primary care and more women O

502
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: B G n's which, of course you the two that

503
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 1: I see most often and now thinking on it, usually

504
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: when I've had to see a specialist for some reason,

505
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: like when I've had to go to the orthopedist, or

506
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: you and I have both had to go to the

507
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: sports podiatrist. I was just there Friday and I had

508
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:12,840
Speaker 1: to go to an ophthalmologist. Ones and surgeons are often Yeah,

509
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: all of those doctors have been male, and most of

510
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: my dentists have been male, but my yeah, generally I

511
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 1: have chosen. I think I've only seen one female dentist. Yeah,

512
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 1: I see lots of female hygienists. That's clearly a gender

513
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: there's definitely a balance of gender difference between for sure,

514
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: between hygienists and dentists, and also at the orthodonist office,

515
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 1: between the orthodontist and that whatever the technician. The technicians

516
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 1: are so yes, thank you so much for writing, Sarah. Yeah,

517
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I'm sure there have been tons of studies

518
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: done on how um gender separation happens across medical fields. Yeah.

519
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can.

520
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 1: We were at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. M

521
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