1
00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,400
Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production

2
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:13,560
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world

3
00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,360
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an

4
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,880
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there

5
00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:26,920
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to

6
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:37,920
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. The ocean is a dark and

7
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:41,600
Speaker 1: mysterious place. One can get disoriented, bobbing like a cork

8
00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:44,199
Speaker 1: in the water with no land in sight. Sailors who

9
00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:47,400
Speaker 1: are dehydrated or sleep deprived have been known to hallucinate,

10
00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,720
Speaker 1: seeing ships, islands, and even people that aren't really there,

11
00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,200
Speaker 1: and history is riddled with tales of vessels turning up

12
00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:57,440
Speaker 1: with their crews missing or a lone survivor who can't

13
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,320
Speaker 1: remember what happened next. Ships have ways of signaling for help,

14
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,480
Speaker 1: of course, from flares to radios and even satellite phones nowadays.

15
00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,640
Speaker 1: But back in the nineteen forties, one ship in distress

16
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,800
Speaker 1: didn't have a radio or a telephone, and it didn't

17
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:15,160
Speaker 1: shoot a flare into the sky either. It sent a harrowing,

18
00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:18,480
Speaker 1: cryptic message in a last ditch effort for help that

19
00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:22,880
Speaker 1: came too late. What followed could not be explained it

20
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,399
Speaker 1: started well, No one is quite sure about that. The

21
00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,200
Speaker 1: event was said to have occurred in seven with a

22
00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,520
Speaker 1: cargo ship named the S. S. Orange Madon sent out

23
00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:35,240
Speaker 1: a distress call. It was a forty year old steamer

24
00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:39,240
Speaker 1: whose name in Malaysian translated to Man of Madon. Much

25
00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:41,200
Speaker 1: of the twenty three man crew was made up of

26
00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:44,319
Speaker 1: native Indonesians, but whether they had just set out or

27
00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:48,280
Speaker 1: were returning home is not known. The ship was traveling

28
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:51,600
Speaker 1: through the Strait of Malacca, a narrow passage separating the

29
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,400
Speaker 1: Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. On

30
00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:57,720
Speaker 1: a faithful day in June. A message was sent from

31
00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:00,920
Speaker 1: the Orange Madon in Morse code that scots and dashes

32
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:06,160
Speaker 1: translated to we float. All officers including the captain dead

33
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,440
Speaker 1: in chart room and on the bridge, probably whole of

34
00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:14,519
Speaker 1: crew dead, followed by the words I die. No other

35
00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,400
Speaker 1: details followed. That was the last thing transmitted by the

36
00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,320
Speaker 1: radio operator on board the ship to other ships in

37
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 1: the area. One called City of Baltimore and one named

38
00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:27,280
Speaker 1: Silver Star received the message, but it was the Silver

39
00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,920
Speaker 1: Star that reached the Madan first. They attempted to communicate

40
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 1: using their loudspeaker, but there was no response. No damage

41
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,519
Speaker 1: was detected on the ship's hull either. With all other

42
00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,799
Speaker 1: options exhausted, Silver Stars crew boarded the vessel to investigate.

43
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,080
Speaker 1: What they found stopped them in their tracks. The entire

44
00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:49,880
Speaker 1: crew was dead, their faces frozen in terror, as though

45
00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:53,040
Speaker 1: something had scared them to death. Their bodies were twisted

46
00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:57,280
Speaker 1: in unnatural positions as well, though they bore no visible injuries,

47
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:02,440
Speaker 1: and there were other signs of strangeness play, possibly even supernatural.

48
00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,680
Speaker 1: For one, the outside temperature was around one hundred degrees fahrenheit,

49
00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:09,880
Speaker 1: but the Silver Star crew felt a haunting chill as

50
00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:12,640
Speaker 1: they stood on the ship. There was also just a

51
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:16,160
Speaker 1: single lifeboat missing, and the bodies were in a bad

52
00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,639
Speaker 1: state of decay, despite having died only hours earlier. The

53
00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,000
Speaker 1: search party had planned on taking a closer look at

54
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,919
Speaker 1: the bodies, but were forced to leave in a hurry

55
00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,480
Speaker 1: when one of the Maddon's smokestacks caught fire. Instead, they

56
00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:29,919
Speaker 1: decided to tow the ghostly ship back to shore and

57
00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,400
Speaker 1: salvage it for parts. Almost as soon as the men

58
00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,560
Speaker 1: left the Madon, an explosion went off somewhere below deck,

59
00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,960
Speaker 1: then another. In total, four explosions rang out before the

60
00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,280
Speaker 1: Orange Madon's smoking hull slip below the waves, taking its

61
00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 1: cruise remains with it. After the story got out, it

62
00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:50,280
Speaker 1: was believed that the ship had been part of a

63
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:54,560
Speaker 1: smuggling operation involved in transporting harmful nerve agents and other

64
00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:58,360
Speaker 1: toxic chemicals. It was possible that ocean water had breached

65
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:01,200
Speaker 1: the cargo hold and cause as to chemical reaction with

66
00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:04,760
Speaker 1: the toxins inside. The ensuing cloud of gas would have

67
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,640
Speaker 1: poisoned everyone on board. Another theory suggested that it was

68
00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:12,080
Speaker 1: carbon monoxide gas that had killed captain and crew, caused

69
00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,720
Speaker 1: by an undetected fire in the ship's boiler. The mystery

70
00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,400
Speaker 1: of the Orange Madon is one that has stumped sailors

71
00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,080
Speaker 1: and researchers for decades, namely because on paper, the ship

72
00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:25,279
Speaker 1: never existed. It could not be found on any register,

73
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:27,559
Speaker 1: and the first mentions of it were in the news

74
00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,599
Speaker 1: stories coming out of Indonesia. They were based on an

75
00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:33,440
Speaker 1: account told by an Italian officer from the Silver Star

76
00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:36,680
Speaker 1: who had seen the bodies for himself. A photograph was

77
00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:40,160
Speaker 1: allegedly taken to but when a newspaper editor tried to

78
00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,560
Speaker 1: get in touch with him, the officer had vanished. But

79
00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,159
Speaker 1: Once the story was out, there was no stopping it.

80
00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:49,440
Speaker 1: Papers in England and the United States republished it without

81
00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:52,880
Speaker 1: checking its veracity. There are people today who don't believe

82
00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,799
Speaker 1: that the Orange Madon even existed at all. Then again,

83
00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:59,719
Speaker 1: perhaps the key was in the missing lifeboats. Maybe some

84
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,599
Speaker 1: who really knew what happened had gotten away before he

85
00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,279
Speaker 1: could be caught. The world may never know the truth

86
00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:08,160
Speaker 1: for sure, but the story of the Oranguemdon lives on

87
00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:11,440
Speaker 1: as a terrifying reminder that the ocean can be unforgiving

88
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:28,520
Speaker 1: and that dead men really do tell no tales. When

89
00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 1: someone is incredibly skilled at something, they can make it

90
00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:34,080
Speaker 1: look easy. What we don't see, however, are the hours

91
00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,160
Speaker 1: of training and rehearsals that got them there, the flooded

92
00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:39,720
Speaker 1: lyrics in a song, or the foul balls they hit

93
00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:42,799
Speaker 1: into the stands, or the wrong notes on the sheet music.

94
00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:46,000
Speaker 1: But sometimes someone is so good it can seem like

95
00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:50,239
Speaker 1: there are supernatural forces at play. Robert Johnson, for example,

96
00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,360
Speaker 1: died in at the age of seven, but was said

97
00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,000
Speaker 1: to have been so proficient as a blues guitarist that

98
00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,760
Speaker 1: he must have gotten his talent from the devil himself.

99
00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,000
Speaker 1: According to a legend, Johnson took his guitar to a

100
00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,440
Speaker 1: crossroad near a plantation in rural Mississippi at the stroke

101
00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,120
Speaker 1: of midnight one night. A man appeared before him and

102
00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,400
Speaker 1: tuned the guitar before strumming a few tunes and handing

103
00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:14,520
Speaker 1: it back to him. The deal was done. Johnson had

104
00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:18,279
Speaker 1: just become a blues master. And there's a reason these

105
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:22,000
Speaker 1: myths persist where expert artists are concerned. It's hard to

106
00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,080
Speaker 1: imagine how someone can possess so much talent on their own,

107
00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,640
Speaker 1: especially while they're still so young. But Robert Johnson wasn't

108
00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,719
Speaker 1: the first person to have reputedly sold his soul for

109
00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,120
Speaker 1: fame and fortune. Before the blues guitar, there was the

110
00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:37,760
Speaker 1: classical violin and the man who made it sing like

111
00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: no other. Niccolo Paganini. Paganini was born in seventeen eighty

112
00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:46,039
Speaker 1: two in Genoa, Italy. His father played the mandolin as

113
00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:49,120
Speaker 1: a side business, an instrument. He began teaching his son

114
00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:51,960
Speaker 1: when Niccolo was only five, but when the boy turned seven,

115
00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,640
Speaker 1: his attention turned to the violin. Paganini was something of

116
00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:59,200
Speaker 1: a prodigy. His talents earned him scholarships and opportunities to

117
00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,080
Speaker 1: study with some of best violinists of his time, but

118
00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:04,520
Speaker 1: his teachers quickly realized that they were no match for

119
00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,440
Speaker 1: his growing skills. He was a force to be reckoned with.

120
00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:11,280
Speaker 1: When Paganini turned eighteen, his plane earned him a top

121
00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:14,440
Speaker 1: spot as first violin of the Republic of Luca, a

122
00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:17,480
Speaker 1: now defunct state in Italy that was annexed by Napoleon

123
00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:20,280
Speaker 1: in eighteen o five. Control of Luca was handed to

124
00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:24,120
Speaker 1: Napoleon's sister Alyssa, and Paganini served as violinist in her

125
00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,119
Speaker 1: court until eighteen o nine, when he began touring again.

126
00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 1: It wasn't until eighteen thirteen when the virtuoso started making

127
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,360
Speaker 1: a name for himself as a violinist. After a successful

128
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:38,800
Speaker 1: concert in Milan, Paganini skyrocketed to success, traveling all over

129
00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,600
Speaker 1: Europe and giving concerts to large audiences. Even the Pope

130
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:46,560
Speaker 1: was a fan. But Paganini's talents also earned him ire

131
00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:50,400
Speaker 1: from rival violinists who were jealous of his abilities. For one,

132
00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,000
Speaker 1: he didn't perform with sheet music, he memorized his pieces

133
00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,880
Speaker 1: prior to playing them. Paganini was so blazingly fast too.

134
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,119
Speaker 1: His long, thin fingers were able to play twelve notes

135
00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:05,600
Speaker 1: per second, a difficult nearly impossible feat for most violinists.

136
00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:09,120
Speaker 1: It wasn't long before rumors surrounding the origins of his

137
00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,800
Speaker 1: abilities started to emerge. An audience member in Vienna claimed

138
00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 1: to have witnessed the devil himself assisting Paganini on stage.

139
00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,240
Speaker 1: Another person said that they once saw the devil caused

140
00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:23,320
Speaker 1: lightning to strike his bow during a performance. It eventually

141
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:26,360
Speaker 1: got to the point where audiences stopped attending his shows

142
00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,280
Speaker 1: for fear of getting too close to evil. To remedy

143
00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,560
Speaker 1: the situation, Paganini was forced to prove something he never

144
00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:35,800
Speaker 1: thought he would have to, that he was human. To

145
00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 1: do this, he had a newspaper publish a personal letter

146
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,360
Speaker 1: his mother had written him. Clearly, if he had a

147
00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,200
Speaker 1: regular human mother, then there was no way he could

148
00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,840
Speaker 1: be a product of the devil. The letter was enough

149
00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:51,000
Speaker 1: to quell the rumors and audiences started coming back. So

150
00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:54,360
Speaker 1: why did Niccolo Paganini excel in a way no other

151
00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,960
Speaker 1: violinist could well? That answer ties him to the other

152
00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:02,600
Speaker 1: famous musician I mentioned earlier, Robert Johnson. It was believed

153
00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:06,160
Speaker 1: that both men had something called Marfan syndrome, a genetic

154
00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:10,079
Speaker 1: disorder that affected how their limbs and appendages grew. Those

155
00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,760
Speaker 1: with Marfan syndrome were often tall, with long fingers and toes.

156
00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:18,320
Speaker 1: Both Johnson and Paganini boasted elongated fingers that allowed them

157
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:22,920
Speaker 1: to move about their instruments with great speed and agility. Sadly,

158
00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:26,760
Speaker 1: Paganini died of cancer in eighteen forty. A priest tried

159
00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:29,160
Speaker 1: to give him his last rites just before his death,

160
00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,400
Speaker 1: but Paganini refused. He didn't think that it was yet

161
00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,200
Speaker 1: his time. For those who had accused him of being

162
00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,880
Speaker 1: in league with Satan, this was just one more reason

163
00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:42,000
Speaker 1: to be suspicious. But Paganini did die then, regardless of

164
00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,360
Speaker 1: what people thought of him, they had to give the

165
00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:47,880
Speaker 1: devil his due, because that man left behind an impressive

166
00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:56,120
Speaker 1: body of work, one that's still performed today. I hope

167
00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,439
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities,

168
00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:02,600
Speaker 1: so scribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more

169
00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:07,120
Speaker 1: about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The

170
00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:10,760
Speaker 1: show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with

171
00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:14,600
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,

172
00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:18,480
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and

173
00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:20,760
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World

174
00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:26,199
Speaker 1: of lore dot com and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,