WEBVTT - Irritating Posh Kid Hijinks: The Dreadnought Hoax 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.960 Ridiculous Crime is a production of My Heart Radio. What's up, 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.000 Elizabeth Done? You know it's ridiculous. Oh, I've been waiting 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:09.799 to tell you this. I was looking up some retro 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.280 board games, don't ask, and I had no idea how 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:15.440 wild old games were. Like, my sister and I were 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.160 talking about it, and then she was telling me once 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.760 she found, so I looked up some. Okay, these are 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:21.360 the favorites that I found. I just want to tell 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:25.640 you about them. Right. The board game called Capital Punishment. No, no, no, yeah, 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.440 the kid, it's worse than you think. The object of 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:30.400 the game is to get all of your criminals to 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.159 be scheduled for the electric chair, get them parked on 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.720 death row or at least be given a life imprisonment sentence. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.280 And that's it. That's the game. That's how you win. Now. 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:41.040 The other thing is you do is you take your 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.160 opponents and you basically saddle them with criminals who are 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.040 able to get through to the path of justice. So 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.960 if they can get their criminals paroled and presumably back 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:55.800 on the street criming again, they lose. At least it's 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.440 not like a cranium style you have to participate game. Yeah, no, 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.000 it's not one of those, uh, the person to Death. No. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.080 The other one that I liked was Bigfoot, the board 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.360 game Bigfoot. It was a game that allowed you as 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.360 the person just kind of like I don't know, like 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.600 Monopoly or life, where you're going around a board on 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.039 these spaces, right, and you have this plastic bigfoot and 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:18.959 there are ten discs, and you want to advance your 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.280 big foot around the board. Right. If you land on 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:23.240 an opponent space and they have a disk there and 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.120 they flip it over and it's a foot, you lose. 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.200 I do not get it. I think the Bigfoot thing 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.120 was just kind of throwing in on top like seventies 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.440 style that the game just doesn't exist because it's no 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:36.760 I see what you did. That that's the game. See 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.800 that picture the game. That's the paporite. Wait, let me 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.000 see it again. It's like Harry and the Henderson's abducted. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.120 Play a game with me kids. Lastly, though, this is 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:48.680 the one I want to tell you most about. My 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.400 favorite of all three that I found was the Crazy 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:56.960 Cat Lady board game. Don't like an Archie McPhee game. 0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:59.960 Oh yeah, you know it. I only know it's our 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.600 she McPhee from the front cover. Yeah, so you compete 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.320 to rescue cats. You move around the board and like 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.399 once again, you land on spaces that are marked things 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:10.840 like rescue grumpy old cat from pound or as I 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.800 like to call it, the zoo. And eventually you win 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.440 the game by saving so many cats that your house 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.600 is now overrun by cats and you go crazy from 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:20.679 all the cat poop everywhere. I think, I think that's 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.320 how you win. I don't know, crazy cat lady, that 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.160 you you win. I have a confession to make. You've 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.359 played the game, No, someone gave it to and never 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.080 I was like, I bet Elizabeth would love this game. Thanks, 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.480 and I'm not the only one. Thanks did Yeah? No, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.040 someone was like they saw it and thought, Elizabeth, I 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.359 don't own a freaking cat. No, not right now? Right 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.639 I own a freaking cat? Is No, I don't know 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.440 a cat? And then I mean I did at the time. 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.160 You have in the past, right, the same you have 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.880 cat owner. I'm a crazy dog lady, though that thing 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.720 be both right. They don't make the don't limit yourself. No, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.280 I'm never going to. So, yeah, that's super ridiculous. Waiting 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.320 to tell you. You know what else is ridiculous rich 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.400 people and then more specifically rich people thinking they're clever. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:32.200 Oh no, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:37.880 and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always murder free 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:43.320 and ridiculous. Damn right. Remember Zarin, when I told you 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.000 about that gold turlet that got stolen, Yes, the gold turlet. Yes, 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:52.640 you remember that toilet, the commode from Baltimore turlet. By 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.960 the end of the story, I was beyond irritated with 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:01.720 the wealthy folks. Yeah, I was. There's so much power 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.160 tied up in money. So when like a wealthy person 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.040 wants to do some sort of prank, it's always larger 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.040 than life. It doesn't fly under the radar. You know, 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.240 they can outsize it and why sometimes it's not always 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.440 at the expense of the rest of us. Right, But 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.679 there's this just like disregard for ordinary people that rubs 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:20.600 me the wrong way. And it's kind of like that 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.720 of the little people. You little people enjoy what I'm 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.839 because like maybe the prank bleeds over into like actual crime. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.919 Laudi da, what does it matter to me? It's a lark. 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.000 Everyone just chill out. You know, most people, we don't 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.480 get to We don't get to have that outlook on it, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.200 you know. And there there are ramifications when we do stuff. Yes, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.599 the rest of us who do not have like big 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.839 white cho law forms. So the story I have for 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:52.000 you today is about fraud. It's a hoax. It's done 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.760 as sort of a prank. I originally thought to make 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.600 fun of excessive war spending. But it's not a political 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:04.760 prank direct it's not like with it intended to be directed. No, no, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.040 I have no idea. It wasted time and effort, made 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.320 the perpetrators look like a holes in my point, if 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.279 I'm going to use strong language, I'm over here just blushing. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.160 But go on. So I want you to get ready 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:22.880 to be way hazing. Um, I want you to be 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:25.920 irritated by rich people again, I can do that, right. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.080 This is the Dreadnought hoax. So let me give you 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:34.159 some background. So the HMS Dreadnought was yeah, completed in 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.400 nineteen o six. So the New York Times called it 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:42.040 quote a fast, heavily armed behemoth that changed naval warfare. 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.440 It's awesome power was the focus of attention abroad, just 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.440 as its shocking expense was a point of debate. At 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.080 home now. I mean at the time things were going 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.680 swimmingly in the UK in England. Uh. I just like 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:02.920 the term going swimming, like the economy wise well for them, 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.120 So they and you know, maybe good planning. They're doing 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:11.760 some military spending the Victoriana era, right, like oh big 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:13.800 idea of like still the empires. So they're like, we 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.440 need ships to control the sea. Rule Britannia. The Dreadnought 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:23.360 was called the most powerful, complex and aggressive machine in 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:27.800 the world. Yeah. Uh. The ship was a quote potent 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:34.520 and expensive symbol of state power and authoritarianism. So there's 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.040 this historian Peter Stansky. I'm going to be doing so 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.159 many quotes today. I'm pulling his errand like it. The 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.040 Dreadnought was not only a particular ship, but also the 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.080 first of a new class of powerful battleship, the very 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.040 symbol of the British Navy's assertion of its continuing superiority 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.440 over the German Navy and its determination to maintain its 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.680 position as the most powerful navy in the world. So 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.719 the Royal Navy full of fun times, Oh from what 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.120 I've heard. Yes, if it's not just the buggery, it's 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.400 the scurvy barrel laughs. Um, the ships in the fleet, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.480 they would play pranks on each other, okay, you know 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.480 while having trying to avoid scurvy, um and so at 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:19.000 around n the h MS Hawk and the HMS Dreadnought 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:23.080 were in a hoaxing feud. So they're pranking it up. 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:29.400 Enter English irishman Horace Dever Cole. Now English irishman. Does 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.040 this mean he's like North Irish, He's like he's not 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:38.000 from the county county. I mean he's like landowner, Yes, 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:40.960 a man of privilege. She was most likely probably beholding 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.080 to the craft. Well, I mean his Okay, so his 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.720 maternal great grandfather is the Irish poet Sir Aubrey de 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.520 Vere But you're not you know that's an English title, sir, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.520 So you know where I'm going to that. His paternal 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.800 grandfather was William Henry Cole, and he was a British 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.080 businessman who made a fortune in the coinine mark it 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:07.120 and fighting. And you know, of course the other one 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.720 that probably the more prolific one for them. Horace's dad 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.720 died of cholera in India in Inja when Horace was 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.080 a little boy, and Horace almost died of diph theory 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:23.800 when he was ten and surgeries, Yeah, surgeries were required 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:25.800 to save his life, but that meant that he couldn't 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.520 really hear very well about like one ear um. He 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.520 couldn't join the army because of that, so instead he 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.760 enlisted in a volunteer cavalry and he went to South 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.680 Africa during the Boer War. He was shot in the 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.560 back by Boer snipers, narrowly avoiding death. So he was 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.000 running from I'm pretty much it's better being shot in 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.920 the back by your own men. Yeah. Well, he returns 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.200 to the UK in rolls in Cambridge and he was 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.600 like known for his pranking, his hoaxing, and then he 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:03.120 oftentimes did this with his best friend Adrian Stephen. So 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.280 Horace and Adrian they met at Cambridge when they're undergrads. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.800 One time they dressed up as the Sultan of Zanzibar's uncle, 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.920 and then Adrian, well that was what Horrace dressed up as. 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.400 Adrian dressed up as the Grand Vizier part of the entourage, 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.319 and so the Sultan. At the time, the Sultan of 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.960 Zanzibar was touring England and was going to be at 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.360 Cambridge at the same time, so he's just like, no, 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.840 I'm the Sultan, and he and Adrian, Horace and Adrian, 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:36.199 they get escorted around Cambridge. They get a formal reception. Yeah, 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.520 they were able to con people because people knew that 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.280 this guy was coming the Sultan. Dad's of r be 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:41.880 here and then they said, oh, I've got a funny 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:46.800 hating some robes. Totally there you are, yeah, and so 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.280 like Horace then later tells the Daily Mail about what 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.160 he did, and there's all this publicity around this what 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.079 they're calling a joke, and he gets a book deal 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.840 off of it. He's like an offer for a book deal, like, 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:03.120 please tell us more. He's never he's never punished. He's 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.960 never I gave it thirty seconds. He's never punished for this, 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.920 but it builds this reputation that he has. He's like, oh, yeah, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.240 what a clown. So someone on the h MS Hawk 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.960 reaches out to him like we need an expert. They're like, 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.440 Captain prank Er, Hi, this is the h MS Hawk, Um, 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.240 I need you to help us in our prank war 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.600 and it's against the h m MR and that He's like, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.520 guess what, I'm on it? So he like the back 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.920 the background A team music starts playing, he's going to 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:41.200 assemble his group. Number one, Adrian Stephen his bestie. He said, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:46.800 come on, dude, atrians sister Virginia. So she's like, she's 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.840 an unpublished author at the time. You'll know her later 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:54.440 as a Virginia Wolf. Yes, that that Virginia will so 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.160 a clever last clever one. By the way, Adrian and 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.280 Virginia's cousin was this guy named Leie Fisher, and he 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.160 was an officer on the dreadnought um so maybe that 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.760 kind of is why they wanted to do this either way. Now, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:12.600 this like early Bloomsberry group. Yes, it is artist Duncan Grant, 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.120 who was a paramore of Adrian's and then two friends 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.880 of their's, Guy Ridley and Anthony Buxton, and so I 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.160 think it was Duncan Grant is the one who's in 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:27.160 the Bloomsberry. This is the very beginning of it. Interesting. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.800 So you've got this group of people. They're wealthy, worldly educated, 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.280 and apparently they love pranking, and they about the world 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:36.760 at their feet and they could do whatever they want 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.760 and they choose to prank you. Well and yeah, so okay, 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:40.240 what kind of prank do we do? We want? To 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.480 prank the Dreadnought for pranking a whole ship. What we 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.560 could do anything, It's so cool. Oh, I know, another 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.760 fake African or African adjacent royal visit. There's not a 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.160 lot in the repertoire with these clowns. So I'm really 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:57.280 worried about this. This is like screaming great British bake 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.760 off Mexican Week totally. It's like, I know, I'm going 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.400 to be pushing buttons of some of our English listeners, 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.640 but I'm not pushing your buttons. None of the rich, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.120 like you know, aristocracy or like high falutin types are 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:14.640 listening to us. My family called it the pink toes, right, 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.480 they got better stuff to do. They don't. They don't 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.800 know what we do down here the cool thing. So 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.680 you know whatever, but if you my feeling, if you 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.560 can't take it, don't dish it. And so Mexican Week 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.800 has laid it out like guess what here the target? 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.120 Now it sucks to be a caricature, doesn't it England? 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.480 Um So anyway, so this group they decided to pose 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:42.080 as an Abyssinian nobleman named ross Al Mala Ken Machelen 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.240 ross Al Maclen Ethiopians. Yeah, well, I mean that's the thing. 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:50.920 Absinia Empire located in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:56.280 That empire lasted from twelve seventy into what seventy four. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.880 It's one of the great African empires. Yeah, highly. Selassie 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.680 gets deposed by a Soviet backed military, a punta, and 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.600 that they've ruled until ninety one. So anyway, so they're 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.840 saying they're these Abyssinians, um like an uncle maybe a 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.720 cousin of the emperor and and then his whole entourage. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:19.200 So Horace says that like they're Abyssinian royals. They're in England. 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.240 They're visiting Eaton. Oh that's where Horace went. So this 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.240 is basically like the equivalent of for now, like, oh, 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.480 I'm a Saudi prince like you everybody knows this means 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.000 you're well exactly. And they say, oh, we're coming to 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.760 look at Eaton's, like we may send our kids there. 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.400 So Horace gets in touch with a costumer named Willie 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.640 Clarkson and he talks to him a bunch of times. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.760 They have all these meetings like let's talk wardrobe and 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.560 they go and they drink tea. How do you feel 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:50.360 about sequence? Bring me some swatches. Clarkson had done costumes 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.840 for all these like major theater productions in Paris and 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.160 in New York. Um in one of these books that 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.000 says he quote provided wigs to all the leading ladies 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.679 of the Aedwardian age, from Marie Lloyd to Sarah Bernhardt. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.240 He's like, whig masters, I do know who Sarah Bernhard is. 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:11.000 That's a theater lady. Yeah, yeah, something like that. In 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:15.400 the eighties, he also quote assisted Scotland Yard in their 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.760 attempts to catch Jack the Ripper by disguising officers as prostitutes. 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:26.480 Oh that's so he's dressing him up as tarts. He's like, 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:28.200 all right, look, here's what we need. We need some 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.360 cops dressed as sex workers. I happened to be really 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.480 good at that. I've got all the best makeup. I 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.760 happened a game. Yeah, don't ask me about the questions. 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:40.360 You know how I got this stuff. Just it. Horace 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.080 and his whole group they meet at Adrian and Virginia's 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.560 house on early in the morning of Monday, February seven, 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:53.160 nineteen ten, and Clarkson and brings some assistance. They show up. Um, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:54.920 he kind of had figured out what they were up 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.480 to by this point and keeps his mouth shut. He's like, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:14:59.760 you know what I can do it, I can keep 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.640 you see grid. So Anthony Buckston, he dresses up as 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.880 a nobleman, like the one who's got leading this whole crew, 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.160 ros L Mackelin. Oh like yeah, like I like the 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.920 ross L because it's like the Rastafari you can actually hear, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:15.800 you can hear it. So he's going to be this 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.880 nobleman ross El, Russell MacLean and then which kind of 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.760 sounds like McCallan, but we're gonna let that go. Virginia, 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.040 Duncan and Ridley. They dress up as princes in full 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.120 black face and robes. Yeah, they're calling themselves Ross I'll 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:38.840 sing Anya, ros L Mendax and Roz Michel Gallan. L. 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.680 Wait a minute, so they do black face, which I'm 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:47.040 assuming they only did the paint. They didn't do anything 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.960 to just change their look, like you know, no, no, See, 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.200 there's a book called The Sultan of Zanzibar, The Bizarre 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.240 World and Spectacular Hoaxes of Horace de air cole And 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:03.280 by a man named Martin Downer. He Marty details the 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.800 entire thing. It's a it's a slog um. He talks 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.840 about their makeup, and the names of the colors and 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.440 such that they use are so offensive that I will 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.240 not repeat them. Is it like and word name of 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.840 h Yeah, and so they just they're painting, they're painting 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.640 the faces. It's yeah. I just always love the idea. 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.160 As a black person, I find it really amusing that 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.880 people think, oh, you know what I can do blackness, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.880 I'll just paint my skin. And I'm like, for so 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.800 many reasons, I will say you're wrong, but I just 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.800 like that you think that's all that there is, and 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.840 like anybody else is going to see that going there 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:45.520 it is it's not all the historical oppression or anything that. Yeah, 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.120 I love that for them anyway. So they're worried that 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.320 the makeup is going to run, and so Clark's in 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.080 the costume where he says, don't eat or drink anything 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.280 while you're there. But they had forgotten to eat breakfast. 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.960 So in all the accounts that I was reading, oh, 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:04.119 we were so hungry the whole time, I have at 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.200 no point did I feel sorry for them being hungry. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.639 But okay, okay, so they're going to dress up as 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.480 Abyssinian Royalty and I'm gonna go hoax a ship. What 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.960 the Abyssinian Royalty has to do with hoaxing the ship? 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:17.640 Like what is it? What we fooled you by letting 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.760 these fake Abyssinians on, Like we got over on you 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.480 that we're not really black. Okay, who's to say I'm 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.479 trying to catch us to say? So? Adrian is his 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.520 job is to play the official translator. And then Horace 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:37.199 plays someone named Chamandalay from the Foreign Office, now like 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.280 an Indian. Well, remember Horace's maternal great grandfather the Irish poems, 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.119 Sir Aubrey de Vere Chamandalay was the name of the 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.440 family who replaced the Deviers as the Lord Great Chamberlain 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.480 in England, and so that was the title that the 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.240 Deviers believed they still laid claim to. So it's like 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.600 a rival family. He's just their name is really sticking 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.080 it to the man over wo get them guys, Horace 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.320 and Adrian, they're not in black face because they're playing 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:08.879 white folks. Umslat Yeah, Adrian did wear a fake beard 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.639 and a mustache. And then what's referred to in the 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.439 book as a little sunburn powder sunburned powder. You know 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.760 what that means? That like like a rust colored ready 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.280 ready thing I've never even heard so, But because of that, 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.880 they could eat whatever they wanted, you know. So they 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:30.399 took a couple of portraits for posterity sake. Yeah, And 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.960 then after the costume and the black face are done, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:39.919 they go to Paddington Stations. Good question, so Horace. He 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.080 requests a special V I P rail coach take them 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.440 to Weymouth where the fleet is docked. About an hour 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.879 after they leave the station, they have this friend who's 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:56.800 named Tudor Castle Tu d o R. Castle. He sends 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.920 a having a friend named Glass Skyscraper basically or why 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.520 eight house. Uh. He sends a forged telegram to the 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.320 under from the Under Secretary of State Charles Hardinge to 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.040 the Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet, Admiral May, 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.560 saying that Prince Macalan will arrive around four twenty to 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:15.359 meet them on a ride PM and meet him on 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:20.280 arrival meet them there at So there's this tight timeline. 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.760 The Admiral doesn't send a telegram back for confirmation because 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:27.359 he's like, oh snap, like okay, we're doing Yeah. So 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.520 on the train ride, Horace and Adrian. They're like, they're 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.000 trying to learn Swahili on the train ride and they 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:37.080 get say, of this book, Adrian says, Swahili is I 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.959 believe spoken in some parts of East Africa. Whether it's 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.080 spoken in Abyssinia or not, I don't know. But we 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.119 thought it might be as well for me to know 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.520 a few phrases. And to that end, we had bought 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.600 a grammar from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.840 Do you know what language is not spoken in Ethiopia, 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:59.880 Eritrea or the former Abyssinia. It's banned to so nice try. 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.040 It's like, you're like, I gotta teach myself some Greek 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.240 phrases because I'm going to France or I'm going to 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:07.159 North America, so I should probably learn some Spanish. And 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.679 you land in Canada. Yeah, pretty much. I need to 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.320 take a break. These people are irritating me. Um when 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.640 we get back, I'm gonna tell you about all these 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.000 softies and black face flouncing around on a warship. I 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.439 just want to know what they what they're gonna do 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:43.320 on this ship. Yeah, okay, Zaron. When we left off, 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.800 Horace and this gang of pranksters they're on their way 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.040 to pull off an epic prank on board of a 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.720 navy ship. They got on the train. They're making their 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:58.439 way all in what they think is Abyssinian garb zaren. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.600 I want you to close your eyes. No, no, I'm 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.200 gonna leave my eyes open. Then open your eyes and 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:12.439 pictures eyes. It's February seventh, nineteen ten. You're a traveling doctor. 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.200 You're on your way from your clinic in Dorchester, headed 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.240 to see some patients in Weymouth on the southern coast 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.560 of England, and the train pulls into Dorchester. You see 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:25.960 through the windows a group of people dressed in weird 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.400 costumes and face paint, well, let's be specific, black face. 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:32.879 It's you know, some of them, it's pretty obvious that 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:37.800 it's face paint. I think all of them the right. 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:40.560 So you get in the carriage and you see that 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.760 they're wearing these like flowing silk robes and then calftands 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:48.679 over slacks they have on turbans. You know, they have 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.120 really suspicious facial hair, suspicious and that it looks fake 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.320 as hell. So you take a seat at the end 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:57.399 the other end of the carriage. You're like, just you 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.879 know what, I just want to think about trains. Just 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.400 love train. Have we talked about training? I've been here 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.120 and I just want to be with the trains. Is sar, 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:05.760 and I want to talk to you about trains, but 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.760 instead I want to keep telling you this story. So 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.960 the group, they're whispering and giggling to themselves, and you 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.600 think these are just some like well to do Oxbridge 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.000 types out on like a theater trip of some sort? 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:20.760 Is that like new avant garde data? Is M performance 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:24.960 stuff that I've been reading about doing. Train pulls up 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.359 at its terminus, Weymouth station. You get out of the 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.040 train before the troop of goofballs. You see a red 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:35.800 carpet and a naval officer in full dress uniform and 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:39.320 they're like, oh hey, hey, is there someone famous on 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.320 this train? Is it I don't know, H G. Wells, 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:46.680 I Forced or some other person that goes by two initials. Uh, 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:52.200 You're shocked j G bo J G Wentworth. You're shocked 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:57.119 when you see this. Sorry, please go on em C 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:02.320 wren light. Uh. The group gets off the train and 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:06.199 that's who the officers waiting for leads him down a 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:10.239 red carpet. You are shocked, shocked, I tell you. So 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.240 the group gets taken to the dock where Admiral May 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:15.680 and the rest of the ship's staff are all waiting 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.960 on the Dreadnought, all in full dress regalia. No one 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:24.040 is suspicious of the face paint in the costumes. Apparently really, 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:26.959 I just can't, I cannot get my head around this. 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:32.399 These are adults, these are grown folks, okay. So the 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:36.560 Royal Marines Band starts to play to greet them, and 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:43.560 they play the national anthem of Zanzibar No, and they 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:45.760 apologize to like, you know what, we don't have the 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:51.880 Abyssinian one any port and storm it's African. Hey close enough. 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:56.240 So Horace then introduces everyone. He like misspells his own name, 0:23:56.320 --> 0:24:00.520