Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey Brainstuff
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here this whale of a tale from the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century is actually true. At the close of the
Speaker 1: Civil War, a whaling ship captain died at sea, thousands
Speaker 1: of miles from his home in Lebanon, Connecticut. To preserve
Speaker 1: his body, they sealed his corpse in a barrel of rum,
Speaker 1: where it remained for more than a year until it
Speaker 1: was finally interred barrel and all in a Connecticut cemetery.
Speaker 1: Captain Slumin Gray was fifty one years old when he,
Speaker 1: his wife Sarah, and three of their eight children set
Speaker 1: sail on the James Morey from New Bedford, Connecticut, in
Speaker 1: June of eighteen sixty four. Whaling voyages could take years,
Speaker 1: and Gray, known as a demanding and borderline cruel captain,
Speaker 1: was a softie for his family, who he liked to
Speaker 1: take along for his far flong expeditions. After nine months
Speaker 1: at sea, Captain Gray took ill with what was recorded
Speaker 1: as an inflammation of the bowels in the South Pacific
Speaker 1: near Guam. Two days later, he was dead. It was
Speaker 1: Sarah who decided to preserve his body in a barrel
Speaker 1: of rum rather than giving him a burial at sea.
Speaker 1: The ship's log for March fourth of eighteen sixty four
Speaker 1: read simply, light winds from the eastward and pleasant weather.
Speaker 1: Made a cask and put the captain in with spirits
Speaker 1: if the body in a barrel story wasn't strange enough.
Speaker 1: The James Morey was then captured by a Confederate warship
Speaker 1: tasked with disrupting Yankee shipping and whaling roots. This was
Speaker 1: June of eighteen sixty five, two months after Robert E.
Speaker 1: Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. But Lieutenant Commander
Speaker 1: James Waddell of the c SS Shenandoah either didn't get
Speaker 1: the news about the war being over or didn't care.
Speaker 1: He captured and burned twenty four whaling vessels in June
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty five alone. He and his crew would
Speaker 1: fire the final shots of the Civil War in August
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty five, and then escaped to England to
Speaker 1: avoid the Hangman's news. But in the meanwhile, Wadell spared
Speaker 1: Sarah and the James Morey. He wrote, men of the
Speaker 1: South did not make war on women and children. He
Speaker 1: transported the ship and its pickled human cargo to Hawaii,
Speaker 1: from which Captain Gray's barrel continued. It's a long journey home.
Speaker 1: The story goes that Captain Gray was buried in his
Speaker 1: run barrel in March of eighteen sixty six, but nothing
Speaker 1: at the Liberty Hill Cemetery indicates anything unusual. New England
Speaker 1: historian Alicia Wayland told the publication Damned Connecticut that there
Speaker 1: are no records of Sarah buying a casket or paying
Speaker 1: a carpenter to construct one, but the only way to
Speaker 1: confirm the barrel story would be to dig up or
Speaker 1: old pickled Captain Gray. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article The Ballad of the Pickled Whaling Captain from Connecticut
Speaker 1: on how stuff works dot com, written by Dave Rouse.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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