Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: The ocean was dark, foggy, thickly around the ships on
Speaker 1: every side, but even in such poor visibility, the ships
Speaker 1: pressed onward. The Convoy was a substantial one, flanking the
Speaker 1: USS Abraham Lincoln, the second largest ship in America's fleet.
Speaker 1: As they sailed through the night, someone spotted something in
Speaker 1: the distance, a far off blinking light bearing right towards them.
Speaker 1: Men in the Lincoln's radio room got to work attempting
Speaker 1: to contact the oncoming vessel. Fortunately, they were able to
Speaker 1: establish radio contact quickly and sent out the message, oncoming vessel,
Speaker 1: this is the USS Lincoln. Please divert your course fifteen
Speaker 1: degrees north to avoid collision. And the other vessel replied promptly,
Speaker 1: but not in the way the Americans were expecting. The
Speaker 1: other ship requested that the Convoy divert fifteen degrees to
Speaker 1: the south. Instead. Annoyed by the backtok the captain took
Speaker 1: control of the radio, issuing an order for the other
Speaker 1: ship to turn, and again the ship only responded with
Speaker 1: its request. You first. The captain practically bellowed over the radio,
Speaker 1: this is the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by
Speaker 1: three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. Get out
Speaker 1: of our way, or we will take measures to protect
Speaker 1: our ships. The other radio simply replied, this is a lighthouse.
Speaker 1: It's your call. Chastened, the aircraft carrier complied without another
Speaker 1: word of complaint. And you may have heard this story before.
Speaker 1: It's a popular one among naval officers and sailors, and
Speaker 1: in recent years it's become a popular Internet meme. Online
Speaker 1: retellings claim to be transcripts of the conversation, but curiously,
Speaker 1: no one ever supplies a proper date for this encounter.
Speaker 1: As far as researchers can tell, it seems to date
Speaker 1: back as far as the nineteen thirties. The USS Abraham Lincoln,
Speaker 1: which is often cited as the main vessel in this story,
Speaker 1: was constructed in the late nineteen eighties, meaning that the
Speaker 1: original version of the story belongs to an entirely different ship.
Speaker 1: But whose ship was it that made this iconic blunder?
Speaker 1: And did the famous and now memed encounter even happen
Speaker 1: at all? Over the years, naval enthusiasts have poked a
Speaker 1: number of holes in the story. No one has found
Speaker 1: any wrecks of this specific encounter, thanks to the variable
Speaker 1: details of each retelling. Moreover, the facts of the story
Speaker 1: itself strain believability. After all, even in thick fog, it's
Speaker 1: borderline impossible for an experienced seamen to mistake a lighthouse
Speaker 1: for an approaching vessel. The steady blinking of a single
Speaker 1: powerful light looks very different from the scattering of lights
Speaker 1: across the deck of a ship in the dark. Besides,
Speaker 1: depending on the time period, it's possible that the lighthouse
Speaker 1: wouldn't even have a manned radio station like the story suggests.
Speaker 1: Reporters doing deep dives into the oral history of the
Speaker 1: so called lighthouse versus naval vessel story often find themselves
Speaker 1: coming up short with actual facts. The encounter has subsequently
Speaker 1: been relegated to the realm of urban legend, but calling
Speaker 1: it an urban legend sort of misses the point. The
Speaker 1: story isn't retold over and over again because it might
Speaker 1: have happened. It's retold because behind the clever ending punchline,
Speaker 1: there is a theme that we all recognize even as
Speaker 1: we laugh. The captain of the aircraft carrier is characterized
Speaker 1: as arrogant and overconfident. He thinks that because he has
Speaker 1: the bigger ship, he has the right of way, regardless
Speaker 1: of who is on the other ship. That's why this
Speaker 1: story always involves a major naval power, whether it's the
Speaker 1: US or the UK. Sailors retelling this story get to
Speaker 1: chuckle as their commanding officer gets chastened by a simple
Speaker 1: lighthouse manned by we assume a person the captain would
Speaker 1: never listen to under normal circumstances. In short, this story
Speaker 1: is less of an urban legend than it is a
Speaker 1: morality tale, reminding us that when we're sailing blind into
Speaker 1: uncharted waters, we should keep our ears open as well.
Speaker 1: It's a bad idea to let self importance steer the ship.
Speaker 1: John Price Roberts watched in horror as his wife was
Speaker 1: sentenced to death. They were living in the town of
Speaker 1: Blackburn in northwest England in nineteen thirteen, and his wife
Speaker 1: Sarah had just been found guilty of murder and witchcraft.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, John was as confused as he was terrified.
Speaker 1: He did not know what was going on. All he
Speaker 1: could do was watch as his screaming wife was dragged
Speaker 1: down from the witness stand, across the courtroom and out
Speaker 1: into the yard in front of the courthouse. A lead
Speaker 1: lined coffin was waiting there for her. Sarah wasn't actually
Speaker 1: going to be executed. She was going to be buried alive.
Speaker 1: Villagers held John back and forced him to watch as
Speaker 1: his wife was shoved into the coffin. The lid was
Speaker 1: sealed shut and John was forbidden from opening it. But
Speaker 1: just before the lid closed, Sarah's screaming turned into a
Speaker 1: coherent threat. She promised to return in eighty years to
Speaker 1: take her revenge. As far as the villagers were concerned,
Speaker 1: now they felt more justified than ever for their actions.
Speaker 1: John was forced to consider that maybe his wife was
Speaker 1: actually a witch or something even worse. But things weren't
Speaker 1: over for John. He now had to find somewhere to
Speaker 1: bury the coffin. The people of Blackburn certainly didn't want
Speaker 1: her buried there, so he traveled all over England looking
Speaker 1: for a cemetery that would take Sarah's coffin. But the
Speaker 1: local priests that he encountered had all heard what she was,
Speaker 1: and in the more distant towns, they were naturally suspicious
Speaker 1: of a stranger looking to bury his wife far away
Speaker 1: from home. It was at this point that John received
Speaker 1: a letter from his brother Thomas, who was working at
Speaker 1: a cotton mill all the way in Lima, Peru. It
Speaker 1: was a lucrative business that he hoped Thomas would take
Speaker 1: part in. Not only was this a promising business opportunity,
Speaker 1: it was the perfect opportunity to finally be rid of Sarah.
Speaker 1: John traveled across two oceans before finally arriving in the
Speaker 1: palm filled jungles of Peru. When he finally arrived, he
Speaker 1: told his brother that Sarah had died recently and he
Speaker 1: couldn't bear to leave her body behind. Thomas understood, and
Speaker 1: they quickly arranged to have Sarah buried in a local cemetery.
Speaker 1: John's nightmare was over, Belima's had only just begun. Eighty
Speaker 1: years later, in nineteen ninety three, the people of Lima
Speaker 1: were terrified to find that a large crack had appeared
Speaker 1: across Sarah's gravestone. Surely this was a sign that her
Speaker 1: curse had been real and she would return not just
Speaker 1: as a witch, but a true undead. They believed that
Speaker 1: Sarah was a vampire. Thousands flocked to the city to
Speaker 1: see the grave of the one and only Peruvian vampire.
Speaker 1: Local merchants sold crosses, garlic, and pamphlets that shared Sarah's legend.
Speaker 1: The day of her resurrection came, and there was such
Speaker 1: a panic that pregnant women were sent away for fear
Speaker 1: that Sarah would somehow reincarnate in their unborn children. Authorities
Speaker 1: hired mystics to perform a ceremony over the grave, sprinkling
Speaker 1: blood on it and chanting. The hour came exactly eighty
Speaker 1: years since Sarah's promise, and nothing happened. Sarah remained as
Speaker 1: dead as ever. Everyone, of course, breathed a sigh of relief.
Speaker 1: Some thought that it had been a panic over nothing,
Speaker 1: but others still thought that the mystics had done their
Speaker 1: job and prevented a great evil from rising in Lima. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: it seems the skeptical group was more in the right
Speaker 1: that whole story of Sarah being charged with witchcraft and
Speaker 1: buried alive. There is no record in Blackburn of that's
Speaker 1: ever happening. In fact, there really aren't any records to
Speaker 1: indicate that the Roberts family was remarkable in any way.
Speaker 1: John and Sarah had a couple of sons. John's brother
Speaker 1: did indeed invite him to join him in Peru, and
Speaker 1: John and Sarah went alone, and somehow while there, Sarah
Speaker 1: passed away in her early forties. Historians have theorized that
Speaker 1: perhaps this was due to an unexpected pregnant and that
Speaker 1: led to sarah dyne and childbirth, but it could have
Speaker 1: just as easily been from an accident or an illness. Regardless,
Speaker 1: Sarah was buried in Lima. This alone was enough to
Speaker 1: cause the legend to grow over the years. It was
Speaker 1: unusual for a European woman to be buried there, and
Speaker 1: so the locals thought that it must be for some
Speaker 1: evil reason. More likely, her body just wasn't in a
Speaker 1: condition to be transported all the way back to England,
Speaker 1: or John simply didn't want to put himself and Sarah's
Speaker 1: remains through all of that. He did return to Blackburn, though,
Speaker 1: where he only lived a few more years. In the end,
Speaker 1: there seems to be one curiosity that isn't actually true,
Speaker 1: but the subsequent hysteria around the legend of Sarah Roberts,
Speaker 1: the Vampire of Peru is curious enough all on its own.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke
Speaker 1: in partnership with I Heeart Podcasts, researched and written by
Speaker 1: the Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk.
Speaker 1: Learn more about the show and the people who make
Speaker 1: it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also
Speaker 1: find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book,
Speaker 1: available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
Speaker 1: And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
Speaker 1: joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
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Speaker 1: sign up over at patreon dot com, slash Grimandmild, and
Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.