Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
Speaker 2: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
Speaker 2: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. From the time that he
Speaker 2: was a young boy, Ramone Artevetia knew that the ocean
Speaker 2: would play a role in his future. After all, he
Speaker 2: was born in a coastal city in Uruguay in eighteen
Speaker 2: forty and came from a long line of seafares. According
Speaker 2: to family lore, on his deathbed, Ramone's grandfather gifted his
Speaker 2: father an old wooden ore. Ramone would often read the
Speaker 2: inscription his grandfather had etched on it side, knowing how
Speaker 2: to use it. It said, you will never be hungry.
Speaker 2: Your ancestors have always survived thanks to the sea. This
Speaker 2: is your destiny.
Speaker 1: Follow it. Then follow it he did. Ramone became a businessman,
Speaker 1: often traveling by boat to Buenos Aires and other cities
Speaker 1: for work. When he was thirty one years old, he
Speaker 1: was heading home for Christmas on board the SS America,
Speaker 1: a large paddle steamer. In the early hours of Christmas Eve,
Speaker 1: the ship was rocked by a deafening explosion. Ramon rushed
Speaker 1: to the deck to find black smoke billowing from the hull.
Speaker 1: The America had been racing another ship, and the crew
Speaker 1: had pushed her too hard, causing a steam pipe to burst.
Speaker 1: As flames spread, the ship descended into pandemonium. Passengers fought
Speaker 1: for space on the lifeboats, not yet touched by fire.
Speaker 1: Ramone watched the chaos in terror, and the America groaned
Speaker 1: as it sank. They were only a few miles from
Speaker 1: the coast, and he could see the lights of his hometown,
Speaker 1: beckoning it was just too far to swim. Caught between
Speaker 1: flames and the sea, Ramone remembered his grandfather's words, and
Speaker 1: he made a choice. He leapt overboard into the frigid water.
Speaker 1: He was fished out soon afterwards, soaked and freezing, but
Speaker 1: still alive. Of the America's one hundred and sixty four passengers,
Speaker 1: he was one of only sixty five survivors. Many of
Speaker 1: the others sustained horrific burns. But while Ramone escaped these
Speaker 1: physical scars, the experience marked him in a less visible way.
Speaker 1: He was traumatized, forced to relive the experience over and
Speaker 1: over in vivid nightmares. He described them in a letter
Speaker 1: that he wrote to a cousin. I wake up in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, he said, with terrible nightmares,
Speaker 1: and always hearing the same fateful word fire, fire, fire,
Speaker 1: And so for years after the sinking of the SS America,
Speaker 1: Ramone avoided setting foot on a ship. He moved to Argentina,
Speaker 1: trading the shores for a landlocked farm. While his peace
Speaker 1: atsd never completely faded, he maintained a peaceful life, safe
Speaker 1: from the waves that tormented his dreams. Still, the seafarer
Speaker 1: in his blood would not go quietly. As time passed,
Speaker 1: Ramon felt a growing desire to travel to see Europe
Speaker 1: and North America, and when he was seventy one years old,
Speaker 1: he decided that fear had gotten the better of him
Speaker 1: for far too long. In nineteen twelve, he booked a
Speaker 1: transatlantic passage to Europe, a trip that would force him
Speaker 1: to face his trauma head on. It was not an
Speaker 1: easy voyage, and he spent most of it on deck,
Speaker 1: flotation belt already fastened in case there was any trouble.
Speaker 1: His sleep was haunted by nightmares. But after a week
Speaker 1: at sea, he arrived safe and sound in Europe. After
Speaker 1: visiting a nephew in Berlin, he prepared for a second
Speaker 1: transatlantic crossing, this time to America. As he boarded the massive,
Speaker 1: modern vessel, he couldn't help but feel buoyed by his success.
Speaker 1: Forty one years had passed since the sinking of the
Speaker 1: SS America. It had taken most of life to overcome
Speaker 1: the trauma from that experience, but he had done it.
Speaker 1: He'd followed his grandfather's advice and embraced his destiny at sea. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the words etched on his family or were more prescient
Speaker 1: than Ramone could have guessed. He would never set foot
Speaker 1: on dry land again. Four days after embarking, his ship
Speaker 1: struck an iceberg and capsized. This time, Ramone was not
Speaker 1: among the lucky few who were rescued. He went to
Speaker 1: meet his destiny beneath the waves of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 1: He drowned on April fifteenth of nineteen twelve, along with
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred other tragic passengers of the RMS Titanic. It's
Speaker 1: a familiar feeling that most of us have gone through.
Speaker 1: We order something online and then for days where checking
Speaker 1: and rechecking to see if it's on its way. Whether
Speaker 1: it's a diamond ring or just deodorant, the urgency is
Speaker 1: the same, and the second that purchase goes through, you
Speaker 1: better believe that I'm tracking that package. And some things
Speaker 1: never change. Back in seventeen seventy three, Phyllis was also
Speaker 1: worried about her packages getting safely across the Atlantic. You see,
Speaker 1: these were part of a historic delivery, the very first
Speaker 1: book of poetry by an enslaved black woman published in America.
Speaker 1: But Phyllis had heard rumors swirling that another historic event
Speaker 1: just might deliver her pristine poetry to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the sea. Phyllis had a hard journey to get to
Speaker 1: this moment. She was just seven or eight years old
Speaker 1: when she was kidnapped from the West coast of Africa
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty one. Forced aboard a ship by human traffickers,
Speaker 1: she and ninety four other captured Africans endured months of
Speaker 1: sailing across the stormy Atlantic in cramped, squalid conditions. By
Speaker 1: the time the boat arrived in Boston, nearly twenty five
Speaker 1: of her shipmates had died. In Boston, Phillis was unceremoniously
Speaker 1: thrust into a new life of enslavement. A merchant took
Speaker 1: a liking to her and bought the little girl as
Speaker 1: a gift for his wife, Susannah. Phyllis began working in
Speaker 1: the household, but it soon became clear that she was
Speaker 1: destined for different things. Not only had she learned English quickly,
Speaker 1: but she soon also mastered reading and writing the language
Speaker 1: as well. Recognizing Phyllis's talent, the family encouraged her to
Speaker 1: pursue an education. At the time, very few young women
Speaker 1: went to school, let alone in slave women. Many enslaved
Speaker 1: people were purposely denied education for fear that if they
Speaker 1: were able to read and write, they may discover a
Speaker 1: way to escape their enslavers. And this family were in
Speaker 1: some ways progressive for the time, encouraging her to study
Speaker 1: Latin Greek history, theology, and poetry, but they did not
Speaker 1: believe in abolishing slavery, and in fact kept Phyllis separate
Speaker 1: from the other enslaved people who worked as laborers and
Speaker 1: servants in their house. Phillis quickly fell in love with Homer,
Speaker 1: Virgil and John Milton, and began writing her own stanzas.
Speaker 1: By age fourteen, she published her first poem, called to
Speaker 1: the University of Cambridge in New England. Phyllis was a
Speaker 1: prolific poet and often wrote about the topical issues of
Speaker 1: the day. Living in Boston, she saw and heard the
Speaker 1: angry rumblings of revolution echoing among the colonists. In seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy she wrote a poem in honor of the Boston Massacre,
Speaker 1: one of the first salvos in the war against the British.
Speaker 1: In her letters and other poems from the time, it's
Speaker 1: clear that the irony was not lost on her. Here
Speaker 1: in Boston, colonists were calling for freedom from an oppressive
Speaker 1: master in England while condoning the slavery of Phyllis and
Speaker 1: her countrymen. The prejudice against her even kept her from
Speaker 1: publishing her book of poetry. While she had been praised
Speaker 1: and celebrated by many notable New Englanders, America's printers refused
Speaker 1: to publish a black woman's writings. English publishers, however, felt differently,
Speaker 1: so in seventy three, Phillis traveled to London accompanied by
Speaker 1: her son. She was met with acclaim and was even
Speaker 1: invited to meet King George the Third, although she was
Speaker 1: forced to return before that could happen. While in England,
Speaker 1: a countess who had been impressed by her work agreed
Speaker 1: to fund the publication of Phyllis's poems. And all of
Speaker 1: this led up to November twenty eighth of seventeen seventy three,
Speaker 1: the day that Phyllis's freshly printed books were scheduled to
Speaker 1: arrive in Boston Harbor. But with the rumors that Phyllis
Speaker 1: had been hearing lately, she was worried that they would
Speaker 1: never get to shore. A group of prominent Bostonians had
Speaker 1: gathered in Phyllis's church, the Old South Meeting House, Frustrated
Speaker 1: by the harsh taxes that England was levying on the colonies.
Speaker 1: They were supposedly plotting something so big King George wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to ignore their demands, and rumor had it
Speaker 1: that they had their eye on the Dartmouth, a ship
Speaker 1: arriving that night from England the same ship carrying Phyllis's books. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: Phyllis Wheatley was able to retrieve her manuscripts, saving three
Speaker 1: years of work, because just a few days later, the
Speaker 1: Sons of Liberty descended on the Dartmouth and tossed all
Speaker 1: of the tea and other goods still on board into
Speaker 1: Boston Harbor, throwing King George and the rest of the
Speaker 1: world a party they would never forget. Luckily, for Phyllis
Speaker 1: and for the rest of us, her poetry was not
Speaker 1: their cup of tea. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.