Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The sea had become
Speaker 1: as calm as glass, although I like the way the
Speaker 1: captain of the ship described it better as level as
Speaker 1: a parlor carpet. He later wrote, smooth and featureless, and
Speaker 1: because this was the ocean and not some small lake, terrifying.
Speaker 1: It had started on August two of n four, just
Speaker 1: as the sun was setting, a darkness began to drown
Speaker 1: out the daylight. A lookout on board the British steamship
Speaker 1: known as the Mohican spotted a bright light on the horizon,
Speaker 1: no bigger than a speck. As they watched, though, it
Speaker 1: grew larger and larger, which is when they realized that
Speaker 1: it was moving toward them over the surface of the
Speaker 1: water like a ship, except well, when it arrived it
Speaker 1: turned out to be a cloud of fog, larger than
Speaker 1: their own vessel. It was unlike any fog they had
Speaker 1: ever seen, though, because this stuff was glowing. Some of
Speaker 1: the words they used were metallic and phosphorescent. To the
Speaker 1: people on board, it seemed as if the entire ship
Speaker 1: was on fire, but there was more. The steamer stopped
Speaker 1: moving the moment the fog arrived inside. The navigator's compass
Speaker 1: began to spin wildly, as if it were hooked up
Speaker 1: to a small motor on the main deck. Sailors ran
Speaker 1: about trying to figure out why the ship had stopped,
Speaker 1: and when they checked on the large iron chains of
Speaker 1: the anchor, they discovered that they were frozen to the
Speaker 1: ship's metal deck. The sailors were terrified and ran back
Speaker 1: and forth across the deck to inspect the ship. All
Speaker 1: they could see, though, was fog. Pale, metallic, glowing fog.
Speaker 1: Captain Urkhart tried to calm them, but it was all
Speaker 1: just too much. The hair on the backs of their
Speaker 1: necks was standing on end, and their bodies felt odd
Speaker 1: and unsettled. According to the captain, everything fell silent on
Speaker 1: the ship, with no engine running. The constant hum was gone,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, the cloud of fog had
Speaker 1: a way of muffling all other sounds, sort of like
Speaker 1: that silence that happens during a gentle winter storm. It
Speaker 1: was so quiet that it almost felt claustrophobic, as if
Speaker 1: they were all wrapped in a pale blanket and were
Speaker 1: slowly being smothered. And then half an hour after it arrived,
Speaker 1: the fog moved on. The sailors watched it roll over
Speaker 1: them until it was finally off their ship completely. Then,
Speaker 1: just as it had begun, the glowing cloud of fog
Speaker 1: just sort of drifted away, growing smaller as it distanced
Speaker 1: itself from the Mohican, and then it was gone. No
Speaker 1: one was sure what had happened back then, and to
Speaker 1: be honest, no one is sure today. Perhaps it was
Speaker 1: nothing more than an odd atmospheric anomaly, or maybe it
Speaker 1: was something born of the sea, like the pent upstatic
Speaker 1: charge you get when you rub a balloon on your head.
Speaker 1: Something created that cloud of glowing fog. That much is clear,
Speaker 1: but exactly how will forever remain a mystery. The truth
Speaker 1: it seems it's more than a little foggy. John Sullivan
Speaker 1: was known as the Boston Strong Boy. Born in eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight to Irish immigrants, John grew up in the
Speaker 1: South End of Boston. His parents wanted him to become
Speaker 1: a priest, but during his first year of college, he
Speaker 1: discovered two things. He loved to play baseball, and he
Speaker 1: was really good at it. Sullivan dropped out of college
Speaker 1: around eighteen seventy five and entered the world of professional baseball,
Speaker 1: a journey that lasted about eight years. According to him,
Speaker 1: That was about the time he switched over to a
Speaker 1: new sport, boxing. He started out as part of a
Speaker 1: boxing tour. He and five other men traveled the country
Speaker 1: by train, stopping almost every day in a new place
Speaker 1: to fight each other and sometimes even a local volunteer.
Speaker 1: The tour lasted two hundred and thirty eight days, during
Speaker 1: which time they participated in one nine five matches in
Speaker 1: one hundred thirty six different places. Sullivan knocked out eleven
Speaker 1: opponents during the tour. Now keep in mind this was
Speaker 1: the late eighteen eighties. Sullivan sometimes fought bare knuckled, meaning
Speaker 1: his opponents weren't always given the benefit of a padded
Speaker 1: glove to the face. Then again, neither was Sullivan. That's okay.
Speaker 1: Though he loved the sport and was considered the best
Speaker 1: in the world during his time, and over the course
Speaker 1: of his decade long career, he was only ever knocked
Speaker 1: out once, which is how he lost his final match
Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety two. In fact, which is sort of
Speaker 1: true but not really. Yes, Sullivan was only officially knocked
Speaker 1: out once, but someone else had laid the Boston strong
Speaker 1: Boy out cold shortly before he retired. That fighter was
Speaker 1: named Donahue. Donahue helped run a boxing school out of
Speaker 1: the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. But in eighteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: Sullivan had been participating in a small theater tour where
Speaker 1: he boxed with others on stage in front of large crowds,
Speaker 1: and a friend introduced him to Donahue. The thing is,
Speaker 1: Donahue wasn't actually a boxer, but working in a boxing
Speaker 1: school was a great way to pick up all the
Speaker 1: tricks of the trade, sort of like how kids learned
Speaker 1: things from their parents just by watching and practicing what
Speaker 1: they see. Donahue, it turned out, was a quick study.
Speaker 1: One night during this touring boxing exhibition, Sullivan called out
Speaker 1: from the stage that he would beat any man who
Speaker 1: came on stage. If he failed, he would pay them
Speaker 1: a reward. But of course Sullivan never failed. He was
Speaker 1: the Boston strong Boy after all. Most of the time
Speaker 1: Sullivan would hit them once and they would fall over
Speaker 1: and not get back up, but Donahue changed all of that.
Speaker 1: They actually managed to last two full rounds before things
Speaker 1: got interesting in the third when Sullivan caught Donahue with
Speaker 1: a powerful blow to the face. But Donahue, unlike all
Speaker 1: the other contestants that night, refused to go down. Instead,
Speaker 1: all of that pain and rage became a sort of
Speaker 1: rocket fuel ready to explode. With a savage scream, Dona
Speaker 1: Hue lashed out and connected with the champions jaw. For
Speaker 1: a brief instant, it looked as if nothing would happen. Then,
Speaker 1: like a tall pine hit with the lumberjack's axe, the
Speaker 1: Boston strong boy silently toppled over, hitting the canvas with
Speaker 1: a sick thud. He was out. Cold boxers get knocked out.
Speaker 1: We all know that, and while it's unusual for Sullivan
Speaker 1: to have gone a decade without that happening to him
Speaker 1: during an official match, we might be able to accept
Speaker 1: that there were other moments when it could have taken place.
Speaker 1: This theater match in was just that rare moment. Few
Speaker 1: would ever be able to claim that they had seen
Speaker 1: the champion felled by another fighter. The folks in this
Speaker 1: audience became members of an elite crowd that night, because
Speaker 1: of the knockout, sure, but also because of something else.
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned before, Dona Hue wasn't a boxer. Amateurs
Speaker 1: aren't supposed to be able to level a professional like that.
Speaker 1: Could it have been a lucky punch, sure, but that
Speaker 1: still wouldn't change the most surprising detail of all. John L. Sullivan,
Speaker 1: the Boston Strong Boy, had been knocked out by a woman,
Speaker 1: Mrs Hessey Donahue. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.