Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Everyone needs to get away now
Speaker 1: and then when the daily grind gets tough. It's nice
Speaker 1: to relax on a quiet beach, or fly off to
Speaker 1: a foreign place and immerse yourself in a rich culture
Speaker 1: other than your own. And for some travelers all they
Speaker 1: need is the open sea and and all you can
Speaker 1: eat buffet. Today's cruise ships offer guests all the luxury
Speaker 1: of a major hotel with the added benefit of a
Speaker 1: fun destination. But to understand true luxury, one must go
Speaker 1: back almost ninety years to the most decadent ship of
Speaker 1: them all, the Queen Mary. Built from nineteen thirty to
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty four by White Star Line, the RMS Queen
Speaker 1: Mary was a transatlantic ocean liner named after Mary of Tech,
Speaker 1: who was the Queen of England at the time. The
Speaker 1: ship boasted a traditional design with a prominent bow and
Speaker 1: three orange and black smokestacks along its top. Inside, the
Speaker 1: liner was filled with all manner of first class amenities,
Speaker 1: including a pair of indoor swimming pools, a lecture hall,
Speaker 1: and beauty salons. Parents of all classes even had access
Speaker 1: to nurseries for their children, you know, for when mom
Speaker 1: and dad wanted to hit the dance floor or get
Speaker 1: some much needed alone time. The Queen Mary's telephone system
Speaker 1: could also make calls all over the world. There was
Speaker 1: no question this was a white star ship, as she
Speaker 1: was clearly cut from the same cloth as her long
Speaker 1: lost sister, the Titanic. She was converted into a troop
Speaker 1: ship during World War Two carried Allied soldiers overseas for
Speaker 1: several years. It took about ten months to change her
Speaker 1: back into a passenger ship after the war, and then
Speaker 1: she continued to sail for another twenty years. She underwent
Speaker 1: a number of modifications during that time, both inside and out,
Speaker 1: before she was retired in nineteen sixty seven. Permanently moored
Speaker 1: in Long Beach, California, she was converted once again, this
Speaker 1: time from a working ship into a floating hotel. Her
Speaker 1: lower levels were transformed into an aquarium and museum, while
Speaker 1: her boiler rooms were removed completely. Over the years, the
Speaker 1: Queen Mary went through several owners, all of whom had
Speaker 1: different ideas about what the Liner should have been. Hotelier
Speaker 1: Jack Rather happened to be one of those owners. He
Speaker 1: and his wife used to sail on the Queen Mary
Speaker 1: back when it was still in service, so when the
Speaker 1: opportunity to lease the property arose in the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: Rather jumped at the chance. He was no stranger to
Speaker 1: running a hotel either. He'd built one back in ninety five,
Speaker 1: which had proven quite successful. It was so successful, in fact,
Speaker 1: that a prominent California business owner tried to buy it
Speaker 1: a number of times, but never quite had the money
Speaker 1: to do so. It wasn't until decades after this entrepreneur's
Speaker 1: death when his company was finally able to afford Rather's
Speaker 1: hotel and the property on which it sat, which happened
Speaker 1: to also include the Queen Mary. This company had big
Speaker 1: plans for the Liner and hoped to take advantage of
Speaker 1: its dark history. You see, the Queen Mary was home
Speaker 1: to countless ghost stories in tales of paranormal activity, which
Speaker 1: led to it becoming known as the most haunted hotel
Speaker 1: in America during World War Two, for example, an accidental
Speaker 1: collision with another military vehicle led to the deaths of
Speaker 1: three personnel on the other ship. As a passenger ship,
Speaker 1: you know, a temporary home for living, breathing human beings,
Speaker 1: The Queen Mary was believed to have been the site
Speaker 1: of almost fifty deaths, including drownings, murders, and even other
Speaker 1: strange departures. Her new owners wanted to turn a night's
Speaker 1: stay into a fully immersive paranormal experience, and the piece
Speaker 1: to resistance room B three forty. Those who entered the
Speaker 1: notorious room reported strange happenings, such as the floors creaking
Speaker 1: at odd times or distant voices calling from beyond the grave.
Speaker 1: Faucets in the bathroom would turn on by themselves, and
Speaker 1: on more than one occasion, ghostly images showed up in
Speaker 1: the mirrors, frightening the guests. The thing was Room B
Speaker 1: three forty wasn't really haunted. The company just wanted people
Speaker 1: to think it was. They had installed all sorts of
Speaker 1: effects to give anyone staying in the room the sense
Speaker 1: that they weren't alone. Unfortunately, the idea of actually sleeping
Speaker 1: in a haunted hotel didn't really sit well with tourists,
Speaker 1: and the concept was abandoned. It was kind of surprising, though,
Speaker 1: since it had been formulated by a company adept at
Speaker 1: building ghost infested structures before they'd even tried to use
Speaker 1: the techniques from their other attraction on the Queen Mary.
Speaker 1: But Disneyland visitors didn't mind visiting the haunted mansion for
Speaker 1: a few minutes at a time, They just didn't want
Speaker 1: to spend several nights in its floating equivalent. After Disney
Speaker 1: gave up its idea of a haunted ocean liner in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen nineties, it ripped out all of the
Speaker 1: imagineering technology from Room B three forty and locked it
Speaker 1: up for good, which only adds to the mystery why
Speaker 1: was the door locked? What had happened in there? Why
Speaker 1: couldn't anyone go inside? Over time, knowledge of Disney's involvement
Speaker 1: melted away, and the rumors of the Queen Mary's hauntings
Speaker 1: led to the idea that Room B three forty was
Speaker 1: one of the scariest places on the ship. It was
Speaker 1: also believed to have contributed to ghost sighting claims from
Speaker 1: guests decades later. Whether you believe the Queen Mary really
Speaker 1: is plagued by ghosts depends on whether you believe in
Speaker 1: the paranormal at all. If you're brave enough and you
Speaker 1: have the money, you can stay in Room B three
Speaker 1: forty overnight and judge for yourself. Just don't expect it
Speaker 1: to be the happiest place on earth. College is a
Speaker 1: time for finding yourself, trying new things, experiencing true freedom
Speaker 1: for the first time, and of course breaking the rules.
Speaker 1: After all, what is the point of experiencing anything without
Speaker 1: a little rule breaking to make the experience better. Sure,
Speaker 1: you should be learning things as well, but let's not
Speaker 1: kid ourselves. It's the freedom and the rabble rousing Students
Speaker 1: past and present remember most as such. If you drop
Speaker 1: someone like George Gordon Byron, known to most as Lord Byron,
Speaker 1: into such an environment, you're bound to see some fireworks.
Speaker 1: Byron spent his life breaking rules, bucking norms, and otherwise
Speaker 1: stirring the pot, both in his poetry and in life itself.
Speaker 1: That's what happens when you become a literary icon by
Speaker 1: the ripe age of twenty, having been born into a
Speaker 1: troubled childhood to a schizophrenic mother and a father nicknamed
Speaker 1: mad Jack, as well as being cared for by an
Speaker 1: abusive nurse. Byron's tumultuous life makes sense. He was also
Speaker 1: born with a club foot, a condition he blamed on
Speaker 1: his mother's tight corsets, which earned him constant mockery from
Speaker 1: his classmates. As such, he did not find much comfort
Speaker 1: throughout his early days, though he did find one particular
Speaker 1: avenue that helped him, Grin and Barrett, the companionship of animals.
Speaker 1: Byron had numerous dogs and cats throughout his upbringing, but
Speaker 1: he also dabbled in exotic pets as well, monkeys, foxes, peacocks,
Speaker 1: and even crocodiles, although the exotic pets didn't make as
Speaker 1: lasting of an impression as his favorite pet of all time,
Speaker 1: a dog named Boson, who died of rabies in eighteen
Speaker 1: o eight. All in all, it's clear the Byron loved dogs,
Speaker 1: and when it came time for him to leave home
Speaker 1: and attend Trinity College in Cambridge in eighteen o five,
Speaker 1: he was desperate to bring one of his pups along
Speaker 1: with him, and not Boston, curiously enough, but his bulldog
Speaker 1: named Smut. He certainly had a knack for naming his pets. However,
Speaker 1: Trinity College had a strict rule against having dogs on campus.
Speaker 1: And given what we talked about with college being a
Speaker 1: time for rule breaking and Byron being a champion rule breaker,
Speaker 1: well then you can guess what's coming. Byron swapped out
Speaker 1: the forbidden dog by another animal, an animal not traditionally
Speaker 1: kept as a pet. But seeing as how Trinity College
Speaker 1: did not have an explicit rule preventing being accompanied by
Speaker 1: such a pet, Byron fought for his right to have
Speaker 1: it and won the argument, and just like that, he
Speaker 1: was clear to come to campus with an animal that
Speaker 1: was far and away more dangerous and troublesome than a dog. Regardless,
Speaker 1: Byron kept the animal on a leash, walking it around campus,
Speaker 1: surely taking it out in the morning to do its
Speaker 1: bi this and conversing with the student body. Bear in
Speaker 1: mind that there would not have been any other pet
Speaker 1: owners on campus, no dog owners socializing over two dogs
Speaker 1: becoming friends, just one rather large pet on a leash
Speaker 1: of Byron doating over his newfound friend. It didn't take
Speaker 1: long for Byron to fall in love with this animal.
Speaker 1: He wrote to his friend Elizabeth in eighteen oh seven, saying,
Speaker 1: I have got a new friend, the finest in the world.
Speaker 1: When I brought him here. They asked me what to
Speaker 1: do with him, and my reply was he should sit
Speaker 1: for a fellowship. And let's take a moment to appreciate
Speaker 1: that last line. Rumor has it that he really did
Speaker 1: try to apply the animal to join the student body,
Speaker 1: since there were no rules explicitly stating that this wasn't allowed.
Speaker 1: Nothing ever came of this, though. The animal never earned
Speaker 1: itself a degree, at least not that we know of.
Speaker 1: As far as where Byron acquired this animal, well, it's
Speaker 1: all rumor and hearsay. Really, they say he acquired the
Speaker 1: creature from the Sturbridge Fair or from a traveling menager.
Speaker 1: But the matter it was never solved. It's not like
Speaker 1: the guy who acquired crocodiles and peacocks would have that
Speaker 1: much trouble finding anything else. Sadly, we don't know what
Speaker 1: happened to this pet when Byron parted ways with it.
Speaker 1: We don't even know what its name was. But whatever
Speaker 1: the case, this companion helped make Byron's time at university
Speaker 1: that much more well bearable. Oh and Byron's pet, if
Speaker 1: you haven't caught on, it was a bear. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious
Speaker 1: one