Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. It's often the case that we find what
Speaker 1: we're looking for when we're looking for something else. Search
Speaker 1: for our missing keys might unearth a pair of glasses
Speaker 1: we thought we had lost forever, or a child's hunt
Speaker 1: for his favorite toy could lead to the rediscovery of
Speaker 1: a toy he'd previously abandoned. In those situations, the original
Speaker 1: search leads to serendipity, what a popular artist on television
Speaker 1: would have described as a happy accident. Though one man
Speaker 1: set out to find more than his keys, he was
Speaker 1: looking for something that had gone missing decades earlier. His
Speaker 1: plan was to find the proverbial needle in a haystack,
Speaker 1: but in this case, the haystack was the entire ocean.
Speaker 1: Born in nineteen two, Robert had been fascinated by the
Speaker 1: sea from a young age. He grew up in San Diego, California,
Speaker 1: before earning a bachelor's degree in geology and chemistry from
Speaker 1: UC Santa Barbara, followed by a graduate degree in geophysics
Speaker 1: from the University of Hawaii in nineteen sixty six. Robert
Speaker 1: was also a member of the Army's Reserve Officers Training
Speaker 1: Program r OTC and was called to serve. In nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, he requested to join the Navy, where he
Speaker 1: assisted in several underwater expeditions over the years. As part
Speaker 1: of his doctoral thesis, he even mapped out the ocean
Speaker 1: floor in the Gulf of Maine. Robert practically lived at sea,
Speaker 1: which made him the perfect person to lead a team
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the ocean in five During the
Speaker 1: summer of that year, the U. S. Navy asked Robert
Speaker 1: to take a small submersible to the bottom of the
Speaker 1: Atlantic to find a pair of lost nuclear submarines. The U. S. S.
Speaker 1: Scorpion and the USS Thresher had both gone missing in
Speaker 1: nineteen The circumstances surrounding their disappearances were of the utmost
Speaker 1: importance to the government, who wanted to know what had
Speaker 1: happened to the sub's nuclear reactors. There was also concern
Speaker 1: about the effect of their radioactivity on the underwater environment. Now,
Speaker 1: a few years prior, Robert had asked the Navy about
Speaker 1: financing the development of the deep sea technology that he
Speaker 1: had been working on. It was an unmanned submersible fitted
Speaker 1: with cameras that could scour the ocean floor for debris.
Speaker 1: He called it Argo. The Navy hadn't been interested in
Speaker 1: Argo at the time, but now they realized just how
Speaker 1: useful the little robot might be. In late August of
Speaker 1: that year, Robert deployed his submersible. He and his team
Speaker 1: tracked the field of debris left behind by the subs
Speaker 1: after they had exploded, figuring that if they followed the trail,
Speaker 1: it would eventually lead them to the missing vessels, and
Speaker 1: their plan worked. The Thresher had suffered a mechanical failure
Speaker 1: that had led to its sinking. The fate of the Scorpion, though,
Speaker 1: was less obvious. Several theories were posed as to what
Speaker 1: had caused it to implode. One suggested it was the
Speaker 1: accidental explosion of a torpedo inside the sub. Another theory
Speaker 1: claimed that hydrogen had built up in the ventilation system
Speaker 1: and had exploded. Whatever the case, the Navy was satisfied
Speaker 1: with the results of the expedition, but Robert wasn't done.
Speaker 1: In fact, he had made a deal with the military
Speaker 1: as a condition of his research. In the event that
Speaker 1: he was able to find the missing subs, the Navy
Speaker 1: would allow him to pursue a personal project of his
Speaker 1: own with any remaining time on the mission. And the
Speaker 1: only reason they allowed it was because they didn't think
Speaker 1: that he would find what he was looking for. You see,
Speaker 1: Robert had a hunch that a missing shipwreck was located
Speaker 1: near where the Scorpion and Thresher had been found. He
Speaker 1: had already learned an important lesson from studying their trail
Speaker 1: of debris, too, the heaviest pieces sunk quickly, while the
Speaker 1: currents carried the lighter remains away. So Robert's team combed
Speaker 1: the ocean floor with argo It's cameras, sending back gray,
Speaker 1: grainy footage of smooth terrain two miles below the surface.
Speaker 1: He was looking for a much larger debris trail than
Speaker 1: that of the two submarines, something so big that it
Speaker 1: would lead him straight to the wreck of one of
Speaker 1: the most famous ships of all time. And then on
Speaker 1: September one, is hard work paid off. The cameras picked
Speaker 1: up something massive, a boiler, the image of which caught
Speaker 1: everyone off guard. It was as big as a house,
Speaker 1: and sure enough it was sitting mere feet from the
Speaker 1: ship's majestic bow. Seventy three years earlier, a brand new
Speaker 1: vessel had pulled out of Southampton, England, bound for New
Speaker 1: York City. Sadly, it never completed its journey. In the
Speaker 1: early morning hours of April fifteenth that struck an iceberg
Speaker 1: and sunk into the depths of the North Atlantic. The
Speaker 1: Titanic was advertised as many things luxurious, safe, and of
Speaker 1: course unsinkable. Well history would prove otherwise, but the ship's
Speaker 1: final resting place would have remained unknown had it not
Speaker 1: been for Robert Ballard's obsession and his keen negotiating skills.
Speaker 1: Despite the Titanic's short lived existence, it's made in voyage
Speaker 1: spawned countless tales, many of which were based on the
Speaker 1: lives of those on board. Hundred souls were lost when
Speaker 1: the ship sank, in nine hundred stories that would never
Speaker 1: get their happy endings. However, there was one story that
Speaker 1: did go on to have a happy ending. In fact,
Speaker 1: it had about one thirty of them. Charles Lightsoler was
Speaker 1: the second officer on the Titanic. He grew up as
Speaker 1: part of a working class family in a small town
Speaker 1: in Lancashire, England called Chorley. Charles's mother died soon after
Speaker 1: giving birth to him, and his father remarried, moving him
Speaker 1: to New Zealand ten years later. As a result, young
Speaker 1: Charles was raised by other family members until he was
Speaker 1: old enough to find work on his own. Charles was
Speaker 1: only thirteen when he set out to pave his own way,
Speaker 1: but he didn't want to end up in a factory
Speaker 1: like his parents. Instead, he enlisted as an apprentice with
Speaker 1: the sailing vessel known as the Primrose Hill. He traveled
Speaker 1: for years aboard different ships, going to far away places
Speaker 1: like India. By the time he was twenty one, he
Speaker 1: had earned his second mate certificate. Charles tried his hand
Speaker 1: at other professions, including gold prospector in the Yukon, as
Speaker 1: well as a cowboy in Canada, but the sea continued
Speaker 1: to call to him. At the turn of the century,
Speaker 1: he returned to the ocean, this time as an employee
Speaker 1: of the British shipping company White Star Line. Charles had
Speaker 1: worked his way up, functioning as fourth officer on the
Speaker 1: s s Medic before moving to the s S Majestic
Speaker 1: a few years later. The Majestic happened to be captain
Speaker 1: by one Edward J. Smith, who would go on to
Speaker 1: lead another White Star ship, the ill fated RMS Titanic.
Speaker 1: Charles boarded the Titanic in Belfast, roughly one week before
Speaker 1: its maiden voyage was set to begin. He was made
Speaker 1: second officer behind first officer William McMaster Murdoch. Charles was
Speaker 1: thorough in his duties as second officer. He was in
Speaker 1: charge of the last bridge watch shift on the night
Speaker 1: of April fourteenth of nineteen twelve, and made sure other
Speaker 1: lookouts on duty kept an eye out for ice in
Speaker 1: the water. Murdoch then relieved him for the nights, allowing
Speaker 1: Charles to get some shut eye for a few hours.
Speaker 1: At least that was the plan. The second officer hadn't
Speaker 1: even crawled into bed when the Titanic brushed against the
Speaker 1: side of a massive iceberg, and the rest, as they
Speaker 1: always say, is history. Charles was instrumental in evacuating passengers
Speaker 1: off the ship and followed the captain's commands to the letter,
Speaker 1: perhaps to the detriment of himself and others. Smith had
Speaker 1: ordered the lifeboats to be filled with women and children.
Speaker 1: Charles seemed to believe that meant only women and children,
Speaker 1: and so he began lowering lifeboats that were partially filled
Speaker 1: when no other women or children could be found. Even
Speaker 1: leaped aboard a lifeboat full of male passengers and aimed
Speaker 1: his unloaded revolver at them. He called them cowards for
Speaker 1: not staying to help the others. The ashamed men then
Speaker 1: disembarked back onto the Titanic's deck. In a last ditch
Speaker 1: effort before the water overtook the bow, Charles attempted to
Speaker 1: launch a collapsible boat that had been stored on the
Speaker 1: roof of the officers quarters. It landed upside down. As
Speaker 1: the front of Titanic slipped below the waves, the water
Speaker 1: rushed the deck and Charles dove off the roof into
Speaker 1: the icy North Atlantic to save himself. He tried to
Speaker 1: swim away from the ship as quickly as possible, knowing
Speaker 1: the suction would pull him under as it sank, but
Speaker 1: he was still too close, and Charles was pulled against
Speaker 1: the ventilation shaft as Titanic continued its descent. He was
Speaker 1: unable to break free and believed he would drown until
Speaker 1: suddenly in eruption from below forced a wave of hot
Speaker 1: air through the vent, launching him back to the surface.
Speaker 1: It was a boiler that had exploded from inside the ship.
Speaker 1: Charles got his bearings and caught of the collapsible lifeboat
Speaker 1: he had tried to launch earlier. He tried pulling himself
Speaker 1: on board using a rope hanging from its side, only
Speaker 1: to see one of the Titanic's funnels collapse close by.
Speaker 1: It landed inches away, and the ensuing wave sent him
Speaker 1: and the lifeboat flying fifty yards from the ship, but
Speaker 1: he was able to climb on top of the collapsible,
Speaker 1: along with several other survivors, as they watched the Titanic
Speaker 1: disappear into the murky depths below. After that, he helped
Speaker 1: to keep the people in the boat calm during the night,
Speaker 1: showing them how to shift their weight to prevent ocean
Speaker 1: swells from tossing them back into the water. Hours later,
Speaker 1: the RMS Carpathia, a passenger steamship that had received Titanics
Speaker 1: distress calls, arrived on seeing to rescue Charles and over
Speaker 1: seven d other survivors. The Titanic second officer had been
Speaker 1: given a second chance, one he made sure to use
Speaker 1: to help others for the rest of his life. He
Speaker 1: went on to fight in World War One, serving in
Speaker 1: the Royal Navy Reserve on board another White star ship,
Speaker 1: the RMS Oceanic. At end of the war, he retired
Speaker 1: from service as a commander. Charles lived a fairly quiet
Speaker 1: life after that, writing a book about his time at
Speaker 1: sea and what he had encountered aboard the Titanic, and
Speaker 1: then in nineteen forty he got the opportunity to jump
Speaker 1: into action one more time. Charles sailed to northern France
Speaker 1: in his motor yacht Sundowner, along with his son Roger.
Speaker 1: Charles refused to let the military requisition his boat against
Speaker 1: his will, so he chose to sail it himself where
Speaker 1: it was needed. Sundowner had a maximum capacity of twenty
Speaker 1: one passengers. That didn't stop Charles and his son from
Speaker 1: loading one seven British servicemen on board anyway. The battle
Speaker 1: and subsequent evacuation of Dunkirk saw the deaths of thousands
Speaker 1: of Allied soldiers, and thanks to one perfectly timed boiler explosion,
Speaker 1: Charles Lightholer was there to help as many as he could,
Speaker 1: just as he had done on board the Titanic thirty
Speaker 1: years before. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided to were
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 Mankey
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. Ye