Some people have accomplished great things and had their names carved forever in the record books. Others labored anonymously. Either way, though, you'll find their tales to be more than curious.
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. While it might define logic, oftentimes the surest path to military victory is the least obvious one, and sometimes that path isn't even on the battlefield. Knowing the odds were stacked against the American colonies and the Revolutionary War, George Washington and Benjamin Talmidge relied on another facet of war to try to turn the odds in their favor, espionage. In fact, they created an entire spiring. It may well have won the war for them, and from seventeen seventy eight to seventeen eighty this spir ring was instrumental in keeping Americans in control of their own destiny, known as the Culper Ring. This approach was so secret that George Washington himself ordered Talmadge to keep him in the dark as to who the actual operatives were, all the better to protect their identities. Of course, thanks to the Culper Codebook, historians have since been able to decipher the messages that were sent between various parties involving and keeping American intelligence a few steps ahead of the British Army. It used a numerical code system for common words, and once those numbers were cracked, the story unfolded. For instance, seven to seven referred to New York City, two to three meant gold, and three five five meant lady. But three fifty five may have meant much more than that. It may well have referred to one specific lady, a lady who was herself an American spy. It wouldn't be the first time a woman had been overlooked by the enemy. Take, for instance, a major leak sprung by British Major John Andre while speaking of an impending attack on the Americans. Andre didn't think twice about speaking freely in front of a housewife named Lydia Dara, who listened intently and then relay the news to George Washington. Andrea interrogated everyone in the house after the leak came to light, everyone that is, except Lydia. After all, surely all women held the same beliefs as their husbands right. The lady of the Culbra ring, though this Agent three is still unknown to this day, but it's believed that she was a member of a high ranking loyalist family in New York City, a hotbed of British activity during the war. There she would have had access to all the chatter of British nobility in the colonies. And that's when the biggest intelligence breakthrough of the war surfaced, thanks largely to the efforts of three fifty five, ever overlooked in the company of her enemy, you see, will reports right up with the British in the South. On their return to New York City, the reports began coming from an unnamed operative in the field. These reports claimed that an American general was in cahoots with the British and covering for Major John Andrea's comings and goings, and the intelligence was clear about who that was. Benedict Arnold was a traitor to the revolutionary cause, and this revelation came by most accounts from Agent threeft. After all, most other Culpra spies had already fled New York City by that point, avoiding the heat from British counter intelligence. Yet This breakthrough finding led to the arrest and execution of Major John andre And, while Benedict Arnold escaped. The turning point had well turned. In the aftermath of this massive plot unraveling, the British began sweeping up anyone they even remotely suspected. According to some reports, this may have included Agent three fifty five, who was held aboard the prison ship the HMS Jersey. There she gave birth to a son and soon died amidst horrid conditions. Correspondence among the Copra spy ring largely dried up after her death, leading more credibility to the belief that it was the still anonymous Agent three who was at the heart of it all. Robert Townsend, the head of the Culpa ring at the time, fell into a depression. Rumor has it that he was romantically involved with Agent three, although with all the secrecy surrounding their group, it isn't likely that we could ever prove that. Whatever the case, Agent three and her fellow spies learned a valuable lesson during their service. You never know what you might hear when people think no one is listening, whether it's searching the ocean's depths, or climbing the tallest mountains. There are certain individuals who feel an urge, a hung to push themselves to the extreme. They aren't satisfied behind a desk or standing on the sidelines. They feel a calling to challenge what's possible by accomplishing the impossible. Perhaps none more than Donald Campbell. Campbell was born in Surrey, England, on March twenty three, nineteen twenty one, to a speed demon of a father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, had been a Grand Prix racer and speed record holder on both water and land. It seems his son was destined to follow in his footsteps. Instead, Donald tried to join the Air Force at the start of World War Two, but was denied entry due to about of rheumatic fever when he was younger. Instead, he supported the war effort by working as an engineer on military vehicles. After the war was over, a New Year's Eve of nineteen forty eight, Campbell's life took a drastic turn. His father suffered a series of strokes and passed away unexpectedly. He was only sixty three at the time, still relatively young, but he'd led a much longer life than most others in his line of work. After his father's death, Donald joined up with his father's chief engineer, Leo Villa, and the two continued Sir Malcolm's work in setting speed records on land and water. Campbell started in nineteen forty nine by racing his father's old powerboat, the Bluebird K four. The K four was a hydroplane which would glide across the water once it reached top speeds, and as American racers started beating his father's existing records, Campbell knew that he'd have to make some changes if he hoped to compete, So he modified the K for to reduce drag on the water, and in nineteen fifty one he managed to reach one hundred seventy miles per hour. If only his success had lasted on one unfortunate attempt to break the record, The Bluebird K four was destroyed, and it wasn't long before another racer had moved the record up again. Campbell now had to beat one hundred seventy eight miles per hour. He and Leo got to work on a new Bluebird, one made of metal and powered by a jet engine. Dubbed the Case seven. His new hydroplane proved to be a roaring success. Between nineteen fifty five and nineteen sixty four, Campbell set a whopping seven world records and reached speeds as high as two hundred and eighty six miles per hour. Now, he might have had one eye on the water, but he also had his other eye back on land. Several years earlier, a racer named John Cobb had set a land speed record of three hundred and ninety four miles per hour, and Campbell was determined to beat it. He had a new vehicle design called the Bluebird Proteus c N seven. Naturally, it was blue colored, and in order to achieve speeds as high as five hundred miles per hour, it was shaped like a flattened submarine. It was his pride and joy, a testament to British engineering, and the thing that would zoom him out from behind his father's shadow. Campbell ran some low speed tests in Sussex before transporting the c N seven to the salt flats of Utah, where it would really stretch its legs. But it was on the sixth attempt when the car stretched a little too far and crashed after reaching a blistering three hundred and sixty miles per hour. Campbell survived with a fractured skull and some bumps and scrapes, but the c N seven was totaled. A new vehicle was built and in July of nineteen four Donald headed to Australia where he set a new record of four hundred and three point one miles per hour. It was arousing success and well deserved after so many failed attempts, but he still wanted to push things further, and to do that he had to build a car with a different kind of propulsion. Enter the Bluebird Mock one point one, otherwise known as the rocket car. It was designed to reach a top speed of eight hundred and forty miles per hour with the help of two Bristol Siddeley rocket engines. Just building the car and telling people about it wasn't enough. He wanted to get the word out by setting another record With the Bluebird Case seven, he put in a Bristol Orpheus jet engine capable of delivering forty pounds of thrust. After about of bad weather and some unsuccessful tries in Lancashire, Campbell finally got his opportunity. On January worth of ninety seven. He brought the Case seven out to the middle of the lake and aimed it towards the southern end. The engine fired and the Bluebird took off like well a rocket seventy three ten. Campbell couldn't be stopped. Literally. The first run had gone well, and he wanted to go again, immediately, refusing to refuel or wait for things to cool down. The Bluebird blazed a trail across the water a second time, heating upwards of three hundred and twenty miles per hour. But something was wrong. The engine went out on this run, and the vehicle touched down on the water, nose pointed downward, and went into a full sumersault. The Case seven broke apart as it skipped along the surface of the water. Campbell was killed in the incident, and his body was lost. It took thirty years for divers to find and recover both the Bluebird and Campbell's remains from the lake. He was still wearing his coveralls. Donald Campbell set out to prove he was as brave and as daring as his father before him, and he did. Sadly, he led his success cloud his judgment, and he paid the ultimate price for it. Sometimes when you feel the need for speed, that's when you should stop and smell the roses before they're left on your grave. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.