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Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities,

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a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and

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Mild. Our

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world is full of the unexplainable,

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and if history is an open book, all

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of these amazing tales right

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there on display, just waiting

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for us to explore. Welcome

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to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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Comic book fans are familiar with a certain

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set of phrases, often shouted toward the

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heavens. Look up in the sky. It's

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a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman.

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But a person flying above the clouds was only

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fiction, right? Something like that couldn't

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happen for real, could it? Just ask

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the people of medieval Ireland. In

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the seven forties, reports began to

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pour in a bizarre sightings. Beginning

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in a place called Telltown in the northeast.

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Three ships were spotted at a distance, their

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crews throwing spears over the decks

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to catch fish swimming below. But the

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ships weren't in the water. They

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were overhead, soaring through the

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sky. One of the spears missed

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and landed at their feet Onlookers

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watched as a crew member leapt off the deck

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to retrieve it. He swam down through

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the air as if it were water, picked up the

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errant spear, and swam back up

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to his ship. Over time, these

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stories changed a bit. The three ships

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became one ship, and then a tenth

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century king was present in some tellings.

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In later versions, the spear was picked up by

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someone on the ground who refused to give

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it back. The crewmate who swam down to

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get it cried, I am being drowned.

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The king then ordered the spear to be returned

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to him so that he could get back onto his ship.

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And we know of these stories today because of the

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Irish Annals, historical records

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of important events in Irish history. Four

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of these annals contain information about

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the sky ships seen in Telltown. Hundreds

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of years after the first sighting, the tales

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changed again. Around the fifteenth

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or sixteenth century, a manuscript

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was published containing a different account

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of the events. They no longer took

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place in Telltown, but rather at a monastery

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near the center of the country. It was called

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Klonmacnois, and it served as a

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major educational hub for the country,

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teaching different trades and of course,

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religious doctrine. In this iteration

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of the story, the spear had been changed

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to an anchor, which was dropped from above

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and then retrieved by a crewmate who swam down

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to earth to get it back. The priests held

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on to the anchor as the sailor cried that he was

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drowning, until they let it go and

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he was able to return to his ship. And

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it was this narrative that soon left the

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confines of Ireland and spread throughout

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England. According to Jeffrey de Brul,

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a twelfth century French abbot, the anchor

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actually landed in London in eleven

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twenty two. A similar version

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from twelve eleven claimed that the anchor

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was seen among piles of stones in the churchyard.

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As the parishioners watched, the rope that

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was tied to the anchor began moving. It

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was like an invisible force that was trying to rip

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it out of the ground from above. Wouldn't

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budge. One of the sailors climbed down the

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rope to the ground level and was grabbed

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by the people nearby. He struggled

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to get away, but died in their custody,

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having drowned by our heavier moisture

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filled air. And that same story

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would be discovered some time later in a Norse

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compilation of fantastic tales called

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Irish Marvels. So did

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the people of Ireland really witness a fleet

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of ships traversing the sky? Well,

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what they saw and what they thought they saw were

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two different things. Some medieval

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scholars believe that there really was a sea

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to be found among the heavens. As

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described in the Book of Genesis, God

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made the firmament and divided the waters

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which were under the firmament from the waters

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which were above the firmament. To many

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at the time, it made sense that if there was a sea

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on Earth, then there must also be one above

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it as well. It's hard to imagine

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something as large arge as a boat flying

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through the air centuries before the first

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airplane would take off, but it might not

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be so strange after all. Hundreds

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of years after the first appearance of the Irish

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sky ships, another aircraft was

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seen, this time over Merkele, Texas.

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On the night of April twenty eighth of eighteen ninety

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seven, A group of people on their way home from

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church watched as an anchor attached

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to a rope was dragged along the ground

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for miles. It scraped across dirt,

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and gravel until it finally got caught

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on a section of railroad track. As

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these churchgoers looked up at what the rope was attached

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to, they saw an enormous airship,

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its windows illuminated by light from

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the inside. In an instant, someone

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from the ship climbed down and cut

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the anchor loose before the vessel took off,

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The crewmen hanging on as he disappeared

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into the night. According to an

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article printed in the Houston Post shortly

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thereafter, the anchor was put on display

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in a local blacksmiths shop. Whether

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these stories are true or not is

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honestly irrelevant. What Madam

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is that when it comes to exploration and the human

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imagination, the sky, as

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they say, is the limit. When

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we think about affecting change, we often

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sell ourselves shorts. There's a common sentiment

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shared by many that goes something like, I'm only

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one person? How much can I really do? And

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the reality is one person can make a

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difference. The problem is that difference

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isn't always best for everyone. Few

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people knew that better than Jay Cook.

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Cook was born in Sandusky, Ohio

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in eighteen twenty one to wealthy, powerful

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parents. He eventually moved to Philadelphia,

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where he got a job working at the banking firm

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E. W. Clarkin Company. After

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several years as a clerk, Cook was promoted

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to partner in eighteen forty two.

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Then he started his own banking company

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just before the start of the Civil War. It

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was so successful the US government went to

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him to borrow money so they could pay for

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things like uniforms, guns, and other

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necessities. Cook changed

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the face of banking in the United States. He

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helped establish the national banking system

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and managed to secure a hefty payout for

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himself through the sale of bonds during the war.

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Then in eighteen seventy he branched

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out of banking and turned the country into

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his own personal monopoly board. He

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started a railroad. Cook provided

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the financing for the Northern Pacific Railroad,

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which would create a direct line between Minnesota

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and the West Coast. The project had been

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approved way back in eighteen sixty four,

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but backing for it hadn't really materialized.

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Cook's contributions really jump started

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construction, which continued until eighteen

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eighty three. On September eighth of that

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year, former President Ulysses S.

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Grant drove a golden spike into

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the last piece of track, officially marking

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completion of the railway. Cook

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and Grant had known each other for some time,

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as the financier had donated heavily

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to his reelection campaign. In eighteen seventy

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two, well three years after construction

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had begun, Grant ventured to Cook's massive

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home in Philadelphia for a visit. It's

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not known what they talked about there, but chances

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are that it wasn't good. One year prior,

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a letter had been published by the banking firm

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of Lee's and Waller. It predicted that

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a crash of the railroad industry was

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imminent. Railways had become

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money pits, often rife with fraud

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and pointless construction. Many track

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systems were laid with no clear beginning

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or end, and Cook's investment bank

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in New York was on the verge of insolvency.

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He had no recourse. The European

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market was already dealing with its own financial

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crisis, and American investors weren't

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about to pour their funds into his endeavors.

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Neither was Grant. He'd been implicated

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a decade earlier in several financial debacles

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that made him hesitant to assist Cook. Despite

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their previous relationship. Three

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days after their meetup, Cook's bank went

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belly up. Pretty soon everyone back

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in New York heard the news. They mobbed

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the streets look for a way into the building.

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Police officers were called to quell the crowds

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and keep them from ripping the doors off their

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hinges. People lost everything

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and found themselves in the middle of the first Great

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Depression, almost sixty years

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before the Crash of nineteen twenty nine, and

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it was all thanks to Jay Cook. Even

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Wall Street shut down completely,

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with the New York Stock Exchange suspending

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trading for the first time ever. Grant

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considered funding a bailout of the Treasury

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Department, but ultimately decided against

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it. The Northern Pacific, though

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somehow managed to survive. A series

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of austerity measures had been initiated

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prior to the crash, and loans from other

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financiers helped keep the project alive.

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This crisis was known as the Panic

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of eighteen seventy three, and it led

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to the disillusion of over one hundred and twenty

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railroads, the loss of eighteen thousand

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businesses, and the bankruptcy of

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countless investors, and it lasted

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for more than five years. Among

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the first groups hit by the panic were formerly

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enslaved Americas who had had their life savings

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stored at the Freedman Savings Bank. It

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also went under, costing thousands

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of African American men and women everything

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they had. No one was safe

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from the panic, either from the poor and

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uneducated to the rich and cultured.

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Everyone stood to lose something or everything

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as a result of one man's greed. Because

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of Jay Cook, unemployment rose to a

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whopping fourteen percent across the

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country, although some areas saw

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even worse. Veterans were tossed

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into the streets, while men like Cook

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found ways to regain their wealth. He

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made his money back by investing in a silver

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mine out in Utah before dying in

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nineteen oh five. Jay Cook was

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a ruthless business man, and he was almost

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solely responsible for the first and

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probably one of the worst depressions

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that the United States has ever

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seen. I

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hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the

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Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

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for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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more about the show by visiting Curiosities

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podcast dot com.

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The show was created by me Aaron

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Mankey in partnership with how stuff

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works. I make another award winning

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show called Lore, which is a podcast,

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book series, and television show and

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you can learn all about it over at the worldolore

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dot com. And until next

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time, stay curious.