WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.679 Picture this. It's December of 1807. Right. You 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:08.560 are standing on a beach in Cornwall, and it's 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:13.820 just this absolute freezing, driving rain. Miserable 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:16.379 conditions. Oh, completely. The wind is howling 00:00:16.379 --> 00:00:18.920 so loudly, like you can't even hear the person 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:21.579 screaming right next to you. Yeah. And just a 00:00:21.579 --> 00:00:24.620 few dozen yards offshore, trapped on a treacherous 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:28.699 sandbank, is this massive Royal Navy frigate 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:31.899 called the Anson. The Anson. Right, a huge ship. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.859 Yeah, a wooden Leviathan. And the waves are just 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:36.439 picking it up and smashing it down. The hull 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:38.820 is splintering. Terrifying. And you can clearly 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:41.259 see the faces of over 100 sailors clinging to 00:00:41.259 --> 00:00:43.640 the rigging. They're freezing. They're exhausting 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:46.020 their last ounces of strength before they basically 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:48.219 just slip into the boiling surf and drown. It's 00:00:48.219 --> 00:00:50.520 an absolute nightmare scenario. It is. And they 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:52.359 are so close you could practically throw a baseball 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:55.380 to them. But the ocean is so violent that no 00:00:55.380 --> 00:00:58.780 boat can launch. You are completely... agonizingly 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:00.259 helpless. And you know, the really wild thing 00:01:00.259 --> 00:01:02.579 is, it's not an isolated incident. Yeah, not 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:06.219 at all. That terrifying proximity to uncontrollable 00:01:06.219 --> 00:01:09.739 natural violence is, well, it's the exact starting 00:01:09.739 --> 00:01:12.180 point for our journey today. Because to understand 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:14.040 the people we're going to talk about, you have 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:16.019 to understand the crucible that forged them. 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:19.599 Exactly. You trace your finger down to the very 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:22.120 bottom left -hand corner of the map of England, 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:24.920 to this peninsula that just stabs into the wild 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:27.859 Atlantic Ocean. You're looking at Cornwall. Right. 00:01:28.219 --> 00:01:30.900 And you are about to go on a deep dive into one 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:35.920 of the most rugged, isolated, and fusely independent 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:38.620 corners of the entire world. Yeah, usually, I 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.629 mean, history focuses on The centers of power, 00:01:41.790 --> 00:01:44.129 right? The capital cities, the kings, the prime 00:01:44.129 --> 00:01:46.689 ministers. The intersecting highways of commerce. 00:01:46.790 --> 00:01:48.670 We always assume that's where the important story 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:51.569 is happening. But today we are completely bypassing 00:01:51.569 --> 00:01:54.370 all of that. We are heading out to the absolute 00:01:54.370 --> 00:01:57.189 ragged fringe. Which is exactly the mission of 00:01:57.189 --> 00:01:59.370 this deep dive. We're going to explore the lives 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:02.329 of the lesser known personalities from this really 00:02:02.329 --> 00:02:05.170 fascinating historical collection of biographical 00:02:05.170 --> 00:02:07.450 sketches. From the book Cornish characters and 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:10.180 strange events. Right. We aren't looking at the 00:02:10.180 --> 00:02:13.060 world famous Cornishmen. No Sir Humphry Davy 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:16.460 today. Exactly. No celebrity chemists. We're 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:18.939 plunging into the lives of the forgotten eccentric, 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:22.300 the rogue inventors, the outlaws, and just the 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:24.580 absolute individualists. We want to discover 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:27.120 what these highly original people can teach you 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.759 about human resilience, the tragedy of lost cultures, 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:33.900 and, you know, the bizarre outcomes of extreme 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:36.460 isolation. Because history isn't just treaties 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:39.490 and wars. Right. The real juice of history, the 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:41.669 stuff that tells you who a people truly are, 00:02:42.169 --> 00:02:44.930 is found in the everyday weirdos. I love that 00:02:44.930 --> 00:02:47.310 phrase, the everyday weirdos. It's true, though. 00:02:47.590 --> 00:02:49.710 The people who absolutely refuse to fit into 00:02:49.710 --> 00:02:52.530 the mold. But before we get to the people, we 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:54.189 really have to talk about the environment. We 00:02:54.189 --> 00:02:57.449 do. Geography is, in almost every way, destiny. 00:02:57.689 --> 00:03:00.689 The geography here is wild. The source describes 00:03:00.689 --> 00:03:03.129 Cornwall as a place set apart from the rest of 00:03:03.129 --> 00:03:06.270 England. People mainly by Celts. Yeah, and cut 00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:08.969 off by these towering, dangerous coasts. When 00:03:08.969 --> 00:03:11.270 you put human beings on a storm -swept peninsula 00:03:11.270 --> 00:03:14.289 like that, you force them to adapt. And the Cornish 00:03:14.289 --> 00:03:18.509 had to rely on two incredibly dangerous environments 00:03:18.509 --> 00:03:21.590 to survive. We mentioned the chaotic, deadly 00:03:21.590 --> 00:03:25.159 sea, obviously. But we also have to recognize 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:28.580 the dark, claustrophobic, and really perilous 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:31.020 life of the tin mines. I am so glad you wrote 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:33.719 up the mines, because we honestly cannot understand 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:36.080 the Cornish psychology without going underground. 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:38.379 It's fundamental. What was it actually like down 00:03:38.379 --> 00:03:41.780 there? Well, imagine descending hundreds, sometimes 00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:44.539 thousands of feet down a rickety wooden ladder. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:48.419 Oh my god. No thanks. In pitch blackness, right. 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:50.860 Yeah. Lit only by a single candle stuck to your 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:53.319 helmet with a lump of clay. That sounds terrifying. 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.780 It is. The air is thick, it's hot, it's choked 00:03:55.780 --> 00:03:58.479 with rock dust. But you know the most terrifying 00:03:58.479 --> 00:04:00.479 part is? Right. Some of these tin and copper 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:03.280 mines, like the famous Bodalac mine, they literally 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:06.199 extended out underneath the ocean floor. Wait, 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:07.740 you mean the miners were working beneath the 00:04:07.740 --> 00:04:10.800 sea? Precisely. The source talks about how miners 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:13.500 would report hearing the massive boulders rolling 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:16.060 along the seabed directly above their... Above 00:04:16.060 --> 00:04:18.759 their heads, while they're trapped in a tiny 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:22.540 tunnel. Yes, during storms. One wrong strike 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:25.939 with a pickaxe, one structural failure, and the 00:04:25.939 --> 00:04:28.019 entire Atlantic Ocean would just come pouring 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:30.970 in. That is... I can't even fathom that kind 00:04:30.970 --> 00:04:33.430 of stress. Right. When your entire population 00:04:33.430 --> 00:04:36.230 spends its days either battling the violent waves 00:04:36.230 --> 00:04:39.810 on the surface, or carving through solid granite 00:04:39.810 --> 00:04:42.730 in the suffocating dark beneath the waves, you 00:04:42.730 --> 00:04:46.089 don't produce a soft, compliant people. No. You 00:04:46.089 --> 00:04:49.430 forge a highly original, hearty, and honestly 00:04:49.430 --> 00:04:52.209 sometimes profoundly fanatic race. It's the ultimate 00:04:52.209 --> 00:04:54.310 dual crucible, the pressure of the ocean and 00:04:54.310 --> 00:04:56.569 the pressure of the earth. But before we even 00:04:56.569 --> 00:04:59.069 get to physical survival, we have to start with 00:04:59.069 --> 00:05:01.389 the most fundamental barrier that separated the 00:05:01.389 --> 00:05:03.470 Cornish from the rest of the country. The linguistic 00:05:03.470 --> 00:05:05.829 barrier. Yeah. To really understand the Cornish 00:05:05.829 --> 00:05:08.110 character, we have to look at how they communicated. 00:05:08.689 --> 00:05:10.569 We're starting with the echo of a lost world. 00:05:10.790 --> 00:05:13.009 The linguistic isolation, because the Cornish 00:05:13.009 --> 00:05:15.550 language was a distinct Celtic tongue closely 00:05:15.550 --> 00:05:17.970 related to Welsh and Breton. And we're going 00:05:17.970 --> 00:05:20.790 to explore the literal death of this ancient 00:05:20.790 --> 00:05:23.959 culture through a single remarkable individual. 00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:26.720 A woman named Dolly Pentreth. Dolly Pentreth. 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:30.639 Her story is just, it's soaked in a kind of profound, 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:33.240 lonely poetry. It really is. She was born at 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.240 Jeffrey, married to Pentreth, and she lived in 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:38.319 the village of Mouse Hole. Which, by the way, 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.439 might be the greatest name for a coastal village 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:44.139 ever. Mouse Hole. I love it. But the most striking 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:46.540 detail about her early life is that she claimed 00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:49.360 she didn't speak a single word of English until 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:52.430 she was past 20 years old. Which tells us an 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:54.870 immense amount about the socioeconomic landscape 00:05:54.870 --> 00:05:57.170 of Cornwall in the early 18th century. Right, 00:05:57.329 --> 00:05:59.569 because by this time, English was aggressively 00:05:59.569 --> 00:06:02.170 encroaching. It was the language of the gentry, 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:05.029 of the law, the broader economy. But down in 00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:07.310 those tight -knit, isolated fishing communities, 00:06:07.850 --> 00:06:10.709 Cornish was still the absolute bedrock of daily 00:06:10.709 --> 00:06:13.350 life. It was like a protective bubble. Exactly. 00:06:13.790 --> 00:06:15.910 As a 12 -year -old girl, she would be sent to 00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:18.800 the market in Penzance to sell fish. And the 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:21.019 text notes, she did it entirely in the Cornish 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:22.819 tongue. She'd just stand there with her fish, 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:26.319 shouting out prices, haggling, bantering. And 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:28.959 everyone around her, even the local upper classes, 00:06:29.579 --> 00:06:32.959 understood her perfectly. It was a vibrant, living 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.839 language of commerce. But then we see the insidious 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.540 mechanics of what linguists call language death. 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:40.920 Because it rarely happens overnight, does it? 00:06:41.139 --> 00:06:44.899 No, it's a slow suffocation. English became the 00:06:44.899 --> 00:06:47.519 necessary tool for upward mobility. If you wanted 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.759 a job outside the village, or if you needed to 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:51.779 deal with the government, you had to speak English. 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:54.480 So parents naturally stopped teaching Cornish 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:57.139 to their children. Yes, they viewed it as a handicap. 00:06:57.620 --> 00:07:00.779 And suddenly, within a single generation, the 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:03.639 linguistic ecosystem collapsed. Which leaves 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.480 Dolly entirely stranded. As she grows older, 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:09.000 the language literally evaporates around her. 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.560 Until she becomes famous in her old age simply 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:13.740 for being the last native speaker of Cornish. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.540 There is this amazing, slightly combative anecdote 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:19.420 about a man named Daines Barrington who visits 00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:22.519 her in 1768. Right, Daines Barrington. He was 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:24.939 a prominent antiquarian from London. And he heard 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:27.439 rumors, right? He had. The intellectual circles 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:29.519 in the capital had heard rumors that the Cornish 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.019 language wasn't completely extinct yet. So he's 00:07:32.019 --> 00:07:34.420 essentially on a fact -finding mission. Traveling 00:07:34.420 --> 00:07:36.920 to the very edges of the map to capture a dying 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:39.899 specimen. And his guide... basically preps him 00:07:39.899 --> 00:07:42.040 for disappointment. He's like, look, there's 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:44.759 really no one left except this one old woman 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:47.480 in Mousehole. So Barrington goes down there, 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:49.879 and he decides to play a little psychological 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:52.180 trick. He doesn't just ask her to speak the language. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.980 He introduces himself by saying he has laid a 00:07:55.980 --> 00:08:00.600 wager, a bet, that no one in Cornwall can actually 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:03.230 converse in the old tongue anymore. A remarkably 00:08:03.230 --> 00:08:06.649 provocative way to introduce yourself to a proud, 00:08:06.990 --> 00:08:09.629 fiercely independent, elderly woman. Who has 00:08:09.629 --> 00:08:12.589 survived a lifetime of hard labor, no less. Exactly. 00:08:12.930 --> 00:08:15.110 And it backfires brilliantly. She completely 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:17.550 goes off on - She scolds him in an angry tone 00:08:17.550 --> 00:08:19.610 for two or three minutes straight. An absolute 00:08:19.610 --> 00:08:21.990 torrent of cornish. Barrington actually notes 00:08:21.990 --> 00:08:23.730 in his records that the language sounded very 00:08:23.730 --> 00:08:26.009 much like Welsh. But here is the context that 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:28.740 makes it hilarious. The guide had previously 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:31.579 warned Barrington about Dolly. Right. He told 00:08:31.579 --> 00:08:33.500 him that whenever he went to buy fish from her 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:36.559 and didn't offer a fair price, she would grumble 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:39.399 at him in this unknown tongue. So she wasn't 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:42.500 reciting poetry or delivering a high -minded 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:45.559 historical speech for the antiquarian. No. She 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:48.740 was basically unleashing her premium, top -tier 00:08:48.740 --> 00:08:52.059 fish haggling curses on this fancy London gentleman. 00:08:52.299 --> 00:08:55.200 She just gave him both barrels. It is deeply 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:58.100 amusing, but you know, if we peel back the humor, 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:01.549 it reveals a profound tragedy. It does. Consider 00:09:01.549 --> 00:09:03.669 the psychological weight this woman carried every 00:09:03.669 --> 00:09:06.649 single day. Imagine being the absolute final 00:09:06.649 --> 00:09:09.450 vessel of an entire linguistic history. Every 00:09:09.450 --> 00:09:13.309 single idiom, every cultural inside joke, every 00:09:13.309 --> 00:09:16.610 nuance of how her ancestors categorized the stars, 00:09:16.789 --> 00:09:19.230 the weather, the sea, it was all locked inside 00:09:19.230 --> 00:09:21.480 her mind. and there is no one left on the planet 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:24.080 to share it with in its pure native form. The 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:26.399 isolation must have been deafening. Okay, let's 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:28.480 unpack that. It's hard to wrap our modern minds 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.100 around. Imagine being the very last person on 00:09:31.100 --> 00:09:32.679 earth who remembers how to use the internet. 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:35.720 That's a great analogy. Or like imagine you are 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:38.360 the last person alive who knows the melody to 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:41.480 a beautiful complex song. You can hum it to yourself, 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:43.539 but no one will ever sing the harmony with you. 00:09:43.539 --> 00:09:45.799 You can't collaborate. You can't banter. You 00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:48.480 can just echo. It forces a total internal retreat. 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:51.360 Because language is the architecture of our shared 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:54.299 reality. When you lose the language, the building 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:57.559 collapses. You become an island of one. And the 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:00.340 author of our source material poses a very interesting 00:10:00.340 --> 00:10:03.730 hypothesis. He suggests that when the Cornish 00:10:03.730 --> 00:10:06.429 language finally died with Dolly Pentreith. Who 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:09.230 lived to be 87, by the way. Right, despite her 00:10:09.230 --> 00:10:12.250 epitaph erroneously claiming she was 102. Yeah. 00:10:12.570 --> 00:10:14.769 But the author suggests that the historic isolation 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:16.769 of the Cornish people died with the language. 00:10:16.929 --> 00:10:19.750 Which is a bold claim. And her epitaph is brilliant, 00:10:20.149 --> 00:10:23.110 written by Mr. Thompson. It reads, Not in the 00:10:23.110 --> 00:10:26.549 church, with people great and high, but in the 00:10:26.549 --> 00:10:29.549 churchyard doth old Dolly lie. Even in death 00:10:29.549 --> 00:10:32.330 she's an outsider. Oh, and we can't forget the 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:34.850 anecdote about her hiding a naval deserter in 00:10:34.850 --> 00:10:37.429 her large chimney to save him from the authorities. 00:10:37.990 --> 00:10:40.350 Ah, yes. Another classic example of her anti 00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:42.370 -authoritarian streak. But I have a huge question 00:10:42.370 --> 00:10:44.350 about this whole concept of the culture dying. 00:10:45.149 --> 00:10:46.690 Because reading further into the lives of these 00:10:46.690 --> 00:10:48.330 people, it really feels like the death of the 00:10:48.330 --> 00:10:50.950 language didn't kill the corner spirit at all. 00:10:51.090 --> 00:10:53.690 How do you mean? Well, the language faded, yes. 00:10:54.049 --> 00:10:57.389 They assimilated linguistically. But that fierce 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:00.539 isolated independence didn't disappear. It's 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:03.360 like it just mutated. They stopped seeking linguistic 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.039 separation and started seeking extreme physical 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:09.039 and mental independence instead. Exactly. The 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.559 rugged landscape became a blank canvas for a 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:14.139 new type of individualist. That is an excellent 00:11:14.139 --> 00:11:16.659 transition and a very accurate reading of the 00:11:16.659 --> 00:11:19.340 psychology. When the linguistic barrier fell, 00:11:19.740 --> 00:11:21.960 the physical environment remained. And the environment 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:25.120 provided ample opportunity for radical self -reliance. 00:11:25.309 --> 00:11:27.970 Which brings us to a man who took that concept 00:11:27.970 --> 00:11:30.750 of the internal retreat and manifested it into 00:11:30.750 --> 00:11:34.169 solid rock. Daniel Gumm. Daniel Gumm, the stonecutter. 00:11:34.370 --> 00:11:36.549 This guy is fascinating. He was born in Lincolnhorn 00:11:36.549 --> 00:11:38.830 and he was bred to his trade as a stonecutter. 00:11:38.909 --> 00:11:41.210 He spent his days hitting granite with steel. 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:43.490 And the author specifically notes that Daniel 00:11:43.490 --> 00:11:47.029 possessed a reserve that exceeded what is observable 00:11:47.029 --> 00:11:49.950 in persons. Which is a very polite 18th century 00:11:49.950 --> 00:11:52.149 way of saying he was staggeringly introverted. 00:11:52.230 --> 00:11:55.000 He just wanted to be left alone. He clearly found 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.740 the noise, the gossip, and the endless social 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:00.659 contracts of regular village life completely 00:12:00.659 --> 00:12:03.299 intolerable. But he wasn't simple -minded. On 00:12:03.299 --> 00:12:06.120 the contrary, he had a burning, almost obsessive 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:08.620 intellect. He was obsessed with reading, with 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:11.450 mathematics, and with astronomy. Right. And he 00:12:11.450 --> 00:12:13.850 has a very practical problem. Reading and studying 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:16.870 require time and peace. But living in a village 00:12:16.870 --> 00:12:19.450 requires paying rent and paying taxes. Which 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:22.509 requires working constantly. So Daniel does some 00:12:22.509 --> 00:12:25.549 mental math and decides to just nope out of society 00:12:25.549 --> 00:12:28.009 completely. He moves his family into a cave. 00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:31.059 But we must specify the location. It wasn't just 00:12:31.059 --> 00:12:34.399 a hole in a hill. He moved near a bizarre natural 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:37.139 geological formation known as the Cheese Ring. 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:39.899 The Cheese Ring, what a name. It's a massive 00:12:39.899 --> 00:12:42.620 towering stack of granite slabs that look like 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:45.299 they're defying gravity, resting on the wild 00:12:45.299 --> 00:12:48.639 Bodmin Moor. It is a harsh, windblasted, utterly 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.059 desolate place. And he decides the freezing granite 00:12:51.059 --> 00:12:53.139 is better company than the tax collector. But 00:12:53.139 --> 00:12:55.539 what he does with that cave is what elevates 00:12:55.539 --> 00:12:58.159 him from a mere hermit to a legend. He doesn't 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:01.240 just sit in the dirt eating roots. He turns his 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:03.980 physical isolation into a monastic devotion to 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:06.399 the intellect. He essentially carves a university 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:09.840 into the rock. Exactly. He used his skills as 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.139 a stonecutter to meticulously carve Euclid's 00:13:13.139 --> 00:13:16.059 geometric diagrams directly into the granite 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.679 slabs that formed the roof and walls of his home. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:21.179 He transformed his shelter into a permanent textbook. 00:13:21.450 --> 00:13:23.769 He would sit up there on the moors far away from 00:13:23.769 --> 00:13:26.590 the petty concerns of the town, tracing the stars 00:13:26.590 --> 00:13:29.409 and solving complex mathematical equations. OK, 00:13:29.409 --> 00:13:30.990 here's where it gets really interesting. But 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:32.990 I have to push back a little bit on the romanticism 00:13:32.990 --> 00:13:35.470 here. Oh. Yeah, we look back at Daniel Gumm and 00:13:35.470 --> 00:13:39.370 we frame him as this visionary off -grid philosopher 00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:42.710 communing with the cosmos. But let's be honest. 00:13:42.750 --> 00:13:45.190 You don't buy it. Wasn't he basically the 18th 00:13:45.190 --> 00:13:47.230 century equivalent of a guy moving into a van 00:13:47.230 --> 00:13:50.049 to dodge his taxes? I mean, I want to read math 00:13:50.049 --> 00:13:52.840 and not pay rent. is a highly relatable mood, 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:57.179 but is it genius or is it just weaponized stubbornness? 00:13:57.519 --> 00:13:59.779 I think it's a synthesis of both, and it's crucial 00:13:59.779 --> 00:14:02.379 to understand how the specific environment of 00:14:02.379 --> 00:14:04.559 Cornwall enabled this. Because he couldn't do 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:08.440 this in London. Exactly. In a highly manicured, 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:12.019 heavily governed environment, say, a bustling 00:14:12.019 --> 00:14:15.539 city or a heavily farmed aristocratic county, 00:14:16.110 --> 00:14:18.669 a man like Gum would not be tolerated. You'd 00:14:18.669 --> 00:14:21.450 be arrested for vagrancy. Institutionalized or 00:14:21.450 --> 00:14:23.429 forced into a workhouse, because you can't just 00:14:23.429 --> 00:14:25.529 claim a piece of the King's land and stop paying 00:14:25.529 --> 00:14:28.470 taxes. Right, but the Cornish Moors provided 00:14:28.470 --> 00:14:32.009 a sanctuary for radical nonconformity. The land 00:14:32.009 --> 00:14:35.549 was so wild, so difficult to police, and so inherently 00:14:35.549 --> 00:14:38.389 hostile, that if a man had the physical grit 00:14:38.389 --> 00:14:40.950 to survive out there, the authorities generally 00:14:40.950 --> 00:14:44.659 left him alone. The landscape tolerated his eccentricity. 00:14:44.740 --> 00:14:47.139 It allowed him to carve out an entirely bespoke 00:14:47.139 --> 00:14:50.340 existence based purely on his own internal logic. 00:14:50.820 --> 00:14:53.480 Grit is absolutely the operative word here. Daniel 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:55.759 Gumm represents a totally static kind of grit. 00:14:56.220 --> 00:14:58.399 He plants himself in a rock and doesn't move. 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:00.460 But if we want to talk about grit manifesting 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:02.740 in sheer kinetic energy. We have to look at the 00:15:02.740 --> 00:15:04.779 complete opposite end of the physical spectrum. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.740 We have to talk about Mary Kellinac. The marathon 00:15:07.740 --> 00:15:10.940 woman of the 19th century. Her story defies physiological 00:15:10.940 --> 00:15:14.120 logic. It really does. Okay, so Mary was born 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:17.259 in Pole Parish, which amazingly is the exact 00:15:17.259 --> 00:15:19.960 same parish as Deli Pantry. Born on Christmas 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.919 Day in 1766. Right. Now, let's fast forward an 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:29.159 entire lifetime. It is 1851. Mary is 84 years 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:33.100 old. 84. And London is hosting the Great Exhibition. 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:35.919 We really need to contextualize the great exhibition 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.799 for the listener. This was the absolute pinnacle 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:41.259 of the Victorian era. Housed in the magnificent 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:43.480 Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. It was a global 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:45.600 showcase of the wonders of industry, culture, 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:48.820 and empire. The entire country was gripped by 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:51.320 exhibition fever. Everyone wanted to see it. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:54.470 Including Mary. She is an 84 year old fish wife 00:15:54.470 --> 00:15:56.830 living in extreme poverty at the very edge of 00:15:56.830 --> 00:15:58.950 the map. And she decides she wants to see the 00:15:58.950 --> 00:16:01.509 Crystal Palace. A completely understandable desire, 00:16:01.730 --> 00:16:04.470 but practically economically and physically impossible 00:16:04.470 --> 00:16:06.409 for someone in her position. Oh, and not only 00:16:06.409 --> 00:16:08.450 that, she decides she wants to pay her personal 00:16:08.450 --> 00:16:10.629 respects to the Lord Mayor of London. There were 00:16:10.629 --> 00:16:13.070 no trains running directly from Penzance at that 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:15.330 time that she could afford. Impossible for anyone 00:16:15.330 --> 00:16:18.149 else. But Mary operates on that Cornish operating 00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:20.710 system we've been talking about. She doesn't 00:16:20.710 --> 00:16:23.279 have money for a carriage. So she just starts 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:27.259 walking. At 84 years of age. Yes. She walks the 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:29.779 entire distance from Penzance to London. For 00:16:29.779 --> 00:16:33.179 context, that is nearly 300 miles. Think about 00:16:33.179 --> 00:16:36.320 the physical mechanics of that. Walking on unpaved 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:39.779 19th century roads, through the mud, in all weather, 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:43.039 sleeping rough or in cheap taverns. And the most 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.139 astonishing detail. She walked those 300 miles 00:16:46.139 --> 00:16:48.500 carrying a basket on her head. Carrying loads 00:16:48.500 --> 00:16:50.700 on the head was a traditional method for Cornish 00:16:50.700 --> 00:16:53.240 fishwives to transport their catch up at the 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:55.860 steep coastal cliffs. It builds incredible core 00:16:55.860 --> 00:16:58.519 strength and posture. But doing it for 300 miles 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:01.879 is an astonishing feat of biomechanics and endurance. 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:04.180 And she was incredibly proud of how she did it. 00:17:04.579 --> 00:17:06.740 The historical record emphasizes that as she 00:17:06.740 --> 00:17:09.609 made this long trek, Word started to spread about 00:17:09.609 --> 00:17:12.089 this elderly woman making a pilgrimage. People 00:17:12.089 --> 00:17:14.230 offered her rides in their carts. They offered 00:17:14.230 --> 00:17:17.269 her a seat in a carriage. And she famously refused 00:17:17.269 --> 00:17:20.089 all physical assistance. She would accept financial 00:17:20.089 --> 00:17:23.130 donations to keep herself fed, but she absolutely 00:17:23.130 --> 00:17:25.670 insisted on covering every single inch of that 00:17:25.670 --> 00:17:28.230 ground on her own two feet. She essentially turned 00:17:28.230 --> 00:17:31.569 her journey into an extreme athletic performance 00:17:31.569 --> 00:17:35.099 powered entirely by an iron will. She's like 00:17:35.099 --> 00:17:37.599 the ultimate extreme sports athlete, but powered 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.099 entirely by stubbornness rather than energy gels. 00:17:40.339 --> 00:17:42.259 And the payoff is fantastic. She actually makes 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:44.960 it to London. She arrives at the mansion house. 00:17:45.579 --> 00:17:48.839 And because her story had preceded her, she gets 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:50.779 an actual audience. He walks into the justice 00:17:50.779 --> 00:17:52.640 room. And Lord Mayor looked at her and says, 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:55.400 well, I understand, Mrs. Kalanick, you have come 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:58.220 to see me. And her response is a master class 00:17:58.220 --> 00:18:00.769 in pragmatic charm. It is. She doesn't balance 00:18:00.769 --> 00:18:03.029 rape. She says, yes, God bless you. I never was 00:18:03.029 --> 00:18:05.329 in such a place before as this. I have come up 00:18:05.329 --> 00:18:08.089 asking for a small sum of money. I am, sir. What's 00:18:08.089 --> 00:18:10.170 brilliant about that exchange is her shrewdness. 00:18:10.609 --> 00:18:13.529 She wasn't overawed by the pomp and circumstance 00:18:13.529 --> 00:18:15.789 of London authorities. She knew exactly what 00:18:15.789 --> 00:18:17.970 she had accomplished. She knew she had become 00:18:17.970 --> 00:18:20.930 a public spectacle, a living legend of stamina. 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:24.700 And she immediately pragmatically leveraged that 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:27.619 fame to secure the cash she needed for her journey 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:30.680 home. She had such humor and self -awareness 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:32.880 about the whole thing. And when they asked her 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:34.980 what her ultimate goal was, now that she had 00:18:34.980 --> 00:18:37.440 seen the wonders of London, she just said she 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:39.599 wanted to return to Cornwall to end her days. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:41.920 And she wanted to be buried right next to old 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:44.970 Dolly Pentreith. Which perfectly ties these first 00:18:44.970 --> 00:18:48.210 three figures together. Dolly, Daniel, and Mary. 00:18:48.769 --> 00:18:51.650 They are all linked by this invisible thread 00:18:51.650 --> 00:18:54.809 of defiance. Daniel Gumm and Mary Kellenac are 00:18:54.809 --> 00:18:57.690 opposites in motion. One paralyzed by choice, 00:18:57.869 --> 00:19:00.609 the other in relentless transit. But psychologically 00:19:00.609 --> 00:19:02.970 they are twins. They possess a determination 00:19:02.970 --> 00:19:05.089 that looks like sheer madness from the outside 00:19:05.089 --> 00:19:07.710 but follows a perfectly rigid internal logic. 00:19:07.849 --> 00:19:09.869 They do not care what the consensus of society 00:19:09.869 --> 00:19:12.910 is. They are unbothered by normal human constraints. 00:19:13.130 --> 00:19:15.509 But this raises a huge question. Where does that 00:19:15.509 --> 00:19:18.309 specific unyielding grit actually come from? 00:19:18.670 --> 00:19:20.250 Because it can't just be something in the water. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:23.119 It wasn't just a cultural quirk or a genetic 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:26.160 accident. If we look at the historical mechanisms 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:29.180 of the region, this extreme stubbornness was 00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:32.039 an evolutionary requirement. A survival mechanism. 00:19:32.339 --> 00:19:35.460 Actively demanded by their deadliest, most constant 00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:38.819 neighbor, the sea. The ocean. We touched on it 00:19:38.819 --> 00:19:40.539 in the beginning, but we really need to dive 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:43.779 into how the ocean shaped these people. The Atlantic 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:47.380 Ocean surrounding Cornwall is not a benign picturesque 00:19:47.380 --> 00:19:50.700 backdrop. It was an active antagonist. It was 00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:55.079 a site of incredible naval cruelty, immense physical 00:19:55.079 --> 00:19:58.359 demands, and ultimately the catalyst for world 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:01.019 -changing mechanical innovation. The sea forced 00:20:01.019 --> 00:20:03.460 the Cornish to adapt, or it killed them. Okay, 00:20:03.500 --> 00:20:06.000 let's explore the cruelty first, because the 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.279 story of a young man named Robert Jeffrey is 00:20:08.279 --> 00:20:10.539 one of the most harrowing accounts in this entire 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:13.420 collection. It vividly illustrates exactly how 00:20:13.420 --> 00:20:16.019 brutal the maritime world of the early 19th century 00:20:16.019 --> 00:20:19.160 could be. Jeffrey was a young, ordinary guy from 00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:22.019 the fishing village of Pulpero, and he became 00:20:22.019 --> 00:20:24.980 an impressed sailor. We must clarify the mechanics 00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:27.059 of impressment for the listener, because it sounds 00:20:27.059 --> 00:20:29.460 like a euphemism, but it was a horrifying reality. 00:20:29.660 --> 00:20:32.500 It was essentially legalized abduction. Entirely 00:20:32.500 --> 00:20:35.000 legal, justified by the state's desperate need 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:37.660 for manpower during the endless naval wars with 00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:40.359 France. Press gangs, armed groups of sailors, 00:20:40.859 --> 00:20:43.759 would literally roam the coastal towns of Cornwall, 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:47.160 bust into taverns or homes, kidnap able -bodied 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:49.880 men, and force them onto warships. You could 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:52.140 be a fisherman coming home to your family and 00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:54.299 the next morning you are trapped on a frigate 00:20:54.299 --> 00:20:56.660 bound for the West Indies subjected to military 00:20:56.660 --> 00:20:58.660 discipline. And that is exactly what happens 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:01.500 at Robert Jeffrey. He is kidnapped from his life 00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:04.160 and forced to serve on a naval vessel commanded 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:07.299 by a man named Captain Lake. And Jeffrey, probably 00:21:07.299 --> 00:21:09.519 miserable and resentful, makes a mistake. He 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:12.819 steals some beer. Now naval discipline was notoriously, 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:15.599 horribly harsh. Floggings with the cat -o -nine 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:18.200 tales were routine for minor infractions. But 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:20.200 Captain Lake's punishment for the stolen beer 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:23.039 goes completely off the rails of even 19th century 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:26.009 military justice. He decides to play God. He 00:21:26.009 --> 00:21:28.710 orders Jeffrey to be marooned. He literally dumps 00:21:28.710 --> 00:21:31.349 him on an island called Sombrero. And Sombrero 00:21:31.349 --> 00:21:34.390 is not some lush tropical paradise with coconut 00:21:34.390 --> 00:21:38.390 trees and fresh springs. No. It is a barren, 00:21:38.490 --> 00:21:41.230 desolate rock in the West Indies. There is no 00:21:41.230 --> 00:21:43.869 water. There is no food. There is no shelter. 00:21:44.069 --> 00:21:47.470 Just baking relentless sun and sharp stone. Captain 00:21:47.470 --> 00:21:50.769 Lake literally sails away and leaves this kid 00:21:50.769 --> 00:21:53.670 to die of dehydration and exposure. It is an 00:21:53.670 --> 00:21:57.049 act of breathtaking callousness. The psychology 00:21:57.049 --> 00:21:59.029 of an officer who can look a young man in the 00:21:59.029 --> 00:22:01.049 eye, drop him on a dead rock and go down to his 00:22:01.049 --> 00:22:04.329 cabin for dinner is chilling. Lake assumed the 00:22:04.329 --> 00:22:07.109 sea and the sun would execute Jeffrey for him. 00:22:07.329 --> 00:22:10.980 And yet Jeffrey survives. It defies belief. He 00:22:10.980 --> 00:22:13.180 survives for over a week on this blazing rock. 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:15.819 Imagine the physical and mental torment. The 00:22:15.819 --> 00:22:18.380 text details how he stayed alive by eating raw 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:20.680 limpets he pried off the rocks. When it rained 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:22.759 he would desperately lick the moisture out of 00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:25.460 the tiny crevices in the stone. He refused to 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:28.119 give up. And miraculously, after eight days, 00:22:28.259 --> 00:22:30.720 an American schooner spots him, rescues him, 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:33.180 and takes him to Massachusetts. But the narrative 00:22:33.180 --> 00:22:35.779 doesn't end with his rescue. The aftermath is 00:22:35.779 --> 00:22:38.079 equally fascinating from a societal perspective. 00:22:38.299 --> 00:22:40.259 Because eventually the story of this marooning 00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:42.859 leaks back across the Atlantic to England. And 00:22:42.859 --> 00:22:45.740 the public outcry is absolutely massive. It goes 00:22:45.740 --> 00:22:48.819 viral, essentially. It gets picked up by William 00:22:48.819 --> 00:22:50.940 Cobbett's political register, which was one of 00:22:50.940 --> 00:22:54.200 the major reformist anti -establishment publications 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:56.819 of the era. The public is so outraged by this 00:22:56.819 --> 00:22:59.660 abuse of power that the Admiralty is forced to 00:22:59.660 --> 00:23:02.309 act. The pressure builds until Captain Lake is 00:23:02.309 --> 00:23:04.309 actually court -martialed and dismissed from 00:23:04.309 --> 00:23:07.390 the Royal Navy. Which was incredibly rare. For 00:23:07.390 --> 00:23:09.849 a high -ranking naval officer to be held accountable 00:23:09.849 --> 00:23:12.109 and stripped of his rank for the mistreatment 00:23:12.109 --> 00:23:15.210 of a common kidnapped sailor demonstrates just 00:23:15.210 --> 00:23:18.410 how deeply this story struck a nerve. But Jeffrey's 00:23:18.410 --> 00:23:20.970 survival itself is the ultimate testament to 00:23:20.970 --> 00:23:23.430 that innate Cornish hardiness. He was dropped 00:23:23.430 --> 00:23:25.569 onto an anvil and he simply refused to break. 00:23:25.789 --> 00:23:28.630 He beat the sea at its own cruel game. He endured. 00:23:28.809 --> 00:23:31.549 But the sea didn't just test their passive endurance. 00:23:31.829 --> 00:23:34.349 It tested their pure active physical strength. 00:23:34.630 --> 00:23:38.490 And nobody exemplifies the sheer muscular power 00:23:38.490 --> 00:23:41.009 required by this environment better than Anne 00:23:41.009 --> 00:23:44.269 Glanville. Anne Glanville of Seltash, a truly 00:23:44.269 --> 00:23:46.349 formidable figure who took the demands of the 00:23:46.349 --> 00:23:48.910 water and turned them into a display of absolute 00:23:48.910 --> 00:23:52.000 dominance. Formidable is putting it mildly. Anne 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.359 was a married woman whose husband fell severely 00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:57.339 ill, leaving her as the sole economic provider 00:23:57.339 --> 00:24:00.140 for a large family. Now, in a lot of places in 00:24:00.140 --> 00:24:02.579 the 19th century, a woman in that position faced 00:24:02.579 --> 00:24:05.900 absolute destitution. The workhouse was usually 00:24:05.900 --> 00:24:08.940 the only option. But Anne lived in Saltash, on 00:24:08.940 --> 00:24:12.099 the River Tamar. She knew the water, so she becomes 00:24:12.099 --> 00:24:15.079 a waterman, a champion rower. We really need 00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:17.160 to break down the physical mechanics of what 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:19.519 she did for a living to truly appreciate her 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:22.119 strength. The source notes that she would regularly 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:25.859 ferry 70 to 80 bags of corn down the river alone. 00:24:25.980 --> 00:24:28.359 Let's do the math on that. A standard bag of 00:24:28.359 --> 00:24:30.519 corn in that era could weigh anywhere from 100 00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:33.599 to over 150 pounds. Let's be conservative and 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:37.140 say 100 pounds. 80 dags is 8 ,000 pounds, four 00:24:37.140 --> 00:24:39.900 tons of cargo. Four tons of dead weight loaded 00:24:39.900 --> 00:24:42.700 into a heavy deep keeled wooden boat. And she 00:24:42.700 --> 00:24:45.480 had to propel that mass using only long wooden 00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:48.140 oars fighting against the complex tidal currents 00:24:48.140 --> 00:24:51.000 of the river estuary. The sheer biomechanical 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:53.720 muscularity, the cardiovascular stamina required 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:56.220 to move that kind of weight day in and day out, 00:24:56.579 --> 00:24:59.160 is almost difficult for a modern person to comprehend. 00:24:59.779 --> 00:25:03.059 She was an engine of human flesh. She was a powerhouse. 00:25:03.099 --> 00:25:05.740 Yeah. But here's what I love about Anne Glanville. 00:25:06.059 --> 00:25:09.819 She didn't just grind out a miserable survival. 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:12.220 No, she took this immense strength and she turned 00:25:12.220 --> 00:25:14.940 it into an art form. She formed a rowing crew 00:25:14.940 --> 00:25:17.740 made up entirely of saltash women. They dressed 00:25:17.740 --> 00:25:20.380 in these matching, highly coordinated outfits. 00:25:20.819 --> 00:25:23.819 White frocks with pink sashes. And they started 00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:26.299 entering the local regattas. Competing in the 00:25:26.299 --> 00:25:30.180 four Ord gig races, which were fiercely contested, 00:25:30.339 --> 00:25:32.500 highly prestigious events in the coastal communities. 00:25:32.619 --> 00:25:34.559 And they didn't just beat the other women's crews. 00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:37.420 They famously entered against the top male crews, 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:39.819 the strongest sailors and fishermen in the region, 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:42.779 and they beat them. They became so dominant that 00:25:42.779 --> 00:25:44.960 they actually traveled across the English Channel 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:48.299 to Lahav. in France and absolutely smoked the 00:25:48.299 --> 00:25:50.339 French champion teams. They were international 00:25:50.339 --> 00:25:52.500 superstars of rowing. What stands out to you 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:54.980 about her character beyond the physical accomplishments? 00:25:55.420 --> 00:25:57.900 Honestly, it's a tiny quote used by one of her 00:25:57.900 --> 00:26:00.500 neighbors to describe her character to the historian. 00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:03.460 Oh, the farthing quote. Yes. The neighbor said 00:26:03.460 --> 00:26:06.720 Anne was honest to a farthing, clean as a smelt. 00:26:07.150 --> 00:26:09.490 I just love the poetry of that. It perfectly 00:26:09.490 --> 00:26:12.470 captures this idea of someone who is tough as 00:26:12.470 --> 00:26:15.089 nails, physically intimidating enough to row 00:26:15.089 --> 00:26:19.210 four tons of corn, but deeply principled. Meticulously 00:26:19.210 --> 00:26:23.029 proud and universally respected. She wasn't brutalized 00:26:23.029 --> 00:26:25.789 or degraded by the hard labor. She was dignified 00:26:25.789 --> 00:26:28.250 by it. She harnessed the kinetic energy of the 00:26:28.250 --> 00:26:30.859 sea and made it work for her. But the sea wasn't 00:26:30.859 --> 00:26:32.980 always an antagonist you could just endure like 00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:36.019 Jeffrey or overpower like Glanville. Often the 00:26:36.019 --> 00:26:39.319 sea was overwhelmingly, instantaneously lethal. 00:26:39.579 --> 00:26:41.880 And that lethal nature is what drove our next 00:26:41.880 --> 00:26:45.079 figure, Henry Trengraus, to engineer a brilliant, 00:26:45.299 --> 00:26:48.019 world -changing mechanical solution. Henry Trengraus. 00:26:48.420 --> 00:26:50.839 Okay, this is a story where tragedy directly 00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:53.109 sparks innovation. Henry lived in the town of 00:26:53.109 --> 00:26:55.109 Halston. And to understand what he did, we have 00:26:55.109 --> 00:26:57.950 to go back to that freezing December day in 1807 00:26:57.950 --> 00:26:59.589 that we talked about at the very beginning of 00:26:59.589 --> 00:27:02.210 the show, the wreck of the Anson. The Anson was 00:27:02.210 --> 00:27:06.720 a 44 gun frigate, a massive ship. It ran aground 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:09.359 on a sand bank in Mounts Bay during a horrific 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:12.380 gale. And Henry is standing right there on the 00:27:12.380 --> 00:27:15.259 beach. He is part of the helpless crowd watching 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:17.960 this nightmare unfold. And the specific horror 00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:20.359 of the Anson wreck wasn't just that the ship 00:27:20.359 --> 00:27:22.920 was being destroyed, it was the geography of 00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:25.339 the wreck. The ship was stranded incredibly close 00:27:25.339 --> 00:27:27.559 to the shore. It was perhaps only a hundred yards 00:27:27.559 --> 00:27:30.740 out. But in a full Atlantic gale, that hundred 00:27:30.740 --> 00:27:33.599 yards of boiling surf is an impassable wall. 00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:36.640 Exactly. The waves are so violent that any rescue 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:38.920 boat launched from the beach is instantly flipped 00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:41.140 and smashed. And the sailors on the ship are 00:27:41.140 --> 00:27:43.859 trying to throw ropes to the shore. But the hurricane 00:27:43.859 --> 00:27:46.279 force winds just blow the ropes right back in 00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:48.740 their faces. Henry is standing there watching 00:27:48.740 --> 00:27:51.700 over 100 men drown, listening to them scream. 00:27:51.740 --> 00:27:54.099 Yeah. And there is absolutely nothing anyone 00:27:54.099 --> 00:27:57.500 can do to bridge that tiny fatal gap. Most people. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:27:58.940 If people would carry that trauma for the rest 00:27:58.940 --> 00:28:00.740 of their lives and perhaps never look at the 00:28:00.740 --> 00:28:02.940 ocean again, it would be a source of paralyzing 00:28:02.940 --> 00:28:06.160 grief. But Trengrouse processes that trauma differently. 00:28:07.019 --> 00:28:09.940 He internalizes the horror and converts it into 00:28:09.940 --> 00:28:13.099 a structural engineering problem. He asks a vital, 00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:16.039 practical question. If human muscle and thrown 00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:19.519 ropes cannot penetrate the wind, what can? How 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:21.680 do we build a bridge of rope across a hurricane? 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:24.730 And his solution is absolutely brilliant. He 00:28:24.730 --> 00:28:27.390 invents the life -saving rocket apparatus. Let's 00:28:27.390 --> 00:28:29.750 explain the mechanics of how this apparatus actually 00:28:29.750 --> 00:28:32.329 worked because it revolutionized maritime rescue. 00:28:32.569 --> 00:28:34.990 Right. So he realizes that a heavy rope is too 00:28:34.990 --> 00:28:37.769 thick to shoot and the wind catches it. So he 00:28:37.769 --> 00:28:40.210 attaches a very thin, very light, incredibly 00:28:40.210 --> 00:28:43.150 strong cord to the end of a specially designed 00:28:43.150 --> 00:28:45.980 gunpowder rocket. The rocket has the aerodynamic 00:28:45.980 --> 00:28:48.319 thrust to pierce right through the gale winds. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.799 You aim it from the beach, fire the rocket over 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:52.900 the rigging of the wrecked ship. Once the freezing 00:28:52.900 --> 00:28:55.200 sailors grab that light cord, what happens next? 00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:57.019 The people on the beach use the light cord to 00:28:57.019 --> 00:28:59.099 pull a much thicker, heavier rope across the 00:28:59.099 --> 00:29:01.880 water. The sailors tie that heavy hazard to the 00:29:01.880 --> 00:29:04.680 mast. And suddenly you have a zip line. Then 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:07.440 they use that heavy line to pull over a chair 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:10.259 or a breeches buoy, and they can pull the sailors 00:29:10.259 --> 00:29:13.359 to the beach one by one, suspended above the 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:16.200 deadly waves. He also, by the way, invented an 00:29:16.200 --> 00:29:18.460 early version of the cork life jacket to keep 00:29:18.460 --> 00:29:21.420 them afloat if they fell in. He essentially dedicates 00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:24.079 the rest of his waking life and his personal 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:26.900 fortune to perfecting this system so that what 00:29:26.900 --> 00:29:28.920 he saw on the beach that day would never happen 00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:31.480 again. And it worked. The physics were sound. 00:29:31.740 --> 00:29:34.220 It eventually became a standard piece of life 00:29:34.220 --> 00:29:36.839 saving equipment utilized by coast guards globally, 00:29:37.420 --> 00:29:39.640 saving literally thousands upon thousands of 00:29:39.640 --> 00:29:41.880 lives over the next century. But here's where 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:44.819 we must connect his story to the broader. often 00:29:44.819 --> 00:29:48.259 tragic theme of how society treats its most vital 00:29:48.259 --> 00:29:50.099 innovators. Yeah, this is the part that makes 00:29:50.099 --> 00:29:53.279 me angry because Henry Trengrouse pours his own 00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:56.279 money, his own time and his entire life into 00:29:56.279 --> 00:29:59.240 developing, testing and lobbying for this apparatus. 00:29:59.460 --> 00:30:01.779 He travels to London. He begs the Admiralty to 00:30:01.779 --> 00:30:04.079 adopt it. And what is his reward for saving thousands 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:06.779 of lives? Almost nothing. Almost nothing. The 00:30:06.779 --> 00:30:08.700 government and the maritime establishment are 00:30:08.700 --> 00:30:11.369 incredibly slow to act. When they finally do 00:30:11.369 --> 00:30:13.869 begin to adopt his methods, they offer him a 00:30:13.869 --> 00:30:17.829 poultry sum. 50 pounds here, a diamond ring from 00:30:17.829 --> 00:30:20.289 the Tsar of Russia there. Compensation that doesn't 00:30:20.289 --> 00:30:22.950 even come close to covering the fortune he spent 00:30:22.950 --> 00:30:25.710 on research and development. He dies impoverished, 00:30:25.930 --> 00:30:29.349 leaving his family in financial ruin. The establishment 00:30:29.349 --> 00:30:32.450 slowly adopts his lifesaving patch, but leaves 00:30:32.450 --> 00:30:35.430 the man himself to fade into total obscurity. 00:30:35.609 --> 00:30:38.390 It's a stark contrast to someone else mentioned 00:30:38.390 --> 00:30:41.509 in the source material, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney. 00:30:41.730 --> 00:30:45.289 Oh, the steam carriage guy. Yes. Gurney was another 00:30:45.289 --> 00:30:47.710 Cornish man who invented the steam carriage. 00:30:48.089 --> 00:30:50.930 He got a knighthood. He got fame. He got wealth 00:30:50.930 --> 00:30:53.769 because his invention moved cargo and made money. 00:30:54.069 --> 00:30:56.650 Trengrouse's invention only saved lives. The 00:30:56.650 --> 00:30:59.170 profit motive versus the altruistic motive. Exactly. 00:30:59.269 --> 00:31:01.569 Trengrouse is like the ultimate open source software 00:31:01.569 --> 00:31:03.990 developer. He sees a fatal flaw in the system 00:31:03.990 --> 00:31:06.170 that is getting people killed. He builds a software 00:31:06.170 --> 00:31:08.829 patch that literally saves the entire network. 00:31:09.029 --> 00:31:10.750 He hands it out to the world for free, begging 00:31:10.750 --> 00:31:13.490 them to install it. And he dies completely broke 00:31:13.490 --> 00:31:15.750 while the massive bureaucratic establishments 00:31:15.750 --> 00:31:18.190 reap all the benefits. It raises an important 00:31:18.190 --> 00:31:21.349 question, doesn't it? Why is it that society 00:31:21.349 --> 00:31:25.670 so often fails to reward its most practical altruistic 00:31:25.670 --> 00:31:28.329 saviors during their lifetimes? Why do we build 00:31:28.329 --> 00:31:31.190 statues to generals who end lives, but bankrupt 00:31:31.190 --> 00:31:33.549 the engineers who save them? I think it's because 00:31:33.549 --> 00:31:36.069 guys like Trengrouts aren't businessmen. They're 00:31:36.069 --> 00:31:39.089 obsessed with the fix, not the patent. His motivation 00:31:39.089 --> 00:31:41.849 was the ghosts of the men on the Anson, not a 00:31:41.849 --> 00:31:43.890 profit margin. He couldn't play the political 00:31:43.890 --> 00:31:45.930 game. But you know, when you take a step back 00:31:45.930 --> 00:31:47.690 and look at all these traits we've discussed? 00:31:48.069 --> 00:31:50.549 The extreme self -alliance of Daniel Gumm, the 00:31:50.549 --> 00:31:52.710 physical toughness of Mary Kellenac and Anne 00:31:52.710 --> 00:31:55.349 Glanville, the unrewarded engineering brilliance 00:31:55.349 --> 00:31:58.029 of Henry Trangros. Yes. When you combine all 00:31:58.029 --> 00:32:00.710 of that and you add in this constant grinding 00:32:00.710 --> 00:32:03.609 battle against a hostile environment and a government 00:32:03.609 --> 00:32:05.650 that either kidnaps you for the Navy, ignores 00:32:05.650 --> 00:32:08.410 your inventions, or taxes you into poverty. You 00:32:08.410 --> 00:32:11.630 get a very specific very potent psychological 00:32:11.630 --> 00:32:14.589 mix. You get a population that over generations 00:32:14.589 --> 00:32:18.109 learns to completely reject conventional centralized 00:32:18.109 --> 00:32:20.809 authority. Because from their perspective, what 00:32:20.809 --> 00:32:23.710 has London or the Crown ever done for them except 00:32:23.710 --> 00:32:27.329 extract blood and money? Exactly. The extreme 00:32:27.329 --> 00:32:30.609 isolation breeds a fierce anti -authoritarian 00:32:30.609 --> 00:32:33.609 streak. And in Cornwall, this rejection of the 00:32:33.609 --> 00:32:37.509 crown took two very distinct, very dramatic forms. 00:32:37.690 --> 00:32:40.549 One was a sort of organized, highly structured, 00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:43.410 almost justified criminality. The other was a 00:32:43.410 --> 00:32:46.089 literal messianic rebellion. Let's examine the 00:32:46.089 --> 00:32:48.450 criminality first because it operates on a fascinating 00:32:48.450 --> 00:32:50.869 moral axis. We have to talk about the Carters 00:32:50.869 --> 00:32:53.619 of Prussia Cove. Specifically, John Carter. The 00:32:53.619 --> 00:32:56.420 King of Prussia, which is just a top -tier criminal 00:32:56.420 --> 00:32:59.019 moniker. It is a magnificent title. And how he 00:32:59.019 --> 00:33:01.019 acquired it is quite telling of his personality. 00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.220 As a young boy, he and his brothers were playing 00:33:03.220 --> 00:33:06.240 soldiers. John forcefully claimed the title King 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:08.660 of Prussia for himself after Frederick the Great, 00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:11.339 the brilliant military tactician. And the name 00:33:11.339 --> 00:33:13.920 stuck so hard and his local influence grew so 00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:16.460 vast that the actual geographical cove where 00:33:16.460 --> 00:33:19.559 they operated was renamed Prussia Cove. It is 00:33:19.559 --> 00:33:22.079 still called that on maps today. the ultimate 00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:24.460 power of personal branding. So John and his brother 00:33:24.460 --> 00:33:27.799 Harry are smugglers. This is the golden age of 00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:32.160 Cornish smuggling. Tea, brandy, silk, tobacco. 00:33:32.759 --> 00:33:35.099 Bringing it in from France to avoid the exorbitant 00:33:35.099 --> 00:33:37.319 government taxes. But the Carters aren't your 00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:40.460 typical cup throat rum soaked pirates. Not at 00:33:40.460 --> 00:33:42.819 all. The source describes them as brilliant. 00:33:43.019 --> 00:33:46.519 highly organized logisticians who defrauded the 00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:48.660 King's revenue on a massive industrial scale. 00:33:48.859 --> 00:33:52.000 Yet they were deeply fiercely pious men. That's 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:54.549 the part that blows my mind. Harry Carter, especially, 00:33:54.750 --> 00:33:57.910 was a devout, highly religious man who literally 00:33:57.910 --> 00:34:00.089 held church services for his crew on Sundays. 00:34:00.430 --> 00:34:03.009 It's a fascinating study in cognitive dissonance. 00:34:03.089 --> 00:34:05.329 Or, perhaps more accurately, it shows how isolated 00:34:05.329 --> 00:34:07.829 communities construct their own morality. The 00:34:07.829 --> 00:34:10.070 Carters saw absolutely no contradiction between 00:34:10.070 --> 00:34:12.630 deeply held religious ethics and systematically 00:34:12.630 --> 00:34:14.989 robbing the national exchequer. In their minds, 00:34:15.110 --> 00:34:17.289 the massive taxes imposed by a distant parliament 00:34:17.289 --> 00:34:20.170 in London were fundamentally unjust. Therefore, 00:34:20.409 --> 00:34:22.590 evading those taxes was not a sin against God. 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:25.380 It was merely a localized, aggressive, free trade 00:34:25.380 --> 00:34:28.019 policy. They are like a Robin Hood mafia that 00:34:28.019 --> 00:34:30.320 pauses to say grace and read scripture before 00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:32.579 pulling off a massive, highly coordinated heist. 00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:35.559 And my favorite anecdote in this entire book 00:34:35.559 --> 00:34:39.239 perfectly illustrates the bizarre, rigid moral 00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:43.139 code of the King of Prussia. The Penzance excise 00:34:43.139 --> 00:34:46.480 store raid. Yes. Okay, so picture this. The excise 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:49.019 officers, the government customs agents, managed 00:34:49.019 --> 00:34:52.780 to pull off a major bust. They intercept a huge 00:34:52.780 --> 00:34:56.059 cargo of the Carter's smuggled goods. They confiscate 00:34:56.059 --> 00:34:58.420 it, transport it to Penzance, and they lock it 00:34:58.420 --> 00:35:00.820 all up inside the heavily fortified government 00:35:00.820 --> 00:35:03.519 excise store. This represents a massive financial 00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:06.260 blow to the Carter operation, a total loss of 00:35:06.260 --> 00:35:08.349 inventory. Right. So what does John Carter do? 00:35:08.429 --> 00:35:10.869 He doesn't just write it off. He organizes a 00:35:10.869 --> 00:35:12.969 night raid. He and his men ride to Penzance. 00:35:13.190 --> 00:35:15.829 They bring fro bars and heavy tools. And under 00:35:15.829 --> 00:35:18.030 the cover of darkness, they physically break 00:35:18.030 --> 00:35:20.650 into this fortified government building. It is 00:35:20.650 --> 00:35:22.929 incredibly brazen. But the crucial detail is 00:35:22.929 --> 00:35:25.110 what they do once they are inside the vault. 00:35:25.250 --> 00:35:27.070 This is the incredible part. They don't just 00:35:27.070 --> 00:35:29.309 loot the place blind. They are standing in a 00:35:29.309 --> 00:35:31.590 warehouse filled with confiscated goods from 00:35:31.590 --> 00:35:34.130 all sorts of smugglers. But they meticulously 00:35:34.130 --> 00:35:36.860 go through the inventory. They find exactly the 00:35:36.860 --> 00:35:38.920 goods that were confiscated from them, they carry 00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:41.420 those specific barrels and crates out, and they 00:35:41.420 --> 00:35:43.460 leave everything else completely untouched. They 00:35:43.460 --> 00:35:45.840 don't take a single ounce of tea or brandy that 00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:48.500 belongs to the Crown or to a rival smuggler. 00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:51.360 It requires a staggering level of discipline 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.059 and a highly sophisticated internal tracking 00:35:54.059 --> 00:35:57.239 system. Exactly. And the punchline is the next 00:35:57.239 --> 00:35:59.539 morning. The government authorities walk in, 00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:01.840 they see the breach doors, they look at the highly 00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:04.480 specific, curated nature of the missing inventory, 00:36:04.519 --> 00:36:07.579 and they know exactly who did it. The officers 00:36:07.579 --> 00:36:10.539 literally say out loud John Carter has been here 00:36:10.539 --> 00:36:13.800 because of his strict honor among thieves He 00:36:13.800 --> 00:36:15.920 only took back what he considered rightfully 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:19.559 his. It perfectly encapsulates the dark complex 00:36:19.559 --> 00:36:22.380 side of that Cornish isolation mindset. When 00:36:22.380 --> 00:36:25.000 a person or an entire community is completely 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:27.300 disconnected from the consensus of wider society, 00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:29.719 they are forced to invent their own rules. They 00:36:29.719 --> 00:36:32.500 develop a strict internal moral code that makes 00:36:32.500 --> 00:36:35.079 perfect sense to them, even if it is technically 00:36:35.079 --> 00:36:38.099 illegal. For the Carters, it was a code of honest 00:36:38.099 --> 00:36:40.760 smuggling. But when that detachment from reality 00:36:40.760 --> 00:36:43.800 goes even further, when a mind completely severs 00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:46.980 its tether to both the law and to reality, it 00:36:46.980 --> 00:36:50.139 can result in absolute tragedy. Which brings 00:36:50.139 --> 00:36:53.360 us to the final and undoubtedly the darkest story 00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:56.239 in our deep dive today. We were looking at the 00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.079 mechanics of radicalization in an isolated mind. 00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:01.539 We're talking about John Nichols Tom. Now, John 00:37:01.539 --> 00:37:03.420 Nichols Tom starts out as a relatively normal 00:37:03.420 --> 00:37:05.679 guy. He was born in St. Column, the son of a 00:37:05.679 --> 00:37:08.340 landlord. He was educated. He grew up and he 00:37:08.340 --> 00:37:10.699 became a spear merchant running a business in 00:37:10.699 --> 00:37:13.429 Truro. But the source notes that his mother had 00:37:13.429 --> 00:37:16.130 a history of severe mental instability. She was 00:37:16.130 --> 00:37:18.750 locally nicknamed Cracked Cherry. And at some 00:37:18.750 --> 00:37:22.110 point, Tom loses his mind. And it's not a quiet 00:37:22.110 --> 00:37:25.550 internal breakdown. It is a spectacular, constantly 00:37:25.550 --> 00:37:28.050 escalating public detachment from reality. He 00:37:28.050 --> 00:37:30.829 begins to assume grand, fictitious identities. 00:37:31.090 --> 00:37:33.489 It starts with aesthetic changes affecting unusual, 00:37:33.590 --> 00:37:35.969 highly theatrical dress, growing his hair and 00:37:35.969 --> 00:37:38.250 beard out. Then he starts claiming titles. Yeah. 00:37:38.400 --> 00:37:40.539 He claims to be the Knight of Malta. When that 00:37:40.539 --> 00:37:42.500 isn't enough, he declares himself the King of 00:37:42.500 --> 00:37:45.440 Jerusalem. Then he claims he is the rightful 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:47.820 Earl of Devon and campaigns for Parliament on 00:37:47.820 --> 00:37:50.139 that basis. He's just constantly leveling up 00:37:50.139 --> 00:37:53.360 his delusions of grandeur. And finally, he crosses 00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:56.380 the ultimate psychological threshold. He claims 00:37:56.380 --> 00:37:59.400 to be the Savior, the Messiah. But he isn't just 00:37:59.400 --> 00:38:02.320 wandering around blessing people. He mixes this 00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:06.420 extreme religious messianic complex with fiery, 00:38:06.820 --> 00:38:09.840 highly radical political oratory. Now, we need 00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:11.300 to be clear here. We're just reporting what the 00:38:11.300 --> 00:38:14.019 text says impartially, but this is the 1830s. 00:38:14.119 --> 00:38:16.280 The text describes how he goes around delivering 00:38:16.280 --> 00:38:19.000 these incredibly potent speeches denouncing the 00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:21.980 church, denouncing the wealthy aristocracy and 00:38:21.980 --> 00:38:24.719 preaching absolute equality and the forced redistribution 00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:27.079 of wealth. And the profound tragedy is people 00:38:27.079 --> 00:38:29.349 actually listen to him. We must understand why 00:38:29.349 --> 00:38:31.969 they listened. Tom eventually relocated to Kent 00:38:31.969 --> 00:38:34.610 where he began preaching to populations of agricultural 00:38:34.610 --> 00:38:37.010 laborers. These people were living in desperate 00:38:37.010 --> 00:38:39.969 grinding poverty. They were subjected to harsh 00:38:39.969 --> 00:38:42.929 new poor laws. They were deeply resentful of 00:38:42.929 --> 00:38:45.909 the wealthy landowning class and they were furious 00:38:45.909 --> 00:38:47.969 at the heavy ties they were forced to pay to 00:38:47.969 --> 00:38:50.989 the church just to survive. So they were a powder 00:38:50.989 --> 00:38:54.289 keg of legitimate socioeconomic grievance. Precisely. 00:38:54.380 --> 00:38:58.480 and Tom was undeniably charismatic. He weaponized 00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:02.139 their very real, very legitimate pain using his 00:39:02.139 --> 00:39:04.980 own delusions of divine authority. He told them 00:39:04.980 --> 00:39:07.739 that God was on their side, that he was God, 00:39:08.099 --> 00:39:10.780 and that he would lead them to an earthly paradise 00:39:10.780 --> 00:39:13.159 where they would own the land they worked. And 00:39:13.159 --> 00:39:15.559 it culminates in the horrific tragedy of Boston 00:39:15.559 --> 00:39:20.059 Wood in May of 1838. Tom gathers this band of 00:39:20.059 --> 00:39:22.500 deeply devoted, heavily radicalized followers. 00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:24.460 They are marching through the countryside. The 00:39:24.460 --> 00:39:26.300 local authorities are terrified, so they send 00:39:26.300 --> 00:39:29.380 a constable named Mears to arrest Tom. And Tom 00:39:29.380 --> 00:39:31.699 simply pulls out a pistol and shoots the constable 00:39:31.699 --> 00:39:34.079 dead. Which crosses the Rubicon from political 00:39:34.079 --> 00:39:36.860 agitation into armed rebellion. The military 00:39:36.860 --> 00:39:39.179 is immediately called in. A detachment of soldiers 00:39:39.179 --> 00:39:41.920 arrives. There is a literal bloody battle in 00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:44.739 the woods. Tom, leading his followers, charges 00:39:44.739 --> 00:39:47.280 the soldiers and shoots a lieutenant. The soldiers 00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:50.260 open fire. Tom is killed instantly, along with 00:39:50.260 --> 00:39:52.500 several of his followers. It's an absolute massacre. 00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:55.159 And perhaps the most chilling detail from the 00:39:55.159 --> 00:39:57.960 historical source is the psychological aftermath 00:39:57.960 --> 00:40:01.099 among the survivors. His followers were so utterly 00:40:01.099 --> 00:40:03.659 devoted to him, their minds have been so completely 00:40:03.659 --> 00:40:06.500 pulled into his distorted reality that even after 00:40:06.500 --> 00:40:09.539 they saw him shot dead by military muskets, they 00:40:09.539 --> 00:40:12.550 expected him to rise from the dead. Women were 00:40:12.550 --> 00:40:15.489 purportedly washing his wounds with water, waiting 00:40:15.489 --> 00:40:18.369 for his resurrection. So how do we process John 00:40:18.369 --> 00:40:21.429 Nichols, Tom? Where is the exact line between 00:40:21.429 --> 00:40:23.750 a charismatic political visionary fighting for 00:40:23.750 --> 00:40:27.090 the poor and a dangerous apocalyptic cult leader? 00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:29.400 Because in the beginning, before the religious 00:40:29.400 --> 00:40:32.179 fanaticism took completely over, people were 00:40:32.179 --> 00:40:34.300 clearly listening to his political ideas about 00:40:34.300 --> 00:40:36.659 wealth and equality. It is a critical distinction. 00:40:37.099 --> 00:40:39.420 The line is crossed when the message ceases to 00:40:39.420 --> 00:40:41.340 be about the liberation and empowerment of the 00:40:41.340 --> 00:40:44.119 people and becomes entirely about the absolute 00:40:44.119 --> 00:40:47.030 aggrandizement of the leader. Tom's initial rhetoric 00:40:47.030 --> 00:40:49.789 tapped into real pain. But by declaring himself 00:40:49.789 --> 00:40:52.530 the messiah, he demanded the total suspension 00:40:52.530 --> 00:40:54.670 of his followers' critical thinking. He didn't 00:40:54.670 --> 00:40:57.590 want citizens. He wanted zealots. Exactly. He 00:40:57.590 --> 00:40:59.570 wasn't giving them political tools to improve 00:40:59.570 --> 00:41:03.210 their lives. He was demanding absolute, unquestioning 00:41:03.210 --> 00:41:06.090 obedience to his delusions. And in an isolated, 00:41:06.389 --> 00:41:08.909 impoverished, desperate community, that kind 00:41:08.909 --> 00:41:11.789 of absolute certainty, a man who tells you he 00:41:11.789 --> 00:41:15.809 is God and he will fix everything, is incredibly 00:41:15.809 --> 00:41:18.309 seductive and incredibly dangerous. It's the 00:41:18.309 --> 00:41:20.769 ultimate terrifying extreme of the independent 00:41:20.769 --> 00:41:23.489 spirit we've been discussing. It is a mind that 00:41:23.489 --> 00:41:26.090 secedes not just from the laws of society, but 00:41:26.090 --> 00:41:28.769 from the laws of reality itself. That is a chilling 00:41:28.769 --> 00:41:31.650 way to put it. Succeeding from reality itself. 00:41:31.849 --> 00:41:33.449 And honestly, it brings us full circle on this 00:41:33.449 --> 00:41:35.769 entire journey. It really does. We have traveled 00:41:35.769 --> 00:41:38.590 from the linguistic isolation of Dolly Pentreth, 00:41:38.769 --> 00:41:41.750 an old woman scolding a gentleman in a dead tongue. 00:41:41.929 --> 00:41:44.230 We looked at Daniel Gumm, a man who literally 00:41:44.139 --> 00:41:47.539 carved geometry into a cave wall to escape society. 00:41:47.800 --> 00:41:50.280 We walked 300 miles with an 84 -year -old woman 00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:52.400 carrying a basket. We survived a desert island 00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:55.039 with Robert Jeffrey, rode four tons of corn with 00:41:55.039 --> 00:41:57.900 Anne Glanville, and watched Henry Trengraus invent 00:41:57.900 --> 00:42:00.619 a miracle rocket only to be forgotten. We watched 00:42:00.619 --> 00:42:03.099 the King of Prussia politely rob the government. 00:42:03.579 --> 00:42:06.579 And we watched a mad messiah lead desperate men 00:42:06.579 --> 00:42:10.000 to their deaths in a wood. Why should you, the 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:12.719 listener, care about these forgotten ghosts of 00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:16.400 Cornwall today? because they represent the absolute 00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:18.940 ultimate expression of living life on your own 00:42:18.940 --> 00:42:21.860 terms. In a modern world where we all increasingly 00:42:21.860 --> 00:42:24.360 consume the exact same media, where we eat the 00:42:24.360 --> 00:42:27.280 same globalized foods, wear the same mass -produced 00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:30.119 clothes, and speak the exact same cultural language, 00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:33.059 these Cornish eccentrics challenge you to ask 00:42:33.059 --> 00:42:35.639 a terrifying question. What makes you distinct? 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:38.800 If you were stripped of the safety and the consensus 00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:42.300 of modern society, what weird, wonderful, or 00:42:42.300 --> 00:42:43.900 perhaps terrifying shape would your character 00:42:43.900 --> 00:42:46.480 take? Consider this as a final thought to mull 00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:48.920 over long after we finish. The geographic and 00:42:48.920 --> 00:42:51.500 cultural isolation that forged these incredible, 00:42:51.639 --> 00:42:54.539 bizarre personalities, the bad roads, the impenetrable 00:42:54.539 --> 00:42:56.639 language, the terror of the sea, the darkness 00:42:56.639 --> 00:42:59.199 of the mines, has been almost entirely erased 00:42:59.199 --> 00:43:01.519 by modern technology. Today we can travel to 00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:03.380 Cornwall in a few comfortable hours on a train. 00:43:03.530 --> 00:43:06.670 We are instantly, constantly connected to the 00:43:06.670 --> 00:43:09.449 hive mind of the internet. We must ask ourselves, 00:43:09.969 --> 00:43:13.250 are we losing the cultural mutations that drive 00:43:13.250 --> 00:43:16.190 human evolution? Will the hyper -connected, synchronized, 00:43:16.409 --> 00:43:19.070 deeply monitored world of today ever allow for 00:43:19.070 --> 00:43:21.449 a Daniel Gumm or a Dolly Pantryth to exist again? 00:43:21.690 --> 00:43:25.429 Or have we, in our relentless pursuit of a frictionless, 00:43:25.630 --> 00:43:30.909 unified global society, engineered true raw eccentricity 00:43:30.909 --> 00:43:33.320 out of the human race forever? That is a thought 00:43:33.320 --> 00:43:35.159 that is going to stick with me for a very long 00:43:35.159 --> 00:43:37.639 time. Are we two connected to be truly unique? 00:43:38.179 --> 00:43:40.000 Thank you for coming on this deep dive into the 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:42.000 source material with us. I really encourage you 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:44.059 to go look for the strange, the wonderful, and 00:43:44.059 --> 00:43:46.460 the unexplainable characters hidden in your own 00:43:46.460 --> 00:43:48.500 local history. Because when you look away from 00:43:48.500 --> 00:43:49.960 the center of the map, when you trace your finger 00:43:49.960 --> 00:43:51.940 back down to the edge where the lines just stop, 00:43:52.420 --> 00:43:53.619 that's where the real story begins.