Do Go On - 120 - The Hindenburg Disaster

Episode Date: February 7, 2018

Oh the humanity! A new episode has landed (crashed). It's one of the most documented disasters of the 20th Century, but what really happened to The Hindenburg? What could possibly bring down the largest vessel that has ever flown? An acrobat, Nazis and a boy with the best name we have ever come across... this story has it all. Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSubmit a topic idea directly to the hat: http://bit.ly/DoGoOnHat Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] AND FURTHER READINGhttps://www.space.com/16595-montgolfiers-first-balloon-flight.htmlhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-Graf-von-Zeppelinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidentshttp://mentalfloss.com/article/19442/blimp-vs-zeppelin-whats-differencehttp://www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster/http://www.history.com/news/the-hindenburg-disaster-9-surprising-factshttps://www.livescience.com/58959-hindenburg-crash.htmlhttp://www.unmuseum.org/mob/hindenburg.htmSeconds From Disaster (National Geographic)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V14MgfKNnchttp://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/a-very-brief-history-of-airships/http://www.zeppelinhistory.com/rigid-airships-history/history-of-rigid-airships/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster#Lightning_hypothesishttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/hindenburg-mystery-solved-after-76-years-8517996.html

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

And welcome to another week of DoGo On. My name is Dave Ornicki, and I'm here with Matt Stewart, who's drinking a big glass water, but it has to be in a beer glass. And I'm here with Jess Perkins, who's drinking a bottle of water, and it has to be a bottle glass. Yeah. They're our demands. Yep, that's my rider.

I don't even have any, I've got nothing. I don't even have a ride. When you get pretty big of the podcast game, like we are. You get to make a few demands. Oh, who are we making demands to? To demand. Water. Podcast demand.

Podcast demand. And big water. Big water. Oh, big water. You got to watch out for them. We only drink big water. Oh, yeah. We don't support local.

We got a big thirst, so we need a big water. Yeah. That's why I'm drinking three gallons. At once. Yeah, what a gallon is, do you? Gold. Big old bucket. Isn't it?

No, no, whatever. How big's a gallon? Like, I think, three and a half litres. That's a bit. Oh, I meant bigger. What's a big tub of it? Big tub. Barrel.

Like a mega litre? Three megaleters. Well, you've really sort of up the scale there. That was good. I don't know what a mega liter is. Megaliters are that? Mega litre. Yeah, mega liters.

Why? What? What? I mean. What's a mega trots drinks? Okay. Now I'm back on board. He drinks a mega-liter of horse liquid.

Water. Water, yes. The original term... In the horse community, they call it horse water. That was the original name for water. Horse water? No, horse liquid. Oh, okay.

Very confusing, because I would think that's piss. Ah, see, that... That is confusing. That is confusing. Very confusing. You don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. No, horse liquid, no thank you.

I'll just have a water. Oh, I'm afraid that water is the old name for piss. Ah! Horse piss. I don't get this right You get this right It is, I believe The last

That's a chance we can make No Guitar Yeah that was the best bit guitar Agreed So what happened to the darkness This week's topic What happened to the darkness

No That's the band that's had that song I'm aware Oh sorry The way you said that was like Yeah because you Because the question implies That the darkness

Had one album fell off the face of the earth And how fucking dare you? Well, I believe, I don't know if this is hyperbole I read in a rock and roll mag. The singer had to call the band off for a few years because he couldn't. He was gone on a mustache. No, he couldn't stop partying. Correct. By being in a band.

Is that right? He was doing too many substances. He went to rehab. But being in a band is not really good for rehab. Second album came out, better bass player. What? It didn't have that guy with a cool curly hair. But third album, he was back.

He was back. Yeah. With the big mustache and the headband. I've seen them live. Justin's voice is that good live. I didn't realize you're a big fan. You didn't pick me to be the darkness fan, did you? I'm not a big fan, but I've seen them a few times.

I love them. They're great fun. What do you mean a few times? I've seen them like three times. At their own, at festivals or on their own? I saw them two festivals and once on their own show, the old Metro. Yeah, I think we were disgust that we were probably at the same show. Probably.

Odds are. Years before we knew each other. Gosh. Oh, they were awesome. I was so close to the front of the stage. I had no idea I was in the room with such cool rock and roll fan. The darkness. Yeah.

The darkness cool. I had a poster of them on my wall as a teenager. Oh, that is awesome. I really love the darkest. I've got a T-shirt. I fucking love the darkness. Every time you went to bed, you just point to the poster and go, guitar, turn the light off.

The first time I saw them at a festival, they played like a 40-minute set. It was when the first album was out. So they only had an album's worth of tracks. 40-minute set, Annie had a costume change in the middle. That's amazing. Fantastic. Yeah, they're cool. I once saw Morrissey.

Sorry, sorry. That's a real change of gear. Sorry to make it about a really cool guy. But what he's been, like around Christmas time, he's... He doesn't say some great stuff lately. But he's a rock and roll icon. And even though he's in his 50s, he took his shirt off three times. Yeah.

And then what, put the same shirt back on? Different shirt. Then he came out draped in the Australian flag. Of course that had to go. Sure. Of course it did. Moss, what are he doing? Cause it bloody dead.

You're the same age as my mum. You're 60. That's great. Anyway, we've gone... We've got on a... I'm a man of a thousand noises. Yeah, they're good. Number 80.

Morrissey. We've gone on a tangent early because, Dave, you have mentioned that this is probably the longest report you've ever written. I believe word count wise, this is the longest one ever, so we should get into it. And that's unfortunate because the SaaS twins are in full swing tonight. Oh dear. Feel unsat. All right. On with this week's show. So if you haven't heard the show before, what happens is one of us has been given a topic suggested by the listeners.

For the listeners. That's right. By the listeners, for the listeners. We're about you listeners. And it's my week this week to report. Mar week. It's my week. It's a week we celebrate miles everywhere. And I'm going to report on a topic. Jess and Matt don't know what it is. And I've got a question to get us onto that topic. And I say, when I say, oh, the humanity. George Costanza. No, wait. Is it George? No.

Was it when the, was it Newman? It's Newman, right? There's definitely a Seinfeld reference to it. I think it's when Newman's male truck catches fire. I think. Does he say Newman weird? Newman. Newman.

Yeah, I think we'd say Newman. Newman. Newman. Newman. Newman. It's like how people from Sydney say stupid. Do they? That's a Sydney thing?

It's a Sydney thing. That's stupid. So when I say other humanity, what do you think? I was going to say the Gutenberg, but that was an actor from Police Academy, wasn't it? It's actually the Hindenberg. This week's topic is the Hindenberg disaster. Cool. Exciting?

I mean, not cool. What a monster. It's a ripping tale, I will tell you. And sadly for me, it does feature a few Nazis. So problematic. No comment. Sadly for you. Well, it just means that I know that.

Because, yeah, you dislike Nazis. Yeah. And researching them really hurt. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. This topic, the Hindenberg has been suggested by two of our listeners. Austin McPherson at Absow I-lover, 2001.

Abso-I-lover. And someone who's just put their name as me or at yink scrawler. I reckon we've had me a yink scrawler before. Wow. Well, good suggestions. Thanks, me. And I really like me. I like me a lot.

And I think I think me enjoys when we talk about me because it sounds funny. To me. But also to him. Me. Oh, I've just had my brain explode. My brain, not me's brain. All right. I had a knee brain explode.

Me's brain exploded. All right. So we're going to have a brief history here to get us towards the Hindenburg. A bit of background. Just to start off with, do you know the technical difference between an airship and a blimp? Yes. Great. No.

Moving on. Is one filled with air and the other one's filled with a gap? One's filled with a blimp. Can you, is one of them you're inside the balloon and you're bouncing around? Having a good time. Yeah. And the other one's very boring. It's all about capacity, you know?

Yeah, you're inside them both, but one of them you're having a good time. The other one's very rigid, boring. Well, one is very rigid. They are both lighter than air vehicles, meaning they're filled with a gas. So they're both filled with gas that's lighter than the air around us. So when you let them go, much like a helium balloon, they just raise. Except unlike a balloon, they have an engine and can. be steered from point A to point B.

That's what balloons have been missing all this time. I've always said that. I have always said that. Your idea was to add an engine to a balloon. Yeah. Then you could fucking remote control balloon, baby. That's good. Woo!

So an airship also called a derigible. Excuse me. A derigible. Deregible. It's a technical term. I fucking love it. It's adorable. Oh boy.

Also collectively called a Zeppelin, which is the famous company that made the airships like the Hindenburg. Also cool. What an airship or a dribble has is they have a metal type of framework or a skeleton that an outer skin wraps around it. Right.

So when there's no hydrogen or helium gas inside them, there's still a solid shape. Got it. But a blimp, like the famous Goodyear blimp or the duff blimp on the Simpsons, has no metal framework,

so it's more like a giant inflatable pool toy. So when you take the gas away, it goes, Mew-Wing to a sad mess on the ground. Easier to pack. Easier for storage. Put it under your bed, put in your cupboard.

Whatever. Put in the suitcase. Put in a suitcase. Take your blimp. Yeah. You can fly anywhere with that blimp. Anywhere. How far can you fly in a blimp?

Well, a long way the Hindenburg flew from one continent to another. Which we'll get to. There's also a halfway point called a semi-rigid where they have a bit of framework, but the Hindenburg is a fully... Half mungrel. The Hindenberg is a full mongrel. Nothing's bringing that bad boy down. Except a horrible fire, which we'll get to.

Same for a stiffy. Yeah. Nothing will bring those down, but a horrible fire. Oh, man. I've seen a couple go down due to fire. Dave. No more evidence. No more evidence.

No more evidence, Your Honor. I've got to go. Oh, no. Bye. The defence rests. The modern era of flight really took off in France in 1783, when wealthy paper magnates the Montgolfier brothers. Fuck yeah.

How good is that name? Montgolfier. Montgofier. Demonstrated the first lighter than air hot air balloon. The Chinese had been using hot air powered lanterns for centuries, but the Montgolfier brothers were inspired when they noticed heat put into a bag, made it rise. I wonder when they first put heat in a bag.

Farted in a bag. One says to the other, I might check this out. Oh, look at that go. I mean, we've all farted in a bag. They just made a business out there. And they thought, if we get a thousand people to find to this bag, we could fly to the moon.

I've said it before. It's a great idea. They built their own silk and paper line balloon and tested it without anyone on board. And it was a success. That was a smart idea, not putting someone on board. Well, they were asked to demonstrate their invention for the king, so they enlisted the help of wallpaper maker Jean-Baptiste revion.

Another great name. Look, if I say it so confidently, sounds like I know what I'm saying. Yeah, it sounds like you said it right. This time they constructed an even bigger and better balloon. And at this time, it wasn't known of going to a higher altitude in an open basket would kill humans, because humans had never been up into the atmosphere before. So, of course, the king suggested, let's test it on prisoners.

Let's test it on what prisoners? Oh, right. But instead, the Mongolia brothers chose to test the invention by putting on board a sheep, a duck, and a rooster, which would have been a crazy trip for the sheep and the duck and rooster. Yeah, what do they think they're going to get three different bits of data back? It's like, it's interesting. The duck exploded. The sheep is fine.

The rooster has never been the same. We need more tests. More ducks. The rooster jumped out. Fes de lavasch. Yeah, well, you know what happens when the duck explodes. The next test always has to be a fox, a grey-haired gnat, and also a beaver. with a little hat.

And a gun. Why has he got a gun? Self-defense. He's got two bullets. Either takes the other two out or he takes that one out then himself. Which is what happened. No, the eight-minute two-mile flight across the Royal Palace of Versailles was the first flight ever to carry a living creature.

And it was successful, so they didn't die. None of the animals died. No ducks exploded during this flight. No. That's great news. Well, I was going to say it was disappointing. So we are not in sync. today.

A couple of weeks later, also in France, inventor Jacques Charles and the Roberts Brothers, which is an amazing band name. Jacques Charles and the Roberts Brothers, demonstrated a different type of flight they've been working on, a balloon filled with hydrogen. This flight lasted a whopping two hours and five minutes, a lot longer than the Mongolia brothers, and even had more advanced controls,

such as a hydrogen release valve and sandbag ballasts. They could go left and right. Not just up and crash. Put it in crash A couple of months later They even had a manned flight So they put them up So that's a very basic introduction

To this new phase of light of air aviation travel And over the next century Many improvements were made To the point that it actually became a feasible source of travel Interesting People started thinking We could move people properly in these things And make money

Ah An important person in what would become the golden age of airship travel. Was it Sir William Blimp? Willie Blimp. Or won't he? He will. He will blimp.

No, it's a German man named Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Yes. So he's the German Willy Blimp. Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It's a sick man. Fuck yes. Count Ferdinand. That's awesome.

One. What's the lady version of a count? Countess Or Cantessa Oh Cantessa Bopp I like it Bob Zeppelin

Von Zeppelin Countessa Bob von Zeppelin That's a great name Yeah that's a great name Thank you Thanks so much Yep Well the man in the magic

Ferdin van Zep As I call him Sure Born in 1838 He had his first Military Commission At the age of just 20 He made the first

Of several balloon Ascensions In Minnesota While acting as a military observer for the Union Army during the American Civil War. I guess the idea there was he went up in a balloon, tethered to the ground and used it as like a lookout. Cool.

Have a look. In 1890, after a lot of military stuff, so four decades, he retired from the military and devoted his love to creating a rigid type of airship, one with a metal skeleton. It took him 10 years to get the idea off the ground, pun intended. Oh, we could tell. Your face did a run up to that joke. Well, I wouldn't call it a joke. Well, I'd call it a joke.

His first flight, July 2nd, 1900 saw the LZ1, as he called it, travel a small distance from a floating hangar on Lake Constance near Friedrich Strafen in Germany. And whilst it was not entirely successful, it had the effect of promoting the airship to the degree that public subscriptions and donations thereafter funded the count's work. Oh, wow. So you've got a bit of crowdfunding. going on. People saw it. It was like the crap, you know, a GoFundMe video. People watch it and went, yeah, an early Patreon. We can get by on this.

The German government quickly noticed the advantage of airships over the as yet poorly developed aeroplanes. And when a Zeppelin achieved a 24-hour flight in 1906, he received commissions for an entire fleet. All in all, more than 100 zeppelins were used for military operations in the First World War. What? I had no idea. Yeah, so they were a, you know, because planes weren't super reliable. As the war went on, they got bigger and better as, you know, as we've talked about before, nothing like a war to get innovations happening.

But Zeppelins were, you know, seen as a real way for carrying people and also bombing stuff. Sure. And also the fact that when they come over the hill, they look incredibly intimidating because they're massive. The company set up a passenger service in 1910. Zeppelin's dream was transcontinental flight, but sadly he died in 1917 before this could happen.

But after World War I, the US Armed Forces began building their own fleet of airships. The largest they ever built was the USS Akron, built in Akron, Ohio. Wow. Now that's something we haven't mentioned for a lot. Now, Matt, how am I supposed to say Akron again? I'm sure. Someone told me it was meant to have a W sound in it, but then someone else said that that is definitely not true. I've heard you say Orchron.

Orchron? Akron? No, I don't know. I'm offended on behalf of... Yeah, but it's definitely not Akron because that's how we used to say it and people did not like it. Someone will let us know.

Oh, the humanity. Akron. Where tires come from. The Good Year blimp. Yes. It all makes sense. Absolutely. I think that is actually where it comes from.

Wow. Wow. Unlike the Hindenburg, the Akron, or Orkron, wasn't filled with a flat. I think it's Orchron. I think that's right. It wasn't filled with flammable gas, like hydrogen this one, like the Hindenberg,

but the rarer but less flammable helium. The Orchron was the world's first purpose-built flying aircraft carrier carrying FC9 sparrowhawk fighter planes, which could be launched and recovered while she was still in flight, which is pretty amazing. So planes come out of the blimp, go around and come back into the blimp. What? I say blimp. I'm going to get in trouble for that, airship.

Thank you. I was about to get, are you about to get in trouble for that? Yeah, right here. How big is it? Massive. Holy shit. That big.

And it's the biggest one they ever made. Sadly, the Orchron was destroyed in a thunderstorm of the coast of New Jersey on the morning of the 4th of April, 1933, killing 73. I know, it's so that you slip it in. And I'm trying to tell you that 73 of 76 crewmen and passengers died. Yeah, that three survived.

Whoa. Is that Google coming back for another round? It wasn't Newman. Okay. I don't even mean to do that, but it is him driving his mail truck. And it's on fire. And it's on fire. Because I think, like, Kramer dropped like there was like a, oh God, fuck.

It's been several weeks now. You still can't figure out how to use your phone. What is going on? But he, yeah, there was like, was it the one where he, Kramer had his own section of highway? And he made it rumier. So he made his little section. So everyone had like a lane and a half. I think it was clear.

Maybe it's on emerging ideas. And then, but an iron got caught under the thing. Yeah, that's right. Sparking. That's right. Yeah. And there was petrol on the road or something. Yeah.

And then it. Humanity. And the flames come up across the dashboard. As a kid would have laughed and laughed and then would have had no idea what the reference was. Of the humanity. That's funny. Newman said it. Newman.

Newman. He's funny. You haven't seen Seinfeld, have you? No. I've got the box set. If you want to borrow it? Nah. So great.

You should really check it out. So great. So easy to watch heaps and heaps of it. Have you to learn nothing about me? As soon as you tell me to do something, I am 100% not going to do it. A show you will hate is called Seinfeld. I'm going to watch the box set. If only I knew someone who owned it.

Well, I don't want you to borrow it. Give it to me. Okay. Yes. Oh. That worked that well. positives are there. But back to the Orchron.

So it was a big disaster. This accident involved the greatest loss of life in any airship crash. So 73 out of 76? Yep. Wow. That's all. The worst part being that a second airship that went out looking for survivors also crashed. Oh, Jesus.

Killing two more people. No. Pretty bad. So airships didn't have the best safety record. In fact, here are a few more of the worst crashes before the Hindenburg leading up to it. So in 1921, the time the world's largest airship was the British R38.

Ape? R38. Oh. That's a much more intimidating name, the R38. It was destroyed by a structural failure while in flight over the city of Hull. It crushed into the Humber estuary, killing 44 out of the 49 crew on board.

Then the next year in 1922, the Italian airship, the Roma, which was purchased by the US from the Italian government, crashed in Norfolk, Virginia, killing 34 people. Oh, dear. It was the last high.

Hydrogen-filled airship flown by the US military, all subsequent ships were inflated with helium, including the Auckland I spoke about before, and that still didn't go what. So they're just going through, they're working their way through the periodic table. Next is lithium. Helium. Okay, Google, how do you pronounce Akron, Ohio? Lithium, Borilium. What's Matt doing over there?

Okay, Google, how do you pronounce Akron, Ohio? That's pronounced Akron, Ohio. Akron. She also has an Australian accent. Oh, does she? Yeah, right. That doesn't help. That doesn't help.

The Dixmude was built by the Germans. That's great. What the what? Dixmude. Dixmude. The Dixpewed. Oh, yack. Dixmude.

Oh, Dixmude. Dix spew. Dix spew. Dix spew. You're talking about Jism? Mm-hmm. That's funny. Thank you.

That's rule number one of comedy. Jism's funny and funny's funny's funny. Imagine a Dick spewing. I should have that noise. That felt good. It's a fucking guck. Anyway, the Dixmewed is built by the Germans. Given to France after World War I

as part of raw war reparation, but that totally backfired when it exploded. voted in midair, 1923 of the coast of Sicily, killing 52. Then in 1930, the new king of the world's largest airships. The British R101 crashed in France

during its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 out of 54. Why did they stick with these things? Stop flying them anywhere. After that, the British gave up. They called it. They called it a day. They're like, this is enough.

Classic Brits. So as you can see, let's keep throwing people out. It'll be right. That'll be right. So as you can see, it's not super-diva-safe-s sounding. Although, in fairness, I will say, to an outsider, have you listed all the aeroplane or train crashes ever?

I just gave up to them without any other data, you'd be like, why are we using those? Yeah, true. Good point. Do a lot of airplanes explode, midair? Not enough. What? David. Not enough to correlate with any data is what I meant.

Right. Okay. Full. You're really got to finish your sentences, man. Not enough. To correlate. Sorry, I have a tonal problem. I'm a scientist.

If I had my way. We'd have more data. Of course, I'd rue the loss of life. But now we've come to the Hindenburg. The D-Lag, which is an acronym, which translates to a German thing that translates as German airship travel corporation, was the world's first commercial airline service.

It was founded in 1909, and then in 1935 merged with the DZR, whose fleet included the LZ1-29, Hindenburg. Hindenberg's just a cool, like it's fun to say. Have a go. Hindenberg. Is that fun? Yeah, that was great fun. Dave.

Everyone to go, we'll pause for you to have a go. Fun, wasn't it? So fun. Hindenberg. I went back for seconds. Yeah, got on you. Why not? We're going to keep saying it.

It's on topic. Hindenberg. I'm going to see if I can find an appropriate time between now and the end of the episode. to say Hindenburg again. Okay, all right. Okay. What about a restaurant? The Hindenberger.

Oh, that's fun. Airship themed. Right. Disaster themed. So the restaurant has got the name of an item on the menu. Yeah, it's the best-selling item. So they just... Hindenburger King, sort of.

That's good. And they only sell hot dogs. Yeah. Fun twist. Fuck everyone. Yeah. Because some people just want to watch the world burn. Like the Hindenburg.

The Hindenberg began construction in 1931, and it took its first flight five years later. So long project. It was named after the late field marshal, Paul von Hindenberg. That's cool. Even though he's a bit tardy, they still named it after him. I think that's great. He was always like. I just too long to get it.

Me too. I was like, what? Oh, the late. Okay. But also, when you've got a boring name like Paul, I'm glad you follow that up. with von Hindenberg. He was like, well, I mean, the thing that his parents chose was very bland. Lucky.

It's funny, you'd think of Hinden, maybe they were sick of being so interesting. I can only say that. That's been the case. Yeah. He was also the president of Germany from 1925 until he died in 1934. He actually had quite a bit to do with how Hitler came to power. It's actually Heil Hitler. Oh, sorry, how Harl Hitler came to power.

Thank God I'm editing this episode. I don't even know what I'm talking about, which isn't that far different from all the time. Interesting, okay. Right, so he kind of, he was actually the opposition to Hitler, but then the Nazi party started getting lots of seats in their voting houses. And he sort of had to make these concessions. And then he died, when he died, Hitler stepped in and declared himself, I'm in charge of everything. And that's sort of where it all went wrong. Okay, okay.

When you said that before, I was like, oh no, he was like, guys, let's make Hitler the boss. No, it was actually in opposition to him. So he's death, which he had no control over. Because he was very old. Yeah, led to Hitler. Okay. So he's a good guy. Well, I haven't done enough research to say if he was a good guy.

I don't know. It's in the hat many times, David. Could you one day do the rise of Hitler? Well, if we do this ship in international waters, then maybe I'll do it. We do this podcast, not this ship. He's really pushing for international waters. I don't think it would be really fun to get a whole bunch of podcast listeners. Oh, my God.

Onto a boat and go to international waters. I've got it. Yes, we can do it. If I get to dress you in a little sailor suit like a little boy. That would be fun. Oh, my God. You can be a pirate with that beard. Okay.

I'm a be a wench. Ah, so sailor, pirate and wench. Yeah. What's a wench again? Is that a nautical thing? Yep. Yeah, right. Cool.

I think I'm going to put in little shorts and a little hat. Oh my God, I'm going to get a fucking lollipop. Blonde curly wig? Big, yes. Yes. On the good chip. Lollipop. Yes.

I'll do it. If I'm international waters, anything goes. Yes. All right, I'm in. Please do it go on. You really love international waters. I just love the idea of doing a pot out there. We'll probably get, like, on the Simpsons when they go out there and then a bunch of pirates

capture them. It's like, oh. We've already got a part. And he's just pointed to me and I'm... You're good, thanks. You have to do the negotiations. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're more than modern day pirates with like machine guns and rocket launches. So... Yeah. Yo, yo, yor. Have some... That's all you can say.

Yarr. I haven't had a lot of time research for this character. Me hearties. Me hearties. Walk the plane. Yeah, that's good. Anyway, Dave. Dave, keep going. You're doing great.

Love you. Thank you. Love you, Beth. Oh, that's interesting. He didn't imagine. Matt didn't say you loved you. I know, that's why I looked at him to try and coax one out of him. Love you, Dave. Thank you. No, I'm doing this more for someone else. Oh.

I'm looking at her. Oh, love you, Jess. It feels forced now. Love you wench. Oh. Wench Perkins. Wench is a, it's a funny word. I have no idea what it means.

Oh, I have some idea. I don't think it's positive though. I think it definitely sounds derogatory. I'm looking at a girl or young woman, archaic slash humorous, or a prostitute. There you go, two options there. So it's just a young, it's just a woman. What's the first one? It's female, basically.

Yeah, but they're humorous. Well, they have like little. A humorous woman. No, it has subsection. So it's like this type of language is archaic or used humorously. Right. Then the definition, a girl or young woman, definition two, this type is archaic, a prostitute.

I mean, the word prostitute's relatively archaic, isn't it? We say sex working out, don't we? Hmm, there you go. I'm just reading off Google. No one get angry. Okay, back to the Hindonburg. Interesting that you want to get back to the topic. Sure.

Sorry. Do go on, please, Dave. Two were built. Two identical ones, the LZ 129, the LZ130. And they are still the largest airships ever built. What's the L? So the Z is Zeppelin. Zeppelin?

I'm not 100% sure. It's not Led Zeppelin. No. But I will talk about Led Zeppelin a little bit later. Yes. They are still the largest airships. They're pretty much the largest things to ever fly, both by length and volume. Even bigger than the blue whale?

Wow. That's huge. The flying blue whale. All right. The ship was 245 meters or 800 feet, 104. Sorry, the blue whale is a flightless whale. I just looked it up. Thank God for Google.

Okay, Google. Can Blue whales fly? Okay, Google. Can Blue whales fly? She won't even answer a question. Just so you can imagine how big it is. The ship was 245 metres or 804 feet long. 41 metres or 135 feet in diameter,

which to put it into perspective is longer than three Boeing 747s placed end to end. Don't tell me another airship. Tell me, give me how many Olympic pools? Longer, well, I'm sorry to say it again, but it's longer than four good year blimps, end to end. And only 24 metres or 75 feet shorter than the Titanic. And the Titanic sank. Yeah, because is this sort of the Titanic of the Sky or vice versa? Yeah.

Well, that's what we're calling the episode. The Titanic of the Sky. In brackets, Hindenberg. Or we could call the Titanic the Hindenberg of the Seas. That thing that would be easier. Seas? Seas. Seas.

Multiple seas? There's a few. Yeah. It's all right. I'm just checking. The seven seas. That's where I sail. As a pirate.

I'm all right, man. That's true. Oh, so it's pretty much, it's something the size of the Titanic, but it flies. So it's huge. Insane. Is that a poop deck? It's got several. What?

100. Poop decks? Yeah, it was literally covered and shit. The Outer's. of the esch it was made from strong poop, mixed with cotton and linen. It was then made waterproofed with poop. And then tightened with a mechanical paint known as dope,

which could have been a terrible mix up. Paint it with dope. Oh, guy. Dope is a slang term for marijuana. That's where the humor of that bit comes from. You are the coolest stepdad on the podcast. What are you got to know about cannabis is. It's got a couple of names.

Dope. Weed. Grass. Fun grass. Leaves of high. Better than tea. Not as good as heroin. Now you have a trial, little Jimmy.

That's a cool dad. No, I didn't say cool as dad. I said stepdad. Okay, I'm a cool stepdad. You're definitely a cool step down. I'm sterile, so. Too much dope, Dimmy. Jimmy, I'll call you, Jimmy.

Just go on with the longest report you've ever written. I'm actually high now. So, inside this thick skin, the outer skin, painted with dope for some reason, were 16 separate gas bags. So people that talked a lot, quit your bloody gas bag. Oh, bloody gas bags. Gas bags. Are these gas bags really good, Jesse?

I loved it. You never know. Sometimes you can predict where it will come. And other times you're like, wow, gas bags. Gas bags. Just a little fact there. Gas bags. Still got to.

I'm annoyed that I'm not going to mention them that much more. Each of these gas bags are over 30 metres in height. And they were all filled with the flammable gas of hydrogen. So what could possibly go wrong? Stop using hydrogen. All up there was nearly 200,000 cubic metres of hydrogen. So a shitload. And this is.

It's very highly flammable, but because it's lighter than air, the lightest element on the periodic table, it makes the whole thing float. Wow. So you put a lot of floaty stuff in there and it floats. It's like in Up when he has all those helium balloons. Yes. You just have enough helium. It'll lift a house. Right.

That's science. That's science. Bitch. Deal with it. Right. You've just got science, son. Ow. My arm.

Stop that. I punched him when I said that. I got really enthusiastic. Somehow you're a nerd bully. Yeah. The Hindenberg wasn't slow either. It could reach a top speed of 125 kilometres or 77 miles per hour, which of course by today's standard sounds quite slow.

No, that's pretty fast. Okay, good. I thought you're going to not be impressed there. But for comparison, a transatlantic journey from Europe to the USA is 6,000-kilometers long. That would take an airship two and a half days. About half the time it would take for the fastest ocean liners of the day. So you bloody double, doubled it. What, doubled it.

Science? You got science there. I think we just got mathed. Yeah. A branch of science. You got branched. Did you know I did a science in high school? You wouldn't pick it, would you?

In like year 12, the last year of school. Yeah, yeah, I did a science. What one? Psychology. Oh. Counts. Does it count? Is that a science?

I thought it was all bloody guesswork. It's all about feelings. I dropped science as soon as I could Me too I wish I didn't now because I wish I understood more about biology Yeah I wish I understood

The biggest Achilles heel Of this giant airship Was it's Achilles heel Was it's Achilles heel? Why did they put one in? Some people thought it was dumb And it was No the biggest Achilles heel

His weakness was bad weather It could easily be blown off course And it struggled to fly in heavy winds Oh my God This in turn can make landing quite treacherous. Tretcherish. Tretcherish, which sadly we will get too soon. I think bad weather's my Achilles heel, too.

Do you reckon going from continent to continent, any chance of getting a little bad weather? I don't think so. Oh, thank God. If you're lucky, with a bit of luck, you'll be fine. It'll be right. It's such a funny, it's a funny thing to have stuck with. And of course, at this time, there's all those crashes I'd spoke about earlier

the decades leading up to this. But at this time, the Zeppelin Company had a perfect safety record across 27 years. Right. Wow. So they're doing well. It was by no means cheap to travel on board either, with this type of travel considered to be extremely premium. It was, as I said, very fast, but also luxurious and limited to only a few passengers. Tickets cost $400.

Whoa. Or closer to $7,000 in today's money. I can't picture what it would be like. Because I'm just imagining like the Simpsons When they're inside the blimp and it's just like an empty balloon With Sancho Bob? Yeah But what's it actually like?

I'll get there. I've got a good description of it. Oh, I'll judge it. Which is now this sentence that was coming up. What I didn't realize, Jess, about this ship was that the passenger decks where everyone hung out and slept were contained inside the actual hull of the ship like you're imagining. Oh, okay. So they're not loose, I'll explain.

I always imagine that everyone was in that little cabin thing that's, It turns out that's not the case. And that cabin thing is attached to the balloon is called the gondola or crew car. Right. And this is where the captain, the crew, actually flew it from. So they're underneath. Hang on. Do you think while they're flying it in the gondola, they're going,

When the moon it's your light like a big piece of fire that as some or. And they're very superstitious. So they did that for 24 hours. They'll wear stripes t-shirts. If they stop singing, they thought they would die. Is that a classic gondola song? They sing to you. I didn't go on a gondola ride in Venice.

Did you do that? I did. Good fun? Oh yeah, it's great. And the guy, the gondolier, was texting while he wrote us along. While he sang. And I said, have you ever dropped your phone in? Oh, no, I said, has anybody ever fallen in?

And he said, no, but there is always first time. I thought he was going to murder. So what you're imagining, the passengers are actually inside a section of the balloon. Okay. So it's not like the whole thing's hollow. They've just got a large section. So there's actually quite a lot of room. There was two decks, A deck and B deck.

Inside A deck there was a dining room, a lounge for relaxing, a riding room. And viewing areas are... Riding? Sorry, writing room. Okay. I was like they had... Oh, I was thinking Shetland Pony's. Oh, okay.

Oh, also the riding room, sorry. What was the next bit? Now, they had viewing areas on either side of the aircraft, and almost all of the ship's 34 passenger cabins were on this side. B-Deck was where the crew slept as well as the kitchen and bathrooms. And perhaps most ridiculously, the Hindenberg, which had more hydrogen than any other ship has ever had, had a smoking room. Oh, that's dumb.

That's so dumb. No. Bad idea. I know. That can't be the thing that brings it unstuck, surely. I can't confirm not to know. Well, passengers, their lighters and matches were confiscated before they boarded. And inside the smoking room, they only had one electric lighter.

so it didn't produce a flame. And on board they could buy cigarettes and Cuban cigars. As a safety precaution, I will say, I did have an airlock to keep the lit cigarettes away from the flammable gas, but to me it just seems like too big a risk. Yeah, that's dumb. What I would have done is still sold the cigars, but just made them eat them if they want them.

You've got to eat them. That's it. I think that's very reasonable. I think that's a fine compromise. I think it's a fine compromise. Thank you. I'm sure let's get the nicotine somehow. Yeah.

You'll be right. How about you just have a spoonful of concrete and harden the fuck up? That can't be any more bad for you. Just go two days without one. Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?

Hmm? That's what I thought. I'm so sorry. Geez, I mean, we're cast no aspers now against the smokers. We might find out that it was one of the non-smokers who was, you know, rubbing two sticks together. We just don't know. We just don't know. In the writing room.

Not in the writing room. It's all those flammable. Exercise books, which I imagine they would have had. Books? Books. That's what you write on. Got it. Speaking of flammable, Matt, many times when I was researching this topic, I asked myself,

why was it filled with a flammable gas when helium was clearly being used by other ships? Because the helium would make your voice all funny. That is one of the answers. The other answer is, it turns out after the disastrous crash of the hydrogen-filled British airship, I mentioned before, the R-101, Hindberg designer Hugo Echina sort. to use helium. That was his ideal situation. However, the United States at this time

had a monopoly on the world supply of helium and fear that other countries might use the gas for military purposes. So they banned its export and the Hindenburg was re-engineered because they could only get their hands on hydrogen. Imagine helium, though, as a weapon. I think it would sound a little or something.

I like this. That's helium-powered guns. Wow. What number is that? 904? Yeah. Someone should start keeping a chart. How does a country control?

Have the monopoly on a... Yeah. I assume that inside their territory is where... That's where helium comes from. The world's largest supply of helium at that time was. They had the helium mine. Now you can just go to like Lombard the Paper people and get a tank of it. They've got it.

They have to use helium at Lombard the Paper People rather than the flammable one because they've got so much paper. I asked them, well, for those balloons I got for our 100th, I asked for hydrogen in there, but they said, No Can Dozeville, baby doll. Helium for you. Why'd you ask for hydrogen out of interest? Because I wanted to settle on fire. Love it.

I thought that would be so rock and roll. That would have been spectacular. I wanted the best for you guys. Our 100th show is also the venue's last show because we burnt it down. That is so rock and roll. Not to be the case and now we have to go there for comedy festival. Damn it. Well done, Jess.

I'm so tried. Duh. Just use petrol. next time. All right. Some other flammable things. Anyway, what do these passengers have to worry about? The company had a good track record and before the disaster over the course of two seasons.

The Hindenburg had already carried over 2,500 people across the Atlantic between Germany and New York and then Rio de Janeiro. You'd be feeling pretty confident. You'd be confident. Like you get on a plane now. It's like, well, I suppose there's been disasters in the past, but it's been pretty good lately. Not on Anset Air. I'm about to board with.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now, unfortunately for me, because of the jokes that people make, it can't be skipped over that Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Also unfortunate for the people of Germany, I should say. And the world. Dave, are you saying that? Yes.

Were you saying there that Hitler rising to power affected you more than anyone else? Dave. Hang on. Is that what you're saying? Look, it is not what I'm saying. Interesting. how he changes his tune. World War II was a couple of years away

where the Hindenburg was flying around. But operating the largest ship ever built was seen as a potentially great PR move for the relatively new government, the Nazi party. The Hindenburg had a large Nazi swat sticker on its tail and operating the largest aircraft ever was seen as a way of showing off the might of the country. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels

ordered the Hindenburg to make its first public flight in March 1936 as well. part of an aerial tour of Germany. For four days, the airship blasted patriotic tunes and pro-Hitler announcements from specifically mounted loudspeakers. And at the time, small parachutes with propaganda leaflets and swastikas were dropped on German cities. No.

Isn't that outrageous? That is incredible. And then later in 1936, the Hindenburg, with special Olympic rings painted on its side and pulling a large Olympic flag behind it, made an appearance of the opening ceremony. of the Berlin Olympics. Right. I had no idea about any of that stuff. Do you know much about the Berlin Olympics?

I can't remember. Was that at a point where people were already onto Hitler being a fuck-fuckhead? Yes. So were people like boycotting and stuff? Yes. I don't know if people were boycotting, but that was Jesse Owens, the famous black American runner. I remember he really... That wasn't Berlin.

He really upset Hitler by beating all his Aryan white people. people. Right. So, yeah, so America was there. So it was long before people were really taking a public stand against him. Yes. Well, that didn't really happen until right into the war, wasn't it? Because they kept thinking, oh, it's going to be okay.

Anyway, we're doing. I mean, it's kind of outrageous that they gave them the Olympics. Everything about it is so bizarre. I'd love you to do an episode about that one day. Well, International Waters is calling. Why international waters? But imagine him doing it in a little sailor suit. It would be so funny.

That would be great. That would be great. be so cute. It would be an interesting topic. No arguments here. I'll consider it. Thanks, Dave. I just don't want any...

It's been in the hat people specifically asking for you to do it for a long time. I enjoy making Nazi jokes, which I do not enjoy. No, but this goes way back. People have stopped doing that. They respect you now as you will ever since you publicly renounced your membership. No, no, publicly denounced to the regime. Yeah. which inside I'd been doing my whole life.

Just hadn't done it publicly. Right. Yeah. It's sad that you had to do it. I mean, have any of you come out on the record, had to say that you're anti-y-y-law? No, we haven't had to do that.

I haven't had to, no. Because it goes without saying for us. Oh, well. Now who's a fuckhead? You, Matthew. Oh, okay. Yeah, Matt was looking at me. I'm like, I'm not sure.

You are. Oh, it's always been me, sure. Now, who's the fuck, Ed? I'm sure you'll tell me. Because it was such a symbol for the Nazis, the Hindenburg. On board, they were worried that anti-Nazis might sabotage the flight and reportedly they may have had an undercover plane-closed police officer on board.

Could this be what caused the disaster? Oh, foreshadowing. The flight path for what would be its final journey was from Frankfurt in Germany, where it would travel across the Atlantic Ocean and land at a naval station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Being on time was extremely important for the PR. of the company as well as the Nazis, as many rich and wealthy people were planning to catch the ship's return journey to attend the coronation of King George the 6th back in London on

the 12th of May. So it's got to make it there so these rich people can get on board to get back to the UK. That's Elizabeth's grandfather? Father. King's speech. Farger, yes. No, I think grandfather. No. Father, right. Isn't it the father? The father? Yeah, yeah, Bertie's the father.

Right. Yeah, so the other guy's already dead. Yes. Well, that's why... What year is this? Albert had to be coming here. This is 1936. Gotcha.

I watched that movie recently. Such a good movie. It's a pretty good movie. I saw it like three times in the cinemas. Wow. I really enjoyed it. So the Hindabur left Frankfurt. Left Frankfurt for New Jersey.

From now and I will say every place name in that accent. Excellent. Hindenburg, Lefranc, on the evening of May the 3rd, on board with 36 passengers, which is half its capacity, and 61 crew members. On board were people from Germany, Sweden, Mexico, the UK, Denmark, and the United States of America. How can they had so many crew? That's heaps. I think it's had a lot of people to operate.

Also, it's very luxurious, you've got to remember. So it's kind of like having everyone's in first class. But everyone, like, pretty much everyone has, like, their personal. crew member. I know that I know like you're not going to get the captain to get you a drink but I'm just saying there's a lot of crew. A lot of crew.

Yeah, because I guess they also have people in the kitchen you know, they've got people cleaning stuff. They got a bunch of people flying it. Masuse. And the way that they fly it, if I am correct, is a long line of bicycles,

stationary bikes. 61 people. 61 stationary bikes, peddling, powering it. Petal power. That's how they operate, yeah? Yep. Fantastic.

Oh, is that true? You do know a lot? That's one. So there's lots of different people on board from different backgrounds. And a really cool website we can look up and read about everyone is face of the Hindenburg.org. com.com. And just a few of the people on board that will follow on. These are the more famous people that are often mentioned in documentaries about the Hindenburg and stuff.

The captain, Captain Max Pruss. The Hindenberg was captained by this 46, old man, a highly experienced pilot who had flown for two decades and was captaining the Hindenberg on its 23rd flight. So he'd beat at the helm many times. Also on board was Rudolf Anders, a 63-year-old man who was owner of the German company T-Kane that introduced tea in tins and an early precursor to tea bags. So he was a very, very wealthy man because of this.

The company also invented the first machine that made tea bags, the first. guy to mass-produced tea bags. Today, the family-run company is still the world-leading company in the production of tea bags and produces seven and a half million of them every year. Just the bags? I think they're putting the tea in there as well. Wow. Fully rounded business.

Yeah. They've thought everything through. Like on their Simpsons where they go to the box factory. And he's like, what's going to go in here? Puppies, fireworks. Are any of those here? Oh, no, we just make boxes. And then it turns out they get assembled at a separate factory.

Follow the yellow line Around my office Jocester Spar is very interesting guy I was on board He was a young acrobat He had immigrated to the USA And developed a comedy acrobatic act Where he was called

Ben Dover Dover Do you get a bad Like Dover The white cliffs in England Yes He was very pale Very pale

Do you used to acrobats of a cliff, sort of. That is good. It's got two meanings. It means both Dover, his surname, and also Dover the city, like the cliffs. Oh, Matt. The what? But he cliff, they should have called him. That's good.

Should have called him Ben Cliff. Ben Cliff. Now that's funny. Oh, dear. This is a quote from the face of the Hindenberg block spot. His signature actor's bend over Was to drunkenly stagger out on stage In a rumpled top hat

And tails Search at length through his pockets for a cigarette Which of course Was eventually discovered to have been in his mouth all along Then he would shimmy up a pole Of a gas street lamp to light his cigarette No Dave, no Don't tell me Cliff did it

Foreshadowing He'd brought a dog with him To give to his family as a surprise pet. And it caught fire. The dog did it. Foreshadowing. The dog bit a hole in the Hindenberg.

So the dog had to be kept underneath and to feed the dog, spa had to be accompanied by a crew member who would take him into that restricted area. Oh. Was he being a bit dodgy maybe? Doggy? Was he being a bit doggy style? Bandover. He was bendovering doggy style.

Oh, it all makes sense. It makes sense. And the final people I'll introduce you to are the Derner family. A German family, the Derners were on board and included Father Herman, wife, Matilda. Herman Dernard. Herman Dernard. Well, it gets better.

No, it can't get better than Herman Dernard. Children, Irene, 14, Walter 10, and Werner 8. Werner Dernard. Oh my God, he fucking told me it would get better than 10. Because I didn't think. You could top Herman Durner. And I was like, no, Dave, there's no fucking way. Irene Durner, fuck off.

Oh, it's probably... And I was going to say if you pronounce Vernarder Durner. Vernorna. Not Vernarder the burner. He did it. Foreshattory. This is a real whodunit party. It's great.

It's a bit of a murder mystery. Who's going to do it? So, Werner Dernard, the youngest one. I'll talk about him later. And I'll talk about all of them. They were a wealthy family that lived in Mexico City. where their father had worked for a German company for two decades, and had become a Mexican citizen.

Interesting. Verna Durner. I'm going to name my first child, Verna Durner Dernorna. One word? Yes. So good. Hyphenated, actually. Vernadena Perkins.

I'm also changing my name. My surname will be Vernadona. I think the kid will be Vanadena, Van derner. Werner, I reckon that was that top ten names we've ever had on the show? 100%. Burner-Derna. If I had more time, I'd go back through. I reckon at school, Vernor, it would be a great learner, don't you think? Yeah.

I just think he would be. What else did he be good at? You've already done burner. I think he'd grow a lot of forest plants. You'd be a fernarder, durner be a great ferner. I think he gets really into dairy at one point. Fernadern, he does a lot of chernon. Chirner.

I heard that the youngest child is always, Youngest child's always, I hate this, and I love it. I don't know how I feel about it. Youngest child's always treated, you know, the most laps. I hear that his father was a lot less sterner on the turn to do. We are so stupid. Just say it like the Sydney people do.

Stupid. Stupid. An ideal. That's how they talk. They're so wacky. there crazy get your shit together Sydney

tweet in what do you think Vernon is up to I'm gonna talk about him yeah you talk about right now mate

we're talking about it already champ I'm gonna talk about what he's up to oh my god no he lives he lives

oh shit people survive maybe you said what he's up to in the heavens oh what a roll with those

no Matt doesn't know what to think I keep forgetting that all these people are going to talk. And the dog. The Hindberg's crossing of the Atlantic went smoothly and not much of note happened. So the first couple of days, it's going swimmingly. However, by the time it made it to the edge of the USA, it was running behind schedule because headwinds had slowed it down.

The airship was about 12 hours behind its expected time when it passed over Boston on the morning of May 6th. And its landing at Lakehurst was expected to be further delayed because of afternoon thunderstorms. This was not good because to remember it had a packed return flight to get it back on time. That had to get back on time. Landing at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst was delayed even more due to the predicted bad weather. So the ship's captain, Max Proust, decided to linger over New York City, giving the people a spectacular view of the city and people of the city, spectacular views of the ship. That's nice than circling a city because, you know, in a plane,

looking through a tiny window, be a bit nicer from a blimp. Yeah, like actual proper windows. Yeah, and there's some famous photos from the ground of the ship. Right. It would be super frustrating at the same time every time there's any sort of bad weather or it gets a bit windy that you did flight just gets delayed or cancelled. Yeah, like bloody Tiger, am I right?

Yeah, for the first word. We never really had any trouble with Target, but... My Virgin flight got delayed recently, so, I mean, you know, just... No, that's supposed to be a full-service air carrier. That was when I was flying business class, too. Oh, what? They can't delay business. And they still didn't take off on time for me.

You flew business class? I told you that, didn't I. I got a free business class flight. What? Well, flights to Sydney for New Year's were horrendously spent like $300. It just with Tiger. And I had all these virgin points from Roadshow, which are flights I don't pay for. Oh, how'd you do that?

What do you mean? How'd you get points for that? I put my card in. When you're... Yeah. We should talk about it. about this off the show. Definitely.

We did not have much time left. At 4pm, the Hindenberg arrived over Lakehurst, where it was supposed to land, but the weather was still anything but ideal for the landing. Commander Proust decided to take the ship southeast to get away from the weather and returned after a detour. Went inland, came back. At 612, the air ship received a message from the ground crew saying, conditions now considered suitable for landing.

11 minutes later, an even stronger message followed that said recommend landing now. At 7pm at an altitude of 650 feet or 200 metres, the Hindenberg made its final approach to the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. They decided to employ a high landing known as a flying moor because the airship would drop its landing ropes and mooring cable at a high altitude and then it would be winched down to the... Whenched down. Jess brings it down.

So they're kind of... I always bring it down. Basically, they reel it in like a giant fish on a... Yeah. Fishing hook. This type of landing maneuver would reduce the number of ground crewmen,

but it would require more time. Although the high landing was common procedure for American airships, the Hindenberg had only performed this maneuver a few times in 1936 while landing in Lakers. So it's not like a super

thing that they normally do. Not like, you know, standard protocol. Everything seemed to be going okay. And at 721, while the Hindenberg was at an altitude of 90 meters, 295 feet, the mooring lines were dropped from the bow the starboard line was dropped first

followed by the port line. So they've dropped their ropes and they're starting to be wenched in. And because everything was going fine at this point, passengers were preparing to disembark but suddenly in the control car the crew felt a big jolt. One of the crew members yelled out,

the ship's on fire! Why? Because the ship was on fire. Oh, shit. Good observation then. It's good. Flames were visible towards the back of the ship. Then within seconds,

they spread to the hydrogen gas bags and there was only a matter of seconds. I forgot. I forgot. So sorry. And then it was only a matter of seconds before the whole of the aircraft was engulfed in a mass of flame. How? Smoke the gas. Ah. But remember, it was on fire.

Yeah, but how did the fire start? Oh, well, we'll talk about that. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the sky. As the hydrogen in the rear of the ship burned, the rear of the hydrogen lost its lift and It fell to the ground and its nose pointed upwards at an 45 degree angle. Oh dear. I don't know how like the Titanic go split it up and it kind of looks like that at first. It goes up and then it crashes back down.

Shit. The front of the ship lifted up over 100 metres into the air. Oh. The fire spread unfathomably quickly and in just a matter of seconds the entire Hindenburg was completely engulfed in flames. Then the airship fell from the sky and crashed into the ground. In just 34 seconds from when the flames were first noticed, the whole Hindenberg was completely engulfed

and smashed all over the ground. Shit. So quick. And at this point, even though the hydrogen had finished burning, it only takes a few seconds for it all to go, the Hinderberg's diesel fuel burned for several more hours on the ground so the ground is still on fire. Oh.

Now, what happened to the passengers on board? I can't imagine... Much good. Well, the Durner family. We'll start with them. Vernon Dernard. With the flames just seconds away, the mother of the Durner family, Matilda tried to encourage our family to jump onto the ground,

which at that point was nine. 90 meters. No, so she waited until it sank back down and it was only a nine meter drop, which is still great. You can't happen that. Yeah. But her daughter, Irina, was paralyzed with fear, and despite her mum's pleas, she wouldn't jump.

She just stood there frozen. Matilda grabbed her eight-year-old son, Werner Dernor, tried to throw him through a window, but he fell back into the cabin. Oh, my God. Shit. Somehow, she pulled us up together, got enough strength. He grabbed him again on a second attempt. She threw him through the window.

What a legend. And her other son, Walter, also fell through it. Matilda tried again to encourage Irina to follow her brothers, but instead she turned back into the ship towards the flames to look for her father, this is Irina. So Matilda, having lost her daughter, decided to jump to and followed her sons out. Oh, man. Matilda and her eight-year-old son, Vernor Durner,

were very badly injured from the disaster, but they made it clear. Their father, however, is not so lucky. He never made it out. Irina was rescued by a crew member, but not before being extremely injured and she died later from those injuries. What about Walter?

Walter also lived. And as of May 2017, when he gave an interview to the independent, Werner Durner, then 8 years old, is now alive at 88, and it's the last surviving passenger who was on board. Vernet Dernard. You old fox.

What a witch. Wow. Wow. Which amazing. Some other people I mentioned before, Joseph Spar, Bendover, the acrobat. If anyone was a chance. It was the acrobat.

Yeah, he's acting. His acrobat skills came in handy, and he jumped nine metres to the ground below. He injures his foot slightly, but not so much. Because he's an acrobat, he's able to run away. He tumbles and run. He knows how to fall. Yeah.

He knows. Sadly, the pet dog didn't make him. Oh. Rudolph Anders, who's our rich tea man. Sadly, he didn't make a. it out. He died in the wreckage. Captain Max Pruss. He did go down with the ship, as I say, Captain

often should, but when it got to the ground, he jumped out. Right. He was... He got to the ground and he jumped out. Yeah, so he's, uh, because he's in the... He's lower. He's lower. Hit the ground, he jumps out. He was badly burnt, like extremely badly burnt. But he still hung around to help search for survivors.

And he carried an extremely injured radio officer, Willie Speck out of the wreckage. Willie Speck, that's a good name. Willie Speck, respect, sadly later died. but the captain pulled through. But because of his severe burns, he had to undergo several surgeries and he would later wear a prosthetic nose for the rest of his life. Shit.

One of the young crew members, Verna Franz, who was only 14 years old, he was walking on the lower decks, walk away when the disaster happened. He heard a huge bang and instantly knew something terrible was going on. Trying to find a way out, he tripped over and fell. He grabbed onto a rope and just hung on for dear life. His life, he said, flashed before his eyes like it was a film. A water ballast tank above him ruptured in the chaos

and fortunately soaked the boy from head to toe which snapped him out of this daze that he was in and he went, I've got to get out of here, I've got to survive and also kept the flames and heat away from where he was. So this water just happened like a miracle which explode above him so he didn't get sinned. He eventually kicked his way through the outer canvas of the ship and jumped out of a hole he'd created.

It was a drop of five metres. He hit the ground and just started running. Wow. Incredibly, he wasn't injured. Wow, five metres. Yeah. Must be soft ground they're landing on. So whereabouts?

So it's a naval base. Right. I think it's sort of a grass, big grass area. Right. He'd been given a watch by his grandfather and was allowed to go back to the wreck the next day to search for it. And incredibly, he found it. Get fucked.

That's not amazing. Someone's looking after him. Yeah. He had an interesting life. Later on in life, he became an ice and a roller skate. coach. Some of his pupils included Olympic silver medalists Marika Killis and her partner Franz Nindjel. He died in 2014 at the age of 92 and he was the last surviving member of the Hindenberg's crew.

That's incredible. Imagine if that happened to me, I would have found God in a big way. I reckon I would have become a priest. Yeah. It's a miracle. This is a miracle for sure. I would have bought a bloody Tadoliot ticket, I tell you that, mate. Yeah?

Yeah, that day. He would have spent a couple dollars on a ticket I'd spend a couple dollars on ticket Well I've dedicated my life to the bloody cloth Nah, I would have won a million dollar days Well the crazy thing is that his grandfather actually bought him a lottery ticket And he went back the next day to look for it He did not find it

It was burnt horribly horribly Oh fuck Should have kept it in the watch Oh the humanity Well I'm up to that section of the report The Hindenberg crash is so well documented Because many news crews were there to see This exciting landing of the world's largest

Tip, heavy publicity about the first transatlantic passenger flight of the year, because the first one of the season, by the Zeppelin to the US, attracted a large number of journalists to the landing. So you can go online now and you can watch footage of it, and it is harrowing, even though it's in black and white. I'm going to watch it as I go to sleep tonight. That seems like a weird decision. Yeah.

Good luck to you. I'll let you know. I'll call you. Day. This was a horrible choice. I can't sleep. All in all of the 90s. people on board, only 35 died.

Wow. That is surprising. That's surprising. Although many were severely burned, which is not. Oh, it's not ideal. And one more person on the ground lost their life, which is obviously terrible. But when you watch the video of the disaster, like I was just talking about, you can online, you'd be looking at that thinking, no one's getting out of there. It was 34 seconds between flames and burning mess.

Wow, right. That's incredible. It's no, like, even if you, because you can watch it in real time and you're like, all right. right, you've got time to realize what's going on, formulate a plan and get out. So it hit the ground and then flew up into the sky again. Is that right? So what happened was the back went down,

so it went up in a 90 degree angle, and then it all just, like I was talking about a blimp at the start of the episode. You take the air out, it just sort of goes, right. But it's just flames everywhere. So the people nine meters up, that was just basically jumping out from the bottom of the balloon.

Yep. Because the thing underneath is about no metres tall or something. I know, it's just at that point, that's where it was. Right. Eventually it just went. In the end, it did kind of depend where you were if you survived. Right. There were whole sections where people just had no hope because they're at the, you know,

I guess towards the back or there's no windows. Someone was talking about one of the doors jammed or something, which is awful. Anyway. But so you be thinking if you're watching it, no one's going to get out, which is exactly what 31-year-old radio journalist Herbert Morris. thought as he watched on. Morrison is very famous for the line synonymous with the incident. Oh, the humanity. He's that guy. Morrison was on the scene to record the arrival of the Hindenburg for the WLS in Chicago.

It's a radio station. But what I never realized is he wasn't broadcasting live. His emotional count, which would be heard in Chicago later that night, wasn't broadcast nationwide until the following day. But these days, if you watch it back, because people have just synced it up with the footage, it looks like he's commentating live. but it was completely separate. And what he says is he starts out very normal, just talking about it. It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and it's been taken a hold of on the field by a number of men.

It's starting to rain again. The rain had slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it, just enough to keep it from. It's burst into flames. It's fire and it's crashing. It's crashing terrible. Oh my, get out of the way.

Please, it's burning. Bursting into flames. And it's falling on the mooring mast, and all the folks agree that this is terrible. This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. There's smoke and there's flames now. And the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring must. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers are screaming around here.

So that's his most famous line at the end. He did, however, take a second to calm. He actually says, later than I've got to go inside to get a hold of myself. And he went on to calmly record another 30 minutes of narration of the unfolding events. But, you know, it's less famous. His voice, which is very high pitch on the recording, I didn't realize this was actually much deeper. But all the helium.

Either that, or it sounded high pitch because there was a playback error. Right. Like the speed of how fast he was talking. So it makes him sound like, oh, the humanity! But really he's like, oh, the humanity. Right. Yeah. Oh, the humanity.

Suppose we could just get Matt to do it in his normal voice. Yeah, Matt, say it. Oh, the humanity. Yeah, fun fact, we actually speed Matt up when we play back with. That's been an error all along. It's the only way to make him bloody, you know, how it happened. Do they know how it happened? What caused the fire? So I hear asking what caused the fire and then the crash.

Next line of my report. This is good. God, we're so in sync. So in sync. While there have been many theories over the years, Matthew. Dog. Mole people. Mole people, dog, any of the people that.

Like somebody lighting their farts. That's funny. Burner-durner the burner. Burner-duner the fart burner. Burner-durner the blimp burner. But should have given it away. This wasn't a blimp, but he had form. It was just a terrible coincidence.

End the days after the disaster. An official board of inquiry was set up at Lakehurst, the naval base, to investigate the cause of the fire. Their conclusion was that static electricity had started the fire. And this remains a popular theory. Okay. But just flown through a storm, you know, static electricity builds up in the air. You've only got to get a tiny little spark, and then a thing filled with flamble gas is going to go up.

In 2013, a team led by British aeronautical engineer, Gem Stansfield, and based at the Southwest Research Institute in the US, they came to this conclusion that the airship had become charged with static as a result of an electrical storm, as I was saying, A broken wire or sticking gas valve leaked hydrogen into the ventilation shafts. And when ground crew members ran to take the landing ropes, they effectively earthed the ship. Now it's got a line to the ground. The fire appeared on the tail of the airship, igniting this hydrogen coming out the back, and then the rest, as I say, is history.

So it's like a perfect storm, sort of. Yeah, literally a storm. So the, yeah, so if it was, if they landed in it, what was the other way they would have landed? without those ropes? Rather than a high one, I think they can slowly just descend. Right.

By dropping ballasts and all kinds of stuff. Other theories are a bomb. Because the Hindenberg was a powerful Nazi symbol, was it brought down from within. Of course this is an exciting option, but not many people seem to give it its plausibility, actually, much credit. Right.

I will say that. Yeah. It sounds like a great movie. The other front runner for theory is the IPT, the incendiary paint theory, which was proposed in 1996 by retired NASA scientist Addison Bain. His theory. Addison Bain. What a name.

Yes. Give it to me. One time. Addison Bain. Two time. Addison Bain. Addison Bain. I love this guy.

His theory, the IPT theory, is. is that it had nothing to do with the hydrogen because the outside burned. He claimed it was called by electrical ignition of lacquer. Addison Bain. His claim was that it was caused by electrical ignition of lacquer and metal-based paints used on the outer hull of the ship. His theory was that somehow the paint of the outside acted,

it's got the same ingredients as rocket fuel. So his theory was that the paint caught fire. Sure. But a lot of people are like, mate, what are you talking about? It's clearly the flammable gas. Right. Other hypotheses include the airship being ignited by lightning

or a fuel leak in the gasoline engines catching fire. But leaking gas sparked by some sort of static electricity has definitely been the front runner for 80 years now. The most common theory as to how the gas leak was when the ship sharply turned to dock because they had to do a quick little 180. A brace wire inside may have come loose. and ripped a hole in one of the hydrogen airbags.

Yes bags. Sorry, one of the gas bags. I read that they gave the hydrogen a garlic smell so that they would smell a leak if they ever had one. And no one smelled garlic, which is the biggest flaw in the theory. I wouldn't, like, if I smelt garlic, I'd be like, hmm, dinner. Like, I love garlic. That's why you got to make it smell like farts.

Yes. And they're like, oh, who farted? Oh, no. Oh, no. Werner Fart burner The kind of argument to that the garlic

The garlic flaw is that It would only have been detectable in that area of the league So unless you're standing right in that garlicky section

You're not going to get a whiff You know what I'm saying Once the fire was underway More powerful smells Like burning Would have masked The garlic he odour Opponents of this theory

Note that the fire was reported Reported was reported as burning bright red while pure hydrogen burns blue, if visible at all. Although there were many other materials

that were consumed by the fire, which could have changed the colour. It wasn't just a hydrogen fire. There was a lot of other shit on fire. Change the color of your, change the color of your day. Crunchy. Is that the crunchy jingle?

Oh, yeah. Basically, what I'm trying to say here, Matt, could it be one of those things that we never know for sure. That's right. This episode has secretly been a mystery the whole time. You son of a bit.

You son of a gun, you did it. You're absolutely, son of a bitch. Suck it in over an hour in. I sucked it in. I meant stuck it in. He sucked it in, mate. Not surprisingly. Suck it up, suck it in.

That's not quite right. Not quite right. I enjoy it. That's better though. Not surprisingly, the well-documented and widely broadcast Hindenberg crash ended the airship era. Interesting. The disaster probably, in reality, though, fastened the inevitable. because airships were quickly becoming obsolete by advances in airplanes

that were now faster, cheaper and becoming more and more reliable every single day. Even at that stage. Yeah. So it's amazing though. Yeah. It just seemed fascinating that they were still. I guess the Zeppelins were, they didn't see it coming. They never saw it coming.

Germany grounded its fleet of hydrogen-filled airships after the disaster, but were never able to replace them as the USA was the only country with substantial helium resources. The framework of the Hindenburg were salvaged and shipped back to Germany. There the scrap was recycled and used in construction of military aircraft for the Luftwaffe, as were frames of the Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin 2, when they were also scrapped in 1940. And from then on, that was kind of it for Zeppelins. And a fun fact to finish.

Well, we'll see. We'll see. Lead Zeppelin. Apparently, the band's name was Corn. Corn, really. Oh, fucking hell. I'm so close to the end. Apparently, the band's name was coined, I mean to say.

Yeah, originally their name was corn, K-O-Backwards R-N. But obviously, Jonathan Davis. Yeah, Jonathan got there. He was like, oh, man, nah, oh, ah, ah, ah. Remember a freak on a leash for some reason? He started, like, making noises for some reason. Yeah, it was scatting. Yeah.

Apparently the band's name, Led Zeppelin, we're back on, was coined, but the crazy drummer of the Who, Keith Moon. When Moon heard about this new band who originally called the New Yardbirds, named after Jimmy Page's old band, the Yardbirds, Mood said the band would go over like a lead

Zeppelin, like a Zeppelin made of lead. I get it. So I'm just explaining, so it would suck. But the band actually liked the name and they liked the challenge and went on to be one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever. So cop that, Keith Moon, you dead bastard. Nice one.

And Led Zeppelin's debut album cover is a photo. of the Hindenburg crashing. That's radical. And that is my report on the Hindenburg disaster. Well done, Dave. Well done, Dave. Very good report, David.

Werner Bidona would be very proud of it. Thank you, Werner. Oh, yes. Hey, Dave, what a great fun time I've had here today. Thank you. We don't have a lot of time left in the soundproof booth here,

which isn't all that sound proof. So basically all we've got to do is now say thank you for listening to this episode. If you loved it, we don't say this often but give us a sweet review. That'd be great. We don't say it often. Only every few weeks or so.

I just don't think we've said it this year, so I'm saying. Oh, mate. Yeah, so let's thank some people. And we've got to thank the people that support us at Patreon. Patreon.com slash do go on pod. If you want to give back to the pod,

we will take your money. Thank you. We really appreciate, don't make it sound gross, Dave. We really appreciate your support. it does help us be able to dedicate time and brain space to this fun show, which we love doing, of course. We love it. But this was my longest report ever.

I would have spent over a day's work on it. I have an idea, because you know how we have Bernard Dernard of the Fart Burner. I think we should give everybody some sort of... Ryming last name? Yes. Okay, great. Who do you want to thank first there, Jazzy P? Jazzy P.

You've never called me that before, and I fucking love that. Okay, great. Not good, I didn't know what that was going on. I would like to thank from Ashburn. Is VA Virginia? Hell yeah. Ashburn, Virginia. Joseph Bar Shop.

Oh, Bar Shop. Bar Shop. Wow, that's a great name. Joseph Bar Shop, the... The Spratley Bellhop. No, that doesn't quite rhyme, does it? Oh, that's good. It's pretty good.

The local bus stop. Ow. Hit my knee immediately after I said that, so it was karma. The Cars Mop. Cars Mop is probably the best. He mops the cars. Cars Mop. Yeah, none of them quite, it's not a satisfying rhyme.

Look, I didn't give us an easy, easy thing to do, did I? But, that was fun. I'm going to vote Cars Mop. Thank you so much. All right, Cars Mop. Joseph, we appreciate you, Cars Mop. And I'd also like to thank from Suffolk, no, in G.B. Lee Banks.

Ah. Lee Banks. The town wanks. The town, a whole town. What about, what? Whilst Lee Banks, the town wanks. Whilst Lee Banks. I love it.

So while I'm going to do a quick deposit, but while I'm in here, you guys just keep your hands above your beltline, please. All right. I'm going to be. I'm going to only be five minutes. You better not be out there doing anything crazy. He does it a quick deposit. What is he shitting in the bank?

Well, does everyone else just wanking that side? No, money. It's a sperm bank. Spurn bank. He's also wanking. Well, I wank you all wank, so I don't feel weird. Thanks, Lee. Well, Lee Banks.

The town wanks, the town of Suffolk. I'd love to thank from Cambridge in England. That great university city, I guess, is it? Yeah, I'm sure it is. Just looks at me like, what the fuck do I know. That's what a hand and face gesture said. Correct. I'd love to thank, was another fantastic name this whole episode?

episode has been full of great names. Dom Benitar. Benitar, the... Oh, I had something, I lost it. Racing car. The tennis star. Oh, the cool guitar. Tennis star, I reckon. Dom Benetar, the tennis star.

Yeah, I like that. Look at his face. I'm just trying to think of him. I think I'm peaked. I'm so sorry, Don. Look at his dumb face. And I'd also love to thank from Louisville, Kentucky. Drew Johnson Swan song

I thought we're doing rhymes I tried you do one then fuck head Johnson it's a surname yet the Pierce Brosnan I love it

Drew Johnson the Pierce Brosnan It's just another name It might be a best option I wish you could see their faces right now It's like we're trying to crack some... You can't top Pierce Brosnan. Military code. Drew Johnson's the cool...

No. You've fucked it already. We don't have much time. All right. Just give me Pierce Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan. Oh, sorry, Pris Brosons Gray. All right, I'll do my couple as well.

If you want to come back to what you can. Yeah, go on. I would like to thank from Sheffield in South Yorkshire. Mr Sheffield. Cheer. And Miss Fine. GERge Jeter. Gertj Jeter.

The card cheater. That's good. The curd eater? I was going to get the fight streeter. Let's go with fight streeter. Gertjita, the fight streeter. I love it. Gertj Jeter is a sick name.

Yeah. That's great. What about the purge? He beats the purge. He beats the purge. It beats the purge. Gers jita. Rita. Fuck the purge.

Fuck the purge. Fuck the purge. Fuck the purge. Fuck the purge. I'd like to thank. Also, finally, from Wellington and New Zealand, a place we'd love to visit one day. Love the windy city. Love to. Beautiful spot. Saints played the first game for points.

No, stop it. Matt, we don't have. An international soil in Wellington. Were you interrupting is not making it faster. I was going to say, I would have already finished this very short fact. The Saints played the first ever AFL game for Premiership points in Wellington. Just let you think about how great that fact is. It's a great fact.

First ever. From Wellington. It took over 100 years before they did it. I would like to thank the Saints. I'd like to thank New Zealand for hosting them. And I also like to thank from New Zealand. Mike Shirley. Mike Shirley.

Mike Shirley, whose hair is curly. Mike Shirley, the... Big and burly. Baton twirlie. Big and burly's good. Mike Surly? No. Your face said no, as soon as you said it.

You knew you'd fucked up. This has been the worst of these games. What was the one you said, Matt? I'll be able to that. I can't remember. Big and Sirley. Big and Surly. Mike Shirley.

Big and Surly. Mike Shirley. There we go. Thanks so much to all those people. Did you love that? I'm sure you did. We appreciate that. We appreciate all of you.

Do you love us? We're sure you do. We do. I was pretending to be them Mike if you were at the Saints game I was there the first ever NFL game played I assume this was in like the 1930s

no it was in 2013 or something 14 somehow that made that less interesting and I just didn't think it could it's in the cake tin I believe the place is called it was just a sick place beautiful spot loved it we'll do a pod live from the cake today loved Wellington

Wellington and we love everyone that listens over New Zealand. Hello, thank you so much. And everyone who listens throughout the world, if you want to get in contact our, everything in the description of this episode, do go on pod.com. And all the social media's are at do go on pod. We would love to hear from you. But until next week, we'll say thanks so much for listening. And I'll say

goodbye. Later. Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. It's not optional. You have to do it. We used to go easy on it, but now you have to. Yeah.

Oh, the humanity. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree. Very, very easy. It means we know to come to you and you'll also know that we're coming to you.

Yeah, we'll come to you. You come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam-free guarantee.