Futility Closet - 127-Rowing Across the Atlantic

Episode Date: October 24, 2016

In 1896 two New Jersey clam diggers made a bold bid for fame: They set out to cross the North Atlantic in a rowboat, a feat that had never been accomplished before. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow the adventure of George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen, which one newspaper called "the most remarkable event in the way of ocean navigation that ever transpired." We'll also meet some military mammals and puzzle over a thwarted burglar. Intro: The score for Telemann's Gulliver Suite includes "Lilliputian" and "Brobdingnagian" note values. In 1964 Zambia announced a rather low-tech space program. Sources for our feature on Harbo and Samuelsen: David W. Shaw, Daring the Sea, 1998. William Longyard, A Speck on the Sea, 2003. David W. Shaw, "A Fool's Errand, but a Nautical Landmark," Scandinavian Review 102:1 (Spring 2015), 46-60. "To Row Across the Atlantic," New York World, Feb. 13, 1896, 16. "To Cross Ocean in Rowboat," New York Herald, June 6, 1896, 7. The log of the Fox. "Over the Sea With Oars," New York World, Aug. 2, 1896, 10. "The Fox Arrives at Havre," Daily Telegraph, Aug 7, 1896. "They Rowed to Havre," National Police Gazette, Aug. 22, 1896. "The Following Is Worth Reading," National Police Gazette, Sept. 12, 1896. "Harbo and Samuelson and the Tiny Boat in Which They Rowed Across the Atlantic," New York Herald, March 21, 1897, 2. Andy Philpott and Geoff Leyland, "Rowing to Barbados," OR/MS Today, April 2006. Thao Hua, "Manager Backs Atlantic Crossing," Pensions & Investments 36:12 (June 9, 2008), 8. BBC News, "Artemis Rowing Crew Smashes Transatlantic Record," July 31, 2010. Listener mail: Yuko, Cher Ami, 2016. Leah Tams, "How Did Animals (Even Slugs) Serve in World War I?", National Museum of American History, Nov. 14, 2014. Jessica Talarico, "15 Animals That Went to War," Imperial War Museums (accessed Oct. 22, 2016). History.com, "War Animals From Horses to Glowworms: 7 Incredible Facts," Dec. 22, 2011. Nick Tarver, "World War One: The Circus Animals That Helped Britain," BBC News, Nov. 11, 2013. U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program (accessed Oct. 22, 2016). Mark Strauss, "These Are the Brave and Fluffy Cats Who Served in World War I," io9, Aug. 22, 2014. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Tommy Honton, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at [e-mail]. Thanks for listening!

Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 9,000 quirky curiosities from Lilliputian music to Zambian astronauts. This is episode 127. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1896, two New Jersey clam diggers made a bold bid for fame. They set out to cross the North Atlantic in a rowboat, a feat that had never been accomplished before.

In today's show, we'll follow the adventure of George Harboe and Frank Samuelson, which one newspaper called the most remarkable event in the way of ocean navigation that ever transpired. We'll also meet some military mammals and puzzle over a thwarted burglar. the most remarkable event in the way of ocean navigation that ever transpired. We'll also meet some military mammals and puzzle over a thwarted burglar. And a quick programming note, we'll be off next week, so look for our next episode on November 7th. George Harbo was born in Norway, but came to America, the land of opportunity, at age 19 in 1884, hoping to earn enough money to marry his sweetheart back home and start a family. He wound up clamming on the shore of New Jersey, digging up clams and bringing them into the city to sell. Nine years later, Frank Samuelson, an experienced merchant mariner who's also from Norway, gave up his roving life and also moved to America, and the

two of them met in 1893 on the Jersey shore, and Harbo invited Samuelson to join him in his clamming business. Clamming is back-breaking work, and Harbo longed for something better, but in the 1890s, America was in a bad economic depression. They found that they could work for other people, but there just didn't seem to be any way to advance. They really dreamed of climbing up into the middle class and couldn't find a way to do it. In the summer of 1895, Harbo suggested that they could better their lives by quitting clamming and becoming the first men to row a boat across the Atlantic, which sounds like an outlandish idea. I guess it is an outlandish idea. They'd be the first to row across the North Atlantic without sail, steam, or rudder, a voyage of more

than 3,000 miles. But Harbo thought they'd be strong enough because of their daily workout with oars and clamming tongs. Still, that's a huge risk. Was he thinking they would become famous or they'd somehow earn money for this? Yeah, the plan was, this was the early days of what today is called a travelogue. Basically, they wouldn't make any money by actually making the crossing, but if they did it successfully, then they could travel around and sell their story just by holding gatherings of people and they could just tell the whole story and make money that way. All right.

The voyage was more than 3,000 miles, but Harbour was sure they could do it. No one had ever crossed the ocean under oars alone. A rowboat was the only kind of small boat that hadn't done it. After some thought, Samuelson agreed. He thought if they were successful, they could put the boat on public exhibition and then tour around telling their story. So they agreed to have a boat built that winter and row across the next summer. They sought one of the area's best boat builders to build an 18-foot boat. It was five feet wide and would sit only 18 inches above the water. And they planned this whole thing uncommonly well,

which is one reason I think they got away with it. They spent more than $250 on the boat and the equipment, which was a lot in the 1890s. And one of the features of the boat was that it had watertight compartments that were lined with galvanized iron to give it buoyancy, so it really couldn't sink unless something absolutely desperately terrible happened to it. Empty, it weighed 250 pounds. They tried to get a sponsorship for the voyage to help them with all this, but they got only a vague promise of aid from the publisher of the Police Gazette, a man named Richard K. Fox, and the deal he offered was that if they named their boat after him, he'd report on their progress in his newspaper and award them medals if they succeeded, which isn't much of a deal, but it's something. So they wound up naming this boat the Richard K. Fox. They provisioned it

with 100 pounds of tinned biscuits, 250 eggs wrapped in seaweed to retard rotting and keep them from breaking, nine pounds of coffee, tinned meats, and 30 gallons of water for each man, as well as wine, beans, vegetables, and some more provisions. The provisions in the end weighed more than the boat itself. And they set out on June 6, 1896, from Castle Garden on the southern dip of Manhattan. Several newspapermen attended the departure, and they asked them to sign a document certifying that they'd examined the boat and found no masts or sails of any kind. And in fact, they would do that as they met boats occasionally crossing the Atlantic, just to certify continually that they weren't using any illegal measures to get across. And then the publisher of Fox's private launch towed the rowboat past the narrows to the edge

of the open sea. Their families had urged them not to go ever since they'd shared this plan with them. Understandably, I think. And at the departure, one reporter wrote, On the dock stood a fair-haired Norse girl wringing her hands in agony and crying bitterly, asking them not to go. This was Samuelson's sister. That must be awful to see. Because the chance of getting away with this is very low. Even today, honestly.

At the departure, they took some jeers from newspaper men and others who were sure they weren't going to do it, and this was all a foolhardy venture, and Harbo yelled back at them, we'll see you on the other side, or we'll see you in Hades. The first week went well. They averaged 45 miles a day. They would typically row together throughout the day and then singly in shifts as one of them ate or slept. So they were continually making progress. Making speed was important both to get across quickly.

It was safer that way just to get past all the dangers as quickly as possible. And they had had only 60 days of provisions and half a gallon of water per man per day. They could only fit so much in the boat. So they had to do it quickly. June 11th was uncomfortably cold and they both kept at the oars to keep warm and neither ate for 24 hours. They just kept rowing and rowing. On the following day, they hit the first disaster.

They tried to light their little kerosene stove to make coffee and boil eggs and Harbaugh later told a reporter, soon after we had the stove lit, it began to smoke so bad that we could not see the coffee kettle or oil stove on account of smoke and before we knew what we were about,

the little galley or wooden house that the stove stood on was afire, and the flames shooting several feet over the side of the boat. The first thing we did was to take an oil skin coat and cover up the whole thing in an attempt to smother the flames, but in trying to do this, we almost set the coat on fire. Eventually, they got the fire put out without damage to the boat and just kept going. That night, as Harbaugh was drifting off to sleep, a tremendous shock jarred him awake. He said later, out from under the boat came a big fish about nine or ten feet long. It made several sweeps close alongside and struck his tail against the boat and threw spray all over us. The fish turned out to be a hammerhead shark, ten feet long, that followed them all the way into the next morning,

but when it finally got bored and swam off. I don't know how a hammerhead shark knows what a boat is. Maybe they get used to it. I was going to say, maybe it was just curious. Yeah. Later, on June 13th, they met a schooner, the Jesse, carrying poles to New York City to support telegraph wires. They identified themselves and asked the captain to report to them.

This is what they typically did when they met a boat. They'd ask them to certify in their log that they weren't using a sail or a rudder, and they'd ask the captain to report to them to the newspapers whenever he reached what a report he was headed to, and the captain of the Jesse agreed to do that. They also asked him for the longitude, which would tell them how they were doing, how much progress they had made across the sea. They found out they were averaging 45 miles a day, so the total trip they figured would take about 72 days, and they'd rowed for eight so far. But so far, so good for the most part. But you said they had 60 days worth of provisions. That's right.

This isn't quite as desperate as it sounds. It's pretty desperate. But they figured they would speak ships. They would meet ships occasionally along and could beg provisions as they went. They could only fit so much into the boat, and they just had to try it. That night, another almost disaster.

They were almost run down by a steamer in the rain. It was raining hard, and it was very dark. So Harbo, who was rowing while Samuelson slept, spotted the ship's running lights when he guessed it was only two or three miles away, which meant they only had about ten minutes to impact, and it was headed right at them. The Fox carried no lights of its own, so the ship wouldn't be able to see them. And in any case, it could take several miles for a ship that large to stop. So he called out to Samuelson, and they rode furiously out of its way. He said the ship passed within a stone's throw of us. Wow. Which is kind of amazing that if you think how big the sea is, that something like that could happen. Yeah, that would be pretty scary too.

As I said, they planned this all very well. One thing they thought to do was to bring two mattresses filled with reindeer hair, which were warm and waterproof, so they could sleep well. One man would sleep by the other road and kept watch. Even during storms, they kept rowing in order to retain directional control and steer into the waves. The biggest danger in a storm is that the swells would turn the boat over, so they found that they had to keep the bow pointed right into the waves, and in order to do that, they had to keep steering even in the storm.

In late June, though, they were averaging 40 to 50 miles per day. It was still encouraging. On June 29th, Harbaugh wrote that he suspected they were going a lot further north than he had planned. He suspected they were over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, well north of their intended course. As they did make progress to the east, though, seabirds and ships gradually disappeared, and over the next few days they met a number of Canadian schooners, all of whom confirmed that they were more than a thousand miles east of New York, or about a third of the way across the ocean. So that's still encouraging. I can't believe that two people can do this just by rowing. You can imagine that being exposed to the sea continuously for that long would start to

really harm you. Harbo wrote, our faces are pretty well chapped from exposure to the weather. There is no skin on the tip of our noses, and they feel quite painful. The skin on the back of our hands has also commenced to get very rough from the exposure, being wet most of the time, and now and then, a day with sun shining on them. The skin inside our hands is as thick as leather. Amazingly, too, by the way, they got along fine. You would think that would be the main problem if you start to hate each other what are you gonna do if you're in a little little tiny boat in the middle of the ocean right and then you're trapped with the other guy but everything i've read about this

said they remained perfect they got along perfectly well and in fact remained friends afterward which is just to me that's almost the most impressive part of the whole thing on july 4th they encountered swells harbingers of the worst gale of the trip this gets pretty bad two days later on july 6th 30 foot breaking waves came in from the west that's waves twice as high as the length of the boat those pushed the boat along which i guess is good because they're going west to east but at an unsustainable rate they found they tend to slide down the face of each wave and nose under in a trough which is just way too dangerous so what they wound up doing was turning around and actually rowing westward, pointing the boat toward home, but just getting pulled to the east, backward, up the faces of the

waves. They deployed the sea anchor, which is a sort of funnel attached to the bow. So the storm is trying to drive you to the east, but you've got this sort of brake pulling on it from the west, if you see, just sort of acting as a brake to keep the bow pointed into the wind and the waves. But the line parted, so they lost the sea anchor, and they were forced to row continuously, because with the anchor, you have to just do it manually just to keep the bow pointed into the waves. But they managed to do that. The storm filled the boat with water 30 times, so one bailed while the other rowed.

During a lull, they fashioned a new sort of makeshift sea anchor from the materials that they still had available. The wind stopped, and here's an odd little episode. One night, it was very dark. The wind stopped, the sea grew smooth, and they felt ice crystals on their faces. They couldn't understand what was happening there, and then just as quickly, a short time later, the ice crystals stopped, the wind picked up,

and the sea grew rough again. They realized only afterward that they had passed an iceberg. They had drifted too far north in the storm and just passed right behind a giant iceberg that had broken the wind momentarily. Okay, here's the climax. On July 10th, amid seas that they called a mountain high, Harbaugh wrote, About nine o'clock we saw a heavy breaker coming. It had not grown very dark yet, and we could see how it had came rolling toward us, roaring as though it were a heavy thunderstorm, making it impossible for us to hear each other

above the roaring of the storm and sea, although we were sitting but a few feet from one another. When that big breaker struck, it struck us partly on our port bow and instantly turned the boat over and pitched us into the water. We were in the water struggling with our heavy clothes, oil skins, and rubber boots on, treading water and trying to get hold of the bottom of the boat. So the boat's upside down now, and they're both in the water. The only thing that saved them that they were both wearing life belts with tethers, so they were attached to the boat. Otherwise, they would both have been lost. Even if one of them were lost, the other one wouldn't be strong enough to get all the way through the remainder of the journey on his own, and that

would have been it for both of them. So that's another instance where forethought and just good, cautious planning saved them. The boat itself was saved because it had these built-in watertight compartments. They heaved on the grab rails. That's another bit of forethought. In designing the boat, they had put rails on the bottom of it so if this happened, they could have something to grab onto and turn it over. So they really did try to plan for all kinds of emergencies. Yeah, really. They thought of everything and it saved them. They heaved on these grab rails, mounted on the bottom, and turned the Fox upright and got in. They'd lost more than half their remaining provisions, including the cooking pot, frying pan, dishes, one can of water, and one of their rattan seats, as well as this new makeshift sea anchor.

But they were both okay, and the boat was okay. They were now more than halfway across the ocean, but now they lacked supplies to complete the voyage, so now they really have to meet another ship. lacked supplies to complete the voyage, so now they really have to meet another ship. Harbo wrote, as soon as we got in the boat, one of us started to bail the water out, and the other one got hold of oars and held her to the breakers as best we could. We were both shivering with cold, the storm still raging, and during the night we both got so stiff and sore in the legs that handling the oars caused us a great deal of pain. When the morning dawned, it was a great relief for us to see daylight once more. Without a sea anchor, now they had to keep rowing for three more days just to keep the boat for three more days just to

keep the boat afloat and pointed into the waves, but finally the storm abated late on July 11th. They took turns sleeping, one rowing while the other slept. So now they have to meet a ship. One steam ship passed them too remote to hail, and that gave them hope, at least, that they were on the sea lane. Five days after the capsize on July 15th, Samuelson spotted a sail to the north and he resolved to chase this one. It turned out to be a Norwegian bark, the Keto, headed for Pembroke, England. Its captain invited them aboard, assuming they'd want a rescue, but they said they wanted to keep going. They told him their story and he gave them a meal, enough fresh water for a good sponge bath on their deck, and enough provisions to finish the voyage. So they should be okay now if they can make it the

rest of the way. They traveled more than 2,000 miles two-thirds of the way across. On July 24th, they encountered the Infine Norwegian bark bound for England with a load of Canadian lumber. That gave them a meal, some stores, and some kerosene for their temperamental stove, and the ship's master, like others, examined the fox in order to serve certification in their log that it carried no mast or sail, and he promised to report them to the London papers when he reached Swansea. For the next six days, they averaged 60 miles a day and are getting close to the goal now. They're approaching the Scilly Islands off the English coast. They've been at sea now nearly two months, which is unthinkable. I can't imagine doing that continuously for two months.

Now they have roughly 800 miles remaining to reach Great Britain. On July 31st, they started to see several kinds of seabirds again today, which is a good sign. Harbour wrote, some of the kind that are never seen very far from land, so we know that we're getting closer to shore. We've seen more steamers and sailing vessels today going both directions than we have seen the whole voyage. The next day, they saw the lighthouse at Bishop Rock, and in the afternoon, they reached the harbour at St. Mary's 55 days after the departure. On August 1st, they rode into Hewtown in the Silly Islands, becoming the first men ever to row across the Atlantic. To the spectator's harbor, he announced, we are from New York and are bound for Havre,

France, and came in here to get some provisions and to let the world know that we are alive and well and that we have accomplished the extraordinary task of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a rowing boat. Six days later, they crossed the channel to Le Havre, 250 miles to the east. In greeting him, the American consul gave Harbaugh a packet of money. Here's even more forethought. Before they had set out from New York, Harbaugh thought, you know, if we make it, I'll probably need money when we get to France. So he mailed himself a packet of money in care of the consul there, the consul named C.W. Chancellor.

And he gave him the money and made the final entry in the log certifying their arrival. In Le Havre, they were hailed as celebrities, but unfortunately, they were a publicity flop. They made it safely across the sea, but the whole plan here was to benefit by— Public interest. Right. And they had some of that, but it was hard to profit by. Neither man was charismatic or a gifted speaker or had a flair for the dramatic. They exhibited in Paris and London to disappointing crowds, and finally they just

canceled the rest of the tour they had planned to Antwerp, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. They crossed to their native Norway, but were criticized for flying the American flag. It was just sort of disappointing all around. King Oscar II gave them each a 10-kroner note, which was worth less than 10 American dollars, for crossing the sea. So finally they just went back to the United States. Fox, the newspaper publisher, paid for their return passage on a steamer. There's a popular story that the steamer ran out of coal partway across the sea, so they just launched the Fox and rode back home, which would be a great story.

But like so many would-bes, it's not true. The Fox, when it got back, was put on display at a museum in late March and early April, and they did get their medals. They each got a gold medal from Richard K. Fox. But they finally just went back to the Jersey Shore after all of that. It went back to where they started from. Went back to clamming? Yeah. Harbaugh went back to piloting, eventually starting his own business, and was able finally to buy a home in Brooklyn. He did make his way into the middle class. Ten years later, in 1908, he died of pneumonia, and at that, Samuelson gave up on America and returned to his family farm in Norway, where life was just generally slower and less likely to provide wealth, but also less stressful and lonely. He just, I don't think, liked America.

He led a quiet life there as a dairy farmer until his death in 1946. But they did it. Harbo and Samuelson hold a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first men to successfully cross the North Atlantic in a rowboat, completing the journey from the Battery in Lower Manhattan to the Isles of Scilly in England in 55 days. In fact, their time recorded for crossing the North Atlantic wasn't broken. The record wasn't broken for 114 years, more than a century. And even then, it was broken by a team of four rowers instead of two. The reason for that is that the time they chose to do this happened to be unusual. Most people

today, when they want to cross the Atlantic, when they try to do something like this, they cross at a much lower latitude near the equator. They cross typically from the Canary Islands to Barbados, as Eileen Bombard did in our episode 105. Sailors call this going downhill because you benefit by favorable winds and currents. Harborough and Samuelson had done this at a higher latitude. They crossed in the westerly belt of winds in the 40s and 50s. And as it happens in 1896 and 1897, these winds blew extremely strong even in the summer months when they were trying to do this. So even though it almost killed them, all these storms and gales that kept blowing them from west to east

helped them get across the sea quickly, and that's why the record lasted for so long. Interestingly, the whereabouts of their little boat, the Fox, are unknown. The Smithsonian tried to locate her but failed, which is a shame. She ought to be put on display somewhere. It had been built by a boat builder named William Seaman in 1896, and his son, Harold, helped at the time. He was only 13 years old at the time. But then later, Harold had grown up now and oversaw the building of a replica of the boat in 1974 to the same specifications, so in some sense the boat still exists. Harbo and Samuelson's

descendants attended its launching in spring 1975, and it's now on display in a New Jersey Yacht Club. After episode 122 about Wojtek the Bear in World War II, Petronella Uresin wrote that she had seen an article in her Dutch-language newspaper about a project on some animals who had been very involved in World War I. This project that Petronella saw appears to be a very moving animated film about three animals, one of which is Jackie the Baboon that we covered back in episode 10. Unfortunately, the film appears to be in Dutch, but Petronella's email led to my discovering that animals actually had been used quite extensively in World War I in several different roles. Horses, of course, were still being used quite a bit at that time for both transportation and as beasts of burden. And History.com reports that 8 million military horses died during the war and notes that many more might have been lost without the efforts of units such as Britain's Royal Army Veterinary Corps,

which treated more than 2.5 million injured horses during the war. That's upsetting. Yeah. I mean, just the sheer numbers. I mean, it's bad enough that humans have to do it, but at least they understand what's happening and why. And to drag the animals into it. Yeah, that is really sad.

Donkeys, mules, and camels also served as transportation or to carry or tow supplies and equipment during the war, as did circus animals such as elephants when the more traditional animals became scarce. BBC News reports that elephants were used in England, for example, to cart munitions or even to plow fields. And that in Sheffield, an elephant named Lizzie was recruited for hauling scrap metal and was even given boots to protect her feet from the metal rubbish. There are also reports of an elephant named Jenny who was taken from a German zoo and used to haul equipment behind the German front lines. Apparently elephants are just very intelligent and very

trainable and very strong. I guess they are. Homing pigeons played a crucial role in communication during the war. The National Museum of American History says that both the Allied and the Central Powers used tens of thousands of homing pigeons to send messages, and that they were deemed to be of such importance that the British Defense of the Realm Act made it a crime to kill, wound, or otherwise molest pigeons. The museum's website tells the story of Cher Ami, who served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France and was shot in the breast and leg by enemy fire while delivering his last message in 1918. Despite his injuries, he did manage to deliver his message and was credited with saving the lives of almost 200 men, as the message was from a battalion that

was trapped behind enemy lines and was accidentally being shelled by American troops. The message Cher Ami delivered said, We are along the road parallel 276.4. Our artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven's sake, stop it. Which was a pretty important message to get through. Cher Ami unfortunately lost his leg and then later his life from his wounds, but was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his deeds, and his stuffed one-legged body can still be seen at the museum.

Dogs were also used as messengers by both the Allied and Central Powers during World War I, especially in the trenches and battlefields. They were also used to find wounded soldiers and to serve as guards and scouts. One of the most famous dogs in the First World War was Stubby, a puppy who was adopted by Private J. Robert Conroy during his training and apparently became the mascot of the 102nd Infantry, 26th Yankee Division. Apparently during Conroy's training,

Stubby learned the calls, drills, and salutes of the division and won over the commanding officer by saluting him. Stubby went over to France with the division and in France he would alert the soldiers to gas attacks and locate wounded soldiers on the battlefield. He is reported to have served in 17 battles and to have caught and attacked a German spy who was attempting to map the Allied trenches. For this act, Stubby was unofficially promoted to sergeant, which meant that he then outranked his owner. That's a problem.

Stubby was the most decorated dog of World War I, receiving quite an impressive list of awards and medals, and was quite popular until his death in 1926. And his remains can also be seen at the National Museum of American History. In the invertebrate category, slugs and glowworms were used during the war. It was discovered that slugs could detect mustard gas before humans could and would react by closing their breathing pores and compressing their bodies, which would alert soldiers to quickly put their gas masks on to protect themselves. And glowworms were used to provide light in the trenches. According to History.com, soldiers would collect the glowworms in jars and use these makeshift lanterns to allow them to read in the dark.

No word on whether there's a museum that has any preserved World War I slugs or glow arms. The glow arms, I can see, but the slugs, that's really rather clever. Yeah, I don't know who figured that out, like who was carrying around slugs, or maybe they were testing them. Or thought that that would happen. Yeah, but apparently, I mean, that would be an effective, it would be useful to have advanced warning of gas, right? Oh, yeah, yeah.

And of course, I couldn't miss mentioning the cats who served in World War I. IO9 has a whole gallery of photos of World War I felines. They say that an estimated 500,000 cats served in the trenches during the war to catch rodents or help detect gas. A kitten named Petucci was adopted and nursed by a Belgian Lieutenant Lecco, and Petucci followed Lecco everywhere he went. One day while the two of them were hiding in a shell hole so Lecco could sketch some of the German works, Lecco was spotted by some German soldiers on patrol. One of the

patrolling soldiers said he's in the hole and at that Potucci jumped out startling the Germans who fired ineffectively at him and then laughed at themselves for having mistaken a cat for a man. Lecco finished his drawing and went back to the Belgian lines with Petucci riding on his shoulders. Cats have also been brought aboard ships for centuries as companions, mascots, good luck charms, or just to help reduce the mice and rat populations. And there are many photos of felines in some of the World War I navies. So lots of cats in the war. And beyond the animals that I've already mentioned, all manner of other animals became mascots during the war, including things like monkeys and foxes.

In general, animals were used for a variety of purposes in wars before World War I and continued to be used in more limited ways through World War II and even into the Vietnam War. But then new technologies ended up replacing many of the uses that were previously served by animals. But even today, you find that the U.S. Navy still uses dolphins, sea lions, and seals for some tasks, such as finding sea mines or retrieving underwater objects. Probably not so much slugs anymore, though, or homing pigeons. One of our newer listeners, Allie Riggett, wrote to us about a linguistic issue that we had raised back in episode 95. Allie's just kind of catching up with our older episodes. And in episode 95, we reported on an Australian listener that had commented that apparently Americans and Australians differ in how they would answer negative questions, such as,

so she didn't go to the store. Allie wrote, Dear Futility Closeteers, I've been listening to your back catalog of podcasts since a friend recommended it and am thoroughly enjoying them. I'm on maternity leave and you've saved my sanity as I listen to several podcasts a day while walking with the stroller along our beautiful fjord in Reykjavik. This morning I was listening to episode 95 where an Australian listener was confused as to how answering yes or no to a question could be along our beautiful fjord in Reykjavik. This morning I was listening to episode 95 where an Australian listener was confused as to how answering yes or no to a question could be interpreted.

I thought you may like to know that in Icelandic we have the solution. We have yes, no, and a third option pronounced you, which is an affirmative to a negative question. So you're not going out tonight? You. The person answering is confirming that they are staying in this evening.

I know other languages have this, such as German, and I thought you would like to know. Please keep up the amazing work so I can keep stumping my husband with your lateral thinking puzzles. Thanks, Ali. And we're so glad to be helping you through the maternity leave and giving you something to stump your husband with. I'm guessing that on your next walk, you heard that in episode 96, we had learned about the German word doch that serves the same purpose as you. And Greg and I are still rather envious that English does not have such a useful word.

Yeah, that's so useful. It's almost surprising that English- That we don't. I mean, we do have trouble during the puzzle, sometimes knowing how to properly answer a negative question without it being a confusing answer. Yeah, you have to confirm

what the person means by it. Yeah, so I guess that's just one of the deficiencies of the English language. And it's interesting to hear from people from other cultures with how they handle it. Yeah. And finally, Tilman Bowman of Germany wrote to let us know that he was really pleased with how I had handled the country name Czechia in the last episode. Tilman wrote, I don't think you know how happy you made me when you used the name Czechia in the last episode. Tillman wrote, I don't think you know how happy you made me when

you use the name Czechia. Czechia is in the English-speaking countries generally called Czech Republic. The Czechs themselves, however, actually appeal to you to call them Czechia. Nobody except you seems to ever call them Czechia, which saddens me. Czechia is a nice name. Czech Republic is terrible. I sympathize with the futile struggle of the Czechs to change other people's language. So yay, I don't know if you knew the controversy, but you made me quite happy. If you did not, isn't that the kind of quirky curiosity you like to talk about? I actually hadn't known about the controversy, but I was very glad to hear that I got it right. And I'll help Tillman out by passing along his appeal that the Slavic countries use Germania for his country instead of the current Slovak term,

which apparently has a bit of a negative historical connotation. We've covered the complications of the names of some animals in a couple of previous episodes, and it sounds like the naming of countries is a whole other kettle of fish. So thanks so much to everyone who writes in into us. We appreciate all the emails that we get, even though we can't always read them all on the show. And if you have any questions or comments for us, please send them to podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's Greg's turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle.

I'm going to give him an odd sounding situation and he has to try to figure out what's going on, asking only yes or no questions. This puzzle comes from Tommy Hutton, who says, here's a new puzzle for you, courtesy of some weird news my friend sent me today and no one dies in it. Oh, good. A burglar breaks into a building, empties the cash register, and escapes. Even though he successfully evades getting caught, he is unable to spend the money. Why? That's a good puzzle.

Did this really happen? Yes. Is the location important? No. Is the time period important? No. Are there other people involved besides just the burglar? Is that what you called him, a burglar?

Burglar, yes, no. Yes, I called him a burglar. No, there's no. Yes, no. We need a new syntax for that. Okay, but you said there's no one else. It's just a one guy. Yes.

There's no law enforcement or anything. It's just the whole puzzle is just one guy. Okay. All right. That's pretty straightforward. Is his occupation important? Other than being a burglar? Yeah.

No. Okay. Breaks into? Yeah. No. Okay. Breaks into a building. Yes. Robs the cash register. Yes. And escapes. Yes. But is not able to spend the money. Yes. Do I need to know more about the building? The nature of the building? Not necessarily. Like whether it's a retail

store or a bank or something? Not necessarily. Yeah. I mean, it's not, you don't need to know specifically. Do I need to know like the time of day when this happened? Do I need to know anymore

about the specifics of the crime? No, I don't think so. It's literally just that a guy breaks into a building and takes some, is it cash? Yes. Empties the cash register

and escapes. Even though he successfully evades getting caught, he is unable to spend the money. All right. Okay. So can I just remove the whole first part of that and just say a guy's got some money that he can't spend? Okay. Really? Yeah. I mean, you could simplify it and that would help you get to where, I mean. I'm just trying to remove what I can't. Yeah, yeah. Actually, okay. That's an interesting way to do it. I have to remember that. So it's cash, like currency, like let's say bills, as opposed to, I don't know, gold or something.

Okay, bills. That he can't spend. When you say can't spend, you mean can't spend at all anywhere? Yes. Is that because, I can ask this, he's physically prevented from doing so? No. Okay. So it's that the bills aren't, would you say negotiable? Yes. So he could actually go to a merchant and try to buy something. Right. But the merchant would refuse payment with those. Yes. Can I call them bills? Sure. Wow. All right. Is that because of some

Wow. All right. Is that because of some theft prevention measure? No. No. No. Like they were just, you know, they have those ink bombs. Exactly, but that's not it. There were no theft prevention measures. Okay. Well, this is going very well, I think. Yes.

Let's just pause and recognize that. Let's say he does that. Let's say he goes to some merchant to buy something. Okay. And the merchant tries to pay for it, and the merchant says no. Uh-huh. Is the merchant saying that because he thinks that it's not, that the money he's offering is not, well, I guess I already asked this. You said negotiable.

I said negotiable. It's not negotiable. Meaning he thinks it's, does this have to do with the... No, that wouldn't make any sense. I need more of a question than that to answer it. Is it in another country, another area where they use just a different currency? No. I like the puzzle. Okay.

Okay, so he would say then the merchant, from his perspective, that's counterfeit? No, I don't think he would say counterfeit. Okay, why wouldn't a merchant accept money? And it's not because he suspects that a crime has been committed or that he knows something about the identity of the customer that he's looking for. That's all correct. It's not any of those things. It's just the money. Right. customer that he's that's all correct it's not any of those things it's just the money right um i'll give you a hint that i don't think the burglar would even try to spend the money like

i don't think he would even go to a store and attempt to spend it because he himself knows that it wouldn't yes go he does uh is there some element of fiction in here like it was a movie set or something and it's not real money? There's no element of fiction. But? But. But it's not real money? It's not real money. Okay, but just to close that off, it's not.

You said I didn't need to know more about the building that he robbed. Not specifically. But what he stole wasn't really money. That's correct. Was it counterfeit? No. He didn't rob a counterfeiter no that'd be a good that would be a good puzzle um was it used okay when i when i say fiction i mean something like he it was you know um designed to represent money like on a movie set or right no it's not it's nothing like that, I understood. It's not props. Okay, so he just got his hands on what he thought was real money and realized afterwards

himself by looking at it that it wasn't real money. Is it Monopoly money? It's play money. Really? And that's it. The money came from a toy cash register. Tommy says, a man broke into a YMCA in Indio, California through the ceiling. It was dark and he spotted what he thought was a cash register.

He emptied the register without realizing he was in the daycare area and the register was in fact plastic and filled with fake money. Despite being caught on tape, the thief remains at large. That's embarrassing. So thank you for that puzzle, Tommy. And if anyone else has a puzzle they'd like for us to try, please send it to podcast at futilitycloset.com. If you would like to become one of our fabulous patrons who help support the show and get bonus materials such as extra discussions, outtakes, and peeks behind the scenes,

then check out the support us section of our website or our Patreon campaign at patreon.com slash futilitycloset if you're looking for more quirky curiosities check out the Futility Closet books on Amazon or visit the website at futilitycloset.com where you can sample more than 9,000 delightful

distractions at the website you can also see the show notes for the podcast and listen to previous episodes if you have any questions or comments about the show, you can reach us by email at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Our music was written and performed by the ever-talented Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you in two weeks.