Futility Closet - 157-The Brutal History of Batavia's Graveyard

Starting point is 00:00:00 A linguist, a military spy, a quantum physicist, and witches all must travel in time to bring back magic. Take the trip, too. Read The Rise and Fall of Dodo by master storyteller Nicole Galland and the best-selling author of Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson. Check out The Rise and Fall of Dodo now at nealstephenson.com. 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 Tojo's dentures to Sigourney Weaver's name. This is episode 157. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1629, a Dutch trading vessel struck a reef off the coast of Australia, marooning 180 people on a tiny island. As they struggled to stay alive, their leader descended into barbarity, gathering a band of cutthroats

Starting point is 00:00:59 and killing scores of terrified castaways. In today's show, we'll document the brutal history of Batavia's graveyard, the site of Australia's most infamous shipwreck. We'll also lose money in India and puzzle over some invisible Frenchmen. On October 29th, 1628, a fleet of seven ships left Amsterdam headed for the Dutch trading settlements on the island of Java in what is now Indonesia. This was an enormous voyage, eight months and almost 15,000 miles, more than halfway around the world. It was the maiden voyage of the Batavia, which carried approximately 316 people, men, women, and children of various social ranks and nationalities. More than two thirds of these were the officers and crew. There were also about a hundred soldiers and naval cadets, and some civilian passengers who were by

Starting point is 00:01:49 far the smallest group. The expedition commander was a man named Francisco Belzart, who was one of the United East India Company's most experienced merchants, and the skipper was Arian Jacobs. These two unfortunately did not like one another, and at the Cape of Good Hope, they had a falling out. While they were in port, Jacobs had left the Batavia without permission to enjoy the hospitality of other vessels in the fleet. He got drunk and unruly, and Belzart was forced to reprimand him. Jacobs thought Belzart was behaving like a tyrant, and he began to conspire with the third most powerful man on board, Hieronymus Cornelius, to manipulate the crew into organizing a mutiny. The Batavia was ahead of schedule, and shortly after they left Cape Town,

Starting point is 00:02:30 she lost sight of the other ships in the fleet. As they crossed the Indian Ocean, Belzart fell ill and confined himself to his cabin, and this left Jakobs master of the ship. During this time, Jakobs and Cornelius began to foment mutiny among the crew. It's a bit unclear what happens here. A female passenger was assaulted at one point during this time, Jakobs and Cornelius began to foment mutiny among the crew. It's a bit unclear what happens here. A female passenger was assaulted at one point during this time. Perhaps this was to force Belzart to crack down on the crew, which would spread resentment against him. No one's quite sure of that.

Starting point is 00:02:56 But either because he was sick or because he sensed what was going on, Belzart didn't act. The mutineers resolved to wait until he did act, probably when they were within sight of Australia. But before this could happen, the ship was wrecked. In those days, there was no way to determine longitude at sea, and Jacobs had underestimated their progress. On June 4th, 1629, they ran aground on the shallows of the Abrolhos Islands, a group of small islands and coral reefs off the west coast of Australia. Abrolhos is a corruption of the Portuguese for watch out. They had come 13,000 miles and were 600 miles from any known land, wrecked in uncharted ocean that in the 1620s only a handful of European vessels had crossed. The hull burst as they were evacuating and some passengers died before they could be transferred,

Starting point is 00:03:41 but most of them made it to the closest of some islets that were nearby. This one was only about 175 yards long and offered no protection from the wind. By nightfall on the second day, some people remained on the ship, and some of those on the first island had moved to another larger one nearby. This one's called Batavia's Graveyard because it was within sight of the grounded ship. They needed water, but they reckoned they might be able to reach Java from here in the boats that had survived the shipwreck. Initially, Belzart, Jacobs, and several dozen others had landed on another small island with a longboat and dinghy and most of the salvaged water casks. They tried to approach the survivors

Starting point is 00:04:20 on Batavia's graveyard to deliver a water cask and to tell them what they planned to do, but then they thought better of it, fearing that if they approached too close they wouldn't be allowed to leave again. So after an unsuccessful search for fresh water, Belzart, Jacobs, and 48 others took Batavia's boats to look for water first on the Australian mainland, and then, not finding it there, they sailed to seek help on Java. They took the sailors and the favored passengers and left behind nearly 200 people on the island and another 70 stranded on the wreck, including several dozen of the worst cutthroats and drunkards on the ship. And they took the boats with them, so these people were now stuck. Stranded, yeah. After Belzard's party left, the ship broke up. 40 people drowned,

Starting point is 00:05:00 but those who survived clung to Flotsam and Jetsam and made their way to the island. One of these was Uranimus Cornelius, the man who had been plotting the mutiny with the Acobs. Cornelius had been 30 years old when the ship set sail for Java, and his social standing was the highest on the Batavia. For 400 years, historians have been trying to understand what came next, which was monstrous, and I'm not sure anybody really has. Batavia's graveyard can be barely called an island. It's 500 yards long,

Starting point is 00:05:26 less than 300 yards across, and roughly triangular. It's tiny. Mike Dash, who's written the best account of all this in a book called Batavia's Graveyard, says the island can be crossed from side to side in less than three minutes or circumnavigated in under 20 minutes. He writes, there are no hills, no trees, no caves, and little undergrowth. The highest point is only six feet above sea level. There's no water, and hence there are no native land animals. It's just a tiny little speck out in the ocean. They were almost 50 miles from the Australian coast, so these tiny islands had never been visited by Aborigines, and no European had ever set foot here. Of the more than 300 people who had been on the Batavia, about 180 men, women, and children remained on the island and must now start a settlement there.

Starting point is 00:06:07 They had no leadership and no adequate supplies. About 100 of them were common soldiers and sailors, and another 20 were either petty officers or workmen. There were about 20 women as well. Almost all of these were the wives of crew members. Of the remaining 50, most were youths and children, including one or two babies that had been born on the voyage. Fewer than 24 of this group were officers, and of these, many were young and inexperienced. These men would have to lead more than 170 frightened, cold, and hungry castaways, about a quarter of whom were foreigners who couldn't speak Dutch well. In the first 24 hours, these people consumed much of the food and most, if not all, of the water they'd salvaged from the ship. By the fourth day, ten of them had died.

Starting point is 00:06:47 They drank urine, they chewed lead pellets to generate saliva, they may even have killed seabirds and sea lions to drink their blood. One brave girl actually managed to get to the ship and return with some scant provisions. On the fifth day, a squall gave them some water, which they gathered in a sailcloth. The island still held enough people to empty their stores in a few days, though, even at half rations. With Belzart gone, his deputy, Cornelis, was the natural leader of the survivors. He was the senior remaining official of the United East India Company in the archipelago. It appears that he quickly began to dominate the group. In the beginning, he was helpful. He established a ruling council and organized hunting parties, supervised the raising of tents, and

Starting point is 00:07:28 oversaw the building of some rough boats. It's easy to see how he might have enjoyed this. He had no power on board ship, but here people deferred to him and his orders were obeyed. He had his own tent. In fact, he was getting for free everything that he'd planned a mutiny for. He had his own kingdom. But he had worries, too. Many of the people on the island knew that he'd planned a mutiny for. He had his own kingdom. But he had worries, too. Many of the people on the island knew that he'd been planning a mutiny, and if a rescue ship did appear and took them to Java, he could expect to be tortured and executed for that. So he planned to go ahead with his mutiny on this island, gathering a band of supporters around him and thinning the numbers of any people who might resist him. His plan was that with luck, when the rescue ship did arrive, his men could

Starting point is 00:08:03 take it over and they could escape to a life of piracy. That was the best outcome he could hope for at this point. He may have been vicious, but he was also eloquent and persuasive. By the end of June, he'd gathered around two dozen men around him. To reduce the number of possible resistors, he sent his followers to explore other islands in this little group, using small skiffs that the carpenters had built out of driftwood. other islands in this little group using small skiffs that the carpenters had built out of driftwood. They found nothing of any value on these other islands, but Cornelius announced that they

Starting point is 00:08:28 had discovered water and food. His goal here was to just break up the people. Instead of having them all on one island, he'd just divide them among these other islands in the group just to keep them divided. So he was just deceiving them that if they went to these other islands, they'd have supplies. That's right. One group of 40 men, women, and children was taken to what's called Seal's Island. They were given a few barrels of water and told that fresh supplies would be ferried to them as needed.

Starting point is 00:08:51 A smaller party of 15 went to what's called Trader's Island, bringing tools with which to make rafts and proceed yet further. A third detachment of 20 was sent to what was called the Highland to the north. Almost all of this last group were soldiers. They were told to light signal fires if they found fresh water there. Cornelius said he'd return for them if this happened, but he had no intention of doing this and hoped they might die of thirst there. One of these men was Viba Hayesh, who proved resourceful enough to keep his men alive for three weeks

Starting point is 00:09:19 because indeed they found puddles of rainwater there that others had missed. The population of Batavia's graveyard had now been reduced to between 130 and 140 people. The conspirators were still outnumbered, but Cornelius reckoned he could maintain control until a rescue ship arrived. But he needed to kill more castaways in order to reduce the chance that they'd warn the rescue ship before he could take it over, or try to stop him from attacking it. And these people were consuming the stores too quickly. to stop him from attacking it. And these people were consuming the stores too quickly. So he started killing people. This started in early July. Cornelius dissolved the original ruling council and appointed new members. At first, his band killed a few men on various,

Starting point is 00:09:55 basically trumped-up charges, tapping a wine keg or allegedly building a boat in which to sail away. Then they began to send boats out on phony errands. They'd induce someone to get into a boat, and once they were out on the water, Cornelius's confederates would surprise the victim, tie them up, and dump them overboard. In a couple of cases, men were spared if they pledged to support Cornelius. By the end of the first week in July, he'd killed eight people, some covertly and some publicly. It looked as though he could keep going until the ranks of potential opponents had been so thin that there was no need to conceal himself. The one potential source of danger for him was the highland, which was populated by soldiers rather than civilians. On July 9th, as I said, these men discovered water

Starting point is 00:10:33 on their island and lit signal fires to announce the discovery. This was actually an awful setback for Cornelius. The survivors on his own island could see the signal fires, and he had promised to send boats for Hayesh if they were lit. Also, it meant that Hayesh's men now had water while he himself didn't. Soon he could see the people on Trader's Island launching two boats for the highlands, because they'd seen the same signal fires. He had promised them they could do this if water were found, but he sent out a boat of his own to intercept them, and they killed the men and drowned the women. All this took place in full view of the 130 people on the island. These still outnumbered Cornelius' supporters by four to one, but they had no weapons. There was nowhere to hide, and the boats were all guarded. Also, Euronymous was officially in

Starting point is 00:11:14 charge, which meant that any attempt to oppose him technically constituted mutiny, which he could punish severely. So things are just getting more and more dire, and people are realizing the situation he's led them into. At least it doesn't mean switch sides in the next few days. Cornelis tested one man's loyalty by inviting him and his wife into his tent and then sending a man to strangle their daughter. The man swore loyalty nonetheless. This was the first child killed, and even Cornelis gave no excuse for it. The situation came to resemble Lord of the Flies on a tiny island. One writer says the island became not unlike a modern concentration camp where some ruled by

Starting point is 00:11:49 sheer terror, death was omnipresent, and the weak were killed without mercy. Cornelius' men began parading openly about the island, taking what they wanted. They ate, drank, and dressed better than the others, and they slept in larger tents. They reveled in a freedom that they'd never felt before, oppressing people who were normally their social superiors. Cornelius tested another man by ordering him to creep into the sick tent and cut the throats of the 11 people there. Three days later, four or five more people had taken sick, and Cornelius made this man go back and kill them as well. From that point on, falling sick was a death sentence unless you were a party to the mutiny. But by July 14th, the mutineers had disposed of almost 50 people,

Starting point is 00:12:25 men, women, and children. Almost a third of them had been too ill to fight. The island's population was down to about 90, about half of whom were at least avowed mutineers. Cornelius could see people moving about on Seals Island, another one of these islands, where there were 45 survivors. These people had witnessed the murders and were constructing rafts on the far side of the island out of sight of the mutineers. But on July 15th, a boatload of mutineers arrived. Cornelius had told them to kill all the children and men and to leave the women alive. Eight men escaped on the rafts and managed to reach the highland where the soldiers were. The mutineers returned a few days later at night to kill the remaining four women and boys. By late July, Cornelius's

Starting point is 00:13:03 position on the island was unassailable, and now he descended into complete barbarity. He was fascinated by forcing men to commit murder. He poisoned a baby whose crying had been disturbing him, and when this only put it into a coma, he ordered another man to strangle it. In the end, killing became mere entertainment for him. By now, there were fewer than 60 people alive on the island, and Cornelius resolved to reduce their numbers to 45. The trouble was Hayesh, who had found water. His group would survive, and they knew what was happening on Batavia's graveyard thanks to survivors who had made their way there from other islands. And Hayesh had two boats brought there by survivors, which meant he might be able to warn the rescue ship before mutineers could surprise it.

Starting point is 00:13:45 Cornelius tried to persuade Hayesh to join forces, but Hayesh said no, so Cornelius sent an attack force to eliminate them. Hayesh and his men were unarmed, but they managed to beat back the invaders. Cornelius visited Hayesh himself to try to use his powers of persuasion. He offered Hayesh's men 6,000 guilders each and a share of the jewels that had been salvaged from the ship if they changed sides, but Hayesh overpowered him and five of his men and tied them up. Cornelius was kept alive, but the rest were executed. They threw Cornelis into a limestone pit and made him pluck birds for them. Waiting for another attack, Viba Hayesh's soldiers fashioned weapons as best they could. Hayesh commanded 46 men and a boy, more than the mutineers, but the mutineers had swords and pikes. The remaining mutineers elected a new leader and

Starting point is 00:14:25 they tried another attack. They were actually winning when Belzart finally arrived from Java with a rescue ship. When they'd failed to find water on the Australian mainland, Belzart and his men had sailed all the way to Java in a longboat, which is an amazing feat of navigation. The governor general had given them a yacht to return for the survivors, but due to poor navigation and adverse winds, it had taken them 63 days to reach the wreck site. Now, when she came into view, the mutineers and the defenders raced to be the first to reach her. The outcome of all their struggles and misery hung in the balance now. If the mutineers could reach the ship first, then they might overcome the crew and sail away, escaping punishment and beginning a new life of piracy. Hayesh's men could only stop

Starting point is 00:15:03 this by getting a warning to the crew first. Belzart, who didn't suspect any of this, had rowed innocently out to shore, hoping to find all the shipwreck victims still alive, and taking with him casks of water, bread, and wine. No one met him on the shore, which surprised him, but as he stepped onto the beach, a small yawl came around the northerly point, with four men rowing madly. Hayesh sprang onto the shore and said,

Starting point is 00:15:24 Welcome, but go back aboard immediately, for there is a party of scoundrels on the islands near the wreck with two sloops who have the intention to seize the yacht. Belzart, who was confused in trying to take this in, leapt back into the boat and rowed for the yacht as the mutineers came into view and hove for it themselves. If they reached it first, Hayesh's warning would come to nothing. The men on board didn't suspect their danger. For a moment, the outcome hung in the balance, but Belzart reached the ship just before the mutineers did and warned the crew, who managed to hold them off. With no hope now of escaping the island, the mutineers threw their weapons overboard, came aboard unarmed, and were locked up. Under questioning, they confessed the whole plot. Under Dutch law, Belzart had to administer justice quickly, so he held a tribunal.

Starting point is 00:16:04 Cornelis denied everything and blamed everyone but himself. Belzart wrote, in justice quickly, so he held a tribunal. Cornelis denied everything and blamed everyone but himself. Belzart wrote, in this manner, he tried to talk himself clean. The mutineers were sentenced to have their right hands cut off. Both of Cornelis' hands were cut off, and then they were hanged. Just prior to Cornelis' hanging, Belzart read out a summary of his crimes. He said, Euronymous Cornelius of Harlem, aged about 30 years, apothecary and late undermerchant of the ship Batavia, has misbehaved himself so gruesomely and has gone beyond himself, yea, has even been denuded of all humanity and has been changed as to a tiger. Two men were left behind as punishment on the Australian mainland, and some of the lesser offenders were taken back on the Batavia. The yacht returned to Java on December 5th, 1629, with the remaining

Starting point is 00:16:46 survivors and what cargo Belzart had been able to salvage from the ship. The lesser offenders who had been punished on the way were executed there. Hayesh was rewarded and promoted to sergeant. Altogether, of the 316 people aboard the Batavia, 116 survived. The Batavia story faded gradually from memory until the remains of the ship were discovered in the 1960s. Since then, it's been the subject of museum displays, many histories, six novels, three cycles of poetry, two television documentaries, a host of essays, a three-act opera, and a radio and a stage play. And, as seems increasingly to happen with our stories, it's been optioned for a movie. Last March, Russell Crowe bought the rights to the story told by Hugh Edwards in his 1966 book Islands of Angry Ghosts.

Starting point is 00:17:29 He bought a 12-month option with an option to extend another 12 months, so I don't know whether this is still in the works. We'll keep you posted. We frequently tell you that our podcast would not still be here if it weren't for the support that we get from our listeners, and that really is the case. If you've been listening to our show, you'll know that there's a Patreon campaign to support the podcast, and that is the main thing that keeps the show going. But if you like the show and you'd like to support us in other ways, there are other things you can do to help us out. You can make a one-time donation on the website at futilitycloset.com. And we can always use help spreading the word about our show. So if you like the podcast, please consider recommending it to your friends or giving it a rating on Apple Podcasts or other podcast directories. And if

Starting point is 00:18:18 you'd like to join our Patreon campaign, for a dollar an episode, you'll get access to our activity feed, where you'll find outtakes, extra discussions on some of the stories, more lateral thinking puzzles, and updates on what's going on behind the scenes of the show. You can find more information on that at patreon.com slash futilitycloset, or on the supporters page of the website. And thanks so much to everyone who helps keep Futility Closet going. keep Futility Closet going. The usual spoiler alert as I'm about to discuss some updates to some different puzzles. Dan Putt wrote in response to the puzzle about the man who laughed himself to death while watching the TV show The Goodies. While listening to episode 152, I was curious to see what was so funny that could cause a person to laugh for 25 minutes and ultimately cause their demise. So I turned to the Google machine to see if I could find a clip.

Starting point is 00:19:11 I wasn't able to immediately find the clip, but I did find an interesting side note. After many years, it is now believed that Alex Mitchell probably actually died from cardiac arrest caused by long QT syndrome. This was only discovered after his granddaughter was found to have the hereditary condition herself. So while Mr. Mitchell still found the segment monstrously funny to have laughed for 25 minutes, I don't have to live in fear of laughing myself to death anytime in the near future. Thanks for a great podcast and exposing me to way more things I want to read about than I have time for. And this was interesting to hear that 37 years after Alex Mitchell died, they think they finally understand that the cause

Starting point is 00:19:50 was this disorder that causes abnormal heart rhythms. So as Dan said, most of us don't need to worry about it happening to us. Though unfortunately, for anyone who did want to risk it, it appears that the clip of the TV show is no longer available on YouTube, as the BBC has blocked it on copyright grounds. And maybe just to be safe. Maybe just to be safe, right. We also heard from Anise Rao, who in another email to us had said, Sharon, feel free to murder my name. Okay, Anise, possibly your name is now as dead as someone in a lateral thinking puzzle. And Anise said, when I heard the lateral thinking puzzle in episode 127 about the thwarted burglar who couldn't spend the money he stole, I realized there is a unique Indian solution to the problem. If he had committed his robbery on the night of November 8th, 2016, he would most likely have been unable to spend his loot. On that night,

Starting point is 00:20:41 in a surprise move, the prime minister of the country, Mr. Modi, made some 85% of all the issued currency notes illegal tender. All that money, which was in people's hands, had to be deposited in banks against which they would receive new currency notes. And I remember hearing about this when it happened, but I didn't really know too much about it until I looked into it a bit. The Indian economy is very heavily cash-based, which has allowed for the development of a strong shadow economy or transactions that are off the books and therefore can dodge taxes or contribute to corruption and illegal activities. The government had hoped that their move would shrink this shadow economy,

Starting point is 00:21:20 but what it did was plunge the country into turmoil as the great majority of the country's money was suddenly declared invalid, and there were severe cash shortages in the days that followed. The move had such wide-ranging effects that it reduced India's GDP and industrial output, and was also blamed for several deaths, as people had to stand in line for hours to try to exchange their banknotes, and medical help was denied to some people who didn't yet have the new currency. I hadn't connected this to the puzzle we did until Anise wrote in.

Starting point is 00:21:49 It would make a good lateral thinking puzzle of its own, if anybody wants to try that out on someone. That was just a few months ago. It was just like half a year ago. Yeah, and I guess in the U.S., I had heard about it just a little bit on our news, but not nearly the details until I looked into it.

Starting point is 00:22:06 I hadn't realized how great of an effect it had on the country at the time, yeah. John Jetmore wrote, hello all, love the podcast. I just finished listening to episode 153 where you read some feedback related to the lateral thinking puzzle based on the bar in India that built a labyrinth to get around building laws. One of your respondents mentioned similar laws or workarounds in Texas, and that made a situation in my hometown snap into focus. In my town, Richmond, Indiana, there was a street named Sailor Street running parallel to Main Street in the historical downtown. I only knew about it because it showed in Google Maps. However, it's clearly just an alley.

Starting point is 00:22:46 I was never sure why this alley was given a name and street designation. Then one day while out for a walk, I noticed a plaque at the mouth of the alley transcribing the relevant bit. As taverns were required to have a back entrance on a street, this alley was named Sailor Street. Gotta love creative problem solving.

Starting point is 00:23:05 Thanks again for the great show. And also on the topic of peculiar local liquor laws, Daniel Sturman wrote, If listeners are going to be sending you strange liquor law mandated construction projects, I might as well let you know about Zion Curtains. Utah alcohol laws require restaurants that serve alcoholic drinks to prepare them out of view of the customers. This is apparently meant to reduce the exposure of alcohol to minors and to reduce drinking among customers by making it less obvious that the drinks are available. While some restaurants end up preparing their drinks in a back room in order to comply with the law,

Starting point is 00:23:42 others build what is known as a Zion curtain, which is a wall or a frosted glass partition blocking the customer's view of the bartender. Coincidentally, this law is about to be partially repealed. A new law that offers restaurants two alternatives to the Zion curtain will take effect in July. And according to the article Daniel sent, Utah has been quite bent on keeping minors

Starting point is 00:24:04 from seeing alcoholic drinks being made. Apparently, kids can watch drinks being drunk, but even the new modifications of the law requires that minors have to be seated more than 10 feet away from a restaurant's bar, unless there is some kind of physical barrier, in which case minors can sit five feet away from the bar. It does seem that many different states have developed some rather specific and idiosyncratic liquor laws. It seems to me like our country in general has had a rather conflicted history with alcohol. Yeah, I'm trying to make sense of it. So they just want to shield the kids from seeing drinks being made. Right, because you can bring a drink to the table and their parents can drink it in front of them, but they can't see the drinks

Starting point is 00:24:46 actually be being prepared. Well, I guess it makes some sense. If you see someone just drinking something, you don't know what it is. I guess. Yeah, okay. You can lie to your kid and tell them it's not an alcoholic drink. And John Curtis wrote, Hi, Greg, Sharon, and Sasha. I was able to quickly solve the lateral thinking puzzle in show number 142 about the beer company that changed its bottle design because its bottles were being mistaken for female Australian jewel beetles by the male beetles, resulting in a dangerous population drop,

Starting point is 00:25:19 because I had recently seen this video, and John includes a link that we'll, of course, have in the show notes. John explains, In this TED Talk, Donald Hoffman of UC Irvine uses the jewel beetle and its misperception of beer bottles as an analogy for human beings and our misperception of reality. It's a challenging, even upsetting thesis. He argues that since evolution is driven by an organism's fitness, there's no reason to think that we've evolved to correctly perceive reality. Instead, like the jewel beetle, we rely on evolved perceptive hacks, shortcuts,

Starting point is 00:25:51 and filters to survive and reproduce. We're like someone looking at a folder on a computer screen and thinking that there's a folder with some files inside it. That's a reasonable and productive way to use the computer. It will make us a good user of computers, but it is not at all an accurate perception of the circuit boards and software code that are the reality of that folder. And this is an interesting thesis that evolutionary pressures don't necessarily produce organisms that perceive reality accurately, only that perceive it in ways that are useful or good enough. It could be time and energy intensive to always be trying to perceive everything completely accurately. And if you take a number of shortcuts that generally work out to be good enough,

Starting point is 00:26:31 then you'll do well enough, unless you're a male jewel beetle and someone invents a beer bottle that tricks you into thinking it's a terrific mating partner. Which is a problem. Which is a problem. So thanks so much to everyone who writes into us or that we at least perceive as writing

Starting point is 00:26:45 into us. We appreciate all the email that we get, even if we can't always fit it all on the show. And if you have any questions or feedback for us, please send them to podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to give me an odd-sounding situation, and I have to try to figure out what's going on, asking only yes or no questions. This is from listener Aidan Lonergan, age 15, from Texas. Ah. Before World War I, some German troops would refuse calls to attack the Army of France.

Starting point is 00:27:23 Whenever the base would ask them to go against French platoons, they would either hang up or pretend not to be there. Explaining his reason for avoiding the French, one soldier wrote to home base, if I fire my gun, seeing our foe will be impossible. Why did the Germans refuse? Okay, you said this was before World War I? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:42 Okay, you said this was before World War I? Yeah. And the Germans didn't want to go against French foe because if they fire their gun, seeing the enemy would become impossible. Yes. Does this matter? Would they have felt this way regardless of where the French enemies were?

Starting point is 00:28:06 You mean like physically located? Yeah. Yes. Okay. So, okay. So it's not that the French enemies were located in some particular locality that was important. That's right. Okay.

Starting point is 00:28:18 If I fire my gun, seeing the foe will be impossible. Does this matter? seeing the foe will be impossible does does this matter uh are we talking about particular types of troops like whether whether they're ground troops or somehow in the air or on boats or does it matter like any of that it doesn't matter they'd be infantry just ground regular ground soldiers does this have to do with something about the french uniforms no i'm trying to figure out why a french soldier wouldn't be visible once a German fired a gun at him? Yeah, if you figure that out, you'll have it. Or if I figure that out, okay. That's the right question. Okay. And it doesn't have to do with the French uniforms, and it

Starting point is 00:28:55 doesn't have to do with some trick of geography or terrain or anything like that. That's right. And this was specifically the French? Yes. Didn't apply to soldiers of other nationalities? Maybe it applied to soldiers of other nationalities, or you don't know. I think the Germans would have the same worry about other nationalities, about not being able to see them, but they were at a particular disadvantage against the French. And it doesn't have anything to do with the French uniforms. No.

Starting point is 00:29:26 French helmets or headgear or... Nope. Were French shoulders particularly short or particularly thin? That'd be a good puzzle. Does it matter, did the French ground troops have particular vehicles or animals they were riding? No. No? But you're headed toward the right direction.

Starting point is 00:29:49 Something to do with transportation in general? No. No. Okay. So would you say something to do with something that the French were using? Yes. That the French were using deliberately to obscure the Germans' vision? No.

Starting point is 00:30:07 Or like it had this incidental effect? The thing that the Germans feared would obscure their vision was something on the German side. Was something on the German side? Yeah. But it applied specifically when they were going against the French. It gave the French an advantage because the French didn't have the same problem. Okay. Did this have something to do with vision?

Starting point is 00:30:29 I mean, I need to focus on vision. Yeah. Okay. Did this have something to do with too much light? No. Blinding by too much light. Did it have something to do with smoke? Yes.

Starting point is 00:30:42 Okay. Something to do with the german weapons creating a lot of smoke yes uh okay so it's canon no their guns yes created a lot of smoke you're almost there why would that be worse against the french why would that be worse against the french because that would be a problem against any phone because the french created a lot of smoke too so it was just extra smoke um and it doesn't have to do with anything about the terrain or the geography um why would you create more smoke against the french there were more french so you were firing at lots of them no no no they're not creating more smoke against the French.

Starting point is 00:31:26 But the French are harder to see if there is smoke. No. No. The French would have an advantage here because they wouldn't be laboring under the same... Disadvantage. ...difficulty. Okay, because the... Oh, so like the French weapons did not create smoke the way the German weapons did, but

Starting point is 00:31:42 if they were fighting against a different nationality, both sides would be creating smoke and would be at the same disadvantage. That's basically it. The French army's Loubelle rifle, which was introduced in 1887, was the first military firearm to use smokeless powder, while the Germans still used black powder. With the Loubelle, a French soldier could fire farther and remain practically invisible to the enemy, while the smoke of the German guns obscured their own vision and gave away their position. This led to a revolution in infantry armament. That's a good puzzle.

Starting point is 00:32:12 Yeah, isn't it? Yes. Thank you, Aidan. Thank you. And if anybody else has a puzzle they'd like to send in for us to try, you can send it to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. That's another show for us. If you're looking for more quirky curiosities,

Starting point is 00:32:28 check out the Futility Closet books on Amazon or visit the website at futilitycloset.com where you can sample more than 9,000 Undimus Omniana. At the website, you can also see the show notes for the podcast with links and references for the topics in today's show. If you like our podcast and want to help support it, please see the Support Us page of the website. You can also help us out by telling your friends about us

Starting point is 00:32:49 or by leaving a review on your favorite podcast directory. 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 Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 157-The Brutal History of Batavia's Graveyard

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