Futility Closet - 240-The Shark Papers

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 10,000 quirky curiosities from music for metronomes to a love letter to Hitler. This is episode 240. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1799, two Royal Navy ships met on the Caribbean Sea, and their captains discovered that they were parties to a mind-boggling coincidence

Starting point is 00:00:34 that would expose a crime and make headlines around the world. In today's show, we'll tell the story of the shark papers, one of the strangest coincidences in maritime history. We'll also meet some Victorian kangaroos and puzzle over an expedient fire. At the end of the 18th century, England and France were at war, and each of them prohibited neutral nations from doing business with the other. In the West Indies, British ships patrolled the Caribbean to intercept any vessels that might be trading with French islands there. In early August 1799, two Royal Navy ships, the Ferret and the Sparrow, were patrolling the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo.

Starting point is 00:01:20 When a week passed and they'd made no captures, they separated, but their commanders, Michael Fitton and Hugh Wiley, agreed to meet again off Jacmel and Santo Domingo at the end of the month. The ferret made its way west, met no suspicious ships on the way, and was the first to arrive at the rendezvous point at the end of the month. At dawn on August 30th, its lookout reported that the sparrow was six miles away and approaching, so Fitton signaled it and invited Wiley to join him for breakfast. As Wiley was rowed over from the sparrow, Fitton sat on the taff rail and looked about him. Cattle boats from Venezuela passed this way regularly, and Fitton wasn't surprised to see a dead bullock floating in the water some distance away. A group of sharks were tearing at it. To pass the time while he waited for Wiley, Fitton ordered his men to pull the bullock alongside the ship. The sharks followed it, and Fitton noticed that one shark was larger than the

Starting point is 00:02:09 rest. He decided to catch it so he could make its vertebrae into a walking stick, which was the fashion at the time for officers on the West Indian Station. Fitton's men put a four-pound piece of pork on a hook and heaved it into the sea. The shark bolted it, and the sailors hoisted it onto the deck. It was enormous, the largest shark any of them haded it into the sea. The shark bolted it, and the sailors hoisted it onto the deck. It was enormous, the largest shark any of them had ever seen in the Caribbean. Fitton told the men to cut it up to get its backbone, and when one of the men slid open its belly, out popped a soiled bundle of papers tied with a string. With the exception of the envelope, the papers were perfectly preserved. They were letters written in German and French concerning the cargo of a merchant vessel. One letter, which bore a recent date at Curacao, began,

Starting point is 00:02:49 My good friend Mr. Christopher Schulze, supercargo of the American brig Nancy, will hand you this. Fitton ordered the sailors to spread the papers out on the deck to dry. His first thought was that the shark had swum from Curacao, which was hundreds of miles to the south. His second thought was that the papers had been thrown overboard by a vessel fleeing a British cruiser to avoid incrimination. They showed that the Nancy, an American ship, had been engaged in trade with the French. But where was the Nancy now? He had met no such ship. He held the lookout at the masthead, who said there was nothing in sight except the sparrow and her boat. When Wiley reached the ferret and climbed over the side, Fitton performed what must have looked like a magic trick.

Starting point is 00:03:29 Wiley said, what a devil of a long pull you've given me this morning, and not a breath of air out of the heavens. Come, is breakfast ready? Fitton said, well, Wiley, my boy, what luck have you had since we parted company? Wiley said, luck? Why, I've taken a Dutch schooner and a French schooner and have detained an American brig. He looked at the shark and said, luck, why, I've taken a Dutch schooner and a French schooner and have detained an American brig. He looked at the shark and said, but why do you dirty your decks with those cursed animals? You'll be a boy all your lifetime, Fitton. Fitton said, tell me, Wiley, was your American brig named Nancy? Wiley said, yes, she was. You have met her, I suppose.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Fitton said, no, I have not. I never saw her. Wiley said, then how did you know the brig I had detained was named Nancy? Fitton ignored that question and said, was there a supercargo on board called Christopher Schultz of Baltimore? Wiley said, yes, there was. His name was Schultz or Schultz or some damn Dutch name or other. Why, you must have spoken her? Fitton said, no, I have not. I never saw her. Wiley said, then how the devil came you to know I had detained an American brig called Nancy, Christopher Schultz's supercargo? Fitton said, the shark you see lying there, my boy, has brought me full information about the Nancy, and those papers you see spread out to dry are her papers. Wiley said, that won't do, Fitton,

Starting point is 00:04:39 for I sealed all her papers up and gave them in charge of the prize master when I sent the vessel away. Fitton said, the papers delivered to of the prize master when I sent the vessel away. Fitton said, the papers delivered to you by the master when you overhauled him, you have of course sent away with the vessel, but her true papers, which prove the owners to be enemies, are those which you see drying on deck, brought to me by that shark you abused me for catching. Wiley stared at all this and decided Fitton was joking. He went down the cabin ladder calling, breakfast ho, breakfast, none of your tricks upon travelers, none of your stuff, Fitton. So just to make this clear, what had happened is that after Fitton and Wiley had separated in the Mona Passage, Wiley had come upon an American brig, the Nancy, which had been trading illegally in the Caribbean.

Starting point is 00:05:20 She had tried to run away, but Wiley was faster. During the chase, the Nancy's captain, Thomas Briggs, had thrown overboard a packet of incriminating papers, and when Wiley caught up, Briggs claimed he was sailing an honest American ship. Wiley wasn't satisfied and ordered the ship sent to the Vice Admiralty Court of Jamaica. Then he sailed west to keep his rendezvous with the ferret. with a ferret. The papers that Briggs had thrown overboard were weighted, but before they reached the bottom, a shark ate them and then swam west for two days, following Fitton and Wiley to arrive at their rendezvous point off Santo Domingo. There, Fitton, who knew nothing about any of this, had spotted the shark in the water, ordered it caught and cut open, and found the papers. So when Wiley arrived for breakfast on August 30th, Fitton was able to tell him not just the name of the ship he'd captured, but the name of her supercargo and the details of her illegal activities, and even had documents to prove it. I am going to use the word preposterous to describe

Starting point is 00:06:16 this sequence of events, but it is supremely well attested, as I'll explain, and Fitton simply could not have known what he knew unless this had actually happened. I just want to dwell on this for a minute because it's even more preposterous than it sounds. It's not just that a shark swallowed some papers and they came to light again. But on top of that, the distances and directions and people involved all had to line up for this story to come true. So it's just so improbable. It's just, it's a fish story. It's gigantically improbable,

Starting point is 00:06:50 and I wouldn't believe it myself if it weren't so well attested. If you bred your own shark large enough to swallow a packet of papers and endowed it with human intelligence and tutored it in current events and inspired it with the burning fire of British patriotism, it could not have done a better job than this shark did for the Royal Navy. If you were an intelligent shark and you were, say you're swimming along one day in the Caribbean

Starting point is 00:07:14 and you look up one day and you see a Royal Navy cutter chasing an American brig and you see a little packet of papers drop out of the brig, you think, aha, the Americans are trading with the French. I better eat those papers. I'd better eat those papers. I'd better eat those papers. So you go over and eat the papers, and then you think, well, now, how am I going to return these to the Navy? So you follow, not follow, I mean, perhaps it was even ahead of the ships, but swim west some distance. The total distance from the Mona Passage to Jacmel is about 300 miles, so it's some significant fraction of that. It took a Royal Navy cutter two days to cover it, so it's quite a long way. And when the shark finally arrived there, it would have seen

Starting point is 00:07:49 two Royal Navy vessels, a schooner and a cutter. It would see a boat put off of the cutter and head toward the schooner and think, aha, Hugh Wiley is headed for breakfast, now's my chance. How can I get the attention of the captain of the ferret? It sees a bullock floating in the water and goes over and gnaws on it and looks hopefully up at Fitton, who drops a hook in the water. And then the shark bites the hook gamely, gets pulled aboard and cut open just in time

Starting point is 00:08:15 for Wiley to come and recognize the papers. I'm also surprised that the papers wouldn't have deteriorated at all, so they'd still be legible. Apparently they were kept in some kind of envelope that preserved them. And they were later, I mean, they were preserved after all this in museums, so they were in good enough shape. And they didn't encumber the shark enough. I mean, you would think just medically they would cause some problems for this shark, but he apparently was still going strong with the papers inside him.

Starting point is 00:08:40 No, and all this, so the papers came to light just a few minutes before Wiley showed up, and Wiley was the best placed man, not just in the Royal Navy, but on earth, to recognize the papers and understand their importance. And yet all of that actually happened. As Wiley was realizing what had happened, the ship he'd captured, the Nancy, was being conducted to Port Royal, where a suit for salvage was filed with the Vice Admiralty Court of Jamaica. The Nancy claimed to be American, but Wiley suspected she was really French, and he claimed the ship as a prize on the high seas. The owners and master of the Nancy denied those charges. They offered their own evidence and made affidavits saying that the ship and its cargo

Starting point is 00:09:17 were both owned by Americans and not involved in trade with the French. In fact, Briggs and Schultze gave depositions under oath that, quote, no papers whatever were burnt, torn, thrown overboard, destroyed, canceled, concealed, or attempted so to be, that all the papers on board said Briggs were entirely true and fair. They filed a motion to have the suit dismissed, and it looked for the moment as if they might prevail. But on that very day, September 14th, Michael Fitton and the ferret arrived in Port Royal, and he sent a seaman to the Vice Admiralty Court with a bulky parcel and a cryptic note.

Starting point is 00:09:50 The note said, On September 24th, Fitton himself appeared in court and put the shark papers onto the judge's bench with an affidavit giving the whole story. The affidavit ended, This deponent saith that having been informed that his majesty's cutter Sparrow has sent down to this island as prize a certain brig or vessel called the Nancy, and supposing the papers so found as aforesaid might be useful at the trial of the said vessel called the Nancy, hath caused the same to be sealed up, and delivered them to one of the surrogates of this honorable court without any fraud, alteration, addition, subtraction,

Starting point is 00:10:34 or embezzlement, whatever, taken and the truth thereof sworn to, this 24th day of September, 1799, Michael Fitton. This astonished the court and threw the defendants, understandably, into consternation. But on a further search of the Nancy, some additional papers were found in a barrel of pork in the captain's cabin, quote, so hard drove in that it was with difficulty they could be taken out. And those complemented the shark papers. Taken together, that was enough to doom the Americans' case. The court awarded prize money to Wiley and the crew of the Sparrow for capturing the Nancy. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Briggs and Schultz on charges of perjury, but before the papers could be served, they took horse and crossed the Blue Mountains to Port

Starting point is 00:11:13 Antonio on the north coast and then took a trading vessel back to the United States, leaving the Nancy to her fate. She and her cargo were sold on November 25, 1799, as good and lawful prize on the high seas. I said this story is well attested, and it is. The shark papers were preserved. They were kept in the archives of the Vice Admiralty Court of Jamaica until 1890, when they were deposited in the Museum of the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston. With them is Michael Fitton's affidavit, in which he gives the whole story, sworn under oath to surrogate Jay Fraser on September 24, 1799. The shark's jaws were sent to the United Service Museum in Whitehall, London, and displayed in a case there.

Starting point is 00:11:55 Michael Fitton had nothing to gain by inventing this story, and in fact he didn't gain. He received no compensation or even commendation by his commander-in-chief for his part in all this. When he retired in 1835, after 55 years of naval service, in all this. When he retired in 1835, after 55 years of naval service, he was so poor that he had to enter Greenwich Hospital as a pensioner, and he died in 1852 at age 86. I can't find any expression of doubt about the facts of this case, incredible as they are, then or now. Edgar Thompson, a retired U.S. Navy captain who researched it thoroughly in 1970, calls it an extraordinary coincidence that is almost past belief. I should add that history does not record whether Michael Fitton ever got his walking stick. Futility Closet would not still be here today if it weren't for the generous support of our

Starting point is 00:12:41 listeners. We appreciate all the different ways that many of our listeners help the show, but the backbone of our support is our Patreon campaign, as that gives us an ongoing source of support so that we can commit to the amount of time that the podcast takes to make. Patreon also gives us a good way to share some extras with our show's supporters, like outtakes, more lateral thinking puzzles, extra discussions on some of the stories, and updates on Sasha, the premier podcast of Central North Carolina. You can learn more at our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futilitycloset, or see the support us section of our website for the link. And thanks so much to everyone who is a part of Futility Closet.

Starting point is 00:13:23 Thanks so much to everyone who is a part of Futility Closet. I know we've covered escaping kangaroos and wallabies a few times on the show now, and I try not to cover the same topic too many times unless there is something rather new to be said about it. In this case, Alex Baumans did write in with something rather novel. In an article about Dante Gabriel Rossetti's infatuation with wombats, in itself a cute story, I came across a mention of escaped kangaroos in Victorian times. It turns out that these animals have a fairly long history of escaping captivity. The incidents have nothing to do with Rossetti himself, although he too kept kangaroos and wallabies, but I suppose the author

Starting point is 00:14:05 thought them too good to leave out. And Alex sent a link to an essay by Angus Trumbull, a former director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, on how the English artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his circle seemed to have been quite taken with wombats in the 1850s and 60s. Trumbull doesn't seem to know the origin of this infatuation and notes that at the time, Australian birds and animals were very seldom noted in the London press. Palmer's index to the Times newspaper lists only one reference each to a possum and an echidna in the whole extent of the 19th century, while kangaroos are likewise seldom mentioned, though the few mentions are so bizarre that they are worth repeating.

Starting point is 00:14:46 And Trumbull recounts how the first reference that he could find for kangaroos was from February 1834 and concerned an elderly woman who lived alone in a house in South London. According to the Times, she awoke one morning to find a strange animal lying at her back with one of its paws laid over her shoulder. A strange animal lying at her back with one of its paws laid over her shoulder. Screaming with a fright, she left her bed, and seizing a towel, she beat at it with all her might, when with one bound it sprang to the furthest corner of the room and at length took refuge in another bed which stood in the same apartment. Trumbull says that the animal turned out to have escaped from a Mr. Womwell's wild beast show,

Starting point is 00:15:23 and I would imagine that while most people nowadays probably know what a kangaroo is, I would think that most people in England in 1834 probably would not. So while it would be frightening enough to wake up to find an animal in your bed, I can't imagine what it would be like to find a really strange-looking animal like that. Yeah, one that you've never seen or even seen described. Yeah. And a pretty big one. I mean, yeah, pretty big and pretty... Kangaroos are pretty strange-looking. Yeah, that that you've never seen or even seen described. Yeah. And a pretty big one. I mean, yeah, pretty big and pretty, kangaroos are pretty strange looking.

Starting point is 00:15:48 Yeah, that must be serious. I mean, it's funny, but it must have been terrifying. It would have terrified me. I'd be scared now to find a kangaroo in my bed. Trumbull notes that the second reference to kangaroos in the Times is from 16 years later, in October 1850. This story was also about an escaped kangaroo, this one from a menagerie that belonged to a newly elected member of parliament,

Starting point is 00:16:09 W.J. Evelyn, from Watton in West Surrey. After his kangaroo escaped, Evelyn apparently called out the local hunt, complete with huntsmen, a pack of beagles, whippersin, and so on, to go after the poor kangaroo. The Times wrote, The animal's peculiar mode of progression was exhibited in a style which astonished the field, a singular succession of leaps carrying it over the ground at a rate perfectly startling. Those who were well mounted alone were enabled to go the pace,

Starting point is 00:16:35 and they speedily found themselves at the top of Leith Hill, where the kangaroo took to the road, and for about a mile and a half they all dashed along, the field rapidly augmenting in numbers as they proceeded in their novel chase. And that's all that Trumbull had on that story, but I wanted to know what happened to the kangaroo. I wasn't able to find a lot on it, which I guess isn't too surprising, but I did find a couple of mentions of it. The most complete story of the kangaroo that I could find was an article in an 1898 issue of Country Life

Starting point is 00:17:03 about a herd of kangaroos living on the common of Leith Hill. The article said that the last of the animals had been killed 10 years earlier, although apparently stories were still circulating about the kangaroos still living there. The article states, the mother of the herd appears to have been a kangaroo of the common variety, which had been kept with other pets of the same species within a walled enclosure at Watton House near Dorking. During the autumn of 1849, she contrived to leap the walls and gain the freedom of the open country. Her liberty was brief, however, for she was chased by beagles and recaptured. But sweets once tasted became an enduring temptation, and a little later the animal again escaped.

Starting point is 00:17:41 This time she was more successful in her venture. animal again escaped. This time, she was more successful in her venture. Efforts to recapture her entirely failed, and Mr. W.J. Evelyn, her owner, resolved to leave her in undisturbed possession of her freedom. So this freedom-loving kangaroo was later seen carrying a baby kangaroo in her pouch, and that was presumed to have been male, since the number of kangaroos living in the area continued to grow. It's not known exactly how many there were, but it was reported that there were at least nine kangaroos in 1880. Unfortunately for the kangaroos, they were apparently very tame and unafraid of people,

Starting point is 00:18:14 which allowed them to become easy prey. When word got out about them, hunters thought it would be interesting to shoot a kangaroo. And the last of the kangaroos was said to have been shot in 1888. That makes a nice story, though, from the kangaroo's point of view. She did really well for a while. That makes like a really dramatic life story. In episode 234, I discussed some failed attempts to validate the story of Archimedes using mirrors

Starting point is 00:18:40 to burn Roman ships. Peter Barvotes wrote, regarding Archimedes's death ray, I remember when this episode was on Mythbusters. I couldn't help considering that the mirrors were probably quite able to ignite the ship back then due to how long ago this was, and it would probably be impossible to recreate today. My reasoning was this. Consider it was supposed to have occurred in circa 214 to 212 BCE. The skies would have been probably completely clear of pollutants, particles, sulfur dioxide, whatever that is in the atmosphere today since the Industrial Revolution, barring any large volcanic eruptions, of course. Just the impact of aircraft can make a measurable difference, as reported in this article. Regional variations

Starting point is 00:19:21 in U.S. diurnal temperature range Range for the 11-14 September 2001 Aircraft Groundings Evidence of Jet Contrail Influence on Climate I saw this or a similar study on a NOVA or Nature program after 9-11 and it made me think of how much clearer and cleaner the skies must have been thousands of years ago. So I found this really interesting. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks using airplanes in the U.S., all commercial aircraft were grounded within U.S. airspace for three days, which represented an unparalleled opportunity to study the effects of aircraft contrails on climate.

Starting point is 00:19:56 These exhaust trails of condensed water vapor are similar to cirrus clouds in some respects, though they are typically more reflective. So that means they will reduce the amount of incoming solar radiation even more than similar clouds would. The lack of contrails for those three days was enough to produce an observable increase in daytime temperatures in general in the U.S., so that the three-day average daily maximum temperature for the country was 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than normal. These temperature increases were seen even in areas that were experiencing other weather conditions that would more typically

Starting point is 00:20:29 have reduced daytime temperatures. And larger temperature increases were seen in regions that typically have the most contrail coverage. That's really thoughtful even to think of doing that, you know, to realize that those data were available for that period. I mean, the whole nation was reeling at that time. But to think, oh, this is a really unusual opportunity to get, you know. I think they did it retroactively, though. I don't think they did it on those days because the weather data was— But to think of doing that at all. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:20:56 Yeah, I don't know who first came up with the idea that maybe the contrails were affecting weather conditions. Yeah. And it sounds like they had a real effect. I mean, that's a bigger effect than I would have expected. Yeah. And that's—I thought that was all pretty interesting in itself, but until I read Peter's email, I hadn't even thought about how the atmospheric conditions today might be different enough from those of more than 2,000 years ago to make it difficult to say if we can really accurately replicate what Archimedes might or might not have done with his mirrors.

Starting point is 00:21:22 The group at MIT that attempted to ignite wooden models had found that even light cloud cover could really mess up their attempts, so the impact of contrails and any atmospheric pollution might really make a difference. So I guess we have to say that this does make the idea of Archimedes' burning mirrors perhaps a little more plausible, though some of the other objections that I raised in episode 234 would still apply, like that the death ray would be very dependent on weather conditions, and that to be

Starting point is 00:21:50 effective, it would need to start rather sudden large fires in wood that had been floating on water, and thus might be less likely to ignite in that way. It does seem too likely, if that had really happened and been successful, that you'd see it used elsewhere in the ancient world. I mean, if people realized that was an effective way to attack someone with reflected sunlight, they'd be doing it. Exactly. Yes, I mentioned that in the episode. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:22:10 That's one reason why historians think it didn't happen, because they think the Romans would have replicated the technology themselves. And we recently heard from listener Scarlett Casey, who has a very impressive vocabulary and writing style for any age, but particularly for someone who's almost 12. Scarlett wrote, Hi Chief Mouser and her human slaves. Today I was sitting on the couch listening to old episodes of the Weekly Curiosities when I heard a purr, purr.

Starting point is 00:22:36 It was episode 60 and I was feeling sad about the elephant they hanged. By the way, that is proper grammar. Then suddenly Sasha came by. I was so excited because this was the first time I had ever heard her. She gave a cacophony of purrs and a little tiny meow. It was at 31.56 that this cute little sound made my heart leap. Thank you for all the weekly brain power, Scarlet and Mister, my cat, who is most definitely controlling my dog and I.

Starting point is 00:23:02 So I found the story from episode 60 to be pretty upsetting myself, so I can definitely understand why hearing Sasha on that episode was a nice pick-me-up. When I wrote to Scarlett to ask about her age, I got a very nice reply back, also letting us know that Scarlett and her family had recently gone to the Gardner Museum, the setting of the art heist that we had talked about in episode 201, and I learned from Scarlet's mom that Scarlet has been listening to our show a lot while recovering recently from a concussion. So we're sending out our best wishes for a full recovery to Scarlet. And we're glad that we were able to brighten your recuperation period a bit.

Starting point is 00:23:37 Thank you to everyone who writes to us. We really appreciate hearing your comments, updates, and feedback. So if you or any furry members of your household have anything you'd like to say to either the chief mouser or either of her definitely being controlled human slaves, please send that 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 interesting situation, and he has to see if he can figure it out asking yes or no questions.

Starting point is 00:24:09 This puzzle comes from Bob Seidensticker. Centuries ago, a governor in China was shocked to find that the box containing his official seal was empty. This seal was used to make documents official. It was irreplaceable, and he would be held responsible if he couldn't find it. The governor suspected the prison guard, who clearly disliked the governor, of the theft, but how to get it back.

Starting point is 00:24:31 If the governor threatened the guard, he might destroy the seal. Kindness wouldn't work because the guard couldn't return the seal without admitting his crime. The governor solved his problem by starting a fire in the district office building.

Starting point is 00:24:45 How did this help? Is this true? I guess it doesn't matter if it's true. It's a great puzzle. Either way. Okay, so did he get his seal back? Yes. Had the guard taken it?

Starting point is 00:24:56 Yes. Would you say that the governor's plan worked? Yes. Okay. Do I need to know more about the technicalities of the seal? No. How it worked? It was just a stolen item. Yes. Okay. Do I need to know more about the technicalities of the seal, like how it worked? Or it was just a stolen item? Yes. That's all I need to know? Yes. It was kept in a box. Yes. The guard took it from the box. I don't need to know anything about the actual theft. Correct. All I need to know is that a guard stole something. Yes. And setting a fire,

Starting point is 00:25:22 where was the fire? In a district building. The governor set the fire. Is that important? No. It just needed to be sort of a public fire. Okay. Really? Yes. So that's not where the seal was being hidden? He did not know where the seal was. Was the seal in the building? I don't know where the seal was. It may not have been. It may not have been. All right. Excellent. And I don't need to know the guard's reason for stealing the seal. Correct. So this is really as simple as it sounds. Yes. Okay.

Starting point is 00:25:49 So I understand everything you've said about the governor's problem. Yes. He sets a fire, has a fire set in this arbitrary place. Yes. Is the point of the fire to distract the public? No. To distract anyone? No.

Starting point is 00:26:11 To destroy something? You said it was sort of arbitrary where the fire— No. I'm guessing the fire was in, like, the official government building where they all were. Like, I'm assuming that that would make more sense. Including the governor and the guard both. Yes. Let's say that would make more sense. Including the governor and the guard both. Yes.

Starting point is 00:26:26 Let's say that's where it was. Okay. Does it have to do with just evacuating the building with people fleeing a fire or danger? Something like that. Okay. Okay. So there's this predicament and then the fire starts. Yes.

Starting point is 00:26:43 And then you say the governor gets his seal back. Yes. Is that because he discovers it for himself? No. Does the guard give him the seal under some other pre... In a manner of speaking, yes. So the guard has the seal. He does. The fire starts.

Starting point is 00:26:59 Yes. And that somehow leads to the guard... Yes. Restoring the seal to the governor. This is a great puzzle. Yes. He actually restores it to the guard restoring the seal to the governor. This is a great puzzle. Yes. He actually restores it to the box. Okay.

Starting point is 00:27:11 Okay. Not to the governor directly. And then the governor finds it there later. Yes. So everyone's happy. Yes. Or I guess the guards. Well, the guard's not happy, right, because he was doing this to cause trouble for the governor because he didn't like the governor.

Starting point is 00:27:23 Okay. Is the guard trying to protect the seal in some way from the fire? No. Oh, that's a good thought. Figure out what the guard's reason for giving. Yeah, what would induce the guard to do this

Starting point is 00:27:34 because he'd just taken it out. And that's what's happened is the governor finds a way to induce the guard to put the seal back. Of his own volition. Yes. Is anyone else involved? No.

Starting point is 00:27:43 Okay. So if I'm a guard and i've stolen something yes i don't need to know his reasons for stealing it right right just he doesn't like the governor he's trying to cause trouble okay so is it that the guard is afraid that somehow the this business with the fire will lead to his identification as the thief you see what i mean if he's like i don't know how this work, but if the fire somehow leads him to think, oh gosh, this is going to help them discover who stole the seal, I better put it back.

Starting point is 00:28:11 No, that's not it. So he's not putting it back to protect himself. He is putting it back to protect himself, but there's an intervening step in between. By protect himself, I mean from being identified as a thief. That's what we're saying? So let's say this. Suppose the fire started and he didn't put the seal back. Right.

Starting point is 00:28:29 Would he be fingered or outed somehow as having stolen it? Yes. Because of the fire, because of some intervening action. There's an intervening step, yes. Okay, I'm with you. Okay, so the fire starts. Does the intervening step have something to do with putting out the fire? No.

Starting point is 00:28:42 With damage to the building? No. Or smoke or anything like no it's just and it didn't have to have been a fire the governor needed an emergency situation and everybody would show up like a lot of would an audience would have basically come right because if there's a fire and there's an alarm everybody's like oh this building's on fire we better all show up to help right right? He just needed any emergency situation. To attract attention. To attract attention and to be able to do something under the guise of an emergency.

Starting point is 00:29:12 Oh, it's not. The other thing I thought of is it just that there's so many people present that the guard can't escape with this loot. That's not it. No, but the guard is actually induced to put the seal back in the box. Because there are so many people present. Yes, and something else that the governor does. Okay, so the governor starts the fire, has the fire started,

Starting point is 00:29:33 and then afterwards, once the fire's going, he does this other thing? After people show up, so he can do it in front of an audience. He has to do something in front of an audience. Does he say something? Partly. Does he say something? Partly. Does he announce that he's been robbed? No. This is very interesting.

Starting point is 00:29:54 Okay, so this crowd shows up. So basically he could have accomplished the same thing by just summoning a crowd. Maybe. But I think having the emergency gives him an excuse also for what he does next but so he says but the crowd is important is does he ask for the crowd's help in some way no he just needs them as witnesses as an audience as a public witness does he does he okay a witness to something involving the seal directly? Not directly. Or the theft?

Starting point is 00:30:27 No, he doesn't announce that there's been a theft. So I'm just trying to put this together in my head. I just try to picture it. Yeah. So a crowd comes out and he presents himself to the crowd, I guess. Yes. Now he has an empty box that doesn't have a seal in it, but nobody knows that except for himself and the guard. Nobody else knows that the seal is missing. But he can't have the box with him because the guard has to have the

Starting point is 00:30:48 opportunity to put the seal back in the box. He does have the box with him. He can't say, someone come and help me save my valuable seal. Is that what he says? Something like that. Yes, we need to save the valuable seal from the fire. And the guard thinks, oh my gosh, they'll discover I've stolen it. I'd better put it back. That exactly. There's what else? What does he cleverly do with it? Right. The guard will need the opportunity to put the seal back. And the guard will need a reason to put the seal back. And there's one thing the governor does that makes both of those things happen. But it's not, it doesn't have to do with the use of the seal. Right. Right.

Starting point is 00:31:27 I keep getting in trouble on the fact that it's a seal. Nobody will ever know that the seal was missing except for the guard and the governor. Nobody will ever know. And the guard doesn't even know the governor is onto him. He probably knows, yes. So what would you... In public, in front of witnesses. And you say it's not that he's asking for the crowd's help, except as witnesses. All he needs is them.

Starting point is 00:31:49 Right. The crowd has no idea any of this is happening. So is he announcing he's going to do something? No? I mean, he more does it, but... To the box. With the box. With the box. With the box.

Starting point is 00:32:06 Yes. That seems like a big hint. Yes. What would you do with a box? It doesn't have anything to do with the fire? Well, he can say under the guise of the pretense of we need to keep the box safe because there's a fire,

Starting point is 00:32:20 so we need this protected. So I'm going to take the box and... Well, I can think of... The way to protect it would be to remove it from the building or to... Uh-huh. Is that what he proposes to do? You could give it to somebody publicly and say, they're going to keep it safe for me.

Starting point is 00:32:37 To give it to the guard? Yes. So he gives the box to the guard in front of the crowd and says... That's clever. Here's the seal. Make sure to keep it safe. So then the guard thinks, now he has to put the seal back in because if he doesn't, it'll be clear that he stole it. Yes. That's very clever because then the governor doesn't ever reveal that he ever knew that it had been stolen. Right. He doesn't have to. Yeah. And Bob

Starting point is 00:33:01 said, this is a story told to illustrate one of the stratagems in the Chinese classic, The 36 Stratagems. That's very good. It is. That's like a perfect puzzle. So thank you to Bob for that really interesting puzzle. And now we all know one of the classic Chinese stratagems for dealing with your enemies if this happens to anybody else.

Starting point is 00:33:19 And if anyone else has a puzzle for us to try, please send it to podcast at futilitycloset.com. else has a puzzle for us to try, please send it to podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet is a full-time commitment for us and is supported entirely by our fabulous listeners. If you would like to help support our celebration of the quirky and the curious, please check out the support us section at the website at futilitycloset.com, where you can find a donate button and a link to our Patreon page. At our website, you can also graze through Greg's collection of over 10,000 trivia tidbits. Browse the Futility Closet store for penguin-adorned shirts, mugs, aprons, and phone cases. Learn about the Futility Closet books and see the show notes for the podcast with the links

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Futility Closet - 240-The Shark Papers

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