Futility Closet - 361-A Fight Over Nutmeg

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 12,000 quirky curiosities from a civilized orangutan to the speed of time. This is episode 361. I'm Greg Ross.. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1616, British officer Nathaniel Courthope was sent to a tiny island in the East Indies to contest a Dutch monopoly on nutmeg. He and his men would spend four years battling sickness, starvation, and enemy attacks to defend the island's bounty. In today's show, we'll describe

Starting point is 00:00:45 Courthope's stand and its surprising impact in world history. We'll also meet a Serbian hermit and puzzle over an unusual business strategy. The tiny island of Run lies in the backwaters of the East Indies, a dot in the Banda Sea, 600 miles north of Australia. Today, it's almost forgotten, one of 17,000 islands in Indonesia, but in the early 17th century, it was the most talked-about island in the world. In those days, Nutmeg was Europe's most coveted luxury. Londoners believed it was the only cure for the plague, and quacks claimed it could cure everything from gout to the so-called bloody flux, a virulent strain of dysentery. Demand sent the price skyrocketing, where 10 pounds of

Starting point is 00:01:39 nutmeg cost less than one English penny in the East Indies. In London, it cost more than 50 shillings, a markup of 60,000 percent. Thatmeg grew only on six islands in the Indian Ocean, the Bandas, which were practically another world to the Europeans of that era. The spice merchants of Constantinople told stories of sea monsters, headhunters, pirates, sickness, and storms to be faced on a journey there. A European mariner who set out for that region had less than one chance in three of returning. But the prize became too tempting to resist. The Portuguese had been the first to reach the Banda Islands in 1511. They found that five of the six islands lay within gunshot of one another and could be controlled

Starting point is 00:02:25 by a castle erected on the principal island, Nira. The outlier was Run, a volcanic atoll more than 10 miles west of Nira. Run was so thickly forested with nutmeg trees that it produced a third of a million pounds of the spice every year. But it was also the most dangerous of the islands. Its harbor was ringed with a sunken reef, and its warlike people drove away the Portuguese before they could build a castle there. In time, the British and the Dutch joined the spice race, and by 1609, the Dutch had captured five of the six islands. Only Run kept them from a monopoly on the world's nutmeg. That was the state of affairs on December 23, 1616, when Nathaniel Courthope arrived at the island with two ships, the Swan and the Defense.

Starting point is 00:03:13 Courthope had been chosen by the English East India Company to secure the island for King James. His orders told him he was to hold it against the Dutch to the utmost of his power, even to the loss of lives and goods. He anchored in the bay and sent a skiff ashore to approach the islanders, who he'd been warned were peevish, perverse, diffident, and perfidious. But they were overjoyed to see English ships. They'd been in constant conflict with the Dutch, who had put the island under a virtual blockade, and many of the people were nearly starving. They were happy to sign over the island to the English crown forever in exchange for British protection.

Starting point is 00:03:53 This was a promising start to Courtauld's mission. Two days of friendly festivities followed the agreement, but on Christmas Day, a Dutch ship was seen approaching the island from the west. Courtauld installed three cannon on the highest cliff, and three days later, the Dutch vessel sent a boat into the bay within range of the west. Courtauld installed three cannon on the highest cliff, and three days later, the Dutch vessel sent a boat into the bay within range of the guns. A tense standoff followed, and then the Dutch ship raised the blood flag, a sign that hostilities would begin. Then it sailed for Nira. The intentions of the Hollanders were soon clear. They imposed a blockade, hoping to force courthope off the island.

Starting point is 00:04:30 That was a grim sign. The people of Run normally depended on supplies from the neighboring islands, and Run had no reserves of water. Traditionally, the people collected monsoon rains in jars and cisterns and then used it sparingly during the dry season. There was some hope that they could withstand a direct assault. The island's southern coast was a long bank of cliffs with a reef just below the surface, and the northern coast, with the island's only settlement, was now overlooked by the guns. But eventually the water supply ran dangerously low, and when a group of men embarked in the Swan to a neighboring island to get more, the Dutch commander struck. He pulled alongside the swan, threw

Starting point is 00:05:05 grappling irons onto her decks, boarded, and attacked. The English captain wrote, they killed five men, maimed three, and hurt eight, and we had not thirty men able to do anything, nor no wind to work with all. The sailors on the deck were cut down with swords, and those below were flushed out with musket fire. Then the Dutch towed the Swan triumphantly to Nira. The picture was now more bleak than ever. The Dutch had a dozen ships, a thousand soldiers, and command of the sea. Courtauld had only his resolution. His men were poorly supplied and now suffering with malnutrition and dysentery. Courtauld sent a man to Nero under a flag of truce

Starting point is 00:05:46 to demand that the Dutch return both the swan and her crew, but they turned him down and said they would soon have the defense as well. That promise came true. A group of mutineers, weary of long months on the island, took the defense, sailed her to Nero, surrendered to the Dutch, and handed over plans of all the defenses on run. One of Courtauld's companions called them a company of treacherous villains who have deserved hanging better than wages. The Dutch offered to return the captured ships and men and to send

Starting point is 00:06:16 Courtauld home with a full cargo of nutmeg, but in return England must sign away forever her rights to the island. Courtaope refused, insisting that, quote, I could not unless I should turn traitor unto my king and country in giving up that right which I am able to hold, and also betray the country people who have surrendered up their land to our king's majesty. On hearing that response, says the Chronicle, the Dutch governor general threw his hat on the ground and pulled his beard for anger. But still, Courtauld could do little more than wait and hope. Though he was greatly outnumbered, he managed to send out word of his plight by an islander's boat, and he cultivated a network of spies who traveled among the islands gathering information. And occasionally, a junk

Starting point is 00:07:01 broke through the Dutch blockade to provide his starving men with rice. Month followed month, and Courthope refused to back down. After 15 months of privation, in the spring of 1618, word came that an English supply ship, the Solomon, was approaching the island with aid. But when it was within an hour of the harbor, four Dutch ships set upon it. The Solomon was too heavily laden with supplies to be able to fight well, and after a battle of almost seven hours, the English captain gave in. After such a long vigil, this was a devastating disappointment to Courtauld, who wrote

Starting point is 00:07:36 that rather than surrender so ignominiously, he would have sunk down right in the sea first. He wrote bitterly to his directors in London, I much marvel you sent this year with so weak forces, you seeing they use all the means possible they can to bar us of all trade in these parts. Therefore, if you mean the company to have any trade with these islands, it must not be deferred any longer, but to send such forces the next westerly monsoon,

Starting point is 00:08:03 to maintain that we have, or else all is gone, and not to be expected hereafter any more trade this way. This year I have withheld it from them with much difficulty, without any relief or aid, not so much as one letter from you to advise me what course you intend to take in this business, I having but thirty-eight men to withstand their force and tyranny, which is a very weak strength to withstand their unruly odds of forces. Our wants are extreme, neither have we any vittles or drink, but only rice and water, which, had not God sent in four or five junks to have relieved us with rice, I must have been feigned to have given up our king's and company's right for want of relief, which relief is weak.

Starting point is 00:08:45 Therefore I pray you consider well of these affairs, and suffer us not to be forced to yield ourselves into such tyrants' hands. I am determined to hold it out until the next westerly monsoon in despite of them, or else we are determined all to die in defense of it. At present they have eight ships here, and two galleys, and to my knowledge all fitted and ready to come against us. So I look daily and hourly, and if they win it, by God's help I make no doubt but they shall pay full dearly for it with a fusion of much blood. By now sickness had crippled Courthope's small force, and his supplies had dwindled nearly to nothing. Only a couple of sacks of rice remained in the storehouse,

Starting point is 00:09:25 so they were forced to resort to a starchy porridge boiled down from the Sago palm, the only plant besides nutmeg that thrived on the island. And they were exhausted by their constant vigilance against Dutch attacks. Courtauld still managed to inspire his men. When the Dutch tried to land on Run a few weeks after the capture of the Solomon, the invaders were crushed by a group of Bandonese warriors. But that fall, the rains failed to appear. Again, the island's reserves of water ran perilously low, and what remained teemed so with worms that the men had to strain them with their teeth. Under the stress, some threatened mutiny, but Courtauld's understanding and earnest protests won them back.

Starting point is 00:10:06 In January 1619, more than two years after their arrival on run, a junk managed to smuggle word that Sir Thomas Dale was coming with a fleet of ships to expel the Dutch from Java. But again, they were disappointed. Dale bungled a sea fight at Jakarta and then retreated to the Indian coast, where he died of an illness. By now, Courtauld might honorably have surrendered. He'd held out far longer than anyone could have expected. His resources were now so low that he was bartering his men's possessions for essential supplies, and the men themselves were starving. The sick were beginning to die. Courtauld wrote, We have rubbed off the skin already, and if we rub any longer, shall rub to the bone.

Starting point is 00:10:45 But their stay lengthened to three years, and still he refused to give in. Every day he rallied the men, and every day they manned the defenses against the Dutch onslaught. The end came in October 1620, when Courthope learned that the men of Great Banda Island had risen up against the Dutch. Rumor said that they wanted to unite with Courthope's men against the enemy, and Courthope resolved to visit Great Banda and had risen up against the Dutch. Rumor said that they wanted to unite with Courtauld's men against the enemy, and Courtauld resolved to visit Great Banda and rally them. His second-in-command, Robert Hayes, wrote, I prayed him to stay, but he refused. Thus went he over that night with his boy William, well fitted with muskets and weapons, promising to return in five days. That was a fatal mistake, because one of the men on run

Starting point is 00:11:26 was a traitor. A Hollander who passed himself off as a deserter had been informing the Dutch of Courtauld's movements. Now they dispatched a ship to lie in wait for his boat. At three in the morning, his lantern came into view. They waited until he was almost upon them and then opened fire. Courtauld fought back valiantly, but he was facing more than 50 Dutch soldiers. He fired until his gun jammed, then hurled it into the water. They shot him in the chest, and he leapt overboard and was never seen again. News of his death spread slowly across the islands. It took more than a week to reach Rennes.

Starting point is 00:12:00 The men there were devastated. For four years, he had led them through the greatest hardships in withstanding a force hundreds of times stronger than their own. The men there were devastated. For four years he had led them through the greatest hardships in withstanding a force hundreds of times stronger than their own. They chose a new leader, but without Courtauld they had lost their defiance. When the Dutch sent 25 ships to attack the island, the starving remnant capitulated and the Dutch colors replaced the flag of St. George. The siege had lasted 1,540 days. Very little is known about Nathaniel Courtauld as a man. We don't know much about his early life, how old he was, or even what he looked like.

Starting point is 00:12:33 History remembers him for the four years he spent defending Rennes, which itself is only a speck half a mile wide in the Bande des Cies. But historians have claimed two outsized repercussions for this tiny drama. The first concerns the outcome of the struggle between the Dutch and the English. After Courtauld's death, the Dutch consolidated their hold on the world's nutmeg supply, collecting more than 150,000 kilograms each year on run and selling it across Europe. The English continued to hope that they might retake the island, as Courtauld had arranged for its people to sign a document of alliance,

Starting point is 00:13:07 affirming England's right of tenure there. The two nations fought until March 1667, when they entered negotiations at Breda, where it was agreed that the Dutch could keep run and, in return, the English could keep a Dutch possession they had taken in 1664, a narrow island off the coast of New England. As a result, Manhattan passed from Dutch hands to English, and New Amsterdam was shortly renamed New York. The second claim is even greater. The first Britons who reached run, including Nathaniel Courtauld, were working for the English East India Company, which was not at first empowered to hold overseas territories. But with Run in mind, Oliver Cromwell changed this policy, giving the company a new charter that included the authority to hold, fortify, and settle overseas territories,

Starting point is 00:13:56 and soon India and the East came under British sway. In that sense, historian John Key argues, the tiny island of Run might have seen the genesis of the British Empire. He writes, the seed from which grew the most extensive empire the world has ever seen was sown on Pulau Run in the Banda Islands at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. As the island of Runnymede is to British constitutional history, so the island of Run is to British imperial history. The main story in episode 296 was about the Little League baseball team from Monterrey, Mexico, and their inspiring 1957 championship win against all the odds. Gary Maxwell wrote,

Starting point is 00:14:53 Hi Sharon and Greg. While continuing to catch up on previous podcasts, I was especially enthralled with the adventures of the Monterrey baseball team and their very unlikely journey to the Little League Championship in 1957. The story is remarkable on so many levels, but especially how they learned a game that requires significant skills, teamwork, and strategy in order to be successful. A successful championship team needs most of their players to have these attributes, along with skilled managers and coaches. As a former player, coach, and manager of Little League, I cannot stress enough how remarkable an achievement this was, given their isolation and inability to even see how the game was normally played. I went to the official Little League website to find out more details of the games played back then. The information is sparse, but I was amazed to see that the same team from Monterey won the Little League World Series the following year, in 1958,

Starting point is 00:15:41 another astonishing rare feat that has only happened twice before, in 1984-85, Seoul, South Korea, and 1992-93, Long Beach, California. So their success in 1957 certainly was no fluke. Thanks for an especially entertaining episode, and except for the lateral thinking puzzle, no one died. And that's actually a nice point that the team did win again the following year, showing it wasn't a fluke that they'd won in 1957. Although it looked to me like one more team had consecutive wins than Gary had noted, as the 1971, 72, and 73 championships were won by a team from Taipei. But still, it is a rather rare occurrence, as only three teams seem to have managed back-to-back wins since the championships were started in 1947. And it was very nice to hear

Starting point is 00:16:31 the perspective of a former player, coach, and manager of Little League on this. Yeah, I didn't know that much about Little League myself when I started researching that story, and it is very inspiring. We've discussed Hermits a few times on this show, although somehow not since episode 310, I think. Alex Wood sent some interesting Serbian hermit news, an article from August in the Straits Times titled, Serbian Cave Hermit Gets COVID-19 Vaccine Urges Others to Follow. About 20 years ago, Panta Petrovic, now 70, moved into a tiny mountain cave in southern Serbia, only accessible via a steep climb. The cave contains an old bathtub that serves as a

Starting point is 00:17:12 toilet, some benches, and a stack of hay for a bed. Petrovic is originally from the nearby town of Pirot and is quoted as saying, I was not free in the city. There is always someone in your way. You either argue with your wife, neighbors, or the police. There is always someone in your way. You either argue with your wife, neighbors, or the police. Here, nobody is hassling me. Before moving to his cave home, Petrovich donated his money to fund the construction of three bridges in town. He is quoted as saying, money is cursed. It spoils people. I think nothing can corrupt a human like money. Petrovich now lives mostly on mushrooms and fish from a nearby creek, supplemented with food he finds in the trash and has visits to town. He keeps a number

Starting point is 00:17:51 of animals, including three kittens whose mother was killed by a wolf and that he had to feed with a syringe, and a wild boar named Mara that he found eight years ago when she was a piglet entangled in some bushes. He bottle- fed her until she was well, and now the 200 kilogram or 440 pound boar is a beloved pet. Petrovich said, she means everything to me. I love her and she listens to me. There is no money that can buy such a thing. Petrovich relies on donations to buy food and supplies for his animals. On one of his visits to town last year, Petrovic learned about the pandemic. When the COVID-19 vaccines became available, he got jabbed and urges everyone else

Starting point is 00:18:31 to do the same, saying, I want to get all three doses, including the extra one. I urge every citizen to get vaccinated, every single one of them. So even hermits are getting jabbed. Even hermits living in caves recognize the importance of the vaccines. In episode 347, we discussed the terrible King's Cross fire of 1987 that killed 31 people and injured scores more, and that the London Fire Brigade called the worst fire in the history of the London Underground. John Horner wrote, As you mentioned the King's Cross escalator fire, I thought you might be interested in the fact that all of the victims were identified immediately except for one, and his identity remained a

Starting point is 00:19:15 mystery for over 16 years. I was living in London at the time, and my girlfriend passed through the station just minutes before it happened, so it's very fresh in my mind, and the fact that a Londoner had died without anyone coming forward to claim him was a poignant detail. Loving the podcast, it keeps me company in my kitchen every day, and whenever my son and I go for a walk, I recycle one of your lateral thinking puzzles for him. It's become a tradition now. And John sent a link to an article in The Guardian from 2004 about how it took 16 years for a badly burned body to finally be identified as Alexander Fallon, a 72-year-old Scott who had been homeless at the time. According to Fallon's family, after his wife had died of cancer 13 years before the fire, he sold their house and then moved to London in the early 1980s, where he was, what the Guardian

Starting point is 00:20:05 called, sleeping rough. He had occasionally written to or called his four daughters to keep in touch until they stopped hearing from him in 1987. Unfortunately, that made him just one of the thousands of missing people in London. After the fire, detectives began an extensive search for relatives of the unidentified victim, and they received hundreds of calls from people across the world who had friends or family members that had gone missing in London. Officers from Britain and Interpol worked to check dental records and compare personal details of missing persons. Forensic scientists did their best to construct a model of the victim's head, hoping that someone might recognize their construction. did their best to construct a model of the victim's head, hoping that someone might recognize their construction. But still the identity of Body 115, named for his mortuary tag number, remained

Starting point is 00:20:50 unknown. Fallon's daughters first began to consider that their father might have died in the King's Cross fire in 1997, but at that time the investigation was focused on another man who was thought to maybe be Body 115. Fallon's daughters raised their concerns again with police in 2002 after reading about a 15-year commemoration service for the victims. At that time, the police helped them establish that Fallon hadn't withdrawn any of his pension benefits since the date of the fire. His eldest daughter said, no money was paid out after that date, but there was no record either of my father having died. If my father was alive, he would have been first in the queue whenever there was money to be had.

Starting point is 00:21:31 Forensic experts later concluded that the unidentified victim was Fallon, based partly on Fallon's having undergone brain surgery at London Royal Hospital, which had involved the use of a distinctive surgical clip. Body 115 had been buried with another victim of the fire and was listed on both the gravestone and a memorial to the victims as Unknown Man, but at the time of the Guardian article, the plan was to replace those with Fallon's name. That's poignant both because of his particular case and because during that period of uncertainty, it sort of points up how many people in a city that size have fallen out of touch with people who were important to them.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Yeah, so nobody can be sure if that might be their loved one or not. That there are that many people who this sort of resonated with kind of shows how many such cases there are. Yeah, exactly. Thanks so much to everyone who writes to us. We really appreciate how much we learn from all of you. So if you have any comments or follow-ups for us, please send those to podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to give me a strange

Starting point is 00:22:44 sounding situation, and I'm going to try to work a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to give me a strange-sounding situation, and I'm going to try to work out what's actually going on by asking yes or no questions. This is from listener Tom Salinski. A new business is growing strongly and might soon be the overwhelming market leader in its niche. In order to try and make sure that they succeed, the owners stop all advertising and marketing. The strategy is successful. Why? Wow.

Starting point is 00:23:10 They stop all advertising and marketing. All advertising and marketing for their own company? Yes. In order to make sure that they succeed, is that to reduce demand because supply isn't going to be able to keep it up? No. No. Reduce demand because supply isn't going to be able to keep it up?

Starting point is 00:23:24 Keep up? No. Why would you stop advertising and marketing? Okay, does it matter what the company sells? No, I think I'm going to say no. Is it a product? They sell a product? No.

Starting point is 00:23:43 They sell a service? Yes. Do they sell like an experience, like vacations or something? No. sell a service yes do they sell like an experience like vacations or something no just a service and uh okay and you don't necessarily have to know the details about this particular it's this is an illustration of a broader okay um does the time period matter not really does like the country or anything else about the location matter no okay so there is a company that is starting to get big catch fire sell a lot of whatever their service is yes and they're looking they're they're on the edge of sort of dominating their corner of the industry. Yes.

Starting point is 00:24:32 And in order to make sure that they continue to succeed and do well, they stop all advertising and marketing. Yes. I was going to ask if they somehow sell advertising and marketing services, but I'm not sure how that would fit in together. Oh, that's clever. No, that's not. Does this have to do with politics in any way? No. Okay, so why would you stop advertising? Did they have the impression that the advertising was hurting them somehow?

Starting point is 00:25:01 No. Did they have the impression that advertising wasn't helping? No. So they thought the advertising was helping, but then they decided to stop it. Did they stop it for a set amount of time? Um, I'll say yes, but I don't want to mislead you. Was that part of a gimmick? Like they told their customers that they weren't going to be advertising for a certain amount of time or until a certain thing happened.

Starting point is 00:25:27 No. I thought that was like somehow part of the campaign. When they stopped the advertising, was that successful? Yes. They actually sold more of their services when they weren't advertising? That wasn't the reason. that wasn't the reason that wasn't the reason oh was something about to happen that they were expecting to have happen that they were gonna they thought they'd capitalize on or that that wouldn't that would increase their

Starting point is 00:25:57 business no they were trying to avert a danger and the danger wasn't becoming too successful before they were ready to handle that amount of business. If companies advertise too much, people get sort of sick of you. No. Were they afraid they were going to be spoofed or made fun of somehow? No. It was an innovative service. I'm trying to think of hints I can give you.

Starting point is 00:26:29 I definitely need hints. I have no idea where I'm going with this. It was an innovative service. Did they think that the advertising would sort of misrepresent it or mislead people? No. This involves other companies. They're trying to avert a danger that they saw could happen.

Starting point is 00:26:52 If they kept advertising. Yes. And that would somehow involve other companies. Yeah. Oh, they didn't want to alert other companies to their presence. Yes. Why? Because other companies would copy presence. Yes. Why? Because other companies would copy what they were doing. Yes, that's it.

Starting point is 00:27:10 Oh. Tom writes, if a much bigger, better funded rival gets wind of what they are up to, they will be able to offer the same service to their users. And because of the nature of the business, whoever has the most customers will win. At this crucial stage in their life cycle, the business needs to be in stealth mode so that by the time their rival figured out what they were doing, it was too late. They already had dominance. This really happened to eBay, which started essentially by accident when founder Pierre Omidyar sold a broken laser pointer via an online auction, which formed part of a general purpose website he was running. Today, everyone goes to eBay to sell because that's where all

Starting point is 00:27:42 the buyers are, and everyone goes to eBay looking for bargains because that's where all the sellers are. It's a version of the fax effect. Who would buy the first fax machine? But Omidyar was terrified that Yahoo, with its vast user base, could simply copy the business model, and then Yahoo would be where all the buyers and sellers were. So growth by stealth was the answer. Let users spread the word and don't do anything else to call attention to the site. That's very clever. Yeah. That's actually very interesting. And it worked in this

Starting point is 00:28:09 case. Thanks, Tom. Thank you. And we can always use more lateral thinking puzzles. So if you have one you'd like to have us try, please send that to podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet really relies on the support of our listeners. If you'd like to help support our Thank you. get more information on some of the stories, extra-lateral thinking puzzles, outtakes, and peeks behind the scenes. You can find our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futilitycloset or see our website for the link. At our website, you can graze through Greg's congeries of over 12,000

Starting point is 00:28:55 uncommon curiosities. Browse the Futility Closet store, learn about the Futility Closet books, and see the show notes for the episode, with links and references for the topics we've covered. If you have any questions or comments for us, you can email us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Our music was written and performed by my incomparable brother-in-law, Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 361-A Fight Over Nutmeg

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.