Ghost Story - Listen Now: Oh What A Time...

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

It’s time to embark on a journey through history with "Oh What A Time…" a comedy history podcast hosted by renowned comedians Elis James and Tom Craine along with award winning podcaster Chris Scull. Tackling a brand new subject each week, (from ‘childhood’ to ‘a life at sea’, ‘marriage’ to ‘holidays’) your hosts will dive into the very weirdest and worst that history has to offer, in an effort to answer the question… "Was the past as awful as it sounds?"Listen to Oh What A Time... on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/oh-what-a-time/You can get in touch with the show by emailing: [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello history fans, I'm Eris James. I'm Tom Crane. And I'm Chris Skull. And we're the hosts of Oh What A Time, the history podcast which tries to answer the question, was the past as horrific as it seems. Each week we tackle a brand new subject, from life in Nelson's navy to death in ancient Rome, from maniacal monarchs to Soviet spies to the history of milk. Yes, this is Oh What A Time, the podcast the Times newspaper described as, very funny, if less scholarly than its rivals. Probably fair. And we've got a real treat for you right now.

You're gonna hear one of our favorite episodes, it's Life At Sea. Yes, today I'm gonna be talking about life on a Viking longbow. Pretty tough to be honest. I'm gonna be talking about the history of Welsh pirates. West Waelian pirates were world class pirates, but it's 100 years ago so we can have a laugh about it.

And no Life at Sea episode would be complete without Mr. Christian Saar! A mutiny on the bounty. So I'll be taking you back there just to see how bad it got. That's Oh What a Time, available every Monday and Tuesday on OneDree, with two bonus episodes every month on Wondry+. Here comes a life at sea. Enjoy!

At this height, 130 feet up, in a wind blowing 70 miles an hour, the noise was an unearthly scream. The high whistle of the wind through the halyards and above all the pale blue, illimitable sky, cold and serene, made me deeply afraid and conscious of my insignificance. As time passed, the ship possessed us completely. Our lives were given over to it. A hundred times a day each one of us looked aloft at the towering pyramids of canvas, the beautiful deep curves of the leeches of the sails, and the straining sheets of the great courses. Listened to the deep hum of the wind up the height of the rigging, the thud and judder of the steering gear as the

ship surged along, heard the helmsman striking the bells, signalling a change of watch or a meal-time, establishing a routine so strong that the outside world seemed unreal. Yes, this week we're talking about life at sea. And I would like to begin with, you know that expression, worst things happen at sea. I actually think that is the most accurate expression ever said.

At no point, if that was my day, would I not be thinking I've made a terrible mistake I should have gone into data entry a nice really safe office job. Yeah You know what Dolly Parton sang nine to five and I almost bemoaning it what a luxurious existence and I almost bemoaning it what a luxurious existence compared to a life at sea. I think the sea is possibly the most overrated destination on earth. Whenever I'm on holiday and there's a choice between beach or pool I never pick beach. When you get close to the sea and the seaweed and the stench and then you get out there the jellyfish I can't I hate the sea I love looking at the sea but I also have an unbelievable fear of the sea now there's a couple of things and sort of ground me in this first of all my grandfather who was a the captain for

the merchant Navy in World War two was torpedoed in World War two and went down he died bit of confusion in primary school in that I used to go around telling everyone he'd been harpooned. Quite a different story. My mum was always telling me to correct me. I was like, no, no, no. So today's episode, we're talking about this, a life at sea. That's what we're talking about.

It feels early doors like we might not be the people that are best suited to this. But I think we are because of my hatred for the sea. I've always been fascinated by terrible stories. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing.

I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been fascinated by the stories of people who are not so good at writing. I've always been. But I think we are because because of my hatred for the sea I've always been fascinated by terrible stories of stuff that happened at sea. Yeah. And I've always I once went on I got the ferry to Santander once on a holiday and I and it

was really rainy on the deck and I was running around chasing my brother and I slipped and I just and I hit the edge of the boat like I was never close to going overboard. But in that moment, like it really struck me like that was 300 years ago and I went overboard. You've got no chance. Of course, absolutely zero chance of pulling through that. No. Yeah. You'd land in the sea and you'd think to yourself, someone needs to invent the course guards now. It'd be annoying that you came up with the idea as you hit, you go, why did I come up with this earlier? As a matter of urgency, someone needs to invent the thing I've just imagined. But also the other astonishing thing is that a lot of the time they didn't bother to go

back and try and save you. Really? No, that, I've got a real issue with that. I would be lying there, treading, standing in the water, floating as best as I could, treading water as best I could, just think to myself, this shows a lack of empathy. If everyone on that boat over there, currently sailing away from me,

could put themselves in my position, I would really, really appreciate that. Because, got to be honest, I'm frightened now and I'm cold. And I can only see the situation getting worse. Also like, it's a bit like, I thought it's a bit like being sucked out into outer space, but the benefit there is you die instantly like your head explodes whatever in the sea you've got the ability to keep yourself alive for potentially days. Yeah, yeah. There's food swimming around you for a start. Yeah, delicious cod. Some delicious cod,

lard pustule, and then some delicious batter, and then a delicious fryer, and then a delicious plate, knife and fork, salt, vinegar and pittemaal ketchup. We're looking at life at sea this week, so I thought I'd choose pirates and piracy, because there's a slightly odd quirk about piracy in that a lot of really world-class pirates happen to be from very near where I grew up. Yeah, Wales is very good at producing so world-class wingers,

you're right, Giggs's, you're Gareth Bales and pirates. So three of the characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island were based on the Welsh pirates Harry Morgan who grew up in Llandrhymny, Black Bart, Barty Lee as he was known in in Welsh, John Roberts who's from Pembrokeshire and Hola Davies who was also from Fishguard which is also in Pembrokeshire. Do the films Pirates of the Caribbean sort of bite a little bit? Should they be Pirates of Panaff or We Look At You? I think there's room for Welsh actors. It annoys me that they went for the big Hollywood names. So the golden age of piracy is the 1650s or 1730s and yeah we

produced an awful lot of top pirates and the interesting thing I think with pirates is that they came from all sections of society so you might be a landowner's son but if you weren't the first born and you didn't inherit your old man's fortune or if you were a farmhand you just thought well it's probably better to be a pirate than to do this this is this is rubbish so the one I'm really interested in is a guy called So the one I'm really interested in is a guy called John Roberts, Bartholomew Roberts, known as Barty the Black Bart. And I mean, he was a world-class pirate who stole a lot of ships and stole a lot of stuff. But he's quite a curious bloke because he only drank tea.

He was an abstainer. He was a saboteurian, so he didn't like stuff to happen on a Sunday. It's the weird thing I was just thinking about pirates is like having rules because by your very essence you are lawless. There should be no rules. So to create rules. He allowed no women aboard the ships. Any man who brought a woman on board disguised as a man, that was that was

punishable by death. He allowed no gambling. He was a pirate who didn't like gambling so he wasn't allowed to gamble at cards or at dice. Right. That couldn't be played for money. He strongly disapproved of that. He had musicians on board and they were they so every pirate on his ship with the right to demand a tune at any hour of the day. It's like early Spotify. Apart from Sundays when Spotify was turned off. That's probably more like Napster if he's pirating it. Very nice.

So you could just go up to them and say I want to hear what would it be? Yeah, Murder on the dance floor by Yeah, yeah, and then they would they have to get the violins and Approximate it as best as they could. Yeah And he really looked the part as well when he was dressed for action So we had he was a tall very dark used to wear a rich Damask waistcoat and breeches, a red feather in his cap, a gold chain around his neck with a large diamond cross dangling from it, a sword in his hand,

and he had two pairs of pistols hanging at the end of a silk, a sling that was flung over his shoulder. He kind of looked like a cartoon pirate, but he was a Welsh bloke who used to run chapel services on a Sunday. by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.