The Eric Metaxas Show - #145 - Albin Sadar

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Fun Facts Friday returns as Eric and Albin Sadar share strange, hilarious, and unbelievable stories from the American Revolution. They discuss Samuel Whittemore, the 78... year old patriot who refused to die, the real story behind July 4th, Ben Franklin and John Adams sharing a bed, King George II’s unusual death, America’s first submarine, and why Eric’s new book Revolution brings these forgotten stories back to life.⭐ ORDER NOW:Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World📕: https://a.co/d/0ir3NlapTODAY'S SPONSORS:🛏️ MyPillow — Save BIG with code ERIC: https://www.mypillow.com/☀️ Honest, fast, and free Medicare plan guidance: https://askchapter.com/metaxas/

Transcript
Discussion (0)
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Starting point is 00:00:12 Wayfair, every style, every home. Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of you have been clamoring, clamoring, figuratively and literally clamoring for us to bring back the fun facts Friday, segments that Albin and I used to do. And I just want to know, I just want you to know, your voices have been heard, okay? Enough with the letters and the hostility. We're going to do it right now, right now, because the squeaky wheel gets the grease and stuff like that. So the thing is, because my Revolution book just came out,
Starting point is 00:01:08 and if you don't have a copy, it wouldn't kill you to get a couple. But because of this Revolution book, because we're celebrating the super centennial the 250th, Albin and I thought, why don't we do a Fun Facts Friday centered around the American Revolution? So Albin Seder, the man who invented Fun Facts Friday, welcome back to this happy segment. How are you? I love it. I know. They're clamoring emotionally as well, which it gets to the core of a lot.
Starting point is 00:01:38 person's being. Who has ever seen such clamoring or heard or felt such clamoring? It's been difficult. It's been a season of clamoring and yet here we are. It's pushed us to this moment. Yes. So, hazah, hazah. Let's get ready. May I sing the Fun Facts Friday song in honor of the revolution? People don't know. I mean, there are people that are new to this podcast. They don't realize the provenance, the venerable institution that is Fun Facts Friday, whether it's on a Friday or not, and that it even comes with its own song. Albin, I believe you and Mr. Paul Anka teamed together
Starting point is 00:02:20 with lyrics by Bernie Topin, and you came together and you came up with this song. And, you know, I'd be honored, really, if you'd perform it. You know, whether on the piano or whatever instruments you have, and I will perhaps join you. Well, Kay, I've got the expired pill medicine bottle to the cassinets. The expired pill medicine bottle, this is so beautiful. I'm going to start crying. You better start.
Starting point is 00:02:47 Come on and have some fun just for the fun of it. Tune into Eric's show, and you'll be in the know. You may learn something new and something untrue. to fun, fun, fun, fun, fact, Friday's here's revolution. Wow, wow, wow, unbelievable. Most people can't see the balloons and the confetti, but they're here, folks, believe me.
Starting point is 00:03:18 Yeah, they're here, all right. Albin, you know, the lyrics, these are sublime lyrics, that you'll learn something, what is that line? You may learn something new and something untrue, too. You may learn something new and something untrue, too. That is just so deep that I don't think we have time to plumb the depths of that profanity. So why don't we just, Fun Facts Friday is about fun facts. And so what are some of these fun facts from the American Revolution that you want to share with the group?
Starting point is 00:03:52 And by the way, congratulations on that tricorn hat. Yes. It matches your period era spectacles. not at all. Not at all. But I thought the Tricorn Hat was obvious to do a book pitch. You wrote a book called Obvious? That's right.
Starting point is 00:04:10 You know, I was going to tell you that the title of your book is obvious. And everybody should know what it is because it's obvious. But after that, let's get into all these fun facts. I'm telling you, the thing was, when you and I started discussing doing this, Eric, I had just started your reading the book. And I said, the first fun fact is, a scatological one, which I hope you will share about the word stool and why we got that into the lexicon. Hey, hey, hey, it's a family show. Please continue. But, but, but the, the interesting
Starting point is 00:04:42 thing is that you started spilling out facts. I said, whoa, whoa, wait, Eric, I've only got like 200 pages in here. And there's so many more fun facts. But I want to stress this to people, because what's really interesting, a lot of the reviews on Amazon said exactly the same thing, but it's true. They're all true where they said, this is really the one book, just the one book that you need for the 250th anniversary about the revolution, because you grabbed facts from all over the place, and you got into personal facts about the Patriots and the founding fathers. You got into battle facts about, you know, the Boston Massacre and all these, the Tea Party, all of those things. And it was like really, really in depth. So you really got deep, deep into it.
Starting point is 00:05:27 But I might want to start with my favorite fact. People might say, well, I don't know. I think this is a really good one because there were so many patriots. I think I think this is, I think I remember this from your book, but overall in the country, when we went up against the greatest country in the civilization at the time, we had about one third of the people were patriots and they took to fighting and they were helping any way they can to defeat Great Britain. there was a third that was like they were loyalists.
Starting point is 00:05:59 They were actually on the side of the Britain secretly or outright. And then there was a third that were like, I don't know which way this war is going to go. So I'm going to wait and I'm going to join the side that wins because I got too much, you know, to hope for here in the long run. So it's a third, a third and a third. So the thing is there were people that joined because they knew that the future of truth as well as freedom was. on the line. So one of my favorite facts is the age of the oldest guy to fight in the war. Yes. Yes. This is amazing, especially when you think about the days and how long people lived, et cetera, et cetera. And the fact that he fought on the first day of the war, on the day of Lexington
Starting point is 00:06:45 and Concord as the troops, I mean, obviously the, I mean, the Lexington and Concord happens. And then the British, who are scared for their lives as they should be, because many of them were killed, they are retreating quickly to back to Boston. Meanwhile, they're being attacked by all of these militia that are swarming from all of New England. The word has gone out and they're swarming. And so at some point in, I think it's the town of metonymy, this is what you're referring to. Yeah. This is guy named Samuel Whitamore. Samuel Whitamore, he was 78 years old. Now, that's kind of amazing in itself. But he takes four weapons with him in the battle. He ends up killing three British, okay? And then he grabs his sword, and he starts attacking the ones that are come ahead of them.
Starting point is 00:07:47 They shoot him. He gets shot in the face. He goes down. They band net him 12 or 13 times. They leave him for dead, of course. He's 78. And the guy, he lived a good life. Bye, bye. No. The Americans come by, they find him. They drag him to this guy named Dr. Tufts, who's a cousin of Abigail Adams. Yes. Yes. And the doctor says, well, this guy, he's not going to make it through the night. He's dead. He's pretty much dead. Let's wrap it up. He's a garden. Prepare him for the morgue. This is so exciting because he goes on to live 18 more years. He gets to be 96 years. years old. 96 years old.
Starting point is 00:08:26 And the moral of the story is, boy, did he make a monkey out of that doctor? That's right. Right? Boy, did he make a monkey. That's an old honeymooners episode where Ralph is talking to Art Carney, to Norton. And Ralph hears that he only has six months to live. He overhears, he thinks the doctors say six months to live. And Norton is trying to cheer him up.
Starting point is 00:08:50 And no, it says it was a guy down in a sewer who the doctor told him he had six months lived da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da and it again and guess what happened he lived eight months boy did he make a monkey out of that doctor that doctor that's one of my favorite episodes boy did he make a monkey out of that doctor he lived eight months anyway this guy the 70-year-old samuel whittemore i mean honestly when i discovered this i you know i i do research i'm very careful about research and even really respected historians i think rick atkinson who's the best he gets it wrong he said he got one fact wrong he said he got one fact wrong He said that Whittamore was 80 years old when this happened.
Starting point is 00:09:27 He was 78 years old when it happened. But the bottom line is it's almost unbelievable because he had fought in the French and Indian War. He had fought in the, what was the war before that? I'm forgetting, St. I mean, King George's War, the first King, I forget what it was. But he, so here he's 78 years old at his home and he sees the British coming. He gets his musket. Now keep in mind, folks, the musket, you load it once, you shoot it, you're done. It's going to take a long time to reload it.
Starting point is 00:09:53 He has two pistols and a sword. Yeah. So he blast the musket. He blasts each pistol. And then he comes out and with the sword. Yeah. And they say, and they bane at him 12 times and leave him for dead.
Starting point is 00:10:07 It's just amazing. And it's, it's, you said, you researched this. When they came upon him, he was reloading his musket. Oh,
Starting point is 00:10:16 that's the funniest part. That's the funniest part. It's like the staccato note. Yeah. Is that he, that he, that he is, And so the British leave him for dead.
Starting point is 00:10:29 But when the Americans find him, he is in the process of reloading his musket, having been bayoneted 12 or 13 times. They take him to a doctor, yes, who's the cousin to Abigail Adams. And Cotton Tufts is his name. What a weird name. And Cotton says like, listen, I can't do anything for him. I'm sorry. And he lives 18 more years. Yes.
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Starting point is 00:11:14 free of charge. BetMGEMG emgreens pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Unbelievable. Tough luck, I guess, was... It's just unbelievable. So he's the oldest soldier in the war who fought on the first day. It's incredible. Yes.
Starting point is 00:11:30 It's incredible. He was born in the 1690s, actually. Yeah. I did the math, and he was born in the 1690s, yes. When we look at the headlines coming out of Iran and Israel right now, the fog of war is real. It's hard to know whom to trust. That same feeling of confusion often hits home when you're trying to navigate Medicare. There are so many bad actors in this space looking to capitalize on confusion rather than provide clarity.
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Starting point is 00:12:35 Wow, okay. So that's the first fact. Samuel Whittemore, oldest soldier of the revolution. All right, what else? Do we have other facts? Well, sure. The other thing about this, of course, there were so many miraculous things that happened that you would say, like, unless they happened, the tide would have turned one way or the other. And people say, well, they weren't Christian or they were this, they were deist, whatever.
Starting point is 00:13:02 But there was a national call for prayer. You know, we had one recently, Donald Trump called a National Day of Prayer nationally, you know, for the nation on May 7th. Well, there were a number of calls for prayer during the Revolutionary War. In fact, there were 15 calls for prayer during the revolution. National calls to prayer. I know. People say, like, wait, what about separation of church and state? No, no.
Starting point is 00:13:29 This has always been a Christian nation. And our leaders have often called for national days of prayer. You don't have to do it if you don't want to. Nobody's putting a gun to your head. But just to be clear, our leaders believed that prayer works, that we should pray and humble ourselves before God, ask for God's favor on our cause, on our sacred cause. The British, we're not doing that, ladies and gentlemen. No.
Starting point is 00:13:53 The British were not. That leads us to something else, both the founding fathers in general, but there's a story, of course, of John Adams, I want to get to. But George Washington, he basically said, unless we treat even our prisoners with dignity and respect and feed them and make sure they're taking care of, even our prisoners, which the British didn't do for the Americans. but we will do that. How can we entreat God for justice and righteousness and to be part of our cause to be on our side if we don't live for truth and justice and liberty? And he got that to all of his generals and all of the leaders under him. He said that's how we are going to conduct ourselves in this battle for independence. And the Brits on the other side, you know, they came up with that song, Yankee Doodle Dandy. That was a to ridicule.
Starting point is 00:14:43 the American soldier, et cetera. But at the time, you wrote a book about, you know, William Wilberforce, back over, during the time, they were living terrible lives. They were sleeping around. They were drink, drunkards, et cetera. But they would make fun of the Americans who basically clung to their guns and their Bibles. I wonder where that came.
Starting point is 00:15:05 Actually, no, it is. It is so true. Obviously, you've read the book, and I'm thrilled that you got this out of it. Because I was seriously amazed by this. I didn't learn this, you know, in school or whatever. But you think, talk about two cultures that are absolutely different for me. You might speak the same language, but oh, my goodness, it's really, it's kind of like comparing the Hollywood elites to, you know, a homeschooling family in Oklahoma.
Starting point is 00:15:32 Like, they are not on the same page. It's funny because I kept reading the thinking about how it is similar to what's going on today and how people are taking one side over the other and how they kind of make fun of people of faith or they don't want them express their faith. You know, but it was said back at the time, at the time, the Colonials, the Americans, they were very well read because they came from Puritan stock. They used the Bible as their classroom literary, you know, their tool to learn how to read, to write, to comport themselves.
Starting point is 00:16:07 That was all in the Bible. And the Brits had already given that stuff up. So they were just, that's why they thought, oh, these guys are. backwoodsmen and their yokels and they yeah they're nothing but a bunch of you know bible believing hypocrites they're kind of what a lot of secular elites think of you know conservative christians today which is it's so fascinating to me that we're talking 250 years ago that was the climate um but anyway okay since his fun facts Friday i'm going to ask you is that your second fact or do you have other oh no no no i've got many more facts and i also want to share something i wrote to you a while ago
Starting point is 00:16:43 about Dennis Miller and we were talking at Saturday Night Live in the hallway because of course he was the weekend anchor, you know, famous for that, Dennis Miller. He, we were in the hallway. I was doing extra work. I did background work maybe 20, 25 times up at Saturday Night Live and we're all standing around just talking during rehearsal and in the break during rehearsal. And Dennis, somehow, we were talking about the Revolutionary War. And I just said to Dennis like, well, you know, I got a fun fact.
Starting point is 00:17:13 My great, great, great, great grandfather, he fought in the Revolutionary War. And Dennis looked at me like this. And I go, yeah, and all I got was this bloody T-shirt. And all I got was this bloody T-shirt. That's very funny, Albin. Did he laugh? Well, yes. And it's one of the few times I got Dennis Miller to laugh.
Starting point is 00:17:33 And all the years I knew him because he and I came up from Pittsburgh together back in 1979. But, you know, he went on to Saturday Night Live. I went on to Fun Facts Friday with Eric Metaxis. But, you know, by the way, this great funny t-shirts out there, my favorite is one. It's Thomas Jefferson underneath it says July 3rd, 1776, Thomas Jefferson, and above it, it's him talking. And he says, like, crap, that's due tomorrow? Actually, you know what?
Starting point is 00:18:04 That's right. I've seen that. Now, you see, the more you know, it spoils jokes for you, because I now know, that he wrote it, you know, they approved it on the third and the fourth. They were approving it. But he wrote it. It was done weeks before that. If you want the details, the exact details, they're in my book, Revolution.
Starting point is 00:18:30 Because I'll tell you, Albin, I did find it fascinating. Like when you're doing this research and you actually find out exactly what happened, and it kind of makes you fussy. It makes you think like, well, but, whoa, wait a minute, folks. They declared independence on July 2nd. That's when they voted for independence, not July 4th. What happened on July 4th? Well, July 4th was when they approved the official text of the declaration.
Starting point is 00:18:55 But they had already declared independence. This was just, you know, we need a declaration so that everybody can read why we did this. That was approved officially on July 4th. And then the actual copy, the face. famous engrossed copy. It took a month or it took weeks for that to be written out beautifully. That was signed officially. And when we see all these paintings and things, it happened August 2nd. But anyway, that's in the book. So go ahead. More facts. So the other thing was about landmass. I looked up today's landmass, you know, because
Starting point is 00:19:33 England is not a very big country. But back then they had- And it's not getting any bigger. Let me tell you. Yeah. They had 80,000. square miles at the time, and America had 800,000 square miles, you know, laid out in the 13 colonies. So it wasn't, you know, we had a chance to, of course, hide in the bushes and hide in the trees. And we knew our land mass better than their land mass. So today is something like, I think five or three or four Englands can fit in the size of just
Starting point is 00:20:08 Texas. And it put – Well, now, I just want to clarify, the reason I put that in there, I was talking about in 1775 or what – 1774, they convened the first Continental Congress. And you kind of think, where did they get this term from? Continental – why do they call it continental? And, you know, they were on the continent of North America, but they hadn't yet – we hadn't yet populated the entire continent. But they still had a sense of westward expansion. They still had a sense that we're huge over here.
Starting point is 00:20:42 And Benjamin Franklin, I guess, calculated, I think it was in the 1750s, that every 25 years, the population of the 13 colonies would double and that we're growing and growing and, you know, Britain needs to understand like we're growing and our strength. You know, they need to reckon with that. And of course, England was not even on a continent. I mean, they're on an island off of the European continent. But the concept of them calling themselves the Continental Congress and then calling the Army, the Continental Army, I just thought that was interesting. And so the landmass, that's why I put it in the book. I thought, you know, this is what I call research. I do my research.
Starting point is 00:21:26 The continental, you know, 13 colonies is 800,000 square miles, which is literally 10 times the landmass of all of Great Britain. So anyway, go ahead. sorry. And then this one you covered, you covered this separately, of course, it's in the book about, I think this is kind of funny. Two famous founding fathers slept in the same bed once. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a family show. It's a family show, and we're going to edit that out in post. No, this is like whenever you know me, right, I'm doing the research on the book and I, and I stumble on something and I go, wait a minute. First of all, I've never heard this. Number two, this is hilarious. is it true? And I do the research and I tell you if John Adams, God bless him, hadn't written,
Starting point is 00:22:13 he wrote about this. I don't know if it was in his journal or in a letter to Abigail, I forget, but he writes about this night that he spends in the same bed with Benjamin Franklin. This was in early September of 1776. You want me to give the background or do you want to give the background? Yeah, no, why don't you give the background? But I think how it works out whether, you know, I don't want to sleep by the window. I don't want the window open. I don't want to close. And then after they decide which way whether the window should be open or closed, Ben Franklin, because he's a scientist, he starts to talk about why we need it closed or why.
Starting point is 00:22:54 Well, no, he wrote, he had written extensively on the issue. I mean, so the background is just that Benjamin Franklin and John Adams are interested. Philadelphia in Congress. Okay. So the battle of Long Island, you know, the Americans are routed, basically, and they capture three generals, the British capture three generals. They send one of them, they convince him to go to Philadelphia, to go to Congress, to make the case like, hey, we should, you know, try to make peace. Let's no longer fight. And this disgusts. John Adams. He is disgusted that this general would be like a tool of the British. So he's totally disgusted. And none of them wants peace at this point. They've declared independence because
Starting point is 00:23:44 it's September 1776. But they decide, okay, we will, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, we will go to meet them, to meet the British. So they go, they go all the way from Philadelphia to Staten Island. The house is still there. I'm going to visit the house. I haven't done it yet. but the Billop House, Staten Island, to meet with Admiral Howe, the brother of General Howe. And on the way, I guess it's their last night before they take the ferry or boat over to Staten Island, they go to an inn and there's only one room and it's a small room. It has a small window, no fireplace, and they have to go into a bed. And these beds were not big.
Starting point is 00:24:22 So the thought of the 41-year-old John Adams and the 70-year-old, and the 70-year-old, called Benjamin Franklin, betting down together. Are we making this up? We're not making this up. This actually happened. And then they get into this, like, it starts like an argument. Close the window. No, let's leave the window open.
Starting point is 00:24:42 It's healthy. And Benjamin Franklin has says to Adams, have you read my theory of colds? Like he wrote a big thing about it. And John Adams had read it. And so they get into this conversation with Franklin pontificating into the air. And next thing, you know, they've done. both fall asleep. I mean, this actually happened. It's beautiful. To me, it's beautiful. I just love this idea. By the way, you were talking about visiting all these places. I know you're taking
Starting point is 00:25:09 trips and tours and stuff like that, which is so exciting and wonderful. At some point, folks out there and you as well, Eric, this is my last couple weeks here in Terrytown. And Terrytown, of course, is right next to Sleepy Hollow. And in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, there is up on the hill, at the top of the hill, basically, from Washington, Earl. Irving's family plot, there is a monument to the Revolutionary War soldiers who fought and died in the Revolution. And that's here in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. So folks that want to come to this area and check out a wonderful and historic place with
Starting point is 00:25:48 landmarks for that, Civil War heroes and billionaires are buried there. It's an incredible cemetery. And all the cemeteries I've been in alive. This one's my favorite. Of all the cemeteries in all the world, you had to stumble into this one. This one, yeah. So I doubt that their billionaires buried there, Albin. No, the billionaires just started existing.
Starting point is 00:26:14 Well, okay, but the Rockefeller's, Andrew Carnegie. Multi, multi, multi-millionaires. Yeah, multi-milioners. Yeah, okay. Rich, rich people. And no trillionaires. I know that fact. Correct.
Starting point is 00:26:26 Correct. Okay. Okay. So we only have a few minutes. left. So how many other fun facts? Go ahead, my friend. Go ahead. Okay. I don't know if you wanted ever get to that stool thing, but... Yes, right now, let's get to it. It's the first page. Yes. Of chapter one, ladies and gentlemen, first page of chapter one, I talk about in order for King George the third to ascend to the throne, his grandfather, who was King George the second, had first to die.
Starting point is 00:26:58 And I sketch the scene of his death early in the morning in 1761. Yes. Well, I want you to take it. See, I thought you said you would never work blue, but you begin this great powerful book with. But I phrase it so obliquely that kids wouldn't even understand it if they read it. They'd say, mommy, I don't understand. Well, they have to read the footnote. The footnote goes into it.
Starting point is 00:27:28 I guess so. I guess so. Well, the bottom line is that, do I have a, I don't know if you don't have a copy of the book to read it, but the bottom line is that. Here's my copy with all the notes I've been marked. Oh my gosh. Look at you. I really take my time. That's why I want to read it? Why don't you read it? Read chapter one. Yeah. I mean, read the first paragraphs. And I just want to read, is it in the footnote that you mention it though? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Let me. You can read it. after the 14th century invention of the closed stool, it was called a closed... You got to read the first paragraph first. Okay.
Starting point is 00:28:06 And then read the footnote, I think. It was October 25th, 1760, when the old king, George II, now hard of hearing and blind in one eye, awoke at 6 a.m., drank a cup of chocolate, and then rose from the royal bed to proceed to the so-called closed stool, where having allowed the chocolate to have its effect, he would engage in the quatonian... Quotidian process of elimination. I have to read this with a dictionary too sometimes. The loud crash of his fall summoned his valet and the monarch was put back into bed soon after which he expired at which precise moment in history lurched forward into a new era
Starting point is 00:28:48 when even before he knew of it of itself, the young grandson. son of the newly deceased George II became the king of England, taking the name George of 3rd. He would remain on the throne for the next 60 years, obviously through the revolution. And the throne there might be a double entendre,
Starting point is 00:29:07 but I don't think it is. Okay, so the footnote is, it says that King George II, you know, he drinks his cup of chocolate, and he goes into the close stool, and I looked that up, and I thought, what is that? In other words, he's obviously,
Starting point is 00:29:22 going to relieve himself and seated on this you know, stool. Closed, it's called the clothes stool because it was a seat. And a seat is we've, you know, the back then they used a stool was a seat. And clothes stool, I guess it was, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:44 so you wouldn't be able to see. So it was kind of like in a closet, you know, a closed stool. But you want to read the footnote? Yeah. Oh, sure. So the footnote explains it then, a closed stool, which was a seat, sometimes embroidered with cushions with a covered lid beneath which was placed a chamber pot. Makes sense. The word stool, which then, and still now refers to a chair or seat, eventually came to refer to that which proceeded from their use. The inventive and entrepreneurial efforts of so Thomas Crapper, I knew of this one, and that's 1836 to 1910, regarding flush toilets in the late 19th century similarly caused the man's name to become synonymously associated with toilets themselves. And then in an abbreviated form, they were used as the end
Starting point is 00:30:34 products that were associated with the... That's so disgusting. I can't believe you would come on my program and read your words. And be foul the air. Be foul. With the stench of your tomfoolery. I'm really just... I'm stunned, Albin. I'm stunned. You know what? I believed in you. I let you come on here, and you would do that to me.
Starting point is 00:30:59 I can't, I don't know. My producer, Chris, he let it happen to. We're all to blame. I want to be real clear. We're all to blame. Seriously, I didn't intend to start the book on that cucky note. But it just, I don't know. It just kind of happened.
Starting point is 00:31:17 I know the chapter is kind of like how it all began, how the revolution began with this this is how it began yes yeah um the other thing i want to get to real quick is that the submarine was the oh oh isn't that great go quick go quick because we're going to run that time used in in the revolutionary war and it was like two half turtle shells put together vertically okay the guy was inside like pedaling or with his arms guiding it across and he was going to put dynamite on one of the british frigates or something like that one of the flagship and he and he couldn't drilling to the haul of the ship. And so he had to go back. And eventually, the ship that was hauling it back in the America has sunk. But by the way, in your neck of woodwoods in Connecticut,
Starting point is 00:32:01 they have a reproduction of that very submarine that was used. Do we know where in Connecticut? Probably like way up like in New London or something. Yeah, Essex, Connecticut. You probably know where Essex is. Okay. Essex Connecticut, the Connecticut River Museum. If people want to look it up and there's a picture of it, it's very quick. I've got to get that. there. Chris, how much time do we have in this segment? What's the total? More minutes. No, no, no. You said, uh, 33. Oh, all right. Well, Album, we've got two more minutes then. The submarine, this is what I'm saying, and this is why I wanted to have you on for this, because there's so many crazy, weird facts. The fact that this guy, um, David Bushnell,
Starting point is 00:32:43 uh, who was pretty old at the time. I mean, he was like 31 when he went back to, he went to Yale. at age 31. Nathan Hale went to Yale as a 14-year-old. You know, you'd go to college at age 14 or 15 or 16. This guy goes back because he wants to learn more about how to create a submarine. Submarines had never been created ever. And he gets this idea and he goes to work. Now, try to imagine the claustrophobic lunacy of creating a wooden thing that,
Starting point is 00:33:18 that you work a crank. The whole thing is just insane. You're working a crank to get to submerge it so that the air goes out and it submerges. And there's just enough air. You can breathe the air. But once you run out of air, you've got to come back up. And the whole thing is nuts. And so he goes out into New York Harbor with this thing.
Starting point is 00:33:44 And he's trying to get close to the flagship of the British fleet because the idea, as you mentioned, he wants to drill. There's like an auger, a drill that you drill into the wooden hull of the ship and you affix a, like there's like a chain connected to a huge cask filled with gunpowder, boom. The whole thing is nuts.
Starting point is 00:34:07 And he completely fails. Yeah. And fortunately, we're out of time, so we don't need to dwell on his failure. Yes. Okay. It's, it's, but it's one of these There's so much stuff like this in the book. And that any time I found something weird like this, I was like, I got to write about this. I mean, there's much more to it.
Starting point is 00:34:25 But it is amazing. And then, of course, so he doesn't make it. Then the sun starts to rise and he realizes they're going to catch me. I got to get out of here. So he gets the heck out of there. How fast can you pedal in this? It's just insane. It's insane.
Starting point is 00:34:39 And then he lets the bomb go to just to float away. And then the British are kind of looking, hey, what's this? Gaboob. Anyway, I'm just so glad, Albin, that we could start. We've only started. This is the first installment of Fun Facts Friday. My friend, Albin, God bless you. Thank you for coming on.
Starting point is 00:34:56 God bless America. God bless America.

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