USS Constitution: Live Oak Hull, Jackson's Stolen Head, and a Penny Drive
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Launched in 1797, the 44 gun frigate USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned naval vessel st...
28 Sep 26min
The Sextant: Double Reflection, Swinging the Arc, and Aldrin's Backup Math
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Artemis II astronauts carry an emergency backup built on a design about 300 years old: the sexta...
28 Sep 23min
Morse Code: Vail's Type Count, the Operator's Fist, and Denton's Blinks
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!On July 12, 1999, the United States sent its last commercial Morse message, repeating the 1844 w...
28 Sep 21min
Ship Figureheads: Sekhmet's Lionesses, Navy Budget Cuts, and the Ram Bow
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Dutch sailors believed tiny protective spirits lived in the carved figure at the bow, and that a...
28 Sep 22min
The Sultana Explosion and Steamboats: Fitch, Fulton, and Grasshoppering
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The worst maritime disaster in US history was not the Titanic but the Sultana, a wooden steamboa...
28 Sep 23min
East Indiamen: Fake Gun Ports, Bought Commands, and the Pulo Aura Bluff
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!From its royal monopoly in 1600 until 1834, the British East India Company controlled trade betw...
28 Sep 25min
Nantucket's Whale Oil Boom: Two Beaver Hats, a Sandbar, and a Seawall
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Nantucket began as geological debris: a pile of sand and gravel bulldozed south by the Laurentid...
28 Sep 22min
Vasco da Gama: The Volta do Mar, the Miri Massacre, and a Viceroy's Death
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In May 1498 an exhausted Vasco da Gama knelt in a temple in Calicut, modern Kozhikode, and praye...
28 Sep 23min
