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a location near you. As

1:11

an Arctic explorer and a man

1:13

of science, it's no surprise that

1:15

Elisha Kent Kane was a skeptic.

1:18

But when a famous duo of

1:20

teen spiritualists came through his town

1:22

in the mid-1800s, he couldn't help

1:24

but catch a seance to see

1:26

what all the fuss was about.

1:28

The Fox Sisters were their names, and

1:30

when Kane laid eyes on the older

1:32

sister Maggie, Maggie, it was love at

1:35

first sight. As soon as he got a

1:37

chance, he passed Maggie a note. It read,

1:39

have you ever been in love, in love.

1:41

Her cheeky response simply said,

1:43

Ask the Spirits. Kane began visiting

1:46

Maggie every day. Sure, he had

1:48

an Arctic journey to plan for,

1:50

but love came first. He took

1:52

her for carriage rides and recited

1:54

Longfellow to her. He, and most

1:57

notably his wealthy family in Philadelphia,

1:59

still viewed Maggie. Maggie's ghostly profession

2:01

to be, and I quote, profane

2:03

heresy. Yet despite their differences,

2:05

the couple's love only grew, and

2:07

they conducted their romance in secret.

2:10

According to Maggie, they later married

2:12

in secret as well. Now in love

2:14

though he was, Kane still had an

2:16

Arctic expedition to embark on, and so

2:19

shortly after marrying, he was forced to

2:21

leave his new bride behind. The

2:23

journey was honestly awful. Two people

2:25

died. The ship became trapped in

2:27

the ice and the crew was

2:29

forced to abandon it and escape

2:31

on foot. But through it all, Cain

2:33

held his prize possession close, a

2:36

portrait of his darling Maggie. It's

2:38

almost like Romeo and Juliet,

2:40

two worlds colliding, science versus

2:42

science if you will, with

2:44

one couple caught between. And

2:46

just like Romeo and Juliet, this

2:48

story does not have a happy

2:50

ending. While Cain did survive the expedition,

2:53

he picked up so many diseases on

2:55

his travels that he passed away only

2:57

two years later. And here's the real

2:59

tragedy of it all. Although Maggie had

3:02

spent her career convincing mourners that they

3:04

could talk to their dead loved ones,

3:06

in truth, it was all an act.

3:08

The Fox sisters had been frauds the

3:11

whole time, which meant that despite all

3:13

the comfort she had provided for others,

3:15

she was unable to take comfort

3:17

herself. Her husband was truly

3:19

gone. It's quite the coincidence

3:21

that the American spiritualist

3:24

movement and the age

3:26

of exploration lined up

3:28

just so, two completely

3:30

opposing ideas sharing a

3:32

single sliver of time. And let

3:34

me tell you, the crossover between

3:37

the two doesn't stop with Maggie

3:39

and Alicia. Far from it.

3:41

And trust me, it all gets far,

3:43

far stranger. I'm Aaron Mankey.

3:45

And this is Laura. It

3:58

was the summer of 1819. and England

4:00

was sweltering. It was one of

4:02

the hottest on record in fact, and

4:05

in an age before air conditioning

4:07

and soft-serve ice cream machines, everyone

4:09

was dreaming of the cold, of

4:11

snowball fights and Christmas markets, of

4:13

boarding a ship and escaping to

4:15

the icy Antarctic. And one group

4:17

of men? Well, they did a whole lot

4:19

more than dream. You see, that same summer

4:21

also marked the meeting of the

4:24

sixth international geographic Congress, right there

4:26

in the city of London. And

4:28

on August 3rd. The meeting of

4:31

the minds resolved that, and I

4:33

quote, the exploration of the Antarctic

4:35

regions is the greatest piece of

4:38

geographical exploration still to be undertaken.

4:40

Antarctic exploration, the Congress announced, would

4:42

benefit every branch of science. So

4:45

vitally, in fact, that the men

4:47

urged scientific societies all across the

4:49

world to suit up, gather a

4:52

crew of explorers, and set sail

4:54

for the frigid southern continent. That

4:56

was that. legions of explorers took

4:59

up the call, all eager for

5:01

a taste of fame, fortune, and

5:03

eternal glory. The heroic age of

5:05

Antarctic exploration had officially begun.

5:07

Now, it's thought that the first humans

5:10

to lay eyes on Antarctica were

5:12

7th century Maori explorers, but the

5:14

first Europeans didn't see the continent

5:16

until the 1820s. And even then,

5:18

it's likely that no one had

5:20

ever set foot on the South

5:22

Pole. So naturally each of these new

5:25

explorers was determined to be the

5:27

very first. The race to the South

5:29

Pole was on. All told there were

5:31

tons of small expeditions headed

5:33

by countless hopeful voyagers, but

5:35

at the end of the

5:37

day three characters stood out

5:39

above the rest. Norway's rolled

5:41

Amundsen, Ireland's Ernest Shackleton, and

5:44

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott.

5:46

These were the major players, the heroes

5:48

that gave the heroic age its name,

5:50

and these fellows were not messing

5:52

around. There were roughly a billion

5:54

ways to die on these

5:57

little holidays. Malnutrition, especially scurvy,

5:59

was a... leading threat, or you

6:01

could fall into a crevasse or

6:03

get frostbitten, which could later turn

6:05

to gang green. Then of course

6:07

there was the risk of death

6:09

by infection, pneumonia or tuberculosis, not

6:11

to mention just straight up freezing

6:13

to death. To avoid these fates, explorers had

6:15

to have the right gear. Medical kits

6:18

were essential, containing everything from aspirin to

6:20

cocaine, which was applied to the eye

6:22

in case of snow blindness. For warmth,

6:24

the men would wrap up in animal

6:26

skins, a technique learned from Inuit culture,

6:29

along with wool sweaters and burberry jackets.

6:31

And then the wooden ships had to

6:33

have hulls that were strong enough to

6:35

fight through the sea ice. But even

6:38

so, becoming trapped in that ice was

6:40

a constant threat. Once the ship had

6:42

traveled as far as it could, the

6:44

team would set off over the ice

6:46

on foot. You know, just casually walking

6:48

into the desolate abyss. No big deal.

6:51

The lucky ones had sleds pulled by

6:53

sled dogs or ponies who would sometimes

6:55

wear adorable little pony snowshoes for what

6:57

it's worth, and hey the dogs and

6:59

ponies could always serve as a quick

7:01

snack in a pinch. Speaking of food,

7:04

a common dinner meal was something called

7:06

hush, a stew which combined a pounded

7:08

meat paste called pemmican, hard biscuits, and

7:10

snow. Yeah, fine dining this was

7:12

not. Explorers drank tea and hot

7:14

cocoa, which was considered an essential

7:16

treat, and they also carried whiskey.

7:19

Whiskey. And as a side note,

7:21

some of Shackleton's whiskey was recently

7:23

discovered in a hut in Antarctica.

7:25

I have to say the urge

7:27

to commit an oceans-11-style whiskey heist

7:29

is strong. Anyway, clearly Antarctic expedition

7:31

was not for the faint of

7:34

heart. But despite the risks and

7:36

discomforts, the lure of unexplored lands

7:38

was too much for our heroes

7:41

to ignore. And so, rolled Amundsen,

7:43

Ernest Shackleton, and Robert Scott, began

7:45

their great race to the South

7:47

Pole. Beginning in 1898, when Amundsen

7:50

was only 25, he was the first

7:52

mate on a Belgian ship called the

7:54

Belgica, which ended up trapped in Antarctic

7:56

ice for an entire year. The crew

7:58

survived, but only by a thread.

8:00

But if you thought that that

8:03

would put him off of the

8:05

whole thing, then you'd be wrong.

8:07

Just five years later, he'd go

8:09

on to lead the first successful

8:12

expedition through Canada's Northwest Passage before

8:14

starting once again to prepare for

8:16

another attempt to reach the South

8:18

Pole. Meanwhile, Robert Scott and Ernest

8:21

Shackleton teamed up in a crossover

8:23

for the ages, co-leading a South

8:25

Pole expedition. They made it within

8:27

140 miles of their goal before

8:29

being forced to turn back. beginning

8:32

in 1907, Shackleton led another voyage

8:34

to the South Pole. This time

8:36

they got within 97 miles, but

8:38

once again had to turn around.

8:41

Closer and closer the competitors inched.

8:43

Fiercer and fiercer became the odds,

8:45

and the nearer they got, the

8:47

more dangerous the trip became. In

8:50

1910, Amundsen and Scott were neck

8:52

and neck, both on separate simultaneous

8:54

expeditions. It was down to Norway

8:56

versus Britain, and this time there

8:59

would be a winner. The date

9:01

was January 18th of 1912 when

9:03

Scott's five-man crew finally reached the

9:05

South Pole. But what began as

9:07

elation quickly turned to despair. Because

9:10

right there, on what should have

9:12

been barren, untouched ice, sat an

9:14

empty tent. And this tent had

9:16

a note inside, a note from

9:19

Amundsen. The Norwegians, it turns out,

9:21

had arrived on December 14th, a

9:23

full 35 days prior. Rolled Amundsen

9:25

had become the first human ever

9:28

to set foot on the South

9:30

Pole. Alas, that wouldn't be the

9:32

end of Scott's humiliation. Far from

9:34

it. While Amundsen arrived home to

9:37

celebration and renown, Scott's expedition would

9:39

never reach home at all. One

9:41

by one, the five-man expedition perished

9:43

on the journey back. Frost bites

9:45

and hunger, injury sustained from falls.

9:48

Slowly, the doom travelers were lost

9:50

to the ice. Now... Grab a

9:52

box of Kleenex because the story

9:54

never fails to make me tear

9:57

up. According to Scott's diary, one

9:59

member of the crew, Captain Lawrence

10:01

Oates, had been suffering from gangrene

10:03

and frostbite. With each passing day

10:06

his movement became more and more

10:08

labored. He was slowing his comrades

10:10

down and he knew it. Well,

10:12

one night as the travelers shivered

10:15

in their meager tent, Lawrence slowly

10:17

stood up and walked to the

10:19

door. He looked to his fellow

10:21

explorers one last time and then

10:23

he uttered some of the most

10:26

heart-wrenching final words in history. I

10:28

am just going outside, said Lawrence,

10:30

and I might be some time.

10:32

Then he stepped out and bravely

10:35

walked into a blizzard. sacrificing himself

10:37

for his friends. It was the

10:39

day of his 32nd birthday. The

10:41

South Pole may have been found,

10:44

but the explorers weren't finished. Amundsen

10:46

survived until 1928s when he disappeared

10:48

on a rescue mission in the

10:50

Arctic at the age of 55.

10:53

Shackleton would undertake numerous further expeditions,

10:55

eventually dying of a heart attack

10:57

of all things, en route to

10:59

a final Antarctic voyage in 1922.

11:01

And so, with its heroes gone.

11:04

So too ended the heroic age.

11:06

But even so, tales of the

11:08

explorers live on in our imaginations,

11:10

stories of mystery, of bravery, of

11:13

danger, and sometimes even a spark

11:15

of the supernatural. The young woman

11:17

was in awe. Great fields of

11:19

ice stretched across the Arctic, gleaming

11:21

and desolate. When she climbed a

11:23

hill for a better view, she

11:25

saw strange beasts sloping across the

11:28

expanse. Polar bears, foxes as wide

11:30

as bone, reindeer with wide-splayed antlers

11:32

like creatures from a fairy tale.

11:34

Bazaar animals that she had never

11:36

encountered back home in England, and

11:38

suddenly, stark against the snow, there

11:40

he was. The man she had

11:42

traveled all this way to see.

11:45

Gaunt, yes. But miraculously... alive. And

11:47

then the woman awoke from her

11:49

hypnotic trance. She was back in

11:51

England warm and dry, surrounded by

11:53

a room of eager faces. It

11:55

was time to tell them the

11:57

good news. Her psychic powers had

12:00

worked. Her mind had soared to

12:02

the Arctic, and there she had

12:04

finally achieved what she had been

12:06

hired to do. She had located

12:08

the missing explorer, Sir John Franklin.

12:10

Okay, let's rewind a bit, shall

12:12

we? It was the spring of

12:15

1845 when Sir John Franklin set

12:17

out on an expedition to chart

12:19

a northwest passage. And it wasn't

12:21

Franklin's first rodeo either. In fact,

12:23

this marked his third attempt to

12:25

find the theoretical sea routes connecting

12:27

the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

12:29

A discovery which, if found, would

12:32

change trade and commerce forever. Franklin

12:34

led two ships, the HMS Arabas,

12:36

named for the Greek God of

12:38

Darkness and the HMS Terror. And

12:40

these ships were as formidable as

12:42

their name suggests. Both had originally

12:44

been built as bomb ships designed

12:47

to withstand explosions, with hulls strong

12:49

enough to smash through Arctic ice.

12:51

On top of that, they had

12:53

built in heating systems, which in

12:55

1845 was no small boast, and

12:57

they ran on powerful steam engines,

12:59

converted from locomotives. To keep the

13:02

crew comfortable and well-fed, the ship

13:04

carried nearly three years' worth of

13:06

supplies, including over 7,000 pounds of

13:08

tobacco, 2,700 pounds of candles, and

13:10

numerous live cows. Of course, no

13:12

Arctic voyage would be complete without

13:14

a few mascots. Franklin's team had

13:16

a pet dog named Neptune, a

13:19

ship's cat to catch rats, and

13:21

even a pet monkey presented to

13:23

the expedition by Franklin's wife Jane.

13:25

And if hanging out with a

13:27

monkey weren't entertainment enough to while

13:29

away the long hours at sea,

13:31

the ships were also outfitted with

13:34

lavish libraries containing over a thousand

13:36

books. So with Spirits High and

13:38

a thirst for adventure, the crew

13:40

of 24 officers and 110 men

13:42

set sail in May of 1845,

13:44

determined. to make history. And they

13:46

would, but not for the reason

13:49

they hoped. Because little did they

13:51

know, less than three months later,

13:53

the entire expedition would vanish without

13:55

a trace. The Arabists and the

13:57

Terror were last spotted by a

13:59

whaling ship in Baffin Bay in

14:01

late July. But that was that.

14:03

No more signs of the ship.

14:06

No further communication. It was like

14:08

they had never existed at all.

14:10

Of course communication at sea back

14:12

then wasn't what it is today.

14:14

There was no GPS tracking, no

14:16

radio signals. Basically, loved ones back

14:18

home would just mark their estimated

14:21

return date on a calendar and

14:23

then pray that you showed up

14:25

when you were supposed to. All

14:27

of which is to say, no

14:29

one really knew anything was wrong

14:31

until three years later when the

14:33

Arabists in the terror failed to

14:36

show up on schedule. After that,

14:38

the search parties began. Over the

14:40

years that followed a total of

14:42

39 expeditions would attempt to locate

14:44

them to no avail. And yet

14:46

despite all indication of disaster, there

14:48

was one person who refused to

14:50

give up the search. Sir John

14:53

Franklin's wife, Lady Jane Franklin. She

14:55

was convinced her husband was alive,

14:57

and she made sure that all

14:59

of England knew about it. On

15:01

one occasion, she adorned a search

15:03

ship with a flag that she

15:05

had made herself, emblazoned with the

15:08

words, hope on, hope ever. In

15:10

March of 1854, though, the British

15:12

Admiralty stopped paying the wages of

15:14

Franklin and his men, effectively declaring

15:16

them dead. How did Jane respond?

15:18

Well, by appearing in public, not

15:20

in widow's black, but in bright

15:23

greens and pinks, a statement that

15:25

she held out hope that her

15:27

husband was alive. She wrote letters

15:29

to every public figure imaginable, from

15:31

the Tsar of Russia to the

15:33

President of the United States, urging

15:35

them both to join the effort

15:37

to find her missing husband. But

15:40

no matter what she did, and

15:42

no matter how many search parties

15:44

comb the seas, every expedition returned

15:46

empty-handed. Now, as we've learned time

15:48

and time again, fear and grief

15:50

make people do desperate things. There

15:52

are simply some truths that are

15:55

too terrible to accept, and sometimes

15:57

it's easier to believe in the

15:59

impossible. then in the tragic. It's

16:01

how we get stories like that of

16:03

Mercy Brown, whose father insisted she

16:05

was a vampire, rather than admit

16:08

that tuberculosis had destroyed his family.

16:10

After all, a vampire can be

16:12

killed. Tuberculosis? Not so much. It's

16:14

why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fell

16:16

in love with the fairies, choosing

16:18

to believe that his institutionalized father

16:21

could see into the world of

16:23

the fay, rather than admit to

16:25

his madness. And here in the

16:27

mid-19th century, Lady Jane Franklin herself

16:29

would cling to the supernatural over

16:32

the possibility that her husband

16:34

might just simply be dead. So

16:36

if the British Navy couldn't find

16:38

her beloved, nor the Tsar or

16:40

the President, or any other of

16:43

the countless crews a fellow explores,

16:45

then maybe, just maybe, the

16:47

spiritualists could. And so Jane went in

16:50

search of a psychic. They

17:03

all tried. First, there was Sarah, who

17:05

claimed to see a vision of Franklin

17:08

alive, but, and I quote, poorly and

17:10

tired. Next, Jenny, who reported seeing the

17:12

ships surrounded by ice, and whose

17:14

psychic power was magnified by a

17:17

small drinking glass balanced on her

17:19

nose. Third came Emma, known as

17:21

the Cirrus of Bolton, with visions

17:23

of her own, and so it

17:25

went, woman after woman went into

17:28

a trance, psychically traveled to the

17:30

Arctic, and returned with news of

17:32

Franklin's survival. Now, if you're imagining

17:34

opulent mediums draped in lush

17:37

velvet robes, their hands floating

17:39

over crystal balls, think again.

17:41

No, Sarah, Jenny, and Emma were all

17:44

young, illiterate servant girls, and they were

17:46

all doing the bidding of wealthy men.

17:48

It wasn't an uncommon practice, actually.

17:50

Male Mesmerists would find an

17:52

impoverished, illiterate young woman, a

17:55

servant, usually, and put her

17:57

into a trance. And then

17:59

he would... send her on psychic

18:01

journeys to far off lands. Essentially

18:03

the women were used as tools,

18:05

a sort of human telephone wire

18:07

linking their male employers to distant

18:09

places. And so when Lady Jane

18:11

Franklin decided spiritualism would be the

18:13

key to finding her husband, these

18:15

were the kinds of psychics she

18:17

employed. Emma, or the Cirrus of

18:19

Bolton, was the most famous of

18:21

the bunch. A poor English girl,

18:23

she was the domestic servant of

18:25

a man named Dr. Joseph W.

18:27

Haddock. Now I'm not sure what

18:29

possessed him to do this, but

18:31

at some point he began experimenting

18:34

with giving his servant ether. The

18:36

ether he found would induce a

18:38

trance, and while under, Emma seemed

18:40

to possess certain psychic abilities. She

18:42

could accurately describe items hidden in

18:44

boxes, for example, and long before

18:46

her work for the Franklin expedition

18:48

expedition, Emma's powers were even used

18:50

to solve multiple robberies. Haddock would

18:52

put her in a good old

18:54

ether-induced trance, and Emma would describe

18:56

the location of missing money. Then,

18:58

lo and behold, when the authorities

19:00

went to look for it, it

19:02

would be found right where Emma

19:04

said that it would. Emma was

19:06

also no rookie at being sent

19:08

to distant lands. On one occasion,

19:10

she psychically visited Australia, and was

19:12

shocked to find that the seasons

19:14

were reversed. Another time, Haddock even

19:16

claimed to have sent Emma to

19:18

the moon. where she insisted to

19:21

have encountered moonbeams who were, and

19:23

I quote, very small, dwarfs not

19:25

larger than children on our earth.

19:27

Suffice to say, Haddock and Emma's

19:29

exploits made quite a splash in

19:31

the press. Enough so that it

19:33

caught the attention of Franklin's former

19:35

secretary, Captain Alexander Makinoki. And the

19:37

good captain got in touch and

19:39

requested the dynamic duo's help in

19:41

locating the missing expedition. The first

19:43

thing that Haddock told Alexander was

19:45

that for Emma to do her

19:47

thing, she would need a sample

19:49

of Franklin's handwriting and a lock

19:51

of his hair, which the captain

19:53

procured. Then, objects in hand, Haddock

19:55

administered his ether and Emma fell

19:57

into a deep impenetrable trance. And

19:59

it wasn't long before she found

20:01

Sir Franklin and his men. He

20:03

was still alive, Emma claimed, although

20:05

his cheeks were sunken and many

20:07

of his men were dead. She

20:10

said that one of his ships

20:12

had sunk while the other was

20:14

wrecked or abandoned. Over the course

20:16

of three seances, Emma described the

20:18

animals and the ice, the landscape,

20:20

and the sorry state of the

20:22

surviving men. At one point she

20:24

even described drinking some of Franklin's

20:26

fish oil, which made her nauseous.

20:28

During each seance, Haddock and Captain

20:30

Alexander Makanoki would ask questions of

20:32

the hypnotized woman and Emma would

20:34

answer in epic detail. But of

20:36

course there was one question that

20:38

was more vital than all the

20:40

rest. Where the heck were, the

20:42

missing explorers. To get Emma's answer,

20:44

the men plopped an Arctic map

20:46

on her head and told her

20:48

to point. Not exactly high science,

20:50

I know. Emma's finger landed on

20:52

the northwest portion of Hudson Bay,

20:54

which was odd because that was

20:56

far from the area where Franklin

20:59

supposedly went missing. Later, she changed

21:01

her mind, claiming that they were

21:03

located in the Perry Islands, some

21:05

thousand miles away from her first

21:07

assertion. Now, to be fair, Captain

21:09

Makinoki was skeptical, to say the

21:11

least. But even so, he was

21:13

open to the possibility that Emma's

21:15

powers might be real. In these

21:17

days, he said, when we make

21:19

the lightning carry our messages and

21:21

the sun take our portraits. It

21:23

is very difficult to draw the

21:25

precise line, betwixt the possible and

21:27

the impossible. And let me tell

21:29

you, the impossible was only getting

21:31

started, because psychic girls are one

21:33

thing, psychic ghosts are another. The

21:35

child's name was Louisa, although her

21:37

family called her wheezy, and she

21:39

was the three-year-old daughter of an

21:41

Irish shipbuilder named William Copen. She

21:43

also just happened to be dead.

21:45

Weasy had been taken by gastric

21:48

fever in May of 1849, but

21:50

apparently three years on earth weren't

21:52

enough for her. Allegedly, Weasy frequently

21:54

appeared to her family as an

21:56

apparition, or specifically appeared to her

21:58

nine-year-old sister Anne, who claimed to

22:00

see Little Weasy nearly every day.

22:02

Sometimes the toddler was dressed in

22:04

beautiful robes. Other times, she took

22:06

the form of a blue ball

22:08

of light. Now, when the Copen

22:10

family saw news reports of the

22:12

Cirrus of Bolton's clairvoyant journeys to

22:14

the Arctic, they were struck with

22:16

an idea. What if Anne asked

22:18

Weasy about the Franklin expedition? And

22:20

that's exactly what the little girl

22:22

did. Anne went into her bedroom

22:24

and spoke to her dead sister.

22:26

And as soon as she did,

22:28

the temperature in the room dropped.

22:30

An Arctic scene appeared to Anne,

22:32

right there on the floor of

22:34

her bedroom, where she saw two

22:37

ships stuck in high drifts of

22:39

snow. Frantically, Anne began drawing what

22:41

she saw, but stopped in shock

22:43

when handwriting appeared on the wall

22:45

of her bedroom. Arabus and Terror,

22:47

the word scrawled, Lancaster sound, Prince

22:49

Regent Inlet, Point Victory, Victoria Channel.

22:51

and immediately Anne announced that was

22:53

it. That was the location of

22:55

the missing men. Copen contacted Lady

22:57

Jane Franklin and reported everything his

22:59

daughter had seen. At that point,

23:01

you see, Jane was about to

23:03

send an expedition northward, but after

23:05

receiving word of Weasy's message, she

23:07

commanded the captain to change course

23:09

and sail toward Prince Regent Inlet

23:11

instead. But alas, her hope once

23:13

again turned to despair, when not

23:15

one but two expeditions toward Prince

23:17

Regent Inlet were forced to turn

23:19

back. And little did they know,

23:21

just how tantalizingly close they

23:24

had been. Today the

23:26

Franklin expedition is regarded

23:28

as the greatest disaster

23:30

in the history of

23:32

British polar exploration, and

23:34

the story really does

23:37

have it all. Epic

23:39

Adventure Check. mysterious disappearance,

23:41

check, shipwrecks, psychics, creepy

23:43

little ghost girls. Honestly,

23:45

what's not to love?

23:48

And the fact that

23:50

the exploratory age and

23:52

the spiritualism movement just

23:54

so happened to coincide,

23:56

it's one of those

23:58

perfect stories. of spooky

24:01

history. Franklin's fate, though, was

24:03

eventually discovered. Through Inuit witness reports,

24:05

it was determined that both ships

24:07

had become trapped in sea ice

24:09

back in 1846 in a place

24:11

so remote the Inuit referred to

24:13

it as, and I quote, the

24:16

back of beyond. Eventually, the men

24:18

began to trek across the ice

24:20

on foot, slowly dying of malnutrition,

24:22

lead poisoning, and cold along the

24:24

way. When their bodies were located,

24:27

the remains showed signs of

24:29

having resorted to cannibalism. One

24:31

was even found with his face

24:33

frozen in a horrifying grin. As

24:35

for Sir John Franklin himself, though,

24:38

well, in the late 1850s, British

24:40

ships discovered a hidden note within

24:42

a cairn, telling of Franklin's

24:44

death. It said that he had died in

24:47

June of 1847. Which means, yes. It

24:49

turns out that all that time,

24:51

as Lady Jane sported her bright

24:53

greens and pinks, as she sent

24:55

ships across the waters, as the

24:57

cirrus of Bolton described Franklin's sallow

24:59

yet hopeful face, he was already long

25:01

in the grave. Lady Jane was finally

25:04

forced to accept the terrible truth.

25:06

Her husband would not be coming

25:08

home. And honestly, he still hasn't. Because

25:10

the thing is, to this day, no

25:12

one has found Sir John Franklin's

25:15

body. Now sure, it's easy to get

25:17

sucked into the dramatics of a story

25:19

like this, but there is a subtler

25:21

aspect I want to explore, no pun

25:23

intended, I swear. It's the fact that

25:25

the Cirrus of Bolton and her

25:28

fellow clairavoyance were servants, and not

25:30

any servants, but illiterate young women.

25:32

These were individuals with absolutely no

25:35

power in society, no resources, no

25:37

money, and certainly no means of

25:39

pursuing adventures of their own. Suddenly,

25:41

here was a chance to rise above

25:44

their station. The women were invited

25:46

into higher echelones of society.

25:48

They were respected and listened

25:50

to. No longer were they scrubbing pots

25:52

and washing the laundry. No, they

25:55

were working as storytellers, spinning

25:57

magnificent tails of far-off lands

25:59

in lush science parlors. The upper class

26:01

believed that as poor illiterate women, Emma and

26:03

the others couldn't possibly be clever or imaginative

26:05

enough to lie about their visions. And so

26:07

this classism allowed them to essentially say whatever

26:09

they wanted and be believed. It allowed them

26:11

to sidestep class limitations and build brighter lives

26:14

for themselves. And not only that, but in

26:16

a time when women of all social classes

26:18

were forbidden from joining Arctic expeditions, these women

26:20

were able to put themselves in the center

26:22

of the Arctic zeiguist. It makes sense why

26:24

the supposed clairvoyance would lean into the part,

26:26

using Franklin's death to craft a better life.

26:28

But then again, perhaps there was more legitimacy

26:30

to the women's claims than we might think.

26:33

Remember that note, the one in the cairn

26:35

reporting of John Franklin's death? Well, it just

26:37

so happened to be found in a place

26:39

known as Victory Point. That's right. the very

26:41

same words that Weasy had written on her

26:43

sister's wall. I hope you. I hope you've

26:45

enjoyed this journey into such a wild and

26:47

harrowing bit of history. After all, an explorer's

26:50

life is a dangerous one. to survive you

26:52

often only have your companions to rely on.

26:54

But what happens when those companions aren't of

26:56

this world? Well, I have a story about

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31:42

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31:45

from work or walking through a

31:47

quiet forest when suddenly you're overcome

31:49

by the feeling of being watched.

31:51

It's an eerie sensation to

31:53

say the least. The certainty that

31:55

some invisible presence is there with

31:58

you. But sometimes an invisible companion

32:00

might. just save your life. Many survivors of life

32:02

or death situations have reported experiencing

32:04

it. A person may be clawing

32:06

their way out of an avalanche

32:09

or fleeing a burning building when

32:11

suddenly they sense another person is

32:13

there with them cheering them on

32:15

and helping them to survive. Some

32:17

interpret the presence as a guardian

32:19

angel, others a ghost. Others yet

32:21

believe that it's a single entity

32:24

who throughout time has appeared to

32:26

those desperate and in need. and

32:28

legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner interprets the

32:31

sensation as the body simply generating

32:33

a survival tool. Whatever the case, though,

32:35

it's all come to be known by

32:37

the same name, the third man factor,

32:39

and miraculously, it's much more common than

32:42

you'd think. Take the experience of

32:44

Frank Smyth, a British explorer who

32:46

was attempting to summit Mount Everest

32:48

in 1933. The rest of his party

32:51

had abandoned their ascent due to adverse weather

32:53

and lack of oxygen, but Smyth pressed on

32:55

alone. He failed to make it to the

32:57

summit, but a funny thing happened on his

33:00

way up. Needing food, he pulled out a

33:02

bar of Kendall Mint Cake. Then, even without

33:04

thinking about it, he broke it in half

33:06

and turned around to give a share to

33:09

a companion who he was suddenly sure was

33:11

behind him. As Smyth later recalled, at

33:13

the time I was climbing alone, I had

33:15

a strong feeling that I was accompanied

33:17

by a second person. The feeling was

33:19

so strong that it completely eliminated

33:22

all loneliness I might otherwise have

33:24

felt. For something more modern, consider

33:26

Ron D. Francesco's story. He was

33:28

working on the 84th floor of

33:30

the World Trade Center's South Tower

33:32

on September 11th of 2001. After

33:34

the second plane hit his building, D.

33:37

Francesco attempted to flee down an emergency

33:39

stairwell that was quickly filling with smoke.

33:41

But that smoke overcame him, and he

33:43

might have given up and choked if

33:45

he hadn't heard a male voice address

33:48

him by name. It told him to

33:50

get up, to keep going. And so

33:52

he did. feeling a clear physical presence

33:54

running along with him. De Francesco

33:57

would be the last person to make it out

33:59

of the cell. Tower before it collapsed,

34:01

and only one of four survivors

34:03

from above the 81st floor where

34:05

the plane had hit. Now, if

34:08

you thought that we were done

34:10

with the heroic age of Antarctic

34:12

exploration, think again, because guess who

34:14

else experienced the third man factor?

34:17

Ernest Shackleton. During Shackleton's 1914 to

34:19

1917 Antarctic expedition, his ship endurance

34:21

became stranded in pack ice. Shackleton

34:23

and two other men set off

34:26

on a perilous journey to get

34:28

help from a whaling station nearly

34:30

700 miles away. During their final

34:32

stretch, as they marched for a

34:35

grueling 36 hours through icy mountains

34:37

and glaciers, Shackleton began to sense

34:39

a presence trudging along with them.

34:41

Later he would write, it seemed

34:43

to me often that we were

34:46

four, not three. While he said

34:48

nothing at the time, his two

34:50

companions later confessed to also feeling

34:52

the presence of a fourth man.

34:55

When a journalist later asked him

34:57

about this experience, Shackleton replied, None

34:59

of us cares to speak about

35:01

that, there are some things which

35:04

never can be spoken of. Almost

35:06

a hint about them comes perilously

35:08

close to sacrilege. This experience was

35:10

eminently one of those things. Shackleton

35:13

may not have wanted to talk

35:15

about it, but that didn't keep

35:17

one famous poet from writing about

35:19

Shackleton's experience anyway. As it turns

35:21

out, the tale inspired lines from

35:24

T. S. Eliot's 1922-22 poem. The

35:26

Wasteland. Elliot wrote, Who is the

35:28

third who walks always beside you?

35:30

When I count, there are only

35:33

you and I together. But when

35:35

I look ahead up the white

35:37

road, there is always another one.

35:39

Walking beside you. This

35:56

episode of lore was produced by me

35:58

Aaron Minky with writing by Jennifer Rose

36:00

Nethercott, research by Cassandra DeAlba, and music

36:02

by Chad Lawson. Don't like hearing the

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