The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Dylan Thuras 0:03
Hey everybody, Dylan here. So I do not know how to scuba dive I've I've never taken the lessons. But a few months ago, I got to go to Tarpon Springs, Florida and get to sort of play at being a professional sponge diver for a day, I didn't have to do a real scuba I was on a kind of oxygen line, so that I could go underwater and walk around on the ocean floor, but not have to be fully certified. Anyway, it was a crazy experience I got to put on this original copper 150 pound dive suit was kind of like this astronaut Frankenstein being and slow and heavy walking on the, you know, bottom of the ocean, I was only 12 feet underwater. But anyway, it was just this incredible experience. And being there deep under the water was like stepping into another universe. It was filled with life and mysterious creatures and things growing and it was just completely and totally magical. And it got me thinking about all of the strange, incredible wonders that are found underneath the oceans at the bottom of lakes. And so today, we're joined by the Atlas Obscura places editors Jonathan Kerry and Michelle Cassidy, who are choosing two stories to tell us that both take place deep underwater. First is Jonathan Kerry, who's going to take us to the sunken crosses of Malbec gay, get ready and dive down deep with us under the blue sea of the palm of Spain.

Jonathan Kerry 1:41
La Palma is a scuba divers paradise. It's one of the Canary Islands which are part of Spain. If you join one of the diving expeditions, you probably launch from the southern coast of the palm and head a little over four miles from the shore. And then as anchors down air tanks on and into the depths of the Atlantic you go

the water is filled with coral reefs. I mean schools of fish nibble at your fence as you head to your dive point about 65 feet below the waves. And so a few objects begin to appear in the distance down on the ocean floor. little blurry, but they're handmade for sure. And when you get a little closer, you'll see that these are crosses 40 Stone crosses, and some of them are covered. And it's you know, funky underwater plants that reddish in color. These are the suckling causes of Malpica. And at first glance, it looks like an underwater cemetery. But to get the story of these crosses, you swim back up to the surface, but also back in time.

The waters are calm, and that speed boat that you came in. That's gone. And in the distance, you can see two groups of ships sailing towards each other from each side of the horizon. And there Oh, I mean these huge wood frame boats complete with massive sales. That's because it's 1570. You see one group of boats is carrying a Portuguese missionary named Ignacio de Azevedo, and he's selling along with 39 of the Jesuits is July, and Ignacio DeVito, and the other men are headed toward Brazil to do some missionary work. I mean, for many of them. This is the first time they undertaken such an adventure. And the traveling party is seven ships with about 70 people in total, including the crew. And here they are filtering through the waters of the Canary Islands they're excited is the journey of a lifetime. Now, on the other side of the horizon, the other boats are led by a man named Chuck quiz de sorrows. The Sorrows is a pirate. He's French, and is a default Protestant. And about 15 years earlier, and 1555 This one was Hepburn Havana, Cuba to the ground. I mean, he's that kind of dude. He's also the kind of pirate who's looking for revenge. You see if the thing 65 A fellow France navigator name, John rubble was executed in an area that is now Florida. You see around that time, there was a brewing conflict between the Catholics and Protestants and Roberto was killed because he was Protestant. Now fast forward five years is 1570 and his his group of Jesuits sailing through the Canary Islands. They had been warned about violent pirates in the region. But the goose captain had all but ignored those warnings. When the sore spot at these boats, he and his crew chased them down. And as the sewer is boarded one of the ships, the Santiago that's where he found the Catholic missionary He's an agreement from the period capture this moment well, it shows this always hovering over the group of terrifies Jesuits. His crew in the background boarding the ship amid the chaos swords and hand. The images title job disorder is a French privateer massacre of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries to avenge the death of John Ribble. Does Aveda reportedly told his fellow missionaries, brothers, let us all prepare because today, we are going to populate heaven. And let's pretend that this is the last hour that we have to live. He didn't let the man in prayer near the main mass, reportedly holding the pitch of the Virgin Mary is a chaos of fighting a suit around him. According to accounts, there's a veto was a first just with a tech. He was then thrown overboard along with the painting. The rest of the young Jesuits some maimed many batteries were later thrown into the ocean. One Jas would discover the ships Cook, who lived the spread the tale of Florida

in 1854, almost recently, after the incident, Pope pays the knife ba to fight the form artists of Brazil. However, it wasn't until 2000 that the courses were commissioned. The naval museum of the plumber wanted to pay homage to the martyrs. They dropped 40 Stone crosses the location where it's believed Ignacio danza Vito and his fellow missionaries perished. And that is where you can dive down to see them today. To learn more about the soccer crosses of Mount BK, check out the entry on Atlas Obscura.

Dylan Thuras 6:45
This next story is deep under the water but not out in the ocean. It's in a harbor city off of Denmark. Michelle Cassidy has more.

Michelle Cassidy 7:04
Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Hans Hans lift and Harbortown with his mother who was a washer woman and his father, who was a shoemaker. little Hans love to sit at his father's workbench and listen to stories about magic lamps, brave adventures and a whale so big that it cuts follow a man hole with his handmade puppets and wooden dolls. Hans performed these stories, and soon enough, he started dreaming up tall tales of his own. When Hans was just 11 years old, though his father died. His mother wanted him to forget his childhood fantasies and get a job but Hans believed that something grander was waiting for him. At 14, he convinced his mother that he should leave his hometown and set out for the Capitol. He found work as a singer, but lost it after his voice deepened. He tried to dance ballet but just wasn't graceful enough. Instead, he went back to those tall tales that he had always loved. Soon his writing caught the attention of a wealthy man who recognized that Hans had a special talent. With help from a benefactor his stories spread far and wide, even reaching the king. That boy grew up to be a great storyteller, and people, especially children loved his tales. There was the one about the mermaid who longed to leave the see the little Match Girl who saw visions inside of a flame, and the ugly duckling who grew up to become a beautiful swan. Many years later, by the time he died, Hans and His stories were known all around the world. And back in the harbor town where he had grown up, Hans's memory was everywhere. Even today, if you stand in just the right place on the docks, and look out across the water, you might just see his face looking back at you

if you haven't figured it out already, this legendary storyteller is Hans Christian Anderson, the Danish author who wrote more than 150 Fairy Tales, including the Little Mermaid, The Princess and the P The Emperor's New Clothes. The list goes on and on. Since His stories were first published in the mid 1800s. They have been shared around the world in many languages and adapted into basically every format you can imagine. Comic books and TV shows and yes, animated Disney movies. Anderson was born in Odense, a city in southern Denmark. Today, his childhood home is a fantastic museum. And there are monuments to the author in his works all over the city. 2005 marked the bicentennial of Anderson's birth, and Denmark went all out to celebrate. There were commemorative coins and stamps of massive Gala, all kinds of performances. in Odense, they commissioned a large piece of artwork from a local sculptor named Yen's gal shoot. It was called the storytellers fountain, and the design featured Anderson sitting at the edge of a pool of water, surrounded by hundreds of the characters from his stories. Now, it's worth noting that this charming and playful fountain was a little bit different from the kind of art that Gousha is best known for. His large metal sculptures are often designed to call attention to human rights issues, and some of them are quite visceral gash at once described the aim of his art as to show the grotesque and absurd and what we normally call reality. In a way, that goal wasn't all that different from what Anderson was doing. Many of his fairy tales dealt with themes of injustice and inequality, something that is especially apparent if you read the original versions. When Gauss, who began work on the fountain, things got off to a pretty good start. He completed a 10 foot tall copper and bronze statue of Andersen that would serve as the centerpiece of the fountain. It was put on display outside of City Hall while the other elements were being completed. But every good fairy tale needs a villain. And in this case, along came a big, bad financial crisis. The statues sat outside City Hall for one year, then two, then six as the money for the rest of the fountain slowly dried up. Gosh, it was disappointed, but he wasn't really one to sit idly by. In October of 2011, he arranged a public funeral for his piece of art. He hired a brass band to play while a horse drawn carriage transported the sculpture. It was followed by a crowd filled with 1000s of mourners drawn in by a promise of free beer and hot dogs. Once they reached the harbor, the statue was lifted into the air by a crane and then slowly submerged into the water until only Anderson's sculpted head peeked out above the surface. When he was asked about the location gal shoot told reporters that it would allow for Andersen to keep an eye on the mermaids. A few months later in April gal shoe resurrected the figure bringing it back to dry land for a combined celebration of Easter and Anderson's birthday. Afterward the statue toward Denmark for a while before it was eventually sold to a golf club. That could have been the end of the story for this statue. But one morning, about a year after it was pulled out of the water. It reappeared back in that same place, you know dense harbor. Shoot had heard that people missed seeing Hans down there so he had a reproduction installed. The statue is still there today. And if you go to Odense harbor and stand in the right place in the docks and look down, you can see Hans Christian Andersen looking back at you. There's a slightly bemused expression on his face. And he's sitting in the watery perch where it seems like at least this version of him has found his happily ever after.

Dylan Thuras 14:01
Thank you to Jonathan and Michelle. Those were really wonderful, watery wonders that you took us to both off the coast of Spain and in Odessa, Denmark. If you are interested and want to know more about all of the incredible underwater wonders that are listed analysis obscura, visit Atlas obscura.com or we will put a link to our underwater places in the show notes.

Our podcast is a co production of Atlas Obscura and witnessed docs. The production team includes Doug Baldinger Chris Naka, Camille Stanley Willis, writer Arnold, Sara Lyman Bowdler Seuss, Gianna Palmer, Tracy Samuelson, John DeLorean, our technical director is Casey Holford and this episode was sound designed by Manolo Morales and mixed by loose Fleming and our theme and end credit music is by Sam Tyndall. I'm doing Thirith wishing you all the wonder in the world. I will see you next time witness ducks from stitcher