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SEARCHING FOR PEACE IN THE JUNGLE

William Beebe in 1918 ready to enter the jungle of British Guiana

The captain and crew slowly lowered scientist and author William Beebe by ropes down along the bow of the fast moving passenger liner to just above the water line. Below him, the Caribbean waters glistened and began to change into a grassy carpet filled with crawling animal life.

It was the Sargasso Sea – and Beebe, ever the scientist, began collecting specimens on his way to a new adventure- exploring British Guiana. It was a world he wrote about in his fascinating book “Jungle Peace”.


A former World War 1 biplane fighter pilot, the peace Beebe was searching for in the jungle was the absence of bombs dropping, machine guns firing and cannon shells exploding.

And yet the Jungle was not really all peaceful. There was the silent fang, the sudden claw, the bite of killer ants. In the “peace,” danger was all around you.

Red snake in the Guyana forrest. Beebe describes the very careful capture of a snake in the jungle

 

William Beebe explored Guiana in 1918 when it was known as British Guiana on the South American Atlantic coast, just south of Venezuela. 

 

 

Sugar was the main industry of  British Guiana, with plantations originally operated by slave labor. 

When slavery was outlawed by Britain in 1834, contract laborers from India were brought in, creating a substantial Indian culture.

 

Beebe writes about how these poor contract laborers from India were now ruled by British law, bringing  English tradition, law, Magistrates and courts from civilized London into the dark jungle. 

 

Hoatzin,(opisthocomus,Hoazin) never leaves home

Because he was a world famous ornithologist, Beebe observed a bird  found no where else in the world, because it never wants to leave home.

 

 

 

 

If you enjoy learning about strange lands from the past, you will enjoy listening to “Jungle Peace” by William Beebe. It is so well written that former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt wrote an extensive foreword of praise. “Jungle Peace” will transport you to another world you will not forget.

I have recorded “Jungle Peace” as an audiobook for Listen 2 Read audiobooks, available wherever audiobooks are downloaded and also here.

Andre Stojka
Publisher
Listen2Read audiobooks
©Listen2Read,LLC


THE LAST PLACE EXPLORER FREDERICK COOK WANTED TO BE ON NEW YEARS DAY

 

Frederick Albert Cook on the way to the North Pole in 1909.
Photograph with American flag taken at The North Pole.

He had risked his life in an unknown part of the world to accomplish the impossible. He had beaten the odds. And what was his reward for his dangerous adventure? Spending New Year’s Day 1909, freezing, struggling for life with two Innuit companions and a lot of angry bears who considered them food.


On April 21,1908, Frederick Albert Cook was the first white man to reach the North Pole. He described the entire incredible adventure in his book, MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE, which I narrated as an audiobook for the Listen2Read American Adventure Library. Cook was accompanied by two experienced Inuit natives, who helped make the accomplishment possible. And yet, no one in the civilized world, hundreds of miles south, knew about it.

THE ISOLATION OF THE FARTHEST NORTH

Ahwelah and Etukishook, Cook’s two Inuit companions.

In 1909 at the North Pole, there was no radio or satellite communication. The only way anyone would know about Cook’s accomplishment was if he told the story to someone. But there was no one around for hundreds of miles. The only way he could reach civilization was the way he left civilization- walking through the snow and ice with temperatures 40 degrees below zero.


Cook believed he had paved the way home by leaving food and supplies on the trail to the North Pole for the return journey. Only after he reached the Pole did he realize that the North Pole was floating above a moving sea and the sea was carrying him in the wrong direction. How could he know? No one had ever been there before.


WINTER DARKNESS

Ahwelah and Etukishook hunting musk ox on Devin Island at Cape Sparbo as the days grow shorter.

Worse than that, a long, cold Winter Darkness was descending, during which Cook could not travel at all. He needed a new, safe permanent home for the long winter ahead. Cape Sparbo, a long journey from the North Pole and closer to Greenland, was to become his home for 100 arctic nights. It was going to be a long way home and long time before anyone knew of his achievement, if he could make it back to civilization at all.

 

 

COOK WROTE IN HIS BOOK:
“Bears headed us off at every turn. We were not permitted to proceed beyond an enclosed hundred feet from the hole of our den. Not an inch of ground or a morsel of food was permitted us without a contest. With no adequate means of defense we were driven to imprisonment within the walls of our own den.”

After 100 difficult days of darkness on Cape Sparbo, the light of day finally appeared. The Cook party left their ice home on February 7,1909 and pushed toward civilization to report their great accomplishment.

BACK TO CIVILIZATION
But once back in civilization, instead of Polar Bears, Cook found he now had to deal with the most dangerous animal of all- human beings. And instead fighting the elements of nature, he now had to battle with politics.

MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE

by Frederick Albert Cook is an amazing story and a wonderful book and audiobook. You can download it wherever audiobooks are downloaded, including HERE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of us at Listen2Read audiobooks. To all our subscribers and listeners, we send wishes that your New Year will be a lot warmer and happier than that of Frederick Cook.


Andre Stojka
Publisher
Listen2Read audiobooks
©Listen2Read.com

View the entire 18 audiobook Listen2Read American Adventure Library HERE

TWO ASSASINATION BULLETS THAT CHANGED THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S LIFE

 

President Theodore Roosevelt speaks to the crowd

With all the news of Presidential assassination attempts, I was reminded of two assassination bullets that completely changed Theodore Roosevelt’s life. I’ve been studying Roosevelt since I produced and narrated the audiobook of his adventure “Through the Brazilian Wilderness.”

President William McKinley in 1901


The first bullets that changed Roosevelt’s life were fired on September 6, 1901. They were not fired at Roosevelt, but at William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States. Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist American citizen, had tracked McKinley to assassinate him.

Newspaper illustration of Leon Czolgosz, gun disguised in wrapping, shoots President William McKinley.

When McKinley made a public appearance at the Pan American exhibition in Buffalo New York, Czolgosz came forward pretending to shake his hand and fired a gun directly at him.


At this moment, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was 475 miles away in Vermont, speaking at the annual meeting of the Vermont Fish and Game league.

Although Roosevelt was known to be a hunter, this minor appearance kept Roosevelt away from the political action. Roosevelt felt that the position of Vice President was a very insignificant position, where some politicians (including him) were hung out to dry, never to be heard from again. But fate had a different idea.

President William McKinley and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt

When assassination news reached Roosevelt, he immediately traveled to Buffalo by every means possible, yacht, train and even by rowboat. McKinley was still alive when Roosevelt reached him, attended by doctors who were hopeful but did not fully understand medical sanitation. Roosevelt was encouraged to leave by the doctors and urged to continue a family vacation – lest the public become restless about McKinley’s health.

 

Roosevelt left McKinley and traveled to the Adirondacks to climb Mount Marcy.  But on September 14, McKinley began to fail . 


Roosevelt was told to wait for the safety of daylight before traveling for a train station 35 miles away, but he became restless and started out in the dark by wagon and arrived at the station at 4:45 AM, where he was informed that McKinley had died during the night.


Roosevelt continued by train to Buffalo, where 13 hours later, he was sworn in as the 26th President of the United States. There are no photographs of this ceremony because Roosevelt barred them. He was still dressed for the mountains and felt he was not dressed properly to be sworn in as President of the United States.


The second assassination bullet that Roosevelt experienced  was aimed directly at him and was intended to kill him.
 After his Presidency ended, Roosevelt was disappointed with the man he had supported to replace him, William Howard Taft. In 1912, Roosevelt left the Republican party and began his own political party, which became known as the “Bull Moose” party. It received its name from a frightening event.
While giving one of his campaign speeches, on October 12, 1912, speaking from the rear end of a train car, Roosevelt was shot directly in the chest during the middle of his speech by a saloon keeper named John Schrant.

The bullet passed through Roosevelt’s coat, hit Roosevelt’s eyeglass case and penetrated his thick 50 page speech in his coat pocket before lodging in his chest.

An experienced hunter, Roosevelt knew he had been shot, but concluded that since he was not coughing up blood, the bullet had not entered his lungs or a vital organ. He then spoke to the crowd:


“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

Roosevelt also quieted the crowd and stopped them from lynching John Schrant on the spot.
Later, the doctors who examined Roosevelt found the bullet edged tightly inside him and decided that to remove it would be dangerous and threaten his life. Roosevelt carried the bullet inside him for the rest of his life.
Roosevelt lost the support of the Republican party and began his own third party called “The Bull Moose Party” recalling his speech. But, after all that adventure he and the Republican Party lost the election to a Democrat, Woodrow Wilson.

After that loss, Theodore Roosevelt ended his political career and began adventuring.  He wrote about his adventures, and I recorded his last adventure, which almost cost him his life.


Roosevelt agreed to adventure down an unexplored river in Brazil known as the “River of Doubt,” which was believed to empty into the Amazon River. It was a badly planned adventure and a trip that nearly killed him and certainly shortened his life. Roosevelt described it all in his book, “Through The Brazilian Wilderness”. It is a grand adventure and my Listen 2 Read audiobook recording of his original version  contains  sounds of the the jungle and the river that will make you feel that you are traveling with Roosevelt down the River of Doubt. 

You can download THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS from almost any audiobook service including HERE: 

You can view the entire Listen2Read American Adventure Library HERE


Andre Stojka
Publisher
Listen2Read Audiobooks

HOW AN AFRICAN AMERICAN WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO STEP ON THE NORTH POLE AND HOW IT WAS COVERED UP

Reaching the North Pole Robert Peary posses with his assistant Matthew Henson and 2 Inuits April 6,1909

 

An African-American was the first person to step on the North Pole. Here is how this part of Black History happened:

On April 6, 1909, Admiral Robert Peary moved toward what he thought was the exact geographic point of the North Pole, where no one had ever been before.

Robert Peary 1909
Robert Peary 1909

Peary had left his exploratory party behind, taking the last difficult struggle by himself with his long time trusted African American assistant, Matthew Henson, and four Inuit helpers.
Everyone was on foot except Peary, who rode on a sled. Peary was 53 years old and not in good shape. He knew that after 7 previous attempts, if he didn’t reach the North Pole now, he never would. It was beyond cold and visibility was limited.

Matthew Henson
Matthew Henson, the African-American son of Southern Sharecroppers, learned sailing and became an assistant to Peary and became the first man to reach the North Ole

Peary ordered Henson, who was on foot, to scout the area for visible landmarks or anything else of interest. Peary came to the point he felt was the North Pole. He had been calculating the angle of the sun and now his compass pointed south instead of north.

A MYSTERIOUS FOOTPRINT APPEARS

To Celebrate the historic moment of his discovery, Peary took an American flag on a pole, lifted it and was ready to push it into the ground to mark the spot where no one had ever been before.  Then, shocked, he saw it!  On this almost sacred spot, never touched before by human beings, there was in the snow, a human snowshoe footprint!

Matthew Henson
Matthew Henson at the North Pole

Peary was confused. How could this be? Whose footprint was it? It turned out that the first footprint on the North Pole was actually Matthew Henson’s footprint!  While Henson had been scouting the area, he had stepped on the North Pole without realizing it. By accident, Matthew Henson, an African-American, was the first person to reach the North Pole.

PEARY IGNORES HENSON’S FOOTRINT

Peary, an egotistical man, full of self importance, ignored Henson’s footprint and returned to his camp, claiming that he had finally, after 7 attempts, reached the North Pole.

Dr. Frederick Cook
A Photograph of Dr. Frederick Cook and his Inuit companions  being first to arrive at the North Pole.

But Peary’s triumph was short lived. The moment he returned to civilization, he was informed that while he had been out of touch in the Northern wilderness, another man claimed to be first to arrive at the pole before he did — Dr. Frederick Cook.

ANOTHER CLAIM TO BE FIRST AT THE NORTH POLE

Publicity picture of Peary
Publicity picture of Peary

The claim by Cook must have infuriated Peary. He knew Cook, who had been a surgeon on one of Peary’s failed attempts to reach the Pole. Peary was a well-funded explorer. He was paid a full salary for his Navy Rank while he explored. Government facilities were placed at his disposal and he had a commercial sponsor, The National Geographic Society.
Now, Cook was challenging his accomplishment and reputation!  There was a lot of money at stake.  The person who discovered the North Pole would profit from paid speaking tours, publications, and advertising opportunities -ways to make a lot of money.

WHO WAS FREDERICK COOK?

Frederick Cook
Dr. Frederick Cook 1906

Frederick Cook witnessed the expensive equipment and supplies that accompanied Peary on his quest for the North Pole. Cook felt this equipment was cumbersome and that the only way to reach the Pole was with a very small, nimble party of Inuit partners.
Peary was infuriated that his claim to reach the North Pole was compromised. Using his political power and connections, he did everything possible to destroy Cook’s reputation. Just as he used his power to ignore  Matthew Henson.

Robert Peary
Robert Peary in later life

Peary and his associates reached out to destroy Cook. They destroyed his career, his life and even sent him to prison. Cook’s life ended with him as a broken man, cared for by his daughter.
For years, Peary was given credit as the first person to reach the North Pole with Henson and Cook totally ignored.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MATTHEW HENSON?

Matthew Henson in civilian clothing
Matthew Henson in civilian clothing

After the Peary party returned to civilization, Matthew Henson was no longer needed by Peary – it was rumored that their relationship had become strained.  Suddenly Henson was out of work, while Peary toured the world as the hero who discovered the North Pole.
President Theodore Roosevelt came to Henson’s rescue by recommending him for a job at the US Customs House in New York, where Henson spent that last 30 years of his life.
Eventually, Henson’s contributions were recognized by the Explorers Club. The US Navy awarded him the same medal that was awarded to Peary. Henson died March 9, 1955 and eventually the caskets of him and his wife were moved to a place of honor at Arlington National Cemetery.

Matthew Alexander Henson
Matthew Alexander Henson,  companion and co-discoverer of the North Pole with Robert E. Peary. He is buried in Section 8, Grave S-15-1 in Arlington National Cemetery. (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue/released)

 

Although Frederick Cook was not valued during his lifetime, his dramatic recounting of his dangerous and fascinating voyage of discovery live on in his book “My Attainment of the North Pole”.  His amazing journey  is a Listen 2 Read audiobook, a part of our American Adventure Library of American History available wherever audiobooks are sold or  downloaded, including here: https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/379293/?refId=38838
Thank you for being part of the Listen 2 Read American Adventure Library audiobook community

Andre Stojka
Publisher
Listen2Read Audiobooks
© 2024 Listen2Read.com

HOW TITUSVILLE PENNSYLVANIA SAVED THE WHALES

 

Old drawing of a great whale attacking the Essex in 1820

There was one less whale ship butchering whales in 1820. A rightfully angry whale turned on the wooden ship, rammed it below the water line and sank it. Some called it poetic justice.

The ship was called the Essex and the story of how some of the crew got to safety from the middle of the Pacific Ocean (1500 miles from land) is the subject of our Listen2Read audiobook “Narrative of the most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale ship Essex” an eye witness account written by the first mate of the Essex, Owen Chase.

Nobody knew it in 1820, but whaling was on its way to be as doomed as the Essex. A discovery in a small town in Pennsylvania, only 30 years after the Essex met her demise eliminated the need for any whale ships at all.

Oil seeping from underground with water

Everyone in Titusville knew there was oil under the ground. It kept seeping to the surface just enough to be annoying. The problem was what to do with oil and how to bring oil to the surface when and where you wanted it. The automobile and the internal combustion engine hadn’t been invented yet.

A petroleum company called Seneca Oil scraped up surface oil from trenches dug in the earth which was used as liniment for people and horses.

There were around Titusville underground salt mines connected with salted springs. It was possible to drill into ground and the salty spring water would push to the surface, where, through evaporation, it would leave the valuable commodity of salt.

Edwin Drake, driller and inventor

Was it possible to drill for oil in the same way? To find out, a former railroad conductor named Edmund Drake was employed by the Seneca Oil Company to solve the problem of bringing oil up from under the ground. To give Drake a little more dignity, James Townsend, president of Seneca gave Drake the honorary title of “Colonel” and a salary of $1,000.per year.

Most people in Titusville thought drilling for oil was a nutty idea.  People gathered at the drilling site to just make fun of Drake and the silly scheme. They called him “Crazy Drake”.

Using salt drilling techniques, Drake would drill for oil with a drill bit at the end of a long shaft. As the drill bored down into the earth, the dirt around it caved in, filling in the just drilled hole. Drake was getting nowhere fast- another thing for the crowd to laugh at.

Modern drilling bit surrounded by pipe, the concept invented by Drake

Then, Drake had an inspiration. He placed a long round pipe in the ground and lowered the drill bit and shaft into the center of the pipe so that as the drill bit cut through the earth, the long pipe followed around it, preventing the cave in.

Drake invented the drilling technique used by oil drilling companies to this day. Sadly, Drake never bothered to patent his technique His new well-produced 25 barrels of oil a day, enough for liniment.

The next chapter in the death of whaling came three years after Drake’s new technique was invented. A physician and scientist named Abraham Gesner developed a technique for distilling thick oil into a new liquid he called Kerosene.

Kerosene Lamp

Kerosene was something special. Placed in a special lamp with a wick, Kerosene could burn just like whale oil, except it was brighter, provided better illumination, the supply was more reliable, much cheaper, and sure smelled a lot better.

As the demand for Kerosene grew, Titusville grew too, from a population of 450 people in 1860 to a bustling place of over 12,000 people in 1890. Titusville is considered the “Birthplace of the American Oil Industry” and it was said that Titusville had more millionaires than any other place in the county. 

Oil field in Pennsylvania in 1859 after the use of kerosene was discovered

 

Now that petroleum could be used for lighting, it was in great demand. There was increased exploration throughout the US and the world as Kerosene replaced whale oil. Alas, the Titusville oil fields ran out of oil around 1870 and its boomtown population began a long decline. Today, it is home to around 5,000 people.
The number of whale ships also declined from a high of over 700 whale ships worldwide to less than 65 at the close of the American Civil War in 1865.

So, Titusville and Kerosene, effectively saved the whales.

While whaling is mostly gone these days, the stories and lore of the whaling era live on, including the story of the Essex and the ordeal of its crew members trying to survive. It is one of the great classic adventures tales of American history in our Listen 2 Read American Adventure Library you should experience.

You can listen to our audiobook by downloading it here:
https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/narrative-of-the-most-extraordinary-and-distressing-shipwreck-of-the?source=gashop_non-generic_not-on-sale&utm_source=google-shop&utm_campaign=us_shopping_non_generic&gclid=Cj0KCQiAxoiQBhCRARIsAPsvo-yylWcflo-DJawMPb8DUf4k345EOOqUD8PhN9zMerpAQV4mX3QBDWcaAtUoEALw_wcB

Andre Stojka
Publisher
Listen2Read Audiobooks
© 2022 Listen2Read.com

 



“Narrative of the most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex” written by the first mate of the Essex, Owen Chase.

and all 18 of our Listen 2 Read American Adventure Library audiobooks are available for download here or wherever you download audiobooks, including:
Audible.com, Apple Books, Audiobooks.com, Downpour.com, Google Play, NOOK Audiobooks, iTunes, Scribed, Tune-in, Bibliotheca, Playstar, Folliett and
your local public library through the Overdrive system. CD versions are available at Amazon and here at Listen2Read.com

NOTE: If you enjoy reading my occasional stories about history and our audiobooks, why not subscribe, at no cost, and receive new stories as soon as they are released. You will so be notified when we release new historic adventures into our library Just enter your e-mail address on the upper left spot on this page and you are set. No one will see your address but us.


CHRISTMAS ON STORMY SOUTH AFRICAN SEAS WHERE THE WORLD IS STILL FLAT

The world’s most famous sailor struggled by himself in his 35-foot sloop against winds that shoved and buried the bow and him under water. Crawling on the bowsprit, trying to adjust his sails, the rolling sea shoved him under water 3 times. It was a dangerous situation especially being alone; there was no one on board to save him.

A large English Steamer passing ran up the signal ‘Wishing you a Merry Christmas’.
“I think the Captain was a humorist, his own ship was throwing her propeller out of the water.” he wrote.

It was Christmas, 1897, and Joshua Slocum had sailed alone half way around the world. He left the Indian ocean, crossed the Cape of Good Hope and was desperately fighting the winds blowing from the Southeast to reach Cape Town, South Africa.

It was treacherous territory, where the legendary Flying Dutchman perished and supposedly became a ghost ship, doomed to sail the oceans forever.

Slocum was fighting his way to Cape Town and shelter, hoping not to suffer another disaster like the one a few years earlier that changed his life forever.

Slocum and family in the Liberdade on the coast of Brazil

A few year earlier, the Aquidneck, his tall ship, had been caught on a reef off the coast of Brazil and broke apart. Slocum was able to save his wife and family and then, amazingly, built and sailed a new boat from a deserted Brazilian Beach to Washington DC. as he described in our Listen2Read audiobook “Voyage of the Liberdade”.

Now, a few years later, without wife, without family, trying to circumnavigate the world alone, he found himself in these angry South African seas and then, surprisingly, a sudden calm sea caused by the protection of Table Mountain between the Cape and Cape Town.. Luckily, he was found by the steam tug Alert and brought to safety in Cape Town, where he put the boat in dry dock for repairs.

President Paul Kruger,President of the Transval who believed the world was flat

It was then that he met one of the most important men in South Africa, Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal. As Slocum was introduced to Kruger it was mentioned that Slocum was on a voyage around the world.

“You don’t mean round world,” replied Kruger.

He insisted that the world was flat.

“It is impossible! You mean IN the world.”

Amazing to think that as of Christmas, 1898, one of South Africa’s most important leaders still believed the world was flat.

Joshua Slocum held his tongue however and, in a few days, placed his sloop back into the water and continued his voyage around the world, which was quite definitely round and not flat and he did not fall off the edge.

Joshua Slocum’s first book, “Voyage of the Liberdade”, how he saved his family, is high adventure and a great listening experience. You can download is here.
https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/voyage-of-the-liberdade/379335

 Thank you for being a member of the Listen2Read Community and best wishes for a safe and healthful New Year 2022.


Andre Stojka
Publisher
Listen2 Read Audiobooks
© 2021 Listen2Read.com


I recorded “The Night Before Christmas” a few years ago. Listen free here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNSy0CDLZnE


Joshua Slocum’s “The Voyage of the Liberdade”
and all 18 of our Listen 2 Read American Adventure Library audiobooks are available for download wherever you download audiobooks, including:
Audible.com, Apple Books, Audiobooks.com, Downpour.com, Google Play, NOOK Audiobooks, iTunes, Scribed, Tune-in, Bibliotheca, Playstar, Folliett and
your local public library through the Overdrive system.

CD versions are available at Amazon and here at Listen2Read.com 
 




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