I was lucky enough to see the painting in person and I wish you could show the scale of it. The canvas was like 16ft by 23ft, literally larger than life. And the bodies have this sharp contrast between the living and the dead. Gericault did an amazing amount of research into how the human body changes in the hours after death.
Totally true. You can feel the dread, the despair, hope flickering like a candle light... Horrifyingly beautiful painting. But on the second note the Louvre Museum is SO OVER PACKED with paintings and other works of art that you can't grasp the beauty... after a while it's hard to appreciate because it's a great work of art after another and another and so on, so forth...
@@mateuszbednarski_fizjo Oh definitely. I went on a school trip with the art history class and after a certain point everyone was just overwhelmed. I vividly remember what I saw the raft of the Medusa bc I didn’t know it was in the room until I turned around.
The first bad omen wasn't the loss of the single man overboard; it was the appointing of an incompetent officer over such a magnificent vessel. A snowball effect of epic proportions.
The first bad omen was a black seagull died and landed on a rat and some blood squirted into the captains wife's eye and she died of weiss disease but they don't mention it .....yeoh yeoh hmmmmm?
I nearly had the same thing happen to me in the Northern Canadian Atlantic. I was going on vacation with a friend and their family to Newfoundland, Canada in January. It was a night time ferry ride across a stretch of Atlantic Ocean and I felt very sea sick. I figured I could get some air outside and it would make me feel better. I grabbed my coat and walked to the door. I took a single step on the wet deck and slid very hard into the railing. Both my feet slid under the bottom railing and were dangling off the boat. I remember staring into what looked like a black brine that shined yellow on the waves from the amber lights and thinking I was certainly dead. Luckily I caught myself with the top rail under my armpits and was able to regather my footing and make for the door. I went back to my seat and sat there eyes wide staring out the window at the blackness of the night. I would have died in a couple minutes at best, and no one would have known until we had docked several hours later. I make better decisions these days. That poor man felt the hope of knowing the crew was trying to help him and watched the sails lessen. The mental war he faced is nothing I could ever imagine.
Probably not for long, depending on water temperature he could have endured three or four days before succoming to thirst. Or as little as a few minutes before hypothermia took him. That the Medusa failed to reduce sail and launch a boat to fetch him is pretty callous.
For anyone wondering why they packed wine on the raft, it was likely the only potable liquid they had, so it wasn’t like they were looking to get drunk: they kept it to stay hydrated.
@@jakeaaron Alcohol is a diuretic, even beer has water but it's still a diuretic. So unless you're able to match glass/glass wine/water you're gonna dehydrate.
Ah yes, i remember this painting from Art History back in college. The teacher didn't go into quite as much detail, but definitely dedicated a few minutes to explaining the harrowing situation depicted by the raft. Great painting, great artist, but an unfortunate & horrifying situation it depicts.
Interesting that the captain refused to throw the cannons overboard yet abandoned ship to get onto a worthless raft so that any pirates or other nations' ships could salvage the cannons for themselves.
That was the dumbest thing to me. So you refuse to make it lighter by losing the cannons yet...you decide to strip the same boat to make a raft? Just dumb.
Thank you for doing this. This was SUPER interesting. I watch a lot of content, and this was the first time I had heard about this story. Really enjoyed it.
Absolutely terrifying, not only being stuck on a piece of wood and starving, but a civil war happening on the raft happening at the same time as well. I wonder why this hasn't been made into a movie, but I suddenly realized it's so brutally harrowing, it would be too much for audiences to handle.
No it wouldn't lol, that is silly to say. Just no one has made it yet, if we can have human centipede we most definitely can have a story about a life and death on a ship wreck....
Nice one! I worked on ships for 10 years, and there is no desert in the world that is harsher than the sea. you’re either dehydrated or fish food if anything goes wrong- and so much can go wrong. Loved my time out there, but glad it’s over!
Yeah its gotta be a psychological mind fuc$ to be surrounded by infinite water that you cant drink.. at least in the desert its pretty much assumed water is not in your plans lol..
The irony of the raft survivors praying for wind for the sail and then getting it in excess each night is crazy. I find it incomprehensible that the soldiers and the officers fought until death in most instances instead of coming together at this crucial time. 😮 😢
I read Jonathan Miles, The Wreak of The Medusa maybe 20 years ago and had forgotten all about it until seeing your video. Thank you for the video and the book is an excellent account for anyone wishing to delve deeper into the horrifying events surrounding this wreak.
Géricault himself was kind of a madlad to be honest. Apparently he was so dedicated to his craft that during the process of making this painting, he took pieces of dead bodies from the morgue and let them soak in his bathtube just so I could get the tint of decomposing skin right
Have you ever worked your ass off mixing paint and studying medical books to get the facts straight so you think you're using just a measure of artistic license for not having been there... ONLY to have one after another after another "let you know that you got the shade wrong" or "advise you that's not quite how it looks for real"... I don't blame him or think he was anything but frustrated. If you want to know what humans look like decomposing in the sea, it makes sense to put some decomposing human in water and have a look for yourself. ;o)
Well him doing that study himself was effective to say the least. Seeing the difference of the skin from the living and the dead in this painting is one of the main aspects of the painting that make it horrifying and he did an amazing job at showing what a dead body looks like when it’s left out at sea for a few or more days
It's important to note that the contingent of boats were not simply trying to make it to shore, but were aiming to sail all the way to Saint-Louis. Landing at an unknown spot on the coast of Africa was seen as barely more survivable than being lost at sea. This is why there was a need for a raft in the first place instead of just using the launches they had to ferry people to shore, then sending the best boat for help. It was a complete and utter lack of any leadership whatsoever.
@tysonelite9561 Yes, although not together. The boat with the governor made it all the way to Saint-Louis. The rest of the boats got separated. But they all did get to shore and were rescued by native tribes people or search parties. They also suffered some losses due to lack of provisions and exposure.
This was absolutely fascinating. Obviously horrific and probably a layer cake of phobias for many. Thank you for such detail, and the perfect tone to be informative and invested without being dramatic.
I’ve been watching your channel for a while now and man!!! You’re videos are getting better and better and better!!! The quality of this video is superb (not that they all haven’t been) but I’m just saying, this is great I’m super impressed and loved it!!! Plus your voice is perfect for narrating these types of stories!!! Keep it up I’m so hooked :)
At 5:31 there is an albatross flying over the seaman who will drown. These birds, in the lore of sailors, are usually seen as good omens, but are also believed to be the embodiment of souls of departed sailors. It is as if the bird is there both signaling the inevitable and perhaps also providing reassurance. This artwork is intensely poignant and heartbreaking.
5 days and they went to cannibalism... wow. There are stories I've heard of survivors going weeks of starvation before turning to that. Was it the lack of proper leadership that propelled them to turn on one another so quickly?
Waiting as long as possible would be the dumber move, actually. Most people died the first few days. Just like meat, humans decay, so unless you eat the bodies soon after death they’re spoiled. Waiting a few weeks with exponentially fewer people alive, and those people have starved all their fat away, then cannibalism won’t do you much good and you’d have eaten humans in vain. Eat the dozens of well-fed people who die the first few days, then you’re built up fat deposits that let you survive longer.
I love this video idea. Its out of the box from usual but at the same time perfectly fits this channel. I was very pleasently surprised when I saw it, havent expected such a creative idea.
9:40 Keeping the cannons could've been helped them off the reef. One method is to put the cannons onto small boats and row them out with heavy lines tied to the cannons. You drop the cannons like anchors then you use the ship's capstans as a winch to pull the boat off the reef.
MORE OF THIS MAN !!!! Absolutely fantastic tale and had me completely entrhalled the entire time! I know its not easy, but wwhen you get these stories that have been rarely, if ever told on UA-cam its a real treat. Most of us i imagine who watch your channel also watch similar and while appreciated, its a bit of a letdown when you begin to realizze you have already heard this on another channel in this genre. With so many tales of human history....there are endless tragic and amazing stories out there that are true and just waiting for someone to dig up...For me at least...this was one of them. FANTASTIC JOB!@@111
Great choice of a topic - thanks for covering this! The song The Wake of the Medusa by The Pogues (1990) is about both this incident and Géricault's painting and is one of my favorite songs by that group.
10:30 The captain refused to throw the 14 cannons overboard, but was okay with dismantling the ship to make a life raft? Either facts have become distorted with time or there was some ridiculous decision making.
It's awesome to hear the full story of one of my favourite paintings... If you ever have the chance to see it (at the Louvre museum), please do while you can, the painting is bond to go black due to the pigment used (you actually see it on some close up in this video) Also, would it be possible to also have some of the units in the international system ? or at least the metric for distance 🙇
just popping by, your French pronunciation is excellent :) (also speedrunning through your videos, I've almost watched (/listened to) all of them in 3 days, loving the content.)
One other element of Géricault's painting is the black sailor in the centre. This was for two reasons, during the Napoleonic wars many foreign sailors were employed on royal navy and french ships, a significant number were black, and therefore this was a nod to their service. In addition, the secondary reason was also a political message of anti-slavery.
I first saw this painting on the cover of the Pogues' album "Rum, sodomy and the lash." Great album and a great piece of art. Enjoyed your telling of this little known tale, thanks.
It's also used on their 'Hells Ditch' album where the bands faces are super imposed on the faces on the raft. Looks cool and I've framed a poster size version and hung it up. Awesome. :)
I watch and enjoy most of your content, but I think this is my favourite! I hope you do similar stories in the future. It was gripping and horrifying and tragic all at the same time. Well done.
There are some truly wild stories of survival, or not, at Sea, and so very many of them involve someone thinking they know what they are doing, when they don't. What happened to the people who rowed off in the life boats? Did they ever make it too shore?
You should do a video on the disaster of the American whaler the Essex which happened about 4 or 5 years after this incident. It was either in 1820, '21, or thereabouts. It's the story that would later inspire Herman Melville to write Moby Dick!
Another, similar story you might wanna cover is the maiden voyage of the Batavia. A ship of the dutch east india company whose trip lead to a shipwreck, civil war among the crew and general crimes against humanity
This is like watching a prequel to a movie where everyone dies. You know something horrible is coming but u find yourself rooting for the doomed ppl anyway
If I was on a raft in a storm and a big red arrow appeared next to me, I'd be pretty freaked-out myself!! Funny how many of these historical events seem to be accompanied by a big red arrow, circle or both. Someone should study it.
Reminds me of the Batavia Shipwreck in the Abrolhos Islands 65 kilometres off the Western Australian coast in 1629. It was absolute barbarism and brutality that many aren't aware of.
Just inagine how hard the nights must have been on that raft. 100 or so people dying from hunger and thirst killing each other while being tossed around by the waves.
I'm binge watching your videos while sick in bed. Great narration, script, impressive visuals, etc. Apt name. Scary & Interesting, indeed. Sir. Thank you for so much compelling content.
Just realised that TWD Daryl Dixon has this painting in the intro sequence - very cool knowing the background of the painting and being able to draw parallels to the show. Thanks, Sean!
"The guests are stood in silence They stare and drink their wine On the wall the canvas hangs Frozen there in time They marvel at the beauty The horror and despair At the wake of the Medusa No one shed a tear Sit my friends and listen Put your glasses down Sit my friends and listen To the voices of the drowned In the moonlight's ghostly glow I waken in a dream Once more upon that raft I stand Upon a raging sea In my ears the moans and screams Of the dying ring Somewhere in the darkness The siren softly sings Out there in the waves she stands And smiling there she calls As the lightning cracks the sky The wind begins to howl The architects of our doom Around their tables sit And in their thrones of power Condemn those they've cast adrift Echoes down the city street Their harpies laughter rings Waiting for the curtain call Oblivious in the wings The casket is empty Abandon ye all hope They ran off with the money And left us with the rope" -'The Wake of the Medusa', the Pogues
It's so interesting to me that the alternative to an execution is a 3 year sentence. I mean crazy things happen, even today, I'm just impressed. Was the average expectancy that low or something?
Once you reach about five years old life expectancy has actually never been particularly low, most historical mortality happens in the first year of life. What was different was the conditions in a lot of prisons. Hard labour was often basically just a slower execution. I'm not sure if this was the same for all nobility, though certainly nobility that had fallen out of favour could be treated pretty badly.
I can not imagine the horror of being on a makeshift raft in the ocean and there is basically a civil war taking place on that tiny raft. The strong overtaking the weak.
Heart wrenching story. There's another similar story of survival that takes place a year before in 1815 and in the same general area (West African coast), commonly referred by the book, Sufferings in Africa.
Story started with a rich man giving his buddy a position he was unqualified. Too many deaths and suffering in history began like that, even today. Especially today.
Thanks for this story I’ve seen the painting but not heard the story and considering I’m English I’m not sure why this isn’t better taught in schools rather than constantly hearing about Anderson shelters and Tudor buildings instead. PS the podcast has been dope! I love listening to it on the way to work and can’t wait for the next episode.
The purpose of primary and secondary historical education isn't to go in-depth in every subject, but rather to provide you the foundation and tools to go deeper as you would.
Also we have literally thousands of years of history to cover in three to five years of schooling, there's not really much time to devote to French history as well.
I was lucky enough to see the painting in person and I wish you could show the scale of it. The canvas was like 16ft by 23ft, literally larger than life. And the bodies have this sharp contrast between the living and the dead. Gericault did an amazing amount of research into how the human body changes in the hours after death.
Wow, I'd like to see that in person!
That's incredible. I had no idea it was that big
Totally true. You can feel the dread, the despair, hope flickering like a candle light... Horrifyingly beautiful painting.
But on the second note the Louvre Museum is SO OVER PACKED with paintings and other works of art that you can't grasp the beauty... after a while it's hard to appreciate because it's a great work of art after another and another and so on, so forth...
@@mateuszbednarski_fizjo Oh definitely. I went on a school trip with the art history class and after a certain point everyone was just overwhelmed. I vividly remember what I saw the raft of the Medusa bc I didn’t know it was in the room until I turned around.
I am so jealous.
The sea is so terrifying and unforgiving. Stranded 31 miles from the coast might as well be 1000 miles. Thank you for telling this story
Imagine slowly suffering and dying of thirst, starvation or violence..
Only 10/200 people made it back.
@mehrimazedeh no one cares
Bro, you didn’t even watch the whole video. You commented too fast
@@saranshgautam6551why not just say 5/100?
@mehrimazedeh and of course someone has to mention politics
The first bad omen wasn't the loss of the single man overboard; it was the appointing of an incompetent officer over such a magnificent vessel. A snowball effect of epic proportions.
Ok karen
@festina_lente7655 Your comment doesn't even make sense. What are you, 12 years old?
As is so often the cause of huge military blunders. Overpromoted, terrible officers.
@@TransKidRevolution ?
The first bad omen was a black seagull died and landed on a rat and some blood squirted into the captains wife's eye and she died of weiss disease but they don't mention it .....yeoh yeoh hmmmmm?
I saw this painting at The Louvre in 2009. It’s striking. You can’t walk past it.
Thank you for reminding me of it and telling the story.
I call the painting... Crash Diet
That kid who fell through the porthole and wasn't rescued... what a lonely nightmare he must've gone through
He became Aquaman.
Poor boy, probably thought with the optimism of youth that they would come save him.
I nearly had the same thing happen to me in the Northern Canadian Atlantic. I was going on vacation with a friend and their family to Newfoundland, Canada in January. It was a night time ferry ride across a stretch of Atlantic Ocean and I felt very sea sick. I figured I could get some air outside and it would make me feel better. I grabbed my coat and walked to the door. I took a single step on the wet deck and slid very hard into the railing. Both my feet slid under the bottom railing and were dangling off the boat. I remember staring into what looked like a black brine that shined yellow on the waves from the amber lights and thinking I was certainly dead. Luckily I caught myself with the top rail under my armpits and was able to regather my footing and make for the door. I went back to my seat and sat there eyes wide staring out the window at the blackness of the night. I would have died in a couple minutes at best, and no one would have known until we had docked several hours later. I make better decisions these days.
That poor man felt the hope of knowing the crew was trying to help him and watched the sails lessen. The mental war he faced is nothing I could ever imagine.
Probably not for long, depending on water temperature he could have endured three or four days before succoming to thirst. Or as little as a few minutes before hypothermia took him.
That the Medusa failed to reduce sail and launch a boat to fetch him is pretty callous.
That kid who fell through the porthole... Is that the most interesting part of the story for you ?
For anyone wondering why they packed wine on the raft, it was likely the only potable liquid they had, so it wasn’t like they were looking to get drunk: they kept it to stay hydrated.
How does wine keep you hydrated?
@@sweetmissypetuniawilson9206 Because wine is still mostly water.
@@jakeaaron
Alcohol is a diuretic, even beer has water but it's still a diuretic.
So unless you're able to match glass/glass wine/water you're gonna dehydrate.
@@sweetmissypetuniawilson9206 Tell that to ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians.
@@jakeaaron It's literally just a fact that drinking wine will make you more dehydrated
Incompetence is an understatement for that captain.
MOVE!!
Ah yes, i remember this painting from Art History back in college. The teacher didn't go into quite as much detail, but definitely dedicated a few minutes to explaining the harrowing situation depicted by the raft. Great painting, great artist, but an unfortunate & horrifying situation it depicts.
The fact that 3 people who stayed on the ship survived is amazing, i wonder what stories they had to tell.
Better don't ask them
@@Mude-wv9bj huh?
@@lekal6247 Probably cannibalism
Deprivation. Wasting. Sunburn. Hallucinations.
Most likely murder and vampirism.
Survivors journal:
"Day 1: Got bored... ate Francois.
Day 2: Sooo booorreed! Ate Philipe.
Day 3: "Ugh! Boring, boring boring... ate Maurice."
Asking a passenger to spot the cove is the equivalent of asking a passenger to be a radio operator
Like the “mission specialists “ of Stockton Rush😂😂
Or asking your kids to fly a commercial airliner (Aeroflot Flight 593).
Or demanding your cat improve your mental health #therapygate
Or, like demanding someone who doesn't know how to do a thing, do that thing.
Sorry, I'm not good at similes.
@@scottbubb2946 Like demanding that Scottbubb2946 do similes
"By the end of Day 1, all the biscuits were gone" - being British, that for me was the most horrific part.
excellent.
You are merciful to the Froggies. You could have been cruel with humor.
British people are literally made up of 80% tea and 20% biscuit so I understand
@@draculastraphouse7863 literally just finished a cup.
@@draculastraphouse7863 i love tea, and i dont like coffee, and im from the usa lol
Interesting that the captain refused to throw the cannons overboard yet abandoned ship to get onto a worthless raft so that any pirates or other nations' ships could salvage the cannons for themselves.
@drafteethewhitetrhfggot7227 ...and here I thought the Captain was supposed to go down with the ship.
That was the dumbest thing to me. So you refuse to make it lighter by losing the cannons yet...you decide to strip the same boat to make a raft? Just dumb.
Utter incompetence.
Literally idiotic, could’ve kept his crew alive a little longer to get to some sort of land or help
The Biden plan
Thank you for doing this. This was SUPER interesting. I watch a lot of content, and this was the first time I had heard about this story. Really enjoyed it.
Loved the story as well as the art thanks again Sean I really appreciate your work and time you've put into this and as always fantastic work man
Absolutely terrifying, not only being stuck on a piece of wood and starving, but a civil war happening on the raft happening at the same time as well. I wonder why this hasn't been made into a movie, but I suddenly realized it's so brutally harrowing, it would be too much for audiences to handle.
There was a classic Hollywood movie with sort of the same theme….’Lifeboat’. Not as brutal but a similar struggle for life…
No it wouldn't lol, that is silly to say. Just no one has made it yet, if we can have human centipede we most definitely can have a story about a life and death on a ship wreck....
@bigbay1159 yes! That, exactly. Lol.
Look up the Batavia for another harrowing tale
Too much to handle? Yeah no.
So glad to see someone cover this! I read the book a few years ago...and found it a fascinating tale! Highly recommend everyone read it.
Yes! 'Raft of the Medusa'. Brilliant read!
I love paintings or photos with creepy stories behind them and this is definitely one of the most unique ones I've heard.
Right? I'd love a series of paintings with eerie stories.
Nice one! I worked on ships for 10 years, and there is no desert in the world that is harsher than the sea. you’re either dehydrated or fish food if anything goes wrong- and so much can go wrong. Loved my time out there, but glad it’s over!
Yeah its gotta be a psychological mind fuc$ to be surrounded by infinite water that you cant drink.. at least in the desert its pretty much assumed water is not in your plans lol..
This painting is in the louvre. I heard a brief version of the story but never this much detail.
Great job
The irony of the raft survivors praying for wind for the sail and then getting it in excess each night is crazy. I find it incomprehensible that the soldiers and the officers fought until death in most instances instead of coming together at this crucial time. 😮 😢
Incompetent, weak leadership trickles down into a chaotic ship.
I read Jonathan Miles, The Wreak of The Medusa maybe 20 years ago and had forgotten all about it until seeing your video. Thank you for the video and the book is an excellent account for anyone wishing to delve deeper into the horrifying events surrounding this wreak.
Géricault himself was kind of a madlad to be honest.
Apparently he was so dedicated to his craft that during the process of making this painting, he took pieces of dead bodies from the morgue and let them soak in his bathtube just so I could get the tint of decomposing skin right
Sounds a tiny bit apocryphal
Have you ever worked your ass off mixing paint and studying medical books to get the facts straight so you think you're using just a measure of artistic license for not having been there... ONLY to have one after another after another "let you know that you got the shade wrong" or "advise you that's not quite how it looks for real"... I don't blame him or think he was anything but frustrated.
If you want to know what humans look like decomposing in the sea, it makes sense to put some decomposing human in water and have a look for yourself. ;o)
Well him doing that study himself was effective to say the least. Seeing the difference of the skin from the living and the dead in this painting is one of the main aspects of the painting that make it horrifying and he did an amazing job at showing what a dead body looks like when it’s left out at sea for a few or more days
@@gnarthdarkanen7464(Ahem! Salt water, not bathwater! LOL!)
@@RogerLewis-ey2tt OH yeah... nobody invented salt until those idiots flooded Utah and part of Nevada with it in the 1800's... right. ;o)
It's important to note that the contingent of boats were not simply trying to make it to shore, but were aiming to sail all the way to Saint-Louis. Landing at an unknown spot on the coast of Africa was seen as barely more survivable than being lost at sea. This is why there was a need for a raft in the first place instead of just using the launches they had to ferry people to shore, then sending the best boat for help. It was a complete and utter lack of any leadership whatsoever.
Did the longboats make it to shore?
@tysonelite9561 Yes, although not together. The boat with the governor made it all the way to Saint-Louis. The rest of the boats got separated. But they all did get to shore and were rescued by native tribes people or search parties. They also suffered some losses due to lack of provisions and exposure.
Its wild that classic art needs to be censored to be displayed on what is effectively the only video streaming platform. I miss the old internet
Censorship of art is proof that human rights are gone
Agreed! Art, especially the classics, should never be censored!
It's offensive to 'modern audience' who are still figuring out what gender they are at 25.
@@NickMeisherno, it's offensive to some of the ridiculously conservative advertisers on UA-cam. That's all anyone cares about, ad revenue
Great point. UA-cam is Coke but where’s Pepsi?
This was absolutely fascinating. Obviously horrific and probably a layer cake of phobias for many.
Thank you for such detail, and the perfect tone to be informative and invested without being dramatic.
I know all this, because I read a lot about this, but I wanted so much to hear you speak about it on your channel! Thank you very much!! ❤
Great story! I love the historical facts and the artists rendering! Cool idea!❤
I’ve been watching your channel for a while now and man!!! You’re videos are getting better and better and better!!! The quality of this video is superb (not that they all haven’t been) but I’m just saying, this is great I’m super impressed and loved it!!! Plus your voice is perfect for narrating these types of stories!!! Keep it up I’m so hooked :)
Loved this one, what an interesting story and one i've not heard on 'disaster story' channels before. Good job Sean, as ever.
I really loved this! Please do more stories behind paintings. ❤
I love this story! Thank you for covering it, most channels never heard of it
At 5:31 there is an albatross flying over the seaman who will drown. These birds, in the lore of sailors, are usually seen as good omens, but are also believed to be the embodiment of souls of departed sailors. It is as if the bird is there both signaling the inevitable and perhaps also providing reassurance. This artwork is intensely poignant and heartbreaking.
>Refuses to leave the ship defenseless in order for it to escape
>Is forced to abandon ship and make a defenseless raft to escape
5 days and they went to cannibalism... wow. There are stories I've heard of survivors going weeks of starvation before turning to that. Was it the lack of proper leadership that propelled them to turn on one another so quickly?
They were french. Setting aside time for meals is quite important to their culture.
Waiting as long as possible would be the dumber move, actually. Most people died the first few days. Just like meat, humans decay, so unless you eat the bodies soon after death they’re spoiled.
Waiting a few weeks with exponentially fewer people alive, and those people have starved all their fat away, then cannibalism won’t do you much good and you’d have eaten humans in vain. Eat the dozens of well-fed people who die the first few days, then you’re built up fat deposits that let you survive longer.
i think part of it can be chalked up to a different time. the “custom of the sea” was a taboo to talk about, but accepted part of being a sailor.
Seriously, that's like a normal fast for most…
I think they were also deranged and delusional at that point.
I love this video idea. Its out of the box from usual but at the same time perfectly fits this channel. I was very pleasently surprised when I saw it, havent expected such a creative idea.
I like your picture a/s/l?
Moral of the story: using your brain to avoid danger at sea probaby shouldn't be a hangable offense 💀
Well, they are French.
As a Pogues fan, I sought out this painting when I visited the Louvre. Great to hear the story behind it!
Being a pouges fan is the only reason Im watching this video
9:40 Keeping the cannons could've been helped them off the reef. One method is to put the cannons onto small boats and row them out with heavy lines tied to the cannons. You drop the cannons like anchors then you use the ship's capstans as a winch to pull the boat off the reef.
MORE OF THIS MAN
!!!!
Absolutely fantastic tale and had me completely entrhalled the entire time!
I know its not easy, but wwhen you get these stories that have been rarely, if ever told on UA-cam its a real treat.
Most of us i imagine who watch your channel also watch similar and while appreciated, its a bit of a letdown when you begin to realizze you have already heard this on another channel in this genre.
With so many tales of human history....there are endless tragic and amazing stories out there that are true and just waiting for someone to dig up...For me at least...this was one of them.
FANTASTIC JOB!@@111
Great choice of a topic - thanks for covering this! The song The Wake of the Medusa by The Pogues (1990) is about both this incident and Géricault's painting and is one of my favorite songs by that group.
10:30 The captain refused to throw the 14 cannons overboard, but was okay with dismantling the ship to make a life raft?
Either facts have become distorted with time or there was some ridiculous decision making.
Cannons were expensive, and Captains had a strange attachment to them. Losing your cannons was just not done.
Little of column A, little of column B
Ridiculous decision making definitely accounts for a lot of unfortunate events in human history.
There’s a brilliant song by British folk punk band the Levellers called Raft of the Medusa which describes these events, well worth a listen
It's awesome to hear the full story of one of my favourite paintings... If you ever have the chance to see it (at the Louvre museum), please do while you can, the painting is bond to go black due to the pigment used (you actually see it on some close up in this video)
Also, would it be possible to also have some of the units in the international system ? or at least the metric for distance 🙇
Just learn our archaic measurements, they're fun
@@HammerStudioGames can't wait to learn how to measure in bananas 😂
just popping by, your French pronunciation is excellent :)
(also speedrunning through your videos, I've almost watched (/listened to) all of them in 3 days, loving the content.)
This was a great story, and the art was beautiful!
Best part of my Sunday! Thanks!
This truly was a series of unfortunate events.
One other element of Géricault's painting is the black sailor in the centre. This was for two reasons, during the Napoleonic wars many foreign sailors were employed on royal navy and french ships, a significant number were black, and therefore this was a nod to their service. In addition, the secondary reason was also a political message of anti-slavery.
I first saw this painting on the cover of the Pogues' album "Rum, sodomy and the lash." Great album and a great piece of art. Enjoyed your telling of this little known tale, thanks.
It's also used on their 'Hells Ditch' album where the bands faces are super imposed on the faces on the raft. Looks cool and I've framed a poster size version and hung it up. Awesome. :)
I watch and enjoy most of your content, but I think this is my favourite! I hope you do similar stories in the future. It was gripping and horrifying and tragic all at the same time. Well done.
Fascinating, and terrifying. I had never heard this tale prior!
Absolutely stellar work!
Loved it.
Excellent story I've never heard before. Well done
If someone made a movie about this event in history it'd be one of the most dramatic and spine chilling movies ever😮
There are some truly wild stories of survival, or not, at Sea, and so very many of them involve someone thinking they know what they are doing, when they don't.
What happened to the people who rowed off in the life boats?
Did they ever make it too shore?
You should do a video on the disaster of the American whaler the Essex which happened about 4 or 5 years after this incident. It was either in 1820, '21, or thereabouts. It's the story that would later inspire Herman Melville to write Moby Dick!
No I'm pretty sure Moby Dick was inspired by the movie Jaws by Spielberg. 🙄
I remember the scandal back in the early 2000s when a white sperm whale was spotted in south america
Holy cow, what a story. Thanks for sharing
I really love the 20ish minutes format. Thank you, again!
This was incredibly interesting. Awesome concept too.
The men that gave up their spots for others 😢 wow. Imagine making the call… so brave and heroic
Fascinating history. Thank you!
Fantastic episode, one of your best!
Great content as usual!
Such a great painting! Never heard the full story. Thanks!
Another, similar story you might wanna cover is the maiden voyage of the Batavia. A ship of the dutch east india company whose trip lead to a shipwreck, civil war among the crew and general crimes against humanity
This is like watching a prequel to a movie where everyone dies. You know something horrible is coming but u find yourself rooting for the doomed ppl anyway
If I was on a raft in a storm and a big red arrow appeared next to me, I'd be pretty freaked-out myself!! Funny how many of these historical events seem to be accompanied by a big red arrow, circle or both. Someone should study it.
Another gnarly story mate. Podcast has been lit too. Upload more!! 😊
Reminds me of the Batavia Shipwreck in the Abrolhos Islands 65 kilometres off the Western Australian coast in 1629. It was absolute barbarism and brutality that many aren't aware of.
The breakdown of humanity is horrific beyond belief. The sea is all too well versed in that
I loved the historical focus on this one! I'd be interested in an art-inspired series of stories.
At last the full story of Medusa with the relevant accounts ! Thanks so much !
Just inagine how hard the nights must have been on that raft. 100 or so people dying from hunger and thirst killing each other while being tossed around by the waves.
Thanks Sean, I’m really enjoying the new podcast ❤
I'm binge watching your videos while sick in bed. Great narration, script, impressive visuals, etc.
Apt name. Scary & Interesting, indeed. Sir. Thank you for so much compelling content.
Hope you have a swift recovery, in the meantime enjoy your fix of Scary interesting.
I learned about the painting in art history class but we didn't learn this much detail about the event. Absolutely horrifying
Almost back to back Scary Interesting? We getting lucky today 💰
Don't they come out at 8 PST every Sunday?
Remember, if you’re ever in a life or death situation like this one, NEVER PANIC. So much went wrong with the panic
First rule of disaster is not to panic
A new Scary Interesting Upload? Time to drop all of my life responsibilities and zone out for the next 22 minutes! :D
Cause same… 😅
🙄
Just realised that TWD Daryl Dixon has this painting in the intro sequence - very cool knowing the background of the painting and being able to draw parallels to the show. Thanks, Sean!
Loved this one, it was a nice change up!
I saw this painting when i visited the Louvre a couple of years back. It absolutely fascinated me.
"The guests are stood in silence
They stare and drink their wine
On the wall the canvas hangs
Frozen there in time
They marvel at the beauty
The horror and despair
At the wake of the Medusa
No one shed a tear
Sit my friends and listen
Put your glasses down
Sit my friends and listen
To the voices of the drowned
In the moonlight's ghostly glow
I waken in a dream
Once more upon that raft I stand
Upon a raging sea
In my ears the moans and screams
Of the dying ring
Somewhere in the darkness
The siren softly sings
Out there in the waves she stands
And smiling there she calls
As the lightning cracks the sky
The wind begins to howl
The architects of our doom
Around their tables sit
And in their thrones of power
Condemn those they've cast adrift
Echoes down the city street
Their harpies laughter rings
Waiting for the curtain call
Oblivious in the wings
The casket is empty
Abandon ye all hope
They ran off with the money
And left us with the rope"
-'The Wake of the Medusa', the Pogues
Thank you
I love your channel so much. Probably my favorite. I never watch horrible fates but everything else is just perfect.
It's so interesting to me that the alternative to an execution is a 3 year sentence.
I mean crazy things happen, even today, I'm just impressed. Was the average expectancy that low or something?
Once you reach about five years old life expectancy has actually never been particularly low, most historical mortality happens in the first year of life. What was different was the conditions in a lot of prisons. Hard labour was often basically just a slower execution. I'm not sure if this was the same for all nobility, though certainly nobility that had fallen out of favour could be treated pretty badly.
A full story covering the three men found alive back at The Meduse shipwreck would be super cool!
Great storytelling 🙏
Thanks for bringing awareness to lost history
I can not imagine the horror of being on a makeshift raft in the ocean and there is basically a civil war taking place on that tiny raft. The strong overtaking the weak.
You should make marathon videos of your old uploads with less ads so we can fall asleep to your stuff, your voice and atmosphere is my sleep heroine.
After what they did to their fellow crewmates, even if they survived what did they become? Truly horrible.
yes, i think it would have been better to die than to live by killing others.
Probably all the tensions arose due to the captain stupidity
Heart wrenching story. There's another similar story of survival that takes place a year before in 1815 and in the same general area (West African coast), commonly referred by the book, Sufferings in Africa.
Tragic story
Fantastic painting
The artwork you're using for the imagery is impressive. Please consider posting the authors in the description below the video.
I'm amazed that anyone survived this
good shit man excellent narration great stories keep on keepin on
these ocean stories are the most scary to me. only thing that might be worst is drowning in a cave. very scary.
Wait, WHAT!!! 3 years in prison OR the death penalty?! Wow, that really escalated!
Story started with a rich man giving his buddy a position he was unqualified. Too many deaths and suffering in history began like that, even today. Especially today.
I read this story years ago & it absolutely horrified me! Its awesome to this covered. Great job! How this isn’t a movie is shocking.
Thanks for this story I’ve seen the painting but not heard the story and considering I’m English I’m not sure why this isn’t better taught in schools rather than constantly hearing about Anderson shelters and Tudor buildings instead. PS the podcast has been dope! I love listening to it on the way to work and can’t wait for the next episode.
The purpose of primary and secondary historical education isn't to go in-depth in every subject, but rather to provide you the foundation and tools to go deeper as you would.
Also we have literally thousands of years of history to cover in three to five years of schooling, there's not really much time to devote to French history as well.
Because Anderson shelters and Tudor buildings are also important.