All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd S02E12 Extraordinary Journeys.ENG

[Dan voiceover]

[upbeat music]

Imagine a time when parents
sent their kids in the mail.

- Once it's found out
that kids can be mailed.

- At least seven other
families mail their children.

One girl was mailed from
Florida to Virginia.

- Or a journey so daunting,

it requires courage
no man can muster.

- Nobody really knows how
a human body would react

to being launched into orbit.

So, you can't send a man,

well, you send his best friend.

- How about traveling
deep behind enemy lines

using only your mind?

- The US military is
using one man's mind

to spy on America's enemies.

- Some people believe these
programs continue to this day.

- These are the journeys
so extraordinary,

they are truly unbelievable.

[upbeat music]

Anybody who's ever taken
a brutal red eye next to a

screaming infant knows traveling
with babies is no picnic.

But at the dawn of
the 20th century,

penny-pinching parents
discovered a novel way

to farm out sending
your kids to grandma's,

thanks to a bizarre loophole.

- In 1913, the US Postal Service
starts accepting packages

that weigh over four pounds.

So, naturally, people
start testing the system.

What can I mail now that
there's no real weight limit?

- People start shipping
the most random things,

bricks, eggs, chickens, just
to see if it could be done.

- In January of that year,

a family from Ohio named
the Beauges decide to stick

a 15 cent postage
stamp on their son

and mail him to his
grandma about a mile away.

And here's the thing, it works.

And so, once it's found out
that kids can be mailed,

essentially, you start to
see this very small uprising

of parents just slapping
stamps on their kids

and mailing them.

- Between 1913 and 1915,

at least seven other families
mailed their children.

The longest was
one girl was mailed

from Florida to
Virginia, 720 miles.

- [Dan] But this trend
quickly gets stamped

"Return to sender."

- The US postmaster general

does not find this
practice adorable.

So, he finally does what
I think a lot of people

didn't expect
would be necessary,

and he outlaws mailing
your children in 1915.

- Sending your toddler through
the mail may be a strange way

to save a few bucks,

but few cheapskates compare
to the frugal jet setter

who risks it all just to make

a three-year-old's
birthday party.

- It's England in 1964,
a javelin thrower,

an Australian named Reg
Spiers is in England

to qualify for the
upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Reg is up for his
very last throw.

This is gonna make or
break his Olympic dreams.

- He hurls the javelin just
short of the mark he needs

to qualify for the Olympic team.

- So, he's obviously
super disappointed.

He just wants to go home

and he's got a daughter who's
got a birthday coming up,

but he's got an issue.

- [Dan] Return
tickets are expensive

and Reg is short on
cash, but he has a plan.

- Reg gets a job
at Heathrow Airport

where he's loading
cargo onto planes.

He's starting to save
up a bit of money,

the flight is nearly
within his reach,

and then his wallet gets stolen.

Talk about bad luck.

- [Dan] While desperation
might defeat some of us

for a select few like
Reg, it breeds innovation.

- Since he's worked in the
cargo area at the airport,

he's now an expert on how cargo
is shipped around the world.

So, Reg's scheme is to build
this large shipping crate,

pack himself inside,

and ship himself back
to Australia as cargo.

- [Dan] If you're wondering
about the math here,

it will, in fact,

cost more to ship the
container across the globe

than buy a passenger ticket,

but Reg has already
thought this through.

- So, his plan is to ship
himself cash on delivery,

which means that the
airline doesn't get paid

until someone shows up
to sign for the shipment.

His plan is to escape the
crate right after they land

and never actually get
stuck paying the bill.

- Reg is not much
of a carpenter,

so he recruits another
athlete to help him,

a guy named John McSorley.

- McSorley and Reg
account for everything.

There's straps on the
inside that he can hold onto

when the crate is
getting carted around,

there's a removable lid so he
can get a breath of fresh air

or stretch himself
during transit.

- [Dan] Reg even loads
the box with canned food,

a flashlight, and two bottles,

one for water and one for urine.

Let's assume the flashlight
helps tell them apart.

- All of this is
dangerous and sketchy,

so right before takeoff,
he does one last thing.

He tells John he will let
him know that he made it

to Australia safely,

assuming he survives
the journey, that is.

- He booked shipping
on an Air India plane

that's ultimately destined
to land in Perth, Australia.

- This is going to
be a three-day voyage

with multiple stopovers,

but if it all goes to plan,

reg will be back in
Australia just in time

for his daughter's birthday.

- Reg's first stop on this
three-day journey is Mumbai.

They take the crate
off the plane,

and there's Reg stuck in
the crate on the tarmac

and punishing heat.

- He's basically in
an oven at this point.

He's stalled there for hours,

and eventually that heat
just becomes unbearable

and he strips down
inside the crate.

- He's praying that they
put him back in the plane

before he passes out or
dies of heat exhaustion.

- [Dan] Luckily, Reg survives
this near fatal layover

from hell and is loaded on a
plane to his final destination.

- Hours upon hours later,

he hears voices complaining
about how cumbersome

the box full of Reg is,
but he smiles to himself,

'cause he hears the voices,
those are Australian accents.

He's made it.

- [Dan] Reg manages
to escape his crate

and hitchhike home in time
for his daughter's birthday,

all without paying a dime,

but he has forgotten
one critical detail.

- Remember his athlete buddy
John McSorley back in England?

Reg forgets to call
him to tell him

that he made it back safely,

so John is freaking
out on the other end.

"Did he die in transit?
Did I just kill my friend?"

So, John contacts
the authorities.

They start looking
and of course,

Reg is found safe
and sound at home.

- [Dan] But rather
than being prosecuted,

reg becomes a national celebrity

when newspapers across
Australia pick up the story.

- The airline doesn't even
charge him for shipping

- Reg's perilous journey
in a box may seem like

an incredible undertaking,

but it's nothing compared
to the brutal sea voyage

of a legendary Navy captain.

[gentle music]

- It's April, 1789
in the South Pacific.

William Bligh,
captain of HMS Bounty,

is disheveled and shaken.

He's bound by coarse
sailors' rope.

He's a prisoner in his
own captain's quarters

with a blunder bus
pointed at his head

and the hammer cocked.

- Outside of his cabin,

he can hear the screams
of his junior officers

as they're being attacked.

- [Dan] These outlaws
aren't pirates,

it's his own crew.

So, why did they turn on him?

- Bligh's mission as
captain of the HMS Bounty

is to go to Tahiti and to
collect breadfruit trees.

But what happens when
they're in Tahiti

is that his crew really
likes living in paradise.

A lot of the men fall in love

with some of the
women of Tahiti,

and so when Bligh's tells them
they have to leave paradise

and their wives, for lack
of a better word, behind,

they don't wanna do it.

- Bligh's and 18
loyalists are rounded up,

they're placed on one
of Bounty launches,

which is a small skiff.

They're given some food,
they're given some water,

they're given some
bladed weapons,

but they're not
given any firearms.

- [Dan] They're also missing
something else important,

charts.

- Bligh and the rest of his
crew escape with their lives,

but they realize now that
there will be no safe haven

for them until they reach
a proper Dutch colony,

which is over 4,000 miles
away on the island of Kupang.

So, their odds of survival on
this trip are very, very low.

- From brutal
storms to dead calm,

Bligh tries his best to
keep the crew's minds sharp

by assigning tasks.

- Break down this piece of bread

and the limited rations,

another person helps the
captain with navigation.

Keeping your mind on the task

is the difference
between life and death.

- [Dan] Miraculously,

with some careful island
hopping, on June 14th, 1789,

they reached the
island of Kupang.

- Bligh arrives looking
like a dead man.

His face is blistered and burnt.

His lips are peeling off.

He can barely stand.

- As the details of this journey
become clear to the Dutch,

they are absolutely
astonished to learn

that William Bligh has
just navigated a small boat

across 4,100 miles
of open ocean.

It might be the
greatest accomplishment

of seamanship in
maritime history.

- [Dan] Bligh's
impossible achievement

would spawn two Hollywood
blockbusters and a musical.

- Throughout history,
explorers have traveled

into the unknown in hopes
of pushing mankind forward,

but sometimes it takes
man's best friend

to get the job done.

[rocket engine rumbling]

- It's October 4th, 1957

and the Russians have
just launched Sputnik.

They are officially
winning the space race.

After Sputnik's launch,
Nikita Khrushchev,

the leader of the
USSR at the time,

decides that Russia
needs to stay ahead.

- He wants to send up
another satellite, Sputnik 2,

that can also show that
it can sustain life.

- Nobody really knows how
a human body would react

to being launched into orbit,

and so they come up with
the next best thing.

You can't send a man, well,
you send his best friend.

- They look for candidates
among stray dogs

and they reason that a stray dog

is already used to extreme
conditions of cold and hunger.

- They find an adorable
stray Husky Spitz mix

that they name Laika.

She's about the right size

and the right demeanor
for this type of mission.

- With the clock ticking,

the scientists and
engineers put Laika through

a rigorous training program.

- Laika is actually fit

with these surgically
implanted sensors

that are gonna collect
data on her stress levels

and her vitals so
we can really know

and figure out what happens
to a living creature

when it's shot into space.

- On the day of the launch,

Laika is put into this
tiny little capsule

and fitted to the
top of this rocket.

- The countdown starts and
at zero the rockets fire

[rocket engine rumbling]

and she's blasted
off into space.

- The first few
minutes are harrowing.

Her heart rate soars
into the danger area

as she's experiencing G-forces

that no living creature
has ever experienced.

- On top of this,

there's a malfunction
with the heat shield

and the temperatures in the
cabin become unbearable.

So, in just five hours,

with the combination
of the extreme heat

and the intense
pressure of the launch,

Laika becomes the first living
creature to enter orbit,

but also the first
creature to die in orbit.

- Even though Laika was
lost, Laika was first,

so Laika has the
fame and the gravitas

that comes from being a pioneer

and giving all
for the betterment

and advancement of humanity.

- Even if Laika's mission
doesn't have a happy ending,

it is still considered a
huge win for Mother Russia.

The same cannot be said for
another cursed Russian journey.

- With the turn of
the 20th century,

the Japanese empire is
becoming an oceanic power

that can rival the
established powers of Europe

and the new world.

And in 1904, the
Japanese lay siege

to the Russian Harbor
at Port Arthur.

If the Japanese
take Port Arthur,

it will be a major blow
to where Russia stands

as an imperial power,

and it will also be a
major blow to prestige.

- In a desperate
effort to save face,

Tsar Nicholas decides to
send the Russian fleet

to Port Arthur to battle
the Japanese Navy.

- The journey to Port
Arthur is 18,000 miles down

the west coast of Africa,

up the east coast
of Africa into Asia.

- This is a rescue mission
that's going to take six months.

Port Arthur is
already under siege.

Who know what it's gonna
look like in six months?

- Tsar Nicholas appoints
Zinovy Rozhestvensky,

a trusted and seasoned naval
admiral to lead the charge.

They begin their journey
in October, 1904.

- The voyage encounters
trouble from the very start.

No sooner have they left port

than two of the
ships run aground.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] After narrowly
escaping this blunder,

the fleet has
another close call.

- Despite being halfway
around the world from Japan,

the admiral warns
the Baltic fleet

that they need to
be on high alert

for Japanese torpedo boats,

which spawns this state
of paranoia amongst

the entire fleet.

- They're less than
a week out of port

in an area that's
known as Dogger Bank

when lookouts report the
Japanese torpedo boats

are out there and
they open fire.

- The fleet manages to
sink one of its targets.

The problem is it's a
British fishing vessel.

Some of the fishermen
are actually killed

and the British are
pretty angry about it.

So, now they've run aground.

They've sank a
British fishing boat

and almost started a
war with the English,

and the fleet still has
17,000 more miles to go.

- After rounding Cape Horn,

the fleet goes into
port at Madagascar,

and during that time,

the men make some
regrettable decisions

to bring native wild
animals aboard the ship,

like crocodiles and
venomous snakes.

These animals ultimately
break out of confinement

and run amok on
board these ships,

causing more problems that
the fleet did not need.

- Six months after
leaving St. Petersburg,

the Russian Navy finally
arrives at Port Arthur

with 38 ships.

However, Port Arthur
has already fallen.

Nevertheless, the admiral is
determined to prove the metal

of the Russian Navy by
engaging the Japanese fleet.

- The admiral of the Japanese
Imperial Navy dispatches

120 imperial naval vessels
against the Russians' 38.

What follows is a bloodbath.

21 Russian vessels are
sunk, others are captured.

The entire Baltic fleet
has traveled 18,000 miles

to be annihilated.

It's not only the end to
the Russo-Japanese war,

but it's also one of the
final nails in the coffin

of the Russian empire.

It will fall.

- In case you think an arduous
trip plagued by friendly fire

and escaped wild animals
is as awful as it can get,

you better think again.

- Even today, with
advanced technology GPS

and insulated clothing,

a journey on foot
across Antarctica

is one of the most
grueling expeditions

a person can attempt.

You can imagine a hundred
years ago it was much worse.

- Exploration is a big
thing among aristocrats

in the early 20th century.

It's a way for men to
show their manliness

and their adventurous nature

without doing something like
having to work for a living.

In 1912, three such
explorers land in Antarctica

and they are the Far
Eastern Shore Party

led by geologists
Douglas Mawson.

- Their goal is to
map the mountains

and the coasts of Antarctica

on the side that
faces Australia.

And Mawson, of course,

wants to bring a couple
of his BFFs along.

Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis,

a British officer
who is essentially

a sled dog whisperer.

- And Xavier Mertz,
a Swedish lawyer

and accomplished
cross country skier.

This mission is
gonna be difficult.

We're talking about
super cold temperatures

of negative 70
degrees Fahrenheit,

super fast winds of
200 miles per hour,

and snow-covered crevasses that
are basically pits of death.

- [Dan] As the men set
out on their journey,

strange things start
happening right away.

- Mawson, he has a
dream that his dad dies,

and unbeknownst to
him, his dad dies.

Soon after that, one of the
pregnant huskies gives birth

and devours her puppies.

- Then a seabird comes along
and dive bombs into their sled

and kills itself.

- Even worse, the men start
hearing this cracking sound

that they describe
as cannon fire.

It's actually the ground
below them threatening

to crack open at any time.

That'll keep you up at night.

- [Dan] Despite
these ominous signs,

the men are able to
cross over 300 miles

within the first 30 days
of their expedition.

- On a mission like this,

conserving energy is
vitally important.

They've already run through
a lot of their supplies,

so they think,

"How about we just get
rid of one of the sleds?"

So they redistribute the items.

On Ninnis' sled,

they put their food
and shelter supplies.

On Mawson's sled, they put their
sleeping bags, their books,

and a few other items,

and Mertz is going to
ski the rest of the way.

- As the group
continues their journey,

Mertz raises a ski pole,

which means he has detected
some sort of potential danger.

Mawson is the second
man in the formation,

so as he sees this
signal from Mertz,

he turns around to
relay it to Ninnis

and he notices
Ninnis isn't there.

- Mertz and Mawson decide to
go back and look for Ninnis

and what they find is a
huge, gaping hole in the ice,

and all they see is a ledge

with a couple of
suffering dogs on it,

but Ninnis the sled,
the other dogs,

they're nowhere to be found.

- In addition to losing Ninnis,

they have lost a lot of dogs,
they have lost their shelter,

they have lost their
food and supplies.

- And it gets worse from there.

In less than three months,

their ride home is gonna
be leaving for six months.

So, now they have a deadline
that they have to meet,

or they're not going
home from Antarctica.

The number one
priority for Mawson

and Mertz now is nutrition.

- So, the decision is made
to kill the weakest dog.

They eat the meat,

focusing on the liver because
it's nutritionally dense.

It has a lot of
vitamins and minerals,

specifically a lot of iron
and a lot of vitamin A.

- Now, they're moving along,

but Mertz is starting
to lose it, literally.

His skin is starting to
peel off his legs in sheets.

Is it frostbite? Are
his organs failing?

Is it contagious?

Before long, he dies.

- [Dan] with no time to grieve,

Mawson must trudge on,

but as he gathers himself
and prepares to make way,

he removes his boots
to find that his skin

is also peeling off in sheets.

- What Mawson doesn't know

is that because of the fact
livers are so incredibly full

of vitamin A,

focusing on the liver is
not something that is used

for long-term
survival situations.

So, what Mawson actually
is suffering from

is vitamin A poisoning.

- Mawson can't really have any
emotional reaction to this.

He has to put
those boots back on

and try to get back
to the base camp

before the ship
leaves without him.

- Finally, Mawson makes it
back to the edge of base camp,

and as he peers out,

he sees that the resupply
ship is sailing away.

He made it to base camp just
in time to see the ship leave.

- This has to have felt
incredibly heartbreaking,

but there is
actually a little bit

of light in this
tunnel of darkness.

Mawson goes onto the base camp

and he finds a rescue
party that is there.

They're about to send
out a search party,

and instead they all over winter
together there at base camp

and they actually all make
it off of Antarctica alive.

Even today, a trek
across Antarctica

is considered one of
the hardest things you

could possibly undertake.

This is an extraordinary
achievement.

- Mawson's crew may
have given their lives

to map the Antarctic tundra,

but they never dared explore

what was buried deep beneath it.

- Former President
John Quincy Adams

had a lot going for him.

He spoke seven languages,

served on the Supreme Court
after being president,

and his IQ has been
estimated at 175,

even higher than Einstein's.

So, it might surprise
you to hear he funded one

of the strangest missions
in American history.

- It's the 1820s, we're
in Washington, DC,

and President John Quincy Adams

is ready to approve a
pretty shocking expedition.

Is it a new passageway
west for expansion?

No.

Is it to explore new
trade routes through South

or Central America?

Not even close.

Quincy Adams is being
asked to fund an expedition

to send search parties deep
beneath the earth's surface,

hoping to discover subterranean
worlds and conduct trade

with a race of people
who maybe live there.

According to some,

Quincy Adams is a
believer in what's called

the hollow earth theory.

- The idea that the
earth may be hollow

and hide hidden worlds
is actually a theory

that goes back all the
way to the ancient Greeks,

but in the 1700s
and in the 1800s

is when it really picks up steam
in Europe and the Americas.

There's one man in particular,

a guy by the name of John
Cleves Symmes, who, in 1818,

writes a piece known
as "Circular No. 1."

- Symmes postulates that
there's two pathways

to the hollow
center of the earth,

one on the North Pole and
one on the South Pole.

And then if we dig deep enough,

we can find those pathways
and get to this new world.

- Symmes is ready
to make this happen,

and so he calls out
from 100 brave souls

to help him dig into the earth

and to try to find
these hidden worlds

that lie just beneath our feet.

- As an enticement,

he tells these
would-be volunteers

they're gonna find worlds
full of men, full of riches,

and full of this great
phrase, "Thrifty vegetables."

I guess this is what
a world looks like

before the discovery of gold,

that the chance for
riches comes in the form

of thrifty vegetables.

- Now, most people
would obviously think

that an idea like this is crazy,

but it's not that
farfetched to the president

of the United States.

- There's some debate about
whether Adams was all in

on the hollow earth theory,

or if he just wanted
to do some exploration

of the North and South Poles.

- Sadly, for Symmes and Quincy
Adams, and the Mole People,

Adams is voted out in
favor of Andrew Jackson,

who was far too busy
with above ground natives

to bother with any
subterranean natives.

With government funding gone,

Symmes would die
a few years later,

never realizing his dream
of meeting the Mole People

and eating their
thrifty vegetables.

- Quincy Adams' Hollow Earth
expedition might not be

the most unbelievable expedition
funded by a president.

Imagine millions of
military dollars spent

on a voyage of the mind.

- Conventional espionage is,

although a very successful way

of gathering intelligence
about a potential foe,

it's also very difficult.

So, during the decades
of the Cold War,

the government comes
up with a plan.

The US military establishes
operations Stargate.

This is a program by which
10 or 15 men are trained

at Fort Mead in Maryland

in a psychological exercise
that's called remote viewing.

- What is remote viewing?

Well, simply put, it
is psychic spying.

The principle of psychic spying
is that people use the power

of their mind to locate all
the usual intelligence targets,

missile silos, military bases,
ballistic missile submarines,

that sort of thing.

- The advantage offered
by remote viewing

is that you get all of
the successes associated

with conventional espionage
without taking on the hazards

and the risks of sending
somebody behind the lines

of a potentially
hostile country.

- We know through
declassified documents

that the United States
government is interested

in phenomena like extrasensory
perception since the 1950s,

but it doesn't really take
off until the late '60s

and early '70s where
there's whispers

that the Russians
might also be dabbling

in this psychic ability.

- [Dan] But does psychic
spying actually work?

- Turns out the
results are way better

than chance alone should allow.

Some of the estimates
about the success rate

of this program put
the figure at 70, 80%.

- From these experiments,

the Army identifies six,
quote, "Star performers."

One of these star performers
is named Joseph McMoneagle.

- During his remote
viewing session,

he begins to sketch
out what he's seeing.

- McMoneagle claims that
he's capable of seeing deep

into the Soviet Union and
he observes the construction

of a large submarine,

and what McMoneagle
describes ends up being

the typhoon class of Soviet
ballistic missile submarines

six months before their
existence is made public.

- But while McMoneagle is
seen as a star performer,

he's not even the
best one of the group,

that would be his
colleague Pat Price,

who is deemed a
psychic treasure.

Pat Price is supposedly
successful in being able

to infiltrate an underground
Soviet nuclear research site.

- Price claims to remote
view the development

of a particle beam weapon that
the Soviets are going to use

to shoot down satellites.

- [Dan] Despite its promise,

operation Stargate
never really takes off.

- Eventually, the CIA
decides that it's time

to revisit remote viewing,

and in 1995 decides it's
time to scuttle the program.

- But there's a suspicion
that it's only in public

that the plug has been pulled.

Some people believe these
programs continue to this day.

There is a theory that
this is a classic black op.

It's still going on,

but it's buried somewhere in
the private sector perhaps.

- Brings a whole new
meaning to the idea

of working from home.

- When it comes to horrific

cannibalistic
voyages gone wrong,

many say the tragic story
of the Donner Party stands

at the top of the heap,

but some historians think
there's another brutal tale

that makes the Donner Party
look like a luxury vacation.

- In The Louvre hangs a massive
haunting painting depicting

a huge wooden raft loaded
with desperate people

being tossed around
in a horrific storm.

Their starving faces
registers such pain,

it's known to make people
who see it in person weep.

It's called "The
Raft of the Medusa,"

and the most chilling thing
about it is it really happened.

- It's 1816 and the French
frigate, "The Medusa,"

is sailing to Senegal to
reclaim the Senegal colony

from the British as
part of a peace treaty.

- The Medusa's
captain is a member

of the French nobility named
Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys.

He is assigned captain,

not so much because of merit,
but because of his title.

He's a mariner, but he hasn't
been to sea in over 20 years.

And because of this
gap in his career,

he wants to show everyone
that he's still got it.

- [Dan] As the
captain sets sail,

he's hell bent on making
the trip in record time,

even if that means
cutting corners.

- Captain Hugues decides
to hug the African coast

rather than going further
afield into a calmer

and more open seas.

- Here's the problem,

the coast of Senegal is
literally a ship's graveyard.

- By hugging the coast,

the captain has
made the decision

that he's willing to accept
that risk of an unseen hazard

that could destroy his vessel

in an attempt to complete the
journey as fast as possible.

- Sure enough, on July 2nd,

the Medusa collides with a reef
and comes to a brutal stop.

- The captain and crew
have one opportunity

to perhaps free themselves
from this dilemma.

They need to give the
ship more buoyancy,

and the idea is to jettison
as much weight as possible

in order to hopefully lift
the ship so it can sail free.

- Usually, at this
point in time,

what you would throw overboard

is that what you did
not need to survive,

cannons, powder, cannon balls.

But instead, Captain Hugues
decides to order the crew

to throw away the things
that you might need,

water, food, critical supplies.

He insists on
keeping the cannons

in case they're attacked.

- Eventually the situation
sets in there's the realization

that Medusa is not
going to be freed.

The ship is hopelessly aground.

The problem that they face
then is what to do next,

because they're 30 miles
from shore, too far to swim,

but close enough
for them to think

that they could
come up with a plan

to get everyone safely
ashore just 30 miles away.

- Since they don't have
nearly enough lifeboats

for all on board,

the decision is made
to abandon the Medusa

and create a massive raft

by tying together
timber from the masts

and other pieces of the ship.

The idea is that the
captain and senior crew

will get in the lifeboats and
tow the raft towards shore.

- The officers enter
into the lifeboats,

the crew starts
getting onto the raft,

and they realize the raft

is actually not keeping
them above the water.

- There is one measly
patch of dry raft,

but it's quickly grabbed
by the Navy officers

who put themselves in charge.

- Before even starting the
30-mile journey to shore,

the naval personnel
in the dry area,

and the infantry
personnel fighting

to get onto the dry area,

they're literally throwing
each other off of the raft.

- To make matters worse,

the captain and his crew
who are rowing realize

they're barely making a dent

in terms of moving this
raft towards shore,

and the captain
makes the decision

that the best course of action
is to actually cut the raft

so that the lifeboats
can move forward

and hopefully get help
and bring it back.

- [Dan] Set adrift and
unable to navigate to shore

without a captain,

the situation rapidly
descends into chaos.

- There are 150 people.

On their raft, they
are completely exposed

to the elements.

The sunlight during the daytime
just piercing down on them.

They have barrels of wine

and a few biscuits to
sustain themselves.

- Things are so bad that people
start eating their shoes,

their belts, their clothing,

anything that they think
would be of sustenance.

- By day four, only 67 people
are still alive on the raft.

The others killed
either by starvation,

drowning, or fighting.

- As the fourth day
turns to the fifth day,

they begin to look at
the bodies of the dead

and think the unthinkable.

The survivors on the raft

of the Medusa begin
eating the dead.

As they're deciding who to eat,

they look off to
the distant horizon

and something
catches their eyes.

- It's a ship, which
turns out to be the Argus,

not only French, but a part
of their original convoy

that's now been sent for rescue.

- Of the original 150 on
the raft of the Medusa,

only 15 are rescued.

Captain Hugues is charged
with dereliction of duty

and reckless navigation.

Because of his noble status,

he skirts the death penalty
and gets three years in prison,

plus a lifetime of shame

as perhaps the worst captain
in French naval history.

- It seems the term,

"The captain goes
down with the ship,"

doesn't translate
to French very well.

- We've talked about
extraordinary journeys

on boats and planes,
even voyages of the mind,

but what about the
ultimate trip through time?

Some claim it's possible

and that the evidence has
been captured on film.

- There's a weird phenomenon
that we have online

where photos from the 1800s

or the early 1900s pop
up every once in a while,

but there's something
kind of weird about them,

an object or a person is
standing in this photo

and it's anachronistic in time.

They shouldn't be there.

- One of the most famous
is taken in the '40s.

There's a crowd of people on
the street and at first glance,

nothing seems that outta place,

but then you look a
little bit more closely.

Your eyes are drawn to this
one figure and it's like,

"Wait a minute,

this guy's got
Brooklyn hipster vibes.

- [Dan] In fact, he's known as

the Time Traveling Hipster.

- The sunglasses,

they resemble sort of
sunglasses people wear today,

as if they came out of a
21st century surfer shop.

His hair is not
sort of slicked back

in the traditional 1940s style.

It's got that kind of messy,
hipstery kind of look.

He's wearing a
shirt with a M logo,

and he's holding an object

that looks almost
like a portable camera

or a small phone even.

So, for time travel aficionados,

this individual
really stands out.

- [Dan] This hipster
isn't the only person

who appears to be
out of place in time.

- Another great example is the
silent Charlie Chaplin film,

"The Circus," in 1928.

We have this video of a woman
walking through the street

and she's carrying what
looks to be a cell phone.

She's holding up to her ear as
if she's speaking to someone

or checking her voicemail.

- This is 60 years before cell
phones really become popular.

Skeptics say this
is far more likely

to be some sort of ear trumpet.

But wait, ear trumpets are
used up close and personal

where you're sitting
next to somebody

and you want to hear
the conversation.

You don't use them
walking down the street.

So, there's still
a mystery here.

- Not every time
traveler visits the past.

Witness one bewildered
pilot's shocking glimpse

of a war yet to come.

- It's 1935 in Scotland and
Air Marshal Victor Goddard,

who's a well-decorated
RAF pilot,

is flying his biplane over
an airfield near Drem.

- He pays attention to
it long enough to notice

that it is in derelict
condition, it is run down.

He can see that there's grass
growing up through cracks

in the runway.

The entire place appears
neglected and abandoned.

He even sees cows
chewing on the grass

in the middle of the runway

- As he flies forward,

Goddard is engulfed
in this sudden storm,

wind, rain, lightning, thunder.

Oddly enough, he's swallowed
by this yellow strange cloud.

- He turns around
and starts to head

in the opposite direction.

And when he does, the
airfield he just flew over,

it's no longer in disarray.

There's airmen working on it,

there's planes on
the landing strip,

it's totally not what
he just saw seconds ago

when he flew over Drem.

- It appears to be
in operational use.

- [Dan] Confused,
Goddard takes note

of some other odd details.

- He looks down and he sees
that the RAF training aircraft

that are parked along
the field are not silver

as they were in 1935,

but they're painted yellow

and one of the aircraft
stands out as unusual to him

because it's a
low wing monoplane

of a type that he had
never seen before.

- And the airmen who work
on those planes, typically,

in his time, wear kind
of a beige khaki color,

but now they're
all wearing blue.

- Suddenly, Goddard's
right back in the storm.

It's not sunny, it's
raining, lightning, thunder,

and here comes the
mysterious yellow cloud

swallowing Goddard's
biplane again.

- [Dan] Goddard makes
it back to his own base

and files an official report
of this strange sighting,

despite the risk to his career.

It's not unheard of

that people would report
something out of the ordinary,

but if you were to return home

and report something like
this, this level of detail,

more than likely
your next appointment

is gonna be with a psychiatrist.

- The story sort of
just goes nowhere

and gets lost to history,

but something strange happens
a few years later in 1939.

England is now fighting a
war against Nazi Germany

and the airfield and
Drem becomes repurposed.

- [Dan] The recommissioned
airfield of Drem

has some eerie but
familiar characteristics.

- By 1939, the RAF decides

to start painting
training planes yellow,

just as Goddard had
seen four years ago.

- The British also developed
new aircraft technology

to compete with the Germans,

Spitfire, a Monoplaned fighter,

similar to what Goddard
says he saw back in '35.

- And there's a
third coincidence,

RAF mechanics have switched
their uniforms from tan to blue,

just as Goddard had
seen four years earlier

when he was engulfed by
the strange yellow cloud.

- So, did this decorated RAF
commander have a hallucination?

Did he imagine all of this,

or did he encounter what
is called a time slip?

- Now, Goddard wins medals,
he fights with honor.

I mean, he is considered a hero

of the Second World
War for the British,

but he never backs
down from his story

that in 1935 he saw the future.

- Whether you're uncovering
secrets at the core of the earth

or up in space, by a wooden
crate, or through your mind,

these are the voyages
so astonishing,

they are truly unbelievable.