Where the F*** Are We?
3/3/202647 min
For centuries, the world's greatest minds were stumped by the deadly mystery of longitude, until an obsessive underdog entered the fray and changed navigation forever.
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.
Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRoman Mars· Host0:00
This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. [instrumental music plays] There's an archipelago in the far west of the UK, and I mean far west. Like, once you think you're in the west, like around Cornwall, keep going, and then take a ferry another three hours west, and you'll find yourself in a collection of islands called the Isles of Scilly.
Kelly Prime0:23
That's Scilly spelled S-C-I-L-L-Y, not silly, ha ha.
Roman Mars· Host0:28
That's 99PI producer Kelly Prime.
Kelly Prime0:31
In fact, Scilly is not ha ha at all. It's a place that's hard to wrap your mind around. The islands sit in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, so you'll find tropical plants like giant palms and birds of paradise all blooming up against the backdrop of the rugged North Atlantic.
Roman Mars· Host0:49
It's also historically one of the deadliest places in the UK to travel by sea.
Kelly Prime0:54
These islands are plopped down in churning waters with jagged rocks rising all around like the jaws of some sort of mythical sea creature. And this past October, I found myself on a little boat called the Buccaneer right in the middle of it.
Todd Stevens· Guest1:13
[waves crashing] This, it's crazy, but it's a crazy place. Yeah, we've got... There's just rocks everywhere. As you're going along, you don't realize we're passing rocks under the water all the time.
Kelly Prime1:25
The Buccaneer belongs to a scuba diver named Todd Stevens. Todd has been diving the shipwrecks