Bomb's Away

over Nagasaki a few days later. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. Those who survived were subjected to horrible side effects such as cancer and severe burns, while children born in the aftermath had numerous complications and birth to x and While those two bombs remain the only times nuclear force has been used during war, countries all over the world continue to threaten mass destruction with similar weapons

to this day. In fact, in nineteen fifty eight, a nuclear incident occurred in a very unexpected location, South Carolina, and most people have never heard of it. In March of that year, a Boeing B forty seven bomber departed Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia bound for the United Kingdom. Safely tucked inside its cargo bay was a Mark six nuclear bomb, an explosive based on the original

bomb that leveled Nagasaki thirteen years earlier. The bomber's mission was simple, fly over Great Britain, deliver the payload, and continue on to a base in North Africa for refueling. Anti briefing. During the flights, Air Force Captain Bruce Kolka was called by the pilot of the plane, Captain Earl Kohler. Earl noticed a life in the cockpit, indicating the bomb harness locking pin hadn't engaged, meaning the bomb could roll about the cabin freely in the event the plane suddenly

shifted too hard in one direction. He sent Bruce to the cargo area to fix the pin. With no easy way to re engage the pin, Bruce took hold of the straps keeping the bomb in place. As he pulled himself up, he accidentally triggered the emergency release pin. The bomb fell out of its harness and down to the bomb bade doors below. Thankfully, it didn't detonate, but the impact combined with the object's massive weight and forced the bay doors open. The bomb plummeted toward the earth from

fifteen thousand feet above. Meanwhile, in mars Bluff, South Carolina, two young girls were playing with their cousin near a playhouse their father had built for them in the woods next to their home. The bomb hit the playhouse and when it went off, it disintegrated the structure. Both girls were thrown back, and their father, a former woolwarts to paratrooper, was also injured, as were his wife and son. Seven

buildings within the vicinity saw significant damages as well. A nuclear blast is capable of decimating anything within sixteen square miles, and yet not a single person died. The only structure that fell was the playhouse in the woods. And how could it be simple? The bomb hadn't been loaded with its nuclear core, which was still up above on the plane. The B forty seven's mission hadn't been to eradicate the United Kingdom, but to use it as a testing site.

Despite our differences, we haven't been at war with England in many many years. During the nineteen fifties, the United States and the UK worked out a deal which would allow the US Air Force to test nuclear bombs on British soil. In order to record the accuracy of the drops. This time, though, the plane hadn't even left United States airspace before the problem was noticed, nor had its danger

as cargo been primed for a full scale nuclear assault. Instead, when the Mark six landed on the South Carolina playhouse, the regular explosives inside detonated, which obliterated that playhouse and left an impressive seventy ft crater in the family's backyard. Like I said before, no one was killed, although the injuries the family endured earned them roughly fifty dollars from the US government close to half a million dollars today, the crater is still there too, indicated by a historical

marker and an access sign. So even though the United States hasn't dropped in nuclear bomb on another country in almost eighty years, it was responsible for the first and hopefully last nuclear attack on its own soil. The U S S C Dragon was a skate class nuclear powered submarine, meaning it was designed to be smaller and cheaper to produce for the U. S. Navy than other subs like

the U S S Nautilus. It was launched in nineteen fifty eight and ran until it was decommissioned in During those twenty six years, the Sea Dragon conducted a series of missions on behalf of the United States military. It made quite a name for itself thanks to its smart and resourceful crew, led by Captain George Peabody Steel. The second the Sea Dragon, was built as an attack sub intended for Arctic waters, meant to destroy enemy submarines near

and under the Polar ice cap. For her first mission, the Sea Dragon was ordered to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific via the North Pole. She was supposed to navigate through the Davis Strait between Greenland and Canada before entering the Perry Channel in the Canadian Arctic. This route was more commonly known as the Northwest Passage, and very few ships had ever made it through successfully.

Almost every ship Antarctic explorer who attempted it in the past had ended up turning back, deterred by the massive amounts of ice blocking the way. The Sea Dragon, though, was different. It had no intention of going through the ice. It would instead slip beneath it. Now. This of course, presented its own problems. Since no large vessel above or below the water had ever navigated the passage before. No

one knew what to expect. Charts and maps of the area were almost non existence, and the passages depth was unknown. There was a good chance the Sea Dragon could get stuck in a channel that was either too narrow or too shallow to pass through, and the mission would be over. However, rather than relying on sonar to help guide them through, Captain Steele decided to supplement modern technology with something a

little more old school. He pulled out his copy of Sir William Edward Perry's eighteen nineteen journal, which described the methods he used in navigating the channel. Steele also had a dedicated team on board whose job it was to chart all icebergs they passed so they could find their way back, as well as make things easier for the

next sub to attempt the trip. It took almost a month, but after a series of close calls with some massive icebergs, the us SC Dragon successfully completed its journey through the Northwest Passage on August one of nineteen sixty. Four. Days later, it arrived at the North Pole. Now Captain Steele didn't just want the Sea Dragon to be the third submarine

to have ever reached the North Pole. He wanted his trip there to be special, so he enlisted the crew to participate in a unique test of skill and ingenuity. He had them draw out a large diamond on the ice, a baseball diamond that alone would have made the voyage unique for sure, the first baseball game ever played at the North Pole, but Captain Steele took the idea even further. He had the crew set up the diamond as close to the pole as possible. The result was a baseball

game unlike any other. It literally couldn't be played anywhere else on Earth. Because of the diamond's position, the batter who hit a home run would end up circumnavigating the globe as he rounded the basis. A ball hit into right field would cross the international dateline into the next day, while a ball hit to left field was caught on the same day. However, if it was thrown to first base,

it wouldn't be caught until tomorrow. It gets better, though, If a fly ball was caught in right field, then the batter wouldn't technically be out until the next day. However, a ball thrown to second or third base would have been thrown back in time twenty four hours. So now a game that normally took a few hours to play, ended up taking several days until a winner could be declared. Now a lot of sports announcers like to say that it all comes down to how the game was played,

but just this once something different. It took priority over the skills of the players. It's not always how you play the game that makes the difference, but where you play it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky

in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.