Double Jeopardy

our spiritual essence is reborn in a new body. But for those who don't believe in second chances, our lives go on for a set amount of time until they're over. We may get eighty years or a hundred, while the

truly unfortunate pass on much lier than that. What I'm saying is this life is short, no matter how long we're here for, so it's best to make the most of what time we do have, just like the vin Back before Austria was a landlocked country in the middle of Central Europe, its footprint was much larger and stretched all the way to the sea. Austria Hungary was a force to be reckoned with and even had its own navy. In March of nineteen eighteen, a massive passenger steamship named

the Vine was launched by Austrian Lloyd Shipping Company. It entered the water from Trieste, a city in northern Italy that was still under the thumb of Austro Hungary. Ven weighed over seven thousand tons and measured a hundred and thirty five meters long. It was considered the largest Austrian ship of its time. Along with its sister ship, the hell Yuan. The Vian's primary route was from Trieste to Egypt.

With one five first class cabins, sixty one second class cabins, and fifty four third class cabins on board, It also came equipped with two engines powered by boilers, capable of producing ten thousand horsepower At the start of World War One. However, just a handful of years after its launch, the Ven shed her luxurious nature and was recommissioned as a hospital ship by the Austro Hungarian Navy. She only lasted about four months in this capacity before damaging her propellers after

running aground. She was repaired over the next several months before she returned to active duty, but no longer as a hospital ship. Instead, the Vian became a barracks for the German sub cruise stationed in the waters near the Croatian city of Pula. Then, on Halloween nights of nineteen two frogmen from the Italian Royal Navy broke through the barricade into the port. They were gliding beneath the surface of the water on a vehicle known as a mignata,

which resembled a large torpedo. The men attached limpet minds to one of Austro Hungary's battleships, the very Bus Unitas, but were caught almost immediately. They quietly got rid of the Big Nada before they were taken into custody. Now, one of those men, Raphael Rossetti, didn't tell anyone about the mines. He merely informed them that the battleship was about to sink in the harbor. His captors didn't believe him until the mines went off and the Viribus Untas

went down. Meanwhile, the Magnata, which had been tucked beside the vine, began its self destruct sequence. It exploded a short time later and tore a hole into the side of the ship. Sending her into a watery grave. After the war had ended, the Vine was raised and brought back to her manufacturer in Trieste, which was now part

of Italy and no longer under Austro Hungarian control. The vessel was repaired once more and renamed the Vienna, before resuming her original function as a passenger ship in The Vienna continued on that way for fourteen years until a war broke out in Ethiopia. She was then requisitioned by the Italian Navy as an infirmary ship and transport vessel

for soldiers and ammunition. The war eventually ended, though, and Vienna was back to cruising the high seas as a liner with a brand new name po It carried on for several years, hauling passengers from Italy to Egypt and back again, until Italy entered World War Two in ninety pose days as a civilian ship were over again, she was called back to active duty once more as a

hospital ship. They gave the ship a fresh coat of white paint and a belt of green around her middle, so other ships, specifically those on the other side, knew that she meant no harm. However, on the night of March fourteenth, ninety one British aircraft fired a torpedo at the vessel, which was coasting along incomplete darkness. They couldn't tell Poe from any other ship in the sea. She sunk off the coast of Albania, killing twenty crew members

and four Red Cross nurses. The ship, formerly known as Vienna and Vien, was a versatile one, but doomed to a bitter sweet legacy. Not only did it sink twice in its lifetime, but it also served in two World Wars. Curious, you better believe it. It's hard to ask for help. Sometimes we don't want to burden others with our problems, choosing instead defend for ourselves rather than involve someone else.

Maybe we'd like the satisfaction of fixing our own issues on our own, or maybe we're just scared of being told no. But there are problems that, no matter how hard we try, we cannot surmount them on our own, and every once in a while, the people who are able to help us are the ones we never expected to in the first place. It all started with an actress and a producer by the name of Lucille Ball

born in Jamestown, New York. In nineteen eleven. Ball got an early starts in the entertainment industry when she was just twelve years old, performing for her father's Shriner's Guild. From there, she works her way through show business as a model and film actor. Ball appeared in small roles during the nineteen thirties in three Stooges shorts and a Marx Brothers film. She also played bit parts in several musicals, hoping she would eventually reach her ultimate goal the Broadway stage.

You see, that was where she truly wanted to be, and she got close in ninety seven when she started in a production of a play by playwright Bartlett Cormick. But the show didn't make it to Broadway, and Ball got as far as a theater in Princeton, New Jersey. Her co star got sick and could no longer perform, so the show was shut down. It had only been up for a week. Saw Lucy back in Hollywood, starring

in the musical Too Many Girls. This was where she met her future husband, Cuban actor and bandleader Desi Arnez, who performed in the film alongside her. It wasn't until eight years later when she finally got her big break Ball was cast as the character Liz Cooper, the Zaney housewife, in a comedy show for CBS Radio called My Favorite Husband. Her husband was played by Creature from the Black Lagoons

star Richard Denning. The radio program was a hit, airing for three years in a total of one d and twenty four episodes. It was so successful that CBS insisted Ball adapted for the screen as a television show. There was just one caveat. She had to bring over her co star Richard Denning to play her husband in the TV version of the show as well, and Ball refused. She wanted her on screen husband to be played by her actual husband, Desi Arnez. The network and sponsors were

hesitant at first. They didn't think American television viewers would accept an interracial couple, but they were very wrong. I Love Lucy premiered in nineteen fifty one and ran for six seasons. It was a monster hit and proof that

Lucille Ball wasn't just a comedic genius. She also knew a good idea when she saw one, which is why she didn't immediately pass on a script that came across her desk in nineteen sixty four, It had been penned by a television writer who had worked on several shows during the nineteen fifties and sixties, including Have Gun, Will Travel and The Lieutenant. However, in the mid sixties, this teleplay writer wanted to dip his toe into the realm

of science fiction. He'd come up with a stellar plot get It about a spaceship called the s S Yorktown and it's captain Robert April, who searched the Milky Way for new life and new civilizations. Lucy didn't quite get the show. She initially thought it was about a troop of celebrities on a World War two U s O tour, but she bought it anyway and funded the production of

a pilot through Daisilu Studios. Her production company, now CBS, passed on the idea since they already had a science fiction show on the air called Lost in Space You've

probably heard of that. Instead, NBC agreed to take it on. However, the network called the finished pilot to cerebral and chose not to pick it up for a full series, but they did like the concept, so rather than dump it entirely, they commissioned a new pilot with a reworked script, Captain Robert April was changed to Captain Christopher Pike, and the U. S. S. Yorktown became the iconic starfleet vessel, the U. S. S. Enterprise.

The second pilot also introduced new characters who had not been part of the original, including Captain James T. Kirk and Lieutenant Sulu Leonard Nimoi's Spock had been a part of the show since the very beginning. Desilu funded the new pilot as well, and thanks to Lucy Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek became a major hit and a cultural touchstone for decades to come. But the story doesn't end there. Star Trek, you see, wasn't the only show that Lucy

helped bring to the airwaves. Several years earlier, in nineteen fifty eight, Desilu Studios was in the process of launching a brand new television program called Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. The show was designed as an anthology series where each week a new story would be told with roles played by different A list actors, and in the process of hunting for new scripts to adapt, producer Burt Granite happened upon one that had been bought and shelved several years earlier.

It was about a man who was plagued with a recurring nightmare in which he constantly appeared at Pearl Harbor just before the attack on December seven of ninety one. He told his psychiatrist about the dreams and believed that they weren't dreams at all, that he was actually going back in time to the real event. The psychiatrist assured him that he was fine and that they were just dreams that at the end of the story, the psychiatrist learned that this patient had really died at Pearl Harbor.

The episode was hosted by Desis Arnez and acted as kind of a backdoor pilot for a brand new series, one that would be hosted by the stories writer, a guy named Rod Serling. It was a show that welcomed viewers into a fifth dimension, the middle ground between light and shadow, but the mention of imagination. Because of the efforts of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, the world was able to step inside the Twilight Zone. 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 Mankey 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. Yeah,