Survivor

countless others in the field. No matter what the style, though, architects all over the world all share the same characteristic, a clear vision, and John had a vision too many of them in fact. Born in Anderson County, Tennessee, John lived a fairly standard life. He got married relatively young to a woman named Julia Anne, and together they had four beautiful children. Unfortunately, their daughter, Ethel, became sick with diphtheria when she was only two years old and tragically

passed away. Julia Anne blamed her husband for Ethel's death, as he had disciplined her with a spanking a short time earlier, something that she believed caused her illness, so she took her three remaining children and headed to Arkansas, where she started a new life without him. John, though, had trouble moving on. He just lost his entire family and was in search of new direction in his life.

He soon founded in city planning. Standing before a large committee of neighbors, he once gave a speech about how he planned to see his town of Bear Creek Valley change. Homes and fields would be replaced with giant factories and tall buildings. He said, their purpose to build a weapon that would help the Allies win World War Two. The main railroad line would split off into other routes through

the town. A new city would be built unlike anything they had ever seen before, where the nearby town of black Oak Ridge currently sat. And that city was built in secret to the U. S. Army brought up almost sixty acres of land in East Tennessee near the Clinch River. The rest of the county had no idea, of course, even the locals in nearby towns didn't know why all that land had been purchased. The Army called their new city Clinton Engineer Works, but it would eventually adopt the

name oak Ridge. They built reactors and facilities that processed the rani um used in the first atomic bomb. But John didn't design any of the buildings in Oak Ridge. He wasn't an architect. His vision for the future of his town didn't come from years of education or experience. It came from a more unusual source. You see, after the death of his young daughter, and after his wife

and children left him, John religion and a gift. This gift, though, didn't make him too popular among his friends and neighbors. One example came early on in his born again life. After his friends had him committed to an institution against his will. He escaped and swore that God would burn the place down within thirty days. A month later, lightning struck the facility and it went up in flames. He also claimed to have heard a voice that promised to

reveal the future of Bear Creek Valley. All he had to do was camp out in the woods for forty days and nights. After doing so, John saw exactly what would happen to the town during the war. A speech he gave that day wasn't to a board of trustees or elected officials, though he told it to a bunch of people gathered in the town's general store. Sadly, John never got to witness his dream realized. He eventually remarried and had another child, a son, But John himself succumbed

tuberculosis at the young age of just forty nine. Some believed that he came down with the disease is after his month and a half stay in the woods. Whatever actually caused it, there was no doubt that John was someone special, so special, in fact, that he's still buried at oak Ridge, and the town even named a half mile nature trail in his honor. John Hendrix saw what would happen long before it actually did, earning him the nickname the Profit of oak Ridge. Perhaps even more amazing, though,

was when he'd had his prophetic vision. John Hendrix, you see, was born in eighteen sixty five and died in nineteen fifteen, almost three decades before the city of his dreams would

be built a profit. Indeed, here's to the people who thrive under pressure, to the student cramming all night for their exam because they waited until the last minute to study, to the diverse women in shark infested waters for the ultimate thrill, And to the Chinese sailor who defied the odds and survived in one of the harshest environments in the world. Pun Limb was born in China in early on. He gained his sea legs working as a second steward on the British merchant ship the s S ben Lamon.

The ship had left South Africa in November of ninety two and was on its way to South America when trouble began. The armed ship was sailing on its own across the Atlantic Ocean rather than among a fleet of other friendly ships, an easy target. It was struck by a German U boat on November, which had fired two torpedoes into the ben Lamon's hull, sinking it instantly. Pun Limb grabbed the life jackets and abandoned the ship as

it went down. It took about two minutes for the vessel to slip beneath the waves, and as it turned out, pun Limb was one of only a handful of survivors. He bobbed in the water for over two hours before locating a floating wooden raft and quickly climbed on board. Of the fifty four crew members, he would eventually become

the only survivor. The raft was small, but had been loaded with supplies, including eleven gallons of water, tins of biscuits, chocolate, a bag of sugarcubes, a flashlight, flares, and two smoke pots. Knowing a good thing when he saw it, pun Limb secured himself to the raft with a rope around his wrist in the event that he fell overboard. He apparently

wasn't that talented of a swimmer. He rationed his biscuits in water for as long as he could, but after several days it was all gone and he needed to find another way to keep his body nourished. So he rigged the canvas from one of the unused life jackets into a roof, which he then fastened above his head to catch rain water for him to drink. By twisting one of the wires from the flashlight to the end of a hemp rope, he was able to fashion himself

a working fishing line. When he wanted to catch larger fish, he would use a nail from one of the boards in the raft instead of the wire as a hook. Unfortunately, for all of Punlimb's success in surviving on his own, fate would throw yet another test at him. One night, a massive storm swept over his raft. The fish that he had caught were ruined, and his supply of water

was contaminated with seawater. Running out of time and options, he caught a bird and cut it open with a knife that he'd made out of one of the biscuit tins. Without a way to cook it, he opted to drink its blood to survive, but the blood from the dead bird started to attract other things, like sharks. Being an optimistic man, he assumed a shark might make a sizeable meal, so he braided the hemp rope to increase its strength, and then tied the bird carcass to the end before

throwing it into the water. A hungry shark took the bait with his hands wrapped in canvas. He reeled it in and hauled it on board. After whacking it a few times with a jug of sea water to subdue it, he sliced it open. The blood in its liver provided a good bit of sustenance, and then he cut off the shark fins and set them out to dry in the sun for a snack. Later. The ocean current eventually carried his raft towards land, which he recognized a few

days earlier by the change in watercolor. As his raft floated down a river inlet, three fishermen spotted him and helped him ashore. Surprisingly, he had completed the journey that his ship never could. The land he stood on was in fact South America. It had been a frustrating journey though. During his voyage, pun Limb had been passed by several large vessels, but none of them stopped to pick him up.

They believed that his raft was a trap set by German submarines, which had been known to leave a survivor out in the open to be found by an Allied ship. When that ship stopped to help, the U boat would sink it. Pun Limb was quickly taken to a hospital, where he spent one month in recovery. He had lost twenty pounds from the ordeal. When he returned to Britain, King George the sixth awarded him a British Empire metal. His story of survival was also recorded by the Royal

Navy as part of a survival guide for sailors. But perhaps the greatest achievement of all was the world record that he had set, and this day it remains unbroken. Poon limb had survived alone in the South Atlantic for one hundred and thirty three days. 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. Ye