Stuck in an East African prison camp in 1943, Italian POW Felice Benuzzi needed a challenge to regain his sense of purpose. He made a plan that seemed crazy — to break out of the camp, climb Mount Kenya, and break back in. In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll follow Benuzzi and two companions as they try to climb the second-highest mountain in Africa using homemade equipment.

We’ll also consider whether mirages may have doomed the Titanic and puzzle over an ineffective oath.

Intro:

Under the law of the United Kingdom, a sturgeon when caught becomes the personal property of the monarch.

On July 4, 1853, 32 people held a dance on the stump of a California sequoia.

Sources for our feature on Felice Benuzzi:

Felice Benuzzi, No Picnic on Mount Kenya, 1953.

Dave Pagel, “The Great Escape,” Climbing 215 (Sept. 15, 2002), 87.

Matthew Power and Keridwen Cornelius, “Escape to Mount Kenya,” National Geographic Adventure 9:7 (September 2007), 65-71.

Stephan Wilkinson, “10 Great POW Escapes,” Military History 28:4 (November 2011), 28-33.

Jon Mooallem, “In Search of Lost Ice,” New York Times Magazine, Dec. 21, 2014, 28-35.

“Because It Was There; Great Escapes,” Economist 417:8965 (Nov. 21, 2015), 78.

This is the package label that showed the prisoners the southern face of the mountain:

Listener mail:

Tim Maltin and Andrew T. Young, “The Hidden Cause of the Titanic Disaster” (accessed March 24, 2017).

Smithsonian, “Did the Titanic Sink Because of an Optical Illusion?” (accessed March 24, 2017).

Telegraph, “Titanic Sank Due to ‘Mirage’ Caused by Freak Weather” (accessed March 24, 2017).

Matt Largey, “He Got a Bad Grade. So, He Got the Constitution Amended. Now He’s Getting the Credit He Deserves,” kut.org, March 21, 2017.

This week’s lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener David White.

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Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode.

If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!