Ship Hits The Fan

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Nothing brings the internet together quite like schadenfreude.take, for example, the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction which blocked an estimated $9.6 billion worth of worldwide trade, while also birthing countless memes, Twitter posts and, we can assume, record web traffic to vesselfinder.com

When the trade route was blocked for six days by the grounding of Ever Given, a 400-metre-long container ship, pictured above, bystanders around the world logged into social media, and watched the ensuing chaos.

And if you were one of the hundreds of thousands of people engrossed by the world’s worst day at the office, Ship Hits The Fan is the podcast for you.

The show, now in its third series,“delves into the depths of history” to uncover the strangest, scariest and sometimes stupidest maritime events, covering everything from conspiracy theories about the sinking of the Titanic to the life and times of the Lioness of Brittany, a vengeful privateer.

If your knowledge of 14th Century French naval history is a bit rusty, the latter is 44 minutes of listening well spent. In 1343, during the Breton War of Succession, nobleman Olivier de Clisson was executed for perceived treason and his head mounted on a pike as a warning to others. His wife, Jeanne Louise de Belleville, distraught by loss and hell-bent on revenge, outfitted three warships – the flagship aptly named My Revenge – and with a small army waged war on the seas with her Black Fleet.

Hosts Charlotte, Patrick and Brian, self-described landlubbers, have a chatty, informal style, making each episode feel like a history lesson held in your local pub – and if nothing else, these intriguing stories will serve as a reminder that, yes, worse things really do happen at sea.