› added 5 years ago

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TIL about SS Baychimo, a Swedish built 1,322 ton cargo steam-ship that was left abandoned by its crew in 1931 due to fear of sinking. Surprisingly, Baychimo did not sink, but instead drifted around as a ghost ship for nearly 40 years without a crew, she was last seen in 1969.

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via reddit.com

Y7W TIL that fantasy congress exist, where players draft members of congress and points were based off Legislative success.
jEWR TIL that Europeans traditionally swam the breaststroke, while Native Americans swam the front crawl. When two Native Americans won an 1844 swimming competition in England, newspapers criticized their barbaric, “un-European” form. Europeans refused to use the faster front crawl for decades.
9YJvD TIL of the RP FLIP (Reserach Platform FLoating Instrument Platform), a 355 foot long boat that can fill the front 300 feet with water ballast. Once full, the boat will upend 90 degrees with the aft 55 feet of boat acting as a vertical platform out of the water, like a spar buoy.
W7Opo TIL that in the year following the famous DB Cooper hijacking at least 14 copycat hijackers tried to reenact the ploy by hijacking Boeing 727 aircraft and demanding ransom and parachutes. Some successfully jumped out but all were captured within days, were shot or surrendered sooner or later.
x7k TIL there is an island in Puerto Rico inhabited exclusively by a few scientists and over 800 monkeys. It is a grand experiment that is off-limits to tourists. It is called Monkey Island.