I'm John Bachelor with Eric J. Dolan. His new book is Left for Dead. This is a story of sealing. It's also the story of war of 1812. It's also the story of Australia. We're going to go to the Falklands first because that has been in the news in the 20th century and may again be in

the 21st. Argentina is a reawakened economy. But the Falklands have a lot of seals. They're not the

sea otters that are now hunted out, but they are divided into fur seals and skin seals. What's hair seals? What's the difference, Eric?

It's just the quality of the coat that's viewed by the consumers, which are primarily the

Chinese. Fur seal skins are much more lustrous. They're softer to the touch. They have fewer

guard airs. So they're in higher demand. The hair seals or the sea lions

have a rougher pelt. But it's also important to mention one other thing that they were down there

for, and that is elephant seals. They slaughtered elephant seals, these gargantuan animals over a ton

apiece, and they would melt down their blubber, which would create an

illuminant that was second only the sperm whale oil in quality of burning and in price.

So they were really there for the skins and the blubber from the sea elephants.

But if you felt a fur seal skin and a sea lion skin, they would feel different to

your touch. And people paid accordingly for them. The Falklands are 700 islands, maybe many more.

Eric says in a footnote, you know, it's up to you how many you want to count here. Some are just rocks are underwater in

high tide. But it's divided into two major pieces. That's the Spanish Maloon and the English

balloon. It has a history. What's important here is nobody's there at this moment in time. Is that

correct, Eric? That is correct. In the previous

decades, there had been French settlement, English settlement, and Spanish settlements at various

times, and many Westerners had seen the Falklands in earlier centuries, and thus creates the

tangled web of who deserves ownership or first discovery of the Falklands.

But right before the war of 1812, in the years leading up to the war of 1812, the British had

already left, and then the Spanish in 1811 left an outposts that they had there.

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