CLASSIC: Gustaf Broman Tried to Cross the Atlantic in a Canoe . . . Or Did He?

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ben here: Noel and I are sailing the seas this week -- wish us luck! Luckily, our Super Producer Max is holding it down with some of our favorite Classic episodes. Here's one I especially enjoyed from 2019, all about strange ocean travels: "In 1895, Gustaf Broman announced he would sail across the Atlantic in a 13-foot-long sailboat crafted from a cedar log. His route had an odd beginning -- he planned to start at Oregon, sail down to California, then put the boat on rails and ride it up to New York before finally reaching the Atlantic. Additionally, his log boat was anything but seaworthy. Some 4000 people gathered to watch Broman embark... but, eventually, his past came to light, and people began to wonder whether there was more to the story. (I mean, obviously there was. That's why we're doing a show about it.)"

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, ridiculous historians, have you ever tried to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a canoe?
0:06.7	If so, boy, do we have a story for you.
0:09.6	Gustav Bromann tried to do that very thing.
0:13.3	You know how it is.
0:14.5	It's 1895.
0:16.3	You look at a log of cedar and you think maybe I can make a sailboat out of it and then maybe I can
0:23.6	you know go across the world. Yeah, maybe not circumnavigate the globe, but maybe the next best thing.
0:31.1	Also, you know, shenanigans ensued. There were problems. This boat wasn't exactly the most
0:37.3	seaworth worthy of vessels.
0:39.1	But people took an interest in Bromans' insane quest. As did we. Yes, we did. Back in 2018,
0:47.0	here's the episode. This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:53.9	Malcolm Gladwell here.
0:55.3	This season on Revisionous History, we're going back to the spring of 1988 to a town in
0:59.9	northwest Alabama, where a man committed a crime that would spiral out of control.
1:05.0	And he said, I've been in prison 24, 25 years.
1:07.7	That's probably not long enough.
1:09.7	I didn't kill him.
1:11.5	From Revisionous History, this is The Alabama Murders.
1:15.8	Listen to Revisionous History, The Alabama Murders on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
1:21.4	or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:23.9	Are there any pictures of you online?
1:25.6	Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it.
	...

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