You're about to hear an episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford.

Tim's podcast explores mistakes from history, and importantly, what we can learn from them.

As you can imagine, there's a lot of disasters to choose from, but there's always an interesting angle on what we can learn from them. As you can imagine, there's a lot of disasters to

choose from, but there's always an interesting angle on what we can take from them. I learn something

new every time. It'd be surprised, but a shipwreck from the 60s can teach us something about a mistake

we all make when making decisions today. This episode is about a poet. William McGonigal is remembered today as the worst poet in the world,

and Tim is obsessed with his work.

I think I am too.

Here's a quick example.

A pathetic tale of the sea I will unfold.

Enough to make one's blood run cold.

Concerning four fishermen cast adrift in a dory, as I've been told, I'll relate

the story. T'was on the 8th April on the afternoon of that day that the village of Louisburg

was thrown into a wild state of disarray. So, what can we learn from a disastrous poet?

Tim has a few ideas, and in true revisionist history style, he has a feeling we've been understanding McGonagall all wrong.

Enjoy the episode, it's one of my favorites, and make sure you subscribe to Cautionary Tales for plenty more disasters and plenty more lessons. The wind is fierce, no doubt about it. It's the strongest gale that John Watt can remember,

and he's been working for the North British Railway since 1867,

a full 12 years. It's a good night to be safely sheltered in the railway signal cabin,

sharing a mug of tea with a friend, signalman Thomas Barclay. As Watt and Barclay sit their tea and look out of the window into the darkness,

it can see the faint line of lamps all along the new railway bridge, running almost two miles across the wide river Tay to the city of Dundee.

Every now and then,

the clouds gusts apart,

...