James Stewart
speaker
4,486 appearances
22 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 6d ago
James Stewart’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 17 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 3.
Appearances
And it begins, as it so often does, with a man setting out to expand his empire.
It's the late 13th century, and Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan has set his sights on Japan.
Grandson of Genghis Khan, conqueror of China and famously immortalised by Marco Polo, Khan wants to add gold-rich trading power Japan to his collection.
He loses not one, but two fleets in the process, both to the Dragon's Triangle, both to violent storms.
As one samurai put it, a green dragon had raised its head from the waves, and sulfurous flames filled the firmament.
Between the fleets, Kublai Khan lost hundreds of ships and thousands of sailors.
Splintered debris floated everywhere, men and horses drowned, their cries lost in the roar of wind and waves.
These may have been mighty armies on land, but they stood no chance against the monster of the sea.
The Japanese credited the storms to divine intervention, describing them as kemikaze or divine wind, a concept we're now more familiar with in connection with the Second World War.
Over centuries, stories about this area swelled and grew.
Chinese mythology speaks of dragons stirring up violent storms, whirlpools, and even rogue waves.
Fishermen reported glowing lights and bubbling waters, claiming to see serpent-like creatures the size of boats.
So far, so mysterious, but not much actual evidence to latch onto.
Yet the stories persist into the modern era, and they get even more sinister.
One of the most famous incidents involves the Kaio Maru, a scientific research vessel.
The ship sailed from Tokyo on the 23rd of September, 1952, with 31 people on board, nine scientists and 22 crew.
At 8.30 PM that same day, a routine message was received, but the crew were never heard from again.
There was no distress call.
The ship had apparently vanished without trace in the Dragon's Triangle.
But it wasn't just brave sailors meeting their watery ends.
Showing 3301–3320 of 4,486 · page 166 of 225
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