The discovery of the Terra Nova shipwreck and Echo the elephant

27:55But our story begins in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. Troops led by General Francisco Franco are fighting to overturn the democratically elected Republican government. An aerial attack is launched on Guernica. And during a three-hour bombardment, the Basque town is devastated. Horrified, four days later, Pablo Picasso begins work in his Paris studio. His giant black-and-white mural, commissioned by the government, is chaotic, nightmarish and passionately anti-war. A screaming woman holds her dead child. A horse rears up, terrified, while a bull stares on, wide-eyed. Just over a month later, Guernica is finished and goes on show in Paris.

28:46The exhibition is of paintings by Picasso whose sympathies are with the Spanish government and they depict in modernist vein the gruesome destruction of Guernica from the sky and the agony of the inhabitants under the rain of bombs. Growing in fame, the eight metre wide artwork tours Europe and America and is given on loan to New York's Museum of Modern Art. But in Spain, a victorious Franco now rules as a dictator and in 1968, his government tries to claim the painting. Picasso, still living in exile in France, is furious. He calls his lawyer Roland Dumas. He said this is the most important problem in my life regarding Guernica.

29:28And first of all, I don't want that Guernica comes to Spain. Still, Franco is still here. And he gave me some instructions. He wanted that Guernica comes to Spain when the freedoms, les libertés démocratiques, are restored. And he explained to me that I was in charge of this problem. He said, you decide the moment when Guernica should return to Spain. And in 1975, two years after Picasso's death, that moment finally looks possible. Franco also dies, and King Juan Carlos reclaims the Spanish throne, guiding the country back to democracy. The American government is now willing to support a handover, and Rafael Fernández Quintanilla is asked to join the talks, as he explained to the BBC in 1981.

30:22We began negotiations secretly because, firstly, I am a diplomat, and in diplomacy there is a golden rule. Secrecy never causes harm. And you must also bear in mind the family affairs of Picasso. Picasso was a man with a very confused private life. He had children with several different women whom he loved, and inevitably, when large inheritance arise, Even in the most united families, there are problems.

31:00Picasso's relatives are torn. Some are in favour of the move to Spain. Others aren't. After talks, the argument is eventually resolved. But the New York Museum still wants proof that the Spanish government owns the painting. Raphael follows the paper trail to Paris, where Guernica first went on show, and to the archives of the former ambassador Luis Arakistan, who died in 1959. Fortunately, Rafael knows his son. He told me that he knew nothing about it, but that he would search through his father's papers and that he would let me know if he found anything. I left with little hope, but three months later, he found me asking me to come to Geneva because he had something to show me.

31:54There were accounts, money paid to various people and also to Picasso. And there it was, paid to Picasso for Guernica, 150 ,000 francs. But there's a hitch. Arakistan's son wants$2 million for the documents. The Spanish government says no, it's stalemate. but Rafael isn't giving up. I had photocopies and I did what the English call bluffing. Of course, as they say in English, I was skating on thin ice because I still had to get the authentic documents, the originals. For the next two years, negotiations with the Museum of Modern Art continue, slowly. But then comes news. Arrakistain's son died in October 1980, and so I spoke with his widow, and the widow, fortunately for Spain, did not know of her husband's demands.

33:05In any case, the documents belonged to Spain, and she agreed to hand them over for a much more reasonable sum, $50 ,000. At last, the transfer is within reach, until this happens. Good evening. In Madrid, a company of paramilitary civil guards have stormed the Spanish Parliament in what appears to be an attempted coup. The guards burst into the chamber just before 6.30 as deputies were voting to enact... It's a threat to the new democracy. But the king makes a speech, and the coup fails. Finally, the official papers are signed. Guernica will be handed to Spain. This is a formal transfer of responsibility and possession from the museum to the Spanish government.

33:54A grand farewell had been planned, a week of goodbyes from New York. But unfortunately, threats have been received and the security of the canvas meant there had to be the utmost secrecy. Picasso's painting, then valued at$40 million, is seen as a target by political extremists. The operation to take it to the airport must remain confidential. As Rafael later wrote in his memoir, Laudicea del Genica. Police protection was also arranged between our people, the FBI and the Metropolitan Police. And arrangements were made for packing and transport. In less than six hours, the canvas was rolled up and in its box.

34:42and a few hours later it was flying to Madrid aboard the jumbo Lope de Vega. The news was kept secret until the last moment and the sensation it produced was all the greater because of it. Thousands of Spaniards stood in line for hours today to get a first look at what has been called the last exile. Pablo Picasso's painting depicting the bloody fascist bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish... And on September 10th, 1981, after 44 years of wandering, Guernica finally set foot on Spanish soil. For many years, bulletproof glass surrounded Guernica at the Prado Museum in Madrid before the painting was moved to the city's Musea Reina Sofia, where it's now on display.

35:35Jane Wilkinson with the story of Picasso's Guernica. Now, many of the most memorable images of Pablo Picasso show him puffing away on a cigarette, smoke billowing. They seem to embody a sense of glamour that was attached to smoking in the middle of the last century. Today, of course, there is the vape, almost universally accepted as a supposedly safer but less glamorous alternative, but one which has become extremely popular. But how did the vape come about? Megan Jones has the story, which starts in China. Across China, smokers now get through 1 ,800 billion cigarettes a year, a 20-fold increase in just one generation, which has meant China has now taken over from the United States in having the highest number of deaths from smoking in the world.

36:23Among those millions of smokers is pharmacist Horn Lick, who, by the summer of 2003, is 46 years old and living in Shenyang, a city in northeast China. He's coughing a lot and struggling with his breathing. I smoke a lot. I smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. And if there were social engagements or gatherings with friends in the evening, it would be three packs a day. Han wants to quit, so tries nicotine patches, which deliver a steady dose through the skin. I was still wearing two patches while sleeping at night. That's when the extreme nightmare started. One moment, I was hanging off a cliff.

37:10Another, I was being thrown into the deep sea. He thinks the nicotine is causing the nightmares. And I deliberately tested it. That is, I stuck on the nicotine patch before sleeping at night. And the nightmares came again. Before we go any further, there's something you should know about Horne. He loves science fiction, especially the French writer Jules Verne, who wrote the books Around the World in 80 Days and 20 ,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Horne says he inspired him to look at things in different ways.

37:50It was this way of thinking that led him to try and create a man-made machine which could simulate cigarette smoke. I put distilled water plus nicotine into the humidifier with different concentrations. At first, it was very irritating to the nose. I used a straw to suck in the mist. The mist disappears too quickly. It's nothing like cigarette smoke. Hon keeps experimenting. Eventually, he turns to two liquids, propylene glycol and glycerin, which are mixed with nicotine and then when heated produce a thick vapour, the kind that lingers a little longer in the air. I built a small experimental platform.

38:35This is its prototype. Up to this point of the interview, he has been continuously puffing away on a modern vape. At this point though, he puts it down and picks up a different device. It's that first prototype he made. In one hand, a square circuit board, multicoloured wires, and it's all feeding into what he's holding in his other hand, a metal brown and gold tube shaped like a cigarette. This is the early experimental device for electronic cigarettes. This circuit's board is so big, how could this be an electronic cigarette? There's also a button you press each time you inhale and a rechargeable battery.

39:16Don't look at it being so ugly and big. It simulates cigarettes exactly the same. I once used it together with friends, and after using for a few days, we really don't want to smoke real cigarettes. It is big, though. So if he wants people to buy it, it needs to shrink. To stuff that battery inside, it took me a whole year, a full year. Eventually, he's happy, and the device is hand-assembled. At this point, Horn puts down his modern vape again and picks up this newer device, casually holding it in one hand. It looks like a thicker, polished brown tube with gold rings and a black tip. According to the current electronic cigarette standard, this is quite ugly.

40:04It's around this point, once he knows the device works, that he applies for and is granted a patent for his invention. What he's created is essentially a small machine called Ruyen, which means like smoke. But he wants to check if it's safe, so sends it off for testing. Our company conduct acute toxicity tests and animal chronic toxicity tests, animal organ pathology section, independent pathology tests, physical and chemical tests. This test took a long time and cost a lot of money. But most importantly, we got a very positive report. I believe at last time our product was very safe. After all this product is not for babies to use it is for smokers to use.

40:54I've been looking into what Horn says here and found test results on a 2008 Ruyen device. In that report the organisation responsible for New Zealand's public health system and several government, university and commercial laboratories found it very safe compared with cigarettes. In May 2004, Han's invention goes on sale in China. Every consumer was amazed, so this is something I'm very proud of. This is an innovation. It cost 980 renminbi, around 140 US dollars. Suddenly, a product like this appears in the market, and everyone rush to it. What happens at last time is that many young people treat this as if they suddenly got hold of a mobile phone they had never seen before.

41:47In the first year, over 100 ,000 are sold in China. Then there are sales in Europe, the United States and UK. Not only the Chinese government, but governments of various countries had no clear regulation for electronic cigarettes. With the rise in popularity comes more debates. In 2008, the World Health Organisation said it does not consider e-cigarettes a legitimate therapy for smokers trying to quit. But around the world, people were talking about these new devices, including on this BBC radio programme. And this electronic ciggy thing then, do you know if it works in the same way as the patches, the nicotine chewing gum, all the stuff that we're used to?

42:29It's not clear at the moment. Do you think this is a bit of a gimmick? It could well be. While some former heavy smokers insist it helped them quit. But with more than 100 million people using e-cigarettes around the world, criticism has increased. The World Health Organization says electronic cigarettes typically contain nicotine and other toxic substances, which are harmful to both users and non-users. And while the long-term effects are still unclear, they're worried about the way the products were being marketed. The media has always been like this. There is a critical attitude toward new things.

43:06But as the criticism of electronic cigarettes progressed, it entered a demoralisation process. Then I definitely feel very unhappy. As of January 2024, electronic nicotine delivery systems had been banned by 35 countries worldwide. While some health experts say vaping is far less harmful than cigarettes and can help you quit. But for Horn, it's still something he's proud of. This invention for me is the greatest source of achievement in my research and development career. So this sense of achievement is enormous. The Chinese pharmacist and inventor of the vape, Hon Lick, was speaking to Megan Jones.

43:53On our website, bbc.com slash witnesshistory, we have grouped many of our first-hand stories from the past into dedicated collections. Our final story this week will be added to the group you can find under the heading Animals Who Made History. Starting in Kenya in the 1970s, a study of elephants made a celebrity out of one of its subjects called Echo. Here's Jane Wilkinson. I'm taking you back to 1972 for the start of the world's longest running study of wild elephants and to meet its star, Echo. Echo is the leader of a family of elephants in Ambrosele National Park, southern Kenya. She's easy to recognise because her long, graceful tusks almost cross at the tips.

44:42The voice of Sir David Attenborough on BBC TV's Natural World, one of several documentaries to follow Echo and the elephants. That gentle rumble means let's go. The whole family responds immediately. Oh, she was the leader, the matriarch, definitely. She was a very beautiful elephant, very gentle and non-aggressive, with a special walk, a lovely swinging walk, and so she was very distinctive. Meet scientist Dr Cynthia Moss, who set up the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in 1972. She spent years camping out on the Kenyan plains, observing Echo, her family, and around 700 other elephants in the park.

45:29The aim was to study a population that had not been disrupted very much. The Amboseli population was one of the fortunate ones. The elephants were still moving on trails that they'd been using for hundreds of years and also there was little or no poaching. At the start of the project, Cynthia and her team were looking for research subjects and in April 1974 they spotted the perfect family. Our purpose was to find three females. We didn't really know them at that point but we took some photos and she had nice marks on her ears. To us that's a good elephant because that's how we recognise them, by the nicks.

46:13So they decided to fit radio colours on the group to track their movements and behaviour. You have to dart the elephant with a very powerful drug. It's 10 ,000 times stronger than morphine, and it only takes a tiny bit. It's amazing for several tons of elephant. Within about 15 minutes, the elephant lies down, and then we're able to get some samples and take measurements and put the collar on. And then, fortunately, there's an equally wonderful antidote that you give the elephant right into the vein in the back of their ear. and you literally have to jump back and run back to your vehicle because it works so fast that the elephant will be up in less than a minute.

46:57They approached the oldest and most distinctive elephant first. We darted her and put a collar on her, a radio collar, and there's a little ping, ping, ping noise that you get with the aerial, so we called her Echo. But in the early days, getting information via radio signal was tricky. It didn't produce a huge amount of data, I have to tell you. You needed a handheld aerial to go out and try to get a fix on the elephant. You had to be relatively close to them to even get one. But it did give us some insights. For instance, we found out that Echo was pretty much a homebody. The other two females roamed much further, but Echo stayed pretty close to the central part of the park.

47:43But it was not until later with these high-tech collars that we're starting to get really fascinating information. She clearly was the leader, and they were a very vocal family. They talked a lot. So I've always called them the Italian family, because every time they met up with one of their members, they would have a greeting ceremony. When we're monitoring, we find as many family groups as we can, and we record where they are, what they were doing, what time, what place, their activity, who they were with and all that builds up. The project began to attract wider attention. In 1990, a documentary TV producer asked to film one of the groups so Cynthia turned to a familiar face.

48:33I chose Echo because she was a homebody and also I wanted to have a family that had a very distinctive looking matriarch and Echo was that. It was the start of Echo's life in front of the camera as the crew covered the highs and lows of her life, including the arrival of one of her calves, Eli. That was a surprise. We went out one morning and there was this calf under Echo and we soon realised that he couldn't stand up, that his carpal joints, sort of like our wrists, were bent completely back. All he could do was crawl along on his carpal joints, and it was very upsetting. I thought, sure, he would die.

49:16Neither Echo nor her daughter Enid would leave him. They stayed with him, and you're loathe to let nature take its course when you're watching it happen. In fact, I flew up to Nairobi to have a meeting with the director of Kenya National Parks to discuss whether we should take him away, although we really didn't want to do that. But anyway, fortunately, we never had to make that decision because after about three days, he was finally able to stand up. He had been working at his legs the whole time, stretching them and stretching them, and finally was able to stand. It was quite amazing. Over the next decades, Echo would help raise four generations of her family, protecting them from attacks by lions, conflicts with local farmers and the effects of famine.

50:06She was a very successful mother and a successful matriarch and I think those were the good times for Echo and certainly good times for us to be observing her. But in 2009, the Ambosiline National Park faced a disaster. The rains failed. Droughts are the worst. The calves die and some of the adults die and it's just so sad. And that was the worst drought we've ever had. Over 400 elephants died out of only 1 ,600 elephants. And Echo was one of them? Yes. She was found lying down, but she was still alive. And one of my research assistants, Katito, went and stayed with her. I touched her and then I touched her.

50:57She was going slowly by slowly. The last minute she blinked her eyes like this and looked at me and then she died.

51:14It's good. One of us was there. Yeah.

51:21It was bad. And I was in the US. I immediately went back to Kenya to be with the rest of the team. I was very sad. Yeah, it was the end of an era. Echo, the grand old matriarch, had died at the age of 64. For Cynthia, the work continued. I honestly think, and many, many people have said it, much of what we know of elephants has come from this project. And it affects people studying elephants all over Africa and Asia. Changes have been made in zoos and places like that because of the work we've done to show what elephants need and how elephants live in the natural environment. It's considered the base to go to.

52:10And how significant was Echo in this project? She was significant to give the public knowledge about elephants and how amazing they are and how complex they are and intelligent they are. And the four films we did on Echo certainly did that. We still miss her.

52:32Dr Cynthia Moss continues to study the elephants of Amboseli, a population that now numbers more than 2 ,000. She was talking to Jane Wilkinson. Finally, this week's sporting witness, and this is a really odd one. On November 6, 1993, there was a highly anticipated boxing rematch in Las Vegas. A huge crowd, all the usual boxing razzmatazz, and off we go. But then something very strange happened, as Jen Dale now recounts.

53:07Evander Holyfield has regained his WBA and IBF world titles from Riddick Boll in a bizarre contest even by Las Vegas standards. The bout in an open air arena was interrupted by the appearance of a parachutist. Out of the sky all of a sudden the intruder he had a parachute attached to this fan contraption that had a motor in it. The sun's gone down in the Nevada desert and it's a cool night as thousands of people gather to watch Repeat or Revenge a World Heavyweight Championship showdown between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe at the iconic Caesars Palace. Holyfield had lost his title to Bowe the previous year.

53:50It was outside of the hotel itself. It was four sides of bleachers held around, I believe, for that fight of around 18 ,000. And it was sold out a nice November night, very calm and very peaceful. Mark Ratner has been in his job as executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission for less than a year. So what does that mean? My role was to run the day-to-day business, which was licensing the fighters, picking the officials, working with the venue, working with security, just every detail that a fight would have. I was sitting at ringside. I could touch the canvas where they were fighting.

54:33It was within probably less than a foot from me. I was sitting right next to one of the judges. Cameras are rolling as the bout is being shown live around the world. Six rounds in and it seems to be anybody's fight. I thought it was pretty even. Riddick was a little taller. Evander was a real tough fighter, but a little bit smaller than Riddick. A close fight, a lot of give and take, and just a typical boxing match where they were both fighting a heavyweight title. So it was a big event, and I was just watching the fights like I do. And then Mark is aware of a subtle change in the crowd. I did not see anything.

55:12I heard a sound in the stands, a higher pitch screaming, which usually means even at a boxing match there was a fight in the stands and I could see people looking around a little bit. But it's not crowd trouble. It's in the seventh round and I'm watching them fight and they're not quite in the middle of the ring, a little bit to one side. And I did not see him come in until he lands with his feet over the ropes and his body is sort of hanging and it's in the corner of Riddick Bow.

55:45The much-anticipated rematch had just passed its halfway point when 30-year-old James Miller made his unscheduled appearance. Using what police described as a motorised parasail, Miller got caught in the canopy above the ring and fell into the crowd where he was attacked by several spectators. American James Miller is wearing a white helmet, black gloves and a red jumpsuit. Strapped to his back is an oval metal cage with a propeller. Think of an oversized desk fan. In fact, the media later dub him Fan Man. Tied to the metal cage with lots of thin cords is a blue, yellow and orange parachute that's got caught.

56:25Over the ring you have a lighting grid where all the lights are and it's above the ring maybe 12 feet high and it's there for the fans and the television audience to be able to see the fighters clearly. And when the parachute was stuck on them, that was a big fear, that it could pull the sliding grid down and then it could have injured some of the fans, possibly the fighters that were sitting on their stools. So it could have been a big, big tragedy. I think the stagehands or the Caesars Palace people, they had cut the string so it was not going to fall down. so there was no danger then. I was never frightened but I certainly wasn't prepared for anything like that.

57:09Bo's pregnant wife Judy, who was sitting nearby, was taken to hospital after fainting. The ring announcer, Michael Buffer his name is, he came into the ring to keep the crowd calm. There were police surrounding the guy before they took him out, the intruder. After the fight, Evander Holyfield speaks to the press. Well, yeah, I seen that parachute guy coming in. I didn't know what was happening, and I was trying to get out of the way. I didn't know who they were coming in and out to be up for. I always believed he knew where he was going, and I don't think it was an accident. I think he wanted to interrupt the fight, but I certainly never talked to him, and his story changed a couple of times.

57:49The media covers Miller's explanations, from it being an accident to stopping the fight because he hates violence. Whatever the motive, there are consequences for the stunt, as Fox 5 News recalls. Referees put the bout on hold for more than 20 minutes while security untangled Miller's shoot, freed him from the hands of angry fans and then escorted him out of the venue. Miller went to the hospital for injuries suffered during the scuffle. Police then arrested him and fined him$200. He's also charged with dangerous flying. The match commentator calls it a monstrosity of an interruption. So how does it impact on the bout itself?

58:33There is no rule when somebody flies in the ring, but I had officiated in other sports and the clock is very important. I knew enough to go to the timekeeper and then to the judges. What I did was walk around to each judge and tell them, I don't know if this fight's going to continue. take your scorecard, turn it over, and mark where you are in the round. I went to the timekeeper and asked him how much time was left in the round. They're three-minute rounds, and I believe it was one minute and 20 seconds, something in that area. I went over to the fighters, and we made sure that they were both okay.

59:10We had our commission inspectors in the ring, and they were both calm. I think I said something like, if this fight continues, we're going to go right from the middle of the seventh round. My mistake was not sending him back to the dressing rooms because it was a cool night and we put blankets on them but we probably should have taken him back to the dressing rooms. The 21 minute pause in the match leads one of the commentators to say the parachutist may be an angel from the sky for Riddick Bowe. I believe Riddick was cut a little bit and he looked a little tired. I thought it was still a pretty even fight.

59:43Evander looked a little stronger at that time. I can understand the commentator saying that. This gave him a chance to rest. When the fight did continue, it went 12 full rounds. And it turns out the interrupted seventh round scores are crucial. In that seventh round, one judge scored it for Riddick Bowe 10 to nine. One had it for Evander Holofield 10 to nine. And the third judge had it 10 to 10, an even round. And the irony of all, and this changes heavyweight history, is that when the decision was rendered, Evander Holofield won the fight. And if the judge who had scored the round 10-10 had given it 10-9 to Riddick Bowe, then it would have been a majority draw and Riddick Bowe would have kept his title.

1:00:32So that changed the course of history. It's amazing. How does it feel to have been involved in one of the most unusual events in boxing and possibly sporting history? It is part of my legacy because people still want to talk about it. I was very blessed to be inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame and I believe part of the reason that all people got to know me was from this incident. It's a big moment in my life. I had the best regulatory government job, I think, anywhere in the world for boxing. I really loved it. James Van Man Miller did several more stunts the following year, including flying over the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the NFL playoff between the LA Raiders and Denver Broncos, as well as landing on the roof of Buckingham Palace in England.

1:01:22Miller died in 2003.

1:01:28Jendale was speaking to Mark Ratner, who, as a representative of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, witnessed that bizarre spectacle back in 1993. And that's it for this edition of the History Hour. We'll be scouring the annals of the past to bring you more first-hand stories next week. So until then, this is Max Pearson. From all of us here, thank you for listening. Goodbye. From the pioneers. We weren't going to ask mission, we're just going to do it. And the celebrations. You feel you have, you win. I feel it. I was first. I was first. We were so proud of ourselves and Cameron was proud of us too.

1:02:05I still cannot believe it. It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. To the humiliations. I did cry most of the half. Oh man, I'm failing. I'm failing this sport and I love. Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. It's not just about the sport. It's about all the other things that people with disabilities learn from each other. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable moments from all over the world. There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul.

1:02:42We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Sporting Witness. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

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