In 1913, less than a year before the outbreak of World War I, Rudolf Diesel disappeared while on a ferry crossing the North Sea. Was it an accident, a suicide, or something even more sinister? And who was responsible for his disappearance?
00:00:00.660Welcome to Dedicated with Doug Brunt. You have just gained access to an exclusive insider's look at the lives and works of some of your favorite authors and hear conversations with the world's greatest writers as they discuss their writing lifestyle, creative process, latest work, and behind-the-scenes revelations.
00:00:23.280Welcome to a special episode of Dedicated. I'm your host, Doug Brunt.
00:00:27.040Today, we have some breaking news. There's a reason I'm taking a few months off from this show this summer, which is that I have a new book coming out.
00:00:35.080This one is my first nonfiction book. It's narrative nonfiction, sort of like a David Graham or Eric Larson style of book.
00:00:42.160And it's about Rudolf Diesel. The name of the book is The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel.
00:00:46.960And he invented the diesel engine, which he first showed to the world in 1897.
00:00:51.660So I'll give you the quick tease of the book. September 29, 1913, less than a year before the outbreak of World War I,
00:00:59.200Rudolf Diesel is traveling on an overnight passenger ferry from Belgium to Britain.
00:01:04.560And at some point during the night, when he's crossing the North Sea, he disappears.
00:01:09.000And in the morning, they hold the ship at sea for a search, and they can't find him.
00:01:12.820They find only his hat and his coat neatly folded on the deck of the ship, under the rail by the stern in the back of the ship.
00:01:19.440And he's disappeared. So newspapers and people around Europe and America begin to speculate about how he died.
00:01:26.740Some think it was an accident, that he fell over the rail in the night. Maybe he was sleepwalking.
00:01:31.620Others think it might have been suicide, that he jumped off the ship in the night.
00:01:35.380And other newspapers speculate that it might have been murder, and they identify two suspects.
00:01:40.620One is Kaiser Wilhelm II, the emperor of Germany.
00:01:43.520And the reason they think that Germany and the Kaiser might have been involved is that Germany and Britain were in a massive naval arms race at this time.
00:01:52.920The nationalism and militarism at the turn of the century in Europe was at a peak.
00:01:57.340And the two countries, Germany and Britain, were edging closer to war.
00:02:01.560And in the years just prior to 1913, the diesel engine had emerged as the only possible engine for the submarine or the U-boat.
00:02:07.940And the navies of every major power in Europe were scrambling for diesel power.
00:02:12.800And Rudolf was still the main expert in this technology, which is still very new.
00:02:17.040And the reason for his trip across the North Sea was that he was going to the founding of a brand new diesel engine manufacturing company in Great Britain,
00:02:26.600whose purpose was to build diesels for the Royal Navy submarine program.
00:02:30.920So, understandably, the Kaiser would be angry.
00:02:34.480The other suspect was the founder of Standard Oil and the world's richest man, John Rockefeller.
00:02:40.740And he found the diesel engine also to be a threat because he had just lost the kerosene market for revenues to the electric light bulb.
00:02:49.720Standard Oil, which was founded in 1870, all the early money that Standard Oil made from 1870 to the turn of the century was from kerosene for illumination.
00:02:58.340Gasoline was a waste byproduct that was a nuisance that they tossed away.
00:03:03.620But by the early 1900s, the electric light bulb, largely pioneered by Thomas Edison, had replaced kerosene illumination.
00:03:10.920So Rockefeller had just lost his whole revenue model off of kerosene and was now counting on the combustion engine and gasoline for future revenue.
00:03:20.080But the diesel engine didn't need petroleum or gasoline.
00:03:22.680It could run on vegetable oil or peanut oil.
00:03:26.640Just a few years ago, Willie Nelson, the musician, was traveling on an American tour, and his tour bus was powered by diesel, as is every bus and every truck and every train, by the way.
00:03:37.780He was traveling on his tour bus and the engine he fueled with recycled kitchen grease.
00:03:43.640So he was an advocate of the diesel engine, thinking that he didn't want nations to have to fight wars around the world for energy.
00:03:52.440So today, everyone knows the word diesel.
00:03:55.080You pass it every day at a filling station or on a train or a truck or a car.
00:03:59.080But the history of the man Rudolph Diesel has been scrubbed and deliberately scrubbed for reasons you'll learn in this book.
00:04:05.640He's one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century, and this book will expand your perspective of the last 100 years.
00:04:12.940I spent the last four years doing research in archives around Europe and America.
00:04:17.020And this book not only lets you get to know Rudolph Diesel, but it solves the mystery of what happened to him.
00:04:22.720And it's crazier than you can imagine.
00:04:25.540Jay Winnick, he wrote an early review of the book, and he wrote,
00:04:29.960Equal parts Walter Isaacson and Sherlock Holmes, the mysterious case of Rudolph Diesel, yanks back the curtain on the greatest caper of the 20th century in this riveting history.
00:04:40.520Pre-orders are huge for writers, and I promise you'll be happy you did.
00:04:44.140We tried to make it real easy for you.
00:04:45.960We pasted the link to go to the order page in the episode description, so you can click from right there, and pre-order a copy of the book.
00:04:53.860It's like a white-knuckle thrill ride, but you'll also learn a ton.
00:04:57.640I learned a ton doing the research on this book.
00:05:00.020There's a lot of eye-opening stuff about technology and engines and war through the 20th century that Diesel is sort of right under the surface of so much of what was going on,
00:05:10.000and how the mystery of his disappearance is unbelievable.