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Documentary, BBC Shipwrecks- Britain's Sunken History S01E01
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00:00We are all familiar with the story of how Britain conquered the sea.
00:14A story that rings with glorious naval victory and acts of heroism, which helped build a huge empire.
00:22But there's a less well-known maritime phenomenon that has shaped our history, our destiny and our national character.
00:32The shipwreck, the sailor's ultimate nightmare.
00:36So terrifying, but so much a part of the price paid for ruling the high seas.
00:42And once so common an occurrence that it's always been lodged deep in our psychological make-up.
00:48As an historian, this has always fascinated me.
00:52I grew up with dramatic tales of ships dashed on the rocks and their crews lost at sea.
01:01As a child, I saw these as just wonderful yarns to stir the imagination.
01:07Yet shipwrecks changed the course of our history.
01:11And without them, it's unlikely we'd be the same nation we are today.
01:15In this series, I will uncover stories of wrecks in far-flung exotic seas that reveal Britain's rise as an imperial power.
01:27But my journey starts on our own coastline.
01:33These charts simply littered with thousands of shipwrecks.
01:41Yes, we built the biggest maritime empire the world had ever seen.
01:46But we did so from an island which is surrounded by some of the most dangerous waters in the world.
01:52The combination of geography and global outreach would make Britain more prone to shipwrecks than practically anywhere else.
02:04Something that first became apparent 500 years ago, when the Tudor navy began to flex its muscles at a time when King Henry VIII could only dream of ruling a maritime empire.
02:19Starting in the 16th century, I'll show how one of the largest mass shipwrecks in history propelled us on our global adventure.
02:29And how remote disasters at sea would inspire some of the most memorable literature and art.
02:35Join me for the story of the shipwreck and the extraordinary role it has played in the shaping of Britain's history.
02:49The maritime and coast guard agency in Dover keeps watch over the English Channel, one of the most congested and potentially deadly shipping routes in the world.
03:07North Fallen to South Seville, 24-hour forecast.
03:11Westerly or southwesterly veering northly for a time.
03:14Three or four, occasionally five in east.
03:16I'm going to one infamous spot off the south coast, where the remains lie of over 2,000 ships.
03:34Over there, off the coast of Kent, are the Goodwin Sands.
03:40And it seems like the most innocuous stretch of coastline you can imagine.
03:44But this place is a graveyard.
03:47Under these waters lies the largest concentration of shipwrecks anywhere in the world.
03:58The Goodwin Sands has terrified sailors since the 16th century.
04:02It's even mentioned in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, as a place where the carcasses of many a sunken ship lie buried.
04:15Full of navigational hazards, the treacherous Goodwin Sands is the final resting place of a host of wrecked vessels,
04:23from Elizabethan galleons to U-boats.
04:26Many of these old historic wrecks have been located by the Alert, a rapid intervention vessel which pinpoints the precise location of shipwrecks in the English Channel.
04:41We're tracking up the eastern edge of the Goodwin Sands, trying to find the wrecks that are marked up on these screens here.
04:50And there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
04:56And just in a small area of sea.
04:59But we're hoping one of these wrecks is going to appear over there.
05:02What have we got over here?
05:03This is a multi-beam echo sounder, so a standard echo sounder would look straight beneath the ship and you just know exactly what was underneath your kill.
05:10This is looking out at 75 degrees either side of the vessel, so we've got a 360 degree view of the seabed.
05:17So we're able to get a picture of what's actually happening down there to determine whether the wreck is a danger.
05:23The Alert continues to patrol these waters because historic wrecks are liable to break up amidst the shifting seabed and tides,
05:32becoming a danger to shipping in this very busy trade route.
05:40If we cross a wreck, what's that going to look like on that screen?
05:43What it's going to look like, you're going to see some disturbances on the screen.
05:45If you imagine you're in a room and you shine a torch on a box, you get a shadow behind the box in a dark room.
05:52So we're looking for the shadow.
05:54There's a really, really big disturbance in this picture here.
06:10It's unmistakably something just lying on the seabed.
06:13This is an old wreck, so we don't know what it is.
06:17The shape of the shadows reveals a wreck that has begun to break up on the seabed, with its keel lying in two parts.
06:27We don't know the name of this vessel, but it could be part of one of the largest mass shipwrecks ever recorded.
06:34In November 1703, a massive storm tore across the south coast, destroying everything in its wake in a maelstrom of chaos.
06:53No storm was like this, either in its violence or its duration.
07:21The greatest, the longest in duration, the widest in extent.
07:28Of all the tempests and storms that history gives any account of since the beginning of time.
07:36Confusion seized upon all, whether on shore or at sea.
07:39For the many ships sailing the channel that night, there was no shelter from this hurling gale.
07:52Sailing vessels, built from wood and barely a hundred feet long, were no match for the fury of what became known as the Great Storm.
08:00The bulk of the ships lost that night sank here, on the Goodwin Sands.
08:13Thirteen warships and forty merchantmen were driven onto the Goodwin Sands by the Great Storm.
08:19Men from the Port of Deals struggled out in open boats to try and save who they could.
08:27But two thousand men lost their lives here.
08:32The remains of those ships sunk that night in the Great Storm.
08:38Still here, beneath these roofers.
08:41This mass shipwreck became the most obvious testament to the destruction wrought on the whole country.
08:50A day of fasting was called, and church pulpits hosted sermons describing the disaster as a punishment from God for the sins of the whole nation.
09:01Across the coast of Britain, so many ships were sunk, that one in five sailors from the Royal Navy were lost.
09:12And with them, thousands of men from merchant ships.
09:15One of the ships which was caught in the Great Storm was HMS Mary, which now lies a hundred metres west of the Goodwin Sands.
09:34Commanded by Rear Admiral Basil Beaumont, it suffered the single largest loss of life on that terrifying night.
09:41Two hundred and sixty-eight men were killed, with only one solitary survivor.
09:51The loss of the Mary, and Admiral Beaumont along with it, was recorded in a remarkable painting now held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
10:05In this painting, Rear Admiral Beaumont stands with a hand on his anchor.
10:10While in the background, the Mary, the ship that he actually went down on, struggles to stay afloat during the Great Storm.
10:19It's a haunting image, part portrait, part visual document of his death.
10:24And it's a powerful reminder that the Great Storm left deep psychological scars on our island nation.
10:32Yet, while the wrecking of so many British ships was unprecedented,
10:48the remains of these vessels are only a small contingent of the thousands of wrecks,
10:53which litter almost every mile of our coastline.
10:56But they lie out of reach, hidden from us, in the murky depths of the seas that surround our island.
11:11And over centuries, the majority of historic wrecks disintegrate on the seabed.
11:16But 30 years ago, something remarkable happened.
11:21An event that entranced the nation, gave me my first ever glimpse of a real shipwreck.
11:41A stricken flagship of Henry VIII's Tudor Navy.
11:45I remember seeing a longbow, and, even more remarkably,
12:01what seemed to be the bones of the bowman it belonged to.
12:08And then, one of 39 cannons being lifted from the seabed.
12:14I watched, captivated, along with the rest of Britain,
12:23as the Mary Rose returned to the surface after over 400 years.
12:32There is the wreck of the Mary Rose.
12:34It has come to the surface.
12:36There is the first sight of this black ship of Henry VIII.
12:40It's the first time we have seen this in 437 years.
12:47Today, the wreck is held in a specially built dehumidifying chamber,
12:52where conditions are controlled to maintain the right air temperature to preserve the timbers.
12:58From the moment that she was raised in the 1980s,
13:07the Mary Rose became one of our greatest national treasures.
13:10But the harsh truth is that, by the time that she sank,
13:14she was a badly designed and dangerous ship.
13:16And the men that we really need to thank for giving us this time capsule of Tudor life
13:21were the shipwrights and designers of Henry VIII's navy.
13:26Their construction plans miscalculated the ship's sea handling capability.
13:32The Mary Rose may have embodied the very character and physical stature of Henry VIII himself.
13:43Powerful, imperious and swaggering.
13:47But there were fatal flaws in her design,
13:50which meant her sinking was almost inevitable.
13:53Weighing over 700 tonnes and decked out with dozens of cannons,
14:02colourful flags and high turrets,
14:05to her enemies, the Mary Rose would have been a magnificent maritime fortress.
14:11On the 19th of July, 1545,
14:24the French fleet entered the Solent,
14:26and the Mary Rose was prepared for battle.
14:30Men, arms and guns were readied for action.
14:34From the moment that the last of these cannon were loaded on board,
14:42the Mary Rose was dangerously top-heavy,
14:44and her gun ports were too close to the waterline.
14:47She was doomed.
14:58Attempting a simple manoeuvre,
15:00the Mary Rose listed sharply to her starboard side
15:04and suddenly sank,
15:06taking almost 400 men to their deaths.
15:12She had been fitted with a new gun deck
15:15that had destabilised her.
15:18It was an alteration that proved costly.
15:30This ship is the product of a nation,
15:35the England of Henry VIII,
15:36that was not yet a true maritime power.
15:39Henry's was a navy built for flag-waving and prestige
15:42more than it ever was for fighting.
15:51Henry's maritime ambitions took a knock that day in the Solent.
15:55The recovered wreck of the Mary Rose continues to fascinate us,
16:03though its actual sinking is far more significant.
16:08It tells us that Britain was not yet ready
16:12to sail the seven seas and conquer the world.
16:16In fact, it would take a highly fortuitous act,
16:2040 years later and just up the coast,
16:23to change our destiny.
16:25This is Plymouth Ho,
16:30where Sir Francis Drake famously finished his game of bowls
16:33before sailing off to defeat the Spanish Armada.
16:36It's become part of our traditional story of the Armada,
16:40a story that tells of how nimble English ships
16:43sailed out and defeated the cumbersome Spanish,
16:46saving England from invasion.
16:47But there's another way of thinking of the events of 1588,
16:52and that's to see it not as an English naval victory,
16:55but as one of the greatest mass shipwrecks in history,
16:59caused by the terrible dangers of the British coastline
17:02and by the awesome power of the weather.
17:12In July 1588,
17:14a huge amphibious invasion force
17:17appeared off the southwest coast of England.
17:19The Spanish Empire had sent over 120 ships
17:27to land, invade, and conquer the country.
17:30It was Queen Elizabeth,
17:36daughter of Henry VIII,
17:38who had to stand up to the massed ranks of Spanish power
17:41in a war fought over empire and religion.
17:46A small Protestant island nation
17:49versus a colossal Catholic superpower.
17:52The propaganda machine
17:57cranked up the Spanish for coming
18:00to hang everybody over the age of seven.
18:03They were going to kill every man, woman, and children.
18:05There was a shipload of hangman's nooses.
18:08They had special whips to deal with flogging women.
18:15The powerful Spanish fleet
18:17swept confidently from the Bay of Biscay
18:19along the southwest coast.
18:23If Elizabeth hoped they would founder
18:26on one of the many navigational hazards
18:28that lay in these offshore waters,
18:30she was to be disappointed.
18:36The Armada steered clear of the Scilly Isles,
18:40narrowly avoided running aground on the Isle of Wight,
18:43and evaded the notorious Goodwin Sands.
18:49They were now on course
18:51to land troops off the east coast
18:53and march on London.
18:57And the only thing standing in their way
19:00was the Tudor Navy.
19:02But although Elizabeth could call on the services
19:05of Sir Francis Drake,
19:07her navy was not yet
19:08the world-famous fighting force
19:10we would come to know.
19:11People often make the mistake of assuming
19:18that the English navy then
19:19was like the navy in Nelson's time.
19:22It wasn't at all.
19:24I'm sure Francis Drake and John Hawkins
19:26and the others were all patriotic Englishmen,
19:28but their prime motivation
19:29for all the voyages they made,
19:31and indeed for joining the battle against the Armada,
19:34was not patriotism,
19:35it was the profit motive.
19:36They were there to try and capture Spanish ships
19:38and take them as prizes
19:40and claim the value of all the ordnance,
19:42all the treasure and everything else on board.
19:45A Spanish ship at the bottom of the ocean
19:47was a disaster not just for the Spaniards,
19:49but for the English too,
19:50because a ship at the bottom of the ocean
19:51couldn't be looted.
19:52The two fleets finally engaged
20:06off the Flanders coast
20:07at Graveline.
20:12And during an eight-hour confrontation,
20:16the English succeeded
20:17in scattering the Spanish fleet.
20:22But this was not a killer blow.
20:32The Spanish had only lost three ships
20:35and was still a potent fighting force.
20:47The Spanish commander then took a fateful decision
20:51to retreat from the English navy
20:54and head up the North Sea towards Scotland.
20:59As the Spanish fleet edged northwards,
21:02the weather began to close in.
21:05A natural defence of gale force winds,
21:09huge breaking waves,
21:11and a deluge of freezing rain
21:14dashed any last hopes the Spanish had
21:17to land their forces.
21:19A moment when they lose the status
21:24of a fighting force
21:25and become frightened men fleeing for home
21:28comes off Newcastle
21:29when they throw the horses
21:31and the artillery mules over the side
21:34because they haven't got enough water.
21:38And that's saying,
21:41we aren't ever going to land.
21:42The Spanish admiral,
21:45the Duke of Medina Sedona,
21:47then issued his final orders
21:49to flee for home
21:51around the west coast of Ireland.
21:54He added what would turn out
21:56to be a prophetic warning
21:58to avoid the perils
22:00of the jagged Irish coast.
22:03Whereupon he ordered full sail
22:06and the slower ships
22:08he coldly and calculated said,
22:11you're on your own.
22:12This Mediterranean invasion force
22:27sailed blind along the coast of Scotland,
22:30trying to avoid the northwest of Ireland.
22:35Lost in foreign waters,
22:37with no local pilots to guide them safely,
22:39the fleet began to be split up,
22:43blown off course.
22:53By September 1588,
22:56the Armada was a broken,
22:57battered and motley collection of ships
22:59and they began to appear here
23:01in Ones and Twos
23:02off the coast of Northern Ireland.
23:05This entire scenario
23:06was completely unexpected.
23:08The Duke of Medina Sedona
23:10had specifically ordered his captains
23:12to avoid the coast of Ireland
23:14and the Spanish chart
23:16actually ended at the Moray Firth
23:18on the northeast coast of Scotland.
23:21And so the Spanish captains
23:22had no detailed knowledge
23:24of this terrible coastline
23:25and they were entirely unprepared
23:27for the tempestuous weather
23:28of the North Atlantic.
23:30The retreating armada
23:51ran into a month-long wall
23:54of stormy weather
23:54which drove the ships
23:56and their crews to their deaths.
23:58In one day alone,
24:04six of them were wrecked.
24:09The magnificent El Gran Green,
24:13a 1,200-ton behemoth,
24:15was smashed to pieces
24:16off the coast of County Mayo.
24:19Within a 200-mile stretch
24:22of the west coast of Ireland,
24:23over 20 Spanish ships were lost.
24:33In the aftermath,
24:35there were horrific scenes
24:36all along the shoreline.
24:39On one beach,
24:41the bodies of 1,500 drowned sailors
24:44were found
24:45and any survivors
24:47faced an equally heartless fate.
24:52Those who had survived
24:54the wrecks of their ships
24:55and who were lucky enough
24:56to have made it ashore
24:57now faced a new set of dangers.
25:00English soldiers were garrisoned
25:01all along this coast
25:02and the Spanish didn't know
25:04and the Spanish didn't know
25:04how the Irish,
25:05their brother Catholics,
25:06would react.
25:08It often hinged
25:09on the question of money.
25:10The rich Spaniards
25:11were held captive and ransomed
25:13while many of the ordinary
25:15soldiers and sailors,
25:16the men who had survived
25:17fleet battle,
25:18storm and now shipwreck,
25:20were either murdered by the Irish
25:22or executed by English soldiers.
25:24History has taken a harsh judgment
25:32on the Irish population
25:34for what had happened
25:36and I think that's unfair.
25:38I believe at that time
25:40in the 16th century,
25:42in the west of Ireland,
25:45there was a very prevalent superstition
25:48that the sea always claims its own
25:50and if you allow someone
25:54to be saved,
25:56then the sea would later
25:57wreak vengeance
25:58either on you
25:59or on one of your own kin
26:00and that's what drove them.
26:03That's what made them
26:05seem to be so cruel.
26:06It was this fear
26:08of retribution by the sea.
26:12But hundreds of Spanish sailors
26:14were rescued from the sea
26:15by the Girona,
26:17one of their own ships.
26:19As it made its way
26:21along the coast
26:21towards the giant's causeway,
26:24it arrived here
26:25at La Carta Point,
26:27a notorious headland
26:29full of jagged rocks
26:30hidden just beneath the surface.
26:34On the night of October the 28th,
26:37the Spanish galleas Girona
26:38smashed with incredible force
26:40into the rocks behind me.
26:44She was fatally overloaded
26:46with more than a thousand men on board
26:48and her rudder
26:49had already been broken by the storm.
26:51She split into two,
26:53sank immediately,
26:55killing nearly all of the men on board.
26:57The Girona was wrecked
27:08within a few miles
27:09of Dunluce Castle,
27:11home to the wonderfully named
27:13Sawley Boy Macdonald,
27:15a firebrand Irish chief
27:17who was himself entangled
27:19in his own bloody
27:20territorial conflict
27:21with the English army.
27:23Macdonald retrieved over 200 bodies
27:29from the wreck
27:30and ensured they received
27:32a Catholic burial.
27:40Local tradition claims
27:42that the victims of the Girona
27:43were buried here
27:44at St Cuthbert's Churchyard.
27:46We don't know exactly where,
27:48it's one of those details
27:49that's been lost to history,
27:51but it's just one of several
27:52traditions and folk stories
27:54that are linked
27:54with the wreck of the Girona.
27:56One claims
27:57that some of the survivors
27:59were actually taken in
28:00by the Macdonalds
28:01of Dunluce Castle
28:02and another
28:03that some of the Spanish
28:05soldiers and sailors
28:06actually stayed,
28:07married local women
28:08and merged
28:09into the local population.
28:11The most tangible trace
28:18of the Armada
28:19that remains today
28:20is a treasure trove
28:22of gold
28:22recovered from the Girona
28:24in the 1960s.
28:34The divers who discovered
28:36the Girona
28:37found a huge hall of treasure
28:39that had lain untouched
28:40for almost 400 years
28:42and you can see it today
28:44here
28:45in the Ulster Museum
28:46in Belfast.
28:54Now this little guy
28:55is fantastic.
28:57It's a gold salamander brooch.
29:00A salamander is a reptile
29:01that's native to Mexico.
29:03We know that the gold
29:05came from South America
29:06and that the rubies,
29:08of which there are three,
29:09and there are spaces
29:10for six more,
29:11actually came from Burma.
29:14It's a wonderful piece
29:15of jewellery
29:16that says so much
29:17about the wealth
29:18and also the outreach
29:20of the Spanish Empire
29:21in the middle
29:22of the 16th century.
29:29And just look
29:30at these gold coins.
29:32There are 20 or so here
29:33but they recovered
29:34hundreds of gold
29:36and silver coins
29:37from the wreck
29:38of just one ship
29:39alone.
29:40These Spaniards
29:41were carrying the wealth
29:42of the Empire
29:43with them.
29:46But my favourite piece
29:48is this amazing gold chain.
29:51It weighs about the same
29:53as a bag of sugar
29:53and it's six feet long.
29:59It would have gone
30:00round someone's neck
30:01three or four times.
30:03These guys were going
30:04to war
30:05but they were going
30:06to look good
30:06while they were doing it.
30:07This coastline shattered
30:21the Spanish Armada.
30:23A third of the fleet
30:25was wrecked here
30:26and more ships
30:27were scuttled
30:28or lost
30:29in the Atlantic Ocean
30:30and North Sea.
30:32Eventually,
30:34five months
30:35after they had first
30:36set out from Spain
30:3763 ships
30:39limped back home
30:40half
30:41of the original contingent.
30:44Over 20,000
30:45Spanish soldiers
30:47and sailors
30:47had lost their lives.
30:51As soon as the shadow
30:52of the Armada
30:53departed our shores
30:54the story
30:55of this mass shipwreck
30:57was retold
30:58as a stirring victory
30:59for Elizabeth's
31:00Protestant island.
31:02It was proof
31:03that the nation
31:04could rely on
31:05divine intervention
31:06to save them
31:07from Catholic invaders.
31:10Tudor propagandists
31:11even coined
31:12a new term
31:13that summed up
31:14this righteous victory.
31:16They said
31:17that England
31:18had been saved
31:18by a Protestant wind.
31:20This was only
31:26the beginning
31:27of the myth-making
31:28that has shaped
31:29our understanding
31:30of the Armada.
31:32What we now know
31:33today
31:33as Elizabeth's
31:35most famous speech
31:36made to her troops
31:38at Tilbury
31:39where she is said
31:40to have declared
31:41I know I have the body
31:43of a weak feeble woman
31:44but I have the heart
31:46and stomach
31:47of a king
31:47was in fact
31:49part of this strategy
31:51to repackage
31:52the Armada
31:53not as a lucky escape
31:55but as a glorious victory
31:57led by a monarch
31:59backed by God.
32:02We think that
32:03Alistair Campbell
32:04and Tony Blair
32:05invented spin-doctoring
32:07and image control
32:07and it's absolutely
32:08not true.
32:09Queen Elizabeth
32:10was a past master
32:11at it.
32:12The famous speech
32:13she made at Tilbury
32:13when she inspired
32:15her troops
32:15allegedly to defeat
32:16the Armada
32:17was only made
32:18when she knew
32:18the Armada
32:19had already been defeated
32:20and was being driven
32:21away up the North Sea
32:22and the proof of that
32:23is that when the Armada
32:24was off the coast
32:25Queen Elizabeth
32:25was actually at
32:26Hampton Court
32:27surrounded by
32:28a 10,000 man
32:29bodyguard
32:30and the speech
32:31she gave at Tilbury
32:32which has come down
32:33to us through history
32:34isn't actually
32:35the one she gave.
32:36The only witness
32:36to record a version
32:37of that speech
32:38recorded a very different one
32:39but it was then
32:40taken back to
32:41Whitehall Palace
32:41worked on to give it
32:42a much more
32:43Shakespearean tone
32:44and it was then
32:45disseminated
32:46through the only
32:46mass media
32:47there was at the time
32:48church pulpits
32:49so the great myth
32:52of Queen Elizabeth
32:53as the inspiration
32:54of her troops
32:55and the Protestant wind
32:56came down to us
32:57that way.
33:01A heavily mythologized
33:03version of the
33:04sinking of the Armada
33:05was commemorated
33:06in art too
33:07as in this allegorical
33:09painting of Elizabeth
33:10presiding over the victory.
33:14And it shows Elizabeth
33:16an imperial splendor.
33:23Behind her on one side
33:24are the English fire ships
33:25destroying the Spanish fleet
33:27on the other side
33:28there's a portrayal
33:29of the Spanish Armada
33:30being dashed to pieces
33:31on the rocks.
33:34But on the chair
33:35there's a mermaid
33:36that's all about
33:37feminine wiles
33:39luring unwary sailors
33:41to their deaths
33:43and that's what she felt
33:44she wanted to portray.
33:46She may have had
33:47the body of a weak
33:48and feeble woman
33:49but she could defeat
33:51the Spanish Armada
33:52just by slipping
33:53her fingers.
33:53fortuitous or not
34:12the wrecking of the Armada
34:14was a turning point
34:16giving an island nation
34:17the confidence
34:18to expand its maritime operations.
34:21This was the beginning
34:31of a new exciting global era
34:33just a decade
34:35after the Armada
34:36had smashed itself to pieces
34:37Queen Elizabeth
34:39granted a charter
34:40to a group of ambitious
34:41London merchants
34:42to pursue trade
34:43around the world.
34:45This group
34:45would become known
34:46as the East India Company
34:48and they were in the vanguard
34:50of an ambitious scramble
34:51to beat our European rivals
34:53conquer the new world
34:54and bring exotic goods
34:56like tea and sugar
34:58back home.
34:59And where the East India Company
35:01went
35:01the British Empire
35:02would follow.
35:05Our ships
35:06subsequently went
35:08south and east
35:09to Africa
35:10India
35:11and China
35:11and west
35:13to North America
35:14and the Caribbean.
35:19The rewards were high
35:21but so were the risks.
35:25Venturing into remote
35:26and unexplored waters
35:28one in five ships
35:30never returned
35:32wrecked
35:33in far-flung seas.
35:35It's not surprising
35:41that so many ships
35:43are shipwrecked.
35:44Wood itself
35:45is a vulnerable material
35:47but also
35:48and more profoundly
35:49there is no reliable
35:51charting
35:52of most of the waters
35:53of the world.
35:54So nobody knows
35:55where there are large rocks
35:56just underneath
35:57the water's surface
35:59and a wooden ship
36:00goes on that
36:00and it rips the bottom out.
36:02Most people in those days
36:03couldn't swim
36:04so a ship would go
36:05to the bottom
36:05and most of the crew
36:06would drown.
36:15Shipwrecks
36:16were costing
36:17the wealthy merchants
36:18and aristocrats
36:19who backed
36:20the East India Company
36:21serious money.
36:24They needed
36:25to be able
36:26to guarantee
36:27a safe passage
36:28beyond home waters.
36:32But what kind
36:34of navigational aid
36:35were available
36:36to seafarers
36:37at the time?
36:38I'm going to test out
36:39some of the tools
36:40they used
36:41to sail through
36:42uncharted waters.
36:44To help me out
36:45I'm meeting
36:46Tristan Gooley
36:47a navigator
36:48and maritime adventurer.
36:52One of the first things
36:53that mariners need
36:54to understand
36:54is how fast
36:55they're going.
36:56What is this?
36:57this is called
36:58the chip log
36:59and in the 16th century
37:01this was the most
37:02accurate method
37:03of working out
37:03how fast the boat
37:04was going.
37:06How?
37:07Well it's very simple
37:08it's a board
37:08we've got the lead weight
37:09here which means
37:10this end is going to go
37:11and stay at the bottom
37:12it's going to be weighed down
37:13and think of it like a parachute
37:15it just sits there
37:16and it breaks in the water
37:17and then the line runs out
37:19and we have knots
37:20marked
37:21at intervals
37:22yeah that's one
37:23and the number of knots
37:25that pass through our hand
37:26in 14 seconds
37:27is going to tell us
37:28how fast this boat is going.
37:30Are you ready to give it a go?
37:31Let's do it.
37:31Right.
37:32Here we go.
37:40I'm now timing 14 seconds
37:42that's five
37:4810
37:54and that's 14
37:58stop the line there
37:59okay we've got a knot
38:01just there
38:01absolutely right
38:02okay so that knot
38:04you've got there
38:05yeah
38:05we're going to count
38:06the knots back from there
38:08and that's our lot
38:11we're into the stray line
38:12as it's called now
38:13just the bit
38:14that goes out
38:14at the beginning
38:15to keep it clear of the boat
38:16so we reckon the boat's
38:17going three knots
38:18I think
38:18three and a bit
38:19because there was
38:19that extra bit of rope
38:21left before it came back
38:22to the reel
38:23yes three and a bit
38:23three and a bit knots
38:25let's check with Bob
38:26Bob what are we actually doing?
38:27by the log
38:283.2 knots
38:29hey
38:30the bit that
38:31yeah
38:32the bit on the end
38:320.2 of a knot
38:33that's amazingly accurate
38:35it is yeah
38:36fantastic bit of kit
38:37when land is sighted
38:41a basic navigation trick
38:43is needed
38:43to stop the ship
38:44running aground
38:45this
38:46is known as
38:47depth sounding
38:48we've got one of the
38:52oldest lowest tech
38:53bits of navigation
38:54equipment in the world
38:55the lead line
38:56drop it over the side
38:57when it hits the bottom
38:58the line goes slack
38:59we know how deep
39:01the water is
39:02by how much line there is
39:03there we go
39:13that's tense there
39:14there we go
39:15that's tense there
39:16so this knot you can see
39:26it's dry on one side of it
39:28wet on the other
39:29and if we work our way
39:31all the way back to this
39:32red one
39:33what does that red one mean?
39:35that red one means seven
39:36fathoms
39:36and that knot there will be
39:39one more fathom
39:39so we're in eight fathoms
39:41of water
39:41but
39:43that's not all this
39:44not very high tech
39:47bit of kit will tell us
39:48hopefully
39:48here we go
39:51what have we got?
39:52here we go
39:52let me just pass that over
39:55ah
39:56looks like we've pulled up
39:58some mud and sand
39:59to me
39:59is that what it looks like
40:00to you?
40:01yeah let me just have a look
40:01taste it
40:03best way of doing it
40:04that's disgusting
40:06but it's definitely sandy
40:08it's not just mud
40:09and that's the key bit
40:10of information
40:11sailors of the past
40:12would have used that
40:12to understand where they are
40:14what the land they're
40:15approaching is like
40:16and very importantly
40:17whether they could
40:18drop the anchor there
40:19because if the seabed
40:21isn't right for an anchor
40:22there's no point dropping it
40:22and this is one way of
40:24saving a lot of time
40:24and effort
40:25simple
40:27but effective
40:28however
40:29when it came to
40:30more difficult calculations
40:32like accurately measuring
40:34the altitude of the sun
40:35which was needed
40:36to work out an exact
40:37position at sea
40:39a more complex
40:40and innovative solution
40:41was needed
40:42and it was provided
40:44by an Englishman
40:45named John Davis
40:46in 1594
40:48I'd say the vast majority
40:51of all navigational instruments
40:52anybody ever thinks of
40:53are concerned with
40:55measuring angles
40:56and in particular
40:56the angle of the sun
40:57the moon and the stars
40:59above the horizon
41:00and this is a very early tool
41:02which they used to do that
41:03and it's a particularly clever one
41:04isn't it?
41:05it is very clever
41:06this is the backstaff
41:07how does it work?
41:08ok
41:09what we do is
41:11we create a shadow
41:13using what's called
41:13a shadow vein
41:14on this little window here
41:16and then looking through
41:18this sighting vein here
41:19we look at the horizon
41:21and that just forms
41:22a nice simple triangle
41:23from there to there
41:24back up to here
41:25up to the sun
41:26and that measures
41:27the angle for us
41:28right let's have a go
41:29see how this works
41:30there you go
41:31I'm going to look through
41:34this to find the horizon
41:35yep
41:36and then adjust this
41:37until the shadow
41:41there we go
41:42there we go
41:42ok great
41:43so now we take it down
41:44and some very very
41:46simple calculations
41:47you've just got to
41:48add the number here
41:49to the number here
41:50and you've got the angle
41:52of the sun above the horizon
41:53510 here
41:54and then 25 there
41:56so we're looking at 35 degrees
41:5735 degrees
41:58yeah we're not quite
41:59at the midday point now
42:01but we have just taken
42:02an altitude of the sun
42:03we have just worked out
42:04how high it is
42:05and that simple measurement
42:06could tell a sailor
42:08how far north or south
42:09they are in the boat
42:09there are no mirrors
42:10there are no magnifying glasses
42:12there are no moving bits
42:13it's just a stick
42:14absolutely
42:14and it wasn't perfect
42:16otherwise we wouldn't have
42:17had things like the octant
42:18and the sextant
42:18coming along later
42:19and displacing it
42:21but for approximately 130 years
42:24from about 1600 to about 1730
42:26this was cutting edge
42:27armed with this navigational equipment
42:33a fleet of seven ships
42:35left Plymouth Harbour
42:36on the 2nd of June 1609
42:38they were bound for Jamestown, Virginia
42:45a settlement colonised only 20 years
42:48after the defeat of the Armada
42:50led by its flagship
42:56the Sea Venture
42:57the flotilla consisted of boats
42:59typical of the period
43:01made from wood
43:04powered by sail
43:06and barely 70 feet long
43:08they would have to brave
43:10the weather of the Americas
43:12a sort of tropical hurricanes
43:20that no Englishman
43:22had ever witnessed
43:23off his own coast
43:25six weeks after leaving
43:32the Devon shoreline
43:33the boat sailed into the eye
43:35of a ferocious storm
43:37separated from the rest of the group
43:41the Sea Venture
43:42was at the mercy
43:44of this tropical onslaught
43:45unable to master the elements
43:48and unable
43:49to maintain her course
43:51of course
43:54a wooden ship
43:55is far more vulnerable
43:57so it can literally be blown
43:59on a rocky shore
44:00where it can be shipwrecked
44:01even if it realises
44:03it's in terrible danger
44:04you can have scenarios
44:10where you can see the danger
44:11the rocky shore
44:12you know you want to keep off that shore
44:15but the wind and the current
44:17is driving you on it
44:18and you cannot stop it
44:20the Sea Venture
44:23was smashed onto the rocky reefs
44:25of what proved to be
44:26the island of Bermuda
44:28remarkably
44:36all 150 people on board
44:39survived this crash landing
44:41and now
44:42they found themselves shipwrecked
44:44on a beautiful
44:45but deserted island
44:47to us today
44:50the beach is paradise
44:51it's where we dream
44:53of going on holiday
44:54but that idea
44:55would have seemed like
44:56utter madness
44:57to anyone in the 16th
44:59and 17th centuries
45:00back then
45:01the beaches of the new world
45:02weren't paradise
45:04they were hell on earth
45:05and if you found yourself on one
45:07you wouldn't break out
45:08the sun lotion
45:09you'd sink to your knees
45:10in despair
45:11because the odds were
45:13that you were a shipwrecked sailor
45:14and you were almost certainly doomed
45:16many of those marooned
45:25by the Sea Venture
45:26on the Caribbean island
45:28of Bermuda
45:28did die from starvation
45:30or disease
45:31but the remaining crew
45:36built two improvised craft
45:39after salvaging parts
45:40from the wreck
45:41they named them
45:44Deliverance
45:45and Patience
45:46and eventually
45:47some did make it back home
45:49finding a passage
45:51from their original destination
45:52of Virginia
45:53and two of the crew
45:56published a gripping tale
45:58of their battle for survival
45:59for four and twenty hours
46:04the storm in a restless tumult
46:06had blown so exceedingly
46:07as we could not apprehend
46:09in our imagination
46:10any possibility
46:11of greater violence
46:12fury added to fury
46:16and one storm
46:17urging a second
46:18more outrageous
46:19than the former
46:20nothing heard
46:22that could give comfort
46:23nothing seen
46:24that could give hope
46:25these testimonies
46:29were the first ever accounts
46:31of surviving a shipwreck
46:33in the new world
46:34Sylvester Jourdain
46:35and William Strachey
46:37published their narratives
46:38in 1610
46:40just months
46:41after returning to London
46:43and what they described
46:44captured the public imagination
46:46they detailed
46:48swimming
46:49in crystal clear waters
46:50foraging for exotic fruit
46:52and hunting
46:53brightly coloured fish
46:54they bear a kind of berry
46:59black and round
47:00as big as a damson
47:01which about December
47:03were ripe and luscious
47:04other kinds of high
47:07and sweet swelling woods
47:08there would be
47:09and colours black
47:10yellow and red
47:11and one which bears
47:13a round blueberry
47:14much eaten
47:14by our own people
47:15we have taken
47:185,000 small
47:19and great fish
47:20at one hail
47:21I think that no island
47:23in the world
47:24may have greater store
47:25or better fish
47:26for many readers
47:31this was their first taste
47:33of global travel
47:34and adventure
47:35these books
47:39were widely read
47:40and you could just imagine
47:41people talking excitedly
47:43about Jourdain
47:44and Strachey's encounters
47:45with this strange environment
47:47the possibilities
47:49of exploring the exotic
47:51and otherworldly nature
47:53of these far-flung islands
47:54also fascinated
47:56the most famous playwright
47:57of the Elizabethan age
47:59The Travails of the Sea Venture
48:02inspired one
48:03William Shakespeare
48:04to write a story
48:05that began with a shipwreck
48:07in a foreign sea
48:08The Tempest
48:14opens with a ship
48:16battling to stay afloat
48:17amidst the uproar
48:19of a tropical storm
48:20Shakespeare uses
48:24the shipwreck
48:25as a dramatic device
48:27to create a gateway
48:28to propel us
48:30into a fantastical world
48:32Through the shipwreck
48:40and subsequent marooning
48:42Shakespeare introduces us
48:44to the weird
48:45and wonderful characters
48:47who inhabit
48:48a strange island
48:50There is the spirit
48:54Ariel
48:55who uses magic
48:56to conjure up
48:57the tempest
48:58which wrecks the ship
48:59at the start
49:00of the play
49:01And then
49:04there is Caliban
49:05Half-demon
49:07Half-man
49:08A wild savage
49:10who fascinates
49:11and terrifies us
49:12Shakespeare revels
49:18in disaster at sea
49:19as a means
49:20to take us away
49:21from civilisation
49:23So what the shipwreck
49:29in that context
49:30enables you to do
49:31is to think
49:32outside
49:33the imaginative chains
49:35of your own society
49:36You can imagine
49:37a world without
49:38religion of the form
49:40that you might have
49:40in Europe
49:41You can imagine
49:42a world which isn't
49:43dominated by human beings
49:44One can imagine
49:50in short
49:51the opportunity
49:53to put yourself
49:55in a context
49:56in a context
49:56in which you
49:58and your imagination
49:59are interacting
50:02with anything
50:03that you can take
50:05and derive
50:05from this new environment
50:07and that was
50:08really potent
50:09Shakespeare stretched
50:16our imaginations
50:17through his shipwreck
50:19in the tempest
50:20and he did so
50:21in an age
50:22when Britons
50:22were taking
50:23their first
50:23tentative steps
50:25in a new era
50:26of travel and adventure
50:28The tempest
50:29was more science fiction
50:31than reality
50:31but throughout
50:33the 17th century
50:34as the British Empire
50:35expanded into uncharted waters
50:37more and more
50:39real life accounts
50:40of shipwrecked sailors
50:41began to emerge
50:43and they sparked
50:44an appetite
50:45for maritime stories
50:47that were so believable
50:48that few people
50:49could tell the difference
50:50between what was fact
50:52and what was fiction
50:53Fact and fiction
50:59collided here
51:00at this pub
51:01the Landogger Trow
51:03in Bristol
51:03Two men
51:04sat at the bar
51:05deep in conversation
51:07One of those men
51:08was a Scottish sailor
51:10and he was telling
51:11his story
51:11of how he had been
51:13marooned on a tropical island
51:14for four and a half years
51:16The other man
51:17hung on his every word
51:18scribbling down details
51:20of the tale
51:21in his notebook
51:22That man
51:23was a journalist
51:24named Daniel Defoe
51:25and this barroom conversation
51:27went on to inspire
51:28one of the greatest
51:29of all English novels
51:31The Life
51:32and Strange
51:33Surprising Adventures
51:35of Robinson Crusoe
51:36The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
51:52was presented
51:53as a real account
51:54told in the first person
51:56with Defoe's name
51:58redacted
51:59from the earliest edition
52:00The novel detailed
52:05the daily battles
52:06Crusoe faced
52:07such as the search
52:08for fresh water
52:09and it revealed
52:11the psychological effect
52:13of being shipwrecked
52:15alone
52:15When he is shipwrecked
52:18on the desert island
52:19he's initially
52:19of course
52:20absolutely shocked
52:21and he spends time
52:22looking for water
52:23and getting himself
52:24sorted out
52:24in terms of basic survival
52:25so he's instantly
52:27a very pragmatic figure
52:28and it's only subsequently
52:29that he starts
52:30to break down psychologically
52:31and we hear about
52:33his traumatic
52:34psychological breakdown
52:35as the reality
52:36of his loneliness
52:36and isolation
52:37dawn upon him
52:38Through the process
52:43of writing a journal
52:44notching up the days
52:45in other words
52:46bringing European time
52:47onto a timeless island
52:49he recovers a sense
52:50of self-possession
52:51and interestingly
52:52that translates
52:53into a possession
52:54of the island
52:54so he literally
52:55takes possession
52:56of the island
52:57that he finds himself on
52:58It was rare
53:00that any fictional writings
53:01had presented
53:02a human predicament
53:03with that kind
53:04of psychological intensity
53:05and that attention
53:06to detail
53:07The man Defoe
53:09was talking to
53:10in this pub
53:11that night
53:12was a sailor
53:13named Alexander Selkirk
53:15He had been travelling
53:17on a ship
53:18the Sankports
53:19and had expressed
53:20grave reservations
53:21about the vessel's
53:23seaworthiness
53:24after a dispute
53:25with the captain
53:26Selkirk was abandoned
53:28on a Pacific island
53:29400 miles
53:31from the coast
53:32of Chile
53:32and this
53:34inspired
53:35Robinson Crusoe's
53:36epic survival tale
53:38Selkirk was set ashore
53:45with his sea chest
53:46with powder
53:47and shot for his musket
53:48and just two days worth
53:50of food
53:50and just as the captain
53:52was preparing to leave
53:53Selkirk apparently
53:54changed his mind
53:55but the captain
53:56now completely fed up
53:58with Selkirk's behaviour
53:59refused to take him
54:00back on board
54:01leaving him marooned
54:02on that island
54:03the strangest thing
54:13about the whole story
54:15is not that Selkirk
54:16survived four years
54:17of hardship
54:18and solitude
54:19but that he was right
54:20about one critical detail
54:21the Sankports
54:23the ship that he had said
54:25was unseaworthy
54:26the ship
54:26which had sailed away
54:27abandoning him
54:29did sink
54:30taking with her
54:31much of her crew
54:32Selkirk's four years
54:38and four months
54:39on the island
54:40ended when he was
54:42picked up
54:42by an English ship
54:43he sailed with her
54:46for a further two years
54:47before finally arriving
54:49home in October 1711
54:51soon after
54:56Selkirk would have
54:57his famous meeting
54:58with Daniel Defoe
54:59in the Landogger Trow
55:01and a literary legend
55:03was born
55:04but Defoe
55:08didn't just detail
55:09Crusoe's skillet survival
55:11the novel also works
55:13as a powerful metaphor
55:14for Britain's rise
55:16as a colonial power
55:17Crusoe is depicted
55:22as the enlightened man
55:24importing western civilization
55:26to the barbarous
55:27and exotic island
55:29he builds a home
55:30he builds a home
55:30rears animals
55:31and cultivates the land
55:33as the self-styled
55:38governor of the island
55:40Crusoe is the arch colonist
55:42a symbol of Britain's
55:44outreach in this era
55:45this is most evident
55:48in his relationship
55:49with Man Friday
55:50the native he rescues
55:52from cannibals
55:53and who becomes
55:54and who becomes
55:54his faithful servant
55:56this isn't an equal
56:01relationship between two men
56:03Crusoe is very much
56:05the master of Man Friday
56:07pious
56:08enlightened
56:09a natural leader
56:11Crusoe is the symbol
56:13not only of colonial conquest
56:14but of the racial politics
56:16that justified
56:17Britain's increasing involvement
56:19in the Atlantic slave trade
56:21it's no coincidence
56:22that Crusoe was wrecked
56:24on the way to collect slaves
56:25for his own plantation
56:27and so through this
56:29fictional shipwreck
56:30we catch a glimpse
56:32of the course
56:32that Britain was plotting
56:34through the 18th century
56:35Robinson Crusoe
56:41was published in 1719
56:43at the very beginning
56:45of the Georgian period
56:46an era that would transform
56:49an island nation
56:50once terrified
56:51of its own treacherous coastline
56:54into the world's
56:55most powerful trading empire
56:57policed by the increasingly
57:00dominant Royal Navy
57:01but with more British ships
57:07at sea
57:08and greater fortunes
57:09at stake
57:10the shipwreck
57:11would loom even larger
57:13in the national consciousness
57:15the Georgian's global adventure
57:18came at great human cost
57:20more than ever
57:22the shipwreck
57:23was Britain's Achilles heel
57:26threatening to ruin
57:27its now grand ambitions
57:30next time
57:36mutiny
57:37slave rebellions
57:40and murderous wreckers
57:42how the shipwreck
57:44turns the order
57:46and hierarchy
57:46of Georgian Britain
57:48upside down
57:5012кg
57:50saint
57:54you
57:55you
57:55you
57:56you
57:57you
58:06you
58:07you
58:10you
58:14you
58:16you
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