Episode 2 Sea City

On the south coast of Britain lies a city within a city,

that's hard at work 24 hours a day.

The port of Southampton is the cruise capital of the UK

and a gateway for a life at sea.

It's tough here and then we send you on board and it gets tougher.

A bit of a mad rush round.

Passengers are going to start coming on.

It's where showbiz glamour meets the grind of industry.

Going to move 700-odd tonnes of sewage

because they can't get road transport.

The smell's the killer.

Thousands of travellers pass through Southampton every day.

It's quite busy down there, it's all hands to the pump.

Oh!

It's where water is a way of life.

It's such crazy English fun.

This is big boys' toys. This is for us old fellas!

Passengers, ships and cargo.

Shaping the lives of people at one of the busiest ports in the world.

This is Sea City.

In this episode:

That's us just picking up speed, getting under way now.

The captain helping to keep the past alive.

I do it because I love it

and I love the people on board this lovely old ship.

The old warehouse with a secret.

It's essentially where we make the magic happen.

Is the tide turning for English cricket?

Every time we lose the ball we think we might give them

20 runs just to be kind.

The port of Southampton works round the clock.

It's an international centre for the maritime industry.

Cargo and ships come and go at any time of the day or night.

The hundreds of people who keep the port running

are often hidden from view.

I normally run it hard over to hard over from up here.

Peter Roberts helps provide an essential service

around Southampton water.

He's Master of the Whitchallenger,

a fuel tanker working the south coast.

OK, I'll get it started and I'll give it the hard over

and I'll phone you back again.

'We've just left our berth in Empress Dock'

and we're on our way round to berth 101.

We've got fuel on board for the Balmoral.

We are slowly making our way up there.

We are the bunker men, the bunker barges.

Clearly, the ships don't go anywhere without fuel

so I suggest that we are fairly important.

I'll just give it a tickle astern.

Peter must carefully manoeuvre his tanker alongside the cruise ship.

'Beneath our decks we've got approximately 2,000 tonnes

'of heavy fuel oil.

'The value of every tonne is around the £500 mark.

So, there's about a million pounds' worth of fuel

floating underneath there at this moment.

With so much at stake, concentration is vital.

'That was good. That went OK.'

With the two ships lined up. an eight-inch hose must be gently

lowered in.

When it's securely connected to Balmoral's tanks and captain

and crew are happy, the valves are opened and pumping begins.

Nearly half a million pounds' worth of fuel is pumped in.

Time for a tea break.

There's only seven of us on here.

Clearly, we don't carry cooks and we don't carry stewards,

therefore, that's all down to us.

Five o'clock on the dot, I kid you not.

If you're five minutes late you never hear the end of it.

Second engineer, Scotty, has got a deadline.

Usually he's in the engine room

but today he's in charge of cooking dinner.

Home-made quiches.

There's a spicy tuna one and a meat feast quiche.

The crew live on board for four weeks at a time.

They usually work only a few miles offshore

and they're always on call.

We always try to outdo each other, to be fair, I think,

as a general rule.

A little bit of competition goes into it, I think,

cooking for each other.

It's interesting. It leads to variety.

We've got good cooks and bad cooks. I think I am amongst the latter.

There's quite a lot of chillies in that.

Each crew member cooks once a week.

Everyone has their sort of signature dishes and stuff.

While Scotty gets on with the dinner,

the crew set off for the next job, delivering fuel for ferries.

Afternoon, sir, that's us going into Portsmouth now.

Captain Roberts first went to sea when he was 13

and he's an old hand with the tanker.

He retired a few years ago but wanted to come back to work.

'It's something I was so familiar with and so comfortable with,

'and it becomes a part of you

'and when you haven't got it you miss it, I think.

'It's wonderful to have another opportunity

'to have another bite at the cherry.'

I may go North Channel if you haven't got the time gauge.

You walk around on the decks and you may wonder why it's warm.

We heat the oil so that it's pumpable, so that it's more liquid.

If you have some syrup in the winter, it's difficult to get out of the tin.

If you put it on the stove and warm it up, it's like water.

Oil is no different to that.

Of course, that's why you never see snow on these ships.

BELL RINGS

With the job done, the crew settle in for Scotty's gourmet meal.

-Looks good!

-Very nice, Scotty.

Can I have some of the balsamic dressing, please.

We all gather around the table, have some food, talk and that.

It's like the end of the day, really.

So, it's quite a family sort of atmosphere.

Anybody going anywhere nice on holiday next leave?

'People on board a ship are so dependent upon each other.

'Once you've left the land,'

there's no fire brigade to phone and no ambulance to phone.

SHIP HORN BLASTS

'As you sit here you hear the other sounds of the ship.'

The lads down below listening to the television

or somebody in the galley, or, you know, the noises around you.

It's quite comforting.

Here we are on a beautiful August evening

going out the Hamble River with the tide,

and we are heading out to the Bramble Bank

in the middle of the Solent.

Mark "Tommo" Thompson and fellow sailors

from the Royal Southern Yacht Club

are on their way to a rendezvous out at sea.

In about 45 minutes there will be a beautiful sandbank appearing

and once a year we come out here to play a wonderful game of cricket.

Philip Gauge is normally involved with yacht racing

at the Royal Southern, but today he's umpiring

the annual cricket match against the Island Sailing Club.

The entertaining thing is finding where the pitch is going to be,

whilst it's not there.

We're just hoping that today the tide will be low enough

for us to have a decent game.

Sorry, I'm looking around,

we've got a bit of traffic to negotiate here.

We quite often have cruise liners coming past.

It's very important. We take it very seriously

and do a bit of training during the winter months.

I would describe it as quintessentially British sport at its best.

Bramble Bank is bang in the middle of Solent shipping lanes.

Its usually submerged sandbar is a hazard for all sea-farers.

Even the old QE2 ran aground here on its homecoming voyage.

Here's the Bramble Bank in green.

This is where it's going to dry, on the green bit there.

You can see all the way down there,

all the water that's now breaking on the bank.

There are stories about the original cricket match

on the Bramble Bank.

One of the old stories goes back to the '50s

when there was a prison on the middle of the Isle of Wight.

They suddenly thought it would be nice to give the prisoners exercise.

They thought what a good idea,

get them out onto the Bramble Bank in the middle of the Solent.

They're not going to go anywhere.

We're in here, we're in here lads!

Oh, we're off! We're off!

Let's get on it.

Another 20 minutes until we get to the bottom of low tide.

We're not going to get an amazing area tonight

but enough to play a game of cricket.

We just need all our team and the opposition.

Who's got the stumps?

Hello, hello! Good evening. Well done, team.

John Hounslow is captain of the Island team.

We're going to have to have a word with the groundsman

about the state he keeps the pitch in.

The Royal Southern team have recruited a star player,

legendary yachtsman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

It's going to be a fairly short game this year

because the tide hasn't gone out as far as we hoped.

It's a bit dry over there.

We should probably start playing. What are your thoughts?

-I think that's right.

-Excellent, excellent.

The Island Sailing Club are having the privilege of batting first.

You need two batsmen.

Lovely bowling!

They've got 25. Supposedly.

Every time we lose the ball, we think we might give them

20 runs just to be kind.

The umpires never know what the score is.

We've got the sand here and then you've got the water over there.

It's so deep and all the ships can come past.

It's absolutely fabulous.

Absolutely wonderful. Best thing in the world.

Once a year you must be here and watch it.

It's about time you went home!

The Island Sailing Club finish their innings.

Over!

But there's no time for tea in these conditions.

The Island Sailing Club are all out for 60.

You can see from that first innings it's a tricky pitch tonight.

There's a bit of moisture around.

The Royal Southern take to the crease.

Oh! Lovely six!

He threw the bat as well!

You've got to hold on to your bat, team. Got to hold on to your bat.

-31 now. 31.

-31.

I think we're winning.

Our batsmen are doing a rather good job.

SHOUTS AND CHEERS

Let's hope Sir Robin is as good with a bat as he is with a tiller.

Another six.

The Royal Southern has now just...

..batted and had another six, another four.

It's such crazy English fun.

Most of the time we're pulling yachts and boats off here

when they go aground.

It makes a change not to be doing anything.

The only time cricket is good!

-I want a nine.

-Seven and, erm, and a five probably.

With the pitch disappearing, the pressure's on for Tommo

and his team from the Royal Southern.

This is great. This is really good. The players are really pulling together today.

The tide's coming back in quite fast.

We're nearly there.

We've nearly scored enough runs, just need, probably,

a couple of sixes in the last over and we'll be there.

Tense, but exciting.

One more bowl.

CHEERS

So, a glorious win for the Royal Southern Yacht Club,

thanks to some spirited batting and creative score keeping.

The Royal Southern scored 316.

Declared.

What a great evening again here on the Brambles.

Beautiful boats, beautiful scenery, the sun is setting in the west.

The tide's coming back in again

and everyone's had just a glorious, glorious evening of cricket.

We now need to evacuate as rapidly as we can

because the tide's going to come in fairly quickly.

Let's go!

While the sides head back to the pavilion,

elsewhere, teamwork of another kind is under way.

Further along Southampton Water is the most efficient

container terminal in Europe.

It handles nearly two million boxes a year

and there are big plans for its future.

The port's spending £150 million on expanding capacity.

Right, get the dumper and we can get the steel moved next to piles.

Gareth Gregory is the site manager.

The enlarged quay will handle the new generation

of giant container ships.

This is what it's all for.

It's a massively busy site now.

Think I've got about 150/160 people on and it's going to get busier.

The team are driving piles deep into the seabed for the new quay wall.

36 metres long, from what you can see there down. It's 36 metres.

Each weighing 40 tonnes.

It takes quite a big hammer to knock them in!

This work is essential for winning and keeping business at the port.

Nearly everybody you speak to in Southampton,

somebody knows somebody who works on this port.

If they didn't get this, it would be devastating for Southampton.

It's quite challenging, especially when you've got these deadlines.

You're just hoping everything is going like clockwork

but things don't go like clockwork, do they?

But everybody pulls together and we get around it.

We've got seven on site and those four can go back

and we'll just keep the three.

Up to now there have been 12 gantry cranes for discharging cargo.

But coming into the port is the Palembang,

bringing in four giant new ones built in Ireland.

The cranes are delivered in pieces for assembly at the port.

The project is such a tight schedule.

This ship is a couple of weeks later than what it should be.

Straightaway, we're up against it even more.

There's not a week that goes by that they won't be critical.

Mark James is one of the project managers

and has been involved since day one.

The biggest problem we've got on this project is that we're having

to interact with other businesses.

We're having to operate within the scrap steel.

The gate entrance is particularly narrow.

The first section of crane is slowly wheeled along the quayside.

I don't think there's probably enough cotton wool around to wrap them in.

It's interesting seeing them from the pieces of steel

that they first were fabricated from to the final stages.

Getting the main beam around some tight corners needs precision driving.

Probably only got 18 inches or two feet to play with,

whole clearance, as it sweeps around so it's a challenge.

This is the port's biggest engineering project for decades.

Once the enormous cranes are fully assembled,

they'll be 130 metres high

and capable of lifting 80 tonnes at a go.

It's lovely when you see a nice bit of kit sat on the quayside,

all brand spanking new.

Don't really want to use it, to be honest.

While the port is busy looking to the future,

others are keeping one eye on the past.

Below decks, a flame is burning for times gone by.

In the shadow of one of Southampton's modern cruise liners

is a venerable old lady of the sea.

SHIP HORN BLASTS

The SS Shieldhall is steaming up, ready to take tourists

out for a day on the Solent, and a familiar face is on the bridge.

Singled up to forward spring, Rob.

When he's not doing his day job on a fuel tanker,

Captain Peter Roberts is in charge of this vintage steamship.

Go on, heave! Heave!

'It is the most enjoyable busman's holiday.'

That's it. Well done.

You enjoyed that, didn't you? I can tell by the smile on your face.

'I do it because I love it'

and I love the people on board this lovely old ship.

RADIO CHATTER

Good morning, sir. That's just us picking up speed

and getting under way now from 48.

Which side do you want us to pass?

The Shieldhall was built in 1955 to carry sewage,

although its design dates back a century.

Saved from the scrap yard, this elderly ship comes complete

with a mature crew of volunteers, who bring a wealth of experience.

This is big boys' toys, really.

This is for us old fellas!

'When you retire, you don't really miss the job or anything,

'but you do miss the company and like-minded people.'

If you stay at home all the time, all you get is decorating jobs.

'There are those of us on here who well remember'

this type of ship in commercial service.

The chap driving this engine

he used to be a stoker on the royal yacht, the Britannia.

You get all sorts down here.

I have occasionally described it as an allotment on water.

You know, it's something we can do.

One of the things about retirement is, that is it.

Your professional life comes to an end.

It's a life change, so something like this is very satisfying.

Full ahead.

HORN

We're all passionate about keeping this in the eyes of the public

so that they have the opportunity to see what it used to be like

for us when we were young.

But it's not all about nostalgia.

Peter and his crew are keen to pass on their skills

to the next generation.

Head across to the red buoy, please.

'We've got a real cross-section of people from very old

'to very young, and long may it be that.

'We are encouraging young people.'

Let's be honest, where can a young person come on board a ship

and get the undivided attention of half a dozen Master Mariners,

half a dozen chief engineers?

It's a good grounding.

I absolutely love ships.

They're just really fascinating.

If we didn't have boats, we couldn't sail across the sea.

I liked the engine room.

I think it's really cool how it works.

I hope I can be a captain of a big ship.

Off you go. Two, pull. HORN

My first trip to sea was on trawlers from Hull when I was 13 years old.

I'm 68 now, still doing what I did back then,

and enjoying it just as much.

It's as much a part of me as breathing is.

The Shieldhall's days as a sewage shifter have long gone.

But all that sludge still has to go somewhere!

And someone has to carry it.

Another unsung hero working around the port

is in charge of a rather delicate operation

that is essential for modern life.

Basically going to move 700-odd tonnes of sewage

because they can't get road transport.

We'll go up, wait for it to be loaded,

then take it all the way back out where they'll process it into pellets

and use it as fertiliser.

I don't think anyone wants to do it!

No, no-one wants to do it.

It's just if you can deal with the smell or not.

Chase Wyeth is a skipper for the family tug company.

Today, he's going to transfer a barge full of human waste

between two storage tanks. He's on the way to collect the load.

It's not the most glamorous of jobs,

but you know, it's different. Never two days the same.

Chase didn't start out with this career in mind.

I didn't plan on coming here.

I was supposed to go off to college and do something else,

and my dad was like, "You have to come to work with me for a few weeks,

"earn some money and that,"

and I never looked back. I found out I absolutely loved it.

Today, Chase has got a tough task on his hands.

He needs to navigate a tidal river with low bridges and tight turns

to pick up his sewage.

It's like a chess game.

You're constantly thinking, you know,

the next corner I'm going to be going that way,

and then on the next corner I need to go the opposite way.

So I need to make sure the momentum of the barge is taking me round

ready to counteract it for the next one.

Easy, Ted.

Picking up sludge from the depot by barge

saved over 30 road tanker trips a day.

Quarter, Stan.

It's a unique smell. It's a one-off.

You'll never smell anything like it in your life.

Connecting up to the sewage pump isn't easy with a high tide.

And you don't want the hose to slip off mid-flow!

I've never actually seen it go, but I've heard it does.

And when it goes, it just...

Chase sets off to deliver his load eight miles away

on the opposite side of the port. The fully laden barge

weighs over 1,000 tonnes.

For me to stop this, if I wanted to stop it before the bridge

I'd have stopped way back there.

I can't stop the momentum now.

So this is why all my angles have to be exactly right,

um, I can't afford to have anything in my way.

One bridge down, but there's a low railway bridge ahead.

If a train is going over that bridge,

it pushes it down an inch.

And that could be the inch we need. It may not look it,

it's a solid iron bridge, but when that train is hurtling through it,

it really does bounce.

Am I looking all right?

With the last tricky bridge out of the way,

Chase reaches open water

and heads across to the waste treatment centre.

If you go now and sit and have your lunch,

you'll have this whiff and you're like, "Don't fancy dinner now."

It lingers. It does linger with you all day.

The smell's a killer. Absolutely killer.

Once the barge is dropped off for processing,

the sludge is pumped out and will be turned into fertiliser.

Chase sets off for his next job.

Or maybe even a shower.

Southampton is the cruise capital of the UK.

It's a booming business, and a big earner for the port and the city.

Over a million passengers pass through every year.

And when the cruise gets under way,

the entertainment on board takes centre stage.

# He's a pinball wizard There's got to be a twist

# Pinball wizard's got such a supple wrist... #

When the curtain rises, passengers expect West End standards.

But the road to glitz and glamour starts in an unlikely place.

A warehouse tucked away on an industrial estate.

The first thing we're about is entertainment

and the shows we present on the ships

are very much light-hearted, happy affairs.

It's all-singing, all-dancing, bright productions,

and that's the essence of what Headliners is about.

Stevie B is the creative director for Headliners,

the theatre company on board P&O cruise ships.

It's essentially where we make the magic happen.

They'll learn all the choreography, they'll learn all the vocals,

there'll be acting lessons -

everything that goes into putting that show up on board.

Each ship may have several different shows on any given cruise,

and the on-board cast must learn them all in just eight weeks.

At the last count there were 83 productions

spread across P&O's fleet of seven ships.

It's a revolving door for young performers.

It's day one of our open auditions for dancers today.

We recruit 100-odd dancers a year,

so they're always quite busy affairs for us.

Couple of hundred people today outside

that we're sort of ploughing our way through at the moment.

We're going to teach you a routine very shortly

and then break you down into some groups

and make cuts ready for recall this afternoon.

It is a little bit like a production line.

We have to get these casts in very, very quickly and turn them round

with a huge amount of material, as well.

The challenge is to keep those shows as fresh as possible.

Lovely - swap over for us, guys, thank you.

They're the focal point to the cast on board the ships

from the passenger experience

so they need to be nice, friendly, bright people.

They'll be asked everything, not only about the shows,

but "Where do I go to eat?"

or if they're ashore, "Where's the local chemist?" or something.

Where they might go wrong with their feet, we can work on that.

What we can't, we can't make them nice people.

OK, thank you.

It's tough competition. Barely one in ten auditioning today

will make it on to a cruise ship.

Those that do can look forward to six months at sea

as part of a tight-knit company.

You do get that sort of closeness with the cast,

and it's very sad - we sort of joke that we wave goodbye

with a tear in our eye as the cast leave, you know,

and roll the next cast in. But you do get very close with them.

# I had visions of many... #

To sometimes sit there, turn round,

and see everybody stand up with a standing ovation,

it's a wonderful feeling. The buzz lasts a long time.

But your drive and your desire, you know,

for them to do well on stage overtakes everything else.

You sit there a little bit like a proud mother

at the back of the room, just willing them on.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Next time on Sea City:

in a special episode, we follow a cast of new academy recruits

from rehearsals on land to showtime at sea.

It took me completely by surprise. It's such a hard process.

What I need from you now is that extra, extra push.

There are buckets they can use to throw up in.

# Yeah! #