0:00:05 > 0:00:07One April morning in 1771,
0:00:07 > 0:00:13a 12-year-old boy was rowed along the River Medway in Chatham, Kent,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17to begin a new life as a midshipman in the Royal Navy.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23In the waters all around him,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27the great warships of the Navy lay at anchor.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Having won a long and vicious global conflict with France -
0:00:31 > 0:00:34the Seven Years War - Britain was at peace,
0:00:34 > 0:00:40and much of her mighty fleet was now mothballed, tied up in port.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45As the boy passed the mighty HMS Victory, he would have looked up
0:00:45 > 0:00:50and seen that her decks were covered and her gun ports were tightly shut.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Little can he ever have imagined their fates would one day collide.
0:00:54 > 0:00:5834 years later, he would stand on the quarter deck of the Victory,
0:00:58 > 0:01:02commanding the fleet in the most epic naval battle in British history...
0:01:02 > 0:01:03Trafalgar.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14The boy's name was Horatio Nelson, and within his lifetime,
0:01:14 > 0:01:19Britain would construct the most powerful maritime fighting force in history.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28Far more than just a wooden fleet, the Navy was a national enterprise.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35Its voracious demand for ships fuelled the Industrial Revolution,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39while funding it drove radical financial reforms
0:01:39 > 0:01:41which we still live with today.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48At sea, its highly trained crews and ambitious officers
0:01:48 > 0:01:50laid claim to a burgeoning empire,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53and pushed back the horizons of the known world.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59But there would be a huge price to pay for this global sea power.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Britain and her Navy would soon be dragged into the greatest sequence
0:02:03 > 0:02:05of wars the nation had ever seen.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10It would be a fight for Britain's security, her way of life,
0:02:10 > 0:02:15her very identity - a colossal struggle against her old enemy, France.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20And the outcome would be decided out here, at sea.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48A year before the young Nelson began his career at sea,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52a Royal Navy ship was sailing deep in the South Pacific ocean,
0:02:52 > 0:02:5512,000 miles from home.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01The skies had cleared after heavy storms, and to the west,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04high cliffs emerged through the cloud.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13The ship's captain decided to name this uncharted piece of land
0:03:13 > 0:03:18Cape Howe, in honour of one of the Navy's finest sailors.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21The captain made a precise note of Cape Howe's co-ordinates in his
0:03:21 > 0:03:27private journal, and then continued north along this unknown coastline.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36The date was 20th April 1770, the ship was called the Endeavour.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Her commander was James Cook.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45The son of a humble Scottish labourer, Cook had worked his way up
0:03:45 > 0:03:48through the Navy's ranks to become one of the service's
0:03:48 > 0:03:51most respected navigators and cartographers.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54His reward was command of a high profile mission...
0:03:54 > 0:03:57not to fight, but to explore.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Bring the full mast round. Come on, straight full over.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Backed by the Royal Society, the Admiralty
0:04:03 > 0:04:08drew up plans for a scientific expedition to the Pacific.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12It would be a journey deep into the unknown.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19In 1768, Cook set off from Plymouth with a crew of 70,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24including artists, astronomers and botanists.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26They sailed across the Atlantic,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29through the treacherous waters around Cape Horn
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and then across the Pacific, to begin observations in Tahiti.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38Then they turned south into uncharted seas.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48Cook obsessively logged the Endeavour's speed, course and position
0:04:48 > 0:04:52so that future naval crews could retrace his route precisely.
0:04:52 > 0:04:58Missions like this were equipped with the latest navigational technologies.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Including a new British invention to measure latitude
0:05:01 > 0:05:03which is still in use today...
0:05:03 > 0:05:05the sextant.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10Every day at noon, the ship's officers would line up here on the rail of the quarterdeck
0:05:10 > 0:05:15with their sextants, to measure the angle between the sun and the horizon.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Now, this helped them to fix the distance that the ship was north
0:05:18 > 0:05:21or south of the equator - very sophisticated piece of kit.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Very hard to use though, particularly as the deck was always rolling around.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27it was very difficult to fix the sun precisely.
0:05:33 > 0:05:39The Navy also led a grand experiment with cutting-edge precision clocks,
0:05:39 > 0:05:40known as chronometers.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Cook would go on to pioneer their use to measure a ship's longitude.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49The Navy was mastering the sea, not through cannon fire,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53but by harnessing innovative science and technology.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59As they journeyed further into the unknown,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02the Endeavour's civilian crew
0:06:02 > 0:06:06documented more than 1,000 new animal and plant varieties
0:06:06 > 0:06:11and they painted vivid pictures of local peoples and customs.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16But for the Admiralty, Cook's expedition was
0:06:16 > 0:06:21not simply to satisfy the Royal Society's thirst for knowledge.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25While the desire to collect scientific data was real enough,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Cook also had a set of secret instructions.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31They told him to take possession of convenient situations
0:06:31 > 0:06:33in the name of the King of Great Britain.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Cook was going to claim undiscovered lands for the British.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42This shows that the mission was as political as it was scientific.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Cook was going to extend British influence
0:06:45 > 0:06:48to the very furthest corners of the globe.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57In the 18th century, land was power -
0:06:57 > 0:07:02a source of new markets, with new products to exploit -
0:07:02 > 0:07:04and there was fierce competition for it.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09The French Foreign Minister condemned Britain's Imperial project.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14Britain, he said, was a restless and greedy nation.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19As Cook crossed the Pacific, the French explorer
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Louis de Bougainville was also circumnavigating the globe.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28It was a perfect excuse to claim lands for his king.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35Bougainville wanted to stop what he described as Britain's project of universal monarchy.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38"We must anticipate them," he cried.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42The race for global supremacy was on.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Bougainville and Cook were searching for a mythical southern continent,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07another new world of riches believed to exist deep in the southern ocean.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11So, when Captain Cook's look-out spotted land at Cape Howe that
0:08:11 > 0:08:16April evening in 1770, the stakes couldn't have been higher.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24Cook followed the coastline until his look-outs spotted
0:08:24 > 0:08:26a beautiful natural harbour.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29When they sailed into it, the sea was full of stingrays
0:08:29 > 0:08:31and he called it Sting Ray Cove, but later,
0:08:31 > 0:08:37after he'd been ashore and seen the bewildering variety of plants there,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39he renamed it Botany Bay.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Little did he know it at the time, but this wasn't just some
0:08:43 > 0:08:48insignificant South Pacific island. This was Australia.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55Cook claimed this new land for his king.
0:08:56 > 0:09:02The Navy he sailed with had grown beyond its traditional role as a fighting force.
0:09:02 > 0:09:08It had become a vehicle of empire building, projecting British power,
0:09:08 > 0:09:13driving commerce and conquest to the far side of the world.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Captain Cook drew up more than 40 maps and surveys
0:09:25 > 0:09:28as he sailed across the South Pacific.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33Today, they're held at the British Library in London.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37This is a collection of sketches and charts actually made by James Cook
0:09:37 > 0:09:39as he led the crew of the Endeavour
0:09:39 > 0:09:43on that extraordinary voyage of discovery. This one shows
0:09:43 > 0:09:48the track of the Endeavour through the South Pacific, this dotted line here.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52And then it shows him arriving at the east coast of Australia here, where he
0:09:52 > 0:09:56went on to chart 2,000 miles of that coastline, naming the key points and
0:09:56 > 0:09:59marking out navigational hazards.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04And he's written, probably quite proudly here, "Discovered in 1770".
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Previous to his voyage, much of this space here just would have
0:10:09 > 0:10:14been blank, but now he's sailing through it, filling in the gaps.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17What I find so fascinating about the Navy in this period
0:10:17 > 0:10:21is how these expeditions were unlocking the secrets of the globe.
0:10:25 > 0:10:31This age of naval exploration may not have involved spectacular battles, but its
0:10:31 > 0:10:36impact was every bit as significant, both for the Navy's own prestige and
0:10:36 > 0:10:39Britain's international standing.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46As soon as Cook got home, the British Government published these charts to prove that
0:10:46 > 0:10:48his discoveries were genuine,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52but it was about much more than geography, it was about politics.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Both the British Government and Cook were laying claim
0:10:55 > 0:10:58to this coast of Australia, which Cook even called New South Wales,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01and if you look at the other names he's choosing, they're
0:11:01 > 0:11:04ostentatiously patriotic -
0:11:04 > 0:11:06particularly this one, Cape St George.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09I mean, you can't get more British than that.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Australia would prove one of Britain's most valuable colonies.
0:11:22 > 0:11:29English speaking, cricket playing, British in institution and law.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Yet, for the personalities and skills of the crews involved,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36it could all have been very different.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39One year before Cook sighted Australia,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Louis de Bougainville had reached the Great Barrier Reef.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48But the French explorer was deterred by the dangerous shallow waters.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00By 1771, goods from her colonies were pouring into Britain.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Dockside, merchant ships unloaded precious hardwoods from North America,
0:12:05 > 0:12:11salted fish from Canada, exotic silks and spices from India.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14The Empire had never been so rich or so extensive -
0:12:14 > 0:12:18and it was the Navy's job to keep it that way.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25This was the inheritance of young sailors like Horatio Nelson.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30One of hundreds of midshipmen, trainee officers,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33being toughened up to do their duty at sea.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37# When I was one I banged my drum The day I went to sea
0:12:37 > 0:12:41# I jumped aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me
0:12:41 > 0:12:45# We're going this way, that way Forwards and backwards
0:12:45 > 0:12:46# Over the Irish Sea... #
0:12:46 > 0:12:47Places, places!
0:12:47 > 0:12:49THEY GROAN
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Just as Nelson would have done more than 200 years ago,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55these cadets, aboard the training ship, Royalist,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59are being taught the dangerous and demanding arts of tall ship sailing.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05What these guys are learning here is that in order to make this ship
0:13:05 > 0:13:09work safely and efficiently, you've got to work as a team and you've got to obey orders.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Everything has a set procedure.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20The Royal Navy was a meritocracy. The sea was an unforgiving master,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22and to get promoted up through the ranks,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26you had to prove that you could sail and fight.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Nelson initially showed little sign of such promise.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35The captain of his first warship asked, "What had poor Horace done,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40"who is so weak that he above all the rest should be sent to rough it out at sea?"
0:13:43 > 0:13:45Nelson was far from alone.
0:13:45 > 0:13:52Recruits as young as ten were sent to sea for months at a time, surrounded by the same faces,
0:13:52 > 0:13:54confined within the same wooden walls.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59It was as much a psychological test as a physical one.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03The Navy's solution to this was to insist on a strict routine -
0:14:03 > 0:14:07the same no matter what ship you were on, no matter where you were in the world.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11The young men would have learned self-reliance and to obey orders
0:14:11 > 0:14:14in order to overcome the terror and the tedium of being at sea.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19I want that sheet secure.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23It was often a life of hard labour, of lifting and mending sails and
0:14:23 > 0:14:26rigging, carrying cannon balls and gun powder.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Yet it was also, for many young officers,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33a rare chance to get an education.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38The rigours of climbing aloft were interspersed with traditional school lessons,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41with emphasis on the complex mathematics and trigonometry
0:14:41 > 0:14:43required for navigation.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Through this regime, the Navy turned children like Nelson
0:14:49 > 0:14:55from unpromising raw recruits into experienced fighting men.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00Nelson himself remembered, "Thus, by degrees, I became a good pilot
0:15:00 > 0:15:02"and confident of myself."
0:15:06 > 0:15:10By the age of just 19, when he became a lieutenant,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Nelson had travelled over 45,000 miles around the world.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Like thousands of other young boys,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Nelson was seeing the sheer scale of Britain's global ambition at
0:15:22 > 0:15:26first hand, and visiting her growing empire.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28He'd been down into the southern oceans,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36He almost died of malaria in Bombay, helping safeguard British trading
0:15:36 > 0:15:41interests in the east, and he'd even fought pirates in the Caribbean.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Nelson had joined the ranks of a highly professional force -
0:15:53 > 0:15:58sailors filled, as he said, "with ardent ambition".
0:15:58 > 0:16:01They were a band of brothers,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05dedicated to the projection of British power on a world stage.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17The Navy's increasing global reach
0:16:17 > 0:16:21changed how Britain saw the world and their place within it.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28In 1768, the Royal Academy of Arts was established in central London.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34It was an opportunity seized upon by a canny Admiralty.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37They put on display paintings of naval missions,
0:16:37 > 0:16:42some of which are held today at the National Maritime Museum.
0:16:42 > 0:16:48The Admiralty collection includes works by Captain Cook's onboard artist, William Hodges.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52His paintings depicted Britain's growing empire.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58Britain was naming and mapping the world and now,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02by capturing it on canvas, in many ways she was claiming it as well.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06The people who saw these paintings were left with a very simple and
0:17:06 > 0:17:13immediate message - that Britain didn't just rule the world's oceans, but the world itself.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Visitors to the exhibitions could furnish their own homes
0:17:23 > 0:17:25with copies of these images,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28as print shops opened up in the streets around the Royal Academy.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Marine art had never been so popular.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35This is a view of Portsmouth Harbour,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39painted in 1770 by Dominic Serres, and it's dominated
0:17:39 > 0:17:43by this fantastic ship of the line, a battleship anchored here
0:17:43 > 0:17:45in the middle with its two rows of cannons
0:17:45 > 0:17:49run out, hatches open and the captain on the stern, perhaps
0:17:49 > 0:17:53talking to the first lieutenant. And there's some figures here, in the foreground.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58An unfeasibly smart-looking seaman here, perhaps in his Sunday rig,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02talking to a naval officer, and two marine officers here,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04lounging around on some cannon.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10This, then, is how the Admiralty wanted the British to see their
0:18:10 > 0:18:15Navy - ordered, well equipped, ready for any eventuality.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20But these images disguised an extraordinary truth.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23That a navy that wasn't fighting
0:18:23 > 0:18:26risked falling into neglect and disrepair.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30After a decade of peace, British naval expenditure was at less than
0:18:30 > 0:18:32a quarter of its wartime levels,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36and much of the fleet was mothballed or simply tied up in port.
0:18:36 > 0:18:43One admiral complained that, of 35 ships under his command, only six were seaworthy.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46To make matters worse, across the Channel in France,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49the King wasn't just painting pretty pictures of his fleet.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52He was building an entirely new one.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59Louis XVI was determined to end the Royal Navy's pre-eminence at sea.
0:19:01 > 0:19:07He ordered the construction of new docks and oversaw the completion of 80 new warships.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12Ready to pounce, Louis now waited for the right moment
0:19:12 > 0:19:16to deploy his powerful new fleet and ruin Britain.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27His opportunity would come from 3,000 miles to the west,
0:19:27 > 0:19:32across the Atlantic Ocean, from within the British Empire.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50On the 9th of May, 1768, British customs officials in Boston harbour
0:19:50 > 0:19:54boarded an American merchant ship, The Liberty.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57It was carrying a cargo of imported Madeira wine.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01The next morning, customs officials inspected the hold of the ship.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05They were a little bit suspicious when they discovered that it
0:20:05 > 0:20:08contained only a quarter of her total capacity.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11They thought that during the night people had
0:20:11 > 0:20:15been secretly unloading the cargo to avoid paying customs duties.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19They asked the Royal Navy to impound The Liberty.
0:20:21 > 0:20:27Working alongside customs officials, naval ships were enforcing stringent
0:20:27 > 0:20:30tariffs on American trade.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34The revenues raised helped pay for the Royal Navy and for colonial
0:20:34 > 0:20:39defence, but the very principle was anathema to the Americans.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47The Liberty's owner, John Hancock, was arrested for tax evasion.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52He sat in the dock for five months before the case collapsed.
0:20:53 > 0:20:59All across the eastern seaboard, American traders faced what they
0:20:59 > 0:21:03saw as harassment from an aggressive British fleet.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06The Navy, which for centuries had been held up by the British
0:21:06 > 0:21:09as the defender of their liberties from foreign tyranny,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13was now seen by many in America as a tyrant herself.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17It was a perception that was forcing them to reconsider
0:21:17 > 0:21:19their entire relationship with Britain.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27The tension would culminate on the 4th of July 1776,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31with the Declaration of American Independence.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36Most prominent among the signatures was John Hancock,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38the owner of the Liberty.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43Britain was now at war with her own subjects.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Back home, the Navy board went into overdrive
0:21:56 > 0:22:00to supply over 100 ships now fighting a transatlantic war.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07But after two years of conflict, as the new Navy board controller,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Charles Middleton, made his way to work in London's Seething Lane,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13the Navy was in deep crisis.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16What had begun as a local civil war between Britain
0:22:16 > 0:22:20and her rebellious colonists with a rag-tag army,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23had now turned into a truly global contest,
0:22:23 > 0:22:28because a few months before, France, sensing her opportunity for revenge,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30had declared war on Britain.
0:22:33 > 0:22:41In 1778, King Louis XVI ordered his new fleet across the Atlantic to support the American rebels.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Within months, the French navy had forced British troops to abandon
0:22:46 > 0:22:50America's biggest city, Philadelphia.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53The situation was perilous.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57The enemy, Middleton warned, outnumber us at every station.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05The solution to the problem seems obvious - to build more ships.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10But it could take up to five years and 2,000 trees to construct a single warship.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Middleton didn't have the time or resources to build a new fleet.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24The only option was to improve the ships he already had.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Just a few weeks after he began work at the Navy board,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32a letter from a Mr Fisher arrived on Middleton's desk.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Fisher's original correspondence doesn't survive, but its content
0:23:36 > 0:23:41is referred to in records held at the National Maritime Museum.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45This is a letter written by the Navy Board to their colleagues at the
0:23:45 > 0:23:51Admiralty on the 27th of January, 1779, and it contains a vital clue.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55It mentions Mr Fisher, calls him a ship builder from Liverpool
0:23:55 > 0:23:58whose ships did a brisk trade with West Africa.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03Now, in these warm tropical waters, shipworm were a real problem.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07These little worm would burrow into the hull of a ship and weaken the fabric of the vessel,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11but also, long tentacles of seaweed would form, clinging onto the sides
0:24:11 > 0:24:13of the ship and really slow it down.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Mr Fisher's solution was copper sheathing.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Coating the underside of the hull beneath the water line with copper panels.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Thus protecting the integrity of the ship and, crucially,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30making it travel a lot faster through the water.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41Middleton saw in this experimental technology a possible solution to his problem.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45He would sheath the bottoms of his wooden fleet in copper.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53It was, though, an expensive process and Middleton urgently needed money
0:24:53 > 0:25:00if he was to, as he put it, "Extricate us from present danger".
0:25:01 > 0:25:07Middleton petitioned the king, George III, for a personal meeting at Buckingham House.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11He said, "It was a matter of the greatest consequence".
0:25:11 > 0:25:16And what better way to convince the King than to take along a beautiful
0:25:16 > 0:25:18scale model? And this is the actual
0:25:18 > 0:25:22one that Middleton brought to that meeting with George III.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26It's of HMS Bellona, which was a 74-gun battleship,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29and the detail is wonderful - you can see the wood carvings
0:25:29 > 0:25:33and the paintings along the side. But the really important detail
0:25:33 > 0:25:37is the copper plating below the water line down here.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41There would have been about 3,000 plates of copper on a full-sized ship of this kind,
0:25:41 > 0:25:48but this detail is so intricate, you can see the nails that actually hold the copper plates to the hull.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52It must have really impressed the King because he threw his support
0:25:52 > 0:25:59behind the Navy's bold project to spend huge amounts of money on a totally unproven technology.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05It was a great industrial challenge.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Sheathing just one ship could require 15 tonnes of copper.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12But Middleton drove the project forward.
0:26:12 > 0:26:18At Portsmouth docks, he placed orders to copper-bottom 51 Navy ships within the year.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24It was a uniquely British triumph.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32Only British industry had the ability to produce copper on such a scale.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Here at Parys Mountain in North Wales,
0:26:36 > 0:26:415,000 men worked the rich seams of an open cast copper mine.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47During its lifetime, Parys produced over 130,000 tonnes of copper,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52much of it to supply the Navy with this vital munition of war.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56The copper was sourced exclusively from British mines
0:26:56 > 0:26:59and the smelting process required a vast quantity of coal
0:26:59 > 0:27:03which itself needed mining, often using new steam engines
0:27:03 > 0:27:07which drained water out of the deepest shafts.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12The finished products needed to be carried on new roads and new merchant ships.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17All of this created new jobs and economic communities all over the country.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20The Royal Navy wasn't just benefiting
0:27:20 > 0:27:25from domestic industrialisation, it was also accelerating it.
0:27:27 > 0:27:33But as the naval dockyards rushed to complete the task of coppering the fleet,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37across the Atlantic in America, the war effort was crumbling.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44In 1781, the French Navy had blockaded the British Army in Chesapeake Bay,
0:27:44 > 0:27:50cutting off their supply lines by sea and forcing them to surrender.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55In that moment, the American colonies were lost.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00One naval defeat, and half a continent slipped out of Britain's grasp.
0:28:03 > 0:28:0720,000 stranded British troops had to be evacuated.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10The newly promoted Captain Nelson
0:28:10 > 0:28:13joined a naval force sent to bring them home.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18And Louis XVI looked to build upon his sudden maritime advantage.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23Flushed with victory, the French turned their attention and their fleets south.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26They were after an even greater prize, the very foundation of
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Britain's imperial economy - her colonies in the Caribbean,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and their most precious commodity - sugar.
0:28:40 > 0:28:47Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua and most importantly of all, Jamaica,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51were the jewels in Britain's imperial crown.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01These Caribbean islands were much more valuable than the 13 colonies
0:29:01 > 0:29:04clinging to the eastern seaboard of North America.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Their lush soil and plenty of rainfall - they were home to the sugar plantations.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15The lucrative sugar trade powered the British economy.
0:29:15 > 0:29:21Slaves in the Caribbean harvested 80,000 tonnes of sugar each year.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Customs duties on this contributed the equivalent
0:29:24 > 0:29:29of well over £250 million annually to the Treasury.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33The British sweet tooth paid for the war effort.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37King George III himself warned that, "If we lose our sugar islands,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40"it will be impossible to raise money to continue the war.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42"We must defend these islands,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45"even at the risk of an invasion of Britain."
0:29:55 > 0:29:58This site at Kenilworth in north west Jamaica
0:29:58 > 0:30:00was a great sugar estate.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09It stretched over 500 acres, and was one of hundreds of plantations
0:30:09 > 0:30:14built along this coast so that their produce could easily be exported to Britain.
0:30:14 > 0:30:20But Kenilworth's proximity to the sea also made it vulnerable.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Kenilworth wasn't just a sugar factory.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25It was also by necessity a fortress,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29and this is what remains of that 18th century gun battery.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39This cannon pointed out to sea to stave off the threat of attack by pirates and privateers as well as
0:30:39 > 0:30:45the French and Spanish navies, but never was the risk to this island
0:30:45 > 0:30:48greater than in the spring of 1782.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55On the 8th April, a French fleet of 36 warships,
0:30:55 > 0:31:01accompanied by over 15,000 troops, set sail from Martinique.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05Their commander, the Comte de Grasse, planned to
0:31:05 > 0:31:11invade Jamaica's northern coast and grab the spoils for France.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16De Grasse was so confident of victory that his fleet was accompanied by
0:31:16 > 0:31:18a convoy of merchant ships,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22their holds stuffed with trade goods to supply his new colony.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25But Jamaica was just the beginning, the first step.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29His plan was to drive the British entirely from the Caribbean
0:31:29 > 0:31:31and destroy the British economy.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35The future of Britain's transatlantic empire depended on
0:31:35 > 0:31:40defending this coast, this island, from those French forces.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49The task of protecting Jamaica fell to the Royal Navy's Caribbean fleet
0:31:49 > 0:31:56and its recently upgraded but as yet untested copper-bottomed ships.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01Their commander, Admiral Sir George Rodney, seemed a bit of a liability.
0:32:01 > 0:32:07A gambler and a womaniser, he was deeply unpopular at the Admiralty.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10But Rodney did have what it took to be an outstanding leader.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13He'd joined the navy at just 14.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Since then he'd served 50 years, and in that half century he'd become
0:32:17 > 0:32:21thoroughly imbued with the Royal Navy's aggressive ethos.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26In battle, he was violent and single minded.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30If anyone could save Jamaica, Rodney could.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35On the 12th April at the Saints Islands, Rodney attacked.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43Conditions were actually quite similar to those today.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46The wind was very changeable and kept moving direction,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49but this gave Rodney one key advantage.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52His fleet was copper bottomed and much quicker and more manoeuvrable,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55particularly in these light breeze conditions.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02The French general, Antoine de Bougainville, the man who'd raced
0:33:02 > 0:33:07Captain Cook across the Pacific, was now serving with de Grasse's fleet.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11He was stunned by the speed and agility of the British ships.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Bougainville described the British advantage.
0:33:14 > 0:33:20He said, "The French ships were like tortoises chasing British stags."
0:33:28 > 0:33:32One British midshipman who fought at the Saints said,
0:33:32 > 0:33:34"We knocked the French fleet to atoms.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39"It was," he said, "the best day old England ever saw."
0:33:42 > 0:33:46And after 11 hours of fighting, the French surrendered.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52Their admiral, Comte de Grasse, conceded that his navy
0:33:52 > 0:33:56was operating a full century behind the British.
0:33:59 > 0:34:05Rodney had saved Jamaica and her precious sugar trade, the key stone of the British economy.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10In the Jamaican capital, Kingston,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13a giant marble statue was erected in his honour.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16Here on the side, there's some fantastic detail.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20Britannia here in the middle, with her union flag on the shield,
0:34:20 > 0:34:25and at the very bottom, Britannia is trampling on the French flag.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29You can see here the fleur-de-lis, symbol of the French monarchy.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35It's fascinating to think what would have happened if de Grasse had won that battle.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39Perhaps his statue would be up there now looking down on me.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43Britain would almost certainly have lost her sugar islands and
0:34:43 > 0:34:47all the trade with them that was such a mainstay of her economy.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50But even more important than that, confidence, the great elixir
0:34:50 > 0:34:52of the capitalist system, would have dried up.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55The stock market would have collapsed,
0:34:55 > 0:34:56and with it, the Government.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01Britain would have been no better than a third-rate power.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Rodney's aggression was widely credited as
0:35:12 > 0:35:16the reason for the preservation of Britain's Caribbean empire.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20But he had an even greater edge over his rivals,
0:35:20 > 0:35:22thanks to the efforts of a little known bureaucrat
0:35:22 > 0:35:27working in a side street 3,000 miles away in the city of London.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32Charles Middleton, the navy board controller.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37The man who had the foresight and resolve to launch a copper revolution.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Global peace was restored in 1783.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Britain gave up her 13 colonies in North America,
0:35:49 > 0:35:52but retained key possessions all across the globe,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56including her vital Caribbean colonies.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02Over the next 20 years, the revenues from imperial trade
0:36:02 > 0:36:09trebled in value, with much of the profits re-invested in a rejuvenated Royal Navy.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11The French king, Louis XVI,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15had failed in his attempt to dismember the British Empire,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17and he'd pay for it with his head.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23In chasing his dream of defeating the Royal Navy,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Louis bankrupted his kingdom.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29France was torn apart by revolution
0:36:29 > 0:36:35and on the 21st January 1793, he was executed as a traitor.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39Within days, the new Republic of France
0:36:39 > 0:36:44had declared war on Britain for the sixth time in 100 years.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49But this time, their aim was to eradicate the British state.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07A year after war was declared, a vicar, James Hurdis, made his way to
0:37:07 > 0:37:14St Andrew's Church in Bishopstone, Sussex, for a Sunday service.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17Hurdis was no typical country cleric.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22He was an Oxford professor and an ardent anti-republican, who believed
0:37:22 > 0:37:27it was his patriotic duty to give political guidance to his flock.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30And he used a particular naval allusion to do it.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Hurdis asked his congregation to imagine that Britain
0:37:34 > 0:37:38was a ship of war, and they, the British people, were her crew.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42The ship would operate effectively if they did as they were told by
0:37:42 > 0:37:47their senior officers and respected their superiors.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52But, he warned, if they should all conceive themselves to be equal
0:37:52 > 0:37:55and each to be guided by his own will,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59then the ship would change its course and they must be wrecked.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04He went on to say that if they deposed the captain in a mutiny,
0:38:04 > 0:38:09then they would instantly divide and fall asunder.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13To his audience, the symbolism was clear.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21Across the Channel in France, the Reign of Terror was in full swing.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28Thousands of enemies of the state had followed Louis XVI to the guillotine.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35The congregation listening to Hurdis here would have been filled with
0:38:35 > 0:38:41a fear of French republican terror, and his solution was that they unite
0:38:41 > 0:38:43behind traditional values -
0:38:43 > 0:38:47respect for church and king, parliament and law.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49It was a call to arms.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Hurdis's sermon struck a chord with the people of Bishopstone.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05Their parish was just a mile inland from the English Channel.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08And if the Royal Navy was defeated at sea,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11they'd be on the front line when the French invaded.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16Britain had faced invasion from France countless times before,
0:39:16 > 0:39:18but this time would be different.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22This wouldn't just be a physical conquest, a bit of regime change,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25a subtle exchange of one group of politicians for another.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28This time it was ideological.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32At stake was nothing less than the entire British way of life.
0:39:35 > 0:39:41The fear of French invasion quickly spread across the country,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44and, faced with utter destruction,
0:39:44 > 0:39:49Britons looked yet again to their navy for salvation.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59The British public were well used to paying for their navy.
0:39:59 > 0:40:06Now, if Britain was to preserve her national security, they'd have to man it too.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09The fleet had expanded to more than 1,000 ships,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13and the biggest required crews of up to 900 skilled men.
0:40:15 > 0:40:20Commodore Nelson explained the extent of the problem to his brother, William.
0:40:20 > 0:40:26"I've only got a few men and very hard indeed are they to be got," he said.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31The Admiralty embraced a solution that it had used so often
0:40:31 > 0:40:35in wars of the past, and that's legalised kidnapping.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39For centuries, the Government had sanctioned the use of so-called press gangs.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43These groups of armed men now roamed the country
0:40:43 > 0:40:47looking for sailors to send to sea without their own consent.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49This was a practice that didn't really sit well with
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Britain's reputation as the home of personal liberty,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56but it was the only sure way of manning the fleet.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01In the Bodleian library in Oxford,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05the archive holds a collection of the Gentleman's Magazine, a monthly
0:41:05 > 0:41:10publication which often carried stories about press gang activity.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13I found one here that's a case heard by the Old Bailey,
0:41:13 > 0:41:20about a Mr William Godfrey, who's a citizen and "cooper", or barrel-maker of London.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24It says that this particular lawless body of sailors burst into his house
0:41:24 > 0:41:27in open defiance of the law, seized him, knocked him down and dragged
0:41:27 > 0:41:32him through the streets of London with only one of his slippers on.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35And then there's the wedding party that turns into a huge brawl
0:41:35 > 0:41:37as a press gang tried to grab the groom.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Luckily, he and his new wife managed to escape.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44And there's the man who was torn from his carriage on his way home.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47On another occasion it says that after some particularly vigorous
0:41:47 > 0:41:51press gang activity, the River Thames was swept clean of mariners.
0:41:53 > 0:41:59The press gang clearly looms large in the popular imagination of the 18th century,
0:41:59 > 0:42:04but despite some of the scare stories, it wasn't total anarchy.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08Most press gangs operated only in ports.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14Their mission was to try and press merchant seamen, men who knew their way around a tall ship.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18It was in no-one's interest to fill ships up with a bunch of landsmen -
0:42:18 > 0:42:20people that had never been to sea before.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22They'd be a danger to themselves and the rest of the crew.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26And in fact most sailors were pressed when they were out at sea,
0:42:26 > 0:42:30when their ships were intercepted by the press gang in small boats.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33They were seized before they'd set foot on dry land.
0:42:36 > 0:42:43At the height of the war, almost 40% of crews were pressed into service.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Although widely criticised, impressment did boost naval
0:42:46 > 0:42:52man power to 140,000 sailors, seven times its peace time level.
0:42:54 > 0:43:01This was just as well, because the Royal Navy was now outgunned at sea.
0:43:06 > 0:43:12In February 1797, a British force of 15 ships sailed south along
0:43:12 > 0:43:16Portugal's Atlantic coast, searching for a Spanish convoy.
0:43:19 > 0:43:26A few months earlier, Spain had joined forces with France to wage war against Britain.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30The commander of the British fleet was Admiral John Jervis,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33and this ship, HMS Victory, was his flagship.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37For sometime, he'd been waiting off the coast of Portugal,
0:43:37 > 0:43:39hoping to intercept the Spanish, but terrible storms
0:43:39 > 0:43:43had made it impossible for him to track them down.
0:43:43 > 0:43:50Then on 13th February 1797, a new ship arrived to reinforce Jervis.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54On board was a senior officer with some vital information.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59That officer was Horatio Nelson.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01In 25 years of service,
0:44:01 > 0:44:07he'd earned a reputation as an impulsive, aggressive leader.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09"It is my disposition," he wrote,
0:44:09 > 0:44:13"that dangers do but increase my idea of attempting them."
0:44:13 > 0:44:18Now, Nelson would prove his words with action.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25The night before reaching HMS Victory, Nelson had, by chance,
0:44:25 > 0:44:31sailed right through the Spanish fleet at nearby Cape St Vincent.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33Armed with this intelligence,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35the British had the advantage of surprise.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Early the next morning, they attacked.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54The noise down here on the gun deck during battle would have been extraordinary.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58The men's ears bled, some were deafened for the rest of their lives.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04Just one enemy cannon ball coming through these wooden walls could kill an entire gun crew.
0:45:04 > 0:45:10The deck was sprinkled with sand to soak up the blood but, within minutes of battle being joined, it
0:45:10 > 0:45:17was strewn with severed limbs, torsos and other unidentifiable human remains.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22It's no surprise that the men who fought down here called it the slaughterhouse.
0:45:24 > 0:45:29Amid the smoke and chaos, Nelson spotted an opportunity
0:45:29 > 0:45:32and he would never look back.
0:45:32 > 0:45:39Without waiting for orders, Nelson spun his ship round and tore into the heart of the enemy fleet.
0:45:39 > 0:45:45Once he was there, he drove it alongside a Spanish vessel and roaring,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48"Westminster Abbey, oh, glorious victory!"
0:45:48 > 0:45:53he led his crew armed with cutlasses and pistols onto the enemy deck.
0:45:53 > 0:45:58He managed to capture that ship and the one next to it.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05Taking two enemy vessels like this was a unique achievement.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Before the battle of Cape St Vincent,
0:46:11 > 0:46:16Nelson was considered just one of a gifted generation of sailors.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20But after, he'd marked himself out as someone exceptional,
0:46:20 > 0:46:25a daring leader with confidence and abilities beyond his contemporaries.
0:46:26 > 0:46:32Now Nelson showed that he didn't just have a flair for combat, but also self-publicity.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35He immediately sought out an author called Colonel Drinkwater,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39who was travelling with the fleet, to make a record of any fighting.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43He made sure that Drinkwater was well aware of his heroics.
0:46:43 > 0:46:48By the time he returned back to Britain, he decided to write a rather dramatic account of the
0:46:48 > 0:46:54battle, which he modestly called A Few Remarks Relative To Myself.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58A copy of this was hand delivered to the King and it appeared in two
0:46:58 > 0:47:01popular newspapers, True Britain and The Sun.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Nelson was front page news.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11For the Admiralty, Nelson's heroics were a godsend,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15some good PR to lift the morale of a war weary nation.
0:47:20 > 0:47:27By the summer of 1798, Britain faced economic disaster.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32The war was being fought on a scale never before seen.
0:47:32 > 0:47:39Through its course, the government would spend a staggering £1,657 million on defence.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43A tenfold increase on peacetime military expenditure
0:47:43 > 0:47:47and the equivalent of over £100 billion today.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Taxes had to be raised time and again.
0:47:53 > 0:47:58The political satirist, James Gillray, condemned the financial burden.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02In his cartoon, The Friend Of The People,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06a tax collector is shown knocking on the door of a modest British home.
0:48:06 > 0:48:12"Taxes, taxes, taxes", bemoans the owner, "how am I to get money to pay them all?"
0:48:12 > 0:48:14But it still wasn't enough.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23In the parliamentary archive in the House of Lords, there is a remarkable document revealing the
0:48:23 > 0:48:27government's radical response to the growing fiscal crisis.
0:48:30 > 0:48:35In 1799, Parliament passed an act designed to raise revenue and in typically flowery language,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38the preamble explains what they intended to do.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42"That we, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects,
0:48:42 > 0:48:49do voluntarily grant your Majesty several rates and duties."
0:48:49 > 0:48:53It was a new tax, designed to be just a temporary measure to help
0:48:53 > 0:48:56pay for the war and fund the Army and the Navy.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58It was called income tax.
0:49:00 > 0:49:06From 1799, every British subject earning more than £60 a year
0:49:06 > 0:49:10was charged income tax at a rate of 10 per cent.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15Here at the end of the Act is the first example of a tax return,
0:49:15 > 0:49:22listing all the types of income to be taxed, from property, rent and employment.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29This document is such a fascinating reminder of the way in which this war of unprecedented
0:49:29 > 0:49:33cost and intensity was revolutionising British life.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37In industry, commerce and now here in finance and, of course,
0:49:37 > 0:49:41we're still living with the legacy of this act in the present day.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50In its first year, income tax raised £6 million towards the war effort,
0:49:50 > 0:49:53enough to build 100 warships.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00Income tax, like impressment, was highly contentious,
0:50:00 > 0:50:05but its impact was felt way beyond Westminster.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10At sea, the Royal Navy entered the most critical phase of the war in rude health.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12Fully funded and well manned.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18It was the high tide of British naval power.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Dominant on the seas of Europe, the Navy began a campaign of
0:50:24 > 0:50:28attrition, designed to crush the enemy's trade and morale.
0:50:29 > 0:50:37From 1803, major French and Spanish ports were blockaded, encircled by the fleet's wooden walls.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43It was a highly effective strategy.
0:50:43 > 0:50:51While the British trained at sea, the enemy were trapped in harbour, impotent and immobile.
0:50:55 > 0:51:01Here in Cadiz in autumn 1805, a Franco-Spanish force
0:51:01 > 0:51:08of 33 warships was tied up in ports, its commanders desperate to break out of the Navy stranglehold.
0:51:10 > 0:51:18But a few miles out to sea, Admiral Nelson was waiting for them with a fleet of 27 heavily armed warships.
0:51:22 > 0:51:27Aboard the flagship, HMS Victory, Nelson summoned his senior officers
0:51:27 > 0:51:30to his cabin to discuss the battle plan.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33What he called "The Nelson Touch."
0:51:33 > 0:51:39Nelson's plan was confident and aggressive, but it was also risky.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44He was going to divide his ships up and send them right at the heart of the enemy.
0:51:44 > 0:51:51This, he hoped, would break up their formation and provoke the kind of anarchic melee that he desired.
0:51:51 > 0:51:57He wanted his captains to use their initiative in selecting their targets, but he told them,
0:51:57 > 0:52:02"No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy."
0:52:02 > 0:52:07One on one, he was certain that his ships would prevail.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Nelson knew that he was outnumbered and outgunned, but he also knew that
0:52:13 > 0:52:17he commanded the finest naval weapon of the age of sail.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21A combination of men, ships and cannon that had been
0:52:21 > 0:52:26honed to the point of perfection over more than 200 years and this
0:52:26 > 0:52:33was the moment that Nelson was going to use that weapon to annihilate Britain's greatest enemies.
0:52:38 > 0:52:43On the 19th of October, the enemy attempted to break out of the blockade.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48Two days later, the British caught up with them, near Cape Trafalgar.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52An able seaman serving on board HMS Victory
0:52:52 > 0:52:57said the sight cheered the heart of every British sailor.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02He described the men around him as being like lions, anxious to be at it.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30The Battle of Trafalgar has seared itself into the national psyche.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33In the Royal Gallery at the House of Lords a vast
0:53:33 > 0:53:39fresco commemorates the battle in the very heart of government.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43It measures almost 15 metres wide.
0:53:43 > 0:53:49This gigantic fresco shows the quarterdeck of HMS Victory, Nelson's
0:53:49 > 0:53:53flagship, at the very climax of the Battle of Trafalgar and it's locked
0:53:53 > 0:53:59in single combat with the French warship, The Redoubtable, which you can just see in the background.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02The Victory and the French ship were so close together
0:54:02 > 0:54:06their rigging became entangled so they couldn't part from each other.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10The Victory's gun crews couldn't even wheel out their cannons to their full extent.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12They were touching the hull of the French ship.
0:54:22 > 0:54:28There are men here suffering from musket wounds and terrible jagged wounds from splinters that would
0:54:28 > 0:54:34have spiralled, cart wheeled through the air as cannon balls carved into the oak decks of the ship.
0:54:42 > 0:54:48In many ways, the first half of the Battle of Trafalgar, the forgotten half, is the blockade of Cadiz.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53The Spanish and French ships rotting at their moorings, their crews unable to train,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56to go through their gunnery practise like, like the British.
0:54:56 > 0:55:02Yellow fever broke out, they had scurvy, and perhaps most of all, the depression, the malaise that
0:55:02 > 0:55:06came from being bottled up in port, knowing that you couldn't go out to sea
0:55:06 > 0:55:09because a far superior British fleet was waiting for you.
0:55:09 > 0:55:17In just four hours of fighting, highly drilled crews on HMS Victory fired more than 3,000 cannon balls.
0:55:17 > 0:55:24They fired so fast that one French sailor claimed, "The devil loaded their guns."
0:55:24 > 0:55:28The Royal Navy crews were tough veterans that had spent years
0:55:28 > 0:55:31sailing the Mediterranean, the Atlantic.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34They'd gone through these drills hundreds of times,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36they'd fired these guns thousands of times,
0:55:36 > 0:55:41they knew exactly what they were doing and they were able to keep doing their jobs
0:55:41 > 0:55:45in the most hideous, destructive environment imaginable.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49What you can see here are actually the rhythms and the discipline of
0:55:49 > 0:55:56the Royal Navy working, despite coming under tremendous stress from enemy fire.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03At around 4.30pm the cannons fell silent.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07Britain had secured an overwhelming victory.
0:56:09 > 0:56:16But as the Royal Navy celebrated, news began to spread of a terrible loss.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20In the very centre of the painting lies Admiral Nelson.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24He's just been fatally wounded by a shot fired by a sniper
0:56:24 > 0:56:27who was perched high in the rigging of The Redoubtable.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30The shot had shattered his left shoulder, entered his body,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34cut his spinal column and is slowly filling his chest cavity with blood.
0:56:37 > 0:56:43The man who'd begun his naval career as a young midshipman, rowing past HMS Victory
0:56:43 > 0:56:4934 year before in Chatham, was now lying mortally wounded on her oak deck.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16All positions where possible set watch on Charlie group.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Today, Nelson is remembered as the greatest commander in naval history.
0:57:19 > 0:57:25So would the consequences of his death be disastrous for Britain and her Navy?
0:57:25 > 0:57:28Well, no...
0:57:28 > 0:57:33Nelson had inherited a fleet that was an unparalleled military machine
0:57:33 > 0:57:35and his death had little impact on it.
0:57:35 > 0:57:43The powerful ships, the well trained crews and the spirit of aggression and ambition all lived on.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49The commander of the Channel fleets, Admiral Cornwallis,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53described the true foundations of Nelson's greatness.
0:57:54 > 0:58:00"Everything seemed as if by enchantment to prosper under his direction," he said.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04"But it was the effect of system not of chance."
0:58:06 > 0:58:14At Trafalgar, the Navy's band of brothers had paved the way for France's ultimate defeat in 1815.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17Safeguarding Britain's independence and her identity.
0:58:20 > 0:58:26Thanks to the Navy, Britain had decisively won the greatest war in her history and proved
0:58:26 > 0:58:33that no land empire, no matter how powerful or large, could ever defeat a nation that dominated the sea.
0:58:33 > 0:58:40The sea was the true source of wealth and power and to control it was to control the world.
0:58:44 > 0:58:51Next time, Nelson's victory gave the Navy mastery of the seas, but in time, new challenges and new enemies
0:58:51 > 0:58:55would take Britain to the very brink of disaster.
0:59:09 > 0:59:11Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:11 > 0:59:14E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk