0:00:14 > 0:00:18We're all familiar with the story of how Britain conquered the sea...
0:00:18 > 0:00:20CANNONS BOOM
0:00:22 > 0:00:25..a story that rings with glorious naval victory
0:00:25 > 0:00:30and acts of heroism which helped build a huge empire.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34But there's a less well known maritime phenomenon
0:00:34 > 0:00:39that has shaped our history, our destiny and our national character -
0:00:39 > 0:00:43the shipwreck, the sailor's ultimate nightmare,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47so terrifying, but so much a part of the price paid
0:00:47 > 0:00:49for ruling the high seas,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52and once so common an occurrence
0:00:52 > 0:00:55that it's always been lodged deep in our psychological make-up.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59As an historian, this has always fascinated me.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05'I grew up with dramatic tales of ships dashed on the rocks
0:01:05 > 0:01:08'and their crews lost at sea.'
0:01:09 > 0:01:13As a child, I saw these as just wonderful yarns
0:01:13 > 0:01:15to stir the imagination,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18yet shipwrecks changed the course of our history,
0:01:18 > 0:01:23and without them, it's unlikely we'd be the same nation we are today.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30'In this series, I will uncover stories of wrecks
0:01:30 > 0:01:32'in far-flung, exotic seas,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35'that reveal Britain's rise as an imperial power.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41'But my journey starts on our own coastline.'
0:01:43 > 0:01:48These charts are simply littered with thousands of shipwrecks.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Yes, we built the biggest maritime empire
0:01:52 > 0:01:56the world had ever seen, but we did so from an island
0:01:56 > 0:02:00which is surrounded by some of the most dangerous waters in the world.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07The combination of geography and global outreach
0:02:07 > 0:02:10would make Britain more prone to shipwrecks
0:02:10 > 0:02:12than practically anywhere else,
0:02:12 > 0:02:17something that first became apparent 500 years ago,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21when the Tudor navy began to flex its muscles
0:02:21 > 0:02:23at a time when King Henry VIII
0:02:23 > 0:02:27could only dream of ruling a maritime empire.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Starting in the 16th century,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34I'll show how one of the largest mass shipwrecks in history
0:02:34 > 0:02:36propelled us on our global adventure,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38and how remote disasters at sea
0:02:38 > 0:02:43would inspire some of the most memorable literature and art.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Join me for the story of the shipwreck
0:02:45 > 0:02:47and the extraordinary role it has played
0:02:47 > 0:02:50in the shaping of Britain's history.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03Outlook for the following 24 hours, westerly...
0:03:03 > 0:03:06The Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Dover
0:03:06 > 0:03:09keeps watch over the English Channel,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14one of the most congested and potentially deadly shipping routes in the world.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18North Foreland to Selsey Bill, 24-hour forecast,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22westerly or southwesterly, veering northerly for a time,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24three or four, occasionally five in the east...
0:03:33 > 0:03:36'I'm going to one infamous spot off the south coast,
0:03:36 > 0:03:41'where the remains lie of over 2,000 ships.'
0:03:42 > 0:03:48Over there, off the coast of Kent, are the Goodwin Sands,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52and it seems like the most innocuous stretch of coastline you can imagine.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54But this place is a graveyard.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59Under these waters lies the largest concentration of shipwrecks
0:03:59 > 0:04:01anywhere in the world.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10'The Goodwin Sands has terrified sailors since the 16th century.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15'It's even mentioned in Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice
0:04:15 > 0:04:20'as a place where the carcasses of many a sunken ship lie buried.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25'Full of navigational hazards,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29'the treacherous Goodwin Sands is the final resting place
0:04:29 > 0:04:31'of a host of wrecked vessels,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34'from Elizabethan galleons to U-boats.'
0:04:37 > 0:04:43Many of these old historic wrecks have been located by the Alert,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47a rapid-intervention vessel which pinpoints the precise location
0:04:47 > 0:04:49of shipwrecks in the English Channel.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54We're tracking up the eastern edge of the Goodwin Sands,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58trying to find the wrecks that are marked up on these screens here.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And there are one, two, three, four,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06in just a small area of sea.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10But we're hoping one of these wrecks is going to appear over there.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13- What have we got over here? - This is a multibeam echosounder.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16A standard echosounder would look straight beneath the ship.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19You'd just know what was underneath your keel. This is looking out
0:05:19 > 0:05:21at 75 degrees either side of the vessel,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24so we got a 360-degree view of the sea bed,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27so we'll get a picture of what's happening down there
0:05:27 > 0:05:29to determine whether the wreck is a danger.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34'The Alert continues to patrol these waters
0:05:34 > 0:05:37'because historic wrecks are liable to break up
0:05:37 > 0:05:39'amidst the shifting sea bed and tides,
0:05:39 > 0:05:44'becoming a danger to shipping in this very busy trade route.'
0:05:47 > 0:05:50If we cross a wreck, what's that going to look like on that screen?
0:05:50 > 0:05:53You're going to see some disturbances on the screen.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Imagine if you're in a room, and you shine a torch on a box.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00You get a shadow behind the box in a dark room.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02So we're looking for the shadow.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11- Oh, something's coming up now. - The wreck.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13We're going over the wreck now.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17There's a really, really big disturbance in this picture here.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20It's unmistakeably something just lying on the sea bed.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23This is an old wreck, so we don't know what it is.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27The shape of the shadows reveals a wreck
0:06:27 > 0:06:29that has begun to break up on the sea bed,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32with its keel lying in two parts.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37'We don't know the name of this vessel,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41'but it could be part of one of the largest mass shipwrecks
0:06:41 > 0:06:44'ever recorded.'
0:06:51 > 0:06:53In November 1703,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57a massive storm tore across the south coast,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00destroying everything in its wake in a maelstrom of chaos...
0:07:04 > 0:07:09..which spawned wind speeds of over 140 miles per hour.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16The only bona fide hurricane to ever hit our shores
0:07:16 > 0:07:21inspired writer Daniel Defoe to pen a famous journalistic account.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29"No storm was like this, either in its violence or its duration -
0:07:29 > 0:07:31the greatest, the longest in duration,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34the widest in extent...
0:07:36 > 0:07:40..of all the tempests and storms that history gives any account of
0:07:40 > 0:07:43since the beginning of time."
0:07:43 > 0:07:48"Confusion seized upon all, whether on shore or at sea."
0:07:53 > 0:07:56For the many ships sailing the Channel that night,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59there was no shelter from this hurling gale.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04Sailing vessels built from wood and barely 100 feet long
0:08:04 > 0:08:06were no match for the fury
0:08:06 > 0:08:08of what became known as the Great Storm.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17The bulk of the ships lost that night sank here
0:08:17 > 0:08:19on the Goodwin Sands.
0:08:21 > 0:08:2613 warships and 40 merchantmen were driven onto the Goodwin Sands
0:08:26 > 0:08:28by the Great Storm.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Men from the port of Deal struggled out in open boats
0:08:32 > 0:08:35to try and save who they could,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37but 2,000 men lost their lives here.
0:08:40 > 0:08:45The remains of those ships, sunk that night in the Great Storm,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49are still here beneath these waters.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54This mass shipwreck became the most obvious testament
0:08:54 > 0:08:57to the destruction wrought on the whole county.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59'A day of fasting was called,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02'and church pulpits hosted sermons
0:09:02 > 0:09:06'describing the disaster as a punishment from God
0:09:06 > 0:09:09'for the sins of the whole nation.'
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Across the coast of Britain, so many ships were sunk
0:09:16 > 0:09:20that one in five sailors from the Royal Navy were lost,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24and with them thousands of men from merchant ships.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36One of the ships which was caught in the Great Storm was HMS Mary,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40which now lies 100 metres west of the Goodwin Sands.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Commanded by Rear Admiral Basil Beaumont,
0:09:44 > 0:09:49it suffered the single largest loss of life on that terrifying night.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52268 men were killed,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55with only one solitary survivor.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03'The loss of the Mary, and Admiral Beaumont along with it,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05'was recorded in a remarkable painting
0:10:05 > 0:10:09'now held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.'
0:10:12 > 0:10:16In this painting, Rear Admiral Beaumont stands
0:10:16 > 0:10:19with a hand on his anchor, while in the background,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22the Mary, the ship that he actually went down on,
0:10:22 > 0:10:27struggles to stay afloat during the Great Storm.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29It's a haunting image - part portrait,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32part visual document of his death,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34and it's a powerful reminder
0:10:34 > 0:10:38that the Great Storm left deep psychological scars
0:10:38 > 0:10:40on our island nation.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55Yet, while the wrecking of so many British ships was unprecedented,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58the remains of these vessels are only a small contingent
0:10:58 > 0:11:00of the thousands of wrecks
0:11:00 > 0:11:04which litter almost every mile of our coastline...
0:11:05 > 0:11:08..from the Isles of Scilly to the north of Scotland.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14'But they lie out of reach, hidden from us
0:11:14 > 0:11:19'in the murky depths of the seas that surround our island,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21'and over centuries,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25'the majority of historic wrecks disintegrate on the sea bed.'
0:11:25 > 0:11:29But 30 years ago, something remarkable happened.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43An event that entranced the nation
0:11:43 > 0:11:47gave me my first-ever glimpse of a real shipwreck...
0:11:49 > 0:11:54..a stricken flagship of Henry VIII's Tudor navy.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06I remember seeing a longbow,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and, even more remarkably,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13what seemed to be the bones of the bowman it belonged to.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22And then one of 39 cannons being lifted from the sea bed.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30I watched, captivated, along with the rest of Britain
0:12:30 > 0:12:33as the Mary Rose returned to the surface
0:12:33 > 0:12:36after over 400 years.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44There is the wreck of the Mary Rose. It has come to the surface.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49There is the first sight of this flagship of Henry VIII.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54It's the first time we have seen this in 437 years.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57'Today, the wreck is held
0:12:57 > 0:13:00'in a specially built dehumidifying chamber
0:13:00 > 0:13:04'where conditions are controlled to maintain the right air temperature
0:13:04 > 0:13:06'to preserve the timbers.'
0:13:11 > 0:13:14From the moment that she was raised in the 1980s,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18the Mary Rose became one of our greatest national treasures.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21But the harsh truth is that, by the time that she sank,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24she was a badly designed and dangerous ship.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26And the men that we really need to thank
0:13:26 > 0:13:29for giving us this time capsule of Tudor life
0:13:29 > 0:13:32were the shipwrights and designers of Henry VIII's navy.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Their construction plans miscalculated
0:13:37 > 0:13:40the ship's sea-handling capability.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47The Mary Rose may have embodied the very character
0:13:47 > 0:13:50and physical stature of Henry VIII himself -
0:13:50 > 0:13:53powerful, imperious and swaggering.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58But there were fatal flaws in her design
0:13:58 > 0:14:02which meant her sinking was almost inevitable.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Weighing over 700 tons,
0:14:07 > 0:14:09and decked out with dozens of cannons,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12colourful flags and high turrets...
0:14:13 > 0:14:15..to her enemies,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19the Mary Rose would have been a magnificent maritime fortress.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31On the 19th of July 1545,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34the French fleet entered the Solent,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37and the Mary Rose was prepared for battle.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Men, arms and guns were readied for action.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49From the moment that the last of these cannon were loaded on board,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52the Mary Rose was dangerously top-heavy,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54and her gun ports were too close to the waterline.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57She was doomed.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Attempting a simple manoeuvre,
0:15:08 > 0:15:13the Mary Rose listed sharply to her starboard side and suddenly sank,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17taking almost 400 men to their deaths.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24She had been fitted with a new gun deck that had destabilised her.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29It was an alteration that proved costly.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43This ship is the product of a nation,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47the England of Henry VIII, that was not yet a true maritime power.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Henry's was a navy built for flag-waving and prestige
0:15:50 > 0:15:53more than it ever was for fighting.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03Henry's maritime ambitions took a knock that day in the Solent.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11'The recovered wreck of the Mary Rose continues to fascinate us,
0:16:11 > 0:16:15'though its actual sinking is far more significant.'
0:16:16 > 0:16:21'It tells us that Britain was not yet ready to sail the seven seas
0:16:21 > 0:16:24'and conquer the world.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28'In fact, it would take a highly fortuitous act,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30'40 years later and just up the coast,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33'to change our destiny.'
0:16:36 > 0:16:38This is Plymouth Hoe,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41where Sir Francis Drake famously finished his game of bowls
0:16:41 > 0:16:44before sailing off to defeat the Spanish Armada.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48It's become part of our traditional story of the Armada,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51a story that tells of how nimble English ships sailed out
0:16:51 > 0:16:55and defeated the cumbersome Spanish, saving England from invasion.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59But there's another way of thinking of the events of 1588,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03and that's to see it not as an English naval victory
0:17:03 > 0:17:06but as one of the greatest mass shipwrecks in history,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10caused by the terrible dangers of the British coastline
0:17:10 > 0:17:13and by the awesome power of the weather.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18THUNDER RUMBLES
0:17:19 > 0:17:21In July 1588,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25a huge amphibious invasion force appeared
0:17:25 > 0:17:28off the southwest coast of England.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34The Spanish Empire had sent over 120 ships
0:17:34 > 0:17:38to land, invade and conquer the country.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45It was Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII,
0:17:45 > 0:17:49who had to stand up to the massed ranks of Spanish power
0:17:49 > 0:17:52in a war fought over empire and religion...
0:17:54 > 0:17:57..a small, Protestant island nation
0:17:57 > 0:18:00versus a colossal Catholic superpower.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07The propaganda machine cranked up.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10The Spanish were coming to hang everybody over the age of seven.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13They were going to kill every man, woman and children.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15There was a shipload of hangman's nooses.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18They had special whips to deal with flogging women.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27The powerful Spanish fleet swept confidently from the Bay of Biscay
0:18:27 > 0:18:29along the southwest coast.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33If Elizabeth hoped they would founder
0:18:33 > 0:18:36on one of the many navigational hazards
0:18:36 > 0:18:40that lay in these offshore waters, she was to be disappointed.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47The Armada steered clear of the Scilly Isles,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50narrowly avoided running aground on the Isle of Wight,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54and evaded the notorious Goodwin Sands.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01They were now on course to land troops off the east coast
0:19:01 > 0:19:05and march on London.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07And the only thing standing in their way
0:19:07 > 0:19:10was the Tudor navy.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14But although Elizabeth could call on the services of Sir Francis Drake,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18her navy was not yet the world-famous fighting force
0:19:18 > 0:19:21we would come to know.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27People often make the mistake of assuming that the English navy then
0:19:27 > 0:19:31was like the navy in Nelson's time. It wasn't at all.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34I'm sure Francis Drake and John Hawkins and the others
0:19:34 > 0:19:36were all patriotic Englishmen,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39but their prime motivation for all the voyages they made,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42and indeed for joining the battle against the Armada,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44was not patriotism. It was the profit motive.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46They were there to try and capture Spanish ships
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and take them as prizes and claim the value of all the ordinance,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53all the treasure and everything else on board.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55A Spanish ship at the bottom of the ocean was a disaster
0:19:55 > 0:19:58not just for the Spaniards but for the English too,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01because a ship at the bottom of the ocean couldn't be looted.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16The two fleets finally engaged off the Flanders coast at Gravelines.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23And, during an eight-hour confrontation,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27the English succeeded in scattering the Spanish fleet.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40But this was not a killer blow.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43The Spanish had only lost three ships,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46and were still a potent fighting force.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59The Spanish commander then took a fateful decision -
0:20:59 > 0:21:01to retreat from the English navy
0:21:01 > 0:21:06and head up the North Sea towards Scotland.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09As the Spanish fleet edged northwards,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12the weather began to close in.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16A natural defence of gale-force winds,
0:21:16 > 0:21:22huge breaking waves and a deluge of freezing rain
0:21:22 > 0:21:27dashed any last hopes the Spanish had to land their forces.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33The moment when they lose the status of a fighting force
0:21:33 > 0:21:37and become frightened men fleeing for home comes off Newcastle,
0:21:37 > 0:21:42when they throw the horses and the artillery wheels over the side
0:21:42 > 0:21:44because they haven't got enough water.
0:21:44 > 0:21:50And that's saying, "We aren't ever going to land."
0:21:51 > 0:21:55The Spanish admiral, the Duke of Medina Sidonia,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57then issued his final orders -
0:21:57 > 0:22:01to flee for home around the west coast of Ireland.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05He added what would turn out to be a prophetic warning...
0:22:06 > 0:22:10..to avoid the perils of the jagged Irish coast.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Whereupon he ordered, "Full sail,"
0:22:14 > 0:22:19and the slower ships, he coldly and calculatedly said,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21"You're on your own."
0:22:31 > 0:22:34'This Mediterranean invasion force
0:22:34 > 0:22:37'sailed blind along the coast of Scotland,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40'trying to avoid the northwest of Ireland.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44'Lost in foreign waters,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47'with no local pilots to guide them safely,
0:22:47 > 0:22:52'the fleet began to be split up, blown off-course.'
0:23:01 > 0:23:03By September 1588,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07the Armada was a broken, battered and motley collection of ships,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10and they began to appear here in ones and twos
0:23:10 > 0:23:12off the coast of Northern Ireland.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16This entire scenario was completely unexpected.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20The Duke of Medina Sidonia had specifically ordered his captains
0:23:20 > 0:23:22to avoid the coast of Ireland,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26and the Spanish chart actually ended at the Moray Firth
0:23:26 > 0:23:28on the northeast coast of Scotland.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31And so the Spanish captains had no detailed knowledge
0:23:31 > 0:23:34of this terrible coastline,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36and they were entirely unprepared for the tempestuous weather
0:23:36 > 0:23:39of the North Atlantic.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02The retreating Armada ran into a month-long wall of stormy weather,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06which drove the ships and their crews to their deaths.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13In one day alone, six of them were wrecked.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23The magnificent El Gran Grin, a 1,200 ton behemoth,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26was smashed to pieces off the coast of County Mayo.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31Within a 200 mile stretch of the west coast of Ireland,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34over 20 Spanish ships were lost.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43In the aftermath, there were horrific scenes
0:24:43 > 0:24:46all along the shoreline.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53'On one beach, the bodies of 1,500 drowned sailors were found,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57'and any survivors faced an equally heartless fate.'
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Those who had survived the wrecks of their ships,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05and who were lucky enough to have made it ashore,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07now faced a new set of dangers.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10English soldiers were garrisoned all along this coast,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14and the Spanish didn't know how the Irish, their brother Catholics,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18would react. It often hinged on the question of money.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21The rich Spaniards were held captive and ransomed,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23while many of the ordinary soldiers and sailors,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28the men who had survived fleet battle, storm and now shipwreck,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33were either murdered by the Irish or executed by English soldiers.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42History has taken a harsh judgment on the Irish population
0:25:42 > 0:25:45for what had happened. I think that's unfair.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49I believe, at that time in the 16th century,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53in the, er, in the west of Ireland,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55there was a very prevalent superstition
0:25:55 > 0:25:58that the sea always claims its own.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03And if you allowed someone to be saved,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06then, the sea would later wreak vengeance either on you
0:26:06 > 0:26:08or on one of your own kin.
0:26:08 > 0:26:14And that's what drove them. That's what made them seem to be so cruel.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18It was this fear of retribution by the sea.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23But hundreds of Spanish sailors WERE rescued from the sea
0:26:23 > 0:26:27by the Girona, one of their own ships.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32As it made its way along the coast towards the Giant's Causeway,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35it arrived here at Lacada Point,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38a notorious headland full of jagged rocks
0:26:38 > 0:26:40hidden just beneath the surface.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46On the night of October the 28th, the Spanish galleass Girona
0:26:46 > 0:26:49smashed with incredible force into the rocks behind me.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52SOUNDS OF SHATTERING WOOD
0:26:52 > 0:26:57She was fatally overloaded, with more than a thousand men on board,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59and her rudder had already been broken by the storm.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02She split into two, sank immediately,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05killing nearly all of the men on board.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18'The Girona was wrecked within a few miles of Dunluce Castle,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22'home to the wonderfully named Sorley Boy MacDonnell,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24'a firebrand Irish chief
0:27:24 > 0:27:29'who was himself entangled in his own bloody territorial conflict
0:27:29 > 0:27:31'with the English army.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38'MacDonnell retrieved over 200 bodies from the wreck,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41'and ensured they received a Catholic burial.'
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Local tradition claims that the victims of the Girona
0:27:51 > 0:27:54were buried here at St Cuthbert's churchyard.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57We don't know exactly where. It's one of those details
0:27:57 > 0:28:01that's been lost to history. But it's just one of several traditions
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and folk stories that are linked with the wreck of the Girona.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08One claims that some of the survivors were actually taken in
0:28:08 > 0:28:10by the MacDonnells of Dunluce Castle,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13and another that some of the Spanish soldiers and sailors
0:28:13 > 0:28:16actually stayed, married local women,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19and merged into the local population.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28The most tangible trace of the Armada that remains today
0:28:28 > 0:28:32is a treasure trove of gold recovered from the Girona
0:28:32 > 0:28:34in the 1960s.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47The divers who discovered the Girona found a huge haul of treasure
0:28:47 > 0:28:50that had lain untouched for almost 400 years,
0:28:50 > 0:28:55and you can see it today here in the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07Now, this little guy's fantastic. It's a gold salamander brooch.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11The salamander is a reptile that's native to Mexico.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14We know that the gold came from South America,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17and that the rubies, of which there are three,
0:29:17 > 0:29:19and there are spaces for six more,
0:29:19 > 0:29:21actually came from Burma.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23It's a wonderful piece of jewellery
0:29:23 > 0:29:26that says so much about the wealth
0:29:26 > 0:29:29and also the outreach of the Spanish Empire
0:29:29 > 0:29:31in the middle of the 16th century.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39And just look at these gold coins!
0:29:39 > 0:29:42There are 20 or so here,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45but they recovered hundreds of gold and silver coins
0:29:45 > 0:29:48from the wreck of just one ship alone.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52'These Spaniards were carrying the wealth of the Empire with them.'
0:29:54 > 0:29:59But my favourite piece is this amazing gold chain.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01It weighs about the same as a bag of sugar,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05and it's six feet long.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11It would have gone round someone's neck three or four times.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13These guys were going to war,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16but they were going to look good while they were doing it.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31This coastline shattered the Spanish Armada.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34A third of the fleet was wrecked here,
0:30:34 > 0:30:39and more ships were scuttled or lost in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44Eventually, five months after they had first set out from Spain,
0:30:44 > 0:30:4863 ships limped back home -
0:30:48 > 0:30:51half of the original contingent.
0:30:51 > 0:30:57Over 20,000 Spanish soldiers and sailors had lost their lives.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02As soon as the shadow of the Armada departed our shores,
0:31:02 > 0:31:07the story of this mass shipwreck was retold as a stirring victory
0:31:07 > 0:31:09for Elizabeth's Protestant island.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14It was proof that the nation could rely on divine intervention
0:31:14 > 0:31:17to save them from Catholic invaders.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21Tudor propagandists even coined a new term
0:31:21 > 0:31:23that summed up this righteous victory.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28They said that England had been saved by a Protestant wind.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36This was only the beginning of the myth-making
0:31:36 > 0:31:39that has shaped our understanding of the Armada.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44What we now know today as Elizabeth's most famous speech,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46made to her troops at Tilbury,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49where she is said to have declared,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52"I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55but I have the heart and stomach of a king,"
0:31:55 > 0:32:01was in fact part of this strategy to repackage the Armada,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05not as a lucky escape but as a glorious victory
0:32:05 > 0:32:09led by a monarch backed by God.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14We think that Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair invented spin doctoring
0:32:14 > 0:32:17and image control, and it's absolutely not true.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Queen Elizabeth was a past master at it.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21The famous speech she made at Tilbury,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24when she inspired her troops allegedly to defeat the Armada,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28was only made when she knew the Armada had already been defeated
0:32:28 > 0:32:30and was being driven away up the North Sea,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33and the proof of that is that, when the Armada was off the coast,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35Queen Elizabeth was actually at Hampton Court,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38surrounded by a 10,000 man bodyguard.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42The speech she gave at Tilbury which has come down to us through history
0:32:42 > 0:32:45isn't actually the one she gave. The only witness to record it
0:32:45 > 0:32:47recorded a very different one,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50but it was then taken back to Whitehall Palace,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52worked on to give it a much more Shakespearean tone,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55and it was then disseminated through the only mass media there was -
0:32:55 > 0:32:58church pulpits.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02So the great myth of Queen Elizabeth as the inspiration of her troops
0:33:02 > 0:33:06and the Protestant wind came down to us that way.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12A heavily mythologised version of the sinking of the Armada
0:33:12 > 0:33:15was commemorated in art too,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18as in this allegorical painting of Elizabeth
0:33:18 > 0:33:21presiding over the victory.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26And it shows Elizabeth in imperial splendour.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Behind her on one side are the English fireships
0:33:33 > 0:33:35destroying the Spanish fleet.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38On the other side there is a portrayal of the Spanish Armada
0:33:38 > 0:33:41being dashed to pieces on the rocks.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44But on the chair there's a mermaid.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47That's all about feminine wiles,
0:33:47 > 0:33:51luring unwary sailors to their deaths,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54and that's what she felt she wanted to portray.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57She may have had the body of a weak and feeble woman,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00but she could defeat the Spanish Armada
0:34:00 > 0:34:02just by snapping her fingers.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20'Fortuitous or not,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24'the wrecking of the Armada was a turning point,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26'giving an island nation the confidence
0:34:26 > 0:34:29'to expand its maritime operations.'
0:34:38 > 0:34:41This was the beginning of a new, exciting global era.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45Just a decade after the Armada had smashed itself to pieces,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Queen Elizabeth granted a charter
0:34:48 > 0:34:50to a group of ambitious London merchants
0:34:50 > 0:34:53to pursue trade around the world.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56This group would become known as the East India Company,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59and they were in the vanguard of an ambitious scramble
0:34:59 > 0:35:02to beat our European rivals, conquer the New World
0:35:02 > 0:35:06and bring exotic goods like tea and sugar back home.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09And where the East India Company went,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12the British Empire would follow.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17Our ships subsequently went south and east
0:35:17 > 0:35:19to Africa, India and China,
0:35:19 > 0:35:24and west to North America and the Caribbean.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32The rewards were high, but so were the risks.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Venturing into remote and unexplored waters,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40one in five ships never returned,
0:35:40 > 0:35:43wrecked in far-flung seas.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51It's not surprising that so many ships are shipwrecked.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54Wood itself is a vulnerable material,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57but also, and more profoundly,
0:35:57 > 0:36:02there is no reliable charting of most of the waters of the world,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04so nobody knows where there are large rocks
0:36:04 > 0:36:06just underneath the water's surface,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09and a wooden ship goes on that, and it rips the bottom out.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Most people in those days couldn't swim,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15so a ship would go to the bottom and most of the crew would drown.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27'Shipwrecks were costing the wealthy merchants and aristocrats
0:36:27 > 0:36:32'who backed the East India Company serious money.'
0:36:32 > 0:36:38They needed to be able to guarantee a safe passage beyond home waters.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43'But what kind of navigational aids were available
0:36:43 > 0:36:45'to seafarers at the time?
0:36:45 > 0:36:49'I'm going to test out some of the tools they used
0:36:49 > 0:36:51'to sail through uncharted waters.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55'To help me out, I'm meeting Tristan Gooley,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58'a navigator and maritime adventurer.'
0:37:00 > 0:37:02One of the first things that mariners need to understand
0:37:02 > 0:37:05is how fast they're going. What is this?
0:37:05 > 0:37:09This is called the chip log, and in the 16th century,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11this was the most accurate method of working out
0:37:11 > 0:37:13how fast the boat was going.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15- How? - Well, it's very simple.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18It's a board. We've got the lead weight here,
0:37:18 > 0:37:20which means this end is going to stay at the bottom.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23It's going to be weighed down. Think of it like a parachute.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26It sits there, and it breaks in the water,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30and then the line runs out, and we have knots marked at intervals.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Yeah, that's one. And the number of knots that pass through our hand
0:37:34 > 0:37:37in 14 seconds is going to tell us how fast this boat is going.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40- Are you ready to give it a go? - Let's do it.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Right. Here we go.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50I'm now timing 14 seconds.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57That's five.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59SPOOL CREAKS
0:38:00 > 0:38:02Ten.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06And that's 14. Stop the line there.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10- OK. We've got a knot just there. - Absolutely right.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13- OK. So that knot you've got there... - Yeah?
0:38:13 > 0:38:16We're going to count the knots back from there.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21And that's our lot. We're into the stray line, as it's called, now,
0:38:21 > 0:38:23the bit that goes out to keep it clear of the boat,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26so we reckon the boat's going three knots, I think.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29Three and a bit, because there was that extra bit of rope left
0:38:29 > 0:38:32- before it came back to the reel. - Yes, three and a bit.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35Let's check with Bob. Bob, what are we actually doing?
0:38:35 > 0:38:38- By the log, 3.2 knots. - Hey!
0:38:38 > 0:38:41- The bit that... - The bit on the end, 0.2 of a knot.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43- That's amazingly accurate. - It is, yeah!
0:38:43 > 0:38:45What a fantastic bit of kit!
0:38:47 > 0:38:51'When land is sighted, a basic navigation trick is needed
0:38:51 > 0:38:53'to stop the ship running aground.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56'This is known as depth-sounding.'
0:38:59 > 0:39:02We've got one of the oldest, lowest- tech bits of navigation equipment
0:39:02 > 0:39:05in the world, the lead line. Drop it over the side.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07When it hits the bottom, the line goes slack.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11We know how deep the water is by how much line there is.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22- OK.- There we go. - That's tense there.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35So this knot, you can see, is dry on one side of it,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38wet on the other.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41And if we work our way all the way back to this red one...
0:39:42 > 0:39:45- What does that red one mean? - That means seven fathoms,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47and that knot there will be one more fathom,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50so we're in eight fathoms of water.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55But that's not all this not-very- hi tech bit of kit will tell us,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57hopefully.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01- There we go. What have we got? - There we go.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Let me just pass that over.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Ah! Looks like we've pulled up some mud and sand to me.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10- Is that what it looks like to you? - Let me have a look. Taste it.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12Best way of doing it.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16Oh, disgusting. But it's definitely sandy.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18It's not just mud, and that's the key bit of information.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22Sailors of the past would use that to understand where they are,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24what the land they were approaching is like,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27and, very importantly, whether they could drop the anchor there.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Cos if the sea bed isn't right for an anchor,
0:40:29 > 0:40:33there's no point dropping it, and this saves a lot of time and effort.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37'Simple but effective.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40'However, when it came to more difficult calculations
0:40:40 > 0:40:43'like accurately measuring the altitude of the sun,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46'which was needed to work out an exact position at sea,
0:40:46 > 0:40:50'a more complex and innovative solution was needed.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54'And it was provided by an Englishman named John Davis
0:40:54 > 0:40:56'in 1594.'
0:40:56 > 0:41:00I'd say the vast majority of all navigational instruments
0:41:00 > 0:41:03anybody ever thinks of are concerned with measuring angles,
0:41:03 > 0:41:06and in particular the angle of the sun, the moon and the stars
0:41:06 > 0:41:09- above the horizon. - And this is a very early tool
0:41:09 > 0:41:12which they used to do that, and it's a particularly clever one.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15It is very clever. This is the backstaff.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17- How does it work? - OK.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22What we do is, we create a shadow using what's called a shadow vane,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24on this little window here,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27and then looking through this sighting vane here,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31we look at the horizon. And that just forms a nice simple triangle
0:41:31 > 0:41:34from there to there, back to here, up to the sun,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37- and that measures the angle for us. - Right. Let's have a go.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39- See how this works. - There you go.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43- I'm going to look through this to find the horizon...- Yeah.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46..and then adjust this...
0:41:47 > 0:41:50..until the shadow... There we go. There we go.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52OK, great. So now we take it down,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55and some very, very simple calculations.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58You've just got to add the number here to the number here,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01and you've got the angle of the sun above the horizon.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Five. Ten here and then 25 there, so we're looking at 35 degrees.
0:42:04 > 0:42:0935 degrees. We're not quite at the midday point now,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11but we have just taken an altitude of the sun.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13We have just worked out how high it is.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15And that simple measurement could tell a sailor
0:42:15 > 0:42:18- how far north or south they are. - There are no mirrors.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22There are no magnifying glasses, no moving bits. It's just a stick.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24Absolutely. And it wasn't perfect,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27otherwise we wouldn't have had the octant and sextant coming later
0:42:27 > 0:42:31and displacing it, but for approximately 130 years,
0:42:31 > 0:42:36from about 1600 to about 1730, this was cutting-edge.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40'Armed with this navigational equipment,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43'a fleet of seven ships left Plymouth harbour
0:42:43 > 0:42:47'on the 2nd of June 1609.'
0:42:50 > 0:42:52They were bound for Jamestown, Virginia,
0:42:52 > 0:42:58a settlement colonised only 20 years after the defeat of the Armada.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05Led by its flagship, the Sea Venture,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09the flotilla consisted of boats typical of the period.
0:43:11 > 0:43:16Made from wood, powered by sail, and barely 70 feet long,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21they would have to brave the weather of the Americas...
0:43:26 > 0:43:28..the sort of tropical hurricanes
0:43:28 > 0:43:33that no Englishman had ever witnessed off his own coast.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Six weeks after leaving the Devon shoreline,
0:43:41 > 0:43:44the boats sailed into the eye of a ferocious storm.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49Separated from the rest of the group,
0:43:49 > 0:43:54the Sea Venture was at the mercy of this tropical onslaught,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56unable to master the elements
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and unable to maintain her course.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Of course a wooden ship is far more vulnerable,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07so it can literally be blown on a rocky shore,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09where it can be shipwrecked
0:44:09 > 0:44:13even if it realises it's in terrible danger.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19You can have scenarios where you can see the danger,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23the rocky shore. You know you want to keep off that shore,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26but the wind and the current is driving you on it,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28and you cannot stop it.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33The Sea Venture was smashed onto the rocky reefs
0:44:33 > 0:44:35of what proved to be the island of Bermuda.
0:44:43 > 0:44:49'Remarkably, all 150 people on board survived this crash landing,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52'and now they found themselves shipwrecked
0:44:52 > 0:44:55'on a beautiful but deserted island.'
0:44:57 > 0:44:59To us today, the beach is paradise.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02It's where we dream of going on holiday.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05But that idea would have seemed like utter madness
0:45:05 > 0:45:08to anyone in the 16th and 17th centuries.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12Back then, the beaches of the New World weren't paradise.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15They were hell on earth, and if you found yourself on one,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17you wouldn't break out the sun lotion.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19You'd sink to your knees in despair,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22because the odds were that you were a shipwrecked sailor,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25and you were almost certainly doomed.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Many of those marooned by the Sea Venture
0:45:34 > 0:45:39on the Caribbean island of Bermuda did die from starvation or disease.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46But the remaining crew built two improvised craft
0:45:46 > 0:45:49after salvaging parts from the wreck.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54They named them Deliverance and Patience,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57and eventually some did make it back home,
0:45:57 > 0:46:01finding a passage from their original destination of Virginia.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05And two of the crew published a gripping tale
0:46:05 > 0:46:08of their battle for survival.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13"For four-and-twenty hours the storm in a restless tumult
0:46:13 > 0:46:18had blown so exceedingly as we could not apprehend in our imaginations
0:46:18 > 0:46:20any possibility of greater violence."
0:46:22 > 0:46:25"Fury added to fury, and one storm urging a second
0:46:25 > 0:46:29more outrageous than the former."
0:46:29 > 0:46:31"Nothing heard that could give comfort,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33nothing seen that could give hope."
0:46:35 > 0:46:39These testimonies were the first-ever accounts
0:46:39 > 0:46:42of surviving a shipwreck in the New World.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Silvester Jourdain and William Strachey published their narratives
0:46:46 > 0:46:51in 1610, just months after returning to London.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54And what they described captured the public imagination.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58They detailed swimming in crystal-clear waters,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02foraging for exotic fruit, and hunting brightly coloured fish.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08"They bear a kind of berry, black and round,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13as big as a damson, which about December were ripe and luscious."
0:47:13 > 0:47:16"Other kinds of high and sweet-smelling woods
0:47:16 > 0:47:19there would be, and colours black, yellow and red,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22and one which bears a round blue berry
0:47:22 > 0:47:25much eaten by our own people."
0:47:25 > 0:47:29"We have taken five thousand small and great fish at one hale."
0:47:29 > 0:47:33"I think that no island in the world may have greater store
0:47:33 > 0:47:35or better fish."
0:47:37 > 0:47:40For many readers, this was their first taste
0:47:40 > 0:47:43of global travel and adventure.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48These books were widely read,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51and you can just imagine people talking excitedly
0:47:51 > 0:47:53about Jourdain and Strachey's encounters
0:47:53 > 0:47:55with this strange environment.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00The possibilities of exploring the exotic and otherworldly nature
0:48:00 > 0:48:02of these far-flung islands
0:48:02 > 0:48:05also fascinated the most famous playwright
0:48:05 > 0:48:07of the Elizabethan age.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11The travails of the Sea Venture inspired one William Shakespeare
0:48:11 > 0:48:16to write a story that began with a shipwreck in a foreign sea.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Fall to't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground!
0:48:18 > 0:48:20- Bestir, bestir! - Heigh, my hearts!
0:48:20 > 0:48:25The Tempest opens with a ship battling to stay afloat
0:48:25 > 0:48:28amidst the uproar of a tropical storm.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Shakespeare uses the shipwreck as a dramatic device
0:48:34 > 0:48:40to create a gateway to propel us into a fantastical world.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50Through the shipwreck and subsequent marooning,
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Shakespeare introduces us to the weird and wonderful characters
0:48:54 > 0:48:58who inhabit a strange island.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03There is the spirit Ariel,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06who uses magic to conjure up the tempest
0:49:06 > 0:49:09which wrecks the ship at the start of the play.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14And then there is Caliban,
0:49:14 > 0:49:16half demon, half man,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20a wild savage who fascinates and terrifies us.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27Shakespeare revels in disaster at sea
0:49:27 > 0:49:31as a means to take us away from civilisation.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38So, what the shipwreck in that context enables you to do
0:49:38 > 0:49:43is to think outside the imaginative chains
0:49:43 > 0:49:47of your own society. You can imagine a world without religion
0:49:47 > 0:49:49of the form that you might have in Europe.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53You can imagine a world which isn't dominated by human beings.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01One can imagine, in short, the opportunity
0:50:01 > 0:50:04to put yourself in a context
0:50:04 > 0:50:07in which you and your imagination
0:50:07 > 0:50:12are interacting with anything that you can take
0:50:12 > 0:50:15and derive from this new environment,
0:50:15 > 0:50:17and that was really potent.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Shakespeare stretched our imaginations
0:50:25 > 0:50:27through his shipwreck in The Tempest,
0:50:27 > 0:50:31and he did so in an age when Britons were taking
0:50:31 > 0:50:36their first tentative steps in a new era of travel and adventure.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39The Tempest was more science fiction than reality.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41But throughout the 17th century,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45as the British Empire expanded into uncharted waters,
0:50:45 > 0:50:49more and more real-life accounts of shipwrecked sailors
0:50:49 > 0:50:51began to emerge,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54and they sparked an appetite for maritime stories
0:50:54 > 0:50:58that were so believable that few people could tell the difference
0:50:58 > 0:51:01between what was fact and what was fiction.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09Fact and fiction collided here at this pub,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11the Llandoger Trow in Bristol.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14Two men sat at the bar, deep in conversation.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17One of those men was a Scottish sailor,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21and he was telling his story of how he had been marooned
0:51:21 > 0:51:24on a tropical island for four and a half years.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26The other man hung on his every word,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30scribbling down details of the tale in his notebook.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33That man was a journalist named Daniel Defoe,
0:51:33 > 0:51:35and this barroom conversation
0:51:35 > 0:51:39went on to inspire one of the greatest of all English novels,
0:51:39 > 0:51:44The Life And Strange Surprising Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe was presented as a real account,
0:52:02 > 0:52:04told in the first person,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08with Defoe's name redacted from the earliest edition.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14The novel detailed the daily battles Crusoe faced
0:52:14 > 0:52:17such as the search for fresh water,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21and it revealed the psychological effect
0:52:21 > 0:52:23of being shipwrecked alone.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27When he is shipwrecked on the desert island,
0:52:27 > 0:52:29he's initially, of course, absolutely shocked,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and he spends time looking for water and getting himself sorted out
0:52:32 > 0:52:36in terms of basic survival. So he's a very pragmatic figure,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40and it's only subsequently that he starts to break down psychologically
0:52:40 > 0:52:42and we hear about his traumatic breakdown
0:52:42 > 0:52:46as the reality of his loneliness and isolation dawn upon him.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52Through the process of writing a journal,
0:52:52 > 0:52:54notching up the days - in other words,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56bringing European time onto a timeless island -
0:52:56 > 0:52:59he recovers a sense of self-possession.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Interestingly, that translates into a possession of the island,
0:53:02 > 0:53:06so he literally takes possession of the island that he finds himself on.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08It was rare that any fictional writings
0:53:08 > 0:53:11had presented a human predicament
0:53:11 > 0:53:13with that kind of psychological intensity
0:53:13 > 0:53:15and that attention to detail.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20The man Defoe was talking to in this pub that night
0:53:20 > 0:53:23was a sailor named Alexander Selkirk.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27He had been travelling on a ship, the Cinque Ports,
0:53:27 > 0:53:32and had expressed grave reservations about the vessel's seaworthiness.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36After a dispute with the captain, Selkirk was abandoned
0:53:36 > 0:53:40on a Pacific island 400 miles from the coast of Chile,
0:53:40 > 0:53:46and this inspired Robinson Crusoe's epic survival tale.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Selkirk was set ashore with his sea chest,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58with powder and shot for his musket, and just two days' worth of food.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01And just as the captain was preparing to leave,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Selkirk apparently changed his mind.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07But the captain, now completely fed up with Selkirk's behaviour,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11refused to take him back on board, leaving him marooned on that island.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23The strangest thing about the whole story
0:54:23 > 0:54:27is not that Selkirk survived four years of hardship and solitude,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30but that he was right about one critical detail.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33The Cinque Ports, the ship that he had said was unseaworthy,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37the ship which had sailed away, abandoning him, did sink,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40taking with how much of her crew.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48Selkirk's four years and four months on the island ended
0:54:48 > 0:54:51when he was picked up by an English ship.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55He sailed with her for a further two years
0:54:55 > 0:54:59before finally arriving home in October 1711.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Soon after, Selkirk would have his famous meeting
0:55:06 > 0:55:09with Daniel Defoe in the Llandoger Trow,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12and a literary legend was born.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18But Defoe didn't just detail Crusoe's skill at survival.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22The novel also works as a powerful metaphor
0:55:22 > 0:55:25for Britain's rise as a colonial power.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32Crusoe is depicted as the enlightened man,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37importing Western civilisation to the barbarous and exotic island.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41He builds a home, rears animals, and cultivates the land.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47'As the self-styled governor of the island,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50'Crusoe is the arch-colonist,
0:55:50 > 0:55:54'a symbol of Britain's outreach in this era.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58'This is most evident in his relationship with Man Friday,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01'the native he rescues from cannibals
0:56:01 > 0:56:04'and who becomes his faithful servant.'
0:56:07 > 0:56:11This isn't an equal relationship between two men.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15Crusoe is very much the master of Man Friday.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19Pious, enlightened, a natural leader,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22Crusoe is the symbol not only of colonial conquest
0:56:22 > 0:56:24but of the racial politics
0:56:24 > 0:56:27that justified Britain's increasing involvement
0:56:27 > 0:56:29in the Atlantic slave trade.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33It's no coincidence that Crusoe was wrecked on the way to collect slaves
0:56:33 > 0:56:35for his own plantation.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38And so, through this fictional shipwreck,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41we catch a glimpse of the course that Britain was plotting
0:56:41 > 0:56:44through the 18th century.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719,
0:56:51 > 0:56:55at the very beginning of the Georgian period,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58an era that would transform an island nation
0:56:58 > 0:57:01once terrified of its own treacherous coastline
0:57:01 > 0:57:05into the world's most powerful trading empire,
0:57:05 > 0:57:10policed by the increasingly dominant Royal Navy.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16But with more British ships at sea
0:57:16 > 0:57:18and greater fortunes at stake,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23the shipwreck would loom even larger in the national consciousness.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29The Georgians' global adventure came at great human cost.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33More than ever, the shipwreck was Britain's Achilles heel,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38threatening to ruin its now grand ambitions.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45'Next time, mutiny,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48'slave rebellions,
0:57:48 > 0:57:50'and murderous wreckers -
0:57:50 > 0:57:54'how the shipwreck turns the order and hierarchy
0:57:54 > 0:57:58'of Georgian Britain upside down.'
0:58:01 > 0:58:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:05 > 0:58:09E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk