0:00:17 > 0:00:19If you had to choose just one image
0:00:19 > 0:00:24that explained how deep and visceral the fear of shipwreck was
0:00:24 > 0:00:26for our ancestors,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29then it would have to be this giant canvas.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Because it explains that the fear of shipwreck
0:00:35 > 0:00:38was not just the fear of the sea, the fear of drowning,
0:00:38 > 0:00:43it was the terror of the forces of brutality that would be unleashed
0:00:43 > 0:00:48when the ordered world of a ship was turned on its head by disaster.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53This painting by Gericault
0:00:53 > 0:00:56captures the chaos, murder
0:00:56 > 0:00:59and cannibalism that followed a real shipwreck.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03It came to encapsulate all the anxieties
0:01:03 > 0:01:05that had built up in Georgian Britain
0:01:05 > 0:01:07about wreckings at sea.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12In the 18th century,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16maritime trade was central to Britain's economic advance
0:01:16 > 0:01:20and helped shape a sense of national identity.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Out on the high seas, a ship flying the British flag
0:01:24 > 0:01:28was a microcosm of the Georgian state itself.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32Ordered, hierarchical and, by modern standards, cruel.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Everyone on board was drilled to know their place.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40But this was a world that could be turned on its head in an instant
0:01:40 > 0:01:42if shipwreck struck.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48Unleashing not just terror,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51but the anarchy of bloody mutiny,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54the violence of slave rebellion.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58And the fear of gangs of murderous scavengers.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03The shipwreck jeopardised the vast fortunes
0:02:03 > 0:02:05accumulated by the merchant class.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10And its high drama became deeply rooted in our culture,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13creating heroes and villains
0:02:13 > 0:02:17who inspired a powerful art and literature
0:02:17 > 0:02:19all of its own.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25This is the story of how the shipwreck threatened not only life at sea,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28but the Georgian state itself.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42The Isles of Scilly.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47A mass shipwreck here as the 18th century began
0:02:47 > 0:02:51would show just how vital the great ocean-going ship was
0:02:51 > 0:02:55to Britain's ambitions of wealth and conquest.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59In October 1707,
0:02:59 > 0:03:04a British naval fleet was returning from fighting the Spanish at the siege of Toulon.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06They reached home waters off the Scilly Islands
0:03:06 > 0:03:09after a perfectly routine voyage.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14What happened next changed the history of navigation
0:03:14 > 0:03:17and sent shockwaves through British society.
0:03:22 > 0:03:2721 ships, led by the highly-regarded Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell
0:03:27 > 0:03:29were plotting a course for Portsmouth,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31when, in the dead of night,
0:03:31 > 0:03:37they unexpectedly hit the rocky waters that surround the Isles of Scilly.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Although only 28 miles off the British coast,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50the Scilly Isles were inaccurately charted
0:03:50 > 0:03:52and notoriously treacherous.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01I'm getting a boat out to trace the route followed by Admiral Shovell's fleet.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05On 22 October 1707,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Admiral Shovell thought he was safely out to sea
0:04:08 > 0:04:10to the south-west of the Isles of Scilly.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12In fact, he was here,
0:04:12 > 0:04:17thick amongst the rocks at the mouth of the Broad Sound passage.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20It's like being in a sailor's nightmare.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24There are jagged rocks. Tides swirl around them.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29In the total darkness of night,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34the fleet mistakenly believed they were safely out to sea in the English Channel.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37They would have been oblivious to the perils of these rocks.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40On the right flank of the fleet,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Admiral Shovell's flagship, HMS Association
0:04:43 > 0:04:45was the first to get into trouble.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49She foundered here on the Gilstone Ledges.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56She fired two guns as a warning, but it was too late,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59and two other ships, The Romney and The Eagle,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03foundered over there on the rocks in the distance.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10In a period thought to be no more than 20 minutes,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13these three ships went under,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16taking with them over 1,000 men.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23A fourth ship, The Firebrand, also struck these ledges.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28But her captain, Francis Percy, guided her to the island of St Agnes,
0:05:28 > 0:05:29just over those rocks.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33But she sank, with all but 12 of her crew.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Had Admiral Shovell's convoy been just a few miles south,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43they would have missed these rocks entirely.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47Almost 1,500 men died that night,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50just in this small stretch of water.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54One of the reasons that the death toll was so high,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57was that the rest of the fleet just carried on sailing,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01oblivious to the disaster that was unfolding on these rocks.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04It has an eerie feel to it here.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08This is a mass maritime graveyard.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15What did for Shovell and his captains
0:06:15 > 0:06:19was their inability to accurately calculate longitude,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21their east/west position at sea.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27The disaster highlighted a problem facing all British ships at the time.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34It was this potentially lethal challenge to lucrative global trading
0:06:34 > 0:06:38which terrified Britain, as much as the loss of over 1,000 sailors.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44The following morning, the islanders woke up to a grotesque scene.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49All that remained of the ships was flotsam and jetsam floating on the waves.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53But literally hundreds of bodies, battered and bruised by the sea,
0:06:53 > 0:06:59were washed up on the three main islands - Tresco, St Agnes, and here on St Mary's.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07What was one of the largest maritime losses in British history
0:07:07 > 0:07:11quickly became part of the folklore of these islands.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15This is Porth Hellick beach, on St Mary's.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19It was here that Admiral Shovell's body was found.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22But a colourful local legend tells a different story.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24According to that version of events,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Shovell actually survived the wreck of The Association
0:07:28 > 0:07:34and made it here together with two of his stepsons and his favourite dog, a greyhound.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38But once he got here, he was murdered by a local woman
0:07:38 > 0:07:42who cut off his finger to steal his precious emerald ring.
0:07:46 > 0:07:53The Isles of Scilly disaster exposed not only Britain's rudimentary grasp of maritime navigation,
0:07:53 > 0:07:59but also just how disposable sailors' lives were on the great sailing ships.
0:07:59 > 0:08:05Even in death, the rigid class divisions of 18th-century society were enforced.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10The navy did not recover the bodies of the hundreds of drowned sailors
0:08:10 > 0:08:15but at great cost, they retrieved Admiral Shovell's remains
0:08:15 > 0:08:17from Porth Hellick beach.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21An aristocrat and member of the ruling class,
0:08:21 > 0:08:26Admiral Shovell was given a lavish burial ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30They've even erected a monument to him here on Porth Hellick beach.
0:08:30 > 0:08:37But hundreds of other sailors died alongside him and their bodies were also washed ashore here.
0:08:37 > 0:08:43Members of the Georgian underclass, those men were simply thrown into mass graves.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45There's no monument to them.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52A brutal logic was at work.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57Britain's elite was prepared to sacrifice the lives of ordinary sailors
0:08:57 > 0:09:01if that's what it took to secure new international trade routes.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Yet the loss of four ships here
0:09:04 > 0:09:08showed how this global expansion could be threatened.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11When news of the disaster finally reached the Admiralty in London,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15there was mourning for the loss of their favourite admiral,
0:09:15 > 0:09:16but there was also panic.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19This disaster threatened their ambitions for an empire
0:09:19 > 0:09:21based on maritime supremacy.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24And until they solved the problems of longitude,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26those ambitions lay in ruins.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31The response was swift.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35The country's merchants and seamen presented a petition to Parliament
0:09:35 > 0:09:36demanding a solution.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41And in 1714, the Longitude Act was passed
0:09:41 > 0:09:45as a direct result of the tragedy on the Isles of Scilly.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49It offered a monetary prize to whoever could solve
0:09:49 > 0:09:51the mystery of longitude.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56And the answer came in the form of the marine chronometer.
0:09:58 > 0:10:04This is a marine chronometer, invented by an Englishman, John Harrison.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08A chronometer is essentially a clock that is not disturbed by the motion of the sea.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12By setting its time to that of Greenwich in London,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16a sailor can calculate his east/west position anywhere in the world.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19It revolutionised maritime navigation
0:10:19 > 0:10:24and gave Britain the ability to safely expand its empire overseas.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Armed with this confidence,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Britain would start to aggressively expand its empire.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38And at the forefront of this endeavour
0:10:38 > 0:10:40was the great sailing ship
0:10:40 > 0:10:44which became central to British identity in the Georgian period.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48The Georgian world is built on trade, global trade,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and the ships are the great vehicles that go out and gather that trade.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57This is a period where ships aren't just emblems of the nation,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59they really are the engines
0:10:59 > 0:11:02of Georgian wealth, of Georgian power, of Georgian empire.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13Britain's wealth and ambition relied on its powerful naval fleet.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17And these ships, like the famous HMS Victory,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19were a microcosm of Georgian society.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25The physical divisions on board
0:11:25 > 0:11:30replicating its highly ordered and hierarchical structure.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Imagine being at sea, hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles away from Britain.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41A long way from home shores, yes.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43But if you go below these decks,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46you get a real sense that you were never far from the Georgian state,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51where every man knew his duty, and every man knew his place.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57This is the Admiral's cabin.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00He could be in the grandest of Georgian mansions.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Just look at the fixtures and fittings.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Candlesticks, curtain tassels,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07and these magnificent windows.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14And this is the captain's cabin.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Slightly less regal, but still impressive.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23So if the admiral and captain went to sea living the life of lords of the manor,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26where did the sailors live?
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Below the grand surroundings of the admiral and captain,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37these gun decks were the quarters for the sailors and marines.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43This is incredible. At least 250 sailors and marines
0:12:43 > 0:12:47would have lived, eaten and fought on a deck like this.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50And their only access to fresh air and light,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53if they were lucky enough to live on a deck above the water line,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55was through a port like this.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Dark, stuffy, rank.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02This place would have been really grim.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08You could have left the tiny village hamlet, or inner-city slum you called home,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11but in a way, you never really left Britain.
0:13:11 > 0:13:12It's all so ordered and organised.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17And what really worried the Georgians was that if a ship like this was wrecked,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21this whole world was turned upside-down.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31And in 1741, these fears were realised
0:13:31 > 0:13:33when the wrecking of one British ship
0:13:33 > 0:13:37sparked its crew to launch a violent mutiny.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43This shipwreck would bring about a change in British maritime law.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47HMS Wager was part of a naval fleet
0:13:47 > 0:13:50that was sailing round the tip of South America.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53She became cut off from the rest of the convoy.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56And the extraordinary events that followed
0:13:56 > 0:13:58were documented by a sailor,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00John Bulkley,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02who would lead the uprising.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09Separated from the rest of the squadron and surrounded by nothing but ocean,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11The Wager was in serious trouble.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Moral under Captain Cheap had plummeted
0:14:15 > 0:14:18and her crew was ravaged by disease.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21In fact, so many sailors were ill
0:14:21 > 0:14:23that they were barely able to man the yards.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27And then, in the early hours of the morning, disaster struck.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30The Wager hit rocks off the coast of Chile
0:14:30 > 0:14:32and immediately began taking on water.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Three thousand miles from home,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42and with no back up,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Captain Cheap and his officers had no way of maintaining order.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50John Bulkley recorded that as soon as The Wager hit rocks,
0:14:50 > 0:14:51anarchy broke out.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57"They fell into the most violent outrage and disorder.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00"They began with broaching the wine in the lazaretto
0:15:00 > 0:15:03"and breaking open cabins and chests,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06"arming themselves with swords and pistols,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09"threatening to murder those who should oppose or question them.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13"They clothed themselves in the richest apparel they could find
0:15:13 > 0:15:17"and imagined themselves lords paramount."
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Eventually, all the crew managed to make it ashore
0:15:23 > 0:15:27and they began salvaging parts to build a makeshift boat
0:15:27 > 0:15:29to take them home.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33The captain directed his officers to make a camp on the beach.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38But outnumbered by the men, they now feared for their own lives.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Sat on the beach, huddled around a camp fire,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46Captain Cheap and his officers knew that they now faced different rules.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50Admiralty law stated that when a ship was wrecked,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53the sailors stopped getting paid.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Which meant that inevitably, discipline broke down.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04"I heard Mr Couzens use very unbecoming language to the captain,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08"telling him, 'By God, you are a rogue and a fool.'"
0:16:10 > 0:16:14The Admiralty still expected the men to follow the captain's orders
0:16:14 > 0:16:17even after a ship was wrecked.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21But the crew of The Wager interpreted things differently.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28Without pay, they believed they were no longer subject to naval authority and discipline.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Drunken scuffles and fights broke out.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36Captain Cheap tried to stop one sailor stealing from the rum rations.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38The man resisted.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42So at point blank range, the captain shot him dead.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46Everyone was armed, everyone was hungry.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49And they were thousands of miles away from home.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Bulkley presented a letter to Captain Cheap,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57asking for permission for the men to sail their makeshift boat
0:16:57 > 0:17:00via the Straits of Magellan to the British Caribbean.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Bulkley and the majority of the men left in their improvised boat,
0:17:06 > 0:17:11leaving the captain and officers to find an alternative passage home.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14As they departed the beach,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Bulkley assumed that he would never see Captain Cheap again.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24It took Bulkley's contingent over a year to reach home
0:17:24 > 0:17:27and over half of the men died on the journey.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Within weeks of arriving in London,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Bulkley published his account of the mutiny
0:17:33 > 0:17:36and won the support of the public for leading the rebellion
0:17:36 > 0:17:38against a murderous captain.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42That, however, was not the end of the story.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46A year later, something unexpected happened.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Captain Cheap arrived home with his own version of events.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57When Captain Cheap finally returned home and recounted his version of the mutiny,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01John Bulkley was arrested and a court martial was convened.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04But the Admiralty were aware of public opinion,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06so they cut a deal.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Neither Bulkley nor any of the men were charged.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14And Captain Cheap, whose poor leadership had sparked off the mutiny in the first place
0:18:14 > 0:18:16and who, in full view of his crew,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19had shot one of his men in the face,
0:18:19 > 0:18:20was promoted.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Fearful of such chaos happening again,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28Parliament stepped in.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33A new law was devised and it agreed with the mutineers
0:18:33 > 0:18:37about what had been the real issue in the case of The Wager.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43This is an Act of Parliament passed in 1747
0:18:43 > 0:18:46held here in the Parliamentary archives.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49After this legislation was passed,.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53if a British naval vessel was wrecked anywhere in the world,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56its crew would continue to get paid.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00And that meant that the men would remain subject to military discipline.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04The Georgians' strategy for a rich trading empire
0:19:04 > 0:19:08demanded that order and discipline at sea be maintained.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12Within five years of the passing of this act,
0:19:12 > 0:19:17Britain's ships were embroiled in the first ever truly global conflict.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28The Seven Years War saw the country fight France and other European rivals
0:19:28 > 0:19:32for control of vital shipping routes and key colonies.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41By the early 1760s,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Britain had emerged as the undisputed master of the seas
0:19:45 > 0:19:49and was exploiting this to huge financial gain.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00The economic value of maritime trade
0:20:00 > 0:20:03was also beginning to shape attitudes to shipwrecks.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07There was one particularly profitable enterprise
0:20:07 > 0:20:09which made ports like Bristol
0:20:09 > 0:20:13amongst the most wealthy and influential cities in Georgian Britain.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20But one that also posed a unique challenge if its ships were wrecked.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Ports like this were the starting point of a triangular trade
0:20:28 > 0:20:31in which slaves were bought in west Africa,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35they were sold to British plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas
0:20:35 > 0:20:39and then the ships returned here carrying sugar.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43A key part of that trade notoriously became known as "the middle passage",
0:20:43 > 0:20:49a dangerous transatlantic voyage, when the ships were packed with a human cargo.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56These slave ships would carry up to 500 men, women and children,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59shackled and manacled in the hold
0:20:59 > 0:21:03with little food, water, or even enough air to breathe.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06This was a gruesome trade,
0:21:06 > 0:21:11with the slavers placing only a monetary value on their human cargo.
0:21:11 > 0:21:17They were prepared to accept an average of 10% of their slaves dying
0:21:17 > 0:21:19on the transatlantic journey.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24But what would be the reaction if one of these ships were wrecked?
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Dozens of slave ships were wrecked in this period,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31but we hardly know anything about them at all.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34And yet, here in Bristol,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36one eye-witness account does survive.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41And it gives a chilling insight into what the Georgians thought about their slaves
0:21:41 > 0:21:45and into what it would have been like to have been wrecked on a slaver.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51It concerns a slave ship called The Phoenix
0:21:51 > 0:21:53and is held within walking distance
0:21:53 > 0:21:57of the Bristol harbour where many of these ships departed.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01This is Felix Farley's Journal,
0:22:01 > 0:22:06a Bristol newspaper published on 8 January 1763.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08It records how one ship, The Phoenix,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12bound from Africa to sugar plantations in Virginia,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15got into trouble and began to take on water.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17They took on so much water
0:22:17 > 0:22:21that the white crew were forced to release the slaves from their irons
0:22:21 > 0:22:24to get them to help at the pumps.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29"The Phoenix, from Africa to Virginia,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31"with 332 slaves,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34"foundered on 30 October.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38"They were under a necessity of letting all their slaves out of irons
0:22:38 > 0:22:40"to assist in pumping and baling.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45"Who, having no sustenance of any kind for 48 hours except a dram,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48"made them very sullen and unruly.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52"Upon which, they put half of the strongest of the slaves in irons,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55"some of whom got their irons off
0:22:55 > 0:22:57"and attempted to break the gratings.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01'The seamen, not daring to go down the hold to clear their pumps,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05"were obliged, for the preservation of their own lives,
0:23:05 > 0:23:07"to kill 50 of the stoutest of them.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16"It is impossible to describe the misery the poor slaves underwent,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19"having had no fresh water for five days.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23"Four of them died and one drowned herself in the hold.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26"The seamen were quite worn out.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28"Many of them in despair,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31"three having dropped down dead at the pump
0:23:31 > 0:23:33"with fatigue and thirst.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36"They were ten days in this terrible situation
0:23:36 > 0:23:38"expecting the ship hourly to sink.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41"The water in the hold continually increasing
0:23:41 > 0:23:44"when they met with the King George.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49"The captain, who with much difficulty saved the lives of the white people,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53"the boat being scarce able to live in the sea.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59"36 of the crew were taken up by the King George of Londonderry.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02"The slaves were all drowned."
0:24:13 > 0:24:15What's so striking about this account
0:24:15 > 0:24:19is the utter lack of compassion displayed
0:24:19 > 0:24:21towards the lives of the slaves.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26When they realise they're in trouble, the white crew release some of the slaves
0:24:26 > 0:24:29to get them to help with the pumping and the baling.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31But then, when there's no hope,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35they either kill them or put them back in their chains
0:24:35 > 0:24:37back down in the hold
0:24:37 > 0:24:40where the water is constantly rising.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42It's absolutely terrifying.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46To the Georgian merchant elite,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50the African men, women and children on board
0:24:50 > 0:24:52were shockingly dispensable.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57They would see the loss of a slave ship as a terrible financial catastrophe for them.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02It depends how many other ships they owned how seriously they took it.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05But it was risky. When your ship comes in you're OK,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09but if it doesn't and you can't pay your debts, your credit can be ruined and that's all important.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14So they'd see it primarily in terms of a credit transaction.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17You don't get any sense of the humanity of the slaves.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20You get the sense that they are worth a certain amount.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22They're listed as commodities.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25It's that progressive dehumanisation
0:25:25 > 0:25:30that's marginal, it makes it seem almost irrelevant or indulgent to talk about them as people
0:25:30 > 0:25:32when you have that kind of focus.
0:25:33 > 0:25:3520 years after The Phoenix was wrecked,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38the crew of another slave ship, The Zong,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42threw more than 100 slaves overboard
0:25:42 > 0:25:44to make an insurance claim.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46This infamous incident
0:25:46 > 0:25:49was a cause celebre for the abolitionist movement
0:25:49 > 0:25:51that challenged the slave trade.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55And the artist Turner painted this bleak event.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59For the 17th and most of the 18th century,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02the British were completely un-selfconscious
0:26:02 > 0:26:06and unrelenting about the exploitation of African labour.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10They just saw it as a means to this unprecedented access to wealth.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13The casual disregard for life
0:26:13 > 0:26:16that seemed to characterise the Georgian pursuit of wealth
0:26:16 > 0:26:19went hand in hand with the hard-nosed strategy
0:26:19 > 0:26:21of colonial expansion.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25British interests took control of the Caribbean island of Jamaica
0:26:25 > 0:26:28which would prove to be an economic power house.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32And the East India Company,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35which had begun the colonial scramble in the age of Elizabeth
0:26:35 > 0:26:39was at the forefront of running other key outposts
0:26:39 > 0:26:42such as Madras and Calcutta.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47The building blocks of what would become the British Empire.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53These colonies were exciting, bustling places
0:26:53 > 0:26:56where fortunes could be made.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01And by the second half of the 18th century,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04the officers and gentlemen running them
0:27:04 > 0:27:06were relocating their families there, too.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16But there was disquiet in some quarters of Georgian society
0:27:16 > 0:27:20about upper class women and children mixing with other races.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25And in August 1782,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27the sinking of one East India ship,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30the Grosvenor, off the coast of South Africa,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33would be the most powerful example yet
0:27:33 > 0:27:38of how a shipwreck could turn the world of order and privilege
0:27:38 > 0:27:39upside-down.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46This wonderful painting captures all of the elements
0:27:46 > 0:27:50which made the wreck of the Grosvenor such a compelling story,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55one that played on the insecurities of late Georgian society.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57Carefully placed at the front of the painting,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02are women and children finely dressed to depict their high social standing.
0:28:02 > 0:28:08But they're clinging to the uncharted rocks of a foreign and hostile shore.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11It underlined the unease that people were feeling
0:28:11 > 0:28:15about women and children travelling to Britain's new colonies.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Now the shipwreck was threatening not only soldiers and sailors
0:28:19 > 0:28:22but the family itself.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26Returning to London from Madras,
0:28:26 > 0:28:31the Grosvenor was carrying 105 crew and 35 wealthy passengers,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34including women and children.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39In the middle of the night, the Grosvenor blindly hit rocks.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41In the darkness and confusion,
0:28:41 > 0:28:45the crew believed they had hit a reef in the middle of the ocean.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50And yet, when the sun rose the next morning,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54the crew of the Grosvenor discovered that they weren't on a reef,
0:28:54 > 0:28:55300 miles away from land.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59They'd collided with rocks off the very coast of Africa itself.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03Their captain's navigation had been hopelessly inaccurate
0:29:03 > 0:29:05and they were just a few hundred yards from shore.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09But with these rough seas, it still seemed very unlikely
0:29:09 > 0:29:12that many of the crew would even be able to make it to land.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21With the swell crashing against the rocks,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25two of the men managed to swim ashore with some rope
0:29:25 > 0:29:27and they made a makeshift winch.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30A number of men were lost in the scramble
0:29:30 > 0:29:34but miraculously, the majority made it to safety.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Of a total complement of 140,
0:29:39 > 0:29:41125 had survived the shipwreck -
0:29:41 > 0:29:4491 crewmen, along with all of the passengers.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48But cast away on a little known and poorly charted shore,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52they had no real idea exactly where they were.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55And the only supplies that they could get
0:29:55 > 0:29:57were those that they could salvage from the beach.
0:29:58 > 0:30:03The story that unfolded would both fascinate and shock Georgian Britain.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14Marooned on an African shore,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17the survivors of the Grosvenor had three options.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Their first was to stay on the beach,
0:30:19 > 0:30:21make a camp, barter with the local Africans
0:30:21 > 0:30:24and send a party of the fittest men to get help.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28Their second option was to salvage timber from the wreck itself,
0:30:28 > 0:30:30build a makeshift raft
0:30:30 > 0:30:32and sail it the nearest port.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36The third option was for the men, the women, the children, the sick, the lame,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38those who had been injured in the wreck itself
0:30:38 > 0:30:44to gather together en-masse and to set off on a great trek to the Dutch settlement at the Cape.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49They chose to leave the beach
0:30:49 > 0:30:52and walk through some 400 miles
0:30:52 > 0:30:55of the most difficult and uncharted terrain
0:30:55 > 0:30:57in Southern Africa.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00What hurried their decision to leave
0:31:00 > 0:31:03was the presence on the beach of the Pondo,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06the local tribe who had gathered to watch events unfold
0:31:06 > 0:31:09with great curiosity.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13The Pondo were clearly seeing the wreck as a great resource.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15This was a treasure trove.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18It had brought metal in all sorts of forms ashore.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22And once there has been a movement by the castaways to move away,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24the Pondo see this as an opportunity
0:31:24 > 0:31:28to seize further resources from those as they're departing.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31They come amongst them, they plunder them, take their possessions,
0:31:31 > 0:31:36and what had supposedly started as an orderly march down the coast
0:31:36 > 0:31:40very quickly disintegrates into a panicked flight.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46Faced with an arduous march to safety,
0:31:46 > 0:31:53the officers and wealthy passengers knew that their privilege and position on the East India ship
0:31:53 > 0:31:56mattered little now that the Grosvenor lay in ruins.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02The hardships of the march of the Grosvenor survivors
0:32:02 > 0:32:05inverted the traditional hierarchies of Georgian society.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10The wealth of the rich gentlemen passengers suddenly counted for nothing
0:32:10 > 0:32:13and they and the women and children
0:32:13 > 0:32:15found themselves reliant upon the sailors,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19young, fit men in their teens and twenties,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23who, under normal circumstances, they would hardly have deigned to speak to.
0:32:23 > 0:32:29Youth and fitness suddenly mattered more than wealth, class or status.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45The survivors who had set off together, confident that The Cape was within reach
0:32:45 > 0:32:50now began to lose heart and fragment into smaller and smaller groups.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53The young and the strong abandoned the sick and the weak
0:32:53 > 0:32:55and those who were unable to carry on
0:32:55 > 0:32:57simply left where they fell.
0:33:07 > 0:33:12Of the 140 men, women and children who had boarded the Grosvenor in India,
0:33:12 > 0:33:14only 18 survived.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21The uncertain fate of white, upper-class women
0:33:21 > 0:33:25in an unforgiving and remote corner of Africa,
0:33:25 > 0:33:27was bound to hit a nerve back in Britain.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34For years, the Georgians had justified the slave trade
0:33:34 > 0:33:38on the grounds that those trafficked were little more than savages.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Now rumours began circulating
0:33:44 > 0:33:47that some of these well-born ladies from the Grosvenor
0:33:47 > 0:33:51may have fallen into the hands of these so-called "savages".
0:33:51 > 0:33:56One of the elements of the story that makes it so fascinating for the contemporary population
0:33:56 > 0:33:58is the sort of myths that circulate around it
0:33:58 > 0:34:02of white women being dragged into slavery,
0:34:02 > 0:34:04dragged into marriage or concubinage
0:34:04 > 0:34:06in local black tribes.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09This clearly titillates the late 18th-century imagination
0:34:09 > 0:34:12but it also appals that late 18th-century imperial sensibility:
0:34:12 > 0:34:14"This is not the way it's supposed to be.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19"It's supposed to be white people ordering black natives, not the other way round."
0:34:19 > 0:34:22In response to continuing stories
0:34:22 > 0:34:25that a number of the women had, indeed, survived,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29an expedition was launched from the settlement at The Cape.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33The expedition proceeds and they get to a point
0:34:33 > 0:34:37where they find themselves amongst a tribe
0:34:37 > 0:34:41amongst who it's quite noticeable there are children of mixed race.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45And they also find amongst this tribal group
0:34:45 > 0:34:47three white women.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49And as they come, a cry goes up,
0:34:49 > 0:34:51"Our fathers are come!"
0:34:52 > 0:34:55I would say that one of the three women
0:34:55 > 0:35:00did stay, did survive, did assimilate with the Pondo
0:35:00 > 0:35:02and that that was Lydia Logie,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05the youngest of the ladies of gentry.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09I think also there were two children, two girls,
0:35:09 > 0:35:14who likewise had been eight or nine at the time of the shipwreck,
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Eleanor Dennis was one of them,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21who, too, was taken in by the local people
0:35:21 > 0:35:26and who, in effect, assimilated themselves amongst the people as well.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28Became Africans.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36At a time when the country was confidently striking out into new territories,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40the wreck of the Grosvenor exposed the anxieties that Georgian Britain had
0:35:40 > 0:35:44about the indigenous peoples they sought to conquer.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51Only two years earlier,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55Captain Cook, a hero of maritime conquest and exploration
0:35:55 > 0:35:59had been killed in Hawaii.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11And the shipwreck was also a threat nearer to home.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18The powerfully influential merchant classes
0:36:18 > 0:36:22were alarmed to hear that off the West Country coastline,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26ships which had been wrecked were then being plundered for goods
0:36:26 > 0:36:28by local gangs.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33This practice became known as "wrecking".
0:36:49 > 0:36:52I've come to the north coast of Cornwall.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58In the 18th century, small rural communities like this village of Morwenstow
0:36:58 > 0:37:01had their own maritime traditions
0:37:01 > 0:37:05which embraced the custom of stealing from shipwrecks.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11It was a different world in these isolated and rural communities,
0:37:11 > 0:37:16where there was a culture of living off the sea as much as there was one of living off the land.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Salvaging from shipwrecks was very much a part of that.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24An activity that was affectionately known as "harvesting the sea".
0:37:24 > 0:37:27In fact, locals would ask the question,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31"What do you do if you find someone washed up on a beach, apparently dead?"
0:37:31 > 0:37:36And their answer would be, "You rifle his pockets for money."
0:37:37 > 0:37:43The shipping magnates complained that even Cornwall's religious and moral leaders
0:37:43 > 0:37:44seemed to condone wrecking.
0:37:44 > 0:37:50And the most famous of these served here in the parish of Morwenstow.
0:37:50 > 0:37:56The Reverend R.S.Hawker certainly chronicled the local practice of wrecking.
0:37:56 > 0:38:02He recorded the activities of his flock in their harvesting of the sea.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09And his writings have added to the folklore about the people who became known as wreckers.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18"So stern and pitiless is this iron-bound coast
0:38:18 > 0:38:20"that within the memory of one man
0:38:20 > 0:38:25"upwards of 80 wrecks have been counted within a reach of 15 miles.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30"With only here and there the rescue of a living man.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34"My people were a mixed multitude of smugglers, wreckers,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36"and dissenters of various hue."
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Hawker was a very sensitive individual.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45Apparently, he had a history of trying to find
0:38:45 > 0:38:49huts or places to hide away to contemplate his religion
0:38:49 > 0:38:51and contemplate his life.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54That's what he did when he came to Morwenstow.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56He had built a series of huts.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59This is known as Hawker's hut.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01It was built by the Reverend himself
0:39:01 > 0:39:05originally from the remains of ships wrecked off the coast.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09Hawker used to come here and smoke opium
0:39:09 > 0:39:13whilst surveying these stunning views and writing poetry and prose
0:39:13 > 0:39:16about the wrecking culture of his parish.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21Hawker gives us a unique insight into the prevalence of wrecking
0:39:21 > 0:39:24and the experiences of those involved.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30"We gathered together one poor fellow in five parts.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33"His limbs had been wrenched off and his body rent.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36"During our search for his remains,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39"a man came up to me with something in his hand, enquiring,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41"'Can you tell me, sir, what is this?
0:39:41 > 0:39:43"'Is it the part of a man?'
0:39:43 > 0:39:46"It was the mangled seaman's heart
0:39:46 > 0:39:48"and we restored it reverently to its place
0:39:48 > 0:39:51"where it had once beat high with life and courage,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54"with thrilling hope and sickening fear."
0:39:55 > 0:40:00It haunted him. He had written at one point
0:40:00 > 0:40:05that he thought he heard the cries of seamen with the sound of the wind.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10The other part of being in Morwenstow,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13yeah, it's great wrecker territory to get stuff coming ashore,
0:40:13 > 0:40:17but it's also a horrible place to be when you're dealing with shipwreck victims,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21particularly because it's very gruesome.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Your shipwreck victims are very rarely whole.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26There are always body parts coming ashore
0:40:26 > 0:40:30or unidentified bits of human flesh that would come ashore
0:40:30 > 0:40:32that they would have to collect.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37"On a ridge of rock just left bare by the falling tide
0:40:37 > 0:40:39"stood a man, my own servant.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44"He had come out to see my flock of ewes and had found the awful wreck.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47There he stood with two dead sailors at his feet
0:40:47 > 0:40:51"whom he had just drawn out of the water, stiff and stark.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53"And ever and anon there came up out of the water
0:40:53 > 0:40:56"as though stretched out with life,
0:40:56 > 0:41:01"a human hand and arm. It was the corpse of another sailor drifting out to sea."
0:41:13 > 0:41:18Wreckers induced fear and paranoia in ship-owners and merchants,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21worried that they might lose precious cargos.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28With great fortunes at stake, those with shipping interests
0:41:28 > 0:41:31eventually flexed their political muscle.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34They successfully pressurised the government
0:41:34 > 0:41:36into passing a new law
0:41:36 > 0:41:40that would swiftly and ruthlessly prosecute any wrecker
0:41:40 > 0:41:42who dared to steal from a shipwreck.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46In 1753,
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Parliament bent to the will of the merchant elite
0:41:48 > 0:41:52and passed this Act with a rather wonderful title.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56"An Act for enforcing the laws against persons who shall steal
0:41:56 > 0:41:58"or detain shipwrecked goods
0:41:58 > 0:42:01"and for the relief of persons suffering losses thereby."
0:42:01 > 0:42:04It's otherwise known as The Wreckers Act.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08This was an era of brutal state justice.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13And this Act threatened anyone who had stolen so much as a piece of rope
0:42:13 > 0:42:17or a plank of wood from a wrecked ship with the death penalty.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20In 1769,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23a Cornishman, William Pearce,
0:42:23 > 0:42:27was hanged in Launceston for stealing some rope from a wrecked ship.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32This was a very visible and public warning.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36The Wreckers Act was part of a wider political move
0:42:36 > 0:42:41to protect the property and rights of the merchants and aristocrats
0:42:41 > 0:42:43who ruled Georgian Britain.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47A series of punitive laws were passed
0:42:47 > 0:42:51that allowed the state to publicly execute its citizens
0:42:51 > 0:42:53for a host of petty crimes
0:42:53 > 0:42:58including the theft of goods worth as little as 12 pence.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03In the 18th century, there was an increasing idea of property
0:43:03 > 0:43:04being sacred.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07A lot of legislation that was passed
0:43:07 > 0:43:11was to protect property and bring in the death penalty for it.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15There were something like 200 statutes that were passed during this period.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17And crime historians called them the Bloody Code
0:43:17 > 0:43:20because they required death by hanging.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23And the Wreck Act was one of those.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30A clause in the 1753 Act
0:43:30 > 0:43:33contained a highly contentious provision.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Provoked by allegations that Cornishmen,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40not satisfied with stealing from shipwrecks,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43were employing nefarious methods
0:43:43 > 0:43:45to deliberately lure ships onto the rocks
0:43:45 > 0:43:48to be wrecked and then plundered.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52But what was the evidence for this?
0:43:55 > 0:44:00Nobody has ever been convicted of wrecking using false lights.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04So that particular clause has never actually been used in a court of law.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09The rumours of wreckers employing false lights
0:44:09 > 0:44:13was an indication of just how panicked the merchants were
0:44:13 > 0:44:16about losing ships and their valuable cargos.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23Coming here to Morwenstow, I get a real sense of two worlds colliding
0:44:23 > 0:44:26over the shipwreckers and events.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29I think that the merchants' fear about wrecking
0:44:29 > 0:44:33had nothing to do with accusations of locals murdering sailors,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37but everything to do with losing goods and property.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41In this era of expanding global trade,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44the story of wreckers simply added to the fear
0:44:44 > 0:44:46that already surrounded shipwrecks.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53And as the last decades of the 18th century approached,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57this agonising over the fate of stricken vessels
0:44:57 > 0:45:00because of the financial value of the goods they carried,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02showed no sign of easing off.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07But then in 1786,
0:45:07 > 0:45:10the most extraordinary shipwreck story of the era
0:45:10 > 0:45:14forced the wealthy elite to reconsider their prejudices
0:45:14 > 0:45:17about isolated coastal communities.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24I've come to Worth Matravers on the Jurassic coast in Dorset.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26It's a picture postcard place now
0:45:26 > 0:45:30but 200 years ago, it was just another remote village
0:45:30 > 0:45:35where people scraped a living farming or working in the local quarries.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40But one night, the people of this place
0:45:40 > 0:45:42took part in the most remarkable rescue
0:45:42 > 0:45:44of survivors from a shipwreck.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50Just after midnight on 6 January 1786,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52a full-rig ship, the Halsewell,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55was caught in a snow storm that engulfed this coast.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00The waves were breaking on these rock ledges with such ferocity
0:46:00 > 0:46:02that spray reached the tops of the cliffs.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08And the Halsewell was blown onto the rocks behind me.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17The Halsewell was owned by the East India Company
0:46:17 > 0:46:21and only a week before had left Portsmouth bound for Madras.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24The experienced skipper, Captain Pearce,
0:46:24 > 0:46:29was accompanied by his two daughters who were due to be married in India.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33The ship's masts smashed against those cliffs
0:46:33 > 0:46:36and the Halsewell began to break up.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43As the Captain and his daughters retreated to the supposed safety of his cabin,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45the soldiers and sailors onboard
0:46:45 > 0:46:47attempted to get onto the rocks on the shore
0:46:47 > 0:46:50and the storm raged around them.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57While dozens of sailors tried to cling to the rocks,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00a few made it into a small cavern
0:47:00 > 0:47:03to seek what shelter they could from the storm.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08But listening as many of their comrades slipped and fell to their deaths.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17With the sailors desperately holding onto the rocks,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20the wreck of the Halsewell sank quickly,
0:47:20 > 0:47:25taking with her the captain, his daughters and all the other passengers.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36Incredibly, two men - the ship's cook and the quartermaster -
0:47:36 > 0:47:38made it to the top of these cliffs.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42They ran over there to Eastington Farm to raise the alarm.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45By lucky chance, the farmer, Mr Garland,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49was also the owner of the nearby Purbeck Quarry.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52So he and his workmen gathered ropes and ladders from the quarry
0:47:52 > 0:47:55and rushed to the cliffs to help the sailors up.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Back at the farm, Mr Garland's wife, Betty,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02gave the rescued sailors hot soup and dry clothes.
0:48:07 > 0:48:13Eventually, 74 sailors were hauled to safety up these terrifying cliffs.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17The people of Worth Matravers had rejected the fears of the merchant elite
0:48:17 > 0:48:21about wreckers stealing cargo and murdering sailors.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26Instead, the shipwreck became a celebrated part of local folklore.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34Charlie Newman runs the Square and Compass pub in Worth Matravers.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39A keen local historian, his family has lived in the village for generations.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45What did the East India Company make of the people of Worth Matravers
0:48:45 > 0:48:47who'd helped out the shipwrecked sailors?
0:48:47 > 0:48:52Well, there was a reward. I've got a couple of coins here.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56They were given to my father by one of the local quarrymen.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59It was a 100-guinea reward to the local quarrymen
0:48:59 > 0:49:03for assisting in the rescue of the survivors from the Halsewell.
0:49:03 > 0:49:10The owner of the farm also received a tea set from the East India Company,
0:49:10 > 0:49:14again as a thank you for the rescue
0:49:14 > 0:49:15and looking after the survivors.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18What else have we got here?
0:49:18 > 0:49:22The boat had a lot of furniture on board,
0:49:22 > 0:49:24so we've got various furniture fittings.
0:49:24 > 0:49:31Drawer handles, and a nice castor here, the leather still surviving.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35This is a pewter spoon which has just about survived,
0:49:35 > 0:49:40but it's very corroded. Obviously the salt tends to attack these things.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42It's interesting that a lot of the sailors survived.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Exactly. They were strong and fit and able men.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48The weather conditions were so atrocious,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51anybody that was of a lesser strength,
0:49:51 > 0:49:53they were the ones that perished.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58The sinking of the Halsewell with the loss of her captain
0:49:58 > 0:50:02and the miraculous escape of some of her crew
0:50:02 > 0:50:07was a story that gripped the imagination of George III's Britain.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12The king himself visited the site of the wreck
0:50:12 > 0:50:15and later, Turner painted the scene.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18And Charles Dickens would write about the Halsewell
0:50:18 > 0:50:20in his story The Long Voyage.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26Here, at last, was something good to come out of a shipwreck.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30A stirring tale of heroic rescue and survival.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32It encouraged the British
0:50:32 > 0:50:38to feel that they could draw on unique reserves of courage and fortitude in adversity.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41This, it began to be said,
0:50:41 > 0:50:46was in stark contrast to the brutish conduct of Britain's mortal enemies,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48the French.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00What Georgians had in mind
0:51:00 > 0:51:04was the scene depicted in the most famous of all shipwreck paintings,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07by artist Theodore Gericault,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09which is now held at the Louvre in Paris.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16The Raft of the Medusa documents the real-life experiences
0:51:16 > 0:51:18of the survivors of a shipwreck.
0:51:18 > 0:51:23It captures the violence, murder and worse that followed.
0:51:24 > 0:51:29I thought I knew this painting, but when you see it in the flesh for the first time,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32you notice details that you hadn't noticed before.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40The canvas is so large. It's seven metres by five metres.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42You don't really know where to look first.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45It's quite bewildering, quite disorientating.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48There's a bloodied axe here.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50And then just over here,
0:51:50 > 0:51:52there's what looks like a piece of flesh...
0:51:53 > 0:51:55..just floating in the water.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Now, Gericault has painted the exact moment
0:51:59 > 0:52:02that they've sighted the ship that's going to come and rescue them.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04That's up here on the right-hand corner.
0:52:04 > 0:52:10And it means that all the survivors have rushed to one end of the raft
0:52:10 > 0:52:16and they didn't know at the beginning whether it was sailing towards them or sailing away.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18And this went on for two hours.
0:52:18 > 0:52:24You get a real sense of the instability of their situation.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27And also the angle of the raft is leaning backwards,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30which means they're at the crest of wave.
0:52:30 > 0:52:31The wave is just passing beneath them.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Now, the trough of the next wave is on the right-hand side,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37with its crest rising up to the right-hand side.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40So what's going to happen is that the whole raft
0:52:40 > 0:52:44is going to tip down and vanish from the horizon.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50And everyone is rushing over, apart from this one man here,
0:52:50 > 0:52:51who's looking the other way.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55And so while some of these people were desperate to get saved,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58desperate to get off the raft, some of them were so far gone
0:52:58 > 0:53:03that they'd lost any hope, any desire to survive.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11The painting was inspired by the fate of The Medusa,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14a French frigate which sank off the coast of Senegal.
0:53:14 > 0:53:20The ship was evacuated, but there were not enough spaces in the rowing boats
0:53:20 > 0:53:24so 147 crew boarded a makeshift raft.
0:53:24 > 0:53:30This raft, with no means of navigating and few supplies
0:53:30 > 0:53:33was then abandoned by the rowing boats,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36who quickly made for land only 30 miles away.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42Gericault would base this painting on the accounts of two of the survivors
0:53:42 > 0:53:46and these are his initial drawings of the scenes on board the raft.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53"We were so crowded that it was impossible to move a step
0:53:53 > 0:53:57"and the raft itself was weighed down a metre under the surface of the water.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00"We had barrels of wine and drinking water,
0:54:00 > 0:54:05"but the little food we saved was distributed and eaten entirely on the first night.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08"A night of such horrible blackness."
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Abandoned by the captain and senior officers,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20out of this chaos erupted murderous anarchy.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23And surrounded by the dead and dying,
0:54:23 > 0:54:29the survivors resorted to breaking one of the great taboos of civilised society.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35"Several of us fell upon the dead bodies which covered the raft
0:54:35 > 0:54:38"and cut off pieces of flesh and consumed them.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42"I ask you not to condemn those that were dying of hunger
0:54:42 > 0:54:44"on that pitiless sea."
0:55:12 > 0:55:16Today, this painting is considered Gericault's masterpiece,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19and one of the greatest works of French art.
0:55:19 > 0:55:26But its current status is at odds with the dismissal it first received when exhibited in France.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30What made the painting the legend that it is today
0:55:30 > 0:55:34is the sensation that it caused when, just a year later,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36it was exhibited in London.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48The huge impact made by The Raft of the Medusa
0:55:48 > 0:55:49on the British public
0:55:49 > 0:55:51was down to timing.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56It was exhibited only a few years after the triumphal destruction
0:55:56 > 0:55:58of Napoleon's army at Waterloo.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02Its picture of disorder and despair
0:56:02 > 0:56:06were seen as indisputable evidence
0:56:06 > 0:56:10that Britain's traditional foes were morally inferior.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15The significance of the wreck of the Medusa
0:56:15 > 0:56:17and of Gericault's painting,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20greatly increased for the British because of a British shipwreck.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23HMS Alceste, the Royal Naval frigate,
0:56:23 > 0:56:27had hit a reef off Java in February 1817.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29Like the Medusa, she had run aground
0:56:29 > 0:56:34and, like the Medusa, a decision had been taken to fill the raft.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36But that's where the similarities ended.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41After the Alceste was wrecked,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45the captain organised the safe passage of all the crew to a nearby island.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51In the face of great odds, discipline was maintained.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Despite being starved and dehydrated,
0:56:55 > 0:56:59they even repelled attacks by Malay pirates.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06Captain Maxwell was praised for his calm leadership.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08And implicit in that praise, of course,
0:57:08 > 0:57:13was the contrast with the "every man for himself" cannibalism
0:57:13 > 0:57:16that had engulfed the French on the Medusa.
0:57:27 > 0:57:32For the Georgians, the great sailing ship was an emblem of the state itself.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34It had been central to Britain's economic advance,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38and it had helped to shape a sense of national identity.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41But as the Georgian era drew to a close,
0:57:41 > 0:57:46and hundreds of ships continued to be wrecked every year,
0:57:46 > 0:57:48the question had to be asked.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52Just how many more lives was Britain prepared to lose
0:57:52 > 0:57:55out there on the world's oceans?
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Next time, the shipwreck in the Victorian age.
0:58:05 > 0:58:06How the great engineers
0:58:06 > 0:58:10and fervent campaigners of the 19th century joined forces.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14To save lives,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17make ships safer...
0:58:18 > 0:58:21..and dream of building the unsinkable ship.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd