0:00:13 > 0:00:171800, the start of the century that would see the might
0:00:17 > 0:00:22of Britain's Industrial Revolution reverberate around the globe.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25The sea and her mastery of it
0:00:25 > 0:00:30would help Britain become the greatest economic powerhouse the world had ever known.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32Ships were a vital part of the engine
0:00:32 > 0:00:35that was driving Britain's economic success,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38but the soaring profits that the sea provided led to greed
0:00:38 > 0:00:44and a struggle that pitted the power of money against the safety of sailors.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47The terrible human cost of shipwrecks
0:00:47 > 0:00:49came to shock the Victorian public.
0:00:50 > 0:00:56Keeping tally of this soaring humanitarian disaster was Lloyd's of London.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Insuring against shipwreck is a time-honoured trade.
0:01:02 > 0:01:08The historic Lutine Bell would be rung to announce that a ship had perished at sea.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10- DONG! - This Grim Reaper's toll
0:01:10 > 0:01:14meant a fresh entry into Lloyd's loss book,
0:01:14 > 0:01:18a frozen moment in time like the room that now holds it.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21This is the loss book from 1799.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23And if you open it on any day
0:01:23 > 0:01:27you're confronted with wreck after wreck after wreck.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31It gives you a real sense of the scale of the problem that they faced.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36Imagine if each of these were a plane!
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Something just had to be done.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45The relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of sailors
0:01:45 > 0:01:47collided with another great Victorian force,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50the zealous social reformer.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Furious Parliamentary battles were fought by campaigners
0:01:53 > 0:01:55like Samuel Plimsoll
0:01:55 > 0:02:00to prevent shipowners risking lives by overloading ships.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07And as emigration put more women and children aboard,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12the search for greater safety inspired key innovations like lifeboat provision,
0:02:12 > 0:02:13ingenious inventors...
0:02:15 > 0:02:17..and our greatest shipwrights.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19With the might of industry behind them,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24engineers entered a race to build bigger and ever-stronger ships
0:02:24 > 0:02:26in the belief that they would be unsinkable.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32It was a race that ended with the most famous shipwreck of all time.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46Throughout history
0:02:46 > 0:02:51the most dangerous time to be on a ship has always been at the beginning or the end of a voyage.
0:02:51 > 0:02:58Even today, most wrecks happen close to shore rather than far out in the deep ocean.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03And back in the 19th century, when hundreds of thousands of men worked at sea,
0:03:03 > 0:03:08the terrible human cost of shipwreck was something that, at times,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12played out in front of thousands of horrified onlookers.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15A shipwreck could be a very public tragedy.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Often the horrors left only mental scars for the watchers,
0:03:21 > 0:03:27but on this coastline in the early 19th century, the shock turned into something else.
0:03:29 > 0:03:35In February 1807, the Naval gun brig HMS Snipe was anchored here at Great Yarmouth.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38She had her full complement of crew aboard,
0:03:38 > 0:03:43as well as a few prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars and some women and children.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48When a storm blew up, a damaged merchantman drove into her anchor cable
0:03:48 > 0:03:52and the Snipe's crew had no choice but to cut themselves loose.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58She ran aground less than 60 yards from shore,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02and the people of this town could clearly see the men and the women on the Snipe
0:04:02 > 0:04:05struggling against the wind and the waves.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10And when she began to break up, they could hear their screams and cries,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13and yet they were powerless to help.
0:04:17 > 0:04:2160 yards, barely two lengths of a swimming pool,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24had meant the difference between life and death.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Among those who stood helpless on the shore at Great Yarmouth
0:04:29 > 0:04:33watching the wrecking of HMS Snipe was George Manby,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35a former ship's captain.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38What was desperately needed
0:04:38 > 0:04:41was a way to link the ship to potential helpers on the shore,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43but how?
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Manby's research led him to a surprising conclusion.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49He would fire a cannon at the wreck.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57The result of all his research and experimentation
0:04:57 > 0:04:59was the Manby Mortar.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04The idea was to fire a heavy shot out of this mortar,
0:05:04 > 0:05:10and it was attached to a light line that was fired directly over the rigging of the stricken vessel.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13The crew would then haul on that light line,
0:05:13 > 0:05:14pulling a heavy rope...
0:05:16 > 0:05:17..on to their boat.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22And it was along that rope that the survivors could be winched to safety.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26It was both ingenious and incredibly effective.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31George Manby was fiercely proud of his invention.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33When he had this portrait commissioned,
0:05:33 > 0:05:39he was careful to have the various parts of the Manby mortar depicted alongside him.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43Here you've got a stricken ship floundering in heavy seas.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46His right hand is resting on a shot
0:05:46 > 0:05:49and you can see the rope to which it is attached.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54And also a grappling hook which helped it catch in the rigging of the ship.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57He was also careful to add a note...
0:05:57 > 0:06:01the year that the portrait was painted, 1818,
0:06:01 > 0:06:08by then, 137 lives had already been preserved by the Manby mortar.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11These three wonderful paintings
0:06:11 > 0:06:14are just some of the many images
0:06:14 > 0:06:17than Manby had commissioned to show his invention in action.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22This was a man who understood the power of art for swaying public opinion.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25He wanted the world to know about this new invention.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Mortars were one of the first steps to cutting the carnage of shipwreck.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Around the coast, Manby mortars became a frequent sight
0:06:35 > 0:06:38and gave some reassurance to mariners.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Over the years, Manby's concept of firing a rope to a stricken vessel
0:06:44 > 0:06:46went through many adaptations.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50First, the cannon became the more mobile rocket.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Then, the simple rope became what is called a breeches buoy,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01essentially a lifebuoy with a giant pair of shorts attached.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Manby's invention offered some help,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11but Britain was facing shipwrecks on an epic scale.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16Emigration was rising, with thousands leaving our shores.
0:07:16 > 0:07:22But to have a new life in the colonies risked a premature death at the bottom of the sea.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28In this era, many people would have known a victim of shipwreck.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Shipwreck is the nightmare that we have forgotten.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34When you get on a plane today,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38you know rationally that your chances of being killed are very low.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40Most planes do not crash.
0:07:40 > 0:07:46As far as getting on a ship in, shall we say, 1820 was concerned,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48and let's say going to India via the Cape,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51it's actually a much more hazardous business.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01Across the whole world in 2012 there were less than 30 plane crashes,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05but just in the North Sea and only during the winter of 1820,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08there were more than 2,000 shipwrecks
0:08:08 > 0:08:11that led to the loss of more than 20,000 lives.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16That's 50 entire jumbo jets downed in just a single winter.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20In the 19th century, the sheer escalation of British shipping
0:08:20 > 0:08:22due to the growth of empire and global trade
0:08:22 > 0:08:27meant that the number of shipwrecks also escalated greatly,
0:08:27 > 0:08:32and this gave rise to some serious sort of inquiries
0:08:32 > 0:08:35about how to reduce the number of shipwrecks,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37how to make ships safer.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43So there's a growing awareness that the shipwrecks must be dealt with
0:08:43 > 0:08:46as a problem across the 19th century.
0:08:46 > 0:08:52At the same time, because of the sheer escalation of just the volume of sea travel in the 19th century,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55the rate of shipwrecks continues to go up.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Though angered at the toll taken by shipwrecks,
0:09:00 > 0:09:02the public felt powerless to help.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07There were a few early lifeboats in the country's worst shipwreck hotspots,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11manned by local men, rarely trained and rarely able to swim.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15But the organisation was haphazard and sparse,
0:09:15 > 0:09:21and the men rowing these ungainly boats were putting themselves at enormous risk.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24It's the early 1820s.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Virtually all ships rely on sail
0:09:27 > 0:09:29and lifeboats barely exist.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34So when your ship hits the rocks and begins to break up,
0:09:34 > 0:09:39and you realise that you're too far away from shore for a Manby mortar to reach you,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44you realise that your only hope lies with men onshore.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47But they're men who've never been taught how to swim
0:09:47 > 0:09:52and they're men whose families will starve if they die.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57Do these men have the courage to launch a boat to rescue you?
0:09:58 > 0:10:03Unlike today's lifeboats, like this one heading out of Poole harbour,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06early lifeboats were very rudimentary.
0:10:07 > 0:10:14Then this situation came to the attention of a man full of practical zeal, Sir William Hillary.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18His motto was "With courage, nothing is impossible",
0:10:18 > 0:10:21a motto he aimed to live by.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Sir William Hillary had witnessed plenty of storms living on the Isle of Man,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33a notoriously treacherous sea for mariners.
0:10:33 > 0:10:40And one night in 1822, he raced around raising men to rescue the sailors from HMS Vigilant
0:10:40 > 0:10:42which was stricken on the rocks.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48And then the 51-year-old Hillary, who couldn't swim, rowed out to the wreck
0:10:48 > 0:10:51and his brave crew were successful.
0:10:52 > 0:10:59Just two months later, another ship, the Racehorse, ran aground close to William Hillary's home.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02But it was a very different story.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05A lifeboat rescued the crew from the Racehorse,
0:11:05 > 0:11:11but on its way back to shore that lifeboat capsized, killing three of the lifeboat men.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13These were men with young families
0:11:13 > 0:11:17and Hillary was disturbed that the widows and children of these men
0:11:17 > 0:11:19would then be forced to live in poverty.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23It seemed a terrible price to pay for such bravery.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26But to Hillary it seemed morally wrong.
0:11:28 > 0:11:34Like other reformers of the period, he believed he had a duty to change the situation.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37His rallying call was a pamphlet
0:11:37 > 0:11:42calling for a national organisation for the preservation of lives from shipwreck.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45It was a stirring and inspirational document,
0:11:45 > 0:11:50and I think that it shows Britain and the British at their philanthropic best.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54The pamphlet proclaimed that...
0:11:54 > 0:12:00"The experience, talent and genius of the most distinguished commanders and men of science
0:12:00 > 0:12:04"should be united in the formation of one great institution,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08"which would in itself embrace every possible means
0:12:08 > 0:12:12"for the preservation of life from the hazards of shipwreck."
0:12:14 > 0:12:16700 copies were sent out
0:12:16 > 0:12:20and after a slow start the organisation was formed.
0:12:20 > 0:12:26But then, after less than nine months, they managed to raise £10,000.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29That's half a million pounds in today's money.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32And then the organisation took off.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38This was the forerunner of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
0:12:38 > 0:12:44Around the coast, new boats were bought, crews trained, gallantry medals awarded,
0:12:44 > 0:12:51and, answering the call that began the campaign, money was given to the families of lost lifeboat men.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Pamphlets, pensions and rowing boats
0:12:57 > 0:13:00were not exactly a hi-tech answer to shipwreck.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07In the 1830s, as Britain entered the Victorian age,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11a new revolution in shipbuilding was taking over, iron.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16Ships forged with iron were not as naturally buoyant as wood
0:13:16 > 0:13:18and they were harder to repair at sea,
0:13:18 > 0:13:23but their tremendous strength would prevent a ship breaching on the rocks,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26and it held another attraction for shipping magnates.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30The incredible strength of iron
0:13:30 > 0:13:36meant that suddenly ships could be built that were larger than any wooden ship ever constructed.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41When the SS Great Britain left this dry dock in Bristol in 1843,
0:13:41 > 0:13:47she was, by a full 1,000 tons, the largest ship the world had ever seen.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55Greater size meant more fee-paying passengers per voyage.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00This offered a big business opportunity with more ships being built
0:14:00 > 0:14:03to take millions of Britons to the colonies.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13This ship represents the coming together of Britain's maritime revolution of the 18th century
0:14:13 > 0:14:16with her Industrial Revolution of the 19th century.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20She's constructed out of iron, driven by a propeller,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22powered by coal and steam,
0:14:22 > 0:14:27and her designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a civil engineer
0:14:27 > 0:14:29rather than a traditional shipwright.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33In every way, this ship was a revolution.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Brunel's radical design
0:14:39 > 0:14:41featured watertight bulkheads
0:14:41 > 0:14:44to seal off flooded parts of the hull.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Once, a rock piercing the hull was a fatal blow,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52but the SS Great Britain could isolate off such breaches.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Sailing ships had few options in a storm.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Either they would heave to, taking all the speed out of the sails,
0:15:00 > 0:15:05or, with passengers' hearts racing, they would run with the storm,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07praying rocks didn't get in the way.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13A steamship had the power to resist being driven on to the rocks.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17However, this vast size meant catastrophic losses
0:15:17 > 0:15:20if the new ocean giants went down.
0:15:20 > 0:15:27Iron sinks quickly and survivors had less broken wood from the wreckage to clutch on to.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Clinging to one of these giant cogs would save no-one.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37But engines and iron also brought a more subtle change.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41People came onboard who knew little about sailing.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45So as the technology associated with ships was changing,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47you had a change in profile of men.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52So, for example, instead of having just a crew of sailors,
0:15:52 > 0:15:53you might have engineers,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55you might have stokers,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59you might have people who are regarded really as just ordinary working-class men,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01they're not sailors, they're not Jack Tars,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05they're just people who will undertake tasks aboard a ship.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10And these weren't the only people changing the dynamic of the ship.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16These steerage-class cabins seem to us incredibly cramped and uncomfortable,
0:16:16 > 0:16:21but for the first time in history ordinary working people could afford international travel.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26They could choose to go abroad, they could seek their fortunes, they could emigrate...
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Once, you needed wealth to be a passenger,
0:16:30 > 0:16:35but, as emigration rocketed, this elitism was fading.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40We've become fascinated by this upstairs-downstairs relationship,
0:16:40 > 0:16:46between the poor in the steerage class and the rich up here in their private cabins.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50But life at sea has always been coloured by class,
0:16:50 > 0:16:54and what was really new and revolutionary about the SS Great Britain
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and about life at sea in the 19th century,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00was not that it brought the classes together,
0:17:00 > 0:17:06but, for the very first time, women and children were now travelling at sea in large numbers.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Ships had been something of a stag party at sea,
0:17:11 > 0:17:16an all-male event with hard drinking and macho attitudes not unknown.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21So what happened to this behaviour when the ship hit the rocks?
0:17:22 > 0:17:25It's hard for us to know exactly what happens aboard shipwrecks,
0:17:25 > 0:17:32but certainly you get lots of descriptions of quite savage, quite violent, quite panicked behaviour
0:17:32 > 0:17:37by men, so you get these wonderful metaphors of being animals,
0:17:37 > 0:17:39that the men are stampeding buffaloes,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42that they're tigers, that they're hornets...
0:17:42 > 0:17:45There's lots of descriptions of men that really don't correspond
0:17:45 > 0:17:49to the idea of a sort of chivalrous women and children first.
0:17:50 > 0:17:57The pages of a novel had been the closest most Victorian ladies had been to this shipwreck savagery.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02But now, for women travellers, it was a stark reality to be faced.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08For millions of people and their families, the shipwreck changed from being an abstract concept
0:18:08 > 0:18:12to becoming a very real and personal nightmare.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23How would Victorian society cope with ever-more women and children onboard?
0:18:27 > 0:18:32In early 1852, a troop ship, HMS Birkenhead, sailed south from Britain
0:18:32 > 0:18:36with soldiers bound for the new frontier wars in South Africa.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Yet these were not her only passengers.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45The Birkenhead was carrying the wives and children of officers serving in the Cape,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and their fate was to change the history of seafaring
0:18:49 > 0:18:53and inspire one of the greatest legends of the Victorian age.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57HMS Birkenhead was an iron-hulled paddle steamer.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59For the troops onboard
0:18:59 > 0:19:02she was one of the fastest and most comfortable of her day.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04They were racing to South Africa
0:19:04 > 0:19:09to reinforce the troops fighting tribes in the Cape frontier wars.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14Throughout 1852, the Birkenhead steams down the western coast of Africa,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18but her final destination was here, Cape Town.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Her captain Robert Salmond was under real pressure
0:19:22 > 0:19:25to get the troops to South Africa as quickly as possible,
0:19:25 > 0:19:30so to speed up the journey he plotted a course that hugged the coastline very closely.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33Too closely, in fact!
0:19:33 > 0:19:37The captain was confident of the accuracy of his charts.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39They showed a safe passage.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43The 600 men, women and children slept soundly
0:19:43 > 0:19:46as the ship steamed on through calm waters.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50During the night of 26 February, three miles offshore,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53and in just 12 fathoms of water,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57the Birkenhead struck an uncharted rock lying just below the surface.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Her hull was ripped wide open and water poured in,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04drowning hundreds of the soldiers and sailors in their bunks.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07The survivors rushed to the upper deck.
0:20:07 > 0:20:13There were only three working lifeboats for the 600 aboard.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Would the women and children be overrun in the stampede?
0:20:17 > 0:20:20The soldiers' next actions became legendary.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24They let the women and children go first to the lifeboats.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29As the ship began to collapse, the captain Robert Salmond
0:20:29 > 0:20:31had called out, "Make for the boats!"
0:20:31 > 0:20:37The women feared the lifeboats would be swamped by hundreds of troops and all would perish.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44Seeing this, the commanding Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Seton, his sword drawn,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46ordered his soldiers to stand back.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49They held ranks, stunned by fear,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54and, if accounts are to be believed, meekly awaited their fate.
0:20:55 > 0:21:01One survivor later wrote, "The order and regularity that prevailed onboard
0:21:01 > 0:21:04"from the moment the ship struck till she totally disappeared
0:21:04 > 0:21:09"far exceeded anything that I had thought could be affected by the best discipline,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11"and it is more to be wondered at
0:21:11 > 0:21:16"seeing that most of the soldiers were but a short time in the service."
0:21:20 > 0:21:24So began the legend of woman and children first,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29the custom known ever after as the Birkenhead drill.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32The Birkenhead was exceptionally unlucky.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35She struck a rock that was uncharted.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Worse, she struck at night.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40And, worst of all, was the place she went down.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Today it is famous,
0:21:42 > 0:21:47famous for some of the highest density of great white sharks in Africa.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54"Nearly all those that took to the water without their clothes on were taken by sharks.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56"Hundreds of them were all around us,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00"and I saw men taken by them close to me.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05"But as I was dressed, having on a flannel shirt and trousers, they preferred the others."
0:22:09 > 0:22:15South Africans know great whites as Tommy sharks, based on that brutal night.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23The newspapers made out there was something innate within the British character,
0:22:23 > 0:22:28an inner bulldog, that made them face death with calm courage.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Victorian Britain was desperate to believe this was true.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39Shipwreck becomes a fundamental challenge
0:22:39 > 0:22:41to the psychology of that society,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45its sense of self-confidence that it is producing people
0:22:45 > 0:22:49who can act appropriately in an emergency,
0:22:49 > 0:22:55and in acting appropriately can vindicate their sense of civilisation or progress and superiority.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Before the actions on the Birkenhead could be vindicated,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03the Navy held an inquiry into what had happened.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Both Lieutenant Colonel Seton, the commanding Army officer,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12and the ship's captain who might have been held responsible for the disaster, were dead.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14But had they behaved honourably?
0:23:14 > 0:23:19The court-martial took place here onboard HMS Victory,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21Nelson's great flagship in Portsmouth.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26In May 1853,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31the surviving soldiers and sailors of the Birkenhead were summonsed to HMS Victory.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36Each of them was thoroughly cross-examined and in each case they told the same story...
0:23:37 > 0:23:39..that the captain had remained calm throughout,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42that the woman and children had been ushered to the lifeboats
0:23:42 > 0:23:49and that when all hope had been lost the soldiers remained calm, accepting their fate.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52There was evidence for self-sacrifice,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54it was not just newspaper hype.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59Perhaps unsurprisingly the military court gave a full exoneration.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01And that judgment made here on HMS Victory
0:24:01 > 0:24:06gave the official stamp of approval to the legend of the Birkenhead,
0:24:06 > 0:24:11a legend that was tapping into how Victorian Britain had already come to view itself.
0:24:23 > 0:24:29Because so many of the men who died on the Birkenhead were soldiers rather than sailors,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33when Queen Victoria ordered this memorial to be built in their honour,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38it was placed here at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43This plaque records the names of all of the officers and the non-commissioned officers
0:24:43 > 0:24:45of the Birkenhead,
0:24:45 > 0:24:50and these plaques record the names of all of the private soldiers onboard the Birkenhead,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52together with their regiments.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56But this plaque is much more than just a memorial to the dead,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00it's a very public acknowledgment of what it describes here
0:25:00 > 0:25:06as "the heroic constancy and unbroken discipline shown by Lieutenant Colonel Seton",
0:25:06 > 0:25:08the hero of the Birkenhead.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15The Birkenhead was used as a shining example to Victorian society.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Now, shipwreck was not just a matter of survival,
0:25:19 > 0:25:24but of surviving with manners, dignity and honour.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29And Rudyard Kipling would commemorate it all in verse.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34"Their work was done when it 'adn't begun
0:25:34 > 0:25:35"They was younger nor me an' you
0:25:35 > 0:25:38"Their choice it was plain
0:25:38 > 0:25:42"Between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the screw
0:25:42 > 0:25:44"So they stood an' was still
0:25:44 > 0:25:46"To the Birken'ead drill
0:25:46 > 0:25:48"Soldier an' sailor too!"
0:25:50 > 0:25:55Holding fast to high moral standards would not save you from drowning.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Instead, the Victorians turned to practical ingenuity
0:25:59 > 0:26:01with the cork lifejacket.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05Prototype models were little more than buoyant cork fixed to a canvas vest.
0:26:05 > 0:26:12One of the pioneers in the 1850s was RNLI captain John Ross Ward.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16At first he battled some resistance to wearing lifejackets,
0:26:16 > 0:26:18and you can kind of see why!
0:26:18 > 0:26:21It's really heavy and really cumbersome,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24and these men weren't just standing around on motorboats,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27they were rowing, they had to do something as well.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31And I think rowing while wearing one of these would be really quite awkward.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35But then one event demonstrated just how vital they were.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42In February 1861, the people of Whitby awoke to a fierce gale.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49At 8.30 in the morning, lifeboat men were called to rescue the crew
0:26:49 > 0:26:51of the John And Anne in distress.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54They launched again at 10 o'clock,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and then at 11.30 as more ships beached.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Exhausted, the lifeboat men carried on until, during their fifth rescue,
0:27:03 > 0:27:06a large wave overturned the boat.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15One lifeboat man, Henry Freeman, reached the shore.
0:27:16 > 0:27:22Henry Freeman survived and he'd been wearing a sample of the newfangled lifejacket.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25All 12 other men perished.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30Lifeboat men needed no more persuading.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32Lifejackets became compulsory.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38It doesn't look like much,
0:27:38 > 0:27:44but this symbolises the survival of literally thousands of victims of shipwreck.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51Whilst lifejackets could save you in a shipwreck,
0:27:51 > 0:27:56a new innovation would stop ships even being in a storm.
0:27:57 > 0:28:03In 1859, most thought storms were God's work and impossible to predict.
0:28:04 > 0:28:10Admiral Robert Fitzroy was sure it was within science's grasp to predict weather.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15He claimed that, given funding, he could not only foresee weather,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19but with the newly developed telegraph he could send out storm warnings
0:28:19 > 0:28:21to ports around the country.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28Few listened until one of the century's most dramatic shipwrecks energised politicians to act.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32The Royal Charter was a steam clipper
0:28:32 > 0:28:35packed with gold miners returning from Australia.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39After two months at sea, they were hours from home,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41ready to enjoy their new wealth.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44As the ship neared Anglesey
0:28:44 > 0:28:46with the barometer plummeting,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49the captain was advised to put into Holyhead.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Instead he decided to battle on to Liverpool
0:28:53 > 0:28:57without realising a staggering storm was brewing.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01It rose from storm force 10 to hurricane force 12.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06The Royal Charter's engines were no match for the storm
0:29:06 > 0:29:09and she was relentlessly driven on to the Welsh coast.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15Just 39 of the 470 people onboard survived.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20Many victims had refused to abandon their gold onboard
0:29:20 > 0:29:22and its weight dragged them under the waves.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27In the annals of weather, it was the worst storm of the century.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32In the press furore that followed, Robert Fitzroy spoke up.
0:29:32 > 0:29:38In the Met Office archives, I met with Catherine Ross to find out Fitzroy's next move.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42What was Robert Fitzroy's reaction to this big gale?
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Fitzroy felt very strongly that it could have been predicted,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49and that there should have been a warning system in operation
0:29:49 > 0:29:51which could have prevented the loss of the Royal Charter
0:29:51 > 0:29:54and indeed the other 132 ships which were lost on the same night.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56And he produced this report
0:29:56 > 0:30:03which was designed to reflect the weather throughout the period of the storm before and after.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06- Over how long? - Two weeks of weather, this report.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08And here you can see Anglesey,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11and, basically, the length of the line indicates the strength of the wind.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13So here we have hurricane-force winds.
0:30:13 > 0:30:19Through this report and reports of other similar storms, lesser in extent, but other storms,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24he was able to convince Parliament that he could predict storms
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and to bring in a storm-warning system.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30And would the 1861 storm warning have looked like this?
0:30:30 > 0:30:36No. The information was collected from the coastal stations by electric telegraph,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39sent to London, and, if they felt a storm warning should be issued,
0:30:39 > 0:30:44it was sent back to the location where the poor weather would hit, again by electric telegraph.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46That got the information to the port but it didn't get it to the ships
0:30:46 > 0:30:49either in harbour or sailing along the coast.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51So, as a result, they had an additional system.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Next to each telegraph station was a staff
0:30:55 > 0:31:00on which they hoisted a system of cones and drums, which were lit at night...
0:31:01 > 0:31:03You've got "Gale probably from the northward,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05"gale probably from the southward,
0:31:05 > 0:31:09"gale successively". Well, you were in trouble if that hit!
0:31:09 > 0:31:11And then these show winds that are going to change,
0:31:11 > 0:31:13but they're guessing which direction they're coming from.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Robert Fitzroy won approval for his system.
0:31:17 > 0:31:22In the war against shipwreck, weather forecasting was a major victory.
0:31:22 > 0:31:28This map led directly to modern weather forecasting as we know it.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32In essence, it led to the very first forecast.
0:31:32 > 0:31:33Amazing!
0:31:34 > 0:31:37Fitzroy's passion had energised Parliament to act,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41and MPs had also responded to passenger concerns.
0:31:42 > 0:31:48The need to improve passenger safety led to a series of new regulations and laws in the 19th century.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53Ships were inspected in dock to check that they were seaworthy.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58They were fitted with lifeboats and captains and crew were given better training.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03And yet none of these new regulations and laws applied to merchant ships.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07There was one set of rules and standards for passenger ships
0:32:07 > 0:32:10and another for those that carried cargo.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18Of almost 2,500 shipwreck fatalities in 1867,
0:32:18 > 0:32:21just 1 death in 20 were passengers.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Few cared about this massacre of merchant seamen
0:32:25 > 0:32:28until one man was driven to change things.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33In the war against the shipwreck,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36one campaigner stands out as commander-in-chief,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Samuel Plimsoll.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43In his battle to make ships safer he became a national hero.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47Today his fight for social justice has been forgotten,
0:32:47 > 0:32:52but before Plimsoll the seaworthiness of ships was a lottery.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Despite advances like iron hulls and steam engines,
0:32:58 > 0:33:02much of Britain's merchant fleet was still made out of wood.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Many ships were death traps.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11A frail leaky skeleton of a ship would be bought and disguised as a new craft,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15a fresh lick of paint would be put over rotten timbers like these,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18and the ship would be given a new name and nameplate.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22But whatever the plate said, sailors had just one term for these vessels,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24coffin ships.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28Elderly ships would be disposed of and what would happen...
0:33:28 > 0:33:33it was a terrible practice by which people would buy up old ships,
0:33:33 > 0:33:38repaint them, rename them and send them out to sea again,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40often heavily insured.
0:33:40 > 0:33:46The only danger to the owner was that the sailors would lose their lives,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50but, if they were recompensed financially, it was alleged to be worth the risk.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53DONG!
0:33:59 > 0:34:01It was a vast insurance scam.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06Shipowners could heavily insure their vessels for far more than they were really worth.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11Successfully reaching port was becoming less profitable than the shipwreck.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14Shipwrecks were soaring.
0:34:14 > 0:34:20Plimsoll reported that in 1869, 177 ships were wrecked
0:34:20 > 0:34:26in sea conditions officially logged as no stronger than a gentle breeze.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31According to Samuel Plimsoll, one shipowner had lost a dozen ships in three years,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34and 105 men.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39They were regarded as coffin ships because men knew that if they sailed on them,
0:34:39 > 0:34:40there was a very good chance they were going to die.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43And the law was against even the men there.
0:34:43 > 0:34:45You could not refuse to go aboard a ship.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Once you'd signed the papers, if you refused to go aboard the ship that you'd signed to,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52once you took a look at it and realised how overloaded or unseaworthy it was,
0:34:52 > 0:34:54you would be arrested and thrown in jail.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57The only way you could go was to sail on the ship.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Many men registered their protest and then sailed,
0:35:00 > 0:35:02and many men sailed to their deaths as a result.
0:35:04 > 0:35:10In one three-year period, over 1,500 sailors were jailed for refusing to crew ships
0:35:10 > 0:35:12they believed unseaworthy.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16And jail often brought poverty and destitution to their families.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Ever-more sailors were lured on to these coffin ships.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25Plimsoll had two main demands.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Firstly, no unseaworthy ship should be allowed to leave port,
0:35:29 > 0:35:36and that all freight ships must display a line marking the maximum safe-loading limit,
0:35:36 > 0:35:42with harbourmasters being allowed to impound ships not showing a visible line above the water.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47Plimsoll was pitting himself against huge vested interests.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53When Samuel Plimsoll began his campaign against the overloading of ships,
0:35:53 > 0:35:58which had led to so many deaths, he cited a statistic that in the 20 previous years
0:35:58 > 0:36:03not a single English ship, not a single British ship had ever been scrapped.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05They'd all been patched up and sent back to sea
0:36:05 > 0:36:08because it was in the shipowners' interest to keep them afloat.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21At the height of Plimsoll's fervent campaign,
0:36:21 > 0:36:26an event at sea would lead to a surge of public support for the load line
0:36:26 > 0:36:28and greater maritime safety.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35This is Bridlington Bay on the Yorkshire coast.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39Newcastle's 100 miles up in that direction.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44And back in the 1870s it was Newcastle and Northeast coalfields that supplied the coal
0:36:44 > 0:36:50that fuelled industrial Britain. That coal was transported by colliers up and down that coast
0:36:50 > 0:36:53to London, to the South, even to France.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56Coal was a notoriously dangerous cargo.
0:36:56 > 0:37:04It was loaded open on deck, and as ships rode the waves it could shift and fatally unbalance them.
0:37:05 > 0:37:11Whenever a storm brewed in the North Sea, they needed to find shelter on this coast,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14and Bridlington Bay was their favourite sanctuary.
0:37:15 > 0:37:22On 9 February 1871, 400 ships, many of them colliers, sought refuge
0:37:22 > 0:37:25here in Bridlington from a passing storm.
0:37:25 > 0:37:31But that afternoon the skies began to clear and one by one the ships made sail.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35A huge crowd of onlookers came down to see the sight of such a large fleet
0:37:35 > 0:37:38sailing off to the horizon.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44That night, the wind suddenly rose to a hurricane,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48it began to snow and the winds whipped that snow up into a blizzard.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51As dawn broke the next morning,
0:37:51 > 0:37:56a crown of onlookers came down and they were greeted with an appalling sight.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02Ships were foundering in heavy seas, being pushed towards the coastline.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Some collier ships tried to steer for the sanctuary of the harbour,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08only to be dashed against the breakwaters.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13The cries of drowning crew could be heard over the winds.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16A rocket was repeatedly fired to get ropes to stricken ships
0:38:16 > 0:38:21and the whole town, men and women, came down to the waterfront
0:38:21 > 0:38:25to help haul sailors to safety, and tend to the survivors.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30Again and again, the exhausted lifeboat men set out through the blizzard
0:38:30 > 0:38:35to reach the desperate sailors, but they'd been set an impossible task.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38When the sea's fury calmed,
0:38:38 > 0:38:43wreckage, cargo and drowned bodies filled the seafront.
0:38:44 > 0:38:4728 ships were lost on the coast that night.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Many sailors and six of the lifeboat men perished.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01This is the burial register for the Parish of Bridlington,
0:39:01 > 0:39:06and it records all the names of the men who died during the Great Gale.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13The burials of 14 February take up two full pages of this register.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16On this page they run all the way down...
0:39:20 > 0:39:21..to the bottom,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24where there's this entry
0:39:24 > 0:39:26that reads, "Eleven sailors names unknown.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28"Drowned in Bridlington Bay."
0:39:30 > 0:39:32The deaths infuriated Samuel Plimsoll
0:39:32 > 0:39:35who felt most could have been avoided.
0:39:36 > 0:39:43What happened with a lot of the ships was that as soon as they got as close into shore as the sandy bottom,
0:39:43 > 0:39:45they fell apart.
0:39:45 > 0:39:52And it was argued that this would not have happened if the ships had been in proper repair.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59There was a great deal of coverage in the newspapers afterwards about the way the ships were loaded
0:39:59 > 0:40:01and the condition the ships were in.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04So it provided ammunition for Plimsoll's campaign.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Plimsoll now produced a book. Half a million copies were sold,
0:40:09 > 0:40:14bringing in new supporters from surprising places with no maritime links.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18He even had music-hall sketches written about him.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Plimsoll's campaign was heralded
0:40:23 > 0:40:26in town halls, in the pulpit and in music halls.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31He was christened the Sailors' Friend and songs were composed in his honour.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33But then the backlash began.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36Shipowners issued libel writs against Plimsoll's book
0:40:36 > 0:40:39and there were personal attacks.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41One letter in The Shipping Gazette declared,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44"Plimsollism is another word for terrorism!"
0:40:44 > 0:40:46This was war.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51The front line moved to Westminster.
0:40:51 > 0:40:57Records of Plimsoll's struggle can be found stored in the Parliamentary archives.
0:40:58 > 0:41:05By the 1870s, public pressure for a new law to force shipowners to mark a safe-load line on their vessels
0:41:05 > 0:41:07had grown into a national campaign.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11But the men who actually drafted Britain's laws
0:41:11 > 0:41:14repeatedly stood in the way of any new legislation.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16And there's a reason for that.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20Many of those men were themselves shipowners.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Plimsoll was no orator nor was he a genius,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26yet his integrity was faultless...
0:41:26 > 0:41:29and he was unrelenting.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32When one bill was knocked back, he launched another,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34and then another.
0:41:34 > 0:41:41Plimsoll knew the public was on his side and not that of the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44In 1875 in July at the end of the term,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48after Plimsoll had introduced unsuccessfully several merchant shipping bills,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Disraeli deferred the latest one once too often.
0:41:52 > 0:41:59Plimsoll lost his temper. By this point he'd had 13 libel cases against him from unhappy shipowners,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03he'd sold his own stately home to pay his legal bills...
0:42:03 > 0:42:09With all of this behind him, to find that he was thwarted yet again was too much.
0:42:09 > 0:42:18He called the MPs in the House "villains who colluded with the murderers outside it".
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Plimsoll's outburst shocked both Parliament and the press,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26but it was Disraeli's Government that was losing its grip.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28American magazine Harper's Weekly
0:42:28 > 0:42:32showed Disraeli being menaced by the lion of public opinion.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35It had the bold caption,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38"Now put your head in, if you dare."
0:42:39 > 0:42:41Disraeli teetered on the brink.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Would he risk the nation's wrath?
0:42:45 > 0:42:50The Prime Minister trimmed his sails. He needed a law, and soon.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53But other MPs were not giving in yet.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58This is the House Bill of the 1876 Merchant Shipping Act,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01a draft of the new legislation.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06It records all of the amendments proposed, accepted and rejected
0:43:06 > 0:43:08as it made its way through Parliament,
0:43:08 > 0:43:10and it's absolutely full of them.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15You can see them scribbled in black ink, in pencil, in red ink,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18some are cut and pasted in,
0:43:18 > 0:43:21there's even one pinned to the bottom of the page.
0:43:22 > 0:43:27You can see that it was a deeply contested and controversial piece of legislation.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32This is the record of a great Parliamentary battle.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38Eventually, after years of struggle,
0:43:38 > 0:43:44Samuel Plimsoll triumphed and every freight ship in the world bears the mark of that victory.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48You can even see it clearly on a vast ship like this.
0:43:48 > 0:43:53This load line or Plimsoll line marks the safe-loading limit of a ship.
0:43:53 > 0:44:00Plimsoll's success meant arrest for any shipowner guilty of risking life at sea.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05It saved thousands of sailors' lives and coffin ships were no more.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Samuel Plimsoll had educated the Victorian public
0:44:21 > 0:44:25about the existence of a dark side to seafaring.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27But more horrors were to come.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33In the summer of 1884, an English sea yacht, the Mignonette,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36passed through these waters off the coast of West Africa.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42She continued her voyage southwards, crossed the equator, into the South Atlantic.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48The Mignonette was a racing yacht that was being delivered to a new owner in Sydney by Tom Dudley,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50and he took with him three crewmen,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53Edwin Stevens as first mate and navigator,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Ned Brooks as a cook and able seaman,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58and a cabin boy called Richard Parker,
0:44:58 > 0:45:04a 17-year-old boy who, like Tom Dudley, had grown up as an orphan and was illiterate.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08And one of Dudley's promises to the boy was that he would teach him to read and write on the voyage.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12It was a voyage full of promise for new lives in Australia.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15Because the Mignonette was a relatively small yacht,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19Tom Dudley, probably wisely, decided to stay closer to the African coast
0:45:19 > 0:45:23and to take a more northerly course from Africa to Australia,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27but the danger in that was, if anything went wrong, they were far from the shipping lanes
0:45:27 > 0:45:29and their chances of rescue were remote.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33Just how remote was something fate would reveal to them.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39Six weeks into her journey, she was struck by a freak wave and she quickly sank.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42The crew escaped to the lifeboat.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49The captain, Tom Dudley, knew that their situation was all but hopeless.
0:45:49 > 0:45:54In their swift escape, they had managed to save some navigational equipment,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57but all they had to eat was two tins of turnips
0:45:57 > 0:46:01and, worst of all, they had no water.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05On the very first night, they had to fight off sharks with their oars.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Their predicament could hardly have been worse.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11They're hundreds of miles from land, they're far from the shipping lanes,
0:46:11 > 0:46:16they're in a tiny little dinghy, no shelter from the burning tropical sun,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19and no means of making a sail other than the shirts they wore,
0:46:19 > 0:46:24which Tom Dudley, the captain, eventually persuaded his men to give up to make a makeshift sail.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Dudley decided their only option was to drift with the wind
0:46:29 > 0:46:33towards the South American coast, an ocean away.
0:46:33 > 0:46:38In fact, he calculated they were 700 miles from land.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41They feared they would become forgotten victims of the sea,
0:46:41 > 0:46:47but instead, because of what happened next, they would be infamous across British society.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52Dudley had no radio, no GPS, no helicopter to rescue them.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54They were days from death.
0:46:54 > 0:47:01Experienced sailors knew that if all else failed, they could turn to the custom of the sea.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Lots would be drawn and the loser would lose his life.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08One life lost instead of all,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12one life to provide sustenance for the rest.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16Dudley suggested this, but Ned Brooks refused point blank.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21The cabin boy Richard Parker had drunk seawater.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23He slipped into a coma.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29As dawn broke on the 19th day, Dudley could take no more.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35Dudley scanned the horizon, searching for any sign of a ship.
0:47:35 > 0:47:36But there was none.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39He signalled to Stevens to grab the boy...
0:47:40 > 0:47:42..and then Dudley slit his throat.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Richard Parker was now consumed.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50Thirst being more urgent than hunger,
0:47:50 > 0:47:54the men knew they had to quickly drink Parker's blood
0:47:54 > 0:47:55before it would congeal.
0:47:58 > 0:48:05Dudley said, "I shall never forget the sight of my two unfortunate companions over that ghastly meal.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08"We was like mad wolves who could get the most.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12"And for fathers of children to commit such a deed,
0:48:12 > 0:48:14"we could not have our right reason."
0:48:16 > 0:48:2024 days after their shipwreck, a passing German boat rescued them.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22Arriving in Cornwall,
0:48:22 > 0:48:27the three men told how they had been forced to turn to the custom of the sea.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30As sailors they expected a sympathetic arm,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33instead, they got the heavy hand of the law.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37They came back to Falmouth and the harbourmaster said,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40"Goodness me! You look in a terrible state. How on earth did you survive?"
0:48:40 > 0:48:42"Well, we ate the cabin boy, of course!"
0:48:42 > 0:48:44was more or less what their response was!
0:48:44 > 0:48:50And then they were completely bemused by the fact that they were then charged with murder.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53This event happened almost in the middle of nowhere.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Why did Dudley and Stevens admit to killing Parker?
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Because they didn't think they'd done anything wrong.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04It was the established custom of the sea, at least amongst the maritime community,
0:49:04 > 0:49:09that in times of necessity, such as when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere
0:49:09 > 0:49:11with nothing to eat and nothing to drink,
0:49:11 > 0:49:17that recourse would be made to eating one of the people who had survived,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20but normally after the drawing of lots.
0:49:20 > 0:49:25Which could be rigged, because there was a tendency for the youngest crewman
0:49:25 > 0:49:29or for the passenger rather than the crew
0:49:29 > 0:49:31or for the Black rather than the White,
0:49:31 > 0:49:33to have the lot fall upon him.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36But that was considered to be the custom of the sea.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41You don't have recourse to getting food or calling for help, you may never get help at all.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46You're stranded in the middle of an ocean where you'll be lucky if somebody comes and picks you up.
0:49:46 > 0:49:51I mean, in the case of Dudley and Stevens, they waited almost three weeks,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55they didn't kill Parker the first day, they waited three weeks,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57until things were dire,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00and no hope was on the horizon.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03What was the public reaction to this case?
0:50:03 > 0:50:07Even Richard Parker's own brother, who was a mariner himself,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10came up to them and shook their hands in public.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15So could sailors legally kill each other for food?
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Anecdotes of nautical cannibalism were widespread,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23but this custom of the sea had yet to reach court.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26A test case was needed.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29Whilst Dudley and Stevens had public support,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33was any English judge really going to legalise cannibalism?
0:50:33 > 0:50:36A legal balancing act was called for.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43The tribunal of five judges
0:50:43 > 0:50:47determined that necessity was not a defence to murder.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Consequently, Dudley and Stevens were guilty of murder,
0:50:51 > 0:50:55and as a result of that were found guilty by the judges, not by the jury,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58and were condemned to death.
0:50:59 > 0:51:04But, surprise, surprise, their sentence was very shortly commuted
0:51:04 > 0:51:08to what many people thought was an excessive period of time, six months.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12How does the Dudley-Stevens case relate to what happened on the Birkenhead?
0:51:12 > 0:51:20Well, it was specifically contrasted by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge in his judgment on Dudley and Stevens,
0:51:20 > 0:51:25and he said, "The British way is exemplified by the Birkenhead,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28"not by what happened on the Mignonette."
0:51:28 > 0:51:32In other words, better to die than to kill.
0:51:32 > 0:51:38The British Christian way is self-sacrifice, not the sacrifice of others.
0:51:41 > 0:51:47Thankfully, fewer and fewer Victorians faced Dudley and Stevens' horrible dilemma,
0:51:47 > 0:51:49because shipping was becoming ever safer.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Back in the early-18th century,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55to cross 3,000 miles over the Atlantic
0:51:55 > 0:51:59meant at the very least a fortnight's endurance,
0:51:59 > 0:52:04cramped quarters, no bath and a risk of dying in a shipwreck.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08But Victorian engineers made extraordinary leaps forward,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11smashing records in speed and size.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16By 1880, the journey to New York was cut to nine days,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19and barely a decade later to only five.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Faster also meant bigger and more luxurious.
0:52:22 > 0:52:28Yet the giants were also safer for passengers who could be reassured by plentiful lifeboats.
0:52:28 > 0:52:35From 1894, the Merchant Shipping Bill laid down a legal requirement for lifeboats
0:52:35 > 0:52:37based on the ship's size.
0:52:37 > 0:52:43The MPs set the maximum at what seemed a vast weight, 10,000 tons.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47It seemed that Britain's war against the shipwreck had been won.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53Progress meant that soon ships would double and even quadruple this size.
0:52:53 > 0:53:00With fewer shipwrecks, politicians saw little need to hinder ships with extra regulations,
0:53:00 > 0:53:02and lifeboat numbers did not rise.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07As the 20th century dawned, few were concerned.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12One ship shattered this illusion...
0:53:12 > 0:53:15her name synonymous with broken pride...
0:53:16 > 0:53:17..Titanic.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27This is the Harland & Wolff Shipyard from where the Titanic was launched
0:53:27 > 0:53:30in front of 100,000 spectators.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33It was a proud moment for Belfast,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37but it was also the crowning glory of a century of progress.
0:53:39 > 0:53:44Titanic was not only the largest manmade moving object in the world,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47she was as ultramodern as it was possible to be.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55Titanic's first-class passengers were treated like rock stars.
0:53:55 > 0:54:01A one-way first-class ticket would have cost tens of thousands of pounds at today's prices.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05# ..And leaving dear old Ireland without warning... #
0:54:05 > 0:54:12Even in third-class steerage, Titanic's passengers had electric light, baths and meals.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15Wherever you were, it was the height of modernity.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Progress had overtaken safety.
0:54:21 > 0:54:26Titanic, quite legally, only had lifeboats for a third of its passengers.
0:54:39 > 0:54:45Titanic's myth continues in part because it was the Birkenhead drill writ large.
0:54:45 > 0:54:50As the lifeboats were mustered, the women and children famously went first.
0:54:51 > 0:54:56The men seemingly did the right thing and, on the captain's orders, bravely held back.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00But Titanic had two versions of the Birkenhead drill.
0:55:01 > 0:55:07On the starboard side, the drill was the standard women and children first,
0:55:07 > 0:55:13but on the port side Second Officer Lightoller took it to mean women and children only.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18He even left empty seats if no women and children were near.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20I happened to meet the captain,
0:55:20 > 0:55:25and I asked him, "Shall I get the women and children away, sir?"
0:55:26 > 0:55:27He just nodded.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30There weren't enough boats to take half the people,
0:55:30 > 0:55:35and the chances of the other half in that icy cold water
0:55:35 > 0:55:37were absolutely nil.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43Yet there was never the slightest attempt to get into a boat out of turn.
0:55:43 > 0:55:49In fact, with the last couple of boats, it was even difficult to find women to fill them,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52though, of course, there was still a good many onboard.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57The Birkenhead drill had apparently taught everyone how to act.
0:55:57 > 0:56:04Titanic's captain Edward Smith's last reported order was, "Be British."
0:56:09 > 0:56:13There were nearly 500 unused spaces on Titanic's lifeboats,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17testament perhaps to the moral revolution that had taken place
0:56:17 > 0:56:21in British attitudes to shipwreck over the previous 100 years.
0:56:22 > 0:56:28Those in the lifeboats were only later saved thanks to a huge technological advance...
0:56:28 > 0:56:29radio.
0:56:30 > 0:56:37Before radio, a sinking ship had to rely on distress flares to visually signal for help.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41Titanic too used these, but they were mistaken for party fireworks,
0:56:41 > 0:56:49and it was the liner's radioed SOS call that brought the Carpathia to her aid from over 50 miles away.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53When she reached Titanic's last recorded position,
0:56:53 > 0:56:55the giant ship was gone,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58but survivors were in lifeboats.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03Without radio, it's quite possible
0:57:03 > 0:57:08all Titanic survivors would have died of hypothermia long before they were rescued.
0:57:08 > 0:57:16Titanic might just be one more forgotten name on the list of ships that never reached port.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24More than a century after the wreck of the Titanic,
0:57:24 > 0:57:28and generation after generation of technological innovation
0:57:28 > 0:57:30has cosseted us from its horrors.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Ships now use radar to steer clear of icebergs
0:57:34 > 0:57:39and GPS can pinpoint their global position to within metres.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41Yet ships still sink,
0:57:41 > 0:57:48and the gigantic scale of modern cruise liners seems as hubristic as Titanic ever was.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51But while deaths at sea still occur,
0:57:51 > 0:57:57the shipwreck as an event has lost that chilling potency that it once had.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02So as popular fascination shifts or has shifted across the 20th century
0:58:02 > 0:58:06from the ship to the plane to the spaceship,
0:58:06 > 0:58:11if you like, that leaves the Titanic, I think, as the last great shipwreck.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15I think it's unlikely that its sort of place in the popular consciousness will be challenged,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19because we just don't think about ships and shipwrecks in the same way as we once did.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23And so the Titanic stands there as a sort of colossal memorial
0:58:23 > 0:58:28to how powerful and how important the maritime sphere once was in British society.
0:58:28 > 0:58:32My journey in this series began back in the 16th century
0:58:32 > 0:58:35when Britain could only dream of ruling the waves.
0:58:35 > 0:58:41It's carried me through centuries of destructive chaos at sea on a shocking scale.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Yet despite the huge loss of lives,
0:58:44 > 0:58:47the shipwreck helped shape Britain's modern identity,
0:58:47 > 0:58:51its national character and change the course of its history.
0:58:51 > 0:58:56Without the shipwreck, we simply wouldn't be the nation that we are today.