The Pickle The Boats That Built Britain


The Pickle

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'Britain is an island, surrounded by a cold and unforgiving sea.

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'For centuries, it protected us from attack, but to prosper and thrive,

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'we would need to do more then just hide behind her saltwater shield.

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'Britain needed brave men, willing to venture out into the unknown,

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'and she needed good boats to take them there.

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'I've spent my life at sea.

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'Now I'm going to take passage on six boats, that together tell the story of modern Britain.

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'Built for exploration, war, fishing, industry, and our very survival,

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'these are the boats that built Britain,

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'and changed the way we live forever.

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'This time, I'm sailing on a replica of the boat

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'that delivered the most important message in British naval history,

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'a message that confirmed Britain as the world's first maritime superpower.'

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I'm on the deck of one of the unsung heroes of British history,

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HMS Pickle, the boat that delivered

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the most important piece of naval news of all time.

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Britain had just thrashed the forces of France and Spain.

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Now, we really ruled the waves after the Battle of Trafalgar,

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and this is the little ship that brought the news home to a waiting nation.

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'Today, the Royal Navy's ships circle the globe unhindered,

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'but at the end of the 18th century, the world's oceans were a much more dangerous place.

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'In 1805, Britain had just fought the most significant naval battle in her history.'

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After years of bloody struggle,

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the French and the Spanish were finally thoroughly defeated on the high seas.

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The challenge now was how to get the good news home to the nation, and the King.

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'Today, we take instant communications very much for granted.

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'This modern Navy vessel is equipped with every communication device imaginable,

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'but, back at the beginning of the 19th century,

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'relaying important military news back home could take weeks, sometimes months.

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'In 1805, HMS Victory had just survived the Battle of Trafalgar.

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'Thousands of men had perished, and many more lay wounded.

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'And though Nelson, England's hero, was dead, the battle had been won.

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'But, back in Britain, where fear of a French invasion was rampant,

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'nobody had any idea of the momentous scenes

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'that had just unfolded 1,000 miles away, off the coast of Spain.'

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HMS Victory, an upper gun deck.

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Absolute precision, naval fashion, as it was before the battle, and as it would have been weeks afterwards.

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But on the day, in the hours following the conflict, this place would have been so different.

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Guns upended off their carriages, holes in the side, splinters,

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scores across the deck where cannonballs had run.

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Men, still lying where they fell, others being carried below to the doctor.

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Smoke, blood, unimaginable chaos.

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The last thing on people's minds would have been getting the news home to England.

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'But the fleet's new commander, Admiral Collingwood, knew that getting the news back was vital.

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'What he needed now was a ship to carry the message.

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'His choice for this critical mission must have surprised everyone.

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'To naval eyes, HMS Pickle was hardly a ship at all.

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'She was only 73ft on deck.

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'She had no large guns, and, worse, she had a strange, suspiciously modern rig.

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'During the battle, she'd run errands and picked up survivors -

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'valuable work, but hardly the stuff of heroes.

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'For a little ship like the Pickle, being chosen to deliver this news was an unimaginable honour,

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'and it was a pay day, too, with £500 - a fortune in 1805 - the reward for completing the mission.

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'But what should have been the Pickle's moment of glory almost ended in failure,

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'as she became engaged in a race with a bigger, faster ship,

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'determined to take the reward money for herself.

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'The race is one of the greatest sea stories of them all.

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'So, just what was it about the Pickle that enabled her to hold her own,

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'against a ship, that, in most conditions, should have left her dead in the water?

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'Walking around the decks of the Pickle,

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'I'm immediately struck by just how different she is to most of Nelson's Navy ships.

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'By the time of Trafalgar, the British Navy had developed a massive shipbuilding industry -

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'capable of turning out huge ships of the line at an amazing rate.

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'They were impressive fighting machines,

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'but, as sailing vessels, they were extremely limited.

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'In fact, their sail plan had hardly changed in over 100 years.

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'The sails were square rigged, and set from wooden crosspieces, known as yards.

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'It meant they were good at sailing with the wind pushing them from behind.

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'But with the breeze coming from any other direction, they were far, far less effective.

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'Unlike the little Pickle, a schooner, with her more modern rig.'

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This is the main mast, not a square yard on it,

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to the eye of an old-time captain in the Royal Navy,

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that would have looked bare naked.

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He would have expected to see three or four yards going across it, to drive his ship downwind,

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and they'd have done that fine.

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But when he put a hard on the wind, and tried to tack up towards the wind's eye, no dice, mate.

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What you needed then was a big, long boom like this,

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with a great big sail on it, that would lie close to the wind,

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and make the boat fly into the direction

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that sailors from time immemorial hadn't believed she could really go.

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That is the magic of the schooner.

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'It wasn't just the sails that were revolutionary.

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'She had a hull to much.'

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The Pickle was far from typical of the naval vessels of her time.

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This is a heavy battleship, but it gives you some idea of what they tended to look like.

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The Pickle was completely different, much finer, much more of a sailing vessel.

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'Most Navy ships of the time were built around their need to carry a huge and heavy arsenal of guns.

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'Glorious, but ungainly vessels to sail,

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'unlike the Pickle.'

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See that, that lovely, wine glass sweep of the boat?

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This great big dead drop,

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straight down into the water aft, at the back end.

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Never mind the propeller, that's just a temporary feature for the 20th century.

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That wouldn't have been here. What we're seeing is the magic of the Pickle.

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If you look at the bow,

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she's... Ooh, lovely, like a knife going through the water.

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At five or six knots, you can see her go through the water, you won't know where she's been.

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She's what we call slippery.

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'By today's standards, the Pickle's hull looks conservative.

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'Back in 1805, many Navy men would have considered her dangerously unconventional.

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'But her radical new shape gave her one huge advantage over older designs.'

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This section of the boat here,

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all the way forward to where she starts to V out,

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is actually like a wall, straight down into the water.

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Now, look at it like this.

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If you had a barrel in the water, and you pushed it,

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you'd expect it to go sideways quite nicely, wouldn't you?

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If you had a sheet of plywood, and you pushed it into the water,

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held it down, and tried to push it sideways,

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you'd meet tremendous resistance. It's as easy as that.

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What you need is what sailors call dead drop in the hull.

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Dead drop is that wall, that stops the boat going sideways.

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Pickle's got lots of it.

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This is what was developing, fore-and-aft rig boats,

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that would resist the temptation of the wind to shove them away to kingdom come.

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They pointed at the wind, they sailed upwind like bandits,

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and the square rig vessels, with shapes like barrels,

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they couldn't match them.

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But just where had Pickle and her uncompromising design come from?

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Accounts from the time suggest the Pickle

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was an American or Bermudan boat captured in the Caribbean

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and sailed back to Britain by a forward-thinking officer

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who'd seen what a handy little boat she was.

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Unhindered by convention, the Americans were completely rethinking

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boat design and the old powers ignored their ideas at their peril.

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It was the new world, there were new men with new ideas and they rattled the Royal Navy.

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The Pickle was certainly unorthodox, and her skipper, Lieutenant Lapenotiere, was unusual too.

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From a humble Cornish background, he was a far cry

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from the well-connected officer class

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more common in the navy at the time.

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Gordon Frickers has researched the Pickle and her commanding officer extensively.

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He was considered a solid, reliable officer. He didn't seem to make friends easily.

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He missed a number of chances to enjoy the patronage of officers who rose and became very distinguished.

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Many other officers rose through the ranks faster than him.

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On the other hand, he had a fairly successful career.

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He captured a number of prizes. He never lost a ship.

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So he may have not been very sociable,

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and some of the officers were very sociable.

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A lot of them sang and danced and put on theatre and all sorts of things like that.

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But he was clearly a very good seaman, a very good person to be under the command of.

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And Pickle was a particularly difficult ship to command.

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Small, wet and uncomfortable, the Pickle might have been hard to command, but with a modern design

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and a down-to-earth skipper, she was an early sign of a new mood sweeping the Navy.

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For centuries, it had been who you knew that had opened the way ahead.

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Now, the Navy were trying to ensure that it was what you knew that counted.

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And that knowledge was tested here in Portsmouth, where the dreaded naval exams were held.

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Introduced in 1792, the exams were designed to create a navy run on merit.

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The Pickle's skipper, Lieutenant Lapenotiere, was one of this new breed.

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And he'd have faced a situation just like this when he came to take his exams.

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As I'm about to find out, a daunting prospect.

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You're going large and you see a ship in the wind's eye.

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How are you going to proceed to chase her?

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OK...sir.

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I'm large which means I'm sailing away from the wind.

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And I see a chase

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in the wind's eye, directly to windward of me.

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'The exams could last up to five hours and covered every aspect of command.

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'Any weakness or slight mistake and the officer would be failed,

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'with years passing before he could reapply for promotion.

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'I suspect that if I'd been taking this exam for real I wouldn't have got that vital promotion.

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'But young Lieutenant Lapenotiere had done his homework and he managed rather better.

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'And passing the exam meant he was now qualified to take command of his own vessel.

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'HMS Pickle.

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'The original Pickle was lost on a shoal in 1808, but this boat is an exact replica.

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'And gives us a perfect insight into how she would have handled all those years ago.

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'She weighed a mere 127 tonnes.

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'And with only ten guns, she didn't pack much of a punch either.

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'But she was handy, a small agile craft,

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'capable of pulling off manoeuvres that larger ships wouldn't have dared attempt.

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'I'm raring to get her out to sea to find out just how she handles for myself.

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'To discover what this little ship is really capable of,

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'I've brought along a shipmate of mine Craig Nutter.

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'Craig's a circumnavigator and racing professional

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'who knows more about sailing fast than anyone I know.

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'Today, there's a force eight to storm ten predicted,

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'not the sort of weather you'd normally consider setting out in.

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'But we've got an experienced crew, a proven ship,

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'and these are exactly the sort of conditions that will allow us to see what the Pickle is really made of.'

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So I've got my little GPS here and it shows us doing between about 7.5 and 8.25 knots.

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You can really feel the power. There's a bit of a heel on the boat and we are moving nicely.

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That's great. We've just taken a gust of wind

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over the quarter which is where sailing vessels like it.

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And the boat staggered, leaned a bit, came up and took off and we're on our way.

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What a great feeling, and you know,

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this schooner really surprised a lot of the old boys with the square riggers.

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As we head out of the straits, the wind begins to pick up

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and I'm keen to find out what is it that makes this little ship sail so well.

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So, Craig. Topsail schooner.

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-What makes her such?

-Well, we've got to look round the boat itself.

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There's the main mast with the mainsail on it which has a standard 4.5 type gaff mainsail.

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We have the foresail here, which is on the foremast.

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And the main mast itself is, under schooner configurations, normally taller than the foremast.

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What's interesting, it's called a topsail schooner because if we look up, we can see a little topsail.

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that's sat above the foresail on the foremast.

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And then we come to the jibs up forward.

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The jibs themselves help balance the power and force of the big sails at the back to actually her track along.

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As we break out into open water, Craig picks up a sign that shows us it won't be

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too long before we can really put this sail-plan through its paces.

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I've just noticed on the water over here a slightly darker patch,

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a line of it, about two minutes away and I imagine that's going to be quite a big increase in wind.

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Craig's as good as his word and soon we've a gale force 8 coming over the port quarter.

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The perfect opportunity for me to find out just how well the Pickle's hull and sails really work together.

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She's actually amazingly light.

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Beautifully-balanced vessel.

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I'm steering her here comfortably with one hand.

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And there's many a gaff cutter half this size you couldn't do that on with this wind.

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She's balancing beautifully. And she's driving along like a sweetheart,

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absolutely lovely. I'm just steering her on the edge of the wind here.

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I've just gone a little bit too high. The wind's just getting round the back of my headsail.

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There she goes. You feel her take? Isn't that lovely?

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That's when the sails fill.

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But soon the wind is gusting up even higher.

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-Well, Tom, that's that gust we talked about coming in.

-Yep.

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These are challenging conditions for any boat.

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And now the Pickle's crew are fighting to just keep her on track.

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Here's the gust.

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Right behind us now cos we've actually come onto the wind a bit.

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You can see her crabbing slightly and the force the helmsman's putting in

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-to try and keep the boat tracking straight.

-Yeah, he's working now.

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The Pickle is sailing on the edge of her capability, as fast as her length and design will allow.

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You're much closer to the elements on a small ship,

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and contemporary accounts speak of the Pickle as a wet, uncomfortable boat.

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Her fine lines might make her fast but they also allow a lot of water over the rail.

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Sweet!

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And with over 40 men on board, conditions must have been wet and miserable, even down below.

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Back then it was very, very different.

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The cabin sole that I'm standing on which is as low as it can be today

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in order to get the bilge underneath me

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where, if the boat were leaking, there'd be water sloshing around, I expect it's dry down there now.

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A bit of ballast, that's it.

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But in those days, that's where all the stores were.

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So, that cabin sole was lifted up right up here so there were two decks.

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In there, in that dark, damp glory hole, there were barrels of water, there was all the cheese,

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all the food, the barrels of salt beef, the stores, the cannonballs, the powder.

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The lot was all down there and the guys

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have to live up here, under about four foot six inches of headroom.

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But, somehow, in this cramped, tight space, they managed to maintain

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their morale and drive this ship as fast as anybody could drive her and deliver the goods.

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And in 1805, as the Pickle headed for home, the mood on board ship must have been sky-high.

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Lieutenant Lapenotiere, thinking of his promotion to Commander, and the huge £500 reward.

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But only two days into what should have been a straightforward run north,

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they saw a sight that must have changed the mood in a heartbeat.

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They were being hailed by a larger, more senior vessel,

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a square-rigged sloop of war, HMS Nautilus,

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commanded by a higher-ranking officer, Captain Sykes.

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Nautilus commanded the Pickle to stop.

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There, look, the Nautilus. This is where he's come across Sykes, right here, off Cape St Vincent.

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The encounter is faithfully recorded in the Pickle's logs

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and it gives an hour-by-hour account of what was about to turn into an epic race for home.

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Normally, Lapenotiere would've had to go on board

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the senior man's boat.

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He'd have been summoned.

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But because he had these dispatches

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and Collingwood had said nothing

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was to divert him, he actually wouldn't move from his own deck

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and this superior officer had to come on board and see him.

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Sykes was trying to snatch the Pickle's mission for himself.

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The meeting between the two captains lasted over an hour as the Pickle's crew waited on tenterhooks.

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Would their captain stand tall or would he give in to the demands

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of a determined officer on a bigger

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and what should have been a faster ship?

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As Sykes left the Pickle, Lapenotiere gave his order.

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"Crack on sail, boys."

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But Sykes hadn't given up. He sent a dispatch to Lisbon,

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relieving himself of his duties, under the pretence of making sure Pickle completed her journey safely.

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Thus, as you might say, covering his large transom, his rear end,

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just in case anybody gave him a hard time.

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Now he's covered, he can give it his best shot

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and he sets off in pursuit of Lapenotiere.

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A day later, the crew of the Pickle were horrified to see HMS Nautilus on the horizon once again.

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This time though, she wasn't stopping.

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She pulled level and then ahead.

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On paper, it was no contest.

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But this was one fight Lapenotiere and the Pickle were determined to win.

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They would have been trimming everything.

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They would have been moving the sheet six inches at a time.

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Likely, they held the sheets for the mainsails in hand,

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rather than making them fast, just so they could get every last tiny little bit

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out of the vessel because they knew that that quarter of a knot could give them an hour at six knots.

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This was a seven or eight day run home.

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That could give them seven or eight hours which would be a whole tide

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which would leave the other vessel blown away.

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Every little bit counted and they were really going to work at it, night and day.

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Both ships were making good headway but as they headed up to Finisterre, the square-rigged Nautilus

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pushed ahead, driven by following winds that suited their sail-plan perfectly.

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In the Bay of Biscay, weather conditions worsened.

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The Pickle's crew were pushing the boat to her limits and in the rough seas, she started taking on water.

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Now, Lapenotiere wasn't just racing,

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he was also fighting to stay alive. What does he do?

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We know, because his pumps weren't working,

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he was having a bucket chain to bail the water out.

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-Frightened man with a bucket!

-Exactly.

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Also he takes the extraordinary act

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of actually throwing the guns and gun carriages overboard.

0:23:220:23:26

For a navy ship, throwing your guns over the side was a last, desperate measure.

0:23:260:23:32

Now, the Pickle was helpless as a fighting ship

0:23:320:23:35

but as a sailing vessel, she was lighter and faster.

0:23:350:23:41

But with the Nautilus out of sight, what the Pickle needed now was a lucky break

0:23:410:23:46

and as the wind changed direction, she got one.

0:23:460:23:50

This schooner is now doing what she does best actually, she was able to sail on her course

0:23:500:23:57

with that wind direction, a square rigger wouldn't have been able to do that.

0:23:570:24:02

She'd have been driven into the Atlantic, and it would have to have had to sail further

0:24:020:24:06

if indeed she could get there at all.

0:24:060:24:08

Finally, the Pickle's great advantage, her more modern rig, was coming into play.

0:24:100:24:16

Now, she picked up her skirts and flew for home.

0:24:160:24:20

Yes, standing here, looking at that bow, feeling her

0:24:200:24:24

fill with wind and lean to it and put a shoulder to the job,

0:24:240:24:28

you understand how a brave little boat like this could have beaten Sykes

0:24:280:24:33

and got home to England with the news. Lapenotiere - he knew what he was about.

0:24:330:24:37

But just as it seemed Pickle was about to win the day, disaster struck again.

0:24:410:24:46

Within sight of the south coast of England, the wind suddenly died.

0:24:490:24:53

The Pickle had been aiming for Plymouth

0:24:570:25:00

but now, only miles from Falmouth, Lapenotiere had a choice,

0:25:000:25:05

get off here and face a longer journey by land

0:25:050:25:07

or try and coax another 40 miles from the Pickle in uncertain winds.

0:25:070:25:13

And without knowing where the Nautilus was, he had only his instincts to go on.

0:25:130:25:18

Lapenotiere made his call.

0:25:180:25:21

Leaving the Pickle behind, he ordered his crew to row him the final miles to shore.

0:25:230:25:29

By getting himself ashore, Lapenotiere showed himself to be a clever man.

0:25:300:25:35

He kissed goodbye to the tides

0:25:350:25:38

but you know, getting himself up to London was not going to be a walk in the park.

0:25:380:25:43

Lapenotiere had no way of knowing where Sykes was.

0:25:430:25:48

All he could do now was make sure he got to London first

0:25:480:25:52

and delivered the news that King and country were waiting for.

0:25:520:25:56

Lapenotiere had taken his big gamble going to Falmouth, not Plymouth.

0:26:020:26:05

Now he needed rapid transport to London so he went to the local car rental man who didn't have a Mondeo

0:26:050:26:11

but he did have a post-chaise, the fastest on four wheels.

0:26:110:26:16

He hired it and set out for town, post-haste.

0:26:160:26:19

HORSE WHINNIES

0:26:220:26:24

Now it was hell-for-leather all the way to London,

0:26:290:26:32

a long, long journey, 270 miles.

0:26:320:26:34

He changed horses 21 times and it cost him dear.

0:26:370:26:41

When he added up his expenses at the end of the trip,

0:26:440:26:47

he was horrified to learn he had spent £46 odd,

0:26:470:26:50

half a year's salary for a lieutenant,

0:26:500:26:53

and there was no way he could be sure of ever getting it back.

0:26:530:26:57

Falmouth to London is a long haul today in a car.

0:27:010:27:06

In this,

0:27:060:27:08

we're moving at boat speeds here,

0:27:080:27:10

right now we're going down a steep hill

0:27:100:27:12

and I could get out and walk faster.

0:27:120:27:14

It must have caused Lapenotiere to eat his liver.

0:27:140:27:18

But after 37 hours on the road, Lapenotiere had reached London.

0:27:190:27:25

After a race of over 1,000 miles, he discovered later he had beaten Sykes by just half-an-hour.

0:27:250:27:32

The Pickle had done it.

0:27:340:27:36

And now it fell to Lapenotiere to claim his reward

0:27:360:27:40

and announce the tidings that the nation had been waiting for.

0:27:400:27:43

With studied economy, he drew breath and told the First Sea Lord,

0:27:430:27:48

"Sir, we've gained a great victory but we've lost Lord Nelson."

0:27:480:27:54

Today, Trafalgar and Nelson are names known to everyone

0:28:010:28:05

but for most, Lapenotiere and has little ship, the Pickle, are all but forgotten.

0:28:050:28:11

To me, the Pickle sums up everything that's best about the sea,

0:28:130:28:19

a boat packed with new ideas, sailed to perfection by men with timeless qualities

0:28:190:28:25

and the news she carried changed British history for ever.

0:28:250:28:29

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:28:510:28:54

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0:28:540:28:57

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