0:00:26 > 0:00:29The Isle of Man isn't part of the United Kingdom,
0:00:29 > 0:00:34but it's got a special place in its heart, looking out to all our shores.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39Like the hub of a wheel, it's almost equidistant from Northern Ireland,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43Scotland, England and Wales.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58For a small island, it can boast some big ideas.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00How about the Laxey Wheel?
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Now that's what you call a water feature.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And I've turned up in time to turn it on.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Keeper of the wheel Roger Clare is showing me how it's done.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24Now all you need to do is turn the wheel clockwise.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27- Does it start first time?- We'll see.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29MECHANISM CREAKS
0:01:29 > 0:01:31That's a good noise.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Opening this valve releases a flow of water which is forced
0:01:34 > 0:01:38up the tower to cascade on the wheel, setting it in motion.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40There it goes.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Oh, that's great.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45You might get wet now.
0:01:45 > 0:01:46Oh, yeah!
0:01:48 > 0:01:53When it started to whirl in 1854, it wowed the locals
0:01:53 > 0:01:57and its sheer scale is still staggering.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06So why is the world's largest working waterwheel here,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10spinning around at the centre of the Irish Sea?
0:02:10 > 0:02:12There are clues to its construction nearby,
0:02:12 > 0:02:17the abandoned lead mines and the port at the bottom of the valley.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24It might be hard to believe today, but 120 years ago this place hummed with activity
0:02:24 > 0:02:28as countless tonnes of zinc and lead ore were shipped out of the harbour here.
0:02:30 > 0:02:38Sea trade kept business buoyant at Laxey, but underground, water was threatening to sink it.
0:02:42 > 0:02:48Mine expert Pete Geddis is going to show me the damp, dingy hell-hole below.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52OK, Neil, well, this is the sea entrance, access tunnel to the well shaft.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54- This little door?- This little door.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Oh, yes, I hate it already.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03It probably would have been wetter than this in the mining days
0:03:03 > 0:03:06because the discharged water would have run along here.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11Teams of miners toiled around the clock, chasing richer seams of ore.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16As they dug deeper, the water problem got worse.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21- The miner's nightmare was the water ingressing into the shaft and then getting into the levels below.- Yeah.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Where is the water coming from, if that's not a stupid question?
0:03:24 > 0:03:29This is just ground drainage water, it's running off the land, it's running down the bedrock,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and then it finds its way onto the edge of the shaft, so it's a perpetual sea of rain down here.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37All mines flood.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Often water was pumped out with steam engines,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44but with no coal on the Isle of Man, steam wasn't an option.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48So what about putting the water to work?
0:03:50 > 0:03:56That's what the Laxey Wheel does, Victorian style.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Streams piped down the valley drove the wheel.
0:03:59 > 0:04:06Its rotation-powered machine is capable of pumping out 250 gallons of water per minute.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Baling out the mine shafts wasn't the wheel's only job.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18They could have boxed the machinery in, hidden it away.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Instead it's deliberately sited at the head of the valley,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26and emblazoned with the Three Legs of Man.
0:04:28 > 0:04:34A wheel of fortune inviting investors to buy shares in the mine.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56The mountain railway started its slow, steady climb in 1895.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01It takes about half an hour to haul its way up to the top of Snaefell,
0:05:01 > 0:05:07the snow mountain, at over 2,000 feet, the highest peak on the Isle of Man.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13This is all very well, but when's the buffet coming round? That's what I want to know.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19The big attraction is sightseeing, nice enough on the way up,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22but I'm told on top there's a unique view of the British Isles.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Now, I know the summit's dead ahead, can't see a thing.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32OK, then, here we are on the summit,
0:05:32 > 0:05:37but I can see nothing, and I might as well be in a car park in Croydon.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44When the mist does lift, the view is spectacular.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52This is the only summit from which you can see every kingdom of the British Isles.
0:05:54 > 0:05:5930 miles north, Scotland's southern shore is on the horizon.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04Spin around and England is out to the east,
0:06:04 > 0:06:11but my coastal companions continue their wheel around the edge of the Irish Sea out to the west.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16Across the water, Dick Strawbridge is picking up the journey in Ireland.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Dublin, a great trading city on the sea.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Two mighty walls protect Dublin's port from silting up.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40But shifting sands also produce beautiful beaches along Ireland's eastern shore.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48This is a green coast, the lush landscape put to good use by the farmers.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Further north, fields give way to peaks.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01The mountains of Mourne welcome us to Northern Ireland.
0:07:01 > 0:07:07I'm here to celebrate a local hero whose fame first took off at Newcastle.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12As an Ulsterman, I'm passionate about Northern Ireland's engineering excellence.
0:07:12 > 0:07:19Look at this! An original 1948 tractor, conceived and designed in Northern Ireland,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22the little grey Fergie's a brainchild of local man
0:07:22 > 0:07:28Harry Ferguson, but Ferguson's idea was more than just a tractor.
0:07:28 > 0:07:35Born in County Down in 1884, farmer's son Harry Ferguson grew into a great engineer.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41In the 1920s, he was the first to combine a tractor and a plough together into a single unit.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Ferguson's new mechanism of links and springs
0:07:45 > 0:07:49meant the driver could raise and lower the plough on his own.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52It revolutionised agriculture worldwide.
0:07:59 > 0:08:05But before breaking new ground with his tractors, the young Harry Ferguson's eyes were on the skies.
0:08:07 > 0:08:15In 1910, only seven years after the Wright brothers had mastered powered flight on the sand dunes
0:08:15 > 0:08:23of America's east coast, a dashing 26-year-old Harry Ferguson planned to put Ireland on the aviation map.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27He came here to Newcastle, County Down.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32The town had offered a £100 prize to the first person to fly three miles across the bay.
0:08:35 > 0:08:41Aviation enthusiast Ernie Cromie has a 3rd scale model of Harry's flying machine.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44So where did he come to the design, how did he come up with this?
0:08:44 > 0:08:49Basically by looking at other aircraft which some of the early pioneers had made,
0:08:49 > 0:08:54people like Bleriot and so on, at air shows in Rheims and Blackpool,
0:08:54 > 0:08:59and then deciding, right, that looks reasonably good, and I'll have a little bit of that.
0:08:59 > 0:09:06The controls were pretty basic, really, a throttle lever, mechanism to control the elevators
0:09:06 > 0:09:10at the rear of the aircraft, and also a rudder,
0:09:10 > 0:09:16and then to turn the aircraft in the air, it was basically by a system of wing warping,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18to alter the degree of lift on either wing.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21- Wing warping, bending the wings. - Exactly.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23We're talking about wood and... what was the material he used?
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Well, it would have been Irish linen, what else?
0:09:26 > 0:09:30- He left the ground in something made out of wood and linen.- That's right.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38On the 8th August 1910, Harry's Ferguson's ambition reached for the skies.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43For three long miles, he battled against winds whipping across the Irish Sea.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Harry held his nerve. The first person to see this stretch
0:09:47 > 0:09:53of Ireland's coast from the air. He pocketed the £100 prize.
0:09:56 > 0:10:03But a much bigger prize was at stake for Irish aviation 30 years later in 1940.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13During the Second World War, a battle was being fought
0:10:13 > 0:10:17off Ireland's west coast for the control of the Atlantic.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22The convoys supplying Britain were at the mercy of the U-boats.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25The Allies fought back from sea and air.
0:10:28 > 0:10:35The depth charges of the Sunderland flying boats sank many a Nazi sub.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41English plane makers Shorts collaborated with Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff
0:10:41 > 0:10:44to build the Sunderland flying boats.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Ted Jones is in his 80s now, but as a young pilot,
0:10:50 > 0:10:56he learnt to handle sky-going ships at Pensacola on the Florida coast.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02Obviously, it was tough in the RAF, Pensacola Beach, you getting a suntan, is that what it was then?
0:11:02 > 0:11:06- Of course, well we had to relax, of course.- And that's where you learnt to fly flying boats.
0:11:06 > 0:11:12- So how successful was the Sunderland as a weapons system? - Very good. It was a colossal air...
0:11:12 > 0:11:15It weighed about 25 tonne when it was fully loaded.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18It was built like a tank, it kind of wrapped itself around you and...
0:11:18 > 0:11:22I felt at home. When I got in and sat on my seat, I was at home, you know.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26But to fly, they were beautiful to fly.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29No matter how bad the weather may be, they're always on the job,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32bringing in the convoys, looking out for U-boats and enemy raiders.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36- The operational flights were very long, weren't they? - About 12, 13 hours.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39What about eating and sort of surviving?
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Oh, well, we cooked onboard. The Sunderland has two decks, so you had
0:11:43 > 0:11:48the bottom deck with the kitchen, the flush toilet and the wardrobe.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51And then you went back to the bomb room.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54There's a submarine, let's descend and have a closer look.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56It seems British but we'd better make sure.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00It was really important to have the whole of the north Atlantic open, it kept Britain alive.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05- Oh, it did, yes, of course it did. - We don't see flying boats, why don't we have them any more?
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Well, they're difficult to handle on the water, you see. You can't just say,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13"The wind's blowing that way but you want to park it here," you can't do that.
0:12:13 > 0:12:20They don't build flying boats in Belfast any more, but they are still in the aircraft business,
0:12:20 > 0:12:26a tradition of aviation excellence that goes back 100 years to Harry Ferguson,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30and his most excellent adventure here over the sands of County Down.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42We continue our wheel around the Irish Sea, in England with Alice.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49The Solway Firth separates the Scots from the English.
0:12:49 > 0:12:56England begins in the mud with the promise of mountains to come.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59These beautiful beaches don't attract the crowds
0:12:59 > 0:13:04like Blackpool further south, but you can still get a cornet.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08You won't sell many ice creams at that speed!
0:13:08 > 0:13:14Only a short drive away, the peaks of the Lake District are tantalisingly close.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Wastwater is the deepest lake in England,
0:13:18 > 0:13:24and just behind is Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28but the big story of this shore is sand.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33Morecambe Bay, the largest expanse of inter-tidal mudflats in Britain,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36fun for some,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39an obstacle to others.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Morecambe Bay covers 120 square miles.
0:13:43 > 0:13:49A long detour unless you brave the perilous path over the sand.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Before the railway arrived, horse-drawn carriages sometimes
0:13:55 > 0:14:00got stuck, with tragic results, as they tried to race across the mud.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09These sandbanks feel so solid, I can see why people might think about
0:14:09 > 0:14:13taking a short cut across them, but they're also incredibly treacherous.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18SIREN WAILS The siren warns the unwary that the tide's turning.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22It rushes in at about nine miles an hour, twice the speed
0:14:22 > 0:14:28of a brisk walk, flooding the bay in up to 30 foot of water.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33And a hidden danger lurks to hold you fast as the sea surges in -
0:14:33 > 0:14:35quicksand.
0:14:38 > 0:14:44What turns soft sand, so nice between the toes, into a sticky sludge
0:14:44 > 0:14:49that can cement you to the spot, unable to escape its grip?
0:14:49 > 0:14:54Shortly, I'll shun the safety of the path and get stuck in the mud myself.
0:14:54 > 0:15:02To see exactly what I'll be getting myself into, we're making some DIY quicksand.
0:15:02 > 0:15:08Sedimentologist Jeff Peakall and his team from Leeds University are building up layers of sand
0:15:08 > 0:15:13which can be saturated with water, flowing in from underneath.
0:15:13 > 0:15:19Now you've got a tube of experimental quicksand here, but what is it when it occurs naturally?
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Quicksand is really where you change from a solid state
0:15:22 > 0:15:26into a liquid state, really rapidly, almost instantaneously.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29And can it be any type of sand with water flowing through it?
0:15:29 > 0:15:33No, it needs one with lots of holes in so it needs to be nice
0:15:33 > 0:15:36round grains, ideally all grains of the same size.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40What we're going to do here is run a quick experiment
0:15:40 > 0:15:43and I'm going to put a model digger truck in here.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46So the sand seems to be supporting the weight of that very well at the moment.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49We're going to add a little bit of water, from underneath.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53We've got some water flowing in through here, but it remains solid
0:15:53 > 0:15:57for a period of time, and then suddenly it turns into a liquid, and our digger
0:15:57 > 0:16:03is disappearing into the sand, just as the sand has gone from a solid into a liquid.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08Yes, it's not just going underwater, it's actually sinking into the sand.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11If you, as you walk on it, you just add that extra shaking
0:16:11 > 0:16:15vibration, that's just enough to break the grains apart.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20So one of the factors producing the sinking effect in quicksand is actually the movement of the person.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Yes, and then if you begin to sink in and you start to wriggle,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27then you increase the effect and you'll actually sink further.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32One of the difficult things for the person falling into quicksand is to try and remain relatively still.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37This will be me in a minute, sinking in.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42The secret for survival is to spread your weight over the surface, so instead of tyres,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47the truck that's taking me out is on tracks.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52It's one of the few vehicles you could actually take out onto the sands with confidence and knowing
0:16:52 > 0:16:57that you would get back safely, and that's all because of its huge wide tracks underneath.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00We've actually gone out of this vehicle before and
0:17:00 > 0:17:03stepped onto the sand and sunk and the vehicle's been sat on the top.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Volunteer Garry Parsons set up Bay Search & Rescue
0:17:08 > 0:17:12after witnessing the galloping tide almost kill a man stuck in the mud.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16The sand was so hard you couldn't drive your fingers into it down by the side of his legs.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19We thought we were going to watch this guy drown right in front of us.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24Now these versatile vehicles provide rapid response,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28taking the most direct route to strugglers on the sand.
0:17:28 > 0:17:29Down we go.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32That is incredibly steep.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Bay Search & Rescue and the on-site coastguard are preparing
0:17:44 > 0:17:49for a spot of quicksand training, and I'm going to be the guinea pig.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Starting to have second thoughts about this.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Lovely bit of quicksand we stumbled across this morning for you.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00- Right.- Off you go, jump in.
0:18:00 > 0:18:01OK.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05If I'm going to get myself in here, you better get me out before the tide comes in.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07No worries.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12That feels quite firm... at the moment.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16I'm just moving my ankles, I reckon, and there's some water there.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19The mud is just there, can I get my foot out?
0:18:26 > 0:18:31What's really horrible and produces this rising sense of panic,
0:18:31 > 0:18:36you're trying to move and you're trying to work yourself free, and every time you're moving your foot
0:18:36 > 0:18:42and agitating the silt around you, you can just feel yourself sinking in further.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46It really is solid, I reckon I can lean right back
0:18:46 > 0:18:49and just stay in the silt.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55It's got me good and proper, that really is quite scary.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58It's very scary,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01you can just imagine being here and the tide coming in,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05nobody around for miles, I just can't move.
0:19:09 > 0:19:16'The sand roots you to the spot, and then the sea rises over your head.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23'That's why these guys race against the tide.'
0:19:23 > 0:19:27OK, Alice, we'll soon have you out.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31The only way to release me is to liquefy the sand.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35First they loosen it up and then turn it into a liquid by adding more water.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37I'm a bit worried about sinking further in.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39You won't go any further.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Is that coming out? It's coming.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53That's one.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56- OK?- Yeah.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06- Thank you very much.- You're welcome.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14It's great to be free.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Despite the dangers, if you stick within safe limits,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22this is a paradise for playing around.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29We love the seaside so much, we'll pay for its pleasures.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Sand and scares can be a winning combination.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Further south at Sefton Sands, they have their own thrill rides.
0:20:54 > 0:21:01Then big, long beaches give way to a big, bold city...
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Liverpool.
0:21:07 > 0:21:13The Mersey might be muddy, but where there's muck, there's brass, or maybe iron.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17An iron ship, as Mark's about to find out.
0:21:17 > 0:21:24In 1888, the world's largest ship was making her way up the Mersey,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27the SS Great Eastern.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32It was the final engineering triumph of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39But this wasn't her maiden voyage, it was her last.
0:21:40 > 0:21:46The Great Eastern had been launched 30 years earlier in 1858.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52Built for non-stop travel to Australia,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56she was nearly twice the length of any other ship,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00the largest moveable thing men had ever made.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05And Brunel was the man that designed her.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10This is the most famous of all the images of Brunel.
0:22:10 > 0:22:18Look, he has his stovepipe hat, his cigar, behind him the drag chains of the Great Eastern.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22But he's actually a real engineer, because, look, he's got mud on his trousers.
0:22:22 > 0:22:30His plan for the Great Eastern specified a revolutionary double skin iron hull,
0:22:30 > 0:22:36but her massive size also made her massively over-budget.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42Building his masterpiece took a terrible toll on Brunel.
0:22:42 > 0:22:48A week after the Great Eastern's trial voyage, he died, following a stroke.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52His great liner fared little better.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58Smaller, faster ships captured the passenger trade she was built for.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Her last journey was down the Mersey
0:23:01 > 0:23:08to become a floating billboard advertising a local department store.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12If Brunel had seen it thus, he would have cried.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Finally, the ship that had broken Brunel's heart
0:23:17 > 0:23:21was herself to be broken up for scrap.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27Too big for the breaker's yard, she was beached on the banks of the Mersey.
0:23:29 > 0:23:35Marine archaeologist Mike Stammers is showing me her last resting place.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38So this is a contemporary photograph?
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Yes, of the Great Eastern on New Ferry Beach.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42She's looking at an angle, isn't she?
0:23:42 > 0:23:47- Yes, and we're standing right near the bow.- What, just there?
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Yeah, two tiny little people looking up at this towering bow.
0:23:51 > 0:23:57- It would have been right up there. - Yeah, right up into the sky blocking out the skyline behind.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02This mountain of wrought iron was a valuable prize for the scrap metal men,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07but the old girl wasn't going to go down without a struggle.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11What they hadn't bargained for was the workmanship of Brunel.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14She was so well built it took them nearly two years to break it up.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17So rather than making a big profit they made a loss.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19They made a thumping great loss.
0:24:19 > 0:24:25And, of course, the actual process of breaking her up must have been terribly hard work.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Oh, yes, because they had no oxyacetylene in those days,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30it was a case of sledgehammers and coal chisels,
0:24:30 > 0:24:36and a great big iron wrecking ball that they dropped onto the plates, and hoped to smash them apart.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40200 men, sometimes working day and night,
0:24:40 > 0:24:45needed two years to smash the ship to bits.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53Surely some scrap must have sunk down into the silt.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58Mike is off to try and find pieces of Brunel's liner buried in the mud,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02but I'm going down river
0:25:02 > 0:25:05to where they're still breaking up ships.
0:25:07 > 0:25:13I want to see how things have moved on in the 120 years
0:25:13 > 0:25:17since the Great Eastern was battered to death near here.
0:25:20 > 0:25:28Former Falklands warship HMS Intrepid arrived six months ago to be broken up.
0:25:28 > 0:25:35- Where's the ship?- Well, HMS Intrepid came in here in January, and this is all you've got left.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38It looks like chaos, but presumably it's all terribly organised.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Everybody knows what they're doing, we've most probably got about 12 guys down here.
0:25:42 > 0:25:49We've got six machines working, we're processing copper, brass, cable, aluminium.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Another eight weeks, this will be completely cleared,
0:25:52 > 0:25:58the lock gates will be opened, water will come in here, and hopefully two more vessels.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03Just like for the Victorian ship breakers, time is still money,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07speed is the difference between profit and loss.
0:26:07 > 0:26:13But Brunel couldn't have imagined how his machine age would evolve to eat itself.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22You can't crack up a ship without leaving some traces behind.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32Back out in the mud, Mike thinks he's found a bit of Brunel's Great Eastern.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36This is what I spotted before, I think you'll be rather impressed
0:26:36 > 0:26:40- with this.- Isn't that extraordinary? - It's a great big chunk of iron plate.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43- Hang on, there's a trowel for you. - Thank you.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45- There, look, look.- Solid as anything.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48How do you actually know this is the Great Eastern?
0:26:48 > 0:26:53Well, the Great Eastern was built of very thick plate, either
0:26:53 > 0:26:59three quarters of an inch or an inch thick, so if we get the callipers...
0:26:59 > 0:27:01That looks pretty good.
0:27:01 > 0:27:07- Look at that.- That's nearly an inch. - Nearly an inch.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10- 15/16. - So that's a good indicator.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14It looks like it's running through to there, so if I try the other end,
0:27:14 > 0:27:20looks like bits of rivet here as well. Look at those.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Look, I can just lift it out.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27I've got my own row of rivets here as well.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Yeah, Great Eastern revealed.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42There we are. Good Lord, bright metal.
0:27:44 > 0:27:50Isn't that wonderful?! There it is, as fresh as it comes.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55Some three million rivets held the Great Eastern together.
0:27:55 > 0:28:02It seems a precious few are still holding fast 150 years later.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07The struggle of building this iron leviathan broke Brunel,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11but she's left him a fitting memorial,
0:28:11 > 0:28:16ironwork of his masterpiece scattered in the mud of the Mersey.
0:28:22 > 0:28:29In 1850, the metal merchants of the Mersey cast iron parts for a mighty machine.
0:28:32 > 0:28:38And at the centre of the Irish Sea, out on the Isle of Man, it's still spinning.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43We've come full circle, back to the Laxey Wheel.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:52 > 0:28:55E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk