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People come to the coast to indulge their passions. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
It's one of my ultimate heroes that's brought me here, | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
to the home turf of Horatio Nelson. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
I think there's something mesmerising about the sea that turns us all into dreamers, | 0:00:46 | 0:00:51 | |
and I suspect, as a boy, Nelson was no different. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
I imagine young Nelson coming here, looking out, | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
dreaming of dashing victories, distant battles, faraway seas. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
But the truth is, not even his wildest dreams could have matched the reality of his own life. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:11 | |
You've got to admire Nelson. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
I think he was a tactical genius. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
Without his naval victories over the French in the Napoleonic Wars, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
Britannia wouldn't have ruled the waves. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
But mighty as Nelson's reputation is now, | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
he was born into humble surroundings. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:36 | |
On from The Wash, just a mile inland from the north Norfolk coast, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
is the small village of Burnham Thorpe. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
Nelson was the son of the local parson here. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
In 1787, during a period of peace, | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
29-year-old now Captain Nelson was temporarily unemployed. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:59 | |
So like many of us have, he moved back home, | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
where he spent the next five years waiting for war. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:08 | |
The parsonage at Burnham Thorpe is long gone, | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
but its garden is still here, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:13 | |
and this is where he left a lasting legacy. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
Frustrated not to be fighting the French, | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
Nelson did some digging instead. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
In fact, it's said that he dug out this pond. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
But he was still dreaming of the sea. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
He dug this pond to represent the deck of a ship. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
That's why this end is square - this is the stern, the back of the ship. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:40 | |
If you imagine being at the top of the crow's-nest, on top of the mast, | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
the whole thing narrows to a point 30-odd feet away. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
That's the bow, the pointy bit of the ship. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
It's a lot smaller than the gun deck of The Victory, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
but you can see that if all these lilies and all the grass and slime was scraped away, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
it would be quite obvious - it's shipshape. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
After five landlocked years, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
Nelson was recalled to the Senior Service. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
Finally, he was back at sea, where he belonged, | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
and 10 years later, he achieved his destiny | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
onboard his flagship - The Victory. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
It's impossible to walk through this village without constantly | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
catching glimpses and reminders of the life and times of Nelson. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
As a parson's son, the church in Burnham Thorpe would have been a second home for Nelson, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:39 | |
so it's fitting that memorabilia of my hero hangs from every wall. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:44 | |
And there's the man himself - | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
a bust of Nelson - | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
and he's looking over the graves of his mother and father. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
Now, the great warrior wanted, at the end of everything, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
to rest in peace in this church beside the graves of his mother and father, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:08 | |
but that didn't happen. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:09 | |
Nelson's mortal remains are in St Paul's Cathedral. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
Boats were crucial to the culture of our early ancestors, | 0:04:21 | 0:04:25 | |
a heritage that's alive and well around our coast. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:29 | |
In living memory, sailing boats were still used | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
as fishing and cargo vessels | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
all around this coastline. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
Today, enthusiasts prefer to race them. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
So Mark has risen early to join a crew on competition day. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:51 | |
'Andy Harman, skipper of a Thames sailing barge, the Edme. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:03 | |
'He's hoping for a strong start.' | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
GUNSHOT There's the gun. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
Look at them all lined up down there! | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
The secret to this racing lark is start first and finish first. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
The Edme's a Thames thoroughbred. Built of wood in 1898, | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
they could achieve high speeds with a small crew. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
Today, a big group of enthusiasts bring these swift cargo carriers back to life by racing them. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:41 | |
They do it for the sheer love of sail. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
GUNSHOT AND CHEERING | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
'We finish first, but what counts is the camaraderie of the competitors | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
'and the joy of handling a living piece of history. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
'It's amazing that these vessels survive | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
'despite the tide of progress. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
'People will go to extraordinary lengths | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
'to preserve old working boats... | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
'..even resurrecting their wrecks.' | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
This is the remains of the Xanthe, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
an Essex fishing smack, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
about 100 years old. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:28 | |
Look, you can see the ribs perfectly preserved under all this seaweed. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:40 | |
This must be the stem. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:42 | |
You can see it's all... Take the seaweed off, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
there she is. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
Boats like this are actually worth a fortune. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
People spend something like £50,000 - £100,000 | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
restoring Essex fishing smacks like this. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
I just want to know what makes these boats quite so special. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:05 | |
Smacks were workhorses, used for dredging and trawling. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:13 | |
You appreciate their sheer beauty in action. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
Cue another competition - | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
oyster dredging this time. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
They love contests here. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
Hi. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:24 | |
-You must be Gerard. -Mark, hello. How are you doing? | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
'I've joined the crew of the Kate, skippered by Gerard Swift. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
'Gerard and his wife Helen have lovingly restored this Essex smack. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:38 | |
'It's a far cry from the skeleton I've just seen in the mud.' | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
So why are these oyster smacks so special? | 0:07:42 | 0:07:47 | |
They're very graceful craft from a very much earlier... | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
Just work boats, but very yacht-like in their appearance | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
with the long counter-stern. Very fast, easy boats to sail. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
For workboats, they were something really special. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:00 | |
The design frees up space to work at the stern. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
The three dredges are thrown overboard | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
and hauled in at regular intervals. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
So you've got just enough sail to drag them along the bottom. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
-Yeah, going along like a garden rake. -Here's the first catch. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
Look at them all! | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
Most of it's dead shell. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:21 | |
I've only got one. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
Not a good day in the oyster beds. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
We're in the wrong spot. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
How many do you reckon we're going to get? | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
I'd like about 10 kilo, that'd be nice. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
Well, we've got four oysters at the moment. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
The competition has two prizes - | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
one for the most oysters, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
another for the smack which dredges with the most style. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
That's bound to be us. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
What are the points that the judges are looking for? | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
The boat going the right speed, the dredgers towing evenly, the boat in control, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
just going along whilst the guys work the dredgers basically. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
There's the judges boat over there. They're checking us out. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
So what do you think you should mark the Kate? | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
-Certainly an eight. -An eight, yeah. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
'Eight out of ten isn't bad. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
'Right now, it's double our number of oysters, but the morning is still young. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:19 | |
'The competition takes two hours...' | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
-It's hard work. -Back-breaking. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
'..by which time we're all exhausted.' | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
-Is that it? -That's it, the last. -The last one. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
There's another one, Mark. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:33 | |
-Oh, fantastic! -And another. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
-Bonus time. I reckon the last has been our best. -Yes, it probably has. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:41 | |
We haven't brought the greatest weight, I don't think. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
I'm sure we had the greatest style. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:46 | |
Hope so, hope so. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
'We take our meagre catch to Packing Shed Island, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
'where oysters have been packed for more than 100 years. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
'The weigh-in is very strict.' | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
Let's get ours weighed in, shall we? | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
-Moment of truth. -2.8. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
'Needless to say, less than three kilos isn't a winning catch, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
'and we're robbed of the trophy for the most stylish dredging too. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:14 | |
'But the real reward is in taking part, | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
'putting these historic boats back to work, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
'dredging for oysters as they were perfectly built to do.' | 0:10:21 | 0:10:26 | |
And so we're into the mighty Thames Estuary. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
Just 12 miles out to sea from here, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
you're beyond our territorial waters. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
Handy if you're in a business that's not strictly legal. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
In the 1960s, that was pirate radio. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
Back then, listeners only had one option - the BBC - | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
so a group of DJs took to the waves to broadcast their kind of music. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
They called their station Radio Caroline. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
One former DJ is off to visit a boat that rocked. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:17 | |
# Her name is Caroline... # | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
I'm Tom Anderson, and I was one of the last DJs on the Mi Amigo, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
the Radio Caroline ship, nearly 30 years ago. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
I grew up in Clacton-on-Sea, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
where I saw the pirate-radio era start from my bedroom window. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
It was in my blood to start with, | 0:11:34 | 0:11:35 | |
but the main reason it was Caroline, was the music. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
We were on the cutting edge of music at the time. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
The whole operation was very clandestine, | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
it was rough and ready. Often we ran out of very basic supplies. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
Sex and drugs and rock and roll? I doubt it very much, to be honest. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
We knew the boat was on its last legs, but we thought she was invincible, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
and when you're young you think you're invincible | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
and none of us ever foresaw the day that she'd sink at sea. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
'Well, we're sorry to tell you that due to the severe weather conditions, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
'and also to the fact that we're shipping quite a lot of water, we're closing down. Tom. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:14 | |
'Yeah, it's not a very good occasion, really. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
'I'm going to have to hurry this because the lifeboat is standing by.' | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
It's nearly 30 years ago that I uttered those words, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
and now I'm on my way back. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
The Port Of London Authority regularly check wrecks in the area, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
and they have allowed me to come along with them. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
Here we are at the moment, tracking along, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
then the wreck site is bounded by this red square. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
That's where we're heading. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
Look forward to seeing my old home. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:42 | |
So this is the 3D image of the wreck. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
That's superb, that really is incredible. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
The lifeboat approached us from this side here. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
We were told to bring nothing and I stuffed a carton of cigarettes up my jumper. | 0:12:55 | 0:13:00 | |
Absolutely everything went with it. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
There were some very valuable autographed copies of records by The Beatles that are no more. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:08 | |
Very sad. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
The pirates haven't sunk without trace. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:17 | |
Their off-shore antics ushered in commercial stations, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
which made radio broadcasting into a business. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
Profit and loss are shipmates on this shore. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
The Thames was the revenue stream for the growth of Britain's capital. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:48 | |
They're abandoned now, but the expansion of London's docks in the 19th century | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
was built on global trade from the Empire. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
British companies enjoyed the freedom to sail the globe because the Royal Navy ruled the waves, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:08 | |
thanks to the heroic efforts of a seafarer that London honoured in stone at the heart of the capital. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:14 | |
By the time that Nelsons Column was completed in 1843, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
the true scale and significance of his victory at Trafalgar was plain for all to see. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:26 | |
Nelson won his greatest and final victory in October 1805. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:36 | |
The French fleet was crushed | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
and the British Navy went virtually unchallenged | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
for more than 100 years. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
The news of triumph and tragedy at Trafalgar | 0:14:49 | 0:14:53 | |
was painfully slow to filter back to London. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
A small ship left the battle immediately | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
with a message for the Lords of the Admiralty. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
On the night of 6th November, just after midnight, William Marsden, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:09 | |
the First Secretary to the Admiralty, | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
was still working in the boardroom. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
Making his way to meet Marsden as fast as his horses could carry him | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
was British Naval Officer Lieutenant John Richard Lapenotiere. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
Just 37 hours earlier, his schooner, The Pickle, had docked at Falmouth, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:28 | |
returning from the Battle Of Trafalgar. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
Now, after 21 stops for fresh horses, the news had finally reached London. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
Lapenotiere arrived exhausted into the cobbled courtyard of the Admiralty. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
He headed straight to the boardroom to deliver his bitter-sweet message | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
to the First Secretary of the Admiralty. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
Sir, we have gained a great victory, but we have lost Lord Nelson. | 0:15:55 | 0:16:00 | |
'If only these walls could talk. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
'Stepping into the Admiralty boardroom, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
'it looks almost exactly as it did to Nelson himself. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
'He'd come here to receive his orders ahead of the Battle Of Trafalgar. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:20 | |
'The Lords of the Admiralty no longer sit here, so they're not here to meet me, | 0:16:20 | 0:16:25 | |
'but Professor Andrew Lambert is, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
'an expert in naval history and as much of a Nelson fan as I am.' | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
How much of a plan of battle did Nelson have? | 0:16:31 | 0:16:36 | |
He's not such a fool as to have a detailed point-by-point plan | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
because they always go wrong, | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
so this is Nelson's concept of battle. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
It's a very brief sketch jotted down on the back of an envelope. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
Quite literally, it's a scrap piece of paper, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
and he shows this linear battle, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
and we're going to have to break through the formation | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
to set up this close-quarters or pell-mell battle, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
and great leadership is about setting up the position for his subordinates. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:02 | |
He knows that if his captains and crews are led to battle in the right way, they can do the job. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:07 | |
Just how significant then was the victory at Trafalgar? | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
Trafalgar is the capstone on 150 years | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
in which the British have gone from being a significant European player | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
to being the first true global power. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
Nelson is the capstone on that, so it's the defining moment | 0:17:21 | 0:17:25 | |
when Britain goes from being a European power to being THE world power. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:30 | |
After triumph at Trafalgar, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
the threat of invasion from France was gone, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
and the Royal Navy reigned supreme. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
Nelson, the boy from Norfolk who stood on the shore and dreamt of glory at sea, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
had helped propel Britain into an unparalleled age of empire. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
From earliest times, the coast nurtured the people of our isles. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
It welcomed settlers and repelled invaders. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
Reaching out from the coast, the Empire would draw in more than 400 million people, | 0:18:31 | 0:18:37 | |
enriching and expanding our small island with bonds across the seas. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:43 |