0:16:50 > 0:16:57.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36WHISTLE SOUNDS
0:17:39 > 0:17:42This is the Vic 32,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46the last surviving coal-fired steam-powered Clyde puffer.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Few of the men who sailed these boats westward remain.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54Stewart Pearson is one of them. He was a deck hand on the puffers.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57What was the life like for you? How were the crew with you?
0:17:57 > 0:18:00We were a cheery lot. The skipper had a great sense of humour,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03the mate was a bit of a character.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07But all these guys were sort of rough diamonds.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13You kind of get the impression that the skippers were a law unto themselves, and risk-takers.
0:18:13 > 0:18:19Yes, they were, they did their own thing. When they were sailing on these, between these islands,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22they did it by sort of pilotage, they didn't have charts, as such.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30They had their sturdy boats, but the puffer crews relied on a short cut
0:18:30 > 0:18:35to the isles, a seaway carved through the land - the Crinan Canal.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40For traders heading out from Glasgow,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42the construction of the Crinan Canal
0:18:42 > 0:18:44meant they could cut through a fearsome obstacle
0:18:44 > 0:18:47to the western seaboard.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49Before the canal's coast-to-coast route,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52boats had to navigate round the Mull of Kintyre,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55a 240-mile trek through some treacherous waters.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04So coming through here by contrast is just a walk in the park, I suppose?
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Och, absolutely.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08This is great, that's what the famous song says,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11"The Crinan Canal for me, don't want the wild rolling sea."
0:19:11 > 0:19:15# The Crinan Canal for me
0:19:15 > 0:19:19# I don't like the wild raging sea
0:19:19 > 0:19:24# The big falling breakers Would give me the shakers
0:19:24 > 0:19:30# The Crinan Canal for me It's the Crinan Canal... #
0:19:30 > 0:19:35The Crinan Canal starts life running parallel to the coast before cutting inland.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40It sliced journey times to the west coast from one-and-a-half days to just a few hours.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44It might have started as an industrial trade way,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48but it's now become known as Britain's most beautiful short cut.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53# There's no shark or whale That would make you turn pale
0:19:53 > 0:19:57# Or shiver and shake At the knee... #
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Even so, it's not exactly plain sailing.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03Furthest away one, please, yeah.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08There are 15 locks to get through.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12It's all hands on deck,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14and off deck,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16and back on deck, again and again.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22WHISTLE TOOTS
0:20:25 > 0:20:28But it's a magical journey.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32All too soon you reach the last lock on the Crinan Canal.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Once you're through that,
0:20:34 > 0:20:39there's nothing between you and the open sea of Scotland's west coast.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Navigating these waters by boat can be fraught with dangers.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58To sail from the west coast to the east coast
0:20:58 > 0:21:02means braving the storm-battered northern coastline of Scotland,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06a treacherous stretch of water barring the passage to the North Sea.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11So what if there were a short cut for ships
0:21:11 > 0:21:13right through the centre of Scotland?
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Well, here is that short cut -
0:21:18 > 0:21:21the Caledonian Canal.
0:21:21 > 0:21:27Started in 1803, it was one of Britain's biggest, boldest building projects.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32A mighty waterway running for 62 miles from the Atlantic
0:21:32 > 0:21:36to the North Sea through the mountainous heart of the Highlands.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41And we're embarking on a journey along it.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44It starts with a tight squeeze,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48which looks a little too small for today's ocean-going cruise ships.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59How was this waterway built, and why was it built?
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Nick is on the trail of an epic tale.
0:22:06 > 0:22:12Travelling along this canal you start to get a sense of the scale -
0:22:12 > 0:22:15it was an extraordinary undertaking.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20The plans were drawn up just over 200 years ago by Thomas Telford.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Telford's design for this waterway cleverly combined bold engineering
0:22:25 > 0:22:29with Scotland's spectacular landscape.
0:22:29 > 0:22:36Just look at this incredible view -
0:22:36 > 0:22:42probably the most stupendous valley in the British Isles...
0:22:42 > 0:22:43the Great Glen.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Right, here's a map of northern Scotland.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53Glasgow is down here, and here is the Great Glen slashing across Scotland
0:22:53 > 0:22:57from one side to the other, from the Atlantic here to the North Sea here.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01In the bed of the Great Glen are three freshwater lochs, Loch Lochy,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Loch Oich and the largest of them, Loch Ness.
0:23:05 > 0:23:13What Telford wanted to do - and here is his master plan - is link them all up by canals.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Here's Loch Lochy, here's Loch Oich and here's Loch Ness,
0:23:16 > 0:23:17so he had to create canals
0:23:17 > 0:23:19here, here, here
0:23:19 > 0:23:20and here - four of them.
0:23:20 > 0:23:26If he could do that he could create a waterway, which linked the North Sea with the Atlantic.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34This short cut was planned to slash journey times and protect shipping
0:23:34 > 0:23:40from storms at sea, but there was another even greater prize at stake.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45Some 200 years ago the Highlands were in crisis.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49For years landowners had been throwing tenants off their land to
0:23:49 > 0:23:55make way for sheep farming, a period known as the Highland Clearances.
0:23:55 > 0:24:02People were leaving in their droves, their abandoned homes swallowed by the heather.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07There was a village here once, now it's gone back to nature.
0:24:07 > 0:24:13So many people were emigrating that the Government became anxious that the Highlands would soon be empty -
0:24:13 > 0:24:16people needed jobs as an incentive to stay.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Bright idea - how about getting them digging?
0:24:22 > 0:24:28The Government put dispossessed Highlanders to work digging the Caledonian Canal.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32In the days before heavy machinery, carving this monster waterway
0:24:32 > 0:24:36would keep thousands busy with backbreaking work.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41The state poured vast sums of money into the enterprise.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Here was a job creation scheme on a massive scale.
0:24:47 > 0:24:54I'm meeting historian Anthony Burton, who knows what was expected of the novice navvies.
0:24:54 > 0:24:55- Hello.- Hello.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00This is a beautiful spot. I've seen some of the canal now, this is like
0:25:00 > 0:25:04the Panama Canal, this is something that changed British geography.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06Absolutely, this was THE civil engineering triumph
0:25:06 > 0:25:10of the age and it's all down to this, the spade.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14This was done by blokes, and it was blokes from the Highlands.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17The Highland Clearances, the Highlands were desperately poor -
0:25:17 > 0:25:22in one day, 200 Highlanders appeared en masse having walked all the way
0:25:22 > 0:25:25- from Skye to come and work on this canal.- They were desperate for work.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30They were desperate for work but they had to reach the standard of the professional navvy
0:25:30 > 0:25:34and the professional navvy, they reckoned, could shift 12 cubic yards a day.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44ten, 11, 12.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Right, OK, so come on back. Now if you're an experienced navvy,
0:25:49 > 0:25:55you're going to be digging a trench roughly waist-deep from here to there.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00- Every day.- Every single day, do you want to have a go to see how much hard work's involved?
0:26:00 > 0:26:03- All right, all right. - Be my guest, carry on.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08I suppose this is probably what they did, just take the turf off first.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Yes, that's right.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15So this soft Londoner
0:26:15 > 0:26:18- is getting a bit knackered already. - I'm not surprised.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21You're getting into the rough stuff now, getting some stones down there.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25- One more clod and...- It's going to get harder and harder as you go down.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30I'm just trying to imagine, given that I'm soaked in sweat and my back's aching,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34what it meant to the people who were obliged to dig it by hand.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38What would you say, if you met one of them now, if you could flip back through time?
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Is this better than starving? Because that was the other option.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Or would you rather get on a ship and go to Canada?
0:26:45 > 0:26:47I'd keep digging, I think.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50- I think I would too.- Even though it's absolutely back-breaking.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53- But I've done enough... - I'm sure you have!
0:26:53 > 0:26:57..to know how incredibly tough they must have been to pull it off.
0:26:59 > 0:27:06They dug and they dug for 19 years along a total of 22 miles,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09they dug this channel, 15-feet deep.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15Little by little, the canal breathed life back into the Highland economy,
0:27:15 > 0:27:21but the navvies couldn't have achieved this gigantic task without some help from nature -
0:27:21 > 0:27:27a series of freshwater lochs along the length of the Great Glen.
0:27:30 > 0:27:36Connecting these natural waterways was the key to completing the Caledonian Canal.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45On their route was the mightiest loch of them all, Scotland's most famous...
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Loch Ness.
0:27:51 > 0:27:57Deep enough to hold the fresh water from every lake in England and Wales put together.
0:28:03 > 0:28:10So enormous, it's said, that every human on planet Earth could fit beneath its surface...
0:28:10 > 0:28:13three times over!
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Adrian Shine originally came to these waters to hunt the Loch Ness monster.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28What he did find was a fascinating insight into the boats
0:28:28 > 0:28:35that once used this waterway as part of the Caledonian Canal's coast-to-coast short cut.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38- This is rather exciting. - It is, isn't it?
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Does it matter which way into the water it goes?
0:28:40 > 0:28:44No, no, just...just pop it in.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50This is the remote camera technology Adrian used to explore the deep.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56- Now, lower away, lower away. - Watching the screen,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59that's it, watching the screen.
0:29:01 > 0:29:07Skimming across the floor of the loch with his underwater camera in 2002,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Adrian stumbled across something that, for me, is an intriguing clue
0:29:11 > 0:29:15to the fate of the Caledonian Canal.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18You know, suddenly this wall of wood came up in front of us,
0:29:18 > 0:29:24there was the name - Pansy, and the Banff registration number.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Fascinating, because often with wrecks
0:29:26 > 0:29:28you have trouble identifying them.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Well, we didn't have any trouble with this.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36The registration tells us that Pansy wasn't a grand trading ship,
0:29:36 > 0:29:41she was a sail-powered fishing boat much like this one.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46The Pansy foundered in Loch Ness whilst using the Caledonian Canal
0:29:46 > 0:29:48to reach new fishing grounds.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Fishing boats found the canal useful but finding the wreck of a large
0:29:53 > 0:29:59merchant ship in Loch Ness is about as likely as spotting the monster.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05Within a few years of the Caledonian Canal's completion in 1822
0:30:05 > 0:30:11many merchant vessels had grown too big to use this coast-to-coast short cut.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15It never became the mighty trade route that was planned.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23If that wasn't bad enough the project had gone three times over budget.
0:30:23 > 0:30:29Many thought it was a white elephant, a colossal waste of public money,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33but approaching the end of the canal here at Inverness,
0:30:33 > 0:30:38I can't help feeling that its success shouldn't be measured in pounds and pence.
0:30:43 > 0:30:49Yes! This is the very last lock on the Caledonian Canal,
0:30:49 > 0:30:56so that's salt water, that's the Moray Firth, and out there is the North Sea.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01You know, this isn't just a great waterway, it's a great survivor.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07Over the years, many people have come up with many reasons to close it down,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11but here's one to keep it open - it's an awesome achievement.