0:00:06 > 0:00:08This is Coast.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42The sea is a great global highway.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47As an island people, it's in our nature to reach out and explore,
0:00:47 > 0:00:53the thrill of embarking on voyages big and small
0:00:53 > 0:00:56makes our harbours hum with excitement.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02In an age before air travel, these were our departure lounges.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Harbours have always been gateways to adventure.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13With an insatiable appetite for those adventures,
0:01:13 > 0:01:18we've constructed around 1,000 of these global gateways.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22For centuries, people, goods and ideas
0:01:22 > 0:01:25have flowed in between harbour walls.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28If only these walls could talk.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Well, now they can.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39We're here to reveal The Hidden History of Harbours.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Soaring high above the Cornish coast
0:01:49 > 0:01:51it's striking how perfectly
0:01:51 > 0:01:55people have moulded themselves into the landscape.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Man-made walls extend natural headlands
0:01:59 > 0:02:02to create safe havens,
0:02:02 > 0:02:08harbours, our own perfectly formed contributions to the coast.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12# In Newlyn Town
0:02:12 > 0:02:16# I was bread and born... #
0:02:16 > 0:02:17Last few barbecued pilchards.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22At Newlyn, the locals come to plug into the wider world,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26but the harbour also hides a hidden history.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31150 years ago, as tin mines were closing,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34fishing struggled to keep the community going.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39Down in the harbour, a new call was luring the men seawards.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43On the other side of the world a gold rush has begun.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47# To South Australia we are born
0:02:47 > 0:02:49# Heave away, haul away
0:02:49 > 0:02:51# To South Australia round Cape Horn
0:02:51 > 0:02:54# We're bound for South Australia... #
0:02:54 > 0:02:59The fishermen of Newlyn knew that 12,000 miles of wild sea
0:02:59 > 0:03:02stood between them and the promised land.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Who would risk all for riches?
0:03:06 > 0:03:10150 years ago, one little fishing boat made a remarkable voyage
0:03:10 > 0:03:13from here to the other side of the world.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15Have a look at this picture,
0:03:15 > 0:03:17it shows Melbourne harbour in Australia,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20absolutely crammed with shipping in the mid-1800s.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24But look at this little boat here, it's got a sail on it
0:03:24 > 0:03:29and on the sale it says Penzance, it's a boat called Mystery.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34The Mystery, with seven men onboard, left this quayside in 1854.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Over 100 days later they reached Oz.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41No fishing boat had ever made such a trip.
0:03:41 > 0:03:47Their incredible achievement was a triumph of hope over experience.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53They rode their luck in the roughest seas, gambling on a golden future.
0:03:53 > 0:04:00# We're bound for South Australia. #
0:04:03 > 0:04:06The men left behind wives, children, friends,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10unsure whether they'd ever see their loved ones again.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Two of the men who made that momentous decision
0:04:17 > 0:04:22were Philip Curnow Matthews and William Badcock,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26no photos of their five crew-mates survive.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30For years, their story has lain hidden.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Now I want to discover why the men risked everything
0:04:34 > 0:04:37on that incredible voyage to Australia
0:04:37 > 0:04:40in the small fishing boat, Mystery.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43'I'm meeting the Captain's great-great-great nephew,
0:04:43 > 0:04:44'Douglas Williams.'
0:04:46 > 0:04:47Hi, Douglas.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51As I understand it, back in the 1850s, you could buy for £20
0:04:51 > 0:04:56a steerage class ticket all the way to Australia, one-way,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59why didn't they do that and travel out there on an immigrant ship?
0:04:59 > 0:05:02The whole thing was based on an adventure which took off
0:05:02 > 0:05:04and came out of their control.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07They certainly saved a fair bit of money by going that way,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11the fact that they had a means of earning their livelihood
0:05:11 > 0:05:13with The Mystery when they arrived there,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15those were the two big factors.
0:05:15 > 0:05:16This was a new life and a new deal
0:05:16 > 0:05:18and they thought they'd have part of it.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Do you think they understood the risk?
0:05:20 > 0:05:22I don't think they did.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26I don't suppose any of them had been further than the North Sea
0:05:26 > 0:05:29and around the Cornish southwest coast,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32but they had a first-class navigator in Captain Richard Nicholls,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35who was experienced around the world in cargo ships,
0:05:35 > 0:05:40and they recognised that and they had an absolute trust in him.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46Captain Nicholls' log details a great unsung feat
0:05:46 > 0:05:47of British seamanship,
0:05:47 > 0:05:53beginning on November 18th, 1854, leaving Newlyn.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58Philip Matthews, William Badcock and their crewmates
0:05:58 > 0:06:01had barely sailed beyond the sight of land before,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03now off the tip of Africa,
0:06:03 > 0:06:08they braved gales as they pressed on to Melbourne.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16Of all the British vessels to make it to Australia, The Mystery,
0:06:16 > 0:06:22the smallest and pluckiest of all, would never see home shores again.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28The Mystery didn't come back to Newlyn,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31but I've come along the coast to Plymouth.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Here, the spirit of Mystery lives on.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47'This is an exact replica of the boat in which Captain Nicholls
0:06:47 > 0:06:51'and his six crew set sail. Bringing her back to life
0:06:51 > 0:06:55'was the dream of Cornishman and legendary sailor, Pete Goss.'
0:06:58 > 0:07:01I can't believe that I'm going out to sea in this boat.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03It's an amazing story.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06We started with a chainsaw looking for fallen oak trees
0:07:06 > 0:07:08to make the frames to build the boat.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Fashioning the Cornish oak into a seagoing craft
0:07:14 > 0:07:16was a ten-month labour of love,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21to honour the achievement of the original crew.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Really what this is about is celebrating, you know,
0:07:24 > 0:07:281854, those seven amazing men who really through hardship
0:07:28 > 0:07:32and I think a bit of romance they wanted an adventure themselves,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36sailed her to Australia, which is staggering, really.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40For Pete there was only one way to appreciate fully
0:07:40 > 0:07:45Mystery's epic voyage down under, to try it himself.
0:07:45 > 0:07:51Later, I'll be discovering how they battled raging seas,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54just like the original crew.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59And what became of those Cornishmen who reached Australia 150 years ago.
0:08:01 > 0:08:08# I saw the harbour lights
0:08:08 > 0:08:10# They only told me
0:08:10 > 0:08:12# We were parting... #
0:08:12 > 0:08:17Blackpool lights up the coast every September.
0:08:17 > 0:08:23It's a bright idea that keeps the summer season burning longer,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25But then, this is an ingenious stretch of shore.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31As they know at Barrow-in-Furness.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43This harbour is the site where our nuclear subs take shape.
0:08:45 > 0:08:50But there's another secret here, almost everyone's forgotten.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54When boffins of Barrow were building a remarkable ship...
0:08:56 > 0:08:58..an airship.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04An uplifting tale Dick can't resist.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09In 1911, His Majesty's Airship No.1
0:09:09 > 0:09:11was beginning to take shape in Cavendish Docks.
0:09:11 > 0:09:12Here, have a look at this.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15this is the story of the airship sticking out of a massive shed
0:09:15 > 0:09:18that was constructed to protect this weapon of war.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21I want to know what became of Britain's airships,
0:09:21 > 0:09:26and why this top-secret project was started on this part of the coast.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31This was the man that Barrow was taking on,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36the undisputed king of the air, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42His first Zeppelin rose to the skies in 1900,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46three years before the Wright Brothers managed powered flight.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51And the new threat posed by Zeppelins was alarming.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Britain's skies were wide open.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01Suddenly we were in an aerial arms race with Germany.
0:10:01 > 0:10:07In 1909, the Admiralty set shipbuilders at Barrow
0:10:07 > 0:10:10the challenge of designing Britain's own Zeppelin-style airship.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14To see how our airship took shape in this harbour,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18I've come to Cavendish Dock with local historian Graeme Cubbin
0:10:18 > 0:10:22to hunt for evidence for the top-secret project.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24Graeme, have a look at this, it looks huge, where was it?
0:10:24 > 0:10:27This is the airship shed built on Cavendish Dock
0:10:27 > 0:10:29and behind us here you can see the remnants of the airship shed
0:10:29 > 0:10:32you can see the remains of the foundations.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Those posts go for a very long way,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37what length are we talking about, the shed and the airship?
0:10:37 > 0:10:41The shed itself was over 600ft long and over 50ft wide.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49The airship was 512ft long and when it was launched in 1911,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51it was the biggest airship in the world,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54far bigger than any of the Zeppelins that had been built.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Britain's first rigid airship floated on water
0:11:00 > 0:11:04to make it easier to manoeuvre, an idea copied from the Germans.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11But our engineers made a critical mistake constructing the shed
0:11:11 > 0:11:13to house their creation
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Zeppelin's airship shed was a floating shed,
0:11:17 > 0:11:21and that enabled them to rotate the whole shed into the wind,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24but Vickers built theirs over rigid foundations,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27it couldn't turn so any airship coming out of this shed
0:11:27 > 0:11:31would be subject to strong winds.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36Unfortunately, it was a blustery day on the 24th of September, 1911
0:11:36 > 0:11:41as His Majesty's Airship No.1 was made ready for manoeuvres.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46We're here at one side of the docks, the shed would have been over there,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50and the airship would have just been pulled out, towed out.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Yeah, it was very carefully planned.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55It was towed out using small boats and horses,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59so it was actually floating very lightly on the water
0:11:59 > 0:12:05and could be manoeuvred to a mooring post in the centre of the dock.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10No sooner was she free of the shed than disaster struck.
0:12:13 > 0:12:20'Seldom does a picture sum-up a nation's humiliation so completely.'
0:12:20 > 0:12:21OK, Graeme, what went wrong?
0:12:22 > 0:12:25There was a gust of wind, the airship rolled slightly,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29and as it was described at the time, there was a sound like
0:12:29 > 0:12:33thousands of stones being tossed through acres of glass houses.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40The stern-most part of the airship started to rise to the air,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Luckily the crew managed to jump into the dock,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44no injuries were sustained,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46but the airship was irreparably damaged.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48It was a catastrophic failure.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54This crunching set-back convinced the traditionally-minded top brass
0:12:54 > 0:12:58of the Navy that Barrow's secret project
0:12:58 > 0:13:00was just an ill-conceived aerial adventure.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Admiral Sturdee, the head of the inquiry
0:13:05 > 0:13:08into Britain's airship disaster is reported to have said,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11"The project was the work of an idiot."
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Such was the humiliation
0:13:13 > 0:13:16that the airship project in this harbour was halted.
0:13:16 > 0:13:17What a mess!
0:13:20 > 0:13:23But the Zeppelin soared on.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25With the First World War looming,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28like it or not, we were in a critical air race.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31So the Admiralty had to swallow their pride
0:13:31 > 0:13:33and set their sights on the skies again.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39To succeed, we had to understand every detail of the Zeppelin's design.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42To get an airship off the ground
0:13:42 > 0:13:45you have to fill it with a gas that is lighter than the air.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48They used hydrogen and they used lots of it.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52But, surprisingly, an airship's outer skin isn't gas-tight at all.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59The rigid frame and its canvas coating were there to protect
0:13:59 > 0:14:02the fragile gas-type bags held inside.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Here the massive gas bags of the Zeppelin hang limp inside the frame,
0:14:07 > 0:14:14waiting to be inflated... but what where they made of?
0:14:21 > 0:14:22Now it's child's play to produce a bag
0:14:22 > 0:14:25that can hold a gas for ages, but a hundred years ago
0:14:25 > 0:14:28they didn't have materials like this, so what did they do?
0:14:29 > 0:14:31Well, to get a futuristic airship to float,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35they had to revert to techniques that were ancient.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Amazingly, the gas bags inside the most advanced Zeppelins
0:14:40 > 0:14:43started their lives inside...a cow.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Open up the beast and there's a part of its intestines
0:14:48 > 0:14:54known as the caecum, that's what held the hydrogen inside the Zeppelins.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57It seems incredible, but cow guts were the secret ingredients
0:14:57 > 0:15:00that meant that airships could float in the sky.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Giles, good to see you. How you doing? We're ready for this, are we?
0:15:03 > 0:15:05I think so, yes, we'll have a go.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12'Airships expert Giles Camplin knows the history
0:15:12 > 0:15:17'but he's never handled the real guts of a Zeppelin before.'
0:15:17 > 0:15:19We've got some straight from the abattoir.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Good Lord!
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Is that what you expected?
0:15:24 > 0:15:26This is the raw material.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28That's not very pleasant.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30It's horrible, it's disgusting.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32But that, you can see there, is the sort of membrane
0:15:32 > 0:15:35we're looking for, and that is gas-holding,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37that holds hydrogen.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40When they dry it and process it, it ends up like this.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44You see, this is dry.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47In the airships they kept it moist and flexible.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50It's a natural membrane that's gas-tight.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'So can we make our own mini airship
0:15:53 > 0:15:55'by filling this membrane with helium?'
0:15:55 > 0:15:58I've done some very odd things in my time.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Right.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07THEY LAUGH
0:16:07 > 0:16:10This is disgusting, but the membrane is very impressive.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12It's showing that it's gas-tight.
0:16:12 > 0:16:13All this fat's got to be scraped off.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Yeah, all that's got to be scraped off,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18and then the actual membrane bit, the very thin bit here,
0:16:18 > 0:16:22would have been cut to make a flat square sheet
0:16:22 > 0:16:24and then you could laminate the different sheets together.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26And stick them together?
0:16:26 > 0:16:28Stick them together, then put multiple layers in,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31up to seven layers thick, you needed up to 350,000.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Some of the big ships had a million of these to make one airship.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38What an investment in effort and time and cows.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42I think this is practically ready to fly.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46To get the Zeppelins out of their sheds,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50millions of German cows gave up their guts.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Across Germany, farmers were mobilised.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01They had to surrender the inside of their animals for the war effort.
0:17:02 > 0:17:08But in Britain, airship production was still playing catch-up,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12we struggled to gather the vast amount of cow guts required.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Well, we had a problem, especially in the First World War
0:17:18 > 0:17:19and we were getting them from America,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21they'd be coming into ports like Liverpool,
0:17:21 > 0:17:26but they came in barrels, salted, they salted them to preserve them
0:17:26 > 0:17:28because that was the best way of doing it,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32and then they were soaked in solutions of glycerine and water
0:17:32 > 0:17:35and then teams of women were processing them,
0:17:35 > 0:17:36scraping the fat off,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40getting them ready and layering them up to make these gas cells.
0:17:40 > 0:17:41The smell must have been appalling,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44must have been absolutely horrendous conditions,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46but we had to catch-up with the Germans
0:17:46 > 0:17:48cos the Zeppelins were coming over and bombing,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52so that's what they had to do to make these amazing flying machines.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57By the First World War,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01we were still struggling to produce effective airships.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Meanwhile, the east coast, the Midlands and London
0:18:04 > 0:18:08suffered the terror of Zeppelin attacks.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Bombing raids killed more than 500 people across Britain.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Only after the war, when the R80 came into service,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21did we finally have a craft to match Germany's finest.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27So much effort, and all in vain.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31Planes would eventually blow military airships from the skies.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36The airborne adventure we started in this harbour
0:18:36 > 0:18:39never really did take off, but there's something about airships
0:18:39 > 0:18:43that still seems futuristic, an alternative future,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46the stuff of science fiction, kept in the air by cow guts.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01This craggy coastline is sculpted by a sea
0:19:01 > 0:19:04that crashes against granite,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07and builds boatmen of steely resolve.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Historically, each little harbour was connected to its neighbour
0:19:11 > 0:19:13by the sea, not the land.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16The boats that used to chase the mackerel,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18rarely strayed far from the coast.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Except for one remarkable mackerel boat, The Mystery.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Her seven crew sailed in 1854 from Newlyn.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35It was a voyage that took them out through the Bay of Biscay,
0:19:35 > 0:19:41down the coast of West Africa, past Cape Town and on to Melbourne.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50A 12,000-mile gamble on riches in gold rush Australia.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57When those Cornishmen set sail in 1854,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01some of them had never been out of sight of land before.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06I'm on an exact replica of their ship, Spirit of Mystery,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09to relive a great unsung feat of British seamanship.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13'To appreciate their astonishing achievement,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16'Cornish sailor Pete Goss
0:20:16 > 0:20:21'faced again every crashing wave from the original crew's trip.
0:20:21 > 0:20:27'Pete built his boat from the plans of an 1850s lugger,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30'correct in every detail.'
0:20:30 > 0:20:33I can't help noticing, Pete, that you haven't got any winches
0:20:33 > 0:20:36or mechanical aids to help you get these huge sparks up the mast.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40No, no, this was as they would have sailed, so it's a handful of blocks,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44a bucket and rope, needle and thread, go anywhere in the world.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48'Battling the wind, I get a feeling of just how tough it was
0:20:48 > 0:20:53'for the crew aboard The Mystery in 1854.'
0:20:54 > 0:20:57- There must be a knack to this. - You're right, it'll come.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59You'll be running around by the end of the day.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05That's it. Ready. That'll do. Yep.
0:21:08 > 0:21:14'Sails hoisted, the Cornishmen faced over 100 days in open seas,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17'with the same fearsome horizons.'
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Up here on the bow, Pete, looking back,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24I'm actually a little bit shocked at how small this boat is.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28- It is a tiny, tiny boat to sail to Australia in.- It is, yeah.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31The further away you get from land, the smaller it becomes,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34and you do, you know down in the Southern Ocean,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37there is a sense of vulnerability, you're just out there
0:21:37 > 0:21:41and you hope for the best and deal with what comes along.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44'Pete's crew did have a few home comforts
0:21:44 > 0:21:48'their intrepid counterparts couldn't have dreamt of.'
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Pete, this is incredibly cosy down here,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54but in the original Mystery this was a fish hold, right?
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Yes, it was. This area here, our sort of cabin top,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00would have been a fish hold, but we know that they decked that over
0:22:00 > 0:22:03and we know that they put bunks and accommodation down below.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07Are these working oil lamps, is this how you lit the cabin down here?
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Yeah, we had oil lamps, we used a sextant to navigate.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14The objective was to shine a spotlight on their voyage
0:22:14 > 0:22:18and get to Melbourne with a real sense of their achievement.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23Philip Curnow Matthews was one of those who made it to Australia,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and now, one of his precious possessions
0:22:26 > 0:22:28has come home to Cornwall
0:22:28 > 0:22:33This is his little personal compass.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35How extraordinary.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Do you think that was sort of like a lucky charm
0:22:40 > 0:22:44that he had with him on the voyage? It's very beautiful, isn't it?
0:22:44 > 0:22:49I like to think it was, I kind of see that tucked in his waistcoat.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Matthews and his five crewmates put their life
0:22:52 > 0:22:55in the hands of the skipper, Richard Nicholls,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59who survives in the writings of his log.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03And I love this bit, "Our gallant little vessel riding beautifully
0:23:03 > 0:23:06"and not shipping any water whatever",
0:23:06 > 0:23:11and your life is contained on this little Cornish walnut.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Captain Richard Nicholls was a man of few words,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19but they sum up the extraordinary nature of the voyage.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23"December 6th, 1854.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26"Several flying fish came onboard during the night,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30"crew overhauling, rigging and cleaning mast,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33"airing nets and restoring hold."
0:23:34 > 0:23:39Captain Nicholls refers to his crew simply as "the people".
0:23:39 > 0:23:42When the boat was becalmed, he'd exercise them
0:23:42 > 0:23:47with the fisherman's walk, six paces up and down the deck, endlessly.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53After 50 days at sea, The Mystery stopped-over
0:23:53 > 0:23:55at the tip of South Africa.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Nicholls noted the excitement,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01"There were a great many visitors onboard.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05"The Mystery being the smallest vessel ever from England."
0:24:06 > 0:24:10But departing Africa, excitement soon turned to terror
0:24:10 > 0:24:13in turbulent southern seas.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16The Southern Ocean is the big focus, that's the big one, you...
0:24:16 > 0:24:18you step into that and we had probably
0:24:18 > 0:24:23every five days, on average, we'd have a big gale come through.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Walls of water pounded their tiny boat.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Pete's crew were fighting for their lives just like the original men
0:24:32 > 0:24:39of the Mystery, 150 years before, as the captain's log records,
0:24:39 > 0:24:43"5th March, 1855, a complete
0:24:43 > 0:24:48hurricane, mountains of sea."
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Pete only captured the start of this storm on his little camera.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Hailstones rattled down, then their world turned upside-down.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Just saw this great big sheer wall of water and shouted,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06and then it's like a car crash, you only remember bits,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08and I remember it went all dark,
0:25:08 > 0:25:10getting knocked around in the hatchway
0:25:10 > 0:25:13and then it felt like standing in a storm drain
0:25:13 > 0:25:15with water pouring in and pushing up against it.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Andy was in the starboard bunk, he woke up and grabbed the boat
0:25:19 > 0:25:21and swung over and realised he was sat on the ceiling,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24so we'd got knocked upside-down.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Miraculously, the boat righted itself,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32but deckhand Mark suffered a badly broken leg.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36I'm sure I heard it, it was like a rifle crack.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40I mean, my foot was tucked underneath the bench
0:25:40 > 0:25:45and my foot caught on the post and that's what caused it to break.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47In Melbourne harbour,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51a hero's welcome greeted The Spirit of Mystery.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:25:55 > 0:25:58When the original Mystery reached Melbourne in 1855,
0:25:58 > 0:26:03she was the smallest craft ever to complete the journey,
0:26:03 > 0:26:09but her seven-man crew sold Mystery to start new lives.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Phillip Curnow Matthew married and became a land surveyor.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17He is buried in Melbourne.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23Captain Nicholls eventually returned to Cornwall,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28only to be killed by a horse-drawn carriage in 1868.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Who says worse things happen at sea?
0:26:36 > 0:26:40After a spell in Australia, William Badcock and three shipmates
0:26:40 > 0:26:43also came home to Newlyn harbour.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Perhaps the lure of Cornwall was just too strong,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52but maybe what had really driven them on
0:26:52 > 0:26:56wasn't the desire for a new life in Australia
0:26:56 > 0:26:59but the spirit of adventure.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07A wealth of hidden history lies in store for those
0:27:07 > 0:27:10who explore our harbours.
0:27:10 > 0:27:17Tales of enterprise, triumph and trade tell how Britain was born.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23For me, the coast is most alive when you can see it at work,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26and harbours are where you can see that happening,
0:27:26 > 0:27:31where land and sea and people all come together
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and where adventures are born.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd