0:00:08 > 0:00:11Coast is home.
0:00:36 > 0:00:37We're here to explore what happens
0:00:37 > 0:00:41when our coast becomes a wild frontier.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48Land and sea don't always live in harmony.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56When the water boils, the land quakes, and so do we.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Whole villages washed away,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06boats in a battle of life and death.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13What becomes of us when we face peril from the seas?
0:01:17 > 0:01:22My tale of peril starts on the shore of East Anglia.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30The curious calm, here in Norfolk, seems idyllic enough.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35But a breath of wind brushing your cheek brings a change of mood.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39The hairs on the back of your neck bristle.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Something wicked this way comes.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48It's November 1703.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53A mega storm is about to devastate a huge swathe of southern Britain,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55leaving thousands dead.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Lethal winds whipped across the land
0:02:00 > 0:02:04before blowing out into the North Sea.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08Go back 300 years
0:02:08 > 0:02:11and windmills were a common sight on the coast of Norfolk.
0:02:11 > 0:02:19Then, one dreadful night in November the weather turned.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23And so did the sails of the mills.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Inside there's a brake -
0:02:26 > 0:02:31a wooden block that presses against the spinning shaft to stop the sails
0:02:31 > 0:02:36But the wind is irresistible. There's no stopping the sails
0:02:36 > 0:02:40and they spin faster and faster.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44The wooden parts of the mill run out of control.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46Friction creates smoke.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50And where there's smoke, there's fire.
0:02:52 > 0:02:59It's said The Great Storm set over 400 windmills alight
0:03:00 > 0:03:03They were seen blazing like monstrous candles.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05While they burned,
0:03:05 > 0:03:10thousands of people perished around the coasts of southern Britain.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15There's a way to re-live that terrible night
0:03:15 > 0:03:17as if it was yesterday.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21When the wind died down,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25one man was determined to make sense of the chaos.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31The journalist who wrote the definitive account of
0:03:31 > 0:03:35The Great Storm Of 1703 is a great hero of mine -
0:03:35 > 0:03:37Daniel Defoe.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43Defoe was a commentator on the momentous events of his day.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44He knew Norfolk well.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49This was a prosperous part of Britain 300 years ago,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52thanks to trade across the North Sea.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58Daniel Defoe's travels around these shores inspired his work.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01He'd go on to write the classic castaway story Robinson Crusoe,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05but this book, Defoe's first book, The Storm,
0:04:05 > 0:04:10tells true tales of ordinary folk battling extraordinary odds.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14He says of the storm, "No pen can describe it,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19"no tongue express it, nor thought conceive it"
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Defoe investigated the facts behind the Great Storm,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27and key to that investigation was the drawing together
0:04:27 > 0:04:29of eye witness accounts.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Daniel Defoe's use of first person testimony
0:04:32 > 0:04:36was a revolutionary approach to journalism,
0:04:36 > 0:04:41which he used to produce a vivid overview of the storm's impact
0:04:41 > 0:04:46It affected a massive area, from the South West and Wales,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49it hit London and across East Anglia where I am now.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Defoe carefully catalogued the tales of devastation
0:04:53 > 0:04:55left in the storm's wake.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00The first impacts were felt here, on the coast of Cornwall.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04The storm blew in from the Atlantic.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07The granite outcrops of Cornwall's coast
0:05:07 > 0:05:10were impervious to the battering,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13but the people were not.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20The most infamous casualty died alone.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25Henry Winstanley was inside the lighthouse
0:05:25 > 0:05:28he'd recently completed on the Eddystone Rocks.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31It had taken years to build,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36but was blown away in minutes by the devilish sea.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Winstanley's body was never recovered.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44The storm raged on along the south coast
0:05:44 > 0:05:47taking a terrible toll on the Royal Navy.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52A staggering one in five of their sailors perished.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57Many of them died here on the Goodwin Sands just off Kent.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01There's a really graphic picture drawn at the time,
0:06:01 > 0:06:06showing the naval ships running aground on the sands
0:06:06 > 0:06:09and the sailors desperately struggling to reach the shore.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14Defoe's description was so graphic it would have shocked his readers.
0:06:14 > 0:06:20He wrote, "The fatal Goodwin, where the wreck of Navies lies,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24"A thousand dying sailors talking to the skies."
0:06:27 > 0:06:32The storm wreaked her fury across the whole of southern Britain
0:06:32 > 0:06:37before the killer wind whipped over Norfolk out across the North Sea
0:06:39 > 0:06:41There are tales of ships off this coast
0:06:41 > 0:06:44getting swept 100 miles away.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46One ship ended up in Norway
0:06:47 > 0:06:49That dreadful night, three centuries ago,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54was even more severe than the notorious storm of 1987.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Then southern England again witnessed
0:06:58 > 0:07:00extraordinary scenes of devastation.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06But if a storm on the scale of 1703 raged across Britain today
0:07:06 > 0:07:11it would cause catastrophic damage in built-up areas,
0:07:11 > 0:07:15estimated at more than £10 billion.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Wherever we live in our isles,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22what blows in from the ocean puts us all in peril from the sea.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33It's an ill wind, indeed, that someone can't find a use for.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47Those in search of the biggest breeze head northwards.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53The Western Isles of Scotland
0:07:53 > 0:07:57are some of the windiest bits of Britain.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Our weather often blows in this way from the Atlantic.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06So, there's an automated weather station on the tiny isle of Tiree.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Reports from Tiree are a familiar sound for many.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13'Tiree automatic,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18'southeast by east six - slight showers - five miles 987...'
0:08:18 > 0:08:24What's less well-known is how vital Tiree was to weather forecasters,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27who helped win the Second World War.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31To relieve a rarely told tale of aerial heroics,
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Dick is with veteran RAF weather observer Peter Rackliff,
0:08:36 > 0:08:38who's flying back to his wartime base.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40When was the last time you were in Tiree?
0:08:40 > 0:08:44- 1945.- 1945, yeah?
0:08:44 > 0:08:46I was just 19.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49How debonair are you there? Look at that.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Debonair, well, I don't know.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54I didn't put my Brylcreem on that day. No Brylcreem, there.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Peter wasn't a Brylcreem Boy of fighter command.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02He flew in a Halifax Bomber converted to carry Met observers,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06men measuring the weather coming in from the Atlantic,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09heading towards Europe.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Peter and his comrades of 518 Squadron were storm chasers of the Second World War,
0:09:13 > 0:09:18at the forefront of the forecast running up to D-Day.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Advance warning of the weather was a life or death matter in the war,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26D-Day could have been a disastrous failure
0:09:26 > 0:09:27if it were not for people like Peter
0:09:27 > 0:09:29feeding observations into the forecast
0:09:29 > 0:09:33The painstaking preparations for D-Day meant
0:09:33 > 0:09:38planning for every eventuality, especially bad weather.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41A storm would make the landings impossible.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46The forecasters of 518 Squadron would help set the date for D-Day.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53But the work down here at Tiree has largely been forgotten,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55we're here to put that right.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Peter, do you recognise this runway?
0:09:57 > 0:09:58I do, yes.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00So, you would use this runway?
0:10:00 > 0:10:02- Oh, definitely, yes. - Where did you go?
0:10:02 > 0:10:07Well, one flight was westerly into the Atlantic for 800 miles,
0:10:07 > 0:10:09and then we flew northeast towards Iceland
0:10:09 > 0:10:12returning to base at Tiree.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14It was about ten-and-a-half hour trip, yes.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Those lengthy forecasting flights
0:10:18 > 0:10:21took them nearly halfway to Canada
0:10:21 > 0:10:23before coming back to the airfield, at Tiree.
0:10:23 > 0:10:30From 1943, planes like this rolled out day and night onto the tarmac at Tiree
0:10:30 > 0:10:33to measure the weather coming in from the Atlantic.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Soon the ocean was all too close below.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43We used to like to get down to about 60 feet, if we could.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45I was right up in the nose,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47a navigator sat immediately behind me,
0:10:47 > 0:10:48I gave him surface winds
0:10:48 > 0:10:51and he gave me the winds at height, which were very important.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55The crews deliberately flew into weather
0:10:55 > 0:10:58that would ground other planes.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02The pilots often had a job to handle it.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06The second pilot and the skipper would have to, sort of,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08do whatever they could do with the controls to try
0:11:08 > 0:11:11and keep the aircraft reasonably stable.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18They flew into the face of Atlantic storms measuring temperature,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23pressure and wind speed, readings sent back in coded radio messages.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27It went to the stations in Bomber Command,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and it meant they could draw a pretty comprehensive chart
0:11:30 > 0:11:34and that would make a radical improvement to their forecast.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40The finest hour for the forecasters of 518 Squadron
0:11:40 > 0:11:43came in early June 1944.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50'The landings were the greatest hour of crisis of the Global War.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53'The Germans had boasted it could not be done,
0:11:53 > 0:11:54'but it was done,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56'and the mighty...'
0:11:56 > 0:11:58But the success of D-Day wasn't a done deal.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Weather flights from here on Tiree
0:12:01 > 0:12:04played an important part in planning the invasion.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Meteorologist Sarah Cruddas
0:12:06 > 0:12:09is showing me the forecast map from D-day.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Lots of observations marked around Britain,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16but the weather was blowing in from the far Atlantic,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18and that was our blind spot.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20Well, that's why places such as Tiree
0:12:20 > 0:12:23were so important because they are able to fly
0:12:23 > 0:12:261,000 miles in this direction up towards the Icelandic gap
0:12:26 > 0:12:28and really collect all that information that was missing,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31and because our weather comes from the west
0:12:31 > 0:12:33we could get a better idea of what was coming towards us,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35and it gave us an advantage over the Germans.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Yeah, there'd been high pressure over France,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39low pressure over England,
0:12:39 > 0:12:41so it had created quite windy conditions just before D-Day,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44but you can see here this area here just by the Normandy landings
0:12:44 > 0:12:45that's called a ridge,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48and that actually brought in quite settled conditions of calmer seas
0:12:48 > 0:12:50and less windy conditions.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52There was just enough of a break in the weather for them to land.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54Timing the day of the invasion
0:12:54 > 0:12:58to coincide with the brief break in the weather
0:12:58 > 0:13:00was a masterstroke of judgement.
0:13:00 > 0:13:06Group Captain James Stagg was responsible for the D-Day forecast.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12To help him, Stagg used vital information from 518 Squadron,
0:13:12 > 0:13:18who flew out over the Atlantic to measure an incoming cold front.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21This cold front was formed
0:13:21 > 0:13:25by two depressions, which merged in the north west of Scotland.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Our aircraft must have flown through it from Tiree
0:13:28 > 0:13:32on half a dozen occasions on the 3rd and 4th of June.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35I know Eisenhower wanted to go on the 5th, but I mean he...
0:13:35 > 0:13:37he just couldn't do it
0:13:37 > 0:13:39because Group Captain Stagg told him,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42"Well, that cold front that we've been able to locate by our aircraft
0:13:42 > 0:13:46"is going to be in the Channel on the morning of the 5th,
0:13:46 > 0:13:51"and it's going to cause an awful lot of grief on the French Coast.
0:13:51 > 0:13:56"So, if you can time it to go on the 6th then everything should be fine."
0:13:58 > 0:14:00The men storming the beaches of Normandy
0:14:00 > 0:14:05on 6th June couldn't have known that shoulder to shoulder with them
0:14:05 > 0:14:08were the storm chasers of 518 Squadron
0:14:08 > 0:14:11some 700 miles away on Tiree.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15To forecast the weather heading towards France
0:14:15 > 0:14:19they had to fly high over the Atlantic into thin freezing air.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Their enemy was ice.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Chunks of ice would fly off and you hear
0:14:25 > 0:14:28a bang on the side of the fuselage, quite a loud bang.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33They weren't just measuring the weather, they were part of it.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Quite a few aircraft were struck by lightning,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38and on the nose we used to get this, raindrops
0:14:38 > 0:14:41used to fracture and we used to get what I called
0:14:41 > 0:14:43a golden spark discharge.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46It was simply charged up raindrops hitting the Perspex
0:14:46 > 0:14:51and producing a little golden coloured spark.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54It was actually quite a danger on some of these missions,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56there was loss of life, wasn't there?
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Oh, yes, yes. In the 18 months I was here, we lost 12 aircraft.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Some went missing on the North Atlantic
0:15:02 > 0:15:05but, unfortunately, we never found any wreckage or anything.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09They just seemed to be swallowed up by the ocean, I think,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12most of them were, we certainly lost quite a few crew.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21You must feel some pride about what you achieved,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24and the work of 518 Squadron.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27Yes, I do. I think the world of the Squadron
0:15:27 > 0:15:30and I think they did a marvellous job
0:15:30 > 0:15:33over the Atlantic and there we are.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37It's one of those things in the past which is something you never forget.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Peril from the sea used to strike in secret around our shores.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57Today there's help at hand.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02From the air.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05From the water.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13While we sleep, remarkable rescues take place in pitch darkness.
0:16:15 > 0:16:22But once the sea held sway, like here at Whitby.
0:16:27 > 0:16:33Holidaymakers are unaware but 100 years ago the town looked out to sea
0:16:33 > 0:16:38in horror as a tragedy unfolded within sight of land.
0:16:38 > 0:16:44Unravelling a dramatic, yet forgotten, disaster story
0:16:44 > 0:16:49is Coast newcomer, poet and storyteller Ian McMillan.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54I've got here the front page of the Daily Mirror
0:16:54 > 0:16:56from Monday November 2nd 1914.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00"A hospital ship has foundered just a few hundred yards from this coast,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04"but it's so stormy that it's almost impossible to rescue the crew."
0:17:05 > 0:17:08One woman was lucky enough to get off the stricken ship,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10but then Mary Roberts was a lucky lady.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Two years before, she'd been rescued from the Titanic,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17but she said the shipwreck off Whitby was even worse than that.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22Now, with the help of Mary Robert's relatives,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26and lifeboatmen of Whitby, I'm going to tell a tale of terror at sea,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28that gripped the entire nation for days.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33A disaster that caused outcry
0:17:33 > 0:17:37and helped propel Britain's coastal rescue services into the modern age.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39Our seas would never be the same again after
0:17:39 > 0:17:43the wreck of the hospital ship Rohilla.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48To see why, I'm going to examine the tragedy of her loss with a forensic eye.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Every accident investigator needs an incident room,
0:17:55 > 0:17:59and I've set mind up here at Whitby Lifeboat Station.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04I've collected a precious few of the possessions
0:18:04 > 0:18:06that were recovered from the wreck of the Rohilla.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10Her story starts on 29th October 1914,
0:18:10 > 0:18:15scarcely three months after Britain had declared war on Germany.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24The hospital ship Rohilla left harbour in Scotland, bound for France.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30So, what happened next?
0:18:30 > 0:18:33To see why Rohilla came to be wrecked just off the Whitby coast,
0:18:33 > 0:18:35I'm meeting up with Colin Brittain.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38He's spent years researching the dramatic events.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42We're looking out here so we can more or less
0:18:42 > 0:18:44see where the Rohilla ended up, can't we?
0:18:44 > 0:18:48It is, that's right, just a small part of the ship's double planking.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50The weather was terrible, wasn't it?
0:18:50 > 0:18:54It was very bad, it turned into a very severe gale.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Why did she end up down here, though?
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Because of the wartime restrictions all the lights were turned out
0:18:59 > 0:19:02and the navigational buoys were silenced.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04This part of the coastline here,
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Whitby Rock is a very treacherous part.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09It's claimed many ships in the past.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12- And it had a big impact, didn't it, throughout the country?- It did.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16It's still recorded today in the annals of the RNLI
0:19:16 > 0:19:18as one of the worst it's attended.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22So, on the 30th October 1914 at 4.00am,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25the Rohilla hits rocks and tears apart.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Later that morning, it became clear just how close the wrecked ship was to land.
0:19:33 > 0:19:39But a raging storm stopped survivors from swimming ashore.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Rockets with ropes attached were fired from the cliffs.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47But they all missed.
0:19:47 > 0:19:53Rohilla had no rockets to fire a safety line herself - a fatal lapse.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Now she was relying on Whitby's lifeboat.
0:19:59 > 0:20:00The rescuers here on shore
0:20:00 > 0:20:03could almost reach out and touch the Rohilla,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05500 yards out there on the rocks,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08but the boiling sea kept them back, and for those onboard,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11trying to swim to safety looked like a suicide mission.
0:20:11 > 0:20:12So, where was the lifeboat?
0:20:15 > 0:20:20My next witness is Peter Thompson, former lifeboat coxswain.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22So, Peter, this is the kind of boat
0:20:22 > 0:20:25they would have tried to row out to the Rohilla on, isn't it?
0:20:25 > 0:20:27This is exactly the same as the original boat that made
0:20:27 > 0:20:30the first rescue attempts.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33And it feels like a very sturdy kind of boat,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36but the conditions at the time were terrible, weren't they?
0:20:36 > 0:20:40What we have to remember is that we're approaching the harbour by now
0:20:40 > 0:20:44and the waves across there will be anything from 15 to 20ft high. Breaking seas.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49The boat is 34ft long, so, it would have just been swamped.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54With the storm raging it was impossible to row
0:20:54 > 0:20:56beyond the safety of the harbour.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Outside the sturdy walls, monstrous waves lay in wait.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Going out into the open sea wasn't an option.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Instead, they decided to launch the lifeboat from shallower water,
0:21:10 > 0:21:12on the beach beside the Rohilla,
0:21:12 > 0:21:17but that meant man-handling their heavy wooden boat over an 8ft high sea wall,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and across the rocks on the other side.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Then, of course, it was straight into the surf opposite the wreck
0:21:25 > 0:21:27and the rescue started then.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33When the lifeboat reached the Rohilla,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37the five women aboard the stricken ship were the first to be rescued.
0:21:37 > 0:21:43Among them was Mary Roberts who had survived Titanic just two years earlier.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47We think this is Mary here. Let's go and meet her relatives.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Today, her great grand-daughter Mandy and her husband Ray
0:21:51 > 0:21:54have returned to the scene of Mary's traumatic ordeal.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00She seemed to spend most of her life at sea,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04quite a woman for that age. We're talking back in the early 1900s,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08but she did compare, actually, that the Titanic
0:22:08 > 0:22:13was an easier wreck than this one out here, this was the worst wreck.
0:22:13 > 0:22:14I guess that's cos with the Titanic
0:22:14 > 0:22:16it just hit an iceberg. It wasn't a storm,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19whereas this was in this terrible, terrible storm.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Yeah, and, of course, being able to get survivors off
0:22:22 > 0:22:25of this beach with the cliffs must have been absolutely horrific.
0:22:25 > 0:22:26Must have been so frustrating
0:22:26 > 0:22:29for the people on the cliff to see the boat there...
0:22:29 > 0:22:31And not be able to get down and do anything.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35For the second time what did she do then? I suppose she gave up the sea for ever.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38- Went back to sea.- Did she? - Yeah.- Absolutely.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42In all, the lifeboat took 17 survivors from the Rohilla on its first attempt.
0:22:42 > 0:22:48Dragging the lifeboat over the rocky shore tore a hole in her hull.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Even so, she managed a second rescue attempt
0:22:51 > 0:22:54bringing back 18 more survivors,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56but then she had to be abandoned.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59The lifeboat was dashed on the rocks and pounded to pieces.
0:23:03 > 0:23:04Hope faded with it.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Survivors brought back to shore painted a terrible picture
0:23:09 > 0:23:11of conditions for those left on the wreck,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14corpses lashed to woodwork battered by the storm,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17survivors clinging to the wreckage as the ship broke up,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21no wonder some of those left onboard tried to brave the raging seas
0:23:21 > 0:23:23and make that terrible swim to shore.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Rohilla was just over 500 yards out to sea.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33But only 35 of the 299 onboard had been rescued.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39As news of the unfolding tragedy spread,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42a newsreel crew was dispatched to film the drama
0:23:42 > 0:23:45for a public hungry for news of the tragedy.
0:23:45 > 0:23:46Let's see what they saw.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57It is funny when you watch this, you realise how close it is,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01or it does genuinely look like you could just wander out to it.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09It's also quite gobsmacking to think that here's a piece of film of it,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13that what was before just a story in a newspaper,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15suddenly it's there, it's moving.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19You can see the waves moving, the waves crashing against the boat.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24Hard to fathom how terrifying it must have been,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27but you do get a very good image of it from here.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33So, this was rolling news from nearly 100 years ago.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Some desperate souls swam for shore,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40many others remained onboard the wreck.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44As darkness fell, those battling for their lives on the Rohilla
0:24:44 > 0:24:47braced themselves for a night of horror.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Saturday morning didn't bring any respite from the atrocious weather,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59more than 24 hours after the hospital ship Rohilla had struck the rocks,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02lifeboats from along the Yorkshire coast were struggling to reach her.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07So, despite heroic efforts,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11the rescue crews couldn't get close enough to the boat for long enough,
0:25:11 > 0:25:12cos these boats relied on manpower,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15and rowing against the power of the sea proved impossible.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20But help was on its way, motorised help,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23from up the coast on Tyneside,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26a lifeboat that represented the future for the RNLI
0:25:26 > 0:25:29had powered her way down to Whitby.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34Motorised lifeboats able to battle through rough seas were few and far between in 1914.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40But now, she was the last and only hope.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45At 6.30 on a Sunday morning, the Henry Vernon,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48a motorised lifeboat similar to this old gem sets off to the Rohilla
0:25:48 > 0:25:53where the survivors have been clinging on for more than two days.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58Onboard in 1914 was second coxswain, James Brownlee.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03Onboard now is his granddaughter Dorothy Brownlee.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07At first light they set-off from Whitby harbour
0:26:07 > 0:26:10and they picked up the last 50 survivors.
0:26:10 > 0:26:16My granddad's quoted in a newspaper as saying that they were bruised
0:26:16 > 0:26:21from head to foot, and I think it just touched everyone
0:26:21 > 0:26:23who saw the state of all these people.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26So, without your granddad, the loss of life would have been much greater.
0:26:26 > 0:26:27It really would.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31I can't see any way in which those last 50 men could have survived.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35Efforts had just about been given up because it was too severe.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39The storm showed very little signs of abating.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Certainly proved the value of a motor lifeboat
0:26:43 > 0:26:46because the men didn't get so exhausted.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49So, you must be very proud of your granddad.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52I really am, yes, very proud.
0:26:52 > 0:26:53Here's a picture of him,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56which was very familiar to me as a child,
0:26:56 > 0:27:02and he's wearing his medals. Three of them are for the Rohilla rescue.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04But who was the last person off the boat?
0:27:04 > 0:27:07The captain was the last person to come off the boat,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11and it is said that he climbed up the ladder
0:27:11 > 0:27:16and he was carrying a small black cat, the ship's cat,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20which, apparently, had been unperturbed by all the commotion.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Of the 229 people on board His Majesty's Hospital Ship Rohilla,
0:27:27 > 0:27:3285 perished, but thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the rescuers
0:27:32 > 0:27:35144 survived to tell their extraordinary story.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40Rescuing survivors from our perilous seas would never be the same again.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43More motorised lifeboats were brought into service.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47The days of rowing to the rescue were numbered.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03Where the sea meets the land, danger is ever present.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10Many have met that challenge, and still do,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14facing peril from the seas with ingenuity,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18resourcefulness, and simple courage.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Manning every lifeboat is the crew,
0:28:21 > 0:28:26and it's these brave men and women who keep us safe on our wild coast.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd