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Coast is home. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
We're back to explore the most endlessly fascinating shoreline | 0:00:10 | 0:00:15 | |
in the world. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:17 | |
Our own. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
The quest to discover surprising secret stories | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
from around the British Isles continues. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
This is Coast. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
We're about to embark on a voyage of discovery. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
Our destinations are the glorious islands of the British Isles. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
Jewels set in spectacular seas | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
with a treasure trove of secrets in store. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
This is an epic adventure to explore the mysteries of the Isles. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:30 | |
We'll journey far into the North | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
where Neil is intrigued | 0:01:39 | 0:01:40 | |
by the curious case of the death of Lord Kitchener. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:45 | |
His face was instantly recognisable. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
He was the poster boy of Army recruitment | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
during the First World War. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:52 | |
He arrived here in Scapa Flow on 5th June 1916. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
A few hours later, he was dead. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
In the South, England's biggest island beckons. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:03 | |
It's a mystery how these needles of chalk | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
on the Isle of Wight have hung on so long. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
Coast newcomer Andy Torbet is scaling new heights | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
to solve a geological puzzle. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
This rock face represents about one million years, | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
so, for every metre I go up, that's about 30,000 years. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
As we head way out west in Scotland, | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
our voyage of exploration takes Tessa on a mission | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
to see a magical light in the sky. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
Will sunset reveal the mysterious green ray? | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
My own magical mystery tour starts here on Orkney. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:50 | |
Orkney is actually a collection of 70 islands. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
The harbour at Stromness has been a settlement | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
since the time of the Vikings. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
The sea was the highway the islanders needed to survive. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:08 | |
Stromness was once a jumping off point for global adventure. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:13 | |
The town was connected to the wider world | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
by mighty sailing ships stopping over in the port. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
If only we could've been here in the great days of sail. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:24 | |
Well, how about that? | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
I'm hoping to hitch a lift on an island-hopping ride. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
Every year, a fleet of tall ships | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
races around the harbours of the globe | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
recreating historic trade routes. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
This year, they're passing through the Northern Isles of Scotland. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:42 | |
The community here was transformed by the tall ships. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
They brought wealth, but they also took men away. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:51 | |
It's a classic dilemma for all small isles. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
When the wider world comes knocking, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
is the attraction of island life strong enough | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
to keep communities together? | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
-Permission to board, captain. -Welcome aboard. -Thank you. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
To explore the effect these vessels had on the islanders, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
I'm signing on as a crew hand | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
aboard the Norwegian tall ship, Sorlandet. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
My destination is Shetland | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
but I'm planning to stop off at tiny Fair Isle. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
It barely registers on the map, but the community there thrives, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
even though many other Scottish isles have been abandoned. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
It's a mystery how those on Fair Isle manage to hang on. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:33 | |
I wanted to discover the secrets of their success. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
With a favourable wind, we'll get to Fair Isle within two days. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
We're under motor power now, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
but soon it'll be all hands on deck to unfurl the 27 sails. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
The islands of Orkney are disappearing below the horizon. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
I'm just putting myself in the shoes of the islanders | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
who boarded ships just like this to sail to new lives in faraway lands. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:14 | |
It must have been hugely exciting. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
But their excitement was tempered | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
by the prospect of hard graft and so is mine. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
They've just taught me how to coil a rope, | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
which is actually quite simple. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:30 | |
It would be if you were standing on your kitchen floor at home. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
This floor is moving around all over the place. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
Then, before we've really got going, apparently, it's time for bed. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
The ship runs on shift work and I'm on an early. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
But sleep doesn't come easily when the boat is lurching | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
and there's only a few hours of darkness. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
It's four o'clock in the morning and I've just got out of my bunk. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
I'm on the four to eight watch. I've got to get up on deck. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
Boat is going all over the place. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
I think they put all the sails up in the night. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
Like sailors of old, I'm keeping a log, a video diary of my voyage. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:16 | |
We're far out to sea. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
We've been blown along under a rig full of sails. Look at this. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:24 | |
What a sight. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:28 | |
This is what square rigging looks like, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
under a lot of sail out in the North Atlantic. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:39 | |
Pretty impressive. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:40 | |
There's precious little time to take in the view. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
Bad weather is blowing in and we've got to crack on towards Fair Isle. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:51 | |
Mind your footing, mind your footing, people sleeping below. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
While the ship swings into action, the captain calmly plots our route, | 0:06:56 | 0:07:02 | |
heading for a small speck of land. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:04 | |
Fair Isle looks like a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
completely on its own. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:10 | |
Why do you want to take the ship to Fair Isle? | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
There is barter with the inhabitants of Fair Isle. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
Barter? | 0:07:16 | 0:07:17 | |
Yes, where you trade things that you have for things that they have. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
They used to do this with the ships in the old days. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
They trade their woollen mittens for fish hooks, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
oars and things like that. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
What have you brought from Norway | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
to trade with the inhabitants of Fair Isle? | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
We've bought some goat cheese, some brown, Norwegian goat cheese. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
OK. Do you think they'll like that? Do you know they like goats cheese? | 0:07:37 | 0:07:42 | |
I think it remains to be found out. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
The only issue we have now, is if the seas pick up too much, | 0:07:44 | 0:07:49 | |
we'll have an issue with anchoring at Fair Isle. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
This tall ship is too big to get into the tiny harbour on Fair Isle. | 0:07:55 | 0:08:01 | |
Instead, we're planning to drop anchor offshore. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:06 | |
the bad weather could scupper that plan. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:10 | |
I've just come off watch | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
and Fair Isle is just off the ship's rail. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
It's the most remote inhabited island in the British Archipelago | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
and I've been wanting to set foot on it for most of my life. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
Just seeing it is exciting, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
but we don't know yet whether we're going to be able to go ashore | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
because there's a strong wind and a big swell. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
We're just going to have to wait and see. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
Weather permitting, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:45 | |
I'm hoping to meet the small community here on Fair Isle | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
to discover how they've kept going when other isles were abandoned. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
It's just one of the marvellous mysteries to explore | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
in the Scottish islands. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
Shrouded in cloaks of sea mist, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
the Western Isles can seem like a shadowy, secret world. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
Fertile territory for the making of myths. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
Spectacular sights and tall tales | 0:09:20 | 0:09:24 | |
captivated a new breed of tourists around 150 years ago. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:30 | |
They departed from new gateways to adventure, like here at Largs. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:35 | |
Following in the footsteps of Victorian travellers, | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
Tessa's searching out the truth of an island tale | 0:09:40 | 0:09:44 | |
that seems much stranger than fiction. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
In the late 1800s, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
the sleepy town of Largs was a thriving tourist destination. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:55 | |
The golden ticket for travel hungry adventurers of the Victorian age, | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
was a grand tour of the Western Isles. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
The new craze for paddle-steamer voyages | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
drew people here from far and wide, | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
especially those obsessed with a scientific sense of discovery. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
One such traveller was French author Jules Verne, | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
a founding father of science fiction. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
In 1879, Verne, in search of new wonders, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
travelled to the Western Isles. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
The man who wrote Around The World In 80 Days | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
was inspired here to write a book about a natural phenomenon. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:33 | |
Part fact, part fiction. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
The mysterious and elusive green ray. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:39 | |
In the book, Jules Verne describes a fleeting green flash of light | 0:10:39 | 0:10:44 | |
that reveals itself just as the sun sets. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
He called it Le Rayon Vert, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
meaning the green ray, more commonly known as the green flash. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
The novel tells the story of a young woman, Helena, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
who, having read of the green ray, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
sets off on a voyage to the Western Isles | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
to try and see it herself. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:10 | |
Legend tells that the green ray destroys illusions | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
and will allow her to find true love. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
Joining me as I begin my voyage into the islands, is Ian Thompson, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
who has studied Verne's book. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
Does the green ray really exist? Will we be able to see it? | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
Yes, the phenomenon certainly exists. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
We don't know that Verne himself witnessed it. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:34 | |
There's nothing in the correspondence or diaries | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
to prove that, but it certainly does exist and has been witnessed, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:42 | |
photographed and I have here an example where we see, | 0:11:42 | 0:11:47 | |
just for a few seconds, this green flash or green ray. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
That was what Verne's heroine was after. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
And it's what I'm after too. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
Like both Jules Verne and his heroine, Helena, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
I'm boarding a steamer to travel to the Western Isles. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
The green ray is very interesting in Verne's huge output, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
because it's the one novel that follows exactly | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
his own travel and his travels in Scotland. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
He adored all the myths and legends and history of Scotland | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
and he regarded it as more or less his ancestral home. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
Why, in particular, are the Western Isles a good place | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
for seeing this green flash phenomenon? | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
The western coast of the Western Isles | 0:12:40 | 0:12:42 | |
offered a completely unblocked view of the horizon and sunset. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:48 | |
So, in other words, here, where we are right now, is no good. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
You can't see over the horizon. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
It's clearly not an easy phenomenon to capture. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
It does require very specific atmospheric conditions. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
What do you think our chances are? | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
Pretty slim. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
To have any hope, I need to push on to the open sea. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
Like Helena, I'm determined to witness the green flash. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:17 | |
Has anybody else here seen it though? | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
-I wonder, Sir, if you've ever heard of the green ray. -I haven't, no. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:24 | |
-I don't suppose you know anything about the green flash, do you? -No. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
I haven't, I'm sorry, I don't. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
-Have you ever heard of the green flash? -Oh, yes, I have. -Have you? | 0:13:29 | 0:13:34 | |
In fact, I've seen the green flash. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
Just as the sun goes down, just as it disappears over the horizon, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
there's a green flash. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
It's quite amazing to see it. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:43 | |
Reassured, I continue heading west. It's a race against the sun. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
Back in Verne's day, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:55 | |
the fashionable sets in London, Paris and Berlin | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
saw the Western Isles as the last wilderness of Europe. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
It's clear that Verne too was captivated by this place. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
As he made his way to the lochs and out to the islands, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
natural wonders like the Corryvreckan Whirlpool fuelled his imagination, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:19 | |
as did the imposing island of Staffa and the wondrous Fingal's Cave. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:25 | |
With sunset approaching, the paddle steamer leaves me behind. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
I've arrived at the island where Verne's heroine got her chance | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
to see the green flash. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
But she had better luck than me. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
I've got a view of the horizon, but the clouds have closed in. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
The sun's nowhere to be seen, the elements are against me. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:53 | |
But I was brought up in Scotland, so I am not daft enough | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
to have left the green flash to chance. I've got a Plan B. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:01 | |
'I am meeting Johannes Courtial, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
'who is giving me my very own green flash demonstration.' | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
How does a green flash actually work? | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
There's the sun, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
and when it's setting, the light from the sun reaches the observer | 0:15:12 | 0:15:18 | |
by entering the atmosphere, where it gets bent. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
when the sun sets on the horizon, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
the light goes through a bit of atmosphere a bit like a prism. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:29 | |
-I happen to have one here. -So if the atmosphere is like a prism, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
what effect does that have on the light? | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
What this does is it splits the sun's light | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
into, effectively, a rainbow. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
The red bit is at the bottom, the blue bit is at the top, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
and as the sun sets below the horizon, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
this rainbow disappears. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:48 | |
The blue is at the end, so that would set last, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
but the green flashes green and not blue, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
and that's because blue light is scattered by the atmosphere. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
This is why the sky is blue, | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
and that's why, in this rainbow, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:00 | |
blue is missing and then the top colour is green. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
The last colour that is disappearing below the horizon is a bit of green. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
-When that sets, that's the green flash. -Eureka! | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
-Can you re-create the green flash here? -Well, we'll do our best. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:15 | |
We have all we need, I think. We have a fish tank with angled sides. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
This will act like a prism. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:20 | |
'To make the tank mimic the bending power | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
'of the Earth's atmosphere, we fill it with water.' | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
'Add powder to scatter the light, and finally a torch, our sun.' | 0:16:28 | 0:16:32 | |
I can see some form of rainbow here. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
I do see it actually, a kind of blue-y green rim. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:41 | |
But I thought that that green flash was meant to be at the top, | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
the last bit of the sun to disappear, not on the right-hand side. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
That's because our atmosphere is standing on its side. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
This way is up. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:51 | |
'With a little magic touch, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:54 | |
'it starts to look a lot more like the setting sun, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
'complete with mysterious green flash.' | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
Given what we've been up against, I think you've worked wonders. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
This is amazing. I actually understand it. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
'And though I may have cheated a little, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
'with the help of a German scientist and a plastic fish tank, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
'I've joined the lucky few to have seen | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
'the rare and mysterious green flash.' | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
I'm sailing aboard the Norwegian tall ship Sorlandet | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
on a voyage between the northern isles of Scotland. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:40 | |
We've arrived at Fair Isle, a wonderfully remote community. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
I've wanted to come here for years, | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
since I first heard about it as a boy. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
But tall ships are too big for Fair Isle's tiny harbour, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:58 | |
so we need to find calmer water to launch a boat. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
We seem to be sailing to and fro among the shore of Fair Isle. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
-Is there a problem? -In the north end there where the other ships are, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
there's a bit of swell, so now we're at the south end of the island, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
we're going to pass it, turn the ship around, come back, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:19 | |
and see if we can anchor just about where we are now | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
and a little bit closer to shore. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:22 | |
And it ought to be safe. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
We are hoping to drop anchor off this remarkable island, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
still home to about 70 people. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
A tiny stepping stone between Orkney and Shetland, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
Fair Isle is surrounded by an ocean of sea. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
3,000 miles over there is Canada, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
and hundreds of miles that direction is Norway and mainland Europe. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:50 | |
Fair Isle is sat in one of the biggest shipping lanes in the world. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
Arriving by trading ship helped solve the mystery | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
of how small island communities used to support themselves out here. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:05 | |
Whenever the people on the island saw a sailing ship coming past, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
they would try and sail out or row out to meet it. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
'Today, we'll try and meet them, and barter with the islanders.' | 0:19:11 | 0:19:17 | |
Step in quickly. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
'But getting off a big ship isn't easy. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
'These are tense moments.' | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
Give us a line. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
That was one of the most exciting embarkation moments | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
I've ever had in my life. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
We are now going to head for the shore through a pretty impressive swell. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
Fair Isle looks pretty remote on a map, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
but it feels more remote once you've arrived at it. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
Finally, after years of anticipation, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
I get to set foot on Fair Isle. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
This is a big moment for me. I feel quite emotional about it. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
ISLANDERS CHEER | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
Thank you! Thank you! | 0:20:23 | 0:20:24 | |
Thank you very much. That's a very nice welcome indeed. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
'In the past, islanders would exchange fresh goods | 0:20:28 | 0:20:33 | |
'and their famous knitwear for brandy, tea, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
'flour and other essentials from the trading ships. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:40 | |
'They've been frantically knitting fishermen's hats, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
'which they hope to barter.' | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
This is the famous Norwegian brown cheese. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:51 | |
This is Linie Aquavit. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:55 | |
< Over there, over there. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
I think we'll have to open that tonight for all the knitters first. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
'It's easy to see this as a bit of fun, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
'but exchanges like this happened for hundreds of years, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
'keeping island communities alive.' | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
Fantastic! CROWD CHEERS | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
'Barter complete.' | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
I've just an hour or so left to explore this fascinating island. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:22 | |
There's a mystery at the heart of this community that intrigues me. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:28 | |
What made them stay when life became difficult? | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
Not so long ago it was touch and go here on Fair Isle. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
I've got an article here from the Shetland Times of 1956. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
The really dramatic passage in this article says, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
"The report indicates that by this summer, | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
"it is possible that the island will reach the point of no return | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
"as far as manning essential services is concerned, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
"so that evacuation will become inevitable." | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
In 1956 a film crew came to capture the dying days of Fair Isle. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:04 | |
The tall ships had gone. The island was increasingly isolated. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
Young men were forced to leave to find wives. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:12 | |
The population was just 47. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
But the proposed evacuation never materialised. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:21 | |
So how did Fair Isle come back from the brink? | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
I'm meeting Anne Sinclair to share memories of life back then. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:29 | |
Look at that. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
-So that's the lighthouse just down there. -Yeah. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
Here's some Fair Isle knitting patterns. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
-They haven't changed at all, have they? -No. It's called traditional. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
And that, I think, is my Auntie Molly's hands. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
You can recognise your aunt's hands? | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
Yep. They're the same as mine. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
Anne's parents were from Fair Isle, but like many others, they'd left. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
When the call came to help save the island the family returned. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:59 | |
-Which year did you come back? -'57. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
-You came back at the most difficult time in the island's history? -Yes. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
Dad especially was really quite keen to come back here. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
They did say if young farmers didn't come they'd evacuate Fair Isle, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
so that was the final thing, and Dad said, "Right. Let's go." | 0:23:12 | 0:23:17 | |
Why did Fair Isle survive as a community | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
when so many islands off the north coast of Scotland | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
became depopulated and abandoned? | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
I think it sheer determination to a certain extent. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
But I think a lot of people saw this was a good way to live, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
and there were a lot of young families that came back | 0:23:35 | 0:23:40 | |
and it stayed fairly young, and I think that's important. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
A lot of people have the idea, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
"Oh, Fair Isle, get away from it all. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
"It'll be like a magic place." | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
And in fact, we're all human beings same as everywhere else. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
It's a magical place but it won't solve anybody's problems. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:56 | |
They won't get away from anything. | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
Right now, I've got to get back to the tall ship waiting for me | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
offshore to continue my magical mystery tour towards Shetland. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:06 | |
I'm leaving Anne with a DVD of memories | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
in exchange for a Fair Isle cap. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
Right. Now you put it to the side. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
Ah, that's warm! | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
A typical Fair Isle fisherman. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
I'm not tough enough to be a Fair Isle fisherman. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
Few are fortunate enough to live in the Northern Isles, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:27 | |
so they seem remote to many of us. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:31 | |
But if you're looking for uncharted territory, surprisingly, | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
you can find it a stone's throw from the busy south coast of England. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:40 | |
On the Isle of Wight. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:41 | |
A short hop from the mainland, this is a popular holiday destination. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:49 | |
It's England's biggest island, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
but you'd think tourists would have explored every inch. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
Well, not quite every inch. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
Zoologist and ex-soldier Andy Torbet | 0:25:01 | 0:25:05 | |
is about to have an adventure on rocks | 0:25:05 | 0:25:08 | |
where most would fear to tread. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
The Isle of Wight | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
is a great location to explore geology and action. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
The strut of different rock types are exposed for all to see, untouched. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:25 | |
But, there's one part of this island where the geology remains a mystery. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:31 | |
Geologists have been pouring over the Isle of Wight for hundreds of years, | 0:25:31 | 0:25:36 | |
but there's one bit they've never been able to reach. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
This is the geological map of the UK, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
where the different colours represent different rocks. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
If we zoom into the Isle of Wight, you'll see this thin, light green band represents the chalk, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:52 | |
but if we zoom in even closer, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
you'll see The Needles aren't coloured in, | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
and that's because geologists haven't been able to get out there and take a sample. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
So they've asked me to help. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:04 | |
There's no doubt it's chalk, but what sort of chalk? | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
And why has it resisted the sea | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
when the surrounding chalk crumbled away long ago? | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
To find out, the geologists need a sample from the point of The Needle, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:29 | |
chalk that's not contaminated with the sea gunge around the base. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
There are very few records of this needle ever being climbed. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
And up close, I can see why. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
I'm an experienced climber but I've never tried to scale | 0:26:42 | 0:26:46 | |
a chalk stack in the middle of the sea. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
I need to enlist a buddy with some local knowledge | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
for a bit of training. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:53 | |
It's getting that first six feet. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
Dave Talbot has climbed on chalk before. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
It poses a unique challenge. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
Crumbly chalk is made up of the bodies of tiny sea creatures, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
built up on the seabed over millions of years. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
It's very old and not very stable. Bits break off all the time. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:17 | |
This is a typical section of chalk. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:20 | |
You can see things like this that look really loose. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
I don't know quite how... Yeah, I mean, that's... | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
That's incredibly loose. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
Even sections like this that appear more solid, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
you can get kind of... | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
If you get your hand on as if you were climbing, you can kind of... | 0:27:32 | 0:27:34 | |
Just crumbles away. It's really unpredictable. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
Some of the sections can be quite solid but other bits really loose. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:41 | |
We don't know what we are going to encounter when climbing it. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
Even these spikes driven into the rock can't be relied on | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
in the event of a slip. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
It's not solid. Chalk's not solid. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
That's what were doing, just trying not to fall off. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
And if this glorious weather holds out, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
we'll be attempting the climb tomorrow. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
We're going to have to keep our wits about us. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
You've seen what that chalk's like. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:06 | |
It's going to be crumbly, flaky, unpredictable | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
and slippery at the bottom. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
It's going to be like climbing cheese. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
Hanging out on that stuff over sea is going to be quite interesting. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
The next morning, we're all kitted up and ready to go. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
-Nice bit of weather this morning. -A little bit of breeze. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
Morning, guys. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:34 | |
And we've been joined by Pete Hopson and Andy Farnt, | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
two scientists from the British Geological Survey. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:41 | |
Although the water looks calm, the swell is a worry. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
The wind's picked up so the swell's picked up. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
Getting on the rock is going to be much harder than we thought. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:02 | |
Safely off and kitted up, Dave nominated me to lead the climb. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:19 | |
We need a pure sample of chalk from the summit to work out | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
why this pinnacle has defied the sea for so long. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:28 | |
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:38 | |
Where is my next handhold? | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
Hello? | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
You just can't trust anything you're doing. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
That's what I'm talking about. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:51 | |
It's fragile, it's crumbly, it's unpredictable, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:55 | |
and every time you pull on a hold or step up your heart's in your mouth. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
But it's an amazing place to be, especially on a day like today, | 0:29:59 | 0:30:02 | |
and it might not be the safest place, | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
but it's pretty spectacular. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
The geologists tell me that from the sea line, the top, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
this rock face represents about a million years, | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
so for every metre I go up, that's about 30,000 years. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:29 | |
Whoa. Hello?! | 0:30:34 | 0:30:38 | |
CHALK SPLASHES IN SEA | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
That's a bit easier. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:57 | |
Done it. Champion. Still in one piece. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
As we're climbing for the British Geological Survey, | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
we're able to take a sample of chalk away. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
It's not something we'd be doing otherwise. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:14 | |
-Nice one, well done. -Beautiful, mate. -Good effort. Cheers, buddy. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:20 | |
That was awesome. It's a bizarre way to climb. It's quite intimidating. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:25 | |
-We've got to figure out how to get down now. -Yeah. | 0:31:25 | 0:31:27 | |
We'll get the rock samples the guys need, | 0:31:27 | 0:31:30 | |
get ourselves down and that will be mission accomplished. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
Cool. | 0:31:39 | 0:31:40 | |
Our chalk sample will need detailed analysis at the lab. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:55 | |
Nice bit of chalk. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:56 | |
But sample in hand, hopefully we can clear up one mystery right now. | 0:31:56 | 0:32:01 | |
Why The Needles lasted so long. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
Is the chalk harder than the surrounding coast? | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
-We've got a way to find out. -This is a very simple field test. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:14 | |
It's called a Schmidt hammer. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:15 | |
This device will get a number to the hardness of our sample. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:20 | |
There's the bang. Now we have a reading. This one's 22. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:25 | |
That's quite hard for chalk. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
Now we need to compare it with the chalk the geologists have brought along from the mainland. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:34 | |
It's barely reading ten on here, | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
which is significantly lower than the one from The Needle. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
This is much, much harder. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
Why is the needles chalk much harder than normal chalk? | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
This chalk was moved by Earth forces and it was bent over | 0:32:48 | 0:32:55 | |
until it was nearly vertical. The compression on that chalk | 0:32:55 | 0:32:59 | |
has created quite a lot of internal pressure. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
The little pore spaces between the individual grains have been | 0:33:02 | 0:33:08 | |
filled with calcite minerals because of that pressure on the rock | 0:33:08 | 0:33:13 | |
and that is what's made it significantly harder than | 0:33:13 | 0:33:17 | |
other samples of chalk that we see around the South of England. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
So all the information we brought back today | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
will finish the map? | 0:33:23 | 0:33:24 | |
Now we can move forward and finally print the new geological map. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:29 | |
With The Needles on the map, there's one mystery less on our isles. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:39 | |
But still plenty more to explore. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
I'm on an island-hopping adventure | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
aboard a tall ship in the waters of northern Scotland. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:53 | |
Now it's all hands on deck. | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
when the weather's against you, | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
it takes every able body to wrestle with the wild Atlantic. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:05 | |
I'm en route for Shetland, following in the wake of islanders | 0:34:10 | 0:34:15 | |
who left a familiar life on land for the mysteries of the sea. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:20 | |
To find out what lay in store, like them, | 0:34:20 | 0:34:24 | |
I'm travelling 19th-century style. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:27 | |
Back then, ships like this carried island men to adventure | 0:34:27 | 0:34:31 | |
across the sea, but it wasn't a free ride. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
They often had to work their passage. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
I think I better do the same. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:39 | |
At sea, a boat becomes an island in itself. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
Everyone needs to pull together and tow the line. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
While some jobs are mundane, others are exhilarating. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:53 | |
I'm about to have the biggest adventure you can have | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
on a tall ship, which is going up in the rigging. | 0:34:57 | 0:34:59 | |
I've got a camera mounted on my nut, | 0:34:59 | 0:35:01 | |
and the man whose taking me up is David, | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
who has a lifetime's experience on sailing ships. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
-David, take me up. -If you go first. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
Here we go. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
This is... | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
Already the deck is receding below me. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
Whoa, gosh, the wind is strong. | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
The wind is one third stronger up here. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
The ship's moving all over the place. This is really difficult. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:37 | |
-Is this where I clip on? -Yes, please. On the wire itself. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
-That's it. -Clip done. This is the moment. Up and over the edge. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:48 | |
Looming out over the deck. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
Arms out straight. Push with your feet. | 0:35:51 | 0:35:55 | |
One foot on the platform, two feet on the platform. I'm up. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:02 | |
Expletive deleted. Oh, man. What a sight. What a sight. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:09 | |
To be up in the top of the rigging of a tall ship looking out across | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
the ocean, the sails billowing with wind, totally timeless moment. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:28 | |
This is exactly what seafarers for hundreds of years have seen. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:34 | |
The crew of these mighty vessels witnessed extraordinary sights, | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
and no doubt spun some tall tales too. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:47 | |
Plying their trade around the Scottish islands, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
the seafarers didn't just transport goods, they carried stories, | 0:36:53 | 0:36:57 | |
passed from isle to isle, generation to generation. | 0:36:57 | 0:37:03 | |
One of the most enduring tells of a mysterious creature, the selkie. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:10 | |
The Song Of The Selkie captivates one of our most legendary folk artists, June Tabor. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:19 | |
I'm a singer of songs that tell good stories. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:25 | |
And one of the great, | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
truly great narrative ballads of these islands, | 0:37:27 | 0:37:31 | |
concerns a seal. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
The great selkie of Sule Skerry. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:39 | |
# It happened on a certain day | 0:37:39 | 0:37:44 | |
# As this fair maid lay fast asleep | 0:37:44 | 0:37:48 | |
# In and came a grey selkie | 0:37:50 | 0:37:55 | |
# Sat him down at her bare feet. # | 0:37:55 | 0:38:01 | |
A selkie... Well, it's a seal in many parts of the Western Isles. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
But it's also... a magical, mystical being, | 0:38:08 | 0:38:13 | |
that uses the form of the seal to travel between | 0:38:13 | 0:38:17 | |
a land below the waves, to the land of men. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
The seal is a person. Look at those eyes. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:26 | |
Listen to the cries of the seals. They almost sing. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:31 | |
You can understand why people thought that there was more to them | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
than just an animal presence. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:38 | |
# And woe alas, this weary fate | 0:38:40 | 0:38:45 | |
# This weary fate that's laid on me | 0:38:47 | 0:38:52 | |
# That a man should come from the West of Hoy | 0:38:52 | 0:38:56 | |
# To father here a child on me. # | 0:38:57 | 0:39:03 | |
She's been seduced by an otherworldly creature, | 0:39:03 | 0:39:09 | |
who in the sea is a seal and on the land is man. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:13 | |
"I'm your child's father." She's horrified. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:17 | |
What's she going to do? He offers to marry her. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:22 | |
But she doesn't take him seriously. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
"You can marry who you like. I won't marry you." | 0:39:25 | 0:39:29 | |
# And she has raised his little wee son | 0:39:29 | 0:39:35 | |
# For seven years all at her knee | 0:39:36 | 0:39:42 | |
# And when seven years were past and gone | 0:39:42 | 0:39:48 | |
# He's come with gold and white money. # | 0:39:48 | 0:39:52 | |
And then he comes back. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
"Please marry me. I've brought gold, I've brought money." | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
She still won't have him. And he prophesies. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
"I'm going to put a gold chain around this child's neck." | 0:40:06 | 0:40:09 | |
So if he comes back, he'll know it's him. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:12 | |
"But I'm going to take him away. You, well, you'll marry somebody else." | 0:40:12 | 0:40:17 | |
"You'll forget me. But he's going to be a gunner." | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
And in time as the selkie prophesied, she did marry a gunner. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
And he went out on a May morning, | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
and shot two seals. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:37 | |
A big bull male. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
And a young male, with a gold chain around his neck. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
# Oh, woe alas | 0:40:48 | 0:40:52 | |
# This weary fate | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
# This weary fate | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
# That's laid on me | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
# And so she sighs and so she cries | 0:41:02 | 0:41:10 | |
# And her tender heart, it broke in three. # | 0:41:10 | 0:41:16 | |
And so it was finished. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
This is the most amazing place to be on a tour ship, | 0:41:41 | 0:41:44 | |
taking the helm with a good wind on the open ocean. An incredible feeling. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:51 | |
This is a voyage of real highs | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
and lows. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
I'm trying to steer a steady course to Shetland. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
It's a responsible job when you're at your wits' end, | 0:41:58 | 0:42:02 | |
after three days aboard, snatching sleep when you can. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:07 | |
There's one very odd thing that happens, which is your body clock goes completely peculiar. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:16 | |
Eh...right now, I have no idea what time of day it is. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:23 | |
It must be evening, cos I slept for two hours. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:27 | |
I got out of this bunk. I was sleeping fully clothed, like now. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
Then I ate the meal, which turned out to be supper. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:34 | |
Getting a bit tired. In fact, I'm now permanently tired. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
But the ship doesn't sleep. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
There's an important tack at midnight. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
Everyone's needed to move the massive sails. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:51 | |
-Are you ready to do this? -Yeah! -Yeah! Very good. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:56 | |
It's all gone badly wrong. We've got some of the sails on one side of the ship, | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
some on the other. We got caught by the wind. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
Now there's a rush on to try to get the ship straightened out. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
Suddenly, everyone stops. The crew must rethink. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:21 | |
A palpable air of tension on the deck now. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:25 | |
Pull it towards me. Pull it towards me. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
Here we go. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
Despite our efforts, the ship did more of a three-point turn than an elegant tack. | 0:43:39 | 0:43:45 | |
But at least we're back on course for Shetland. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
Tall ships connected the Northern Isles of Scotland to the globe. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:55 | |
But as well as trade, big boats have also brought tragedy. | 0:43:55 | 0:44:00 | |
Around a hundred years ago, Scottish waters became a battleground. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:07 | |
During the First World War, enemy ships stalked these shores. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:15 | |
To meet the German threat, the Royal Navy headed north to base on Orkney, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:22 | |
at the sheltered bay of Scapa Flow. | 0:44:23 | 0:44:28 | |
The Navy's mighty warships went long ago. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:31 | |
But intrigue lingers in their wake. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
Neil's exploring how the most famous face of the First World War | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
came to lose his life here in the most mysterious fashion. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:46 | |
This is the curious case of the death of Lord Kitchener. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:51 | |
Our tale begins in the summer of 1916. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:54 | |
Scapa Flow is awash with ships of the British Grand Fleet, | 0:44:54 | 0:44:59 | |
the most fearsome instrument of war the world has ever seen. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:03 | |
On the 5th June, HMS Hampshire is about to slip out for a covert mission to Russia. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:10 | |
On board is one of Britain's most celebrated men. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
His face was instantly recognisable and nearly 100 years later, | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
it still is. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener - | 0:45:19 | 0:45:23 | |
the poster boy of army recruitment during the First World War. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:27 | |
When he arrived here in Scapa Flow on 5th June 1916, | 0:45:27 | 0:45:30 | |
he was suffering from no more than a mild bout of seasickness. | 0:45:30 | 0:45:35 | |
A few hours later, he was dead, and exactly how he died | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
and why puzzles some people even to this day. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:42 | |
Conspiracy theories surrounding Kitchener's fate swirl around these murky waters. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:49 | |
Ripples of intrigue remain after the shock of terrible events | 0:45:49 | 0:45:53 | |
that made grim headlines. | 0:45:53 | 0:45:55 | |
Look at this. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:56 | |
Not many people's death would warrant a full front page picture | 0:45:56 | 0:46:01 | |
of a newspaper in 1916. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:03 | |
But the nation was amazed and bemused by the loss of Kitchener. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
Somehow, the warship he'd been travelling on | 0:46:07 | 0:46:10 | |
had sunk in home waters, | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
killing over 600 men, including Kitchener. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
To the people, he was a hero, a patriot and a friend. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:21 | |
They'd heeded his call to war. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
# We don't want to lose you | 0:46:23 | 0:46:28 | |
# But we think you ought to go...# | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
"Your country needs you" was his rallying cry, | 0:46:31 | 0:46:34 | |
and his country did not disappoint him. | 0:46:34 | 0:46:37 | |
From 1914 onwards, 2.5 million men answered the call. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:42 | |
Whole communities, mates from the same factories and towns | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
formed the famous Pals battalions. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:49 | |
By summer 1916, this band of brothers had become Kitchener's new army. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:54 | |
We were two years in the making and ten minutes in the destroying, | 0:46:56 | 0:47:00 | |
said one of Kitchener's new army. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:02 | |
Pals battalions were brutally butchered on the first day | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
but Kitchener didn't live to see his men mown down. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:12 | |
He was dead before the battle could get under way. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
While his soldiers and his country still loved him. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
The nation demanded to know why HMS Hampshire sank, | 0:47:18 | 0:47:22 | |
as it set out from Orkney with their national hero on board. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:27 | |
An investigation was conducted to formulate the official answer. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
-How are you doing? -Good to see you. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
I'm meeting historian Nick Hewitt, who's going to give me | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
the authorised version of HMS Hampshire's loss | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
and Kitchener's death. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
So on 5th June, Kitchener is right here in Scapa Flow. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
He is. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:46 | |
Is this photographic proof? | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
This is the last picture we know of Kitchener leaving the Iron Duke, | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
walking along the decks to board the Hampshire. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
Why is Kitchener en route to Russia anyway? | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
Russia is on the verge of collapse | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
and Kitchener is the face of British military might. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
He's a logical man to send around and put some pep in the Russians. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:06 | |
So what happens? | 0:48:06 | 0:48:07 | |
What they're looking to do is very simple, | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
to take Kitchener from Scapa Flow to Russia, which is in that direction. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:14 | |
The problem is, there is what's described as the worst gale of the century. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:19 | |
The Hampshire sets off from alongside the Iron Duke. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:21 | |
Into the teeth of the gale. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:22 | |
The captain sensibly starts to move her closer to the shore | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
to try and get some degree of shelter. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
It doesn't help, but it's the right thing to do. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
What they don't know is that off Marwick Head | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
there is a small German minefield | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
that's been laid secretly by a U-boat the week before, | 0:48:37 | 0:48:41 | |
and the Hampshire runs straight into one of these mines. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
That's the official account the Government hoped would lay the story to rest | 0:48:44 | 0:48:49 | |
but some on the islands of Orkney remained uneasy. | 0:48:49 | 0:48:53 | |
They had witnessed mysterious events on the night of the tragedy. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:57 | |
We've reached the spot where Kitchener died, | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
about a mile and a half offshore. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
The Hampshire lies upside-down on the seabed, | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
about 70 metres below my feet. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
The ship sank in minutes. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:13 | |
Over 600 men perished. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
Despite the terrible storm, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
islanders tried to help survivors struggling to get up cliffs. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
The rescuers felt more men should have been saved, so why weren't they? | 0:49:22 | 0:49:28 | |
-Well, James. -Hello. -How are you? | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
James Sabiston heard strange tales, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:33 | |
passed down from his grandparents. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
My grandparents and my mother lived here. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
Two survivors managed to get to his grandparents' house | 0:49:39 | 0:49:42 | |
the night the ship went down. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:45 | |
I presume everyone was in their beds. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:47 | |
Yes. They were all in bed. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:49 | |
I think they came and knocked at the door at two o'clock in the morning. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
And my grandmother went to the door, | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
and I think she was a bit worried, wasn't sure if it was a spy | 0:49:55 | 0:50:00 | |
or something may be coming, but she took 'em in anyway. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
These are the photographs here, and that's one of Dick Simpson. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
He's just a boy. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
Yes, 20. | 0:50:10 | 0:50:11 | |
And that's Jack Bowman. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:13 | |
What did he say? | 0:50:13 | 0:50:14 | |
He said our ship's going down and we want some help. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
There were some more maybe to be saved. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
And so what did your grandparents do once they realised that there was a tragedy? | 0:50:21 | 0:50:27 | |
My grandfather went to the neighbour and got the men from there. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:31 | |
They got ropes and they took up three survivors that way. | 0:50:31 | 0:50:35 | |
Before they were stopped by the authorities. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
Your grandfather and the rest were stopped from doing any more of the rescue? | 0:50:38 | 0:50:43 | |
Oh, yes. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:44 | |
What is the word on why anyone would stop a rescue? | 0:50:44 | 0:50:49 | |
That's what makes it so suspicious, I would say. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:52 | |
You'd think it was something going on somewhere. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:57 | |
Who do you think the authorities actually were? | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
I don't know. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
Whether they were neighbouring authorities or police or who, | 0:51:02 | 0:51:07 | |
I don't know really who it was. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:09 | |
James's grandfather never did find out for sure | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
who'd stopped the rescue efforts, or why. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
This is the bay where the sailors were struggling to get ashore. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:23 | |
I'm hoping Tom Muir from the local museum can shed more light | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
on the mysterious authorities who prevented the locals from helping. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:31 | |
There were troops down here, there was an order from the Admiralty | 0:51:33 | 0:51:37 | |
not to allow civilians down to the shore | 0:51:37 | 0:51:41 | |
because there might be sensitive papers washed up, | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
which they didn't want falling into enemy hands. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:48 | |
Right. So it's that paranoia stage. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:50 | |
Very. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:51 | |
Do you think it's possible that the conditions that night | 0:51:51 | 0:51:54 | |
were just so appalling that the authorities were right | 0:51:54 | 0:51:57 | |
in thinking that no-one could help in the water anyway? | 0:51:57 | 0:52:01 | |
They certainly could have helped. | 0:52:01 | 0:52:03 | |
The people around here were farmers but they were also fishermen, | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
so they knew the tides, they knew where the rafts would come in, | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
they knew that life rafts would come in here, | 0:52:09 | 0:52:14 | |
so when the life rafts did come in, there was nobody there to help. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:19 | |
There were just smashed against the rocks | 0:52:19 | 0:52:21 | |
and there was that feeling that if the authorities had allowed them | 0:52:21 | 0:52:27 | |
to go out and help, the human emotion, the desire | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
to go and help them was denied, and that cost lives. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:36 | |
Sailors Dick Simpson and Jack Bowman were 2 of only 12 survivors. | 0:52:39 | 0:52:47 | |
Lord Kitchener and the rest of the crew perished. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:50 | |
The islanders raised money for a memorial to the tragedy, | 0:52:54 | 0:52:58 | |
but the story would not die. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:01 | |
The secrecy that scuppered local rescue efforts | 0:53:01 | 0:53:03 | |
suggested sinister motives to some. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
Was the Government hiding something? | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
The people may have loved Lord Kitchener in 1916, | 0:53:11 | 0:53:14 | |
but many of those in power did not. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
As Secretary of State for War, he was accused of having overseen | 0:53:17 | 0:53:21 | |
the bungled and disastrous operation at Gallipoli, | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
with a cost of 100,000 Allied casualties. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:28 | |
And the army on the Western front had almost run out of shells at one point | 0:53:28 | 0:53:32 | |
while Kitchener was in charge of munitions, | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
so he had lost some influential friends, | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
but had he made some murderous enemies? | 0:53:37 | 0:53:41 | |
The fame he'd won in South Africa during the Boer War, | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
the violence of his death and the fact his body wasn't recovered | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
gave rise to conspiracy theories. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
I'm going to run three of them past Nick. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:56 | |
Firstly, had Kitchener's misconduct in the war, | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
so infuriated ministers like Lloyd George | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
that his ship was deliberately sent into waters they knew were mined? | 0:54:02 | 0:54:06 | |
The key thing is they've already fired him. | 0:54:06 | 0:54:08 | |
In December 1915, he loses the operational control of the army. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:12 | |
He's got no control over the battlefield. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:14 | |
There's absolutely no need for the government to have him murdered. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
OK. We can put that one in the bin. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:19 | |
Absolutely. In it goes. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
This is a particular favourite of mine, without a doubt. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:25 | |
That Lord Kitchener goes to Russia | 0:54:25 | 0:54:28 | |
and there, turns himself into a chap called Joseph Stalin. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:31 | |
There's a moustache thing going on. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:33 | |
I don't think we should even dignify it with a response. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
It's clearly ridiculous. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:38 | |
What a shame. What a movie it would make! | 0:54:38 | 0:54:41 | |
I suppose in some ways this would possibly be the most credible, | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
the legendary "spy", Fritz, | 0:54:44 | 0:54:48 | |
a South African, embittered towards Kitchener particularly, | 0:54:48 | 0:54:51 | |
and the British in general because his mother and sister died during the Boer War. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:57 | |
That this man had sworn vengeance and managed to get aboard the Hampshire, | 0:54:57 | 0:55:01 | |
caused the explosion and lived to tell the tale. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:03 | |
It's the hardest one to disprove, I'll give you that. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
He wrote a memoir, obviously saying that he did it. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
His claim that he gets on the ship and sabotages the ship | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
and swims away and joins a submarine and gets away with it, | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
when so many men were drowning in such appalling weather | 0:55:16 | 0:55:19 | |
is really, really hard to believe. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:20 | |
I think we have to put Fritz in. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:22 | |
Done. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:24 | |
The people of Orkney still live with the loss of HMS Hampshire. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:33 | |
They tend the cemetery of sailors claimed by the sea. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:36 | |
Men the locals couldn't save. | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
100 years on, what are we to make of the curious case | 0:55:44 | 0:55:49 | |
of the death of Lord Kitchener? | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
I can't help feeling that this sad episode has been hijacked | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
by the conspiracy theorists. | 0:55:56 | 0:55:59 | |
This isn't about the death of a national hero, mysterious or otherwise. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:03 | |
It's about a tragedy. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:05 | |
It's the loss of over 600 lives, | 0:56:05 | 0:56:07 | |
and the scars that remain on an island community that was unable to help. | 0:56:07 | 0:56:12 | |
Orkney was where I started my island adventure. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:27 | |
Four long days and short nights later, | 0:56:27 | 0:56:31 | |
the edge of Shetland sits on the horizon. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:35 | |
Journey's end. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
We've arrived off the Shetland Islands, | 0:56:43 | 0:56:45 | |
we're waiting for the pilot, the big seas have abated, | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
it's as calm and almost as flat as the Mediterranean, | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
and the Shetlands look as welcoming to me | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
as they always have done to voyagers coming in from across the ocean. | 0:56:54 | 0:56:59 | |
A wonderful sight. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
I've made it. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:05 | |
And I'm absolutely exhausted. | 0:57:05 | 0:57:09 | |
But what a way to arrive in Shetland! | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
For a rare gathering of square riggers from around the globe. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:19 | |
Permission to come ashore. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:21 | |
Lerwick is absolutely packed, it's as if the whole island | 0:57:25 | 0:57:30 | |
has poured down to the quaysides to see the ships come in. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:34 | |
The tall ships are on their annual race. | 0:57:34 | 0:57:37 | |
This is just a brief stop-over for them but for me, | 0:57:38 | 0:57:43 | |
the experience of life under sail will linger long in the memory. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:49 | |
Friendships forged at sea, | 0:57:49 | 0:57:51 | |
formed from the shared experience of pulling together. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:56 | |
Making landfall on new shores, | 0:57:56 | 0:57:59 | |
with a warm welcome for a stranger from down south. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
CHEERING | 0:58:03 | 0:58:05 | |
I've travelled far, but always felt at home. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:08 | |
Our islands hold a mysterious attraction. | 0:58:08 | 0:58:11 | |
Their magic spoke to our ancestors, and it still calls us. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:17 | |
One thing that unites us across these isles | 0:58:17 | 0:58:19 | |
is that we're all islanders, | 0:58:19 | 0:58:21 | |
whether we live on rocks in the sea that are very large or very small. | 0:58:21 | 0:58:26 | |
Maybe the joy of coming to the coast is that here, | 0:58:26 | 0:58:29 | |
we can still experience the very essence of our island story. | 0:58:29 | 0:58:34 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:52 | 0:58:55 |