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GULLS CRY | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
WAVES CRASH | 0:00:05 | 0:00:06 | |
This is Coast. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
You never master the sea, but you can work with her. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:49 | |
Rope and canvas can...can take you anywhere. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:56 | |
Every voyage...is an adventure. | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
Now the Coast crew are casting off. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
While I soak up the drama of competition on the waves, | 0:01:07 | 0:01:11 | |
historians Ruth Goodman and Nick Hewitt | 0:01:11 | 0:01:15 | |
relive the sea's darker days, | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
when our briny depths concealed weapons of war. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
There was a time when British waters were infested with German mines. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:27 | |
This is a Soviet Foxtrot submarine. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
So if the Cold War had gone hot, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
they planned to swamp the North Atlantic | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
with hundreds of these boats. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:38 | |
Mark voyages back to the days of sail | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
for a scandalous tale of savagery at sea. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:48 | |
This was a case of cannibalism. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
But even though the men had killed one of their crew, | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
they fully expected to walk free. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
And I'm eating up the opposition in the toughest race of my life. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:04 | |
Unbelievable. Unbelievable! | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
On this journey, we're all at sea. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
I'm embarking on a circumnavigation. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:20 | |
Not of the globe but the Isle of Wight. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
This stepping stone in the Channel | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
is the perfect base for adventures all at sea. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
The island's world-class sailing has a right royal reputation. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:46 | |
King Edward VII became Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron | 0:02:47 | 0:02:52 | |
while he was the Prince of Wales. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
Edward's mother, the Queen, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:02 | |
had fallen in love with the Isle of Wight. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
"It's impossible to imagine a prettier spot." | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
That's a quote from Queen Victoria. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
She and her husband Albert were so taken with this pretty spot, | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
they bought the land | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
and built themselves a summerhouse. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
Built in 1851 in the Italian style, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
Osborne House was the royals' holiday home, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
where Prince Edward got his taste for competitive sailing. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
And that's why I've come. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
I'm told his mother's regal residence | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
affords majestic views over the Solent, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
where my own sailing challenge awaits. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
That's the Solent. | 0:03:57 | 0:03:59 | |
The stretch of water between the island and the mainland. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
Very shortly, I'm going to be down there in a 40ft yacht, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
taking part in the Round the Island Race. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
It's enormous. There are 1,600 yachts taking part. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
And unusually, amateurs can race against professionals. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
I'm very much in the amateur camp. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
I'm nervous and I'm excited. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
# Sailing | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
# Sailing. # | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
For over 80 years, on the last Saturday in June, | 0:04:31 | 0:04:36 | |
crews have braced themselves for a test of skill and strategy. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
Racing around the Isle of Wight, boats must battle each other | 0:04:42 | 0:04:46 | |
and notoriously tricky waters. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
The course is strewn with navigational hazards. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
One of the first are The Needles on the western point of the island. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
A jagged reef of rock protruding into the course. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
Right at the end, there's a submerged wreck you've got to avoid. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
Then it's down to the southern tip of the island, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:07 | |
Saint Catherine's Point, | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
where the waters get very churned up. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
So much so that they've ruined many a racer's chance of finishing. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:15 | |
Then it's around the eastern end of the island, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
and then just as you're entering | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
what you might think is the final straight, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
you've got to avoid a sandbank, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
Ryde Sands here, before coming up here to finish at Cowes. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
And then there's the sea itself. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
It's a complex puzzle of tides and currents | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
buffeted by unpredictable winds. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
The water sloshing around the island creates fearsome rip currents. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:49 | |
These rips can carry a yacht off course like a matchstick. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:56 | |
The sea winning out over wind. | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
Racers must be wary of riptides, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
as veteran competitor Graham Sunderland knows. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
We're right where the tide is flowing at its fastest | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
out towards the open sea by this... this is Sconce buoy, isn't it? | 0:06:11 | 0:06:15 | |
It's one of the fastest rips we find here on the island. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
So, what's the effect of this tide on a boat, say, like this rib? | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
We should be able to show you that | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
-if we ask our rib driver Jason to cut the engine. -OK. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
You should see the effect on the boat. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
So Jason's cut the engine. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
We've now been gripped by the tide. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
In that short period of time, | 0:06:33 | 0:06:34 | |
we're already doing a knot and a half into the breeze. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
The wind's trying to push us back. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
The tide's forcing us into the wind. It's that powerful. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
The tide's pull defeating the wind's push. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
These conflicting forces will be my challenge tomorrow. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:52 | |
To add to the fun, further along | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
the first leg of the course are The Needles. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
Graham, we're approaching one of the most famous | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
but also lethal landmarks in British waters. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
Tell me about the race tomorrow. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
Typical hazards you've got here are The Needles itself, | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
and then you've got a further hazard in the Varvassi wreck. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
The Varvassi, a 4,000-tonne Greek steamer, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
was dashed onto The Needles in 1947. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
The broken-up ship lies just a metre below the surface. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:31 | |
But navigating around her means losing precious time. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
Do people try to cut inside the wreck, between the wreck and the lighthouse? | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
It's a good question. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
The decision is down to each individual skipper to get that right. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
And the conditions that prevail will help them make a decision. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
It's high risk. There is room but not much. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
Rocks, wrecks and ripping currents | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
make the Isle of Wight a stupendous sailing challenge. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:01 | |
With the race less than 24 hours away, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
I'm starting to realise what it means to feel all at sea. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
For me, taking the helm's a daunting prospect. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
But all around our shores, dazzling displays of seamanship | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
are part of the day's work for hard-grafting skippers. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:36 | |
From little coastal craft to ocean-going giants. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:45 | |
Boats buoy us up with the trade we desperately need. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
One third of all our food floats into Britain. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
Strangle our shipping and we'd soon be on our knees, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:06 | |
as our enemies have always recognised. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
FOGHORN | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
Remarkable evidence of attempts to sink our sea trade | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
survive in the Medway Estuary. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
Naval historian Nick Hewitt is stalking fearsome prey. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
I'm here to track down weapons of war. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
This is a tale of two submarines. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
This is a Russian Cold War submarine from the Soviet era. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
And this is a First World War German U-boat. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
Amazingly, submarines like these are out there in the estuary. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
After the Great War ended in 1918, | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
German subs were beached and sold for scrap. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
A few escaped that ignominious fate. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
Now, after years studying them, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
I've got a chance to explore one of those U-boats. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
Not in a museum, but buried in The Medway mud. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
CHORAL SINGING | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
That is absolutely amazing. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
Sitting here for 100 years. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
So I never thought I'd get the chance to touch one of these. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
And that's still pretty impressively intact, the steel plate. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
It's hard to imagine now, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
because it's just sitting here, and it looks so decayed | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
and quiet and peaceful, in a funny sort of way. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
But these things were such a menace. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
The Germans started their unrestricted | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
submarine warfare campaign in February 1917. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
And within the first three months, they'd sunk 500 ships. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
Suddenly, in 1917, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
Britain seemed on the brink of losing the First World War. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
Not on land but at sea. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
Only putting cargo ships into heavily protected convoys saved us. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:51 | |
Still, by the war's end, | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
over 3,000 Allied ships had been sunk by U-boats. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:58 | |
This great big hole here, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
I'm pretty sure this is where they would have cut out the conning tower. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
Everybody knows that wonderful image of a submarine | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
with a sort of tower sticking up. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:14 | |
When the submarines were handed over | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
to civilian scrap merchants, they had to be demilitarised, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
which involved removing the conning towers, | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
removing the torpedo tubes, obviously, | 0:12:22 | 0:12:23 | |
so that it was completely harmless. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:25 | |
I'm standing on a U-boat! Ha-ha! | 0:12:28 | 0:12:30 | |
We saw off these subs, but their strategy to strangle Britain | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
lived on into the Cold War. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
MUSIC: The Russian National Anthem | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
This Foxtrot-class submarine was built in the 1960s. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
Now she's being restored | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
to preserve a forgotten threat from the Soviet Union. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
They planned to swamp the North Atlantic | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
with hundreds of these boats. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
What was life like for submariners preparing to wage war on our isles? | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
This is something else. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
Officer's accommodation. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
It may not look like much, but actually, in terms of habitability, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
these things were streets ahead of the German U-boat we saw earlier. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
At least there's some degree of privacy. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
And what you've got in here is the sonar fit, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
the famous ping of the submarine movies. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:48 | |
REPEATED PINGING | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
So that's the galley, the kitchen. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
I can't believe that all the food for 74 men | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
was prepared in that tiny space. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
I've always wanted to do that. Ha-ha! | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
And this is the nerve centre of the boat. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
All these bewildering instruments. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
This is where the boat was fought from, steered from. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
Everything ran from here. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
And what we've got here is a very sobering reminder | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
that these submarines are extremely dangerous places to live and work. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
Each of these spaces was designed to be sealed off quickly | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
in case of an emergency. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
If something happened here and they had to shut the hatch quickly, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
these Morse code instructions | 0:14:36 | 0:14:37 | |
were painted on the hatch so they could explain, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
perhaps when they're frightened and panicking, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
what was going on to the people on the other side. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
They might be going...it's a fire. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
And then the guys here would know what to do | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
and hopefully be able to help them deal with it. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
Can you imagine how terrifying that must have been? | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
Wow! | 0:15:02 | 0:15:03 | |
This is what Hollywood has trained us to expect from submarines, isn't it? | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
You can just imagine if the Cold War had gone hot, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
the Soviet submarine commander sitting here, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
his boat deathly quiet around him, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
all his men waiting for his orders, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
as he peers through his periscope, | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
looking at a big fat merchant ship, about to give the order to fire. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
FAINT RADIO | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
These subs have taken me back to a time | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
when Britain faced down formidable foes, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
hidden beneath the waves. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
It may seem like the dim and distant past now, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
but when you consider some 90% of British trade | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
still takes place by sea, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
it's suddenly a very clear and present threat. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
Today's global economy demands super-size cargo ships. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:17 | |
They crisscross vast waterways with ease. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
Big, powerful engines eat up distance. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
But once we travelled the oceans by sail. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
All at sea, sailors harnessed the power of wind and tides. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
But how exactly do you get where you're going | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
when the wind's blowing against you? | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
Fighting the breeze is a tricky task | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
I've got to tackle off the Isle of Wight. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
Soon, I'll be embarking as a crew member on the Round the Island Race. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:13 | |
How do these sailing boats go right around the island | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
when the wind's only blowing in one direction? | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
To practise manoeuvring a yacht in the breeze, | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
I'm starting with something simpler. A blokart. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:39 | |
No sea but still a challenge. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
With the wind behind the kart, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
as soon as Pete releases the brake, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
he's going to take off down the beach. Chocks away, Pete! | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
The big question is, how does he sail back into the wind? | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
The solution to the sailors' dilemma | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
can be illustrated with a different kind of craft. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
Have a look at the shape of the wing on this model aeroplane. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
The upper surface of the wing is curved. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
And that creates an aerofoil shape. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
As the plane flies forward, the airflow from the front | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
has further to travel over the upper surface | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
than it does over the lower surface. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
And that creates high pressure beneath the wing | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
and low pressure above the wing. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
And that gives the plane lift, so it rises up and keeps in the air. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:33 | |
Now, if you turn this plane on its side, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
you've got a wing that looks a bit like a sail on a sailing boat. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
Now, if this sail is pointing straight into the wind, | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
it's just going to flap. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
But if you turn the sail slightly to one direction or the other, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
the sail will fill with wind and form an aerofoil shape. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:55 | |
And that converts what would have been lift in an aeroplane | 0:18:55 | 0:19:00 | |
into forward drive in a sailing boat. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
If you want to sail from A to B straight into the wind, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
all you have to do is maintain the aerofoil shape of the sail. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
So you make a series of turns called tacks, like this. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
That direction, turn through the wind, | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
fill the sail from the other side, | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
sail forward, turn through the wind, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
fill up the sail from the other side, sail forward. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
This zigzagging motion, or tacking, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
is a skill you must master to sail into oncoming winds. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
Fine in theory, what about in practice? | 0:19:42 | 0:19:47 | |
He makes it look very easy. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:48 | |
One-time Olympic sailor Peter Newlands is a blokart demon, | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
but it's my first time. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
So, Pete, I feel as if I'm in a part-yacht, part-flying machine. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
How does it work? | 0:20:05 | 0:20:06 | |
Pull the main sheet in to pull the sail in. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
-That's this one here. -Yeah. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
And steer with the steering handles, which control the front wheel. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
So just two controls, a rope and a pair of bicycle handlebars? | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
Yeah. No, there's no break. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:20:20 | 0:20:21 | |
Here we go. Oh! And we're off! | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
Wow! Hurtling down the beach. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
These little karts really do fly. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
Oh, bloody hell! | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
I'm battling to keep control. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
I've got about three seconds to make a turn or I'm in the water! | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
Oh, round I go, pull the sheet in, pick up the speed. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
Oh! Lift the wheel. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
As if this isn't hard enough, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
I've got to follow a course Pete's setting for me. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
Here he is at four times normal speed. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
X marks the start. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
And he expertly completes a couple of tacks into the wind. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:08 | |
Rather different once I'm at the helm. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
MUSIC: Theme to "Captain Pugwash" | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
With the wind, I career towards the start at X. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Oh! Whoa! | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
Ooh, I got bogged down. Ah! | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
I'm back! And with a few more mishaps, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
crudely tack back to the finish. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
Wow! | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
That is really, really exciting! | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
It's very easy going down the beach with the wind. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
Turning around and trying to tack up into the wind | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
is a lot more difficult. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
It's been far from plain sailing on dry land. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
But tomorrow, I'll be a crewmember | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
in one of the world's toughest yacht races. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
With over 1,600 boats fighting tide and wind, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
it's going to be quite a day. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
From ports around Britain great and small, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
sailors head out to sea. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
And it can be a rocky ride. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
There's one thing all would-be seafarers need. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
Good sea legs. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
Stomaching the sea is tough enough for professionals. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
But that doesn't stop amateur fishermen in Whitby. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
Here in the harbour, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
boats for hire allow day trippers to try their hand at fishing. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:20 | |
But heading into the rough North Sea, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
it's their stomachs that catch them out. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
# You will have a fishy on a little dishy | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
# You will have a fishy when the boat comes in...# | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
That's our boat there, I think! | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
My name is Divine Charura. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
And today, we're going out sea fishing. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
We're going to go down on a boat, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
which we do every year to go out to the sea. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
# Dance to your daddy Sing to your mammy | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
# Dance to your daddy My bonny lad. # | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
I absolutely love fishing. Um...I was born in Zimbabwe. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:56 | |
And that's where I started fishing from about the age of five. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
-Hello, Paul! -Morning! -How's it going? | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
-How are things? -Not bad. It's nice to see you. It's been a year. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
I came to the UK when I was about 16, I think, 16 or 17. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
So I've continued and kept the faith fishing. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
That's it. Big smile. Big smiles! | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
Right, we're on it. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
I've brought some friends and family. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
I've brought my dad, Alois, who's a veteran fisherman, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
and I've brought my brother, Talent. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
-Right, this is it! -This is it! | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
I've got another friend of mine, he's never been fishing before. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
In fact, it's his first time fishing. He might be sick...or not. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:24:47 | 0:24:48 | |
-You feeling all right? -I am! -Yeah? -Yes. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
-On a scale of one to ten? -Nine and a half. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
-Nine and a half? -LAUGHTER | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
I'll ask you in a few hours' time. | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:59 | 0:25:00 | |
What we're doing is wreck fishing. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
The boat...if you imagine this is the wreck, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
the boat comes on top | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
and then we have to put our lines down | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
before the tide takes us past it. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
So as soon as we get there, we have to put our rods in. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
Lines down, boys, lines down! | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
I'm looking forward to catching seriously big fish. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
Cod, ling and pollock. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
There's some big fish about. The question is, can you catch them? | 0:25:36 | 0:25:40 | |
Yes! Yes, Divine. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
Fish coming up. It's a ling. There it is. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
I've got a ling! | 0:25:46 | 0:25:47 | |
Well...this is what we're talking about. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
-I told you. -This is nice. -Wow! Very nice. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
That's my bro! | 0:25:56 | 0:25:57 | |
Samuel, how are we doing? | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
He's probably going to get away, because I'm feeling so weak. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
-Again. -Oh! A beautiful cod! | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
-How are you feeling now, out of ten? -I'm a five. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
Smells nice, yeah. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:25 | |
This is the life. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
-It's what we're talking about. -Talking about. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
Can somebody take a picture of me and this man? | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
-Smile, boys. -He's the man! | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
It could have been calmer and hotter, | 0:26:44 | 0:26:45 | |
but it's been a good day. Good day. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
-You don't feel sick, do you, boys? -No. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:51 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
It's no pleasure cruise being all at sea | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
when you're trawling for your life. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
An undercurrent of peril is ever present. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
Never more so than for trawler men landing their deadliest catch | 0:27:24 | 0:27:29 | |
during the Second World War at Milford Haven. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
Ruth's discovering how unsung heroes | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
foiled an enemy threat hidden in our seas. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
There was a time when British waters were infested with German mines. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:48 | |
In 1940, Luftwaffe bombers and the German Navy | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
were dropping mines into our harbours under the cover of darkness. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:59 | |
Ships were being lost at an alarming rate. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
The deadly mines threatened to sink Britain. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:13 | |
Then, unlikely saviours sailed in from the Netherlands. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:18 | |
Dutch trawler men were bringing their fishing boats to Britain | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
to take on the Germans. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
Some 600 fishermen made for our coast in May 1940 | 0:28:28 | 0:28:33 | |
after Hitler attacked the low countries. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
-RADIO: -'This is the BBC Home Service. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
'The German army invaded Holland and Belgium | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 | |
'early this morning by land | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
'and by landings from parachutes.' | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
Before the Nazis reached the ports, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
the Dutch fishing fleet fled to Britain. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
One of those fishermen was Antoon van Gils. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
Now his son Johan has returned to Milford Haven. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:05 | |
It's more than 70 years ago | 0:29:07 | 0:29:08 | |
since your father came along here into the harbour. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
It was safer than home here, but it wasn't exactly that safe. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
-He came here to fight. -Yes. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
Using their trawlers, the Dutch exiles | 0:29:27 | 0:29:30 | |
were assigned by the Navy to minesweeping duty. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:34 | |
A deadly job that they had to learn quickly or die trying. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:39 | |
How did the Dutch fishermen use their knowledge of the sea | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
to fight for their land? | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
Nick Hewitt is back to give me some naval know-how. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
What was it about the Dutch fishermen | 0:29:54 | 0:29:56 | |
that offered so much for minesweeping? | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
The techniques used in sweeping mines | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
are actually very, very similar to fishing. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
The skills that they need, | 0:30:03 | 0:30:05 | |
the way of driving a boat is exactly the same. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
And also, their boats are uniquely suited to it. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
You could just literally take the trawling gear off the back | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
and put the minesweeping gear on instead. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
Is this what we're talking about? | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
This is it, this is a contact mine. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:20 | |
They're deployed off the back of a ship with a weight at the bottom called the sinker. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:24 | |
Takes it down to the bottom of the sea. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:25 | |
Cable plays out and then the mine is set to hold | 0:30:25 | 0:30:29 | |
just below the surface of the water. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:31 | |
A ship comes along, the bow wave pushes the mine out of the way, | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
and then it pendulums back against the side of the ship and explodes. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
So, how exactly does the minesweeping work? | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
What they did was, if you have a look at this drawing here, | 0:30:43 | 0:30:46 | |
you have your minesweeper, | 0:30:46 | 0:30:47 | |
you have a long cable called the sweep wire | 0:30:47 | 0:30:50 | |
that comes out from the back of it and is attached to a float. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
That's so that the wire goes out | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
to the side of the boat and not behind it. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
The wire's serrated. It cuts through the cable | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
that's holding the mine to the bottom of the water. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
The mine then bobs up to the surface. It's very simple then. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:05 | |
They shoot the prongs with rifles and blow it up. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
Minesweeping was fraught with danger. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
But Dutch sailors also landed a much happier catch. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:21 | |
Romantic entanglements weren't uncommon. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:30 | |
As Welshman Graham van Wert can testify. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:36 | |
His father was stationed up the coast at Holyhead. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:39 | |
Graham's meeting Johan to share stories | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
of what their Dutch dads did in Wales during the war. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
THEY SPEAK DUTCH | 0:31:47 | 0:31:48 | |
That's a photo of my...my father. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
-Young man in a Dutch uniform. -A Dutch uniform, yes. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:56 | |
Oh, and there's yours, as well! | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
This is my father. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:00 | |
-Also in his Dutch naval uniform. -Yeah. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
It's been reported that there was over 105 marriages in Holyhead | 0:32:03 | 0:32:08 | |
between local girls and Dutchmen. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
Which...surprised me, because I didn't realise there were so many. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:14 | |
It was quite a culture shock for the local people, | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
because they hadn't seen foreigners like this before. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
And you have this influx of, as I was told, | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
handsome but rather on the wild side Dutchmen. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
And...the population thought a lot of them | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
and brought them into their own homes. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
Graham's father was one of many to tie the knot with a local girl. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
But Johan's father was already married. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
His wife stowed away with the fishing fleet. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
You were born here? | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
I'm born here, yes. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:45 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
So you were here as a Welshman for the first few years of your life. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:51 | |
Yeah, yeah. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:52 | |
The bonds of love forged between foreign lands | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
were often torn apart in the cruel seas. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
The mines were indiscriminate killers. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
Scientist Ewen McLaughlin | 0:33:14 | 0:33:15 | |
knows the secret of how contact mines are triggered. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
If this was a real mine, | 0:33:19 | 0:33:21 | |
this would be the mine casing, the outer steel shell of it. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
Tucked in here, an enormous amount of explosives would reside. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
"And inside is a load of mischief. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:29 | |
"Maybe you'd like to examine this interesting toy in detail." | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
This is the Hertz horn itself, which is made of lead. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
You need to give it quite a clout, but that will bend. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
"When the horn is bent, the trouble starts. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
"The whole of the intricate mechanism of the mine is set in motion." | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
And inside, this is a glass vial which would have acid in it. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
So if anything hits that, that will crack | 0:33:45 | 0:33:47 | |
and that will deposit all this acid into the electrodes underneath. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:52 | |
"The breaking of the glass container causes a solution to flow | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
"over the battery plates towards the electric detonator." | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
It generates almost two volts and quite a hefty current. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:00 | |
That's quite good for setting off a detonator circuit. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
I thought you'd prefer a small light to having the explosives. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
Can we smash it? | 0:34:06 | 0:34:08 | |
-LAUGHTER -I'll give it a go. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
# But now I've joined the navy aboard a man of war...# | 0:34:17 | 0:34:21 | |
A trawler had a fighting chance of avoiding contact with a mine. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
The boats' shallow draft | 0:34:25 | 0:34:27 | |
meant they could glide over the submerged threat, | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
if they were lucky. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:32 | |
# Don't haul on the rope Don't climb up the mast | 0:34:32 | 0:34:35 | |
# If you see a sailing ship It might be your last | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
# Just get your civvies ready for another run ashore | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
# A sailor ain't a sailor ain't a sailor any more. # | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
So it must have been dangerous here. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
One trawler that never made it home was the Caroline. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:08 | |
On 28th April, 1941, she struck a mine in the Haven. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:13 | |
All of the 15 Dutch crew were killed. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:17 | |
Come on, guys, we're just coming up to the wreck now. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
The wrecked trawler is a poignant sight for Johan. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
Today, Johan and Graham pay their respects | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
to those who risked their lives to keep our shipping safe. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
Their fathers survived, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:03 | |
but thousands of their Dutch and Allied comrades did not. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:08 | |
These were young men, stripped from their homeland by war. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
Using those skills in seamanship they had at their fingertips | 0:36:26 | 0:36:30 | |
to save ultimately their own land and ours. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:34 | |
We're all at sea. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
And for one weekend in June, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
there's nowhere more exciting to sail than the Isle of Wight. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:02 | |
6:00am on the morning of the Round the Island Race, | 0:37:09 | 0:37:13 | |
and it's wet and gusty. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:16 | |
After all my preparation, it's time to put the theory into practice. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:21 | |
I'm pretty nervous. This is my first ever sailing race. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
And for reasons I'm beginning to wonder about, | 0:37:25 | 0:37:28 | |
I seem to have chosen one of the most challenging in the world. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
It's going to be a really big test. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
I'll be crewing on the yacht Ortac. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
Our skipper is Richard Webley. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:41 | |
Competition will be fierce. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:47 | |
One of Richard's biggest rivals is Tom Farnworth on Nereus. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:52 | |
We've got two competing skippers here. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:56 | |
Richard and Tom, adjacent boats. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
You're pretty equally balanced in terms of your boats. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
Yeah, very equally balanced. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:02 | |
-It's all down to crew, skipper and tactics. -Yeah. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
-Who's got the upper hand? -Tom's got more experience of the race, | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
but I've got the best crew. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
-There's only one way to find out. -There's only one way to find out. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
Richard thinks we have the best crew. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
A crew which includes me. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:26 | |
I've got a lot to live up to today. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
We're now out on the water, moving off towards the start line. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:38 | |
There are boats absolutely everywhere. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
Must be just a few seconds, five or six seconds. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
No! Wait for it! | 0:38:51 | 0:38:53 | |
CANNON FIRE | 0:38:56 | 0:38:57 | |
That's the start! We're off! | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
Really good blow, helicopter hovering overhead. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
Unbelievable. Unbelievable! | 0:39:02 | 0:39:04 | |
The first leg of the race | 0:39:11 | 0:39:13 | |
runs southwest from Cowes to The Needles. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
The start is chaos. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:19 | |
Every yacht competing for water, wind and tide. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
It's a case of getting out quick and avoiding collisions. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
That was my first hands-on, proper tack, and I didn't muck it up! | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
Breaking free of the pack, we've stolen a march on our rivals. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:42 | |
Yes! LAUGHTER | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
That yacht over there with a blue hull is Tom. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:47 | |
We're about that far ahead of him. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:51 | |
That's how close it is! | 0:39:53 | 0:39:54 | |
We're doing well, but obstacles await - | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
The Needles and the wreck submerged just beyond. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
Sail close and you shave off valuable seconds, but it's a gamble. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:17 | |
We've cut it a little bit fine. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
But we didn't run aground. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
-And now we can get ready to bear away to St Catherine's Point. -Big wave! -Wave! | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
Richard's nifty turn around The Needles | 0:40:32 | 0:40:35 | |
keeps us in front of our rivals on Nereus. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
We had a reasonably good start. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:41 | |
We were ahead of Ortac for the first half of the windward leg, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
and then Ortac seemed to overtake us, | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
and we've lost them somewhere over there. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
Our next gamble is to come wide. | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
Further offshore, the winds should be stronger. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
But it means battling against stronger currents. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:03 | |
I'm at the helm, trying to follow Richard's plan. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:07 | |
At the moment, we're right on the outside of the fleet. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:09 | |
We are. Most of the people have gone shallow. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
We're on the outside, doing a straight line. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
As with all these things, it's a compromise, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:17 | |
and we'll see how it pays off when we finish. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:19 | |
We're making for the exposed headland of St Catherine's Point. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
Then we'll have the strong southwesterly blowing behind us. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
It's a key turning point. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
An opportunity to race harder. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
What we've decided to do is to put a bigger sail up, the spinnaker, | 0:41:41 | 0:41:45 | |
as we go around the point | 0:41:45 | 0:41:47 | |
to give us extra speed down to the eastern end of the island. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
Spinnakers catch huge amounts of wind, boosting speed. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:56 | |
But they're risky. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
The sails are unwieldy and can destabilise the boat. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:02 | |
I'm manning the spinnaker rope. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
Another of my big moments. I've not done this before in my life. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
-Ease that sheet. -It's eased, it's eased. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
Get that sheet over there, through there and up to that winch! | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
It's caught around that block! | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
One of the ropes is stuck. We can't rein in the sail. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
I'm ready! You're ticking in? | 0:42:27 | 0:42:29 | |
The handle has come off! | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
The boat keeps going over, or broaching. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
On the right-hand side of you! | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
We had trouble getting the spinnaker up, we just broached three times. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:44 | |
It's gone right under. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:46 | |
One on the left. The green one! | 0:42:46 | 0:42:49 | |
-We're trying to regain control of the yacht. -I need you now! | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
-Nick! -Sorry, you're going to have to stop. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
-I need you now! Can you get that... -'No time for talking.' | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
That's on the...on the winch. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:02 | |
We have to free the rope, get the spinnaker down, | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
or our race is over. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
OK. Ease! More, more quicker. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
Yeah. More turns off. Two turns on. Yeah, ease quicker. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
Let it go! Can you help get it down the hatch? | 0:43:18 | 0:43:22 | |
Get it in! Quick! | 0:43:22 | 0:43:24 | |
Is it up? Is it running? | 0:43:24 | 0:43:25 | |
Yeah, it's running, it's running, it's running. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
-Well done, guys! -OK. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 | |
Right, spinnaker's down. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:32 | |
HE SIGHS | 0:43:32 | 0:43:34 | |
Big, big drama. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
Well done, guys! Good job! | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
Our troubles with the spinnaker have cost us dear | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
and allowed our rivals, skippered by Tom, to overtake. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
But we're still in with a shout. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:52 | |
I've got a feeling the adventure isn't over yet. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:56 | |
Striking out across the sea, | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
boats and their crews must fend for themselves when waters run wild. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:14 | |
Sailors in life and death situations | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
fall back on something known as the Custom of the Sea. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:34 | |
This code of conduct guides their moral compass. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:39 | |
But back on shore, a different set of rules holds sway. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
The Law of the Land. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
When these two worlds collide, sailors beware. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:51 | |
It's a hard lesson they've learnt in Falmouth. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:57 | |
Back in Victorian times, following a notorious shipwreck, | 0:45:01 | 0:45:05 | |
a band of survivors arrived here. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
Mark knows their astonishing story. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
This is a murderous tale that affects the law even today. | 0:45:19 | 0:45:25 | |
In 1884, when this yacht sank, | 0:45:27 | 0:45:30 | |
one of the sailors was killed by his crewmates. | 0:45:30 | 0:45:34 | |
Back in Falmouth, they were arrested. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:41 | |
The trial consumed the whole nation. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:46 | |
The Illustrated Press provided graphic details of the case. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
When they say, "Worse things happen at sea," this is what they mean. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:58 | |
This was a case of cannibalism. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:04 | |
But even though the men had killed one of their crew | 0:46:04 | 0:46:07 | |
and fed from his body, | 0:46:07 | 0:46:09 | |
they fully expected to walk free. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:12 | |
Maritime tradition condoned cannibalism to survive. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:24 | |
But should the law ever excuse murder? | 0:46:24 | 0:46:28 | |
The case caused a legal dilemma for those back at home. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
How did a brutal Custom of the Sea | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
come to shape the Law of the Land? | 0:46:36 | 0:46:40 | |
This true crime story begins in the South Atlantic. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:49 | |
A yacht, the Mignonette, | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
is struck by a terrible storm and sinks. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:55 | |
Abandon ship! | 0:46:55 | 0:46:57 | |
Over 600 miles from land, four sailors must save themselves. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:06 | |
The crew's lifeboat soon became their prison. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:14 | |
Adrift on the open ocean | 0:47:15 | 0:47:19 | |
for 24 dreadful days, they languished, starved and exhausted. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:26 | |
Royal Navy surgeon Dennis Freshwater | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
knows the medical plight of the wrecked sailors. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
If you've been adrift on a boat for 15-17 days without any food or water, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:49 | |
I mean, what happens to your body? | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
Well, the major thing is the dehydration. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
No water. Water all around them and not a drop to drink. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:57 | |
And of course, that's very true. | 0:47:57 | 0:47:58 | |
Because when you take in saltwater, you become more dehydrated. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:02 | |
It worsens things. And then, eventually death. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
On the brink of death from dehydration, | 0:48:07 | 0:48:11 | |
Captain Tom Dudley knew there was only one thing left to drink. | 0:48:11 | 0:48:15 | |
Blood. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:17 | |
The men's desperate gaze fell on the sickly cabin boy Richard Parker. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:23 | |
By the morning of the 18th day, | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
Richard Parker was lying in the bottom of the boat near to death. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:30 | |
Now, Tom Dudley said to the others something must be done. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:33 | |
And by which, he meant, we have to kill Richard Parker. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
And Tom Dudley then took a knife and cut Richard Parker's throat. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:40 | |
Aaarrrggghhh! | 0:48:40 | 0:48:42 | |
It sounds horrific now, | 0:48:42 | 0:48:45 | |
but in the days of sailing ships, it wasn't so shocking. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:49 | |
Author Neil Hanson has researched Captain Dudley's dilemma. | 0:48:49 | 0:48:55 | |
This wasn't something that suddenly occurred to Tom Dudley out of the blue. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
For decades before this, ships had been wrecking, | 0:48:59 | 0:49:03 | |
seamen had been cast adrift. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:04 | |
And over years and years, as many people resorted to cannibalism, | 0:49:04 | 0:49:08 | |
what was called the Custom of the Sea evolved. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:10 | |
But they were still undertaking murder. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:13 | |
It was what seamen did. And it had been practised for so long, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
it seemed to them to have a judicial force. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
The men thought they'd never face trial, | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
even if they did get home. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
-Shark! -But with sharks circling the blood-soaked boat, | 0:49:25 | 0:49:30 | |
the law was the least of their concerns. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:33 | |
-Over here! -Then, miraculously, a sail! | 0:49:33 | 0:49:38 | |
The ill-fated crew were saved. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:41 | |
The survivors sailed back to Falmouth. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:44 | |
CHEERING | 0:49:44 | 0:49:46 | |
The seafaring community | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
were sympathetic to the plight of the shipwrecked men. | 0:49:55 | 0:49:59 | |
However, miles away, | 0:50:04 | 0:50:06 | |
the long arm of the law was beginning to flex its muscles. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:12 | |
The Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
seized on the case to assert his authority | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
over the unofficial and antiquated Custom of the Sea. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:25 | |
He wanted to make an example of the men. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
But the people of Falmouth had other ideas. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:34 | |
Their public donations paid for a top defence QC. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:38 | |
He would try to challenge the Law of the Land. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:43 | |
Order! Order in court! | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
The defence barrister pleaded that the accused were not guilty | 0:50:47 | 0:50:52 | |
by reason of necessity. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
It was a landmark legal moment. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
The defence of necessity for murder didn't exist in English law. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:06 | |
The trial took the court back to the men's ordeal at sea. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:11 | |
Why didn't they let the sickly cabin boy die naturally | 0:51:11 | 0:51:15 | |
and then drink his blood? | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
Why did the crew think they had a necessity to murder their crewmate? | 0:51:18 | 0:51:23 | |
The argument was advanced that they had to kill him | 0:51:23 | 0:51:26 | |
to drink the blood before the blood congealed. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:28 | |
By cutting the throat while the heart is still pumping, | 0:51:28 | 0:51:32 | |
the blood is pumped out of the body, so they can access it. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
Whereas if they'd waited until after death, | 0:51:35 | 0:51:37 | |
they may have been able to get into the vessels, | 0:51:37 | 0:51:39 | |
but there's nothing to pump the blood out. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:41 | |
Captain Dudley, who stabbed the cabin boy, had been a ship's cook, | 0:51:42 | 0:51:46 | |
so he understood butchering and bloodletting. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:51 | |
But common law is based on precedent. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:55 | |
If the men were freed, | 0:51:55 | 0:51:57 | |
would it allow other justifications for murder? | 0:51:57 | 0:51:59 | |
The case went to the High Court to pronounce judgement. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:04 | |
Lord Coleridge read out the final sentence. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:12 | |
"You'll be taken from this place to a place of execution, | 0:52:12 | 0:52:17 | |
"where you'll be hanged by the neck until you are dead." | 0:52:17 | 0:52:22 | |
Take them down! | 0:52:22 | 0:52:23 | |
The Law of the Land prevailed over the Custom of the Sea. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:29 | |
But public sympathy for the seafarers | 0:52:31 | 0:52:33 | |
meant their executions were never carried out. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:37 | |
Shortly after the verdict, Queen Victoria commuted the death sentence | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
to that of six months' imprisonment. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:46 | |
Crucially, she stopped short of a full pardon | 0:52:46 | 0:52:51 | |
for the convicted cannibals. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:52 | |
Over a century later, | 0:52:57 | 0:52:59 | |
we still live with the deadly events | 0:52:59 | 0:53:01 | |
of that shipwreck from 1884. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:04 | |
It's studied by law students and cited in modern murder trials. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:09 | |
The case of the Queen versus Dudley and Stephens | 0:53:09 | 0:53:13 | |
established that in English law, | 0:53:13 | 0:53:15 | |
there is no defence of necessity for murder. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
But the big question remains. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:23 | |
Would you kill to survive? | 0:53:23 | 0:53:26 | |
Aaaarrrggghhh! | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
On this journey, we're all at sea. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:43 | |
And I'm sailing for my life around the Isle of Wight. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:48 | |
# Sailing | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
# Sailing | 0:53:52 | 0:53:55 | |
# Sailing | 0:53:56 | 0:54:00 | |
# Sailing | 0:54:00 | 0:54:02 | |
# Would you believe it? | 0:54:02 | 0:54:04 | |
# I'm sailing... # | 0:54:04 | 0:54:06 | |
We've been at sea six-and-a-half hours. | 0:54:06 | 0:54:09 | |
One of 1,600 yachts competing in the Round the Island Race. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:14 | |
Among the competitors, there's one rival yacht, Nereus, | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
that we're determined to beat. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
After the turn at St Catherine's point, | 0:54:26 | 0:54:28 | |
we've rounded the eastern tip, | 0:54:28 | 0:54:31 | |
approaching the home stretch to Cowes. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
Nereus is just ten minutes' ahead. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
Now the whole fleet is funnelling down for a sprint finish. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:43 | |
Our skipper's Richard Webley. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:44 | |
So it's just a drag race. Who can sail the fastest | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
in the cleanest air to get to the forks, | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
and then it becomes a fight up to the finish. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:56 | |
We aren't just battling other boats. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:00 | |
We're also fighting the full force of wind and tide. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:05 | |
Straining hard on the rudder to steer true. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 | |
There's one last hazard to surmount. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
Ryde Sands lie just beneath the waves, | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
waiting to scupper any yacht tempted to take a shortcut home. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:21 | |
To avoid the sandbank, we keep one eye on the depth gauge | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
and the other on our rivals. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
But there's one threat we're not looking out for. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:34 | |
We've lost rudder! | 0:55:36 | 0:55:38 | |
The rudder linkage has snapped. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:45 | |
The sails take over steering. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
We're not just helpless, we're dangerous. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
We've lost rudder! | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
We've lost rudder! Clear off! | 0:55:55 | 0:55:57 | |
A missile guided by the wind. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:00 | |
We need to get that under control! Let's just try and bundle that up. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
Can we get the main in, please? | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
If you've got any control, | 0:56:15 | 0:56:17 | |
if you just steer us out of this line of boats. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
Big drama! Lost a rudder, | 0:56:20 | 0:56:23 | |
which is about as serious as things can get | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
when you're sailing pretty quickly in a big boat. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
And so, er... | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
really effective teamwork getting the sails down rapidly. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:36 | |
All our efforts blown out of the water | 0:56:44 | 0:56:47 | |
by a single mechanical failure. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:50 | |
Our race is run. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:52 | |
So near...so far. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
We're travelling back to Cowes under motor without a sail. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:01 | |
Ahead of us, yachts cross the finishing line, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:06 | |
including our rivals on Nereus, skippered by Tom, | 0:57:06 | 0:57:11 | |
who came home in a time of 7 hours 56 minutes. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:14 | |
Champagne for some. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:16 | |
But for our brave team, the ending is a little less glamorous. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:21 | |
We were sailing so well. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
We were ahead of many boats that should have been faster than us. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:29 | |
The tactics that Richard adopted were brilliant. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
Then, in the home strait, the rudder broke. | 0:57:32 | 0:57:37 | |
Richard's steering us back with a pair of rusty bicycle handlebars. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:43 | |
Contests come and go, but the restless sea's eternal. | 0:57:56 | 0:58:02 | |
We competed against the best, | 0:58:02 | 0:58:04 | |
but ultimately, our destiny was decided by a greater power. | 0:58:04 | 0:58:10 | |
It's wonderful, it's unpredictable | 0:58:10 | 0:58:14 | |
and sometimes it's cruel. | 0:58:14 | 0:58:17 | |
But the sea's siren call tempts each generation anew. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:23 | |
The one thing that all of us as islanders can share | 0:58:24 | 0:58:27 | |
is the temperamental, seductive sea. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:31 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:36 | 0:58:39 |