0:00:27 > 0:00:30The ancient oak forests of North Hampshire.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Hundreds of years ago, wood from here was on the move,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39sent to the boatbuilding shores of Portsmouth Harbour.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43To celebrate that journey, a new 50-mile trail has been set up.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46The Shipwright's Way winds from Alice Holt Forest
0:00:46 > 0:00:50at its northern tip, to Portsmouth in the south.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52And today, I'm walking a section of it,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55starting here at the city's historic dockyard.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Nowadays, there aren't many of these around,
0:00:59 > 0:01:01but I have managed to find a shipwright
0:01:01 > 0:01:06that's still gainfully employed, and this is his ship.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07Just a small one!
0:01:09 > 0:01:12HMS Warrior. Commissioned in 1858,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15she was the largest warship in the world,
0:01:15 > 0:01:1860% bigger than her French counterpart
0:01:18 > 0:01:22and with an iron hull four inches thick.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29Bob Daubeney is the shipwright of this ironclad beauty.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31So, Bob, what exactly is a shipwright?
0:01:31 > 0:01:34A shipwright, you take the term "wright",
0:01:34 > 0:01:36and it's someone who manufacturers things.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38You've heard of the term "blacksmith",
0:01:38 > 0:01:40and you had smiths that worked in metal,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42you've got wrights, who tended to work in wood,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44so you had a boatwright, a shipwright,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49a cartwright, a wheelwright, there's a whole series of trades and skills.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51And even though she's no longer at sea, then,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54- is it a full-time job for you? - Definitely, yes.
0:01:54 > 0:01:55It keeps me on the go all the time.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58- I've been here 15 and a half years now.- Really?
0:01:58 > 0:02:01We've repainted the whole of the deck, 1.07 million,
0:02:01 > 0:02:03- two and a half years.- Goodness me!
0:02:03 > 0:02:06You've got to keep it watertight, got to protect the infrastructure.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09It doesn't get any better than being a shipwright on a vessel like this.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Can you imagine coming to work here every day?
0:02:11 > 0:02:15Oh! She is incredibly important. Did she see much action?
0:02:15 > 0:02:19She never fired a shot in anger. She became a deterrent.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21She had been created to such a strength,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24there was nothing they could do to combat her.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28But when it comes to keeping Warrior shipshape,
0:02:28 > 0:02:29not all the jobs fall to Bob.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33- You all right, Ian?- OK!
0:02:33 > 0:02:38Now, 60 foot up, Ian is replacing these things.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41They're called the dead eyes and they connect all the rigging
0:02:41 > 0:02:43to the ship and as you can imagine, at that height,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47they get exposed to all of the elements, so they need an overhaul.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51And the only way to reach them is by climbing the rigging.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Climbing!
0:02:53 > 0:02:55So, that's where I'm heading.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03- Getting there now.- All right, mate? - Hello, Ian, you all right?
0:03:03 > 0:03:05- I'm good, how are you, all right? - Yeah, nice to see you close up!
0:03:05 > 0:03:09It doesn't bear thinking about, a young lad climbing up here
0:03:09 > 0:03:12- in a storm.- Yeah, tell me about all that!
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Goodness me, but what a view up here!
0:03:15 > 0:03:17What are we doing with these dead eyes?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20As you rightly point out, these are exposed to all the elements.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23This one here, we've cut away all the timber surrounding it.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Yeah. So, it's nice and loose now, all ready to come out.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29It's important to kind of preserve all those details,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32because you want this ship to kind of transport you back to
0:03:32 > 0:03:35sailing down the Channel to go and stand up to the French
0:03:35 > 0:03:37- and all of that.- Yeah.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44OK, so what it wants to do is slide up this way towards me a bit.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47- OK.- I don't know how loose it's going to be.- There you go.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51- We've got to have a bit of luck sometimes.- That's it.
0:03:51 > 0:03:52- It's free.- That's it.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55- There's some weight in it, like, isn't there?- Yeah.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00You can see the amount of rust that's built up here,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04- you can see the way the timber's de-laminated.- Uh-huh.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08It's done well, it's served its purpose,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11but everything comes to an end eventually.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13It does make you think, Ian, the amount of people
0:04:13 > 0:04:16that will have been up here doing this job over the years -
0:04:16 > 0:04:19you know, pretty privileged, aren't we?
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Well, yeah, it's nice for us to be able to show what we do.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25- So often the jobs are out of sight for everyone.- Yeah.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28We like to show what goes on up here.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31I'll be sticking around in Portsmouth's historic docks
0:04:31 > 0:04:34to see how new technology is helping preserve
0:04:34 > 0:04:36our most celebrated battleship.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41We're exploring the Shipwright's Way,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45a long-distance trail in honour of Hampshire's shipbuilding past.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47It runs along this section of coast,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49before passing north into the Hampshire Hills.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54It's where I've got a behind-the-scenes appointment
0:04:54 > 0:04:56at the Royal Marines Museum. Hi, lads.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59- ALL: Hello. - Not with them, sadly!
0:04:59 > 0:05:01LAUGHTER
0:05:01 > 0:05:03I'm in search of an object that was instrumental
0:05:03 > 0:05:07in a secret military operation that began here in Hampshire.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11It was labelled the most courageous raid of World War II.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14This is it.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17No, it's not a flatpack set of shelves,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21it's actually a 70-year-old Mark II military kayak.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24It's made of wood, with collapsible canvas sides
0:05:24 > 0:05:28and it had to be collapsible, because it had to be transportable.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32In 1942, a newly formed detachment of the toughest soldiers
0:05:32 > 0:05:36were deployed on a mission in kayaks exactly like this.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38The assignment was perilous.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40The target was situated right at the heart of a port
0:05:40 > 0:05:43in German-occupied France.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47The kayaks were nicknamed cockles and the men who took part
0:05:47 > 0:05:51in this remarkable mission became known as the Cockleshell Heroes.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Southsea Beach was where the formative heroes
0:05:54 > 0:05:57learned to paddle in the autumn of 1942.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Kayaks had been recognised as the perfect tool
0:05:59 > 0:06:02to deal with the enemy threatening our island nation.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05I'm meeting Royal Marine historian Mark Bentinck.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07Give me some texture as to
0:06:07 > 0:06:11what was happening at that point in time, 1942?
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Well, 1942 was a really bad year for Britain.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Our fortunes were at an all-time low.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18But there was one particular problem, in that
0:06:18 > 0:06:21individual German ships, fast merchant ships,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25were bringing key materials into occupied Europe from the Far East.
0:06:25 > 0:06:3025,000 tonnes of natural rubber had been imported through Bordeaux.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35If we could intercept or damage this commerce, this would be very useful.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38It was a year when desperate measures were required
0:06:38 > 0:06:40to survive and actually win the war.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43A team of Marines had volunteered for hazardous service,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46unaware of the risky task that lay ahead.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49They would serve under an experienced kayaker,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53the strong-minded Major Hasler, nicknamed Blondie.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56Hasler was quite a character, the leader of the group -
0:06:56 > 0:06:59- what was he looking for in his team members?- Initiative.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03People who could do the right thing without being told what to do
0:07:03 > 0:07:07and without waiting for orders. People with endurance and toughness
0:07:07 > 0:07:10and determination, who weren't going to give up
0:07:10 > 0:07:12and could survive the very tough conditions
0:07:12 > 0:07:15of canoeing in enemy country in the winter.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Only later would the mission be divulged.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Codenamed Operation Frankton,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25the secret raid would strike in early December, 1942.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30A team of a dozen men led by intrepid Blondie Hasler
0:07:30 > 0:07:33boarded naval submarine HMS Tuna
0:07:33 > 0:07:37for what they thought was a training exercise.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40It was only in the secure confines of the submarine
0:07:40 > 0:07:41that the truth was revealed.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44They were to raid Bordeaux and attack German merchant ships,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49a task so dangerous, the chance of survival was tiny.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52The kayaks would be stored in the torpedo hatches of the submarine
0:07:52 > 0:07:56and then launched right here, at the mouth of the Gironde estuary.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59The men would then have to paddle 100 miles
0:07:59 > 0:08:01towards the city of Bordeaux,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04evading the enemy and their guns along the way.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07The goal was to attach limpet mines, like this one,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10to the merchant ships that were in the port.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14It was a ridiculously dangerous and risky mission.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Almost as soon as they'd left their sub,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19they were caught in a huge riptide,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23the first of many hazards that wiped out members of the team.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27But as they approached Bordeaux, Hasler, the leader
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and the most experienced kayaker, was still in charge.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34He had learned to paddle as a child, here on Canoe Lake in Portsmouth.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38And that's where I'm about to get a taste of what their voyage was like.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44I'm taking to the water in a replica cockle
0:08:44 > 0:08:46with ex-Marine Ray Cooper.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Ray, they're not that comfortable, I have to say.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52You're only in it for a short time.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54The guys that paddled these in 1942
0:08:54 > 0:08:57had to make the best of the six-hour tide,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59so they would be in them for six hours,
0:08:59 > 0:09:04it was December, the weather was very, very cold.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06They had to do everything, they were eating,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09sleeping, you name it, in this space.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Everything, this was their workspace.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16After that treacherous journey, two kayaks made it to the port,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18but did they actually manage to damage any ships?
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Yes, five ships were damaged and one was sunk,
0:09:21 > 0:09:27which helped boost morale and also destroy the Germans' morale.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31It made the Germans aware that they could be infiltrated,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35which meant that they then had to bring more men into the area,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38away from the actual front.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Only two men survived the journey back to Britain.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Blondie Hasler, the leader, was one of them.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Despite the lives lost,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Hasler's chancy undertaking had been a success.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50But there's an astonishing twist -
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Hasler and his men weren't the only team of British secret forces
0:09:53 > 0:09:56targeting the merchant ships in Bordeaux.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Five months earlier, the Special Operations Executive
0:10:01 > 0:10:03had sent their own team in by parachute,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Operation Scientist,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08and their job was to blow up the same ships at the same docks.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13Historian Tom Keene discovered another raid on the same port.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16They were meant to liaise and they didn't.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20So, Hasler's team went in, believing that was the only way to attack
0:10:20 > 0:10:22those targets, and it manifestly wasn't.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26On the night that Hasler's men finally reached Bordeaux,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29this team, the Scientist team, were on their final recce
0:10:29 > 0:10:33and what they were going to do was not paddle 100 miles down the river,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36they were going to walk through the dock gates with passes,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39with bombs in their knapsacks, and put their bombs on the boats
0:10:39 > 0:10:41- from the shore side. - Disguised as what?
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Painters and workmen. They had the passes.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Does this mean, looking back now,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48that it was a pointless mission in every way?
0:10:48 > 0:10:49No, it doesn't.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51The Cockleshell Heroes raid became THE iconic
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Royal Marines small boat raid of the Second World War.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56The Germans described it as the greatest raid of the war.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58I think post-war,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Operation Frankton, the Cockleshell Heroes' raid,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03changed the Royal Marines' perception of themselves.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06It became the iconic symbol of all that they do best.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11And at the Royal Marines Museum, the story of the Cockleshell Heroes
0:11:11 > 0:11:14is still inspiring the military elite of today.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24I've been taking in the historic dockyards of Portsmouth,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28the home of the iron-hulled warship HMS Warrior
0:11:28 > 0:11:30and the legendary HMS Victory,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33a superstar of battleships.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Commissioned in 1778,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38the Victory is the only surviving battleship to have fought
0:11:38 > 0:11:42in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary War
0:11:42 > 0:11:44and, most famously, the Napoleonic wars,
0:11:44 > 0:11:49and she served on the forefront of naval warfare for 34 years.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54It was from HMS Victory that in 1805
0:11:54 > 0:11:56Lord Nelson led the Battle of Trafalgar.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01He defeated the French, who were never again a threat to our island,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04but in doing so paid the ultimate price.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07In the ferocity of battle, he was shot and killed.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10And it's because of Nelson's death
0:12:10 > 0:12:14that she's one of the most famous ships in the world.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18HMS Victory is now over 250 years old,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22and as you can see, well, she is in need of a bit of work.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26But she is about to undergo a £50 million restoration project
0:12:26 > 0:12:29and some 21st-century technology is going to be used
0:12:29 > 0:12:34to re-image this Georgian battleship in a digital age.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Lasers. Scanning every surface,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41these machines are creating a 3D model of Victory
0:12:41 > 0:12:43to help curator Andrew Baines
0:12:43 > 0:12:45look after this vulnerable national treasure.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47She is inherently biodegradable,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50she's made of natural materials that will rot.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52She's designed to operate in the most hostile environment
0:12:52 > 0:12:56known to man at the time - the sea - for four or five years
0:12:56 > 0:13:00before you bring her back and give her very extensive repairs.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02So this is the Great Cabin on Victory.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05This is where Nelson would have been based and quartered.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09We're stood in the day cabin part of his quarters
0:13:09 > 0:13:11and this is Nelson's breakfast table.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14- And we're going to sit here, at Nelson's table?- At Nelson's table.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17What a feeling. It is, you can feel it. It's heavy, isn't it?
0:13:17 > 0:13:20She's weighted with history.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22Why did you decide to go for laser?
0:13:22 > 0:13:25When we decide we need to take some planks off the ship
0:13:25 > 0:13:26or we need to lift the mass out,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29we can actually model the effects of that work
0:13:29 > 0:13:31and work out the best approach we can take
0:13:31 > 0:13:33so we don't put the ship at any risk
0:13:33 > 0:13:36and we don't do anything that is going to damage the ship.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39- So you can, kind of, do the work in the computer first...- Yeah.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41- ..without actually making any mistakes?- Yeah.
0:13:41 > 0:13:42It looks incredibly detailed.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45I mean, what level of accuracy are we talking here, Andrew?
0:13:45 > 0:13:47The level of accuracy we've got, it's down to the millimetre.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50If we were to stand here with a tape measure doing that,
0:13:50 > 0:13:51it's going to take us a while.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54So even all these little chips and flecks and all that stuff...?
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Yes, it can feel all that, the original markings on the timber.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59It can pick those up as well. Very, very detailed.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Victory's old plans have been outdated...
0:14:04 > 0:14:06by this.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14A view of HMS Victory that's never been seen before.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16The beginning of a venture to preserve
0:14:16 > 0:14:19one of the most treasured relics of our naval past.