NARRATOR: The mega
battle for the oceans involves epic clashes,
daring harbor raids, and covert underwater adventures
that have churned the seas through the ages. Researchers are now discovering
the naval technologies and tactics that underpin
3,000 years of man and machine waging wars to
dominate the oceans. How did this ancient
battleship ram its way to victory in the most
important naval engagement of the ancient world? [crash] Why did this ghost
ship disappear, only to resurface again
in the 21st century? And how did a whole new
tactic of naval warfare defeat an enemy fleet
seven miles wide without losing a single ship? The mega battle for the oceans
is our ancient discovery. [timber shattering] [music playing] Man has always felt the allure
of the sea, becoming enthralled yet so often consumed by it. The Mary Celeste, the Black
Pearl, the Bermuda Triangle. Vessels that sailed
into fog banks to reappear 100
years later, or craft crewed by ghosts of the dead. MEIRION TROW: We're talking
about a place full of mystery, a place which is completely
unknown, that sense of dabbling in the dark. NARRATOR: But the sea gives us
real mysteries more intriguing than fiction. Off the coast of Britain, we
have discovered a ghost ship, the remains of a vessel
that matches no records. MEIRION TROW: It is simply
the skeleton of a ship. It is a dead ship. All we have are
pieces of timber. We have the ribs of the hull. We have no idea what
happened beyond that. NARRATOR: Does our ship
belong in old seadogs' tales of ghostly apparitions
and mysterious vanishings? What real story lies
waiting to be told? BOB TRETT: It's an
entity in its own life. A ship seems to be a
living being almost. It can tell a story. It's been to places, and
it's part of the, you know, history of our times. NARRATOR: Now investigators
are using hard science to discover the secrets
of this ancient vessel. MEIRION TROW: It's just
like forensic science. We have a body. Now we need to know
who that person was. Now we need to know what
this ship is all about. NARRATOR: The
discovery of the ship was made in 2002 in
Newport in Britain. There are 2,000 pieces of oak
belonging to a ship at least 10 times bigger than any
other vessel recorded in the annals of the port. BOB TRETT: It's a huge ship. It's an ocean-going vessel,
not the sort of thing you'd expect in a small
port like Newport. NARRATOR: In the
ancient world, ships were the most costly investment
man could build and develop and the pinnacle of
pre-industrial technology. This meant records were kept of
their construction and trading missions. Yet no record of this
ghost ship exists. No one knows where it
was built, who crewed it, or even her name. NEIL STEVENSON: Because we
haven't got the bow and stern of the ship it's
very difficult for us to understand the
full size of the ship and actually the shape of it,
because they're the two parts of the ship that would usually
help you sort of identify those two things. NARRATOR: Today the discoveries
are preserved in tanks of fresh water to keep the wood
from drying out and eventually disintegrating. Archaeologists and
scientists meticulously study each and every
fragment, searching for clues to the elusive mystery
of this forgotten ship. NEIL STEVENSON: 'Tis the
real joy of archaeology. We use lots of clues and
we piece them together to form a bigger picture. And we can do this
in a number of ways. We have a fantastic piece
of archaeology here, but what do we have in
the historic record? NARRATOR: To be able to match
the ship to its records, the first thing that
is needed is a date. Just like our
fingerprints and DNA, each timber has unique features
that can give us clues to where and when the tree was felled. What we have here is a
piece of our mystery ship. Now we have to try and
find some more information. NARRATOR: Using a scientific
dating process called dendrochronology, Mei and
archaeologist Ben Jennings are attempting to discover
a date for the ship. BEN JENNINGS: Dendrochronology
is looking up the structure of a tree, and particularly
the amount of growth that a tree puts on each year. So we're looking at
the tree ring sequence of the annual rings of a
tree and how much it grows in each individual year. NARRATOR: By taking
a cross section from a piece of strut timber
that was used to support the ship while it was in harbor,
Ben can analyze its growth pattern, as one ring usually
marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree. The ring data sequence is
then compared and matched to a database of other
European tree chronologies. So far, none of the timber used
to originally build the ship have been matched
to the database. BEN JENNINGS: So we've
measured our rings now, and we've got the results
on the screen here. We seem to have a fairly
secure date for the ship, and it looks as if the
timber was felled in 1467. NARRATOR: This is step
one in identifying the mystery of the ghost ship. The 15th century
was an explosive era of maritime trade. We have wide trade going on. We have trade in the north
up to the Baltic, Russia. We have trade in the south to
the Mediterranean and North Africa. We have trade throughout the
southern European states. NARRATOR: The dating
of the timbers suggests that the ship was part
of the emerging world economy that was beginning to open up
in the 15th century, a time when new territories
were discovered and cultures were
brought together by maritime expeditions. Europe, Africa, India,
China, and the Americas all linked by
ocean-going vessels. We have the when. Now we need the where. If we can find out which country
the ship was constructed in, we can match it to the
country's historical records during the 15th century. MEIRION TROW: This is part of
an incredibly vibrant economy that's going on. And unfortunately, although
we know that such an economy existed, the day to
day business of it is still a little bit murky. We don't have the details. This ship is helping to
supply that kind of detail. NARRATOR: Different ships
were built in different ways, depending on which
region they were from. If we can discover how the
ghost ship was constructed, we can match it to a region. Stuart is using a 3D laser
scanner called a FARO Arm. STUART CHURCHLEY: The FARO Arm
enables us to draw the timbers individually, all four
faces, looking for data. This data is invaluable,
because it can be transferred to other academics so
they can understand more about the mysterious past. NARRATOR: After
scanning and studying the pieces of this
medieval jigsaw, archaeologists can
put them together to determine the design
and construction methods of the ship. STUART CHURCHLEY:
This individual piece is a large framing floor
timber of a clinker built ship, possibly toward the rear or
to the front of the ship, simply because of
the Y of the tree. Also, it's slightly
flared on this edge here, illustrating that
the timbers are closing in to a tapered end. And also the clinker
joggles here, step marks, with rebates and X marks. NARRATOR: The discovery that
the ship is clinker built goes against what we know
about ocean-going shipbuilding in the 15th century. Clinker built means a hull
whose planks overlap, and is generally associated
with Northern European and Chinese
boat building up until the 14th century. Ocean-going vessels
of the 15th century, especially large trade
ships, are usually built in the carvel method,
by which the planks are edge to edge. MEIRION TROW: We have styles of
building that don't quite fit. We have a clinker built
ship, and yet we have-- The spaces that form
the ribs of the ship are very narrow,
which would imply that we have almost a hybrid. We have elements of Northern
European shipbuilding and elements of Southern
European shipbuilding. And without written record,
it's almost impossible for us to pin this ship down. NARRATOR: The discovery that
the ship is a hybrid means we cannot narrow our search,
and that maybe this really is a ghost ship, one that does
not match any other ship so far discovered. BOB TRETT: When you get
to a thing like this, it's mainly a detective game. You have to go on the
evidence you've got. And in fact, the evidence
keeps increasing all the time. And it's interesting. Since it was discovered,
our ideas about it have changed and changed
and changed again as more information comes up. NARRATOR: While
studying the timbers, archaeologists stumbled across
a vital clue that indicates the ship may be French. NEIL STEVENSON: We have a
very small French coin which dates from 1445 to 1456, and
it's from the South of France. Now the reason why this is
important for the Newport ship is because the piece of timber
that we found the coin in is one of the first pieces
of the ship that you build. And once that is in
position, it doesn't move, and it's very
difficult to get to it. NARRATOR: These clues reveal
the time and place our ship was built. They give us a
glimpse of the reality behind our shadowy enigma. We now know that the ship
was built around 1445, possibly in France, and came
to its resting place in the UK around 1467. The records that will
reveal its full secrets still wait to be discovered. MEIRION TROW: Now we
have tangible evidence, and it's up to us to build
on that tangible evidence to paint a real, full, and
complete picture of the mystery ship. What is fascinating is that
by using all the evidence available, by using the
bare timbers themselves, the skeleton from the body,
by putting that together with the archive, with the
written materials that we have, by putting together the
science of dendrochronology and the use of techniques
like the FARO Arm to construct the physical
appearance of the ship, then we can build quite
a clear impression. NARRATOR: Using the discoveries
from the mystery ship and combining it with
what we know about ships in the 15th century,
"Ancient Discoveries" has created a computer model. For the first time
in 500 years, we can see what our
ship looked like. It was a unique hybrid
of clinker and carvel, a three-masted ocean-going
vessel capable of carrying up to 100 tons of cargo. Our ghost ship has
finally materialized. Though we cannot confirm what
caused the vessel to sink, we have established a solid
theory as to where and when it began its brief life at sea. [music playing] The battle to control
the oceans has always pushed man beyond his limits. He has also battled to
explore its mysterious depths. Will a brand new
discovery reveal that man walked on the ocean
bed 250 years before the history books tell us it was possible? Man's quest to control
the world's vast oceans has extended above
and below its depths. "Ancient Discoveries"
is examining intriguing revelations
about underwater exploration of the ancients. MEIRION TROW: Men want
to know what's out there. They want to know where the sea
goes, what's beyond the sea. Is it in fact just
the edge of the world, and were they all going to die? NARRATOR: The oceans
to ancient man were a mysterious and
threatening power, a dangerous and unknown
world where monsters lurked. But is it possible that they
braved the depths much earlier than we previously thought? A fascinating
medieval manuscript by an anonymous engineer
describes military technology used in the Hussite Wars,
a religious conflict between Catholics and
Protestants in Central Europe at the beginning of
the 15th century. ANDREW LAMBERT: The underwater
suit illustrated in the Hussite Wars manuscript
looks convincingly like a modern suit. It does suggest some
attempt to pump air into the top of the suit and
therefore to give the diver more endurance underwater. How far that's successful
is another question. NARRATOR: Can a 15th century
design supply air to a diver? Could the ancients
have built this suit, or was it simply a pipe dream? DR. JOHN BEVAN: They show
us the level of knowledge and understanding of technology
as a sort of time capsule or a snapshot in
time of that period. NARRATOR: A team of diving
experts and historians in Denmark have replicated
the manuscript's design using only the materials
available to 15th century engineers. We based the helmet
on the great bascinet that a knight would use in that
period when he was jousting. And instead of a visor,
it had a couple of holes with handmade glass set in a
lead frame here in the front. NARRATOR: What makes
the design a landmark in underwater technology
is that it combines diving with a continual air supply. The manuscript clearly
shows a pipe feeding into the diver's helmet. This is known as an open helmet,
as it allows air in and out. In the 15th century,
it would most likely have been made of iron. Until this time,
divers had relied on their physical endurance
to explore the depths. With a single breath, they
could descend to about 300 feet. Whether they were
harvesting food and sponges or salvaging sunken wrecks or
carrying out military raids, the limit of their capability
was a lung full of air. ANDREW LAMBERT: So if
you can't pump air down to the men underwater, they
have a limited endurance. This severely restricts what
they can actually achieve. You can go down, possibly find
something, and come back up again. That's what divers are
doing all around the world-- free divers in the Far East,
pearl divers, recovery divers. NARRATOR: The
manuscript does not show how air was
pumped into the pipe. Jens relies on his knowledge
of medieval technology to come up with the
most likely solution. He has designed a system
that was in common use by blacksmiths to pump air into
furnaces in the 15th century. Three sets of bellows, each
of around 5-liter capacity, are connected by iron
pipes to a wooden chest. The chest acts as
a pressure chamber that forces air
down to the helmet. The whole system is sealed
using beeswax because of its waterproofing
and adhesive properties. [birds chirping] JENS CHRISTIANSEN: Well, I
tied the hose to the helmet, and then I'm going to tie some
lead weights to the bottom of the helm. And then we can try
lower it into the tank and pump on the bellows and see
if we will get air coming out of the helmet. And then we can try
it in different depths and see if we have air
pressure enough on the bellow to get the diver all
the way to the bottom. NARRATOR: Each pipe inlet
has a valve that ensures the oxygen is only fed one way. The used air is pushed out
of the bottom of the helmet. JENS CHRISTIANSEN:
Now that seemed like it was working very good. We had a lot of bubbles
coming up through the bottom of the helmet. And even when we
lowered it fairly deep, there was still
a lot of airflow. There's still some air escaping
through the joints on the hose, but I don't think it's too bad. So I think we can put a
diver in here and go ahead. NARRATOR: The ability to
supply oxygen to a diver was the next natural
step after freediving. But originally this was
not done with a pipe. It was done with a diving bell,
a container which traps air when it is turned upside down
and placed over the diver's head. It was first described by
the Greek writer Aristotle in the 4th century BC, but
did not come into regular use until the 17th century. ANDREW LAMBERT: When we're
thinking about ancient and medieval diving technology,
we have to remember the limits. The limits are human endurance
underwater and the failure to develop any kind of
re-breathing system. NARRATOR: The air in a
diving bell is soon used up, so the next step
was to replenish the air available to the diver. This is what our experts believe
the Hussite manuscript shows. [music playing] The diver is provided with
medieval wooden clogs, with the addition of lead soles
to weigh him down in the water. [music playing] John will be accompanying
Kurt into the test tank to ensure he can give assistance
if the pumps do not supply the oxygen needed for him
to survive underwater. Kurt's task will be to
descend 20 feet to the bottom and walk along the seabed. He should be able to stay
submerged for as long as his colleagues can
supply him with air. [music playing] KURT NORREGAARD:
That was very good. And when I was at
the bottom, the water went up here sometimes,
and so I couldn't get air. And so I went a little
bit up and down there in order to get
air all the time. But otherwise, it
was very, very good. NARRATOR: Kurt has found
that as long as there is a continuous supply of
air pumped through to him from above ground he can
comfortably stay underwater as long as he needs to. The suit's design has
achieved its purpose. Well, it was something
else very interesting. Not only was he able to walk
around totally comfortably, he was able to kneel down and
actually touch the ground. So he could actually work
with his hands on the seabed. That was very impressive. And there was plenty
of air coming out. I went right up to the
helmet, looked right inside. I could see he was
perfectly happy. NARRATOR: The test encourages
us to look again at the history books and consider
elements of technology that may have been dismissed or
overlooked by historians. Though no accounts remain
of the suits being used, we have discovered
that the ancients had the technological know-how
to send a man into the depths of the ocean 250 years before
written records tell us it was possible. JENS CHRISTIANSEN:
We don't know if-- if it was made or if it was
just in some guy's mind, but with the material
and the knowledge they had in the Middle Ages, it
was possible to go down there to conquer the sea. [music playing] NARRATOR: In our next
ancient discovery, we investigate the most
important naval battle of the ancient world. Using 3D battle
strategy analysis, "Ancient Discoveries"
will reveal how this ancient battleship
rammed its way to victory against the biggest invasion
force the world had ever seen. [music playing] Over the first 5,000
years of man's attempt to dominate the oceans,
one single battle stands out in world history. More than two millennia
after this epic clash, "Ancient Discoveries" is
investigating the technologies and strategy behind one of
the most tactically brilliant naval victories ever fought. We will discover how an
overwhelmingly outnumbered force triumphed against
an invading superpower, changing the course
of Western history. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: This
visualization really helps to bring this battle alive. NARRATOR: In the 5th century
BC, the greatest power in the ancient world
was the Persian Empire. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The
Persian Empire was huge. It spanned from the borders
of modern day Turkey to the shores of India,
and the Persian King Xerxes was the all-powerful despot
of the ancient world. NARRATOR: The only
resistance came from an alliance of the
fiercely independent city-states of Greece. For 10 years they had fought
off invasion and fermented revolutions on Persian soil. Xerxes was out to crush them. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: Xerxes began
his march with the biggest fighting force that the
ancient world had ever seen. NARRATOR: The Greeks were vastly
outnumbered on land and at sea. The Persians sacked and burned
any Greek cities which did not immediately surrender. As they approached
Athens, they stood in front of the Acropolis,
the sacred heart of Athens, the White House, the
Capitol Hill of its day. NARRATOR: The Persians
showed no mercy. During the course of
a three week siege, they killed everyone, before
finally burning the temple to the ground. ANDREW LAMBERT: When the
Persians torched the Acropolis, they desecrated the most
important site in Athens. They really demonstrated that
this was a war to the finish. NARRATOR: The Greeks had one
last great hope, its navy-- 300 warships known
as triremes, led by Athenian general
Themistocles. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The
navy and Themistocles its leader took the
decision to retreat. But to where? Themistocles knew the answer. It was the Straits of Salamis. NARRATOR: The Straits
are a narrow channel between the island of
Salamis and the mainland. If the Persian ships
could be lured down it, they could not deploy
in battle order. Their advantage
would be neutralized. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The Greeks,
with a much smaller force, could hope to take on the
largest army the world had ever known. NARRATOR: 2,500 years after
the Greeks and Persians faced each other on the waters
of the Straits of Salamis, Michael has come to
relive their epic battle. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: We're here
near the Straits of Salamis, where the Greek navy waited in
anticipation for the arrival of the much larger
Persian force. Here the Persians gathered, and
they had to make a decision. Did they wait for the Greeks
to emerge from the Straits and attack in the open
waters, or did they go into the Straits themselves
and take on the Greek navy? NARRATOR: A spy informed
Xerxes that the Greeks were in disarray, so he ordered
his fleet into the Straits. But the spy was a double agent. Xerxes was sailing into a trap. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: As the
Persians triremes approach the Straits of
Salamis, their oars beating in unison, the Greek
fleet finally came into view. They were confronted with
300 Greek triremes lined up against this bay in the Straits. And finally they realized the
trap that had been sprung. The Greek fleet was not about
to disintegrate and go home. The Greek fleet was
preparing for battle. NARRATOR: What happened
next in these straits would change the
ancient world forever. [music playing] Using ancient maps and
modern satellite images, 3D specialist James
Dean and Michael have rebuilt the Bay
of Salamis in 3D. Using a combination
of eyewitness reports and ancient historical
sources, they will discover the blow-by-blow
account of the battle. JAMES DEAN: Here we can see
the landscape of Salamis. In our setup here, we're
representing the Greek forces in blue and the Persians in red. And these ship icons, these
represent groups of triremes. NARRATOR: The Greek
naval commanders were able to amass a
fleet of 300 triremes. According to ancient
writer Aeschylus, Xerxes, the Persian
king, commanded a naval force of 200,000
marines onboard 1,000 triremes. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The Greeks
have retreated sort of 10 days or so before the battle
into this small inlet here. And they beached their ships,
which for a trireme that's made of wood is critical,
because it's soaking up water all the time, and it gets
heavier and it's not as fast. NARRATOR: The dry
triremes of the Greeks provided them with the
slightest of advantages going into the battle. The Persian ships were slightly
heavier and thus slower. They had also been
at sea for 17 days, and their commanders
and crews were weary. The ancient sources tell us
that the Greeks formed up in two lines of triremes
reams against the three lines of the Persian fleet. JAMES DEAN: We're now present
time of first contact. So talk us through that. Well, Herodotus, one
of the ancient sources, is unable to tell us for
sure who made first contact, but it was definitely
one of the Greeks. One ship moves forward
to start the battle, and then the Battle of
Salamis begins for real. [music playing] NARRATOR: The Greek trireme was
the consummate attack weapon, a 120-foot-long warship that
used 170 oarsmen to propel its bronze battering
ram into enemy ships. Narrow and low with a 10
to 1 length-to-width ratio, a human-powered torpedo. ANDREW LAMBERT: The whole
purpose of the Greek ram is to strike an underwater
blow that will leave the ship full of water but still afloat. So it can't move. It can't function. It can be picked up later. [music playing] NARRATOR: Using
simulation software, James and Michael
are able to discover how the trireme generated
the power to ram enemy ships. JAMES DEAN: We've got a model
of the Greek trireme here. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT:
The first problem is how do we get the number
of people on board this. I mean, there would
have been 200 people-- the 170 or so oarsmen that
would have powered this vessel, this attack vessel, forward. And this models shows us the
three tiers of rowers that-- JAMES DEAN: Yeah. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT:
--there would have been. JAMES DEAN: Let's take a look
at their seating arrangement. So if we work down
from the top here-- So if I drop down, we can see--
DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: Yeah. JAMES DEAN: And
there's the first row. Second row really crammed
in underneath them-- DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: Yeah.
JAMES DEAN: --isn't it? Very tight.
DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: Yeah, yeah. JAMES DEAN: And
then again down here you've got the final row there. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The final
row that are completely cut off. JAMES DEAN: Yeah. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT:
And this bottom row would have been almost at
the waterline, in that sense. Yeah. If we jump outside
and take a look, there we can see the
front of the ship. And--
DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: Yeah. JAMES DEAN: --you know,
the waterline is here. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: The Greek
trireme, because it wasn't built for the open seas, it
was built as an attack vessel, they made it much lower in the
water, less stout, less stern, less ready to take
on the open seas, but much better in
an attack situation because it could move faster
and it was effectively lighter. It also didn't have to
carry all the troops that the Persian
ships had to carry, because they were coming all
the way across the Aegean Sea. NARRATOR: The rowers, tightly
packed in three banks, were the powerhouses
of the trireme, with its direction
controlled by two rudders at the back of the ship. JAMES DEAN: It's the
sports car of its day. There's no concessions made
for storage or anything. It's just about power to weight. NARRATOR: In the ancient
world, naval combat relied on two
methods of ramming. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT:
One is called-- and what we're looking
at now is the diekplous, the rowing through. And this is where they would
utilize a gap between enemy triremes to come around,
through, in the circle, and then attack from behind. In the narrow
straits of Salamis, it's hard to know whether they
would have been able to have this gap.
- Yeah. So there's an alternative
version called the periplous, where instead of
going through they tried to go around
the enemy line entirely and then
come around to attack. JAMES DEAN: OK. NARRATOR: By midday, four hours
into the battle, the Greeks' plan was beginning to pay off. Their ramming attacks
on the Persian fleet had sent their
enemy into disarray. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: All
the ancient sources agree on this point, that
the Persians completely lost battle formation. They lost control. They didn't keep together,
whereas the Greeks maintained their positions and they
maintained a formation. And then we can see that here. JAMES DEAN: You actually see
that the superior numbers of Persians is working as a
huge disadvantage to them. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT: Yeah. JAMES DEAN: They've really
cornered themselves, and there isn't enough space for
them to maneuver in the strait. NARRATOR: The key to the
Greek victory in these straits was their ability to maintain
a close ordered formation, drawing the Persians into
the killing zone where the Greek triremes
were most effective. So this is a little
bit later in the day, and we can really see the
Persians have been totally broken here.
So talk us through this. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT:
The sources tell us that as the Persians turn to
flee the losses are something like 200 triremes have been
destroyed in the Straits, whereas the Greeks may only have
lost as little as 40 triremes. It was a complete and
utter Greek victory. NARRATOR: According to the
ancient source documents of Herodotus and
Aeschylus, it was a rout. DR. MICHAEL SCOTT:
It's hard to imagine with all these modern
ships around us quite what it must have been
like on that fateful day the 20th of September 480 BC. Nearly 1,000 triremes
crammed into these straits, facing up against one another. By the end, you could
almost not see the water for the floating
debris of the triremes and of the dead corpses
which littered these straits. NARRATOR: Thousands of Persian
sailors and their ships lay at the bottom of Salamis
as Xerxes watched in horror. The door to Europe was
firmly shut after the defeat. It would be over 1,500 years
before an Eastern ruler would invade Europe again. In 1588, the nation of
England stood on the brink of total annihilation as the
most powerful army in Europe entered the English Channel
in a huge armada of 130 ships. [music playing] The fleet belonged to
King Philip II of Spain, and in battle formation
was over seven miles wide. MEIRION TROW: The Armada
that came from Spain was the most impressive
fleet probably ever to sail from any country in
the world up to that point. NARRATOR: How the English
Navy defeated this armada without the loss
of a single ship is one of the greatest questions
in the history of the battle for the oceans. Now through groundbreaking new
research and battle strategy analysis we will show you
new discoveries that explain how and why this was possible. MEIRION TROW: Spain was the
superpower of the 16th century. In Spain, the time is known
as El Siglo de Oro, the Golden Century. NARRATOR: Conquering the
oceans gave Catholic Spain unique wealth, power,
and global reach. Her royal fleet ruled the
waves from the shores of Italy to the beaches of the New World. ANDREW LAMBERT: When Columbus
discovered the New World at the end of the 15th century,
he gave his Spanish masters the wealth to wage war on
an unprecedented scale. Gold, silver, jewels, all
kinds of other new treasures made the Spanish
Crown the richest of all the European powers. NARRATOR: The greatest threat
to Spanish wealth lurked on the 4,000 mile treasure
route back across the Atlantic. Pirates sponsored by the
English Queen Elizabeth prowled the high seas waiting to
intercept the lucrative cargo. [cannon blast] ANDREW LAMBERT: And the
English pirate Drake had sailed all the way around
the world attacking the Spanish and their commercial
opportunities at every stage. Just to wrap things up, the
Queen of England, Elizabeth, was a heretic. She was also almost
certainly illegitimate in the eyes of
the Spanish Crown. And if she was got
rid of, the man with the next best
claim to the throne was Philip II King of Spain. NARRATOR: By the
mid 16th century, Philip decided it was time
to finish off the Protestant Elizabeth and invade England to
restore a Catholic government and regain control
of the oceans. In 1588, the fleet was ready. 130 ships, commanded by its
general, Medina Sidonia, set sail from Lisbon
confident of victory. In the early summer of
1588, the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon, Portugal. Their target was England,
some 726 nautical miles away. They were first spotted from
St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall on the southwest
coast of England. Fire beacons had been set up
all along the coast leading to London to announce the
arrival of the Spanish Armada in English waters. Within hours, the country
was on high alert, and land and sea forces
had been mobilized for war. NARRATOR: In an age before
high speed communications, the fire beacon was
the quickest way to relay a prearranged message. And in England, that was the
alert the Spanish were coming. The continuous chain of
beacons across the breadth of the country passed this
message from one to the next. Within minutes, the English
Navy were aware that the enemy was in its waters. The bulk of the English Navy
is here in Plymouth Harbor, trapped by the tide. Had the Spanish
attacked them now, they would have gained an early
advantage and in all likelihood destroyed them. NARRATOR: But this was not
part of the Spanish plan. MEIRION TROW: Philip's strategy
was to sail from Spain, to land briefly in the
Spanish Netherlands, to pick up the Duke of Parma,
who was his brilliant commander there, and 30,000 troops, and
ferry them across to England, where they would land and
fight a purely land engagement. NARRATOR: The Spanish sailed
on through the English Channel in a huge defensive
crescent formation in confident disregard
of the English. At its heart was the war
galleon, a 1,000-ton, 180-foot-long super ship that
was the first type of warship built to carry and fire
heavy artillery guns at sea. ANDREW LAMBERT: This is
the ship Batavia, a replica of a 17th century galleon. It's the closest we can get
to an Armada period galleon. And the Spanish fleet would have
had several of these ships-- large, powerful
three-masted sailing ships carrying a heavy
battery of cannon. A lot of troops, a
lot of fighting power concentrated in a
very tight package. [music playing] NARRATOR: The war
galleys of the Spanish were the battle cruisers
of the 16th century. Powered three 3, sails they
were designed and built to be like floating fortresses. Naval warfare of the period was
essentially an infantry contest waged at sea. [music playing] MEIRION TROW: It had enormously
high floating platforms at the front and the
back of the ship. These were where the
soldiers gathered. And the object of the galleon
was to get alongside an enemy galleon and swing across with
ropes and grappling irons, board, and conduct a
land battle at sea. NARRATOR: When they made
contact with the English, the Spanish tactic would
be to get close and use their anti-personnel
weaponry, like the musket and the hailshot. This was a small cannon hooked
over the side of the ship that fired heavy anti-personnel
rounds to kill the enemy massed on their own deck. [cannon blast] [music playing] JAMES DEAN: The Armada
sailed relentlessly on towards its rendezvous
with the invasion force in Flanders, leaving the
English Navy trailing behind. NARRATOR: But there was a
problem for the Spanish. Communications between the
ships and the army had proven difficult. It became clear
only now that the army had yet to be equipped or assembled
in port, a process which would take at least six days. With little choice,
the Spanish Armada drops anchor in
crescent formation off the coast of Calais,
France, some 25 miles away from Flanders. NARRATOR: The English fleet
took advantage of Spain's critical planning error. According to
contemporary accounts, the first English attack
was made up of fire ships. A fire ship is literally a ship
that is on fire and also loaded with gunpowder and explosives. The ship is set alight, and
without a crew is directed towards an enemy fleet. JAMES DEAN: Eight fire
ships packed with tar, gunpowder, and other
flammable material set sail from the
English position straight into the center
of the Spanish crescent, breaking it in two. A night attack with
blazing incendiaries forces the Spanish to cut their
anchor cables and make sail, and in the chaos,
they lose the cohesion that's defended them all
the way up the Channel and kept their order working. NARRATOR: The formation which
had so effectively protected the Armada until
now was scattered, and its ships were vulnerable. The world order
hung in the balance. How could the English Navy
defeat the invincible Spanish Armada and save a nation? of England's last hope ia against a maritime invasion
force of 30,000 men. "Ancient Discoveries"
is about to fire it to discover if it lives up
to its reputation as the ship killer. In 1588, the largest
concentration of naval artillery the
world had ever witnessed was in the English Channel,
an armada of 130 ships sent by Philip I of Spain to
overthrow England's Queen Elizabeth. All that stood in their
way was the English Navy. [cannon blast] ANDREW LAMBERT: The early
engagements in the Channel were the first time that
two major fleets had fought a gunnery action under sail. NARRATOR: In the 16th
century, sailing ships armed with heavy cannon had very
rarely been used at sea, so both the Spanish and
English fleet commanders had to explore a
new way of fighting to work with the artillery
they had on board. ANDREW LAMBERT: Both ships
carried large numbers of quite heavy cannon, but
the English fleet had been built around cannon
as a way of fighting a battle. These were fast, agile
ships with relatively low superstructures designed
to fight as gun platforms. NARRATOR: Learning from
earlier battles in the Channel, the English admirals ordered
their ships to close within 100 yards so their cannons
would have a better chance of penetrating the oak
hulls of the Spanish ships. This is the main gun deck. We're down here where the
heavy cannon were carried, where the main fighting
power of the ship would have been on
board the English fleet. For the Spanish, it
was slightly different. The guns down here would have
been fired just the once, and then they'd close in and get
on with the infantry fighting. So for the English, this is the
center of the fighting ship. For the Spanish, it's
an optional extra. NARRATOR: In the
next eight hours, the English gunners would
inflict over 1,000 fatalities and 800 injuries on the
Spanish without the loss of a single ship. MEIRION TROW: The English were
able to get in among the larger Spanish ships, do a great deal
of damage with their cannon, and then wheel away again
before the galleons could get in place to fire back. So what we have is a kind
of hit-and-run tactic. Very, very effective
indeed, and the Spaniards had no answer for it NARRATOR: The type of cannon
used by the English gunners against the Spanish Armada
is being investigated by cannonier Colin Herriett
and historian Andrew Lambert. COLIN HERRIETT:
This gun we've got here is a 50-pounder
hoop-and-stave breech-loading gun. What we're going
to attempt today is we're going to
fire at a plank wall, representing the side
of a light enemy vessel, and we're going to demonstrate
what happens when a cannonball hits wooden planking. NARRATOR: One of the great
horrors of battle at sea was the terrifying and deadly
effect of flying splinters caused by this type of cannon. COLIN HERRIETT: And it's
not just the cannonball that does the damage, but it
is the splinters that are thrown off and
flung in all directions, roaring about like
spears or arrows, and those which did the killing. [music playing] ANDREW LAMBERT: While there are
eyewitness accounts of fighting at sea, there's nothing like
recreating it so that we can study it in a bit more detail. We can put some dummies in there
and see what the effect is when the shock comes through. [music playing] Fire in the gun. Firing. Giving fire. [cannon blast] NARRATOR: The accuracy
and power are incredible. Enormous shock waves
shake the camera as the cannonball flies
toward the target at 1,000 feet per second. [music playing] [cannon blast] [cannon blast] It rips through the
wooden wall with ease, sending the deadly
splinters everywhere. [music playing] COLIN HERRIETT: Straight
through the wood. ANDREW LAMBERT: We've
got a result there. We've got splinters
in the dummies. Got a round shot through the
middle of that middle dummy. Target destroyed, one round. [cannon blast] NARRATOR: The
mathematical formula for the energy of a
projectile tells us the 50-pound cannonball
generated over a million joules of energy as it smashed into the
wall, the equivalent of being hit by 550 M4 machine
gun bullets at once. STEVE MCEVANSONEYA:
And as a consequence of that high energy, the
fragmentation effect, multiple fragments hit the
torso of these casualties. It's significant. There's been multiple
trauma to these casualties, and this is so you can
see that some of them have actually been decapitated. And that's exactly
what would happen. [cannon blast] NARRATOR: By combining the
power of heavy artillery with the agility of a
fast maneuverable vessel, the English invented a whole
new way of fighting at sea. ANDREW LAMBERT: No longer
would it be soldiers on board ships crashing into
each other and fighting like they were on land. Now they'd be specialists-- naval ratings, seamen
gunners, experienced mariners commanding ships. NARRATOR: The English
fleet had decisively defeated a major invasion
attempt by the world's superpower of the 16th century. JAMES DEAN: With the English
Navy blocking the Channel here, the Spanish Armada has no
choice but to sail all the way around the coast of Britain
and Ireland to head back home. As the Armada rounds
the tip of Scotland and find themselves in the
unfamiliar waters of the North Atlantic, they're hit by
Atlantic storms and the Gulf Stream and driven onto the
rocky coast of Ireland. NARRATOR: After
victory in the Channel, the English Navy
was set to conquer the oceans of the world. Based on her maritime
supremacy, England created over the next
300 years an empire that ruled over a quarter
of the world's population. [music playing] "Ancient Discoveries" has
revealed the technologies behind the legendary fleets
and heroic endeavors that have defined entire nations
and shaped the world we live in today. From conquering the
depths of the oceans to defending the
freedom of the seas, ancient man pushed the
technological boundaries to the limits in the mega
battle for the ocean. [digital sound effects]
