On the trail of Louis XIV's sunken flagship, lost in the 17h century | Early Modern French History

[Music] deep in a restricted zone of the French Mediterranean France's top underwater experts are on a long awaited Mission armed with the latest high-tech subc tools they're venturing back in time while preparing to explore the Moon laoon or the Moon is an ill-fated Battleship once a vessel in the Sun King Louis the 14th's Royal Fleet just back from a crushing defeat by Barber Coast Pirates the ship sank here more than three centuries ago under questionable circumstances with nearly a thousand men on board The Loon went missing until 20 years ago when it was discovered by chance so well preserved and equipped that experts consider it a time capsule of 17th century Naval History but it laid too deep to explore without invention and substantial resources now a dream team of scientists diverse 3D virtual Wizards and French naval experts have joined forces to recover the first of the Looms treasur and in so doing discover how new technologies can serve to help us resurrect our [Music] past it's spring 2012 near the port city of tulong two renowned deep sea veterans Paul AR Nar Expedition leader on the Titanic and Michelle lure head of France's Department of underwater research and archaeology are ready to go public with major news the announcement of phase one of a recovery Mission 20 years in the making the focus of our efforts is the lon clearly a symbolic name for a ship that was lost during the sun King's reign the lon was built between 1639 and 1642 probably at the shipyards in Andre near n the loon's final voyage occurs in November 1664 after a long disastrous military campaign by Louis the 14th Fleet against North African Pirates the ship's original Mission to reinforce the king's troops turns into a desperate Exodus following a massive enemy attack refused permission to dock at tulon the ship again set sail but swiftly sinks offshore drowning hundreds of [Music] men for 300 years the story of The Loon was buried with its unlucky crew but in 1993 as Paul AR na test the research submarine epher For an upcoming Titanic Mission he detects an anomaly on the ocean floor 300 ft deep we heard a very distinctive sound through the sonar so we thought there's metal down there not only rocks so we decided to have a look and that's when we saw something absolutely amazing it was The Loon one of the very few vessels ever found from the Sun King's reign in remarkable shape but buried deep accessing the wreck would take years of strategizing on the part of narol and Michel lure and the coordinated efforts of the French military high-tech 3D imaging experts and a host of scientists and Engineers it's taken years of planning and we're finally here August 2012 a small team launches remotely operated reconnaissance robots or rovs to Scout and photograph the wreck it's too deep for human divers in regulation gear to [Music] explore 2 months later operation Lon is underway its Flagship DeAndre malro is a state of the-art underwater research vessel built specifically for this pioneering mission after years of government lobbying by Michelle [Music] lure the ship heads were the Rec site with a team of archaeologists and Technical experts who've been prepping for this Venture for months eager to test their inventions and touch Treasures from the past exploration Shi miniex is in charge of the ROV with the expedition's 3D cameras Michel lure has also engaged specialists in underwater engineering and treasure hunting they'll Test new technology that could raise the bar for deep sea explorations of the future and the submarine rora has been equipped for this Mission with a prototype camera to capture images of the Shipwrecked loon in 3D one of operation lon's most promising assets comes from the French navy they employed the skilled divers of the seis Institute to diffuse Torpedoes using a very rare tool an atmospheric deep sea diving suit called the N suit which allows them to stay at depths for 48 hours at a time if necessary the Revolutionary aluminum hard suit features rotary joints in the arms and legs allowing pilot Joe kir maximum Mobility while withstanding pressure at depths of up to 1,000 ft it's high-tech underwater [Music] armor there are only 24 suits like this one in the entire world France only has one so it's a privilege to Pilot it Joe trains for the mission where he'll recover objects from The Loon and provide Michelle lure's team of archaeologists with firsthand information about the [Music] wreck near Paris weeks before operation Lon begins Joe Pilots a unique simulation for the mission created by 3D innovators AT deso Systems the first job job is to move forward find a cross and land on it it's an experimental program allowing archaeologists to see The Loon in 3D and to test various excavation techniques on dry land Doo systems Engineers used media recorded during the summer scouting trip to reconstruct every inch of the Loon in 3D making it possible for archaeologist to explore the wreck virtually project manager sedlick SAR will give it a trial run aboard the Andre Mar one of the unique aspects of this project is that it combines all these immersive 3D Technologies on the research ship itself where we can finally test them in real life [Music] conditions October 2012 DeAndre maloe and the rest of the lon Fleet have a 5-day window to test their technology in pursuit of 17th century history and and revolutionary science it's an ambitious program for such a short Voyage ultimately meant to change the way we explore the deep sea with new ideas and new tools Malo let me know when you're in position no problem I'm almost there but I'll let you know to achieve their research goals by the end of the week each ship will have to deploy it technology with syonic [Applause] Precision this morning three separate devices are being Reed for a descent to The Loon the N suit with its pilot the submersible rora and its underwater cameraman and an unmanned ROV recording the dive for scientist's topside for archaeologist Michelle lure this mission is the first step towards Advanced deep sea exploration currently Beyond science's reach shipwrecks thousands of feet deep and today if all Equipment Works perhaps the lon it's like a lost city that disappeared suddenly and now it's there that's what's so fascinating because we can all dream about this shipwreck it's so close and yet so far away at the same time it's going to serve as a test for future Explorations here humans can still dive to access the site it would be a lot harder if not impossible at depths Beyond a th000 or 2,000 ft on the Navy Tugboat the Jason tension is rising with the snakes this High veteran diver Paul AR Nar will oversee the deployment of men and Equipment lead diver Joe kir will work in radio contact with archaeologist lure and his team his support crewp ensure that the nud suit is dirt free even a single hair caught in a gasket could create a leak endangering Joe's life Paul N a veteran of 30 Titanic Dives knows that the minutes before immersion are critical for safety hostile difficult environment as soon as you're underwater and you dive deep there's a lot of ambient pressure and the slightest inattention to detail can become an incident meanwhile on the Andre malro Expedition leader Michelle lure orders his team to launch the ROV it's a robot equipped with a small camera the French archaeologist will monitor operations via IM is relate to surveillance screens as the sight's curator his job is to protect the [Music] [Music] Loon it will take the N suit 4 minutes to reach the ocean floor here at 300 ft divers in traditional gear could remain mere minutes followed by a 2hour Ascent with decompression stops this body armor could keep Joe at constant temperature and pressure levels for hours in waters three times as [Music] deep support crew on the surface free the suit from its cage and carefully release Joe above the Shipwreck by remote control [Music] soon long awaited shapes come into view the first vestages of the sun King's secret shipwreck ironically for the first time an aquanot has landed on the moon centuries ago The Loon plummeted to the ocean floor thick sediment turned it and all it contained into a rare Time Capsule of 17th century French naval artifacts At His Feet Joe can make out weapons of bronze and iron dozens of muskets and swords and pottery from the ship's galley [Music] if you go back to your initial position we're good we'll start maneuvering let us know if there's a [Music] problem the n suit's two engines are controlled from the surface Joe Pilots the suit but depends on his operator who will start the propellers at his command the current and the Darkness on the ocean floor Force the pilot to be vigilant Joe must hover over the Loon to avoid hitting precious objects or damaging The Fragile umbilical cord that connects him to the suit's cage and to life on the Andre rrose screens two large jars and a bronze Cannon appear in a state of perfect preservation two scientists working with the doo systems team on Virtual subc exploration are Spellbound by what Michelle L calls the underwater Pompei what I find amazing is that you find all the Cannons well aligned so you can guess what was the shape of the ship you find the kitchen PS The Cauldron right standing there and then you go down there and you see them they're still empty they're standing out you find the water jars okay they just fell off but you know they might just have tipped over just and there are plates there are stacks of plates that you can see on the sea floor and pots and this it's like everything was kept in place and like an abandoned house that everybody left and it's a little bit like if someone has taken the boat and place it carefully so that we can look at it and find out a little bit about the history what was going on there archaeologists have theories but no firm proof of how and why the Loon sank but they suspect its fate is linked to politics in the troubled early days of Louis the 14th's [Music] rule in 1662 the Sun King is 20 years old he wants the dawn of his Reign to be remember for a grand achievement a great military Victory the young Monarch intends to create a French post and establish a fleet on the barbery coast of North Africa he means to curb the rampant piracy threatening European Maritime trade on July 2nd 1664 an armada with 50 warships sails out of tulong Bound for the shores of barbar now now Algeria 3 months later vastly outnumbered French troops are overwhelmed by barar Warriors as an older supply vessel set sail for Jeri historian Martin asera is intrigued by the lon sketchy story this period of Maritime history under Louis I 14th is poorly documented and shipwrecks from this time rare which makes this one a useful find the ship is 22 years old the wood is probably starting to rot there may be some gaps in its frame it's probably starting to take on water and being attacked by toos the shipworms that bore holes in wood so it's definitely very fragile but because there aren't many ships available we use what we have use a cool [Music] now [Music] the lon will set sail from tul long with 250 Sailors on board The Old Ship is Laden with supplies arms and horses for the expeditionary forces in [Music] shii in those days they built chips without blueprints or drawings there are very few graphic illustrations so we don't really know know how they were made and there are very few archival Clues to give us an idea how they looked in this case the archive is the Shipwreck [Music] itself the crew on the Loon has no clue their stay in North Africa will be a brief one nor that French casualties there are so great that officers are already desperate to withdraw their troops day one of operation loon appears to be off to a good start mishel lure is impressed with the images relayed by the N suit now he wants to test his Pilot skills aboard the Json archaeologist frederique Lis lure's technical director will oversee the delicate Maneuvers the team wants to determine how devices like the suit and the unmanned ROV can best be used on this and other missions we're taking the suit into a rather cramped space between several cannons to see if it's possible to collect small objects there it's more precise than the ROV with much more flexible Jaws so it'll allow us to pick up some things as delicate as a plate more carefully than the R's hydraulic Jaws that could damage an [Music] object pilot Joe kiri's dexterity along with his training on daso systems 3D virtual reconstruction of the Loon are about to pay off the hurries to claim the fragile ceramic from The Loon which will be transferred immediately to an eager team of archaeologists on the Andre Monroe preservation of any artifact recovered at Sea is a Race Against Time the sediments that once protected this plate on the ocean floor have also changed its chemistry once exposed to the atmosphere it will deteriorate unless the salts are removed and the object chemically stabilized and lur team has waited too long for the lon's bounty to let that happen no matter what the [Music] treasure we'll let them clean it up anyway all this is plain Crockery no look there's a design there's a motif I think it might be a fish a symbol I don't know what you call that exactly see there it's an emblem very stylized yes after preliminary research the team thinks the pottery came from the Italian Studios at Pisa access to other objects in the loon's vast inventory should provide insight into how the French navy lived in the mid 1600s as research continues topside pilot Joe K signals a problem with the N suit turn on the [Music] engines my starboard engine is making a strange sound it's not normal you hear it sounds like it's grinding okay I'm starting the engines see which control it is and we'll take a look okay the failing engine has practically immobilized Joe he has to surface now the support crew on the Json manages to recover their pilot without further incident but the malfunctioning of the N suit a key Expedition tool for search and recovery on the wreck has dealt the mission a serious blow they could lose days on repairs at this point no one knows how things will turn [Music] out aboard operation lon's media ship the miniex underwater cameraman Denny LR and Popov pilot of the submarine rora have received their assignment from Michelle lure it would be good to go here and then along the side up to this Zone if we can get over it but that's what we'll [Music] do the rora's mission today is to film The Galley space rich in everyday objects for lure's team with her own images of this zone of the wreck Dao systems engineer will reconstruct the lon Galley in 3D for further [Music] [Music] study rora authorization to dive granted copy that opening ballast [Music] lrange and pop off have barely begun their descent when an alarm sounds carbon deoxide at dangerously high levels has just been detected in the tiny sub the men could suffocate apparently I have a problem here my fan is not working okay come back up to the surface we'll get ready to lift you out the men are relieved another disaster is narrowly averted for the moment no one on the other ships is aware of this new incident then suddenly there's impact [Music] the Remora has collided with the mini and the news travels quickly Michelle yes franka I'm listening I don't know if it's coming back on board or not I think so though what a horrible day operation Lon seems to be courting disaster here the same way the sun King's ship did I was coming up getting close to the surface I was holding the basket the console of the arm fell and the joystick got Twisted next thing the submarine is flipped on its side but it could have been much worse did gr's watertight camera housing also seems to have been damaged we've got to take everything out clean it all up wash it remove the salt when it rains it pours the nud suit the cameras the rora it couldn't get much [Music] worse [Music] how the team will function with nothing but damag submersibles is unclear but this mission is in part A reconnaissance trip for the deep water Dives to take place here over the next 2 years it's best that the team face all serious obstacles now [Music] fate was crer to the lon and its crew Chronicles report that the arriving ship was stampeded by soldiers fleeing battle Tor Sheri and likely never even had time to offload its supplies nearly a thousand infantrymen young Nobles and Elite officers crowd the decks of Captain D's ship hoping to soon set foot on French soil if they [Music] survive Misfortune was R for the crew and Men aboard the Loon the hundreds of wounded who flooded the decks in bad shape in the wake of the Siege of xeri the ship must have looked like a floating Hospital overflowing with humanity and leaving the crew little maneuvering room all the conditions were right for a difficult Journey it takes 4 days for the Loon to cross the Mediterranean with a 100 men pumping water from the holds miraculously the ship survives and anchors near tul low but they're forbidden to go ashore under the pretext that the plague is Raging there Royal authorities order the captain to set sail for the yier islands to observe a quarantine period dveri refuses arguing that his ship is no longer seaworthy a maritime Carpenter is sent to [Music] inspect jidon rodolf knows the lon well he's the Royal Navy's official Carpenter and supervised repairs of the ship only a few months prior if the inspector fails to agree with the captain's concerns Devi knows he'll have no recourse but to obey the king's orders and [Music] depart the wood is in good shape there are no leaks this ship could sail around the world [Music] today choppy seas and their own equipment woes have forced operation loon to cancel the day's Dives instead the mission is going to take a virtual turn on daol systems 3D diving simulator Pilot Joe K tells Michelle lure how his own training on the virtual loon helped prepare him for the first n suit dive now the Expedition leader will see exactly how it works on board the Andre malro the daso systems Engineers are setting up they've been waiting to show the archaeologists results of their ongoing collaboration in 3D mapping of the Loon the controllers for the hands and the feet need to be taken out the engineers walk me show through equipment functions and what to expect of the virtual experience that's the right foot so what we have here is the entire site of the Shipwreck about 600 square yards and we can take control of both the ROV over there and the diving suit at the same time there's an outside camera to help us move around the site and of course it's virtual reality so we can also scout the wreck there are cannons cauldrons and jars over there okay now you're going to live Joe's experience you tried it and it works just like diving in the suit the first step when you enter the immersive world is to put on this 3D helmet that will isolate you from the outside world [Music] I'd really like to have this technology at my disposal one day to be able to work in the Deep while I'm on the surface to view the site in 3D with the helmet while staying dry and to beyond the Shipwreck even if it's over a mile deep that's to say totally [Music] inaccessible do you feel like you're in the water it's hard to explain what you feel because well you feel like you're in the water the site is familiar so you feel like you can move around as much as you like once you've understood the movements which is not always easy to figure out okay the daso systems team knows the detail of the virtual shipwreck should help the mission problem solve in their recovery efforts on the Loon it's morning on day three of operation Lon the Seas have calmed and the nud suit has finally been repaired so Michelle lure has ordered Dives to resume on the Shipwreck the plan is to recover ceramic objects near the ship's anchor if Fortune is with them today we try to conquer the Loon every day so far each has brought its own share of problems so we'll see today now the weather's a bit overcast but it's actually good for working so today should go well now relief diver Emme salvi will pilot the N suit giving Joe K time to rest up for demanding Dives ahead [Music] today Michelle lure will pair two devices on the sea floor the man NSU to collect objects and the ROV for the security of the pilot and to monitor work on the rack the ROV can glide easily around the lon but is less Adept than the nud suit at gripping small [Music] objects the nud suits manipulator Jaws turn out to be as efficient as the team had hoped and Ceramics of varying sizes are making their way up to the surface in the few remaining days at Sea the team will be able to collect only a few of the 60,000 artifacts they estimate are down here but these first results are energizing for lure's [Music] [Music] team the team cataloges the artifact and removes traces of salt here at Sea restoration will take place in the lab so the four you see here are Ceramics you see that small pots with handles so they all have four handles this one is slightly different because it has a spout it's probably a little t pot or a small water jug there are a lot of identical pots like this down there at the side of all the objects on Deck a large bottle captures Michelle lure's attention this bottle in the museum turned to the right it'll be spectacular because once you've cleaned it you'll see the beautiful Green Glass it'll be a lovely piece as for the plates it'll be the same once you've cleaned them they'll be beautiful yeah they'll be spotless historical accounts indicate that the men on the Loon drank heavily the night before the ship sank the discomfort of being crammed onto a leaking ship under quarantine was perhaps more tolerable than the dangers of Life at war in North [Music] Africa when you crowd a ship in bad condition with so many men you know it's risky but at the time the risk factor wasn't part of the equation only about a century later would authorities really become concerned about the health and survival of their Crews concern for well-being would be an overstatement so let's just say concerned for better conditions on board clear to sale by Louis 14th's mandate the previous day The Loon is on route to quarantine in the Y Islands the morning of November 6th 1664 sprawled on deck and piled in the holds most of the officers soldiers and crew are still recovering from the night's festivities without warning the decaying ship suddenly gives out and sinks like a stone in just a few short minutes [Music] according to survivors the men on Deck desperately leap into the sea the rest are trapped in the bowels of the sinking ship and [Music] drown only a few dozen men including the Captain Will Survive but the incident is promptly covered up by Royal sensors and the fate of the Loon and a thousand men soon forgotten on day four of operation Lon Michelle lure is spending time in the virtual deep sea to instruct n suit diver Joe how and where to collect two large Earth andwar jars the pilot is picking up some useful pointers I see Michelle trying to put his right arm into the jar with a 15-in tool we could probably remove some sand I'd like you to go look at the jars on the fport side Paul and I suggested using a little rake like tool to remove sediments from inside the jars it would lighten their way we feel it's the easiest and most practical way to extract the jars after a couple of days of repairs the submarine rora is preparing for its first descent to film The Wreck cameraman Den lrange hopes they'll have more success this time after all that's happened it's getting more exciting now pop off is eager to go and I hope we'll finally get to the [Music] Loon with less than 48 hours left to survey and pull artifacts from the rack on this reconnaissance mission Michelle lure deploys his full underwater Armada surface rora here we're starting to work on the Shipwreck rora surface here copy that at depths of 300 ft the images are otherworldly revealing details of a shipwreck never before captured with such clarity [Music] piloting the nudit takes stamina two Motors keep the suit weightless but it takes muscle to move Limbs and free the Earth andwar food jars from the sand the work is tiring there's a suction effect holding the jars in place if Joe rushes he risks breaking [Music] [Applause] [Music] them [Music] night has fallen and exhaustion sets in bad weather has hampered the team's work and now it may not be safe to raise the [Music] jars and he can put two three or four of them in then they'll raise it with a small hook and place everything in the crate for large [Music] objects okay but our problem is that we can't dive under the Jason at night and I think that bringing the objects back up full of water without properly securing them is unsafe for the objects yet again the team is thwarted in its efforts to mine the mysteries of the Loon but out here weather can't be ignored unwilling to put divers and artifacts at risk Michelle lure cancels the operation after hours on the Loon Joe is disappointed to return empty-handed tomorrow he'll have one last chance to bridge the gap between the silent ship and the team that would tell its story it's Daybreak on the final day of operation Lon now every minute counts the team must still collect the Earth andwar jars and Michelle lure would like to find out if it's possible to raise a much larger object a [Music] cauldron once again the N suit will be put to the [Music] test collecting artifacts like The Cauldron is essential for the mission to learn more about the Loon and its history but their primary aim is to test combinations of high-tech underwater tools that will permit them to perform research at extreme depths he's on the left side trying to position the lines one in front of him and the other in Back to the gorgon's right so probably to your left we'll lift it really slowly everyone is on edge after the mission's early mechanical glitches they hope all equipment will function properly confirm that their strategies for future efforts are heading in the right direction the light's not causing a problem for you no negative I'm fine [Music] okay the pressure applied by the robot's Jaws must be just [Music] right once they're firmly in place Joe carefully moves The Cauldron to a waiting [Music] [Music] basket then it's lifted by crane to the surface at last The Loon shares one of its secrets with the impatient archaeologists success with this maneuver at depths of 300 ft is an encouraging sign for deeper Dives as for The Cauldron itself the size alone indicates the Loon had a very large gley the team looks for Engravings that might be revealing there's something see there might be something there here I see something that it's blue I think Titanic diver Paul AR narol feels the high-tech pairings tested here will Usher in a new era of underwater [Music] exploration it's not too deep here so it's a place where we can perfect technique to apply to other wrecks because there's not only the Titanic I'm working on other ship wrecks and I intend to continue using this type of technique elsewhere with luck now on his side but time running out Michelle lure presents the team with one last major challenge the divers of the sisar team will try to lift a bronze cannon from the wreck this is the tool the French navy uses to remove Torpedoes from the ocean floor a thick rubber lining should protect the cannon from damage it's a dangerous job the lon Cannon weighs nearly 2 tons and is still half buried in the sand for security reasons no humans will be allowed at the W site aboard the Andre malro the tension is palpable recovering this symbolic vestage of Louis the 14th's Navy would be a true prize but it's too big a job with too little time to go Michelle lur is forced to call it [Music] off this is the only time when I do my job that I feel this emotional I like the idea that it shouldn't be easy that sometimes the shipwrecks refuse to yield it's the rule of the game and if it were too easy it would be less fun his team is equally philosophical it's a deep and difficult site but we knew that there were a lot of technological challenges as well just now it was the cannon that resisted but then again we didn't get to work on it as much as we'd have liked to we'll just have to be paent and pick it up next time it's better to collect it when the conditions are right rather than pull it up damaged after five intense days and nights at Sea phase one of op a LOM is [Music] complete now Michelle lure's Alliance of science 3D Tech and Military experts will regroup for 2 years of Lon exploration [Music] ahead touching the first vestages of the 17th century warship is only the first step the marriage of Science and high technology here is about to make exploration of the planet's Last Frontier the ocean just a little more [Music] exciting mapping and reconstructing The Loon in 3D will make it possible for the team to explore the wreck with greater awareness at sea or in the comfort of the laboratory at last The Loon can reveal her secrets and a dark chapter in the sun King's reign will finally come to light [Music]

Channel: wocomoHISTORY

Views: 80,693

Keywords: Documentary, history, historical, history documentary, france, louis xiv, sun king, xviith, century, modern times, wreck, ship, barbary coast, expedition, new world, seamen, archeology, underwater, gold, treasure, flagship, bbc, versailles, monarchy, europe, european history, america, inde, baroque, royalty, bourbon, biography, king of france, king, court, absolute history, french history, early modern france, feature, full documentary, streaming, high noble, tragedy, epic, exploration, discovery, arte, sea, intact

Id: oqMgjusllcM

Length: 54min 25sec (3265 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024