1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,480
Britain is an island, surrounded
by a cold and unforgiving sea.

2
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:11,760
For centuries it
protected us from attack.

3
00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:13,520
But to prosper and thrive

4
00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:17,960
we would need to do more than
hide behind her salt-water shield.

5
00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,480
Britain needed brave men, willing
to venture out into the unknown.

6
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:24,920
And she needed
good boats to take them there.

7
00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,800
I've spent my life at sea.

8
00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,840
Now I'm going to take passage
on six boats that, together,
tell the story of modern Britain.

9
00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:42,800
Built for exploration, war, fishing,
industry and our very survival,

10
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:47,440
these are the boats that built
Britain and changed the way we live
forever.

11
00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:55,440
Now I'm sailing on the Matthew -
the ship that discovered North
America and launched Britain on a

12
00:00:55,440 --> 00:01:01,000
maritime adventure, the like of
which the world had never seen.

13
00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:20,320
I've come to Bristol

14
00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:22,520
to see this remarkable boat.

15
00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,040
Over 500 years ago,

16
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,880
18 men crammed in here with
explorer and map maker John Cabot

17
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:35,840
to set sail on a voyage
that many of the onlookers
must have thought was suicidal.

18
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,120
The year was 1497.

19
00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:45,160
Only five years earlier,
Columbus had discovered the
islands of the Caribbean.

20
00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:48,240
But his friend John Cabot
was convinced he could find

21
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:53,200
an alternative route to the East
and make a fortune of his own.

22
00:01:53,200 --> 00:02:00,560
Instead, Cabot discovered North
America and changed the course of
British and world history forever.

23
00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:11,080
This is an exact replica of the
Matthew, the craft he chose for
their seemingly impossible mission.

24
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:17,000
A common cargo ship,
she was more used to coastal
trading than crossing oceans.

25
00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:25,760
Only 78 feet long,
she feels a tiny vessel for such a
momentous journey into the unknown.

26
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,920
But what she lacked in space and
sophistication,

27
00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:38,200
she more than made
up for in strength and reliability.

28
00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:43,320
And in 1497 she was the
best boat for the job.

29
00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,560
So, crowded in and with no
real idea of where they were going

30
00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:48,320
or how long they would be at sea,

31
00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:52,400
Cabot and his crew of 18 men
pushed off into the abyss.

32
00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:02,520
I want to know more about this
boat that changed the world
and sail her for myself.

33
00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:07,920
In particular, I want to see
the world as a 15th century
sailor would have understood it.

34
00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:14,240
I want to get inside their heads
and find out exactly what
they thought they were doing.

35
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:20,520
And what it must have been like to
sail beyond the limits of the known
world in this tiny little ship.

36
00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,040
But to understand the
Matthew and her voyage

37
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,680
we need to go back another
200 years,

38
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,960
to when Marco Polo made a
momentous overland trip into Asia.

39
00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:43,640
His book, The Marvels Of The World,
talks of roofs tiled with gold,

40
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:48,640
chests filled with pearls
and spices by the sack load.

41
00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:56,080
As Europe emerged from the
uncertainties of the medieval
period, curiosity about the world

42
00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:02,640
grew and John Cabot was given a
copy of the book by none other than
explorer Christopher Columbus.

43
00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,080
And Polo's tales of
Eastern riches convinced him

44
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:10,360
that he too could make his fortune
and secure a name for himself.

45
00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,520
But the problem was getting there.

46
00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,400
Hard-line Ottomans controlled the
trade routes and, for a Christian

47
00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:27,960
explorer, a journey over land
was more likely to end in a nasty
death than untold riches.

48
00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:34,080
If Cabot was to make his fortune,
he needed to find another way -
across the sea.

49
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,360
BELLS CHIME

50
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:50,520
In the 15th century,
understanding of the world's
oceans was extremely limited

51
00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:53,800
and map making was the
preserve of the monasteries.

52
00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:59,600
The resulting world-view,
more superstition than science,

53
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:05,040
can be seen in all its glorious
confusion here at Hereford Cathedral

54
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,240
on the famous mappa mundi.

55
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:12,520
The map bears almost no relationship
to the round world we now know,

56
00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,120
but is based on myths and legend.

57
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:20,040
Drawn up by monks, it only shows
how they imagined distant lands,

58
00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:24,160
with no proper understanding
of where they really were.

59
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:31,120
And for many people the belief
was that beyond the edge of a map
like this lay untold horrors.

60
00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:33,520
But I, for one,
believe that medieval

61
00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:37,480
seamen had a much more sophisticated
sense of the shape of our world.

62
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:43,520
As children, we were all shown
images of medieval seamen sailing

63
00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:49,440
over the edge of a flat earth
and plunging down to destruction
with expressions of despair.

64
00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:51,040
Well, you know,

65
00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:55,000
from the medieval seaman's
point of view that was a
load of absolute tosh.

66
00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:56,760
They never thought that at all.

67
00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,120
You see,
they knew the world was round.

68
00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:04,160
When you see a ship coming up over
the horizon, the first thing you see
are the top sails.

69
00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:06,840
And, as she comes closer,
the hull comes up.

70
00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:10,400
First she's hull down,
then she's hull up.

71
00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,400
That's the old phrase, and it's
nothing to do with her being too far
away to see,

72
00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:18,520
it's to do with her
coming up over the edge of the
world. They knew that full well.

73
00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,040
They also knew when they looked
at the horizon, they could see a

74
00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,720
tiny little bit of curvature on it.
It all stacked up.

75
00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:30,440
For explorers to succeed,
they needed maps based on

76
00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:35,280
sound science that backed up
the observations of sailor men.

77
00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:40,200
And towards the end of
the 15th century
just such maps were appearing.

78
00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,160
Hungry for knowledge,
scholars were scouring library

79
00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:50,440
shelves and discovering that the
Greeks and Romans had known a lot
more about the world than they did.

80
00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:54,120
But for explorers,
one work stood out.

81
00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:59,920
Ptolemy, the great Roman
mathematician, had already
mapped much of Europe and Asia.

82
00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:04,880
And when his maps were
printed for the first time in 1477,

83
00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,200
they caused a sensation.

84
00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:10,720
The maps showed the extent of the
known world,

85
00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:14,400
a world that started
in Spain and ended in China.

86
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:18,440
For anyone wanting to find a short
cut to the riches of the East,

87
00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:20,880
the maps offered
a tantalizing idea -

88
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:25,400
an idea
that would change the world forever.

89
00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:26,560
Here's a flat world map.

90
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:30,520
If you're going to put it on a
piece of paper, it's the
only way you can do it, really.

91
00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:33,920
But if you're a sailor
and a world traveller,

92
00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:38,600
or perhaps a scholar who
understands that the world is round,

93
00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:40,600
all you've got to do

94
00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:42,640
is that.

95
00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:44,920
And suddenly

96
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,920
you can go the other way.

97
00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:48,920
There's another route altogether.

98
00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:53,160
And it goes across this unknown
ocean which, as yet,

99
00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:56,520
nobody has mapped
or even sailed across.

100
00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:01,360
The idea was brilliantly simple.

101
00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:07,120
If Cabot was right,
he'd have found a shortcut
to the treasures of the East.

102
00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,040
But it was a huge gamble.

103
00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,800
And to prove his point
he'd need to find a wealthy backer

104
00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:16,160
willing to pay for the boat
and men required for the voyage.

105
00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:28,440
So, Cabot arrived here in Bristol
to try and bring his plan to life.

106
00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:34,800
And I've come here
to meet Dr Evan Jones, who has spent
years studying Cabot's voyage.

107
00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:39,440
I want to ask him more about the
man behind this historic journey.

108
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:44,120
Well, Cabot - proper name Zuan
Caboto - was a Venetian merchant.

109
00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,800
But by 1489 he'd got into trouble.

110
00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:52,440
And he left Venice as an insolvent
debtor, then to be pursued
by his creditors in Spain.

111
00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:57,560
He goes to Valencia and he, first of
all, proposes he's going to build
a new harbour there.

112
00:08:57,560 --> 00:09:03,880
But he doesn't get funding for that,
so he moves on, with his creditors
just behind him, moves on to Seville.

113
00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:06,640
There he proposes the building of
a bridge across the Guadalquivir.

114
00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:09,480
But the whole thing falls through,
and it seems to be only after that,

115
00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:15,160
around about 1494-1495,
he starts to a get a new idea.

116
00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:19,200
What he's going to do is lead an
expedition across the Atlantic.

117
00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:22,840
So, first of all, he tries to
persuade people in Seville to
fund it. Doesn't get any joy.

118
00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,960
He moves on to Lisbon, tries to
persuade the Portuguese to fund him.

119
00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:28,800
Again, no success.

120
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:32,760
It's only after that, in
1495, that he comes to London

121
00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,800
and tries to backing there
from Henry VII and his court.

122
00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:38,760
Turned down all over Europe,

123
00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:42,520
Cabot had finally found a
willing patron in Henry VII,

124
00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:46,920
a monarch desperate to play colonial
catch-up with Spain and Portugal.

125
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:50,080
He immediately issued
Cabot with a charter

126
00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:54,240
giving him the power to claim
whatever land he found as British.

127
00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:58,600
"To find, discover and investigate
whatsoever islands, countries,

128
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:01,880
"regions or provinces of
heathens and infidels, in

129
00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:07,920
"whatsoever part of the world placed
which, before this time, were
unknown to all Christians."

130
00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:11,920
That's pretty non-PC these days.

131
00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:17,920
What's it mean? It means that
wherever Cabot went with his ship,
so long as the territories

132
00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:20,680
hadn't been found by Christians,
which in practice meant the Spanish

133
00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:24,680
or Portuguese, anything which is
non-Christian, that's fair game.

134
00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:27,360
These are heathens,
you can do what you want.

135
00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:31,480
Cabot had his theory.

136
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:33,760
He had a royal backer.

137
00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:37,120
What he needed now was a boat.

138
00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,200
When Cabot walked
the Bristol waterfront

139
00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:46,640
with the King's charter in one hand
and the King's shilling in the
other, he was looking for a ship.

140
00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:51,000
A ship capable
of a voyage of indeterminate length

141
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,840
through some of the roughest
seas in the known world.

142
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:59,280
When he saw the Matthew,
he knew he'd found her.

143
00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:03,360
As an Italian,
Cabot would have recognised the
Matthew's lines immediately.

144
00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:08,920
She was a caravel,
a type of cargo ship popular in
Southern Europe and Portugal.

145
00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:13,920
But, as well as carrying cargo,
the caravel was also starting to

146
00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:18,120
make a name for herself in
the world of exploration.

147
00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:21,200
Two of the three boats Columbus
sailed to the Caribbean

148
00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:23,160
five years earlier were caravels.

149
00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,640
And by the standards of the 15th
century, they were considered

150
00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:32,920
excellent sailing vessels - tough,
versatile and seaworthy.

151
00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:38,440
But judged by today's thinking, the
Matthew leaves a lot to be desired.

152
00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:44,520
Looking around with a seaman's
eye, I can see that this vessel
has serious limitations.

153
00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:48,880
For a start,
she's not going to be able to sail
properly to windward, in our terms.

154
00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,160
That means she'll go across the
wind, either way, and downwind.

155
00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:56,640
And if the wind's coming from where
you want to go, tough luck, mate.
You'll have to wait.

156
00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:02,560
And for her crew, 18 men assembled
from the dockside, a ragtag mixture

157
00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:10,120
of able seamen, fortune hunters,
a priest and a cook, it was going
to be an uncomfortable ride because

158
00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:16,360
she's built like a barrel, with a
gently rounded hull designed to take
the ground in rivers and harbours.

159
00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:23,640
At sea, though, that means she'll
roll from side to side, a sickly
motion in any sort of swell.

160
00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:28,880
But she gives a feeling of
being strong and reliable.

161
00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:32,280
Even the rig
feels pretty bullet proof, actually.

162
00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:39,680
And for the guys going off across
the Western Ocean, that was probably
the most important single thing.

163
00:12:39,680 --> 00:12:45,560
When the crew stepped onto this
boat, they may not all have been
convinced by Cabot's theories.

164
00:12:45,560 --> 00:12:48,400
But the boat certainly
looked up to the job.

165
00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:56,160
So, Cabot's got his charter, he's
got his money and he's got his men.

166
00:12:56,160 --> 00:13:01,640
And now we're going to go to sea
on the Matthew and find out what
it really felt like out there.

167
00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:07,000
Seeing her out on the water for the
first time,

168
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,440
it's obvious that she's
definitely not built for speed.

169
00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:14,760
But she feels like an honest boat.

170
00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:16,840
And she was all Cabot had.

171
00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:23,760
And, for better or worse, from
now on his fate and the Matthew's
would be inextricably linked.

172
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:33,800
So, in May 1497, Cabot and his
men pushed off into the unknown.

173
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,600
And, with good weather ahead
of them, the crew hoisted sail

174
00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:40,520
in the hope of catching a
fair wind westward.

175
00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,040
Up here now the guys are
preparing the foresail for hoisting.

176
00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:49,520
Now, there's something
very interesting about this.

177
00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:53,400
It's taking half a dozen guys
to hoist what is quite a small sail.

178
00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:55,000
It probably was always like that.

179
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:58,560
This is a labour-intensive rig and
there were plenty of men available.

180
00:13:58,560 --> 00:14:04,120
But the second thing which is
really interesting is that the sail
is being hoisted from the deck.

181
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:08,480
Modern square riggers tend to
keep their yards permanently aloft.

182
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,200
But on the Matthew
the yards are stowed on deck.

183
00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:18,440
The sails are prepared down there,
then the whole shooting match is
hoisted up the mast.

184
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,880
OK. Two, six. Heave! Heave!

185
00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:23,960
It's tough, heavy work.

186
00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:26,360
But with a new crew keen to
get going

187
00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,080
and put on a good show
for their captain,

188
00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:32,760
there'd have been no shortage of
willing hands motivated

189
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,640
to wring every knot of speed
from their boat.

190
00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:41,200
Phew, a bit of a cardiac job, that.

191
00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:42,840
Still, there she is. Up and drawing.

192
00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,920
Skipper's up there on the poop
asking for another foot when
we were all thought we'd done.

193
00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,040
Then we're there,
then he asks for another.

194
00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:50,680
They're all like that, skippers.

195
00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:55,160
Once the sails were set,

196
00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:59,560
the Matthew would be hoping
for strong easterly winds.

197
00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:03,920
Because of her rig, her progress is
limited to sailing with the breeze.

198
00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:11,760
If the weather was coming from the
wrong direction, the crew would be
struggling to make any headway.

199
00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:15,280
Even more frustrating
would be no wind at all.

200
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:19,640
That's how the sea
deals with you very often.

201
00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:22,520
Looking up aloft at these sails
slashing against the mast, how many

202
00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:27,280
times have I sat in mid-ocean
looking at that, just praying
for God to send me some wind?

203
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:29,040
It absolutely drives you nuts.

204
00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:34,400
Everything's crashing and banging
about because there are always waves
slopping around that are left over

205
00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:36,360
from the last bit of
breeze that you had.

206
00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:40,480
The sea is never quiet. The sails
are banging, the ropes are chafing,

207
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:42,320
you can't get a moment's sleep.

208
00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,760
Plus you're going nowhere.

209
00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:48,840
And actually,
if you're trying to get Newfoundland
or Nova Scotia across the North

210
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:53,600
Atlantic, you're going backwards
at 20 miles a day because that's
where the current's taking you.

211
00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:57,400
So that is the sort of
frustration and sheer agony

212
00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:01,400
that Cabot must have gone through
when his ship was short of breeze.

213
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:06,800
That agony would have been
felt throughout the crew.

214
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,760
And, to make matters worse,
compared to today's comfort on

215
00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:16,200
the high seas, living conditions
would have been pretty gruesome.

216
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:20,960
And Rob Salvage, who looks after
this perfect replica of the Matthew,

217
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,880
has a good idea of what
life on board was like.

218
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:28,360
Sort of very pleasant mess
deck, isn't it? Nice atmosphere.

219
00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:30,800
It is and we have these
canvas cots where we sleep now.

220
00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,880
Very basic, but actually it
wouldn't have been like this.

221
00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:36,960
This would have been
chock full of stores and provisions.

222
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:40,040
There would have been barrels,
lots of sacks of grain,
some root vegetables -

223
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:42,640
they would have brought everything
they needed for the voyage.

224
00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:45,800
And certainly the foodstuff
would have all been down here.

225
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:47,680
They really didn't live down
here at all.

226
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:50,280
No, I don't think so. They would have
lived mostly on deck.

227
00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:55,720
They would have been working hard.
They would have been up on deck many
hours at a time, getting exhausted.

228
00:16:55,720 --> 00:17:00,680
Once they got on this ship and
once they were up and running, and
once they got into the routine of

229
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:05,760
battening things down, going through
some heavy weather, drying out,
getting things sorted out, mending...

230
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:10,760
You know, that routine of daily
life on board would have been all
that they would have thought about.

231
00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:17,640
Working in shifts night and day,
the men would need proper rest.

232
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:20,360
But with the only real cabin
of the ship taken by Cabot,

233
00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:22,080
the ship's master and a priest,

234
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:25,840
the sleeping arrangements would
have been far from comfortable.

235
00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:29,960
And not only that, the crew would
be bedding down with the livestock.

236
00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:32,240
Come on, girl.

237
00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,240
Well, as you can see,
there's enough space for me up here.

238
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:39,680
I could put a palliasse down
here and doss down, I suppose,
on the lee side on a quiet night.

239
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,640
But if I had ten or a dozen
ship mates, it would be

240
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,720
no joke at all.
But that's how it was.

241
00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:51,360
You can't imagine, really, how these
chaps managed to survive with this.

242
00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:56,400
There was absolutely no
comfort at all, let alone luxury.

243
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:00,840
And if the sleeping quarters were
this rough,

244
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:03,600
I wasn't holding
out too much hope for the food.

245
00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:13,480
Bill Jones, the Matthew's chef,
has researched the food they
would have taken on the voyage.

246
00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:19,120
He's preparing me a dish
that's typical of what they'd have
tucked in to 500 years ago.

247
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:20,960
What's cooking, Bill?

248
00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:24,000
Well, we're cooking a bit of gruel.
A bit of medieval gruel. Gruel?

249
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,920
That'll be nice, won't it?
I don't know, I don't like the
sound of that. What's in it?

250
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:33,120
Made from oat grains called groats,
the ships cook would have added
salted meats and anything else he

251
00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:38,120
had to hand, stirring the whole
lot into a sort of savoury mush.

252
00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:39,920
And then we'll pour that in.

253
00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:42,640
Water and all? Water and all.

254
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,800
They needed ingredients
that would keep for months.

255
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,840
And, in those days,
there wasn't much around.

256
00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:53,920
Well, of course they hadn't
discovered a lot of ingredients we
use. They didn't have potatoes.

257
00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:55,200
No potatoes, of course.

258
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:59,760
They didn't have tomatoes,
they didn't have chillies,
capsicums, things like that.

259
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:03,400
But they did have spices, because
they'd got them from the Middle East.

260
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:08,640
We can use things like cloves,
pepper they used a lot of.

261
00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:12,760
Anything to help disguise the
taste of the bland ingredients.

262
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:20,080
They liked sweet stuff as
well as savoury, so a lot of
honey was used in the cooking.

263
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:27,240
Today The Matthew is fitted
with a modern galley, complete
with gas and running water.

264
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:32,720
But back in 1497, cooking facilities
would have been far more basic.

265
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,000
They would have cooked everything on
deck and they would have had an open

266
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:40,360
fire in what was called a firebox,
which was a metal box that
they had the fire in.

267
00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:44,520
So it would be on the open deck,
they'd perhaps have some sort
of cover if it was bad weather.

268
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:46,320
Everything would be done topside.

269
00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,400
The proof is in the
porridge, you might say.

270
00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:57,320
I've eaten some dire
concoctions on long voyages before,
so I wonder how I'll fare this time?

271
00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,880
Well, its lunch time
and despite Bill's assurances,

272
00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:03,920
none of the hands up there seem
to be up for having the real thing.

273
00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:05,880
Here goes.

274
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,480
I've never had anything
quite like that in my life.

275
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:18,600
In texture it's a cross
between a risotto and porridge.

276
00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:22,880
But in taste,
tastes great, not too salty.

277
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,000
I reckon if the lads ate this,

278
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:31,760
all the way across the Atlantic,
they would arrive well fed...happy

279
00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:36,960
and as long as the cook
kept his duties going,
morale would have been sky high.

280
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:47,320
And keeping morale up would
have been crucial on a small
boat like the Matthew...

281
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:53,400
when the monotony and uncertainty
could drive even a seasoned
sailor round the bend.

282
00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:01,960
With all the preparation in
the world

283
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:05,240
they really were
playing a waiting game.

284
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,040
Day after day
it would be the same old horizon.

285
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,120
An unchanged sea,

286
00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:17,480
a familiar cloud pattern

287
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,680
and the constant motion
of this lumbering boat.

288
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:27,160
These guys must have just sat in
mid ocean rolling about like this.

289
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:33,200
My first lesson in 15th century
seamanship is definitely patience

290
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:36,720
and I'm slowly beginning to
understand how this ship sails.

291
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:48,480
So here we are, the guys wrestling
to get the last tiny little fraction
of a knot out of the vessel.

292
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:52,560
As they're taking an inch or two
on the sheet here,

293
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:55,520
slacking away on a brace,
doing their level best to see what

294
00:21:55,520 --> 00:22:00,960
they can get out of the boat
and actually what they're getting
is about a knot and a half.

295
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,480
OK, a knot and a half. What's that?
A mile and a half an hour?

296
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,480
You see in landsman's
terms that's nothing.

297
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,080
But look at it like this,

298
00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:18,680
a day at sea, is 24 hours and a knot
and a half in 24 hours is 36 miles.

299
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:24,080
And that's how The Matthew
crossed the Atlantic.

300
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:27,400
On a bad day she'd do 36 miles.

301
00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:30,880
On a good day 100 plus.

302
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:36,760
And inch by inch,
mile by mile, she clawed her way
across an unknown ocean.

303
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,120
When I'm sailing an ocean myself
I always like to show the crew

304
00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:45,880
our progress on the
chart to keep morale up.

305
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:50,840
But The Matthew
didn't have a chart because no-one
knew where they were going!

306
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:55,960
So just how did Cabot and his
crew record the Matthew's progress?

307
00:22:55,960 --> 00:23:00,800
This is a traverse board,
this is a method for recording

308
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,480
the distances they were running
and the courses they were steering.

309
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,360
So every half hour they
would be putting a peg

310
00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:12,160
in one of the concentric rings on
the boards for direction and they
would be putting a peg in the

311
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,760
board down here for speed.

312
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:20,720
There's eight rows of holes for the
potential for one to eight-ish knots.

313
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,000
Many of the guys on the ship wouldn't
have been able to read and write,

314
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,720
except for guys like Cabot,
maybe a mate, maybe a priest.

315
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:28,320
Educated people.

316
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:32,040
So the rest of the watches, the
rest of the crew would be recording

317
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:36,040
that critical information of
course and speed with this board.

318
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:45,400
As the Matthew sailed west,
the mood must have grown more
tense by the day.

319
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,320
18 tough Bristol seamen
and one increasingly

320
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:53,480
nervous Italian, who'd sold them his
wild theory about land to the west.

321
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,440
But then, someone would
have given the shout that

322
00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:02,000
got Cabot off the hook and makes
every navigator's heart soar...

323
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,360
Land ahoy!

324
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:13,200
Landfall after an ocean passage
in a small sailing boat

325
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,840
is an absolutely magical
experience.

326
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:18,840
You're a long time out there.

327
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,840
It might be two weeks, but
it could easily be five or six,

328
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,560
sometimes more for guys like Cabot.

329
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:30,200
They weren't ever sure where
they were going to get to
until they arrived and finally

330
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:36,320
he sees a coast like that and he
thinks to himself, "Have I made it?"

331
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:40,640
"Is this it?
Is this where I make my name?"

332
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:46,760
He wasn't to know, but what he did
know was that the wind was perhaps
dying on him like this.

333
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,920
It so often does at the end
of the day, close to land.

334
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:54,080
He could settle down and let
the boat drift, let her roll,

335
00:24:54,080 --> 00:25:00,400
be at piece knowing that at least
for now he's arrived somewhere new.

336
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:09,400
After 2,000 miles and a month at
sea, The Matthew arrived
at what we now

337
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,080
know was somewhere
in Eastern Canada.

338
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:16,520
They then sailed along the coast
only to find an endless wilderness

339
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,560
that stretched out for
miles in either direction.

340
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,040
They ventured ashore just once,

341
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,240
but there was no sign of the
native Americans,

342
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,440
whose lives would ultimately be
so disastrously affected

343
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:30,720
by the discovery.

344
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,680
Cabot decided to call
it New Found Land -

345
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,080
A name which still stands today.

346
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:38,800
And with supplies running out

347
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,240
he wanted to make sure he could
still make it back to Britain

348
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,840
with the triumphant news that
he'd discovered a new continent.

349
00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:52,080
So after just three days the order
was given to bring the ship around.

350
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:57,760
This boat, The Matthew, had bravely
brought them all this way and now

351
00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:03,360
they were ready to return home,
having claimed what would become
North America for Britain.

352
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:07,120
As Columbus
had claimed the Caribbean for Spain.

353
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,360
By the time Cabot and
his crew got back to Bristol,

354
00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:19,120
I wonder just what their mood would
have been?

355
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:22,440
They'd discovered the country that

356
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:27,040
would one day be Britain's
most influential colony.

357
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:32,200
But they weren't exactly weighed
down with the spices, gold and
silver that Cabot had promised.

358
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,600
Well, I've been for a
sail on The Matthew.

359
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:41,040
I've stepped of her and I can
have some inkling now of what it

360
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,040
must have been to have
crossed the Atlantic on her.

361
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,840
But he didn't come home laden with
the pearls of the Orient, did he?

362
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:52,040
I wonder if by the standards
of his day the voyage was
considered a bit of a damp squib?

363
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:57,440
Well, yeah, as you say, they were
looking for China, they came back
and all they found was North America.

364
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,080
I mean, what use was that?

365
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:05,920
So he didn't make any money at the
time but by the end of the 16th
century, the British Empire was being

366
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:11,520
founded and the voyages began to be
recognised as England's first attempt
to establish a maritime empire.

367
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,040
Later on, 16th century, 17th century,
people became very interested in

368
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:21,240
these voyages as an example of that
and today we are standing here by
Cabot Tower.

369
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,320
This was built in 1897,
just one of the monuments built

370
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:28,800
to celebrate what was seen by that
time as a great imperial achievement.

371
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,640
Looking out over the harbour
from which the Matthew set sail,

372
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,080
today Cabot tower is only one
of the landmarks

373
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:41,840
commemorating Bristol's
favourite adopted son.

374
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,200
But what happened to Cabot?

375
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:53,120
Having found land he wanted to learn
more about this great continent to

376
00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:58,200
the west and set out on another,
far bigger expedition.

377
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,400
This time
he was never heard of again.

378
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:07,920
But his discovery
was the beginning of a new era.

379
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:09,800
And it was The Matthew
that took him there.

380
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,840
This boat opened the
door to an unknown continent.

381
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,440
Her voyage showed Britain a world
beyond her shores

382
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,040
and started a
thirst for knowledge and exploration

383
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:27,440
that would change this island nation
and the people that live
here forever.

384
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,080
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

385
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,840
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk