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Britain is an island surrounded
by a cold and unforgiving sea.

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For centuries, it
protected us from attack.

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But to prosper and thrive,
we would need to do more than just
hide behind her salt water shield.

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Britain needed brave men, willing
to venture out into the unknown.

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And she needed good
boats to take them there.

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I've spent my life at sea.

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Now I'm going to take passage
on six boats that, together,
tell the story of modern Britain.

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Built for exploration, war, fishing,
industry and our very survival...

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these are the boats that built
Britain and changed the way
we live forever.

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This time, I'm sailing
on a square-rigger.

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This one form of rig
did more to shape the world we live
in today than anything else afloat.

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Carrying goods all over the globe,
the square-rigger was the workhorse

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of the industrial revolution and the
ship that turned Britain into the
richest country in the world.

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This is the Phoenix.

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She's got two masts which makes her
a brig, and to see her come over the

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horizon, thundering down on you
on a windy day with a bone in her
teeth and her topsails bellowing out

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to the wind, is one of the great
thrills this world has to offer.

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It's been said
that the wooden square-rigged

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sailing ship was the most important
vehicle ever devised by man.

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These were the vessels that
took sailors to the four corners

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of the earth, and made Britain the
world's first industrial superpower.

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At the beginning of the 19th
century, with the Royal Navy

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policing the high seas after the
battle of Trafalgar,

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the world opened up
for ships like these.

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Now, merchants were
free to trade around the
globe without fear of attack.

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And it was the square-rigged ship,
with its forest of shrouds, stays

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and spars,
that became the vessel of choice.

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Pushed by the trade winds that
circle the world, these ships
could travel huge distances, sailing

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non-stop for weeks at a time and
handling everything that the oceans
could throw at them along the way.

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Vessels like this made
fortunes for their owners

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in the mid-19th century,
but to understand where they've come
from, we have to understand that

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trading on the water goes back to
the days before the dawn of history.

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As an island,
Britain has always depended

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on trade with the outside world for
things we can't produce ourselves.

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Long before the Romans came over
here and stirred things up a bit,
the Celtic tribes living in these

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south coast harbours and creeks
used to trade with their opposite
numbers over in Brittany.

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Back then, trade was simple and
restricted to a few luxury goods.

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Maybe wine from the Rhone,
or olives from Provence.

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It's a simple equation,
trading one thing for another.

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But as boats got bigger
and the world grew smaller,

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the complexity and scale
of sea-trade began to grow.

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And with the expansion
of the British Empire at

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the beginning of the
19th century,

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Britain was exploiting business
opportunities all over the world.

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Here at the National Maritime Museum
in Greenwich, the very fabric of the

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building testifies to the vast
wealth this period was generating.

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And on the museum walls,
pictures capture the world the
sqaure-rigged ships created.

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One painting in particular depicts
a scene that must have been repeated

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thousands of times at docks up
and down the country in the 1800s.

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Henry O'Neil's The Parting Cheer.

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Wow. It's alive, isn't it?

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It really gives you the feeling
that the world is expanding.

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These people are going out looking
for new horizons.

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It's...I guess
boom time for the British Empire.

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Absolutely. You're talking about
the mass movement of people

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and goods,
but also ideas and cargos

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all moving round the British Empire,

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and for that you need a step change
in the size of ships as well.

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As this shipping company atlas
proudly shows,

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by the middle of the
19th century, Britain either

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controlled or was trading with
virtually every country on earth.

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And it was the square-rigger
that tied it all together.

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So, until really quite late in
the nineteenth century,
square-riggers are

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carrying the bulk of Britain's trade,
especially the high bulk, low value
goods like coal and cotton and this

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is still an age of high adventure on
the high seas for Britain's sailors.

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So how did these sqaure-rigged
merchant ships come about?

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Britain had been trading with the
Far East and the Americas since
the beginning of the 17th Century.

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But with the European powers
almost continually in conflict,

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and pirates lurking behind
every other headland,

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the sea was a dangerous place
in those days.

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Merchant ships
looked more like men of war,

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weighed down with the guns and
troops they needed for protection.

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But as the oceans became
safer following Trafalgar,

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merchants were finally free to trade
without fear of constant attack.

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Now, speed, sailing ability
and cargo capacity were more
important than firepower alone.

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Relieved of the need to carry
a serious battery of artillery,

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merchant ships could become leaner,
faster, more manoeuvrable craft.

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Time was becoming money, and ship
builders looked to new designs.

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The efficient brig
and her big sister, the full-rigged
three-master, now developed rapidly.

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And as the focus switched from war
to wealth, these rigs drove
sharper, speedier hulls.

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They would soon become the backbone

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of the greatest merchant fleet
the world had ever seen.

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Fortunes were there to be won.

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And it wasn't just foreign goods,
Eastern spices and silks,
that were making money.

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Every corner of Britain
was getting into trade,

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exploiting whatever was
at hand in the pursuit of profit.

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And one place captures
this new attitude perfectly.

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And it's here, in deepest Cornwall.

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You don't expect to see slag
heaps and open casts pits like
this in Cornwall, do you?

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But they're a mute witness
to the Cornish people's urge to get
rich quick over the past 150 years.

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These vast mines once produced
tens of thousands of tons of clay.

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The particularly fine clay
demanded by makers of bone china,

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the must-have domestic item
for any fashionable
19th century household.

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The only problem was
that British manufacturers were
based up in the Midlands.

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With land transport ineffective
and prohibitively expensive,

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only the sea offered a
viable means of conveyance,

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and the mine owners stopped at
nothing to get their cargo ships as
close to the clay as they could.

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This is Charlestown harbour,
carved out of the solid
rock of the hillside.

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An impressive feat of engineering in
a place where nature never intended
there to be a harbour at all.

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But it was all in a day's work to
the industrialists and ship owners
of the mid-19th century.

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The sort of thing
they would do at the drop of a hat
in the pursuit of profit.

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And that profit was made by the
ships that could now come and go,

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laden, in the case of Charlestown,
with the clay mined just inland.

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Throughout the 19th century,

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this little dock would have been
packed with all the boat-related

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businesses you need to keep a
fleet of trading vessels afloat.

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Most of that has long
gone now, of course.

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But here at Charlestown,
you can still get a flavour

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of what it must have been like
when square-riggers were the
shuttles of the loom of industry.

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Today they're replacing the
mast on one of these great ships.

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And it shows the first thing
you need if you're going to
build a square-rigger...

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wood.

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Lots of it!

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Francis Browne is a skipper and
shipwright who has spent his
life working on square-riggers.

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He knows every inch of
what goes into making one
of these wonderful craft.

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This is the inside planking.
It's known as the ceiling.

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This planking runs all
the way fore and aft on the vessel

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and it adds terrific longitudinal
strength to the vessel.

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You can see the thickness of
the planking here, this is
a good three inches thick.

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It's very solid. And the frames
behind and then, of course,
the external skin of planking,

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which on this vessel, is another
three and a half, four inches.

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So, there's a massive amount
of timber in these vessels.

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It's unimaginably strong, isn't it?

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Very, very strong. And we've got
metal work here, haven't we?

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This is actually iron work,

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forged iron hanging knees,
and they run right down inside.

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And that's
continuing here under the deck.

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This beefs up these

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deck beams and ties it all together.

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It's very much a living component.

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The way it's been constructed,
it all works together and it all
does move a little bit at sea.

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Nothing is so rigid that it can't
move and give a little bit
as it makes it way through the seas. 

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And every one of these
planks had to be hand made and
fitted by a team of craftsmen.

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Today, another of the Charlestown
fleet is in dry dock having new

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planks fitted to her hull,
which gives us a chance for

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a close-up view of the work
that goes into building and
maintaining these boats.

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First of all, the gap left by the
plank to be replaced is measured
and a template is transferred

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onto the new plank
so it can be cut to the right size.

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They then have to make sure that
the bevel of the plank is correct
so that it fits perfectly.

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Now, the boys are drilling the
plank so it won't split when they
fasten it in with giant nails.

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Before the plank can be
offered up into place,

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the edges are greased with tallow
to help it slide in more easily.

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Of course, they're hoping that their
measurements are right, so that when

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they insert the plank,
it fits perfectly.

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Good job, lads.

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Now, it's 'hold the forward end up
with a jack and hammer it home',

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leaving the aft end over-length so
they can cut the exact fit

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after she's been half-secured.

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Once they're happy,
they can start fastening

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by driving six inch nails through
the plank and into the frames.

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To finish off, the nails are
countersunk to really make sure
they're not going anywhere.

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It's great to see these guys
whacking away with these
big hammers.

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The explosive force
that they're using

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to drive in these great big spikes
and every single one of those bangs

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is putting strength into this ship.

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The strength in a
wooden boat is remarkable

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and this is the way they've been
built since time immemorial.

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These are ancient skills.

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With 19th-century Britain
crying out for ever more ships

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to meet demand, vessels like these
were being built in their hundreds

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up and down the country.

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And it was happening
in some unlikely places.

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It wasn't just fully-fledged
shipyards that were carrying out
this work,

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boats were being built anywhere they
could find the materials and the
labour.

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I've just brought you in here while
the lads are sledging in the plank

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under the ship out there
to make a point.

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We're in a full on shipyard here,
great bit shed, all sorts of things

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going on around us,
substantial establishment.

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00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:09,200
It wasn't always like that, and
in fact, in the 19th century,

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a lot of ships were built in an
extremely vernacular environment.

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There's a picture here
of a schooner being built literally
under a cliff in a Cornish village.

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You see the size of the chaps here?

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This is a substantial vessel.

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What really impresses me about her
is this beautiful shareline
and the sweet shape of her stern.

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That is an extraordinarily
beautiful vessel.

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Her masts are rigged
and ready to go.

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They've done the whole thing, these
guys, these villagers on the beach.

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No shipyard, no nothing.

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Just a bunch of guys
who could do it.

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This was happening all over Britain.

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Today, large-scale wooden
ship-building is virtually a lost
craft, kept alive by a few good men

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who still have the skills
that were once so common.

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That the last one, Scott?
That is the last one.

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They're now in the final stages of
fixing this one plank in place,

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a job that's taken the whole
afternoon,

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and this boat is
skinned with more than 200 planks.

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Now, the plank's in. The last lap
is caulking to make her watertight.

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00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:25,040
The caulking material is oakum,
hemp fibres soaked in pine tar.

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00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:29,240
It's hammered in with a special
tool called a caulking iron.

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00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,760
When the boat gets back in the water
the planks will expand,

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squeezing the oakum even tighter,
an effective and natural way to
get a strong, tight hull.

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The whole process is rounded off
with a liberal application of tar.

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Planking a wooden ship
like this is a timeless art.

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But what's under the
water on a square-rigger
is only half the story.

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Her real glory, the part that gives
her the name, is up in the sky.

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A cathedral in wood and rope.

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This riot of a maze of wood
and rope up here looks like chaos

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00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:20,920
to a landsman, but to a seamen,
it is the pure poetry of motion.

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It's the beating heart
of sqaure-rig, where every spar
and every rope is counted.

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And before you set sail on
a square-rigger, it's as well
to understand the basics.

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If we look at the main mast here,
we can see that there are
three spars going across it.

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The sails are attached to those
at the top edge.

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The rest of the sail comes down
and fills the gap beneath the spar.

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The spar is called a yard.

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00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:53,680
The bottom one
is called the main yard.

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00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:58,800
The next one up, that's the
topsail yard and the sail
is set then underneath it.

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00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,400
That's a big, big sail when that
yard is hoisted

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00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,920
but it's the working sail
of the rig, the powerhouse.

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00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:08,440
The one above it,
for fair weather, is the royal.

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00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:13,160
But the reason why
this is so special,
is because it is a single sail.

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00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:18,200
It took a lot of men to handle
that sail and there's some brutal
work attached to doing it, too.

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00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:23,920
Later on, square-riggers
divided their topsails into
two halves, one above the other.

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This made the rig easier to handle,
and allowed it to be sailed
more cheaply with smaller crews.

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00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:36,400
That single topsail proves to us
that she's as she would have been in
the middle of the 19th century

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00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:42,520
at the height of trade
at the peak of empire,
and at the zenith of sqaure-rig.

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00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:50,440
Now I'm going to get the
chance to sail one of these
iconic ships for myself.

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00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:57,400
Skipper says we've got to get on
top of the tide, so we've got to go.
It's the only time they can.

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00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:02,560
Still, I've been looking forward
to sailing on this little ship
for a long time, so...here we go.

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00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:04,080
Over the wall.

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00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:18,880
As we hit the top of the tide, we're
faced with the task of manoeuvring
the ship out of the dock.

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00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:23,960
Today we've an engine, but it's
still a highly-skilled operation.

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00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,760
150 years ago, without the benefit
of diesel power,

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00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:32,520
we'd have had a team of dockers
armed with rope,
capstan and work-hardened muscle,

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00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,960
inching the boat out to sea.

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00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:39,560
Ease it down gently, now.
Ease down gently.

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00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,920
It's nerve-wracking stuff
and it's a tight fit.

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00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,040
But the skipper and crew
know what they're about

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00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:50,280
and with only the merest kiss
of the dock wall, we're out.

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00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:02,920
Now that we're safely clear of the
harbour, we can begin the serious
business of setting sail,

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00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:06,160
which is no small undertaking
in a boat this size.

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00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:15,160
On modern boats,
the furling and loosing of the sails
is done from the deck.

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00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:22,120
With a square-rigger,
you've got to go to the sails
and that means climbing the mast.

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00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:28,720
Back in the 19th century, they'd
never heard of health and safety

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00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:34,680
and for a young seamen, getting sent
up the rigging at sea was one of
the first tests of nerve he'd face.

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00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:42,000
And looking at the heights involved,
it isn't hard to see why you'd feel
just a little apprehensive...

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00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:50,400
OK. The boys and girls have gone
aloft to release the topsails.

237
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:55,000
The two topsails are the first
we're going to set, so the guys
have got to undo the gaskets.

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00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,400
That will let the sails
fall a little way away from the yard

239
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:01,120
and they're then free
to be handled from the deck.

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00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,440
What you don't want when you're
half way through hoisting
that yard is a foul up.

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00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,760
She's coiling up the little gaskets,
the ropes, coiling them up neatly

242
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,520
and just tossing them down
over the front of the sail.

243
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:17,400
With so many sails and lines,
there's a lot that can go wrong.

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00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:23,080
So it's vital
that each task is done neatly,
properly, and in the correct order.

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00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:27,520
Back in the 19th century,
practice over and over again would

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00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:32,760
have drilled every seamen to get it
right at any time in any conditions.

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00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:39,160
Wondering whether you're tying the
right knot 70 feet above the water
in a gale of wind wasn't an option.

248
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,720
Just the windage of the rig,
the weight of the wind just blowing

249
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:47,400
in the rigging and those two little
rags of canvas, is blowing this
ship along at three knots.

250
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:56,280
As each additional sail is set, the
speed of the ship slowly builds up.

251
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:02,320
The mate and her hand here
are working the braces.

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00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:06,000
Those are the ropes that actually
control the angle of the yard to
the wind,

253
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,480
so they're now actually
controlling the set of the sail.

254
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:14,040
Troops are giving the
halyard another tweak and
the boat is picking up speed.

255
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:22,720
We've now got two topsails and a
jib set, and already, The Phoenix
is travelling at a fair lick.

256
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:28,080
But even with
gale force eight forecast,
there's more canvas to set.

257
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:30,400
Next it's the main staysail.

258
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,200
The skipper wants more speed, so
we're going to set the forecourse,

259
00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:41,200
that's the big sail at the fore end
of the ship, set on the foremast.

260
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,240
Unlike their navy counterparts,
merchant skippers couldn't rely

261
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,480
on military discipline
to control their crews.

262
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:53,040
With small crews relatively
free to jump ship,
a more consensual approach

263
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:58,560
was required to maintain
morale and get the job done.

264
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,640
And what's so nice about this
is that this is a small crew.

265
00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:06,600
It's the sort of crew that would
have sailed this vessel had she
been a cargo vessel 150 years ago.

266
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,040
It's great teamwork, isn't it?

267
00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:21,000
Now, as then, a well-drilled crew is
the way to get the best from a boat.

268
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:25,840
With five sails set, The Phoenix
is starting to move beautifully.

269
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:35,960
Back in her working days, a boat
Phoenix's size would have carried
a cargo of around 80 tonnes.

270
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:41,160
Sometimes bulk goods like
Cornish clay, but mostly
high-value merchandise

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00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:47,120
such as tobacco
from America, a journey
she'd have made in around 30 days.

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00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:52,840
Out on the high seas for long
passages like that, square-riggers
could run into some serious weather.

273
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,720
But these were capable,
ocean-going vessels,

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00:21:55,720 --> 00:22:01,240
and today with the wind touching
gale force, Phoenix is handling it
without a second thought.

275
00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:04,840
Absolutely marvellous.
This is the power.

276
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:10,320
This is the wind that drove these
ships around the world, because
it was harnessed by the sailors.

277
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:12,160
They made it work for us,

278
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:16,840
they turned it into miles and they
turned those miles into profit.

279
00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:22,000
The wind, the free engine of God.

280
00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:25,680
With a steady wind behind her,

281
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,800
a square-rigger will
just keep on going.

282
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:34,200
And by the 19th century, huge
amounts of data had been collected
about those winds,

283
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:38,640
put together by thousands
of English-speaking captains
sailing the oceans,

284
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:44,240
all of whom needed to know
just what the wind would be doing,
where and when.

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00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:48,680
The special charts that were
compiled from this data meant
that with a little forethought,

286
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:53,640
a merchant captain could
be confident of finding what became
known as the north-east trade winds,

287
00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:59,280
and the powerful westerlies
that would drive his ship across
the oceans and get the job done.

288
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,520
Ocean sailing is all about planning.

289
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:07,200
A lot has been known for centuries
about the way the wind blows
in oceans.

290
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:12,440
Suppose you're going to trade sugar
from London to the Caribbean.

291
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,560
Once you can get down here,
you've got almost guaranteed

292
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,160
north-easterly winds that are
going to chase you

293
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:19,680
across the Atlantic.

294
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,920
That will take you to the Caribbean.

295
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,680
Down here, down the coast
of Spain and Portugal,

296
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,280
You've got almost certain northerly
winds, which are absolutely fine.

297
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,160
With a bit of luck,
you'll have some southerlies

298
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:34,200
and south-westerlies to bring you
up the coast of North America.

299
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,120
Once you get into
the North Atlantic,

300
00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:38,640
you're almost guaranteed
to have westerlies

301
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,760
to carry you home again to London.

302
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:45,560
So, if you can plan to be in the
right place at the right time,

303
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:50,720
the wind's fair.
The square-rigger is bowling along
without a care in the world.

304
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:01,480
With the trade winds and westerlies
to power them, square-riggers
straddled the world,

305
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,680
from the West Indies to South East
Asia, and all points in between.

306
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,840
Driven by a rig, perfectly
adapted to the job in hand.

307
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,800
It's been a good few years since
I went aloft on a square-rigger,

308
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,320
but without getting up into the rig,
there's no way you're ever going to

309
00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:26,160
understand what these
boats are really about.

310
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,840
This is absolutely amazing.

311
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:38,480
I'm up here in the engine that drove
commerce, from the time of Noah

312
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:42,720
until steam started to take
over in the latter part of
the 19th century.

313
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:47,880
And the feeling is of
flying through the air like a bird.

314
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:52,560
If you're not used to it,
it's a little bit frightening.
It's year since I've been aloft.

315
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:54,840
But I won't have
missed it for anything.

316
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:59,360
From here, of course, you've got
a fantastic view of the horizon.

317
00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:01,720
Sailors have been seeing
stuff coming up over

318
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:05,600
the edge of the earth from here
since the Vikings and before.

319
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:10,480
But the best views of all
were in that latter part of
the 19th century,

320
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,960
when the masts were tall,
and the ships were fast

321
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:18,880
and the yards were well slung and
the sailors were at their very peak.

322
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:23,440
This is the place to see the sea.

323
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,160
This was the golden age of sail.

324
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:38,120
And as the 19th century
progressed, the ships got
bigger and ever faster.

325
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:45,480
But just as these glorious
craft were reaching their peak,
a new technology arrived that

326
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,960
was to exert a slow stranglehold
from which they could never recover.

327
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:56,240
Steam ships didn't have to wait for
a favourable wind to make progress.

328
00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:02,400
They could travel
anywhere, at any time,
and they could guarantee a schedule.

329
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:09,040
In a world where time was now money,
the writing was on the
wall for sail.

330
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:16,000
Today, very few of the great square
riggers remain to paint

331
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,400
a true picture of the incredible
scale of the trade they drove.

332
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:28,000
But at ports like Liverpool,
a harbour which once handled
cargo from all over the world,

333
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:35,320
you get some idea of the astonishing
place these craft once held in our
national and international life.

334
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:44,680
Believe it or not,
this is sailing-ship country.

335
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,360
They walked them into here.

336
00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:49,680
There's a capstan
on the quay over there

337
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:54,680
that's left over from the days that
the last sailing ship was in here.

338
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:56,720
It's a place of ghosts.

339
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,720
Remarkable atmosphere.

340
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,920
You can hear
the crowd singing the shanties

341
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:12,320
as they walked round that capstan
to get the sailing ship out
to go out through that gate,

342
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:14,840
turn starboard into the river,
pick up her tug,

343
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:20,800
down to the bar, spread her topsails
and away for Australia.

344
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,960
Today, the square-rigged ships
are long gone from Liverpool.

345
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:32,520
But the memory of the time they
filled these docks lives on in
the songs that the sailors sang.

346
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,640
And in Liverpool's harbourside
pubs, you can still find men who

347
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:40,080
know the tunes that once rang out on
British ships all around the world.

348
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,120
INSTRUMENTS OBSCURE VOCALS

349
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:53,480
# Running the east wind now

350
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:55,240
# Running the east wind now... #

351
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,200
The docks are still here,

352
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,640
but the men who worked them
have faded away.

353
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,000
They've been replaced by
ever-more efficient machines.

354
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,440
You can't argue with
progress, can you?

355
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,800
But I wonder if in 50 years' time,

356
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:15,720
men will still be writing songs in
praise of container ships.

357
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:23,000
But it's not hard to see why they
sang about the square-rigger,

358
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:28,800
a magnificent ship that changed
Britain and the world for all time.

359
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,040
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,080
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