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Britain is an island nation.

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The seas around us
have framed our history,

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helped create our culture,
made us who we are.

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HE SHOUTS

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I'm setting out to explore
Britain's relationship with the sea,

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how it's inspired our literature
and art.

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A mysterious sea full of wonder,
full of danger.

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An exciting sea,
taking us to distant lands,

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providing rich rewards.

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A protective sea - our front line
of defence against attack...

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..and a romantic sea -

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a challenge to the brave
since the dawn of time.

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This is a thrill for me.

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Ow!

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For my first journey
around our island,

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I'm sailing my boat Rocket along
the coast of Cornwall and Devon -

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one of the most beautiful shorelines
in the country,

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and one of the most exciting.

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Our starting point is
the Helford Estuary,

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hidden away
on the southern tip of the country.

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'To help me sail this coastline,
I have recruited a crew.'

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Josh, why don't you do drinks?
Sure. Beer?

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'Josh is a local
sailing instructor.'

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Butter, bit of butter...
What are you doing?

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I'm just trying the cheese.
Don't try it, just buy it!

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'And with him his girlfriend,
Eliza.'

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Yes, please, that's lovely.

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Thanks very much, guys. Bye!

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You all right?

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I'm good, I'm good.
I'll take the rum.

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THEY LAUGH

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So, welcome to Rocket. Hi, John.
Hi there. You all right?

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'John has years of experience
as a sailor and boat-builder,

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'and he looks after Rocket.

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'Where he goes, Stanley goes.'

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So, life jackets - one, two...

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Rocket was built over 30 years ago,

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her design based on a Falmouth
work boat of the late 19th century.

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She's 28 foot long, but 40 foot

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if you include the great pole
sticking out front, the bowsprit,

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which allows us to carry plenty
of sail and drive the boat hard.

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This corner of Britain gave birth to
many of our most famous adventurers.

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From here they set off to discover
the four corners of the Earth -

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voyages that would change
our understanding of the world.

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That's one of Henry VIII's castles.

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Falmouth was defended, look, by that
castle there and that one up there,

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Pendennis. You could fire a cannon
from there, a cannon from there.

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'Our first port of call is the great
inland harbour of Falmouth.

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'It's not far, but we still
need to plot the course.'

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All coastal sailing, which is
what I mainly do, can be dangerous

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because you're, of course,
close to the shore,

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therefore you're close to rocks.

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You have to watch out very carefully
for tides, the direction of the wind

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and then use your chart.

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I mean, these charts
are absolutely brilliant,

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they've got all the metres, depths,
they've got all the buoys marked.

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But interestingly,
several hundred years ago,

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mariners had to rely on
a rather cruder way of navigating,

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and this is a copy of a chart
of 1597,

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the Helford river,

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where we came from,
Pendennis Castle that we went past,

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and here into Falmouth, which,
when this chart was made,

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didn't yet exist,
so all you've got is woodland,

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but some of the other places
are marked here - Strongate Creek,

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St Mawes' Castle that had
been built by Henry, there,

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so it was designed to show
how well-protected Falmouth was.

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But it's also a work of art
in its own right.

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I mean, the drawings are so fine -
impeccable drawings

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of ships, lovely penmanship, the
curve of the sails and the masts...

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A sea battle going on out there.

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Great puffs of smoke
from the cannon fire.

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Strange sea monsters. There's
one there, with little jagged teeth,

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and here's something that looks more
like a little dog with red eyes.

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And this idea of the land being
a place that's relatively safe,

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with churches and houses,
and out there, "terra incognita",

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the unknown seas, all the perils
of the deep, was a powerful image

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for sailors at the turn
of the 17th century.

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The sea has always inspired fear
in the hearts of sailors...

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..tales of mermaids who lured ships
onto deadly rocks, and sea monsters,

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devouring whole vessels
in a single gulp.

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It can be a dangerous place,

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and sensible sailors
treat it with respect.

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Stand by to jibe.

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Steady, everybody.

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OK, here we are coming up.
Jibe ho!

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Lovely, well done.

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Josh? Yep?

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Your reward is to come
and take the helm. Nice.

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It's just like a dinghy, OK? Yeah.

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So we're heading...
You see Falmouth? Yeah.

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So go straight as we are now. Sure.

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Today, Falmouth
is a busy working harbour.

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Generations of seafarers
have tramped these narrow streets,

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from a time when the terrors
of the deep were very real.

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Sailors back from distant climes
amazed people at home

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with their stories of strange beasts
and exotic fish.

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And every now and again, their
stories got a little out of hand.

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Falmouth Aquarium has taken delivery
of a nasty little creature

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that used to strike fear
into the hearts of our ancestors.

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Agh!

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Huh! I bet it stinks.

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Hm.

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This is a monkey fish, brought home
by sailors from the Far East.

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Now the thing about this is
that people got away with saying

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that this was a real monster
from the deep

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because the sea was such
a mysterious place,

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and people who went down to the sea
came back with strange stories,

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that they really believed
for over 1,000 years

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that a monster like this, a merman,
a monkey fish, could have existed.

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This one is actually made in Japan,
where they used to produce

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lots of these for sailors
to bring home to their families.

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And for a long time it was thought
actually to have a monkey's head,

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but they've studied them carefully
now and they've revealed that this

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is kind of plaster, the fish's tail
is true, and the monkey's head is

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made of papier-mache built up, and
here there are little fish teeth,

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human hair, and the claws here,
or the hands,

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are actually chicken
or bantam's claws.

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But it does just show
how gullible people were,

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or rather how terrified people were
about the sea

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and the terrors that it contained.

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SHE LAUGHS

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JOSH LAUGHS

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Rocket's turned into
a roller coaster.

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There's always a bit of a worry

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when the wind gets up that
something might break or a big wave

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might come in, but we seem to be
doing all right so far.

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We've just put our navigation
lights on, so we can be seen

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by other ships.

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Oh... It's all right.
It's not a holiday.

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Thing is, there comes a point...
Watch it.

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Hold on, everybody!

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..there comes a point when, if
you've set off, you have to decide

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whether to go back or keep going and
actually, when you've got the wind

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behind you and no tide against you,
it's easier to go on than turn back.

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As suddenly as the wind had blown up
and the sea become a bit rough,

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it'd all calmed down again.

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The moods of the sea
are always changing.

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It's part of its fascination.

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The great painter JMW Turner
came to this coast

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in the early years of
the 19th century.

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For him, painting the sea was
the greatest challenge of his life.

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All around the coast of Britain,

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he tried to capture the restless
movement of the waves

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and the interplay
of water and light.

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Leaving Falmouth behind,
we're making good speed

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towards our next destination -

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once the smuggling capital of
Cornwall, Mevagissey.

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Today, Mevagissey is
a pretty seaside town.

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It makes the hundreds of visitors
that come here each summer

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feel at their ease.

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200 years ago,
it was a very different story.

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It was smuggling on which
this little village depended,

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like villages all up and down
the south coast of England.

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Smuggling of tobacco,
of spirits, of silks,

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anything that could be brought in
and avoid custom and excise duty.

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The high-minded, of course,
always complained about it.

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The redoubtable Dr Johnson
called smugglers "wretches",

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rather like our modern politicians
call people

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who avoid their taxes
morally indefensible.

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But Mevagissey
lends itself to smuggling.

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Mevagissey is a town designed to
confuse, a labyrinth of paths

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which snake the hillside -

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perfect territory for smugglers
evading the authorities.

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The poet Rudyard Kipling, in his
Smuggler's Song, had sound advice

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for anyone who happened
to notice illegal activities -

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best turn away.

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"If you wake at midnight
and hear a horses' feet

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"Don't go drawing back the blind
or looking in the street

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"Them as asks no questions
isn't told a lie

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"Watch the wall, my darling
while the gentlemen go by

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"Five and twenty ponies
trotting through the dark

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"Brandy for the parson
Baccy for the clerk

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"Laces for a lady
Letters for a spy

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"And watch the wall, my darling
while the gentlemen go by."

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Smuggling was not even
a guilty secret here in Mevagissey.

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200 years ago, you could have
walked into the pub

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and found the locals openly
hatching their illicit plans.

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Local historian Geoff Pollard

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and his cousin Gary Mitchell
know all about the bad old days.

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Well, the whole town was involved.

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I mean, 2,300 people,

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most of whom were involved.
Who would be involved?

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Apart from the smugglers themselves.

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Well, all the families
that mattered were on to it.

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I mean, even local gentry
were involved. Vicars. Really?

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Did people not think
it was wrong to smuggle?

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Well, ask yourself the question,
is it better to see people starving?

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My father always used to say,

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"you just as well be on the moon
as in Cornwall",

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because of its extreme distance
from the centre of things - London.

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Was it kept to this community,
to the people of Mevagissey?

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I mean, if a stranger came in,
would they talk about the smuggling?

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Would they know? No, no.

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You don't know to this day
what went on in this town.

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You don't, and nor anybody else,
because nobody talks about it.

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Tales of smuggling captured
the imagination of painters, too.

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The artist George Morland
developed a popular line

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in pictures of smuggling
at the end of the 18th century.

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He embraced the romantic image
of heroic figures

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flouting the law with
their illicit booze and tobacco.

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Sometimes, things went even further.
Smuggling went hand in hand

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with "wrecking" - deliberately
luring ships on to rocks

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with decoy lamps, and plundering
their cargo as the crew drowned.

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The lure of the sea
is irresistible in Cornwall.

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A few miles from Mevagissey
is the castle of Caerhays.

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Here, some of the most
courageous journeys

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were planned in the early 1900s,
crossing vast oceans.

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The expeditions of an intrepid
adventurer, George Forrest.

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He spent years of his life
trekking through

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the most remote mountain areas
of China.

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He froze to death on mountain tops,
he lost mules over precipices,

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and worst of all,
on his very first journey -

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and it didn't put him off - he was
attacked by marauding Tibetans,

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who killed two companions, French
priests, and cut open their bodies

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while they were still alive,
took out their hearts, and ate them,

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because to eat a Christian heart
was to get strength.

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He just managed to survive,

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he had nothing to eat for over a
week, he escaped - did it stop him?

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No, he went back and back,

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and all because
he was obsessed with finding this.

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George Forrest was a plant hunter.

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He undertook epic journeys
of discovery

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in the pursuit of new varieties
of flower.

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Here at Caerhays, they've got
wonderful records

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of George Forrest's
extraordinary expeditions,

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five of which were
funded from here.

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There he is, a brave, bold man.

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They have the map of all
his expeditions, done in red,

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looking like blood stains
on the mountains of China -

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and suitably so,
because they were always in danger.

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There were always bandits,
he lost guides,

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he lost bearers to bandits on the
roads down bringing these seeds.

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It was a very perilous business.

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He always took a camera with him
on his expeditions,

235
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:29,000
and his books are not
sort of happy family snapshots,

236
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:34,000
but pictures of trees,
endless varieties of trees,

237
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:38,000
that he took, all beautifully
catalogued, volumes of that.

238
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,000
Everything that he collected
was catalogued -

239
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:45,000
books like field notes, of trees,
shrubs and plants

240
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,000
collected in western China,
and the list is endless.

241
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,000
He collected new acers and aliums
and buddleias and clematis,

242
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,000
camellias and gentrums,
jasmines and lilies,

243
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,000
peonies and salvias, magnolias,
22 kinds of primulas -

244
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:04,000
to say nothing of 200-300
different kinds of rhododendron!

245
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:15,000
What we think of as the English
country garden is anything but.

246
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:20,000
It's built on plants and seeds
shipped thousands of miles

247
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,000
across turbulent seas.

248
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,000
Back on board Rocket, we're facing
some turbulent seas of our own.

249
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,000
Well, it's quite rough, isn't it?

250
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,000
Um, well, this is what they call
moderate to rough.

251
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,000
It may be bright and sunny,

252
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,000
but the swell is proving
a bit much for the crew.

253
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,000
Eliza? Yeah? You feeling all right?

254
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,000
Um... Not very? What? Yeah, I'm OK.

255
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000
Are you? Just deep breaths.

256
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,000
Well, thing is, Josh, we wouldn't be
going out in any worse than this.

257
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
Any worse than this
and we'd be coming in anyway, so...

258
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,000
How many of your sick pills
did you take?

259
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,000
Um, I took two but then
I put these patches on as well,

260
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,000
so I've overdosed.

261
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,000
All right.
Well, it can only get better.

262
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000
VOMITING

263
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,000
Whose idea was this trip?
Yeah, exactly.

264
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,000
We'll soon be reaching Fowey,

265
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,000
a childhood home to the writer
Daphne du Maurier.

266
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:04,000
Du Maurier is most famous for
writing Rebecca and The Birds,

267
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,000
two novels made into Hollywood
movies by Alfred Hitchcock.

268
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:14,000
Du Maurier spent many holidays here
at Fowey in this romantic house

269
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:15,000
on the banks of the estuary.

270
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,000
She claimed Fowey
and its relationship with the sea

271
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,000
made her a novelist
in the first place.

272
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:33,000
Today, the house belongs to
De Maurier's son, Kits.

273
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,000
How are you?! All right!

274
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,000
Kits lives here under
the watchful eye of Jane Slade.

275
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,000
She's seen here as the figurehead
of an old trading schooner.

276
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:55,000
In reality, Jane Slade
ran a boatyard on the river -

277
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,000
a woman in a man's world.

278
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,000
And it was her story
that inspired Du Maurier's

279
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:07,000
first attempt at a novel, The
Loving Spirit, written here in 1929.

280
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:12,000
I'm fascinated here
by what it was about Jane Slade

281
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,000
that caught
your mother's imagination.

282
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,000
And she was a girl of, what,
22 at the time?

283
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,000
21, even, I think, yes.

284
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:23,000
Well, she loved walking, and one day
she came across this derelict ship

285
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,000
that was waiting to be broken up.

286
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:31,000
And on her bow was this faded and
worn figurehead called Jane Slade.

287
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
It still had her name on it.

288
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:39,000
So she became fascinated, and that's
really how it all came into being.

289
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,000
What was the character of Jane Slade
that appealed to her?

290
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,000
What did she discover
about the kind of person she was?

291
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,000
She was a very tough, small lady.

292
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:55,000
And apparently ran the boatyard
with a rod of iron, you know -

293
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,000
she was really very, very tough.

294
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,000
And I think this impressed my mum
a lot,

295
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,000
because she rather liked, you know,
people who were tough,

296
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,000
and...especially the fact
that she was a woman.

297
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,000
And this was one of the things
that appealed to her.

298
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:16,000
So you've got that figurehead
out there of Jane Slade,

299
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,000
and you've got her double in here.

300
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,000
No, this is the real one. Oh, is it?

301
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,000
Yes, yes. So we're all deceived
by the one outside.

302
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:27,000
Yes, yes. Hopefully,
everybody is deceived by it.

303
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,000
Because when we first
bought the house back in 1993,

304
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,000
she was somewhat the worse for wear.

305
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,000
So what we decided to do
is we found a man who said

306
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:38,000
he could make a fibreglass model.

307
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:44,000
A double. A stand-in.
And now Jane is in happy retirement,

308
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:49,000
whilst the double is up on the roof
looking out towards the sea.

309
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:59,000
"She longed for freedom as she saw
a ship leave the harbour,

310
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:05,000
"the sails spread to the wind,
the spirit free and unfettered,

311
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,000
"waiting to rise
from its enforced seclusion,

312
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,000
"to mix with things like the wind,
the sea and the skies."

313
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,000
"To become part of these things

314
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:22,000
"and move away like a silent phantom
across the face of the sea."

315
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,000
How's the fishing going?
Yeah, good, fine!

316
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,000
Have you caught anything?
Uh, not yet. Not yet.

317
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,000
You'll probably end up with
all the seaweed in the sea. No!

318
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,000
Get off! Josh, I can do it.

319
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,000
No, they're doing very well
with their fishing.

320
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,000
Nice, nice, isn't it?
Look at the light there.

321
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,000
It's said that there's
no greater challenge for an artist

322
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,000
than painting the sea.

323
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,000
Too true.

324
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,000
The thing about the sea is
it's very difficult to capture

325
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,000
because it's so fast, moving
all the time. Nothing stays still.

326
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,000
If you're doing a human portrait,
at least the sitter is there -

327
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,000
if you're doing landscape,
the trees basically are there,

328
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:19,000
the fields are there.

329
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,000
Actually trying to capture the sea,

330
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:28,000
these little wavelets
all shuffling about...

331
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,000
I don't know how.

332
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,000
I think I'd better take
a drawing course.

333
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,000
This great rock coming down.

334
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:50,000
And this is a very calm day,
so I suppose it's cheating a bit.

335
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,000
And also, I'm what's called
a Sunday artist.

336
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000
if I could just capture
even one wave, just one...

337
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,000
I'm as bad at capturing the waves
as you two are at catching fish.

338
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,000
I've put in Rocket's boom here
to show that we're at sea.

339
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,000
Charcoal is lovely stuff. It's
sort of forgiving and it's messy!

340
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,000
You can't rub it out, though.

341
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,000
No, but that's a good thing,
you have to be bold with it.

342
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,000
Rocket At Sea.

343
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,000
It's yours. Oh, thank you! Yeah.

344
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,000
We're heading for Plymouth Sound,

345
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000
the name given to the deep water bay
and natural harbour

346
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:00,000
that's given Plymouth
its place in maritime history.

347
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,000
Over the last 400 years,
this stretch of water has witnessed

348
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:16,000
our greatest adventurers set out to
establish our mastery of the seas.

349
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,000
It's still one of the Royal Navy's
three operating bases in the UK.

350
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:35,000
I'm going ashore at Mount Edgecumbe,
to pay homage to someone

351
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,000
who put the sea at the heart
of our national life.

352
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:51,000
Most visitors here head for
the big house up the hill,

353
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,000
but what I'm looking for
is along the shoreline,

354
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,000
hidden among the trees.

355
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,000
They built this very pretty
little pavilion as a memorial

356
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:14,000
a poet who's now virtually unknown -
the Scot James Thomson.

357
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,000
In his day he represented everything

358
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,000
that people admired about Britain
and the sea.

359
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,000
And this particular poem
is about British men of war.

360
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,000
"Ribbed with oak
to bear the British thunder

361
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,000
"Black and bold, the roaring vessel
rushed into the main."

362
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:34,000
Curiously, the poem that
he's probably best known for

363
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:39,000
is one that many people think would
be better as our national anthem

364
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,000
than the rather dreary song
that we have.

365
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,000
It starts "When Britain
first at Heaven's command

366
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,000
"Rose up from out the azure main."

367
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:50,000
You probably know the rest.

368
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:55,000
# When Britain first
at Heaven's command

369
00:29:55,000 --> 00:30:00,000
# Rose up from out the azure main

370
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:06,000
# Arose arose arose
from out the azure main... #

371
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:11,000
Written in 1740 and set to music
by Thomas Arne, 'Rule, Britannia!'

372
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,000
became a rallying cry for a nation
that was beginning to believe

373
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,000
it owned all the seas of the world.

374
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,000
# Rule Britannia!

375
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,000
# Britannia rule the waves

376
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:27,000
# Britons never never never
shall be slaves. #

377
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,000
What a spectacular view this is!

378
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,000
Looking right across Plymouth Sound,

379
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,000
the site of so many great events of
our history.

380
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:38,000
You could have stood here
and watched our fleet set off

381
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,000
to chase the Spanish Armada
up the Channel.

382
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,000
You could have stood up here
and seen the Mayflower,

383
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,000
with its pilgrims,
setting off for America.

384
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,000
You could have stood here
just 30 years after Rule, Britannia!

385
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,000
was written and watched Captain Cook

386
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,000
setting off
for the southern hemisphere,

387
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,000
full of curiosity about what
that part of the world was like,

388
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,000
taking with him scientists

389
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:07,000
and botanists and artists
to record everything he saw.

390
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:20,000
Cook sailed thousands of miles
across uncharted areas of the globe.

391
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,000
And the artist William Hodges
went with him

392
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,000
to capture the sights he saw,

393
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,000
from sultry Polynesian islands...

394
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,000
..to the frozen wilds
of Antarctica...

395
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:40,000
..even the mysterious
lost civilisation of Easter Island.

396
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:47,000
But there was one discovery that had
a bigger effect on our visual arts

397
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:53,000
than any landscapes, and was first
brought home by Cook's own sailors.

398
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:08,000
What is this?

399
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,000
This is a smuggler girl,
a pirate girl.

400
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,000
We've got the fisherman
on the inside,

401
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,000
you've got the two swallows,
the traditional sailor tattoos.

402
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,000
When did you first have a tattoo?

403
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,000
My mum made me promise not to get
anything done until I was 21.

404
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,000
And then what did you have done
at 21?

405
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,000
I got my gran's initials on my wrist.

406
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,000
And what about these socking great
things here? Chinese?

407
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,000
These are for my gran as well.
Yeah, it's a Japanese tattoo.

408
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,000
So you really choose these
very carefully.

409
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,000
You must've really thought out...
Yeah, I mean,

410
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,000
some are very meaningful
and some are kind of...

411
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,000
the same way that someone collects
art for their walls, I suppose.

412
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,000
Just collecting art on your skin
instead.

413
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,000
Captain Cook
was fascinated by the tattoos

414
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:00,000
he saw on his first voyage
to Polynesia in 1768.

415
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:07,000
The word itself comes from
the Tahitian word "tatau",

416
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:08,000
meaning to mark.

417
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,000
Today, the tribal tattoos that Cook

418
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:18,000
and his crew first came across
are back in fashion.

419
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,000
Do you know what it all means?
These type of symbols?

420
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:27,000
Some of the symbols, yeah. These
symbols represent birds. The sea.

421
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,000
Arrows as in hunting arrows,
something like that...

422
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:35,000
All of those are Polynesian.
It's family, love, nature.

423
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,000
You also have to be hairless,
don't you, on your arms?

424
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:41,000
I couldn't have a tattoo because
I've got hairs all over my arms.
Well, shave them.

425
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,000
Yeah, but you have to keep
shaving them.

426
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Well, ask you, man,
would you ever have a tattoo?

427
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:47,000
I've only... I've thought about it,

428
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000
but I don't think I ever would,
really.

429
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,000
Well, there's a seat here for you.
What would you have?

430
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,000
Well, that was the problem -
what do you put?

431
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,000
If you had something small,
what would you have?

432
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,000
Well, I'd have my own star sign,
which is a scorpion.

433
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:03,000
That's what I'd have.

434
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,000
It's a bit late now, though.
It's never too late.

435
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,000
Only person who'll see my tattoo
will be the undertaker.

436
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:15,000
'It took me some time,
but in the end, I succumbed.

437
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:16,000
'And why not?

438
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,000
'Secretly, I'd always wanted one.'

439
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,000
Ah. We'll remove
just a little hair there.

440
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,000
I've got rather a hairy back.

441
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,000
Doesn't hurt so far.

442
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,000
"Name of artist."

443
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:35,000
So you're the artist, are you, Paul?

444
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:36,000
Yes, I am.

445
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,000
"Am I pregnant or breast-feeding?"

446
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,000
No, contrary to appearances,
I'm not.

447
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,000
"Are you prone to fainting attacks?"

448
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,000
We're just about to find out!
We'll wait and see!

449
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,000
How's that? That's fine. It's like
being cut by a razor blade.

450
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:05,000
Ow!

451
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:10,000
Is the pain worth it?
Stiff upper lip! That's it.

452
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,000
So what's this actually doing?
Drilling the ink into the skin?

453
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:17,000
Under the skin?

454
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,000
Yeah, so the needle breaks
the surface of the skin and the ink

455
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,000
sits in a little reservoir
and runs down between the needles.

456
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:27,000
And there's actually seven needles
in what I'm using here.

457
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,000
And stays just above the dermis
of your skin.

458
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,000
You mustn't talk too much
cos you'll lose concentration

459
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,000
and I'll end up with
a three-legged scorpion.

460
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,000
No, it was a seahorse, wasn't it?

461
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:38,000
No, it was a mermaid!

462
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,000
People paint kind of life stories
on them, don't they?

463
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,000
The death of a member of the family
or...

464
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,000
I saw somebody
with their children's names. Yep.

465
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:55,000
It's a good way to mark a time,
remember a time in your life.

466
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,000
Whether it's a good thing
or a bad thing... Ow!

467
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,000
We found a little sharp spot?
Yes. Ow.

468
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,000
All right. Is it done?

469
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,000
Yes, take yourself
a look in the mirror.

470
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,000
I really can't bear to look.

471
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,000
Come round. Oh, yes!

472
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,000
Ah.

473
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,000
Oh, you've done it
incredibly well.

474
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,000
That is, I have to say, fantastic.

475
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,000
Thank you very, very much.
No problem at all. Enjoy.

476
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,000
And it didn't hurt - not much! Good.

477
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:28,000
Can we take it off now?

478
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
We're motoring inland
up the River Tamar

479
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000
that separates Cornwall from Devon.

480
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,000
Up this river is the home of one
of Britain's greatest adventurers.

481
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Sir Francis Drake could claim to be
Devon's most famous son.

482
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,000
Everyone remembers Sir Francis Drake
as the man who defeated the Spanish

483
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:13,000
at the Armada, the first Englishman
to sail right round the world.

484
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,000
What some people are always
a bit embarrassed by

485
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,000
is what the real Drake was like.

486
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,000
They forget that he was
a man of his time.

487
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,000
That's to say, he paid for
these trips around the world

488
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:29,000
by pillaging and thieving and murder
and mayhem, he traded slaves

489
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:33,000
across the Atlantic, he stopped
Spanish ships, killed as many people

490
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:37,000
as necessary and stole the gold, he
went ashore and destroyed villages

491
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:40,000
and forts. In other words, he did
what was expected at the time.

492
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,000
He didn't go around the world
just for the fun of it or "let's see

493
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,000
whether it's really round" -
he went round to make money

494
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,000
and make his fortune,
and fortune he did make.

495
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,000
When he came back,
ship laden with gold,

496
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,000
he did what all buccaneers,
even the modern ones, do

497
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,000
when they've made their fortune - he
bought himself a great country pile.

498
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,000
Buckland Abbey
was a religious foundation

499
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:10,000
until the dissolution
of the monasteries under Henry VIII.

500
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,000
It was on the market in 1581
when Drake bought it for himself.

501
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,000
It was a fit home for a hero -

502
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,000
he'd just returned from his
circumnavigation of the globe

503
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:27,000
with treasure and new territory
for his queen, Elizabeth I.

504
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:36,000
And she gave him this.
It's called the Drake Cup.

505
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:42,000
It's made in silver gilt. At the
top it has this constellation,

506
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,000
showing the stars,
the position of the stars,

507
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:49,000
of course, the way that sailors
would navigate across the oceans

508
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,000
of the world.
Below it the globe itself,

509
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:58,000
etched in very, very clear
and distinct -

510
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,000
you can see Africa,
Europe and India -

511
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,000
but interestingly the bottom part
of this, the terra incognita,

512
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,000
where nobody had yet been,
still not showing on this globe,

513
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,000
and instead there are sea monsters
and all the usual depictions

514
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,000
of the horrors of the deep
the terrors of the unknown.

515
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,000
But what an extraordinary trophy.

516
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,000
He must have been thrilled
to get this from the queen.

517
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000
If he'd been a modern man,
he'd have picked it up

518
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,000
like they do with the football
trophies or the Olympic gold medals

519
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,000
and kissed it for the photographers,

520
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:31,000
but the impact must have
been the same -

521
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,000
it must have been sheer thrill,
delirious excitement

522
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:39,000
to have this the great trophy
to celebrate his circumnavigation.

523
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,000
History has been kind to Drake.

524
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:51,000
He's remembered as an explorer,
adventurer and pioneer,

525
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,000
the embodiment of a self-made man.

526
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,000
He proved how mastery of the seas
could make you rich and powerful.

527
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,000
Drake had planned to live out
his days here,

528
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,000
in the splendour of Buckland.

529
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:11,000
But it wasn't to be.

530
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:16,000
Francis Drake died
far away from here of fever.

531
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:20,000
Aboard his ship, in the bay
of Panama, his sailors buried him

532
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:24,000
in a lead coffin and made a note
of exactly where the coffin lay.

533
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,000
And I was involved in a mad scheme
a few years back,

534
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,000
to try and recover this coffin
with Drake's body,

535
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:35,000
bring it back on a Royal Naval ship
in great glory to Greenwich

536
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:36,000
and then up the river in a barge.

537
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,000
And I had this picture of him
being buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

538
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,000
When we came to
look at it in detail, there was

539
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,000
one group who you might have
thought would be enthusiasts for it,

540
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:51,000
who were completely opposed to it -
the Royal Navy - and why?

541
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:59,000
I think it was because though he is
a national hero, Drake was a pirate!

542
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:11,000
For as long as there have been
ships, there have been pirates.

543
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,000
And in the 17th and 18th centuries,

544
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,000
they were as feared at sea
as highwaymen on land.

545
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:23,000
But our image of the pirate
owes more to romantic literature

546
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:24,000
than to the real thing.

547
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,000
Stepping aboard,
it's impossible to resist

548
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:37,000
the image of swashbuckling,
rum-swilling rogues.

549
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,000
This ship certainly has
an authentic look to it.

550
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:44,000
It's played the pirate ship
in countless movies and TV,

551
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:49,000
including Treasure Island, based on
the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

552
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:52,000
No pirate ship, of course,

553
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:56,000
complete without its skull
and crossbones

554
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,000
flying at the yard arm there.

555
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:03,000
Originally, the skull and crossbones
was a sign you had fever on board

556
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:06,000
the ship, or plague, and therefore
people should keep clear of you.

557
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,000
And then they quickly discovered
that if you hoisted it

558
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,000
you could gain on your prey

559
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,000
because they thought, well,
they're not going to touch us.

560
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:29,000
With her immense area of sail,
it takes all of her crew of 17 -

561
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,000
make that 18! -
to hoist the mainsail.

562
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:48,000
The exploits of British pirates
have long since been the stuff

563
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:55,000
of legend and no pirate has inspired
more stories than Henry Avery.

564
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:01,000
Legend has it he was the richest
and most ruthless pirate

565
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:06,000
in history, although no-one is sure
where fact ends and fiction begins.

566
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,000
His exploits captured
public imagination

567
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:13,000
and the eager eye of
popular novelists of the day.

568
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:20,000
The most famous of all Avery's
exploits was the capture of one of

569
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:24,000
the great ships of the Muslim Mogul
empire, which, with a princess

570
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:30,000
on board, was sailing from Mecca
back to India, laden with treasure.

571
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:34,000
And the story was told romantically
by Daniel Defoe,

572
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,000
the man who wrote Robinson Crusoe,
in a book called

573
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:38,000
The King of Pirates,

574
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,000
which was published about
the same time as Avery was alive -

575
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,000
that raid was in 1695, this was
published about 15 years later.

576
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:50,000
And this is what he has Avery say
about getting on board

577
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:54,000
and finding the princess
sitting on the side of a kind of bed

578
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:58,000
and covered with diamonds.
"And I, like a true pirate,

579
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:03,000
"soon let her see I had more mind
to the jewels than to the lady."

580
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:12,000
Avery, at least in fiction,
is the lovable rogue

581
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:15,000
who leaves the princess's honour
intact.

582
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,000
Quite what the truth is,
we shall never know.

583
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,000
But at least his origins
may have come to light,

584
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:27,000
and the evidence is nearby.

585
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:42,000
Newton Ferrers,
to the east of Plymouth,

586
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:44,000
looks peaceful enough
in the summer sunshine.

587
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,000
But the records of the local church
suggest it may have been

588
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:57,000
the birthplace of Britain's
most villainous pirate.

589
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:08,000
This handsome bound volume
in parchment starts at 1600.

590
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:15,000
But in the middle, there's
the entry for the year of 1659,

591
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:21,000
and the third entry, "Henry,
the son of Mr John Avery,

592
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:30,000
"and Anne his wife, was born
the 23rd day of August, 1659."

593
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:35,000
So that's the claim - that
Henry Avery actually came from here.

594
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:38,000
But there's another intriguing
document, equally mysterious,

595
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:40,000
which is this little piece of paper

596
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:46,000
that came from a family collection
of records of things.

597
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:50,000
Now, it's headed "Avery The Pirate"
and it says,

598
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:52,000
"On his return from India,

599
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:56,000
"he either landed or was shipwrecked
on the Lizard where he buried

600
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:59,000
"three chests or boxes
full of treasure

601
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,000
"in the sands of the seashore."

602
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:05,000
And this is the exciting bit -
"The three boxes made of wood,

603
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:11,000
"large rubies, sapphires, emeralds,
topaz and diamonds, 120 ingots

604
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:17,000
"of gold, 40 thick flat pieces
of gold, 3,000 pieces of eight."

605
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:21,000
Well, no wonder treasure-seekers
have been looking for this

606
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,000
ever since this document was found.

607
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,000
And people still go down
to the Lizard

608
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,000
in the hope that
they can crack the mystery.

609
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,000
Well, actually, crack open the boxes

610
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,000
that Henry Avery is meant
to have left behind.

611
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,000
All of Avery's victims
were foreigners,

612
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:45,000
which may account for his
popular status in British legend.

613
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:49,000
But there's a surprising postscript
to the story of piracy.

614
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:53,000
And this time, it was
the people of Devon and Cornwall

615
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:54,000
who were the victims.

616
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:57,000
This time, the threat
came from abroad.

617
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,000
It came from pirates
from North Africa -

618
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,000
the so-called Barbary Coast.

619
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:08,000
They came down here,
took men and boys off ships,

620
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:12,000
and took them captive to turn them
into slaves in North Africa.

621
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:15,000
But worse still,
they went ashore, often at night,

622
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,000
to these villages,
and seized people - boys and men.

623
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:24,000
It got so bad that in 1685, the
authorities in Devon and Cornwall

624
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,000
said that over 1,200 men and boys
had been taken captive.

625
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:32,000
It was so bad that the fishermen
had stopped putting out to sea

626
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:33,000
for fear they'd be taken.

627
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:48,000
Barbary pirates continued to be
a threat to the British coast

628
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:52,000
for over a century, until
the British government took action.

629
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:01,000
A fleet led by Lord Exmouth
attacked the city of Algiers

630
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:03,000
to put an end to the kidnappings.

631
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:10,000
After a day-long bombardment,
the city fell,

632
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:14,000
and 3,000 Christian slaves
were freed.

633
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,000
Lord Exmouth returned a hero.

634
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:36,000
The success of the bombardment was
celebrated with this great trophy,

635
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:40,000
a monumental trophy,
called the Exmouth Tablepiece.

636
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:47,000
It's made of silver gilt,
and it was done by a famous engraver

637
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:54,000
at the time, Paul Storr, and it
shows, first of all, at the centre,

638
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:59,000
the lighthouse itself at the port of
Algiers with guns all round,

639
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,000
three layers of guns.

640
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:07,000
And on the top, the lantern of
the lighthouse, and, above it,

641
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:13,000
you can just see the crescent and
the star of the ruler of Algiers.

642
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:19,000
And then these vivid scenes
around the four corners -

643
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:27,000
here the Muslim pirate being put
to the sword by a British sailor,

644
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:32,000
having his hat pulled off
and a knife about to cut his throat.

645
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:39,000
And on this side,
a Christian slave being freed,

646
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:43,000
hands in supplication to the heavens
as a sailor frees him,

647
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:49,000
and has the chain from his handcuffs
or his leg.

648
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:52,000
At the bottom,
the coat of arms of Lord Exmouth,

649
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:57,000
the word "Algiers" at the bottom,
a lion, and on the other side,

650
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:03,000
a slave with a crucifix on one hand
and his chains in the other,

651
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:09,000
and then relief panels here, on
either side, of the battle itself

652
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,000
in progress -
the ships bombarding the city.

653
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:19,000
"This tribute of admiration

654
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:23,000
"and esteem is most respectfully
presented by the rear admiral,

655
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,000
"the captains and commanders, who
had the honour to serve under him

656
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:32,000
"at the memorable victory gained
at Algiers on the 27th August 1816."

657
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,000
It's a truly astonishing work.

658
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:50,000
Yeah, if you try and...
If you hold up the knot...

659
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:54,000
Through the hole. Through the hole.
Round the tree.

660
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:56,000
Round the tree. No, round this tree.

661
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:57,000
Oh, this is the tree.

662
00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:01,000
Round the back of the tree.
That's a granny knot. Oh!

663
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,000
Through the hole, round the tree,

664
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,000
then back down
through the hole the same way.

665
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:10,000
I think the easiest knot
to get wrong is a reef knot.

666
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,000
I don't know why.

667
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,000
You quite often do them.

668
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:16,000
That's a good bowler!

669
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:18,000
Without even looking, though.

670
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:20,000
Good job. Good bowler, Dave.

671
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:21,000
Thank you!

672
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:28,000
We're approaching
our final destination,

673
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:31,000
to see how the adventurer spirit
lives on today.

674
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:38,000
For me,
this is the climax of our journey.

675
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:49,000
In the harbour at Dartmouth, we're
coming alongside Gipsy Moth IV.

676
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:52,000
This is the boat in which
Sir Francis Chichester

677
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:56,000
circumnavigated the globe
single-handed in 1966.

678
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:57,000
Nice boat.

679
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:00,000
Hi. Hi - you OK, everyone?

680
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:04,000
On board is one of my heroes,
Dame Ellen MacArthur,

681
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:09,000
who did the same solo
circumnavigation in 2005,

682
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:12,000
breaking all the records
for the fastest time ever.

683
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:15,000
Hello. Nice to meet you.
Very, very nice to meet you.

684
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,000
This is a thrill for me,

685
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:19,000
like when I danced with
Margot Fontaine.

686
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:22,000
And when I danced with Margot
Fontaine I had a plate put on

687
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,000
the floor where I danced with her,
saying I danced there, and I'm going

688
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:29,000
to have a plate put on Rocket saying
"Ellen McArthur came on board."

689
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:32,000
Will you come on board?
Oh, I'd love to. Excellent.

690
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:34,000
Welcome. Thank you.
Big, big welcome.

691
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:37,000
She's lovely. She's beautiful,
isn't she? Beautiful.

692
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:40,000
All John's doing.
He looks after her.

693
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:43,000
Hiya. Hiya. And good to see
a dog on board as well.

694
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:45,000
Yeah, I'm not so sure about the dog.

695
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,000
Ow. Rather grander than Rocket.

696
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:56,000
It was this very boat,
Gypsy Moth IV,

697
00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:00,000
that first ignited the young Ellen
MacArthur's passion for sailing,

698
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:05,000
and inspired her to attempt her
own gruelling circumnavigation.

699
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,000
It's always been seen as
a man's world, hasn't it, the sea?

700
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:10,000
I never really saw it as that.

701
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,000
I've never really considered myself
to be any different

702
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,000
from the other sailors,
I was just someone growing up

703
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:18,000
who had a dream to sail
around the world who made it happen.

704
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,000
People would say, you know,
you're not huge,

705
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:24,000
you haven't got great muscles,
you know.

706
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:28,000
You're a shrimp compared with
some of the men who go to sea.

707
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,000
You know, that it must've been
physically actually

708
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:32,000
very difficult for you.

709
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,000
It's physically difficult
for anybody.

710
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,000
My biggest challenge
out there was living with

711
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:40,000
the amount of stress that I had,
with a boat powering through

712
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:44,000
the water 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, knowing that one mistake

713
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:47,000
would have you upside down and then
you probably wouldn't survive.

714
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:51,000
Living at that speed with that
adrenaline with that little sleep,
that's what makes it very hard.

715
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:55,000
Oh, it's not fair!

716
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:58,000
'And it's actually more frightening
afterwards than during.

717
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:00,000
'During, you deal with it.

718
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:02,000
'During, your body's
full of adrenaline,

719
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:04,000
'you just find the way
to get out of the situation.

720
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:08,000
'But afterwards is when you realise
actually, that was pretty close.'

721
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:10,000
I think you're mad as a hat!

722
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:14,000
And brave beyond...
beyond belief to have done that.

723
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:15,000
I just can't believe it.

724
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:20,000
I don't think... I get nervous
when we go out here at force five,

725
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,000
thinking Rocket's going to sink.

726
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,000
"Ooh, I'm going to die!"

727
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:28,000
And there are you off Cape Horn
in a force ten!

728
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:32,000
If you choose it, it's not bravery.
It's your choice.

729
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:35,000
I think they're quite different.
So what is it?

730
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:36,000
If you choose to do it?

731
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:40,000
If you choose to do it, probably
madness. You're probably right!

732
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:48,000
You're doing all the work.
You've done enough.

733
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,000
I just love the adventure
of being on the water.

734
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:02,000
The adventure of being at sea,
the fact that, you know,
we could literally say,

735
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,000
"Oh, we're not going back
to Dartmouth,

736
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:05,000
"why don't we just go to France?'

737
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:07,000
or, "Why don't we go to America,
right now?"

738
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:10,000
There's nothing to stop this boat
doing that. I find that amazing.

739
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:15,000
How would you compare what you did
with what, say, Francis Drake did?

740
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:18,000
If you sail on a boat today
or 500 years ago,

741
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:20,000
when you look
out across the southern ocean

742
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:23,000
and you see the white caps and
the waves, they're just the same.

743
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:27,000
You may look back at a different
boat, but it's the same place.

744
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:28,000
Doesn't change with time.

745
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:48,000
Our trip ends at one of Britain's
great monuments to sea power -

746
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:54,000
the Britannia Royal Naval College,
standing majestic on its hill,

747
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:56,000
looking down on Dartmouth.

748
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:06,000
Built in 1905, at the height
of Britain's domination

749
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:11,000
of the seas, it's been described
as a great battleship on land.

750
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,000
It was designed by the same
architect who created

751
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:19,000
the front of Buckingham Palace,
Sir Aston Webb.

752
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:28,000
This is where naval officers
are trained for their life at sea.

753
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:40,000
This building breathes power.

754
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:43,000
It was opened
on the 100th anniversary

755
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:45,000
of Nelson's famous victory
at Trafalgar,

756
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:49,000
which finally established
Britain's command of the seas.

757
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:52,000
And at the beginning of
the 20th century, it was our idea

758
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:56,000
to have a Navy at least twice
the size of any of our rivals.

759
00:56:56,000 --> 00:57:01,000
And this place was designed
to inspire the officers to run it.

760
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:05,000
Eyes front!

761
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:27,000
We've been on a relatively
short journey by sea,

762
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:32,000
but a long voyage
through time from "terra incognita"

763
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:35,000
and "here be dragons",
to the pirates,

764
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:39,000
to the daring exploits
of the Elizabethan sea dogs,

765
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:44,000
to end up here with Britain
dominating the oceans of the world,

766
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:48,000
and proud, even arrogant, about it.

767
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:22,000
'Next time, we set sail along
the southeast shore of Britain,

768
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:27,000
'our frontier coast. For centuries,
the first line of defence

769
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:28,000
'against invasion.'

770
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:30,000
Watch that dog!

771
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:36,000
'We'll discover how we built
the most powerful ships.'

772
00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:39,000
Let me down about a foot.

773
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:44,000
'The greatest defensive
fortifications.'

774
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:51,000
'And how writers and painters
have used their arts to nourish

775
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:53,000
'our sense of independence.'

776
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:04,000
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