Britain and the Sea_1of4_Adventure and Exploration
Transcript
00:00Britain is an island nation. The seas around us have framed our history, helped create
00:18our culture, made us who we are.
00:26I'm setting out to explore Britain's relationship with the sea, how it's inspired our literature
00:34and art.
00:37A mysterious sea, full of wonder, full of danger. An exciting sea, taking us to distant
00:51lands providing rich rewards. A protective sea, our front line of defence against attack.
01:04And a romantic sea, a challenge to the brave since the dawn of time.
01:11This is a thrill to me.
01:41For my first journey around our island, I'm sailing my boat Rocket along the coast of
02:01Cornwall and Devon, one of the most beautiful shorelines in the country and one of the most
02:07exciting.
02:22Our starting point is the Helford Estuary, hidden away on the southern tip of the country.
02:31To help me sail this coastline, I've recruited a crew.
02:35Josh, why don't you do drink?
02:36Sure.
02:37Beer?
02:38Josh is a local sailing instructor.
02:40Butter, a bit of butter. What are you doing?
02:43Just trying the cheese.
02:44Don't try it, just buy it.
02:45And with him, his girlfriend, Eliza.
02:47Thank you very much, guys.
02:50Bye.
02:51Bye.
02:52You all right?
02:53Yeah, I'm good, I'm good.
02:54I'll take the rum.
02:55So, welcome to Rocket.
03:01Hi, John.
03:02Hi there, you all right?
03:03There we go.
03:04John has years of experience as a sailor and boatbuilder, and he looks after Rocket.
03:10Where he goes, Stanley goes.
03:13So, life jackets.
03:16One, two.
03:19Oh, God.
03:22Rocket was built over 30 years ago, her design based on a Falmouth work boat of the late
03:2819th century.
03:33She's 28 foot long, but 40 foot if you include the great pole sticking out front, the bowsprit,
03:40which allows us to carry plenty of sail and drive the boat hard.
03:45This corner of Britain gave birth to many of our most famous adventurers.
04:04From here, they set off to discover the four corners of the earth, voyages that would change
04:11their understanding of the world.
04:16That's one of Henry VIII's castles.
04:18Falmouth was defended, look, by that castle there, and that one up there, Pendennis.
04:23You could fire a cannon from there, a cannon from there.
04:29Our first port of call is the great inland harbour of Falmouth.
04:33It's not far, but we still need to plot the course.
04:40All coastal sailing, which is what I mainly do, can be dangerous because you're, of course,
04:48close to the shore, therefore you're close to rocks, you have to watch out very carefully
04:52for tides, for the direction of the wind, and then use your chart.
04:57I mean, these charts are absolutely brilliant.
04:59They've got all the metres, depths, they've got all the buoys marked.
05:04But interestingly, several hundred years ago, mariners had to rely on a rather cruder way of navigating,
05:12and this is a copy of a chart of 1597.
05:19The Halford River, where we came from, Pendennis Castle that we went past,
05:23and here into Falmouth, which, when this chart was made, didn't yet exist.
05:28So all you've got is woodland, but some of the other places are marked here,
05:32such as Strunge Creek, St Mawes Castle that had been built by Henry there.
05:37So it was designed to show how well-protected Falmouth was.
05:41But it's also a work of art in its own right.
05:44I mean, the drawings are so fine, impeccable drawings of ships,
05:48lovely penmanship, the curve of the sails and the masts.
05:52A sea battle going on out there, great puffs of smoke as a cannon fire.
05:58Strange sea monsters. There's one there with sort of jagged teeth.
06:04And here's something that looks more like a little dog with red eyes.
06:09And this idea of the land being a place that's relatively safe with churches and houses,
06:15and out there, terra incognita, the unknown seas, all the perils of the deep,
06:22was a very powerful image for sailors at the turn of the 17th century.
06:29The sea has always inspired fear in the hearts of sailors.
06:37Tales of mermaids who lured ships onto deadly rocks.
06:44And sea monsters devouring whole vessels in a single gulp.
06:51It can be a dangerous place, and sensible sailors treat it with respect.
06:58Stand by to gybe.
07:02Steady, everybody.
07:04OK, here we are, coming up.
07:07Gybo.
07:13Lovely. Well done.
07:18Josh, your reward is to come and take the helm.
07:21Nice.
07:24It's just like a dinghy, OK?
07:27We're heading to sea Falmouth, so go straight as we are now.
07:31Sure.
07:35Today, Falmouth is a busy working harbour.
07:44Generations of seafarers have tramped these narrow streets
07:49from a time when the terrors of the deep were very real.
07:58Sailors back from distant climes amazed people at home
08:03with their stories of strange beasts and exotic fish.
08:10And every now and then, their stories got a little out of hand.
08:16Falmouth Aquarium has taken delivery of a nasty little creature
08:21that used to strike fear in the hearts of sailors.
08:27Into the hearts of our ancestors.
08:33Huh.
08:35I bet it stinks.
08:41This is a monkey fish.
08:46Brought home by sailors from the Far East.
08:50Now, the thing about this is that people got away with saying
08:54that this was a real monster from the deep,
08:57because the sea was such a mysterious place
09:00and people who went down to the sea came back with such strange stories
09:05that they really believed for over 1,000 years
09:09that a monster like this, a merman, a monkey fish, could have existed.
09:15This one is actually made in Japan,
09:18where they used to produce lots of these for sailors to bring home to their families
09:23and for a long time it was thought actually to have a monkey's head.
09:26But they've studied them carefully now
09:28and they've revealed that this is kind of plaster.
09:31The fish's tail is true
09:33and the monkey's head is made of papier-mâché, built up,
09:37and here there are little fish teeth, human hair,
09:42and the claws here, or the hands,
09:46are actually chicken or bantam's claws.
09:51But it does just show how gullible people were,
09:54or rather, how terrified people were
09:57about the sea and the terrors that it contained.
10:06Whoa!
10:09Woo-hoo!
10:15The rocket's turned into a roller coaster.
10:19There.
10:23There's always a bit of a worry when the wind gets up,
10:28you know, that something might break or a big wave might come in,
10:32but we seem to be doing all right so far.
10:36We've just put our navigation lights on so that we can be seen by other ships.
10:44It's all right.
10:46It's not a holiday.
10:50The thing is, there comes a point...
10:52Watch it.
10:56Hold on, everybody.
10:58There comes a point when, if you've set off,
11:02you have to decide whether to go back or keep going,
11:05and actually, when you've got the wind behind you
11:08and no tide against you,
11:10it's easier to go on than to turn back.
11:17There.
11:23As suddenly as the wind had blown up and the sea become a bit rough,
11:27it had all calmed down again.
11:30The moods of the sea are always changing.
11:33It's part of its fascination.
11:39The great painter J M W Turner
11:41came to this coast in the early years of the 19th century.
11:47For him, painting the sea was the greatest challenge of his life.
11:57All around the coast of Britain,
11:59he tried to capture the restless movement of the waves
12:03and the interplay of water and light.
12:17MUSIC FADES
12:31Leaving Falmouth behind,
12:33we're making good speed towards our next destination,
12:37once the smuggling capital of Cornwall...
12:41..Meverghesi.
12:47Today, Meverghesi is a pretty seaside town.
12:51It makes the hundreds of visitors that come here each summer
12:55feel at their ease.
12:59200 years ago, it was a very different story.
13:02It was smuggling on which this little village depended,
13:05like villages all up and down the south coast of England.
13:09Smuggling of tobacco, of spirits, of silks,
13:13of everything that could be brought in
13:15and avoid customs and excise duty.
13:18The high-minded, of course, always complained about it.
13:21The redoubtable Dr Johnson called smugglers wretches,
13:24like our modern politicians call people who avoid their taxes,
13:28morally indefensible.
13:30But Meverghesi lends itself to smuggling.
13:34MUSIC FADES
13:42Meverghesi is a town designed to confuse,
13:46a labyrinth of paths which snake up the hillside.
13:50Perfect territory for smugglers evading the authorities.
13:57The poet Rudyard Kipling, in his Smugglers' Song,
14:01had sound advice for anyone who happened to notice illegal activities.
14:06Best turn away.
14:11If you wake at midnight and hear a horse's feet,
14:14don't go drawing back the blind or looking in the street.
14:17Them has asked no questions, isn't told a lie.
14:21Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by.
14:27Five and 20 ponies trotting through the dark.
14:31Brandy for the parson, backy for the clerk,
14:34laces for a lady, letters for a spy.
14:38And watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by.
14:48Smuggling was not even a guilty secret here in Meverghesi.
14:52200 years ago, you could have walked into the pub,
14:55and found the locals openly hatching their illicit plans.
15:01Local historian Geoff Pollard and his cousin, Gary Mitchell,
15:05know all about the bad old days.
15:08Well, the whole town was involved.
15:102,400 people, most of them were involved.
15:14Who would be involved, apart from the smugglers themselves?
15:18Well, all the families that mattered were on to it.
15:22I mean, even local gentry were involved.
15:25Were they? Vicars.
15:27Did people not think it was wrong to smuggle?
15:30Well, ask yourself the question, is it better to see people starving?
15:34My father always used to say,
15:36you'd just as well be on the moon as in Cornwall,
15:40because of its extreme distance from, all right,
15:44the centre of things, London.
15:46And was it kept to this community, to the people of Meverghesi?
15:49I mean, if a stranger came in, would they talk about the smuggling?
15:52No, you don't know to this day what went on in this town.
15:56You don't, nor anybody else, because nobody talks about it.
16:05Tales of smuggling captured the imagination of painters too.
16:10The artist George Morland developed a popular line
16:14in pictures of smuggling at the end of the 18th century.
16:21He embraced the romantic image of heroic figures flouting the law
16:26with their illicit booze and tobacco.
16:32Sometimes things went even further.
16:36Smuggling went hand in hand with wrecking,
16:40deliberately luring ships onto rocks with decoy lamps
16:45and plundering their cargo as the crew drowned.
17:06The lure of the sea is irresistible in Cornwall.
17:12A few miles along the coast from Meverghesi is the castle of Cahays.
17:21Here, some of the most courageous journeys were planned in the early 1900s,
17:27crossing vast oceans.
17:29The expeditions of an intrepid adventurer, George Forrest.
17:38He spent years of his life
17:40trekking through the most remote mountain areas of China.
17:45He froze to death on mountaintops, he lost mules over precipices
17:50and, worst of all, on his very first journey, and it didn't put him off,
17:54he was attacked by marauding Tibetans
17:57who killed two companions, French priests,
18:00and cut open their bodies while they were still alive,
18:03took out their hearts and ate them
18:05because to eat a Christian heart was to get strength.
18:08He just managed to survive.
18:10He had nothing to eat for over a week.
18:12He escaped. Did it stop him?
18:14No, he went back and back,
18:16and all because he was obsessed with finding this.
18:21George Forrest was a plant hunter.
18:26He undertook epic journeys of discovery
18:29in the pursuit of new varieties of flower.
18:38Here at Cahays, they've got wonderful records
18:41of George Forrest's extraordinary discoveries.
18:45Here at Cahays, they've got wonderful records
18:48of George Forrest's extraordinary expeditions,
18:51five of which were funded from here.
18:53There he is, a brave, bold man.
18:56They have the map of all his expeditions done in red,
19:00looking like bloodstains on the mountains of China,
19:04and suitably so because they were always in danger,
19:08there were always bandits, he lost guides,
19:11he lost bearers to bandits on the roads down bringing these seeds.
19:16It was a very perilous business.
19:19He always took a camera with him on his expeditions,
19:22and his books are not sort of happy family snapshots,
19:26but pictures of trees.
19:28Endless varieties of trees that he took,
19:31all beautifully catalogued.
19:33Volumes of that.
19:35Everything that he collected was catalogued.
19:38Books like field notes of trees, shrubs and plants
19:41collected in western China.
19:43And the list is endless.
19:45He collected nuances and alliums and buddleias and clematis,
19:49camellias and gentians, jasmines and lilies,
19:52peonies and salvias, magnolias,
19:5422 kinds of primulus, to say nothing of 200 to 300
19:59different kinds of rhododendron.
20:02What we think of as the English country garden is anything but.
20:08It's built on plants and seeds,
20:11shipped thousands of miles across turbulent seas.
20:22Back on board Rocket, we're facing some turbulent seas of our own.
20:27It's quite rough, isn't it?
20:29This is what they call moderate to rough, isn't it?
20:36It may be bright and sunny,
20:38but the swell is proving a bit much for the crew.
20:48Eliza? Yeah? Are you feeling all right?
20:51Not very. What? Yeah.
20:53The thing is, Josh, we wouldn't be out in any worse than this.
20:56Any worse than this and we'd be coming in anyway, so...
20:59How many of your sick pills did you take?
21:01I took two, but then I put these patches in as well, so I've overdosed.
21:05All right. Well, it can only get better.
21:13HE COUGHS
21:16Hey!
21:27Whose idea was this trip? Yeah, exactly.
21:41We'd soon be reaching Foy,
21:44a childhood home to the writer Daphne du Maurier.
21:56Du Maurier is most famous for writing Rebecca and The Birds,
22:01two novels made into Hollywood movies by Alfred Hitchcock.
22:07Du Maurier spent many holidays here at Foy,
22:10in this romantic house on the banks of the estuary.
22:15She claimed Foy and its relationship with the sea
22:19made her a novelist in the first place.
22:27Today, the house belongs to Du Maurier's son, Kitts.
22:33How are you?
22:35Kitts lives here under the watchful eye of Jane Slade.
22:41She's seen here as the figurehead of an old trading schooner.
22:48In reality, Jane Slade ran a boatyard on the river,
22:52a woman in a man's world.
22:56And it was her story that inspired Du Maurier's first attempt
23:00at a novel, The Loving Spirit, written here in 1929.
23:06I'm fascinated by what it was about Jane Slade
23:09that caught your mother's imagination.
23:11And she was a girl of what, 22 at the time?
23:1321 even, I think, yes.
23:15Well, she loved walking, and one day she came across
23:18this derelict ship that was waiting to be broken up,
23:22and on her bow was this faded and worn figurehead
23:27called Jane Slade.
23:29It still had her name on it.
23:32So she became fascinated and that's really how it all came into being.
23:36What was the character of Jane Slade that appealed to her?
23:40What did she discover about the kind of person she was?
23:43She was a very tough, small lady
23:47and apparently ran the boatyard with a rod of iron.
23:52You know, she was really very, very tough.
23:55And I think this impressed my mum a lot
23:58because she rather liked, you know, people who were tough
24:02and could, especially of the fact that she was a woman.
24:05And this was one of the things that appealed to her.
24:08So you've got that figurehead out there of Jane Slade
24:12and you've got her double in here?
24:15No, this is the real one.
24:17Oh, is it? Yes, yes.
24:19So we're all deceived by the one outside, are we?
24:22Yes, hopefully everybody's deceived by it
24:24because when we first bought the house back in 1993,
24:28she was somewhat the worst for wear.
24:30So what we decided to do is we found a man
24:33who said he could make a fibreglass model, a double, a stand-in.
24:37And now Jane is in happy retirement
24:41whilst the double is up on the roof looking out towards the sea.
24:46She longed for freedom as she saw a ship leave the harbour.
24:51The sails spread to the wind,
24:54the spirit free and unfettered,
24:57waiting to rise from its enforced seclusion.
25:01To mix with things like the wind, the sea and the skies.
25:06To become part of these things
25:09and move away like a silent phantom across the face of the sea.
25:24How's the fishing going?
25:26Fine.
25:27Have you caught anything?
25:29Not yet.
25:30You'll probably end up with all the seaweed in the sea.
25:33No, I can't.
25:36Nice.
25:38See the light there?
25:44It's said there's no greater challenge for an artist
25:47than painting the sea.
25:49Too true.
25:52The thing about the sea is it's very difficult to capture.
25:55You can't see it.
25:56You can't see it.
25:57You can't see it.
25:58You can't see it.
25:59You can't see it.
26:00You can't see it.
26:01You can't see it.
26:02You can't see it.
26:03The thing about the sea is it's very difficult to capture
26:06because it's so fast moving all the time.
26:08Nothing stays still.
26:09If you're doing a human portrait, at least the sitter is there.
26:13If you're doing landscape, the trees basically are there,
26:16the fields are there.
26:18But actually trying to capture the sea,
26:21these little wavelets all shuffling about.
26:26I don't know how.
26:28I think I'd better take a drawing course.
26:34This great rock coming down.
26:41And this is a very calm day, so I suppose it's cheating a bit.
26:47And also I'm what's called the Sunday artist.
26:53If I could just capture even one wave, just one...
26:58I'm as bad at capturing the wave as you two are at catching fish.
27:04I could put in rocket's boom here to show we're at sea.
27:09Charcoal is lovely stuff, though.
27:11It's sort of forgiving and it's messy.
27:13You can't rub it out, then?
27:15No, but that's a good thing. You have to be bold with it.
27:20Rocket at sea.
27:24It's yours.
27:26Oh, thank you.
27:46We're heading for Plymouth Sound,
27:48the name given to the deepwater bay and natural harbour
27:52that's given Plymouth its place in maritime history.
28:01Over the last 400 years,
28:03this stretch of water has witnessed our greatest adventurers
28:07set out to establish our mastery of the seas.
28:16It's still one of the Royal Navy's three operating bases
28:19in the UK.
28:26I'm going ashore at Mount Edgecombe
28:28to pay homage to someone
28:30who put the sea at the heart of our national life.
28:42Most visitors here head for the big house up the hill.
28:45But what I'm looking for is along the shoreline,
28:48hidden among the trees.
28:58They built this very pretty little pavilion
29:02as a memorial to a poet who's now virtually unknown,
29:06the Scott James Thompson.
29:08In his day, he represented everything that people admired about him.
29:12In his day, he represented everything that people admired
29:15about Britain and the sea.
29:17And this particular poem is about British men of war,
29:20ribbed with oak to bear the British thunder,
29:23black and bold, the roaring vessel rushed into the main.
29:28Curiously, the poem that he's probably best known for
29:32is one that many people think would be better as our national anthem
29:36than the rather dreary song that we have.
29:39It starts,
29:40When Britain first at heaven's command
29:43Rose up from out the azure main
29:46You probably know the rest.
29:48When Britain first at heaven's command
29:53Arose from out the azure main
29:58Arose, arose, arose from out the azure main
30:03Written in 1740 and set to music by Thomas Arne,
30:08Rule Britannia became a rallying cry
30:10for a nation that was beginning to believe
30:12it owned all the seas of the world.
30:15Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves
30:21Great as never, never, never shall be slain
30:26What a spectacular view this is, looking right across Plymouth Sound,
30:30the site of so many of the great events of our history.
30:33You could have stood here and watched our fleet set off
30:36to chase the Spanish Armada up the Channel.
30:39You could have stood here and seen the Mayflower with its pilgrims
30:43setting off for America.
30:45You could have stood here just 30 years after Rule Britannia was written
30:50and watched Captain Cook setting off for the Southern Hemisphere,
30:54full of curiosity about what that part of the world was like,
30:58taking with him scientists and botanists and artists
31:03to record everything he saw.
31:07This is the story of William Hodges.
31:17Cook sailed thousands of miles across uncharted areas of the globe
31:23and the artist William Hodges went with him
31:26to capture the sights he saw,
31:28from sultry Polynesian islands
31:32to the frozen wilds of Antarctica.
31:36This is the story of Easter Island.
31:42But there was one discovery that had as big an effect
31:45on our visual arts as any landscape
31:49and was first brought home by Cook's own sailors.
32:06This is a smuggler girl, a pirate girl.
32:09We've got the fishermen on the inside.
32:12We've got swallows, the traditional sailor tattoos.
32:16When did you first have a tattoo?
32:18My mum made me promise not to get anything done until I was 21.
32:21And then what did you have done at 21?
32:23I got my gran's initials on my wrist.
32:26And what about these great, sucking great things here?
32:29This one's actually from my gran as well.
32:31Yeah, it's a Japanese tattoo.
32:33How did you choose these very carefully?
32:35Yours are really thought out.
32:37Yeah, I mean, some are very meaningful
32:39and some are kind of the same way that someone collects art
32:42for their walls, I suppose,
32:44just kind of collecting art on your skin instead.
32:51Captain Cook was fascinated by the tattoos he saw
32:55on his first voyage to Polynesia in 1768.
33:00The word itself comes from the Tahitian word tatau,
33:04meaning to mark.
33:09Today, the tribal tattoos that Cook and his crew first came across
33:13are back in fashion.
33:16Do you know what it all means, to have symbols?
33:18Some of the symbols, yeah.
33:20Some of these symbols represent birds, sea,
33:24arrows, as in, like, hunting arrows and things like that.
33:28Now, there's a Polynesian,
33:30symbolises family, love, nature.
33:33You also have to be hairless, don't you, on your arms?
33:35I mean, I couldn't have a tattoo because I've got hairs all over my arms.
33:38You can shave them. Yeah, but you have to keep shaving them.
33:40Well, I ask you, man, what about yourself?
33:42Would you ever have a tattoo?
33:44I've only... I've thought about it, but I don't think I ever would, really.
33:48There's a seat here for you.
33:50What would you have if you had something...
33:52But that was the symbol. What would be yours?
33:55If you had something small, what would you have?
33:57Well, I'd have my own star sign, which is a scorpion.
33:59Yeah? That's what I'd have.
34:01It's a bit late now, though. It's never too late.
34:03The only person who'll see my tattoo will be The Undertaker.
34:08It took me some time, but in the end, I succumbed.
34:12And why not?
34:14Secretly, I'd always wanted one.
34:18OK.
34:22We'll remove just a little hair.
34:24I've got rather a hairy back.
34:27Doesn't hurt so far.
34:29Name of artist.
34:31So you're the artist, are you, Paul?
34:33Yes, I am.
34:34Am I pregnant or breastfeeding?
34:36No, contrary to appearances, I'm not.
34:39Are you prone to fainting attacks?
34:41Well, I guess we'll just have to find out.
34:43We'll wait and see.
34:46How's that?
34:47That's fine. It's like being cut with a razor blade, yes.
34:50Perfect.
34:52Ow!
34:54Is the pain worth it?
34:56Stiff upper lip.
34:58That's it.
35:00So what's this actually doing?
35:02Drilling the ink into the skin, under the skin?
35:05Yes.
35:07It's a bit of a pain, isn't it?
35:09Yes.
35:11So what's this actually doing?
35:13Drilling the ink into the skin, under the skin?
35:16Yes, so the needle breaks the surface of the skin
35:19and the ink sits in a little reservoir
35:21and runs down between the needles.
35:23There's actually seven needles in what I'm using here
35:26and stays just above the dermis of your skin.
35:29You mustn't talk too much because you'll lose concentration
35:32and then I'll end up with a three-legged scorpion.
35:34It was a seahorse, wasn't it?
35:36No, it was a mermaid.
35:41People paint kind of life stories on them, don't they?
35:44The death of a member of the family
35:46or I saw somebody with their children's names.
35:49Yeah, it's a good way to mark a time,
35:51remember a time in your life,
35:53whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.
35:55Ow!
35:57We found a little sharp spot. Yes. Ow!
35:59All right.
36:01Is it done? Yes.
36:03Take yourself a look in the mirror.
36:05I really can't bear to look.
36:07Come round. Yes.
36:09Come on.
36:12You're doing incredibly well.
36:15That is, I have to say, fantastic.
36:18Thank you very, very much. No problem at all.
36:21And it didn't hurt. Good, excellent.
36:23Not much. That's it.
36:25Can we take it off now?
36:27HE LAUGHS
36:39We're motoring inland up the River Tamer
36:42that separates Cornwall from Devon.
36:47Up this river is the home of one of Britain's greatest adventurers.
36:53Sir Francis Drake could claim to be Devon's most famous son.
37:01Everyone remembers Sir Francis Drake
37:03as the man who defeated the Spanish at the Armada,
37:06the first Englishman to sail right round the world.
37:09What some people are always a bit embarrassed by
37:12is what the real Drake was like.
37:14They forget that he was a man of his time.
37:17That's to say, he paid for these trips round the world
37:20by pillaging and thieving and murder and mayhem.
37:24He traded slaves across the Atlantic,
37:27he stopped Spanish ships,
37:29killed as many people as necessary and stole the gold.
37:32He went ashore and destroyed villages and forts.
37:35In other words, he did what was expected at the time.
37:37He didn't go round the world just for the fun of it
37:39or let's see whether it's really round.
37:41He went round to make money and make his fortune.
37:43And fortune he did make.
37:45When he came back, ship laden with gold,
37:47he did what all buccaneers, even the modern ones,
37:50do when they've made their fortune.
37:52He bought himself a great country pile.
38:00Buckland Abbey was a religious foundation
38:03until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.
38:06It was on the market in 1581 when Drake bought it for himself.
38:12It was a home fit for a hero.
38:15He'd just returned from his circumnavigation of the globe
38:19with treasure and new territory for his queen, Elizabeth I.
38:26And she gave him this.
38:29It's called the Drake Cup.
38:32It's made in silver gilt.
38:35At the top it has this constellation
38:38showing the stars, the position of the stars.
38:41Of course, the way that sailors would navigate
38:44across the oceans of the world.
38:46Below it, the globe itself, etched in,
38:51very, very clear and distinct.
38:54You can see Africa and Europe and India.
38:58But interestingly, the bottom part of this, the terra incognita,
39:02where nobody had yet been, still not showing on this globe.
39:06And instead there are sea monsters
39:08and all the usual depictions of the horrors of the deep,
39:11the terrors of the unknown.
39:13But what an extraordinary trophy.
39:15He must have been thrilled to get this from the queen.
39:18If he'd been a modern man, no doubt he'd have picked it up
39:21like they do with the football trophies or the Olympic gold medals
39:24and kissed it for the photographers.
39:26But the impact must have been the same.
39:28It must have been sheer thrill, delirious excitement to have this,
39:33the great trophy, to celebrate his self-navigation.
39:41History has been kind to Drake.
39:44He's remembered as an explorer, adventurer and pioneer,
39:48the embodiment of a self-made man.
39:51He proved how mastery of the seas could make you rich and powerful.
39:57Drake had planned to live out his days here
40:00in the splendour of Buckland.
40:03But it wasn't to be.
40:05Francis Drake died far away from here of fever
40:09aboard his ship in the Bay of Panama.
40:12His sailors buried him in a lead coffin
40:15and made a note of exactly where the coffin lay.
40:18And I was involved in a mad scheme a few years back
40:21to try and recover this man.
40:23I was involved in a mad scheme a few years back
40:25to try and recover this coffin with Drake's body,
40:28bring it back on a Royal Naval ship in great glory to Greenwich
40:32and then up the river in a barge,
40:34and I had this picture of him being buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
40:38When we came to look at it in detail,
40:40there was one group who you might have thought
40:42would be enthusiasts for it, who were completely opposed to it.
40:46The Royal Navy.
40:48And why?
40:50It was because, though he is a national hero,
40:54Drake was a pirate.
41:04For as long as there have been ships, there have been pirates.
41:09And in the 17th and 18th centuries,
41:12they were as feared at sea as highwaymen on land.
41:16But our image of the pirate owes more to romantic literature
41:20than to the real thing.
41:27Stepping aboard, it's impossible to resist the image
41:30of swashbuckling, rum-swilling rogues.
41:34This ship certainly has an authentic look to it.
41:37It's played the pirate ship in countless movies and TV,
41:42including Treasure Island,
41:44based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
41:49No pirate ship, of course, complete
41:51without its skull and crossbones flying at the yard down there.
41:56Originally, the skull and crossbones was a sign
41:59that you had fever on board the ship, or plague,
42:02and therefore people should keep clear of you.
42:04And then they quickly discovered that if you hoisted it,
42:07you could gain on your prey,
42:09because they'd think, well, they're not going to touch us.
42:20With her immense area of sail,
42:23it takes all of her crew of 17, make that 18,
42:27to hoist the mainsail.
42:40The exploits of British pirates
42:42have long since been the stuff of legend.
42:45And no pirate has inspired more stories than Henry Avery.
42:53Legend has it he was the richest and most ruthless pirate in history,
42:58although no-one is sure where fact ends and fiction begins.
43:03His exploits captured public imagination
43:06and the eager eye of popular novelists of the day.
43:12The most famous of all Avery's exploits
43:14was the capture of one of the great ships of the Muslim Mughal Empire,
43:19which, with a princess on board, was sailing from Mecca back to India,
43:23laden with treasure.
43:25And the story was told romantically by Daniel Defoe,
43:30the man who wrote Robinson Crusoe,
43:32in a book called The King Of Pirates,
43:34which was published about the same time as Avery was alive.
43:37That raid was in 1695, this was published about 15 years later.
43:41And this is what he has, Avery say, about getting on board
43:46and finding the princess sitting on the side of a kind of bed
43:50and covered with diamonds.
43:52And I, like a true pirate,
43:54soon let her see that I had more mind to the jewels than to the lady.
44:05Avery, at least in fiction,
44:08is the lovable rogue who leaves the princess's honour intact.
44:15Quite what the truth is, we shall never know.
44:19But at least his origins may have come to light
44:22and the evidence is nearby.
44:35Newton Ferrars, to the east of Plymouth,
44:38looks peaceful enough in the summer sunshine.
44:45But the records of the local church
44:48suggest it may have been the birthplace
44:51of Britain's most villainous pirate.
44:54This handsome bound volume in parchment starts at 1600,
45:01but in the middle, there's the entry for the year of 1659.
45:08And the third entry, Henry, the son of Mr John Avery,
45:15and Anne, his wife, was born the 23rd of January, 1659.
45:23So that's the claim that Henry Avery actually came from here.
45:28But there's another intriguing document, equally mysterious,
45:31which is this little piece of paper
45:34that came from a family collection of records of things.
45:40Now, it's headed Avery, the pirate,
45:43and it says, on his return from India,
45:46he either landed or was shipwrecked near the lake.
45:49Now, on his return from India,
45:51he either landed or was shipwrecked near the lizard,
45:54where he buried three chests or boxes full of treasure
45:58in the sands of the seashore.
46:00And this is the exciting bit, though,
46:02the three boxes made of wood, large rubies, sapphires,
46:06emeralds, topaz and diamonds,
46:09120 ingots of gold, 40 thick flat pieces of gold,
46:133,000 pieces of eight.
46:16The treasure seekers have been looking for this
46:19ever since this document was found,
46:21and people still go down to the lizard
46:23in the hope that they can crack the mystery,
46:25well, actually, crack open the boxes
46:27that Henry Avery's meant to have left behind.
46:35All of Avery's victims were foreigners,
46:39which may account for his popular status in British legend.
46:43It's a surprising postscript to the story of piracy,
46:47and this time it was the people of Devon and Cornwall
46:50who were the victims.
46:52This time, the threat came from abroad.
46:58It came from pirates from North Africa,
47:01the so-called Barbary Coast.
47:03They came down here, took men and boys off ships
47:06and took them captive to turn them into slaves in North Africa.
47:10But worse still, they went ashore, often at night,
47:13to these villages and seized people, boys and men.
47:17It got so bad that in 1625, the authorities in Devon and Cornwall
47:21said that over 1,200 men and boys had been taken captive.
47:26It was so bad that the fishermen had stopped putting out to sea
47:30for fear they'd be taken.
47:41Barbary pirates continued to be a threat to the British coast
47:45for over a century,
47:47until the British government at last took action.
47:53A fleet, led by Lord Exmouth,
47:56attacked the city of Algiers to put an end to the kidnappings.
48:03After a day-long bombardment,
48:06the city fell and 3,000 Christian slaves were freed.
48:14Lord Exmouth returned a hero.
48:29The success of the bombardment was celebrated with this great trophy,
48:34a monumental trophy called the Exmouth Table Piece.
48:39It's made of silver gilt
48:41and it was done by a famous engraver at the time, Paul Storr.
48:47And it shows, first of all, at the centre,
48:51the lighthouse itself at the port of Algiers,
48:54with guns all round, three layers of guns.
48:59And on the top, the lantern of the lighthouse,
49:02and above it, just see the crescent and the star of the ruler of Algiers.
49:10And then these vivid scenes around the four corners,
49:15here the Muslim pirate being put to the sword by a British sailor,
49:24having his hat pulled off and a knife about to cut his throat.
49:30And on this side, a Christian slave being freed,
49:35hands in supplication to the heavens as a sailor frees him
49:40and has the chain from his handcuffs, or his leg.
49:45At the bottom, the coat of arms of Lord Exmouth.
49:49The word Algiers at the bottom, a lion,
49:52and on the other side, a slave with a crucifix in one hand
49:57and his chains in the other.
50:00And then relief panels here on either side of the battle itself in progress.
50:06The ships bombarding the city.
50:13A tribute of admiration and esteem
50:17most respectfully presented by the rear admiral, the captains and commanders
50:22who had the honour to serve under him at the memorable victory gained at Algiers
50:26on the 27th of August, 1816.
50:29It's a truly astonishing work.
50:32MUSIC PLAYS
50:44Yeah, if you try and...
50:46If you hold the whole lot, so...
50:49Through the hole. Through the hole.
50:51Around the tree. Around the tree.
50:53No, around the tree. Oh, this is the tree.
50:55Around the back. Around the back of the tree.
50:57It's running off. Oh!
50:59Through the hole. Around the tree.
51:01And then back down through the hole the same way.
51:04I think the easiest knot to get wrong is a reef knot.
51:08I don't know why.
51:09I struggle with them underneath. I quite often do them, yeah.
51:12That is a good bailiff. Without even looking, though.
51:15Good job. Good planning, Dave. Thank you.
51:22We're approaching our final destination
51:25to see how the adventurous spirit lives on today.
51:32For me, this is the climax of our journey.
51:41In the harbour at Dartmouth, we're coming alongside Gypsy Moth 4.
51:46This is the boat in which Sir Francis Chichester
51:49circumnavigated the globe single-handed in 1966.
51:55Hi. Hello. OK, everyone.
51:57On board is one of my heroes, Dame Ellen MacArthur,
52:01who did the same solo circumnavigation in 2005,
52:06breaking all records for the fastest time ever.
52:09Hello. Nice to meet you. Very, very nice to meet you.
52:12This is a thrill for me, like when I danced with Margot Fonteyn.
52:17And when I danced with Margot Fonteyn,
52:19I had a plate put on the floor where I danced with her,
52:21saying I danced with her, and I'm going to have a plate put on Rocket,
52:24saying, Ellen MacArthur came on board.
52:26Will you come on board? I'd love to. Excellent.
52:29Welcome. Thank you. Big, big welcome.
52:32She's lovely. She's beautiful, isn't she? Beautiful.
52:35All John's doing. He looks after her. Oh, yeah.
52:38Yeah. And good to see a dog on board as well.
52:41Yeah, I'm not so sure about the dog.
52:44Ow!
52:45Rather grander than Rocket's.
52:50It was this very boat, Gypsy Moth 4,
52:53that first ignited the young Ellen MacArthur's passion for sailing
52:57and inspired her to attempt her own gruelling circumnavigation.
53:02It's always been seen as a man's world, hasn't it, the sea?
53:05I never really saw it as that.
53:07I've never really considered myself
53:09to be any different from the other sailors.
53:11I was just someone growing up who had a dream
53:13to sail around the world, who made it happen.
53:15People would say, you know, you're not huge,
53:18you haven't got great muscles,
53:20you're a shrimp compared with some of the men who go to sea.
53:25It must have been physically, actually, very difficult for you.
53:29It's physically difficult for anybody.
53:31My biggest challenge out there
53:33was living with the amount of stress that I had with a boat
53:36powering through the water 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
53:39knowing that one mistake would have you upside down
53:42and you probably wouldn't survive.
53:44And living at that speed with that adrenaline, with that little sleep,
53:47that's what makes it very, very hard.
53:50It's not fair!
53:53And it's actually more frightening afterwards than during.
53:56During, you deal with it. During, your body's full of adrenaline,
53:59you just find a way to get out of the situation.
54:01But afterwards is when you realise that actually that was pretty close.
54:05I think you're mad as a hat and brave beyond...
54:09beyond belief to have done that. I just can't believe it.
54:12I don't think... I get nervous when we go out here in Force 5
54:15thinking, oh, rocket's going to sink.
54:17Ooh, I'm going to die in Stark Bay.
54:20And there you are off Cape Horn in a, you know, Force 10.
54:24If you choose it, it's not bravery.
54:27It's your choice. I think they're quite different.
54:30So what is it, if you choose to do it?
54:33If you choose to do it, probably madness. You're probably right!
54:43You've done enough.
54:45You've done enough.
54:53I just love the adventure of being on the water,
54:56the adventure of being at sea, the fact that, you know,
54:59we could literally say, oh, well, we're not going to go back to Dartmouth.
55:02Why don't we just go to France? Or why don't we go to America right now?
55:05There's nothing to stop this boat doing that. I found that amazing.
55:08How would you compare what you did with what, say, Francis Drake did?
55:13If you sail on a boat today or 500 years ago and you look out
55:16across the Southern Ocean and you see the white caps and the waves,
55:19they're just the same.
55:21You may look back at a different boat, but it's the same place.
55:24It doesn't change with time.
55:27MUSIC CONTINUES
55:41Our trip ends at one of Britain's great monuments to sea power,
55:46the Britannia Royal Naval College,
55:49standing majestic on its hill, looking down on Dartmouth.
55:57Built in 1905 at the height of Britain's domination of the seas,
56:03it's been described as a great battleship on land.
56:09It was designed by the same architect
56:12who created the front of Buckingham Palace, Sir Aston Webb.
56:20This is where naval officers are trained for their life at sea.
56:27MUSIC CONTINUES
56:34This building breathes power.
56:37It was opened on the 100th anniversary
56:40of Nelson's famous victory at Trafalgar,
56:42which finally established Britain's command of the seas.
56:46And at the beginning of the 20th century,
56:48it was our idea to have a navy at least twice the size of any of our rivals.
56:53And this place was designed to inspire the officers to run it.
56:58Divisions!
57:00Eyes front!
57:07Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right.
57:13We've been on a relatively short journey by sea,
57:16but a long voyage through time,
57:19from Terra Incognita and here be dragons,
57:23to the pirates, to the daring exploits of the Elizabethan sea dogs,
57:28to end up here, with Britain dominating the oceans of the world
57:33and proud to be a part of it.
57:36To end up here, with Britain dominating the oceans of the world
57:41and proud, even arrogant, about it.
58:07Next time, we set sail along the south-east shore of Britain,
58:12our frontier coast.
58:14For centuries, the first line of defence against invasion.
58:19Watch that dog!
58:23We'll discover how we built the most powerful ships.
58:28Let me down about the front.
58:30The greatest defensive fortifications.
58:35And how writers and painters have used their arts
58:39to nourish our sense of independence.