All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S11E06.Ghost.Skeleton.Coast.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

[narrator] In Ireland,
a place of refuge turns
into a house of horrors.

[Terri Kearney] All hell
broke loose.

There was bodies everywhere.

It was appalling
and it was totally
unnecessary.

[narrator] A weird
and wonderful fantasy land
in the heart of Alabama.

[Hadley Meares]
Everybody loves it so much.

They don't even wear shoes,

as a symbol
that they never want to leave.

[narrator] And in South Korea,

the fate of a nation
is determined
behind these walls.

[Rob Bell] They were trapped,

cut off
from the outside world,

but would fight to the death
for democracy.

[narrator] Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

[narrator] In County Cork,
on Ireland's southern coast,

are haunting remnants
of a tragic era.

[Luke Pepera] The area's
covered in lush, green hills
and pristine beaches.

There's a reason this country
is called the Emerald Isle.

[narrator]
Yet the land's natural beauty
hides a painful history.

On the skirts of a small town
are the sprawling remains
of a stone complex.

[Bell] You can still see
these imposing walls,

but the overgrowth
has almost entirely reclaimed
these buildings.

[narrator]
The crumbling relic
reveals little

about its original purpose.

[Sascha Auerbach] When this
was built, the country was

in the grips
of a horrible catastrophe.

Partly natural,
partly man-made.

[Kearney] I still
imagine those poor people
coming up,

knowing what their fate
was going to be
behind these walls.

That they'd never
come out again.

[narrator] Additional ruins
expose a different chapter
of this heartbreaking story.

The structure of a wall

and a tall, dark building,
and the windows boarded up.

[Bell] How are
all these structures
connected?

And what happened here?

This became the epicenter
of one of the worst crises
in Ireland's history.

[Kearney]
The first time I came here,
I wasn't ready for it.

I could actually feel
the sorrow

seeping out through the walls,

and it really did have
a profound impact on me.

[narrator] Terri Kearney
grew up in the nearby town
of Skibbereen.

She has dedicated her life
to preserving the memory
of a tragedy

many in Ireland
wanted to forget.

For 150 years,
Ireland really did forget,
you know?

It wasn't spoken about.
It's called
"the great silence."

So these places
are really, really important

as a physical manifestation
of over a million dead.

I always describe it
as a prison environment.

[narrator]
But this was no prison.

During the 19th century,
thousands of desperate people
came here by choice

because
their only other option
was an agonizing death.

[Kearney] They were surrounded
by high stone walls.

When you went it,
you had to go in as a family.
You were segregated.

Men, women, boys, girls.

You weren't allowed
to see the other members
of your family.

[narrator] This
is the Schull Workhouse,

the government's answer
for a population
in dire straits.

[Pepera] The workhouse
was an institution in Ireland.

At their peak,
there were over 160 of them.

[Bell] It was really
a last resort for
the poorest families.

If you couldn't
support yourself,

you could come to a workhouse
and receive food and shelter
for your labor.

[narrator]
The workhouse system,
funded by local taxes,

was first put in place
by the British government
in the late 1830s.

When they opened,
the conditions were so bad,

the workhouses
were rarely full.

But by the 1840s,

buildings like this
all across Ireland
were filled to capacity.

The reason
for the increased demand

dates back to when
the English invaded
these shores.

[Bell] The Cromwellian
conquest of Ireland
in the 17th century

created a precarious situation
amongst Irish farmers.

[Pepera] The penal law
of 1704 dictated

that when an Irish
tenant farmer died,

his land should be
equally divided
among his sons.

[Auerbach] As the population
continued to grow,

this farmland got subdivided

into smaller
and smaller plots.

As a consequence,
these farmers turned
to the one crop

that even
in that limited space
could feed a whole family.

The potato.

[narrator] Ireland's reliance
on a single food source
would prove to be fatal.

[Bell] In 1845, a blight
that had been traveling

around North America
and Europe

landed on Irish shores,

and the potato crop
was decimated.

People around here were
well used to failures,
and they thought,

"One year, we just need
to get over one year."

[narrator] But the next year,
the situation only got worse.

In 1846, there was
a 90% failure of the crop.

[Auerbach] The poor
farming region of West Cork

was one
of the hardest-hit areas,

and the town of Skibbereen
became ground zero
in the Great Potato Famine.

[Kearney] By 1846,
people were dying in this town
and society was breaking down.

Death by starvation is a long,
slow, painful disease.

And it robbed their humanity.

[narrator] A local doctor
named Daniel Donovan

witnessed the tragedy
that was unfolding

and he stepped in
to be a champion
for the people.

Oh, Dr. Dan
was an extraordinary man.

He was qualified as a surgeon.

He could have
gone off to Dublin

and had
a very illustrious career.

Instead, he stayed
here in Skibbereen
during this worst catastrophe.

He did so much to help people.

He wrote and looked for help
and screamed for help.

[Pepera]
His advocacy was successful,

and £400,000
flowed in from the UK
from donation drives.

[narrator]
An old mill building in town

was hastily converted
into a makeshift soup kitchen
to feed the hungry.

[Bell]
The relief effort embarrassed
British politicians.

Here was
the world's greatest empire

becoming reliant
on external aid
to help its people.

[narrator]
Now in the spotlight,

the government was forced
to offer support.

[Auerbach] In 1847,
the Soup Kitchen Act
was passed.

And within months,
three million Irish people
were being fed.

[Pepera]
They served a concoction

of barley, water,
beef, and onions,
known as Soyer's Soup.

It was nothing fancy,

but it gave people
just enough calories
to survive.

[narrator] Charles Trevelyan,

assistant secretary
to the treasury,

was the man in charge
of Britain's relief efforts.

His political
and personal views

dictated the government's
initial reluctance to help.

[Auerbach] Charles Trevelyan
was a subscriber
of the laissez-faire policy,

which is government
non-interference
in economic matters.

That meant that in the middle
of the famine,

food was being
exported out of Ireland

even as millions
continued to starve.

[Bell] Trevelyan
infamously wrote
that the famine

had been
brought about by God

as a judgement
on Ireland's excessive
population growth

and dependency
on the potato for food.

Even today,
he's a hated figure
across Ireland.

[narrator]
It's not hard to see why.

Three months
after aid was given,

Britain was hit
by a financial crisis.

Trevelyan's response
was to immediately shut down
the soup kitchens.

From the autumn of 1847 on,

the only relief
there on was through
the workhouse system.

All hell broke loose.

It really did.
It was the worst year
of the Great Famine.

And it was totally
unnecessary.

[narrator] In the 1840s,

Ireland was in crisis
as the deadly potato famine
ravaged the country.

After the British government
ended its support
for soup kitchens,

the workhouse
was the only option left.

So this Schull Workhouse
was one of the later
workhouses

built in the late 1840s,
early 1850s.

Horrible, horrible places.

During the Great Famine,
they were so overcrowded
and underfunded.

They kept running out of food.
They were breeding grounds
for disease.

[narrator] The awful truth
was that families often
didn't come here to live.

They came to die.

[Auerbach] Catholic families
came to workhouses

because they knew
they would get
a properly consecrated burial.

[Kearney] And so many
accounts of that.

People clambering
at the workhouse walls,
just wanting to get in

so they knew
they wouldn't be left to rot
at the side of the road.

[narrator] At Skibbereen's
Abbeystrowry Cemetery

are the unmarked graves
of over 10,000 people,

a small fraction
of the total death toll.

[Kearney] These mass graves
are all over Ireland.

Overall,
it's estimated we lost
about a million people,

and about another
million-and-a-quarter
emigrated.

It was the biggest
mass migration
in world history.

[narrator] By the mid-1850s,

the potato crop
had almost fully recovered,

and the dependence
on workhouses
steadily declined.

The famine may have ended,

but its legacy
had only just begun.

[Kearney]
I suppose you could say

the events of this era
would eventually lead
to Irish independence, too,

because some of those
who survived

were violently changed by it
and became revolutionaries
with arms.

[narrator]
Their fight for freedom

would eventually bring about
this building's demise.

[Bell] During
the War of Independence,

the Irish Republican Army
burned the workhouse
to the ground

to prevent it
being used as barracks
by the British forces.

[Auerbach] Since then,
it's become dilapidated
and overgrown.

A ghostly reminder
of the country's
most dire period.

[narrator] In Central Alabama

is a curious collection
of buildings

where reality
collides with fantasy.

[Alexis Pedrick] A short
distance north of the capital,
Montgomery,

is a place
called Jackson Lake Island.

And it's small.
I mean, less than
a half-a-mile across.

It's really beautiful,
but also kind of spooky.

At the end of the island
is what looks like this
abandoned, desolate town.

[Jim Meigs]
There's something
old about it,

but something kind of
otherworldly too.

As you get closer
to these buildings,

you realize there's something
really odd about them.

There's nothing inside.
In fact, some of them
aren't even finished.

[narrator]
At the town's entrance,
the plot thickens.

[Pedrick]
There's these two trees
that frame the street,

but if you look closer,
you can actually tell
that they're fake.

Like where the bark
is wearing away,
there is Styrofoam.

So this is not
actually a real place,

it's a place
of complete make-believe.

[narrator]
Everything seen here

is the creation of a visionary
with a wild imagination.

[Pedrick]
For the man behind it,
it was a big gamble.

I mean, he needed a win
and there was no guarantee
that this was gonna be it.

[Meares] It's a magical story.

Sometimes it's funny,
sometimes it's sad,

and sometimes
it is just downright weird.

And there are goats.
Lots and lots of goats.

[Lynn Bright] For many years,

this was just a place
where people loved
to come and fish

and maybe picnic or camp.

[narrator]
Bobby and Lynn Bright

are the owners
of Jackson Lake Island.

In 2003,
an out-of-the-blue phone call
changed their world forever.

We were contacted by
the Alabama Film Commission,

and they said that
they had a production company

that was interested
in maybe doing a movie
on our island.

It was exciting,
because once we learned
it was Tim Burton,

we knew that it wasn't
gonna be a small-time deal,

it was gonna be
a major production.

[Meigs]
When a big Hollywood picture
comes to town,

it's like an occupying army.

They bring
almost everything they need.
Trailers, trucks, catering.

Well, at the beginning,
there was nothing here.

It was just grass and trees.

And they came in
and just kind of
cleared the site,

and then started
the construction.

It was a big operation.

[narrator]
This is the fictional town
of Spectre,

one of the many
whimsical locations

in the 2003
cult film Big Fish.

[Meares] If you haven't seen
the movie Big Fish,

it's this really lovely
magical realism film.

At its core,

it's a story
of a father and a son's
troubled relationship.

[Pedrick] So Ewan McGregor
stars as the dad
when he's younger,

and Albert Finney plays
the older version of him.

And he loves to tell
tall tales about his life.

I mean, tall tales,
like, really.

[Meares] The son is played
by Billy Crudup,

and he plays a character
named Will Bloom.

And Will is absolutely fed up

with what he sees
as his father's lifetime
of lies.

[narrator] But when Will
discovers his father is dying,

he decides to find out
the truth about his life.

That's where the town
of Spectre comes in.

[Pedrick] In the film,
a young Edward Bloom
wants to leave home.

It's too small for him.

He's a big fish
in a small pond.

[Meigs] So he goes on
kind of a journey,

and that journey
brings him here.

The town of Spectre is kind of
like a Brigadoon place

where you feel like
you've stepped out of time
into a different world

where things just
work differently,
like nobody wears any shoes.

[narrator] Shortly after
Edward arrived,

he is invited
to the mayor's house
for apple pie,

and the townspeople
try to convince him to stay.

[Lynn] Under the table
comes little Jenny,

unties his boots,
runs out the front door
with them.

She runs down the street,

throws 'em over the line
where all the residents'
shoes are,

and he quickly learned
why she took his boots.

[Meares]
And the reason for that

is they love
the town so much,

they don't ever want to leave.

The movie is full of all these
weird and wonderful scenes,

in a way that makes you think

it could only be
a Tim Burton film.

But it almost
didn't turn out that way.

[narrator] In Alabama
is a ramshackle movie set

created by
director Tim Burton.

But it was a film he was
never meant to be a part of.

That's because
Hollywood royalty
Steven Spielberg

was originally lined up
to direct.

[Meigs] But then mid-project,

he got called off
on a different film

and director Tim Burton
got involved.

[Pedrick] Some say it was
because he needed a win.

If you remember,
he'd just put out that movie
Planet of the Apes,

and it was nowhere
near the hit that
he really needed it to be.

[narrator] The pressure was on
to make this film a success.

Landowner Bobby Bright's
first encounter

with the future Oscar-winner
didn't help matters.

I would always
come over after work
and ride through the set

to see what progress
they'd made.

And as I got
behind the mayor's house,

this stranger came walking out
and I thought maybe he was
up to no good.

But I had no idea
who Tim Burton was
before the movie came here.

I almost started to do
a citizen's arrest on him.

[narrator]
Despite Bobby's best efforts,
Burton did continue filming,

but Spectre was
about to hit hard times,
Hollywood-style.

[Pedrick] Spectre
wasn't big enough
for Edward Bloom.

I mean, he's a big fish
and so he leaves.

[Meigs] Later in the movie,
Edward comes back
to the town of Spectre,

and something has happened.

The town is now in ruins.

So in order to shoot that,

the filmmakers first had
to build these nice,
new buildings

and then make everything look
like it had aged 50 years.

[Bobby]
They tore up the fences,
the picket fences.

They used sandblasters,
they used heating torches
to burn the paint off,

to make the paint peel
like that right there.

They took up the sod
and they did everything
they possibly could

to make it look like
it was in really, really
bad shape.

So, really what
you're seeing here
is not actual decay,

it's Hollywood magic.

[narrator]
Yet that Hollywood magic

didn't translate into
the runaway box-office hit
Burton had hoped for.

[Meares] It did about
$60 million domestically
and $120 million worldwide

with a $70 million budget.

So a solid success,
but not a great blockbuster.

[narrator]
For the Bright family though,

the old movie set
seemed like an opportunity
too good to miss.

[Lynn] So towards the end
of the filming,

we as a family decided to,
you know...

"What if we let it stay?"

We had an expectation
that people would be

really interested
in seeing it.

But nobody wanted
to come see it.

People just didn't realize
it was here.

[Meares]
In the years after the film,

the elements
slowly took over the set.

Floods came in and destroyed
one of the main character's
homes,

things really went to rot
and ruin.

[narrator]
Spectre was in danger
of complete destruction.

This time, for real.

If it was going to survive,
it needed a lifeline fast.

[Lynn] It was not until
around 2011 or so,

when social media picked it up
and the next thing we knew,
people knew we were here.

And once people
started to come visit,

then we really realized
that we needed to do
whatever we could

to keep the structure
standing.

They also come to see
the goats.

And the goats take a toll
not only on the island,

but they take a toll
on the town of Spectre.

[narrator] Today,
there's not as much
of the town left

as there once was.

But thousands of fans

still come to walk
the fictional street
of a film they adore.

[Meares]
It's really the message

and the heartwarming nature
of the movie

that people really love
because in the end,

Edward and Will
do get their relationship
back on track,

and it's really beautiful.

[Lynn] We had a man
that came from South Florida,

and he told us the story
of how he had watched
the movie with his son

while his son
was on his deathbed

and they healed
their relationship.

He was so emotional about it,
I was crying listening to him

because I could tell
that it really mattered

that he get here
for the memory of his son.

[Pedrick] Although
the movie will live on

and likely get new fans
over the years,

the future
for the town of Spectre
is not so certain.

[Lynn] I'm not sure
how much longer it'll last.

At some point,
it's just gonna all give.

They're not built
on real foundations,

so we can't expect it
to last forever.

[narrator]
In the city of Gwangju,
South Korea

are the forsaken reminders
of a sacrifice
that forged a nation.

From the outside,
it could be a rundown
apartment block or an office.

[Auerbach] Peering
through the dirty windows,

it's really hard
to get a sense
of what's inside.

As soon as you walk in,
you can really feel the decay.

[Bell] There are CT scanners,
X-ray machines,

and cabinets still filled
with vials of medicine
and syringes.

[Auerbach] So, clearly,
this was some kind
of medical facility.

It's kind of post-apocalyptic,
like everyone just vanished.

[narrator] Nearby
are the remains
of another facility

that at first appears
to have no obvious connection.

[Bell] Set back
from the square behind
heavy metal gates

lies this imposing
white building.

[Michele Mitchell]
A grand staircase greets you
as you first walk in.

Inside, it has
clearly been gutted.

[Auerbach] These holes
surrounded by yellow tape
suggests

that something has been
dug out of the walls
for evidence.

[narrator]
Together, these structures

tell a story of heroism
in the face of mortal danger.

[Mitchell]
When the government
goes rogue,

it's up to the citizens
to rebel.

[narrator]
In the South Korean city
of Gwangju are two buildings

involved in a brutal episode
that defined a nation.

I was just
an ordinary citizen,
an office worker.

[narrator]
Jun-Bong Kim was an employee

of a local cement company
in 1980.

Events that played out
in that year

had a lasting impact
on his life.

[Kim] I have
experienced torture.

As a result, my body
was completely ruined.

Nevertheless,
May 18th thought me
what justice is.

I don't regret
or doubt anything
that I've done.

[narrator]
The catalyst for the cruelty
Jun-Bong endured,

and which connected him
to these buildings forever,
began in 1979.

[Auerbach] Park Chung Hee
had ruled South Korea

as an authoritarian dictator
since the 1960s.

At a dinner party
in the presidential complex,

the head of intelligence

pulled out a gun and shot him
in the head and in the chest.

[siren wailing]

[narrator] The assassination
was just the first act
of a military coup

to take over the country.

In South Korea's major cities,
like here, in Gwangju,
student protests erupted.

[Bell] Seven thousand
protestors

broke through
the police barrier

surrounding their school

and went to the square
in front of the provincial
government building.

They demanded an end
to the martial law declared
across the country.

At 1:00 a.m. on May 18th,

the government
announced a stoppage
to all such activity.

They closed universities,
they banned protests
and demonstrations,

and they announced
new restrictions on the press.

[narrator]
The military government

deployed troops
all over the city
to enforce the new laws...

by whatever means necessary.

These were soldiers trained
against the looming threat
of invasion from North Korea,

not the policing
of peaceful protests.

A 24-year-old deaf man
was beaten so badly
by soldiers

that he died of his wounds
the following day.

[narrator] But the people
refused to be silenced

and the protests continued
for the next three days.

On May 21st,
an alarming decision was made.

The stage was set for a clash
that would reverberate
through South Korea's history.

[Auerbach] At 1:00 p.m.,

the national anthem
was played out
over the PA system.

As soon as the last note
of the anthem played,

the soldiers, armed
with American-provided
M16 assault rifles,

opened fire on the crowd.

[guns firing]

[Bell]
Tens of thousands of people
were running for their lives,

diving for cover
in nearby alleyways.

[narrator]
Jun-Bong was working
in an office

across from the provincial
government building

when he was unexpectedly
drawn into the turmoil.

[Kim] Someone knocked
on the office door

and I heard three people
crying out.

"Help us, help us."

They were young students.

I was shocked
when I saw the blood.

Everyone in front of me
was covered in blood.

[narrator]
He rushed the wounded

to the city's
Red Cross hospital,

located less
than half-a-mile away.

When he arrived,
the scene was one
of utter chaos.

[Kim] There were patients
with gunshot wounds
everywhere.

It was absolute mayhem.

The building was overflowing
with wounded people.

[Auerbach] It soon became
clear that the hospital
was gonna run out

of blood supply
for transfusion.

And when that happened,

people suffering
from gunshot wounds

were gonna die
very, very quickly.

[narrator]
Jun-Bong was desperate
to help in any way he could,

even if it meant
risking his own life.

[Kim] It was devastating
seeing what was happening
with my own eyes.

I was so mad,
I couldn't stay still.

The only thing in my mind
was that I had to fight
to protect Gwangju.

[narrator]
He and a team of doctors
drove into the city

as the crackle of gunfire
echoed all around.

[Kim] I opened up the window
and said,

"Gwangju citizens,
there is not enough blood

to help save
the gunshot patients.

Please donate blood.
People are dying.
Please donate blood."

The citizens
lined up to donate.

Eventually, the line
was about 200 meters long.

Those with serious gunshot
wounds were stabilized,

had the bullets
and shrapnel removed
from their bodies,

and then taken
to larger hospitals
for longer-term care.

[narrator] But the real fight
had only just begun.

The citizens
of Gwangju mobilized,

raiding police stations
and military depots

to take up arms
against the aggressors.

The military forces
facing this mass
armed resistance

retreated to the outskirts
of the city.

They cut off
all outside communications
and closed the roads.

What had become
a demonstration
and a response,

had now become a siege.

[narrator] For a few days,
there was peace.

But this
was just the calm
before the storm.

On May 26th, it became clear
the military was moving
to retake the city.

[Auerbach]
As news of the imminent attack
began to spread,

armed protestors took up
station inside the provincial
government building.

They were determined
to make a last,
desperate stand.

[narrator] Jun-Bong was one
of the city's defenders
holed up inside.

We were trembling with fear.

We could hear the helicopters
in the distance.

We thought we were
going to die here.

[narrator] May 27th, 1980.

In Gwangju, South Korea,
the defenders of democracy
are making their last stand

in the city's provincial
government building.

As church bells
pealed at 4:00 a.m.,
the first shots were fired.

Then, the chaos
of war erupted.

[guns firing]

I went to the back door
just as the soldiers came in.

I saw the soldiers
shooting their guns.

There were flames everywhere.

They said that
if we surrendered,
they would spare our lives.

So we surrendered.

I threw away my weapon
and crawled out.

The troops
tied up people like fish.

[Auerbach] By 5:10 a.m.,

with the sun just beginning
to rise over the city,

it was all over.

[Bell] Seventeen people
were killed

inside the provincial
government building,

and over 200 were arrested.

[narrator] Yet the event
was swept under the rug.

In the years that followed,
any mention of the uprising
by the city's residents

was met
with severe punishment.

[Bell] The provincial
government building

was once again used
as an administrative
headquarters.

All traces
of the brutal attack
were covered over.

[people chanting in Korean]

[narrator]
But the events of May 1980

laid the foundations
for democracy
to eventually flourish.

In 1987, the country
held its first free elections.

Under the new regime,
the city's Red Cross hospital

remained operational
for another 27 years.

[Auerbach] By 2014, however,
its doors were locked
with everything left inside.

And the whole facility
was just left to decay.

[narrator] Today,
Jun-Bong works with
the May 18 Foundation,

founded to protect
these structures

and the memory
of the Gwangju Uprising.

[Kim] Democracy
has a living history.

It's necessary
to preserve these locations
to educate others.

[narrator] In Western Namibia,

where the desert
meets the ocean,

traces
of weather-beaten structures
line the shore.

[Meigs] We're on
the South Atlantic coast
of Africa.

This is a place
where, to this day,
almost no one lives.

Then here and there,
we see some signs
of human activity.

[Pepera] There are these
huge metal structures,
almost like barrels,

lined up in rows.

And from above,

you can see the outline
of a large concrete slipway
on the water's edge.

[Dominic Selwood]
Chains set into the ground

suggest that something massive
was either lashed down
or dragged across the beach.

[Meigs] What would require
such heavy-duty infrastructure

out here in the middle
of nowhere?

[narrator]
These are the last remains
of a booming industry

that powered
the industrial age.

I believe it was
a necessary evil at the time

when we had
no other source of fuel.

[Meigs] If you walk
on this beach, you see
something kind of chilling.

There are bones everywhere.
Enormous bones.

[Selwood] It's easy to see
how this place got its name.

The Skeleton Coast.

[Paul Lombard] I am
a born Namibian.

At a young age,
my father brought me out

into this area,

and it really grew my passion
for the desert.

[narrator] Paul Lombard
is a local expedition leader.

It took years of experience

to learn how to live
in this unforgiving
environment.

As an early sailor,
if you were stranded
on this coast

and had no knowledge
of the desert,

the chance of survival
was next to nothing.

[narrator]
Yet hundreds of people
did venture here,

willing to risk their lives
in search of fortune.

The prize they sought
wasn't buried in the desert,
it was in the ocean facing it.

[Meigs] There are
giant seal colonies,

sharks come in
close to the shore,

and there are whales.

[Selwood] In the winter,
they migrated north
to the warmer waters,

like those along
the South African
and Namibian coasts.

They sought out
shallow bays like these
to give birth.

In the early 1700s,
the Dutch West India Company
sent whalers to this region,

and American, French,
and Norwegian hunters
soon followed.

[narrator] Whaling stations
were quickly established
along Namibia's coast

to exploit
the abundant population.

This one became known
as Meob Bay.

[Meigs]
Everyone thinks of Moby Dick
and the 19th-century ships

that sailed around the world
chasing a variety of whales,
especially sperm whales.

But here in Africa,
it was possible to hunt whales
right off the beach.

The unique design
of these surf boats

was specific for breaking
through the waves.

With a bow and a stern
with the same shape.

If the small crew of men
got twisted or turned
in the waves,

they could just turn
their paddles around
and row their way through.

They would then have
the open ocean to chase across
and hunt down their prey.

[narrator]
The hunters catch of choice
was the Southern right whale.

Legend has it
the right whale got its name
because for the early whalers,

it was the easiest whale,
the right whale to catch.

[Pepera] They often swam up
close to the shore

and stayed near the surface,

making it easy
to spot and follow them.

[Selwood] They also floated
when they were dead,

which made it much easier
to lash them to the side
of ships

or drag them back to shore.

[narrator] The whale
was a literal gold mine,

and a use was found
for every part.

[Pepera]
The most important product
from whaling

was the oil produced
from the animal's blubber.

[Meigs] Before the dawn
of the electric light,

whale oil was considered
the best kind of oil to burn
in a lamp for illumination.

And that made the oil
extremely valuable.

[narrator]
Over the course of a century,

around 3,700 right whales
were killed by the industry
in Namibia.

Their downfall was inevitable.

[Selwood] By the 1800s,

right whales had been hunted
almost to the verge
of extinction.

But whalers didn't have
the technology to catch
and harvest whales

which didn't float
when they died.

[narrator] As a result,
nearshore whaling declined

and stations like this
were left abandoned.

But in the decades to come,

the Industrial Revolution's
advances

would see
the trade return to Namibia
with a vengeance.

As whaling got mechanized,
it became even more deadly.

[narrator] In Namibia

are the remnants
of a once-prolific
whaling industry

that had fallen into decline
by the early 1800s.

But at the turn
of the century,

technological innovations

brought the trade
back to this coast
with sinister efficiency.

Steam power was coming in,
so ships could travel faster
and farther.

And they began to develop
mechanized harpoons

that could shoot farther
with much more force.

And most, kind of,
chilling of all,

they developed harpoons
with a kind of grenade tip.

[narrator] Jean-Paul Roux
is a local marine scientist

who studies the ecosystem
of these waters.

Faster whales could be taken
because of new technology,

which allowed the whalers
to target the humpback whale,
blue whales, fin whales.

They were more abundant
because they had never been
exploited before.

[narrator] 150 miles south
of Meob Bay,

just outside the town
of Luderitz,

a collection of rusted remains
hint at the scale
of this deadly new era.

This is the Sturmvogel Bucht
whaling station.

When the German-run operation
opened in 1913,

it was equipped
with the latest hunting
and processing technology.

So that's where it all started

after the killing
of the whale.

It was towed here,
fastened to cables
and dragged tail-first.

You can see all the cables
have made grooves
in the concrete here.

[Selwood]
Once the whale had been
brought to the factory,

a process known
as flensing began.

Using long hooked knives,
workers would cut off
sections of blubber,

which were then
dragged to the boilers
and cooked down into oil.

[narrator] This process
required fresh water,

which was hard to come by
in the desert.

They had to set up a big,
powered system to boil
sea water and condense it.

[Pepera] But it wasn't
an easy start.

There were constant problems
with the water supply,

and they only produced
2,000 barrels of oil,

which was way below
what they'd hoped.

[narrator] The situation
was about to get far worse

for the whaling station's
German owners.

A conflict loomed

that would bring
the entire industry here
crashing down.

Since 1884,
Namibia had been
a German colony,

then part of what was known
as German South West Africa.

Soon, however,
World War I would intervene.

[Pepera] On the request
of the British government,

South Africa invaded Namibia

and occupied the town
of Luderitz.

[Selwood]
The station's ships
were seized,

and operations
ground to a halt.

[Roux] At the end of the war,

all the machinery
was taken away,

the sheds itself
were left abandoned.

Norwegian whalers, mostly,

discovered that it was
far better to look
for whales in Antarctica

instead of having
these shore stations,

and later on
developed the concept
of a factory vessel.

And this is what brought
most whale stocks to decline.

[narrator] For centuries,

whaling was a vital
yet unpleasant part
of human development.

[Lombard] Whaling in Namibia,
or South West Africa
at that stage,

put us on the map.

And my town, Walvis Bay,
where I was born and bred,

was founded on the backbone
of the whaling industry.

[narrator]
When the whaling industry
collapsed,

workers turned
to commercial fishing

and the diamond mines
that littered the desert
for their livelihoods.

Now, decades later,

the Southern right whale
has finally started to return
to Namibia's waters.