All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E09.Mighty.Wooden.Warships.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[missile roars]

Narrator: For centuries,
an extraordinary war has raged

Across the world's oceans,
above and below the waves.

Man: You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator: Shipbuilders designed
bigger and faster vessels

To outwit and crush
their opponents.

Man: That nation that has the
most powerful battleship fleet

Can destroy the enemy's
battleship fleet

And therefore control the seas,

And if you control the seas,
you control the world.

Narrator: They carried
terrifying weapons.

Man: This was gonna be
the first time

That somebody had fired
a torpedo in anger

Since world war ii.

They needed to get it right.

Narrator: But ships
have also liberated

And rescued thousands.

Man: You could think
of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat for
persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator:
And inspired men and women

To acts of incredible bravery.

Man: I will take you there now,
to your cannons,

To your death,
we will sink before surrender.

Narrator: These vessels
and their crews

Have shaped world history.

Man: As the commanding officer
of a missile-carrying submarine,

I was directly responsible

For helping to prevent
world war iii.

[missile roars]

Narrator: This time,
we return to the days

Of the mighty wooden warship.

Man: They were
the most sophisticated pieces

Of technology on the planet.

Man: We think there's
the best part of 6,000 oak trees

Go into her construction.

Narrator: From the terrifying
chaos of the gun deck...

Man: It's described by one of
the officers as hell on earth.

[cannon fires]

Narrator: ...To an honorable
death in battle.

And a tale of upstarts taking on
the superpower of the day.

Man: The americans
never thought for a moment

They could defeat
the royal navy.

But here was a chance...
One to one.

♪

[explosion]

♪

♪

Man: These timbers
had not seen daylight

Since she foundered on this spot
in July 1545.

Narrator: In 1982,
a salvage operation took place

In the shallow waters
of the solent,

Off England's south coast.

60 million people watched

As one of the first great
wooden warships emerged

For the first time
in over 400 years.

Man: She broke the surface
to the sounds of a celebration.

[ship horns blowing]

Narrator: More than 30 years
of conservation work followed.

The vessel is now on view
to the english public.

Her name: The mary rose.

♪

Alex hildred: And here is
the hull of the mary rose.

We've got the starboard side
from the keel

Right the way up to
the beginning of the bow castle,

Or where the bow castle
would have been,

So you're looking at the inside
of basically half a ship.

Narrator: For 437 years,
the silt seabed protected

This remarkable cross-section
of a tudor warship.

♪

The mary rose has given
archaeologists an insight

Into the young king
who commissioned her in 1509--

Henry viii.

Hildred:
When he came to the throne

He only inherited five ships
from his father.

By the time mary rose sinks
in 1545,

Within the fleet
there are 53 vessels,

20 of them are great warships.

Narrator: Before henry,
english ships had been used

To transport soldiers.

The mary rose marked
a turning point.

Henry's ships would become
more combative.

Hildred:
I think you could call her

The first proper-built warship,
based on the fact

That she is a gun platform
for fighting at sea.

But what one has to imagine
is that it was crammed

Full of 39 big guns
on their carriages,

Another 20 swivel guns,

You've got the soldiers,
185 soldiers,

200 mariners, 30 gunners,

You then have the officers
and their crew,

So you're talking
about 500 people.

Narrator: As archaeologists
explored the wreck,

They found an intriguing mix of
new and old technology on board.

Skeletons of archers were found,
still carrying their weapons.

There were boxes of arrows
and longbows still nailed shut,

Newly delivered
from the tower of london.

In all, 138 longbows
were recovered.

Hildred: These are
absolutely unbelievable,

They're made of one
single stave of yew,

Which has two different
qualities, really.

It's got, at the back
of the bow, the flat bit,

Is the bit that stretches,
it's the sapwood of the tree,

So it actually allows the bow
to bend,

And here, this d section,

Is actually the heartwood,
which is the center of the tree,

And that's really good
under compression,

So it makes a natural spring

With the two different qualities
of the same piece of branch.

Narrator: As part
of the fighting navy,

The mary rose's crew
faced many hazards.

But their living conditions were
often better than those on land.

Hildred: Life at sea
wasn't too bad

Because you knew you got food
every day,

The rations were good, you had
fish a couple of days a week,

You had meat a few days a week,

And it was a guaranteed amount
portioned out,

Um, you had beer, you know,
a gallon of beer a day.

What more could you want?

However, there...
That doesn't mean that,

That they didn't
occasionally run out,

Because all of these ships
had to be provisioned at sea,

So, some of the wonderful
letters we have,

That are written actually
in the mary rose, say,

"for goodness' sake,
send us some, some food,"

"there was never a ship
so sorely provisioned as ours.

We're running out of beer,

And the meat that you sent
has gone foul."

Narrator: Inside the wreck
was a remarkable number

Of well-preserved objects,

Offering a glimpse of life
in the tudor navy.

Hildred: Believe it or not,
this is one of the many parts

Of a basket that we recovered
from the ship.

Baskets were used
for all sorts of things.

We had one basket that had
loads of shoes in it,

The carpenter had baskets that
had some of his tools in it,

And then just off-cuts of wood,

We had a basket
with plum stones in it,

We had fish that were stored
in a basket

At one end of the ship.

Obviously the ma...
The only motive power was sail,

So we have hundreds
of rigging blocks,

Literally hundreds
of different sorts,

So these are just
a series of different types.

So, this is a single sheave
pulley block.

Sometimes the insides
of sheaves

Are brass or copper alloy,

Sometimes like this
they're wood.

They're all of different sizes,

And obviously each have

A particular position
on the ship

And a particular role.

This is quite interesting
in that it's two,

So it's a double sheave
pulley block,

And still, still has the rope
in it, and many of them did.

Narrator:
The wreck of the mary rose

Has revealed a great deal.

But as of yet,

It hasn't revealed
the biggest mystery of all:

Why the ship sank.

What we do know
is that henry viii's flagship

Went down facing
a french invasion fleet

Of 128 ships and 30,000 troops.

The king had dispatched 80 ships
to protect portsmouth harbor.

On the morning of July 19, 1545,

Henry himself watched
the battle unfold

From the ramparts
of southsea castle.

At first, both fleets
were becalmed.

But then the weather changed.

Hildred: We do have
eyewitness accounts of it,

And the best account
actually says

That towards the late afternoon
or towards the evening, it says,

A wind picked up so that the
english could actually set sail,

And so they'd go out
to meet the french,

And it says quite specifically

That mary rose fired guns
on one side of the ship,

And she was turning to bring the
guns on the other side to bear

When she sank on the side
of the guns she'd just fired.

Narrator: Sure enough,
when the mary rose was found,

The gun ports on the starboard
side were still open,

The gun muzzles
embedded in the silt.

Hildred:
So, the gun ports are open,

The moment the gun ports
reach the water line,

Water will engulf the ship.

That's how the mary rose sank,

Water went in through
the open gun ports.

What got to that situation,
we don't know.

♪

Narrator: Why had the ship
tipped over so far

That her own gun ports
brought about her downfall?

One theory is that her cast-iron
weapons had made her top heavy.

But they'd been fitted
in london,

And the ship had made
the channel voyage

Without capsizing.

Another theory
is that the french cannons

Had managed to hit her
below the waterline.

Hildred: Had she been hit?

Because the french categorically
say we sank her by our gunfire.

♪

The mary rose has not yielded up
all her secrets.

There's still a lot to come,
I think.

Narrator: Two and half centuries
after mary rose's loss,

A british fleet would score
a major victory

Against the french.

It turned the flagship
into an icon.

Portsmouth dockyard in England

Is home to a grand old lady
of the sea.

Built 200 years
after the mary rose sank,

She is the most famous vessel
from an age

When wooden warships were
the ultimate fighting machines.

This is hms victory.

♪

♪

♪

Andrew baines: She's the largest
warship in the world

When she's laid down.

We think there's the best part
of 6,000 oak trees

Go into her construction.

Well, today she is the sole
surviving line of battleships,

You can't see one of these
things anywhere else.

♪

Narrator: When victory
was built in the 1760s,

Maritime design
had moved on considerably

From those early gunships
of the tudor era.

The mary rose was a carrack--

A three-masted ship
with a high stern castle

And forecastle for archers
to fire down on enemy ships.

It was a design that lasted from
the 14th to the 16th century.

Baines: The problem
with ship design at that point

Is that it's still based
on the idea

That you are going to fight
a land battle at sea, almost.

So one is going to approach
the enemy,

Board them
in hand-to-hand combat

And capture their ships.

So although she has
a lot of guns,

Only a few of them
are heavy guns

That can really damage a ship,

And the idea is that
almost like a cavalry charge,

Your ships will sail
against the enemy line abreast,

They'll turn just
as they meet them,

They'll fire a broadside.

If that has a decisive effect,
they'll then board the enemy.

Narrator:
But carracks couldn't compete

Against a surprisingly
ancient enemy--the galley.

With heavy guns in its bow,

A galley could sail
directly at a warship,

Attacking as she approached.

Baines:
That brings about a change

In the design of the carrack.

The galleon's introduced.

And the galleon has guns
mounted in the eyes,

Right at the head of the ship,

So it can attack
as you go into battle.

Narrator: The size of ships and
the number of guns they carried

Grew rapidly.

Baines: The galleon,
over a period

Of around about 80, 90 years,

Eventually gives way to the idea
of the line of battle ship

Where no longer will you come
into battle line abreast,

But your aim is
to bring about a tactic

Where all of your heavy guns
on the ship side

Can be brought to bear with
most effect against an enemy.

And that means your fellow ships

Have to be ahead of you
and behind you,

Not to your sides.

So that gives rise
to the line of battle,

These long lines, 15, 20, 25,
30 ships in some cases,

By the late 18th
and early 19th century.

Narrator: The ultimate evolution
of the wooden warship

Would become known
as a "ship of the line."

Eric grove: These carried
the same artillery

As an entire army ashore.

Each ship.

It was an extraordinary
concentration of firepower,

And what these ships could do
to each other,

Particularly if they raked
each other,

They fired cannonballs

From the stern forward
in a ship.

You could knock out a ship.

You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator:
A first-rate ship of the line,

Like hms victory,

Was designed from the ground up
to be a floating gun platform.

Baines: The first question
that is asked

Is what are the type of gun
she's going to carry

And what is the weight
of that gun?

So we're using muzzle loaders,
42-pounders.

We are going to carry 30 of them
on the lower deck,

That gives us a deck length,

We need 10 feet in between
each gun, 150 feet of deck.

You then round that deck off
at one end,

You blunt it off at the other,
and you stack the decks up.

So once you've worked out where
all the guns are going to go,

Where the magazines are gonna go

And where the supplies
are gonna go,

You slot the men in

Over and in between
and around that equipment.

Grove: Although when we look
at ships like victory today

They seem rather old-fashioned,

In their day, they were
items of wonder.

I mean, they were
the most sophisticated pieces

Of technology on the planet.

♪

Narrator:
Victory's guns were fired

By a well-drilled gun crew,

And they came from many
different countries.

Simon willerton:
There were 20-odd nationalities

On board the ship,

There were even a few frenchmen
on board the ship at trafalgar,

But there were americans,
um, maltese, germans,

Dutch, caribbean, african.

So there were lots
of different nationalities.

Of course there were english
and scottish and welsh,

And they would have been
a fairly rough bunch, basically.

You would not want
to meet them in a dark alley

Walking down the road.

In charge of each gun
would be a gun captain,

And then there's
an assistant captain, a loader,

Assistant loader, a rammer,
assistant rammer,

And then various other men

That would help physically
move the gun around.

It would take about 90 seconds

For a british crew to fire
and reload their guns.

These guns are all
muzzle-loading guns,

So everything has to be pushed
down the front.

The first thing
they would use is a sponge.

It looks like
a large cotton bud.

They dip that
into a bucket of water

And push it down the barrel,

They're doing that
for two reasons, really.

One is to help
cool the barrel down,

Because if the barrels become
too hot, they may explode.

The other one is really
just to make sure

There's nothing left burning
inside the barrel

Before they start pushing
the next gunpowder charger.

And then finally
they start to use the ram.

Well, that's what you
load the gun with.

So the first thing
to be rammed down

Would be the gunpowder charge,

That comes up on deck
on a canvas bag,

And it's pushed
straight down the gun.

Then you put the ammunition in,

Usually a round shot,
a cannonball.

The royal naval guns
were fitted with gun locks.

That's a simple
flintlock mechanism

Like you find on a musket
or a pistol.

And you just pull on a piece
of string and it creates sparks,

And it ignites the gunpowder
inside the barrel.

[boom]

Narrator:
At the height of battle,

The gun deck would have been
filled with thick smoke.

The noise would have been enough
to make a man's ears bleed.

Willerton:
So the whole ship is shaking

From your own guns going off,

And of course you can't forget

That the enemy
are not that far away,

And they're firing balls through
the side of the ship as well.

So it will be horrific.

It's described by one of
the officers as hell on earth,

And that's probably the best
description you can think

Of a gun deck during the height
of a battle.

[cannon fires]

Narrator: Up on deck,
there were just as many dangers.

The men responsible
for the ship's 37 sails

Risked their lives every time
they climbed her masts.

A man's size determined
where he worked.

Willerton:
So right down the bottom

You have the largest sail,

So you want some of the biggest
men to be down there

Because the sails
are very heavy,

Right at the top you want
some fairly light men

Because the sails aren't as big
as the other sails,

And if you fall from a height
of about 150 feet,

The water is going to be
like hitting concrete,

It's not going
to do you much good,

And of course they might not
be able to rescue you

From the water, either.

Narrator: But the most dangerous
place on victory

Was actually the very front
of the ship--

The wooden spar
called bowsprit.

Willerton: The bowsprit was
often known as the widowmaker.

Really, if you fall
into the water,

The ship's going
to run you over.

Narrator: Dangerous or not,
victory is a naval icon...

And her commander,
horatio nelson, a hero.

Brilliant and brave,

Nelson aimed to make his country
the ultimate naval power.

But the cost would be high.

Hms victory,

The largest, most heavily armed
ship of her age.

But she became the most famous
of all wooden warships

Because of her commander,
horatio nelson.

Nelson was born in 1758,
the son of a clergyman.

Little was expected of him.

But at age 12
he was sent to sea,

Serving under
his naval captain uncle.

"what," his uncle noted,
"has poor horatio done..."

But the young midshipman
would soon prove himself

To be a tough
and skilled seaman.

Matthew shelton:
By the age of 15,

He has crossed the atlantic,

Been over to the west indies,
crossed into the arctic circle.

So he has a very intense
early education, actually,

In ship handling and seamanship.

And people feel that this
is where he learned

Some of the habits that he used
later as a leader.

Narrator:
Nelson would put himself

In the thick of the action.

His injuries have become
part of his legend.

He lost his right arm
and vision in one eye.

The fearless officer became
an idol to the british public.

Shelton: The first time that
he's really noticed is in 1797

At what's called the battle
of cape st. Vincent.

And he takes this
incredibly daring maneuver,

Where he takes his ship
out of its position,

Attacks one spanish ship,
captures it,

And then incredibly
captures another.

Narrator: Nelson's greatest
moment, however,

Came eight years later.

In 1804, french emperor
napoleon bonaparte

Formed an alliance with Spain.

Now with a much bigger fleet,

This was his chance
to invade britain.

It fell to nelson to hunt down
the franco-spanish ships--

And in his words,
"annihilate them."

♪

On September 29, 1805,

The british fleet was
off the coast of portugal.

The enemy was close by.

Admiral nelson
and his 27 captains

Gathered here
in victory's dining cabin.

He outlined his strategy.

Shelton: It's very important
that they understand

The formation
of the line of battle

That they're getting into
for sailing.

But very important also
that they understand, you know,

When and where they should
take the initiative.

So nelson says,
"no captain can do very wrong

If he places his ship
alongside that of the enemy."

So what he's saying is use
your initiative, be aggressive,

That will win the day.

Narrator: It's said the captains

Loved their admiral's plan
so much,

Some of them wept with joy.

On the morning of October 21st,
the two fleets faced each other.

The location: Cape trafalgar.

Nelson ordered a battle-cry
to be signaled from victory:

"England expects that every man
will do his duty."

Nelson's plan was extraordinary.

Instead of sailing parallel
to the enemy,

He ordered the fleet
into two columns.

One was led by nelson
in victory,

And the other
by admiral collingwood

In the royal sovereign.

He was making an aggressive
attempt to cut the enemy line.

Shelton:
It is quite a risky job.

You line your ships up in
two lines and sail at the enemy.

That means that they
can fire at you

When you can only fire

A few forward-facing cannons
at them.

So you're taking
a lot of punishment.

Narrator:
Nelson aimed the victory

At the french flagship
bucentaure.

Shelton: He takes victory

Through a gap
in their line of ships

And rakes the stern
of the bucentaure.

Raking is when you fire
your whole broadside

As you pass through
the weakest part of a ship,

Which is at the stern.

So very early on he knocks
the bucentaure out of action.

That's very important.

And then his ships can pour
through the line behind him.

Narrator: The broadsides
from victory were lethal

And highly coordinated...

But not simultaneous.

Willerton: So the broadside
you'd see in the films

Is all the guns going off
at the same time.

You can't actually do that,
because if you did that,

It would roll the ship.

So you start at one end,

Probably more often than not
at the bow of the ship,

And the fire slowly rolls
down the deck,

So as each gun fires,
it fires in sequence.

Narrator:
With bucentaure defeated,

Victory now faced
the french ship redoutable.

Shelton: Literally
kind of locked together

And they are fighting,

Firing their guns
at very close proximity

With pretty severe carnage,

Particularly on the side
of the redoutable.

Willerton: British crews
would take about 90 seconds

To fire and reload the guns.

The french and spanish crews

Were taking between
three and five minutes

Because they'd had
far less practice.

[cannon fires]

Narrator: After four hours
of bitter fighting,

The french fleet surrendered.

They had lost 6,000 men;
the british, 1,700.

But added to the list
of the dead

Would be the name nelson.

A sharpshooter in the redoutable

Had shot him as he paced
victory's quarterdeck.

The admiral was carried below,
but lived only a few hours.

Shelton:
In a very difficult scene,

I mean, this is a scene
where amputations are going on,

Where people are crying
in agony, and where he is,

Yes, he's made comfortable,

But he is dying ultimately
alongside his men.

Very famously he is visited

By the captain of the ship,
captain hardy,

And hardy is able to tell him
about an hour before he dies

That, "we've won
a great victory."

So he dies with that knowledge.

Narrator: In December,
a battered hms victory

Carried nelson's body
home to England.

Napoleon's hopes for an invasion
were in tatters.

Nelson and victory

Had established
britain's command of the oceans.

It would last
for over a century.

But while trafalgar
was still being celebrated,

Britain's royal navy
was improving

Its next generation
of wooden warship.

And from a sailor's
point of view,

It was the most popular
of them all.

The frigate.

One of only two british frigates
from that era

Can now be found in hartlepool
in the north of England.

Hms trincomalee.

♪

Like all frigates,

Trincomalee's flat upper deck
keeps her low and fast,

And she has a distinctive
arrangement of weaponry.

Grove: This single rank
of main armament guns

Is what makes a frigate
a frigate.

You can always tell a frigate.

It's got this single rank
of guns.

They found that longer ships
are lower in the water,

Were actually
a more seaworthy way

Of producing a fast ship

Carrying a moderately good
armament.

The ships of the line,

With their double or triple
ranks of guns,

These were the ships which
actually fought the main battles

In the line of battle.

These frigates supported
the ships of the line,

Scouted for them,

And also engaged in a huge range
of other operations,

Notably commerce raiding
and commerce defense.

Narrator:
Sailors loved frigates.

They had more living space.

And if you had a captain skilled
at capturing enemy vessels,

The rewards were considerable.

Grove: Frigates were
very popular ships,

Much more popular
than ships of the line.

They often had famous captains

Who were good
at getting prize money,

So as well as being
more comfortable,

You could get
a lot richer as well.

Narrator: Britain's command
of the seas was unquestioned.

But it had a problem.

So many ships had been built
to fight the napoleonic wars,

There was now a shortage
of british oak.

So the country looked overseas
to its expanding empire

And found an excellent
alternative: Teak.

Clare hunt: Teak was a really
superior shipbuilding material,

And it's very hard,
it's resistant to seawater,

It rots at a much slower pace
than oak,

It's much more resistant
to shipworms,

Which ships were attacked by.

Grove: Teak was actually
probably better than oak

In some ways,

Although the sailors
were very suspicious of it.

They said that
their wounds festered,

Because wood splinters were
very important wound producers,

As the cannonballs
came into the ship.

Whether they did fester or not
is another matter.

But that was a sort
of old sailor's tale.

Narrator: More importantly,
the royal navy had easy access

To vast quantities of teak
in india.

Trincomalee was built in bombay,

Under the supervision
of a master shipbuilder

Named jamsetjee bomanjee wadia.

He'd been commissioned to make
a thoroughly british ship.

But he upheld a few traditions
of his family's shipyards.

The wadias were zoroastrians,

An ancient religion that
observed an important ritual.

Hunt: When the keel
was laid down,

Obviously that's the first piece
of the ship to be,

To be laid down in the dry dock,

They would have a ceremony

Whereby a silver nail
was hammered into the keel.

So it's a sort
of a purification ceremony,

And it was attended
by a parsi priest,

And there was all sorts
of ceremony, flowers.

I often wonder
whether the silver nail

Is still there somewhere.

Narrator: And with barley twists

And carved wooden elephants
on the stern,

Trincomalee is one british ship

That offers a true taste
of bombay.

♪

But britain wasn't
the only nation

Developing its wooden warships.

The united states thought
they, too, would build frigates.

But theirs were bigger
and better.

When war came,

They now took their chances
against the old enemy.

Craig symonds: The americans
never thought for a moment

They could defeat the royal navy
in a stand-up fight,

But here was a chance,
one to one, frigate to frigate.

Narrator: Britannia ruled
the waves in the 19th century.

But one young nation had no
intention of being intimidated.

Symonds: The americans knew

They could not build
ships of the line;

Too expensive, too big,
too difficult.

But the americans could build
the next size ship below that,

Which were known as frigates.

Narrator: The man tasked
with building new vessels

Was philadelphia shipbuilder
joshua humphreys.

Symonds: And it was his notion
that they would be

What we might call
frigates on steroids.

Matt brenkle: His genius,
I think, was in taking

The best of european design

And combining them
into something

That in the end
was uniquely american.

♪

Narrator: One of those
super frigates survives

And is under restoration
in boston.

This is the uss constitution.

♪

Symonds: A conventional frigate
in the age of sail would carry

Between 32 and 36 guns,
sometimes 38.

The constitution was rated
as a 44-gun frigate,

And did carry as many as 60,

It could outrun anything
that was more powerful,

It could defeat anything
that could catch it,

So in some curious ways it was
a kind of pocket battleship.

Narrator: And the constitution
would get the chance

To prove herself against the
might of britain's royal navy.

In response
to restricted american trade

And press-ganging its citizens
into the royal navy,

The united states declared war
on britain in June 1812.

Despite the odds, the americans
liked their chances.

Brenkle: That seems like

A very david and goliath
sort of fight,

But in fact the british navy was
strung out all over the world.

The entire royal navy

Wasn't coming to the coast
of north america

To fight the americans.

Symonds: The americans never
thought for a moment

They could defeat the royal navy
in a stand-up fight,

But here was a chance,
frigate to frigate, one to one.

Narrator: The uss constitution
was under the command

Of captain isaac hull.

Since the outbreak of war,

He'd prepared his gun crews for
an encounter with the british.

Brenkle: He knew
if he was gonna sail out

From the united states

He was gonna meet a warship
of the royal navy

That would have
a very well-trained crew,

Very professional officers,
so he wanted to be, you know,

Of the, of the same caliber
as those men.

The big feather
in the cap of any...

For any american captain

Would be to capture
a british ship

Of equal or greater size,

And he is very intent
on doing that.

Narrator: So isaac hull
went hunting for british ships.

On August 19, 1812,
600 miles from boston,

A frigate appeared
on the horizon.

This was the royal navy's
guerriere,

Which had been captured from
the french five years earlier.

Symonds: In the age of sail

Almost all ships fit
a certain type;

They were not significantly
different from one another.

When the british
captured french ships,

They often took the ships
into the royal navy,

And royal navy sailors
could go on board and run them

Just as if they were
a royal navy ship.

Narrator: For an hour,

The constitution and guerriere
drew closer,

Both jockeying for position.

Brenkle: The captain
of that british ship,

James richard dacres,
was a young officer,

Only about 24 years old,

But had been in the navy
for a long time,

Had seen some
pretty hard service.

So he was no, no novice.

Neither was isaac hull, though,
the american captain.

Narrator: At 5:00 p.M.
The battle began.

Both ships exchanged broadsides.

[cannon fire]

But the guerriere's shots
either missed or rebounded

Off the constitution's
tough oak hull.

Brenkle: It became clear
very shortly

That the american gunnery was
superior to the british gunnery.

A seaman named moses smith
in the 1840s

Published a memoir about
his time in the u.S. Navy.

And he says that during
the engagement

Several of the shot
from the enemy

Stuck in their hull,

And one of the largest
that they could command

Was seen to bounce off the side.

And someone yelled: "huzza,
her sides are made of iron!"

Narrator: From that day on,
the uss constitution

Has been affectionately known
as "old ironsides."

Brenkle: The british ship,
on the other hand,

Really got the worst of it.

After a few broadsides,
the ship's mizzenmast,

The smallest mast at the stern,
fell over the side.

The foremast followed.

So the ship was
basically incapacitated,

And to preserve the rest
of his crew,

Captain dacres surrendered.

♪

Narrator:
The guerriere was little more

Than a floating wreck.

But captain hull's victory
was not complete.

The chance to make his fortune

Was slowly sinking
before his eyes.

Brenkle: The normal process
was to take it...

The enemy ship
that they'd captured,

Fix it up, bring it home.

It would be bought
into the american navy.

The crew would get
a lot of prize money,

Which they would share
amongst themselves.

But in this case
they just couldn't,

So all the british prisoners
and their baggage

Were transferred
to constitution,

And the day after the battle
guerriere was set on fire

And exploded and sank
into the north atlantic.

Narrator: But despite the loss
of their prize,

The constitution returned home
to a hero's welcome.

Brenkle: Losing one frigate
was nothing to the royal navy

In terms of material.

But in terms of morale,
this was, I think,

A very important moment
for america in general

But especially
for the american navy.

It's the first time
that they are able to say

We're equal to our
european counterparts.

Symonds: Interestingly enough,

Whitehall did send out an order
to all naval captains

Ordering them not to take on the
american frigates one to one.

And when the americans
found out about that,

They were, they were
puffed up with pride,

"wow, look at that,
they're afraid of us!"

Narrator: The ship that made
this important breakthrough

Has been lovingly maintained
as a national treasure

For over 200 years.

By the mid 19th century,
the age of iron had arrived.

Naval warfare would never be
the same again.

But an extraordinary vessel
is moored in liverpool...

An elegant three-masted schooner
built in 1900.

She's the last of her kind
afloat.

For decades she plied the seas
carrying cargo.

But she also boasts
a surprising war record.

Her name: The kathleen and may.

♪

Jeff grice: We're now entering
into the cargo hold

Of the kathleen and may.

Although we've got a very nice
staircase to come down,

It didn't have it in them days.

They had to scramble down
through the top hatch.

But down here they would pack in

Over 200 ton of cargo.

Over the years
her biggest tonnage was coal,

But along with that
she carried general cargo.

One particular trip recorded
190 ton of manure.

I don't think I would want
to have been on that trip.

The only space that the crew had
for relaxation,

If they got such a thing,
was down here in the mess.

Space for crew was minimal.

The money was in cargo,

So that's where all
the big spaces got used up.

♪

Narrator: But kathleen and may's
unassuming career

Was interrupted
by the second world war.

For britain to survive,
it was essential

That supplies continued
to arrive at british ports.

With german u-boats
a constant threat,

Large convoys were escorted
across the atlantic by warships.

But small vessels,
like the kathleen and may,

Played a key role, too.

They tackled some of the most
dangerous waters of all.

Grice: During the war
she was trading,

Operating from
the southwest coast

Across to the irish coast.

This was the route that
the german u-boats used to take

When they came out of the u-boat
pens in brest in France.

They would sail
through the irish sea

To get to the north sea

And then do as much damage
to our convoys as possible.

Narrator:
Sail-powered cargo ships

Were not only cheap to operate,

They were very quiet.

Grice: Under sail
there was no engine noise,

No propellers turning.

So there was no trace of her
appearing on a sonar screen.

She could slip
through the waters

Undetected in many aspects.

She could use all the sail--

And she carries
4,500 square feet of sail--

To take her through the water.

Not tremendous speeds,
but a safe passage,

And that was
the most important aspect.

Narrator: Kathleen and may

Carried urgently needed
food and fuel.

But she also carried
something more dangerous--

Large amounts of explosives.

Grice: The kathleen and may
has what they term

A volumetric tonnage total
of 220 ton.

So if you can picture that
as being explosives, ammunition,

That's quite a lot of dangerous
cargo that she carried.

It was just accepted
that it would be safe,

There was no special precautions
that they could make at all.

And when you look back
at the british navy,

Going back to nelson's days,

There were wooden ships
and there was no...

No protection at all.

They just carried
their explosives as they were,

And exactly the same
with the kathleen and may.

Narrator: On some voyages,

Kathleen and may had more than
supplies hidden in the hold.

Cindy grice: We have been told

By a fairly good
government source

That she also carried
prisoners of war and escapees

Back from ireland to England.

It was easier to get, say,

Airmen the french resistance
had managed to conceal,

And the easiest route was
to take them through ireland

Rather than straight here,
you see.

Narrator: The owners of this
remarkable wooden combat ship

Have nothing but admiration
for her wartime crew.

Jeff grice: I personally have
gone across the irish sea

From the southwest coast
to ireland,

And I've thought
how they must have felt.

They must have been dreading
seeing a periscope

Or a submarine pop up
or anything of that nature.

And it's really, really hard
to comprehend

What they must have
been feeling.

Narrator: The wartime role

Of this beautiful
three-masted sailing ship

Proved to be
a fascinating footnote

To the story of wooden warships.

By 1945, the battleship
was already giving way

To the mighty carrier

As the ultimate combat ship
of the age.

But for centuries,
wood had reigned supreme,

Along with the unique skills
needed to master it.

Grove:
You get to understand the sea

When you're trying to use wind

As your main means
of propulsion.

You get an instinct
for the weather

And you become closer, if...

If you like, to the environment

Than you do
if you're in a steamer.

And I think that was why
a lot of people

Who'd been brought up
in the days of sail

And who ended up
with the dreadnoughts

Of the first world war

Felt that something significant
had been lost.