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00:00A new ship sails into Sydney Harbour on her maiden voyage around the globe.
00:22The P&O Line's latest flagship, Oriana, is the product of 150 years' development of passenger
00:32ships. For most of their history, there was no machine either on land, sea or in the air
00:39to match them in size, power and range. And like rockets of the space age, they were pinnacles
00:48of human achievement, representing industrial and technological might.
01:04Ships from the very beginning are symbolic of nations and peoples. It's showing the flag
01:18and your ship is bigger than their ship. And so you have this constant race for size.
01:25So these are tremendous national symbols. They capture the imagination.
01:32Capitalists, kings and kaisers all became embroiled in an extraordinary game of one-upmanship to
01:38build faster, larger and more opulent liners.
01:48For profits and prestige, often ended in tragedy and controversy.
01:55Many people felt that the sinking of the Titanic, going down on its maiden trip, was actually
02:00the beginning of the end, the slow decline of the British Empire.
02:05The rivalry between nations that spawned the building of the great liners, ultimately led
02:10to conflict. And they were to become giant pawns in the battle for dominance of the globe.
02:18The sinking of the Ussetania was one of the first cases of modern total war.
02:26With their massive people carrying capacity, the liners were to help push the boundaries
02:30of war to a global scale.
02:33The story of the ocean liner is an epic saga of one of the great icons of the industrial
02:46age. The largest moving object ever built, which shrank the world and became the vehicle
02:53of enormous social and political change.
03:00It was once thought that the jet airliner would spell doom for passenger ships.
03:24It was once thought that the jet airliner would spell doom for passenger ships.
03:30But today there are far more people travelling the oceans of the world than ever before.
03:37Extraordinary floating cities of up to 100,000 tons now routinely voyage to the four corners
03:43of the globe, carrying thousands of passengers and crew.
03:52Around the romance conjured by these great ships, there is a long and dramatic evolution, a story
03:59of visionaries and rival nations who pushed human ingenuity and technology to their limits,
04:06in a great race for dominance of the sea.
04:22Throughout the 18th century, Britain ruled the waves.
04:27With frail vessels of timber and canvas, she built and held together the greatest empire
04:33the world had seen. But her vital communication links with her colonies were totally dependent
04:39on the vagaries of wind and current.
04:42Before the opening of the Suez Canal, you had to go round the Cape to get out to the Far East and out to Australia.
04:51With sailing vessels, you're talking of five to eight months for round trips.
05:02In the days of sail, passengers were often regarded as cargo, their comfort and safety of less consequence
05:08to ship owners than their profitability.
05:11And in the old pre-steam days, when you used to have sailing brigs, they were called coffin
05:16brigs, because they often never got there.
05:20In a thousand years, the evolution of ships had been painfully slow. But as the 18th century
05:28turned, that was all to change.
05:33By the 1820s, the driving force of the Industrial Revolution, steam, was successfully being adapted to ships.
05:58The first steamships were modest affairs, small, coal-burning paddle-wheelers plying the coasts and rivers of Europe and North America.
06:07But crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a steamship was thought to be impossible.
06:12Indeed, one sceptic considered it as achievable as voyaging from Liverpool to the moon.
06:20But in 1819, a converted New York sailing packet, the Savannah, made the crossing in 27 and a half days,
06:28beginning a new chapter in maritime history.
06:33And there were other oceans to conquer.
06:35In 1829, Sophia Jane became the first ship ever to paddle sail halfway around the world from London to Sydney, Australia.
06:48For 20 remarkable years, steamships had come of age, inspiring a new breed of ship owners and designers.
07:00In 1837, Arthur Anderson and Brodie Wilcox, the founders of the P&O Line,
07:06pioneered a royal mail service between England and Spain with a small fleet of steamers.
07:14Three years later, Samuel Cunard began the first scheduled mail service across the North Atlantic with Britannia.
07:21A mail subsidy from the British government had paid for the ship, passengers provided the profit.
07:27And I took the trouble to read Cunard's mail contract, and passengers aren't mentioned in it anywhere.
07:34But they followed in his wake because his ships arrived safely.
07:38By the late 1830s, steamships, with their promise of faster, more reliable passage,
07:46began to challenge sail for passenger trade to all corners of the globe.
07:52But the ships were small, and demand quickly exceeded the berths available.
07:59In the late 1830s, the visionary British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel came up with a bold concept,
08:07a large high-speed liner specifically built for a transatlantic passenger service.
08:12Brunel's timber-hulled Great Western, launched in Bristol in 1837,
08:18was one of the biggest ships of her time, carrying up to 150 passengers.
08:23But it was Brunel's second creation, the Great Britain, which ushered in a new age,
08:31the era of the ocean liner.
08:42Brunel took a steam engine and a newly invented screw propeller
08:46and fitted them into an iron hull, creating the first truly ocean-going passenger liner.
08:53She made 32 round trips from Britain to Australia,
08:58making her, by far, the most travelled steamship of her time.
09:08The Great Britain could accommodate up to 360 passengers,
09:12her most famous, the first English cricket team to visit Australia in 1861.
09:18Newspapers of the day reported with great enthusiasm on the laying of over 1,000 yards of best quality carpet,
09:32and the installation of mirrors to increase the impression of space.
09:40Part of the reasoning was to take people's minds away from the dangers in crossing the ocean at that early date,
09:47before wireless, before all of the fine points of naval architecture and stability were taken into account,
09:55as well as to help people take their minds off of seasickness
09:58and the inevitable pitching and rolling that came about, particularly on the North Atlantic.
10:05The Great Britain survives today,
10:07restored in the Bristol Dry Dock, where she was constructed over a century and a half ago.
10:12Really, it was the wonder of the age.
10:25It was the largest ship in the world.
10:27He laid the whole foundation for the modern ocean liner in that one design.
10:32Ah, Mr Brunel, what are you designing now?
10:37Something we shall find amusing, I trust?
10:40How about something six times bigger than anything like it before?
10:44Oh, isombard!
10:50On a muddy bend of the River Thames in February 1854,
10:542,000 workers began construction on Brunel's ocean-going colossus, the Great Eastern.
11:01A vessel capable of steaming from England to Australia without recoaling,
11:08and in less than half the time of a sailing ship.
11:13A ship that could carry 4,000 passengers in peace, or 10,000 troops in war.
11:20Surely this would be the culmination of Britain's conquest of the sea.
11:27An incredible ship with paddle wheels,
11:30with five funnels, with a single screw propeller,
11:33and with a record of catastrophe and disaster that cannot be equaled.
11:39She never made it.
11:41From the day that she was launched into the Thames,
11:43sideways, and stuck, and wouldn't move for weeks, a month.
11:48From the day that she hit a storm off the south coast of Ireland,
11:52they predicted that she'd never have a rough time because her length was such
11:56that it was exceed the longest trough between waves ever recorded on the North Atlantic.
12:02Never underestimate the power of the Atlantic.
12:04They took the passengers' luggage off in scoops.
12:08It was just a slurry in the baggage hold,
12:11and this great ship tossing about like a cork.
12:19The Great Eastern never made a single voyage to Australia.
12:23Beset with financial problems during construction, she was sold,
12:27and her new owners placed her on the shorter Atlantic run to New York,
12:30where competition was soaring.
12:34Her 4,000 berths were never filled.
12:37With enormous manpower and fuel costs, she was a financial disaster.
12:43Finally, after several accidents, Great Eastern was sold again.
12:47Her final days spent laying submarine cables across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
12:53Finally, before she was scrapped,
12:55she ended up as a sort of floating hoarding at Liverpool.
13:00They covered her sides with posters.
13:02A very ignominious end.
13:07Brunel's dream was never realized,
13:09but his vision of giant ocean liners encircling the globe unaided
13:13and providing the ultimate in comfort for thousands of passengers
13:17was merely ahead of its time.
13:25Today, great diesel-driven propellers churn the oceans of the world.
13:34On ships like the 70,000 tonne Oriana,
13:37every aspect of life on board revolves around the comfort of passengers.
13:44But it's a far cry from the early days of steam.
13:47In the mid-19th century, a voyage on a P&O steamer
13:53from Britain to a diplomatic posting in India
13:55or beyond to the goldfields of Australia
13:58was a long, tedious affair.
14:02Until 1869, a traveller had two choices.
14:06Sail all the way around the Cape
14:08or take a ship to Alexandria
14:10and cross to Suez by camel
14:12and then pick up another ship.
14:14Whichever way,
14:17the only relief from the monotony of shipboard routine
14:20was the hopeful conviviality of one's fellow passengers.
14:25Without air conditioning and refrigeration,
14:28passengers would sit to windward
14:29hoping to escape belching smoke
14:31or the smells and noises from the animal pens
14:34and the slaughterhouse.
14:44The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869
14:57dramatically cut the steaming time from Europe to the east.
15:07But the Suez Canal nearly destroyed P&O.
15:10A generous subsidy from the British government
15:14had been tied to transporting the mails overland.
15:18To keep the much-needed subsidy,
15:20the line was forced to unload the mails at one end,
15:23dispatch them by rail,
15:25and reload them at the other end.
15:28A slow and ludicrous process.
15:30This is all a part of the history that I was taught
15:33when I was a young boy.
15:34And it's a part of me,
15:36the fact that when the canal first came along,
15:39it almost broke the company's back,
15:41but having renegotiated the contract,
15:43it was then the saving of the company
15:45because we had ships that used to then be much faster
15:48to take the mail through.
15:52Constructed by Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps,
15:54Britain initially feared the Suez Canal
15:56would give other maritime nations
15:58access to the riches of the east,
16:00particularly the French, who controlled the canal.
16:06The British government was so concerned,
16:08it purchased a major shareholding
16:09in the Suez Canal Company in 1876,
16:12and the vital gateway to the east was secured.
16:15Rather than threaten Britain's power,
16:21the Suez Canal was to strengthen it.
16:27A journey from Britain to India
16:29that once took up to two months by sailing ship
16:31was now reduced to a matter of weeks by steamer.
16:34The world was indeed shrinking.
16:45India, her teeming people
16:54and the wealth they created for Britain
16:56made her, a century ago,
16:58the jewel in the imperial crown.
17:05Today, P&O's ships bring tourists
17:07instead of colonial administrators.
17:11But in the days when Queen Victoria ruled supreme,
17:14ocean liners provided the vital communication
17:17and transport links with England.
17:21They were apostles of the British way of life,
17:23enormous symbols of her technological might
17:26and fundamental to her hold over her empire.
17:33An empire on which the sun never set.
17:40There was a pride associated
17:42with the conquest of the seas,
17:44the command of the seas,
17:45and we were by far the dominant naval power
17:49militarily and in merchant terms.
17:52And there was a great determination
17:53that that would not be diminished.
17:55Britain may have dominated the oceans of the world,
18:05but by the 1870s,
18:06steamships flying the flags
18:07of almost every maritime nation
18:09were operating regular passenger services
18:22around the globe.
18:28And the competition encouraged great breakthroughs
18:30in design, technology and passenger comfort.
18:33as the final vestiges of sail
18:38gave way to more powerful steam engines,
18:40the travelling public began to equate
18:42the number of funnels rather than masts
18:45with power and speed of passage.
18:49It was the Atlantic run to New York
18:51where the big profits lay
18:52and where an extraordinary race began
18:54to own the fastest liners
18:56a race called the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic.
19:00There's always been a chap
19:01who thought he could do better
19:02and in the old days it was doing faster.
19:06On the North Atlantic,
19:08speed was everything.
19:10Well, to the home office
19:11it meant more passengers.
19:13There was no greater thrill
19:15for the passenger
19:16to ride home on a postcard
19:17regards from the world's fastest ship.
19:20From the earliest days of steam,
19:22British lines dominated the Blue Ribbon.
19:24On the busiest sea route in the world,
19:26their liners had become potent symbols
19:29of Britain's seemingly unassailable maritime might.
19:32Less than 20 years after the birth
19:39of the new united German nation,
19:41Kaiser Wilhelm II
19:43embarked on a deliberate course
19:45to build an empire to rival Britain.
19:48To achieve his aim,
19:49he hoped to match his English cousins
19:51where they were strongest,
19:52on the oceans of the world.
19:55The Kaiser had been to the Fleet Review in 1889
19:58and was very impressed with these British ships,
20:00envious.
20:01And it was, of course,
20:02his old grandmother, Queen Victoria.
20:04And he went back to Germany.
20:06He said,
20:07we've got to have these big ships.
20:08Imperial Germany must dominate.
20:10Remembering, of course,
20:11that at this point
20:12the ocean liner is the supreme mechanical symbol.
20:19With the Kaiser's encouragement,
20:21North German Lloyd set about building
20:23a series of passenger ships to shape the world.
20:28The Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosser,
20:30launched in 1897,
20:32was the first in a series of four liners
20:34over 14,000 tons.
20:41Their four funnels set a new benchmark in design.
20:44And their luxurious interiors
20:47were unparalleled on the high seas.
20:53On her maiden voyage,
20:54Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosser
20:55powered across the Atlantic to New York,
20:57snatching the blue ribbon from her Cunard rivals.
21:00In one spectacular crossing,
21:03Germany established itself
21:05as a major maritime power.
21:08For the first time,
21:10the Germans had the biggest,
21:11the most luxurious,
21:13and the fastest ship in the world.
21:15And it was built in Germany
21:17for a German company.
21:18And these five points,
21:20never before,
21:21were united in one ship.
21:24Just shook the English literally
21:25out of their seats.
21:26How could they come along with a ship this big?
21:29And worse still,
21:30she's captured the blue ribbon.
21:32To suddenly have an upstart,
21:34a place which hadn't even been a country.
21:37get together and build four stackers.
21:40This was a shock to England.
21:42A terrible blow.
21:44And they had to do something about it.
21:48Almost immediately,
21:49a furious game of one-upmanship
21:51began between Britain and Germany.
21:55Within the year,
21:56White Star Line
21:57commissioned Belfast shipbuilders
21:59Harland and Wolfe
22:00to build a new flagship,
22:01the Oceanic.
22:03She was to be 20% larger
22:06than her German rival
22:08and, at 685 feet,
22:10the first ocean liner
22:12to exceed the length
22:13of Brunel's visionary Great Eastern.
22:20Even the German Kaiser
22:21was impressed by the ship's beauty,
22:23calling her a marvel of perfection
22:26in building and fittings.
22:28Two years later,
22:33in 1901,
22:35White Star launched the Celtic
22:37an even bigger liner.
22:41But at 21,000 tons,
22:43she was designed for comfort
22:44rather than speed.
22:46Germany's hold on the blue ribbon
22:48would remain unchallenged.
22:50They were soldiers
22:58of the Queen no longer.
22:59Even a century must preach its end,
23:02even a Queen who had reigned
23:04for 63 years.
23:06Don the black
23:08and beat the drums
23:10for the Queen was dead.
23:16As the British people mourn
23:17the end of Queen Victoria's reign,
23:19the deep-seated rivalry
23:20between Kaiser Wilhelm II
23:22of Germany
23:23and his uncle,
23:24Edward,
23:25the new King of England,
23:26entered a new,
23:27unbridled phase.
23:32As well as a strong merchant fleet,
23:34Germany was building up
23:35her naval strength.
23:37A move which greatly concerned
23:39the British Admiralty.
23:43The next challenge
23:44to Britain's dominance
23:45of the sea, however,
23:46didn't come from
23:47the German Navy
23:48but American money.
23:52JP Morgan,
23:53the railroad tycoon,
23:54wanted to expand
23:55his railway empire
23:56right across the Atlantic
23:58and, more importantly,
24:00monopolize the entire
24:02transatlantic line of trade.
24:05He bought the Red Star Line,
24:06he bought the White Star Line
24:07which was one of the
24:08cornerstones
24:09of England's maritime supremacy
24:11and the British were in distress
24:13that in the event of war
24:15they would not be able
24:16to take over
24:18the White Star Line ship
24:20because they weren't
24:21British owned anymore.
24:26At the Cunard Line's
24:27Liverpool head office,
24:28Morgan's audacity
24:29caused a sensation.
24:30He wanted to take them over
24:33as well.
24:35At an emergency board meeting
24:37Cunard decided
24:38to lobby the government
24:39by playing on
24:40the Admiralty's concerns
24:41of a German challenge.
24:42The strategy worked,
24:44brilliantly.
24:47The government not only agreed
24:48to prevent the takeover
24:49but to help finance
24:50the two biggest ships
24:51ever constructed.
24:52So they voted subsidy
24:56to help Cunard build
24:58the first ships
24:59that were ever called
25:00Super Liners.
25:05Cunard secured
25:06a generous subsidy
25:07and a two and a half
25:08million pound loan
25:09from the government
25:10to build two giant ships,
25:12Mauritania and Lusitania.
25:15At nearly 32,000 tons each,
25:18they were the largest
25:19and fastest ships
25:20in the world.
25:21Both were to win
25:22the blue ribbon
25:22of the Atlantic.
25:26The government supported
25:27Cunard not merely
25:28to regain British pride.
25:30While built for peace,
25:31these two Express Liners
25:33were designed for war.
25:35They were powered
25:36by enormous turbine engines
25:38and their decks
25:39reinforced to take
25:40twelve six-inch guns.
25:43In these two Super Liners,
25:45Britain had also
25:46two high-speed auxiliary cruisers
25:48to add to its navy
25:49in a potential wall
25:50with Germany.
25:51A war already brewing
25:53in the minds
25:54of military strategists
25:55on both sides.
25:58And there was certainly
25:59quite a minority voice
26:00in the House of Commons
26:01that wasn't terribly happy
26:02at the use of public money
26:03for really subsidizing
26:04a private company.
26:07But on the plus side
26:09was the clear understanding
26:11that those two ships
26:12in time of war
26:13would be used
26:14as auxiliary cruisers.
26:18Cunard, however,
26:19was far more interested
26:20in profits
26:21than war.
26:23And from the titled rich
26:25to the poorest immigrants
26:26the travelling public
26:28loved the four-funneled
26:29Cunarders.
26:33First-class voyagers
26:34preferred the distinction
26:35the cachet of sailing
26:37in such enormous vessels.
26:52In 1907,
26:53the year the liners
26:54went into service,
26:55more than a million
26:56immigrants purchased
26:57steerage tickets
26:58to America.
27:01It was the greatest
27:02wave of migration
27:03the world had seen
27:04and there were huge profits
27:06to be made
27:07for the most popular ships.
27:13With two blue ribbon holders
27:15Cunard now offered
27:16the smoothest
27:17and fastest passage
27:18across the Atlantic
27:19and quickly captured
27:21the lion's share
27:22of the immigrant trade.
27:25The ships were
27:26enormously successful
27:27as the fastest ship
27:28is always successful
27:29and the Atlantic
27:30in those days
27:31whoever could make
27:32a crossing
27:33in a few hours
27:34less time than the rival
27:36got the cream
27:37of the business.
27:38British prestige
27:39and morale
27:40and power
27:41was restored.
27:45British shipbuilding
27:46was now at its zenith
27:47in all categories of size
27:49speed and technology
27:50they had met
27:51their German rivals
27:52and won
27:53albeit with a little help
27:55from the government.
28:14Shipbuilding towns
28:15and the lives of the workers
28:16and their families
28:17had always been bound
28:18up in the fortunes
28:20of the yard
28:22and as far as they
28:23and their employers
28:24were concerned
28:25competition
28:26was good for business.
28:28A great technological race
28:30the most serious
28:31in maritime history
28:32was about to begin.
28:37With Cunard's new ship
28:38stealing all the glory
28:40Bruce Ismay
28:41the chairman of
28:42White Star Line
28:43decided to beat
28:44Cunard at its own game
28:45not with two
28:47but three giant liners
28:49and with
28:50J.P. Morgan's money
28:51Ismay didn't have to go
28:52cap in hand
28:53to any government.
28:55But Ismay decided
28:56I'm going to have
28:57the best ships ever.
28:58I want the biggest
28:59grandest ships
29:00that anyone ever had
29:01I want to be
29:02the best.
29:03At Harland and Wolf's
29:09Belfast Yard
29:10in mid-December 1908
29:12the largest army
29:13of ship workers
29:14ever assembled
29:15began construction
29:16of not one
29:17but two giant hulls
29:19side by side.
29:22Their names
29:23the Olympic
29:24and the Titanic
29:25a third ship
29:27gigantic
29:27would follow.
29:28Olympic led the way
29:34Titanic mirrored
29:35her progress
29:36three months behind.
29:43The entire project
29:44created enormous
29:45international interest
29:47especially from rival
29:48yards.
29:50Intriguingly
29:51the entire construction
29:52was documented
29:53by German cameramen.
29:54At more than
29:5845,000 tons
30:00and 850 feet
30:01in length
30:02the two
30:03White Star Giants
30:04were one and a half
30:05times the size
30:06of their Cunard rivals
30:07Mauritania
30:08and Lusitania.
30:14With the Olympic
30:15build as the largest
30:16ship in the world
30:17White Star needed
30:18a new publicity
30:19slogan for the
30:20slightly larger
30:21Titanic.
30:22Titanic, they
30:23proclaimed, was
30:25virtually unsinkable
30:26the largest
30:27and safest liner
30:28in the world.
30:31She was the last
30:32word in luxury.
30:33Money literally
30:34was no object
30:35on the interior
30:36fitting of the ship.
30:37She was designed
30:38to do exactly
30:39as Esme wanted
30:41to be
30:42to be a floating
30:43palace.
30:44To be the very
30:45last word
30:46in ship design
30:47innovation
30:48in technology
30:49and in outfit.
30:52For a fleeting
30:53moment, Esme's dream
30:54had become
30:55a reality.
30:58But even he
30:59could never
30:59have imagined
31:00the impact
31:00the Titanic
31:01would have
31:02on her time
31:03and history.
31:04Not for her size
31:06or her grandeur
31:07but for the tragedy
31:08that was about
31:08to unfold.
31:09A tragedy
31:11that would touch
31:12the lives
31:12of so many people
31:13even in the remotest
31:15corners of the globe.
31:16One hundred kilometers
31:28to the northeast
31:29of Beirut
31:30perched high
31:31on a mountain top
31:32lies the Lebanese
31:33village of Kafamishki.
31:41For centuries
31:42the people here
31:43lived as virtual serfs
31:44under the harsh rule
31:45of the Ottoman Empire.
31:47Poverty
31:48and threatening famine
31:49made life
31:50all the more difficult.
32:05Those days
32:06are now long gone
32:07but live on
32:08in the memory
32:09of the village's
32:10oldest resident
32:11one hundred and ten
32:12year old
32:13village.
32:14He recalls
32:15as a boy
32:16the talk
32:17in the town
32:18of a new world
32:19across the sea.
32:20A place
32:21that offered
32:22hope
32:23for a better life.
32:25From as early
32:26as I can remember
32:28about a hundred years ago
32:30people would leave
32:31the village.
32:32They traveled
32:33in order
32:34to earn
32:35more money
32:36and build their future.
32:37You see
32:38this land
32:39was not ours.
32:40So when a chance came
32:41we took it.
32:42We took it.
32:43In 1911
32:44Elias
32:45and a group
32:46of other villagers
32:47decided to migrate
32:48to Canada.
32:49But with preparations
32:50well underway
32:51Elias became engaged
32:53to a local girl
32:54who wouldn't leave her family.
33:00Elias farewelled the party
33:01as they set out
33:02on their five-day journey
33:03by donkey
33:04to Beirut.
33:06From there
33:07to the French port
33:08of Cherbourg
33:09to wait
33:10with other migrants
33:11from all over Europe
33:12for a ship
33:13to the new world.
33:17In the port building
33:18the group struggled
33:19to be understood.
33:21Without proper documentation
33:22their names
33:23weren't recorded correctly
33:24on the passenger list.
33:26The vessel they boarded
33:32by chance
33:33was no ordinary ship.
33:36She was
33:37Titanic.
33:39The world's largest ocean liner
33:41on her maiden voyage
33:42from Southampton
33:43with one last port of call
33:45before setting out
33:46across the Atlantic
33:47to New York.
33:57At Queenstown
33:58on the southern coast
33:59of Ireland
34:00another group
34:01of passengers
34:02awaited Titanic's arrival.
34:09What do you think of it?
34:11I don't know what to think.
34:13It gives me the shivers.
34:16Big is one thing
34:17but that?
34:18That'll seem small enough
34:19no doubt
34:20when we're a thousand miles
34:21from any land
34:22and nothing but the great ocean
34:23all around.
34:24You've been to sea before then?
34:27I haven't.
34:29Me neither.
34:39It was clear weather of course
34:41and it was also flat calm.
34:47But she was on a maiden voyage
34:48and the important thing was
34:50that she had to be in New York
34:52on schedule.
34:54they couldn't afford to be late
34:55for such a maiden arrival.
35:05And so,
35:06although they were aware
35:07of the fact
35:08that there was ice
35:09ahead
35:10she was going too fast.
35:12That was the problem.
35:15Christ.
35:16What did you see?
35:17Iceberg right ahead.
35:19Iceberg right ahead.
35:21Iceberg right ahead.
35:23Iceberg right ahead.
35:24There's nothing but
35:25that's the problem.
35:26It's a very, very unique
35:27spring.
35:28It's a very unique
35:29ocean in New York.
35:30The sea is,
35:31it's a very unique
35:32moment of the sky.
35:33The sea is,
35:34it's a very unique
35:35and the sea.
35:36It's a very unique
35:37time of the sea.
35:38It's a very unique
35:39to the sea and the sea.
35:40She had been advertised as a ship that was practically unsinkable.
35:52For some reason, many people have forgotten the word practically.
35:58But anything that's big enough, heavy enough, with a hole in it that's full of water, will sink.
36:03In 12 lethal seconds, the iceberg had mortally wounded Titanic.
36:13As the captain gave word to abandon ship, he knew full well the liner was doomed,
36:19and that there were only enough lifeboats for half the souls on board.
36:24The awful thing about Titanic and the old ships was that the first-class country was amid ships,
36:32and up high, and that's where all the lifeboats were.
36:36The steerage passengers were in the hull, forward and aft,
36:41and lifeboats were not within their ken.
36:47It's locked! It's locked! There's no way out here! Go back!
36:50So when the disaster came, they didn't know where to go.
36:53They had no idea of the geography, and there were still stewards on the Titanic
36:56as the ship was starting to go down,
36:59who were trying to keep the barriers up
37:01and keep the steerage passengers out of first-class country.
37:06It was classically a case of first class went first,
37:10and second class went second,
37:11and the poor third class had no place at all to go.
37:14And of course, on top of it, coupled with the fact
37:17that the poor Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats anyway,
37:20made it all the worse.
37:21Fire!
37:23Two hours after the collision,
37:39Titanic sank three and a half kilometres
37:41down to her final resting place.
37:44The next morning, crowds of New Yorkers converged
37:53on the White Star office, eager for news.
37:57First reports were confused.
38:00One newspaper ran a headline claiming all were saved,
38:03and the Titanic was taken in tow by another liner.
38:09The city of Southampton stopped at the news.
38:11One by one, the facts filtered through to a stunned world.
38:17Of the 2,207 passengers and crew on board,
38:21two-thirds were believed lost, including the captain.
38:24One of the survivors, it was announced,
38:27was Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star.
38:30The news of the tragedy took more than three months
38:41to reach Kavar Mishki.
38:43Well, I think 13 died, if I'm not wrong,
38:47and one survived only.
38:49And almost every family in town
38:54lost a relative or a friend,
38:56and it was very tough on them.
39:00Only one woman survived.
39:02If she had died, we'd never have heard the truth,
39:05because our friends were not on the passenger list.
39:13Titanic's builders, Harland and Wolf,
39:15lost eight of its employees in the disaster,
39:18including its chief designer, Thomas Andrews.
39:21It was just numbed horror.
39:24Guys who had spent their life working on Titanic
39:26had seen it grow from a simple plate
39:29to a living creature, if you like,
39:32put their heart and soul into it.
39:33Couldn't believe it had gone.
39:35It really brought you up short.
39:38Shouldn't you realise just that really human beings are fallible
39:41and nothing's permanent?
39:42At the official inquiry,
39:46Harland and Wolf was exonerated
39:48and the quality of its workmanship praised.
39:51But the inquiry severely questioned
39:53the safety rules of the day
39:55dictated by the Board of Trade,
39:57especially the provisioning of lifeboats.
40:02During the building of the liners,
40:04chief designer Thomas Andrews
40:06supervised their construction
40:07using a single set of plans for both ships.
40:10You don't draw the ship twice.
40:14You do the drawings for the prototype,
40:16which were Olympic.
40:17But on the master of drawings,
40:19he would have changed in the drawings
40:20using a very thick red ink fountain pen
40:23what he wanted changed for Titanic.
40:30Andrews also kept a small notebook
40:32in which he meticulously detailed
40:34every aspect of the construction.
40:36Modifications were made in red.
40:41A change to cornices here,
40:43to light fittings there.
40:45And it's in this small book,
40:47forgotten for all these years,
40:49that a new detail in the Titanic story
40:51comes to light.
40:55Harland and Wolf had designed both ships
40:57with not only enough lifeboats
40:58to accommodate more than 3,500 people,
41:01but with spare capacity
41:03for a further 65 passengers.
41:09But on the adjacent page,
41:11the portentous red ink.
41:15The lifeboat capacity for the liners
41:17had been decimated in the stroke of a pen.
41:20But on whose instructions?
41:25Lifeboats were seen in those days
41:26as necessary evil.
41:29They didn't particularly like them
41:30because they spoiled the nice look of your ship.
41:33So the owner decided
41:34the ship would carry
41:35the minimum number of lifeboats
41:36to have a cleaner line on the ship.
41:39The boats wouldn't be stacked
41:40three and four deep.
41:41And because of that,
41:43the spec was changed for the ship
41:44and the boats were reduced
41:46to the minimum required
41:47under the current
41:48border trade rules at the time.
41:53If there was a positive legacy
41:54of the Titanic disaster,
41:56it was the effect on safety at sea.
41:59The law was changed
42:01to ensure a place
42:02and a lifeboat
42:02for all souls on board,
42:04irrespective of class.
42:11The loss of the Titanic
42:13had an extraordinary effect
42:14on British morale.
42:19Dozens of memorials
42:21were dedicated across Britain
42:22to mourn the victims
42:23and the end
42:25of the public's trust
42:26in money,
42:27machinery and power.
42:29That many people felt
42:30that the sinking of the Titanic,
42:32a mechanical marvel,
42:34unsinkable,
42:35going down on its maiden trip,
42:37was actually the beginning
42:38of the end,
42:39the slow decline
42:40of the British Empire.
42:43So it was a very symbolic act
42:45beyond just the ship
42:47and white star
42:48and liners.
42:49It was a kind of political event
42:51in a sense.
43:02In times of bad news,
43:04people look for distractions.
43:07In Britain,
43:08there was the motor car
43:09and flying machines
43:14and a new king and queen.
43:19But the new king
43:20was distracted too.
43:23And like his father,
43:24the distraction
43:25was his royal cousin,
43:27Kaiser Wilhelm II
43:28of Germany.
43:29In 1913,
43:34King George visits Berlin
43:35and rides through the streets
43:37with his cousin.
43:39The Kaiser's speech
43:40is tinged with peaceful platitudes,
43:43but behind the scenes,
43:45Germany presents a different picture.
43:48In the great industrial cauldron
43:51of the Rue,
43:52in the huge foundries
43:54of crops at Essen,
43:56thousands of workers
43:57rolled gun barrels
43:58off the production lines.
44:00Strength the building
44:01for a test of strength.
44:08Every gun barrel
44:09that rolled off
44:10the production line
44:11and every ship launched
44:13seemed to darken
44:14the clouds of war
44:15which hung over Europe.
44:16And it could only mean
44:20to one purpose.
44:21That was Germany
44:22challenging the Royal Navy's
44:23hegemon at sea.
44:25So it was all
44:25fairly clearly coming.
44:28The peace-loving director
44:29of the Hamburg-America line,
44:31Albert Ballen,
44:32argued passionately
44:33with his friend the Kaiser
44:34to let the growing rivalry
44:36between Germany and Britain
44:37be a jewel of the great ships
44:39of Cunard and Hamburg, America,
44:41not ships of war.
44:43Only weeks after the shock
44:47of the Titanic sinking,
44:48the Kaiser launched
44:49a new imperial flagship
44:51for Ballen's
44:52Hamburg-America line,
44:54Imperator.
44:56She was the first ship
44:57ever to exceed
44:5850,000 tons
44:59and her impressive
45:01eagle figurehead
45:02gave her just enough
45:03added length
45:04to propel her
45:05into the record books
45:06as the longest ship
45:07ever built.
45:10Carrying 4,500 passengers,
45:12more than any other
45:14liner afloat,
45:15the Imperator
45:15was the first
45:16of a trio of superliners
45:18Ballen hoped
45:19would devastate
45:19his Atlantic competition.
45:22A year later,
45:24in 1913,
45:25came Vaterland,
45:27larger again,
45:28with berths
45:29for nearly
45:29two and a half
45:30thousand immigrants.
45:35Both ships
45:36reached new heights
45:37in ocean-going luxury.
45:38Imperator's
45:43Pompeian Bath
45:44was the most
45:45sensational facility
45:46of its kind
45:47ever to go to sea.
45:51The first-class passengers
45:52were the icing
45:53on the cake.
45:54They were the ones
45:55who had the most
45:56beautiful cabins.
45:57First-class had
45:58two-thirds of the ship,
46:00but four-fifths
46:01of the people
46:02who went on the ships
46:03were crowded
46:04into one-fifth
46:05of the space
46:05as immigrants.
46:06They paid
46:08for those
46:08great liners.
46:14Every year,
46:16tens of thousands
46:17of people,
46:17escaping poverty
46:18and persecution,
46:20would arrive in Hamburg
46:21from across Europe
46:21looking for passage
46:23to the new world.
46:24Many had heard
46:36of Hamburg America's
46:37thoughtful treatment
46:38of immigrants.
46:41Albert Ballen
46:42had created
46:42a complete village
46:43where immigrants
46:44could be housed
46:45for up to two weeks
46:46before sailing.
46:50It was fully equipped
46:52with a clinic
46:52and fumigation centre
46:54to ensure
46:54disease-free passengers.
46:57Even the most minor
46:58of diseases
46:58could result
46:59in their rejection
47:00in America.
47:04As they set off
47:05to join their
47:06westbound liners,
47:08a resident brass band
47:09farewelled the travelers.
47:12In turn,
47:14Ballen hoped
47:14many a happy immigrant
47:15would sing the line's
47:17praises to relatives
47:18and acquaintances
47:19who were to follow.
47:29In 1914,
47:31Kaiser Wilhelm
47:31launched the third
47:32and largest member
47:33of Ballen's trio
47:34of superliners,
47:36Bismarck.
47:39Conceived in a world
47:40at peace,
47:41Bismarck was launched
47:42into a world
47:43only days away
47:45from Armageddon.
47:45After two decades
47:55of tension,
47:56Germany and Britain
47:57were finally at war.
47:59A war that would
48:00be unprecedented
48:01in its violence,
48:02destruction
48:03and scope.
48:09At the outbreak
48:11of hostilities,
48:12Germany wirelessed
48:13all its merchant ships,
48:14ordering them
48:15to a war footing.
48:17Like Britain,
48:19Germany had built
48:19its liners
48:20for rapid conversion
48:21to auxiliary cruises.
48:24Indeed,
48:24for more than a decade,
48:26German liner captains
48:27had carried secret orders
48:28about what to do
48:29in the event of war.
48:31In times of peace,
48:33the officers
48:34and the crew
48:35must have been instructed
48:37in any way
48:38what to do
48:38in case of war.
48:39In this respect,
48:41they did it already
48:42ten years before the war
48:43but that's only natural
48:46and otherwise
48:47it's totally senseless
48:48to make a merchant cruiser
48:50if in case of emergency
48:52nobody knows
48:53how to manage it
48:54and what to do then.
48:57But the early days
48:58of the war
48:59were a disaster
49:00for the Kaiser.
49:02Only five liners at sea
49:04made it back to Germany
49:05to carry out conversion.
49:07Thirty-seven potential ships
49:09of war
49:09found themselves
49:10impounded
49:11in neutral ports.
49:15Waterland
49:15was preparing
49:16to sail from New York
49:17when she received word
49:19that French
49:19and British cruisers
49:20were preparing
49:21to intercept her
49:22on the Atlantic.
49:24Hamburg, America
49:25ordered Waterland
49:26to remain in New York
49:28and await further instructions.
49:30A few days later,
49:31she was unofficially impounded
49:32by the United States.
49:34One of the few
49:37German ships converted
49:38was the first
49:40German Atlantic
49:40Blue Ribbon holder,
49:42Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosse.
49:45After only three weeks
49:47in service,
49:47a British cruiser
49:48cornered her
49:49coaling
49:49in an African port.
49:52Both ships
49:53opened fire
49:54but Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosse
49:56was mortally wounded.
49:59Ironically,
50:00the ocean liner
50:00that first marked
50:01the growing rivalry
50:02between Britain
50:03and Germany
50:04two decades earlier
50:05was one of the first
50:06casualties of the war.
50:17At the beginning
50:18of hostilities,
50:19the British First Lord
50:20of the Admiralty,
50:21Winston Churchill,
50:22ordered his navy
50:23to blockade Germany.
50:29Within months,
50:30the blockade
50:31began to hurt.
50:32Food prices
50:33skyrocketed,
50:34rationing was introduced
50:35and strictly enforced.
50:40But Germany
50:41was prepared.
50:42Its fleet of U-boats
50:43was ordered
50:44to attack
50:44British shipping.
50:51At first,
50:52U-boat captains
50:53complied with
50:54international rules
50:55requiring them
50:56to stop
50:56and warn ships
50:57before sinking them.
50:58then,
51:02concerned about arms
51:03reaching Britain
51:04on neutral ships,
51:05the German war office
51:07ordered unrestricted
51:08warfare
51:08on the high seas.
51:11Then,
51:12Germany declared,
51:13it was,
51:13I think,
51:14in February 1915,
51:15that a zone
51:16around the British
51:17islands
51:17would be a war zone
51:18and every ship
51:19met in this zone
51:21would be sunk
51:22without any warning.
51:23regardless of the U-boat
51:26threat,
51:27the British government
51:28actively encouraged
51:29shipping lines
51:30to continue
51:30regular passenger
51:31services
51:32across the hostile
51:33North Atlantic.
51:36One fateful passage
51:38in May 1915
51:40was set to become
51:41the most controversial
51:42incident in maritime
51:43history
51:44and would push
51:46the United States
51:47to the brink
51:47of war.
52:04As the war
52:05to end all wars
52:06spread across the globe,
52:08the fierce rivalry
52:09that had spawned
52:09the building
52:10of the great ocean liners
52:11would now claim them
52:13as prey.
52:15From symbols
52:16of nations
52:17to prime targets.
52:20From ships of peace
52:21and hope
52:22to ships of war
52:23and suffering.
52:26But in the deadliest
52:28game of all,
52:29the liners were destined
52:30to play a major role
52:32in the final outcome.
52:46of the
53:16Transcription by CastingWords
53:46CastingWords