27:50
We are surrounded by extraordinary feats of engineering. Constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Without engineering, there'd be no modern world. Gigantic cities, amazing infrastructure, and ingenious inventions. Engineering is the key to turn dreams into reality. To reach these dizzying heights, today's technology relies on breakthroughs made by ancient engineers. It's mind-boggling how they did this. How did early civilizations build on such a scale? They raised the bar for construction in a way that no one thought possible.
The sheer engineering ability that is in itself impressive. By defying the known laws of physics and daring to dream big, they constructed wonders of the world from gigantic pyramids to awe-inspiring temples and mighty fortresses, all with the simplest of tools. You cannot imagine the skills people would have needed to build like this. Now, it's possible to unearth the secrets of the first engineers. They managed to construct edifices that have survived the ravages of time and reveal how their genius laid the foundations for everything we build today.
There's one form of ancient engineering that took humanity to a whole new level, allowing people to spread to every corner of the earth. This ingenious invention erased the boundary between land and sea, connecting civilizations oceans apart. And this ancient invention still forms the backbone of all global trade. Ships are fundamental to the operation of the modern world. Even in the age of air travel, every year over a billion tons of cargo are moved by ship.
Maritime trade is so important. 90% of trade is actually at sea. Ships can carry far greater weights than anything you can do on land. Fishing boats catch over 100 million tons of seafood. Gigantic ferries deliver billions of passengers. And the largest cruise ships carry more people than the population of some small towns. Compared to modern cruise ships, the Titanic was actually relatively modest in size. Enormous warships control the world's hotspots, bristling with high-tech weaponry.
We still see the superpowers of today are building massive navies to enforce their status and position in the world. In all, as many as 100,000 merchant ships traverse the world's oceans, alongside over 10,000 naval vessels. Ships and the global networks that support them are a true technological wonder of our age. Today's large-scale marine engineering is the result of centuries of human endeavor and ingenuity. But until the introduction of iron ships in the 1800s, there was only one material available to maritime engineers. It was used for over 10,000 years. Early boat builders relied exclusively on wood.
Yet from this simple raw ingredient constructed an astonishing array of vessels. We see that throughout maritime history. Ways that people used the wood, the timber, following the grain of the timber, using the shape of the timber itself is really highly skilled. Wood is a substance with some crucial properties. First of all, wood is readily available, relatively easy to use, you can carve it into the shapes that you need to, and also they provide a natural buoyancy.
Buoyancy is the result of two forces acting on an object when in water. Its weight pulls it down while the opposing force of the water pushes up. If the weight is equal to or less than this upthrust, then the object is buoyant and will float. Typically, wood has a lower density than water and will float regardless of size. But there is a downside. Wood doesn't last forever. Tragically, the majority of ancient ships have disappeared over time, rotted away over the millennia. It's incredibly rare to find an intact warship because the sea is full of microorganisms that eat timber. But there are clues to some of the
world's earliest vessels. Dugout canoes are the oldest boat type archaeologists have ever found. Dating back as far as 8,000 years to the Stone Age, these hollowed-out logs were ideal for inland waterways. The very first boats were intended just for lakes and rivers, for just pottering along quite close to shore. But when early humans wanted to travel further across seas, they needed something bigger. One place where vessels evolved to the next level was Polynesia. Over a thousand small islands spread across the South Pacific.
Dugout canoes lacked the stability to cross these seas. To pull off humanity's first great feat of seafaring, early engineers invented the multi-hull. Boats with two or three hulls lashed side by side. A monumental feat of engineering at this point in human history. These early boats are very quite complicated to build. They would have required a lot of technology and a lot of effort, a lot of time would have been involved. It's quite complex technology. You only really understand it if you just try and make yourself a raft or a boat. It's very difficult to do.
Building a multi-hull required new tools, the ability to measure, and an understanding of the environment. Polynesians tied equally sized canoes together with vines or palm fibers. While essential platform was laid over crossbeams, providing space for supplies and equipment. Multiple hulls gave this craft stability and the capacity to carry heavy loads. It was ideally suited to long journeys across the seas, bringing distant lands within reach. Around the Pacific island nations, using small craft was incredibly important to expanding and exploration.
Polynesian boat builders constructed these vessels using nothing more than the limited building materials at hand, enabling their people to spread across the region. By 900 BC, they reached some of the most remote islands within the vast Polynesian triangle across an area of 800,000 square miles. But or power alone would never have been enough to achieve such a feat. Long before the Industrial Revolution a technological breakthrough was needed. One made not at sea but on one of the world's great rivers.
Ancient Egyptian civilization was established in 3100 BC taking root along the rich, fertile banks of the Nile River. In a period in which road travel is extremely difficult and arduous, rivers aren't barriers. Rivers are in fact the superhighways of their age. To this day, the river remains a vital artery plied by tourist craft and dhows. But despite the Nile running the length of the country, the Egyptians' boats struggled when traveling against the current. Paddles and poles weren't enough to move efficiently upriver. So an engineering solution was needed. Around 3000 BC, the Egyptians were among the first to invent a device that would utterly transform the ship.
It would prove its worth over the subsequent 5000 years of seafaring driving travel, commerce, and warfare. The sail. This is one of the major developments in seafaring history, that's for sure. It makes economic sense because you have less people on board, you can travel faster and further. So it really is groundbreaking. The sail is essentially a large piece of fabric positioned almost perpendicular to the wind. A vessel is driven forward as the breeze pushes against it traveling faster further and more efficiently than ever before.
This breakthrough engineering harnessed natural forces to expand the possibilities of shipping. We don't know exactly where the sail originated, but we do know that Egypt was an early adopter and some of the earliest evidence we have of sails comes from Egypt. Most of these revolutionary Egyptian vessels have been lost but scraps of evidence survive. We have tomb inscriptions and ancient texts showing that they were building ships as early as the Bronze Age. And one spectacular discovery reveals the true genius of these ancient marvels. In 1954, archaeologists opened a sealed chamber close to the Great Pyramid. Inside, they found the remains of a 4 and 1/2 thousand-year-old vessel.
They named it after the pharaoh who ruled Egypt at this time the Khufu ship. Discovery of the Khufu ship was significant for a number of reasons. First of all, nobody had ever quite believed that the Egyptians could build something as sophisticated as that so early. It's an amazing piece of engineering. The vessel revealed how newly developed metal tools enabled a quantum leap in boat building. In place of crude logs, precision-cut planking wooden planks are both strong and flexible.
They can be bent or twisted to fit the curvature of a ship's hull. This new construction technique made far larger ships possible for both commerce and war. And Khufu's vessel is a prime example. The quality of the construction and the technology behind it blew everyone's mind. Its hull was built from single planks of Lebanese cedar, a hard and durable wood. It used logs measuring up to 76 ft. Sculpted by the pharaoh's craftsmen, they follow the shape of the hull and are carved to slot neatly together like a jigsaw puzzle.
These were lashed together, but then as the ship then goes in the water, these lashings swell up. So, you really get that nice waterproof external shell. The lashed hull and thick planks running the length of Khufu's ship made it a far stronger and more durable vessel than the Egyptians' traditional papyrus rafts. It's been described as a masterpiece of carpentry. Now fully reassembled, the ship's housed in a specially built museum just outside the pyramid. In theory, it could still sail today if launched back onto the Nile. But vessels like this weren't only fit
to sail up and down rivers. The Egyptians were able to build very strong and very seaworthy boats that would utilize the Nile, but also the oceans as well. Thanks to their shipbuilding prowess, the ancient Egyptians dominated the Mediterranean Sea for 3,000 years. Naval power brought them great wealth, allowing them to secure their territory and control trade routes. Throughout history, naval dominance has remained central to empire building. And nations with an engineering edge still command the seas today.
No modern force rivals the sheer scale and might of the US Navy. Estimated to have more tonnage than the next eight navies combined. It consists of 11 aircraft carriers, over 290 deployable combat vessels, and roughly 3,700 operational aircraft. Not only is the American Navy enormous, but they're constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved by ships at sea. There's constant innovation happening. Leading the pack is the world's most technologically advanced surface ship. Completed in 2020, the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt.
600 ft long, this vast next-generation warship is engineered to go unnoticed. The way radar works is it pings out a signal, and then that reflects off something which it can detect. So, a big ship that has a lot of surface area would provide a big signal back on the radar, and be very easy to detect. Yet, despite being 40% larger than a standard destroyer, its sharp angles and smooth surface ensure that the Zumwalt is around 50 times harder to spot on radar than its smaller predecessors. Its radar signature is equivalent to a small fishing boat. Such advanced engineering helps the US Navy remain a true powerhouse, uncontested ruler of the waves. But, there's a new rival emerging.
What's really interesting is the way that China, who has global ambitions as a trading nation now, is also massively investing in its navy in order to protect its shipping interests. China's fleet is growing in power. Expanding the nation's sphere of influence. Naval engineering remains as important today as in the time of the ancient Egyptians. And while Egypt was one of the first civilizations to dominate the Mediterranean Sea, other powers ultimately succeeded them. Among them, the Phoenicians. Believed to have been driven to the coast by aggressive neighbors.
The Phoenicians took advantage of their location to become master seafarers and traders. Creating a sprawling network right across the Mediterranean Sea. For centuries they ruled the waves trading with everybody around the Mediterranean, even heading out into the Atlantic. Their advanced vessels were known for their speed and ability to maneuver stormy seas. Phoenicians used a technique using mortises and tenons, so each individual plank was literally plugged together with small bits of timber. And these vessels were incredibly sturdy, seaworthy, and were capable of carrying very large cargoes. These expert sailors were so successful that both Persian and Assyrian royalty used Phoenician ships to sail.
The Phoenicians had two different kinds of ships. They have merchant ships and they're deeply connected to the development of naval warfare as well. The first to build galleys for combat. Fighting ships designed for speed with ample space for soldiers, often featuring sails, but mainly propelled by large teams of rowers, allowing them to navigate independently of winds and currents. It's also believed these galleys featured projections from the bow, lowering their resistance as they moved through the water, making them more hydrodynamic.
The Phoenicians are able to expand essentially sea-based empire that extends all the way along the North African coast. All this is connected through maritime trade and naval power that they established within the Mediterranean region. The Phoenicians' long and narrow ships became the new standard for naval warfare. Then around 250 BC, the Mediterranean saw the rise of Roman military might. Roman galleys, with as many as five tiers of oarsmen, eventually swept all rivals from the seas. After the 1st century BC, they really don't even need that much naval power because they've conquered all around the Mediterranean. So, they put their effort
into merchant ships. But as the Roman Empire grew, so did demand for cargo. They were able to develop these massive trading vessels that were feeding the developing urban populations of places like Rome. Vast fleets of merchant ships transported grain from Egypt to Rome. The largest carrying more than 500 tons at a time. Over subsequent centuries, cargo ships have continued to grow. Today, vessels are built on a scale unimaginable to the ancient Romans. Monsters, up to 1,300 ft long. The largest transporting over 20,000 individual shipping containers.
The vast majority of world trade goes by sea. The cargo ship remains the building block of the world's economy. New container ships are on average three times the size of those built 20 years ago. But the introduction of larger vessels hasn't come without engineering challenges. The ships need to constantly be improved and redesigned. You've got issues like ship design, stability, controlling pollution, and all of these change as ships are getting bigger, as more cargo is carried all over the world. A ship at sea is subject to a number of forces. And these can distort its structure if a load is unevenly distributed.
The vessel may experience hogging or sagging. These longitudinal bending stresses can even cause a ship to break apart. And that's not all that can go wrong. Over the years, many large oil tankers have run aground or sank. And the consequences have been disastrous. Spilling toxic petroleum products into the oceans, devastating entire ecosystems. The effects are often felt decades after such tragedies. One of the important things that we need to do in an in the shipping industry is to learn from previous disasters to make sure they never happen again.
One solution lies in the design of these gigantic cargo ships. Vessels of this scale are manufactured at vast and cutting-edge shipyards. The scale of these shipyards has grown over the years from relatively small docks that we had back in ancient times right through to the mega yards of today. The largest stretches for over 2 and 1/2 miles. An extensive network of equipment, buildings, and technologies. Shipyards around the world can be huge and the facilities needed to be able to construct these ships are also of equal scale.
Giant cranes called goliaths tower overhead lifting individual pieces of ships some weighing over 1,500 tons. Specialist steel makes these enormous ships less prone to fracturing engineered to have far greater tensile strength than their predecessors without becoming too brittle enabling ships to sail further and endure rougher conditions. But growing demand for ships has led to a rise in pollution from shipyard workshops. Huge amounts of dust, harmful gases, and noise pollution are emitted during the shipbuilding process. And shipyards are often located in environmentally sensitive areas along coasts.
Shipbuilding needs to become more efficient and eco-friendly. But in the meantime, over 50 million tons of vessels are built each year including gigantic container ships among the biggest vessels in the world reaching up to three football fields in length. And despite the environmental concerns year by year, ships keep on getting bigger for one simple reason the more they carry the lower the transport cost. And one find from the Dark Ages has helped reveal that there were ships capable of covering enormous distances many centuries ago. In 1939, the discovery of a lifetime was made beneath the Suffolk soil in England.
The richest intact early medieval grave in Europe. It's one of the greatest archaeological finds in Britain is the Sutton Hoo, which is the burial of an Anglo-Saxon king in the early part of the 7th century. Hidden for over 13 centuries in the mysterious Sutton Hoo royal burial ground. Within the burial chamber, we see all sorts of wonderful treasures. So, you know, it's a really wealthy individual. Finds included Byzantine silverware, sumptuous gold jewelry, luxurious textiles, and an iconic decorated helmet. The artifacts were incredible because they showed an interconnected North Sea and channel, which allowed for trade by ships connecting the Saxons
to the rest of Europe. Sutton Hoo revealed the wealth of Anglo-Saxon England, but also offered insights into the maritime engineering of its day. Not only does it have the most extraordinary collection of royal treasure, but also it has the ship in which the king was laid to rest. Although only rows of rusted rivets survived intact, along with an imprint of the ship's decayed timbers, it was clear the vessel was 88 ft long. Archaeologists also confirmed the ship used a sophisticated engineering technique still practiced today.
This technology explains how the Anglo-Saxons established far-flung trade networks with the European mainland. It's known as clinker construction. The vessel is being built up, literally plank by plank. And each plank overlaps the previous plank. Planks were fastened together using copper rivets. The technique appears deceptively simple. But in fact, clinker construction transformed the shape and speed of ships. Planks used in the hull could be thinner as they overlapped along their edges.
The strength of the overlapping hull meant less internal framing was required in a clinker design. Resulting in a lighter vessel, sitting higher in the water. Less force was needed to move these ships through the waves. Enabling them to reach much higher speeds. Clinker vessels were supposed to stay light and flexible. And that was the thing about them that made them so good. Sealing the overlapping planks with animal hair and resin helped make their clinker built ships watertight. And their hulls could be constructed quickly and efficiently.
The ceremonial burial at Sutton Hoo has proved that Anglo-Saxon tales of great halls, glittering treasures, and formidable ships were no myth. But while this ancient vessel had been engineered and kitted out to signify the wealth of its owners, other historic ships have become famous for the role they played in plundering the wealth of others. By the 8th century, a new and deadly breed of sea-born warriors began to appear. Vicious, powerful, and merciless. [screaming] A force that would ravage northern Europe, dominating these waters for over 200 years.
The Vikings. The Vikings, without doubt, were the most effective and deadly fighting force of their day. They were incredibly efficient. How did small bands of Scandinavian invaders lay waste to swaths of Europe? They were incredibly fast and they were incredibly violent. They could come out of nowhere. Everyone was afraid. Key to the Viking success was their advanced maritime technology. In the Viking ships, we actually see it's a development of the Sutton Hoo ship design, but they've added important elements. So, while it's built on earlier ideas of engineering, it's
something that's unique and develops around the Viking culture. Watercraft had always been essential in Scandinavia. Viking's desire to find more fertile lands to help their population grow. Scandinavia is a very beautiful, but also very mountainous place, and not ideal for growing certain types of crops. In order to expand, the Vikings needed better sea-going vessels. The Vikings developed their craftsmanship to a level which had never been seen before. They made the most beautiful ships that could sail incredibly fast, and they could carry their armies wherever they wanted.
A series of discoveries have helped archaeologists uncover the Viking's ingenious engineering solutions. The Oseberg ship, found in 1904, and the Tune ship, now housed in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. And 2019 saw the unearthing of the Gjellestad, the first Viking ship found in Norway for over a century. The Vikings perfected the technology of clinker boat building. And their long ships' lightweight, economic construction was key to their success. They're light, they're flexible, and they're fast. So, they're really good as raiding ships. And the word Viking comes from the Norse word to raid. So, they were going raiding. That's what they were for.
Their overlapping planks meant clinker-built vessels were sturdy and agile. With long, thin hulls that cut through the water with ease. Under sail and oar power, these were the fastest ships of their day. Modern replicas have achieved speeds of up to 19 and 1/2 mph. But, long ships also had to be stable. And another key engineering secret explains their effectiveness as raiding vessels. A simple, yet essential, feature known as the keel. The keel is the main structural element on a ship. Almost like the spine that goes down it. And it provides the main structural strength for the design of a hull.
By running a single sturdy beam of oak along the bottom, Viking long ships were made strong and stable, less prone to capsizing. This technology also made them highly maneuverable. They could sail in the most shallow of waters. No more than a meter would be able to take a big Viking boat full of soldiers." This keel also means that they could come in anywhere on the shore, and that makes it very hard for people living along the coasts to know where to expect a raid to come from.
Viking masts were also engineered to be quickly dismantled, making their long ships easier to hide, and allowing them to sail under low bridges. Thanks to this brilliant engineering, Viking ships could easily penetrate onto beaches and up river estuaries. At first, raiding parties targeted Celtic monasteries around the British and Irish coasts. Rich pickings were theirs for the taking. This is an age before any coastal shore fortifications of any significant size. There was very little that could be done to stop an aggressive force from coming ashore and taking what they wanted.
Nobody could defend against these fast-moving, bloodthirsty warriors. A ruthless attack force carried by longships they'd engineered to perfection. But the Viking seafaring prowess didn't stop there. Pillaging their neighbors wasn't enough. The refined construction enabled raiding ships to venture further and for longer. Viking longships traveled enormous distances, and that's another incredible factor of their design. Viking raids reached as far as North Africa, up the rivers of Russia, and deep into the Mediterranean in search of land and riches.
But as time went on, the Vikings became settlers as well as conquerors, developing complex trade routes, using their vessels to island hop their way across Iceland and Greenland as far as North America. Vikings were looking for land, and that's where these greater long-distance voyages fit in. We know that they reached the tip of Newfoundland because a Viking settlement has been discovered there. A spectacular feat of seafaring, thanks to their technologically sound ships, exceptionally sturdy in heavy seas. What the Vikings achieved was really an extraordinary leap of faith, but it was only possible because the trust,
the belief they had in the ships that they had built. But in order to navigate such unfamiliar waters, the Vikings needed another piece of technology. Centuries before the first compass and sextant were invented, the Vikings ventured thousands of miles by reading the position of the sun and stars. But across the Atlantic Ocean, the sun could be obscured for days at a time. Researchers now believe that Vikings used transparent calcite crystals to locate the sun through dense clouds or in low light.
There's some evidence that they developed a particular artifact known as a sunstone, which polarizes light and allows you to work out where the sun might be even though you're covered with clouds. And um this technology might have been a way in which the Vikings were able to navigate across these northern waters. Experiments have shown that sunstones really can fix the bearing of the sun to within a single degree of accuracy. A revolutionary navigational tool. These were the first in a series of navigational breakthroughs made by engineers. In the following centuries, compasses, sextants, and sea charts helped sailors find their way across oceans.
Until in modern times, GPS satellites allow a vessel to pinpoint its position anywhere on Earth. But for the Vikings, simple navigational tools were all that was needed to reach distant lands. The Vikings dared to explore far beyond their homelands. Among the greatest trailblazers of the ancient world. But these expeditions would have taken Viking longships weeks, if not months, to complete. Today, the Atlantic can be crossed in just a matter of days. With vessels traveling ever faster. But the record for the quickest ever Atlantic crossing by a passenger ship was set back in 1952.
The SS United States, on its maiden voyage. An extraordinary 990-ft long vessel. Over 100-ft longer than the Titanic. The SS United States steamed from New York to the Isles of Scilly in less than 4 days. Even though it was retired in the '70s, the SS United States still holds that record to this day, which is incredible. The vessel's low and graceful superstructure was built entirely of aluminum. Significantly lighter than similarly sized vessels. Allowing it to take full advantage of the astonishing 248,000 horsepower produced by its turbines. But for ancient seafarers seeking to explore the wider world, the Atlantic remained a daunting barrier.
Seen then as the world's most dangerous ocean. All of the long voyages had essentially been hopping from one island to another island, but here was a thousands of miles of ocean that needed to be crossed in one go. Up to 3,000 mi across, battered by extreme winds. To truly conquer the Atlantic, engineers had to make great progress in ship design. In the 15th century, you have the development of ship building that's incredibly important and it launches Europe into this age of sail. A new breed of ship was on the horizon. One that would radically reshape the world. To cope with the extreme forces of the open ocean, the structure of these ships would need to be much stronger than ever before.
The breakthrough lay in a technique known as carvel construction. It involved building the frame or ribs of the ship first before adding planks to the outside. Placed flush and smooth. And they were constructed with huge internal timbers as well, and that allows you to build a stronger hull. A stronger hull means you can build a bigger ship, and a bigger ship means you can travel further. But the greatest breakthrough was a stroke of engineering genius. A way of overcoming the limitations of single-masted ships.
People wanted large boats, especially as they were beginning to trade. But if you just increase the size of the mast, increase the size of the sail, it becomes incredibly heavy and cumbersome to maneuver. Also, most importantly, a single mast put enormous strain on the vessel. A single mast concentrates huge forces on one point on the ship, where the mast joins the keel. So, engineers couldn't simply keep building ever bigger single-masted ships. They'd fail in high winds. The answer? If you can't build bigger, build more. If you have three masts, you're distributing that weight over a greater area instead of one, which creates a point of weakness.
Together, these changes made for a stronger, more balanced ship. Multiple masts to enable you to sail in all sorts of conditions and to maximize your speed and your maneuverability. You could have different types of sails that you could deploy in different ways. So, this was a huge advantage, especially in naval battles. These ships were game-changers. Nothing came close to the speed, strength, and size of such state-of-the-art vessels, the most seaworthy ships of their time.
Ships that completely reshaped the world. With this technology, Columbus would reach the Americas. Magellan's expedition would be the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1522. And European powers would dominate the oceans for the next four centuries. The three-masted ship is a huge technological breakthrough, one of the most important in the history of the world. These were the tools that let European sailors explore distant lands and conquer the oceans, launching an era of global commerce. Multi-masted ships created a web of maritime trade that tied the Atlantic world together. Nations were able to manage their empires and profit from the far-flung lands they controlled.
Vessels returned to Europe carrying valuable goods such as gold, sugar, and tobacco. While thousands of ships took explorers, merchants, and migrants from Europe to the Americas. But they also transported millions of enslaved men and women from Africa. Ships carried hundreds of slaves at a time traveling thousands of miles across the Atlantic. A brutal slave trade that wouldn't have been possible without the sinister engineering of the slave ship. Among the biggest vessels of their day. But engineering in the 15th century was moving fast and saw the rise of a host of other kinds of ships. In particular fighting ships.
These vessels were growing ever larger as monarchs demanded cutting-edge warships on a massive scale. Building bigger warships wasn't just about showing off. There was a specific function. What engineering developments could deliver more effective fighting vessels? In the course of 16th century, firearms moved from essentially showpieces to genuine items of naval warfare. But effectively engineering ship board and firepower meant overcoming several obstacles. Cannon posed a really big problem for ship designers because they're incredibly heavy and heavy things on ships are very dangerous indeed. Cannon had to be tied down to prevent them
moving with the motion of the ship. And mounting too many high on the deck would cause the ship to become unstable. What they needed to do was to put the cannons in the hole, but that didn't work because the cannons then couldn't fire. Could a new type of warship solve the problem? This was the inspiration behind what was hoped to be the greatest warship of all. The Mary Rose. One of the mightiest, most heavily armed vessels of its day. The Mary Rose was a purpose-built battleship constructed to express power, to protect trade, and to protect the country.
Built for Tudor King Henry VIII. It was a successful warship for 34 years. Mary Rose was the pride of Henry VIII's fleet. It was a battleship of its day, and one of the most powerful ships afloat. A leviathan weighing over 600 tons, capable of carrying the most powerful guns. With as many as 10 sails, the warship was unusually fast and maneuverable for a ship of its size. Redesigned in the 1530s, the Mary Rose was fitted out with the latest maritime technology, including a simple but effective new piece of engineering.
Gun ports. Gun ports solve an important problem. It allows you to put the guns lower down, closer to the center of gravity, making them a much more stable platform. Gun ports made the warship more deadly than ever before. For the very first time, you've got people arming ships not with four or five cannons, but with 20, with 30, even 100. The new technique of carvel style construction made it easier to punch through the ship's hull. Placed between two frames, gun ports wouldn't impact structural integrity. And crucially, hinged port lids meant they could be closed in rough seas.
The advent of the gun port was a key technological advance in essentially creating modern naval warfare. Warships, such as the Mary Rose, were engineered to fight and destroy enemy vessels, relying primarily on cannon. Yet despite all the new technology, in 1545, as the Mary Rose sailed out of Portsmouth Harbor to do battle with French galleys, the gun ports would prove the vessel's undoing. While coming under heavy fire, King Henry's mighty warship made a sharp turn. Disaster struck. Undoubtedly, the gun ports played an important part in why she sank. As soon as she'd healed over, that's when the water poured in and she plummeted down to the seabed.
It would have been catastrophic for the king. This is his flagship, and to see it capsize and sink before his very eyes would have been truly disastrous. The Mary Rose remained on the seabed for over four centuries. But in 1971, divers made a discovery. Wooden frames, soon proven to be part of the ship's hull. And as the team kept exploring, they found more and more. They realized pretty quickly that it was almost structurally in one piece, protected under the sand. In 1982, they decided to raise these remains as a whole. Could modern engineering pull off this feat?
The process of taking the ship, which had lain more or less undisturbed at the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years, was fraught with danger. No one had ever raised a Tudor warship from a muddy grave ever before. And the idea to actually bring it to the surface, now that is an extraordinary thing to even contemplate, let alone achieve. Over 27,000 dives were made to the Mary Rose during the reclamation project. Equating to 22,710 hours on the seabed. Engineers constructed giant steel frames and trusses around the wreck.
The whole structure was jacked up and maneuvered onto a cradle, which was then lifted. This was the moment of truth. I remember watching it at the time, and everybody was holding their breaths. Failure would have destroyed the fragile remains. But after 437 years under the sea, the Mary Rose finally resurfaced. The whole nation was galvanized as this vessel came up to the surface. Raising the ship off the seafloor is half the battle. Anything that's been underwater for any length of time starts to corrode as soon as it comes in contact with oxygen.
Once returned safely to shore, the ship underwent many years of intensive conservation work. They were able to preserve it by just spraying it constantly with water. So, in fact, it never gets to dry out. You continue to perfuse it with water so that it retains the environment that had kept it safe for those hundreds of years. Today, the preservation process is complete. And the Mary Rose is the only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world. Now, all the ship is housed with all its contents together in this fantastic modern museum where it's preserved for future generations to study and to see.
Being able to see the Mary Rose in the museum today is incredibly important because it shows us the peak of Tudor engineering. One of the most intimidating warships of its time. Throughout their 6,000 year history, ships have driven the growth of civilization, providing the framework for globalization. And their importance today cannot be overstated. They have been fundamental to exploration, trade, and conquest. Ancient engineers perfected the vessels, letting them reach further, faster, endure longer journeys, playing a vital role throughout history. From the ancient Egyptian sail
to the swift Viking long ships and the imposing three-masted ships, ancient engineering innovations that changed the world forever.
