Empire of the Seas BBC2 Friday 9 PM

mike65

Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World(History Documentary)

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Heart of Oak. Episode 1
In the first of a four-part series, historian Dan Snow charts the defining role the Royal Navy played in Britain's struggle for modernity - a grand tale of the twists and turns which thrust the people of the British Isles into an indelible relationship with the sea and ships. The episode opens with a dramatic retelling of 16th and 17th century history, revealing how victory over the Armada transformed impoverished England into a seafaring nation.

Fratton Fred

Not one for the 800 years brigade, but a brilliant first episode.

When people talk of an arms race, they tend to think of ballistic missiles, tanks and high speed strike aircraft, but the ship builders were once at the forefront of the arms race by building ever faster, more manouverable and better armes ships.

I'm very much looking forward to this series.

mike65

Yep it was good, I get the feeling Master Snow wishes he were a seafaring Sir!

Its easy to forget how far behind the likes of the Dutch, Spain and Portugal England then Britain was until the country took the potential of the seas seriously.

Fratton Fred

All because the Spanish hung Hawkins nephew.

Eventually though, Britain became very dependant on the navy. Before WWI, the Kaiser taunted Britain about the size of its army, in European terms it waa very small. France, Spain, Germany etc needed large armies to defend their boarders, whereas Britain had the English channel which was controlled by the Royal navy.

Ah balls, I missed it.

The remaining ones I can Sky+, but any chance of catching the 1st one again?

kowloon

It's on iplayer on the bbc website.
If you can't get that to work I'm sure youtube has it in parts.