Empire of the Seas. 1/4 HD

Summary

The first episode of 'Empire of the Seas' explores the transformation of England from a third-rate nation into a major seafaring power. It highlights the nation's naval history from the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 to the development of a disciplined and organized navy. Central figures such as John Hawkins, Francis Drake, and Samuel Pepys played pivotal roles in this evolution. The episode portrays England's maritime ambitions, fueled by both heroic feats and dark chapters including slave trading and engagements with piracy, culminating in the establishment of a national identity centered on naval prowess and colonial expansion.

Highlights

• The defeat of the Spanish Armada marked a turning point, launching England into naval prominence 🌊.
• John Hawkins and Francis Drake spearheaded England’s maritime ascendancy with bold voyages and ship innovations 🚀.
• Dark chapters unfolded as Hawkins and Drake ventured into the slave trade, highlighting the era’s moral complexities ⚖️.
• Samuel Pepys’ administrative genius reformed the navy, ushering in an era of meticulous record-keeping and efficiency 📚.
• The Royal Navy became a symbol of national pride and was crucial in the formation of England's colonial empire 🏴‍☠️.

Key Takeaways

• England’s naval journey began with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, transforming it into a maritime power ⛵.
• Key figures like John Hawkins and Francis Drake expanded England’s naval capabilities through innovative ship designs and daring exploits ⚔️.
• Despite their achievements, the era was marred by the involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, reflecting historical moral failures 🚫.
• Samuel Pepys’ reforms were pivotal in professionalizing the navy, ensuring efficiency and preparedness for future conflicts 📜.
• The development of the Royal Navy was instrumental in establishing England's global influence and imperial expansion 🌍.

Overview

On a windy November day in 1588, England celebrated its triumph over Spain's mighty Armada, igniting a new maritime destiny. This historic victory marked England's emergence as a seafaring nation, setting the stage for its global ambitions fueled by legendary figures like John Hawkins and Francis Drake who shaped naval warfare and inspired a national identity tied to the sea.

The documentary delves into darker chapters such as Hawkins and Drake's ventures into the slave trade and the harrowing experiences of sailors on treacherous voyages. Highlighted is the role of strategic minds like Samuel Pepys, whose administrative reforms during the later Stuart period laid the groundwork for a more organized and accountable Royal Navy, balancing between high-seas adventures and meticulous record-keeping.

The narrative reflects how England's naval ambitions evolved amidst political turmoil and external threats, shaping a robust maritime force. The reforms initiated under Pepys' administration transformed the navy into a powerful national institution, symbolizing Britain’s rising imperial aspirations and its enduring legacy of seafaring dominance, ultimately shaping national identity and governance.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Introduction and Background On a windy day in November four centuries in the past, the English people were getting ready for a significant national celebration beneath the Dome of St Paul's, marking their small nation's triumph over the world's dominant superpower.
• 03:00 - 09:00: Early Ventures and Challenges: Drake & Hawkins The chapter titled 'Early Ventures and Challenges: Drake & Hawkins' explores the historical context of the Spanish Armada in 1588. It highlights the significance of the event with Spain's captured ensign hanging on the walls, symbolizing the ongoing battle and challenges faced during this period. The narrative focuses on the maritime endeavors of prominent figures such as Drake and Hawkins, who played crucial roles during the tumultuous times marked by naval conflicts. The celebration mentioned seems to commemorate the events surrounding the Spanish Armada and the broader implications of the naval engagements of that era.
• 09:00 - 18:00: The Armada and Aftermath The chapter discusses the centenary celebration of the Fleet Air Arm and the significance of dedicating a cathedral to the Royal Navy. It highlights how the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 marked a pivotal moment in history, transforming the nation into a maritime power. This victory not only solidified the country's naval strength but also fueled the myth that ultimately became an integral part of the national identity as a seafaring nation.
• 18:00 - 25:00: Barbery Pirates and Internal Challenges Destiny's quest for wealth and power begins on the oceans, reflecting the Navy's transformation from a minor force into a massive industrial enterprise.
• 25:00 - 38:00: Naval Reforms and Peep's Contribution This chapter discusses the pivotal role of naval reforms in the modernization of Britain. It highlights the contributions of Peep to these reforms, detailing acts of heroism, innovation, and the challenges faced. The narrative provides insights into both the triumphs and darker periods in naval history as part of Britain's 400-year maritime struggle. Central to this account is how the Navy's evolution propelled Britain into the modern age and had a profound impact on global dynamics.
• 38:00 - 52:00: Medway Disaster and Constitutional Crisis The chapter titled 'Medway Disaster and Constitutional Crisis' begins with an exploration of the significant events surrounding the Medway Disaster. This involves a critical incident that leads to widespread consequences, impacting various societal and governmental structures. As the chapter unfolds, it delves into the constitutional crisis that emerges as a result of the disaster. Key political figures and entities are faced with unprecedented challenges, prompting debates, policy changes, and legal actions. The narrative weaves through the complexity of managing a national emergency while addressing constitutional constraints and public outrage, underscoring the delicate balance between authority and accountability.
• 52:00 - 69:00: Restoration and Peep's Legacy The chapter titled 'Restoration and Peep's Legacy' begins by highlighting England's transformation from a lesser nation to a global superpower. This journey is marked by a clear October day, 20 years before the famed defeat of the Spanish Armada. The chapter vividly describes the bustling atmosphere in the Plymouth Harbor as sailors prepare a fleet of six ships. Although the scene is filled with the urgency of maritime preparations, the grand future that awaits England is not yet evident to the sailors at that moment.
• 69:00 - 87:00: James II and the Glorious Revolution The chapter describes the preparations for a sea voyage during the time of James II and the Glorious Revolution. The crew ensures all necessary supplies, including fresh water, beer, goats, and chickens, are secured on board the ship. The emphasis is on securing these provisions tightly in anticipation of rough sailing conditions. The two commanders, who are cousins, are more focused on economic gain rather than warfare as they set out on this journey.

Empire of the Seas. 1/4 HD Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] on a blustery November day four centuries ago the English were preparing themselves for one of the greatest national celebrations ever [Music] seen beneath the Dome of St Paul's they gathered to celebrate their tiny nation's victory over the world's greatest superpower
• 00:30 - 01:00 Spain on the walls hung the captured ense of the Spanish Fleet that was even then being dashed on the rocky shores of Scotland and Ireland the year was 1588 and the battle was the [Music] Armada today's celebration marked the
• 01:00 - 01:30 centenery of the Fleet air arm and it still seems like the most natural thing in the world to devote a great Cathedral to the Royal Navy a tradition that began on that autumn day 400 years ago 1588 marked a turning point in our national story victory over the Amada transformed us into a seafaring nation and it sparked a myth that would one day become a reality that the nation's New
• 01:30 - 02:00 Destiny the source of her future wealth and power lay out there on the oceans this series tells the story of how the Navy expanded from a tiny Force to become the most complex industrial Enterprise on Earth of how the need to organize it laid the foundations of our civil service and our economy of how it transformed our culture our sense of national identity
• 02:00 - 02:30 and our democracy it's a story of heroism and Innovation but also of disasters and dark chapters in our history it's the remarkable story of a 400 years struggle fought at Sea and on land of how the Navy drove Britain into the Modern Age and changed the world [Music]
• 02:30 - 03:00 clear the
• 03:00 - 03:30 hats England's extraordinary Journey from a third rate Nation to Global superpower began on a clear October day 20 years before the Armada okay bring on the beer not that anything so Grand was on the minds of the sailors who scurried to and fro in the old Harbor in Plymouth making a small Fleet of six ships ready for sea
• 03:30 - 04:00 the gang plank groaned as last minute supplies were brought on board large barrels of fresh water and beer and even wiing goats and chickens as well when everything was brought on board they were lashed down to the bulkheads in expectation of a bumpy passage the two men in command were cousins on that fine Autumn day they were thinking not about making War about making money [Music]
• 04:00 - 04:30 the Elder of the two was John Hawkins who at the age of just 35 was already plymouth's leading Merchant venturer the younger was his cousin a poor relation who'd grown up with Hawkins 27-year-old Francis [Music] Drake they were leaving behind a poor insignificant town on the edge of of a poor insignificant country which itself
• 04:30 - 05:00 clung to the fringes of Europe but this place had one thing going for it this one of the finest natural Harbors on Earth gateway to the Atlantic and beyond that the new [Music] world first discovered only 60 years before the New World of the Americas
• 05:00 - 05:30 offered Wealth Beyond imagining if they could get there and bring it back that is a round trip of 12,000 mil no mean feet in the 1560s standby 2 six 2 six 2 six take a break is that halfway yeah you kidding me no
• 05:30 - 06:00 this wonderful replica of the chudah ship the Matthew gives me a strong sense of what life might have been like on board saing one of these just so struck by the Ingenuity aren't you it's a sort of combination of wood rope bit of metal and you can sell around the other side of the world among the profit Hungry Investors in the Venture was the queen
• 06:00 - 06:30 herself she'd lent two ships the Jesus of Lubec and the minion both were old spent and rotten as were most of the vessels in her tiny [Music] Navy the crew too would get their share of the booty all were young some were just boys among them Hawkins nephew Paul and the 13-year-old miles Phillips whose Journal
• 06:30 - 07:00 relates the Terrors of frequent storms and leaking hulls there were no Creature Comforts for those on board either the single-minded Hawkins made his men sleep on Deck because every inch of hold space was reserved for the cargo that would make the cash
• 07:00 - 07:30 on that expedition the cargo was a human one Drake and Hawkins have the terrible distinction of being the first Englishman to bind African men women and children in Chains and transport them in the holds of ships like this they were slave Traders
• 07:30 - 08:00 6 weeks out of Plymouth they picked up 500 slaves in Guinea then headed west few Englishmen had ever made this journey England had been slow to spot the opportunities of the new world and the Spanish had got there first now Spain jealously guarded a lucrative American Empire stretching from South America through the Caribbean to Mexico and further north
• 08:00 - 08:30 Drake and Hawkins just wanted a little slice of the action nip in sell a few slaves and return home with a hold full of silver the problem was the Spanish had banned foreigners from Trading within their lucrative Empire Hawkins had managed it once or twice before and got away with it he hoped to do so again but this time would be different in the Caribbean they traded their human cargo for silver gold and
• 08:30 - 09:00 Pearls then turned for home but it was Hurricane Season storms drove them to San Juan on the coast of Mexico were a powerful Spanish Fleet first promised them safe passage then decided to teach them a violent lesson
• 09:00 - 09:30 in the fight that followed Hawkins lost three of his ships including the Jesus of Lubec and 200 men killed or captured he managed to escape on the minion and with him was the 13-year-old miles Phillips who watched what happened to the prisoners they took our men ashore he wrote and hung them up by their arms until blood burst out from their fingers ends and the moment of personal trag for Hawkins he realized that his nephew Paul
• 09:30 - 10:00 was among them disease and famine followed and by the time they limped home fewer than 20 men were left alive aboard the minion but for the survivors This Disaster acted not as a deterrent but as a Spur to action
• 10:00 - 10:30 The Experience marked Drake and Hawkins for the rest of their lives neither would ever forgive the Spanish for their treachery and they threw themselves into a bitter personal Crusade against Spain it was fueled by the heavy mix of a Lust For Cash religious zealotry and a desire for personal revenge in time this Crusade would become a national
• 10:30 - 11:00 Enterprise and in doing so it would Forge a new idea of englishness but if England's seafarers were to have any chance of catching up with Spain they would need better ships to do it Hawkins answer was the race built gallion his radical breakthrough in warship design preserved in these original
• 11:00 - 11:30 drawings by using maths and geometry instead of rule of thumb by cutting down high decks and by streamlining hulls Hawkins produced the fastest ships of their kind anywhere in the world the first was built in 1570 at the Queen's dockyard in depford more were to follow with greater space for guns they were
• 11:30 - 12:00 perfectly designed for war but 20 race built gallions the most the chuda state could afford would not be enough on their own Hawkins landed a job on the Navy Board the committee that ran the Queen's modest Fleet and in 158 82 the board
• 12:00 - 12:30 commissioned a series of extraordinary surveys preserved here at the National [Music] Archives yeah see I've read about this but I've never seen it before this is a list of every ship in England compiled under Hawkins leadership and it's actually as you can see broken up by County here Norfolk suffk absolutely
• 12:30 - 13:00 meticulously written down it's beautiful every single [ __ ] oh with the tonnage here so these ones are St Mary the Solomon 200 tons absolutely incredible as we go further on here they didn't just list the ships they list the Masters and then the number of Mariners and seamen there are as well for each Port so here we go in Cornwall there are 108 Masters 626 Mariners and
• 13:00 - 13:30 1,184 seamen so precise incredible this information is being gathered centrally in London at the beckon call of the chuda state it's actually very moving seeing the names of people that lived all those centuries ago and once you have a list like this when War comes when there's a National Emergency you can go and knock on the door of men like John Cooper and Peter dolore and say right mate you're coming in the Navy you're come to protect the
• 13:30 - 14:00 country it does make you wonder whether men like William Bennett William Mort from littleham where they end up fighting against the Spanish Armada and this is just fantastic you get right to the end the total number of mariners available to the chuda state 16259 men that could be mobilized to protect little England against the greatest superpower in the world [Music]
• 14:00 - 14:30 Drake meanwhile was taking his revenge on Spain in a much more direct Fashion on an April day in 1587 the residents of Cadiz woke to the sound of gunfire [Applause] [Music]
• 14:30 - 15:00 [Music] by the end of the day over 30 Spanish ships lay at the bottom of the harbor and Drake's Fleet had sailed away with holds full of treasure it was the culmination of a 10-year pillaging spree that had seen Drake circumnavigate the globe attack Spanish colonies and steal their
• 15:00 - 15:30 loot belligerent venal a Peerless seaf farer he was Protestant England's new hero in Catholic Spain he was anything but standing here looking at it from the Spanish point of view the English appear little different from Vikings men who came from the North in ships bent on plunder and destruction to whom nothing was sacred most Infamous of all was
• 15:30 - 16:00 Drake still hated still known as ilra the dragon and now the dragon had pushed the king of Spain to take his own terrible revenge on Drake and [Music] England that Revenge came in July 1588 [Music]
• 16:00 - 16:30 when the arader appeared off England's Coast one eyewitness wrote that the ocean groaned under their weight it had taken Spain 3 years and a Titanic amount of silver to assemble it while the English Fleet had been mobilized in just 3 [Music] months the battle raged for several days
• 16:30 - 17:00 but the leadership of men like Drake and Hawkins had given the English a decisive [Music] Edge people have tended to attribute victory over the Spanish Armada to the courage of the English Sailors or the
• 17:00 - 17:30 intervention of divine wind in fact the Spanish fought equally bravely and at different stages of the campaign the wind favored both sides the real reason is a lot less glamorous is the inspired organization of Hawkins he ensured that England had a fleet of fast maneuverable ships each one of which carried something like three times the weight in Armament of its Spanish equivalent he laid the foundations for modern Naval Warfare bringing ships men and Cannon together in a decisive
• 17:30 - 18:00 [Music] combination so when the Great and the good arrived in their finery at St polls on that day in November 1588 they were celebrating not just a victory but the beginning of a new future the queen as one author wrote was carried in a golden chariot through her city of London in Robes of
• 18:00 - 18:30 Triumph while the still bloody heads of Catholic traitors executed for praying for the armada's success stared down from spikes [Music] nearby the chuda pr machine went into overdrive a new portrait showed the queen triumphant her hand on a globe the Spanish ships crushed on the Rocks behind her
• 18:30 - 19:00 [Music] the scale of the victory expanded the horizons of a small impoverished Nation one commentator wrote The Sea had become a means to seek new worlds for gold for praise for Glory
• 19:00 - 19:30 the English had been given a Bright Vision of a glittering future of riches Beyond imagination of New Frontiers that stretched Way Beyond the shores of tiny England above all it was a future that would be played out on the Seas by the ships of the Navy and by a new breed of heroic sea Farah England's view of its place in the world would never be the same again God of Honor sleep
• 19:30 - 20:00 up the Queen's Navy had become a source of national pride as never before and there was an insatiable demand for stories of seafaring adventure and Discovery a new national identity aggressive ambitious and Protestant was in the making if Hawkins was the architect of that new identity and Drake its fire
• 20:00 - 20:30 brand then Richard hacket was its biographer in 1589 the year after the Spanish Armada he wrote this the principal navigations voyages traffics and discoveries of the English Nation an account of 1,600 years of History containing over 250 seafaring Adventures by Englishmen a mix of Storytelling and myth making here at the back of this one for example we
• 20:30 - 21:00 have hawkins's ill fated trip to the Caribbean with Miles Phillips gruesome account of the barbarous treatment they received at the hands of the Spaniards here in the next volume we have the account of the defeat of the Spanish armad itself which ends with this incredible paragraph that says thus the Magnificent huge and mighty Fleet of the Spaniards in the year 1588 vanished into
• 21:00 - 21:30 [Music] smoke this was history with a purpose a call to Arms to a nation on the verge of a new destiny that Destiny could not have been made more obvious than it was in a subsequent edition of hack's work which contained this stunning map this piece of paper is 400 years old it's incredibly beautiful just look at the detail of the World coastlines and ports
• 21:30 - 22:00 and [Music] rivers what's so remarkable about this map is that medieval Maps show England as an insignificant Island clinging to the edge of Europe but now England's not at the edge it's been picked up and moved right to the heart of the world it's an image of the world we all recognize but this map showed it for the first time it was a potent symbol of a a that now had Global
• 22:00 - 22:30 Ambitions ships poured out of England Bound for the Americas Africa Asia and the Baltic numerous and aggressive these English Pioneers steadily eroded Spanish power and founded the colonies that form the beginnings of Britain's future Empire abroad and at home business was
• 22:30 - 23:00 booming ports like East Lou in Cornwall now had scores of fishing boats trading as far away as North America in these new confident times they called themselves the Western adventurers but economic success brought a new threat that no one had foreseen [Music]
• 23:00 - 23:30 [Applause] suddenly whole fleets 10 or 12 ships would head out to sea and simply vanish there are reports of ships found floating out there in the Atlantic without their Crews who were never seen again on one night in the summer of 1631 in the village of Baltimore in southern island over a 100 people were removed from their beds leaving the place of
• 23:30 - 24:00 Ghost Town a remarkable letter written in August 1625 reveals the scale and horror of the problem it's from the mayor of Plymouth Thomas cely to the king's Council one poor Maritime town in Cornwall called Lou hath Within in 10 days lost 880 Mariners Bound in fishing
• 24:00 - 24:30 voyages to the deeps and there have been taken by the Turks back then Turks meant Muslims and these were in fact pirates from North Africa barbery Pirates they came to these Shores and took people as slaves back to North Africa it was a barbarous practice but it was of course what these West countrymen have been doing to Africans for decades now even so it
• 24:30 - 25:00 turned the sea here from a source of wealth and Prestige for England into a place of Terror and slavery the ports and fishing villages it said were filled with the pitiful Lamentations of the victim's families in the next few years Devon and Cornwall would lose a fifth of their shipping and cruise this extraordinary and little known
• 25:00 - 25:30 episode in English History was to have far-reaching consequences Englishmen were bred on the myth of Maritime invincibility but now they had to face hard truths once the Predators they were now the prey and people did what they usually did in a crisis they blame the government and they weren't entirely wrong fishing vessel travos fishing vessel travos this is protection vessel time calling you Channel 1
• 25:30 - 26:00 16 I'm on one of the modern Navy's fishery protection vessels about 30 mi from Cornwall just the territory where the barbery Pirates were seizing English shipping this a time it's my intention to send a routine boarding team over to you my team will be with you in that 20 minutes it's
• 26:00 - 26:30 over in Elizabeth's time the Queen's ships and the private vessels of free booters like Drake had kept these Waters safe but the queen was now dead the new Stewart regime had made peace with Spain and the Navy had been cut back with a predeliction for self-aggrandisement the regime had spent its cash some of it raised illegally by notorious ship money on a few grand
• 26:30 - 27:00 vanity ships designed to impress the kings of [Music] Europe trouble was fishery protection wasn't the kind of job that these showy vessels were designed to do just as the job that these guys do couldn't be done by an aircraft carrier in the absence of this kind of prote ction the king's subjects
• 27:00 - 27:30 particularly down here in the west country were completely vulnerable they and their caros made irresistible targets for North African Pirates shocked by the magnitude of the crisis West country MP s John Elliot wrote to the king's Council begging for action but the government did nothing Elliot was Furious
• 27:30 - 28:00 and he wasn't the only one anger also oozes from the pages of this a bestseller written around the time of the disappearances from East Lou it's called s Francis Drake revived it's written by Drake's nephew and he recounts the glories and successes of what now seemed like a vanished age it's an indictment on the present with its all pervasive sense of fear and its insecurity but it's also a call to arms as the author makes very clear on the title page he writes calling upon this
• 28:00 - 28:30 dull or effeminate age to follow his Noble steps for gold and [Music] silver so John Elliott caught the mood calling for a return to the aggressive policies of the past England's new king it seemed was listening Charles the had been on the throne for just a few months and like a modern leader seeking
• 28:30 - 29:00 crowd-pleasing policies in troubled times he funded an expedition to attack Spain it set sail from Plymouth in October 1625 waved off by a delighted John Elliot their target was none other than kadiz their Mission a drake style Smash
• 29:00 - 29:30 and grab returning home with holds full of treasure to public Acclaim but it didn't work out that way at all the expedition was commanded by vicount Wimbledon a man who' never served at Sea before and was so indecisive his men quickly gave him the nickname vicount sit still confusion rained ships collided in Mass rigging tumbled overboard when sit still ordered
• 29:30 - 30:00 his captains to attack many of them simply ignored him the lack of an experienced charismatic Commander like Drake exposed terrible weaknesses in the English Fleet even with Drake in charge it have been hard enough to impose order now many captains simply did as they wished they were a ravel the chaos continued when they landed 2,000 troops on the beach but
• 30:00 - 30:30 failed to give them any water the weather was scorching when they finally got into the town these thirsty Englishmen stumbled on a warehouse it was full of wine all hell broke loose the men started drinking and although the officers tried to stop them it was no use the whole Army was drunken wrote One
• 30:30 - 31:00 eyewitness and in one common confusion some shooting at one another amongst themselves this wouldn't of course be the last time the drunken English have behaved disgracefully while abroad but on this occasion with the Expedition descending into total F the commanders had no choice but to call it off on the way home F turned to tragedy as
• 31:00 - 31:30 disease took hold by the time they reached Plymouth hundreds were dead and hundreds more were dying and who was standing up here waiting for them none other than Sir John Elliot the man who in October had waved them off with such high hopes now stood on a miserable day just before Christmas 1625 5 as the fleet limped
• 31:30 - 32:00 in the miseries before us are great he wrote as he watched corpses being tossed into the Harbor from the ships and later he saw Sailors drop down dead in the streets of Plymouth but soon his compassion for the sailors turned into another emotion rage news of the Fiasco soon reached London and when Parliament convened John
• 32:00 - 32:30 Elliot was on his feet his anger echoing around since Steven's Hall our honor is ruined our ships are sunk our men are killed Not By The Sword nor by the hand of an enemy but by those we trust those words spoken by Elliot in this chamber where the House of Commons used to meet were the sharpest denunciation of Royal government ever heard in Parliament Cadiz Elliott said
• 32:30 - 33:00 proved that the King was unfit to run the Navy in a series of extraordinary speeches in here Elliot demanded that Parliament take a greater role in overseeing the Affairs of State when the speaker who sat in his chair on this spot tried to shut him up Elliot hired three thugs to hold him down if it seemed like Revolution was in the air it was the king's failure to run a modern efficient Navy had sparked a
• 33:00 - 33:30 constitutional [Music] crisis John Elliot was thrown into the tower but a new generation of MPS immortalized here in since Steven's Hall took up his call for Liberty relations between King and Parliament collapsed in 1642 Charles fled London and the Civil War began
• 33:30 - 34:00 by fleeing the capital Charles lost control both of the Navy and of the new burgeoning Maritime economy that it supported it made his defeat inevitable and in 1649 on the orders of England's new Republic he was executed Parliament acted quickly to secure
• 34:00 - 34:30 control over the Navy putting men of proven loyalty in charge they were known as the generals at Sea one of them was Robert Blake West country MP hero of the Civil War and a radical Protestant to [Music] boot Che CLE perryon
• 34:30 - 35:00 car Blake had never fought at Sea not a brilliant start for a man charged with protecting England's Coast against a multitude of foes but Blake understood Warfare and men and he knew that chaos and indiscipline were as dangerous at Sea as they were on land command problems that had dogged the English expedition to Cadiz still remained in one of his first battles he was appalled to see his captains disobey his orders
• 35:00 - 35:30 and flee he knew he had to find a way to assert his control his solution was to produce the Navy's first ever set of rules and regulations the laws of war and ordinances of the sea in 1652 for the first time it gave English commanders a Fighting Chance of is uing orders that would be obeyed Court 15 it was a list of 39
• 35:30 - 36:00 offenses from stealing to spying from cowardice to sleeping on duty most were punishable by [Music] death Blake even sacked his own brother for discipline offenses the laws of war offered a blueprint for structure and discipline at Sea that would would later be applied through all areas of
• 36:00 - 36:30 [Music] government Blake was just what the Navy needed a tough Outsider he could see that over the previous 50 years the Navy had vacillated wildly between great successes like the Armada and total failures like Cadiz but there was no reliability under charismatic leadership of men like Drake the English could be great successes but otherwise denied that leadership failure was of than the result Blake imposed order and
• 36:30 - 37:00 discipline he ensured that no matter who was in charge the Navy would be [Music] effective Blake Left Behind the Navy that was larger and more disciplined than the country had ever known before the powerful Fleet that protected the young Republic from its foreign enemies but it could not fill the vacuum created when Cromwell the English
• 37:00 - 37:30 dictator died a new era was [Music] coming on May the 26th 1660 one of the Navy's grandest ships the Royal Charles came within sight of [Music] England on board was a man making his triumphant return home after years in
• 37:30 - 38:00 Exile it was Charles son of the murdered King soon to be crowned King Charles [Music] II The Journey was the result of weeks of plotting between senior naval officers and exiled royalists to bring back the monarchy the new King was eager to lay claim to England's potent Navy he gave gold to the sailors and rebranded the Fleet it was now the Royal
• 38:00 - 38:30 Navy disembarking with the Royal party was the younger cousin and newly appointed secretary to the ship's Commander the young man was honored to be given the job of taking the king's spaniel off the ship he wrote in his diary it [ __ ] the boat which made us
• 38:30 - 39:00 laugh and we think that the king and all that belong to him are but just as others are as they came ashore the young man saw huge crowds of Nobles and citizens alike who'd all turned out to welcome their King the shouting and joy expressed by all he wrote was past imagination a 27-year-old from London had just completed his second sea voyage he didn't know it then but this was just the start of an extraordinary Naval
• 39:00 - 39:30 career his name was Samuel [Music] peeps peeps was from Humble Origins the son of a poor tayor and a washer woman but he left behind two extraordinary legacies he would transform the administration of the Navy like no one before him and leave behind one of the most Vivid and colorful Diaries of all time and here it is volume one of Samuel
• 39:30 - 40:00 Peep's diary started on January the 1st 1660 possibly in response to a New Year's resolution it's in shorthand so it takes a bit of deciphering but it's an incredibly honest account of a colorful life there are descriptions of his trips to the theater drinking his Affairs music money and even arguments with his wife it's all interspersed with descriptions of a job he loved or at least he came to love it when he
• 40:00 - 40:30 first landed the job of Clark of the axe to the Navy Board he hadn't the foggiest idea what it entailed but he was delighted with the pay £350 a year more than he'd ever earned in his life eager to learn peeps threw himself into the complex new world of the Navy's dockyards at chattam wch and dford all are now long gone but this yard on the Dutch Coast is
• 40:30 - 41:00 building a replica ship of the same [Music] era the Dutch had overtaken Spain to become England's new Maritime Rivals they were aggressive Protestant and organized just like the English to combat the Dutch threat England was now spending a mighty 25% of
• 41:00 - 41:30 the national Budget on her Navy making it by far the country's largest industrial [Music] Enterprise the dockyards consume materials in vast quantities 150 tons of iron a year 100 Mil of rope and had a vast Workforce to match and as peep soon discovered corruption was Rife peeps reported corrupt officials the
• 41:30 - 42:00 Navy board but he soon realized that the worst corruption was actually on the Navy Board itself he refers to his colleagues as old fools and Rogues and realized that one of them was even stealing from the sailor's pension fund known as the chattam chest the problem was that the Navy had become a vast receptacle of public funds there were no systems in place to spend that money and if a few thousand went missing who would care [Music]
• 42:00 - 42:30 peeps cared and realized that every aspect of the Navy had ballooned except for the central Administration the fleet had grown far beyond the ability of the medieval Navy Board to manage it back in the office peeps hired a team of Clarks he gave them desks and regular hours and together they set out imposing some order they spent a lot of time making lists this one here is an alphabetical list of all naval officers
• 42:30 - 43:00 that served in the Navy during Peep's time in office starting up here with a coming all the way down to zed down here the amazing thing is it contains fair amount of information about their service records the dates on which they're in different ships in fact some case it even has their fate so for example this man died George Colt drowned and Humphrey kisby was discharged by his Royal Highness lists like these imposed manageable symmetry
• 43:00 - 43:30 on the anarchic world that peeps found himself in and he became an expert in the complex Gathering and storage of information he was determined to professionalize every aspect of the Navy's operations he designed a call book to keep records of dockyard hours worked compiled an alphabetical list of all contracts and kept detailed notes of everything he
• 43:30 - 44:00 did peeps wasn't the first Naval administrator to make lists but he was the most systematic the most brilliant the most obsessive he was a man who adored the Navy not because he loved storming aboard enemy ships with the smell of gunm smoke in his nostrils but because he loved the bureaucracy he delighted he wrote in the neatness of everything [Music]
• 44:00 - 44:30 but the Samuel peeps of the Diary emerges as a man who was far from being a dull paper pusher and list [Music] maker here's a not untypical entry he has an orgy with the wife of one of his colleagues on the Navy Board and her daughter he wrote there are a great many women in the chamber my lady Penn and her daughter among them whereupon my
• 44:30 - 45:00 lady Penn flung me down upon the bed and herself and others one after another upon me and very merry we were well I'm not surprised every man has his vice they say and for peeps it was definitely the ladies well and bouts of heavy drinking and fine dining and nice clothes and music and you love the theater of course and well you get the idea the point is peeps was was a man who lived life to the full but what really shines out in these Diaries is
• 45:00 - 45:30 his love of his work my business he wrote is all my [Music] delight the Navy's officer training College here at Dartmouth was built long after Peep's time but the idea of professionally trained and qualified officers was his
• 45:30 - 46:00 anyone with the right connections peeps realized could become an officer leaving the Navy's valuable ships in often unreliable hands there was no quality control M Bri sir peeps his solution exams the verbal test that he introduced for all wouldbe left tenants still exists take a seat please these days they call it fleet board uh first question is what are the
• 46:00 - 46:30 responsibilities of the CBM at State one he's on Upper Deck roaming sir looking mostly for five fighting events okay the whole idea of assessment and interview seems deeply familiar to us what items of seamanship rigging must always be fully ripped that would be the Safety Not underneath sir that's because of peeps when he introduced his exam for left tenants it was the first time any
• 46:30 - 47:00 employee of the English state had ever been tested in this way and where is it located quick release marab Boer uh it's usually found on the quarter deck okay thank you very much uh M MZ please carry on using pen paper and a tidy mind peeps had done for the Navy as an institution what Hawkins had done for its ships and Blake for the discipline of its Crews but could it survive the ultimate
• 47:00 - 47:30 test [Music] war in 1665 came the inevitable clash with the Dutch a series of English victories early on seemed to Oro well but peeps was worried he'd said from the start that Parliament hadn't voted enough money to fund the war and just as he predicted the money was soon gone the Navy lunged from Triumph to
• 47:30 - 48:00 crisis things soon reached boiling point the Navy was terribly in debt and sailors went unpaid in the dockyards peeps saw workers walking around like ghosts and he heard the lamentable moans of sailors that lay destitute in the street a sight which he said troubled him to his heart to answer the of Crisis plague broke out in London and Peeps and
• 48:00 - 48:30 his clerks came down here to Greenwich where they took up residence in this from Charles II's unfinished palaces but that put them in the heart of the fleet with all disgruntled Sailors around them one day their windows were broken and Peeps and his staff were threatened with physical [Music] violence peeps spent 24 hours composing A desperate letter to the king it's unambiguous and it would have made
• 48:30 - 49:00 very disturbing reading for his royal master peeps Begins by apologizing for being Troublesome he says troubling his majesty on the subject which we often have done the want of money the effects of that want under which his Majesty's service under our care hath long been sinking so peep in no doubt that his Navy is facing utter ruin and he comes up with a typically pepian solution he gives a list carefully costed of everything that he thinks is necessary to prevent that he starts up here by
• 49:00 - 49:30 saying 55 anchors of various weights 800 bales of sail cloth 4,000 loads of plank 400 dozen ores 12 tons of Brimstone 10,000 spars of all sorts and he comes up with the incredibly precise figure as only peeps could do of the money required to Stave off disaster for the Navy and for England and that sum is 179,000 £ 793 and 10
• 49:30 - 50:00 Shillings but the king had nothing to give and would not humiliate himself by going cap in hand to Parliament to ask for more just a few months later came the naval disaster peeps had predicted it was the summer of 1667 the fleet had been laid up because there was no money to pay Crews to man it upna Castle 30 Mi up the temps from
• 50:00 - 50:30 London had been built in Elizabeth's time to protect the fleet across the river Medway at chattam the exhausted and unpaid Garrison were not at their best on that June day the horrified Defenders of this fort watched as 62 Dutch ships made their way up the river on the rising tide anchored here was much of Charles's Fleet in including four of his finest battleships in a
• 50:30 - 51:00 desperate measure the English sank some of their own ships here to try and block the river but that didn't work and their cannon on Shore opened up to try and turn the Dutch back but unbelievably someone had delivered the wrong ammunition and many of the cannon balls didn't even fit down the barrels the Dutch ships plowed in amongst the English ships with impunity capturing them burning others including three of the finest battleships in the land the river was covered in wreckage and in the sky there was a pole of smoke one of
• 51:00 - 51:30 Peep's Clarks who lived and worked down here wrote and said the destruction of those three glorious ships was one of the most dismal sights my eyes have ever beheld it was enough he said to make the heart of every true Englishman bleed [Music] in a final humiliation the Dutch towed
• 51:30 - 52:00 back to Holland the Royal Charles itself a moment immortalized on canvas showing the pride of England's Fleet flying the Dutch flag the Dutch raid here on the Medway was at the time and remains to this day the most embarrassing defeat in the history of the royal Navy not even the brilliant Peete could avert this catastrophe the simple fact was that King Charles just couldn't afford a
• 52:00 - 52:30 modern [Music] Navy the Medway disaster set the King and Parliament on another Collision Course over how the Navy was to be funded and [Music] controlled when Charles died in 1685 relations between King and
• 52:30 - 53:00 Parliament were at their lowest e since the Civil [Music] War he was succeeded by his brother James now he had had a rather successful career as an admiral in the Royal Navy could he be the man to work together with politicians and financiers and businessmen to build a new kind of constitutional monarchy well well no and this extraordinary portrait
• 53:00 - 53:30 tells us why James has had himself painted in the Garb of a Roman Emperor with a hay stare his golden tunic magnificent purple robe flowing off his shoulders and decked out in Jewels at his throat sword hilt and sandals and out at Sea his Navy his play thing the Royal Banner flying from the main top Master this was not how the English wanted their kings to see
• 53:30 - 54:00 themselves to make matters worse James was openly proudly Catholic he appointed Catholics to key positions in the armed forces he even put one of them in charge of the royal Navy this was clearly a man who wouldn't send his Royal Navy out to attack the great Catholic powers of Europe this was not a man to protect the legacy of Drake and Hawkins he would have to
• 54:00 - 54:30 [Music] go in July 1688 a figure dressed as a common sailor arrived in [Music] Holland beneath the disguise was England's Premier naval officer Admiral Arthur Herbert or rather ex Admiral he'd resigned weeks before refusing to serve under King
• 54:30 - 55:00 James Herbert was carrying an extraordinary letter it was signed by seven Englishmen all grandes in the armed forces church and state and it was addressed to the Dutch Prince William of Orange who was not only Protestant but he was married to James II's daughter Mary it was an appeal for Williams help against their tyrannical King this was high treason but Herbert and his fellow conspirators were the desperate men from
• 55:00 - 55:30 an exasperated nation and in William they'd found their [Music] man on November the 1st 1688 a vast Dutch Invasion Fleet 463 vessels 40,000 men left Holland Bound for England
• 55:30 - 56:00 it was almost exactly a hundred years since the Spanish Armada but this time not a single shot was [Music] fired from the top Mast of Williams Flagship he flew a banner with his family motto on I will maintain but he added in letters 3 ft High the Liberties of the English and the Protestant
• 56:00 - 56:30 religion the message was clear and when William landed here on the south coast of England he was greeted with cheers over the next few weeks it became obvious that the English weren't going to fight for James II and he fled the country and was replaced as King by [Music] William James like his brother and his father before him had proved himself incompatible with the new idea of
• 56:30 - 57:00 englishness that had crystallized since the days of the Armada that idea was opposed to absolutism and Catholicism and proud of parliament Liberty and of sending the English Navy out against England's traditional enemies Williams invasion of 1688 represented the final victory of those values it was the myth of the Armada made [Music]
• 57:00 - 57:30 real in little over a 100 Years A Rabel of West country seafarers and a few Royal ships had become a recognizably modern institution with staff and systems to manage a vast efficient Navy this was England's heart of Oak a Navy that now lay at the center of the national project and its future [Music]