Voyages of Discovery

From DocuWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

1 General Information
2 Cover
3 Information
4 Screenshots
5 Technical Specs
6 Links

[edit] General Information

Travel Documentary hosted by Paul Rose and published by BBC in 2006 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

First Aired: November-December 2006 on BBC Four

Explorer Paul Rose takes us on a journey through the pioneering names and events in the history of world discovery.

[edit] Circumnavigation

Five hundred years ago, a stricken ship limped into the port of Seville. Its crew were half dead from starvation and disease, having just completed a voyage that would change the course of history and profoundly shape the way we live today.

It was 1522, and the Victoria had just become the first ship to circumnavigate the globe. This voyage opened up the last great unknown ocean and proved, once and for all, that the world is round. It was a triumph of the human spirit � an epic tale of courage and endurance, starvation and mutiny, heroism and death. And it turned one man, Ferdinand Magellan, into one of the most celebrated explorers in the history of the world. But behind the legend of one of the greatest-ever Voyages Of Discovery lies another story...

Paul Rose sets sail on a replica of the Victoria and shows how the real hero was not, in fact, Magellan, but a member of his crew.

[edit] The Making of Captain Cook

In 1768, Cook set sail to observe the Transit of Venus � at least, that's what the Portuguese were told. Instead, his real mission was to discover the vast southern continent that, it was believed, "balanced the Earth".

After battling the elements, Cook found Tahiti. Once there, he was kept busy trying to stop his sailors from selling goods � and even the nails that held their ship, Endeavour, together � in return for sex. There was also the small matter of light-fingered locals who were attracted to the gleaming metal measuring devices � devices that would help Cook establish the distance between the planets and unlock the secrets of the Cosmos.

[edit] The Ice King

Explorer Paul Rose tells the incredible story of his hero Fridjtof Nansen who, in 1892, announced a daring plan to be first to the North Pole. Nansen's radical idea was considered so off-the-wall that no scientist would volunteer to join him on a venture they believed was nothing short of suicide. He allowed his ship to become stuck in the crushing pack ice, hoping it would drift to the Pole, and then set off on foot across the frozen wastes. Nansen became the forefather of polar exploration, inventing practical techniques that today allow people to survive, travel and work in the most hostile and forbidding places on our plane.

[edit] The Figure of the Earth

In what was to become a legendary tale of greed, adultery and despair, a French expedition set sail to determine the shape of the Earth.

These men were intellectuals � innocents abroad � and had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. Their plan was to measure the curvature of the Earth and bring accuracy to maps and navigation. Yet, even before they arrived, the team was beset by disease, waylaid by a Frenchman's desire for l'amour, and ripped apart by disputes. Just reaching Peru took six months and, during a stopover in the Caribbean, Louis Godin, the young, impetuous geographer nominally in charge, began an affair with a local girl who frittered away a large part of the expedition's finances.

[edit] Hanging by a Thread

On 23 May 1939, the US Navy's newest submarine, Squalus, suffered a catastrophic malfunction and flooded, taking her to the North Atlantic floor.

No one had ever been saved from a stranded sub but, under the command of a maverick genius, Commander Charles "Swede" Momsen, 33 were rescued from
the Squalus.