All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S01E02.Curse.of.Hell.Island.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]1

Narrator:
A perplexing and brutal
Industrial complex...

It's one of the most
Claustrophobic places on earth.

Narrator:
...A heavily armed giant
Rusting away underwater...

Bell:
That shift in technology and
The amount of engineering skill

And knowledge that needed to be
Brought and focused in

Was phenomenal.

Narrator: ...And one of
The world's largest

And most secretive weapons
Ever constructed.

It's almost primitive technology
That's just been ramped up

It's almost primitive technology
That's just been ramped up

To as big as it possibly can.

Narrator: once, they were some
Of the most advanced structures

And facilities on the planet,

At the cutting edge
Of design and construction.

Today, they stand abandoned,
Contaminated,

And sometimes deadly.

But who built them?
And how?

And why were they abandoned?

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Discovery communications

*

Out in the remote deserts
Of arizona

Is one of the u.S. Army's

Most important
Secret research sites.

Standing in the wilderness

Is a massive
Single-barreled gun...

...Dominating the barren
Landscape around it.

At 100 feet in length, it has
A huge 16-inch-wide barrel.

Able to shoot
With an unheard-of 50,000 psi...

...It's designed to fire
400-pound projectiles

...It's designed to fire
400-pound projectiles

Over 100 miles.

But why would anyone build
Such a huge, powerful gun?

And why was it abandoned?

Man:
5...4...3...2...1...

Zero.

Narrator: in 1961,
The space race is in full swing.

Yuri gagarin gives the soviets
The first man in space,

And america responds
With the mercury test rockets

And america responds
With the mercury test rockets

And then
The apollo space missions.

But at a secret test facility
In yuma, arizona,

The engineers and scientists
Have a challenge.

Can they launch regular
Unmanned projectiles into space

At a fraction of nasa's costs?

I had absolutely no idea

That space technology
Was anything

But the cutting edge of rockets
Sent up into space,

But the cutting edge of rockets
Sent up into space,

But apparently not.

Apparently, you can revert

Right back to technology
That is centuries old --

The gun.

Just get a huge charge
And fire it straight up.

Using guns to put something
Into orbit isn't a silly idea.

In fact, it's quite
A cheap and reliable method,

Potentially,
To put something into orbit.

These were the early days
Of the space era.

Technology was moving out
Of the second world war

Technology was moving out
Of the second world war

And finding its use
In a completely new frontier,

And you don't necessarily know
What's going to work,

So it's much better to have

The two approaches
Funded simultaneously --

Your rockets and your big guns.

Narrator:
This is the h.A.R.P. Super gun,

And its target isn't on earth.

It's the edge of our atmosphere.

But why would
The u.S. Department of defense,

With the help of canada,

Use such a huge gun to launch
A projectile into space?

Use such a huge gun to launch
A projectile into space?

Archer: if you want to know
Conditions up in space

Before you send
A very expensive rocket,

Then you can fire
Cheap sensors up,

Find out a bit about
What is going on

Directly above where you're
Going to fire this big rocket.

Then you're going to get some
Really valuable data, surely.

Gough: it was a win-win.

Sure, you're going to gather

All this information
About the upper atmosphere.

Great.

But you're also going to gain
A strategic military advantage

But you're also going to gain
A strategic military advantage

'cause now you're going to learn
About how you can

Launch missiles across the world
At your enemy.

So that's what they were
Really interested in.

Narrator: the h.A.R.P. Super gun
Is the brainchild

Of a canadian-american
Ballistics expert

Named dr. Gerald bull.

His aim is to make gun-fired,
Low-cost space flight a reality.

But could he make
This ambitious project work?

You look at what he was doing --
Very much the engineer,

You look at what he was doing --
Very much the engineer,

Very much the scientist,
Always testing.

When he began thinking
Of gun-launched technology

For suborbital
Or orbital launches,

There were a lot of people

That made jules verne jokes
About him.

There were others that said,

"Well, even if you could
Do that, it's worthless

Unless you have some kind
Of a telemetry package on it

Transmitting data
Back to earth."

Green: he had this idea

That super guns were the way
To get cheap access into space,

And a huge amount was learned
Through that program.

And a huge amount was learned
Through that program.

Narrator:
The target for the super gun
Is the ionosphere,

A layer
Of electrically charged air

That lies on
The edge of the atmosphere,

40 miles above the earth.

But to reach that height,
Can bull and his engineers

Construct the most powerful gun
Ever built?

Shilders: program picked up
Two 16-inch naval barrels

Almost 69 feet long,

Almost 69 feet long,

And one was 50 foot long,
Approximately,

And they're welded in the center

And braced with
A superstructure around it.

Where the big bolts are,
Right back here to the rear,

That's where the two pieces
Were joined together and welded.

They built this superstructure
To stiffen,

To keep them from coming apart,

Plus give it strength
When you're up vertical

'cause when you fire a gun
Like that,

You might get a little whip
And things like that,

And you definitely
Don't want any tube droop

Or anything of that nature.

Or anything of that nature.

Narrator: after multiple years
Of development,

Bull and his engineers first
Test the h.A.R.P. Super gun

On the island of barbados
In the caribbean

In the early '60s.

Positioned just north
Of the equator,

It allows projectiles to be
Launched into the atmosphere

And then recovered from the sea.

The super gun is designed
To fire up into the sky

At an angle of 85 degrees.

But the velocity of the launch
Has a significant impact

But the velocity of the launch
Has a significant impact

On the surrounding community.

Marshal: there were more than
2,000 firings of this gun

In the period from 1962
Onward into the '70s.

That is quite a lot
Of sonic boom.

And it was a heavy boom.

Barbadians felt this boom
From here

Up to almost
The top of the island.

The reverberations
Were terrible.

Houses were shaken
To the foundations,

Houses were shaken
To the foundations,

And quite a few cracks in houses
Were reported.

Barbadians felt generally

That this was
All to the good of the island.

It seemed as though
It would project barbados

Into the stratosphere
Of world prestige.

Narrator:
But this ambitious project

Has other,
Significant disadvantages.

As well as advantages
Of using a giant gun,

There are drawbacks, as well.

So, to get something
To the speed

So, to get something
To the speed

That you need to get it
High up in altitude,

You have to accelerate it
Very fast,

And your objects may not be able
To withstand the forces,

The g-forces,
That are experienced,

And then there's also an issue
Of mass, as well,

Because you can't launch
Particularly heavy things

Using this kind of technique,

So you're limited
To small objects.

Narrator:
Will the h.A.R.P. Super gun

Actually send a successful
Projectile into space?

And why was it abandoned?

And why was it abandoned?

*

Narrator: in the barren deserts
Of arizona,

The so-called h.A.R.P. Super gun

Is an unexpected marvel
Of american space engineering.

Built in 1961,

The same year the soviets
Got the first human into orbit,

Its ambitious aim is to launch
Nonman payloads into space

At a fraction of the cost

Of nasa's
Mercury and apollo programs.

Of nasa's
Mercury and apollo programs.

But how will this project

Actually collect
Vital information

On space flight
And the ionosphere?

And will it actually work?

To get something up into space,

Apparently, it doesn't need
To be rocket science.

It can be
So much simpler than that,

As we see with the h.A.R.P. Gun.

It's almost primitive technology

That's just been ramped up
To as big as it possibly can

That's just been ramped up
To as big as it possibly can

To fire a projectile
111 miles straight up.

Narrator:
The projectile in question
Is something called a martlet,

A revolutionary
Dart-shaped missile

That is encased
In the firing tube

With a tight wooden ring
Called the sabot.

Hadner: the martlet
Was an aerodynamic shape.

Think of it
As a large dart with fins.

So, the idea of the sabot

Is to fill the void
Of the cylinder of the tube.

Is to fill the void
Of the cylinder of the tube.

In this case, they used plywood,
Each third called a pedal,

And the gases would then exert,
Push this thing out the barrel.

Then the pedals would fall away,

And you would then have
This very aerodynamic shape

With, within the nose cone,
A telemetry package,

And in the aft end, the ability
To eject certain materials,

Depending on what your test was.

There is some detailed
Engineering going on here,

But what I love about it is,
It's primitive technology

With modern engineering
Applied to it

With modern engineering
Applied to it

To achieve something
That's record-breaking --

Firing that projectile
That high up.

Narrator: huge amounts
Of propellant are needed

To blast the martlets

Higher into the ionosphere
Than ever before.

Every firing
Generates colossal forces

Within the super gun itself,

And with that
Comes real dangers.

You can see the massive size
Of this breach

You can see the massive size
Of this breach

In the interrupted screw design
That would allow it to lock in.

There's just the length of it.

It just shows you
The mass of this breach

To be able to handle
Those charges and pressures

That they're firing.

They were looking at pressures
Psi around 50,000, I think,

With some of the testing.

You need to think
About the materials,

The size of the explosion

Through the propellant
That you're going to use.

You need to make sure

The recoil's not going to
Just tear the gun apart,

And that you've got a barrel
That's long enough

And that you've got a barrel
That's long enough

To project something
That far up.

There's a lot that goes into it,

And there's a lot
Of thought and design

That goes into achieving this,

But at the heart of it,

It's still
Very primitive engineering,

And I love that.

Narrator:
On the 18th of november 1966,
In arizona,

The h.A.R.P. Super gun
Fires a martlet

Traveling at 7,000 feet
Per second,

Traveling at 7,000 feet
Per second,

111 miles into space --

A record that still stands
To this very day,

And using telemetry,

The martlets successfully gather
Critical information

About space flight
And global surveillance.

But because of souring relations

Between canada
And the united states

Over the vietnam war,

The h.A.R.P. Program ends
In 1966.

And today,
The guns sit abandoned --

A potent reminder of both
The dangers of the space race

And our eternal quest
For the stars.

The future of space exploration
May well be dependent

On billions of dollars' worth
Of investment

Into technologies that we don't
Even know about yet.

I'm not saying you're going to
Get a man on mars

By firing him out of a gun
All the way up.

That's not going to happen.

But if you're talking about
Getting payloads and objects

But if you're talking about
Getting payloads and objects

Into low earth orbit,

Which could then be assembled
As part of a project

To then go off further in space

More than
We ever have done before...

And it just makes me smile,
The thought of that,

That you could have
This combination of technologies

And of engineering eras

That come together
To give us something that is,

Well, at the moment,
Out of this world.

*

Narrator:
6,000 miles away,

Off the southwest coast
Of japan,

Near the port of nagasaki

Is a most mysterious place.

*

Out in the east china sea,
This abandoned 16-acre island

Is 550 feet wide
And just over 1,600 feet long --

The length
Of only four football fields.

The length
Of only four football fields.

But it has the remains
Of dozens of buildings

And housed 5,500 people.

This island represents

One of the greatest
Engineering achievements

Of the 20th century.

Incredibly,
It's almost entirely man-made,

Constructed from reclaimed land.

Reclaimed land is actually
A massive engineering challenge

Because you're working
With water, which moves.

The levels come up and down.

The levels come up and down.

It can be quite acidic,
Quite salty.

It corrodes man-made materials
Quite easily.

And then
What you're trying to do

Is bring stacks of new material

And pile it up
Within this movable medium

And create
A solid, stable structure

That you can then
Live and work in

And build huge buildings on.

Gough: it was not called
The island without green

For no good reason.

It's one of the most
Claustrophobic places on earth.

It's one of the most
Claustrophobic places on earth.

Over 5,000 people lived
In a really tiny community,

But the funny thing is,
They got used to it.

And when they went
Onto the mainland,

They felt uncomfortable.

But tourists go there today,

And they tell me
They can't wait to leave.

Narrator:
But how did this tiny island

Become the most crowded
Working environment

On the planet?

And why was it abandoned?

1890, hashima island.

1890, hashima island.

From this half-an-acre island,

Japanese engineers are trying
To tap a massive coal vein

650 feet under the seabed.

They drill a deep shaft down
To reach the coal deposits,

And it works.

Over the course
Of the next eight decades,

Japanese energy demands
Increase dramatically.

They eventually mine coal over
Half a mile beneath the sea.

They eventually mine coal over
Half a mile beneath the sea.

To meet these demands,

Engineers expand the island
To 16 acres by the 1970s.

But one thing is constant --

The working conditions
Are unbearable.

[ kobata speaking japanese ]

Interpreter: it was
A really dangerous place.

Stones often fell
From the ceiling.

It was like doing hard labor
In a steam bath.

Narrator: how was this island
Built to sustain

Narrator: how was this island
Built to sustain

The millions of tons of coal
Extracted?

And why was this marvel

Of modern commercial engineering
Abandoned?

*

Narrator:
Hashima island in japan is

One of the engineering marvels
Of the modern world.

At its peak in the early 1970s,
This tiny 16-acre island

Produces nearly half a million
Tons of coal a year.

The mine runs continuously

For 365 days a year,
24 hours a day,

With over 5,000 workers
Sharing three shifts.

With over 5,000 workers
Sharing three shifts.

It's hot, crowded, noisy,
And heavily polluted.

The increasing number of workers
Who come to live and work here

Puts space on the island
At a premium.

And that poses
Another significant problem.

Agrawal:
I think hashima is an incredible
Engineering achievement.

You're talking about digging
A 200-meter-deep mine in the sea

You're talking about digging
A 200-meter-deep mine in the sea

Next to
This tiny, little island.

And you think about
"Well, fine, I've got this mine,

And I've got all this material
Coming up,

But where am I going to send it?

Where am I going to store it?

There's no space
To actually position it."

So you have to think about
Conveying it out.

How far can the ships
Actually come to the island?

How are you gonna get
The material from
The island to the ship

And then the ship can sort of

Disseminate it
Back to the country?

It's an incredible
Logistical challenge

And, I think, something

That they seem to have done
Really, really well.

That they seem to have done
Really, really well.

What really strikes me
About the island hashima

Is that it's almost
This self-propagating entity.

The deeper you go
Into the mine,

The more material
You're bringing up.

And to use that to backfill

And make your island
Slightly bigger

To maybe then house more miners
So you can go even deeper,

It kind of keeps going
'round and 'round.

Where does it stop?

Narrator: over the years,
The workforce grows massively.

Narrator: over the years,
The workforce grows massively.

And over time,
Engineers gradually increase

The massive concrete seawall
Surrounding the island

To protect it from the storms.

This makes hashima
Resemble a warship.

It's known locally
As gunkanjima,

Or "Battleship island."

[ kobata speaking japanese ]

Interpreter:
When I saw the island
From a ship for the first time,

I had a very strong impression

That the island
Does look like a battleship.

The first thing
I was surprised by

Was the reinforced-concrete
Buildings.

I didn't know much
About the island,

So I never even dreamt

About seeing so many tall,
Reinforced-concrete buildings

Everywhere on the island.

Narrator:
It's a master class in designing
And engineering with concrete.

It seems like reinforced
Concrete was almost designed

For something like building
On the small island at hashima.

You don't have much space
To move around

You don't have much space
To move around

And to bring in and have
Lots of stores of materials

That you're going to build,

So reinforced concrete's
Great for that.

You pour it where you want it --
Job done once it's set.

The other advantage
Of using it on hashima

Is that
It's pretty much fireproof.

You can't set fire
To reinforced concrete.

And when you're dealing with
A coal mine,

It's probably that material
You'd want best.

Narrator:
Though practical,

The rigid and imposing
Architecture of hashima island

The rigid and imposing
Architecture of hashima island

Affects the way people live.

[ speaking japanese ]

Interpreter: there were
So many people here --

So many people
That you couldn't believe it.

I lived in building 30

With my three
Other family members.

We shared one room
That we'd all live in together.

It was extremely small.

Interpreter:
There was no elevator at all
In these high-rise buildings,

So people moved about
Horizontally.

So people moved about
Horizontally.

There were lots of passageways.

They didn't need
To go downstairs

To go around
Apartment buildings.

They moved horizontally
Between apartments.

There was a kindergarten,

Elementary school,
Junior high school,

Hospital, pachinko parlor,

Hostess bar,
Barber, and a florist.

Considering that, you know,
80% of our populations

Considering that, you know,
80% of our populations

Are going to be living in cities
In the next few decades,

I think there's going to be
A lot more skyscrapers

And height
To fit all these people in.

And I always imagine there to be

These kind of futuristic
Air bridges joining buildings up

So that you don't need
To kind of go down

And then come up again.

And it's fascinating for me that
Hashima did this decades ago,

So I think that there's
A real interesting model there

For us to think about now.

Maybe there is
An element at hashima

Maybe there is
An element at hashima

That the kind of human factor
And well-being of everybody

And just having some space
To not be crowded,

Not feel so imposed upon.

Just not sure
That was ever considered.

All they wanted to do
Was make it functional.

Hashima was there
To be functional,

And outside of
Being efficient at work,

I'm not sure
Much more was thought about.

Narrator: the tight quarters
Especially affect the children.

Narrator: the tight quarters
Especially affect the children.

[ kobata speaking japanese ]

Interpreter:
Children used their imagination
To play here.

They played cards on the stairs,

Played marbles wherever
They could find tiny spaces.

The rooftops
Of all the buildings

Were their playgrounds.

[ kinoshita speaking japanese ]

Interpreter:
We thought carefully about how
To play baseball in our own way.

We used our brains a lot
To play on this island.

Narrator:
But with the 5,000 inhabitants
Adapting to life here

And with half a million tons
Of coal extracted each year,

Why is hashima island abandoned?

*

Narrator: by the 1970s,

The island of hashima's
Population

Grows to over 5,500 people --

All crammed into less than half
Of the 16-acre island,

Making hashima one of
The most densely populated areas

On the planet -- ever.

Bell:
Population density on hashima
Got to the point

Where it was double what
Civic engineers at that time

Where it was double what
Civic engineers at that time

Would have recommended
As being the maximum,

So, I mean, talk about crowded.

You might think you live quite
Close to your neighbors now.

That's nothing compared to what
It would have been at hashima.

Narrator:
In its 84-year history,

The hashima mine produces

An incredible
16.5 million tons of coal.

Its workers endure

Some of the hardest
Working conditions on earth.

[ kobata speaking japanese ]

Interpreter:
It was such hard work --
No days off --

Interpreter:
It was such hard work --
No days off --

So it's true to say

I wanted to leave the island
As soon as possible.

Narrator: but eventually,
Its coal deposits are exhausted,

And the mining operation closes
In 1974.

And when the island's heart
Stops, its community dies, too.

Today, hashima is abandoned.

Aside from occasional use
For movies,

Like james bond's "Skyfall,"

It's mostly left
To the mercy of the elements.

It's mostly left
To the mercy of the elements.

*

Approximately 6,000 miles away,
Across the pacific,

Is one of the most unusual
And brash transport projects

Ever undertaken.

In the middle
Of a 350-mile route

That runs between
San diego, california,

And phoenix, arizona,
Is a very unusual stretch.

And phoenix, arizona,
Is a very unusual stretch.

This road is made
Entirely out of wood.

Each plank used is 8 feet long

By 4 inches wide
And 1 inch deep,

And it runs for 6 1/2 miles,

Using thousands of wooden planks

Snaking through the shifting
Sands of the california desert.

It's a beautiful
Kind of american sheer audacity

Of taking on such a project.

"Yeah, why not?
Of course I'm going to do it.

"Yeah, why not?
Of course I'm going to do it.

Nothing's too much of a problem
For me.

A road through the desert?
Hell yeah."

Agrawal: deserts are
Very, very dynamic landscapes.

You've got wind,
You've got these sand dunes,

And when they interact
With each other,

It just completely changes
The surface.

Things move,
They get lower, they get higher.

So trying to build a road
On that

Seems like
A pretty crazy thing to do.

Bell: it's almost like
The simplest idea was the best.

We're dealing with fast-moving,
Shifting sand,

We're dealing with fast-moving,
Shifting sand,

And when you think about a road,
You think of it

As something solid,
Something that doesn't move.

With the sand
Continuously moving,

They needed something that was
Gonna be a little bit flexible.

It's a very simple idea,
But maybe it was that simplicity

Which actually meant
That it worked.

Narrator: why was
This incredible road made?

How great are the problems
That the engineers face?

And how does it end up
Being abandoned?

In 1912, los angeles
Is the final hub

Of america's
Transcontinental railroad.

But without any direct
Connecting routes to the east,

Nearby san diego risks becoming
An economic backwater

Blocked by an expanse of desert
Which is considered impassable.

But local businessman
Ed fletcher demands

That the southern california
Road network

Use san diego as its hub.

Ed fletcher is one of these
Great unsung american heroes.

Ed fletcher is one of these
Great unsung american heroes.

He takes the initiative,

He sees the challenge,
And he seizes it.

"Let's build a road
Across the desert."

"Oh, really?
How are you going to do that?

Wooden planks --
Is that the best idea?"

He does it anyway.

People think california
Is full of crazy people.

Well, you know what --
maybe they always were,

But you have to admire
That ambition.

Narrator: fletcher calls
His novel creation

Narrator: fletcher calls
His novel creation

"The plank road."

Bell: we're talking about
An engineering achievement here,

But it's planks
Laid out through the desert,

Which is the kind of solution
I might have come up with

As, like, a 7-year-old
Thinking about it.

But it's the fact
That they laid this out,

13,000 planks,

Laid one after the other
After the other after the other,

Which you might say, "Hang on.
That's just not possible."

For ed fletcher,
anything was possible.

Narrator:
What prevents each wooden plank

Narrator:
What prevents each wooden plank

From moving
In the shifting sands

Is the engineer's inclusion
Of the three metal rods.

Nailed into each plank,
They hold the planks together

Despite
Constantly moving terrain.

Amazingly,
Fletcher's improvised road

Is so successful
That in 1915, it's incorporated

Into california's
State highway system.

Bell:
If I'd picked up a map back then

And navigated my way
To san diego

And navigated my way
To san diego

And it happened to take in
The plank road,

To get there
And actually see literal planks

Forming the road,

I think I would have been
Extremely shocked.

It's not what you'd expect.

Agrawal: it's completely bizarre
And utterly surprising to me

That two planks of wood
In this moving sand desert

Can be part of a highway.

I mean, it's incredible.

Bell: despite its name,
The plank road wasn't a joke.

Bell: despite its name,
The plank road wasn't a joke.

It wasn't just a bunch of timber

Laid out rustically
In front of you.

There was thought
And process and design

That went into
Building the road,

Right down to the construction
Technique that they used.

Having a contraption
That was specifically made

To lay out each section
Of the road in front of it,

Which you could then
Roll the contraption onto

To lay down the next bit
In front of you,

It's kind of how tunnel-boring
Machines work nowadays.

It's kind of how tunnel-boring
Machines work nowadays.

But they weren't
Boring a tunnel.

They were building a wooden road
Through the desert.

Narrator:
For 10 years, the plank road
Is in constant use --

Not only by local traffic,

But also by tourists
Who come to enjoy

This incredibly bumpy ride
Across the desert.

Gough: fletcher's plank road
Becomes a success

Because it's a novelty.

It's the path less taken.

It's an adventure.
People want to drive on it.

It's an adventure.
People want to drive on it.

They know it's going to be
An experience,

And that's what it's all about.

It's sort of
The original thrill-seekers.

People would brag to each other.

"Have you been on
The plank road?

I have. It's amazing."

And everybody wanted to do it.

Narrator:
But with its popularity peaking,
Why is the plank road abandoned?

*

Narrator: the plank road

Out in the middle
Of the californian desert

Is one of the most daring

And extraordinary
Engineering projects

Of the early 20th century.

Made out of more than 13,000
Large wooden planks,

This popular but rugged road
Stretches nearly 7 miles

And forms the critical link
Of a 350-mile highway

And forms the critical link
Of a 350-mile highway

From san diego, california,
To phoenix, arizona.

But despite the iron railings
That hold the road in place,

The planks are still
Very susceptible to the wind

And the moving sands.

In 1926, san diego businessman
Ed fletcher

Replaces the wooden planks

With a professional
Asphalt surface

Built up on a sandbank.

Bell: analysis was done
On the moving sand,

Bell: analysis was done
On the moving sand,

And it was found
That the sands moved a lot more

When it was lower.

Anything that was
Raised up slightly

Was less susceptible
To the moving sands.

And so when the more permanent
Road was put in

With an asphalt surface,

That was put in
On a kind of raised bank,

Whereas the original plank road

Was right down
Where all the shifting sand was.

Narrator: with the new
Asphalt highway in place,

The plank road
Is sidelined in the desert.

The plank road
Is sidelined in the desert.

It slowly disappears
Under the sand

And is largely torn up
By scavengers

Wanting its timbers.

But ed fletcher shows
What can be done

With just a little imagination
And a lot of determination.

Bell:
I love the iterative process

The designers and engineers
Went through here,

From going from
The two parallel rows of planks

That you'd have to
Keep your wheels onto

To the continuous rows of planks

Just laid out in front of you
As a more solid structure.

Just laid out in front of you
As a more solid structure.

But you've still got planks.

It's not great big
Slabs of concrete.

Driving across that,
I'm sure in the kind of cars

That they would have been
Driving at the time,

It would have made
A heck of a racket

And would have been
Quite a bone-rattling ride.

I'm sure
You would have been relieved

To get to the end of it,
Whichever way you were going.

Narrator: today,
The plank road lies abandoned

Out in the california desert --

Out in the california desert --

A powerful but decaying reminder

Of humanity's
Unquenchable desire

To cross
This planet's vast expanses

To connect our cities.

*

On the opposite side
Of the planet,

On the southern coast
Of australia,

Is a sunken wreck
That was once

At the cutting edge
Of maritime technology.

It is 225 feet long
And 45 feet wide

It is 225 feet long
And 45 feet wide

And weighs 10,000 tons,

And it's made
Almost entirely out of iron --

Tons of iron.

Its 13 coal-fired steam boilers
Provide nearly 1,400 horsepower

Powered through
Two 13-feet-diameter propellers.

Four 10-inch guns are on board,
Each weighing 18 tons,

Four 10-inch guns are on board,
Each weighing 18 tons,

Which are fired from
Two huge solid-iron gun turrets.

Beauty of gun turrets

Is that you can rotate them
Pretty much 360 degrees,

So you can fire
In any direction.

One at the front,
One at the back of the ship,

You're good to go.

You can maneuver your firepower
Wherever you need it

Very, very quickly.

For me,
That's a revolutionary time

In the design of battleships

In the design of battleships

Because that design
With the two gun turrets,

One each end of the ship,

Lasted us then for --
Well, decades to come.

Narrator:
But who built this warship?

And why was it abandoned?

In 1870,
The crown colonies of australia

Are just under 100 years old.

As a fledgling state

Vying for its place
In the pacific ocean,

Australia faces
An imminent threat

Australia faces
An imminent threat

From a far bigger
And more established country --

Russia.

In the late 1870s, the russians
Actually had two plans

In case of war with britain.

One was to attack singapore.

The other was to attack
The australian ports.

So they would have attacked
Sydney, melbourne,

Then headed off and hid

In the west coast ports
Of america, which were neutral.

Narrator:
To defend its waters,

The australian government
Commissions

The most advanced warship
Of its time --

The most advanced warship
Of its time --

The hmvs cerberus.

David:
The willingness of people

In the state of victoria
In australia

To put their hands
In their pockets

To pay out for this warship

To protect themselves
Against russian attack

Sounds a bit nutty
On the surface,

But actually,
There was a good reason

Why they did that --
Because, in 1864,

The times reported that
the russian pacific
fleets

Were very much a danger

To shipping
Right across the pacific.

To shipping
Right across the pacific.

And therefore,
The purchase of the cerberus --

Which was way ahead of its time
In terms of military technology,

This ironclad
With quite powerful guns --

Would have played
A very practical purpose

To deter the russians.

Narrator: will the world's
Most powerful warship

Stem the looming threat
From russia?

And why is the cerberus
Now underwater?

*

Narrator: on the eastern coast
Of australia is a sunken wreck

That was once
At the cutting edge

Of design and technology.

Commissioned to defend
Against russian invasion

And with two huge
Solid-iron gun turrets,

Hmvs cerberus is one of the most
Formidable weapons ever built.

It's the forerunner
Of some of the 20th century's

Most powerful
And deadly battleships.

Most powerful
And deadly battleships.

The guns are
Absolutely enormous.

You can see the scale
Of the figure here.

They're about 18 tons each.

Wow.

About 20 men were inside this
In a wartime operation.

Two guns from this turret
In the water on the other side

And the two from the aft turret
On the seaboard.

Amazing bit
Of artillery.

Cerberus was the answer
To the american uss monitor,

A great improvement
In that she had

A great improvement
In that she had

A central superstructure
Known as the breastwork.

This enabled the turrets
To be raised

Well out of the harm's way
Of water flooding them,

Which is what had happened
To the uss monitor.

One of the advantages
Cerberus had

Was that she could take on
490 tons of water,

Thereby lowering her profile
And being a smaller target.

Bell: if you put yourself
In the shoes of a naval engineer

In the mid-19th century,

The challenges
You'd come up against

Would probably seem
Almost endless.

It's not just changing material
Of the hull from wood to iron.

It's not just changing material
Of the hull from wood to iron.

You've then got to think
About the armor.

And as you change your armor
on your ships,

Your opponents will be changing
their armor on their ships.

So then you need to think
About your firepower.

You need to be able
To pierce through their armor.

That's a whole new way
Of thinking.

Narrator: but australia faces
An even greater problem.

The hmvs cerberus
Is made in great britain,

And in 1870, getting this ship
To australia is no easy feat.

And in 1870, getting this ship
To australia is no easy feat.

This iron warship,

Primarily designed
To patrol shoreline waters,

Must sail
A whopping 10,000 miles.

To get it there,
They actually took out the guns

And shipped them over separately

And filled the turrets
With coal --

Coal in every available space
On this ship --

To try and make sure
They had enough fuel

To cover the 10,000 miles.

To cover the 10,000 miles.

But just in case
They didn't have enough,

What did they have on board

Just as a little bit
Of extra power?

Masts and sails, reverting back
To old technology.

Narrator: after nearly
Five grueling months at sea,

The 10,000-ton cerberus
Makes the epic journey

From england
To the far end of the world.

But it just goes to show
How impressive this ship was

And the engineers behind it.

And the engineers behind it.

The war and the battle
That they had to fight --

not against a human enemy,
but against a natural enemy --

To get that ship that far,

A ship
That was only really designed

Ever to be 30, 40 miles away
From a coastline,

It's an impressive feat.

Narrator:
The australians hope

This ironclad war-machine
Can defend its waters

From the threat
Of the great russian navy.

From the threat
Of the great russian navy.

For 50 years,

Hmvs cerberus valiantly guards
The australian shoreline.

And perhaps not unironically,
The russians don't invade.

Cerberus, like
The nuclear deterrent today,

Worked very well.

The russians never came,
Peace was preserved,

Port phillip head
Was never bombarded.

Bell: in her day,

Cerberus was one of the most
Powerful warships out there.

It could easily have taken care
Of her contemporaries.

As it happened, she never
Had to fire her guns in anger

As it happened, she never
Had to fire her guns in anger

Because the pace of technology
Picked up so quickly,

The design of battleships
Moved on enormously

Within a couple of decades.

You would never have got to
Where that naval technology went

Without the design
And engineering

That went into
Designing cerberus.

She was part
Of that iterative process

To get to
The world war I battleships.

Narrator: by 1918, at the end
Of the first world war,

Narrator: by 1918, at the end
Of the first world war,

Cerberus has still never
Fired her guns in battle.

As more advanced battleships
Emerge, she is no longer needed.

So, what can you do

With 10,000 tons
Of floating iron and steel?

The australians sink it

And turn it into
A coastal breakwater

To protect the harbor.

Smith: cerberus was lucky
That it survived

Because it had been mothballed

In the port of melbourne
For many years,

And that saved it, really.

And that saved it, really.

And then the opportunity came

To sink the vessel here
As a breakwater.

The defender of the harbor

Became the defender
Of the coastline.

For me, cerberus is
So much more now

Than a rustbucket
Being dumped out at sea.

It marks the very start
Of victorian engineering

And the industrial revolution
Being applied at sea

In a military sense.

All that knowledge
And skill and drive

That the industrial revolution
Had on our shores,

That the industrial revolution
Had on our shores,

The metal-rolling,
Development of steam technology,

All in one place

That we ruled the waves with
For decades and decades to come.

And cerberus, then, now,
Is a reminder of that.