All language subtitles for Combat Ships - S03E07 - Fast and Furious WEBDL-1080p x265 EAC3 5.1 [EN] [EN] MrPanda_track3_[eng]

[upbeat music]

[narrator] This time
on "Combat Ships."

The need for speed.

[upbeat music]

Stories of the fast
and the furious.

[Stephen] What we really needed
was a fast boat

that was suitably armed
with lightweight guns,

to be able to attack
these enemy vessels.

[upbeat music]

[narrator]
Game-changing technology

allowed ships to travel faster

and changed naval
warfare forever.

[Carolyn] And there were
accounts in the press

of almost flames coming
out of her funnels,

of her bow coming
out of the water

because she was going so fast.

[upbeat music]

[narrator]
With a high-tech weapon

and speed on its side

a small boat could
sink a giant.

-[bomb exploding]
-[upbeat music]

[Vince] So that was the very
first major warship

sunk by a torpedo boat.

And when it happened it caught
the attention of the world.

-[bomb exploding]
-[upbeat music]

[narrator] If you're
not big and powerful,

you'd better be
fast and furious.

[bomb exploding]

[upbeat music]

Combat ships, fast, effective.

His orders were to find the
British and to pick a fight.

[narrator] Going right to
the heart of the battle.

The Marines have always
thought of themselves

at the spear point of
United States Military power.

Their whole doctrine of combat
was to go fast, hit hard,

-get it over with in a hurry.
-[gun firing]

[narrator] Combat ships
have changed the world.

She gained her freedom.

Now she's going down
a river with an army.

She was like,
"We're about to show you

"what we're working with."

[narrator]
Thanks to clever design,

raw fire power and the
heroism of their crews.

[guns firing]

The rule of thumb
on a frigate is,

you can lose two
spaces and stay afloat.

But if you lose a third,

you go to Davie Jones'
locker in a hurry.

[bombs exploding]

[upbeat music]

[bombs exploding]

[upbeat music]

[narrator]
In naval combat,

speed has always given
the edge.

Speed is a vital factor in
giving a ship superiority.

In the old days of sail,
you had the weather gauge,

you had the wind behind you.

If you can go faster
than the enemy,

you can outmaneuver him.

So speed is absolutely vital.

[gentle music]

[narrator]
Then, in the mid 1800s

ships traded their
sails for engines.

[Vince] The technology
revolution that took place

in the last half of the 19th
century is unprecedented.

When you think that the
people we're going to sea

and going to fight in ships

that basically hadn't changed

for several hundred years.

And I think
propulsion is probably

the most important aspect
of that revolution.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] No longer
reliant on the wind,

ships moved in any
direction with ease.

[upbeat music]

Now the race was on

to build better engines

and faster combat ships.

[upbeat music]

In 1897 a breakthrough
in technology

saw one vessel rocket its
way into the record books

as the fastest
ship in the world.

-[upbeat music]
-The Turbinia.

[Carolyn] And she was
built for speed.

It's fair to say, it
was very revolutionary.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The Turbinia
was the brainchild

of British engineer
Charles Parsons,

a man fascinated by
naval technology.

[gentle music]

In 1884 he invented the
modern steam turbine engine.

It was much more efficient
than previous steam engines.

[upbeat music]

The turbine worked
by feeding steam

through a series of
carefully designed blades.

After pushing at a
set of moving blades

the steam was directed
through stationary blades

allowing it push the next set.

Repeated over and over,

it maximized the
energy of the steam.

The blades turned a shaft
which provided rotary motion.

[upbeat music]

Previously engines used pistons
to create this rotary motion

but their multiple moving
parts wasted energy and speed.

Parsons' design
was revolutionary.

[Carolyn] What he was able to
demonstrate was that

by completely rethinking
the design of the turbine,

he could achieve a
speed of revolution

that was unheard of before.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] It was
perfect for ships

which needed rotary power

to turn blades to
propel them forward.

Parsons believed his invention
could change the world.

But how to prove it?

[Carolyn] He needed to be
able to demonstrate

that steam turbines worked,

and what better way to do that

than to create a ship
that was built for speed

and that would
demonstrate the efficiency

of what he was proposing?

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] In 1894
Parsons began work

on a ship he named after
his invention, Turbinia.

[gentle music]

Parsons installed
his new engine

and put Turbinia
through her paces.

Relentless testing followed.

He constantly
improved her design,

using nine propellers
instead of one.

He did lots and lots
of experimentation

up and down the River Tyne

and occasionally out on
the North Sea as well,

just to make sure
that the turbine

was doing what he
thought it should.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] By June
1897 Parsons was ready

to present his
creation to the world.

He planned the most audacious
PR stunt in naval history.

[gentle upbeat music]

His audience was the
famous Spithead Review,

the largest collection of
Combat Ships in the world.

[Carolyn]
The Spithead Review was

Queen Victoria's
Diamond Jubilee.

[gentle upbeat music]

There were 140 Royal
Navy ships present.

It took something like
25 miles of the sea

between the Isle of
Wight and Portsmouth.

[narrator]
Watching the spectacle

were members of the
British Royal Family

and dozens of admirals,
Lords and Ladies.

After 12 months of
careful planning,

it was running like clockwork.

And Turbinia gate crashed.

[upbeat music]

And showboated.

And achieved speeds
of 34, 35 knots.

[narrator]
She was twice as fast

as most Royal Navy ships.

[upbeat music]

The age of sail was over.

-The combat future had arrived.
-[upbeat music]

Patrol boats gave chase

to keep Turbinia's
showboating in check,

they didn't have a chance.

[upbeat music]

[Carolyn] It must have been
quite a hair-raising

sight for people.

And there were
accounts in the press

of almost flames coming
out of her funnels,

of her bow coming
out of the water

because she was going so fast.

[narrator] The
daring stunt worked.

[upbeat music]

She was the fastest
boat in the world,

and now everybody knew it.

And more important,
the Navy were impressed

with what they saw.

What she demonstrated without
doubt at Spithead Review

was this was the future
of the Royal Navy.

[Eric] Ships could now
maneuver at much faster rates

and the old days of the
reciprocating engine ships

chugging around and
possibly breaking down

became a thing of the past.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The British
built hundreds of

new turbine-driven
combat ships.

One survives from that
revolutionary era,

the fast light
cruiser HMS Caroline.

[upbeat music]

[Victoria]
Caroline is still fitted

with her 1914 state-of-the-art
Parsons turbines.

These turbines enabled
Caroline to achieve a speed

of up to 30 knots,

which was essential
for completing

one of her key roles,

namely to cruise ahead
of the main battle fleet.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Turbine-powered
combat ships

sparked an arms
race with Germany.

[upbeat music]

In May 1916, the British
and German fleets

clashed at the
Battle of Jutland

off the coast of Denmark.

[bombs exploding]

It was a bloody conflict.

25 ships were sunk and 9,000
men were killed.

[upbeat music]

Both sides claimed victory.

Fast, nimble cruisers
like HMS Caroline

saw the bulk of
the furious action.

Robert Parsons, the inventor

of Caroline's
turbine engine was right,

his invention did
change naval history.

[upbeat music]

Combat ships were
never the same again.

[upbeat music]

In the first World War,
cruisers like HMS Caroline

-faced a new and lethal threat.
-[upbeat music]

A fast and furious combat ship

armed with a terrifying weapon.

[upbeat music]

The motor torpedo boat.

[bomb exploding]

[gentle music]

June 10th 1918,

the Austro-Hungarian battleship
Szent Istvan is in trouble.

Its sister-ship is
powerless to help

and can only capture the
remarkable scene on camera.

[gentle music]

Order holds as the crew
turns the guns to port

try to balance
the listing vessel.

It's too late.

Chaos breaks out as a
thousand men abandon ship.

The Szent Istvan capsizes.

[gentle upbeat music]

The massive warship
was no match

for the Italian Navy's new
type of fast combat ship,

-the motor torpedo boat.
-[gentle upbeat music]

[Vince] So that was the very
first major warship

sunk by a motor torpedo boat.

And when it happened it caught
the attention of the world.

[narrator] The invention of
the self-propelled torpedo

was a game changer.

[Vince] The torpedo was
a decisive weapon

in many respects

because it gave
the smallest ships

the ability to harm
the largest ships.

[bomb exploding]

Prior to the torpedo,
the only thing

that a line of battleship
needed to fear

was another line of battleship.

[narrator] A new
generation of small craft

could now go toe to toe with
the mightiest combat ship.

[gentle upbeat music]

In World War I, the Italians
were torpedo boat pioneers

with vessels like
the agile MAS 15,

armed with two torpedoes
and an anti-aircraft gun.

[upbeat music]

[man speaks
in foreign language]

[Interpreter] "From
a tactical viewpoint,

"speed allowed these vessels

"to develop hit
and run tactics."

[speaks in foreign language]

"This basically consisted of
approaching the enemy targets,

"at night, in groups of two,

"then infiltrating
the enemy units,

"and once within
striking distance,

"which sometimes was
less than 100 meters,

"they would launch
their torpedoes

"and then escape at high speed,

"zigzagging to avoid
being hit."

[speaks in foreign language]

[upbeat music]

[narrator] By World War II,

fast torpedo boats
were a popular choice

with all the major navies.

[Duncan] The British had them.

The British had a plethora
of different types.

The Americans have patrol
torpedo boats, PT boats.

The Germans have their S-boats.

The Japanese have
torpedo boats as well.

Everybody uses them.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The new breed
of motor torpedo boats

was faster and more furious

than their
World War I predecessors.

More powerful internal
combustion engines

gave them greater speed.

Slim metal frames
kept them light.

The Nazis version was
particularly fearsome.

The Schnellboots, or S-boats

was first successfully
trialed in the late 1920s.

When war broke out,
they fitted them

with torpedoes on the bow

and they had a pre-prepared
ready strike-force

to attack enemy vessels.

The S-boats were very
fast capable of traveling

at more than 40 knots and
could out run most warships.

[narrator] The Italians
who had helped pioneer

this combat vessel
lagged behind.

Their torpedo boats
were old and unreliable.

Then their Axis partner
Germany came to their aid.

The Italian Navy got
their hands

on six fast S-boats and
made their own version,

the MS Class.

[upbeat music]

Powered by triple
18-cylinder gasoline engines,

and with a sturdy
wooden and steel hull,

the MS was built
like a speedboat.

-It delivered a potent punch.
-[upbeat music]

[man speaks in
foreign language]

[Interpreter] "The motor
torpedo boats were armed with

two 20/65
anti-aircraft cannons,

"one forward and one aft,

"and two more 6.5 mm
anti-aircraft cannons."

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The MS boats
operated in the Mediterranean,

a key World War II combat zone,

bordering Southern
Europe and North Africa.

[gentle upbeat music]

The Italian's favorite
hunting grounds

were naval choke points,
like the Straits of Sicily,

a main route to the
Allied base of Malta.

[gentle upbeat music]

By 1942 the island
was the Allies' only

Surviving strong hold
in the central Mediterranean,

-starved of food and supplies.
-[gentle upbeat music]

[Duncan] Malta was an
island besieged by the Axis.

And the only way it could
be supplied was by sea.

[narrator]
In early August 1942

the Allies launched
Operation Pedestal,

a huge convoy with over
80 ships, to resupply Malta.

[Duncan] Operation
Pedestal was huge.

Aircraft carriers,
battleships, light cruisers,

dozens of destroyers,

all to get 14 merchant ships
from Gibraltar to Malta.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] By August 11th, the
convoy was north of Algiers.

The Axis powers pounced.

[Duncan] They throw everything
at this convoy,

submarines, aircraft, mines,

everything they can to stop
this convoy getting through.

[guns firing]

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The British lost
a carrier and a cruiser.

But the convoy pressed on.

Just after midnight
it was almost home.

[upbeat music]

But a group of Italian MS
torpedo boats

still lay in wait.

It was time for the fast
and furious to strike.

[upbeat music]

The torpedo boats headed
for the light cruiser,

HMS Manchester.

[upbeat music]

The British fired their 6-inch
guns, but aiming at a boat

traveling at almost 40 miles
per hour was impossible.

And the Manchester's
smaller guns

couldn't fire low enough
to hit the torpedo boats.

Desperately, the British
tried to steer out of trouble.

[man speaks
in foreign language]

[Interpreter] "The cruiser
Manchester maneuvered

"and managed to avoid two
out of the three torpedoes,

"but the third struck
the stern,

"hitting an
ammunition magazine."

[speaks in foreign language]

[gentle music]

[narrator] The Manchester
was hit at point blank range.

Its rudder jammed and
its engine room flooded.

13 men were killed
by scalding steam.

To prevent the
Manchester's capture,

the captain scuttled the ship.

It was the biggest
combat vessel

sunk by torpedo boats
in World War II.

Operation Pedestal's
convoy got through

but the cost was high.

Nine merchant ships and
four combat ships went down.

[gentle music]

The British were
also vulnerable

to attack closer to home.

But in the English Channel

they had their own
high-speed torpedo boat

that could pack a punch.

[bomb exploding]

[gentle upbeat music]

It wasn't only in
the Mediterranean

that the Allies had
to face the menace

of fast torpedo boats.

[upbeat music]

The MS Boats' German
cousins the Schnellboots

were also wreaking havoc
in the English Channel.

[bombs exploding]

It was the perfect
hunting ground.

[upbeat music]

Britain depended on
hundreds of coastal convoys

that sailed from port to port.

[Stephen] During the second
World War, the Kriegsmarine,

the German Navy, began deploying
its fleet of Schnellboots

or S-boats along the Dutch
and Belgium and French coasts.

And these small fast vessels

were able to attack
our channel convoys,

which were vital
to the war effort,

carrying vast numbers
of stores and supplies

along the coast of England.

[bomb exploding]

The Schnellboots were able
to attack these convoys

by crossing the North Sea or
the English Channel at night,

and lying in wait
for these convoys.

[upbeat music]

[Vince] The British needed
a response to this.

Destroyers are a good response.

But the trouble here
again is the destroyer

is a large, expensive and
very valuable weapon system.

And so you're taking a
very precious warship

and you're using it to
counter expendable warships,

you know, ships that
are 1/10 the size.

What we really needed
was a fast boat

that was suitably armed
with lightweight guns,

to be able to attack
these enemy vessels.

[upbeat music]

[fire raging]

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The
Royal Navy's answer

was the Motor Gun Boat or MGB.

[upbeat music]

This is a veteran of
World War II, MGB 81.

[upbeat music]

[Stephen] As the name suggests,

the motor gunboats
primary armament was guns.

And these were actually
mainly requisitioned

anti-aircraft guns.

On the bow
was a 40 millimeter,

two pound,
a pom-pom gun.

[gun firing]

[narrator] It was a
fully automatic gun,

named after the
sound it made firing.

[gun firing]

[upbeat music]

[Stephen] At the stern,

you had two Oerlikon
20 millimeter guns

and the power to turret.

Again, these were anti-aircraft
weapons for small ships,

but in an anti-shipping role
for attacking enemy vessels

of a similar size, they
were very effective guns

that could penetrate armored
hulls and armored bridges.

[narrator] There were also
two Lewis machine guns,

useful for sweeping the
decks of an enemy vessel.

[upbeat music]

-[gun firing]
-[upbeat music]

And the final bit of
armament for a motor gunboat,

were two depth charges,

which could be dropped just
ahead of an enemy vessel

with the hope of exploding
just beneath its keel

and maybe breaking the
back of the enemy ship.

-[upbeat music]
-[bombs exploding]

[narrator] To take
on the Nazi S-boats,

the MGB had to
match their speed.

They did, with a little help
from across the pond.

[Diggory] The power plant which
was three Packard engines,

which kind of they were
a US-designed engine,

coupled with the hull
shape and the lightweight

resulted in very,
very high speeds.

[narrator] S-boats were
hard to locate and destroy.

They operated at night to avoid
being attacked by the RAF.

[upbeat music]

To find them the MGBs
would turn the tables

and lie in wait for the S-Boats

close to their many bases
along the coast of Europe.

[upbeat music]

When their paths crossed,

engines revved and guns blazed.

[guns firing]

[Diggory] A battle between
S-boats and MGBs was chaotic

to say the least.
There was no order of battle,

there was no
predetermined plan.

It would be very brief and
it would be utter chaos.

[bombs exploding]

[narrator] Robert Hitchens,
an MGB commander

and one of the heroes of the
British Costal Forces wrote,

"It is hard to describe

the confusion of
such an engagement.

"The brilliant stream
of light from tracer

"criss-crossing like
comets in every direction.

"The nearby ear-splitting
crack of our own guns,

"blending into the
more distant gunfire

"and roar of the engines."

[Diggory]
The ethos of these boats

were very much sort
of go and get 'em.

The speed gave them the
opportunity to get into trouble,

get out of trouble again.

They were the
naughty boys of the Channel.

[narrator] The daring
raids of the MGB crews

earned them the nickname,
Spitfires of the Sea.

An answer to
the dreaded S-boats.

[Diggory]
Prior to them, the S-boat

had not really
encountered anything

with the same sort of
speed or maneuverability

and the motor gunboat
was an adversary

that could compete with
the S-boat on its own terms.

[narrator]
By the spring of 1944,

the Spitfires of the Sea
were needed more than ever.

D-Day approached.

[bombs exploding]

[soldiers speaking
indistinctly]

[gentle music]

By the spring of 1944,
a vast Allied invasion force

had assembled along the
South Coast of England.

[Stephen] All of our ports
were becoming clogged

with all manner of convoys
carrying supplies and troops

to various different locations

and of course, hundreds
of landing craft.

[narrator] Flotillas
of fast German S-boats

tried to disrupt the convoys,

but the British were
ready and waiting.

[gentle upbeat music]

On the night of April 21st,

MGB-81 now renamed MTB 416

was on patrol with
another vessel in Lyme Bay

off the South Coast of England.

What happened next
made history.

They positioned themselves
in the middle of Lyme Bay

-and then cut their engines.
-[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] But instead
of having to guess

where the enemy might be,

the British boats had an
ace up their sleeve, radar.

[Stephen]
Back on the shore, there was a

coastal forces controller,

who operated the radar
and was then able

to pass the positions
of enemy forces

to the boats out at sea.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator]
The two MTBs made their way

towards the targets.

At 1:34am, they spotted a
column of five German S-boats.

[Stephen] As they accelerated
to attack speed

and signaled, tally ho,

they fired on the
two of the S-boats

at the back of this column

and were then able to
attempt to sweep between them

and the forward three boats.

As they did so,
enemy fire hit 416

and she was forced to veer
away with damage in her bow.

A hole this size is
incredibly dangerous

because it can let a
large amount of water

into the vessel and
being at the front,

it could very easily
threaten to swamp it.

But by maintaining
a very high speed

and lifting the bow
out of the water,

the boat could continue
to skim across the surface

and prevent water from being
able to get inside the vessel.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] One German
S-boat was ablaze.

[gentle upbeat music]

Meanwhile MTB 414
chased and fired

at the front three
S-boats who fled.

[gentle upbeat music]

The British crews were elated,

they had destroyed one
S-boat and chased away four.

With hi-tech help.

[Stephen] This action,
on the night of

the 21st and 22nd of April,

was incredibly significant

because it was the
very first time

that a successful
interception of enemy vessels

was made using
shore-based radar.

And this really
was a game changer

in terms of how coastal
forces would operate.

[narrator] Speed and radar
proved a winning combination.

[gentle music]

S-boat attacks continued,

but armed with
this new technology

the British gunboats
made sure the Germans

had little success.

The D-Day fleet was secure.

[gentle music]

The Nazis knew an
invasion was imminent.

They had a problem.

How could they successfully
defend their European fortress?

[gentle upbeat music]

[Vince] The situation facing the
Germans in 1944 was not good.

They had a big naval problem
and they didn't have

the resources
to solve that problem.

The problem being how
to keep the allies

off the shores of Europe.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator]
The Germans had no way

to replenish their
diminishing navy.

[bomb exploding]

They turned to a new type

of small, fast craft for help.

[gentle upbeat music]

[Craig]
If you're truly desperate

and things look
dark on the horizon,

one of the options is to go to,

essentially sacrificial
naval warfare.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] Instead of having
a vessel fire torpedoes,

the vessel was the torpedo.

It was called the Linse boat.

[upbeat music]

[boat engine revving]

[bomb exploding]

[upbeat music]

[Duncan] They weren't
quite suicide craft,

but I think you would
have needed to be

a very, very brave individual

or someone who had absolutely
no choice in the matter

to use one of these things.

[upbeat music]

[boat engines revving]

[gentle music]

[narrator] The method
of attack was fast,

furious and dangerous.

You had the boat with
the explosive in,

and a pilot who would
approach a target ship

as slowly as possible

so that he could
remain undetected

until the very last minute

when he would
accelerate to full speed

and put his boat on
a collision course.

He then jumps off and
hopes he doesn't drown.

At that point, the
second boat takes over,

and using a shortwave
radio control system,

attempts to steer the boat,
packed with explosives,

that's currently running at
high speed, into the target.

[boat engine revving]

[bomb exploding]

It's not easily achieved.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] The idea was
to create a guided weapon

more accurate and harder
to evade than torpedoes

which, once fired, traveled
in a predictable straight line

and left a tell-tale wake.

-[upbeat music]
-[bomb exploding]

[upbeat music]

Germany's ally Italy
had their own version,

-already tested in battle.
-[upbeat music]

The Motoscafo da Turismo

or MT Boat.

[upbeat music]

These fast boats had in
operation since 1941,

piloted by frogmen from
Italy's elite commandos.

The MTs attacked in
packs of four or six.

[man speaks
in foreign language]

[Interpreter] "When
the target was spotted,

"the pilots pushed the
engine to maximum speed,

"until they were about
50 to 100 meters away."

[boat engine revving]

[narrator] Then the
pilot jumped ship.

[man speaks
in foreign language]

[Interpreter] "Because they were
so close to the target,

"only about 50 meters,

"this required a lot of courage

and bravery from the pilot,

"as well as
excellent training."

[narrator] An explosion
under the waterline

causes greater
damage to any ship.

The MT boat deliberately broke
apart when it hit the target,

releasing its main
explosive charge.

[bomb exploding]

If the target ship was
protected by torpedo nets,

the MTs had a trick
up their sleeve,

an adjustable propeller that
let them skim over the barrier.

[gentle music]

The Italian MTs were tested
in action

on March 25th, 1941

in a raid on British warships
anchored in Souda Bay

on the island of Crete in
the central Mediterranean.

[gentle music]

They included the
heavy cruiser HMS York.

[gentle upbeat music]

For months, it had
terrorized Italian shipping.

It was a tempting target.

Two Italian destroyers

launched six MTs
close to the harbor.

They headed for the
British at top speed.

-[gentle upbeat music]
-[bomb exploding]

[man speaks in foreign
language]

[Interpreter] "One
of them hit HMS York,

"which immediately
began to take on water

"and list to one side."

[speaks in foreign language]

[narrator] Two British
sailors were killed.

The mighty York was
knocked out of action.

Although all six of
the Italian pilots

were captured by the British,

the mission was a triumph.

An 18-foot MT boat had
disabled an 8,000 ton cruiser.

[gentle music]

The attack on the York

was a humiliation
for the British

and showed the effectiveness
of the fast MT.

But three years later

The Nazis, faced with
an Allied invasion,

were unable to match
the Italian success.

They weren't used more
because they were

badly designed and badly built.

The first production models
actually broke up at sea.

The action of going
through the waves

was enough to break them.

Subsequent designs start
to come into service

from May, 1944.

But of course,
that's very late in the war.

You're not going to
turn a war around

that you've already
lost with these things.

[gentle upbeat music]

[boat engine revving]

[narrator] At the end of
the war, facing defeat,

the Japanese took the
idea behind the Linse boat

and the MT boat a step further.

[gentle music]

[Craig] The Japanese
were the only ones

to use their Shinyo boats

as a genuine sacrificial
vessel like kamikaze aircraft.

[gentle music]

[bomb exploding]

The Shinyo
self-propelled torpedoes

were driven all the
way into the target

by Japanese
volunteer operators.

And they did have the potential
to do overwhelming damage.

[gentle music]

[narrator] As the US forces

captured one Pacific Island

after another
on route to Japan,

Shinyo boats were able to
inflict damage on US warships

and even sink landing craft.

[gentle music]

When the war was over,

the Americans made a
startling discovery.

[bombs exploding]

[Craig] They found hundreds,
if not thousands

of these ready to go

for when the Americans
got close enough

to launch an invasion
of the homeland.

These would come swarming out

and sink all the American ships

and they would have done
considerable damage.

[waves crashing]

[upbeat music]

[narrator] In their
quest for speed,

combat ships have been
equipped with powerful engines.

Or lightweight hulls.

[upbeat music]

Some, even take to the air.

[upbeat music]

[ship engine revving]

[gentle music]

There is one combat ship
that's part plane, part boat.

[gentle upbeat music]

The hydrofoil.

The fastest ship the US
Navy's ever had in its fleet.

[gentle upbeat music]

[ship engine revving]

One survives,

the Pegasus-class
warship USS Aries.

[upbeat music]

In 1993, three business men

with a passion for
military tech

bought the decommissioned
Aries at auction.

They didn't know exactly
what they were bidding for.

[upbeat music]

[Elliot] The internet of
course was just barely

getting up and running then.

So we had no idea what the
actual ship looked like

other than its description.

And it said it was 133 feet
long, and it was 28 feet wide.

It was made out of aluminum

and it had stainless
steel foils on it.

And it just sounded like
something that

we just had to have.

[narrator] Others were
watching the sale.

Soon after Elliot and
his partners won the bid,

they got a call from a
surprising organization,

the International
Hydrofoil Society.

[Elliot] "Do you have any idea
what you bought?"

To which I answered
of course, no.

And he says, "Well, you bought

"one of the most
technologically advanced ships

"ever constructed that
has not yet been surpassed

"by any Navy in the world."

And I was flabbergasted
because I was like,

well, why did they
let me do that?

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] Hydrofoils
are ground-breaking

pieces of technology.

[bomb exploding]

It's difficult for any ship
to travel more than 35 knots.

[upbeat music]

Above this speed,
the bow wave forces the vessel

to push uphill.

[upbeat music]

But a hydrofoil has
wings which lift the hull

clear of the water
as speed increases.

[upbeat music]

The resultant reduction in
drag yields higher speeds

without expending
more horsepower.

[boat engine revving]

[upbeat music]

The Pegasus-class hydrofoil
was propelled by a water jet.

An 18,000 horsepower engine,

shot 90,000 gallons per
minute out of the stern.

Then the foils took over.

[upbeat music]

[Elliot] That wing shape
you see right there,

that is actually the wing

that lifts the ship
out of the water.

It is all stainless steel
and that wing at 47 feet wide

is machined out of one
solid chunk of stainless.

And when you're moving
around in shallow water,

like the ship is in now,
the foils are retracted,

so that's why it's
up in this position.

And the ship only drafts
about six and a half feet,

so it's easy to get
around in shallow water.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] At its
top speed of 55 mph,

the Aries lifted 20
feet into the air.

[Carl] I can't really
describe it to anyone

that's not done it,

but to be up there
flying above the waves

was this sensation that
I never have forgotten

and every time we
went foil born

and the hull left the
surface of the water,

it just brought a
feeling of excitement

and enthusiasm for the program.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] For over 100 years,

navies experimented
with hydrofoils.

[gentle upbeat music]

The dream was that their speed

would give a decisive
edge in battle.

But it was only in the 1960s
the tests got really serious.

[Carl] The United States,

along with the other
countries in NATO,

were very concerned
about all the small ships

that the Soviet and the Warsaw
pact countries were building,

particularly in
the Mediterranean,

and up into the area around
Germany and in the Baltic.

[gentle upbeat music]

[narrator] In
response the US Navy

built a small fleet of
hydrofoil combat ships.

Able to fire torpedoes.

And withstand depth
charge explosions.

Their first test in
combat was in Vietnam,

using their speed
and shallow draft,

patrolling coastal waters
as part of an operation

to intercept North Vietnamese
troops and supplies.

They proved to be
ideal gun platforms.

Accuracy in rough seas is
an issue for most ships.

But the foils cut
through the water,

rather than ride over them.

So it is a very accurate ship

when you're launching missiles
or when you are firing guns,

you do so at a steady attitude

instead of bouncing up
and down in the waves.

[gentle upbeat music]

In the name of the
United States of America,

I christen thee, Pegasus.

[audience laughs]

[narrator] In 1973 the
Navy launched USS Pegasus,

the first PHM, Patrol
Hydrofoil Missile ship.

[upbeat music]

The Pegasus-class was equipped

with the weaponry of
ships twice their size.

[Elliot] The Aries had
mounted on the bow,

a three-inch Melara
automatic cannon.

And this cannon was
capable of rapid fire

of artillery shells
that included everything

from armor piercing, solid
rounds to smart bombs.

And it could shoot in
excess of five miles.

[narrator] Not surprisingly,

the navy removed
the Aries' 76 mm gun

before they sold her
at auction.

And from here, they could
fire at about 180 degrees

all the way around.

[narrator] On the stern
of the Pegasus Class

were eight Harpoon
anti-ship missiles.

Each missile flew
at over 500 mph

and had a range of 75 miles.

[Elliot] And the harpoon
missile had a booster rocket

attached to it.

And when it was fired,

it would fly out of the canister

and then jettison
the solid rocket booster.

And then the ramjet
engine would take over

and it would fly like
a ballistic missile

to its target.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] In 1983 the
high speed of the USS Aries

and other PHMs was used
to take on the fast boats

of the drug smugglers,
operating around Key West.

[upbeat music]

[Carl]
We could do 40 plus knots.

They might do 50,

but in any sort of sea
state, we would win.

It's just nice to note
that the disc statistics

and the hydrofoils at that time

were able to interdict about
$1.1 billion worth of drugs

in the mid 1980s.

And in the years,
between 1983 and 1993,

they never lost the chase.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The Navy's hydrofoils
were fast and furious,

but thirsty.

[Carl]
The ship used a lot of fuel,

up to a thousand gallons
an hour, while foil-born

and we used about a
hundred gallons an hour

while we were on the hull.

We only carried 16,000
gallons so as you can see,

if you do the math,
when we were foil born,

and we could go from Key
West to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

without needing fuel and we
could fly the entire way,

but we were somewhat
tactically limited

if we were doing a
lot of foil born ops.

[narrator Ultimately the
ships needed too much fuel

to be practical.

The Navy dropped
hydrofoils in the 1990s.

Which is why Elliot James
was able to buy Aries.

He is confident fast
hydrofoils have a future.

We have a dedicated
a considerable amount of our

resources towards the
preservation of the USS Aries

specifically and
hydrofoils in general.

Today, there are no
America's Cup boats

that don't have hydrofoils.

One of these days,
they will come back.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Being
faster than the enemy

continues to inspire the
world's finest naval engineers.

Maneuverability combined
with awesome firepower

always fuels
the need for speed.

[upbeat music]