Original subtitles

Narrator: The mighty spanish armada.

Fights the navy of queen elizabeth during a bloody campaign

That will echo through history.

Dr. Delgado: It's a sea battle that changed the balance

Of world power for three hundred years.

Narrator: For many centuries evidence of the armada

And its shocking fate has been lying undiscovered on the sea floor.

Imagine if we could empty the oceans.

Letting the water drain away.

To reveal the secrets of the sea floor.

Now we can.

Using accurate data.

And astonishing technology.

To bring light once again to a lost world.

Can these twisted timbers reveal why two kingdoms went to war?

Prof. Grove: These ships provided the vital sea lines of communication

For the first great maritime empire.

Narrator: Can evidence from an iconic ship wreck explain a naval revolution?

And does a mysterious discovery off the coast of ireland.

Explain the armada's grizzly fate?

Dr. Martin: It is treasure. All of it.

Because it tells us so much.

Narrator: Fiery beacons spread the warning.

The day of reckoning has dawned.

The spanish and english battle for command of the seas.

For nine tumultuous days.

When the smoke clears

A proud empire is humbled and a new super power is born.

Rivalry between England and Spain began many years before.

And is shrouded in mystery.

For centuries archaeologists struggled to find evidence from this time.

That changes with a discovery,

Not in europe but two and a half thousand miles away in red bay.

A remote harbor in the far, frozen north of canada.

That opens onto the wild atlantic.

Led by clues found in sixteenth century documents,

Maritime archaeologist robert grenier

Comes here looking for evidence of a spanish ship.

Robert: I got in the water.

I could see that there was something there.

I went down and started to fan with my hands, moving the water.

That clears the mud over what was there.

I could see some faint lines about a quarter inch thick

But couldn't figure out what they were.

Narrator: If these icy waters do conceal a spanish ship wreck, why would it be here?

Two and a half thousand miles from home?

Robert assembles a team to investigate.

They meticulously record the size and shape of every piece of wreckage.

And realize that they've found something extraordinary.

Robert: We knew we had something of great interest,

Finding a wreck of that importance as remote as here.

As far as here.

Narrator: Using all the data gathered by the dive team

It's now possible to drain red bay dry.

To expose the nearly complete remains of a sailing ship.

Her decks have collapsed but her hull is almost intact.

Robert's first task is to date it.

Deep inside the drained wreck a single clue.

Nestled among the timbers.

The delicate fragments of an hour glass.

It's an incredibly rare discovery.

Used from medieval times to measure time on ships.

And there's more treasure.

A compass.

And an astrolabe, a device for measuring latitude.

Instruments that helped sailors to use the stars to navigate.

All commonly found on sixteenth century european ships.

Robert: We have quite a complete navigation system.

It was the oldest ever found on a ship wreck at the time.

Narrator: The discoveries confirm that the wreck is over four hundred years old.

And a closer look at the ships remains uncovers a new and remarkable detail.

Removing the collapsed decks reveals that the entire length of the hull

Is made up of v shaped timbers.

But these timbers have not been joined together.

They have been carefully grown into the perfect shape.

Discovering such a usual ship building style gives the team a lead.

And takes them two and a half thousand miles east,

Across the atlantic ocean to Spain and the port of pasaia.

This bustling town in the basque region of Spain carries on a tradition

Of ship building that began over five hundred years ago.

It's here they make the first vessels that circumnavigate the globe.

And secure the america's for their king.

Today master builder xabier agote is keeping the tradition alive.

He and his team are building a sixteenth century basque galleon.

Using the materials and methods of the time.

Xabier: Our oak forests were especially managed to provide the right timbers

With the exact shape for ship building.

As a result they would obtain timbers like this one with a very nice grain

And that was very necessary to sail across the atlantic ocean

And to reach north america.

Narrator: The timbers still grown and worked in pasaia are the exact same design

And shape as those on the wreck in red bay.

Historical records held nearby at the ancient university of oñati complete the story.

A sixteenth century document with details of a ship that sailed to northern canada.

Her name was san juan.

She left pasaia in 1565.

And never returned.

Dr. Delgado: Finding archaeological evidence of Spain's maritime activities,

Particularly as it entered the world stage, is rare.

When we do find those traces they can be very revealing.

Narrator: Discovering the name of the ship leads to the most important question of all.

Why would she cross the atlantic.

To the frozen wastes of north america?

More clues lie inside the drained wreck.

The hull is covered in small thin pieces of timber.

And scattered around metal hoops.

The broken remains of barrels.

Robert: I passed my hand over the little planks and it was a greasy deposit.

And I was puzzled by this.

Narrator: The san juan seems to be a cargo ship packed with barrels full of grease,

Something nearby helps explain what it is.

Removing the collapsed decks of the ship,

Exposes the fragments of four smaller crafts.

One of them, a specialized hunting boat called a chalupa.

Robert: Never expected to find a complete chalupa because normally

They are very quickly eaten away by the worms.

They vanish.

So to finding, to find a complete chalupa like this was amazing.

Narrator: Chalupas are fast and maneuverable.

Specially designed to carry men wielding harpoons.

Evidence of their prey is scattered across the drained sea bed.

Whale bones.

These chalupas are used to catch whales.

Their blubber is then processed into oil.

Loaded into barrels and shipped to europe.

The full astonishing story is now clear.

In the sixteenth century red bay is no quiet back water.

She's a global center for whale oil production.

Robert grenier hasn't just found a ship wreck.

He's discovered evidence of one of the first industrial sites in north america.

Robert: It was an important trade.

Provision of whale oil which was very important for lighting the houses, soap.

This was the equivalent of saudi arabia of the time.

Narrator: The san juan carries the whale oil back to europe.

Her crew call it liquid gold. And with good reason.

Each successful trip nets over eight million dollars in today's money.

And fifteen ships just like the san juan make this trip each year.

But this is just one tiny fortune on a continent packed with treasure.

After columbus discovers the america's in 1492,

The spanish develop a huge network of trade routes.

With tobacco plantations in cuba, sugar from brazil.

And vast quantities of silver and gold looted and mined from mexico and peru.

Made possible by forcing the locals into slavery.

And shipping over more enslaved men and women from west africa.

Prof. Grove: Spain was the great super power of the sixteenth century.

It was kept going by a very large fleet of ships.

These ships are the sinews of the spanish empire.

Narrator: The trade in gold and silver alone is worth ten trillion dollars

In today's money.

Making Spain one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in europe.

So rich she guilds her churches in silver and gold.

All made possible by ships like the san juan.

Prof. Grove: Without these ships Spain would not be rich

And making money was what the spanish empire was all about.

Narrator: But Spain's fabulous wealth attracts greedy rivals.

Ready to muscle in.

Including one with plans to break Spain's monopoly on atlantic trade.

England.

Ruled by elizabeth the first.

She bans spanish imports including whale oil.

And raises the stakes even higher risking everything in a showdown

With the world's most powerful empire.

Queen elizabeth is making England rich.

With a new policy.

She gives sea captains a license to attack spanish merchant ships.

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And steal their cargo's.

Then she takes a healthy cut of the profits.

One expedition alone makes her enough money to pay off the entire national debt.

It's state piracy.

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Prof. Grove: English maritime affairs was dominated

By what I sometimes call the pirate mafia.

Which began with the queen.

The only way the english could expand their maritime activities

Was to engage in this kind of armed robbery at sea.

Narrator: The english defend the policy in the name of their protestant religion.

Meaning philip the second of Spain,

Protector of the catholic faith in europe now has two reasons to settle the score.

Money and god.

His admirals prepare a massive fleet.

"la grande y felicisima armada".

The great and fortunate armada".

Brimming with confidence and carried out with the blessing of the catholic church,

One hundred and thirty ships set sail.

Among them a flotilla of the empires best galleons.

On board, one hundred and eighty priests.

And nineteen thousand soldiers, armed with over two thousand guns.

For centuries historians puzzled over king phillips plans.

Is he simply out to crush England's pirates or does he have something far more

Devastating in mind?

Eight hundred miles to the north of Spain.

At kinnagoe bay,

Along the wild northern coast of ireland.

Can a remarkable discovery cast light on the real story of the armada?

When local divers find what looks like ships timbers.

They call in expert marine archaeologist colin martin.

And he immediately understands their excitement.

Dr. Martin: What I saw as my head went under the water

Was this enormous bronze gun.

With the full alms of philip the second of Spain.

And it was almost as though I'd been transported back in time four hundred years.

Narrator: Colin and the dive team search for more clues beneath the water.

Carefully logging every detail.

Archaeologists have had little chance to study armada wrecks.

Could this be one?

By using the dive team's data, it's possible to see clearly

What lies beneath kinnagoe bay for the first time.

The wild atlantic drains away.

Exposing a mass of wreckage.

Ships timbers spread along the sea floor.

And lost for hundreds of years, more guns.

Dr. Martin: Among the finds were three magnificent bronze cannons.

All slightly different.

Still lying on the sea bed very visibly.

Narrator: Every canon is stamped with a unique mark that records its weight.

Dr. Martin: These guns were listed in spanish documents.

And each one of them was identified by its exact weight.

Narrator: Comparing the weight of the recovered guns with details in the spanish naval

Inventory, reveals the name of this mystery vessel.

La trinidad valencera.

A large mediterranean merchant vessel pressed into service by king philip.

She's one of the most important ships in the armada.

Armed with forty-two guns.

Carrying two hundred and eighty-one soldiers and seventy-nine crew,

Weighting eleven hundred tons.

One of the biggest ships in the fleet.

It's an amazing discovery.

And it gives historians a unique insight into philips plans.

At the drained wreck site, something surprising.

Next to the bronze canons lie the wheels of their gun carriages.

They are heavy and unwieldy.

Clearly not designed for use at sea.

Dr. Martin: The main reason we knew that the guns weren't to be used

In the naval battle was that they were stowed complete with their carriages.

These were not ship guns.

They were guns for land campaigning, siege artillery.

Narrator: La trinidad valencera hasn't just come to shoot it out

In the english channel.

The canons in her hold point to a much more ambitious plan.

And the drained sands of kinnagoe bay offer up another clue.

Half embedded in the sandy seabed.

Dr. Martin: This to me is the most remarkable and precious thing

That was found on the wreck.

It's a chinese porcelain bowl of the ming dynasty.

Shipped all the way to seville and from there into the hands of a spanish

Nobleman, who would be taking it as part of his household effects to England.

Narrator: A status symbol to grace an elegant home.

Whoever owns it clearly plans to stay in England.

Along with the siege canons it's clear evidence that the armada has come to invade,

Conquer and occupy.

Prof. Grove: Only regime change would stop the english engaging

In their piratical raids.

And that was the aim.

Narrator: After over two years of preparation and eight days at sea,

The armada nears the english channel.

One hundred and thirty spanish ships including the mighty trinidad valencera.

Their objective is to storm the beaches of southern England.

But first they must join forces with twenty-seven thousand invasion troops,

Waiting in northern France.

The english commanders know that if the all-powerful spanish army gets ashore.

King philip will be halfway to victory.

To stop him they have just sixty fighting ships.

A life or death battle for queen and country is about to begin.

How will elizabeth's captains fight back?

The answer lies inside one of the most famous ship wrecks of all time.

Narrator: England's land army is no match for the spanish.

And her fleet is outnumbered.

But her sea captains do have two things in their favor.

New weapons and radical new tactics.

Just how radical can be seen one hundred and forty miles away near portsmouth.

On board one of the most famous ship wrecks ever discovered.

The mary rose.

The favorite war ship of queen elizabeth's father, henry the eighth.

She is lost in battle in 1545.

The cause a mystery for many centuries.

When she's found archaeologists uncover a treasure trove of information

About the english navy.

From more than forty years before the armada even set sail.

Now the dive teams research and the underwater scan data is combined with ongoing

Archaeological work after she is famously raised from the depths.

Making it possible to reveal the mary rose exactly as she was first discovered.

As the sea flows away, it opens a remarkable window into the past.

The mary rose.

Extraordinarily well preserved.

And buried within her clues that reveal how the english are changing

The way they fight sea battles.

Her exposed port side is worn away to reveal the decks.

Scattered around long thin chests.

When the dive team opened them, they make a near miraculous discovery.

English long bows, one of the most feared weapons of the medieval age.

In perfect condition.

Dr. Hildred: So here they are.

Beautifully preserved. You can see the condition.

I mean they look new. They honestly look new.

The only collection of archery equipment we have from the medieval period

Is here on the mary rose.

Narrator: The long bows show that the mary rose was equipped for a traditional

Sea battle.

Prof. Grove: In the medieval period in northern waters,

The classic form of naval warfare

Was to put castles on basically merchant ships.

These became fortresses and you put archers in the, on the castles.

And it was very much a land battle at sea.

Narrator: Each archer can fire up to twelve armor piercing arrows a minute.

Clearing the way for soldiers to grapple and board enemy ships.

For over a thousand years this has been the standard form of naval warfare.

And it's exactly how the admirals of the spanish armada planned to attack the english.

Their nineteen thousand elite troops stand ready to grapple and board.

But the mary rose contains key evidence that the english navy is changing.

And embracing new technology.

Specifically, these.

The mary rose is carrying ninety-one canons.

Fifteen made of bronze.

Dr. Hildred: We have these finest cast bronze guns.

This has a bore of about a hundred millimetres or so.

So, it would have taken a shot that would have weighed up to ten pounds.

This probably weighs just over a ton.

Narrator: Bronze guns are powerful but a shortage of the right metal

Forces king henry to adapt.

And it's these other weapons found on the mary rose that are more significant.

A range of firearms from canons to hand guns.

All made in a new way.

Dr. Hildred: Here we have the first attempts to mass produce a gun in cast iron.

You can see there's a cast line round it.

But what this is saying is henry was

A, trying to come up with cheaper guns in cast iron.

And b, just attempt to harness the technology.

Narrator: As well as cast iron hand guns, the tudors developed wrought iron canons.

Prof. Grove: They discovered ways of making iron that was strong enough

To stand the stresses of a gun being fired.

And this was a huge improvement in that it made powerful guns

A good deal cheaper.

Narrator: Each wrought iron gun is less than a tenth of the cost of a bronze gun.

Meaning henry's favorite war ship can pack a bigger punch.

The tudor navy calls their new iron guns port pieces.

The mary rose has twelve of them.

Each one mounted on a small low-profile carriage.

Easy to reload.

All made to the same standard.

They require a change in ship design.

With decks specifically strengthened to hold weighty canons.

When the mary rose is built in 1511, records show she hasn't got a single

Port piece on board.

But in the drained wreck there are port pieces scattered across two of her decks.

Evidence that henry was so serious about naval gunnery,

He made his ship builders increase the fire

Power and strength of one of his best warships.

Dr. Hildred: It's on that brink of change of ships from being troop carriers

To gun platforms.

It has certainly some of the most sophisticated modern weapons of its time.

Dr. Delgado: The gun changes war at sea.

Ships go from being floating castles to being vessels

Capable of destroying another ship.

Narrator: But embracing new ideas too quickly can be dangerous.

When the french attack the english coast in 1545, the mary rose sails into battle.

She fires one salvo.

Turns and immediately sinks.

Dr. Hildred: You do get a number of reports that say suddenly a wind came up.

She then turned and in turning was, you know, gust of wind heeled her over.

Narrator: When a ship heels its side tips towards the waterline.

That's only a problem if sea water can enter the ship.

And on board the mary rose there's one very obvious way that can happen.

Prof. Grove: To put big guns into ships you had to put them in the hull.

And so the gun port was born.

The problem with gun ports was how low down in the ship could you put them?

If the gun ports are too close to the water line and the ship heels and sailing ships heel,

Because of their sails, then there's the danger

That water can come in through the gun ports.

Narrator: And at the drained wreck site a clue.

The gun ports are clearly visible.

And they are all open.

Piecing together the evidence what happens is now clear.

The mary rose heads into battle against the french.

Her high castles packed with archers.

She fires her starboard guns.

She turns to fire from her port side guns.

A gust of wind makes her heel over.

Unstable from so many soldiers, guns and ammunition, she heels too far.

Water pours into the open gun ports.

In minutes she capsizes.

Taking all but thirty of her four hundred and fifteen crew to their deaths.

Forty-three years later as the spanish armada approaches plymouth,

The english fleet is about to show that they have built on the legacy of the mary rose.

They ditch hand to hand combat.

And focus purely on the firepower of their guns.

Will it be enough to save England from invasion?

One hundred and thirty ships of the armada come face to face with England's one hundred.

As the battle begins the spanish try to get close,

Looking to board and capture the english warships.

But elizabeth's captains have other ideas.

Prof. Grove: In that piratical operation the english develop standoff gunnery warfare.

Concentrating much more on gunnery.

And locking the enemy to pieces.

Narrator: It's a test of english tactics.

If they get too close they risk hand to hand combat

With an overwhelming force of spanish soldiers.

If they stay too far, the guns will do little damage.

But they have the perfect ships for the job.

Transformed since the mary rose the castles have gone.

Instead they're packed with guns.

Sleek and maneuverable.

The fastest war ships in the world.

Dr. Delgado: The tactics the english developed as pirates to come in shooting,

Prove effective against the spanish armada.

Prof. Grove: Ships would charge at each other.

A bit like cavalry.

And then they would fire, turn, fire again,

Move away, reload and come back.

Narrator: Making elizabeth's navy fast enough to hit. And run.

They fire over two thousand shots to Spain's seven hundred and fifty.

Shattering masts and tearing holes through splintered wooden hulls.

Driving the armada along the coast.

Two days later there's a second battle.

Seventy-five miles away at portland bill.

It's a critical moment.

And the english take more risks they come in closer,

Putting themselves at risk of being boarded.

But this time when they fire.

They cause more damage.

The spanish have naval guns too.

Plenty of them.

And one of the biggest mysteries of the armada is why they're not as effective

As the english guns.

Nearly four hundred miles away in ireland's kinnagoe bay can the drained wreck

Of la trinidad valencera reveal the answer?

Spread across the site guns for a sea battle and lots of ammunition.

But how well was it used?

Like many of the ships of the armada the trinidad valencera is requisitioned

For war by king philip.

Such a disparate fleet carries a huge range of weapons.

Dr. Martin: When we started to find quite large quantities of canon balls,

We were struck by the wide range of calibres, of diameters of the balls.

Unlike their enemy the spanish have no standardized guns.

It means in the heat of battle it can be hard to find the right shot for the right gun.

So they rely on a measuring gauge.

Dr. Martin: You check against a ball.

And if it goes through just nicely as this one does,

Then you've got the right shot for this particular gun.

And at the level of the poor gunners on board the ships,

They were frequently finding not this, where they were the right size.

But this where they weren't.

Narrator: And the spanish captains face other problems.

Dr. Martin: We then started to look at the way the spaniards used their guns,

Operated their guns.

We were helped by the discovery of the carriages that the ships

Had been using to mount their guns for sea warfare.

Narrator: The gun and carriage can span nineteen feet

Over half the width of a ships deck.

Dr. Martin: Spaniards seem to have had cumbersome two wheeled carriages

With long trails, which were quite difficult to bring in to reload.

Narrator: All of this means that the two sides fight very differently.

Prof. Grove: The spanish tend it would appear,

Not to see the gun as a powerful weapon for sea born combat.

Although they do have guns at sea they don't fire them very often.

Dr. Martin: They, the english were firing twice as quickly as the spaniards.

Like having twice as many guns if you can fire them in half the time.

Narrator: The second battle lasts over two hours.

The english inflict the most damage.

But the armada remains largely intact.

And its large galleons are still a powerful threat.

Dr. Martin: It's extremely difficult to sink a wooden ship with canon fire.

You need to batter away at it.

Insofar as breaking up the actual fleet which held together, protecting itself,

The english effectively were powerless.

Narrator: The armada heads to northern France.

Where twenty seven thousand fresh and well trained spanish soldiers await.

Ready to join the fleet and try to land in England.

Back in kinnagoe bay can the wreck of la trinidad valencera

Explain why that invasion never happened?

But the troops aren't ready to board.

So the spanish are forced to wait.

Close together in the face of a gathering storm.

This gives the english an unexpected opportunity

And they use it to unleash a terrifying new weapon.

Hell burners.

Eight of their own ships packed with explosives,

Set on fire and aimed right at the heart of the armada.

Prof. Grove: The english took their opportunity,

Sent in fire ships,

Caused the armada to break formation.

Narrator: Now the english captains can pick their enemies off

One ship at a time.

At daybreak they pounce.

After the first two clashes the english know they can fire at a hundred feet

Without being boarded.

An advantage they now exploit to the fore.

Disabling four of Spain's best galleons.

And damaging many more.

The battle rages for nine hours.

Nearly two thousand spanish soldiers and sailors are left dead or injured.

Their invasion attempt is over.

Damaged by enemy fire, packed with injured and dying men.

The surviving ships of the armada. Run for home.

But only sixty ships will ever make it back.

In ireland the drained wreck site of la trinidad valencera reveals

How one of the mightiest ships of the armada ended her days.

The surviving timbers are scattered and spread across a rocky reef.

It's a clue that helps to explain what happened after the epic battle

Against the english.

Dr. Martin: Well the spanish armada

When it failed in it's objective,

Decided to return home by sailing right round

The top of the british isles.

Narrator: Thrusting the spanish into the path

Of a new and even more formidable enemy.

The weather.

Summer storms roar up the north sea.

Battering the already damaged galleons.

To such religious men it must feel like god himself has turned against Spain.

But what happened next to the la trinidad valencera is even more hellish.

Dr. Martin: She found herself in a sinking condition.

A decision was made to run for the shore.

Narrator: La trinidad valencera heads for the irish coast

Looking for a safe place to land.

Dr. Martin: She grounded some distance from the shore on a sandy bottom.

But with her bow sitting on a reef.

Narrator: Almost all the crew scramble ashore unharmed.

Dr. Martin: They marched off heading for the west coast of ireland where they hoped

They might make contact with other armada ships that would bring them home.

Unfortunately for them they were intercepted by a force of english soldiers.

Narrator: What happens next is savage.

The english start to execute their prisoners.

Only a lucky few manage to run to the hills.

Through drowning or execution over six thousand men die along these shores.

La trinidad valencera is one of just six armada wrecks

Found off the coast of ireland.

The rest, probably up to twenty, have never been discovered.

What began as a battle to crush the upstart english has changed

The global balance of power.

Prof. Grove: The weakness of the spanish empire was its actual dependence on wealth.

And when other powers began to rise like the dutch, like the english, like the french,

Then these powers had much greater economic depth.

Spain loses its sources of wealth and it's got nothing to fall back on.

Narrator: Within ten years Spain is bankrupt.

In red bay and beyond cargo ships like the san juan no longer hold the monopoly

On new world trade routes.

England with its mastery of naval gunnery and its fast,

Mobile warships is now the rising force.

Dr. Delgado: In the aftermath of the armada these new types

Of ships and tactics will dominate naval warfare for the next two centuries.

Narrator: Within twenty years England establishes its first successful colony

In the americas.

English will become the dominant language in north america

And much of the world beyond.

And as England becomes great britain, ships controlled

In london will dominate global trading routes.

Britain will become the undisputed ruler of the waves.

Until she is finally eclipsed by her own colonies, the united states.

A process all triggered by the fight for the riches of the americas.

And the defeat of the spanish armada.

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