Coast (2005) s04e08 Episode Script
Rosyth to Hull
I'm back on home territory, on Edinburgh's mighty seaway, the Firth of Forth.
My journey will take me south along the majestic beauty of a coast where Scotland gives way to Northumberland and on to the industrial powerhouse of England's Northeast, all the way down to the Humber Estuary.
And I can promise you some extraordinary encounters.
Miranda Krestovnikoff gets dive-bombed by gannets.
This is what gannets are reaIIy famous for, this pIummet right into the water to catch the fish.
OLIVER: Dick Strawbridge has a riveting experience.
(RATTLING) Imagine doing haIf a miIIion of these.
OLIVER: Mark Horton Hey, hey, hey.
OLIVER: is fighting with Vikings.
-Do you stiII beIieve you can move it? -ALL: Yes.
Go! OLIVER: And some tough ladies pit themselves against a two-ton lifeboat to test the legend of a famous rescue.
This is Coast.
From Norway, I've crossed the North Sea.
Now we're on our way to the Humber Estuary and the port of Hull, a journey connecting England and Scotland, which starts at another port, Rosyth.
There's a certain romance to a port.
In among all the machinery there's a tangible sense of connections to the wider world.
And ports Iike this are connected to every one of us.
This wood has traveIIed aII the way from Latvia, and this, in turn, is used to make paIIets Iike these.
And paIIets are used to carry aII the things that peopIe want - teIevisions, washing machines, fridges, you name it.
AII goods that are themseIves imported.
A staggering amount of stuff arrives by sea.
Food, medicine, clothes The coast is where we do business with the world.
Rosyth, though, wasn't built for trade.
It started life as a naval dockyard, serving in two World Wars and one Cold War.
But our hunger for goods meant that in 1999 part of the port was opened up to commerce.
I'm meeting Alf Baird to find out the scale of our sea trading today.
He's got some eye-opening numbers for me.
Just how much stuff do we import? WeII, the UK ports handIe 600 miIIion tons of trade every year, with a vaIue of 340 biIIion pounds.
Two-thirds of that's imports, one-third is exports.
OLIVER: On a gIobaI scaIe, how big a chunk of the market is that? BAIRD: WeII, the UK has Europe's Iargest port system and Iargest port trade of aII European countries.
95% of UK trade is carried by ship.
-OLIVER: 95%? -BAIRD: 95% by tonnage.
As an isIand nation, sea ports are absoIuteIy essentiaI.
OLIVER: Why do we import so much stuff? BAIRD: I think it's just part of a gIobaI trend, increased demand from consumers for a whoIe range of different products.
We've seen a phenomenaI increase in the size of container ships, which means the unit costs of transporting goods around the worId is much cheaper.
We now see jeans moving from Asia to Europe at 30 pence a pair of jeans, a teIevision for a coupIe of pounds.
You can source goods gIobaIIy, and that's what's happening.
OLIVER: We've engineered the coast to reach out to our neighbours, as well as keep them at bay.
Heading south, we'll explore how we built great ships, a remarkable gateway to a new world, and the coastal battles that built a nation.
One of Scotland's defining landmarks is the Forth Rail Bridge.
Painting the steel frame has long been held to be a never-ending task.
They've been brushing continually since its completion in 1890, but new paint technology means that when they've finished this coat, they can finally put their brushes down - for the next 20 years, anyway.
20 miles down the Firth, you find a landscape of dunes and beaches.
Now, I love spending time in places like this, but I always come prepared.
PeopIe quite often ask me what I keep in my bag.
SeriousIy, they do.
WeII, Iook, I can show you.
Amongst other things, sandwiches, obviousIy, and aIso research.
Look at that IittIe beauty.
A copy of Shoot! magazine from December 1970.
Now, what caught my eye was a IittIe photo-feature on page 5, very 1970s footbaIIers from GIasgow Rangers as it happens, and they're taking part in a grueIIing training regime that invoIved running up and down that very sand dune.
It became known as Murder HiII.
In the years since the Rangers players made it famous, the dune has taken its place in Scottish football folklore.
These days amateur teams come to Gullane to pit themselves against Murder Hill.
(LAUGHING) The eye of the tiger! My name is Mick McArdIe, manager of Chryston Amateurs, and we pIay footbaII from the CentraI Scottish Amateur League of ScotIand.
Murder HiII is tough.
AII footbaII teams from amateurs Iike ourseIves to professionaI teams use it every summer.
Murder, man! Murder! McARDLE: ReaIIy, it's very, very tough, and you see it in the expressions aIone in a guy's face.
Oh, it's hard.
I didn't expect that at aII.
McARDLE: The training itseIf, it's more for the Iower body, generaIIy the Iegs, the thighs and the caIf muscIes, etc.
You'II get a Iot of work in because the sand moves away from your feet, so it reaIIy works their muscIes very weII.
The biggest advantage though is for the Iung capacity.
Can't speak.
In our the pre-season sessions the Iast three years, the date they Iook for is when they're going to Murder HiII because they know that's going to be the hard session.
(CHEERING) OLIVER: Five miles down the coast from Murder Hill, out at sea, is a challenge that's in a different league.
Where the Firth of Forth meets the North Sea, standing sentinel is Bass Rock.
Sir David Attenborough calls this huge rock and its 150,000-strong gannet colony one of the wildlife wonders of the world.
Somewhere out there, in amongst aII that invigorating weather, is the Bass Rock.
Now, I've tried on three separate occasions to Iand there for Coast, and every time the weather has defeated me, but Coast doesn't give up easiIy.
Maybe Miranda wiII have more Iuck.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: Bass Rock looks almost welcoming in the early-morning sun.
I really want to get out there to see the gannets close up.
And I'm not alone.
Ben and Kirsty Burville are amateur wildlife photographers and keen divers.
In their day jobs, Ben's a doctor and Kirsty's a teacher.
They've come to Scotland to attempt something really ambitious.
They're going to try and fiIm the Bass Rock gannets diving underwater, something I have aIways wanted to do, and it's anything but straightforward.
Even though they're amateur film-makers, their track record's pretty good.
This footage of Ben diving with seals was taken by Kirsty just off the Farne Islands in Northumberland.
So why gannets? What's the big attraction of fiIming of gannets underwater? Over the Farnes every now and then you get gannets diving down, but onIy ones and twos.
It wouId be reaIIy, reaIIy interesting to see if I couId capture them as they go into the water from above the water and beIow, so where better to come but Bass Rock? So you're underwater.
Kirsty, what are you going to be up to? I'm going to be doing the fiIming topside, getting the gannets diving down, so it shouId be pretty spectacuIar.
It's going to be a reaI adventure for the day for both of us.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: While our amateur film-makers head off to find gannets diving underwater, I'm taking the more direct route.
To get a sense of the challenge Ben and Kirsty face, I need to see the birds up close, and you can only do that on their home base.
It's not easy to set foot onto Bass Rock.
Strong currents swirl around the cliffs and the mooring site can be treacherous.
Today I'm lucky and I can venture onto the rock, with Maggie Sheddon of the Scottish Seabird Centre as my guide.
Maggie, this is absoIuteIy spIendid.
You know, this is a reaI first for Coast.
No Coaster has ever been on Bass Rock.
I'm the first.
This is amazing.
I've never seen so many gannets in aII my Iife.
And it's the best time to be here because the birds are rearing their young.
That means the rock is full to capacity.
150,000 birds and their demanding chicks all hungry for fish.
Out on the water, some of the gannets are starting to dive for their dinner within range of Kirsty's camera.
Up here, it's a rare chance for me to get close to the gannets.
Normally you only see them in flight or as they're plunging into the sea.
When they're diving, they hit the water at an incredibIe speed.
How does their body actuaIIy cope with that? They can hit up to 60 miIes per hour.
BasicaIIy, they have air sacs that infIate - tends to be around the neck, the upper chest area.
They have a membrane that fIips over the eye to protect the eye, and they have a moveabIe pIate just at the back of the biII, so when they hit the water, everything is seaIed.
And IiteraIIy just before they dive in, the wings foId back Iike an arrow.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: 60 miles per hour.
With gannets hitting the water beak-first at such high speed, getting hit by one would be serious for Ben.
Okay.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: His plan is to shelter beneath the boat and try and film the dives from there.
So we'll have to encourage the birds to come as close as possible if Ben's going to have any chance.
To bring the birds in, we've got some reaIIy disgusting-smeIIing haddock heads here and some herring as weII.
The herring guIIs have moved in and now the gannets are coming in as weII.
Now we're getting some pIunging there.
Look at that, it's fantastic.
The gannets are diving closer to the boat, but still not close enough.
Sheltering under the boat, Ben will need to be within a few feet to get that crucial close-up.
To make things worse, he's battling strong tidal currents down there.
I'm using a pole camera to try and see how he's getting on.
I've found Ben.
Ben is surrounded by jellyfish, which makes getting close to the diving gannets even harder.
It's very, very difficuIt to get near to them.
It's very hard to stay underneath the boat.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: With Ben's dive time rapidly ticking away, we finally manage to lure some gannets within range of his underwater camera.
Look at that! AII of a sudden, they've just come right in.
We're seeing some great dives from up here, but underwater, it's been a struggle.
Ben's only had one chance.
It's time to see whether this amateur cameraman managed to get a shot a professional would be proud of.
So do you think you got anything good, then? I think there couId be a coupIe of good shots in amongst aII the As you can see, the visibiIity down there is not very good.
-Bit green, isn't it? -A Iot of green stuff there.
-Oh, weII done.
-There you are.
-That was great.
-That was a good one.
-BEN: So quick, isn't it? -KRESTOVNIKOFF: It's reaIIy quick.
ReaIIy quick.
That's so briIIiant.
You did reaIIy weII.
Ben and Kirsty have managed to capture the spectacle of gannets diving underwater.
What I'm coming away with is a sense of wonder at this extraordinary bird city just off our coast.
OLIVER: Hidden away across the water from Bass Rock is a little secret.
It's not easy to find, but Seacliff Harbour is reputedly Britain's smallest.
And with an opening just 10 feet wide, I'm not going to argue.
The harbour was constructed in 1890 by the local landowner, using a steam engine and compressed air to cut the stone.
Once busy with small salmon-fishing boats, now it's used by a solitary lobster fisherman.
There's room at Dunbar Harbour for plenty of boats.
They've also found room for a four-ton monument to the invisible force that moves our ships.
It commemorates Robert WiIson, a son of Dunbar who's remembered hereabouts as the inventor of the screw propeIIer.
But the thing is, as weII as Robert, the French, the EngIish, the Swedes and the Americans, they aII cIaim the invention of the screw propeIIer as weII.
Many countries might dispute Dunbar's claim to fame, but not far away was another invention, a tradition this time, that's unique to fishing communities on the East Coast.
20 miles south of Dunbar is Eyemouth.
TAMSIN MACKECHNIE: When I woke up, I sort of forgot it was a big day, and then when it dawned on me, all of a sudden, the butterflies started up and (EXCLAIMS) Really nervous.
OLIVER: Tamsin Mackechnie is about to be crowned the Eyemouth Herring Queen.
It's a title created in 1939 to celebrate the life of the town's fishing industry.
A new teenage queen is chosen each year.
I had an interview with about five peopIe, incIuding the town provost, and Iater on that night they came in and gathered us aII together and toId us who'd won.
I think they were looking really for someone who could be a role model to the younger children.
A Iot of the past Herring Queens have said to me, ''It's pretty much Iike getting married, it's reaIIy a big day.
'' MAUREEN DOUGALL: I remember the pipers pIaying, I remember the parade, and just the great feeIing for the day.
It was fantastic.
OLIVER: Before all that, there's the traditional three-mile sea voyage, while ahead the town of Eyemouth awaits its queen.
It was quite a priviIege to be Herring Queen, I think.
You feIt you were representing Eyemouth.
(HORN BLOWING) OLIVER: During her year as Herring Queen, Tamsin will carry out civic duties.
Today is her day.
I'm reaIIy nervous and shaking in front of aII those peopIe.
I remember the Iast sentence of my speech was, ''To fishermen aII round our coast, I extend greetings ''and good saiIing from this oId fishing town.
'' (CROWD CLAPPING) OLIVER: Leaving Scotland, we cross the border into Northumberland.
Here, in the Middle Ages, the monks of Holy Island laid the foundations for a new era of worship and learning.
But a terrifying threat from across the sea was about to shatter the Saxon world.
Mark Horton has travelled 1200 years back in time to meet our most infamous invaders.
It's June, 793.
For over a century, Northumbria has been the most powerfuI kingdom in AngIo-Saxon EngIand.
But over there on the hoIy isIand of Lindisfarne, something shocking is about to happen.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes it in gory detaiI.
''In this year, terrible portents appeared and miserably frightened the inhabitants.
''Flashes of lightning, fiery dragons in the sky, a great famine.
'' And a little after in the same year, ''The harrying of the heathen'' ''miserably destroyed God's church in Lindisfarne ''by rapine and slaughter.
'' (CLAMOURING) Vikings, pIundering, piIIaging and raping on our shores for the very first time.
The attack on Holy Island in 793 sent shockwaves across the land and created a powerful new mythology, the marauding Norseman.
From an early age, I've been fascinated with the Vikings.
(GROANING) Today, I get to realise an ambition and meet a Viking.
Well, a part-time one.
Kim Siddorn is secretary of a re-enactment society.
So Kim, you're the most magnificent Viking warrior.
Thank you.
-WeII, this is a Ieather jerkin.
-Yes, Ieather jerkin.
-And Iinen tunic beIow it.
-And this is what? That's seaI skin, and this is horse hide, Iined on the inside with siIk.
It's worth a king's ransom, this thing.
And what eIse have you got? This must be a scramsax? Yes.
This is a scramsax.
You can see the pattern weIding here in the bIade.
-Extraordinary.
-AII the fittings on there are siIver.
That's to sort of finish peopIe off in battIe, isn't it, reaIIy? I'd eat my tea with it, actuaIIy.
(CLAMOURING) The principaI defence of a Dark Age warrior -Oh, the home of the warrior is his shieId.
-is the shieId.
The shieId itseIf is the first Iine of defence for the warrior.
(GRUNTING) It aIso makes a convenient thing to bang.
''Hey! Hey! Hey!'' (LAUGHING) The sword is very much a sIashing weapon - none of this fine pointwork.
It's intended pureIy for butchering.
(GROANING) It's a weapon which you'd use on a figure-of-eight system.
You'd have come down across the body from your initiaI And then across this way.
And then, bringing your shieId up, Iead with the sword down across the body.
Perhaps cIeaving you in two if a man's uncIad in armour.
(SCREAMING) And of course, the monks at Lindisfarne wouId have had no escape.
It must have been such a nasty shock.
They weren't expecting it at aII.
You can hear it in what they said: ''500 years we've Iived in this isIand, ''and nothing ever Iike this happened before, it was terribIe.
''They came into God's house and kiIIed us aII.
'' SiIence.
MARK HORTON: Up at Bamburgh Castle, Kim's fellow re-enactors have set up a camp at a festival celebrating Saxon life.
It was this Saxon world that was rocked by the first Viking raid here on the Northumbrian coast, and the assaults that followed.
Before those Viking raids, wars between the different kingdoms of England were common, but the appearance of a common enemy here 1200 years ago was to alter the country's destiny.
That earIy raid reaIIy changed EngIandlBritain forever.
Yes, it did.
It gave us the beginnings of a nationaI identity.
It was The warring AngIo-Saxon kingdoms began to come together for the first time and it was the Viking raids that did it.
HORTON: After the catacIysm that happened here in 793, wars with the Vikings continued for another 200 years.
But one beneficiaI consequence was that in those wars the nation of EngIand was formed.
OLIVER: We've clocked up 150 miles, and I'm approaching the halfway mark on my journey down the East Coast.
And there's much more.
I'm just getting into my stride.
Next stop on our adventure south, Cullercoats.
In the 19th century, Cullercoats was a thriving fishing village.
It was the men who braved the North Sea, but what makes this place special is that it's the women of Cullercoats who are celebrated.
I've got a copy of a painting here.
What it shows is a group of viIIagers hauIing a Iifeboat aIong a beach.
But when you Iook at it, aImost the first thing you notice is that it's mostIy women.
In fact, the painting is caIIed The Women.
And there's an inscription on the frame that reads, ''On New Year's Day, 1861, ''the fisherwomen of CuIIercoats ''dragged the viIIage Iifeboat three miIes aIong the coast ''in a bIinding storm of snow and sIeet, to the rescue of a crew of a wrecked ship, ''the Lovely Nellie, and saved aII the crew but one boy.
'' Now, these must have been some tough women.
But who were they? The women of Cullercoats were renowned for their strength and stamina.
They carried fish to sell around neighbouring villages, ran the household and, according to some tales, even lifted their husbands out to the boats.
And to cap it all, my painting has them dragging a heavy lifeboat overland to rescue a stricken ship.
To get an insight into these hardy women, I'm calling on the granddaughter of one of Cullercoats' fisherwives.
-Come in.
Nice to see you.
-Thank you.
You, too.
OLIVER: Were women like your grandmother famous locally? It was onIy years after that peopIe reaIised what a unique, eIite group they were.
I just loved her.
She was a lovely, round little woman, you know, very kind and worked hard.
You know, she had to waIk miIes and miIes every day to seII the fish.
She did that for 50 years.
I've heard so much about how hard they worked.
JOAN: Well, the women did work hard - it was just their lives and that's what they'd been dished out.
And we shaII not see their Iike again? I don't think so, I don't think so.
They were tough.
OLIVER: This painting intrigues me more and more.
It has the Cullercoats women pulling a lifeboat along a headland through a blinding storm.
And Joan tells me those fisherwives of yesteryear really were that tough.
What I want to know is, are the modern women of Cullercoats as hardy as their great-grannies? There's only one way to find out.
We're going to recreate the painting.
And the first voIunteers have turned up.
Women of CuIIercoats (CHEERING) Legend has it that about 1 40 years ago, the women of CuIIercoats puIIed a Iifeboat through the teeth of a howIing gaIe for three miIes aIong the coast.
That was then, this is now.
Can you achieve the same feat? WOMEN: Yes! WeII, the women seem to be game.
AII we need now is a Iifeboat.
Luckily, Whitby Historic Lifeboat Trust have brought along a beautifully preserved specimen.
Is this, more or Iess, the kind of Iifeboat that wouId have been used in that mid-19th-century rescue? It's the same type of boat.
You'd find that actuaIIy if anything she's one of the smaIIer ones, and that she's onIy two and a quarter tons.
Now then, you're saying this is one of the smaII ones.
When I'm thinking about men hauIing, or women hauIing it, it Iooks pretty big and heavy to me.
Do you think that women aIone couId have moved a Iifeboat Iike that? -Oh, yes.
-They did frequentIy.
-You wouId say that! -I wouId say that, but it is possibIe.
OLIVER: The question is, do they still make women like they used to? SARA: (LAUGHING) That's going to be some effort.
OLIVER: While the Cullercoats ladies are limbering up for the challenge, I'm intrigued to know why the women of old had to drag a boat weighing tons along this windswept headland.
Robert Oliver is a sixth-generation Cullercoats lifeboat man.
Perhaps he'll know.
In the painting, the boat's being dragged.
Where is it being dragged to? From CuIIercoats here aIong the cIiff top aIong to Briardene, which is about two, two and a haIf miIes north of our station.
But it's a boat.
Why didn't they just put it in the water and go by sea? On the day, it was very, very severe weather, too bad to Iaunch here.
So what did they do next? Some of the viIIagers wouId have went away and got the horses and connected the horses up to the boat to puII the Iifeboat across the cIifftop.
-Horses? -Yeah.
But it's women in the picture.
The RNLI statement says there were horses.
-They shouIdn't be there.
-(CHUCKLING) Yeah.
OLIVER: Horses.
That's really thrown me.
So was it horses or women who did the pulling that night over 140 years ago, when a lifeboat was dragged along this coast? I've got to dig deeper to discover the truth.
Robert was right.
The Times of January 3rd, 1861, says of the Iifeboat, ''It was dragged aIong the coast by six horses and Iaunched from the sands ''amid great excitement.
'' So, The Times says there were horses, the painting shows women.
To make sure our lifeboat gets dragged along the headland, maybe the women of Cullercoats will need some help on standby.
-Hiya, CharIie.
How are you doing? -Nice to meet you.
So, what are these feIIas caIIed? The Iad you're stroking now, he's caIIed CIassic.
CHARLIE: He's our eIder statesman, he's 18 years of age.
And this Iad behind me, this is RoyaI.
-He's even bigger.
-Yes, he is.
He's 18.
3 hands.
How do you think they'II cope with puIIing a Iifeboat? CHARLIE: WeII, I'II be honest with you, it's a first for us.
OLIVER: These dray horses are powerful beasts and they're at the ready, if needed, for our recreation of the Cullercoats lifeboat drag.
But what's nagging me is if horses were used to pull the boat, then why aren't there any horses in my painting? If the artist wasn't recording a historical event, what was he trying to do? I'm meeting local art historian Steve Ratcliffe.
Steve, what can you teII me about this painting? WeII, this painting was painted by John CharIton in 1904.
And at the time it was painted, CuIIercoats was a weII-estabIished artists' coIony.
I don't think I expected to find great artists in this IittIe corner of EngIand.
A Iot of peopIe are surprised by it and they're quite stunned to find that a famous American artist, WinsIow Homer, was resident here for nearIy two years.
OLIVER: Over 20 years before Charlton painted the lifeboat drag, these pictures by the distinguished American artist Winslow Homer had already made the Cullercoats women famous.
Homer captured the strength and dignity of the fisherwives.
His work elevated them to near mythological status.
And these images of the Cullercoats women helped establish Winslow Homer as the greatest American painter of the 19th century.
He painted the women time and time again, always engaged in the harsh, day-to-day realities of coastal life.
Homer painted day-to-day Iife.
Is this, by CharIton, a painting of pIain fact? No, it's not.
It's a symboIic painting.
It's trying to express his feeIing, his admiration for the women of CuIIercoats through art.
So he's used a historic background, the 1861 rescue of the Lovely Nellie, to Iet peopIe know that he has a message to teII them of his respect and admiration for those women.
OLIVER: So, if my painting is a romantic image of the women of Cullercoats, perhaps it was created because a great artist had already immortalised them over 20 years earlier.
But the legend of the lifeboat drag persists.
It's a heroic story I still want to believe.
Could the women really have done it? Time to find out.
Right then, you said you couId do this.
Do you stiII beIieve you can move it? -WOMEN: Yes.
-Three, two, one Go! (LAUGHING) Didn't expect this for a minute.
Now the thing is, this is quite good fun in a way, but you have to remember that on New Year's Day, 1861, the crew of a stricken ship, the Lovely Nellie, was somewhere out there in a dreadfuI storm, so this wasn't about fun that day.
It was Iife and death.
On the flat, the women are getting a real momentum going, but on the upward slopes, it gets tougher and tougher, and don't forget on the night of the rescue, the boat was being pulled on a heavy wooden carriage.
Right, that's it, enough's enough.
You've done far more than I expected, honestIy, but I'm going to bring in the horses, so down ropes.
Fantastic, weII done.
(CHEERING) Just as on the night of the rescue, what was needed to cope with the terrain was the addition of some genuine horsepower.
Oh, no bother! I've spent a long time piecing together the facts of the night of the wreck of the Lovely Nellie over 1 40 years ago.
What I've discovered is that the whole community and their horses came to the rescue of the crew, saving all the lives bar one.
And whether it was horsepower or woman-power that hauled the boat down to the water, it's the power of legend that's given life to the story of the Cullercoats women.
A few miles south of Cullercoats you come to the mouth of the Tyne and the city of Newcastle.
For centuries, coal was exported down this river, but in March 1998, the last of the export vessels left the Tyne.
These days, the river is handling coal again - now it's imported.
Coal comes in here all the way from Russia.
Looks like sending coals to Newcastle is no longer a fool's errand.
Continuing south, we hit another famous northeastern river, the Weir.
Sunderland could once boast it was the largest ship-building town in the world.
During World War II, over a quarter of our merchant and navy ships were built here.
But as wartime production boomed, the seeds of a devastating decline were being sown.
Engineer Dick Strawbridge wants to know what silenced the shipyards.
DICK STRAWBRIDGE: Boats were built here for over 600 years.
Busy shipyards jostled for space along this river.
Now you'd hardly know it.
In their heyday, the Weirside yards were world famous.
Sheets of steel came in and finished ships rolled out.
What I find amazing is that this massive enterprise, like the ships it produced, was held together by one little component.
It was the dependence on this metal fastener that was both the strength and the weakness of the industry.
Most of the historic metaI frameworks that we marveI at are heId together by rivets.
And this is a rivet.
It does the same job as a nut and boIt hoIding two sheets of metaI together, but it doesn't come undone.
You heat it up untiI it's cherry red, then you put it through a hoIe, and then you bash both ends of it.
It then hoIds the sheets of metaI together.
When it cooIs down, it contracts and hoIds it even tighter.
It's an awfuI Iot of effort, but it works.
Riveters worked in teams or squads.
A heater heated up the rivets in a stove, then passed them or often threw them to a catcher.
The catcher's job was to take the red-hot rivet to a holder-up, who put the rivet in a hole connecting the two ship's panels.
The riveter then pounded the rivet home.
It was a labour-intensive job, and when the men left to fight in two World Wars, women were trained up to keep the yards busy.
Ship-building towns reverberated to the sound of riveting.
Phil Peek and Brian Hopkins worked as riveters in the shipyards of neighbouring Hartlepool.
-Brian Good to see you, PhiI.
-And you.
This is where the shipyard was that you actuaIIy buiIt ships.
BRIAN: The sIipway where this one was buiIt was over the other side there, 100 yards away, if that.
And how many rivets a day do you reckon a good team wouId put in? At Ieast 800, 900 a day.
We're reaIIy proud of the fact, the steeI pIate wouId come in there, when it Ieft here, the finished job, it couId go straight to sea and work.
How much did they get paid for riveting? -Eight and ninepence a hundred.
-Eight and ninepence a hundred? Yes, aII that was shared out amongst the squad.
But if it rained, we got sent home and signed the book for four shiIIing.
STRAWBRIDGE: Mary Power was a catcher on Phil's team.
Hey, Mary, come and join us.
Come and join us.
Come on.
-You used to work with PhiI? -Yes.
It's a very physicaI job, Mary, so what was it Iike as a woman being amongst aII these men that were doing aII this riveting? -WeII, you didn't think anything about it.
-HOPKINS: We won't answer that.
You just got in, you wore the overaIIs and the boys' boots and you just got on with the job.
What was the environment Iike? Was it noisy? -It was very noisy.
-You couIdn't hear yourseIf speak.
When I first started, I didn't know what they were on about, 'cause you used to speak with the sign Ianguage.
-STRAWBRIDGE: A sign Ianguage? -Yes, definiteIy.
2, 21/4 -21/4 rivets.
-2, 23/4.
-2, 2 3/4 rivets.
-That's the size? Yes.
-So caIIing for the size of the rivets? -Yes.
And those are short 'uns.
As a riveter, did you take pride in every singIe rivet you did? CertainIy, yeah.
I was a good riveter.
You knew that when you were working for Gray's, you were one of the best ship-buiIders going and there was no two ways about it.
STRAWBRIDGE: So if our ship-building was so good, where did it all go wrong? In the dark days of 1940, we desperately needed more merchant ships to keep the vital transatlantic supply lines open.
Churchill placed an urgent order for 60 cargo ships, but he didn't give the contract to British shipyards, instead he gave it to the Americans.
I'm meeting with David Aris to find out more.
Okay, David, why go to America? Because at that time in 1940, the U-Boats were massacring our merchant fIeet, particuIarIy in the North AtIantic.
And Churchill realised that the ships were being sunk at a rate which was greater than we could replace them from our own shipyards.
So we had to get the ships from somewhere else.
And taIk to me about the skiII of buiIding one of these ships.
You know, how Iong wouId it take to buiId one here? ProbabIy about six months to buiId a ship here in Thompsons.
And the ship was designed as a fuIIy riveted ship.
That was the practice at the time here on the River Weir and in other parts of this country.
Something Iike 480,000 rivets on one ship, per ship.
-HaIf a miIIion rivets per ship? -Yes, of that order.
Yeah.
STRAWBRIDGE: With a war on, the Americans didn't have time or enough trained workers to put in a half a million rivets per ship.
A faster method of joining panels was welding.
So now welding was adopted on an unprecedented scale.
What the Americans did have was lots of space.
In massive new shipyards, complete sections of the ship were constructed as separate units before being craned into place and welded together.
The American genius for mass production meant that ships were soon being built in under 50 days.
This new merchant fleet helped win the war by keeping Britain supplied with food, munitions and machinery.
The techniques of welding and pre-fabrication that built these ships would spell the end for riveting.
The problem for us was that mass production needs lots of space.
The old British shipyards didn't have room to expand, and they struggled to cope with the new welding age.
The industry fell into slow but terminal decline.
These days, riveting has all but disappeared, but even though we don't build many ships now, we still need riveters if we're going to preserve some of our historic maritime treasures.
I've come all the way to Suffolk to see riveting at first hand.
Everybody's weIding nowadays.
I couIdn't find any rivets being struck anywhere in the Northeast.
So I had to bring Brian and PhiI down to Lowestoft to the restoration of SS Robin, the oIdest compIete steamship in the worId, so they can give me their opinion on 21st-century riveting.
The SS Robin was launched in 1890.
She's a steel ship with a fully riveted hull, but she needs attention.
The team here are riveting some test plates in preparation for restoring the ship.
They've done riveting work on bridges and machinery, but never a ship.
It's a great chance for old hands Brian and Phil to pass on their wisdom.
-How's his riveting? -Okay.
-What do you reckon? -He's getting the hang of it.
(ALL LAUGHING) (RATTLING) Okay, what's your opinion? Come on, then, PhiI.
The top row's the best.
The top row's the best.
That's too short, that.
STRAWBRIDGE: WouId you empIoy the team? CertainIy, yes.
You've done aII right, son.
I've done aII right, have I? STRAWBRIDGE: We may not make them like this any more, but the SS Robin will be back afloat, rivets and all, in 2012, a monument to the glory days of British ship-building and riveting.
Thank goodness there are some peopIe - there's not many - but stiII some peopIe keeping aIive the skiIIs of our riveters.
OLIVER: Leaving the heavy industry of the Northeast behind, the mood changes.
Shipyards are replaced by rolling hills and sandy beaches.
We're in Yorkshire now, with well-known holiday destinations like Whitby and Scarborough, which has been attracting visitors for over 350 years.
Nestled between these two holiday hotspots is Ravenscar.
Ravenscar is a resort like no other.
It's known as the town that never was.
The question is, where is it? HORTON: I've programmed my sat nav for the main street of Ravenscar, the wonderfully named Marine Esplanade.
WOMAN ON NAVIGATION SYSTEM: Turn left, then take the second right.
Whoopsie, we're going straight into a rutted road.
There's some sort of kerb running up the middle of the road here.
WOMAN ON NAVIGATION SYSTEM: After 200 yards, turn right.
(CHUCKLING) WOMAN ON NAVIGATION SYSTEM: You have reached your destination.
That's it.
Marine EspIanade.
That's the strangest Marine EspIanade I've ever seen.
According to sat nav, there should be roads here, and Marine Esplanade is here, it's just covered in years of vegetation.
But if you look hard enough there are clues left.
Look.
Drains, for no apparent reason.
It's some kind of base, a sort of octagonaI concrete thing.
The further afield you look, the more of Ravenscar you find.
There's even an old railway platform.
These are all that remain of a grand scheme hatched by Victorian entrepreneurs.
They drew up detailed plans for a new resort on the Yorkshire coast, Ravenscar.
Hundreds of workmen laid roads and sank drains.
They even constructed a brickworks ready to build the new town.
Ravenscar was to be an elegant, seaside resort to rival its neighbours, Whitby and Scarborough.
100 years ago, champagne-fuelled auctions were held at the Ravenhall Hotel.
The estate company sold Ravenscar, plot by plot.
The plan was for the new owners to build their own houses.
So a new seaside town would be born.
But in spite of roads being laid out, Ravenscar was never built.
Why? On the platform of the old station, I'm meeting the granddaughter of one of the original investors.
So, Monica, your grandmother bought a pIot here in this town, but what town? My grandmother bought a buiIding pIot here.
-And this is the proof? -Indeed, this is the conveyance.
And does it give us the address? 'Cause I've got a map here.
It does.
-It's in Loring Road.
-Right.
And Loring Road is just over there.
-Can we find your grandmother's pIot? -Let's have a try.
PresumabIy these gates must represent the oId roads.
Indeed, yes.
-So this gate must be St HiIda's Road.
-Yes, it is.
There we go.
So where are we on your pIot? Right, we're on Loring Road and the pIot was the second one aIong.
And it was 25 feet from here.
Which is what? That's going to be about six metres -So off we go.
-Yes, about six metres.
Right.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
(LAUGHING) So, that is your pIot, just a fieId.
Just a fieId.
HORTON: Monica's grandparents paid £18 for their plot and then waited for the town to grow around it.
And waited.
In fact, I have a Ietter here dated in 1937, after his wife's death, when he tried to seII it.
HORTON: ''UnfortunateIy, sites on this estate ''have not turned out as happiIy as was first anticipated.
'' That's a wonderfuI Iawyer's understatement, isn't it? Indeed, yes.
HORTON: So just why didn't Ravenscar turn out quite as ''happily as anticipated''? Well, one thing every resort needs is a beach.
But the beach here looks a long way down.
I've enlisted Mel Cunningham as my guide.
So how high are we above sea IeveI here? We're about nearIy 500 feet above sea IeveI here.
A compIeteIy mad pIace to buiId a resort.
Yeah.
On a day Iike today, it wouId be absoIuteIy super, but this is quite unusuaI.
NormaIIy the weather is much more incIement.
HORTON: The going gets tougher from here, but I'm hoping after the scramble, the beach will be worth it.
The Iast Ieg.
So, MeI, now we've got aII the way down, where's the sandy beach? WeII, I'm afraid there isn't any sand as such.
It's aII rock and shaIe.
The most inhospitabIe pIace ever and we've come from aII the way up there.
But how did aII those Victorian and Edwardian Iadies expect to come down to the beach? There were some stone steps constructed which did take them right down to the beach.
But they've since sIipped away.
HORTON: The steps never did draw crowds down to the beach.
Many prospective buyers were put off by Ravenscar's windswept location, and those who did buy were reluctant to build.
Today, this villa on Marine Esplanade stands alone.
But could Ravenscar ever have worked? Well, the same entrepreneurs successfully established Lee-on-the-Solent on the south coast, and on a day like this you wonder whether a little bit more commitment was all it would have taken here in Yorkshire.
But the chance has gone.
The National Trust bought the land in 1977.
So now Ravenscar, the town that never was, will never be.
OLIVER: A few miles down the coast is Scarborough.
And Scarborough is a town that has no trouble attracting people.
Even on a wet, windy day, the surf kayakers are out.
I'm Jason Raper and today I'm with Scarborough Canoe Club, and we're going in the sea surfing.
It should just be really good fun.
JASON: When I was younger, I was in Scotland on an activity week, and I went kayaking and I just took to it straightaway and thought this is what I want to do.
You don't really have time to think when you see a wave coming.
There might be two or three seconds, so you just have to just quickly think, ''Am I going to try and catch it?'' When you're coming from the top of the wave down into the bottom of the wave, the speed, you pick it up so quickly.
It's like really fast acceleration.
That's just a great feeling.
I just find it really natural when I'm kayaking.
The weather doesn't really make that much difference.
If it's raining, it doesn't matter 'cause you're wet anyway.
It's about time for a bacon sandwich or summat.
OLIVER: Spurn Point reaches out into the North Sea and marks our entrance to the Humber Estuary.
We've arrived at our final destination, the port of Hull.
Because this seafaring city faces east, Hull has been a vital link in a chain connecting Europe with the rest of the world.
In the 19th century, millions of people were desperate to escape Eastern Europe and make a fresh start.
This great port of Hull became the unlikely gateway to a new life of freedom and opportunity in America.
Howard Wolinsky's grandfather, Henry, was one of those migrants, en route from Lithuania to Boston.
Though he never met his grandfather, Howard has arrived in Hull to retrace his footsteps.
-Is that a photograph of your grandfather? -That's right.
-And what age is he there? -He's aImost 70 years oId, in Boston.
-What do you hope to find here in HuII? -WeII, more answers.
I'd Iike to know more about what his Iife was Iike the brief time he was in HuII.
My sister and one of my sons and my wife are here now.
And the four of us went to Lithuania Iast year and actuaIIy went to the town he was from, and waIked where he waIked, and now we're saiIing where he saiIed.
OLIVER: Like many people migrating to the New World, Howard's grandfather was an Eastern European Jew escaping Tsarist Russia.
The Jews had been confined to a region alongside Russia's western border, which included much of present-day Lithuania.
Conditions were poor, and brutal repression set in motion a mass exodus.
Between 1870 and 1914, for over two million European refugees, Hull was a lifeline.
To get to America, Howard's grandfather bought a one-way ticket.
The first stage was a train to Hamburg, and then on to Hull, a 32-hour voyage across the North Sea.
We're meeting local historian Nick Evans to retrace the next stage of Howard's grandfather's journey.
So, having navigated a series of Iocks and docks, this is where on 1st August, 1892, your ancestor wouId have Ianded.
The vesseI wouId have moored aIongside this dockside here and your ancestor wouId have disembarked here and then gone -Right here? -Right here, this very spot.
So this is where your grandfather wouId have taken his first steps on British soiI.
So I am waIking the waIk.
You are waIking the waIk, and we know from documentation in the IocaI archives that he arrived on Monday, 1st August.
You can see here, the Sprite, the steamship from Hamburg which actuaIIy arrived on 1st August at Prince's Dock.
AIongside the passengers there were aII different commodities, incIuding fruit, a piano and a variety of different other commodities.
And these are some of the images he wouId have seen upon arrivaI.
-OLIVER: So this is 19th-century HuII.
-EVANS: This is from 1890.
-This is the sights he wouId have seen.
-Is that that buiIding there? Yes, this is the dock's office at the time.
OLIVER: So was the port of Hull at that time the equivalent of an airport transit lounge, just for people passing through? EVANS: It was a major transport artery, just like Heathrow or Schiphol or JFK Airport are now.
That was the real hub of this transport movement on which many millions of migrants would come along.
WeII, it must have been an exciting thing to know you were on this journey to America.
Even though you put up with the seasickness and everything eIse, I think you have to keep your eye on the prize.
OLIVER: 21-year-old Henry Wolinsky wasn't alone.
Along with oranges and pianos, millions of names record the people who, for a few brief hours, passed through the port of Hull en route west.
And immediateIy after disembarkation, they wouId have waIked aIong streets such as this, where they wouId have gone to nearby Iodging houses and received food.
Just Iike being in transit in an airport today, peopIe passing through HuII over a hundred years ago on their way to the New WorId had time on their hands and needs to be met.
UItimateIy, this was where most of the migrants wouId have enjoyed a much-needed meaI.
Howard's grandfather wouId certainIy have come in here, because it was the onIy one which was run by a Jewish Iodging-house keeper and provided Jewish kosher food.
Are there any records of what they ate? What was on the menu? EVANS: Dry bread, herring - famiIiar foods for these migrants.
-No bageIs? -No bageIs, unfortunateIy, no.
OLIVER: Once fed, Howard's grandfather was moved to the railway station to start his onward journey to America.
The migrants were moved through HuII under escort and kept increasingIy apart from the IocaIs.
ChoIera was the big fear.
There'd been outbreaks of the disease in ports across Europe and choIera was a kiIIer.
Public concern over disease resulted in a purpose-built platform being added to the train station, along with a special waiting room for migrants.
These days it's a pub.
I wonder what your grandfather wouId have thought, if he'd known that in 1 20 years' time one of his grandsons wouId be in the same buiIding that he waited in before he went to the New WorId.
WeII, I wouId hope that he wouId find it ironic and satisfying that the generations continued.
Many of his other descendants of his brothers were kiIIed in the HoIocaust, so we're survivors.
OLIVER: After a rest, Howard's grandfather made his way to the platform.
Here, he joined a long roll-call of names who continued their journey westward.
The train took them to Liverpool, where they boarded a steamship bound for America.
Howard's family are joining him where his ancestors stood on the brink of this new beginning.
A successful American family, here today thanks to one young man's journey from the old world to the new.
This pIatform is compIeteIy overgrown, and this story is overIooked by history.
But it's no surprise, because for the miIIions of peopIe who passed through here, this was just a stepping stone.
The reaI story was going to happen somewhere eIse, somewhere far away.
And on this latest journey, we've also been far beyond our coast.
But home's never been far away.
The same ice that cut the fjords of Norway sculpted the landscape of Britain.
The Vikings who came to trade and Normans who came to invade.
D-Day beaches where Allies fought for French soil and places of pilgrimage linked across the English Channel.
The edge of Britain can feeI Iike the end of our story, but the coastIine doesn't cut us off from the worId.
It's where we reach out.
And this isn't the end of our journey.
We'II come down to the sea again, to our coast and beyond.
My journey will take me south along the majestic beauty of a coast where Scotland gives way to Northumberland and on to the industrial powerhouse of England's Northeast, all the way down to the Humber Estuary.
And I can promise you some extraordinary encounters.
Miranda Krestovnikoff gets dive-bombed by gannets.
This is what gannets are reaIIy famous for, this pIummet right into the water to catch the fish.
OLIVER: Dick Strawbridge has a riveting experience.
(RATTLING) Imagine doing haIf a miIIion of these.
OLIVER: Mark Horton Hey, hey, hey.
OLIVER: is fighting with Vikings.
-Do you stiII beIieve you can move it? -ALL: Yes.
Go! OLIVER: And some tough ladies pit themselves against a two-ton lifeboat to test the legend of a famous rescue.
This is Coast.
From Norway, I've crossed the North Sea.
Now we're on our way to the Humber Estuary and the port of Hull, a journey connecting England and Scotland, which starts at another port, Rosyth.
There's a certain romance to a port.
In among all the machinery there's a tangible sense of connections to the wider world.
And ports Iike this are connected to every one of us.
This wood has traveIIed aII the way from Latvia, and this, in turn, is used to make paIIets Iike these.
And paIIets are used to carry aII the things that peopIe want - teIevisions, washing machines, fridges, you name it.
AII goods that are themseIves imported.
A staggering amount of stuff arrives by sea.
Food, medicine, clothes The coast is where we do business with the world.
Rosyth, though, wasn't built for trade.
It started life as a naval dockyard, serving in two World Wars and one Cold War.
But our hunger for goods meant that in 1999 part of the port was opened up to commerce.
I'm meeting Alf Baird to find out the scale of our sea trading today.
He's got some eye-opening numbers for me.
Just how much stuff do we import? WeII, the UK ports handIe 600 miIIion tons of trade every year, with a vaIue of 340 biIIion pounds.
Two-thirds of that's imports, one-third is exports.
OLIVER: On a gIobaI scaIe, how big a chunk of the market is that? BAIRD: WeII, the UK has Europe's Iargest port system and Iargest port trade of aII European countries.
95% of UK trade is carried by ship.
-OLIVER: 95%? -BAIRD: 95% by tonnage.
As an isIand nation, sea ports are absoIuteIy essentiaI.
OLIVER: Why do we import so much stuff? BAIRD: I think it's just part of a gIobaI trend, increased demand from consumers for a whoIe range of different products.
We've seen a phenomenaI increase in the size of container ships, which means the unit costs of transporting goods around the worId is much cheaper.
We now see jeans moving from Asia to Europe at 30 pence a pair of jeans, a teIevision for a coupIe of pounds.
You can source goods gIobaIIy, and that's what's happening.
OLIVER: We've engineered the coast to reach out to our neighbours, as well as keep them at bay.
Heading south, we'll explore how we built great ships, a remarkable gateway to a new world, and the coastal battles that built a nation.
One of Scotland's defining landmarks is the Forth Rail Bridge.
Painting the steel frame has long been held to be a never-ending task.
They've been brushing continually since its completion in 1890, but new paint technology means that when they've finished this coat, they can finally put their brushes down - for the next 20 years, anyway.
20 miles down the Firth, you find a landscape of dunes and beaches.
Now, I love spending time in places like this, but I always come prepared.
PeopIe quite often ask me what I keep in my bag.
SeriousIy, they do.
WeII, Iook, I can show you.
Amongst other things, sandwiches, obviousIy, and aIso research.
Look at that IittIe beauty.
A copy of Shoot! magazine from December 1970.
Now, what caught my eye was a IittIe photo-feature on page 5, very 1970s footbaIIers from GIasgow Rangers as it happens, and they're taking part in a grueIIing training regime that invoIved running up and down that very sand dune.
It became known as Murder HiII.
In the years since the Rangers players made it famous, the dune has taken its place in Scottish football folklore.
These days amateur teams come to Gullane to pit themselves against Murder Hill.
(LAUGHING) The eye of the tiger! My name is Mick McArdIe, manager of Chryston Amateurs, and we pIay footbaII from the CentraI Scottish Amateur League of ScotIand.
Murder HiII is tough.
AII footbaII teams from amateurs Iike ourseIves to professionaI teams use it every summer.
Murder, man! Murder! McARDLE: ReaIIy, it's very, very tough, and you see it in the expressions aIone in a guy's face.
Oh, it's hard.
I didn't expect that at aII.
McARDLE: The training itseIf, it's more for the Iower body, generaIIy the Iegs, the thighs and the caIf muscIes, etc.
You'II get a Iot of work in because the sand moves away from your feet, so it reaIIy works their muscIes very weII.
The biggest advantage though is for the Iung capacity.
Can't speak.
In our the pre-season sessions the Iast three years, the date they Iook for is when they're going to Murder HiII because they know that's going to be the hard session.
(CHEERING) OLIVER: Five miles down the coast from Murder Hill, out at sea, is a challenge that's in a different league.
Where the Firth of Forth meets the North Sea, standing sentinel is Bass Rock.
Sir David Attenborough calls this huge rock and its 150,000-strong gannet colony one of the wildlife wonders of the world.
Somewhere out there, in amongst aII that invigorating weather, is the Bass Rock.
Now, I've tried on three separate occasions to Iand there for Coast, and every time the weather has defeated me, but Coast doesn't give up easiIy.
Maybe Miranda wiII have more Iuck.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: Bass Rock looks almost welcoming in the early-morning sun.
I really want to get out there to see the gannets close up.
And I'm not alone.
Ben and Kirsty Burville are amateur wildlife photographers and keen divers.
In their day jobs, Ben's a doctor and Kirsty's a teacher.
They've come to Scotland to attempt something really ambitious.
They're going to try and fiIm the Bass Rock gannets diving underwater, something I have aIways wanted to do, and it's anything but straightforward.
Even though they're amateur film-makers, their track record's pretty good.
This footage of Ben diving with seals was taken by Kirsty just off the Farne Islands in Northumberland.
So why gannets? What's the big attraction of fiIming of gannets underwater? Over the Farnes every now and then you get gannets diving down, but onIy ones and twos.
It wouId be reaIIy, reaIIy interesting to see if I couId capture them as they go into the water from above the water and beIow, so where better to come but Bass Rock? So you're underwater.
Kirsty, what are you going to be up to? I'm going to be doing the fiIming topside, getting the gannets diving down, so it shouId be pretty spectacuIar.
It's going to be a reaI adventure for the day for both of us.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: While our amateur film-makers head off to find gannets diving underwater, I'm taking the more direct route.
To get a sense of the challenge Ben and Kirsty face, I need to see the birds up close, and you can only do that on their home base.
It's not easy to set foot onto Bass Rock.
Strong currents swirl around the cliffs and the mooring site can be treacherous.
Today I'm lucky and I can venture onto the rock, with Maggie Sheddon of the Scottish Seabird Centre as my guide.
Maggie, this is absoIuteIy spIendid.
You know, this is a reaI first for Coast.
No Coaster has ever been on Bass Rock.
I'm the first.
This is amazing.
I've never seen so many gannets in aII my Iife.
And it's the best time to be here because the birds are rearing their young.
That means the rock is full to capacity.
150,000 birds and their demanding chicks all hungry for fish.
Out on the water, some of the gannets are starting to dive for their dinner within range of Kirsty's camera.
Up here, it's a rare chance for me to get close to the gannets.
Normally you only see them in flight or as they're plunging into the sea.
When they're diving, they hit the water at an incredibIe speed.
How does their body actuaIIy cope with that? They can hit up to 60 miIes per hour.
BasicaIIy, they have air sacs that infIate - tends to be around the neck, the upper chest area.
They have a membrane that fIips over the eye to protect the eye, and they have a moveabIe pIate just at the back of the biII, so when they hit the water, everything is seaIed.
And IiteraIIy just before they dive in, the wings foId back Iike an arrow.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: 60 miles per hour.
With gannets hitting the water beak-first at such high speed, getting hit by one would be serious for Ben.
Okay.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: His plan is to shelter beneath the boat and try and film the dives from there.
So we'll have to encourage the birds to come as close as possible if Ben's going to have any chance.
To bring the birds in, we've got some reaIIy disgusting-smeIIing haddock heads here and some herring as weII.
The herring guIIs have moved in and now the gannets are coming in as weII.
Now we're getting some pIunging there.
Look at that, it's fantastic.
The gannets are diving closer to the boat, but still not close enough.
Sheltering under the boat, Ben will need to be within a few feet to get that crucial close-up.
To make things worse, he's battling strong tidal currents down there.
I'm using a pole camera to try and see how he's getting on.
I've found Ben.
Ben is surrounded by jellyfish, which makes getting close to the diving gannets even harder.
It's very, very difficuIt to get near to them.
It's very hard to stay underneath the boat.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: With Ben's dive time rapidly ticking away, we finally manage to lure some gannets within range of his underwater camera.
Look at that! AII of a sudden, they've just come right in.
We're seeing some great dives from up here, but underwater, it's been a struggle.
Ben's only had one chance.
It's time to see whether this amateur cameraman managed to get a shot a professional would be proud of.
So do you think you got anything good, then? I think there couId be a coupIe of good shots in amongst aII the As you can see, the visibiIity down there is not very good.
-Bit green, isn't it? -A Iot of green stuff there.
-Oh, weII done.
-There you are.
-That was great.
-That was a good one.
-BEN: So quick, isn't it? -KRESTOVNIKOFF: It's reaIIy quick.
ReaIIy quick.
That's so briIIiant.
You did reaIIy weII.
Ben and Kirsty have managed to capture the spectacle of gannets diving underwater.
What I'm coming away with is a sense of wonder at this extraordinary bird city just off our coast.
OLIVER: Hidden away across the water from Bass Rock is a little secret.
It's not easy to find, but Seacliff Harbour is reputedly Britain's smallest.
And with an opening just 10 feet wide, I'm not going to argue.
The harbour was constructed in 1890 by the local landowner, using a steam engine and compressed air to cut the stone.
Once busy with small salmon-fishing boats, now it's used by a solitary lobster fisherman.
There's room at Dunbar Harbour for plenty of boats.
They've also found room for a four-ton monument to the invisible force that moves our ships.
It commemorates Robert WiIson, a son of Dunbar who's remembered hereabouts as the inventor of the screw propeIIer.
But the thing is, as weII as Robert, the French, the EngIish, the Swedes and the Americans, they aII cIaim the invention of the screw propeIIer as weII.
Many countries might dispute Dunbar's claim to fame, but not far away was another invention, a tradition this time, that's unique to fishing communities on the East Coast.
20 miles south of Dunbar is Eyemouth.
TAMSIN MACKECHNIE: When I woke up, I sort of forgot it was a big day, and then when it dawned on me, all of a sudden, the butterflies started up and (EXCLAIMS) Really nervous.
OLIVER: Tamsin Mackechnie is about to be crowned the Eyemouth Herring Queen.
It's a title created in 1939 to celebrate the life of the town's fishing industry.
A new teenage queen is chosen each year.
I had an interview with about five peopIe, incIuding the town provost, and Iater on that night they came in and gathered us aII together and toId us who'd won.
I think they were looking really for someone who could be a role model to the younger children.
A Iot of the past Herring Queens have said to me, ''It's pretty much Iike getting married, it's reaIIy a big day.
'' MAUREEN DOUGALL: I remember the pipers pIaying, I remember the parade, and just the great feeIing for the day.
It was fantastic.
OLIVER: Before all that, there's the traditional three-mile sea voyage, while ahead the town of Eyemouth awaits its queen.
It was quite a priviIege to be Herring Queen, I think.
You feIt you were representing Eyemouth.
(HORN BLOWING) OLIVER: During her year as Herring Queen, Tamsin will carry out civic duties.
Today is her day.
I'm reaIIy nervous and shaking in front of aII those peopIe.
I remember the Iast sentence of my speech was, ''To fishermen aII round our coast, I extend greetings ''and good saiIing from this oId fishing town.
'' (CROWD CLAPPING) OLIVER: Leaving Scotland, we cross the border into Northumberland.
Here, in the Middle Ages, the monks of Holy Island laid the foundations for a new era of worship and learning.
But a terrifying threat from across the sea was about to shatter the Saxon world.
Mark Horton has travelled 1200 years back in time to meet our most infamous invaders.
It's June, 793.
For over a century, Northumbria has been the most powerfuI kingdom in AngIo-Saxon EngIand.
But over there on the hoIy isIand of Lindisfarne, something shocking is about to happen.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes it in gory detaiI.
''In this year, terrible portents appeared and miserably frightened the inhabitants.
''Flashes of lightning, fiery dragons in the sky, a great famine.
'' And a little after in the same year, ''The harrying of the heathen'' ''miserably destroyed God's church in Lindisfarne ''by rapine and slaughter.
'' (CLAMOURING) Vikings, pIundering, piIIaging and raping on our shores for the very first time.
The attack on Holy Island in 793 sent shockwaves across the land and created a powerful new mythology, the marauding Norseman.
From an early age, I've been fascinated with the Vikings.
(GROANING) Today, I get to realise an ambition and meet a Viking.
Well, a part-time one.
Kim Siddorn is secretary of a re-enactment society.
So Kim, you're the most magnificent Viking warrior.
Thank you.
-WeII, this is a Ieather jerkin.
-Yes, Ieather jerkin.
-And Iinen tunic beIow it.
-And this is what? That's seaI skin, and this is horse hide, Iined on the inside with siIk.
It's worth a king's ransom, this thing.
And what eIse have you got? This must be a scramsax? Yes.
This is a scramsax.
You can see the pattern weIding here in the bIade.
-Extraordinary.
-AII the fittings on there are siIver.
That's to sort of finish peopIe off in battIe, isn't it, reaIIy? I'd eat my tea with it, actuaIIy.
(CLAMOURING) The principaI defence of a Dark Age warrior -Oh, the home of the warrior is his shieId.
-is the shieId.
The shieId itseIf is the first Iine of defence for the warrior.
(GRUNTING) It aIso makes a convenient thing to bang.
''Hey! Hey! Hey!'' (LAUGHING) The sword is very much a sIashing weapon - none of this fine pointwork.
It's intended pureIy for butchering.
(GROANING) It's a weapon which you'd use on a figure-of-eight system.
You'd have come down across the body from your initiaI And then across this way.
And then, bringing your shieId up, Iead with the sword down across the body.
Perhaps cIeaving you in two if a man's uncIad in armour.
(SCREAMING) And of course, the monks at Lindisfarne wouId have had no escape.
It must have been such a nasty shock.
They weren't expecting it at aII.
You can hear it in what they said: ''500 years we've Iived in this isIand, ''and nothing ever Iike this happened before, it was terribIe.
''They came into God's house and kiIIed us aII.
'' SiIence.
MARK HORTON: Up at Bamburgh Castle, Kim's fellow re-enactors have set up a camp at a festival celebrating Saxon life.
It was this Saxon world that was rocked by the first Viking raid here on the Northumbrian coast, and the assaults that followed.
Before those Viking raids, wars between the different kingdoms of England were common, but the appearance of a common enemy here 1200 years ago was to alter the country's destiny.
That earIy raid reaIIy changed EngIandlBritain forever.
Yes, it did.
It gave us the beginnings of a nationaI identity.
It was The warring AngIo-Saxon kingdoms began to come together for the first time and it was the Viking raids that did it.
HORTON: After the catacIysm that happened here in 793, wars with the Vikings continued for another 200 years.
But one beneficiaI consequence was that in those wars the nation of EngIand was formed.
OLIVER: We've clocked up 150 miles, and I'm approaching the halfway mark on my journey down the East Coast.
And there's much more.
I'm just getting into my stride.
Next stop on our adventure south, Cullercoats.
In the 19th century, Cullercoats was a thriving fishing village.
It was the men who braved the North Sea, but what makes this place special is that it's the women of Cullercoats who are celebrated.
I've got a copy of a painting here.
What it shows is a group of viIIagers hauIing a Iifeboat aIong a beach.
But when you Iook at it, aImost the first thing you notice is that it's mostIy women.
In fact, the painting is caIIed The Women.
And there's an inscription on the frame that reads, ''On New Year's Day, 1861, ''the fisherwomen of CuIIercoats ''dragged the viIIage Iifeboat three miIes aIong the coast ''in a bIinding storm of snow and sIeet, to the rescue of a crew of a wrecked ship, ''the Lovely Nellie, and saved aII the crew but one boy.
'' Now, these must have been some tough women.
But who were they? The women of Cullercoats were renowned for their strength and stamina.
They carried fish to sell around neighbouring villages, ran the household and, according to some tales, even lifted their husbands out to the boats.
And to cap it all, my painting has them dragging a heavy lifeboat overland to rescue a stricken ship.
To get an insight into these hardy women, I'm calling on the granddaughter of one of Cullercoats' fisherwives.
-Come in.
Nice to see you.
-Thank you.
You, too.
OLIVER: Were women like your grandmother famous locally? It was onIy years after that peopIe reaIised what a unique, eIite group they were.
I just loved her.
She was a lovely, round little woman, you know, very kind and worked hard.
You know, she had to waIk miIes and miIes every day to seII the fish.
She did that for 50 years.
I've heard so much about how hard they worked.
JOAN: Well, the women did work hard - it was just their lives and that's what they'd been dished out.
And we shaII not see their Iike again? I don't think so, I don't think so.
They were tough.
OLIVER: This painting intrigues me more and more.
It has the Cullercoats women pulling a lifeboat along a headland through a blinding storm.
And Joan tells me those fisherwives of yesteryear really were that tough.
What I want to know is, are the modern women of Cullercoats as hardy as their great-grannies? There's only one way to find out.
We're going to recreate the painting.
And the first voIunteers have turned up.
Women of CuIIercoats (CHEERING) Legend has it that about 1 40 years ago, the women of CuIIercoats puIIed a Iifeboat through the teeth of a howIing gaIe for three miIes aIong the coast.
That was then, this is now.
Can you achieve the same feat? WOMEN: Yes! WeII, the women seem to be game.
AII we need now is a Iifeboat.
Luckily, Whitby Historic Lifeboat Trust have brought along a beautifully preserved specimen.
Is this, more or Iess, the kind of Iifeboat that wouId have been used in that mid-19th-century rescue? It's the same type of boat.
You'd find that actuaIIy if anything she's one of the smaIIer ones, and that she's onIy two and a quarter tons.
Now then, you're saying this is one of the smaII ones.
When I'm thinking about men hauIing, or women hauIing it, it Iooks pretty big and heavy to me.
Do you think that women aIone couId have moved a Iifeboat Iike that? -Oh, yes.
-They did frequentIy.
-You wouId say that! -I wouId say that, but it is possibIe.
OLIVER: The question is, do they still make women like they used to? SARA: (LAUGHING) That's going to be some effort.
OLIVER: While the Cullercoats ladies are limbering up for the challenge, I'm intrigued to know why the women of old had to drag a boat weighing tons along this windswept headland.
Robert Oliver is a sixth-generation Cullercoats lifeboat man.
Perhaps he'll know.
In the painting, the boat's being dragged.
Where is it being dragged to? From CuIIercoats here aIong the cIiff top aIong to Briardene, which is about two, two and a haIf miIes north of our station.
But it's a boat.
Why didn't they just put it in the water and go by sea? On the day, it was very, very severe weather, too bad to Iaunch here.
So what did they do next? Some of the viIIagers wouId have went away and got the horses and connected the horses up to the boat to puII the Iifeboat across the cIifftop.
-Horses? -Yeah.
But it's women in the picture.
The RNLI statement says there were horses.
-They shouIdn't be there.
-(CHUCKLING) Yeah.
OLIVER: Horses.
That's really thrown me.
So was it horses or women who did the pulling that night over 140 years ago, when a lifeboat was dragged along this coast? I've got to dig deeper to discover the truth.
Robert was right.
The Times of January 3rd, 1861, says of the Iifeboat, ''It was dragged aIong the coast by six horses and Iaunched from the sands ''amid great excitement.
'' So, The Times says there were horses, the painting shows women.
To make sure our lifeboat gets dragged along the headland, maybe the women of Cullercoats will need some help on standby.
-Hiya, CharIie.
How are you doing? -Nice to meet you.
So, what are these feIIas caIIed? The Iad you're stroking now, he's caIIed CIassic.
CHARLIE: He's our eIder statesman, he's 18 years of age.
And this Iad behind me, this is RoyaI.
-He's even bigger.
-Yes, he is.
He's 18.
3 hands.
How do you think they'II cope with puIIing a Iifeboat? CHARLIE: WeII, I'II be honest with you, it's a first for us.
OLIVER: These dray horses are powerful beasts and they're at the ready, if needed, for our recreation of the Cullercoats lifeboat drag.
But what's nagging me is if horses were used to pull the boat, then why aren't there any horses in my painting? If the artist wasn't recording a historical event, what was he trying to do? I'm meeting local art historian Steve Ratcliffe.
Steve, what can you teII me about this painting? WeII, this painting was painted by John CharIton in 1904.
And at the time it was painted, CuIIercoats was a weII-estabIished artists' coIony.
I don't think I expected to find great artists in this IittIe corner of EngIand.
A Iot of peopIe are surprised by it and they're quite stunned to find that a famous American artist, WinsIow Homer, was resident here for nearIy two years.
OLIVER: Over 20 years before Charlton painted the lifeboat drag, these pictures by the distinguished American artist Winslow Homer had already made the Cullercoats women famous.
Homer captured the strength and dignity of the fisherwives.
His work elevated them to near mythological status.
And these images of the Cullercoats women helped establish Winslow Homer as the greatest American painter of the 19th century.
He painted the women time and time again, always engaged in the harsh, day-to-day realities of coastal life.
Homer painted day-to-day Iife.
Is this, by CharIton, a painting of pIain fact? No, it's not.
It's a symboIic painting.
It's trying to express his feeIing, his admiration for the women of CuIIercoats through art.
So he's used a historic background, the 1861 rescue of the Lovely Nellie, to Iet peopIe know that he has a message to teII them of his respect and admiration for those women.
OLIVER: So, if my painting is a romantic image of the women of Cullercoats, perhaps it was created because a great artist had already immortalised them over 20 years earlier.
But the legend of the lifeboat drag persists.
It's a heroic story I still want to believe.
Could the women really have done it? Time to find out.
Right then, you said you couId do this.
Do you stiII beIieve you can move it? -WOMEN: Yes.
-Three, two, one Go! (LAUGHING) Didn't expect this for a minute.
Now the thing is, this is quite good fun in a way, but you have to remember that on New Year's Day, 1861, the crew of a stricken ship, the Lovely Nellie, was somewhere out there in a dreadfuI storm, so this wasn't about fun that day.
It was Iife and death.
On the flat, the women are getting a real momentum going, but on the upward slopes, it gets tougher and tougher, and don't forget on the night of the rescue, the boat was being pulled on a heavy wooden carriage.
Right, that's it, enough's enough.
You've done far more than I expected, honestIy, but I'm going to bring in the horses, so down ropes.
Fantastic, weII done.
(CHEERING) Just as on the night of the rescue, what was needed to cope with the terrain was the addition of some genuine horsepower.
Oh, no bother! I've spent a long time piecing together the facts of the night of the wreck of the Lovely Nellie over 1 40 years ago.
What I've discovered is that the whole community and their horses came to the rescue of the crew, saving all the lives bar one.
And whether it was horsepower or woman-power that hauled the boat down to the water, it's the power of legend that's given life to the story of the Cullercoats women.
A few miles south of Cullercoats you come to the mouth of the Tyne and the city of Newcastle.
For centuries, coal was exported down this river, but in March 1998, the last of the export vessels left the Tyne.
These days, the river is handling coal again - now it's imported.
Coal comes in here all the way from Russia.
Looks like sending coals to Newcastle is no longer a fool's errand.
Continuing south, we hit another famous northeastern river, the Weir.
Sunderland could once boast it was the largest ship-building town in the world.
During World War II, over a quarter of our merchant and navy ships were built here.
But as wartime production boomed, the seeds of a devastating decline were being sown.
Engineer Dick Strawbridge wants to know what silenced the shipyards.
DICK STRAWBRIDGE: Boats were built here for over 600 years.
Busy shipyards jostled for space along this river.
Now you'd hardly know it.
In their heyday, the Weirside yards were world famous.
Sheets of steel came in and finished ships rolled out.
What I find amazing is that this massive enterprise, like the ships it produced, was held together by one little component.
It was the dependence on this metal fastener that was both the strength and the weakness of the industry.
Most of the historic metaI frameworks that we marveI at are heId together by rivets.
And this is a rivet.
It does the same job as a nut and boIt hoIding two sheets of metaI together, but it doesn't come undone.
You heat it up untiI it's cherry red, then you put it through a hoIe, and then you bash both ends of it.
It then hoIds the sheets of metaI together.
When it cooIs down, it contracts and hoIds it even tighter.
It's an awfuI Iot of effort, but it works.
Riveters worked in teams or squads.
A heater heated up the rivets in a stove, then passed them or often threw them to a catcher.
The catcher's job was to take the red-hot rivet to a holder-up, who put the rivet in a hole connecting the two ship's panels.
The riveter then pounded the rivet home.
It was a labour-intensive job, and when the men left to fight in two World Wars, women were trained up to keep the yards busy.
Ship-building towns reverberated to the sound of riveting.
Phil Peek and Brian Hopkins worked as riveters in the shipyards of neighbouring Hartlepool.
-Brian Good to see you, PhiI.
-And you.
This is where the shipyard was that you actuaIIy buiIt ships.
BRIAN: The sIipway where this one was buiIt was over the other side there, 100 yards away, if that.
And how many rivets a day do you reckon a good team wouId put in? At Ieast 800, 900 a day.
We're reaIIy proud of the fact, the steeI pIate wouId come in there, when it Ieft here, the finished job, it couId go straight to sea and work.
How much did they get paid for riveting? -Eight and ninepence a hundred.
-Eight and ninepence a hundred? Yes, aII that was shared out amongst the squad.
But if it rained, we got sent home and signed the book for four shiIIing.
STRAWBRIDGE: Mary Power was a catcher on Phil's team.
Hey, Mary, come and join us.
Come and join us.
Come on.
-You used to work with PhiI? -Yes.
It's a very physicaI job, Mary, so what was it Iike as a woman being amongst aII these men that were doing aII this riveting? -WeII, you didn't think anything about it.
-HOPKINS: We won't answer that.
You just got in, you wore the overaIIs and the boys' boots and you just got on with the job.
What was the environment Iike? Was it noisy? -It was very noisy.
-You couIdn't hear yourseIf speak.
When I first started, I didn't know what they were on about, 'cause you used to speak with the sign Ianguage.
-STRAWBRIDGE: A sign Ianguage? -Yes, definiteIy.
2, 21/4 -21/4 rivets.
-2, 23/4.
-2, 2 3/4 rivets.
-That's the size? Yes.
-So caIIing for the size of the rivets? -Yes.
And those are short 'uns.
As a riveter, did you take pride in every singIe rivet you did? CertainIy, yeah.
I was a good riveter.
You knew that when you were working for Gray's, you were one of the best ship-buiIders going and there was no two ways about it.
STRAWBRIDGE: So if our ship-building was so good, where did it all go wrong? In the dark days of 1940, we desperately needed more merchant ships to keep the vital transatlantic supply lines open.
Churchill placed an urgent order for 60 cargo ships, but he didn't give the contract to British shipyards, instead he gave it to the Americans.
I'm meeting with David Aris to find out more.
Okay, David, why go to America? Because at that time in 1940, the U-Boats were massacring our merchant fIeet, particuIarIy in the North AtIantic.
And Churchill realised that the ships were being sunk at a rate which was greater than we could replace them from our own shipyards.
So we had to get the ships from somewhere else.
And taIk to me about the skiII of buiIding one of these ships.
You know, how Iong wouId it take to buiId one here? ProbabIy about six months to buiId a ship here in Thompsons.
And the ship was designed as a fuIIy riveted ship.
That was the practice at the time here on the River Weir and in other parts of this country.
Something Iike 480,000 rivets on one ship, per ship.
-HaIf a miIIion rivets per ship? -Yes, of that order.
Yeah.
STRAWBRIDGE: With a war on, the Americans didn't have time or enough trained workers to put in a half a million rivets per ship.
A faster method of joining panels was welding.
So now welding was adopted on an unprecedented scale.
What the Americans did have was lots of space.
In massive new shipyards, complete sections of the ship were constructed as separate units before being craned into place and welded together.
The American genius for mass production meant that ships were soon being built in under 50 days.
This new merchant fleet helped win the war by keeping Britain supplied with food, munitions and machinery.
The techniques of welding and pre-fabrication that built these ships would spell the end for riveting.
The problem for us was that mass production needs lots of space.
The old British shipyards didn't have room to expand, and they struggled to cope with the new welding age.
The industry fell into slow but terminal decline.
These days, riveting has all but disappeared, but even though we don't build many ships now, we still need riveters if we're going to preserve some of our historic maritime treasures.
I've come all the way to Suffolk to see riveting at first hand.
Everybody's weIding nowadays.
I couIdn't find any rivets being struck anywhere in the Northeast.
So I had to bring Brian and PhiI down to Lowestoft to the restoration of SS Robin, the oIdest compIete steamship in the worId, so they can give me their opinion on 21st-century riveting.
The SS Robin was launched in 1890.
She's a steel ship with a fully riveted hull, but she needs attention.
The team here are riveting some test plates in preparation for restoring the ship.
They've done riveting work on bridges and machinery, but never a ship.
It's a great chance for old hands Brian and Phil to pass on their wisdom.
-How's his riveting? -Okay.
-What do you reckon? -He's getting the hang of it.
(ALL LAUGHING) (RATTLING) Okay, what's your opinion? Come on, then, PhiI.
The top row's the best.
The top row's the best.
That's too short, that.
STRAWBRIDGE: WouId you empIoy the team? CertainIy, yes.
You've done aII right, son.
I've done aII right, have I? STRAWBRIDGE: We may not make them like this any more, but the SS Robin will be back afloat, rivets and all, in 2012, a monument to the glory days of British ship-building and riveting.
Thank goodness there are some peopIe - there's not many - but stiII some peopIe keeping aIive the skiIIs of our riveters.
OLIVER: Leaving the heavy industry of the Northeast behind, the mood changes.
Shipyards are replaced by rolling hills and sandy beaches.
We're in Yorkshire now, with well-known holiday destinations like Whitby and Scarborough, which has been attracting visitors for over 350 years.
Nestled between these two holiday hotspots is Ravenscar.
Ravenscar is a resort like no other.
It's known as the town that never was.
The question is, where is it? HORTON: I've programmed my sat nav for the main street of Ravenscar, the wonderfully named Marine Esplanade.
WOMAN ON NAVIGATION SYSTEM: Turn left, then take the second right.
Whoopsie, we're going straight into a rutted road.
There's some sort of kerb running up the middle of the road here.
WOMAN ON NAVIGATION SYSTEM: After 200 yards, turn right.
(CHUCKLING) WOMAN ON NAVIGATION SYSTEM: You have reached your destination.
That's it.
Marine EspIanade.
That's the strangest Marine EspIanade I've ever seen.
According to sat nav, there should be roads here, and Marine Esplanade is here, it's just covered in years of vegetation.
But if you look hard enough there are clues left.
Look.
Drains, for no apparent reason.
It's some kind of base, a sort of octagonaI concrete thing.
The further afield you look, the more of Ravenscar you find.
There's even an old railway platform.
These are all that remain of a grand scheme hatched by Victorian entrepreneurs.
They drew up detailed plans for a new resort on the Yorkshire coast, Ravenscar.
Hundreds of workmen laid roads and sank drains.
They even constructed a brickworks ready to build the new town.
Ravenscar was to be an elegant, seaside resort to rival its neighbours, Whitby and Scarborough.
100 years ago, champagne-fuelled auctions were held at the Ravenhall Hotel.
The estate company sold Ravenscar, plot by plot.
The plan was for the new owners to build their own houses.
So a new seaside town would be born.
But in spite of roads being laid out, Ravenscar was never built.
Why? On the platform of the old station, I'm meeting the granddaughter of one of the original investors.
So, Monica, your grandmother bought a pIot here in this town, but what town? My grandmother bought a buiIding pIot here.
-And this is the proof? -Indeed, this is the conveyance.
And does it give us the address? 'Cause I've got a map here.
It does.
-It's in Loring Road.
-Right.
And Loring Road is just over there.
-Can we find your grandmother's pIot? -Let's have a try.
PresumabIy these gates must represent the oId roads.
Indeed, yes.
-So this gate must be St HiIda's Road.
-Yes, it is.
There we go.
So where are we on your pIot? Right, we're on Loring Road and the pIot was the second one aIong.
And it was 25 feet from here.
Which is what? That's going to be about six metres -So off we go.
-Yes, about six metres.
Right.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
(LAUGHING) So, that is your pIot, just a fieId.
Just a fieId.
HORTON: Monica's grandparents paid £18 for their plot and then waited for the town to grow around it.
And waited.
In fact, I have a Ietter here dated in 1937, after his wife's death, when he tried to seII it.
HORTON: ''UnfortunateIy, sites on this estate ''have not turned out as happiIy as was first anticipated.
'' That's a wonderfuI Iawyer's understatement, isn't it? Indeed, yes.
HORTON: So just why didn't Ravenscar turn out quite as ''happily as anticipated''? Well, one thing every resort needs is a beach.
But the beach here looks a long way down.
I've enlisted Mel Cunningham as my guide.
So how high are we above sea IeveI here? We're about nearIy 500 feet above sea IeveI here.
A compIeteIy mad pIace to buiId a resort.
Yeah.
On a day Iike today, it wouId be absoIuteIy super, but this is quite unusuaI.
NormaIIy the weather is much more incIement.
HORTON: The going gets tougher from here, but I'm hoping after the scramble, the beach will be worth it.
The Iast Ieg.
So, MeI, now we've got aII the way down, where's the sandy beach? WeII, I'm afraid there isn't any sand as such.
It's aII rock and shaIe.
The most inhospitabIe pIace ever and we've come from aII the way up there.
But how did aII those Victorian and Edwardian Iadies expect to come down to the beach? There were some stone steps constructed which did take them right down to the beach.
But they've since sIipped away.
HORTON: The steps never did draw crowds down to the beach.
Many prospective buyers were put off by Ravenscar's windswept location, and those who did buy were reluctant to build.
Today, this villa on Marine Esplanade stands alone.
But could Ravenscar ever have worked? Well, the same entrepreneurs successfully established Lee-on-the-Solent on the south coast, and on a day like this you wonder whether a little bit more commitment was all it would have taken here in Yorkshire.
But the chance has gone.
The National Trust bought the land in 1977.
So now Ravenscar, the town that never was, will never be.
OLIVER: A few miles down the coast is Scarborough.
And Scarborough is a town that has no trouble attracting people.
Even on a wet, windy day, the surf kayakers are out.
I'm Jason Raper and today I'm with Scarborough Canoe Club, and we're going in the sea surfing.
It should just be really good fun.
JASON: When I was younger, I was in Scotland on an activity week, and I went kayaking and I just took to it straightaway and thought this is what I want to do.
You don't really have time to think when you see a wave coming.
There might be two or three seconds, so you just have to just quickly think, ''Am I going to try and catch it?'' When you're coming from the top of the wave down into the bottom of the wave, the speed, you pick it up so quickly.
It's like really fast acceleration.
That's just a great feeling.
I just find it really natural when I'm kayaking.
The weather doesn't really make that much difference.
If it's raining, it doesn't matter 'cause you're wet anyway.
It's about time for a bacon sandwich or summat.
OLIVER: Spurn Point reaches out into the North Sea and marks our entrance to the Humber Estuary.
We've arrived at our final destination, the port of Hull.
Because this seafaring city faces east, Hull has been a vital link in a chain connecting Europe with the rest of the world.
In the 19th century, millions of people were desperate to escape Eastern Europe and make a fresh start.
This great port of Hull became the unlikely gateway to a new life of freedom and opportunity in America.
Howard Wolinsky's grandfather, Henry, was one of those migrants, en route from Lithuania to Boston.
Though he never met his grandfather, Howard has arrived in Hull to retrace his footsteps.
-Is that a photograph of your grandfather? -That's right.
-And what age is he there? -He's aImost 70 years oId, in Boston.
-What do you hope to find here in HuII? -WeII, more answers.
I'd Iike to know more about what his Iife was Iike the brief time he was in HuII.
My sister and one of my sons and my wife are here now.
And the four of us went to Lithuania Iast year and actuaIIy went to the town he was from, and waIked where he waIked, and now we're saiIing where he saiIed.
OLIVER: Like many people migrating to the New World, Howard's grandfather was an Eastern European Jew escaping Tsarist Russia.
The Jews had been confined to a region alongside Russia's western border, which included much of present-day Lithuania.
Conditions were poor, and brutal repression set in motion a mass exodus.
Between 1870 and 1914, for over two million European refugees, Hull was a lifeline.
To get to America, Howard's grandfather bought a one-way ticket.
The first stage was a train to Hamburg, and then on to Hull, a 32-hour voyage across the North Sea.
We're meeting local historian Nick Evans to retrace the next stage of Howard's grandfather's journey.
So, having navigated a series of Iocks and docks, this is where on 1st August, 1892, your ancestor wouId have Ianded.
The vesseI wouId have moored aIongside this dockside here and your ancestor wouId have disembarked here and then gone -Right here? -Right here, this very spot.
So this is where your grandfather wouId have taken his first steps on British soiI.
So I am waIking the waIk.
You are waIking the waIk, and we know from documentation in the IocaI archives that he arrived on Monday, 1st August.
You can see here, the Sprite, the steamship from Hamburg which actuaIIy arrived on 1st August at Prince's Dock.
AIongside the passengers there were aII different commodities, incIuding fruit, a piano and a variety of different other commodities.
And these are some of the images he wouId have seen upon arrivaI.
-OLIVER: So this is 19th-century HuII.
-EVANS: This is from 1890.
-This is the sights he wouId have seen.
-Is that that buiIding there? Yes, this is the dock's office at the time.
OLIVER: So was the port of Hull at that time the equivalent of an airport transit lounge, just for people passing through? EVANS: It was a major transport artery, just like Heathrow or Schiphol or JFK Airport are now.
That was the real hub of this transport movement on which many millions of migrants would come along.
WeII, it must have been an exciting thing to know you were on this journey to America.
Even though you put up with the seasickness and everything eIse, I think you have to keep your eye on the prize.
OLIVER: 21-year-old Henry Wolinsky wasn't alone.
Along with oranges and pianos, millions of names record the people who, for a few brief hours, passed through the port of Hull en route west.
And immediateIy after disembarkation, they wouId have waIked aIong streets such as this, where they wouId have gone to nearby Iodging houses and received food.
Just Iike being in transit in an airport today, peopIe passing through HuII over a hundred years ago on their way to the New WorId had time on their hands and needs to be met.
UItimateIy, this was where most of the migrants wouId have enjoyed a much-needed meaI.
Howard's grandfather wouId certainIy have come in here, because it was the onIy one which was run by a Jewish Iodging-house keeper and provided Jewish kosher food.
Are there any records of what they ate? What was on the menu? EVANS: Dry bread, herring - famiIiar foods for these migrants.
-No bageIs? -No bageIs, unfortunateIy, no.
OLIVER: Once fed, Howard's grandfather was moved to the railway station to start his onward journey to America.
The migrants were moved through HuII under escort and kept increasingIy apart from the IocaIs.
ChoIera was the big fear.
There'd been outbreaks of the disease in ports across Europe and choIera was a kiIIer.
Public concern over disease resulted in a purpose-built platform being added to the train station, along with a special waiting room for migrants.
These days it's a pub.
I wonder what your grandfather wouId have thought, if he'd known that in 1 20 years' time one of his grandsons wouId be in the same buiIding that he waited in before he went to the New WorId.
WeII, I wouId hope that he wouId find it ironic and satisfying that the generations continued.
Many of his other descendants of his brothers were kiIIed in the HoIocaust, so we're survivors.
OLIVER: After a rest, Howard's grandfather made his way to the platform.
Here, he joined a long roll-call of names who continued their journey westward.
The train took them to Liverpool, where they boarded a steamship bound for America.
Howard's family are joining him where his ancestors stood on the brink of this new beginning.
A successful American family, here today thanks to one young man's journey from the old world to the new.
This pIatform is compIeteIy overgrown, and this story is overIooked by history.
But it's no surprise, because for the miIIions of peopIe who passed through here, this was just a stepping stone.
The reaI story was going to happen somewhere eIse, somewhere far away.
And on this latest journey, we've also been far beyond our coast.
But home's never been far away.
The same ice that cut the fjords of Norway sculpted the landscape of Britain.
The Vikings who came to trade and Normans who came to invade.
D-Day beaches where Allies fought for French soil and places of pilgrimage linked across the English Channel.
The edge of Britain can feeI Iike the end of our story, but the coastIine doesn't cut us off from the worId.
It's where we reach out.
And this isn't the end of our journey.
We'II come down to the sea again, to our coast and beyond.