BBC The Boats that Built Britain_5of6_The Pilot Cutter
Transcript
00:00Britain is an island, surrounded by a cold and unforgiving sea.
00:07For centuries, it protected us from attack.
00:10But to prosper and thrive, we would need to do more than just hide behind her saltwater shield.
00:16Britain needed brave men, willing to venture out into the unknown,
00:21and she needed good boats to take them there.
00:24I've spent my life at sea.
00:28Now I'm going to take passage on six boats that together tell the story of modern Britain.
00:34Built for exploration, war, fishing, industry and our very survival,
00:41these are the boats that built Britain and changed the way we live forever.
00:46This time, I'm going to be sailing aboard a Bristol Channel pilot cutter.
00:54By the mid-19th century, the country was at the centre of a shipping network that spanned the globe.
01:00But to arrive safely in harbour, these ships needed pilots
01:04to guide them on the last, most dangerous leg of their journey.
01:09The Bristol Channel ports were of central importance,
01:12and the Bristol Channel pilot cutter was uniquely adapted to operate off a coastline
01:17that was powering not just Britain, but the world.
01:21And this is the boat that powered it all.
01:40The Bristol Channel pilot cutter is among the most charismatic of all Britain's sailing vessels.
01:47Fast, powerful, able to withstand any weather,
01:51she took the pilots out to the ships coming up the Bristol Channel,
01:55which is a notoriously difficult stretch of water,
01:58at a time when the British Empire really needed them.
02:01Without pilots, there was going to be no shipping.
02:04No shipping, no British Empire.
02:09The Bristol Channel has always been one of Britain's most important ocean highways,
02:14a vital trading centre for ships arriving from the west.
02:23Today, any vessel entering the Channel is meticulously checked and identified
02:28before a pilot is put on board.
02:31He guides the ship on what is potentially the most dangerous leg of her journey,
02:35the final trip from the open sea into harbour.
02:40But in the 19th century,
02:42the Bristol Channel had all the makings of a graveyard for incoming vessels.
02:49Ships were bigger than ever before,
02:51and one wrong step could mean the loss of expensive cargo, or worse, loss of life.
02:58To navigate these challenging waters required local knowledge,
03:02provided by a local expert, the pilot.
03:06Self-employed and aggressively independent,
03:09the pilots were paid only by the ships they boarded.
03:13Their life was a constant battle to be the first pilot out there,
03:17and to make sure you won that race,
03:19you needed a boat that was seaworthy, safe, and above all, fast.
03:26It was a cutthroat business on what could often be a desperate stretch of water.
03:31Only one boat was up to the job.
03:33The Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.
03:38This boat is a true thoroughbred.
03:40Her design evolved from thousands of hours at sea.
03:44The perfect combination of form and function
03:47that many say hasn't been bettered by any sailing boat since.
03:55But this is definitely not a gentleman's yacht.
03:58But this is definitely not a gentleman's yacht.
04:01She's a working boat, designed for working seamen.
04:06Men like Lewis Alexander, who stopped at nothing
04:09to make sure his Pilot Cutter was the fastest, most radical boat that could be built.
04:19But you can't fully understand the world of the Pilot Cutter
04:22until you've grasped the essence of the waters they had to work.
04:29Even on a calm day,
04:31the tidal forces of the Bristol Channel are deceptively powerful.
04:37To find out more, I've come to meet local sailor Rob Salvage,
04:40a man who knows the sea here as well as anyone.
04:45Two days after a full moon, you've got big spring tides
04:49and massive swirling of unimaginable amounts of water
04:52coming in and out of the Bristol Channel.
04:54It's all got to go somewhere. It's all got to do something.
04:57And it's what it does and where it goes
04:59and how it corresponds with the underlying contours
05:02that is the key and the secret to understanding what the tides are here
05:07and how they can be either your friend or your enemy.
05:10It's not difficult to understand why this tide is one of the largest in the world
05:14when you look at the geography of where we are.
05:17The two shorelines funnel the Atlantic into a bottleneck up by Bristol.
05:22It comes in from over here.
05:24Here it is. Here's the tide coming in.
05:26And it reaches a point here between the west coast of Wales
05:31and Cornwall, if you like, down there.
05:33And once it gets here, it can't stop because there's loads more water behind it.
05:36So it just keeps going, keeps going, keeps going,
05:38and it funnels right the way up.
05:40And it's going sweeping right up the River Severn,
05:42up past Gloucester, up towards Worcester,
05:44until it's got nowhere else to go.
05:46And then the height just keeps rising and rising and rising.
05:50The tide rises and falls so fast
05:53that what looks like open water one minute
05:56can turn into a sandbank or rocky shoal the next,
05:59lurking, ready to wreck your ship.
06:03So the rock is virtually dry when the tide's out,
06:05and then there's 42 feet of water.
06:07That's all got to appear here,
06:09and you've got to imagine it expanded across the whole width of the channel.
06:13It's all got to appear from nothing to that
06:16in the space of about five and a half hours.
06:19What this means is that with every tide,
06:22more than 13 billion tonnes of water pour into the Bristol Channel,
06:26only to be flushed out again six hours later.
06:30But those 13 billion tonnes aren't just moving up and down,
06:34they're roaring along too.
06:36Veritable torrents, often moving faster than a boat can sail.
06:42And those tides could spell catastrophe
06:45for any vessel inbound to Bristol, Cardiff or any other port around here.
06:52No matter if you'd sailed your ship safely from America or Australia,
06:56it was when the waters narrowed into the Bristol Channel
06:59and the tides really began to rumble that danger lurked.
07:03And that was when you needed a pilot, a local man, to show the way.
07:10So what sort of person makes a good pilot?
07:15For John Rich, piloting runs deep in his veins.
07:19Tom! Nice to see you.
07:22It goes back more than three generations
07:25to the days when his great-grandfather sailed the magnificent pilot cutters.
07:29Oh, my goodness!
07:31Well, well, that was your...
07:33He was... Yes.
07:35Today, John's retired, but he's served for 30 years
07:38as a Bristol Channel pilot on modern diesel-powered pilot boats.
07:42To pass for his licence,
07:44he had to know that he could successfully navigate any ship
07:48from a supertanker to a nuclear submarine without a second thought.
07:53And whatever ship he was boarding, egos had to be set aside.
07:58The pilot has complete charge of the navigation
08:01and is totally responsible for anything that happens to that vessel
08:05between the time he boards and the captain discharges him.
08:10I piloted around about 2,000 ships.
08:13Yes.
08:14I think on only three occasions
08:17I can recall having any problem at all with the captain.
08:21But at any time in the channel, he could say,
08:24''No, pilot, I don't like the way you're doing this.
08:27''Give me your note. I'm discharging you.''
08:30Then his ship was deemed unseaworthy.
08:33But so severe is the Bristol Channel tide
08:36that pilots are very often greeted with huge relief.
08:40I had one Greek, and he was nearly in tears.
08:44And I said, ''What's the problem?''
08:46And this was in the early 1960s.
08:49He had a wartime chart, 1945.
08:52Oh, my goodness.
08:53That's all he had.
08:54All the buoys had changed, the lights had changed.
08:57And he said, ''That's a terrible channel, pilot.''
09:00And he hugged me.
09:03God, I'm glad to see you, pilot.
09:05This is a terrible channel.
09:08Meeting John has given me a real insight into the job of piloting.
09:12But if it was tough when John was doing it on a modern boat,
09:16it was even tougher back in the age of sail.
09:19And for hundreds of years,
09:21pilots were striving to develop the perfect boat for the job.
09:27There have been pilots on the Bristol Channel since records began.
09:31And like most places, in the early days,
09:33the guys didn't have specially built boats.
09:36They used whatever they had.
09:38And in this book here, there's a picture of the sort of boats
09:42that pilots were using all the way around the UK.
09:46This is a general-purpose sort of boat.
09:48Probably did a bit of fishing, four honest longshoremen there,
09:51all of them capable of doing the job.
09:54But when you look at what happened to her in heavy seas,
09:58you can see that there was a limit
10:00to what you could do with a boat like that.
10:02She didn't have a deck, you see, she was open,
10:04which made her great for a bit of inshore fishing,
10:06but not much good for standing out at sea in the Bristol Channel
10:09on a nasty night in a gale of wind with breaking water.
10:12It was clear, as trade increased, they were going to need a better boat.
10:17By the beginning of the 19th century,
10:19the volume of shipping into the Bristol Channel
10:21was increasing rapidly as the Industrial Revolution gained momentum.
10:25Now, pilot boats needed to be able to put further out to sea in any weather.
10:30Slowly, the form of the boats began to improve.
10:35We've got a linesplain here of one of the boats
10:38that was operating round about 1800.
10:41The run, the way the water pours off the stern of the boat,
10:44is a bit messy, quite honestly.
10:47It's not going to be fast, this boat,
10:49but she does look as if she's going to be very comfortable.
10:52She's got a deck on her.
10:54She's not really built for speed, but she looks seaworthy and solid.
10:59As commerce in the Channel increased,
11:01so did the competition between pilots.
11:04To beat their fellows out to the ships,
11:06pilots were constantly developing faster, more able boats.
11:11The competition was hotting up,
11:13and to keep your nose ahead in the endless race to the shipping lanes,
11:16performance was the key.
11:18By the end of the 19th century,
11:20through a process of continual evolution and improvement,
11:23the pilots had come up with the perfect boat for the job,
11:27the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.
11:30Absolute perfection on the water,
11:32and there was nothing like her out there at all.
11:36If we look at her here, we can see she's got a fine, high bow,
11:40which is going to push the seas aside,
11:42but the entry is now lean.
11:44She can work towards the bottom of the boat,
11:46and the entry is now lean.
11:48She can work to windward.
11:49Look at her sail.
11:50There's many a yacht today can't stow a sail like that.
11:53Those guys have got real pride in this vessel.
11:57She's so well-designed and so perfectly balanced
12:00that there's nobody at the helm.
12:01Look, she's sailing herself.
12:03The guys are up at the mast, attending to the rig,
12:05getting the sails on.
12:08There were no prizes for setting place in pilotage,
12:10and the owner of this boat knew that he could go out to sea,
12:13spread his canvas,
12:14and absolutely thrash any other boats that had come before him.
12:18He was going to be out there to windward,
12:20picking off the prime ships
12:22and coming home with his pockets full of money.
12:27But even with the essential parameters in place,
12:30the process of development never stopped
12:33as pilots fought to gain the tiniest advantage over their rivals.
12:38And in this shed undergoing restoration is the best of the lot,
12:42the fastest pilot cutter ever built,
12:45Kindly Light.
12:50Here she is, Kindly Light.
12:53Beyond argument, the fastest pilot cutter
12:55that ever sailed the waters of the Bristol Channel.
12:59And when you look at her, you can see why.
13:03Built in 1911,
13:05Kindly Light is the most perfect example
13:07of everything that makes pilot cutters so special.
13:1153 feet of grace and power
13:13that all begins under the water in her revolutionary hull.
13:18A typical middle-of-the-road pilot cutter
13:20actually had quite what we call a slack midship section.
13:24If you looked at her from the bow towards where I am,
13:27you would see a boat that was that sort of shape
13:29with a little bit of tip right at the bottom.
13:33Look at this.
13:34It's like a wine glass all the way,
13:37dropping dead to the keel
13:39and swelling out here.
13:41Absolutely sexy shape.
13:43And that carries on right to the stern.
13:45And if you look at her, looking towards the bow,
13:48this hollow shape goes all the way to the stem.
13:51This is so radical,
13:53she could have shown the yachts of her day a thing or two.
13:57With her athletic lines and deep keel,
13:59her pilot had cracked the perfect combination
14:02of speed and seaworthiness.
14:04A boat that could sail fast in even the roughest conditions.
14:09On deck, the same attention to detail
14:12and adaptation to a working life at sea are just as evident.
14:17Staunchly constructed and ruthlessly efficient,
14:20there isn't a single weak link
14:22or unnecessary component anywhere on board.
14:27I really can't think of any boat that is better set up
14:30for shorthanded sailing than one of these pilot cutters.
14:33All you need is to hand.
14:36Tiller for steering the boat.
14:38If she makes water, your pump is right here.
14:42And if you want to drop the mainsail in a hurry
14:44to slow the boat down or stop her,
14:46it's made fast right here on these posts.
14:49All done by one man from here.
14:52The product of generations of working seamen,
14:55just developing and developing and developing
14:58until they come up with something that's near perfection.
15:02All pilot cutters were good,
15:04but the reason why Kind Delight is so special
15:07comes down to her owner.
15:09He was a great seaman, but also a canny businessman,
15:13and he knew that if he built the quickest boat,
15:16he'd beat his fellow pilots out to the biggest ships.
15:19His name was Lewis Alexander,
15:22the most successful pilot of them all.
15:26Lewis Alexander paid £500 for this boat.
15:29That's 40% more than the average pilot cutter of this era.
15:33I suppose if you commissioned one today,
15:35you wouldn't see much change out of three quarters of a million pounds.
15:38It's a huge investment for a working man,
15:41but the rewards were big.
15:44In one year, this boat turned over £1,500,
15:49a huge return on the investment,
15:52and more money than the average working man was going to see in a lifetime.
15:57For Lewis Alexander and Kind Delight, it was boom time.
16:02For centuries, Bristol had been the dominant port in the area,
16:06but as the Industrial Revolution got into full swing,
16:09other ports in the Channel grew to cope with the relentless demand.
16:14By the mid-19th century, a new trade was becoming established,
16:18and it wasn't centred in Bristol.
16:20It was here, in South Wales.
16:24And this new trade was about to change the life
16:27of the Bristol Channel pilots forever.
16:32This is a lump of Welsh steam coal from the Rhondda.
16:38The Rhondda isn't far from the coast,
16:40and when the world became hungry for this product,
16:43it was here, in Barry, that the export trade really took off.
16:49In 1881, Barry had been a sleepy village of 85 souls.
16:5430 years later, it became the centre of a shipping network
16:59spanning the world, exporting over 11 million tonnes of coal a year.
17:05Pilots had never been in greater demand,
17:08and Lewis Alexander was determined to exploit this opportunity,
17:12backing his faith in his boat no matter what the weather.
17:19It oft times happened that the pilot, when he got alongside the ship,
17:24couldn't get back to the pilot cadet.
17:27On one occasion, I myself was boarding a Spanish steamer
17:32off the foreland, blowing very hard from the west.
17:36Now the sea was sweeping across her bow,
17:39and as I scowled up towards the ship's bow,
17:43the punch came over and threw me into the lee side.
17:49And I thought, that's enough of that.
17:53Listening to Lewis Alexander's voice from all those years ago
17:56gives a sense of life as a pilot.
17:59But there's a man in Barry who actually met him.
18:02John Hart, for years, coxswain of the Barry lifeboat.
18:06Did you actually meet Lewis?
18:08Well, I was in his presence,
18:10but I wouldn't have dared speak to him or anything like that.
18:13Right. So what sort of man was Lewis, then?
18:16He was very hard-working, deeply religious.
18:19He would never work on a Sunday,
18:21and he would never sail on a Sunday.
18:23He might be at sea on a Sunday, but he would never sail on a Sunday.
18:26The blokes who worked for him worked hard but got well paid.
18:30When he was a very young pilot,
18:32he invested in one of the best boats he could buy.
18:35He paid twice as much for his boat
18:37than almost anybody else had at that time.
18:39No, he was a self-made guy.
18:41But for Lewis, being first out to any old ship wasn't enough.
18:46He was only after the big ones that paid the highest pilots' fees.
18:52They had very good intelligence,
18:54and they knew something had left Liverpool or something had left London
18:57or something had left New York.
18:59They had a pretty good idea when it was due,
19:02and they were going seeking for the very one they were looking for,
19:05the big ones.
19:07The big ones were the ships that paid pilots the most,
19:11and to make sure he was there to meet them,
19:13Lewis needed more than just a fast boat.
19:16He needed information.
19:18He was one of the first men in Barry to own a telephone
19:21so he could receive calls from his scouts way down in Devon
19:25on the lookout for ships far down to the westward.
19:28He also paid the local butchers a shilling
19:31for a list of ships coming into harbour
19:33that had placed an advanced order for meat.
19:40Even Alexander's house was built to better his chances.
19:45Constructed high on the hill overlooking the Bristol Channel
19:48so he could check on his competitors
19:50and scan the horizon for incoming ships.
19:55Wow.
19:57What a view.
20:00A pilot would see it all from here.
20:03Remarkable.
20:05And it just shows what a successful pilot could actually do for himself.
20:09The rewards were huge.
20:14But all the intelligence in the world wouldn't help
20:17if you weren't master of your business out on the water.
20:20Ultimately, the best pilots were consummate seamen
20:24who could handle their cutters without a second thought.
20:29It'll be a little while before Lewis Alexander's kind delight
20:32is ready to sail again,
20:34but today we're in for a real treat,
20:37putting to sea on two of the last pilot cutters still sailing.
20:42Olga, built in 1904, is one of the biggest pilot cutters ever.
20:47Today, her racing crew of eight is testimony to how competent
20:52the two men and an apprentice must have been who sailed her for a living.
20:58I'm going to be sailing on Cariad with her two dedicated owners,
21:02an earlier, smaller cutter and, on paper, a slower boat.
21:07Putting to sea with the two together will give us a unique insight
21:11into how these boats evolved
21:13and what makes them such special craft out on the water.
21:19Up we go!
21:23Faster on the float, please!
21:37A pilot cutter under full sail is a glorious sight,
21:41and as Olga comes level,
21:43we've a fine opportunity to size up her sail plan,
21:46the engine room of a pilot cutter.
21:50One, two, three, four sails there.
21:53We've got the jib at the front, which isn't setting too well at the moment.
21:57Needs a bit of sheet on that one.
21:59We've got the staysail behind it, the mainsail, the great big one,
22:03and up at the top, that's the topsail, that's the technical one.
22:06Needs a bit of tweaking to get it right,
22:08but the boys have got it setting set a treat.
22:10Looks nice.
22:12Modern performance sailing boats can be twitchy to sail,
22:15requiring constant attention and tweaking from a large, attentive crew.
22:20But the great thing about a pilot cutter
22:22is that once you've got her set up right, she'll almost sail herself,
22:26making her one of the safest and most undemanding boats there is.
22:30So that is a classic gaff cutter now.
22:33She's got the lot.
22:35Every sail that a racing yacht would have carried.
22:37And it's set on a working boat on the waters that she was built to work in.
22:45But that's enough about Olga.
22:47She may be a bigger, faster boat,
22:49but there's a vessel out there coming up channel looking for a pilot,
22:52and I'm going to give it my best shot.
22:56How's the trim up there, Ken?
22:58Looking good.
23:00Left remain, please, left remain.
23:02Use the sheet.
23:04Up, up, up.
23:06That's nearly it now.
23:08Topsail in, topsail in.
23:10Paul, it's on you.
23:12Paul, you've got a bit of a tangle there.
23:14That's not going to work. Hang on.
23:16We'll have to go underneath her, that way.
23:18That's it.
23:20That's it.
23:22That's not going to work. Hang on.
23:24We'll have to go underneath her. I was afraid that would happen.
23:26Never mind. We've put up a good showing.
23:28Let's bear away a touch.
23:30Let the jib go.
23:32God, look at her. What a sight.
23:34Here we go.
23:36We'll see what happens on the next tack.
23:38We'll have you next time, boys.
23:43If you're on a slower boat, your only hope as a pilot
23:46was that the bigger, faster cutter would carry on to the west,
23:49towards the open Atlantic, looking for richer pickings.
23:53In the end, there was no way we could beat the Olga.
23:56Fortunately, she has, in fact, sailed on,
23:59and we've found, well, not exactly a ship, perhaps,
24:03but a motorboat, wanting to be brought into harbour.
24:07Well, there she is.
24:09She's not quite a 1905 steamer,
24:11but she's the best we could get.
24:13But before I can leave the cutter to board the other vessel,
24:16we have to stop her in her tracks,
24:18something that modern yachts find very difficult.
24:21For the right boat,
24:23it's just a matter of setting one sail to drive ahead
24:26and the rest to drive her backwards.
24:28It's called heaving, too.
24:30It's highly desirable,
24:32and these boats did it to perfection.
24:37Ken's putting the helm down,
24:39and absolutely nothing is going to be done to these sails,
24:41nothing at all.
24:43I'm going to duck, because the boom's going to come across in a minute,
24:46and when they come across,
24:48the ones up front, the head sails, are going to come aback.
24:51They're going to try and push the boat backwards.
24:53The mainsail's going to be trying to push her forwards,
24:56and the whole shooting match is going to be balanced by the helm,
24:59and the boat is going to go nowhere.
25:02Now's my chance.
25:04The cutter is holding steady.
25:06And remember, I'm actually climbing off the cutter here
25:10into this tiny little boat,
25:12and imagine now, I'm doing it on a reasonable day,
25:14but there's a fair swell running.
25:15I've got some nerves about it.
25:17Imagine I was doing it in Force 10,
25:19on a filthy black night.
25:21It doesn't bear thinking about.
25:24All I have to do is row across as quickly as I can.
25:28The cutter's crew had to tread a fine line
25:31between leaving the pilot with an impossible distance to scull,
25:34or endangering everyone by coming in too close.
25:39Getting this balancing act right required great skill.
25:42Here we go.
25:44Welcome aboard.
25:45Thank you very much, Dave.
25:47Boarded the ship on a Bristol Channel.
25:49That's fantastic.
25:50Wonderful.
25:51Well, this is all right, isn't it?
25:54There we are.
25:56Here's to pilotage.
25:58And good companions.
26:02Now the pilot's local knowledge would come into play
26:05as he guided the ship to a safe harbour.
26:08So there you are.
26:09That's the lot of a pilot.
26:11There's my old cutter there.
26:13Still hope to.
26:14I guess the guy's probably making themselves a cup of tea.
26:16And then they'll take her in,
26:17because they know I'm coming in pretty quick on this little vessel.
26:20But we've done well.
26:22We'll be in.
26:23Quick turnaround.
26:24And then back out to sea on the ebb tide,
26:26down to the westward.
26:27See what we can get.
26:29And then the process will start all over again.
26:33Every day, every week.
26:35Fleets of ships arrived and left
26:37who could not manage without pilots.
26:39No matter what the weather,
26:41these courageous men repeatedly put their lives at risk
26:44at a time when Britain's trading vessels really needed them.
26:51So what happened to the pilots and their cutters?
26:54Well, their fate is tied up with the story
26:57of our old friend, Lewis Alexander.
26:59In 1914, many sailors,
27:02In 1914, many sailors went to war.
27:06They returned to a world governed by steam
27:09and increasingly, motor ships.
27:12Changing times had finally put paid to the free market.
27:16Perhaps the most appropriate epitaph for the sailing pilot
27:20was found on an otherwise empty sheet of paper
27:23on which one of them had spelled out
27:25his objections to this amalgamation.
27:28He had written only five words.
27:32I shall lose my freedom.
27:37But while boats come and go, the sea never changes
27:40and the Bristol Channel remains as dangerous as ever.
27:44Massive diesel engines, radar and GPS
27:47have changed a lot of things,
27:49but they have not removed the need for a pilot.
27:53Today, just one pilot boat serves the whole of the Barry area,
27:57ferrying a team of pilots in and out on a daily basis.
28:03No-one can question their expertise and the importance of their job,
28:07but I can't help thinking
28:09that some of the romance and free spirit
28:12that made the original pilots unique has gone.
28:17But even if the sailing pilots have disappeared,
28:20their legacy lives on in the beautiful cutters they left behind.
28:24Harmonious and supremely capable,
28:27they're among the greatest sailing boats ever to work the sea.
28:40From overfishing to arcane and defunct technology,
28:44Britain's fishermen have faced many trials over the years.
28:47Sea Fever investigates.
28:49Next.