Combat Ships

This time, on "combat ships,"

The story of one of the world's most effective war machines,

The viking longship.

The key to their achievements was the ships,

Warships which allowed them to raid,

Cargo ships that allowed them to trade.

They evolved from swift war canoes

To become the preeminent fighting machines of the age.

Today, if we think of what's in the forefront

Of technology, we think, well, spacecraft and airliners

And nuclear submarines and so on.

But go back 800 years, it's the boat.

They were elegant, versatile and feared.

If you knew that when you saw a fleet

Of five, 10, 15 ships coming around the headland

And that they were sailing directly

For your little coastal settlement,

I think you would pack your bags

And head for the hills as quickly as you could.

Longships carried terrifying warriors.

They will have weapons.

They will bang that sword against the shields.

They will be horrible people to meet,

And they will approach fast.

The vikings

And their ships changed the course of history.

Combat ships, fast, effective.

The mission is pure james bond espionage.

Deadly.

Japan is willing to throw the dice

To engage just about every aspect of their military force

In a climactic, decisive battle to stop the united states.

They have changed the world.

Warships have been key factors in global history,

From the beginning of civilization to the present day.

Thanks to clever design, raw firepower

And the heroism of their crews.

In the year 793, the people of northumberland,

In the north of England,

Knew something terrible was about to happen.

Storms and whirlwinds filled the sky.

There were rumors of dragons on the wing.

Then what they feared came to pass.

From across the ocean, a force of mighty warriors appeared,

In large warships.

Their target was the wealthy monastery

On the holy island of lindisfarne.

The invaders captured or drowned lindisfarne's monks,

Stole their treasure and desecrated their sanctuary.

The attackers were described as heathens from a pagan race.

They were the infamous, fearsome vikings.

The attack on lindisfarne

Really shocked the anglo saxons,

And it's described very much as god's judgment

On the english for their ungodly ways.

It's a really dramatic beginning

To what's known now as the viking age.

The english historian alcuin wrote soon

After the attack--

Never before has such terror appeared

In britain, nor was it thought that such an inroad

From the sea could be made.

So who were the vikings,

These warriors whose name, over 1,000 years later,

Is still synonymous with violence, bloodshed and the sea?

Viking actually meant, in old norse, pirate, raider,

Marauder, so it's more of a job description,

But it's an easier label than trying to give any sort

Of ethnic status to these people.

The vikings came from scandinavia,

The three territories that we know today

As denmark, norway and sweden.

It was the landscape of that region

That shaped their culture.

Denmark and sweden are made up of islands

And had dense, inaccessible forests.

Norway literally means the northern way,

The northern sailing route,

And it's one long coastline, punctuated by fjords,

While the land itself is broken up by mountains,

So it's much easier to get around by boat than by land.

Forced into ships,

They were quick to realize the possibilities.

I think they were very astute people,

That they could see quite quickly, again,

Through this maritime network that they had,

That there was a much wider world out there.

And I think it's probably one

Of the most important aspects of the viking age,

That they were very much the people who looked outwards.

They are exceptionally curious people

And exceptionally brave, in terms of where they want

To go with their ships and why.

The vikings had dreams

Of exploration and conquest.

They needed a vessel to match, the longship.

Remarkably, some still survive.

This is the so-called oseberg ship, uncovered

From a burial mound, south of oslo, in norway, in 1904.

It's now in the capital's viking ship museum.

It is the oldest norwegian viking ship.

95% of its original timbers survive.

This viking ship was preserved

Like a tinned viking ship, really.

No one had seen anything like it.

It was even so well-preserved that, one day,

The archeologists found a bucket, like a huge bucket,

And in the bucket, there were apples,

And they were still red.

That's amazing.

The features

That made it such an effective combat ship are also intact.

Most important is its shape.

The longship, a catchall term for all large viking vessels,

Has a shallow draft, meaning that very little

Of the hull was below the waterline.

This helped them move swiftly and in shallow water,

Deep into enemy territory.

In the beginning of the viking era,

It's really the speed at which they were able to attack,

That their ships just gave them mobility

That was unheard of, essentially,

That they can just round a headland in a fleet of ships

And sail right up onto the beach.

They can also go right up rivers

And sail deep inland.

That meant that they could attack targets inland,

In britain and ireland.

In France, they sailed all the way up

To paris, up the seine.

In russia, again, they're penetrating deep

Into the river systems.

Soon, they ventured even further,

To the mediterranean and the middle east

And west, across the north atlantic.

Their raiding ships had to withstand longer voyages

And combat at sea.

From the eighth century, they were equipped

With a large sail, which was supported

By a massive block of timber called the keelson.

It spread the weight of the mast

And the strain of the sail when underway.

When their was no wind, the crew would place oars

Through holes in the upper strakes or planks.

Parts of the decking were kept loose,

So weapons and plunder could be stored underneath.

The vikings museum in oslo has a second fine example

Of a viking shipwright's skill.

Excavated from another burial mound,

This is the gokstad ship.

The gokstad ship is probably fairly typical

Of the viking ships of the late ninth century.

It's beautifully designed.

It's got enough carrying capacity

That it can carry supplies.

It can carry loot.

It's got oars for rowing when the wind's against you,

A single square sail when the wind's with you.

So it's versatile in the way it could be used.

And it was designed

To strike terror upon arrival.

I think it probably would have been

An incredibly awe-inspiring and terrifying sight,

That we know from the historical depictions

That these ships were highly decorated.

Quite a few of them would have been painted.

And I think it probably would've just struck absolute terror

Into the hearts of people if you knew

That when you saw a fleet

Of five, 10, 15 ships coming around the headland,

And you knew that they were full of warriors

And that they were sailing directly

For your little coastal settlement,

I think you would pack your bags

And head for the hills as quickly as you could.

An 11th century account said--

Such was the decoration of the ships

That to those who were looking from afar,

They seemed to be made more of flame than of wood.

Here shone the gleam of weapons,

Here the flame of hanging shields.

The ships alone would have terrified the enemy,

Even before the warriors could move to join battle.

The vikings carried

With them their most valuable possession,

Prized more than family,

A weapon that brought death and destruction.

The viking ships helped make them the dominant force

In europe for over 200 years.

Their shallow-draft shape was perfect for storming beaches.

Their construction made them strong

And versatile assault vessels.

The oseberg and gokstad ships, now in a museum in oslo,

Like all viking longships were clinker-built.

That means constructed using overlapping planks or strakes.

It was a highly successful technique.

The vikings laid the keel first.

It was often made of a single piece of wood.

They built up overlapping planks on either side of the keel

Then secured them with iron nails.