Wreck Detectives

Synopsis

This series of 8 programmes investigates some of the most intriguing shipwrecks that lie off the coast of Britain. Using marine archaeology, oceanography, historical research and the latest technology, the Wreck Detectives team - historian Jeremy Seal and divers Miranda Krestovnikoff and Jason Gibb - piece together the stories behind these submerged historical jewels.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2005

Year of production

2003

Notes

Broadcast in 8 weekly parts on Channel 4, beginning 13/3/03

Subjects

Archaeology; History

Keywords

archaeological investigation; marine archaeology; shipwrecks

Credits

Contributor

Jason Gibb; Jeremy Seal; Miranda Krestovnikoff

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 2 PAL

Price

£19.99

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

376 minutes

Year

2006

Sections

Title

HMS Pomone

Synopsis

In the waters off the Isle of Wight lie the remains of a 19th Century ship. The team investigate whether this wreck, discovered in Alum Bay in 1992, could be the famous British frigate HMS Pomone which foundered on The Needles during the Napoleonic Wars.

Duration

50 mins

Title

Earl of Abergavenny

Synopsis

In 1805 the massive East Indiaman, Earl of Abergavenny, was caught in a storm and sank a mile and a half from the safety of Weymouth Harbour. Some 250 people lost their lives, including the captain, John Wordsworth (the poet William’s brother). The Abergavenny was one of the largest East India trading ships ever built, and the Wordsworth family had invested the equivalent of £700,000 in today’s money in the ship’s cargo for the intended journey to Bengal and China. The sudden sinking of such a large ship with such loss of life caused great controversy. Did Captain John Wordsworth put profit before the lives of the crew in failing to abandon ship earlier? Or could there have been a fatal flaw in the Abergavenny’s construction that hastened her sinking? The Wreck Detectives team, historian Jeremy Seal and expert divers Miranda Krestovnikoff and Jason Gibb, have one week to find out the truth.

Duration

50 mins

Title

Mingary Castle

Synopsis

This week the Wreck Detectives investigate a wreck discovered off Scotland’s west coast. The history books have no record of a vessel ever having gone down here, and the only clues the detectives have to work with are five large cannon lying where they fell on the seabed, and a handful of rescued artefacts. The team try to decide whether the wreck was a Dutch trader, a Spanish galleon limping home from the Armada or a victim of one of the many sea battles fought in this strategically-important area?

Duration

50 mins

Title

HMS Lawford

Synopsis

Why HMS Lawford, a Royal Navy frigate, sank only days after D-Day remains a mystery. Was she bombed - or did she hit a mine? Normandy coast only days after D-Day under suspicious circumstances
This week the team investigates the wreck of HMS Lawford, a Royal Navy frigate that sank off the Normandy coast only days after D-Day. Official Navy records claim that the ship was sunk by a torpedo which was dropped by a German plane, but survivors from the ship contradict the official account. Some believe the boat was attacked by a sub; others are convinced that she hit a mine. Two HMS Lawford crewmen join the Detectives as their exploration of the sunken wreck and investigation of records on land brings to light evidence for a new explanation of the Lawford’s sinking.

Duration

50 mins

Title

HMS Stirling Castle

Synopsis

HMS Stirling Castle was a Man o War, wrecked on the Goodwin Sands on 26 November 1703, the night of the Great Storm, immortalised by Daniel Defoe. The wreck is half-submerged in a sandbank which is one of the most dangerous sites in the UK. Unlike other ships lost that night, there were several dozen survivors from the Stirling. The team investigate whether it was a stronger vessel than others caught up in the storm, better built, better captained, or just lucky.

Duration

50 mins

Title

St. Peters Port

Synopsis

The team investigate five medieval wrecks lying in the mouth of Guernsey’s St Peter Port harbour, and unearth why and how these ships came to be there

Duration

50 mins

Title

Swan, The

Synopsis

In this edition, the team go to the Mull of Kintyre, where the wreck of a warship built by Charles I named the Swan lies in shallow water.

Duration

50 mins

Title

HMS Hazardous

Synopsis

This week, the team explore a mystery timber wreck found in the Solent - believed to be the remains of HMS Hazardous, an 18th-century French warship captured by the Royal Navy

Duration

50 mins

Sponsor

Name

Channel Four Television

Phone

071-396 4444

Address

LONDON
SW1P 2TX

Distributor

 

Available from retail outlets

Name

Simply Media

Contact

Laura Smith

Email

info@simplymedia.tv

Web

http://www.simplymedia.tv/ External site opens in new window

Phone

0203 542 3722

Address

Highlight House
57 Margaret Street
London W1W 8SJ

Notes

Formerly known as DD Home Entertainment or DDHE