The Boats That Built Britain - The Matthew. 

I crossed the Atlantic on a 500 ft Destroyer and it felt awfully small. These we tough sailors. Really love this series.

Nice oneTom. An important history lesson. These vessels are also known to have ventured to Australia and NewZealand. Mighty little ships!. Thanks Tom.

I like those metal framed 15th century safety doors a lot. They were later introduced at other ships after some 400 years.

I was at Bonavista in 1997 when the replica Matthew arrived to celebrate 500 years since the discovery of Newfoundland. It was a cold and miserable day, but HM Queen Elizabeth II seemed to take it all in stride. The province has since built its own replica of the boat. Our Cabot Tower was built in St. John's to commemorate the 400th anniversary.

Excellent very enjoyable, thanks

Another brilliant video thank you 🙏

Can only have the highest respect for the sailors in those days!

“A cardiac job, that...” fun episode...Cabot and his boys had to be hardy....makes me appreciate my Profurl! Enjoyed...Thx, Andrew

That is a really nice video - as someone who is not a sailor but who has been on sailboats and done some sailing, I think I have an incling of how things were on this kind of vessel. As a German, the seamans' food I've eaten is Labskaus, which is just as strangely looked upon by many people as the groats-mush that was made in this video. The rolling motion of the ship is what really got me! There must have been even more seasickness on those vessels than on more modern ones! And I don't wonder anymore that Nelson actually suffered from seasickness. On boats like this (and Nelson's ships were still similar in shape, though somewhat advanced) even I (who has never really been seasick, only twice felt a weak approach of it) might have become seasick.

I am reminded of the Mayflower in 1620. It took the Mayflower 66 days to cross from England to Massachusetts, and on-board were my 10th and 11th great-grandfathers. The Mayflower was very similar to the Matthew.

Piloted by a man called James Ray of Pill, Somerset! in fact, it’s very likely that the last place the Matthew left from was Hung Road at the village of Pill rather than Bristol in 1497 as the river would have taken days to navigate back then, she would have been towed down river by towboat men and Hobblers also from Pill and this was a long process...

It's absolutely fascinating how hard that must have been to sail something of that size. Cumbersome though she was... she sailed the high seas.

it was his third voyage he disappeared on.... his second one he went all the way up to the arctic, then, came down to somewhere to around Cape Ann or modern Boston, the boat he sailed, Mathew II, was slightly bigger then the original one, he also Bequeathed in his Will the creation of the first company that organised settlement voyages to the new continent. (at least that's what we were taught in Oakhill Primary School, a school with many links to the experimental-archaeology exercise that was the building and sailing of SV.Mathew (replica), in fact I knew many of the crew of that Ship (especially the voyages sails-master) as our teachers (....or at least people who I thought of as school teachers as a child, maybe they just did so many history talks at our school I saw them more often then the real History teacher) )

One reason Cabot chose Bristol, was that Bristol men were cod fishermen........ They had been up as for as Iceland, however, because of the cartels that operated in those waters, the Bristol men had to find another source for their beloved "toe rag"(salt dried cod) That's how they came to find the rich fishing grounds off what is now the Canadian coast. It was an open secret within the City, as the fishermen didn't others mussel on their patch.......

The worst day at sea is still better than the best day on land!

Well done Mathew

Actually John Cabot landed in a town on the east coast of newfoundland which they later named Bonavista which is in Bonavista Bay. I was born there. And they have a replica of the matthew at the main wharf in Bonavista.

Normally a Caravel has Latin sails (a type of sail), but because most wings on sea are towards east at the equador and towards west neer the north (or south), it was easier and faster with square rigs. Later this became a Carrack and with more guns and more storage it became a Galleon.

HMS Cleopatra, HMS Bulwark, HMS Ark Royal. The Atlantic got smaller each time I crossed.

Another ripping yarn! History that folks should know. Especially sailors! We are reminded that; "the only constant is change" and boat design has changed so much over time. Sail Safe Guys, Ant, Cid & the pooch crew.

"Land ahoy"? Ahoy there, land! Maybe "land ho!" if you're not trying to get Land's attention.

That ship on a good day could do 100 miles. Not sure whether it's nautical miles or regular, "statute" miles. The current 24 hour record for a monohull boat is 618 nautical miles, or 710 regular miles using 1 nm = 1.15 regular miles. The record holder was on a 100 foot boat called Comanche with a crew of Captain plus 20. Averaging 25.75 knots or 29.6mph or 47.6 km/hr!!! That's crazy!!

Really disappointed that there was so little information about the caravel. The movie spent far too much time creating mood and was far too stingy with actual information about the boat. In the video I saw lots of features I wondered about, what was that cross beam above the rudder? The series is called "The BOATS That Built Britain" but the actual hard information about the boat itself was limited to a few sentences about the shape of the hull and the sail rigging. That's all. Leaves me asking Where's the Beef?

these days people seem to hate history.......yet how many people are even aware of it......

Hi Tom, or perhaps someone else.. When was scurvy first identified as a problem associated with long voyages please?

No diesel motor to back you up. That’s ballsy.

That tower says they knew it was there.

A modern gally on an old sail ship??

Great admiration for all explores, from all nations, that first sailed the seven seas. They were all extraordinary lads and deserve the respect of all that love the sea. But let's put things in perspective. When Cabot sailed West, the Portuguese had already turned the Cape of Good Hope, knew there was no passage to the Spice islands sailing west, and had mastered the design of the Caravel to be able to return to Europe from the south Atlantic. Columbus, who made all his training sailing for the King of Portugal, had already been in the Caribbean islands a couple of times. The glorious British people, with their brilliant entrepreneurship, built an empire of planetary proportion, but the ones that really changed the sailing game were the followers of Prince Henrique (Henry), The Navigator, whom, by the way, was the son of a British Princess, Philippa (Filipa) from the House of Lancaster.

I think Basque fishermen got there, for the cod, before Cabot.

And yet the Vikings were well familiar with that sailing route, having taken it many times several hundred years earlier.

Fragility: These sailing people were slovenly, dull, and cowardly. I mean just imagine all the people that helped plan and fund and supply and execute this voyage. Fragile! We need a new term we can sell to others about how FRAGILE these people were. Any ideas?