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Eastern
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Central
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Mountain
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Pacific
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7-8pm
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Where Did It Come From?
Modern warships, cargo, and container ships are the cutting edge of maritime technology. But 2,500 years ago, no one dominated shipbuilding like the Greeks. We travel to Greece for a firsthand look at how their maritime expertise evolved. We examine a reproduction of the Greek warship called a trireme. A 3-D CGI reproduction captures the grandeur of the gigantic cargo ship the Syracusia. Host Michael Guillen demonstrates an Archimedean Screw--designed to pump water out of a ship's hold. He also demonstrates Archimedes' most famous discovery: the principle of buoyancy, a key component in any shipbuilding process. In England, we investigate the Antikythera device. After decades of study, historians have concluded that it was actually a celestial computer that tracked the movement of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and a handful of stars. And on the Greek island Kalymnos, we learn how sponge diving evolved into the lucrative business of salvage diving.
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8-9pm
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Calico Jack
An English pirate captain during the early 18th century, John Rackham, aka "Calico Jack" got his nickname from the colorful calico clothing he wore. He is also best remembered for employing two of the most notorious female pirates of his time--Anne Bonny and Mary Read--in his crew. The record of Rackham's ocean-going attacks and land-side debaucheries were chronicled in the journals of Captain Charles Johnson, so more is recorded of his legend than other pirates of the day. In this one hour special we hear Johnson detail the attack plans of Rackham and his crew and see vivid reenactments of their ocean-going attacks and land-side debaucheries.
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9-11pm
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True Caribbean Pirates
Blackbeard. Anne Bonny. Henry Jennings. Calico Jack. Henry Morgan. Black Bart Roberts. During the mid to late 17th and early 18th centuries, they were feared criminals. The Caribbean was their domain, the parade of treasure and cargo to Europe their target. The origins of Caribbean piracy began when Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas. Two years later, the Pope granted Spain the exclusive right to the Caribbean and most of the New World. The Spanish reaped an immense fortune in gold and silver, but with a price. England, France, and Holland all desired a portion of this wealth and each established Caribbean bases and used privateers--private sailors fighting for profit--to protect their interests and steal Spanish treasure. The line between privateering and piracy became blurred. We'll examine this Golden Age of Piracy and the true stories of the infamous pirates, how they operated, and their successes and failures in this dark and deadly profession.
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