Stretching from Land's End to Dover,
this is the busiest seaway in the world.
And come hell or high water...
Three, two, one. Fire it!
No amount of training can ever prepare you for what
we faced that night.
..it's open for business 365 days a year.
Over 90% of the world's trade travels by sea.
It's not just TVs and refrigerators, it's everything around us.
Teeming with every type of vessel.
Everyone on board reckons their job is the hardest.
And a rich diversity of wildlife.
It's kept safe by those who patrol its seaways.
Drag him onto the boat!
Their actions standing between triumph...
CHEERING
..and disaster.
Ease off. Ease off.
On the unpredictable waters of the English Channel.
Today a giant cargo ship braves the treacherous shipping lanes.
I expect to see the traffic increasing
and obviously then we'll start seeing crossing ferries.
There is a high possibility of grounding.
A local oyster farmer finds treasures in the deep.
That's a first. That will go on at auction, starting off at £1,000.
That's the rarest pearl in England. Look.
And the bomb squad unearth a blast from the past.
All stations. All stations. Stand by to initiation.
The Port of Hamburg, northern Germany, and the cargo ship
NYK Venus is loading up with goods ahead of its voyage to Southampton.
It's just one of hundreds of cargo ships
heading for the English Channel, bringing us everything
from frozen food to mobile phones, cuddly toys to kitchen sinks.
So much comes to the UK via the sea because, as an island, we're
very import dominant.
So everything we use in our day-to-day lives
from retail to manufacturing,
at some point has to transit water.
For security reasons,
the port does not know what's in any of the containers that we handle.
And they can vary from goods that find their way to the shops,
to pharmaceuticals, to people's personal belongings.
If you just use your imagination for a minute
and look around your room and consider something you're eating,
sitting on, or even wearing, that's probably come through a container.
With such a valuable cargo on board, the NYK Venus
needs all the help it can get on its 580-mile journey to Southampton,
and for each section of the voyage,
a pilot with specialist knowledge of the local waters will come aboard.
Guiding the ship through the major part of his journey
in the Channel will be deep sea pilot Kim Sykes.
I've been at sea since I was 17 years old
and after approximately 27 years,
I then decided that I would like to explore a different aspect of life
at sea and therefore I decided
to become a deep sea pilot.
I've now been a deep sea pilot for nine years.
You do get to do the fun part of the job without all the paperwork
and it is an enjoyable job to do.
If there's any emergency once we've passed the...
A deep sea pilot makes sure the ship is on the right course
while it's at sea.
It's really looking after the safe navigation for the master
whilst he carries on with the routine task of the ship.
For example, he'll be sending messages, he'll be talking to agents,
he'll be organising ETAs and visioning
for when the ship arrives in port.
There's all sorts going on.
So when we're at sea, the principle is that he will have somebody
who's got command experience, who knows the waters well,
and therefore he'll be secure in the knowledge that there's
somebody there who could take care
of the safe navigation of the ship for him.
Prepared gear.
Before Kim can help navigate the container ship at sea,
they have to get off the berth.
Because it's three football pitches long, it's no easy manoeuvre.
No, negative.
She's nearly full and can carry around 9,000
20-foot steel containers.
German harbour pilots get them out of the dock
and under the Kohlbrand Bridge over the River Elbe.
'Passing under the bridge.'
It can be a tight squeeze between the ship and the bridge.
Each pilot has a designated zone of expertise.
We've just brought the ship out of Hamburg Harbour
from the jetty to the harbour pilot,
reaching now the river pilot takes over, brings it towards the sea.
Pilot or boat captain picks us up,
brings us back to the pilot stage before the next job.
The ship's captain Pero Paljetak
now takes advantage of the local river pilots as they steer
the giant vessel down the narrow river to the North Sea.
We have got to take extra caution
with another container ship.
A big one is passing nearby in the river.
Then we have to take care and slow down
to pass freely and safely.
After seven hours of careful river navigation,
night falls and they make it clear of German waters.
The next morning, deep sea pilot Kim begins his job of getting
the container ship safely towards and through the English Channel.
The captain's doing his accounts, so he's busy doing paperwork
and so we're up here busy running the ship.
HE CHUCKLES
There's been a bit of northbound traffic and in particular
one small one we're overtaking because there's some fishing boats.
They pushed us a little bit further to the north than I would have liked.
So we speeded up little bit now and we've just entered
the southbound lane and the traffic is just slowly building up
and it's an increase now until we get down to the Dover Straits.
So, you see, he's going to come up round to starboard.
And when he's going to starboard just meet him ahead for a few minutes
and then come down to stern.
From the German Bights,
round the Dutch coast and down through the Dover Straits,
there's traffic separation lanes whereby this makes sure that
all the vessels are going in one direction.
Of course, you need to cross traffic lanes,
you have to get from one side to the other, therefore the traffic
becomes more dense and the situation becomes more critical.
And that's one of the reasons why I'm here.
Aboard the NYK Venus with its refrigerated containers,
what we know as fresh food can travel thousands of miles
across the world by sea before it reaches our supermarkets.
Up on deck, some of the crew check the refrigerated containers,
known as reefers,
to make sure that they're the right temperature for the food inside.
With 800 reefers aboard, it's an exacting process.
For refrigerated cargos in particular
it's quite critical the carriage temperature of the cargo,
and most of the majority of it is monitored
to within plus or minus half a degree.
And there's also things like fruit, for example.
Bananas, you think a banana just comes from A to B,
from Costa Rica into the UK.
The temperature is absolutely critical,
whereby if it's too cold, you will chill the fruit,
if it's too warm, of course, the fruit will go off.
And once it starts to ripen,
you've lost the cargo because it gives off more and more gasses,
the ripening process increases.
You might have chilled meats, which is more expensive to buy
rather than hard, frozen meats, which is carried at -1 degree.
And the critical thing there is, of course, once it goes above freezing,
the meat starts to go off,
but if you go down too low, then ice crystals start to form within
the meat and therefore the cargo loses its value.
The man in charge of all the containers
heading for Southampton is second-in-command chief mate
Rocco Di Doria.
He needs to regularly check on the reefers up on deck.
- How's it going, Mr Molina? - It's OK. - Everything OK?
Everything OK, sir. OK, sir.
One of his main jobs is to ensure any hazardous freight,
from inflammable material to airbags,
is being transported correctly.
Hazardous containers such as those carrying toxic chemicals
are known as DG, or dangerous goods class,
and are given special consideration.
Larger container vessels such as this one,
commercially, you're carrying more cargo, and you've got one ship and
therefore the carbon footprints when you're carrying 8,000 containers for
each unit that you are transporting per mile is vastly, vastly reduced.
Carrying cargo by sea has to be one of the cleanest ways of doing
it on the planet.
440 miles into their journey across the North Sea,
they reach the mouth of the English Channel
and the Dover Straits, one of the most congested seaways in the world.
You can have anything from a fishing vessel, sailing boats,
numerous ferry crossings, ships of all sizes and description,
warships, exercising, you will have survey ships towing cables up to
five miles long, so all of these add to the congestion of the waterway.
The English Channel is a place of many hazards,
some reaching back to a bygone era.
On the seabed, there are thousands of unexploded bombs and mines,
most dating back to World War II
when the coast was fortified for an expected German invasion.
It's estimated 30% of those are yet to be recovered.
And it's the job of the Royal Navy's fleet diving squadron
to dispose of them safely when they're reported.
Today the team has been called out by the Bembridge Coastguard
on the Isle of Wight.
Good morning, sir.
It's chief diver Crew speaking from southern diving unit two.
We are currently reacting to a task, and what's been reported is
one time as possible, anti-aircraft round, 40 millimetre round.
It looks like it's been discovered,
uh, on the new breakwater they're constructing.
When construction or dredging work is carried out in the Channel,
there's a real risk of disturbing one of the many unexploded
bombs lying dormant, and yesterday construction workers building
a new sea defence discovered a World War II shell close to
one of the busiest areas of the Solent.
It's since been covered by the tide but is now above water,
so the team head straight there.
One of three elite units, the Southern Diving Group
are made of 60 clearance divers and specialists.
The team cover 1,400 miles of coast including the Channel
and are called out on average nearly four times a week.
They are available 365,
seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
And we are on call at 30 minutes notice to
move from our location, here at Horsey Island
on the south coast in Portsmouth,
to anywhere within our area of operations.
But a great deal of training goes into what could be
seen as well as one of the riskiest jobs in the world.
I talk to friends of mine, they say, "Why the hell do you do that?
"You know, I can think of better ways to pay your mortgage."
There is a certain amount of excitement to it, definitely.
And people talk about the sort of danger
and a bit of pressure that they live and thrive off.
Some people are addicted to it, definitely.
Today's job is a large artillery shell found on a shingle bank
off the Solent
containing an explosive charge meant for shooting down enemy planes.
I say they're dangerous,
a lot of these fuses worked on sort of impact, basically.
These have then been, over the years, rusted and corroded,
so they can still be in a really hazardous state,
anything from dropping a musish to picking it up or bumping it
could initiate it.
The bomb squad arrive
and the first task for chief of operations Simon Crew
is to get the lowdown on the situation from the coastguard.
- Martin. - Morning. - Hiya. Simon.
Royal Navy OD. Nice to meet you.
- Is this the sandbank over here, is it? - Yeah, you can actually see...
- Shingle bank. - ..the sandbanks. - Yeah.
Can you see the black and yellow marker buoy?
- I can, yes. - If you go straight up vertically from that... - Yes.
About halfway up the sandbank, there's a black blob.
- OK. - That's the sandbags.
- Brilliant. So it was discovered yesterday about 1.30? - Yes.
And so we've had two tidal cycles over it as well.
- It has got four sandbags around it. - OK, fantastic.
- Right, thanks ever so much, Martin. - No problem.
Guys. Max. Good timing. Right, that's the shingle bank over there.
What I want you to do is get the Zodiac out.
We're going to go over solely for a recce first
cos it's only a five-minute transit,
and then if we're going to have to do some sort of control,
then make an assessment of how much bang we're going to need,
we'll come back, get the dem stuff here,
then go back out again and do it.
- Yes, no probs. - All right, Max? - Yes. - Good stuff.
The team assemble their portable motorised RIB
so they can carry out an initial recce.
If we need to dive,
we'll have to come back, get some diving gear.
Maybe we've got to swim it out to a safe area
so it's a safe cordon away from the public.
But, yeah, first things first, just build a boat, get over,
get a recce done and then we'll take it from there.
Jack Pearce, from Bembridge Coastguard,
was one of the first to the scene when the device was reported
and has been instructed to accompany the bomb squad over to the site.
Basically, I'm going to go out with the bomb disposal crew
and just to show them where the actual location is.
We're going keep quite a way back in the safe-zone distance and we'll
let the actual experts get on with it and let them do their jobs safely.
The local coastguard are often involved in bomb squad callouts
but this is the first time for Jack.
Suppose the best way to put it is it's nerve-racking,
very nerve-racking.
And...
You know, you've just got to keep yourself safe,
I suppose, at the end of the day.
The bomb squad and two members of the coastguard team
head off to the sandbank.
'Serving coastguard. Roger. En route to the sand bar.'
Right. Can you just stay with the boat? That'd be brilliant.
Simon takes the long walk out of the safety zone to the device alone.
Yeah, we've just...
The coastguard officers have just got out there with the bomb
disposal team, one of whom is just looking at where the sandbags are
and hopefully the shell is still there from last night.
Inspection confirms it's a World War II anti-aircraft shell.
The turbulent waters of the English Channel can throw up many
unexpected relics.
But it's also a place where treasure can be found.
Up with the sunrise,
73-year-old ex-builder David Scott is getting ready to harvest
oysters from the farm he's been tending for the last nine years.
Cold, rain, snow, shine, whatever the weather, we have to go.
People wanting their oysters, so we have to go and get them.
We have to go out at all times.
Right, we're off down now to bring you some oysters,
but be very careful, if you start to go,
you have to keep going till you get down on the sand.
Farmed in the Fleet Lagoon near Chesil Beach, Dorset,
David has to work all year round
to ensure the farm is productive, but luckily he's not on his own.
We're going to some of these.
They're going to be moved the other side. Come on, Kyle.
Come on, Kyle, now!
Get up here.
He's got Kyle to assist him.
If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't know anything.
I taught him everything he knows. HE LAUGHS
Didn't I?
Young Kyle does most of the leg work these days...
..cos his legs are a bit younger than mine.
I love working here. It's a lovely place.
Bring the fishing rod after work and just go straight off out after work,
so that's nice.
I enjoy working with Dave. He's one-of-a-kind, yeah.
He's taught me a lot, got a lot of wisdom.
I taught him how to fish, so he's always a bit envious and he
still can't out-fish me, but apart from that, it's all good.
We're just going to move these. Well, we might if he hurries up.
DAVID CHUCKLES
During high tide, the oysters are completely covered by the sea
and are harvested when the waters recede.
So we're not fishermen, we're oyster farmers.
And we work just in the Fleet.
We don't need boats to go out to catch them.
Some people think, oh, you're working in the cold water,
that must be hard work. Well, it's not hard work.
It's a pleasure, to be quite honest.
And it's just an enjoyable way of life. I just love it.
David may be as happy as an oyster farm in mud,
but like any farming, this is a precarious business.
Over the years, disease and pollution has knocked out
most of the UK native oyster supplies, so nowadays David has to
source juvenile Pacific oysters from Guernsey.
These are what we call seed oysters. That's about a year old, that oyster
and this is the size when they're ready.
These are about three years old, these.
Three, three and a half years old.
So you can see it's quite a slow process.
The oysters David is harvesting today have lived almost their entire
lives in the handmade oyster beds in the lagoon, feeding off the tide.
Obviously, at the moment, the tide has gone out.
As the tide comes in, the plankton comes in with it
and basically they just feed on plankton.
They just open theirselves like that and it's a mollusc.
And they just feed on plankton, so we don't have to feed them anything.
Every time the tide comes in, it brings in a fresh supply of feed.
The Channel, the English Channel, is only just there
outside the harbour and that is fresh water
coming in from the Channel twice a day
and that's what they feed on.
We don't get any, almost nout from sewers or anything like that.
It's just a little bit overrun from fields, which is natural.
It makes it...the oyster very, very easy to grow,
and it's very clean and the taste is wonderful.
That's lovely. 80% eat them raw.
And you're supposed to chew an oyster.
Chew it, don't swallow it.
You don't swallow a leg of lamb, do you? You chew it.
It's the same with an oyster, get the flavour.
HE LAUGHS We're show you later on.
They may be delicacies to some but not everyone finds them appealing.
I'm not a big fan of oysters.
I've tried a couple of times, there won't be a third time.
I don't like them. I haven't tried them cooked, so I might try that.
But raw, it's not for me.
Put them under the grill, bit of Parmesan cheese,
or a bit of ham on there
and put them under the grill for a couple of minutes, they're lovely.
Compared to large-scale mechanised farms,
the number of oysters David produces is a drop in the ocean.
So we're going to take four off
which will give us about 400 oysters for now.
We have about 100 in each basket, so... Good boy, that's the way.
Right, we take these over, put them into the vehicle.
The only way to make the business viable is for the oysters to
be sold in local restaurants.
They're in there, they're ready to go now.
So we'll get Kyle to take them up and then they'll be up there and washed.
We just...we powerwash, clean and then they'll be
taken into the inside and put them into purifying tanks
ready for the customers.
The restaurant that sells the majority of the oysters
is just a stone's throw away.
Let's just hope they make it.
There she goes.
ENGINE ROARS
Brilliant that, isn't it?
It's why we like working, all great fun. We just love life here.
While for David and Kyle the English Channel
is a source of home-grown produce, aboard the NYK Venus
deep sea pilot Kim Sykes is shipping goods
to our shores from around the world.
Over halfway through their voyage, this monster of the sea is
approaching a particularly hazardous stretch of water.
We're just entering the Dover Straits now,
so we expect to see the traffic increasing
and obviously then we'll start seeing crossing ferries
and therefore it will be quite dense the traffic,
so we'll be vigilant and keeping a watch on that.
Dover Coastguard.
'NYK Venus, Dover Coastguard. Good evening to you, sir.
'Could I have your port and destination? Over.
Yes, good evening to you.
Last port was Hamburg, destination Southampton,
with an ETA of 0600 in the morning.
'Please could I have the total weight of your general cargo? Over.'
Total weight of cargo on board today 63279.
In case of accident, it's vital that Kim keeps the coastguard
informed about the ship's manifest and crew.
If something happened to the vessel en route,
they know exactly how many people are on board,
they know that we've got hazardous cargo on board
and they also know that we have so much bunkers on board.
'Can I have the maximum draft and number of persons on board? Over.'
Maximum draft 13.1 metres and there are 30 persons on board.
'That's all. Over. Thank you for your assistance.
'Have a safe onward journey.'
As Kim keeps an eye out on the bridge, captain Pero Paljetak
is planning his approach to Southampton.
The most critical point on this stage
in this first passage is
when we are reaching Cowes
that is not a port of the north of Isle of Wight.
Reaching Cowes
and then we have 90-degrees turn to starboard to enter tall channel.
There is a high possibility of grounding or collision.
with other ships that are passing nearby.
As dawn breaks,
Kim sees the boat safely through the English Channel towards
Southampton, where harbour pilot Bruce Thomas is ready to take over.
So two tugs, attempting to release fore and aft.
As we come in, we'll make the swing to starboard.
The tide through the Solent, it's just starting to ebb,
so we may turn earlier on the westbound return.
My duties are to conduct the vessel
and take the vessel into Southampton
with the captain and manoeuvre
the ship in the docks
and safely alongside.
We could get caught by a strong gust,
so we need to be aware of the weather forecasts.
So constantly looking at the environment
and making sure that we anticipate these situations.
Well, we're just coming into Southampton.
The Southampton pilot is onboard now. So that's me.
That is the end of my voyage as such.
When we get alongside, I'll be going home, back to Newcastle.
I am feeling rather tired, rather jaded,
but whereas I'll be going home, I'll be leaving the ship's
crew to meet immigration, customs, get on with the cargo work.
Whereas I can just go home and relax now.
As they get beyond the Isle of Wight,
they take on the tricky, 90-degree Bramble turn.
The Bramble sandbank needs to be avoided because it is very
close to the surface and sticks out of the water in low spring tides.
The harbour master's launch SP will be patrolling us in now.
They'll stay ahead of us and keep any small craft out of the way.
Thanks from the NYK Venus. Over.
Southampton Water is a drowned valley
created by the rivers Itchen, Test and Hamble.
It is just a mile wide and full of pleasure boats.
- Stop the engine. - Stop the engine.
As the NYK Venus heads for its berth, the team at Southampton dock
are well aware of the importance of the waterway on its doorstep.
From starboard side, secure.
The Channel is a major part of the supply chain.
Without the Channel, the ships wouldn't come up the river,
we wouldn't be able to load or discharge the cargo.
And that cargo then wouldn't be able to find its way to the
delivery centres in the Midlands.
So much comes to the UK via the sea because, as an island, we are
very import dominant.
So everything we use in our day-to-day lives,
from retail to manufacturing, at some point, has to transit the water.
And as time moves on,
the number of containers on each ship just keeps on rising.
The container ships are getting bigger every day.
At Southampton, we service vessels up to 396 metres long.
They hold 16,000 20-foot containers.
And if you stack them all end to end, they would go from here to London.
Dead slow ahead.
Engines, dead slow ahead.
The containers are stacked so high on the NYK Venus,
they act like a giant sail.
And when the wind gets up,
it can affect the delicate berthing manoeuvres.
It is left to the tugs to help
slot her into the right place in the dock.
Without tugs, this size of a ship,
we could not turn or we could not come alongside.
They will make fast with the line, with the mooring line.
Dead slow astern.
Engines, dead slow astern.
With the hand system,
they indicate that we need to turn the ship or that we need to
slow down or if we need to push
or pull to one side or another one.
But we need minimal one tug.
And in a case like today, that we have wind, strong wind,
then we need two tugs.
Go forward.
We have to stop the ship now.
It is always a little bit fiddly just getting the last metre
or two, or so, into position.
We'll leave...nicely alongside,
the captain can go visit Southampton
and I can go home.
Four different pilots with specialist local knowledge
have ensured this giant cargo ship
and all its freight have safely reached our shores from Hamburg.
Farther west, up the coast in Dorset, the journey taken by David
and Kyle's home-grown oysters, although hairy...
There she go!
..requires slightly less help.
Just metres away, the Crab House Cafe run by David's
son-in-law Nigel Bloxham is where most of the oysters end up.
Nigel bought the farm nine years ago
and has made some significant changes.
The oyster farm was
acres and acres of metal racks.
And this metal rack was rusting away.
An oyster will filter between ten and 18 litres a day.
Now, that's rusty water.
We've taken ours out, we've gone to these wooden racks.
We've now got a different tasting oyster.
Despite being environmentally friendly,
harvesting oysters is a far from lucrative business.
The oyster farm... It is
very difficult to make any money at it, but it is the romance.
It is very difficult to survive when it is so labour-intensive.
Our wholesale is only about 50p, whereas in the restaurant,
we are selling it between £1.50 and £2 each, really.
We haven't had a blip for two
to three years where we've not been
able to sell oysters.
When collected from the bay,
David uses state-of-the-art equipment to ensure the size
and shape of the oysters is just right for the restaurant.
A lot of people don't do it, but we do it.
We have a stick like that and we go, just walk along the row,
just stir them up like that. When they start to grow,
just stir them up like this.
Like that. And it knocks the excess shell off.
So instead of growing long like that, they'll grow to a nice shape,
like that.
Just a tiny little bit of it starting there.
And that will grow on and on and on as the summer goes on.
So if you knock the ends off of it like that, that will stop it
growing that way and it will be a nice, lovely shape like this.
That.
That is a five-star oyster, that is.
After today's collection,
the oysters undergo intense cleaning to get rid of the silt and seaweed
from the receding tide before going to the restaurant for purification.
David's hands-on process differs from the bigger commercial farms.
The big commercial farm is in deep water
and airlifted with machines, they're lifted onto bars.
As they take it back, it is all graded by machinery,
all washed by machinery.
We do everything by hand.
I think that is why they are such nice oysters.
We treat them with loving care. They are our babies.
David's babies may lie in their crib-like nets,
but there are many things that can affect their journey to maturity.
Storms can obviously damage it, but we can normally recover and repair.
The other thing that can affect it is disease.
The oysters could catch disease.
For instance, we have seen France devastated,
with their young oysters dying and being wiped out
due to a virus.
To ensure a healthy environment,
the local authority test the water every two weeks to check
for E. Coli and other viruses.
And as David's oyster beds also supply other restaurants,
their origin has to be stringently recorded.
When we send them out,
we have to write out a health ticket with the date that they went into
the purifying tank and the date they were sent out,
so they are traceable.
If something did go wrong in a restaurant, they've got their health
ticket, they can come back and we can tell them exactly what tank it
came out of, exactly when they were brought in
and what batch they were from.
So it is very strict.
Everything is done according to the book because that is how we like it.
We don't want anybody suffering, nobody getting ill,
which they don't. That's good.
With the oysters thoroughly cleaned, there is
one last process for them to go through before they can be eaten.
Here we are, just bringing these in now.
They've just brought these in from the fleet.
And they are so fresh, we grew them ourselves.
Just 50 yards we've brought these.
And these are going into purification tanks now.
Ready for purification.
They will sit in there like that for 43 hours
and be purified with ultraviolet light, which is
a protection for everybody.
It checks there is no disease in them, no E. Coli in them
and they are lovely.
That is really my part of the job done.
Now, it is down to Nigel to get them ready for the plate.
I select some nice ones here.
Move them over.
Technique, not brute force.
Cut the little muscle, it's there.
That is the little muscle that opens and shuts the shell.
Now I cut underneath that muscle.
That is the same muscle I cut the top off. Now underneath it,
to release it, to make it easy to eat.
- I have just got a pearl in this oyster. - Really? - Yep. - Where?
I just lost it, but I've got it... It's there somewhere.
- There he is. - Where is it? - There's a pearl in the oyster. - There it is.
- Look at that. - A tiny one there.
If you'd have left that, it might've grown-up.
- Look at that. That's a pearl. - That's a first.
That will go into auction, sell it off at £1,000.
That is the rarest pearl in England. Look.
With one pearl every ten years, it is going to
be a while before David can give up oyster farming.
But then, why would he?
These are the finest oysters in England, that's my opinion.
These are our Portland Royals. Here we go.
Mm!
- They're good. - That is beautiful!
That is really beautiful.
Delicious!
The 700-mile coastline of the English Channel has
many areas of peaceful, idyllic beauty.
But today, on the Solent, peace is about to be shattered.
A World War II bomb has been discovered on a shingle bank
near the Isle of Wight.
Chief of operations Simon Crew has decided on a controlled explosion,
a tricky thing to do in such a congested area of the Channel.
First, he has to evacuate the construction workers who
discovered the device.
- It has got an explosive hazard to it. - Sorry?
- It has got an explosive hazard to it. - Right. - So I have to blow it up. - OK.
And then I think it is just a matter of getting the personnel off,
- onto the barge. - Yeah. - Standing off, if that's all right.
- A safe distance. - OK, that's great.
- So that is going to take about an hour. - Yes.
Simon must also notify anyone
who may be affected by the imminent blast.
Like, if I could ask now that we could start with the coastguard
and say at approximately 12.30,
we intend to do a controlled explosion
from obviously the middle of the shingle bank there.
While the bomb squad prepare their equipment to keep the explosion to a
minimum, the coastguard coordinates with the Solent Operation Centre.
What time is the ferry due to come out, do you know?
Right, so they'll be well clear.
Well, it is a shingle bank.
As you can imagine, even just the shingle with the explosive
effect behind that could push out a small pebble or stone, etc.,
at quite a distance and maybe cause injury to either property
or maybe to the public themselves.
Cheers, mate.
- That was Solent. - Brilliant.
Ferries...
12.30 is actually bang on. One will be coming out
of Southampton Water, the other will be in the middle of the Solent.
- OK. - So they'll all be well out of the way.
So, we need to push on now and make 12.30, ideal.
A 200-metre cordon will be enforced by the coastguard.
Meanwhile, Simon needs to time the explosion with minimal
disruption to the ferries,
which means he has just 30 minutes from now to get back to the
shingle bank, set a detonator and carry out an explosion.
We've took one stick of PE7, which is the actual explosive itself,
one electric detonator and we've got 200 metres of...
Well, we've got two reels of 200-metre firing cable,
which is this here. So this is what will send the charge all
the way down to the electric detonator,
from our safe coverage all the way down to the explosives.
That will set it off.
Back on the bank, Simon needs to make sure the last of
the construction workers are ready to leave
and the on-site equipment is safe.
All right, all done.
If you could just switch the crane round, just so
- the glass is facing that way... - All right. - The plan is,
I would like to go for...in about 20 minutes.
Just cos that coincides with the ferry crossings.
That'd be brilliant.
Drive round with Jack, he'll tell you where to put the nose on,
by ordinance, all right? Bring the sand bags round.
'Navy EOD, Bembridge, Bravo. Over.'
Yep, copy your last...
At the moment, we're just waiting for the contractors to slip into the sea
from this location.
OK, so we're just going up now. If you could just stop here. All right?
Brilliant.
The team now have just 15 minutes to explode the bomb
between ferry crossings.
We're going to prep the charge and then tamp it.
What I mean by tamping is using the effective sand bags,
digging a hole to make sure there's minimum kick-out.
Once we're happy with that, we'll run our cables back to a safe
location, which will be on the eastern end.
Make sure everyone's clear and then brief the safety boat to go out
and patrol the range.
Once we're happy, we'll go for the initiation.
Together with the coastguard,
the bomb squad RIB will control the waters for any encroaching boats.
Any boats approaching, just zoom out to them, keep them clear. All right?
We're in.
The detonating charge has been attached
and it's time to demolish the device.
Navy safety boat, Navy safety boat, RN-EOD.
'Navy safety boat, go ahead.'
All stations, all stations. This is Royal Navy EOD.
Stand by to initiation, five minutes.
Confirm all stations good to go.
'Harbour HM2, understood. Copied.'
'10, Navy-OD, HM2.'
But at the 11th hour, a yacht comes dangerously close
and the team need to step in before Simon can give the go ahead.
Push them out of the way.
OK, connect up, test for green.
With the yacht moved to a safe distance
and the ferry route clear, the bomb disposal team are good to go.
All stations, Navy EOD, I confirm clear range.
Stand by, initiation in one minute.
- Good continuity. - OK, stand by.
OK, let's go.
Stand by.
Stand by, firing.
Three, two, one... Firing now!
All stations, Navy OD, demolition is now conducted.
Stand by while I assess to confirm clear range.
The bomb experts need to check the explosion was
successful before they lift the cordon.
We've come down, we've confirmed the detonation.
As you can see, the hole and the ammunition has consumed it all,
so happy to collapse cordons.
We can get the contractors back in now, the ferries can start running.
Fill the hole in and we get back and wait for another tasking.
Thanks to the Royal Navy's Fleet Diving Squadron, this area of
the English Channel at least is once again safe for all those who
wish to venture onto its waters.