It all started with a hijacking in November 1972. I was flying home to Mexico City from an anthropological conference on the history of violence when suddenly a group of terrorists took over the flight. It was too good to be true. Storyville: The Raft, BBC 2019
All my life I had wanted to know why people fight … I realised that if I could create a similar situation it would be the perfect laboratory to study human behaviour, but where can you isolate a group of people and expose them to danger? Then I had the idea … ibid.
May 1973, Las Palmas, Spain: Tonight the ten volunteers arrive in the Canary Islands. It was the first time they met. Ten brave strangers who are about to spend the next three months together isolated on the raft. ibid.
Captain Maria is the only professional sailor on board. ibid.
43 years later there’s only 7 of us still alive. ibid. survivor
The roaring noise of the ocean took over. Finally we are at sea. ibid.
Is violence something that is built into our genes or is it something we learn? ibid.
Instead, we witness a clear example of crowd frenzy, people no longer act as individuals but as part of a dangerous collective. ibid.
The most important question of our time: can we do without war? ibid.
He was a master manipulator. ibid. survivor
I feel completely misunderstood. ibid.
I realised that the only one who has actually showed any kind of violence or aggression on the raft is me. ibid.
Stepping ashore was a very strange feeling. It was 101 days that we had been at sea. ibid. survivor
We started out them and us and became us. ibid.
‘The ocean is always trying to kill you. It doesn’t take a break. The probability, just not making it, is high. You’re on your own. There is no hope if anything happens.’ Storyville: Maiden, opening commentary, BBC 2019
Hello, I’m Tracy, skipper of Maiden, the first all-female challenge of the Whitbread Round the World Race. ibid.
At 33,000 miles it is the longest race on Earth. ibid. television commentary at Southampton
‘Being a girl is like being disabled in the sailing world.’ ibid. crew member
‘We were doing something we were told we couldn’t do.’ ibid.
500 years ago an unrecognizable ship arrived in the port of Seville. Its crew was reduced to just 18 emaciated and starving men. But the ship had just completed a voyage of huge importance that changed the shape of history and changed the way we live today. It was 1522 and the Victoria had just become the first ship to circumnavigate the world. Voyages of Discovery s1e1, Paul Rose, BBC 2019
The course that [Ferdinand] Magellan was planning would take him beyond chartered waters into the unknown; it was a journey many believed was impossible. ibid.
One night nearly 250 years ago a ship ran aground on a treacherous reef in the Pacific ocean. Water poured into the wooden hull threatening to sink her and all those on board. The ship that faced a watery grave appeared to be nothing more than an unremarkable coaling vessel captained by an unknown commander on an obscure scientific field trip. But this ship had a secret mission: one that would redraw the map of the world, and make a hero of her undistinguished hero. The ship was called The Endevour and her captain was called James Cook. Voyages of Discovery s1e2
The Endeavour sailed from Plymouth on 26th August 1768. It was the age of enlightenment, an era of intellectual ferment. ibid.
Cook would have to navigate his ship to the other side of the world … The Endeavour travelled alone. ibid.
Conditions below must have been appalling let alone the smell. And disease was rife. ibid.
Over 2,000,000 sailors had died from scurvy. ibid.
Banks had accidentally stumbled across the cure for scurvy. ibid.
After 33 weeks at sea land was finally spotted: Cook had arrived … in paradise. ibid.
The Transit of Venus is an incredibly rate event. ibid.
Cook’s mission was now revealed: the discovery of the fabled Great Southern Continent. ibid.
In July 1980 at the age of 39 John Lennon was sailing to Jamaica when his boat hit a storm. With the crew crippled by sea sickness it was John who had hardly ever sailed before who took the helm for six hours. Great Britons s1e3: John Lennon, Alan Davies, BBC 2002
1983 America’s Cup: USA v Australia: For the first time in 132 years America may lose the America’s Cup. Untold: The Race of the Century, TV news, Netflix 2023
The New York Yacht Club were ferocious defenders of the America’s Cup … They oozed this style, wealth, this unbeatableness. ibid. Australian team
If we were ever to win this thing we needed money. Lots of money. ibid.
The keel was inverted. Upside down. ibid.
No-one had ever won it from the Americans. ibid.