Deep below the gray icy waters of the North Atlantic lie two shipwrecks that are blasted and torn, as if by a giant, angry hand. The ships are casualties of war, but it was not enemy action which ripped the wrecks apart. No torpedo could peel open the hull and strip out the cargo so cleanly. This was the work of a Sea Hunter of a different stripe - an entrepreneur who harvested the riches scattered on the ocean floor by two world wars and became history's most successful salvager of sunken wrecks - Britain's Risdon Beazley. Join the Sea Hunters as they dive two shipwrecks, the Russian transport ship Kolkosnik and the Swedish ship Kapaaren. The Kapaaren and the Kolkosnik, are off Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both ships were salvaged by Risdon Beazley… where we can still find valuable cargo he left behind.
The early days of the Twentieth Century brought about tremendous changes in technology and industry. The raw materials for these industries led to an expansion of mining around the globe. As technology grew more sophisticated, so did the need for specialized metals and minerals. The two world wars drove the development of modern industry into high gear. World War One took warfare from the age of cavalry, chivalry and carrier pigeons into the mechanized era of tanks, aircraft, machine guns and wireless communication.
Two decades later, Nazi Germany employed the latest technology to overcome most of Europe. Britain found herself alone in Europe staring across the Channel at Germany's modern air force, navy and panzer armies. Meeting this threat and matching her enemy's weapons required supplies from the nations of her empire and from her ally, the USA. Soon, convoys of ships were braving the U-boat wolf packs, laden with food, manufactured goods and the raw materials Britain needed to manufacture weapons. It was the Liberty ships laden with thousands of tons of copper, lead, tin, aluminium which permitted Britain to build the Spitfires of the Royal Air Force, the torpedo boats of the Royal Navy and the electronics which gave her forces the edge over their German adversaries.
Thousands of these vessels never completed their voyage. Many were the victims of German air attack, others were lost to German surface vessels. The vast majority, however, were destroyed by Germany's deadly U-boats - sent to the bottom with their desperately needed cargos. During World War II, Risdon Beazley's small firm took on all the salvage work the Royal Navy could provide and by war's end, it was established as the most experienced and best equipped salvage company in Britain. Beazley then set his sights beyond the harbours of Britain and began a career which would take his vessels to every corner of the globe.
Join us again as we search the oceans of the world for lost and famous shipwrecks. Another true adventure with the Sea Hunters.
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