Episode Detail: Sea Power; Big Guns - Warship
Stacy Keach narrates a four-hour history of naval technology, from the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 to the 21st century. It begins with a look at how Nelson's victory at Trafalgar was one of tactics, not technology. It also surveys the major technological changes of the Industrial Revolution. Among them: Robert Fulton's steamboat, shells that exploded, screw propellers and, by time the American Civil War began, ironclads. The second hour explores how the ironclads' gun turrets led to battleships, which had their heyday in World War I. Warplanes made them obsolete.