Ancient Impossible (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Ultimate Weapons - full transcript

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How did the ancients
create the ultimate

weapons of mass destruction more

than 2,000 years ago?

Could the energy of the sun be

used to torch invading ships?

Did a cannon powered by steam

crush an enemy fleet?

Holy crap, look at that!

And did the ancients
build a warship so

mighty it could rival today's

most advanced aircraft carriers?



The forty is a monstrous

vessel, but it's truly an

impossible feat of engineering.

Monuments more

colossal than our own, ancient

super weapons as mighty as

today's, technology so precise

it defies reinvention.

The ancient world
was not primitive.

Their marvels were so advanced,

we still use them.

Travel to a world closer than

we imagine, an ancient age

where nothing was impossible.



Ancient impossible
ultimate weapons

weapons and warfare,
the backbone of world

superpowers.

But when we think of ancient

civilizations, we imagine
simpler arsenals.

But is that really how it was?

Was it possible that the

ancients could harness the laws

of science to create the

ultimate super weapons?

Today when you think of super

weapons, you think of modern

militaries armed with supersonic

fighters and nukes.

But did you know that the

ancients also had their very own

super weapons?

A series of brutal

battles reveals the remarkable

power of ancient technology.

More than 2,000 years ago, the

city state of Syracuse on the

island of sicily held
out against Rome.

Sicily is a great prize for

its natural resources,
for its grain.

This doesn't escape

the attention of Rome and its

ever expanding empire.

General marcellus is sent to

Syracuse with the
mighty Roman Navy.

His mission is to
capture the city.

Syracuse has a big problem.

It's now being attacked by a

major superpower, and the romans

arrive and lay siege to this

important kingdom.

It's going to defend itself,

it's going to use tactics
and engineering.

The syracusians had
a secret weapon.

His name was Archimedes.

Archimedes was a brilliant

inventor and a mathematician.

He was born around 2,300 years

ago on the island of sicily,

slap bang in the middle of

three continents of Europe,

Asia and Africa.

Archimedes was

feared throughout the ancient

world as a mastermind
of warfare.

We know that the romans were

petrified of Archimedes'

inventions.

We're told that the general and

his soldiers fell to despair

when they knew that his

inventions were going
to be employed.

And so we find that Archimedes

is actually inventing weapons of

mass destruction.

The first lethal

invention in his arsenal was

known simply as the
Archimedes claw.

Sicilians did not have a huge

amount of manpower, so

Archimedes had to use his brain

power to win out
against the romans.

The Archimedes claw

is a very simple but highly

advanced weapon for its day.

With fulcrums and pulleys

controlling large metal hooks, a

group of men could grab and tip

enemy ships, making
them capsize.

But that's not all.

We're also told that it could

then physically pull the ships

out of the water, which must

have been petrifying.

But the claw was

just the first of Archimedes'

many game changing
ultimate weapons.

In Florence, Italy, on the wall

of the uffizi gallery is an

intriguing painting.

This 14th century depiction is a

vital clue to what could be

Archimedes' most
sinister weapon...

A death ray.

The existence of this weapon and

its viability have long been the

subject of debate among

scientists and historians.

Could Archimedes have created a

lethal weapon using only the

power of the sun?

We do know that Archimedes

used reflective technology, and

in sicily there were lots of

these highly polished bronze or

copper shields, and Archimedes

could possibly have harnessed

the power of the sun reflecting

those rays back out
onto wooden ships.

The Archimedes death ray is

essentially the first
directional weapon.

You could harness the power of

the sun, focus it into a tight

beam like a laser,
creating the death ray.

If the death ray could
channel enough solar

energy, it would set the enemy

fleet on fire.

Ever since war at sea began,

fire has been a
devastating weapon.

It has destroyed even the most

advanced modern warships.

It's a fear that former Navy

pilot hunter Ellis knows well.

Fire is definitely one of the

worst things you can have on

board a ship, and
history's proven that.

Even on these modern day

aircraft carriers that are made

of steel and titanium, I mean,

we've experienced horrible fires

in our past with the forrestal

and the ranger.

Fire at sea is nothing any

captain ever wants to deal with.

So imagine if Archimedes was

able to harness the power of the

sun and turn it
into a death ray.

There are other

examples of how the sun's rays

were utilized in
the ancient world.

One of these was at the harbor

of Alexandria in Egypt, where a

huge mirror in the pharos

lighthouse guided ships
into the harbor.

We know the ancients clearly

understood the potential of

reflective light.

But the question remains, could

Archimedes harness enough solar

power to pose a threat
to enemy warships?

Perhaps the answer lies hidden

in the new Mexico desert.

One scientist believes that the

Archimedes death ray is not the

stuff of science fiction.

We're here at the national

solar thermal test facility at

sandia national laboratories in

Albuquerque, new Mexico.

I'm a mechanical engineer here,

and I do research on

concentrating solar power.

What you see here is a
field of heliostats.

Heliostats are mirrors that

track the sun to concentrate and

focus the sunlight onto a

receiver to generate steam,

which spins a turbine
to create electricity.

If solar power can

generate electricity, can it

also be used as a lethal weapon?

Dr. Cliff Ho believes it is the

shape of the shields acting as

mirrors that holds the secret

to whether this super weapon

could have worked or not.

It may have been that

Archimedes employed curved

mirrors, not necessarily just

flat, but maybe a little bit of

curved mirror to give you a

focusing effect.

Now even though these mirrors

look flat, there is actually a

little bit of a curvature to

give you a focusing, more

concentrating effect, and you

can see on the back, the way we

do that on our mirrors is we

have a bolt here.

We can pull back on this center

plate, and we have bolts on each

of the four corners that's used

to push in slightly to give you

a little bit of a curvature.

So each of our mirrors on each

of the different heliostats have

a different focal length

depending on how far they are

from the intended target.

So the ones that are further

away from the target
have less curvature.

The heliostats that are closer

in have more of a curvature.

Dr. Ho believes

that the impact of the curved

shields is a factor that has

been previously overlooked and

would have made the death ray a

reality and more lethal than

previously imagined.

So with regard to Archimedes,

all the previous studies I've

seen have actually only looked

at flat mirrors, and as you can

see, having focused mirrors can

really do wonders for increasing

the concentration on the target.

Having that curvature would have

given Archimedes a bit of an

advantage in terms of
burning the ships.

Having a large number of smaller

mirrors can also do the trick.

Dr. Ho also believes
that Archimedes

possessed the raw materials to

get the job done.

I understand it could have

been polished bronze or copper

shields, and by using the

reverse side of that shield,

having that concave surface,

would have given it
a focusing effect.

Archimedes could have been

using advanced optics 2,000

years ahead of our
current modern time.

There is no doubt

that Archimedes was far ahead of

his time, but could he really

have used 21st century

technology to beat the
mighty Roman Navy?

In their effort to

repel the invading Roman Navy,

the ancient city state of

Syracuse was totally
overmatched.

But they did have one secret

weapon Archimedes, one of the

greatest human minds
that has ever lived.

His ingenious ultimate weapons

were thousands of years ahead of

their time.

The Archimedes claw, an

ingeniously simple weapon, had

an enormous reach that instilled

fear in Roman sailors.

But it was Archimedes' death ray

that had even greater potential

for reaping mass destruction by

concentrating the deadly rays of

the sun to torch Roman warships.

Archimedes' theory was if you

polished a surface finely, like

take one of your soldier's

shields, Polish it finely and

then capture the rays and focus

it into a tight beam like a

laser, creating the death ray.

But the lethality

of the weapon has remained

unproven until now.

At the sandia laboratories in

Albuquerque, Dr. Cliff Ho has a

one of a kind test to see if

Archimedes could have achieved

this weapon of destruction.

So is it possible that

Archimedes could have actually

developed an ancient
solar death ray?

I've actually developed some

equations and models to

scientifically evaluate this.

What we're looking at here shows

the reflections off of a single

mirror about the same size and

shape as a shield, and from that

we can determine how many

mirrors are required to achieve

the required heat
flux to ignite wood.

Dr. Ho has calculated
that it would take

200 to 300 shields working

together to set a
wooden ship ablaze.

If we simulate a large array

of these mirrors and you reflect

the sunlight onto a target, it

turns out that the concentrated

heat flux on the target is

sufficient to ignite wood.

I think it's possible that

Archimedes could have developed

this ancient death ray over

2,000 years ago.

With the right number of

mirrors, the quality of mirrors

and some steady
hands, it's possible.

I think it would have been

difficult to do, but
it's plausible.

But Dr. Ho has the

power to take his tests
to the next level.

This secure facility houses one

of the most powerful
solar rays on earth.

Known as the solar furnace, this

high tech array uses exactly the

same principle of reflective

solar energy that Archimedes

used more than 2,000 years ago.

We're here at the solar

furnace where we do high

temperature testing
of various materials.

This large parabolic mirror here

is nearly 400 square feet of

reflective surface area.

When the sunlight is reflected

towards this parabolic mirror,

it then focuses that light onto

an area that's only a
few inches across.

So what we're going to attempt

to do is to demonstrate the

immense power, the concentration

of sunlight that can be focused

onto this brick.

This is a very high
temperature material.

It melts at about
1,500 degrees c.

I think this is a good example

of Archimedes' mirrors in terms

of using a large array of

mirrors and focusing down that

sunlight into a much smaller

area, so a very intense, highly

concentrated beam of sunlight,

which can create very, very high

temperatures.

We're going to be bringing

the furnace up to 100% in ten...
Nine...

Eight... seven... six... five...

Four... three... two...
One... going 100.

Every time the solar
furnace is turned on,

extreme caution needs to be

applied because of the awesome

power of the machine.

Opening.

The solar blinds
are slowly opened.

Within seconds the massed

reflective light from the

mirrors begins to
melt the brick.

The effect is astounding as the

beam reaches the intensity of

the surface of the sun.

The solar furnace melts the fire

brick, an amazing demonstration

of the sun's deadly force.

So you can see with just that

brief exposure to that very

highly concentrated sunlight,

you can just feel the heat

radiating from the brick, and

it's created this molten glass

that's dripping down, and that

means we've exceeded

temperatures of over 2,700

degrees fahrenheit.

So compared to burning wood on a

ship, the ignition point of wood

is about 700, 800 degrees

fahrenheit, so we're well over

that auto ignition
temperature of wood.

The test leaves

little doubt that Archimedes had

the knowledge and most likely

the ability to create a solar

death ray that could have

brought the Roman
Navy to a fiery end.

We think of super

weapons as modern inventions,

but in the ancient city of

Syracuse, renowned inventor

Archimedes was building an

arsenal of ultimate weapons more

than 2,000 years ago.

We've seen how he harnessed the

sun into a lethal death ray, but

there is evidence that he did

much more than that.

It's believed that he invented

the first gun in history,
the steam cannon.

Archimedes is said to have fired

projectiles at deadly speeds,

thrashing enemy ships, using

nothing but the power of water.

The mystery surrounding this

weapon can finally be explained.

Only one ancient image of

Archimedes' design survives.

It's actually Leonardo da

vinci who credits Archimedes

with the invention
of the steam cannon.

This would have been an amazing

bit of technology a huge

copper tube sealed at one end

that was heated up.

Steam would then be injected

into the bottom, and it would

eject out these projectiles

around 2,600 feet.

James Dean uses the

most advanced 21st century

technology to shed light on this

2,000 year old mystery.

This simple tube is the basis

of an impossibly sophisticated

ancient super weapon.

This is steam power 2,000 years

before the industrial
revolution.

The heating chamber is cooked up

to over 212 degrees fahrenheit

or 100 degrees centigrade.

When a small amount of water is

introduced, it rapidly turns to

steam, and the pressure from

these expanding gases fires the

ball out at incredible speeds.

It's the same principle that

fires muskets and cannons, even

the ak47 or the m777 howitzer.

But would this design from 2,200

years ago have worked?

To understand the

impact this weapon could have

had on the mighty Roman Navy, we

must look at the devastation

that cannonballs could inflict.

Experimental model maker Richard

windley knows exactly why the

Cannon produced such great fear.

If they were fired at ships

with enough energy, they would

probably pierce the hulls.

They would probably send

splinters flying
in all directions.

We know for example that in

Nelson's time, far more men were

killed through flying splinters

than actually being hit by the

cannonball themselves.

You imagine pieces of sharp wood

maybe a foot long traveling at

very, very high velocities, they

just pierce a body absolutely

with no problem whatsoever.

But could Archimedes'
Cannon pack the

punch needed for such

destruction using only
the power of steam?

In Austin Texas we have

challenged Steve wolf to

reconstruct this
ancient super weapon.

Steve will have to find a way to

compress steam under enormous

pressure, a dangerous task.

In his workshop, he uses

available parts to see if he can

re create the impossible and

prove that Archimedes was

thousands of years
ahead of his time.

Once he has finished the weapon,

he aims to test it
with live fire.

Well the fundamental design

that we used is essentially the

same as we saw in the Archimedes

drawings that Da Vinci had.

What we have is a vessel that's

capable of holding a lot of

pressure, and we add a little

bit of water to it, and then we

start a fire underneath it, and

the fire heats the vessel, and

that causes water molecules to

leave the liquid and populate

the rest of the tank and as the

temperature increases, the

pressure in here increases so we

have pressure acting against the

entire inside of the tank here.

But could Archimedes
control the pressure

of the compressed steam inside

the cylinder and fire a

cannonball at lethal velocity?

Here's one method
that's been suggested.

This piece of wood holds the

ball in place, while the

pressure is trying to push out,

the wood exerts a counter force.

But what holds the wood in?

More wood across here like this

holds the wooden rod in, and

it's tethered like this.

So this mechanism pushes the rod

back down against the ball to

allow sufficient
pressure to develop.

Once the pressure is high

enough, it snaps, the rod comes

out, and the ball shoots away.

Mounted atop the

city defenses, the steam cannon

would have been a
formidable weapon.

But we still have no proof that

it could have fired.

Steve wolf is getting close to a

working model.

I've been working on
the steam cannon here.

Test the concept...

And the results
were really great.

Here we go in three, two, one...

Wow.

With the preliminary
testing complete,

Steve is ready to go live.

Many people think that

building a cannon that would

fire off steam power
is impossible.

I'm pretty sure it works.

Today's the big day
we're gonna find out.

To put this cannon through its

test we've got to fire a

projectile that's really capable

of causing damage.

I've got a 5 pound
magnesium ball here.

It's about the size of a

billiard ball, very
heavy, very hard.

If this thing came at you, you

better be running, and if you've

got a ship, I don't think

there's any ducking it.

Can Steve get enough
heat into his steam

Cannon to get the
required temperature?

I've got kindling here, I've

got logs, I've got a little

diesel on there just
for safe measure.

We're gonna light this up.

If we get this metal over 212

degrees fahrenheit or 100

degrees celsius then any water

that we put in here is gonna

turn to steam which means that

the heat coming through here is

gonna excite that water.

The molecules are gonna move

around so fast that they fly

apart from each other, ceasing

to be a liquid and
becoming a gas.

So when we add heat to this

liquid in a sealed vessel, we're

creating a ton of pressure, and

pressure's what it takes to fire

cannonballs.

We're gonna see the pressure on

this gauge climb.

When we're ready to fire this,

we open this valve here just by

yanking that this way.

So we're gonna create a

tremendous amount of
force going this way.

It's gonna push against the back

of the cannonball.

We usually talk in terms of

speed, but I prefer to think of

it in terms of effectiveness.

Are we firing that ball fast

enough to go through the hull of

a ship that's attacking us, and

that's really what matters.

Over 2,000 years

ago at the siege of Syracuse,

the mother of modern guns was

born, but did it really work?

We've seen evidence

of the impressive arsenal that

Archimedes built at the
siege of Syracuse.

It's clear that he could have

harnessed the power of the sun

to create a lethal death ray.

But could his steam cannon have

enough impact to obliterate a

Roman warship?

We're about to find out.

Only one ancient image of

Archimedes' design survives.

It is amazing to think that

Archimedes over 2,200 years ago

was sitting in his home in

sicily and dreaming
up a super weapon.

In Austin, Texas,

Steve wolf has been building a

steam cannon to see if the

technology could
really have worked.

It's time to light this homemade

super weapon up.

This is the first time he

attempts to fire it.

We're gonna find out today

whether Archimedes was right,

whether the steam cannon could

have fired, and I
couldn't be more excited.

Archimedes' design

is based on using water heated

up to extreme temperatures over

an open fire to create steam.

When the steam is released, it

propels a cannonball.

Working with steam under this

kind of pressure can be deadly.

We're gonna fire a 5 pound

cannonball 150 feet using

nothing but a couple
of ounces of water.

Gonna open the valve...

And that's all it takes.

Steve has to heat

the cylinder enough so that the

steam climbs to a pressure of at

least 150 psi.

Ok, pressure's climbing.

Here we go, baby.

We're ready to test this thing.

Fire in the hole!

Fire in the hole!

Holy crap, look at that!

Awesome, check it
out proof positive.

They said it couldn't be done.

They said it was impossible.

Archimedes, you were
right and... mwah!

200 feet, beautiful.

That blows me away.

Archimedes had it all right, and

I think we just proved it.

It's incredible to

think that Archimedes could have

achieved such a low
angle of trajectory.

And even more incredible is that

the same technology powers the

most formidable super weapon

today, the nimitz class
aircraft carrier.

Hunter Ellis, an ex fighter

pilot, is on the USS Ronald

Reagan looking for the legacy

of Archimedes.

So Archimedes designed a

steam cannon 2,000 years ago,

but steam still plays a very

important role in
modern warfare.

This is the catapult two

charging panel room.

This is what fires the aircraft

off the ships.

Well, basically the steam

catapult is the modern day steam

Cannon, in a sense.

I have over 400 catapult shots

and still, no words
do it justice.

It is the most amazing feeling

in the world.

You're taking a 45,000
plus pound aircraft.

You're launching it at 160 Miles

per hour in under two seconds.

It is a modern day phenomenon.

This right here is essentially

your projectile of the modern

day steam cannon,
the steam catapult.

As an aircraft comes up, it

attaches itself with a launch

bar into the front side of this

shuttle right here.

It'll hook into the front, and

then when the aircraft is ready

to fly, that steam will

released, driving the piston

through the cylinder, carrying

the shuttle that's attached to

the launch bar, which is

attached to the aircraft, and

as it hits the end right here,

the aircraft is released, and it

goes flying.

This is the valve room for

catapult one, which is the bow

cat on a nimitz class carrier.

Below us, all the high pressure

steam from the nuclear reactors

is ported up into this valve

right there where it's stored at

about 450 psi.

You can hear the aircraft above

us throttling up.

He's now getting into position

on the catapult.

And right there is the magic

that makes those airplanes go.

Archimedes beat us to the punch

by 2,000 years.

It's clear that

modern weapon systems are able

to generate enormous
power from steam...

But could Archimedes have

created enough energy to fire a

cannonball with lethal force?

Leonardo gave a maximum range

of 800 yards for
the steam cannon.

That really does
seem impossible.

But experiments at the

Massachusetts institute of

technology created a pressure of

3,000 to 4,000 psi, giving a

muzzle velocity of around 800

feet per second.

This weapon would have been

devastating at closer ranges.

Military historian

Mike loades has come to see if

Steve wolf's steam cannon can

shoot a projectile with enough

velocity to penetrate
a boat's hull.

So what defines a super weapon?

It's a weapon that has

capabilities greater than any

other weapons of its time.

And if this works,
it's certainly that.

It sounds like an impossible

idea, but that's what marks out

the minds of men like

Archimedes they make the

impossible possible.

For the first time

ever, Steve pushes the weapon

dangerously close to a 175 psi.

Will it work, or
will it explode?

We're at 150, 175!

Three! Two! One!

The cannonball

pierces the wooden hull with no

problem, proving that the steam

Cannon was indeed a super weapon

well ahead of its time.

Archimedes was on to

something, and so are we, huh?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow, that was great fun, but it

was also a very powerful

demonstration of what a

powerful thing this is.

It really is.

And the real power of this is

there is nothing more powerful

than an idea.

All of this progress simply

based on water going from a

liquid to a gas.

That idea.

Phenomenal.

Steve wolf has done

the impossible and created a

steam cannon based on

Archimedes' design which is both

lethal and accurate.

But even with the intimidating

arsenal created by Archimedes,

Syracuse eventually fell to the

mighty romans, and
Archimedes was slain.

But the influence of his designs

is still felt today
thousands of years later.

We now know that

ancient civilizations created

impossible super weapons way

ahead of their time.

But there is one military super

ship built by an Egyptian

pharaoh 2,000 years ago, that

historians believe could be the

forerunner of the modern
aircraft carrier.

Could the ancients have built

this impossibly huge mega ship?

Sources reveal this floating

super weapon of the ancient seas

could carry more than an

aircraft carrier today.

How similar is this ancient

goliath of the sea to its modern

equivalent?

I'm on board the
USS Ronald Reagan.

It's one of the largest and most

powerful super
weapons of all time.

The nimitz class nuclear
powered aircraft

carrier, one of the most

advanced super weapons
ever to exist.

It is the top of the ladder of

any military weapons system

honestly, there is nothing

more intimidating than
an aircraft carrier.

It's a moving runway.

It's four and a half acres that

you can take anywhere in the

world and deploy thousands of

warriors in a moment's notice.

That's going to strike fear in

the heart of your enemy.

As a fighter pilot,
hunter Ellis knows the

capabilities of the modern

aircraft carrier, and he can

only imagine the impact a

warship of this magnitude would

have had thousands of years ago.

Now just imagine if you could

take something the size of an

aircraft carrier, with the

lethality of an aircraft carrier

and apply that in ancient times,

the pure intimidation factor you

would have with that
would be phenomenal.

It was called the

forty, probably because of the

number of oarsmen at
each rowing station.

This mega warship was built for

the pharaoh ptolemy iv 2,200

years ago.

The forty was a massive
ship for its day.

The forty was 420 feet long, 57

feet wide, 72 feet high and you

think about trying to build a

ship out of wood that size in

that day, it's a
technological marvel.

It's unbelievable that something

like that existed.

The forty holds a
number of records.

No ship ever had a
greater troop capacity.

It is the largest catamaran ever

built, and it is the largest

human powered vessel ever known.

Dr. Derek muller is in Egypt,

the home of the forty, to

discover how important ships

were in the ancient world wow.

Here at this temple in Southern

Egypt you can see here there is

a boat, and this boat belonged

to ramses ii.

So you can see that boats were a

very important part
of Egyptian culture.

Over the centuries, boats just

became more and more important

until the ptolemaic times when

they were building truly

ginormous ships, the likes of

which we've never seen again.

The forty would have been the

largest wooden boat in history,

right, truly an impossible feat

of engineering and the greatest

example of mega building in the

ancient world.

The forty was built

by pharaoh ptolemy iv over 2,000

years ago in Alexandria, while

Egypt was under Greek rule.

It was at the pinnacle of an

ancient arms race.

The forty's all about power.

It's about demonstrating ptolemy

iv's extreme wealth, the wealth

of Egypt, the threat of its

armies and its Navy and also

his military might.

But how could the

Egyptians have powered a ship

such as the forty, which weighed

nearly 4,000 tons.

Today's nimitz class carriers

have the benefit
of nuclear power.

We have two giant reactors

sitting below us here that are

able to move this vessel that

displaces 95,000 tons at speeds

of over 30 Miles per hour.

But think about the ingenuity it

took to create the rowing banks

for 4,000 rowers, 50 oars a side

to be able to move that giant

420 foot wooden ship from your

coast to the enemy's coast.

There is much debate
in historical records

about how the staggering number

of oarsmen on the forty could

possibly have worked in sync.

One theory is the oars were

different lengths at different

angles allowing
rowing without tiers.

If you ask me the nightmare's at

the rowing end.

The longest 57 foot oar would be

angled to avoid other oars like

this, but how can up to eight

men row at this angle?

With the rower nearest the water

sitting, the end rower would be

standing with the oar
well above his head.

It would have been
impossible to reach it.

Perhaps the hull of the ship

bowed slightly like this.

This would mean the oars don't

need to be angled so steeply,

that would overcome this

seemingly impossible problem.

If it was possible

for the forty to be fueled by

such tremendous manpower, it

would have been one of the most

intimidating weapons
of the ancient world.

But what was it like on board

for the men to row
such a huge vessel?

Picture thousands of years

ago this massive
warship, the forty.

It's almost impossible to

imagine what would be going

through the mind of one of those

rowers knowing that they were

going to have to row constantly

for ten hours straight each day

for the next several days.

Squeezing 4,000 men into those

tight conditions even for a

ship that large must have been

unfathomable, the physical

labor, just the mental

exhaustion that they
would go through.

You have to picture these rowers

as being some of the most

battle hardened
people imaginable.

Historians have

generally thought that the forty

was simply a vehicle for mass

transport of troops.

But could new evidence prove

that the forty was also an

overwhelming offensive weapon?

In the ancient

world, dominance at sea was the

mark of a superpower.

The greatest technology and

design went into warships, the

ultimate super weapons
of the ancient world.

But what was the strategy behind

these ancient super ships?

New evidence indicates that the

greatest warship of all, the

forty, might have had even more

weapon's capabilities than

previously thought possible.

The forty is a monstrous

vessel, a huge catamaran with

two hulls and a massive deck

across the top, 400 feet long

and about 100 feet wide.

It is a wooden ship the likes of

which we have never seen again.

In ancient times control
of the sea was the

hallmark of any
great superpower.

Captain bolt, commander of the

USS Ronald Reagan, knows the

importance of naval domination.

The importance of a Navy to

any nation is hard to measure,

the fact that 70% of the earth

is covered by water and then, in

the modern world, 90% of trade

goes by water and I imagine

the numbers were very similar

2,000 years ago.

So you think about controlling

we call them sea lines of

communication, those
are the trade routes.

The navies are what keep them

open for who you want to have

access and closing those lines

of communication for those you

don't want to have access.

So that's how important the Navy

is to world history.

The forty was topped
with a vast deck, even

bigger than a football field.

It has always been thought that

the space was intended for troop

transport but it might have had

a more sinister function.

Could the forty have carried

deadly catapults in its arsenal?

In the hellenistic period,

they had invented torsion

artillery which was able to hurl

stone balls at great distance at

oncoming ships.

So consequently, sea battles may

well have started with an

artillery barrage before

eventually the ships come

together and the marines take

over with the fighting.

In addition to

artillery, it is now believed

that seven massive beams at the

bow of the ship had the power to

act as a giant battering ram

with unprecedented force.

Many harbors were protected

by chains, and if these rams

were set at various heights,

this would be a very good way of

breaking through this harbor

protection system.

The force of a vessel of this

weight and this magnitude

hitting the chain with a ram, it

would just simply burst straight

through it, and then the harbor

would be unprotected.

This bronze beam,

known as the athlit ram, found

off the coast of Israel is an

example of the destructive power

of the giant rams mounted on the

bow of the forty.

The forty had seven different

rams of varying length, and they

were used offensively against

the enemy in their ports.

So imagine harnessing the power

of 4,000 rowers in using those

rams to drive right into the

heart of your enemy.

A 4,000 ton ship armed
with bronze rams and

powered by 4,000 men could have

reduced enemy ships to
splinters in no time.

But could the seven rams on the

forty even wreak havoc on shore?

We know that rams were used in

siege warfare on land, such as

the helepolis in ancient Greece

or the huge siege
ram used at masada.

If the forty was used to take

down fortified harbors or city

walls, this is an impossible

piece of ancient siege warfare

never seen before.

If you could compare

similarities between the forty

and an aircraft carrier, they're

both massive warships, massive

troop carriers for their day,

employing thousands of warriors.

And also, if you look at the

forty with its seven rams, you

could think of an aircraft

carrier as having 60 plus rams.

The difference is these rams

can be launched and
reach out and touch ya.

The forty was the ultimate
super weapon of the

ancient world.

No other ship deployed such

massive manpower or had such

destructive capabilities, making

it a legend of
impossible engineering.

The world would never see a ship

like the forty ever again, a

true piece of
impossible engineering.

There was no shortage of

sophisticated weapons
in the ancient world.

Archimedes built a deadly

arsenal harnessing the natural

powers of the sun and even water

to hold off the Roman Navy.

And the Egyptians built a

warship that even surpassed some

capabilities of the modern

aircraft carrier, proving that

even for the ancients,
nothing was impossible.