There's an old saying,
when ships were made of wood, men were made of steel.
Come on boys!
Come on!
In 1789, the crew of a British navy ship
rose up and overthrew their captain.
William Bligh, and the infamous mutiny on the Bounty.
Bligh and a few loyal men were bundled into a tiny boat
and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific.
They should have died.
Instead they managed to sail 4,000 miles to safety
Wave! Wave!
through some of the most
unforgiving seas on Earth.
Big waves. Big, big waves.
It remains one of the greatest survival feats
of all time.
Now, nine men are following the same route
in an identical boat,
facing the same conditions...
to measure themselves against history.
Can the modern day man endure such hardships?
Come on lads, bail.
There's nothing normal about being here. Nothing.
Yes!
Woo hoo!
Be careful, be careful, be careful...
If we make it through I think it's a huge triumph.
My God! It's a shark!
We return, victors.
If we make one mistake...
- Look, look, look! - Whoa!
it's utter, utter disaster.
So far, injury...
I'm absolutely gutted, mate, that you're going.
And in-fighting...
- I'm just saying... - Chris, Chris,
shut up for two seconds Chris.
Have reduced the Bounty's end crew
from nine to seven.
I just want to get off right this second.
Chris has left.
Now we all stay united
and we all finish this brothers in arms.
Get in.
After six weeks at sea
they've made it 2800 miles to Albany island.
Now, they are about to embark on the final leg
of their 4,000 mile voyage.
Pull the boat in before you pull the anchor out.
Pretty heavy.
- You alright? - Yeah, yeah.
We've made it through everything else.
We are heading home to our families and loved ones.
I'm looking forward to it.
I'm really looking forward to it.
Homeward bound.
This is it.
The next time we hit land,
we'll be free men.
Right guys, is everyone on board?
Where's young Fred?
But the crew aren't safe yet.
For 43 days they've been surviving
on the same meagre rations as Bligh.
In terms of water,
we've got one, two, three, four on the bow.
They are now very weak.
We've got a bunch of guys here who think
think that they're kind of out of the woods,
they think we're just sailing home,
10 days across the sea.
We're about to embark upon 1,200 miles of open ocean
with a bunch of emaciated guys
with no proper hydration or nutrition.
Now if that's not something that's dangerous,
I don't know what is.
In 1789,
Captain Bligh needed to rally his exhausted crew.
Their only hope of survival
was to make it to the nearest safe port,
a Dutch trading post on the island of Timor.
I now gave everyone hope that 8 or 10 days
might bring us to a land of safety.
Our fortitude and spirit remained.
Everyone being encouraged
by the hopes of a speedy termination
to his misery.
Back then,
those guys shouldn't have survived, but they did.
Right guys, just listen in.
It comes down to leadership.
We've got it in our heads that we're going home.
Let's get that out of our heads.
We're not going home,
we're just going to the next leg which is Timor.
Let's get through this together,
let's get there as a fucking brotherhood.
We are men, just like they were.
And I can lead the men to the end of this voyage.
Let's prove to everyone that this can be done.
All these years later.
Are we gonna go for it on this leg?
Every available opportunity? Ha, look at him, he's a racer.
Fast as we can?
Fast as we can. We're gonna power home.
Yatch racer Conrad
wants to beat Bligh's sailing time of 10 days.
This is amazing!
This is probably the calmest sea state we've had
for pretty much the whole of the journey.
Three days in, they are still flying.
If it stays like this, it's the perfect finish.
I think we deserve a little bit of luck.
After five days,
they've reached the Arafura Sea and are almost halfway to Timor.
Whoa, look at the size of them!
My God! My God!
Guys, you're putting on a show for us.
This is un-fucking-real.
I'm getting sprayed by them.
Whoa!
My God!
There's not much I haven't seen, but this...
wow.
I want to raise our biltong to this brotherhood
because no one will ever experience
what we've gone through together.
And I just want to say thanks lads,
it's been absolutely incredible.
To the biltong brotherhood.
To the brotherhood.
Cheers.
Fingers crossed,
it'll be this way until the end, now.
We should be able to push home strong
and enjoy these last few days properly.
We've lost the wind.
We are about halfway to the finish line
and at about 7:30 this morning
we just stalled in the water.
Um...
Speed has reduced to nothing,
so we are just bobbing around in the big blue sea
at the moment.
Guys.
Basically we're gonna not be doing much
for the next 24 hours, okay?
We're gonna see how today goes and how tonight goes,
and we will take it from there. Okay?
So today, have a chat,
eat some coconuts, eat some biscuits,
do what you've got to do, but just chill.
That's all I want you to do, and we'll get there.
We're fucking almost there anyway.
Alright? Everyone happy?
Yeah.
The crew only have enough water to last a week.
If they're stuck in the doldrums for much longer,
they'll be forced to cut their intake
and risk dehydration.
This really is up there
with the toughest conditions we've endured.
It's unbearable.
The heat is unbearable.
There's like bodies strewn around the boat,
in corners, like, in slightly contorted positions.
And I don't really want to see
what the next stage is after this,
because this one's pretty horrible.
At this stage of Captain Bligh's journey,
conditions couldn't have been more different.
Sunday June 7th.
Fresh gales and squally.
With much wind at south south east,
and east south east.
The sea was high and breaking over us.
We were constantly wet and bailing.
But I saw every prospect of a quick passage.
It's quite interesting how different it is, isn't it?
They're making, like, quick, quick passage, they're wet.
The complete opposite.
What I wouldn't give for a bit of rain right now.
And a quick passage.
Yeah, that's the thing. - Quick passage.
They're cruising. We are not.
We're trapped.
Bligh, if you're watching, we do respect you
and the conditions that you had were tough,
all that rain and bailing, freezing cold, but...
give this a go, sitting here becalmed,
not going anywhere, not doing anything
in 50 degrees of heat.
Without wind,
the journey could take weeks,
but they will run out of water.
Conrad, the crew's ocean racer,
is becoming frustrated at their lack of progress.
I'd prefer to be a bit more proactive,
than just to sit and wait for something to happen.
The thing is, is that we can't manifest wind.
- No. - It's not within our power.
So stressful, isn't it?
But here's a thought.
So, could we...
could we row for, let's say, five hours a day?
And you may not think that's very much,
but, you know, that might be 10 miles a day, which...
You know, even if it got us
50 miles further down the course,
it might all make a difference.
No one's ever been successful by sitting on their arse.
And that may be the difference between a survivalist
and a sailor.
Conrad's plan to row
goes directly against Ant's orders to conserve energy.
I think that rowing is ludicrous.
I think that rowing is a bit dangerous for everyone.
Conrad's attitude is that it might get us
to that bit of wind
which then takes us to the end.
Or it might take you away from the wind.
Exactly. That's what I was thinking.
No one knows what's happening.
We just need to wait for the wind to come.
If it doesn't come, it doesn't come.
This is over, end of story.
Just when you thought,
it couldn't get any stiller or any slower,
this happens.
I've never, ever seen a sea this still in my life.
The reflections in the water are almost like...
It's mirror-like.
There's only enough water for six more days.
The game plan hasn't changed guys,
so let's just sit her out another couple of days.
Guys, I know it sucks, but something has to change.
Everyone happy?
Yeah.
When I was sleeping last night, or not sleeping,
I could hear Conrad having a conversation
with the crew that were on watch
saying that we're not doing enough.
If we start rowing,
we're gonna find ourselves in a whole world of pain.
The energy that you use
is just not worth the reward,
and I won't put the men through it.
If the crew start rowing,
they risk exhaustion and dehydration.
Do nothing,
and they risk running out of water.
Ant and his quartermaster Rish decide to take action.
As of midnight,
we'll be on 51 litres remaining,
so the decision that Ant and myself have come up with
is that we'll be going down to five ladles.
That's two and a half cups guys, each day,
and we could potentially go down lower,
so just prepare yourselves for that.
We're having a litre of water a day,
and I don't think that's enough to properly stay hydrated
in this sort of heat, with this sweat.
So I'm quite worried about dehydration.
I feel thirsty all the time
and I've only peed once today and it was very dark.
Can you see anything on the horizon
that's gonna make my day in the way of wind,
do you think, Conrad?
No obvious signs.
Let's put it that way.
But I'll tell you what, it would be good
tonight...
perfect for rowing.
Absolutely perfect.
We'd probably do 30 miles.
I'm up for it.
Yeah, but I don't honestly know why we're wasting time.
Why don't you call Ant over and discuss it?
Cause he's made up his mind.
After two days with no wind,
support for Conrad's plan is starting to grow.
So what's interesting is that basically his argument is
that ultimately he feels like
there's certain areas of the world
where you can get stuck in a tiny little place,
and if you don't put the effort in
to get out of that tiny little place,
you'll never hit the first bit of wind
wind to be able to get you to the next bit of wind.
That's racing.
That's the racing world, it's not the survival world.
Okay, okay. So that's an interesting perspective.
So he wants to put it to a vote?
Well, no you just...
I'll get all hands on deck now and put it to a vote now.
And I will stand down as captain.
Don't do it right this second.
Yeah guys, can we get all hands on deck, please?
All hands on deck, please.
Right, guys,
you all know my trail of thought is I want to see this out.
We're in a survival situation.
Conrad would rather see us being proactive right now.
We know what you want to do,
well you've made it perfectly clear
what you want to do.
You want to row from cloud to cloud or do whatever, but...
Can I just say a couple of things?
Yeah, of course you can, of course you can.
I think it's unfair to single me out.
I'm not... Mate, I'm not singling you out here.
It's been going for the last couple of days, mate.
When my leadership is coming into question,
I have to get on top of it, mate,
I have to try and let people know,
and then I have to do something about it.
Well, I don't know what Dan, you know,
came and said to you, you know, whether...
I went over to him and I told him exactly
what you said to me.
I didn't... This is not stirring the pot.
No he wasn't. - I was not stirring the pot.
I just said exactly... I said listen,
there's a perspective that you have on sailing, and...
Sailing, there's no question Conrad, I'm saying,
but this is survival.
This is... and we are on the bones of our arse
at the ultimate survival situation,
where this is getting to the point now
where it's becoming dangerous.
I just want to put it to a vote right now.
And here's the vote.
If you think Conrad's decision is correct
and he should step up as captain,
put your hand up, please.
No, I'm gonna put my hand down.
If you respect my decision
and you think I should continue doing my job,
and listening to what I say,
can you put your hands up, please?
Everyone's going to do that.
Right, guys,
I just wanted to make sure that firstly, I was captain,
and that I wasn't fucking dreaming it.
My decision is final.
I know, and I respect that, and that's the...
It's not... We're not in the racing world, mate,
and I just need you to listen to what I've got to say,
trust in what I'm doing,
and I will get you to the end of this,
no matter what.
I've had a very stressful day today.
I didn't want to have
that conversation with him this afternoon.
I didn't want to pull him out in front of the men.
You know, nothing's personal. I don't take anything personal,
I just have to put someone in their place.
We're gonna see this out,
we're going to take each day as it comes.
We can do this.
After three days in the doldrums...
Yes! Woo! No way!
You smile Rish, you smile.
Ant's patience is rewarded, as the wind returns.
All smiles for now, that's what I like to see.
That's not the only reason to celebrate.
Happy birthday!
Whoa! - Look at that bad boy.
Here you go birthday boy.
The crew have been hiding
a surprise birthday present for their captain.
Sounds like a good 'un.
Yes.
I'm really happy that we're in this position.
The winds are behind us on my birthday,
so I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present,
apart from being with my wife and children, of course.
Without sounding too emotional, because I don't do emotions.
Mate, that is a goody.
The wind's blown away the bad atmosphere,
and we will get to Timor
and it will be a united band of brothers.
I don't think that I would have heard
the sound of the waves crashing against the bow there again.
But it feels nice to hear it.
Yeehaa!
It's been 11 days since the men left Albany.
In total, they've travelled 3,700 miles
and are now just 300 miles from their final destination.
Then the wind drops...
again.
Has anyone peed today?
No, I tried going just then, but...
I don't think I had enough in the tap.
Heat exhaustion and lack of water
are starting to take their toll.
In 1789, Bligh battled wind and rain,
but he knew the sun posed a greater threat.
I consider the cloudy and wet weather
to be a blessing.
Hot weather would have caused us to die with thirst.
Perhaps being so constantly covered with rain
protected us from that dreadful calamity.
Freddy is suffering with the reduced water rations,
and Dr Luke is concerned.
When did you last pee?
About this time last night.
So you haven't peed for 24 hours?
No.
That's not good. It's not enough.
Well, to be honest
I don't think there's anything we can do about that, Luke.
I would say you definitely need to be peeing
at least once a day.
and that is... that is already not enough.
Yeah.
Open your mouth.
Stick your tongue out.
Luke has limited medical equipment.
All he can do is take Freddy's pulse.
You have a very low pulse.
- What is it? - 30.
Luke is so worried by Freddy's low heart rate,
that he decides he must use the emergency radio.
Seasurveyor Seasurveyor, this is Bounty's End.
He calls the safety boat, two miles away.
Hello Luke.
I'm really sorry to have to wake you.
I just wanted to let you know about Fred.
He told me he didn't feel fantastic,
and it turns out he hasn't peed all day.
He has a dry mouth.
His eyes are slightly sunken.
His pulse was 30.
His normal resting heart rate is not 30, it's 60.
The heart rate's just horrendous, really,
even for someone so young as he is,
the heart rate, it shouldn't be that.
Yeah, um...
If you could definitely give him some more water,
and we'll review in the morning.
Then we'll, um...
see what course we'll take from there.
If Freddy's dehydration
gets any worse,
he will have to be evacuated.
Don't worry. Sleep.
And we'll just see how he is in the morning.
I was really worried about Freddy last night.
His pulse was so low that if he was in England,
I would probably put him on a monitor.
Whereas here, you just sort of...
here's some muddy fart water, go to bed.
See you in the morning.
So it was pretty scary.
From the emergency support boat,
medic Adie heads to the Bounty's end,
to assess Freddy's condition.
Yeah.
Permission to come aboard?
Yes.
So yesterday he wasn't himself at all.
His mood was down, he was a bit irritable.
His memory was certainly affected.
Sorry to talk about you like you're not here.
No, no...
You look pale today as well.
You all look pale.
Open up.
Stick your tongue out.
Stick it out to the side.
Okay.
So how much are you drinking a day?
Between five and six...
- Ladles. - ...ladles.
Do you feel dizzy, faint, anything like that?
Only when I stand up.
Only when you stand up? - Yeah.
Um...
does everybody feel dizzy and things when they stand up?
Okay.
Adie now has serious concerns
about the entire crew.
He takes away urine samples for analysis.
- Cheers guys, thanks boys. - Cheers.
I feel like shit.
You feel like shit? - Yeah.
You feel like shit right now?
What... How do you feel like shit?
What's this? - Probably best not to film it,
they'll just take me off.
You what?
Don't film it or they'll just take me off.
They'll take you off? - Yeah.
Do you think you're dehydrated?
Everyone is dehydrated.
The test results confirm their worst fears.
Emergency orders are issued to the crew.
You must drink water in now,
Not to be rationed.
You must drink.
You are all horrendously dehydrated.
The potentials can be catastrophic.
You're so vulnerable right now that you need to start drinking.
For the past 54 days,
the crew have been self-sufficient,
finding their own drinking water along the way.
And it's a proper different ball game now.
- Yeah? - Um, yeah.
It's a case of you have to drink now.
And it has to be a free-for-all.
They are still 300 miles from land.
so the medical team are insisting
they accept fresh water from the safety boat.
You can't... you can't survive,
you cannot survive on three ladles.
If we were all clearly openly guzzling
four litres of water every day from Evian bottles,
this whole trip would be a debacle.
If somebody says to me at the end, did you do it?
I don't want to be like, "Yeah! Except for the last hundred
and, you know, 300 miles where we, for health reasons,
we all started drinking four litres of water a day.
I mean, I'm not... This probably sounds like bravado,
but fuck that. Fuck that.
I appreciate it. I do get it.
I really do get it, but it's health.
It really is, mate.
But I also like to think I know my own body reasonably well,
you know, if I don't piss for a day,
I know that's really bad.
If I piss and it looks like Guinness,
I know that's really bad.
I'm pissing twice a day at the minute.
It looks like Mountain Dew, but that's okay.
The only problem is now you get to that point where
you're dehydrated and you don't think you need to drink
when you do.
But we're not in the danger zone, are we?
You are.
The potential for heat exhaustion,
leading to heat stroke, which will be catastrophic.
Seizures.
Brain injury from your brain swelling.
Your kidneys will be fucked. Your livers will be fucked.
Luke will tell you. You need to drink.
The person on this voyage, on this project
wants to not have an intervention,
but there's the doctor side of me
which agrees we should be having four litres of water a day.
I want to drink only out of that barrel
until that barrel is gone.
Well one way of getting round it is that
we agree to take the water on board,
we put it under the floorboards,
and then everyone on board knows exactly where it is,
- and we have water. - Great idea Luke.
Yeah, but you'll use what's left in the barrel first.
Therefore if anyone goes down,
it's cause they're choosing not to take...
Yes. Yes.
So that's their personal responsibility.
Yeah.
Please drink. Yeah? Please.
It's very real.
I'm pleading with you, really. Please drink.
Adios.
I don't want to have to come off this
at all for any reason. I want to be there at the end.
I don't want to have to not finish it with you guys
just because I'm too stubborn to drink water.
I mean, I'd absolutely hate that to happen.
A lot has happened in the last few days.
All I can say is we'd better make it to Timor.
My concern is that
I don't want to damage my liver or kill myself.
I've got two kids that I'm absolutely, you know...
That's all I'm thinking about now.
I really don't want to risk these guys' health
for this voyage, you know, the long-term risk issues,
long term health issues that could be caused
by serious dehydration.
I have a duty of care
to get these guys back in one piece.
Right, good morning gents.
Overnight, the Captain has made a decision.
Um...
Right, let me start with
the water.
As of today,
we will be breaking into our emergency water.
Don't feel that we've cheated or anything.
We haven't. This water is,
if we don't drink it, we're...
we're gonna die, basically, you know.
We are on the verge of serious, serious, serious health issues.
There's no limit to water.
Right, who wants to do the honours with the water?
Rishta, being the QM?
Yeah, think so.
Go on guys, dig in.
The water will keep the men alive,
but they are still only consuming 400 calories a day.
My waist size has dropped by about five inches.
Look at that.
- Shit! - Whoa!
- Holy shit. - Wow.
That's both fascinating and repulsive at the same time.
In their weakened state,
thoughts of home are all that's keeping them going.
I'm looking forward to getting the crew on land
and to getting us all home, really.
We're so close but yet so far.
The ocean current has now carried them
to within 160 miles of Timor.
But at this rate, it will take another week.
So I was thinking about the first thing
I'm going to look forward to when I get home,
and, um...
it's just to see my family again.
But yeah...
Yeah. I miss home a lot.
My wife is pregnant.
I've been at all my child's births
and I would love to be at this child's birth.
It's very important for me that I get back.
The crew of the Bounty's End
have now been at sea for 59 days.
I think I can see land over there.
But it may be my eyes, cause it's just one...
- One big lump? - One big rock.
Yeah.
Do you see that?
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! Is that another bump over there?
I think you may be right.
I think you've got it.
I think you might be right.
I was beginning to doubt that Timor was actually a place.
At three in the morning,
we discovered Timor.
It is not possible for me to describe the pleasure
which the sight of land diffused among us.
I now conceived hopes that our voyage
was nearly at an end.
Wow.
I think we've got about 20 minutes of rowing, max.
The dolphins have come, guys.
Sailors' souls, that's what they say.
Dolphins are the souls of dead sailors.
They protected us and guided us every inch of the way.
On the 14th of June 1789,
William Bligh and his men made landfall at Timor.
and the world learned for the first time
of the mutiny on the Bounty.
A story that would pass into legend.
Bligh returned to England
and went on to become an admiral.
History miscast him as a harsh villain,
but for the men on that small boat,
he was a hero.
Look at what Bligh accomplished as a leader.
Come on lads. Nearly there.
Fucking hell. We're nearly there.
And that's why it's lasted throughout the times,
because it is such an amazing feat.
Almost there.
So close, guys.
You've earnt every single moment of this.
No one can ever, ever take any of this from you.
60 days in a 23 foot open rowing boat.
I don't think that I'll ever do anything as tough as that.
Boys, we are going through the Great Barrier Reef
as we speak.
Fucking get in there.
It's a lifelong dream.
I got to go places that I've no right to go.
Vanuatu is one of the most magical places I've ever been.
Woohoo.
The emotions are starting to get to me now.
Thinking about what we've been through
to get here.
Being on these rocks, doing exactly the same thing as Bligh,
is pretty special.
I feel like a part of history.
It's definitely a day I'll never, ever forget.
Who does this
in the middle of the South Pacific ocean?
Love you guys.
Take it easy, man.
- To the Mutiny crew. - Yeah.
Gentlemen, it's been an honour and a privilege,
Thank you so much.
Ant, I don't think anyone's said this yet,
but on behalf of the crew,
it's been an absolute honour,
and you've been absolutely unbelievable on this trip
and we fucking love you, mate.
We absolutely love you.
- So thank you. - I love each and everyone
of you, and you don't need to thank me.
Without you, I couldn't have done this, guys.
Last 10 metres, let's row it in,
- let's go. - Come on!
- Let's do this! - Come on!
It's right there.
Keep going, guys.
- Fred, you've got this. - Yeah.
It's okay, it's okay guys. Oars in. Oars in.
It feels good to be on land.
You've earned that, my friend.
Conrad. My right hand man.
Thank you so much.
It's been crazy, man.
My god.
Yes! Get in!
Dan, welcome ashore.
- We did it. - We did it.
We're here.
I fucking love you boys.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I can't believe it.
I haven't hugged you yet.
So think about, you know,
how did Bligh get through this, you know?
How did he cope, how am I going to cope?
You always have your doubts,
you're always scared of failure, you know,
you're always scared to...
Once you've earnt the respect of the men,
to, you know, that you're gonna lose it within a moment.
And I didn't want them to think that there was ever a problem
or that I was ever
in a situation where I was unsure of my decisions,
which I was most of the time.
Come in guys. Come in.
I couldn't imagine my life without them in it.
It's going to be really, really difficult when I go home
to my original family, if you will,
and then realise that they're not going to be there
when I wake up, they're not going to be there
when I want to chat to them.
They're not going to be there when I go to the toilet.
You don't have too many moments like this in your life, do you?
I'd all grab a pebble from this beach if I were you.
We can quite comfortable say
that we have got that mettle and steel in us
as a group of men,
because I don't think we would have ever given up.
I cannot believe we've been in that thing
for 60 days.
Look how small she looks.
She's absolutely tiny.
Bloody boat.