Combat Ships

Over the centuries, fearless captains have led their ships into battle, pushing their vessels and crews to the limit to achieve their objectives. In this episode, we celebrate maritime heroes who left their mark on history through their bravery and skill, including Larry Chambers, who overcame prejudice as the first African-American in charge of a carrier, Ernest Evans, who sacrificed it all to protect his fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and Robert Smalls, who commandeered a Confederate steamer to ferry slaves to freedom.

Combat ships are built to survive enemy attack from above and below the surface, but some blasts are simply too massive to withstand. In this episode, we revisit the some of the most spectacular explosions in maritime history, including the U.S. Navy's deadliest single incident of the Vietnam War and the 1917 cargo ship explosion in a Canadian harbor that killed nearly 2,000 people. We also show how the U.S. military's eagerness to test their latest arsenal at Bikini Atoll led to the world's first nuclear disaster.

Over the history of warfare, Black sailors often found themselves fighting two battles: one against the enemy, and one against racism within their own ranks. In this episode, we celebrate some of the hidden heroes who stepped out of the shadows to win freedom, equality, and the right to serve their country in maritime combat. We'll follow the stories of a 14-year-old enslaved powder boy who served during the French and Indian War, a Civil War gunner, and the first African American to command a vessel with a fully integrated crew: Hugh Mulzac.

After months of fierce fighting on land, sea, and air, the battle at Guadalcanal turned into an offshore "barroom brawl" in late 1942. The Imperial Navy went on a massive offensive in the early hours of November 13th. Over the next few days, the U.S. would lose multiple ships and thousands of men, but thanks to the heroic acts of sailors such as Douglas Munro, Leonard Harmon, and Cassin Young, America scored a stunning strategical win that, for the first time, loosened Japan's mighty grip on the Pacific.

Across the centuries of naval history, mutinies have remained rare, but when they do happen, they are highly charged events…and sometimes even inspiring. In this episode, we explore four stories of uprisings on the high seas, including the 1970 hijacking of a U.S. transport ship by two merchant marines protesting the Vietnam War, and the 1972 rebellion against racism on the carrier USS Kitty Hawk. We also learn of the daring takeover of the brig Creole by slave revolt leader Madison Washington and, of course, the famous mutiny on the Bounty.

When it comes to eliminating the threat of Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea and stopping the flow of illegal drugs into America, you can't do better than the International Combined Task Force 151 and the U.S. Coast Guard. We examine their latest success stories against raiders and smugglers, thanks to brilliant tactics, bold crews, and some seriously mighty combat ships. We also reveal how sometimes it's the good guys who do the smuggling, like the fearless fishermen who sneaked in arms and agents into Nazi-occupied Norway during WWII.

For centuries, designers of combat ships have pushed the limits of technology, creating record-breaking vessels and weapons that would forever change the way maritime conflicts are fought. In this episode, we highlight game-changers of the last 200 years, from Britain's HMS Warrior of 1860, the world's first iron warship, to the WWII German battlecruisers-the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst-able to strike an enemy ship from unprecedented distances, to today's state-of-the-art USS Gerald R. Ford, the most expensive combat ship ever built.

Naval victory isn't always about power or numbers. Sometimes it's achieved through speed, precision, and the element of surprise. In this episode, we examine some of maritime history's most effective-and deceptive-lightning strikes. We'll show how the French frigate Nivôse set a trap to lure Somali pirates in 2009, how the HMS Illustrious captured a well-defended Mediterranean harbor in WWII through an untested but brilliantly plotted carrier-launched attack, and how American planes pulled off a textbook surprise attack on Tokyo in 1942.