The Unsurprisingly Deadly Job Of A Medieval Sailor | Worst Jobs | Absolute History

Among the thankless tasks tackled by Tony this week is the work of the midshipman, lighthouse keeper, stoker, and trimmer. He will live like the men of Britain's first navy who survived on minimal rations and like the men who wore sacks on their heads on the luxury liners.
📺 Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free exclusive podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Matt Lewis, and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code ABSOLUTEHISTORY 👉 access.historyhit.com/
This channel is part of the History Hit Network. Any queries please contact: [e-mail]
#AbsoluteHistory

[@cuttersidwell]

Oh yeah that lighthouse dude seems totally sane. 😂

[@mick7even]

His insanity kept him sane insanely

[@juliadagnall5816]

One thing about John Harrison’s work that I find fascinating is that, long before he turned his attention to sea clocks and claiming the Longitude prize, he built a tower clock for Brocklesby Park that has been running almost continuously for 300 years. The clock’s works are made of wood. The parts that would normally need lubrication he carved from a hardwood called lignum vitae which secretes its own oil, ensuring it would never get gunked up and stop running, and where he needed to use metal he used brass instead of iron or steel which would rust over time. To me there’s something so cool about a craftsman who’s willing to find solutions to a problem anyone else would probably see as an inevitability.

[@az12223]

You know this a to good thing to be true,

[@josephgreeley5569]

Love this episode of "Worst Jobs in History" But Tony, if you think that rowing was bad . . . In 1883 A fisherman named Howard Blackburn and his dorymate got separated from their schooner the 'Grace L. Fears' on the Grand Banks in a snowstorm. His dorymate died, but Howard ROWED back to Newfoundland. He froze his hands to the oars after he accidentally bailed his mitten overboard, so that he'd be able to hold on to them no matter what happened. It took him five days, and when he got to shore it took him another few days to find a village. He lost all his fingers and his thumbs down to the first joint (along with most of his toes). Yet he still went around Cape Horn for the Klondike Gold Rush to pan for gold (fell out with his partners in San Francisco and returned to Gloucester) and sailed solo across the Atlantic not once but twice.

[@granthurlburt4062]

Wow! That'd make a good book! Thanks for this fascinating tale

[@JamesVibe]

damn...cringe worthy

[@RobEJC]

Perhaps Tony's most physically challenging role - tough little guy!

[@Enonymouse_]

I got to be a stoker on a steam train as an early teen, it definitely teaches you some respect for what the engineers and rail workers of the steam era had to deal with.

[@mick7even]

Tony is so legit. He tries everything and isn’t afraid to say when he can’t do it or if it’s gross and nasty. Much respect

[@jonobrien1339]

Anything with Tony Robinson AKA Baldrick is always worth a watch.

[@stanleyhercules]

this guy is awesome

[@One.DeSanctis.]

He has been blessed with some great writters over the years.

[@SirWalrus80]

So true.. he just should ware I have a cunning plan shirt with turnip logo on it 😊

[@MB5rider81]

Here here !

[@scottmclaughlin1410]

I instantly said, Baldric!

[@haleywharton1283]

Its a special kind of person Who can serve for 40 more years after losing their crew on the first day...and being the only one left

[@SauronsEye]

On the bright side, would've been an very early promotion to Captain for him.

[@The_Not_So_Great_Cornholio]

I think living in a lighthouse, provided a large enough stash of beer and reefer, would be awesome.

[@Devo491]

The underdog's plight is the origin of the expression 'in the pits'

[@Invictus13666]

Except not. The pits as an expression is first found in America in the early 1950s. But good for you, trying to be clever and all....

[@mikkelnpetersen]

One thing that always amazed me with things like ships, is the labor behind it, felling the trees, making them into planks, shaping the pieces and then putting them together, the making of the rope, the sails, the anchor, all the stuff needed to maintain the ship, the amount of professions needed to produce such things, and the logistics to get them moved from place of havest to production to dry dock to assemble, in the quantities required to build a NAVY. Never underestimate the laborer, it's their work that makes kings able to build empires.

[@jkent9915]

It really is insane. HMS Victory alone is 6000 trees, 24 miles of rope, 4 acres of sails, 120 cannon, and >5000 cannonballs, just to get started. You could go on for days with minutiae.

[@WalrusMcDonald12n2na2]

Kings build kingdoms

[@ExternalInputs]

@@WalrusMcDonald12n2na2 Generally by oppression, invasion and violence.

[@chippysteve4524]

Woodlands were also managed to ensure that the timbers reqd would be available in the correct proportions(eg ratio of big trunks to narrow trunks thru pollarding) for what wd be needed 50+ years later.

[@andrewtorrens7790]

Back in high school (think late 80s early 90s) I saw a video at school where a guy started in ancient history, and walked forward from invention to invention, innovation to innovation, showing how each development facilitated the next (e.g. how domestication lead to the plow to the city, and so on). I'd love to be able to show my son a longish timeline showing how inventions lead to more inventions, and how it's often incremental changes that affect our life more than one pivotal moment.

[@Tod357]

80% of that content would be banned today basicly

[@philipstevenson5166]

science works that way and it's still going on; "major breakthroughs" are publicity stunts; it's all incremental

[@electricc0rd84]

watch the anime DR Stone its kinda like that

[@kaptenrotskjeg]

why@@Tod357

[@ivarsol]

Maybe it was « Il était une fois l'homme» (in french)/Once Upon a Time... Man? Loved that series!

[@tnekkc]

Tony the toilet scrubber.... In 1974 I was a relief janitor and sometime had to clean the Seattle Times newspaper lavatories until 6 a.m. I got married in 1978 and the wife has had me cleaning toilets ever since...but she only has 3 toilets. The TImes had 100.

[@deniseroe5891]

As I watch this, my daughter in law, her mom, her twin sister and their niece are on a cruise out of Galveston in to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Their first cruise. Their first trip on a ship, a far cry from the brave soles that traversed the oceans.

[@forton615]

Do a bit of research on jobs on cruise ships. Maybe start by googling "Aussie cruise ship worker reveals dark side to glamorous industry", but you'll find many many more stories if you look for it). Not that far from medieval as you think. Next to no labor rights, ships stuck in quarantine at sea because they are not welcome in, or too far from the banana republic they are registered in and so on. Some of them can't even quit because they can't pay their flight back to home. Yes, they are brave soles too.

[@somethingelse4424]

And you're rowing on a galleon, or on the couch right now? 😂

[@Omnihil777]

I had the pleasure to talk with my 101 year old great grandfather before he passed away in 93 and he told me, he once met a wood sawyer and his hands were like thick, hard leather. Imagine that in every day life: You have grown gloves. Not nice.

[@SauronsEye]

Imagine getting into a fist fight with that fellow! I met a fellow who was job was as a brick layer. He said he'd been doing it for around 40 years. He had very thick strong fingers, somewhat calloused but not as much as I thought they'd be. He said that was because he rubbed lanolin into his hands each night. Airplane cabin cleaners. The ones that clean the seats, set area and back pockets of the seats develop, "clawed", hands from constantly having their hands in a pick up pose for their 8 hour work shift. All four fingers together and your thumb completing the grabbing motion. So yeah, maybe think about that the next time you fly. Take your rubbish with you and save the cabin cleaner's hands. These are modern first world jobs that are pretty tough.

[@lindawoody8501]

I had a grandfather, great grandfather, two great great grandfathers, and a 3X great grandfather who all were professional mariners. US Navy Master Chief, First Officer, and Ship's Captains. These ancestors were from the USA, Scotland/Ireland, and Swedish Pomerania Prussia. Sailing schooners, brigs, steam passenger liners, and naval war ships. Interestingly enough my US Navy Grandfather was from a bygone time when he actually was trained prior to 1910 on a sailing ship! Imagine!

[@sonomacalendar9949]

my ancestors all served on aircraft carriers nuclear submarines fregates corvettes schooners cutters clippers shmippers and caravellas and torpedo boats and anti aircraft boats and gun boats and transport vessels and prison vessels from hell they were admirals and mariners and midshipmen and sailors and taylors and deadbeat captains and commodore. So that means I am cool and you aren't linda lying woman. they came from Norwegian bavaria and sicilian belgium and belgian croatia and serbian Poland and Spanish Denmark and Danish Uruguya and Austrlian Algeria and Algerian Iraq. and Moroccan New Zealand and Scottish Japan, too. My great great great great father was Admiral of the Scottish-Philipino Aircraf carrier which carried 200 nuclear powered strategic bombers who bombed Mexico City during the second Paraguay - Burma war

[@miapdx503]

Salute! 🌹

[@nicolascageboii6127]

The rank of Master Chief was made much later than 1910 When did your grandfather retire?

[@antoniomoreira5921]

Not sure it's the right niche but for the best Medieval maritime history I recommend Schwerpunkt

[@nickthelick]

Ha! A friend of mine in Poole, (in Dorset, UK) was/is a modern-day "Gut-Boy", or "Guts-Guy"! He worked in a dockside fish🐟factory sorting the catches and gutting them, and then putting the fillets into trays on ice, which would then be transported all over the country... He wore those bright yellow plastic overalls, with the hat too! He looked more like an old-time fisherman than a dockside worker! And yeah, everyday he would totally STINK of nasty oily fish! I remember thinking back (been about 15 years ago since then) that he was doing an absolute nightmare of a job. Shifts of late nights, early mornings and everything in between! 24/7/365! Well, _almost_ 365 days a year! Probably 2, _maybe_ 3 days a year when the factory would be shut!

[@miapdx503]

Those brave souls who put out to sea! Back in the day it was treacherous. It's still dangerous today. But those wooden ships...the sea floor is littered with them. Bless the souls lost at sea 🌹

[@MayheM_72]

"Baldrick" in his lifeboatsman kit is HILARIOUS!

[@nelsonted1]

You need to go planking in a southern U.S. state in the awful heat and humidity. The underdog wore a giant straw hat that covered to the outer shoulders. I can't imagine being in the heat and learning to live with the saw dust pouring down.

[@q.e.d.9112]

The triangular “Log” your midshipman had to pull in was not the real thing. Yours had three lines fixed to the three corners. In practice, only two of the three ropes were fixed. The third ended in a cork or wooden plug that was jammed into a tapered hole. With the reel running freely, these three ropes kept the face of the log opposing the motion but, once the middy grabbed the line it would jerk the plug out of the hole and the triangular log would capsize on to its face and be hauled in, easily.

[@USAACbrat]

i got to crank up the counterweight that operated the the ST. Phillips light in the Bahamas for the last time. The next day it was automated. i was a guest of the keepers overnight because of a dead engine and a broken windshield on my 55' landing craft i was transferring to Great Harbor island.

[@AndyJarman]

I don't have the heart to say what needs saying to the retired lighthouse keeper. The pea packets might have helped, but I'm not sure about sucessful.

[@theboyisnotright6312]

Very cool! Found out where the phrases top dog and underdog came from😊. Kinda awful jobs.

[@Dovietail]

NOT ME, PAL. I got seasick on the Santa Monica pier! Can't even do heavy seas on a modern cruise ship. 😵‍💫🤢🤮

[@ROBERTN-ut2il]

Lead Oarsman - Known in naval circles as the Stoke Oar

[@EA-History]

Surprised they doesn't seem to have a name of the "spoon" used to remove water from the boat. It' commonly still used along the norwegian coast, and is called Øsekar/ ausekar, old "auskjer", in traditional norwegian.

[@johnmayer3433]

It's "Ösfass" in German language so it seems that guy was simply ignorant.

[@hawkingdawking4572]

It was about British boats defending against the Vikings.

[@lindsayheyes925]

Baler today.

[@Ukraineaissance2014]

It was a Saxon boat setup. I.e english. The anglo saxons did resemble the vikings a lot.

[@stevenlowe3026]

In English it's called a baler.

[@Nala15-Artist]

41:43: "Tratscht wie ein Fischweib" ('gossips like a fishwoman') is still a saying in germany for a woman who is particularly enthused about rumours.

[@AndyJarman]

Somali land at the southern end of rhe red sea was a British coaling station. The colliers would deliver to Somaliland from south Wales. Shirley Bassey is decended from a Somaliland stoker who ended up in Cardiff's Tiger Bay.

[@miapdx503]

Awesome story! I love Shirley Bassey. Her voice is so unique. 🌹🎶💕

[@daniell1483]

Seeing this, as an American, I am begining to see why the British navy was so singularly powerful in its age: absolutely no other country wanted to inflict such pain upon itself willingly! These jobs look absolutely hellish. What really got me was trying to figure out your location without GPS. It looks so alien to do those calculations by hand.

[@pederosh3436]

There is no such organisation as the British Navy, there is the Royal Navy.

[@nelsonted1]

When the wind died and your side needed to destroy or capture the other ship a crew on a boat would row an anchor way out there, drop it in, and the capstanners would have to crank and crank until the anchor was pulled to the ship then the rowers would have to haul the anchor out and start all over, all day. Obviously the trick was to fire away at the rowboat which would suck some

[@seanmalloy7249]

Watching them run the capstan around reminded me of visiting the San Diego Maritime Museum, where the docent aboard the Surprise (the actual ship from the movie Master and Commander) commented that you could tell whether a sailing ship was built by the British or the Americans was to look at the capstan; British-built ships had square holes for the capstan poles, while American-built ships had round holes for the capstan poles... to reduce the number of decisions the American sailors had to make when inserting the poles.

[@prichardgs]

Wow, this is so well done. Bravo!

[@DPelicanGaming]

there are still ships today that work in fishing jobs, that need to be soaked. i work at a marina building and floating boat and often we must leave them in the slip for a few days with pumps hooked up in them

[@wakeoftheflood2]

Nice shot of the old Trinity House Blackwall Workshops

[@arh3733]

What about the job of the cabin boy? The REALLY cute cabin boy.

[@lindsayheyes925]

1. Learning the ropes - he was destined to become a Master in due course, and people didn't live long, so they started early; 2. As ships became more complex, the Master and Officers needed a runner and Steward so that they weren't distracted from their duties by trivial tasks. 3. ...oh... that... I think he'd've been warned not to dwell in the forecastle, where the men had their hammocks... in case he got pregnant... men can, apparently, these days.

[@arh3733]

@@lindsayheyes925 kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2exfIV4pr5qo5Y

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

Ngl I got completely disoriented at the ship's liar part but otherwise incredible stuff

[@christineploeg1992]

Tony is a hoot!

[@newtonpritchett9887]

Oh, shit- it’s Baldrick! I don’t I’ve ever recognized an actor faster in my life

[@Zach845]

The light house keeper is not sane to begin with haha. What a fascinating guy.

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thank you.

[@robertslusser6753]

As a fan of "Time Team", it was with pleasure to find this video with Sir Tony Robinson.

[@brucegilbert7243]

I don't know why, but my father would buy smoked and salted herrings around the holiday season. It was extremely saltly and was like fish jerky. For some unknown reason they were called blind robins.

[@tondakremble6660]

Your a real "Trooper" Tony! Loved it!👏

[@SauronsEye]

"You're".

[@Dovietail]

I learned about wood swelling when the iron bands fell off of my bourbon barrel because I let it dry out in the garden shed!

[@thesoubretteoftheopera7313]

That pass examination went so well for he that now he is the ruler of the Queen's Navy

[@q.e.d.9112]

Now, landsmen all, wherever you may be, If you want to rise to the top of the tree, If your soul isn’t fettered to an office stool, Be careful to be guided by this simple rule: Stick close to your desk and never go to sea, And you might even make it as a Tory MP.

[@lindsayheyes925]

One of my ancestors was an Undersawyer. He was blind by the.time he was thirty - probably from the sawdust. Sawpits were often built on the side of a steep wooded hill in the cutting above a road so that the raw material could be dragged down to them by draft horses. We don't use gravity much today, but the sawyers also had perry orchards because perry pears are harvested after they drop, so if the ground is steep, they are easier to collect - by standing downhill - than if the ground was flat. The rough planks would be slung under a cart for transport, or slid down a chute: I work not far from a Sawpits Lane. At a point where the lane has to contour the hill, there is a short-cut which saves a long haul by road. Today it is a footpath which looks like a steep, broad ditch which rejoins the road below at a short and seemingly pointless stretch of "dual carriageway". The path's name betrays that it was one of the chutes - "The Coffin Slide" because it was between a chapel and a church - and it seems that the dual carriageway was a siding for loading the planks onto carts. There was another chute across the valley which went to a railway siding. That siding was also at one end of a steam-driven ropeway which brought lumber (and courageous people) over the River Wye. Transport of lumber by road was heavy haulage, so the road out of the valley had a steam cable-tow. Horses were taken off the cart's shaft at the bottom of the hill and walked up while the cart was hooked to the cable to haul it up the steep road. Sawdust and bark were transported too - the sawdust to absorb blood and grease on the floors of slaughter-houses, butchers' and other shops; the bark was sold to a tannery in town. They spread it on the High Street in the cattle market to absorb horse urine and deaden the clatter from horseshoes and the iron hoops around cart wheels. That processed the bark for use in tanning leather.

[@SauronsEye]

Umm, "We don't use gravity much today". Can you please go and have a sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit and think about what you just wrote.

[@lindsayheyes925]

@@SauronsEye Well, we don't. Engines are so cheap to use that we don't. For example, in the Forest of Dean and South Wales there were trams and cableways which stretched for miles from pits snd quarries to the railways, docks and ironworks. Look at any quarry now, and it is all motorised, with very few exceptions. Look at the design of factories. From sugar-boiling to limekilns to windmills, breweries, ironworks and watermills, raw materials were fed in at the top, and finished goods came out at the bottom. Engineers used hillsides. Today, we build industrial estates on flood plains because they are flat, so erecting portal-frame buildings is easier - but the practice both displaces agriculture and contributes to rapid runoff and floods. Our ancestors would think us mad. I'm going to sit down and have a cup of tea now.

[@johndyson4109]

Brilliant series on KZbin!

[@Pedro285]

Brilliantly done

[@bastiaan7777777]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6vGnaKLm5p7etU

[@JamesVibe]

The chain maker for the clocks - thats got to be the worst! Drive me battie

[@wiegl8596]

I am not used to Private Baldrick talking normally.

[@cpm9747]

So... raising the anchor, my first thought watching them is that they should be humming a decent work shanty to help them synchronize they're pushing.

[@user-po8ke5vh2e]

this guy is a "pocket viking" - great work - i love u mate!

[@sarcasmo57]

I took the shits so that Tony had something to clean on film. AMA.

[@Edvard.Munchkin]

38:50 sorry mate, but I think it got to you 😂

[@mjo4981]

That lifeboat looks more like a racing shell than any relative to a sea-going boat!

[@Ukraineaissance2014]

The saxons were also originally seafarers very similar to the vikings, but i appreciate they were seeing off the vikings centuries later. People always see them as militarily inferior, but they conclusively saw off the vikings (for a few days then the normans arrived)

[@peterhoulihan9766]

They weren't just "originally similar to the vikings" they were the vikings. The angles, saxones and jutes came from the same region as the danes they later fought and had exactly the same shipbuilding technology. Nothing the danes did was mysterious or foreign to them. Even fighting the normans they might have won if Harold hadn't been assassinated, too much to ask of an exhausted army. Also if the jews hadn't bankrolled William the conqueror's invasion but that's another story.

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

Correction to the intro: there's, in fact, a British history series made by the channel Kings and Generals

[@1stepcl0ser]

i love tony!!!! i missed him!!!!

[@70stunes71]

38.36 😂😂 couldn't help but think of Monty python quote there ...

[@carolgibson-wilson4354]

Lotsa stuff I'd no idea about. The head? Gag. Nooooo!😮

[@TesterAnimal1]

That kept you sane? …no it didn’t! 😂

[@Ukraineaissance2014]

Think hes just from cornwall to be fair. They inbreed with fish.

[@SirSmurfalot]

11:33 Wait, a ruptured what?

[@Phier554]

Now they make your iPhones like the chronometer chains.

[@johnmayer3433]

You went across centuries so why medieval in the title?

[@HenryElfin]

Knowledge and Baldrick's voice just contradicts with each other so much... but I'm going to watch the whole series for it

[@greywater3186]

Top dog and underdog!

[@jordanhicks5131]

Crafton and the band, not something I'd expected to rock so hard

[@seanpaula8924]

Swabbing off the mud falcons lol

[@kloppskalli]

47:45 ... instead of dragging the man out of the water they could use one of the paddles as a lever, or a purose made plank to just scoop him out of the water :)

[@StofStuiver]

My god, its friggin Baldrick!

[@sharonkaczorowski8690]

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the author describes Gawain as covered in icicles…not so romantic.

[@kevinmccarthy8746]

Tony was all ways negative on the, TIME TEAM Archeology show. A Little boy fauntleroy. That was one of my jobs on a sailing ship. There is a pin that collapses the knot board and allows for less resistance as you retrieve the knotted line back onto the spool.

[@algentry1]

Thank you. I was hoping someone would point that out. Informational static.

[@MrFroglips69]

Groovy video

[@marbleman52]

Watching this old man trying to do a young man, or boy's work, was ..funny...sad...impressive...?? And this is what one of the big differences is. Back then, this was a way of life from a very young age and that was all they knew. They were tough and conditioned to the very hard labor. I'm not implying that they got so used to the work that it became easy. Not at all. I wonder what the life expectancy of these men was back then? I would think that by the time they got to Tony's age...if they even made it that long....that they would be doing some of the much less strenuous work, or not working at all. I'm just thankful that I didn't live back then and doing any of these jobs....uugghh..!!!

[@davea6314]

Tony Robinson is one of my favorite (no offensive letter "u" in favorite) Limeys. - Dave the Bloody Yank 😜

[@Marotonella]

That is not a medieval ship but a Victorian one.

[@granthurlburt4062]

"It's "bouquet" not "bucket". Seriously, what a great show, and what a fine presenter Tony always is. Pitching right in and complaining in an amusing fashion that brings home the aruduousness od sailors' lives. Still wonderful seeing all the wood and the lovely ships and boats. We hd to bail my father;s wooden Lightening which always seemed to have water under the floor planking.

[@fumanpoo4725]

Kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams...

[@noneofyourbizness]

33:16 "...it really is boiling in here ! " #etymology

[@Kikeg86]

sounds like in medieval times no one thought on puting the cloth on a stick to reach further when cleaning

[@mellon4251]

Expected to watch a video about sailing by some random historian and then suddenly there is Private Baldrick🥳

[@jeremylamovsky3669]

Imagine seeing Ally Law running around on the O2 in the backround

[@katherinel7713]

Underdog! Just so happy to finally know it's origin. Now i just need to find out why they called them dogs.

[@johnsinfield5968]

I'm sure Tony thought Baldrick had it tough.

[@wadesaleeby2172]

There were brigs and brigantines, barks and barkantines, ships and sloops and schooners with two masts, three, and sometimes with four, five and even six... large and small, freshly painted or faded and frayed yet each seemed destined to leave its nameplate on the sands of Hatteras... Oak and cedar, mahogany and teak wood with hand hewned pegs, iron spikes, bolts and rivets...

[@JO-lx9bx]

Tony ‘two cough’ Robinson

[@MB5rider81]

"Vfat shayped ouhr woohld" I love British accents

[@Feline_Frenzy53]

YaY!! Tony Robinson.

[@Xandranxanda]

Goes into a boiler room, walks up to furnace, sticks face in open furnace - "BIT HOT, INNIT?" Fuckin lol

[@colinryan8791]

*Brit bites what is the worst jerky ever* “That’s alright!”

[@TheRealSlimshadyyyyyy]

Ooooh don’t be so dramatic Tony, it’s just a little dust.🙄😂

[@AndyJarman]

Sawyers would make good bowmen.

[@mrparlanejxtra]

Making models from pea packets kept him sane? No it didn't. He was mad before he started.

[@elidoubleday8080]

Bro was disrespectful with the fish 💀

[@tuljan4419]

I have a cunning plan, my Lord

[@user-oz5de6wg9c]

45:35 Tony is secretly very adorable

[@USAACbrat]

After rowing, you can see why sailing was invented

[@helpmehelp3009]

Why does the BBC always get a reporter to show us how good they are! These poor kids would lose their eyesight overz period of three years! But good old Baldric can do it instantly.

[@davidinmossy]

oh top dog and under dog are from plank making you learn something new everyday! 👍