Impossible Naval Engineering of the Ancients

Today on Far Future Horizons we explore the Maritime engineering skills of antiquity.

Naval engineering has been at the vanguard of technological innovation through out recorded history. For the simple reason that if anything goes wrong at sea, you're dead.

In this exciting episode of Ancient Discoveries we relive the most extraordinary naval ambitions of the ancients.

We will examine the macabre collapsible death-yacht, commissioned by Roman emperor Nero, as a one- time-only assassination device--designed to kill his own mother. 

We also encounter the ship that needed no engine and was  propelled  up-river by itself.

The Ancient Discoveries team will also investigate the feasibility of an underwater booby trap defense system that smashed through pirate hulls in 15th century Italy and the chemical bomb fire ships that killed hundreds on the high seas of ancient Greece. And in a high adrenaline investigation, for the first time on television, we build and test the oldest white-water rapids crafts ever discovered.

Ancient Discoveries: Impossible Naval Engineering is available on DVD from the History Channel's online store.

Ancient Discoveries - Impossible Naval Engineering 

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