Objective Proficiency p 38. Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History. Extra Listening

The nineteenth century saw the 1___________ of Britain's Industrial Revolution 2___________ around the world.
Thanks to her mastery of the sea, Britain became the greatest economic 3___________ in the world. However, the 4___________ profits led to 5__________ and a struggle that 6__________  money against lives.
Lloyd's of London kept 7___________ of this disaster.
Insuring against shipwreck is a 8______________ trade.
Every time a  ship 9____________ at sea, the historic Lutine Bell would toll
The loss book from 1799 shows one 10___________ after another.
The 11_________ pursuit of profit at the 12_____________ lives collided with 13____________ social reformers. 
The search for greater safety inspired key innovations like lifeboat 14__________,  ingenious inventors and our greatest 15______________.
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In order to improve safety, ships were inspected in dock to check that they were 16______________. However, that was not the case for 17__________ ships. Few cared about the 18__________ of sailors until Samuel Plimsoll. Before him the 19_____________ of ships was a lottery. Despite advances like iron 20__________ and steam engines, most cargo ships were made out of wood. They were death traps. A 21__________ skeleton of a ship would be bought and disguised as a new 22_________, a fresh 23___________ of paint would be put over 24____________. The owners of these ships heavily 25_____________ them in order to be 26_____________ financially. It was a vast insurance 27______________.
In 1869, 177 ships were wrecked in sea conditions officially 28____________ as no stronger than a gentle breeze.
Seamen could not refuse to go 29_____________ a ship. They would be arrested and 30__________ in jail.
In the course of three years, over 1,500 sailors had to do time for refusing to 31__________ ships they believed 32____________, which brought poverty and 33___________ to their families. This is why sailors were 34___________ on to these coffin ships. Plimsoll demanded that ships in a bad state of repair should not be allowed to leave port, and that all 35_________ ships must display a line marking the maximum safe-loading limit. Harbour masters should be allowed to 36__________ ships not showing a visible line above the water. Plimsoll was 37___________ himself against huge 38___________ interests.
In the 20 previous years not a single British ship had ever been 39___________. They had all been 40____________ and sent back to sea.



KEYS

1.  might



2. reverberate
reverberate /rɪˈvɜːbəreɪt/ to have a strong effect on people for a long time or over a large area. E.g. Repercussions of the case continue to reverberate through the financial world.


3.  powerhouse
 powerhouse: a group or an organization that has a lot of power. E.g. China has been described as an ‘emerging economic powerhouse’.



4. soaring
soar: if the value, amount or level of something soars, it rises very quickly. E.g. soaring costs/ prices/ temperatures. Air pollution will soon soar above safety levels. Unemployment has soared to 18%.



5. greed



6. pitted  
pit somebody/something against something to test somebody or their strength, intelligence, etc. in a struggle or contest against somebody/ something else. E.g. Lawyers and accountants felt that they were being pitted against each other. A chance to pit your wits against the world champions (= in a test of your intelligence).



7. tally
tally: a record of the number or amount of something, especially one that you can keep adding to. Sp. cuenta, cómputo. E.g. He hopes to improve on his tally of three goals in the past nine games. Keep a tally of how much you spend while you're away.



8. time-honoured
time-honoured: respected because it has been used or done for a long time. Sp. consagrado, tradicional. E.g. They showed their approval in the time-honoured way (= by clapping, for example). A time-honoured custom/ method/ procedure.



9. perished
perished: to be lost or destroyed. E.g. Early buildings were made of wood and have perished.



10. wreck
wreck: a ship that has sunk or that has been very badly damaged. 



11. relentless
relentless: not stopping or getting less strong. E.g. Her relentless pursuit of perfection. The sun was relentless. 



12. expense of 
at the expense of somebody/something with loss or damage to somebody/ something. E.g. He built up the business at the expense of his health. An education system that benefits bright children at the expense of those who are slower to learn. 



13. zealous
zealous /ˈzeləs/ showing great energy and enthusiasm for something, especially because you feel strongly about it. Sp. entusiasta. E.g. a zealous reformer.



14. provision
provision: the act of supplying somebody with something that they need or want; something that is supplied. E.g. housing provision. The government is responsible for the provision of health care.



15. shipwrights
shipwright: /ˈʃɪpˌraɪt/one that builds or repairs ships.



16. seaworthy
seaworthy /ˈsiːwɜːði/ in a suitable condition to sail. 



17. merchant
merchant: connected with the transport of goods by sea. E.g. merchant seamen. 



18. massacre
massacre: /ˈmæsəkə(r)/ 



19. seaworthiness
seaworthiness /ˈsiːwɜːðinəs/ the fact that it is in a suitable condition to sail. 



20 hulls
hull: the main, bottom part of a ship, that goes in the water. Sp. casco. E.g. a wooden/ steel hull. They climbed onto the upturned hull and waited to be rescued. 



21. frail leaky
frail: easily damaged or broken 
leaky: having holes or cracks that allow liquid or gas to escape. E.g. a leaky roof.



22. craft
craft plural craft a boat or ship. E.g. Hundreds of small craft were around the liner as it steamed into the harbour. A landing/pleasure craft



23.  lick
a lick of paint (informal) a small amount of paint, used to make a place look better. E.g. What this room needs is a lick of paint.



24. rotten timbers



25 insured



26 recompensed



27 scam
scam a clever and dishonest plan for making money. E.g. an insurance scam.



28 logged
log something to put information in an official record or write a record of events. Record. E.g. The police log all phone calls.



29. aboard



30. thrown 



31. crew
crew to be part of a crew, especially on a ship. E.g. crew (something) Normally the boat is crewed by five people.  



32. unseaworthy



33. destitution 

destitution: the state of having no money or possessions 



34. lured
lure: /lʊə(r)/ / ljʊə(r)/ to persuade or trick somebody to go somewhere or to do something by promising them a reward. E.g. The child was lured into a car but managed to escape. Young people are lured to the city by the prospect of a job and money. 



35. freight
freight /freɪt/ goods that are transported by ships, planes, trains or lorries/trucks; the system of transporting goods in this way. E.g. to send goods by air freight. A freight business. Passenger and freight transportation services. 



36. impound
impound something (of the police, courts of law, etc.) to take something away from somebody, so that they cannot use it. Confiscate. E.g. The car was impounded by the police after the accident.



37. pitting 
pit somebody/something against something to test somebody or their strength, intelligence, etc. in a struggle or contest against somebody/ something else. E.g. Lawyers and accountants felt that they were being pitted against each other. A chance to pit your wits against the world champions (= in a test of your intelligence). 



38. vested
vested interest (in something) a personal reason for wanting something to happen, especially because you get some advantage from it. E.g. They have a vested interest in keeping the club as exclusive as possible. Vested interests (= people with a vested interest) are opposing the plan. She thinks that lawyers have a vested interest in making the legal process move slowly. 



39. scrapped 
scrap something to cancel or get rid of something that is no longer practical or useful. Sp. desechar. E.g. They had been forced to scrap plans for a new school building. The oldest of the aircraft were scrapped. 



40 patched up
patch something/somebody up (rather informal) to repair something, especially in a temporary way by adding a new piece of material or a patch. E.g. Just to patch the boat up will cost £10000.
 
 
 


Transcript
1800, the start of the century that would see the might of Britain's Industrial Revolution reverberate around the globe. The sea and her mastery of it would help Britain become the greatest economic powerhouse the world had ever known. Ships were a vital part of the engine that was driving Britain's economic success, but the soaring profits that the sea provided led to greed and a struggle that pitted the power of money against the safety of sailors. The terrible human cost of shipwrecks came to shock the Victorian public. Keeping tally of this soaring humanitarian disaster was Lloyd's of London. Insuring against shipwreck is a time-honoured trade. The historic Lutine Bell would be rung to announce that a ship had perished at sea. This Grim Reaper's toll meant a fresh entry into Lloyd's loss book, a frozen moment in time like the room that now holds it. This is the loss book from 1799. And if you open it on any day you're confronted with wreck after wreck after wreck. It gives you a real sense of the scale of the problem that they faced. Imagine if each of these were a plane! Something just had to be done. The relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of sailors collided with another great Victorian force, the zealous social reformer. Furious Parliamentary battles were fought by campaigners like Samuel Plimsoll to prevent shipowners risking lives by overloading ships. And as emigration put more women and children aboard, the search for greater safety inspired key innovations like lifeboat provision, ingenious inventors.....and our greatest shipwrights. With the might of industry behind them, engineers entered a race to build bigger and ever-stronger ships in the belief that they would be unsinkable. It was a race that ended with the most famous shipwreck of all time.
'31''40
The need to improve passenger safety led to a series of new regulations and laws in the 19th century. Ships were inspected in dock to check that they were seaworthy. They were fitted with lifeboats and captains and crew were given better training. And yet none of these new regulations and laws applied to merchant ships. There was one set of rules and standards for passenger ships and another for those that carried cargo. Of almost 2,500 shipwreck fatalities in 1867, just 1 death in 20 were passengers. Few cared about this massacre of merchant seamen until one man was driven to change things. In the war against the shipwreck, one campaigner stands out as commander-in-chief, Samuel Plimsoll. In his battle to make ships safer he became a national hero. Today his fight for social justice has been forgotten, but before Plimsoll the seaworthiness of ships was a lottery. Despite advances like iron hulls and steam engines, much of Britain's merchant fleet was still made out of wood. Many ships were death traps. A frail leaky skeleton of a ship would be bought and disguised as a new craft, a fresh lick of paint would be put over rotten timbers like these, and the ship would be given a new name and nameplate. But whatever the plate said, sailors had just one term for these vessels, coffin ships. Elderly ships would be disposed of and what would happen...it was a terrible practice by which people would buy up old ships, repaint them, rename them and send them out to sea again, often heavily insured. The only danger to the owner was that the sailors would lose their lives, but, if they were recompensed financially, it was alleged to be worth the risk. It was a vast insurance scam. Shipowners could heavily insure their vessels for far more than they were really worth. Successfully reaching port was becoming less profitable than the shipwreck. Shipwrecks were soaring. Plimsoll reported that in 1869, 177 ships were wrecked in sea conditions officially logged as no stronger than a gentle breeze. According to Samuel Plimsoll, one shipowner had lost a dozen ships in three years, and 105 men. They were regarded as coffin ships because men knew that if they sailed on them, there was a very good chance they were going to die. And the law was against even the men there. You could not refuse to go aboard a ship. Once you'd signed the papers, if you refused to go aboard the ship that you'd signed to, once you took a look at it and realised how overloaded or unseaworthy it was, you would be arrested and thrown in jail. The only way you could go was to sail on the ship. Many men registered their protest and then sailed, and many men sailed to their deaths as a result. In one three-year period, over 1,500 sailors were jailed for refusing to crew ships they believed unseaworthy. And jail often brought poverty and destitution to their families. Ever-more sailors were lured on to these coffin ships. Plimsoll had two main demands. Firstly, no unseaworthy ship should be allowed to leave port, and that all freight ships must display a line marking the maximum safe-loading limit, with harbourmasters being allowed to impound ships not showing a visible line above the water. Plimsoll was pitting himself against huge vested interests. When Samuel Plimsoll began his campaign against the overloading of ships, which had led to so many deaths, he cited a statistic that in the 20 previous years not a single English ship, not a single British ship had ever been scrapped. They'd all been patched up and sent back to sea because it was in the shipowners' interest to keep them afloat.