Captain James Cook is one of the greatest maritime navigators in history. Born in 1728 to a Scottish father and English mother, Cook grew up in Yorkshire and soon developed a great fascination with the sea and exploration. In 1746 Cook joined the merchant shipping industry when he moved to the ne...

A team of maritime archaeologists descends 700 feet off the coast of North Carolina in search of the U-576, a German submarine that went down in a historic 1942 battle, possibly trapping 45 Nazi sailors inside.

On 16 September 1620, 400 years ago, a merchant ship called the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, on a voyage to America. Its passengers sought a new life, for some this meant religious freedom and for some a fresh start in a new land. They would go on to be known as Pilgrims, and influe...

At noon on 10 April 1912, crowds gathered at Southampton to watch the maiden voyage of the World's largest ship RMS Titanic. A sleek, modern luxurious liner that was offering a safe and fast crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Titanic was said to be invincible. She cruised down Southampton waters on ...

Dan Snow steps aboard the RRS Discovery in Dundee, the first purpose built scientific research vessel for the Antarctic. Guided around the ship by Ali Gellatly, he learns what life and adventure was like aboard this unique vessel.

The legendary polar explorer Captain Scott commanded Discovery's...

In the heart of the Antarctic, nine adventurers are about to live an extraordinary story. They come from very different backgrounds, but one thing brings them together: a passion for adventure and testing the limits.

Their goal: to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest legends of the go...

Part 1 of 3.

Explorers called it the 'Great White Silence', an inhospitable continent of rock, ice and snow on which no human has stepped until just over 100 years ago. Girdled by an ocean packed with shifting ice and beyond that, the roughest oceans on the planet with waves as tall as apartment...

Part 2 of 3.

Throughout this series, Dan Snow is retracing Shackleton’s most famous voyage, taking a deep dive into one of the most remarkable and unlikely escape stories in history.

In this second episode, Dan is in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, exploring in the wake of Endurance, Shackleton’s ...

The extraordinary story of Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance reaches its almost unimaginable conclusion.

In this special History Hit project, Dan Snow completes his Antarctic journey in the wake of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition of 1914-16.

We have already seen how their ship, Endur...

Today in a special collaboration with World of Warships our favourite naval historian Dan Snow ranks his favourite battleships of WW2.

From the gigantic Yamato, to the humble yet deadly HMS Warspite. Dan scores each battleship on spec, historical impact and arguable the most important - it's aw...

During the Second World War, the City of London was a major target for both naval and aerial bombardment. In 1943, numerous towers were built in the Thames Estuary as anti-aircraft defences to protect the capital. Known as the Red Sands Forts, these Star Wars Walker-like constructions were initia...

How much damage will an 18th century cannon do to our wooden targets? History Hit's Dan Snow tested out this replica naval cannon on a firing range and the results were shocking.

Trafalgar Day means only one thing. It’s time to fire a late-18th Century cannon.

In this video, historian Dan Snow...

In August 1941, the Allies launched Operation Dervish. This was the first of the Arctic Convoys, ships which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland and North America, and brought essential supplies to the Soviet Union.

After the successful launch of Operation Barbarossa, the USSR was in despe...

Launched on 14 February 1939, the German flagship and pride of the Kriegsmarine, Bismarck was launched. In the darkness of the early morning of the 19 May 1941, Bismarck slipped out of harbour on the Baltic coast and started making its way through the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage, Operation Rh...

200 years ago, Britain's Royal Navy was the most technologically advanced and supremely efficient force in the history of naval warfare.

But what was it like to live and work on board these ships? What did the men eat? How did the ships sail? What were the weapons they used?

In this documentar...

In 1845, a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin departed England aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The expedition was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and to record magnetic data to help ...

Dan Snow flies on a mission to explore one of the most daring and dangerous aerial attacks of World War 2

On 11th November 1940, 21 antiquated Swordfish aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. They were embarking on one of the most extraordinary raids of the Second World Wa...

It was one of the last great lost shipwrecks of history - Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance. But now, incredibly, it has been rediscovered - over a century after it sank beneath the ice in freezing Antarctic waters.

Organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, the expedition to locate the...