Fifty years ago Professor
John Morrison dreamed of rediscovering the secrets of the Greek trireme. The design of this legendary warship - powered by 170 oarsmen and with a deadly battering ram - had long been forgotten. But the triremes had once given the Greeks supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and allowed their culture to flourish.
Last summer, after a lifetime of detective work among the art and literature of the ancient world, this gentle Cambridge scholar saw his dream come true. A replica, based on his findings, was built - and a trireme put to sea in the Aegean again for the first time in 2,000 years. Narrator Alan Dobie
Film editor JONATHAN PLUMMER Written and produced by MKE PURTON (R)