1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD
At the height of the Ming Dynasty, China's most celebrated mariner, Admiral Zheng He sailed the world's largest wooden armada, nearly 300 ships, in an epic voyage of discovery and trade.
600 years later, in a small Chinese store, a copy of a map dated 1418 is discovered detailing Hes epic voyages and the lands his expedition circumnavigated; lands that include the Americas, Australia and Antarctica. Three continents that history records were not discovered until many years later.
1421: The Year China Discovered The World? is a fascinating and compelling documentary which is currently re-writing history and dividing historans across the globe. Through in-depth investigations that delve deep into historical archives, 1421 re-traces the journeys of Zheng He alongside a wealth of evidence and contemporary historical accounts presented by modern scholars while examining bestselling author and historian Gavin Menzies' remarkable evidence which sets out to prove that the Chinese discovered America long before Columbus.
Part forensic investigation and part historical mystery 1421 is a fascinating, gripping and dramatic journey through a modern day controversy and into a brave new world.
VOYAGE OF THE NAUTILUS
The journey of renowned Australian military photographer Sir Hubert Wilkins in a rusty WW1 submarine to the North Pole in 1931 truly is of the worlds greatest stories of adventure never told.
Long before nuclear powered vessels would even contemplate such a voyage, Hubert Wilkins set out from New York aboard the outdated O-Class submarine Nautilus, of which he leased for a single dollar, towards the last unknown, the Artic Ocean.
Only now, after two years of extensive research into a journey both amazing and tragic can the mysteries of the Nautilus expedition and Wilkins last great expedition finally be revealed. It was an adventure that would be the crowning glory in an extraordinary life of exploration, science and discovery, but one that would destroy his reputations and send Wilkins from the headlines to the footnotes of history.
Complied from more than 20 hours of stunning archival footage, 250 still photographs and new footage filmed in the US, the North Pole, Norway, beneath the Artic ice and in the Australian Outbback, Voyage of the Nautilus is expertly narrated from Wilkins own personal journals by acclaimed actor Sam Neill to deliver a moving, inspirational and remarkable look inside the life on an unsung Australian hero.