Maritime History

In England no town is more than 170 kilometres from the sea. So it's no surprise that Britain has a very important history of ships and the sea. The British Navy was the biggest navy in the world at one time. In Liverpool there is a great museum of maritime history. Young men had to climb the rigging to put up the sails. It was very dangerous.

Between 1830 and 1930 more than nine million people from all over Europe left from the port of Liverpool to start a new life in America or Australia. The most famous ship was probably the Titanic. It sank in 1912 and over 1.500 people drowned. It was the worst disaster in maritime history. You probably know about it from one of the most expensive films ever made - Titanic!
One of the most famous shipping companies is Cunard. The majority of people do travel around the world by plane but ships are still very important for moving goods. Here at the Southampton Container Terminal they unload more than one and a half million containers each year.

Animals

People love animals. But some of the world's animals are in danger of extinction. In some parts of the world people collect rhino horn for use in medicine. Others carve ornaments for tourists from ivory from elephant tusks. Shark's fin soup is a favourite in many restaurants. Chimpanzee and whale meat are popular with some people.

Another big problem is the destruction of the rainforests. The number of animals in some species is now very small and they may not exist at all for much longer. The Worldwide Fund for Nature is an international organization. It started in Britain in 1961 and has now got a global network in 90 countries. There are a number of projects in Britain which deal with endangered species. The animals are then put back into their natural wild habitat.

Animals born in Britain are now back in the Congo and Gabon in Africa. These Asian wild horses are another success story. They live in China and Mongolia. Now, every year several go back to the grasslands of Asia. This is an African black rhino. There are only 3.000 wild rhinos and 200 in zoos. Lessons learnt from animals in Britain are very valuable in helping to maintain the numbers of rhinos in the world.

I agree with this unit, because I like animals.