A New World

Captain Nemo's world, 20,000 leagues under the sea, is usually thought to be a fantasy of the imagination of Jules Verne. Modern divers have proved that the riches of that world are real and accessible. But that dream of exploring the underwater world has a reality nearly 500 years old. Divers in the past were capable of incredible feats of courage and daring. Roman galleys of the Emperor Caligula were discovered, bronze cannons weighing over four tons were successfully raised, cases of silver bars were recovered from remote islands in the Atlantic - even a basic aqualung was invented 100 years ago. For this film these events have been reconstructed by modern divers using these ancient machines to demonstrate the bravery and skill of early divers whose quest was for that new world.