It was October 3rd, 1744. A storm was brewing in the English Channel. With sails set

for home after chasing a French fleet off the coast of Portugal, a squadron of

English warships led by Admiral Sir John Balkan was heading straight for

trouble. We met with a hard gale of wind which tore all our sails and rigging

that we were obliged to submit to the mercy of the waves. That's the account of

one sailor who ship made it back to Harbour but only just. On the fourth we had

ten feet in our hold which made our condition very bad and the dread of death

appeared in every face for we momentarily expected to be swallowed up.

One ship was swallowed up. The flagship HMS victory commanded by Admiral Balkan

himself. It sank a hundred meters to the sea bed, 80 kilometers south of

Plymouth, taking with it 1100 men and so rumour had it quite a lot of Portuguese

gold bullion.

There the wreckage lay until a decade ago when treasure hunters located it. They were

hoping to find the gold but there was something else on board the ship that has

proved much more economically significant. The first known attempt to apply an

idea that's now used to guide everything from submarines to satellites, from

rovers on Mars to the phone in your pocket. The man behind that idea was John

Sirson and a year before the wreck had been invited on board a royal yacht near

London to explain it to two high ranking naval officers and an eminent

mathematician. Sirson was a sea captain, he was barely literate but he was an

ingenious mechanic as the gentleman's magazine later put it. His idea was

inspired by a child's toy, the spinning top. The problem he wanted to solve was

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