Drain the Oceans (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Sunken Treasures - full transcript
Treasure hunting has captured our imaginations for centuries. Draining the oceans reveals the richest wrecks ever found, from the coast of England to the Florida Keys.
Treasure hunting has captured
our imaginations for centuries.
I think everybody,
at some point in their life,
has dreamed
about finding treasure.
I knew straightaway
that it was gold.
There was over 30 tons
of silver ingots on board,
two hundred thousand coins,
gold, emeralds.
Once treasure
and treasure diving
gets in your blood,
it's hard to get it out.
Sunken treasures remain lost
below the waves...
until now.
Imagine if we could
empty the oceans,
draining the water away
to reveal the secrets
of the sea floor.
Now, we can.
Using the latest underwater
scanning technology...
piercing the deep oceans...
and turning accurate data
into 3-D images.
This time...
How do you excavate
a fortune in sunken silver
from a wreck lost
in shifting sands?
It's an amazing amount of money.
Why is the treasure
from a wrecked Spanish galleon,
spread over 10 miles
of Florida seabed?
And how can
the world's biggest haul
of lost gold bullion
be recovered
from the Arctic depths?
Today, moving
money is simple.
These days, you push a button,
and funds are
electronically transferred.
But in the past,
the oceans were
a pretty consistent means
of moving the world's money.
For centuries,
treasure ships plied
the oceans of the world,
packed with silver,
gold, and precious stones.
Hunted by pirates,
battered by storms,
threatened by reefs
and rocky shores.
The reason that you would
find treasure underwater is
that the water has been
the greatest highway
in human history.
And where there's treasure,
there are treasure hunters.
I think people certainly
catch gold fever.
I think people love
searching for things.
It's deep in our psyche.
Around the world,
hundreds of treasure wrecks
remain unexplored.
As the waters of the oceans
begin to drain away,
they reveal
their most valuable secrets.
The English Channel,
five miles off
the coast of Kent.
The grave
of an 18th century
merchant ship
lost to the waves
and carrying a fortune
in silver.
The priceless wreck often
vanishes and re-appears
under ever-shifting sandbanks.
Can draining away
the English Channel
reveal the wreck
and the sunken treasure?
January 8th, 1740,
the Dutch East India Company
ship, the Rooswijk, sets off
from the Netherlands
into the English Channel.
It's on an eight-month long
voyage to Indonesia,
then known
as the Dutch East Indies,
the center of the spice trade.
On board are
merchants, soldiers,
and a precious cargo.
It's said that there were
about 300,000 guilders
of silver on board of the ship
in silver bars
and about 36,000 of coins.
A fortune in today's money,
equivalent to around
$100 million.
A few miles off
the English coast,
a violent storm blows up.
The ship hits sandbanks
and disappears.
Two hundred
and thirty seven men die,
and the silver
is lost to the sea.
Now, more than
270 years later,
a team of underwater
archaeologists investigate.
Martijn Manders
heads the expedition.
It's enormously unique
to do a large-scale excavation
under water.
We really have to take care
of what's down there underwater,
or we'll lose it forever.
These are treacherous waters.
To locate the wreck,
the team uses
the latest technology,
multi-beam sonar scanning.
We came out and did
a multi-beam survey.
You create a whole,
a whole image of the seabed.
Multi-beam sonar fires
sound waves to the sea floor.
The return signal
displays the shape and depth
of the features beneath.
That way, we can start putting
that puzzle together.
Combining the sonar data
with the latest
visualization techniques,
it's now possible
to empty the waters
of the English Channel.
As the sea drains away,
the first challenge
the team face is revealed,
the landscape
under the surface.
It's an incredible
hidden world,
miles of rolling dunes,
like a desert underwater.
The Goodwin Sands.
Lying close to the surface,
these endlessly shifting sands
are a deadly threat
to shipping.
They called it
the great ship-swallower.
It's the graveyard
for around 2,000 ships,
each running aground
in the treacherous shallows.
The Rooswijk is swallowed here
and disappears for centuries.
Have the sands shifted
enough to finally reveal
this treasure ship?
As the waters
of the English Channel
continue to drain away,
a shape emerges.
Twisted timbers of a ship
from the 18th century.
To an expert eye,
artifacts of Dutch origin.
And as it's revealed
high and dry,
it's finally clear.
This is all that is left
of the Rooswijk.
Archaeologists can now view
the remains of the ship
from any angle,
and examine it in fine detail.
The hull shape
is long lost
to the ocean,
but there is a pile of timbers,
collapsed deck planks
lying at strange angles,
and five cannon
scattered around.
We're basically
uncovering something
that hasn't been seen
for the past 250 years.
But where is the treasure?
We're gonna dive to it,
and investigate it,
and hope to find the secrets
that this shipwreck reveals.
For a lot of people,
this is a treasure ship.
For the archaeologists,
this is a treasure ship,
because we could get
so much information.
Fast-moving tides
make the expedition difficult.
Each day, there might only be
one hour between tides
that's safe for diving.
It is a race
against the clock.
Going down into an elevator
is like going back in time.
Take him down,
I'll give you an all stop.
It's a time capsule
of 1740.
Okay you can relax,
we've got a fix.
Okay.
An umbilical cord
provides air 75 feet down.
It was really, really exciting
to start diving there.
I was swimming,
and then suddenly,
you see these cannons appearing
and wood sticking
out of the seabed.
You really get this idea
that this is the place
where all these people died.
This is a grave.
The drained wreck
of the Rooswijk
shows the scale
of the challenge.
Debris is spread
over a large area.
Here's what's thought to be
the main part of the ship,
but around 400 feet
to the north-west
lie two anchors
and a pile of barrels.
And more than 900 feet
to the north-east,
10 cannon spread around.
To the east, eight
more cannon in a row
next to another anchor.
The team only have
a 12-week window
to work the wreck site,
and it can take days
to excavate just
a few square feet.
So, they must
focus their search.
We have to make choices,
and this is what we did
on the basis of the multi-beam
data.
Martijn decides
to home in on the stern.
It's the place
where the officers,
maybe the passengers,
where the merchant men
used to live during their trip,
where money was stored.
But how much treasure
might still be down there?
Using enormous vacuums
to remove the sand,
they hunt carefully
amongst the debris.
Yep, I've got it.
Found the object.
Martijn finds a broken chest
with its contents spilling out.
And then, a thrilling moment.
A silver coin.
And soon, dozens more.
Money destined
for the East Indies
that's been lying here
for more than 270 years.
The wreck of the Rooswijk
is beginning to reveal
its treasures.
Diver well?
-Diver well.
These are pieces of eight,
eight real.
Some people might know them
from the pirate films.
The Spanish real was
the standard trading currency
of the 18th century.
Made of silver,
a single coin was worth more
than a week's pay for a sailor.
These coins are some
of the thousands
that the Dutch East India
Company places on board ship.
All minted just before
the Rooswijk sails.
But some of the other
discovered coins are
noticeably different.
These are large Ducatons,
but they're old.
They're very old.
These are 17th century,
so they're probably
about 70 years, 80 years older
than when the ship wrecked.
They're not the newly-minted
company money
that the ship is supposed
to be carrying.
Trading in private money
was banned by the Dutch
East India Company,
so finding these coins
raises new questions.
If they aren't
company money,
whose are they,
and what are they used for?
The drained landscape around
the Rooswijk reveals clues.
The reals are found in clusters
in the stern area,
the part of the ship
where company money
is stored.
But surprisingly,
the other coins are found
mixed in with them.
Some even show evidence
of being kept secret.
But really interesting
of this coin
is this little hole.
Maybe it's, it's, it's worn
under the clothes.
Maybe somebody had a collar
of all sorts of coins and...
just keeping it hidden.
Could these coins,
found at the bottom
of the English Channel,
be incredible new evidence
of one of the oldest trades
in history,
smuggling?
:
So we have a notary deed,
an official document.
In Amsterdam,
Martijn Manders investigates
the sunken treasure
of the Rooswijk
and meets historian
Mateus van Rossum.
And this is
the interesting thing.
We have these combinations
of coins, all different kinds,
very old.
That's definitely private trade.
"Private trade" means
a booming black market
in smuggled silver.
Isn't that illegal?
It was illegal,
because the company banned
the shipment of silver
from the Republic
to Asia and back.
So this is evidence?
This is basically all illegal.
Silver is worth more
in the East Indies
than in the Netherlands,
because it can be used
to buy trade goods like spices.
Enterprising members
of the crew collect cash
from their families
and friends.
Then once
they arrive in Asia,
they simply sell
their private silver
to the Dutch
East India Company
for a profit.
It's illegal, but the company
turns a blind eye to the trade,
because they use the smuggled
silver to buy more spices.
Draining the Rooswijk reveals
that not only are the private
coins found in the stern.
They're also discovered
in other areas of the wreck.
This poses a new question.
Was it only
the merchants did this,
or was it more widespread?
This was actually
very widespread.
The captain,
the first mate,
the surgeons,
the company merchant
on board the ship,
then the lower ranks
does indicate
that the whole crew participated
to some degree in this
in this trade.
For two centuries,
the Dutch East India
Company dominates trade
between Asia
and its headquarters
in Amsterdam,
making the city
the key commercial center
in the world.
The Dutch East India Company
was one of the very first large,
multinational corporations.
Its mission is profit,
to trade silver for spices,
using ships like the Rooswijk
to spearhead trade.
An earlier commercial dive
uncovers the first evidence
of the high value
of the ship...
two chests.
Cracked open,
there's a sight straight out
of a high seas adventure story.
In each,
50 bars of silver bullion,
blackened by the water,
worth a fortune,
and now, divided
between the salvage team
and the Dutch Government.
But the smuggled coins
add new understanding
to one of the most colorful
sagas in the age of discovery
and reveal that everyone
is secretly on the make.
It's estimated that 50%
of all the silver on board
was smuggled money.
So, if you think
about the Rooswijk,
36,000 coins
on board officially.
So that means 36,000 coins
on board unofficially.
That's an amazing
amount of money.
How much more
is there to find?
It's six weeks
into the 12-week expedition.
At a harbor-side lab,
experts carefully record
the archaeological treasures
so they can be studied
anywhere in the world
in stunning 3-D detail.
Pewter tableware,
glass bottles
from the Captain's table,
and more company coins.
We've only found 700 so far.
There are many thousand
more to find.
With only a few weeks
left on the project,
the race is on to recover
as much as possible.
And the team now also want
to solve the Rooswijk's
long-standing mystery...
how exactly did
it meet its fate?
The drained wreckage
of the ship reveals clues.
The stern section can
be seen lying in a pile.
More than 300 feet away,
there's an anchor.
And further out,
several cannon
grouped together.
What does this spread
of clues reveal?
This is the evidence
of the people struggling
and trying to save their ship.
The ship was caught
by the storm,
was pushed on the sandbanks
of the Goodwin Sands.
It's just being smashed
on the sands.
So, what do you do?
You throw away
your heavy equipment,
and you start
with your cannons.
During the storm,
the crew ditches
at least 23 cannons
in an attempt
to lighten the ship
and break free
from the sandbanks.
Then the crew drops anchor.
But there's no chance
of escape.
It just gets stuck
further and further.
The sea lifting the ship,
and just pounding it
onto the sand,
breaking it
in thousands of pieces.
And everybody was lost.
It's almost unimaginable.
The loss
of the Rooswijk's silver
is a big blow for the Dutch
East India Company.
Shipwrecks
are one of the--
the recurring threats
for the company.
So yearly, there would be
losses of ships,
one or two on average.
And some historians see this
as one of the factors
that contributes to the demise
of the Dutch East India Company.
Now, after 12 weeks
of challenging excavation,
the archaeological expedition
is almost at an end.
This is the last night
of the project.
Twelve weeks of great dives,
but also, uh, we had storms,
we had lots
of difficult tides,
bad visibility,
but we've also made
a lot of progress.
We've found
around 2,000 coins.
Both divers if you stop work
It's only a fraction
of the coins
known
to be on board.
Including the smuggled ones,
the value of the Rooswijk
silver could now be
up to $125 million.
Martijn plans to return
to the wreck site.
How much more
of the Rooswijk's
sunken treasures
can be recovered from the
shifting sands below?
Archaeologists
and treasure hunters
continue to scour the seas.
And as the world's oceans
continue to drain away,
they reveal yet more
tantalizing clues
of fortunes lost
under the waves.
The Florida Keys.
In 1622,
a Spanish galleon sinks here
laden with
an extraordinary haul
of silver, gold, and gems.
For decades,
treasure hunters
pursue a dream,
to find one of the richest
wrecks in history.
Can draining the oceans here
reveal the fabled mother lode
of the vanished
treasure ship, Atocha?
I'm Kim Fisher,
and I'm a treasure hunter.
Gold fever, treasure fever...
I think everybody,
at some point in their life,
has dreamed
about finding treasure.
Off the coast
of Key West, Florida,
a team of self-styled
treasure hunters is chasing
the legend
of the treasure ship Atocha,
known to have been lost
in these waters.
Nice, clean bottom.
Looks like we've got
something coming in here.
Nice target.
Once treasure,
and treasure diving
gets in your blood,
it's hard to get it out.
Maritime archaeologist
Corey Malcolm
has spent
two decades
investigating the fate
of the Spanish galleon.
The Atocha, we know,
specifically carried
260 people on board.
Some of these people
were the wealthiest
people in the world.
You had religious figures.
You had explorers.
September the 4th, 1622,
the Nuestra Senora de Atocha
is part of a fleet of 28 ships
that leaves Havana, Cuba
bound for Spain.
It's laden with silver,
gold, and gems,
more than a year's worth
of treasure obtained
by the Spanish
from their empire in Mexico
and South America.
The Atocha was a tremendously
important ship to Spain.
It was carrying a huge
amount of treasure.
I mean, there was over 30 tons
of silver ingots on board,
two hundred thousand coins,
gold, emeralds.
But the Atocha quickly
runs into trouble.
It wasn't a day out from Havana
that they started feeling
the winds increase,
the seas starting to build,
and they knew they were caught.
A hurricane closes in.
The ship is lost.
Only five men survive
to tell the tale.
And their testimonies say
that what sunk the ship wasn't
just the high wind and waves.
There is clearly
something else here
that poses a deadly threat
to shipping.
This area is infamous
for shipwrecks.
Around 1,000 ships have been
doomed along the Florida Keys.
Ships are drawn to these waters
to make use of the Gulf Stream,
the ancient highway
of the seas.
The best way to see
what might have wrecked
the Spanish galleon
is to drain the ocean.
Now multi-beam sonar scanning
details the extraordinary
sub-sea landscape
around the Florida Keys.
As the waters drain away,
a vast coastal mountain range
is revealed.
The shallow Florida Keys
are just the peaks.
Beyond them,
the land drops down
up to 6,000 feet
into an ocean abyss.
This is the edge
of the North American
continental shelf.
We have a pretty
dramatic drop-off here.
It goes down like a wall.
Further in
from the leading edge,
an amazing sight
is now revealed,
hard, rock-like formations.
This is North America's
only coral reef,
known as
the Florida Reef tract,
and it lies just under
the surface of the sea.
Today, lighthouses
stand guard here,
but for the Spanish traders
on the Atocha,
there is no such warning.
A ship like a Spanish galleon,
that might draw 12 feet.
It is gonna hit
a shallow reef like that,
and it's going to have
its bottom torn out and sink.
But will draining
the Florida Keys
reveal the Atocha
and its treasure?
Throughout the 1970s,
treasure hunter Mel Fisher
searches for the lost ship.
He and his family are driven
by stories of the legendary
treasure.
My dad was
an eternal optimist.
"Today is the day,"
he told us every day.
"Today's the day
we're gonna find it."
For more than a decade,
the Fisher team finds clues
of the Atocha, cannon,
and even silver coins.
These finds are tantalizing
and help finance
the continuing search
for what the team call
the mother lode.
In the early years, you know,
people thought Mel was crazy.
Oh, it's... You know,
"You're never gonna find it."
For some observers,
treasure hunting
and archaeological
preservation don't mix.
Mel Fisher invented
a propeller blast system
to clear away sand.
Recovering sunken treasures
this way can damage
the sea floor
and some of the artifacts
that lie upon it.
But the treasure hunters
believe that their work also
helps us understand the past.
We're kind of saving history.
You know,
if we didn't go out there,
and recover these items
in a responsible manner,
and bring them to light
for the public,
they would be lost forever.
Fifteen years
after the Fisher team
begin searching,
there's a breakthrough.
Cameras capture murky images
on the sea floor.
Draining away the waters
of the Florida Keys
reveals clearly
one of the most valuable
shipwrecks in history.
Based upon
the latest scanning data
and computer
visualization technology,
it's possible
to empty the seas,
exposing what
the Fisher family spent
almost two decades looking for.
Visible for the first
time in four centuries,
wreckage of the Atocha,
55 feet down,
once again open
to the light of day.
Strewn around, timbers
from the ship's hull.
Stones carried
as ship's ballast.
Poking out of the mud,
debris of shattered
treasure chests.
It really doesn't look
like a ship anymore.
It's broken up. It's decayed.
Among the wreckage,
a pile of blackened metal.
It's a massive block
of silver bars,
thirty tons in total.
The mother lode of the Atocha
exposed for all to see.
It's an emotion.
It was a wonderful feeling
of accomplishment
to see Mel Fisher's dream,
the mother lode.
There's lobsters
around the whole thing.
When I got out of the water,
I went over to my chart,
and I put a real X on the chart
of "here's the treasure."
It was totally overwhelming.
We were all elated, you know.
We'd spent most of my life
looking for this one wreck.
Now, there it was.
It's arguably the biggest ever
haul of Spanish treasure,
making the Fisher family
and their backers wealthy
beyond their wildest dreams.
The mother lode, in 1985,
was valued
at about $400 million
at that time.
Between now and then,
we've recovered a lot more,
and the value
in today's numbers,
you know, it's somewhere
probably twice that.
You know, approaching
a billion dollar wreck.
It's kind of mind-boggling.
Among the treasures
are an emerald-and-gold
cross and ring...
rare silver
from the Incan Empire...
gold chains...
and cups.
And the Fishers
are not finished yet.
Their search for yet more
of the riches of the Atocha
continues.
Based on what
we see on the manifest
and what's been recovered,
we can estimate
there's 300 silver bars.
There was about 70 pounds
of emeralds smuggled
on board the Atocha,
and we've only found about
six or seven pounds so far.
There's still a lot of treasure
out there to be found.
The Fisher team has discovered
that treasure from the Atocha
has been found,
not just at the mother lode,
but spread out over miles.
Why is it spread so widely,
and can draining
the trail of wreckage lead
to finding
a second mother lode?
Keep your eye
on that forward sonar.
Let me know
if you see any targets.
The hunt for the Atocha's
lost emeralds is now focused
on a missing part
of the ship,
the sterncastle,
where the wealthiest people
on board have their cabins.
My number one target is
probably a pile of emeralds.
Emeralds are so valuable
that you could have
one box full of emeralds
that would be worth
a whole ship full of silver.
The Muzo mine
produces the best emeralds
in the world, even today.
So keep your eyes
open for big emeralds.
That's the big prize.
Critical clues lie
in the spread of wreckage
and previously
discovered treasures.
The treasure hunters
call it the Atocha trail.
That looks good.
There's a target
coming in right there.
Might be something
we have to go dig.
With the waters
of the Florida Keys
drained away,
the true extent
of the Atocha trail
is revealed.
Survivors' accounts
report that the ship
hits the outer reef here
and eventually sinks
two miles away
at the site where
the mother lode is found.
But then, the trail
of wreckage appears
to continue on for miles.
Each point here marks
a treasure already discovered.
It creates almost
a, a breadcrumb trail
on the sea floor.
Why are the Atocha's treasures
spread over 10 miles of seabed?
Following the trail itself
gives the treasure hunters
the answer.
We've pieced together
what happened.
After the hurricane
sinks the Atocha
in September of 1622,
another great storm
pounds the sunken wreck.
Thirty days
after the Atocha sank,
the second hurricane came.
The bow, and the stern,
and the upper decks
all ripped loose
in that second storm
and started bouncing along,
leaving a trail of treasure.
Lying four miles
from the mother lode
is what's thought to be
the bow section of the ship,
but the trail appears
to continue even further.
That superstructure
carried off,
breaking up as it went along,
and dropping things.
The missing sterncastle
and a huge amount of treasure
is projected to lie
somewhere in this area.
And now new technology,
a hovering autonomous
underwater vehicle, or HAUV,
allows the treasure hunters
to find the tiniest clues.
It lets us scan large
areas of sea floor.
Working under a legal permit,
the new equipment will use
a high-frequency magnetic
field detector.
So, we can detect metals
deeper than ever before,
and we can start
to discriminate
different metals.
And where there's more metal,
the Fisher team expects
to find the missing part
of the ship
and lost emeralds.
That looks like
we got something
coming in right here.
That's just a matter
of systematically working
the trail of known artifacts,
kind of like bread crumbs
through the forest.
The search continues.
The age of the
Spanish galleons
is what many consider
the first Golden Age
of treasure on the high seas.
But across the world's oceans,
the amount of gold moved
in the 20th century,
especially during World War II,
dwarfs all other periods.
As the oceans
of the world drain away,
an extraordinary wreck
is revealed near
the Arctic Circle.
Can draining
a sunken British warship
uncover the fate
of the world's largest-ever
haul of gold bullion?
The Arctic Ocean.
Two hundred miles
off the coast of Russia.
Somewhere beneath
these freezing waters lies
one of the greatest secrets
of World War II.
As the ocean begins to empty,
it reveals
an astonishing sight.
The 600-foot long wreck
of HMS Edinburgh,
visible in its entirety
for the first time
in more than 70 years.
The British warship's guns
can be seen in the clear light
of day.
On the stern,
the quarterdeck
is peeled back.
There's clear evidence
of torpedo damage,
a huge hole in the side.
But a German torpedo
didn't sink the Edinburgh.
So, what did and why?
April 30th, 1942,
the Barents Sea
in the Arctic Circle.
It's the height
of World War II,
and a convoy
of 13 British ships
is on a perilous
1,700-mile voyage
from Russia to their Allies
in the west.
It's one of the hardest
campaigns of the war.
You were under
very serious attack,
from submarines,
from aircraft,
and even from surface ships.
Escorting the convoy
is the 600-foot long,
10,000-ton cruiser,
HMS Edinburgh.
It's a formidable warship
with more than 24 guns.
A German U-boat attacks.
The Germans carried out
a torpedo attack.
Another torpedo hit the ship,
increasing the damage.
Sixty people are killed.
Two days later,
the remaining crew are
ordered to abandon ship,
forcing a fateful decision
on the Navy.
The admiral decided
that it was too far gone,
and he ordered
one of the destroyers
to put a torpedo
into her engine room.
She went down
within a couple of minutes,
and she went
completely vertical.
HMS Edinburgh sinks
beneath the waves
two hundred miles
off the coast of Russia.
Sunk by its own navy.
It was vitally important.
You didn't want her falling
into German hands.
But why take
such extreme measures
to keep the Edinburgh
out of Nazi hands?
The answer is gold.
The gold that was loaded
on board the Edinburgh
at Murmansk was...
We know for certain was
five and a half tons.
That's what
the admiral signed for,
and five and a half tons
was 465 bars.
It's payment from Russia
for war supplies
and worth $240 million
in today's money.
In 1942, recovering the gold
from the damaged ship
just before it sinks
is too dangerous.
The sunken treasure lies
undisturbed for decades,
and the ship is recognized
as a war grave.
But then a dive expedition,
sanctioned by the British
and Russian governments,
is launched to salvage it.
Leading the hunt is
treasure diver Keith Jessop,
working with marine engineer,
Ric Wharton.
What drove us to it
is interesting.
There was the allure of gold,
but frankly, we didn't have
great expectations
at that stage.
There were so many unknowns,
like a moon shot.
The Edinburgh is 800 feet
beneath the waves
in freezing waters,
and there's no guarantee
of success.
The first challenge is finding
a precise spot to search.
It's suspected that the gold
is stored in the bomb room.
The problem is
this is one of the most
secure areas on the ship.
Situated deep
inside the hull,
the bomb room is
where explosives are kept
and valuable cargo.
And it's behind the ship's
four-inch armor plating.
Will draining the Arctic Ocean
reveal how to access the wreck
of HMS Edinburgh
to recover its treasures?
At 800 feet down,
the wreck of HMS Edinburgh
is too deep for scuba divers.
To stand any chance of success,
it will take a remarkable
feat of human endurance.
The team need
to operate in a high-tech
pressurized chamber,
that looks like something
found on a space station.
It's a technique called
saturation diving.
You basically go
to your chamber,
and you dive in.
Your body is saturated
with diving gases,
and you remain saturated
for the duration of the dive.
Saturating the diver's body
with a mix of diving gases
avoids long and costly
decompression times.
Leaving the chamber,
the divers enter a diving bell,
which drops
through a hole
in the ship
and enters the freezing
Arctic waters.
They leave the diving bell
but remain attached
by an umbilical cord.
The biggest problem,
I think, we had
diving at depth
on the Edinburgh
was staying warm.
We had hot water suits,
and we had hot water being
pumped down through
from the surface.
Too hot, and the divers
could be badly scalded.
Or, if the supply fails,
they could find themselves
at the mercy
of the freezing cold
Arctic waters.
Then we'd be breathing
a very hot gas,
which is starting
to burn the lungs.
It was like being kicked
in the back of the head
by a mule.
It wasn't pleasant diving.
The plan is for the divers
to enter the ship
through the torpedo hole
in the side,
then work their way
through the ship
to the bomb room.
But during the first dive,
there's an unexpected problem.
When they got into that hole,
it was completely...
We couldn't get
the debris out.
It's a setback,
and the team
is forced to rethink.
The boat was ringed
with armored plating,
and we would've struggled
to get through that.
So, we decided to go
underneath the armor plating
and cut our way into the ship.
Cutting into the bomb room
is fraught with danger.
It may still contain
unstable explosive charges
left over from the war.
We knew the inherent dangers.
We knew the risks,
and we were
very slow and cautious.
We knew were cutting
our way into something.
I actually cut my way
into the bomb room first.
There's no visibility.
You couldn't see anything.
You couldn't see your hand
in front of your face.
Everything was done by feel.
And then I touched something
that was slightly heavier.
I tried to pick it up.
And because of its size,
I should have easily
been able to lift it,
but the weight, straight away,
gave me some sort of idea
that this wasn't
something ordinary.
As soon as I lifted it,
I knew straight away
that it was gold.
I've found the gold!
I've found the gold!
I've found the gold!
You don't see that
often at 800 feet.
Roger, roger.
I don't know about you, John,
but I'm shaking like hell.
And then euphoria broke out
on the boats as well.
Everybody's running around,
shouting, and screaming,
and carrying on
from the crew down.
So, it was a very
exciting moment.
In total, 460 bars
of gold are recovered,
worth about $240 million
in today's money.
It's the biggest haul
of lost gold bullion ever
recovered from the seabed.
This is a lead copy,
gold plated.
There's a serial number
at the top, which is KP0620.
Below that, you see
the hammer and sickle
and the Russian markings
in a cartouche,
and below that,
it said 99.99.
That's pure gold.
The value of the treasure
is shared
between the Russian
and British governments
and the salvage team.
It was a vast
amount of money.
We all did
very well out of it.
It completely changed
our attitude to work,
because we
never really had to again.
We did, of course.
Now emptied
of its sunken treasure,
peace returns
to the Edinburgh.
Gold has always captured
peoples' imagination.
Yeah, it's treasure fever.
There's millions
of shipwrecks out there.
But for every
10,000 shipwrecks
on the seabed,
probably one
might be high value.
Once you start,
once you go look for one,
you can never stop.
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our imaginations for centuries.
I think everybody,
at some point in their life,
has dreamed
about finding treasure.
I knew straightaway
that it was gold.
There was over 30 tons
of silver ingots on board,
two hundred thousand coins,
gold, emeralds.
Once treasure
and treasure diving
gets in your blood,
it's hard to get it out.
Sunken treasures remain lost
below the waves...
until now.
Imagine if we could
empty the oceans,
draining the water away
to reveal the secrets
of the sea floor.
Now, we can.
Using the latest underwater
scanning technology...
piercing the deep oceans...
and turning accurate data
into 3-D images.
This time...
How do you excavate
a fortune in sunken silver
from a wreck lost
in shifting sands?
It's an amazing amount of money.
Why is the treasure
from a wrecked Spanish galleon,
spread over 10 miles
of Florida seabed?
And how can
the world's biggest haul
of lost gold bullion
be recovered
from the Arctic depths?
Today, moving
money is simple.
These days, you push a button,
and funds are
electronically transferred.
But in the past,
the oceans were
a pretty consistent means
of moving the world's money.
For centuries,
treasure ships plied
the oceans of the world,
packed with silver,
gold, and precious stones.
Hunted by pirates,
battered by storms,
threatened by reefs
and rocky shores.
The reason that you would
find treasure underwater is
that the water has been
the greatest highway
in human history.
And where there's treasure,
there are treasure hunters.
I think people certainly
catch gold fever.
I think people love
searching for things.
It's deep in our psyche.
Around the world,
hundreds of treasure wrecks
remain unexplored.
As the waters of the oceans
begin to drain away,
they reveal
their most valuable secrets.
The English Channel,
five miles off
the coast of Kent.
The grave
of an 18th century
merchant ship
lost to the waves
and carrying a fortune
in silver.
The priceless wreck often
vanishes and re-appears
under ever-shifting sandbanks.
Can draining away
the English Channel
reveal the wreck
and the sunken treasure?
January 8th, 1740,
the Dutch East India Company
ship, the Rooswijk, sets off
from the Netherlands
into the English Channel.
It's on an eight-month long
voyage to Indonesia,
then known
as the Dutch East Indies,
the center of the spice trade.
On board are
merchants, soldiers,
and a precious cargo.
It's said that there were
about 300,000 guilders
of silver on board of the ship
in silver bars
and about 36,000 of coins.
A fortune in today's money,
equivalent to around
$100 million.
A few miles off
the English coast,
a violent storm blows up.
The ship hits sandbanks
and disappears.
Two hundred
and thirty seven men die,
and the silver
is lost to the sea.
Now, more than
270 years later,
a team of underwater
archaeologists investigate.
Martijn Manders
heads the expedition.
It's enormously unique
to do a large-scale excavation
under water.
We really have to take care
of what's down there underwater,
or we'll lose it forever.
These are treacherous waters.
To locate the wreck,
the team uses
the latest technology,
multi-beam sonar scanning.
We came out and did
a multi-beam survey.
You create a whole,
a whole image of the seabed.
Multi-beam sonar fires
sound waves to the sea floor.
The return signal
displays the shape and depth
of the features beneath.
That way, we can start putting
that puzzle together.
Combining the sonar data
with the latest
visualization techniques,
it's now possible
to empty the waters
of the English Channel.
As the sea drains away,
the first challenge
the team face is revealed,
the landscape
under the surface.
It's an incredible
hidden world,
miles of rolling dunes,
like a desert underwater.
The Goodwin Sands.
Lying close to the surface,
these endlessly shifting sands
are a deadly threat
to shipping.
They called it
the great ship-swallower.
It's the graveyard
for around 2,000 ships,
each running aground
in the treacherous shallows.
The Rooswijk is swallowed here
and disappears for centuries.
Have the sands shifted
enough to finally reveal
this treasure ship?
As the waters
of the English Channel
continue to drain away,
a shape emerges.
Twisted timbers of a ship
from the 18th century.
To an expert eye,
artifacts of Dutch origin.
And as it's revealed
high and dry,
it's finally clear.
This is all that is left
of the Rooswijk.
Archaeologists can now view
the remains of the ship
from any angle,
and examine it in fine detail.
The hull shape
is long lost
to the ocean,
but there is a pile of timbers,
collapsed deck planks
lying at strange angles,
and five cannon
scattered around.
We're basically
uncovering something
that hasn't been seen
for the past 250 years.
But where is the treasure?
We're gonna dive to it,
and investigate it,
and hope to find the secrets
that this shipwreck reveals.
For a lot of people,
this is a treasure ship.
For the archaeologists,
this is a treasure ship,
because we could get
so much information.
Fast-moving tides
make the expedition difficult.
Each day, there might only be
one hour between tides
that's safe for diving.
It is a race
against the clock.
Going down into an elevator
is like going back in time.
Take him down,
I'll give you an all stop.
It's a time capsule
of 1740.
Okay you can relax,
we've got a fix.
Okay.
An umbilical cord
provides air 75 feet down.
It was really, really exciting
to start diving there.
I was swimming,
and then suddenly,
you see these cannons appearing
and wood sticking
out of the seabed.
You really get this idea
that this is the place
where all these people died.
This is a grave.
The drained wreck
of the Rooswijk
shows the scale
of the challenge.
Debris is spread
over a large area.
Here's what's thought to be
the main part of the ship,
but around 400 feet
to the north-west
lie two anchors
and a pile of barrels.
And more than 900 feet
to the north-east,
10 cannon spread around.
To the east, eight
more cannon in a row
next to another anchor.
The team only have
a 12-week window
to work the wreck site,
and it can take days
to excavate just
a few square feet.
So, they must
focus their search.
We have to make choices,
and this is what we did
on the basis of the multi-beam
data.
Martijn decides
to home in on the stern.
It's the place
where the officers,
maybe the passengers,
where the merchant men
used to live during their trip,
where money was stored.
But how much treasure
might still be down there?
Using enormous vacuums
to remove the sand,
they hunt carefully
amongst the debris.
Yep, I've got it.
Found the object.
Martijn finds a broken chest
with its contents spilling out.
And then, a thrilling moment.
A silver coin.
And soon, dozens more.
Money destined
for the East Indies
that's been lying here
for more than 270 years.
The wreck of the Rooswijk
is beginning to reveal
its treasures.
Diver well?
-Diver well.
These are pieces of eight,
eight real.
Some people might know them
from the pirate films.
The Spanish real was
the standard trading currency
of the 18th century.
Made of silver,
a single coin was worth more
than a week's pay for a sailor.
These coins are some
of the thousands
that the Dutch East India
Company places on board ship.
All minted just before
the Rooswijk sails.
But some of the other
discovered coins are
noticeably different.
These are large Ducatons,
but they're old.
They're very old.
These are 17th century,
so they're probably
about 70 years, 80 years older
than when the ship wrecked.
They're not the newly-minted
company money
that the ship is supposed
to be carrying.
Trading in private money
was banned by the Dutch
East India Company,
so finding these coins
raises new questions.
If they aren't
company money,
whose are they,
and what are they used for?
The drained landscape around
the Rooswijk reveals clues.
The reals are found in clusters
in the stern area,
the part of the ship
where company money
is stored.
But surprisingly,
the other coins are found
mixed in with them.
Some even show evidence
of being kept secret.
But really interesting
of this coin
is this little hole.
Maybe it's, it's, it's worn
under the clothes.
Maybe somebody had a collar
of all sorts of coins and...
just keeping it hidden.
Could these coins,
found at the bottom
of the English Channel,
be incredible new evidence
of one of the oldest trades
in history,
smuggling?
:
So we have a notary deed,
an official document.
In Amsterdam,
Martijn Manders investigates
the sunken treasure
of the Rooswijk
and meets historian
Mateus van Rossum.
And this is
the interesting thing.
We have these combinations
of coins, all different kinds,
very old.
That's definitely private trade.
"Private trade" means
a booming black market
in smuggled silver.
Isn't that illegal?
It was illegal,
because the company banned
the shipment of silver
from the Republic
to Asia and back.
So this is evidence?
This is basically all illegal.
Silver is worth more
in the East Indies
than in the Netherlands,
because it can be used
to buy trade goods like spices.
Enterprising members
of the crew collect cash
from their families
and friends.
Then once
they arrive in Asia,
they simply sell
their private silver
to the Dutch
East India Company
for a profit.
It's illegal, but the company
turns a blind eye to the trade,
because they use the smuggled
silver to buy more spices.
Draining the Rooswijk reveals
that not only are the private
coins found in the stern.
They're also discovered
in other areas of the wreck.
This poses a new question.
Was it only
the merchants did this,
or was it more widespread?
This was actually
very widespread.
The captain,
the first mate,
the surgeons,
the company merchant
on board the ship,
then the lower ranks
does indicate
that the whole crew participated
to some degree in this
in this trade.
For two centuries,
the Dutch East India
Company dominates trade
between Asia
and its headquarters
in Amsterdam,
making the city
the key commercial center
in the world.
The Dutch East India Company
was one of the very first large,
multinational corporations.
Its mission is profit,
to trade silver for spices,
using ships like the Rooswijk
to spearhead trade.
An earlier commercial dive
uncovers the first evidence
of the high value
of the ship...
two chests.
Cracked open,
there's a sight straight out
of a high seas adventure story.
In each,
50 bars of silver bullion,
blackened by the water,
worth a fortune,
and now, divided
between the salvage team
and the Dutch Government.
But the smuggled coins
add new understanding
to one of the most colorful
sagas in the age of discovery
and reveal that everyone
is secretly on the make.
It's estimated that 50%
of all the silver on board
was smuggled money.
So, if you think
about the Rooswijk,
36,000 coins
on board officially.
So that means 36,000 coins
on board unofficially.
That's an amazing
amount of money.
How much more
is there to find?
It's six weeks
into the 12-week expedition.
At a harbor-side lab,
experts carefully record
the archaeological treasures
so they can be studied
anywhere in the world
in stunning 3-D detail.
Pewter tableware,
glass bottles
from the Captain's table,
and more company coins.
We've only found 700 so far.
There are many thousand
more to find.
With only a few weeks
left on the project,
the race is on to recover
as much as possible.
And the team now also want
to solve the Rooswijk's
long-standing mystery...
how exactly did
it meet its fate?
The drained wreckage
of the ship reveals clues.
The stern section can
be seen lying in a pile.
More than 300 feet away,
there's an anchor.
And further out,
several cannon
grouped together.
What does this spread
of clues reveal?
This is the evidence
of the people struggling
and trying to save their ship.
The ship was caught
by the storm,
was pushed on the sandbanks
of the Goodwin Sands.
It's just being smashed
on the sands.
So, what do you do?
You throw away
your heavy equipment,
and you start
with your cannons.
During the storm,
the crew ditches
at least 23 cannons
in an attempt
to lighten the ship
and break free
from the sandbanks.
Then the crew drops anchor.
But there's no chance
of escape.
It just gets stuck
further and further.
The sea lifting the ship,
and just pounding it
onto the sand,
breaking it
in thousands of pieces.
And everybody was lost.
It's almost unimaginable.
The loss
of the Rooswijk's silver
is a big blow for the Dutch
East India Company.
Shipwrecks
are one of the--
the recurring threats
for the company.
So yearly, there would be
losses of ships,
one or two on average.
And some historians see this
as one of the factors
that contributes to the demise
of the Dutch East India Company.
Now, after 12 weeks
of challenging excavation,
the archaeological expedition
is almost at an end.
This is the last night
of the project.
Twelve weeks of great dives,
but also, uh, we had storms,
we had lots
of difficult tides,
bad visibility,
but we've also made
a lot of progress.
We've found
around 2,000 coins.
Both divers if you stop work
It's only a fraction
of the coins
known
to be on board.
Including the smuggled ones,
the value of the Rooswijk
silver could now be
up to $125 million.
Martijn plans to return
to the wreck site.
How much more
of the Rooswijk's
sunken treasures
can be recovered from the
shifting sands below?
Archaeologists
and treasure hunters
continue to scour the seas.
And as the world's oceans
continue to drain away,
they reveal yet more
tantalizing clues
of fortunes lost
under the waves.
The Florida Keys.
In 1622,
a Spanish galleon sinks here
laden with
an extraordinary haul
of silver, gold, and gems.
For decades,
treasure hunters
pursue a dream,
to find one of the richest
wrecks in history.
Can draining the oceans here
reveal the fabled mother lode
of the vanished
treasure ship, Atocha?
I'm Kim Fisher,
and I'm a treasure hunter.
Gold fever, treasure fever...
I think everybody,
at some point in their life,
has dreamed
about finding treasure.
Off the coast
of Key West, Florida,
a team of self-styled
treasure hunters is chasing
the legend
of the treasure ship Atocha,
known to have been lost
in these waters.
Nice, clean bottom.
Looks like we've got
something coming in here.
Nice target.
Once treasure,
and treasure diving
gets in your blood,
it's hard to get it out.
Maritime archaeologist
Corey Malcolm
has spent
two decades
investigating the fate
of the Spanish galleon.
The Atocha, we know,
specifically carried
260 people on board.
Some of these people
were the wealthiest
people in the world.
You had religious figures.
You had explorers.
September the 4th, 1622,
the Nuestra Senora de Atocha
is part of a fleet of 28 ships
that leaves Havana, Cuba
bound for Spain.
It's laden with silver,
gold, and gems,
more than a year's worth
of treasure obtained
by the Spanish
from their empire in Mexico
and South America.
The Atocha was a tremendously
important ship to Spain.
It was carrying a huge
amount of treasure.
I mean, there was over 30 tons
of silver ingots on board,
two hundred thousand coins,
gold, emeralds.
But the Atocha quickly
runs into trouble.
It wasn't a day out from Havana
that they started feeling
the winds increase,
the seas starting to build,
and they knew they were caught.
A hurricane closes in.
The ship is lost.
Only five men survive
to tell the tale.
And their testimonies say
that what sunk the ship wasn't
just the high wind and waves.
There is clearly
something else here
that poses a deadly threat
to shipping.
This area is infamous
for shipwrecks.
Around 1,000 ships have been
doomed along the Florida Keys.
Ships are drawn to these waters
to make use of the Gulf Stream,
the ancient highway
of the seas.
The best way to see
what might have wrecked
the Spanish galleon
is to drain the ocean.
Now multi-beam sonar scanning
details the extraordinary
sub-sea landscape
around the Florida Keys.
As the waters drain away,
a vast coastal mountain range
is revealed.
The shallow Florida Keys
are just the peaks.
Beyond them,
the land drops down
up to 6,000 feet
into an ocean abyss.
This is the edge
of the North American
continental shelf.
We have a pretty
dramatic drop-off here.
It goes down like a wall.
Further in
from the leading edge,
an amazing sight
is now revealed,
hard, rock-like formations.
This is North America's
only coral reef,
known as
the Florida Reef tract,
and it lies just under
the surface of the sea.
Today, lighthouses
stand guard here,
but for the Spanish traders
on the Atocha,
there is no such warning.
A ship like a Spanish galleon,
that might draw 12 feet.
It is gonna hit
a shallow reef like that,
and it's going to have
its bottom torn out and sink.
But will draining
the Florida Keys
reveal the Atocha
and its treasure?
Throughout the 1970s,
treasure hunter Mel Fisher
searches for the lost ship.
He and his family are driven
by stories of the legendary
treasure.
My dad was
an eternal optimist.
"Today is the day,"
he told us every day.
"Today's the day
we're gonna find it."
For more than a decade,
the Fisher team finds clues
of the Atocha, cannon,
and even silver coins.
These finds are tantalizing
and help finance
the continuing search
for what the team call
the mother lode.
In the early years, you know,
people thought Mel was crazy.
Oh, it's... You know,
"You're never gonna find it."
For some observers,
treasure hunting
and archaeological
preservation don't mix.
Mel Fisher invented
a propeller blast system
to clear away sand.
Recovering sunken treasures
this way can damage
the sea floor
and some of the artifacts
that lie upon it.
But the treasure hunters
believe that their work also
helps us understand the past.
We're kind of saving history.
You know,
if we didn't go out there,
and recover these items
in a responsible manner,
and bring them to light
for the public,
they would be lost forever.
Fifteen years
after the Fisher team
begin searching,
there's a breakthrough.
Cameras capture murky images
on the sea floor.
Draining away the waters
of the Florida Keys
reveals clearly
one of the most valuable
shipwrecks in history.
Based upon
the latest scanning data
and computer
visualization technology,
it's possible
to empty the seas,
exposing what
the Fisher family spent
almost two decades looking for.
Visible for the first
time in four centuries,
wreckage of the Atocha,
55 feet down,
once again open
to the light of day.
Strewn around, timbers
from the ship's hull.
Stones carried
as ship's ballast.
Poking out of the mud,
debris of shattered
treasure chests.
It really doesn't look
like a ship anymore.
It's broken up. It's decayed.
Among the wreckage,
a pile of blackened metal.
It's a massive block
of silver bars,
thirty tons in total.
The mother lode of the Atocha
exposed for all to see.
It's an emotion.
It was a wonderful feeling
of accomplishment
to see Mel Fisher's dream,
the mother lode.
There's lobsters
around the whole thing.
When I got out of the water,
I went over to my chart,
and I put a real X on the chart
of "here's the treasure."
It was totally overwhelming.
We were all elated, you know.
We'd spent most of my life
looking for this one wreck.
Now, there it was.
It's arguably the biggest ever
haul of Spanish treasure,
making the Fisher family
and their backers wealthy
beyond their wildest dreams.
The mother lode, in 1985,
was valued
at about $400 million
at that time.
Between now and then,
we've recovered a lot more,
and the value
in today's numbers,
you know, it's somewhere
probably twice that.
You know, approaching
a billion dollar wreck.
It's kind of mind-boggling.
Among the treasures
are an emerald-and-gold
cross and ring...
rare silver
from the Incan Empire...
gold chains...
and cups.
And the Fishers
are not finished yet.
Their search for yet more
of the riches of the Atocha
continues.
Based on what
we see on the manifest
and what's been recovered,
we can estimate
there's 300 silver bars.
There was about 70 pounds
of emeralds smuggled
on board the Atocha,
and we've only found about
six or seven pounds so far.
There's still a lot of treasure
out there to be found.
The Fisher team has discovered
that treasure from the Atocha
has been found,
not just at the mother lode,
but spread out over miles.
Why is it spread so widely,
and can draining
the trail of wreckage lead
to finding
a second mother lode?
Keep your eye
on that forward sonar.
Let me know
if you see any targets.
The hunt for the Atocha's
lost emeralds is now focused
on a missing part
of the ship,
the sterncastle,
where the wealthiest people
on board have their cabins.
My number one target is
probably a pile of emeralds.
Emeralds are so valuable
that you could have
one box full of emeralds
that would be worth
a whole ship full of silver.
The Muzo mine
produces the best emeralds
in the world, even today.
So keep your eyes
open for big emeralds.
That's the big prize.
Critical clues lie
in the spread of wreckage
and previously
discovered treasures.
The treasure hunters
call it the Atocha trail.
That looks good.
There's a target
coming in right there.
Might be something
we have to go dig.
With the waters
of the Florida Keys
drained away,
the true extent
of the Atocha trail
is revealed.
Survivors' accounts
report that the ship
hits the outer reef here
and eventually sinks
two miles away
at the site where
the mother lode is found.
But then, the trail
of wreckage appears
to continue on for miles.
Each point here marks
a treasure already discovered.
It creates almost
a, a breadcrumb trail
on the sea floor.
Why are the Atocha's treasures
spread over 10 miles of seabed?
Following the trail itself
gives the treasure hunters
the answer.
We've pieced together
what happened.
After the hurricane
sinks the Atocha
in September of 1622,
another great storm
pounds the sunken wreck.
Thirty days
after the Atocha sank,
the second hurricane came.
The bow, and the stern,
and the upper decks
all ripped loose
in that second storm
and started bouncing along,
leaving a trail of treasure.
Lying four miles
from the mother lode
is what's thought to be
the bow section of the ship,
but the trail appears
to continue even further.
That superstructure
carried off,
breaking up as it went along,
and dropping things.
The missing sterncastle
and a huge amount of treasure
is projected to lie
somewhere in this area.
And now new technology,
a hovering autonomous
underwater vehicle, or HAUV,
allows the treasure hunters
to find the tiniest clues.
It lets us scan large
areas of sea floor.
Working under a legal permit,
the new equipment will use
a high-frequency magnetic
field detector.
So, we can detect metals
deeper than ever before,
and we can start
to discriminate
different metals.
And where there's more metal,
the Fisher team expects
to find the missing part
of the ship
and lost emeralds.
That looks like
we got something
coming in right here.
That's just a matter
of systematically working
the trail of known artifacts,
kind of like bread crumbs
through the forest.
The search continues.
The age of the
Spanish galleons
is what many consider
the first Golden Age
of treasure on the high seas.
But across the world's oceans,
the amount of gold moved
in the 20th century,
especially during World War II,
dwarfs all other periods.
As the oceans
of the world drain away,
an extraordinary wreck
is revealed near
the Arctic Circle.
Can draining
a sunken British warship
uncover the fate
of the world's largest-ever
haul of gold bullion?
The Arctic Ocean.
Two hundred miles
off the coast of Russia.
Somewhere beneath
these freezing waters lies
one of the greatest secrets
of World War II.
As the ocean begins to empty,
it reveals
an astonishing sight.
The 600-foot long wreck
of HMS Edinburgh,
visible in its entirety
for the first time
in more than 70 years.
The British warship's guns
can be seen in the clear light
of day.
On the stern,
the quarterdeck
is peeled back.
There's clear evidence
of torpedo damage,
a huge hole in the side.
But a German torpedo
didn't sink the Edinburgh.
So, what did and why?
April 30th, 1942,
the Barents Sea
in the Arctic Circle.
It's the height
of World War II,
and a convoy
of 13 British ships
is on a perilous
1,700-mile voyage
from Russia to their Allies
in the west.
It's one of the hardest
campaigns of the war.
You were under
very serious attack,
from submarines,
from aircraft,
and even from surface ships.
Escorting the convoy
is the 600-foot long,
10,000-ton cruiser,
HMS Edinburgh.
It's a formidable warship
with more than 24 guns.
A German U-boat attacks.
The Germans carried out
a torpedo attack.
Another torpedo hit the ship,
increasing the damage.
Sixty people are killed.
Two days later,
the remaining crew are
ordered to abandon ship,
forcing a fateful decision
on the Navy.
The admiral decided
that it was too far gone,
and he ordered
one of the destroyers
to put a torpedo
into her engine room.
She went down
within a couple of minutes,
and she went
completely vertical.
HMS Edinburgh sinks
beneath the waves
two hundred miles
off the coast of Russia.
Sunk by its own navy.
It was vitally important.
You didn't want her falling
into German hands.
But why take
such extreme measures
to keep the Edinburgh
out of Nazi hands?
The answer is gold.
The gold that was loaded
on board the Edinburgh
at Murmansk was...
We know for certain was
five and a half tons.
That's what
the admiral signed for,
and five and a half tons
was 465 bars.
It's payment from Russia
for war supplies
and worth $240 million
in today's money.
In 1942, recovering the gold
from the damaged ship
just before it sinks
is too dangerous.
The sunken treasure lies
undisturbed for decades,
and the ship is recognized
as a war grave.
But then a dive expedition,
sanctioned by the British
and Russian governments,
is launched to salvage it.
Leading the hunt is
treasure diver Keith Jessop,
working with marine engineer,
Ric Wharton.
What drove us to it
is interesting.
There was the allure of gold,
but frankly, we didn't have
great expectations
at that stage.
There were so many unknowns,
like a moon shot.
The Edinburgh is 800 feet
beneath the waves
in freezing waters,
and there's no guarantee
of success.
The first challenge is finding
a precise spot to search.
It's suspected that the gold
is stored in the bomb room.
The problem is
this is one of the most
secure areas on the ship.
Situated deep
inside the hull,
the bomb room is
where explosives are kept
and valuable cargo.
And it's behind the ship's
four-inch armor plating.
Will draining the Arctic Ocean
reveal how to access the wreck
of HMS Edinburgh
to recover its treasures?
At 800 feet down,
the wreck of HMS Edinburgh
is too deep for scuba divers.
To stand any chance of success,
it will take a remarkable
feat of human endurance.
The team need
to operate in a high-tech
pressurized chamber,
that looks like something
found on a space station.
It's a technique called
saturation diving.
You basically go
to your chamber,
and you dive in.
Your body is saturated
with diving gases,
and you remain saturated
for the duration of the dive.
Saturating the diver's body
with a mix of diving gases
avoids long and costly
decompression times.
Leaving the chamber,
the divers enter a diving bell,
which drops
through a hole
in the ship
and enters the freezing
Arctic waters.
They leave the diving bell
but remain attached
by an umbilical cord.
The biggest problem,
I think, we had
diving at depth
on the Edinburgh
was staying warm.
We had hot water suits,
and we had hot water being
pumped down through
from the surface.
Too hot, and the divers
could be badly scalded.
Or, if the supply fails,
they could find themselves
at the mercy
of the freezing cold
Arctic waters.
Then we'd be breathing
a very hot gas,
which is starting
to burn the lungs.
It was like being kicked
in the back of the head
by a mule.
It wasn't pleasant diving.
The plan is for the divers
to enter the ship
through the torpedo hole
in the side,
then work their way
through the ship
to the bomb room.
But during the first dive,
there's an unexpected problem.
When they got into that hole,
it was completely...
We couldn't get
the debris out.
It's a setback,
and the team
is forced to rethink.
The boat was ringed
with armored plating,
and we would've struggled
to get through that.
So, we decided to go
underneath the armor plating
and cut our way into the ship.
Cutting into the bomb room
is fraught with danger.
It may still contain
unstable explosive charges
left over from the war.
We knew the inherent dangers.
We knew the risks,
and we were
very slow and cautious.
We knew were cutting
our way into something.
I actually cut my way
into the bomb room first.
There's no visibility.
You couldn't see anything.
You couldn't see your hand
in front of your face.
Everything was done by feel.
And then I touched something
that was slightly heavier.
I tried to pick it up.
And because of its size,
I should have easily
been able to lift it,
but the weight, straight away,
gave me some sort of idea
that this wasn't
something ordinary.
As soon as I lifted it,
I knew straight away
that it was gold.
I've found the gold!
I've found the gold!
I've found the gold!
You don't see that
often at 800 feet.
Roger, roger.
I don't know about you, John,
but I'm shaking like hell.
And then euphoria broke out
on the boats as well.
Everybody's running around,
shouting, and screaming,
and carrying on
from the crew down.
So, it was a very
exciting moment.
In total, 460 bars
of gold are recovered,
worth about $240 million
in today's money.
It's the biggest haul
of lost gold bullion ever
recovered from the seabed.
This is a lead copy,
gold plated.
There's a serial number
at the top, which is KP0620.
Below that, you see
the hammer and sickle
and the Russian markings
in a cartouche,
and below that,
it said 99.99.
That's pure gold.
The value of the treasure
is shared
between the Russian
and British governments
and the salvage team.
It was a vast
amount of money.
We all did
very well out of it.
It completely changed
our attitude to work,
because we
never really had to again.
We did, of course.
Now emptied
of its sunken treasure,
peace returns
to the Edinburgh.
Gold has always captured
peoples' imagination.
Yeah, it's treasure fever.
There's millions
of shipwrecks out there.
But for every
10,000 shipwrecks
on the seabed,
probably one
might be high value.
Once you start,
once you go look for one,
you can never stop.
Captioned by Point.360
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