1 00:00:11,044 --> 00:00:13,945 Thousands of feet beneath the seven seas 2 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:19,677 lies the history of the world buried in the wreckage of lost ships. 3 00:00:25,191 --> 00:00:28,820 It is a realm of precious artifacts and priceless treasures. 4 00:00:28,962 --> 00:00:33,456 A world of ancient mysteries long beyond our grasp. 5 00:00:34,801 --> 00:00:36,735 Until today. 6 00:00:39,839 --> 00:00:44,173 Now the sunken marvels of the ocean deep are up for grabs, 7 00:00:44,310 --> 00:00:47,768 from ancient Roman ships to Spanish galleons 8 00:00:47,914 --> 00:00:50,781 to luxury liners like the Titanic. 9 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:56,315 I dream about gold and emeralds every night. 10 00:00:56,456 --> 00:01:00,916 And you gotta believe it's there and you gotta want it bad. 11 00:01:05,031 --> 00:01:08,159 Some people are out to plunder the past. 12 00:01:09,769 --> 00:01:12,795 While others archaeologists and scientists 13 00:01:12,939 --> 00:01:17,376 like the man who first found the Titanic, are out to preserve it. 14 00:01:19,379 --> 00:01:22,542 They are all armed with million-dollar high-tech tools, 15 00:01:22,682 --> 00:01:26,709 and the will to spend years on the arduous search. 16 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:29,847 Just running out on a boat with a metal detector 17 00:01:29,989 --> 00:01:33,015 and hoping to jump over the side and pull up a beached basket of gold coins 18 00:01:33,159 --> 00:01:37,391 that's stuff of fantasy and Hollywood. That really doesn't happen very often. 19 00:01:41,301 --> 00:01:43,963 It is a world where controversy reigns 20 00:01:44,104 --> 00:01:47,801 where there are confusing laws and no rules. 21 00:01:47,941 --> 00:01:51,377 Does anyone have a right to excavate shipwrecks? 22 00:01:51,511 --> 00:01:53,308 Should the past be protected? 23 00:01:53,446 --> 00:01:56,506 Or should it be picked clean for profit? 24 00:01:59,519 --> 00:02:03,785 So it's a very big difference between doing something to 25 00:02:03,923 --> 00:02:07,882 fill in a missing chapter in human history 26 00:02:08,027 --> 00:02:12,088 and doing it for personal greed. 27 00:02:13,066 --> 00:02:15,796 Explorers and archaeologists. 28 00:02:15,935 --> 00:02:18,904 Entrepreneurs and salvagers. 29 00:02:19,038 --> 00:02:21,506 Some will risk everything 30 00:02:22,475 --> 00:02:25,535 reputation, fortune, even their lives 31 00:02:25,678 --> 00:02:28,909 to possess the treasures of the deep. 32 00:03:16,229 --> 00:03:18,720 The Mediterranean Sea. 33 00:03:20,967 --> 00:03:26,132 On its shores grew the great civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. 34 00:03:28,474 --> 00:03:29,498 And from its banks, 35 00:03:29,642 --> 00:03:35,308 ancient peoples sailed beyond the safety of land in small wooden ships. 36 00:03:39,886 --> 00:03:43,515 For hundreds of years, Roman ships controlled these waters, 37 00:03:43,656 --> 00:03:46,147 creating a vast empire. 38 00:03:49,329 --> 00:03:52,787 But the moods of the sea are harsh and unpredictable, 39 00:03:52,932 --> 00:03:55,400 and a Roman vessel 100 feet long 40 00:03:55,535 --> 00:03:59,403 had no defenses against storm and wave and wind. 41 00:04:10,783 --> 00:04:13,547 Over the centuries, countless ships were lost 42 00:04:13,686 --> 00:04:16,246 and countless sailors killed. 43 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:23,685 Now the man who discovered the Titanic 44 00:04:23,830 --> 00:04:27,630 Dr. Robert Ballard, is again hunting for shipwrecks, 45 00:04:27,767 --> 00:04:30,793 ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. 46 00:04:34,507 --> 00:04:35,405 For hundreds of years, 47 00:04:35,541 --> 00:04:39,773 scientists have looked in the ocean for our history. 48 00:04:39,912 --> 00:04:41,641 And for most of that time 49 00:04:41,781 --> 00:04:45,046 they've only been able to look a very short distance 50 00:04:45,184 --> 00:04:46,708 of one or 200 feet, 51 00:04:46,853 --> 00:04:50,550 which represents an insignificant amount of the ocean. 52 00:04:50,690 --> 00:04:53,591 And what we're trying to accomplish is something that's never been done before 53 00:04:53,726 --> 00:04:56,923 and this is to try to excavate a ship of antiquity 54 00:04:57,063 --> 00:05:00,430 that is thousands of feet beneath the sea. 55 00:05:04,170 --> 00:05:08,402 To bring up ancient vessels buried a half-mile down. 56 00:05:09,909 --> 00:05:11,467 It's never been done before 57 00:05:11,611 --> 00:05:15,103 and Ballard only has five short weeks to do it. 58 00:05:17,317 --> 00:05:21,447 You know, it's ironic that we have sent robots to Mars 59 00:05:21,587 --> 00:05:24,647 and we've mapped the far side of Venus 60 00:05:24,791 --> 00:05:29,785 in fact, that we know more about the moon's surface than the ocean. 61 00:05:31,798 --> 00:05:33,698 To make the impossible happen 62 00:05:33,833 --> 00:05:37,997 Ballard will need a floating laboratory as mission central. 63 00:05:42,975 --> 00:05:45,705 The Carolyn Chouest, a U.S. Navy vessel, 64 00:05:45,845 --> 00:05:50,305 will journey 80 miles west of Sicily into international waters, 65 00:05:50,450 --> 00:05:54,079 where no one has a claim on lost vessels. 66 00:06:07,133 --> 00:06:11,035 Ballard believes the Mediterranean is strewn with ancient wrecks 67 00:06:11,170 --> 00:06:14,333 and he has long dreamed of finding one 68 00:06:16,509 --> 00:06:20,775 We're sitting right now in ruins that are on the island of Sicily. 69 00:06:20,913 --> 00:06:24,405 To get to Rome you have to cross the Tyrrhenian Sea; 70 00:06:24,550 --> 00:06:27,713 to get to Carthage you have to cross the Straits of Sicily. 71 00:06:27,854 --> 00:06:31,813 To travel from civilization to civilization here in the Mediterranean 72 00:06:31,958 --> 00:06:34,085 you must cross the Mediterranean, 73 00:06:34,227 --> 00:06:37,287 and many of those ships didn't make it 74 00:06:37,430 --> 00:06:39,295 Many of those ships went to the bottom 75 00:06:39,432 --> 00:06:42,026 and many of them went into the deep sea. 76 00:06:42,168 --> 00:06:44,329 Between ancient Carthage and Rome, 77 00:06:44,470 --> 00:06:47,166 it's 12,000 feet deep. 78 00:06:47,306 --> 00:06:50,673 And no one has ever gone to the bottom of the Tyrrhenian Sea 79 00:06:50,810 --> 00:06:55,907 to look for those ships that sank most surely sank there until now. 80 00:06:58,518 --> 00:07:02,215 It was a decade ago when Ballard and a team of archaeologists 81 00:07:02,355 --> 00:07:05,882 first surveyed an unexplored Mediterranean region 82 00:07:06,025 --> 00:07:08,220 called Skerki Bank. 83 00:07:11,664 --> 00:07:17,830 In 1988, he made a startling discovery nearly 3,000 feet down, 84 00:07:17,970 --> 00:07:24,534 the remains of an ancient Roman ship lying untouched for almost 20 centuries 85 00:07:31,517 --> 00:07:34,247 The find confirmed, for the first time ever, 86 00:07:34,387 --> 00:07:38,721 that an ancient trade route had flourished across the open sea, 87 00:07:38,858 --> 00:07:42,294 from Carthage in North Africa to Rome. 88 00:07:45,598 --> 00:07:48,158 Now Ballard has returned to Skerki Bank, 89 00:07:48,301 --> 00:07:52,067 where he'll attempt to excavate the ancient Roman ship. 90 00:07:55,107 --> 00:07:57,871 Working in close collaboration with archaeologists, 91 00:07:58,010 --> 00:08:03,710 Ballard hopes to uncover something nobody has ever seen before. 92 00:08:04,417 --> 00:08:09,377 My greatest dream is that these ships are buried and well preserved, 93 00:08:09,522 --> 00:08:12,047 and that their cargo in preserved and, 94 00:08:12,191 --> 00:08:15,786 and who knows, maybe there's people that are preserved. 95 00:08:15,928 --> 00:08:17,953 I'm not sure I want to find people, 96 00:08:18,097 --> 00:08:20,895 but it would be fascinating. 97 00:08:22,568 --> 00:08:24,968 We won't know until we dig them. 98 00:08:29,442 --> 00:08:32,673 Could there really be the remains of ancient seafarers 99 00:08:32,812 --> 00:08:35,110 at the bottom of the Mediterranean? 100 00:08:35,248 --> 00:08:37,944 It is an extraordinary idea, 101 00:08:39,185 --> 00:08:44,350 and to find out Ballard will use an extraordinary machine. 102 00:08:44,490 --> 00:08:49,393 The NR-1. The big gun of deep-diving submarines. 103 00:08:53,799 --> 00:08:57,860 It is capable of going all the way down to 3,000 feet 104 00:08:58,004 --> 00:09:00,666 and staying there for a month. 105 00:09:06,913 --> 00:09:09,404 Built during the clashes of the Cold war, 106 00:09:09,549 --> 00:09:14,885 the NR-1 was a crucial weapon in the U.s. Navy's arsenal for 30 years, 107 00:09:15,021 --> 00:09:19,685 designed to search the ocean depths for downed planes and lost missiles. 108 00:09:19,825 --> 00:09:24,990 It's the best in the world, outfitted with lights, sensors, cameras, 109 00:09:25,131 --> 00:09:27,429 and a mechanical arm for digging, 110 00:09:27,567 --> 00:09:30,092 all of it powered by a nuclear reactor 111 00:09:30,236 --> 00:09:34,400 which won't need to be refueled for 20 years. 112 00:09:41,047 --> 00:09:44,073 Even now, its sonar equipment is still classified, 113 00:09:44,216 --> 00:09:51,088 so sophisticated NR-1 can find a soda can sitting on the seafloor a mile away 114 00:09:53,726 --> 00:09:56,820 The NR-1 is a marvel, but it's a cramped one. 115 00:09:56,963 --> 00:10:01,024 The 11 -man crew shares one bolted-down kitchen table 116 00:10:01,167 --> 00:10:04,500 just big enough for two people at a time. 117 00:10:08,174 --> 00:10:09,038 For this mission, 118 00:10:09,175 --> 00:10:13,407 Ballard has added something brand new to the sub's digging arm 119 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:18,380 a powerful suction pump that will dredge the ocean bottom. 120 00:10:22,688 --> 00:10:26,089 Ballard believes the seafloor is sandy and soft, 121 00:10:26,225 --> 00:10:30,491 ready to reveal whatever secrets lie hidden underneath. 122 00:10:33,599 --> 00:10:36,033 What is actually down there? 123 00:10:36,535 --> 00:10:40,494 Will Ballard find the timbers of an ancient Roman trading ship, 124 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:45,441 and the bones of the men who sailed it 2,000 years ago? 125 00:10:54,587 --> 00:10:56,214 Sunken treasure. 126 00:10:56,355 --> 00:10:58,448 It has drawn people into the seas 127 00:10:58,591 --> 00:11:03,085 since the first cargo ship apart on the first shallow reefs. 128 00:11:07,633 --> 00:11:12,263 Relics, gold, gems, pieces of eight 129 00:11:12,405 --> 00:11:17,138 it is the stuff that countless dreams and schemes are made of. 130 00:11:24,817 --> 00:11:26,682 Obsessed with the promise of riches, 131 00:11:26,819 --> 00:11:31,017 undersea treasure hunters today scour the world's oceans, 132 00:11:31,157 --> 00:11:34,183 crowding serious archaeologists. 133 00:11:37,863 --> 00:11:40,855 The king of the undersea dreamers and schemers 134 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,731 is a stubborn rebel name Mel Fisher. 135 00:11:47,506 --> 00:11:51,840 In his quest for treasure, Fisher let nothing stand in his way, 136 00:11:51,977 --> 00:11:57,677 and came to be known as a swashbuckler a very successful swashbuckler. 137 00:12:00,553 --> 00:12:04,319 In 1997, family and friends joined with fisher 138 00:12:04,457 --> 00:12:09,622 to mark the spot where he struck gold nearly 25 years earlier 139 00:12:10,162 --> 00:12:12,858 The reason we picked today was rather appropriate. 140 00:12:12,998 --> 00:12:16,331 It's Mel Fisher's 75th birthday. 141 00:12:18,003 --> 00:12:19,436 Here, here. 142 00:12:19,572 --> 00:12:22,769 Long live the king. Long live the king 143 00:12:22,908 --> 00:12:26,173 But the plaque and let me unveil it here take it off. 144 00:12:26,312 --> 00:12:32,444 You notice we have a picture of the Atocha, and it reads: 145 00:12:32,585 --> 00:12:35,110 In sincere appreciation to Mel 146 00:12:35,254 --> 00:12:38,712 and Deo Fisher in their extraordinary efforts 147 00:12:38,858 --> 00:12:42,316 in accomplishing mankind's most elusive goal. 148 00:12:43,262 --> 00:12:45,423 They've followed their dream. 149 00:12:49,935 --> 00:12:54,736 In the 1960s, Mel fisher is a man with a mad dream. 150 00:12:54,874 --> 00:12:57,570 Often short of money and deep in dept, 151 00:12:57,710 --> 00:13:01,771 he hunts the shallow waters off coast for treasure. 152 00:13:05,050 --> 00:13:08,918 He is determined to find the shipwreck called the Atocha, 153 00:13:09,054 --> 00:13:14,048 a Spanish galleon that had sunk in 1622 in a hurricane, 154 00:13:14,193 --> 00:13:18,562 reportedly carrying king's ransom in sliver and gold. 155 00:13:22,067 --> 00:13:24,865 Year after year, with the help of his wife and children, 156 00:13:25,004 --> 00:13:27,905 Fisher combs the Florida sea. 157 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:38,047 Until 1975, when his son, Dirk, 158 00:13:38,184 --> 00:13:43,747 finds the first real evidence of the ship nine bronze cannons. 159 00:14:00,940 --> 00:14:02,066 Just a week later, 160 00:14:02,208 --> 00:14:04,403 while returning to the site of his triumph, 161 00:14:04,543 --> 00:14:08,673 Dirk Fisher's boat capsizes in the dark of night. 162 00:14:11,784 --> 00:14:15,811 Dirk, his wife, and another diver die tragically. 163 00:14:26,432 --> 00:14:27,797 Fisher is devastated. 164 00:14:27,933 --> 00:14:32,063 But he vows to continue and to honor his son's memory. 165 00:14:34,206 --> 00:14:37,004 The Atocha seems so close. 166 00:14:39,411 --> 00:14:44,508 But she continues to elude Fisher, to tease him for over a decade. 167 00:14:50,623 --> 00:14:56,994 Then in 1985, in 60 feet of water, he finds her, the Atocha, 168 00:14:57,129 --> 00:15:00,360 the mother lode of all treasure ships. 169 00:15:02,301 --> 00:15:05,293 It's worth 400 million dollars so far. 170 00:15:05,437 --> 00:15:06,028 And today, 171 00:15:06,171 --> 00:15:11,199 Mel Fisher is counting the riches still out there on the ocean floor. 172 00:15:11,343 --> 00:15:13,573 So right over here about a quarter of a mile 173 00:15:13,712 --> 00:15:17,409 is all the kings taxes for five years, 174 00:15:17,549 --> 00:15:20,848 all the church collection money from all the Catholic churches 175 00:15:20,986 --> 00:15:23,614 in this hemisphere for five years, 176 00:15:23,756 --> 00:15:27,658 all the wealthy merchants, there was 28 of them on board 177 00:15:27,793 --> 00:15:33,356 all their lifesavings for 10 or 15 years in business over here. 178 00:15:33,499 --> 00:15:35,865 They were gonna go home and retire. 179 00:15:36,001 --> 00:15:37,696 They didn't make it. 180 00:15:37,836 --> 00:15:41,772 So there's probably another four and a half billion right over there. 181 00:15:46,045 --> 00:15:48,377 Today, aging and ailing, 182 00:15:48,514 --> 00:15:51,574 Mel Fisher is still bringing up treasure. 183 00:15:51,717 --> 00:15:54,277 These days, it is emeralds. 184 00:15:55,921 --> 00:15:58,219 His passion for treasure has been passed on 185 00:15:58,357 --> 00:16:01,053 to his youngest son, ane Fisher. 186 00:16:01,193 --> 00:16:03,684 Is there more come from their cursor 187 00:16:03,929 --> 00:16:06,830 and they want our men for this 188 00:16:07,433 --> 00:16:09,298 When wefound that... ah... we found that 189 00:16:09,601 --> 00:16:11,796 court martial referee in our linds send the leve 190 00:16:11,937 --> 00:16:18,467 I got one... 191 00:16:24,483 --> 00:16:28,351 Here me go. That ahold a half carat 192 00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:36,860 that about 3000.a carat 6000 193 00:16:40,132 --> 00:16:43,568 You got to be real persistent and not give up, no matter what. 194 00:16:44,169 --> 00:16:46,228 And you got to believe it's there. 195 00:16:46,372 --> 00:16:48,806 And you got to want it bad. 196 00:16:48,941 --> 00:16:51,102 If you want it bad enough, you'll get it. 197 00:16:51,243 --> 00:16:55,111 You just got to keep looking and don't stop no matter what. 198 00:16:55,247 --> 00:16:58,080 I dream about gold and emeralds every night. 199 00:16:58,717 --> 00:17:03,017 And you'll never know what's five feet away from where you left off. 200 00:17:03,155 --> 00:17:05,146 That's what keeps it exciting. 201 00:17:07,659 --> 00:17:10,059 The Atocha puzzle still isn't solved. 202 00:17:11,964 --> 00:17:13,955 I don't know when we're gonna figure it out. 203 00:17:14,099 --> 00:17:15,589 And you just keep going and going. 204 00:17:15,734 --> 00:17:20,000 It seems like you never get done working a shipwreck. 205 00:17:20,139 --> 00:17:24,166 We've been working those wrecks for 34 years now 206 00:17:24,309 --> 00:17:26,834 and still finding stuff. 207 00:17:26,979 --> 00:17:29,971 It's exciting. That's what keeps you going. 208 00:17:31,083 --> 00:17:36,646 Today, Mel Fisher is big business, and almost respectable. 209 00:17:38,090 --> 00:17:41,958 But a swashbuckler makes enemies, big enemies. 210 00:17:42,094 --> 00:17:45,120 Charging that Fisher has seriously damaged the seafloor 211 00:17:45,264 --> 00:17:46,993 with his salvaging techniques, 212 00:17:47,132 --> 00:17:50,124 the federal government has dragged him through the courts. 213 00:17:50,269 --> 00:17:54,205 And Fisher's had to pay hundreds of thousands in fines. 214 00:17:54,773 --> 00:17:57,333 But Fisher knows how to change with the times. 215 00:17:57,476 --> 00:17:59,103 Conservator Sid Jones, 216 00:17:59,244 --> 00:18:02,042 who worked extensively with Fisher on the Atocha, 217 00:18:02,181 --> 00:18:05,207 acknowledges the need to protect history. 218 00:18:05,350 --> 00:18:07,910 In the past treasure hunting, 219 00:18:08,053 --> 00:18:12,888 back in the '60s or the '50s when it was really getting started, 220 00:18:13,025 --> 00:18:16,392 there wasn't much thought given to recording data 221 00:18:16,528 --> 00:18:17,961 or preserving the artifacts. 222 00:18:18,097 --> 00:18:21,157 Of course, there was a large emphasis on finding something of value, 223 00:18:21,300 --> 00:18:22,699 but we've learned in time 224 00:18:22,835 --> 00:18:26,032 that every artifact that comes from these ships has value. 225 00:18:26,171 --> 00:18:28,799 Once you understand the complete picture, 226 00:18:28,941 --> 00:18:31,876 the items not only have a monetary value, 227 00:18:32,010 --> 00:18:33,875 but they have a historical value as well, 228 00:18:34,012 --> 00:18:37,971 which didn't always exist in the early phases of treasure hunting. 229 00:18:42,788 --> 00:18:45,916 After finding and carefully cataloguing his treasures, 230 00:18:46,058 --> 00:18:49,687 Fisher sells most of it off piece by piece. 231 00:18:52,865 --> 00:18:57,996 Fisher believes that two billion more is just waiting to be recovered. 232 00:19:09,681 --> 00:19:11,080 Deep in the Mediterranean, 233 00:19:11,216 --> 00:19:17,155 the NR-1 is still hunting for archaeological marvels with no luck. 234 00:19:20,159 --> 00:19:21,751 After three weeks of trying, 235 00:19:21,894 --> 00:19:23,293 the sub and its robot arm 236 00:19:23,428 --> 00:19:26,761 have been unable to make a dent in the ocean floor, 237 00:19:26,899 --> 00:19:31,836 which unexpectedly turns out to be sticky and thick like clay. 238 00:19:37,910 --> 00:19:41,676 Ballard's master plan is just not working. 239 00:19:43,649 --> 00:19:48,086 Do the wooden hulls of the Roman vessels still exist just beyond reach? 240 00:19:48,220 --> 00:19:51,018 Or has time stolen them away. 241 00:19:51,156 --> 00:19:54,284 Ballard wonders if he'll ever find them. 242 00:19:55,827 --> 00:19:58,887 The deep sea is always surprising me. 243 00:19:59,031 --> 00:20:01,124 I every time I think I understand it, 244 00:20:01,266 --> 00:20:03,632 it throws me another curve ball. 245 00:20:03,769 --> 00:20:05,293 But that's okay. That's part of it. 246 00:20:05,437 --> 00:20:11,808 I think it wouldn't be fun if it if I knew it that well, 247 00:20:11,944 --> 00:20:14,344 and it wasn't full of surprises. 248 00:20:18,116 --> 00:20:22,052 Ballard decides to change the way they use the NR-1. 249 00:20:22,187 --> 00:20:25,088 He sends the sub out to do what it does best, 250 00:20:25,224 --> 00:20:27,954 to act as a high-tech bloodhound, 251 00:20:28,093 --> 00:20:32,427 to roam over Skerki Bank and to explore as much as possible 252 00:20:32,564 --> 00:20:35,431 with its exceptional sonar senses. 253 00:20:36,268 --> 00:20:38,259 Sir, request permission to rig ship for deep submerges. 254 00:20:38,403 --> 00:20:39,631 Rig ship for deep submerges. 255 00:20:39,771 --> 00:20:41,739 Rig ship for deep submerges, aye sir. 256 00:20:42,407 --> 00:20:44,705 Rig ship for deep submerges. 257 00:20:46,745 --> 00:20:50,647 Will the NR-1 discover the unknown, the unexpected? 258 00:20:50,782 --> 00:20:54,081 Ballard will just have to wait and see 259 00:21:02,728 --> 00:21:05,754 By working to develop new underwater technology, 260 00:21:05,897 --> 00:21:09,924 Ballard has revolutionized deep sea archaeology. 261 00:21:10,769 --> 00:21:11,701 At the same time, 262 00:21:11,837 --> 00:21:16,467 he has inadvertently helped to blow the world of treasure hunters wide open 263 00:21:17,342 --> 00:21:22,575 Now anyone with $150,000 to spare can buy an ROV, 264 00:21:22,714 --> 00:21:24,875 a remotely operated search vehicle, 265 00:21:25,017 --> 00:21:28,316 right off the shelf and set off for gold. 266 00:21:31,223 --> 00:21:36,092 Still there are only a handful of successful deep-sea salvagers. 267 00:21:38,664 --> 00:21:43,601 Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology, out of Tampa, Florida, is one of them. 268 00:21:44,770 --> 00:21:48,001 Seahawk hit the jackpot in 1989 269 00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:53,077 discovering a 17 th century Spanish galleon, heavy with gold and jewels, 270 00:21:53,211 --> 00:21:57,341 off the Florida coast in 1,500 feet of water. 271 00:22:09,394 --> 00:22:11,555 Seahawk is looking for treasure again, 272 00:22:11,697 --> 00:22:15,633 this time in the seas off the coast of georgia. 273 00:22:16,735 --> 00:22:20,000 Michael Reardon, Seahawk's current expedition leader, 274 00:22:20,138 --> 00:22:23,835 sees himself as a treasure hunter with a difference. 275 00:22:26,011 --> 00:22:30,107 That's one of our goals, is to choose shipwrecks 276 00:22:30,248 --> 00:22:36,915 that are archaeologically important as well as having a commercial cargo. 277 00:22:37,055 --> 00:22:42,322 So we're playing a fine line between the archaeological community 278 00:22:42,461 --> 00:22:47,763 and the out-and-out smash-and-grab treasure hunters, which we're not. 279 00:22:48,900 --> 00:22:52,768 Reardon is after a 19th-century paddle wheel steamer, 280 00:22:52,904 --> 00:22:55,566 which they've code named The Golden Eagle, 281 00:22:55,707 --> 00:22:58,938 to keep her identity hidden from other salvagers. 282 00:23:02,180 --> 00:23:06,617 Now they've narrowed the search to a mere 200 square miles. 283 00:23:06,752 --> 00:23:08,947 It's very difficult locating shipwrecks. 284 00:23:09,087 --> 00:23:11,612 Un, with all the sophisticated equipment we have today, 285 00:23:11,757 --> 00:23:13,952 it's still quite a chore. 286 00:23:14,092 --> 00:23:17,926 Eep in mind right now we're 433 feet above the seafloor, 287 00:23:18,063 --> 00:23:21,624 trying to put a small vehicle on a shipwreck. 288 00:23:21,767 --> 00:23:24,031 There is no road sign over there. 289 00:23:27,072 --> 00:23:30,337 It has taken Rearden and his colleagues years of hard work 290 00:23:30,475 --> 00:23:32,500 to reach this point. 291 00:23:32,644 --> 00:23:36,375 Now, using some of the same high tech tools to Ballard. 292 00:23:36,515 --> 00:23:40,747 They are hoping to claim their fortune 500 feets down. 293 00:23:47,459 --> 00:23:49,393 Yeah. The vehicle is on the bottem. 294 00:23:49,528 --> 00:23:52,793 Roger that, I copy. The vehicle is on the bottom. 295 00:23:57,903 --> 00:24:02,033 According to Seahawk, the Golden Eagle, in 1865, 296 00:24:02,174 --> 00:24:05,735 found herself caught in a hurricane with nowhere to hide. 297 00:24:05,877 --> 00:24:08,209 They fought the storm for two days 298 00:24:08,346 --> 00:24:12,248 all hands and passengers bailing and bucketing water out. 299 00:24:12,384 --> 00:24:16,582 And finally, the seas and the weather calmed down, 300 00:24:18,023 --> 00:24:20,150 and it went under. 301 00:24:23,862 --> 00:24:24,851 She went to the bottom, 302 00:24:24,996 --> 00:24:30,593 carrying a bellyful of gold coins $400,000 at the time, 303 00:24:30,735 --> 00:24:33,363 now valued at 20 million. 304 00:24:36,441 --> 00:24:39,069 Six years of work coming down to a dive 305 00:24:39,211 --> 00:24:42,009 with a remote vehicle and, hopefully, 306 00:24:42,147 --> 00:24:45,878 when we get in on the site, it'll be the right wreck. 307 00:24:46,017 --> 00:24:48,713 We have a very good sonar images of the wreck, 308 00:24:48,854 --> 00:24:53,518 and dimensions are almost exact the same with target vessel 309 00:24:53,658 --> 00:24:55,751 a code name Gold Eagle. 310 00:24:55,894 --> 00:24:57,657 ...get the target at the right. 311 00:25:16,515 --> 00:25:20,281 As the ROV descends into the glittery murk of the deep sea, 312 00:25:20,418 --> 00:25:26,050 project manager Brett Hobson discerns the ghostly outlines of the past. 313 00:25:27,492 --> 00:25:29,722 That's the beautiful part of these old wrecks. 314 00:25:29,861 --> 00:25:32,227 They're little time capsules and nobody's seen it. 315 00:25:32,364 --> 00:25:35,959 And we're just sleuthing through trying looking for clues. 316 00:25:36,101 --> 00:25:38,331 And it you definitely feel like a detective. 317 00:25:38,470 --> 00:25:40,836 So far, everything we have seen 318 00:25:40,972 --> 00:25:46,205 is a, telling us it could be the one. 319 00:25:47,546 --> 00:25:48,877 Looking straight down, now, right? 320 00:25:49,014 --> 00:25:50,345 Yes. 321 00:25:52,250 --> 00:25:55,048 We've got the way overthere near the site, ok? 322 00:26:15,907 --> 00:26:18,205 It's very quiet here and the scenes is very dark. 323 00:26:18,343 --> 00:26:22,109 The light, the first one illuminated when we went down. 324 00:26:22,247 --> 00:26:24,112 It's a very weird feeling. 325 00:26:26,451 --> 00:26:31,889 As the ROV makes a closer pass, they see things that don't match. 326 00:26:32,023 --> 00:26:33,547 Round. 327 00:26:33,692 --> 00:26:34,989 Really round. 328 00:26:35,126 --> 00:26:39,893 Well, we've got some very flat-sided bulwarks here. 329 00:26:44,369 --> 00:26:50,399 See the big cutout going down to the keel, and the on the right? 330 00:26:52,010 --> 00:26:53,500 I don't know what else it could be. 331 00:26:53,645 --> 00:26:57,638 It looks just like what I had hoped we would not find. 332 00:26:59,985 --> 00:27:03,443 No paddle wheels I know of has a propeller like that. 333 00:27:05,457 --> 00:27:07,357 I think we're in trouble. 334 00:27:09,628 --> 00:27:12,529 It's very disappointing at this moment to be sitting here 335 00:27:12,664 --> 00:27:19,433 with a target that we have pinned high hopes on and now have proved that it, 336 00:27:19,571 --> 00:27:21,732 it's not the right vessel. 337 00:27:22,807 --> 00:27:25,901 But can't think of the right words to describe how I'm feeling right now. 338 00:27:26,044 --> 00:27:27,773 It's not good. 339 00:27:38,990 --> 00:27:43,484 It takes time and luck to find a pot of gold in a vast, deep ocean. 340 00:27:44,095 --> 00:27:46,893 And Reardon has run out of both. 341 00:27:53,038 --> 00:27:55,768 Reardon abandons the ship to the sea. 342 00:27:55,907 --> 00:27:58,467 There's no profit to be made from the wreck 343 00:27:58,610 --> 00:28:03,912 and unlike Ballard, treasure, not history, is what drives him. 344 00:28:07,886 --> 00:28:08,978 In the Mediterranean, 345 00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:12,021 the search for history does not let up 346 00:28:13,558 --> 00:28:15,082 With only a few weeks left, 347 00:28:15,226 --> 00:28:20,425 Ballard and the NR-1 continue to hunt Skerki for new wrecks. 348 00:28:22,067 --> 00:28:24,126 Ballard also deploys Jason, 349 00:28:24,269 --> 00:28:26,533 a remotely-operated search vehicle, 350 00:28:26,671 --> 00:28:31,631 designed and built by engineers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. 351 00:28:38,683 --> 00:28:42,744 Archaeologists have already spent manyhours carefully surveying 352 00:28:42,887 --> 00:28:46,050 and mapping artifacts on the seafloor. 353 00:28:49,294 --> 00:28:52,559 Now it's time for Jason to retrieve them. 354 00:28:58,703 --> 00:28:59,795 Guided by the team, 355 00:28:59,938 --> 00:29:05,535 the robot vehicle plunges 3,000 feet to locate fragile relics. 356 00:29:09,013 --> 00:29:11,607 Most are roman amphoras. 357 00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:15,015 They're 2,000-year-old terra-cotta containers, 358 00:29:15,153 --> 00:29:17,587 the cargo holders of the ancient world, 359 00:29:17,722 --> 00:29:21,351 filled with olive oil, dried fish, or wine. 360 00:29:39,010 --> 00:29:43,572 Safely cradling its fragile haul, an elevator of metal and mesh 361 00:29:43,715 --> 00:29:48,778 slowly traverses the half mile separating the centuries. 362 00:29:54,526 --> 00:29:57,188 For the first time in 2,000 years, 363 00:29:57,328 --> 00:30:01,230 human hands will hold the ancient artifacts. 364 00:30:10,341 --> 00:30:14,710 Next stop for these delicate pieces of the past is the ship's laboratory, 365 00:30:14,846 --> 00:30:18,179 where they'll be examined by archaeologist John Oleson, 366 00:30:18,316 --> 00:30:22,514 expedition archaeological director Anna Marguerite McCann, 367 00:30:22,654 --> 00:30:25,122 and conservator Dennis Piechota. 368 00:30:25,256 --> 00:30:28,453 Oleson is delighted to find the simple clay pots. 369 00:30:28,593 --> 00:30:31,118 Well, to find several cooking pots together, 370 00:30:31,262 --> 00:30:32,229 adjacent to one another, 371 00:30:32,363 --> 00:30:35,230 just as they would have been left on a kitchen bench, 372 00:30:35,366 --> 00:30:38,392 is extraordinary at this depth 2,600 feet. 373 00:30:40,705 --> 00:30:44,004 Treasure hunters would find little of value here. 374 00:30:44,142 --> 00:30:46,269 Yet to archaeologist Jon Adams, 375 00:30:46,411 --> 00:30:51,678 a shipwreck is a slice of time unexpectedly preserved. 376 00:30:51,816 --> 00:30:53,113 So when a ship sinks it is, 377 00:30:53,251 --> 00:30:55,685 it's a cross section of society 378 00:30:55,820 --> 00:30:58,448 structure, contents, personal possessions, 379 00:30:58,590 --> 00:31:00,057 contextual relationships, etcetera 380 00:31:00,191 --> 00:31:03,922 lost at a single moment in time. Nobody decides what to take away, 381 00:31:04,062 --> 00:31:05,586 what to leave behind when a ship sinks 382 00:31:05,730 --> 00:31:08,460 It all ends up on the seabed at the same time. 383 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:10,500 And ships have been described, 384 00:31:10,635 --> 00:31:13,536 rightly so in a way, as time capsules. 385 00:31:17,475 --> 00:31:18,999 As they continue to explore, 386 00:31:19,143 --> 00:31:20,804 Ballard and the archaeologists 387 00:31:20,945 --> 00:31:24,938 are excited to see things they've never seen before. 388 00:31:25,083 --> 00:31:29,486 Skerki is turning into more than they ever expected. 389 00:31:30,955 --> 00:31:32,820 Could you zoom in on that? 390 00:31:35,093 --> 00:31:36,822 Eep zooming. 391 00:31:37,362 --> 00:31:39,353 Isn't that beautiful. 392 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,125 They've identified the remains of a ship, 393 00:31:45,270 --> 00:31:48,865 but it's definitely not Roman origin. 394 00:31:51,109 --> 00:31:53,976 Nobody knows, at first, where it's from 395 00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:56,474 It's particularly interesting, 396 00:31:56,614 --> 00:31:59,310 because it seems to be a relatively small ship, 397 00:31:59,450 --> 00:32:02,180 and we don't see cargo, just ballast stones, 398 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,187 which help steady a ship when it's not carrying cargo, 399 00:32:05,323 --> 00:32:09,692 or if it's a pleasure craft, such as a small personal yacht, 400 00:32:09,827 --> 00:32:11,954 or possibly a type of warship. 401 00:32:12,096 --> 00:32:14,929 Look at the reflection on those glasses. 402 00:32:15,066 --> 00:32:17,899 Eep driving straight. Don't stop. 403 00:32:20,872 --> 00:32:22,772 It's glasses. 404 00:32:22,907 --> 00:32:26,240 I'm just amazed that there's glasses. 405 00:32:30,648 --> 00:32:35,881 Glass. Lamps that brightened the darkness centuries before. 406 00:32:37,455 --> 00:32:40,117 And despite thousands of pounds of sea pressure, 407 00:32:40,258 --> 00:32:43,091 they have survived unbroken. 408 00:32:43,594 --> 00:32:45,391 Obviously one of our big concerns is 409 00:32:45,530 --> 00:32:48,192 that these artifacts are very, very fragile. 410 00:32:48,333 --> 00:32:52,326 Jason weighs 3,000 pounds in air 411 00:32:52,470 --> 00:32:55,405 and he's got a tremendous amount of momentum. 412 00:32:55,540 --> 00:33:00,136 And we want to pick them up without breaking any of them. 413 00:33:00,278 --> 00:33:02,712 We've never picked up glass before. 414 00:33:25,837 --> 00:33:27,862 Once the objects reach the surface, 415 00:33:28,006 --> 00:33:31,874 they help reveal the nature of the mysterious vessel. 416 00:33:32,777 --> 00:33:36,269 It comes from the 16th century or 17 th century, 417 00:33:36,414 --> 00:33:39,906 1,500 years later than the Roman ships 418 00:33:40,051 --> 00:33:43,145 when Arab traders sailed these waters. 419 00:33:43,988 --> 00:33:45,455 Look at this. 420 00:33:45,957 --> 00:33:48,585 Could someone hold that open? 421 00:33:49,427 --> 00:33:50,792 Look at that. 422 00:33:52,030 --> 00:33:53,657 Isn't that amazing? 423 00:34:01,472 --> 00:34:03,963 They are not gold or studded with emeralds. 424 00:34:04,108 --> 00:34:09,410 Yet for Ballard, a delicate glass object is the real treasure. 425 00:34:12,450 --> 00:34:14,816 They are evidence that Skerki Bank 426 00:34:14,952 --> 00:34:19,412 may have been a crossroads for many countries and civilizations. 427 00:34:21,159 --> 00:34:25,960 What has surprised me the most is that we thought this was one event, 428 00:34:26,097 --> 00:34:28,565 that this was a fleet of ships, a group of ships 429 00:34:28,699 --> 00:34:32,567 that sank together, and it's not at all. 430 00:34:32,703 --> 00:34:35,831 We have ships spanning over 431 00:34:35,973 --> 00:34:39,465 one thousand five hundred years of history, 432 00:34:39,610 --> 00:34:41,805 if not more. 433 00:34:41,946 --> 00:34:43,675 I am just amazed. 434 00:34:43,815 --> 00:34:49,276 I thought that there would be a ship here and then, 435 00:34:49,420 --> 00:34:50,819 way far away, another ship. 436 00:34:50,955 --> 00:34:52,479 And yet, in this particular area, 437 00:34:52,623 --> 00:34:59,552 20 square miles four miles by five miles we have found, now, six ships. 438 00:35:00,064 --> 00:35:04,364 This area is it's sort of like a graveyard. 439 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:13,204 Ballard is no stranger to undersea graveyards. 440 00:35:14,212 --> 00:35:15,270 He is the man 441 00:35:15,413 --> 00:35:19,406 who discovered one of the most famous burial grounds in history. 442 00:35:28,626 --> 00:35:30,218 The Titanic. 443 00:35:32,096 --> 00:35:35,964 The largest, most luxurious ocean liner ever built. 444 00:35:36,567 --> 00:35:42,096 Called a "Floating Palace," the Titanic sails April 10, 1912 445 00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:44,606 on her maiden voyage. 446 00:35:47,178 --> 00:35:51,376 She is believed to be unsinkable until her tragic rendezvous 447 00:35:51,516 --> 00:35:53,677 in the North Atlantic. 448 00:35:59,290 --> 00:36:00,814 Sideswiping an iceberg, 449 00:36:00,958 --> 00:36:04,155 the great ship sinks in less than three hours: 450 00:36:04,295 --> 00:36:09,358 1,523 people, two-thirds of all those aboard, 451 00:36:09,500 --> 00:36:12,697 die in the icy waters. 452 00:36:21,779 --> 00:36:23,906 For decades explorers are obsessed 453 00:36:24,048 --> 00:36:27,882 with finding the final resting place of the great liner. 454 00:36:28,019 --> 00:36:31,750 But no one is more intent on the hunt than Robert Ballard, 455 00:36:31,889 --> 00:36:35,052 who spends 13 years looking. 456 00:36:36,661 --> 00:36:38,492 Finally, in 1985, 457 00:36:38,629 --> 00:36:41,655 Ballard and French explorer Jean-Louis michel 458 00:36:41,799 --> 00:36:47,431 discover the remains of the ruined giant over 12,000 feet down 459 00:36:57,481 --> 00:37:01,975 Ballard always treated the grand wreck as a site to be explored. 460 00:37:02,119 --> 00:37:04,144 But he did it with respect. 461 00:37:04,922 --> 00:37:11,350 To him it was a shrine for the dead to remain untouched, intact. 462 00:37:31,749 --> 00:37:34,650 Ballard and the crew even held a memorial service 463 00:37:34,785 --> 00:37:37,253 for those who died in the tragedy. 464 00:37:44,795 --> 00:37:45,921 When I found the Titanic, 465 00:37:46,063 --> 00:37:50,591 certainly I became emotionally attached to it. 466 00:37:50,735 --> 00:37:52,225 And Jean-Louis Michel, 467 00:37:52,370 --> 00:37:55,339 who was co-discover of the Titanic with me, 468 00:37:55,473 --> 00:37:58,772 was equally moved. And I can remember both of us saying, 469 00:37:58,909 --> 00:38:01,901 well, we'll never let this ship 470 00:38:02,046 --> 00:38:04,640 be spoiled or desecrated. 471 00:38:06,117 --> 00:38:11,851 Ballard discovered the Titanic, but he never claimed the laws of the sea. 472 00:38:11,989 --> 00:38:16,221 Inadvertently, he was opening a Pandora's box. 473 00:38:19,196 --> 00:38:22,222 Once the location of the Titanic became public knowledge, 474 00:38:22,366 --> 00:38:25,062 it was a target for salvagers. 475 00:38:36,814 --> 00:38:41,547 1994. Ballard's worst fears come true. 476 00:38:42,887 --> 00:38:44,184 A new expedition, 477 00:38:44,322 --> 00:38:47,223 led by Connecticut businessman George Tulloch, 478 00:38:47,358 --> 00:38:50,521 probes the rotting remains of the Titanic. 479 00:38:53,631 --> 00:38:58,034 Tulloch spends tens of millions of dollars to send down robot vehicles 480 00:38:58,169 --> 00:39:00,637 and bring up jewelry, eyeglasses, 481 00:39:00,771 --> 00:39:04,798 furnishings anything within reach from the devastated liner. 482 00:39:10,614 --> 00:39:12,275 Once Tulloch retrieved the objects, 483 00:39:12,416 --> 00:39:15,852 he legally claimed the Titanic for his own. 484 00:39:23,194 --> 00:39:26,459 Ballard never thought this day would come. 485 00:39:27,898 --> 00:39:31,925 I don't think in my wildest imagination did I think they would go out 486 00:39:32,069 --> 00:39:33,696 and salvage it. 487 00:39:33,838 --> 00:39:37,638 I mean, I was convinced they wouldn't. 488 00:39:38,376 --> 00:39:42,676 And it just caught me by surprise. I was really shocked. 489 00:39:43,247 --> 00:39:46,444 And there was nothing I could do about it, 490 00:39:46,584 --> 00:39:49,075 because, since I didn't claim it, 491 00:39:49,220 --> 00:39:52,280 I mean, it didn't even cross my mind to claim it! 492 00:39:55,459 --> 00:39:58,895 Eighty-five years ago this month, the luxury ship, the Titanic, sank 493 00:39:59,029 --> 00:40:01,224 on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic. 494 00:40:01,365 --> 00:40:02,457 Tomorrow, mid-Southerners 495 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:05,626 and people from across the world will be able to see the treasures 496 00:40:05,770 --> 00:40:07,670 that that disaster left behind. 497 00:40:07,805 --> 00:40:12,606 Like Ballard, George Tulloch expresses deep reverence for the Titanic's dead. 498 00:40:12,743 --> 00:40:16,645 But he argues that people will better understand the tragedy 499 00:40:16,781 --> 00:40:20,182 if they can see the artifacts firsthand. 500 00:40:20,751 --> 00:40:28,351 I think Titanic is by itself capable of saying it is, 501 00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:35,463 it is incomparable in terms of tragic suffering for that moment in time. 502 00:40:35,599 --> 00:40:39,501 And I think the objects from that moment 503 00:40:39,637 --> 00:40:42,401 deserve to stay with us. 504 00:41:19,643 --> 00:41:23,340 Tulloch says his company will never sell the artifacts, 505 00:41:23,481 --> 00:41:26,780 never sell off the possessions of the dead. 506 00:41:26,917 --> 00:41:31,377 But his company will profit handsomely from the traveling exhibition. 507 00:41:32,756 --> 00:41:35,122 I think the blessing we have is that 508 00:41:35,259 --> 00:41:39,662 the court says that it's ours the company that I'm the president of. 509 00:41:39,797 --> 00:41:41,230 And we don't feel that it's ours. 510 00:41:41,365 --> 00:41:43,595 We feel that we're the guardian of it. 511 00:41:45,002 --> 00:41:47,129 Tulloch's historian, Charles Haas, 512 00:41:47,271 --> 00:41:52,868 does not want to deny ordinary people an opportunity to experience the past. 513 00:41:53,010 --> 00:41:56,605 One only has to look at the museums of the world to see 514 00:41:56,747 --> 00:42:00,410 that part of the archaeology process is recovering artifacts 515 00:42:00,551 --> 00:42:02,246 from the ocean floor. 516 00:42:02,386 --> 00:42:06,186 There are ample demonstrations of Mediterranean vessels 517 00:42:06,323 --> 00:42:09,588 of all kinds of shapes having their contents brought up 518 00:42:09,727 --> 00:42:12,457 and placed in museums for people to enjoy. 519 00:42:12,596 --> 00:42:14,086 I think it's certainly preferable 520 00:42:14,231 --> 00:42:16,392 to have the Titanic's artifacts 521 00:42:16,534 --> 00:42:19,662 guaranteed to be placed before the public and teach them, 522 00:42:19,803 --> 00:42:22,772 than to allow them to sit on the ocean floor where they'll be ravaged 523 00:42:22,907 --> 00:42:24,875 by time and the elements down there, 524 00:42:25,009 --> 00:42:28,672 and accessible, really, by only a very few people. 525 00:42:30,381 --> 00:42:32,076 But to archaeologist Jon Adams, 526 00:42:32,216 --> 00:42:37,279 there is no scientific reason for Tulloch's excavation of the Titanic. 527 00:42:37,755 --> 00:42:39,655 We know a lot about the Titanic. 528 00:42:39,790 --> 00:42:41,348 We know the names of the people on board. 529 00:42:41,492 --> 00:42:44,052 We know its itinerary. 530 00:42:44,194 --> 00:42:47,686 So the question the potential archaeological researcher would ask is, 531 00:42:47,831 --> 00:42:50,129 if you actually go and investigate that wreck archaeologically, 532 00:42:50,267 --> 00:42:53,031 in other words, pull up pieces of the material remains, 533 00:42:53,170 --> 00:42:55,866 what is he going to tell you that you don't know already? 534 00:42:56,006 --> 00:43:01,672 Now, this is further muddied by the fact that there are still people alive 535 00:43:01,812 --> 00:43:05,543 whose relatives died on the ship. 536 00:43:15,392 --> 00:43:19,488 Is there any difference between exhibiting a teacup from the Titanic 537 00:43:19,630 --> 00:43:23,930 and bringing up an ancient drinking glass from the Mediterranean floor? 538 00:43:25,235 --> 00:43:27,135 Tulloch doesn't think so. 539 00:43:27,271 --> 00:43:31,105 One of the people that would criticize is in the Mediterranean 540 00:43:31,241 --> 00:43:33,266 is sucking up the clay containers 541 00:43:33,410 --> 00:43:40,282 from Roman and Greek shipping vessels. 542 00:43:40,417 --> 00:43:48,051 There's something about Titanic that makes people a bit crazy, 543 00:43:48,192 --> 00:43:50,717 if they feel that it's theirs. 544 00:43:52,096 --> 00:43:54,656 For Ballard, there is an enormous difference 545 00:43:54,798 --> 00:43:59,895 between an archaeological expedition and salvage for profit. 546 00:44:00,471 --> 00:44:02,598 Every object that's recovered is recovered 547 00:44:02,740 --> 00:44:06,471 because an archaeologist, an expert, says, I want that. 548 00:44:06,610 --> 00:44:09,602 Sometimes they would say see that broken jar? 549 00:44:09,747 --> 00:44:11,009 Pick it up. 550 00:44:11,148 --> 00:44:12,615 Well, how about the unbroken one? 551 00:44:12,750 --> 00:44:16,083 No, actually the broken jar has more scientific value. 552 00:44:16,220 --> 00:44:17,346 Bring it up. 553 00:44:17,488 --> 00:44:19,285 So we'd bring it up. 554 00:44:20,024 --> 00:44:26,691 And so it's a very big difference between doing something to fill in 555 00:44:26,830 --> 00:44:33,235 a missing chapter in human history and doing it for personal greed. 556 00:44:38,709 --> 00:44:41,678 Nearly a decade after discovering the Titanic, 557 00:44:41,812 --> 00:44:44,337 Ballard dove on another grand wreck, 558 00:44:44,481 --> 00:44:47,746 the British luxury liner Lusitania. 559 00:45:01,799 --> 00:45:06,293 High-tech treasure hunters had stripped as much of the broken vessel possible 560 00:45:06,437 --> 00:45:08,905 looking to sell off the remains. 561 00:45:15,212 --> 00:45:18,579 The salvagers even brought up three of the boat's propellers. 562 00:45:20,117 --> 00:45:23,518 One propeller made it to a maritime museum. 563 00:45:24,822 --> 00:45:27,620 The second was believed to be melted down 564 00:45:27,758 --> 00:45:32,286 and recast as a very expensive set of golf clubs. 565 00:45:33,597 --> 00:45:36,964 And the last one met an even gloomier fate. 566 00:45:39,670 --> 00:45:44,573 I can remember going out and trying to find the propeller 567 00:45:44,708 --> 00:45:50,271 of the Lusitania and finding it in this junkyard, 568 00:45:51,582 --> 00:45:54,813 just sitting there amongst all this other junk. 569 00:45:55,753 --> 00:45:57,618 And I can remember when we were diving 570 00:45:57,755 --> 00:46:00,417 on the Lusitania to have that empty shaft 571 00:46:00,557 --> 00:46:04,926 something was missing its propeller was missing. 572 00:46:05,662 --> 00:46:08,722 And if the propeller was in a museum, 573 00:46:08,866 --> 00:46:11,528 if it was serving some purpose, 574 00:46:11,668 --> 00:46:15,468 I could understand that, but to find it in a junkyard, 575 00:46:15,606 --> 00:46:19,565 waiting to be sold for scrap, 576 00:46:19,710 --> 00:46:23,009 you have to wonder, why did you do this? 577 00:46:23,147 --> 00:46:24,842 What was going through your brain? 578 00:46:24,982 --> 00:46:27,883 And it had to have been just a lark. 579 00:46:28,919 --> 00:46:32,355 And that's that's really sad. 580 00:46:44,368 --> 00:46:49,499 Ballard's Mediterranean expedition is down to a precious handful of days. 581 00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:53,770 And now the NR-1 finally pays off. 582 00:46:55,078 --> 00:46:57,774 The sub uncovers two new sites, 583 00:46:57,915 --> 00:47:00,247 including the oldest they've found, 584 00:47:00,384 --> 00:47:04,878 containing a Roman wreck from the first century B.C. 585 00:47:12,129 --> 00:47:14,359 The evidence is now inescapable. 586 00:47:14,498 --> 00:47:17,490 Skerki Bank has been a major intersection 587 00:47:17,634 --> 00:47:20,262 throughout Mediterranean history. 588 00:47:22,439 --> 00:47:24,236 Ballard is anxious to find more. 589 00:47:24,374 --> 00:47:27,775 But the seas suddenly turn dark and angry. 590 00:47:29,813 --> 00:47:33,647 Well, we just found the best ancient ship we've ever discovered 591 00:47:33,784 --> 00:47:35,342 and we can't get to it. 592 00:47:35,485 --> 00:47:38,010 We got to get in the water. We can't get in the water. 593 00:47:38,155 --> 00:47:40,180 They're telling us that we've got a storm that's coming 594 00:47:40,324 --> 00:47:43,088 that's going to be sea state five. 595 00:47:43,227 --> 00:47:45,957 This is our second major storm on this trip. 596 00:47:46,096 --> 00:47:49,156 We lost 32 hours to the last storm. 597 00:47:49,299 --> 00:47:51,494 How many hours are we going to lose to this one? 598 00:47:52,970 --> 00:47:56,098 You know, I want to get down. I can't get to it. 599 00:47:58,408 --> 00:48:01,468 But there is one way to get beneath the waves. 600 00:48:02,179 --> 00:48:07,583 Ballard decides to send down the NR-1 during the storm. 601 00:48:08,819 --> 00:48:09,979 Once under the surface, 602 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:14,614 the sub will be free of the weather, free to continue exploring. 603 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:19,594 On board is archaeologist Jon Adams, 604 00:48:19,730 --> 00:48:22,722 eater to see the new find close-up. 605 00:48:24,468 --> 00:48:26,333 Unlike most deep-diving subs, 606 00:48:26,470 --> 00:48:31,305 the NR-1 actually has three windows on its underside. 607 00:48:34,978 --> 00:48:39,381 For Adams, they are portals to the tragedies of the past. 608 00:48:40,083 --> 00:48:40,811 When you're diving, 609 00:48:40,951 --> 00:48:43,749 you can't get half-a-mile down, like we are now. 610 00:48:43,887 --> 00:48:47,379 And it's easy to lose sight of the people. 611 00:48:47,524 --> 00:48:51,654 I suppose their the last moments for them on board this vessel, 612 00:48:51,795 --> 00:48:57,563 before it sank, must have been the climax of a crisis 613 00:48:57,701 --> 00:49:00,192 that might have actually been going on for several hours, 614 00:49:00,337 --> 00:49:04,205 as the well organized machine that the ship is gradually breaks down 615 00:49:04,341 --> 00:49:06,275 and down it goes. 616 00:49:09,613 --> 00:49:13,913 So it's quite an awe-inspiring sight. 617 00:49:20,958 --> 00:49:23,358 In this graveyard of lost vessels, 618 00:49:23,493 --> 00:49:27,589 the NR-1 explores the very last site. 619 00:49:31,902 --> 00:49:35,167 The new ship is another Roman trading vessel dating 620 00:49:35,305 --> 00:49:38,138 from the first century A. D. 621 00:49:39,343 --> 00:49:42,744 And a cargo rarely seen by scientists. 622 00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:48,110 An orderly pile of large cut stones and two pillars, 623 00:49:48,251 --> 00:49:52,085 carefully wrought pieces, like giant toy blocs, 624 00:49:52,222 --> 00:49:57,626 still waiting after 2,000 years, for hands to assemble them. 625 00:50:00,564 --> 00:50:04,056 Perhaps they were the pre-fabricated pieces of an ancient building, 626 00:50:04,201 --> 00:50:08,365 carved out of an Egyptian quarry, destined for Roman shores. 627 00:50:08,972 --> 00:50:10,963 It will take months, even years, 628 00:50:11,108 --> 00:50:13,633 before the archaeologists know the answers, 629 00:50:13,777 --> 00:50:15,574 if they ever do. 630 00:50:21,752 --> 00:50:22,548 As always, 631 00:50:22,686 --> 00:50:26,918 Ballard is concerned about protecting the sites for posterity. 632 00:50:29,259 --> 00:50:33,958 When we discovered the Titanic, we did not file a claim of ownership. 633 00:50:34,698 --> 00:50:38,190 And I was later told that had we done that, 634 00:50:38,335 --> 00:50:41,031 had we recovered one little object, 635 00:50:41,171 --> 00:50:46,370 we could have claimed it, and in so doing, helped protect it. 636 00:50:48,412 --> 00:50:50,403 By bringing up the Skerki artifacts, 637 00:50:50,547 --> 00:50:54,483 Ballard establishes his right to claim the sites in court, 638 00:50:54,618 --> 00:50:56,745 if ever it becomes necessary. 639 00:50:58,288 --> 00:51:01,621 Oh, this is very heavy very heavy. 640 00:51:01,758 --> 00:51:05,785 For now, Ballaard will place the artifacts recovered at Skerki Bank 641 00:51:05,929 --> 00:51:07,920 in the Sea Research Foundation, 642 00:51:08,065 --> 00:51:09,362 where they will be preserved 643 00:51:09,499 --> 00:51:12,991 according to the highest archaeological standards. 644 00:51:13,136 --> 00:51:15,434 Last one. 645 00:51:17,674 --> 00:51:21,906 Together Ballard and the scientists have proven that the new world 646 00:51:22,045 --> 00:51:25,845 of deep sea archaeology can work wonders. 647 00:51:26,416 --> 00:51:27,246 I feel very good. 648 00:51:27,384 --> 00:51:31,582 I feel that this, you know, really is an historic expedition. 649 00:51:31,721 --> 00:51:36,055 This is the first major deep sea archaeological expedition, 650 00:51:36,193 --> 00:51:42,029 an incredible team of people from incredibly diverse backgrounds, 651 00:51:42,165 --> 00:51:45,225 working together for the first time to try to do something 652 00:51:45,368 --> 00:51:46,960 that had never been done before. 653 00:51:47,104 --> 00:51:53,304 I think we have shown that the deep sea is a repository of human history 654 00:51:53,443 --> 00:51:56,412 on a scale we've just never comprehended before. 655 00:52:02,919 --> 00:52:06,286 But are the archaeological glories of the deep sea at risk 656 00:52:06,423 --> 00:52:09,324 from salvagers and treasure hunters? 657 00:52:09,459 --> 00:52:14,328 Yes, Ballard believes, until they learn to respect the past. 658 00:52:14,464 --> 00:52:19,492 I have no fundamental problem with treasure hunters, 659 00:52:19,636 --> 00:52:22,935 if they don't destroy history in the process. 660 00:52:23,073 --> 00:52:26,338 I don't think it's our right to destroy history. 661 00:52:26,476 --> 00:52:28,808 It's our right to find it and document it, 662 00:52:28,945 --> 00:52:31,937 but not our right to destroy it. 663 00:52:37,087 --> 00:52:39,351 As long as there are marvels in the seas, 664 00:52:39,489 --> 00:52:41,150 people will pursue them. 665 00:52:41,291 --> 00:52:46,024 Some will be treasure hunters, dreaming of gold and gems. 666 00:52:47,230 --> 00:52:49,164 And some will be scientists, 667 00:52:49,299 --> 00:52:54,703 dreaming of the astonishing discovery that next awaits them.