1 00:00:00,296 --> 00:00:16,777 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:16,777 --> 00:00:21,297 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:21,297 --> 00:00:26,378 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:26,378 --> 00:00:29,258 We represent the government of the United States of America. 5 00:00:29,258 --> 00:00:32,138 We have permission from your government to board your vessel. 6 00:00:32,138 --> 00:00:35,378 Stop your engines immediately and prepare to be boarded. 7 00:00:35,378 --> 00:00:37,378 Stand by and prepare to be boarded. 8 00:00:37,378 --> 00:00:41,379 Nosotros representamos el gobierno de los Estados Unidos. 9 00:00:41,379 --> 00:00:46,379 Nosotros tenemos el permito de su gobierno a abordar su barco. 10 00:00:56,379 --> 00:01:16,381 A ghost ship is discovered adrift on the Caribbean. 11 00:01:16,381 --> 00:01:21,381 Another mystery for the men who patrol those waters of dreadful fascination, 12 00:01:21,381 --> 00:01:35,382 the infamous Bermuda Triangle. 13 00:01:35,382 --> 00:01:39,382 Distressed, unknown vessel. 14 00:01:39,382 --> 00:01:46,383 The 7th District United States Coast Guard at Miami Beach is one of the busiest Coast Guard stations in the world. 15 00:01:46,383 --> 00:01:51,383 It may also be the best. 16 00:01:51,383 --> 00:01:57,383 It operates in that now legendary body of water known as the Bermuda Triangle. 17 00:01:57,383 --> 00:02:01,384 Its commander is Rear Admiral Robert Durkey. 18 00:02:01,384 --> 00:02:09,384 There are, as a matter of interest, between 800,000 and 900,000 registered recreational boats in this district. 19 00:02:09,384 --> 00:02:14,384 So this presents just a tremendous potential for people getting in trouble. 20 00:02:14,384 --> 00:02:20,385 Fully one-third of America's missing ships and planes vanish in the Bermuda Triangle. 21 00:02:20,385 --> 00:02:23,385 Many can be attributed to the inexperienced sailor, 22 00:02:23,385 --> 00:02:30,385 lulled into a complacent carelessness by the nearness of land and the deceptive tranquility of the sea. 23 00:02:30,385 --> 00:02:38,386 As for the others, they have been attributed to such theories as magnetic anomalies, UFOs, lost continents. 24 00:02:38,386 --> 00:02:48,386 While some of these ideas may seem far-fetched, they stem from a desperate need to explain a host of disappearances which make no sense. 25 00:02:48,386 --> 00:02:53,387 One of the men looking for answers is Miami Herald reporter Carl Hyerson. 26 00:02:53,387 --> 00:02:59,387 He has concentrated on 44 recent disappearances and has studied the Coast Guard's explanations. 27 00:02:59,387 --> 00:03:04,387 They have nine that they said were presumed sunk, and I wouldn't quarrel with that. 28 00:03:04,387 --> 00:03:10,388 Given the size of the ocean and the number of inept or inexperienced captains, 29 00:03:10,388 --> 00:03:15,388 the impulsive thing to do down here is if you've got some money, you go out and buy a nice big yacht. 30 00:03:15,388 --> 00:03:21,388 Early in 1974, four young Philadelphia businessmen bought a nice big yacht. 31 00:03:22,389 --> 00:03:30,389 Their story, recreated for in search of, begins in Miami as they joked about venturing out into the Bermuda Triangle. 32 00:03:30,389 --> 00:03:35,389 They'd read up on the legends of the ghostly Spanish galleons on the Sargasso Sea, 33 00:03:35,389 --> 00:03:43,390 of the dancing coffins in a Barbados graveyard, of the haunted lighthouse on Great Isaac Rock. 34 00:03:43,390 --> 00:03:50,390 But to the four men that day, these were but fanciful tales from antiquity. 35 00:03:50,390 --> 00:03:55,391 They were men of today, John Tarkino, 42, 36 00:03:55,391 --> 00:03:59,391 Sye Cisentner, 32, 37 00:03:59,391 --> 00:04:03,391 Elliot Cohen, 30, 38 00:04:03,391 --> 00:04:07,391 and Rafael Kaplan, 26. 39 00:04:07,391 --> 00:04:12,392 And in a few weeks, they would set out on a shakedown cruise. 40 00:04:12,392 --> 00:04:16,392 In the beginning, they adhered to standard operating procedures. 41 00:04:16,392 --> 00:04:18,392 They filed a float plan. 42 00:04:18,392 --> 00:04:23,392 They were to be back in Miami on April Fool's Day. 43 00:04:23,392 --> 00:04:29,393 Their boat was moored in dinner-key marina near Miami Beach. 44 00:04:29,393 --> 00:04:40,393 They boarded as planned on the 1st of March, 1974, carrying the gear and provisions for a one-month voyage. 45 00:04:41,393 --> 00:04:51,394 The weather was good that year, and after a Philadelphia winter, Miami was a place of tropical promise. 46 00:04:51,394 --> 00:04:53,394 The ship was the Sabah Bank. 47 00:04:53,394 --> 00:05:00,395 They had hired an experienced skipper, for this was not a toy, but a $300,000 boat. 48 00:05:00,395 --> 00:05:07,395 It was equipped for the wildest blow, with the finest navigational and safety devices that money could buy. 49 00:05:11,395 --> 00:05:18,396 Ten days later, the Sabah Bank arrived ship-shaped in Nassau. 50 00:05:18,396 --> 00:05:22,396 In passing, they might have joked about the famous tales of the Triangle, 51 00:05:22,396 --> 00:05:28,396 of the five Avenger aircraft that talked to the Controlled Tower as they banished forever, 52 00:05:28,396 --> 00:05:34,397 of a naval captain whose mind had darkened into madness while sailing through the Triangle. 53 00:05:34,397 --> 00:05:38,397 He had taken his ship, the Cyclops, into oblivion. 54 00:05:41,397 --> 00:05:46,397 The legends of the doomed sea must have amused rather than troubled the four men of Philadelphia. 55 00:05:51,398 --> 00:05:57,398 They were not seen leaving Nassau, but were spotted three days later at Port Royale, Jamaica, 56 00:05:57,398 --> 00:06:01,398 en route, they said, to Aruba in the Dutch Antilles. 57 00:06:02,398 --> 00:06:12,399 The Sabah Bank was due back to the custom shed at Miami Beach on the 1st of April, 1974. 58 00:06:12,399 --> 00:06:18,399 A few boats came in that day, but none was the Sabah Bank. 59 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:26,400 On that April Fool's Day, a Philadelphia secretary began to make inquiries. 60 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:32,400 At first they were casual, but as the days passed, there was a tinge of alarm. 61 00:06:43,401 --> 00:06:50,401 Because the Sabah Bank had filed a float plan, Coast Guard's search and rescue could begin the moment the boat was overdue. 62 00:06:51,401 --> 00:06:58,402 But as the search expanded over 22 days to eventually cover half a million square miles of the Caribbean, 63 00:06:58,402 --> 00:07:05,402 not a trace was found of the Sabah Bank, its seasoned captain, and the pleasure-seeking new owners. 64 00:07:09,403 --> 00:07:11,403 They were never seen again. 65 00:07:12,403 --> 00:07:17,403 Two years earlier, the Coast Guard was faced with a case bearing a marked similarity. 66 00:07:17,403 --> 00:07:19,403 The boat was called the Como No. 67 00:07:19,403 --> 00:07:27,404 It was a sturdy vessel and 66-year-old Charles Fisher of Portland, Oregon, had paid $100,000 for it. 68 00:07:28,404 --> 00:07:33,404 He and his wife, Terry, had sailed out of Fort Lauderdale in August 1972. 69 00:07:35,404 --> 00:07:39,404 To this day, no one knows how that voyage ended. 70 00:07:40,405 --> 00:07:48,405 During its subsequent search and investigation, the Coast Guard learned that the elderly couple had spent the fall island hopping in the Caribbean, 71 00:07:48,405 --> 00:07:51,405 en route to their retirement home in Puerto Vallarta. 72 00:08:01,406 --> 00:08:05,406 They were seen on the 12th of December off Corinto, Nicaragua. 73 00:08:06,406 --> 00:08:14,407 All the Coast Guard ever found of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher and the ship, Como No, was a small plastic lifeboat. 74 00:08:19,407 --> 00:08:27,407 It was cases such as these, cases for which the Coast Guard had no ready explanation that fascinated Carl Hyerson. 75 00:08:27,407 --> 00:08:34,408 One could talk of far out Bermuda Triangle explanations, black holes, electromagnetic earthquakes. 76 00:08:34,408 --> 00:08:37,408 But Hyerson was exploring another possibility. 77 00:08:38,408 --> 00:08:47,409 The most celebrated disappearance in recent years was the case of a luxury yacht Pirates Lady, owned by New Orleans millionaire Charles Slater. 78 00:08:47,409 --> 00:08:53,409 Slater is convinced his ship is still afloat and he has put up a $25,000 reward. 79 00:08:53,409 --> 00:08:58,409 It was a burger yacht, I believe it was 75 feet long, cost over a million dollars. 80 00:08:58,409 --> 00:09:07,410 They had enough electronic equipment on it to impress even the most hardened cynical sailors. 81 00:09:07,410 --> 00:09:16,410 It was a fine, fine ship and he sent his captain and a 17-year-old boy who he had known as a crewman and had hired on his crewman on the boat. 82 00:09:16,410 --> 00:09:21,411 A trusted family friend, no suspicion of any involvement. 83 00:09:21,411 --> 00:09:26,411 And the boat to the left of New Orleans refueled in Apalachicola. 84 00:09:29,411 --> 00:09:32,411 They had some engine trouble. So they went into Apalachicola. 85 00:09:32,411 --> 00:09:37,412 Next morning the dockmaster heard the boat start up at 6.30 am and leave. 86 00:09:37,412 --> 00:09:43,412 Was there some common factor that would lead to an explanation of these three disappearances and others like them? 87 00:09:44,412 --> 00:09:51,413 Investigators think they have an answer. An answer that seems wildly out of time in the 20th century. 88 00:10:02,413 --> 00:10:09,414 There is one hard fact. Many weekend sailors are known to have vanished in the past six years. 89 00:10:10,414 --> 00:10:16,414 Carl Hyacin does not pretend to have all the answers, but he has a theory. 90 00:10:16,414 --> 00:10:19,414 A theory that is cautiously accepted by the Coast Guard. 91 00:10:19,414 --> 00:10:32,415 Since 71 through 77 they had 44 vessels that disappeared and that they regarded as possible or probable. 92 00:10:32,415 --> 00:10:37,415 I don't, not probable, they use the word very carefully, possible hijackings. 93 00:10:38,416 --> 00:10:43,416 The fear among yachtsmen is reflected by the words of Marine Insurance Broker Ted Hald. 94 00:10:43,416 --> 00:10:52,416 10, 15 years ago young college students or young folks used to come down here and hang around the docks on Miami and Beech or in the Lauderdale area. 95 00:10:52,416 --> 00:10:58,417 And if they wanted to go to the Bahamas they go ask a yachtsman and the yachtsman would take him to the Bahamas, free of charge. 96 00:10:58,417 --> 00:11:02,417 That's all stopped. Most yachtsmen will not take anybody on board. 97 00:11:02,417 --> 00:11:08,417 I've had a friend that said he saw a barometer that he'd given another friend who the family turned up missing. 98 00:11:08,417 --> 00:11:14,418 But here this barometer was on an island in the Bahamas for sale in a gift shop. 99 00:11:15,418 --> 00:11:23,418 There is a growing suspicion that a number of seemingly inexplicable disappearances can be laid at the feet of a bizarre anachronism. 100 00:11:23,418 --> 00:11:25,418 The plundering buccaneer. 101 00:11:26,419 --> 00:11:32,419 The modern pirate does not fly the Jolly Roger or lurk in the remote coves of the Spanish Maine. 102 00:11:32,419 --> 00:11:44,420 There is reason to believe that the modern pirate strolls the streets of Miami Beach, made undetectable by his commonplace appearance and his belief in the age-old tradition of piracy. 103 00:11:44,420 --> 00:11:47,420 That dead man tell no tales. 104 00:11:48,420 --> 00:11:54,420 Piuson has developed the profile of a typical modern buccaneer. 105 00:11:54,420 --> 00:12:01,421 A cold-blooded person, fairly intelligent and ironically a pretty personable sort of character. 106 00:12:01,421 --> 00:12:11,421 And this is the sort of thing that happens. They make friends with them, they let them come on board, and they might mention that the wife has some diamonds with her or something. 107 00:12:11,421 --> 00:12:13,421 And then the, you know, the fella says, oh really? 108 00:12:14,422 --> 00:12:28,422 The pirate is looking for a congenial victim, a man proud of his boat, a man who doesn't ask for credentials or identification, the type of person who will sign his own death warrant. 109 00:12:29,422 --> 00:12:40,423 As seen in this reenactment, the typical pirate of today must first discover essential facts that make a particular vessel the perfect target. 110 00:12:40,423 --> 00:12:48,424 The vessel has no specific float plan, its destination is not defined, its schedule is undetermined. 111 00:12:48,424 --> 00:12:52,424 The buccaneer will have the necessary time to complete his deadly deed. 112 00:12:52,424 --> 00:12:58,424 He knows that boat owners can be like kids, even to wearing official-looking uniforms. 113 00:12:58,424 --> 00:13:06,425 In these cases, another thing that happens frequently is that the boat leaves, and in the case of the Pirate's Lady, it leaves virtually unnoticed. 114 00:13:06,425 --> 00:13:11,425 Either late at night, early in the morning, it motors out very quickly. 115 00:13:11,425 --> 00:13:20,426 There's no chatting around the dock, no, you know, buying a six-pack and shooting the breeze with the dog master. 116 00:13:20,426 --> 00:13:22,426 The boat is gone, right, and early. 117 00:13:22,426 --> 00:13:30,426 Now it is just a matter of time until the victim takes his would-be killer to a suitable secluded piece of open sea. 118 00:13:30,426 --> 00:13:34,426 In each of these cases, the boat was outfitted for a long voyage already. 119 00:13:34,426 --> 00:13:44,427 That is, there were provisions, there was fuel, there was charts, there was either radar or certainly radio long-distance communication. 120 00:13:44,427 --> 00:13:47,427 There was everything they needed to make a good long trip. 121 00:14:05,428 --> 00:14:15,429 By changing some of the lesser work stop-sight masks, some parts of the superstructure, 122 00:14:15,429 --> 00:14:22,429 or changing just the color combination on those parts, adding canvas parts, taking canvas parts off, 123 00:14:22,429 --> 00:14:27,430 you can change the look of the vessel quite easily and quite quickly. 124 00:14:27,430 --> 00:14:32,430 Florida coast with its overgrown bayous is ideal country for the pirate. 125 00:14:32,430 --> 00:14:37,430 Here, he can affect the face-lift on the yacht if he wants to use it. 126 00:14:40,431 --> 00:14:48,431 But why would a man commit piracy and murder? Why would he take these risks? Does piracy have another motive? 127 00:14:48,431 --> 00:14:57,432 If an expensive boat is stolen, it can be altered, but the basic structural design as well as registration licenses cannot be erased. 128 00:14:57,432 --> 00:15:01,432 We are a nation of record keepers, identification numbers, state forms, 129 00:15:01,432 --> 00:15:07,432 so a pirate knows he would get caught trying to sell such a boat or parading it himself. 130 00:15:07,432 --> 00:15:15,433 What use is it then? In the water south of Miami, piracy today is almost commonplace and there appears to be a possible explanation. 131 00:15:15,433 --> 00:15:21,433 In four of the confirmed cases of piracy, the hijackers were in the drug trade. 132 00:15:21,433 --> 00:15:26,433 We asked Hyacin if most hijackers are connected to drug traffic. 133 00:15:26,433 --> 00:15:33,434 In my opinion, I think they probably would be, mainly because of the areas they've taken place in, particularly off Mexico, Colombia. 134 00:15:33,434 --> 00:15:41,434 There are captains that I know, people that I spoke with, who are reputable people who have sailed these waters for the better part of their lives, 135 00:15:41,434 --> 00:15:44,435 who no longer go anywhere near Colombia, for instance. 136 00:15:44,435 --> 00:15:49,435 Also the waters of Honduras, anywhere in that neck down around the Panama Canal zone. 137 00:15:49,435 --> 00:15:55,435 Some of your underwriters will not let boats go and transit through Colombian waters. 138 00:15:55,435 --> 00:16:01,436 The drug traffic from Colombia into Miami travels one of the busiest crime routes in the world. 139 00:16:07,436 --> 00:16:13,436 Today we're going to be auctioning a 1973 28-foot Donzie. 140 00:16:13,436 --> 00:16:17,437 This is a common ceremony in Miami. 141 00:16:17,437 --> 00:16:21,437 The public auction of a drug boat seized off South Florida. 142 00:16:21,437 --> 00:16:26,437 Somewhere in this crowd of honest, legitimate bidders may be the front man for a crime syndicate, 143 00:16:26,437 --> 00:16:31,437 with the ready cash to put a seized vessel right back into the drug trade. 144 00:16:34,438 --> 00:16:37,438 On this particular day, the boat is bought by a water skier. 145 00:16:37,438 --> 00:16:45,438 But it is generally believed that a number of the supercharged speed boats that fill the waters of South Florida are in the drug trade. 146 00:16:45,438 --> 00:16:51,439 They are used by the big syndicates to run dope in from other ships which sit out in international waters. 147 00:16:54,439 --> 00:17:00,439 In the mid-70s, the Dauntless and other Coast Guard vessels working with the drug enforcement agencies 148 00:17:00,439 --> 00:17:06,440 and U.S. Customs had been relatively successful in breaking the big heroin syndicates. 149 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,440 Now cocaine and marijuana began to appear in huge quantities. 150 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:17,440 At about the same time, Coast Guard Captain Edmund L. Cope noted a curious new development in southern waters. 151 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:26,441 Private yachts began to disappear, boats that could make a long trip without the necessity of mother ships or messenger boats. 152 00:17:28,441 --> 00:17:31,441 Why were these boats being pirated instead of purchased? 153 00:17:31,441 --> 00:17:36,441 It appears that a new and more deadly breed of drug runner is now abroad. 154 00:17:36,441 --> 00:17:42,442 The lone wolf with connections in the drug culture but operating outside the big crime syndicates. 155 00:17:42,442 --> 00:17:47,442 Boats were being hijacked because they couldn't afford to buy one that size. 156 00:17:47,442 --> 00:17:55,443 Couldn't buy what he needed to get involved in his particular business which would be running marijuana from the Gulf Stream into the Florida. 157 00:17:59,443 --> 00:18:02,443 What sort of boats were these men looking for? 158 00:18:02,443 --> 00:18:06,443 The Coast Guard has prepared a profile of a potential victim. 159 00:18:06,443 --> 00:18:12,444 Well, it would have to be a boat that's capable of going a long ways with a good size cargo. 160 00:18:12,444 --> 00:18:16,444 That is a long-legged yacht. Otherwise it's not worth it. It's not worth it to steal it. 161 00:18:16,444 --> 00:18:21,444 It's not worth it to kill people on board. It's not worth it to try to stuff a lot of drugs inside of it. 162 00:18:21,444 --> 00:18:24,444 They want something that'll hold a lot. 163 00:18:25,445 --> 00:18:31,445 Just such a boat was the Sabah Bank which disappeared on April Fool's Day 1974. 164 00:18:31,445 --> 00:18:34,445 The perfect victim for a hijacker. 165 00:18:34,445 --> 00:18:37,445 In studying the Coast Guard investigation, 166 00:18:37,445 --> 00:18:40,445 Huyerson learned that when the boat was last seen in Nassau, 167 00:18:40,445 --> 00:18:47,446 the owners were observed in conversation with persons described as drug or hippie types. 168 00:18:47,446 --> 00:18:56,446 Did the four Philadelphia businessmen invite these people to join in the fun trip to Jamaica and in effect arrange their own murder? 169 00:18:56,446 --> 00:19:02,447 No one knows for sure, but no one saw them leave and their disappearance remains a mystery. 170 00:19:06,447 --> 00:19:11,447 And what about the Como No and the elderly couple en route to their retirement home? 171 00:19:11,447 --> 00:19:15,448 The Coast Guard discovered that they were carrying their life savings, 172 00:19:15,448 --> 00:19:21,448 $30,000 in cash and that this fact was well known around the marinas. 173 00:19:22,448 --> 00:19:27,448 Also, there was the daughter who gave evidence that she had received a letter from the couple. 174 00:19:27,448 --> 00:19:31,449 They wrote that they had taken on a pair of strangers as deck hands 175 00:19:31,449 --> 00:19:36,449 and admitted they had become afraid of them but did not know how to get rid of them. 176 00:19:36,449 --> 00:19:40,449 Had this couple issued an invitation to their own murder? 177 00:19:44,449 --> 00:19:48,450 If you're a freelancer and if you're dirt poor and you have no boat 178 00:19:48,450 --> 00:19:53,450 load of Americans pulls up offshore with a nice yacht and you've got about two tons 179 00:19:53,450 --> 00:19:56,450 you can get to someone in the Boca Raton, 180 00:19:56,450 --> 00:20:02,451 my way of thinking is Americans are as good a target as anybody. 181 00:20:02,451 --> 00:20:08,451 The people that do the so-called drug hijacks, for whatever motive a yacht is hijacked, 182 00:20:08,451 --> 00:20:11,451 are generally not professional smugglers or professional criminals. 183 00:20:11,451 --> 00:20:15,451 They're people that have no other option 184 00:20:15,451 --> 00:20:19,452 because it's not a particularly safe crime. 185 00:20:22,452 --> 00:20:26,452 And so there appears to be ample evidence that piracy on the high seas 186 00:20:26,452 --> 00:20:31,452 may account for some of the unexplained mysteries of the triangle, 187 00:20:31,452 --> 00:20:35,453 which is not to say that all the deadly secrets have been unlocked. 188 00:20:35,453 --> 00:20:44,453 The curious and tragic events of these mysterious waters are too complex for a single simple solution. 189 00:20:46,453 --> 00:20:52,454 The bulk of the clientele in this Fort Lauderdale gun shop is yachtsmen, 190 00:20:52,454 --> 00:20:58,454 where they formally bought sports rifles, they are now buying what are called people killers. 191 00:20:58,454 --> 00:21:02,454 Boat owners are interested in self-defense. 192 00:21:02,454 --> 00:21:05,454 How would this be for the boat, you think, for protection purposes? 193 00:21:05,454 --> 00:21:06,454 That's all I'm looking for. 194 00:21:06,454 --> 00:21:09,455 Very formal, that particular weapon there. 195 00:21:09,455 --> 00:21:14,455 And yet, even with powerful guns, there are dangers in the triangle 196 00:21:14,455 --> 00:21:19,455 which man and all his firepower may be unable to conquer. 197 00:21:25,456 --> 00:21:30,456 Coming up next, in search of continues with a look into the mysterious deaths 198 00:21:30,456 --> 00:21:33,456 surrounding the quest to find Captain Kid's treasure. 199 00:21:33,456 --> 00:21:37,456 Then, agents hunt for a mountain man who's murdered their colleagues on FBI, 200 00:21:37,456 --> 00:21:39,457 the untold stories. 201 00:21:39,457 --> 00:21:43,457 And log on at veterans.com, a new website brought to you by the History Channel. 202 00:21:43,457 --> 00:21:47,457 Veterans.com, a place where veterans, their families and others can connect, 203 00:21:47,457 --> 00:21:51,457 share stories and pass on the legacies of all American veterans.