1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,240 Can an incredible underwater discovery in the Arctic 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:08,000 tell us what happened to the ill-fated Franklin expedition? 3 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,880 You feel like somebody or something is over your shoulder. 4 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:13,000 Who knows what we're gonna find inside? 5 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:16,000 What is the secret behind the mystery craft 6 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:18,200 speeding towards the U.S. coast? 7 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:20,640 I'm not your partner! 8 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,320 And is there a new killer lurking in the depths? 9 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:26,400 It's not something that you can hear. 10 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,400 It's not something that you can see. 11 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:30,400 It's not something that you can smell. 12 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:33,280 It's like, oh, my God, I'm not getting in the little hutter. 13 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:39,520 The underwater realm is another dimension. 14 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,320 It's a physically hostile place 15 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:44,400 where dreams of promise... 16 00:00:45,480 --> 00:00:48,000 ...can sink into darkness. 17 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:50,680 I'm Jeremy Wade. 18 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:53,760 I'm searching the world to bring you the most iconic 19 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,640 and baffling underwater mysteries known to science. 20 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:00,640 Shipwrecks can't just disappear, or can they? 21 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,920 It's a dangerous, unexplored frontier that swallows evidence. 22 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,000 We know more about the face of Mars 23 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:08,880 than we do our deepest oceans. 24 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:13,760 Where unknown is normal and understanding is rare. 25 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:17,160 In my years of investigating underwater mysteries, 26 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:19,720 I've been to some pretty hostile places, 27 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,440 and the frozen waters of the Arctic 28 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,440 are some of the toughest I've ever experienced. 29 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,320 It's a place where the mind can play tricks on you. 30 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,520 Now, really, I'm not going to be a hero. 31 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:35,600 I'm going to be a hero. 32 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:37,680 I'm going to be a hero. 33 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:39,760 I'm going to be a hero. 34 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:41,840 I'm going to be a hero. 35 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,160 Now, reports are surfacing of locals 36 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,880 claiming to have seen ghosts from the deep. 37 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,400 Could a dramatic new discovery 38 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:57,200 solve one of the greatest Arctic mysteries of all time? 39 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:03,440 2014, the Canadian Arctic. 40 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,680 A team of marine archaeologists find a warship 41 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,640 resting on the seafloor of King William Island. 42 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,360 Finding it was extraordinary. 43 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,560 You could see this ghostly ship. 44 00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:17,320 Then a second ship is located. 45 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,040 It's as if the crew has just stepped out. 46 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,320 You can see shelves inside and things still stacked up. 47 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,920 It's very exciting, but it's also a bit unnerving. 48 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,440 These are no ordinary shipwrecks. 49 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,120 They are the HMS Erebus and HMS Terra, 50 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,880 two ships from the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. 51 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:41,280 They've been missing for over 170 years. 52 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:47,000 They were not where anybody expected them to be. 53 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:49,960 Finding the ships is a remarkable discovery. 54 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,800 But what happened to their missing crew? 55 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,720 Out of the 129 crew members 56 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,880 that set out on the Franklin Expedition, no one came back. 57 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,600 When the expedition sets out in 1845, 58 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,120 expectations are huge. 59 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,080 Sir John Franklin and his crew 60 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:09,920 are on a mission through uncharted Arctic waters 61 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,560 to find a navigable passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. 62 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:18,880 The Northwest Passage is a kind of a shortcut. 63 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:23,040 The holy grail of its time in terms of exploration. 64 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,520 It's kind of like the space race of the 1960s, 65 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,480 which nation will have pride of place. 66 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:33,480 Franklin is one of the most celebrated naval commanders of the day. 67 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,000 Sir John Franklin, he was an honoured naval veteran. 68 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:38,400 He had fought with Nelson at Trafalgar. 69 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,680 He's referred to as King Arthur in the British press. 70 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:43,520 That's the kind of reputation he had. 71 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,880 Franklin's team has the most advanced technology available. 72 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:52,920 They had enough provisions to survive a very long time out at sea 73 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:54,440 without resupplying. 74 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:57,320 They actually even had heating systems within the ship 75 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,320 to keep the crew and the boat inside warm enough 76 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,280 during the expected Arctic winters. 77 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,240 It was a very well-equipped expedition with very experienced men, 78 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:08,600 so there's no reason for them to expect to fail. 79 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:10,400 But they do fail. 80 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:12,080 And for almost two centuries, 81 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:16,000 the fate of the expedition has remained a famous mystery. 82 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:22,640 The Arctic waters have revealed very little evidence of what happened. 83 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:27,080 In 1850, another expedition is sent to find them. 84 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,200 They located Franklin's first winter camp. 85 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:30,960 And a few days later, walking along the beach, 86 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,400 they saw three graves of Franklin's sailors. 87 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,520 Franklin's crew were not alone on the ice. 88 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:41,920 The Canadian Arctic is home to the Netsilic Inuit, 89 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:46,200 a group of Inuit are later found with items belonging to the crew. 90 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,160 Spoons, knives, forks, broken chronometers, 91 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,640 Franklin's Medal of Nighthood itself, 92 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:55,200 which is seen in the photographs before he sailed. 93 00:04:55,280 --> 00:04:59,200 It's not something you would just give to the local people as a gift. 94 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,240 Then, 14 years after the expedition set off, 95 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:05,440 there's a breakthrough. 96 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,120 An official document is found with a handwritten explanation 97 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,360 of how the ships became locked in the frozen waters for 19 months. 98 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:16,200 It indicated that they had abandoned the ships. 99 00:05:16,280 --> 00:05:18,000 There were 105 survivors. 100 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:21,040 That Franklin himself had died the summer before. 101 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:24,880 With Franklin dead on April 22nd, 1848, 102 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,080 the crew abandoned their ships and set out on foot. 103 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:32,920 Why did they decide to leave the ships when they did? 104 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:38,120 To leave the one spot that you know that is warm, 105 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:42,160 that has food and shelter to set out on the ice, 106 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:44,000 you have to be extremely desperate, 107 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,080 or maybe even a little bit crazy. 108 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,800 105 men leave the ships. 109 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,360 None are known to have survived. 110 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,760 And fewer than 40 skeletons have ever been found. 111 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,360 Over the years, there have been many different theories 112 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:01,960 about what happened to them. 113 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,360 Scurvy, of course, would have been a factor. 114 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:06,840 The Inuit encountered them. 115 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,560 They talked about men with black gums from Frostbite 116 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:12,200 and scurvy, probably. 117 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:15,160 You started with scurvy, then you got tuberculosis. 118 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:17,560 These are the two big killers of the era. 119 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,120 The extreme conditions would have been physically tough 120 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:24,160 and long periods trapped in the Arctic sea 121 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:26,720 can also cause something psychological, 122 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,280 called winter over syndrome. 123 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:33,360 Just nothing but ice, nothing but snow. 124 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:35,160 For months on months, you can see nothing. 125 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,320 You know nothing about what's going on around you. 126 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:40,080 You become very isolated, you become very disorientated 127 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,360 and you start behaving in a very bizarre way. 128 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,120 This could explain one mysterious account. 129 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:50,320 An Inuit group report trying to help some of the crew 130 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:53,320 by building an igloo and supplying seal meat. 131 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:55,840 But later, they find the igloo abandoned 132 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:57,760 and the meat untouched. 133 00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:00,120 The Inuit tribes out there were equipped 134 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,400 to survive in these kind of conditions. 135 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:05,840 They offered help and the crew rejected it completely, 136 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,320 which is quite strange when you're so desperate. 137 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:12,080 That they would reject food is even more surprising 138 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:15,360 in the light of a troubling story that emerges, 139 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,600 suggesting that the crew turn on each other in order to survive. 140 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,880 The Inuit accounts of bones that had been sawed or broken open 141 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:26,080 to get at the marrow, 142 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:28,640 similarly, skulls that had been broken open. 143 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:31,840 There is hard archaeological evidence of cannibalism. 144 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,840 When they started analysing these bones, they had cut marks. 145 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,920 Not scratches from wounds, but butchering marks. 146 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:42,040 That indicates that there could be some kind of cannibalism taking place. 147 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,080 What would have caused this well-supplied crew 148 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,040 to resort to cannibalism? 149 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:50,800 For almost 200 years, 150 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:53,880 any evidence discovered about the Franklin expedition 151 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:56,720 has raised more questions than answers. 152 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,040 Can we use new science and technological tools 153 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:02,920 to help us answer that question? 154 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,520 Bodies from the three graves found at the first winter camp 155 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:07,720 are exhumed. 156 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:10,760 They are eerily well preserved by the ice. 157 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,000 And analysis reveals something unusual. 158 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:16,560 They were subjected to on-site autopsies, 159 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:19,360 x-rays, chemical tests and so forth. 160 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:22,560 And a conclusion was that lead might in fact 161 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:25,560 have been the overall culprit of the expedition. 162 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,800 Lead poisoning in the middle of an arctic wilderness sounds unlikely, 163 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:34,080 but could it have come from something on their ships? 164 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:39,400 One of the new technologies the expedition carried was tinned food. 165 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:43,720 Over 8,000 cans of it. 166 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,560 We knew that the ships were supplied with tinned food, 167 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:50,120 and it was shown also that the tinned food was prepared in great hurry. 168 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:53,640 And tins had a very thick layer of lead inside. 169 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:56,440 They would use lead to seal the tops. 170 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,280 High concentrations of lead can be deadly. 171 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,040 It can lead to a debilitating mental state. 172 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,360 It decreases brain functionality. 173 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:07,800 Lead poisoning seems to stack up, 174 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:10,520 but the evidence is not conclusive. 175 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:18,760 Could an innovative type of x-ray technology tell us more? 176 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:21,760 X-ray fluoroscopy shoots x-rays at things 177 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:23,640 and looks at their fluorescence. 178 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:30,120 This allows scientists to look at the microstructure of the skeletal remains. 179 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,760 We're trying to just really get a much more detailed map of lead in the bone, 180 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:38,080 and that's the technology that has given us that high-resolution image. 181 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:40,240 Unlike a conventional x-ray, 182 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,920 fluoroscopy can tell us how much lead is in the bones 183 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,560 and exactly when it got there. 184 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,680 We can separate new growths from old growths. 185 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:52,800 We can colour code that growth by lead levels, 186 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:55,800 and we can see what's the difference in the new growth 187 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,560 as opposed to the old growths within the bone. 188 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:04,800 High lead levels in new bone would mean the men were exposed to it just before they died. 189 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,080 Could this finally solve a mystery 190 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:09,840 that's remained trapped in these frozen waters 191 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:11,400 for centuries? 192 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:27,040 The Franklin Expedition is one of the most baffling mysteries I've ever come across. 193 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:29,800 129 experienced men, 194 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:34,000 armed with the latest technology and three years' worth of food, 195 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:36,200 set out across the Arctic Sea 196 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,880 to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. 197 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:44,280 None of them come back, and no one knows what happened to them. 198 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:51,440 To find out, scientists are testing the well-preserved bodies of three of the crew. 199 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:58,640 Were Franklin's men poisoned by the tinned food that was meant to keep them alive, 200 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,680 this new analysis suggests not. 201 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:05,400 The shocking discovery is that what we had thought was the explanation 202 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,520 is not really the explanation anymore. 203 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:11,360 There weren't higher levels of lead 204 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,080 and people who had been presumably exposed with longer, 205 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:17,440 and indeed that the lead probably did not come from exposure 206 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:19,680 experienced during the expedition. 207 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:25,800 X-ray fluoroscopy reveals that the high lead levels were in older bone growth, 208 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:29,520 suggesting the men were exposed to it via industrial pollution 209 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:31,880 before they left home. 210 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:36,280 It doesn't look like lead poisoning is the smoking gun. 211 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:42,040 So if it wasn't lead that killed them, what was it? 212 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:45,720 For almost two centuries, there's been little to go on. 213 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:50,600 We wonder how, given the diligence of the search over more than a century and a half, 214 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:53,200 we found so little. Why isn't there more? 215 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:56,880 But the recent discovery of Franklin's ships, 216 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:01,360 preserved beneath the ice, should prove a major breakthrough. 217 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,320 Many of us who'd been studying this for years thought 218 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:07,040 the odds of actually finding one of these ships are low. 219 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:10,760 We imagined they were probably just smashed to pieces in the ice. 220 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,360 Surely now, all the questions can be answered. 221 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:18,240 No one has set eyes on these ships in almost two centuries. 222 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:22,640 Now, a team of marine archaeologists is surveying them. 223 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:27,080 The terror is eerily intact. Who knows what we're going to find inside? 224 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:30,880 The conditions for preservation are very good 225 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:36,240 because you have depth and you have less light than you would at shallower depths. 226 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:39,280 And the cold temperature of the water really helps. 227 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:44,400 But not everyone is happy about the underwater investigation. 228 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,200 Within two weeks of the team diving on the wrecks, 229 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:51,480 six people in the local Inuit town die. 230 00:12:51,560 --> 00:12:55,160 In a small community, that's a lot of tests to happen in a short period of time. 231 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:59,280 So some people began to speak of a curse of Franklin. 232 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:01,880 Some believe the spirits of Franklin's men 233 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,920 have been released from their watery grave. 234 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,680 The local tribes even speaks of shadowy figures 235 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,440 walking the beaches in the ice where the ships once were. 236 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:14,840 I think there is still a kind of a spectral feeling to the Arctic. 237 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:21,400 Local superstition is not the only factor making investigation difficult. 238 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:25,760 The freezing underwater conditions and the location 239 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,520 limit the diver's season to just three weeks a year. 240 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,280 Remote cameras have to be used to explore inside the ships 241 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,520 so investigators can see, but they can't touch. 242 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:43,760 But could these submerged ships finally unlock the mystery 243 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,880 of what happened to Franklin's expedition? 244 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:49,800 It may well be that there will be records of some way, shape or form 245 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,480 that have survived on the ship, which will give us some insight. 246 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:55,600 Drawers, they're dark. 247 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:57,640 There's no oxygen content in there. 248 00:13:57,720 --> 00:13:59,480 There's no marine life in there. 249 00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:04,360 There's every chance that we'll actually get written records of what happened. 250 00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:07,840 There's the Captain Crozier's desk still sitting there, 251 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,240 a bit of silt on top of it, 252 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:12,480 looking as though you could just open one of the drawers 253 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:15,640 and find the answer to all of the mysteries. 254 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:20,600 It could still take years, but hopefully one day we can open that drawer 255 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,200 and finally discover the truth. 256 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,680 July 4th weekend, 2019. 257 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:38,160 A man goes into the ocean off a popular tourist beach 258 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:42,800 on Florida's Emerald Coast and comes out feeling fine. 259 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:45,960 48 hours later, he's dead. 260 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,480 Was it something in the water? 261 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:55,040 And if so, can forensic science help us track down this killer on the coast? 262 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:04,680 Our beaches are where we go to relax and have fun. 263 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:09,280 But what if there's an invisible killer lurking just offshore? 264 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:13,840 There's something out there that people don't even know is out there. 265 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:16,600 You can't smell it. You can't see it. 266 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:19,240 You can't taste it. It's terrifying. 267 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,560 Doctors are initially mystified by the death of the Florida man, 268 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:27,440 but laboratory tests finally reveal the killer's identity. 269 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:33,240 Not a stealthy new predator, but a microscopic, deadly bacteria. 270 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:38,440 Once inside, this starts devouring and eating human tissue. 271 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:43,120 If it's not stopped in time, the only course of action is amputation. 272 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,880 If we can't get it out, it can also lead to death. 273 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:51,360 The idea of contracting a flesh-eating bacteria 274 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:55,440 in water that you swim in is the stuff of horror movies. 275 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,720 Where did this flesh eater come from? 276 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,880 Has it risen from the hidden depths of the ocean? 277 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,960 And can we stop it before it's too late? 278 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:19,080 Evidence suggests there could be a new killer lurking in our oceans, 279 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:24,920 a deadly bacteria that eats its way through flesh and internal organs. 280 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,160 What can be done to stop it spreading? 281 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,040 Can this new bacteria be stopped? 282 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:33,760 Are we going to end up shutting down our beaches? 283 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:36,720 Science has some of the answers. 284 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:41,360 This particular bacteria likes low salinity, 285 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:46,320 warm bodies of water, often found near coastal regions where humans frequent. 286 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:50,640 A deadly water-borne bacteria that hangs out in the same places we do 287 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:52,480 is a frightening thought. 288 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,600 And this one has a name, Vibrio volnificus. 289 00:16:56,680 --> 00:17:00,880 Research suggests it's transmitted to humans through open wounds 290 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:02,760 or by eating shellfish. 291 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:07,160 And it's particularly dangerous to those with a compromised immune system. 292 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:10,840 The problem is that when it mutates and becomes a human, 293 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,040 it becomes harmful or active to humans, it can cause sepsis. 294 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,400 Sepsis is when the body's immune system overreacts to an infection 295 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,200 and starts to attack its own tissues and organs. 296 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,680 It can quickly prove life-threatening. 297 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,200 The Center for Disease Control estimates that about 80,000 people per year 298 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:33,920 are stricken with this illness. 299 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,320 People get out of the water and they feel fine for a few days, 300 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:40,680 and then all of a sudden your leg starts to swell up 301 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:43,560 and within hours or days it's cut off. 302 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,880 And it may not just be affecting our beaches. 303 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:53,640 In June 2019, there's a new case reported. 304 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:59,800 An experienced water sports guide is paddling across an inland Florida lake. 305 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:03,480 And later on in the day, he noticed that his arm had swelled up significantly 306 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,280 and as the day went on, it got even worse. 307 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:10,480 He's not immersed in the water, it's not in his eyes, it's not in his ears. 308 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:13,920 Could it now be possible to get infected by the bacteria 309 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,480 without even getting in the water? 310 00:18:17,360 --> 00:18:21,080 Scientists are now more concerned with it because it seems to be mutating 311 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:25,080 and it seems to actually be more common and it's finding new ways to infect. 312 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:29,560 Significantly, the paddleboarder had been on the lake many times before 313 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:31,440 without any problems. 314 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:33,920 The worrisome thing is that people are starting to get infected 315 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:36,640 where we haven't had cases of this before. 316 00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:38,600 It's out there. 317 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:39,880 It's spreading. 318 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:42,200 Is this a result of global warming? 319 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:44,400 Is it issues with pollution in the water? 320 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:46,920 What are the issues that are creating it? 321 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,360 New infection sites are being discovered all the time. 322 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:57,160 Rising sea temperatures mean more and more coastal regions 323 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,280 are now potential breeding grounds for the bacteria. 324 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:05,440 The warmer the ocean, the better the conditions for bacteria. 325 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:09,200 Most bacteria don't travel across large bodies of water 326 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,280 because cold occurrence killed them off. 327 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:16,520 But a new insight suggests human activity could be responsible 328 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,600 for transporting this underwater killer worldwide. 329 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:24,600 Over 90% of everything in our homes comes to us by sea 330 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:29,040 and vast cargo ships don't just transport our global goods. 331 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,600 They may also carry flesh-eating bacteria. 332 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,080 Large ships now take on water as ballast. 333 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:38,200 They suck up water in this port. 334 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:41,800 And then when they get to another port, they empty the ballast tanks 335 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:43,400 while they're offloading. 336 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:45,800 So this means there is a constant flow of water 337 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:49,880 being carried around the world on our global shipping network. 338 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:55,600 A never-ending flow of ships carrying tons of water from country to country. 339 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,680 If this is how the Vibrio bacteria is being spread, 340 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,400 it may already be too late. 341 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:07,080 This invasive bacteria has the potential to become a global health crisis. 342 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:12,520 The Vibrio bacteria can be treated with antibiotics if administered quickly, 343 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:16,120 so medical teams need to be alerted and prepared. 344 00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:19,800 But with 70% of the world covered by water, 345 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:24,840 it's almost impossible to know where this invisible killer will strike next. 346 00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:27,480 Perhaps we can use the tools of science and technology 347 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,600 to better predict where these outbreaks might occur. 348 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:35,320 There is one pioneering technology that could help us stay a step ahead. 349 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,640 Computer modeling can be used to create simulations 350 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,720 of where the Vibrio bacteria might appear next. 351 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:46,480 Scientists are using satellite technology to track salinity, 352 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:48,440 ocean currents and temperature. 353 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:51,160 To try and map global trade and global currents 354 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,080 and see where they're going to come so they can move the resources to be there. 355 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:59,280 Will these new predictive techniques be enough 356 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:02,200 to help us defeat an invisible killer? 357 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:07,680 Or are we heading towards a world where it's no longer safe to go into the water? 358 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:18,720 In pirate stories of old, 359 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:24,600 finding buried treasure is always about a map where X marks the spot. 360 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:30,480 In the deep water realm, however, things are rarely that simple. 361 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:35,240 But could new underwater technology do away with treasure charts 362 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:41,000 and help to locate what's possibly the greatest pirate hall in history? 363 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,360 Could the treasure have been right under our noses the whole time? 364 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,440 The mystery starts with an infamous Caribbean pirate 365 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,680 called Captain Henry Morgan. 366 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,880 Captain Morgan is not just a rum bottle. 367 00:21:54,920 --> 00:22:00,000 He is actually a real person and he's a real living legend in his own time. 368 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:05,280 In 1671, Morgan sets out with 36 ships 369 00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:10,200 to raid the Spanish-controlled city of Panama and steal its gold. 370 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,880 Panama was one of the richest cities in South America at that time. 371 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:18,160 It's the biggest heist of the age. 372 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:23,120 He carried off 130-form horse loads of gold and silver. 373 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:25,640 But then something unusual happens. 374 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:29,800 According to one account, Morgan, unbeknownst to most of his men, 375 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,920 sneaks back on board and leaves Panama with just three ships. 376 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,760 It is possible that he may have been a hasty retreat 377 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,680 because he had a ship full of treasure that he wanted to keep for himself. 378 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:47,120 When Morgan arrives back home in Port Royal, Jamaica, 379 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,480 he has only one ship and a fraction of the loot. 380 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:53,360 What happened to the rest of the treasure? 381 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:56,160 Did Captain Morgan make away with a lot of loot? 382 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,760 And if he did, where did he stash it? 383 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,440 There were all sorts of rumours about where the treasure had been placed, 384 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,200 what he'd done with it. 385 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:08,440 For over 300 years, people have put forward theories 386 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,960 for the possible location of Morgan's missing treasure. 387 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,160 But now a team of underwater archaeologists 388 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,400 have discovered a shipwreck near Panama 389 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,960 and it's on the route Morgan would have sailed. 390 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,200 It was associated with Morgan's adventure 391 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,120 because the material on the ship dated to that period. 392 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:33,720 Could this mystery shipwreck be the underwater hiding place 393 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,920 for Captain Morgan's missing treasure? 394 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:42,920 Infernal Pirate Captain Morgan makes off with a fortune in silver and gold. 395 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,120 But when he arrives back in Port, 396 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,800 most of the loot has mysteriously disappeared. 397 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,840 Where is Captain Morgan's missing treasure? 398 00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:56,960 New underwater investigation techniques 399 00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,760 could be found in the remains of the treasure. 400 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:02,480 But the treasure is not in the treasure. 401 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:04,360 It's not in the treasure. 402 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,800 Underwater investigation techniques 403 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,720 could finally uncover its hiding place. 404 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:14,280 The question is, did Captain Morgan make away with a lot of loot? 405 00:24:14,360 --> 00:24:16,440 And if he did, where did he stash it? 406 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,360 Some archaeologists believe that a shipwreck found near Panama 407 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,440 could be one of Morgan's fleet. 408 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,320 They found cannons and chests. 409 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,240 But after further analysis, 410 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,400 they actually figured out that this was more likely a Spanish ship. 411 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:39,000 So while these new ships and new evidence comes to light, 412 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,360 really all it's doing is it's furthering the mystery. 413 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,960 So if the treasure's not on this shipwreck, where could it be? 414 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:51,680 An interesting detail in accounts of the time could give us a new lead. 415 00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:56,720 Captain Morgan takes several weeks to get from Panama City back to Port Royal, 416 00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,360 much longer than expected. 417 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,080 Could Morgan have stopped on his way back to Port Royal? 418 00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,280 Because he's a pirate, he doesn't have access to normal ports, 419 00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:09,560 so he would have to be very careful where he's going to make his stops. 420 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,000 There is one possible location. 421 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,720 On the route back from Panama City to Port Royal, 422 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,120 you have this island called San Andreas. 423 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:24,640 San Andreas is a small coral island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, 424 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,160 reputed to be a favourite of Morgan's. 425 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,640 I speculated that he might have unloaded some of his cargo and spoils there. 426 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:34,480 Given the strength of the winds, 427 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,320 they may have had time to stop and unload a ship. 428 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,920 San Andreas is strewn with sea caves, 429 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,880 making it an ideal place to hide treasure. 430 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,440 There are all sorts of rumours that he managed to find a very deep cave 431 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:49,960 and stored all the gold down in there. 432 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:54,320 And that has been a sight of many treasure hunts for many years ever since. 433 00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,680 Despite many searches over the years, 434 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:02,120 no sign of Morgan's missing treasure has ever been found. 435 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,720 Perhaps the solution lies closer to home. 436 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,840 Another theory that has always been present 437 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,840 is that actually Captain Morgan kept the treasure with him, 438 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,480 and it came back to Port Royal with him. 439 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,800 If you lived in Jamaica and you wanted to spend your money, 440 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:18,600 you'd keep it somewhere nearby. 441 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,160 You don't want to have your closest ATM a thousand miles away. 442 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:23,800 It just doesn't make sense. 443 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,440 Port Royal was really the pirate haven of the Caribbean. 444 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:32,120 And really, it's the setting for the modern-day view 445 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,000 we have of what pirate life was like. 446 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,200 Morgan lived out the rest of his days in Port Royal, 447 00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:39,880 where he was buried, 448 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,560 taking the secret of the missing treasure to his grave. 449 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:48,480 Then, four years later, a natural disaster engulfed the city. 450 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,760 It actually sunk into the sea after an earthquake 451 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:52,400 and a tsunami hit the region. 452 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:56,840 Did Morgan's treasure end up under the sea? 453 00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,920 The potential could be that Morgan hid it somewhere around the city, 454 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,520 and once that disappeared beneath the waves, 455 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:05,080 so too did the treasure. 456 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,480 Now, a team of marine archaeologists 457 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:11,640 has begun to map the underwater remains of the sunken city. 458 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,800 It's there, more or less intact, 459 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,960 as an archaeological site to be investigated properly. 460 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,800 Perhaps this new research will finally locate Captain Morgan's 461 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:22,120 hidden treasure. 462 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,920 One of the techniques being used is photogrammetry. 463 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,640 Photogrammetry is a survey technique, a remote-sensing technique. 464 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:33,240 You go and take photos of an area or an object, 465 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:35,160 and you kind of go around it. 466 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,560 And it's an algorithm, essentially, that meshes all these photos together 467 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:40,280 and creates a 3D object. 468 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:45,440 It's only recently been developed to map underwater sites. 469 00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,240 The team can create a 3D picture of what the city looks like 470 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:52,680 when it disappeared under the waves three centuries ago. 471 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,240 It lets you reach out and touch history. It's pretty cool. 472 00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:00,920 If we can accurately create a map of Captain Morgan's period, 473 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:05,040 then that gives us an idea of where such treasures might have been hidden. 474 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:08,080 It's early days, but when the map is finished, 475 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,720 it should be possible to pinpoint where Morgan lived. 476 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,480 Could the hiding place of his famous missing treasure 477 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,480 be uncovered at last in the underwater area? 478 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:21,960 Uncovered at last in the underwater ruins of Port Royal? 479 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,720 This isn't like finding a pirate ship, it's finding a whole pirate city. 480 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:27,640 So who knows what you can find? 481 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:40,320 The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean on Earth. 482 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,800 It's a place I've come back to time and again 483 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,400 to investigate the mysteries beneath our waters, 484 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,640 because it's the perfect place to hide. 485 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,080 June 18th, 2019, 486 00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,240 the US Coast Guard are in pursuit of a mystery craft 487 00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:01,640 heading north off the coast of Ecuador. 488 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,240 It's sitting low in the water, barely visible above the waves, 489 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:10,960 and moving fast. 490 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,800 The Coast Guard have been tracking it for 12 hours. 491 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,880 Could it be a new military prototype? 492 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,760 But whose? And why is it here in the Pacific Ocean? 493 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:30,080 The Sub's crew don't seem to realise that they're being chased. 494 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,800 The operator of this vessel, he's looking forward. 495 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,640 You can only see 100 yards of the ship. 496 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:37,520 The ship is moving forward, 497 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,320 and the ship is moving towards the ship's vessel. 498 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:41,800 He's looking forward. 499 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,840 You can only see 100 yards in front of him. 500 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,800 He's not even aware that the US Coast Guard has surrounded him. 501 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:52,920 To solve this mini-sub mystery, 502 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,160 they're going to have to jump onto the moving craft. 503 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,440 The Coast Guard is tracking an unidentified vessel 504 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,280 travelling at speed through the Pacific Ocean. 505 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:16,880 It looks to be heading for the US Coast. 506 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:21,880 Could it be some kind of secret weapon or something else? 507 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:29,960 Coast Guard officers have been trying to stop the craft with no success. 508 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:32,880 So finally, two Marines jump on board. 509 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:41,240 As well as its frightened crew of five, 510 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:48,240 the vessel contains cocaine with a street value of $232 million. 511 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:52,440 The mystery craft is what's known as a narco-sub. 512 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,440 A narco-sub is a pretty rudimentary submarine 513 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:02,760 built by drug cartels to smuggle drugs from South America to North America. 514 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,320 The business of trafficking billions of dollars of illegal drugs 515 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,160 to the US has gone underwater. 516 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,360 The Coast Guard have stopped this one, 517 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,760 but how many more of these homemade subs 518 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,800 could be making their way undetected to US shores? 519 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:19,760 The ocean is lawless. 520 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,880 There are no borders at sea. 521 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:27,440 It's so vast, it's just impossible to police. 522 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:32,800 And these subs are designed to be incredibly hard to spot in open water. 523 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,880 It's a mostly-simmerage craft that sits just at the waterline 524 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:40,320 so it's very difficult to detect along the horizon of the water. 525 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,960 On a conventional radar, it might not show up as anything 526 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,480 other than another wave on the ocean. 527 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,160 So really, you have to have a visual on it to identify it. 528 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,680 Few of these vessels have been caught in the act 529 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,320 because many have a built-in failsafe 530 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:58,440 that helps them disappear without trace. 531 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:02,240 The idea behind the submarines is that they're pretty easy to dispose of. 532 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:03,760 If you're about to get caught, 533 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:07,480 you can scuttle the ship really quickly and get off. 534 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:11,320 Yeah, it sinks, it's lost. Where's the evidence? 535 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:14,800 We don't know how many of these might be lying on the bottom, 536 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,440 full of drugs, cash, guns. 537 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,040 But where are these subs coming from? 538 00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:26,120 One possibility is the rivers of Columbia, 539 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,200 a country that, as I know well, 540 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,880 has many areas that are remote and almost impenetrable. 541 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:38,680 We have no idea in terms of how many narco-subs there have been. 542 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:41,120 We don't know how many have been successful. 543 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,720 The estimate still run to as much as a third or even a half 544 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,200 of all the drugs which get to the United States 545 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:49,160 come via these submarines. 546 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:51,960 That means there's still a hell of a lot getting through. 547 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,720 And could the narco-sub phenomenon 548 00:32:55,800 --> 00:33:00,240 be behind one of the great unsolved mysteries of the drug world? 549 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,400 It was one of the most infamous drug lords of all time 550 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:08,280 who first took the narcotics battle underwater in the 1990s. 551 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:11,920 Pablo Escobar helped to invent this new method 552 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,520 of delivering cocaine to America. 553 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,640 He was the first one to try to use these narco-subs 554 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,640 to transport narcotics in a whole new way. 555 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:25,480 Escobar was killed in a shootout in 1993 556 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:27,960 and was shot in the back of a gun. 557 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,840 He was shot in a shootout in 1993, 558 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:35,000 but many believe some of his fortune is still hidden away. 559 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,880 Could his missing millions be under the ocean? 560 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,640 I've heard that some of the vast Escobar fortune 561 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,000 lies at the bottom in a narco-sub. 562 00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:44,560 It's quite possible. 563 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,240 It probably would have been in the form of money wrapped in plastic. 564 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,880 Drug cartels have been getting away with it for decades. 565 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:57,200 But state-of-the-art technology is changing the game. 566 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,120 In this sub, the Coast Guard used surveillance gear 567 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,400 developed for the US military. 568 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,120 The aircraft which has been most effective so far is the P3 Orion, 569 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,640 which has a magnetic anomaly detector on its tail. 570 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,440 The aircraft's magnetic anomaly detector 571 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,360 works in a similar way to a metal detector. 572 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:19,040 Its sensor can pick out minute variations 573 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:23,040 in the Earth's magnetic field caused by metal objects. 574 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:27,120 They can detect a magnetic anomaly in the ocean. 575 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:29,640 It's working on the subs that are built of steel. 576 00:34:30,720 --> 00:34:34,560 So if there's something like a submersible near the surface, 577 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:36,800 these planes can zero in on them. 578 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:41,960 Magnetic detection technology has given the authorities an edge for now. 579 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:46,480 But this high-stakes game of hide-and-seek is changing all the time. 580 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,120 You move to fiberglass or other non-magnetic materials. 581 00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:55,480 You can defeat the magnetometers that may be able to find these. 582 00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:59,400 A fiberglass narcosup would be almost impossible to detect 583 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,320 with the Coast Guard's current technology. 584 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:04,960 It's like a game of underwater cat and mouse. 585 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,400 It's going to be a constant battle of technology 586 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:13,200 and it's going to be a constant war of one-upmanship of who has the most tech. 587 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:17,480 We've only discovered a fraction of what's beneath our oceans. 588 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,760 They hold secrets of our present and our past, 589 00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:23,840 and they rarely give up those secrets easily. 590 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:29,240 But every now and then, we stumble upon something truly mystifying. 591 00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:34,320 In 1980, the Rembrandt's first ever ship was a ship. 592 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,760 It was a ship that was built in the year of the ship. 593 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,920 It was a ship that was built in the year of the ship. 594 00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:44,440 In 1980, the remnants of an ancient vessel 595 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:48,640 are discovered beneath the shallow waters of the Java Sea. 596 00:35:48,720 --> 00:35:50,920 Its timbers are completely rotted away. 597 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,120 This is a seriously old shipwreck. 598 00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:58,920 Inside are over 100,000 pieces of priceless ceramics, many still intact. 599 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,600 Divers have discovered an ancient shipwreck, 600 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:05,600 full of thousands of pieces of priceless pottery, 601 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,480 which have lain undiscovered for centuries. 602 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:10,880 But where did this ship come from? 603 00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,040 And how did it end up at the bottom of the Java Sea? 604 00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:18,840 This shipwreck was special. 605 00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:22,520 It was a shipwreck of the first ever shipwreck. 606 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,800 It was a shipwreck of the first ever shipwreck. 607 00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:29,000 This shipwreck was special. 608 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:34,080 It was an old Asian design, and it is full of pottery. 609 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,160 We're talking huge quantities of pottery. 610 00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:40,040 With no ship left, with the wood all gone, 611 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,200 it's really difficult to identify its age. 612 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,480 But from the size of the debris field, 613 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:52,000 we can estimate that the ship was about 90 feet long and 25 feet wide. 614 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:56,640 Perhaps forensic analysis can tell us more about this mystery ship. 615 00:36:56,720 --> 00:37:00,400 It's been underwater so long, there's barely anything left. 616 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,160 But the research team catch a lucky break. 617 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:06,880 You sometimes find organic material, some of the original cargo, 618 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:08,840 still in them, which is unbelievable. 619 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,800 In this case, they found a piece of resin 620 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:14,360 that they used to radio carbon date the wreck. 621 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:21,880 Carbon dating allows us to put a time clock on artifacts that contain carbon. 622 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,080 It turns out that carbon has this isotope 623 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:28,680 that has a specific decay rate on it. 624 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,040 And if we use that decay rate, we can backtrack time 625 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,600 for how old a specific artifact might be. 626 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:39,120 Initial analysis has shown that it might have been a Chinese trading vessel 627 00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:41,440 from the 13th century. 628 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,520 It's a huge step forward. 629 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,000 But if anything, it only deepens the mystery 630 00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:48,720 because the ship's design and contents connect it 631 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,720 to one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. 632 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:58,000 For over 4,000 years, our seas have played a vital role in how we trade. 633 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:00,960 The oceans have always been the original superhighway, 634 00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:03,520 the original internet. 635 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:08,600 But unlike land routes, they leave very few traces of our trading past. 636 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:13,400 We know a very small portion of what was happening on the seas 637 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:15,840 even 800 years ago. 638 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,760 Understanding how the trade flows and seeing where the trade flows 639 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,120 is honestly a way of charting the development of humanity 640 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:23,920 and how we've grown. 641 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:28,120 Can the precious cargo that sat for centuries on the seabed 642 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,360 give us more pieces of the puzzle? 643 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,040 Pottery is actually a very useful tool in dating shipwrecks 644 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:38,320 because once clay is fired, it becomes nearly indestructible. 645 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:42,280 One of the ceramic pieces carries a maker's mark, 646 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,640 the ancient equivalent of a made-in-China stamp. 647 00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:47,720 And this one is from a Chinese province 648 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:51,760 which only used that name for a short period of time, 649 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,800 which gives them a date range that could even be in the 12th century. 650 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,360 We're talking about a shipwreck here that is not long after the age of the Vikings. 651 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,960 This is an immense find in the condition that it was in. 652 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,720 It's a remarkably rare find, 653 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,680 but can a new kind of radiation technology tell us more? 654 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:13,640 Scientists developed this X-ray gun 655 00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:17,520 that can use X-ray beams 656 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,520 to detect the chemical composition of the ceramics. 657 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,920 We can look at the composition of the materials 658 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,000 that makes up the pot itself 659 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:31,640 and we can date that against a database of soils and clays from around the world 660 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:34,600 and be able to get an idea of where the pottery was made. 661 00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:39,960 X-ray analysis of the pottery reveals something remarkable. 662 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:43,040 The ceramics had come from different places in China, 663 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:45,160 hundreds of miles apart. 664 00:39:45,240 --> 00:39:47,760 So what these X-ray signatures have told us 665 00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:51,600 is that this ship first loaded porcelain and fuzhou 666 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,160 and then made its way to Guangzhou 667 00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:57,960 and loaded another load before heading down towards Indonesia. 668 00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:00,920 This is a very big economic undertaking. 669 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,880 This is not a ship doing a single port to single port 670 00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,760 because there'd be no way it would carry such a cargo 671 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:08,240 focused on just one thing, 672 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,640 because it wouldn't be economically viable. 673 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:15,160 And this tells us the trade network wasn't a series of small bumps 674 00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:19,040 but actually was big and constant voyages. 675 00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:22,800 It's the equivalent of a modern cargo ship 676 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:25,080 but 800 years ago 677 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:29,200 and it had travelled an incredible distance when it went down. 678 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,680 This ship sank 2,000 miles from where it originally loaded cargo 679 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:33,800 in the 12th century. 680 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:37,600 That is a huge distance. That's like going across the Atlantic. 681 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,160 This ship showed us something we didn't know existed, 682 00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:43,040 which is this long-range trading network from China. 683 00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:46,240 This is a huge breakthrough, something that we didn't know before. 684 00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:51,040 But the more we discover about this mysterious ship, 685 00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:55,120 the more we realise how much there is still to learn about it 686 00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:57,120 and the world it came from. 687 00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:59,880 Who were these traders in Southeast Asia 688 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:01,880 putting these networks together? 689 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,720 We may know the age and where this cargo was made. 690 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:07,400 We don't necessarily know where it was headed 691 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:08,560 or even where it was loaded, 692 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,000 so there are a lot of questions yet to be answered. 693 00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:18,360 Some people say never look back, 694 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,680 but I believe it's only by understanding where we've come from 695 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:23,800 that we can truly look forward. 696 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:30,360 There's still so much we don't know about what lies beneath our vast oceans. 697 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,880 But perhaps the technology of the future 698 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:39,080 will finally answer some of our remaining questions about the past.