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Is a Russian nuclear sub on a secret spying mission when a deadly fire breaks out?

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This kind of sabotage would bring the Western world to its knees.

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Can cutting-edge forensic technology reveal the identity of human remains buried in an

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eerie Scandinavian lake?

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There were so many of them, it obviously could not be a single murder.

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And what can explain a bizarre toxic haze hitting England's beaches?

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A day of fun at the beach turns into a nightmare.

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The underwater realm is another dimension.

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It's a physically hostile place, where dreams of promise can sink into darkness.

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I'm Jeremy Wade, and I'm searching the world to bring you the most iconic and baffling

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underwater mysteries known to science.

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The vast majority of our ocean is unobserved, unmapped and unexplored.

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It's a dangerous frontier that swallows evidence.

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You have nowhere to run.

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Where unknown is normal.

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And understanding is rare.

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We think of the internet as something that exists in the cloud.

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But incredibly, 99.5% of it is located at the bottom of the ocean.

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Email, banking data and top secret intel all transported by a vast network of underwater

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cables.

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So when a mysterious Russian spy submarine catches fire in the Arctic Ocean, tragically

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killing most of her crew, it brings to light how vulnerable these cables might be to sabotage.

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Do subs like this have the capability to cripple the Western world?

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And if so, will we be ready and able to stop them?

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July 1st, 2019.

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A Russian nuclear-powered submarine emerges discreetly in the port of Severa Mosk on the

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Kola Peninsula.

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The vessel is in a state of emergency.

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The submarine is badly damaged after catching fire in the Barents Sea.

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There are reports that up to 14 people have died.

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This is Russia's deadliest submarine accident in over a decade.

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This sub is Russia's most secret naval asset, and any information about it is classified.

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Russian authorities are very reluctant to talk about their military operations.

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Moscow's silence raises suspicion all over the world.

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The question everyone wants to know, what was this nuclear sub up to when the accident

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happened?

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Details are scarce.

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The Russian Ministry of Defence doesn't name the submarine and actually says it's a state

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secret.

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The response prompts accusations of a cover-up and a lack of transparency that draws parallels

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with past nuclear disasters.

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In the 1980s, with the Chernobyl incident, the Russian government stayed silent for

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over three days.

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And it echoes another well-known tragic nuclear sub-accident, the Kursk.

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Where 118 Russian submariners died, the Russian government stayed silent for over two days.

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In 2019, will this tragedy also be shrouded in mystery?

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A day after the incident, the Ministry of Defence does let slip one piece of intriguing

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information.

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The Russian Ministry of Defence said the submarine was mapping the sea floor.

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Ocean mapping is a classic cover for top-secret underwater missions.

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Is that the case here?

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The identities of the 14 deceased submariners are released to the public.

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And it's a bombshell revelation.

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These weren't your usual Russian submarine personnel.

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These were the elite of the Russian submarine service.

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So much so, they had their own name.

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They were called the hydronauts.

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They were very high-ranking.

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This indicates that there was a special mission that required their presence on board.

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You can rebuild a submarine far easier than you can build experienced crew.

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So losing the crew, that's a loss of a tremendous asset.

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The presence of the hydronauts could throw doubt on the claim that the sub was only mapping

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the sea floor.

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Was its mission more ominous?

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A Russian news channel identifies the mysterious submarine as the AS-31 Losharyk.

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The Losharyk is a top-secret submersible.

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It belongs to the Intelligence Research and Development Organization.

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Its last known location was only 16-autical miles east of Norway.

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What was it doing so suspiciously close to a foreign coastline?

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At the time of the accident, there was actually a NATO exercise taking place in the Norwegian

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Sea.

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Submarines from France, Germany, Norway, the UK and the United States are all there on

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this training mission.

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They have one country in mind, Russia.

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Is it merely a coincidence that this ship enters these waters during such an important

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NATO training exercise?

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What's the Losharyk spying on these maneuvers?

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Literally a goldmine of information being put out there during these training exercises.

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This isn't the first time Russian military presence has been so close to Norwegian borders.

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It seems that these waters are most important to Russia, but the question is why.

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It's no secret that Russia has big ambitions to dominate this Arctic region.

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The Arctic has been of strategic interest to Russia since the beginning of the Cold War,

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where it kept its nuclear weapons arsenal.

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Arctic region is enormous.

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Russia has expanded its military along the whole Arctic coast.

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Losharyk is just one of a growing number of nuclear-powered submarines and icebreakers

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in the region.

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Russia has bases and operational area for the strategic submarines which are capable of

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launching intercontinental ballistic missiles to the United States and Canada.

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But does the accident on board the doomed Losharyk expose another possible reason why Russia

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needs a strong naval presence in the Arctic, an area that's just beginning to reveal its

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untapped treasures?

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In 2017, Putin suggested that the Arctic contains over $35 trillion in untapped natural resources.

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It's the proverbial goldmine.

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And vessels like Losharyk can now access these rich waters through shipping routes made possible

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by the melting ice sheet.

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But it means other countries also have their eyes on the Arctic.

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Russia makes Russia very nervous.

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So the Losharyk contributes to this in the way that it strengthens the Russian presence

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in the region.

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But the sub's secret experimental design may hint at an even more threatening agenda,

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one that could cripple the West.

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As the ice cat melts in the Arctic Ocean, countries all over the world are racing to

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get their hands on the area's untapped wealth of natural resources.

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Could the Losharyk be part of Russia's secret plans to control these extremely lucrative

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waters?

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What the Losharyk was doing in the Arctic at the time of the fire is still a mystery.

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But the sub's advanced capabilities and unusual design may provide vital clues.

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This particular submarine used composite of a number of titanium spheres.

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They're also very enclosed spaces.

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So if something goes wrong in one of them, then that could become the tomb of anybody

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who is in there.

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Three days after the incident, it's revealed that the fire started in the sub's battery

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compartment.

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Although the vessel was nuclear powered, it does have batteries, a secondary source

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of power.

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And batteries under sea, they can let off gases.

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So the crew would have been trapped in small areas, and it would have been full of fire

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and smoke, and it would have contributed to their death.

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So in the wrong circumstances, the Losharyk could become a death trap.

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Why was it designed in a way that could endanger its crew?

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A series of spheres inside allows it to dive deeper than a conventional submarine would.

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The Losharyk was designed to carry out special operations at unusually extreme depths, possibly

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up to 20,000 feet down.

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This is 10 times deeper than the operational depth of a US submarine.

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The nuclear powered sub is equipped with another strange element.

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It has retractable manipulator arms on the outside of its hull.

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Why would the Losharyk need these robotic arms?

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The sub's advanced capabilities give Western intelligence reason to be suspicious.

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Losharyk could be hiding a sinister agenda, one that would bring mayhem across the globe.

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Maybe the submarine was trying to do something very clandestine and potentially illegal.

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Today, nearly all of our daily communications are carried through underwater cables, nearly

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750,000 miles of them running along the sea floor.

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On a daily basis, what could be going through these far-bred object cables?

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Well, it could be financial transactions, it could be any kind of secret communications,

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it can be the Allied nations communicating with their military assets around the world.

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Western intelligence speculates that with its unique design, the Losharyk's mission

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was to tamper with these deep-sea cables and possibly even sabotage them.

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Since 2015, various NATO officials were reporting that Russian submarines were operating quite

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close to the seabed cables.

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And of course the question was why?

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Severing them, severing the flow of information would strike very hard the economic and financial

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system and probably would wreak havoc on the Western societies.

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So far there is no hard evidence that confirms Losharyk's true mission.

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But what's telling is that even after the tragic fire that killed 14 elite submariners,

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it remains a crucial asset for Russia.

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Losharyk will be repaired and it will return to service because it's so important for the

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research, for the intelligence gathering, for the Russian Navy and the Russian Armed

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Forces in general.

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This mysterious sub will take years to repair, but its potential to wreak havoc in the future

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remains very real.

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Ancient underwater burial sites have been discovered all over Northern Europe, but few are as

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mysterious as the one found in a remote lake in Finland where the remains of around 100

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people are uncovered.

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Who these bones belong to and why they are here have remained unanswered for over three

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centuries.

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Now, with incredible advances in DNA technology, these cryptic bones might finally start to

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reveal their secrets.

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In 2018, scientists are examining human remains discovered in a very strange, gruesome looking

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lake in Western Finland known as Levenluhta.

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It's a real mystical but eerie sight.

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In the springtime, the lake's iron-rich, blood-like water foams up through the ground.

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Devoid of oxygen, it's perfect for preserving bones.

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This stops the microorganisms from eating the bodies of dead people buried inside of

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them.

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The mystery begins in 1884 when local men working in Levenluhta are shocked to discover

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eight human skulls.

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And it doesn't stop there.

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More and more human bones are recovered.

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The remains of approximately 100 people were found at this site.

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It's a gruesome discovery.

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Something extraordinary is going on at Levenluhta.

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It takes nearly 150 years for scientists to piece together clues from the human remains

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and start to unravel the riddle how so many bodies ended up in this chilling, watery grave.

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A mysterious and grisly lake in Finland is giving up numerous human remains.

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Archaeologists suspect they could be the victims of a brutal sacrifice.

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Local contemporary forensic analysis reveal the lake's dark secret.

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When the mass of human remains is uncovered in 1884, it's assumed they are war victims

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from the 16th century.

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People believe that these bodies might be from the Kudjul war, which was a peasant uprising.

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The peasants were fighting against exploitation by the nobility and the military.

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The name Kudjul comes from the type of weapons that the peasants used, blunt objects such

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as the Kudjul.

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The war was known for its weapons, but no weapons are found at Levenluhta.

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And the investigation throws yet another perplexing conundrum that scientists just can't solve.

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Shockingly, they discover that the bones are mostly women and children.

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The presence of women and children doesn't fit with the characteristics of a typical

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war grave.

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At the turn of the 20th century, an anthropologist throws even more doubt on the Kudjul war theory.

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Analysis of the skeletal remains reveals that the skulls are strangely narrower and longer

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than those of Finnish people.

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Scientists propose that the people are not from Finland at all, but from mainland Europe,

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where there are records of sacrificial rituals and burying the dead in water.

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There are multiple examples of watery graves and water burials in Northern Europe.

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We often see watery burials as a sacrifice to the gods, in which case criminals or bandits

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could be the ones who are buried there.

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They're usually found strangled, bound, there's acts of violence, throat slit.

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But the bones found in Levenluhta are missing a crucial piece of evidence to support this

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theory.

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These Finnish remains, there appears to be no acts of violence.

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The Levenluhta remains show no signs of trauma, so this could be evidence that this wasn't

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a sacrifice.

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It's not until 1993 that a breakthrough in forensic science begins to untangle this mystery.

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Through radiocarbon analysis, scientists can finally date the bones.

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Turns out they date to the Iron Age.

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The radiocarbon dates suggest that these people died somewhere between 500 and 700 AD.

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Now with specific dates, archaeologists investigate what was going on in Levenluhta around this

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time.

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They turn to ancient Norse mythology, and it provides a crucial clue of a terrifying

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doomsday event.

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Ancient Norse mythology mentions three successive winters without any summer, which they call

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the Fimble Winter.

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In the legend, snow comes in from all directions and ends all life on earth.

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A recent study in 2019 links the Fimble Winter to a series of real-life volcanic eruptions

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in Central America in the 6th century.

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A huge volcanic eruption which sparked darkness and social collapse across the world.

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This would have impacted agriculture.

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It would have led to crop loss and famine all across the Northern Hemisphere.

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Ancient crop failures caused the Levenluhta people to die of starvation.

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In 2019, with new technology, scientists finally analyzed the bones to determine if this freak

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climate disaster could be the cause of death.

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Isotopic analysis is used to reconstruct ancient diets, and the way that it's done is by looking

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at the carbon and the nitrogen values, and by doing that comparing it to different food

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sources.

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Isotopic analysis reveals something unexpected.

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These people exploited food from three sources, sea, earth, and fresh water.

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They had an incredibly varied diet and were actually really healthy when they died.

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Their versatile diet would make them well-equipped to deal with any sort of crop failure due to

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a catastrophic event.

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So modern science rules out the possibility that this extreme long winter killed the lake

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victims.

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After a nearly 150-year investigation, are we any closer to knowing why so many bodies

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ended up in Levenluhta Lake?

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Answers could be concealed in the ancient traditions of these mysterious people.

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The ancient Levenluhta lake bones are so well preserved that they still hold vital clues

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about who these people might be.

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DNA technology may finally reveal the identity of the people who were buried in this watery

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grave.

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In 2019, after samples of the bones are DNA tested, the scientists make a major breakthrough

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in this nearly 150-year-old investigation.

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DNA testing indicates that these were Sami people.

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The Sami are indigenous to Finland, but they inhabit areas much further north, nowhere

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close to the lake.

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What were these Sami people doing so far south, and how do they all end up in an underwater

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grave?

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With the latest genetic revelations, the puzzle pieces are coming together.

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Finnish scientists now have a new theory as to why these people were buried in a lake.

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And the answer could be found deep in Sami mythology.

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The Sami word, Saiva, is used to refer to a holy lake and the spirits living within

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it.

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Saiva lakes take on magical and mystical properties, and they represent the underworld

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for the Sami people.

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Were these ancient Sami people buried in the lake, which they believe to be a gateway to

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the afterlife?

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This exciting new evidence in an investigation that has lasted nearly a century and a half

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is beginning to rewrite the story of one of Europe's most extraordinary burial sites.

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The mystery of why these Sami people were buried in Levenlutta lake is not yet solved.

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However, as modern technology continues to transform archaeology, it may one day bring

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us closer to fully understanding our ancestors and their connection to the underwater world.

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A summer day at the beach turns ugly when a strange haze hits England's southern coast

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and hundreds of people end up in the hospital.

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No one's sure what's causing it and it's followed by similar incidents.

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Can authorities solve this toxic beach mystery before even more people fall ill?

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August 2017, Burling Gap Beach on the southern coast of England.

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Crowds are enjoying one of the hottest days of the year.

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Then like a scene from a horror movie, the air turns into a yellowy haze and begins

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to smell unbearably foul.

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Some say it's like the smell of burnt plastic and corpses.

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A nice day out in the sunshine turns into a nightmare for these beach-goers.

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Passerby's are heaving and wretching after coming in contact with this toxic mist.

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One person captures the bizarre moment on video.

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Kyle, when did you first start to notice things weren't quite right on the beach?

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I noticed sort of on the horizon, it was the yellowy kind of cloud getting closer and closer

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to the coastline and noticed more and more people around us.

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People coughing, spluttering, eyes watering.

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This is such an unusual incident.

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It must have been really scary not knowing what was happening.

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Everyone was rushing to their cars, there was traffic everywhere, coast guards, fire

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service, police, ambulance.

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It's so strange to just like, thousands of people just empty now on the road and just

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there was definitely much panic going on at the same time.

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A major incident is declared.

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The local hospital ends up carrying out one of the biggest mass decontaminations in England's

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history.

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About 200 people went to the hospital.

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This frightening toxic haze is coming in from the sea.

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But what's causing it is a mystery that no one can figure out.

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The scene in Burling Gap reminds people of a similar freakish incident four years earlier.

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In 2013, citizens living in South England complain of nausea and headaches and a foul

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rotten egg stench.

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This time, authorities can pinpoint where it's coming from.

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A gas leak from a power station in Normandy that has travelled 200 miles to the UK shore.

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If the wind is blowing the wrong way, then all that pollution gets blown across to the

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UK.

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Is another gas leak from France to be blamed for causing a stink on Britain's shore again

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four years later?

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Scientists have tried reverse modelling the winds at those particular times to pinpoint

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the location of the source of these toxins.

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The models show that on August 27th 2017, the surface air had come from an easterly direction

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and before that had been parallel to the coast and coming from the west.

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So a gas leak in France is quickly ruled out as the cause.

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There's no doubt however that the strange haze is coming from somewhere out at sea.

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Could the answer be found in a lethal marine phenomenon?

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00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:07,240
In different water bodies, you will have what's called an algal bloom and this can happen

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00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,720
as the seasons are warming up.

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Algal blooms are known sometimes to produce toxic chemicals that are not good for people.

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Two days after the incident, water samples are taken and tested for signs of an algal

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bloom.

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00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:28,040
The measurements that were done in this case suggest that there just wasn't enough algae

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00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:32,840
in the water to be producing anything that would harm human health on the beach.

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So what did cause this toxic mist?

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If it's not coming from the water, are there any other clues hiding in the air we breathe?

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Authorities turn to local air monitoring stations and they reveal something disturbing.

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When a toxic haze hits the southern coast of Britain, what's causing it leaves scientists

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00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:05,240
puzzled.

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00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:10,240
Could the answer lie in the foul smell coming from the toxic fog?

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00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:19,240
If people are reporting smelling rotten eggs, my first idea is going to be there's sulfur

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00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,080
dioxide out there.

319
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:28,720
One air monitoring station reports an unusual increase in sulfur dioxide.

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00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:34,440
Meteorological evidence already suggests the source is offshore.

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00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:38,920
So the sulfur dioxide seems to be coming from the English Channel.

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The sulfur dioxide could have come from ships in the English Channel.

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00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:48,320
The English Channel separates the UK and France and is one of the world's busiest shipping

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00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:49,960
lanes.

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00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:54,560
But how could this have produced toxic sulfur dioxide?

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The cargo ships contain hazardous and deadly chemicals.

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00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:03,800
So sometimes shipping containers might fall off a ship which cause hazardous chemicals

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00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:08,360
to enter the water and end up on nearby beaches.

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00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:13,840
Authorities investigate the ships that were in the area at the time of the toxic haze.

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00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:19,680
There are no reports of sulfur dioxide related accidents.

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Local authorities draw a blank and are no closer to solving the mystery of the toxic

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haze in Berlin Gap.

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00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:32,360
The case goes cold until two years later.

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In 2019, only 25 miles away, a scarily familiar state of emergency is declared on the coast.

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Witnesses describe people heaving or wretching.

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The beaches are evacuated.

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Adding to the fear, the nightmare continues along the same coastline in yet another frightening

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scene.

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Only two weeks later, another 150 people fall ill on the coastline.

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Could the toxic chemical have returned?

341
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:09,240
And authorities are very worried the whole thing could happen again.

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00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:15,080
With three near identical cases within a space of two years, scientists desperately need

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to crack the unknown source of the toxic haze.

344
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:26,240
Satellite data could hold the answer that everybody desperately seeks.

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00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:34,840
In 2017, a satellite image captures a strange plume coming from the English Channel.

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One theory is that these toxic gases might come from some release of toxic substances

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00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:45,120
from shipwrecks.

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They do often change, move, adjust, and you do get leakage of potentially polluting substances.

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The English Channel is littered with shipwrecks, sunk during the First and Second World Wars.

350
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These underwater ticking time bombs could be an explanation for the hazardous chemicals

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00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,080
that arrive on the beach.

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00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:14,400
The satellite image seems to show the plume coming from almost exactly the same location

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as a shipwreck, sunk by a German mine in 1917.

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00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:25,880
It's known that there was a shipwreck from World War I, the SS mirror that lays in that

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particular part of the seabed.

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00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:33,760
Investigators work out that if chemicals from the wreck were transported in the water, it's

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possible they could have reached Burling Gap at the exact same time the incident was reported.

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If the toxic plume was in the air, however, because of the easterly wind direction, the

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00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,680
wreck is unlikely to have been the source.

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00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:55,120
Authorities now believe a shipwreck leaking a toxic chemical is plausible, but it hasn't

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00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:59,760
yet been categorically confirmed as the toxic culprit.

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00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:06,360
A massive effort has been made to track down the source of this bizarre and terrifying

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00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,160
haze, but there's still no definitive answer.

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00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:17,000
And whether this poisonous seaside air will become more frequent and more dangerous remains

365
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a mystery.

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00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:33,080
When divers explore a 300 year old wreck in the icy depths of the Baltic Sea, they uncover

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a vast amount of cargo, including an unexpected find, fragments of a Bible.

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Researchers are perplexed by how these paper pages could have survived underwater for three

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centuries.

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In their quest for answers, they reveal a ship with a saintly name, but a sinful past.

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2002, a team of Russian divers is exploring a shipwreck, hiding in the cold, dark waters

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00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:06,880
of the Baltic Sea.

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They believe it could be the wreck of an 18th century vessel that was entangled in a corruption

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00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:18,160
scandal at the time of Peter the Great.

375
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:23,360
It's reputed to be hiding secret and legal cargo.

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00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:28,760
Piecing together information from historical records and exploration of the wreck, the

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00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:34,040
divers hope to find clues that will confirm that this is the infamous ship they've been

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00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:36,280
looking for.

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00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:42,480
They focus their attention first on some pieces of wood.

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00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:47,560
They find bits of timber, which they can then radiocarbon date.

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00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,760
Cainwitton dates from about 1650 to 1680.

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00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,480
So it had to be made after them.

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More intriguing is a broken ceramic dish.

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It features an image of the biblical archangel Raphael, engraved with a date, 1696.

385
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:14,520
These two pieces of dating evidence indicate this is the wreck of the archangel Raphael.

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00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:18,880
The archaeologists realized they found a very special shipwreck.

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00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:25,000
The divers have conclusive proof they found a notorious shipwreck with a 300-year-old

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00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,200
unsolved mystery.

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00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:33,920
Historical sources suggest the archangel Raphael could have been laden with smuggled

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00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,440
cargo when it sank.

391
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:42,840
After three centuries underwater, is there a trove of contraband still hiding inside

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00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,920
the wreck?

393
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:51,480
Researchers begin their investigation in Russian state navy archives, hoping to reconstruct

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00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,040
the ship's final voyage.

395
00:33:55,040 --> 00:34:01,040
October 1724, the merchant ship departs St Petersburg.

396
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:07,080
It's intended destination, the German port city of Lubeck.

397
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:12,800
It's normal for the trade between the German and Russian ports from St Petersburg to Lubeck.

398
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:19,880
There is a row of trading towns, really, entrepons along the coast.

399
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:27,000
It was a vibrant trading economy and the archangel Raphael was a key part of this.

400
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:32,960
The location of the wreck, however, is mysteriously far away from its intended route.

401
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:38,320
The ship was originally headed to Lubeck, which is nowhere close to where it was found.

402
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,960
So what the heck was it doing there?

403
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:46,520
Luckily for the investigators, details of the ship's sinking are well documented and

404
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,800
they are yielding some critical clues.

405
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:56,880
The historical archives suggest that this ship was lost by getting stuck in ice and

406
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:02,520
as the ice moves the ship is basically crushed and wrecked.

407
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:08,840
The crew all survive and are able to successfully get away from the ship before it sinks.

408
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:14,160
The wreckors describe how local inhabitants try to salvage cargo through an ice hole a

409
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,240
few months after the ship goes down.

410
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:23,200
They recover over 350 bales of leather and say there's more cargo out of reach inside

411
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:25,160
the wreck.

412
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:29,920
In their quest to discover if these could be smuggled goods, the investigators turn to

413
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:37,840
original customs documents and they expose something highly suspicious.

414
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:44,200
When the Archangel Raphael departs St. Petersburg in October of 1724, according to customs records

415
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,480
it's nearly empty.

416
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:50,080
This contradicts what the local divers saw.

417
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:53,840
There might have been some smuggling going on.

418
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:57,440
The ship was clearly up to no good.

419
00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:02,560
Not only does this strongly suggest the ship was carrying illegal goods when it sank, it

420
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:09,280
also helps researchers understand why the wreck is far from its intended destination.

421
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:16,280
It's thought Archangel Raphael stops on the way to Lubeck in a place called Krasnia Gorka

422
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,320
where it could possibly have taken on the contraband.

423
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:25,400
This place is well known for its smuggling activities and suspiciously the Archangel

424
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,680
Raphael stays there for a biblical 40 days.

425
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:35,840
The long stopover results in the ship getting trapped in the ice and abandoned by its crew,

426
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,240
after which it sinks.

427
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:44,440
Everything on board the Archangel Raphael, from personal items to cargo, is left just as it

428
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:45,800
is.

429
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:52,560
And the ship lies forgotten in the Baltic waters for three centuries.

430
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,760
Until 2014.

431
00:36:55,760 --> 00:37:01,840
Have these precious artifacts survived and what dark secrets can they reveal about the

432
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:14,840
Archangel Raphael?

433
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:20,600
Russian underwater archaeologists hope to discover what treasures are hiding inside the 18th

434
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:29,920
century shipwreck Archangel Raphael and whether they've survived 300 years underwater.

435
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:36,000
After investigating historical records, maritime archaeologists now need to go underwater to

436
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:41,800
find out more about this infamous merchant ship.

437
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:46,240
The investigators plan to excavate the ship.

438
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,560
In 2014, excavations begin.

439
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:54,360
Divers look for any clues that might help uncover the truth about what the ship is carrying

440
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,040
when it sinks.

441
00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:01,680
Is it possible the cargo could have survived for three centuries?

442
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:06,640
The beauty of the Baltic Sea when it comes to preserving a shipwreck is the water is

443
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:07,640
brackish.

444
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:17,200
All the little critters that would normally eat and degrade organic materials just aren't

445
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:19,400
present.

446
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:24,280
As divers explore inside the shipwreck, they find something unusual.

447
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:29,720
They're shocked to find artifacts covered completely in tar.

448
00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:33,480
Tar was often transported inside of wooden barrels in this period.

449
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:38,520
Now remember that the ship is locked in ice and has been gradually, slowly over a period

450
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:44,080
of time crushed and crushed and eventually the tar starts to leak out and it goes all

451
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,840
over the various artifacts.

452
00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:54,160
It's a setback for the archaeologists who were hoping to find the artifacts still intact.

453
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:58,920
Then the mystery of the ship's cargo takes a new twist with the discovery of a book of

454
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:02,000
Psalms.

455
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:06,440
The book, strangely, is unlike the other artifacts.

456
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:11,720
They find one of the most precious items of cargo is not covered in tar.

457
00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:13,360
And why is this?

458
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:18,480
Scientists restoring these pages in their labs are surprised to find them perfectly intact

459
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:19,480
and legible.

460
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:24,280
It's very rare to find paper preserved on these sorts of sites.

461
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:28,360
Instead of tar, this book has been hiding away in silt.

462
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:35,080
Silt or mud is very good at preserving artifacts because it creates sort of anoxic environment.

463
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:42,000
It reduces the amount of oxygen, which is what organisms need in order to decompose.

464
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:48,320
Why it's only this holy book that avoided being covered in tar is a mystery.

465
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:53,480
Being named the Archangel Raphael, is there some kind of magical or spiritual activity

466
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,480
going on?

467
00:39:55,600 --> 00:40:02,320
Unable to see the complete load of cargo still hiding inside, the dive team employs photogrammetry

468
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:05,120
to fully survey the wreck.

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Photogrammetry is a series of photographs or images, and when we merge them together,

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we can create a three-dimensional image of the object.

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The incredibly accurate 3D model of the ship and seven years of painstaking excavation begin

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to yield stunning discoveries, including items of clothing that just shouldn't have survived

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for so long.

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What makes the Archangel Raphael so special is the preservation of organic material on

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this incredible site.

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And after years of researching the state archives, they finally find physical evidence of smuggled

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goods on board the ship.

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The ship is in a legal possession of goods.

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The 18th century was known as the Golden Age of Smuggling.

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The ship is a ship that was built in the 18th century, and it was built in the 18th century

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and was called the Golden Age of Smuggling.

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The ship was built in the 18th century, and it was built in the 18th century, and it was

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known as the Golden Age of Smuggling.

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And the staggering amount of artifacts retrieved three centuries later reveals the true scale

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of the ship's lucrative cloak and dagger operation.

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After years of investigating the wreck, 400 items are recovered in total, including things

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00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:45,000
which are impossible to imagine in their worth, and things we had never believed would be

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recovered from such a wreck.

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Researchers believe there could be even more secrets hiding in the Archangel Raphael.

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Wrecks and historical treasures like these lead us to wonder what other time capsules

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the sea has preserved, still waiting to be discovered.

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you