<i>- Dig around, see if you can
find anything cool</i> <i>and bring it up.</i> <i>- Stand by.</i> <i>- You ready to leave
the bottom?</i> <i>- I'm fine.</i> <i>- Okay, let's start
working our way back.</i> - Found something. <i>- Roger that.</i> <i>- Diver's on the stage.</i> <i>[radio static]</i> - [yells] Ugh! <i>[ominous music]</i> <i>- Up on the diver.
Up on the diver!</i> <i>Come on!
Let's go!</i> <i>- Bail out. Bail out.
Bail out.</i> <i>- Got air in your new well.</i> <i>- We're coming to get you.</i> <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- It's been 35 years
that I've spent</i> <i>pursuing
the RMS "Republic,"</i> and I believe, ultimately, the "Republic" wants me
to find her treasure. <i>The "Republic" departed
New York</i> <i>at 3:00 p.m.
Friday, January 22, 1909.</i> <i>She was known
as "The Millionaire Ship"</i> <i>because of her luxuriousness.</i> <i>She was considered unsinkable.</i> <i>The same terminology that was
used in the Titanic disaster.</i> <i>- Two ships collided
off the coast of America.</i> <i>- Newspaper accounts reported</i> <i>the "Republic" sank
with a fortune in gold,</i> <i>more than a Spanish galleon.</i> <i>Well, why would she have
this amount of money onboard?</i> <i>It was always the mystery.</i> <i>Whose money was it?</i> <i>Why was it on "Republic"?</i> <i>Why is there no manifest?</i> <i>Why is there
no construction plans?</i> <i>Why was there
no formal inquiry?</i> <i>There was a cover-up.</i> <i>- We're dealing
with the largest treasure ship</i> <i>in history.</i> <i>- Modern-day gold diggers
working the wreck</i> <i>of a luxury liner
called the "Republic."</i> <i>- This will be my first
major expedition to "Republic."</i> My father went out
for the gold once before. - We're joined this morning
by Martin Bayerle. <i>- Martin Bayerle,
one of the many</i> who dreamed of finding
the "Republic." - Carrying over $1.5 billion
worth of gold. <i>- But he failed.</i> <i>And after that,
everything just fell apart.</i> <i>- It cost me everything.</i> I was impoverished
without any future. I was a broken man. <i>I did what I had to do.</i> [gunshots] <i>- The wreck destroyed
our family.</i> <i>It has ruined his life,</i> <i>and I acknowledge
that it can ruin mine,</i> <i>but I'm willing
to take the risks</i> because there's a lot of money
on that ship. This is years of my dad's
research right here. <i>What's intriguing to me about
"Republic" is the mystery.</i> <i>There's so many
missing documents.</i> Pages pulled out of reports. There's all these rumors
of treasure. Banking, Navy payroll. Recorded phone calls? <i>The wreck was lost at sea
until my dad found it in 1981.</i> <i>He spent the last 35 years
obsessing over the ship</i> <i>and her cargo...</i> So much stuff here. Amassing more research
than you can even imagine. Oh. Some old promo shots
of the old man. <i>And since he was the first
to find the wreck,</i> <i>he was able to secure
salvage rights,</i> which means we'll own anything
we find down there. And, of course, you can't have
a photo of him without a having a photo
of "Republic," too, huh? The stories of "Republic"
and my family are just intertwined, you know,
almost the same thing. Russian loan.
That's a keeper. - Your dad's research? - Some of it. <i>- Grant's put his whole life
on hold for this expedition.</i> Obviously, I have some
mixed feelings on that, and I think Grant's
a totally different person than his father.
He's stable, he's-- <i>he's got a level head
on his shoulders.</i> - Rigging profile. This is really gonna
help out. - Good grief. <i>But Martin was absent
from his life</i> for so many years. You know, I wonder if Grant,
maybe in the back of his mind, is trying to earn
his father's approval. Isn't that what
most boys want? <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Coming up all the time.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- This is my dad's last chance
at "Republic."</i> - Like it?
- Yeah. - Yeah, we're good. - All right. <i>- I've been planning this
expedition for almost a year,</i> you know, getting a boat,
getting the equipment, getting the divers,
getting the contracts signed, getting the dates scheduled, keeping track of, you know,
weather patterns. I mean, it's a ton
of planning. - Coming down. <i>- I want the gold,
but I also want to validate</i> <i>all of the work that
my father's put into this.</i> <i>You know, we need to come
to a conclusion</i> <i>of this mystery.</i> Before everything happened,
before, you know,
everything fell apart... <i>this was his obsession.</i> <i>It still is.</i> <i>- This will be
the most historic treasure find</i> <i>of all time.</i> <i>I have done the research.</i> I've investigated
avenues of research that no one else has pursued. I have proven why this ship
will have this money aboard. Now, all I need to do
is validate that proof by recovering her cargo. - We're gonna jump over
to that one and move it back. - We've assembled a team. We've gathered the equipment. We've put up the dough. We're ready to go out
and make this happen. - Like it?
- Yep. - Coming down. <i>- A large-scale
offshore recovery</i> diving and salvage operation, I'd say, logistically,
could be on par with a space mission. - Good.
- Come on, stop. <i>- "Republic" sank
in the North Atlantic,</i> <i>50 miles south
of Nantucket Island.</i> <i>It'll take us 18 hours
to steam out to that location.</i> <i>And we've gathered
a team of professionals</i> <i>to salvage the gold.</i> It's no joke.
This is open ocean diving in 270 feet of water. It's as real as it gets. - Looking real good doing
what you're doing. <i>- I've got
an experienced captain.</i> - Go ahead. <i>- I've got a crew
of fearless salvage divers.</i> - I don't even know
where I'm going. Do you know
where I'm going? - Right around the corner.
- Okay. - In through the galley door.
- Okay. - One of these fine, strong
gentlemen will give you a hand. - Fine, that works just well.
Thanks. - And for all the artifacts
and loot, we've got a world-class
archeologist onboard. - It works. - Dave, good to meet you.
Tim Ferris. - You're Tim Ferris?
All right. This is the dive crew,
gentlemen. Josh? <i>- This is
a roll of the dice...</i> Alan.
Good to meet you. But we have put together
a rock-solid team on a shoestring
to pull this off. You think there's
gold onboard? - They think there's
gold onboard. - Do you think there's
gold onboard? - I'm not sure.
- I'm not sure, either. - We'll go find out. - My role is to make sense
of this wreck, to interpret it
and to look at it from a practical salvage
standpoint and come up with methodology to get to the gold and then
get that gold offloaded. - Coming down. <i>- Martin believes there's
a billion dollars worth of gold</i> <i>on this wreck,</i> <i>and he's invested his life
in building that case.</i> <i>I've never met anybody who's
sacrificed as much as Martin.</i> - Ready to go. - I think it's getting real. [horn blares] - For his sake and ours,
I hope we prove him right. <i>- Even if we are successful,</i> you have to be careful
what you wish for. You might be happier now
without the money. <i>- It's a treasure hunt.</i> <i>Everybody loves
a treasure hunt.</i> - See ya. - We're gonna do it. <i>- The last time I was looking
for "Republic's" gold,</i> <i>we were in the wrong part
of the ship</i> <i>because my research
was incomplete.</i> <i>But this time
it's going to be different.</i> This time,
I know where to look. - All right.
Here we go again. <i>- Okay.</i> <i>- The more you interact
with the circumstances</i> surrounding "Republic,"
the more intrigued you become-- the more intrigued
I've become, where I want to go look
to see if we can find it. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- The "Republic" isn't
just a mystery</i> <i>about gold
and government cover-ups.</i> <i>It's the story of my family.</i> <i>The last time my dad
went after the treasure,</i> <i>it ruined him,</i> and a man ended up dead. <i>[police radio chatter]</i> <i>When the killing happened,
I was just a kid.</i> <i>Everything's a little vague
and blurry,</i> <i>but I remember
my grandparents' house.</i> <i>I was young,
I didn't understand</i> <i>what was happening
at the time,</i> <i>but that changed everything.</i> <i>[eerie music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- How do I know
that the "Republic" sank</i> <i>with a billion dollars in gold?</i> <i>You have to understand first
which steam ships</i> <i>would carry gold
at the turn of the century.</i> <i>They had to be reliable.</i> <i>They had to be secure.</i> They had to be an RMS--
a Royal Mail Ship. <i>- Gold specie, bullion.</i> <i>Mail liners carried
high-value cargo,</i> but not on every voyage. That's important to realize,
I think. <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>- Royal Mail Steamer
is a very exclusive title</i> <i>for any ship to hold.</i> <i>This is
a very important vessel.</i> <i>It carries
the royal mail.</i> <i>It is licensed to carry
other valuable cargos</i> <i>because all White Star Liners
were able</i> to cross the Atlantic
with railway-like precision so that you can step on
on one day of the week, and you can almost guarantee
your arrival time in New York or in Southampton
within a matter of hours. [horn blares] <i>- We on course?
- Yeah, we are.</i> <i>- What's the ETA?
- Noon.</i> <i>- About noon.
- Noon?</i> <i>About noon?
Oh, that's good.</i> <i>How long will it take
for you to hook in?</i> <i>- Not really sure.
Probably be an hour and a half.</i> - An hour and a half,
two hours, so by 2:00, we can start operations,
more or less. - Yeah.
Yeah, I think so. - Hopefully, we'll be
in the right part of the ship. - If everything
goes right. - Perfect.
Well, yeah. If everything goes right.
That's exactly correct. <i>When I first got involved,</i> I thought this project would run
three to five years from start to finish. Ahh. These guys are
running the boat. They know
what they're doing. <i>Well, it's still
not completed.</i> Oh, man.
Whoa. Today, after more
than three decades, we are returning
to the "Republic" <i>to continue along this journey
to recover her gold.</i> I haven't been on a boat in--
when was the last time we were down
in the Caribbean? - It's been a few years. Feeling sick? - I'm feeling
a bit queasy, yeah. - Bit queasy? - Well, I haven't
adjusted yet, so... it's an acclimation process. <i>- My dad's not getting
any younger.</i> You know, he wasn't
a part of my life, but, you know, I'm really
doing this for him. <i>- I don't know if my father
can handle failure</i> <i>at this point.</i> - Man. [bleep]. - [laughs] <i>He's poured so much of his life
into this</i> that it has to succeed, and I will do whatever I can
to make sure it does. <i>- So we're all here?</i> <i>The wreck is deep, dark,
and dangerous.</i> <i>It's 585 feet long,
70-foot wide.</i> <i>Jagged edges, obstructions.</i> Divers really need to know
where they are on the ship to be comfortable, and, of course, to achieve
our objectives. So this is a representation
based on our sonar imagery from 2012. Put a scale of a diver on this
and you're perhaps 1/4 inch tall,
to give you some perspective. We have seven holds. We marked them
as number one, two, there's three,
there's four-- four is a hold immediately
in front of the main deckhouse. This is the main
deckhouse structure. And hold five is where
the gold chamber would be. <i>In 1987, my research
was incomplete,</i> <i>and we spent 74 days excavating</i> <i>on the wrong side
of hold number five.</i> This is the area of interest,
between five and six. <i>After three decades
of additional research,</i> <i>we have now verified
that the gold chamber--</i> also known
as the specie room-- will be between holds five
and hold six. <i>♪ ♪</i> This is what
we are looking for. These are U.S. gold
double eagle coins. $20 gold piece at the time when
people were earning $6 a week. 150,000 of these. Total value in excess
of $1 billion. <i>♪ ♪</i> Any questions? Okay. We have good tools,
we have the top people, and we just have to go
for the gold now. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- My father is obsessed
with "Republic"</i> <i>and "Republic's" treasure,
and he'd die</i> <i>before he'd let anybody
take something from him.</i> Especially her. <i>You have to know,
when this happened,</i> <i>I was five,
six at the time.</i> <i>He called him out
on the front porch...</i> <i>and it became a confrontation.</i> <i>[pensive music]</i> <i>- Harland & Wolff Yards
built</i> <i>some of the most famous ships
in history.</i> <i>"Oceanic," the "Baltic,"
"Republic,"</i> and, of course,
"Titanic"-- without doubt the most famous
ship known today. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And they were all
White Star Liners.</i> <i>- The White Star Line
was considered to be</i> <i>one of the most prestigious
shipping lines.</i> <i>It's about size.</i> <i>It's about luxury.</i> <i>It's about comfort.</i> You're talking about the largest
moving objects made by man. <i>We're talking
about the 747s of the ocean.</i> <i>Unfortunately,
the general arrangement plans</i> for "Republic"
have been destroyed. <i>- We believe the specie room
on "Republic"</i> <i>was somewhere between
holds five and six, where,</i> incidentally, the second-class
baggage room is. - But in many of the other
White Star Liners, the specie room is
always located almost plum beneath
the front of the bridge. - Okay. <i>- Martin believes
the "Republic" contains</i> <i>a large quantity of gold
stored in the specie room,</i> and I'm probably
the only person alive that can identify
onboard "Republic" where the specie room
was located. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The specie room
on most White Star Liners</i> <i>from around about the 1890s
onwards was located</i> <i>immediately in front
of the bridge,</i> <i>and one or two decks
down below in the main hold.</i> Now the reason
for positioning it there is it's perceived to be the most
secure part of the hull. The eyes of the ship
are always on it. It's almost 24-hour watch
in that area. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- I understand
your security concerns,</i> <i>because you have
the ability</i> to survey number four
all the time... - Mm-hmm, of course. - But it was very common also
to have a specie room located at the bottom
of a trunked hatch, so the only access is
from the hatch itself... <i>inaccessible until you
remove the cargo</i> <i>in front
of the specie room,</i> which is, again,
another method of security. And that's one reason why
we want to find plans and know exactly where
the specie room is. - Of course. <i>- My trip to Belfast confirmed</i> <i>that there is no treasure map
for the "Republic."</i> <i>You can find the plans
for virtually every other</i> <i>White Star Liner,</i> <i>but you cannot find plans
for the "Republic."</i> Why can't we find details of
the construction of the vessel? All of these items
are missing. <i>The black hole,
if you will.</i> <i>- "Mathew" in sight.
We're almost there.</i> <i>- Okay, roger that.
- Please stand by.</i> "Mathew" set anchors, and with the sonar machine
they have over there, they found the wreck
no problem, and they did orientation, and
so they're feeling pretty good about where
the anchor setup is. - Wonderful. - Now, it's just a matter
of executing our plan now. - There's the "Mathew," our anchor handler
that's preset the anchors. You can see the mooring balls,
that's where the anchors are. We have one set
of anchor leg here. That'll be the bow leg. The "Mathew" will be
the port stern leg. And this group
of mooring balls will be
the starboard stern leg, and we'll triangulate and
end up right in the middle. So the RMS "Republic,"
right now, is directly between the "Mathew"
and the "Warren," 270 feet down,
sitting on the ocean floor. Hopefully, with $1 billion
of gold in her guts. - Well, we have to see
exactly where we are, throw the ROV in. - Check, check, check, check. <i>- Go ahead.</i> - Coming back up. - Lights? <i>- ROV stands for
remotely operated vehicle.</i> <i>- Aft camera?</i> <i>- We're gonna send the ROV
down first</i> so the divers know
what to expect when they get on the wreck. - We are very close
to the wreck. I think we're touching
the perimeter of it. <i>- Lance, splash her.</i> - All right, go ahead
and put her in the water. <i>- Roger that.</i> <i>- Every child has
the pirate in them--</i> the search for adventure
and the search for treasure. We're right here.
- Okay. - Heading west,
come into the wreck. Hopefully, we'll be
right in this area. - So we got close? - We're very close. <i>When I was 15,
my father gave me a book,</i> "Good Old Coney Island," and in it there was a story
regarding a treasure. <i>Treasure intrigued me
from that point.</i> <i>That book got me involved
in scuba diving,</i> led to my teaching
scuba diving, led to my ownership
of dive shops. <i>- 150 feet.</i> <i>- Led to my captaining
of dive boats,</i> and led to my interest
in the RMS "Republic." Let's see what
she looks like. She's teasing us.
Let's look under that skirt now. <i>- We're at 250 feet, Martin.</i> - 250?
We should be in the perimeter because the standard bottom
in this area is 240. So the wreck should be nearby. <i>We're at the coordinates.</i> We haven't found the wreck yet.
That's the problem. - C.J. on deck. Throw another 50 feet-- five zero feet--in the water.
Roger? - Roger that.
50 feet going in the water. 50 feet going in. <i>- It's been years since
anybody's been on the wreck</i> <i>and has mapped it.</i> <i>Wrecks change.</i> <i>Wrecks change overnight,
let alone 30 years.</i> - No wreck in sight. <i>- We could be out here spending
thousands of dollars an hour</i> to find a wreck
that's too degraded to salvage. - Can you do a 360
on the bottom? - Yes. <i>- If we fail this time,</i> <i>I don't know if my dad
could muster up the energy</i> <i>to try again.</i> - Man, this is not good. - The "Republic" beat him
the first time around. It consumed him
and he didn't end up rich. He ended up in jail. [distorted voices] <i>- I remember vaguely
there was threats.</i> <i>My mom was yelling
and crying.</i> - [sobbing] -<i> And those threats
just began to escalate.</i> [distorted voices] <i>- A pistol came out.</i> [distorted voices] <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - In 1981,
I organized the expedition to search for the "Republic." <i>All I knew at the time was that
she had carried a rumored cargo</i> of $3 million in newly-minted
American gold eagle coins, and that's all I knew. <i>A wreck of "Republic's" size--
585 feet long--</i> <i>should be an easy target
to find</i> <i>even with a primitive
side-scan sonar.</i> <i>Many people had looked for it
and no one could find her.</i> <i>All we had is
conflicting information</i> <i>as to where the "Republic"
might be.</i> <i>We searched
the whole initial area...</i> And we found
absolutely nothing. <i>We're at the coordinates.</i> <i>- No wreck in sight.</i> - Man, this is not good. <i>In 1981, we found nothing
in the initial area.</i> We said, "Well, let's go
to Location B." Can you do a 360
on the bottom? - Yes. <i>- With experienced divers
and crew,</i> <i>I was able to locate a wreck</i> which ultimately proved
to be the RMS "Republic." Try southwest. - All right.
I will try southwest. All right, I'm starting to see
something on the sonar. - Yeah, you're looking at it. - Oh.
- There's the wreck. - Jackpot. - My ship.
[chuckles] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Oh, look at that.</i> <i>Now we have a wreck.
- Yeah.</i> <i>- Yeah.
About time.</i> <i>- That's the deckhouse--</i> - Yep, that's the deckhouse
right there, and then that should be the hold
right there, guys. - There we go.
- There's the hold. - Bingo.
Very good. - Boom. - Where are we specifically,
though? Are we where we want to go? I'm not sure. Where do you think
we are, Tim? - I have no idea. There's, like,
three layers of decking. We seem to be landed
on a wooden deck layer. This doesn't indicate anything
other than a chaos on bottom. It's a disaster, this thing. - Where's the rest
of the wreck? - You see there? - Yeah. - This whole section right here
is no longer pooched out. It's just laid in,
and this whole section is degraded
a lot more than this shows. - Mm-hmm. - What we want to look for
is those pilings, which clearly show up
on the model. - Well, what we're
looking at is that the integrity of the hull
is just nonexistent. - That's way more smashed up
than the model one. - Yeah. <i>- The sonar gives us
a much broader picture</i> <i>of the wreck than we can get
with a camera or with the eye.</i> <i>And the wreck seems to be</i> in a much more accelerated
state of deterioration than Martin has even
accepted yet. <i>- The wreck's been down there
over 100 years.</i> <i>It doesn't even look
like a ship anymore.</i> We think the treasure's
in hold number five, but where even is
hold number five? - Once we can identify
a landmark, then we know exactly
where we are. We establish our orientation
and find hold number five. We should be able to just count
the portholes. - There's one right there. - Okay, easy.
- One. - At the hold.
- Swing to the right. - Yeah.
- Two. both: Three. - Keep going aft. Four.
- Five. - Come on.
- Six. - Six.
- Six. - Rotate to the right. - Seven.
- Come on. - So it drops off.
- There's eight. - No, that's not
the drop-off. - That is your mail access door
to cargo hold number five. <i>♪ ♪</i> - Oh, that's a hinge. - Still intact. That's a good sign. <i>♪ ♪</i> - Let's put ourselves
right at five and then we can pursue
from that location. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- "Republic's" gold has created
more pain in my family</i> <i>than I care to remember.</i> <i>It drove a wedge
between my parents.</i> <i>There was this other guy
hanging around.</i> It was all pretty hazy, but I remember one thing
specifically. [distorted voices] <i>- As soon as a gun was pulled,</i> <i>my grandpa grabbed
my sister and I under his arms</i> <i>and stormed through the house
to a backroom</i> <i>and underneath
an old wooden desk</i> <i>and told us to put our hands
over our ears.</i> <i>- "Republic" departed New York
at 3:00 p.m.</i> <i>January 22, 1909, a Friday.</i> Fridays in travel parlance
are considered bad luck days to depart or to begin
a new voyage. <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>- The "Republic" was
50 miles off Nantucket</i> steaming through the night, and there was a dense fog. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- The "Republic" is outbound
from New York</i> <i>in the outbound traffic lane.</i> It was a designated traffic lane
for ships to travel. <i>She was the only ship
leaving New York</i> on January 22, 1909,
bound for Europe. There should be no other ships. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- The fog was so dense
that passengers</i> that were on deck commented
that the speed that they were going at
made them feel unsafe. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Around 5:40 a.m., with almost
all the passengers asleep,</i> there is the intermitting sound
of the bell... <i>warnings somewhere
in the distance.</i> - Suddenly, out of the fog
loomed an Italian immigrant ship steaming apparently
at full-speed and hitting her amidships... <i>♪ ♪</i> Which caused fatal damage. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- So the wreck is degraded
worse than I had thought.</i> <i>Cargo hold number five,
where we hope the gold is,</i> <i>you have to go into eating
an elephant in your mind.</i> You don't just get
down there and expect you're gonna lay your hands
on the gold in one dive. It's gonna be a committed effort
to break this thing apart, to remove beams,
to clear decks, and you have to do it
methodically. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Coming down on the bell.
- There we go.</i> - Park it on five,
stay there, and that allows us to get
where we want to be. - All right, and here's
what we're gonna do then. <i>- When our first diver
goes down,</i> <i>he'll use the lights
from the ROV</i> <i>as a reference point
to find the wreck,</i> <i>and then he'll set
a down line.</i> - Now we'll tie a rope on it
and get centered up over that. <i>- He'll attach a line
to the wreck at hold five</i> <i>where we believe the gold to be</i> so that all
the following divers can follow that line
to the target area every time. - Kind of old-school, but...
- Yeah, that's perfect. - About all we got right now.
- It works. - Yeah, it should work.
Okay? - Excellent. Perfect.
- Everybody agree? - Yep. <i>- Once I get to the wet bell,
he'll switch me to gas.</i> <i>Once I'm on mixed gas,</i> <i>I'll head out,
do a quick survey.</i> Basically,
we want to get set up for all the proceeding
operations-- the divers behind me, just to get down there
and get a feel of what we're getting into. <i>♪ ♪</i> - Can I get a little head shake
and a wiggle there? <i>All right, man.</i> - This is not child's play.
This is dangerous work. 50 miles out at sea
in 270-plus feet of water. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>He's gonna be
getting on the wreck,</i> <i>doesn't know what to expect,
how to navigate.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Dangerous, dangerous work.</i> - Very cold. - Diver's ready.
Launch the stage. - Coming down. <i>- In April, 1991...</i> [gunshots] <i>When he--
when he killed the guy,</i> <i>everything just escalated
out of control.</i> - [sobbing] - And that was really
the last... type of any relationship
I had with my father for over a decade. [gunshots] [police siren blaring] <i>[somber music]</i> <i>- The pursuit
of "Republic's" cargo</i> <i>has taken me to the archives
in five different countries.</i> <i>What I've managed to uncover
through many years</i> <i>is a money trail.</i> <i>The U.S. Navy payroll,</i> <i>a secret loan in gold
to a foreign power,</i> <i>and that's just the beginning.</i> <i>There is a cargo down there</i> <i>that governments want
to stay hidden.</i> - 25 feet.
Heading down. <i>- Our first diver's
in the water.</i> <i>His mission is to attach
a down line to the wreck</i> that the subsequent divers
will use to follow to the target area. - Yeah. - Oh, this is gonna be
exciting. - Slack the diver as he goes.
Slack the diver as he goes. <i>I see you guys.</i> <i>[dramatic music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- This wreck is deep,
dark, and dangerous.</i> <i>Alan's the first person
to dive this wreck in decades.</i> 100 feet. <i>It's so murky on bottom,</i> <i>the cameras will give us
a better picture up here</i> <i>than the diver can see
with his naked eye.</i> <i>- You ready to come down
on the bell?</i> - Roger that.
Coming down, bell. - Coming down. <i>- Dave, the diving supervisor,</i> will be in constant contact
with the divers and help them navigate
the wreck. <i>- Definitely below you.</i> - Yeah, I'm gonna
shut you off. [air hissing] <i>♪ ♪</i> - Coming up on 150.
One five zero. - The diver gets in the water
breathing air. <i>You go down
to about 150 feet,</i> <i>you switch
onto your bottom mix.</i> <i>Now you're breathing helium
instead of nitrogen,</i> and that helium
gets rid of the narcotic effect of the nitrogen. <i>It allows you to think.
It allows you to function.</i> <i>- Doesn't allow you
to talk very well.</i> [high-pitched babbling]
Helium voice comes out, and it just compounds <i>the severity of the environment
in which you're working.</i> - Roger that. - Once he gets to the wreck,
he'll locate Lance's ROV. And once we locate the ROV,
we know we are at hold five. So he's gonna make it easily
accessible for future dives, and then we can begin to work. <i>♪ ♪</i> - Okay. - You have 30 minutes
of bottom time. That's the time from the time
he leaves the surface until he begins his ascent. - Are you ready for 30 minutes
on bottom as a diver? - Yeah.
- It'll go like that. It goes quick. <i>♪ ♪</i> - It's getting dark. - The wreck is sitting
in a small depression on the seabed. <i>That depression
naturally accumulates silt.</i> <i>Even the light shining
off of those particles</i> floating in the water
can limit your visibility. It's not an easy job. Diver's on the wreck. - Yeah, he is on the wreck. - Holy cow.
He's on the wreck. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- This is very exciting.</i> I haven't seen the wreck
firsthand since...1987. He's apparently moving aft,
which is the exact path that Lance had taken
with his ROV. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- This is hold five.</i> - Let's set down line. - Slack the down line.
- Okay. <i>♪ ♪</i> - He's double-wrapping
the down line and securing it. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- All right, guys, keep
coming up as we get it tight.</i> <i>Slack it off a little bit.
Don't want to break it off.</i> <i>We've worked awful hard
to get here.</i> - See, Grant,
we own all that. - Yeah.
It's pretty awesome. - You okay, Al?
You all right? <i>- The diver set the down line.</i> <i>Now we have a reference point</i> so that when we send a diver
down, we're not wasting time. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Now we can really get to work.</i> <i>- We will have to fight</i> for everything we recover
from this ship. - We're coming to get you. <i>- Ocean will chew you up
and spit you out</i> without even skipping a beat. [alarm blaring] - Whoa! [indistinct shouting] - All hell broke loose. <i>- I believe I have solved
the mystery.</i> We will get
the "Republic's" gold. <i>♪ ♪</i>
