Mystery Of The Dakar

now on mysteries of the deep it was the pride of the Israeli naval fleet equipped with the latest technology for its time but racing toward its homeport at a record-breaking speed the unthinkable happens astonishingly it disappears can the mystery of the Dakar be solved once and for all [Music] on a balmy spring day an expedition comes together in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus combining some of the world's best underwater detectives and 65 tons of sophisticated equipment it's led by an American Tom Detweiler of the Nauticus corporation who was instrumental in finding the Titanic [Music] Detwiler is legendary for locating and recovering objects in the extreme depths of the ocean in the case of the Dakar this is a relatively modern ship that just disappeared so there was a lot of mystery surrounding and also the fact that some very capable search teams in Israel had searched for 30 years for the submarine US Navy had participated in some of the earlier searches and nothing had ever been found of the Dakar and it hooked us very quickly the second thing that hooked us was seeing the faces of 69 young crew members who died in the prime of their life and you know them finding out about the surviving family members and realizing that we could do something to to bring this the closure for some people who for 30 years had nothing the expedition is sponsored by the Israeli Navy and supervised by Lieutenant Commander yeah he'll gosh in one way or another for nearly two decades gosh has been involved in every effort to find the Dakar was I came to the ship was very high expectation I don't know something told us that this is going to be the last day no this is the search we're going to party the search is divided between two ships one will probe the seafloor with ultra sensitive sonar the other with a television camera the expedition is driven by the passion of two men to answer questions that have traumatized a nation for more than three decades she was the middle sister the second of three British submarines bought by Israel in 1965 she was born 22 years before that a world war two t class boat called the totem she was changed over the years but one thing was constant in port she displayed a totem pole carved by Canada's Cochin tribe according to legend the card figures would protect the boat the Israelis left the totem pole with the British and renamed the submarine the swordfish - car in Hebrew her sisters were the leviathan and the dolphin after years and more primitive boats Israeli sailors were looking forward to their three new submarines being refurbished in Britain starting in 1966 Israeli officers and men trickled into Portsmouth in England to oversee the work one of the first was Captain Yaakov Ronon in his early 30s and already a pioneer in Israeli submarines he would command the Dakar Brennan moved his wife and three sons to Portsmouth the youngest was Odie it was nice to be there we live all the family together in the end of the period they prepared the cruise to Israel so as far as I know my father was not at home and if he was it was for a couple of hours the Dakar's first officer was Bumi Baca II he brought his wife hava and his young son to England they were working very hard and started to build it piece by piece in the humble and he share it with me I love the submarine like it was my house she was the beautiful lady I called them I loved him I loved the submarine I don't know what she's first yes I really live there and well you know when you can see it when they go to the sea well it's really it's beautiful seaman Issac Markovic joined the Dakar in 1967 leaving his parents and younger brother Michael behind in Haifa as in Israel I can tell you always did there is a huge fight for the elite groups in the army that you always have more than one candidate for any job and if you succeed to go to this you are already one of the best and the way that he was chosen to go to the UK and to bring the dakara put him definitely in a different league Israel's 1967 60 war broke out while the sailors were in England they anxiously followed the news from the front the oldest sister the Leviathan was almost ready for service she was ordered to race for home Gideon Roz was her first officer was a six-day war he couldn't beat it so we managed to do 11 or 12 loads on the surface we did not find any problems technical problems with elevator Gideon Roz would stay in the submarine service rise to Vice Admiral and retire a second in command of the Israeli Navy in Portsmouth the sailors left behind rejoiced in Israel's victory and its capture of Jerusalem so everybody dreamed of coming back to be in Jerusalem we always look you know from far to the east and boomy was specially loved to the lamb and he said believe me I'm waiting to come home we will go through the directly to Jerusalem in the fall of 1967 the British turned that a car over to her Israeli crew for sea trials captain you cofrin on reported minor malfunctions leaks problems with the batteries for the electric motors but by January of 1968 she was ready to sail for home I think that no submarine command or not ship commander will go to the sea if you think that something is wrong in his ship it took Ryan hyung him and me to and then we separated it was like you going this way I going this way in four hours five hours you are in Israel we're going to be in two weeks this was the last time I saw on january 9th 1968 captain Yakov Renan first officer bloomie Bukhari and their crews sailed from Portsmouth the Dakar carried no torpedoes her orders proceed quickly and directly to Haifa in Israel coming up a routine radio check then nothing the search begins for Dakar but are they looking in the right place we now return to mystery of the Dakar the systems check out the sonar sled is ready for launch out here 260 miles northwest of Haifa Tom Detweiler believes his team will find the Dakar lieutenant commander yeah he'll garsh is also convinced the missing submarines course would have cut right through this area in more than 30 years it's never been searched the only physical evidence led elsewhere a year after the Dakar disappeared one of her emergency buoys washed up on a Gaza Beach so we took the rescue buoy in to the University and for years there was a research for every possible discipline bio chemical biological what have you adding what they knew then about Mediterranean currents researchers determined that the car must have gone down in shallow water near Egypt or Greece year after year the Israeli Navy searched those areas but that implied something very unsettling but Yaakov Ronon had taken the Dakar a long way from the course he was ordered to follow oh dear Anna never believed his father could stray so far from course he began his own investigation starting with Yakko Fran's Royal Navy instructors all of them told me if your father was educated in the British erielle Navy in this case he will go straight home never mind if he has 24 hours 48 48 hours in this case exactly direct home every six hours the Dakar checked in by radio with headquarters in Haifa every morning she reported her position sailors are competitive and captain Ronan was a true sailor with his new command he could set a speed record for a submerged diesel powered submarine crossing the Mediterranean certainly renan's position reports showed he made very fast time averaging 8 knots he asked for permission to arrive 5 days early on January 28 - told him delay 24 hours until January 29th they would be an arrival ceremony even after that his position reports showed Ronan was driving the Dakar at record-breaking speed on the morning of January 24th she was just southeast of Crete later at midnight a routine radio check and then nothing if she cannot establish communication shared to surface and to stand surface on teacher if she is found as this did not happen it was recognized something that she actually disappeared and a big search started after her which kept on going for ten days it was Friday morning I remember the flotilla captain gave us a rank of lieutenant and it was 11 o'clock in the morning and then at 12 o'clock he called us to say there is no communication with the car we should delegate and should go out and join the search and rescue forces so the Friday afternoon we left and went outside to refer to the car I was in in the window looking and they saw all the Israeli Navy are leaving the port and go to sea on Friday nobody goes out they come back and they I was thinking what happened continuously we had a watch on the underwater telephone though days and hours past will continue to call them the car this is live attend how they read we can you hear me she's experienced of manners we understood do something go the most probably mr. Mohan is lost it is not like a destroyer of good hit by for mrs. she stays afloat she burns this is not the case with a submarine submarine simply sort of evaporates next where was the Dakar when it disappeared a new theory leads the team to an area never searched before when mysteries of the deep returns now back to mystery of the Dakar in the hills of Haifa were almost every house overlooks the sea the news spread quickly from street to street window to window a boat is missing that a car is missing people come and stay and talk and listen to the BBC and trying to get some information or conclusions or something I heard that the BBC that everybody is looking for the missing Israeli stammer in Dhaka this was the words I remember it like it was today I went down and I entered and I saw everybody was crying and they told me the car is missing [Music] I went to the bed and cover myself with the you know cover and they said that'll happen your life now without women [Music] a few days later - a malign with hope that a car's been found she's coming into port people rushed to places that overlooked the harbour and yes a submarine was making her way to the pier but it was the dolphin the youngest sister arriving unannounced hope turned to despair because like every submarine that a car was designed to operate out of sight its disappearance triggered the rumour mills of the Middle East stories there was a lot starting was the dacha was kidnapped by aliens the Russian at the time they kidnapped about in some way like in a movie of a small something like that the Egyptian claim right after the car disappeared that they caused the car to talk and many others stories so with all the stories the only hard evidence you have and it's a walk you can't move it it's the boy it's belong to the Dakar we now know that most that evidence was introduced to the buoy after it left the summary because it was blown off submarine initially right at the sinking the not echos Corporation and Tom dead weather have analyzed everything known about the Dakar her crew and her voyage what's most likely is that she suffered some sort of mechanical failure along with you he'll gosh they believe the submarine is here 10,000 feet below the surface along the course yaw cofrin on should have followed you have to put a chair in a circle this is the straight line to Haifa you shift the time 24 hours to the maximum speed they can reach then you get yourself an area simple calculation actually so they launched the sled loaded with sonar equipment it will skim just above the sea floor sending out signals in two directions that allow operators to map everything on the bottom larger than 36 inches hour after hour mile after mile the team carefully watches the monitors interpreting the signals takes intuition art and science get a gut feel when you see a target you're not ready to make that commitment verbally to everybody that's in the room that it's something but you do have a gut feel that this is something that's a little bit better than other targets that you've seen the sonar finds dozens of targets but none looks especially promising then after more than two weeks yeah he'll gosh sees a small anomaly on the outer edge of the sonars range when we first saw those sweet lines small lines so mark my work this is what we are looking for it's something that it's inside of you this is the one intrigued by the new target Detwiler orders the ship to come closer on the next pass the search pattern has to be maintained and it takes 24 hours to come around for another look based on instinct sharpened by years of experience dead water transfers to the other ship this target is good enough to inspect with the camera on the remotely operated vehicle the ROV is launched there's an anxious wait while it's piloted to the target power we came in through to the bottom stay on top of the bottom and started to go move tall that told it to move to all the targets we saw that this might be something so there's this just extreme tension you're glued to the video and you're frustrated because you see this ghostly image out there you can't tell what it is and but for safety you can't just fly up on it you've got to approach it cautiously because there could be something sticking out that could damage the equipment that sort of thing or it could hang up your tether he's got to approach it very cautiously I was just frustration I'm not being able just run up to it and see what it is we'll be on the tight leash okay from the side that we came with our V it was just piece of metal he didn't gave any clue this is the safe it gave us evidence that this is a metal not walk carefully the pilot steers the ROV to a larger target 120 yards away it materializes out of the dark water a few seconds later we saw the dome and at that point I knew that this is a this is the dock I went to from happy to said I mean from up to down upside down and from some reason everybody started whisper and it was very quiet very very quiet [Music] it does look intact and your guts telling you looks fine you know maybe we could open a hatch and they would be there but then your intellect has to kick in and have this argument with your gut you know you know from experience that at that depth there isn't a bulkhead that could survive there isn't a chamber that could remain sealed everything had to have collapsed there has to be water in that submarine and that that it had to be a catastrophic collapse [Music] I had kind of a vision that the car will be found intact what piece nothing happened just submarine lying on the bottom of the sea start with the submarines laying [Music] when I saw the damage it can do for you just for my dream I didn't expect to find error like this I was feeling some of the emotions feeling I can only imagine what was going through his mind because he'd been involved so long with it after eighteen years of searching you heal gosh can report to the commander-in-chief of the Israeli Navy that he's found the Dakar [Music] there have been too many disappointments over the decades the Israelis want absolute certainty the discovery is the Dakar [Music] within a day a naval vessel appears on the horizon and delivers three men Gideon Roz duro Namir and Michael Kesari all three served in tea class boats all three commanded Israel submarine fleet they know that a car better than anyone on earth from nearly two miles above the sea floor they revisit a long-lost friend seemed like living creatures living both well for part of it forms a bow to the midship was almost intact and the impression was that if you look into the body inside inside the pressure hull we find the people but as a commoner moved to the aft and we saw the mass of piping and cables then it was obvious that the submarine went through a terrible event I thought in the beginning I supposed to be there I don't think you want to think about my parents if I would have been then they had been part of the family wo for the sons [Music] two things top of the screen on the codes our speaker in two hours the experts find items that identify the wreck beyond any possible devil the most distinctive is the hatch inside the sail through which Israeli commandos could leave the submerged submarine the hatch and it's funnel shaped ladder are unique to the Dakar with a positive identification the Navy can now inform the families at that time I was sure that this is the Dakar it was amazing videotapes you know you actually see that the body the the sonar it was amazing and you know it's like to see them alive she has voices this was maybe the first time that I I knew she's not going to come home anymore so there was no place anymore to hide we had to come to face the reality it took time but now I feel much better and it was necessary to find them that I can start my life I have my own place in my heart for this and I can live with this better than before in his 18 year search for the Dakar Lieutenant Commander Jael gosh has refused to promotions to stay with the project now that she's been found he is leaving the Israeli Navy to find it a car it's just was just question of time there was no any doubt in my mind it we are not going to find it it was just a question of time so it was easily for me to say day after time history coming up emotions run high as the team goes in for a closer look to the records when mysteries of the deep continues we now return to mystery of the Dakar the Dakar has been found but the Israeli submarine is revealing little about what happened to her and to her crew of 69 men the unanswered questions still troubled Tom Detweiler it gets back mostly to wanting to find out what happened to the crew not leaving the crew on the battlefield and we were instructed that this was first priority that we were to find out as best we could what happened to the crew was there any chance that the crew or any remains the crew would still be available for recovery and we were to bring them back home to Israel [Music] so Detweiler is leading another expedition to the Dakar he's bringing an ROV developed by Phoenix International it's equipped with high intensity lights sensitive cameras and maneuverable claws that can recover objects from the wreck a leading investigator of disasters at sea naval architect Robin Williams will study the scene retired Israeli Submariner darin amir will add his expertise they will try to establish what happened on that fateful day in January 1968 images from the last expedition are a useful guide this trip is familiar to some members of the expedition they know the area and they know the routine the ROV goes into the water smoothly soon it's sending back pictures from 10,000 feet below from a site this team will come to know very well [Music] the stronger lights and new cameras reveal far more detail than on the last expedition I know determined by bits and pieces I was a technical officer or you know any bolt and evolve even today after 35 years or 32 years serving of those both and still know them in the drawings by heart Williams Amir and their advisors will look for hundreds of items on the Dakar from boys pipes to clutches on the main shaft to hydraulic valves I think we've got to fight our ways of the records now and pick out the detail you have to persuade the ROV drivers to take a few risks they want to know what the Dakar was doing when she ran into trouble whether she was on the surface or submerged using diesel or electric power every detail helps paint a picture of the disaster Detwiler wants to know if it's possible to raise the dakar if she'll hold together under the stress of recovery samples of the seafloor will tell the team how much suction there is on the hull [Music] the team also samples water in and around the wreck to help determine if there are human remains after all these years it is the most important issue for the families of the Dakar sailors on deck the crew gets ready to send down a basket for a delicate task recovering artifacts from the site one of the boats gyro compass repeaters is near the sail about 120 yards from the main hull it still shows the Dakar's course southeast towards Haifa the ROV pilot picks it up and maneuvers it into the basket they go on together other artifacts from the debris field a light that was attached to the submarine snorkel tools an emergency kit there's Eden alone em fora a jar more than 2,000 years old dead whiter suspects it was lost overboard by some long ago sailing ship [Music] everything brought to the surface is a poignant reminder of life on the Dakar there's a mixer from the submarines galley a bundle wrapped in plastic reveals a surprise it turns out it was a uniform that had been packed away it was a dress uniform probably packed away for the arrival ceremony and in Haifa and it was the plastic bag that had preserved it opened up the plastic we saw it was a windbreaker and we very carefully opened the zipper the windbreaker and found the the uniform and that was a very very big surprise the team takes special care with the uniform it will go back to the sailors family at the end of the voyage from their study of the high-resolution pictures Robin Williams and duro Namir conclude that the Dakar was operating normally there's no evidence of emergency measures Williams and Amir believed the diesel engines were directly turning her propellers that provided more speed than the electric motors but also made it much more difficult to reverse if there was a problem they discussed their findings with the rest of the team this is probably the best survey ever done of a broken submarine we saw a lot more damage we had seen in the footage previously primarily because we got more light I just have a feeling she was nose-heavy there was something wrong before then but the forward components are not damaged by pressure there's no evidence of a crushing blow from an external vehicle it was something that happened with this particular investment how fast was the collapse of the boat militia milliseconds yes that the people would have been working very hard the Newark the problem most of the book they knew she was going down they were working as a team right through their safety procedures and somebody switched lighter the Dakar has told what she can of her story she was probably sailing submerged at high speed under diesel power in the night there was a sudden emergency probably forward in or near the torpedo room taking on water fast she pitched into a steep dive within a few seconds she reached her crush depth between 500 and 600 feet the violence of the collapse tore away the front part of her sail as the Dakar collapsed her bow section already full of water stayed intact it would take a long time for the debris to settle on the bottom ten thousand feet below there the Dakar would wait extensive testing shows no trace of human remains after all these years the analysts didn't really expect to find any Detwiler realizes that the submarine itself will stay here once we really got extensively into the forensic analysis and realize the the damage throughout the ship and the fact that there's virtually no structural strength in that ship anymore the magnitude of a full recovery was driven home to us it'd be like something that's never been done today at the expense and difficulty and risk and doing a full recovery is I think beyond anything we want to attempt at this point there is one part of the submarine that can be raised with little risk of damage the front part of the sail which lies 120 yards from the main home the ROV pilots rigged a harness to the large steel and aluminum structure it takes a full day of delicate work finally everything is ready the wind starts to haul up the cable on the bottom the sail stirs and begins its slow deliberate journey to the surface it will take nine long hours but finally the sale surfaces for the first time since the Dakar left Gibraltar [Music] with the sale on deck Detwiler climbs to the top to handle lines that will secure it to the ship unfortunately I get stuck doing a lot of jobs like that because I'm small and it sort of agile so you're being careful as you go up at the same time realizing you're the first person he's stood on that bridge since probably the captain and executive officer went below at Gibraltar after I got the lines attached I just stayed back from and looked around and then I gave my own private admiration for the commanding officer run on we will continue with the mystery of the Dakar after this and now the conclusion of mystery of the Dakar on the morning in mid October the coast comes into view Israel has changed since the Dakar set out from Portsmouth it has struggled through Wars and strife but Haifa is still a city of sailors and there's always something special about the end of a voyage it just turned out coincidentally that it ended up standing upright just like it was on the submarine when when it the submarine left port so it literally was returning home and I think that was the thing that represented closure more solidly to anybody including us including the families including the Israeli Navy than anything else something is very important her crew of 69 men will never come home but this part of the dakar represents them now carefully it's hoisted from the ship to the pier and lured until it finally touches ground it's kind of hard watching her go this for you almost feel attached to her the sale will be treated to prevent further corrosion and eventually go on display at the Naval Museum in Haifa young Israeli soldiers come to the museum as part of basic training and they're told how captain Yakov Renan and his crew disappeared and how the search continued until they were found [Music] and at some point during training its traditional to visit Jerusalem in this city steeped in centuries of struggle a monument sits amid the shade trees and the graves of Israelis who died in battle even in arid and landlocked Jerusalem it suggests a creature of the deep the walls of an austere chamber bear the names of 69 young men they were the crew of the Israeli submarine Dakar sailors of the Dakar have contributed with their death much more than the many others in their lifetime probably the impact of traumas is in a sense much more constructive than the impact of victories the loss of the car affected everything we did with semis ever since one result of the disaster is an approach to equipment and procedures that makes safety the overriding priority as well as being among the world's most lethal weapons Israeli submarines are among the safest to operate the service is so security-conscious that the faces of submarine officers even the fleet commander cannot be shown when you go to this young guys and you want to convince them okay please come be a Submariner and say okay what are you doing and you say I can tell you it's very interesting you'll enjoy it it's a very tough very demanding the job but it's secret classified as top secret and above recruits are attracted to this young service in part because it already has strong traditions one is the 15 mile run in full gear that ends basic training the songs are accounts of their mistakes and misdeeds reminders that there's is a dangerous occupation this is higher risk job than other other jobs in the Navy you get more and more experience you become more and more if afraid of the vessel because you know what can happen and then you become better Submariner the government of Israel has struck a special medal for the families of the Dakar sailors and for the people who found her in a career of scouring the sea for lost ships this has been a deeply personal experience for Tom Detweiler once we were hooked on this project we were truly hooked and we couldn't give it up we had to succeed there were so many surviving relatives that you wanted to do it for them [Music] a few of the families would have wanted more would have wanted the entire submarine brought home but most believe the story has come to an end the circle has closed [Music] I asked myself two major questions when I have problems or or doubts what was my father think about it the second thing is I'm thinking how my acts influence of my children and since I can talk with them it's good with my father I cannot talk [Music] he should me now 54 should be retired from the Navy building his second career now we have a family disease we love children so normally we would have a few kids time also sure that if he was with me [Music] it could be a very good plan [Music] I'm grateful for this for everybody especially for all the commander of the Navy did they promise us and they kept the promise to keep searching my husband used to say to me when we talk about same I know that in the sea this is the most good better ability can have I know it's for him if you died the divers in the sea [Music] the steel hull of the Dakar will lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean for a long time our crew has already faded into the sea when Israeli submarines and ships leave harbor they sail in the company of old friends [Music]

Channel: Nowhere Man

Views: 264,238

Rating: 4.5790958 out of 5

Keywords: Shipwrecks, Submarines, Dakar

Id: 5VNAGI5jdkA

Length: 45min 19sec (2719 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2017