(ominous music) - In 1800s ships from Australia to England had to pass through the
formidable Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait. Uncharted coral reefs meant
shipwrecks were frequent and those castaways in small boats had to run a terrifying
gauntlet of headhunters in the Torres Strait. Dismal tales were brought back to Sydney by survivors of these shipwrecks, of the cruel reefs, of hunger and thirst 2000 miles from help, of death from the clubs and bamboo knives of the headhunters who prized
a white head above their own. And so the Torres Strait became known as the Strait of Terror. (man screams) (knife swishes) (tribal music) Great Detached Reef has claimed
seven old sailing ships. It's a navigational hazard
because it protrudes beyond the north south
line of the outer reefs. I can see some dark patches
over there on the reef. That'll be a wreck. We'll need to check that one out. There's a few of them on this reef here, so we've gotta find the right one. Can you get the anchor ready, please? - Yep. - I'm searching for a particular wreck that has a terrible story to tell, so typical of this early
era of terror and hardships endured by the survivors, when their vessels became
tombs in the coral. (beeps) (anchor whirs) Guy Saunders is one of my crew,
Karin Brandstater another. Myself, my son Dean, and Trina Fleischman make up the full crew. Oh, and of course,
Tuffy, my little sea dog. (boat engine revs) We all wear Polaroid sunglasses. It's the best way to spot
something on the reef top. - Look guys, it's a turtle. - [Ben] It's a green
turtle, it's coming up. - Oh its gorgeous. - I think that's a shark. - Oh, tawny shark, yeah. Guy, just take the dinghy around,
we'll follow him a moment. (water gurgles) Now, what we're looking for
is the Charles Eaton wreck. She went down on Great Detached
somewhere here in 1834, but there are seven
shipwrecks on this reef. So the only way we can
identify her is by her cargo. She carried about 400 lead ingots. So we're gonna look for any black lines running across the reef, anything dark. Over here, something dark. That's the anchor chain. See it running right along? Just up here. - It's a long one. - Oh, a long one, yeah. Goes almost across the reef here. - Yeah. - Just up a bit further, bit further. Bit further, just stop, yeah. Look for lead ingots. It's the only way we're gonna know if it's the Charles Eaton. (Tuffy barks) (upbeat music) The line of anchor chain
runs right across the reef. The seas have long since smashed
her timber hull to pieces and only the heavy items,
the chain, ballast, canon, and anchors remained. Ah-ha, something interesting. Oh, that's heavy. - What is it, Ben? - It's a grinding wheel. Just an old-fashioned grinding wheel. Of course, to sharpen the knives on board, but it had another use. They always carried quite a few of these, 'cause when someone died, they'd
put this in with a body bag to send him down. - Ah, down to Davie Jones' locker? - Locker. And so, well, I suppose,
what's the guy with the triton? - Neptune.
- Neptune. (laughs) Neptune could sharpen his triton with it. - There you go. - Well, we gotta send it
back to Neptune, anyway. - Absolutely, he might need it. - There's one more place to search. We swim through the surf
to where the ship first hit and may have dumped her
heavy cargo of lead. (water gurgles) There's the lead ingots. It's proof the wreck is the Charles Eaton. Tuffy goes snorkeling too. The day this ship went down in the coral was the beginning of the
most bloodthirsty chapter in Australia's maritime history. Not only did they have
to survive the shipwreck, but they had to go north
through the headhunter country. And the crew of the boat, they
jumped into the only boat, and took off and left all
the rest to their fate. (lightening crashes) (waves smash) And as the ship broke up here on the reef, they quickly fashioned two rafts, launched them in the
water, crowded on them, and drifted northwest into
the headhunter country. We follow in the castaways' path. (upbeat guitar music) (fishing rod whirs) - Ah, it's a massive fish. Oh it must be a big one,
it's putting up a fight. - I don't know what it
though, but it's big. It's a shark! - I've caught a shark,
oh my gosh, oh my gosh. (screams) - [Guy] I'll grab that. - Oh, you're too pretty to eat for dinner. - On this pretty island the
castaways drama continued. The two rafts slowly drifted
in towards this beach called Boyden Kay. And some natives paddled out in canoes and beckoned them in
and they seemed friendly and the castaways they reached the beach and just absolutely collapsed on the beach through exhaustion and fatigue. But then suddenly the mood
of the natives changed. A massacre seemed imminent and the first officer read
passages from the Bible and warned them to just accept their fate. The massacre was swift. (castaway screams) (knife swishes) (ominous music) The natives immediately
rushed down with clubs, killed all the people, and cut off their heads
with bamboo knives. But they spared four boys and these four boys watched in horror when they saw their family
and their friends decapitated, the heads lined up on the beach and the bodies cast into
the sea for the sharks. (water gurgles) The boys and the heads
were loaded into canoes and paddled north to here. Aureed Island is another beautiful island in the Torres Strait. And this is where they brought
those four surviving boys and all the trophy heads. And these heads were added to others that surrounded
a turtle shell, 45 skulls. And this island became
known as Skull Island. Now, there was once a large village here, but in retaliation, the crew
of the Isabella came here and they destroyed the entire village. They smashed the canoes, the skull house, and they even cut down every coconut tree. And without this very means of survival the natives had to leave
Aureed and never returned. So what about the four surviving boys? The oldest two, they were later killed, but the younger ones, cabin boy Ireland and the infant, William
D'Oyly, they survived. And they were treated very well and eventually sold to
some Murray islanders for a bunch of bananas. Two years later, the ship Isabella, called in at Murray
Island and rescued them. And four-year-old D'Oyly
only cried and screamed when they tried to take him
away from his foster father, because the only life he knew
was living with cannibals. Then the retribution began. Aureed Island was destroyed,
the 45 skulls were collected, and one of those skulls
bore long tresses of hair that belonged to William D'Oyly's mother. Those skulls were taken back and buried in an old cemetery
in Bennelong, near Sydney. And this area became known
as the Strait of Terror. The Torres Strait islanders were like the wreckers of old, waiting for some ill-fated ship, their canoes appearing as if by magic, hastening to the doomed vessel
like a flock of vultures. Murray Island is peaceful now. The only action is among
the school of bait fish. (peaceful music) (water gurgles) (children screaming and laughing) (water splashes) (children excitedly chattering) The bait fish spook because
several sharks appear. Dean entices them closer for a little fun. Dean can see they're not dangerous sharks, just harmless tawnys. And this one is so intent
on swallowing the bait it doesn't realize it's being
pulled slowly to the shore. (children screaming and chattering) (water gurgles) (children excitedly screaming) (water gurgles) - Hey, we're almost out of bait. - Maybe we should use this little guy. - Will you come as bait? Can we use you as bait? (boy laughs) - I think he'd be good. - Use you as bait, all right, lets go. (birds squawk)
(waves splash) (tribal music) - The Murray Islanders
were perhaps the nicest of the headhunters, if you could call any headhunter nice, but they did have something
that would instill absolute fear into any of these other island tribes. And that was the drum of Mer. Now, there were two drums,
but only one survived, the one they called Wasikor. Its beat once encouraged the headhunters into a wild frenzy before a raid. (singing in foreign language) Today, it's beaten for cultural dances, a revival of their past. (singing in foreign language) (clapping) (shells clatter) Now there's a tradition that persists on this south side of Mer. Just in on the beach there,
beyond this fish trap, there was a village called Lars and it was people with fair skin. Presumably they'd either
married with castaways, European castaways, from
a shipwreck out there. Now, there's also a legend
that links up with this, a very important legend, because a boat came into shore here and the natives beckoned them in, made out that they were friendly. The castaways were a little suspicious, but they had no choice, so
they landed on the beach here, and they unloaded three chest of coins, and they buried these coins on the beach. Now, that night the drum of
Mer pounded its ominous threat and the natives they danced
themselves into a frenzy, and the attack came at dawn and most of the castaways were beheaded. Now, what about the coins? They would have stayed
there, buried on the beach. Maybe the native kids dug
them up, played with them, and then just discarded them like toys. Now, legends are usually
based on some fact and an old chief named Jack, he was actually there witnessing it all when he was a boy of 15. And he was later quoted as saying about the castaways, "Them no Englishman, Frenchman, I think." Now, dead men tell no tales, but the bones of their ships do, and I'm going out to find
that wreck, that is my clue. Guy, remember what the chief said, "Him no Englishman, Frenchman, I think." - Oh yeah. - And to me that's the most important clue because where we're heading
now is Ashmore Reef, and that's just east of Murray. And in 1826, the brig
Sun got wrecked there and she was carrying 30
to 40,000 Spanish dollars. - Whoa. - And they were all lost. And the other important thing
is the captain was French. - Yeah? - So I've got a feeling
that we're gonna prove that legend is true. - Cool, do you reckon we'll find any? - Hope so. Hey, tawny sharks beside
the boat, couple of them. I think they're attracted
because we did that fileting. Hey, they look good. (peaceful music) We'll start searching
around this area first. (boat engine revs) A school of spinner dolphins, ride our bow wave toward the reef. It's a joy to behold. (water gurgles) (upbeat electronic music) We've gotta look for something dark running in from the edge
of the reef up on the top, like an anchor chain. That'll tell us where the wreck is. Just up ahead, here,
there's something dark. Slow down, slow down. Looks like an anchor chain
running along the reef here. - [Guy] Yeah, you see that. - Yeah, I can see the anchors. Just around here and I'll drop the anchor. Okay. (water splashes) (peaceful music) Back in 1906, native
divers from Murray island stumbled over this wreck and
found a small bronze cannon. It was a French Espanol
canon, another clue for me. (water splashes) We have visions of masses
of Spanish silver dollars spilling out of coral rocks. The first object I see is silver colored, but it's only lead which has special purpose
in its heavy weight. (water gurgles) - That's heavy. - I know, let's head back to the boat. - It's a great find Ben, but what is it? - Well, it's a lead weight for
finding out how deep it is. There's a rope tied on it
with knots every fathom and they'd throw it over and as it slipped through the hands, they can measure the
depth, how many fathoms. And see the hole there? - Uh-huh. - Right they put tallow in that. So when it hits the bottom,
they can tell actually what is on the bottom. - Oh, okay. - You know, whether it's mud or sand - Uh-huh (water gurgles) - We've seen four anchors
and now two iron cannon. This one is an 18-pounder
called a Carronade. (water gurgles) Here's its cannonball,
all 18 pounds of it. Ah, cannonball from the cannon. (gasps) - That must have been heavy, Ben. - 18 pounds, gonna drop it. (laughs) (water gurgles) We cannot find the mother
load of 40,000 coins. I'm checking if some could be hidden in crevices under the sand. Ah-ha, they are. Well, it's all I found of 40,000 coins, four Spanish silver dollars, so- - Is that all you've got? - Yeah, but that means the legend is true. That they did load the
treasure on board the boat and took it in and landed on Murray Island and the headhunters
made short work of them and the treasure, I guess, is
still buried there somewhere. I think that's a legend
that's gonna go on and on. Disappointed, I head back to the islands. - Ben, there's whales. - [Ben] What? - [Trina] It's a mother
and her baby, look! - [Ben] Oh, okay. - [Trina] Oh, that's gorgeous. - [Ben] Yep, yep, we'll cut them over. They may come in close to us. - [Trina] Yeah. (peaceful music) (beeps) - He's cute, isn't he? You know, he's breaching
just like an adult. He's playing adult. There were a couple of others around too, I wonder where they are. (whale spouts) Look, look, two more are coming up behind, coming right up right behind the boat, under, under the boat, jeez. Here they come, wow. Legends are born from lucky finds. A Spanish galleon legend was created here right off Stephens Island in the 1800s. A ship hit the reef right
here, where we are now. And because they knew the ship was doomed, the captain's wife put all her jewelry on, including two big rubies. But when they stepped ashore the natives clubbed them
to death, decapitated them, except for the woman. And they took these big rubies, they took all her jewelry, and they put these rubies in
the eyes of their Zogo idol. They called it fire eyes. That night the woman disappeared. Perhaps she just walked into the ocean. Did not want to be to be
decapitated like her husband was. Now when the missionaries came, they asked the natives to
destroy these Zogo idols, but to safeguard it, they buried it. And years and years later in 1936, a beche-de-mer fishermen here accidentally uncovered the idol. He took the rubies of
course and all the jewelry. (grunts) Well, definitely not a Spanish galleon. I think it's the Batavia. She was sunk here in 1874. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, more likely her,
no way a Spanish galleon. A wreck below is great fishing above. Hooray, a red, hooray. (upbeat music) Dinner. - Ah, look at that. It's pan size. - Ha ha, another red. - Oh, nice one, all right, my turn. Here he comes, here he comes. (cheers) Woompa, look at that. - [Ben] A sea snake pops up to breathe. - [Trina] Oh (laughs) oh. - Darnley Island once had a
fierce tribe of headhunters. It was captain Bligh
who named this island. When he came in here,
trying to get some water, the natives chased him, and
he had to use musket fire to repel them. And one of the natives was
killed so they backed off. That was the first time the headhunters had witnessed the power of musket fire. After a successful headhunting raid, the Darnley Islanders, they
would bring the heads back here on a sling. And on this flat rock
which they called Kerinpo, which means skin of the head, they would take all the
flesh off the skulls, off the trophy heads. Magic and sorcery dominated their lives. They believed they could
enter existing animals and possess them without
losing their human form. (child laughs) (water splashes) A native could simply become a turtle. - Hey. - [Ben] Or a dugong. (water gurgles) (gentle piano music) Old fish traps circle Darnley Island. When the tide drops there's
enough trapped fish here to feed the traditional owners. Barry Power and friend Yokol,
are spearing their dinner. The catch is mostly alligator gar fish and golden trevalley. (fish slaps) (fish gurgles) (upbeat orchestral music) Harry Gee and wife Alena
are on a turtle hunt. (water gurgles) His hunting skill is amazing. (upbeat funk music) (water gurgles) The turtle has its revenge
and it bites Harry on the leg. It succeeds in making Harry let it go. Not to worry, there are
plenty more on this reef. (boat engine revs) (wave splashes) A scar to remember this hunt. Dean is kite surfing past the most notorious
headhunter stronghold in the Torres Strait. Uninhabited now, we're
going to check it out. (boat engine revs) Warrior Island had the fiercest
of all the headhunters. There was a permanent village here, quite a large village,
ruled by chief Kebisu. And he was a crafty old guy. Now captain Bligh, he was the one who discovered Warrior
Island back in 1792. When he passed by in his ship Providence on that second run for the breadfruit, several big canoes came out,
about a hundred warriors, and they chased captain Bligh, and he had to use canon and
musket to ward them off, and his quartermaster
was killed by an arrow. - Oh wow, there's a king trumpet. - It's a king trumpet. - Wow, oh my gosh, what's that? - Oh, I know what this is, it's a skull. The headhunters, when
the missionaries came, they buried them under
clam shells, king trumpets, anything like that. We'll have to cover it up
again, don't wanna touch it. (bird caws) Now, Warrior Island, and the other islands in the central Torres Strait,
are very low sand cays. You've only got coconut
trees and small bushes and very difficult,
impossible to make canoes. So they traded with the Papua
New Guineans to the north for their canoes, and guess
what they used for trade goods? Heads, and a white head was worth more. (ominous electronic music) So when the beche-de-mer fishermen came in with their luggers the headhunters were jubilant because they had something
else very special, more precious than gold, and it was iron. So here was a ship full
of heads, full of iron. They couldn't have it better. And another thing that they
treasured were glass bottles. A young warrior if wanted to woo a maiden he would take this glass bottle to her and she would see her image and
giggle and laugh back at her and she was hooked. (laughs) Some modern rubbish that's been eroding. Ah, this is what I was looking for. Yeah, a stone ax. Now, when the missionaries came they probably hid these, buried them, because it was sort of taboo to have their old
headhunting relics around. In their thirst for iron, more
valuable to them than gold, the headhunters would often
mutiny on board the vessels that employed them to
dive for beche-de-mer. Also, there were plenty
of Papuan heads to be won on the mainland close by
and raids were frequent. (shrieking) After a successful headhunting raid the natives would engage
in the serious task of cleaning the heads. (shrieking) Eyes and tongues were cut out to eat. Sometimes they ate more than that. In this archival footage
they are celebrating a raid and actually cooking a human body. Now, chief Kebisu of Warrior Island controlled all the islands around here. And this was because he
had hundreds of warriors, 18-meter canoes, and these people were
absolutely terrified of him. Even the beche-de-mer fishermen, no way would they come
near Warrior Island. But there was one man,
captain William Banner, who actually became a friend of Kebisu in a cautious sort of way. I mean, who really wants to
be friendly with a cannibal? But Kebisu one day
invited him in for dinner. And Banner, of course,
asked what's on the menu? And it turned out to be pearl shell meat. Now, Banner had never
seen pearl shell before and the women were
cooking it in an open fire in the coals and as the
pearl shell opened up they would put their
fist in and grab the meat and shove it down in their mouth. And a little kid was doing that and you could hear the clunk
as his teeth hit something. And he spat this thing out on the ground and Banner couldn't believe what he saw, a great big pearl sitting on the sand, cooked and useless. Could've been extremely valuable. And the boy rushed off to the hut and brought some back, a whole handful. He'd been using them, playing
with them like marbles, and then basically discarding them. So Banner asked Kebisu, "Where did you find these pearl shells?" And Kebisu said, "Over
here on warrior reef, very close, lots and lots
of them up in the shallows." Well, Banner took his boat
there, the Julia Percy. He took five ton of pearl shell
and lots and lots of pearls and went back to Sydney town. People there were just amazed. The reaction was incredible
because here was a new industry, a fortune to be made up
in the Torres Strait. And when he returned here there was a lot of boats following him. Now, to thank Kebisu, he
brought something special, a gift, and it was just like this. It was a tin shed. And it was probably the
first prefabricated house in Australia. Now, Kebisu absolutely loved it. He sat there in his tin
shed, his tin throne, and the warriors were
lining up to look in there. It was the best present he could
ever have given a cannibal. A rapid change was now on
its way for the headhunters. As pearl shelling boomed and became the main industry
of the Torres Strait for the next 100 years. By 1897, there were 260
luggers working the reef. (water splashes) As the shallow beds were worked out, helmeted divers went deeper,
down into the Darnley deeps where so many divers died of the bends. They called it the divers graveyard. (ominous electronic music) Every now and again they
would find a valuable pearl but they'd pay a terrible price. More than 100 divers were taken by sharks and the dreaded bends claimed 600 more. The Torres Strait coral reefs are a graveyard of old sailing ships. (lightening crashes) (waves smash) This is the Fatima wreck,
she went down 1854. And she went down with
18,000 ounces of gold. Now, I've looked everywhere here expecting gold ingots,
can't find anything. So this time I brought a metal detector and that's what I'm hoping. Maybe it's all gold dust. In the Torres Strait 188 ships
were wrecked in the 1800s and 536 sailors died, many of them by the
hands of the headhunters. (peaceful music) (water gurgles) (metal detector beeps) Few stretches of navigable
water in the world are so confined, so hemmed in
by hidden reefs and shoals. (metal detector beeps) This is a trigger guard from a musket. Ships were afraid to
anchor till after dark and then carefully put out all lights and kept a continuous
watch for headhunters. My search for gold is not going too well. Oh, nothing, absolutely. Lots of copper and brass, no gold. We explore the inner lagoon in the hope of finding some wreckage that has washed across the reef. We do find a luxuriant coral garden. (peaceful electronic music) (water splashes) - Guys, there's a leopard
shark just down here. - [Ben] The leopard shark is harmless, but not so this one, a
dangerous gray whaler. A giant grouper hides under a ledge. Part of the ship has washed over to here. - Hey, dad, there's a tawny shark down here here under the coral. I'll grab it. (water gurgles) - We live mainly off the sea, so when we find lots of fish congregating we use spear guns to catch a meal. The local reef sharks want
their share of our catch. (upbeat music) The meal is too big to swallow whole so the reef shark rests in the crevice to slowly work it down. With its jaws stuffed full Dean is now able to pull the shark out because it cannot bite him. I take my vessel Freedom
to a real castaway island. You know, there was over
20 shipwrecks out here, just east of here. So hundreds of survivors
came in to these islands, the Sir Charles Hardy Islands. So they were very important. They were marked on the map and they also show us
that there was water here and something else very
important, no headhunters. Well, this is the all-important water hole that the castaways came for. Doesn't look very inviting, does it? - No. - I guess if you're a thirsty castaway. (upbeat music) Doesn't look that good. (laughs) Let me try it. Yeah, tastes all right. It's got a lot of little logs in it. Floaties. (laughing) - A lot of rubbish. Look at this. - [Karin] Ah, now that's not trash. - That's treasure, yeah. There's a really fascinating
story that's happened here. The ship Mariner, she was wrecked on Great Detached Reef out there. Ah, ah, look, there's another one. - Another one. - I should be looking and not talking. Anyway, they came in here in a boat, presumably to get water, and they saw two wrecks,
one recent and one very old. And from this old wreck- - Oh look. - Oh yeah. - Someone's day. (laughs) - From this old wreck they recovered a great big bronze cannon and on it was inscribed
Santa Barbara, 1596. They took the canon with them in the boat because their little boat was
a bit cranky in heavy seas. They use it as ballast. And when they got down to Port Curtis they dumped it on the beach. And years later it was refound and created the Spanish galleon legend. Of course, we know it's not
true, but they were saying that the Spaniard Quiros
had landed at Port Curtis nearly 170 years before captain Cook. - Wow. - Now, I've debunked all these supposed Spanish galleon
legends except this one, and that's 1596. Now, it just could mean there
is a Spanish ship out there. - Treasure. - A lot more treasure
than what you've found. (laughs) - I reckon it's good enough. - I travel to an island
in the Torres Strait where a young white woman
spent five terrible years among the headhunters. Barbara Thompson came ashore on this beach on Prince of Wales Island
when she was only 16. She was the sole survivor
of a shipwreck, the America, just wrecked out here. And she lived here for five
years, basically as a native. The chief Boroto took her in as a wife. Now up here, north of here,
is an island called Badu and the chief there was called Winnie, Winnie the wild man of Badu,
but he wasn't native at all. He was a Frenchman, a crazed Frenchman. He decided he wanted Barbara Thompson. He wanted to create a dynasty with the pair of them controlling
the Torres Strait islands. So he came down here with
16 canoes, 200 warriors, intending to intimidate the chief Boroto to hand Barbara over. But he didn't count on
Barbara's Scottish stubbornness and she just said, "No, absolutely no." I'm sure in her mind she was thinking, "I'm not gonna go off with
this crazy Frenchman, no way." So she remained here for that five years until a boat came in, the Rattlesnake, and a landing party came ashore, and they were so surprised
when they got to this beach, they saw this naked woman
running up to them shouting, "I'm a Christian, I feel so ashamed." And it took quite a lot of convincing when she told her story,
but they finally accepted that she was indeed the Barbara Thompson. Winnie didn't have it so good. A landing party came
ashore, tried to catch him. They had muskets and
when he confronted them, he ranted and raved and
then rushed at them all with his ax, and they shot him dead. The headhunters were employed
to dive for the pearl shell, but mutiny was common,
the boat crew killed. So a police station was
set up here on the mainland to protect the pearlers. Frank Jardine and his
wife were buried here. Nice little grave. (triumphant music) This is Somerset, Frank Jardine's kingdom. It was the first government outpost to guard the Torres Strait, long, long before Thursday Island. And the canon here, of course,
they guarded the entrance. And this became a rollicking
base for the pearlers. The Jardine family ruled
this as chief magistrates from 1864. And young Frank, he was
a handsome adventurer. It was he who sent the party up to chase down and kill
Winnie the wild man of Badu. Somerset also became a haven
for shipwrecked castaways. And so chief Kebisu, he
had to really just accept what was going on. No longer could he look at these people as, well, future heads, more for the pot. Booby Island is up ahead. It's a rocky island in the
northern crossroads of two seas. Both Cook and Bligh called in
and they gave it the same name because of the nesting gannets. Booby Island became the most
important stopover in Australia because of one thing, it
had a unique post office set up in one of its caves. That's where the post office cave is. It's hidden behind those trees. (bird squawking) This is the entrance here. It's well covered up with all the trees. (birds squawking) It's a big cave. - Yeah. - Back in 1814, that's
when this first became a refuge for castaways and there was water and
provisions and that left here. And that went on for many, many years. Saved a lot of castaways. And then after the Charles Eaton massacre, that's when they decided to make it a post office cave in 1837. And it became an official
post office cave, only the second in Australia,
Sydney being the other one. So this island and this cave became the most important
island and cave in Australia. And it went on for a long, long while until they built that lighthouse up there. When there was a post office,
they had a big box here with post office written on it and inside was pens and paper and people could leave letters here. Now, an outgoing ship, let's
say it's going to England, if someone wants to
send a letter to China, they'd put it in here
and then a passing ship which happened to be going to China, took the letter onto China. So it became a very, very
important post office. - Wow. - There's the end of the cave. Only a few bats live up there, but not only was it very
important as a post office, it was still vital for castaways. And at one time there were
two ships wrecked out there and there were 70 people lived here. - [Guy] Wow. - Yeah, and they had to use
all the provisions and water while they waited for a passing ship. And down there, you'll see some signs, some ship signs on the wall. In fact, every castaway, that got wrecked out on the
outer barrier reef, came here. They always stopped here first, collected water and provisions. There were people who actually
came in and vandalized. And even the captain got seven years jail for stealing the provisions here. There's a lot of the names of the ships that called here, but
most of them have faded. This one we can still
read, HMS Salamander, 1865. Now she was a Naval gunboat, a sloop, and she actually was responsible
for a lot of the charting of the inner route. Yeah, pity about all this
graffiti in the cave here. It's actually covering
up old ship's names. - I just wonder where
they get the sand from. - The nesting boobies that
gave the island its name, they're all gone, but there's quite a lot of
migratory birds come here, and they use this place
as a resting place, just like the castaways did long ago. (birds squawking) There's a legend here
that a Japanese pirate, Yamada Nagamasa, had a fleet
of junks here to do his raids, and, supposedly, he buried his treasure in one of these caves. - So is that what the
metal detector's for? - Not really, I don't really,
really believe that story, but they have found some
coins in these caves and that's what I'm going to. (birds squawking) Yeah, this is called the Puri Puri Cave and it's called that because some apparently licentious woman from the Torres Strait
islands was banished here. And she was apparently
like an evil dog woman. And the natives are just
too frightened to come here, because they reckon her
spirit lives in this cave. And that's great for the castaways, 'cause the castaways could come here and not worry about the headhunters. Well, here goes, just get this on. A guy called Les Ness, when he
was here, he was only a kid, and he found seven muskets in here, seven old-fashioned muskets, and someone else found some Spanish coins. So that's why I want to work here. Let's get this going. (birds squawking) (metal detector beeps) Oh, oh, something here. Okay, right there, there. - [Guy] Nah, just a bit of rubbish. - Oh, a bottle top. Oh, I hope it's not all
bottle tops or tabs. That's the trouble. - We want real treasure. - Ooh, another one here, right there. All right, there it is. Looks like a shilling,
but no, Spanish I think. - [Trina] Let's have a look. - [Ben] Has it got a date? - [Trina] 1776. - That would be a Spanish two Reale. but that's equal to a
shilling or 10 cents. But see that hole there, now that meant that this guy wore it around his neck, around here, on a thong
just for emergency. And this is probably his life savings. - Really? - He's dropped his life savings down here. (laughing) Poor guy. I might start working
back toward the entrance. It's so hot in here. If I was a castaway, I'd sit
out the front of the cave, get some breeze. Booby Island here, and Somerset, were the only real safe
havens for the castaways. And chief Kebisu shoe of Warrior Island, and Winnie the wild man of Badu, they subjugated their people. They would literally turn
them into headhunters, made them go out and hunt and decapitate. And the drums of Mer, they
brought terror and decapitation for the unfortunate castaways. And the lure of the pearl
in the Darnley deeps, there were other terrors. There were shark attacks, the bends. There's still romance
in the tourist Strait. The Strait of Terror is no more. It's a place of adventure. I come here often, I love it, and I won't lose my head coming here.
