Underwater Archaeologists Explore Island Of 1,000 Shipwrecks | Legend of Magdalen | Absolute History

a [Music] oh I seen one ship go down with over 700 passengers aboard seeing dead people on the ice lots of treasure around the island is for sure for sure there's all sorts of amateurs walking all over the islands with metal detectors and they're finding a lot of stuff it's not all just a dream I have a friend the the diver you know Mario is here [Music] the magdalin islands sit isolated in the Gulf of St Lawrence surrounded by sea and five Canadian provinces Beyond the [Music] Horizon [Music] wherever we stand the sea watches and speaks in Surf it gives and takes away turning Islanders into fatalists in the end the sea always [Music] decides over 350 recorded shipwrecks surround the Islands only 15 have been [Music] found shaped like a fish hook the archipelago has caught many Mariners coming its way high winds and shallow Sands have been perilous to ships ever since the time of the [Music] Vikings this underwater Cemetery hides its vessels buried deep in sand making archaeological missions both complex and [Music] expensive What secrets do these shipwrecks hold answers Treasures stories that haunted the mind of Leonard [Music] Clark [Music] my grandfather was from Finland he was wed here my wife's Grand father with the Shipwreck he was from a jersey Island that's why probably I got such an interest in ships my grandmother's house was the the meeting place for all of the old people I'd be sitting there listening and uh it look like a disease I CAU it shipwreck research is one research that is very hard I had a good knowledge before I even went any archive tell us what you know about your grandpa well he's always really loved history like he has bookcases full of books about all kinds of historic things whether it be about the Indians about the war about Sun ships everything he has those maps that he did he worked a really long time on those uh he used to go around with his metal detector all the time leard did a lot of research in England well actually Leonard was more interested in the history of the islands than I was at that time Leonard was definitely one of the first amateurs of that sort he definitely thought like a researcher like a scientist you know could contribute as much as uh any you know archaeologist who'd gone to grad school I got to meet him at first and then uh and then trying to see how he went about his research uh in a very respectful way because he breathes that Maritime culture as all Theo breathe it but he's one of the safekeepers of the of the past fishing was never a lifetime career with him he was always into to something different his green houses were extremely popular here then he got into strawberries he had a mink farm at one point in time I know in 1971 he was the mayor of gril he was into everything uncle Leonard was one of the few magalin Islanders who didn't stop at any one thing he spent so many hours at it and he researched almost basically worldwide as you know Leonard's own family can be traced back to survivors of shipwrecks he talked a lot about you know what might lie buried in the sand I have no doubt that there might well be something out in those areas [Music] Mario seir is a commercial diver and world-renowned underwater cameraman he has worked on 130 documentaries in 54 countries Mario was born and grew up on the magalin islands listening to Leonard's shipwreck [Music] stories [Music] [Music] l I'm sure it there around at least a th Rex of Mag is only question some of my valuable car I spent my entire life at this work to find out the the story of the magalin [Music] [Music] [Music] fore [Music] the salt domes created the islands and support today's local economy however this natural resource is not What attracted the First Nations and Europeans why are there hundreds of shipwrecks surrounding the Magdalene Islands what were all these ships doing here what were they [Music] after here the kondik is 18 11 17 14 20 wherever there's perch we'll put the flatfish we'll use mostly Mac two MA here see this one here is good and then you got to check underneath for spawn see that's not about taking them ones my great-grandfather Alan Clark that's be uh Leonard's father he had his boat tied up to the uh Warf here in Old Harry and he loaded his boat with the codfish and they had wooden Warf like coming out here you'll see in the old footage of the 50s and [Music] that long before Adam and Leonard Clark mcmx and Europeans exploited fish seals and whales but it was another Marine creature that established settlements and propelled the economy of the islands there was no place in North America with such an abundance of walrus as they had a magine and they wanted it for the oil and the I spee the uh wro would have been taken from outside at se out bass and just basically heard it like cattle in in land to The Killing area right here in this field here be several hundred at a time and uh they would been shot with a musket and they would probably be 3 400 years old you can use the metal detector and uh you could find a lot of musketball all over this field are you good I just found one there was really really flat must have been a direct hit ball [Music] Bor I bought a detector about 30 years ago what 33 years ago I used it a bit but nothing like the last three years my wife says it's an obsession not a hobby you know leard yes I've known Leonard for over 40 years did you ever goal DET yeah actually in 1979 yeah and uh we had it was ironic we both had the same type of detector you know and at that time Leonard had found numerous musket balls all together like I did but he had found more actually [Music] as far as treasure we're not in the the Caribbean so I don't think the Spanish came this far up well not with the treasure ships anyway but again it depends on what you call treasure I've gotten uh like the old coins and the brooches and the Rings and The axes yes okay just a junk of L but the significance of it is it was the cause of the extinction of the walrus and mag last one they saw here was in 1799 treat yourself to the best gift in history this holiday season enjoy unlimited access to award-winning podcasts and thousands of hours of original history documentaries released weekly exclusively on History hit there were topics for all history lovers from Pompei to D-Day sign up via the link in the description for an exclusive discount don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the past like never before with history [Music] hit [Music] throughout the 19th century human activity increased in the Gulf of St Lawrence Timber trade brought tremendous marine traffic from Europe Legions of ships sailed and sank around the archipelago perpetuating the cycle of disaster and New [Music] Beginnings [Music] I've always been interested in the people that come off these ships in the people that have helped the people that's on the ship I've always been interested in the emotional side of these [Music] shipwrecks the miracle was a famine ship from Ireland and they had um the fever on board it struck East Point and uh James Allen Clark was the first Clark on the island and he settled at east cape with his wife Mary Goodwin when the ship wrecked they went down to try to save people and she caught the fever and she died as well she's buried in uh east cape I think it was 180 people are buried in the sand dunes like in a on MAR [Music] Graves everything that washed ashore had an impact on the evolution of the island sometimes it was the materials sometimes it was the people you know there's people who come ashore and they stayed ashore they stayed here in the islands Leonard my grandmother wrote and they had people brought in from shipwrecks when they were younger they can still remember it and my great grandfather from P was one of them my grandfather was wrecked in 1891 he was only a kid he ran away from home Belfast Ireland stoed away board this old boat that he thought was going to Sydney Australia when the fact he was going to Sydney CET and on the way up and struck Brian Island over here and he and two other young fellas they stayed here on the island my great-grandfather whose name was Paul Chanel was Shipwrecked on Brian island in the early 1800s around 1830 or so and he lived there he brought his family up [Music] Que everybody who has a long family history on the islands is linked to a shipwreck one way or another but in some cases for instance Leonard's case some families are are more deep into it it is living history basically that's what it is and uh it is fascinating to engage somebody who not only knows about history but really transpires it and and lives [Music] [Music] it [Music] the islands drastically change shape every season varying sea levels and shifting Sands unveil new territories new beaches emerge miles long new lands for wild foxes new Dunes for old [Music] ships and some of the lumber from the Rex were sold at public auction a lot of them was probably stolen because they had it piled on the beach and then you know they didn't have anybody watching that over the day and night the quango off R Island B went ashore with a million dollars worth of grade A Lumber headed for England to build homes that Lumber came ashore that built old Harry Church a lot of people got their homes built from that ship sheds barns ship building they got their boats the fishing boats amazing so it nobody died died on the ship but it really did uh it had a massive impact on the maglin islands these were things that uh people at the time needed and there's no way they could afford so in many ways a study of the shipwrecks is a study of the history of M magland Islands you can find Driftwood on the beaches and different areas old wood that you could assume comes from a [Music] shipwreck as archaeologists uh you know we encourage people to always report archaeological sites both on ground and underwater it's in fact against the law to knowingly interfere or damage an archaeological [Music] site fore [Music] speee [Music] foree spee fore [Music] fore [Music] for [Music] Fore fore [Music] speech fore [Music] spee [Music] spee melenos continue to discover relics from the deep washed up on their beaches but what about out there under the sea sunken vessels trapped in a Sandy Cemetery how many Treasures are buried down there waiting to be [Music] discovered I would always research I would take my spare time like on the weekend and I would go research after believe but the shipping companies would be compelled by law to record right I made the map I went to Lloyd to London went over to a lady at to Des and he said what field are you working in well I said I'm working in [Music] shipwreck [Music] Sable Island and the Magdalene islands are two of our most important shipwreck sanctuaries there's a good chance that Leonard's map is quite an accurate map in other words we know where ships are around the islands we know where those wrecks [Music] are [Music] what you have in the magdalan island is the potential of finding very old shipwrecks and very well preserved [Music] shipwrecks for when you find something say a Canon the thing to do is to leave it there and it's obviously tempting to bring everything up when you find something you want to show people right um and that's the the first inclination however you have to resist that uh and if you do find a shipwreck you have to report it to the provincial and to the federal authorities that's the proper thing to [Music] do foreign fore [Music] spee foree so [Music] Charles Cormier has discovered several shipwrecks Around the islands but his search for the Simco continues while shifting Sands cover and uncover new ruins [Music] underwater spee for [Music] wow [Music] Leonard was convinced is convinced that there's a Viking ship somewhere in the sand at the tip of the islands the treasures that come through here would have been Timber the payroll ships would have been carrying paper money for me monetary value is totally irrelevant within a wreck comes a sense of place there's nothing like seeing objects on the Shipwreck for me that's the pure treasure the treasure you know for me is the [Music] fish they say the Essex which was the first registered sunken ship here was carrying a load of gold coins that's what's fascinating about the whole Aura around shipwrecks it's the stories the stories that are true but also the Legends and for us it's to try to make sense out of [Music] both I know where there's a couple of good characters on mag L but I would tell them there uh there one I know is very good and I know she's there I got her coordinate everything know where she is [Music] leard [Music] for [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] when the sea swallows boats it creates new ecosystems for Life underwater some shipwrecks end up feeding the people of the sea While others rest in sand igniting their passions Leonard had that kind of optimism that um not everyone needed to appreciate what he was doing or know about it What mattered is that it had to be done we knew of Leonard's maps of course and you can only respect the amount of work that goes into one of those and more specifically the passion he was always very upset if he saw information come out that was incorrect that really bothered him oh he had great respect for Mario as a as a man as a diver but then Mario has always been interested in Shipra and so who is the man to go to to find out about Shipra people like Leonard as they leave we lose that connection to that generation who experien firsthand those stories of shipwrecks whose parents brought in shipwreck survivors whose families built things with material they had salvaged from ships I think we're lucky because Leonard has left us a great deal to work with in his research but um there's a lot more that has to [Music] [Music] happen [Music] 47 33 59 69 [Music] 39 39 47 10 50 33 5 61 [Music] 39 [Music] for

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: Absolute History, ancestral heritage, archaeological finds, deep-sea exploration, historical artifacts, historical documentaries, historical insights, historical shipwrecks, maritime history, nautical archaeology, nautical exploration, nautical mysteries, oceanic exploration, ship origins, shipwrecks, tales of sunken ships, underwater archaeology, underwater discoveries, world-renowned historians

Id: JKaPIFnWRNk

Length: 44min 30sec (2670 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2023