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00:00100 mile-per-hour winds a Spanish fleet loaded with treasure a fateful night that changed the
00:09course of world history 300 years ago a fleet of 11 Spanish galleons set sail for Spain from
00:17Havana Cuba loaded with untold riches just days into their journey the entire fleet sank off the
00:25coast of Florida from the fury of a massive hurricane this is a fairly large hurricane
00:33possibly category 5 and the fleet was doomed the loss of these 11 ships changed the course of world
00:40history they had no place to run to they had no place to hide and those who survived were shipwrecked
00:48on barren beaches fraught with danger and death the loss of the 1715 fleet generated the biggest
00:55treasure hunt in the world untold riches still lie scattered along the ocean's floor waiting to be
01:01discovered today modern treasure hunters continue to survey the ocean depths recovering artifacts and
01:08salvaging riches from this lost fleet there was a cannon out in this area fulfilling a lifelong dream
01:15Brent Brisbane and his father acquired the exclusive salvaging rights to the 1715 Spanish fleet from the
01:21world-famous treasure hunter Mel Fisher we found some amazing artifacts the bronze cannon full of gold coins
01:28the gold pelican silver sword handles gold and silver coins the list goes on and on among the riches the
01:35treasure hunters have sought for centuries is the legendary dowry known as the Queen's jewels did the
01:42Queen jewels really exist it's another unknown mystery about the 1715 fleet in today's money there would be the
01:50equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars it is frustrating you can second-guess yourself to death
01:57it's a process that most people wouldn't endure join Brent and the crew of the Capitana as they search
02:04for millions in lost gold and silver is an incredibly dangerous business people have died in pursuit of
02:09this treasure they'll encounter the harsh realities of this dangerous quest we had a great white shark right
02:15in the middle of our Corrigan's wreck site we lost a diver on my boat and it was the single worst day of my
02:20life come with us on a journey that will explore the history of one of the most famous shipwrecks very
02:26much a 300 year old detective story and witness the discovery that would change everything
02:31maritime history is no stranger to stories and tales of shipwrecks the ocean holds beneath her waves the
02:52stories of many lost ships and their passengers though there are more than three million recorded
02:58shipwrecks all over the world finding one is more a test of patience than science or skill but off
03:05the central east coast of Florida a salvage operation has been searching for artifacts from
03:10one of the most expensive maritime disasters in known history my name is Brent Brisbane and my job is to
03:16find the lost treasure of the 1715 fleet never saw any reef or anything it was all no reef out here
03:22either Brent and his father bill are historic shipwreck salvers their current permits allow them to
03:27legally salvage the known shipwrecks that were lost at sea 300 years ago it's illegal to go out and search for
03:34these wreck sites unless you have the proper permitting my company has both federal and state permits Brent's
03:40company 1715 Fleet Queen's Jewels is a massive operation consisting of 15 boats and roughly 50 crew members who
03:49tirelessly hunt treasure every day for four months each year we really try to approach this from an
03:54archaeological standpoint you know it's important to uncover every artifact that we can so that we
04:00can tell a bigger story about what life was like on these ships of the 11 ships that sank off the east coast
04:06of Florida only six have been salvaged those five lost ships may still hold hundreds of millions of
04:12dollars in silver gold and precious metals the ultimate goal of Brent's crew is to find a new wreck site
04:18and unearth another chapter in the story of the lost 1715 silver plate fleet if one of the missing
04:25ships is found it's going to be an archaeological bonanza because we're going to be able to study a lot more
04:32and learn a lot more about the makeup of the fleet an invaluable tool for identifying potential wreck sites
04:37is the magnetometer Brent works with a company that has developed a method of flying a magnetometer from a
04:43helicopter we use that magnetometer to detect the iron and that gives us an indication of where shipwreck
04:49artifacts may lie it was the mag survey of Jensen Beach today Brent just received the results of his
04:55scan of a two-mile stretch in Jensen Beach off Florida's east coast man there's a lot of targets
05:00all over the place out here yeah I mean I think they've got over a thousand targets and some of them
05:04look really interesting the ships that are remaining are truly mysteries you know these ships have been
05:08hidden for 300 years and there's a reason they haven't been found you know all these areas
05:13that promising but this is what I want to start I'm excited about this I think this is where we
05:18need to go and I have great hopes for that area where we're headed we're heading up to the north end of
05:32the wrecks we'll start with this pattern of targets up there it takes a determined and passionate crew
05:39to help Brent find the missing 1715 shipwrecks Bill and Jonah are expert metal detectorists and have
05:45over 20 years of experience finding shipwrecked artifacts Tony the captain of the boat is responsible
05:51for putting the boat on specific GPS coordinates that allow the crew to find their targets drop in right
05:58down here you know you'll be able to tell right away from you know what's laying down there I think as
06:03to what kind of period it is if it's modern or for shipwrecks I mean we got to check all these areas
06:07right here one of these is going to be a 1715 shipwreck their permit will only allow them to explore 10
06:13targets and everything they find must be turned over to the state but if a wreck is found it could open
06:19up a new area of excavation for years to come this spot may be the final resting place of one of the
06:36lost ships from the 1715 fleet which journeyed along the coast of Florida on the ill-fated evening of July
06:4430th 1715 the mighty Empire of Spain relied on royal galleons to return from the new world with hundreds
06:52of tons of treasure annually the reason the fleet did not sail earlier is you had the war of succession
06:59which started in 1701 and ended in 1714 during the war the English and Dutch hindered the treasure
07:08fleets ability to cross the Atlantic this caused Spain to incur a massive amount of debt this crown
07:13needed that money to fight the the English and the Dutch so they had to borrow money and that
07:20money had to be repaid after the war ended with the treaty of Utrecht King Philip V felt comfortable
07:27enough to call his treasure fleet back home there was really a need for Philip V to give the order to
07:35bring back as much as could be brought back after two years of delays the pressure to set sail may have
07:41forced the fleet to begin their journey in the midst of hurricane season having departed Havana Cuba and
07:47moving north along the coast of Florida the 11 ships had no idea what mother nature had waiting for
07:53the crew of the Capitana is an uncharted treasure hunting territory on a mission to find evidence of the
08:07whereabouts of five missing Spanish galleons that sank off Florida's east coast in 1715 bill has located the
08:20crew's first target
08:26Diver up
08:32I found it did you nice
08:34that looks like a big huge man
08:36that is a mass ring
08:40I don't know it looks more like it's from a barrel it's got an angle on it you know I can see that it's
08:46pitched I think it's definitely a barrel hoop of some kind I don't know that it would have been from the
08:50shipwreck you know the archaeologists will have to determine that
08:54any artifact whether it be a piece of treasure or a piece of wreckage gets tagged catalogued and the state is notified
09:00the state of Florida is entitled to up to 20% of the artifacts that we recover from each individual shipwreck
09:08so they will come at the end of the year they will take a look at everything we found and then they put in a request for
09:14basically the rare unique artifacts that add to their collection but with so many shipwrecks along the coast of Florida could this be an
09:22artifact from one of the five lost ships and if so what other artifacts may be hidden from that ill-fated night
09:28300 years ago people have tendency to focus on gold and silver but the bulk of the treasure
09:35included
09:36blue and white Chinese export porcelain from the Far East precious stones from the Far East
09:42emeralds pearls silk cacao and the resulting chocolate was extremely expensive in Europe
09:49with so much treasure the fleet chose the quickest route possible for their return to Spain if you
09:55were leaving from Havana Harbor and you wanted to go to Spain the most obvious thing to do was to take a
10:02ride on the Gulf Stream this is a strong ocean current that flows out of the Gulf of Mexico through the
10:08Straits of Florida and then up through the Bahama Channel out towards Europe
10:12Casi Florida and the Bahamas north to Capicaña Ravel north to San Agustin and Patar from the Mer
10:22du Nord to the Islas Atores sailing across the ocean from the new world was a very dangerous affair
10:29just seven days into their journey the fleet was near present-day Cape Canaveral there have been studies
10:35that show during the early 18th century hurricane activity was maybe two to three times more active than it
10:42is now on the morning of July 30th 1715 the weather began to take a turn for the worse the
10:48uh overcast became uh heavier and heavier they began to see small what are called scud clouds skirting
10:56overhead varying rapidly they had this ramping up of the winds past gale force the whole gale force
11:03to hurricane force by nightfall st. Augustine was less than 130 miles away if they could make it there
11:10there was a chance they could outlast the storm one of the problems in the 18th century was that most
11:16sailors assumed that storms moved with the wind if they encountered a northeast wind they would
11:22assume that the storm was approaching them from the northeast when in fact the storm circulation meant
11:28that the storm was to their southeast and they might make the wrong decision on which way to sail
11:32Donovia thought he could outrun the hurricane unfortunately it was overtaking him
11:41with a major hurricane barreling down on the 11 ships any chance of surviving the storm at sea
11:46was left in the hands of fate
11:48the storm at sea
11:56july 30th 1715 the fleet was moving from the bahama channel but slowly this was the most difficult day
12:04of sailing yet the normal trade winds the fleet needed to help push them through the channel have
12:09disappeared normally in this area in late july you'd be experiencing the trade winds they come from out of
12:17the southeast and they give you a boost as you're sailing up the bahama channel they're coming from
12:22behind on your ship the problem with the 1715 fleet was they began encountering strong northeasterly winds
12:30and that's because they had a hurricane circulation to their southeast with wind and waves turning against
12:36them they had only one option they had to do a maneuver that's called tacking into the wind
12:42what you end up doing is a zigzag course going up the channel now this is very slow and cumbersome
12:48and and when you change tack when you go from this tack to that tack it takes a lot of effort the
12:53sailors have to go aloft and change the rigging around to get the sails in the right direction
12:58if they'd had their trade winds behind them they probably would have gone through the bahama channel
13:02in one day and avoided the storm but the winds of the storm were against them these winds
13:08so often as sailors best friends were quickly turning into their worst enemy
13:18night on july 30 the winds are now approaching 100 miles per hour the crew battened down the
13:25hatches in an attempt to keep the ship from taking on water despite the battening down of the hatches
13:31water was seeping inside and they had to maintain the bilge pumps almost constantly to keep the ships
13:37filling with water it had to have been a fairly strong hurricane possibly category three four or five
13:47and we also know that they experienced hurricane force winds in saint augustine nearly 130 miles away
13:54so this gives us the idea this is a fairly large hurricane and a very strong hurricane
13:59the fate of the fate of the 11 ships was quickly becoming a horrifying reality
14:12they had no place to run no place to hide during the height of the hurricane it must have been hell
14:20on the decks of those ships most of their top sails had completely disintegrated and they lost control of
14:27their ships it's 2 am with gusts of over 100 miles per hour the ships are now at the mercy of the wind
14:40they had one last trick to play the captain ordered all deck cannons and heavy cargo thrown overboard to
14:46lighten the ship allowing the ship to ride over reefs and rocks this effort would get the ship closer to
14:53shore giving passengers a fighting chance to survive they didn't stand a chance against the hurricane of
15:03this force and in such hostile territory
15:07the storm claimed all 11 ships more than 1 000 souls perished
15:27300 years later the effort to salvage valuable artifacts from the events of that tragic night continue
15:39the whole intent of going down to jensen beach is just to look for evidence of a shipwreck now we've
15:44got these surveys that show us large masses of targets but this is archaeology so we don't want to
15:51start you know right in the middle of it and disturb the main cultural pile so we've got targets that are on
15:57the periphery of these main clusters of targets and what we're looking for is just some indication that
16:04the shipwreck is there his first target provided promising results but it's not definitive proof this
16:09is a 1715 wreck site this next target require a tried and true salvage technique not high-tech equipment
16:19okay here comes bill we use these blowers to excavate the sand can you see the bottom bill
16:26so it's just sand yeah basically it's a prop wash diverter all right brent i got the buoy up let's
16:32go ahead and start digging but we move all that sand out of the way get down to the bedrock and that's
16:38where these artifacts lie once the sand has been moved the divers have only a small amount of time
16:43to search the hole before the ocean's currents fill it back in there's no potential risk of doing any
16:48damage along the beach because it's just sand over bedrock such simple yet necessary devices were first
16:56used over 50 years ago the man who pioneered the hunt for the 1715 fleet was a construction contractor
17:08named kip wagner kip wagner is the one who really got the 1715 fleet adventure started
17:17in the 20th century the idea of a sunken fleet of ships bearing treasure was just a myth
17:23contradicted only by beachcombers who would occasionally find artifacts along the shore
17:27like most myths it had a basis in truth there was some facts to it it really was the beachcombers
17:34prior to kip that had found spanish silver coins and had found spanish gold coins that got kip's
17:40interest up and that moved things forward kip wagner was uh definitely one of the most successful
17:46salvers that's ever lived he was the right guy at the right time in the right place having made major
17:53discoveries this way kip's path would soon cross with another pioneer who would become famous around the
17:59world for finding one of the largest treasures in recorded history
18:11in the 1950s the east coast of florida was becoming a hotbed for treasure hunters
18:17kip wagner's discovery of the 1715 fleet quickly gained the attention of the young dive shop owner who
18:22dreamed of finding lost treasure mel fisher mel had opened the second dive shop in the united
18:29states in redonda beach california he had taught thousands of people how to scuba dive an expert
18:34diver mel sold his business and moved his family to florida to work with kip mel talked with the
18:39various people that wanted to come with him and he put together seven or eight guys and said look
18:43we'll give it one year we'll sell out all of our businesses all of our homes everything to find
18:48treasure mel consistently sought new technology to help him find shipwrecks faster but he was also
18:54looking for a way to see better while diving in may of 1964 mel dug a hole with his newly invented
19:03mailboxes or blowers that diverted the prop wash towards the bottom and was a hundred times more
19:09effective than the dredging techniques that kip had been using the mailboxes were meant to push clear
19:14water from the top to the bottom giving greater visibility to divers but the result was better than
19:20imagined the mailboxes uncovered years of sand and debris to reveal bedrock and sometimes more on that
19:27day in may it blew the sand away and mel went down and the bottom was paved with gold doubloons they
19:32found 1200 gold coins in that one day and working about a hundred yards north of where mel had made his
19:39big find kip found a spot and he actually found 1300 gold coins in one day and those are the two biggest
19:47days of gold coins that have ever been found in florida waters back then worth many millions of
19:54dollars today uh you know tens of millions of dollars in 2010 brent brisbane purchased the exclusive
20:01salvaging rights from the fisher family and has carried on the summer tradition ever since every day
20:07we go out there is an adventure you never know what the day is going to bring you know some days are
20:12difficult and they try your patience but some days make it all worthwhile it's day two of brent's
20:28exploration of a new area in search of one of the five missing ships from the 1715 fleet
20:33and i've put my heart and soul into this we were 12 14 16 hour days on the water so you know it weighs
20:43on me at the end of the day when i put my head on the pillow how are we going to keep going into the
20:47future among the lessons brent has learned is that everyone has a theory about where the missing shipwrecks
20:52may be well 2008 that old guy was talking about some cannons down here probably about 15 feet of water
21:03another one of your treasure hunting ghost stories no actually i snorkeled over them and saw them
21:07really and put eyes on them huh put eyes on the two sitting out straight cannons are an important
21:12signpost you know they're indicative of a spanish shipwreck but jonah's story about these cannons
21:17doesn't match up with what's on brent's map and brent only has five targets remaining from the state
21:22you've actually put eyes on them i think that'd be a worthwhile endeavor let's roll up there yeah
21:26we'll probably locate them optimistic brent and his crew head north we're going to tow a diver behind
21:32our skiff so that he can just visually look in the water and see if anything's protruding from the
21:38sir the bottom you know the sand they're on a pile of rocks down there they are yeah yeah they're sitting
21:44right on top of it there's no way that they're buried i mean it's not like you know when were you on
21:49them two years ago no either 08 or 09 oh wow yeah yeah they're still here been here forever
21:59currents and tides are always changing the ocean floor still brent is hopeful that jonah can find
22:04the rumored cannons the technology is an amazing thing you know it can help us a tremendous amount
22:09it's not by any means foolproof it really takes bodies in the water to get out there and investigate
22:15these targets i gotta really pay attention here very dangerous driving these guys behind the boat
22:20the rope can get stuck in the propeller they also look like bait for sharks
22:27florida's warm waters and ample supply of bait make its shallow coastline an ideal habitat for sharks
22:33earlier this spring we had a great white shark named catherine we can track it on a website it came down
22:40turned went right into the middle of the sebastian inlet down the coast right in the middle of our
22:45corrigan's wreck site finally it went a little offshore and then headed south only a couple of years
22:50into brent's salvage efforts of the 1715 fleet did he experience the hazards of diving for this treasure
22:55firsthand one of the worst days of my life was in 2013 one of my drivers passed while scuba diving
23:03to think about one of your closest friends and employees you know losing his life while in search of
23:09this treasure it's a dangerous game to actually experience something like that was the most
23:15horrific day of my life diving is inherently dangerous you know you have a shallow water
23:20blackout or you bang your head on one of those rocks down there and you pass out and it can be over in
23:25a matter of seconds regardless of the hazards the effort continues jonas seemed to indicate that there
23:34was some reef or something that it was on let's go and see if we see just any kind of reef
23:39at all or is it all just been sand so far no it's all sand hey guys i'm thinking what you ought to
23:44do is maybe start in on the beach and start running transects straight out from the beach
23:49and that'll give us a better indication of uh you know where we are roger that brent and his crew's
23:56passion is turning to frustration i guess those things are probably buried in the sand i don't i
24:03it's the only other explanation i can say there ain't no roof reef exposed anywhere is there no no
24:10i think you're gonna waste time doing that look we can't even find targets with the numbers on it
24:14i know brent would love to find those cannons believe me i'd love to find the cannons so
24:20why don't you kill an hour grab the coil bro grab your coil and let's go all right it's gonna make
24:27you happy let's do it just 17 days after purchasing the salvage rights from the fisher family brent found
24:38a relic of historical significance we find this bronze cannon laying below it there are 22 gold coins
24:45and you know that in and of itself was amazing i had only been here a couple of months i sat there
24:49and watched those gold coins come up out of the ocean and just complete awe little did we know that
24:54once we got back to our conservation lab we started to remove the encrustation from the cannon we could
24:59see the edges of more coins it's kind of a treasure hunter's tale that's been passed down for years and
25:07years and years and years that you know they used to smuggle treasure inside of cannons we've heard
25:15it forever but no one's ever proved that theory until this cannon came up and there was a bounty of
25:21gold and silver coins hidden inside it so in the short time that we've been doing this we found some
25:28amazing artifacts but when we find something significant and it makes national news it reinforces my
25:34belief that you know people are truly fascinated by the thought of finding lost treasure and when
25:39they can see it for real and realize that it's happening it really takes their breath away uncovering
25:44the past and raising it from the ocean depths has become a passion of brent's to look out at the horizon
25:50and wonder what her water holds drives brent to continue his efforts my father and i share a great
25:55reverence for the history of the 1715 fleet and we view ourselves as custodians of that history but the
26:02ultimate goal is to build a collection and share it with the world there's no doubt in my mind that
26:08we will find the queen's jewels and we will find the bottom of the capitana ship that has 800 000 coins
26:16in it so it's just a matter of time it's not if it's when of all the riches and artifacts found there is
26:23one treasure many still dream of finding everyone is looking for the queen's jewels while evidence of the
26:30queen's jewels has yet to be found many believe a dowry of eight chests filled with precious stones
26:36pearls and jewelry was loaded onto the fleet for immediate return to spain 1715 brought many changes
26:44to spain the war had ended queen philip's wife maria luisa died from tuberculosis king philip the fifth
26:51however was quickly planning to remarry and was soliciting gifts for elizabeth farnese duchess of palma she
26:58wanted a dowry that was to include uh one of the most prestigious set of jewels of any queen in europe
27:06at the time ironically there is no record of the queen's jewels on any of the manifests of the 11 ships
27:14the queen's jewels may have been stored in the captain's quarters of the capitana as many historians
27:19believe did the queen jewels really exist i believe so we do know that the silver master
27:27on ubia's ala maranta saw the queen's jewels loaded into the chest of clothes of the silver master on
27:33ubia's capitana so we know they were in fact loaded most of the accounts and the documentation that we
27:39have are mostly pearls a few emeralds a few other things certainly not anywhere near the entire dowry
27:45it had to be the queen's jewels it certainly had to be for somebody very important in the court could the
27:51queen's jewels be the reason why the silver fleet met its untimely demise there was a rumor that
27:59philip v gave the order for the fleet to return because the queen would not consummate our marriage
28:05unless she received the jewels was it the impatience of king philip v that prompted the fleet to sail at
28:11the worst time of year to sail in july even at the end of july was not unreasonable i think this rumor is
28:19really more a modern rumor than an old rumor i don't think it makes any sense in my opinion
28:25whether the fleet sailed at the height of hurricane season for economic aid or a king's impatience to
28:31marry the queen's jewels shared the same fate as the 11 ships that carried her many people testified
28:37that there were chests of clothes and boxes floating all over the sea as far as the eye could see
28:42did the queen's jewels float away are they still on the 1715 fleet and it's another unknown mystery
28:52about the 1715 fleet if the queen's jewels are indeed real then they still lie guarded by the sand and sea
28:59somewhere off the coast of florida waiting to be uncovered
29:03it's the end of day two and brent has yet to find evidence of a 1715 shipwreck
29:15to make matters worse his divers found no sign of the rumored cannons they were searching for
29:20yeah man i'm obviously disappointed that we couldn't find those cannons and we spent
29:24better part of the day out there looking for them you know kind of all based on you know an old ghost
29:29story you know i think we put in a good faith effort and uh we'll give it another shot in the morning
29:34with only a few legal targets left brent's chances of finding a shipwreck are dwindling
29:48morning july 31 1715 those who survived the wrecking those who were not seriously injured were still
30:05facing enormous danger no one knew it at the time but when all 11 ships went down so did any hope of
30:14rescue the survivors were stranded when the ships went down a large portion of the hull was visible
30:23above the water you would have seen a lot of debris that would have washed through the beach you would
30:30have seen a lot of bodies it was really a dark situation they were in
30:36for those who had bottled the harsh beaches of florida it was easier finding gold and silver and
30:46treasure than basic necessities like food and water many survivors had to do something to protect
30:53themselves from the heat from the sun and from mosquitoes by evening on the first day the shipwrecked
31:02sailors were enduring the wrath of florida's most savage creature i've heard that somebody was
31:07burying themselves and men and women and children up to the neck to escape that and we know that in
31:15in those days there were a lot of mosquitoes carrying malaria relief would not come until morning
31:21days passed and their situation was growing worse at this time no one knew what had happened to any of
31:35the other ships a sailor from the southernmost ship walked up the beach to the survey the fate of the
31:40other ships and when he got to the northernmost shipwreck he reported that none of the ships had
31:45survived intact eventually the command system aboard the ships took over they organized themselves and
32:00took stock of the supplies they could salvage it was also imperative to create shelter from any wreckage
32:09they could find as more of the treasure washed ashore some of the survivors began storing it salvage camps were
32:21set up on the coast a decision was soon made that word of the fleet's demise must be sent to spain
32:29two parties were dispatched one to havana another to saint augustine some 120 miles north up the coast of
32:36florida the word of the 11 spanish treasure galleons filled with silver and shipwrecked off the coast
32:43quickly spread throughout the region spain would not be the only party interested in recovering the treasure
32:51the word was going around the caribbean people knew that this fleet was lost people knew about where it
32:58was and the salvage camps uh were attacked many times upon arrival the spanish navy rescued what remained of
33:11the survivors and began the salvage operation to reclaim what they could of the treasure to this day the
33:18loss of the 1715 silver fleet is one of the most tragic maritime disasters in world history
33:28it's day three for brent and his crew this last dive is most important for finding evidence of the
33:37lost 1715 shipwreck but brent is nervous after this dive side he'll know definitely whether his
33:44expedition was worth the time and money dad i think if we set up right in that area we'll be able to
33:49determine right away whether or not they're cannon or more of this modern debris we've been encountering
33:53i've been waiting for the spot all year well good then you can dive today normally at the helm tony is
33:59eager to get in the water and change this string of bad luck a little drop says bb size jonah says i
34:08use too much uh spit give me the uh a bb size drop well i don't know this is right on the back of the
34:14i can't read you know i'm blind i'm ready let's get this party going okay t-bone this is the last target
34:21that we're allowed to dig on in our permit so let's make the best of it
34:26you see him use that spit for the mask it's like he uses too much of everything laundry detergent
34:32coffee just piles it in hey just open up my tank please yep
34:41brent's first look at the site gives him a sickening feeling yeah there's stuff down there
34:54can't tell exactly what it is but it's down there all brent can see is modern wreckage
35:01definitely ain't no cannons boys
35:03while bill and tony scour the ocean's floor brent is convinced this has been a huge waste of time
35:13i'm just off that i've wasted a year looking for a wreck that's not here um i was really hopeful that
35:19these things were canon and they're not it's garbage it's you know modern reef and uh you
35:25know it's just a it's a disappointing agonizing feeling to know that i put all this time all this
35:30effort and certainly more than money um into this and you know it's not looking good at this point
35:36and i'm not happy about it topside bill confirms brent's fears
35:44yeah there's something here brent uh it's all like uh artificial reef you know
35:49handmade stuff uh modern stuff more like what was you saw yesterday yeah big concrete uh telephone
35:54poles stuff like that but still underwater tony has just made a major discovery
36:15it's the final dive for brent and his crew in this new spot where they are looking for the missing 1715
36:20ships you know i've always felt in my life that i was smart enough and if i worked hard enough i could
36:27persevere and accomplish any task but out here that's not necessarily the case there's no rhyme
36:32or reason to the way these ships broke up so it really just boils down to hard work you've got to go
36:38out move that sand away from the bottom of the ocean to see what's there tony and bill have scoured
36:44the ocean floor looking for any artifacts that could be from a 1715 shipwreck something here brent uh it's
36:51all like uh artificial reef you know stuff like that then out of the silence
36:57what you got t oh yeah look at that that's a beauty yeah look at that the blade coming out
37:17the whole hill the handle the knuckle guard that's amazing it's amazing to be the first person to grab
37:23that artifact in 300 years it's in perfect condition you can see the whole handle with
37:27this artifact in hand it is clear to brent they are on the trail of a 1715 shipwreck that's amazing
37:33artifacts this is an excellent sign man spanish shipwreck material it's nothing like bringing
37:39up treasure being on the water finding something that's 300 years old it's the best feeling in the
37:44world oh man that's nice man that's 100 a sword handle man absolutely man get it tagged up make it
37:51official that's the best find i've ever had the significance of this find is not
37:57lost on brent still there is more work to be done to prove these artifacts are from the missing 1715
38:03ships 300 years of history it's been laying down there all this time and it just came up man that
38:09is something else when we started out on this journey we were looking for evidence of one of
38:13the missing 1715 fleet ships i think we found that can we just dig some more holes no unfortunately
38:18that's it we're done how can you end it like that the state only allowed me 10 targets we absolutely
38:24hit it you know these artifacts and these coins and stuff have been just laying there for 300 years
38:29and you're the first person to come along and pick it up you know that's uh that's an incredible
38:32feeling you put that on electrolysis that could clean up uh really nice almost like now this is the
38:38last hole that we dug um unfortunately it was the best hole that we dug and i wish now that we could
38:43stay out here longer and just keep working through it just think jonah you're the first person to joust
38:48with that in 300 years i'll wear that on my chain from now on who used all my spit it was jonah he
38:54told me to put it on i stuffed ten dollars a bottle thanks dude i'm sorry guys like you're baking a cake
39:05the whole endeavor of heading down to jensen beach was to try to prove that there's a lost shipwreck there
39:10and the vast majority of the targets that we found had nothing to do with a spanish shipwreck but in and
39:16amongst that debris were the artifacts that tony recovered and that made the whole trip worthwhile
39:21for the crew of the capitana the jensen beach exploration would close the 2014 salvaging season
39:28only time will tell if brent and his crew will one day have the opportunity to salvage this newly
39:32discovered wreck one year later after brent and his crew found evidence of a 1715 shipwreck they would
39:42make a major discovery the historic find was all captured by a japanese film crew
40:05july 31st of 2015 was not unlike any other day we worked for about an hour bilk said i don't like it
40:12it's dirty things aren't going very well and lo and behold the next hole the bottom was paved with gold
40:34so
40:47300 years to the day of the spanish fleet's demise the crew of the capitana would uncover a find of great
40:53historical significance three centuries in the making over four days of excavation they would recover more
41:01than 350 gold coins valued at four and a half million dollars
41:11it would be the single greatest recovery of spanish treasure in the last 30 years to be sitting here
41:16300 years later on july 31st it was a magical experience for us we found more treasure in that day that has been
41:25found in the last 30 years
41:31the centerpiece of the cruise discovery were nine rare coins known as royals these coins were minted
41:37specifically for king philip v and today each royal is estimated to be worth 350 000 dollars
41:44these coins are perfect specimens and they were made by royal order for the king of spain
42:01another 11 prior to our finding of those nine coins there were only about 20 known to exist in the world
42:08the most rewarding part of this find was to see the joy on my crew's faces so when this
42:13four and a half million dollars finally came on the deck and they all realized they're gonna walk
42:18away with a big pile of gold coins uh the mood was ecstatic can't pick a better spot
42:25the last six years of being historic shipwreck salver has been an up and down experience for me i've
42:31experienced great tragedy i've lost two of my crew members to horrific tragic early deaths at a young
42:37age and that will never leave me but for this to all happen on the anniversary i can't say that it
42:44makes up for the loss of those individuals or any of those bad times but it really certainly proved to
42:51me that perseverance pays off for three centuries these waters have been slow to reveal the secrets of
42:58that fateful night with this new find the memory of the men and women who perished 300 years ago
43:05is kept alive the legacy of this fleet and the promise of uncovering its hidden treasures will
43:11continue to inspire shipwreck salvers to embark on the search for the lost treasure fleet of 1715
43:28so
43:35so
43:41so
43:49Transcription by CastingWords
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