Original subtitles

Narrator: They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new, Mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

[ beeping, distorted music ]

The long-hidden horrors of Hell island, revealed at last.

Many people who came in Never made it out alive.

French: whoever built that, They didn't want us to see

What was on The other side.

Let's tear it down.

Narrator: Deciphering the kansas code.

If this were to be proven, It would be earth-shattering.

Narrator: and the 5,000- Square-mile lightning bolt.

This is really one of the unique Features of planet earth.

Narrator: Baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

[ beeping, whirring ]

-- captions by vitac -- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

*

[ whirring, frequency warbles ]

*

November 14, 2019.

Passing over southern ireland,

The worldview-2 satellite Captures a vast geometric shape

On a landmass Outside cork harbor.

This is bizarre.

It's a really small island,

And then it looks like Someone has just stamped

A six-pointed star Right in the middle of it.

It's on an entryway To cork harbor,

A strategic point for ireland

On the southern coast.

Narrator: Dialing up the resolution

Suggests the structure does Indeed have a strategic purpose.

You can see This really thin shadow

Following the star shape All the way around it,

And it looks to me Distinctly like a moat.

And next to that, you've also Got this perimeter wall.

So it's got to be a fort.

Narrator: naval records confirm That a 24-acre bastion fort

Was built here In the early 1800s.

But viewing it from the skies, The trained eye

Of military historian Phillips payson o'brien

Spots something That isn't right.

O'brien: When you look at it closely,

You'll see two burned-out Or derelict buildings.

The fort was never attacked, So we know

That it was never destroyed In a military operation.

And it's those two buildings That stand out.

Narrator: Irish government records reveal

That this wasn't always a fort.

In 1847, it is repurposed As a prison,

Spike island -- The irish alcatraz.

Spike island is -- well, There's no other word for it.

It's really sinister.

And I regard it As a really, really bad stain

On britain's Correctional system.

The conditions here Were so horrific

That it gained the reputation Of a hell on earth.

Many people who came in Never made it out alive.

Narrator: for much of The 19th century, spike island

Is one of the most Infamous prisons on earth.

It is synonymous with death And suffering.

Yet new evidence suggests That a section of the prison

Has been lost to history,

Bricked over beneath the most Southerly point of the fort.

The archives have thrown up This incredibly shocking letter

Written more than 170 years ago By a prison inspector.

That letter refers To this series

Of top-secret solitary Confinement prison cells,

And they're hidden in a part of The fort called bastion three.

An it's rumored that these Are more than just cells.

They're torture chambers.

[ bell tolling ]

*

Narrator: Gripped by the new evidence, Archeologist kirk french

Is traveling to the star-shaped Prison on the irish coast,

Hunting for bastion three.

*

For three centuries,

Spike island has struck fear Into the locals,

But the letter suggests Its darkest secrets

Have yet to be revealed.

*

Thanks a lot.

*

Much of spike island Now lies in ruins,

But at its peak, this prison was 10 times the size of alcatraz.

It doesn't even look like Anything's under here

It's so covered in growth.

This is so wild.

*

Narrator: Led by the satellite image,

French presses further Into the island,

Seeking the area described in The prison inspector's letter.

*

The huge banks Surrounding the jail

Were built by The inmates themselves

Over 150 years ago.

French: This place is enormous.

Walters: In the 19th century,

Spike island is the largest Prison in the world.

*

We're actually talking about 2,000 prisoners,

Shackled together, 12 in a cell.

*

Narrator: An account from the prison Chaplain in the mid-19th century

Describes the convicts here As a menagerie of wild animals

That snarl and fight In cells like these.

*

[ birds cooing ]

*

But it's a hidden cell block That drew french here,

And to find it, he's meeting Archeologist barra o'donnabhain,

An expert on spike island.

O'donnabhain: there are so many Layers of history and archeology

That you can explore On this island.

O'donnabhain leads french To the entrance

Of a series of Underground tunnels.

It's quite a massive door.

It is.

*

Penal records reveal that Spike island has its genesis

In the great famine Of 1845 to 1849.

*

Britain's ruling class decides The population is too high

And allows a million irish To starve to death.

As a result, you've got this Huge crime wave, if you like,

Which explodes Because people are starving.

No resistance will be tolerated,

So any petty crime Resulted in jail time.

*

Narrator: By the 1850s, spike island Is a public health catastrophe,

Overcrowded with 2,300 prisoners.

In one year alone, Nearly 300 convicts die here.

*

French: this place Is pretty spooky, man.

Yeah, absolutely.

*

I don't like coming in here On my own.

They were cramming people Into the bowels of this fort,

Where there was no air, No light,

And all of them Had malnutrition.

You've even got A children's prison,

And many of these poor kids Sent to spike

Were even just stealing A loaf of bread.

*

Narrator: children as young As 11 are caged at spike island.

Fatal disease And mental illness are rife.

Yet if the inspector's letter Is to be believed,

The worst atrocities took place Behind a gunpowder store

That isn't marked on any plans.

And o'donnabhain's research Suggests this wall

Could hold the key To the mystery.

That wall Should not be there.

No way. It doesn't make sense.

Yeah, it doesn't even look Like it belongs there, right?

No. Why would you block up A corridor?

It's a kind of point of access To other rooms.

It's possible this brickwork

Hides the infamous Bastion three...

*

...And conceals over a century Of buried secrets.

I think we need To take down that wall.

Let's tear it down.

[ laughs ]

*

Coming up, Into the chamber of terror.

No one's been here For 100 years.

God. I'll be dammed.

That's amazing.

And getting filthy rich In the crappiest town in texas.

The smell of human waste Can smell like money to some.

Narrator: kirk french Is in southern ireland

At a notorious prison Revealed from space...

O'donnabhain: It's like a cave in here.

...Searching with archeologist Barra o'donnabhain

For an undiscovered Punishment block.

We need to know What's beyond that wall.

Tear it down.

Let's do it.

They've secured permission To take down a brick wall

And drafted in A specialist construction team.

As one layer of bricks Begins to crumble,

Another appears behind it.

French: whoever built that, They didn't want us to see

What was on The other side.

Thanks, man. Alright.

Finally, As the wall comes down...

Alright, man.

So no one's been in here For 100 years.

...French and o'donnabhain Step back in time.

So, there's This weird hook here that --

Look at the -- oh.

According to a recently Discovered 19th-century letter,

The hidden cell block lies Behind a gunpowder store.

*

O'donnabhain thinks This window suggests

Explosives were indeed Once stored here.

The one thing you need in there Is light,

But you can't have A naked flame.

The way they worked that out

Was, so, where the brick is now, That would've been glass.

You had paraffin lamp here, And that lighted your magazine.

Yeah, that makes sense, And kept it safe.

If this is the gunpowder store Referred to in the letter

That drew french here,

Then the punishment cells Could lie ahead.

*

They are described As windowless,

Except for a small circle Above the cell door.

*

God.

*

French: [ chuckling ] Whoa.

*

Oh, man.

I'll be damned. That's amazing.

I don't know anything like that Anywhere else on the island.

French and o'donnabhain

Have found the infamous Bastion three.

We're standing in one of the Original punishment cells

Mentioned in that letter.

This is it, this spot.

Yeah.

It's rumored that What takes place in these cells

Is far worse than abuses Elsewhere in the prison.

*

Accounts from guards describe An already horrific regime.

Walters: You've got these prisoners. They're in solitary confinement,

And they are heavily chained,

Often to the walls Of their cells.

They've only got a hood With narrow slits for eye holes.

I mean, this is Seriously barbaric.

Narrator: Clues on the walls suggest

That the prison governors tried To erase evidence of the cells

Before bricking over The entire block.

So you can see where the plaster Work is a bit different.

There was some kind of Partition wall.

The partitions reveal

That multiple solitary Confinement cells

Once lined this corridor.

We've got a whole sequence Running down along this wall

And a whole sequence Of partitions.

We're actually In the cell.

Prisoners could have been Shackled and tortured

In these dark, airless chambers

For months, Even years at a time.

[ man screaming ]

Bellinger: There's heart-wrenching Rumors of prisoners

Wailing and weeping And screaming for relief.

There are just so many shocking Revelations about the place.

You do start to wonder

What else don't we know About bastion three?

Narrator: The exact nature of the torments Carried out in bastion three

Remains unclear.

*

Yet o'donnabhain reveals

That those who perish Get no peace in death.

Is that a skull cap? It is, right?

Yeah, this is the top Of a skull.

O'donnabhain has recently Exhumed a mass grave

On the southwest of the island.

Here we can see saw marks,

Where the top of the skull Has been removed.

10% of the prisoners Whose bodies we've recovered

Have been experimented on.

This is like lombroso's work. Yeah, exactly.

In the 19th century, An italian scientist,

Cesare lombroso, Inspired by darwin,

Argues that criminals Are genetically inferior.

He wanted to demonstrate

That criminals were basically Evolutionary steps backward

And that their behavior Was related

To different Parts of their brain

That were not quite as evolved As the rest of us.

Narrator: lombroso's theory Of heredity criminality

Paves the way for the appalling Actions of dr. Joseph mengele

And other nazi scientists.

It may well be the reason

Why these skulls Have all been opened up,

Is that these kind Of experiments

Were being undertaken On the dead bodies.

Narrator: from the horrors Of bastion three

To macabre experiments On corpses, spike island

Has a legacy of terror Straddling three centuries.

Janulis: 20th century rolls around.

They keep using it as a prison.

It's a young offenders' prison In the 1980s,

And there's a mass riot.

This is what destroyed The two buildings

That we can see in the image.

*

Narrator: irish officials Finally decommission the prison

In 2004.

In the 19th century, Its records state

That 1,200 convicts perish here.

Archeologists have found The remains of just 250,

The rest, like the secrets Of bastion three,

Remain hidden on spike island.

*

Coming up, the town Where time stands still.

We're getting a sneak peek Into the future of planet earth

If we were to disappear.

Narrator: And the origin of all mankind.

This is unlike anything I've ever seen before.

Narrator: april 27, 2019.

As the worldview-3 satellite Scans the east coast

Of the mediterranean island Of cyprus,

It captures an unusual city 380 miles below.

Carter: We see that there's activity.

We see buildings. We see this beach

Where you see the very light Blue, crystal-clear waters.

But in this area,

There appears to be a very dark Stain on this landscape.

Schuttler: It's almost like somebody turned The lights out on half the city.

But this is daytime.

Narrator: something has Discolored 2 square miles

Of an otherwise thriving Coastal metropolis.

Morgan: It's extremely unusual to see.

One half is bright and vibrant,

And the other half Is dull and muted.

It looks as if part of the city Has been smeared,

Covered in something.

*

Narrator: sara carter has A theory for what could cause

Such a large swath of land To turn this color.

Carter: This murky stain reminds me

Of the same type Of landscape stain

That's in sierra blanca, texas,

That you can see From satellite images.

Narrator: this giant blemish On the lone star state

Can be traced to the rear end Of the big apple.

The land is stained because It was a dumping ground

For, believe it or not, New york sewage.

*

Narrator: In 1988, new york is banned From dumping waste in the sea,

And the city authorities Suddenly have

Almost half a million tons Of excrement on their hands.

*

The brave men and women of Sierra blanca offer a solution.

*

Sewage is taken From new york city,

And it's packed Into these train cars

And then sent all the way South to texas.

Narrator: Every day, up to 45 train cars

Haul 250 tons of sewage

To a place known As the sludge ranch.

Local farmers then Spray it over their fields,

Turning yesterday's food Into fertilizer.

At the sludge ranch, when They spread this toxic mixture

Across the surface, It darkens the land,

But the smell of human waste Can smell like money to some.

*

Narrator: sludge ranching Pulls in $33 million a year,

And farmers report Huge increases in crop yields.

But while the farmers Are feeling flush,

Other locals Think the deal stinks

And not just because Of the 16,000-acre skid mark

It leaves on their landscape.

Schuttler: Some sewage sludge can be Made up of radioactive waste,

Heavy metals, and carcinogens,

Stuff that is really toxic To human beings.

Narrator: The town on the island of cyprus Also looks like sludge city,

And indeed, the authorities here Have been taken to court

Over failings In its waste management.

Carter: the state Of the cyprus sewage system

Leaves a lot to be desired,

So maybe what we're seeing In this image

Is a catastrophic sewage leak.

Narrator: But if this is fertilizer,

It looks like It's already doing its job,

As bronwyn agrios discovers

Using spectral analysis On the image.

Agrios: when I analyze The image, it's clear to me

That this is being Taken over by vegetation.

There's no cars.

The buildings and yards Are all unkept.

All of this kind of points To this area being abandoned

For a significant Amount of time.

*

Narrator: a detail at the edge Of town provides a clue

To what forced Its residents to flee.

There's this thick black line

Basically cutting The town in half.

This really looks like A lot of these buffer zones

In other parts of the world That militaries use

To kind of create A no man's land.

Narrator: Military records confirm

That cyprus has witnessed Bloodshed in recent times.

Munoz: in 1974,

Greece and turkey go to war Over this island.

It's brutal fighting On both sides.

*

Narrator: In 1974, cyprus has both a greek

And turkish population.

When the 40,000-strong Turkish army invades,

It targets greek areas In the east,

And the town in the image Is in the firing line.

Morgan: the city was owned By primarily greek people,

And they're told to evacuate. Turkish troops are on the way.

There's going to be A battle here.

Narrator: at this time, The town, called varosha,

Is one of the world's Most fashionable hangouts,

A mecca for millionaires, Playboys, and film stars.

People are coming from hollywood Like paul newman,

Brigitte bardot, Elizabeth taylor

To party And enjoy the beaches here.

Narrator: fearing a massacre, The vacationers

And town's residents Run for their lives,

Leaving their homes And belongings behind.

Picture yourself a greek cypriot In this town.

You have the turkish military Bearing down on you.

So you leave laundry On clothes lines.

You leave food half-eaten In your kitchen.

All you're leaving with Is your family

And the clothes on your back

In the hopes that you can Get into greek territory.

*

When turkish forces eventually Move into the town,

They find it basically Abandoned. It's a ghost town.

Narrator: the greek and turkish Governments eventually agree

To a ceasefire And divide cyprus between them.

Munoz: Turkey ends up controlling The eastern half of the island,

While the greeks take the west.

This town was actually in The turkish zone of the island.

Narrator: turkey permanently Quarantines the ghost town

To be used As a kind of bargaining chip

In negotiations Over the island's future.

It forces the residents to Rebuild their lives elsewhere.

They were basically told That they can never return

On the threat of being shot.

Narrator: Varosha becomes a time capsule.

Morgan: the place sits abandoned Like a movie set.

You might pass a shop With fashions from 1974,

Car dealerships where you can See automobiles still inside,

An airport with aircraft still Parked on the runway from 1974.

*

Narrator: Over the following decades,

Nature reclaims the town,

Turning an azure Seaside paradise

Into the dark stain Visible from space.

We're getting a sneak peek Into the future of planet earth

If we were to disappear.

*

Narrator: coming up, The 40,000-year-old cipher.

If this were to be proven, It would rewrite our timeline

For the development Of human intellect.

Narrator: And the haunting waters Of the lake michigan triangle.

This is a really Mysterious area.

Ships keep getting lost, Never being seen again.

Narrator: june 26, 2015.

In orbit over kansas in the Midwest of the united states,

The landsat copernicus satellite Captures this image.

This satellite image Is intriguing.

It shows a number of symbols --

Crosses, lines, X's, triangles --

Seemingly in a random pattern

Carved into the landscape.

Paul: Some of the shapes almost look Like letters -- a "Z," a "T."

Is there a code here?

Of course, the immediate Question is, what do they mean?

*

Narrator: When archeologist karen Bellinger studies the image,

She sees something familiar In the patterns.

There are sites around the world Where symbols

Similar to some of the things I'm seeing in this image

Have been found In ancient, ancient rock art

In caves and in petroglyphs.

*

Narrator: bellinger reveals That 9 of the shapes

Match a series of 32 symbols

Engineered by our Far distant ancestors.

*

Bellinger: there are found In sites throughout the world,

Everywhere humans have settled,

And sites that are very old,

I mean 40,000 years old And more.

They are purposeful, and they Are repeated time and again.

*

Narrator: what baffles analysts Is that the same symbols

Appeared around the world

Before international trade And travel became widespread.

The fact That only 32 symbols emerge

As consistent,

Utterly consistent Across time and space,

Lead some to theorize

That this is some early form Of communication.

Narrator: if these symbols Found around the world

Are an early form of language,

They pre-date the earliest Known written texts,

Sumerian cuneiform, By over 30,000 years.

If this were to be proven, It would be earth-shattering.

It would rewrite our timeline

For the development Of human intellect

And artistic creativity.

*

Narrator: studies suggest that Humans arrived in north america

At least 20,000 years ago,

Yet ancient peoples have tended

To leave symbolic markings On rock faces or as geoglyphs,

Not carved deep into the land Like this.

Simpson jr.: so if these Do represent symbols,

Do they have to be ancient,

Or could they be more Contemporary?

Mairot: there was a group Of people in the 20th century

That used code to communicate, And that was your hobo.

[ men shouting indistinctly ]

Narrator: The hobo phenomenon begins

When the american civil war Ends in 1865,

Two million soldiers Return home,

But many find Their loved ones dead

And communities destroyed.

So they hit the road In search of a better life.

They become known as homeward Bound soldiers, or hobos.

Kourounis: it's only been in Relatively recent times

That the term hobo Has had negative connotations.

When the word was first coined,

It was all about People looking for work,

Traveling from town to town.

They want to be a productive Member of society,

And they want to make living, But they just can't do it

Where they were at, So a lot of them have to travel.

[ train horn blowing ]

Narrator: often hitching a ride On the new freight trains

Traversing the u.S., The mostly illiterate men

Develop a code To relay useful information.

Kourounis: they came up With their own written language,

Kind of like Drifter hieroglyphics.

They would etch or scratch These symbols into train cars,

Fence posts, the sides of trees,

And they would act As markers and road signs

For the other hobos Who would follow behind.

*

Narrator: By 1910, there are 3 million Hobos crisscrossing the country,

And their untethered lifestyle Draws such celebrities

As jack london,

Ernest hemingway, And clark gable.

*

Yet during the great depression, Their itinerant ways

Instead become a symbol Of the grinding poverty

Afflicting the country.

Paul: so the hobo code Became very important

In them being able To share messages,

So that they had an idea Of what they were getting into

When they would land In a new town.

The hobo code had

At least 100 Different simple symbols.

A "T" shape literally means Food available here,

While a box-like structure means You've got a safe place to camp.

*

Narrator: throughout the 1930s, Hobo camps, or jungles,

Spring up at major rail hubs Across the u.S.,

Presided over by an elected Hobo king and queen.

Paul: These weren't just tents pitched Up by a number of people,

But they were small, Semi-nomadic communities.

You have a sense Of herd immunity

And protection from others, Because you're keeping together

As a group, And it makes it harder

For the gangsters of train Companies to pick them off.

*

Simpson jr.: when I look At some of these symbols,

They look very similar to what We find inside the hobo code.

Narrator: yet a code, hobo Or any other, on this scale

Would be unprecedented.

The origin and purpose Of the strange shapes

In the kansas landscape Seen from space

Remain to be deciphered.

Hunt: the fact that they're Using so many symbols

That are common to cultures Spread across the world

Is a real mystery.

*

Narrator: coming up, the Kalahari's mega-sized mystery.

It looks like lightning Going across the earth.

Narrator: and world war weird In the waters of lake michigan.

How in the world did a nazi ship End up wrecked in a lake

In the united states of america?

Narrator: june 2, 2011.

The international space station

Flies over botswana, Southern africa.

Onboard, a nasa astronaut Takes this picture.

Nelson: this is unlike anything I've ever seen before.

It's bizarre, because It looks like a tree stump

With all of these roots Growing underground.

It looks like lightning

Going across the earth.

Narrator: geologists recognize The strange inky pattern.

Dennie: This image is showing a river,

And as it hits the edge Of this area,

It fans out into this Triangular shape called a delta.

Dull: what we're looking at here Is the okavango river delta,

Which is a very unique Ecosystem,

Unique in africa and unique In the world, quite frankly.

Narrator: the okavango delta is A 2,300-square-mile inland swamp

And an oasis For millions of animals.

*

Yet when seen from space,

There's something weird About it.

River deltas end In something else,

In a bigger body of water.

Here, this just ends Randomly in the desert.

Something strange is going on.

Why is this river not forming A lake or a sea or an ocean?

Narrator: The satellite image reveals

These wetlands did once Feed a huge lake.

Lester: If we follow the direction Of those dendritic tendrils,

To the southeast Is a dried-up lake bed,

An enormous salt pan.

Narrator: This is the makgadikgadi pan,

One of the largest salt flats In the world.

2 million years ago, it was A lake the size of austria,

And new research suggests

Its banks were home To the first humans,

From whom all of us Are descended.

Dna studies show that some Of the earliest homo sapiens

Actually came from the margins Of this ancient lake

That was fed By the okavango river.

Lester: the cradle of humanity

Was right in this area.

Narrator: The image yields clues

As to why the okavango stopped Feeding the prehistoric lake,

Causing its demise.

Right at the terminus Of the delta,

We see these linear features

That appear to be linked To fault zones,

Running perpendicular To the okavango delta.

Narrator: these faults connect To the east african rift system,

A 4,000-mile-long tear Across the continent of africa.

Over 10,000 years ago,

Shifting tectonic plates Cut off the flow of water

From the okavango into the lake.

*

The okavango delta has dropped

In relation to the lake That it once fed

To the southeast.

That lake is left perched, Literally, high and dry.

*

Narrator: the blistering Desert heat does the rest.

The kalahari is one of the Hottest places on the planet,

Temperatures over 100 degrees,

And it's extremely dry,

And so it has A very high evaporation rate.

Narrator: yet this highlights Another mystery

About the okavango delta.

Over 95% of the water Flowing through it

Is also lost to the atmosphere.

This should turn the oasis

Into a lifeless, salty hellhole.

The okavango delta is weird Because it's fresh water,

And freshwater deltas Are unusual

In very harsh deserts like this.

Narrator: Studies reveal the secret To the okavango's fresh water

Are the bizarre white islands That scatter the delta,

150,000 of them.

Kays: the plant life is sucking Out the water and the salts,

And that ends up accumulating The salts onto these islands.

Narrator: Over countless centuries,

The islands have amassed 350,000 tons of salt,

Allowing the beasts of The kalahari to thrive here,

Fighting, feasting, And fornicating.

The okavango delta is one Of the last true wildernesses

On the planet, and it supports

One of the most rich And diverse wildlife systems

In africa.

Narrator: but this giant Animal party is in peril.

In 2019, satellite data reveals

Their aquatic paradise Is shrinking.

Having miraculously come to life By this extreme twist of fate,

The okavango delta Is now under threat.

All of these animals Are wondering

Where the water is That they need to survive.

*

Narrator: investigators learn

The origin Of this shrinking delta

Lies upriver in angola.

The okavango river travels Nearly 1,000 miles

From the angola highlands, Cutting across namibia

And utilizing an enormous Catchment area

To increase its water flow.

Narrator: increasing amounts Of agriculture in angola

Is starving the okavango Of its lifeblood --

Bad news for these big beasts

And the extraordinary delta Seen from space.

Rice: It will be a catastrophe,

Because all of these Wonderful creatures

And everything they depend on Will be gone forever.

*

Narrator: coming up, the bermuda Triangle of the great lakes.

Some people believe That this area of the lake

Is actually haunted.

Narrator: eyes in the sky Are an invaluable tool

In the hunt for lost ships And planes...

*

...Nowhere more so than over The deep, clear waters

Of lake michigan.

Albertson: The thing about water in Lake michigan is that it's cold,

And it lacks a lot of oxygen,

So it prevents The growth of organisms

That would eat away At a shipwreck.

Therefore, it's really good At preserving wrecks.

*

Narrator: over 1,500 shipwrecks Litter these waters,

One every cubic mile of water.

Many fell victim to the giant Lake's notorious weather.

*

Pavelec: it's so big, It's got its own microclimate,

In that you get very similar States as the ocean

Because it's just massive,

So, big waves and fog and ice.

*

Mosher: locals call these Hurricane-like events

That can happen over the lakes The witch of november,

When these cold and warm Air masses slam together

And generate huge storms.

*

Narrator: of particular interest To wreck hunters

Is a mysterious 4,000-square-mile area

Which has claimed numerous ships And planes since records began.

Chamberlain: This is a really mysterious area

That is referred to as The lake michigan triangle.

*

Ships keep getting lost, Never being seen again.

Some people believe That this area of the lake

Is actually haunted.

Narrator: as martin morgan Scans the triangle,

He notices a vessel Semi-submerged in the water.

To the military historian,

Something about it Doesn't seem right.

Morgan: This is an ocean-going ship Rather than one that was built

Specifically to operate On the great lakes.

Based on the size And some of the details,

I believe that This might actually be

A world war I-era ship.

Narrator: Morgan cross-references The wreck's dimensions

And apparent age With shipping records

And discovers Something intriguing.

Morgan: I think What we're looking at here

Is the s.S. francisco morazan

That served the german navy In world war I,

That was then pressed into Service in the second world war.

So how in the world Did a nazi ship

End up wrecked in a lake

In the united states of america?

Narrator: Analysts comb german war records For more information.

This ship begins its life In the 1920s

As the elbing.

It's a cargo ship.

And when the nazis Take over germany in the 1930s,

The elbing is re-flagged, and It's used by the german navy.

*

Narrator: In 1940, the 230-foot freighter

Is listed in the vessels Requisitioned by hitler

As part of his plan To invade britain,

Code-named operation sea lion.

Sea lion was to be an amphibious Landing operation

Against the united kingdom.

Pavelec: he's going To have to do it by sea

Because he doesn't have The air transport

To move all these men Across the english channel.

*

Narrator: yet the german navy Is ill-prepared for the invasion

And lacks the specialist Landing craft

Needed to deploy tanks And infantry.

Instead, the nazis amass a fleet Of 2,400 industrial barges

To carry the 100,000 soldiers

Hitler plans to unleash On the british beaches.

And their ability To cross the channel

Depends on heavyweight haulers Like the elbing.

Those landing barges would need To be towed by larger ships.

The elbing was essential To hitler's invasion fleet.

It would have provided coal To the other vessels,

Towing troop barges headed on Their way to invade the british.

*

Narrator: in the fall of 1940,

Following heavy losses To his air force,

Hitler cancels His invasion plans.

But wartime records reveal The elbing soon tastes action

Against its allied enemies.

Pavelec: In operation claymore in 1941,

The royal navy And the royal air force

Attacks the german navy At norway.

*

The elbing is damaged But is brought back to hamburg,

Where it's rebuilt and refitted,

And then it continues Its service in the german navy.

Narrator: when the axis forces Are eventually defeated in 1945,

The cost of the war Isn't just counted

In the 75 million lives It claims worldwide.

In today's money,

The allies spend $4 trillion During world war ii.

And in reparation, they strip Their enemies' assets

And carry them home As spoils of war.

The british had lost thousands, Hundreds of thousands

Of tons of ships, And they needed replacements.

They took over a whole range Of german ships,

Including the elbing.

*

Narrator: in 1958, the ship

That was supposed to help hitler Win the war

Ends up being sold for cash To carry clay.

Two years later, it's claimed

By the weird, wild weather that Stalks this watery graveyard.

*

A snowstorm begins.

It's torrential.

There is no visibility.

The captain eventually Gets off-course

And runs the ship aground.

*

Narrator: Today, captured from space,

It remains As an unlikely remnant

Of a time when terror shadowed The free world.

It's sort of fascinating That this ship

That was such a survivor And was so intimately connected

To important moments In the second world war

Ends up in the frigid waters

Of one of america's Largest lakes.