Original subtitles

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Céline: Tonight, on "legends of the deep"...

It's a fascinating story.

A ship sunk by spies.

It was an extremely bloody event.

♪

Someone wanting to sink the ship.

♪

Experienced divers have perished on this wreck.

This is a dangerous dive.

The lower car deck's a no-no.

They're so far in now, comms is gone.

♪

♪

Get out of there now.

[ sinister chord strikes ]

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Fabien: For generations,

The name cousteau has been associated

With a spirit of adventure and discovery.

Our grandfather pioneered

The earliest efforts in scuba technology,

Giving the world its first glimpse

At the vast underwater universe.

♪

Céline: Our grandfather devoted his life to ocean exploration

And, now, we are picking up where he left off.

Using brand-new technologies,

We are continuing our grandfather's mission

To uncover the secrets

Of some of the world's greatest ocean mysteries.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

♪

Known as the playground for the gods,

The island of cyprus is dominated by mountain ranges,

Fertile valleys, and sprawling beaches.

Conquerors, pilgrims, and smugglers have flocked

To this mediterranean mecca for over 10,000 years.

Its proximity to europe and the middle east

Has more recently made the island

A hotbed of conflict and conspiracy.

We're in cyprus, on the hunt for clues

To a 40-year-old mystery:

What sank the zenobia?

♪

In June 1980, on just its second-ever voyage,

The zenobia, a massive modern ferry,

Was sailing with 151 people on board

When it inexplicably took on water

And sank to the bottom of the mediterranean.

♪

♪

An estimated $200 million worth of questionable cargo

Remain entombed 130 feet down on the seafloor.

♪

♪

Local legend has it

That the zenobia was sabotaged by spies

For smuggling weapons destined for the middle east.

♪

To date, the sinking of the zenobia

And her unclaimed cargo remain shrouded in mystery.

♪

♪

♪

Our grandfather jacques cousteau

Dove dozens of wrecks in the mediterranean.

He loved how their secrets remained preserved in the sea,

Just waiting to be unlocked.

My brother and I are here to do just that,

But where do we start?

It's too risky to go inside without a plan.

The zenobia is as dangerous as it is enormous.

Five people have died exploring this wreck.

[ sinister music climbs ]

We need to find out as much as we can

About this titanic of the mediterranean,

Starting with her last fateful hours.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

♪

♪

The cyprus port authority in larnaca

Houses old records of the ships

That came in and out of the harbor.

So, he said archive room 7, yeah?

Not this...

It should have an official report

Of the zenobia disaster.

Oh, wow! Look at this.

All of these are 18...49, 1915.

I'll look in the filing cabinets.

That'd be a good idea.

♪

Oh, this might be tough.

Everything's in greek!

♪

Ah, this is it.

Swedish maritime investigation commission.

The zenobia.

Oh, you found something?

♪

Tank, one tank.

There's the cargo.

Trucks, trailers, passenger cars.

Look at this, fabien.

-Hm. -It says that,

Just after midnight on June 2nd,

The ship began to heel, following a turn.

It tilted to its port side very quickly,

Causing the cargo to shift,

Which increased the tilt even more.

Water was streaming onto the decks and into the engine room.

And, according to this document,

The computerized pump system,

Which was designed to level the ship,

Unfortunately had failed

And any attempts

To redistribute the water failed

Because the diesel generator

Had stopped working.

But even stranger is that

The backup generator wasn't working, either.

So many failures,

One after the other. It's very unusual.

The report says that the crew discovered

A pilot door had been left open,

Which allowed water, essentially,

To pour in from the sea, flooding the belly of the ship.

The crew attempted to close the gate, but they failed,

As it was mysteriously secured and would not move.

Oh, that's interesting.

♪

At 2:00 am on June 7, 1980,

The zenobia sank to the bottom of the mediterranean sea.

All on board, including the captain,

Were safely removed from the vessel.

♪

This was a brand-new ship.

Why did the technology fail?

Why did the generator fail, and the backup generator?

I mean, who propped the pilot door open,

Allowing water to fill the belly of the ship?

It's almost as if someone wanted to sink the ship.

[ suspenseful chord strikes ]

♪

With so many unanswered questions,

We set up a meeting with the current owner

Of the zenobia's salvage rights:

Andreas panagiotou.

If anyone has an idea of why she sank,

Andreas. It would be him.

Hey.

[ laughter ]

That's much better.

-Welcome. Welcome to cyprus. -Nice to meet you.

Welcome.

It's a pleasure. Yeah, thank you.

We're trying to put together the pieces

Of the puzzle about the zenobia.

You're a boat captain, yourself.

Do you believe the official story

Or do you think that there may have been

Another reason why it sank?

[ speaking greek ]

So what you're saying is that the british and the israeli navy

Were on the zenobia for three months.

After it sunk.

What were they looking for?

♪

The palestine liberation organization, or plo,

Have been playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse

On the high seas with israel since the 1970s.

Smuggling weapons on fishing boats

And giant container ships still occurs today.

♪

This must be the place.

To find any evidence of weapons aboard the zenobia,

We're working with dive shop owner chris martin.

Both: Hey. -Hi, guys!

You must be chris. I am. Hi.

Chris, what do you make of this mystery,

The potential arms that were on board?

The arms for plo? It's possible.

-Yeah. -It's plausible.

There is a theory that mossad were involved.

Mossad got on board, flooded one side,

Emptied the other, and she developed a 45° list.

She went down at 2:00 in the morning.

I mean, it's unconfirmed. I've heard it a few times

And people say the arms could've been

Inside the middle car deck, housed in crates,

Camouflaged in amongst all the timber.

Sounds like that middle car deck

Might have some evidence.

Let's go.

♪

Céline: It sounds outrageous.

Why would secret agents

Deliberately sink the civilian vessel?

♪

If we find any evidence of weapons,

It might point to a massive international cover-up

Of high seas sabotage.

Alright, guys. We got about

Probably about 10 to 15 minutes

'til we get in the water.

♪

Just bear in mind, it's been 38 years.

Don't handle degrading munitions and so forth.

Just be aware, okay?

We really need to be careful

'cause this wreck is on its side.

There are some trucks chained to the deck

And those trucks are now hanging

With those chain locks.

It's been 40 years. Anything can happen.

Céline: Full-penetration wreck dives are as risky as it gets,

From being disoriented

To snagged or trapped and running out of air.

Add to that a ship filled with potentially explosive cargo?

It's now wonder that five people have perished

Doing exactly what we're about to do.

I'm not touching anything.

I don't wanna stir up any silt and I certainly don't want any

Of those trucks [laughing] falling on us.

Obviously, we'll take it easy, we'll take it slow

And, if there's any problem, whatsoever,

We abort the dive and come back out.

I can't stress upon you enough

That experienced divers have perished on this wreck.

This is a dangerous dive.

♪

[ beeping ]

♪

[ ethereal tune plays ]

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Capkin, we can hear you. Over.

♪

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[ suspenseful chord strikes ]

♪

[ sonar pings ]

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Céline: We're 100 feet down inside the zenobia,

A 40-year-old shipwreck,

Hunting for an illegal stash of weapons.

♪

Luckily, the chains hold and we continue our search.

♪

♪

[ alert warbling ]

♪

♪

♪

[ suspenseful chord strikes ]

Okay, capkin. Message received. Over.

[ tranquil tune plays ]

Getting in to that space?

Super-tight.

There's just basically the pilot door.

So you kind of have to squeeze in and go sideways.

And then getting in, it's completely pitch-black.

Kinda spooky, eerie, but then, when your light shines,

You start seeing all the details.

And there's so much there.

♪

That was pretty amazing.

There's a lot of stuff down there.

♪

They used to hide arms, right?

In the middle of shipments, in the middle of cargo.

Maybe that could've been something

In the middle of all that timber.

You could stack wood on a trailer,

Make a base, put weapons in the middle,

Keep stacking up, so that you have

This kind of hollow area

That you could not possibly see into.

With over 100 trucks aboard the zenobia,

It would've been easy to conceal

A devastating arsenal of weapons,

Everything from guns to missiles.

Did the brits and israelis recover

Everything they were looking for?

♪

The theory that the zenobia was carrying

An illegal shipment of arms has become legend

And some legends are based on fact.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

If we're going to find out

Whether this legend is fact or fiction,

We need to know if cyprus played any role

In the israeli-palestinian conflict.

♪

We're off to get some answers

From local journalist and historian nathan morley.

Thanks so much for meeting us here.

Good to see you. Nice to be here.

So, as you know, we're out here

To investigate the zenobia.

What do you think of this theory

That it was carrying illegal arms?

Well, I don't rule anything out.

I have a very open mind.

Certainly, bearing in mind the period this happened in.

The '80s and the '70s were fairly volatile here.

This harbor and this coastline were being used for

Under-the-table deals for arms and other cargoes.

There's a lot of articles

Of what was happening in that era.

This one reads "gunrunners, tourists mingle

On picturesque isle of cyprus."

"one palestinian was caught last year

Smuggling hand grenades in chianti bottles."

There was an incident which actually took place

Here in 1985,

When palestinians boarded an israeli yacht just here.

♪

They claimed the three israelis on board the yacht

Were involved in some kind of espionage

And they murdered them.

And the standoff went on all day

And, eventually, they gave themselves up.

It was an extremely bloody event

And that really highlights the kind of atmosphere

There was here with espionage, spies.

It was a very james bond-esque atmosphere.

Considering the strategic location of cyprus

And all of the stories around it,

It is conceivable that something

Could have been hidden on the zenobia.

Yeah, well, I mean, as I said, I wouldn't rule it out.

In eastern europe, at the time, there were a lot

Of weapons available, if you had the cash.

The palestinian liberation organization, at that point,

They actually were well-financed.

They had a lot of money.

Céline: Encircled by libya, egypt,

Syria, and turkey,

Countries suspected for funding the plo,

It's clear why the island of cyprus

Was a hotbed of clandestine activity in 1980.

The plo had the motive and the means.

The zenobia sailed right through the center of it all.

♪

[ ring ]

Hello.

-It's chris martin. -Hi, chris.

I've got a new lead for you.

We'll be right over.

Looks like chris has something for us.

Oh, great. Let's go check it out.

Yeah.

♪

Despite the official records,

I'm still a little skeptical.

Why would a swedish vessel come down,

Smuggle arms into syria,

And how would they get the arms on board?

The captains and the owners might not even know

What they have on board.

There are so many ships and so many containers

That go through these ports, they can't check everything,

So it could be pretty easy, actually, to hide weapons.

♪

You know, arms dealers are really crafty.

They're gonna make it really hard

For shipments to be tracked by surveillance operations.

The zenobia set sail from slovenia,

Destined for the middle east.

According to declassified cia documents,

Slovenia, then part of yugoslavia,

Was known to train and equip plo fighters.

Maybe chris's new lead

Will help us get closer to finding some real proof

That the zenobia was, indeed., smuggling arms.

I hear you have information for us.

I do. Not me, but my brother eric has.

Got some photos to show you, of something I found.

Wow! What is this?

That's a machine pistol, german-made,

Commonly known as a schmeisser.

I found it just off the wreck of the zenobia.

♪

[ birds cheeping ]

[ sonar pings ]

[ suspenseful music plays ]

♪

Céline: We're in cyprus,

Investigating the mysterious sinking of the zenobia,

A cargo ferry rumored to be sunk for smuggling arms to syria.

Fabien: Wow! What is this?

It's a machine pistol.

Commonly known as the schmeisser.

The germans used it in the second world war.

I found it just off the wreck of the zenobia.

We had lost a cylinder, a drop tank,

After we'd been diving, so I went

With an underwater scooter, starting from the zenobia,

And I was gonna come all the way back to shore.

And I was down about 20 meters

And I saw what looked like a spear gun.

And I went down and picked it up and there it was.

A little bit encrusted with growth.

Didn't have the magazine.

It wasn't in that kinda condition that you see now,

But it's been there nearly 20 years.

That's pretty amazing.

Have you found any of these

On the shipwreck itself?

No, no. I just found that one.

So, you think this might be related

To the wreck itself?

It must've come off the zenobia.

There's no other way that it could've been there.

♪

Céline: It's a cool find,

But would the brits and israelis

Really sink a civilian ship, just for machine guns?

There was a theory that the zenobia

Was carrying weapons-grade uranium.

Uranium, really?

-Mm-hmm. -That's probably why

The navy divers were there.

Nobody wants nuclear weapons

In the wrong hands. Yeah.

In the early '80s, the plo were allegedly seeking

Weapons-grade uranium from the united states

And had military support from yugoslavia,

A country rich in uranium deposits.

Only 35 pounds of the stuff can create a nuclear bomb.

A nightmare scenario for israel,

Its ally great britain, and, indeed, the world.

Considering this new piece of evidence,

I think we need to dive the zenobia again.

There's loads and loads of trucks

In the upper car deck, so,

Maybe we should start there.

Great idea. Let's do that.

Okay. Let's go diving.

Weapons-grade uranium

Has a radioactive half-life of over 700 million years.

If there was a stash on board the zenobia,

Traces would still be there,

So we've sourced the perfect tool

To crack this mystery wide open.

♪

Wow, that is a serious rig!

Yeah. This is

An underwater geiger counter,

So, if there's any radiation,

Whatsoever, on the zenobia,

This thing will detect it.

How does it actually work?

Essentially, the heart of the electronics is

This nitrogen gas- filled tube

That, when even a single particle

Of uranium goes through,

It creates an electric current

That registers right here

On the counter itself.

Green means safe, right here, so very low.

And then, as soon as you get into the red,

That's when you have to start worrying

That there's a lot of radiation around.

Is there any danger to us, as divers?

If we see numbers beyond 200,

We probably want to get away

And report it to the authorities.

♪

[ air hissing ]

[indistinct] put defog in?

♪

It's been 40 years and, to our knowledge,

No one's actually tested for radiation.

If there is evidence of uranium down there,

It might point to a narrowly averted

Nuclear war in the middle east.

♪

[ beeping ]

♪

♪

We'll start on the upper cargo deck.

Roger that.

♪

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[ beeping ]

♪

[ sonar pings ]

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Céline: We're searching for radioactive cargo

On a wreck that mysteriously sank off the coast of cyprus.

[ beeping ]

♪

♪

♪

[ gasp ] alright.

♪

We should probably download the file

For the geiger counter and see if we picked up

Anything really significant.

Let's go download data.

♪

Okay, let's plug it into the computer.

♪

Okay.

Well, you know, although there are

A couple small spikes, it looks pretty flat here.

It's pretty safe to say there's

No weapons-grade uranium,

At least on the upper deck. -Mm-hmm.

The upper and middle cargo decks are a bust,

But there's one more we haven't explored:

The dark and dangerous lower cargo deck.

Could this be where the plo hid their illegal shipment?

♪

♪

Just remember: Lower cargo deck,

There are very few stories about this deck.

Very few people have gone there

And, when they have, they've all been horror stories.

If we got stuck, that would just be the worst scenario.

Céline: On two separate occasions,

Experienced divers lost their bearings

And got trapped in the engine room.

It's believed they removed their dive equipment

In a struggle to get out.

Their bodies were later recovered.

Try and stow all the dangly bits

As much as possible, so you don't get hung up.

We need to travel lean and light,

So the geiger counter will remain topside.

We're still on the hunt

For any evidence of illegal weapons.

[ beeping ]

♪

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♪

♪

Capkin, capkin, this is surface.

Comms check. Over.

[ static crackling ]

Céline, céline, this is surface.

Comms check. Over.

[ static crackling ]

Céline, céline, this is surface.

Comms check. Over.

[ static crackling ]

♪

They're so far in, now, comms is gone.

This is a kind of headache, now.

I need to know what's going on.

If anything goes wrong, we don't know.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

Capkin, capkin, this is surface.

Comms check. Over.

[ static crackling ]

They're too far in.

They've been inside, now, for 21 minutes.

[ static continues crackling ]

It's a long time.

♪

♪

[ alert warbling ]

♪

♪

[ suspenseful music climbs ]

[ suspenseful chord strikes ]

[ suspenseful chord strikes ]

♪

[ sonar pings ]

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Céline: We're deep in the zenobia shipwreck,

Looking for any evidence of weapons,

[ alert warbling ] but our air is running low.

[ suspenseful music climbs ]

♪

♪

♪

Dive team, dive team, glad you made it

Out of there. We'll see you

At the surface. Over.

♪

When we finally got down to that,

The entrance to that third cargo hold,

It's just way too tight.

I could just see you disappear into it

And there was just silt absolutely everywhere

And then darkness.

♪

You know, it's really frustrating

Because, if there were going to be any weapons

Or anything hidden, it would probably be

On the lower cargo deck.

So much debris and so many obstructions,

It just wasn't possible to go in any deeper.

We might not wanna be sending divers

Down there to find what we're looking for,

But I have an idea.

[ eerie music plays ]

If we're going to see what's inside zenobia's

Dark and dangerous lower cargo deck,

We're going to need cutting-edge technology.

So we've called in a team specialized

In remote-operated vehicles to be able to squeeze

Into that small space and see what's inside.

This is it, huh, this is the rov?

Yes. This is our rov.

Wow. It's small, huh? Wow.

-Yeah. -Yeah. Will this one be able

To snake through all the debris? -Yeah.

And is small enough to get into almost any...

Céline: We now have the tools to find out:

Was the zenobia sunk

For carrying weapons of mass destruction?

♪

[ whirring ] the rov is ready.

♪

But mother nature has other ideas.

[ thunder rumbling ]

♪

♪

Obviously, with the rain behind us,

This is causing a little bit of delay

In our operations.

Divers and the rov can get in the water,

So they can get wet, but all of the other material

Is really sensitive, so we need to keep it dry.

It's just putting a hold on what we need to do.

Somebody grab the other side. I have this side.

Okay, coming around, coming around.

Alright, alright, put it in there.

Ooh!

Guess we sit and wait.

♪

Watch the roll.

Capkin: Roll, everyone. It's gonna keep going.

♪

[ birds cawing ]

We should be ready to go soon

And there's definitely clear skies coming up ahead.

♪

Looks like the weather gods are smiling on us.

Let's get the rov in the water.

[ beeping ]

♪

Céline: To our knowledge,

We're sending an rov deeper into the zenobia

Than ever before, to the mysterious

Lower cargo deck, in search of weapons.

It's just the kind of nifty tech

Our grandfather would have loved.

[ whirring ]

♪

Are we getting close?

Yeah, we're getting close. We're about 10 meters.

10 meters away on the right

Should be a opening

Right into the lower cargo hold, yep, yep.

♪

Yeah. I think that's it.

Yeah. You see it?

Yeah. Perfect.

Yeah, that's it. That's it right there.

♪

-Is that a staircase? -Yeah. -Yeah.

Look at how creepy that is.

Let's go in. That's exactly

Where we needed to go.

I'm going in.

♪

Okay.

It gets very tight.

♪

Let's have a look. We are now

On the bottom of the stairs,

So, let's try to get in. Yeah.

♪

Oh, what's that?!

I don't know.

It's hard to tell because you have so much in here.

♪

-I think it's a good idea. -Let's do that.

Let's have a look.

♪

What's that?

[ suspenseful music climbs ]

♪

[ sonar pings ]

[ suspenseful music plays ]

[ ethereal vocals play ]

Céline: On our way out of the lower cargo deck,

Fabien notices a hidden passageway

On the rov's monitor...

Oh, that's pretty cool.

...A new entrance to the middle cargo deck

We haven't explored.

♪

♪

What's that?

♪

A strange shape appears below the rov.

♪

As it dives closer,

It looks like a sleeping bag unrolled on a pile of debris.

♪

That's amazing.

♪

Could this be part of some covert military cargo?

♪

It's impossible to know by looking at the rov monitor,

And diving this wreck at night is out of the question.

♪

We need to come back at first light

And make one more descent.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

♪

This is our last chance

To solve the mystery of the zenobia.

♪

This is a game changer.

I feel like we're finally closing in on something real.

♪

Thanks to the rov,

We know a quick route to what we believe

Is an unexplored area of the middle cargo deck.

♪

Was the zenobia carrying a military shipment for the plo?

♪

It's exciting to have seen it on the rov

-Yeah. -And now actually getting

Down there and seeing it for real.

There's nothing like a firsthand experience

And maybe even some evidence would be sweet.

Yeah, that would be great.

♪

Alright, let's do this thing.

♪

[ beeping ]

♪

♪

♪

Fabien: It looked a little daunting to squeeze in there,

But, once you get in and through,

Man, it just opens up and that whole cargo hold

Is just eerie!

And then, getting to the bottom,

Where all that debris and all those trucks are.

♪

♪

[ suspenseful music climbs ]

♪

[ static crackles ]

Céline: A truckload of sleeping bags certainly looks

Like the remnants of a military shipment.

Maybe those navy divers

Successfully recovered the lethal cargo,

Saving millions of lives in the process.

♪

At the bottom, there, was spread, everywhere,

Those sleeping bags. Yeah!

And a couple of 'em were actually unrolled

And out there. -Yeah. Actually,

I was looking above you and all I could see was

These sort of cocoon-looking pods

Just kind of lined up and sitting there.

Could this have been some sort of military supply?

When you take a good look at it,

It really looked military-issue.

That does indicate that there could be

Other things of military nature

In that cargo hold.

The mystery of the zenobia is still very much alive.

♪

There's way too much circumstantial evidence,

Way too many rumors, and way to much interest

Around the sinking of the zenobia.

Something must've happened.

Every person we've talked to has given us a clue.

There was something aboard the zenobia

That was headed somewhere.

This entire area was really just a shipping ground

For arms going to the middle east.

Seeing these sleeping bags;

Being able to send an rov

Into the zenobia; being able to validate

Some of these rumors, around arms deals

And plo and syria; is pretty phenomenal.

And, considering the navy was there,

Searching the zenobia after it sunk,

They were definitely looking for something.

Something's down there.

We really got one step closer.

This is what it's about, right?

Finding the answers to ocean mysteries

Is about taking one step closer.

♪

♪

[ suspenseful chord strikes ]