Original subtitles

This is one of the only real

buried treasure stories in history.

Today's value?

Hundreds of millions.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

♪

(beep) what is that?!

Ha! Ha-ha-ha!

(suspenseful chord strikes)

drake took off outta England,

headed over here to hopefully take

a whole spanish treasure fleet.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

(blasting)

♪

finding his coffin would be

absolutely monumental.

This would be like one of the holy grails

of maritime archaeology.

♪

that little island is called drake rock.

Think he could be buried near there?

Ha! What is that?

I mean, it looks like a coffin.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

♪

he's been called one of history's greatest heroes

and a villain for the ages.

To some, he's remembered as the world's most notorious pirate.

But he was also the first sea captain

to fully circumnavigate the globe

and the man who saved England from the spanish armada.

His name?

Sir francis drake.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

(blast)

(shouting)

♪

(blasting)

(suspenseful chords striking)

drake's story is the stuff of legend

and two monumental mysteries that surround his life

might be on the verge of being solved.

The largest treasure he ever stole

was his daring heist

of a silver-laden caravan crossing panama in 1573.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

♪

(suspenseful chord strikes)

now, a researcher retracing the route on historic maps

believes he's pinpointed the jungle hiding place

of drake's buried fortune.

♪

and an archaeologist believes he's on the brink

of making an even greater find --

the final remains of sir francis drake himself.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

he is said to have been buried at sea

in full armor, inside a lead coffin.

The coffin's discovery would rank

among the greatest finds in maritime history.

This is a mission in search of buried treasure

and a watery grave.

But also, it's the search for the character

of the man himself --

pirate or patriot?

On which side of history's coin does drake belong?

It's time to find out.

(suspenseful music climbs, chords striking)

♪

my name is josh gates...

Look! (laughs)

...Explorer, adventurer...

That is it!

...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.

Ah, ah, aah, haa!

With a degree in archaeology

and a passion for the unexplained,

I travel to the ends of the earth,

investigating the greatest legends in history.

Okay, let's punch it.

This is "expedition unknown."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

(engine starts)

(upbeat rock plays)

my search for drake's treasure begins

on a vintage british motorcycle in southwestern England.

♪

welcome to a perfectly english morning here in the uk.

And, even though it may be cold out,

I, for one, am feeling very warm

and that's because I absolutely love this country.

My father is american, but my mother is british,

so, for generations, half of my family tree

has grown on this side of the atlantic.

♪

(adventure music plays) I'm headed to plymouth,

the leaping-off point for some of history's greatest voyages,

from the pilgrims, who thought so much of this place

that they named a rock after it;

to the man himself, sir francis drake.

♪

born in 1540, the son of a poor farmer and preacher,

he would go on to become

the most successful ship captain in english history.

This is where drake was born and raised

and signs of his legacy are everywhere you look.

There are streets named after him.

There are bars named after him,

there's even a massive statue of him in the center of town.

♪

this dude is everywhere.

But the grandest monument of them all is buckland abbey,

the sprawling estate where drake lived

at the peak of his power and prestige.

♪

♪

nice digs.

(suspenseful music plays)

and the inside is no less impressive.

Faithfully preserved furnishings

transport visitors back to drake's era

and much of the building is now a museum dedicated to the legacy

of his astounding travels to every corner of the globe.

I'm here to meet michael turner....

Michael.

...The world's foremost expert on drake,

who spent the last 35 years retracing his every move.

(suspenseful music climbs, chord strikes)

and so have you been everywhere that drake has been?

I've been to about 260 places

all over the world, in 44 countries.

Wow! So, let's talk

about the man who lived here.

What do we know about the early part of his life?

His father apprenticed him

to a owner of a small sailing vessel

and drake was a natural,

became one of the greatest sailors

in the history of this world.

But, before captaining his own ship,

drake had to climb the rope ladder of success

by working on other crews.

It was on one such voyage -- a trip to trade slaves

in the spanish colony that's now mexico --

that inspired a bitter vendetta

that would define the rest of drake's career.

The slave trading voyage that he was on

came to disaster in 1568

in san juan de ulua, mexico,

when the spanish turned upon drake

and massacred scores of englishmen.

And drake knew that slave trading

was not the way forward, so he turned his hand

to becoming the first english privateer

to enter the west indies.

Now, this is an important distinction --

pirate and privateer.

A pirate would attack anybody

and would be outside of the law,

but drake was licensed by the queen

to take reprisals against the spanish

for losses in previous voyages.

The license allowed ship owners, like drake,

to become a kind of mercenary navy,

attacking the vessels of enemy nations

and profit sharing with the crown

on the sale of their cargo.

(blast)

for drake, and for England,

there was no greater foe than Spain.

(blasting)

now armed with his own ships,

drake nursed his grudge

by wreaking havoc on spanish ships

bearing treasures from the new world.

In the process, he earned fame, fortune,

and a really badass nickname, taken from his family crest --

el draque, or "the dragon."

he was so driven,

being one of the greatest sailors in the world,

and he had the thirst for fame.

In 1580, he becomes the first sea captain

to circumnavigate the globe without an asterisk.

Magellan, you see, didn't actually survive his voyage.

Drake did.

This is the thing about drake that's so crazy, is that

he has this career that seems impossible.

Drake was larger than life.

He was driven.

He loved success.

♪

the newly dubbed sir francis drake

eventually becomes vice admiral of the british fleet

and, at the height of his career,

defeats the spanish armada

in their attempted invasion of England in 1588.

(blasting)

through his exploits, drake became one

of the wealthiest men in the world.

But, as they say, "behind each great fortune is a crime."

back in 1573, it was drake's robbery

of the spanish mule train in panama

that made the rest of his remarkable career possible

and, now, I'm off to look for the loot.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

so, if I'm a first-time drake treasure seeker,

what's your advice?

Tenacity with the best metal detector you can buy.

[laughs] it's as simple as that?

That's good advice.

Okay. I got it.

Michael is working hand-in-hand

with another researcher, who may be closing in

on the location of the treasure right now.

To find out where, I catch a flight across the atlantic

to the famed crossroads of the americas.

(guitar strumming upbeat tune)

♪

welcome to the always charming,

and always humid, streets of panama city.

♪

it's a delightfully confusing place

seemingly caught between the past and the future.

It's easy to see these as two separate worlds,

but, in reality, they're one and the same.

That's because this place is, and has always been,

about one thing --

trade.

Panama is a unique turnstile

between vast oceans to the east and west

and continents to the north and south.

Long before the famed panama canal was built,

allowing ships to sail directly between the oceans,

this was already a strategic hub of global trade.

(suspenseful music plays)

and, now, researcher caleb duckworth...

Hey!

-Josh! -Caleb.

...Is hot on the trail of the commodity

that brought drake to these shores --

treasure.

-Okay. Let's go. -Let's do it.

Away we go.

♪

alright, take me back in time a few centuries, here.

What is today panama

was a very important place to the spanish empire, yes?

It was a vitally important place

to the spanish empire, yes. -Right.

Along with the inca treasure,

they discovered a mountain,

an entire mountain, made of silver.

-Okay. -This is called potosi.

-Mm-hmm. -And potosi became

a cash register for the spanish. -Right.

Took out hundreds of tons of silver.

Wow.

In the 1500s,

after conquistador francisco pizarro

has wiped out the inca empire,

the spanish proceed to loot the south american continent

of gold, silver, and jewels.

But, while the bank may have been open for business,

withdrawals weren't exactly easy.

Inca treasure from peru and precious metal,

like the silver from the mountain at potosi in bolivia,

had to be shipped up the coast to panama,

where it crossed the isthmus by mule on a jungle road

known as the camino real, or "king's road,"

before arriving at the fortified spanish vaults

in nombre de dios,

where galleons would sail it all the way back to europe.

It was a grueling trip, thousands of miles,

some of it over mountains more than 10,000 feet high.

And you thought getting hit with a $3 atm fee was annoying.

♪

so, the spanish have a good thing going, here.

How does drake come into the picture?

Drake knew, if he could somehow interfere

with that flow of treasure,

that he would become wealthy.

So, drake sets his sights on attacking this mule train.

-Yes. -This is like

a bank heist story, really.

This is exactly like a bank heist story.

So, the real question is

where does he decide to attack this convoy?

But I take it that, since we're in a 4x4, here,

headed toward the jungle,

you might have some idea where it is?

-I might have. -[laughs]

you might have.

Yeah, I hope you do.

(laughs)

as we journey northeast towards the jungles

near chagres national park, we turn onto a dirt road...

Off-roadin' from here.

...And drive until we're surrounded by wilderness.

♪

can you drive all the way

to where you think this robbery happened?

Not really, no.

You can drive so far.

[laughs] oh boy.

♪

you got it! Ohf!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Stop!

-Wow. -What do you think?

I think we could probably cross this.

-You do? -Maybe.

(laughs)

only one way to find out.

Well, let's take a crack at it. Here we go.

-Okay, here we go. -Hold your breath.

(suspenseful music climbs)

go, go, go, go, go!

(suspenseful music plays)

I'm in the jungles of panama

with treasure hunter caleb duckworth,

in search of the lost treasure

of english explorer sir francis drake.

♪

whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Stop!

Wow.

But, right now, we've hit a bit of a road block.

Let's take a crack at it. Here we go.

-Okay, here we go. -Hold your breath.

♪

you got it. Go, go, go, go, go!

(suspenseful music climbs)

okay? Yeah!

Hoo-hoo!

Yes!

Nice work, man!

Hoo-hoo!

-A bit tricky. -Yeah.

(upbeat rock plays)

you got it! Ohf!

We good? We got it. -Not too good, but, yeah.

Into the river.

♪

caleb, we just passed a canoe.

Yeah, if you're driving a car and you pass a canoe,

-yeah. -That's not a good sign, caleb.

You're right.

♪ climb ♪

♪

♪ there ain't nothin' and ♪

♪ there's nothing gained ♪

♪ get in and drive ♪

♪ get in and dri-I-I-ve ♪

♪

watch out for the horses.

Oh, my god. It's like a video game.

Ooh, that's muddy. Mud, mud, mud!

♪

I think we are way past the end of the line.

I think this is the end of line.

Okay. Here we go. We're on foot.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

♪

alright, so, the question is: Where on earth are we

and what are we doing here? -Okay.

Let's find out, shall we?

Let's spread this out. -Okay.

This is a u.S. Army map of the local area.

This is one of the most detailed maps ever made of the region.

Caleb has been using it to track the path

of the spanish treasure train.

The mule train started way down in panama city

and we followed a road known

as the camino real, which means -camino real.

The royal road, or the king's highway.

-And that road is gone? -That road is gone.

And, when we say a mule train,

how many mules are we talkin' about?

Oh, drake estimates that there were 190 mules.

Each mule is carrying about 300 pounds weight

of treasure, of gold or silver.

So, hold on. Now, I need a calculator.

So we've got 190 mules -190 mules.

Each carrying 300 pounds of treasure.

That's 57,000 pounds of treasure.

It's quite a lot.

Today's value?

Hundreds of millions.

Okay. So, now, I see why this is

such an attractive target. Yeah.

Based on drake's later account to queen elizabeth,

he attacked the mule train

about 2.5 miles south of nombre de dios,

close to where we stand right now.

What is it about this spot

that you think is so encouraging?

So, the trail comes along this river bank here

and it climbs this ridge and follows the ridge

all the way into nombre de dios.

That means that the ambush could not have happened

north of that point, 'cause, at that point,

they weren't near the river.

So it must've been between this point here

and about that point there.

Because, from here on up, you lose the river entirely.

You lose the river and you're

way too close to the enemy. -Right.

So, it had to be further enough away

to make good the escape.

We're in the hot spot right here.

To pull off the ultimate heist,

drake assembles the perfect team.

It's "ocean's 1573."

drake partners with french pirate guillaume le testu.

In addition, the former slave trader, drake,

also allies himself with the cimarrones,

a band of escaped spanish slaves living in the jungle,

who know the terrain better than anyone else.

So, drake makes it to the mule train

and how does the ambush go for him?

It goes way better than he ever expected.

This was him hitting the jackpot

beyond any pirate's wildest dream.

♪

(shing)

when the mule train comes into view,

drake and his men take it by surprise,

outflanking the spanish guards (neighing)

with bows and arrows.

(shouting)

the spaniards flee...

(neighing)

...Leaving nearly 30 tons of treasure behind.

♪

the robbery is flawlessly planned and executed.

(suspenseful chord strikes) except for one little hitch.

Drake's got an issue. He's got 30 tons

of treasure in his possession,

-right. -But he hasn't got enough men

to take it away.

The miles can't travel into the steep wilderness

back to drake's waiting ship

and the spanish guards who fled along the camino real

will be back in a matter of hours, with reinforcements.

So drake and his men have no choice

but to haul the loot by hand.

I mean, what's the most each guy could possibly carry?

Maybe 40 pounds.

And the rest of it?

The rest of it was buried.

This is not a tall tale.

They actually did bury this treasure?

This is one of the only real

buried treasure stories in history.

I mean, a fortune must've been left behind.

(suspenseful chord strikes)

caleb leads me into the jungle, toward the location

of the long-abandoned king's road,

where he believes the ambush occurred.

♪

into the jungle.

Watch out for snakes here.

Yeah. What else do we have here that I should be afraid of?

Ah, you got coral snakes.

You got bushmasters.

You got tarantulas.

You got brazilian wandering spiders.

There are jaguars. There are pumas.

Alright, forget it, forget it.

-Flesh-eating peckaroos. -Forget it!

Let's just look for the treasure.

-[laughs] -I'm sorry I asked.

(suspenseful music climbs)

(suspenseful rock plays)

there's not path to caleb's site.

Getting there requires bush whacking our way

through the dense jungle.

Until we reach a clearing.

Aha! Found the river.

Look at that. -We did. We made it.

♪

okay. A little room to breathe out here.

Now, the mules really did come along here.

This was king's highway.

Yeah, beats walkin' in there.

Why would you walk through there

-[laughs] -when you could walk on here?

Okay. Well, let's get to it, yeah?

Find some silver.

♪

we pull out our metal detectors to scour the river and its bank.

♪

before long, caleb's detector spikes.

(pulsing)

(warbles) josh, I got a good hit here

and I don't think it's iron.

(warbles, beeps)

okay. Let's see what that is.

The river churns the soil here,

so finds from drake's robbery

could be deep or right at the surface.

(beeping) hold on.

There we go. It's right in there.

(suspenseful music climbs) (beeping)

hey, what is that?!

(suspenseful chord strikes)

-it's bronze. -[excitedly] it is. It's bronze.

♪

-it's a broken bell. -It's a bell?!

See, that's where it would've been

-right, yes! -Hanging.

This bell would've been hanging

around the neck of the mule.

I mean, literally, a mule bell.

Literally, a mule bell

from a treasure mule caravan.

That is so cool.

Other than finding a few thousand silver bars,

I can't think of an artifact that might connect us

to the story more than this.

I mean, this is part of the story.

(triumphant music plays)

that means we literally could be in the spot.

Nice work. -Well done.

-This is awesome! -Well done.

(suspenseful music plays)

we keep searching, with bells on.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing,

can dampen our spirits.

♪

(thunder crashes)

♪

gonna get wet.

Yeah.

♪

(warbling)

caleb, I got a hit! Got a hit?

Yeah, a solid hit.

(warbling)

sounds good, right? Sounds good. Dig.

♪

but we can't dig fast enough.

The deeper we go, the more mud, water, and sand wash in.

♪

(beeping)

♪

feel down there.

It's right there, right there,

right in the middle.

♪

ooh! Ooh, ooh! I feel somethin'.

What is it?

My thumb is hooked on something.

♪

[grunts] come on.

♪

(grunts)

ha-ha-ha!

♪

gates: I'm in the jungles of panama

with treasure hunter caleb duckworth

on a mission to find

sir francis drake's lost fortune.

In 1573, drake ambushed a mule train

filled with spanish gold and silver.

Unable to escape with all the loot,

drake and his men buried it somewhere nearby.

-Ooh, ooh. I feel something. -What is it?

My thumb is hooked on something.

And we may have just struck pay dirt.

♪

-ohh! Ha-ha-ha! -Hey.

-What's that? -What is that?

That looks like a piece of a sword.

It is a piece of a sword! Look at that!

Get out of here! Are you kidding me?!

Piece of a rapier.

This is part of a hilt of a sword.

Part of the hilt of a 1500s sword.

Wow. Handle would have been down here?

-Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. -And you can see there.

Okay. That's where the end of the blade would have gone.

Right. Blade would have come up through here.

That's right.

Rapiers are thin, long-bladed swords

used for thrusting, like in fencing.

Drake and his men were known to carry swords with hilts

just like this.

Somebody broke a sword right here.

Which would, in some ways, indicate

there might have been a conflict here.

Absolutely. Yes.

It could be part of the attack on the mule train.

Good find. Well done.

This is astounding, man! Nice work!

-Well done, well done. -Wow.

That is unbelievable.

♪

gates: We expand our search zone into the jungle,

but after hours of metal detecting,

we don't get any other hits.

♪

still, we made two major finds today.

The mule bell and broken sword are strong indicators

that the ambush happened right here.

Caleb will return with more manpower

and more metal detectors to continue the search.

♪

meanwhile, I'm after another treasure --

the man himself.

♪

according to historical accounts,

drake was buried at sea in a lead coffin.

His final resting place is one of the great

unsolved mysteries of maritime archaeology.

♪

now I'm searching for answers

in a town due west of here -- portobelo,

where sir francis drake played his final hand.

After drake's brutal attack on the mule train,

the spanish realized they needed to up their game

when it came to guarding treasure.

They needed a better bank vault.

And so in time, they began construction of this place,

the colonial stronghold of portobelo.

♪

but while the spanish built out their fortress,

drake embarked on a bloody campaign against their fleet,

earning his title and a fortune in the process.

In 1595, he embarks on a voyage back to panama

to attempt one last big score --

raiding the spanish treasure ships in portobelo.

Little did he know, he'd never see his beloved England again.

♪

now I'm here to meet a team of archaeologists

who may be on the cusp of solving the mystery

of drake's final resting place.

Great pleasure to meet you guys. How are you?

-Good. -I'm fine.

I don't often get to shake the hand

of a man who's been to the titanic.

Well, I was very lucky to get there.

Gates: Jim sinclair was the first archaeologist

to survey the titanic.

He was also part of the team that found

over $400 million in treasure

aboard the shipwreck atocha.

Okay. We're talking about a different sunken mystery today.

-Yeah. -We're talking about drake.

Portobelo here is really where drake's journey ends.

Yeah, that's correct. You know, he was getting older,

and he wanted to have one last hurrah.

Drake took off out of England, headed over here to hopefully

take a whole spanish treasure fleet

that would have been leaving out of portobelo.

And he headed down here with his fairly large fleet of ships

and sat waiting for the treasure to show up.

And, of course, the spanish had gotten wind

that he was on the way, so they keep the treasure back,

drake goes up the coast, and when he was up the coast,

waiting to hopefully catch the fleet,

you know, he gets sick --

they called it something else, but we call it dysentery.

And basically, that evening, collapsed,

and they put him in bed, and he passed away.

Now, this is where the mystery starts.

So what do they do with him?

Well, when he passed away, they put him in

what they described as a leaden coffin...

-Okay. -...And, you know,

with full honors, they bury him at sea.

♪

why hasn't this coffin been found?

Well, first of all, it's a little object.

We're talking 6 foot long in a giant ocean.

Right. And what do we know

from the historical sources

about where this coffin was dumped into the water?

The historical sources say that it was buried

one league off portobelo.

One league?

Today, we think of a league as like 3 1/2 miles or so.

-Something close to that. -Right?

So, okay, from portobelo. From where in portobelo?

Was it the downtown area of portobelo?

-Right. -Was it the fort?

Or was it the mouth of portobelo bay?

-Also, what was the angle? -Right.

Okay, I'm starting to see why this is not so easy.

Gates: Lucky for us, in 2011,

jim uncovered debris from a ship

that may have been part of drake's fleet,

giving us a starting point in the hunt for the coffin.

Well, this would be like one of the holy grails

of maritime archaeology.

Finding his coffin would be absolutely monumental.

And I take it that these very dangerous-looking things

at our feet are meant to make this a little easier.

Exactly. What this one is,

it's a marine sonic arc explorer,

which is the highest-resolution side-scan sonar

on the market today. Love it.

And now we have a geometrics magnetometer.

So this will detect metal, and this will give us the imaging.

Got it. All right. We got sonar. We got a magnetometer.

We've got unbridled confidence. Should we do this?

-Let's do it! -Let's do it.

Let's go find a coffin. Come on.

(hands clap)

♪

we're ready.

Hop on.

Gates: So, we weigh anchor

and head into the murky waters of history

in search of drake's legendary lead coffin.

♪

gates: I'm off the coast of panama

in search of the final resting place

of sir francis drake.

After an extraordinary career

as an explorer/ruthless privateer,

drake returned to panama for one last job in 1595

but died before pulling it off.

His lead coffin was buried at sea and lost for centuries.

♪

but that may be about to change.

Gates: Let's talk about where we're going.

You've already done some searching out here.

We did. We found some shipwreck material in a cove.

I think they're the remains of the two ships

that were in drake's fleet -- the elizabeth and the delight.

-Really? -Yeah.

So, how did those two ships sink?

Well, they did it on purpose.

They couldn't handle it, they had lost so many men,

they couldn't bring them back to England.

I think they did, was they drove them into shallow water,

took everything off of them that was worth anything,

and then set them ablaze. Right.

They weren't gonna leave two perfectly good ships

for the spanish. Nope. Absolutely not.

Right. So you think these are ships from drake's fleet?

I do. The kind of material that we're seeing around it

is kind of a highlight of the 1500s.

Have those wrecks or that area been systematically excavated?

No, we never got a chance to do it.

Weather came up, and we had to go.

And do you think there's a possibility those wrecks

could be in the same area as the coffin?

I do.

♪

gates: We motor out to the area

where jim and his team found the shipwrecks --

a protected cove near the mouth of portobelo bay.

This is it. We're coming into the bay now.

We deploy the side-scan sonar unit

to survey the debris field for traces of drake's coffin.

So, fish is in the water?

All right. Let's get scanning.

While the sonar maps the sea bed in real time,

jim begins analyzing the data.

♪

-coming into the harbor. -There you go.

-So, here's the reef. -That's the reef.

Got it. And what kind of resolution do we have here?

About a half-centimeter of resolution.

You can see down to a half a centimeter?

Yes. We can count fingers if we were to see a person.

All right. I love it. This is great.

♪

look at this. Okay. So, here's a debris field.

Aha! Look at that. Something there for sure.

Definitely. Those would definitely be man-made.

Okay. So, we literally have a debris field here.

-Absolutely. -And we've got --

and now it looks like we have another one.

So we have two debris fields at angles to each other.

Jim, this may be what you were seeing from 2011.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Gates: We may have just rediscovered

the two scuttled ships from drake's fleet.

-René, can we throw an anchor? -Sure.

Okay. Great. You ready to get wet?

Let's get wet.

Gates: Now we have to figure out exactly what's down there

and if one of the man-made objects

we're seeing in the scan could be drake's lead coffin.

♪

jim and I suit up and dive in.

Okay. Here we go.

♪

and I unleash a brand-new toy, a little underwater propulsion.

♪

the scooters can pull us at up to 3 miles per hour,

and if that doesn't sound like much, try swimming that fast.

♪

we comb the ocean floor for signs of our first target --

a coffin-size anomaly we spied on the scan.

Luckily, my scooter is more than just a mode of transportation.

I swing the propeller around and fire it up.

♪

immediately, everything is obscured by a cloud of sand.

But when it settles, what we see is incredible.

How do the planks look?

Gates: If we find lead, this could be

drake's infamous coffin, but if the timbers are scorched,

it's most likely a piece of the scuttled ships

drake's crew burned and abandoned in the bay.

All right. Let me know if you find any artifacts.

Gates: We continue to scour the site

using an underwater metal detector

to sniff out drake's lead coffin.

(metal detector pinging)

we find a graveyard of ship debris.

But no sign of drake's coffin.

With our oxygen running low,

we return to the surface and regroup.

♪

ugh. That's incredible down there.

Those really could be drake's ships.

I know.

Just a few inches under that sand...

Is all that timber.

-...All that timber. -I know it.

Just sitting there! But no sign of a lead coffin.

We're a league from shore, which is the right distance

to look for the coffin.

Perhaps the problem isn't the distance, but the direction.

You know, if you look from there

to where that island is out there,

and that little island is called drake rock.

Why is it called drake's rock?

-I think it's a marker. -Okay.

So it may be that we are in the right area;

we just need to be further out.

Exactly.

We board the boat and motor out to drake's rock.

♪

(thunder rumbles)

with signs that a storm is brewing,

we race to deploy the magnetometer

and run a search grid.

Okay. Mag looks good.

We're gonna go out to drake island,

we'll turn around, we'll come back.

As its name suggests, the magnetometer detects things

that are made of iron, like cannonballs.

According to drake's men,

cannons were fired when they buried their captain at sea.

Find the cannonballs, and we may find drake's coffin.

♪

after an hour of scanning back and forth,

we have something.

-We got a hit, guys! -Yeah?

-All right. -What do you got?

♪

-you see this wavy line here? -Yes.

The wavy line indicates that we have ferrous metal in the area.

We'll drop in the sonar,

and we'll confirm the hit with the side-scan.

Yeah, see if we can see it.

Gates: We retrieve the magnetometer...

Okay. Mag's out.

...And launch the side-scan sonar.

Release.

Almost immediately, we see something.

Whoa! Josh, come here!

-What do you got? -Check this out.

Come here and take a look at this.

-Let me see. -Look at this.

-Look at this right here. -Right here.

-Ha! What is that?! -Look at the shape of it.

I mean, I don't want to sound like a crazy person,

but what is that the shape of?

-It's about 6 or 7 feet. -I mean, it looks like a coffin.

♪

gates: To get from place to place in panama,

you could wait around all day for a cab,

but the easiest way to get a lift is to hail a bus.

Hola.

(up-tempo music playing)

ha-ha! What?!

♪

what is happening?!

Panama's signature red devil buses,

or as they're known here, diablos rojos,

are famous for their loud music and even louder paint jobs.

These diablo rojo buses used to be the lifeblood

of public transportation in panama.

They're old american school buses

that were shipped down here and given a second life.

But they're quickly being replaced by modern buses

because they're old, they're dangerous,

and the seats are built for 9-year-olds.

But who cares? They're a hell of a lot of fun!

♪

♪

gates: I'm on the hunt for the lead coffin

of history's most legendary privateer,

sir francis drake.

My team and I are searching just offshore of portobelo, panama,

near a mysterious island called drake's rock.

The barometer is falling,

the weather is making us nervous,

and our side-scan sonar

just picked up something unbelievable.

-Ha! What is that?! -Look at the shape of it.

I mean, I don't want to sound like a crazy person,

but what is that the shape of?

-It's about 6 or 7 feet. -I mean, it looks like a coffin.

♪

-what is it? -Let's go find out.

-Let's go diving. -Okay.

We're going diving. Let's go.

♪

gates: Our target is positioned

on the edge of a reef near drake's rock.

Jim and I gear up to dive

just as the rough weather we're fearing arrives.

♪

♪

the swift current threatens to drive us into the reef,

but jim and I press on.

♪

♪

suddenly, something stunning comes into view.

♪

♪

♪

jim's measurements will help him determine

if this cannon could have been part of drake's fleet.

♪

and just a few feet away, we make another discovery.

♪

♪

but where is the ship they came from?

♪

we continue to search the reef for wreckage...

♪

...But don't even find a scrap of wood.

Still, the twin cannons are a stunning find,

a maritime mystery waiting to be unraveled.

And jim already has a theory.

♪

(thunder crashes)

back on board the boat,

the rough weather we've been dreading finally arrives.

(thunder rumbles)

we speed to shore before we join the wrecks below.

♪

drake's exploits which took him from the shores of England

to the jungles of panama and oceans all over the globe

made him the model of a pirate and a patriot.

And after sailing in his wake, how do I consider him?

Drake may have given up slave trading,

but he still happily profited from it.

He was relentlessly driven

by a desire for money and vengeance,

obsessions that ended only in his death.

Drake had the vision to see over the horizon

but was blind to the injustice of his own actions.

A man so ahead of his time, yet very much a product of it.

A legend in his era and ours.