Original subtitles

Narrator: Gold fever.

Builds fortunes.

And destroys lives.

John: If you're the first in you make a fortune.

If you're the last in you lose all your money.

Narrator: A century later, the hidden story of the gold rush

Lies deep below the rivers, lakes

And even the streets of the american west.

Imagine if we could empty the oceans,

Letting the water drain away,

To reveal the secrets of the sea floor.

Now, we can.

Using accurate data, and astonishing technology,

To bring light once again into a lost world.

What can a mystery shipwreck tell us about

The deadly perils of the gold rush.

Lindsey: About 100,000 people set off and only about 30,000 made it.

Narrator: When being first is everything, is any risk worth taking?

Robert: He was asked, "do you wanna slow down?"

And he's like, "no, let her rip."

Narrator: And what extraordinary secret lies

Buried beneath one of america's greatest cities.

Deborah: There could be as many as 100 vessels buried

Under the streets of san francisco.

(theme music plays).

Narrator: This is gold country.

The rugged north west of the american continent.

An epic landscape that's home to a truly epic story.

James: The quest for gold has been the defining aspect of world history.

Great movements of people,

The rise of new states, of new cities, of new nations.

We can't under estimate the power of the gold rush.

Narrator: Throughout the 19th century hundreds of thousands of fortune hunters

Raced to the gold fields of north america,

Knowing that just a few nuggets can transform their lives.

In 1896, the most extraordinary rush of them all starts here.

In the klondike.

Deep in yukon territory, northern canada.

One of the most remote places on earth.

At the heart of the region, sits lake laberge.

And in the lake, a gold rush mystery.

An international team of maritime archaeologists

Have come here to investigate the klondike gold rush.

Even in the height of summer the waters of lake laberge are dangerously cold.

Lindsey: You only have about 30 to 40 minutes in the water before you freeze to death.

Narrator: But the team is willing to take the risk because of what's lying

On the bottom of the lake.

Lindsey: As you swim toward the wreck it comes at you out of this brilliant green,

Like a ghost ship.

Like it just is waiting for you.

Narrator: It's clearly a ship.

But like no other ever found in the yukon.

In their short time underwater, the team record glimpses of the wreck.

They want to know what it's doing here.

To understand more, we can turn to high resolution scans and data mapping.

Use powerful computer software.

Empty lake laberge and reveal a remarkable sight.

Exposed to the light of day for the first time in over 100 years,

A complete 19th century steamer.

Perfectly preserved, right down to the logs in its boiler.

But with its open decks, it seems more suited to the sub-tropical mississippi

Than the frozen wastes of northern canada.

So what's it doing here?

Delving into historical records, the team pieces together

A story that starts in the summer of 1896.

Prospectors explore deep in the yukon valley.

In a tributary of the klondike river, native american skookum jim mason

And his partners are panning for gold.

They find so much they rename the place bonanza creek.

James: The klondike discovery of gold in canada's yukon,

Couldn't have happened in a more inopportune place.

It's very much out of the way and it's also sub-arctic,

So it gets very cold, very, very cold.

Narrator: More prospectors strike it rich and soon, word spreads, like wildfire.

By the summer of 1897, fortune hunters jostle for

Places on ships heading north from seattle.

100,000 people are trying to reach the klondike.

Before them an epic challenge.

First, a voyage to alaska, then over land to the head waters of the yukon river,

The jumping off point for a perilous journey downstream to the gold fields.

And simply to reach the head waters they have to cross a huge mountain range.

The quickest way through is also the hardest.

John: The chilkoot trail was the shortest land route

Into the head waters of the yukon river.

But the problem of getting into those head waters was that 3600 foot pass.

And the last four miles was at a 35 degree slope.

Narrator: By the time the army of prospectors arrives, it's deep winter,

With temperatures down to minus 40.

Lindsey: Many people couldn't make it.

You would pass out from exhaustion.

Be unable to continue.

Countless numbers turned back at that point.

They just were unable to keep going.

Narrator: Those that do reach the river are still 300 miles from the gold.

And the yukon is frozen solid.

They spend the rest of the winter chopping down trees and building makeshift boats.

Lindsey: Many of who were building boats had no experience at all

And so they actually would call these boats coffin boats.

These rough structures that were meant to pass through these incredible rapids and

Even the deep water lake.

And so many of them, you would die in that boat.

Narrator: One thing is clear.

In the yukon of late 1897, the key to striking it rich is transport.

Which casts new light on the mystery wreck.

It's definitely not a coffin boat.

Where they use oars, this has a paddle wheel.

Where they use sails and muscle power, this has a boiler.

And where they are made of wood and nails, this has iron plates and rivets.

Faster and stronger than any wooden rival, a gold prospector's dream.

John: It's the old rule that if you're the first in you make a fortune.

If you're second in you maybe break even,

And if you're the third in you lose all your money.

Narrator: A key question remains, how could a heavy metal ship have gotten here?

Across some of the most unforgiving terrain on the planet.

And with no obvious river route to the coast.

The answer lies in the drained wreck itself.

The sheets of metal which make up the hull are crudely riveted and bolted together.

The boiler is unusually small for a steam ship.

In fact, every part of the steamer is small, light and crucially, portable.

This is its secret.

It doesn't sail here at all.

It is carried.

Its metal hull and engine are hauled over the mountains.

John: The hull was made in san francisco.

They added engine components to it from seattle and then the whole thing was shipped up

In pieces, hauled across the mountain and assembled.

There's nothing like it.

Narrator: The designers of this prefabricated steam ship

Are a remarkable pair of entrepreneurs.

Husband and wife, albert and clara goddard.

James: Goddard realizes the key to opening up the run is to use a modern steamer.

Iron hulled.

Strong and efficient.

What the goddard's come up with is genius.

Narrator: May 1898, an army of gold prospectors jostle for position waiting for

The ice to melt and 7,000 handmade boats stand ready.

James: "the long grip of winter and darkness is coming to an end.

The ice is beginning to crack and groan as the temperatures rise

And everybody's poised and waiting for that moment."

Narrator: Suddenly the way north is open.

The race is on.

Lindsey: There's an incredible scene like rush hour traffic.

With all these ridiculous little boats.

Narrator: And one boat enjoys a huge advantage.

Assembled during the depths of winter, weighing 15 tons,

With a flat bottom

Built to navigate shallow stretches of the yukon river

And named after her designer, the a j goddard.

The prospectors crammed on board paid for

The privilege of getting to the gold fields quickly.

Piloted by clara goddard herself.

Lindsey: We don't have a written record of what happened, but 22 people

Crowded on to this tiny boat where there's no interior cabin.

There's nowhere to go to get out of the elements.

Narrator: Steaming ahead at a steady six knots,

She leaves the makeshift coffin boats in her wake.

But downstream lies the fearsome white horse rapids.

Three miles of raging rock strewn waters.

Unknown numbers of people lose their lives here.

But the goddard's flat bottom design helps them navigate through the rapids with ease.

And after just five days, she arrives in the boom town of dawson,

Gateway to the gold fields.

Lindsey: As the goddard steams into dawson city it was met with cheers from

The towns people, who had never seen such a boat come into the town before.

It was quite a reception.

Narrator: It's a huge success.

Now albert and clara plan to make their fortune

Running prospectors back and forth to dawson.

But the goddard never makes the trip again.

What goes wrong?

Narrator: Archaeologists want to know why the a j goddard

Never travels to the klondike gold fields again

And today lies at the bottom of lake laberge.

Now drained, the wreck seems to be in perfect repair.

But accounts from the late 19th century reveal an issue

That albert and clara goddard hadn't thought through.

Gravity.

Lindsey: When they were going to the gold fields, they were going with the rapids,

They were going down river.

Now when they're returning, they're having to go up river past some really strong water.

The goddard wasn't built for that.

Narrator: The goddard's boiler is small.

Small enough to be carried over a mountain.

But too small to generate the power needed to plough upstream through the mighty

White horse rapids.

The goddard's have miscalculated.

Lindsey: At some points they had to tie ropes to the boat

And pull it through the more difficult sections.

Narrator: The goddard never attempts the run to dawson again.

Her days of transporting high paying prospectors are over.

Before they ever really begin.

Instead she becomes a humble ferry boat, here on lake laberge,

Where she spends the next three years

Carrying supplies for prospectors back and forth across the lake.

There's a final question.

Why does she now lie on the bottom?

There's no sign of damage on the wreck itself.

But in October 1901, lake laberge is hit by the worst storm of the year.

The goddard's are working the lake, carrying four crew and one passenger,

Suddenly she's surrounded by a mass of churning waves.

John: You're used to seeing ocean storms with these mountainous waves,

And they're very high.

You don't get waves like that on lakes, they often, at maximum 6 to 8 feet high.

But where their danger is, is they're much closer together and they're much steeper.

Narrator: Waves crash on deck and water fills the firebox,

Leaving the goddard powerless.

She drifts carried by the storm.

Lindsey: Finally, enough water floods into the hull, going through the hatches,

That it just weighs too much and it sinks to the bottom.

Narrator: Two men somehow make it to the shore.

But three drown.

The goddard still lies at the bottom of the lake.

A telling example of the hope, the ingenuity,

But also the disappointment

At the heart of so many gold rush stories.

Lindsey: About 100,000 people set off for the gold fields and only about 30,000 made it.

For those who got there, the best claims were already staked,

So they arrived and everything was taken.

Narrator: Gold to the value of nearly $900 million in today's prices is unearthed

In the three years of the klondike rush.

But fewer than 4,000 prospectors ever find any.

And only a few hundred make big money.

Today, little evidence of those dramatic days remains.

The yukon is once again a realm of forest, snow and ice.

But 1500 miles to the south, and 50 years earlier, there is another gold rush.

One that changes america and the world forever.

200 years ago, san francisco is a tiny settlement.

James delgado, archaeologist from search incorporated

Wants to know how it turned into the global city it is today.

The key is a single discovery.

Right next to san francisco's iconic trans america pyramid.

Where over 40 years ago, delgado first glimpses something extraordinary.

James: In may 1978 I was standing basically right here,

Looking down at the outline of a ship in the mud 20 feet below me.

Narrator: A wooden ship, right in the heart of the financial district.

Buried beneath the streets.

What is it doing here?

To learn more, we can use the latest computer imaging technology.

Stripping away the 21st century surface.

Peeling back 150 years of urban development.

Even draining away the thick layers of silt that lie under the city.

To expose the ghostly outline of a sailing ship from the mid 19th century.

Its name, the niantic.

An ocean-going merchant ship, the workhorse of the seas,

Built to carry cargo from the us to china

And across the world.

So, what's she doing beneath the streets of san francisco?

Narrator: The story of the ship under san francisco starts in January 1848

Amid the foothills of the sierra nevada mountains.

James marshal, a carpenter spots something yellow and shiny in the

Water channel of a saw mill he's building.

James: When asked what it is, he says, "boys, I believe I found me a gold mine."

And in that simple act of plucking a sun struck fleck of gold from that mill race,

James marshal set off one of the most incredible migrations of human kind.

The california gold rush.

Narrator: Over the next decade, 300,000 people will head west.

Ordinary men and women abandon their homes, jobs, farms, and families,

Driven by the chance to find gold.

Richard: People came from England, ireland, France, germany.

In fact, it probably was the first time, on the planet,

That so many people from all over the world

Gathered in one place.

Narrator: The 49ers, as they're called,

Face a huge challenge getting to the gold fields.

Crossing the continent takes months.

They risk starvation, disease or attack by hostile native american tribes.

It's faster by sea and many 49ers head to panama,

Crossing the isthmus through swelteringly hot jungle.

Thousands pay the ultimate price.

James: At one stage, panama city had more dead 49ers

Buried in its soil than it had living panamanians.

Narrator: Those that survive, begin the third leg of their journey,

Sailing north to san francisco.

One of the ships that will make that voyage is the niantic.

Recently converted to carry passengers.

San francisco's marime archives reveal what happened next.

Deborah: This is the niantic log book.

Here.

James: This is like the iconic scene.

Narrator: The skipper, captain henry cleveland,

Crams 249 fortune seekers on board.

Each paying an exorbitant amount of money, desperate to get to california.

James: Here's niantic's passengers coming out in boats to meet the ship.

Deborah: They would have charged around $250, in 1849 prices,

Which today's is about $5,000.

So very much more than the going rate would have cost.

But they had no other option.

Narrator: Niantic arrives in san francisco in July 1849.

Home to just a few thousand traders and sailors.

But her log book reveals that niantic's passengers

Aren't the only ones dreaming of riches.

James: Captain cleaveland holds off anchors and has his passengers ferried ashore

By boat with their baggage.

But he begins to worry, as he should, because gold fever is rampant

And his crew are beginning to mutter.

"baggage ashore, five of the crew deserted."

The last entry here July 12th 1849 is the

Crew is breaking out the last of the run, everything that's stored in the ship.

Narrator: One by one, the crew deserts and heads for the hills.

A week after arriving in san francisco,

The ship sits in the cove almost completely empty.

So why didn't the ship's owners simply hire another crew and sail her away?

The answer to that also lies beneath the streets of san francisco.

Removing yet more tons of ancient silt,

Reveals that niantic is far from alone.

She's just one of a vast fleet of ghost ships,

Lying deep beneath the modern city.

Evidence of an extraordinary story.

James: In 1849 alone, 762 american ships come to san francisco.

Joined by hundreds of others from around the world.

Narrator: Scores of vessels are now moored alongside the niantic,

All bringing prospectors to california.

Deborah: Unfortunately, most of these vessels arrived in san francisco

And their crews deserted.

James: What you find, ultimately, is a scene described by contemporaries

As a forest of masts, with hundreds of these ships sitting there,

With no place to go and nothing to do.

Narrator: And now another astonishing part of the gold rush story comes into play.

In just six months,

San francisco's population leaps from 5,000 to 25,000.

The town needs to grow and fast.

Entrepreneurs come up with the perfect solution.

Ships like niantic will become the city.

Deborah: So these savvy businessmen decided,

"we're gonna use these vessels for a new function."

They were hauled ashore and used for store ships.

They were also used for boarding houses, as churches, as offices.

Narrator: Niantic is hauled on to the mud flats and converted into a warehouse.

James: And so it is that getting close to 200 of these ships are converted,

Temporarily or permanently, into floating buildings.

Narrator: Landfill is dumped into the shallow waters of the cove and the city grows.

Soon, it extends around the beached ships, far out into san francisco bay.

Richard: There's construction everywhere.

On the piers. On land.

You can hear the sounds of the city are just a cacophony of construction sounds.

That began at dawn and went into the night.

Narrator: What was once sea, is now the streets and sidewalks

Of san francisco's financial district.

Deborah: There could be as many as 100 vessels

Buried under the streets of san francisco.

Only a small number of those have been found but as new buildings are built and new

Excavations are done, it's likely that we're gonna find more of those.

James: That's why we refer to san francisco's financial district

As a gold rush pompeii.

Narrator: Niantic holds one last surprise.

Found in the wreck is evidence of san francisco's burgeoning wealth.

James: Jacquesson and fils from reims.

A real small vineyard then.

Still a pretty expensive champagne.

They continue to make it.

Woman: Oh, how cool.

Narrator: San francisco isn't the only part of california that's booming.

120 miles away, near the gold fields of the sierra nevada other towns are growing fast.

What can these strange timbers at the bottom of the sacramento river

Tell us of the dark side of the gold rush?

Narrator: Sacramento. State capital of california.

Through the city flows the 400 mile sacramento river.

In 1849, it's the vital artery of the gold rush.

After landing in san francisco,

The 49ers continue their journey to the gold fields inland

By sailing along the river.

Archaeologists discover a wreck on the river bed here.

Right in the heart of the modern city.

James: And in those dives, what we found in the murkiness of the sacramento river,

Was a portion of the hull that broken at its back, or it's keel, lying there,

But with the whole form or the body of the hull itself still there for us to see.

Narrator: Historical research comes up with a name.

Lagrange.

A ship known to have carried prospectors to the city in 1849.

Today, archaeologists return to the river hoping to learn more.

But it's a challenge.

Foster: The sacramento river, it's always carrying silt,

Because it runs down the valley.

So to look for gold rush ships, we need to use a sonar that sees through that

Sediment to see the bones of a gold rush vessel.

Yeah, so it's 1.6 aft, and it's 0.5 starboard.

Narrator: Based on the sonar data from the latest survey,

We can start to drain the water from the river.

To reveal a gold rush wreck.

The partial remains of a ship's hull clearly visible.

Exploring deeper inside, reveals something surprising:

Metal ring bolts.

Like those used to restrain captives on a slave ship.

But what would be their purpose in the gold rush?

California is never a slave state.

So the reason for the ring bolts remains unclear.

To understand more, the team delves into lagrange's past.

Man: Okay go ahead. More out that way.

Woman: You see this thing right here?

Man: Yeah. In line. Turn the fish off.

Narrator: They discover she's a sea going barque.

First used to take cargo between new york and savannah.

Then, to cash in on gold fever, she's converted to carry 63 fortune seekers.

In early 1849, she sails from salem, massachusetts,

Arriving in san francisco seven months later.

Then she continues up the sacramento river,

Before docking along the water front.

From here, her passengers travel on to the gold fields on foot.

Man: Follow the shoreline here.

Narrator: But a ship taking prospectors to the gold fields

Wouldn't need restraining bolts.

So, what are they for?

Local archives reveal she spends the last ten years of her life

Simply moored on the river bank.

Did her crew desert to j?

Or is there another explanation?

Gold rush california is a dangerous and violent place.

Deborah: You had people coming from all over the world trying to strike it

Rich and that caused tension because you had people getting in brawls,

People pulling knifes, people pulling guns.

Narrator: Along with theft, assault and murder, there's ethnic tension too.

James: So you have the american mobs assaulting chileans.

Other hispanics sent chinese as well as native indians to clear the land or to send a

Message that you're not welcome.

Narrator: Sacramento needs a solution.

And so lagrange is converted from a sailing ship to become a floating jail house.

James: It's out of town.

It's on the river.

It is controlled and self-contained.

And so, it serves a perfect purpose

As not only a place in which you can incarcerate,

But one which you can completely control and keep inaccessible.

Narrator: Today, the prison ship, lagrange,

Lies beneath layers of silt on the river bed.

And the reason she sinks, casts light on another dark chapter of the gold rush.

James: One of the biggest fears of every gold seeker

Is that everybody else gets to it first.

Narrator: Prospectors take extreme measures

To get their hands on whatever gold is left.

Blasting river beds and cliff faces with high pressure water cannons,

To expose hidden seams.

James: The california landscape in the gold fields

Is dramatically changed forever.

Entire hillsides are washed free of mud and of anything growing on them,

Leaving only barren rock.

Narrator: The mud and uprooted trees flow downstream.

The sacramento becomes ever more clogged with silt.

Over time, it becomes more prone to flooding.

When a huge storm hits the city, la grange is threatened by rising water.

The guards and prisoners manage to escape.

But she sinks to the bottom of the river.

Where today, she still lies, as a reminder that the lust for gold

Led many 49ers not to a fortune, but disgrace.

In california, everything comes back to the gold rush.

Many immigrants stay on, building the great cities of

San francisco, sacramento and stockton.

But others can't get out quick enough.

Off the coast of southern california,

Can the wreck of another great gold rush ship explain

How even those who managed to get rich,

Are always one false step from disaster?

Narrator: Gold isn't just transforming california, by the early 1850s,

Some of those who struck pay dirt are returning home.

To towns and cities back east, to europe, to china.

Gold helps kick start the economy of the entire world.

But those leaving the golden state, put themselves in a new kind of peril.

On December 1st 1853, the steamship winfield scott leaves san francisco for

Panama, carrying 450 passengers, and gold,

Today worth over $30 million.

Deborah: It was a normal journey,

One that steam ships had done many, many times before.

Narrator: The winfield scott is an ocean-going steamer,

Whose builders declare no expense has been spared

To achieve strength, safety and speed.

She even has first class cabins for those who struck it rich.

Robert: These ships are amazing.

Yeah, they were built staunchly with white live oak.

They had four decks and the machinery on these were just state of the art.

Narrator: She has sailed this route eight times before.

But this time she never reaches panama.

The research vessel, shearwater, is heading towards the channel islands,

A few miles off the coast of southern california.

She's carrying a team of archaeologists, plus experts from noaa,

America's scientific agnecy that monitors climate and seas.

They want to learn more about the final fateful voyage of the winfield scott.

The channel islands are home to a protected national marine sanctuary,

But dd marx, an archaeologist with search incorporated, and her colleague,

Noaa official, bob schwemmer, regularly dive the wreck.

Deborah: You never know what you're gonna encounter.

The wind and the waves and the seasons uncover things and recover things.

So you might find new features of the hull you hadn't found before,

As well as new artefacts.

Narrator: In these waters the sands continually shift.

So every expedition is a new adventure.

These remains of the winfield scott lie in shallow water.

Her wooden hull has rotted away.

Her metal parts covered with decades of marine growth.

To see her in detail, and understand what happened here,

We can combine 3d scanning data with visualization software,

And pull the plug on the pacific ocean.

Slowly, the remains of the winfield scott appear.

Hidden from view since she set out laden with the gold of california.

Two paddle wheels lie exposed and a handful of metal parts.

But the most significant thing about the wreck isn't what it is, but where it is.

The drained landscape of the channel islands reveals the winfield scott is not alone.

Scattered across the seabed, lie dozens of other shipwrecks.

These waters are clearly dangerous.

So why was she here?

In the mid 19th century, most ships give the channel islands a wide berth,

Sailing past them and onto central america.

But in local archives, researchers discover evidence that the winfield scott

Decides to take a calculated risk.

Robert: We're very fortunate with the diaries from some of the passengers

That were on board the winfield scott.

The captain, simon blunt, has studied the area for

The us costal survey a few years before.

Narrator: And he's sure he knows a safe route directly through the islands.

Robert: Captain simon blunt felt pretty confident about

Coming through the santa barbara channel

Because it cut 100 miles off his course

And of course getting to panama first,

Or panama to san francisco, you got bragging rights.

Narrator: It's not just bragging rights.

It's cold hard cash.

Competition is fierce between rival shipping lines,

All vying for a slice of the action

On this most lucrative run.

Deborah: The winfield scott's owners were very keen on getting there quicker,

That means they could turn around and make a return trip,

Hence more money in their pockets.

Narrator: On the night of December 1st 1853,

The islands are shrouded in dense fog.

But captain blunt isn't worried.

Robert: He was actually asked, in the wheelhouse, about,

"do you wanna slow down, it's kind of getting you know foggy, and a bit dirty out there."

And he's like, "no, let her rip."

Of course he did.

11 knots right into california real estate.

Narrator: The ship smashes into the rocky coast line of anacapa island.

James: Water begins coming in.

You're standing there on a moment on a deck that is heaving,

With timbers cracking and moaning.

With steam hissing out of pipes, as cold sea water pours in.

With the hull ripping and tearing on rocks.

Narrator: All the passengers scramble onto this windswept shore.

The ship's cargo of gold is salvaged.

But some of those carrying the precious ore in their personal luggage aren't so lucky.

Passengers who've risked everything to achieve their gold rush dream,

See it lost on the sea floor.

James: To have that voyage end in shipwreck had to be heart breaking,

Because they would have lost everything.

All that effort. All that work. All gone.

Robert: Great job.

Deborah: That's really good.

It looks so cool.

Narrator: Today the wreck of the winfield scott still speaks loudly of the huge

Wealth generated in the gold rush era.

Deborah: So within a span of five years,

From san francisco being a tent city,

In the blink of an eye really, you had a bustling city,

And you had steam ships like the winfield scott

That were able to have passengers that could afford

A first class state room on their way home.

Narrator: By the end of the 1850s, just a decade after the first discovery,

$187 billion worth of gold in today's money,

Is pulled from the mountains of california.

An extraordinary decade of adventure,

Endeavour and sometimes heartbreak,

That utterly transforms america.

California becomes the 31st state of the union.

A booming economy that's soon home to 400,000 settlers.

The gold rush opens up the american west, and in so doing,

Creates the modern united states.

Captioned by cotter captioning services.