All language subtitles for Alien Deep with Bob Ballard 2of5 Wrecks of the Abyss NG 720p_ENG_Subtitles01

ROBERT BALLARD: I've dedicated
my life to exploring the unknown.

I've been places
no one else has ever gone.

I've seen life no human eye
has ever seen.

It's my passion.

I found the Titanic.

God damn!

I've survived crushing depths

and a rogue wave.

But even after 50 years at sea,

I'm as fascinated with the deep
as I was on my very first expedition.

You want to know
my most important discovery?

Well, it's the one
I'm about to make.

I'm Dr. Robert Ballard.

Come with me
into the alien deep.

MAN: At the end of this move

we'll be within a 50-meter range
of our expected target.

MAN: Alright, well, this looks good.
I think we can go down now.

Just watch your altitude.

BALLARD: 12 meters.

Let's keep going,
I think we've got it there, guys.

MAN: Yeah, not too bad.

BALLARD: Not bad. Hold!
There's a lot of good hunting ground here.

WOMAN: Depth of 25.

MAN: Tilting camera down.

WOMAN: Tilting camera down.

BALLARD:
These are the moments I live for.

You spend all this time
out on the sea,

and then in between
all the searching,

you make these incredible discoveries.

They completely change
our understanding of human history.

It doesn't get much more
exciting than that.

Alright, let's get down
on the deck.

Get closer down.

MAN: 296. Okay, Rhonda, why don't you
come around to that heading?

WOMAN: Gotcha.

MAN: And I'll try to...

BALLARD: Something here,
what's this, what's this, what's this?

MAN: What's that right ahead?

WOMAN: I don't know.

MAN: Whoa!

MAN: What is this?

BALLARD: That's it, baby.

Come on in.

Come to papa.

Big one. Big one.

I love it.

Il love it, I love it,
I love it, I love it.

NARRATOR: 95% of the ocean floor
is unexplored.

And if it wasn't for
Dr. Robert Ballard,

that number would
be much higher.

BALLARD: I'm always looking forward
to being underwater.

It's like fishing-
if you don't have your lure in the water

you're not going to
catch any fish.

NARRATOR: After a lifetime
of exploring,

Ballard is out to prove
a controversial theory-

that to find the oldest wrecks,

you have to look deep,
in open waters.

You can't stay in the shallows,
as common wisdom has it.

BALLARD: Jason and the Argonauts
sailed through here

on the quest for
the golden fleece.

This is where Odysseus made
his journey back from Troy,

right up the street here.

The Roman Empire established
an empire, Greeks.

I mean, this is where all
these civilizations moved,

and commonly by sea.

NARRATOR: Which means their shipwrecks-
if Ballard can find them-

would provide
a window into history

as far back as the Phoenicians,
and even the Egyptians.

Back in the day,

the southeastern coast of Turkey

was a hub of
commerce and travel.

BALLARD: This is a confluence

of a lot of trade routes.

Whether you're coastal traffic

or you start heading out into
the eastern Mediterranean,

or you head across to Greece
and to Athens and that area,

or down that way towards Crete.

So this is quite a crossroads.

You go around the corner,
you know,

you're headed up to the entrance
to the Black Sea.

So we're here because
they were here.

NARRATOR: Ballard hopes these waters
will provide proof

of a long-held conviction-

that the ancients were
confident, ambitious sailors.

BALLARD: If you're
an ancient mariner,

and you want to go from A to B,

you pick the shortest route.

Time's money.

And so we simply try
to figure out

where the starting point is,
the end point is.

We draw a line between the two,
and we hunt the line.

NARRATOR:
It's an unconventional strategy.

Many experts believe
ancient mariners

would have hugged the coast
in their handcrafted wooden ships.

Ballard disagrees.

BALLARD: These early seafarers-

and I am talking about
the time of Homer

in the eighth century BCE
and even before-

they were a lot bolder than
we ever gave them credit for.

NARRATOR: If Ballard's right,

the deep waters of
this ancient crossroads

should hold some amazing
archaeological finds.

But few researchers have
the resources to get to there.

Exploration is
an expensive business.

BALLARD: I'm putting a lot
of money in the water,

and I want to get it back.

I mean, obviously, can't wait
to see what it's going to see.

NARRATOR: Ballard is using
one of the most sophisticated

underwater exploration systems
ever assembled.

It allows him to go where
no one has gone before.

BALLARD: Our vehicles are designed
to go to 20,000 feet.

So we're not restricted
by depth.

In fact, I prefer going deep.

NARRATOR:
Before he starts a search,

Ballard does a dry run.

BALLARD: Now they'll drive back out,

like a dog on a leash.

NARRATOR: The dog is Hercules,
a camera-carrying robot.

BALLARD: It wants to go.

NARRATOR: Next is Argus,
Hercules' support module.

It helps the dog
sniff out its prey.

BALLARD:
Argus has got all the lights.

Argus will light up
the bottom down there.

Plus, it's got a camera
that's sort of the eye in the sky,

sort of a helicopter watching
Hercules do his stuff.

NARRATOR: He needs all
the technology he can get,

because the deep
is vast and dark.

And his targets are tiny.

BALLARD: Right now
we're in my backyard.

This is the world that I live in-
a world of total darkness.

Most of the planet
is pitch black.

The average depth of the ocean
is 12,000 feet down.

It gets down to 35,800 feet.

The pressure is eight tons
per square inch.

NARRATOR: Only a handful
of human beings

have ever been to
the deepest part of our planet.

And yet Ballard believes
the crushing depths

have much to tell us
about our history.

BALLARD: And when
you go down there,

you can only see about 30 feet.

And then I come across
an artifact,

an ancient shipwreck.

Who knows when that went down.

NARRATOR: Finding shipwrecks
is what made Ballard famous.

BALLARD:
Most of it's unexplored.

We have no idea what
we're gonna encounter.

And we simply just are
gonna go down there

with a flashlight and look.

MAN: We're gonna bring it up.

NARRATOR: The shakedown dive
is complete.

Now it's a waiting game

as the sonar searches
for possible targets.

Meanwhile, Ballard meets
with his archaeology team,

Tufan Turanli
and Bridget Buxton.

BALLARD: We began going south
and we...

People ask me
how many we've found.

Probably about 20 so far.

How many do I think
are down there?

Thousands and thousands of them.

NARRATOR: Of the wrecks
Ballard has found here,

most have been no more
than 2,000 years old.

But to prove that even
earlier civilizations

ventured out across open waters,

he needs to find
something older-

something only the ocean
could have preserved.

BRIDGET BUXTON: We've exhausted
a lot of the land-based sources.

For example,
they aren't going to find

another tomb of Tutankhamen.

We've found all
the New Kingdom pharaohs.

The next big,
really world-changing discoveries

could be made underwater,

and they could be made
in this area.

NARRATOR: But they won't be found
in the shallows.

TUFAN TURANLI:
Through our contacts,

especially sponge divers,

I think we have found possibly
almost all of the wrecks

that are in diveable depths.

But the sea is very vast,

and there are many ships
out there,

and those are the ones that
are the prime shipwrecks,

because they are
mostly untouched.

NARRATOR: If Ballard is right about
the ancient mariners' routes,

they're untouched
because they're deep-

his favorite place to explore.

BALLARD: Look at that!

NARRATOR: Next morning
there's good news.

BALLARD: It's got my name on it.

NARRATOR: The night watch
has picked up some interesting targets.

BALLARD: No one's touched
the ones we're about to look at.

We'll be the first in on them
since they sank,

whenever they sank,
hundreds and hundreds of years,

thousands of years ago.

So ll like that.

BUXTON: 25 meters maybe,
give or take.

NARRATOR: It's painstaking work,
requiring intense concentration

and an eye for sonar anomalies.

BALLARD: What do we see
on sonar, Dwight?

Anything interesting?

DWIGHT: Just the bottom.

The sonar's tipped.

BALLARD: I want to get away
from the biology

that destroys wrecks and
covers it and encases it.

I want to get away from
the sponge divers

and the looters who take things.

I want to get away from,
in particular, the trawler.

NARRATOR: Trawlers destroy
everything in their path,

as they drag the ocean floor
with their nets.

BALLARD: Our real nemesis
is the deepwater trawler

that's trawling history off the-

sweeping it off the bottom
of the ocean.

Trawl mark, trawl mark,
trawl mark.

Look at all those trawl marks.

Funny thing is,
have you seen a fish yet?

What are they catching?

So we're going to keep going
until we bottom out.

Hopefully we bottom out
at what, 500 meters, Dwight?

DWIGHT: Five, yeah.

BALLARD: 500 meters.

And we're wanting the trawl marks
to go away any second now.

NARRATOR: Ballard searches deep
using a technique

that transformed
underwater archaeology

when he pioneered it
on his most spectacular discovery.

BALLARD: The RMS Titanic.

You're looking down to-
now those are the portholes.

And you can see the rust
literally bleeding.

It's like a waterfall of blood.

NARRATOR: For over 70 years,

the whereabouts of the world's
most famous shipwreck

were unknown...

...until Ballard had an idea.

Imagine this Nebraska field
is the North Atlantic,

and you're hunting for Titanic.

BALLARD: Somewhere in this
wheat field is a trail.

When the Titanic sank,
it broke in half at the surface.

Witnesses saw it.

And these two pieces became
giant salt shakers,

shaking out their contents.

So everything was coming out
of the Titanic!

Boilers were coming out.

People were coming out.

Wine bottles were coming out.

And during that free fall,
it creates a trail of debris

that's much bigger signature
than the Titanic itself.

So now, we're searching
the ocean floor

and we come across
our first piece of debris,

and then another.

The pieces are getting
bigger and bigger.

We're going in
the right direction.

We are heading directly
to the wreck itself.

NARRATOR: September 1, 1985.

1:00 AM.

BALLARD: Initially, we didn't know
if we were on the right trail,

until that magic moment

when the boiler came
underneath our cameras.

MAN: Look at it What the hell?

Oh! God, it looks like the boiler.

MAN: Boiler!

MAN: Yes, yes!

BALLARD:
We had a picture of that boiler

on the wall of the control van,

and everyone's head looked
to the picture, looked back,

and we knew it was the Titanic.

God damn!

NARRATOR: 25 years later
in the Mediterranean,

Ballard is as enthusiastic
as ever-

now searching for
much older debris trails.

BALLARD: I feel lucky,
don't you, Dwight?

DWIGHT: Yup.

BALLARD: Feel lucky?

Yeah, I feel lucky.

Something here, what's this,
what's this, what's this,

what's this, what's this?

Looks like an amphora
off to the left.

Mark it.

Possible amphora.

NARRATOR: Amphorae are
the shipping containers

of the ancient world-

clay jars that transported everything
from grain, to olive oil, to wine.

BALLARD: These ancient mariners
treated an amphora

like, you know, we treat trash.

They throw them overboard.

In the deep sea, the average rate
of sedimentation

is a centimeter per 1,000 years.

1,000 years!

An amphora, a typical one,
is about,

little less than a meter,
about 18 centimeters.

You can't bury it.

So if you throw over an amphora
over the side in the deep sea,

it's probably still laying there,
and you can still see it with your eye.

This smells right.

Something dead ahead.

Ah-ha!

That's it, baby.

There she blows.
There she blows!

Come on in.

Come to papa.

MAN: It's a wreck.

BALLARD: It's a wreck.

[cheering]

WOMAN: All right!

BALLARD: Yes! Ha-ha!

Big one. Big one.

That's a big boy.
That's a big boy.

That is a big boy.

NARRATOR: 1,500 feet down,

the wooden masts and hull of the ship
are long gone,

devoured by organisms that
live in the muddy bottom.

But the cargo of amphorae remains.

BUXTON: I'm going to guess
this is Type 1 Byzantine.

But I want you to erase that
if I'm wrong.

BALLARD: You think
it's Byzantine?

BUXTON: it's-that's...

Look at the striations
across the bottom.

BALLARD: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

NARRATOR:
Markings on the amphora

point to a ship from
the sixth century CE-

Byzantine.

The Byzantine Empire arose
from the eastern remnants

of the old Roman Empire.

From its capital, Constantinople,

trade routes radiated out across
the eastern Mediterranean.

BALLARD: The first impression
is Byzantine, so...

we'll move on.

MAN: Byzantine. That's good? Bad?

BALLARD: Could be better.

So we'll make it better.

Hello!

NARRATOR:
But before they move on,

something catches Ballard's eye.

BALLARD: Yeah, yeah.
Look at this puppy.

Hello.

Hold the shot,
zoom back, zoom back.

Lovely, lovely.

There we go.

NARRATOR: Eels are nice,

but Byzantine wrecks are
a dime a dozen along this coast.

İt's old, but not old enough

to be an example of truly early
open-ocean sailing.

BALLARD: We're looking for
those particular lost ships

that really have
something to tell us,

and then we'll spend time
on those.

Otherwise we'll just move on.

Alright, zoom back
and we'll come down a while.

Then I think we'll
get out of Dodge.

NARRATOR: The Nautilus
sets course for a new target

a few miles away.

BALLARD: Okay, roger.
Okay, so that's where we'll head.

MAN: I am seeing a really
great-looking return on the sonar.

It's very common to all
the piles of jars we've seen,

or amphoras.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Hercules' camera picks up
something in the dark.

BALLARD: Your heading is 2367

WOMAN: Around about that, yes.

BALLARD: That's about...

You should pick it up
on the right.

That might be that puppy
over there.

WOMAN: Yeah.

BALLARD: We're coming in on it.

Yeah. Here it comes.

MAN: It's a sailboat.

WOMAN: Comin' up.

ALL: That's a sailboat!

WOMAN: Whoa, is right,
I've got to come way up, guys.

BALLARD: You're kidding,
it is a sailboat.

Oh, it's a net.

Oh, there we've got
a name on it.

It's got a name.

MAN: Want to zoom in
on the numbers?

BALLARD: Yeah. Go see what
its home port is on the stern.

I'll bet you it's Delaware.

Want to bet on it? Anyone?

MAN: What's the flag?

MAN: Miranda?

MAN: Miranda.

BALLARD: Miranda.

What's underneath?

MAN: Heidelberg.

WOMAN: Do you want me
to go in on that?

BALLARD: Heidelberg, yeah.

Look at-is it-
what's it sitting on?

Looks like it's sitting on
a pile of amphora.

I'm joking, those are
shadows of the ropes.

[laughter]

NARRATOR: There may be a good story behind this
eerie wreck,

but it's not one Ballard
has time to pursue.

His laser focus remains
on ancient mariners-

and the older, the better.

BALLARD: You're looking for the most dangerous stretch
of ocean

along the trade routes.

That's the trouble spot,

that's where these sailing ships
were most likely to go down.

NARRATOR: To find those
trouble spots,

Ballard must get into the mind
of the ancient sailor.

He puts himself at the helm
of some traditional sail power.

BALLARD: Trying to get from A to B

in a powerboat
like the Nautilus,

you just point your bow
towards it and off you go.

But a sailing ship must do
a series of tacking maneuvers,

trying to get the reach,

trying to get the best winds

that will give him
the direction he wants to go

at the highest speed.

NARRATOR: Steering a zigzag course
along the Turkish coast,

Ballard soon discovers
a potential danger zone.

BALLARD: As the ancient mariner
was carrying his cargo north,

coming up on
the Datca Peninsula,

he would turn west and travel
along the peninsula,

being protected from the winds
by the land itself.

If he turned the corner,

he was going to encounter
the winds from the northwest.

If the winds were
not that severe,

he could make safe passage.

But if they were severe,
he could be in serious trouble.

NARRATOR:
If conditions turned bad,

there was little
an early sea captain could do.

BALLARD: They had very primitive
sailing technology,

so it was much, much
more difficult to do

what I'm doing right now.

You've got a very simplistic square rig.

It doesn't have a keel,
so it's basically a big bathtub.

And it's not capable of the maneuvering
that we can now do

with modern sailing ships.

And sure enough,
if he was overloaded

or the winds were severe,
he would sink.

This is just the right spot
to find shipwrecks.

It has all the necessary ingredients.

But of course,

just when you think you've
got it all figured out,

that's when something
goes wrong.

MAN: You all set, Brennan?

NARRATOR: When Ballard
rejoins the Nautilus,

he's met with bad news-

his sonar system, Diana,
is down.

BALLARD: Did they recover Diana
or they haven't done that yet?

MAN: Yeah, we still have to recover it.

BALLARD:
They're recovering it now?

NARRATOR: With no sonar,
exploration grinds to a halt.

BALLARD: Diana severed one of
its terminating wires

and got flooded with seawater.

And it'll take just as much time to fix it
as bring Echo on line.

Echo can go a lot deeper,

and we're in real deep water now,
happy hunting ground,

so I want to bring this guy
on line.

The game is
get someone in the pool.

NARRATOR: Sonar is the first crucial link
in Ballard's search system.

He needs it to locate targets
in the imaginary wheat field below.

BALLARD: Well, my hands are
my side-scan sonars.

But my sonar can reach
further than my hands,

it can reach out about
1,000 meters.

So I have, basically, a lawnmower
that's 1,000 meters wide

when I'm using the sonar.

And I can quickly get through
a large search area that way.

NARRATOR;
When the sonar's working, that is.

To be out of the water on day four
of a five-day expedition

is exasperating,
to say the least.

BALLARD: You know, it's like
I just got in a cab in New York City

with four dollars in my pocket,

and I'm stuck in traffic

watching the cab meter go [buzz).

When you get on this ship
and mobilize,

you start these meters.

And it burns,

it's got a $1,000 an hour
burn rate.

NARRATOR: While Ballard frets
about lost bottom time,

other crewmembers jump
at the chance to relax.

BALLARD: This is humbling.

To be in beautiful weather
and not in the water, but...

You know, I don't have
patience on land,

but I've learned
to have patience at sea...

kind of.

It's just that I have
too much to do.

I'm out here trying to prove

how adventurous
the ancient mariners really were,

and now I'm just wasting
time and money.

[men singing]

NARRATOR: Ballard's lightbulb moment
about open-ocean voyaging

came to him, not in the Med,
but during a trip to Hawaii.

Over 1,500 years ago,

Polynesians made incredible
open-sea voyages

around the Pacific
in simple wooden sailing boats.

In modern Hawaii,

the ancient Polynesian
sailing traditions live on.

CHADD ONOHI PAISHON: So we're
just going to stretch this

as tight as we can get it.

BALLARD: This tight...

NARRATOR: Master navigator
Chadd Onohi Paishon

is skipper of
the voyaging canoe Makali'i.

It's named after the Polynesian navigator
who, as legend has it,

steered the first humans
to Hawaii.

BALLARD: So Chadd,
when you're sailing

and you're sailing overnight,
where do you sleep?

PAISHON:
I get the penthouse bunk.

Right there.

BALLARD: You're right here
under the stars.

And where do I sleep?

PAISHON: You're down below
with the rest of the crew.

Let me show you where
you will be sleeping.

BALLARD: It's amazing
the guts they had

to literally go where
no one has gone before

and wonder if they were
going to get there.

NARRATOR:
Chadd's ancestors sailed for a month,

across over 2,000 miles of
open ocean to get to Hawaii.

BALLARD: They didn't even know
Hawaii was here.

PAISHON: Yeah.

BALLARD: They sailed out into
the most remote parts of the planet.

PAISHON: The ocean has
always been our road.

BALLARD: The highway.

PAISHON: Yeah, it's not something
that separated us,

it's something that
joins us together.

BALLARD: Very few Hawaiians live
on the tops of the islands.

PAISHON: Right, right, we all live here
where we're supposed to live.

BALLARD: Exactly.

PAISHON:
The tops are for the gods.

BALLARD: That's for the gods.

That idea of a highway,
that's what stood out to me.

Maybe the early Greeks
had highways, too,

across the Mediterranean.

The experts say ancient mariners
would have sailed

close to the shore,

but I say they would have
been just as bold

as the first Hawaiians.

They were sailing
about the same time,

and probably just as sophisticated.

If I'm right, the shipwrecks
should be there to prove it.

NARRATOR: Eventually
the crew gets the sonar system

back in the water.

But now the conditions
have changed.

BALLARD: We're in a real
weather pattern right now.

We had winds up to
30 knots and more.

We actually came and hid
behind this island

because it was so bad
around the corner.

NARRATOR: Their move
to calmer waters

proves to be a lucky one.

BALLARD: We came here
literally escaping the bad seas,

and looks like we might have
picked up some good targets

that we're gonna go
and dive on right now.

They're about 11-12 meters long,

about three and a half
meters wide,

so it's a classic
three-to-one ratio.

You can see the individual...

NARRATOR: While hiding
from the storm,

the sonar picked up several
interesting anomalies,

including this one.

BALLARD: So it sort of looks like
a cluster of small grapes,

the quintessential signature
of an ancient cargo ship

carrying amphoras.

NARRATOR: Hopes are high,
though Ballard is ever wary.

BALLARD: You don't know
what's there.

It could be nets,
you could get in trouble.

I've had submarines trapped in nets,
with people in them,

and I've had ROVs
trapped in nets.

So I'm net conscious.

MAN ON RADIO:
Argus is in the water.

NARRATOR:
The pressure is palpable.

Ballard has less than 24 hours
before he has to head home.

BALLARD: I've been on
over 130 expeditions,

and it always seems to go
down to the wire.

It's the last day and
you're still trying to reel in

that really big fish that
you know is out there.

MAN: There was something there.

BALLARD:
That's got to be it, guys.

Argus bears 266.

You're creating in your mind

a three-dimensional characterization
of where you are.

You become Hercules.

There's a bang coming in, 250.

Bears 250, looks like.

I'm generally completely aware
of where I am

on the bottom of the ocean,
and I'm down there in my mind.

There it is, off to the left.

There we are, folks.

BUXTON: That is a shipwreck.

BALLARD: See what we got.

BUXTON: Everybody who wanted
to be woken up

when we got something exciting
should be woken up.

MAN: Oh. Winch watch!

NARRATOR: Suddenly, a problem.

BALLARD: We just lost the winch.

NARRATOR: Without the winch,

the vehicles could smash
into the bottom.

Worse, there's no way
to retrieve them.

MAN: Sheave's 180.

BALLARD: Sheave's 180.

It's counting negatives.

NARRATOR:
Before they can even see it,

they're losing the wreck.

MAN: All set, Brennan?

MAN: Yeah.

MAN: Alright, sorry, guys.

Eric and Chris,
you should be getting it now.

MAN: Okay, Tom,
we're going back down...

BALLARD: It's funny, it was
really intense there for a moment.

NARRATOR: With the winch fixed,

the crew quickly gets back
to the task at hand.

MAN: Now let's check this out.

This looks like our target, guys.

MAN: Hey, we found it.

BUXTON: My screen's turned off.

MAN: Sweet Argus, you guys.

Good job!

BALLARD: Roll on Argus, please.

Who's there recording video?

BUXTON: We need to get
a little closer,

but it looks like it could be
a Hellenistic or classical wreck.

BALLARD: Hellenistic.

MAN: Hellenistic is...?

BALLARD: The time
of Alexander the Great.

NARRATOR: Alexander the Great
lived in the fourth century BCE,

around 2,300 years ago.

This is the first time
a wreck from that period

has been found so deep.

BUXTON: Okay,
we need to get in close

to one of the ones
that's quite well exposed.

Oh, those are very nice.

MAN: Fantastic view there.

BUXTON: Identifying these ceramics
is a little bit like wine tasting.

I can tell the difference between
a red and a white wine,

maybe a Merlot and a Cabernet.

After that it gets more complex.

Byzantine, Roman, Greek,
that's your red or white wine.

The little, subtle differences
takes a ceramics expert.

So I'm just giving
my triage opinion here.

NARRATOR: But then,

Bridget notices some unusual
characteristics on the amphorae.

BUXTON: This is definitely
something unusual.

NARRATOR:
The style looks Samian,

named after
the Greek Island of Samos.

BUXTON: Ships from that era
are very rare,

so if this is
a classical Samian-type amphora,

this is a very important shipwreck.

NARRATOR: Important, because it would
push the age of the wreck

back another 100 years,
to the fifth century BCE,

the peak of Greek
maritime power.

This ship may once have been filled
with fine wine bound for Athens,

when it was home
to Socrates and Plato.

BALLARD: It's like Neptune
opens a curtain, a veil...

and there it is.

I'm always excited,

but when you find someone that
really knows what they're looking at,

and they get excited,

then you know you really
did something cool.

[camera shutter clicking]

NARRATOR: Hundreds of pictures
are electronically stitched together

into a three-dimensional map
of the wreck.

With such a promising find,

Ballard is eager to know
exactly how old it is.

But he won't get that answer

until a ceramics expert
can analyze the images.

BALLARD:
That's the frustrating part.

You can make some
educated guesses.

And this one's definitely
from the classical period.

But you need to bring in
just the right authority

to tell you for sure
that you've got it.

NARRATOR: In classical times,

major Greek cities like Athens
kept themselves supplied

through a network
of trading colonies

all around the eastern Mediterranean

and the Black Sea.

But not all the ships
that ferried goods

made it to their destinations.

BALLARD: Sad thing about almost
every shipwreck I've ever found,

it's not a question of
if someone died or not,

it's how many.

The ships like this would have
a reasonably small crew,

five, six people.

But given where we are,
far out from land,

more than likely
everyone on this ship died.

BUXTON:
It was a terrifying risk,

because if your body
was lost at sea,

you would never receive
a proper burial.

Your spirit would
never be at rest.

So they must have been
very motivated

to make the kinds
of voyages they did.

BALLARD: Getting there, captain?

NARRATOR: With time up
in this search area,

Ballard bids farewell
to the Nautilus

as it heads for the Black Sea.

BALLARD: Oh, you are going
to drop anchor?

When we started this expedition,

we had this idea that
the ancient mariners

were brave sailors
who risked their lives

out on the open ocean.

The discoveries we've made
are telling us that we're right.

Now I want to know exactly
how old these ships are

and what they can tell us

about the civilizations
they sailed from.

NARRATOR: To unlock the secrets
of his discoveries,

Ballard will be heading
back to the US.

Back on dry land,

Ballard is still tethered-virtually-
to the Nautilus.

The Inner Space Center at
the University of Rhode Island

has a control room that
exactly duplicates

the one on board the ship.

BALLARD: Alright, young ladies,
if I could sneak in here.

So, what have they got?

NARRATOR: From here,

Ballard checks in with
the Nautilus crew,

now preparing for operations
in the Black Sea.

MAN ON RADIO:
I think we'll keep moving up

towards the stern of Nautilus,

and then move up to
the base of the wall.

BALLARD: Yep.

What we're doing is introducing

a very different
kind of paradigm.

We're running it like
the emergency room of a hospital.

We have what are called
doctors on call.

MAN ON RADIO:
...to give us a better feeling

for the provenance of this pot.

BALLARD: We make a discovery
Sunday morning at 2:00 AM.

It's seen on the command centers
aboard these two ships.

And at the same moment,
it's seen on a big screen.

So we're standing watches
linked to the ships.

So when they see something,
we see something.

Then we have to say,

"Well, who do we need to
bring into the game?"

And we literally get
on the phone and call.

Jamie, we have an archaeologist
in Haifa on the line, correct?

MAN: Uh, we do.

BALLARD: And to be on call,

you have to be within 30 minutes
of a command center.

And then they actually
literally take over the ship.

We take all directions from
archaeologists, so take it...

We're waiting for a discovery.

We have no idea
what we're going to-

what kind of discovery
it's going to be.

So this is all about reacting to
the moment a discovery is made.

NARRATOR: As the Nautilus begins
its mission in the Black Sea,

Ballard continues his
detective work from home.

BALLARD: Okay, 'cause I saw
night in the middle

of your nav plot is a circle.

NARRATOR: He's brought in
Andrei Opait,

world-renowned expert
on ancient ceramics.

BALLARD: Hello! Bonjour!
How are you?

ANDREI OPAIT:
Nice to meet you, finally.

BALLARD: Finally. I'm really looking forward
to showing you what we've found.

I thought I would start with the-
what I believe to be

the Byzantine shipwreck.

Now, how can you tell that?

Now that's a little different,
or is that the same one?

NARRATOR: So, nothing new
from the Byzantine wreck.

BALLARD: Well, now let me
show you something that-

in the same area not far away
is this shipwreck.

Can you tell me
how old this shipwreck is?

Seventh century?

OPAIT: BCE.

BALLARD: Oh, my goodness.
So this would be...

This is the oldest ship
we've found in the Aegean.

NARRATOR: Ballard's exploration
has thrown up a truly significant find.

A wreck initially thought to be

from the time of
Alexander the Great

is in fact 300 years older.

And it's in deep water,

meaning that just as
Ballard suspected,

these ancient merchants were
venturing out across the sea,

not hugging the coast.

But what of its cargo
and its port of origin?

BALLARD: So what would it
have carried?

Wine, wine.

Red wine?

[laughter]

OPAIT: I like it.

But...

BALLARD: So you're talking about
a tremendous volume of wine.

Would they be sending it
to a distribution center somewhere,

or would they be going
along the coast

sort of selling it off
a case at a time?

Okay.

NARRATOR: From the Byzantine world
to ancient Greece,

each new discovery
sheds more light

on how and where
our ancestors traveled.

BALLARD: Push back,
push back, push back.

Make discoveries that
completely rewrite history.

That is what an explorer
wants to do.

NARRATOR;
With the satellite connection to his ship,

Ballard can now explore 24/7.

BALLARD: I want to discover
as fast as possible.

Because in my lifetime,
I will not get the job done.

İt'll take generations.

So I'm trying to accelerate
the rate of discovery.

I'm selfish.

I want to see it before I die.

NARRATOR: His system works.

As Ballard sits down
to a seafood feast with his kids,

he's alerted to an intriguing discovery
5,000 miles away.

WOMAN: And continue.

MAN: Full wide, please.

MAN: Oh, hold on a second,
hold on...

Just go left about a meter
and then up a little bit.

Actually, stay where you were,

'cause I thought
I saw something strange.

NARRATOR:
30 minutes after getting the call,

Ballard arrives at
the Inner Space Center.

BALLARD: Nautilus,
this is Inner Space Center,

do you copy, over?

WOMAN: We copy, Bob.

BALLARD: Yeah, can you give us
a status report?

NARRATOR:
The crew aboard the Nautilus

has made a remarkable discovery.

BALLARD: Wow.

So what have we got?

MAN: Looking at footage
from the ancient ship

that we found in the Black Sea,
the Eregli E.

BALLARD: So this is what depth?

MAN: This is a little over
100 meters depth.

BALLARD: Looks like
there's been trawl damage here.

MAN: Yeah, right through
the center there,

you know,
all the broken artifacts,

looks like it's definitely
been trawled.

NARRATOR: The wreck lies near
the Turkish town of Eregli,

part of the ancient Greek
trading empire.

MAN: What's all this?

You see that?

WOMAN: Yeah.

MAN: Is that wood on the left?

See the regular spacing
of the wood?

WOMAN: Yup, we want to zoom in
on all the wood.

MAN: Okay.

BALLARD: But wait,
we're 100 meters and we've got wood.

MAN: We have wood.

BALLARD:
We shouldn't have wood, right?

NARRATOR: Ballard has been
searching here for years

in the hopes of making
a find like this.

The deep waters of the Black Sea
contain little or no oxygen...

perfect conditions for preserving shipwrecks.

BALLARD: Something's crazy then.

There's nothing, you look at the bottom,
you don't see any crabs,

you don't see any
boring organisms.

NARRATOR: Usually
the oxygen-free layer

begins at 500 feet.

But this wreck lies at just 300.

BALLARD: I mean,
we're opening Pandora's box

when we tell the world
about this,

because we were assuming
you had to have

the deep water technology,

and only a few people
have that technology,

but you could dive on this.

MAN: Pretty close.

BALLARD: It means that
our chances of finding

really important ancient history
just went up dramatically.

The question is
who's going to find it?

Treasure hunters or archaeologists?

NARRATOR: For now, at least,

archaeologists have
the upper hand.

And what they're finding
is blowing them away.

MAN: So that plank here,

look at slots
along the edge of it.

That's mortise and tenon joinery.

BALLARD: I mean, look at the,
look at the state of preservation.

MAN: Yeah, you can see
every notch.

BALLARD: My goodness.

Wow.

NARRATOR: Ancient shipbuilders
used mortise and tenon joints

to fasten the hull planks
of their vessels.

BALLARD: So what age is this?

MAN: I think we're talking,
based on the ceramics,

fifth to fourth century BC.

NARRATOR: At 2,500 years old,

it isn't older than the ship
Ballard discovered in the Aegean,

but it's far better preserved.

MAN: Uh-huh, yeah, you're right!

NARRATOR: And, there's more.

MAN: These are signs
of sewn triangles,

or triangles that are carved in.

The timbers would have
been sewn together.

That's wild!

NARRATOR: It's a technique even older
than mortise and tenon,

which also dates back to
the ancient Egyptians.

BALLARD: It is incredible.

This is the technique that was
developed over 4,000 years ago.

The wooden boats buried next
to the Great Pyramid

were sewn together the same way.

I mean, anyone that's
into shipbuilding,

they would be really happy
to see what I'm looking at.

WOMAN: Alright, that's great,
let's back out and continue.

MAN: Full wide, please.

NARRATOR: But the biggest surprise
is still to come.

MAN: Oh, wow!

That's a good spot.

MAN: So one of the most amazing things
of this wreck,

if you look right there...

BALLARD: Yeah, human bones.

MAN: Yeah, it looks like
there's a leg bone here.

And we had an osteologist
look at it,

and there may also be
a human tooth.

BALLARD: Femur here,
and tibia here,

and a molar right there.

Wow.

I mean, even on the Titanic
there weren't any bones.

MAN: Right.

BALLARD: I mean, you-
human remains go fast.

I've always dreamed about
coming to the Black Sea

and finding human remains.

In human remains is the record
of who they were,

not what they carried,
not how they built their ship,

but who were they?

And these bones should have
DNA in them.

You should now be able to know
who commanded these ships.

NARRATOR: The Nautilus has found
the most well-preserved shipwreck

from this civilization.

The alien deep is at last surrendering

what lies hidden in its depths-

a treasure trove of
man's earliest history.

BALLARD: The film began
with me wandering

in my backyard
in the middle of the night,

with a flashlight,

because the world I live in
is a world of eternal darkness.

But now, thanks to
modern technologies,

I can turn on the lights
and see the deep sea

and the lost chapters of
human history waiting for me.

I just want to go back
as far as you can go back.

People say, "What's the greatest
discovery you've ever made?"

It's the one I'm about to make.

I'm not done yet.

Come on, Ally.
Come on, Riley.

Come, come!