All language subtitles for The.Bermuda.Triangle.Into.Cursed.Waters.S01E03.Holes.in.the.Ocean.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

narrator: Tonight on
"The Bermuda Triangle:

Into Cursed Waters"...

how did an entire fleet
of pirate ships

suddenly disappear?

- From a distance, had the
shape of--could be a coffin.

[dramatic music]

narrator: Did they fall prey
to an awesome

and mysterious phenomenon,

massive whirlpools?

Are they responsible
for other disappearances

in the Bermuda Triangle?

- Stories about little kids
fishing in boats and getting

pulled into the
whirlpool and stuff.

Anything that falls in
is not getting out.

narrator:
For the first time in history,

a dive to the bottom
of a huge ocean sinkhole

in search of answers.

- Right about 10 m--whoa! Whoa!
- Whoa!

- And we're the
first ones to see it.

♪ ♪

narrator:
There is a place

that evokes fear
and fascination.

Bounded by Florida, Bermuda,
and Puerto Rico,

the Bermuda Triangle
has swallowed countless ships,

planes, and people.

But why?

♪ ♪

Now an elite team dives in.

- These are dangerous dives.

- Any sane person would
not be doing this.

narrator: Their secret weapon,
a map, decades in the making,

which pinpoints
unidentified wrecks.

- There's all these
shipwrecks out there

in the Bermuda Triangle
that there's no names to.

- Dive, dive, dive.

narrator:
Their mission:

solve the mystery
of the Bermuda Triangle

one wreck at a time.

- Mother Nature is gonna take
these wrecks away,

and these mysteries are
never gonna be solved.

The clock is ticking.

♪ ♪

narrator:
In their ongoing mission

to solve the mysteries
of the Bermuda Triangle,

deep sea divers Mike Barnette
and Jimmy Gadomski

are heading out
to investigate a new target

called Red Snapper Sink.

- I've known about Red
Snapper Sink for many years.

It's always been
on the back burner

just because of the
logistics to get out there

to do a long dive, because
we're thinking potentially

this is gonna be
500 feet or deeper.

♪ ♪

And no one's been to the
bottom of this sinkhole.

No one's documented
the true depth.

I mean, I got to get out there
and get to the bottom of it.

♪ ♪

narrator: Red Snapper Sink,
near the Bermuda Triangle,

is one of the targets
on Barnette's map of wrecks.

It's a mid-ocean sinkhole,
also called blue holes.

Hundreds may be
in this part of the ocean.

These holes can reach depths
of more than 600 feet

and feature unexplored
cave systems.

- We do a lot of cave diving,

but this is a kind
of a unique situation.

We're gonna go dive
Red Snapper Sink,

which is about
30 nautical miles

off St. Augustine, Florida.

It's unique because
it's the only big sinkhole

on the Atlantic coast
of Florida.

I mean, It's an anomaly.

♪ ♪

narrator: Red Snapper Sink
and its caves

may be more than an oddity.

It may also be a killer.

- One of the most
curious stories

coming out of this area
off St. Augustine

in Red Snapper Sink

is the disappearance
of a slew of ships

back in the 17th century.

And of course,
this area was also

a hotbed of pirate activity.

narrator: In 1684,
a fleet of six ships

under the command of English
pirate Thomas Jingle

were preparing
for a daring raid

on the Spanish port
of St. Augustine.

- So we have a raiding force
of six ships on their way

to hit St. Augustine.

Five of them disappear
without a trace.

Again,
another incredible mystery

in this part
of the Bermuda Triangle.

- The disappearance
of Jingle's fleet, you know,

has baffled people
for over three centuries.

In that time, nobody
has found a single trace

of any of those missing ships.

Now, that's strange.

narrator: Some accounts
blamed the disappearance

of Jingle's ships
on a freak storm.

But mariners
have long told tales

that the pirates
actually fell prey

to a fabled
and deadly phenomenon:

ship-sucking whirlpools.

When currents moving
in opposite directions

on a large body
of water collide,

they merge and flow
in a circular formation.

If there is a pit or hole
beneath the flow

that's deep enough, it can
create a powerful vortex

that spins inward and down
like water circling a drain.

- They will make whirlpools
when the tide changes,

and it sucks the water
in there.

And it can be very dangerous.
There's, you know,

there's stories about
little kids fishing in boats

and getting pulled
into the whirlpool and stuff.

narrator: If whirlpools
do form around Red Snapper

and other ocean sinkholes,
are they powerful enough

to swallow a ship,
accounting for some

of the Bermuda Triangle
disappearances?

♪ ♪

If that's the case,
the team could find evidence

of Jingle's fleet
at the bottom.

There are other stories
of pirates and mariners

dumping coffins
into Red Snapper Sink.

♪ ♪

- It's not really clear when
these burials you see happen.

Spanish settlers, the English
settlers, we don't know.

Anything that falls in here
is gonna be lost.

It's almost like
a tar pit, right?

Anything that falls in
is not getting out.

We don't really know
what to expect.

- We don't know what
could be down there.

Could be treasure.
We talked about pirates.

I mean, who knows?

That could be a cover-up
for them dumping

who knows what down there.

♪ ♪

narrator:
As far as the team knows,

no diver has ever been to the
bottom of Red Snapper Sink.

Its estimated depth is 400
feet beneath the ocean floor.

Few divers in the world
have the experience

to even attempt it,
let alone survive.

Safety is paramount
and requires a surface team

just as experienced
as the divers.

- There's got to
be somebody up here that

can think the same way they do,
somebody on board

who could run the dive deck,
who understands

the way these divers
are gonna be thinking

at 300, 350, 400 feet.

- By the time they get
in the water, we'll be

like one tap...
[indistinct]

- On a dive of this depth,
we are talking about

our body being under 15, 16,
17 atmospheres of pressure,

so 17 times more pressure than
is on our bodies right now.

110 feet right here,
350 where he is.

The line is straight
up and down, vertical.

- All right, I guess we'll
start gearing up then.

narrator: Recreational scuba
divers use tanks

that contain oxygen
and nitrogen.

But for a dive this extreme,
normal air can be lethal.

- For the depth that
we're expecting to reach

the bottom of Red Snapper
Sink, potentially 500 feet,

we can't just breathe
regular air because

the increased pressure
makes oxygen toxic.

narrator:
Under that same pressure,

nitrogen also becomes
narcotic.

- It's like being drunk,
but in a very severe way.

So we have to use exotic gases
like helium

to displace both of those

to have
a safe breathing medium,

an atmosphere that
you can breathe safely.

narrator:
This helium mixture

is safe to breathe
at extreme depths.

But it brings
other challenges.

♪ ♪

- The problem about
having helium is, it

alters your voice, and you
sound like Donald Duck,

so it's impractical
to use comms.

So we just have to rely
on hand signals,

light signals, and just deal
with everything in the water.

narrator:
At a depth of 90 feet,

the divers reach
the known sea floor.

Then suddenly,
they see Red Snapper Sink

staring back at them.

♪ ♪

- Even with the limited
visibility we had,

you can see a portion of it,

you can just see
the curvature.

So it has pretty
sizable dimension.

♪ ♪

narrator: As the divers
continue their descent,

they know the clock
is ticking.

Even with the trimix system,

they will only be able
to spend 15 minutes

at the bottom of the sinkhole
before narcosis

once again becomes a risk.

♪ ♪

Finally, 380 feet down,

Mike Barnette
and Jimmy Gadomski

become the first known divers
in history

to reach the bottom
of Red Snapper Sink.

♪ ♪

And the 15 minute clock
starts.

♪ ♪

As the divers begin to explore
this alien new world,

the divers immediately
notice something unusual.

- A lot of the sinkholes,
all the places we've been,

on the bottom,
there's no oxygen on them

and usually no life
on the bottom at all.

Whereas, here,
we had fish all around us.

narrator: With their bottom
time quickly winding down,

they continue to scan
the sinkhole floor.

Mike Barnette suddenly
spots something.

- And from a distance,
I saw this.

I was like, "What is that?"

Had the shape of a--
could be a coffin.

Straight edges,
it looks man-made.

♪ ♪

- They were all
different sizes,

which was kind of weird.

It wasn't consistent
from one to another.

- Some of them were 20 feet,
maybe like 8 meters in length,

and probably a good 6 feet,
2 meters, in width.

Some were laying flat,

some were piled on top
of each other.

narrator: The objects look
to be made of stone,

which would negate
the coffin theory.

But could they be remnants
of Thomas Jingle's

doomed pirate fleet
or their cargo?

♪ ♪

Answers will have to wait.

Time's up.

The team needs to start their
slow ascent to the surface

before the crushing impacts
of this depth

start to take effect.

- We dive caves a lot.
We see big boulders and stuff.

But flat, straight edges,
almost like 90 degree angles,

like it's been carved out,
that's really unique.

narrator: Wreck divers Mike
Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

are beginning a slow ascent
after becoming

the first divers to touch
the base of what was thought

to be a bottomless mid-ocean
pit near the Bermuda Triangle.

Red Snapper Sink
is also believed

to be the resting place

of Captain Thomas Jingle's
pirate fleet.

Five ships in this fleet
vanished in 1684.

The team wants to know why.

- Jimmy.
- What's up?

- All right, man, yeah.
- It was awesome. Good dive.

- So what do you think?

- A little different
than what we expected.

- Yeah.

- It looked like man-made
structure at the bottom.

Looked--it's definitely
something man-made.

[dramatic music]

You're not going to get
straight edges like that

from natural bottom.

- I think we need to show
the footage to the team

and get them together
and back on shore,

and see what they think
of what caused this.

What--what are
these structures?

♪ ♪

narrator: Back on land,
Barnette and Gadomski

meet up with two of the other
core members of the team,

historian David O'Keefe
and investigator Wayne Abbott,

to review the footage
from Red Snapper Sink.

- This is basically
the top of it.

You have the sand
from 90 down to 132.

- Wow, goes quick, doesn't it?
- Yeah, it's pretty steep.

narrator:
They're especially interested

in the rectangular stones

and whether
they have a connection

to Jingle's lost pirate fleet.

♪ ♪

- Oh, my.

♪ ♪

- Look at that.

- So this is the stone here.
- Yeah, yeah.

Look at the straight edge
right up to the top.

- There's a flat surface too.
- It is not natural.

That is man-made.

- We see it in the distance.

Like, is this the coffin that
you hear these stories about?

Then we got closer,
and no, it's--it's rock.

- So theories, thoughts?

I mean, is it something from
a ship, possibly ballast?

♪ ♪

narrator: Ballast stones
could be an important clue.

- So before the 20th century,
ships like Jingle's

would use large rocks
and stones as ballast

to stabilize their vessels,
especially in rough seas.

So ships that had heavier cargo
rode lower in the water

and were more stable.

Now, a ship with
less cargo needed

the ballast stones to lower
its center of gravity.

narrator: By analyzing
a ballast pile's formation

and geological properties,
archaeologists have been able

to date shipwrecks going back
to ancient times,

their approximate size,

and even where they came from.

♪ ♪

Could these man-made slabs
have served a similar purpose?

And could they have belonged

to Thomas Jingle's
lost pirate fleet?

Or has the team
found something

even more mysterious?

- Obviously, if you
want to hide secrets,

this is a great place
to put your secrets.

So we don't know.

But figuratively and literally,

we want to get
to the bottom of this.

narrator: The team splits up
to follow the trail.

♪ ♪

Mike and Jimmy will prepare
for a second dive

on Red Snapper Sink.

♪ ♪

Meanwhile, Wayne and David
head to the Bahamas

and the site
of the Bermuda Triangle's

deepest known
ocean sinkhole...

♪ ♪

Dean's Blue Hole.

They're looking for evidence
that these holes in the ocean

produce whirlpools
strong enough

to pull down ships
like Captain Jingle's.

- We have an
extraordinary opportunity

to literally go where,
really, no one

has truly explored before.

- Yeah, I mean, this is the
first time that anybody--

as far as we know--is putting
an ROV down and actually

go to the bottom
of Dean's Blue Hole

and see what's down there.

- It's super heavy, so two
hands and watch your back.

- On top?
- Sure, yeah.

- Oh, good morning, boys.

- Hello.
- Hey. Hey, guys.

narrator: For this mission,
the team has called in

marine biologist
Thomas Iliffe,

an expert on Dean's Blue Hole,

and underwater photographer
Evan Kovacs.

The plan is to use a remotely
operated vehicle, or ROV,

to get to the bottom of Dean's
to see if there are any ships

that have been pulled down.

- From up on the top
of the cliff here,

we can see right down
into the blue hole.

- This is spectacular.

♪ ♪

So basically what
we're seeing right now

is just the tiny
little opening.

- And bigger and bigger...
- Wow.

- And bigger and bigger
the further you go down.

- So essentially,
it's a vertical cave.

- Absolutely.

- You know, we've heard
stories about ships

potentially disappearing
out of nowhere...

- Sure.
- On the surface.

Could it be something like this

that could be doing something
like that?

- I wouldn't be surprised.

I've seen one other blue hole
that has a whirlpool in it.

And down at the bottom,
100 feet deep, is a sailboat,

and it's all broken up.

narrator: It's the first
corroborating account

of a blue hole pulling down
a boat, and not the only one.

In one reported incident
from 1948,

a fisherman named Joe Talley
was in the Bermuda Triangle

near Andros Island
in the Bahamas,

when his 65 foot
fishing vessel

suddenly broke down due to a
mysterious electrical problem.

A ship called the "Caicos"
came to tow Talley in.

But as Talley
laid down to rest,

his boat was suddenly
pulled 40 feet

below the water's surface.

Fortunately, the "Caicos" crew
spotted Talley in the water

and were able
to pull him to safety.

♪ ♪

- It's way closer
to shore than I thought.

- Oh, yeah, it's just right--

a few feet out.

- Is there a possibility
then that there

could be others
like this somewhere

in the Bermuda Triangle area?

- Oh, I'm sure.
I'm sure there are.

So looking around, they can
be a long way from shore.

Until people go out
and explore, we don't know.

- Okay, what's the plan then?

- So this ROV,
it's basically a camera

with lights and thrusters.

So we have a very small, thin,
lightweight fiber optic

copper cable
to get us down there.

So she should be good
to 1,000 feet or so.

narrator: If Dean's Blue Hole
is 660 feet deep,

as most suspect,

the ROV should have plenty
of cable to reach the bottom.

- Yes. There it is.
- There it is again.

narrator: Tom thinks it may
be much, much deeper

and could be hiding
a grisly secret.

narrator: The team is chasing
a 300-year-old mystery

in the Bermuda Triangle.

While Mike Barnette
prepares for his second dive

at the primary target,
Wayne Abbott and David O'Keefe

are exploring
Dean's Blue Hole in the hopes

it could offer up clues
to aid their investigation

of Red Snapper Sink.

One theory is that Red
Snapper, Dean's Blue Hole,

and other sinkholes produce
whirlpools powerful enough

to suck in ships.

- I think it's going.

Yeah.

narrator: If they can get
an ROV to the bottom,

they may find proof.

- As water goes from one side
of the island to the other,

it's pushing water in and out.

So that gives us this sucking
motion or blowing motion

in the blue holes,
and this is why

we see so much water moving
so fast through the blue holes.

narrator: Multiple deaths have
occurred at Dean's Blue Hole

in recent years, including
a professional free diver

attempting to set
a world record here.

- It's a dangerous place
because the deep edge

is so close to shore.

If your feet slip,
you're gonna be sucked

right down into the hole.

I wouldn't be surprised
that many people--

not only modern people,

but people going back
thousands of years--

have drowned in this
particular cave.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Back in Florida,
Barnette and Jimmy

want to understand how
these whirlpools could form

before they attempt to dive
Red Snapper Sink again.

♪ ♪

Barnette meets with local
geologist Jim Flocks,

who knows Red Snapper Sink
well.

- The fact that this has not
been fully explored obviously

is a draw for us to actually
plumb the depths of this.

What can you tell us about it?

- Well, there's not a lot
known about Red Snapper Sink.

It was discovered in the '60s.

It's clearly thousands
of years old.

narrator: Around the time
Captain Jingle's pirate fleet

disappeared, there are stories
of thirsty sailors

stopping at Red Snapper.

- From what we hear
in historical times,

sailors would observe
a plume of fresh water

coming up from the bottom.

There are certainly accounts
of the sailors

drawing fresh water
from these springs.

- So the water flow out there
to Red Snapper Sink

is kind of like
an underground river.

- Yes.

There are areas
in the limestone

where the water
is actually moving

like a river underground.

narrator: It may explain
how a whirlpool could form.

During the Ice Age,
rainwater seeping

through crevices
on the Florida landmass

formed long
underground rivers.

As oceans rose,
the Earth collapsed,

creating vertical caves
like Red Snapper Sink

and Dean's Blue Hole.

It's possible that the
freshwater rivers,

combined with tides,

force water back
into the caves,

creating a suction effect.

And since tidal conditions
around the holes change,

these whirlpools
may not always be present.

♪ ♪

- I've still got
a lot of cable.

Good.

narrator:
Back at Dean's Blue Hole,

the team sends their ROV
into the abyss.

- Taz is right over
the middle of the--

- That's the center.

- Middle over the--
- Oh, it's disappearing.

- There it goes.
It's diving down.

- Come in a little bit more,
and then...

- Have you got clean visual?

- Yes.

- There's the first images.

- Come on, baby.

♪ ♪

Something weird.
- Yeah, see those?

- I think they're little bits
of algae that are being

sucked in by the current.
- Okay.

♪ ♪

- Look at the sand.

- Sand moving down,
there's a flow.

♪ ♪

- So could it be
that we created

the fall on the way down,
and now it's starting to--

- I don't think so
because you can see

a continuous
flow of sand going

over the edge going down.

- Gotcha.

- That sand's gotta be
going somewhere.

It can't be going in
at this rate

for thousands
and thousands of years

without filling the place up.

So somewhere, that sand
is being sucked down deeper

or farther or something.

- The ROV's bouncing a bit.

- Yeah, really, eh?

Getting in a minute.

- Definitely getting--
taking hits on this stuff.

- Are we okay?

We'll see.

- Well, at this point, yeah.
We're not seeing anything.

♪ ♪

Uh-oh. No, no, no, no.

- Come on, baby, come on.

- Yeah, we lost signal.
It's not coming back.

- Yeah, we have no controls.

- Nothing?
- Nah.

- Is it fixable?

- I don't know.

- [bleep].

♪ ♪

narrator: Since the days
of Christopher Columbus,

mariners have described
strange equipment failures

in the Bermuda Triangle--

bizarre compass anomalies,
sudden electrical failures.

Is there a common
technical explanation

for the malfunction,

or could something more
mysterious account for it?

[indistinct chatter]

After examining the ROV,

Evan can only diagnose
the mysterious malfunction

as some sort
of electrical short

in the vehicle's
fiber optic cable.

The dive must be delayed
so Evan can make repairs.

- Well, how much time
do you need then?

- Another few hours.

narrator: Still, the ROV
has collected valuable images.

If a powerful whirlpool
exists here,

there might be one just as big
or bigger at Red Snapper Sink.

♪ ♪

With the mission
temporarily on hold,

Wayne and David head inland
in search of more clues.

[dog barking]

They've arranged to meet
with a family who have made

their living fishing on
these waters for generations,

and have experienced
the Bermuda triangle's

mysterious power firsthand.

- You have a lot
of people on the island,

a big percentage of
people who don't even

want to go to the blue hole.

- Oh, yeah.

- Will not go
to Dean's Blue Hole?

- No, no, no, no.

Sometime, I've been there,

and I've seen
some pretty strong tide.

Like, the tide coming in
and swirling in the middle.

You know, going out there,
I experienced

a lot of stuff with my dad.

We had, like, a manual compass.

And then at one point,
it just started spinning.

- The compass
started spinning?

- Compass started spinning.

I never saw that in my life.

And I thought something
was wrong with it.

I knocked on it.
I tried, you know?

And it just kept spinning.

And this actually
did that for, like,

30 minutes before it stopped.

- 30 minutes straight?
- Yeah.

- Was there anything
in the area that could have--

you know, something you may
have been sailing over, or--

- Yeah, well, just to me,
it just looked normal,

the ground we was on.

But it was the strangest thing
I've ever seen.

♪ ♪

narrator: 600 miles away
at Red Snapper Sink,

Barnette and Jimmy are about
to make their second dive.

On their first dive, they
saw odd rectangular stones

that might be ballast
from Jingle's ships.

- Square and elongated,
almost like monoliths

from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

It was just surreal.

narrator:
On this dive, they'll use

valuable bottom time
to get a closer look.

Given the depths
and the underwater river,

it's a risky dive.

- Potentially, there could
be flow at the bottom.

- Right.

- So we know cave diving,
you know,

siphon flow is gonna
pull you into the cave

versus an outflow.

So we should just be aware.

Obviously,
when we get to the bottom,

and you start, you know,
feeling yourself drifting,

that could be a sign
that there's passage nearby,

and we don't want to invert.

- Don't go to the
siphon side of it.

We want to work
into it a little bit,

especially at these depths.

♪ ♪

narrator: There is
very little room for error.

For this dive, the team
wears a specially calibrated

atmospheric dive suit,

which acts like armor
to protect their bodies

from the crushing depths
of more than

700 pounds per square inch.

But what these suits can't do
is extend the diver's time

at the bottom of the sinkhole.

Once again, they will have
just 15 minutes

before they begin
to resurface.

But even that short window
will cost them

hours of decompression time

to readjust to normal
atmospheric pressure.

- Any possible thing
you can think of,

including a cut finger,
that's something they're gonna

have to deal with on their own

for the next
three to five hours.

♪ ♪

narrator: Wayne Abbott
and David O'Keefe

are investigating
killer whirlpools

in the Bermuda Triangle,

where they've heard stories
of bodies

at the bottom
of Dean's Blue Hole.

This huge sinkhole
has properties

similar to their main target
of Red Snapper Sink,

where a pirate fleet
disappeared in the late 1600s.

If there are bodies,
could there be a link?

- Where exactly are we heading
right now, Nikita?

- We're headed
to the shrimp hole

here in Long Island,
which is an inland blue hole.

And this is how we have
these access points,

portals to not only
fresh water,

but also to all
that lives beneath our feet.

narrator: Dean's Blue Hole
was part of a larger network

of blue holes on this island.

Like Red Snapper,
they are connected

by underground waterways.

Nikita Shiel-Rolle
is a biologist

who has been studying
Dean's Blue Hole for 20 years.

- For the indigenous Lucayans,

they had an understanding
of these caves

as being these portals to
and this resting place

for ancestors and those
who would have passed on,

which would have been clued
whether offerings that had

been made into these caves,

these caves being used
as burial sites.

- Burial sites?

[dramatic music]

- I personally have
explored caves

where we've unearthed remains
of Lucayan.

- So you actually
have found remains

in the blue holes yourself?
- Yes.

- That's unbelievable.

I just can't believe
that these blue holes

became ceremonial sites.

- This is a cool cave.

- Wow, look at this.

- Way different than
Dean's Blue Hole.

- It is.
This is an inland cave.

Be careful.
[laughs]

♪ ♪

- One of the questions
I want to ask,

you said you found
human remains in a blue hole.

Now, was that burial,

or could it have been
sacrifice to the gods?

I mean, what are
your thoughts on that?

- So from my understanding,
these were ceremonial burials.

And definitely, I can say that
from an Indigenous perspective,

when offerings were not made
to the natural spirits,

the natural spirits showed up.

narrator: These ceremonial
burials were believed

to be an offering
to appease Guabancex,

a supernatural force revered
by indigenous peoples

that bears a strong
resemblance to what we today

call the Bermuda Triangle.

- We tend to be very 20th
and 21st century-centric

when we look at the
Bermuda Triangle, right?

But we're talking
about things that

go back thousands, thousands.

- Hundreds,
thousands of years, yeah.

- When we think about exploring
the Bermuda Triangle

and uncovering the unknown,

Western science
is very linear, right?

A plus B equals C.

And while there's huge value
in Western science,

we have to remember that we
don't know what we don't know.

♪ ♪

narrator:
Could there be a connection

between ancient Bahamians

making offerings
to these holes

and stories that
colonial era sailors

disposed of coffins
in Red Snapper Sink,

some believe as a way
to appease their power?

If that's the case,
it suggests

that power is all too real.

♪ ♪

- Well, it's starting
to look good.

narrator:
With the ROV back online,

the team is now wondering
if they will see evidence

of human remains at the bottom
of Dean's Blue Hole.

♪ ♪

- You can see we're going down
quite a rate, actually.

- Absolutely.

Everything is going so fast.

- We must be getting close
to the bottom.

- I would think
we're getting close.

♪ ♪

- Evan, how fast do you think
we're descending?

- We were averaging 50,
60 feet or so a minute.

♪ ♪

We're at about 10 m--whoa!
- Whoa!

- We're on bottom.
- Holy God.

It's amazing.

Here we are,
bottom of Dean's Blue Hole.

And we're the first ones
to see it.

That's amazing. That is clear.

- Sure.

- It's like
we're in a snow globe.

♪ ♪

narrator: Against all odds,
the team has put an ROV

on the bottom
of Dean's Blue Hole

in the Bermuda Triangle.

And they see a startling clue

suggesting the dangerous power
of the water here.

- See, the other thing
that's interesting here

is that we're seeing
a lot of sand.

But there's a lot
of either seaweed, algae,

whatever it is at the bottom
that's not covered.

- I think there's a lot of
flow that's coming in and out

of this, and it's literally
sucking a lot of material

from the nearby reefs
that's going in here.

narrator: Tom Iliffe believes
the hole is creating

a powerful suction effect,

though it's not clear
if that power is enough

to pull down a ship,
at least here.

Then they see something else.

- This is an enormous chamber
we're looking at,

hundreds and hundreds
of feet high,

unknown distances wide.

narrator: Tom believes the
sand flow the team observed

at the opening of the hole

and the slope they're seeing
at the bottom

implies a massive
underwater cave system.

This may play a role in the
whirlpools observed by locals

and potentially explain
how large ships

could get sucked down.

- Look at there.

It's going down--
how steep that is.

I think there's a cone
of sand right in the middle.

Look at there.

You can see the slope
going up.

That's going up to the top
of the cone to the right,

down into unknown depths
to the left.

Wow.

- So in other words,
this goes a bit deeper

than we ever expected.

- So Evan, can you start
to move the ROV forward?

- We can certainly
give it a shot, absolutely.

- And if we can just
get to the wall.

- Yeah, for sure.

- It's amazing that--
it's so clear.

- I know.
- But we got a lot of--oh, no.

- What the hell?
- What?

- What happened?
- Uh...

we have lost everything
here for a sec.

Hold on.

♪ ♪

- Uh-oh.
- No, no, no, no.

- So what do you suspect
at the moment?

Do we have just something
that disconnected?

- I mean, I know
the cable's not gone

because we have normal power.

So you know,
I really don't know.

narrator: Strangely,
the ROV still has power

and appears to be
functioning normally.

But the visual signal
has been cut off.

With the team at a loss
to explain

the strange ROV malfunction
this time,

and the limited resources
of the island,

they are forced to call an end
to the mission.

- It doesn't make sense.

I mean, we planned it out
perfectly, what we thought.

And then the screen
just went blank.

- There were no snags.

There were no tangles.
There was nothing.

It was all systems go
until it wasn't.

- I mean, we did get
the first images,

you know, of the bottom
of Dean's Blue Hole.

So we can go back,
review it with the team.

- Yeah, the idea is
to take it back to the team

that's coming out of Red
Snapper Hole

and put the two together,

and let's see what
we can come up with.

narrator:
Back in Florida,

Mike Barnette
and Jimmy Gadomski

return to Red Snapper Sink

to try
and put it all together.

How do the rock slabs they saw
connect to the disappearance

of Thomas Jingle's fleet?

Just how big
is this cave system?

And have they just
scratched the surface

on a potential lead
for multiple missing ships

in the Bermuda Triangle?

The divers reach the bottom,
and the clock starts.

They have only 15 minutes

until nitrogen narcosis
could set in.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

The divers discover even more
of the cut rock slabs.

- The whole bottom
was covered in it.

Perfect right angles
just sitting on the bottom.

narrator: The team scrambles
to find hard evidence

that would support the idea
that these slabs are ballast,

the remnants
of a pirate fleet.

As the clock ticks down,
they look out

for any signs of a cave system
on the edges of the pit.

♪ ♪

And then time's up.

♪ ♪

But as the team reaches
the top of their ascent,

Barnette suddenly spots
a new clue--

not at the bottom of Red
Snapper Sink, but at the top.

♪ ♪

- Hey, guys, we had an awesome
dive in Red Snapper Sink.

But I want to hear how it went
with you guys in the Bahamas.

How'd it go?

- Oh, boy.
- Oh, boy.

We got a nice little teaser.

We got down there like,
you know,

putting the first foot
on the Moon.

And then, poof.

- But we got a lot of--oh, no.

- What the hell?
- What?

- What happened?

- Everything went off.

- Did you get some
footage out of it?

- We did get some footage.

♪ ♪

- So there you go.

- Yeah, that's where we land.

- On the bottom.

- What we think is the bottom
because Tom suspected that,

based on what
we had seen here,

that this goes a lot deeper
than 660 feet down.

We're on the top of the
sand cone that's going down,

and then there are
long, long caves

that have been sucking
in the sand

for, you know, decades,
if not centuries.

And if Tom's theory
is correct, all we had to do

was get down one of the slopes
down at the bottom.

- There is a true whirlpool
effect with Dean's Blue Hole,

depending on the tide.

But we couldn't explore it
to see

if there was any kind
of cave system.

But we did make the bottom.

We just weren't able
to go anywhere.

But we're eager to find out
what you found.

♪ ♪

narrator: If the divers
can confirm the rock slabs

in Red Snapper Sink are
ballast from a shipwreck,

it could solve the mystery
of Jingle's lost fleet.

- What do you think it is?

- Wasn't until we got up
shallow enough that we had,

I think, clear evidence
of what was going on.

So you'll see we're coming up
the side of the sinkhole,

and our anchor line is resting
against the sinkhole.

- And it's rubbing
against the rim.

- This is very--it's very,
very, very soft limestone.

Our anchor line was
basically almost a foot in,

just sawing away like butter.
- No way.

- It was cutting
straight into the rock.

- And as I looked
on the side of that,

there's another cut mark
parallel to that.

So the light bulb, poof.

The anchor lines
are sawing away.

And then eventually,
it twists a little bit.

It's gonna scissor it off,

and that slab is gonna fall
to the bottom.

- That's why there's so many.

- And that's why
it's perfectly smooth.

- People are fishing
this nonstop.

This is a common fishing--
common fishing spot.

- So basically,
it's man-made-ish.

In other words, unintentional,
but man-made nonetheless.

- Definitely.

♪ ♪

narrator:
Despite the challenges,

the team's investigations

of Red Snapper Sink
and Dean's Blue Hole

have led
to intriguing discoveries.

- We've heard a lot of legend
and lores associated

with Red Snapper Sink.

We got to the bottom,
we see these shapes

in the distance in the gloom.

We're like,
were these stories true?

To bring back an answer
for what caused that,

that was really gratifying.

- It was amazing that we were
the first ones to drop an ROV

and get to the bottom

and just get
those first images.

- Yeah, without a doubt.

I mean,
that constant fall of sand,

who knows what has been
covered up by years and years

of that constant drip?

narrator: Whether or not
these sinkholes

are the
ship-swallowing monsters

of Bermuda Triangle lore

or claimed Thomas
Jingle's lost fleet

will take
further investigation.

- Just because of what Mike
and Jimmy found at the bottom

of Red Snapper Sinkhole,

I'm just eager to get back
to Dean's Blue Hole

to just see
if there's something

that's just as amazing

and just as mysterious
at the bottom of that sinkhole.

- Yeah, that's really
the next step--to go back,

get the ROV down
into the sides,

and do the entire circuit
at the bottom.

That will likely give us
many more answers

than we found on this one.

narrator: What is clear is
that these holes in the ocean

are capable of tremendous
power and peril.

Their secrets are only
just starting to surface.

And with hundreds more out
there waiting to be explored,

they could very well be key
in solving the bigger mystery

of the Bermuda Triangle.