Original subtitles

- Dive, dive, dive.

narrator: For months, Mike Barnette and the team

have been identifying wrecks

in and around the Bermuda Triangle.

- We're actually doing true exploration,

trying to figure out what's on the bottom.

And that gets the blood racing.

- Yeah!

I'm so excited. - Whoa.

narrator: They've been the first

to lay eyes on ships lost for a century...

- It's another Bermuda Triangle victim identified.

narrator: Have positively ID'd

Air Force planes lost for decades...

- Oh, there's a P. Look at the tail.

- That is incredible.

narrator: And made history finding a piece

of the space shuttle "Challenger"

well outside the triangle.

- You've discovered "Challenger."

- It literally takes your breath away.

narrator: Now the search continues...

- Let's do this. - Okay.

- Let's go identify a wreck.

narrator: A discovery that may hold the key

to why so many vanish here.

- Wow. - Look at it.

- That is insane. - That's crazy.

narrator: Is this Big Wreck a lost ship

whose disappearance caught the attention

of the President of the United States?

- We came to find out about the "Hewitt."

We didn't think we would get involved

with the U.S. government.

narrator: Was it an explosion or sabotage

or a strange kind of undersea eruption?

- Some sort of a crater

from hydrate escaping the ocean floor.

- A crater as if, for instance, a bomb went off.

- I think the government, as a whole,

feared that there was something potentially going on.

- We now have evidence

that methane gas explosions do occur.

- Could this be the smoking gun?

narrator: In pursuit of the ultimate answer

to the mystery of the triangle,

the team gears up for one more dive.

- We're looking actually inside the hull,

a lot of cabling, potential hazards right here.

narrator: But after months tempting fate

in these cursed waters,

will their luck finally run out?

[alarm beeping] - So not here to alarm you.

- Okay.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

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.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

- Are you clear for us to roll the submarine out?

- Yep, clear to roll out.

♪ ♪

- When you're trying to identify a shipwreck,

it's a team effort.

It's the hunt.

It's trying to answer the question,

what is a shipwreck?

What story can it tell us?

My goal is to try to tell the story,

what happened to this vessel.

narrator: For their latest case,

Mike Barnette and a team of Bermuda Triangle investigators

are bringing back the big guns.

[dramatic music]

Enter the RV "Odyssey."

- "Odyssey" is a fantastic platform

that has two submarines,

has remote sensing capabilities.

The "Odyssey" opens up a whole new world for us

as far as shipwrecks that we can potentially find.

narrator: Today, they're heading 300 miles

off the Florida coast, going after a large mystery wreck

near the triangle on Barnette's map,

which fishermen have nicknamed simply the Big Wreck.

The team hopes it's the answer to a mystery

that's consumed everyone from wreck divers

to the White House.

♪ ♪

January 25, 1921, the SS "Hewitt,"

a 400-foot steel-hulled freighter

with a crew of 41 sailors

is 222 miles off the Florida coast

at the western edge of the Bermuda Triangle,

carrying a load of sulfur

earmarked for gunpowder production.

At 7:00 pm, she makes a routine radio transmission

to shore and is never heard from again.

- One of my favorite mysteries of the triangle

is the SS "Hewitt."

It's a freaky, really unusual story.

narrator: Despite an intensive search,

no wreckage or bodies were found.

Theories range from an explosion or a mutiny.

[guns firing]

And strangest of all

that the ship plummeted to the bottom

as if the ocean itself gave way.

- There's quite a few different theories.

- Well, the one that we do know is that it was catastrophic,

and it was fast.

There's the specs.

- Oh, there we go. Right here.

Got the generation plans here.

narrator: Barnette is joined by team members

Jimmy Gadomski, a wreck specialist,

underwater photographer Evan Kovacs,

and historical investigator Wayne Abbott.

- For my research with the Hewitt,

I mean, it disappeared.

There is not a postage size stamp piece or anything.

narrator: The wreck lies on the Blake Plateau,

a vast undersea plain

that reaches depths of more than 3,000 feet.

It's on the edge of the surging Gulf Stream,

carrying 8 billion gallons of water per minute.

The area is known for fierce bottom currents

and has seen dozens

of unexplained ship disappearances.

♪ ♪

In the sonar room, the team scans the target area

for any signs of Big Wreck.

[tense music]

Sure enough, they detect the unmistakable outline

of a large shipwreck.

- We've got a wreck.

- A big-ass wreck.

narrator: But is it big enough to be the 420-foot "Hewitt"?

♪ ♪

The "Odyssey's" multibeam sonar

paints a picture of the bottom.

- I'm not sure.

I'm starting to wonder now if it's broken in half,

'cause what the picture is painting on the bottom

is not a--a nice intact ship in one long piece.

narrator: The ship is 600 feet down,

and they immediately notice something.

It looks like it's been torn apart.

- It's like some weird [bleep] going on there.

♪ ♪

narrator: To dive a wreck this deep, they'll need a ride.

- All clear?

- All clear. - Clear.

- Sub's clear. Yeah, it's live.

narrator: The Trident submersible

can dive to 3,000 feet

and stay submerged for up to 72 hours

using a life support system

that filters carbon dioxide and recycles oxygen.

- Ready for launch.

- Understand.

Sub and bridge are ready for launch.

[dramatic music]

- Dive, dive, dive.

- Let's do this. - Okay.

- Let's go identify a wreck.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Despite a powerful bottom current,

the sub creeps toward the target.

- Okay, we're close.

Yeah, we're-- amberjack around us now.

So we're getting close. - All right.

♪ ♪

- Keep your eyes peeled.

♪ ♪

Follow the fish.

narrator: Amberjack fish

are one of Barnette's most reliable indicators

of a shipwreck.

Metal shipwrecks act like a magnet for life

and become a rich oasis

in an otherwise barren sea bottom.

♪ ♪

- Oh, we're getting bottom fish now.

We have snapper. Yeah. We're close.

The wreck is right-- - Wait, wait, wait.

- I'm seeing it right here, right here.

Wreck, wreck, wreck, wreck. - Got it. Got it. Got it.

♪ ♪

- There it is.

Holy [bleep].

♪ ♪

- It was euphoric.

And all of a sudden, you're seeing

this beautiful side of the wreck.

And immediately what you can tell

is that it's encrusted.

There's almost a glow to the wreck.

narrator: It's the stern or back end of a large shipwreck

and possibly the tomb of 42 men.

♪ ♪

- Yeah. We're at the very fantail right here.

You can definitely see the taper,

the way it kind of curves under the fantail.

♪ ♪

narrator: The fantail is the very end of the ship

and extends over the water.

It provides extra buoyancy and helps protect the rudder.

♪ ♪

To give Barnette a close look, pilot Steven Chapell

must maneuver within inches of the wreck.

Stray fishing lines or debris could easily entangle the sub

and trap them on the bottom.

A collision would spell disaster.

The water around the sub at this depth

exerts hundreds of pounds of pressure

on every square inch of the sphere.

Any rupture would rapidly flood the sub,

leaving the crew no time to react.

[whirring]

- Oh, yeah. Nice.

[dramatic music]

narrator: The screw is a nautical term

for a ship's propeller.

The "Hewitt" had a large single propeller

just like this wreck.

♪ ♪

Then a grim detail.

- Yeah. Definitely broken there.

narrator: Cracks like this could be a sign

that the crew met a violent end

as their ship broke into pieces.

♪ ♪

[rapid beeping]

- Gotta stop just for a second here, please.

- Yep.

[beeping continues]

- Oh, come on.

- So-- - Go with--

- Not here to alarm you. - Okay.

- We have a little bit of a water alarm in the sphere.

We've got a sphere alarm.

[beeping continues]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[rapid beeping]

- We've got a sphere alarm.

narrator: 300 miles off the Florida coast,

while investigating a mystery target

with the apt nickname Big Wreck,

submarine pilot Steve Chapell notices water in the sub.

- You okay?

- I've just checked the water, and I've tasted it.

It's not salt. It's fresh.

So that leads me to believe

that the hose from the AC drain

that drains all that condensate into a bag

isn't draining into the bag properly.

- Okay. - So...

[beeping continues]

narrator: It's a malfunction

in the sub's life support system.

Steve makes a call to abort.

- Not a major issue, but it could have been,

so Steve made the right call, brought us up to the surface.

- It's just not worth trying to push things too much,

'cause no wreck is worth another life.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team reviews the footage.

The wreck has a single propeller

just like the SS "Hewitt."

Even more provocative is the shape of the fantail.

It's an exact match for the "Hewitt."

- Yeah, the cutout's pretty telling.

I mean-- - Yeah.

narrator: There's just one problem.

According to the sonar data,

this wreck is not as long as the "Hewitt."

- We have some questions about the accuracy of the multibeam.

They estimated it to be about 80 to 90 meters in length.

narrator: That's about 100 feet short.

But ships commonly break up as they sink.

For example, the "Titanic" is laying

in two pieces on the bottom.

The bow section is nearly half a mile from the stern,

and the debris field stretches over 15 square miles.

- You have a section over here, then miles away,

have another section.

narrator: The broken hull plates seen on the wreck

could be evidence this ship is also in pieces.

But the search for the rest of this wreck

will have to wait.

The sub needs extensive repairs.

♪ ♪

They're headed back to port.

[tense music]

Back on shore, Barnette and Abbott meet

with team member David O'Keefe.

- Wow, the "Hewitt." That's a big one.

Were you able to assemble anything

that conclusively proved or disproved

that this was the "Hewitt?"

- At this point, no. We're just getting started

with our analysis of this wreck.

We have more work to do.

- Whatever happened, we could not tell

if there was any damaged area.

♪ ♪

narrator: Additional news reports

suggest that "Hewitt" had exploded.

It could have been from her flammable cargo of sulfur.

So this would explain why "Hewitt" never radioed

an emergency call,

but you would think an explosion like this

would likely leave behind a large debris field

floating on the water.

- Once things like that happen,

a Pandora's box of theories open up, right?

- And the intriguing thing is that

it truly just disappeared.

Not a trace of the "Hewitt" was ever found.

narrator: What else could sink a ship so fast,

it has no time to send an SOS and leave no wreckage?

♪ ♪

- They thought everything from, you know,

hurricanes to mutiny to piracy.

There's even speculation that there's methane hydrate

that could have somehow, you know, enveloped the ship

in this giant explosion.

♪ ♪

narrator: Like other fossil fuels,

methane hydrates are formed

when microbes break down buried organic matter.

One theory on why ships disappear

in the Bermuda Triangle area

is that these deposits can burst,

forming huge bubbles that turn the ocean to foam.

An unlucky ship would fall into the void and sink.

- It's possible to get a larger methane burst

that could be a danger to shipping.

narrator: But could a natural methane explosion

have sunk a steamer as big as the "Hewitt"?

It's something to consider but not the only theory.

♪ ♪

Wayne and David dig into the record

with historian Mike Dash, who's uncovered documents

related to "Hewitt's" disappearance.

- So what can you tell us about the "Hewitt"?

- The "Hewitt" was a steel steamer

which ran the sulfur route from Texas up to Boston

and Portland and Maine during the First World War.

And no one knows what happened to her.

She is associated with a broader mystery as well.

[tense music]

narrator: Dash says the "Hewitt" was part

of a rash of ship disappearances in 1921

that spooked Herbert Hoover, then secretary of commerce,

to order an investigation.

It was led by special investigator

Agent Lawrence Ritchie.

- If you make a count of the vessels mentioned

just in the Ritchie papers,

there's about half a dozen of them.

The government were getting a cascade of letters

offering information, proposing theories.

I think the government as a whole feared

that there was something potentially going on,

and they needed to get to the bottom of it.

- Ships do go down.

I mean, these things happen.

But you know, it was fascinating

that the federal government of the United States

would find this suspicious enough

to actually launch an investigation.

narrator: Two of the ships Ritchie investigated

were the "Hewitt"

and a ship called the "Carroll A. Deering."

The "Deering" left Brazil with a full crew

and entered the Bermuda Triangle

in January 1921.

Ten days later, she washed up

in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

- Strange thing about that one: nobody onboard.

Zero crew.

An empty vessel that runs aground.

- The U.S. government is concerned

with possible bolshevism and with communism

and the possibility of mutiny and piracy.

narrator: Ritchie found no evidence

of a communist conspiracy,

but there was a connection between the ships.

- The last radio report from the "Hewitt"

was January 25, 1921,

and the "Deering" ran aground about four or five days later.

- And the harbormaster working in the New England area,

he was the first person to suggest that there's

this link here between the "Hewitt" and the "Deering"

and, in fact, that the "Hewitt"

might have picked up the "Deering's" crew,

and then both crews went down together.

- It's unbelievable, though.

The layers and the complexity of the story is crazy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Dash's research shows the U.S. government

was investigating the Bermuda Triangle

decades before the area became famous for its disappearances.

♪ ♪

- When Mike Dash told us

about this federal investigation

that was led by the Commerce Department

and even included the FBI, I mean, it kind of shocked us.

- That in and of itself is notable.

And it raises a couple of questions.

Why would the "Hewitt" have to rescue

the crew of the "Deering?"

And what happened to all of them?

So the only way we might be able to solve this

is if you get back down there

and find the evidence we need on the ocean floor.

narrator: A large unidentified shipwreck

just north of the Bermuda Triangle

may be the SS "Hewitt",

lost without a trace in 1921.

Wayne Abbott and David O'Keefe are chasing the theory

that it may have sunk

because of large methane bubbles.

They want to know how real they are

and how dangerous.

- We understand you've conducted

some pioneering research.

So we're here to find out all about it.

narrator: Marine geologist Mali'o Kodis

may have the answers.

- I was a fellow with

the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

And I was looking for methane seeps

on the U.S. continental shelf.

So a sort of novel method using multibeam sonar data.

[dramatic music]

narrator: While mapping the seafloor

of the continental shelf in 2012,

NOAA researchers noticed odd sonar returns.

Kodis analyzed the data and confirmed

the anomalies were methane bubbles called seeps

rising to the surface.

- Is it possible, though, to get an enormous amount

of methane going to the surface

which could indeed be a hazard to shipping?

- I think with different types of deposits,

that could be possible.

♪ ♪

narrator: Such an eruption happened off Norway in 1985.

The nearly 300-foot-long oil platform West Vanguard

was disabled by a sudden burst of methane gas.

If the "Hewitt" was sunk by the same thing,

there might be evidence on the seafloor.

- So if we were dealing with something that perhaps

was a lot bigger, what kind of signatures

would we be looking for at the bottom?

- I'd think some sort of a crater from, you know,

the--the hydrate escaping the ocean floor.

- So it'd leave a crater as if, for instance, a bomb went off.

♪ ♪

narrator: A bomb so big it scars the ocean floor.

A 2010 expedition

to map a stretch of the Bermuda Triangle

revealed craters,

some larger across than three football fields.

- We now have evidence

that methane gas explosions do occur.

They're much more common in the Bermuda Triangle

than we ever suspected before.

- Could this be the smoking gun

that actually sank the wreck?

♪ ♪

narrator: On board the "Odyssey,"

the sub's been repaired,

and the team's ready to get to sea again

for a second dive on the wreck.

[dramatic music]

Meanwhile, Wayne heads to Baltimore.

He's found a ship that's nearly identical

to the "Hewitt."

♪ ♪

Getting to know this ship's features

could help them make an ID on the next dive.

- So there she is.

narrator: To help, he's recruited Greg Mucci,

a veteran steamship engineer.

- God, it's in great shape.

Must take a lot to maintain her.

- Yeah.

narrator: They know from their first dive

that the mystery wreck has a canoe-shaped stern.

- Yeah, we're at the very fantail right here.

You can definitely see the taper,

the way it kind of curves under.

narrator: Just like the "John Brown" and "Hewitt."

♪ ♪

- This is a great perspective here.

- It's under the water.

narrator: Greg points out more features to look for,

like the distinctive pilot house,

the brain center of a ship where crews would navigate,

send radio reports, and issue orders.

- That original design had a split house,

and the deck crew was in the forward house,

and the engine crew was in the after house.

narrator: And deck guns.

♪ ♪

- One of the things we're gonna look for

with the "Hewitt" is that she was outfitted

with a 6-inch gun in 1917 during World War I.

- Yes, you can see the 3-inch gun up there.

- You know, Greg, I mean, this has been amazing.

You've definitely shown us some clues

and some bits of evidence that we'll have to search

when we're down on the second dive.

- Give you some homework to do.

- Exploring the "John Brown," some features

and some elements on this ship could help us prove

that our wreck is the SS "Hewitt."

♪ ♪

narrator: Armed with this new intel,

Wayne joins the team as the RV "Odyssey"

sets sail again for the Big Wreck.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

narrator: The team is back to sea.

They're once again approaching a target

fishermen have nicknamed the Big Wreck.

The team thinks it may be the long-lost SS "Hewitt."

But on sonar, the Big Wreck isn't quite big enough

to be the 400-foot "Hewitt."

So before they take the subs down

for a second look at the wreck,

they scan the seafloor looking for what they hope

is the rest of the ship.

- The money lane is P1.

But we might get lucky on the center lane

because we just saw potentially some debris there.

Well, I mean, we do another lane,

we're gonna be in the right depth range.

So again, we saw a hint of the wreck.

We're getting closer.

♪ ♪

narrator: Sure enough, just a mile away

from the Big Wreck, they find a second target.

- There we go. - There we go.

- We're starting to see something.

- There we go. - Okay, we got a hard turn.

- Look at the point, though.

It's not very far off.

- No, that's a pretty good number, isn't it?

Pretty accurate.

- Just keep this lane going, though,

in case there's other debris.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

Wow. - Look at it.

- That is insane.

- That's crazy.

narrator: It's an unidentified acoustic signal.

♪ ♪

- It actually makes me wonder

if there's SOSUS or something out there.

♪ ♪

narrator: SOSUS or Sound Surveillance System

is the U.S. Navy's passive sonar system.

It's a network of sensors

that monitors for foreign submarines.

- It's conceivable that there's military exercises

going on right now just to keep their edge.

♪ ♪

narrator: But there's another possibility.

A methane seep.

- Here you can see, you know, some plumes coming out.

narrator: As the team has learned,

NOAA researchers identified methane seeps

by detecting their odd sonar returns.

Could this be what the team has seen?

This area is full of

potentially dangerous deposits.

Now the question is, does the team risk a dive?

- It'd be anywhere between

50 to potentially 70 meters in length,

so something sizable.

narrator: If the second target is a piece of the Big Wreck,

that could make the sunken ship large enough

to be the team's main suspect, the SS "Hewitt."

♪ ♪

They decide to go for it.

♪ ♪

- I was a bit more nervous the first time.

The only concern I have right now is visibility,

so we can get down on this wreck

and really explore it properly.

♪ ♪

- Permission to vent. - Roger.

You're clear to open vents and dive.

Thank you. Have a good dive.

- Here we go.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Pilot Kim Lee Doe takes them down.

♪ ♪

- Contact bottom, I see it.

- That? Nice. - Yep.

- All right.

Nice. We got much better visibility.

♪ ♪

Well, relatively speaking.

♪ ♪

Wreck. Got the wreck. There's the wreck.

- Oh, whoa!

- Wow. - It's laying on its side.

Bow's right there.

[soft music]

narrator: It's wreckage from a ship,

just as they hoped.

♪ ♪

But can they link it to the "Hewitt"?

- Wow.

That looks like a gunning placement.

You can see the mount floor right there.

But it's been-- the gun's been stripped.

narrator: The gunning placement

looks similar to what Abbott saw

on the "John W. Brown."

During World War I, the SS "Hewitt"

was armed with a cannon for submarine defense.

♪ ♪

- I don't know if that's the sweep of the--

this is the stern or it actually looks like

it's ripped apart here, though.

Oh, yeah.

Suffered some damage.

We're looking actually inside the hull, lot of cable

and potential hazards right here.

So we got to be aware.

It seems very sterile in a way.

narrator: A broken bow is what they were hoping to find.

But something is off.

- That's a pretty big gunning placement, isn't it?

Or is that the-- - There's two of them.

There's one on stern, and there's one up on the bow.

- So three confirmed guns on this?

- Yes.

narrator: The "Hewitt" never had three guns.

[dramatic music]

This isn't a section of the Big Wreck.

Such a piece could still be out there somewhere.

But this is a different ship.

- So I think it's World War II vintage.

- But it does look stripped, though, doesn't it?

Like...

narrator: It appears to be a landing craft

like the ones used on D-Day at Normandy Beach.

After the war, hundreds were later mothballed.

- It gives me the feeling this was a surplus vessel.

They stripped it down and used it

for either a test or just sunk it.

♪ ♪

- I was really hoping that this smaller target we found

was gonna be the bow section of Big Wreck,

because if it was the "Hewitt," I mean, it's understandable,

the proximity of the two sections.

But that wasn't the case.

This was clearly a landing craft from World War II.

But that's shipwreck hunting.

You never know what you're gonna find

until you get down there.

narrator: A team of deep-sea investigators

is trying to solve the case

of a large steamer that disappeared in 1921.

- It looks like a nice day.

Crew today is, Steve's pilot.

I'm SO. Kim Lee's on comms.

It's safe. It's smooth.

It's slow and easy.

[dramatic music]

narrator: Having determined a nearby wreck

is not part of a debris field,

they still remain hopeful

a second dive on their primary target

will help tie this wreck

to the missing steamer the SS "Hewitt."

- The wreck might be trailing a lot of monofilament,

so potential hazards you're well aware of.

But we're gonna be trying to find diagnostic features

to help us to identify this wreck.

narrator: For Barnette, years of diving

have taught him that multiple dives to make an ID

are par for the course.

- I'm just a curious guy by nature, and I'm stubborn.

And for shipwrecks, especially ones I've dived on before,

and the identity has eluded me, I just can't let it go.

I have to try to keep trying to find what the final chapter

of that vessel was, what happened to it,

what happened to the people that were on that vessel.

♪ ♪

- Is it clear for us to roll the submarine out?

- Yep. Clear to roll out.

- Roger. Submarine rolling out.

- All right.

♪ ♪

narrator: They have one last dive,

a final chance to identify the wreck,

and if they see signs of a crater,

maybe even established what sank the ship.

- For me, I mean, finding the "Hewitt"

would be, you know, the story

that I'd love to wrap up and give closure

after 100 years of lying on the bottom.

[tense music]

narrator: On the bottom, the team again finds

challenging conditions.

- When we return to the wreck,

we're hoping that the time that elapsed

allowed a cleaner pulse of water to move in on the site,

but when we got to the bottom,

that was, alas, not what we found.

- Wreck, wreck, wreck, wreck.

♪ ♪

- And then we see this wall of metal in front of us,

and that was a win just to get to the wreck.

- It's right to my right.

- You guys keep it in sight.

♪ ♪

- This is 006. - Wow.

[laughter] At target. Repeat.

At target.

♪ ♪

Also, I really want you guys to focus on what's out there,

not just on the seafloor.

I want you looking out in the mid-water column

for anything that we might be underneath

and floating above us.

Nets, monofilament.

♪ ♪

narrator: The fish bring fishermen,

who often leave gear caught in the wreck.

[dramatic music]

Monofilament fishing line

is strong and nearly invisible.

A piece hanging in the current could easily be sucked into

one of the submarine's propellers.

♪ ♪

- This might be the stern.

- Okay.

- Yep. We're on the stern.

narrator: The team has once again

landed near the stern, or rear of the shipwreck.

On their first dive, they had to abort

before they could see the whole ship.

This time, they want to get all the way to the bow,

or front of the ship.

- Given the conditions we've got right now,

what are your thoughts maneuvering over the wreck?

Is it too sketchy to do that?

- I think.

What I'm doing now is I'm scanning it,

so where can I go?

- Whatever you're comfortable doing.

narrator: Going over the top of the ship

will give the team a good view of the top deck

with features that could help them ID this ship.

- So, yeah, what we'll do is we'll ride this current down

and then we'll look at going up and over if we can.

♪ ♪

- What do you think this is over here?

- That was just a vent.

That might be an access to the cargo hold.

I'm not-- I'm trying to figure out--

how high do you think that is?

- 6 feet? - It's about 6 feet?

- That's what I--I think

if I were standing up next to it.

♪ ♪

- Yeah, I'm still trying to come to grips

of where we're at on the wreck and the layout

'cause yeah, it's just so broken down.

♪ ♪

- I can't get Mike for money shot here.

- [laughs] - You gonna go over it?

- I'm gonna try.

narrator: With unstable currents,

the longer they continue to navigate above the wreck,

the more exposed they are to potential hazards.

But with a full view of the ship's top deck,

the team is hoping to find a smoking gun feature

to ID the wreck.

- So there's another structure right there.

I wonder if it's the same as that.

- Yeah. I wonder if they're smokestacks.

- So where are we now?

We're right over deck? - The center line

is gonna be right over there somewhere.

narrator: They're seeing potentially

valuable puzzle pieces.

But so far, nothing that firmly ties

this wreck to the "Hewitt."

♪ ♪

- Yeah. It's an anchor, see?

- Wow, that is the anchor. - So it's, yeah, vertical.

- Whoo! - That's the shank.

♪ ♪

- Unbelievable. - Oh, see the stock right here?

So this is the bow right here. That's the bow.

- This is the bow. - It is the bow.

- [laughs] - Holy smokes, guys!

- Whoo-hoo!

Yeah!

- I'm so excited. Oh, my gosh.

- Unbelievable. Look at that.

- Wow. - Beautiful.

narrator: Hundreds of feet below the surface

just north of the Bermuda Triangle,

the team has found a key clue

to the identity of the Big Wreck.

- Yeah, it's an anchor, see?

- Wow, that is an anchor.

- So it's, yeah, vertical.

- Whoo! - That's the shank.

narrator: The anchor is potentially

a signature detail.

And by reaching the bow,

the team has confirmed that the wreck is in one piece.

- What we've got here is consistent with a

80- to 90-meter-long freighter.

narrator: The team takes one last scan

of the seafloor around the wreck

for any clues to how this ship sank.

- Bottom is a little different, you know,

we're getting more rocks and shells.

narrator: They're on the lookout for a crater

or other signs of a methane hydrate explosion.

- Bottom is definitely changing.

- Yeah.

It seems smoother and flatter here too.

[tense music]

narrator: The flat bottom tells them

that if methane hydrate's played a role

in sinking this ship, the swirling bottom currents

have covered up the evidence.

But the team's primary mission was a success.

They were able to see the entire wreck.

And the clues they've gathered

may help them finally put a name on it.

♪ ♪

- Gentlemen, congratulations.

- Credit's all to you, man. - Good job.

- No, man.

This is my very first unexplored shipwreck.

- Really? - Yeah.

- All right.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back on land, the team

compares the new footage to the sonar scans

to confirm that this is a 300-foot steamer.

- Obviously, it'd be nice to wrap this up completely.

But we can say conclusively

we have an entire ship on the bottom.

- So it's not the "Hewitt."

- Not the "Hewitt" because it's too short to be the "Hewitt."

- Right.

narrator: The anchor arrangement

is also inconsistent

with imagery from the "Hewitt."

[dramatic music]

But the wreck size and features

are all consistent with another wreck

from Barnette's archives.

- Doing research, I try to call a list of suspect vessels

that could have been lost in the general area,

and one does kind of jump off the page to me.

It's a steamer called the "Santa Teresa."

narrator: September 1924.

The British freighter "Santa Teresa"

has passed through the Bermuda Triangle,

carrying sugar from Cuba to Boston.

America's prohibition era

has seen demand for sugar skyrocket

as Americans replace alcohol with soft drinks.

And Cuba is the world's leading sugar exporter.

This is a busy trade route.

"Santa Teresa" encounters a mechanical issue

and suddenly begins taking on water.

As the ship starts to sink,

she sends out an emergency SOS.

Luckily, a passing ship rescues the crew

before she disappears without a trace.

Another victim of these dark waters,

long since forgotten, until today.

♪ ♪

- The anchor is still tight up into the gunwale,

so it indicates to me that, you know,

they weren't trying to ride out a storm.

It looks like she sank peacefully,

which is kind of consistent with the sinking

of the "Santa Teresa." - Yeah.

The key piece of evidence is that the wreck

is the right length to be the "Santa Teresa"

and the location.

- So basically, you got 95% of the story now,

which is amazing, because when you guys went down

and found this for the first time,

you didn't know anything about this.

And now we are so close from proving

that this is actually the "Santa Teresa"

and solving another Bermuda Triangle mystery.

[dramatic music]

- This is the nature of shipwreck hunting.

You know, you start to pull back the layers,

and with each layer, there's a surprise.

You know, we thought it was the "Hewitt" at first.

Now we believe it's the "Santa Teresa."

- So the "Hewitt's" still out there waiting to be found.

narrator: The SS "Hewitt" and the mystery

of why it disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle

goes back on the map.

- My goal is to try to tell the story,

what happened to this vessel.

So we're just gonna keep working at this.

narrator: And there remains the question

of the odd sonar signal.

Was it methane hydrates?

- There's no survivors to relay what happened.

Dead men tell no tales.

This is still a maritime mystery.

But we as divers have the ability and the skill set

to go explore these shipwrecks

and tell their story for them.

♪ ♪

narrator: For the team, the mystery of the Big Wreck

marks the end of this leg of the investigation.

♪ ♪

Over the last few months,

they've discovered and helped identify

seven never-before-seen

Bermuda Triangle wreck targets.

But it's only the beginning.

- We are just a bunch of... [chuckles]

Kind of eclectic group of working guys.

We've strung together a series of great successes.

- Yeah!

[laughter] I'm so excited!

- This journey has been incredible.

To literally be surrounded by people

who care so much

to put so much on the line to get answers.

- We found lost shipwrecks, we found aircraft,

dove for the first time,

getting to the bottom of the sinkhole,

and also being able to dive on shipwrecks

I could never reach myself because they're too deep.

- Gentlemen, congratulations.

- I feel that we're just scratching

the tip of the iceberg.

There's so much more to do.

- The idea was to bring closure,

to solve mysteries.

And God knows, when it comes to the Bermuda triangle,

there are more mysteries out there.

♪ ♪