Original subtitles

- Diver's ready, Frank.

narrator: Tonight on "The Bermuda Triangle:

Into Cursed Waters"...

- We don't know what we're jumping into,

but it's a huge target.

narrator: 100 years ago, a string of cargo ships

disappeared without a trace.

- The United States government is investigating this pattern

of mysterious disappearances of ships.

So they really don't know what they're dealing with.

- Something may have went wrong.

- We're keeping our fingers crossed.

narrator: A stunning theory,

did the triangle drive these sailors mad?

- It tests you psychologically like nothing else.

- Is the Bermuda Triangle playing tricks

on sailors' minds?

- Something isn't adding up on this wreck.

- It's almost as if this vessel was attacked.

[dramatic music]

- An experienced captain, experienced crew,

but it still disappears.

- We got to figure out what the heck this is.

♪ ♪

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.

♪ ♪

Now an elite team is on the hunt...

- Dive, dive, dive.

narrator: And making big finds.

- We've discovered "Challenger."

narrator: Their secret weapon,

a wreck map decades in the making.

- These are dangerous dives.

- Ahh!

- Any sane person would not be doing this.

narrator: Their mission, solve the mystery

of the Bermuda Triangle one wreck at a time.

- Dude, are you seeing this?

- Mother Nature is going to take these wrecks away.

The clock is ticking.

♪ ♪

- Some guys are out there chasing death

just to hit a number on the computer.

We're not out here to chase records.

We're out here to make history on these wrecks.

- You want to make discoveries.

Sometimes you got to push the edges of the envelope.

♪ ♪

narrator: Today, that envelope will be pushed

to 380 feet below the surface.

- What we're doing technical diving wise is we're probably

1% of the 1% because we're doing wreck hunting,

going places that most other technical divers aren't going

or aren't willing to do.

narrator: Wreck hunters Mike Barnette and Jimmy Gadomski

have set their sights on a large sonar target

that is so deep no one has ever

successfully identified it.

It is known simply as the 380 Wreck.

- All we really know about the 380 Wreck

is the depth, hence the name 380.

It's about 380 feet of water to the bottom.

narrator: The wreck sits 13 miles off the Florida Keys,

just inside the Bermuda Triangle,

but what has caught Mike and Jimmy's attention

is the fact that the 380 Wreck falls along the route

of a century-old Bermuda Triangle mystery,

the "SS Suduffco."

- It was a 324-foot steamer that had

absolutely no reason to disappear,

at least no logical reason.

- The "Suduffco" was built in 1920 as a cargo steamship

just after World War I, and its main route

was from the East Coast through the Panama Canal

to the West Coast and went back and forth carrying supplies.

narrator: March 13, 1926, "Suduffco"

departs Newark, New Jersey, en route to the West Coast.

Her cargo holds are filled with steel construction pipes

bound for the growing cities

of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The next day, "Suduffco" and her crew of 29 men

approach the Bermuda Triangle and radio in their position.

All is well.

And then...

nothing.

- That was the last word from the "Suduffco."

All of a sudden, it disappears.

- There was a faint SOS that came in.

But I think the news reports at the time

couldn't necessarily tie it to that ship.

- They tried to radio that ship and find out

what the source of the SOS distress call was,

but got no answer.

narrator: The mysterious distress call

is the only potential clue.

The disappearance makes headlines around the globe.

Decades later, it becomes one

of the iconic Bermuda Triangle mysteries.

The team has found it fits a pattern

of other mysterious losses around the triangle

in the 1920s.

- It's very strange because the loss

of the "Suduffco" comes in the middle of this rash

of mysterious ships going missing,

like the "SS Hewitt" and "Carroll Deering,"

which we have searched for in prior dive seasons.

- The "Hewitt," I mean, it disappeared.

There is not a postage-sized stamp piece or anything.

Soon after the "Hewitt," a five-masted schooner

called the "Carroll Deering."

Strange thing about that one,

nobody on board, zero crew.

It's an empty vessel that runs aground.

♪ ♪

narrator: As the disappearances pile up,

Washington D.C. takes notice.

- The United States government is investigating

this pattern of mysterious disappearances

of ships in this area.

But of course, at this time, the Bermuda Triangle,

as we know it, does not exist, or at least even in the minds

of popular culture.

So they really don't know what they're dealing with.

narrator: The Bermuda Triangle was identified officially

only after the mysterious disappearance of 27 airmen

in one night in December, 1945,

an incident known as the loss of Flight 19.

But two decades earlier, mounting shipping losses

had already forced the American government

to reckon with these cursed waters.

- "Suduffco" could be our skeleton key

that may unlock the mystery

of why so many ships went missing

in the Bermuda Triangle in the 1920s.

♪ ♪

- Is that it?

- Not yet.

- No, it's coming in now.

narrator: Today is the team's second attempt

at the 380 Wreck.

- So we first tried diving the 380 Wreck about 15 years ago,

but we had to basically abort the dive and head back up.

narrator: On that attempt, they missed the target

when they deployed a tool called the shot line.

- The shot line helps us guarantee

that we can get on the wreck.

- There's a grapple hook that we try to snag into the wreck

in a vertical line going up to a big float ball

on the surface.

And we use that for a descent line and an ascent line

to come back up for decompression.

- So the placement of the shot line,

it makes our life so much easier on the bottom

because we can now just jump in and start our dive.

narrator: Jimmy is the team's resident shot line guru.

- It definitely takes a little bit of pre-planning

to get the shot line to go where we want.

- Turn right.

- There we go.

- Sweet.

- Talk to me, goose. - All right!

Drop it. - Throwing!

♪ ♪

- Ease back in a little bit, just a smidge.

♪ ♪

narrator: The shot line is down.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team won't know if it worked until they

drop in and hit the bottom,

380 feet down in the Bermuda Triangle.

♪ ♪

- It's very risky, what we're doing, to start out with.

As soon as we get into these deeper waters,

that risk goes up.

- And aside from the depth, I mean,

this is a new wreck to us, so we're unfamiliar.

We don't know what kind of obstacles we're going to find.

You want to have your game face on and take it seriously.

- Divers ready, Frank.

- We're in neutral. Dive, dive, dive.

♪ ♪

narrator: The major challenge of the 380 Wreck is the depth.

With every breath, the intense pressure

hyper saturates the divers' bodies with excess gas.

Ascend too quickly, and blood literally turns to foam,

also known as the bends.

Just a few minutes at this depth

means an hour's long ascent back to the top

while their bodies return to normal.

- We're planning on doing

about 18 minutes on the bottom.

That gives us a total runtime

of roughly about 150 to 160 minutes in the water.

♪ ♪

narrator: They reach the bottom and realize

their shot line has missed the wreck.

Yet the clock is already ticking.

♪ ♪

- When we go deeper, we don't have

as much time on the bottom.

- When you're blazing new paths,

it's all too common to go out and find nothing

or find something, but it turns out to be

either geology, or just debris, or trash.

♪ ♪

narrator: Precious minutes tick away as the team

fans out to find the wreck.

narrator: Then a crucial clue,

a debris trail.

Is it the "Suduffco"?

♪ ♪

On the surface, safety diver Kiki Dee stands watch.

- So as a safety diver, I'm watching the surface,

making sure if anything were to happen if they popped up.

When we consider a dive deep, it's past 200 feet.

So now they're doubling that 400 feet.

So yeah, it does kind of slim the margin

for error a little bit more.

narrator: With the divers essentially trapped

underwater until they complete their full decompression,

it's Kiki's job to meet them on the way back up

and help them if they hit trouble.

Back on the bottom, the team follows the debris trail.

narrator: It may be all that remains of this wreck,

making a positive ID virtually impossible.

♪ ♪

[alarm beeping]

Time's up.

♪ ♪

The lift bag surfaces, signaling the divers

are making their ascent.

The support team gears up.

- I'm going to go meet them in the water

when they're hanging on their deco stop at about 70 feet,

and I'm going to take away some of their tanks

so they don't need to have as much luggage on them

while they're hanging down there.

- 11:35 time in.

♪ ♪

narrator: As the dive team starts their ascent,

suddenly, in the gloom, they spot something.

narrator: But on the surface, something's not right.

- That was a lot.

narrator: This amount of bubbles at the surface

means gas is escaping from a tank.

- One of the guys had to bail out.

- We'll all know in a second.

♪ ♪

- All right, Frank, that should be good.

- All right. All right, I got to go.

- Dive, dive, dive.

♪ ♪

- Something may have went wrong.

We're keeping our fingers crossed.

narrator: The topside team has seen an unusual amount

of bubbles in the water.

It may be a sign that one of the divers

is having a problem with a tank

and losing precious gas.

- All right, Frank, I'm about to jump in.

- Dive, dive, dive.

[dramatic music]

- We see a lot of bubbles when you release the air

from your wing, but that was a little bit

too much for our comfort.

- At these depths, we need to be careful of CO2.

And you're dealing with this one problem.

Now you have another problem. Now your anxiety is going up.

You're breathing a little bit heavier.

♪ ♪

And it snowballs into a bigger issue.

narrator: Kiki arrives.

♪ ♪

narrator: Jimmy signals the extra bubbles

were from emptying another lift bag.

All is well.

[soft music]

- How are they? - They're good.

They're good. - Were they OK?

Were they still on the rebreathers?

- Yeah, no. They were totally good.

Everything's fine down there.

♪ ♪

- [sighs]

♪ ♪

- As we were coming up, we saw this dark mass.

♪ ♪

I mean, we were close to it.

We couldn't have been more

than a couple hundred feet off.

♪ ♪

narrator: They can't safely make this dive again today,

so the divers head back to port to join up

with the rest of the team.

♪ ♪

- Hey, boys. - Hey, how's it going?

Good to see you. - How are you guys?

- OK, so...

narrator: Historian David O'Keefe

and pilot and combat veteran Jason Harris are part

of the team's research muscle.

- So what do you got?

- There's a big target on the sounder,

and didn't really see the wreck.

We missed it.

- I mean, we were close to it.

We couldn't have been more than a couple hundred feet off.

narrator: After ending the dive and heading back

to the surface, the team learned they weren't

so far off the mark after all.

- We were coming up for decompression,

clipping the cameras off,

and in playback, looking at the camera footage,

we think we actually captured... the camera swung out,

and we saw something in the distance, just kind of a mass.

- So what you didn't realize the whole time is,

when you're coming up, you've actually been

scooping up this thing behind you

that was lurking there the entire time.

both: Wow.

- So I can show you what we saw.

- Let's see what we got.

[dramatic music]

- We know the "Suduffco" was heading from the northeast

down, transiting through the Panama Canal.

So it would have passed right through this area potentially.

narrator: "Suduffco" was one of 150 ships

known as Type 1023s,

commissioned by the U.S. government during World War I.

1023s were built to be workhorses,

sturdy, dependable,

and large.

- Any idea how big that wreck might be

from what you were able to capture on that footage?

- It is something substantial down there on the bottom.

So I think that it could be a potential candidate.

- We're in the ballpark. - Yeah.

And then once we kind of know these details,

then we can move on to, OK, what kind of cargo

is this ship carrying?

What's inside of the ship?

- We have one clue already, which is the fact

that the "Suduffco" was carrying

heavy construction material,

probably steel girders and things like that

for construction out West.

So that might be one thing you can add to your checklist

right now that you can look for.

- Because that will help narrow down.

All those are useful clues that we use.

- I guess, really, we're only at the first stage,

because, number one, you guys got

to make a positive ID first.

If you make a positive ID,

that opens up the door to what happened...

- Absolutely. - And how and why.

- When we look at an accident, one of the first things

people look at is human error.

And when they look at human error,

they're looking at the captain.

And they're trying to determine if the captain was at fault.

So we want to take a look at that.

narrator: The team splits up.

Mike and Jimmy will prepare for a second dive

in search of unique clues they hope will ID

their wreck as "Suduffco."

The rest of the team will dig into the questions surrounding

her loss and how she fits into the larger pattern

of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle

in the 1920s.

♪ ♪

Jason Harris heads to the foothills of North Carolina,

searching for clues about the "Suduffco's" captain,

Thomas Turner.

- Right now, we know absolutely nothing about Captain Turner.

Normally, these accidents, you can't find anyone

that has a memory or has information from a person

who's been gone for nearly a hundred years.

♪ ♪

narrator: Yet, there are some who still remember.

- So what do we have here, Ellie?

narrator: Ellie Hunt is Turner's great-granddaughter.

Her grandmother, Turner's daughter,

made sure the family remembered him.

- Wow.

- This is a photo of Captain Turner

and his wife and my grandmother as a baby.

She definitely made sure that he was

integral to all of our lives.

narrator: The artifacts preserved

by Hunt's grandmother contain information

found nowhere else.

- Award of Victory medal.

Wow. This is really cool.

- He jumped aboard a whaling ship when he was 15.

He was the black sheep of the family

because it wasn't considered a gentleman's job back then.

So he was 30 when he became a captain.

- I mean, literally, the fact that...

narrator: But there are few details about what

happened after that.

How skilled was Turner as a captain?

- Do you know if he had passed that route before

with him as a captain of a ship prior to that journey?

- I have no idea.

The Bermuda Triangle is...

you know, is known for bringing ships down.

♪ ♪

I never got the sense from my grandmother

that this was a new route or anything.

narrator: Then, a clue,

a World War I discharge.

- He had served for four years as a captain.

So this is a commission.

- I see his rank is Lieutenant Commander.

He had actually been promoted to a level of responsibility

and a level of significance.

narrator: By the time Taylor left the Navy,

he was just three ranks below Admiral.

- That paints such a vivid picture of who

Captain Turner must have been.

As I got some context as to who Captain Turner was,

in my mind, we can rule out or at least

we can more than likely say that the accident

or the loss of the "Suduffco" was not human error.

We now want to take a look at other elements

that could have been at play.

[dramatic music]

narrator: The team is on the hunt for the "SS Suduffco,"

which vanished with a cargo of steel beams

in the Bermuda Triangle nearly 100 years ago.

While the divers prepare for a second dive,

the land team is chasing new leads that could explain

not only the loss of the "Suduffco"

but other mysterious 1920s disappearances.

♪ ♪

Team member and historical investigator Wayne Abbott

is meeting with Captain Dave Mackey...

- Nice to meet you.

narrator: A ship captain who has spent so much time

in the triangle that he now teaches

the next generation of sailors.

- Wow.

This is unbelievable. - Yeah.

Welcome to the 360.

- This is called the 360?

- 360-degree view of simulation.

- Well, you said a simulator, but, I mean,

I feel like I'm on board a ship here.

- That's the goal.

It's supposed to be as realistic as possible.

narrator: Mackey trains future skippers

on a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art simulator,

which he can program with more than

nearly a hundred ship types

and historical weather spanning decades.

- So we know the route that the "Suduffco"

was going to take.

I mean, is there a sort of...

a series of challenges that a captain or a ship like this

would have to face on a route like this?

- Well, coming from March out of New York,

we would expect and be prepared for poor weather

coming down the East Coast of the United States.

So that's your first challenge is to get

through this area here.

narrator: Any boat plying the waters of the Bermuda Triangle

is likely to face unpredicted squalls, like this.

- Holy [bleep].

This is unbelievable.

♪ ♪

- Crazy that we're just standing here.

And we're not rocking or anything, right?

Like, this simulator isn't...

- No, it's not moving. You...it's your...

- But I feel like I'm moving. - It's your perception.

Right.

- Well, I feel like we're literally on the bridge

of the "Suduffco" right now.

♪ ♪

narrator: Mackey resets the simulator to replicate

the conditions "Suduffco" faced.

♪ ♪

At least according to historic weather reports,

the ship actually saw relatively benign seas.

- This is the 13th of March, 1926.

So they could have hit 35 knots of wind

somewhere in that area.

- But for a 330-foot vessel, six years old,

you think they could handle that?

- Yes, if all was well, that's what it was designed for.

- It's just still surprising that you

have an experienced captain, experienced crew,

ship that's only six years old.

The weather isn't horrible.

But it still disappears. - Correct.

So what does that say?

narrator: If neither the captain, the ship,

nor the weather was to blame,

there may have been another factor at play.

- This is what wears on you.

If you're doing this for days, you know,

it's just the physical wear.

You're tired. You're worn out.

You're cranky. You can't sleep.

You can't eat. You might be seasick.

- And after week after week or month after month

being out on the open ocean...

- It's a slow grating.

It wears you down.

narrator: Prolonged time on the open water

can drive sailors to delusion and hysteria.

There are even stories of sailors throwing

themselves into the ocean.

Could that account for "Suduffco's" disappearance

and the other vanished ships in the 1920s?

Mackey and his simulator have helped eliminate

the weather and the ship design as possibilities.

But the psychological strain on the crew

is something new that Wayne wants to follow up.

♪ ♪

Meanwhile, the only concrete evidence

for what ultimately happened to "Suduffco"

may still be waiting 380 feet down.

- So conditions today look awesome.

A little bit of a stronger current than we did yesterday,

but I'm confident that the guys are going to hit the wreck,

and it's going to be a beautiful dive.

narrator: On their first attempt,

the shot line landed too far from the wreck,

and they only caught a glimpse of it.

♪ ♪

Now, with their coordinates dialed in,

they hope for better results.

- All right, drop, drop!

♪ ♪

narrator: Bull's-eye.

- Whoo-hoo!

Yo, I think it's safe to say we're probably right

on top of the wreck with that.

[laughs]

Perfect. Nailed it.

[laughs]

- We are in neutral.

Dive, dive, dive.

♪ ♪

- Diver clear. - Thank you.

narrator: The divers use motorized scooters to expedite

their dive to the wreck.

380 feet down, she's waiting for them.

narrator: At long last, they've confirmed

the target known as the 380 Wreck is indeed a ship wreck.

narrator: This is the first time

human eyes have seen this vessel

since the day it vanished.

The wreck has a single screw for propulsion,

just like "Suduffco."

And the size of the propeller could be a match.

- Obviously, when you're diving any wreck,

it doesn't matter if it's 100 feet of water

or 400 feet of water.

The process to identify that wreck is the same.

The difference being, at 400 feet,

your time is much more limited.

It's a race against the clock.

♪ ♪

- It's super exciting to be the first person on a wreck.

Nobody had been on this wreck since it sank.

narrator: Strangely, the wreck is in good condition,

far better than a nearly century old wreck should be.

And then Barnette spots something truly bizarre.

- As we're looking at the hull,

we're seeing all these holes

about the size of two hands

just all over the hull.

♪ ♪

narrator: The holes do not appear

to be natural formations.

Something made them.

Could they be signs of gunfire?

- We're seeing it high on the hull.

We're seeing it below the waterline.

It's almost as if this vessel was attacked.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

narrator: 380 feet down,

the dive team is investigating a wreck

they are hoping is the "SS Suduffco."

But the mystery is only getting stranger.

♪ ♪

- There's just holes about the size of two hands...

boom, boom...all over the hull.

♪ ♪

narrator: The ship's wheelhouse has also

been obliterated.

Only a burnt-out shell remains.

- The rest of it was still all intact.

It was only the wheelhouse that was burnt,

which was super strange.

- Something isn't adding up on this wreck.

We definitely had a mystery at hand here.

- [indistinct]

♪ ♪

[alarm beeping]

narrator: The dive clock hits zero.

narrator: The team now has more questions than answers.

The odd holes in the hull and collapsed wheelhouse

point to something catastrophic.

Was this ship attacked?

Or was there some other violence at play?

♪ ♪

Back on land, Wayne and Dave are investigating

psychological strain, its effects on sailors,

and potential links to this and other Triangle cases.

- Hi there. - You must be Nick.

- Hi, Nick.

narrator: Researcher and author Nick Compton

has pored over centuries of records detailing

this strange condition.

- When you say that, you know,

it puts so much pressure on you,

how does this manifest basically?

- The sea tests you psychologically

like nothing else.

There's all kinds of ways,

and there's a phenomenon called calenture

first recorded among Spanish sailors

in the 17th and 18th century.

Sailors, particularly in very hot weather,

gradually it affects their brains,

and they are unable to resist the urge to jump

over the side into the sea.

narrator: Compton has found extensive documentation

of the condition, which can affect dozens

of sailors at the same time.

- And that's what's fascinating about it

is that it does affect whole crews.

In 1785, expedition of the Senegal River,

a crew of 30 sailors,

they all ended up jumping over the side...

- All of them? - To their deaths.

- All of them? - All 30, yeah.

narrator: Such a scenario might fit at least one

of the other ships that disappeared around the time

of the "Suduffco."

The "Carroll Deering" was found abandoned

with no trace of her crew.

The "Suduffco's" crew faced similar challenges.

- The "Suduffco" was doing this constant run.

The crew was doing this route relentlessly.

Could this have built up over time?

- If these crews were stuck below decks for days and weeks

at a time, then that's going to build up,

and that will exacerbate the situation, for sure.

narrator: It's an intriguing theory.

Calenture could potentially explain a multitude

of Bermuda Triangle disappearances.

Yet, in the case of the "Suduffco,"

there is one major disconnect.

Calenture is tied to hot temperatures,

but "Suduffco" vanished in March

when the weather was still cool.

- In this particular case, calenture,

which is absolutely fascinating and without a doubt

plays a role in what happens at sea,

doesn't appear to have any direct impact

on what happened to "Suduffco."

♪ ♪

narrator: The team assembles once more

to review what they've learned.

- So, guys, we got in for a second dive.

Conditions were much better this go around.

We were able to get on top of the wreck

and throw a shot line down on the wreck.

So that made our lives much easier.

We could tell right away that is a single screw vessel.

And it looks like a big freighter down there.

We came across these holes all down the side of the wreck.

So right there. - Yeah.

- Mike was on the outside, and I'm on the inside.

And you could clearly see through.

- So I noticed a few of them, and then I wanted

to kind of survey the whole hull.

And some are up high, and some are down low.

Some are along the waterline.

- And the wheelhouse seems like it was maybe collapsed,

which was very strange.

narrator: In addition to the bizarre damage,

key details have the team questioning whether

this is the "Suduffco" after all.

- If it is the "Suduffco," we're looking for something

that's been down almost a hundred years.

The integrity of this structure is not

collapsed like you would expect for a vessel

been on the seabed that long.

- Look, we've got a wreck sitting there

that's never been discovered before.

And of course, you're telling me now

that it's got signs of some sort of damage,

heavy damage on it.

And we have no clue what caused it.

- Yeah.

- We got to figure out what the heck this is.

narrator: Before the dive team heads back down,

they need more information.

narrator: The dive team preps for a final dive

on a mysterious wreck they hope is the "SS Suduffco."

[dramatic music]

But some details aren't lining up.

♪ ♪

Looking for alternate candidates,

Jimmy meets up with shipwreck historian Chuck Meide,

an expert on shipwrecks

in and around the Bermuda Triangle.

- We have a big freighter.

It sits in about 380 feet of water.

- Wow, yeah.

- The hull actually had holes all down the side of it.

- Really?

- Little bigger than a fist.

And the pilot house looks like it's been burned.

Something was a little bit off because the rest of the vessel

was completely intact.

- Well, we got a place to start, I guess.

narrator: Pulling old files from his database,

Chuck spots a footnote about a case

not from the 1920s but the 1990s.

♪ ♪

- OK, look at this one,

motor vessel "Jeano Express."

♪ ♪

20 miles southeast of Long Key.

- Yeah, that's... - That's pretty close, yeah?

- That's pretty close.

♪ ♪

narrator: November, 1994, with tropical storm Gordon

bearing down on the Florida coast,

the "Jeano Express,"

a cargo freighter on its way home,

is disabled and taking on water.

♪ ♪

- And seas 15 to 20 feet in rain squalls.

narrator: The Coast Guard sends a rescue helicopter,

but the report makes no mention

of the bizarrely focused damage

to the wheelhouse and hull.

- There's not too much more information here.

- Why I question this is because the wheelhouse looks

like we had a big fire there, and then we still have

these holes all down the side.

- So there's definitely some mystery still.

narrator: Nailing down this wreck's identity

may come down to the presence or lack of cargo.

- I think she's worthy of another dive on her.

- This is a ship that's in the right place,

maybe the right time, from what the hull looks like...

not too much marine growth, 1994 makes sense...right size.

If you get down to that cargo hold and there's nothing there,

that's one more tick in the box.

♪ ♪

narrator: With another suspect in the "Jeano Express,"

the team heads to the 380 Wreck for one more dive.

- All right, set us up.

- Dive, dive, dive.

♪ ♪

narrator: They still need a definitive clue

to identify this ship, which means searching

every inch of this wreck.

♪ ♪

One crucial detail, the cargo holds.

The "Suduffco" was carrying steel pipes,

but their new suspect, the "Jeano Express,"

was empty when it disappeared.

♪ ♪

With no definitive clues visible from outside,

Jimmy decides to take on a much riskier maneuver,

a penetration dive deeper into the ship.

- There are certain hazards that we need

to be aware of if we're going into a wreck

because now we're in an overhead environment.

We don't have a direct line of sight to the surface.

Can we get caught up in anything?

Can we get hung up in anything?

Is there lines hanging?

narrator: The inside of a wreck is a slew of dangers,

sharp edges, falling debris, tangled wires,

all compounded by the fact

that the clock is always ticking.

♪ ♪

- [indistinct]

- If we were to disturb any of this silt,

then it could be catastrophic for us

because we could lose visibility.

We could lose our way out.

narrator: Gadomski finds a lone prop

pushed up against the wall.

♪ ♪

Apart from that, nothing.

♪ ♪

- It becomes very apparent very quickly

that there is no cargo on the inside of this wreck.

It's just completely empty.

narrator: With no sign of the steel materials

"Suduffco" was carrying, the identity of this wreck

is finally becoming clear.

- The dimensions, type of vessel,

configuration, the lack of cargo.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- My parents think I'm crazy that I go this deep

and do what we do.

Usually, I'll tell them after the fact that, oh, yeah,

we did 400 feet, so they don't have to worry.

♪ ♪

narrator: Jimmy Gadomski and Mike Barnette

are 380 feet below the surface of the Bermuda Triangle

investigating a mystery wreck

with a series of bizarre clues,

the wheelhouse completely destroyed,

mysterious holes in the hull,

and now no sign of cargo.

♪ ♪

Having gathered all the evidence they can,

the dive team heads back to shore to make a definitive ID.

♪ ♪

- We got into a little penetration dive.

♪ ♪

We ended up in these big cargo holds.

- That's insane, man.

- And the cargo holds actually...

were empty.

♪ ♪

- And just the general vibe of the vessel,

this is a small coastal freighter,

and it's pretty fresh.

It's clean.

narrator: It all points to one conclusion.

- So basically you guys are... with what you guys

were able to see, that clarity,

this is painting a clearer picture.

We're able to narrow down the timeline potentially.

- The fact that the cargo hold was empty,

then we can pretty much eliminate "Suduffco."

- Exactly. This is not that vessel.

narrator: But to definitely link this wreck

to the "Jeano Express," the team needs

to unlock one last mystery,

the bizarre holes and destroyed wheelhouse.

So Mike and Jimmy track down one of the few eyewitnesses

to the ship's final hours.

♪ ♪

- How's it going, Steve? - Hey, guys.

- How's it going?

- Thank you for coming. - Great to meet you.

- Thanks for having us.

- Former Coast Guard search and rescue pilot

Steven Newark.

- It was, I think, November 14, 1994.

I was a young Coast Guard helicopter pilot.

We got called out in a tropical storm, Gordon,

to rescue the motor vessel "Jeano Express" crew.

[thunder rumbles]

Seas were 20 feet and in some ways bigger.

The wind speed on the surface was in excess of 50 knots.

It was the worst weather that I had seen

as a Coast Guard pilot.

narrator: Steve and his crew successfully rescued

all nine sailors onboard the "Jeano."

But none of that explains the location discrepancy,

much less the strange damage to the wreck.

- And at first, we weren't really sure

what caused her sinking because she was pretty intact.

But as we started moving around the wreck,

we started seeing holes in the side of the hull

that looked like attack damage.

Do you know what happened, the subsequent events,

after you guys departed the scene?

- Funny you should ask.

So we left, and then they sent

a 210-foot Coast Guard Cutter, "Decisive."

They arrived on scene.

But it was drifting toward, you know,

the beautiful coral reefs off of the Keys.

narrator: Though the "Jeano's" cargo holds were empty,

she still carried hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel,

forcing the Coast Guard to make an unusual decision.

- It could become an environmental hazard

to the coral reef there off Florida.

So they ended up circling the ship

and shooting it with their 25 millimeter automatic cannon,

their big gun on the bow.

They just started peppering the vessel for 360 degrees

around below the waterline because it would have

been listing, and that kind of explains

why a lot of the holes are in different locations

at different levels.

narrator: White hot tracer rounds also

set fire to the wheelhouse.

- And I think they sank it with about 110 rounds.

So that's where that came from.

narrator: It's the last piece of the puzzle.

The mystery is solved.

The wreck they discovered is the "Jeano Express."

- To learn the final moments of this vessel and what happened

to the crew, that's just... we can't thank you enough.

- It's just been awesome.

♪ ♪

Now, knowing these are bullet holes

coming from the Coast Guard ship that's sinking

the "Jeano Express" in order to stop it

from hitting the reef,

it just puts the story all together.

narrator: The team began their search

looking for the "SS Suduffco."

But, as is often the case in these treacherous waters,

the 380 Wreck turned out to be a very different ship

with a bizarre story of its own.

- Now we can put the mystery of the "Jeano Express"

down to bed.

We know the full story of it.

This is one more Bermuda Triangle mystery solved.

narrator: The "Suduffco" is still out there.

And so the search for it

and the other Bermuda Triangle mysteries will continue.