[narrator] tired of missing out on record-breaking bering sea gold prices?
Looking for a mining claim to call your own?
Then come on up to nome, alaska
where we've got more claims for sale than we've had in years.
Finally, all that chunky gold,
acre after acre
can be yours.
Don't be left in a cloud of gold dust.
Demand is through the roof.
So, act now while supplies last.
[kris] beggars cannot be choosers. So, I'm loving it.
[shawn] our gold recovery is gonna sky rocket.
Can you guarantee it?
If you'll throw a half a million at it.
[brad] shut your mouth!
[kris] you shut the [bleep] up. All you do is sit in your truck.
O mighty and great ruler of the sea.
[vernon] and see what the bottom looks like.
I don't see any cobble.
The soviets are coming
what's it looking like down there?
[daryl] there is hundreds of pieces of gold
[imitating drum roll]
[zeke] shawn, don't drop the sailboat.
Oh, boy!
[kris] four year plan
is finally happening for me.
And this is the crowned achievement
[people screaming]
[narrator] nome, alaska
is in the midst of a turf war.
As gold prices continue to hit all-time highs,
dozens of the most coveted claims on the bering sea
are suddenly up for sale
sending potential profits to new heights.
Now, every miner is relying on their own ingenuity
to get a piece of the pie and cash in.
[waves splashing]
[shawn] the price of gold is sky rocketing. It's kicking ass.
Good time to own some mining ground
especially 2000 acres.
[narrator] but one mining titan already has a claim
everyone is after.
[shawn] 2000 acres of the best off shore ground
it's gonna pay off. It will be well worth it.
[narrator] mr. Gold, shawn pomrenke,
has the richest claim in nome.
A $1.6 million tomcod under his control.
[shawn] I had the opportunity and I jumped on it.
Now, I just got to come up with enough gold to pay for it all.
I gotta get to work.
[shawn] the summer is simple. I'm taking over nome.
I'm taking no prisoners.
[shawn] I got the christine rose in the tomcod
turning up gold
to pay off what I owe.
I gonna try buying out the inland mine from my old man.
But that's nothing compared to what I'm trying to pull off.
[shawn] I'm gonna add in another
6x16-foot sluice box.
I pitched to dave young that we should partner up on the myrtle irene.
I feel like I'm the guy to make
the myrtle irene reach its full potential,
but it's not gonna be easy.
Dave's definitely interested in the idea
but he's not fully convinced yet.
What's going on, cody?
[cody] making the plans up for the myrtle?
[shawn] mmm-hmm.
Where's dave with all this?
He doesn't want to put any more money into it.
He's got millions into it.
Hopefully, dave signs off.
[shawn] hopefully, dave sees what I see here.
It's a huge potential of doing really good here.
[cody] what do you wanna do to this thing?
I wanna tear it all into a bunch of little pieces and start over.
I mean, we know, we've been kicking ass with our little tiny christine rose.
You know, all the foundation is there but it seems like all the gear on it is...
-Hodge-podged together. -Uh-huh.
[shawn] makes a big difference on how
productive the dredge will be
and for the myrtle irene being five times larger than the christine rose
it should produce five times as much but the way it was set up,
it would never do that.
I'm gonna add in another sluice box.
I like that idea.
It's all about efficiency of catching this fine gold is what we need.
[shawn] the key to mining is efficiency.
That's what I focus on when I construct my dredges.
The myrtle irene is a big dredge,
but it's not bringing in the gold it should be.
That's why I'm stepping in.
It was hard for the operator to see what was going on in the wash plant.
Without being able to see what's going on in the wash plant,
you don't know how fast to feed it
and so, I'm going to have to drop everything down.
Then you'll be able to see from the excavator right into the plant.
First step is to lower the wash plant
where the operator can see it
and be able to control it better.
Second step is upgrading the water system
for higher pressure to wash the gold out of the dirt.
The third thing we're gonna do is add a second sluice box.
One to catch all the chunky gold and one to catch the fine gold.
If I implement all three steps
this means three or four times more gold than they have been getting.
It's all a plan.
[cody] I know, I like it man.
Job security. We get this thing going.
We're going for the next five years.
It's a big project.
[shawn] yeah and we don't have a whole lot of time to do it.
To redesign a whole dredge and get it all done
is a huge undertaking.
But with the price of gold where it's at...
[clears throat] yeah, it's higher than I've ever seen it.
Now we have the tomcod.
It's a no-brainer.
Redesigning the myrtle is the key to absolute fortune
I'm certain of that.
Now, the only thing left to do is convince dave.
[cody] good luck with your meeting. Let me know how it goes.
[shawn] yeah, I will. Talk to you later cody.
Go make some gold now.
[narrator] shawn isn't the only miner looking to break new ground.
Five miles east,
far off the beaten path...
You know, sometimes when you have an acid trip
where you feel like you have been doing the same thing
for, like, multiple lifetimes?
I feel like we've been jacking up this boat for multiple lifetimes now.
[narrator] zeke tenhoff and his crew
are on the verge of taking a trip to the dock
with their one of a kind sailboat dredge.
It looks like the boat's hitting in the cribbing.
I don't see it that it's gonna able to tip either way.
It'll be good to go.
Sounds good.
[horn honking]
[zeke] here comes don.
If this sailboat dredge works out, it would
definitely be game changer from everything I'm doing.
I'll be able to sail way out into the distance to investigate claims
where there might be a lot of gold that nobody has ever found before.
I'll have an advantage that absolutely no one else will.
Now we just gotta get it down to the water.
Yeah!
-Hell, yeah! -Finally, I have the sailboat out of my yard.
It's been in my yard for ten years.
Thinking about it.
Imagining.
I'm still mid process.
But it's nice to have it out of my yard.
[sam] I am a little bit worried about it bouncing off the back.
[zeke] no, wait. Don't...
Don't drive too fast in front of the power line.
[zeke groaning]
-[crew laughing] -[bleep]
[zeke laughing]
wow, dude!
Yeah... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hell, yeah!
[cheering]
we got the sail boat to the harbor.
It's a big step.
Yeah, we'll
-thank you so much, don. -Okay, no problem.
Totally appreciate it. You really helped us out here.
Hope you make money, man.
Yeah, that's the plan.
[sam] the price of gold is coming up about $100 a day.
I checked the price of gold just now. I'm like...
On the scroller and it was like...
-It went up again. -It goes up every day.
[zeke] I mean the world economy--
the price of gold goes up every day.
Every day.
[stammers] we gotta get some gold.
I've been really hustling to get the sailboat dredge
ready to get gold.
Now, we just need to find a crane to lift this boat up and put it in the water
and then we're ready to go.
[zeke] I'm gonna go check and see if he's back.
And I know just the guy to ask. I know that he has a crane.
It's sitting right over there.
[zeke] this looks like a huge project.
[shawn] yeah another big project.
[zeke] dude, just makes my head spin.
-How you doing man? -Doing real well. How about yourself?
-Good, good. -Anyway, you wanna check out my sailboat?
-You got a sailboat? -I got a sailboat, yeah.
Yeah.
-Have you ever done any sailing? -No, not much.
Me neither.
Zeke is building a sailboat dredge
but knows absolutely nothing about sailing.
That's zeke.
[zeke] anyway, here is the sailboat.
I think it's gonna work.
Everything is in pretty good shape.
But uh...
I still have a lot of question marks about my design.
I don't know how it's gonna sit like weight balance and everything
I've never had this in the water.
Yeah, it's gonna be the moment of truth for me sitting it down in the water.
[laughing] it's a...I mean...
I don't think anything is gonna fall apart
and I don't think it's gonna sink.
[chuckling]
[shawn] what you gonna do? Just back her in?
No, I don't think it's gonna...I don't...
The trailer is not long enough
-uh, I heard you might have a crane. -I do have a crane.
Do you think your crane can pick up this sailboat?
All day long.
[zeke] will you sling my sailboat into the harbor?
Yeah, I can probably do that.
Nice. That's what I wanted to hear.
I'm checking specs on the myrtle irene
trying to figure out what I can really do with her.
Sure it's time sensitive but there is a code amongst us miners.
Everybody helps each other out.
Unless, it's the kellys and then they can rot
but, zeke is trying to do something really big
so I respect that and I'm gonna try to help him out.
-[zeke] you ever picked up a sailboat before? -Nope.
I'm really stoked that shawn is willing to take the time to help out.
He definitely gives me a little bit of pause because
shawn's never picked up a sailboat with his crane
and I'm not even certain, the sailboat is gonna float right.
Let me know when you're ready to drop it in.
We'll throw it in for ya.
-I'm stoked. Thank you. I appreciate it. -No problem.
Okay, zeke.
All right!
Been a long time coming and I can't say I'm not a little bit nervous about it.
Yeah, it's gonna be the moment of truth for me sitting it down in the water.
[kris] the only way we're making it to elim is with the proper boat.
So, this is it.
Not exactly what I would call custom accommodations, but
beggars cannot be choosers so I'm loving it.
[narrator] as they prep the vessel of their dreams,
the kellys are thinking outside the box.
Way outside the box.
120 miles east to elim
where captain kris believes a fortune is waiting.
It's probably the greatest adventure.
People would have to pay to go on this kind of adventure, really you know
it's like going to climb mount everest.
This stuff is similar to that, except we're going down
140-50 miles away from town
to where no man has gone before
[bleep] we better change the name of this boat to the enterprise.
[kris] this is almost the perfect boat for my set up
we have a sink which is great.
We have a stove which is awesome.
We have somewhat of a fridge which...
Whatever.
So, the boat is not something you'll find in the greek isles,
but it's perfect for what we're gonna try to pull off.
It's got all the equipment we need
plus space to transport our portable dredge
and luckily I have one of those. I built it a couple summers ago.
Trying to create a dredge.
Very small, very fast.
[narrator] in a prior failed effort to go up the coast...
[kris] hey, look how easy it is.
Andy can move it with his hands.
...Kris created a small portable dredge he dubbed "the sickle."
sickle pound for pound is a bad little mofo.
Oh, there it is.
[kris] it was crazy of me to think that I was gonna take that little vessel
all the way to elim.
With the norpac, I'll easily get to elim with that dredge.
So, we gotta pull the sickle out of storage right now
but thank god I over built everything.
I know it's gonna be turn key ready to go.
[kris] let's look at this [bleep]
really, what I like about it is is we haven't used it in about two or three years
and it's still in great condition because I made it, that's why.
And this is what it's gonna be like on the water.
[exclaiming]
-[kris] look at it. It's stable. -I know.
-Let's grab it. -Look at that.
It's quality made the first time.
Grab that corner. Andy'll grab the middle.
[all groaning]
[kris] the sickle is in a great shape but it still needs some tlc
right now, all my money is tied up with the norpac.
So, I'm really gonna have to macgyver this thing to get it going.
We gotta go to the car next, grab some rope.
I grabbed rope.
-Okay. -It's around here, somewhere.
We gotta go get a high pressure line.
[kris] high pressure line like eight feet long.
Hopefully, we can make this work, you know.
[kris] really, you have to have everything dialed in 100%.
We have one shot at this. We can't go 130 miles away
and then realize that we need something small that could stop everything.
So, we need to get this put together properly.
We need to get this tested in the ocean.
We need to have an actual strategy
for getting it off the boat and on the boat.
Just put it there.
[andy] wow!
[kris] so far so good.
-[brad] ready? -[kris] that's all ready to go.
-[brad] let's go. Andy!
Ready to sluice.
[andy] hold on my leg.
Be careful.
Whoo! We're getting closer.
[kris] we usually have those little pontoons on there
except andy gained another 100 pounds this winter so we can't use them.
The guy is just getting so big.
He better.
Has he seen the show, mutiny on the bounty?
So, we got another thing we got going on today.
We got chris mccully putting together a real frankenstein operation.
So, it's chris mccully that's scooting me over trying to get to elim this year.
Now, I'm stuck in a bad deal with dave mccully
and there is nothing I can do.
The only good thing at this point
that chris mccully is bringing to the table is
he's building a backup dredge that we really need.
[kris] how is it going over here chris?
Pretty much see what my vision is now.
I can, I can see your vision.
[chris speaking]
-[chuckles] -[chris] and that's it.
He's calling this frankenstein mess of crap bones.
It's basically a sluice box that we can dangle over the side of the boat...
-Then we'll put it right on the deck next to mine. -Cool.
Who knows if it's even gonna work.
It's definitely going to be work in progress.
So far so good.
One stop closer to the mission
he's got a lot of [bleep] to do still. Let's keep going.
[narrator] while kris preps for an epic journey,
on the other side of the harbor...
[vernon] all right, good morning guys.
...The dawn of a new era
is beginning for skipper vernon adkison
[vernon] let's have a little conference here.
Okay, I finally got my permit on 56.
Right on.
So, we'll go out and reconnoiter to start out with.
It's gonna require
a bit of prospecting
and then we'll pick a spot
and go dredging.
Throw it up.
This is a big day for me. I'm not gonna lie.
I've spent everything I've got on 56.
According to my research,
I think this is one of the best claims in nome.
It's loaded with gold.
375 acres
a thousand ounces an acre.
Today is the day, I find out if I'm right
or if I'm off my rocker which some people claim I am from time to time.
I can do a real mistake.
Damn, it always feels good to shake off that dock dust.
Right now, we gotta lay out the perimeter of the claim.
We'll get this thing mapped out and dialed in
so, we'll know exactly
the nature of the beast.
Today we're gonna use some technology.
I got a new underwater drone.
I got three different corners marked
on the claim and we gotta do some surveying of the bottom
and see what we come up with.
We'll use the hand line.
Check the depth here
at our northeast corner.
Right there.
Let me see.
I think that's 15 feet.
Fifteen feet.
Okay, break out the drone.
Let's go down and fly this thing.
All right. Here we go.
We've got visibility. We got about five feet of visibility.
We know that for sure.
What we're looking for is cobble.
Usually, that's where the gold is.
We don't want too much sand.
If we get out there and find out that this claim is loaded with sand...
Well, that might be good for kindergarten sandbox but it's not good for mining.
[vernon] definitely, sand.
I don't see any cobble.
That looks like sand with
just gentle ripples, I mean
ripples in it.
[bryan] yeah, that's sand.
I would not dive this spot.
Northeast.
Sand... Just, that right here.
Yeah, we're taking notes on our dinner plate.
It's gonna be a treasure map by the time we're done with it
the whole secret to our fortune is on a paper plate.
[vernon] no matter what claim, there is gonna be places where there is no gold
and that's called prospecting.
And it's disappointing, but you gotta keep prospecting
until you hit the hot spots.
Southeast corner. Let me just pull over here to the right a little bit
and we'll drop the anchor right quick.
Just gonna make that bing, bang, boom. Quick.
Okay, that's two fathoms.
Twenty-four feet of water.
[bryan] well, first time we saw sand.
I got my fingers crossed. I wanna see some cobble down there.
That looks like sand to me.
[bleep]
[vernon] I've got a lot of money invested in this claim.
It just wiped me out as far as liquid cash is concerned
and if I just keep seeing sand, sand and more sand,
I'll be busted yet once again.
I think we ought to make our way out to the southwest corner
and see what the bottom looks like.
I got a feeling the bed of gold is on
the western end of it.
We're here.
-Put that camera down. -Here we go. Going down.
[dramatic music playing]
[vernon] here we go.
[man] miles of cobble.
[vernon] all right, all right!
-Hey, we got the cobble. -[crew] all right.
-[vernon] and the visibility looks good. -[man]yeah, pretty good.
We got good vis and good cobble.
I've known about this claim for years
and it's one of the richest ones in nome.
375 acres
and it belongs to me.
So, uh...
We're gonna get out there and carry it up.
We're gonna do it.
[narrator] throughout nome, the fight for turf is on
and at the harbor...
Let's go back in the bearing sea?
All right, let's go mine some gold.
[narrator] emily riedel is looking to get in on the action.
[emily] the ice is gone which is great.
Love having no ice around.
Love having survivable temperatures.
Good to be back on a boat.
My goal this summer is
to own a claim of my own. Simple.
There is six
and I'm already starting to research claims out east.
But claims, especially the good ones
tend to be pretty expensive so I'm gonna need at least 75 ounces
to purchase a lease.
We ended the ice season on a good spot.
So, first thing I'm gonna take my ten-inch
to those coordinates and pick up what's left there and look for more.
It's our first day out in the 2020 gold mining season.
Price of gold is 2,000 an ounce, so...
We'll make it happen.
I got my number one guy daryl.
He knows how to find and follow gold.
He knows how to read the ground and hopefully we can get on some nice g
right off the bat.
Couldn't ask for more for today.
Whether I do well or not this season depends entirely on my team.
And I happen to have
some of the best divers, gold divers in the world working on my boat.
Daryl is coming back.
Daryl is like my star diver. He's always produced a lot for the boat
and I get bob hafner
bob hafner is like one of the founding fathers of gold diving in nome
so, if this season is going to be a success, it's because of them.
We found this spot during ice mining.
Got some pretty sick gold in the six-inch.
So, daryl is gonna pick up where he left off.
Hopefully, today we're gonna make some money.
[engine whirring]
you ready to get some?
Pound it! Whoo!
Hey, daryl.
[over radio] how is the visibility down there?
[daryl] it's probably about four or five feet.
[emily] I'm gonna give you a minute to get your bearings.
[daryl] all right, I'm looking for a... A place to start
okay-dokey.
[emily] hey, so you found some gold down there?
[daryl] oh, nothing yet.
I haven't seen any uh...
Where it really light things up.
Daryl is down there looking for something
that's hot, you know, it's uh...
Things change, the bottom changes as the ice goes away so...
I don't know. We'll keep looking for the spot we found over the winter.
Sometimes, after the ice pack moves out,
the topography on the ocean floor can change
and it's important to have people like daryl
who really know how to read the ground and prospect.
He is a gold hound.
So, I trust daryl to pick up that hit streak.
I just hope he can because
we really need to put ounces in the box right away.
[daryl] gotta find some working ground.
Okay, it's starting to, uh...
Oh!
There we go.
There is hundreds of pieces of gold just right here.
[emily] all right!
[daryl] not even an inch or two down. Bingo!
Wow! That big gold sounds like what we found during ice.
Found some nice chunky stuff.
[over radio] is the gold chunky?
[daryl] there is lots of volume right here
through the stone, all through this material.
[imitating drum roll]
[daryl] yeah, we could work this for several days.
[emily squealing] we're on it, baby! Ow!
[daryl] yeah, not so bad.
We're making money. Can't complain.
It's a good day to be a gold miner. Whoo!
[narrator] while one riedel gets on the gold,
back on land...
I think this road goes to the nome river.
I saw it up here.
But the river is way far away here.
I don't think it goes down to the nome river.
[narrator] the senior riedel is on his way
to owning his own claim and mining operation.
You know, I don't have to park right on the river.
As long as I find a place that's hidden...
[narrator] but for nome's most notorious free spirit,
that road is very, very long.
I had this plan coming to nome.
Price is up,
get some stuff from the dump for free.
I got the first part of my plan taken care of.
Now I gotta find a place to live on the nome river,
set my tent up for free,
and then I gotta look for work.
I just can't find the nome river,
it's somewhere around here.
[tires screeching]
hello.
Okay, I'm not gonna run off the road now.
Don't worry about it. [chuckles]
the price of gold is through the roof.
There's claims available. So, yeah.
This is the best time to be a gold miner.
And I'm here again to ride that gold horse.
Whoa! Jiminy cripers.
Man! I was hoping to find a better trail than this.
I don't know. Holy... Hold it.
I can't afford to be here.
But the price of gold,
I can't afford not to be here.
Woo-hoo.
Yeah! Oh, yeah. Free rent city, right here.
Man, what a beautiful place.
That's the river.
Got a place to hide.
This is it. This is steve's oasis.
This is where I'm setting up shop for the summer.
And it's not gonna cost me a dime.
[exclaims] oh! Oh!
[grunts]
[groans]
I just have to clear out all this brush
and assemble my abode.
Whoo!
My tent's 12 by 8 feet.
So...
I think I got a pretty good space here.
But I need some blocks,
and then I'll put pallets on it,
level it up.
And then I can put my tent on it.
Rent free is turning out to be just a lot of hard work.
So I got a list of things to do.
I need some stuff.
Zeke's place right here.
Oh-ho-ho. Oh!
Woo-hoo.
-Perfect. -[timber thuds]
yeah. Nome is...
Nome is about 500 miles away
from the end of the supply line.
So...
You know, if someone has something,
and they're not using it,
then it's okay to borrow it.
It's sort of...
It's sort of an alaska thing, to share.
There we go.
Okay, that's a load.
I'll write him an iou.
2x4s...
And six blocks.
Okay. Let's see...
Uh-huh. Okay. Thanks. We're out.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of secret...
Uh, gold mine... What are we calling it?
Today we're gonna talk about
mining on a budget.
Hot water system.
You know, right here is the hot water exchange system.
We use the exhaust of our engine
to heat up the water
that pumps down to the diver.
All free.
You know, a lot of people use
other systems to create hot water.
Those burn about two gallons an hour.
So I save about 10 dollars an hour
when I run this.
That's the way it is.
In order for this to work properly,
you have to exchange the copper coil every season.
Can my lovely assistant handle it?
Yeah, I'm gonna close my eyes, I'll be fine.
You can't be a [bleep] when you do this job.
[screams]
yeah, baby!
Bam!
The, uh, hot water system.
[kris] so, it's a pretty easy design.
The bar in the center, that's the exhaust.
That's actually pumping through.
So you wrap the coil around the exhaust,
and then you have water flowing through the coil.
So, pound for pound,
this is probably the best [bleep] idea around.
Oh, when you idle down the engine,
you get cold water.
Well, don't be a [bleep], you won't have a problem.
-[andy] oh, I don't... -Okay, there you go.
Next thing we're gonna do,
we're gonna go get another copper coil,
and we're gonna string it around,
and then this is exactly...
We're trying to make this look brand new.
Bam! Copper coil.
That's perfect.
Shazamo!
Free hot water.
So now we have to insert the coil...
It's not fitting in with those pipes.
Okay, now we got to get this [bleep] thing to fit in there.
It needs finesse.
-[andy] I got it, dude. -Okay.
That's exactly what I didn't want to do.
[andy] shut up!
No, mine was easier.
[kris] I hope we didn't kink that.
Stop. It's not gonna work.
I think the engine is gonna blow up on me.
Well, let's take that out.
The editing team, edit all that [bleep]
out at the end.
We're done.
Now what we have to do is weld this together.
So that's pretty much how you get
free hot water on demand forever,
as long as you follow this simple little process.
Not that simple.
Super big moment here
I've been anticipating.
Getting ready to drop zeke's sail boat in.
Sail boat, dredge.
Uh, not quite sure what it is.
[narrator] after years of envisioning
a trailblazing sailboat dredge...
I think we got all the holes plugged.
I'm pretty sure.
...It's now sink or swim for zeke tenhoff
and the black swan.
[zeke] I've put suction dredges together before,
but there's a lot of reasons
why the way I'm trying to do it
might be kind of sketchy and it's experimental.
I'm not a, like, maritime engineer
or anything like that at all.
I'm just a guy who has been like bolting aluminum
in dredge parks onto the sailboat.
So I've got to cross my fingers
and hope for the best here.
Been a lot of build up today.
I've been working on this sail boat for months.
I can't say I'm not a little bit...
I have a little trepidation
about how it's all gonna hook up.
Well, we're gonna see if it even [bleep] picks it.
It if picks it, it picks it. If it don't, it don't.
Whoa.
[crane whirring]
lift off.
Hey.
[zeke] keep it straight.
Keep it straight.
Little bit windy today.
I have to hold on to this rope.
Super important.
Otherwise the sailboat is gonna go spinning around.
Oh, boy. Oh, buddy.
Shawn, don't drop the sailboat.
[zeke chuckles]
[creaks]
[whirring]
[zeke] are we floating?
You're floating.
We are floating. Yeah!
[laughs]
[all] yeah! Yeah!
-[all exclaiming] -yeah!
-Thank you, shawn. -[shawn] yeah.
You guys gonna check for leaks before we unstrap it?
[zeke] I can go check for leaks.
Oh, that's good. I was just checking the water lines
and seeing how we look on the balance.
It looks pretty good.
We are this close from going sailing.
Very excited.
Looks good. No obvious leaks at this time.
All right. Let's cut this thing lose
so I can get out of here.
[zeke] ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the black swan.
It really feels great. I've had this idea
kicking around in my head for years now.
Sail boat dredge, that's cool.
So that's given me a lot of motivation
to just keep going with it.
No matter like, what the conclusion ends up being.
It's super cool to look out of the...
Look out of the windows here.
You can see water instead of tree tops and tundra.
I had a lot of trepidation over the years
that I wouldn't be able to hang a dredge off the side of this boat.
Because it would make everything tip over too much.
So I didn't do it for years. Because I thought that would
be a big problem. And it's proving to be not a problem at all.
We got the mast stood up here.
I want to go for a little boat ride.
See how fast she goes.
I know I have a lot of work to do
in order to get all the dredging systems to work right.
[engine revving]
but we gotta take it for a little victory lap
out of the harbor and see how it feels.
What! [laughs]
dude, it's really fast. [laughs]
[all laughing and exclaiming]
[narrator] two miles east...
We're gonna do it.
Went through all the trouble while going through the damn bidding process.
[narrator] the moment of truth has arrived
for vernon adkison.
[vernon] today, we're out here,
we're getting ready to nail this claim down.
Good show, guys.
We're finally gonna get going on 56.
And I gotta admit, I got some jitters today.
I don't know for sure
if there's really good gold there.
We're diving on a new claim.
A very expensive claim.
But it looks like we found a good spot with the drone,
so I'm cautiously optimistic.
Get to diving. Bing, bang, boom.
[narrator] today, the first small step for vernon-kind...
Belongs to diver gary simpson.
[vernon] gary, do you read me?
[gary] yeah.
Just do it.
[gary] all right.
[vernon] okay, here he goes.
[gary] all right, let's search around here for a little bit,
guys, see where we're at.
All right.
[gary] actually, I couldn't see much with the drone.
It still looked good.
But being down here it even looks better.
All right.
We're gonna make some gold today, buddy.
[gary] I'll start right here.
This hasn't been worked for a long time...
If ever.
Yeah, yeah. It sure looks good to me.
I mean, there's a lot of marine growth on it.
Looks like it's tightly packed.
I'm hoping we're on some virgin ground here.
Untouched ground,
that's music to a prospector's ear.
There's been mining all around nome
for well over a century.
And to find some ground that has not been hit,
we could be sitting on top of a jackpot.
Come to daddy. You know what I'm saying?
[gary speaking]
big rocks, big gold.
[gary] it's a little slower...
Than normal.
[gary speaking]
yeah, it looks like you might be getting close to it now.
[gary speaking]
so...
[vernon] all right.
Seeing gold already?
[gary] whoo! How's that?
Wow. That's some good looking material.
[gary] do you see it? Do you see it?
Yeah, yeah, I see it.
[gary] I'm seeing the gold.
Nature's going right on top of the black silk layer.
[vernon] all right. Hammer it.
[gary] yeah, yeah, looking good.
Now this is what I'm talking about.
This is a bull's-eye and then some.
Maybe we don't hit the target every time,
but when we do, yeah.
It's yippee-ki-yay.
This is what I've been waiting for for years.
We've taken the icing off the cake.
[gary] yeah.
[vernon] you can tell from the look of that cobble,
it hasn't been disturbed.
This is the first time I've worked on 56.
There's a lot of gold laying right on top.
This is damn good ground.
We're gonna have a nice day.
[narrator] throughout nome, the fleet is bringing their a-game
to the turf war.
And on the water.
[emily] back to work. Just doing a little patch.
[narrator] emily and her a-team
prep for the second half of a mining double header.
[emily] bob's gonna be diving.
He's a veteran of this business.
I mean, he's been diving offshore, for like, since the '80s.
Always excited to go diving.
[narrator] as veteran diver bob hafner
steps up to the plate.
[emily] daryl got into some nice chunky gold.
He got a good dive in.
Bob's great. He knows the ground. He knows what he's doing.
Awesome attitude.
And he's got a lot of experience, so...
Got a good team.
[bob] water temperature looks pretty good.
Let's do this.
[emily] daryl went down for four hours
and got on the pay streak.
And we're making money.
And bob's the next diver,
and hopefully we can keep this momentum up.
Conditions are good right now,
but wind is starting to pick up,
current's starting to pick up,
so hopefully we can stay on the spot.
Hey, bob, you got me on comms?
[bob] yes.
[emily] hey. Hey, bob, first dive of the year. How do you feel?
[bob grunts]
[emily] nice, that's awesome. That's really good news.
[bob speaking]
[emily] strong currents can really escalate the danger for a diver.
Veteran or not, current's still gonna mess with you.
Like, as much experience as bob has,
like, once that current gets going,
like, he's not a freaking superhero.
But it's also important to get a lot of nice gold in the sluice box.
So hopefully bob can hang out through this.
[bob speaking]
[groans]
if we need to call it for current, we can call it.
[bob speaking]
roger, sounds good.
That current...
It keeps on building,
it keeps on picking up down there.
He's definitely earning every ounce.
It's gonna wear him out eventually.
[bob groans]
we're not long, but we're in the gold
so we're gonna keep mining as long as we can.
[narrator] back in nome...
Well, got my plans,
time to go see the man.
Either dave's gonna like it or he won't.
[narrator] mr. Gold is looking to strike a deal
with the competition.
[shawn] right now, dave's the only unknown.
I know my design is solid,
but I don't know if dave's gonna
want to partner up with me or tell me to take a hike.
Hell, me might even try to steal
what I'm trying to pitch to him.
I guess we'll see.
[horn honks]
[young] what's up?
[shawn] how's it going, dave?
Oh, you got them done, huh?
-Yeah. -Let's check them out.
[shawn] I can see it coming together.
Chicken scratches but...
Basically moving the plant from where it's sitting here,
putting it down the center of the barge,
dropping it, lowering it.
What's this right here?
[shawn] that's the feeder.
-[young] shaker... -[shawn] shaker.
Rock chute, then this will be another sluice box here.
[young] this is a sluice? What's this right here?
[shawn] that's another sluice box. A secondary box.
This is gonna look really pretty through this first sluice box.
But then, whatever doesn't get caught there,
we'll catch it all through in this secondary box.
Looks complicated.
It looks complicated, but really it's not.
Our gold recovery is going to sky rocket.
I don't know.
I think we'll have a winner.
I think we'll do, you know, if I can keep up to you...
Keep up with it the way it's set up now,
with the christine rose...
Well, after we redo it.
We should blow the christine rose out of the water.
-We'd be-- -you sure it'll all fit?
I'll make it fit.
We got some good welders,
they'll cut and chop
and make it work.
[young] I mean, what's this gonna cost?
Million? Half a million?
I can't even tell. It's looks expensive.
-Looks expensive, but... -[laughs]
it is expensive.
You know it's gonna... It's gonna be [bleep]
expensive, but you know what?
In one week, we'll make it all back.
You think?
-I... -Can you guarantee it?
I'm not gonna guarantee it.
But I'll put my word on it.
-And I'll make-- -will you put your money on it?
You know...
I'd be willing to do it.
I've got millions into this already.
-And I'm not-- -with gold prices the way they are,
it'd be stupid not to do it.
No, I'm game, you know? We gotta pick it up.
You kicked their ass last year
and we got a one-yard bucket.
So I know we got some issues. I just...
You know, we have no money to do this.
You know, if you have the money,
if you'll throw half a million at it...
I think it's gonna cost at least that, if not more.
[shawn] the worst thing I thought
dave could say was "no."
I didn't think he'd ask me to pony up
some of my own money for this.
I'm stretched a little thin going into this,
with the cost of the tomcod and the inland mine.
The myrtle irene is not gonna be a cheap project.
It may stretch me too thin. It's a tough call.
Well, I'll throw 350,000 at it.
Okay.
Well, write it up and I'm in.
Let's give it a shot.
But you got... You got three weeks.
We'll be cutting it close but...
I think I can do it.
I got the myrtle, but it didn't come cheap.
I gotta put in $350,000.
And I have to do in three weeks
what they couldn't do in years.
I'm pretty much gonna get half of everything
we mine off the tomcod.
So I'll get my money back in no time if I pull it off.
It's a big "if."
you know, this is my third time of refitting this.
Just think about it.
-It ain't been cheap. -Well...
You know what? We're gonna make all that money back
and then some.
-I hope. -I know how to make gold.
Okay. It's a deal. Let's do it.
[narrator] in nome...
At arctic sea headquarters,
[ken] how long we been running that barge?
-Five years? -[young] four, five.
[ken] five years, yeah.
[young] there's not too many people
that can handle that thing.
That's true.
-It's a mammy. -Yeah.
[narrator] dave young and now former captain ken kerr
discuss the big shake-up with the myrtle irene.
Well, I'll tell ya...
Are you sure you're okay with shawn running it?
Oh, I wouldn't...
-Huh? -I'm...
I'm very excited about...
[clears throat] ...Shawn running it.
Very excited.
[exclaims]
yeah! We're digging! We're digging!
[narrator] for several summers...
[ken] hammer down.
...Ken kerr piloted the myrtle.
[ken] the biggest rig in nome, right here.
If we get a couple thousand ounces this year...
Yeah, I think a couple thousand ounces...
Would be pretty good.
...Attempting to rewrite the record books.
[man] 270...
Shawn, look out, buddy, now.
[exclaims]
[ken] I'm gonna have to get shawn over here.
Show him what a real excavator is.
We're gonna fight it out.
[narrator] while he and shawn ran neck and neck,
exchanging the top spot.
No hard feelings?
Yeah.
-[man over radio] mayday, mayday. -[woman] no!
[narrator] the beast proved too unwieldy
to live up to her potential.
I like the idea of shawn...
[narrator] now, it will be shawn's turn at the helm.
You know, shawn's here, he's here all year long.
When we're out of the water, he can work on it.
Yeah.
You know, he'll be there 24-7.
-You know? It's perfect. -Yep.
What are you gonna do?
-You don't run the barge. -Um...
I'm building those machines called the golden goose.
-The trawlers? -Yeah, the beach miners.
I'm ready to go out on my own and...
And run a beach miner, baby.
I'm gonna go prospect the beaches of nome with a trawler.
Go find a mother lode in nome.
I mean, god put a lot of gold out here...
And I'm gonna go find it.
I hope you find it.
Then let's do it.
-Start on the trawlers, brother. -[laughs]
-get some gold this year. -Yeah.
[narrator] on claim 56...
So, gary, all systems go. How're you feeling down there?
[gary speaking]
all right.
The material looks really good.
I think we're gonna do okay today.
[narrator] vernon adkison's lead diver gary simpson
is batting 1.000.
Hey, gary.
You've been down a few hours now.
Why don't you come on up?
You did a hell of a good job.
I think you put gold in the box.
We'll send the next man down.
[gary] all right, vernon. I'm heading up.
Heading up now.
I got a new guy.
But they won't stay new forever.
We'll put another diver down,
get a couple more hours in,
get it up and running full choke.
[gary speaking]
I'll tell you what? I'm proud of gary.
He knocked it out of the ballpark with this one.
And now we got our new man bryan.
We'll just see if bryan can keep up the momentum.
I don't know. It's been...
Looks like some deep overburden over there.
So I might have to go down and punch a few holes.
And they both need to be producing
every day at a high level to make this pay.
[water splashing]
yeah, hey, bryan. How is it looking down there?
[bryan] yeah, there's definitely a lot of rocks down here.
I just want to punch off a new little section right here
and see what happens.
If you're not seeing anything,
then just keep on moving around the boat.
[bryan] oh, the clay is dropping.
It's dropping quick.
You may overburden more cobble on top.
[bryan] yeah, I might have to
go back to that shallow clay in a minute.
Yeah, yeah. If you're not seeing it, keep moving.
[bryan] yeah.
[vernon] a lot of this game is experience.
And gary had some experience.
He got down there, he found some gold,
he got the ball rolling.
And now it's up to bryan to get down there
and keep it rolling.
Sounds simple, but it is easier said than done.
[bryan] there is shallow clay on this side.
So I'm going to the right right now.
Yeah, I can tell, over here, it's a little bit darker.
The material looks excellent.
I'll go one more layer down.
See if I can find some gold on it.
I see little flakes, little tiny ones.
Yeah, that's all a real good sign.
[bryan] oh, yeah. This is good stuff right here. Whoo!
All right. That's what I want to hear.
[bryan speaking]
maybe number 56 will pay for itself.
[bryan] oh, hell, look at this material!
-That has not been worked before. -[bryan] looks pretty good!
I think he just loves to dredge.
He's one of those guys that just loves to dredge.
I mean, he can't get enough of it, you know.
He's really hooked bad.
[bryan speaking]
[vernon] well, I'll be damned.
Bryan is looking damn good.
Great gold, the first day.
Uh, I'm proud of bryan.
This might be my a-team.
All those people who were doubting if I could get on the gold...
Well, they can kiss my gold rich ass.
Yeah. Suck it up, man. So far, so good.
Keep charging.
[narrator] and now it's time to flex your bsg brain muscles with another edition of...
[narrator reading]
this isn't the first time vernon's welcomed a new diver named bryan to his team.
Throw the stern anchor.
[brian speaking]
I need some communication.
I mean, what's happening with the radio?
[narrator] after brian lost the walkie...
[vernon] come up here.
[narrator] did vernon, "a," console his new recruit,
"b" institute protocols to make sure the misfortune never occurs again,
or "c" lose his [bleep].
-[brian speaking] -no, man. I'm done with you, bryan.
When we get back, pack your [bleep] and get off the [bleep] boat.
[brian speaking]
[bleep] right.
That's it.
[narrator] if you guessed "c", congratulations. You know your miner.
[canned audience applause]
[vernon] exactly.
See, how about if we start out with
uh, heading west and do a starboard tack.
[zeke] okay, sounds good.
Let's get around the bend and then we'll just hoist ye sails.
-[laughing] -[zeke] hoist ye sails!
Dad, just keep in mind that I really know very little.
You're the, you're the, uh, you're the sailing captain.
[narrator] for the first time in years,
zeke tenhoff is back on the bering sea in a mining vessel.
And not just any old ship, but in his groundbreaking sailboat dredge,
the black swan.
Starboard's here, port's over there.
All right, dad. It's a good first start.
[sam] it's a good first start.
Before we even think about going dredging in this boat,
I need to get a little primer on how to sail,
because when it comes to sailing, I'm a complete newbie.
I do not know how to sail a boat.
Beautiful day for a sail.
There is one of the pressing matter we need to attend to.
[accordion playing]
we got a little ceremony written out to
appease poseidon and the four wind gods
to grant us safe passage.
We got to purge the old name from all of these records.
Super important. Pressing the new name.
'cause the sea god and poseidon and whatnot interact with the gold gods.
Yeah.
I'm a super superstitious person.
And it's potentially really bad juju to rename the name of a boat.
So we're gonna perform a ceremony to appease the gods of the deed.
It's a tradition anytime you change a boat's name.
I mean, we need all the help we can get if we're going gold mining.
I mean, if there's gods out there that can be angered,
we need to do whatever we can not to anger them.
[accordion playing]
"o mighty and great ruler of the seas and oceans...
To whom all ships and we who venture upon your vast domain
are required to pay homage.
I implore you in your graciousness
to expunge for all time from your records and recollection
the name lady o,
which has ceased to be an entity in your kingdom.
As proof thereof, we submit this ingot bearing her name.
To be corrupted through your powers.
And forever be purged from the sea."
drop.
"in grateful acknowledgment of your munificence and dispensation,
we offer these libations to your majesty and your court."
and you're going to pour from east to west.
[accordion continues]
"I implore you in your graciousness
to take unto your records and recollection
this worthy vessel
hereafter and for all time known as black swan."
let's celebrate.
[accordion continues]
the black swan and that's it.
That's it?
All right. [bleep] ready to sail.
-Yeah. -Whoo-hoo!
-[zeke] is it time to hoist the sails? -[lee] yeah.
[zeke laughing] yeah.
What we're doing right now accomplishes a dream that I've had for a really long time,
is to be able to have a sea worthy boat that I can
go down the coast with. And...
I'm confident. I'm confident to take this boat 50 miles down the coast.
This is the best boat that I've ever had.
[narrator] two miles east.
[bob grunting]
[bleep] damn it.
Hey, bob. What's it looking like down there?
[bob speaking]
[grunting]
[narrator] three hours into his dive,
the second half of emily's dynamic duo,
bob hafner is still taking a beating from the ripping current.
[bob grunts]
you know, it's supposed to start picking up here in the next hour or so.
[bob] yes. It's picking up, isn't it?
[bob speaking]
yeah. Roger, roger.
So we wanna stay out as long as possible.
[bob speaking]
[grunting]
[bleep] yeah.
If you're picking right where we left off,
then it's gonna be hot gold from winter season.
I think this ground that we're in right now is paying.
[bob grunts]
[emily] might be time to call it.
Bob's been down there fighting that current for a while.
He's been holding out. He's been staying on the gold but...
The current can really mess with your dive down there
and it's dangerous for the diver.
Bob's tough but the bering sea's a lot tougher.
[bleep]
oh, I feel that current pulling me around.
Can't keep the hose on the cut.
[grunts]
mother nature might be making this call for us.
I'm ready to quit.
-[emily] bob, are you okay? -[grunts]
[grunting]
[grunts] yeah. All right. I'm gonna head up.
[emily] sounds good, bob.
I'll see you at the top, buddy.
How you doing?
Lot of work. Lot of work.
Head in. We have a box, I think.
There it is. Nicely done.
[bob] real excited to see what's in the box.
-See it sitting right on top of the rocks? -[daryl chuckles]
[emily] oh, wow, yeah. Holy [bleep].
Look at the top one. That's a nice little pile.
-Should probably drive the boat, huh? -[gary] maybe sometime.
[emily chuckles]
-[emily] at least before the jetty. -[daryl] yeah, there you go.
[static warbling]
welcome to steve's wild, weird, wonderful world of nome, alaska.
Behind me is a remnant to the white alice site.
It is a radar facility overlooking nome, alaska.
It's called nomehenge by the locals.
Built in the '50s, it was 24-7 buildings everywhere back in the day.
There were facilities for, I imagine, 30 people.
This is all a us government radar facility to
watch out for the soviet bombers coming in.
The soviets are coming.
Right here, that guy, that tower.
High power jet signal, boom, bounced off.
Went out there, saw the soviet bomber formation,
came back and they broadcast, bang,
to the next guy about, like, 30-40 miles away.
And then went down, down, down,
to america to washington, d.C. Where they got an eye on things.
[alarm blaring]
the soviets are coming.
Here they go.
They're coming! Can you hear me?
Russian, go home.
Just wanted to make sure you russkis heard that.
Go home. War's over.
This nome, white alice site
is one of the things that makes nome a very special place.
And right now, the attraction for this place, it's a great make out place
because you can go and it's very pretty.
And it's you and your girl and you make out.
[woman moaning, kissing]
[steve] it's just lovers' lane now.
I see a nice handy rocking bed that they, they made here.
No. I really like the motion here.
Whoa!
This place is like, I come up here with a girlfriend
if I had one, I don't have one.
But I am available, just by the way.
Weird, wild, wonderful world of nome, alaska. Steve riedel.
Be there next time.
[narrator reading]
bryan, what's the situation, over?
[bryan] we're looking good, yeah. Yeah, there's a bunch of flaky going up.
Sounds good.
[narrator] with a second diver pulling in strong results,
vernon adkison is looking at a new crew, a new claim and a new lease on life.
We're doing good here. We're seeing a little bit of gold down there.
Everything's holding together.
For my first day of 56, I'm pretty happy.
I'm thinking I made the right decision by buying this thing.
[bryan speaking]
[vernon] you got some time in.
Why don't you come on up and, uh...
And we'll wrap it up for today.
[bryan speaking]
so far,
56 looks to be like it's gonna be a winner.
Matter of fact, I know damn well it's gonna be a winner.
I've been up here ten years and
I've finally got a first-class claim that's gonna last me the rest of my life.
Whoo! Looked good.
I can work right here on 56 for the rest of the time I'm on this planet.
I feel like the emperor of nome right now.
This is the biggest gamble I've ever made.
I've stuck my neck way out there.
But I went with my gut instinct.
And now it looks to me like I've got my own raw gold bank
at the bottom of the bering sea.
Everything's working good.
I'm gonna be very proud of claim 56.
I think that's going to be a money maker for us all.
You guys hang with the wild ranger.
We'll all be wealthy men.
-[bryan] all right. We're there. -[gary] all right.
Boom.
All right. Let's get out of here.
-[bryan] let's do this. -[vernon] time's a-wastin'.
[narrator] on the other side of the harbor...
[kris] we are done.
Everything's looking dialed in.
And you gotta admit, it's a pretty badass little rig, huh?
And look. Look how light this [bleep] is.
Huh? You like that, huh?
[narrator] with the pieces now in place,
it's time for the kellys to give their system a test run
before launching to elim.
Okay, captain dave,
you of course are in control of driving the boat.
And you say if anything gets too bad of course.
-Yeah. -[kris] yeah.
When I say get out of the way, just get out of the way.
If I gotta do something, send the anchors, that kind of stuff.
I'll drop the door, wiggle that piece of junk off the bow.
[all laughing]
that's the sickle, okay?
That's a badass piece of mining equipment.
Let's just get this and get going.
Everybody's calling it a piece of junk 'cause they don't
have any vision at all to see what this actually can do.
This is probably the mike tyson of dredging operations.
It's small and hits hard.
You know what, so they can all kiss my ass.
Hope captain kris can maintain his, uh...
His poise and not blow up on this trip.
I don't think captain mccully would like that.
It might be man overboard out there.
[kris] three year or four year plan is finally happening for me.
Every single year, we train ourselves,
we get bigger balls and we come up with crazier ideas.
And this is the crown achievement.
So I think captain dave thinks we're a bunch of idiots.
But today, we're doing a little test run outside the harbor.
And I'm gonna show him that we can make this work.
-Are we ready to launch it? -[kris] yeah, we're ready.
Here we go.
-[laughing] -holy smokes!
[kris] that's what I'm talking about.
So the sickle's in the water and it looks great.
Right now we just have to prime the pumps and get to work. Simple.
-Okay, try that. -[engine sputters]
[kris] no.
Is there water in there?
Put another bucket in.
Okay. Try that.
[engine sputters]
no.
[andy] what?
What's wrong with the cap?
Stupid.
Look how those two guys are [bleep] football.
I got great hearing [bleep]!
Doesn't matter if the wind's blowing in my ear.
You think for many a years,
of them being a dredger, you think they got it all figured by now but...
[brad] we should've done this in the harbor.
Holy smokes, man. They gotta step it up.
Okay. Try that.
It's very old school, I would say. Old school.
Nope.
Okay. This is [bleep] hardest thing I've ever seen.
[kris] the problem is the angle of the foot valve itself.
-Can you shut up? -Okay.
Oh, it's pretty interesting.
-[kris] he's in there making jokes. -[brad] I didn't make a joke.
Please stop, you loser.
-[brad] shut your mouth. -You shut the [bleep] up.
All you do is sit in [bleep] and do nothing.
Apparently, they get gold sometimes.
[engine sputters]
[engine starts]
there it goes!
[kris laughing]
holy smokes, that's a lot of work.
Dude, you don't gotta work with these guys every day.
Look at him.
[exclaiming]
I don't know how that flipped off.
Hey, put this back on the boat. Let's go.
Um, yeah. That's all... There's nothing we can do.
There's too many things to fix.
Not one thing is done right, really.
Let's just pull it up on deck.
[bleep]
[andy] kris, what's happening?
-I got it... Watch out for my knee. -[andy] all right.
So maybe the sickle wasn't in perfect condition.
The high pressure line was cracked,
the cap to the intake was broken.
First half of my plan failed miserably today.
Now's it's time to kick in the second half.
So seeing how things always go bad for us, I always have a backup plan.
So we're going to launch chris' crazy bones dredge and hope to god it works.
I'm more prepared than these guys.
-[all laughing] -[bleep]
something's gonna work.
Because for me, [bleep] it's all pre-meditated.
So I can see what everything goes into it now.
[kris] we're not having anymore bad luck today. This is gonna work.
Okay, let's standby with the hose.
Come on. Keep going.
Okay. We got it.
[engine starting]
okay. Good job.
[kris screams]
-what happened? -The high pressure line.
Oh, it blew apart in the center, chris. Good job, buddy.
[mccully] what the hell?
Okay. Take the boat back to shore. We're done for today.
-[bleep] -we gotta redo everything.
That's his rig this time!
Oh, my god. Thank god we didn't go to elim.
Got the myrtle irene secured.
That's a pretty big game changer there
'cause that opened up a lot more ground for us.
You got a [bleep] on your plate this year, man.
Yeah. Yes, I do.
I'm not gonna have any time to be on that christine rose.
You're gonna have to take it over.
Remodeling the myrtle irene will be a full time job and expensive.
Until the myrtle's on the water, it's up to cody to keep the gold coming in
to pay for all this.
I need you to [bleep] run that boat.
Yeah. I got it.
You know how to find gold. You know how to keep that thing running.
You know that boat inside and out.
[cody] yeah.
[indistinct chatter]
I'm leaning on you, buddy.
Big year, man.
You got a lot on your plate.
And I just got a lot put on my plate, so.
-Should be... We got this. -We'll handle it.
-Let's get her done. -Okay, buddy.
It's critical that cody keeps bringing in the gold on the christine rose
till I get the myrtle irene up and running.
I'm counting on cody and cody knows what he's doing out there.
If everything works out, we're gonna take over the land,
the sea and the competition.
It's a great plan.
-Hell yeah, man. It's happening. -Cheers.
We clean out right here and we've got everything we need to do it right here.
[narrator] vernon adkison is ready for his first haul on his new claim.
I bought claim 56 last March.
We're gonna find out what kind of gold we're on.
[gary] scoop number one. Let's find out how it is.
Oh-ho-ho.
Look at that. A lot of gold.
[vernon] oh, look at that. Look at that.
-It's paying off now. -Oh, yeah.
[gary] oh, man.
She's lightin' up. First clean out on 56. It's gonna be duty, guys.
It's gonna be really duty.
When he's smiling, you know something good's going on.
All right. Here we go.
That's one,
two, three,
four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine,
ten.
Ten point three two. That is awesome.
I like it.
[narrator] ten point three ounces is worth over $20,000.
This is the pay off.
[narrator] and vernon is off and running in the turf war.
[vernon] this has been a long time coming right here.
But now...
I'm saying 56 is the place to be.
This wasn't even a full day of mining.
We spent all morning mapping out the claim
and we still pulled in double digits.
I'm telling you 56 is a money maker.
And I'm gonna be shaking this tree for a long time to come.
Everything's tuned up. All we got to do now is to get more hours.
So, yeah, we'll just get out there and hammer it.
-Very good. -Bryan.
-[both] thank you. -All right.
♪ yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
[vernon] you know, happy days are here.
[narrator] on the other side of the harbor...
-[barking] -yeah, I know. We're gonna go
clean the sluice box.
[narrator] emily riedel is hoping that last winter's pay streak
will prove to be this summer's golden ticket toward landing a claim.
[bob] beautiful.
Looking good. Looking good. We always like cleanup day.
-Yeah. -Mesmerized. Gold-merized.
The excitement is what it's kind of all about.
What did we really do? We think we know what we did.
But you know, now we get to find out what we really did.
Yeah. It's a litmus test on progress.
This winter, I was really focused on putting ounces together to
buy a second dredge. But for the summer, I've upped my goal.
And I've decided to purchase my own lease instead.
Now I'm hoping this pay streak is going to turn into something
that will get me a claim. It just has to keep on producing.
Holy schnickies.
Man, imagine if all of our gold was that big. It would make panning so easy.
[bob] it's looking promising. I mean, we like what we see
as we're handling the concentrates. Now we get to real show here.
Nice looking gold in there.
Burn the water off.
We were working that ice mining ground and...
We got into some pretty hot stuff so we'll see.
Ready for the weigh out?
Eight, nine, ten,
eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen, ooh...
Fourteen point seven eight.
[narrator] fourteen point seven eight ounces.
It's worth over 29 grand.
It's really not bad for the hours we have out there.
Um, you know, I think we're doing pretty good but we just need more hours.
Twenty-four hours of daylight and two divers is great,
but a third guy, we could be running 24-7.
What do you guys think about bringing a third guy on?
I really need to put 75 ounces together
in order to buy this claim and daryl and bob are great divers.
But I kind of need a 24-hour setup.
Hiring another diver will bring in more gold for me,
but it's not gonna be popular to split the box...
Three ways.
Now that we found that old ice spot, it'd be nice to have third guy up here.
Basically, put in the hours in the box that we need
to get it up... To get it higher.
Yeah. We always need more hours so...
-Yes. -Yeah.
Sweet. All right. Let's divvy this up.
[dramatic music playing]
now that I got the myrtle,
time to get to work. I have to recoup my investment this year.
Gold mining's all about risk.
If you make big moves, you'll make big money.
If I make the wrong move, I'll lose everything.
But I have to be willing to take big gambles.
[shawn] when you take on something that seems too big,
costs too much, takes time you don't have.
You know you're on the verge of something great.
You can't be afraid to fail.
You have to take that fear and turn it into motivation.
It's not gonna be easy.
But when the new myrtle irene hits the water, they're not gonna call me mr. Gold.
They're gonna call me the king of nome.
[narrator] next time on bering sea gold...
-[shawn] today's the day. -That's [bleep] good.
Man, I hope it works.
[zeke] we're sailing boys. [bleep]
-[exclaiming] -how about a job?
On my boat? On the eroica?
We have one shot to make it to elim, so it's our last chance.
Feels like there's water in my mask. Pull me up.
There's no turning back right now.
We're on the money.