It's one of the most valuable shipwrecks ever lost in the Caribbean.
It was carrying not one, but two treasures onboard.
[Josh Gates] Are you kidding me?
[Dr. Michael Pateman] That has been evaluated
to be two to three million dollars.
[Josh] So, in terms of the Maravillas she's where?
[Carl Allen] Three-hundred some odd years of hurricanes,
it's moved this debris all over the place.
[Josh] Well, now I've got treasure fever,
-so, what's the plan now? -[Allen] Yeah.
What do you say? You wanna go diving?
-Okay. -[Josh] Let's do it! Come on.
[dramatic music playing]
[Josh] Blowers are down, let's move some sand.
[Josh on radio]
[surface operator on radio] You're cleared to dive, dive, dive.
[Allen] You're gonna see stuff no humans have ever seen.
Something weird there.
-[man] Right here! -[men] Right now!
[Josh on radio]
In the 17th century, Spain was on a roll.
The conquest of the Americas
gave them access to lucrative trade routes,
vast natural resources
and a near unlimited supply of gold and silver,
of which King Philip IV meant to steal every bit.
Massive galleons loaded with treasure
sailed across the Atlantic from the New World
braving storms and pirates to reach the old one.
One of these vessels was Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas
or Our Lady of Wonders, and she was surely that.
Packed to the bulkheads with riches,
including a legendary solid gold statue
of the Madonna and Child.
The Maravillas was the crown jewel of the King's fleet,
or at least it was, until the night of January fourth 1656.
[thunder rumbling]
While navigating a treacherous maze of reefs in the Bermuda Triangle,
she collided with another ship...
and was ripped apart,
sent to the ocean floor off The Bahamas.
Her sinking was a catastrophe.
A butcher spill of 600 souls
and a treasure worth billions, gone.
For centuries, salvagers have attempted
to claim her bounty from the depths,
losing ships and sailors in the process.
The wreck was said to be cursed.
But the Maravillas has recently found an unlikely savior.
Businessman turned philanthropist, Carl Allen,
is using his fortune to find a lost fortune,
and preserve the maritime history of The Bahamas.
He's assembled a team of marine
archaeologists and salvagers
to locate the remains of the wreck,
and he's pulling out all the stops.
Using a fleet of ships worth tens of millions,
not to mention one of the world's most advanced personal submarines,
they're homing in on the lost treasure.
So, join me on the hunt for
one of the most valuable shipwrecks in history,
the wonder that is, the Maravillas.
[opening theme music playing]
My name is Josh Gates.
Hello!
Explorer...
It was nothing.
Adventurer...
[exclaims]
Oh, it's long night, now.
...and a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
I'm alive... for now!
With a degree in archeology
and a passion for the unexplained,
I travel to the ends of the Earth
investigating the greatest legends in history.
Ready to rock and roll?
This is Expedition Unknown.
[upbeat music playing]
Wheels down, Freeport, Grand Bahama.
A tropical paradise just 55 nautical miles from Florida.
These islands have long attracted outsiders.
They were a stopping ground for colonial explorers
a haven for pirates,
and of course, a magnet for shipwrecks.
And while the Maravillas
was the richest-prized wreck on these treacherous shores,
in Port Lucaya Marketplace
there's another treasure to be found.
There's a huge problem
I'm eating my own treasure map,
it's fine.
And as I eat my weight in chocolate dabloons...
[parade music playing]
...a parade rolls through the market.
Called Junkanoo,
this Bahamian take on Mardi Gras
traces its roots from the Caribbean
all the way to West Africa.
I groove my way through the crowd
to reach the nearby Bahamas Maritime Museum.
This exhibition space and research lab
is dedicated to preserving
the nautical history of the Bahamas,
and conserving the treasure of Maravillas.
-[Josh] Jim Sinclair. -Hi. Josh Gates.
-How are you? -[Josh] I'm great, man.
-How're you doing? -I'm well.
It's here that I meet my friend, Jim Sinclair,
a fellow member of The Explorers Club,
Jim was the first archeologist to dive the Titanic.
I last saw him in Panama,
on the hunt for the final resting place
of British privateer, Sir Francis Drake.
-Great to see you. -Great to see you, too.
This is a beautiful museum.
It's really a special museum.
It's the first of its kind in all Bahamas,
and we have Carl and Gigi Allen to thank for that.
-These folks right here? -Right there.
[Josh] Businessman Carl Allen
quite literally went from trash to treasure.
In 2016 he sold his company Heritage Bags,
a producer of trash can liners,
and founded Allen Exploration,
trading in, his suit and tie
for a captain's hat and a scuba tank.
A long-time lover of the Bahamas
with an obsession for the siren song of the Maravillas treasure,
in 2018 Carl and Gigi Allen
purchased the northernmost Bahamian island, Walker's Cay,
near the site of the historic shipwreck.
In 2022, Allen Exploration opened
the Bahamas Maritime Museum
to share their discoveries and the rich nautical history of the Bahamas with the world.
So, Josh, this is the model
of the Nuestra Senora de Ia Maravillas.
[Josh] So this was a serious ship.
[Jim Sinclair] It was a really serious ship.
It was, you know, a 135 feet long, 35 feet wide,
900 tons.
It was a major Spanish galleon.
She could hold over 600 people on board.
Wow. So, as impressive as this is,
I know a lot of galleons went down in the Caribbean,
what makes the Maravillas special?
It's one of the most valuable shipwrecks ever lost in the Caribbean.
It was carrying not one, but two treasures onboard.
-Two treasures? -Two.
And why is she carrying two treasures?
Well, to tell you that we've to go back
to the dawn of the age of exploration in the New World.
[Josh] After Christopher Columbus
landed near The Bahamas on his first voyage in 1492,
Spain got into the "bling" business,
conquering much of the Americas and the Caribbean.
Spanish fleets robbed 200 tons of gold
and 16,000 tons of silver,
an estimated $20 billion in today's value.
It was an extremely profitable but also risky venture.
On October 26, 1654,
one of the Empire's flagships known as La Capitana
hit a reef and went down off the coast of Ecuador.
Despite rumors that the treasure must be cursed,
the Spanish salvaged the wreck,
recovering tens of millions in silver and gold,
including perhaps a fabled solid-gold Madonna statue.
Now, how to get it all to Spain?
That's where the Maravillas comes in.
Okay, so their first stop is where?
Then in the spring of 1655,
that's where they stops in Colombia
and they'll pick up
the treasures coming out of Colombia.
[Josh] The Maravillas route takes them from Colombia
through Portobelo, Panama,
where the rich salvage from the sunken Capitana is loaded aboard,
and then on to Havana.
Along the way they are also picking up some very rich Spaniards,
headed back to Europe.
And all of those people that are getting onboard,
they don't have a check book
or credit card like we used to.
They got to carry their own treasure
to pay for whatever it is that they are doing.
[Josh] So, part of their personal fortunes are aboard?
[Jim] All of their personal fortunes
-will be onboard. -Wow.
[Jim] Especially as they're going back permanently to Spain.
So the Maravillas and the rest of the fleet departed Havana when?
On January first, 1656.
-New year's day. -New year's day.
-Auspicious day to go. -Yes.
And so now they're, they're heading back to Spain
and they have to go through
what's known as the Bahama Channel.
[Josh] And I've read that the value of the treasure aboard the ship
is anywhere from 250 million
to half a billion dollars, in today's value.
And the idea of losing that treasure,
it would've been a catastrophe for Spain.
But that's exactly what happens.
That's exactly what happens.
[Josh] On the evening of January fourth,
the Maravillas crew saw that they were sailing near a treacherous reef,
under the command of Admiral Don Matias de Orellana,
the crew fired a canon to warn the rest of the fleet.
Mistaking the shot as a signal for help,
another ship turned and sped towards the Maravillas,
and then disaster.
The Maravillas was rammed
and a massive hole ripped into her hull
just above the water line.
And how long does it take for the Maravillas to sink?
Forty-five minutes.
-Forty-five minutes, it's gone? -It's gone.
And there's how many people on board at this point?
Oh, there's over 600 people on the ship, and--
-And how many survived this event? -Forty-five.
-Forty-five people lived. -That's it. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, lot of people managed to grab things,
but they just floated off,
some, they said, were eaten by sharks.
[Josh] The waters of the Caribbean
are home to several species,
including bull sharks and tiger sharks,
that reportedly devoured some of the survivors.
Unbelievable.
Battered by the reef
the Maravillas was reduced to splinters,
her precious cargo scattered
and lost to the shifting sands of the sea floor.
Now, Allen Exploration has rediscovered this trail of debris,
and is recovering her treasure one artifact at a time.
We're conducting what's basically
almost 400-year-old forensic investigations.
So, you can tell the story of not only the ship
and the people that were on it,
what its wider place in the world, history wise.
Can I see what you've been finding?
-Absolutely. Come this way. -Yeah.
Jim brings me to the lab,
where thousands of the objects
from the Maravillas are being conserved.
Like to meet Dr. Michael Pateman,
-this is Josh Gates. -Doctor, nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you, Josh. -[Josh] All right.
So, what do we have bubbling away in this tank?
Well, we have a railgun from the Maravillas
and it's gone through what we call the electrolysis process.
[Josh] Electrolysis is basically a spa treatment for the artifacts.
The objects are immersed in a salt bath
wired with a mild electric current that slowly strips away
the centuries of encrustation.
Hundreds of artifacts from the Maravillas
are currently undergoing this restoration process.
Woo-ho-ho! Canon balls.
While the cannon balls bubble away,
Dr. Pateman reveals some of the more spectacular finds
Carl Allen's team has made so far.
[Dr. Pateman] This is one of my favorite pieces in the entire collection.
-This is the hilt of a sword? -[Dr. Pateman] Correct.
[Josh] Look at that!
[Dr. Pateman] This is a beautiful piece.
I mean, this is a weapon, but it's truly a work of art.
And that's just stunning.
And here we have some silver coins from the Maravillas.
Oh!
[Josh] Spanish eight-reales coins,
better known as pieces of eight
were mined and minted in the New World
and send back to Spain by the treasure chest.
Today a pristine single coin from the 1600s
could be worth thousands.
I'm officially, uh, hypnotized.
-[Jim chuckles] -What else we've got?
[Dr. Pateman] A nice hunking piece of silver.
-This is solid silver? -Yeah.
That's a bullion bar.
The raw value of this much silver today is about what?
About a $100,000.
[Josh] This and the other finds will go on display
here at the museum.
But they pale in comparison
to one of AllenX's shiniest finds to-date.
Are you kidding me! This is real?
These are very real.
-[Jim] Quite yellow. -Would you like to hold that?
[Josh] A gold chain so glorious it would make Mr. T weep.
Interesting work. Look at the patterning on this.
Look at the way it's all hooked together.
This is as fine, as beautiful a thing that you could hope to find.
You know, I've been lucky enough to work on lot of shipwrecks, Josh,
this is the most unique chain
-I've ever seen come off the shipwreck. -Yeah.
[Josh] Known as money chains,
the links on necklaces like this
could be removed and used as currency.
It's stunning.
What is this?
-Just a lump of gold? -This is just a lump of gold.
About five pounds.
And if you look at that,
it fits in your hand perfectly,
so sometimes, uh, it could easily just stuck in your pocket--
-Yeah, let me try for instance. -[laughs]
Oh, you're right, it does, fits perfectly.
-Guys, this has been a real pleasure. -See you later. [laughs]
[Josh] While the valuables listed on the manifest
would be worth about half a billion dollars today,
smuggled goods make double of that official number.
[Dr. Pateman] So this is an emerald pendant.
This is, uh, another very special piece.
[Josh] This is extraordinary, man.
[Dr. Pateman] Yes, just be very careful.
Oh, look at that!
[Dr. Pateman] It glows.
One of the things about your efforts here that's really remarkable is,
you're not finding
all of these materials to sell.
This is about preserving them, telling the story,
-presenting them to the public. -[Dr. Pateman] Yes.
Having said that... I have to ask.
All right, so that piece has been evaluated
to be between two to three million dollars.
Okay.
That may be the most expensive thing I've ever held.
Okay, big question.
In terms of outstanding mysteries,
what... what gnaws at you about this wreck?
We're still looking for the sterncastle
because that hasn't been seen.
Sterncastle, the back part of the ship?
[Jim] Back part of the ship, when... when it sank,
back part of the ship actually came off of the rest of the ship.
-Broke off? -Yeah, and we have survivors testimonies
about how had... that part floated away.
[Josh] Quarters for the captain and the wealthiest passengers
were in the sterncastle.
And these first-class guests
would have kept their most prized possessions
close at hand.
What would lead you to the sterncastle?
You know, maybe we are looking for navigators tools,
you know, really fancy China plates.
May be we'll find more jewelry like this.
So, things like the chain, or the emerald pendant,
these are things that may have been in the sterncastle
and may lead you
-back to that sterncastle. -Right.
And they're out there looking right now?
-Like, this is underway? -[Jim] Yes.
-Absolutely. -Wow!
-Have any interest in going? -Let's rock n' roll.
Jim and I meet our ride at a nearby dock.
This is stunning.
Carl Allen didn't sent some dinghy.
This 80-foot yacht called Frigate,
is an aquatic Lamborghini,
capable of cruising at over 40 knots.
-My favorite expedition ever. -[laughs]
[Josh] We quickly leave dryland in rearview,
and charter course to an undisclosed location,
where we'll meet the rest of the Allen Exploration fleet.
Somewhere beneath our wake,
lies the most valuable treasure in the Caribbean.
[upbeat music playing]
[Josh] Okay, this is nice.
Yeah, it's an 80-foot-viking,
5,200 horsepower.
-Fifty-two hundred horsepower? -Yeah, 5,200,
and it cruises about 35 knots.
-Should I hold by on to something? -Yeah.
I'm cruising towards open sea, aboard Frigate,
sent by millionaire, treasure hunter, Carl Allen,
to ferry me and archaeologist Jim Sinclair,
to an undisclosed rendezvous point
in the northern Bahamas.
It's there the Carl's team is searching
for the lost treasure of the Maravillas,
one of the most valuable Spanish shipwrecks in the Caribbean.
Jim, where is this place?
All right, I can tell you this,
it's smack down in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.
[Josh] The Bermuda, or Devil's Triangle,
is the stuff of maritime legend,
and nightmares.
It is estimated that more than 20 aircrafts
and 50 ships have vanished here.
But as we approach our coordinates,
I spot a vessel that should be able to beat the odds.
I see a boat!
-Oh, my word! -[laughs]
What am I looking at?
This is the Axis.
The state-of-the-art floating command center
in Carl Allen's search
for millions in missing treasure,
and she's not alone.
Nearby is the Sea Reaper,
used for excavations on the ocean floor,
the Sea Trepid, for ship to ship transfers and diving,
and last but not least Gigi,
a tricked out 164 foot superyacht
for, well, for why the hell not.
Add in a half a dozen support boats
and you've got yourself a shipwreck-seeking armada
that will make Logan Roy blush.
Mr. Allen, I presume.
Yes, sir. Mr. Gates, good to see you.
-[Josh] Hey, nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you, sir.
Thrilled... thrilled to be here.
Thank you for having us aboard.
I have seen people passionate about treasure hunting,
this is another level.
I assume you know you've a submarine behind you.
I do. I have a TRITON 3300.
-It goes down to 3,300ft. -Incredible.
And I see Axis written over here. Is this Axis we're on?
Yes, it is. This is a 183 Damen,
built in Europe, uh,
mainly built for off-shore oil tankers
but converted into a treasure-hunting ship.
So, in terms of the wreck, in terms of the Maravillas, she's where?
She's all around us.
-Literally? -Uh, literally.
Three-hundred some odd years of hurricanes,
it's moved this debris all over the place.
Now, Carl, you're not the first person to try
-to salvage the Maravillas. -Right.
When was the first salvage operation?
Well, the first salvage operation started six months after she was lost.
[Josh] Spanish recovery efforts
using trawling grappling hooks
and tragically enslaved native pearl divers,
managed to recover more than half a million pesos,
but over the centuries storms and currents scattered the wreck,
including the elusive sterncastle section
across an estimated five-mile stretch,
now buried beneath ten to twenty feet of sand.
More than 300 years later in 1972,
diving pioneer and explorer Bob Marx
rediscovered part of the ship.
Marx and another crew salvaged millions from the wreck,
until the government put a moratorium
on all salvage operations in Bahamian waters, until now.
Allen Exploration is working with the local authorities,
to responsibly excavate the remains,
find the sterncastle
and recover the ship's greatest treasures.
They've done this by marrying extensive sonar
and magnetometer surveys,
with cutting-edge GPS and mapping technology.
Is there a white whale for you? I mean, is there something
you wanna find more than anything else?
There is, uh, a mysterious artifact
on that known as the "Golden Madonna."
It's estimated that she's life-sized,
five-foot tall, it's gold.
A life-sized golden statue
-we're talking about? -Holding baby Jesus.
It's something that King Philip IV would've done.
He was a man of the arts, a man of literature,
a man of the theater.
[Josh] And apparently a man who really wanted
to get in the good graces of the Church.
King Philip's holy bribe, if it does exist,
never made it to Spain,
lost along with an estimated half billion in treasure.
But before we start looking for it,
we have a little business to attend to.
I understand that you're a newly-elected member of the The Explorer's Club?
-I am, yes. -And as you know,
-probably Jim and I are both members of the club. -Yes.
So, um, because of that I applied for
and we have been granted
a flag to carry on this expedition
-from the club. -[Allen] Oh.
Flags are given out for important expeditions.
This particular flag,
started its journey in the 1930s
going down to Peru.
It's been to both the Arctic and the Antarctic.
This flag went down to Titanic in 2005.
And it's been down to its sister ship the Britannic.
-So... -That's awesome.
...we can hoist that wherever we can.
-Oh, wow, thank you. -Yeah.
-I'm shaking. -[Josh laughs]
-No, this flag's been-- Yeah. -Well, this is a serious--
This is a serious expedition and, uh,
-and so hopefully this will bring you some luck. -Yeah.
What do you say? You wanna go diving?
Let's go diving.
-Let's go diving. -All right, let's do this.
-Okay. -Let's do it, come on.
[Josh] We raised the storied flag, gear up,
and transfer from Axis to Sea Trepid.
Which will take us to one of the salvage boats
positioned over the team's latest target.
Welcome, Josh, to the Sea Reaper.
This is one of main recovery vessel
that we use at AllenX
and we think we are on a good spot right now.
We've been following tracks of material.
-We think we're on a really good area. -Okay.
So, one of the things we have to do though, is we have to blow a hole.
[Josh] Recovering treasure form the Maravillas
is not as simple as just throwing on
a scuba mask and a set of fins.
After three centuries of storms
artifacts from the wreck are now covered by 10 to 20 feet of sand
and lodged into the reef below.
All right, Mikey, let's start the blowers.
[Josh] To reveal the shiny stuff
the AllenX team deploys two prop wash deflecting shoots
known as mailboxes over the site.
Divers pin the blowers in place over the ship's propellors...
directing the force generated by the engine down to the sea floor.
The force of the propellors pushes the sand away.
We wait for the dust to settle and then it's time to get wet.
I drop down with Jim and a team of divers
while Carl mans comm system topside.
Josh, Josh, Carl here. What's going on down there?
[Josh on radio]
[Allen on radio]
[Josh] At the bottom of the sandy crater
lies a dead reef,
part of the formation that sank the Maravillas
more than 350 years ago.
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] After more than three centuries of decay,
most of the wood and organic material from the ship
has been eaten away by the sea.
So, we're looking for metal, pottery,
and anything that seems out of place.
[Allen on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh] The Maravillas would've been carrying
several hundred tons of ballast in its hold,
to balance out the weight on deck
and stay on an even keel.
These stones are a good sign that we're on the wreck.
The question is, which part of it.
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] The debris field grows,
and a ghostly picture of life aboard the galleon
begins to take shape.
But is this part of the missing stern section
and its vast treasure reserves?
[dramatic music playing]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh] Did this key belong to a chest?
And if so, could its contents be nearby?
[detector beeping]
[Josh on radio]
[detector beeping]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh] I'm with the Allen Exploration team
on the hunt for the treasure of the Maravillas,
a Spanish galleon that sank off the Bahamas in 1656,
with an estimated half a billion on board.
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[detector beeping]
[Josh on radio]
Great! That's what we're looking for.
Bring them up.
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] While the dive team continues to scour the bottom
for more treasure from the Maravillas,
I make my way up the short line
and surface with a fistful of silver.
-Carl, we got a present for you. -All right.
-Couple of them actually. -That's great.
-Oh, yeah! -Come on!
That's what we're looking for, baby!
-[Josh] How about that? -Oh, yes.
I mean my heart almost stopped.
Oh, that's beautiful. Congratulations, Josh. Right, first dive, huh?
-So exciting, man. -Way to go!
-So exciting. -Great job! Great job.
[Josh] We return to Axis, the operation command center,
which begins to steam ahead, to where?
To here.
Welcome to Walker's Cay.
The northernmost island in the Bahamas,
this remote spit of land was once a legendary sport fishing destination
and hosted a who's who
from Richard Nixon to Jane Fonda,
that is until hurricanes ripped the island to pieces
leaving it deserted in 2004.
Carl Allen first came here on a fishing trip
when he was 12 years old,
and he loved it so much that four decades later,
he bought it.
Carl and Gigi are now revitalizing every square foot,
restoring the runway,
building a tree nursery,
restoring the island's church
and outfitting Walker's with a pristine marina,
his new home base for exploration.
And in between discoveries a little bit fishing.
-Oh-hoo-hoo-hoo! -Whoa!
[Josh] Once in port we meet on the bridge
to review our finds.
Wow! Shall we see what we got?
-Yes, let's check it out. -Yeah, let's take a look at what we found.
-Pottery. -[Jim] Yeah,
that's basically an earthenware type of pottery.
And they would fill them with wine or olive oil
or olive or even fish.
[Josh] The wreck site is littered with fragments of these storage jars.
The Tupperware of Spanish treasure fleet.
But some of our other discoveries are unusual.
We were looking at that down there
and you were trying to say to me,
-it looks like a key almost, and it does. -Yeah, well,
this is where the little teeth would've been, hollow shaft,
and then this where the ring would be.
-Do you really think that's what it really is? -Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
[Josh] How cool is that.
What's cool about it, what was it locking.
-[Jim] Yeah. -All right, exactly. The big question.
[Josh] After a dip in the electrolysis bath
to remove the encrustation,
this key will go on display
at the Bahamas Maritime Museum.
The million or should I say billion dollar question is,
"What greater treasures might it unlock?"
All right then, Josh, you know
-the coins we found down there... -Yeah.
...we had a chance to clean a couple of these
-up here really-- -[Josh] Here on the ship?
-Here on the ship. -So, there's a kind of fast process?
Well, there's a pre-cleaning...
So, they're not perfect, but I'm very excited to show you these.
They cleaned up pretty good.
[Josh] Get out of here.
These are the coins we just had out there.
[Jim] These are the coins you found it.
[Allen] Yeah, you're the one who found them.
[Jim] But now you can see
the Florins had a cross on it a lot better, look at that.
I mean, see it. It's-- Look at that.
It's just right on there. And in fact you can see the stamp on the back as well.
[Jim] That's right. That'll be the crest of Philip IV,
the King of Spain.
You know, when you see them down there,
-they are just these blackened lumps... -Yeah.
...but just underneath that shining beautiful silver.
-[Allen] Yes. -[Josh] Wow.
Look at that!
-Genuine piece of eight, right there. -[Jim] Yeah.
That is something.
Okay, well, now, I've got treasure fever,
-so, what's the plan now? -Yeah.
Josh, you know, not far from where we are is deep water.
Like, how deep?
Oh, boy, it can go down almost 3,000 ft.
There was a theory that,
that the sterncastle of the Maravillas
may have bobbled off...
So, there's a chance that whole sterncastle went down off that shelf?
That's, that's correct.
[Josh] Just past our excavation site,
the shallow Bahama bank falls into a deep ocean abyss
where scuba divers can't reach.
When the Maravillas wrecked the aft section broke off
and floated away before sinking.
And despite much searching have never been found.
It's therefore theorized that it may have settled in these deep waters,
taking the Golden Madonna
and countless millions with her.
Very quickly it will drop
hundreds of feet straight down.
-We are not scuba-ing down to that? -No.
We are going to get into the TRITON submarine.
-We are using the sub? -We are, sir.
[whispers excitedly] We're using the sub!
[Allen] Okay. Swing it.
[Josh] This is the TRITON 3300,
one of the safest and most advanced subs on the planet,
with an array of thrusters with dynamic vectoring,
the sub is highly maneuverable.
Everybody careful, 16,000 pounds.
[Josh] Its nine-inch thick acrylic pressure sphere
can withstand depths of more than 3,000 feet
and can stay down for up to 12 hours.
Let's go find a wreck.
Piloting this mission is Captain Montana "Monty" McKinnon,
which is officially the greatest name
for a sub pilot ever.
I'm ready for thruster checks.
Let me know when I'm clear to test.
[Josh] A surface support boat shuttles us over.
The Axis will follow us topside,
using acoustic live tracking
to monitor our position once we submerge.
All right, BIBS coming off. We're going down.
[Capt. McKinnon] Clear to open my vent and start my dive?
[surface operator on radio] Your hatch is secure,
you're cleared to vent, and dive, dive, dive.
Here we go.
Wow!
Unbelievable.
[Allen] Down into the abyss.
[Josh] Then down we go.
Well, this beats all the scuba gear.
Yeah, I mean, forget the 100 pounds on your back.
[Josh] We quickly drop down 40 feet
to the edge of the shallow Bahama bank
and start searching for debris.
Basically we're keeping our eyes open for anything,
anything humanmade out here, right?
Kind of stuff we were seeing back at the site.
-Pottery... -Yeah.
-[Allen] The ship could be anywhere here... -Right.
[Josh] We crawl along the bottom,
monitoring the onboard sonar,
and scanning for any signs of a debris trail.
I mean, this is like another world down here.
[dramatic music playing]
-We start to see a drop here. -[Allen] Oh, yeah, yeah.
[Josh] We ease our way towards the ledge,
just beyond lies the deep ocean
and the more predatory waters of the Bahamas.
Oh, look, right over there! Big shark out there!
Right there!
[dramatic music playing]
[Allen] That's a bull shark.
-[Josh] Is it a bull? -[Allen] Yeah.
-And they're... they're like curious ones. -Yeah,
They come and darting in and out.
[Josh] And that curiosity
sometimes gets them into trouble.
Bull sharks are responsible for more than a 100 attacks on humans every year.
You did install the electric shock plating
on the outside of this sub, right?
-[Allen laughs] Just turn on the force field. -[Josh] Perfect.
[Josh] Despite having the strongest bite force of any shark,
we're perfectly safe from this big bull inside the sub.
We continue to descend along the ledge,
heading into deeper and darker waters,
where less sunlight from the surface is able to penetrate.
Carl's team believes these trenches
just beyond the known wreckage zone
could be harboring the never-found sterncastle of the Maravillas
for one very simple reason.
[Allen] Okay and as we pass about this point,
you're gonna see stuff no humans have ever seen
because this about below diving depths.
How about that? The idea that
we might be seeing a view here
-that nobody's seen before. -Yeah.
-Two-hundred and twenty feet. -220 feet down.
-220 feet down! -Yeah.
[Josh] Monty navigates the trench using careful thruster bursts
and onboard sonar to scan ahead.
Josh, you could see if a ship was to land on this,
-it's just gonna... -Tumble down.
-...tumble right down. -[Josh] Totally.
We think the stern section with most of the silver on it,
bobbled off somewhere like a half can of beer.
Lot of sand, lot of coral.
-[Allen] Yeah. -So far nothing else though.
Nothing yet. This is it. Sometimes these deep search is hard, you know?
[Allen] Something weird there.
It's what that lead plating looks like.
[indistinct conversation]
[Allen] The sheathing on the bottom of the ship, almost it does.
[Josh] The Maravillas was covered in a thin layer of lead below the water line
to protect the hull from shipworms.
Any lead plating down here would be a smoking gun.
Oh, this is it, right here.
Yeah, we got to go down this a little bit.
Ah, I think it is... I don't know, I think it's organic.
-It looks like a leaf. -Yeah.
[Josh] You could see how it's moving. That's organic for sure.
Damn, it looked like metal.
So close.
[Josh] We continued to drop down deeper and deeper,
carefully scanning the trench for any evidence of wreckage.
We just hit 400 feet, Josh.
I think this is the deepest you've been.
Yeah, for sure.
This is, I have to say, such a thrill.
-[Allen] Yes, it is. -I mean, this is insane, Carl.
[Josh] At 400 feet,
we are in the mesopelagic zone,
also known as the twilight zone.
Sunlight doesn't reach these depths.
We are venturing into an alien world of total darkness.
Only a handful of people ever get to see this.
But unfortunately our visit to this dark realm
doesn't last long.
Calling the abort dive.
Okay, they want us to come up because with this current
we're getting pushed, sort of down and along the wall.
-Yeah. -[Capt. McKinnon] They're having same thing on top.
[Josh] With the current picking up,
we are drifting further and further from the fleet.
To avoid becoming hopelessly lost at sea,
our little yellow submarine makes its way topside.
Here we go, to the surface!
Whoa!
Oh, amazing! Amazing!
[Josh] While Carl, Monty and I were exploring deep water in the sub,
the rest of the team continue to follow the debris trail.
And after getting strong hits on the magnetometer,
they've identified a new site.
They redeployed Sea Reaper,
and unleashed her mailbox blowers
just north of the area where we found the coins.
So, we head back out to meet them.
Back at it. Here we go.
-[man] Right here! -[men] Right now!
Let's do this!
[Josh] We rendezvous with the Reaper
but with the forecast for stormy weather
and the current getting even stronger,
we're going to have to be cautious.
[speaking]
Down to the bottom?
Okay.
-Ready to dive? -We're ready.
[dramatic music playing]
[Josh] We gear up, and it's go time.
I drop down beneath the waves
before the swift current can rip me out to sea.
[on radio]
Yeah, go ahead, Josh.
[Josh on radio]
Okay, got you. Standing by up here.
[Josh] The captain will closely monitor the weather.
Meanwhile, 30 feet down, a team of divers
has already started to scour the newly exposed search zone.
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] Artifacts may have settled
in the nooks and crannies of the long dead reef.
But we also have to investigate
the sandy edge of the crater created by the blowers.
We divide and conquer leaving no stone unturned.
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] When the Maravillas wrecked,
more than 600 souls were lost.
Some survivors clung to timbers like this,
holding on for hours until they were rescued.
But what part of the ship is this from?
And could it be part of the sterncastle
where the wealthiest passengers
kept their fortunes.
[dramatic music playing]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh] Admiral Don Matias de Orellana himself
may have dined on this China.
We maybe onto something awesome.
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] In quick succession
we find one coin after another.
[detector beeping]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] Spanish silver seems to be hiding everywhere we look.
The jackpot keeps paying out
leaving us literally breathless.
[Jim on radio]
[Josh on radio]
[Jim on radio]
[Josh] Counting the seconds we continue to scan.
The metal detectors are eerily silent.
But not all that glitters in these depths is gold.
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] The Explorers Club flag we're carrying
has been all over the world.
This isn't even the first time it's been under water.
This has been to Titanic, Britannic,
and now, headed down to the wreck of Maravillas. How about that?
Awesome. It's incredible.
[Josh] The TRITON submarine
has sonar, independent thrusters
and even the upgraded audio package.
[instrumental orchestra playing]
This is the most civilized submarine I've ever been.
[Allen laughs]
[Josh] The music sets the perfect mood for me to ruin it.
-20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. -...Under the Sea.
-That's one of the movies that got me into this. -Me, too.
"I am not a civilized man, Professor."
That's like James Mason, it's not great, but...
"Captain Nemo." That's my Peter Lorre.
I can do the whole cast, really. None will go well.
[upbeat music playing]
[Josh on radio]
[Josh] Seeking treasure in depths of the Caribbean,
we may have just struck paydirt.
[Josh on radio]
Yeah, go ahead, Josh.
[Josh on radio]
Josh, come on, don't tease me. Get up here.
[Josh on radio]
Copy that. We'll be waiting.
[Josh] I hold on tight to the prize
as I make my way to the surface.
If this is what I think it is,
we may be onto something huge.
-Whoo! -[Allen laughs]
-Oh! Amazing! -[Jim] You okay?
-Amazing! Carl, I've got some presents for you. -Right.
-You're ready? -Yes.
-[Allen] Oh! Yes! -[Josh laughs]
-[Jim] Allen! -[Josh] Is it?
-[Allen] Beautiful. -It's emerald?
-[Allen] Beautiful, yeah. -That's an emerald, yes?
[Allen] Yeah. That is a Colombian emerald off the Maravillas.
[Josh] So that probably came from which mine?
-The Muzo mine. -[Josh] The Muzo mine.
-That's in Colombia? -[Allen] Yeah, that's in Colombia.
That is the most desired mine in the world, right there.
[Josh] Located deep in the Andes,
Colombia's famed Muzo mine
was used by the Inca and other pre-Colombian cultures.
Once the conquistadores found it,
they christened it Mina Real or Royal Mine,
producing emerald so fine,
they were reserved for royalty.
-How big you think that is? -[Allen] I'm gonna guess 15-18 carat.
-Beautiful. Awesome, Josh. -An 18 carat emerald.
[Josh] Depending on its color and clarity
an 18-carat emerald could be worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It's an amazing treasure haul,
both in terms of wealth and history.
And that would have gone where?
-Back to Spain to be worked? -[Allen] Yeah.
-Yeah. -[Jim] Yeah, that would be cut into jewelry back in Spain.
-[Josh] Incredible. -[Allen] Yeah.
-Great job. -[Josh exclaims]
[Josh] From emeralds to solid gold statues,
unimaginable treasures are still down there.
Talking about trying to find this sterncastle,
get in to this part of the ship
where some of the most valuable stuff might be,
-finding an emerald... -[Allen] Yeah.
...certainly would have been in that part of the ship,
so you guys might be close.
-Hard to believe that would be in the bow. -Yeah.
-[Jim] Yeah. It would be really hard. -[Allen] Don't think so.
-[Josh] Ah! -Yeah. It was fantastic, Josh.
-Congratulations. -[Jim] On track. We're on the track.
-Unbelievable. -[Allen] Yeah.
-Look at that. That's beautiful. -[Josh] Whoo!
-Beautiful. -Hey.
-[Allen] Excellent. -Unbelievable.
-Very good job. Very good job. -[Josh] That's incredible.
Carl, you don't mind if I just lived out of here?
Just go on, Josh, go find them, will you?
-[Josh] You guys, you don't work for me, right? -[Allen] Yes, you're tired.
God, that's just...
Whoo!
All right, put in what needs to be,
I'll just be back at the bottom of the ocean.
Good luck down there. [laughs]
[Josh] More than 350 years after she wrecked,
Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas,
Our Lady of Wonders,
is still giving up her secrets.
The promise of untold riches
is a deadly lure and it always has been.
Colonial Spain's unbridled greed
for silver and gold was at least in this case,
repaid in kind by an unforgiving sea,
and perhaps the hands of fate.
Centuries of salvers have since made countless attempts
to find and pillage the wreck.
But this time, it's different.
To quote Indiana Jones, "That belongs in a museum."
And that's just where these treasures will go.
The coins, emerald, and key we found
are all undergoing restoration for public display.
This time, everyone will be able to profit from these discoveries.
Allen Exploration will continue to work this site
for years to come.
Sharing their finds with the world.
Who knows what wonders still lie in the depths?