1 00:00:01,875 --> 00:00:04,958 WILLIAM SHATNER: A world-famous aviator disappears 2 00:00:05,083 --> 00:00:06,750 on her flight around the world. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,167 A ghost ship is discovered sailing the open seas 4 00:00:11,292 --> 00:00:14,000 with no sign of its missing crew. 5 00:00:14,542 --> 00:00:19,083 And a legendary expedition whose fate... 6 00:00:19,250 --> 00:00:22,667 is as chilling as the Arctic itself. 7 00:00:24,917 --> 00:00:27,500 The world is a very big place. 8 00:00:28,500 --> 00:00:32,250 It's covered in swaths of seemingly endless wilderness, 9 00:00:32,417 --> 00:00:33,750 vast open oceans 10 00:00:33,917 --> 00:00:37,542 and a multitude of locations where one can go missing. 11 00:00:38,583 --> 00:00:42,208 Even with modern technology and advanced search techniques, 12 00:00:42,375 --> 00:00:45,250 there are countless individuals 13 00:00:45,375 --> 00:00:47,458 whose whereabouts remain a mystery. 14 00:00:47,625 --> 00:00:53,167 Their stories instill both fascination and fear, 15 00:00:53,333 --> 00:00:56,500 leaving us to wonder how someone could get lost 16 00:00:56,708 --> 00:00:58,042 without a trace. 17 00:00:58,167 --> 00:01:01,667 Well, that is what we'll try and find out. 18 00:01:01,875 --> 00:01:03,750 ♪ ♪ 19 00:01:21,500 --> 00:01:25,542 34-year-old aviator Amelia Earhart takes off 20 00:01:25,708 --> 00:01:27,000 for a daring attempt 21 00:01:27,167 --> 00:01:29,125 to become the first woman to fly solo 22 00:01:29,208 --> 00:01:31,042 over the Atlantic Ocean. 23 00:01:32,333 --> 00:01:33,792 It was a perilous journey 24 00:01:33,958 --> 00:01:37,208 that had already claimed many lives. 25 00:01:38,208 --> 00:01:39,875 Despite the inherent risks, 26 00:01:40,042 --> 00:01:41,875 14 hours and 56 minutes 27 00:01:42,042 --> 00:01:46,000 after embarking on this death-defying feat, 28 00:01:46,208 --> 00:01:50,000 Earhart touches down in a field in Northern Ireland. 29 00:01:50,167 --> 00:01:55,333 And in that moment, a true icon is born. 30 00:01:56,583 --> 00:01:59,417 JOHN NANCE: The transatlantic flight had not become routine. 31 00:01:59,542 --> 00:02:01,167 A lot of people have died trying. 32 00:02:01,333 --> 00:02:03,333 She did a good job of piloting it. 33 00:02:03,500 --> 00:02:05,417 And her navigation was pretty much dead reckoning, 34 00:02:05,583 --> 00:02:07,083 which we used to joke in the Air Force, 35 00:02:07,208 --> 00:02:09,375 you reckon wrong, you're dead. (chuckles) 36 00:02:10,458 --> 00:02:13,333 Amelia Earhart was a deserved superstar. 37 00:02:13,542 --> 00:02:16,917 She had a voracious nature 38 00:02:17,083 --> 00:02:18,833 for wanting to publicize aviation 39 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,583 and how fascinating it was. 40 00:02:20,750 --> 00:02:22,917 And to do so by pushing the limits 41 00:02:23,042 --> 00:02:24,833 and to prove 42 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:26,708 that there was no reason to say that, 43 00:02:26,875 --> 00:02:28,833 "Oh, because you're a woman, you can't do something." 44 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:30,500 She was way ahead of her time. 45 00:02:31,708 --> 00:02:33,333 LANCE GEIGER: Amelia Earhart was just a trailblazer 46 00:02:33,500 --> 00:02:35,583 at a time when women didn't fly. 47 00:02:35,750 --> 00:02:38,542 And so when she decided in 1937 that she was gonna 48 00:02:38,708 --> 00:02:40,042 fly around the world, 49 00:02:40,250 --> 00:02:41,917 which was an ambitious thing to do in 1937, 50 00:02:42,083 --> 00:02:43,583 the world watched with bated breath. 51 00:02:43,708 --> 00:02:44,792 This was exciting. 52 00:02:50,958 --> 00:02:53,250 SHATNER: With years of experience under her belt, 53 00:02:53,375 --> 00:02:56,458 Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, 54 00:02:56,625 --> 00:02:59,667 take off in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra 55 00:02:59,875 --> 00:03:01,833 for their next great adventure: 56 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:06,292 a 29,000-mile trip around the Earth. 57 00:03:08,208 --> 00:03:11,083 On July 2, a month and 22,000 miles 58 00:03:11,250 --> 00:03:13,500 into their journey, Earhart and Noonan begin 59 00:03:13,708 --> 00:03:17,917 the longest and most dangerous leg of their flight, 60 00:03:18,083 --> 00:03:21,125 to a tiny, mile-long speck of land 61 00:03:21,333 --> 00:03:26,167 in the middle of the Pacific called Howland Island. 62 00:03:26,292 --> 00:03:29,458 As Earhart and Noonan near Howland Island, 63 00:03:29,583 --> 00:03:32,292 they radio a Coast Guard vessel, 64 00:03:32,458 --> 00:03:36,292 the Itasca, that's been positioned near their target. 65 00:03:36,458 --> 00:03:39,375 The Itasca's only objective 66 00:03:39,542 --> 00:03:42,208 is to guide Earhart in to safely. 67 00:03:43,542 --> 00:03:47,458 ANTHONY ROMEO: So as Amelia is approaching Howland Island, 68 00:03:47,667 --> 00:03:50,667 she tries on the radio to reach the Itasca. 69 00:03:50,833 --> 00:03:52,000 She calls and she says, 70 00:03:52,167 --> 00:03:54,000 "We must be on you, but cannot see you 71 00:03:54,167 --> 00:03:56,375 flying at a thousand feet, low on gas." 72 00:03:57,458 --> 00:03:59,167 So they start sending her Morse code signals. 73 00:03:59,375 --> 00:04:00,417 She says, 74 00:04:00,583 --> 00:04:02,417 "I'm hearing your Morse code signals, 75 00:04:02,583 --> 00:04:05,250 but we can't get you on voice, we can't hear your voice." 76 00:04:05,417 --> 00:04:08,458 And then about 30 minutes later, we hear her final message. 77 00:04:08,625 --> 00:04:10,333 She said, "We're on the line, 78 00:04:10,542 --> 00:04:13,750 157 337, flying north and south." 79 00:04:15,542 --> 00:04:17,167 We never hear from her again. 80 00:04:17,333 --> 00:04:19,458 She's been gone 87 years, and we still 81 00:04:19,625 --> 00:04:21,000 don't have a definitive answer 82 00:04:21,125 --> 00:04:22,292 as to, as to what happened to her. 83 00:04:22,458 --> 00:04:24,458 SHATNER: Amelia Earhart's failed flight 84 00:04:24,667 --> 00:04:26,208 around the world could be considered 85 00:04:26,375 --> 00:04:29,208 the most famous disappearance in American history. 86 00:04:29,375 --> 00:04:32,500 And for decades, it's sparked endless speculation 87 00:04:32,667 --> 00:04:36,708 about just what happened to the beloved aviator. 88 00:04:37,708 --> 00:04:39,583 One of the most compelling theories comes 89 00:04:39,750 --> 00:04:42,417 from Ric Gillespie, the founder of 90 00:04:42,583 --> 00:04:45,625 The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, 91 00:04:45,792 --> 00:04:47,458 or TIGHAR. 92 00:04:47,583 --> 00:04:49,917 RICHARD GILLESPIE: At TIGHAR, we've done 93 00:04:50,125 --> 00:04:52,667 35 years of investigation 94 00:04:52,833 --> 00:04:56,458 on people who disappeared in airplanes. 95 00:04:56,583 --> 00:05:01,250 After we started our Historical Investigation Foundation, 96 00:05:01,417 --> 00:05:02,583 one of our members-- 97 00:05:02,792 --> 00:05:04,708 we're a membership organization-- 98 00:05:04,917 --> 00:05:06,708 called me and said, 99 00:05:06,875 --> 00:05:08,458 "Hey, we got a theory about Amelia Earhart." 100 00:05:09,750 --> 00:05:15,250 These were two guys who were retired aerial navigators 101 00:05:15,417 --> 00:05:18,000 from the military in World War II. 102 00:05:18,083 --> 00:05:20,333 And what they told me is that 103 00:05:20,542 --> 00:05:22,750 if she did what she said she was doing, 104 00:05:22,875 --> 00:05:26,000 she should have made it to another island. 105 00:05:29,042 --> 00:05:32,167 SHATNER: The most valuable clue Earhart gave before she disappeared 106 00:05:32,333 --> 00:05:36,625 was that she was flying on line 157 337, 107 00:05:36,792 --> 00:05:40,292 a northwest to southwest navigational line 108 00:05:40,417 --> 00:05:43,250 that cuts through Howland Island. 109 00:05:43,417 --> 00:05:44,958 To the northwest of Howland 110 00:05:45,125 --> 00:05:47,667 is nothing but thousands of miles of open ocean. 111 00:05:47,875 --> 00:05:50,458 But to the southwest is a tiny, 112 00:05:50,667 --> 00:05:53,958 uninhabited island called Nikumaroro. 113 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,667 GILLESPIE: We think Amelia Earhart landed 114 00:05:58,833 --> 00:06:01,917 and died as a castaway on this island. 115 00:06:02,042 --> 00:06:03,792 On Nikumaroro. 116 00:06:04,917 --> 00:06:08,833 So we did some archeological excavations on the island. 117 00:06:09,042 --> 00:06:12,083 And we have found a campsite there. 118 00:06:13,458 --> 00:06:15,000 We have found things 119 00:06:15,167 --> 00:06:20,500 that speak of an American woman of the 1930s... 120 00:06:23,375 --> 00:06:25,583 GILLESPIE: ...things that Amelia Earhart 121 00:06:25,792 --> 00:06:28,000 would logically have with her. 122 00:06:30,125 --> 00:06:34,917 GILLESPIE: In 2010, at the site, I was doing metal detecting. 123 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,917 And the first thing 124 00:06:38,083 --> 00:06:41,958 I pulled up out of the ground was this loop. 125 00:06:42,125 --> 00:06:43,625 And I knew immediately 126 00:06:43,792 --> 00:06:47,417 that it came from an easy open, 127 00:06:47,583 --> 00:06:50,333 double-bladed, bone-handled jackknife. 128 00:06:50,458 --> 00:06:52,500 There is an inventory of Earhart's airplane 129 00:06:52,625 --> 00:06:55,375 that was taken by the U.S. Army, 130 00:06:55,542 --> 00:06:58,500 and one of the items they inventoried was 131 00:06:58,667 --> 00:07:02,708 a bone-handled, double-bladed jackknife. 132 00:07:03,750 --> 00:07:08,292 We have found a great deal of archeological evidence. 133 00:07:08,458 --> 00:07:11,083 But it's circumstantial. 134 00:07:11,250 --> 00:07:13,042 You can't get around that. 135 00:07:13,208 --> 00:07:14,542 There is no DNA, 136 00:07:14,708 --> 00:07:16,333 it's just been too long. 137 00:07:16,542 --> 00:07:18,042 Believe me, we've tried. 138 00:07:18,208 --> 00:07:21,750 There's more to learn. There's always more to learn. 139 00:07:22,708 --> 00:07:25,208 SHATNER: Did Amelia Earhart die 140 00:07:25,375 --> 00:07:27,958 as a castaway on Nikumaroro Island? 141 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:33,042 While it's extremely compelling, without actual DNA evidence, 142 00:07:33,250 --> 00:07:35,792 it's far from conclusive. 143 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,208 And there are many experts who believe 144 00:07:38,375 --> 00:07:40,500 another theory entirely: 145 00:07:40,583 --> 00:07:43,000 that Earhart ran out of gas 146 00:07:43,208 --> 00:07:46,917 and crashed near Howland Island. 147 00:07:47,875 --> 00:07:49,667 ROMEO: She was very close to the island. 148 00:07:49,875 --> 00:07:51,750 She tells us she-she's low on gas. 149 00:07:51,917 --> 00:07:53,708 And, uh, everything points to a very 150 00:07:53,875 --> 00:07:55,083 near miss to Howland Island. 151 00:07:55,208 --> 00:07:56,958 She was right there. She was very close. 152 00:07:58,083 --> 00:08:00,625 SHATNER: Tony Romeo is the founder and CEO 153 00:08:00,792 --> 00:08:02,250 of Deep Sea Vision, 154 00:08:02,417 --> 00:08:04,792 an underwater exploration company. 155 00:08:04,917 --> 00:08:07,917 In September 2023, Tony and his team 156 00:08:08,083 --> 00:08:11,625 mounted an expedition to search for Earhart's plane 157 00:08:11,792 --> 00:08:14,000 near Howland Island. 158 00:08:14,208 --> 00:08:17,792 They painstakingly scanned the seafloor 159 00:08:17,958 --> 00:08:21,042 with an autonomous underwater vehicle 160 00:08:21,208 --> 00:08:24,333 equipped with the latest sonar technology. 161 00:08:25,417 --> 00:08:28,667 Incredibly, nearing the end of their expedition, 162 00:08:28,833 --> 00:08:32,375 they capture a curious sonar image 163 00:08:32,542 --> 00:08:34,000 from the bottom of the ocean 164 00:08:34,167 --> 00:08:38,875 less than 100 miles away from Howland Island. 165 00:08:39,042 --> 00:08:41,000 ROMEO: This is an image of... 166 00:08:41,125 --> 00:08:43,167 what we believe to be Amelia Earhart's plane. 167 00:08:44,250 --> 00:08:45,750 And then what you're seeing is a reflection, 168 00:08:45,875 --> 00:08:47,625 the white areas, which is a reflection 169 00:08:47,750 --> 00:08:50,833 of an object on the bottom of the seabed. 170 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:52,375 What you're seeing fits very close 171 00:08:52,542 --> 00:08:54,750 to the dimensions of Amelia's plane. 172 00:08:54,875 --> 00:08:57,042 Holy smokes, this thing actually exists. 173 00:08:58,542 --> 00:09:00,333 SHATNER: In early 2024, 174 00:09:00,542 --> 00:09:02,417 this remarkable sonar image made 175 00:09:02,542 --> 00:09:04,542 major headlines around the world. 176 00:09:04,667 --> 00:09:07,500 Has Amelia Earhart's plane been found? 177 00:09:07,625 --> 00:09:10,208 It's a tantalizing possibility, 178 00:09:10,333 --> 00:09:13,208 but as of now, Tony's suspicions have yet to be confirmed, 179 00:09:13,375 --> 00:09:16,542 because the object is at the bottom of the ocean-- 180 00:09:16,750 --> 00:09:19,792 15,000 feet below. 181 00:09:21,708 --> 00:09:23,875 What we have right now are sonar images. 182 00:09:25,375 --> 00:09:28,750 The next thing we want are color pictures of the aircraft. 183 00:09:28,917 --> 00:09:30,583 Then we move to the next step, which I think would be 184 00:09:30,750 --> 00:09:33,458 engineering a solution to bring it to the surface. 185 00:09:33,625 --> 00:09:35,625 SHATNER: Could 21st-century technology be 186 00:09:35,792 --> 00:09:38,042 the key to finding Earhart's missing aircraft? 187 00:09:38,250 --> 00:09:41,250 For now, this remarkable sonar image provides 188 00:09:41,417 --> 00:09:44,458 new hope that the fate of America's legendary 189 00:09:44,625 --> 00:09:48,083 lady of the sky may finally be revealed. 190 00:09:50,417 --> 00:09:52,667 Even today, Amelia Earhart still has 191 00:09:52,833 --> 00:09:55,208 this hold on the nation's consciousness. 192 00:09:56,500 --> 00:09:58,333 She is still seen as this hero. 193 00:09:58,417 --> 00:09:59,958 The mystery is still important. 194 00:10:00,083 --> 00:10:01,500 We're still wondering what happened 195 00:10:01,708 --> 00:10:03,750 to this one person in 1937. 196 00:10:03,875 --> 00:10:05,208 It is just this mystery 197 00:10:05,375 --> 00:10:07,333 that we can't let go of until it's answered. 198 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,708 SHATNER: Two British Royal Navy ships-- 199 00:10:20,833 --> 00:10:23,833 the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror-- 200 00:10:23,958 --> 00:10:26,667 departed England under the command 201 00:10:26,792 --> 00:10:30,000 of veteran polar explorer Sir John Franklin. 202 00:10:31,042 --> 00:10:33,750 Their mission was to be the first to find and navigate 203 00:10:33,917 --> 00:10:36,208 the fabled Northwest Passage. 204 00:10:36,375 --> 00:10:39,500 the long-rumored sea route linking Europe and Asia 205 00:10:39,667 --> 00:10:43,417 that would revolutionize trade between the continents. 206 00:10:44,625 --> 00:10:47,167 But this ever-changing maze of ice 207 00:10:47,375 --> 00:10:51,750 was considered virtually impassable. 208 00:10:54,333 --> 00:10:57,667 With enough rations to support the crew for up to three years, 209 00:10:57,875 --> 00:11:01,208 made possible by innovations like canned food, 210 00:11:01,417 --> 00:11:03,917 the historic expedition was 211 00:11:04,083 --> 00:11:07,167 unlike anything ever attempted. 212 00:11:07,333 --> 00:11:12,167 It was a voyage known as the Franklin Expedition. 213 00:11:14,167 --> 00:11:15,958 The Franklin Expedition was the best equipped 214 00:11:16,125 --> 00:11:18,042 polar expedition that had ever been mounted. 215 00:11:18,208 --> 00:11:21,208 You know, the two ships: HMS Erebus, HMS Terror. 216 00:11:21,333 --> 00:11:24,667 Ice-reinforced and all the geographical knowledge 217 00:11:24,875 --> 00:11:27,000 was in their library that they carried aboard ship. 218 00:11:27,125 --> 00:11:29,000 Um, so they, they, they were 219 00:11:29,125 --> 00:11:31,958 as well prepared as possible. 220 00:11:32,125 --> 00:11:34,125 ADRIAN SIMONOVSKI: The Erebus and the Terror 221 00:11:34,292 --> 00:11:36,833 were equipped with the latest technology. 222 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,042 They had heating systems so that you had 223 00:11:40,208 --> 00:11:42,500 ducting to heat different compartments. 224 00:11:42,625 --> 00:11:45,667 There was a steam engine to help 225 00:11:45,833 --> 00:11:48,458 in propulsion when there was no wind. 226 00:11:48,625 --> 00:11:50,667 So a lot of innovation was done 227 00:11:50,792 --> 00:11:52,792 that was leading at the time. 228 00:11:54,208 --> 00:11:58,333 SHATNER: Despite the innovations employed by Franklin and his men, 229 00:11:58,417 --> 00:12:01,000 in just a few years, it became clear to colleagues 230 00:12:01,167 --> 00:12:03,000 and loved ones back in England 231 00:12:03,208 --> 00:12:06,083 that the Erebus and the Terror were in trouble. 232 00:12:07,250 --> 00:12:09,208 Ultimately, they would become 233 00:12:09,375 --> 00:12:12,708 one of the most famous lost expeditions 234 00:12:12,875 --> 00:12:14,875 in human history. 235 00:12:15,042 --> 00:12:17,875 ROGER MARSTERS: By 1847, as people 236 00:12:18,042 --> 00:12:20,167 in Europe hadn't heard from the Franklin Expedition, 237 00:12:20,375 --> 00:12:24,083 it became increasingly evident that something had gone wrong. 238 00:12:25,083 --> 00:12:29,000 The fact that two ships, 129 men, 239 00:12:29,208 --> 00:12:31,875 disappeared with very few traces, 240 00:12:32,042 --> 00:12:34,583 has presented a blank canvas 241 00:12:34,750 --> 00:12:38,000 on which we can project our fears and our concerns. 242 00:12:38,208 --> 00:12:41,333 SHATNER: To this day, no one can say for sure what happened 243 00:12:41,542 --> 00:12:45,250 to the majority of the people on this ill-fated expedition. 244 00:12:47,333 --> 00:12:50,292 But in 1850, a fleet of search ships 245 00:12:50,458 --> 00:12:52,375 were shocked to discover 246 00:12:52,542 --> 00:12:54,917 the first grim clues. 247 00:12:55,875 --> 00:12:57,833 A small cemetery 248 00:12:58,000 --> 00:12:59,833 with three gravestones 249 00:12:59,917 --> 00:13:02,083 on Beechey Island. 250 00:13:02,250 --> 00:13:03,667 GEIGER: There had been three members 251 00:13:03,833 --> 00:13:05,500 of the Franklin Exhibition who died 252 00:13:05,667 --> 00:13:07,667 very early on in the expedition. 253 00:13:07,875 --> 00:13:10,333 And they were buried on Beechey Island, 254 00:13:10,542 --> 00:13:13,500 the first winter site for the expedition. 255 00:13:13,625 --> 00:13:15,583 It's like a polar desert. 256 00:13:15,708 --> 00:13:16,917 And when they realized 257 00:13:17,125 --> 00:13:18,625 that the Franklin Expedition were lost, 258 00:13:18,792 --> 00:13:20,042 the question was: 259 00:13:20,208 --> 00:13:21,792 okay, what happened to them? 260 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,625 It became truly a global effort 261 00:13:24,792 --> 00:13:26,208 to kind of answer some of these 262 00:13:26,375 --> 00:13:28,583 enduring questions about the expedition. 263 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:31,958 SHATNER: Dozens of exhaustive searches 264 00:13:32,125 --> 00:13:35,042 continued in this frozen wasteland. 265 00:13:36,125 --> 00:13:38,208 It appears the expedition turned south 266 00:13:38,375 --> 00:13:41,667 after burying three men on Beechey Island. 267 00:13:41,833 --> 00:13:45,917 In 1859, a sled team searching near King William Island... 268 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:48,833 ...discovered an abandoned lifeboat 269 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,333 containing two human skeletons. 270 00:13:52,875 --> 00:13:54,958 Remains of a third sailor were also found, 271 00:13:55,167 --> 00:13:57,292 preserved in the ice. 272 00:13:58,375 --> 00:14:01,333 But the most valuable clue was a hand-written note 273 00:14:01,500 --> 00:14:05,500 discovered nearby at a location ironically named 274 00:14:05,667 --> 00:14:07,958 Victory Point. 275 00:14:09,333 --> 00:14:10,958 MARSTERS: The Victory Point Note was found 276 00:14:11,083 --> 00:14:13,167 near King William Island. 277 00:14:13,375 --> 00:14:16,458 And it gave two status updates 278 00:14:16,583 --> 00:14:18,083 on the expedition. 279 00:14:19,083 --> 00:14:22,667 One in the spring of 1847, 280 00:14:22,875 --> 00:14:25,708 which stated that all was well. 281 00:14:25,875 --> 00:14:27,875 And another from the spring of 1848, 282 00:14:28,042 --> 00:14:30,667 which indicated that John Franklin 283 00:14:30,875 --> 00:14:32,917 had died in the previous year. 284 00:14:33,083 --> 00:14:35,708 And that two dozen members of the expedition 285 00:14:35,875 --> 00:14:38,792 had similarly died of malnutrition, 286 00:14:38,958 --> 00:14:40,583 scurvy, tuberculosis. 287 00:14:40,750 --> 00:14:43,167 And the remaining members of the expedition 288 00:14:43,333 --> 00:14:46,083 would be heading out overland in an attempt at, 289 00:14:46,208 --> 00:14:48,375 uh, self-rescue on the Canadian mainland. 290 00:14:51,750 --> 00:14:53,625 SHATNER: This single letter, 291 00:14:53,833 --> 00:14:56,167 written over 170 years ago, 292 00:14:56,333 --> 00:14:58,667 offers the only known record 293 00:14:58,833 --> 00:15:02,042 of the expedition's last-ditch effort at survival 294 00:15:02,208 --> 00:15:04,042 after being stuck in the ice 295 00:15:04,208 --> 00:15:06,250 for over two years. 296 00:15:07,375 --> 00:15:10,833 And then, the true story of the Franklin Expedition 297 00:15:10,958 --> 00:15:13,958 becomes largely unknown. 298 00:15:14,125 --> 00:15:18,542 Only around 30 of the 129 men have been found. 299 00:15:18,708 --> 00:15:23,083 And the question remains: what happened to the rest of them? 300 00:15:25,042 --> 00:15:27,458 Well, intriguing clues would come 301 00:15:27,625 --> 00:15:30,667 from the oral history of the local Inuit people, 302 00:15:30,875 --> 00:15:34,458 the only known inhabitants of the Canadian Arctic. 303 00:15:34,583 --> 00:15:38,375 The white men that the Inuit described interacting with 304 00:15:38,542 --> 00:15:42,208 inspired true terror in these local inhabitants. 305 00:15:42,375 --> 00:15:45,667 In fact, they believed they were no longer men 306 00:15:45,875 --> 00:15:47,792 but monsters. 307 00:15:49,083 --> 00:15:52,000 LANCE: In 1854, a man named John Ray, 308 00:15:52,167 --> 00:15:54,417 who was a Hudson Bay employee and a trapper, 309 00:15:54,542 --> 00:15:55,833 he had gone searching for evidence 310 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:57,208 of the Franklin Expedition. 311 00:15:57,375 --> 00:15:58,792 And he had talked to some local Inuits. 312 00:15:58,958 --> 00:16:01,292 And they had an oral tradition 313 00:16:01,458 --> 00:16:04,542 that they had encountered what they called snow zombies. 314 00:16:05,542 --> 00:16:06,958 The Inuit tried to give them food. 315 00:16:07,167 --> 00:16:09,417 They seemed to be unable to even accept help. 316 00:16:09,583 --> 00:16:12,542 They were blue-skinned, they were talking irrationally. 317 00:16:12,708 --> 00:16:15,250 They don't look like a person, they don't act like a person. 318 00:16:15,375 --> 00:16:17,958 They found them in camps where the men were just 319 00:16:18,125 --> 00:16:19,833 on the ground starving. 320 00:16:20,042 --> 00:16:22,125 And they were eating the corpses. 321 00:16:22,250 --> 00:16:23,708 They were engaging in cannibalism. 322 00:16:24,875 --> 00:16:27,000 SHATNER: Did the men of the Franklin Expedition become 323 00:16:27,167 --> 00:16:30,750 real-life zombies, as the Inuit stories suggest? 324 00:16:31,958 --> 00:16:34,125 Or were they driven to madness 325 00:16:34,292 --> 00:16:37,917 from starvation and disease in this deadly environment? 326 00:16:38,042 --> 00:16:40,500 Well, some believe the real answer 327 00:16:40,667 --> 00:16:44,000 came over a century later in the 1980s, 328 00:16:44,208 --> 00:16:46,500 from a team of field researchers 329 00:16:46,625 --> 00:16:49,375 led by anthropologist Owen Beattie. 330 00:16:49,542 --> 00:16:52,583 A colleague of mine, Owen Beattie, who's a professor 331 00:16:52,792 --> 00:16:55,000 of anthropology at the University of Alberta, 332 00:16:55,167 --> 00:16:58,208 led several expeditions to collect human remains 333 00:16:58,375 --> 00:17:00,333 related to the Franklin Exhibition. 334 00:17:00,542 --> 00:17:03,458 The idea was to go and exhume those graves 335 00:17:03,625 --> 00:17:07,000 on Beechey Island to see if there was preserved tissue. 336 00:17:07,167 --> 00:17:09,667 What was discovered was that the three sailors 337 00:17:09,875 --> 00:17:13,167 were incredibly well preserved in the permafrost. 338 00:17:13,333 --> 00:17:16,542 And so autopsies were conducted, 339 00:17:16,708 --> 00:17:19,583 and the tissue showed that there was extremely high levels 340 00:17:19,708 --> 00:17:23,125 of lead found in the remains that were collected. 341 00:17:23,333 --> 00:17:25,625 One of the most common explanations for what might have 342 00:17:25,792 --> 00:17:27,750 happened to the Franklin Expedition was lead poisoning. 343 00:17:27,917 --> 00:17:31,333 And the reason was because of this new technology of canning, 344 00:17:31,500 --> 00:17:34,667 because while the cans were tin, they were sealed with lead. 345 00:17:34,875 --> 00:17:37,417 And so the assumption was that maybe because lead 346 00:17:37,542 --> 00:17:40,167 had leached into the food, it would make you more 347 00:17:40,292 --> 00:17:42,750 vulnerable to things like pneumonia. 348 00:17:42,917 --> 00:17:45,125 And it also could have mental effects, especially paranoia. 349 00:17:45,250 --> 00:17:47,333 And that might explain some of the very strange things 350 00:17:47,542 --> 00:17:49,458 that seemed to happen with the Franklin Expedition. 351 00:17:49,625 --> 00:17:52,833 That they weren't even behaving like men anymore. 352 00:17:55,667 --> 00:17:58,250 SHATNER: Nearly 170 years after the Franklin Expedition 353 00:17:58,417 --> 00:17:59,875 left the safety of England, 354 00:18:00,042 --> 00:18:03,167 two major discoveries would reveal the ships' fate. 355 00:18:04,625 --> 00:18:06,500 In 2014 and 2016, 356 00:18:06,667 --> 00:18:09,500 both the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror 357 00:18:09,708 --> 00:18:13,292 were found on the Arctic Ocean floor, 358 00:18:13,458 --> 00:18:16,667 renewing hope that the fate of the lost Franklin men 359 00:18:16,833 --> 00:18:18,875 might be revealed. 360 00:18:19,042 --> 00:18:23,000 Unfortunately, researchers have found nothing on board 361 00:18:23,167 --> 00:18:25,625 that explains what actually happened. 362 00:18:25,750 --> 00:18:27,417 So the question is, 363 00:18:27,625 --> 00:18:30,625 what became of nearly 100 men 364 00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:33,875 that remain lost and unaccounted for? 365 00:18:35,042 --> 00:18:36,750 LANCE: We found the two ships, and yet 366 00:18:36,917 --> 00:18:38,458 the vast majority of the remains 367 00:18:38,625 --> 00:18:40,000 have never been discovered. 368 00:18:40,208 --> 00:18:42,417 And what's really missing are the logbooks 369 00:18:42,583 --> 00:18:44,250 that might really explain what's going on. 370 00:18:44,458 --> 00:18:47,042 There might be something that tells us the whole story. 371 00:18:47,250 --> 00:18:49,792 We just haven't found it yet. 372 00:18:49,917 --> 00:18:52,417 And that gives us a reason to keep searching. 373 00:18:53,792 --> 00:18:56,500 Whether the lost crew of the Franklin Expedition 374 00:18:56,667 --> 00:18:59,125 were driven mad from starvation, 375 00:18:59,250 --> 00:19:01,125 illness, 376 00:19:01,292 --> 00:19:04,333 or even something supernatural, 377 00:19:04,458 --> 00:19:07,958 the answer remains a mystery. 378 00:19:08,042 --> 00:19:10,958 And such is the case of the strange disappearance 379 00:19:11,083 --> 00:19:12,917 of one of the most famous people 380 00:19:13,042 --> 00:19:14,875 of the 20th century. 381 00:19:15,042 --> 00:19:18,875 Just how did an American musical icon 382 00:19:19,042 --> 00:19:21,833 simply vanish... 383 00:19:21,958 --> 00:19:23,917 never to be seen again? 384 00:19:32,500 --> 00:19:34,500 A small, single-engine plane departs 385 00:19:34,667 --> 00:19:38,500 from Twinwood Farm Airbase en route to Paris. 386 00:19:39,542 --> 00:19:41,125 As it takes off across the English Channel, 387 00:19:41,292 --> 00:19:43,167 the plane disappears 388 00:19:43,292 --> 00:19:45,333 into the dense winter fog. 389 00:19:46,583 --> 00:19:49,167 And is never seen again. 390 00:19:49,292 --> 00:19:51,333 On board this lost flight 391 00:19:51,500 --> 00:19:54,333 is the most famous musical icon of the day, 392 00:19:54,458 --> 00:19:56,958 legendary big band leader 393 00:19:57,042 --> 00:19:59,250 Glenn Miller. 394 00:19:59,417 --> 00:20:02,875 It was said that in 1940, two out of every three 395 00:20:03,042 --> 00:20:06,958 records in a jukebox was a Glenn Miller record. 396 00:20:07,125 --> 00:20:10,292 From the end of October of 1941 397 00:20:10,417 --> 00:20:13,250 until the end of April in 1942, 398 00:20:13,417 --> 00:20:16,500 every single number one record 399 00:20:16,625 --> 00:20:19,833 on the Billboard Top Ten was Miller. 400 00:20:22,375 --> 00:20:24,042 The number one in his all-time greatest hit 401 00:20:24,208 --> 00:20:25,583 was "Chattanooga Choo Choo," 402 00:20:25,750 --> 00:20:28,917 which actually was the first gold record 403 00:20:29,083 --> 00:20:31,417 ever awarded to an artist. 404 00:20:32,542 --> 00:20:35,167 Glenn Miller was the original 405 00:20:35,333 --> 00:20:37,583 big-time superstar. 406 00:20:38,708 --> 00:20:40,250 SHATNER: Like many of his fellow artists, 407 00:20:40,417 --> 00:20:44,458 in 1942, Miller gave up his lucrative music career 408 00:20:44,625 --> 00:20:47,083 to enlist in the U.S. Army. 409 00:20:47,250 --> 00:20:50,667 For nearly two years, Major Glenn Miller 410 00:20:50,875 --> 00:20:53,000 lead the Miller's Army Air Force Band, 411 00:20:53,167 --> 00:20:56,750 giving more than 350 performances. 412 00:20:56,875 --> 00:21:01,083 It would be an upcoming holiday event 413 00:21:01,250 --> 00:21:05,083 that would change Miller's life forever. 414 00:21:05,250 --> 00:21:07,958 The Miller Army Air Force Orchestra was going to have 415 00:21:08,125 --> 00:21:11,458 a huge performance on Christmas of 1944 in Paris 416 00:21:11,625 --> 00:21:13,333 for all of these soldiers who had been fighting 417 00:21:13,500 --> 00:21:14,833 since D-Day in June. 418 00:21:15,042 --> 00:21:17,667 And Glenn Miller was in the United Kingdom, 419 00:21:17,875 --> 00:21:20,375 but he was anxious to get to Paris to set this up. 420 00:21:20,542 --> 00:21:23,167 So he found out that an officer in the Eighth Air Force, 421 00:21:23,375 --> 00:21:25,042 name of Norman Bassell, 422 00:21:25,208 --> 00:21:27,292 was going to be flying to Paris. 423 00:21:27,500 --> 00:21:29,625 And Miller managed to wrangle an invite to fly 424 00:21:29,750 --> 00:21:33,042 in a very small plane called a Norseman. 425 00:21:33,208 --> 00:21:34,875 One slight problem. 426 00:21:35,042 --> 00:21:39,250 Miller doesn't inform his chain of command of his intentions. 427 00:21:39,417 --> 00:21:42,000 Miller and Bassel get on the plane, 428 00:21:42,208 --> 00:21:46,625 and at 1:55 p.m., that airplane takes off from Twinwood. 429 00:21:46,792 --> 00:21:50,042 No one ever saw it again. 430 00:21:50,208 --> 00:21:54,167 SHATNER: Glenn Miller's plane has never been found. 431 00:21:54,333 --> 00:21:56,667 Even surveys of the English Channel 432 00:21:56,792 --> 00:21:59,000 have not found a single trace. 433 00:21:59,208 --> 00:22:04,042 This clear lack of evidence has fueled sensational theories 434 00:22:04,208 --> 00:22:07,667 to explain the icon's mysterious disappearance. 435 00:22:09,708 --> 00:22:12,250 And one of the most intriguing of all the claims 436 00:22:12,458 --> 00:22:16,375 is that perhaps his plane didn't go down at all. 437 00:22:16,542 --> 00:22:18,000 LANCE: One of the more fanciful theories 438 00:22:18,208 --> 00:22:20,750 was that Glenn Miller was actually a spy, 439 00:22:20,917 --> 00:22:22,750 that he was engaged in espionage. 440 00:22:22,875 --> 00:22:27,542 So the theory is that Miller landed in Paris secretly, 441 00:22:27,708 --> 00:22:29,875 and that they smuggled him into Germany 442 00:22:30,042 --> 00:22:33,500 to negotiate with high-level German generals 443 00:22:33,708 --> 00:22:37,333 about assassinating Hitler to put an end to the war. 444 00:22:37,542 --> 00:22:39,667 And that, at some point, he was betrayed 445 00:22:39,875 --> 00:22:43,000 and that he was killed by the Germans on this secret mission. 446 00:22:44,125 --> 00:22:47,792 And it wouldn't be unbelievable that if it went south 447 00:22:47,917 --> 00:22:49,333 that they would lie about that 448 00:22:49,542 --> 00:22:51,542 and say that his plane went down. 449 00:22:51,708 --> 00:22:53,542 SHATNER: Was Glenn Miller 450 00:22:53,708 --> 00:22:56,583 really an international superstar turned spy? 451 00:22:56,750 --> 00:22:59,875 While it's an intriguing idea, there's no hard evidence 452 00:23:00,083 --> 00:23:04,375 to prove Miller actually was conducting espionage. 453 00:23:04,542 --> 00:23:06,667 But there is some evidence that suggests 454 00:23:06,875 --> 00:23:10,625 there may have been a cover-up surrounding his death. 455 00:23:10,792 --> 00:23:15,167 A cover-up meant to hide a terrible mistake 456 00:23:15,333 --> 00:23:17,875 made by his own allies. 457 00:23:18,792 --> 00:23:21,375 The most popular explanation 458 00:23:21,542 --> 00:23:23,167 for what happened to Glenn Miller 459 00:23:23,375 --> 00:23:27,375 was that he was shot down, 460 00:23:27,583 --> 00:23:29,667 knocked down by friendly fire. 461 00:23:29,792 --> 00:23:33,500 The story goes that, in trying to get to Paris, 462 00:23:33,667 --> 00:23:35,458 flying over the Channel, 463 00:23:35,625 --> 00:23:38,292 Miller's airplane strayed 464 00:23:38,458 --> 00:23:41,667 into a bomb dispersal area. 465 00:23:41,833 --> 00:23:45,833 At that time, if bombers got to their target 466 00:23:46,042 --> 00:23:47,667 and couldn't see the target well enough 467 00:23:47,833 --> 00:23:51,833 to drop their bombs, they would jettison the bombs 468 00:23:52,042 --> 00:23:56,292 over the Channel in approved dispersal areas. 469 00:23:58,417 --> 00:24:02,125 In the 1980s, a British veteran, 470 00:24:02,292 --> 00:24:06,000 who'd been a navigator on a Lancaster bomber that day, 471 00:24:06,208 --> 00:24:09,667 reported that we had hit Glenn Miller with friendly fire 472 00:24:09,875 --> 00:24:12,750 from a bomb jettison from a Lancaster. 473 00:24:12,917 --> 00:24:17,833 As it turned out, with a modicum of investigation, 474 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:22,000 you will find that there was an RAF bomb jettison that day. 475 00:24:23,250 --> 00:24:26,375 SHATNER: Was the plane carrying Glenn Miller accidentally bombed 476 00:24:26,542 --> 00:24:28,000 by his own allies? 477 00:24:28,208 --> 00:24:30,667 It's certainly possible. 478 00:24:30,833 --> 00:24:32,667 However, there are others who believe 479 00:24:32,875 --> 00:24:35,167 that the circumstances of Miller's disappearance 480 00:24:35,375 --> 00:24:38,625 was triggered by a very different kind of accident: 481 00:24:38,833 --> 00:24:40,583 mechanical failure. 482 00:24:40,708 --> 00:24:43,000 SPRAGG: The carburetor heater in Miller's plane 483 00:24:43,208 --> 00:24:46,083 had been recalled by the Army Air Forces 484 00:24:46,250 --> 00:24:48,125 six months earlier. 485 00:24:48,250 --> 00:24:50,667 So at 1500 feet, if the carburetor heater fails, 486 00:24:50,833 --> 00:24:53,667 then the engine stops, 487 00:24:53,833 --> 00:24:56,000 the nose goes down immediately. 488 00:24:57,250 --> 00:25:00,208 And hitting the English Channel, 489 00:25:00,417 --> 00:25:02,042 it's like hitting a brick wall. 490 00:25:03,125 --> 00:25:04,500 (water splashes) 491 00:25:04,708 --> 00:25:08,750 It disintegrates, and no one survives. 492 00:25:10,167 --> 00:25:11,750 SHATNER: Despite circumstantial evidence 493 00:25:11,875 --> 00:25:14,333 to support the notion of mechanical failure, 494 00:25:14,458 --> 00:25:16,458 answers are far from definitive. 495 00:25:16,625 --> 00:25:19,500 To this day, the plane remains lost, 496 00:25:19,667 --> 00:25:21,458 along with the truth 497 00:25:21,625 --> 00:25:25,458 of what really happened to Glenn Miller. 498 00:25:25,667 --> 00:25:29,958 SPRAGG: I think when a celebrity and famous person vanishes, 499 00:25:30,083 --> 00:25:32,458 we have the ultimate mystery, don't we? 500 00:25:32,667 --> 00:25:34,750 What happened to Glenn Miller? 501 00:25:34,917 --> 00:25:38,500 Where is the debris of the airplane? 502 00:25:38,708 --> 00:25:40,917 It's always open to speculation, 503 00:25:41,083 --> 00:25:43,750 but most importantly in the minds of all of us, 504 00:25:43,875 --> 00:25:47,125 because he captured our imagination, 505 00:25:47,333 --> 00:25:49,833 he remains in our imagination. 506 00:25:50,833 --> 00:25:55,000 Did fame play a role in Glenn Miller's disappearance, 507 00:25:55,125 --> 00:25:57,917 or was it simply a plane malfunction 508 00:25:58,083 --> 00:26:02,167 that caused the band leader to be lost? 509 00:26:03,292 --> 00:26:05,917 Questions also remain about another mysterious case 510 00:26:06,083 --> 00:26:10,000 involving ten people who vanished 511 00:26:10,208 --> 00:26:14,417 and were the possible victims of a deadly curse. 512 00:26:22,542 --> 00:26:25,208 SHATNER: An American brigantine ship known as the Mary Celeste 513 00:26:25,417 --> 00:26:27,917 sets sail from this bustling port 514 00:26:28,083 --> 00:26:31,333 transporting goods to Genoa, Italy. 515 00:26:31,500 --> 00:26:35,583 On board is American Captain Benjamin S. Briggs, 516 00:26:35,750 --> 00:26:39,417 his wife Sarah, their two-year-old daughter Sophia 517 00:26:39,583 --> 00:26:41,583 and an crew of seven sailors 518 00:26:41,750 --> 00:26:44,708 from the U.S., Denmark, and Germany. 519 00:26:45,708 --> 00:26:49,042 But on December 4, 1872, 520 00:26:49,208 --> 00:26:51,375 just under a month after these ten people 521 00:26:51,542 --> 00:26:53,833 set sail on the Mary Celeste, 522 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,000 the vessel is discovered aimless and adrift 523 00:26:58,167 --> 00:27:01,667 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 524 00:27:01,875 --> 00:27:04,417 On December 4th, David Reed Morehouse, 525 00:27:04,542 --> 00:27:07,958 captain of the Dei Gratia, a Canadian cargo ship, 526 00:27:08,083 --> 00:27:10,667 spies this ship in the distance 527 00:27:10,792 --> 00:27:14,417 about halfway between the Azores and Portugal, 528 00:27:14,583 --> 00:27:16,625 400 miles from each. 529 00:27:16,708 --> 00:27:21,125 It's bucking, doesn't look right. 530 00:27:21,250 --> 00:27:25,375 And so they sail over, and they find the Mary Celeste. 531 00:27:25,542 --> 00:27:27,833 They go aboard 532 00:27:27,958 --> 00:27:32,208 and everything's kind of creepy. 533 00:27:32,375 --> 00:27:35,667 The ship's wheel is spinning uncontrollably, 534 00:27:35,833 --> 00:27:39,333 so he doesn't understand what's going on. 535 00:27:39,542 --> 00:27:43,000 The Mary Celeste was sailing without its crew. 536 00:27:43,167 --> 00:27:45,708 SHATNER: According to the crew of the Dei Gratia, 537 00:27:45,833 --> 00:27:48,333 finding this abandoned vessel 538 00:27:48,458 --> 00:27:52,417 along a major trade route defied explanation. 539 00:27:52,583 --> 00:27:56,250 The Mary Celeste had become 540 00:27:56,375 --> 00:27:58,250 a ghost ship. 541 00:27:58,417 --> 00:28:01,625 A ghost ship was a mariner's term for any ship 542 00:28:01,750 --> 00:28:04,000 found sailing without its crew. 543 00:28:04,167 --> 00:28:06,792 In the 19th century, dozens of ships were found 544 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,500 sailing without their crews every year. 545 00:28:09,708 --> 00:28:11,833 But usually there was a very plausible 546 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,875 and obvious reason for that. 547 00:28:15,042 --> 00:28:17,167 And it's possible 548 00:28:17,333 --> 00:28:20,083 they could've been swept overboard in a storm. 549 00:28:20,250 --> 00:28:22,208 They could have abandoned ship 550 00:28:22,417 --> 00:28:24,500 because they thought it was sinking. 551 00:28:24,708 --> 00:28:27,208 Those are usually things that you can tell. 552 00:28:28,750 --> 00:28:30,958 The difference was, 553 00:28:31,125 --> 00:28:33,000 nothing seemed to fit the Mary Celeste story. 554 00:28:33,167 --> 00:28:37,375 The Mary Celeste is just the quintessential story 555 00:28:37,542 --> 00:28:40,542 of people being lost, 556 00:28:40,667 --> 00:28:42,917 of vanishing without a trace. 557 00:28:43,875 --> 00:28:45,333 It was the strangest thing. 558 00:28:45,458 --> 00:28:50,375 Everything on this ship was intact, including the cargo. 559 00:28:50,542 --> 00:28:53,542 And that's when you have to ask, what happened? 560 00:28:53,708 --> 00:28:56,167 If there was everything stolen, you'd say, 561 00:28:56,375 --> 00:28:58,875 well, pirates, pirates must have done this. 562 00:28:59,042 --> 00:29:00,167 If there was mutiny, there'd be blood, 563 00:29:00,333 --> 00:29:02,167 and the mutineers would've taken the ship. 564 00:29:02,333 --> 00:29:03,917 There's no bodies. 565 00:29:04,042 --> 00:29:07,000 Why would ten people abandon 566 00:29:07,208 --> 00:29:09,833 a perfectly good seaworthy ship? 567 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:11,458 People wanted to know what happened, 568 00:29:11,625 --> 00:29:12,625 what could've happened? 569 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,958 HICKS: This was a story that went viral, 570 00:29:16,167 --> 00:29:17,750 and every week there was a story 571 00:29:17,917 --> 00:29:20,000 and newspaper reporters found something. 572 00:29:20,208 --> 00:29:21,917 And one week, it's insurance fraud. 573 00:29:22,875 --> 00:29:24,917 This week, it's murder. 574 00:29:25,917 --> 00:29:28,083 Next week, it's mutiny. 575 00:29:28,250 --> 00:29:32,208 And it just gave this story a life of its own. 576 00:29:32,333 --> 00:29:35,833 MARSTERS: Some people have put forward the theory a giant squid 577 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:40,167 somehow dragged them into the watery depths as well. 578 00:29:40,375 --> 00:29:42,000 There have also been explanations 579 00:29:42,083 --> 00:29:45,000 based on psychic phenomena, 580 00:29:45,167 --> 00:29:48,500 in ways analogous to the Bermuda Triangle. 581 00:29:48,708 --> 00:29:51,333 There have also been people who have attributed 582 00:29:51,542 --> 00:29:53,208 the abandonment of the Mary Celeste 583 00:29:53,417 --> 00:29:55,375 to alien abduction, 584 00:29:55,542 --> 00:29:58,333 but there is no way 585 00:29:58,542 --> 00:30:01,958 of conclusively demonstrating any one theory. 586 00:30:02,167 --> 00:30:04,875 SHATNER: This famous maritime disappearance 587 00:30:05,083 --> 00:30:08,333 has puzzled researchers for over 150 years. 588 00:30:09,375 --> 00:30:11,333 In addition to the passengers, the only thing that appeared 589 00:30:11,542 --> 00:30:13,667 to be missing from the Mary Celeste 590 00:30:13,875 --> 00:30:15,833 was a single lifeboat. 591 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,167 Even Captain Briggs' logbook provides no clues 592 00:30:19,333 --> 00:30:21,917 as to what may have happened. 593 00:30:22,042 --> 00:30:24,083 But some believe that the answer may be found 594 00:30:24,250 --> 00:30:27,500 in a letter written by the captain's wife, Sarah, 595 00:30:27,667 --> 00:30:31,333 two days before the Mary Celeste departed New York Harbor. 596 00:30:32,875 --> 00:30:35,667 Sarah wrote a letter to her mother-in-law, 597 00:30:35,833 --> 00:30:37,042 who was watching their son. 598 00:30:38,417 --> 00:30:40,500 And she had mentioned that the ship is making 599 00:30:40,583 --> 00:30:43,000 all kinds of popping and hissing sounds. 600 00:30:43,208 --> 00:30:45,583 Now, that would be the alcohol down below deck. 601 00:30:46,708 --> 00:30:52,667 They had left with 1,701 barrels of alcohol in their cargo. 602 00:30:52,833 --> 00:30:54,208 It made her nervous. 603 00:30:55,292 --> 00:30:58,958 HICKS: The U.S. routinely sold solvents and fuel 604 00:30:59,125 --> 00:31:01,000 and that kind of alcohol. 605 00:31:01,208 --> 00:31:06,167 If you had 450 gallons of methanol or formaldehyde 606 00:31:06,292 --> 00:31:11,125 that had been bottled up inside a ship's hold for three weeks, 607 00:31:11,292 --> 00:31:14,250 the effects could be serious for the crew. 608 00:31:15,792 --> 00:31:17,333 Nausea, dizziness. 609 00:31:17,500 --> 00:31:19,833 It could even cause hallucinations. 610 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,167 This is serious physiological effects 611 00:31:23,333 --> 00:31:26,125 from exposure to these kind of fumes. 612 00:31:27,208 --> 00:31:30,333 And I think that's what's at the at the heart of what happened. 613 00:31:30,542 --> 00:31:33,917 SHATNER: Could hallucinations explain 614 00:31:34,042 --> 00:31:35,833 why the crew abandoned ship 615 00:31:36,042 --> 00:31:39,208 without any supplies to survive the open ocean? 616 00:31:40,208 --> 00:31:43,000 While it's possible, others believe 617 00:31:43,167 --> 00:31:46,000 the ship itself was cursed. 618 00:31:47,083 --> 00:31:49,542 The Mary Celeste had long been associated 619 00:31:49,708 --> 00:31:51,833 with curious superstition, 620 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,708 ever since it was built in Nova Scotia in 1861. 621 00:31:56,833 --> 00:32:03,000 Back then, the ship went by a different name, the Amazon. 622 00:32:03,167 --> 00:32:07,500 The Amazon had more than its share of misfortune. 623 00:32:09,125 --> 00:32:12,583 We do know that the first captain of the ship 624 00:32:12,708 --> 00:32:16,250 died within a day of setting foot on board her. 625 00:32:16,417 --> 00:32:18,750 Someone had renamed it Mary Celeste, 626 00:32:18,958 --> 00:32:20,583 which is a no-no for ships. 627 00:32:21,542 --> 00:32:24,292 It was maritime folklore that renaming a ship 628 00:32:24,458 --> 00:32:27,667 would anger Poseidon or King Neptune. 629 00:32:27,833 --> 00:32:29,458 And if he had to relearn the name, 630 00:32:29,625 --> 00:32:34,417 the punishment for that was shipwreck or death. 631 00:32:34,583 --> 00:32:38,000 Whether you want to believe that that is supernatural, 632 00:32:38,167 --> 00:32:40,417 paranormal, bad luck, or what, 633 00:32:40,542 --> 00:32:44,333 people died around it, cargo went bad, 634 00:32:44,542 --> 00:32:45,917 nobody ever made money with it. 635 00:32:46,042 --> 00:32:48,542 It was just a horrible, bad luck ship. 636 00:32:50,042 --> 00:32:52,500 Could the crew of the Mary Celeste 637 00:32:52,625 --> 00:32:55,958 have succumbed to the power of a deadly curse 638 00:32:56,125 --> 00:32:59,292 or even the ravages of a giant squid? 639 00:32:59,375 --> 00:33:00,292 Hmm... 640 00:33:00,417 --> 00:33:03,208 It all sounds otherworldly. 641 00:33:04,458 --> 00:33:06,750 Just like the case of a lost airplane pilot 642 00:33:06,917 --> 00:33:12,000 whose last words sounded eerily like a close encounter 643 00:33:12,167 --> 00:33:14,583 with an unidentified flying object. 644 00:33:21,958 --> 00:33:24,000 SHATNER: Since the 1800s, 645 00:33:24,208 --> 00:33:26,417 this 190 mile-wide stretch of water 646 00:33:26,542 --> 00:33:29,167 separating Australia and Tasmania 647 00:33:29,292 --> 00:33:31,958 has earned a reputation where ships, 648 00:33:32,125 --> 00:33:36,167 and even planes, mysteriously go missing. 649 00:33:37,208 --> 00:33:40,500 It's sometimes called the Bass Strait Triangle. 650 00:33:42,208 --> 00:33:44,333 But something truly baffling happens 651 00:33:44,500 --> 00:33:48,000 over this notorious stretch of water 652 00:33:48,208 --> 00:33:51,042 when 20 year-old pilot Frederick Valentich 653 00:33:51,208 --> 00:33:54,250 flies the Strait in a Cessna 182L 654 00:33:54,417 --> 00:33:58,375 and encounters something in the sky. 655 00:33:58,583 --> 00:34:01,875 So, the 20th of October, 1978, Frederick Valentich drives 656 00:34:02,042 --> 00:34:05,042 right across Melbourne to Moorrabbin Airport for a flight. 657 00:34:06,125 --> 00:34:08,792 Which, presumably, he's doing to get his hours up, because 658 00:34:08,958 --> 00:34:10,333 he's a pilot who wants to become 659 00:34:10,458 --> 00:34:13,333 a commercial airline pilot. 660 00:34:14,333 --> 00:34:16,458 And he heads southwest out of Melbourne 661 00:34:16,583 --> 00:34:19,500 and along the coast towards Cape Otway. 662 00:34:19,708 --> 00:34:23,458 His flight plan has him flying from Moorabbin Airport 663 00:34:23,625 --> 00:34:25,542 down to Cape Otway at the lighthouse, 664 00:34:25,708 --> 00:34:27,500 which pilots like to use for navigation, 665 00:34:27,667 --> 00:34:31,333 and then turning to the southeast towards King Island. 666 00:34:31,542 --> 00:34:35,167 RUTKOWSKI: When he was flying towards King Island, 667 00:34:35,333 --> 00:34:37,458 he had some very strange transmissions 668 00:34:37,667 --> 00:34:41,167 and-and radio calls to the tower back in Melbourne. 669 00:34:42,292 --> 00:34:44,083 He asked the Melbourne tower 670 00:34:44,250 --> 00:34:46,583 if there were any aircraft in his vicinity, 671 00:34:46,708 --> 00:34:50,500 because he had said there was another object 672 00:34:50,625 --> 00:34:53,333 about 1,000 feet higher than him... 673 00:34:54,458 --> 00:34:56,667 ...and it had very bright lights, 674 00:34:56,875 --> 00:34:59,333 and there shouldn't have been anything there. 675 00:35:00,375 --> 00:35:03,125 SHATNER: What strange craft did Frederick Valentich 676 00:35:03,292 --> 00:35:07,667 see flying over Australia's Bass Strait? 677 00:35:08,708 --> 00:35:11,250 The only clues available today is the transcript 678 00:35:11,375 --> 00:35:13,958 of a six-minute transmission between Valentich 679 00:35:14,125 --> 00:35:16,875 and air traffic controller Steve Roby 680 00:35:17,042 --> 00:35:19,458 from Melbourne Flight Service. 681 00:35:20,750 --> 00:35:23,667 SIMPSON: Fred says, "This is Delta Sierra Juliet. 682 00:35:23,833 --> 00:35:26,625 Is there any known traffic below 5,000?" 683 00:35:27,958 --> 00:35:31,500 And then Steve Roby says, "No known traffic." 684 00:35:33,708 --> 00:35:38,000 And Frederick replies, "Seems to be a large aircraft below. 685 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,833 "It seems to me that he's playing some sort of game. 686 00:35:43,042 --> 00:35:46,125 "He's flying over me two to three times at a time 687 00:35:46,292 --> 00:35:48,375 at speeds I cannot identify." 688 00:35:49,417 --> 00:35:52,000 So then, Steve Roby replies, 689 00:35:52,208 --> 00:35:54,500 "Can you describe the aircraft?" 690 00:35:54,708 --> 00:35:56,833 And Frederick says, "It's got a green light 691 00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:58,917 "and sort of metallic-like. 692 00:35:59,083 --> 00:36:00,708 It's all shiny on the outside." 693 00:36:01,958 --> 00:36:04,542 SHATNER: What was the strange, metallic object 694 00:36:04,708 --> 00:36:07,708 Frederick Valentich reported in real time? 695 00:36:07,875 --> 00:36:09,708 We may never know for sure 696 00:36:09,875 --> 00:36:13,792 because, tragically, this 20-year-old pilot 697 00:36:13,917 --> 00:36:18,125 has never been seen or heard from again. 698 00:36:19,208 --> 00:36:23,208 He says, "That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. 699 00:36:23,375 --> 00:36:26,292 It is hovering, and it's not an aircraft." 700 00:36:27,667 --> 00:36:32,500 Within about 15 or 20 minutes of the loss of radio contact... 701 00:36:33,500 --> 00:36:36,000 ...a search and rescue, uh, operation was begun, 702 00:36:36,208 --> 00:36:38,167 and that lasted for a number of weeks. 703 00:36:38,292 --> 00:36:40,417 But no wreckage was ever recovered. 704 00:36:41,625 --> 00:36:44,333 Frederick Valentich has been missing now 705 00:36:44,500 --> 00:36:47,833 for 46 years, and yet, we are still talking about him. 706 00:36:50,125 --> 00:36:52,833 SHATNER: An official investigation presumed the event 707 00:36:52,958 --> 00:36:54,417 to be some kind of accident. 708 00:36:55,500 --> 00:36:59,167 But many, including Valentich's own father, 709 00:36:59,375 --> 00:37:01,708 offer another explanation: 710 00:37:01,875 --> 00:37:04,333 UFO abduction. 711 00:37:04,500 --> 00:37:06,500 SIMPSON: His father, he was looking for answers 712 00:37:06,708 --> 00:37:09,458 but nobody knows what actually happened. 713 00:37:09,625 --> 00:37:12,500 He came up with this theory that they might be these people 714 00:37:12,708 --> 00:37:14,708 from another world that captured Fred. 715 00:37:14,917 --> 00:37:18,625 The foundation of that story was what Fred actually said. 716 00:37:18,792 --> 00:37:20,917 He had to believe what his son said. 717 00:37:21,083 --> 00:37:23,542 This unidentified object was flying around him, 718 00:37:23,708 --> 00:37:25,500 and now he's disappeared. 719 00:37:25,708 --> 00:37:28,333 A lot of aircraft have disappeared all over the place, 720 00:37:28,542 --> 00:37:30,958 but very few of them report seeing a UFO 721 00:37:31,125 --> 00:37:33,125 and then disappear. 722 00:37:33,250 --> 00:37:34,625 But that's the case here. 723 00:37:35,833 --> 00:37:38,625 RUTKOWSKI: The Valentich incident really has all these elements 724 00:37:38,792 --> 00:37:42,583 of the entire UFO abduction milieu 725 00:37:42,708 --> 00:37:46,917 and makes us really wonder what was going on in the sky. 726 00:37:47,125 --> 00:37:50,083 Aircraft don't just disappear. 727 00:37:50,250 --> 00:37:52,333 People just don't disappear. 728 00:37:52,542 --> 00:37:54,958 We are used to stories 729 00:37:55,125 --> 00:37:57,833 that have nice beginnings and nice endings. 730 00:37:57,958 --> 00:38:02,458 We know the beginnings, but the endings sometimes elude us. 731 00:38:09,708 --> 00:38:12,750 SHATNER: Located in the heart of this frigid Canadian territory 732 00:38:12,875 --> 00:38:17,792 is a remote lake 197 square miles in size. 733 00:38:17,958 --> 00:38:20,833 It's a place that, according to legend, 734 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,667 was once home to the lost village of Lake Angikuni. 735 00:38:25,750 --> 00:38:30,125 Lake Angikuni is incredibly isolated from civilization. 736 00:38:30,292 --> 00:38:31,833 It's incredibly dangerous. 737 00:38:32,042 --> 00:38:35,708 It's minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit during the day sometimes. 738 00:38:35,875 --> 00:38:40,333 You can absolutely believe that anyone living on the tundra, 739 00:38:40,500 --> 00:38:41,667 that something could happen to them 740 00:38:41,875 --> 00:38:43,625 and you wouldn't know what happened. 741 00:38:45,042 --> 00:38:47,333 SHATNER: According to legends, the small Inuit village 742 00:38:47,500 --> 00:38:50,167 of Lake Angikuni was well-known to fur trappers 743 00:38:50,333 --> 00:38:54,042 who passed through on occasion during hunting expeditions. 744 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,167 In 1930, one of these trappers, Joe Labelle, 745 00:38:58,375 --> 00:39:00,500 reportedly arrived at the village 746 00:39:00,667 --> 00:39:03,833 and made a disturbing discovery. 747 00:39:05,167 --> 00:39:07,583 LANCE: Joe Labelle, he goes and looks, and there's nobody there. 748 00:39:07,708 --> 00:39:09,708 The village is completely abandoned. 749 00:39:09,875 --> 00:39:12,500 The way he describes it is it looks as if they just went out, 750 00:39:12,625 --> 00:39:15,250 expecting to come back, and never did. 751 00:39:16,792 --> 00:39:19,417 RUTKOWSKI: There was food that had been apparently taken 752 00:39:19,583 --> 00:39:22,042 and prepared, but never eaten. 753 00:39:22,208 --> 00:39:26,417 He said that he encountered seven sled dogs. 754 00:39:26,583 --> 00:39:29,250 Five of them had already died of malnutrition. 755 00:39:29,417 --> 00:39:31,792 Two were just barely hanging on. 756 00:39:31,958 --> 00:39:34,500 The villagers wouldn't have left the sled dogs behind 757 00:39:34,708 --> 00:39:37,208 because they were their lifeline to the outside world. 758 00:39:37,375 --> 00:39:40,500 So why did these people disappear? 759 00:39:41,750 --> 00:39:43,667 SHATNER: It is said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 760 00:39:43,792 --> 00:39:46,250 conducted an investigation of the site, 761 00:39:46,458 --> 00:39:48,958 but the villagers were never found. 762 00:39:50,042 --> 00:39:52,875 And this was not the only report made to police 763 00:39:53,083 --> 00:39:57,000 of unusual occurrences at Lake Angikuni. 764 00:39:57,167 --> 00:40:00,000 About the same time that Joe Labelle had found 765 00:40:00,208 --> 00:40:03,083 the abandoned village, there was a story circulating 766 00:40:03,250 --> 00:40:06,250 that another trapper, named Arnold Laronde, 767 00:40:06,417 --> 00:40:10,125 and his sons had seen a very strange object in the sky. 768 00:40:10,292 --> 00:40:14,042 It was described as a bullet-shaped metallic object 769 00:40:14,208 --> 00:40:15,667 moving through the heavens, 770 00:40:15,792 --> 00:40:18,708 and they had no explanation for what they had seen. 771 00:40:18,875 --> 00:40:22,250 This has been suggested by some to be a UFO connection 772 00:40:22,417 --> 00:40:24,208 to the vanishing village. 773 00:40:24,417 --> 00:40:26,667 SHATNER: Although we may never know for certain what happened 774 00:40:26,875 --> 00:40:29,667 to the village of Lake Angikuni, 775 00:40:29,750 --> 00:40:32,958 it remains one of the many lost stories 776 00:40:33,125 --> 00:40:37,542 that continue to fuel our collective curiosity and fear. 777 00:40:38,542 --> 00:40:39,875 STOKES: Every so often something happens 778 00:40:40,083 --> 00:40:42,667 that reminds us that the world is a big place 779 00:40:42,875 --> 00:40:45,667 and that we can be swallowed up into it without a trace. 780 00:40:45,833 --> 00:40:48,167 And I think we're very much haunted by the thought 781 00:40:48,250 --> 00:40:50,625 that people can simply vanish without trace, 782 00:40:50,833 --> 00:40:53,250 and that we may never know where they've gone. 783 00:40:53,417 --> 00:40:55,500 LANCE: We have these mysteries. 784 00:40:55,625 --> 00:40:57,708 They're more than 100 years old, some of them, 785 00:40:57,875 --> 00:40:59,542 and they still captivate our minds. 786 00:40:59,708 --> 00:41:00,875 And the interesting part is 787 00:41:01,042 --> 00:41:02,667 the evidence might still be there. 788 00:41:02,833 --> 00:41:06,458 Maybe we will find Glenn Miller's Norseman. 789 00:41:06,583 --> 00:41:10,208 Maybe we will find Amelia Earhart's Electra. 790 00:41:10,375 --> 00:41:12,667 Who knows what's still out there to find that might solve 791 00:41:12,792 --> 00:41:16,333 some of the great mysteries that still captivate the public? 792 00:41:18,208 --> 00:41:20,500 Learning that someone has suddenly disappeared 793 00:41:20,625 --> 00:41:23,458 from the face of Earth, and that there's very little hope 794 00:41:23,583 --> 00:41:26,000 of them ever being rescued, well, it's... 795 00:41:27,125 --> 00:41:29,792 ...it's very unsettling, isn't it? 796 00:41:29,917 --> 00:41:31,750 And when we hear stories that involve 797 00:41:31,917 --> 00:41:35,500 the likes of Amelia Earhart and Glenn Miller, 798 00:41:35,708 --> 00:41:38,792 you have to wonder, is it possible that 799 00:41:38,958 --> 00:41:42,625 any one of us could get lost and never be found? 800 00:41:43,917 --> 00:41:45,375 Well, let's hope not. 801 00:41:46,583 --> 00:41:49,042 But in any case, we can safely consider that 802 00:41:49,250 --> 00:41:53,667 just what caused these infamous vanishings 803 00:41:53,875 --> 00:41:57,167 lies in a chain of events that, for now, 804 00:41:57,375 --> 00:42:00,792 remains unexplained. 805 00:42:00,958 --> 00:42:02,625 CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS