All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S07E07.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites
Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new,
Mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

[ beeping, distorted music ]

The long-hidden horrors of
Hell island, revealed at last.

Many people who came in
Never made it out alive.

French: whoever built that,
They didn't want us to see

What was on
The other side.

Let's tear it down.

Narrator:
Deciphering the kansas code.

If this were to be proven,
It would be earth-shattering.

Narrator: and the 5,000-
Square-mile lightning bolt.

This is really one of the unique
Features of planet earth.

Narrator:
Baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

[ beeping, whirring ]

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

*

[ whirring, frequency warbles ]

*

November 14, 2019.

Passing over southern ireland,

The worldview-2 satellite
Captures a vast geometric shape

On a landmass
Outside cork harbor.

This is bizarre.

It's a really small island,

And then it looks like
Someone has just stamped

A six-pointed star
Right in the middle of it.

It's on an entryway
To cork harbor,

A strategic point for ireland

On the southern coast.

Narrator:
Dialing up the resolution

Suggests the structure does
Indeed have a strategic purpose.

You can see
This really thin shadow

Following the star shape
All the way around it,

And it looks to me
Distinctly like a moat.

And next to that, you've also
Got this perimeter wall.

So it's got to be a fort.

Narrator: naval records confirm
That a 24-acre bastion fort

Was built here
In the early 1800s.

But viewing it from the skies,
The trained eye

Of military historian
Phillips payson o'brien

Spots something
That isn't right.

O'brien:
When you look at it closely,

You'll see two burned-out
Or derelict buildings.

The fort was never attacked,
So we know

That it was never destroyed
In a military operation.

And it's those two buildings
That stand out.

Narrator:
Irish government records reveal

That this wasn't always a fort.

In 1847, it is repurposed
As a prison,

Spike island --
The irish alcatraz.

Spike island is -- well,
There's no other word for it.

It's really sinister.

And I regard it
As a really, really bad stain

On britain's
Correctional system.

The conditions here
Were so horrific

That it gained the reputation
Of a hell on earth.

Many people who came in
Never made it out alive.

Narrator: for much of
The 19th century, spike island

Is one of the most
Infamous prisons on earth.

It is synonymous with death
And suffering.

Yet new evidence suggests
That a section of the prison

Has been lost to history,

Bricked over beneath the most
Southerly point of the fort.

The archives have thrown up
This incredibly shocking letter

Written more than 170 years ago
By a prison inspector.

That letter refers
To this series

Of top-secret solitary
Confinement prison cells,

And they're hidden in a part of
The fort called bastion three.

An it's rumored that these
Are more than just cells.

They're torture chambers.

[ bell tolling ]

*

Narrator:
Gripped by the new evidence,
Archeologist kirk french

Is traveling to the star-shaped
Prison on the irish coast,

Hunting for bastion three.

*

For three centuries,

Spike island has struck fear
Into the locals,

But the letter suggests
Its darkest secrets

Have yet to be revealed.

*

Thanks a lot.

*

Much of spike island
Now lies in ruins,

But at its peak, this prison was
10 times the size of alcatraz.

It doesn't even look like
Anything's under here

It's so covered in growth.

This is so wild.

*

Narrator:
Led by the satellite image,

French presses further
Into the island,

Seeking the area described in
The prison inspector's letter.

*

The huge banks
Surrounding the jail

Were built by
The inmates themselves

Over 150 years ago.

French:
This place is enormous.

Walters:
In the 19th century,

Spike island is the largest
Prison in the world.

*

We're actually talking about
2,000 prisoners,

Shackled together, 12 in a cell.

*

Narrator:
An account from the prison
Chaplain in the mid-19th century

Describes the convicts here
As a menagerie of wild animals

That snarl and fight
In cells like these.

*

[ birds cooing ]

*

But it's a hidden cell block
That drew french here,

And to find it, he's meeting
Archeologist barra o'donnabhain,

An expert on spike island.

O'donnabhain: there are so many
Layers of history and archeology

That you can explore
On this island.

O'donnabhain leads french
To the entrance

Of a series of
Underground tunnels.

It's quite a massive door.

It is.

*

Penal records reveal that
Spike island has its genesis

In the great famine
Of 1845 to 1849.

*

Britain's ruling class decides
The population is too high

And allows a million irish
To starve to death.

As a result, you've got this
Huge crime wave, if you like,

Which explodes
Because people are starving.

No resistance will be tolerated,

So any petty crime
Resulted in jail time.

*

Narrator:
By the 1850s, spike island
Is a public health catastrophe,

Overcrowded with
2,300 prisoners.

In one year alone,
Nearly 300 convicts die here.

*

French: this place
Is pretty spooky, man.

Yeah, absolutely.

*

I don't like coming in here
On my own.

They were cramming people
Into the bowels of this fort,

Where there was no air,
No light,

And all of them
Had malnutrition.

You've even got
A children's prison,

And many of these poor kids
Sent to spike

Were even just stealing
A loaf of bread.

*

Narrator: children as young
As 11 are caged at spike island.

Fatal disease
And mental illness are rife.

Yet if the inspector's letter
Is to be believed,

The worst atrocities took place
Behind a gunpowder store

That isn't marked on any plans.

And o'donnabhain's research
Suggests this wall

Could hold the key
To the mystery.

That wall
Should not be there.

No way.
It doesn't make sense.

Yeah, it doesn't even look
Like it belongs there, right?

No. Why would you block up
A corridor?

It's a kind of point of access
To other rooms.

It's possible this brickwork

Hides the infamous
Bastion three...

*

...And conceals over a century
Of buried secrets.

I think we need
To take down that wall.

Let's tear it down.

[ laughs ]

*

Coming up,
Into the chamber of terror.

No one's been here
For 100 years.

God. I'll be dammed.

That's amazing.

And getting filthy rich
In the crappiest town in texas.

The smell of human waste
Can smell like money to some.

Narrator: kirk french
Is in southern ireland

At a notorious prison
Revealed from space...

O'donnabhain:
It's like a cave in here.

...Searching with archeologist
Barra o'donnabhain

For an undiscovered
Punishment block.

We need to know
What's beyond that wall.

Tear it down.

Let's do it.

They've secured permission
To take down a brick wall

And drafted in
A specialist construction team.

As one layer of bricks
Begins to crumble,

Another appears behind it.

French: whoever built that,
They didn't want us to see

What was on
The other side.

Thanks, man.
Alright.

Finally,
As the wall comes down...

Alright, man.

So no one's been in here
For 100 years.

...French and o'donnabhain
Step back in time.

So, there's
This weird hook here that --

Look at the -- oh.

According to a recently
Discovered 19th-century letter,

The hidden cell block lies
Behind a gunpowder store.

*

O'donnabhain thinks
This window suggests

Explosives were indeed
Once stored here.

The one thing you need in there
Is light,

But you can't have
A naked flame.

The way they worked that out

Was, so, where the brick is now,
That would've been glass.

You had paraffin lamp here,
And that lighted your magazine.

Yeah, that makes sense,
And kept it safe.

If this is the gunpowder store
Referred to in the letter

That drew french here,

Then the punishment cells
Could lie ahead.

*

They are described
As windowless,

Except for a small circle
Above the cell door.

*

God.

*

French:
[ chuckling ] Whoa.

*

Oh, man.

I'll be damned.
That's amazing.

I don't know anything like that
Anywhere else on the island.

French and o'donnabhain

Have found the infamous
Bastion three.

We're standing in one of the
Original punishment cells

Mentioned in that letter.

This is it, this spot.

Yeah.

It's rumored that
What takes place in these cells

Is far worse than abuses
Elsewhere in the prison.

*

Accounts from guards describe
An already horrific regime.

Walters:
You've got these prisoners.
They're in solitary confinement,

And they are heavily chained,

Often to the walls
Of their cells.

They've only got a hood
With narrow slits for eye holes.

I mean, this is
Seriously barbaric.

Narrator:
Clues on the walls suggest

That the prison governors tried
To erase evidence of the cells

Before bricking over
The entire block.

So you can see where the plaster
Work is a bit different.

There was some kind of
Partition wall.

The partitions reveal

That multiple solitary
Confinement cells

Once lined this corridor.

We've got a whole sequence
Running down along this wall

And a whole sequence
Of partitions.

We're actually
In the cell.

Prisoners could have been
Shackled and tortured

In these dark, airless chambers

For months,
Even years at a time.

[ man screaming ]

Bellinger:
There's heart-wrenching
Rumors of prisoners

Wailing and weeping
And screaming for relief.

There are just so many shocking
Revelations about the place.

You do start to wonder

What else don't we know
About bastion three?

Narrator:
The exact nature of the torments
Carried out in bastion three

Remains unclear.

*

Yet o'donnabhain reveals

That those who perish
Get no peace in death.

Is that a skull cap?
It is, right?

Yeah, this is the top
Of a skull.

O'donnabhain has recently
Exhumed a mass grave

On the southwest of the island.

Here we can see saw marks,

Where the top of the skull
Has been removed.

10% of the prisoners
Whose bodies we've recovered

Have been experimented on.

This is like lombroso's work.
Yeah, exactly.

In the 19th century,
An italian scientist,

Cesare lombroso,
Inspired by darwin,

Argues that criminals
Are genetically inferior.

He wanted to demonstrate

That criminals were basically
Evolutionary steps backward

And that their behavior
Was related

To different
Parts of their brain

That were not quite as evolved
As the rest of us.

Narrator: lombroso's theory
Of heredity criminality

Paves the way for the appalling
Actions of dr. Joseph mengele

And other nazi scientists.

It may well be the reason

Why these skulls
Have all been opened up,

Is that these kind
Of experiments

Were being undertaken
On the dead bodies.

Narrator: from the horrors
Of bastion three

To macabre experiments
On corpses, spike island

Has a legacy of terror
Straddling three centuries.

Janulis:
20th century rolls around.

They keep using it as a prison.

It's a young offenders' prison
In the 1980s,

And there's a mass riot.

This is what destroyed
The two buildings

That we can see in the image.

*

Narrator: irish officials
Finally decommission the prison

In 2004.

In the 19th century,
Its records state

That 1,200 convicts perish here.

Archeologists have found
The remains of just 250,

The rest, like the secrets
Of bastion three,

Remain hidden on spike island.

*

Coming up, the town
Where time stands still.

We're getting a sneak peek
Into the future of planet earth

If we were to disappear.

Narrator:
And the origin of all mankind.

This is unlike anything
I've ever seen before.

Narrator: april 27, 2019.

As the worldview-3 satellite
Scans the east coast

Of the mediterranean island
Of cyprus,

It captures an unusual city
380 miles below.

Carter:
We see that there's activity.

We see buildings.
We see this beach

Where you see the very light
Blue, crystal-clear waters.

But in this area,

There appears to be a very dark
Stain on this landscape.

Schuttler:
It's almost like somebody turned
The lights out on half the city.

But this is daytime.

Narrator: something has
Discolored 2 square miles

Of an otherwise thriving
Coastal metropolis.

Morgan:
It's extremely unusual to see.

One half is bright and vibrant,

And the other half
Is dull and muted.

It looks as if part of the city
Has been smeared,

Covered in something.

*

Narrator: sara carter has
A theory for what could cause

Such a large swath of land
To turn this color.

Carter:
This murky stain reminds me

Of the same type
Of landscape stain

That's in sierra blanca, texas,

That you can see
From satellite images.

Narrator: this giant blemish
On the lone star state

Can be traced to the rear end
Of the big apple.

The land is stained because
It was a dumping ground

For, believe it or not,
New york sewage.

*

Narrator:
In 1988, new york is banned
From dumping waste in the sea,

And the city authorities
Suddenly have

Almost half a million tons
Of excrement on their hands.

*

The brave men and women of
Sierra blanca offer a solution.

*

Sewage is taken
From new york city,

And it's packed
Into these train cars

And then sent all the way
South to texas.

Narrator:
Every day, up to 45 train cars

Haul 250 tons of sewage

To a place known
As the sludge ranch.

Local farmers then
Spray it over their fields,

Turning yesterday's food
Into fertilizer.

At the sludge ranch, when
They spread this toxic mixture

Across the surface,
It darkens the land,

But the smell of human waste
Can smell like money to some.

*

Narrator: sludge ranching
Pulls in $33 million a year,

And farmers report
Huge increases in crop yields.

But while the farmers
Are feeling flush,

Other locals
Think the deal stinks

And not just because
Of the 16,000-acre skid mark

It leaves on their landscape.

Schuttler:
Some sewage sludge can be
Made up of radioactive waste,

Heavy metals, and carcinogens,

Stuff that is really toxic
To human beings.

Narrator:
The town on the island of cyprus
Also looks like sludge city,

And indeed, the authorities here
Have been taken to court

Over failings
In its waste management.

Carter: the state
Of the cyprus sewage system

Leaves a lot to be desired,

So maybe what we're seeing
In this image

Is a catastrophic sewage leak.

Narrator:
But if this is fertilizer,

It looks like
It's already doing its job,

As bronwyn agrios discovers

Using spectral analysis
On the image.

Agrios: when I analyze
The image, it's clear to me

That this is being
Taken over by vegetation.

There's no cars.

The buildings and yards
Are all unkept.

All of this kind of points
To this area being abandoned

For a significant
Amount of time.

*

Narrator: a detail at the edge
Of town provides a clue

To what forced
Its residents to flee.

There's this thick black line

Basically cutting
The town in half.

This really looks like
A lot of these buffer zones

In other parts of the world
That militaries use

To kind of create
A no man's land.

Narrator:
Military records confirm

That cyprus has witnessed
Bloodshed in recent times.

Munoz: in 1974,

Greece and turkey go to war
Over this island.

It's brutal fighting
On both sides.

*

Narrator:
In 1974, cyprus has both a greek

And turkish population.

When the 40,000-strong
Turkish army invades,

It targets greek areas
In the east,

And the town in the image
Is in the firing line.

Morgan: the city was owned
By primarily greek people,

And they're told to evacuate.
Turkish troops are on the way.

There's going to be
A battle here.

Narrator: at this time,
The town, called varosha,

Is one of the world's
Most fashionable hangouts,

A mecca for millionaires,
Playboys, and film stars.

People are coming from hollywood
Like paul newman,

Brigitte bardot,
Elizabeth taylor

To party
And enjoy the beaches here.

Narrator: fearing a massacre,
The vacationers

And town's residents
Run for their lives,

Leaving their homes
And belongings behind.

Picture yourself a greek cypriot
In this town.

You have the turkish military
Bearing down on you.

So you leave laundry
On clothes lines.

You leave food half-eaten
In your kitchen.

All you're leaving with
Is your family

And the clothes on your back

In the hopes that you can
Get into greek territory.

*

When turkish forces eventually
Move into the town,

They find it basically
Abandoned. It's a ghost town.

Narrator: the greek and turkish
Governments eventually agree

To a ceasefire
And divide cyprus between them.

Munoz:
Turkey ends up controlling
The eastern half of the island,

While the greeks take the west.

This town was actually in
The turkish zone of the island.

Narrator: turkey permanently
Quarantines the ghost town

To be used
As a kind of bargaining chip

In negotiations
Over the island's future.

It forces the residents to
Rebuild their lives elsewhere.

They were basically told
That they can never return

On the threat of being shot.

Narrator:
Varosha becomes a time capsule.

Morgan: the place sits abandoned
Like a movie set.

You might pass a shop
With fashions from 1974,

Car dealerships where you can
See automobiles still inside,

An airport with aircraft still
Parked on the runway from 1974.

*

Narrator:
Over the following decades,

Nature reclaims the town,

Turning an azure
Seaside paradise

Into the dark stain
Visible from space.

We're getting a sneak peek
Into the future of planet earth

If we were to disappear.

*

Narrator: coming up,
The 40,000-year-old cipher.

If this were to be proven,
It would rewrite our timeline

For the development
Of human intellect.

Narrator:
And the haunting waters
Of the lake michigan triangle.

This is a really
Mysterious area.

Ships keep getting lost,
Never being seen again.

Narrator: june 26, 2015.

In orbit over kansas in the
Midwest of the united states,

The landsat copernicus satellite
Captures this image.

This satellite image
Is intriguing.

It shows a number of symbols --

Crosses, lines,
X's, triangles --

Seemingly in a random pattern

Carved into the landscape.

Paul:
Some of the shapes almost look
Like letters -- a "Z," a "T."

Is there a code here?

Of course, the immediate
Question is, what do they mean?

*

Narrator:
When archeologist karen
Bellinger studies the image,

She sees something familiar
In the patterns.

There are sites around the world
Where symbols

Similar to some of the things
I'm seeing in this image

Have been found
In ancient, ancient rock art

In caves and in petroglyphs.

*

Narrator: bellinger reveals
That 9 of the shapes

Match a series of 32 symbols

Engineered by our
Far distant ancestors.

*

Bellinger: there are found
In sites throughout the world,

Everywhere humans have settled,

And sites that are very old,

I mean 40,000 years old
And more.

They are purposeful, and they
Are repeated time and again.

*

Narrator: what baffles analysts
Is that the same symbols

Appeared around the world

Before international trade
And travel became widespread.

The fact
That only 32 symbols emerge

As consistent,

Utterly consistent
Across time and space,

Lead some to theorize

That this is some early form
Of communication.

Narrator: if these symbols
Found around the world

Are an early form of language,

They pre-date the earliest
Known written texts,

Sumerian cuneiform,
By over 30,000 years.

If this were to be proven,
It would be earth-shattering.

It would rewrite our timeline

For the development
Of human intellect

And artistic creativity.

*

Narrator: studies suggest that
Humans arrived in north america

At least 20,000 years ago,

Yet ancient peoples have tended

To leave symbolic markings
On rock faces or as geoglyphs,

Not carved deep into the land
Like this.

Simpson jr.: so if these
Do represent symbols,

Do they have to be ancient,

Or could they be more
Contemporary?

Mairot: there was a group
Of people in the 20th century

That used code to communicate,
And that was your hobo.

[ men shouting indistinctly ]

Narrator:
The hobo phenomenon begins

When the american civil war
Ends in 1865,

Two million soldiers
Return home,

But many find
Their loved ones dead

And communities destroyed.

So they hit the road
In search of a better life.

They become known as homeward
Bound soldiers, or hobos.

Kourounis: it's only been in
Relatively recent times

That the term hobo
Has had negative connotations.

When the word was first coined,

It was all about
People looking for work,

Traveling from town to town.

They want to be a productive
Member of society,

And they want to make living,
But they just can't do it

Where they were at,
So a lot of them have to travel.

[ train horn blowing ]

Narrator: often hitching a ride
On the new freight trains

Traversing the u.S.,
The mostly illiterate men

Develop a code
To relay useful information.

Kourounis: they came up
With their own written language,

Kind of like
Drifter hieroglyphics.

They would etch or scratch
These symbols into train cars,

Fence posts, the sides of trees,

And they would act
As markers and road signs

For the other hobos
Who would follow behind.

*

Narrator:
By 1910, there are 3 million
Hobos crisscrossing the country,

And their untethered lifestyle
Draws such celebrities

As jack london,

Ernest hemingway,
And clark gable.

*

Yet during the great depression,
Their itinerant ways

Instead become a symbol
Of the grinding poverty

Afflicting the country.

Paul: so the hobo code
Became very important

In them being able
To share messages,

So that they had an idea
Of what they were getting into

When they would land
In a new town.

The hobo code had

At least 100
Different simple symbols.

A "T" shape literally means
Food available here,

While a box-like structure means
You've got a safe place to camp.

*

Narrator: throughout the 1930s,
Hobo camps, or jungles,

Spring up at major rail hubs
Across the u.S.,

Presided over by an elected
Hobo king and queen.

Paul:
These weren't just tents pitched
Up by a number of people,

But they were small,
Semi-nomadic communities.

You have a sense
Of herd immunity

And protection from others,
Because you're keeping together

As a group,
And it makes it harder

For the gangsters of train
Companies to pick them off.

*

Simpson jr.: when I look
At some of these symbols,

They look very similar to what
We find inside the hobo code.

Narrator: yet a code, hobo
Or any other, on this scale

Would be unprecedented.

The origin and purpose
Of the strange shapes

In the kansas landscape
Seen from space

Remain to be deciphered.

Hunt: the fact that they're
Using so many symbols

That are common to cultures
Spread across the world

Is a real mystery.

*

Narrator: coming up, the
Kalahari's mega-sized mystery.

It looks like lightning
Going across the earth.

Narrator: and world war weird
In the waters of lake michigan.

How in the world did a nazi ship
End up wrecked in a lake

In the united states of america?

Narrator: june 2, 2011.

The international space station

Flies over botswana,
Southern africa.

Onboard, a nasa astronaut
Takes this picture.

Nelson: this is unlike anything
I've ever seen before.

It's bizarre, because
It looks like a tree stump

With all of these roots
Growing underground.

It looks like lightning

Going across the earth.

Narrator: geologists recognize
The strange inky pattern.

Dennie:
This image is showing a river,

And as it hits the edge
Of this area,

It fans out into this
Triangular shape called a delta.

Dull: what we're looking at here
Is the okavango river delta,

Which is a very unique
Ecosystem,

Unique in africa and unique
In the world, quite frankly.

Narrator: the okavango delta is
A 2,300-square-mile inland swamp

And an oasis
For millions of animals.

*

Yet when seen from space,

There's something weird
About it.

River deltas end
In something else,

In a bigger body of water.

Here, this just ends
Randomly in the desert.

Something strange is going on.

Why is this river not forming
A lake or a sea or an ocean?

Narrator:
The satellite image reveals

These wetlands did once
Feed a huge lake.

Lester:
If we follow the direction
Of those dendritic tendrils,

To the southeast
Is a dried-up lake bed,

An enormous salt pan.

Narrator:
This is the makgadikgadi pan,

One of the largest salt flats
In the world.

2 million years ago, it was
A lake the size of austria,

And new research suggests

Its banks were home
To the first humans,

From whom all of us
Are descended.

Dna studies show that some
Of the earliest homo sapiens

Actually came from the margins
Of this ancient lake

That was fed
By the okavango river.

Lester: the cradle of humanity

Was right in this area.

Narrator:
The image yields clues

As to why the okavango stopped
Feeding the prehistoric lake,

Causing its demise.

Right at the terminus
Of the delta,

We see these linear features

That appear to be linked
To fault zones,

Running perpendicular
To the okavango delta.

Narrator: these faults connect
To the east african rift system,

A 4,000-mile-long tear
Across the continent of africa.

Over 10,000 years ago,

Shifting tectonic plates
Cut off the flow of water

From the okavango into the lake.

*

The okavango delta has dropped

In relation to the lake
That it once fed

To the southeast.

That lake is left perched,
Literally, high and dry.

*

Narrator: the blistering
Desert heat does the rest.

The kalahari is one of the
Hottest places on the planet,

Temperatures over 100 degrees,

And it's extremely dry,

And so it has
A very high evaporation rate.

Narrator: yet this highlights
Another mystery

About the okavango delta.

Over 95% of the water
Flowing through it

Is also lost to the atmosphere.

This should turn the oasis

Into a lifeless, salty hellhole.

The okavango delta is weird
Because it's fresh water,

And freshwater deltas
Are unusual

In very harsh deserts like this.

Narrator:
Studies reveal the secret
To the okavango's fresh water

Are the bizarre white islands
That scatter the delta,

150,000 of them.

Kays: the plant life is sucking
Out the water and the salts,

And that ends up accumulating
The salts onto these islands.

Narrator:
Over countless centuries,

The islands have amassed
350,000 tons of salt,

Allowing the beasts of
The kalahari to thrive here,

Fighting, feasting,
And fornicating.

The okavango delta is one
Of the last true wildernesses

On the planet, and it supports

One of the most rich
And diverse wildlife systems

In africa.

Narrator: but this giant
Animal party is in peril.

In 2019, satellite data reveals

Their aquatic paradise
Is shrinking.

Having miraculously come to life
By this extreme twist of fate,

The okavango delta
Is now under threat.

All of these animals
Are wondering

Where the water is
That they need to survive.

*

Narrator: investigators learn

The origin
Of this shrinking delta

Lies upriver in angola.

The okavango river travels
Nearly 1,000 miles

From the angola highlands,
Cutting across namibia

And utilizing an enormous
Catchment area

To increase its water flow.

Narrator: increasing amounts
Of agriculture in angola

Is starving the okavango
Of its lifeblood --

Bad news for these big beasts

And the extraordinary delta
Seen from space.

Rice:
It will be a catastrophe,

Because all of these
Wonderful creatures

And everything they depend on
Will be gone forever.

*

Narrator: coming up, the bermuda
Triangle of the great lakes.

Some people believe
That this area of the lake

Is actually haunted.

Narrator: eyes in the sky
Are an invaluable tool

In the hunt for lost ships
And planes...

*

...Nowhere more so than over
The deep, clear waters

Of lake michigan.

Albertson:
The thing about water in
Lake michigan is that it's cold,

And it lacks a lot of oxygen,

So it prevents
The growth of organisms

That would eat away
At a shipwreck.

Therefore, it's really good
At preserving wrecks.

*

Narrator: over 1,500 shipwrecks
Litter these waters,

One every cubic mile of water.

Many fell victim to the giant
Lake's notorious weather.

*

Pavelec: it's so big,
It's got its own microclimate,

In that you get very similar
States as the ocean

Because it's just massive,

So, big waves and fog and ice.

*

Mosher: locals call these
Hurricane-like events

That can happen over the lakes
The witch of november,

When these cold and warm
Air masses slam together

And generate huge storms.

*

Narrator: of particular interest
To wreck hunters

Is a mysterious
4,000-square-mile area

Which has claimed numerous ships
And planes since records began.

Chamberlain:
This is a really mysterious area

That is referred to as
The lake michigan triangle.

*

Ships keep getting lost,
Never being seen again.

Some people believe
That this area of the lake

Is actually haunted.

Narrator: as martin morgan
Scans the triangle,

He notices a vessel
Semi-submerged in the water.

To the military historian,

Something about it
Doesn't seem right.

Morgan:
This is an ocean-going ship
Rather than one that was built

Specifically to operate
On the great lakes.

Based on the size
And some of the details,

I believe that
This might actually be

A world war I-era ship.

Narrator:
Morgan cross-references
The wreck's dimensions

And apparent age
With shipping records

And discovers
Something intriguing.

Morgan: I think
What we're looking at here

Is the s.S. francisco morazan

That served the german navy
In world war I,

That was then pressed into
Service in the second world war.

So how in the world
Did a nazi ship

End up wrecked in a lake

In the united states of america?

Narrator:
Analysts comb german war records
For more information.

This ship begins its life
In the 1920s

As the elbing.

It's a cargo ship.

And when the nazis
Take over germany in the 1930s,

The elbing is re-flagged, and
It's used by the german navy.

*

Narrator:
In 1940, the 230-foot freighter

Is listed in the vessels
Requisitioned by hitler

As part of his plan
To invade britain,

Code-named operation sea lion.

Sea lion was to be an amphibious
Landing operation

Against the united kingdom.

Pavelec: he's going
To have to do it by sea

Because he doesn't have
The air transport

To move all these men
Across the english channel.

*

Narrator: yet the german navy
Is ill-prepared for the invasion

And lacks the specialist
Landing craft

Needed to deploy tanks
And infantry.

Instead, the nazis amass a fleet
Of 2,400 industrial barges

To carry the 100,000 soldiers

Hitler plans to unleash
On the british beaches.

And their ability
To cross the channel

Depends on heavyweight haulers
Like the elbing.

Those landing barges would need
To be towed by larger ships.

The elbing was essential
To hitler's invasion fleet.

It would have provided coal
To the other vessels,

Towing troop barges headed on
Their way to invade the british.

*

Narrator: in the fall of 1940,

Following heavy losses
To his air force,

Hitler cancels
His invasion plans.

But wartime records reveal
The elbing soon tastes action

Against its allied enemies.

Pavelec:
In operation claymore in 1941,

The royal navy
And the royal air force

Attacks the german navy
At norway.

*

The elbing is damaged
But is brought back to hamburg,

Where it's rebuilt and refitted,

And then it continues
Its service in the german navy.

Narrator: when the axis forces
Are eventually defeated in 1945,

The cost of the war
Isn't just counted

In the 75 million lives
It claims worldwide.

In today's money,

The allies spend $4 trillion
During world war ii.

And in reparation, they strip
Their enemies' assets

And carry them home
As spoils of war.

The british had lost thousands,
Hundreds of thousands

Of tons of ships,
And they needed replacements.

They took over a whole range
Of german ships,

Including the elbing.

*

Narrator: in 1958, the ship

That was supposed to help hitler
Win the war

Ends up being sold for cash
To carry clay.

Two years later, it's claimed

By the weird, wild weather that
Stalks this watery graveyard.

*

A snowstorm begins.

It's torrential.

There is no visibility.

The captain eventually
Gets off-course

And runs the ship aground.

*

Narrator:
Today, captured from space,

It remains
As an unlikely remnant

Of a time when terror shadowed
The free world.

It's sort of fascinating
That this ship

That was such a survivor
And was so intimately connected

To important moments
In the second world war

Ends up in the frigid waters

Of one of america's
Largest lakes.