Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

- Topside, I receive you loud and clear.

(metal detector beeping)

- What do you got?

- This is Topside, dig it up.

(dramatic music swells)

(waves crash)

(narrator): It's known as The Death Coast.

An area of rough sea in the North Atlantic

that's claimed more than 6,000 vessels.

(sailors shouting)

Casting those aboard, and treasure,

into its turbulent depths.

(Jeff): We gotta turn this thing around!

Here we go!

(narrator): Gold, silver, and other priceless objects

from the wrecked ships.

- Oh, my God, you're not gonna believe this.

(narrator): Lie scattered across the ocean floor.

- Gold coin right there. - That is gorgeous.

(narrator): But salvaging here has been banned

for more than a decade, thanks to rampant looting.

Now...

- Storm is a-brewin'.

(thunder cracks) Nothing could-- whoa, boy!

(narrator): After a long battle, third generation

shipwreck hunter, Jeff MacKinnon,

has won the exclusive rights

to dive in these treacherous waters.

- Oh, yeah!

(narrator): But he only has eight weeks to do it.

- Are you okay?

(narrator): Can Jeff and his team

find the treasure he seeks?

- Find me something.

- Before the stormy waters of the Death Coast...

- It's time for us to get outta here.

- Pull him out. Pull Doug out.

(narrator): ...make diving impossible.

(dramatic music)

(waves crash)

(narrator): After waiting 14 years

to return to Nova Scotia's Death Coast,

to search for shipwrecks,

Jeff MacKinnon and his crew are nearing the end

of their eight-week dive period.

- We are really under the gun here.

Hurricane season is about to start,

and when hurricane season starts,

we are shut down.

(splashing)

(narrator): For the last few weeks,

the team has focused their attention

on the outer edge of Scatarie Island,

believed to be the final resting place

of the treasure carried by a sunken British convoy.

- Holy (bleep)! - What are those?

- Kind of look like emeralds to me.

(narrator): But their progress in the area is being interrupted

as Hurricane Ernesto barrels dangerously close to the island.

- Nobody can argue with a hurricane. Not even me.

(waves crash)

But I'm not gonna be beat.

We have a major decision to make.

(ominous music)

(narrator): With only one week left to dive these waters,

they can't afford to lose any more days.

So Jeff calls a meeting to plan their next move.

- This is crunch time. Where do we go?

Alright, we have miserable weather.

It's no secret to anybody, look out the window,

it's a mess.

And now we got a hurricane tracking.

Jim, what's that hurricane doing?

- Well, according to the app that I was looking at,

Hurricane Ernesto is about 50 miles offshore,

it's not gonna hit directly here,

but we're gonna get some pretty big swells coming through.

- I looked up Marine Forecast,

they're saying 10 to 14 foot seas.

There's no way to dive in that.

- No, we ain't doing nothing in that.

- So, what's the plan?

(narrator): At the beginning of the dive season,

Jeff and his team identified multiple wrecks

they wanted to locate and salvage

during their short dive window.

But are any of those wrecks viable options at this moment?

- Well, we're obviously gonna need somewhere protected.

- How about the Bruce? The Bruce is,

is on the other side of Cape Breton Point,

and it's protected by the land.

(narrator): In 1911, the Newfoundland steamship

Bruce struck a submerged rock off Main-à-Dieu.

All but two of the 121 on board,

including 70 first-class passengers,

fled the wreck, leaving everything,

in some cases, their entire life possessions,

to the Death Coast.

- No. The problem in a sea like this,

it's gonna end up wrapping around the point,

so any protection we woulda had, it ain't gonna be there.

- Jeff, how about the Auguste?

(narrator): In 1761, British ship the Auguste

sunk off the northern tip of Cape Breton,

while carrying wealthy exiled colonists

from New France back to Europe,

sending all of its passengers,

and a savings hoard of gold and silver,

to the seafloor.

- Mmm, that's even worse

because we'll spend the entire day pounding,

we won't have any time to dive.

I do, however, have something in the back of my mind.

There's a ship called the Lombrac,

that wrecked at the entrance of Baleine Harbor.

- Wait, what's the Lombrac? I'm not familiar with that.

- It was apparently a French ship

that wrecked in the early 1700s.

It wasn't a warship, but it was armed to the teeth.

(narrator): Though few details are known, legend has it

that some time in the first decade

of the 18th century, a French frigate

known as the Lombrac was attempting to outrun

a vicious Atlantic Storm.

(thunder booming)

But before she could reach refuge,

she was wrecked at the mouth of Baleine Harbor,

and broke apart.

- It had big cannonballs and big mortar balls on it,

so it meant business, and when a ship was armed like that,

you know there was something valuable on it.

- It's right in the harbor.

- Yep. We can take the two little Zodiacs,

launch them in Baleine,

and then spend the next couple of days there,

and the weather's not gonna bother us one bit.

Baleine has a protected inlet.

This type of wind doesn't seem to affect the harbor.

It might not be the most exciting find in the world,

but right now, it's all we've got.

You never know what an item like this is trying to tell you.

People around Baleine and Loraine,

they've been talking about this wreck for ages.

I'm from these parts.

Ever since I was a kid,

I heard stories about a shipwreck

that had crashed at the head of Baleine Harbor.

And I know that shipwreck has never been found.

And that's the kind of shipwreck I like.

- So nobody's dove this before that we know of?

- Nope.

(narrator): Diving for a ship

that may be nothing more than an urban legend is risky.

But with the impending storm, there are few other options

or locations for the team to dive right now.

- First shot at it. - Yup.

This is a good opportunity for me to see if it's real.

(dramatic music)

(waves crash)

- Heavy stuff. Very heavy.

(narrator): As the stormy weather takes hold on the ocean,

Jeff and his team of divers get ready to dive in

the protected waters of Baleine Harbor,

where Jeff believes the Lombrac sank

to the bottom 300 years ago.

- The only way to prove whether or not the legend is true

is to find the wreck.

(narrator): Jeff has brought in former police recovery diver

Jim Taylor, because of his experience

diving in the harbor.

- Thank God we got all this technology, boy.

Those shipwrecks, they're not gonna stand a chance

against what we got here.

(narrator): While the harbor's protected

from the surging ocean waters,

Jeff keeps a keen eye out for another potential danger,

the approaching fog.

- Limited visibility below the surface or above

the surface is never good for a treasure hunter.

Fog is a pain in my ass.

Away we go!

(narrator): So now, it's a race against time,

to dive while the visibility holds.

(suspenseful music)

Jeff's plan is to search for the Lombrac at the sunken reef,

which protects the entrance to the harbor.

(waves crash)

- I'm not sure where the Lombrac wrecked,

but using the experience that I have gleaned over the years,

I'm gonna say that it started at the outside reef

and worked its way in.

So that's where I'm gonna put my divers,

right at the head of Baleine Harbor,

right at the first set of sunkers,

and have them work their way into shore.

C'mon, divers.

(splashing)

(oxygen hissing)

- Mike Haas, I'm doing a comms check.

Copy that.

Diver on the bottom!

(narrator): It's a slow start to the search.

Here in the bay, runoff in the form of sand and silt

from the land nearby, clouds the water,

forcing the divers to move carefully.

- Mike Pizzio, are you seeing anything?

Copy that, over.

(oxygen bubbling)

(metal detector beeping)

You got, you got a hit? What kind of hit?

(metal detector beeping)

That sounds good. Dig it out.

(metal detector beeping)

That's excellent.

I definitely want you to dig it up now.

(narrator): Coming up,

With a powerful hurricane barrelling down on

the Death Coast.

- It's a groundswell.

- The team pivots to a legendary shipwreck shrouded in mystery.

- What are you seeing?

(narrator): But with time running out...

- I'm just not seeing what I should be.

- The team uncovers a major clue.

- Oooh, boy!

That's what we're looking for!

(narrator): That could finally prove a 300-year-old legend.

(narrator): While searching in Baleine Harbor

for the wreck of the legendary Lombrac,

local diver Jim Taylor makes a discovery.

- That's excellent. I definitely want you to dig it up now.

Copy that.

(narrator): Jeff directs the remaining divers

to move to Jim, and help clear the debris.

- This is Topside,

have you uncovered enough to verify

that it is indeed a cannon?

Come on there, boy.

What do you got?

(oxygen tank hisses)

Copy that.

Don't spend any more time there, start heading due west.

Copy that.

(narrator): While conditions below the surface

are less than ideal,

above the water...

the fog is getting worse.

- Fog shuting in like this, that could be a (bleep) problem.

'Cause if it shut in thicker,

and he (bleep) surfaced and couldn't (bleep) see us,

we could lose them.

I gotta call these guys back.

(metal detector beeping)

What are you seeing?

Copy that.

Guys, we got the fog rolling in.

I'm gonna have you abort.

Where?

(dramatic music)

I'm just not seeing what I should be.

They're over here. Diver up!

(divers shouting) Yeah!

Show me what you got.

- Is that a fishing weight?

- Hard to tell.

Could be a sounding weight. Could be.

- Anything else come up?

- No. No, no, no.

We're gonna unhook here,

we're gonna head back into the wharf.

- Aye, aye!

- It's not a great haul, but it's something.

And as a treasure hunter,

you learn never to turn your nose up

at what you find,

because you never know what it's trying to tell you.

(engine revving)

(suspenseful music)

(narrator): Back at base camp,

Jeff examines the day's meagre haul.

- This is what happens,

90% of the time in treasure hunting.

It's a lot of coming up empty.

(narrator): So he's put a call out to team historian

Jenna Lahey, to see if she can help with their search

for the Lombrac.

- How you doing?

- Good, how are you doing?

- Stumped. - Ha.

- I believe it's a fishing

or a sounding weight, I don't know.

(narrator): Sounding weights

are the oldest known navigational tools

used by mariners.

A weight is tied to a line, then dropped into the water.

The depth is measured using fathom markers

in the form of knots, tied at six foot intervals.

- Oh, that's really cool.

Hasn't been seen in probably 300 years, so.

- That's a good indicator that something ended up

in Baleine Harbor,

but is that actually part of a shipwreck?

I'm looking for a ship that went down in the early 1700s

in Baleine Harbor, called the Lombrac.

I've heard about it my entire life,

I know that the locals been picking up coins

and cannonballs and mortars over the past several hundred years.

So they had to have come from somewhere.

- I don't know anything about the Lombrac,

can't say I've heard of that wreck.

But what I know of Baleine Harbor is that during

the time of Louisbourg settlement in the early 1700s,

Baleine was being used as an outpost,

a fishing village essentially,

so there were people living there and fishing quite a lot.

(narrator): In the early 18th century,

the Atlantic harbors of New France, like Baleine,

offered an important foothold

in the Grand Banks fishing industry.

Over 16 million pounds of cod were exported

every year back to France.

A cheap and plentiful commodity in high demand,

from the predominantly Catholic population

and it's tradition of eating fish on Fridays and holidays.

- I am definitely gonna have to go down and find more

diagnostic material than this.

I hope you can do me a favor

and go and dig into the archives

and find something about the Lombrac

that will help narrow my search. - Absolutely.

- And I'm gonna send the boys back down

and see what else we can recover.

Jenna's never heard of a shipwreck in Baleine Bay.

But the locals swear there is one.

So she's gonna look for it in the archives,

and I'm gonna look for it in the harbor.

(ominous music)

(narrator): Jeff and the team head back out to resume

their search along the reef at the mouth of Baleine Harbor,

where Jeff believes the Lombrac may have run aground.

(waves crash)

While the offshore hurricane

is still causing chaos off of Scatarie Island,

the waters closer to Louisbourg appear to have settled down.

So Jeff is attempting to approach the sunker

from the ocean side.

- Skirt it in that way until you get to the cut,

then come out and give me a nice sweep back.

Wonderful. Yeah, let's get going.

(narrator): But the calm conditions

are not what they appear.

- What is causing this (bleep) damn swell?

(dramatic music)

It's a groundswell.

(tense music)

(narrator): While preparing to resume the search

for the wreck of the Lombrac, conditions in Baleine Harbor

have rapidly deteriorated.

- It's a groundswell.

(narrator): A groundswell is the result

of intense winds pressing on the surface of the ocean.

Often hundreds or even thousands of miles from the coastline.

(waves crash)

As the swell approaches shallower water,

it can create powerful and dangerous swells.

- This swell must be from the hurricane.

Even though it's 50 miles offshore,

it's stirring up a mess here.

What do you think?

My guys are the best in the business.

And if they've got concerns about the safety of the dive,

then I've got to listen.

- You got a swell, you got these big rollers.

My mindset is safety first.

This is probably gonna be a (bleep) show.

- If you guys don't feel it's safe, then we won't do it.

- I don't care.

(narrator): But former Marine Corps diver Dan Griego

has been in conditions like this before.

- Getting in the boat.

(narrator): Dan is willing to continue the search on his own.

- Good luck.

(boat engine hums)

I wanna get them as close as comfortable to that cut

without putting them in the wash.

- 10-4.

- I-I'm not overly worried.

(waves crash)

I don't know.

(splashing)

Griego, do you hear me?

(radio static)

Griego, do you have a copy?

(radio static)

Yeah, I copy that, Dan.

(oxygen tank hissing)

How's it looking there, Dan?

- He's got some depth over his head,

that wave's breaking higher over.

(narrator): After searching for only 30 minutes,

Dan runs into an issue.

- Copy that.

(narrator): Fighting the strong current forces Dan

to burn through air more quickly.

(metal detector beeping)

(narrator): Griego makes a discovery

alongside the seabed, outside the reef.

(metal detector beeping)

- Keep digging, then, there must be more.

(metal detector beeping)

Is it modern?

(narrator): But before Dan can investigate further,

- Oooh.

(narrator): After just 40 minutes,

he has to cut the dive short.

(splashing) - That's Dan.

- Diver up!

(tense music fades out)

When you were talking about the ring,

what size was the ring?

That's how big the ring was?

- Outer ring with an inner,

I mean there's a lot of wreckage just laying out there

in that sand area.

But not 300 year old wreckage.

(tense music resumes)

(narrator): With nothing but modern artifacts

found at the dive site,

and the swell from the approaching hurricane

increasing by the minute, the team calls it a day.

- Okay. We're done.

We're done.

If all we're finding are pieces of moderwreckage,

that means we're in the wrong place,

and if that's the case, I have to switch things up fast.

(tense music swells)

(narrator): Later that day, with the team off the water,

Jeff turns to a pair of local fishermen.

- Mr. MacKinnon!

- To find out more about the legendary Lombrac.

- Welcome to Baleine.

(narrator): Jeff Mills and Darren Burke

have lived here their entire lives,

and know these waters like the back of their hands.

- For years, I've heard about locals find all kinds of things.

And if there's one thing I know, it's listen to the locals.

(narrator): Up until now,

Jeff has concentrated his search for the Lombrac

along the reef system at the mouth of the bay.

But the fishermen have a different suggestion.

They lead him to the opposite side of the bay, to Broad Cove,

where in the past,

locals have found artifacts washed on shore.

- Yup, this is where they found muskets, plates,

cannonballs all up through here at low tide.

- You had coins,

50-odd gold coin was found out here

on the other side of the cove.

- Gold coins? - Yup.

(narrator): Coming up,

(splashing)

- That's what we're looking for.

Put your back into it.

That is fantastic.

This is a significant find. That is beautiful.

This tells me that we're in the stern section of something.

But is it the Lombrac?

(tense music)

(narrator): On the shore of Broad Cove, Nova Scotia,

treasure hunter Jeff MacKinnon is hoping two local fishermen

may have the key to unlocking the location

of the mystery ship, the Lombrac.

- 50-odd gold coin was found out here

on the other side of the cove. - Gold coins?

- Yup, there was, I think they were French coins,

weren't they, Darren? - French coins, yes.

- Yeah. They were beat up bad, but they were still recognizable

that they were-- - And they were French?

Well, that's an interesting thing, 'cause the Lombrac,

as legend would have it, wrecked right outside here.

- That explains why everything come ashore along here.

- That's prime real estate for me.

Broad Cove.

Broad Cove offers us protection for any weather

that we might encounter.

It's the perfect place for diving,

and it might be loaded with coins.

(tense music swells)

(narrator): The next day,

following the fishermen's lead,

Jeff and the team head out to Broad Cove.

- This spot we're in here now, this new place,

I want to get at least four dives in here today.

I'm going hunting for the Lombrac.

It's gotta be there somewhere.

And I'm gonna find it.

Alright. Today, my friends, do your search.

Find how this site is laid out for me.

I want you to get me other things.

- Find coins. - Find coins.

Thank you very much. That's the plan. Alright, g'bye!

(splashing)

(oxygen tanks hissing)

Topside, I receive you loud and clear.

(gentle ominous music)

(metal detector beeping)

Dig it out, let's see what it is.

Topside, dig it up.

Keep searching, pal.

(metal detector beeping)

What do you got?

This is Topside, dig it up.

(tense music swells)

What do you have?

Find me something good.

(narrator): The object is too big,

and too heavy for Haas to recover it by himself.

Mark it, Mike. Mark, mark, mark.

I knew this was gonna be a good day.

(narrator): To save the location,

Mike Haas releases a marker buoy to the surface.

And attaches a line to the artifact on the seafloor.

(tense music continues)

- It's on that marker buoy. - Okay. It's tied?

- It's tied, and it needs to be lifted up with a rope.

- It's gigantic, then. - Well, it's big enough.

- Okay.

- It's in great shape.

- Whew, okay, now that's something interesting.

- I think it's old. We gotta go get that.

- Well, is that strong enough to pull it up on that line?

- No, it'll break. - So we need to dive again.

- We need a rope-- - And it's at 40, 42 feet?

- Yeah. Okay.

It looks like it's all up to Mike, now.

I trust Mike, and if he says that we gotta recover

whatever it is he found,

then that's exactly what we're gonna do.

- Just give me 60 feet of rope there, Chris.

That's all you need.

(narrator): The clock is ticking.

It's the last dive of the day.

- Alright. Ready to go.

So far, we found nothing diagnostic that indicates

the Lombrac. I'm hoping that this could be the breakthrough

that we're looking for.

(splashing)

This is Topside to Haas.

Yes, we receive you loud and clear.

Let's get that, put a retrieval line on it.

We're gonna pull that baby up.

(oxygen tank hissing)

Put your back into it.

Pull that, my boy.

Oh, we got 20 feet.

- Need a hand, Jason? - No, I got it.

- Ohhh.

- Use the strength that God give ya.

Oooh, boy!

That's what we're looking for.

(narrator): While searching for a shipwreck called the Lombrac,

the team has discovered an artifact buried in the seafloor,

some 40 feet below the surface.

- It's too large for the divers to carry,

so the team is attempting to hoist it to the top.

- Put your back into it.

Oh, we got 20 feet.

- Need a hand, Jason? - No, I...

I've gotta reach it.

(indistinct chatter)

- Oooh. - Yes sir, oh boy.

- That's something, ain't it? - That is a pintle.

Sure, that is in good shape.

- Beauty.

(narrator): A pintle is part of a bracket used to attach

the rudder to a ship.

It connects to a fitting called a gudgeon,

to form a pivot or hinge,

allowing the rudder to be moved from side to side.

- Well, well, well, Mr. Haas. Let me have a look at it.

That is fantastic. This is a significant find.

(metal creaks)

- It's older than dirt, though.

- That is beautiful.

- Now, this was a good sized ship.

- Yeah, this is a good sized ship.

Good job!

And you guys were getting hits all over the place in there,

it is literally everywhere.

- Mm-hmm. I wanna see all the other stuff that came up.

- Let's see what we got here. That's iron.

Two little piece of oak, ain't that something.

- Preserve that piece of wood, that'll be a nice piece.

- Yeah. That's fantastic.

I'm telling you right now, we're on to something.

Well, the only thing we can do is go back and find some more.

Because I'm not gonna be satisfied

until I get some answers here.

Finding this pintle here means that we're on to the stern

section of something. But is it the Lombrac?

(narrator): Anxious for more evidence that could help

identify the wreckage,

and lead to any of its remaining treasure,

Jeff sends the team back down for one more dive.

- Listen to me.

Jason, make sure you tell these boys where to go.

Get me a gold!

(soft tense music)

(splashing)

Hey Haas, do you hear me?

Pizzio, this is Topside. Do you read me?

Gotcha loud and clear, pal.

Make sure you take it slow.

(tense music)

(oxygen tank hissing)

- If we can find her,

it would prove the legend to be true.

And that would be huge.

(tense music)

Oh my darling dear.

She's down there, and I know it.

And I ain't leaving until I prove it.

(oxygen tank hissing)

(metal detector beeping)

Keep searching.

(metal detector beeping)

- That sounds good, dig it out.

(waves crash)

(narrator): Off the rugged shores of the Death Coast...

- Diver Dan Griego gets a hit.

- Dig it up.

You dig that boy up.

She's down there somewhere, she's gotta be.

(narrator): Although there are no details

about where exactly the Lombrac perished,

Jeff believes the clue to the wreck lies in

the topography of Baleine Bay itself.

- But it's a rugged piece of coastline, that's for sure.

There's only one way to come in here.

Everything else is reefs and sunkers.

We only have a limited track into this area.

(narrator): By following this track,

Jeff is now concentrating his search

in the shallow waters of Broad Cove.

(waves crash)

(metal detector beeping)

- More iron, huh?

Treasure hunting is not always as glamorous

as it's made out to be.

Sometimes, you just gotta sit here and wait.

And then wait some more,

and then sometimes, you get lucky.

(metal detector beeping)

Topside, dig it up.

Keep searching, pal.

(metal detector beeping)

Mike, I wanna know what it is.

(tense music)

That's good news, Mike.

We're seeing all kinds of wreckage on this site,

I am starting to believe

that there's something to this local legend after all.

Concretion is like a cement that forms around artifacts

on the bottom of the ocean. And you know what that means?

It means shipwreck.

Exclamation point, exclamation point,

exclamation point!

This is what we've been looking for.

(oxygen tank hissing)

(narrator): With the day winding down,

and a lost shipwreck back on the map,

Jeff calls the divers back.

- I like to find new things.

It's find to work on an existing site,

or a site that's already well known.

But finding something new,

especially when you know there's something there,

and nobody's ever found it?

That to me, that's the biggest rush of all.

(narrator): Has Jeff discovered the long-lost shipwreck

of the mysterious Lombrac?

And what treasures might still lie

on the seabed of Baleine Bay?

With the season nearing its end,

and with less than a week of diving left for the team,

Jeff is about to face one last crucial decision.

Where should he search next?

And where's his best chance of finding

one last piece of priceless treasure?

(waves crash)

(narrator): Next, on The Death Coast.

- Where are we at there, Johnnie?

- Just coming up on Chameau Rock.

(narrator): In their final dive days of the season...

- Okay, let's go! (splashing)

- A familiar site yields some surprising finds.

- What? Where?

The Chameau stern could be buried underneath it.

(narrator): And, the team gets one last chance

to claim the ultimate prize.

- What are you guys seeing under there?

Did you say you got a coin?

They're eight Ecu's.

Subtitling: difuze