All language subtitles for IneXplicável - S07E01 - The Golden Age of Pirates

Brazen buccaneers

who terrorized the Seven Seas.

Vast riches

left hidden around the world.

And stories of adventures
so outrageous,

they rival our imagination.

Say the word "pirate"

and immediately
it conjures up images

of swashbuckling adventure,
brutish behavior

and wooden chests filled
with priceless treasure.

300 years ago, thousands of
pirates roamed the Seven Seas,

and their rum-soaked exploits
became enduring legends.

But in reality,

many of these dangerous
marauders left a bloody trail

of pillage and plunder that,
quite frankly,

is nothing to celebrate.

What do we really know

about the mysterious seafaring
criminals we call pirates,

as well as the lost treasures
they left behind,

still hidden
and just waiting to be found?

Well, that is
what we'll try and find out.

Founded in 1565

and considered to be
the oldest town in the U.S.,

this former Spanish colony

was an important nautical
gateway to North America

and what was called
the New World.

And here,

at the St. Augustine
Pirate & Treasure Museum,

fascinating artifacts
offer a glimpse

into one
of the most captivating chapters

in maritime history...

a time long ago

known as the Golden Age
of Piracy.

So, the Golden Age of Piracy

was this extraordinary time
in-in history

where you have these competing
European empires...

competitors like England,
France and the Netherlands...

and they are challenging
Spain and Portugal

throughout the world.

They had established
their New World territories

in the East Indies,

which was South Asia,

as well as the West Indies
or the Caribbean.

It is the time
of flourishing maritime trade,

where you have
these trade networks

moving out of the Americas.

There's silver moving,

there's commodities,
there's gold.

And all these things were very
lucrative and very valuable.

But before there were
pirates as we've come to know them,

there were privateers...

the paid mercenaries of the sea.

These ship captains
and their crews

were hired by European empires

to steal the goods and valuables
from other warring nations

as their colonial ships
crossed the ocean.

A lot of
people that were pirates

had started out as a privateer.

They had a commission
called a letter of marque

that allowed them to operate

under the protection
of a government.

Every country had
these, because,

as the New World
colonies expanded,

they didn't have,
the naval assets

to, continue their fights,

so they used privateers.

From around the
mid-1600s to the early 1700s,

privateers made their living

from the sizeable
rewards they received

after capturing enemy ships.

But as many privateering
contracts began to expire,

these now wealthy marauders
were not willing to retire,

but instead were ready
to work for themselves.

Privateers were paid in
the goods that they take.

About 80%. They can
keep about 80% of that.

And so, as a result,
we've got loads of sailors

becoming privateers.

But then when the
letter of marque expires,

a lot of them just
kind of continue on,

and they're people
who are operating

completely outside the law.

They're not working
for a government.

They're working
only for themselves.

And they're going to rob
any ship they come across

that they feel could actually
bring them a lot of money,

and they continued
on into piracy.

Piracy was a profession
that gave sailors an opportunity

to live by their own rules

and potentially
make a quick fortune.

But there was one major catch.

Piracy was not only a capital
offense punishable by death...

it was also a life
of extreme violence.

I think we should never forget

just how brutal piracy is.

It is about violence.

It is about theft. It is
about killing people.

And some of these pirates
take that to such extremes,

probably to make a
reputation for themselves

and even to make their own lives easier.

Because if you capture a
ship and everyone on that ship

is terrified of you,
they're gonna surrender.

They'd
have captured a vessel and they say,

"Give up your treasure.

Tell us where it is
hidden on the ship."

Because people would
hide the materials on the ship.

And one way they would
do it is they would basically

force someone over
the side of the ship.

They'd have them walk the plank.

And they'd be
pushed over the side

so that they would
drown in the water.

It's a great motivator.

And we know from
some of the accounts

that they would cut
off people's noses,

people's ears.

They would whip them.

If there were women,
they would rape them.

So lots of different
things that would be used

for intimidation...

to get people

to turn over where their
treasure was hidden.

Pirates became
the scourge of the Seven Seas.

Stories of the exploits of
these notorious criminals

circulated all over the world.

And in 1724,

a book was published
that would forever transform

these lawbreakers into legends

called A General
History of the Pyrates.

The General
History of the Pyrates

is one of the most
important books

about piracy ever published.

It appears in 1724,

and it's published by a
number of publishers in London.

It's an enormous success. It
goes through many editions.

There's clearly a demand
for stories about pirates.

And it's really a rogues'
gallery of all of the pirates...

every pirate who's famous,

every pirate who's
got a reputation.

It's drawing on pirate trial
records, on newspapers,

but they're also
inventing stories.

And in-in many
ways, this is the book

that creates the idea of piracy

that we have in
our heads still today.

For 300 years,

The General
History of the Pyrates

has been the primary resource

on not only the lives of the
world's most notorious robbers

but also their rumored
vast treasures.

During the Golden Age of Piracy,

3,000 ships clearly
were taken by pirates.

Sometimes that ship
is fabulously wealthy...

all kinds of treasure
on it and everything.

Silver, gold,
diamonds, emeralds.

When those came through,

those are the stories
that kept being told

and retold through time.

Because the idea of treasure

captures the
imagination of everyone.

Yet just as mysterious
as the marauders themselves

is the whereabouts of all
the valuable loot they stole.

Remarkably, shipwrecks

and battles at sea
may have claimed

the vast majority
of hundreds of years

of pirates' treasure.

When we hear
stories that here was this vessel

that contained these great
riches and we hear it was lost,

it makes people think, "my gosh,

"maybe it's not so lost
that we couldn't ever find it.

Perhaps we can find it again."

There is likely a lot of money

sitting on the
bottom of the ocean.

There could be

untold, millions
of dollars under there,

because there's
thousands of shipwrecks

and they're still
being discovered

by treasure hunters today.

April 26, 1717.

Just off the coast of
Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

One of the wealthiest
pirates in history,

Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy,

sails his treasure-laden
galleon the Whydah to Cape Cod,

where his ship is
destroyed in a violent storm.

Of the 146 crew aboard,

only two survive.

And the vessel is
lost for centuries.

Until, in 1984,

underwater archaeologist
and explorer Barry Clifford

discovers the
long-lost ship rumored

to contain Black Sam
Bellamy's legendary treasure.

Now, the Whydah lay at
the bottom of the ocean

undiscovered for centuries

until Barry Clifford
ended up discovering it.

And this was really,
really important.

The Whydah has tons of what
we would call treasure on it.

There's coins, doubloons,
pieces of eights,

guineas. Tons of guineas.

There's gold and silver bars.

We've got jewels such as
pearls and rubies and diamonds.

It's full of really expensive
silks and other textiles.

It's got medicinal supplies.

It's got all kinds of different
wines and rums and sugars.

It's been estimated
that, in today's currency,

the Whydah probably carried

about $4 billion
worth of merchandise.

This is really significant,

because this is
the first instance

where we've been able
to find an actual pirate ship

laden with legendary goods

that we've only
heard about in stories.

The discovery
of Bellamy's treasure

turned a pirate's lore
from fiction to fact.

Could there be other
legendary treasures

just waiting to be uncovered?

And what will it take

to figure out where
"X" marks the spot?

Located
between Long Island's North

and South Forks,

it's the oldest
privately owned island

in the United States.

Today, there is a curious marker

that tells the story

of an infamous pirate
that came ashore

in 1699 to bury
some of his treasure.

His name was

Captain William Kidd.

William Kidd's career
was-was quite interesting.

He began as a
legitimate privateer.

English officials hired him

to go hunt pirates

up in the Red Sea region.

And when he gets over there,

his men are anxious.

They think they're gonna be
getting some treasure in this,

and they really haven't been
doing anything of the sort.

His gunner, in fact,

allegedly was inspiring
a mutiny against Kidd.

And Captain Kidd
murdered his gunner

by smashing him in the
head with a wooden bucket.

He does then become a pirate.

According to A
General History of the Pyrates,

Captain Kidd turns to piracy to
appease his disgruntled crew.

And together, they
capture many ships.

And in 1698,

they seized their
greatest prize,

a wealthy Armenian ship
named the Quedagh Merchant.

Captain Kidd's most
successful and gruesome raid

was the 400-ton
Quedagh Merchant.

This was a simply
enormous vessel

that was carrying
gold, silver, treasure,

and actually a huge
quantity of sugar,

which was actually an incredibly
expensive commodity at the time.

Not only did they
take the treasure,

but they also took
the ship as well.

So, this was an enormous haul.

In July of 1699,
Captain Kidd was arrested

in Boston for piracy and murder.

His buried treasure
on Gardiner's Island

was recovered by authorities,

and Kidd was sent to
England to stand trial.

Facing a death sentence,

Captain Kidd tried to
barter for his very life.

The buried treasure
that was recovered on Gardiner's Island

was only worth about a
million dollars in today's money.

As they were about to
execute him in London,

he was trying to bargain
with the crown by saying,

"I've got another
buried treasure worth..."

what today would
be like $150 million.

"Spare my life and
I will lead you to it."

They didn't buy it, and it
was more advantageous

to them to execute him.

But word of it spread
shortly after his death.

And his buried treasure
became hugely popular.

The hidden location
of Captain Kidd's lost treasure

has been sought
out for centuries.

And many believe
that the confession

of a crew member holds the
key to the treasure's whereabouts.

50 years after Kidd's death,

an old sailor was
on his deathbed

and said he'd been
part of Kidd's crew,

and that they had buried
a treasure somewhere

around Nova Scotia

on an island covered with oaks.

And that story
spread like wildfire,

and it started the idea that
there was a buried treasure

of Captain Kidd,
possibly on Oak Island

because there's no other island
that's covered with oak trees.

And that area was
known for being infested

with pirate crews.

Oak Island, Novia Scotia,

is one of the 300-plus
islands that dot Mahone Bay.

Just what would
lead treasure hunters

to point specifically
to this location

as a possible resting place
for a notorious pirate's stash?

Some believe clues can
be found in treasure maps

that were allegedly drawn
by Captain Kidd himself.

There are maps that
identify Oak Island

as the location
of Kidd's treasure.

One in particular
appears in the book

Captain Kidd and
His Skeleton Island.

There's a lot of things
about it that are compelling

because of the
remarkable similarity

to landmarks on the island.

Could the
map's striking resemblance

to Oak Island indicate
that Captain Kidd's treasure

might really be buried here?

Many believe the
answer came in 1795,

when a teenage boy
named Daniel McGinnis

noticed a curious man-made
depression in the ground.

It was a
perfect circle and quite large,

and he realized

this didn't happen
naturally, somebody did this.

And then immediately thought
this could be Kidd's treasure.

And he recruited
a couple of friends

to come out to the
island with him and dig.

The boys dug
and they dug and they dug.

And about 90 feet
down, they found

a very intriguing stone

with a mysterious
inscription on it,

which... translated...
said, "40 feet below

two million pounds are buried."

Two million pounds.

40 feet below.

To many, the
peculiar inscription

can only mean one thing:

it marks the lost treasure
of Captain William Kidd.

That's two million
English pounds,

a vast amount of money.

So why didn't they
just go down and get it?

Well, the boys dug down,

but the whole pit flooded.

And that's been pretty
much the case to this day.

So, whether Kidd's treasure
is there or not, we don't know.

The potential site
of Captain Kidd's buried treasure

has remained filled with
water for over two centuries.

And while many treasure hunters

have launched expeditions
in search of this prize,

at least six have lost
their lives in the process.

Centuries of treasure hunters

have come thinking
they're the ones

who are finally going to solve

the secret of Oak Island.

A number of them, many of them,

have sunk everything
they had into it.

It's cost them their
lives, their reputations,

but they haven't
been able to pull out

because there's always the
sense that, if you stop now,

it might be just right
around the corner,

and somebody else
will come and get it.

It's intriguing to think
that treasure hunters

have been digging on Oak
Island for over 200 years,

hoping to find the lost
riches of Captain William Kidd.

But not far from Nova Scotia,

an astonishing
discovery of silver coins

has launched a search
of a different kind,

not just for treasure,

but for an elusive pirate

who became the most
wanted fugitive in the world.

Armed with a metal detector,

treasure hunter Jim Bailey
hunts for hidden pieces of history,

one step at a time.

And in May of 2014,

he makes a remarkable discovery.

He finds a peculiar
object in the ground

that seems to have no business

being in a strawberry
orchard in New England.

In 2014,

I recovered a-a very odd,

silver coin.

I saw this-this bold,
clear, crisp Arabic script

on the coin,

and I was amazed.

It turned out to be
a 17th century coin,

and the coin
predates direct trade

between the American
colonies and the Red Sea,

the East Indies
by over a century.

So, I knew the coin could've
not come through trade.

Just how did such an exotic coin

make its way to a small
town in New England?

Jim Bailey believes
the silver piece he found

is connected to one
of the most dangerous

and wily seafarers
in maritime history,

an English captain
named Henry Avery,

whose exploits in
the Indian Ocean

earned him the nickname
"The King of Pirates."

Captain Avery's legendary
status can be traced back to 1695

and a bloody heist
heard around the world.

Henry Avery sails
north in the Indian Ocean

to the Strait of Aden,

which is part of the
long-established pilgrim route

for Muslims from India
traveling to Mecca.

And this is an extremely
valuable trade route.

The ships traveling from
Western India to Mecca and back

are carrying passengers
of all kinds of social ranks

and lots of wealth.

So Henry Avery goes
looking for the pilgrim fleet

sailing from Mecca
to Western India,

known as the Mughal fleet.

The Mughal fleet
was owned by the Mughal dynasty,

a powerful and wealthy empire

that ruled large
portions of India

from the 16th to
the 18th century.

Along with carrying
pilgrims to and from Mecca,

this armada contained
treasure ships

owned by the Grand
Mughal of India himself.

And the crown jewel
of this royal fleet

was a ship named
the Ganj-i-Sawai.

So, Avery and his
confederates pursue that ship,

and they find it.

A cannon explodes.

The mast is hit and collapses.

And so, Henry
Avery and his fellows

sweep aboard the ship

and spend days
plundering, torturing,

doing all kinds of
horrible things to the crew

and the passengers.

And the cargo they have seized

is one of the most valuable

crossing the Indian
Ocean at that time.

And so, Henry Avery became known

as the King of the Pirates,
as a figure who appears

in ballads and plays
and in books that appear

very, very quickly after his
capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai.

Henry Avery's huge score

made him a legend.

But when word got back
to the Mughal emperor

that an English
pirate was responsible

for these atrocities,

Avery became public
enemy number one

and triggered the first global
manhunt in human history.

The capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai

infuriated the Mughal Empire

to the point where
they threatened to cut off

all trade and declare
war against the British.

Especially because Henry Avery
and his crew had gotten away.

So, it's very, very important
for Britain to maintain

this good relationship
with the Indian Mughals.

So the British government
stages this huge manhunt

going after Henry Avery.

The idea that

the manhunt for Avery

was the first global
manhunt is factual.

That there are authorities
all over the world

literally looking
out for this man,

and he becomes one
of the most infamous,

notorious pirates of all time.

Despite the
entire world looking for him,

Captain Avery manages
to elude authorities.

And to this day,

the legend of his heist
and his ability to hide out

has forever made Henry
Avery the King of Pirates.

No one knows exactly

what happened to Henry Avery,

and he escaped into
legend and mystery.

And that's why he becomes
one of these key enduring figures.

Basically every pirate
that came after him

wanted to emulate that
huge hit, that big score,

and then disappear and
presumably spend the riches.

The big mystery here is
what happened to Henry Avery.

Maybe he went into hiding
somewhere in the Caribbean,

or it's possible he
went back to England.

He may have actually,
also, been able to kind of

blend into colonial
American society,

maybe change his identity

and just set himself
up somewhere.

Is it possible that
this Houdini of the High Seas

ultimately escaped
to a life of anonymity

in the American colonies?

Jim Bailey believes the coins
he's found might hold the answer

to where the King of Pirates
may have come ashore.

I found the first complete coin,

but other coins
started to follow.

There's been 27
Arabic silver coins

that have been found
throughout New England.

Now, here's the thing,

the coins, they're all silver,

they're all Arabic,

they all circulated
in the Red Sea.

They all correlate perfectly

with the date for the
capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai.

And in the course
of my research,

I found Henry Avery's ship

by the name of the
Seaflower arriving in Newport

around April of 1696.

So, Henry Avery's men,

they've been on the
run for a long time,

so maybe it was best to
stay in the American colonies.

When I started
researching the coin,

Henry Avery was the
farthest thing from my mind.

But the evidence
was far stronger

than I could have ever imagined.

I think these coins were
carried by Henry Avery's men

upon coming to the
American colonies

to seek new lives of
comfortable obscurity.

The King of Pirates'
disappearing act

made him a legend.

And while Henry Avery
vanished without a trace,

another famous marauder

chose to publicly
celebrate his infamy

by creating a clever
code that is said to lead

to one of the greatest
pirate treasures in history.

This remote, tropical paradise

is home to lush forests
and white sandy beaches,

as well as a curious gravestone

adorned with a
skull and crossbones.

It's a historic monument

to mark the resting place
of the man who pulled off

one of the most
lucrative pirate heists

in recorded history.

His name was Olivier Levasseur,

otherwise known as The Buzzard.

Captain Olivier Levasseur

was a French pirate who was
born sometime around 1690.

He ended up sailing with some
of the infamous British pirates,

including Samuel Bellamy.

He quickly gained a
reputation for himself

and was known as La
Buse, or The Buzzard,

because of the viciousness in
which he attacked his victims,

physically and verbally.

Levasseur had a spectacular hit

at Mauritius, just
east of Madagascar.

He captured a very
large Portuguese carrack

that was filled with treasure.

The Portuguese were
traveling from Goa in India

back to Lisbon, and they're
bringing all kinds of treasure.

So, it was an
extraordinary target

for this French pirate to hit.

Levasseur's capture
of the wealthy Portuguese vessel

named Our Lady of the Cape,

is considered one of
the greatest pirate heists

in history.

One remarkable firsthand
account of the robbery

comes from a man
who was, for a time,

captured by The Buzzard,

and he describes a
wondrous treasure of gems,

gold and silver unlike
anything he'd ever seen before.

Our Lady of the Cape

was just one floating
treasure chest.

It was packed to the
seams with, at least,

three million
dollars' worth of loot.

Which is worth,
in today's money,

something like $4 billion.

But its greatest piece
of absolute treasure

was the Fiery Cross of Goa.

And this was a seven-foot
tall, solid gold cross

encrusted with diamonds,
rubies and emeralds.

It was called the Fiery Cross

because when the
sunlight hit it, it blazed.

"Come and get me,
come and get me."

That's certainly what
Levasseur thought,

and he did get it.

The riches stolen
from Our Lady of the Cape

made Levasseur a billionaire.

But ultimately, The Buzzard
could not outrun his own infamy.

In 1730, he was
apprehended for his crimes

near Fort-Dauphin in Madagascar

and was taken to the
nearby island of Réunion

to be executed.

Upon capture, his treasure
was nowhere to be found.

In fact, it's still missing.

Yet, many believe that clues

to where this
pirate's bounty hides

were shared by
The Buzzard himself.

As he was about to hang,

he shouted at the crowd,

"My treasure for he
who can understand,"

and he reached for a
necklace and he threw at them

this parchment that he'd
worn around his neck.

This was an encoded
message, a cryptogram,

which he was
saying had the secret

of the location of his treasure.

The cryptogram,

with its 17 lines of
mysterious script,

looks completely confusing.

It's this very kind of blocky
gibberish that makes no sense.

At some point in
the 20th century,

the cryptogram was
eventually decoded, possibly.

But what's interesting about it

is that it didn't actually
have any instructions

of how to find any goods that
he may have stashed away.

It actually contained recipes.

When decoded,
The Buzzard's message

appeared to be instructions

for concocting
bizarre folk remedies.

For example, "To stop
a woman from snoring,

"you just have to whip
together some oranges

and oily olives to then spread
just the oil on the pillow."

Either Levasseur had
a great sense of humor

or there is another layer of
clues hidden within his cypher.

To this day, no one knows.

By the mid-20th century,
and over 200 years

since The Buzzard's death,
a modern-day treasure hunter

discovered a very
different kind of clue,

one that led to an
island in the Indian Ocean

known as Mahé.

After World War II,

an Englishman called
Reginald Cruise-Wilkins

became utterly obsessed with
Levasseur's missing treasure.

And he did believe that the haul

was probably on Bel Ombre beach,

Mahé Island in the Seychelles.

There was some evidence.

A local notary sometime before
had found an old pirate's will,

in which he said that
a portion of the land,

including Bel Ombre Beach,
had belonged to... drumroll...

Olivier Levasseur.

It's not a huge stretch
to think that Levasseur

might have buried his
haul on his own land.

Unfortunately, before Reginald

could actually solve the
mystery, he passed away.

But to this day, his son
has taken up the mantle

and he has actually found a
cave where it's very possible

that Levasseur could have
stashed some of his goods,

but there are a lot
of obstacles with it.

Today, giant boulders
and government restrictions

block access to the
cave that Wilkins believes

might hold the world's
greatest pirate treasure.

Could the priceless bounty
of Our Lady of the Cape

be stashed deep inside an
impenetrable island cave?

Perhaps, but what's certain

is that, just like a dead man,

a hidden treasure
tells no tales.

Whatever happened
to the Cross of Goa?

Who knows?

That's a tantalizing thing.

That's the reason why
people will keep looking

for La Buse's treasure.

These are the kinds of
mysteries that, hopefully,

future researchers are
gonna be able to reveal for us.

It's fascinating to consider

just how many priceless
artifacts are hidden

in the Caribbean Islands

or buried at sea in
sunken ships of long ago.

But what if I told you
that it's not just treasure

that's captivating
to the imagination

and that there is a place
where pirates once gathered

that was so scandalous,

it was known as the
wickedest city on Earth.

England
launches a full-scale invasion...

on this valuable
Caribbean island...

and successfully
captures it from Spain.

The English construct
imposing forts in Port Royal

a key strategic
location in Jamaica,

to protect their new territory.

Soon, the town of
Port Royal grows

into the most economically
valuable English town

in all of the Americas.

And its unrivaled
success can be credited...

to piracy.

England gave pirates

a bit of free reign.

They asked pirates,

you know, "Please
bring in goods,

it'll help our economy."

This is how pirates were
actually able to make

Port Royal their
major stronghold.

One of the really

infamous people to
come out of Port Royal

was the pirate Henry Morgan.

He goes to Port
Royal and he orders

all of the pirates to
spend your money here,

spend it for the crown
in this English colony.

He's actually made
the lieutenant governor

of all of Jamaica
because he knows pirates,

and he was able to bring
loads of wealth to the island.

Handing over Port Royal
to the pirates was described,

quite rightly, as doing
a pact with the devil.

And the devil came in the form

of many leading
pirates of the time,

including Blackbeard,

Calico Jack,

but also female
pirates like Anne Bonny.

While pirates made Port Royal

the most successful
English colony at that time,

they also transformed
it into a den of sin.

In fact, it became known as
the wickedest city on Earth.

According
to the Dutch-born writer

Alexandre Exquemelin
and his book,

Buccaneers of America,

Port Royal had a
worldwide reputation

as being this hub of complete
debauchery and degeneration.

It was said that every
fourth building was

a brothel or a tavern.

It was a hub of violence
and booze and sex.

At the height of its wickedness,

we might consider
Port Royal to be

Las Vegas on steroids.

It was gambling, drinking,

prostitution,

and then in 1692...

it all came crashing down
with this extraordinary event.

At midday on June 7, 1692,

a disaster of
cataclysmic proportions

tore through the seaside colony.

Port Royal is struck

by an enormously
destructive earthquake.

Buildings collapse.
People are sucked down.

Ships in the harbor
are swept across

into the marketplace
because of a tidal wave

that strikes the town.

The tidal wave sank 60%
of the city into the ocean...

and killed almost
half the people

that were living there.

Ships were moved all
the way from the water

and dropped right down
into the center of town.

Within minutes,

Port Royal was
crushed by destruction

on a biblical scale,

leading many to wonder,

did the so-called
'Wickedest City on Earth'

fall victim to
divine punishment?

Many of the writers, and
especially the religious writers

commenting on this earthquake
and its effect on Port Royal...

see it as a judgment of God

driven by the reputation
for sinful behavior

and also attitudes
about plunder and piracy.

This is a very
providential belief system

where God actually strikes down

people who are misbehaving.

Was the demolition of Port Royal

the work of Mother Nature
or that of a higher power?

While it sounds far-fetched

a series of catastrophes

continued to plague
the fallen city...

even after it was sent
to the bottom of the sea.

There were many
efforts for decades

to try to rebuild Port Royal.

But catastrophes
just kept happening

every few years.

These would be
things like fires,

heavy drought, hurricanes,

floods, other earthquakes.

And so, eventually,

the money and resources
just weren't really worth it.

It was known as Sodom
of the Sea, and so

there were religious populations
who very much believed

that God was
punishing the region

so that nobody could ever
set it up as a port town again.

Today, scuba divers visit

the crystal clear waters
off the coast of Jamaica...

to explore

the only sunken city in
the western hemisphere.

And just like the
treasure-laden shipwrecks

that lie buried on
the ocean's floor,

it seems only fitting

that the sea also claims

that the sea also claims

the pirate paradise
of Port Royal.

A search
team locates the remains

of an early 18th-century
vessel in Beaufort Inlet.

After analyzing artifacts
pulled from the wreck,

experts realize
they've discovered

the Queen Anne's Revenge.

It is the flagship of
Captain Edward Teach,

one of the most feared figures
from the Golden Age of Piracy,

forever known as Blackbeard.

Blackbeard is probably
the most famous pirate.

Blackbeard was, six foot four, 220 pounds.

A long beard, black
beard, obviously,

braided and then
tied with ribbons.

And when he
would go into battle,

he would put burning
fuses underneath his tricorn

so that the smoke and the
glow would add to the fear.

People thought he
was the devil himself.

And Blackbeard
was very successful.

There was one period,
in about 42 hours,

he captured dozens of ships.

While the ruins of
Blackbeard's ship have been recovered,

his treasure has not.

But that may be
because it's rumored

that the terrifying
pirate buried millions

in gold and jewels somewhere
in Savannah, Georgia.

Blackbeard was active

off the southeast
coast of North America,

including Georgia.

He would come back into
port places like Savannah.

Savannah, it seemed to
have been another base.

There are stories about caves

or tunnels in and
around the river,

and it's possible that
he would've been able

to use these tunnels

to either store goods

or perhaps move in
and out from the port

to their ship under
cover of darkness

without being spotted
by any authorities

who might be looking for them.

Did pirates use these
tunnels in Savannah?

I don't think we'll ever know.

They're sealed off

and it becomes a mystery.

And it is exciting,
so perhaps they did,

perhaps they didn't.

We'll just never know.

Has Blackbeard's lost
treasure remained sealed for centuries

somewhere in the tunnels
below Savannah, Georgia?

It's a fascinating thought.

And while it's been
over 300 years

since the Golden Age of Piracy,

time has not
diminished our curiosity

about the countless
tales of treasure,

larger-than-life characters,

and harrowing adventures

of the world's most
notorious pirates.

I think there are
a lot of reasons

why these figures
are still so popular

and still so famous today.

The stories are very dramatic.

They escape from
the confines of society.

They break out of the rules,

they go to exotic locations,

to distant oceans
and desert islands.

The mystery around them,

and especially
around buried treasure,

which appears very, very quickly

after the deaths
of certain pirates,

becomes a key
part of that legend,

of that story, I think
drives people in.

Pirates
were dangerous characters.

Pirates knew they
had nothing to lose.

If they were captured,
they would die.

That said, there
are lots of questions.

The biggest thing
about pirates is

we know about a handful of them.

If it wasn't for A General
History of Pyrates,

we wouldn't know
very much about them.

And it's one reason why
people study pirates today,

archaeologically and
in the historical record,

to try to make what is
the unexplained explained.

Pirates hold a truly unique

and notorious place in history,
folklore and popular culture.

They robbed and killed for
gold and treasure, and yet,

we're fascinated by
these legendary characters

and the stories of their
dangerous encounters.

Perhaps most intriguing is

where on Earth the stolen
riches these scoundrels left behind

might be hidden?

Well, just exactly where
X marks the spot

may forever remain...

unexplained.

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