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shocks the world.

Adam Bunch: She had reported that they were flying

near Howland Island, but couldn't see it,

and that their fuel was running dangerously low.

After the final message, silence fell over the airwaves,

and the Electra disappeared.

Narrator: The search for the lost treasure

of France's emperor follows the path of his boldest invasion.

Anthea Nardi: The vast fortune in money and treasures

his men had accumulated and carted along with them

had disappeared and has not been found, to this day.

So, what could have become of Napoleon's stolen loot?

Narrator: A daring explorer vanishes in the cold,

unforgiving waters of the Arctic.

Alison Leonard: Hudson, his son, and a few loyal men,

were set adrift in icy, uncharted waters.

Centuries later, the question remains:

did he vanish into the Arctic's merciless expanse,

or somehow survive against all odds?

Narrator: The chain of history has many missing links.

Prominent people.

Priceless treasures.

Extraordinary artifacts.

Their locations still unknown.

Lost to the fog of time.

What happens when stories of the past,

Become,

Vanished History.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: In 1937, Amelia Earhart embarked

on an audacious journey to circumnavigate the globe,

piloting a cutting-edge Lockheed Electra 10E

with navigator Fred Noonan.

Their flight was a feat of daring and innovation,

pushing the boundaries of human endurance

and aviation technology.

James Ellis: Earhart and Noonan's journey began

on May 21, 1937, in Oakland, California, before heading east.

By the time they reached Lae, New Guinea, on June 29,

they had traveled an astounding 22,000 miles

over 21 flight days.

The next leg, to Howland Island, was critical,

it was a refueling stop on their route

through the vast Pacific.

Alison Leonard: Howland Island was a tiny,

uninhabited coral atoll, barely a speck in the endless ocean.

To help their approach, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca

was stationed nearby, emitting smoke signals

and transmitting radio communications.

But logs from the Itasca reveal a troubling reality:

many of their transmissions went unheard by Earhart,

and while her responses were occasionally received,

they were fragmented and unclear.

Adam Bunch: On July 2, 1937, at 8:43 a.m.,

Earhart's final confirmed transmission came through.

She reported they were flying near Howland Island

but could not see it.

And that the fuel was running dangerously low.

After final message, silence fell over the airwaves,

and the Electra disappeared.

The world was left

with one of history's greatest mysteries.

What happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan?

Narrator: Amelia Earhart's final flight was the culmination

of a career defined by groundbreaking achievements

in aviation.

From setting transcontinental records,

to becoming the first woman to fly solo

across the Atlantic,

she captivated the world.

Amma Agbedor: Earhart discovered her passion for aviation

after World War I following a chance encounter with pilots.

She moved from Kansas to California in 1920,

and by 1922, she had already set the women's altitude record

at 14,000 feet, showcasing her determination

to push boundaries.

But Earhart wasn't just a pilot,

she became a symbol of possibility and empowerment.

James Ellis: As the first woman Vice-President

of the National Aeronautic Association,

Earhart championed opportunities for women in flight.

At Purdue University, she served as a professor and counselor,

encouraging women to embrace engineering and science.

Alison Leonard: Amelia's first attempt to circumnavigate

the globe began with high hopes.

On March 17, 1937, she and her team successfully flew

the first leg from Oakland to Honolulu in under 16 hours.

But three days later, disaster struck.

During takeoff, the Electra ground-looped,

a maneuver where the aircraft veers uncontrollably

during taxi or takeoff.

As she attempted to correct a rightward drift

on the rain-slicked field, her adjustments overcompensated

and caused the Electra to spin sharply to the left.

This damaged the plane and forced the team

to call off the flight.

Adam Bunch: By June 1937 Earhart was ready to try again.

This time, she and Fred Noonan would leave from Miami

and fly from west to east.

Over the next month, they traveled more than 20,000 miles,

stopping everywhere from South America to Africa,

India and New Guinea.

Narrator: But what would become the final leg of their journey

was fraught with peril.

The flight from New Guinea to refuel on tiny Howland Island

was 2,500 miles over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

Amma Agbedor: The Electra carried 1,000 gallons of fuel,

that's about 20 hours worth,

but strong headwinds, overcast skies,

and communication breakdowns likely reduced

their margin for error.

Despite their preparation, they were flying into a region

where even a slight navigational error could mean disaster.

James Ellis: When radio contact with the Coast Guard

cutter Itasca fell silent,

the enormity of the situation became clear.

President Roosevelt ordered an unprecedented search effort,

spanning 250,000 square miles of ocean.

George Putnam, Amelia's husband,

even financed private searches,

but by October 1937,

all efforts had come up dry.

Narrator: Earhart's final radio transmission

42 days into their journey

was a faint echo lost to the Pacific,

where many believe the truth behind their silence

lies hidden.

Alison Leonard: One theory suggests a tragic

yet straightforward conclusion:

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ran out of fuel

and were forced to ditch their plane into the Pacific

near Howland Island,

a huge and unforgiving expanse of open ocean.

Adam Bunch: Earhart's last reported message,

'We are on the line 157 337'

suggested they were following their planned path,

but navigational miscalculations

could have led them astray,

and overcast skies could have obscured

their view of Howland Island,

which is just a tiny atoll. Critically low on fuel,

they would then have had no choice

but to try an emergency landing at sea.

Narrator: The Pacific near Howland Island

is one of the most remote and inaccessible regions on Earth.

Its ocean floor plunges to depths exceeding 17,000 feet,

with powerful currents constantly reshaping

the sea floor, making any recovery effort

an extraordinary challenge.

Adam Bunch: In 2009, a non-profit group called

the Waitt Institute used deep-sea robots

to search thousands of square miles.

The missions did expand our understanding

of the sea floor, but they didn't find the Electra.

Amma Agbedor: The crash-and-sank theory offers

a logical explanation for their disappearance,

but the complete absence of wreckage raises questions.

Could the vastness of the ocean conceal their fate?

Or does the lack of evidence suggest

there's more to the story?

Narrator: Other theories propose Earhart and Noonan

may have found refuge far from Howland Island,

only to face an entirely different fate.

James Ellis: Nikumaroro a remote coral atoll

in the Phoenix Islands, sits along the 157-337 line

of position mentioned in Earhart's final transmission.

As fuel dwindled and their view of Howland Island

remained obscured, Earhart and Noonan may have followed

the 157-337 line southeast toward Nikumaroro,

hoping to find refuge on the coral atoll

surrounded by deep ocean.

Alison Leonard: This wasn't a random heading.

The 157-337 line was a precise navigational strategy,

calculated from the rising sun using celestial navigation.

Fred Noonan, a master of this technique,

would have plotted this line well in advance.

Adam Bunch: After their disappearance,

hopes were sparked by reports of a series

of faint radio transmissions.

121 distress signals were received by radio operators

over the next ten days,

and it was thought that at least 57 of them

could potentially have come from the Electra.

Narrator: Decades of investigation have uncovered

compelling clues suggesting that Nikumaroro may be

the Electra's final resting place,

and the site of a desperate struggle for survival.

James Ellis: In 1940, a British colonial officer

made a chilling discovery on Nikumaroro

a human skull and bones along with remnants of a woman's shoe

near what appeared to be a makeshift camp.

Alison Leonard: Subsequent investigations uncovered

bottles of cosmetics, a sextant box,

which is an essential tool for navigation,

and shells and bones from fish, turtles, and birds

that appeared to have been eaten.

These clues hint at a resourceful survivor

struggling to endure on this isolated atoll.

Adam Bunch: The initial analysis of the human bones

found they belonged to a short European man.

But while they've since been lost,

a more recent reevaluation of the measurements,

using modern forensic software,

suggests they're actually more likely to belong

to a tall European woman right around the same height

and build as Amelia Earhart.

James Ellis: Yet despite years of investigation,

no evidence conclusively ties Earhart or Noonan to Nikumaroro,

or to the human remains discovered there.

Narrator: As the search for answers moves

beyond Nikumaroro, the trail leads to a theory

that shifts the focus to a possibility

rooted in the shadowy waters of the Pacific

and the tumult of pre-war tensions.

Alison Leonard: It's possible that Earhart and Noonan,

unable to locate Howland Island,

may have veered off course and flown north toward

the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands.

Eyewitness accounts passed down through generations

of Marshallese locals tell of a silver plane landing

on the remote shores of Mili Atoll.

Narrator: In 2017, interest was re-ignited in this theory

by a photograph discovered in the U.S. National Archives.

Amma Agbedor: The grainy photo seemed to show a man and woman

resembling Noonan and Earhart sitting on a dock

at Jaluit Atoll with what looked like the Electra nearby.

It sparked speculation that the Japanese Navy had captured them

and taken them to Saipan.

But the story fell apart when researchers discovered

the photo in a 1935 Japanese travel book,

two years before Earhart vanished.

James Ellis: Still, advocates of the Marshall Islands theory

point to other intriguing clues.

It's been proposed that Earhart had a contingency plan, "Plan B"

to head for the Marshall Islands

if Howland Island could not be located.

Some suggest her radio silence was deliberate,

masking an intelligence mission to scout Japanese installations

in the Pacific.

Adam Bunch: Without concrete evidence,

no wreckage, no documents, no records,

the claim is impossible to prove.

But some people still find

the Marshall Islands idea compelling.

Another theory looking to provide an answer

to one of the world's great mysteries.

Narrator: For decades, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart

and Fred Noonan has captivated the world,

inspiring relentless investigations

and countless theories.

Amma Agbedor: The crash-and-sank theory offers a simple

and tragic conclusion,

an aircraft lost to the vast Pacific,

swallowed by an unforgiving sea.

But without wreckage or definitive proof,

the mystery lingers, keeping doubt alive even today.

James Ellis: The Nikumaroro theory paints a vivid picture

of survival, a plane stranded on a coral reef,

faint radio signals calling for help,

and traces of a makeshift camp.

But the clues, while compelling,

remain frustratingly incomplete, leaving us with a puzzle

where the pieces don't quite fit together.

In the end, we may never know what happened.

Narrator: Amelia Earhart once said,

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."

Her life, her journey, and her disappearance remind us

that sometimes the pursuit of the extraordinary

is its own reward.

♪♪

Narrator: By 1812, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

had already conquered Europe from Portugal to Poland;

from the Baltic Sea to Italy.

But to get at the powerful British Empire,

he had to defeat Russia,

a feat he estimated he could achieve within a few weeks

backed by an army of over 600,000 strong.

Adam Bunch: At first Napoleon seemed to have the upper hand.

His Grand Armée chased the Russians eastward

as they retreated.

The soldiers would collect huge amounts of loot and treasure,

everything from priceless religious icons

to gold and silver that Napoleon hoped to use

to fund future campaigns.

Their story is thousands of cartloads filled with riches.

Anthea Nardi: But by the time Napoleon had abandoned

his Russian conquest, and the remnants of his broken army

had returned to Western Europe,

the vast fortune in money and treasures

his men had accumulated and carted along with them

had disappeared and has not been found to this day.

So what could have become of Napoleon's stolen loot?

Narrator: Napoleon's invasion force was the largest

in European history.

And with an army that size, delivering a constant supply

of food can be a daunting challenge.

But one of Napoleon's guiding principles was

"The army feeds itself."

James Ellis: Well, the army didn't exactly feed itself;

that was a nice way of saying that his army plundered riches

and food from whatever area they were marching through.

Providing money to fund his current and future campaigns

and food to sustain the troops each day.

For Napoleon, it simplified things greatly.

Alison Leonard: On June 22nd, 1812,

Napoleon and his Grand Armée crossed the Niemen River

and marched on to Vilnius,

expecting their first battle but there was no fight.

The Russian army had already withdrawn, so the chase was on.

Adam Bunch: Czar Alexander the First responded

to Napoleon's strategy with a brutal, scorched earth campaign,

destroying roads, bridges, livestock and food supplies

in the places where his own people lived,

leaving almost nothing behind for Napoleon's army to live on.

Anthea Nardi: Throughout that summer, there was no way

for Napoleon to properly supply his forces

as they chased the rapidly withdrawing Russians.

Even before fighting any of their battles,

they'd started dying by the thousands,

of thirst, starvation, disease, and heat exhaustion,

and were losing about a thousand horses a day to the same things.

Narrator: On September 14th, 1812,

Napoleon and his army reached Moscow,

ready to negotiate Tsar Alexander's peaceful surrender

or to take the city by force.

But the Tsar wasn't there, nor his army.

Moscow had been abandoned and set aflame,

as per Alexander's orders.

James Ellis: The Grand Armée looted the city of its riches

while Napoleon waited for the Tsar to give in.

All the while, his troops supplies of food and water

grew lower and lower,

because the Russian command had ordered the city's food stores

to be destroyed before its evacuation.

Alison Leonard: Napoleon waited 36 days.

Finally, on October 18th, he ordered his army to retreat

and they left Moscow with 50,000 carts and wheelbarrows

loaded with loot and gold bullion.

They even took things like the massive crucifix

from Ivan the Great's cathedral,

which they displayed as a symbol of victory,

as they retreated.

Adam Bunch: It was a catastrophic retreat.

That fall rain turned roads and the mud.

In November, the temperatures plummeted as low as

-22 Fahrenheit.

The men suffered frostbite and snow blindness.

For food some were left to broil and eat their own dying horses,

seasoned with gunpowder or cats, handles, axle grease...

Some even resorted to cannibalism.

By mid-November, the 600,000 men of the Grand Armée

were down to only about 36,000.

Narrator: Some speculate that the bulk

of Napoleon's treasures from Moscow

never made it more than a quarter of the way

back to Paris.

Anthea Nardi: At the end of November, with the Cossacks,

who were politically independent fighters,

cooperating with Russia, chasing and firing on them,

the French scrambled to build two bridges

across the Berezina River,

in a desperate attempt to get away.

And that might be as far as Napoleon's loot traveled.

James Ellis: It's possible that untold amounts

of Napoleon's gold and other booty

lie deep under the silt of the Berezina River.

That river crossing was chaotic and absolutely hellish.

Alison Leonard: This was not an orderly retreat by any means.

With the Russian artillery bombarding them,

people panicked and trampled one another

to get on the bridges, which repeatedly collapsed

under the immense weight,

killing around 15,000 soldiers and civilians.

The wagons of treasure would have sunk straight down.

Adam Bunch: Once Napoleon and his main force

were across the river, he ordered the bridges burn

to keep the Russians from following.

Tens of thousands of stragglers were left on the other bank

to be captured or killed, or to drown

as they tried to swim through the freezing water.

Narrator: If any amount of the treasure survived

beyond the Berezina crossing,

those who carried it may have reconsidered its value.

From war booty to make them rich

to something that might just get them home alive.

James Ellis: Those of Napoleon's men that managed to travel

the 200 miles to Vilnius, in Lithuania,

may have spent much of the booty they'd kept

on food or accommodation.

Alison Leonard: Vilnius is known as

"The city built on human bones"

and there's a grim reason for that.

About 20,000 of Napoleon's soldiers made it there,

but they were in very bad shape.

Many had frostbitten extremities

that had turned gangrenous;

all were starving.

Adam Bunch: Starving soldiers fought over food, shelter...

Many of those who didn't have gold to pay with

froze to death outside.

One witness described thousands of frozen corpses

lining the streets, stacked three storeys high,

waiting to be collected.

Narrator: Such descriptions may be hard to imagine or believe

and it's easy to think they must have been exaggerated

over the years.

But with time, occasionally, comes proof.

James Ellis: In 2002, municipal workers demolishing

old buildings just outside of Vilnius discovered a mass grave.

Thousands of human skeletons, arranged neatly,

layer upon layer.

With the skeletons were buttons from military uniforms,

stamped with their unit numbers; scraps of blue cloth;

and a crushed infantryman's helmet.

Alison Leonard: None of the skeletons showed any signs

Alison Leonard: None of the skeletons showed any signs

of having died in battle.

And, aside from one gold 20-franc Napoleonic coin,

no booty was found with them.

By many contemporaneous accounts,

people were "diligent" in separating the war dead

from their gold, and so far the archaeological record

supports those observations.

Adam Bunch: The account claims the army was still carrying

chests filled with 10 million gold francs

on its way to Vilnius.

While under attack, a colonel gave Napoleon's treasury

the emperor's personal stash to some nearby guards

for safekeeping, but the officer claimed every coin

was returned after the danger had passed.

So if that's true, where are they?

Narrator: Some experts believe there may not be a single place

where Napoleon's lost treasure now lies

and that the key to what happened to it

is the moment the Grand Armée changed

from being predators to prey.

Anthea Nardi: From the time Napoleon began his retreat

from Moscow, his soldiers and all of his cartloads

of war booty were targets.

The Russian army, and especially the Cossacks,

chased, hunted and harassed them.

They picked off their rear guards, and stole their booty,

whenever they could.

James Ellis: The Cossacks were skilled,

and they were relentless.

Napoleon, who one might expect would be upset with them

for preying on his troops,

was actually instead greatly impressed.

He said he "could go all the way 'round the world"

if he had them in his army.

Adam Bunch: Some of the soldiers who tried to carry

smaller amounts of treasure in their own backpacks,

would've made it all the way to Vilnius,

but many of them would've been overtaken by the Russians,

killed or taken prisoner.

The loot they carried wasn't any help;

it had only slowed them down.

Narrator: The loss of Napoleon's plundered trophies and treasure

was not only an embarrassment or a loss of face;

it represented the failure of the entire campaign,

and signaled the beginning of the end for the Emperor.

Anthea Nardi: Napoleon tried to put a positive spin on things

when he returned to France.

He said, "All had gone well. Moscow was in my power."

Even though it was an empty, burning city when he arrived.

And he said, "the cold of the winter"

caused a general calamity.

James Ellis: The cold of the Russian winter

did make things harder for Napoleon's troops

as did the heat of the Russian summer.

But what really failed them was his planning and leadership.

In the end, his philosophy that his army could "feed itself"

was neutralized by Tsar Alexander's policy

of scorching the earth.

Narrator: Napoleon's invasion of Russia is to this day,

one of the deadliest military campaigns in history.

What ultimately became of the plundered loot

his army hauled behind them,

may never be discovered.

But what's almost certain to be found

is more evidence of those doomed

by one man's unrealistic ambitions.

♪♪

Narrator: In the early 1600's, as European empires

pushed the boundaries of their world maps,

one explorer sailed into uncertainty

with extraordinary courage and ambition.

Henry Hudson, driven by visions

of an elusive northern route to Asia,

ventured through ice-choked seas and uncharted coasts.

Four bold voyages carved new lines on maritime charts.

But his final journey would end with a sudden betrayal,

leaving behind one of history's greatest mysteries.

Anthea Nardi: In the early 17th century,

most European trade routes to Asia

required long voyages south,

around the tip of Africa.

Hudson sought a daring alternative.

A shorter, northern waterway known as the Northwest Passage,

a route that could change the balance of global trade forever.

James Ellis: Hudson's groundbreaking Arctic mapping

expanded the known world and opened the door

for Dutch colonization in what would become New York.

But his relentless pursuit of the Northwest Passage,

coupled with a habit of defying orders and straining his crews,

placed mounting pressure on every expedition,

which set the stage for the conflicts

that would mark his final journey.

Alison Leonard: In 1611, after a brutal winter

trapped in James Bay, the crew of Hudson's discovery

reached their breaking point.

Starvation, illness, and Hudson's alleged favoritism

triggered a mutiny; Hudson, his son, and a few loyal men,

were set adrift in icy, uncharted waters..

Centuries later, the question remains:

did he vanish into the Arctic's merciless expanse,

or somehow survive against all odds?

Narrator: By the early 17th century, improved charts,

growing maritime expertise,

and the lingering promise of a shortcut to Asia

only intensified Europe's hunger for a solution.

Hudson entered this stage armed with lessons from the past,

determined to succeed where others had failed.

Adam Bunch: In 1609, Hudson was hired by the Dutch East India

Company to search for the Northeast Passage to Asia

by sailing through the Arctic north of Russia.

He set sail on his third voyage aboard the Half Moon

with a crew of 17.

But when ice blocked his path, Hudson ignored his orders.

Instead of returning home to Amsterdam,

he headed west across the Atlantic,

hoping to discover a different route to the Pacific,

the Northwest Passage.

Anthea Nardi: Hudson charted the coast of North America,

navigating from Newfoundland to present-day Manhattan,

before venturing 150 miles up the river

that now bears his name, reaching as far as Albany.

Rather than returning to Amsterdam,

Hudson docked in England, where he secured support

for yet another expedition,

while the Half Moon returned to the Dutch without him.

These actions angered his Dutch employers,

but opened lucrative trade opportunities

and solidified his reputation

as an explorer willing to risk everything

in pursuit of discovery.

Narrator: In April 1610,

with the backing of the British East India Company

and other influential figures,

including the Prince of Wales,

Hudson embarked on his most ambitious voyage yet.

After leaving London aboard the 55-ton Discovery,

he ventured to Iceland and the rugged coasts of Labrador,

driven by the dream of finding an open passage to China.

James Ellis: Hudson had a crew of 23,

including his son John and lifetime associate Robert Juet.

But early in the voyage, he made the controversial decision

to bring aboard Henry Greene,

a volatile figure tasked with spying on the crew,

a choice, that hinted at the tensions

brewing beneath the surface.

Alison Leonard: Despite fights breaking out on board

and members threatening to leave,

Hudson managed to push farther

than any of his previous expeditions.

Eventually, he crossed the strait that now bears his name

and entered the vast, uncharted waters of Hudson Bay.

Adam Bunch: Hudson and his crew spent months

searching the shores of Hudson Bay for a route to the Pacific,

and tensions on board the discovery were growing.

Eventually, his crew began openly disagreeing

with his decisions, but Hudson ignored their warnings

crackdown on dissent and insisted on pushing forward.

Narrator: Hudson's relentless drive to push onward,

despite the crew's growing doubts,

only deepened the cracks in his fragile command.

Anthea Nardi: As months passed and winter closed in,

they sailed south to James Bay;

where it became clear they'd reached a dead end.

Trapped by ice on the shores of James Bay,

the crew endured a brutal winter of freezing temperatures,

dwindling supplies, and scurvy.

James Ellis: By the spring of 1611,

tensions aboard the Discovery were ready to explode.

The crew had become suspicious that Hudson was hoarding rations

for his favorites, including his son and the ship's carpenter,

which deepened the divide between the captain and his men

and fueled simmering resentment.

And when the ice finally began to thaw,

instead of keeping his promise to sail home,

Hudson instead revealed plans to push further west.

Alison Leonard: The crew was already weakened,

demoralized, and without any faith in the vision

or leadership of their captain.

This final betrayal, coupled with months of hardship,

sparked a full-blown mutiny.

In June, the crew cast Hudson, his son,

and seven loyal men adrift in a small, open shallop,

leaving them to the mercy of the Arctic.

The Discovery sailed away, and with it,

the last trace of Hudson.

Narrator: The Arctic's thaw brought no relief

to Henry Hudson's fragile command.

However, some maintain that his final moments were decided

not by the biting cold, but by the hands of those

who once followed him.

Adam Bunch: Some think Henry Hudson might have been murdered

by his own crew.

After months of frostbite, scurvy,

and mind numbing confinement,

it might have taken only a spark

to ignite a violent reaction.

Anthea Nardi: Although mutineers later claimed

they cast Hudson and his loyalists adrift

with adequate supplies, the ship's deck told another story.

Dark, crusted bloodstains on the ship's deck hinted

at a violent confrontation before Hudson disappeared

into the Arctic.

This scene would suggest that the final moments aboard

the Discovery were anything but orderly.

Narrator: Not everyone accepts that Hudson perished

amid ice and betrayal.

Another theory suggests his fate led inland,

weaving him into the stories and landscapes of those

who called the region home.

Alison Leonard: Some believe that Hudson and his men

survived by forging new bonds with Indigenous communities.

Accounts from Cree elders describe a band of pale

strangers arriving near James Bay in the early 1600's.

One figure was notably red-haired,

adorned with striking jewelry, and exuded authority.

Anthea Nardi: The Arctic's relentless conditions

would have demanded ingenuity and cooperation,

making cultural integration a plausible means of survival.

Although there's no solid proof,

a mention by explorer Samuel de Champlain

of English youths in the company Algonquin

supports this intriguing possibility.

James Ellis: The survival theory, though fascinating,

faces challenges.

Without solid archaeological proof or documented encounters,

the idea of Hudson's crew blending seamlessly

into Indigenous life seems more hopeful than certain.

In a land that hides its secrets beneath ice,

there may be a far harsher explanation.

Narrator: Not everyone believes Hudson's story ended

with warm hearths and new alliances.

Another theory points to a colder conclusion,

shaped by the unforgiving nature of the Arctic itself.

Adam Bunch: In 1823, an explorer named Douglas Clavering

said to have found some graves on the island of Spitsbergen,

far to the north of mainland Norway,

including one marked with the name Henry Hudson.

Leading to speculation that Hudson's boat could have been

blown 3000 miles across the North Atlantic

by southwesterly gales.

Anthea Nardi: According to some accounts,

his crew exhumed a well-preserved body,

bringing it aboard their ship.

However, as the warmer climate set in,

the body began to decompose,

and they allegedly cast it overboard.

This strange tale, though intriguing,

was never documented in the ship's log

and exists only in the writings of Archibald Smith,

an associate of Clavering.

Narrator: Henry Hudson's legacy stands at the crossroads

of ambition, exploration, and human endurance.

While his voyages broadened horizons

and fueled empires, clearing paths for future expeditions,

whaling industries, and settlements,

his disappearance proves that discovery

often extracts a heavy toll.

Adam Bunch: Hudson's travels helped reshape the world,

expanded Europe's understanding of it and its geography,

brought news of the river that now bears his name,

and set the stage for Dutch colonization in North America.

Pushing open doors that would enrich European empires

and devastate indigenous nations.

And he charted Arctic waters no European

had ever mapped before.

Anthea Nardi: But Hudson's unwavering hunt

for the Northwest Passage came at a human cost.

His disregard for orders and the uneven distribution

of scarce resources stoked resentments that,

in the frozen darkness of James Bay, flared into mutiny.

That single, desperate act left questions

that still haunt us centuries later.

James Ellis: Whether he succumbed to Arctic hardship,

fell victim to his own crew's fury,

or slipped quietly into Indigenous communities,

Hudson's fate embodies the thin line between success

and disaster in the golden age of exploration.

Narrator: Henry Hudson ventured boldly into realms

few dared navigate.

His disappearance remains a testament

that not all who journey into uncharted worlds

return with their stories.

♪♪

Narrator: Before 221 BCE there was no China.

But then Zhao Zheng, a young King, rose up

and by the power of will,

forged seven warring states into one,

and proclaimed himself China's First Emperor.

He desired to have a seal that all would recognize

and none would dare question,

an object of lasting permanence

to sustain his dynasty for 10,000 generations,

The Heirloom Seal of the Realm.

Amma Agbedor: Seals had been used in that part of the world

for hundreds of years before,

as early as the 11th century BCE.

These weren't the wax seals some might think of.

These were more like stamps carved out of wood or stone,

or sometimes made of bronze or copper,

and dipped into a thick red ink.

James Ellis: They were used as a signature,

to mark contracts, or to sign paintings,

or sometimes, pressed into clay, as a potter's mark.

One person might own various seals, for variety of purposes.

Many were small, producing an impression about the size

of your small fingernail,

but the largest might be about four inches square.

Anthea Nardi: China's first emperor ordered a seal made,

only one, and that was part of its power and significance.

Its name, translated into English, was

"Jade Seal Passed Through the Realm".

He intended to hand it down to all those in his bloodline.

And it was one of the most historically significant jade

artifacts ever made.

Adam Bunch: The seal did pass through the realm.

It didn't just serve him, but a whole series of dynasties

that followed and generations to come.

But by the end of the first millennium CE,

the heirloom seal had disappeared,

and centuries later,

we're left wondering what happened to it.

And could it ever be rediscovered?

Narrator: Zhao Zheng was born in 259 BCE,

during the "Warring States" period.

After his father's death, he ascended as King of Qin State,

and over the next 25 years ended two and a half centuries

of conflict by conquering every competing state

to form a unified country.

The Imperial Seal was then ordered to be carved

for his personal use.

Amma Agbedor: The seal is said to have been inscribed

with a sentiment: "Having received the mandate

from heaven, may the Emperor lead

a long and prosperous life."

Two things there; one, that people should believe

Zhao Zheng had a divine right to rule;

and two, he had a preoccupation with staving off death.

James Ellis: Zhao Zheng is said to have sought to achieve

his own immortality through alchemy and magic.

He had a sprawling underground mausoleum built for himself,

guarded by thousands of terra-cotta warriors.

As for ensuring his dynasty's longevity,

he ruled harshly, and even tried to suppress opposition

and "subversive thought" by burning books.

Anthea Nardi: Zhao Zheng's brutal methods weren't

entirely successful; in fact, they backfired.

Not only did his Qin Dynasty not last 10,000 generations,

as was his wish, but after his death,

rebellion promptly broke out;

his dynasty was overthrown,

and all of his surviving Qin imperial family members

were systematically killed.

Adam Bunch: But while the Qin Dynasty fell,

the heirloom seal survived.

It was passed down from one emperor to the next

through the Han Dynasty and beyond.

It did become the symbol of stability

Zhao Zheng designed it to be

at least right up until the nine hundreds or so

when it disappeared.

Narrator: One theory, held by many historians,

suggests the paranoia of Zhao Zheng increasingly

experienced throughout his reign

and his perceived need for protection

may have had some basis in fact.

Amma Agbedor: There is a very good chance

the Heirloom Seal of the Realm was destroyed

when China's capital was looted and ransacked,

by rebels or by the warlord, Zhu Wen,

in the late 9th century at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

James Ellis: The Tang Dynasty had reestablished Chang'an,

in the country's northeast, as the capital.

It was surrounded by mountains as natural barriers,

so it was believed to be as militarily impregnable

as any city could be.

Chang'an was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road,

and it was a wealthy, vibrant city.

It was also possibly the world's most populous at that time

with about three million people.

This is where the Imperial Palace was built,

and that's where the Heirloom Seal of the Realm was kept.

Anthea Nardi: But in the end, the Tang rulers had committed

the same fatal errors as Zhao Zheng had centuries before:

they looked after themselves, not their people.

There was an uprising,

and Chang'an was attacked repeatedly by peasant rebels,

and by opportunistic warlords.

When the Imperial Palace was seized,

the last Tang emperor fled, leaving his treasures,

including the Heirloom Seal, unprotected.

It was then, sometime between 874 and 884 CE,

that it could have been destroyed.

Adam Bunch: At the very latest,

the Imperial Seal was lost to history

during the following era,

the period of the Five Dynasties from 907 to 960 CE.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that it was physically

lost by then, just that we have no records of it,

so we don't know exactly when it vanished.

There have been claims that even reappeared at times

during the centuries since,

but no historians have been able to confirm it.

Narrator: Some researchers believe the fact

that the Imperial Seal of the Realm hasn't been seen

in all these centuries is actually a good sign.

Amma Agbedor: Those in the Imperial Palace at Chang'an

knew the Tang Dynasty was in danger.

And they must have known that continued assaults on the palace

were likely to occur.

So they might have smuggled the Seal to some safe place

and hidden it.

James Ellis: With those who knew the Imperial Seal's hiding

place possibly killed during the sack of Chang'an,

or executed afterward, the seal may still lie safe,

wherever they hid it, still waiting to be rediscovered.

Anthea Nardi: This practice of hiding treasures

in advance of an anticipated attack,

and those treasures subsequently being lost to history,

is a fairly common occurrence.

In 1970, a trove of treasures was discovered

in the village of Hejiacun.

Silver and gold jewelry; a wine vessel carved out of agate;

all kinds of valuables from the coffers of China's elite.

All of which had been hidden during a time of unrest,

and forgotten.

Adam Bunch: If the Heirloom Seal of the Realm

was intentionally hidden,

finding it would be a monumental task,

a four inch stone cube

buried somewhere in China.

It doesn't even really seem to be any agreed upon theories

about where you should even start looking.

Narrator: One school of thought suggests

that if the Imperial Seal has survived,

archaeologists may not need to go far to find it.

Amma Agbedor: The last Tang emperor knew

that continued attacks on Chang'an were likely to occur,

but they didn't know exactly when those attacks might happen.

So it's conceivable the last assault came as a surprise,

and the jade seal was simply abandoned in the chaos

and lost among the rubble of the Imperial Palace.

Adam Bunch: If that theory is true,

that would dramatically narrow the area

that needs to be search.

So far the seal still hasn't turned up.

Narrator: The Heirloom Seal of the Realm was lost to history

by the Period of the Five Dynasties,

which had succeeded the fall of the Tang.

But that's not the end of the story....

Anthea Nardi: We don't know that the seal was actually,

physically lost, until hundreds of years

after the end of the Tang Dynasty.

Because even at the start of the Ming Dynasty, in 1369,

the new emperor was determined to get it back.

James Ellis: From 1271, the Mongols,

starting with Kublai Khan, ruled China.

And when the Mongols were finally defeated

about a century later,

the first Ming Emperor is said to have been determined

to relocate the Heirloom Seal.

Amma Agbedor: According to one account,

the Ming emperor carried out a raid and stole one

of the personal seals of the Mongol emperor.

However, it turns out the Mongol owned 11 seals,

and the one taken from him

was not the Imperial Seal that Zhao Zheng had made

almost 15 centuries earlier.

So, yet another dead end.

Narrator: The lump of jade that was once carved

into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm

must certainly still exist in some form.

It may one day be found intact.

Or it may continue to lie indefinitely,

in one or many pieces,

in the earth from which it was first taken.

♪♪