Original subtitles

When I think of amazing places to film underwater,

Shark Bay's way up at the top of the list.

It's so beautiful and stunning.

And you get these incredible red cliffs

that just meet this beautiful turquoise water

and the wildlife is just phenomenal.

You can feel it's spiritual.

It's quite powerful.

Then there's something else.

The place is actually littered with shipwrecks.

And there's two good mates that live here

that found something absolutely incredible.

We'll dive into this adventure together,

and you'd never know where it's gonna take us.

On a remote coastline,

an ancient treasure is found buried in the sand.

Rightio.

Closely guarded secrets.

Oh, my God.

That thing is gigantic.

That's crazy.

Discoveries come quickly...

We're not even in the water.

-It's sitting there. -That's what we do!

While hunting for a 600-year-old shipwreck.

If this is what we think it is,

it would be the biggest historic wreck ever found in Australia.

You won't believe it!

How beautiful is this.

It's the most stunning location in Shark Bay.

And it's the most westerly point of Australia.

Right. So, it works like a big shipwreck trap, right?

Kind of, well, it sticks out so west, you know.

-If you're lost, you'll run into it. -Yeah.

Eight hundred kilometers north of the Shipwreck Hunters' base

in Fremantle,

Shark Bay has for centuries lured ships into its seemingly calm waters

only to trap them with extreme currents and surging tides.

More than 20 historic shipwrecks have been found here.

The team is meeting locals, Leon Deschamps and Shayne Thomson,

who made an incredible discovery, they believe could lead

to something even bigger.

So, welcome, guys.

Look, this isn't the exact spot we made the discovery.

That's still pretty sacred to us, that spot, for obvious reasons.

But yeah, this is pretty much identical to the spot where we made a discovery

-which changed our lives. -Jesus.

We were out metal detecting and finding beer can after beer can.

And the detector got a massive signal.

It just went off.

Just about blew my ears out.

So, we called over Leon and we started digging and we found him.

Well, give us a look then!

Come on.

No more suspense.

Rightio.

Say hello to baby Buddha.

What? No way.

Wow.

Look at this.

Look at it. It's so beautiful.

How did you guys feel when you found this?

Stunned would be a good description.

He's only 15 centimeters tall, so he's not a big thing.

But when you lift him up, he weighs over a kilo.

So that's what really got me, first of all, was just that heavy weight.

I kind of, like, knew straight away that it was a Buddhist object

but also I had an inkling it was Chinese.

And because we are so close to the water,

there was a distinct possibility it might be associated with a shipwreck.

So that's why it's great you guys are here to help us find it.

Leon and Shayne's discovery made headlines

when it was confirmed as a rare relic

from the Ming dynasty, in China.

Look, look, look, look.

Ah! This is beautiful. Um... Ha!

That is unbelievable.

And as you can probably guess by now, you've got a genuine artifact.

You know I don't know whether it's 500 or 1,200 years old,

but it's genuinely old.

The bronze statues symbolized power and wealth

and were used in ceremonies to celebrate Buddha's birthday.

How this one ended up in the vast Western Australian wilderness

is a mystery.

Looking at this Buddha, it is almost too good to be true, isn't it?

It's like something from a movie.

You wouldn't expect to find something like that in such a remote place.

This area has a history of pearling.

Particularly, you know, Malay and Chinese pearlers.

And so, it could have come on a Chinese pearler's boat.

But the information that we've got from the world-leading experts

is that's the sort of thing that was made for an imperial person,

you know, potentially an emperor.

This is made for someone of high-standing in Chinese society.

How that then gets all the way to Western Australia?

We don't know. And that's the mystery. That's what we want to find out.

But the problem you face is there's no other evidence

that ever said that the Ming dynasty came to Australia.

So there may be no other evidence

that the Ming treasure fleet came to Australia.

But that's what the last few years has been about,

researching just how realistic that possibility is.

Once it got out there and the public knew,

we were getting contacts from people that were sort of saying,

"I know where there might be a Chinese shipwreck."

-And that was the exciting thing. -Really?

-So we have some leads here in Shark Bay. -In this area?

In this area.

So I'm trying to get my head around exactly what we're looking for.

The Buddha had to have come here by ship, right?

So the Chinese back then didn't do anything in half measures.

The fleets had 10, 20, 30 ships.

Some of the ships are up to 120 meters long.

So the size of a soccer pitch.

What we're then made aware of,

there's a location in the very south of the island

of a 300 foot long ship shape.

And up here in the north,

a research colleague believes he's seen a very, very large anchor.

So, hopefully, using some of the equipment that you guys have bought up,

you might be able to see just what is there.

It'd literally be rewriting Australian history.

Like, that is an incredible discovery if we can make it.

In the early fifteenth century,

200 years before Europeans crossed the oceans to Australia,

the Chinese were already sailing vast distances.

Known as the Ming treasure fleets,

it's claimed that large flotillas were sent on voyages across the globe.

Shayne and Leon believe one ship may have ventured further south,

only to be wrecked in Shark Bay.

Andre is contacting maritime archaeologist Dr. Deb Shefi

to explore a connection between the Ming treasure fleets

and the Buddhist statue.

We're learning about this, like, epic baby Buddha

that Leon and Shayne found

and I'd love to know what the WA Museum thought about it.

Look, Shark Bay has that huge maritime history

and the Chinese and Malaysian communities, they would have come,

say 150 years ago or so, even 200 years ago.

They were very involved in pearling.

So it's quite likely that this would have belonged to one of them.

Yeah. Wow.

I still can't stop thinking it, like,

is there any possibility it could have been,

you know, related to, like, a shipwreck of any kind?

So, when it comes down to it,

the Chinese during the Ming dynasty were exploring the world,

but there's no historic archaeological evidence

that suggests that they ever came to Australia, let alone to Shark Bay.

And if we were looking for a shipwreck,

we would assume there would be more than one isolated Buddha statue.

So, it's a nice story,

but there's no historic or archaeological evidence to back that up.

That's fair enough.

I do love the fairytale around it and I'm still, like, so intrigued.

That's such a unique object.

The fact is, is that there's still stories out there to be told.

We know, for example, that there are several pearling camps

that are still unlocated, and shipwrecks that still need to be found.

So, who knows, you might uncover a new secret.

Thanks Deb, take care.

To claim that it's from a Chinese junk,

like, from the 1400s, which is ancient.

Like, it's so long ago.

I just can't picture it but, you know, it's...

I do love the thought of it.

I think there's a lot more to this.

World Heritage listed,

Shark Bay is a sanctuary for many rare and endangered species.

It also has some of the world's largest sea grass meadows.

To help with the mission,

the Shipwreck Hunters are about to find out

how these meadows can hide secrets.

Local indigenous Malgana women,

Simone and Laetitia Wear,

are taking them to the wreck of the timber barque, Gudrun,

which sank in 1901.

Our traditional Malgana name for Shark Bay is Gutharraguda.

And it means "two waters."

So, when you have a look on the map of Shark Bay,

you'll see two bodies of water, one to the west and one to the east.

This is what we wanted to show you. This is a really great example of how

a shipwreck site can still be really deceiving

and it's really hard to tell whether we're on the site.

Yeah, look, that sea grass can hide a ship, but it can also define the shape.

I don't know what's down there, but the best bet is to get in the water

-and have a look. -Let's do it.

-Let's go. -Gearin' up.

Thousands of years old, each sea grass bed is one plant.

They are some of the largest single organisms in the world,

providing habitat for a vast array of marine animals.

I had a good look, I did have a good search

-and it's all definitely sea grass. -Yeah.

It's quite flat with a bit of sand around the outside.

Maybe we move around and search a little bit more.

But it's not in this little area.

This was a known mark as well.

So we're on the mark.

We're in meters of it and we still can't see it.

-How'd you go? -We got it!

You got it? No way!

-Yeah, we got it! -Whoo!

Finally, a clearer patch reveals the wreck of Gudrun.

It's a beautiful site, so spread out.

The sand is just like a vault.

You can see the uncovered bits of wood, they're still in good condition.

-Condition's great. -That's just that sea grass

that's made that amazing environment for the timbers to survive.

Well, thank you guys so much for taking us out here.

It's been amazing to be on Country with you, we've learnt so much.

To see a shipwreck at home in the bay, salt water, awesome.

We wish you good luck to find your shipwreck.

-Thank you. -Thanks, mate.

Thanks. Cheers.

Day one of the mission.

-Is this okay, Nushy? -Yeah.

Great to be with you guys.

It's a nice day too! Pretty lucky.

-Giddy-up. Buckle your seat belts. -Yee-haw!

The team is heading

thirty-five kilometers across the bay to Dirk Hartog Island.

It has a rugged and dangerous coastline.

It's named after a Dutch explorer who landed here in 1616,

the first recorded European to visit.

This is also where the team will search for a 15th-century Chinese shipwreck.

Its discovery would change Australian history.

Shayne and Leon have two targets.

The first was passed on to them by a researcher

who saw what he thought was a large and very old anchor.

It's been a long, long time coming.

And after five years of wanting to get out here,

we're finally here and it's fantastic.

We've just stopped because we've seen a chain of manta rays

that are either in a mating chain or a feeding chain.

They're such beautiful animals to swim with.

They're very graceful, so we're all itching to get in the water.

Going in!

Going in!

Manta rays have the largest brain-to-body size of any fish.

They are intelligent, inquisitive, and playful.

In the water, you can really see why they get the name manta.

In Spanish it means "cloak,"

and they really look like a big black cloak.

Oh, my gosh.

How good was that?

-That was a pretty big manta ray. -Yeah.

You had your arms out...

I had my arms out and it was still bigger than my arm span,

so it must have been two and a half meters.

-That's a lot. -Yeah, three meters.

That's pretty big.

That was absolutely amazing.

But we'll go have a look for a shipwreck.

-Yeah, I guess so. -We're the most easily distracted.

-Always. Yeah. -Wildlife always keepin' us distracted.

That's the Terra way.

Back on track, the team is nearing the area

where the old anchor was seen.

Well, we're at target one.

It's pretty shallow. It's looking like about two meters.

And we can make the bottom out, so we've got some visibility to play with.

We're just havin' a scan now.

Just gonna go over the mark, make sure we're in the right area.

Got a site scanner here, so we can pick up something on the sea floor.

Can you see anything at all?

That's, like, a bit corally and weedy,

so it could be somewhere in that.

We're gettin' a few little, like, anomalies on the site scanner.

Really? There's something straight just there.

We've got something straight on our port side.

-We got it, we've got it. -We got something.

-This bit, can you see it? -I can, yep.

-There, Dre. -Isn't that it?

We're not even in the water.

-It's just sitting there. -We'll go have a look.

-That's got to be it. -Goin' in!

-Cool! -We've been here five minutes, mate.

Haven't even got wet.

That's what we do!

Well, it looks like a really old anchor. Let's get closer.

Everyone's really excited, but we still have to be really methodical,

and the plan is to get to work and start taking high-quality video.

We'll do photogrammetry on it and also take some measurements.

That data that we bring back will be able to be later analyzed

not only by the team, but we can send it off to experts

that can look through it, so I think the WA Museum will be pumped to find that.

-See yous in there. -No worries.

Bye.

Just got in and we're just doing a little swim around the area.

Roger that. We're standing by, bated breath.

We've found the anchor. It's a beautiful, old anchor.

What style of anchor are we looking at, guys?

Very old look about it.

It doesn't quite look like it's from the Ming Dynasty, though.

Ming Dynasty treasure ships

carried large anchors with four flukes.

But this is a European-style admiralty anchor.

Although not from a Ming dynasty treasure ship,

the discovery does create a new shipwreck mystery in Shark Bay.

Really is an incredible piece of maritime history

that we get to look at down here.

Leon and Shayne are eager to see it for themselves.

-Whoo! Look at that. -How's that!

-How good was that? -That was amazing.

The thing I'm stoked about the most is this was our first tip-off.

Like, we had a lot of crazy tip-offs,

but we had really solid info from our researcher mate, Adam Jolly.

And without his advice, we wouldn't have found that today.

Just makes me more interested. What else is it hiding?

Maybe a lot, lot more.

-Yeah. -We'll keep on looking.

The anchor is a remarkable find.

-Run aground! -Ship wrecked!

To help uncover the story behind it,

Ryan is working with the images from the dive.

-Anything? That looks wicked. -Wow. That looks amazing.

These are Nushy's photos, I've just done the edit.

-Wow, Nushy. -You've done a great job.

That's awesome.

-That is an anchor. -Yeah!

-Look at the size of it. -Yeah.

And then we can have a look at the photogrammetry.

This is like a sort of halfway finished render.

This is really great to send to the WA Museum.

Gives them a good idea of what we saw down there,

-and what it really looks like. -That's super cool.

In association with all the video that we shot, all the still photos,

they've got, like, a lot of evidence here,

and almost everything they need to either make a positive identification,

or at least keep a record of it.

We can put this in the books as a win, but tomorrow's another massive day.

We've got another really good target to hit.

Yeah, it's a big target tomorrow as well,

you know, big history-wise,

-but also big size-wise. -Yep.

Sounds good.

-We're out. -Sweet dreams.

Some Ming dynasty treasure ships

were more than 120 meters long

and 60 meters wide.

Shayne and Leon's second target fits this description.

This one...

is exactly the size of the Ming Treasure fleets.

And we actually have an exact shape with the square bow

and square stern of one of the Ming treasure ships.

There's other wrecks on the coast that have done the exact same thing,

like, an outline of... Yeah...

-The hull. -Yeah.

-Nothing grows there, right? -Nah.

The thing for me is that we're talking about...

The largest style of ship.

And you can imagine the population on that boat.

So that boat wrecks,

-what happens to all those people? -Yeah.

And there would be a lot of artifacts

being on the ship that would still remain pretty well intact on the sea floor.

So you see anomalies or pictures or shapes like this,

you can definitely get a shipwreck fever that will play with your mind,

and it will take over.

The Shipwreck Hunters are heading to Sunday Island Bay

at the southern end of Dirk Hartog Island.

Shayne and Leon want them to investigate a mysterious patch of sand,

the shape and size of a Ming dynasty treasure ship.

Site's there, I reckon.

And then looking over there, that's where the ship would have been.

That big, wide open area.

Now that we're anchored, let's check that it's the right spot.

We'll fly the drone

and have a look around, and we should see this sort of image of a ship outline.

-Okay. Let's get the drone up. -Let's go.

Firing up, Nushy. Going up.

It's come back.

Back up to the boat.

Okay.

Oh, mate.

Look at that. You can see straight lines there, it's weird.

Strange, yeah.

You can see proper straight lines.

That is...

-And it's huge. -Yeah, that's so weird.

It's so good.

-It's almost it's too good to be true. -Oh, yeah.

Could there be any other explanation for straight lines on the seabed?

There has been a lot of fishing and the industry around this area.

Could be old pearl net lines or something.

I don't know. We have seen rock formations in other areas that are dead straight.

But then, you got two parallel straight lines here as well...

The fact that you got not just straight lines, but 90 degrees.

If we're seeing straight lines, then it may be exposed timbers

that have growth on them.

And if it is wood,

and it runs for that length, then we've got a shipwreck.

No doubt about it.

Nothing else would be out, down the bottom there of that size,

other than an ancient ship.

All right, let's go.

We're just on the bottom.

We're doing some searching around this first flag.

Visibility is good.

We've probably got about four meters of visibility, which is nice.

Roger that.

Now it's just a waiting game, isn't it?

The team begins searching in the sea grass around the area

shaped like a giant ship.

We just got to the floor where the sea grass is down here.

You had any pings on that metal detector yet?

Nothing yet, mate.

No worries. Just get some good coverage,

and we'll just widen the search area.

Yep.

Super flat down here, but unfortunately, nothing yet.

Thanks for the update.

It's like, every academic that's doubted us so far

has, like, you know, mocked us by using the word "fairytale"

to describe the Ming Treasure fleet.

And, I don't know, man, like, every fairytale I've ever read

has got a happy ending. So...

I'm not giving up hope. There's still possibly a ship on this site.

Having moved into the center of the search area,

the straight lines appear.

It just looks like a natural ridge line, which is really crazy

because they look very manmade.

There's a lot of straight lines. There's right angles.

But I don't think there's anything here.

If there's something then it's buried way out of sight 'cause we can't see it.

Top side. Top side. Got a copy?

Roger that. Go ahead.

We've come to the end of our search line.

We've done an extensive search around the seabed,

covering a good 30 meters squared,

and unfortunately, we haven't been able to locate

any signs of shipwreck artefacts.

So, we're going to pack up our equipment,

wind up the search line, and bring it up.

Yeah, loud and clear.

You did a great job. We'll see you at the surface. Standing by.

I reckon that's the most searched patch of water in Shark Bay right now.

Fair play to 'em. That was hard work.

Welcome back, guys.

No dice.

That's not the news we were hoping.

Especially with the detector, we thought there might be somethin'.

Not that you haven't looked hard, we really appreciate that.

But how about get yourself on board?

The landscape itself feels like the right place.

Yeah.

But the hunt for an ancient Chinese ship

and the origins of the Baby Buddha may not be over.

That night, Andre introduces the team

to the owner of the Dirk Hartog Island Homestead,

Kieran Wardle.

How are you doing?

Very well. Yourselves?

Good.

So Kieran's family have grew up out here for generations,

so they know the place pretty well.

-It's steeped in maritime history, right? -Yeah.

I mean it, you know, it's...

There's so much ocean out there, and there's so many things

that, you know, you talk of the Chinese that possibly came to Australia

before the Dutch, and...

You guys have got a spot, that you think might be Chinese?

Well, it's possible.

Sorry to stutter.

Spit it out, mate.

Look, we were snorkeling on a reef up the north end,

which we've done a thousand times.

And on this one particular day, I said to my son Will,

"Chuck the drone up and get some photos of us swimming on this little area."

I just went, "Oh, my God, that looks like a shipwreck."

-Beauty. -Wow.

For all these times that we've been there, but when you get a drone image

and you look down and you go,

"You know what, that is just too freaky to not be a wreck of some sort."

Now you've talked up this photo.

I've gotta see it.

He's got it in his pocket, look!

I've got it. Here we go.

Wow.

Oh, my God.

And if you have a look that, that boat at the back is a nine-meter boat.

That's a 100-meter ship.

It's too much like a shipwreck to not be one.

-Nine-meter boat. -Wow.

-Oh, my God. -That thing is gigantic.

That's crazy.

It's so big,

and the only thing that really of its size,

-you're talking a Chinese junk. -Yep.

You can easily see the stern all the way up to the bow.

And then there's another image there, which sort of...

you can almost see the track that it took.

I reckon it looks like it sat on the ground here

-before being forced down a bit further. -Wow.

-It's a good drag mark. -A drag mark.

And this could be areas where they've dumped stuff over the side...

Like jettison.

...to try get it off the bank again.

Do you mind if we go up tomorrow and check this site out?

-You should stay there until you find out. -Perfect.

Early to bed for you guys and get up early and get going.

That's the plan.

We might be able to come back with some history-changing news for you.

It'd be incredible.

The hunt for a Ming treasure ship continues,

with the team heading 60 kilometers to the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island.

Kieran is convinced an aerial image is an ancient Chinese shipwreck.

This time, the shape isn't formed by sea grass. It's coral.

We've had come up here this morning and it's right here.

It's so clear.

There's some parallel, straight lines on it.

It looks like it's a stern, and we're gonna check it out,

that's what we're here to do.

Never seen anything that looked so much like a treasure ship.

If this is what we think it is,

it would be the biggest historic wreck ever found in Australia

and so significant.

Where do you reckon, Dre, we're gonna start off? What's the plan?

I'm hoping this might have a bit of structure deep in these holes

and cracks and caves.

It's really interesting to me, this sort of outline around it.

-That's scarring. -I'm excited to see what that looks like.

It's pretty much getting right into the nitty gritty, take torches,

look into any caves, under cracks,

and hopefully find any type of artifact or timber.

Let's get the rest of the gear ready and get in.

Yeah. Sounds good.

The marine life down here is so beautiful.

The ship-like shape is a colony of coral.

This is a good sign, as coral can grow on a shipwreck.

But like sea grass, the more it grows, the more it hides.

Some really lovely corals,

these brain corals.

It's pretty stunning.

It's beautiful, mate. It's like an aquarium in here.

It's super clear.

I'm gonna have a good look around in this area, see if I can find anything.

We're investigating all the little cracks, nothing yet.

A lot of beautiful wildlife, we've got sea snakes, beautiful little...

Corals and tropical fish,

it's a lovely sight but no shipwreck material yet.

At this stage, I'm still just looking around

trying to find anything that resembles wreckage.

After an extensive physical search with no findings,

the team turns to more powerful technology.

I think the only way we're really gonna know

if there's anything under all that deep coral and sand

is if we tow the magnetometer.

A magnetometer can penetrate further than hand held detectors

and will pick up anything made of iron, such as a cannon or an anchor,

that is buried deep under the coral.

So, we've just deployed the mag and we've come into here

and started our first run here.

We're gonna try and do a couple of hundred meter plus lines.

We get nice long straight lines.

And then just cover the whole area of that seabed shipwreck shape

that we've seen.

Where we had that first spike now.

It comes down to this moment.

What do you reckon?

We've covered the whole site, and we're not getting...

That would be off the chart if there was a cannon and anchor.

Yeah. So, that's pretty much done this site?

Yeah. We've covered, look at that. It's only 100 meters by 50 or something.

So, I think we can say that we've done a really good job...

-Yeah. -...magging that whole area.

Andre calls Kieran to discuss what to do next.

Unfortunately, we haven't had any solid mag hits at the moment.

Oh, really?

Yeah, right. Okay.

So, where to from here?

Well, what do you reckon about the drag marks?

You know, the drag marks you showed us?

Yeah. Well, the more you look at that,

right at the beginning of that drag mark, there's some solid stuff in those images.

So, I reckon, if you go back up that way and have a look,

and you know, keep your eyes peeled and have a good search down that way.

-Thanks heaps, Kieran. -Cheers, brother.

The team now heads further north

to where Kieran thinks there might be a trail of shipwreck debris.

On the way, they have some company.

Look at all this jumping out over here.

Hey! There he is.

No way! Whoo-hoo!

You can hear them.

That's obviously a hotspot for them to chill out.

It's a heat run, Ry.

Yeah. So, a heat run, so, ten to twelve humpback whales

just all in formation and they're literally right behind us here.

Many males are following a female, and they're all moving quite quickly.

And they're all sort of chasing to be the one suitor.

Oh, wow. Big Mumma!

Sort of, like, the most dominant male wins,

and he gets the right to mate with the her.

Wow. That's down below, too. That's a lot of whales.

-Oh, how magical, mate. -Great, there's another one.

Oh, my gosh!

That's the beauty of being out on the ocean,

you never know what you're gonna get.

That's why I love getting in the water or getting on a boat

because this stuff just...

Just appears and sometimes it's the best,

some of the best experiences you'll ever have.

Having reached the next search area,

Andre re-deploys the magnetometer.

-Look all right? -Away we go.

Any hits?

-Nothing yet, brother. -Nothing yet, mate.

This is the spot Kieran's give us, yes?

It's in a pretty gnarly area, like, I don't...

We're very close to the reef here.

How's the conditions out there?

Perfect, it's so glassy.

Yeah, this is not...

Normally you got a howling southerly smashing into these cliffs,

and you got rolling breakers.

They maneuver as closely as possible to the edge of the reef

where a shipwreck is most likely to be found.

We're getting pretty close to the shores.

If we do get a ping then...

What is that?

We are really close to the edge of that reef right now.

Is that...

Oh, there! Look at that.

-Yeah. Yeah. -That's actually... That's it.

-That's solid as a rock. -That's it right there.

-Okay. -Yeah.

I'll drop the pin there. And that's now GPS located.

I think we're on to it.

Let's go for a dive.

Far out.

It's a significant hit.

Something large and made of iron is on the edge of the rocks.

-See you, Johnny. -Bye, bye. Bye, bye now.

Panic stations!

Bye, bye.

-Oh! You won't believe it! -Oh, my God, what is it?

What is it?

Come and check this out quick!

-What is it? -What?

-What do you see, Ry? -What you got, Ry?

It's an anchor.

-What? -You're kidding me?

-Big anchor. This is it. -What?

-How big? How big? -He's gone down.

-Oh, my God. -Tape measure.

Just... Or just tell me.

It's pretty huge. It's a lot bigger than the last one we saw.

It's a monster.

It's massive.

Kieran's tip has paid off.

They've found a large anchor that could date back centuries.

The team takes detailed measurements and photographs,

hoping the museum can identify the anchor.

It's about a 1.8-meter stock, I reckon.

Wow. Well done, guys.

While the anchor isn't from 15th century China,

how it got here is a mystery.

It's good to laugh about, isn't it?

Yes. That's a big anchor.

So cool, that was awesome.

So, the length of it was 1.8.

So, like, bigger than me.

-That's a big piece of metal. -There was a long piece of chain

coming off it as well. That's amazing.

If they were caught and trying to pull anchor

and they couldn't, they were in a world of hurt, so they've just cut it away.

It screams caught in a blow 'cause no one anchors there,

you don't rock up next to a cliff face and casually drop the pick.

-Yeah, that's right. -Yeah.

But it was a sensational find.

Like a seal.

That was an incredible find.

Like, such a stunning anchor, it's huge.

Yeah. That was magic. Magical.

It actually does make it better that we get to do it together, right?

-It doesn't get much better. -That's so fun. Here.

We've got two anchors on this mission now.

We're gonna send a few images back to WA museum.

We gotta get home. It'll take us hours, and hopefully have a call,

and learn where they're from.

After returning to the mainland,

Andre contacts maritime archaeologist Dr. Deb Shefi.

The first anchor we came across was this small, beautiful admiralty anchor.

Did you find any more information about that?

From what I can tell, it dates about the late 19th, early 20th centuries.

And it would've probably been from, considering the location that it's in,

one of those small sailing vessels, like, a lugger.

-So cool. -And an anchor alone

can tell so many different stories,

without any other shipwreck material around.

-Yep. -The best I can say is that it's,

you know, it's a decent aged anchor,

and you guys are the first ones to report this one.

Wicked. Nice.

Well, another feather in the cap.

And keep adding 'em.

The second anchor was found to the north, it must be from a big ship.

We were really excited to see this one because this is one of those late,

again late 19th, early 20th century admiralty anchors,

but this one's 1.8 meters, so it came from a sizable ship.

This one has been reported before, but we've never seen what it looks like.

So, it was perfect, it was just one of those pieces to add to that puzzle,

which we can now put eyes to the information that we know,

so we really appreciate that.

So, we didn't have any luck finding the Ming Dynasty treasure ship,

or where the Buddha, you know, came from

which is still gonna play on our minds.

Some mysteries will never be solved, but it's fun to keep looking.

Always, yep.

Keep on hunting, and can't wait to hear what you learn next.

For sure, Deb. Thanks so much for your time, it's been epic.

While there's no evidence of a Ming Dynasty shipwreck,

the Baby Buddha brought the Shipwreck Hunters

to an extraordinary place,

leading to discoveries and new maritime mysteries to explore.

Guys, just thanks so much for the last few days,

it's been just beyond belief.

There's been some incredible moments, you know, there really has.

And we believe that there's a Chinese shipwreck out there somewhere.

So, I guess just from Shayne and I, to all you guys, you know.

To treasure ships and small ships and all the ships that sailed the sea,

the best things are the friendships, so here's to you and me.

-Cheers for everything gang. -That's amazing.

Love that.

It's been incredible to have you here with us on Country.

For us, it's really about bringing everyone together.

Different cultures and people from around the world.

The fact that this beautiful, amazing, really significant treasure

has landed upon our shore is incredible.

And I feel like we've learnt so much coming all the way through this mission.

It wouldn't have happened without the Baby Buddha.

-So, we thank you two so much for that. -You're welcome.

-Want one more look at the Buddha? -Yes.

Okay. Here we go.

Yeah, the Buddha.

-Thanks, Buddha. -Thank you, Buddha.

-Thank you, Buddha. -Thank you.