Original subtitles

Well, this is a model of the Gilt Dragon,

a beautiful 17th century Dutch East India Company vessel

wrecked in 1656.

And we're right over the top of the wreck site, right now.

The Gilt Dragon's got a really cool story.

And there was some survivors and they've never been found.

It's a mystery, and we're here to try and hopefully solve it.

The first part is to get the divers on the wreck site

to start the trail of evidence.

Just being out here in these wild conditions,

it makes you really feel for all those people

that passed away out here.

A hundred and eighteen people, pretty tragic.

-Yeah. It's a mass grave site, really. -Totally.

The weather's not too good.

It's like a bit of a washing machine, so we'll assess the situation

and see if we can actually dive it today.

Unfortunately, the sea's always against us.

That's how it is.

Lives lost on a treacherous reef.

The bodies floating around everywhere.

Stranded with a fortune in silver.

Survivors would leave evidence, where's that?

Before vanishing forever.

Is there a cave full of skeletons? Who knows?

The Shipwreck Hunters dive for clues.

-I've never seen anything like it. -It's a wreck.

And a secret from the past...

-There was a gap in the reef. -Like a treasure map.

...could help them finally solve the mystery.

X marks the spot.

-Righto, guys. Ready to go? -Almost.

-Yeah, we're nearly there. -Awesome.

Right, guys, so this is the Gilt Dragon site.

This is the center of it here.

The skis will drop us out on the West side,

and then we'll drift in, have a look around,

see what we come up with.

So, I'm on one ski, Johnny's on one ski, and we'll drop the divers over.

Two scubas and one free diving, right?

-That's right. -Awesome.

-Sounds good. -Let's go.

One hundred kilometers north

of Western Australia's port city of Fremantle

lies the wreck of a Dutch ship from the 17th century.

We're just sitting over the site of the Gilt Dragon.

Nush, Andre and Ryan have just jumped in the water,

and Ash and I are just keeping an eye on 'em.

Oh, yeah, baby.

Bloody beautiful down here.

We'll follow Nushy.

The waves are pretty hectic.

It's pretty rough. It's probably similar to the conditions

that the survivors of Gilt Dragon actually experienced out here.

In October 1655, Gilt Dragon left the Netherlands.

On board was a crew of 193, along with eight chests of silver.

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope,

the ship headed east before turning north for Batavia,

modern-day Jakarta in Indonesia.

But just before dawn, on the 28th of April, 1656,

Gilt Dragon crashed into a reef and sank.

This is so surreal.

Over a hundred people passed away here.

Maybe each one of these fish is the souls of the people that passed away.

I reckon we've got something, she's pointing at something.

Is that a cannon? Wow.

Whoo!

We've got the cannons here, it's cannons. Heaps of cannons right here.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, Ry, yeah! Whoo-hoo! How good is this, brother?

It's still hard to believe, like, this is from a Dutch shipwreck, you know?

Look out.

-Whoo! -Oh, man! Such an incredible sight!

-You all good? -Yeah.

-Awesome though, right? -Far out.

Very choppy on the surface,

-but down below, it's so nice. -Yeah.

-That was a massive school of buff bream. -Oh, yeah.

The big cannons are pretty amazing too, just sitting there.

-And they're so big, and so round. -So big. Massive.

Imagine, middle of the night, fully clothed,

not knowing what happened, and then you're in the water.

-Yeah. -It would be freezing.

All the debris from the ship has been ripped over that reef.

Stuff absolutely everywhere.

You can see the land in the background.

Imagine trying to get from here to there in the middle of the night.

And who knows where they make landfall, could be anywhere along that coastline.

In 1963, 16-year-old spear fisher, Graeme Henderson,

his father, brother and two friends discovered the Gilt Dragon wreck.

The site was protected by law,

with many artifacts preserved by the Western Australian Museum.

But the biggest secret is still to be solved.

The fate of the survivors.

They've just disappeared off the face of the Earth,

and it's one of Australia's great maritime mysteries.

And I've just been fascinated by this story for decades.

Archaeologist and historian Bob Sheppard has written a book

on the Gilt Dragon tragedy.

He's joining forces with the Shipwreck Hunters,

hoping to solve the mystery of what happened to the survivors.

Yeah, well, we're waiting for you guys to turn up.

From as early as 1616,

ships from the Dutch East India Company sailed past this rugged coastline.

Believed to be a dangerous and inhospitable land,

crews were ordered to keep a safe distance.

Today, a cluster of fishing shacks huddle in the dunes.

Known as Breton Bay,

this will be home base for the Shipwreck Hunters.

We're right next to the wreck of the Vergulde Draeck,

which we call the Gilt Dragon.

Five kilometers that way.

1656, when the ship went down,

and we know that there was 75 survivors

that came ashore somewhere along this coast.

Bob, what I don't understand is, how do we even know there was 75 survivors

if they've completely disappeared?

Well, the captain sent a team to Batavia to get help in a small boat,

and they took with them letters to give to the authorities in Batavia.

And that gives details of the wreck and how many people survived.

Remarkably, seven men sailed more than 3,000 kilometers to Batavia

in a seven-meter sailboat.

The captain's letters not only detailed the loss of life,

they revealed their larger longboat was swamped and buried in the sand.

They were stranded.

So, you've got the little boat, which the guys sailed to get help in,

and you've got the bigger boat, full of water on the beach.

-Oh, wow. Just swamped. -Oh, wow.

Yeah, it took a month for these sailors to get to Batavia,

and the authorities said, "Mate, turn around, go back"

"and rescue the rest of the survivors and the treasure while you're at it."

Do you think they really care about the survivors,

or is it more about the wealth that was on that boat?

-The wealth. -Yeah. The loss of that bullion.

In today's terms, millions and millions of dollars' worth of silver

was a significant commercial loss.

So, they left Batavia, the rescue ship,

but how long does it take for them to get back down the coast?

They were back here, sailing up and down the coast

within a couple of months, but there was no evidence

-of what happened to the survivors. -Oh!

It was like they had just completely disappeared off the Earth.

And that rescue attempt was abandoned, and they sailed back to Batavia.

Sixty-eight people would leave evidence and a trace of being here, in a camp,

and, you know, where's that?

Well, this is one of the great maritime mysteries in Australia.

What happened to the 68 survivors?

We just don't know.

But I think that you would do everything you possibly could

to get the longboat up out of the water.

Has anyone even tried to look for it anywhere?

Well, and that's what you guys are here for.

If you could find the longboat,

then we know the 68 survivors didn't sail away.

That would just tell the story.

The Dutch sailors would have been in a race against time

to find water, food and shelter.

With 68 people, you actually need a lot of food and water.

You know, even to find enough for the three of us

would be quite a hard job.

To find out if the crew had any chance of living off the land,

the team is meeting Yued Nation elder, Charlie Shaw.

-Hello. -Hey, Charlie.

-Hi. -G'day, mate.

On behalf of the Yued people, you're welcome to our country.

-Thank you. -Thanks.

So, survival comes back to Moodjar tree.

That's the Christmas tree, which is a spirit tree to us.

Very sacred tree.

When that flowers, all our mob, inland,

they know that they can come out here.

They get the mullet coming up the coast and all the crayfish in close.

So, that flowering of the tree is the indicator for your people

-to go from the land to the sea? -Yeah.

-Wow. -That's incredible.

-What time of the year is that? -Just before summer.

-Yeah. Three months before Christmas. -Okay.

-Yeah. -Not the best time for the survivors.

-No. -They weren't here, then.

The wintertime is a bit rough

but the ocean provides food for us.

Well, you got your abalone, so when the tide goes out,

you got your bird life.

Intake to your protein.

Pretty vital really, to survive on the coastline like this.

Well, your first thing would be water.

And up the road here,

you always get seepage of fresh water coming through.

-Going out to the sea, coming out there. -No way.

-Like an aquifer? -Wow.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -That's... Yeah.

So, it seems like if you know where to look,

there's things for survival in this area,

but it's actually having that knowledge to know where to look for it.

Well, that's the survival way.

-You have to. -You have to, yeah.

Although the fate of the longboat remains a mystery,

evidence has surfaced

that the stranded crew survived along the coast,

at least for a short time.

In 1931, children discovered dozens of silver coins in the sand dunes.

Bob is introducing Johnny and Ash to one of their relatives, Ross Prater.

-So, these boys found a heap of coins? -Right.

-In the 30s, right? -Right.

-Yep. -You must know where they are, or...

-Surely, you've got some secrets. -Well...

-They're in your pocket. -Absolutely.

-Wow. -Wow.

There are the certificates from the museum

saying that we are the custodian of them.

That's one of them.

-Wow. -Wow.

-Look. -So, you can imagine that on the sand hill

-with the sun shining on it. -Yeah.

-They're beautiful. -With another hundred.

That is incredible.

-1647 is when that was minted. -Yeah.

-Jeez. -Incredibly,

Ross has made fresh discoveries,

adding to his family's connection to the Gilt Dragon story.

-When did you find all this? -Just recently.

-Wow. That's crazy. -Incredible.

There's no doubt in my mind that this is related to Gilt Dragon.

What's also important is this stuff, it hasn't washed ashore from the wreck.

It was up under a cliff, so it was a long way from the water.

-Yeah, yeah. -It's obviously been taken down.

Yeah. And for navigation dividers like that,

it would've been so important for the survivors.

In my view, these are very, very significant discoveries.

It's really important that you report it to the museum.

This is key evidence of the survivors that came ashore

-somewhere in this vicinity. -Yeah.

-Nice one, Ross. -What a find, mate. Well done.

-This has been awesome. -Mate, it's a pleasure.

Yeah. Congrats on the find.

And I think we, of all like-minded people,

we have a passion for history and shipwrecks.

If you are gonna start looking for the wreck of the longboat,

I wouldn't be going too far from about here.

Since the 1930s, more Dutch artifacts have been found,

suggesting the survivors made camp

along a five-kilometer stretch of coastline

adjacent to the wreck site.

It's here in the shallows

that the Shipwreck Hunters will start searching for the swamped longboat.

Look, there's been a lot of wreckage in the past

found around this little area, right where we are.

That's pretty cool.

Did you also notice when we're waiting to come ashore, get a spot,

-that we're drifting south with a current? -Yeah.

Because the predominant wind is the southwest,

which you'd think would push all the wreckage that way,

but there was a current pushing us south,

and that makes sense why there's wreckage on this spot.

So you'd imagine, on the night of the wreck,

-everything gets pushed into this area. -Correct.

So, if you're in a longboat with oars,

you'd definitely be drifting south.

It'd take you probably four hours to get here, five Ks.

And the longboat could've got hooked on a bit of reef,

and the waves swamped it.

-Smashed it. -As the story goes.

So, I reckon we tow this mag in this white water.

It won't be easy, but at the end of the day,

if we can find any sort of evidence in this area

where the nine-meter longboat got swamped,

then we can prove that they didn't refloat it.

The survivors didn't get away from here.

-Yep. -Sounds good. Let's do it.

The only way we can pull this off is to utilize the skis

with a magnetometer on there, and if we get a ping,

we'll throw a marker in, and then the dive team will come in

and see if there's anything down there.

So, this is our magnetometer, which picks up ferrous metals

like an anchor or a part of a shipwreck, and it's a world-first, eh, Nushy?

Yeah, it's really cool,

because we haven't seen a magnetometer put on a ski before,

and we're very excited, 'cause it allows us

to get into shallow areas that boats can't go to,

allows us to go through swell zones.

But the swell is looking pretty big today, so...

We have to keep an eye on things,

otherwise, yeah, we're gonna get smashed.

The team will methodically tow the magnetometer.

A signal on the screen could indicate material from the wrecked longboat.

We'll just go past that headland.

We'll start doing parallel scans across the coast.

Yeah. We'll hang behind you.

Let us know if you get any hits.

-Let's go. -Let's go and find something.

Yeah.

While the shallows search is under way,

Johnny and Bob use metal detectors

in case longboat debris is buried on the beach.

I'm an archaeologist, and I'm also what's called an archaeo-detectorist.

And what I do is I apply archaeological theory and ideas

to metal detecting,

and I use metal detecting as a tool for archaeology.

In the rocks and stuff, is that where you'd usually sort of search?

Yeah. That's a pretty good observation. So, in the summertime,

-that's all covered with sand. -Yeah.

Up to that level at the base of the foredune there.

And now, after the winter storms, that's all been scoured out.

Artifacts might be caught up in those rocks.

It's like a natural collection point.

A magnetometer will pick up anything rich in iron.

Although mostly made from wood,

the longboat had iron fastenings, anchors and small cannons

that could survive for centuries.

Something in the water up here.

See right on the point?

Mag's going crazy.

-Is it? -Yeah.

-It's definitely a wreck. -That's got ribs or something.

-That's a boat, Ash. -It's a boat. Right there.

Look at the ribs.

The wreck is a known site.

The remains of a small sailing boat from the 1980s.

What do you reckon, Nush, bit of a fixer-upper?

Yeah, needs a bit of work.

It's the team's only significant magnetometer hit so far.

Time for a change of plan.

What do you reckon?

-We haven't had any luck on the outside. -Okay.

I think it'll be closer to the inside. We should approach it from the shore.

I think the only way to do that is to swim it.

-Swim it. Rightio, nice. -Yeah.

Dutch longboats carried other materials

such as ceramic bottles and jugs,

but they can't be detected by a magnetometer.

I'll jump in, have a look and see if there's any little artifacts,

anything we could pick up in the water.

Andre picks a gap between the breaking waves.

I'm gonna have to bail.

You all good?

Yeah, so we just had a look in the shallows.

It's such bad viz.

You can see something when it's right in front of you,

but other than that,

uh, you just can't see anything because it's so churned up in there.

Getting a little reading here, Bob.

-Nice one, mate. -Yeah, right.

-Let's dig that one. -Okay.

-Oh, mate. Look at that. -That's something. Oh, wow.

Something a bit darker, like maybe ir...

-Something iron over here? -Yep.

What do you reckon? Have a look.

Oh, mate, that looks pretty good. This is cool.

You're looking at something here, I believe,

from around 1656.

-Seriously, mate. -That's crazy.

Let's have a look, eh?

It's crazy that even today you can find artifacts right there.

-Wow. -Have a look at that.

-Just feel the weight of that. -This has to be lead.

Yeah. Lead was quite often used for repairs.

If a boat got a hole in it, they'd put nails and such.

-Yeah. -And given its location

and given the history of this place and the stuff that we've found here,

I'd say that's from the Gilt Dragon.

-Very cool. Yeah. -That's really cool. Just...

Something else in there, too.

-Is that a bit of iron? -It looks like it's got...

-Yeah, that's an iron fastening. -Right.

So, someone's hand formed that

into the hull of a wooden ship in the 1600s?

-Yeah. There you go. -Amazing, mate. It's so cool.

Have we got something else there?

-Oh, there you go. Nice one. -Ah, another one.

-So, that's a wrought iron fastener. -And that looks big.

Yeah. You can tell this is wrought iron because it's got grain in it, like wood.

-Yeah. -It's running through it in lines.

-Wow. -How good's this?

That looks like it's out of the plank.

Yeah. It's been used to join two planks.

This is gettin' pretty exciting.

So, what we're doing now is we put these over here

-like that. Over there. -Mm-hmm.

I'll put that in for a bit of a scale.

My GPS has got an inbuilt camera. I'll photograph it.

I'll get the GPS location for it,

so that I can pass that on to authorities.

And done.

-So we're gonna put all that stuff back... -Very cool.

...take it out of this environment and don't do any treatment on it.

It will fall to bits within weeks.

-It'll just be a mash. -Wow. Yeah.

With the search in the shallows complete,

Bob and Johnny tell the team what they've found.

Yeah, Johnny and I had a bit of a win metal detecting.

Johnny got a bit of folded up lead with some little fastenings inside it.

-Oh, wicked. -That could've been from the missing boat.

If you get really big iron fastenings and you think of "ship" and all that,

but smaller ones...

We were getting a few hits there, weren't we?

There's a lot of material

all up in that beach.

Maybe they could have rebuilt the longboat there.

If they got the boat up, they'd have modified it.

-Yeah. -So, that might be a site

where they've repaired a boat and raised its sides or something.

So it could fit more people in.

Yeah, and what you found could be all the offcuts

-and all the scrap from... -Yeah.

The other leftovers they don't need.

They might've been able to get it up and out, but in relation

to what happened to the survivors and the longboat,

Um, I think that's yet to be revealed.

I reckon they did raise the boat.

Wanting to survive, their only hope was to get this boat float able again.

With 60-odd people left on the beach,

would easily have been able to lift a nine-meter boat.

A hundred percent.

If Gilt Dragon's survivors did raise and repair the longboat,

Bob wants to explore a theory about what happened next.

Right, there is another site that might be worth a look.

In 1957, there was a discovery

of what was thought to be shipwreck material,

north of the actual wreck site, on Platform Reef,

and it was described as strange objects,

sticking up like cannons leaning up against the reef.

But they were never, ever able to find the spot again.

They just couldn't relocate it.

-It'd be worth a look in there. -Wow. Absolutely.

-Yeah. -I know Platform Reef.

-It's just north of the actual wreck site. -Correct.

The next day,

the Shipwreck Hunters move their search to Platform Reef.

If the 68 survivors sailed north to Batavia,

this submerged rock lay directly in their path.

So, we've just arrived at Platform Reef,

which we're referring to as the 1957 site,

because in 1957, some divers thought

they had located another shipwreck here or some shipwreck artifacts.

And there was the thought that that could have been the Gilt Dragon.

But you never know, this could actually be the site

of the longboat that we've been looking for.

We think the most efficient approach here is just gonna be free-diving

and just eyeballing the seabed.

Skis and tow boards are a fast way

to search the shallow edges of this dangerous reef.

Well, they're onto something.

The guys have just been doing some tow searches behind us,

and they've found some type of anomaly.

Um, there's kind of like a round,

two round bases coming up out of the sand.

They're just having a closer look and trying to find out what's going on.

Hey, Johnny, what is it? What have you found?

I don't know. I've never seen anything like it.

It's two sort of pole-looking things sticking up out of the ground, but...

we don't know what they are made of yet, they look man-made.

It's... I have never seen anything like that, so...

Dre's got a metal detector on board,

we're gonna run that past it and see if its man-made.

It's a awesome patch of reef, like,

it looks exactly like a place that a ship would wreck.

These really weird structures definitely caught everyone's eye.

It just didn't look natural, didn't look right.

They're definitely not metal, but, no.

Might need an expert have a look. See what Bob thinks, maybe.

That's one there, and you can see that base of it here.

Right. Okay.

It's perfectly sort of cylindrical and...

-Yeah. -What do you think?

Oh, mate, I'm really excited about this.

They're called solution pipes. That's the local lingo for it.

And these are formed geologically,

where fluids used to go up and down like a pipe

thousands of years ago, when the ocean was well back.

-So they're quite spectacular. -Pretty cool.

First look, it does look like cannon, but to figure out

that they're actually a natural formation is even more bizarre.

Yeah. The good thing about this is on Platform Reef in 1957,

there were structures that looked like cannon pointing skywards,

according to the historical records.

And this confirms that they've got it wrong.

-And the site was misinterpreted in 1957. -Yeah. Wow.

That's an amazing find.

-Good on you. -Wow.

It means the team has ruled out another location

in the hunt for the survivors' longboat.

So, we've done a fairly comprehensive search along the coastline.

We've searched in the shallows,

and we've also dived the 1957 site where we've seen these strange anomalies.

Bob has one final clue for the team.

During his many years of research,

he met an Australian legend

who revealed an incredible secret shortly before he died.

This is the cuddly teddy bear that everybody regards as Australia's own.

One that could solve the survivors' story.

It's not a bear, but who cares very much?

-How good's that? -So good.

-Remember Harry Butler? -He's an Australian icon.

-Harry Butler In the Wild. -Right.

We used to watch it every Saturday.

He was like

Australia's first Steve Irwin.

That's the one. Absolute legend.

But something that you probably don't know about Harry Butler

is he was also a shipwreck finder.

-That's it. -Oh!

Very nice collection.

All found by Harry Butler, roundabout in 1949.

Look at the gin bottle.

We found that the summer of '49.

So, Harry tells me the story that he went spearfishing north of Perth,

and he found all this material.

We have fishhook.

Oh, my God.

These are musket balls,

but they are more than likely grapeshot.

These are definitely significant Dutch items.

Such as the gin bottles, the fishhook.

Mm.

That's a small, what, cannon ball?

Meaning there's a swivel cannon on it.

-I know, yeah. -Mm.

Only one certain find...

He went back many times and never found anything else.

The only other thing he found was

-a practice bomb. -Oh.

During the war, our planes used them as bombing practice.

-Yeah. -Okay, what have we got?

Harry described the location of it to me in great detail.

There was a whole line of mining going on...

And he also drew me a beautiful mud map of where he found this material.

Directly opposite the end of that, there was a gap in the reef.

-This is absolutely huge, you know. -Yeah.

Is this related to the missing Gilt Dragon longboat?

Well, this almost feels like "X marks the spot."

-Yeah, that's awesome. -There you go.

Great secret to keep for 10 years.

-So, guys... -Incredible.

-There's the map. -No way.

-That's Harry Butler. -Look at that signature.

-14th the 9th, 2014. -Oh, man.

-Wow, nice. -That's awesome, man.

I'll pass that information over to you.

No way.

I'd like you to help me re-locate this spot.

-And... -Yeah, but where?

-There's so much reef along there, like... -Yeah.

How are we gonna find it?

Yeah, we need a landmark, Ash, you're right, to start the...

Yeah, I just think we need to get satellite imagery.

-Yeah. -That's what we need to do.

And you'll be able to spot gaps.

-There'll be a few of these gaps. -Yeah.

It was so cool to see that video of Harry.

And it is a pretty cool secret.

It is like a treasure map.

So, we know the broad area of where this site might be

from Harry's hand-drawn map.

So, what I'm gonna do is get some aerial imagery

from as close as I can to the date

that Harry made this discovery back in '49, and start there

and just try to line everything up to really pinpoint it,

so that we're confident that we're on the right site.

A lot to look at. A lot to work out.

A lot to find in such a short time. It's gonna be tough.

Let's hope that Johnny can come up with some good stuff.

The next morning, Johnny has made progress

on the most likely location of Harry Butler's site.

Confident of a discovery,

he's asked maritime archaeologist, Dr. Deb Shefi,

from the Western Australian Museum to join the search.

Yeah, so we think we know the reef that Harry found these artifacts on.

I can show you an aerial image of it here.

Um, we can kinda see a gap in the reef here.

And it lines up with some of the landmarks

from around the time Harry would've been diving this site.

And you'll see a little point that used to be there back in 1953,

which is only four years after Harry dived it.

And he said it was about 300 meters from the shore.

And today that point has disappeared

and it's approximately 500 meters from here.

So it all lines up perfectly with, um, this map that Harry's drawn for Bob here.

That's really good work. Really good.

New site?

Yeah. And that's where we're going next, so...

It's exciting. I mean, this is a huge story

that would be great if we could properly investigate

to see if this is, in fact, part of some of the missing,

-lost, Dutch individuals. -Yeah.

Could be a really, really important clue into the fate of the survivors.

But it's a long way south of the Gilt Dragon wreck site.

And we do have to remember that the Dutch sent rescue vessels

to come find the survivors and rescue the goods.

Um, and unfortunately, more lives were lost as a result.

Another longboat with another 11 individuals.

-So then, you could be onto that. -Wow. Yeah.

After hearing all that,

I really can't wait to dive this site.

-Well, let's get in the water. -Hell yeah.

If Harry Butler's discovery isn't Gilt Dragon's longboat,

it could belong to a failed rescue mission.

In 1656, a ship from Batavia was ordered to sail well south of the wreck site.

Then turn around and work north.

This also ended in tragedy,

when a landing party of 11 men disappeared.

Their longboat wrecked in heavy seas near the shore.

-How are we looking there? -Good.

Yeah, good. Keep going.

The Shipwreck Hunters are heading 50 kilometers south,

to search for Harry Butler's long-lost site.

They're hoping it could hold the remains of a longboat belonging

to either the 68 survivors

or the failed rescue mission.

Yeah, today is massive for us.

We're on a mission to go and find out

what could potentially be a new discovery, a new site.

So, this is the day.

It'd be interesting to see it from the outside.

Looking in from a boat. Might decide, "We can get through."

First up, I think we launch the drone, get that top aerial view, the bird's eye view.

See if we can find those gutters.

And we might get on the skis to head out the back

and have a look around that back side as well,

because we do want to search it,

but the conditions might be treacherous out there.

Let's chuck the drone up

-and have a look. -Sounds good.

-Going up. -Take-off.

Home point updated.

-It kinda went along and then up. -I think it's that, right?

Is that...

I don't know. It doesn't look identical to Harry's map,

but it's got some of the features.

And, you know, this was a long time ago,

so you can expect there to be a little bit of variation.

Those big rocks sticking out, Harry made no mention of that.

But, sand mining, the distance from the shore is right.

So, if there's gonna be any material, it'll be in here,

according to Harry's map, I think.

We really must try and go out there and find something conclusive.

Some sort of evidence that's gonna point us...

that, yes, this is the right site, yes, this is from the longboat.

It's about to get rough, Ry.

We have dropped two markers in the areas we want to search,

and they're running a magnetometer survey in between those markers,

looking for any large magnetic signals.

Harry Butler told Bob that he found a bomb or something like that.

A shell related to the target practice

that was done here around the World War II.

That would have a magnetic signature.

If we could locate that, that'd at least prove

we're in exactly the right spot.

It's starting to get quite challenging

because the reef is starting to poke out because of the low tide.

The mag's running pretty good.

Just need some metal, mate.

Check that out.

Are you trying to kill me?

I almost just flew off the back.

This is treacherous, bro.

The thing is with mags, you got to run really long, consistent, straight lines.

Too much movement of the ski,

too many turns just throws all the data right out.

So, you're getting false readings.

Looks like they finished the mag survey.

Did you guys find anything?

No, we didn't.

It's not really what you call ideal conditions

for running a magnetometer.

It was hairy.

We still managed to cover a lot of ground.

You can see it, we ran a heap of straight lines all along that edge.

-Well done. -Wow.

We went just past that northern flag.

Uh, but you can't just get right in those honey holes in the reef

'cause it's literally locked out by reef at the moment.

-What are your thoughts of getting wet? -That's our best chance today.

You can have all the tech, but sometimes you need mask and flippers.

-Yeah. -So...

-Have you got a metal detector? -Yeah.

All of us will go for a visual survey.

So, we're gonna don our snorkel gear, masks, snorkel fins.

Start at the southern marker and just work our way north,

looking in all the hidey holes on the inside of the reef.

The other team is working the outside of the reef,

north, south, and hopefully we'll meet in the middle.

Get ready to abandon ship, Nush.

If we're lucky enough to find something,

documenting those objects in situ or in place is really, really important.

So, we can use camera technology, video, photogrammetry, photographs,

as well as GPS to mark that object where it is.

We document it and we go from there.

Feels pretty special to be here, thinkin' about old Harry

floating around out here, 1949, spearfishing.

You know, he was out here, just this young bloke,

comes across this amazing collection of artifacts.

And here we are, decades later, and we're looking to see if we can prove

that what he had to say was correct.

It's just wonderful. Old Harry would be as pleased as punch.

He'd be a lot more pleased

if we actually find something that tells the story.

Working in the calm waters inside the reef,

Johnny spots something.

I've seen a straight line

and just given it a little detect with the detector,

and, yeah, it's just a part of an old clay pot.

But it's good to see that all the equipment's working.

Andre and Nush are searching in turbulent waters

on the outside of the reef.

This is what we're dealing with, whitewash every couple of...

Whitewash every couple of seconds.

Another set coming. Oh, well.

The team's doing a wonderful job.

They're methodical, doing lines, concentrating,

getting in the holes and crevices, trying to find out where stuff might be,

so there's nothing wrong with the search.

Um...

Who knows? Still got a little bit of time left.

Whoo!

We've found a bullet straight below us.

-A bullet? -Yeah.

Wow.

What's going on?

Well, we had a look over that rock.

-They found something. -What'd they find?

A World War II bullet.

It's bigger than a .303 bullet.

-That'll be out of an airplane. -Wow.

-They've been firing at the rock. Yeah. -Indeed.

And that's what old Harry said about the bomb.

They've definitely used that as a firing target.

-Eh? That rock? -Yeah.

The 80-year-old bullet lines up with Harry Butler's discovery

of World War II munitions.

It means they've most likely found his site.

Then, another discovery has the team excited.

We've just found a massive steel ring.

It's like 400 mil. wide.

So, it's pretty exciting.

Everyone's sort of underwater

more than on the surface at the moment.

The team gathers images.

Then Ryan and Deb report back to Bob.

Thanks, Ash.

So, you found something else other than the bullet?

We found a mystery metal object we're not entirely sure what it was.

I love mystery metal objects. That's what we like.

It was in the shape of a mast collar.

-It was a substantial piece of metal. -Yeah.

But, in saying that, it wasn't just a donut.

You couldn't stick your hand all the way through. There was a bottom to it.

-Okay. -It's that question

as to whether or not that bottom was just growth over time...

-Yeah. -Or if...

'Cause it was backed up against the reef, wasn't it?

-You couldn't get your hand behind it. -No.

So, it could be that rock with growth, sort of sealing that one end.

-So, it's been there for a while? -Yeah.

A lot of concretion around it, um,

but a distinct shape that's not natural, you know?

-Got plenty of pictures? -Heaps of photos.

-Lots of footage. -I can't wait.

So, we can have a little look at it. But it, um, was a good find.

Everyone was really excited to see it.

Whoo!

-It was good effort today. -Yeah.

-Really good effort. -Cool.

Mate, Harry Butler would be excited you're all out here.

-Oh, Good. -It's a 70 plus year gap, right?

-That's correct. -Since Harry was here?

So, everyone knows a lot can change.

Yeah. Well, maybe what we want is a really, really big super storm

to come through and really move things around.

And that might provide us with another opportunity.

Yeah.

After examining images from the Harry Butler site,

Bob thinks they've made a significant discovery.

I believe that we should record the big iron pot lid fastening

as a shipwreck artifact possible discovery, you know?

-I don't wanna... -So good.

-I don't know how you'd describe this. -No.

Initially we thought it was a mast ring or something.

Everyone got really pumped.

I'm still really curious to what this is.

It's the most interesting thing I saw there.

-And it really sparked my curiosity. -Yeah.

I'm gonna be doing my homework. That's for sure.

But what of the mission to solve the puzzle

of Gilt Dragon and its survivors?

After all our efforts on this expedition,

what do you think we've contributed to the legacy of that story?

I think you've contributed immensely.

That information in those images of that 1957 site is so key

to this whole story in the modem era.

Being able to see the solution pipes

and completely understanding that they look just like cannon.

You can see, like, that is a huge piece of the puzzle to this story.

And then you've got the Harry Butler information.

We're pretty sure we've found the Harry Butler site.

That's a huge contribution.

So, it's been a really comprehensive mission,

but for me there's still that underlying mystery

of what happened to those 68 survivors.

If we had found the longboat,

that would've told the story that they didn't escape.

That they're all... 68 of them died here.

All we can do is,

you know, don't close the pages to this particular story,

um, and just, you know, keep looking ahead.

With only an old hand-drawn map, remarkably,

the Shipwreck Hunters believe they've discovered Harry Butler's site.

One theory, it's where the rescue longboat wrecked.

During the mission,

the team has also ruled out two locations for the survivors' longboat,

making a significant contribution to history.

While the fate of the 68 survivors may remain a mystery forever,

for Captain Ash, what happened is now clear.

In my opinion, they've taken off,

got out of here, um,

headed north to Batavia

and, uh...

disappeared.

And in the meantime, the search parties come down looking for 'em

and they've probably just passed each other.

That's the sad thing about it, you know what I mean?

Search parties come down,

and then they've set out a longboat to go looking and then they've come to grief.

And that's on the Harry Butler site, in my opinion, is the search party boat.

Bob's written a beautiful book about the, uh, shipwreck

and he's super passionate about it.

And, uh, I think...

he might take it to his grave,

that he'll never know what happened to the survivors.

I don't think any of us will.

It's a small target to find a nine-meter longboat,

you know?

Good luck in finding that in the Indian Ocean.