1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:07,956 NARRATOR: Pirates, gangsters, villains and the worst of humanity. 2 00:00:09,059 --> 00:00:11,427 Swallowed up by the sea. 3 00:00:11,529 --> 00:00:12,761 But why? 4 00:00:12,830 --> 00:00:15,431 Were they ripe for the wrath of God? 5 00:00:15,499 --> 00:00:19,034 Or are there deadly natural forces at work? 6 00:00:19,070 --> 00:00:23,839 What if, you could drain the ocean to reveal the secrets of the seafloor. 7 00:00:24,809 --> 00:00:28,410 Now, powerful new technology can do just that. 8 00:00:29,380 --> 00:00:33,115 Digital photos and sonar scans give us remarkable new 9 00:00:33,216 --> 00:00:37,019 insights into a world beneath the sea. 10 00:00:37,021 --> 00:00:42,324 What apocalyptic disaster wiped out the Pirate city of Port Royal? 11 00:00:42,359 --> 00:00:45,127 JON: It's a city that was literally swallowed by the sea. 12 00:00:45,228 --> 00:00:49,364 And what are the dangerous forces that made Alcatraz, the Rock, 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,134 the most infamous prison on earth. 14 00:00:52,235 --> 00:00:54,869 JOHN: The conditions surrounding this island is what really made it an 15 00:00:54,905 --> 00:00:56,471 escape-proof prison. 16 00:00:56,474 --> 00:01:01,176 Drained dry, we reveal the extreme geological forces that led 17 00:01:01,278 --> 00:01:04,880 to the demise of so much wickedness. 18 00:01:10,554 --> 00:01:15,090 NARRATOR: Deep beneath the waves, is a reminder of the earth's violent beginning. 19 00:01:15,860 --> 00:01:20,562 Through the use of cutting edge technology we can reveal the secrets of the sea floor 20 00:01:20,631 --> 00:01:22,797 in astonishing detail. 21 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,301 And expose the shaky ground on which we all live. 22 00:01:28,372 --> 00:01:32,241 In the 17th Century, Port Royal, on the south coast of Jamaica, 23 00:01:32,243 --> 00:01:36,712 was an English stronghold at the heart of the Spanish empire. 24 00:01:36,914 --> 00:01:41,917 Dominating what would become Kingston Harbor from the end of a long spit of land. 25 00:01:42,953 --> 00:01:44,853 JON: If you've seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, 26 00:01:44,855 --> 00:01:47,990 the first town you go to, where we meet Jack Sparrow is Port Royal. 27 00:01:48,091 --> 00:01:50,859 NARRATOR: Grown fat on the profits of piracy and 28 00:01:50,928 --> 00:01:55,063 slavery, Port Royal was a city of almost 8,000; 29 00:01:55,165 --> 00:01:58,267 the ultimate boom town of a new world. 30 00:01:58,269 --> 00:02:03,004 But it was also known as the wickedest city on earth. 31 00:02:03,006 --> 00:02:06,241 It certainly had more bars and brothels than any other city 32 00:02:06,277 --> 00:02:08,810 in the whole of the English colonies. 33 00:02:08,946 --> 00:02:14,983 -Well the port, indeed, is very loose in itself; it is now more ruled than our Sodom. 34 00:02:15,019 --> 00:02:18,620 Filled with all manner of debauchery. 35 00:02:25,663 --> 00:02:31,766 NARRATOR: On June 7th, 1692, disaster struck Port Royal. 36 00:02:33,370 --> 00:02:39,574 A massive earthquake wiped two thirds of the city off the map; sending it to the bottom 37 00:02:39,577 --> 00:02:42,477 of the sea. 38 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:54,222 Today, archaeologist, Jon Henderson, an expert in sunken cities, will use new 39 00:02:54,225 --> 00:02:58,193 technology to discover just how the disaster unfolded. 40 00:03:00,497 --> 00:03:05,300 Port Royal sank so fast that it took its secrets with it. 41 00:03:06,503 --> 00:03:09,538 -This is a true sunken city; but not only that, it's a catastrophic site. 42 00:03:10,374 --> 00:03:13,942 It went down so quickly that it sealed a moment in time. 43 00:03:13,978 --> 00:03:16,545 It's sometimes called the, the Pompeii of the new world. 44 00:03:17,114 --> 00:03:20,916 It's now underwater for us to discover and that's really rare in archaeology. 45 00:03:23,821 --> 00:03:29,590 NARRATOR: Jon's mission is to rediscover the sunken city and recreate a precise digital 46 00:03:29,627 --> 00:03:32,127 model of its ruins. 47 00:03:32,463 --> 00:03:37,232 Data that explains how the city tore apart, in two minutes of terror. 48 00:03:41,839 --> 00:03:47,309 It's a huge challenge, but if it works, we can virtually drain the ocean... 49 00:03:48,979 --> 00:03:55,584 Strip away millions of gallons of water and bring the sunken city of Port Royal back into 50 00:03:55,586 --> 00:03:58,921 the light of day. 51 00:04:00,724 --> 00:04:07,396 Draining the sea beyond Port Royal may explain why it became a pirate powerhouse. 52 00:04:09,033 --> 00:04:12,200 It's all down to its location. 53 00:04:12,269 --> 00:04:16,204 Right at the entrance of Kingston Harbor. 54 00:04:16,306 --> 00:04:22,044 Pulling the plug on these Caribbean waters, reveals one of the largest natural harbors. 55 00:04:24,647 --> 00:04:29,551 At ten miles long and two miles wide, it's large enough to shelter hundreds 56 00:04:29,686 --> 00:04:33,554 of ships from the hurricane whipped tropical seas. 57 00:04:33,557 --> 00:04:38,360 Better still was the long finger of land on which Port Royal was built. 58 00:04:39,196 --> 00:04:44,199 JON: One of the things we'll see is the spit coming out into this very deep harbor. 59 00:04:44,268 --> 00:04:48,970 NARRATOR: Its steep sides made it the perfect location to dock ships. 60 00:04:49,106 --> 00:04:52,841 JON: You had deep water on either side, large ships could come up and get very close to 61 00:04:52,843 --> 00:04:55,943 the shore very quickly. 62 00:04:56,046 --> 00:05:00,515 NARRATOR: This might seem like an ideal spot to build a port; but made of constantly 63 00:05:00,517 --> 00:05:05,387 shifting sand, the spit would be Port Royal's undoing. 64 00:05:09,860 --> 00:05:14,495 JON: The main problem is, there is no solid geology down there for a very long way; so, 65 00:05:14,498 --> 00:05:18,033 in an earthquake, when that starts to shake, you're in trouble. 66 00:05:20,304 --> 00:05:22,937 -I very much doubt that anybody in Port Royal 67 00:05:22,940 --> 00:05:25,107 realized they were sitting on a time bomb. 68 00:05:28,078 --> 00:05:29,577 NARRATOR: Jon Henderson is here with, 69 00:05:29,646 --> 00:05:33,382 photographer Simon Brown to photograph the sunken city. 70 00:05:39,523 --> 00:05:44,392 With bad underwater visibility Simon must get as close as possible to the ruins 71 00:05:44,494 --> 00:05:47,062 and take thousands of images. 72 00:05:49,733 --> 00:05:54,936 After three days the many photos have been compiled into a 3D representation of what 73 00:05:54,972 --> 00:05:57,772 lies on the seabed. 74 00:05:58,242 --> 00:06:00,308 -Okay Simon, show me what we've got then. 75 00:06:00,410 --> 00:06:04,846 -It's not been easy, but we've captured quite a lot of building five. 76 00:06:05,348 --> 00:06:08,450 NARRATOR: Building five may once have been a grand family home. 77 00:06:09,787 --> 00:06:13,388 All that remains of it now is one room. 78 00:06:13,690 --> 00:06:17,192 Showing up in unprecedented detail. 79 00:06:18,195 --> 00:06:21,262 -I mean, this looks fantastic, given the conditions you were working in. 80 00:06:21,398 --> 00:06:24,732 I mean, we can see we've got the wall, you can actually see the courtyard next to it. 81 00:06:24,768 --> 00:06:26,200 You can see the fire-pit. 82 00:06:26,236 --> 00:06:27,935 You can see the low walls. 83 00:06:27,938 --> 00:06:31,606 This is great; we can actually see the individual bricks themselves. 84 00:06:31,675 --> 00:06:34,676 For me, what's exciting is, you can show that to someone and they can instantly see 85 00:06:34,745 --> 00:06:36,544 what's actually down there. 86 00:06:36,646 --> 00:06:39,814 I didn't think you would get results as good as this. 87 00:06:40,150 --> 00:06:44,219 NARRATOR: Jon's mission is delivering spectacular results. 88 00:06:44,721 --> 00:06:47,889 JON: We're beginning to reconstruct, for the first time in 300 years really, 89 00:06:47,991 --> 00:06:51,126 what exactly's there. 90 00:06:51,228 --> 00:06:55,963 NARRATOR: Now we can examine the most famous pirate city from every angle. 91 00:06:55,966 --> 00:07:01,236 And shine light on the extraordinary disaster, that sent thousands of people and 92 00:07:01,337 --> 00:07:04,272 hundreds of houses to the depths. 93 00:07:08,411 --> 00:07:14,249 But clues to its wickedness still lie hidden in darkness. 94 00:07:20,557 --> 00:07:25,193 Since the 1950s, three archaeology expeditions have sifted Port Royal's 95 00:07:25,262 --> 00:07:30,031 underwater ruins, to uncover its pirate past; and in the 96 00:07:30,067 --> 00:07:35,469 1980s, a team discovered part of the fabric of the city itself. 97 00:07:35,805 --> 00:07:40,475 -During that ten years, we excavated five buildings pretty much completely. 98 00:07:41,311 --> 00:07:44,746 It was the most exciting excavation I've ever conducted. 99 00:07:47,551 --> 00:07:51,553 NARRATOR: Today, we use science to map these discoveries right across the 100 00:07:51,555 --> 00:07:54,489 sunken city. 101 00:07:56,026 --> 00:07:59,327 Thousands of relics from a lost world. 102 00:07:59,396 --> 00:08:03,098 All clues to Port Royal's cataclysmic final day. 103 00:08:05,335 --> 00:08:08,904 JON: Because this is a catastrophic site, it's sealed a whole range of goods that 104 00:08:09,039 --> 00:08:11,739 were being used at a particular moment in time. 105 00:08:12,409 --> 00:08:17,178 NARRATOR: Each one is an insight into the 17th Century world of Caribbean pirates. 106 00:08:18,382 --> 00:08:21,950 JON: So we can get actual snapshots and glimpses into daily life. 107 00:08:22,286 --> 00:08:26,587 NARRATOR: From pewter tableware, to Chinese porcelain and signs of 108 00:08:26,623 --> 00:08:29,591 personal wealth. 109 00:08:29,927 --> 00:08:33,595 RONALD: The archaeological record of Port Royal shows how quite rich it was. 110 00:08:33,696 --> 00:08:39,000 Because, usually, towns in the new world are impoverished copies of those in Europe; 111 00:08:39,603 --> 00:08:44,305 whereas Port Royal actually stacks up against the capitals of Europe. 112 00:08:45,075 --> 00:08:49,678 NARRATOR: But how did Port Royal grow so rich? 113 00:08:50,146 --> 00:08:54,549 The city was built from the wealth of stolen Spanish treasure. 114 00:08:59,056 --> 00:09:02,457 In the 1650s, England and Spain were at war. 115 00:09:10,567 --> 00:09:13,768 Jamaica, an English territory in the Caribbean, 116 00:09:13,837 --> 00:09:17,505 lay surrounded on all sides by the Spanish Main. 117 00:09:17,607 --> 00:09:22,077 From Florida, through Mexico and South America. 118 00:09:22,178 --> 00:09:27,148 To gain the upper hand over the Spanish, the English enlisted the help of pirates. 119 00:09:30,887 --> 00:09:35,323 JON: In 1657, the Lieutenant Governor of Port Royal actually invited the pirates 120 00:09:35,325 --> 00:09:39,360 to come here and to act as a kind of unofficial defense force. 121 00:09:39,429 --> 00:09:41,263 (screams) 122 00:09:41,331 --> 00:09:45,599 RONALD: To the English government, pirates who attacked Spanish goods and 123 00:09:45,636 --> 00:09:49,170 bring them to English ports, could be an asset. 124 00:09:50,007 --> 00:09:54,276 NARRATOR: Pirates were licensed to raid the Spanish; at sea or on land. 125 00:09:54,344 --> 00:09:58,613 They became known as buccaneers or privateers. 126 00:09:59,283 --> 00:10:03,284 RONALD: What happens in Port Royal really is state sanctioned piracy. 127 00:10:03,853 --> 00:10:06,888 NARRATOR: And in Port Royal, at the heart of the Caribbean, 128 00:10:06,989 --> 00:10:09,890 the buccaneers were perfectly placed. 129 00:10:09,893 --> 00:10:14,428 In striking distance of the main shipping routes between the new world and Europe. 130 00:10:15,899 --> 00:10:18,500 RONALD: If the Spanish are gonna try and get anything home, they have to get it past 131 00:10:18,502 --> 00:10:22,570 Port Royal; so it's rather like a fox sitting in the middle of a chicken coup full 132 00:10:22,706 --> 00:10:24,706 of chickens. 133 00:10:24,807 --> 00:10:29,644 NARRATOR: Port Royal became the buccaneering capital of the world. 134 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:34,883 By agreement, the English crown took a quarter of the plunder. 135 00:10:35,686 --> 00:10:38,953 The rest was shared amongst the pirates. 136 00:10:39,489 --> 00:10:44,726 RONALD: Among the very first buccaneering expeditions, 1659, the fleet brought back 137 00:10:44,761 --> 00:10:49,464 the modern equivalent of $75 million. 138 00:10:49,766 --> 00:10:55,804 The Spanish wealth that hits Port Royal in periodic waves is colossal. 139 00:10:55,872 --> 00:10:59,874 NARRATOR: Massive injections of cash transformed this fortified outpost 140 00:10:59,943 --> 00:11:03,111 into a boomtown. 141 00:11:07,650 --> 00:11:13,221 The drained city exposes as many as 2,000 brick and timber houses, crammed into 142 00:11:13,290 --> 00:11:15,957 Port Royal streets. 143 00:11:16,392 --> 00:11:20,695 Home to a growing population of almost 8,000. 144 00:11:24,234 --> 00:11:29,437 The crowded narrow streets would become a death trap when the earthquake struck. 145 00:11:31,073 --> 00:11:35,243 JON: We're on a very enclosed, very overcrowded peninsula; we've got people living here 146 00:11:35,345 --> 00:11:39,113 side by side, in two to four story dwellings. 147 00:11:39,215 --> 00:11:41,082 When the earthquake struck, there was nowhere to run. 148 00:11:44,988 --> 00:11:48,856 NARRATOR: From the thousands of clues uncovered from Port Royal's seabed, 149 00:11:48,958 --> 00:11:53,495 there is one chilling piece of evidence of when the earthquake struck. 150 00:11:56,433 --> 00:12:02,337 A 17th Century pocket watch; its hands long since rusted in the sea. 151 00:12:04,474 --> 00:12:08,810 But closer analysis of the find reveals something intriguing. 152 00:12:09,512 --> 00:12:13,748 JON: When it was x-rayed, it was seen that the hands had actually stopped at 11:43. 153 00:12:16,820 --> 00:12:20,755 Now we know from historical records that the earthquake apparently hit just before 154 00:12:20,824 --> 00:12:24,626 noon and this has been taken by some to say that the hands of that watched stopped 155 00:12:24,761 --> 00:12:27,962 exactly when the earthquake struck. 156 00:12:28,465 --> 00:12:33,100 NARRATOR: But what powerful natural forces set the earthquake in motion? 157 00:12:33,370 --> 00:12:37,905 To find the answer, we're draining the ocean not just from Port Royal, 158 00:12:38,007 --> 00:12:42,910 but from the whole of Jamaica, to uncover the source of the earthquake. 159 00:12:43,313 --> 00:12:47,515 Hidden in darkness, thousands of feet beneath the water. 160 00:12:48,919 --> 00:12:53,321 -As you drain the ocean from around Jamaica, what you can see is these giant furrows 161 00:12:53,323 --> 00:12:58,726 in the seabed; they're fractal lights running east/west and they're faults, they're 162 00:12:58,728 --> 00:13:01,395 earthquake fault lines. 163 00:13:01,598 --> 00:13:06,500 NARRATOR: The faults form part of the boundary between two pieces of the earth's crust; 164 00:13:06,603 --> 00:13:10,305 the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate to the south. 165 00:13:11,074 --> 00:13:14,409 Both constantly on the move. 166 00:13:15,245 --> 00:13:19,947 -It's a place where the gradual motions of the plate either side get snagged, 167 00:13:20,049 --> 00:13:21,616 stress builds up. 168 00:13:21,717 --> 00:13:24,619 Essentially it's an earthquake zone. 169 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,089 NARRATOR: And Port Royal sits right in the middle of it. 170 00:13:28,291 --> 00:13:33,294 -And in the case of 1692, that stress that had built up very, very gradually over 171 00:13:33,296 --> 00:13:37,231 time, gets unleashed into this, this huge earthquake. 172 00:13:38,968 --> 00:13:44,472 NARRATOR: As the stress in the earth's crust is released, it propels a powerful seismic 173 00:13:44,574 --> 00:13:47,876 wave into the surroundings. 174 00:13:55,986 --> 00:13:58,920 June 7th, 1692. 175 00:13:59,021 --> 00:14:01,856 -Doomsday at Port Royal, begins like any other day. 176 00:14:01,958 --> 00:14:06,261 There are daily prayers in the churches, business begins at sunrise. 177 00:14:06,362 --> 00:14:08,596 JON: People were just going about their business. 178 00:14:08,598 --> 00:14:13,133 NARRATOR: Travelling up to five miles per second, the seismic pulse was heading 179 00:14:13,169 --> 00:14:14,802 straight for Port Royal. 180 00:14:14,904 --> 00:14:17,538 JON: There's records of one guy about to go and have a sherry with the 181 00:14:17,540 --> 00:14:20,074 Lieutenant Governor that morning. 182 00:14:20,176 --> 00:14:23,244 There was no indication of what was about to come. 183 00:14:23,747 --> 00:14:27,348 NARRATOR: Port Royal's alleyways and buildings were full of people. 184 00:14:27,417 --> 00:14:31,185 Its wharfs and docks crowded with merchant ships. 185 00:14:31,855 --> 00:14:35,890 IAIN: I think the first indication would have got is a bang, a noise in the north, in 186 00:14:35,959 --> 00:14:39,127 the mountains and a kind of low rumbling. 187 00:14:41,064 --> 00:14:45,566 JON: Well the records we have suggest there was three pulses from the earthquake. 188 00:14:45,735 --> 00:14:49,303 IAIN: It was what's to come that was the real killer. 189 00:14:50,373 --> 00:14:55,176 -For the shake was so violent, that it threw people down on their knees. 190 00:14:55,278 --> 00:14:58,112 NARRATOR: Chasms opened up in the ground. 191 00:14:58,148 --> 00:15:02,250 -We felt the ground shake and saw the bricks begin to rise in the floor. 192 00:15:05,021 --> 00:15:09,624 -The ground heaved; it swelled like a rolling, swelling sea. 193 00:15:11,961 --> 00:15:15,196 NARRATOR: People ran from their lives from the falling masonry. 194 00:15:15,298 --> 00:15:18,700 (screams). 195 00:15:18,868 --> 00:15:22,403 But the city offered no refuge. 196 00:15:22,606 --> 00:15:25,706 IAIN: Port Royal was almost the worst case scenario; really tall buildings, made of 197 00:15:25,775 --> 00:15:27,542 brick, with narrow streets. 198 00:15:27,544 --> 00:15:29,877 So, if you're in those streets, it's almost impossible. 199 00:15:29,946 --> 00:15:33,815 Your choice whether to stay in a building or to get in the street, is, it's a lottery. 200 00:15:35,551 --> 00:15:38,753 NARRATOR: The earthquake was just the beginning. 201 00:15:38,854 --> 00:15:43,591 It alone doesn't explain how Port Royal plunged into the sea. 202 00:15:43,693 --> 00:15:48,129 It would sink for an entirely different reason. 203 00:15:48,998 --> 00:15:52,166 Scientists call it liquefaction. 204 00:15:52,168 --> 00:15:56,670 For the people of Port Royal, it was hell on earth. 205 00:15:56,740 --> 00:16:01,709 The sandy ground where they'd built their houses turned into a deadly quagmire. 206 00:16:02,412 --> 00:16:05,646 IAIN: So what happens with liquefaction is you've got sand with lots of water in it 207 00:16:05,648 --> 00:16:09,183 and as you shake it, it turns into a slurry; it liquefies. 208 00:16:11,187 --> 00:16:15,990 NARRATOR: Rarely captured on camera, this footage reveals the horrors of liquefaction at 209 00:16:16,092 --> 00:16:20,895 work; in Niigata, Japan; on June 16th 1964. 210 00:16:23,466 --> 00:16:27,802 The energy from a massive earthquake separated the grains of sediment below the 211 00:16:27,804 --> 00:16:33,407 city, allowing water to rush to the surface; earth turned to quicksand, 212 00:16:33,410 --> 00:16:36,711 sucking the city down. 213 00:16:40,483 --> 00:16:46,086 The unlucky people of Port Royal wouldn't have known how solid land 214 00:16:46,122 --> 00:16:49,757 can become liquid death. 215 00:16:50,894 --> 00:16:55,830 Minutes into the earthquake, the second catastrophe unfolded, as the ground 216 00:16:55,865 --> 00:17:00,268 sheered open; water and sand erupted from it. 217 00:17:01,705 --> 00:17:05,573 The longer the ground shook, the more liquid the sand became. 218 00:17:06,276 --> 00:17:12,580 Grand houses, churches, taverns and even Port Royal's forts sank like stones. 219 00:17:13,650 --> 00:17:18,586 -Those houses, which back just now, appeared the fairest and loftiest in these parts, were 220 00:17:18,655 --> 00:17:23,124 in a moment sunk down into the earth and nothing was to be seen of them. 221 00:17:23,126 --> 00:17:27,395 NARRATOR: Some people were trapped, half in the sand and half out. 222 00:17:27,497 --> 00:17:31,932 -The earth received up to their necks and then closed upon them, squeezing them to 223 00:17:32,034 --> 00:17:35,136 death with their heads above ground. 224 00:17:35,338 --> 00:17:39,473 Many of which the dogs eat. 225 00:17:39,675 --> 00:17:41,508 NARRATOR: Many perished in this quicksand; 226 00:17:41,510 --> 00:17:45,179 but there is one incredible story of survival. 227 00:17:47,249 --> 00:17:53,154 A French Merchant, Lewis Galdy, found himself sucked into the ground. 228 00:17:53,255 --> 00:17:56,424 JON: Everyone thought he was dead and then, in the succeeding shock, he was spat 229 00:17:56,526 --> 00:18:00,661 out into the sea and he survived by swimming to the nearest boat; after which he 230 00:18:00,730 --> 00:18:03,931 became a really religious man. 231 00:18:04,768 --> 00:18:08,569 NARRATOR: In all, two thirds of Port Royal sank. 232 00:18:08,671 --> 00:18:12,406 Taking with it 2,000 souls and hundreds of buildings. 233 00:18:16,345 --> 00:18:21,916 It's reported that the city took only minutes to disappear into the sea. 234 00:18:22,252 --> 00:18:26,020 But the chaos the earthquake had unleashed wasn't over. 235 00:18:28,975 --> 00:18:33,044 lost city, we can reveal extraordinary evidence that 236 00:18:33,113 --> 00:18:38,048 the earthquake delivered one last shock to Port Royal. 237 00:18:38,284 --> 00:18:43,521 Embedded in the seafloor are the skeletal remains of a large ship. 238 00:18:44,023 --> 00:18:48,626 She lies right amongst the ruins of a house on Lime Street. 239 00:18:48,695 --> 00:18:51,863 -Well the clear question is, why is there a ship sitting on the floor of a 240 00:18:51,998 --> 00:18:54,332 building in Port Royal? 241 00:18:54,334 --> 00:18:58,936 NARRATOR: The strange discovery was excavated in the 1980s by Donny Hamilton. 242 00:18:59,038 --> 00:19:04,875 Now Jon wants to find out exactly what it tells us about Port Royal's day of doom. 243 00:19:05,745 --> 00:19:09,680 DONNY: What we see here is a planned view of building five and building four. 244 00:19:09,749 --> 00:19:13,818 We came across a timber, which turned out to be the keel of a ship. 245 00:19:15,755 --> 00:19:20,023 NARRATOR: But how could a ship, presumably in harbor, crash into a house in the 246 00:19:20,059 --> 00:19:23,161 middle of town? 247 00:19:26,332 --> 00:19:31,401 Would the identity of the stricken ship solve the mystery? 248 00:19:31,704 --> 00:19:37,108 When Donny's team searched the records, they revealed a possible contender; an English 249 00:19:37,243 --> 00:19:40,778 warship measuring 74 feet long. 250 00:19:41,781 --> 00:19:45,916 Similar to this ship, she was called HMS Swan. 251 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:50,721 -We knew from the records that the Swan was in the harbor at the time of the 252 00:19:50,823 --> 00:19:55,693 earthquake and it fits the basic dimensions of the ship that we found in building four. 253 00:19:57,830 --> 00:20:04,268 NARRATOR: It turned out that, on the June 7th 1692, HMS Swan was being serviced at 254 00:20:04,337 --> 00:20:07,138 Port Royals wharfs. 255 00:20:07,140 --> 00:20:11,675 All clues point to one conclusion. 256 00:20:12,511 --> 00:20:15,346 JON: You have a ship that would have been sitting in the harbor, a good 200 feet from 257 00:20:15,447 --> 00:20:20,618 this building, has now been deposited, launched actually on top of it. 258 00:20:20,753 --> 00:20:24,322 I mean, it's quite clearly evidence of a tsunami. 259 00:20:25,158 --> 00:20:28,826 NARRATOR: The tsunami was the third cataclysm to hit Port Royal. 260 00:20:28,894 --> 00:20:33,497 One eyewitness account tells of the sea retreating from Kingston Harbor, before the 261 00:20:33,566 --> 00:20:36,300 wave hit. 262 00:20:41,473 --> 00:20:47,812 It was a wave similar to the tsunamis that devastated Japan in 2011 and Thailand in 2004. 263 00:20:50,650 --> 00:20:52,883 (screams). 264 00:20:55,121 --> 00:20:59,256 The tsunami would explain what happened to HMS Swan. 265 00:21:00,193 --> 00:21:06,731 Empty of ballast, HMS Swan was like a cork on the mighty wave that crashed over Port Royal. 266 00:21:08,601 --> 00:21:12,536 She was hurled across the drowned city; 267 00:21:12,572 --> 00:21:16,007 washed down Queen Street 268 00:21:16,175 --> 00:21:20,010 finally crashing into a house on Lime Street. 269 00:21:20,979 --> 00:21:24,849 Piercing its walls with considerable force. 270 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,789 The archaeologists have mapped the fate of Port Royal. 271 00:21:34,293 --> 00:21:40,965 Port Royal was laid to waste by an earthquake, quicksand and tsunami waves. 272 00:21:43,469 --> 00:21:47,571 The disaster left the city cut off from the mainland. 273 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:52,843 All that remained was a devastated island and thousands of dead bodies. 274 00:21:55,515 --> 00:21:59,984 -A multitude of whose corpses floated a great many days after; from one side of the 275 00:21:59,986 --> 00:22:01,652 harbor to the other. 276 00:22:01,654 --> 00:22:06,323 Caused such an intolerable stench that the dead would like to destroy the living. 277 00:22:08,828 --> 00:22:11,429 NARRATOR: When news of the disaster arrived in Europe, 278 00:22:11,497 --> 00:22:16,934 it seemed that God had finally delivered his judgement on the wicked pirate city. 279 00:22:18,004 --> 00:22:21,672 -When the news reaches the home country, there's quite a widespread feeling 280 00:22:21,774 --> 00:22:26,277 that the wickedest city in the English speaking world had just got its just desserts. 281 00:22:26,979 --> 00:22:31,348 -So it was seen as divine retribution; it was seen as just punishment for the loot 282 00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:34,284 and terrible behavior that took place in Port Royal. 283 00:22:34,454 --> 00:22:39,356 -By this terrible judgement, God will make them reform their lives; for there was not 284 00:22:39,458 --> 00:22:43,194 a more un-Godly people on the face of the earth. 285 00:22:46,999 --> 00:22:51,235 NARRATOR: Port Royal never recovered its former glory. 286 00:22:53,306 --> 00:22:57,908 The trading jewel of the Caribbean was wiped off the face of the earth. 287 00:22:58,777 --> 00:23:01,978 JON: It's interesting to think, if the earthquake hadn't actually struck here, 288 00:23:01,981 --> 00:23:04,782 that this place could have developed somewhere like Manhattan, or somewhere like 289 00:23:04,917 --> 00:23:06,717 Hong Kong. 290 00:23:06,719 --> 00:23:11,255 NARRATOR: But in the end, it was Port Royal's lethal location, on an active fault 291 00:23:11,257 --> 00:23:15,726 zone and deadly quicksand, that sealed its fate. 292 00:23:18,831 --> 00:23:22,532 Half a world away, California, lies on one of the most 293 00:23:22,568 --> 00:23:25,135 infamous fault zones in the world. 294 00:23:25,137 --> 00:23:30,207 And right off shore, is an island that might just be the safest place, when the next 295 00:23:30,276 --> 00:23:33,710 big one hits! 296 00:23:34,180 --> 00:23:36,947 Alcatraz, The Rock. 297 00:23:37,383 --> 00:23:40,217 Uncle Sam's Devil's island. 298 00:23:41,587 --> 00:23:45,689 America's worst, Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly 299 00:23:45,791 --> 00:23:50,027 and Whitey Bulger, all called the "rock" home. 300 00:23:50,062 --> 00:23:55,166 The island lies within sight of shore, but escape is almost impossible. 301 00:23:56,502 --> 00:24:00,704 Prisoners who tried, were met with some of the Bay's most powerful forces. 302 00:24:04,110 --> 00:24:09,246 The island of Alcatraz sits alone in the middle of San Francisco Bay... 303 00:24:10,349 --> 00:24:14,785 Within this dramatic landscape, Alcatraz and the remnants of the renowned US 304 00:24:14,787 --> 00:24:18,823 Federal prison are just over a mile from the heart of the city. 305 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:26,130 For 29 years, it held some of the most dangerous and notorious 306 00:24:26,132 --> 00:24:28,999 criminals in history. 307 00:24:29,301 --> 00:24:33,103 Officially, no one successfully escaped 'the rock'. 308 00:24:34,106 --> 00:24:38,175 But why exactly was no inmate able to break out of Alcatraz? 309 00:24:40,213 --> 00:24:44,215 Today, the Island is a museum run by the National Park Service. 310 00:24:44,617 --> 00:24:47,684 Over a million people visit every year. 311 00:24:48,521 --> 00:24:53,023 One man has watched it rise to become one of America's most visited attractions. 312 00:24:54,693 --> 00:24:59,230 Ranger John Cantwell, he's worked on the Island for over 25 years. 313 00:25:01,466 --> 00:25:05,035 JOHN: Where I'm standing is on Broadway, this is the main corridor in the cell house. 314 00:25:05,137 --> 00:25:10,106 Alcatraz being a super max penitentiary meant that you had high security, one officer 315 00:25:10,142 --> 00:25:12,243 for every three convicts. 316 00:25:12,311 --> 00:25:14,044 They were constantly being watched. 317 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,348 12 times a day they would have counted every convict in this penitentiary building. 318 00:25:20,085 --> 00:25:23,454 NARRATOR: But it's true strength as a prison can't be explained just by the 319 00:25:23,589 --> 00:25:26,523 thickness of its walls. 320 00:25:26,625 --> 00:25:29,059 Or the vigilance of its guards. 321 00:25:29,161 --> 00:25:33,130 The waters around the rock were also a deadly barrier to escape. 322 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:39,536 Now science can explain just how and why the Bay was so dangerous. 323 00:25:43,776 --> 00:25:48,044 NARRATOR: Draining the San Francisco Bay reveals Alcatraz as a pinnacle 324 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,248 of bedrock emerging from the seafloor. 325 00:25:52,652 --> 00:25:54,918 It's surrounded by mountain peaks. 326 00:25:55,020 --> 00:25:59,156 All of them are ancient survivors from an age of earthquakes. 327 00:26:00,259 --> 00:26:04,395 Tom Parsons is a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey. 328 00:26:05,564 --> 00:26:08,465 He's studied this area for decades. 329 00:26:09,035 --> 00:26:12,469 TOM: So we're standing at the Golden Gate and we're standing on mountains that were formed 330 00:26:12,604 --> 00:26:14,938 a hundred million years ago. 331 00:26:14,940 --> 00:26:18,475 Now we're sandwiched right between the San Andreas and the parallel Hayward Fault 332 00:26:18,577 --> 00:26:22,145 both of which are helping to accommodate plate motion here between the Pacific and 333 00:26:22,214 --> 00:26:23,847 North American plates. 334 00:26:23,849 --> 00:26:28,085 NARRATOR: San Francisco sits right on the edge of the North American Plate. 335 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:33,958 As the Pacific Plate grinds north past it, stress builds up along the major fault lines 336 00:26:34,660 --> 00:26:39,496 in the area, the Hayward Fault and most notably the San Andreas. 337 00:26:40,665 --> 00:26:43,833 TOM: This region is very volatile it, it produces large earthquakes. 338 00:26:43,836 --> 00:26:48,605 We've seen them in 1906, 1868, both were devastating earthquakes in San Francisco. 339 00:26:50,242 --> 00:26:55,245 NARRATOR: The nightmarish effects of the 1906 earthquake, 7.9 on the Richter 340 00:26:55,314 --> 00:27:01,085 scale, are a reminder of how the area's violent geology threatens the existence of a 341 00:27:01,153 --> 00:27:04,554 great city. 342 00:27:04,657 --> 00:27:09,059 Over 100 million years ago, the landscape here was entirely different. 343 00:27:10,996 --> 00:27:15,699 There was a third plate between the two larger ones called the Farallon. 344 00:27:18,671 --> 00:27:21,805 TOM: The Farallon Plate used to sit between the Pacific and North American Plates. 345 00:27:21,907 --> 00:27:26,110 It was shoved underneath the North American plate over all that time. 346 00:27:26,211 --> 00:27:29,413 NARRATOR: The movement of the Farallon Plate was the catalyst that created 347 00:27:29,514 --> 00:27:34,952 San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz as it ground under the North American Plate. 348 00:27:36,455 --> 00:27:40,290 This process is called subduction. 349 00:27:40,392 --> 00:27:44,695 As the Farallon Plate disappeared, fragments of the Earth's crust were forced 350 00:27:44,697 --> 00:27:48,298 upwards, creating a valley and mountains. 351 00:27:48,868 --> 00:27:52,636 TOM: Alcatraz was part of the coast range belt that was uplifted by the subduction of 352 00:27:52,705 --> 00:27:54,705 the Farallon Plate. 353 00:27:54,807 --> 00:27:58,575 NARRATOR: The Bay area was then a long, forested valley with a number of 354 00:27:58,577 --> 00:28:03,647 Rocky Mountains one of these mountains, was Alcatraz. 355 00:28:07,953 --> 00:28:14,258 10,000 years ago as the last ice-age came to an end the area was deluged by billions 356 00:28:14,260 --> 00:28:17,394 of gallons of melt water. 357 00:28:17,529 --> 00:28:21,899 This created what we call San Francisco Bay. 358 00:28:23,869 --> 00:28:28,238 Alcatraz became an island. 359 00:28:28,507 --> 00:28:34,478 This 1853 photograph shows the tip of the drowned mountain as a featureless rock in the 360 00:28:34,613 --> 00:28:37,347 middle of the Bay. 361 00:28:37,449 --> 00:28:40,684 Alcatraz may look tranquil and isolated. 362 00:28:40,686 --> 00:28:44,822 But it's surrounded by powerful natural forces. 363 00:28:46,825 --> 00:28:53,363 What earned the island its deadly reputation, and what may have happened during 364 00:28:53,466 --> 00:28:56,667 attempted escapes? 365 00:28:59,705 --> 00:29:04,975 Over three decades there were 14 daring escape attempts from the island. 366 00:29:05,244 --> 00:29:08,979 The story of one of these is legendary. 367 00:29:09,448 --> 00:29:14,217 -Probably the most famous escape attempt would be the 1962 breakout. 368 00:29:14,253 --> 00:29:19,723 NARRATOR: Frank Lee Morris, and brothers Charles and John Anglin devised an audacious 369 00:29:19,792 --> 00:29:22,526 bid for freedom. 370 00:29:22,627 --> 00:29:25,262 -The escape attempt was incredibly ingenious. 371 00:29:25,363 --> 00:29:30,600 It involved stealing an immense amount of material, dozens of rubber raincoats, 372 00:29:30,702 --> 00:29:35,272 glue, electric motors to turn into drills. 373 00:29:35,340 --> 00:29:39,409 The guys even made a periscope, they made a flashlight. 374 00:29:39,745 --> 00:29:44,815 NARRATOR: Now they had to use these homemade tools to breach the prison walls. 375 00:29:52,824 --> 00:29:56,560 JOHN: We're in one of the Anglin Brothers cells and they were ingenious to actually 376 00:29:56,662 --> 00:29:59,096 create a portal at the back of their cell. 377 00:29:59,198 --> 00:30:04,701 And they fashioned a drill made out of a vacuum cleaner engine, put a diamond bit on 378 00:30:04,803 --> 00:30:09,306 the end of this thing and then poked holes through the concrete to loosen up the 379 00:30:09,375 --> 00:30:12,643 concrete around the air vent. 380 00:30:13,212 --> 00:30:18,648 Dummy heads were made out of concrete material, human hair glued onto the heads and the 381 00:30:18,750 --> 00:30:22,519 faces painted on these heads and at night with the lights down it looked like they were 382 00:30:22,588 --> 00:30:25,088 sleeping in their cells. 383 00:30:28,460 --> 00:30:32,129 So in the cell house, the lights go out at 9:30. 384 00:30:32,131 --> 00:30:34,865 That's basically when they make their break. 385 00:30:34,867 --> 00:30:39,269 Once the lights are out the heads are in place they go up to the rooftop and they've got 386 00:30:39,371 --> 00:30:43,140 from 9:30 to 6:30 the next morning to make it to the mainland. 387 00:30:46,879 --> 00:30:51,448 50 rubber raincoats glued together, Alcatraz escapees 388 00:30:51,550 --> 00:30:56,753 Frank Lee Morris and the Anglin brothers made a makeshift raft and life vests. 389 00:30:58,257 --> 00:31:00,257 It was their lifeline to freedom. 390 00:31:00,325 --> 00:31:04,728 They carried everything to the roof and dragged it down to the water's edge. 391 00:31:05,464 --> 00:31:07,864 JOHN: So this is the actual spot where they entered the water. 392 00:31:07,900 --> 00:31:10,901 Frank Lee Morris and the Anglin Brothers came down this hillside. 393 00:31:11,036 --> 00:31:12,469 They dragged their raft. 394 00:31:12,571 --> 00:31:17,107 Inflated it at the seawall here, jumped in and took off into the night. 395 00:31:19,011 --> 00:31:23,814 They searched the waters looking for these three men, and the raft or the men were 396 00:31:23,816 --> 00:31:25,815 never found. 397 00:31:25,917 --> 00:31:30,420 NARRATOR: The official FBI documents state the three men and their raft were most 398 00:31:30,422 --> 00:31:33,523 likely swept out to sea. 399 00:31:33,625 --> 00:31:35,958 Their bodies were never recovered. 400 00:31:35,995 --> 00:31:39,096 But is this what really happened? 401 00:31:39,098 --> 00:31:41,765 Were they lost at sea? 402 00:31:41,767 --> 00:31:44,301 Or could they have made it to the mainland? 403 00:31:44,403 --> 00:31:49,239 To understand the fate of the three escapees on their raft, scientists are studying the 404 00:31:49,341 --> 00:31:52,075 geology of the bay itself. 405 00:31:52,177 --> 00:31:55,512 Can the sea bed offer an answer? 406 00:31:55,580 --> 00:32:00,884 First, Patrick Barnard from the United States Geological Survey explores the underwater 407 00:32:00,986 --> 00:32:04,755 landscape at the mouth of San Francisco Bay. 408 00:32:04,990 --> 00:32:09,660 He's hoping analysis of the seabed will explain the powerful currents that surge 409 00:32:09,728 --> 00:32:13,730 around Alcatraz, making escape attempts so dangerous. 410 00:32:14,500 --> 00:32:17,067 -Today we're going to be mapping from the Golden Gate Bridge west towards the 411 00:32:17,136 --> 00:32:19,970 outer coast. 412 00:32:20,172 --> 00:32:25,676 NARRATOR: The investigation begins under the most iconic location in San Francisco Bay. 413 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:32,783 Draining the water from under the Golden Gate Bridge reveals a huge gorge. 414 00:32:34,386 --> 00:32:36,953 It's far deeper than the rest of the Bay. 415 00:32:37,022 --> 00:32:40,490 Large enough to hide a 30 story building. 416 00:32:40,993 --> 00:32:46,430 But what happens to the seabed when the multi-beam vessel heads west to the open ocean? 417 00:32:47,833 --> 00:32:52,769 As the boat moves farther from the bridge, the water grows much shallower. 418 00:32:53,372 --> 00:32:58,508 The sonar readings suggest a dramatic transformation in the seascape below. 419 00:32:58,877 --> 00:33:01,378 PATRICK: The bottom is changing, we're seeing a lot more sediment 420 00:33:01,447 --> 00:33:04,514 on the seafloor now. 421 00:33:04,883 --> 00:33:08,785 NARRATOR: Draining the water reveals an incredible sight. 422 00:33:09,621 --> 00:33:13,856 PATRICK: We're starting to see some very large sand waves here that are emerging from 423 00:33:13,859 --> 00:33:16,660 the depths of the Golden Gate strait. 424 00:33:16,762 --> 00:33:20,130 NARRATOR: These formations on the seabed are huge. 425 00:33:21,133 --> 00:33:25,335 PATRICK: So the largest sand waves are about 200 meters long, 6 meters high, 426 00:33:25,437 --> 00:33:29,206 the biggest ones 10 meters high or about 3 stories. 427 00:33:29,307 --> 00:33:34,344 NARRATOR: And they're sitting just yards away from the harbor entrance. 428 00:33:34,713 --> 00:33:37,214 PATRICK: They look like probably what the Sahara would look like if you were walking 429 00:33:37,349 --> 00:33:39,315 through it. 430 00:33:39,484 --> 00:33:43,352 NARRATOR: These giant sand waves are caused by the huge tidal rush through 431 00:33:43,389 --> 00:33:45,555 the Golden Gate Strait. 432 00:33:45,657 --> 00:33:50,426 The fast-moving water picks up sand and then dumps it as it slows down. 433 00:33:51,162 --> 00:33:54,231 PATRICK: You have all this sand and gravel being carried along and forced through this 434 00:33:54,233 --> 00:33:58,501 narrow opening and then as the opening widens further and further all this material gets 435 00:33:58,603 --> 00:34:01,271 deposited in these bed forms. 436 00:34:05,310 --> 00:34:09,246 NARRATOR: The drained landscape shows how the geology of the seabed shapes 437 00:34:09,347 --> 00:34:12,849 the powerful tidal currents in San Francisco Bay. 438 00:34:13,419 --> 00:34:17,187 First the deep gorge that funnels the water into a jet stream. 439 00:34:18,524 --> 00:34:24,995 Moving west, beyond the Bridge we follow the seabed as it rises from over 300 feet deep 440 00:34:25,130 --> 00:34:29,132 to just 130 feet. 441 00:34:29,434 --> 00:34:34,737 The 'drain' shows how the racing current dumps thousands of tons of sand, creating 442 00:34:34,839 --> 00:34:38,475 these giant sand waves up to 30 feet high. 443 00:34:40,378 --> 00:34:44,714 But what does this underwater landscape have to do with escaping from Alcatraz? 444 00:34:50,222 --> 00:34:55,358 These racing tides are what the inmates had to contend with when fleeing the rock. 445 00:34:56,361 --> 00:34:59,496 Is it possible that Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers 446 00:34:59,498 --> 00:35:02,732 got caught in these wicked currents? 447 00:35:02,734 --> 00:35:08,371 The records from the 1962 FBI investigation show the tide charts on June 11th. 448 00:35:09,374 --> 00:35:15,445 From 9 PM to 3 AM there was a strong outgoing tide. 449 00:35:15,547 --> 00:35:18,915 Which peaked at exactly 11:46 PM. 450 00:35:18,917 --> 00:35:23,452 So, when did the three escapees hit the water in their home-made raft? 451 00:35:24,656 --> 00:35:28,391 MARTINI: From the moment lights out happened, which I think was 9:30, as soon as 452 00:35:28,493 --> 00:35:32,128 they could've they would have gotten out of their cells, give it an hour, hour and a 453 00:35:32,197 --> 00:35:38,468 half to have gotten everything that they needed to through that vent on the roof, across 454 00:35:38,470 --> 00:35:41,671 the cell house, down the other side, hit the water. 455 00:35:41,673 --> 00:35:46,309 I think that they started paddling as soon as they got to the water. 456 00:35:46,345 --> 00:35:48,545 Let's say 11:00. 457 00:35:48,580 --> 00:35:53,149 NARRATOR: The three convicts would have been in the water at peak tidal flow during an 458 00:35:53,218 --> 00:35:56,352 ebbing, outgoing tide. 459 00:35:56,622 --> 00:36:01,358 What were their chances if their flimsy raft made of raincoats broke up, leaving 460 00:36:01,459 --> 00:36:05,228 them to swim in the powerful currents? 461 00:36:05,597 --> 00:36:08,498 PATRICK: If you tried to escape off the north end of the island especially during 462 00:36:08,534 --> 00:36:12,368 ebbing tide like they did in 1962 where the currents are extremely strong and moving 463 00:36:12,437 --> 00:36:14,237 straight out to sea. 464 00:36:14,305 --> 00:36:17,106 It would have been very difficult to swim out of that current within an hour and a 465 00:36:17,208 --> 00:36:19,643 half you could have been at the open coast. 466 00:36:19,744 --> 00:36:23,380 NARRATOR: So Morris and the Anglin brothers had to struggle with the fastest and 467 00:36:23,515 --> 00:36:26,616 deadliest current flow in the bay. 468 00:36:27,118 --> 00:36:31,121 What happened to them is one of the great Alcatraz mysteries. 469 00:36:33,275 --> 00:36:39,512 h been wildly different rumors 470 00:36:39,581 --> 00:36:40,980 about the men's fate. 471 00:36:40,982 --> 00:36:43,783 Some claim to have seen the three men on the mainland. 472 00:36:43,885 --> 00:36:48,054 But this conflicts with the official FBI report into the escape. 473 00:36:48,090 --> 00:36:51,924 Which states that their objective was Angel Island! 474 00:36:52,026 --> 00:36:54,961 A 2 mile paddle north of Alcatraz. 475 00:36:55,196 --> 00:37:00,400 -They did what nobody else ever did, they got off the island with a head start 476 00:37:00,402 --> 00:37:03,670 and, and were never seen again. 477 00:37:03,672 --> 00:37:07,407 -The official Bureau of Prisons report on these three men in the raft is that the 478 00:37:07,409 --> 00:37:12,545 raft took on water, the men were in the San Francisco Bay, they became hypothermic and 479 00:37:12,547 --> 00:37:15,614 the currents took them out to the Pacific. 480 00:37:15,651 --> 00:37:17,684 NARRATOR: But this was never proved. 481 00:37:17,686 --> 00:37:22,822 And when the story broke around the world, there was excitement and intrigue. 482 00:37:23,659 --> 00:37:26,693 MAN (over TV): It appears to be the first successful escape in the history of the 483 00:37:26,762 --> 00:37:29,095 maximum-security prison. 484 00:37:29,097 --> 00:37:32,632 NARRATOR: For weeks, the FBI searched the bay, 485 00:37:32,734 --> 00:37:37,737 their goal was to find them, dead or alive. 486 00:37:37,906 --> 00:37:39,372 MAN (over TV): The escape triggered the greatest man 487 00:37:39,441 --> 00:37:41,975 hunt in San Francisco's history. 488 00:37:42,043 --> 00:37:46,078 NARRATOR: Though they never discovered any trace of the bodies, the FBI did find 489 00:37:46,114 --> 00:37:48,915 evidence of the escape. 490 00:37:49,016 --> 00:37:53,353 MARTINI: They recovered two of the inflatable life vests. 491 00:37:53,454 --> 00:37:57,990 They recovered two of the plywood paddles found floating in different 492 00:37:58,092 --> 00:37:59,792 places in the bay. 493 00:37:59,795 --> 00:38:05,064 Another one of the life vests was recovered outside the Golden Gate at a beach north 494 00:38:05,067 --> 00:38:06,265 of the Golden Gate. 495 00:38:06,335 --> 00:38:09,536 There was no lack of evidence that they escaped. 496 00:38:10,472 --> 00:38:14,407 NARRATOR: Draining San Francisco Bay reveals how powerful currents on the 497 00:38:14,409 --> 00:38:19,746 surface that swept men to their deaths are shaped by the contours below. 498 00:38:21,216 --> 00:38:27,020 But for the three inmates, if they did reach the open ocean there was one more deadly 499 00:38:27,022 --> 00:38:33,292 challenge because of its high population of great white sharks this area is known as 500 00:38:33,328 --> 00:38:35,228 the Red Triangle. 501 00:38:35,329 --> 00:38:38,698 PATRICK: In June of '62, it would have also been during up-welling season 502 00:38:38,767 --> 00:38:39,899 like it is now. 503 00:38:40,001 --> 00:38:41,600 So, you have lots of nutrients in the water column. 504 00:38:41,603 --> 00:38:44,370 Lots of fish and lots of bigger predators, so it's likely there could have been 505 00:38:44,373 --> 00:38:47,273 more great whites in the area than there are during the rest of the year. 506 00:38:47,576 --> 00:38:53,312 NARRATOR: So if they made it this far out, dead or alive, they may have become prey for 507 00:38:53,382 --> 00:38:56,483 the great whites. 508 00:39:01,390 --> 00:39:04,557 The bodies of the three inmates were never found. 509 00:39:04,559 --> 00:39:10,296 The infamous prison closed its doors in 1963 with a perfect record. 510 00:39:13,935 --> 00:39:19,205 Officially there were no successful escapes from Alcatraz, though many tried. 511 00:39:24,179 --> 00:39:26,879 JOHN: The conditions surrounding this island is what really made it an 512 00:39:26,948 --> 00:39:28,815 escape-proof prison. 513 00:39:28,884 --> 00:39:32,218 MARTINI: The bay was the most formidable of the prison's walls. 514 00:39:32,220 --> 00:39:36,422 You could say that the bay has really created Alcatraz' reputation. 515 00:39:36,425 --> 00:39:40,827 NARRATOR: The 'perfect prison' was the result of extraordinary geology. 516 00:39:41,830 --> 00:39:45,231 Deep gorges, giant underwater sand dunes, 517 00:39:45,233 --> 00:39:48,868 hard bedrock pillars at the Golden Gate Strait, 518 00:39:48,970 --> 00:39:53,873 powerful currents and even great predators that roam the waters outside the Bay. 519 00:39:54,776 --> 00:39:59,045 All natural phenomena that made the rock 'inescapable'. 520 00:39:59,814 --> 00:40:05,318 But there is another mighty natural force at work in San Francisco Bay that dwarfs even 521 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:08,388 the power of the ocean currents. 522 00:40:08,390 --> 00:40:12,525 A drained Pacific Ocean reveals the first clue. 523 00:40:12,627 --> 00:40:17,130 Deep under the waters off the coast of San Francisco lies the infamous 524 00:40:17,265 --> 00:40:19,866 San Andreas Fault. 525 00:40:19,868 --> 00:40:24,570 The shifting tectonic plates have caused major earthquakes in the past. 526 00:40:24,639 --> 00:40:27,106 The most deadly in 1906. 527 00:40:27,142 --> 00:40:30,877 Over 3000 people lost their lives. 528 00:40:30,979 --> 00:40:34,480 But could an even deadlier earthquake hit the area? 529 00:40:34,549 --> 00:40:37,016 The so called 'big one'. 530 00:40:37,052 --> 00:40:41,220 -So in our forecast we actually consider an earthquake that could start at 531 00:40:41,222 --> 00:40:45,758 the southernmost part of the San Andreas Fault, run all the way along through the bay area 532 00:40:45,860 --> 00:40:49,095 up north, involves the entire San Andreas Fault zone. 533 00:40:49,197 --> 00:40:53,967 That earthquake would be on the scale of 8.2 to 8.4 in magnitude. 534 00:40:56,137 --> 00:40:59,839 NARRATOR: The devastation would be far greater than the destruction caused 535 00:40:59,908 --> 00:41:02,441 by the 1989 quake. 536 00:41:02,477 --> 00:41:07,046 TOM: If we were to see an earthquake of that scale in San Francisco that would 537 00:41:07,115 --> 00:41:12,118 cause, unfortunately a lot of casualties, many buildings would collapse, freeways and 538 00:41:12,153 --> 00:41:15,521 infrastructure type things would be in danger. 539 00:41:15,557 --> 00:41:19,158 If it did happen I think we would see significant destruction in the city and 540 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,528 throughout the bay area and throughout California. 541 00:41:22,998 --> 00:41:25,798 NARRATOR: The massive earthquake could cause parts of the city to 542 00:41:25,900 --> 00:41:28,468 topple into the sea. 543 00:41:28,470 --> 00:41:32,338 Much of the downtown core destroyed. 544 00:41:35,009 --> 00:41:40,213 The Golden Gate Bridge pushed to its engineering limits. 545 00:41:40,215 --> 00:41:45,251 But when the fire and smoke clears, 'one' place will still be standing. 546 00:41:48,589 --> 00:41:52,091 TOM: During a big earthquake Alcatraz would be a safe haven because it is built out of 547 00:41:52,093 --> 00:41:53,559 very strong rock. 548 00:41:53,562 --> 00:41:56,829 It's not going to collapse under strong shaking like soft soil would. 549 00:41:56,831 --> 00:41:59,599 It's been there for 100 million years, it's hung in there, so it's going to do 550 00:41:59,668 --> 00:42:02,701 well under an earthquake. 551 00:42:02,904 --> 00:42:07,106 MARTINI: If the geologists are correct and when the San Andreas lets go Alcatraz is 552 00:42:07,208 --> 00:42:11,477 the safest place to be, that is the ultimate irony. 553 00:42:11,479 --> 00:42:15,014 The island that so many men wanted to get away from is the place 554 00:42:15,016 --> 00:42:16,950 that's gonna offer the refuge. 555 00:42:17,018 --> 00:42:21,387 NARRATOR: By draining Alcatraz and exposing the secrets hidden on the seabed, a 556 00:42:21,389 --> 00:42:24,657 different picture of the island emerges. 557 00:42:24,759 --> 00:42:30,262 The explanations behind its most legendary mysteries involve more than just the 558 00:42:30,332 --> 00:42:32,098 prison itself. 559 00:42:32,133 --> 00:42:37,836 The geography of San Francisco Bay, the waters, the rocks, the wind and the fog, a 560 00:42:37,872 --> 00:42:43,208 tightly woven net making Alcatraz an inescapable place. 561 00:42:43,244 --> 00:42:46,879 Unless the 'big one' hits. 562 00:42:48,416 --> 00:42:54,187 Draining the waters around Port Royal and Alcatraz island reveal deep powerful 563 00:42:54,255 --> 00:42:55,454 geological forces at work. 564 00:42:55,490 --> 00:42:56,489 Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.