Original subtitles

CHARLIE: Hey guys, Charlie here.

CHARLIE: Today we're hanging outside the Florida Keys.

CHARLIE: You know all those stories about pirates?

CHARLIE: That all happened here.

CHARLIE: Right here!

CHARLIE: So today...

...we're finding some pirate treasure!

(theme music plays)

♪ ♪

KIRBY: My phone is dead! I need a charger!

CHARLIE: I need a history book! Hey guys!

KIRBY: Hey!

CHARLIE: Kirby and I discovered a game

and we're freaking out about it.

Treasure Quest Find Fest 3!

KIRBY: This game is unreal!

CHARLIE: Players wander around as digital pirates in order to move their digital boats

across digital landscapes to discover digital treasure hidden at real,

not digital, GPS coordinates.

KIRBY: Find anything yet? CHARLIE: Nope! But I found a chicken.

KIRBY: It is so fun.

CHARLIE: But it drains your phone's battery like crazy, so we can't play right now.

KIRBY: Major bummer.

CHARLIE: But we were wondering what if. KIRBY: Maybe.

CHARLIE: With a little paper and glue.

KIRBY: And a few library books.

CHARLIE: We found out how to bring Treasure Quest Find Fest 3 to life.

So today we're unraveling the world of...

Sunken treasure!

Alright guys, kind of weird.

KIRBY: But true.

CHARLIE: It turns out that if you wanna know anything about

pirates and sunken treasure.

You've gotta know about Spain.

KIRBY: Espana. CHARLIE: Country of the siesta.

KIRBY: And Tapas. CHARLIE: Flamenco dancing!

KIRBY: And apparently treasure pirate history.

That's where it all began.

CHARLIE: Alright Spain, here we go.

Let's take it back a bit.

1492. Columbus gets some funding from Spain.

"Discovers" the new world.

Spain's a powerhouse now.

They throw together some funding, build a boat,

and head out to establish some colonies over there.

They have quite a nice collection by the 16th century.

KIRBY: Quite a nice collection.

CHARLIE: The great thing about these new colonies is, they're rich with gemstones and

gold and silver and pearls and emeralds and everything treasure-related!

Spain, of course, wants to get in on that so they sail over and start trading with the

colonists, bringing back all of that treasure.

For a while, this goes well!

The colonists get resources.

Spain gets treasure.

Until, some other countries get a little jealous.

One of the most jealous guys, King Francis, the King of France.

KIRBY: Wait, that was his name?

CHARLIE: Yeah. King Francis. KIRBY: The King of France?

CHARLIE: Exactly so the king was like...

These Spanish kings they have the nicest jewels!

But they won't let me trade with their colonies!

What ever shall I do?

Sorry guys, my French accent is pretty bad.

Upset by the fact that he and his country are mostly treasure-less,

and additionally frustrated because Spain won't let them trade with the Spanish

colonies, King Francis decides to take the low road.

You, sir.

KIRBY: Yes, King Francis?

CHARLIE: Will you do me a favor? KIRBY: What is it?

CHARLIE: Sail to the ships that carry Spanish treasure.

And take it.

KIRBY: Take what? CHARLIE: Take the treasure, the ships, everything!

It will be your job and I will call you a privateer.

KIRBY: Privateer? CHARLIE: Yeah, they're pirates.

The French government hired pirates to steal treasure from the Spanish.

They just called 'em privateers.

Probably to make themselves feel better about the whole thing.

KIRBY: Alright, got it.

CHARLIE (off-screen): And it works!

With the help of these privateers, the French and other countries are able to

steal treasure from the Spanish.

CHARLIE: Ha-ha! We did it! Wi wi!

But Spain wasn't just gonna take the hit lying down.

KIRBY: No way.

CHARLIE (off-screen): They respond in full force.

It's King Philip II of Spain who's behind this one.

CHARLIE: Man, these French they're killing us!

Sorry guys, my Spanish accent is much worse than my French.

This is what we're gonna do.

We're gonna get a bunch of boats.

We're gonna make 'em big, give them pistols, cannons, we're givin' 'em everything.

We gonna have two of 'em.

They're gonna sail together, bring back the treasure, and we're gonna be rich.

So, Spain creates two treasure fleets: The Tierra Firme and The New Spain.

There's a whole bunch of boats, up to 90 in the whole group, they're big,

they have cannons, and they're ready to get some treasure and fight off the privateers.

For 250 years, the Spanish send these fleets to the New World, trading for gold,

silver, emeralds, pearls, all sorts of precious metals and gemstones.

Immense amounts of riches.

Equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars today.

But the thing is.

Not all of the treasure made its way back to Spain.

KIRBY: What the heck? Where'd it go?

CHARLIE: The treasure was stolen, some of it by pirates,

some of it by privateers hired by countries like France.

Ze French, we cannot be stopped!

Yeah, but pirates weren't really the biggest issue for Spain.

There was something even more devastating than pirates

and more fearsome than the French. Sacrebleu!

The most terrifying thing to the Spanish Treasure Fleet was Mother Nature!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Specifically, hurricanes.

In 1715 a hurricane hits the treasure fleet.

11 Spanish ships sink to the bottom of the ocean.

The Spanish try their best to rescue some of the sunken treasure,

but after many salvage attempts, half of the treasure never makes it back to Spain.

It remains on the ocean floor.

KIRBY (off-screen): 18 years later, 1733.

Mother nature strikes again!

Another hurricane hits the treasure fleet off the coast

of Florida destroying nearly all their ships.

Hundreds of years passed and all of that treasure, millions in gold and silver

and precious jewels, sit on the ocean floor just waiting to be discovered.

CHARLIE: This is what modern-day treasure hunters are looking for.

These sites, where ships from the treasure fleet sank during hurricanes.

KIRBY: When we imagined a modern-day treasure hunter,

we thought maybe it would be someone that looked like this.

CHARLIE: But, to our surprise, they probably look a little more like this.

Scuba Divers.

Looking for treasure underwater.

KIRBY: And you might be thinking it would be

impossible to find sunken treasure.

The ocean is huge, how are they gonna find a single sunken ship?

CHARLIE: Well guys, the crazy thing is.

Some ships have actually been found.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Wrecks from the 1715 and 1733 Spanish Treasure

fleets have finally been discovered

by divers, but if you wanna hear about a truly incredible discovery,

you gotta hear the story about the Atocha Motherlode.

KIRBY (off-screen): The Atocha Motherlode.

CHARLIE (off-screen): It all starts in 1622, when the Nuestra Señora de Atocha,

a member of Tierra Firme treasure fleet, is sailing along the Florida coast.

A hurricane hits!

Wind is whipping, waves are crashing, the Nuestra Senora de Atocha goes down,

with all of its treasure.

Fast forward over 300 years to 1968.

Mel Fisher, an Indiana chicken farmer believes he can

find sunken treasure off the Florida coast.

So, he goes looking.

Mel looks for 16 years. 16 years!

And just when everyone is sure that he's crazy, the unthinkable happens.

On July 20th, 1985 Mel's searching off the coast of Florida when he finally

stumbles across an old shipwreck.

It was the Nuestra Senora de Atocha!

After 16 years and thousands of dives,

he discovers the Atocha Motherlode.

The total treasure?

40 tons of gold and silver.

100,000 Silver Coins. Gold coins.

Colombian emeralds.

Jewels of all kinds, and 1,000 silver bars.

The value of the treasure: over $450 million.

CHARLIE: Hey Kirb, I think we're ready to go.

KIRBY: Oh yeah?

CHARLIE: We know what we're looking for.

KIRBY: Treasure from the Spanish treasure fleet.

CHARLIE: We know where to look.

KIRBY: Roughly off the coast of Florida.

We gotta scuba dive some wrecks!

CHARLIE: I say we give it a shot.

KIRBY: Absolutely.

CHARLIE: Pack up our gear and head on out? KIRBY: Let's do it!

CHARLIE: Alright guys, we gotta pack up a few things

and we'll be ready to rip.

Alright? Sounds good.

We'll See you in a bit.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true,

the sound of crashing waves comes mostly from bubbles!

CHARLIE: Aw perfect! Hey guys!

KIRBY: We just finished up packing, we're heading down to Florida to explore some

real-life sunken treasure!

CHARLIE: And we know the perfect guy to help us out.

Carl Fismer.

KIRBY: This guy is a living legend.

CHARLIE: He's lead salvage expeditions across the entire world

and he's an expert at the Spanish Treasure fleet.

KIRBY: Carl's a real-life treasure hunter.

So, we gotta meet him.

CHARLIE: C'mon, let's go!

We're heading down to the Florida Keys!

The islands!

The Florida Keys are home to the southernmost point in the United States.

Who are we here to meet?

This guy, Captain Fismer!

Captain Fismer worked on the Atocha Motherlode wreck, the 1715 and 1733 sunken treasure

fleets, and he recovered millions of dollars in Spanish artifacts over 30 years.

CHARLIE (off-screen): Captain Fismer's favorite weird but true fact,

a group of Jellyfish is called a Smack.

Hey guys! It's Captain Fizz!

He's the real deal, we should go say hi.

Come on, let go!

CARL: Come aboard. CHARLIE: Captain Fizz, I'm Charlie.

CARL: Hey, good to meet you, Charlie.

CHARLIE: Nice to meet you. KIRBY: I'm Kirby.

CARL: Kirby. Good to meet you, young lady.

CHARLIE: Guys, Captain Fizz. Captain Fizz, guys.

CARL: Fizz will do.

CHARLIE: Today we're talking about Spanish treasure fleet, treasure, diving,

and apparently, you're the guy to talk to.

Is that right?

CARL: My favorite stuff.

I was just on my way out to one of the galleons that sank in the year 1733.

CHARLIE: Can we come along with you?

CARL: Well, I was just about to say that.

Why don't we do that?

CHARLIE: Yeah, perfect!

Why do you like treasure hunting so much?

Is it the history? Is it?

KIRBY: The thrill of finding it.

CHARLIE: The thrill? What is it?

CARL: It's the thrill and it's the history.

This is some of man's earliest footprints in the New World

and that's what these galleons are.

CHARLIE: What's the story behind this guy right here?

CARL: This came from the wreck of the Conception that sank in the year 1641.

We only brought up less than 2%.

Less than 2%!

KIRBY: Wow! CHARLIE: Of the treasure?

CARL: Yes! CHARLIE: Holy cow!

That's weird but true!

They still think that 98% of the sunken treasure

is still on the ocean floor.

So, what are your odds of finding the rest of it you think?

CARL: That's weird, too.

(laughs)

CARL: It's doable. It's very expensive and you have to get permission

from different countries.

CHARLIE: It's difficult. It's complicated, but...

CARL: You get the permission; I'll go chase the treasure.

CHARLIE: Let's roll!

CHARLIE (off-screen): Captain Fizz tells us the shipwrecks around the Florida Keys

are now protected sites, which means they're like underwater museums.

So, the stuff we find on site here has to stay here, but visiting an ancient

Spanish wreck site is still the thrill of a lifetime.

CHARLIE: It's good weather out.

It's a good day for treasure diving.

CARL: It always is!

CHARLIE: Looks like we're here.

CARL: Yeah, we are here.

It's a little bit rough today, but...

CHARLIE: It looks a lot a bit rough today.

What site are we at right now?

CARL: This is called the El Infante.

KIRBY (off-screen): El Infante, also known as the Nuestra Señora de Balvaneda,

was one of the largest ships in the 1733 fleet and carried up to 60 cannons.

CHARLIE: What do we expect to find here?

CARL: Well, you're not gonna see a Spanish galleon with the sails flapping,

but what there is, there's timbers left here, and there's ballast rocks left here.

Back in those days, they filled the bottom up with high, smooth stones.

It keeps it stable in the water.

CHARLIE: The wreck's old, so we're not gonna see a ship down there,

but we'll see pieces of a ship, right?

CARL: Yes, you'll see pieces.

Now I'm not saying it's old, but George Washington

was only one-year-old when this boat sank.

KIRBY: It's a bit old. CHARLIE: It's pretty old. It's a little old.

So we're looking for ballast stones, we're looking for timber,

and we're looking for treasure.

Let's do it!

CHARLIE: Welcome guys! We made it!

CHARLIE: Hey, Kirb, how are you doing?

KIRBY: This is amazing!

CHARLIE: Come on. Let's see what we can find.

CHARLIE: It's so wavy down here.

CHARLIE: I think I understand why it went down.

KIRBY: These waves are pretty rough!

CHARLIE: We found El Infante, guys!

KIRBY: What are we looking at, Charles?

CHARLIE: These are pieces of timber...

...from the El Infante.

CHARLIE: It's so old that this is all that's left.

CHARLIE: How crazy is this, Kirb?

CHARLIE: Years ago, Fizz said...

...they found a lot of gold and treasure here.

CHARLIE: One of Captain Fizz's favorite spots.

CHARLIE: Let's see what we can find this way.

KIRBY: We've got tons of coral going on.

KIRBY: Makes me wonder how big the ship was.

KIRBY: It's crazy cool!

CHARLIE: Over there.

CHARLIE: This is a nice one.

CHARLIE: Nice ballast stone.

CHARLIE: There are all the ballast stones.

CHARLIE: They helped to keep the ship steady.

CHARLIE: These stones were in the ship...

...from the Spanish treasure fleet.

CHARLIE: El Infante!

CHARLIE: It's a tell-tale sign...

...that a treasure ship sunk here hundreds of years ago.

CHARLIE: Time to go up.

CHARLIE: How cool was that guys?

We saw ballast stones from the actual Infante, from the Spanish Treasure Fleet!

We were holding them in our hands!

Timbers, I was touching them, I was holding them.

That was a piece of treasure history right there.

KIRBY: There was a cannon down there.

CHARLIE: Cannons, there was. KIRBY: It was crazy.

CHARLIE: Loads of stuff.

Fortunately, there was no treasure though.

KIRBY: No gold. CHARLIE: No gold.

I feel like when we catch up with Captain Fizz, he can show us some of his stuff.

Does that sound like a good idea?

KIRBY: Absolutely. CHARLIE: Alright.

We obviously gotta whip out of these wetsuits super quick,

but we're gonna catch up with him and we'll see you there.

See all his treasure. Sound good?

KIRBY: Let's do it. CHARLIE: Sounds good to me.

We'll see you in a few minutes.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true, legend says that pirate treasure

may be buried near the Statue of Liberty!

CHARLIE: We found El Infante, guys!

CHARLIE (off-screen): We just got up from our dive where we found sunken ships

from the 1733 Spanish treasure fleet.

Now we're gonna meet up with Captain Fizz,

and he's gonna show us treasure he's collected over the years.

Some of it from his own dives before the wrecks became protected!

Like the one we just saw.

Sound good? Let's go check it out.

We found it! It's the treasure!

Fizz, I'm not gonna lie.

This doesn't look as kind of sparkly and shiny as I thought it was gonna be.

CARL: That was a pistol butt from a front lock pistol.

The wooden handle rotted away and so it came off.

The rest of the pistol is pretty much intact.

This is pretty nice.

That was a candle holder. It's oxidized quite a bit.

CHARLIE: How old is it?

CARL: This was from the conception 1641.

KIRBY: Jeez! CHARLIE: Whoa!

CARL: When we pick up silver coins, they almost always look like this.

They'll have in crustacean on 'em and if they're white and have a touch of green,

that means they might be in good condition.

When they're completely black like these, that means don't even bother cleaning 'em.

CHARLIE: So, when you go down and you find treasure it's not like you're finding a big ol'

box spilling with pearls and emeralds?

CARL: You're right. It's not like that.

CHARLIE: It's not like that. It doesn't look like it's like that.

Is it more, kind of like this? Is that what we're looking at?

CARL: That is a lock.

This lock was salvaged from an English ship there was nine boxes of uh silver coins and

this was the lock that was holding one of the boxes tightly shut.

KIRBY: How about this guy over here?

CARL: The half a cannonball thing.

KIRBY: That's pretty cool.

How does a cannon ball break in half?

CARL: These holes is where chain was put in it.

And then if the other half of the cannonball was here the chain would loop around

and hook into that.

CHARLIE: Oh, that's a nasty cannonball.

CARL: Yeah so when it shot out the end of the barrel.

CHARLIE: Woosh.

CARL: It opened up and it woosh, woosh, you don't

wanna be standing there when this comes flying past.

CHARLIE: Hmm.

CARL: Uh what makes this one really nice it's made out of bronze.

This is an interesting piece.

It's from the wreck of the USS Alligator, very historic ship.

This is actually, a bronze nail.

The USS Alligator ran aground, and they couldn't get it off, so they blew it up.

And that's what caused the big bend in it.

KIRBY (off-screen): Check it out, the USS Alligator was an 86-foot Navy schooner.

Launched in 1820 that became part of a fleet called the West Indies Squadron.

The squadron was sent to combat piracy off the coast of Florida.

But the Alligator ran aground in 1822 here in what's now known as Alligator Reef.

And had to be scuttled to prevent pirates from salvaging it.

And Fizz has a weird but true fact.

CARL: This spike came from Paul Revere's original foundry.

CHARLIE: Whoa!

CARL: Yup the Alligator was built in Boston harbor; Paul Revere had the

government contract to supply all the nails and sheeting and stuff.

KIRBY: That's incredible.

CHARLIE: Is anything here from the uh Spanish Treasure Fleet?

CARL: Uh yeah these right here.

That in fact uh the, that's from the 1733 fleet right here.

That's a coin stuck to an iron spike.

CHARLIE: Oh wow.

CARL: I just don't have the heart to take it off.

CHARLIE: It looks so nice. CARL: Mhm.

KIRBY: Do you remember where you found these coins?

CARL: Yeah this is from the Conception, these are Atocha coins.

CHARLIE: These are from the motherload?

CARL: Yeah. CHARLIE: These are from the motherload?

We got a piece of the motherload!

KIRBY: Nice. CHARLIE: Aw dude that's unreal. This one?

CARL: Yes, it is.

CHARLIE: I feel like I gotta just touch this.

So, what are you looking for when you get down there?

Ideally what would you find?

You want a piece that is probably preserved perfectly, right?

Are you looking for silver?

Or are you looking for something that probably looks like that?

CARL: Gold is good and that is really the best thing you could find on a wreck.

I would say gold coins because, you know, they're small, they're light weight,

they're in at least as good a condition as when they sank, most of the time.

CHARLIE: They don't deteriorate like silver does?

CARL: No, no gold's not toxic.

CHARLIE: Weird but true fact, gold doesn't deteriorate like silver does.

Silver rots away under water but gold, that coin that you found,

is gonna look just as good the day you find it as the day it dropped down

to the ocean floor.

So, how hard is it to find this treasure?

CARL: Well, it's pretty hard to find that treasure these days.

However, I've recently started to get my kicks off of this game,

Treasure Quest Find Fest: 3.

CHARLIE: No way! KIRBY: What?

CHARLIE: You play that game, too?

CARL: I'm a level 43, Black Beard!

CHARLIE: 43! KIRBY: Serious.

CARL: That's right. CHARLIE: That's so good!

CARL: I'm chasing this digital wreck in 300 feet, so...

I have to kick you out.

KIRBY: Hey. CHARLIE: Don't worry, Fizz, we totally understand.

KIRBY: We get it, we get it. CHARLIE: You got to get those digital wrecks.

CARL: That's right!

CHARLIE: Alright guys we're gonna head out, but we'll see you in HQ in five?

Awesome, sounds good. Fizz.

KIRBY: Thanks Fizz. CHARLIE: Thanks so much for helping us out today.

CARL: Adios! KIRBY: We'll see you soon.

CHARLIE: Good luck catching those wrecks, we'll see you later.

KIRBY (off-screen): Weird but true, dolphins can hear sounds

underwater that are 15 miles away!

CHARLIE: Hey guys!

KIRBY: We just got back from the Keys!

CHARLIE: It's good weather out.

It's a good day for treasure diving.

CARL: It always is!

CHARLIE: So awesome! How about Carl, man?

KIRBY: What a legend.

CHARLIE: We learned so much today!

CHARLIE (off-screen): We found out that the Spanish Treasure Fleet

carried millions of dollars of jewels and precious metals to Spain.

KIRBY (off-screen): Sometimes they were attacked by pirates.

And the French hired privateers to capture some of their ships.

CHARLIE: We will take their treasure!

CHARLIE (off-screen): But hurricanes and storms were the most trouble for the Spanish.

And now that divers found some of these Spanish wrecks governments have turned them

into protected historical treasures, preserving an amazing window into the past.

CHARLIE: What else did we learn today?

There were so many Weird but True things!

KIRBY (off-screen): George Washington was one-year-old

when the El Infante sank in 1733.

CHARLIE (off-screen): One man spent 16 years and

thousands of dives searching for sunken treasure

before he found Nuestra Senora De Atocha wreck.

KIRBY (off-screen): Silver rots away underwater but gold doesn't.

CHARLIE: What a day, Kirb. KIRBY: What a day.

(beeping)

AUTOMATED VOICE: Phone 100% charged.

CHARLIE: Heck yeah! Back in action!

KIRBY: Treasure Quest Find Fest 3 time!

CHARLIE: We gotta catch up to Carl, he's a level 43 Black Beard!

KIRBY: I'm a level 36 Master Gunner.

CHARLIE: What? I'm a level 3 Cabin Boy.

KIRBY: Catch up, man!

CHARLIE: Alright we gotta go find some digital wrecks!

But thanks for stopping by!

Pop in again when we discover more things that are Weird but True.

KIRBY: There's one in the front yard!

CHARLIE: No way! Wait up! See ya later guys!

Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.