All language subtitles for The UnXplained s07e01 The Golden Age of Pirates.eng

♪ ♪

(screaming)

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Brazen buccaneers

-who terrorized the Seven Seas.
-(grunting)

Vast riches

left hidden around the world.

And stories of adventures
so outrageous,

they rival our imagination.

Say the word "pirate"

and immediately
it conjures up images

of swashbuckling adventure,
brutish behavior

and wooden chests filled
with priceless treasure.

300 years ago, thousands of
pirates roamed the Seven Seas,

and their rum-soaked exploits
became enduring legends.

But in reality,

many of these dangerous
marauders left a bloody trail

of pillage and plunder that,
quite frankly,

is nothing to celebrate.

What do we really know

about the mysterious seafaring
criminals we call pirates,

as well as the lost treasures
they left behind,

still hidden
and just waiting to be found?

Well, that is
what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Founded in 1565

and considered to be
the oldest town in the U.S.,

this former Spanish colony

was an important nautical
gateway to North America

and what was called
the New World.

And here,

at the St. Augustine
Pirate & Treasure Museum,

fascinating artifacts
offer a glimpse

into one
of the most captivating chapters

in maritime history--

a time long ago

known as the Golden Age
of Piracy.

KEVIN McDONALD:
So, the Golden Age of Piracy

was this extraordinary time
in-in history

where you have these competing
European empires--

competitors like England,
France and the Netherlands--

and they are challenging
Spain and Portugal

throughout the world.

They had established
their New World territories

in the East Indies,

which was South Asia,

as well as the West Indies
or the Caribbean.

It is the time
of flourishing maritime trade,

where you have
these trade networks

moving out of the Americas.

There's silver moving,

there's commodities,
there's gold.

And all these things were very
lucrative and very valuable.

SHATNER:
But before there were pirates as we've come to know them,

there were privateers--

the paid mercenaries of the sea.

These ship captains
and their crews

were hired by European empires

to steal the goods and valuables
from other warring nations

as their colonial ships
crossed the ocean.

MATT FRICK:
A lot of people that were pirates

had started out as a privateer.

They had a commission
called a letter of marque

that allowed them to operate

under the protection
of a government.

Every country had these,
because,

as the New World colonies
expanded,

they didn't have,
uh, the naval assets

to, uh, continue their fights,

so they used privateers.

SHATNER:
From around the mid-1600s to the early 1700s,

privateers made their living

from the sizeable rewards
they received

after capturing enemy ships.

But as many privateering
contracts began to expire,

these now wealthy marauders
were not willing to retire,

but instead were ready
to work for themselves.

Privateers were paid
in the goods that they take.

About 80%. They can keep
about 80% of that.

And so, as a result,
we've got loads of sailors

becoming privateers.

But then when
the letter of marque expires,

a lot of them
just kind of continue on,

and they're people
who are operating

completely outside the law.

They're not working
for a government.

They're working
only for themselves.

And they're going to rob
any ship they come across

that they feel could actually
bring them a lot of money,

and they continued on
into piracy.

SHATNER:
Piracy was a profession that gave sailors an opportunity

to live by their own rules

and potentially make
a quick fortune.

But there was one major catch.

Piracy was not only a capital
offense punishable by death--

it was also a life
of extreme violence.

I think we should never forget

just how brutal piracy is.

It is about violence.

It is about theft.
It is about killing people.

And some of these pirates
take that to such extremes,

probably to make
a reputation for themselves

-and even to make
their own lives easier. -(yelling)

Because if you capture a ship
and everyone on that ship

is terrified of you,
they're gonna surrender.

RUSSELL SKOWRONEK:
They'd have captured a vessel and they say,

"Give up your treasure.

Tell us where it is hidden
on the ship."

Because people would hide
the materials on the ship.

And one way they would do it
is they would basically

force someone
over the side of the ship.

They'd have them walk the plank.

And they'd be pushed
over the side

so that they would drown
in the water.

-It's a great motivator.
-(yelling)

And we know from
some of the accounts

that they would cut off
people's noses,

people's ears.

-They would whip them.
-(whip cracks) -(groaning)

If there were women,
they would rape them.

So lots of different things
that would be used

-for intimidation...
-(chains jangling)

-(gunshot)
-...to get people

to turn over
where their treasure was hidden.

(cannon blast)

SHATNER: Pirates became
the scourge of the Seven Seas.

Stories of the exploits
of these notorious criminals

-circulated all over the world.
-(yelling)

And in 1724,

a book was published
that would forever transform

these lawbreakers into legends

called A General History
of the Pyrates.

The General History
of the Pyrates

is one
of the most important books

about piracy ever published.

It appears in 1724,

and it's published by a number
of publishers in London.

It's an enormous success.
It goes through many editions.

There's clearly a demand
for stories about pirates.

And it's really a rogues'
gallery of all of the pirates--

every pirate who's famous,

every pirate
who's got a reputation.

It's drawing on pirate
trial records, on newspapers,

but they're
also inventing stories.

And in-in many ways,
this is the book

that creates the idea of piracy

that we have in our heads
still today.

SHATNER:
For 300 years,

The General History
of the Pyrates

has been the primary resource

on not only the lives of the
world's most notorious robbers

but also their rumored
vast treasures.

SKOWRONEK:
During the Golden Age of Piracy,

3,000 ships
clearly were taken by pirates.

Sometimes that ship
is fabulously wealthy--

all kinds of treasure on it
and everything.

Silver, gold,
diamonds, emeralds.

When those came through,

those are the stories
that kept being told

and retold through time.

Because the idea of treasure

captures the imagination
of everyone.

SHATNER:
Yet just as mysterious as the marauders themselves

is the whereabouts of all
the valuable loot they stole.

Remarkably, shipwrecks

and battles at sea
may have claimed

the vast majority
of hundreds of years

of pirates' treasure.

SKOWRONEK:
When we hear stories that here was this vessel

that contained these great
riches and we hear it was lost,

it makes people think,
"Oh, my gosh,

"maybe it's not so lost
that we couldn't ever find it.

Perhaps we can find it again."

FRICK:
There is likely a lot of money

sitting on the bottom
of the ocean.

There could be

untold, uh, millions
of dollars under there,

because there's
thousands of shipwrecks

and they're
still being discovered

by treasure hunters today.

SHATNER:
April 26, 1717.

Just off the coast
of Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

One of the wealthiest pirates
in history,

Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy,

sails his treasure-laden galleon
the Whydah to Cape Cod,

where his ship is destroyed
in a violent storm.

Of the 146 crew aboard,

only two survive.

And the vessel is lost
for centuries.

Until, in 1984,

underwater archaeologist
and explorer Barry Clifford

discovers
the long-lost ship rumored

to contain Black Sam Bellamy's
legendary treasure.

Now, the Whydah lay
at the bottom of the ocean

undiscovered for centuries

until Barry Clifford
ended up discovering it.

And this was
really, really important.

The Whydah has tons of what
we would call treasure on it.

There's coins, doubloons,
pieces of eights,

guineas. Tons of guineas.

There's gold and silver bars.

We've got jewels such as pearls
and rubies and diamonds.

It's full of really expensive
silks and other textiles.

It's got medicinal supplies.

It's got all kinds of different
wines and rums and sugars.

It's been estimated that,
in today's currency,

the Whydah probably carried

about $4 billion worth
of merchandise.

This is really significant,

because this is
the first instance

where we've been able
to find an actual pirate ship

laden with legendary goods

that we've only heard about
in stories.

SHATNER:
The discovery of Bellamy's treasure

turned a pirate's lore
from fiction to fact.

Could there be
other legendary treasures

just waiting to be uncovered?

And what will it take

to figure out
where "X" marks the spot?

SHATNER:
Located between Long Island's North

and South Forks,

it's the oldest
privately owned island

in the United States.

Today, there is a curious marker

that tells the story

of an infamous pirate
that came ashore

in 1699 to bury
some of his treasure.

His name was

Captain William Kidd.

William Kidd's career
was-was quite interesting.

He began as
a legitimate privateer.

English officials hired him

to go hunt pirates

up in the Red Sea region.

And when he gets over there,

his men are anxious.

They think they're gonna be
getting some treasure in this,

and they really haven't been
doing anything of the sort.

His gunner, in fact,

allegedly was inspiring
a mutiny against Kidd.

And Captain Kidd
murdered his gunner

by smashing him in the head
with a wooden bucket.

He does then become a pirate.

SHATNER:
According to A General History of the Pyrates,

Captain Kidd turns to piracy
to appease his disgruntled crew.

And together,
they capture many ships.

And in 1698,

they seized
their greatest prize,

a wealthy Armenian ship named
the Quedagh Merchant.

Captain Kidd's most successful
and gruesome raid

was the 400-ton
Quedagh Merchant.

This was a simply
enormous vessel

that was carrying
gold, silver, treasure,

and actually
a huge quantity of sugar,

which was actually an incredibly
expensive commodity at the time.

Not only did they
take the treasure,

but they also
took the ship as well.

So, this was an enormous haul.

SHATNER: In July of 1699,
Captain Kidd was arrested

in Boston for piracy and murder.

His buried treasure
on Gardiner's Island

was recovered by authorities,

and Kidd was sent to England
to stand trial.

Facing a death sentence,

Captain Kidd tried to barter
for his very life.

SULLIVAN:
The buried treasure that was recovered on Gardiner's Island

was only worth about a million
dollars in today's money.

As they were about
to execute him in London,

he was trying to bargain
with the crown by saying,

"I've got another buried
treasure worth--"

what today would be like
$150 million.

"Spare my life
and I will lead you to it."

They didn't buy it,
and it was more advantageous

to them to execute him.

But word of it spread
shortly after his death.

And his buried treasure
became hugely popular.

SHATNER:
The hidden location of Captain Kidd's lost treasure

has been sought out
for centuries.

And many believe
that the confession

of a crew member holds the key
to the treasure's whereabouts.

SULLIVAN:
50 years after Kidd's death,

an old sailor was
on his deathbed

and said he'd been part
of Kidd's crew,

and that they had buried
a treasure somewhere

around Nova Scotia

on an island covered with oaks.

And that story
spread like wildfire,

and it started the idea that
there was a buried treasure

of Captain Kidd,
possibly on Oak Island

because there's no other island
that's covered with oak trees.

And that area was known
for being infested

with pirate crews.

SHATNER:
Oak Island, Novia Scotia,

is one of the 300-plus islands
that dot Mahone Bay.

Just what would lead
treasure hunters

to point specifically
to this location

as a possible resting place
for a notorious pirate's stash?

Some believe clues can be found
in treasure maps

that were allegedly drawn
by Captain Kidd himself.

There are maps
that identify Oak Island

as the location
of Kidd's treasure.

One in particular
appears in the book

Captain Kidd
and His Skeleton Island.

There's a lot of things about it
that are compelling

because of the
remarkable similarity

to landmarks on the island.

SHATNER:
Could the map's striking resemblance

to Oak Island indicate
that Captain Kidd's treasure

might really be buried here?

Many believe the answer
came in 1795,

when a teenage boy
named Daniel McGinnis

noticed a curious man-made
depression in the ground.

SULLIVAN:
It was a perfect circle and quite large,

and he realized

this didn't happen naturally,
somebody did this.

And then immediately thought
this could be Kidd's treasure.

And he recruited
a couple of friends

to come out to the island
with him and dig.

PICKNETT:
The boys dug and they dug and they dug.

And about 90 feet down,
they found

a very intriguing stone

with a mysterious
inscription on it,

which-- translated-- said,
"40 feet below

two million pounds are buried."

SHATNER:
Two million pounds.

40 feet below.

To many,
the peculiar inscription

can only mean one thing:

it marks the lost treasure
of Captain William Kidd.

That's two million
English pounds,

a vast amount of money.

So why didn't they
just go down and get it?

Well, the boys dug down,

but the whole pit flooded.

And that's been pretty much
the case to this day.

So, whether Kidd's treasure
is there or not, we don't know.

SHATNER:
The potential site of Captain Kidd's buried treasure

has remained filled with water
for over two centuries.

And while many treasure hunters

have launched expeditions
in search of this prize,

at least six have lost
their lives in the process.

Centuries of treasure hunters

have come thinking
they're the ones

who are finally going to solve

the secret of Oak Island.

A number of them, many of them,

have sunk everything
they had into it.

It's cost them their lives,
their reputations,

but they haven't been able
to pull out

because there's always the sense
that, if you stop now,

it might be just
right around the corner,

and somebody else will
come and get it.

It's intriguing to think
that treasure hunters

have been digging on Oak Island
for over 200 years,

hoping to find the lost riches
of Captain William Kidd.

But not far from Nova Scotia,

an astonishing discovery
of silver coins

has launched a search
of a different kind,

not just for treasure,

but for an elusive pirate

who became the most wanted
fugitive in the world.

SHATNER:
Armed with a metal detector,

treasure hunter Jim Bailey hunts
for hidden pieces of history,

one step at a time.

(metal detector beeping)

And in May of 2014,

he makes a remarkable discovery.

He finds a peculiar object
in the ground

that seems to have no business

being in a strawberry orchard
in New England.

JIM BAILEY:
In 2014,

I recovered a-a very odd,

uh, silver coin.

I saw this-this bold,
clear, crisp Arabic script

on the coin,

and I was amazed.

It turned out to be
a 17th century coin,

and the coin predates
direct trade

between the American colonies
and the Red Sea,

the East Indies
by over a century.

So, I knew the coin
could've not come through trade.

SHATNER:
Just how did such an exotic coin

make its way to a small town
in New England?

Jim Bailey believes
the silver piece he found

is connected to
one of the most dangerous

and wily seafarers
in maritime history,

an English captain
named Henry Avery,

whose exploits
in the Indian Ocean

earned him the nickname
"The King of Pirates."

Captain Avery's legendary status
can be traced back to 1695

and a bloody heist
heard around the world.

Henry Avery sails north
in the Indian Ocean

to the Strait of Aden,

which is part of the
long-established pilgrim route

for Muslims from India
traveling to Mecca.

And this is an extremely
valuable trade route.

The ships traveling from
Western India to Mecca and back

are carrying passengers
of all kinds of social ranks

and lots of wealth.

So Henry Avery goes looking
for the pilgrim fleet

sailing from Mecca
to Western India,

known as the Mughal fleet.

SHATNER:
The Mughal fleet was owned by the Mughal dynasty,

a powerful and wealthy empire

that ruled
large portions of India

from the 16th
to the 18th century.

Along with carrying pilgrims
to and from Mecca,

this armada
contained treasure ships

owned by the Grand Mughal
of India himself.

And the crown jewel
of this royal fleet

was a ship named
the Ganj-i-Sawai.

So, Avery and his confederates
pursue that ship,

and they find it.

A cannon explodes.

The mast is hit and collapses.

And so, Henry Avery
and his fellows

sweep aboard the ship

and spend days
plundering, torturing,

doing all kinds
of horrible things to the crew

and the passengers.

And the cargo they have seized

is one of the most valuable

crossing the Indian Ocean
at that time.

And so, Henry Avery became known

as the King of the Pirates,
as a figure who appears

in ballads and plays
and in books that appear

very, very quickly after
his capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai.

SHATNER:
Henry Avery's huge score

made him a legend.

But when word got back
to the Mughal emperor

that an English pirate
was responsible

for these atrocities,

Avery became
public enemy number one

and triggered the first
global manhunt in human history.

SIMON:
The capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai

infuriated the Mughal Empire

to the point where
they threatened to cut off

all trade and declare war
against the British.

Especially because Henry Avery
and his crew had gotten away.

So, it's very, very important
for Britain to maintain

this good relationship
with the Indian Mughals.

So the British government
stages this huge manhunt

going after Henry Avery.

McDONALD:
The idea that

the manhunt for Avery

was the first global manhunt
is factual.

That there are authorities
all over the world

literally looking out
for this man,

and he becomes
one of the most infamous,

notorious pirates of all time.

SHATNER:
Despite the entire world looking for him,

Captain Avery manages
to elude authorities.

And to this day,

the legend of his heist
and his ability to hide out

has forever made Henry Avery
the King of Pirates.

McDONALD:
No one knows exactly

what happened to Henry Avery,

and he escaped
into legend and mystery.

And that's why he becomes one
of these key enduring figures.

Basically every pirate
that came after him

wanted to emulate that huge hit,
that big score,

and then disappear
and presumably spend the riches.

The big mystery here
is what happened to Henry Avery.

Maybe he went into hiding
somewhere in the Caribbean,

or it's possible
he went back to England.

He may have actually, also,
been able to kind of

blend into
colonial American society,

maybe change his identity

and just set himself up
somewhere.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that this Houdini of the High Seas

ultimately escaped
to a life of anonymity

in the American colonies?

Jim Bailey believes the coins
he's found might hold the answer

to where the King of Pirates
may have come ashore.

I found the first complete coin,

but other coins
started to follow.

There's been
27 Arabic silver coins

that have been found
throughout New England.

Now, here's the thing,

the coins, they're all silver,

they're all Arabic,

they all circulated
in the Red Sea.

They all correlate perfectly

with the date for the capture
of the Ganj-i-Sawai.

And in the course
of my research,

I found Henry Avery's ship

by the name of the Seaflower
arriving in Newport

around April of 1696.

So, Henry Avery's men,

they've been on the run
for a long time,

so maybe it was best to stay
in the American colonies.

When I started
researching the coin,

Henry Avery was
the farthest thing from my mind.

But the evidence
was far stronger

than I could have ever imagined.

I think these coins were carried
by Henry Avery's men

upon coming
to the American colonies

to seek new lives
of comfortable obscurity.

The King of Pirates'
disappearing act

made him a legend.

And while Henry Avery
vanished without a trace,

another famous marauder

chose to publicly celebrate
his infamy

by creating a clever code
that is said to lead

to one of the greatest
pirate treasures in history.

SHATNER:
This remote, tropical paradise

is home to lush forests
and white sandy beaches,

as well as a curious gravestone

adorned with a skull
and crossbones.

It's a historic monument

to mark the resting place
of the man who pulled off

one of the most lucrative
pirate heists

in recorded history.

His name was Olivier Levasseur,

otherwise known as The Buzzard.

SIMON:
Captain Olivier Levasseur

was a French pirate who was
born sometime around 1690.

He ended up sailing with some
of the infamous British pirates,

including Samuel Bellamy.

He quickly gained
a reputation for himself

and was known as La Buse,
or The Buzzard,

because of the viciousness in
which he attacked his victims,

physically and verbally.

McDONALD:
Levasseur had a spectacular hit

at Mauritius,
just east of Madagascar.

He captured a very large
Portuguese carrack

that was filled with treasure.

The Portuguese were traveling
from Goa in India

back to Lisbon, and they're
bringing all kinds of treasure.

So, it was
an extraordinary target

for this French pirate to hit.

SHATNER:
Levasseur's capture of the wealthy Portuguese vessel

named Our Lady of the Cape,

is considered one
of the greatest pirate heists

in history.

One remarkable
firsthand account of the robbery

comes from a man
who was, for a time,

captured by The Buzzard,

and he describes
a wondrous treasure of gems,

gold and silver unlike anything
he'd ever seen before.

PICKNETT:
Our Lady of the Cape

was just one floating
treasure chest.

It was packed to the seams
with, at least,

three million dollars' worth
of loot.

Which is worth,
in today's money,

something like $4 billion.

But its greatest piece
of absolute treasure

was the Fiery Cross of Goa.

And this was a seven-foot tall,
solid gold cross

encrusted with diamonds,
rubies and emeralds.

It was called the Fiery Cross

because when the sunlight
hit it, it blazed.

"Come and get me,
come and get me."

That's certainly
what Levasseur thought,

and he did get it.

SHATNER:
The riches stolen from Our Lady of the Cape

made Levasseur a billionaire.

But ultimately, The Buzzard
could not outrun his own infamy.

In 1730, he was apprehended
for his crimes

near Fort-Dauphin in Madagascar

and was taken to the nearby
island of Réunion

to be executed.

Upon capture, his treasure
was nowhere to be found.

In fact, it's still missing.

Yet, many believe that clues

to where this pirate's
bounty hides

were shared
by The Buzzard himself.

As he was about to hang,

he shouted at the crowd,

"My treasure for he
who can understand,"

and he reached for a necklace
and he threw at them

this parchment
that he'd worn around his neck.

This was an encoded message,
a cryptogram,

which he was saying
had the secret

of the location of his treasure.

The cryptogram,

with its 17 lines
of mysterious script,

looks completely confusing.

It's this very kind of blocky
gibberish that makes no sense.

At some point
in the 20th century,

the cryptogram was
eventually decoded, possibly.

But what's interesting about it

is that it didn't actually
have any instructions

of how to find any goods
that he may have stashed away.

It actually contained recipes.

SHATNER:
When decoded, The Buzzard's message

appeared to be instructions

for concocting
bizarre folk remedies.

For example,
"To stop a woman from snoring,

"you just have to whip together
some oranges

and oily olives to then spread
just the oil on the pillow."

Either Levasseur had
a great sense of humor

or there is another layer of
clues hidden within his cypher.

To this day, no one knows.

By the mid-20th century,
and over 200 years

since The Buzzard's death,
a modern-day treasure hunter

discovered a very different
kind of clue,

one that led to an island
in the Indian Ocean

known as Mahé.

PICKNETT:
After World War II,

an Englishman called
Reginald Cruise-Wilkins

became utterly obsessed with
Levasseur's missing treasure.

And he did believe that the haul

was probably
on Bel Ombre beach,

Mahé Island in the Seychelles.

There was some evidence.

A local notary sometime before
had found an old pirate's will,

in which he said
that a portion of the land,

including Bel Ombre Beach,
had belonged to-- drumroll--

Olivier Levasseur.

It's not a huge stretch
to think that Levasseur

might have buried his haul
on his own land.

Unfortunately, before Reginald

could actually solve
the mystery, he passed away.

But to this day,
his son has taken up the mantle

and he has actually found a cave
where it's very possible

that Levasseur could have
stashed some of his goods,

but there are a lot
of obstacles with it.

SHATNER:
Today, giant boulders and government restrictions

block access to the cave
that Wilkins believes

might hold the world's
greatest pirate treasure.

Could the priceless bounty
of Our Lady of the Cape

be stashed deep inside
an impenetrable island cave?

Perhaps, but what's certain

is that, just like a dead man,

a hidden treasure
tells no tales.

Whatever happened
to the Cross of Goa?

Who knows?

That's a tantalizing thing.

That's the reason
why people will keep looking

for La Buse's treasure.

These are the kinds
of mysteries that, hopefully,

future researchers are gonna
be able to reveal for us.

It's fascinating to consider

just how many
priceless artifacts are hidden

in the Caribbean Islands

or buried at sea
in sunken ships of long ago.

But what if I told you
that it's not just treasure

that's captivating
to the imagination

and that there is a place
where pirates once gathered

that was so scandalous,

it was known as
the wickedest city on Earth.

SHATNER:
England launches a full-scale invasion...

...on this valuable
Caribbean island...

...and successfully
captures it from Spain.

The English construct
imposing forts in Port Royal

a key strategic location
in Jamaica,

to protect their new territory.

Soon,
the town of Port Royal grows

into the most economically
valuable English town

in all of the Americas.

And its unrivaled success
can be credited...

to piracy.

SIMON:
England gave pirates

a bit of free reign.

They asked pirates,

you know,
"Please bring in goods,

it'll help our economy."

This is how pirates were
actually able to make

Port Royal
their major stronghold.

One of the really

infamous people
to come out of Port Royal

was the pirate Henry Morgan.

He goes to Port Royal
and he orders

all of the pirates
to spend your money here,

spend it for the crown
in this English colony.

He's actually made
the lieutenant governor

of all of Jamaica
because he knows pirates,

and he was able to bring
loads of wealth to the island.

Handing over Port Royal
to the pirates was described,

quite rightly, as doing a pact
with the devil.

And the devil came in the form

of many leading pirates
of the time,

including Blackbeard,

Calico Jack,

but also female pirates
like Anne Bonny.

SHATNER:
While pirates made Port Royal

the most successful
English colony at that time,

they also transformed it
into a den of sin.

In fact, it became known
as the wickedest city on Earth.

PICKNETT:
According to the Dutch-born writer

Alexandre Exquemelin
and his book,

Buccaneers of America,

Port Royal had
a worldwide reputation

as being this hub of complete
debauchery and degeneration.

It was said that every
fourth building was

a brothel or a tavern.

It was a hub of violence
and booze and sex.

McDONALD:
At the height of its wickedness,

we might consider
Port Royal to be

Las Vegas on steroids.

It was gambling, drinking,

prostitution,

and then in 1692...

...it all came crashing down
with this extraordinary event.

SHATNER:
At midday on June 7, 1692,

a disaster
of cataclysmic proportions

tore through the seaside colony.

(people screaming)

Port Royal is struck

by an enormously
destructive earthquake.

Buildings collapse.
People are sucked down.

Ships in the harbor
are swept across

into the marketplace
because of a tidal wave

that strikes the town.

The tidal wave sank 60%
of the city into the ocean...

...and killed
almost half the people

that were living there.

Ships were moved
all the way from the water

and dropped right down
into the center of town.

SHATNER:
Within minutes,

Port Royal was crushed
by destruction

on a biblical scale,

leading many to wonder,

did the so-called
'Wickedest City on Earth'

fall victim
to divine punishment?

Many of the writers, and
especially the religious writers

commenting on this earthquake
and its effect on Port Royal...

...see it as a judgment of God

driven by the reputation
for sinful behavior

and also attitudes
about plunder and piracy.

This is a very
providential belief system

where God actually strikes down

people who are misbehaving.

SHATNER:
Was the demolition of Port Royal

the work of Mother Nature
or that of a higher power?

While it sounds far-fetched

a series of catastrophes

continued to plague
the fallen city...

...even after it was sent
to the bottom of the sea.

There were many efforts
for decades

to try to rebuild Port Royal.

But catastrophes
just kept happening

every few years.

These would be
things like fires,

heavy drought, hurricanes,

floods, other earthquakes.

And so, eventually,

the money and resources
just weren't really worth it.

It was known
as Sodom of the Sea, and so

there were religious populations
who very much believed

that God was
punishing the region

so that nobody could ever
set it up as a port town again.

SHATNER:
Today, scuba divers visit

the crystal clear waters
off the coast of Jamaica...

...to explore

the only sunken city
in the western hemisphere.

And just like
the treasure-laden shipwrecks

that lie buried
on the ocean's floor,

it seems only fitting

that the sea also claims

that the sea also claims

the pirate paradise
of Port Royal.

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
A search team locates the remains

of an early 18th-century vessel
in Beaufort Inlet.

After analyzing artifacts
pulled from the wreck,

experts realize
they've discovered

the Queen Anne's Revenge.

It is the flagship
of Captain Edward Teach,

one of the most feared figures
from the Golden Age of Piracy,

forever known as Blackbeard.

Blackbeard is probably
the most famous pirate.

Blackbeard was, uh,
six foot four, 220 pounds.

A long beard,
black beard, obviously,

braided
and then tied with ribbons.

And when he would go
into battle,

he would put burning fuses
underneath his tricorn

so that the smoke and the glow
would add to the fear.

People thought
he was the devil himself.

SIMON:
And Blackbeard was very successful.

There was one period,
in about 42 hours,

he captured dozens of ships.

SHATNER:
While the ruins of Blackbeard's ship have been recovered,

his treasure has not.

But that may be
because it's rumored

that the terrifying pirate
buried millions

in gold and jewels
somewhere in Savannah, Georgia.

McDONALD:
Blackbeard was active

off the southeast coast
of North America,

including Georgia.

He would come back into
port places like Savannah.

Savannah, it seemed
to have been another base.

There are stories about caves

or tunnels
in and around the river,

and it's possible
that he would've been able

to use these tunnels

to either store goods

or perhaps move in
and out from the port

to their ship
under cover of darkness

without being spotted
by any authorities

who might be looking for them.

Did pirates use
these tunnels in Savannah?

I don't think we'll ever know.

They're sealed off

and it becomes a mystery.

And it is exciting,
so perhaps they did,

perhaps they didn't.

We'll just never know.

SHATNER:
Has Blackbeard's lost treasure remained sealed for centuries

somewhere in the tunnels
below Savannah, Georgia?

It's a fascinating thought.

And while
it's been over 300 years

since the Golden Age of Piracy,

time has not diminished
our curiosity

about the countless
tales of treasure,

larger-than-life characters,

and harrowing adventures

of the world's
most notorious pirates.

I think there are
a lot of reasons

why these figures are
still so popular

and still so famous today.

The stories are very dramatic.

They escape
from the confines of society.

They break out of the rules,

they go to exotic locations,

to distant oceans
and desert islands.

The mystery around them,

and especially
around buried treasure,

which appears very, very quickly

after the deaths
of certain pirates,

becomes a key part
of that legend,

of that story,
I think drives people in.

SKOWRONEK:
Pirates were dangerous characters.

Pirates knew they had nothing
to lose.

If they were captured,
they would die.

That said,
there are lots of questions.

The biggest thing
about pirates is

we know about a handful of them.

If it wasn't for A General
History of Pyrates,

we wouldn't know
very much about them.

And it's one reason why
people study pirates today,

archaeologically
and in the historical record,

to try to make what is
the unexplained explained.

♪ ♪

Pirates hold a truly unique

and notorious place in history,
folklore and popular culture.

They robbed and killed
for gold and treasure, and yet,

we're fascinated
by these legendary characters

and the stories
of their dangerous encounters.

Perhaps most intriguing is

where on Earth the stolen riches
these scoundrels left behind

might be hidden?

Well, just exactly where
X marks the spot

may forever remain...

...unexplained.

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