Divers Uncover A Strange Shipwreck That Could Answer A 170-Year-Old Question

divers uncover a strange shipwreck that could answer a 170 year old question [Music] but before we start please make sure to subscribe to m r tv and hit the bell so you never miss any upload from us also leave a like right now the ocean will always be a huge draw for those with adventure in their hearts with an astounding 95 percent of the seas still unexplored any serious contenders studying the depths can uncover a submerged lost city or a strange fish that looks like an alien but canadian researchers were still incredulous when their divers uncovered a shipwreck with huge significance they weren't thinking about treasures hidden inside they knew this sunken vessel would give answers to a nearly 200 year old question the question started back in the 1800s when explorers competed to discover the fabled northwest passage a valuable trade route that connected the atlantic and pacific oceans via the arctic people were willing to risk their lives looking for it the passage was found by a man named robert mcclure in 1849 but not before many of his crewmates died of starvation however only four years prior to mcclure's success another mission met a curious end in 1845 captain john franklin was determined to find the route he assembled a crew of over 100 men and brought along two ships the hms erebus and the hms terror they had no idea how fitting that last name would prove to be the expedition started out on a high note the crew was all excited for the adventure they hug their families goodbye and prepared for what they knew would be a years-long journey back home in britain the friends and family of the crew waited with bated breath for their loved ones to return years passed and they heard nothing until finally in 1859 a chilling note was found that gave some clues as to what may have become of them [Music] the letter in question was found on king william island in 1859 and it exposed the dark fate the ships had been abandoned in april of 1848 and captain franklin himself had passed away almost a year earlier in june of 1847 but that wasn't all the note was written in the same month the ships were deserted and it also revealed that by then eight other officers and a shocking 15 crew members had also died likely of starvation this left 106 remaining men to fend for themselves in the lonely seas this was all that was known of the ill-fated mission for hundreds of years until 2008 when parks canada launched an expedition to find franklin ships both the erebus and the terror what they found was bone chilling the erebus was the first ship to be located in 2014 in victoria strait divers tasked with exploring the ancient wreckage came back to the surface with some significant details to report back apparently they'd found some remnants from the past on board the erebus a bell made out of bronze a 680 pound cannon pictured below medicine bottles and buttons from uniforms but at this point the hms terror was still lost to history the archaeologists searched high and low for the aptly named ship but it wouldn't be until they received a tip from an inuit crew member that they would finally locate the centuries old wreck and discover the terrifying reality it wasn't at all what they were expecting sami kogvik a man from joa haven below informed the team that he had been on a fishing trip in the area years prior and had spotted a hunk of wood amid the icc this immediately set off alarm bells could it have been the terror unfortunately sammy had no evidence of his find he'd taken pictures of the strange site on his phone but he'd lost the device later that day still the archaeologists immediately diverted course and headed towards the spot he'd pointed out it was there that they finally found it the researchers could hardly believe their eyes 60 miles south of where they'd originally expected to locate the ship was what was most certainly the hms terror however one bizarre detail stood out although it was beneath 80 feet of ice cold water the ship was almost perfectly preserved according to adrian shimnowski below spokesman for one of the search parties if you could lift this boat out of the water and pump the water out it would probably float while the researchers were glad to have at last located what they believed to be the terror they still had yet to explore its watery depths when they finally did a collective shiver ran down their spines an unmanned vehicle went to explore the potential wreckage and found pantry shelves containing plates and cans of food bottles of wine and a desk with its drawers open experts were elated the significance of the find went beyond its historical importance according to megan bradley spokesperson for parks canada the discovery of the hms terror would be important for inuit communities and canada reflecting the ongoing and valuable role of inuit knowledge in the search and making a significant contribution to completing the franklin story the canadian government was especially proud of the achievement with minister of environment and climate change catherine mckenna stating this latest discovery will offer another unique and incredible opportunity for archaeological exploration and the sharing of inuit history and culture with the world others were skeptical that a single shipwreck could have such a huge impact on history or peoples but for proof all divers needed to do was point to a recent uncovered wreck a few thousand miles away far away from the arctic north the coast of israel in the tantura lagoon near door beach was buzzing with excitement the seemingly tranquil waters had a team from the university of haifa itching to take a closer look they were ready to change history nautical archaeologists at the university's leon rickenadi institute for maritime studies couldn't believe the wreck which was discovered first in 1976 was seriously studied by anyone the area is a hot spot for scuba divers all over when the initial diver discovered the wreck he immediately told local authorities about the find unfortunately the amateur explorer faced a huge problem when it came to the excavation as most ordinary people would he didn't have the experience or the financial means for a rigorous study of course the country of israel did but for whatever reason no one took any action until 2008. that was the year deborah spickle an author and nautical archaeologist who worked at the leon reconadi institute for maritime studies took charge to finally get the boat out of the lagoon svickle assumed a team of equally enthusiastic researchers and scientists to figure out once and for all exactly whom the mystery boat belonged to but it wasn't going to be easy usually when a ship is found there's some kind of indication whether it's a marking on the ship's side or particular artifacts of the vessel's owner this however had nothing of the sort what the diving team did find however was a very well preserved double-masted vessel from the look of it the ship wasn't too ancient but then again there really was no knowing until analysis was complete there were also plenty of artifacts on board and many of them much like the ship were in pristine condition the team recovered several ceramic bowls glassware eroded utensils and even expired provisions it was an amazing find that sfickle couldn't believe sat at the bottom of the lagoon for so long now that it finally had the attention it deserved the team started bringing piece by piece into their lab the massive chunks of wood and metal were lifted out of the water by huge excavators loaded into trucks and then carefully placed on the lab's table for cleaning it was an immense undertaking the crew meticulously washed all of the sand and sediment off of each chunk after a thorough cleaning and careful look at the artifacts the scientists realize the inventory might just hold the key to the ship's origins there were several markings and letters printed on many of the broken pieces the small splintered shards were of no use but the bigger ones led to the first actual breakthrough of the investigation some of the intact ceramic bowls had a very specific lion motif and the team connected the vessel to a company called guichard freires which operated in 1889 to 1897 but sfickle wanted to know more evidence of whom the ship belonged to was still very much lacking so sfickle teamed up with a graduate student named mickey holtsman to comb through old documents from the rex era then it hit them like a brick member of the famous rothschild bank dynasty baron de rothschild actually had ties to an area of land right next to the lagoon it was a jewish settlement called zykron yakov that he founded in the late 1800s the settlement is thriving today but when it first began tons of goods were needed so rothschild purchased three ships to transport materials to and from the area according to documents only two of the ships were accounted for based on this evidence zwickel and the team had a strong inkling the ship in the lagoon was rothschild's third undocumented craft more tests will occur of course but at least they know the boat originated on earth some researchers can't even make that assumption the swedish ocean x diving team led by peter lindberg and dennis asperg didn't expect to find much while treasure hunting 300 feet from the surface of the northern baltic sea after all the water was freezing dark and difficult to navigate they were trying to find the remnants of an old shipwreck so they were keeping an eye out for anything oddly shaped and weirdly colored it was slow quiet work on the sea floor until the eerie silence was punctuated by a beep the beeping came from their sonar equipment which seconds before had shown only murky blackness now however its screen was covered with a mysterious sight a tall mountainous structure surrounded by rock this turned out to be a canyon made of stones sand and molten rock but what really caught their eye wasn't at the bottom of the deep dark cavern instead it was just a couple feet nearby we were really surprised and puzzled dennis said of the new discovery we were thinking this is not a wreck it was easy to verify dennis's theory that their new discovery wasn't a shipwreck but its true identity was more difficult to figure out if you're an explorer with your salt you don't immediately jump to extraterrestrial conclusions as soon as you see something unusual peter and dennis then were quick to bounce around some logical explanations for the object first they thought it was some kind of submarine left over from world war ii or perhaps an old battleship gun turret but each time they referred back to the blurry sonar image they couldn't shake the feeling that it was something else entirely the object was a circle about 200 feet in diameter with odd rivets and cracks across the top the image they captured was so grainy however that it was difficult to see much else so they returned a year later but this time with backup it could be something really awesome that we found dennis said and he hoped that backup in the form of more advanced equipment would answer the biggest question about the object what the heck it even was but they immediately encountered an issue the problem wasn't the clarity of the image but the equipment itself it just wouldn't take a photo according to the explorers every time the cameras got close to the object they would cut out completely stefan hoggerborn a professional diver with ocean x was baffled by the malfunctions anything electric out there stopped working when we were above the object he claimed though the team was at a loss one group of people quickly came to the rescue see the sonar photo of the structure had leaked online despite peter and dennis's claim that they wished to keep it totally quiet it wasn't long before the internet took in the object's rivets and cracks and arrived at a sound conclusion yeah definitely the millennium falcon one person commented on a news story about the discovery it's true that the object's appearance looks strikingly like han solo's beloved spaceship but could it really be an object from outer space what really piqued the interest of the explorers wasn't the size or shape of the object but what it appeared to be made of metal after all why would a 200 foot object made of metal be chilling on the ocean floor the theory that the object was actually metal and not a rock formation only intensified the spaceship rumors so in order to ease the public and their own nagging curiosity peter and dennis opened the mystery up to experts and the experts had thoughts scientist charles paul said the original grainy image was sediment dropped from a fishing trawler a school of fish or even something as simple as a pile of rocks the spaceship theory he claimed is curious and fun but much ado about nothing another scientist goran ickberg agreed that the finding looks weird since it's completely circular but nature has produced stranger things than that the most incinerating claim however came from an actual expert on extraterrestrial life doubtful of peter and dennis's motives jonathan hill of mars space flight facility said whenever people make extraordinary claims it's always a good idea to consider whether they are personally benefiting from the claim still peter and dennis had at least a little support geologist steve weiner claimed that according to his own tests the structure was not a geological formation he was even quoted supporting one of the most outlandish claims the object steve claimed was made out of metals which nature could not reproduce itself peter hoped this kind of support from steve would solve the mystery of the sunken ship and help his team go further than ever before with their research in 2019 peter suggested that ocean x may return to the object with an entire camera crew in tow with a tv series peter hoped more light would be shed on the object's identity as for now they are at least sure about one thing there is something we don't usually find in nature sitting in the depths of the baltic sea peter concluded whether or not this is true is still anyone's guess but as any good explorer knows the mystery is the best part of the expedition if they want to preserve their find they'll need to work quickly the baltic sea is a hot spot for explorers swedish archaeologist jim hansen from the stockholm maritime museum for instance received an unexpected phone call came from workers who found something rare in its waters a construction crew had to halt the renovation of a quarry in stockholm when they came across a big surprise in the dirt like the ocean x team none of them could at first identify the mystery object but it looked to be made of wood very old wood doubling jim's interest was the location of the quarry it was on skep shulman island smack dab between center city stockholm and the baltic sea if you were to visit the island today you would mostly come across charming tourist attractions but that hasn't always been the case historically skepsholm served as a prime military location for sweden it acted as a waypoint where officials could send out troops and supplies as well as a line of defense against any powers attempting to invade stockholm in other words it was rich with military history jim and some of his colleagues ran over to inspect the construction site as they surveyed the wooden beams lying deep beneath the ground jim was immensely grateful the workers hadn't interfered anymore with the object he had a feeling this was something big in fact jim theorized this skepsholm dig might connect to one of his recent findings a few months earlier he mounted an extensive underwater expedition in southern sweden this was no recreational dive on the dive he and his team were the first humans in hundreds of years to set their eyes on the black kings the swedes built this mighty ship in the late 1600s while at war with russia and denmark so what did this have to do with stockholm as jim unearthed more of the wooden artifact he confirmed his suspicions they were looking at a ship perhaps one of the most important vessels in the history of sweden however jim knew he couldn't get ahead of himself to determine the exact identity of the mystery vessel jim and other scientists got down and dirty in the pit specific details within the ruins would tell them everything they needed to know jim turned his attention to some of the best preserved timbers you can actually see the axe marks where the shipwrights cut and fit together the wooden beams that wasn't all that caught jim's eye either by taking just a small sample of wood small enough to not damage the overall vessel they could figure out what time period the ship was from jim shipped the fragment off to the lab for radiocarbon dating jim's team came back with good news the oak timbers were from 1612 or 1613 meaning the ship's construction wrapped up a couple years after fortunately the maritime museum had detailed records of all the major vessels built in sweden using the records and some other clues including this ornamental copper plate jim surmised they'd found the famous scepter it seemed almost too good to be true after all it was the flagship of the greatest swedish monarch of all time the tactical brilliance of king gustavus adolphus the great transformed sweden into a major european power back in the 17th century he commissioned the scepter to lead a fleet to conquer nearby latvia the ship never made it as it approached the baltic coast the scepter suffered heavy damage from a storm it turned back to sweden and never sailed on a major voyage again but how did it end up beneath a historic island in stockholm historians could not find any record of a shipwreck in skep shulman however jim had a wild suggestion maybe gustavus sunk it on purpose it was after all a regular practice for the swedish navy to sink retired vessels to provide a foundation for new shipyards now that jim and his team unearth the top deck of the famed warship they had to decide what to do next a couple individuals raised the possibility of restoring the scepter after all there was precedent for such a course of action historians salvaged another sunken 17th century ship the vasa in 1961 and put it on display at the museum the impressive restoration soon became one of the most noteworthy cultural sites in all of sweden could the scepter follow in its footsteps unfortunately jim knew it was not to be while the scepter had multiple decks in its prime none of them remained in good enough condition to warrant the restoration the project would simply cost too much for too little reward nevertheless jim and his colleagues chalked up their discovery as a major victory he explained it's a really important find because the ship is from the generation before vasa so we can see the technical building methods that were used and it can help us understand what went wrong with the vasa as well in other words the knowledge attached to an artifact is always more important than the object itself plus it will certainly lead to even bigger fines in the near future who can say what other secrets jim hansen will uncover in his hometown you