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00:00World War II leads to wild speculation
00:02as to how the entire crew disappeared.
00:06It could have been a mutiny.
00:08Ships were isolated worlds, and tensions
00:11could easily flare up in such confined quarters.
00:16A treasured Russian art installation
00:18seemingly vanished during World War II.
00:22The entire room, where in the world
00:25had the Nazis taken it?
00:27Great Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett
00:31embarked on an expedition into the Amazon
00:34in search of a lost city, never to be seen again.
00:38It's possible that he felt he was close to finding
00:41his lost city and wanted to make sure
00:44others couldn't follow him.
00:48The chain of history has many missing links.
00:52Prominent people, priceless treasures,
00:55extraordinary artifacts, their locations still unknown,
01:01lost to the fog of time.
01:04What happens when stories of the past become vanished history?
01:25On December 4th, 1872, Captain David Morehouse
01:29of the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia
01:32was navigating the warm waters between the Azores Islands
01:36and Portugal when he came across a strange sight.
01:40On the horizon, the ghostly silhouette of a merchant ship,
01:44lifeless and adrift, swaying eerily in the calm.
01:49It was an extraordinary sight, a ship drifting aimlessly,
01:52its sails in tatters and slightly out of control.
01:54Morehouse immediately sensed something was amiss.
01:57The Dei Gratia was about six nautical miles away at this point.
02:02Morehouse hailed the ship multiple times without response
02:06and then realized there was no one at the wheel
02:09and not a sign of life on deck.
02:11As he got closer, his confusion turned to anxiety.
02:16He recognized it as the Mary Celeste.
02:19Morehouse seems to have known the captain of the Mary Celeste,
02:26Benjamin Spooner Briggs.
02:27Some accounts even suggest they had dinner together in New York
02:31the night before the ship set sail.
02:35Ten people were on board.
02:37A crew of seven men, Captain Briggs and his wife and daughter.
02:40The ship was supposed to be headed to Genoa, Italy
02:42to deliver a load of alcohol.
02:44So what was it doing drifting aimlessly 400 nautical miles
02:47off the coast of the Azores?
02:57Originally named Amazon,
02:59the Mary Celeste was constructed in Nova Scotia, Canada.
03:04When the ship launched on May 18th, 1861,
03:07things didn't start off smoothly.
03:09In fact, its early years were pretty rough.
03:12Its captain passed away from pneumonia
03:14on the very first voyage.
03:15And over the next few years, it faced more bad luck,
03:18including running aground on Cape Breton Island
03:20in October of 1867.
03:25The ship was renamed the Mary Celeste in 1868,
03:29and underwent some significant renovations
03:32and was sold to a group that included Captain Briggs.
03:35And soon after that,
03:36the ship was moved to its new home port in New York City.
03:40And then on November 7th, 1872,
03:44the Mary Celeste set sail for Genoa.
03:47It was less than a month later
03:49that it was discovered floating adrift
03:52by the crew of the Dei Gratia.
03:54Captain Moorehouse sent his chief mate Oliver DeVoe
03:56and several crew members
03:57to investigate the Mary Celeste.
03:58And what they uncovered
03:59would become one of the greatest maritime mysteries
04:02of all time.
04:03It was a chilling scene.
04:04On the deck, there were signs of disarray,
04:05but no obvious chaos.
04:06A piece of the railing had been removed,
04:10one sail was intact,
04:11and others were blown away or missing altogether.
04:14And ropes were strewn haphazardly over the sides.
04:16The ship had three hatches.
04:33The main one was securely fastened,
04:36but the other two, the four and Lazaret,
04:39they were left wide open.
04:41The mystery of the Mary Celeste deepened
04:48as the boarding party investigated below deck.
04:51There was no sign of Captain Briggs,
04:54his wife Sarah Elizabeth,
04:55his two-year-old daughter Sophia,
04:57or any of the other seven crew members.
04:59All ten had seemingly vanished.
05:01There was about three feet of water in the bilges.
05:06Not ideal, but definitely not enough
05:09to sink a 282-ton ship.
05:12And the cargo of over 1,700 barrels of industrial alcohol
05:16remained almost entirely intact.
05:20The only lifeboat was missing,
05:22along with the bill of landing,
05:24the navigation book,
05:25and interestingly, the navigational instruments,
05:28including the ship's sexton and chronometer.
05:32What's puzzling is what the crew left behind.
05:34Petty cash, tobacco, even oil-skin raincoats
05:37was all still there.
05:38So something must have happened on that ship
05:40that made everyone leave
05:41without so much as collecting their personal effects,
05:43even small items that could easily be carried.
05:46But what was it?
05:52Upon the discovery of the Mary Celeste,
05:55many observers' first instinct
05:57was that Captain Briggs was the victim of a sinister plot.
06:02It could have been a mutiny.
06:03Ships were isolated worlds
06:05and tensions could easily flare up
06:07in such confined quarters.
06:09They had been at sea for nearly a month.
06:12It's not hard to imagine the crew
06:13turning against Captain Briggs,
06:15perhaps driven by fear or greed.
06:20But Captain Briggs was well-legged.
06:22He was known to be firm, but fair.
06:25He was a religious man and a staunch teetotaler
06:28and handpicked the crew personally.
06:31By all accounts,
06:32the men were described
06:33as peaceful, professional sailors.
06:36An inquiry into what transpired
06:38on the Mary Celeste was held.
06:40And despite the lack of physical evidence,
06:43the idea of mutiny lingered
06:45in the minds of investigators.
06:48The hearings were led
06:50by the Attorney General of Gibraltar,
06:52Frederick Solly Flood.
06:54He speculated wildly about a mutiny
06:56fueled by all that alcohol on board.
06:59His theory was that the crew
07:01had been driven into a drunken frenzy
07:03and killed the captain and his family.
07:06That might have been impossible.
07:08Many historians think the alcohol was toxic, denatured,
07:12so no one would have been able to drink it at all.
07:18Denatured alcohol is a type of ethanol
07:21with additives put into the barrels
07:24to make it not only unappetizing,
07:26but poisonous.
07:28This was to prevent anyone
07:29from becoming tempted to imbibe
07:31in the cargo on the voyage
07:33and was a common practice
07:34among manufacturers at the time.
07:38This denatured alcohol
07:40was destined for industrial use,
07:42often in the production of perfumes,
07:44solvents and cleaning fluids.
07:46They found some pretty unsettling stuff on board,
07:50a broken, stained sword,
07:52strange stains on the deck,
07:54and a deep mark in the timber
07:55that looked like it was made by an axe.
07:58Flood thought this pointed to a violent struggle,
08:00but when they tested the evidence,
08:01there was no blood at all.
08:03So if it wasn't a violent clash,
08:05then what else could have happened?
08:16With no evidence of mutiny,
08:18wild conspiracy theories emerged
08:21and spread far and wide
08:22as legends of the ghost ship proliferated.
08:26But the explanation could be a simple, natural one
08:29that has plagued seafarers
08:31since humans took to the seas.
08:34The year the Mary Celeste was found
08:37had the worst weather since records began.
08:40Hundreds of vessels were lost or abandoned
08:42in the Atlantic that year.
08:46We know from the log book that after setting sail,
08:48the crew contended with heavy weather.
08:51But there's no indication of danger in the final entry.
08:54In his last log from November 25th,
08:57Captain Briggs describes having made it through a storm
09:00the night before and its settling in calm seas.
09:04Plus, the cabin's skylight was propped open,
09:09which obviously would have let water in.
09:11So if they were preparing for a terrible storm,
09:14why leave that open?
09:23A deeper look into the Mary Celeste's history
09:26led some to believe that the ship suffered
09:29some sort of mechanical failure.
09:31Before the Mary Celeste was loaded with alcohol,
09:35she had been used for transporting coal,
09:37which is known for its dust.
09:39The pumps on the vessel might have been clogged
09:41by coal dust from a previous voyage.
09:43We also know that one of its two pumps
09:45had been disassembled.
09:47A sounding rod, which is used to measure
09:50the amount of water in the hold,
09:52was discovered on deck,
09:54which suggests it might have been used
09:56just before the ship was abandoned.
09:58So one theory is that maybe a faulty reading
10:01of the sounding rod combined with an ineffective pump
10:05could have convinced Captain Briggs
10:07that the ship was sinking.
10:09So maybe that's why he ordered an abandoned
10:12near the last land he sighted,
10:14the island of Santa Maria in the Azores.
10:17But the Mary Celeste was still afloat
10:20and in seaworthy shape when it was found.
10:22So panicking over fear of her sinking
10:24doesn't seem likely.
10:27Of the 1,701 barrels of industrial alcohol on board,
10:32nine were found empty.
10:34This discovery points to a different
10:37and possibly far more dangerous explanation.
10:40These particular barrels, unlike the rest,
10:43were crafted from red oak,
10:45which is a more porous wood
10:47than the sturdy white oak used for the others.
10:50This distinction is crucial
10:52as red oak is far more prone to leakage.
10:55The slow, silent seepage of alcohol
10:58could have created a dangerous buildup of fumes.
11:02Nine barrels may not sound like a lot,
11:05but that's about 300 gallons.
11:07If the alcohol leaked and was absorbed
11:09into the walls of the ship,
11:10this would have created
11:11a highly flammable environment.
11:14Even the vapors are highly explosive.
11:17In a ship made entirely of timber
11:19and likely lit by oil lamps,
11:21fire would have been the biggest fear.
11:25According to Briggs-Lock,
11:27on the night of November 24th,
11:29a storm swept in,
11:30battering the ship
11:32and sending the barrels of alcohol
11:33in the hold, tumbling about.
11:35And as the Mary Celeste neared the Azores,
11:39the air would have grown warmer.
11:40And with all that movement below deck,
11:42alcohol vapors could have begun to rise.
11:45Combine that with the higher temperatures,
11:46and it's very possible
11:47that small, volatile explosions were occurring.
11:53It's also possible that Captain Briggs
11:55heard some of this in the hold
11:57and ordered the hatches thrown open
11:59to let the fumes escape.
12:01This would also explain why the skylight was left open.
12:05As fumes poured out of the hatchways,
12:07rumbling noises would have been heard from the stern,
12:10and the escaping vapor could have resembled smoke.
12:15Captain Briggs, likely worried for the safety
12:17of his wife and child,
12:19probably gave the order to board the ship's lifeboat.
12:22In their rush, they may have even removed
12:24part of the ship's railing
12:25to get everyone onto the small boat quickly.
12:29They could have secured a rope from the lifeboat
12:31to the stern of the ship,
12:33planning to return once the danger had passed.
12:36The records show the wind picked up
12:38right around that time,
12:40stirring up rough seas.
12:42So maybe a rogue wave overturned the lifeboat
12:45where the tow line snapped,
12:47leaving the crew at the mercy of the elements.
12:51They would have been essentially doomed.
12:53But the truth is, we'll never know for sure.
13:02Ultimately, the Mary Celeste was discovered intact.
13:06But that doesn't mean the crew wasn't reacting
13:09to a very real threat in their eyes.
13:11Whether it was imminent danger or imagined,
13:15without more evidence,
13:16what happened may remain as lost as the ship was
13:20on that foggy December day
13:22in the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean.
13:391941, three million Nazi soldiers flooded
13:45into the Soviet Union,
13:46looting tens of thousands of art treasures.
13:51In Pushkin, the staff of Catherine Palace
13:54had already removed and hidden
13:55all the valuables they could.
13:58But the one thing deemed too large
14:00and precious to move,
14:01the Palace's greatest treasure,
14:04had been cleverly camouflaged.
14:06The Nazis stormed the palace
14:10and took the most valuable of the few artworks
14:12the Russians left behind
14:14and turned the building into a barracks.
14:17Then, a couple of soldiers noticed a room
14:19on the first floor that seemed out of place.
14:22Sand covered its floor,
14:24and the walls seemed to be made of muslin and cotton.
14:29One soldier picked up the fabric
14:31and discovered it was a false wall.
14:34Behind it was a dazzling, intricate mosaic
14:36of thousands of pieces of carved amber,
14:39mother of pearl, and gilt wood trim.
14:43The Nazis tore all four walls down,
14:46revealing a 590-square-foot room
14:49with 13,000 pounds of sculpted amber,
14:53along with other semi-precious stones
14:56covering its walls.
14:57There were also dozens of chandeliers,
15:01gilt-framed mirrors,
15:02and a ceiling over 20 feet high.
15:06This is what the Palace staff
15:08had tried desperately to hide,
15:11the eighth wonder of the world,
15:13Russia's two-and-a-half-century-old Amber Room.
15:17By early 1944,
15:22the momentum of the war had turned,
15:25and the Nazis left the Catherine Palace.
15:27The Soviet staff returned to a big, empty room,
15:31just bare walls and floor
15:33where the Amber Room used to be.
15:36It must have been absolutely crushing.
15:39This unique piece of Russian history
15:42had been stolen.
15:43The entire room where the world
15:47had the Nazis taken it.
15:51Catherine Palace had not been
15:53the Amber Room's original home.
15:56It had started in Berlin in 1701
15:59as a project to please Sophie Charlotte,
16:02the spouse of Friedrich I.
16:04who was crushed.
16:06Over the next 13 years,
16:07a German sculptor conceived
16:09and oversaw the creation
16:11of a whole room
16:12sheathed and encrusted in amber.
16:14Close to a thousand pounds of it,
16:16intricately sculpted
16:18and backed in gold and silver leaf
16:20to make it shimmer in candlelight.
16:24By 1716,
16:25Friedrich I's son,
16:26King Friedrich William,
16:28found himself low on money
16:29and facing a visit from someone
16:31he wanted to make an ally,
16:32Tsar Peter I of Russia.
16:35It was customary for royals
16:36to exchange gifts
16:37but Friedrich William
16:38didn't want to go
16:39to any great expense
16:40so he decided to give
16:41Peter the Amber Room
16:42and the Tsar had it carted off
16:44to his winter palace
16:45in St. Petersburg.
16:4630 years after Peter's death,
16:54the room was moved again,
16:56this time to Catherine Palace
16:58in Pushkin.
16:59His daughter, Tsarina Elizabeth,
17:01hired an Italian architect
17:03to rework it and expand it
17:05to fit its new,
17:06much bigger home.
17:07That was when the Amber Room
17:10grew from 180 square feet
17:12to almost 600 square feet,
17:1412,000 pounds of amber
17:17were added.
17:18Now, a total of six tons
17:20of it encrusted the walls.
17:27Within 36 hours of finding it,
17:29the Nazis had dismantled
17:30the Amber Room
17:31into its various panels,
17:33packed it all into crates
17:34and transported it to Koenigsberg,
17:37modern-day Kaliningrad,
17:38where it was installed
17:39in Koenigsberg Castle
17:41for the German public to admire.
17:45Koenigsberg was a Nazi stronghold
17:47and in August of 1944,
17:49the Allies launched
17:50a devastating air raid on the castle.
17:54Even the sections still standing
17:55were in bad shape.
17:59The Soviets raced to the site
18:00and scoured the ruins,
18:02hoping the Amber Room
18:03might have escaped the barrage,
18:05but they found no evidence of it.
18:09Amber will burn in a fire,
18:11but it leaves a sticky residue.
18:13No such traces were found anywhere.
18:17It seems the Nazis
18:18must have moved the Amber Room
18:20out of Koenigsberg
18:21before the air raid.
18:23But if so,
18:24what could they have done with it?
18:31In April of 1945,
18:33Allied forces sweeping through
18:35Turingia, Germany received a tip
18:37that led them to investigate
18:39a local salt mine.
18:42The unit boarded an elevator
18:44that plunged 2,100 feet
18:46below the surface.
18:48They came upon a huge steel vault door,
18:51blasted it open,
18:52and found 100 tons of gold bars
18:54and personal effects stolen
18:56from concentration camp victims.
18:58There were crates
18:59full of various paper currencies
19:01and an enormous hoard of stolen art.
19:06They also found a large number
19:08of museum pieces
19:09and wall-mounted silver candelabras
19:11labeled in Russian.
19:14One of the investigators
19:15on the trail of the Amber Room
19:17had calculated,
19:18based on its design
19:20and descriptions of the finished room,
19:22that it must have been equipped
19:23with 132 candelabras.
19:27And the number of candelabras
19:28found at the mine?
19:30132.
19:35The trove of stolen treasures
19:37was searched,
19:38but they didn't find
19:38any other potential parts
19:40of the Amber Room,
19:42and they didn't find any proof
19:44that those candelabras
19:45were from the Amber Room either.
19:48But since the number matches,
19:50it would have to be
19:51a pretty big coincidence.
19:57Around the time of the Allied air raid
20:00in Königsberg,
20:01another major event occurred.
20:03This one,
20:04with horribly tragic consequences
20:07and a possible connection
20:08to the Amber Room.
20:10It was pretty clear at that point
20:13that the Nazis were losing the war.
20:15Soviet troops were pressing in
20:17surrounding Königsberg.
20:19For hundreds of thousands
20:21of German civilians,
20:22the only possible route
20:24to escape the Red Army
20:26was via the Baltic Sea.
20:28But Hitler wouldn't allow it.
20:32Hitler's directive
20:33was no surrender,
20:35no retreat.
20:36But the German Navy
20:38disobeyed that order,
20:40launching a secret
20:41humanitarian mission
20:42called Operation Hannibal,
20:45one of the biggest
20:46seaborne evacuations in history.
20:49A steady stream of ships
20:51crammed with fleeing
20:52German civilians
20:53and all the precious
20:55belongings they could carry,
20:56sailed off one after the other,
20:58taking their chances
21:00against the Soviet warships
21:01and planes.
21:03Up to two million
21:05German civilians
21:06were ultimately ferried
21:07out of ports
21:08on the Baltic
21:09to escape internment
21:10or death
21:11at the hands of the Red Army.
21:12Many of them left
21:13via Pallava,
21:14Konigsberg's port.
21:15So, could the crates
21:18holding the Amber Room's
21:19panels have been
21:20among the cargo?
21:21The overwhelming majority
21:24of Operation Hannibal's ships
21:26made it out safely,
21:28but some did not.
21:30The SS Karlsruhe
21:33left Konigsberg
21:34on April 11, 1945,
21:36heavily loaded
21:38with 1,083 souls on board,
21:41almost all civilian refugees,
21:44and 360 tons
21:46of unspecified goods
21:48packed in crates.
21:50Hours into its voyage,
21:52Russian planes spotted the ship,
21:54attacked,
21:56and the Karlsruhe sank
21:58in less than three minutes,
22:00taking all but 113
22:02of those on board with it.
22:04Maybe the Amber Room
22:06was also lost
22:07to the sea that day.
22:12But in 2020,
22:14the SS Karlsruhe
22:15was located
22:16and positively identified
22:18lying virtually intact
22:20at a depth
22:20of about 290 feet.
22:23Divers found shoes,
22:25belts,
22:25and other personal effects
22:26of the hundreds
22:27that perished,
22:28but no sign
22:29of the Amber Room.
22:39Over half a century
22:40after it was last seen,
22:42the strongest evidence
22:43for the Amber Room's
22:44possible survival
22:45emerged
22:46out of Bremen, Germany.
22:49In 1997,
22:50a mystery person
22:51calling himself
22:52Mr. X advertised
22:55that he was selling
22:56an antique jeweled
22:57Florentine mosaic
22:58called Feel and Touch.
23:00The Amber Room
23:01was said to have
23:02four mosaics
23:03based on all the senses.
23:07Word of the attempted sale
23:08set off alarm bells
23:10and the German authorities
23:11moved in
23:12to apprehend the seller.
23:13It turned out
23:14he was the son
23:15of a now-deceased
23:16German soldier
23:17who'd told him
23:18he'd been one of the soldiers
23:19ordered to pack up
23:20the Amber Room
23:21transported out of Conningsburg.
23:24Experts examined the mosaic
23:25and conclusively determined
23:27that it was authentic.
23:29So it appears
23:30that the Amber Room,
23:32or at least some of it,
23:33did survive the war.
23:35Maybe the rest of it
23:37is still out there somewhere.
23:3962 years after it vanished,
23:47the Catherine Palace
23:48got its Amber Room back,
23:50a replica
23:51that took 25 years
23:52to make
23:53and incorporated
23:54the stolen
23:55and recovered
23:56Florentine mosaic.
23:57The original Amber Room
23:59may yet one day turn up,
24:01but until it does,
24:03the replica is there
24:04to remind us
24:05of timeless artistic beauty
24:07destroyed
24:08by the horrors of war.
24:10and that's where
24:12it is.
24:25May 29th, 1925.
24:26Percy Fawcett,
24:27the last of the great
24:28Victorian explorers,
24:29assured his wife
24:30of success on this,
24:31his eighth attempt
24:32to find the ancient
24:33Amazonian city
24:35he referred to as
24:36the Lost City of Zat.
24:42Fawcett was already
24:43world-famous
24:44at this time.
24:45His previous adventures
24:46had inspired
24:47Arthur Conan Doyle's novel
24:48The Lost World.
24:49By most accounts,
24:50he had exceptional
24:51intelligence and stamina.
24:52He was charismatic
24:53and determined
24:54and apparently
24:55pretty fearless.
25:00In February of 1925,
25:02Fawcett,
25:03his 21-year-old son,
25:05Jack,
25:06and his friend,
25:07Raleigh Rimmel,
25:08arrived in Carumba,
25:09Bolivia,
25:10by train.
25:12They and two
25:13local laborers
25:14then trekked
25:15250 miles
25:17north-north-east
25:19to Cuiaba.
25:20Then,
25:21almost dead straight
25:22for another
25:23280 miles
25:25to a place Fawcett
25:26dubbed
25:27Dead Horse Camp.
25:30While at Dead Horse Camp,
25:31Fawcett penned updates
25:33for the various newspapers
25:34he had agreements
25:35with
25:36and wrote his wife,
25:37Nina,
25:37a letter
25:38saying,
25:39you need have no fear
25:40of any failure.
25:41He sent local runners
25:44off to post everything
25:45and then he and his party
25:47crossed the Upper Shinga River
25:48and disappeared,
25:49never to be heard from again.
25:53So what happened to them?
25:54And did the lost city of Zed even exist?
26:00Percy Fawcett was born in 1867
26:03in Torquay, Devon, England.
26:05At 19 years old,
26:07he joined the Royal Artillery
26:09and got his start as a world traveler
26:11sent to various outposts
26:13of the British Empire.
26:15In 1901, Fawcett became a member
26:17of the Royal Geographical Society
26:19of London
26:20and traveled to Africa
26:21as a surveyor.
26:22Five years later,
26:23he was sent to map the territory
26:24bordering Bolivia and Brazil
26:26and that was really
26:27when his life changed.
26:34Fawcett would have seen
26:35how badly the Amazon's
26:37indigenous people
26:38were being mistreated
26:39by the rubber barons
26:40who were there
26:41making vast fortunes.
26:43So he tried to build
26:44a different kind
26:45of relationship with them.
26:48Fawcett heard accounts
26:49of past civilizations
26:51that had built great cities
26:53in the jungle
26:54and saw what he perceived
26:56to be signs of these cities
26:57in the topography.
26:59He also found
27:00what he believed
27:01were shards
27:02of centuries-old pottery
27:04scattered in the forests.
27:07The 1925 expedition
27:09centered on Brazil's
27:10Mato Grosso,
27:11or Great Woods,
27:13a challenging
27:14and perilous environment
27:15and one of the last
27:16frontier areas
27:17in the world.
27:19In his last letter
27:20to his wife,
27:21Fawcett wrote,
27:22we hope to get through
27:23this region
27:24in a few days,
27:25referring to the area
27:27beyond Dead Horse Camp.
27:31Two years went by
27:32with no word
27:33from Fawcett.
27:34And even though
27:35Nina claimed
27:36she wasn't worried
27:37about him or her son,
27:39others were.
27:45By January of 1927,
27:47the Royal Geographical
27:48Society of London
27:50announced it would
27:51back any competent
27:52explorer willing
27:53to search for Fawcett.
27:54They made no indication
27:57as to what they thought
27:58might have happened
27:59to him.
28:01The most likely scenario,
28:02if you're playing
28:03the odds,
28:04would have been that Fawcett
28:05was on a fool's errand.
28:06He went into the jungle
28:07searching for a myth
28:08that had never existed,
28:09saying he wouldn't return
28:10until he'd found it.
28:13The only two logical
28:14outcomes of that
28:15are you search
28:16a really long time
28:17only to come back
28:18and eat your words,
28:19or you don't come back at all.
28:26From the beginning,
28:27many people believed
28:28the lost city of Zed
28:29had never existed.
28:30For one thing,
28:31in Fawcett's time,
28:32it's estimated
28:33there may have only
28:34been about 200,000 people
28:36living in the entire
28:37Amazon rainforest.
28:38So people questioned
28:40why there would have been
28:41a big city
28:42with a large population
28:44centuries earlier,
28:46but not in 1925.
28:51It was also well known
28:52that the Amazon soil
28:53wasn't suitable
28:54for large-scale farming,
28:56something that would have
28:57been required
28:58to sustain a large population.
29:05In the years after
29:06Fawcett's disappearance,
29:07at least 13 expeditions
29:09set out looking for him,
29:11of which approximately
29:12100 people died,
29:14or simply went missing.
29:17The high cost
29:18in human life
29:19makes another theory
29:20some have put forward
29:22that much more troubling.
29:26Fawcett and his party
29:27spent about five months
29:29at Dead Horse Camp,
29:30kind of a long time
29:31to be hanging around.
29:32And from there,
29:33he sent the updates
29:35to the international
29:36news syndicates
29:37and his wife
29:38making sure
29:39to include
29:40the camp's coordinates.
29:41But he gave the press
29:43and his wife
29:44different coordinates.
29:46If people have
29:49the wrong coordinates
29:51for your last known position,
29:53you're going to be
29:54a lot harder to find
29:55if you go missing.
29:56So is that what Fawcett wanted?
29:59He had actually warned people
30:02that he was expecting
30:03to be away
30:04for a very long time
30:06and even told them,
30:07if I go missing,
30:08don't come looking for me.
30:10It's entirely conceivable
30:12that Percy Fawcett
30:13did not want to be found.
30:19Decades later,
30:20some of Fawcett's
30:21private journals
30:22and letters,
30:23including those
30:24in possession
30:25of his descendants,
30:26were accessed
30:27and shed new light
30:28on Fawcett's
30:29frame of mind
30:30and possible intentions.
30:34Regarding what was then
30:35pejoratively termed
30:36going native,
30:37adopting the customs
30:38of the colonized people
30:39you were living amongst,
30:40Fawcett wrote,
30:41there is no disgrace in it.
30:43It shows creditable regard
30:44for the real things in life.
30:47Also, some of Fawcett's associates
30:48said he hoped one day
30:49to follow what he'd called
30:50the grand scheme
30:52and set up a secret community
30:53in the jungle.
30:57Those who knew Fawcett well
30:59felt he believed deeply
31:00in the lost city of Zed
31:02and intentionally cutting
31:03all ties with home
31:05would have meant
31:06he could never prove
31:07to the world
31:08that the city existed.
31:09So, whether or not
31:11he wanted to go missing,
31:13people were still left
31:14with the question,
31:15did Percy Fawcett
31:17find the lost city of Zed
31:19before he died?
31:20And was there anything
31:22to find?
31:26It had been hard
31:27to reconcile
31:28why Fawcett gave
31:29those two conflicting coordinates
31:31for his last position
31:33when he was at dead horse camp.
31:35He may have been trying
31:36to throw others off the path
31:38to protect himself,
31:40but it was also possible
31:41that he felt
31:42he was close
31:43to finding his lost city
31:45and wanted to make sure
31:46others couldn't follow him.
31:51In 2019,
31:52archaeologists mounted
31:53a lidar scanner
31:54on a helicopter
31:55and flew multiple passes
31:57over Mato Grosso's
31:58Llanos de Mojo Savannah
31:59and made a discovery
32:00nobody had expected.
32:01Along the Shingu River,
32:02in the same general area
32:03that Percy Fawcett
32:04was focusing his search,
32:05the lidar revealed
32:06clear signs
32:07of a large network
32:08of settlements
32:09with carefully designed
32:10walls
32:11and large earthen mounds
32:12arranged around
32:13circular plazas.
32:14These ancient plaza towns
32:27were interconnected
32:28by curbed roadways
32:2930 to 50 feet across
32:31and miles long.
32:32The settlements,
32:33all within an hour's walk
32:34of one another,
32:35dated back to between 200
32:36and 1200 CE.
32:38And it's thought
32:39that they were capable
32:40of housing
32:41up to 60,000 people.
32:43This flew in the face
32:45of all we used to believe
32:46about the Amazon.
32:54When they did farm,
32:56there are patches
32:57of extremely fertile soil,
32:59now referred to as
33:00terra preta,
33:01black earth.
33:02The ancient Amazonians
33:04created this new
33:05nutrient-rich soil
33:07over generations
33:08with manure
33:09and waste
33:10and by controlled
33:11burns of the forest.
33:14It's estimated
33:15that as many as
33:16a million people
33:17may have lived
33:18in this network
33:19of settlements
33:20in Llanos de Mojos,
33:21making it even more populous
33:23than many European cities
33:25at that time.
33:27These were the lost cities
33:29of the Amazon.
33:30But where did all
33:31these people go?
33:35In the 16th century,
33:39European colonizers
33:40flooded into Central
33:41and South America
33:42and brought diseases
33:44that the indigenous people
33:45had no defenses against.
33:48By the 19th century,
33:49up to 95%
33:50of the indigenous population
33:52had died of smallpox
33:54and measles.
33:55The Amazonians didn't build
34:00with stone.
34:01So when the structures
34:02they built were abandoned,
34:03they simply melted back
34:05into the forest,
34:06making them extremely difficult
34:08to locate without the help
34:10of modern technology.
34:11So did Percy Fawcett find
34:15his lost city of Zed
34:16before he died?
34:18It looks like at least
34:19he was looking
34:20in the right area,
34:21but it's impossible
34:22to know how far he got.
34:24That doesn't mean
34:25we won't ever find out.
34:26It just means
34:27that we haven't yet.
34:28He did keep journals
34:29after all,
34:30and he was a photographer.
34:31Just think of what
34:32still might be out there,
34:33waiting to be discovered.
34:34In the meantime,
34:36indigenous and international
34:37researchers have plenty
34:38of exploration to do
34:40on more than 100
34:41newly discovered
34:42settlement sites.
34:43Lost cities found
34:45after lying silent
34:47in the jungle
34:48for hundreds of years.
35:04October 9th, 1216.
35:13King John,
35:15one of the most
35:16infamous monarchs
35:17in English history,
35:18was on the run
35:19from rebellious barons
35:21and an invading
35:22French prince.
35:25As he fled,
35:26he dragged with him
35:27a procession of carts,
35:28the royal baggage train,
35:30loaded with gold,
35:31jewels,
35:32and religious relics.
35:33Some accounts say
35:35the convoy
35:36of 3,000 soldiers,
35:37servants,
35:38and supporters
35:39carried the crown jewels
35:40along with other
35:41priceless treasures,
35:42including the legendary
35:43sword of Tristram,
35:45a broken-tipped knight's blade
35:47used as regalia
35:48at coronations.
35:53John's route
35:54took him across the Wash.
35:55This is a treacherous
35:56tidal estuary
35:57on the Lincolnshire coast.
35:58And the Wash was
35:59a death trap,
36:00a shifting,
36:01sinking,
36:02and suffocating quagmire
36:03sand,
36:04and rising water,
36:05covering nearly 21 square miles.
36:07If you're caught
36:08at the wrong time,
36:09the tide rushes in
36:10and swallows you.
36:15It was a risky path,
36:17but John was desperate.
36:19Rebels had invited
36:21Prince Louis of France
36:22to take the English crown,
36:24prompting John
36:25to flee East Anglia.
36:27And it was during that frantic escape
36:29that the king's treasure
36:31vanished in the Wash
36:32without a trace.
36:33And eight centuries later,
36:35we're still left wondering
36:37what happened to it.
36:41King John's reputation
36:42was among the worst
36:43of any English monarch.
36:45He was known for his greed,
36:47cruelty,
36:48and incompetence.
36:49His reign was marked
36:52by catastrophic failures,
36:54losing vast territories
36:56that make up much
36:57of modern France
36:58and even parts of England.
37:02In 1204,
37:03King John suffered
37:04a humiliating blow.
37:05He lost Normandy
37:07to King Philip of France,
37:08ending England's
37:09centuries-old claim
37:10to the territory.
37:14But this was more
37:15than a minor setback.
37:16It signaled the collapse
37:17of the English Empire
37:18in France.
37:22By the 1210s,
37:23John was facing enemies
37:24on all fronts,
37:25including within his own ranks.
37:27His relentless cruelty
37:28and heavy-handed rule
37:29pushed his nobles
37:30to the brink.
37:32John stirred up
37:33even more trouble
37:34when he refused
37:35to accept Stephen Langton
37:36as the Archbishop
37:37of Canterbury,
37:38the top position
37:39in the English Catholic Church.
37:42By doing so,
37:43he directly challenged
37:44the authority
37:45of Pope Innocent III
37:47in Rome,
37:48who retaliated
37:49by excommunicating him.
37:54By 1215,
37:55King John had made
37:56so many enemies
37:57that a group
37:58of medieval oligarchs
37:59took action,
38:00creating one
38:01of history's
38:02most important documents.
38:03the Magna Carta.
38:08This charter was designed
38:09to enforce
38:10political reforms
38:11and rein in
38:12John's abuse of power
38:13and ultimately
38:14became the bedrock
38:15of English democracy.
38:22But any hope for peace
38:23was short-lived.
38:24John violated
38:25the Magna Carta
38:26almost immediately
38:27and raised an army
38:28of mercenaries
38:29plunging the country
38:30into chaos.
38:34By October of 1216,
38:35the king
38:36was in dire straits.
38:37His reign
38:38was on the brink
38:39of collapse,
38:40his forces
38:41were spread thin,
38:42and he was on the run
38:43with his precious treasures
38:44in tow
38:45as he attempted
38:46to navigate
38:47to navigate the wash.
38:49The wash
38:50is notoriously
38:51unpredictable,
38:52but it's also
38:53surprisingly shallow,
38:55which just adds
38:56to the mystery.
38:57If King John
38:58really was
38:59carrying all
39:00that treasure,
39:01why hasn't it been found
39:02in more than 800 years?
39:04Maybe the treasure
39:07didn't even exist.
39:08It's important
39:09to remember
39:10that the medieval chroniclers
39:11who recorded
39:12King John's reign
39:13were often members
39:14of the clergy
39:15who had a deep resentment
39:16toward John
39:17because he conflicted
39:18with the church.
39:20These accounts
39:21would've been biased
39:22and a story about him
39:23losing a treasure
39:24in such a foolish way
39:26would've fit perfectly
39:28with their narrative
39:29of him as a cursed
39:30and inept ruler.
39:34We still don't know
39:35with certainty
39:36that any treasure
39:37disappeared.
39:38The carriage
39:39that was lost
39:40could've been filled
39:41with nothing more
39:42than personal effects.
39:44John had almost
39:45no money left
39:46by the end of his reign
39:47and it's plausible
39:48that some
39:49or perhaps the majority
39:50of his treasure
39:51had already been
39:52melted down
39:53or sold off
39:54to pay his soldiers.
39:56While King John
39:57struggled to keep
39:58hold of his land,
39:59he may have taken
40:00a more calculated
40:01approach
40:02to his treasure.
40:03Maybe the treasure
40:05was stashed away somewhere.
40:06Some historians
40:07have speculated
40:08that his retinue
40:09might've decided
40:10to hide the goods
40:11for safekeeping,
40:12planning to retrieve them
40:14at a later,
40:15safer date.
40:18Perhaps they were
40:19set aside for his son,
40:20Henry III.
40:22There are several pieces
40:23listed in the regalia
40:24for Henry's second coronation
40:26at Westminster in 1220.
40:28a crown, sword, scepter,
40:31and tunic.
40:32They seemed to match
40:33those from King John's
40:34regalia in 1216.
40:37So this could mean
40:38that the treasures
40:39were carefully preserved.
40:42We may never know
40:43exactly what the baggage
40:45train carried,
40:46but one undeniable fact
40:48remains.
40:49It crossed the wash.
40:51The question is,
40:52what happened next?
40:57Amid the uncertainty
40:58and haste
40:59of King John's
41:00final days,
41:01the route he chose
41:02and the treacherous terrain
41:03of the wash
41:04may hold the key
41:06to what happened
41:07to the missing treasure.
41:10We know that after
41:11rallying reinforcements
41:12on the Welsh border,
41:13King John dashed
41:14to Windsor
41:15and then to East Anglia,
41:16covering up to 50 miles
41:17a day.
41:18On October 9th,
41:19he reached the town
41:20of Kingslyn
41:21to a warm welcome.
41:24According to one
41:25chronicler of the time,
41:26Roger of Wendover,
41:28the king and his entourage
41:29left Kingslyn
41:30not long after they arrived
41:32and headed for a place
41:33called Swine's Head Abbey,
41:35about 30 miles away.
41:39Despite the baggage being
41:40of tremendous personal importance
41:41to King John,
41:42some believe that his baggage
41:43train probably traveled
41:44separately from him
41:45and was lost somewhere
41:46on the western side
41:47of the wash.
41:49With enemies
41:50on all sides,
41:51John would have been
41:52eager to protect
41:53both himself
41:54and his treasure.
41:55Splitting up seemed
41:56like the safest option
41:57and he may have chosen
41:58the longer path
41:59through Wispak
42:00while directing
42:01his baggage train
42:02to take a shortcut
42:03via the causeway
42:04across the well stream's mouth,
42:06a route only passable
42:07at low tide.
42:08The well stream, also known as
42:12the Wellister River
42:13and the River Neen,
42:15was once a far more formidable
42:17waterway.
42:18Just beyond Wispak,
42:20it emptied into a vast estuary
42:22spanning several miles.
42:25The baggage train
42:26likely traveled west
42:27along the road
42:28from Kings Lynn
42:29to the village of Walpole
42:31across Keys,
42:32which at the time
42:33sat on the banks
42:34of the well stream.
42:35With an experienced guide,
42:37the horses and wagons
42:38could have navigated
42:39the wash way,
42:40a narrow path
42:41across the sand
42:42for the four-and-a-half-mile
42:43journey to Long Sutton.
42:45It's possible that along the way,
42:46King John's baggage train
42:47was engulfed
42:48by a massive tidal bore.
42:50This is a dangerous,
42:51unpredictable force
42:52that occurs
42:53when the rising tide
42:54is confined
42:55to a narrow,
42:56funneled estuary
42:57and creates
42:58a sudden wall of water.
43:00Astronomical records
43:01show us
43:02that at 4 p.m.
43:03on October 12th,
43:051216,
43:06there was a fateful
43:07celestial event.
43:09The moon,
43:10the moon,
43:11the moon,
43:12the moon,
43:13the moon,
43:14the moon,
43:15the sun,
43:16and the earth
43:17were all perfectly aligned
43:19so that the combined
43:20gravitational pull
43:21might have created
43:22a dramatic 22-foot tide
43:25that surged
43:26through the estuary.
43:28So King John's convoy
43:30would have been
43:31caught off guard
43:32and overpowered
43:33by the waves.
43:44of the lost treasure
43:45of the lost treasure.
43:50Many believe this puts
43:51the likely location
43:52of the lost treasure
43:53somewhere near Sutton Bridge,
43:54roughly two nautical miles
43:56from the outfall
43:57of the well stream.
43:58But obviously,
43:59that's just a theory
44:00and impossible
44:01to verify.
44:04Within a week
44:05of the treasure vanishing,
44:06King John contracted dysentery
44:08and died on October 18,
44:101216,
44:11at Newark Castle.
44:15Lost to time
44:16and buried
44:17under centuries
44:18of shifting tides
44:19and marshland,
44:20King John's treasure
44:21remains hidden,
44:23claimed by the ruthless,
44:24ever-changing landscape
44:26of the Wash.
44:38soggy of the absorbed
44:39of the merchant
44:40of the sea
44:41and he will also
44:42out there
44:43to be a blessing
44:44of the National Anthem.
44:45So it's been the last
44:47time for the
44:49onetherlands
44:50of the sea
44:52and the lost derby
44:53of the atual
44:54earthquake.
44:55He was just
44:56to me.
44:57And that's what
44:58theلي is scattered
44:59by theictory
44:59of the south.
45:01For the Alaska
45:02and the aloha
45:03of the sea
45:04from the country
45:05and the sea
45:06and the sea
45:07of the sea.
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