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00:05Kure, Japan, a coastal city that has for almost a hundred years been a base for Japanese naval submarines.
00:14In a strange way, the life of Paul Tidwell has become centered here.
00:20Tidwell is an American treasure hunter who seems to enjoy being an elusive and somewhat mysterious figure.
00:28He has spent years trying to discover the fate of ships that have sunk while carrying secret and highly valuable
00:35cargo.
00:38One of these was a giant submarine that left here late in World War II.
00:45And so began a grim and fateful story that continues to this day.
01:08Undergate곤 J.
01:09The Slade
01:09It's a disaster.
01:09You can do it a little bit.
01:17Thunderclamentos
01:24You won't have such a pistol once.
01:24You won't have such a pistol.
01:25And so, if you know what you want.
01:26You just see me.
01:51Now we plunge over three miles into the deep
01:54and recapture one of the most fascinating secret stories of World War II.
01:59We seek a treasure-laden submarine
02:02sent to help Nazi Germany stave off final defeat.
02:07Join us on the search for the submarine I-52.
02:18Adolf Hitler had long believed that Nazi Germany
02:22could dominate the world all by itself.
02:25But as World War II widened, Germany needed allies.
02:30So Japanese diplomats were greeted
02:32with well-orchestrated enthusiasm in Berlin.
02:36Germany, Japan, and Italy had joined forces
02:40to become the so-called Axis powers.
02:44Few allies have ever had such grandiose ambitions,
02:48and few have been physically so far apart.
02:54The entire continent of Asia, all of the Soviet Union,
02:58lay between the Germans and the Japanese.
03:01Over 4,000 miles of the Trans-Siberian Railway
03:05was the only direct link between them.
03:11Japan had been at war with China since 1937,
03:15and had set its sights on all of Southeast Asia.
03:19The prize was raw materials, essential for further conquest.
03:25There was tungsten and tin,
03:28opium to quench the pain of wounded soldiers,
03:31and rubber that could help keep the Axis offensive rolling.
03:36For a time, much of this material found its way across neutral Russia to Germany.
03:44Then, in a move that stunned the world,
03:48Hitler's war machine suddenly turned on the Soviets.
03:52If the Nazis could overwhelm the Russians,
03:55they would restore the link with Japan,
03:58and together dominate more than half of the Northern Hemisphere.
04:01But by the summer of 1942,
04:05the Soviets were still unbroken,
04:07and the only practical trade route was by sea,
04:11over 14,000 miles,
04:13through waters increasingly dominated by Western Allies.
04:18At first, German merchant vessels attempted to run the Allied blockade,
04:23by stealth,
04:24or by pretending to be from neutral nations.
04:30But more and more were intercepted and destroyed as the war went on.
04:50Eventually, losses were so severe,
04:52that blockade running by surface ships was abandoned.
05:02To make the voyage safely,
05:04Germany and Japan turned to submarines.
05:08The Japanese specialized in huge submarines.
05:13Compared to most German U-boats,
05:16they were gigantic.
05:18Over a hundred feet longer,
05:20a thousand tons heavier,
05:22with twice the crew.
05:23Some of the large Japanese submarines
05:26could make the entire trip without refueling.
05:35Proving this epic voyage was possible,
05:38a Japanese submarine had reached port
05:40in Nazi-occupied France in August 1942.
05:48As bands played,
05:50the Japanese sailors were given a hero's welcome.
05:53They were greeted by high-ranking German officers,
05:56and lavish parties were given in their honor.
05:59Much was at stake.
06:02In return for raw materials,
06:04Japan shared sophisticated German technology,
06:07including jet engines and advanced radar.
06:16the Japanese ambassador Oshima Hiroshi was doing all he could to bolster the Axis alliance.
06:23He was a trusted confidant of Hitler,
06:26and often knew German plans at their inception.
06:29Using coded radio transmissions,
06:32Oshima's staff exchanged detailed reports
06:36reports on the blockade runners with Tokyo.
06:39But these reports were also intercepted and deciphered
06:43by Allied intelligence.
06:45Key Axis codes had been broken.
06:48By the end of the war,
06:50virtually all Axis radio traffic could be decoded.
06:55After the war,
06:56these intercepted messages remained in secret archives
06:59and would not be accessible for more than 40 years.
07:06In 1990,
07:08Paul Tidwell began his research in Washington, D.C.
07:12A Vietnam veteran with a purple heart
07:15and two bronze stars for valor,
07:18Tidwell was deeply troubled by his wartime experiences.
07:22It took him 10 years to overcome his nightmares.
07:28What brought Tidwell to the National Archives
07:31was a wealth of recently declassified documents
07:34telling the secret history of World War II.
07:38There were intelligence reports,
07:40ships' logbooks,
07:42and perhaps most important to Tidwell,
07:44decoded enemy radio messages
07:46preserved here word for word.
07:49It was hard,
07:51turning over thousands of pieces of paper,
07:53looking for clues,
07:55literally the breadcrumbs of World War II,
07:58putting those kind of things together.
08:01And one day,
08:02Tidwell began a voyage into the past.
08:06It began with the cryptic name,
08:09I-52.
08:10Tidwell read that I-52 left Japan in March 1944,
08:16bound for Nazi-occupied France
08:19with a stop in Singapore.
08:21In addition to almost 300 metric tons of cargo,
08:26there were 95 crewmen
08:28and 14 technicians being sent to Germany
08:31to study technology that they would bring back to Japan.
08:35Their families were never told where they were going.
08:41The sub was stuffed with war supplies.
08:442.8 tons of opium and 54 tons of rubber,
08:49all carefully detailed in the documents Tidwell was reading.
08:54I was going through documents I'd never seen before.
08:58I really didn't know where it was going to take me.
09:01And then one day,
09:03I flipped a page,
09:05and there it was.
09:06It was a note that an intelligence officer had typed in,
09:09and that note
09:12disclosed that I-52 had two tons of gold in it.
09:15That moment I put that page down,
09:20looked around to see anybody was looking at me.
09:23It's quite common people try to find out what you're doing.
09:26I took a deep breath,
09:28and I kept going.
09:29I kept trying to find other details about I-52.
09:34It was I-52's maiden voyage,
09:37a trip halfway around the world that would take months.
09:45I-52's crew endured long days and nights of boredom and anxiety.
09:51All day when submerged,
09:53they had to lie motionless to conserve precious oxygen.
09:59I-52 safely crossed the Indian Ocean
10:03and rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
10:06Her progress was being followed by naval high commands
10:10in Tokyo, Berlin, and in Washington, D.C.
10:15Everything was known by the Allies,
10:17who even had the names and professional qualifications
10:21of I-52's civilian passengers.
10:26I-52 rounded Africa
10:28only a few weeks before the Allied invasion of France on D-Day.
10:36Time was running out for the Nazis
10:39as they faced a full-scale assault
10:41from the Normandy beachhead.
10:45150 miles to the southwest
10:47at the Nazi-occupied port of Laurent,
10:50a shipment of strategic war supplies
10:52waited for I-52.
10:54There were radar units,
10:57bomb sites,
10:58and quite possibly,
10:59uranium oxide
11:00to be used in Japanese research on atomic weapons.
11:05The manifest shows 500 kilograms of a substance
11:08which is not precisely identified.
11:12In Washington,
11:13an ambush was being planned.
11:16It was learned that I-52 intended to rendezvous
11:20with a German submarine
11:21to take on a pilot and radar equipment.
11:25The rendezvous point was far from land,
11:28out of range of Allied shore-based aircraft.
11:31But the Allies had a new weapon,
11:34the so-called Baby Flat Top,
11:37a small aircraft carrier
11:39built on the hull of a merchant ship.
11:43These ships and their planes
11:45were wreaking havoc with German U-boats.
11:48They could strike unsuspecting submarines
11:51far at sea.
11:55On the night of June 23rd,
11:58the German submarine,
12:00the U-530,
12:01surfaced to meet the Japanese.
12:05A small boat transferred three Germans
12:08and the radar equipment to I-52.
12:29The two submarines parted.
12:31I-52 remained on the surface.
12:34About an hour later,
12:36it was attacked by planes
12:38from the carrier USS Bogue
12:40and sunk near latitude 40 north,
12:43longitude 15 west.
12:48Sunk with its 112 men,
12:52nearly 200 tons of cargo,
12:54and its two tons of gold.
12:58April, 1995.
13:01Tidwell charters a former Soviet oceanographic ship
13:04and sails to the point in the mid-Atlantic
13:07where I-52 is believed to have sunk.
13:12Lowered on a cable,
13:14side-scan sonar reveals the ocean bottom
13:17over three miles below.
13:21But for almost two weeks,
13:24this painstaking survey continues day and night
13:28without a trace of I-52.
13:31I would stay up pitching in on both shifts,
13:34getting very little sleep,
13:36and I've never been through this much stress,
13:39I don't think, in my life.
13:40You know, you look,
13:41and you just,
13:42sometimes you just think,
13:43what am I doing out here in the middle of nowhere
13:46looking for I-52?
13:49There are many unknowns.
13:52What is left of I-52 after so long?
13:56What would it look like on sonar?
13:59These are the areas that we've covered so far, correct?
14:02Okay.
14:03Finally, with time running out,
14:05Tidwell's expert survey team
14:07recommends extending the search into a new area.
14:11Their computer analysis places I-52
14:14over 10 miles from the original estimated position.
14:18For Tidwell, it's the last chance.
14:22We are fairly certain
14:24in what we've looked at so far
14:25in this 56 square miles or so.
14:28The summary is not there.
14:32At this point,
14:33I am looking at my whole life changing for the worse
14:37because if we don't find it,
14:39then there's all this money out there.
14:42There's been a lot of disappointed people.
14:43But I had to pick myself up
14:45and say, hey, it's worth the struggle
14:47and the fight's not over until it's over.
14:50We're on this last line.
14:52I informed the survey team
14:54that after we completed this line,
14:56we would turn the ship around
14:57and head back to Barbados.
15:02Literally in the last hours,
15:04they find it.
15:07I-52 lies within half a mile
15:10of the position computers predicted,
15:13correcting errors made
15:14by the original navigators in 1944.
15:18Now, a video camera
15:20is towed over the site
15:22and human eyes scan a landscape
15:25hidden in darkness
15:26for millions of years.
15:31First, there's scattered debris.
15:35Then, larger objects
15:36torn apart by terrific force.
15:40Finally,
15:41the camera scans a portion
15:43of a huge metal hull
15:45and catches a tell-tale image,
15:48a steel propeller guard at the stern
15:50used only by Japanese I-boat submarines.
15:54The search is over.
15:57The salvage effort begins.
16:02One system well-suited to survey the wreck
16:05is the Russian research vessel
16:07Akademik Mishdeshlav Keldish
16:10and her twin-manned submersibles,
16:13the Mears.
16:17The product of expensive Cold War technology,
16:20the Mears are now available to the West.
16:23But they are expensive
16:25and it is three years
16:27before Tidwell can raise the money
16:29needed to charter the Mears
16:31and return to I-52.
16:38Jim Filippone has made it possible,
16:41investing over $2 million.
16:44A lawyer from Rochester, New York,
16:47Filippone has reached
16:48an uneasy agreement with Tidwell.
16:51My motivation for doing it
16:52was first and foremost
16:56for the excitement in the history.
16:58But profit was by no means
16:59a small part of this.
17:01If Paul is right,
17:03there's $20 million worth of gold
17:05in the bottom of the ocean
17:06and I sure would like to have it.
17:09And Paul and I have an agreement
17:10where we're going to make,
17:11where it's going to be advantageous
17:13for both of us.
17:14I put up the money for the trip,
17:15he puts up the expertise,
17:17and we're partners.
17:18And I'm looking forward to that.
17:22November 8th, 1998.
17:25The Keldish departs Las Palmas
17:27in the Canary Islands.
17:29The expedition is not equipped
17:31to look for gold
17:32inside the wreck of I-52.
17:36But this may not be necessary.
17:39Tidwell has photos
17:40that show suspicious objects
17:42lying in plain sight
17:44in the debris field.
17:46All right, now this is
17:47the debris field
17:48which these photographs were taken.
17:51And these particular photographs,
17:52each photograph contains
17:54at least one ingot.
17:57Right across here
17:58is the camera pass
18:00that took these photos.
18:03Now...
18:03If I understand you right,
18:04then you can go right
18:05to where that is
18:06and you can tell me
18:07if that's going to be
18:08a gold bar or not
18:09or if it's metal or tin
18:10or some other kind.
18:11That's right.
18:11What we'll do is
18:12we refine,
18:14relocate this,
18:15get to where these ingots are,
18:17and pick it up.
18:18So you're going to go back
18:19you're going to go back
18:20in here where you found
18:21that pass
18:22where you took these.
18:23A lot of people
18:24think it's about
18:25two tons of gold.
18:26Maybe at first it was.
18:28It was pretty exciting
18:29for me too.
18:30But later,
18:31it wasn't about gold
18:32at all.
18:33It was about the story
18:34and history
18:34and uncovering something
18:36that no one else knew about
18:37and also helping create
18:39a new history.
18:40Something that we can discover
18:41with other people
18:43and share.
18:43And that really became
18:44very important to me
18:45personally.
18:47As part of his research,
18:49Tidwell has contacted
18:50veterans of VC-69,
18:53the U.S. Naval Attack Squadron
18:55credited with sinking I-52.
18:59Now, three World War II veterans
19:01are coming on the expedition.
19:04Examining the wreck
19:05may clarify
19:06what actually happened
19:08that night,
19:0854 years ago.
19:11Then,
19:11none of them knew much
19:13about the Japanese submarine
19:14or the importance
19:16of sinking her.
19:21At times,
19:23the expedition seems
19:24like a holiday cruise.
19:28There are two film crews,
19:30a National Geographic
19:31photographer and writer,
19:33and,
19:34to general mystification,
19:36two former Navy SEAL
19:37security guards,
19:39hired by Tidwell
19:40to protect I-52's cargo
19:42from persons unknown.
19:47Tidwell has also brought
19:49four technical experts
19:50who will work closely
19:52with the Russians
19:52for whom the trip
19:54is fairly routine.
19:56Much hope
19:57and anxiety
19:58centers on a high-resolution
20:00camera Tidwell has supplied.
20:03The Russians have carefully
20:05tested its housing.
20:06If it should implode
20:08three miles down,
20:09it could cause
20:10a disaster.
20:14Finally,
20:15everything checks out
20:16and meets with the approval
20:17of Anatoly Sagalevich,
20:19director of the
20:20MIR submersibles program.
20:25Tidwell has left
20:26a trail of former
20:28associates behind him.
20:30No one who helped
20:31discover I-52
20:32is with him now.
20:34He is a loner
20:35by nature,
20:36and probably
20:37only his wife,
20:38Joanne,
20:39knows all
20:40he has been through.
20:42During the eight years,
20:43there's been
20:44lots of up and downs.
20:46He's had a lot of problems
20:47with a lot of people,
20:49a lot of logistics
20:51with it.
20:51He's had a lot of
20:53damage control
20:53that he's had to work on.
20:55He's always managed
20:56to do it.
20:57It's remarkable.
20:58I admire him
21:00that he has
21:00kept with it.
21:07November 20th,
21:08they have finally
21:09reached their goal,
21:11a lonely spot
21:12in the Atlantic Ocean
21:13some 1,500 miles
21:15from the coast
21:16of West Africa.
21:17Well, we're here,
21:19finally.
21:21Three miles to go,
21:22straight down.
21:25The U.S. Navy veterans
21:27never expected
21:28to find themselves
21:29on this watery
21:30battlefield
21:31once again.
21:33This was really
21:34the first time
21:35that you realize
21:37that this thing
21:38was really down there
21:39and happened that night
21:41and never went
21:41anywhere else.
21:42Being here
21:43at this spot
21:44reminded me
21:45of my former shipmates
21:47on the carrier,
21:48caused me to think
21:49a lot about them,
21:51especially the ones
21:52that are no longer
21:53with us.
21:55Am I glad
21:56that I came?
21:57I wouldn't have
21:58missed this
21:58for the world.
22:00This is the greatest
22:00thing since World War II
22:03that has happened
22:03to me,
22:03and a lot of things
22:04have happened,
22:05but this is just great.
22:11This scene of battle,
22:12a secret for decades,
22:14is something
22:15of a mystery
22:16even now.
22:17Different people
22:18have come here
22:19for different reasons.
22:22They all want
22:24to know more
22:24of what happened here,
22:26but this raises
22:27deep-seated emotions
22:29in the veterans.
22:30Pride and remorse,
22:32remembered anger,
22:34and fear.
22:35We do this
22:37out of respect,
22:39not only for the men
22:41who died on this submarine,
22:42but for all people
22:44who have died in war.
22:46Whether it was
22:47our former enemies,
22:48our allies,
22:49whatever,
22:49it doesn't really matter.
22:51Not now.
22:53So with that in mind,
22:55I think we should
22:56offer up this wreath,
22:59and maybe to ourselves,
23:00say a silent prayer.
23:26Anatoly Sagalievich is a conspicuous
23:29and popular figure.
23:31Since the collapse
23:32of the Soviet Union,
23:33he has scrambled
23:35to keep the Mears in service,
23:37combining science
23:38with show business.
23:40Appearing in the movie
23:41Titanic
23:42has made the Mears famous,
23:44but it's still hard work
23:46to keep them busy.
23:52Ready?
23:53Yeah.
23:54To the bottom.
23:58This will be Tidwell's
24:00first experience
24:01in a deep-diving submersible.
24:10The three men
24:11will be confined here
24:12for some 16 hours.
24:15Anyone with even
24:16a mild tendency
24:17to claustrophobia
24:18is not encouraged
24:20to enter the Mears.
24:27The more he got into it,
24:28the more human side he saw.
24:30There was a lot of story,
24:31a lot of emotion there.
24:33And he's happy
24:34just to be here,
24:35just to set foot
24:37in that little sub
24:38that goes down
24:39three miles.
24:41He's reached his goal.
24:42And to have the three
24:43VC-69 people here,
24:45it's a closure.
24:46Paul was in Vietnam.
24:48He understands
24:49what that means
24:50for them.
24:52It's my goal, too,
24:53but he's got
24:54the passion for it.
24:55I have the support.
24:57This is
24:58Mears 2's
25:00233rd dive.
25:12It will take
25:13about four hours
25:14for the Mears
25:15to descend
25:16three miles.
25:17To conserve power,
25:19they are simply allowed
25:20to fall slowly
25:22into the abyss.
25:36It's been a long road
25:37for Tidwell
25:38and the others.
25:39And now these hours
25:41seem endless.
25:48As the Mears
25:49descend deeper
25:51and deeper,
25:52the distance
25:53between the subs
25:54and the surface
25:55seems vast
25:56and terrifying.
25:58No one can forget
25:59what happened here
26:00to the men
26:01of I-52.
26:14More than anything,
26:15sheer tenacity
26:16has brought
26:17Paul Tidwell here.
26:19Confiding fully
26:20in no one,
26:21he has picked
26:22his way
26:22through a legal,
26:23financial,
26:24and technical maze
26:26to arrive
26:26at this
26:27tense
26:28and lonely moment
26:29miles beneath the sea.
26:33Hello,
26:34this is Paul.
26:35Hello,
26:37this is Paul.
26:40Hello,
26:41this is Paul.
26:43Hey,
26:43everything's okay.
26:44It's really neat.
26:46So,
26:46uh,
26:47don't worry.
26:48Um,
26:49you know,
26:50I'll be back.
26:52Don't forget,
26:53we have a date tomorrow.
26:55That's right,
26:56our 30th wedding anniversary.
26:58I won't forget.
26:59Let's go bring you back up.
27:01Oh,
27:01I hope so.
27:02Bring yourself back.
27:08The pressure
27:09on the submersible
27:10is enormous.
27:12On their first dive,
27:14novices are alarmed
27:16as condensation
27:17drips down
27:17the walls.
27:19They are jokingly told
27:20everything is okay
27:22unless it tastes of salt.
27:30They are as deep
27:31as Titanic,
27:33just over two miles
27:35with another mile
27:36to go.
27:48Over 5,000 meters,
27:50it is near freezing.
27:52The ocean bottom
27:53should appear
27:54at any moment.
28:04There is nothing
28:05to be seen
28:06but featureless mud
28:07and then,
28:09incredibly,
28:10a few small fish.
28:19then bits and pieces
28:21of machinery
28:22and a metal box
28:24that demands
28:25to be reported.
28:27Tell us what you see.
28:28We're not on I-52 yet.
28:30We are in
28:31her debris field.
28:33However,
28:34we see boxes
28:35all over the place
28:36and we may
28:36start farewell
28:37right now.
28:39All right.
28:40Yeah,
28:40do that.
28:41That's good.
28:45I-52's manifest
28:47lists 146 gold bars
28:51stored in metal boxes.
28:54Further examination
28:56must wait
28:56until they return
28:57to the surface.
28:59They move on
29:01towards I-52.
29:03I-52.
29:05I-52.
29:23The submarine
29:24is at first
29:25unrecognizable.
29:26Its bow
29:27has been torn off
29:28revealing a tangled
29:30mass of pipes
29:31and wires.
29:34Then,
29:35the forward deck.
29:36Much of the wooden
29:37decking
29:38is still in place.
29:43Another great wound
29:45in the hull
29:45just forward
29:47of the conning tower
29:48with a hatchway
29:49still intact
29:50and open.
29:52For Tidwell,
29:54engrossed for years
29:55in the story
29:56of I-52,
29:57the wreck
29:58is alive
29:59with ghosts.
30:15The wreck
30:16is amazingly
30:17intact
30:18and free
30:19of sediment.
30:20As one observer
30:21will report,
30:22you're half afraid
30:24the crew
30:24will suddenly
30:25appear out of nowhere
30:26and begin firing
30:27at you.
30:30The deck guns
30:32uncovered
30:33and at the ready.
30:34The deck guns
30:53towards the stern,
30:55there's further damage.
30:56This huge wound
30:58breached the pressure hull,
30:59sending the great vessel
31:01and its 112 passengers and crew screaming into the deep.
31:11Towards the stern, the hull is intact,
31:14with its distinctive tail fin and the propeller guards
31:17that first identified the wreck.
31:24Miles above, the U.S. Navy veterans
31:27will match the wreckage with their memories.
31:31We got there a couple of days before the interception
31:33and we flew night and day, all around the clock.
31:37We never made any contact at all.
31:40Until then, on the night of the 23rd,
31:42they sent four planes out, I think, at around 9 o'clock at night.
31:47The pilots were weary.
31:49They'd been seven weeks at sea.
31:52First out was Lieutenant Commander Jesse Taylor,
31:56commander of Squadron 69.
31:58I think our takeoff was maybe 23.30, 11.30 p.m.,
32:04somewhere in there, before midnight.
32:07And we had probably been airborne an hour to an hour and a half
32:12when Ed Whitlock, who was the radio operator,
32:15got on the intercom and told me he had a blip on his radar screen.
32:20So we honed in and we dropped the parachute flares,
32:24which spotted him.
32:48Two depth charges exploded just forward of the conning tower
32:52as I-52 was diving.
32:55The hit was grave, but not fatal.
32:58The Japanese still had a chance.
33:03Taylor then dropped a sonobuie,
33:06a floating sonar receiver that would radio the sound of I-52's propellers
33:11to his plane overhead.
33:18Sounds of the battle were captured on an early wire recorder.
33:22The recorder and the acoustic homing torpedo Taylor dropped next
33:27were all new U.S. weapons.
33:30In quest of new technology,
33:32the technicians on I-52 became its victims.
33:41A huge explosion was heard.
33:49All of a sudden we began to pick up the sonobuies
33:54from the pattern that had been laid before by Skipper and Jesse Taylor.
34:00So after about an hour out there trying to figure out what we were going to do,
34:04I said to the crew that I thought we'd better drop our acoustic torpedo,
34:07which was tuned to the propeller beats of the submarine,
34:11and it would search it out.
34:14At 21 minutes, there was a tremendous roar in the hydrophones on all stations.
34:23And that roar lasted for 58 seconds.
34:28And I did say,
34:30geez, we got that son of a bitch.
34:32Oh, we got that son of a bitch.
34:49The following day,
34:50a large oil slick marked the site of battle,
34:54and U.S. warships collected over 3,000 pounds of raw rubber from the sea,
35:00together with a sandal,
35:01pieces of silk,
35:03and human flesh.
35:07Both Gordon and Taylor received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
35:13Recent investigation suggests it may have been Taylor who sank I-52,
35:18but he died two years before the I-52 expedition.
35:23You were out to do your job was to sink a submarine if you found one.
35:28So I was happy, elated, to have made the attack, yeah.
35:34As far as regretting, years later, having killed a hundred and some people, no regrets.
35:43If we hadn't have got them, they'd have got us.
35:49Americans sunk I-52 and Americans now celebrate this eerie resurrection.
35:57Hello, Andrew, this is Paul.
36:01I've just seen I-52 on the gunning tower.
36:05It is fantastic.
36:06Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
36:16Working together, the two mirrors can light up and photograph I-52 far more effectively than a single submersible.
36:26On the conning tower, they find a funnel-like radar apparatus designed to detect ships on the surface.
36:33It could not save I-52.
36:38Close examination reveals fascinating details.
36:42Guns still loaded, but their threat now muted by delicate sea anemones.
36:52It is soon apparent that if the gold is still inside I-52, it will be impossible to reach without
36:59special equipment.
37:01They can only peer eagerly into open ports and hatchways.
37:07Below decks, much of I-52's inner hull seems to be intact.
37:14Hours spent exploring here seem like minutes.
37:18This is truly a place where time stands still.
37:31It takes another four hours to reach the surface,
37:35and only a party of night owls is on hand to greet the I-52 explorers.
38:05After 16 hours in the cramped submarine,
38:08and emotions that have run the gamut from fear to exaltation,
38:12Tidwell is a little at a loss for words.
38:15Ooh, I should see it.
38:17It is unbelievable.
38:20It's a thousand, a thousand.
38:21Yeah, I got the lift over.
38:23This is, it was great.
38:25Wasn't it great?
38:26You just can't imagine.
38:28You tired?
38:30Oh, no, I'm fine.
38:31No, I'm fine.
38:32Anatoly says, or Marco says Anatoly pulled right into it.
38:35Yeah, did you get the picture?
38:36It was right into the one part of it on the side.
38:41You can't help but feel the tragedy of it all, though.
38:45You're sitting there in this huge ship.
38:47I mean, really huge thing.
38:50And when you see the inside of it from the port,
38:52you see just where people, you know, would have lived
38:55and would have walked back and forth on the inside.
38:57Oh, you can see something.
38:58You know, the whole side of it's gone.
39:00Not all of the side, but a big portion of it just blew out.
39:04That's what made it look.
39:05Now, the metal box will be spirited away
39:07and opened in private by Tidwell's security guards.
39:13Tidwell later reports that it contains opium,
39:16but the unexplained secrecy leaves many on the expedition
39:20baffled and upset.
39:26In the days that follow,
39:28three more dives are made by both submersibles.
39:32The large debris field is searched and mapped.
39:36But the sonar location system that allows precise navigation
39:40is not always working.
39:42And several observers on the dives are novices.
39:47Everyone hopes to be the first to catch the glimpse of gold.
39:51And there is no shortage of ideas about where to look.
39:59Bars of tin litter the bottom.
40:02Time and again, hopes are raised and dashed
40:05when they are closely examined.
40:09As expected, human remains have long since disintegrated.
40:14But evidence of I-52's tragic destiny is everywhere,
40:19like the entrails of a long-dead sea monster.
40:33Every night after the dive,
40:35recovered objects are eagerly inspected.
40:53A number of metal boxes are chiseled open.
40:57They contain little more than seawater and sediment.
41:02No one can say exactly what this is.
41:05But one thing is sure.
41:07It is not gold.
41:10At $25,000 a dive,
41:13Philippone is getting nervous.
41:17The following day,
41:19in a meeting to review progress,
41:21National Geographic writer Preet Veseland
41:24reports that on his dive,
41:26he has seen something new.
41:27As we turned and came here,
41:30there was a large debris field
41:32that included what looked like a big gun.
41:36There were clear ingots
41:38that looked like what we now know to be tin.
41:41Every 5 to 10 feet,
41:42there was something else.
41:44The trouble was that we never came back
41:45because we ran out of power,
41:47because we've exhausted a lot of power
41:49when we first got down there.
41:51You found something that may be significant for us.
41:53I need to ask a question.
41:55Preet, you said that what you saw
41:59looked like pieces of metal
42:01that came out of the side of the ship.
42:03Yes, it was definitely bent metal
42:06that had rivets on it
42:07that looked like the armor
42:08or the outside or the inside of a ship.
42:11So that must have been where
42:12the bigger explosion came
42:13and spewed it in an arc
42:16into this field here.
42:18Good luck, buddy!
42:20As Tidwell makes the next dive,
42:23Philippone's hopes soar.
42:25First, you're going to recover the gold.
42:27And boy, you feel it in your fingers.
42:29And then all of a sudden,
42:30your fingers aren't feeling it anymore.
42:31And you say to yourself,
42:33well, you know, where am I going with this?
42:35And then after four dives,
42:38there's no gold.
42:39It looks like we've exhausted the debris field.
42:41And then yesterday, for the first time,
42:43we find another debris field.
42:45And this debris field has
42:47all of the markings of a gold bar
42:50or of several gold bars.
42:52So now we're in a position
42:54where things are beginning to feel good again.
42:57And maybe we're going to get
42:58the recovery of the gold after all.
43:03But in a miscommunication
43:05that will lead to bitterness and rancor,
43:07the Mears will not search
43:09for the new debris field today.
43:14Tidwell's plan
43:15is to raise a Japanese flag
43:17on I-52's deck
43:19to honor her dead.
43:21Forged perhaps in his memories of Vietnam,
43:24he is determined
43:25to complete this symbolic act.
43:28It takes more than an hour
43:31of precious dive time.
43:34Welcome to the house of the rising sun.
43:46But while working on I-52's deck,
43:50the Mears make a thrilling discovery.
43:53Underneath the decking
43:54is a solid layer of metal ingots.
43:57This was part of I-52's wet cargo,
44:01stowed outside
44:02to increase her cargo capacity.
44:06Underwater, they gleam enticingly.
44:11But the ingots are tin,
44:13not gold.
44:23Near the end of the dive,
44:25they recover a shoe.
44:28It's a hint
44:28of what may remain
44:30sealed inside I-52.
44:33Ceramics,
44:34glassware,
44:35and sometimes even paper
44:36can be well-preserved
44:38even after decades
44:40in the deep sea.
44:48Tidwell returns
44:49from dive number five.
44:52It looked gold
44:53down in-
44:54down there.
44:56We found
44:58tons.
45:00Tons.
45:01Boy, is that a gold?
45:06The large quantity of tin
45:08may be worth
45:09a lot of money,
45:10but it would take weeks
45:11to salvage,
45:12and it would certainly
45:13not be a paying proposition.
45:19The next day,
45:21the expedition explodes
45:23into acrimony.
45:24It is announced
45:26that Tidwell
45:26is no longer
45:27in charge of operations.
45:29He has become
45:30a mere spectator.
45:33When I came up
45:34from my fifth dive
45:35with what I thought
45:36was going to be
45:37some really great news,
45:39I was hit in the face
45:40with the investor
45:44for this project
45:46pulled the rug out
45:47from under me,
45:48said,
45:48I'm going to control
45:50the next dive.
45:51I'm going to put in
45:52who I want to put in,
45:54and they're going to go
45:55where I'm telling them to go.
45:57And when I tried
45:59to further inject
46:00some new information,
46:02he discounted it
46:04completely,
46:06100%,
46:06didn't want to hear it,
46:08that he was now
46:10in control
46:11of the sixth dive,
46:13maybe the seventh.
46:14And he was angry
46:16that we had not
46:17gone down
46:18and surveyed
46:18this particular spot
46:20in the southeast corner,
46:22and that was never
46:23the dive plan.
46:25Never.
46:27Paul and I
46:28got some things
46:28to iron out
46:30that are not pleasant.
46:32He and I have got to,
46:32we have some things
46:34that we have to adjust,
46:35but I think they're
46:36personal between he and I.
46:37He is not very happy
46:38with me,
46:38and I'm not very happy
46:39with him,
46:40but we're two people
46:41that have to resolve
46:42those together.
46:43Philippone assigns
46:44the next dive
46:45to the expedition's
46:46project coordinator,
46:48Guy Zients,
46:49and his nephew,
46:50August.
46:51They are keen
46:52and eager,
46:53but this is their
46:54first time
46:54in a submersible.
46:59Guy and August
47:00receive clear instructions,
47:02no sightseeing,
47:03no souvenirs,
47:05but as luck
47:06would have it,
47:06their first find
47:08is another shoe.
47:10Take shoe?
47:10No.
47:11We don't take anything
47:12until end,
47:13until finish.
47:14So maybe we search
47:15the briefield,
47:16and then two hours.
47:17Yes, and because we found
47:18we were easy to take.
47:20Yes, but we do not
47:21want shoe.
47:22What?
47:23We don't want shoe.
47:25Okay.
47:25When we come up with shoe,
47:28Jim is very angry.
47:29Oh, yeah.
47:29Okay.
47:31They head out
47:32in the direction
47:33of the new debris field
47:34reported on the earlier dive.
47:38But what they find
47:40are the skid marks
47:41left by the Mears
47:43on previous dives.
47:46It becomes more
47:47and more evident
47:48that the gold
47:50is probably still
47:51stored somewhere
47:52inside I-52.
48:03They surface
48:05in stormy weather
48:06in more ways
48:07than one.
48:08The last dive
48:10is reserved
48:10for technical chores.
48:12So, in effect,
48:13the expedition
48:14and the treasure hunt
48:16are over.
48:30There is no debris field.
48:33We went to the edges.
48:35We took the Mesotech
48:36and looked all around.
48:37We cut through
48:38this way and that way.
48:39We drove
48:40genuine nuts.
48:42Driving.
48:42We say,
48:43do this track leg.
48:44Do this track leg.
48:44Do this track leg.
48:45He goes,
48:46no debris.
48:46We say,
48:47we must check.
48:47We go from the sub
48:49out along this bearing.
48:50We go out this way.
48:51So, we finally went
48:52to the conning tower
48:54because it was a pleasure
48:57even though
48:57we were there
48:57only for a minute
48:58to see I-52
49:00with my own eyes.
49:01Right.
49:02To see the flag
49:03that Paul had put up.
49:04It was a wonderful thing.
49:09Jim Philippone
49:11has ended up
49:12with an IOU
49:12from Paul Tidwell
49:14for $2 million
49:15and what he has always said
49:17he wanted most.
49:19It was a great adventure.
49:21I met some great people.
49:23I saw some great work
49:24being done.
49:25It was a whole new field
49:26for me.
49:27I've been sitting
49:28in a law office
49:28all my life
49:29and I never saw
49:30anything like this.
49:31It's an adventure
49:32that I will remember
49:33the rest of my life.
49:34I will try somehow
49:35to get pictures and film
49:36from all the people
49:37that have done things here
49:38and I'll probably
49:39mount a wall
49:40in my den at home
49:42and call it
49:42the I-52 wall
49:44and dwell on that
49:45for the rest
49:46of my old age.
49:50I don't want
49:51any part of I-52
49:54unsolved.
49:56I really want
49:57to get in there
49:58and record
49:59the insides
50:00and to do
50:02a recovery
50:03and there's more
50:04personal effects
50:05I'd like to
50:06recover and return
50:07to the families
50:07as well
50:08and I'll start
50:10preparing for it
50:11probably within
50:12the next month
50:12or so.
50:14So,
50:15the expedition ends.
50:17For Tidwell
50:18it has brought
50:19debt and disappointment
50:20but the story
50:22of I-52
50:23now is known.
50:26Three miles down
50:28the great submarine
50:29remains
50:30with her golden cargo
50:31still unclaimed.
50:34Her loss
50:35brought Adolf Hitler
50:37just a little closer
50:38to final defeat
50:39and Japanese
50:41scientists
50:41waited in vain
50:43for high-tech
50:44weapons from Germany.
50:49February,
50:511999.
50:53Paul Tidwell
50:54visits Japan
50:55two months
50:56after the expedition
50:57ends.
50:58He is looking
50:59for investors again
51:00but he takes time
51:02to visit families
51:03of men who died
51:04on I-52.
51:08in Japan
51:09during the war
51:10what happened
51:11to I-52's
51:13passengers
51:13and crew
51:14was hidden
51:15behind a veil
51:16of secrecy.
51:17The families
51:18had only vague
51:19knowledge of their fate.
51:23Today,
51:24Tidwell helps
51:25to clear away
51:26much of the mystery.
51:28The full story
51:29is tragic
51:30and painful
51:31but at least
51:33it brings a sense
51:34of finality
51:34and peace.
51:40In Kyurei,
51:41home of the Japanese
51:42submarine forces
51:43then and now,
51:45the Tidwells
51:46visit a monument
51:47to the lost
51:48submariners
51:49of World War II.
51:50I can present this
51:51to you.
51:52Tidwell presents
51:52the most personal
51:53offering he can.
51:55Mute evidence
51:56of the 112
51:57sailors and passengers
51:59on I-52.
52:12More than the gold,
52:14more than the excitement,
52:16more than anything else,
52:18Paul Tidwell
52:19has said
52:20this is what
52:21the search
52:22for the submarine
52:23I-52
52:24is all about.
52:27and on this day
52:29and in this place
52:31that certainly
52:32is the truth.
52:34Anyway,
53:03we're going to be
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