DANGER IS MY BUSINESS: TREASURE DIVER

[music] [music] >> Man defies the depths of the sea searching for the treasures of the Indies. >> [music] >> Ever since early Spanish days when pirates sunk rich treasure galleons, the West Indies have been a fertile hunting ground for treasure seekers. The thought of ancient chests of gold doubloons and pieces of eight have impelled divers to risk their lives trying to recover them. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Now here to show us what it's like [music] to hunt for sunken gold is an old treasure diver himself, Colonel John D. Craig. Here near the West Indies off the Florida Keys at the edge of the great Gulf Stream is the location of many Spanish treasure galleons. Now lots of divers have searched for these, very few have ever found any. You see there's a difference between a treasure hunter and a treasure finder. Art McKee is a treasure finder. He searched the Caribbean a long time before he found his treasure wreck and it cost him many frantic dangerous moments before he brought up any bars of silver or gold doubloons. He's down there now searching another Spanish treasure site. Let's join him and see what it's like. You want to hand me the camera? You Art is working in 40 ft of water. It's a little murky down here today, but Art knows there's an old wreck near here somewhere. He spotted the signs from the surface. And here is probably the best indication, an old cannon. It's a big one. That means it came from a large galleon. Cannons like this don't drift away from a wreck, so the remains of the hull must be nearby. This could be it, a pile of stones like these. They are granite rocks used in olden days as ballast weights. A few cannon and anchor may be around somewhere, but any treasure must be buried deep under those stones or in the sand alongside. This is an old wreck all right, or there wouldn't be those great chunks of coral encrusted cannonballs. Apparently no one has ever been on this wreck before, or these cannonballs would have been taken away for souvenirs. Art uses a hard hat old-fashioned commercial diving rig for these initial explorations. He's weighted with about 200 lb of lead, which makes [music] his movements very clumsy. His weight can be a real hazard. He's trapped. He'll be lucky if he has no broken bones. Many divers have lost their lives trapped just like this. In that position, he's rapidly losing air and it will take a supreme effort to get back on his feet. If anyone on the surface tries to pull on those lines now, tangled as they are, they might kink and break. A good deep sea diver needs steady nerves and the ability to think in an emergency. Art's diving experience has saved him this time, but he now knows this heavy rig is not the gear to work in on this wreck. With his injured legs and all that dead weight, it's a wonder he can make it up the ladder. The lure of sunken treasure is intense. He'll be back because he believes this to be the wreck of the San Pedro, a treasure galleon of the plate fleet that sunk here in a great storm back in the early 18th century. The San Pedro was known to carry the entire coinage minted in Peru in the year 1732. Art McKee has found other treasure and as you drive the famed Overseas Highway down from Florida to Key West, you go right by the McKee Treasure Museum. Here he displays the great relics he has recovered from the Dry Tortugas and from the pirate stronghold at Port Royal. >> [music] [music] >> Knowing where to look is the secret of finding treasure. Nearly everything on an old wreck becomes encrusted with coral and Art spends much of his spare time breaking apart odd-shaped chunks of it. In them he finds plates and pewter mugs and quite frequently coins. Art explained to me that if a silver coin is isolated in the salt water, it is acted upon by chemical processes and [music] gradually changes to silver sulfide and becomes a thick black hunk of gunk. However, if it should be close to or touching iron or other ferrous metals, then the electrolysis process acts upon the iron and the silver coin remains intact, metallic, like this one. >> [music] >> Gold coins like these shiny doubloons are not affected by the water and remain bright and usually coral free. This one is dated 1753. It's most rare and worth several hundred dollars. Quite a find for an afternoon's chipping among the coral. Art has reconstructed a galleon wreck just as it looks on the ocean floor. A far cry from the artist's conception of a sunken galleon with a hull intact and draped with tattered rigging. This is the way one looks after 200 years on the bottom. The wood worms have eaten away the decks and all you can find is a few rotten ribs and a pile of ballast stones like these. His leg is healed now, so he invited me to join him diving on the San Pedro wreck. This time we'll use modern lightweight gear. I've dived many times in the Caribbean and every expedition was filled with unexpected dangers. >> [music] >> How do you find a treasure [music] wreck? What does it look like from the surface? Well, Art first checks history to make sure a wreck did take place. Refinding the site requires a thorough knowledge of these waters and an idea of what kind of shadowy mark to look for when cruising on the surface. If you miss it by 100 ft, you might have to search for hours. Although Art has registered this wreck and it has been assigned to him as an historical monument, there are always the chances that someone would be watching through his telescope to fix its exact location for future plundering. To throw off these modern pirates, Art had the big boat anchored some distance away and today decides to dive from the small skiff. Using scuba gear, I will be able to move about under sea like a fish. It's easier to make pictures that way. There are times when the undersea world is incredibly beautiful. The waving sea fans, colored fish, and unusual coral formations make it a veritable fairyland. I never tire of it because every dive is different. Even Art McKee, who has spent much of his life diving, enjoys this garden in King Neptune's domain. That's a moray eel, one of the more vicious inhabitants. I've known them to tear off a man's hand. The Atlantic barracuda have a bad reputation. Normally, they won't bother a man under sea, but these seem unduly interested in Art. He better not take any chances. They have huge jaws and sharp dog-like teeth. They could easily tear a man to pieces if they were so inclined. I could hear them snapping their jaws in an excited manner. Listen to them. They seemed interested in that school of little fish, so Art had better get away from there and over to the wreck. Yes, this is a big wreck. With his light gear, he can explore it much easier. On a wreck like this, one wonders, what were the circumstances of its sinking? Did pirates send it down or did it strike a reef? How many lives were lost when it went down? And did it carry any treasure? And if so, is any of it around here somewhere? You can lose yourself down here musing over the proud romantic past of this great galleon. Lose yourself and forget you are tied to the surface with a very vital air pipe that brings you fresh air and sustains your life. >> [music] [music] >> Surely that cannon once must have fired at pirate ships or belched fire for Spain in one of her great wars. Now it lies cold and encrusted here on the bottom of the Caribbean. Art easily forgets the fragile nature of that air supply or how far he has strayed from its source until he pulls for more free line. Then accidents happen. That's his air pump on the bottom. >> [music] >> He's lucky he's in only 40 ft of water. A little more depth and it would have spelled his end. On another day with a power compressor working, we went back to the wreck. This time Art brought his magnetometer, an electronic metal detecting device that gives a signal on a dial when it passes over gold or silver buried in the sand or under those rocks. It's somewhat similar in principle to the mine detectors the army used in the war. >> [music] >> Even the fish are curious to see what Art is up to this time. This gadget emits an electronic impulse which rebounds from buried metal and records the impulses on a dial which Art is watching. >> [music] >> When the dial moves suddenly, that's a hot spot and you start digging. I say digging, actually you have to waft the sand away as Art is doing here. The heavier metal will accumulate at the bottom of the hole. A little pewter bowl. Well, it is metal, so the gadget is working. And these are coins. This is a treasure wreck and this is how you find treasure. >> [music] >> This is an unusual find. You'll need a bucket to send up all this. The captain lost the ready money. Those plates and bowls will be great for display in our museum. That was a small pocket of coin. Could have been from a grandee's purse. There must be more around here somewhere. >> [music] [music] [bell] >> Now that's a real hot signal, something big. Would you know a bar of silver if you found one? That's what this is, a bar of solid silver. And it's heavy, at least 75 lb. The markings show it was cast in the Potosi mines in Peru. This is real treasure. The only other one like it is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, and it's valued at thousands. Treasure books tell us that of all the precious metals found and shipped from the New World by the early conquistadors, less than 1/3 ever reached Spain. All the rest was lost at sea, a fortune estimated at several hundred million dollars. Most relics in Art's Treasure Museum have been searched out and uncovered this way. But one might search for a lifetime without finding treasure like this. No wonder he watches it carefully as it is hauled away. >> [music] [music] [music] >> That's the first bar up, but down there, hidden under the sand and the rocks, there must be more. In searching for it, many brave men have forfeited their lives. So far, Art McKee has been lucky. >> [music] [music] >> I suppose there'll always be adventurous some men who risk their lives searching for sunken treasure. Even though they never find any gold doubloons, the adventures they have will be a reward enough, and they'll treasure them as long as they live. I want to thank Art McKee for helping us tell this story. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]