National Geographic: Lost Ships of the Mediterranean Page #2

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of the sun.

The special temper of each wind,

and the season of its coming.

The powerful currents

hidden beneath the waves.

All these may have been

the secrets of his trade.

Surely he watched for seabirds,

heralds of an approaching shore,

and for landmarks familiar

as a friendly face.

But the nearness of land

was not necessarily a comfort,

and he likely kept his ship

at quite a distance.

Well, generally the common wisdom

has it that,

for safety, the ancient mariners

hugged the coast.

But when you think about it,

the last thing an ancient mariner

ever wanted to see during a storm

was a quickly approaching the shore.

Plus there was piracy.

Piracy wasn't the type

that you see in the movies,

in the Caribbean where you're just

sailing around in the middle of nowhere

and suddenly another ship comes out.

Rather, they would watch from shore.

So you don't want to stay

too close to shore,

and if somebody comes out to attack,

you want to have that leeway

to get out of the way.

It's Day Five and nearly midnight when

the Northern Horizon arrives on site.

The coordinates provided by

the Navy are only approximate.

Margin of error might be

up to a kilometer.

Ballard's team deploys a deepwater

side-scan sonar.

The hope is it will pinpoint

the same pattern

of large objects detected by the Navy.

Slip his line, slip his line!

As the sonar is towed,

its fiber optic cable carries signals

to the 'Control Van',

nerve center of the expedition.

Sonar screens are not

inherently exciting.

As the first watch hunkers down,

everything starts to go wrong.

Okay, this course is going to

take us into deep water.

It already is increased.

The ship can't seem to stay on track,

and the sonar is pitched at an angle.

Pull up the winch.

The generator is not going

to survive a lot longer.

They have to shut

the generator off now.

This is the ship's?

Now. Yes, the ship's.

The ship has lost a generator.

Our speed over the ground is 5 knots.

Five knots? I'm shocked!

If there's a current like 4 knots,

we're not doing this site.

That could be a real showstopper

right there!

Unless the winch is rewired to

another source of power on board,

the expedition is dead in the water.

Time to improvise.

There's no way we can feed

any power from below

through the Scania circuit, right?

Because I have someone now

disconnecting the cables.

No estimated time on repairs.

Okay. Got the hand crank?

No...

Such are the risks of trying out

a brand new winch.

We're doing things we've

never done before.

But that's why we're here.

We're always pushing the envelope.

The challenge is always the desire

on the part of the scientists

to do things that have never

been done before

and the operator's side not wanting

to change anything, 'cause it works.

It's a miracle that's

the only guy that's a problem.

Power has been re-routed-

and the hunt is on.

That looks pretty good now.

Do you see something that you believe?

The sonar displays targets

as subtle smudges.

It takes a trained eye to tell

a shipwreck from a rock heap.

There dead ahead.

Zero three seven

It's on the screen now.

Just startin' to appear.

There's something comin' in

but it's on the right.

There's something there.

There's something there

You're certainly within

the range of Jason to see it.

It's about the right length;

it looks like it's maybe 30 meters.

It's roughly in the right place.

It smells right.

Within twelve hours,

the team locates three targets

that line up in a similar configuration

to the Navy's -

but offset by half a kilometer

from their coordinates.

Back to you, Larry.

I think we did it.

We did it.

Okay. The weather's nice.

I think we'll go to 'Phase Two'.

It's a conditional victory.

Until they actually

look at the targets,

they won't know

if they've hit pay dirt.

There's plenty of work ahead.

Better get something to eat below.

As one shift gives way to the next,

notions of time begin to blur.

Day 6.

The team prepares to launch

an extraordinary robot named Jason,

designed and built at Woods Hole -

and championed by a man

with a life-long dream.

Robert Ballard can't remember a time

he wasn't obsessed with the deep sea.

I mean my idol, as a kid-

perhaps still is... was Captain Nemo.

He first dove in a submarine in 1969.

Later, he was part of the

historic expedition

that discovered hydrothermal vents

and surprising life

forms on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

But he's always had

a healthy respect for the deep.

Diving in a small submarine

can be very dangerous.

Pressure is a funny thing

'cause you look out the window

and you can't see it.

But it's there and the slightest

mistake and the failure of your porthole

or anything would be

a catastrophic implosion -

just pfft - you'd just vanish.

Ballard began to think that remote-

controlled robots might be the answer.

The idea led to a prototype

called 'Jason Jr.',

rigged with four motors,

a thirty-meter tether,

and an electronic eye.

In 1986, on the Titanic, Jason Jr.

proved himself a nimble explorer.

Maneuvered by Martin Bowen

from within a submarine,

the little robot descended

the grand staircase

and danced beneath a chandelier.

That success launched a flurry

of innovation at Woods Hole.

By the 1990s, Jason had become

a technological wonder weighing

just over two tons.

In a sense, he remains

a work-in-progress-

forever refined and improved.

But even his standard features

are impressive.

Seven thrusters allow for

precision maneuvering underwater.

Titanium components can withstand

depths of 6000 meters.

Get it here and move

the whole thing back.

Jason's video, film and electronic

cameras can be remote-controlled

by an experienced pilot.

Likewise his articulated arm,

which can lift up to 15 kilos.

You know, right about here, Andy.

By about my foot.

To fire up such a complex machine

takes teamwork and time.

Jason won't be ready to launch

until well after dark.

It's a breathless moment

just before Jason hits the water.

If a single component leaks,

it could short-circuit

the entire electrical system.

Okay, pins released.

But tonight it's 'all systems go.'

Jason dives toward the most promising

of the three sonar targets.

And we're off.

Roger, make it slow.

You're 110 meters out to the target.

At the controls is pilot Will Sellers.

He adjusts Jason's buoyancy

by dropping ballast weights.

Amazing!

Jason's own forward-facing sonar

now scans the bottom.

A hundred and five meters.

Okay, it's off to the left.

Forty meters off to the left.

Is that it coming in?

That's it.

Let's see what we've got.

Lot of pits

That's just noise

There it is.

That's not geology.

There it is.

Whatever it is.

That's it ahead.

Off to the right slightly.

That's an anchor.

There's the chain.

Yup, there's the chain.

Follow that chain, Will, to the right.

Come right. That's the chain.

Metal chain, modern anchor.

This is no ancient ship.

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