DEEP DIVE SEARCH FOR LOST SHIP | The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters (Season 1) | History

Diver Mike Barnett is preparing to investigate the mystery of another unidentified wreck in the Bermuda Triangle. Barnett has turned decades of leads into a closely guarded map, the secret location of hundreds of wrecks in or near the Bermuda Triangle, including today's target, 50 miles northeast of Miami, known to locals as Cal's Wreck. The fishermen who snag their nets on Cal's Wreck claim whatever's down there is big. I've been looking over the files. There's obviously some historical wrecks that have gone missing in this area, the Bermuda Triangle. The General Whitney, which was a steamship that was lost in 1899. April 23, 1899. At New Orleans, the General Whitney fills her cargo holds with copper and molasses. The vessel is one of hundreds of steamships in the bustling port, fueled by the revolutionary triple expansion steam engine, the workhorses of a booming American economy. The General Whitney departs and rounds the tip of Florida and crosses into the Bermuda Triangle. She is suddenly overtaken by heavy seas. Survivor accounts suggest a powerful rogue wave hit and cracked a bulkhead. The Whitney starts taking on water and begins to sink. A lifeboat escapes with half the crew, but 12 men go down with the Whitney. 40 miles offshore, the team arrives at the coordinates of Cal's Wreck. Let's go for throwing. Mike drops an anchor tied to a rope called the shot line. The 400-foot cable will guide him, Jimmy, and underwater photography specialist Evan Kovacs through the Gulf Stream to the seafloor near Cal's Wreck. They will have only 15 minutes on the bottom. Right at about 200 feet or so, it started getting dark. By the time we got past 300, it was very dark. At 385 feet, the team reaches the seafloor. Then, debris. It's Cal's Wreck. But as the team moves in to study the wreck, there's a problem. The water pressure is affecting their most basic gear, their lights. At 380 feet down, losing their lights won't just end their dive. The divers will be dangerously disoriented, a situation that could be deadly. At the surface, the support team stays alert. Then, trouble. The topside team spots a solitary green inflatable. Green means bad. It's a signal that the dive team is having some kind of problem. Derek, the safety diver, retrieves the buoy. He sees no signs of what's happening below. He preps his scuba gear and waits. So I'm going to gear up. If they have any more problems while they're underwater. After a delay, the lights seem to be working. But now, they have less than five minutes. In places, sections of a steel hull and railing are visible. Then, they see it. A coral-encrusted metal post, nearly 10 feet long. Confirmation will have to wait. If they don't retreat to the surface soon, pressure at depth will become dangerously debilitating. It's a major lead. But the team is cautious about jumping to conclusions. The evidence suggests a powerful rogue wave hit and cracked a bulkhead. Meanwhile, Wayne and David want to know how common these waves are in the triangle. And they've found someone who knows. The Bermuda Triangle, we don't know exactly why there's so many shipwrecks there. Rogue waves could be part of it. Laura Azevedo is a Florida-based oceanographer who's built a career hunting down rogue waves in the Bermuda Triangle and beyond. January 1995, there was an oil platform in the North Sea. And it was the first actual measurement of rogue waves New Year's Day, 1995. Workers on an oil rig in the North Sea take shelter as a storm moves in. High above them, a laser-based sensor keeps watch on the waves churning below. When the storm passes, officials reviewing weather logs are shocked at what they find, a spike in the data. Amid seas with 20 to 30 foot swells, a wall of water nearly 75 feet high. This buoy is part of a vast network constantly monitoring wave activity in the Bermuda Triangle. In this one spot, Laura has detected dozens of rogue waves over a period of six years. And they've been big. So while rare, they happen with some frequency. But why? One theory is that when big waves generated by a storm hit an underwater current going the opposite way, they sometimes stack up and form a rogue wave. In the Bermuda Triangle, storms are a way of life. While just below the surface churns the powerful Gulf Stream, which means this area is a tinderbox for rogue waves. So divers will be alert for any signs of a rogue wave impact. As they reach the bottom, their dive cocks begin a 15-minute countdown. By the time we actually got on the wreck, we knew we had no time to waste. We want to get clues that, in its totality, will help to support your theory of what this wreck may or may not be. This second dive has already proven much more productive than the first. You're bird-dogging, looking for clues, maybe looking for the bell or that smoking gun. With just minutes remaining, off to one side of the wreck site, an unusual feature stands out, a distinctly spiral-shaped metal shaft. As their dive cock hits zero, the team again retreats to the decompression line, beginning their long journey back to the surface. Mike and Jimmy have been comparing the images from Cal's wreck to see if it really is a match for the General Whitney. We pulled out some really important features. Along with the massive post the team saw on their first dive, the second dive also turned up a key detail that may prove the smoking gun. What do we have over here? After a closer look, Mike Barnett thinks he can ID this feature. But we do see a triple expansion engine. We see a single screw. This screw would have been turned by the ship's engine to drive its propeller. The screw design is a distinguishing feature on any ship. It's a single screw vessel, machinery midship. I guess the million dollar question is have you narrowed it down and identified it? Based on the size, dimensions, the machinery, this is probably a steamer. And just the taper of the stern and the bow, the way that the anchor is rigged up in the bow. And everything else is just giving off that vibe of the era, the layout. I think we're about 85%, 90% sure that this is the General Whitney. The portholes match the design of the General Whitney. The single screw triple expansion engine midship is also a match. And the broken masts are similar to what would have been on the Whitney. It's all adding up to make a strong case that Cal's wreck is the SS General Whitney. The team has solved a mystery over a century in the making. And for Mike, it's the culmination of a 15 year effort to reach one of the most elusive wrecks on his map. Once you can identify, give it its real name, then you'll get the real story. You'll know the final chapter of this vessel. We didn't find anything that was a smoking gun. We didn't find any artifacts or anything with a name General Whitney. But I'm certain this is the General Whitney. For me, that's the chase. I'm always trying to dive on unidentified wrecks and trying to put a name on that wreck. And that's my mission. And so to be able to do that, I mean, that's the goal.