Shipwreck Hunters: The Trillion Dollar Undersea Quest

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We’re in the golden age of finding and recovering trillion-dollar shipwrecks. These high-stakes, highly dangerous expeditions have been supercharged thanks to revolutionary deep ocean technologies. But… it’s not just the good guys searching through sunken Spanish galleons for gold doubloons; the rush to be first can sometimes get you killed. Really, no really!

Jason and Peter became aware of this phenomenon when they read about an elderly Florida couple arrested after appearing on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow. Appraisers were stunned to see gold ingots recovered “by a friend” from a shipwreck. Seeing the artifacts, French authorities claimed the couple were trafficking national treasures belonging to France.

The old adage “finders’ keepers” seemingly doesn’t apply - EVEN after spending years researching where the ships might be, then spending millions on expeditions HOPEFULLY finding the ship... hopefully. It seems like a lot of trouble when the country that lost and forgot about the treasure - hundreds of years ago can suddenly demand it back!

To help us salvage what’s actually going on… we turned to the “Indiana Jones” of underwater archeology -- Marine Scientist and Oceanographer, David L. Mearns – who is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club – he’s located 29 major shipwrecks and holds five Guinness World Records - including the deepest shipwreck ever found.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

How does one find a shipwreck that sank hundreds of years ago?
Why are the deep ocean recovery missions so extraordinarily expensive?
Guys with eye-patches? Treasure Hunters? Actual pirates! Who’s doing this work?
Material value (gold) VS. archeological value (historical record)
The law under the sea! The complicated legalese of sunken treasure.
Can you sell Spanish doubloons on eBay? Tales of stolen booty!
Black markets, personal bodyguards, razor-wire covered ships – the life of a shipwreck hunter!
Riding on Paul Allen’s $200 million superyacht treasure hunting ship, Octopus.
The tragedy of the Titan submersible – What really happened?
David shares his ‘great white whale’ shipwreck he’d still like to find.
The impact of shipwrecks is way more emotional than we previously thought.
Google-HEIM: Why are ship's toilets called “the head”?