Soldier's Girl Page #2

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refueled for 20 years.

Even now, its sonar equipment

is still classified,

so sophisticated NR-1 can find a soda

can sitting on the seafloor a mile away

The NR-1 is a marvel,

but it's a cramped one.

The 11-man crew shares one bolted-down

kitchen table

just big enough for two people at a time.

For this mission,

Ballard has added something brand new

to the sub's digging arm

a powerful suction pump

that will dredge the ocean bottom.

Ballard believes the seafloor

is sandy and soft,

ready to reveal whatever

secrets lie hidden underneath.

What is actually down there?

Will Ballard find the timbers

of an ancient Roman trading ship,

and the bones of the men

who sailed it 2,000 years ago?

Sunken treasure.

It has drawn people into the seas

since the first cargo ship apart

on the first shallow reefs.

Relics, gold, gems, pieces of eight

it is the stuff that countless dreams

and schemes are made of.

Obsessed with the promise of riches,

undersea treasure hunters today

scour the world's oceans,

crowding serious archeologists.

The king of the undersea dreamers

and schemers

is a stubborn rebel name Mel Fisher.

In his quest for treasure,

Fisher let nothing stand in his way,

and came to be known as a swashbuckler

a very successful swashbuckler.

In 1997, family and friends joined

with fisher

to mark the spot where

he struck gold nearly 25 years earlier

The reason we picked today

was rather appropriate.

It's Mel Fisher's 75th birthday.

Here, here.

Long live the king. Long live the king

But the plaque and let me

unveil it here take it off.

You notice we have a picture

of the Atocha, and it reads:

In sincere appreciation to Mel

and Deo Fisher

in their extraordinary efforts

in accomplishing

mankind's most elusive goal.

They've followed their dream.

In the 1960s,

Mel fisher is a man with a mad dream.

Often short of money and deep in dept,

he hunts the shallow waters off coast

for treasure.

He is determined to find

the shipwreck called the Atocha,

a Spanish galleon that had sunk

in 1622 in a hurricane,

reportedly carrying king's ransom

in sliver and gold.

Year after year, with the help

of his wife and children,

Fisher combs the Florida sea.

Until 1975, when his son, Dirk,

finds the first real evidence

of the ship nine bronze cannons.

Just a week later,

while returning to the site

of his triumph,

Dirk Fisher's boat capsizes

in the dark of night.

Dirk, his wife,

and another diver die tragically.

Fisher is devastated.

But he vows to continue

and to honor his son's memory.

The Atocha seems so close.

But she continues to elude Fisher,

to tease him for over a decade.

Then in 1985, in 60 feet of water,

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