National Geographic: Lost Ships of the Mediterranean Page #3

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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

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