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The Bermuda Triangle, one of the deadliest stretches of ocean on earth.
But what if there were an even deadlier one?
In the Pacific, there may be.
Why was this massive state-of-the-art ship suddenly lost with all hands?
Nothing could be done to save them.
What happened to this aircraft that vanished without a clue?
I think an entrance to another dimension opened in this area.
What deadly forces sent sailors to their doom?
It's really a terrifying experience for those who were on board.
The world's most powerful Navy knows the dangers well.
The moment you stop respecting it and fearing it is when things go wrong.
Join the search to fathom the Pacific Ocean's deadliest enigma, a quest that
takes us over, on and deep into the depths of the deep blue graveyard
called the Devil's Sea.
September 8th, 1980, carrying 150,000 tons of iron ore, the boat carrier
Derbyshire is 230 miles off the east coast of Okinawa.
The Derbyshire is a gigantic ship, longer than 3 football fields, twice
the size of the Titanic, only 4 years old.
From stem to stern, her design is state of the art.
Anyone should have felt perfectly safe sailing aboard her.
But some, like able *** Peter Lambert, didn't.
Whenever he came home on leave he-- talk about the ship he was on, the
people he'd met at sea, the friends he'd made.
And, of course, he don't left his own--and as I say, he just said he
just didn't like the job, said there was something about it.
A lot of people said the same thing.
Reluctantly, Peter signed on for one more voyage to earn enough money to
get married. He was 19 years old.
But his wedding would never take place.
On September 9th, the Derbyshire and her entire crew disappeared.
It was the largest British ship ever lost at sea and no one could explain
why.
How could this giant ship crewed by experienced mariners simply vanish
without a distress call and without leaving any trace?
Could she be another victim of one of the Pacific Ocean's most enduring and
frightening enigmas?
To the south of Japan lies a vast expanse of empty ocean.
Since the 1940s, scores of gigantic ships have mysteriously vanished in
these cruel seas.
Many of them were lost without even sending an SOS, leaving no clues to
their fate.
But these waters have been claiming victims for centuries.
Long ago, Japanese sailors gave this region a chilling name, Mano Umi, The
Devil's Sea.
Japanese legends tell of unknown forces that overpowered the strongest
of ships and great sea monsters that dragged sailors to their death.
Today, the legend of sea monsters may have faded, but Japanese fishermen
still fear the Devil's Sea, even as its rich bounty draws them to risk
their lives.
The Devil's Sea is also an abundant sea.
Fish always cluster here.
These seas are very different from other places.
Waves change quickly and unpredictably.
So if you're relaxed on a boat in these places, you will get into
trouble.
Intrigued by persistent reports of mysterious disappearances, some have
searched for patterns that might solve the enigma of the Devil's Sea.
Some claim that when plotted on a map, the modern disappearances form a
triangle of doom.
But that's only the beginning.
The triangle in the Devil's Sea lies on the same lines of latitude as
another infamous stretch of ocean on the other side of the world, the
Bermuda Triangle.
Could this be more than coincidence?
Could the Devil's Sea be another Bermuda Triangle or even deadlier than
the Bermuda Triangle?
There are those who think it might be.
Author and expert in paranormal phenomena Professor Junichi Yaoi has
controversial theories about why so many ships have disappeared in the
Devil's Sea.
There are many possible answers for this.
Basically, I think some of the tankers sank because of the condition of the
sea, because these incidents happen in seas which could be rough or because
of storms.
However, if these tankers had just disappeared, I would say they might
have gone to another dimension.
I think there was an entrance to this other dimension opened from that area.
Most scientists dismiss Professor Yaoi's theories as science fiction.
But in the Devil's Sea ships keep disappearing.
January 2002, the MV Linje, a Chinese freighter with 19 crew on board, fails
to arrive at the Japanese port of Kagoshima.
As months go by, authorities are at a loss to explain what has happened to
the Linje.
She has disappeared without a distress call and without leaving any signs of
her fate.
Professor Yaoi has his own theories on what may have happened.
Let me explain it with an easy example.
Imagine a radio wave, TV programs such as a drama, a documentary and news are
made in a studio.
When these programs are broadcast, their mode is changed to a radio wave,
which we can't see nor touch.
So what I'm telling you is maybe the different dimension is here in the
place we live, but we just can't see nor touch it.
While some find Professor Yaoi's theories are comforting way to explain
the unexplainable, maritime experts remain skeptical.
I'm a disbeliever, probably a fairly strong disbeliever of anything like
that.
David Mearns is a shipwreck hunter with an impressive record of locating
lost ships and a pragmatic attitude to the paranormal.
I'm hired by people to come up with answers in a purely scientific and
technical matter.
So to actually come back and say, "Well, you know, I-- I just can't
explain it."
"It must be that Bermuda Triangle thing or the Pacific Triangle."
And, you know, I don't think I'd have much credibility any longer.
In 1994, David and his team faced one of their biggest challenges to date,
to solve the mystery of the lost ship Derbyshire.
It would be a mission that would push even these experts to their very
limits.
This time they faced a formidable foe, perhaps the toughest ever, the Devil's
Sea.
The crews of Patrol Squadron 47 know how hard it is to find anything on
this featureless ocean.
The US Navy's eyes in the sky are charged with antisubmarine warfare,
surveillance and search and rescue.
There's really nowhere in this theater that we can't get to within a certain
amount of time.
We've always got a ready plane that will launch within one hour.
It's always available.
So if there's any kind of search and rescue mission needs to be done, any
kind of piracy activity, anything that has to be done, VP 47 get on station
as soon as possible.
The airmen know this region like the back of their hands, but even they
can't explain everything they experience out here.
We would been some stories of things and rumors about strange things
happening on the aircraft.
But juristically we pick things up that sometimes don't get recorded.
You know, we'll hear something that sounds kind of funny, we get back, we
play on the recorder, it's just not there.
Yeah, there's a lot of stories about seat belts coming on cross patches
opening and closing by themselves in different areas you fly around.
In a high-tech, high-risk job like this, it pays to be on your guard.
The men and women who fly these unfriendly skies know that it isn't
just ships that disappear out here.
The skies over the Devil's Sea have claimed their share of planes.
One mysterious disappearance, more than any other, haunts the crews that
fly here every day.
March 22nd 1957, 4:48 a.m., a USAF C-97 stratofreighter departs Wake
Island bound for Tokyo international airport with 67 military personnel
onboard.
The flight is scheduled to take 9 _ hours and sufficient fuel for 13 _
hours is on board.
For 8 hours, the flight progresses normally.
At 2:30 p.m., the pilot radios an estimated arrival time of 5 p.m., and
adds that all equipment is functioning normally.
Weather in the region is good, flying conditions are nearly perfect.
An hour and 15 minutes later, the pilot radios that he's 200 miles from
Tokyo.
Air traffic controllers expected the aircraft to arrive within 2 hours.
But the C-97 never touches down at the airfield.
Search and rescue flight scour thousands of square miles of ocean
surface retracing the plane's flight path.
They find nothing.
The giant stratofreighter has vanished into thin air.
Something in or over the Devil's Sea was powerful enough to wipe the
massive aircraft from existence.
What could have happened to this formidable aircraft built for combat,
flying in perfect conditions?
To this day no one knows.
It remains a mystery and an unknown hazard that the men and women of the
military must accept in the line of duty.
It is 1,000 tidal.
The Devil's Sea hides its secrets well.
But daring expeditions and ground breaking research are beginning to
reveal some startling answers to age old questions.
Just like the Bermuda Triangle, nothing is ever as it seems in the
Devil's Sea.
The Devil's Sea, south of Japan, has earned a reputation as a Bermuda
Triangle of the Pacific.
Giant ships sailing through these waters have disappeared suddenly and
without a trace.
The Japanese coast guard report over 2,500 shipping accidents in the waters
around Japan every year.
These deadly waters are vast and unforgiving.
The chances of finding a ship lost out here makes finding a needle in a
haystack look easy.
That's why 14 years after the giant ship Derbyshire was lost without a
trace in the Devil's Sea, most believe she would never be found.
An official report blamed the forces of nature and the case was closed.
But the families of the Derbyshire's crew weren't willing to let them go
quietly into the night.
They wanted answers.
All we wanted really was the evidence as to exactly what had happened to
that ship and why 44 people had lost their lives.
We were told the only way we would get a-- formal investigation.
They said we had new evidence and the new evidence would only be the
Derbyshire.
And everyone was confident, shipping industry, that is, they would never
find that ship.
But the families refused to give up.
In July 1994, an expedition team led by David Mearns of Oceaneering
Technologies headed into the Devil's Sea convinced that they could crack
the case.
Their hopes were pinned on one slim lead.
At the time that the Derbyshire was lost, search and rescue planes
reported an oil slick not far from her last known position.
No one else had really used oil as the primary clue to actually go out and
find a ship.
So there was some uncertainty at the time about, you know, how big the area
could be.
Is the oil directly above the ship or is the oil being set down current 10
miles, 50 miles, 100 miles?
Nobody really knew.
But my gut feeling was that it was an excellent marker and that would lead
us to the wreck of Derbyshire.
On this clue alone David Mearns and his team would try to achieve the
impossible, find the Derbyshire and lay the mystery to rest.
It was one thing to mount a search, but on this vast and violent ocean,
the odds of finding Derbyshire were astronomical.
The ocean floor lay miles below and even if Derbyshire was down there,
there was no telling what wreckage may remain 14 years after she was lost.
Against the staggering odds, the expedition team placed their faith in
a state of the art device.
The side-scan sonar towfish.
Towed behind their vessel, it would travel along the ocean floor and send
back pictures from 2 1/2 miles below.
But these sonar sweeps would also be a race against time.
Everyday of searching would cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The search team had enough money for only 8 days at sea.
The sonar towfish descended beneath the waters of the Devil's Sea and
began transmitting eerie images from the ocean floor.
To the untrained eye, they were a jumble of shapes and shades, but to
David Mearns something stood out.
Down in the end of that line, we actually started seeing something that
looked a bit suspicious.
And as we went on to the next line, we saw even more trace.
And then finally, the third line we went right over something which was a
great, big, dense patch of hard material.
Whether it was rock or wreck we couldn't tell.
Could this be the break they were hoping for?
The team knew the success or failure of the expedition hung in the balance.
Everything depended on what they would see next as the ship began its second
pass.
As we are approaching, literally right to the point of the sonar starting to
pick up the images, we lost the towfish.
Just ping, like that.
And so this very heavy double-armored steel cable just snapped and there
goes our $600,000 towfish off the back of the ship and we knew immediately it
was lost.
The sonar towfish, their best chance of success, was lying 2 1/2 miles
below on the seabed. Time was running out.
Round one to the Devil's Sea and before a recovery can be attempted, a
storm threatens on the horizon and the team must batten down the hatches and
brace for impact.
They're painfully aware of what the weather can do out here.
In living memory, a storm devastated the most powerful Navy ever to sail
the seas.
Today, that same Navy is armed with awesome technology and steeled by the
lessons of history.
But are these sailors destined to once again face the wrath of the Devil's
Sea?
For centuries the Devil's Sea has terrified all who sail these
treacherous waters and taken many of them into its deadly depths.
This is a place so fierce that it's spawned ancient legends and demonic
forces and modern speculation that it might be another Bermuda Triangle.
But since the middle of the 20th century, a powerful human presence has
cruised its mysterious waters.
At the end of World War II, the US Navy 7th fleet based itself in Japan
and has ruled the Pacific ever since.
The 7th fleet sails Japanese waters without fear, at least, of any human
adversary.
But these sailors know that if you drop your guard, the Devil's Sea can
turn on you in the blink of an eye.
A lot of times, you have fair winds and following seas.
That's as good as you get.
You look out here on the horizon and stuff, we got a nice breeze, sun
shining, you know.
If I weren't in the Navy, I'd probably be out here getting a tan right now.
But we could walk out here 4 hours from now and, bam, just like that.
It seems like the devil's beating his wife.
So you never know what's going to happen.
To survive in the Devil's Sea you have to know what it's about to throw at
you.
In this danger zone, the top guns aren't fighter pilots, but a handful
of meteorologists who scan the sea and sky for any sign of trouble.
For these men, failure is not an option.
The slightest error could take them into the path of danger and some of
the most murderous weather the planet could generate will slam into their
ships.
It seems incredible that these powerful warships, built to repel the
most daunting foes, could be so vulnerable to the assaults of nature.
But the Devil's Sea has already shown what it can do to them, a tragedy that
still haunts the Navy.
December 1944, World War II rages in the Pacific.
The suicide squadrons of the Japanese kamikaze are the most feared enemy of
this theater.
But the terror they inspire is about to be surpassed.
Task Force 38, a US Navy carrier battle group pounds Japanese forces in
the Philippines, softening them up before MacArthur's invasion hits the
beach.
After 3 days of bombarding the enemy, they must break off the attack and
steam into formation to refuel.
But just over the horizon, a deadly force is gathering strength.
A force far more destructive than anything the Japanese could throw at
them.
As the ship struggled to refuel in growing seas, they're stopped by the
growing fury of a powerful typhoon.
There's nowhere to hide as the storm strikes.
Suddenly the sailors of Task Force 38 are thrown into the fight of their
lives.
The seas were described as mountainous, very high seas and, of
course, the ships were rolling and pitching.
The wind was between 50 and 75 miles with gusto as much as 120.
So the noise level was terrific and, of course, the ships were moving form
side to side and up and down.
It was really a terrifying experience for those who were on board.
In fact, there were some sailors who had faced the kamikaze madness and
found that this typhoon was probably the worst experience of their lives.
For the men of Task Force 38, the next 24 hours were a living hell.
Storm force winds and 60-foot waves pounded them, capsizing 3 destroyers,
badly mauling 16 other ships, sweeping more than 200 planes off the carriers,
starting raging fires below decks.
When it was over, 765 American sailors were dead.
It was the US Navy's worst natural disaster of the 20th century.
The mighty fleet limped back to port bearing the scars of battle.
The murderous typhoon had caught Task Force 38 by surprise.
To prevent a disaster like this from ever happening again, the Navy set up
weather forecasting stations throughout the Pacific.
Today, the US Navy meteorological and oceanographic command in Yokosuka,
Japan is on high alert.
There's a powerful typhoon brewing in the Devil's Sea.
This deadly region is a typhoon factory.
Its warm waters can generate as many as 30 killer storms in a year,
maelstroms of 200 mile per hour winds and waves up to 60 feet high, racing
at 50 miles per hour across the sea, devastating everything in their path.
Maximum seas associated with the storm at this time are about 28 feet.
So we're keeping ships well clear of that area, we're keeping ships well
clear of the coast of China.
And they're expecting that storm to maintain winds of about 80 knots to
some somewhere 5 knots as it progresses west.
When the wind surpassed 170 knots or 195 miles per hour, a typhoon becomes
a super typhoon, one of nature's most devastating forces and a naval
forecaster's worst nightmare.
In a super typhoon, you can have seas well in excess of 35 feet and much
larger than you ever want to see a ship encounter.
Very capable of sinking ships, grounding ships, destroying harbor
facilities and housing on islands, just absolutely devastating to
anything that they encounter.
170 knots will tear down concrete walls and permanent structures.
A naval weather man's job is to ensure that when a meteorological monster
like this churns across the sea, one thing that it won't encounter is a
ship of the US Navy.
If they're close enough to land, they can ride out the storm in the relative
safety of a harbor.
But ships too far from land have no option, but to ride out the fury of
the storm.
Many of the ships lost in the Devil's Sea have disappeared during the worst
winter months when storms are most frequent and deadly.
But these are giant ships built to withstand the worst conditions.
A typhoon alone shouldn't sink them.
When the giant bulk carrier MV Derbyshire sailed into the Devil's Sea
it was September 1980, the heart of the annual typhoon season.
At 10:19 a.m., on September 9th, the captain reported that Derbyshire was
battling 70 miles per hour winds and 30 foot waves.
But the captain wasn't especially worried.
He was confident that a ship as large and well designed as his should have
no trouble surviving even such severe weather.
He radioed that their arrival in port would be delayed by no more than a few
days.
Instead, Derbyshire disappeared without a trace.
How could he have been so tragically wrong?
Could the answer lie buried beneath the waves?
Violent forces lurk down here, forces that modern science struggle to
fathom, forces that may hold answers to the mysteries of the Devil's Sea.
Some call Japan's Devil's Sea the Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific.
Ships and airplanes vanish here without a trace.
Could the answers to the mysteries lie here far beneath the stormy surface?
Down here lurk powerful deadly forces, forces that imperil all who sail on or
under the Devil's Sea.
The Devil's Sea has been a watery grave for submariners.
It took an especially heavy toll on the submarine fleets of World War II.
1 in 5 US Navy submarines never returned from the sea and nearly half
of the 52 US submarines lost during World War II met uncertain fates.
Today, researchers are uncovering the deepest secrets of the Devil's Sea.
The Japanese Marine Science and Technology Center regularly sent craft
into these dark depths.
The Shinkai 6500 submersible is the pride of the fleet, built to dive to
the bottom of the world's deepest oceans.
Marine scientists spend long hours in the inky depths, opening up an unseen
world on a scale that is scarcely believable.
In some places, the deep rifts in the ocean floor drop 37,000 feet beneath
the surface.
If the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, were to rise from this
abyss, it would still be over a mile below the waves.
Researchers have only scratched the surface of this undersea world.
Could this be the final resting place of the World War II submarine lost to
unknown causes?
There is no telling what these shadowy depths could hide.
Some have even suggested that there is an alien life force lurking beneath
the Devil's Sea.
One account from a Russian research scientist was widely reported in the
paranormal press.
On August 18th 1980, the Soviet vessel Vladimir Volbirov was returning from a
research mission off the coast of Japan.
Expedition leader Professor Platonov claimed he was on watch when suddenly
an unidentified submerged object burst from the sea and circled the ship.
According to the professor, it was cylindrical in shape and scorched the
area with a blinding blue light.
The professor reported that the strange craft was like nothing of this
world, an unidentified object that circled the ship for several minutes
and then plunged back into the ocean as suddenly as it had appeared.
Over the years others have told similar tales and the folklore of the
Devil's Sea has grown.
But there are other explanations for strange objects bursting from the
water.
Japanese scientists dismissed the notion of an undersea alien life
force.
To be honest, almost all phenomena are explainable through our knowledge and
I have never seen such a strange phenomenon.
So what power of nature could send objects shooting to the surface miles
above?
One answer can be found at the western depths of the Devil's Sea, where the
earth's molten core threatens to break through the fragile crust.
Without warning, violent forces can burst from the ocean floor and then
disappear just as quickly, leaving no evidence of their fury, except,
perhaps, the mystery of a vanished ship.
In the 1950s, a "New York Times" report on a mysterious disappearance
first brought the world's attention to the Devil's Sea.
September 23rd 1952, the Kaiyo Maru 5, a Japanese coast guard research vessel
with 31 crew aboard, heads for the Myojin reef in the Devil's Sea to
monitor strange underwater activity. Making good speed, the crew expects to
reach the reef in less than a day.
But after 3 days of radio silence, the coast guard declares the vessel
missing.
Ships in the area change course to search for survivors.
None of the Kaiyo Maru's crew is found.
The mystery deepens, until by chance, the searchers witness a violent
natural phenomenon.
If this had suddenly erupted under the Kaiyo Maru, she would have gone
instantly to her doom with no time even to signal her distress.
Searchers found a few scraps of wreckage, but none of them bore a
ship's name and there were no survivors to tell their tale.
The fate of the Kaiyo Maru would remain a secret of the Devil's Sea.
Grieving relatives were forced to accept that the ship was simply gone
and with it their husbands, sons and fathers.
The Japanese coast guard warned ships to avoid Myojin reef because of the
danger of an undersea eruption and a legend was born.
But rumblings in the depths can kill in more ways than one.
When an earthquake strikes Japanese coastal towns, residents run to the
hills.
An earthquake on the seafloor sends a shockwave racing to the surface.
A bulge of water is displaced and moves swiftly through the ocean.
This irresistible force is the tsunami, the deadliest of waves.
In the open ocean, tsunami waves can travel at over 500 miles per hour.
Anyone caught in its path on land or in a harbor has no chance.
As a child, Takeo Suzuki was one of the lucky few when a tsunami
annihilated his village.
It was terrible.
At 12 o'clock the earthquake struck.
A few minutes later, the tsunami came.
People tried to escape.
The people who died were not so far away from us, but they were killed.
Throughout history, tsunamis have taken the lives of hundreds of
thousands of people.
Today tsunamis still wreak havoc along the coast of Japan.
And all too often, people don't realize the threat they pose until
it's too late.
No one is more aware of the awesome force of the tsunami than Chip
McCreery of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Even a 10-foot tsunami is quite destructive because sea level will
rise by 10 feet and it will stay high for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes.
And during that time period, of course, a lot of water rushes on shore
and it can rush on shore with a high velocity.
This not only floods areas, but the force of the water knocks things down
and picks up debris, which in turn acts as battering rams.
It's no wonder that some have suggested that these monster waves
could be responsible for the ships missing in the Devil's Sea.
But those who know the tsunami best say it's unlikely.
A big destructive tsunami might only be a meter or less in height out on
the open ocean.
And because these waves have very long wavelengths, the time it takes for the
wave to go up and then go back down is a long time.
It might be 20 minutes, even up to an hour.
So this slow rise and fall of the sea out in the middle of the ocean is
quite unnoticed.
Although they cause massive destruction on the coast, tsunamis
can't take the blame for a ship missing at sea.
Far out to sea, time was running out on the expedition searching for the
lost ship Derbyshire.
There had been a promising sonar scan up the sea floor where the ship was
reported missing.
But before they can make a positive identification, the sonar towfish had
been lost, claimed by the Devil's Sea.
Now the storm relented and the mission could go ahead.
They would attempt to recover the towfish and identify the target.
But would they be prepared for what they'd find 2 1/2 miles below.
Nothing is safe in the Devil's Sea, thought by some to be the Bermuda
Triangle of the Pacific.
Ships disappear from the surface, submarines dive to their doom,
aircraft vanish from the skies.
Some blame unnatural forces, some, the forces of nature.
There's no doubt that this is one of the deadliest and most mysterious
stretches of ocean in the world.
And one piece of the puzzle was proving to be frustratingly elusive.
The Devil's Sea had foiled one attempt to solve the mystery of the lost ship
Derbyshire.
The expedition team had lost their sonar towfish just as it was beginning
to transmit images of a suspicious formation on the ocean floor.
Now they would launch a rescue mission, a desperate attempt to
recover the towfish and identify the target below.
The team ready their remote operated vehicle or a ROV.
This mission would push it to its limits.
Would the ROV's titanium frame withstand the crushing pressures that
it would encounter as it descended?
A few slender cables were all that kept this high-tech submersible
tethered to the ship. If anything went wrong 2 1/2 miles
down, there was nothing anyone on the surface could do.
So the tension was incredibly high.
You've got a very expensive piece of equipment sitting on the seabed and
there's a wreck down on the seabed that's-- you know it's the wreck you
want, but without that picture proving it, no one will believe you.
So if you'd come back, you know, without being able to do that, you'd
have failure on every single front.
We recovered our towfish which was technically a very difficult thing to
do, picking up this one ton probe and bringing it onto the deck.
And then we had to dive onto target and we had about 6 hours of time left
before we actually had to leave.
The anxiety on board grew as never before seen images appeared out of the
gloom.
The-- picked up a trail of glittering iron ore, the cargo that Derbyshire
was carrying when it disappeared.
Twisted metal confirm that the target was a shipwreck.
And then the moment they had all been hoping for.
Proof, at last, that the mighty ship had not simply disappeared, that
behind this mystery, at least, there lay an answer.
Finding a shipwreck is a fantastic feeling.
People had predicted she'd never be found.
So, you know, the moment that you actually start seeing wreckage, to be
able to see that image is a great feeling.
For Paul Lambert of the Derbyshire Family Association, the news brought
relief.
And a sudden crushing sense of loss.
A lot of families at the back of their minds still did not accept the
Derbyshire had sunk.
You know, there's a lot of desert islands in that area and some of them
still felt that their husbands, their sons and daughter were actually on the
desert island.
We remember those who lost their lives at sea while sailing on the merchant
vessel Derbyshire.
And when you actually find the ship, then that belief was taken away.
So there was a lot of mixed emotions, you know, this one reality that, you
know,-- wasn't coming home.
Even though it was 14 years after the ship had sank, they still held on to
that belief.
Geoffrey Victor Underhill.
After 14 painful years, the families of the disappeared had the answers
they'd been searching for.
Raymond William Taylor, Peter Lambert, Nigel Coates.
Against the odds and confounding the critics, David Mearns and his team had
achieved the impossible.
They had found the twisted remains of the Derbyshire.
But the question remained, what catastrophic event could have sent her
to the bottom?
The findings of the expedition helped maritime experts piece together the
doomed ship's final moments.
Derbyshire was caught in a typhoon she couldn't outrun.
The storm waves were almost exactly the same length as the ship.
So as Derbyshire descended down each wave, it pushed her bow into the next
one.
As wave after wave rolled over her, they tore away her bow fittings and
flooded her forward hold.
Now the bow's actually biting into the waves.
And they probably knew at that time, they were in real trouble.
They could feel it.
An experience master and crew can actually feel the sluggishness of the
vessel rising to the waves because they know the forward section is now
being flooded.
With her bow held underwater, it was only a matter of time before the waves
stove in cargo hatches one and two and the ship began a descend from which
she could never recover.
The relentless sea tore her into three pieces and crushed her as she sank.
The crew had no chance.
There was no way for them to launch a lifeboat for it to be saved in any
way.
They just had to hope that the ship somehow rode it out, even while she
was floundering.
But I think there would have been some minutes there where they knew, and
possibly as many as 10 minutes, where they knew that nothing could be done
to save them.
The last act of the expedition was to gently place a memorial plaque on the
Derbyshire's foredeck inscribed with a prayer for her lost souls.
Tragically, the Derbyshire wasn't the only ship lost in this way.
Just a few years after Derbyshire was lost, her two sister ships were also
torn apart by storms they ought to have survived because of the same
design faults.
The Derbyshire tragedy led to improved safety features that are now standard
on new ships.
But many older ships suffer the very same flaws that led to Derbyshire's
demise.
For Paul Lambert, the fight is far from over.
The mystery of the Derbyshire may be solved, but he won't rest until every
ship is made safe.
I don't want my brother Peter on the other day nor the other 43 people
lives who have been lost for nothing.
And the only we can do that is to get the recommendations implemented.
I want people to remember Derbyshire, of the lives she could have saved.
It may be cold comfort, but there is some comfort in the knowledge that
many mysterious disappearances can be accounted for.
And every mystery solved improves the odds for the thousands of seafarers
who venture out onto the Devil's Sea every day.
Maritime experts are confident that eventually even the most perplexing
mysteries will give up their secrets.
When you're at sea on a ship and you're out there and there's nothing
else, there's you and your crew and your vessel, yeah, things happen,
nobody knows, you know.
And Derbyshire was one of those ships where if we hadn't found it, nobody
would ever know.
And if you wanted to think she was overcome by the forces of some
unexplained phenomenon, people could have believed that as well.
But we've proved that that was incorrect.
Now we know why she sank.
So that's what gives me the confidence that these things are explainable.
At least, in the case of Derbyshire it is.
But for some, the enigma will always remain.
Many people now realize that there are many things we can't solve, even
though we have witnessed great progress in science.
However, I don't think I can persuade people who insist that there's nothing
science cannot solve.
Every day this vast expanse of ocean continues to be plied by hundreds of
ships, braving the forces of nature and the terrors of the unknown.
As the Devil's Sea casts a shroud over its mysteries, the sailors can only
pray that they won't fall victim to the Pacific Ocean's deadliest waters.