Deep Sea Detectives

Explore historic shipwrecks off the coast of California, many of which cause heated conflict between the archaeologists, fighting to preserve the wrecks, and salvagers, looking to profit from them.

In 1975, the 29-man crew of the iron-ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald faced one of the worst storms head on. Fighting 30-foot waves and 95-mile per hour winds, she disappeared only 17 miles from safety.

In 1898, a trio of tempests engulfed New England, sinking hundreds of ships. Only now can the dramatic story of the nearly 200 people trapped aboard the lost passenger steamer SS Portland be told.

Divers explore the wreck of The Montana, a 'mountainboat' built to carry passengers and freight West that sank on the Missouri River in 1884.

Just off the coast of Northern California sits the wreckage of a clipper that smuggled opium into China during the 1840s. Who built and owned it? And how is there no historical record of the sinking?

Search for a Spanish galleon, the Atocha, which sank off the Florida Keys. Head back to the famous treasure ship with Mel Fisher, who has recovered roughly $400 million of riches from the sea floor.

Hours before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, American marines claimed to have torpedoed a Japanese sub outside the harbor. Without evidence, the story was dismissed. But in 2002, the wreck was found.