Drain the Oceans

The hunt for a legendary ghost ship in Alaska reveals a corner of the United States once known as "Russian America." The Kad'yak was a Russian three-masted bark that sank in Icon Bay off Kodiak Island in 1860. It was bound for San Francisco, California, with a cargo of ice.

Draining Alaska's extreme north reveals the graveyard of a tragic fleet. The 1871 Whaling Disaster occurred when pack ice off Alaska's North Slope trapped 32 whaling ships.

Hidden in the oceans, lakes, and rivers of the US lie lost wrecks that reveal secrets about how the American Mob gained power and wealth in the 1920s. In the Atlantic off New York are the rum-running tug boats Lizzie D. and William P. Maloney, linked to Lucky Luciano. In the Detroit River near Windsor, Ontario, Canada, lies the wreck of an upside-down Model T truck that fell through the frozen river in Winter, smuggling liquor from Canada to the USA for the Purple Gang, allied with Luciano. In Lake Michigan near Chicago, Illinois, lies the paddle steamer Rotarian, a floating speakeasy with bottles of liquor hidden in its bilge. The party boat was owned by the Cook County Democratic Party and Mayor William Thompson, who was closely allied with Al Capone. It was set on fire, towed into the Lake, and sunk to hide evidence of Mob involvement. Prohibition taught the Mob how to make money, work together, and corrupt politicians.

Paleontologists journey from Patagonia to Canada to overturn popular misconceptions about dinosaurs and uncover the real Jurassic Americas. Discovered are a new species of titanosaur in Patagonia, Argentina; a new nodosaur from an oil sands mine in Alberta, Canada; and a pack of tyrannosaurs at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah.

Archaeologists uncover the truth behind the legend of a treasure ship, the "Beeswax Wreck" off Manzanita Beach, Oregon. The Spanish Manila galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos was wrecked in 1693, hauling porcelain, pottery, and valuable beeswax.

A shipwreck in the Patuxent River in Maryland appears to be the lost flagship USS Scorpion of Commodore Joshua Barney's Chesapeake Flotilla from the War of 1812. Outgunned by the British fleet, Barney withdraws up the river, ordering the entire flotilla scuttled. This opens the way for the British attack on Washington, burning the White House in 1814.

Artist Tina Dunkley uncovers her enslaved ancestor Ezekiel Loney's link to the burning of the White House. Freed by the British, he became a Colonial Marine at Fort Albium on Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay. The troops attacking Washington include Loney. He and his family later migrated to Trinidad & Tobago after the War of 1812.

A bomb, murder, and a foiled multi-million insurance scam on the high seas: the Lucona sank in the Indian Ocean on January 23, 1977, by a bomb planted by Austrian businessman Udo Proksch as part of a $20 million insurance fraud.