00:00.20 kinkella Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 118 I am your host Dr Andrew Kinkella and tonight our me ma tea we are doing shipwrecking and treasure hunting on the podcast. Beware so check this out I was invited onto the life and ruins podcast by Carlton Gover and he started talking about really cool stuff. He did. In the underwater world with actually somebody who I'd worked with in the past and of course I became instantly jealous as per usual and I thought how dare he do things that are cooler than what I do. And then I'm like wait I work on Shipwrecks too I work in the underwater world too I could do this too. So then I was like but how do I make shipwrecks work. On The Pseudo Archeology Podcast you know I'm like and I took a while and I thought about and then I'm like way treasure hunting treasure hunting is totally pseudo archeology right? because. 01:32.20 kinkella It's full of just like b s narratives and there's like no science and it's all about the money and it's often based on some story that has no bearing in reality some like sweet treasure hunting it is and then I was like but hold up what about all the. Ghost ships and haunted ships and all that kind of stuff. So good god my friends, a plethora of possibilities has opened up for us. Yes, yes, a plethora of possibilities and some alliteration which is always good. So. Not only do I have some ideas for today I'm like man I got ideas for a couple more. So I think I might do a couple more shows on famous ships and famous hauntings in these ships and these kind of things and I think that'll work really well for us so in terms of. Starting out here I thought I would start by talking about 1 or 2 really famous ghost ships and the kind of real story behind them and then I thought I'd go onward and talk about my own. Dealings and experiences in the treasure hunting world like coming ah up against these kind of people and how they think and what they do and then finally talk about an underwater shipwreck project that I was a part of that I thought was done really really well I thought it was a. 03:07.29 kinkella Great idea I thought it was executed. Um, really smartly. It's a project I was on many many years ago but I think back to it every so often when I want an example of an archeology project done right. 03:24.13 kinkella Now in terms of those themes I'm not quite sure what's going to come first and second and third, why don't we start out with famous haunted or ghost ships right? Let's do some of those and then I'll go onward just depending on what seems to make more sense. So. In terms of ghost ships I've talked some about this before but when I was a kid I was totally into the tv show in search of with Leonard Namoy right and Mr Spock himself had the best voice for some of this and I remember. Even from back then and I'm watching this as reruns in the eighty s right? They largely came out in the 70 s but I remember the name the Mary Celeste and I'm like what is that you know the Mary Celeste I knew it was some sort of ghost ship that was. Cruising the oceans of the world with no crew at all 10 and and and so I looked it up and honestly it's funny I haven't thought about this stuff in so long that I didn't have the internet in like 1984 you know so. Ah, looked up to Mary Celeste to get a good idea on the backstory and I have to say even though of course this show is all about how there is no such thing as ghosts and I can't believe I have to say that. Yeah, there is no such thing as. 04:59.17 kinkella Ghosts. So even though you know we're about debunking this stuff I always love the backstory to these things I like the true stories right? The setup because I find the history of these stories to be fascinating. So. The real deal with the Mary Celeste is it's a ship that was found adrift near the straits of gibraltar I believe which is the entrance to the mediterranean sea from the Atlantic and this is in 1872 so it's old but not super super ancient. And another ship comes up to the mary celeste it. The mary celeste is floating there. Everything looks great. The sails look great like the whole the boat is in perfect shape. But there's no crew at all where did they go did they go to the other side. Did the rapture come a little bit early now what they found is they looked closer to the ship. There was no crew but there was also no lifeboat and there was also no ship's log so right there you're like oh the crew abandoned ship. And of course you can have all these side stories of like but why did they abandon ship was there a hunting did they all go crazy. You know or you can just be much more honest and be like hey there was a big storm and they thought the ship was about to sink. 06:30.29 kinkella They all got on the right lifeboat and they all got out of there obviously like the captain takes the log and all that stuff they obviously left in a rush and then of course the lifeboat just got lost and was never found and they all died the end but as always I have to ruin a great story. You know? So even with that said though I love the background I love the background of like oh my god think of how tense and terrible that storm must have been that the crew of the Mary Celeste was like you guys. We have to abandon ship. We are about to ah topple over or sink you know and. Their only hope they thought was to abandon ship in a storm in a lifeboat in 1872 right? They they must have known that that choice was not giving them the greatest chances of living. So that true moment must have been very very tense and awful. So we have that story right? And so the reality of it is pretty pretty obvious now. There's another one that comes up a lot that maybe even more famous which is the story of the flying. Dutchman yes, right going straight back to pirates of the caribbean but the flying Dutchman is a real myth that's been told again and again. 08:01.25 kinkella Possibly. It's possibly as old as like the sixteen hundreds which would make a lot of sense. So the flying dutchman the story with the flying Dutchman which again is a real story that's been told for hundreds of years is the idea that there's this ship that's trying to go around. The cape of good hope right? That's the bottom of Africa and of course that area is known for storms and bad weather and this kind of thing and the ship is caught in a storm and the captain because of his own narcissism and self-centered need to get across is going to. Continue to go through the storm at any cost and of course because of the Captain's own narcissism The ship is never heard from again. But in fact, some nights you may see a dull glow on the horizon. And that my friends is the ghost ship of the flying dutchman. 09:05.98 kinkella Right? That's the deal and of course this is a cautionary tale of don't be self-centered. Don't be stupid when you're in a situation that can't be 1 be smart and get out of the storm right? so. This cautionary tale is understandable and it's a fun interesting myth and again the backstory of it being around for hundreds of years. The flying dutchman it it surely has to do with like the Dutch East India company and trade from those. Early times of the sixteen hundreds 17 hundreds in that in that time and of course pirates of the caribbean took this famous mythology and added it to their movie franchise. Do I have a problem with that. Hell no. I love pirates of the caribbean and I know you're like Kincula but you're the host of the pseudo archeology podcast. How pray tell can you enjoy pirates of the caribbean because it's a fun movie. It's not on the history channel right? I love pirates of the caribbean and I have to say if I have to vote. My favorite ride at Disneyland absolutely pirates of the caribbean which as a side story made me think it was smart to take my two and a half year old daughter on that ride and that that wasn't a good call. 10:34.93 kinkella And I'm a bad father. But with that said again. Great story, interesting. Backstory is interesting but is there really a flying Dutchman again. Hey everyone say it with me. No, but a great story now. With that said, there are some very cool recent stories of shipwrecks being found that I swear you guys I never thought they were going to be found. The first one on my list. The endurance Shackleton's boat from the early twentieth century now this is in the early teens like 191617 in that realm of time basically during world war one earn a shackleton famous expedition. Attempting to reach the south pole they never made it the endurance was locked in the ice and they had to abandon ship on the ice and take their lifeboats with them as sledges basically across the ice carrying whatever food they had left and. In the famous story surviving like the better part of 3 years I believe all the crew members survived nobody died so it became a story of grit and survival and it had nothing to do anymore about reaching the south pole it had to do with. 12:03.79 kinkella Straight up survival and the story of the crew of endurance is one of my favorite stories of all time and again it's honest, the stuff they did was amazing. They took 1 of their lifeboats on like a god I want to say it was like sixteen hundred miles it was something crazy to Elephant Island which is like this little island off the off the coast of of Antarctica again I hope I'm getting that right? but that I am getting right? The miles upon miles upon hundreds of miles that they had to navigate in a um, small life raft in the Southern Ocean good god so anyway the endurance of course gets locked in the ice and sinks being a fan of the story over the years I never thought they would find it but I believe it was last year they found it in ten thousand feet of water off the coast of Antarctica what an incredible, incredible archeological find done by. Good research focused project and good sense right? Amazing find at ten Thousand feet under under the ocean also other famous shipwrecks that have recently been found the Arabus and the terror this is the opposite story of. Early explorations to the north pole as part of the illfated Franklin Expedition now this happens in the 1840 s so earlier than Shackleton's boat journey but the same idea except on the flip side. Ultimately. 13:38.77 kinkella Everybody dies so these 2 ships same idea locked in this in the ice sink. The crew is left on a small island in Northern Northern Canada and I never thought they were going to find them. And these were found about ten years ago kind of one after the other same idea but in the North. So while we talk about silly overdone stories like the mary celeste right? We have to realize that there are also some. Excellent stories of recent archeological shipwreck finds that we can really be proud of and really learn from and they can help us tell the backstory and the story of the past with that said let's come back and talk about a project. Done right.