Bering Sea Gold

They got caught in a bad business deal.

This is by far the biggest hole I've had to dig myself out of.

Everybody else got an early start on me,

but I'm coming for 'em one scoop at a time,

one ounce of gold at a time.

I need to come up with $400,000.

We'll see.

I thought it was going to be more.

We're working an old beach line that was 1,000 years ago.

The last time we worked here, I didn't make any money.

Idle up!

We're just going to have to push through

anything that comes our way.

The next gold rush is there. We just have to find it.

I'm exploring glades west of nome,

that no one's ever manned before.

That sea floor hasn't changed.

There's probably fresh gold there.

It's a gamble.

We don't know what we're going to find there.

Damn.

This could ruin my season and lose the barge.

Stuck big time. It's going to take a miracle.

And I believe in miracles.

Come on, baby.

don't let it roll down on top of you.

Yeah.

It's coming for you, ken.

Is everything okay?

Aw...

Look out.

Pull him in, pull him in!

Ahh.

The 500 pounds. 500 pounds.

Gold is a beautiful thing, isn't it?

Aw, listen to that.

captions paid for by discovery communications

I just got a call, spud's stuck down.

Storm's coming in.

Busted a cable, it looks like.

I don't how we did that. Supposed to be fishing for gold,

but but now we're stuck.

Captain ken kerr's responding to an urgent call

from the myrtle irene.

We're losing $50,000 a day while this thing's shut down.

This could ruin my season and lose the barge.

With a goal to bring in the largest haul

in bering sea history,

the titan's been off to a hot start...

We're in a honey hole here.

...Pushing his crew and equipment

to run material 24/7.

All right. Time for a shift change.

Back to the dock.

But now...

It's a bad deal.

...The morning crew has sounded the alarm,

putting the captain's hot streak on ice.

Man, one of the worst things that could happen

next to killing somebody.

We broke our bottom cable.

It goes down below and through a shiv underneath

the bottom of this spud, comes up into our winch

and right now, the cable's broke down there.

And now we've got to jack the spud up manually.

And it's stuck in the mud.

The mighty myrtle doesn't use anchors,

instead two 50,000 pound spuds are installed on deck.

When the myrtle lands on pay dirt,

these massive cylinders are lowered to the sea floor

with steel cables to give the barge stable footing.

But with the shifting ocean floor,

one of the spuds is stuck in new layers of deep mud,

turning the myrtle into a sitting duck.

There's some good color there.

Meanwhile, we're not digging, we're not making no money.

We've been really having a good year on the best gold ever.

All this real fine gold.

And now we're losing precious time.

It's disappointing.

If we can't get this spud up and get moved,

a storm come in, it could wreck our barge,

ruin our season. I mean, it would be the end.

Got to get it 20, 25, 30 feet up, actually,

because we only got maybe 15 feet sticking out right now

and it's 55 feet long.

So it's going to be a little chore.

But we'll get her done. We're good at fixing

gonna see if we can put this cable around her

and give it a yank with our bucket.

The only thing I have on deck to pull that spud is our excavator.

I think it'll go around twice.

Gonna hook it up to our excavator, pull like hell.

Hope she comes up.

Here we go.

I'm trolling on this spud

with everything this excavator's got.

If we don't pull it right, we could rip the side

out of the spud hole and end up,

you know, sinking the barge.

Pulling all she's got.

It's stuck.

It's stuck big time.

all right, I've given up.

Hate to say it.

It's going to take a miracle to get this thing pulled out.

And I believe in miracles.

Gonna have to go to another plan.

today is going to be such a good day, dude.

We're not going to be fighting ourselves, no bull,

no problems.

We're not going to be fighting the weather.

-There you go. -There you go.

This is the culprit.

Piece of

to be honest with you, we weren't gonna

make anymore gold yesterday.

Our sluice box was stacked up.

You know, your sluice box has to run right to get gold.

That's just the way it is.

On the kelly clan's first trip out,

despite tapping a pay streak...

...The reaper proved unstable.

Well, that's the real problem.

The outside pontoon was filled to the brim with water,

But the sluice box was just a symptom

of a bigger problem.

One of our pontoons were completely filled with water

and half of our boat was sinking.

We pulled the boat out and we let about

100 gallons of water drain out of the pontoon.

To fix a leaky pontoon,

most crews would reach for a welder.

But the kellys? Well...

We have this two part epoxy crap.

It's rubber in a can.

Why weld when you can spray?

Then we stick some splash zone on the pontoon,

we called it done.

Sure you guys are ready? Ready to go now.

The kellys are a mere 100 ounces short

of their 100 ounce goal,

and a big haul is needed to satisfy a lofty goal.

Right now, I have a great opportunity to get a huge ship.

It's going to make pomrenke's boat look like a tugboat.

We only need 100 ounces so I can refurbish and refit it.

I know we can do this and then we'll be on a whole new level.

The key to the captain's plan for gold domination

is rediscovering ancient pay streaks

a few miles east at ft. Davis.

We're working old beach lines that was a thousand years ago.

So you know, right now what we're doing is,

that gold that we're on right now,

that could pay us all summer. We don't have to go anywhere.

It's probably a half a mile long.

I'm there.

But you have to follow it.

This legendary hot spot was one of the sites

of nome's original gold rush.

And with the rapid winter ice melt shifting the ocean floor,

kris is hoping to reignite the rush for a new era.

This could be our grand slam.

Take a chain. Let's go.

Andy's getting, he's doing his thing, getting ready to go down.

Make money.

This winter, andy packed on 40 pounds.

You see me trying to, like, push him in his wet suit?

I feel like pouring grease all over him

and pushing him into that damn thing sometimes.

He's already got the biggest wet suit they make.

But the next wet suit is going to have to probably

be custom fitted by a tent manufacturer.

Fit good? Yeah, that's good.

Okay, let's go.

everything okay?

I can't see a thing.

Aah!

The shifting ocean floor's

given the kellys a shot at long buried pay streaks,

but it's also kicked up heavy sand and sediment.

There's zero viz underneath the water

and andy can't see anything.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know.

That's what I'm doing.

I just put the nozzle on the bottom and let it go.

Gold mining is already a really dangerous job.

But then when you go down there and you work

with your eyes closed, can you imagine going

to work with your eyes closed?

The box is running good.

You're running material through it.

So you're making the best of it.

That's a diver's worst nightmare.

we got to power through it and keep going.

Well...

everything okay?

pull me in.

What?

Pull him in, pull him in!