I'm Kevin Biggar. And I'm Jamie Fitzgerald. Over the past 10 years, we've taken on some of the world's toughest adventures, from rowing across the Atlantic... It's the problem with this seat we've had. It's the only major concern. ...to trekking unaided to the South Pole. Whoo-hoo! Last season, we relived five heroic journeys of NZ's greatest explorers. Now we have a new challenge ` to take on a series of even more epic expeditions. Wow. It's beautiful. We'll encounter some of the toughest terrain this country has to offer ` You can imagine what they felt like. from the vast Olivine Ice Plateau... This place is enormous! ...to the deadly currents of the Three Kings Islands. Each week, we'll retrace the hardest parts of pioneering NZ expeditions. We're good, we're good, we're good! But we will not just be following in their footsteps ` we will be trying the same food, wearing the same boots... Oh, that's cold! ...and using the same equipment. This week, we head to the Three Kings Islands to take on Kelly Tarlton's search for the lost treasure ship the Elingamite. We'll head below using 50-year-old diving equipment and battle huge swells and dangerous tides,... Where's the boat? ...to try and reveal just what Tarlton faced... Wouldn't want it much rougher. ...when he took on one of the most deadly environments in the world. There is an absolute reason why not many people have dived the Elingamite. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 URGENT MUSIC We're headed for the desolate Three Kings Islands. The surrounding seas are known for their treacherous currents and strong swells. The islands sit 55km off the northern tip of NZ, at the crossroads of the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. It's a region of huge swells and unpredictable currents. It's no surprise that the islands are the site of one of NZ's most horrific shipwrecks. On November the 5th 1902, the SS Elingamite left Sydney with 136 passengers and 58 crew on board. She was bound for Auckland, and her route would take her directly past the notorious Three Kings Islands. A thick sea fog prevented anyone from seeing the rocks that were approaching them. The ship smacked into the West King Island and was sunk within 40 minutes. Going down with her was a ton and a half of gold and silver, and also 45 lives were lost. But the Elingamite would take more lives yet. In the early years, the salvage expeditions were unsuccessful because of the atrocious conditions, and then all attempts stopped when two divers tragically lost their lives. It would be 60 years until the treasure hunt would resume. But there was more than just treasure to the Elingamite story ` there was the mystery as to why she hit the rocks in the first place. When the captain saw the approaching island, he ordered the ship full astern. But the Elingamite carried on forward and ploughed into the rocks. The report into the sinking left many unanswered questions, but there was little desire to investigate fully, as the wreck site was such a difficult and treacherous place to visit. In 1962, these hardships were far from the mind of underwater photographer Kelly Tarlton, when he jumped at the chance of a lifetime to accompany scientists to the islands to take pictures. Kelly knew about the Elingamite, and he'd written to Lloyd's of London about it. He knew it was somewhere near the West Island. They went down, and at about 120ft they found a toilet bowl. It could only come from the wreck of the Elingamite. Although he was unable to pinpoint the exact location of the treasure, the lure of adventure was enough for him to quit his job, hire a boat and return with a team of friends. The treasure hunt was now on. We'll do our best to recreate Tarlton's search for the treasure. Starting at the Poor Knights, we'll motor towards the dangerous waters of the Three Kings Islands. The currents around the Kings are legendary, so we need to use the time during our journey north to get used to our 1960s scuba gear. It's a different era, all right. It's a different era, all right. Is this an old life jacket or something? Yeah. Yeah. Looks a bit like an old, uh, loo seat. Well, I don't want you to sit on mine. Well, I don't want you to sit on mine. (LAUGHS) The problem with scuba-diving is that when you go deeper, the compression of the water makes you want to sink faster. And so nowadays you need to try and compensate that. You know, you have a BCD, or a buoyancy compensator device, but this is, like, where they all come from. This is the original. The problem was, when they have to go deeper and they have to put some air into it, they had to blow into this thing. they had to blow into this thing. That means taking out your mouthpiece and blowing in. Ooh. Crazy. And you have a light and a whistle. Crazy. And you have a light and a whistle. (LAUGHS) Maybe this is where you need to let it all out. I think you're right. The other problem they had is dealing with the depth ` they'd be going down to 150ft. So it was absolutely essential that they controlled their decompression ` that's how much, uh, nitrogen gas gets absorbed into the blood. What a fancy decompression` Oh, you've got a new one. (LAUGHS) So, this gauge lets them know how fast they should be coming up to the surface. Oh, that's interesting. Tell me more. Oh, that's interesting. Tell me more. (LAUGHS) It is very cool. Hey, you know one of the other problems about being in the '60s? Rainbow stubbies. (LAUGHS) I really hope we're spending a lot of time underwater. (LAUGHS) I really hope we're spending a lot of time underwater. (LAUGHS) When Kelly headed north for adventure, he was a 24-year-old post office technician. A keen climber, he changed passions after watching Jacques Cousteau's underwater movie The Silent World. Scuba-diving was still in its infancy, and the gear was dangerous and unreliable, which is why we're going to practice in shallow waters before we face the depths of the Elingamite. You know, these were really the early days of scuba-diving. You know, and out here, you may as well be in Mars. Even 2m under the surface, well, if any gear went wrong, there'd be no second chances. For Kelly, well, he taught himself how to dive. He started to dive with three or four friends from Christchurch who were making their own gear. Like, they'd build their regulators using old aircraft parts. Not all of them worked very well, though. He said one of his first ones 'leaked like a damn sieve'. It nearly killed him. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, they weren't thrill-seekers. These guys were engineers, and they were innovative. You know, much of what they created has paved the way for how divers in NZ and around the world use equipment underwater. But to salvage the Elingamite, Tarlton and the team would have to dive deep ` almost 60m, in fact. The bends would be a major problem. The last expedition to salvage the gold and silver in 1907 had ended when the diver, E Harper, surfaced and began suffering chest pains. He died two hours into the dash to the mainland. Are you gonna just stand down there on the edge and`? Are you gonna just stand down there on the edge and`? Yep. One, two... His replacement, Diver Clarke, lasted just one trip,... That's a pretty big fish! ...expiring in his sleep. Tarlton's aim was not only to raise the treasure, but to be the first to live and tell the tale. The sheltered waters off the Northland coast are nothing like the violent conditions we'll face at the Three Kings, but we'll need to learn the quirks of our almost 50-year-old scuba gear in a far less dangerous environment. The sea life is impressive. Large schools of snapper and kingfish glide uncaringly past us, and the gear works perfectly. It's much more mechanical than modern dive equipment, but the simplicity of design is reassuring. It's basic, but there's much less to go wrong. We spend 30 minutes in an aquatic wonderland before we run out of air, but we'll need to take our time heading back up. Decompression sickness, or as it's more commonly known, the bends, occurs when nitrogen gas saturates the blood and tissues. The problem is not in the descent, but when the diver returns to the surface ` then the nitrogen bubbles increase in size, lodging in the joints, arteries, organs and sometimes the brain or spine, where they can cause enormous pain, and potentially death. The deeper a diver descends, the more slowly he must surface. Yep. The gear takes a bit of getting used to. It's quite strange, not being able to... push a button and then be able to control your buoyancy. But once you get used to it... And you put` you put air into it... (BLOWS) But then as soon as you dive down, this is pointing up, so all the air immediately just disappears, and you lose all of your buoyancy. Yeah, but those old masks were working OK. Yeah, but those old masks were working OK. Yeah, mine was` It's hard` You gotta equalise through the mask. It's not that easy. But other than that... Yeah. Well, I'll get the weights sorted. Well, I'll get the weights sorted. Good. We now have a 12-hour journey to the wreck site at the Three Kings Islands. The islands and Cape Maria van Diemen are the only two places in NZ named by Abel Tasman in his 1643 expedition. The islands were a familiar sight to the crew on the passenger ships that plied their trade on their five-day voyage between Sydney and Auckland. But for sailors, the area around the Three Kings was notorious. Vast sandbanks shift and alter with storms. It makes the waters far more tricky than the open ocean. And then, added to this, on the morning of November 5th 1902, a thick sea mist had descended over the islands. The captain and crew were sailing blind, with only their navigation charts to rely on. You can see how these cliffs coming out of the fog on the morning of November 9th 1902 would have chilled the hearts of the passengers and crew of the Elingamite. 200m from the island, they saw the rocks, and the captain put the ship into reverse. But for some reason, they kept going forwards. At the inquest afterwards, Captain Attwood was found guilty of grossly negligent navigation. What no one knew then was that the Three Kings were wrongly charted. They were three miles out from where they should be. The islands themselves are rugged and imposing. There's no place to land a boat. Instead, savage tidal rips, whirlpools and huge surges batter the rocks. Near-vertical cliffs dominate the coastline, and there are few good places to anchor. The thing about diving on a wreck, particularly one as old as this one, is that it's not gonna look like an intact boat when we're down there. There've been 100 years of storms, and swells will have almost completely broken it up. How's it going? How's it going? Yeah, good. Oh, how are they? Dry? Oh, how are they? Dry? Yeah, dry. Good. Oh, how are they? Dry? Yeah, dry. Good. Oh, excellent. The best we can really hope for while down there is pretty much expect an underground junkyard. How much air have you got? How much air have you got? 2000 pounds. > Yeah, great. OK. Yeah, great. OK. Cool. > The first thing we have to do is to find it. And that's gonna be like a needle in a haystack. We have Kelly's charts, but the wreckage might have moved because the currents are so violent. In fact, everything about the wreck screams stay away. Got it? Got it? Yep. Rough conditions at the dive site often meant that they had to use a support boat like this to get out over the top of the reef. The idea being they could protect the main boat from all the rocks. The person looking after the support boat, they had the unenviable task of being tossed around in the swells while the divers were around swimming underneath. Today is a calm day on the surface, but it's impossible to know what the conditions will be like under the waves. There's one major challenge with being in this situation. And that is it always feels quite panicked to get... your gear on and into the water. You're right. Yep. So, what? On three or after three? On three. One, two, three, then go, OK? We don't go, 'One, two,... three.' OK. Hold on to your mask. BOTH: One, two, three. SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC We start our search on the narrow shelf of rocks that the Elingamite struck that terrible November morning. Past this ledge, the reef drops away 50m down an almost vertical undersea cliff. A mere 20 minutes after she struck the rocks, the Elingamite began its final journey down this wall to the silent depths of the ocean floor. But as we try and make our way to the edge of the drop-off, we get our first taste of the island's fearsome currents. We can make no headway at all. In fact, we're being flung about like we're in the world's largest washing machine. We have no control. I'm flying hard against Jamie, almost knocking out his mouthpiece. But the harder we fight to escape, the more we are being drawn toward the jagged rocks of the island. INTRIGUING MUSIC We've travelled back to 1966 to take on Kelly Tarlton's undersea expedition to search for the lost treasure of the Elingamite. We're attempting our first dive near the wreck site at the Three Kings Islands. But the violent currents on the reef have stopped us before we've had a chance to even begin the search. It's just too dangerous. We'll have to abandon today's attempt and hope for calmer water tomorrow. But the rising swell on the surface points to that not being likely. The Three Kings sit in a highly volatile weather zone. 8m swells regularly smash the island. This isn't a place for mucking around. (GRUNTS) Tarlton and the team faced long periods when the conditions made the site just too dangerous to explore. When you're diving in a place as captivating as this, it's easy just to want to keep exploring, but for us today, yeah, I think the current's got the better of us. There is a three-hour time difference in tides between the east and west coasts of NZ. But here, where the two forces clash head-to-head, tides become totally unpredictable. The Three Kings Islands are notorious for terrible weather and incredibly large swells. This wind's come up really fast. We're trying to get the boat around to the lee side of the island to try to get some shelter. There have been plenty of people that have suffered, including Tarlton and the others, as a result of just how strong the weather can be out here. They said on the bad days, the sound of the waves hitting the rocks would drown out the roar of the wind. In many ways, it's ironic that here we are with a huge swell, when in fact the Elingamite had crashed into the rocks on a very calm day. Wouldn't want it to get much rougher. Wouldn't want it to get much rougher. No. Yeah! Yeah! Whoo! It's like the sea doesn't know which way it's coming from. I guess this is what happens when you get two big oceans meet in the same place. Whoo! MUSIC SWELLS It's amazing how quick the sea calms down once you get to the lee of the island. There are some currents and weather patterns here, though. Well, there is no protection. You just get it from everywhere. Well, the sun's going down now. Let's hope it passes over tonight, eh? Over on West King, where the Elingamite wreck is, there's very few places to moor. So every night, Kelly Tarlton and the rest of them would jump in the boat and come back here to Great King, where they'd spend the night. And because the boats they had were almost always filled with dive tanks and compressors and bits of excavating equipment, they would almost always have to end up sleeping out on the deck ` a bit like this. (CHUCKLES) But we have been lucky. You know, the weather's pretty good, and it's just great to be out here with the water that is as clear as it is. But one thing's taken me by surprise, and that's these currents. But one thing's taken me by surprise, and that's these currents. Oh, incredible. You know, being caught out, it really makes you realise how frightening it must have been for those on the Elingamite, back all those years ago when that first sank. Imagine what it would feel like to be in your bed,... you know, at 9 o'clock, and then half past 9, you're on a lifeboat wondering what's gonna happen to you. You know, it was all the powerful currents around here that determined the destiny of the lifeboats. I mean, some made it on to land. Some made it even as far as here, Great King. And then there was one that finally managed to get to the mainland and raise the alarm. Yeah. After the rescuers made their way back here to the islands to pick up the people that were trying to survive on the islands, they went back to Auckland, but there were still some that were unaccounted for. Five days after the boat had sunk, there was one raft found 66 nautical miles north-east of here. Eight men on a raft that was 4m by 2m. All they'd had to survive on were two apples. And the tragic thing about that is that there were eight others who died on that raft. Mm. Mm. And four of them who jumped off, who'd gone mad. And the last one only two hours before rescue arrived. And the last one only two hours before rescue arrived. Yeah. Yeah. And in a way, though, that raft was the lucky raft, because there was one lifeboat with 35 people on board... has never been found. Mm. REFLECTIVE MUSIC One of the things about going out for a dive is there's so much getting ready for it, that when you can finally jump in, ...(GRUNTS) it almost comes as a relief. This time, we've anchored closer to the edge of the reef. As we traverse the ledge, a large school of blue mau mau cruise the top of the drop-off. In perfect formation, they suddenly change direction as if pointing the way. Soon, the lip of the undersea cliff comes into view. Below us stretches the enormous wall of rock that the Elingamite met her fate on. The terrain is very steep ` almost vertical for the first 15m. The deeper we go, the faster we drop. But a few breaths into our buoyancy vests slows our descent. The sun has come out, and the water is clear all the way to the seabed. What we see before us is a waterscape teeming with life, but with no obvious sign of a shipwreck. It's going to take a lot of time and hard work to find any trace of the Elingamite. It's the most intimidating working environment imaginable. The strong currents that surge through here have carved out huge canyons of rock along the sea floor. The colourful trench would have been the first resting place for the sunken ship. But over 100 years later, we can find no trace. But the canyon wall still holds some surprises. A kelp fish, perfectly camouflaged, swims away, seemingly upset that his cover's been blown. As we explore further westward, the current becomes much stronger. A huge stingray fights against it, making slow progress. We're being pushed out to sea. We try and swim against it, but can make no headway whatsoever. Then, through the murky waters, we can see an ominous shape. We can't be sure it's a shark, but we're not keen to find out. We need to get topside and out of the water. Where's the boat? That was great, hey? That was great, hey? Yeah. But where's the boat? The strong current has pushed us around the peninsula and out of sight of our boat. Did the boat move, or have we moved? If there is anything below us, we're going to have to deal with it by ourselves. INTRIGUING MUSIC We are in the waters of Northland's Three Kings Islands, retracing the journey of Kelly Tarlton as he searched for the lost treasure of the passenger steamer the Elingamite. We've battled against a strong undersea current and have been pushed around the end of the island and out of sight of our dive boat. How do we do this? What are the landmarks? What are the landmarks? Well, that's different. What are the landmarks? Well, that's different. Uh-oh. Did you feel the current? Yeah. We're going past that point. With the tide pushing us further out to sea, it's important not to panic. Should we keep in close...? I reckon` Have you got the sausage? But for the first time on all our journeys, we'll have to break character and resort to a modern invention to signal for help. AIR HISSES The safety sausage is an inflatable marker board used to indicate a diver's position if they lose contact with the boat. Whenever I'm diving, this is the worst place I want to spend too much time, cos you don't know what's below ya. Sharks are common in the Kings. Tarlton and their team had been warned that a huge great white called Brutus was a resident in these waters. A commercial fisherman who once hooked Brutus on his line had him at over 7m long. Oh, Kev! Kev. Here it is. Oh man. Good old Demelza. It's only as we swim to the dive boat that we realise just how exhausted being tossed about in the open sea has made us. Whoo! There is an absolute reason why not many people have dived the Elingamite. It's quite a swell. One, two, three... (GRUNTS) Just having to come to a place` Normally for diving of ours, it's in sheltered reefs and spots where, you know, there's some sort of security. A spot like this, it's just exposed to everything. It's our second dive on the Elingamite and the second time it's ended in failure. Kelly Tarlton's Three Kings is proving itself to be our most difficult challenge yet. In 1966, the divers discovered the wreckage of the passenger ship was spread out over an acre of the sea floor. Handrails, portholes, the propeller ` all were recognisable through the growth. For us, 50 years later, we may have to face the fact that there may be nothing left. Time and tide may have written the final chapter of the Elingamite story. The next morning, the weather is clear. But the swell is beginning to build. After studying Tarlton's charts and observing the current, we've decided to move to a more westerly dive site. But being constantly in and out of the water is beginning to take its toll on us. It's been far more draining than we were expecting, and our new dive site is the worst yet. To describe this as nerve-racking is a huge understatement. It might be rough on top, but below the surface, the conditions are perfect for diving. We're searching a large kelp forest. Kelp can grow at a staggering half a metre a day ` more than enough to cover any debris. So we need to get below it to search the sea floor. As he swims, Kevin disturbs a large conger eel. There is plenty of life, but no sign of the Elingamite. Tarlton, though, was always on the lookout for unusual sea life. He sent a parcel of bottom samples from the Three Kings to the Dominion Museum, and when they tested them, they found several new species. It seems our only hope of finding any fragments of the passenger ship is to search beneath every rock, to examine every piece of coral ` hunting for anything that could offer us a clue to the Elingamite's final resting place. But just as we begin to lose hope, out of the gloom, Jamie stumbles upon an object that has no natural reason to be on the ocean floor. It's an iron girder from the hull of the Elingamite. INTRIGUING MUSIC We've travelled back in time to 1966 to take on Kelly Tarlton's exploration of the sunken treasure ship the Elingamite. After a series of exhausting dives, we have at last discovered the final resting place of the ill-fated passenger ship. After lying in its watery tomb for well over a century, all that is recognisable are these coral-encrusted iron girders ` part of the superstructure from the hull of the steamer. Further out to sea, a larger piece shaped like the bow lies completely encased in concrete-like coral. The marine growth waving in the current only adds to the silent, eerie feel of the Elingamite's grave. The further we explore, wooden beams and pipes and more girders all appear, all completely covered in marine growth. After battling so long to find her, the sense of achievement is massive. BOTH CHEER Let's go. Oh! Oh! Oh yeah. Mate. Mate. How about that, eh? Honestly, I seriously didn't think we were gonna get there. Honestly, I seriously didn't think we were gonna get there. Fantastic. Well, we think we've found it. Well, we think we've found it. Well, we think?! There's not much to see. It's just` What did you call that? Like a beam? Yeah, a girder, or something like that. It's broken up, and it's fully encrusted in growth. But it's definitely... It's a man-made thing. That's for sure. It's been broken up, though, hasn't it? You go along, and you can see that there are sections... Certainly, under the sand it's been buried for a long time, but` You know, it's probably, what? 5m, 6m long, the wee bit? 5m, 6m long, the wee bit? Yep, yep. No, it's definitely` It's definitely part of the ship. So that's the main thing. Now we know the location of the ship. The trick is, we can only be down there for so long. Next time ` this is when it's really on. See if we can find something. See if we can find something. Find some buried treasure. Once Tarlton had mapped the entire shipwreck, it was time to get down to the serious work of finding the treasure. At first, it seemed it was going to be simple. Some of the silver coins were just lying on the ocean floor. And there were a lot of them. The passenger ship was reputed to be carrying over �17,000 worth of coins. That's just under $500,000 in today's currency. But as they explored more, they discovered it wasn't going to be quite that simple. Here it is. Here it is. < Aha, good job! You know, even once they found where the Elingamite site was, it wasn't just a matter of swimming down and picking up all the gold and silver that was sitting on the top. It had been decades of stormy weather and huge swells. By now, the gold and silver had gone below the top of the sand and was hidden away. So the problem they had was how to come up with a system that was gonna move all that sand. So they came up with a very ingenious plan. It's like a giant vacuum cleaner. (LAUGHS) You stick this end in the sand, and to create the... To create the suction effect, what you do is to connect this end... Wanna hold on to this? Yeah. Yeah. ...this end into the exhaust of the regulator. The air coming out of here expands up the tube, and as it does so, it brings in a big chunk of water and sand. It's like a huge vacuum cleaner, isn't it? It's like a huge vacuum cleaner, isn't it? It's pretty clever. We don't know if this will work. We know it's something very similar to what they built, uh, but there's a problem. There's a risk that connecting this on to here is a really bad idea. It may cause the regulator to act really badly; it might cause it to free-flow. The person sucking on this might get themselves into trouble. Uh... Which is why we gotta go 'scissors paper rock'. You ready? Uh... Which is why we gotta go 'scissors paper rock'. You ready? Aw... (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Yeah! Jamie, here, will demonstrate to you how it works. I'm really hoping, now, that the inventiveness of Kelly is gonna help us out. (CHUCKLES) Tarlton and the team now worked in shifts to avoid the need for decompression. On a good trip, two divers could work for 70 minutes without interruption. The coins they were now finding were encrusted with coral and clumped together. The divers would fill up baskets and send them to the surface, where the contents were sorted under a constant stream of water. It was a well-oiled machine. The techniques and routines they developed at the Kings would go on to serve them well in later salvage adventures in oceans all over the world. We're going to put the team's ingenious airlift invention to the test. It's unnerving to be attaching the airlift hose to my mouthpiece. To be messing around with the one thing that's keeping me alive seems like a crazy thing to do. But the airlift works perfectly. The sand and rocks from the ocean floor are sent spiralling upwards. The team said that the thousands of bubbles and clouds of sand particles attracted schools of fish so dense that sometimes it was hard to see. But with picks, crowbars and knives, more coins were discovered and levered out. But as clever as the airlift was, they were not retrieving the coins fast enough. Tarlton then developed a new plan ` he would wire the ship with explosives and blow the whole thing sky-high. (LAUGHTER) # Lazy days... # (WHOOPING) (LAUGHTER) (ENGINE REVS) What have you got under the hood, bro? What?! Shush! What's under the hood? You wouldn't believe me. (ALL EXCLAIM) (INTRIGUING MUSIC) (TYRES SCREECH, MEN EXCLAIM, CAR WHIRRS) (BOTH LAUGH) We are in the Three Kings retracing Kelly Tarlton's undersea journey, in search of the lost treasure from the passenger ship the Elingamite. We've battled huge rip tides, rough seas... Wouldn't want it to get much rougher. ...and deadly ocean currents. Now we've finally found the wreck, but we're yet to find any remaining pieces of the treasure. DRAMATIC MUSIC Well, we're close, right? We've gotta be close. That means somewhere down there are �17,000 pounds worth of coins. I think the message in that is maybe not the airlift next time. We need to be a little bit more careful. Yeah. But once we have a rest and fill the tanks up, how about we go down and have another look, eh? Sounds good. Sounds good. (BREATHES IN) Nearly there. The team discovered where they believed most of the coins were hidden, but they were totally trapped ` wrapped in a seam of concrete-like coral. Kelly decided he'd blast them out. The delicate operation of placing 14 plugs of gelignite went almost without a hitch. The main dive boat was moved to safety, and the team watched on as Kelly rammed the plunger home. A thunderous roar and massive shockwave hit the boat. Then a red carpet of dead fish appeared over the dive site. A buffet had been served for every shark in the ocean. But the team couldn't wait. They reached the wreck the same time the sharks arrived. The reef still shows the scars of the violent undersea blast. Jamie's keen to explore every nook and crevice, looking for any sign of the seam. But he comes up short when one of the holes has a new resident. Moray eels, like most wild creatures, would rather flee than fight. But a bite from a moray is nasty. Because of its rear-hooked teeth, it has trouble releasing its hold. So even in death, the eel's jaws must be manually pried off. By the time Tarlton and the team had finished with the Kings, they had removed over 10,000 coins. But then the bottom fell out of the silver market. This made it no longer economic to carry on with the salvage. But by then, the team had made enough money to change their lives. The Elingamite wreck was abandoned again, even though Kelly believed the bulk of the coins were still scattered somewhere on the ocean floor. Whoo-hoo! Oh yeah. I think Jamie's got something. I think Jamie's got something. (CHEERS) Wow. Wow. That was treasure` real treasure hunting, eh? That was something else, eh? I might just have something down my jacket... Whoo! Now, if I look carefully... Here we go. Are you ready? Here we go. Are you ready? Yeah... (GASPS) That is a lump of real silver from the Elingamite wreck. (LAUGHS) You know, there's` The adrenalin rush when you finally pick it up and you realise what you've found. That, in some ways, I now appreciate what they went through and the dangers they faced, just to go in search for stuff like that. The success of the expedition enabled Kelly to turn his hobby into a career. Starting as a commercial diver and underwater photographer, he led expeditions on treasure ships in waters all around the world. He returned to the Kings only once more ` this time, to salvage the Elingamite's huge propellers. In doing so, he solved the final mystery to the ship's sinking. The twisted edges of the prop proved to be the missing piece in the puzzle to why the captain's 'full astern' signal had been ignored. It hadn't been. The Elingamite's propellers had, in fact, already hit the rocks. By the time the command was given, the ship's fate was already sealed. We've had a taste of looking for gold now. Do you think you've got the bug? (LAUGHS) Not a chance. You know, when you first think of the name 'Kelly Tarlton', an underwater aquarium comes to mind. So for recreational divers like us, I thought this would be great. But the number of times we've had to be in the water... I'm feeling so waterlogged. Oh, yeah. Me too. I thought that treasure hunting was about as good an adventure as you could get. But now, having been out on the wreck site, and seeing the size of the swells, and seeing the cold and the fatigue... and seeing the cold and the fatigue... ...and the sharks. And being down deep, you know, and sucking in that thick air ` it's not a very glamorous thing at all. No way. For Kelly and those other divers, you know, they were living a knife edge. With safety and looking out for one another on one side, and on the other, they had this ambition and desire to find all that gold. They were risk-takers. Oh, he certainly had the bug, yeah. He dived on the Elingamite year after year, and wrecks around the country and the world. (LAUGHS) It's a huge shift from his post office technician job. (LAUGHS) It's a huge shift from his post office technician job. That's the cool thing, though. I mean, he loved being underwater, and he found a way to make his passion work. Couldn't agree more. This has been a long one, though. Couldn't agree more. This has been a long one, though. Sure has. Come on. We've got a lot of filleting to do. Come on. We've got a lot of filleting to do. (LAUGHS) Captions by Tom Wilson. Edited by Jessica Boell. www.tvnz.co.nz/access-services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013