A ship that vanished into thin air 132 years ago suddenly turns up under a cornfield. Talk about a plot twist! It's like something out of a movie, except this time, it's real life. Turns out, the ship got buried under layers of soil after a flood, and nobody had a clue it was there until now. So yeah, next time you're wandering through a cornfield, keep your eyes peeled – you never know what secrets might be lurking beneath the surface! Credit:
Supplies: Johnmaxmena2, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supplies1_Arabia_Steamboat_Museum.jpg
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/:
Steamboat Museum: Michael Barera, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arabia_Steamboat_Museum_June_2022_14_(Treasures_of_the_Steamboat_Arabia).jpg
Reconstruction: Yasir999, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconstruction-Derinkuyu-underground.jpg
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Supplies: Johnmaxmena2, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supplies1_Arabia_Steamboat_Museum.jpg
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/:
Steamboat Museum: Michael Barera, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arabia_Steamboat_Museum_June_2022_14_(Treasures_of_the_Steamboat_Arabia).jpg
Reconstruction: Yasir999, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconstruction-Derinkuyu-underground.jpg
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
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FunTranscript
00:00No matter what happens, don't stop! We almost got it!
00:05Two treasure seekers are digging frozen ground in a cornfield at night.
00:09It's raining hard, lightning is flashing, but these two guys keep working.
00:14And now the shovel hits something solid. No way! A treasure chest!
00:19They start digging faster and find a piece of a ship's engine.
00:22What the? Far from the seas and lakes, somewhere under the fields of Kansas City, they found a giant sunken ship.
00:30How is this possible? Now you'll see.
00:34Some people spend their lives searching for shipwrecks with treasures underground.
00:38One of them is explorer David Hawley.
00:41He's been looking for such ships far from the seas, rivers, and oceans for many years.
00:47He does this because he likes the feeling of adventure.
00:50The holds of these ships may contain chests of gold, antiques, and artifacts.
00:55And you can get a lot of money for them.
00:58David says you don't have to go into the ocean to find a sunken ship.
01:01They may be lying in your backyard.
01:04But why do ships end up buried underground among fields, farms, and plains?
01:10Let's find out using the example of steamboat Great White Arabian.
01:14According to old records, the newspaper clippings, this ship had been carrying about 200 tons of treasure before it sank in 1856.
01:23Many rumors and local legends said the ship was lying underground a few miles northeast of Kansas City.
01:29It was there because people deliberately altered the riverbed and channels of the Missouri River in the second half of the 19th century.
01:36They artificially brought the shores closer to each other.
01:40They narrowed the river to increase the flow's speed so boats could sail much faster.
01:46In the 19th century, steamboats were the most popular means of transporting passengers and goods.
01:52Before railroads, they extended the western border across the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and brought supplies to people.
01:59That's why it was so important to increase the speed of their movement.
02:03So, on September 5th, 1856, Arabia was sailing along such an estuary.
02:09It came across a snag sticking out of the water. A piece of log quickly flooded the ship.
02:14Fortunately, all passengers were evacuated.
02:17But the steamer and its precious cargo reached the silt bottom of the Missouri River in a few minutes.
02:23Several years had passed. Everyone forgot about the vessel.
02:27During this time, the course of the Missouri River had changed.
02:31But Arabia remained under the wet, muddy bottom.
02:35The soil level above it was getting higher and the ground was losing moisture.
02:39Eventually, many decades later, a cornfield formed above the sunken ship.
02:44In the 1980s, one farmer owned this area and he had no idea what was hidden in his territory.
02:51David Hawley carefully studied the history of the sunken ships of the USA.
02:55He knew that hundreds of steamers had gone underwater all over Missouri.
02:59But most of all, he was interested in Arabia.
03:03As there were rumors that it was filled with gold and other valuable things,
03:07the territory of cornfields in Kansas was vast.
03:10But David Hawley knew how to search properly.
03:13In 1987, he started working.
03:16First, together with his brother and father, they collected all the clippings from old newspapers they could find.
03:22They were looking not only for information about the steamer, but also for maps of the Missouri River.
03:28They tracked its historical changes, checked the dates, and identified a large area where the steamer sank.
03:35Next, they used electromagnetic testing and other geological stuff to study the soil and find the right place.
03:42They searched for differences in ground moisture and density.
03:45Then, they went through the territory with powerful metal detectors.
03:49And so, by the fall of 1988, they had determined the location of the steamer.
03:55Arabia was the size of a football field.
03:58This gigantic vessel lay 45 feet underground, four stories down!
04:04But before they started excavating, they had to ask the owner of the cornfield for permission.
04:09For the farmer, this news was a big surprise.
04:12He agreed, on the condition that the excavations would be completed by spring, so that he could sow a new crop.
04:18Digging a giant ship in winter is much more difficult and expensive than at other times.
04:24It includes additional equipment, electricity, and heating costs.
04:28The team works day and night.
04:30They finance the excavations out of their own pocket.
04:33Each invested more than $10,000 and took out a bank loan.
04:38Finally, they noticed the first details of the ship.
04:41The shovels hit the huge engine boilers and the deck.
04:44The goal had been achieved.
04:46Most of the cargo lying inside the sunken ships is covered with rust, shells, mud, and is badly damaged.
04:53The contents of Arabia were in excellent condition, considering that the ship had sunk 130 years prior.
05:00Unfortunately, they didn't find the chests of gold.
05:04Still, they got several tons of other valuable cargo, household items of people who lived in the middle of the 19th century.
05:11It was a time capsule.
05:13The ship was carrying supplies for hundreds and thousands of people, and all these things were perfectly preserved.
05:19For example, they could clearly see the brand stamp, Goodyear Rubber Company, on one rubber shoe.
05:25The longer the excavations continued, the more things David and his team found.
05:30In the barrels, they found plates from the 19th century.
05:33They were intact and usable.
05:36Also, there were clean clothes, thousands of pairs of shoes, harpoons, frying pans, and umbrellas.
05:43The ship was carrying cargo to supply about 16 small towns.
05:48Yes, it's not gold, but such artifacts are also precious.
05:52The contents of the ship could be worth millions.
05:55However, the crew wasn't going to sell these things.
05:59They made a museum on the site of a former fruit market in Kansas City.
06:03If you go there, you will immediately feel like you're in a department store of the 19th century.
06:08There are thousands of items in good condition.
06:11Even the matches here are dry enough to light up.
06:15It took David many years to present the entire collection from the steamship.
06:19He values each of the items and doesn't want to sell them.
06:22Anyone can come here, pay for a ticket, and find themselves in the past.
06:27Who knows, maybe there's an old ship hidden in your backyard too.
06:34Geologists found an older vessel in the hot desert of Namibia in 2008.
06:39This ship sailed back in the days when pirates scared sailors on the seas.
06:43And now, it's inside a dried up lagoon.
06:46The ship sailed from Lisbon in 1533 and disappeared with the crew near a small diamond mining town.
06:53After almost 500 years, the hull had been badly damaged.
06:58Only the carcass of the ship remained, but the treasure hidden inside the vessel stayed intact.
07:03They carefully studied the boat for a long time, trying not to ruin anything.
07:08And then, five days later, they found a big old chest in the hold.
07:12Carefully opening it, they found gold coins there.
07:16Thus, the cost of the ship was estimated at about 10 million dollars.
07:21The exact cause of the shipwreck is unknown, but experts believe the ship was destroyed by heavy cargo and bad weather.
07:28It went to the bottom of a lagoon that later became a desert.
07:34Some find an airplane in their backyard, others discover a ship.
07:38And one man found a passage to an ancient secret city in his house.
07:42This happened in Turkey in 1963.
07:45The owners of the building decided to make repairs.
07:48He went to his basement and knocked down the wall that turned this place into a living room.
07:52And so, behind one wall, he found a tunnel leading underground.
07:57The man thought it was some kind of a secret chamber.
08:00He went down there and realized it was something much more than that.
08:05It was an ancient city 18 floors deep.
08:08People built it in the years 780 to 1180 as a refuge from weather disasters and the invasion of enemies.
08:15This place also includes many underground tunnels that stretch for several miles in different directions.
08:21People could get to the town from different points using secret passages leading to these roads.
08:27The city can accommodate about 20,000 residents, livestock, and tons of food supplies.
08:33Archaeologists have also found a chapel, schools, stables, and public kitchens there.