Captain Morgan's Lost Gold

**Captain Morgan's Lost Gold** is the 7th episode of Season 1 of Expedition Unknown.

## Plot Synopsis

Gates joins archaeologists in Panama as they search for the *Satisfaction*, the sunken flagship of pirate Captain Henry Morgan. He also searches one of many shipwrecks near Fort San Lorenzo at the reef, where Morgan's ship ran aground.

## Historical Context

"In 1671, Captain Henry Morgan steers his flagship, the Satisfaction, onto a razor-sharp reef off the coast of Panama where it sinks and is lost for centuries. But now there are reports that it may have been found. Recently a team from Texas State University... located and raised six cannons that may be from Morgan's ship. Then they made a truly shocking find - the remains of an entire 17th-century vessel. Inside the hull are nearly 100 unopened chests just waiting to be brought to the surface."

- Josh Gates

## Summary

Josh's journey begins in Colon, Panama and he drives to the town of Portobelo. At the shore, he meets with Juan David Morgan, a historian. They discuss how Captain Morgan was a privateer for the British crown and was not a pirate. They also discuss how Captain Morgan held the city of Portobelo hostage and threatened to burn it if he didn't receive a large sum of money in return.

Morgan also tried to attack the Spanish fortress of San Lorenzo but many believe that it's where his ship, the Satisfaction sank. Josh meets with Fritz Hanselmann, an underwater archaeologist working with Texas State. Not far from San Lorenzo, five of Captain Morgan's ships run aground on Lajas Reef and sank. They head out to the bay where the ships ran aground and use a magnetometer to detect wrecks. At one point they get a big hit of iron and dive down to find a modern shipwreck. They go the site of another wreck that has rows of wooden chests and they also find a metal fragment, ceramic shards, and an old muleshoe.

From there, Josh canoes up the Chagras River to meet with the Embera tribe. He meets Claudio and is welcomed with a dance. He meets with the village elder and his son and they say they see Morgan as an enemy, not a friend. Josh also gets a small tattoo which the village insists upon to remember his journey. Josh takes the Panama Canal Railway the rest of the way to Panama City. He goes to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal and to Casco Viejo, the historic district of Panama City. He visits a church tower which is the last building from the original Panama City before it was burned.

At the tower, Josh meets with Tomas Mendizabal who is the director of Panama's Anthropology Museum. Tomas tells Josh that Captain Morgan is very widely known throughout Panama but as a villain, not a hero. Tomas explains how Morgan brutally tortured Panamanians for their gold or treasures.

After meeting with Tomas, Josh goes to the National Institute of Culture to meet back up with Fritz to analyse one of the treasure chests from the wreck. At the Institute, Josh meets Jacinto Almendra, an important Panamian archaeologist. They meet with maritime investigator Chirs Horrell at the X-ray facility and they see the results of the metal and muleshoe. They believe that the muleshoe is not British or French because only Spanish are countersunk, like the one they have. The metal fragment is part of a sword and the find out that the chest is made of material that is too dense to be X-rayed. Fritz believes that since the Sastification was a French ship and most of the artefacts are Spanish, it is not the ship. However, they figure out that they have found Nuestra Senora Encarnacion ship.

## Final Words

"Morgan was a complex man living in an unforgiving age. To some, he's a hero, a rum-guzzling renegade who lived by his own terms. To others, he is an unrepentant killer motivated by insatiable bloodlust and greed. Perhaps he was both. The stage for his exploits is a country with its own mysterious duality at the crossroads of oceans and continents and at the forefront of a brilliant economic future. Speaking of the future, Fritz Hanselmann and his team have over 100 other potential wrecks to investigate off the coast, and it's only a matter of time before Morgan's ship is found, and perhaps it's fitting that the boat has remained elusive. The Satisfaction is, after all, its own buried treasure. It will take determination, daring, and more than a little luck to find a boat belonging to someone as shrouded in mystery as the pirate Captain Henry Morgan."

- Josh Gates

## Notes & Trivia

* In Raw & Unfiltered, they reveal that Fritz's team was able to take part of the chest and X-ray it to find a pair of scissors and a tubular object which could be a rolled-up parchment

## Quotes

* I'm literally going to need a running start to get into this thing
* A minor programming note for those of you watching with young children, be advised that tonight's program is rated "argh"
* A guy in a life preserver dancing in the street, why not?
* I hope this guy does lower back tattoos as well. I'm hoping to get a dolphin back there.
* I think I may have just broken the Panama Canal
* This is a $700 hat... is it made out of unicorn hair?
* That's your Jennifer Aniston knockoff hat.

## Gallery

Photos shown in the slideshow are from Travel Channel's Captain Morgan's Lost Gold slideshow. If you hover over the images, their exact image address will appear.

* Fritz and Josh rise to the surface after scrouring the seafloorGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-007.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225283.jpeg
* PortobeloGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-002.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225247.jpeg
* Josh receives a ceremonial tattooo from an Embera manGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-003.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225255.jpeg
* Josh at the Miraflores LocksGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-005.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225267.jpeg
* Josh and Fritz near Lajas ReefGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-008.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225292.jpeg
* Fritz and Josh search for the SatisfactionGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-006.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225274.jpeg
* Casco ViejoGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-009.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225301.jpeg
* Transporting the treasure chest to be X-rayedGo to https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-010.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225313.jpeg
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## References

1. ↑ https://travel.home.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/travel/fullset/2015/02/12/expedition-unknown-106-ss/expedition-unknown-josh-gates-captain-morgan-panama-001.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix/1491582225234.jpeg