Discovery series Cooper’s Treasure continues to ramp up tonight with more fascinating underwater finds — as the drama also rises on deck.
The episode also includes an unexpected tragedy, which will send treasure-hunter Darrell Miklos and his entire recovery crew reeling after being sent off course.
The second season of Cooper’s Treasure has already been action-packed, yielding historic artifacts right from the get-go.
In Monsters and Critics’ exclusive clip, Miklos’ crew — marine archaeologist Jim Sinclair, magnetometry specialist Mike Perna, and recovery expert Eric Schmidt — are working with him to find treasure amidst the wreckage of an early 1900s era steamboat picked up near the shore.
They are being guided by detailed maps made from space by astronaut Gordon Cooper, the show’s namesake who befriended Darrell Miklos and bequeathed him with information about wrecks he believe may contain treasure.
In the clip, the guys are gobsmacked at the size of the wreckage and the amount of debris, as Darrell, Eric Schmidt and Jim Sinclair swim over it all to plan where they will start searching with metal detectors for anything recoverable.
The task before them appears enormous. You can hear Darrell say: “This is beautiful!” as he swims underwater with Eric and Jim, taking it all in.
Explaining the action in a separate shot, Darrell says: “This is a massive metal wreck and it’s obviously what we picked up on the Mac. But we’re here to try to find the ballast pile that Gordon [Cooper] drew on the illustration.
Darrell and the team are then seen at the site of the metal-laden shipwreck and are trying to determine its purpose and time period. Described by Jim as a 1900s steamboat, it will yield a very special artifact for Miklos and company: A deck prism.
We hear and see Jim who is absolutely beside himself underwater at Eric’s find, as he says: “What did I tell you about finding goodies inside these sand pockets?”
Meanwhile, above the water in the boat, feeling like he is missing out a bit, Mike Perna is chomping at the bit and anxious to hear what these guys found and are so excited about.
To end the suspense, Jim explains they have discovered what looks to be a crystal of some sort, before revealing it to be a deck prism.
In a separate shot, Sinclair elaborates about the find and what purpose it actually served.
He says: “On ships during the late 1700s it was dark below decks. They didn’t need lanterns swinging around down there that actually had fire, you know? You don’t want fire on a ship.
“So what they came up with was a prism which they could fit into the deck itself that reflected and refracted the sunlight that was hitting it down below decks and let a lot of illumination down into the historically dark areas of the ship.”
It appears, according to Jim, that this old steamship was heading to Albert Town in the Bahamas.
As Miklos previously described to Monsters and Critics in our exclusive interview, this is yet another ship that was “eaten up” by the shallow waters of the Caribbean.
Tune in to see what the tragedy is that befalls them tonight.
Cooper’s Treasure airs Fridays at 9/8c on Discovery.