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My name's James, and I'm a shipwreck treasure hunter. Join me in my quest above Holy and below the waves in search of the thousands of undiscovered and ancient shipwrecks that lie off the South Devon coastline.
Join James as he dives off South Devon to hunt legendary uncut diamonds from the 1738 Da Boote shipwreck using advanced tech and expert diving skills.
Key Takeaways
- Locating historic shipwrecks requires careful planning and knowledge of tides and currents.
- Advanced underwater technology enhances documentation and search capabilities.
- Physical evidence like porcelain fragments can confirm wreck locations.
- Finding uncut diamonds underwater is extremely challenging due to natural camouflage.
- Research and innovation, such as using UV light, can improve treasure hunting success.
What the video covers
- James, a shipwreck treasure hunter, explores ancient shipwrecks off the South Devon coastline.
- The video focuses on the 1738 wreck of the Dutch East India Company ship Da Boote, carrying Ming Dynasty porcelain and uncut diamonds.
- James dives in a dangerous area with strong currents, timing his dive carefully for safety.
- He uses advanced dive tech including the Divevolk SeaTouch 4 Max phone housing for underwater filming.
- James finds fragments of Ming Dynasty porcelain confirming the wreck location.
- He employs a metal detector to locate wreckage but notes it cannot detect diamonds.
- Despite an extensive search, no diamonds are found on the first dive.
- James encounters a rare ocean sunfish underwater, adding to the dive experience.
- He researches diamond fluorescence under UV light to improve future search chances and plans to waterproof a UV light device.
- The video also references other wrecks in the area, including the HMS Crocodile, and showcases recovered artifacts.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Shipwreck Treasure Hunting
- 03:29Arrival and Preparation for Dive
- 04:51Descent and Diving Challenges
- 06:04Confirming the Wreck Location
- 07:16Using Divevolk SeaTouch 4 Max Underwater
- 09:29Search for Diamonds and Encounter with Ocean Sunfish
- 10:45Post-Dive Research and Planning Improvements
- 12:11Second Dive and Additional Discoveries
- 14:50Historical Insights and Artifacts Found
- 22:40Conclusion and Reflections
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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In today's video, we're heading to a distant location where an immense treasure worth an absolute fortune has remained undiscovered on the seabed for over 288 years.
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In 1738, the Dutch East India Company ship Da Boote was fully loaded with a rich and exotic cargo from the East Indies that included Ming Dynasty fine porcelain dating as far back as 1368, along with loose tea. Stored away deep in the
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ship's hold was a legendary treasure of uncut diamonds. She was on the return journey from Batavia, now the modern-day capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. Tragically, almost at the end of her journey, she struck the rocks here at Bolt Point,
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sending the ship straight down to the bottom along with her priceless treasure. So, today we're heading out with the sole purpose of trying to find the legendary lost diamonds. We're going for the diamonds. Oh, hell yeah.
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Well, let's do this.
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Wow. Well, we've made it here. Yes. That is a long journey on a small boat. I am really excited to get in and have a good
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look around. There's actually 34 ships that have been wrecked at the same location, including the HMS Crocodile from one of our previous videos. So, there's a good chance they might have a crossover in some of the artifacts we
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find, which would be awesome. But, let's not mess around. Let's get this anchor shot and start getting kitted up.
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Well, that anchor seems to be settling in nicely. I'm going to get geared up as quickly as possible because it's incredibly hot here in my drysuit in direct summer sunshine. But today, I'm going to be checking out the Divevolk SeaTouch 4
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Max phone protective housing. I actually reached out to the guys at Divevolk and said I was in desperate need of an upgrade, and they were kind enough to send me this out to check it out and give it a review. This thing
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has full touchscreen capability underwater, so I'm going to be really excited to get a few shots of this while we're down there. But let's not mess around. Let's get geared up and let's get in there.
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As we make the descent down to the bottom, I know from previous experience that this is an extremely dangerous area to dive due to the immense currents that force their way around the headland with the incoming tide. So, we'll have to
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wait for the tide to turn and start to go back out again, where the headland then acts like a breakwater creating a safe dive window for a few hours, allowing me to gain access to the wreck site.
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But if I was to get these times wrong or outstay my welcome, I would be whipped away in seconds,
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leaving me unable to get back to the boat and stranded out at sea.
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We're approaching the bottom, and as I start to have a look around and see all the small stones that will pretty much perfectly blend in with the natural colors of uncut diamonds, it really dawns on me how much of a
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challenge this is going to be. But I have a plan to break out the metal detector, and even though it won't pick up diamonds, I'm hoping along with my keen eyesight, I will be able to find some of the pieces of wreckage that can
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help me confirm that we're in the right location and narrow down the search area.
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As I reach the end of the rock gully, a small crevice continues on surrounded by an almost impenetrable kelp forest. I decide to fight my way through the kelp and follow it along as I'm pretty sure this is an area where other divers in
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the past wouldn't have wanted to venture. And this really pays off as pretty much straight away I come across this piece of broken pottery which looks to me like part of a plate or dish.
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But it's not long before I find another piece. Now, this isn't part of the Ming Dynasty fine porcelain that the boat was carrying, but it could well still be part of the cargo.
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Fueled by this discovery, I continue to fight my way through the kelp, which is no easy task as my dive kit and camera tripod keep getting caught up on the thick kelp stems, but I make my way through taking great care not to damage
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any of this marine habitat. All of a sudden, I spot this small white fragment.
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As I flip it over, no way. This is a piece of the Ming Dynasty fine porcelain with its distinctive cobalt blue design. It might not seem like much, but this could be incredibly old. More importantly, it confirms that
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this is the location of the wreck. I scour the area for any signs of the elusive diamonds, where I find another fragment of the fine porcelain, this one with a more intricate design.
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Eventually, I reach the end and ascend above the kelp and drop down into the next gully.
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Now I have a little bit more room to move around, but let's break out the Divevolk SeaTouch 4 Max and see what it can do. Now, I've had quite a few dive housings over the years, and to be
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honest with you, they were all pretty naff, but I could tell as soon as I unpacked the Divevolk housing the build quality was in a different league to others that I've used. And I am so impressed with how the touchscreen works
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perfectly down here, even with a thick pair of neoprene gloves and a second pair of protective gloves over the top.
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I navigate through the phone and camera settings with these. I'm using the wide-angle lens today, but it also comes with a red filter for the deeper dives.
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And inside, I've got my iPhone 14 Pro Max. And the camera really does bring out the colors down here, but I'm also aware that plankton bloom we're having at the moment really isn't doing the footage the justice that it deserves. As
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I make my way back to my camera tripod, I spot this huge piece of lead. Now, it's highly likely that this is part of the lead sheathing from the ship's hull that was used to combat shipworm and prevent seaweed growth that would
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significantly slow the ship down. Now, what I'm going to do is quickly swap over the Divevolk housing onto my camera tripod and put the GoPro on my shoulder mount for some cool POV shots and continue along with my search.
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I scour the gully with my metal detector and was constantly looking for any stones that looked out of place.
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Now, I've been down here for a considerable amount of time, and I've become aware that my air is running very low and my safe dive window is coming to an end. Unfortunately, I haven't found any diamonds, but I'm definitely not
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ready to give up just yet. As I start to make my way back up to the surface, all of a sudden I spot this strange creature heading straight towards me.
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Holy moly, it's a freaking ocean sunfish. Wow, what a strange and fascinating creature. These really are a rare sight in the UK, as they usually prefer much warmer waters. But they are the largest bony fish in the world, reaching
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weights of up to 2 tons. And what an absolute treat to see one so close up.
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On the journey back, I'm absolutely buzzing from the dive and spotting that sunfish, but my thoughts soon start to turn on how I can improve my chances for the next dive. That evening, I check the weather forecast and unfortunately, it's
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not looking good, and I'm going to have to wait a full week for the conditions and tides to be just right to get back onto the wreck. Now, this is really frustrating for me because once I've set my
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mind to something, I really hate having to wait around. I decide during this time I'm going to do some research on diamonds, and I discover that 30% of all diamonds fluoresce under ultraviolet light. So, if this can even slightly help tip the
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odds in my favor, I'll take it. But unfortunately, I can't seem to find a waterproof version, so I'm going to have to order this one and find a way to make this thing watertight.
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I figured probably the easiest and simplest way to do this would be...
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fantastic when you're under the water, but up here it only takes a few minutes before you literally feel like you're boiling alive. So, in the extreme heat and desperation to get myself into the water for a cool-off, I didn't realize
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it at the time, but I had made a critical error, one that would end up being very costly.
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But for now, I'm blissfully unaware. I cool down and eagerly make my way down to the search area. Once I fight my way through the kelp forest, I come across a small gully just a few meters from where I discovered the
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fragments of porcelain, and this looks like a perfect spot for diamonds to have slipped down into the bottom of the gully. So, let's not waste a second.
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[music] I get the metal detector and ultraviolet light out and start a very thorough search of the area. But after just a few minutes, I realize that my extremely high-tech waterproof [music] and system isn't doing particularly well. I can't switch the UV light off.
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It's telling me that water has somehow found its way inside and reached the circuitry. [music] And shortly afterwards, it stops working altogether. And I think what's happened is the vibrations from the boat journey have caused them to rub against each
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other, eventually perforating the waterproof bag. So, I resort to using my torch. I'm pretty sure that if there are any diamonds down here, the light should react differently when it hits them and hopefully make them stand out amongst
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the other stones. But even that comes with its own challenges. There are loads of tiny fragments of shell down here that are glistening in the torchlight, and to be honest, they're more of a distraction than anything else. I search
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every inch of this long gully, and eventually I get just one hit on the metal detector. After digging it out, I soon realize that it's just a piece of sheet metal from one of the more modern wrecks that have met their end at this
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location. And when I finally check my air gauge, I'm pretty shocked. I've gone through an entire cylinder search in just this one gully. But luckily, I come up right beside my anchor rope, so I can quickly make my way back to the boat and
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swap over to a fresh cylinder. After a quick changeover, we're back in again. And this time after a rather disappointing first dive, I decide to swim closer towards Gold Rock right at the tip of Prawle Point in the hope of
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finding a much more productive area. I make my descent down and spot a rock gully. And as soon as I reach the seabed, I spot this item straight away.
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The distinctive green patina immediately tells me that I'm looking at some sort of copper or bronze artifact. Now, I do have a slight inkling of what this could be because I found something very similar at this location in the past,
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but I'm definitely going to have to investigate further to be sure. [music] A few feet further along, I get a really strong signal on the metal detector.
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After a bit of digging, I pull out another much bigger strip of copper. Now, this is more like it. But just like the other artifact, there's a piece missing. And if I can find the missing piece, I should be able to confirm
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exactly what these are. Then I get another hit on the metal detector. I start digging and honestly, I can't believe my eyes. I found the missing piece. And now I know without a doubt that these are artifacts from the
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wreckage of the Royal Navy's HMS Crocodile, which was lost here in 1784. This 24-gun sixth-rate ship was returning from Bombay, India, when a thick fog suddenly rolled in and she struck the rocks right here at Prawle Point.
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I've actually made a whole video about this incredible shipwreck, so I'll add a link to it at the end of this video.
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But it feels absolutely fantastic to discover this new area packed with artifacts [music] from such a fascinating period of the Royal Navy's history, and it just [music] gets better. With the next signal I pull out this one that's completely intact.
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At this point, I decide to capture a few shots with a dive vault housing, but when I turn it around, I notice something very strange. The case is empty, and that's when I realize I must have forgotten to put my phone inside.
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To be honest, it wasn't until I got back to the boat at the end of this dive and I couldn't find my phone anywhere that I remembered I had put it in the leg pocket of my drysuit. You can actually
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see the outline of it here. The pocket is also unzipped, so when I roll back into the water, the phone must have slipped and fallen straight out.
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But this was really frustrating and a very expensive mistake, but I soon come across another huge piece of lead sheathing, and this is really interesting because I know HMS Crocodile had been fitted out with a relatively modern and cutting-edge technology of
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copper sheathing. So this tells me we're in an area that contains wreckage from both the ships. I keep my eyes peeled for any of the elusive diamonds.
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And I also spot another piece of one of the copper staples wedged underneath this rock. But with all the excitement, I suddenly realized I haven't checked my air for quite some time, and when I do, it's getting in very low. But if I can
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save what little air I have left, I should just about have enough to search the final section of this incredible gully.
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And right at the end, I get a massive signal on the metal detector, and even though my air is now way below a level that could be described as anything other than highly unprofessional, and to make matters worse, I can feel the
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current starting to pick up dramatically. But my ADHD simply won't allow me to leave without finding out what this huge signal is. So I start digging and then all of a sudden I realize something. The signal isn't coming from underneath the seabed, it's
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coming from right in front of me. No way. What I initially thought was just a patch of rocks is actually a freaking cannonball and it's completely [music] concreted into the surrounding rocks.
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So let's break out my big [music] screwdriver and see if we can get this thing free.
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Luckily with a crack the cannonball comes free. Now I just need to get it into my big bag which was recently affectionately named by subscriber and friend Richard Hillman as my big ball sack.
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With the cannonball safely inside my ball sack and without a moment to lose I make my way back towards the surface.
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[music] Oh my God sake. Look at me. Look at me. Well, we've made it back to my workshop and I think by far this is the most artifacts that we've ever found in one of these shipwreck videos and I've got
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them all laid out on the bench behind me to have a much closer look at in a moment including our cannonball which was a real treat to find right at the end of the video on the final dive and
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it's really interesting because this could have come from either one of these wrecks cuz they were both armed and as you could see in the video we're getting a real crossover in some of the items that we are finding and as it's a
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non-ferrous metal over the centuries of being underwater it builds up a natural concretion. So if this was laying close to any other items or artifacts, maybe even a diamond, it would have been absorbed into this as it was created. So
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I know it's a long shot and a bit of a Hail Mary but when we break this thing open at the end there could possibly be some other goodies inside. Something else that I was really impressed with was the dive vault housing that I've
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been using. It was so easy to operate under the water and I mean this thing is waterproof down 60 m which is way more than most recreational divers will need and [laughter] it was really frustrating to lose my phone down there and
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definitely the irony is not lost on me that I was doing a phone protective housing review and I ended up losing my phone but don't worry I did end up getting a new one. It was a shame that
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the visibility wasn't at its best at the moment to really show off what this camera can do but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get a few more shots in future videos. But anyway, let's not mess around let's have a look at what we
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got. Well, this is everything that we found. We've got our cannonball in our bucket of water here but firstly we came across these pieces of pottery and in particular these two have got a lovely design running across the edge of them.
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Now I'm not sure if these were cargo or possibly even what some of the higher up crew or captain may have eaten off of but either way they are a lovely little find of a significant amount of age to
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them. But then we came across the piece of Ming Dynasty fine porcelain and these things are absolutely incredible even after all these years you can still tell the distinctive uh on these and there was actually an account from the captain
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saying that he shuddered at the sound of all the porcelain smashing below the decks as the ship was wrecked. So, I just think that's really interesting.
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And I've also read that these are incredibly rare to find nowadays as most of them have been buried or collected under the sand and silt. So, I'm really chuffed to have found these lovely little pieces of history. And then we
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have these copper artifacts. And I said as soon as I found the first one, I had a really good clue of what they could be. And I'll show you now uh that these are two others that I pulled off of HMS
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Crocodile in a previous video. And these are actually copper staples that were used to attach a false keel to the bottom of the ship. So, if it ever became grounded or beached, it was designed to break away so hopefully the
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ship could float free and escape even though it didn't seem to help them very much in this situation. But they are really cool finds. And when you just imagine that these have been around the world on this ship, weathered some
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serious storms over the years and seen some incredible things and then just to end up sitting on the seabed for all those centuries just for us to find at the end. I just find all of that really fascinating.
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I did also find a few stones down there that at the time, you know, did look out of place. But now I think they're just, you know, naturally occurring stones uh that you find down on the seabed. But I
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did find this old piece of glass uh which has come from one of these old shipwrecks. But you know, as always, don't hesitate to let me know in the comments section below if there's anything you enjoyed about this video or
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even anything you didn't like or any future projects you'd like me to take on. I always love hearing you guys feedback. And I know I say it every single time, but speaking to you guys after these videos come out is
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definitely my favorite part of this whole process. So, thank you so much for that. And if you like the look of this t-shirt I've got on, it's actually part of our new merch range inspired by our HMS Crocodile video. Um you know, so if
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you want a cool t-shirt and help support the channel in a small way, I would massively appreciate that. But anyway, let's have a look at this cannonball.
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Now, I am really excited to uh break this thing open and get a proper look at. As you can see, it is really well and truly concreted in there. So, let's get out the hammer and uh gently start
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knocking some of this off. Well, here it is. I actually spent a lot of time cleaning this up because as I started to break it out, I could tell straight away that this isn't just an ordinary cannonball. And when you look
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at this piece on the top, I'm pretty sure that this is an early explosive shell or spherical case shot. And these were actually rather than being shot into the side of the ship's hull, the top here would have unscrewed and they'd
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be filled with gunpowder and a slow-burning fuse and then shot into the decks. And they would just explode taking out the crew or sometimes they were shot up to take out the sails. And these were actually uh designed by a
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Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel of the Royal Artillery. And it was actually around the sort of time that these were first being used. So, I mean, what an absolutely fascinating piece of history.
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And and now this really is well confirms that this has come from HMS Crocodile as it was a Royal Navy ship. I am absolutely blown away and so chuffed to find this. And what a fantastic way to finish off the video. Well, that's about
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it for this one. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to find any of those mysterious diamonds, but that's definitely not the end of this story.
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I've actually got some really cool pieces of kit coming up to review that's going to massively help us in searches like this. But I want to say a huge thank you to Dive Volc for sending me out that housing. And also, if you
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enjoyed the video, please don't forget to hit that like button, consider subscribing, and definitely to have that notification bell switched on so you don't miss out on any of our future content. You can also check out some of
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our videos that should be popping up on the screen now. And I will catch you guys on the next one. Cheers.
Topics:shipwreck treasure huntingDa Boote shipwreckuncut diamondsMing Dynasty porcelainSouth Devon divingDivevolk SeaTouch 4 Maxunderwater explorationocean sunfishmetal detecting underwaterhistoric shipwrecks
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