There’s very little that is safe about diving shipwrecks for buried treasure. Toss in the pirates, and the plunder can be hardly worth the plunge.
New six-part Discovery series “Treasure Quest: Snake Island” takes viewers to the southeastern coast of Brazil, where adventurers seek lost Incan gold worth millions of dollars.
Here’s the backstory of the booty, per Discovery: In 1524, a horde of Incan gold — known as the “Treasure of the Trinity” — was stolen. For 500 years, Jesuits priests, privateers such as Thomas Cavendish and mathematician Paul Thiry have all searched the coast of Brazil for this legendary bounty, but in all that time, no one has cracked the code as to where the treasure might have been hidden — until now.
“Every kid hears these stories about treasures and pirates and going off on adventures around the world with dreams of finding lost gold. And that’s what I do. That’s what I’m doing right now,” commented Cork Graham, the team’s expedition leader.
In the above clip, which is exclusive to TheWrap, boat captain Keith “Cappy” Plaskett and ship mechanic Jeremy Whalen aren’t so worried about the thousands of deadly vipers that populate the area, so much as they’re concerned with modern-day sea pirates. There have been four cases of piracy in the area recently and even one shooting.
With the Brazilian Coast Guard nowhere to be found, and carrying guns being illegal, the guys rattled off the ways they’re prepared to fight the bandits: spearguns, flares, poles, gas and molotov cocktails.
Sounds like a party.
“The only people who have weapons here are the criminals,” Whalen ominously stated. Watch the video above.
“Treasure Quest: Snake Island” debuts Friday, July 17, at 10 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.