The POP-EXPOSE ‘Billion Dollar Wreck’ by Mitchell Smith!
The POP-EXPOSE: Billion Dollar Wreck 2016
Martin Bayerle was born in April of 1951. He is now a star on the History Channel’s “Billion Dollar Wreck.” I just happened to stumble onto this show a couple weeks ago and I was instantly captivated. There are 3 different stories wrapped into 1 show and really interesting, edge of your seat, can’t wait for next week type of story. The first story we are learning about in this show is the history of the RMS Republic. This was a US ship that sunk back in 1909. It was a few years before the Titanic sunk and in 1909 was the largest vessel to date to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
The Republic was a cruise liner sailing from New York and was struck by another vessel in dense fog off the coast of Nantucket island. Martin Bayerle has spent most of his life researching the wreck and particularly the secret cargo which he believes to be at least a billion dollars in gold coins, that was being shipped to aide the US Navy and other countries over seas.
The second story running in this show is of Martin’s personal life. Martin dedicated his life to researching and trying to get to the treasure on the Republic. His wife grew lonely at home with their 2 children and she was seeking a divorce to be with another person she had met. Martin, who didn’t want another man to replace him, began investigating and eventually confronting and recording numerous phone conversations with his wife’s lover. In the end Martin shot him and did 2-1/2 years prison time for voluntary manslaughter.
Finally there is the main story of Martin and his crew trying to find a way into the Republic and hopefully find and recover the billion dollars worth of gold coins on board. Deep sea diving is tricky business. Martin has a great crew on hand but, time is limited to locate a way into the wreck that has been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for over 100 years. There are many snags that keep impeding the diving process, getting to the murky pile of rubble is the easy part, finding a way into the ship and to a possible hold for the gold is the tricky part. Time and money tick away as the crew tries to strike it big. If you haven’t checked out this series yet it airs Mondays at 10:00 PM on the History Channel.
