[ Car door slams ]
Meisterheim:
To be a gold dredger is tough.
It's not for the weak.
Stop. Stop.
We only get a handful of clear,
Perfect days each season.
The sea will turn rough
In an instant.
This is when we see
Who's gonna step up
And who's gonna fall behind.
I'll be damned if I'm the one
That falls behind.
[ Exhales ]
[ "Gold in these hills" plays ]
Listen up close, now ♪
What I say ♪
I'm a-gonna take that risk
One day ♪
I heard about a fortune
To be made ♪
And I'm a-gonna get it,
Now, just you wait ♪
'Cause I heard
That there's gold ♪
In these hills ♪
--Captions by vitac --
Captions paid for by
Discovery communications
Gold ♪
Narrator: in the remote por
Of nome, alaska
Ian:
Today is a nondredgeable day.
Tomorrow is questionable.
The next day is questionable.
Narrator: the gold-dredging
Fleet is anchored up and on edge
Until a summer storm clears.
We didn't go diving today.
The weather is just [bleep]
It's just how it happens here.
You get excited to go,
And then there's bad weather.
You can't go. You're stuck.
Narrator: for wild ranger
Captain scott meisterheim,
The weather delays his sho
At redemption
After a miserable first trip.
Meisterheim: there's a lo
Of rocks and a lot of sand.
If there's any gold,
It's gonna be very little.
Meisterheim:
It's really frustrating,
But it is what it is
And you deal with it.
Ian: I'm frowning
Inside right now.
I want to dredge.
Can't.
Narrator: on the sluicey,
New dredge owner ian foster
Never made it out of port.
Ian: have you ever wanted to see
What a swamped boat looks like?
Here it is.
Not making any money.
I mean, I didn't qui
My state job
To, like, live in a tree fort.
You know what I mean?
Tenhoff: we got to be able
To hit the ground running
At a moment's notice
If the weather calms down.
Narrator: for zeke tenhoff
On the clark,
The season started with a decen
5-Ounce, $7,500 haul.
If I have enough
Of this stuff,
I don't need a girlfriend.
[ Laughs ]
And now cabin fever
Has him itching to dredge.
If we're just drinkin'
And fightin' right now,
Then we're not gonna be
On our [bleep]
When the weather gets good.
But for the men
Of the biggest dredge in nome,
The christine rose
Good day.
After a day like today,
We got to go get ourselves
A couple beers.
All right.
Let's do it.
A $70,000 payday
Means it's time for dredge
Co-owner shawn pomrenke
And deckhand cody moen
To celebrate.
5-0.
Man: no, no, no, no, no, no!
Shawn, shawn, shawn!
[ Glass shatters ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
They better stop.
Man: what he cut you with?
Cody!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Yeah, that's right!
Come on, big guys.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Woman: what the hell happened
To your hand?
He [bleep] attacked me.
[Bleep]
I don't know.
I've got a [bleep] g*n
For stitches
Right now up at the house,
Unless you want to go
To the hospital.
[ Siren wailing ]
Narrator:
After the brawl busts up,
Shawn's injuries are serious
Enough to head to the hospital.
Moen: I looked and I seen his
Coat was bloody in the back,
And sure as stuff, he had a stab
Wound right in his back.
And so now we're here.
We had a rough night tonight.
This guy comes up and wants
To start some stuff with shawn
And ends up stabbing him.
All these guys are watching you
24 Hours a day, digging gold,
And they get a little jealous
And they want to star
Some stuff.
If shawn can't work,
That could be the season for us.
Without him, we're nothing.
[ Dog barking ]
Narrator: the next morning,
The sun rises on a clear day
And the weather finally breaks.
It's a nice day.
Narrator: on the wild ranger,
Captain scott meisterheim
Prepares for a brutal day
On the grounds
Without his two deckhands.
Everything that could go wrong
With the wild ranger
So far this season
Has gone wrong.
Whoa!
I dislocated my shoulder.
Jason's hurt.
Vernon fires steve.
Adkison: you're no
In charge of this boat.
You don't have
The expertise.
Get off the boat. Now.
You're off the boat.
So, I have no choice but to take
Isaac out and dive by myself
And have isaac tend for me.
Glad you're here.
Now I don't have to talk
To nobody but you.
Really?
[Bleep] damn it.
Steve, what the [bleep] are
You doing here, first of all?
I
I don't have a clue
Why I'm here.
Am I welcome aboard
This craft or no?
You're not supposed to be here,
But now you're here.
How's your
Unhappiness level?
If it's too much,
Then I won't deal with it.
If it's down here --
Oh, there! Finally!
Finally you grew a se
Of [bleep]
Now, that's how
I want you to be!
I want you to have a se
Of [bleep] okay?
Now, you want to be on this
[Bleep] today or not?!
I'm here.
Load the [bleep] fuel,
Fill the tanks, and we'll
Get the [bleep] started.
All right.
I went against vern's orders.
Regardless of how much
I dislike steve,
I needed a second person
On that boat with me.
[ Whistling ]
Don't push it, though.
She'll be comin' 'round
The mountain when she comes ♪
She'll be fillin' up
My gas tanks when she comes ♪
She'll be fillin' up
My gas tank ♪
She'll be fillin' up
My gas tank ♪
She'll be fillin' up
My gas tanks when she comes ♪
I'd really like it if you
Didn't [bleep] sing today.
I'm still trying --
It's been 44 years now
That I've been alive,
And I still haven'
Figured ou
Why god puts [bleep]
In my life.
What the [bleep]
Is he testing me for?
When am I gonna pass
The test?
She'll be ridin' tha
Wild ranger when she comes ♪
Narrator: across the harbor,
The christine rose sits idle.
And at his house
In the center of nome,
So is dredge co-owner
Shawn pomrenke.
Shawn: the whole tip,
From, like, there to there,
That's all numb.
No feeling in that.
Narrator: shawn's fiancée,
Jenny schield,
Tends to his wounds.
Aah!
Ohh!
Whoops!
Nothing will keep shawn
Out of the bars.
That's where he does
Business. [ Chuckles ]
Made tons of deals in the bar.
This was one bad deal, though.
[ Laughing ] yeah.
Narrator: for now, the crew
Of the christine rose
Will have to do
Without their lead dredger.
A mile offshore
Meisterheim: this is our job.
Look at this.
We could be stuck
In a cubicle right now.
With me, you could be stuck
In a cubicle.
Oh, yeah.
Unh-unh. Never.
I could be singing,
Right in the cubicle nex
To you, my songs.
If I ever have to go
To prison for anything
And you walk in my cell,
I'm instantly k*lling you
And then me.
Done with that.
Life is over.
Narrator: the wild ranger
Arrives at skipper
Scott meisterheim's chosen spot.
Let's drop anchor, then,
By cracky.
So, basically, all season.
The dredge is a cluster [bleep]
Hopefully I can get down there
And get some gold.
At this point, no,
Failure is not an option.
Narrator: to dredge,
Scott pulls a suction hose
Along the ocean floor.
The hose pulls dirt, rocks,
And hopefully gold up
To the dredge's sluice box.
Steve r.: Systems are working.
The gold is waiting for us,
And I think it'll be
A productive day.
Narrator: in the sluice box,
Material from the hose is pushed
Across a series of screens.
Rocks and other debris
Are washed over the screens
And back into the bering sea.
Gold, a mineral almost 20 times
Heavier than water,
Quickly falls through the screen
And gets trapped in a mesh
Carpet called miners moss.
Overall, just being
On the water,
Just being a little closer
To the gold,
Is a good experience
For everybody.
Makes everyone happy.
Even scott's feeling
A little happy.
Narrator:
But a problem with the hose
Cuts captain scott's dive short.
[Bleep]
What happened?
The [bleep] [bleep] diffuser
Pulled away
From the [bleep] jet.
Below the dredge, the suction
Hose has disconnected.
Meisterheim:
Got to be connected.
And they're under the boat,
In the water.
I don't know how
They came apart.
As usual, it's always something.
Narrator:
No hose means no gold.
Now the crew must perform
An at-sea repair
On the ailing dredge.
Here I go.
Go! Go.
Hold it. Stop.
We came disconnected.
[Bleep]
Hey, I think that we can solve
This problem.
Hold it.
More bad news.
What's that?
Got a foot of water
In the right hull.
That's why we're leaning
That way.
Yeah.
Pull the [bleep] anchors up!
Right [bleep] now!
God, why are you doing
This to me?
Narrator:
Off the coast of nome
The wild ranger is taking on
Water and sinking.
Meisterheim:
Get out.
I want to take --
I want to find ou
What's going on here.
We got a major leak
In the starboard hull.
God!
There it goes.
[ Groans ]
Come on.
What are we waiting for?
We got to go.
We got about an hour and this
Thing will be tipping over.
Tenhoff: we got to roll.
Come on.
Emily: all right.
Narrator: with good weather
In the forecast, zeke tenhoff,
Owner of the 20-foot clark,
And his deckhand,
22-Year-old emily riedel,
Head out to the grounds.
If we can get on the gold
That we were on
When we last pulled ou
Of the water,
We should have
A pretty good day.
Narrator:
A 4-year dredging veteran,
Zeke needs to have
His best season yet.
Last year, I got an infection
In my leg that almost k*lled me,
And I had to spend a couple
Weeks in the hospital.
And now I'm in a huge amoun
Of hospital debt,
And I'm good on my debts.
You love driving a dredge.
It's awesome.
Narrator: a dredging greenhorn,
Emily has her own reasons
To hunt for gold.
My goal right now is
To get a master's in opera.
Any money that I have
Is gonna go towards opera school
In europe.
That's the plan.
Tenhoff: all right, emily,
Drop anchor.
Whoo!
Water doesn't look too bad.
No, it's a good day.
Okay.
Fire it up.
[ Engine turns over ]
Uh-oh.
That's not right.
Tenhoff: my dredge has an old
German beetle engine in it.
They're not in any way intended
To be in the ocean.
Oh [bleep]
[ Engine sputtering ]
Oh, no.
This belt broke.
Oh [bleep]
[Bleep] [bleep] [bleep]
That's bad.
Until we find another drive
Belt, we're out of the water.
Narrator: zeke and emily
Head back to shore,
Past rival boats
Digging up gold.
Tenhoff: it's heartbreaking.
There's dredges all out here,
You know,
And I dropped the ball.
The objectives of the day
Have changed.
Narrator:
Back on the wild ranger
Finding gold
Is no longer a priority.
Survival is.
No time like the presen
To put it on.
This window.
That's one of them, anyway.
Look at that.
[Bleep] me.
Whoa!
That'll do it.
These -- these screw things
Were loosened,
And water was just pouring
In this thing.
I would say
We're dang lucky.
On the way in,
We could've sunk this boat.
Still listing
From the leaky pontoon
And lugging a detached hose,
The wild ranger limps to shore.
Today has been a waste.
You figure an ounce an hour.
That's a lo
Of child-support payments.
Narrator: with gold selling
At record highs,
The lost dredging time could
Cost the wild ranger 12 grand.
Now there's no time to waste.
Here we go.
1, 2, 3.
[ Grunts ]
We just put the hose
Back into the flare tube,
And we just fixed it.
It took three seconds
To fix it up here.
Yeah.
And we would've taken hours
To do it out there.
It was a nightmare
Out there.
Water in the [bleep]
Pontoon.
That didn't help.
Steve p.:
Went out to lost mountain
For an inland prospecting trip.
We were gonna stay
For four days.
And so I'm back a day early
And coming back
To a bunch
Of aggravating problems
That should not be problems.
Narrator: dredge owner
Steve pomrenke's biggest problem
Is that his son, shawn,
Is injured.
Woman: what the hell happened
To your hand?
And now steve has to take
The helm of the christine rose.
Steve p.: It's either him or I
Have to be on tha
To make everything work on this.
Losing shawn could slow us down
Big-time.
Narrator: today, the pomrenkes
Have already lost 20 hours
On the water.
Steve p.: No easy way
Of getting down there.
Moen: have no fear.
Steve is here.
Narrator:
Working the dredge with steve
Is deckhand cody moen.
This is steve's
First night of the season,
So we'll see how this goes.
Hopefully he'll let me go dig
First and show him how to do it.
Narrator: steve has been
A gold miner for 30 years,
But he's out of his comfort zone
On the bering sea.
Steve p.: I was inland mining.
Shawn was offshore mining.
I know about land mining.
I'm pretty much of a novice
On ocean dredging right now.
Narrator: given his background,
Steve designed
The christine rose
Like a floating
Land-mining operation.
Well, here's the backhoe
On a barge -- a 320 excavator.
Used to dig on land
Before we put it on here,
But now it's the only one that's
Digging on the bering sea.
Come on.
Let's get going.
Let's get this damn thing
Out there, mining.
Moen: roger that.
I'm going for it, baby.
We're gonna be moving
Some dirt tonight.
Narrator: still waiting on parts
For their broken thrusters,
Cody has to row out to sea using
The backhoe bucket as a paddle.
24 Hours after the res
Of the fleet started,
Cody drops anchor
And it's time to dredge.
Oh, I don't need no luck.
I'm gonna winch over
To the right here,
Get into virgin material.
I got to see if I can find
That hard layer here.
Seems like I go
Something here now.
I'm hoping it's gonna be
A bunch of red.
Narrator:
Steve's prospecting strategy
Is to look for red dirt --
Clay packed so tightly,
The gold can't sink any further.
Steve p.: We're running into
Some really hard clay.
That's actually a good thing.
That means
We have a bottom here.
Ooh-hoo!
The red stuff. Yeah!
It's g-got me -- I'm stuttering.
I can't even --
It's got me excited.
There it is.
Narrator:
Steve thinks he's hit pay dirt,
But there's only one way
To find out.
Moen: I got a feeling
This is some good stuff,
So I'm gonna do
Some test-panning
And see what we're digging here.
Steve p.: I hope he's finding
Some gold in them pans.
Yeah-ah-ah!
Steve p.:
What do you got, man?
Whoa!
Is that a piece of gold?
Yeah. That's a damn nice
Piece of gold there.
For just a test-pan, yeah.
When you get chunky gold,
That's --
That's a good sign
That this is a good spot.
Man, I'm telling you.
We're in it.
Narrator: the rusty veteran
Has put the christine rose
On the gold.
It feels wonderful
To be working this barge.
She's still the same old girl.
[ Chuckles ]
It feels wonderful.
Narrator: at the nome airport
Let's go get him.
Narrator: five days ago,
Ian foster quit his job
As a social worker
And invested his life savings
In a dredge -- the sluicey --
Only to have it end up
Underwater.
What's up, brother?
That beard.
How you doing, man?
Good to see you.
Now ian has called in
Veteran dredger scott foster
To help him get the sluicey
Back in the water.
It's his first dredge
He ever put up.
Of course
It's gonna have issues.
[ Laughs ]
I built like three of them, and
They -- they always have issues.
You got the jeep?
Yeah.
[ Engine turns over ]
Ian: when you're trying to do
Everything alone,
You can do it all alone,
But it takes a lot longer
And it's a lot harder.
So, having two people
To split the workload,
Two people for motivation,
That's a much better situation.
Looks like
You've been busy.
Ian: I have been busy.
Took me all winter.
So, what you see before you
Isn't the final product.
That's a diesel
Water heater.
This isn't gonna work.
Narrator:
Before ian and scott can dredge,
The sluicey's water heater
Needs repair.
It's got to go.
It's just got to go.
I've come to the same
Conclusion.
Thank you.
This dredge is gonna be
A challenge.
It's just the way
That it was designed,
The way that it was built,
Not a lot of minute
Attention to detail.
So, this dredge is gonna be
A little bit of a pain
In the neck.
What I've been trying
To wrap my head around
Is how to plumb it.
Why don't you let this
Just be my baby?
[ Laughs ]
Why don't you jus
Let me handle this?
Well, because
I learn by doing,
And it's really importan
For me to be a part of it.
And, plus, it's
My damn dredge, so
I just want to be
A part of your baby.
I want to be there
For the birth.
That's all I'm saying.
Good?
Good.
What do we need?
Narrator: just down the shore
Yeah, my bracket's pretty much
Completely played out.
A broken engine bel
Is sidelining the clark
During the best dredging
Conditions of the season.
All right.
Let's roll.
Nome, it's off the road system,
Off the greater supply system,
And there aren't a lo
Of big, corporate, mainstream
Supply outlets
For things you might need
For building a boat.
Narrator: but luckily for zeke,
Nome does have an abundance
Of one thing.
Huge inventory of junkyards
Around town.
I can usually find what I need.
Narrator:
With no roads connecting nome
To the rest of alaska,
Drivers here must have
Their cars shipped.
Their final resting place
Is nome.
Engine is completely different.
[ Hood slams ]
Hi, guys.
I'm on a magical ques
For a belt this size.
Narrator: at the junkyard,
Zeke runs into his friends,
Including grant wilkins
No belt in there.
Narrator: and enlists them
In a search for the drive belt.
Okay. No dice.
Tenhoff: not being able
To dredge right now,
It's really frustrating
And kind of heartbreaking.
I'm losing money right now,
But we're gonna get back
In the water
And we're gonna ge
Fabulously wealthy.
Wow.
This looks like it'll work.
Oh, yes.
Oh, man, this one is gonna
Totally do it.
We're set. We're set.
[ Engine turns over ]
I think we got a belt that'll
Work, but it remains to be seen.
Yeah, man, this is gonna do it.
Thank god. Thank god.
We wasted like five hours,
But we're gonna get out there.
High five.
[ Chuckles ]
Narrator: at their workshop
On the outskirts of nome
I got to ge
This water-heater thing done.
Narrator: scot
And ian foster are racing
To get the sluicey ou
While the water is still calm
And dredgeable.
Scott: any hour or two out there
Is a potential, you know,
1/2 Ounce, ounce of gold.
Narrator: ian called scott in
To help him ge
The sluicey seaworthy.
Scott's first job --
Fix the heater
That sends hot water
To their dive suits.
Hot exhaust comes through here,
Comes out all the holes,
And it has to seep
Through these holes
And come into contac
With all this copper
Before it can escape
And get out,
And that's how we're
Transferring that hea
Into hot water that we can,
In turn, pump down into our
Dive suits and keep us warm.
Narrator: scott customizes
A rusty snowmobile muffler
As a housing
For the heating coil.
Come on!
Shoestring budget, very little
Time, very little resources.
We just do what we can
With what we got.
I'm just really determined.
Obstacles,
It doesn't matter what.
I'll just find a way
To overcome them.
Ian: I only weigh in
When it counts with scott.
The water heater, he took
Ownership of tha
And said, "no, I'll do it."
So, I mean, I -- I'm really,
Really grateful for that.
So, this one
Goes right here.
I really, really, really hope
This thing fits.
Are you ready for this?
Ah ah ah!
Thatis what we wan
Right there.
[ Chuckles ]
Let's test it out.
Let's fire it up.
All right.
I really hope
This baby works.
It's got to work.
If this heat pump doesn't work,
Then we've just los
Another week of dredging.
That's a lot of money.
Scott: let's test it out.
If this heat pump doesn't work,
Then we've just lost another
Week of dredging.
That's a lot of money.
All right.
Happy?
Do you see the steam
Coming off my hand?
Ha ha ha ha!
This is plenty of water
To keep a diver warm.
We got ourselves
A working water heater.
Whoo!
All right. Fire up the engines
There, captain.
Ian: okay.
[ Engine turns over ]
Narrator: with the heater fixed,
Scott and ian hit the water
For the first time this season.
Scott:
Today, we're just gonna be
Poking holes
In the bottom of the ocean
And looking for gold.
You get your suit on.
I'll take care
Of the foot valve.
The whole idea of finding gold,
There's no guarantees.
You could spend years and years
Out there and not find anything.
Gold recovery, at the end of the
Day, that's the big equalizer.
So, it doesn't matter
What a dredge looks like.
It doesn't matter how big it is.
It doesn't matter
How much it cost.
Does it recover gold?
Narrator: ian called scott in
To fix the sluicey,
And scott delivered.
Now it's up to ian
To find some gold.
Scott: it's not very easy on
The eyes, but it is functioning.
It's working.
Ian's down there.
He's staying warm.
He's got oxygen.
And he's sucking up rocks,
So now all we need
Is for him to find us some gold
And suck it all up.
Yeah!
Scotty.
Scotty.
Pick it out of my hand.
This place is really
Interesting, man,
Really interesting.
It hasn't been dredged
If you're finding stuff
Like this.
I found tha
Just in the open.
A lot of this?
Not big stuff.
That's the second picker
I found
In like 45 minutes, though.
Whoo!
My turn!
Unh-unh.
Tenhoff: we're back at it.
Narrator: after losing six hours
To an engine belt repair,
Zeke and emily finally have
The clark up and running.
Hell yeah!
It's time to go down.
This is my first time down.
We'll see what it's like.
I have no idea what to expect.
I've heard it's terrible
And disorienting.
Narrator:
To make up for lost time,
Greenhorn emily
Will dive down
And assist zeke
On the ocean floor.
As zeke starts dredging,
Emily prepares for her
First dive in the bering sea.
I am not a certified diver.
Before this summer, I had
Never done any diving at all.
I don't really want to show
How scared I am.
Whew!
It's really dangerous.
It's stupidly dangerous.
Zeke and I have no form
Of communication.
I could be stuck there, dying,
And zeke would have no idea.
I'm scared that something's
Gonna go wrong.
Narrator: 20 feet underwater
In the algae-filled murk
Emily loses her bearings
And can't find zeke.
Narrator:
Off the coast of nome
Greenhorn emily riedel
Has lost her way
On the bottom of the bering sea.
After 10 minutes,
She finally finds the hose
And follows it to zeke.
Now the challenge for emily
Is keeping pace with zeke.
Tenhoff:
Dredging down there is --
It's the most physically
Demanding thing I've ever done.
So when I'm down there
And I see gold
And I know that the harder
I work,
The more gold is gonna go up
Into my sluice box,
I work as hard as I possibly can
Until I'm too tired.
Emily:
It's hard for me to follow him.
I'm moving rocks aside
And helping him out,
And he's hopping from spo
To spot with the nozzle.
It's hard, but I keep focus.
I keep the gold in mind.
It's hard to get tired
When you're down there.
It's not until you come up
That you start to realize
That you're frickin' exhausted.
While I was down, I found
This pocket of awesome gold.
And when I went to get the hose
To go suck it up,
I [laughs]
Couldn't find it again.
I'm like, "no!"
Tenhoff:
I'm really happy with her.
She's a really good help,
And she was sending a lot of
Material through the sluice box.
She knows where the gold is,
And she knows what to suck up
And what not to suck up.
Narrator: but the relentless,
3-Hour dive has taken its toll.
I'm absurdly tired.
This is just ridiculous.
Narrator:
With the good weather holding
The day's not over yet.
Narrator: veteran dredger
Zeke isn't about to slow down.
Tenhoff: we're gonna ge
Another few hours in,
And I will be satisfied
With our productivity.
Narrator: a mile up the coast,
The wild ranger
Is back on its grounds,
And captain scott meisterheim
Is wrapping up a 3-hour dive.
He is just obnoxious.
Okay.
You're out of your
Weight belt almost.
The skipper is bone tired,
But with good weather holding,
This is no time
To call it quits.
So, we can go home now.
I don't even know why
I'm telling you to go down.
I don't know why you're
Telling me to go down,
Except for that's why
I came to nome.
Scott has no choice
But to send steve down.
After getting fired
Five days ago,
This is steve's sho
At redemption.
A successful dive could secure
His spot back on the dredge.
I'm not a certified diver.
I've done a lo
Of boat handling.
I owned a sailboat.
The diving part of it, I have
No direct experience with,
So we'll see what happens.
You're gonna eventually
Hit bottom,
And that's when you stop.
[ Laughs ]
I like that part.
Meisterheim: to be a dredger,
You have to have common sense.
All right.
This doesn't -- it's really
Hard to breathe in and out.
You have to be kind of smart.
It's kind of freaky.
Meisterheim: you have to be
Tough inside and outside
To be able to be a dredger.
Yeah, that's way better,
Way 100% better.
Narrator:
A mile off the coast of nome
Greenhorn steve riedel sinks
To the bottom of the bering sea
For the first time.
Steve takes charge of the hose
And gets to work.
After 24 hours
Of good weather
I don't want to go home,
But I don't want to sink
Out here, either.
Another bering sea storm
Is rolling in.
Literally cresting
On each of these waves.
Like, that one, we barely
Made it over that one.
The choppy surf and wind are
Driving the fleet back to port.
On the wild ranger,
Steve riedel's first bering sea
Dive is officially in the books.
Steve r.: You know, going down,
It's real scary.
It's just flat scary.
And I was down there
For a while,
And then I got -- I got fine.
It's just a matter of breaking
Through some barriers, so
Meisterheimer: steve?
Steve r.: What?
Don't get a big head or nothing,
But thanks for today.
Oh, yeah, hey.
Don't say nothing.
All right. Thanks.
I appreciate the compliment
I guess.
Steve might be irritating
As [bleep] to me,
But at leas
He pulls his weight.
It was almost painless
For me to say that.
Whoa.
Emily: we need to ge
Some gold cleaned,
'Cause we are in need of cash
[Chuckles] always.
Narrator: with the flee
Safely anchored up
Steve p.: I'm sure glad
We got a positive-thinking
Guy here.
Scott: clean the lower one
Out firs
So that we can pour
Water in it.
Get it nice and clean.
The gold-filled carpets are
Pulled from the sluice boxes,
And the cleanup begins.
For zeke and emily
On the clark,
The process takes place
In their beachside yurt.
Tenhoff: all right, emily.
I think gold panning
Is kind of an art.
I put the gold pan at an angle
So that the lowest poin
Is this little groove,
And I put some water in there
And agitate all the material,
And the gold, being the heavies
Material in the pan,
Collects at the very bottom.
Before I can sell my gold,
It's got to be dry.
Got to dry ou
My gold vial, too.
Otherwise, the gold will stick
To the moisture
On the inside of it.
And if there's
Any particles of gold
Sticking to the outside
Of the vial, they won't buy it,
Because then
They're buying water weight.
Hi, john.
How's it going?
Narrator: one of nome's
Freelance gold assayers,
John steems, makes a yurt call.
Oh, yeah,
You got this really clean.
40.48.
$2,174.97.
We'll just make it $2,175.
How about that?
Looks right.
All right.
Right on.
Narrator: the clark's tally for
The second trip of the season --
An ounce and a half of gold,
Almost $2,200 worth.
But the biggest haul comes
From the biggest dredge.
He should be stress-free,
And I'm gonna be stress-free.
Narrator: steve pomrenke
Overcame son shawn's injury,
Putting the christine rose
On the gold.
50 Ounces worth $78,000.
Now I'm gonna go put this
In my hiding spot over here.
I keep my gold
In various places,
But I'm gonna put it here,
Right next to my g*ns, tonight.
Narrator: scott foster
Helped get the sluicey ou
For its maiden voyage and helped
Ian land a 3-ounce, $4,700 haul.
Ian: scotty's a good dude,
And I'm really, really grateful
He's here.
Without him, this wouldn'
Have turned out this way.
Narrator: but not everyone
Hit a honey hole.
Our gold, it doesn't excite me
In the least.
Narrator: with the season
Barely under way,
The christine rose has already
Banked a small fortune,
But they've also go
The biggest overhead.
Meisterheimer: there's only
A couple requirements it takes
To be a dredger.
Have common sense,
Not to be a [bleep] and to have
A big sack of [bleep]
If you got all three,
You can pull it off.
Narrator: a fortune in gold lies
Hidden in the waters off nome,
But for now, the people who hun
It must stand by and wait.
You're not gonna keep me
Out of the water.
Meisterheimer:
Shut your mouth.
Emily: don't be [bleep] insane.
Tenhoff: you're the one that has
To keep your [bleep] together.
Meisterheimer: there's no gold
In the [bleep] bering sea.
We could lose the whole boat.
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01x02 - One Bad Deal
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The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment.
The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment.