01x06 - Eureka!

[bunniefuu]

Meisterheim:

The funny thing about gold

Gold can make you happier than

You've ever been in your life.

This material's

Got me excited.

There should be 25 ounces

In the box.

Oh, baby.

Oh, dear.

But a lot of people up here

Are struggling.

Look, emily. I've been

Doing this for years!

Hurts so bad,

It'll make me puke.

This is their last resort.

Hey!

Give me

The [bleep] phone!

It's my last resort.

Oh, my legs!

Steve:

Made him a cr*pple for life.

[ Crash, horn blares ]

Gold is the devil.

[ "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 ♪

[ Horn blaring ]

Narrator: in the wilds

Outside nome, alaska,

A car crash and four gold miners

Stumbling in the aftermath.

We blew a tire out on the road.

It just sent us sideways,

And I was like,

"We're gonna roll over."

Everybody's just holding on,

And boom!

[ Laughs ]

Narrator: earlier, the crews

Of the clark and sluicey

Soaked in a local hot spring.

Aah!

[ Crash, horn blaring ]

And on the ride home, they blew

A tire and plunged off the road.

[ Sighs ]

I'm like -- I don't know

If it's adrenaline or what,

But I'm just, like, shaking.

All of us were cold, wet,

And miserable,

And borderline hypothermic.

It's a miracle

That nobody got hurt.

I'm just so glad

You guys are okay.

Narrator: if they can't repair

The damaged jeep,

The four miners

Will be stranded overnigh

In below-freezing temperatures.

Tenhoff: totally unprepared

For this situation.

We don't have camping gear.

We don't have dry clothes.

But we need that big

Cargo strap of yours.

What are you

Gonna anchor to?

We can anchor

To a bush.

We can attach it to the axle

Right there.

[ Ratchet clicking ]

All right.

Push it. Push.

Okay.

She's just about there.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Whoo-hoo!

Oh, dear.

Didn't even break a strap.

[ Smooches ]

[ Grunts ]

Let's open it up and see

If any oil has drained ou

The intake on the carburetor.

Narrator: all that grunt work

Will be useless

If they can'

Get the engine started.

Okay. Okay.

[ Engine cranking ]

[ Engine turns over, revs ]

[ Cheering ]

Oh, my god!

[ Laughs ]

Whoo!

It's gonna be bumpy.

Man, this could have played ou

In so many horrible ways.

Whoo!

So I'm just gonna make I

To town a little bit slower.

Whoo-hoo!

Narrator: the next morning,

The weather clears.

But on the wild ranger

Meisterheim:

I told myself this morning

I'll have a non-frustrating

Day today.

Narrator: the future

Of the dredge is still cloudy.

Our gold, it doesn't excite me

In the least.

Narrator:

A season of failures culminated

With the firing of deckhand

Steve riedel two days ago.

Give me

The [bleep] phone!

Whoa.

And ge

The [bleep] out!

Now captain scott meisterheim

Is a man down,

And the pressure's on

To find some gold.

Meisterheim: after months

Of not collecting anything,

I have a huge urgency

To make a lot of money.

If you don't make money,

You don't eat, you don't shower,

You don't wash your clothes.

Ow.

Ow.

Holy [bleep]

Oh, that hur

Like a [bleep]

There may be

A small problem with today.

I popped my calf.

It felt like someone smacked I

With a baseball.

I'm still going down,

But we just have to

Keep that in mind.

Yeah.

Well, I'm standing.

We just got to get this boa

Over there.

Failure is not an option.

If I'm gonna do something,

I'm gonna do it my way

Until it absolutely

Doesn't work.

And then if it doesn't work,

Well then, bad me. My bad.

There's no steve on board today.

It's just gonna be me and jason.

We'll see how it goes, and maybe

We won't argue so much.

Narrator: the dredge arrives

On the skipper's chosen ground.

Then scott drops the anchor.

[ Engine revs ]

Okay. Go.

[Bleep] jason.

Yeah, I dropped it!

Don't know what the hell

You were doing.

Go pull them anchors.

Pull the ropes up.

Tighten us up.

I'm not doing it.

Meisterheim: jason, he doesn'

Have a clue what's going on.

This isn't the [bleep] titanic.

This isn'

Princess cruise lines.

It's not a [bleep] yacht.

It's a dredge. It's simple.

Next time you don't ge

All crazy with the throttle

Thinking you're gonna straighten

Out the titanic or something.

I'm straightening ou

The boat.

You asked me

Where I wanted the anchors

And how I wanted to

Do it.

Jason, you're gonna do me

A favor right now

And shut the [bleep] up.

Fix the anchor rope

So we can get busy,

'Cause I'm no

Listening to you.

We're not doing this

Today.

Scott sucks as a leader.

[ Chuckles ]

Lines need to be --

Just go that way.

Just stop talking

And pull it in.

It's not a cruise ship.

He crossed some lines

He can't step back across.

He's taking I

To a whole new level,

And as long as scot

Is on the wild ranger,

The wild ranger

Is not gonna succeed.

Narrator:

A half-mile up the coast

Good morning, vietnam!

You've tuned in

To golden boy radio,

Where all your golden dreams

Come true.

Narrator: 27-year-old greenhorn

Cody moen

Is running the christine rose

For the first time.

Let's see what robbi thinks

About golden boy radio.

Narrator:

Three days ago,

Deckhand robbi wade

Failed to pull his weight.

Shawn: robbi's no

Bringing up full buckets.

You got to know

What the hell you're doing.

Narrator: and cody was promoted

To shift boss.

Steve:

Far as I'm concerned,

He can take that whole thing

Over for one shift,

And I'll have

Complete confidence in him.

Moen:

You know what I think?

I think it's about time

Robbi gets his a*s out here

And does some mining,

'Cause I'm getting tired.

You want to come out and do

A little running and gunning?

Yeah. 10-4.

Narrator: after seven hours

Of dredging, cody takes a break.

Moen: yeah, we go

A good shift in tonight.

Pretty excited to come out today

And get back rolling.

[ Metal groans, cracks ]

Come on!

The winch just broke.

Good thing nobody

Was standing here, dude.

That whole block

Came off the ground and went up

Probably abou

Three or four feet in the air,

So it could have really

Hurt somebody bad.

That thing

Weighs 40 pounds itself,

But this barge weighs 100 tons.

So that's how much force I

Had behind it.

Narrator: to stabilize

The dredge in heavy seas,

Two 520-pound anchors

Are connected via cables

To a pair of winches.

The cables are kept in place

By heavy metal anchor guides

Welded to the deck.

If the seas get too rough,

The increased pressure

Can fracture the weld,

Taking out anyone

In the line of fire.

Got to get it fixed

So we can get back to work.

Cody preps the surface.

And robbi welds the guide

Back in place.

I'm pretty sure the boss

Is gonna want to move dirt.

Narrator: after losing

Valuable dredging time,

Robbi's anxious

To get back on the gold

Even if the welds

Are a little rough.

Wade: we're miners.

We're not building pianos here.

All we care abou

Is putting dirt in that.

We just did the quick fix

And put the block back down.

We got to get mining again.

But it was really dangerous.

Somebody could have got k*lled

Right there.

It's pretty dangerous.

That might be something we

Need to address with the boss,

'Cause this is kind of

A red zone to me now.

I don't even want to stand here.

[ Thud ]

Oh! [Bleep]

I need a hand!

Oh, my legs!

Narrator:

On the christine rose

That might be something we

Need to address with the boss,

'Cause this is kind of

A red zone to me now.

I don't even want to stand here.

[ Thud ]

Oh!

[Bleep]

I need a hand!

Oh, my legs!

My legs, dude!

[ Groans ]

Oh, my legs.

Come on.

Come on.

[Bleep]

[ Groaning ]

[Bleep]

Can't dude.

Broke again.

Come on. Get away from there

Into the boat.

Aah!

Come on, cody.

I got to crawl, dude.

It freakin' hit me

In the legs, dude.

I know. What leg?

Oh [bleep]

Oh, my god, dude.

I turned around.

I said, "this is a red zone.

We can't stand here, dude,"

And it goes boom!

Narrator: a wave

Strained the anchor cable,

Snapping the block off the deck

And nearly

Taking cody's legs off.

It hurt really bad,

Dude.

Come on.

Sit down.

[ Groans ]

Just sit down

And relax.

[ Groaning ]

You can see the line where I

Almost hooked and ripped my skin

All the way down there.

That could have flayed me open

Right there.

I'm a lucky duck.

That's for sure.

Ripped my pants that bad,

All the way up

To the freakin' crotch.

Good thing

You wear baggy pants.

If I was, like,

6 Inches shorter,

We probably wouldn't be

Talking right now.

I'd probably be

On the way to the hospital

'Cause that would have hit me

Right between the legs

And done

Some serious damage.

Hey, steve?

We lost the winch rollers

On the port side here,

Snapped off,

And it hit cody in the leg

And knocked him overboard.

So he's soaking wet.

And he's okay,

But he's got a cut on his leg.

All right. All right.

All right.

Old man's gonna be ou

As soon as possible.

Narrator:

Owner steve pomrenke motors ou

To relieve his injured hand.

Steve: all the gold in the world

Ain't worth getting k*lled over.

Where's your cut?

Well, that's a cut.

My legs are gonna be blue

Tomorrow.

That [bleep]

Hit me hard, man.

I believe it.

Are you gonna survive?

Ay-yi-yi.

All right.

Babysit that, man.

[ Groaning ]

Steve:

He's really lucky.

Thank the lord he didn't ge

Really hurt, but he's hurt.

We made a lot of gold,

So I guess that's

The most important thing.

And nobody's dead.

I look at this weld here,

And I don't like that.

Looks like

A bunch of chicken scratch.

Pretty mediocre, and mediocre

Don't work out here.

The cable catching cody

Could have tore his damn legs

Right off his body,

You know, made him

A cr*pple for life.

That was a lack of diligence,

And I put that blame on robbi,

'Cause he didn't do a good job

Welding.

When you come out here

To do this job,

You'd better know

What the hell you're doing,

Otherwise the bering sea

Will claim you.

Narrator:

On the wild ranger

Greenhorn jason walker

Is four hours into his dive.

And topside

Captain scott meisterheim

Is nursing an injured leg.

I can't even put any pressure

On the leg, on the foot now,

And can't stand up straight.

There's no way I'm gonna

Put myself in the water.

Jason comes up,

I'm gonna give him an option

Of leaving or going back down.

You coming up?

I can't go down again.

Why?

'Cause my leg

Is [bleep]

So if you're

Gonna go down again,

That's the only reason

We're staying.

[Bleep]

Walker: when scott tells me

That he's hurt,

It's just a front,

As far as I'm concerned.

It's a front. It's fake.

It's a lie.

He can't cover up

What he really is.

No, I can't.

No, he's not a leader,

And he's lazy.

And he would rather be

The arrogant, loudmouth,

Tough-guy bully

That he really is.

I'm here to tell you

I'm not going [bleep] down.

Man, go down one time,

Just for 30 minutes.

Go [bleep] yourself.

"Man up" means

Don't be a [bleep]

[Bleep] [bleep]

Meisterheim: I am hardheaded,

That is for sure.

And I will die hardheaded

Whether it be tomorrow

Or in 40 years.

[ Laughs ]

His ego is so [bleep]

Pathetically huge.

[ Chuckles ]

It's like manipulating a child.

I feel so guilty.

All right.

That was quick.

It's really ironic.

When I dislocated my shoulder,

I couldn't wai

To get back in the water.

Scott just pulls a muscle

In his calf,

And he's "oh! Oh!

I don't think

I'm gonna be able to dive!

Oh!"

That's the difference

Between scott and me.

Your leg's k*lling you?

Narrator: scott's injured leg

Means no more diving.

And no gold for the wild ranger.

Meisterheim: can't even stand

On the leg no more.

Narrator:

At the mouth of nome harbor

Scott:

We got to capitalize

On every free minute

That we have of good weather.

Narrator: scott foster

On the 19-foot sluicey

Is itching to get on the gold.

I just want to spend

A good solid 8 or 10 hours

Under the water, running

Good material through the box,

And getting gold.

Narrator: this season has been

Plagued by breakdowns

Opening up a rift between him

And the dredge's rookie owner,

Ian foster.

Dude, freakin' check

Your ego.

But now, with all systems go,

It's time for scott foster

To make his mark.

[ Engine turns over ]

Scott:

Another day in paradise.

There's nowhere else

I want to be right now.

Narrator: scott works a spo

Around a huge rock

And finds a stash

Of small nuggets.

In his quest for gold,

No stone will go unturned.

Scott: it's one of the bigges

Rocks I've ever moved,

And it's just littered --

Just piles of nuggets.

Nice little pile

Of pickers there.

Today's a good gold day.

We're doing good.

Lots of gold in there.

Whoo!

Time to get some more.

Narrator:

Two miles up the coast

Tenhoff: hey, emily!

Emily: what up?

Can you pu

That other weight belt on me?

Captain zeke tenhoff

On the 20-foot clark

Is faced with a shifting tide

And a rising swell.

Tenhoff: I want to ge

As much gold as I can.

I'm in a lot of debt, you know?

Some unfortunate things

Have happened to me financially.

There's a lot of gold out there,

And I'm motivated to ge

A lot more, and so is emily.

Emily: I'm staying up

To monitor the top situation,

Make sure it doesn't ge

Dangerously rough.

Zeke's really determined

To get down there.

Last time we were out,

He had to come in early,

And it was really hard

To leave the gold.

And since then, we've been

Wanting to get back on it.

Okay, drop it.

Narrator:

So far this season

Oh!

[ Screams ]

Freakin' cold.

Greenhorn emily riedel

Has been slowing zeke down

Don't be

[Bleep] insane.

Look, emily. I've been

Doing this for years, okay?

I probably could've kept going,

But emily was feeling sick.

Narrator:

Keeping him off the gold.

And now

Emily: the wind picked up,

And it got really cold.

Narrator: emily has

Dropped the ball again.

Emily: I didn't bring

Enough warm clothing with me.

I think it's probably a good

Idea to start heading in soon.

I'm just trying to figure ou

How to formulate my argumen

To zeke.

Narrator:

20 Feet below,

Zeke hits a prime patch

Of gilded ground

And heads topside

To share the good news.

We're on gold.

So frustrating.

This is not very fun

Right now.

The waves are picking up.

They're pretty huge.

I don't know what the hell

Zeke is doing.

He's not communicating with me,

And I'm freakin' cold.

Emily signals

For zeke to resurface.

Hey, zeke!

Zeke!

Narrator:

On the clark

Hey, zeke!

Zeke!

Tenhoff: emily!

Greenhorn emily riedel

Has disappeared

Into the 40-degree bering sea.

It's turning into

A very bad day.

It's about time

To go in.

I'm so cold, dude!

The wind's picking up,

I'm freezing,

And we have

One extra thin jacket.

Well, you have your wet suit.

Your wet suit's dry.

The water is getting rougher.

Don't think it's all my fault.

But it's beautiful down there.

There's lots of gold.

So you're making tons of money,

Even though you're cold.

Okay, let's go in.

I've sacrificed a lo

And spent a lot of money

To get where I am now,

And if I lose time out there,

It makes me really angry.

It's not gonna help us get gold.

That's for sure.

[ Engine revs ]

It's my dredge,

And I'm in control.

And she has to realize that if

She's not making my life easier,

She is not valuable to me.

Narrator:

Just outside the harbor

The wild ranger

Limps into port.

Walker: when scott and I

Started out on the wild ranger,

I was thinking scott was gonna

Be a really good leader --

You know, get us on gold,

Make wise decisions.

I was really thinking

That he was gonna be a good guy.

I was totally wrong.

Meisterheim: as the captain

Of the wild ranger,

I believe I bring leadership,

Drive, and ambition.

And

This is not easy.

If you are weak in any way,

Mentally, physically,

Or even emotionally,

You don't belong here.

I got a family, got friends.

They're all counting on me

To do good here.

And I'm not.

I do have a boiling point,

And I'm just about to reach it.

Ow.

Adkison:

I'm back in town.

This time, I intend to do

A thorough survey.

Current gold coun

For the wild ranger

Is about 3/4 of an ounce.

[ Chuckles ]

And yeah, it's pitiful.

It's pitiful.

Team not making any money.

Hey, how you doing?

Narrator: unannounced

And on edge, owner vern adkison

Is taking control

Of his failing operation.

Adkison: it's become

More and more evident to me

That you got to be right here

On top of it full time.

[ Engine stops ]

It was tight.

We tightened it already.

I had it super tight.

It's not tight now,

Right?

No, but it's not wobbling enough

To come off.

It's just wobbling.

But wobbling like that,

I mean, it's not gonna last.

Meisterheim: at this poin

In the game, I feel like

Vernon and my relationship

May be getting tested.

There's a lot of people

Complaining about me to him

That I'm a [bleep]

I'm the one running the boat.

I know what it requires.

And it doesn't take somebody

From 2,000 miles away

Telling me what to do.

Isn't there something

You can do at the house?

I'm going with you.

Adkison: scott is the team

Leader, boat captain,

But so far, I haven't really

Seen any respectable degree

Of professional expertise

On his part.

Narrator: the owner insists

On heading back out.

Meisterheim:

Vernon's my boss.

And sometimes when he tells me

What to do, though,

He goes a little overboard

With his tone.

Lower that engine,

And turn the tiller that way.

Anybody who knows me

Knows I don't like tone.

Narrator:

A half-mile up the coast

My legs are hurting, but I'm

Ready to go do some more mining.

Narrator: after a quick trip

To the clinic,

Cody and rob

Are back in business.

How you doing there, moen?

Pretty black and blue?

Yeah, my knee's really

Messed up, too, right here.

I'm good, though.

All right.

Yeah, you're okay.

Yep.

All right.

Good luck.

I hope you guys have better luck

Than we did.

Wade:

Now we're back at it,

So hopefully we can load up

On some gold here.

Narrator:

With cody's leg still throbbing,

Robbi takes the controls.

But on his first bucket

It's doing something weird

Right now.

Son of a g*n.

I don't like this

At all.

The deck is on an angle.

That can mean only one thing.

Moen:

The way we're sitting right now,

There's only a foot over there

And two feet over here.

So I think that the front's

Full of water.

It's not good.

Narrator:

The 80-ton dredge is kept afloa

By two 80-foot pontoons.

If the excavator bucket's

Long teeth

Pierce a pontoon

Below the water line,

It'll flood, unbalancing

The million-dollar vessel

And potentially sinking it.

Hey, shawn.

Cody calls co-owner

Shawn pomrenke.

I think that your dad

Might have hit the bottom

With those teeth,

'Cause it seems like

The front's full of water.

It's listing way over.

All right. 10-4.

See you in a bit.

I need to pull this off

To see if there's a bunch

Of water in here,

'Cause the boat's listing really

Bad to one side right now.

[Bleep]

Way too much

[Bleep] water.

It's a race to pump ou

The flooded pontoon

Before the weight of the water

Topples the dredge.

I don't know

What else to do.

[Bleep]

Narrator:

A pontoon is flooded,

And if the crew

Doesn't pump the water out,

The dredge could capsize.

Moen:

Way too much [bleep] water.

Hey!

There it comes.

It's a lot of water.

Co-owner shawn pomrenke's

Injured back is on the mend.

It's not good.

We need to get this done.

Narrator:

And he's ready for action.

Shawn: I'm gonna go down

In the front hole here

And see how bad

The hole is.

There's a hole in here,

But I don't see it.

You see it bubbling?

You should see some bubbles.

No, I don't see

Any bubbles.

The hole's right here.

There's a bunch of dayligh

Coming from over there.

Right here.

Right there.

So that's the culpri

Right there,

'Cause there's no holes

On the bottom.

So nobody hit the bottom.

Narrator: with the hole

Well above the waterline,

The fix can wait.

That's water from mining and

Weather and sitting in the port.

Everything's good. We got to

Get back to mining now.

Narrator:

Three miles up the coast

Okay.

Deploy the stern anchor.

Owner vern adkison

Is on board

To assess his dredge

And his two crewmen.

Do it, scott.

Despite his injured leg, the

Boss wants scott to dive first.

I can't even get around

The boat.

I'm gonna end up falling off

Or falling and getting hur

Even worse than I am right now.

I obviously tore something,

And it's getting worse.

It's not a good day.

It started off bad.

And it's gonna finish bad.

I can feel it.

Narrator: vern spots a defec

In the sluice box.

Adkison:

I don't think that sluice box

Is working worth a damn.

Narrator: the box is tilted

At too sharp an angle.

Everything I've been

Sucking up on the bottom

Is just going back

Into the ocean.

Narrator: instead of trapping

Gold, the wild ranger's haul

Is getting pushed

Over the screen

Right back

Into the bering sea.

Walker:

This is not good at all.

I don't know how much

The box is gonna capture.

I got a real strong feeling

That we're gonna have to do

Some fine tuning,

If not a major overhaul

Of this sluice box.

We have to go in early

Because of the sluice box.

We'll have to do a little

Redesigning on this thing.

Meisterheim:

That's all I've done all season

Is work on this damn boat.

When it come down to it,

The sluice box was put together

Completely wrong,

And that's why

It wasn't collecting any gold.

[Bleep] worthless.

Walker:

I only came up here

To make some money

For my wife and baby.

And I'm turning into

A big failure.

Hopes and dreams

In nome, alaska.

This is a sinking ship.

It just hasn't gone down yet.

[ Wind whistling ]

Ian:

Crappy weather.

Narrator: with rough seas

Grounding the fleet

It's time to see

Who's on the gold and who's not.

There's no way of telling

Exactly what we have in here

Until you get it down

To the very bitter end.

Narrator: outside the pomrenkes'

Cleanup shack

Steve:

I see gold in there.

I don't know how much yet,

But we will find out.

Narrator: steve pans down

A bucket of gold-laden silt.

While inside

Shawn:

Ended up with five buckets.

We'll just work them down

One at a time.

Narrator: the crew separates

Out the rest of the haul.

Steve:

We'll pan it off

And see what the heck

Them guys found out there.

[ Sighs ]

[ Whistles ]

To dry it up,

One of ma's old frying pans.

This is done cooking.

We're gonna go weigh this stuff.

Narrator:

The finished product

We're at 2.

We're at 3.

Narrator:

Pure bering sea gold.

8, 9

10, 11, 12

14.2 ounces.

Narrator: added to the res

Of their haul for the week,

The pomrenkes took in

A total of 112 ounces.

That's almost a $200,000 payday.

Steve p.:

Oh, my gosh.

I'll just giggle

All the way to the bank.

Narrator: just up the coast,

In their beachside yurt

Tenhoff:

It's good gold.

I wish I could get in gold

That good all the time.

Emily: there's a lo

Of material in here.

Zeke's determination to stay ou

In rough conditions pays off,

With a healthy 4 ounces,

Worth 7 grand.

With the wild ranger's sluice

Box not working properly

Damn.

There's no gold

For a cleanup this week.

So it's back

To the drawing board.

Get this out of here.

Until we get the sluice

Functioning properly,

It's just wasting our time.

Narrator:

In the center of town

I have to put some gold money

Into real money.

Narrator: ian heads

To a local gold assayer

To find out how much

He and partner scott found.

Man: okay. Let's see

How much you got here.

3.64 troy ounces.

Ian quit his job as

A social worker to chase gold,

A gamble that's starting

To pay off.

Gold keeps on going up,

You know?

Almost $7,000 --

More than enough

To keep the sluicey afloat.

Thank you.

Yep. You bet.

It's good.

Feels real good.

And I have enough

To cover all my expenses

For the rest of the season.

Narrator:

As the christine rose approaches

The million-dollar mark,

The wild ranger

Finally figures ou

Why they're barely scraping by.

Moen: this is the beginning

Of the race to the end.

Emily: am I your employee

Or am I your friend?!

Can't work on the wild ranger

Anymore.

I'm going to take it easy

On you

Okay.

If you want to

Come back.

Tenhoff:

She's fired.