Drain The Oceans

Synopsis

From the pioneers to the present day, the Mississippi River has always shaped the history of America. We reveal how misusing the river explains why Hurricane Katrina caused such terrible floods - how a wreck deep in the Gulf of Mexico speaks to the human cost of America’s economic expansion - and how a steamboat buried in a cornfield tells the story of how the American West was won.

Episodes

Finder's Keepers

Finder's Keepers: When the oceans finally give up their sunken treasures, is it finders' keepers? Or does the bounty belong to history? U. (S5, ep 1)

Hollywood's Hidden Secrets

Hollywood's Hidden Secrets: Buried beneath sand, dust and time, the wild Californian west has many secrets waiting to surface. Hollywood fact may be stranger than fiction. U. (S5, ep 3)

Raging Waters

Raging Waters: Pounding waves, relentless wind and carnage beyond belief - in the timeless battle of storm versus ship, Mother Nature rarely shows mercy. U. (S5, ep 4)

Drain America's Last Slave Ship

Maritime archaeologists and historians go in search of the crucial component in the Atlantic Slave Trade: the slave ship.

Drain Raiders Of The Civil War

The American Civil War stretched far beyond the battlefield, into American rivers, along coastlines, and out into the world's oceans. Maritime archaeologists and historians go in search of submerged evidence of the Civil War's forgotten battlegrounds. Scientific data combines with computer graphics to drain the waters and investigate a conflict that re-wrote the rules of warfare forever.

Killer U-Boats

Killer U-Boats: U-Boats nearly won Hitler the war when they struck the Royal Navy's ships. As experts drain the ocean, the story of the world's first stealth weapon is revealed. RATING: AA

Secrets Of The Civil War

Secrets of the Civil War: Maritime archaeologists hunt beneath the waves for Civil War secrets as they reveal how the battle on the seas shaped the outcome of the conflict.

London's Secret History

London's Secret History: The Thames' water is drained revealing new evidence of how the British capital came to be one of the most powerful cities on Earth. RATING: AA

Drain The Oceans: Arctic War

From a long lost US base beneath the Arctic ice cap, to a sunken Soviet submarine, the Cold War’s toxic legacy is both fascinating and terrifying.

Drain The Oceans: The Mississippi River

From a steamboat in a cornfield to the true story behind Hurricane Katrina's floods, new discoveries reveal how the Mississippi river shaped America.

Ultimate Battleships

Ultimate Battleship: Experts pull the plug on the North Sea to find out what happened to the British and German ships when the Battle of Jutland ended. (S1, ep 9) RATING: AA