A mysterious sinking, a group of dedicated scientists and technicians and a 200 year old shipwreck have all collided in the Gulf of Mexico. Four thousand feet below the choppy seas the remains of a 19th century shipwreck lie in wait and a month long expedition has been mounted to uncover her secrets. This is the deepest underwater archaeological project ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico. And it’s a race against time to uncover the Mardi Gras shipwreck and solve the mystery. The Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University has assembled a world class team of underwater archaeologists from A&M and the Minerals Management Service and submersible pilots from Veolia ES Special Service to tease the secrets from a buried hulk lying deep in the Gulf of Mexico. The 4.8 million dollar expedition has been over 2 years in the making and the team has less than three weeks to recover as many artifacts as possible from the site. Using a state of the art remotely operated vehicle the pilots will retrieve items as small as Spanish coins and as large as a 950 pound cannon. All in hopes of putting a name to this shipwreck and writing a new chapter in the maritime history of the Gulf of Mexico.