‘We found 6 wrecks’: Port Dover man part of a team searching for pirate ships

A Port Dover man recently traveled to the Bahamas on the hunt for pirate shipwrecks. CTV's Sean Irvine with the story.

A Port Dover, Ont., man is living his dream, searching for pirate shipwrecks.

Chris Atkins is a principal backer and star of the online five-episode series, “The Mystery of the Pirate King’s Treasure.”

It reveals some of what a team of divers and archeologists discovered in the Port of Nassau in the fall of 2025.

In each half-hour segment, Atkins and his team guide viewers on a quest.

“We knew that discovering anything was going to open the floodgates to all the history of the Bahamas,” he said in a trailer for the series.

Atkins’ path to pirate adventures stretches back more than 30 years, when he was asked to be a surface videographer for a documentary about the wreck of the S.S. Atlantic off Long Point.

All the while, he yearned to be in the water.

“That’s when I realized this is what I wanted to do,” he said in an interview with CTV News.

Atkin secured his diving licence and within a few years, was filming a documentary beneath the Russian Arctic.

He would also win awards for his work on land, in combat and conflict zones.

“Next thing you know, I’m being asked to go to Afghanistan, Iraq,” he said.

But the water kept calling, leading to his new series in partnership with wreckwatch.com and marine archaeologist Sean Kingsley.

He said new episodes are being released with thousands of views online.

“The Bahamas is our first real Wreckwatch expedition. It’s a real scientific archaeological search of the Bahamian waters looking for pirates. And we’re the first ever to have the permits to do this,” he said.

The episodes take viewers underwater but also tell the stories of famed pirates who trolled the Bahamas, including the infamous Blackbeard.

All the while, the team is searching for the ultimate prize, the ‘Fancy,’ a 17th-century pirate ship suspected to be at rest in Bahamian waters.

As the episodes progress, it becomes clear that the team is having some success.

“The risk of finding nothing was great,” recalled Atkins. “But we found six wrecks. And of those six, three of them are very, very good candidates for pirate wrecks.”

Viewers will see more in the final two episodes, with a second season possible if the show is picked up or funded to remain online.

Meanwhile, Chris has long-term dreams of finding a long-lost wreck much closer to his Port Dover home.

The S.S. Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 train ferry disappeared on Lake Erie while on its way to Port Stanley in 1909.

“There’s a lot of there’s a lot of mystery and even conspiracy theories surrounding the Marquette & Bessemer. So, to find that wreck would be really amazing.”

Until that happens, viewers can watch his latest series online: