02x03 - Nice Guys Finish Last

[bunniefuu]

Meisterheim:
I ain't what most people call
a nice person.

[Bleep] most people.

He needs to leave.

I'm not leaving.

That's the way it is.
I'm the boss.

I'm here for one reason --

Gold.

Tenhoff: oh, yeah!
Emily: ridiculous.

We shouldn't be making
this much money

In our early 20s.

It's the biggest one
I've found.

Nice guys finish last.

State troopers, you coming
to talk to me now, too?

Time to prove the old man
wrong.

Meisterheim:
good thing I ain't a nice guy.

[ "Gold in these hills" plays ]

♪ Listen up close, now ♪

♪ What I say ♪

♪ I'm a-gonna head out west
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 --
www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪ Gold ♪

Narrator: two weeks into
the summer gold-dredging season,

A storm rips through nome.

Tenhoff:
this is no dredging for a while.

We're not getting out
into the ocean

'Cause the ocean's too stormy.

You don't make any money
when the weather's like this.

The amount of gold
that I want to make,

It seems
further and further off now.

Steve p.: The wind blows,
and the waves are too big,

And the weather's bad
that we can't get out there.

No way of making any money.

The weather in nome rules
our lives.

Narrator: with gold scarce
and dredging at a standstill,

The fleet is restless.

There will be days
when you can't dredge,

And there's some guys out there
that hang in the bars and fight.

Narrator: at the edge of town
on the dredge 6 miners camp...

[ Siren wails ]

[Bleep]
his stupid a*s.

[Bleep] you.

...an argument
between steve riedel

And his former boss,
scott meisterheim,

Spirals out of control.

[ Siren wails ]

I came out to camp out here
at dredge 6,

And it turns out steve riedel
thinks he owns the place.

Well, he asked me to leave.

I'm not leaving.

He got right up in my face,
offered to fight with me.

Steve?

He said,
"do you want to go, steve?

Do you want to go?"
Is what he said.

This is not his camp.

This is where I'm at.

[Bleep] him.

I don't need
that guy on my property.

This is my property.

This is my place.
This is my home.

He needs to leave.

Just not leaving.

Then he called the cops on me,
and the cops are here.

Steve --
stop?

You're telling me
to stop?

No, I'm saying calm.
Om. Calm.

And I already drank a fifth
of captain morgan, so...

[ Laughs ]

Hey.
Hey.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh-huh. Okay.

[ Laughs ]

Okay, thank you.
Okay.

All right, I will.

Thank you, officer.

All right.
Have a good night.

All right. You too.
See ya.

Steve -- I just can't get over
what an idiot he is.

It's ridiculous how he acts,
the kind of person that he is.

[ Laughs ]

Steve r.:
He's drinking out of my cup.

He's drinking alcohol
out of my cup...

[ Laughs ]

...in my camp.
[ Chuckles ]

[Bleep] steve riedel.

This kind of behavior is
kind of scary.

I feel like
he'd try and hurt me,

Maybe even k*ll me.

Narrator: in the center of nome,

At captain zeke tenhoff's
apartment...

Tenhoff: I don't like
being accused of stealing,

But I just need
to check these coordinates

And make sure that we're
within that little box.

Narrator:
after their last dredge,

Zeke was accused
of claim jumping.

Tenhoff:
they [bleep] came down here like
a bunch of th*gs and were like,

"Give me your mats!"

You know,
"we're gonna report you."

She's [bleep] wrong.

She's just
[bleep] dead wrong.

Narrator: but after checking
his gps coordinates

Against the claim map,
zeke is vindicated.

Emily:
she was, like, way off.

She's -- yeah,
we were well within our lease.

We're in the right.

Yeah, she's so [bleep]

She just doesn't even know
which way is up.

You don't go down

And accuse someone of stealing
in public

Before you check your facts.

She just, like,
[bleep] walked up to us

And was like,
"give us your mats."

You don't
[bleep] do that.

Tenhoff:
being accused of stealing,

It's probably gonna create
a whole bunch more problems.

It's gonna put a neon sign
on my dredging operation.

It's already all around town.

"Zeke was dredging
on judy's claims.

Zeke was claim jumping."

I know that I'm right.

And so they can shove it.
I don't care.

I'm gonna
go right back out there.

Narrator: outside nome
at the pomrenke compound...

Just a whole ball of stress
there that a guy didn't need

At this time of the year,
you know?

You just got about every dollar
in your pocket spent

On getting machinery ready,
and you can't go digging.

Narrator: six days ago...

They just shut us down.

The dnr.

They just shut
the christine rose down.

Narrator:
...the christine rose was kicked
off the claim they worked

By the alaska
department of natural resources.

It's just got me pissed off.

Steve p.:
We're at maximum stress level
right now.

I got
bills sitting on a desk

That we have no way
of paying it now.

Shawn: we have no place to mine
and no way to make a living.

So I need to find
a new place to go mining.

[ Ringing ]

Norm: hello?

Hey, norm. Shawn.

Hey, shawn.

Hey, I was wondering
if you thought about

Letting us go mining
on your ground at all.

I think
that'll be okay.

Okay.
I need 20%


We can do that.

Good.

Okay. Bye.

Steve p.: You got
some good news, I hope.

I got some good news.

All right.

Now we can get out, and we can
hopefully find some gold,

Pay some of these damn bills
that we got.

Narrator: three hours later,
the wind settles,

And the bering sea opens
for business.

It's time to make money.

Yeah, bull,
are we ready to move?

i'll start off right now.

Tenhoff: hell, yeah.
You ready to roll, emily?

Ohh!

All right, guys,
we're ready to go.

Shoving off here.

We got to go find the gold
on this new land here.

I'm on the right lease.
They were wrong.

Narrator:
a week after being accused
of claim jumping,

Captain zeke tenhoff returns
the edge to the disputed area.

Tenhoff: we're just gonna
go back and mine

On the same spot as yesterday.

They accused me of stealing gold
from their lease.

They just had bad information.

They don't know
what they're talking about.

We're on the south edge

Of the lease
that we are working on.

We're well within
our boundaries.

This should be good.

You can just tie off here.

Narrator: deckhand emily riedel
and zeke's brother, sam,

Will tend
while the captain dives.

People paid a lot of money
for those leases,

And they want to protect them.

And that's understandable,
I guess,

But that doesn't mean
you can

Just walk up to random dredges

And accuse them
of stealing your gold.

Tenhoff: we just need
to get this ball rolling

And operate
without any problems.

I'm moving
as much material as I can.

I have debt hanging over me

And the obligation hanging
over me.

People that expect me
to succeed.

People expect me
to make gold for them.

And we need to get
all the gold

That the edge is capable
of getting.

Hey, zeke,
can you hear me?

yeah,
i can hear you fine.

there's too many pieces
to even count.

i've been doing it for years,

and then you see
gold like this.

gets you really fired up,
seriously.

Damn, our job sucks.

Oh, yeah!

Ohh!
How big is it?

Ohh!

Dude, don't k*ll my joy, okay?
That's awesome.

Whoa!

Sam: yeah!

Nice.
Whoo-hoo!

Not [bleep] bad.

Ohh!

Holding about 400 bucks
in my hand.

This makes it all worth it --
this little guy.

It's awesome.

Tenhoff:
that's a pretty one.

That's the biggest one
I've found

In for four years
of dredging.

Narrator:
five miles up the coast...

Shawn: I'm just punching in
the coordinates

Into the gps
for the new lease track.

...the christine rose steams
onto her new mining grounds.

shawn: well,
i hope this move pays off.

Yeah, I hope
this moves pays off, too,

But I guess we'll find out
in the next two hours here.

Shawn: hopefully we get
on some good gold.

Maybe we'll be staying there
the rest of the year.

You never know.

I have my doubts,
because that land down there has

Never been known
for good gold.

It's time to make some money.
I'm broke.

All right,
you gonna sit here,

And we're gonna go
dowse around here, then, huh?

[ Laughs ]

Steve p.: I'm gonna go out
and do my dowsing,

Then that'll tell shawn
where to start digging.

That's the way it is.

I'm the boss.

Narrator: to locate gold,

Old-school miner steve pomrenke
practices an ancient art --

Dowsing.

Steve p.:
I'm just dowsing the ground.

When there's more gold,

The more they'll cross
on theirselves.

That's a lot of gold.

That's pretty good gold.

That's no gold.

Dowsing is pure voodoo.

Dad --
he gets the chicken bones

And throws them on the table
in there,

And then gets the rods out.

[ Laughs ]

You call it voodoo,
he starts freaking out.

Steve p.:
Ain't no gold here.

it is so dead through here,
it's pitiful.

And how do you know that?

I still like
the panning versus the dowsing.

Dad's gonna dowse.

I'm gonna pan.

We'll see who finds it.

Narrator:
shawn prospects his way.

He scoops up
samples of the ocean floor

While deckhand jason higa
pans them for gold.

You ain't gonna pan
a piece out of this ground.

Bet you you don't pan
but one fly [bleep]

Skeptical on if there's
any gold over there or not,

But nothing ventured,
nothing gained.

You can see
on the old beach line

That there was
some diggings here.

That means that there's
most likely some gold here.

Time to prove the old man wrong.

Here we go.
It's the time of reckoning.

Higa: oh, yeah!

Whoo, yeah!

Yeah.

Through panning,
we did find some gold.

We did find
some color here finally,

And so we're gonna
probably dig here for a day,

See if we can
get anything out of here.

Sounds like a plan to me.

I've tried to figure my dad out
for 37 years, and I can't.

So I ain't gonna try anymore.

I'll just deal with him.

Let's get to digging.

Narrator: on the edge...

I'll get your hot water
all tuned up

While you get suited up.

All right.

...after six hours
on the bottom,

Captain zeke tenhoff hands
the reins over

To deckhand emily riedel.

Emily: last time I dove,

It actually made me
freaked out about diving.

I just want to get down there
and get comfortable again.

I really love to dredge.

I really love to dive.

And I don't want anything
to k*ll that love for it.

Emily might be
a little freaked out, still,

About going underwater,

But she just needs
to get down there

And get over it.

The dredge needs
to keep making money,

And we can't stop
the entire operation

'Cause she's having a hard time.

I'm ready! Whoo!

[ grunts ]

ohh.

Working the 10-inch,

It's a combination
of having strength

But also learning tricks
to be able to use it effectively

Without using
too much strength.

You're dealing
with a vacuum hose

That, you know, is sucking
everything in its path up

With thousands of pounds
of pressure.

If you're trying
to muscle it around too much

And you're exhausting yourself,
you're doing it wrong.

ugh!

I think the more muscle power
you put into it,

The more money we'll make.

Which is kind of a problem
with emily

'Cause she doesn't have
as much muscle power.

Hose. [Bleep]

Emily?

Ohh.

[ Panting ]

Narrator: on the edge...

Tenhoff: hose. [Bleep]

Narrator: ...emily riedel's lost
her air supply

And has to make
an emergency ascent.

Ohh!

[ Panting ]

Sam: we'll run up close
and pull you in.

You can pop
your weight belt.

I can't pull --

I've got it.
I got it.

Ugh!

Ohh!

Pull me up. Pull me up.

Tenhoff: you all right?

My god.

Yeah, I know.
You're totally, totally heavy.

What I should have done
was

Just tell you to come up
by the ladder.

You're all right,
dude.

Yeah, I'm fine.
I just --

[ Panting ] [bleep]

Damn it!

Emily:
I ran out of air on my way up,

And so when I got
to the surface,

I was out completely.

So I pulled the mask off,
and then I found out

That I couldn't get my head
above the water.

And I could barely keep
my head above the water.

And I don't know
what these guys were doing.

When you're panicking like that,

Everyone seems to be
moving very slowly.

[ Laughs ]

[ Coughs ]

Tenhoff:
yeah, it sucks. It just --

It's reminding us of situations
that we need to be prepared for.

Um [chuckles]
I'm really kind of sick

Of feeling like
I'm about to drown.

Need to [bleep] douse myself
in holy water or something.

[Bleep]

[ Coughs ]

This is way too much,
but I'm gonna keep on going.

[ Cries ]

No, I'm -- I'm fine.
I'm fine.

You know,
it happens to everybody.

You know, yeah.
[Bleep] happens, so I'm fine.

Narrator: on the wild ranger...

We'll scout around.

We'll do some prospecting,
and hopefully we'll get on it

And recognize it
when we do get on it.

Narrator: two weeks in,
captain vernon adkison is

Still looking
for his first real taste

Of gold.

Vernon:
last year was a money loser.

This year,
I got a point to prove.

I'm looking to get 100 ounces.

The only thing that counts is
gold in your hand.

I mean,
that's how people keep score --

In gold.

Narrator: the skipper has
expanded his fleet

And is going through
some growing pains.

Vernon: right now
I got about six boats.

One of the problems with having
too large of an operation is

Keeping a supply of good divers.

And if one
of those links in the chain

Isn't there for you,
it's gonna cost you money.

Narrator:
first up, diver steve riedel.

Get on the gold.
That's what I'm doing.

That's what it's all about.
It's all been about.

We'll have a discussion
before he goes under.

And get daryl
to coach him up a little bit.

Make enough of a hole,

But you also got to make
your hole quick, you know,

Because you got to make
a lot of them.

Narrator: 31-year diving veteran
daryl galipeau will

Instruct the novice
while he's underwater.

You should be seeing
multiple pieces

And not little specks,
you know?

I'm trying to figure out
what's gonna happen with steve.

I don't know if steve's gonna
make a diver or not.

You know, I really wonder.

Get anchored up here.

Okay, steve, you can let it go
whenever you're ready.

Okay.

Man,
that's a lot of bubbles.

That's not normal.

Try to relax.

So, what are you seeing,
steve?

Just stop.

Pump the nozzle
straight down in the sand.

If you don't hit cobble
in about a foot

or foot and a half,
we'll know.

okay.

Narrator:
steve searches for cobble,

Small stones
that often conceal gold.

how deep are you
into it now?

Not really.

Just poking around,

Trying to find
some of the good stuff.

I hope steve knows
what he's looking for, but I --

You know, he's green.

There's no doubt about that.

Hopefully steve can
put gold in the box.

This boils down to money.

I need divers
who will get the gold

And earn their keep.

Narrator: back in nome
and still off the water...

Ah [bleep]

No?

[Bleep]
with a capital "f."

Why?
Nobody has them.

They have some hydraulics ones
for hydraulic.

Well, come here.

...after drowning his engines
on his first trip,

Scott meisterheim has his dredge
up on the blocks.

Why don't we just downsize
to these size?

It's only water.

That's what everybody else is
using.

I know. I know.

[ Siren wails ]

State troopers, you coming
to talk to me now, too?

[Bleep] I can't get away
from these [bleep]

Everybody wants
a piece of scott meisterheim.

I'll tell you that.

I do.

Excuse me?
Oh, [bleep]

I hear you.
[ Laughs ]

All right. [Bleep]

Narrator: steve riedel has taken
legal measures

To protect himself from scott.

Trooper: okay?

I understand.

Okay.

You know, I looked at it,

And the first thing I saw
on the top of it was

Steve riedel's name.

It was
a stalking restraining order.

Who the [bleep] puts
a stalking restraining order

On another guy?

Steve riedel is
such a [bleep]

Let me just read
a little something here to you.

"2011,
Scott meisterheim threatened

To beat me to death twice."
[ Laughs ]

"He also threatened
to throw me into the ocean."

Oh, my god.

[ Laughs ]

Oh, my god.

I just -- that's silly.

That's totally childishly silly
to do that.

You know, he could have
just took it like a man.

I'm gonna wipe [bleep]

With that [bleep]
piece of paper.

Narrator:
on the wild ranger...

You know, it's gonna --
it's just gonna keep building.

The wind is definitely building.
We got some whitecap action.

Narrator:
...conditions are deteriorating

Two hours into steve riedel's
longest dive this season.

vernon: there's still
some other dredges out here.

i can really -- I'd hate to be
the first one to pull up.

Give it a little while longer.

It's do-or-die,
and I'm gonna make this work.

We're gonna get the gold.

What's on the line is
everything I got.

I mean, I promised my wife

That we would be able
to still live in our house.

So I'm holding by that,

But everything else,
it's on the line.

Narrator: so far this season,

Captain vernon adkison has found
zero gold.

Now it's up to steve
to turn that around.

Is there any growth
on the cobble?

You know, the gray --
the gray siltation,

That's usually glacial,

And a lot of times,
that gray is pretty good.

He's
throwing in the towel.

Sounds that way.

Yeah, yeah, steve.

Let's try and hang in here
for a while.

These other guys around us are
still --

No one's
throwing in the towel yet,

So let's get the most
out of the day we can.

Okay, okay.

You called it.

Wow.

Ohh! Whoo!

That was wild.

Narrator: for steve,
the long dive is a victory,

But for the captain,

Success is measured
only by gold in the box.

I don't think
we really hit big today.

I spent money.
We haven't hit big.

I mean, I'm not out here to be
a damn little [bleep]

I mean, I'm here.
I'm doing what I'm doing.

I'm gonna
continue what I'm doing.

I'm gonna
friggin' make it work.

There's no doubt
in my military mind

We're gonna make it work.

[ Wind howling ]

Narrator: all across the fleet,

The weather takes a turn
for the worse.

Shawn: whoa.

That wave just
[bleep] splashed the boat.

Emily:
the breeze has picked up.

It's a strong south wind,

So we're gonna
pull up the anchor and head in.

Narrator: the diver dredges head
for the safety of port.

Vernon:
pretty damn sloppy out there.

Galipeau:
you know, I think it's obvious
from the conditions

We made the right call.

Narrator: on the edge...

The challenge now is

Just maximizing the hours
that I'm out here.

Maximizing the amount of time
that we're on the bottom.

I don't want
the dredge to stop running.

That gold I found over there is
really good.

Today was awesome.

Today was the first day
that I really got a grasp

For how powerful this dredge is
and, you know,

How big of an improvement
it really is

To what I used to work with.

I'd say I moved 10 times
the amount of material

In the same amount of time
I'm down there.

It's like
a totally different dredge.

But there's a learning curve.

Emily's kind of scared,
and her spirits aren't high.

You know,
the problem with emily is

That she compares herself to me.

And she understands what I do,

But the years of experience
that I have on her

Just make everything easier
for me.

Emily: hey, zeke!

Why don't you quit monologuing
and steer?

[Bleep]

Never mind, dude.
[Bleep] you.

[Bleep] men.
What?

What we're doing is
pretty dangerous,

And she's developing
more respect for it.

You know,
as scary as it was for her,

It's like, you know, this is
probably gonna happen again.

Diving is dangerous.

That's all there is to it.

Dangerous as hell.

Narrator:
in the small-craft harbor...

[ Yawns ]

...the wild ranger is
the first dredge at the dock.

Galipeau: well, we went out
and poked probably 15 holes.

We just happened
to not get onto anything,

But that's what it takes.

You know, eventually, you get
into what you're looking for.

But it gets discouraging
after a while.

The morale drops.

I doubt
we got much in the box.

If you weren't
seeing it down there,

That's good indication
that there's nothing in the box.

If he was in anything decent,
he'd have seen it.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Actually, steve...

I'll tell you something.

Lookit here.

You see the gold
on that rock right there?

Yeah.

And there's --
little specks.

There's
gold on this rock over here.

Gold on that,

So you got
into some fine gold somewhere.

Sorry, vern.

I lied to you.
I got some gold today.

Yeah. Okay.

Maybe I got some gold.

Narrator: steve stumbled upon
the wild ranger's

First real gold of the season
but didn't know it.

Vernon:
steve told us that he didn't see

Anything worth our while
down there,

So we didn't bother
to mark the gps

Or drop a buoy.

My tendency is
to give people a lot of rope

And let you hang yourself.

If they do,
then I got no more use for them.

Galipeau:
while we're on this,

What were you in there
at the last?

What was your last hole?

It was --
well, it was the --

No, it was no cobble.

I mean, no sand.

I got so many sand, cobble.

Not too big of rocks.
Perfect.

And how deep to the hard,
the clay?

That was the problem --
is that I wasn't finding --

I wasn't finding that.
I wasn't finding the bottom.

Vernon: it's frustrating
because now we can only wonder

How good it was.

It's a lost opportunity
that we'll never get back.

It's like finding
a winning lottery ticket

After it's already expired.

Narrator: just down the dock,
on the anchor management...

Okay.
Todd.

Look at me.

I think this is
about the time

Where you take your head
out of your a*s.

...captain scott meisterheim's
crew is still repairing

A rig that has yet to dredge.

[ Engine turns over ]

Making no difference,
is it?

And to make matters worse,
the skipper has to contend

With a stalking order
from steve riedel.

Meisterheim:
I'm mad about what happened.

Steve r.: [ Whistles ]

I don't [bleep] deal
with stupidity.

That's my biggest issue.

If you're stupid,

If you have
the slightest bit of ignorance

In your [bleep] brain,
don't talk to me.

I just want
to pound steve riedel

Right in his [bleep] face.

Narrator: in the center of nome,
at zeke's apartment...

This is too much.
It's too much.

Narrator: though the edge had
its best day on the gold...

Emily: the danger element is
becoming real,

And I'm thinking about it
in a way that I haven't before.

Narrator:
...diver emily riedel is
still shaken.

Emily: I mean, before,
I just kind of ignored it,

And now all I can think about is

Just being completely trapped
and helpless in the water.

If I can't get over it,

Then I'm not gonna
stay on the dredge.

Narrator: in downtown nome,

Zeke arrives at the
department of natural resources

To clear his name
from claim-jumping accusations.

[ Clears throat ]

I've got gps
that proves where we were,

And I have the agreement
from the lease owner

Of the lease that I'm working on
that states

That we are legally allowed
to mine where we are mining.

That's all I need.

I don't need
any more ammunition than that.

Narrator: across town,

Cash-strapped
captain vernon adkison sells

His first gold of the season.

Hughes: hey, vern.
How you doing?

Well, I got just a smidgen
to sell you today.

I hate to even bother
bringing that much down here,

But right now I got some bills
that are coming due today,

And that's what I got
on hand.

Okay.

So, looks like
$1,050 on this.

If steve had bent over
to see that gold,

We could have
just hammered it.

Maybe steve ought to get
a fresh pair of glasses

For under there.

Here you go, sir.
All right.

Appreciate it.
Thank you very much.

Well, that was
pretty damn pitiful.

Narrator:
a half-mile from shore...

Should I warm up
the drive motors?

...the christine rose is

The last dredge
still out on the water.

Yeah, why don't you warm up
those o-drives.

Yeah.

I ain't gonna wait.

I ain't gonna wait
for them to get any bigger.

We got a little bit of gold
in there, I'm sure.

Not too much.

It's rough out here today,
and we give it our best shot.

It ain't worth
breaking something.

Narrator: back at the dnr...

[Bleep]

...though zeke won his battle
against the claim-jumping rap,

He lost the w*r.

Tenhoff: the government's just
shut me down

Over some stupid
paperwork [bleep]

And there was no hard evidence

To suggest
that I was lease jumping,

But they had to find something
to put me out of the water.

So now they're saying
that I don't have

The right permits and paperwork
in place to work on the edge.

And they can
all go [bleep] themselves.

Narrator:
without the proper permits,

Zeke can't dredge on the edge.

Tenhoff:
the amount of money I spend
in this community,

[Bleep] I bring new value
out of the ocean.

I [bleep] spend it
in this community,

And I give people that live
in this community jobs.

This year,
I've created five jobs,

And they --
no, they want to shut me down.

Like, "nope, no, we're gonna

"Make an example out of you
and shut you down.

"No, you're creating jobs,

"And you're bringing new value
into the economy.

We can't have that."

It's so [bleep] I can't even --
I can't even --

There's just -- words cannot
describe how [bleep] this is.

Time to drink.

Come on, charlie.
[ Whistles ]

Narrator: with the edge forced
off the water,

Zeke's day at a hot spot
turned into a disaster.

And though it was tiny,

Vernon adkison scored
his first gold.

I got a good feeling
about this one.

This is
what it's all about right here.

[ All grunting ]

steve r.:
alec [bleep] come on!

That freaks me
the [bleep] out.

Ohh!
Stop it!

[ Gags ]
oh!

This is just a waste of time
and a waste of gas.