"Goods must have been going out": Expedition Unknown star Josh talks about the possibility of unearthing a native pirate trading post

Expedition Unknown Season 15 Episode 5 aired on July 16, 2025. The latest episode of the show, titled Treasure of the Pirate Queen, featured yet another exciting expedition.

It featured Josh Gates exploring South Carolina swamps while looking for the lost treasure. For the latest episode, he was in search of the pirate queen Anne Bonny's treasure. While digging through various sites, Josh and his team came across various items.

They came across some stones, which were not local. They were believed to be from an English ship.

His teammates mentioned that those rocks must have been from thousands of miles away, Expedition Unknown host Josh said:

"That means that this is like a done deal. This must have been a trading outpost. I mean, ballast is being dropped off. It's being used here, I think, to shore up this embankment. And goods must have been going out in its place."

Expedition Unknown Season 15 Episode 5: Josh Gates and his team come across a potentially historical treasure site - A secret trading post

In the recently released Expedition Unknown Season 15 Episode 5, Josh Gates and his team went across South Carolina swamps. They dug through various sites, where one of the sites had a particular kind of stone.

One of the teammates saw those stones and called Josh to take a look. He said it wasn't a rock, but a coral.

"Wait, why are there huge blocks of coral here?" asked Josh.

Expedition Unknown host Josh narrated how the riverbed might be the site for an 18th-century black market trading post for pirates:

"In a temporarily drained South Carolina riverbed, treasure hunters Harley Houston and Axel Macon are looking for evidence of an eighteenth-century black market trading post for pirates sailing in from the Atlantic. The search appears to have taken a major step forward."

Josh and his teammates discussed how those corals have come across 10-12 miles up the river.

One of the team members noted that it was a ballast stone. When Josh inquired if they were native stones, he learned that there were no native stones around that particular area.

"So these are stones...But these are non native. So this is like a stone from England from England ship," said Josh.

Expedition Unknown team members talked about the legend of a native pirate trading post, which might have been right there. Josh mentioned how there must be pirates coming up, and good would be moved "back and forth" at that very spot. After seeing those stones and corals, Josh was still in awe of them.

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To know more about what Josh and his team unearthed, fans can stream the latest Expedition Unknown Season 15 Episode 5 on Discovery.

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