[Narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Clarke] It's very possible a holy relic
related to Jesus may have been concealed
with a Templar treasure on Oak Island.
-[Peter] Whoa. -Wow.
-Got a hit in here. -You do? -[Peter] You got something?
[Katya] Yeah. That's exciting.
-[whoops] -[Scott] Oh, wow.
That's an amazing find.
We've never seen this on an archaeology site.
-Wow. -[laughing]
The peak use was in the 14th and the 15th century.
These could have been dropped by the depositors.
That's pretty exciting.
[Narrator] There is an island in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking for
an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.
So far, they have found a stone slab
with strange symbols carved into it,
man-made workings that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend, one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
-[Alex] Weather's changing pretty quick. -[Laird] Yeah.
I mean, it's the same problem we face every year
on the island, which is being
-at the mercy of the weather. -Yep.
[Narrator] The bitter chill of fall
has arrived on Oak Island.
Well, hopefully, just down another six inches,
we come to the top of a vault
-or something and... -Yeah.
...and-and we get our questions answered.
[Narrator] But for the Laginas and their team,
the trail of clues that could solve
a 231-year-old mystery has never been hotter.
Especially in the man-made boulder feature
that they have been investigating on Lot 8.
[Fiona] You know, we-we do feel this is something very special.
It's certainly unique, it-it's been
so purposeful and intentional.
It definitely doesn't look like we're anywhere
near the bottom yet.
[Alex] We have a lot of structures
-that date through potentially the 1600s... -[Laird] Yeah.
...definitely the 1700s,
definitely into the 1800s,
and none of them are like this.
No.
We keep on coming to that potential 1200s
-time period. -Yeah.
[Narrator] One week ago, lab tests
on cement-like mortar that were used
to seal this cradle of stones together
showed that the feature may be as much as 800 years old.
Given the fact that the cradle of stones
was covered by a 40,000-pound boulder
and high traces of silver have been detected
in the ground soil,
the team believes this feature may be one of the oldest
ever found on Oak Island and, perhaps,
hiding something of great value.
[Fiona] All right, I'm gonna try a pry bar with this.
-There we go. -[Fiona] Good.
-I can grab that now. -[Marty] I have to say
that this man-made boulder feature on Lot 8
is certainly the top tier of amazingly unique things.
The most likely explanation, to me,
is that it was placed there to cover something.
A shaft, a grave, treasure. Something.
This stuff is pretty cemented.
[Fiona] I'm hitting a lot of slate here right now.
-Like, there's a couple of layers of it. -[Alex] Yeah.
-Hey, guys. -[Fiona] Hello. -[Laird] Hello. -Hey.
-Wow. -[Fiona] Finally, we can get two of us in here.
-[Fiona] Took a while. -[Laird] Yeah, so we started
working on the outside edges.
Where Fiona is seems distinctly different than here.
-Huh. -[Fiona] Even down
to the rock formations.
A lot of smaller rocks on-on this top path,
whereas we had a lot of larger ones down, down below here.
Even the soil is a little bit different.
Yeah.
So, the plan moving forward, then, is, I would assume,
dig down and dig out.
Yeah, I think we should excavate here, too, just to make sure.
[Rick] I mean, t-there's something there.
-[laughing] -Yeah. That's exactly it.
-[Rick] Okay. We-We'll let you get back to work. -[Alex] Yep.
-We'll keep you posted. -Okey doke.
-[Rick] Thank you. -[Craig] Okay.
-[Alex] See you, guys. -[Laird] Later.
[Narrator] Later that morning...
[Gary] All right, Rick.
Today is the day.
We're at treasure depth now.
[Narrator] ...Rick arrives in the Money Pit area
where the excavation of the Peacock-1 shaft
is approaching a depth of 150 feet.
[Gary] We're almost in that void area
where Prohawk saw some objects.
I heard one of them was a shiny object.
And I can tell you now,
all the ancient treasures look lovely in water and mud.
[laughing]
[Narrator] Peacock-1 is another target location
where high traces of silver and gold
were detected in underground water samples
taken from some 200 feet deep in the solution channel.
And during their core-drilling operation this year,
this is also where the team discovered
a ten-foot void at a depth of some 150 feet.
Really, there were
interesting things that we kind of noticed in the imagery.
[Narrator] A void where an underwater camera
recorded enhanced video
of potential man-made workings and metal artifacts.
This has made the team suspect that they may have discovered
an offset treasure chamber
connected to the original Money Pit.
What would we expect to see,
in terms of material pullback?
We'll see some rounded, washed boulders
at this point. If we see some wood,
everybody's gonna lose it, I mean,
'cause that would mean we're breaking into a structure.
-[machine beeping] -Anyway, here we go.
[Rick] Okay. Now we got something.
All right, got a lot of cobbles, like you said.
Let's see if there's any treasure
-in those spoils. -[Peter] Yeah. -[Terry] Sure.
I think the most likely place
for a treasure that's still there
is in the solution channel or in a offset chamber.
[Terry] Some boulders.
[Marty] One of the sonic drilling wells in the Peacock
hit some really interesting stuff.
Maybe it has something to do with the offset
chamber theory. I'm hoping it does.
[Terry] Look at how washed those boulders are.
We're definitely into a relative open space.
That's clear, Billy.
Not in this one.
[Terry] That's the void we're looking for.
[Peter] But there was nothing in there.
We're into the slushy, loose area.
Things could've moved around.
Perhaps things fell down into the solution channel.
[Narrator] Could Terry be correct
that the shaft has encountered
the same void the team drilled into earlier this year?
But the possible artifacts they saw in the underwater video
may have fallen through the loose ground soil
to somewhere much deeper below.
[Rick] The area of interest for me now
is the bottom of the solution channel.
-Sure. -Because it could have fallen anywhere.
-Yep. -You have to have an expectation
that, in the Money Pit, every scoop has a chance.
-Yeah. -So, we just have to find it.
Yep. Treasure's where you find it as well.
-There you go. -When you least expect it.
-[Terry] Next bucket. -[Peter] All right.
[Narrator] While the dig continues
in the Money Pit area...
...later that afternoon...
[Peter] All right. Back in the swamp.
I'm pretty excited 'cause we were finding five
and eight-sided stakes, and
-my guess is they continue. -Right.
[Narrator] ...Gary and Peter join Billly Gerhardt
on the western side of the triangle-shaped swamp.
-[Billy] Well, we have a road. -Yep.
There was big cargo moving along these roads, maybe.
Yep. Hopefully, we find some of that cargo today, mate.
All right.
[Narrator] They are continuing to look for more sections
of a mysterious sand-covered cobblestone road
which they have found lined with five
and eight-sided wooden survey stakes.
Now the team is determined to find out
just where this road will lead them.
See all the rocks on the edge of the road, Gary?
[Gary] Yeah.
There's a lot of rocks here. That is for sure.
That's crazy, now it's uncovered,
you can actually see the line of rocks
-[Billy] Mm-hmm. -that represent the edges
of the road, the sand in the middle.
It's definitely a continuation of the sand road.
Right. The road signifies
a major effort by somebody to do significant work
in the body of the swamp.
-Look at what we found in the swamp. -Yeah.
[Rick] You know, as we have chased
this so-called sand road, you ask yourself,
"Is there any association with all the known
construction features in the swamp?"
No one knows why it's here. I believe
that this road might represent
some very early work,
and we need to understand it in terms of understanding
the mystery.
-Hey, Gary. -Hello, mate.
-Figured I'd come help you dig. -Yeah. Good.
[Alex] Anything yet? Or not really?
Um, we can clearly see the sand road now.
[Alex] Yeah.
[Peter] Oh. What's that?
[Gary] Well, that's interesting.
[Peter] I don't know what to make of it.
Yeah, I think this is an eight-sided stake.
Same dimensions, overall.
-Yeah. -[Narrator] After discovering another section
of the sand-covered cobblestone road
on the western side of the swamp,
the team has just found another potentially important clue.
[Peter] It looks like there's sandy material
on this, which would make sense that it was
running up against the sand road.
Yeah, and I agree.
They seem to be following the edge of the road,
-just like the row of rocks does. -[Billy] Yeah.
[Peter] There's another one right here.
-Another one. -It looks like eight.
-Well, that's good. -They were clearly marking this road.
[Billy] Yeah. I'm gonna go ahead
and I'll get more of it it uncovered.
[Peter] All right, guys.
I'm gonna go check on some other things right now.
Let me know if we find anything.
-You got it. -All right.
Check the rocks on the other side, Alex,
how they had them laid along the road.
-[Alex] Yeah. -[Gary] You can see both sides of road.
[Billy] Yeah, you can see both sides of the road pretty clear.
Yeah, 'cause right now, it's...
-right here. -Yeah.
-And then on the other side... -Seems like over there.
[Billy] Yep.
-[Alex] ...you get rocks again over here. -Right.
I mean, this is a road, definitely.
But it seems like this would have been built for oxen.
[Billy] Yep. We know there was a lot of work done here.
There has to be an infrastructure to support it,
-right? -Right. -Yeah. And you know your Uncle Rick
would want to see this, mate.
-Yep. -Maybe text him,
-get him out here. -I will. I'll let him know.
When I first saw the sand road,
I didn't think it was a sand road.
And now, digging where we are,
having followed this path of sand all the way here,
this is unique.
-Okay. -It's actually the only
old road with a sand topping
that we found on the island.
And this could be something really important.
Well, you guys are making a mess.
-[Gary] Hi, Rick. -I hope you found something.
-[chuckles] -A lot of stakes.
[Alex] Series of stakes along the edge of the road.
What we found that's interesting is
we now have both sides of the road very clearly visible
with rocks on both sides.
[Rick] Oh, yeah. Here.
[Billy] Somebody put the sand over the top
to make it smoother, I think.
But it's all that rock, underneath there.
You wonder if this is way back when.
Where else did we see all hand-size cobbles?
We call it the Portuguese stone road out of the swamp.
[Alex] Just kind of standing where I am right now,
looking down the road, I mean, i-it looks like it heads
right for where it would intersect that old stone road
in the southeast corner of the swamp.
-It'd be pretty spot-on. -Right.
[Narrator] Could Billy and Alex be correct?
Might this sand-covered road connect
with the believed Portuguese stone road
which the team uncovered
in the southeast corner of the swamp back in 2020?
[Rick] I say we get Dr. Spooner in,
guide us through some crosscuts, and I think it needs
to be more than one.
We know the doctor makes swamp calls.
Yeah. [laughs]
[Rick] We need to do a crosscut because then Dr. Spooner
can look at the stratigraphy.
Perhaps he can find
a carbon-datable organic specimen.
The hope is that it will be very enlightening
because we could find connections
to the Portuguese stone road.
-Well, let's keep digging, see what's what. -Yep. -Okay.
[Billy] I'll just clean it up, and then we can see
-how wide it is. -[Alex] Yeah. -[Gary] Yeah.
[Narrator] The following morning...
-[Scott] Hey, Scott. -[Rick] Good morning, Scott.
-Hey, guys. Good morning. -Welcome back to the war room.
You have brought a lot of thoughtful discussion
to this table.
[Narrator] ...Rick and members of the team
meet once again with author, researcher
and 32nd-degree Freemason Scott Clarke.
[Rick] Scott Clarke has done some research lately,
and he has additional clues to the idea,
the concept, that a sacred religious treasure
has been buried on this island.
So, having said that, Scott,
we look forward to your presentation.
[Clarke] Yeah, thank you very much, Rick.
I-I've been presenting research with you guys
quite a number of times.
My presentation is titled, "From Nazareth to Nova Scotia."
I have additional clues
that I believe really strengthen the theory
that Oak Island does conceal a sacred religious treasure.
[Narrator] Two years ago,
Scott presented a map of Mahone Bay
featuring Oak Island,
which was drawn in 1762 by Charles Morris.
That same year, Morris,
who was also the surveyor general for England
and a high-ranking Freemason,
was responsible for dividing Oak Island
into 32 four-acre lots.
[Clarke] So, I quickly realized
that the Masonic script "A" was pointing
directly up to Oak Island
33 years before the discovery of the Money Pit.
[Narrator] It was Scott's belief that Charles Morris
purposely used a Masonic-styled "A"
in the word "Mahone" on the map
in order to point toward the location
where priceless religious treasures
of the Knights Templar were buried.
[Clarke] So, as you guys know, the Masonic script "A,"
with the V-shaped crossbar,
has definitely been used at times, throughout history,
as much more than just a simple letter.
It's been found on Templar churches,
uh, throughout Europe,
carvings by the Knights of Christ,
and of course on the earliest map
of Mahone Bay, which I've shown before.
The "A" in "Mahone" has a V-shaped crossbar
which is very similar
to a Masonic compass and square symbol.
So, I recently became aware
of this really interesting artifact in Rome.
Uh, it's in a church called the Basilica of the Holy Cross
that houses several relics related
to the passion of Christ.
Now, these relics are believed to include
a piece of the true cross,
one of the nails that was believed to have been used.
And one of the relics is actually called
the Titulus Crucis.
[Narrator] The Titulus Crucis,
or "Title of the Cross,"
was a wooden tablet that was placed
above the head of Jesus Christ when he was crucified.
It was reportedly inscribed with the words,
"Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."
[Clarke] So, as soon as I saw the Titulus Crucis,
I was immediately drawn
to the letter "A" at the bottom there,
uh, with the V-shaped crossbar,
highlighted in red in the name "Nazarinus."
The Templars did have, uh, a major presence in Rome.
The holy relics that were housed in the Basilica
also held immense significance for the Templars
who cherished and visited this important religious site.
So, below is just, uh, a comparison of the two:
the-the Morris map from 1762 showing the two different As,
and of course the place name, uh, "Nazarinus"
on the Titulus Crucis.
And so, of course, the big question is why.
Why was this particular "A" carved
with the V-shaped crossbar on the Titulus Crucis?
Why is it on the 1762 Morris map of Mahone Bay?
Uh, it seems to me
fairly possible that this letter "A" with the V-shaped crossbar
is connected to Jesus.
So, additional clues that I believe
really strengthen the theory...
on the map, at the far right,
is the name St. Margaret's Bay.
St. Margaret was known throughout history
as having owned a piece of the actual true cross of Jesus.
And Morris also incorporated three of the As
within the name St. Margaret's Bay.
And they have that same V-shaped crossbar
whereas all the other As on the map
do not. And as I've shown before,
the last time in the war room,
by utilizing those three small As
in the name St. Margaret's Bay,
if you created a circle on the map
using the exact arc
created by the three Masonic script As,
the circle will not only pass directly through
the compass rose of the map
but also directly over Oak Island.
Yeah.
[Clarke] So, uh, Jesus was venerated
by the Catholic orders:
the Knights Templar, the Knights of Christ,
uh, the Knights of Malta,
any of whom may have been responsible
for depositing or incorporating
crosses on Oak Island.
I believe that it's very possible
a piece of the actual true cross of Jesus
may have been concealed
with the Templar treasure on Oak Island.
32nd-degree Freemason Scott Clarke is presenting clues
found on an 18th century map
of Mahone Bay, which he believes
offers more evidence that priceless
religious artifacts may be buried on Oak Island.
And here's another example:
Corjan Mol, he took the photo
that's shown right here.
He informed me that an "A" with a V-shaped crossbar
was found at the Convent of Christ in Tomar, Portugal,
which is a Templar church.
-That's right. -Recently, the Convent of Christ
displayed a number of Portuguese Templar gravestones
which had these pentacles engraved on them.
And the pentacle-- it's a pentagram within a circle--
was adopted by Christians during medieval times
as a symbol of Jesus
and the five wounds that he suffered
during the crucifixion.
Every pentagram consists of five letter As
in varying positions.
And as we can see, this includes
the "A" with the V-shaped crossbar.
So it's interesting that in all the world,
the only country that incorporates
the five wounds of Christ
on its national flag and its early coinage,
of course, is Portugal.
And by association, the Azores.
Both of their flags, to this day, still have
the five blue shields arranged in the shape of cross.
And on each shield, we see the five dots,
which are said to represent the five wounds of Jesus.
[Narrator] The Azores are a Portuguese archipelago
of nine islands some 870 miles west of mainland Portugal.
[Narrator] In 2022,
Portuguese researcher Francisco Nogueira
met with the team as they were investigating
a strange rock wall on Lot 26 of Oak Island.
No way.
[Narrator] And curiously,
Francisco not only affirmed
that the wall appeared to be of Portuguese design
but matched similar rock walls found in the Azores.
And with the discovery or the revelation
of the Pitblado coin this year,
I think, on a research note,
we'd have to turn our attention back to Portugal.
And the Azores as well.
[Clarke] It would probably have
the cross with the five, you know, wounds of Christ.
That was normal for Portugal currency back then.
It does have that.
[Narrator] Is it possible
that the 14th century silver coin, reportedly found
in the original Money Pit by James Pitblado,
might be a corroborating clue
to support Scott Clarke's theory?
Um, I'm not the only researcher that's-that's found
a number of-of connections
with early Christian relics and Oak Island.
I believe that with this new information I presented,
regarding the "A" with a V-shaped crossbar,
it is perhaps a clue
that there is something on Oak Island
directly connected to Jesus Christ
and these groups, the Templars,
-Knights of Christ. -[Alex] It does track.
It fits with the history that we know.
-Oh, absolutely. -Yep, yep.
It's something we can continue to investigate.
It's what we're looking for if we can prove it out,
the thing that connects the Old World
across the Atlantic to Oak Island.
Right, right.
[Rick] I think potentially going to the Azores
is-is an excellent thought.
So I say thank you to you.
Uh, continue your excellent research,
because what you find may be critically important to us.
Sounds good. Thanks very much, Rick.
-Really appreciate it. -[Alex] Thanks, Scott.
[Rick] Thank you, Scott.
[Narrator] Later that morning...
[Ian] So...
we're gonna do one trench.
[Narrator] ...Dr. Spooner joins Rick and members of the team
on the western side of the swamp.
The idea is to do it, uh, across the road,
and what we're hoping to do is see some kind of feature--
wood, cut wood-- underneath the sand.
Okey doke.
[Narrator] As Billy digs a trench,
or crosscut, in the sand and cobblestone road,
Dr. Ian Spooner will be looking for man-manipulated clues
such as cut wood to submit for carbon dating.
This could help him determine when the road was created.
-[Rick] Still sand? -[Scott] Yeah.
-Lot of material. -Yeah.
Was it a road and then the sand put on after?
Yeah, that's the one thing we've got to take a look at.
-If there's rocks, then duff, then sand... -Yeah.
...that's two generations, then,
-of construction. -Right.
[Ian] So, we're digging through the sand road, and what we saw
were these layers:
layer of sand on top,
organics below the sand,
then rocks under that
that might have been used to reinforce
the sides of this road.
-[Rick] Let Katya go in. -Yeah.
[device beeping]
-[Katya] Got a hit in here. -[Scott] You do?
-Yeah. -[device beeping]
It's iron.
I think it's out.
That's exciting.
What in the...?
I think we might have
an old ox nail.
[Narrator] After digging into the sand and stone road
on the western side of the swamp,
Katya has just found a potentially important artifact.
-Yeah. -[Katya] And it definitely is square,
which obviously isn't modern.
Hmm.
And the oxen would have been towing the carts
-with everything, right? -[Narrator] An ox shoe nail?
Could Billy be correct that the team has found evidence
that heavy cargo was moved along this road long ago?
If so, just what type of cargo was it?
[Ian] That's encouraging.
An old nail makes me more confident
what we're standing on is something old.
Who knows what we might find in the sand?
Let's keep going.
[Rick] If we can make a determination
that the road is old,
then to me it speaks eloquently to the fact
that the road was constructed to gain access into a wetland
and that heavy loads were transported across it.
[Scott] That's another cut piece of wood there.
Yeah.
Right. Just as-as the teeth are going by here, I mean,
-there's a lot of rocks here. -Yeah.
Somebody laid 'em down as a base.
-Yeah, that's cut, too. -Yeah.
[Ian] So, something like that's what we want to get a date from.
[Scott] Yeah.
[Ian] So, we're digging through the sand road, and what we see
is cut wood above the stones and below the sand...
Oh, look at this, Peter. That log's cut at the end, too.
...which I think was put down to help stabilize the sand
with the intent of actually supporting a fair bit of weight.
What really stands out to me is some of the layering.
It looks like brush that's been just piled down, piled on top.
-[Peter] Yeah. -I mean, it's pretty complex construction,
but it's hastily done.
The Portuguese stone road is made the same way.
[Ian] Hey, take a look at this.
-That's cut wood. -[Rick] Wow.
[Narrator] In 2020,
when the team uncovered the stone road
in the southeast corner of the swamp,
they found layers of hand-cut tree branches
beneath the cobblestones that served as support bedding.
Could these branches offer a clue
that this sand road may indeed
connect to the road in the southeast corner?
[Ian] But it's worth
trying to figure out the timing of this...
-Mm-hmm. -...because if it connects
to the stone road,
then maybe it's all of a certain design.
That stick right there that's still embedded in the side...
[Ian] Yeah.
I think that's gonna be the one that's gonna
-tell the tale, would it not? -Yes.
We might get a good date off that wood, too.
-[Katya] Mm-hmm. -But what I'd like to do is move
to another site, do another trench,
-if you can do that, Billy? -Yep.
-Okay. -Okay. -Good luck. -All right.
-Thank you. -See you, guys.
[Narrator] The next morning...
-[Ed] Morning. -[Peter] How's it going?
We've already gone down another 20 feet.
So, at this point, the can is down to 170.
That's great.
[Narrator] ...in the Money Pit area,
Rick and other members of the team
monitor the excavation of the Peacock-1 caisson.
I notice we're getting full buckets as well.
-Yeah. -Which is good. The more spoils we go through,
the more chance we got of finding treasure.
[Rick] Everything points
to getting down to 210.
-All right, thank you. -Thanks, guys. -Thanks a lot, Ed.
-Appreciate it. -Appreciate it.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Yeah.
[Peter] What you got?
And you're smiling.
[Charles] That. That came out of Peacock-1.
-What the heck is that? -That's cement. -Let's have a look.
[Charles] This kind of jumped out at him on the wash plant.
-[Rick] Yeah, that is cement. -Yep.
You know what that makes me think of?
My mind went right to the vault. 1897.
Yeah, the vault.
[Charles] The vault was encased in concrete.
[Terry] That's concrete.
-Not maybe. -Wow.
[Narrator] In 1897,
treasure hunters Frederick Blair and William Chappell
reported drilling into a seven-foot-high wooden vault
that was encased in concrete at a depth of 153 feet.
During this same incident,
they claimed to have found traces of gold
and a piece of parchment bearing the letters "V-I"
when they extracted their drill bit.
Is it possible that this concrete
could be evidence of the so-called Chappell Vault?
That needs to go to the lab.
-Absolutely. -[Charles] I'm gonna leave that with you.
I've got to get back down to the wash plant.
-All right. -See you, guys. -See you.
[Rick] That's why the wash plant exists.
Because drilling,
the sinking of caissons,
metal detecting, uh...
you need all the tools in the toolbox.
[Charles] Here we go.
Let's see if we find something.
Hey, Charles!
Down here.
This is pretty peculiar.
You know what that looks like?
[Narrator] At the wash plant, Derek Couch has just made
a potentially important discovery.
It looks like a Portuguese stoneshot to me.
It's the fact that it's coming out of this
-at 100-plus feet down. -Okay.
[Charles] This is cool, man.
We found one before in the Money Pit.
[Narrator] A possible piece of stoneshot
found in the spoils removed from the Peacock-1 shaft?
Dating as far back as the 12th century,
hand-carved stoneshot was a projectile
that was discharged from both small cannons
and early handheld firearms.
Curiously, the team has found two stoneshots in recent years,
one on Lot 15 and the other deep in the Money Pit area.
Incredibly, according to scientific testing,
both of those may have originated
in the Azores islands of Portugal.
[Charles] We got to have Laird and Rick
come down and take a look at this.
-Yeah, you'd better. -Absolutely.
-I'm gonna text 'em. -All right.
Have 'em come down.
[Narrator] Is it possible that Derek and Charles
have found another identical piece of stoneshot?
-Way to go. -I'll keep an eye.
[Narrator] And if so, could it be another key clue
to help identify just who was behind the Oak Island mystery?
-[Laird] Charles. -Hey, Laird.
Hey, you got a smile on your face a mile long.
Well, take a look at that.
[Rick] Wow. Look at that.
What do you make of it?
[Laird] Well, i-it looks like a stoneshot, for sure.
I don't see how that would occur naturally here.
Emma and the CT scan might tell us something.
Might see the chisel marks or whatever?
-Yeah. -Hmm.
It was found 100-plus feet down.
So it could come from the solution channel,
it could come from a little bit higher.
All I know is 100-plus.
[Laird] I mean, either way, if it's a stoneshot,
it shouldn't be there.
In 40 years, we've never seen this
on an archaeology site.
-[Rick] It has the appearance of the other ones. -Yeah.
[Rick] There was a suggestion that it could have
come from the Azores.
-So we have to check into that. -Yeah.
-[Charles] Very curious find. -Cool.
[Rick] If Laird is correct in his assessment
that it is a stoneshot...
-Thank you. -Okay. -Thanks, guys.
...I think it would be quite remarkable.
It's amazing, because now we have found three
in different locations.
And this one was found in an area
where we've actually found traces of precious metals
deep underground as well.
[Narrator] Meanwhile, back in the Money Pit area...
-[Jared] Think we're at bottom. -...the excavation
of the Peacock-1 shaft
has reached bedrock in the solution channel.
-[Rick] So, how's it going? -[Terry] Hey. Just saw
how it was turning but it really wasn't going anywhere?
-[Peter] Yeah. -They're on the bottom.
-Really? -Teeth are on the bottom at 210,
-just about where we thought. -Nothing else has come out?
-[Gary] Unfortunately not. -[Terry] Most of the stuff
we're pulling up is relatively loose.
There's some gypsum from the bottom as well.
Sadly, the structure that we thought or hoped for
doesn't seem to have materialized.
Hmm. Unfortunately, we're done.
-Hey, guys. -How we doing?
-You tell us. -Yeah.
Hole's cleaned up.
We definitely are in the layer of bedrock, for sure.
[Rick] I'll say it, it's disappointing,
especially given the clue we just found.
Charles says it better than anyone, you know?
"Maybe you didn't find it yet, but it's down there."
We've collected samples of soil, we've collected water samples,
and they show precious metals,
so we may be close to something.
As everyone knows, we didn't find the treasure.
But we're buoyed by the fact that, you know,
we all stuck together in this, including you.
Now we have a decision to make: where do we go next?
We're certainly not giving up.
-Okey doke? -[Peter] All right. Thank you, guys.
-All right. Thank you, guys. -Thank you.
You know what? Okay, the treasure wasn't right here,
but I'm confident we're gonna find some treasure.
[Rick] You just keep moving forward.
That's all it is. On to the next hole, right?
I mean, at some point, this will get solved.
There it is.
[Gary] On to the next.
[Narrator] The following morning...
[Rick] Everybody knows why we're here.
The find on the far end of the table here
came from Peacock-1.
[Narrator] ...Rick and other members of the team
gather in the lab.
Well, what's unique, I mean, to find one in the Money Pit,
one on Lot 15, and now another one
came from the Money Pit as well.
[Narrator] They are eager to hear Emma's
preliminary scientific analysis of the believed stoneshot.
[Jack] Oh, wow.
What do you see, Emma?
So, there's these two little divots,
uh, from the cross section.
Up on this end, there is a divot up here.
So, these are all wear marks,
or working marks of being worked at.
-By humans, not nature, correct? -I would assume so.
-[Laird] Yeah. -Yeah.
I mean, this one's a little rough,
which is a good thing, because the original stoneshots
were made by, by stonemasons.
Um, the way they were created
is you'd have, uh, a stonemason,
and basically just hitting it.
And this one, you can clearly see the peck marks.
[Emma] Which does identify this as a stoneshot.
Hmm.
[Rick] We believe that some of these fit
swivel guns in Portugal.
Uh, we know that because we took them.
[Narrator] During their trip to Portugal in 2021,
Rick and members of the team
visited the Military Museum in Lisbon...
[Corjan] Oh, look at that.
[Alex] This is pretty close.
So I would say that's a match to this.
...where they were amazed to discover
that both of the stoneshots
matched with a 15th century Portuguese cannon.
Let's pin down a time frame, then,
when these were used and when they went out of use.
Yeah, I mean, the peak use of stoneshot
was in the 14th and 15th century,
and cast-iron cannonball was introduced in 1450s, so...
it replaced these pretty quickly.
[Jack] Well, the 14th century,
that fits into the same time frame
as the Portuguese coin that Pitblado found
while drilling in the Money Pit.
-Yeah. -[Rick] An early date like that
would be highly suggestive of that, absolutely.
[Narrator] In the lab, the team has just learned
that the object found in the Peacock-1 spoils
is a potentially 600-year-old stoneshot.
[Jack] And if it is, then these
-could have been dropped by the depositors. -Yeah.
[Rick] The timeline associated with the use of stoneshot
predates the accepted history
of the discovery of the North American continent.
This type of stoneshot would have been used
in the 1300s, 1400s.
We know that there's a strong connection,
possibly, to the Order of Christ and the mystery.
And they had the ability to get to the New World.
This could be an important clue.
I know what your brother Marty would say.
"This is nice, but go out there and find some more."
-So let's give it a shot, Rick. -Only if we get out there.
-[Gary] Yep. -[Rick] All right. Thank you. -[Laird] Okay,
-see you later. -[Jack] Thanks, Emma. Thanks, Laird.
[Narrator] Later that afternoon...
[Rick] Hey, Marty.
[Marty] Hello, big brother. What's going on?
A little bit of an update for you in the Peacock.
-Okay. -[Narrator] ...Rick meets
via videoconference with Marty,
who is currently back in Michigan for business concerns.
So, we have reached the bottom of the solution channel.
-Yeah. -And we weren't finding much of anything
other than the proof of unconsolidated soils.
-Mm-hmm. -But somewhere between 100
and 150 feet,
this came up.
I don't know if you can see it.
Oh, yeah. I sure as heck can.
Its appearance, obviously, is stoneshot, right?
-Yeah. -You remember Gary found
the one at the surface on Lot 15?
Yeah.
So, we have the Money Pit find,
we have the Lot 15 find,
-and now we have this. -That's pretty exciting
because, Rick, that would imply that those stoneshots
-are everywhere. -Correct.
And those things, are they not like...
you know, they quit using them, like, in 15-something?
Yeah, in the 1500s.
Yeah.
This stoneshot means people were down there a long time ago.
And again,
more evidence of activity
long before anybody thought there were Europeans here.
Probably the 1400s, maybe the 1300s.
So it's hard to overstate the significance of this thing.
Really boggles my mind.
We can have, uh, Laird reach out to Dr. Raeside at Acadia.
He did the previous analysis of the stone.
We need to know what type of rock this is
-and where it might have come from. -Okay, well,
we need to do that.
-What else you got for me? -You know, we are coming
-to the end of the search year. -Well, that leads me
to ask you a question.
How are you feeling about our efforts this year?
The year has been very frustrating.
We made very educated, uh, choices
in the Money Pit, but it was less
than we had hoped for at this point.
Yeah.
That's how I feel. How do you feel?
The island is
just the most frustrating thing I've ever been involved in.
-[chuckles] -But we did, I think, prove
that the solution channel
played a huge role in this.
So, uh,
you know, I still think there's a decent chance
that what we seek is down in that solution channel.
-We just have to figure it out. -Right.
It's been disappointing because
we have not solved the mystery.
But it doesn't mean that you lack hope.
It doesn't mean that you're not optimistic
about the next, the next caisson.
[Marty] Why don't we switch gears a little bit
and ask Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michels?
You know, they're intimately familiar with all the data.
Let's ask them where they would dig
if they were treasure hunters.
I think that's a very appropriate thing to do.
We'll get right on that, ask them,
but we need an "X" on the ground.
Yeah. Soon.
-Okey doke. -All right. Is that it?
Then get back to work.
That's all we got. We'll get back to work.
Thanks, Rick. Appreciate it.
-See you. Take care. -Yeah. Yeah.
[Narrator] For Rick, Marty and their team,
this week has underscored the need for perseverance
in their quest to solve the Oak Island mystery...
...because new finds and research suggest
they could be closing in on a sacred treasure
with extraordinary, historic implications.
So now, as time is running out for the year,
how can they zero in on where "X" marks the spot?
Do they rely on science or luck?
Perhaps it will take both,
along with their most precious asset...
...their faith.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Peter] I want to find something
-that we can date. -[Gary] Exactly.
-There you go, mate. Wow. -Oh...
Oh. What's under there?
Wow. I want to see what's underneath here.
[Ian] Some of the highest silver and gold values
-show up right in there. -[Jared] HOLD ON, JOSH,
-HOLD ON! -[Rick] Whoa.
[Jared] We're definitely into some hard stuff.
-Wow. Check that one out. -That's a great find.
That all adds up to a possible
human presence here in the 1400s.
-That's really rare. -That's amazing. -Yeah.
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