[Narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Rick] Wait, what's that?
It's similar to what we have on Oak Island.
This is from 2000 BC.
-Really? -[Fiona] We're starting to find
-a hidden wall. -[Marty] Whoa.
This would be an ideal place to deposit treasure.
-[device whining] -[Katya] That sounds great.
-[Marty] Wow. -Oh, my gosh.
-This is huge. -Amazing.
This is very, very, very significant.
If that was part of the treasure,
the rest of it is still in the Money Pit.
Absolutely.
[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.
♪ ♪
[Josh] We're getting there.
Trying to level it out right now.
[Narrator] As a new fall day begins on Oak Island...
They do the grinding, we do the finding.
...the team is currently repairing
a section of unstable ground
in order to begin the final massive dig of the year,
where unnaturally high traces of silver
have been detected some 200 feet underground.
As the work proceeds...
...over 2,000 miles to the southeast,
on the island of Terceira in the Portuguese Azores...
[Corjan] Welcome to Nossa Senhora da Conceição,
Our Lady of the Conception.
...Rick and members of the team,
along with local historian Francisco Nogueira,
arrive at a 15th century church
connected to a sect of the Knights Templar
known as the Order of Christ.
[Corjan] Founded around 1474
by Ouvidor de Omen,
this church is the crossroads of a number of great stories
that might tell us what came from the Holy Land
through the Azores, uh, towards Oak Island.
-Yeah. -And I think it's wonderful, so...
-let's go. -[Rick] Perfect.
[Narrator] After discovering a number
of believed Portuguese medieval artifacts on Oak Island,
such as a hand cannon and stoneshots,
along with structures such as a rock wall on Lot 26
and a stone road in the swamp,
Rick and members of the team
have come to research the theory that the Templars
and their descendant organizations
may have stored sacred treasures in the Azores
before taking them to Oak Island
between the 13th and 17th centuries.
It is also their hope to find clues
related to the 14th century silver Portuguese coin
that was reportedly extracted during a drilling operation
in the original Money Pit by James Pitblado back in 1849.
[Corjan] At first glance,
this looks like an ordinary church.
A beautiful but ordinary church.
Wow.
[Corjan] A few years ago, we were underground
in Camerano, Italy,
looking at a altar, uh,
which had this image here.
The goose paw.
I think you'll agree that it's, at least, very similar.
[Alex] Yeah.
[Narrator] The goose paw is a symbol
that was created by the Knights Templar,
which they carved at locations of sacred importance
throughout the Middle East and Europe
between the 12th and 14th centuries.
The team saw a similar carving just one week ago
at a nearby church
known as the Igreja de São Sebastião.
And in recent years,
they have also seen goose paws
carved at former Templar sites in Italy...
...as well as in Liverpool, Nova Scotia,
less than 50 miles from Oak Island.
Any treasure that was on this island
would have been in the realm of this church.
[Narrator] Could Corjan be correct
that this goose paw carving is a clue
that Templar-related treasures
were once safeguarded in the Azores?
If so, might that also suggest
that the goose paw found near Oak Island
is evidence that those treasures
were taken to that area at a later time?
[Rick] The goose paw.
It was an interesting connection that he made.
What better place-- an isolated island
in the middle of the open ocean--
to safeguard a treasure?
And then, perhaps,
an attempt to move it even further west.
One thing I'm noticing,
just looking at this, is we have the goose paw,
but then we also have an elongated cross,
using the, the stem of the "H."
It's elongated just like Nolan's Cross.
[Corjan] Yes. The symbology is endless.
[Rick] I do believe there is some
religious component to what was done on Oak Island.
There's so much encoded information
associated with Templars and the Knights of Christ
related to significant religious artifacts
that we have found in Europe and Oak Island.
This is incredibly intriguing and interesting,
as the whole story of Oak Island is.
It's very, very cool.
It's all fascinating.
[Corjan] We should move to the next location.
-[Peter] That'd be great. -Let's go.
[Narrator] As Rick and the team
continue their investigation in the Azores,
back on Oak Island...
-[Marty] Hey, Katya. -Hey, Marty.
I hated to see you not have a digger, so I am here.
...Marty Lagina joins Katya Drayton
several yards south of the Money Pit area on Lot 18.
[Katya] I just wanted to go over these spoils.
Oh, the spoils from Dunfield.
Yeah, I am ready to dig if you find something.
Let's find it.
[Narrator] In 1965, treasure hunter Robert Dunfield
used a 70-ton crane
to dig a 100-foot-diameter crater in the Money Pit area.
Unfortunately, upon reaching a depth of 143 feet,
the ground around the hole collapsed
as seawater rushed in and flooded it.
Mr. Dunfield hastily filled the hole
but left massive piles of spoils off to the side,
which were never searched for possible clues or valuables.
Now, because the team is about to sink a much deeper shaft
in the area encompassed by Dunfield's dig,
Marty is curious to try the team's luck
by metal-detecting those old mounds of spoils.
[device beeping]
Ooh, that's different.
That sounds really good.
[device whining]
Right in there, and it's small.
That's why it kind of sounded choppy.
Hmm. Okay. That makes sense.
-Try that. -[Katya] Let's see.
-Got it? It's out? -Ooh... It's out.
[device whining]
Oh, man. That sounds great.
Mm... Ooh.
Oh, we got it.
It's in your hand?
-[Katya] Oh, my gosh. -Yeah.
Oh, you know what, Katya? I've seen this before.
-[Katya] Oh, really? -Yeah.
Hang on, I'm pretty sure I've seen this before.
It's shaped like the fleur-de-lis almost.
Yeah. You are dead-on,
-because you know what this looks exactly like? -Hmm?
[Marty] I am positive your dad found something
exactly like this, and he was sure it was a French cap badge.
[Katya] Why is there a French
cap badge in the Money Pit?
Well, here's the thing.
The short answer is: we're not sure.
-[chuckles] -But here's the cool thing.
It was found on the... complete opposite side
of the island.
Oh, my gosh.
Which implies a greater presence than we thought, right?
-Oh, my... -I mean, why over here and over there?
[Jack] What is that? That's got some designs on it.
-[Gary] Yeah, that has. -[Narrator] In 2018,
while metal-detecting on Lot 21,
located on the western side of the island...
This reminds me of, like, a cap badge,
a military cap badge.
...Gary, Jack and Peter
found an identical artifact fragment.
Is it possible that Marty and Katya
have discovered a directly related clue
that was removed from the Money Pit
more than 60 years ago?
[Marty] There are several leading theories
that involve the French in a very significant way.
The Knights of Malta,
Isaac de Razilly, which had a settlement
just down the coast here in the 1600s,
was apparently here associated with the French
or under French orders.
[Narrator] In 1632,
a French military officer named Isaac de Razilly
established a fort in LaHave, Nova Scotia,
just 15 miles south of Oak Island.
Curiously, De Razilly was also
a prominent member of the Templar-
and Order of Christ-related group
known as the Knights of Malta
and is believed by some researchers
to have possibly visited Oak Island.
That is a great find.
Boy, the, uh, the Draytons strike.
[both laugh]
We don't know exactly where these Dunfield spoils came from,
but nobody's gone through them.
I would never have guessed this would show up over here.
And so I think this is evidence of
human activity deep underground in the Money Pit area,
and potentially some of the depositors.
This is a great indicator
that something's still down there.
Look, honestly, it is so significant.
-Thank you. -Of course. I'll find you another.
Great find.
[Josh] I got a lot of passes to lead.
And I probably got a couple nights' work still.
[Narrator] While work continues in the Money Pit area...
[excavator beeping]
[Fiona] He's just dying to dig, isn't he?
[Narrator] ...Marty joins members of the team on Lot 5
to dig for new clues
several yards from the rounded stone foundation.
Okay. Talk to me.
What-what are we looking at right now?
[Fiona] Well, as we started uncovering
this lovely ring of rocks and got a little further down,
there's something starting to present itself,
and it looks like a-a nicely stacked area of rocks,
which potentially could be another feature.
-[Gary] A hook. A hook. -[Marty] It's a hook.
[Narrator] Four weeks ago, the team
began investigating what they believed
was a 20th century stone well.
However, after finding an iron hook
inside of it that may date back three centuries or more...
...Fiona and Laird began to carefully excavate the feature
and have found evidence that it may not
only be older than they thought
but is perhaps not a well at all.
[Marty] Okay, so what do we want to do?
What's the next step?
Why don't we take off that top layer where the rocks
are on the outside,
scoop up that, and it gives us
-a-a start on a test pit that we can do. -Okay.
I love this excavator archaeology.
You can do some real metal-detecting with this baby,
-can't you? -[laughs]
[Narrator] Now Fiona and Laird want Marty to dig a trench
beside the feature so that they can carefully expose more of it
and hopefully determine just what it actually is.
[Marty] It's still too early to say what it is, but
it sure as heck wasn't a 20th century well.
Fiona, more? Or closer?
I think you can do another one in here. I'd go for more.
[Marty] It's necessary to find out what this is
because it's Lot 5, it's close to activity.
Could be maybe associated with the round feature
and is one of the things that probably
happened a long time ago.
We need to do more investigation of it.
It hasn't really told its secret yet.
[Fiona] I think that's good, Marty.
That gives us a really nice trench zone.
-I think that gives us a really good head start. -Good?
-[Fiona] Yeah. I think so. -All right, and just call
-when you need, you know, big scoops taken. -Yeah.
Your team is chomping at the bit over there.
-[laughter] -I say we turn 'em loose.
-Let's get after it. -[Fiona] Thank you.
[Marty] All right, I'm gonna get this thing out of here.
[Laird] All right.
[Narrator] As the archaeologists
continue their investigation on Lot 5...
...back on the island of Terceira in the Azores...
-[Emiliano] Hey, guys. -[Rick] Francisco. Felix.
Thank you for welcoming us.
-Nice to meet you. -Appreciate it. -Hey, how are you?
...Rick and other members of the team...
-Morning. -Morning.
...meet with historian Dr. Felix Rodrigues
at Grota do Medo,
a site of mysterious megalithic stone features
which are believed to have been built by someone
before the Portuguese settled the Azores in 1439.
For over 15 years, Professor Rodrigues studied
the place we're going today to date some of the features
that are here. We know that the, uh, Portuguese arrived
here officially in the early 1400s.
You-- We will see, uh, traces
that someone in the Middle Ages was here
and might have used the Azores as a stepping stone
to sail to-to North America.
Right, which is basically the halfway point
between the European mainland
-and North America. -[Emiliano] Yeah.
You're always looking to incrementally
build the database
brick by brick by brick or stone by stone by stone.
Uh, with, uh, Felix's, uh, work,
we have to have an ability to get from
east to west.
[Alex] Right.
That-that possibility that there was
a, uh, a group here
prior to the conventionally accepted date
is kind of the thing that I'd like to investigate
while we're out here because that implies
sort of a secret visit.
-Oh, yeah, yeah. -If this can support that data,
then I believe that is the intent of our trip here.
-[Emiliano] Yeah. -[Doug] Gentlemen,
I've got some business to take care of back in town,
so I'm gonna excuse myself. Nice to meet you, Professor.
-All right. See you, Doug. -See you, Doug. -See you.
-Let's go. -Let's go. -Okay, yeah.
[Rick] I believe that the point of beginning on Oak Island
was in the 1200s...
[Corjan] Let's go find some data points.
...because of the paved area in the swamp.
-[Alex] We'll get our exercise today. -[Corjan] Oh, yeah.
It significantly predates the discovery of the Azores.
[Emiliano] Up there, no?
[Rick] There is a belief that the Templars
and the Order of Christ knew of this place.
Is there a early habitation here in the Azores?
This is what we seek to find out.
Hey, guys. Hold up. Look.
-Yeah. -Look at that.
This is exactly the way the Lot 8 boulder is, right?
A space and this and a space.
-Oh, it is. -[Narrator] A rock formation?
Similar to the boulder feature on Lot 8?
Which sat above a series of evenly spaced stones?
Come on down. Take a look at this.
[Narrator] Could Rick have found a stone structure
built with the same kind of design?
Felix, I-I was just walking by and I just noticed this.
It's kind of similar to a rock that we have on the island.
Very interesting.
Does anybody have a photo of the Lot 8 feature?
-Yeah, I think I do, here. -Do you?
I'll show you.
So, this is-- it's-it's zoomed in, but it's a giant boulder.
-There's a support rock and then a space. -[Felix] Space.
[Alex] And then a support rock and then a space.
And it looked very deliberate.
Yeah.
[Rick] Incredible.
[Alex] It's a giant boulder.
So, this is-- it's-it's zoomed in.
-There's a support rock and then a space. -[Felix] Space.
[Alex] And then a support rock and then a space.
And it looked very deliberate.
Yeah.
We don't know why.
[Narrator] At the megalithic complex known
as Grota do Medo in the Azores,
the Oak Island team is examining
a stone feature that is similar
in design to placed rocks in the boulder formation on Lot 8.
Felix, what is that?
[Francisco] Astronomical, yeah.
Oh. Has an archaeoastronomer looked at this
and been able to date it through the use of alignments?
Stellar? And what are the dates here? Do you, do you know?
Really?
That is compelling.
What I noticed is the same thing I noticed on Lot 8.
The spacing of the stones that surround the Lot 8 feature
and the spacing of these cuts in the stone were so similar.
We're trying to find real connections
between the Azores and Oak Island.
This structure represents that-- that possible connection.
I-It's very curious to see that here.
It's quite interesting.
But obviously, this feature is very old,
so was the work here on Oak Island done by descendants
of the original people who occupied the Azores
or something different?
Really?
Then I would ask you to proceed
because I'm very interested.
More to see.
[laughs] Turns out, that's just the beginning.
[Rick] We're only partway to the site
that he deems to be, uh, important.
O-Of course we're all excited to go see it.
[Peter] Gorgeous.
[Rick] It's stunningly beautiful.
These megalithic structures represent, for us,
this belief that once this landmass was found,
it was used over centuries
as a stepping stone between the Old World and the New World.
[Rick] But I'm looking for a timeline, a date.
Constructions and clues
that connects directly to Oak Island.
Something that will perhaps
change history as we have come to know it.
[Peter] Oh, look at that.
Mm-hmm.
[Rick] So, is that
hand-carved or-or...
[Rick] So, this is not
a functional watering hole?
It's probably ceremonial?
[Rick] And it was?
-[Peter] Oh, wow. -[Rick] Really?
Pretty cool.
[Peter] Mm-hmm.
-[Alex] Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Comparison here is, uh, to the Lot 26 well, right?
-[Alex] Yeah. Yeah. -Small diameter. -[Peter] Yeah.
More than a few people on the island have mentioned
that the Lot 26 well could be ceremonial.
[Peter] Oh, yeah.
[Narrator] In 2022,
the team began investigating a mysterious stone well
just yards from the believed Portuguese wall on Lot 26.
So, this is the location.
[Narrator] When Dr. Ian Spooner analyzed
organic materials taken from the very bottom of the feature
in order to date it,
the team was stunned by the results.
The date I got on the twig at the bottom was 1028 to 1172.
[whistles]
[Peter] Well, I mean, if this was used in 1100,
it could have been a stopping ground...
-Well, yeah, like... -...before going to Oak Island.
Yeah.
-[Peter] Mm-hmm. -[Alex] Mm-hmm.
[Rick] 100%. And that is
really so critically important.
The 1100s is 300 years before the current understanding
of when the Azores were discovered.
Everything we have learned to date would indicate
that these islands were known during the zenith
of the power and influence of the Templars.
It fits perfectly into what we believe
could be a scenario under which a treasure
would have been brought here to be safeguarded,
and then perhaps an attempt to move it even further west.
So perhaps there is some association here
with Oak Island.
[Alex] So it's checking off lots of the boxes
as it pertains to Oak Island.
[Rick] Right. So, to both of you,
we thank you for your efforts.
-[Alex] Incredible. -[Corjan] Amazing.
[Rick] Pretty cool.
[Narrator] The following morning, back on Oak Island...
-[Fiona] Hi. -[Laird] Hello.
This looks quite a bit different.
[Narrator] ...Marty returns to Lot 5 for an update
on the investigation of the mysterious stone structure.
[Fiona] Oh, you got to check out this progress.
Come and see. You've got a good angle over here.
Oh, my.
[Fiona] The rocks are really well stacked down below.
They just look a bit more
-jumbled on the top. -[Laird] Yeah.
What we're seeing with the structure of the rocks
and the, uh, direction that they're going,
I-I do feel that this is a wall.
-A foundation wall, just to be clear. -Yeah,
like a foundation wall, yeah.
That-That's what I think. And it's quite thick as well.
Yeah. That, to me, looks buried.
It's not natural accumulation.
-[Marty] Oh, on purpose. Hidden, hidden. -Yeah. Exactly.
[Marty] It looks pretty substantial to me.
-[Fiona] Yeah. -Hit-hit me upside the head
with a 2x4, but this is looking identical
to what went on over there
in the original round feature.
-[Laird] I know. -[Fiona] That's what we were saying.
[Laird] It does look almost exactly as
the original round feature did.
And then we have this-this rock-filled structure.
[Marty] I mean, this whole business on Lot 5
started with the ring of modern-placed rocks
surrounding a depression
that turned out to be hiding something.
And that turned into a very, very substantial
archaeological feature.
Well, this is a smaller version of the same thing.
I mean, it's crying out for more exploration.
Even the construct, at-at first initial glance,
is very crude and very similar
to what we have over there as well.
Well, but over there you suspected
-at least two occupations. -Oh, definitely. Definitely.
The later occupation was better built
than the earlier, and this-this matches the-the earlier. So far.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same era.
It's like déjà vu.
A really good sign, Fiona.
[Laird] It does look almost exactly as
the original round feature did when we first saw it.
[Fiona] I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same era.
[Narrator] On Lot 5,
Fiona Steele has uncovered evidence
suggesting that the stone feature
previously thought to be a 20th century well
is a much larger structure and may be related
to the nearby rounded foundation.
That's a strange thing,
to put a structure this close to the ocean,
especially back then.
[Fiona] You know, but I did question
the proximity as well.
This would be an ideal place to put something
if you were doing some sort of activity that involved
-bringing things in from boats. -Maybe.
[Fiona] Lot 5 is a prime location
in the sense that you could be hidden there.
It's on the back end of the island,
closer to the shore, and it hadn't been settled.
So you could easily hide a ship.
It's not that far from the Money Pit as well.
I think that would be very enticing for anybody
who's gonna want to deposit treasure.
[Marty] Old Man Winter is breathing
down our neck right now.
We are running out of time.
-Yeah. -Uh...
You know, we want to know as much as we can.
[Fiona] I agree. The fact that
there could be another, third feature on Lot 5
I think is absolutely amazing,
so, no, we're-we're hungry to get at this, so...
Okay. I know you're already working like, you know, dynamos,
but go to double dynamo, okay?
-We're so excited about this. -That was a pep talk.
We're gonna be gre-- aggressive.
-We're gonna really go for it. -All right.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Lot of unknowns here.
So we're gonna let you get back to work
-before the weather closes in. -Thank you.
All right, let's go for it.
[Narrator] As work continues on Oak Island...
...back on the island of Terceira in the Azores...
[Rick] Usually, a discussion like this
would happen in the war room on Oak Island.
Alberto Silva from Porto
is a numismatist, a world-class coin collector.
[Narrator] ...Rick and members of the team
meet with renowned Portuguese coin expert Alberto Silva
at the Luís da Silva Ribeiro Public Library
and Regional Archive.
[Rick] Alberto has kindly offered his services here
to look at the so-called Pitblado coin.
[Narrator] After previous analysis
by coin expert Sandy Campbell
suggested that the 14th century silver coin
was extremely rare,
worth thousands of dollars in today's value,
and connected to the Order of Christ,
the team is eager to hear Alberto's perspective.
[Doug] Alberto,
what we have here to show you today is a coin
that was passed down generation to generation,
believing it came from the Money Pit on Oak Island.
And, uh, this is that coin.
...above the shield.
It is minted between...
[Doug] That right there helps us
because so far we believed
that it was minted somewhere between 1367 and 1383.
So if it was minted
no later than 1371,
-that shortens the window... -Yeah. A lot.
...on the time in which it was created.
[Narrator] Dating back more than 2,000 years,
a die is a metal tool used to stamp a specific design
into a coin during the minting process.
When damaged, coin dies were often replaced
with new, slightly different stamps
in order to trace the manufacturing of a coin
to a specific date and time.
Are there many surviving examples
of those coins?
[Alex] Wow.
Mm-hmm.
[Narrator] King Ferdinand I, who was reported to be
a great supporter of the Order of Christ,
ruled Portugal from 1367 until his death in 1383.
In 1372,
attempting to expand his power,
he declared war on the Kingdom of Castile,
which is now part of modern-day Spain.
The effort was unsuccessful
and led to a series of conflicts known as the Fernandine Wars,
which nearly bankrupted the royal treasury,
caused instability across Portugal,
and threatened the strongholds held by the Order of Christ.
-Mm-hmm. -[Doug] You're telling us that
there was a large number of these coins produced
and yet there's only about a hundred
-known in the world. -Yeah.
[Alex] Because there's so few of those, maybe there's a reason
that, uh, they weren't circulated.
-Right. -Because the bulk of them were somewhere else.
-Okay. -[Rick] Here's the question
that we have asked ourselves
in search of answers to the Oak Island mystery,
and that question is: where are the coins?
-Yep. -If the treasure had been found,
there would be more than a hundred in circulation.
-That's almost a guarantee. -Yeah, that would no longer
-be a rare coin. -Exactly.
-[Alex] Yeah. -That means,
if that was part of the treasure,
it is still in the ground.
-Right? -Mm-hmm.
The story that has been laid out here today,
to me, is more impactful
because the whole point of the trip here
is to try to understand,
might a treasure be associated with the Order of Christ
and found its way to the Azores and thus to Oak Island?
So, either way, this is all good news.
If coins of this type are that valuable,
then why aren't they out in the real world?
Why are there less than a hundred?
And why do we still have a very significant source
of silver expressed by the water sample testing in the Money Pit?
To me, it says definitively
that the treasure still remains in the depths
and the confines of the Money Pit.
It makes the trip back all that much more exciting
because we have another chance, with the last caisson,
to perhaps find the very thing we presented to Alberto:
a coin of-- that might be that significant.
The story corroborates the water testing,
and the water testing corroborates the story.
[Rick] Correct.
We still have a chance to find the very thing we're discussing
-because the caisson work continues. -Mm-hmm.
And having said that, we do need to get back.
Let's go find one of those for ourselves.
-[Alex] Yeah. Absolutely. -One?
[laughter]
[Rick] The experience we had in the Azores was amazing.
It certainly has made an impact.
And for that we say obrigado.
Thank you, Alberto.
-Thank you very much. -Appreciate it.
[Alex] It is back to the island for us.
♪ ♪
[Marty] Our wandering voyagers have returned.
We want a download on your trip,
what you found, what was exciting.
Everything. Tell us everything.
[Alex] We went there looking for evidence
that treasure passed through the Azores.
And a logical place to keep something safe
before sailing to North America.
-[Marty] Right. -There's a lot of connections there.
It's a logical place that you would take something valuable.
I 100% believe that.
As part of our agenda, we wanted to get a look
at structures constructed on Terceira
because there were suggestions that the technique they used
on the island was also used here on Oak Island.
[Doug] It wasn't hard to find stone walls.
And so these are some walls.
[Rick] There was rubble in the wall
that absolutely mimicked
-Lot 26 walls. -[Marty] Really?
[Doug] The important thing is, though, it could go
all the way back to the 1400s and perhaps earlier.
[Alex] But the next site here
is one that could potentially support
those early dates in structures we have here on the island.
[Marty] Mm-hmm.
It looked very similar to the Lot 26 well.
-[Jack] Oh, no way. -Again, it's just a similarity,
there's no proof, but it's very curious.
So, people sailed to the Azores in at least the 1300s.
At that time, they would have been capable of sailing
to North America as well.
It's possible that these people
could have made it to Oak Island.
-We brought a lot of artifacts. -Okay.
[Doug] This artifact was maybe the biggest surprise.
[Marty] Which one?
-[Doug] The nail. -The-the spike. The nail.
Of all the things we brought, this was
the one piece that I didn't think he equivocated about.
[Alex] It's a nautical-type nail
that we found on Lot 5.
[Doug] That's the exact style of a Portuguese nail
-that would be used in a caravel ship. -[Peter] Yes.
They became prominent in Portuguese seafaring
-in the 1300s. -Mm-hmm.
-Exactly. -[Marty] All right. I like that.
I like that a lot.
[Doug] I want to raise a point here
because we talked to, uh, a coin expert from Portugal
by the name of Alberto Silva,
and we showed him the Portuguese coin.
[Rick] Alberto looked at that coin
and he said there are less than a hundred of these in the world.
[Alex] He also said
there's way more out there.
There's a good indication that a lot of those were minted.
And yet there's only a hundred in collectors' hands today.
-Oh, so the others are hidden away somewhere. -Yeah.
So, to me, it speaks emphatically
and-and almost definitively that the treasure still remains
to be found in the Money Pit.
[Marty] I distinctly remember
Sandy Campbell saying it's worth about $20,000.
That's one coin.
If this really is a Portuguese treasure
and it was something big enough to be worth
the construction of the Money Pit...
...would there be ten of them? No.
Hundred? No. Thousand?
Perhaps 100,000 coins.
So, you know, I mean, the hope is,
we're digging for something worth billions.
[Marty] Well, look, I'm just gonna say this--
that I-I find myself very rarely
on the more believer side than my brother,
but, I mean, it all makes sense to me.
-Sounds like a great expedition. -Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[Marty] All right, we're eager to tell you
what happened here on the island.
We did a lot of digging.
I had heard a lot about this so-called
sand road in the swamp.
This is not a modern road.
I got a picture here which made me a believer
because not only did Billy do a fabulous job of excavating it,
we also had a oxshoe nail
from under the sand-- right, Billy--
-but on top of the rocks. -Right.
[Marty] And lo and behold, we absolutely found
that the sand and the structure underneath it
was continuing up towards Center Road.
So that leads us to say, maybe the path from Lot 5
to Center Road was the path up to the Money Pit.
And if you project this road on farther across the swamp,
it hits what we have now recently started
calling the Portuguese Road.
Basically, Steve, right, it hits right at the base of it?
It does. Yep.
So it's ridiculous, really, it's crazy.
The other major thing...
You know, you talk about walking by something for 15 years.
The so-called modern well on Lot 5,
but Laird does not think it's a well.
Fiona thinks that it is a new discovery,
but there's an extensive archaeological search
going on there right now.
Those are the big digs we did while you were gone.
-It's a good week. -Yeah, I think so.
[Marty] And they were getting ready
to put in the last caisson up in the Money Pit,
-and it's about ready to go. -[Craig] That's good news.
-[Alex] Yeah. -[Marty] Anyway, that's it. That's my report.
[Rick] So, to me,
there's always been concern in this room
that the treasure had been found.
But you think about it, if this really is
a treasure coin from the depths of the Money Pit,
then where are they?
-[Marty] The Money Pit. -In the Money Pit.
That shows it, right?
[Marty] Well, let's go find something
very special.
The sky's the limit.
-Let's go look. -[Craig] All right, okay.
[Marty] Let's get to work.
[Terry] In the heart of the Money Pit.
[Steve] Hey, Rick.
-Hey. -[Peter] Hey.
-New hole, fresh start? -Fresh start.
[Narrator] In the Money Pit area,
Rick arrives as representatives from SB Canada and ROC Equipment
are about to break ground
on the team's final shaft of the year-- Money Pit-1.
[Peter] This last hole-- Money Pit-1--
might be one of the best chances
to get deep in an area where we haven't explored at depth.
So, Steve, can you put us on the map?
Yes, we're dead center between these three caissons.
And that's where we've had all the success--
the bottom of the solution channel,
where it's showing signs of silver.
And we're not far from those areas.
[Narrator] The MP-1 shaft is located
less than ten feet from the Karma-1
and Top Pocket Find shafts that were dug several weeks ago.
During those excavations,
where the highest traces of silver have been detected
more than 200 feet deep in the solution channel,
artifacts and pieces of wood
that may have been related to the original Money Pit
were brought to the surface.
This is a very good location.
We have-- stand every good chance to be successful.
-Yep. -We don't want metal finds.
We want to find treasure.
-Oh, yeah. -And answers to the mystery.
-Brilliant. -If we're gonna find the treasure, to me,
-this is our best chance. -I hope you got your boots on,
Rick, 'cause we're gonna be knee-deep in artifacts.
Everything we found this year,
everything we found in all the previous years
indicates that this could be the spot
where the treasure fell into the solution channel.
This is our last caisson this year
but also the best shot.
What say you guys?
-Hey. -This looking like a good spot?
-It is. -I love it.
Wouldn't be anywhere else
but right here, going through Money Pit spoils.
-You're having fun. -Oh, it's brilliant.
[laughs]
[Rick] We have silver in the water
that is consistent with the 14th century Portuguese coin
that almost certainly came from the Money Pit.
I think we are building a very excellent case
that old-world treasure
that is deemed to be at depth in the Money Pit is still there.
And now, in MP-1,
we are on the cusp of proving it to the most--
how shall we say-- hardened skeptic.
I really want to know what's way down deep.
[Terry] Here we go. Showtime.
[Rick] Marty has said many times
that the story of Oak Island started in the Money Pit
and it will end in the Money Pit.
Why not name it Money Pit-1?
Let's find this.
[Gary] Ooh, I like the look of that material.
Treasure on deck.
-[Billy] Yep. -Let's get stuck in.
[Marty] I'll go join 'em for luck.
[Alex] Okay.
[Rick] Keep your fingers crossed.
[Narrator] So far this year,
the team has unearthed discoveries on Oak Island
and made revelations across the ocean
that suggest a valuable and potentially sacred treasure
was buried long ago in the Money Pit.
Now they are digging
where all of this compelling evidence is pointing.
Others have searched here
only to be thwarted by forces
that are perhaps beyond nature.
But for the Laginas and their team...
...a different destiny may be waiting...
...below.
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