Narrator: Tonight on the curse of oak island...
This is typical of something to do with
-ships or parts of ships. -David f.: Wow.
Alex: There's a couple of wharfs on samuel ball's property.
Yes, alex. Right here is the second one.
We were 75 to 100 feet from shore.
-Yeah. -So, that's a huge wharf.
-Yeah. -Rick: Why do you need such a massive wharf?
-Alex: Take a look at this. We found a coin. -Gary: Look at that!
-Alex: I think that's gold. -It's stunning.
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,
mysterious fragments of human bone,
and a lead cross whose origin may stretch back
to the days of 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.
♪ ♪
-aaron: Hey, rick. -Rick: Hey.
-I see you started. -Aaron: Yeah. We're getting through it.
-Rick: Okay. -Aaron: We're finding stuff right away, so...
-Rick: Oh, really? -If you want to
-get in there and keep pulling that back... -Right here?
-Right there? -Aaron: Yeah, that little island there.
-Rick: Yep. Yep. -And we'll dump the buckets right on top of here.
-Fair enough. -All right.
Narrator: As a new day begins on oak island,
brothers rick and marty lagina, along with their team,
remain focused on their historic investigation
in and around the triangle-shaped swamp,
looking for more critical clues that could help solve
a 226-year-old treasure mystery.
Aaron: So, moving upslope...
I think our best hope is to follow the artifacts
and stuff like coal,
which we've found along the road,
-is a really good artifact to find. -Sure.
You know, ceramics, they help us date the road.
But anything that might be associated with a cart,
with oxen, and coal, I think are the big ones.
Okay.
Narrator: Over the course
of their discovery work this year,
which was delayed by two months
because of the covid-19 pandemic,
the team has found not only compelling evidence
that the swamp was once an open harbor or throughway
between two islands
but also numerous discoveries suggesting a deliberately
hidden operation to bring heavy cargo of some kind here.
These finds include a massive stone ship's wharf,
pieces of 15th-century cargo barrels...
...And also a cobblestone pathway,
one that runs northward along the eastern border
of the swamp, which branches off somewhere
into the uplands of the island.
Now, with winter fast approaching,
rick, marty and the team are tirelessly continuing
to track the pathway to its end,
possibly to the location of the original money pit.
That looks like...
Pottery. I think so.
Looking at it, it looked like it had lines on it.
Aaron: That's, uh, annular ware.
And the annular ware we know
comes in early 1750s.
So, we're still pre-searcher.
Pre-searcher? Absolutely.
Marty: The pottery adds to the mountains of data
that this road is very old and can't be younger
than probably the turn of the 1700s to 1800s.
Can't be any younger than that.
There's a piece right there.
If you want to see it in situ.
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Just going to give it a good wash.
-Hang on. Here's another one. -Aaron: Oh.
-Similar level, too. -Rick: Yep.
Same thing.
Aaron: This is a stoneware, too.
You can see, even before cleaning it,
it's been badly burned.
Narrator: Badly burned pottery?
Gary: Oh, what the heck is that?
Narrator: Just one week ago, metal detection expert
gary drayton, along with rick and marty's nephew,
david fornetti, discovered a badly burned iron rod.
An iron rod that dr. Aaron taylor believes
may have been part of a large sailing vessel.
Could this burned pottery be connected to that discovery?
And, if so, is it another clue
that the team is getting closer to discovering whatever caused
the need for a carefully hidden pathway?
Or, for that matter, an artificial swamp?
Aaron: They're both stoneware.
And if it's in the same area as the annular wares,
then this can go back into 17... Mid-1700s as well.
So, that's a nice find.
-Same pattern. Same... -Aaron: Yeah. Look at that.
-Fits like a glove. -Fits like a glove.
Aaron: Yeah. Perfect.
-Well, that's nice to find that. -Rick: Yes.
Narrator: Although the clues that the team keep finding
are revealing more evidence
of where the stone pathway is heading,
just how far will they have to keep going
to find whatever might lie buried at the end of it?
It's just one more inch that way.
-It's always one more inch. -Is that what you tell yourself?
-Yeah. -All right.
Let's see if you're right. One more inch.
Narrator: While rick, aaron and miriam
continue investigating the stone pathway...
-Charles: Hey, carmen. -Carmen: Well, lookee here.
Narrator: ...Oak island historian charles barkhouse,
david fornetti and treasure hunter dan henskee
have arrived at northville farms in centreville, nova scotia
to have blacksmithing expert carmen legge
inspect the burned iron rod found one week ago in the swamp.
Well, what do you got today, uh, charles?
Well, I'm hoping you can tell us.
Oh, well, you've got a big bar.
Yeah. We've got a big bar is right.
David f.: It's a really interesting piece.
We have a bunch of different ideas
of what it could be, but obviously, you're the expert,
so we wanted to get your take on it.
Well, let me just, uh, say
what I see, and then you can probably
-help out what it was for. -David f.: Yeah.
-Yeah. -Carmen: It's about an inch in diameter.
Uh, very consistent size all the way down through.
This obviously had a broken piece on to it.
So, it was an eye. So, this would be an eyebolt.
So, carmen, do you have a date or a time frame for this piece?
It could be as far back as the late 1600s.
Wow.
Narrator: A burned eyebolt found in the swamp?
Dating back as far as the 17th century?
-Rick: Wow. -Gary: Oh, wow, indeed.
Narrator: Could it be connected to the large iron ringbolts
the team has also found this year in the swamp,
which date back to the same time period?
And which the team also believes might have been used
to haul cargo from a ship onto oak island?
So, you mentioned that it was an eyebolt.
I know on the island, we look a lot for ringbolts.
Can you help me understand the difference between the two?
The eyebolt would have the end
of this tang would come around and butt onto this, right?
So, there was a solid, uh, piece attached to this.
A ringbolt-- the ring is-is loose, but it's inserted
through the bolt.
This is just, like, one piece, whereas a ringbolt is two piece.
-Mm-hmm. -Carmen: Usually two piece.
A ringbolt is usually heavier, too.
This is very typical of something to do
with anchoring ships or parts of ships.
-You know, ships are obviously of interest on oak island, so... -Absolutely.
Well, certainly appreciate you
shedding some light on what went on here.
I know our team back on the island
is going to be thrilled to hear about, uh,
everything that we've learned, so we should probably pack
this up and hit the road.
Carmen: Very good. Yep.
-Great stuff. -David f.: Thank you.
Charles: Thanks, carmen.
Carmen: Have a safe trip.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
As members of the team continue their work in the swamp...
Alex: I brought a trowel in case you need some help.
Oh, excellent. We can always use help.
Narrator: ...Marty lagina's son alex arrives at the foundation
of late 18th-century oak island landowner samuel ball.
Laird: We've got the cellar all cleaned out.
Just some final, you know, getting rid of dirt,
-excavating in there. -Mm-hmm. It looks good.
Narrator: It is here where archeologists
laird niven and liz michels
continue their meticulous investigation
for clues that might help explain how mr. Ball,
a simple cabbage farmer and former american slave,
mysteriously became a very wealthy man
by the early 19th century.
♪ ♪
alex: Piece of pottery here.
Laird: Oh, you should find lots.
I see why you needed somebody to sift.
Laird: Yeah.
It's, uh, it slows things...
-I could be here all day. -It slows things down.
That's true.
Marty: I'm impressed with the patience these archaeologists
have to unearth all of that with a trowel.
I'm very interested in what's gone on on the ball foundation.
They've been digging over there for quite some time,
and I want to see it.
-There you are. -Thank you.
♪ ♪
alex: Hey, look at this.
Laird: Wow, that's cool.
Alex: Hey, look at this.
I got a coin.
I think.
Narrator: On lot 25,
alex lagina has just found what could be
a significant discovery in the spoils
excavated from the ball foundation.
-It's got... -Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Alex: A little green. -Laird: Yeah.
Yeah, this looks old. It's got kind of...
Irregular edges, like a flat portion.
It does look like the design is a little off-center.
I-I'll trust it to you.
Laird: Well, it's heavy enough.
Alex: When I first picked it out,
I thought I could see a pattern,
and it seemed off-center to me.
Laird: Oh, I see what you mean.
Part of the reason we're doing all this work
on the ball foundation is to investigate the possibility
that samuel ball had a closer involvement with the money pit
than was previously known.
So, if we can date this coin to the same time period
as these other finds we're making, that's it.
That's our connection.
I see what you mean about the edges.
Yeah. I think, uh, we'll bag it.
Get it to the research center
-and see what we can see. -Alex: Mm-hmm.
I'll just-- I'll find a few more for you.
Okay. Thank you.
Narrator: Later that afternoon,
after a chilly fall rainstorm has halted work
near the swamp and at the ball foundation...
-Laird: Hey, guys. -Rick: Hey. -Alex: Hey.
-Take a look at this. -Wow.
Narrator: ...Alex lagina and laird niven
have gathered in the research center
with rick, david and gary drayton
to share their new discovery.
So, this just came off of the ball property.
Oh.
Alex: Found it sifting through some of the stuff
that-- the most recent test pit that laird's been doing.
-Right by the edge of the house. -Yeah, northwest corner.
Alex: So, if you look,
-you see the anchor on the right. -Gary: Yeah.
So, is the middle an anchor or is it a cross?
If you pull it down to show the edge...
-Gary: It'll be a larger anchor. -Laird: Yeah.
-Well, there you can see it. -Alex: Right there. -Rick: There. Okay.
Laird: Yep.
There's three anchors. There's one on the right,
there's a large one in the middle, and then there's one
-on the left. -Rick: Oh, yeah. -Laird: Oh, yeah.
-Gary: And you can see... -Alex: You can see the other one on the left.
Yeah, it looks like little waves, and I can see
a rope design around the outside of it.
I know what that is.
Rick: What is it?
It's a-a navy jacket button.
If it's got anchors on it and a rope design around it.
Without a doubt, that is a british navy jacket button.
Alex: What time period is this, though?
Laird: 1804 to 1825. Solidly within the ball period.
Narrator: A button from a member of the british navy?
Discovered in the foundation of samuel ball's former home?
Although he was a member of the british military
during the american revolution,
he was not known to have been part of the british navy.
So, then just who did this button belong to?
We've been searching and searching for some
military connection to samuel ball because we know
he served the british during our revolutionary war,
uh, which is how he gained his freedom
and came to nova scotia, so...
-I think you just made that connection. -Yeah.
Alex: It's one of the nicest buttons we've found
-in terms of legibility. -Rick: The front is spectacular.
-Gary: Yeah. -Rick: I mean, those anchors are amazing.
I look forward to-to seeing how much information
-we can get off of this. -Yeah.
-It's a beautiful piece. -Laird: Oh, yeah.
Rick: Whether there's more information or not.
-It's stunning. -Gary: Yeah.
I think that is...
Gold or gilding right there.
-Laird: I think so. That would make sense. -Gary: Yeah.
That would point to officer though, wouldn't it?
Yeah, normally the officers had the...
-The gilded buttons. -Yeah.
Narrator: An officer's button?
If so, why did a high-ranking
british naval officer visit the home
of samuel ball on oak island?
And could it have something to do with the mysterious wealth
ball came to possess?
Marty: It's a royal navy button and, apparently,
it would be somebody on a ship of some import.
An important person.
What's that doing in samuel ball's foundation?
I mean, we're talking about an officer being in his house.
That's kind of a big deal, I think.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for calling. Good find.
-Alex: We will keep you posted. Thank you. -All right, mate.
All right. See you later, guys.
Narrator: The following morning...
-Gary: Hey, guys. -Aaron: Hey, gary.
Narrator: ...Gary drayton and david fornetti
join rick lagina and archeologists dr. Aaron taylor
and miriam amirault near the northeastern border of the swamp
to continue searching for valuable clues
along the mysterious stone pathway,
and for more evidence of just where it leads.
-Gary: Wow, looks like you've been busy. -Aaron: Yeah.
David and I would like to start back up metal detecting here
because we never ever did finish this track,
and we was moving this way.
So, we're back to zigzag
-along this area. -Perfect.
-Up this hill. -Yeah.
Gary: Okay, mate. We'll see what we can find
because me and david have been
on fire recently, haven't we?
Every time we go out, we find something good.
Let's keep that rolling, mate.
(detector beeping)
(beeping)
I'm definitely getting an iron signal here.
A little chirpy signal.
-Uh, do you want us to dig it? -Yeah, go ahead, david.
-Is that okay if dave and I investigate? -Aaron: Yeah.
(detector whines)
seems to be in that area there.
Aaron: Are you getting some cobbles there, david?
It certainly looks that way.
Aaron: I might just finish that up with a trowel.
-Yup. -Okay.
Let me see if I can narrow the search down for you.
(beeping)
it moved just a little ways off. It's in that section there.
Aaron: If it's under the rock, then that's very helpful because
-it would predate the putting down... -Gary: Yeah.
...Of these cobbles if they were actually put down.
-All right. Yeah. -Gary: You want me to do it?
(beeping)
gary: There. Spot on there, mate.
So, you stick your trowel in there, mate,
you've got it in situ.
It's iron by the sound of it.
(aaron sputters)
ugh. Seismic blasting caps.
We keep finding those all over.
Narrator: Although finding a blasting cap
from the seismic survey that was run across the swamp
two years ago is a disappointment,
it was that operation that revealed
a 200-foot-long anomaly, eerily resembling
the shape of a large sailing vessel, which remains buried
in the middle of the mucky, brackish bog.
It is the team's hope to conduct a largescale dig next year
with the help of a massive sheet-piling cofferdam
to find out just what that anomaly really is.
Mystery solved.
-Yeah. -I'll keep going.
(beeping)
I'm getting a signal here.
(detector whining)
just there, miriam.
Still in the same area.
(beeping)
ooh, right on it. Just there.
(beeping)
-(beeping) -oh, wow. Look at that!
Gary: Oh, wow. Look at that. Well, that's nice.
Narrator: Just northeast of the oak island swamp,
gary drayton has unearthed
what could be an important discovery.
Gary: It's a little square-headed nail.
Square shank, by the look of it.
That's like a little ox shoe nail.
Aaron: Oh.
I thought you'd find us an ox shoe,
-but, you know, that's just as good. -Gary: Yep. That's a fastener.
-It was used to put the ox shoe on. -Aaron: Yeah.
Which is another, you know, check in the box for:
This is a road or a path.
That's great.
Now, you got to put two and two together.
We've got a stone road.
We've got fasteners.
We're on oak island.
It's pretty clear
that some kind of treasure-hauling operation
was done in this area.
Aaron: You wouldn't think you'd get so excited
about something that small.
So, I'm going to bag that and then let you guys
-get back to detecting. -Okay, mate.
Good digging, miriam. That's a good find.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
Rick: This is the man of the hour. Stuart wentzell.
-Hi, stuart. Nice to meet you. -Hey, stuart. -Hi.
Narrator: ...Rick lagina and members of the team
gather in the research center with stuart wentzell,
a local treasure hunter who worked for
rick, marty and craig's late friend and partner
dan blankenship back in the 1970s.
Charles: Stuart, I know you've worked on oak island
-since probably you were a young boy. -Yes.
Charles: Working with dan. You worked a lot with dan.
Lots of memories, lots of times.
-Right. -Stuart: So, dan would have me
and my brother come over on the weekends.
-(all laugh) -right?
I met stuart wentzell, uh, the very first year I was here.
He had told me about these wharfs off the samuel ball lot.
And now, all of a sudden, we find
a british naval button at the ball foundation.
Maybe it's something associated with a wharf.
The point is, we mustn't fail to follow up
on this local knowledge, uh, which we were not privy to.
So, uh, this is all about the possibility
or the potential of a dive or dives,
uh, related to some discoveries
-that you had made mention of in the past. -Yes.
So, what's the most interesting
search agenda-related activity that you were involved with?
Right.
-Is that right? -Stuart: Yes.
Ball had two wharfs.
It's absolutely there.
Yeah.
So, what are the areas
-that you're interested in, in terms of the dive? -Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
Narrator: The use of large rocks, or cribbing stones,
in the construction of shipping wharfs
dates back more than five centuries.
Stacked between layers of wood timbers, they offered support
in the design of docks for large sailing vessels.
Rick: When you dove that,
-yeah. -Did you see remnants of the old wharf?
Wooden parts of it?
Yeah.
-Yeah. -Mm-hmm. All right, so I'm gonna circle it
on this so that we can keep track.
-So, it's somewhere in that area there. -Stuart: Yes, alex.
-Alex: Okay. -Yeah, and here's the other place.
Right here was the second one.
Okay, so, if you want to stick a circle
around that one as well, alex.
Narrator: If there really are two wharfs
bordering the property once owned by samuel ball,
might he have built both of them?
Or is it possible that one was constructed much earlier?
If so, then by whom?
And could it offer clues that might help explain
how samuel ball became one of the richest men
in nova scotia?
There is concrete evidence of substantial works
prior to 1795 and a lot of them.
A lot went on on that island.
So, if somebody did build a wooden wharf there,
there was some significant reason why.
I would love to go and have a look at that, stuart.
Well, I'd love to put you in the boat. We'll go out there
and I'll jump over the side.
-Excellent. -Rick: Well, thanks, guys.
That was a great discussion.
-You plan out the dive. Get it set up. -Yeah.
You two gentlemen will be there
to observe and watch and take notes.
Okay. Well, you guys got your work ahead of you.
-Yup. -And I look forward to
-the dive results. -Yes.
-Rick: Let's get after it. -Alex: Sounds good.
Tony: Fantastic.
-Tony: Good morning, guys. -David f.: How you doing?
Narrator: One day after the team's meeting
with former oak island treasure hunter stuart wentzell,
they have invited him to join professional diver tony sampson,
alex lagina and his cousin david fornetti,
at the oak island resort and marina...
Tony: Okay. Let's head out.
Narrator: ...To begin a dive operation
that will focus on the waters just off the shore
of lots 25 and 26 at the western end of oak island.
So, the first location-- you know where
-that freshwater pond is? -Yep.
Hopefully, we're going to see remains of the crib down there.
So, the wooden structure which would have held
the stones in the crib.
-Eight feet you said, stuart? -Yep.
-Eight feet wide. -So, about eight feet wide.
Narrator: Of interest to the team
are the remains of two stone ships' wharfs,
that stuart first investigated in the 1970s
while working for dan blankenship,
that bordered the property once owned
by the mysteriously wealthy 18th-century island resident
samuel ball.
David f.: And, tony, when you're down there,
do you have a metal detector with you?
-Or how are you going to detect this? -Tony: Yeah.
So, we'll have visual, and we'll also run a metal detector,
an underwater metal detector over it.
It may sort of indicate metallic fasteners that
might have been used in a wharf structure.
So, similar to large shipping spikes.
-It would have held the wharf together. -That'd be cool.
That would be very cool.
Tony's going to bring a metal detector,
and he's going to scan the bottom
for wharf pins or anything that might have been dropped
when this thing was in existence.
Those are the things that I'm most excited about
because those can help us date anything we might find.
Well, guys, I think we're just about on target one up here.
Okay. I might get kitted up,
and we'll go and see what we can find, eh?
-Yeah. Great. Great, tony. -Alex: Great.
We've tried to answer the question of who samuel ball was
from the land side.
This is from the ocean side.
So, until today, when we're looking
at the ocean side, we haven't even begun to explore
that side of his life. So, it could be
hiding some pretty interesting artifacts.
So, we'll go down there,
and we'll investigate that.
In my perfect little world, it would be great
to find some artifacts dating back
from the 16, 1700s,
but even to find the remains
of these structures would be interesting.
-Alex: All right, tony. Good luck. -Thanks, buddy.
Alex: He's in.
Testing, tony. Do you hear me? Over.
That's great, tony. Keep us posted. Over.
Alex: Copy you, tony. What do you see?
Over.
Alex: Can you confirm?
Does it look like a wharf? Over.
Copy.
Alex: Copy.
Any metal detector hits? Over.
-What'd he say? -Copy you.
-No metal detector hits. -No metal detector hits.
Alex: We've been listening to tony
go back and forth over these comms,
and every time he does,
I ask him if he's got a metal detector hit.
The answer's always no.
It's a little frustrating
to have to sit this one out on the boat.
But I'm hoping tony sees clear evidence of this wharf,
and I'm really hoping that he gets
a metal detector hit while he's out there.
Alex: He should be seeing it right now.
It's just frustrating he can't hear us.
Copy you, tony. What do you see? Over.
Narrator: Is it possible that stuart wentzell
was mistaken about the remains of a wharf in this area?
Or could it be, that because of nearly
five decades of erosion and seasonal storms,
that the evidence of a potential valuable clue
about samuel ball's history
has simply been weathered away?
I hear you, tony. Over.
Alex: Great job, tony.
Keep us posted. Over.
Narrator: In the waters just off lot 26
on the western side of oak island,
tony sampson has just discovered
the possible remains of a stone ship's wharf.
What do you think?
He might have found cribbing?
I mean, how does that make you feel?
I think so.
We hear you, tony. Go ahead. Over.
Did you get any metal detector hits? Over.
Are you moving on to target two or staying there?
Over.
Narrator: Although tony has been able to confirm stuart's claim
of a potentially ancient wharf having been built here,
there doesn't appear to be any metal objects
or valuable clues.
Tony will now search for the team's second target:
Another reported stone wharf.
However, this one is much closer
to where samuel ball built his home,
and thus hopefully will offer valuable clues
that might help explain his mysterious wealth.
Mm-hmm.
David f.: It looks like he's almost 100 feet out there.
From the shore.
He's seen them rock piles.
-You know there's a big rock pile out there? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alex: If he's 100 feet out there,
-and he's seeing signs of a wharf-- -stuart: Yeah.
If that's what he's seeing--
that's a big wharf.
I mean, that could have accommodated
-a pretty big ship. -Stuart: Yeah.
Narrator: The second wharf?
Possibly extending as much as 100 feet out into mahone bay?
If so, what would samuel ball have needed
such a large docking station for?
Could it be a clue to explain
why the team found a british naval officer's button
in the ball foundation two days ago?
If there was a wharf that big here,
what would be the purpose of that?
Alex: We hear you, tony.
Did you see a big pile of rocks? Over.
So, no hits, but you think you did find the wharf. Over.
Copy you. We'll see you soon. Over.
The most exciting of the targets that we dove was
the large wharf on ball's property.
Because that is something that we had no record of.
We didn't know it was there. It's so large as to be
impossible to be just a fisherman's wharf.
And we're finding other things in the area like the navy button
that are implying a closer relationship
with seafaring than we thought.
Okay, you were right, stuart.
As you come down, you can see
where the old crib areas were.
I hit the area with the metal detector.
Both the, um, both the wharf-like structures.
And, uh, no metallic signatures down there.
Did you think the second one, target two, was a larger wharf?
I did actually, alex, yeah. It came out further as well.
So, one wharf being smaller than the other
may have been an area where you brought, uh,
a dinghy, or a fishing boat, or a small dory into.
The one being large, that speaks to something
of a commercial nature or, for a wharf of that size,
you'd expect it to be more than one person.
So, either military or maybe excavating
or almost like a quarry work.
Something there's gonna be heavy product
either coming on or off the island.
So, those rocks there were square.
And like you said, stuart, they had been worked as well,
-some of them. -Yes.
So, you're confident then that two wharfs are...
I-I'm confident that these were two wharfs.
Do you think that one might have belonged to captain anderson
-at one stage? -Yes.
Because his property was, um, next door
-to sam ball's, and they became friends. -Right.
Narrator: Originally from baltimore, maryland,
james anderson was a notorious pirate,
privateer and high-ranking freemason
who pledged his loyalty to the united states
during the american revolution.
However, after taking command of a ship known as the betsy
and the valuable cargo it was rumored to be carrying,
he defected to the british and fled to canada,
where he purchased lot 26 on oak island,
living there until he sold the property
to fellow british soldier samuel ball.
Could the remains of this wharf
represent an important clue as to why
samuel ball bought this property from captain anderson?
And could it also be connected to the great wealth
he came to possess while living on oak island himself?
Alex: What about the stones in between?
Did you notice that they were not native
to the landscape down there?
Did they look like maybe they were bedrock
cast off from the island?
Some of them did look like
uh, they had been cut, or they were completely smooth.
So, unlike the normal rocks that you get around here
that you can see on the shoreline, um,
some of them in those cribbed areas you'll actually see
are flat, almost like the bedrock stones
-you've got on the island. -Alex: Got it.
-So they've been worked -tony: Yeah. -Yeah.
Alex: So, I think we should go back to the war room
and let the guys know that we found proof
of what you've been saying, stuart.
-Fantastic. -Yes, yes.
-Stuart: Very good, tony. -Alex: Yeah, great job.
Tony: So, what we did, we went to those areas
off sam ball's property by the freshwater pond.
Narrator: After completing their dive investigation
off the western shore of oak island,
tony sampson, along with alex lagina,
david fornetti, and stuart wentzell deliver their report
to rick, marty and members of the team
in the war room.
Alex: Well, we took some video.
So, I've got that here that we can watch.
Great!
Alex: This is wharf one.
Tony: So, it's a flat, rocky area,
which would have been cribbed in the old days.
So, it would have been a square, uh, crib
that would have held the rocks.
And, so as you, uh, descend from there down into the water,
you can actually see ballast piles
from what would have been the rocks inside the crib,
which has now been destroyed, obviously, with the storms
and the hurricanes over the years.
And a lot of these ballast stones as such
has now grown over with kelp.
-Sure. -Tony: The second wharf--
that was the longer one.
So, it's the western side of the freshwater pond.
Tony: Yeah, correct.
This is when we're getting into the deeper water.
This is where there's big rocks.
Quite often, you'd find these flatter ones
on the bottom of the crib.
-How deep? -Uh, that would have been 19 feet at high tide.
If you go back, say, oh, 300 years,
you would be 12 feet maximum at high tide.
Six feet at low tide.
When we were looking, we saw bubbles coming up,
and we were estimating it to be 75 to 100 feet from shore.
-Mm-hmm. -Alex: At least, but you were
-a long way off shore. -Yeah.
So, that's a huge, huge wharf.
-Yeah. -That's good.
How could he have built that?
I don't know. You know, that's- that's the big question, there.
What do you think of that, stuart?
-You've built wharfs before, by hand. -Stuart: Yeah. Yes.
Wow.
Yeah.
I won't say stunned,
but I did not anticipate finding two wharfs
off the samuel ball lot.
It seems redundant, overkill. Why do you need two wharfs?
A 16-foot-wide wharf
to a gentleman farmer to sell his crops?
It doesn't make sense.
Marty: It speaks to every aspect of what we know about samuel ball.
He's smart, he's capable,
and he may have had...
Some things we're unaware of.
Alex: So, I wouldn't think
you'd build a giant wharf for a one-time transfer.
-No. -Rick: I don't know. What about
the stone road and the stone path?
Alex: I know. I agree.
But I think that that fits,
-because it fits the story of a big excavation -mm-hmm.
Because of the amount of
-back and forth you'd have to do. -Rick: Yep.
Alex: If that was their purpose,
it would have been to support the hiding of the treasure.
Not just the unloading. Not just the transporting.
Now, it wasn't buried in a ten-foot pit.
To me, it supports the idea that they did a lot of work.
One thing I find interesting is that wharf location,
and at the bottom of the ball property there was
a lot of buttons and things found.
To me, that's from more than one person.
You come off the ship, you get on land, people
-would congregate there. -Dan: Yeah. The thing about oak island
is that it would be a good base for seafaring people.
Uh, british certainly had good reason to use it.
Alex: Yeah. And that is where we found that navy button.
And we did not have
any knowledge of him being involved with the navy
other than the 16-foot-wide, hundred-foot-long wharf.
Rick: There's no question
that the find of this wharf-- which, again,
a local resident has provided this information--
what it does is it's helpful with figuring out
what a search agenda in the future might look like,
because now we have a wharf,
which we now, based on the find of the stone road and pathway,
are telling us that there's
some aspect to the oak island story
that was previously completely unknown.
First, we thought we wouldn't be here at all.
And now we find ourselves with more data, more information
than we probably could have acquired in a non-covid year.
-Which is astounding, right? -Yeah.
But what it says is
there's a lot of homework for each and every one of us,
and there's only one way to do it. We say it all the time.
It's not going to be done here sitting in chairs.
Okay, guys. Good job.
You proved that it's worth further investigation.
-Let's get after it. -Okay.
Narrator: For rick, marty, craig and their team,
the clues continue to mount
that something of profound importance
took place centuries ago on oak island.
And given what they have had to overcome
in a year that has challenged the entire world,
their accomplishments have been nothing short of extraordinary.
But now, with winter coming
and time running out for this year,
can they overcome the odds one more time
and make the ultimate discovery?
Narrator: Next time on the curse of oak island...
Gary: Ooh! Look at that.
Fantastic, mate! This is old.
Laird: Often, the detail is really cryptic.
Rick: The only people who would do that would be templars.
-There's got to be more out there. -Whoa. What's that?
-Whoa. Sweet. -Miriam: Whoa.
Ian: Oh, wow.
We took the samples to analyze
for silver, and we got a spike.
There's every reason to believe
down in those holes there's treasure.
-Marty: Oh, baby! -Jack: Oh, no way!
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