Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
The Portuguese found signs of gold here
- and needed a place to hide it away. - Wow.
CHARLES: If that is indeed Shaft Six,
we know there's a tunnel leading directly
to the Money Pit. You follow the tunnel,
it's game on, then.
GARY: All it takes is one good find.
What's that right there, Gary?
Well, that's interesting.
Might be a lid.
There could be a chest in there.
That's pretty amazing.
RICK: You'll hold in your hand
the irrefutable proof
that the story of Oak Island is real.
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.
♪ ♪
- CHARLES: Here we go! - TERRY: Yup.
- So, we're drilling here, HI-4. - Yup.
NARRATOR: As another exciting day begins on Oak Island,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, along with their team, believe
that they may be on the verge
of not only locating the original Money Pit shaft...
- We could be starting to chase Shaft Six. - Correct.
NARRATOR: but also a vast treasure
that people have been attempting to recover
for more than two centuries.
So, this hole will be drilled right in the heart of Shaft Six.
Yup. If that is indeed Shaft Six,
we know at 118 feet,
there's a tunnel going off of that,
- leading directly to the Money Pit. - Right.
CHARLES: You got wood.
Yeah, we've got some stacked timbers there, it looks like.
NARRATOR: One week ago, while drilling a borehole
within their strategic grid, known as G-2...
- That says to me, probably the shaft. - I would say.
NARRATOR: at depth of 80 to 90 feet,
the team obtained evidence of a wall believed to be part
of a structure simply known as "Shaft Six."
TERRY: Definitely not circular saw.
- This is relatively old. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Constructed by searchers in 1861,
this 118-foot-deep shaft features a lateral tunnel
that not only connects to the original Money Pit,
but is also believed to contain a debris field
full of valuables that resulted from a catastrophic collapse
that occurred during its construction.
We got a core coming!
NARRATOR: Now, as the team drills Borehole HI-4,
which sets just 12-and-a-half feet
from Borehole G-2...
Sixty-nine.
- 59 to 69, coming at us, Charles. - Yup.
NARRATOR: it is their hope to recover solid evidence
of the gold and silver that they've recently detected
from water sample tests across the Money Pit area.
If they are successful, Rick, Marty and the team
will dig a ten-foot-wide steel-cased shaft here
to intercept the Shaft Six tunnel and recover the riches
believed to lie within it.
RICK: I've always believed that finding Shaft Six is the way
to really decide whether or not the Money Pit can be found.
Shaft Six was sunk to 118 feet, a tunnel driven 18 feet.
We don't know the cardinal direction of that.
So, delineate it,
see if the measurements of the shaft work, and then,
try to determine the orientation of the shaft.
What's the good word, Adam?
- 75. - TERRY: Thanks, Adam.
69 to 75.
- Here we go. - Yup.
Charles, we have wood.
Maybe this will be the stacked timbers we've been looking for.
Yup, that's apparently stacked timbers.
Gives me a good indication of potentially a, uh, shaft.
Could be we're clipping the edge of a shaft.
That's what I'm thinking.
NARRATOR: Evidence of a shaft
found some 70 feet deep in Borehole HI-4?
Has the team possibly found a second wall of Shaft Six?
It could be a corner piece right there.
NARRATOR: If so, then they might not only be able
to determine the orientation of the shaft,
but also the precise location of the original Money Pit.
Hey, Rick.
NARRATOR: Arriving for an update
on the morning's drilling progress
are Rick Lagina, surveyor Steve Guptill
and Oak Island historian Doug Crowell.
What have we got?
HI-4 is in the southeast quadrant of our shaft.
We've come through a substantial portion
of the wall from about, what was that?
- 71? - 71 to...
To about 75 feet.
What we feel was
the outside wall of, hopefully, Shaft Six.
If we find the tunnel associated with that,
you'll hold in your hand the irrefutable proof
that the story of Oak Island is real.
Is defined by one thing and one thing only:
hold the evidence in your hand.
Find the one thing. That's success.
Look, now we have a proper orientation,
and one could make a very good case
that the Money Pit-- It's certainly close.
It helps us with our,
you know, "where do we put a caisson?" decision.
- Yup. - Always.
Keep after it. Keep up the good work. Good luck, guys.
- We'll do our best. Thank you. - Thank you. - Talk to you later.
NARRATOR: As efforts to reach the tunnel
connected to Shaft Six continue
at the Money Pit, later that afternoon...
- Does that stink! - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Marty Lagina joins Doug Crowell,
metal detection expert Gary Drayton,
and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt
as they continue excavating at the southernmost region
of the triangle-shaped swamp.
Get me up to speed. What's going on here?
We're finding wood.
The wood that we're finding
is really, really interesting, Marty.
Mm-hmm. You found any metal?
No, no metal yet.
We're digging deep out here,
and we're working our way
towards where we found that piece of wood
- dated to 600, 700 AD. - Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: Over the past two weeks,
the Oak Island team has made numerous discoveries
in this area near the western end
of the massive stone ship's wharf,
which may be more than 500 years old
and also of Portuguese origin.
These finds include a mysterious tree stump,
offering more evidence that the swamp was once dry land,
wooden survey stakes and hand-hewn planks
that may be connected to the ancient wharf.
It was in this same area that, one year ago,
the team recovered a potential piece of a ship's railing
that was carbon-dated to the seventh century AD,
and also where they detected a massive, 200-foot-long
ship-shaped anomaly using seismic scanning
three years ago.
JEREMY: It's very unusual.
MARTY: Let's not just dork around it.
- Yeah. - Would it be S-H-I-P?
Would that be what everybody's thinking?
What do you think about having him go down three feet?
Uh, yeah. I'd like to do that because along this bank...
- Mm-hmm. - Where the road is here,
we've found a heck of a lot
of wharf pins, ship's spikes.
- Yeah. - Yeah. I wouldn't mind going deeper.
So, while you're here,
here's a thought, Billy. It won't take too long
as long as this machine's so nicely situated.
Come by, take, like, about a foot of that sand,
put it to the side, metal detect.
Take another foot, another foot, get down maybe four feet
just to see if there's something in that sand.
- Yeah, now I'm definitely for that. - Okay. Thank you.
- Yeah, we're going to do it, Gary. - GARY: Yeah.
- Should be something in there. - Yeah, should be something.
MARTY: One thing that is just totally inexplicable
was a piece of wood carbon-dated
twice, uh, to AD 700.
Okay, well, that's... that's an outlier.
So, because it's such an outlier and so different,
we need to do more searching.
(clattering)
Whoa. Yeah, what's that, Gary?
GARY: Let's have a look. Wow.
That is a big piece, isn't it?
MARTY: Oh, baby!
That looks like it was cut.
NARRATOR: Near the southern edge of the triangle-shaped swamp,
Marty Lagina and members of the team
have just unearthed a potentially important clue.
- It looks like one of the old survey stakes. - Oh.
Hey, that might be. It might have been cut.
Yeah. What do you think it is, Marty?
It looks, sort of, Gary, like the stakes they used
- that would laid out the road. - Yeah.
So, maybe back to the 1600s.
- It looks sort of like that. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Another possible survey stake?
Could it be connected to the massive stone ship's wharf
which sets just east of this location in the swamp?
Or could it be related in some way
to the 200-foot-long anomaly detected
by seismic scanning in 2018?
One resembling the size and shape of a ship?
Come on. Just one good signal.
What's that right there, Gary?
- What? - That weird thing on the side.
That's planking.
Planking or decking or...
But that looks very interesting.
- Got that beveled edge on it. - Yeah.
Sure looks like...
decking? Wooden decking
- or planking to me. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Wooden deck planking?
Could Gary Drayton be correct
that the team has just found more evidence
of a ship in the swamp?
If so, might it also be connected to the piece
of believed ship's railing found one year ago
that dated to as early as the seventh century AD?
MARTY: I am surprised at how much stuff is in that swamp.
Interesting things. I mean, the paved area, the stone road.
All the artifacts in the southeast corner, and now,
as we dig along the beach, all kinds of pieces of wood.
Potentially significant pieces of wood.
- Yeah. That's shaped wood for sure. - GARY: Yeah.
MARTY: "What's it mean?" is the question.
After we clean it up, we might have a better idea
- of what it actually is. - Yeah.
MARTY: All right, let's keep digging.
NARRATOR: The following morning,
while operations continue at the swamp...
(whoops)
NARRATOR: and in the Money Pit area...
RICK: Doug has come up with a presentation which I find
intriguing, to say the least.
NARRATOR: in the war room, Rick Lagina
has gathered members of the team to hear a presentation
by Doug Crowell that he has prepared
regarding some of their recent discoveries.
What encapsulates Oak Island and the search for answers here,
of course, is the "who, what, where, when, why and how."
Well, Doug has taken it upon himself to address the "who."
So, Doug, we will turn it over to you, please.
Yes, well, so, what really kicked off
this preliminary report
is the finding of these two round stones on the island.
What was really interesting about these is,
these are not likely native to Nova Scotia.
GARY: Whoa! Look at that!
- It's a round shot! - RICK: Wow.
NARRATOR: Two months ago,
while investigating a possible ancient pathway
between the swamp and the Money Pit on Lot 16,
Rick and Gary Drayton
discovered a stone shot or small cannonball.
Incredibly, it was not only nearly identical
to one excavated from the Money Pit in 2019,
but when the team had them analyzed
by geology professor Dr. Robert Raeside, in his opinion,
one of the likely places they originated was the Azores,
a group of islands in Portugal.
These would classify as what they'd call "two pounders".
So, they'd be shot out of a-a deck gun
or a swivel gun, a rail gun off the side of a ship.
- Wow. - And the Portuguese were the very first
to put cannon on board their ships.
The stone shot came into play around the early 1400s,
and dwindled out of... out of use in the mid-1600s.
So, if these were from a ship
or individuals that visited Oak Island,
and they had this type of armament with them,
that narrows the range from, in my mind,
from the 1400s through to the very early 1600s.
- That's very interesting. - DOUG: The Portuguese
and their exploration along our shores
make them one of the early suspects,
I think, in our mystery.
- Oh, wow. - LAIRD: The Portuguese
have been coming over,
I'm certain, for years. Fishing.
The question is, what else might have they been doing here?
How else might have they been utilizing this area?
Hmm.
NARRATOR: According to documented history,
Portuguese explorer Joao Alvares Fagundes
arrived on the shores of Nova Scotia in 1520,
referring to the area as "The Land of the Cod Fish."
Other Portuguese expeditions would also lead
to settlements in Cape Breton and Newfoundland, in addition
to their colonization of large areas of Africa, Asia,
and South America where they collected vast amounts
of gold, silver and precious jewels.
However, over the past two years,
the Oak Island team has made numerous discoveries
that suggest the Portuguese also visited Oak Island.
These finds include the massive stone ship's wharf,
uncovered one year ago in the swamp,
a fragment of a cannon on Lot 4,
and along with the stone shot found in the Money Pit area,
evidence of wooden tunnels that have been carbon-dated
to between the late fifteenth
and the early seventeenth centuries.
You know, what's interesting about that is,
you know, we looked at French,
we looked at British, but we never looked at Portuguese.
- No. - No.
NARRATOR: If the Portuguese were on Oak Island
more than 200 years prior
to the discovery of the Money Pit,
it begs the question, was it merely
for the purposes of creating a fishing settlement?
So, what other evidence do we have that
the Portuguese were here on our shores in Nova Scotia?
DOUG: Well, Professor Ross Wilheim, in 1971,
he thought that, after 1526, the bulk of the gold and silver
shipped to Europe from the New World
was moved in guarded convoys of fleets of vessels.
So when these treasure fleets were making their turn
towards the Azores, if they encountered storms,
the ships were driven towards our coasts here.
And they would need a place to safe haven from the storm
and a place to repair.
Well, you know, we're finding items that suggest
ship repair, both in Smith's Cove and in the swamp.
JACK: Well, if they were looking for any place that was a great
area to harbor out for a while, they would have
definitely come around Oak Island and into Mahone Bay.
Yeah. Actually, one of the things we stumbled across
was maps through the 1500s into the early 1600s.
And if you look here,
if you see here on the coast of Nova Scotia,
this is Cape Breton, Newfoundland.
Here is some place called "Port of Refuge,"
which looks surprisingly positioned to match Mahone Bay.
The Portuguese, because of their early exploration
and looking for gold in the New World,
may have come to Nova Scotia and found signs of gold here
and were looking, actively exploring for that gold,
and needed a place to process it or hide it away.
- Interesting. - We know they were here,
- so that makes them a more likely suspect... - Yeah.
Than the... anyone we can't prove was along our shores.
RICK: That's great.
NARRATOR: Could Doug's theory be correct?
Is it possible that while transporting vast riches
from South America back to Portugal centuries ago,
a Portuguese expedition landed on Oak Island
and constructed the man-made workings in the swamp,
as well as the Money Pit?
There's a lot of information here that needs to be looked at
much more in-depth, all right, because
who knows where this may lead?
And the one critique I have is,
we're supposed to be putting Xs through people,
- not creating more suspects. - (laughter)
There certainly is some historical narrative about
the Portuguese having been in the area.
The other evidence, really,
regarding a possible connection
between the Portuguese and Oak Island is compelling.
But I think there's a lot
of connective tissue that needs to be developed,
if we really, truly want
to understand the Oak Island mystery.
Oak Island mystery is all about the search for the truth.
And I applaud you for bringing this to the fore.
But eyes and boots approach, there's a lot of work out back,
- so let's get after it. - All right.
PETER: All right.
MARTY: Okay, Steve. Bring us up to date on the drilling.
So, as per Rick's instructions,
we wanted to focus on the western portion of the Money Pit
- where Shaft Six could be. - Right.
NARRATOR: After drilling into what they believe
are two walls of a 19th-century searcher shaft,
known as Shaft Six...
I've outlined this area. So, we've defined the shaft.
NARRATOR: brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
meet with members of the team in the research center
to pick their next drilling location.
One they hope will intercept a tunnel some 118 feet deep
that could potentially contain a debris field of treasure
that resulted from a collapse of the Money Pit in 1861.
STEVE G.: That's the next step. Let's find the tunnel,
- chase it to the Money Pit. - Given Steve's plotting
of the possible orientation,
the tunnel could be driven north right by F-4.
We know that F-4 has produced
high gold signature in the water.
If we move north, we can possibly
intercept the-the tunnel off of Six,
- if it's there. - Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: Earlier this year, the team conducted
water sampling tests for precious metals...
That's it.
NARRATOR: in a number
of previously-drilled boreholes across the Money Pit area.
Incredibly, several showed high concentrations
of both silver and gold, including Borehole F-4.
Is it possible that F-4 intercepted the tunnel
connected to Shaft Six and the original Money Pit?
MARTY: Where do you want to drill it?
We have to stick somewhere around F-4, maybe F-2.
Somewhere around there.
So, that's my hope.
I would go south a foot, and we'd call it F.25-4?
I agree. It-it makes sense.
- MARTY: Okay. - Yeah. - DOUG: Historically,
the Great Collapse happened, right?
And all that debris from the Money Pit came down
and flooded through the tunnel to Shaft Six.
So, if there's debris from the treasure chamber
in the Money Pit, it could well be in that tunnel.
That's coming into our zone of interest.
Heck, if that's the debris field, I mean,
that's a great spot for us.
RICK: Moving the drill rig to the F line
is important because F-4 is
where we got the highest gold and silver signature.
And that's where it becomes interesting,
because the linear line of water sampling,
one could possibly interpret that
as the tunnel from Shaft Six.
I've always said the debris field is
where you'll find the one thing.
I'm excited, so, uh, let's go, uh, bore that hole.
-Let's do it. -Agreed. Enough talking. Let's go stake.
- Yup. Yeah. - Okay?
- ALEX: See you out there. - RICK: Yup.
NARRATOR: While Rick, Marty and members of the team
head to the Money Pit...
STEVE. G.: We're getting close, guys.
- Remember, it's just up here. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: surveyor Steve Guptill heads
to Lot 4 on the western side of the island, along with
metal detection expert Gary Drayton and Jack Begley.
So, you think this is the detector
that's going to be able to sniff out the mag hit?
You got that right, mate. This is the big guns.
GPX-5000, mate, in combination with that Equinox is fantastic.
We're going from knee-deep to chest-deep.
NARRATOR: Gary, Jack and Steve
are continuing to search for evidence
of a mysterious feature labeled on a reported
14th-century map of Oak Island
curiously known as "The Hole Under the Hatch."
The map, which belonged to the late author
and researcher Zena Halpern,
is believed to have been made by members
of the medieval order of the Knights Templar.
Let's get stuck in. So, start here?
Yeah, let's start in the center position,
which is right in here.
I'll use a spiral search pattern.
I'll just keep going round and round and round
- until you hear me shouting. - All right.
GARY: All right, I'm off in the woods.
NARRATOR: Over the past three weeks,
while trying to verify if this feature could be in the area,
the team has discovered a number of compelling clues,
like a construction tool, known as an adze,
that could date as far back as 1620,
the fragment of a possible Portuguese cannon,
and a large metallic anomaly
detected with a high-powered magnetometer.
RICK: Lot 4, to me,
has played a prominent role to date
in this year's search agenda.
Given what Gary has found,
I think it demands that we see what else is there
and very thoroughly investigate all the targets.
NARRATOR: In order to find more evidence
that will help the team obtain a permit
to excavate in search of the hatch,
Gary is using the GPX-5000,
a high-powered metal detector with an 18-inch coil capable
of identifying targets up to five feet deep.
(high-pitched whirring)
Big target here, guys.
This is a screamer.
I'm going to say that's probably our anomaly.
Okay. Hopefully, it's something good.
I'm on my way.
- (high-pitched whirring) - It's here.
- That's the center? - Yeah.
Go on, mate. You can do it.
All right.
(high-pitched whirring)
Let's see if I can pinpoint it.
(beeping)
Oh. It's deeper.
Deeper, yeah.
(high-pitched whirring)
And that's where you're just getting the edge of it.
Oh, mate, should I check it?
Yeah.
(high-pitched whirring)
Yeah, it's out.
GARY: Yup, sounds like you got it out.
(beeping)
JACK: Now you're on it. Yeah.
Ooh, look at this!
-STEVE G.: What do you have?
- (beeping) - Oh!
Yeah, a very, very interesting piece.
What do you have there?
Metal. I don't know what it is.
NARRATOR: While searching for evidence of a possible hatch
or tunnel entrance on Lot 4,
Gary Drayton has just made a potentially important discovery.
Wow. Look at that, mate.
Actually, this kind of looks like a massive iron staple.
It looks like it's broken, but this is definitely something
that you would expect to be in an old hatch.
Oh! What time period do you think that's from?
More than likely, it's pre-1830s.
- This is what we're looking for. - Mm-hmm.
I don't feel there's a lot of manganese in this.
- For... - Fits in with over by the swamp
- and the Money Pit. - Yeah.
Chunky piece of iron.
And it's in such good condition, as well.
But to me, it looks like it's broken.
And if you was looking for a hatch,
uh, I'm assuming the hatch is... got some wood on it.
If it is a wooden hatch, it would have one of these
- in for sure. - Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: An iron staple or fastener unearthed on Lot 4?
Could Gary's speculation that it's not only ancient,
but also potentially connected
to the reported "Hole Under the Hatch" be correct?
JACK Well, we're gonna have to find some more
to figure out exactly what went on here.
GARY: Yeah, obviously,
- we are not the first people out here. - Exactly.
STEVE G.: We still have more locations to check.
- So, that's a positive sign. - GARY: Yup.
So, going to keep continuing the search, and hopefully,
there's some more items like this.
- Yeah. - JACK: This is something
- we need to bag. - Oh, yeah, of course.
I'll take it to Steve,
- and then you keep going, and... - Okay, mate.
Hope we have other finds like that, if not better.
GARY: Yeah. I think this is
a crackin' little find, mate.
NARRATOR: The following morning
in the Money Pit area...
TERRY: F.25-4!
- We're down 39 feet, Charles? - Yup, 39.
NARRATOR: geologist Terry Matheson
and Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse
are supervising the drilling operation
in the team's new borehole on their strategic grid-- F.25-4.
A borehole that they hope will intercept a tunnel
some 118 feet deep that is believed
to contain a debris field of treasure
connected to the original Money Pit.
TERRY: We're only about a foot away from F-4 there.
If that is indeed Shaft Six and the tunnel coming off of that,
maybe that could account for the high
gold and silver readings we're getting in F-4.
Exactly. Part of the smashed-up treasure
or a vault that has fallen and shot
- into the Shaft Six tunnel. - Yeah.
MARTY: There could be a tunnel
between the shaft and the Money Pit area.
So, we're looking for it.
And the collapse of the Money Pit.
The water samples show the most gold and silver right there, so,
we think we're zeroing in on potentially at least part
of the treasure.
- CHARLES: We got another core coming. - Yup.
- 119. - 119.
Yup.
Look at this, Charles. This is really mixed up.
In terms of constituents, it's all till.
But look at the wood and chips and chunks through it.
- Yeah. - That's not at the periphery or the outside.
It's right in the core and center.
This is definitely clumps and chunks
of material that was dug out, mixed with clumps
of sticks and twigs that fell in between the clumps.
It's partially backfill and partially
dug material.
So... we did not intersect a tunnel.
That doesn't mean it's not there. We just didn't hit it.
We just didn't hit it. That's right.
NARRATOR: Having now reached a depth of nearly 120 feet,
and finding no hard evidence of the Shaft Six tunnel
nor the treasure it is believed to contain,
it appears that the team has missed their target.
However, since they have discovered high concentrations
of both silver and gold in nearby Borehole F-4
through water testing, they may not have missed by much.
And when they begin digging ten-foot-wide caissons
in the area just a few short weeks from now,
perhaps the ultimate discovery
connected to Shaft Six still awaits them.
RICK: Look, it's a process, all right? It's incremental.
And I think we're going to stay the course and
continue to drill the grid, and hopefully,
from that work, we'll be able
to ascertain exactly where the spots are
to put large cans to solve this thing.
TERRY: At least we know exactly where it isn't.
So, we can move over and see if we hit it
- just a little further to the east or west. - Okay.
TERRY: Lots of good information.
NARRATOR: While Terry Matheson concludes
the drilling operation in Borehole F.25-4...
BILLY: We're getting down into this more important zone,
I think. You know, every time we move ahead,
I'm a little more confident that we might find
- more pieces related to what we found last year. - Yeah. Yeah.
NARRATOR: Charles Barkhouse joins Gary Drayton
and other members of the team to look for more evidence
of a possible buried ship, and hopefully valuables,
near the southern edge of the swamp.
But all it takes, mate, is one good find.
- Yup, that's it. - And let's get that good find today.
CHARLES: Laird and I
are gonna go over, and we'll observe as you're digging.
Just in case we see something that you're pulling up,
- we can warn these guys. - GARY: All right, mate.
I'll get stuck in.
RICK: We're finding a plethora of items,
what we deem to be nautical finds.
There's certainly some strange goings-on in the swamp,
and I don't think we're anywhere near, uh, the finality of it.
GARY: All right, mate. We need a ship's bell, don't we?
- Yeah. - Is that a...?
Look! That's a...
Is that a piece of planking?
Looks like it's cut, as well.
It does. Yup.
- It's worth saving and cleaning up. - Yeah.
Hey, you know what it reminds me of?
- Could be... - You see that curve?
It reminds me of a barrel stave.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: A possible barrel stave?
This is one right here, too.
I think we've found a barrel here.
NARRATOR: Over the past year,
the team has found pieces of cargo barrels
in the swamp that date back 500 years or more,
not only near the cobblestone pathway,
which may be heading toward the Money Pit,
but also near the eastern side
of the massive stone ship's wharf.
A ship's wharf that may also date back at least 500 years
and be of Portuguese origin.
Would be curious to see if this matches up with the others.
NARRATOR: Could this potential piece of a barrel,
found in the area where the team has also
recently unearthed parts of a ship,
be connected and provide more evidence
of an ancient operation to unload cargo onto Oak Island?
- Well, we'll save it. - GARY: Okay.
All right, mate. Better get out of the way.
Billy Buckets is coming in.
BILLY: It may be nothing,
but when I flick the bucket, just come ahead,
just come right ahead in front of the bucket.
There's a small little pointy piece.
- This? - Yeah.
GARY: Oh, wow.
Well, that's interesting. Look at that, Scott.
- Look at that, Scott. - That's a nice piece, Gary.
GARY: I mean, yeah, you can definitely tell
that's not natural. That's been shaped like that.
- No. For sure. - Laird!
NARRATOR: Near the southern edge of the Oak Island swamp,
metal detection expert Gary Drayton
along with Billy Gerhardt and other members of the team
have just made another potentially critical discovery.
The archaeologist is here.
Oh. What do you have?
Well, we don't know, mate. Some kind of wooden plug.
- Huh. - Or a pin.
Yeah. You can see it's square here,
and then someone's carefully tapered it.
Yeah. It's-it's just got a nautical feel to it.
Yeah.
- And you see the beveled edges on the side? - Yup.
GARY: I mean, if we're finding ship's parts,
that would be well at home.
Yeah, for sure.
NARRATOR: A possible ship's pin found
near the southern edge of the swamp?
Dating back prior to the 14th century in Europe,
ship's pins, or belaying pins,
were made of either metal or wood
and were used to secure the rigging lines
for raising and lowering sails,
as well as for docking ships.
SCOTT: Then there's potential for that to be quite old.
Yup, yup.
NARRATOR: Because wooden belaying pins
were replaced by metal cleats by the 19th century,
is it possible the team has just discovered more evidence
of an ancient ship buried in the swamp?
GARY: That's the good thing about the swamp.
It might be stinky, but it saves all the good stuff.
You know, it makes you wonder what else is in there, right?
- GARY: Yeah. - Or what-what we could be missing.
GARY: Yeah.
CHARLES: All right. Let's get back to it.
- Thanks, Laird. - Thank you.
(engine starts)
I don't know about that. Looks more like bark.
- Yeah. - I think we're barking up the wrong tree with that one.
What is this?
That's a pretty smooth piece of wood right there.
GARY: Oh, wow. It's interesting. Look.
That looks like it was cut.
But why would anybody ever cut something in that way?
GARY: It stood out, didn't it?
Hey, Laird!
- They're calling you in, Laird. - Yeah.
What do you got?
We're hoping you can tell us, mate.
First impression: it looks like it's a...
a knot broken out of a trunk of a tree.
CHARLES: Wow.
SCOTT: But it's clearly been cut.
You ever seen anything like that?
No. It almost looks carved.
Yeah. It looks like it's been cut on the top and the bottom.
Yeah. Could it be part of a tool?
- LAIRD: Could well be. - GARY: Yeah.
Almost reminds me of, like,
that wooden T square we found in the swamp.
- CHARLES: Oh, yeah. - LAIRD: Yeah.
- RICK: Check this out. - Oh, God. Wow.
NARRATOR: Last year, after discovering the pieces
of cargo barrels along the cobblestone path
near the eastern border of the swamp,
Rick Lagina and members of the team
found what they believe to be a mason's wooden
T square measuring tool.
Okay. We're gonna look at the wood mason's tool.
NARRATOR: When they had it carbon-dated,
they were more than intrigued by the results.
This one was from 1632 to 1668.
Whoa.
It's purpose-built, right?
- GARY: Yeah. - CHARLES: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Could it be possible
that the team has now found a similar kind of tool?
If so, just what was its purpose?
And could it be connected to the possible fragments
of cargo barrels, and evidence of a ship
that have also recently been unearthed
in this region of the swamp?
It is.
GARY: This is a shaped piece of wood,
and obviously, it had some kind of purpose.
And recovering pieces of shaped wood is important
because this area is very close to the area
where we recovered that piece of ship's rail last year.
BILLY: We are getting closer and closer
to, you know, the swamp road, right?
So, I mean, it's a fair thought to think
that the road was used for a boat of some sort,
and now we're just getting in the good zone.
- Yeah. - We're finding a lot of pieces
concentrated in one area.
Hell of a lot of interesting pieces, as well.
- Yes. - Yeah. I'd expect to find more.
GARY: I know Rick, Marty, and Craig are gonna be
- very interested in this piece. - LAIRD: Yeah.
- LAIRD: Hey, guys. - ALEX: Hey, Laird.
-RICK: Here he is -Three guys from the field.
- Three guys from the swamp. - What you got?
Well, these are all coming out from the same basic spot.
NARRATOR: After discovering a number of wooden artifacts
near the southern border of the triangle-shaped swamp,
archaeologist Laird Niven, along with Scott Barlow
and Billy Gerhardt, have called a meeting
with Rick, Marty, Craig and other members of the team
in the war room.
LAIRD: This one is a bit of a mystery.
Maybe as woodworking people,
you'll have a little more insight into it.
- What the heck is that? - Hmm.
Hmm.
(scoffs) I have no idea what that is.
When you first handed it, I said,
- part of a piece of furniture. - Yup.
No. You know, looks like something must've that stained
or something was around.
Could a rope maybe have done that?
Yeah, it does almost look like a rope rubbing on the...
that one portion, under the lip.
RICK: I'd say you're right. That's a rope burn.
- TOM: That's what I think it is. Yeah. - RICK: Yeah.
Yeah. That's quite possible.
Then it's not furniture. To me, that looks maritime.
BILLY: It's all in the general range of where we found, uh,
the ship's rail last year.
We're pretty darn close.
NARRATOR: Could it be possible
that what Gary Drayton, Laird, Billy and Scott
believed might be a tool is actually another piece
of a large sailing vessel?
It was used extensively, that's for sure.
Friction burn like that is gonna take a while.
Mm-hmm. I think that's a much denser piece of wood...
- BILLY: Yeah. - Because it's-it's already dry.
Yeah, so we talked about C-14 dating,
- but maybe we should look at... - I think we should look
- at species on that one. - Yeah.
'Cause if it is some exotic species,
that might tell us something, too.
Yeah, for sure.
Well, we're kind of, um, overwhelmed
by the stuff coming out of the swamp.
You know, they used to use black locust
- or something really hard to-to wind ropes around. - Yeah.
MARTY: You know, they're pieces of wood.
They're human-shaped.
The swamp preserves them
for literally hundreds of years.
So we need to get everything tested
to see how old the old is and separate out the new.
Anyway, the last one-- It's a worked piece of wood.
Um, almost like it was meant to be inserted partway.
So, possibly nautically related.
BILLY: So, you know, it could've been,
uh, you know, to hang your rope on.
How deep was that, Billy?
Two to three feet, probably.
We're just getting into the original surface of the swamp.
I have to give you guys credit to find this.
- ALEX: Yeah. - In one of those big buckets.
I mean, it is a pretty interesting piece,
and it would have been very hard to find.
Well, I mean, every time we've gone into that swamp,
we've found answers. Unfortunately,
don't give us all the answers, but
you-you know, we can't find it if we don't look, so...
NARRATOR: For the Oak Island team,
these discoveries offer important clues
that they hope will help solve the treasure mystery.
However, for Tom Nolan,
they also offer something very personal.
In 1969, his father, the late landowner
and legendary treasure hunter Fred Nolan,
drained the swamp,
believing that it might hold important clues.
After finding a number of survey stakes and parts of a ship,
including a piece of a mast,
Fred became convinced that the swamp had been artificially made
in order to hide the wreck of a treasure galleon.
Based on what I've seen on Fred's maps,
I would say you're in an ideal location.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that by working with Rick,
Marty and the team, Tom is one step closer
to proving his father's theory to be true?
RICK: Good eye.
Yeah, your team is doing fabulous.
Okay. Go find some more stuff!
Be out as soon as we can.
MARTY: Yeah, we'll be out there to help you.
- TOM: Thanks, guys. - LAIRD: Okay.
NARRATOR: Another historic week has
come to an end on Oak Island.
And even though Rick, Marty, Craig, and their team
still struggle to decode the mystery of the Money Pit,
the discoveries that they keep unearthing all across the island
only strengthen their resolve to believe
it will all be worth it in the end.
As they keep drilling and digging for clues,
will their efforts lead to the vast cache of untold riches
that people have been searching for since 1795,
or are those efforts leading them
to their greatest challenge and test of will yet?
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
GARY: Fingers crossed on this one.
-(beeping) -Oh, yeah. Look at the size of that!
- MARTY: Wow. - That is crazy.
This is a tool that you would use for moving items.
Bring your heavy stuff to shore,
- then you move it with that. - Yes.
JEREMY: This tunnel, next with this
very square structure in the Money Pit.
- Oh, baby! - (laughter)
- Whoa! - Whoa!
STEVE G.: We pierced something that hasn't
been pierced in a long time.
- The famous offset chamber. - Exactly.