NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island.
- TERRY: Today could be the day. - CHARLES: We got a core.
GARY: Oh, man. That's cool.
DAVID F.: Were there certain boxes that would have that type
- of sheeting on it? - Only for valuables.
Gary, what do you make of this?
Oh, yeah. We're looking for a ship.
- That's the type of find you want to be pulling up. - CLARKE: We know
that Phips found silver on the Concepción,
and I believe some of the treasure
from the Concepción was secreted to Oak Island.
- Wow. - That is remarkable.
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: We good to go? - TERRY: I'm good to go.
Today could be the day, Charles. Of all the drillholes
we've drilled on this pad,
- I've got to say this is the one I'm most encouraged by. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: A new day of exploration
has begun on Oak Island
in the fabled Money Pit area.
And for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester
- and the members of their team... - TERRY: Here it comes.
NARRATOR: there is good reason to believe that the answers
to a 227-year-old treasure mystery
may finally be within their reach.
- What's the good word, Adam? 18? - Hey, Adam. What do you got? - 18.
- TERRY: Eight to 18. Thank you. - CHARLES: Eight to 18.
Okay.
AB-13.5.
Two and a half feet away
on the east side from our offset chamber, perhaps.
This is probably our best chance to really tap into it.
Let's hope.
(indistinct shouting)
TERRY: Holy cow.
-We've never seen that before. Blowing water out. -No, that's unusual.
NARRATOR: Over the past two weeks,
while drilling in this area on their strategic grid...
BRENNAN: Oh, boy.
TEDFORD: Hey, Craig! There it is.
NARRATOR: the team has penetrated a mysterious, air-filled void
twice at a depth of some 60 feet.
It's got to be a void.
That's a phenomenon
- right there. - TEDFORD: Yeah.
This same phenomena would occur
- for the famous offset chamber, wouldn't it? - Exactly.
NARRATOR: This has led to speculation
that they may have encountered a secret chamber
connected to the original Money Pit.
The general area where we are conducting this drill program
I think is exceedingly interesting.
And it's certainly on the radar or marked
as a potential "X" marks the spot
and will point us in a very specific direction.
TERRY: Solid, dense blue-gray till.
It isn't here, Charles.
- We didn't expect it to be. - Yeah.
So, anyway, as we get to target depth
around 65 or 70 feet,
I'm very hopeful we're gonna hit something.
- Perhaps the offset chamber. - CHARLES: Yep.
And hopefully that'll get us to where the can placements go.
- Exactly. - NARRATOR: Now, as they drill a new borehole
known as AB-13.5...
- CHARLES: Can this go, Terry? - Yes, please.
NARRATOR: if they once again encounter the void
and perhaps the source of the gold and silver
that has recently been detected deep underground in this area,
they will install up to four ten-foot-wide steel-cased shafts
to recover what people have been trying to find
since 1795.
RICK: To me, it's not just about finding the gold.
I want to know how this was done,
why it was done.
I want to know the whole story.
And the whole story will be written underground
in a vault, a void, a cavity,
a-a construct, a human construct.
To me, that's gold in and of itself.
- Hey, guys. - CHARLES: Hey, Alex.
- Hi, Alex. - ALEX: What'd I miss?
- CHARLES: Not much. - Not too much. We are now only about two and a half feet away
from where we intersected the air cavity.
You'd think we'd hit something, right? Because unless we got,
really, I guess, lucky and hit the very top
of the air cavity on the first hole,
- there should be more down there. - Absolutely.
We could be in the area of an offset chamber
- for, hopefully, the treasure beyond all imagining. - Yeah.
And here comes the core.
- Hey, Adam. How we doing? - 28.
TERRY: Thank you.
- Thank you. - TERRY: 18 to 28.
If we drill this anomaly and we go into a void,
even if we don't bring up anything else,
then it'd be worth putting a caisson down there, for sure.
Because it's not a natural cavern.
TERRY: We have no break, no disturbance.
Nothing remarkable yet.
So, we're still about 30 to 35 feet
above where we hope to intersect
our chamber.
Let's hope we get it today.
ALEX: All right. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed.
NARRATOR: Later that morning,
as Terry Matheson supervises the drilling operation
in the Money Pit area...
- Scott, welcome to the war room. - Thank you. Thanks, guys.
NARRATOR: Charles Barkhouse and Alex Lagina
join Rick Lagina
and other members of the team in the war room,
where they have gathered to meet with Scott Clarke.
CLARKE: So, I've found, I believe, significant information
that really strengthens, uh, the idea
- of there being silver in this area. - Interesting.
NARRATOR: Scott is a 33rd-degree Freemason
who has traveled from Toronto
to share information regarding the possible origins
of the Oak Island mystery.
RICK: Scott is presenting a theory
about the William Phips and the salvage
of the Concepción treasure.
And why it's so intriguing at this point, of course,
is because of the silver from the water sampling
- we've done in the Money Pit. - Yeah.
- So, Scott, please proceed. - CLARKE: Okay, thank you.
So, as you just mentioned, uh,
many people are actually familiar
with William Phips's discovery
of the Concepción back in 1687.
We know that Phips found silver on the Concepción,
and I believe some of the treasure
from the Concepción was secreted to Oak Island.
Very interesting.
There's no question about that.
NARRATOR: Built in 1620,
the Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción
was a 600-ton galleon
that served as the premier ship
in a Spanish fleet to carry plundered riches
from the New World back to Spain.
(thunder rumbles)
But in 1641,
while transporting more than 100 tons of silver and gold,
the Concepción was sunk by a massive hurricane
off the northern coast of Hispaniola,
known today as the Dominican Republic.
The disaster led to the deaths
of some 300 crew members
and the loss of the vast treasure.
More than four decades later,
Captain William Phips, a British politician
and treasure hunter from the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
embarked on a salvage mission financed by British royalty.
In January of 1687,
he located the wreck of the Concepción.
Utilizing Indigenous free divers,
it would mark the first of perhaps several missions
that Phips made to salvage the sunken treasure galleon.
CLARKE: When it was brought back to England,
the treasure was weighed in at over 34 tons
and valued at about £205,000,
which would be 50 million U.S. dollars in today's currency.
- That is remarkable. - ALEX: Yeah.
CLARKE: Uh, Phips himself received £11,000
or $2.7 million in today's money.
And Phips was knighted by King James
and treated as a hero in London. It was very big news.
Yeah. It was the recovery of that treasure off the Concepción
that actually bought his way into higher society.
- Phips, yeah. Yeah, and being knighted. Yeah. - DOUG: Yeah.
- CLARKE: Exactly. - Wow. So he was pretty important.
CLARKE: Yeah. And this is about the time
when Captain Andrew Belcher comes into the picture.
He was to become the assistant
of the newly knighted Sir William Phips.
NARRATOR: Captain Andrew Belcher was a wealthy merchant
and Freemason from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
who helped to shape cooperative relations
between the American colonists and Indigenous tribes.
However, according to Scott Clarke's research,
he also aided Sir William Phips
in his subsequent efforts to salvage the Concepción.
CLARKE: So, in September 1687,
Phips returned to the wreck of the Concepción.
And during the second expedition of the treasure,
Phips brought back to England, was only valued
at £10,000.
He literally found 1/20 of what he found the first time.
DOUG: He came back with less than expected,
- right? Yeah. - CLARKE: Much less. Yeah. Yeah.
And he was there for eight months.
He was there a long time,
so they were expecting more.
- Right. - CLARKE: Okay. So, um,
this is where my first discovery comes in.
I basically found a 1688 letter
that shows that Captain Andrew Belcher
was caught with one of Phips's ships
in the Mahone Bay area
at the exact time that Phips was coming back
from the second attempt, where he
"allegedly," officially, did not find as much silver.
The letter also states
that they burnt the ship at Port L'Hebert,
which is very close to Oak Island.
I strongly believe
that Belcher and his comrades were actually
transferring treasure from the Concepción
to be taken to Nova Scotia.
So, this brings me to my second discovery,
which I think is the most interesting.
I discovered this, uh, map from 1701.
Basically, I've discovered a literal treasure map
created 320 years ago
that strongly appears to tie the Concepción treasure
to the Oak Island area.
Wow.
I find that interesting.
NARRATOR: In the Oak Island war room,
theorist Scott Clarke is presenting his research
that the English nobleman Sir William Phips
may have transported a vast cache of Spanish silver
to Oak Island sometime in the late 17th century.
Silver that was salvaged
from the famed treasure wreck known as the Concepción.
So, the map is titled "The English Empire in America."
It was published in an 1853 book that I own.
Newfoundland, Canada, Hudson's Bay and Colonies.
It was created by Herman Moll,
published 13 years after Phips's 1688 voyage
to the Concepción site.
Aside from being an excellent, prolific mapmaker,
Herman Moll was known for his interesting circle
of merchants, seafaring men and intellectual friends.
It is written that from these friends of Moll,
uh, Moll gained a fair bit of privileged information
that was sometimes later conveyed on his maps.
I believe that's exactly what occurred on this particular map.
Overall, the map seems normal
except for two very interesting additions.
It specifically shows the wreck of the Concepción on the map.
The specific location of the Concepción shipwreck
is labeled "Sir William Phips Plate Rack."
So, "plate" specifically meant silver
and was derived from the Spanish word "plata,"
and "rack" was an old-fashioned term for "wreck."
The second anomaly is especially interesting.
In New Scotland,
along with the usually labeled Port-Royal and LaHave,
Moll has added La Plata.
Like, he literally named it La Plata, "the silver."
- That's right where Oak Island is. - CLARKE: Exactly.
When you look at the-the modern map,
La Plata, it almost certainly is in Mahone Bay area.
RICK: That is remarkable.
NARRATOR: A map created in 1701
of New Scotland or Nova Scotia
depicting an area in Mahone Bay
where Oak Island is located
as "La Plata" or "the silver"?
You'd think they'd label it "the gold" for "gold river,"
but that's the silver for...
He specifically mentions "the silver."
-So, why would he do... why would he that? -JACK: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Could Scott Clarke be correct
that he has found an actual treasure map
made prior to the discovery of the Money Pit
connecting Sir William Phips and the vast silver treasure
to the Oak Island mystery?
If so, could that explain the high levels of silver
that the team has recently detected
in the Money Pit area?
- Wow. - CLARKE: So, Captain Andrew Belcher
was intimately connected
with Sir William Phips. So, basically,
the accomplice that Phips had, it's Captain Andrew Belcher.
DOUG: Wow.
RICK: Wow. That's very interesting.
CLARKE: He was one of the most connected men in-in New England.
He-he owned 20 ships.
He had a vast shipping network.
His son was the first American-born Freemason.
So, they were the highest Freemasons.
They were the governors.
They were directly tied to Oak Island.
NARRATOR: From the beginning of the hunt for treasure on Oak Island,
Freemasonry has been at the center of the mystery.
Not only have Masonic symbols--
Such as triangles and carvings of the letter "G,"
representing the divine creator--
Been found across the island,
but many of the most prominent searchers,
including Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
were members of this secretive fraternity,
which curiously descended from the medieval order
of the Knights Templar.
Has Scott Clarke, a Freemason himself,
just revealed why that connection
has been so prevalent for more than two centuries
and also what they were looking for?
I think because Captain Andrew Belcher
now has arisen to, certainly, a person of interest,
we need to dedicate some assets to trying to figure out
who the man was, what his connections were.
There must be more information about him and his progeny,
and that may lead us somewhere.
I like it because you have treasure
and you have people
and you have Oak Island all tied together.
Whereas a lot of times, we have
the theory of treasure and the people
who could have done it, but the tie to Oak Island
- is a little sketchy. - Right.
- You've given us a lot to consider. - RICK: Yes.
- ALEX: Yeah. - CHARLES: Yeah.
RICK: Thank you, Scott.
- We appreciate it. - Thank you. Thanks, guys.
DOUG: Impressive research.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
CHARLES: Here's Craig
- coming in now. - NARRATOR: Craig Tester
joins Charles Barkhouse,
geologist Terry Matheson and treasure hunter Dan Henskee
at the Money Pit to continue monitoring
the drilling operation in Borehole AB-13.5.
CHARLES: We got a core coming.
- Yep. - NARRATOR: A borehole
where they hope to encounter
a man-made cavern or chamber some 70 feet underground.
- TERRY: How you doing, Craig? - Good, good.
- How deep are we? - We're down to, uh, 67 feet.
There's no bubble or blowout. Not this time.
Oh, look.
TEDFORD: Let me take it.
All water.
- TERRY: Hey, Adam. - Hey. - What you got, Adam?
- 77. - CHARLES: 77.
- Thank you. - Okay. - CRAIG: Okay.
I-It's-it's dense above and below.
Yet, at the same time,
you see no particular artifact
- or anything to punctuate. - CRAIG: Yeah.
TERRY: Unfortunately, no cavity. No opening.
It's that cobble right there
and all the cobbles we're encountering,
I think, have a lot to do with it.
NARRATOR: Although the team
is currently drilling only two and half feet
from where they hit a mysterious void
at a depth of some 70 feet just one week ago,
it appears AB-13.5
has missed the target.
MARTY: Maybe we just missed because
having found and having ascertained
that there are these very anomalous amounts
of gold and silver in the water
and on the metal in the area of this exploration,
that does lead me to believe we might be close.
CHARLES: Do you have another hole lined up?
- We'll go north. - Okay. - Okay.
- Another mystery rather than an answer. - CRAIG: Yeah.
NARRATOR: While members of the team prepare to drill
their next target in the Money Pit...
GARY: This looks like a good starting point, guys.
- Start down here. - NARRATOR: metal detection expert Gary Drayton,
along with Rick and Marty's nephews
David and Peter Fornetti,
have returned to Lot 4,
located on the western side of the island.
It is in this area that the team has recently found
a number of compelling clues,
including a cutting and shaping tool
known as an adze
and a gold-plated English button,
both of which were dated
to as early as the late 17th century.
RICK: Lot 4 has, uh, given us some surprises
in terms of Gary's metal detecting finds
and I think we need to take another hard look at this area.
I think it's always important to-to revisit, recheck.
And this might provide us with a few more clues.
(beeping)
GARY: There we go.
We've definitely got...
a piece of metal here worth digging.
- Right under there. - Right there?
GARY: Yep.
Oh, there it is. Yep.
That's a tin can lid.
Dang.
All right, into the trash pouch it goes.
And then we don't have to flag that.
No, we don't have to flag any trash.
- That's probably just washed in. - Yep.
(beeping)
GARY: Got a signal here.
You can see it on the surface there.
It's right on the surface, mate.
Wow, this is fantastic.
GARY: Oh, man. That's cool.
Old piece of copper sheeting.
NARRATOR: While searching Lot 4
on the western side of Oak Island...
Not sure what it's off.
Gary Drayton, along with brothers
David and Peter Fornetti
have just found a potentially significant clue.
Cool little find. Right on the surface as well.
I do believe some of this stuff
is coming from this beach erosion.
I always like finding old pieces of copper sheathing like this,
especially on the beach,
because, uh, most of the time it's marine-related.
'Cause back in the day, it was used to line
the hulls of the boats to protect them from the worms.
And it's called sheeting or sheathing,
and it was basically the duct tape of the day.
- What years did they do that? - Uh, mainly in the 1700s.
- Mm-hmm. - Golden age of piracy, actually, 1650 to 1750.
NARRATOR: Possible copper sheathing from a large sailing vessel?
And potentially dating back to the 17th century?
Could Gary, David and Peter have just found
more ship-related evidence predating the discovery
of the Money Pit by more than a century?
And if so, could it also help support
Scott Clarke's theory regarding an operation
by Sir William Phips
and Freemason Captain Andrew Belcher
to hide a vast cache of silver and possibly gold
on Oak Island?
GARY: I have actually found,
on Spanish galleon sites,
copper sheeting that's this thin.
But we'll take it back to the archaeology trailer.
DAVID F.: Great.
GARY: That's a really nice find.
NARRATOR: The following morning,
as the drilling operation continues
in the Money Pit area...
GARY: All it takes is one good find.
PETER: Maybe in this scoop right here.
GARY: You got that right, mate.
NARRATOR: Gary, David and Peter
have joined treasure hunter Michael John
and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt
as they continue investigating the southern edge
of the mysterious triangle-shaped swamp.
GARY: Pete, you and I, we've found
a lot of ship spikes and wharf pins all along this stretch.
- Yeah. - That's why I'm surprised
we haven't found any of those yet.
Yeah, and those were only, what,
six inches to a foot down?
- Yeah. - And now we're digging
- six feet down. - Yeah.
GARY: But what we have been finding
is some really cool, interesting pieces of wood
- from, uh, like, an old sailing ship. - Yeah.
GARY: Let's find some good stuff. You ready?
All right, mate.
NARRATOR: In recent weeks, the team has recovered a number of clues
in this area that could also help validate
Scott Clarke's theory,
including possible deck planking,
as well as tools related to ships
and a trapezoid-shaped piece
from a believed cargo boat that was dated to as early as 1680.
Come on, metal, where are you?
Well, yeah, that stands out.
One more for the pile.
That's a very interesting piece of wood.
It's very similar to some of the planking
that we found, but this is irregular.
It's wider at this end and thinner there.
Obviously, it was shaped by man, and that stands out.
- Yeah. - I mean, what would you call that?
Decking or siding?
- MICHAEL J.: Probably decking. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Could Gary be correct that Billy
has just recovered another piece connected to a large ship?
In 1969,
the esteemed landowner and treasure hunter Fred Nolan
drained the swamp
and was astonished to discover his own trove
of ship-related artifacts.
These included scuppers and even part of a mast.
The operation made Fred speculate that the swamp
may have been artificially created
in order to hide an entire treasure galleon.
Could the potentially ship-related discoveries
that the team continues to make in the swamp
not only support Fred's theory but also Scott Clarke's?
GARY: Well, definitely a-another piece
that we can maybe have C-14'd
and have the marine archaeologist
put some eyes on it.
We'll definitely get it looked at.
- I'll put this to one side. - Yeah.
GARY: I'd like to see some coins
- coming up here. - Yeah.
This is the edge of the beach.
Anything that got washed off that stone roadway as well
would be really cool.
All right.
- I'm gonna get stuck in. - Okay.
GARY: Now, that is interesting.
- PETER: Yeah, you got something? - Yeah,
I do think this is something.
Look, shaped at both ends.
Oh, yeah.
GARY: Looks like it's beveled, it's got that bow in it.
NARRATOR: At the southern edge of the swamp,
metal detection expert Gary Drayton
and other members of the team have just made
a potentially important discovery.
What are you thinking?
GARY: Definitely shaped.
It kind of looks like it would be inside a small boat, maybe.
- Mm-hmm. - The rails across.
- That's definitely man-made. - PETER: I was thinking that, too.
NARRATOR: A wooden fragment,
potentially from a smaller type of nautical vessel?
Could it be connected to the trapezoid-shaped artifact
dating back as early as the 1680s
that was found in this area one week ago?
It was the opinion of geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner
that it may have been part of a longboat
used to unload cargo from a much larger sailing ship.
BILLY: That's from that two to three feet.
Yeah.
Seems like we're finding most of the pieces of wood
at about two to three feet deep.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Could these finds be related
to the pieces of cargo barrels
found near the stone wharf one year ago?
And if so, could they also be related
to the traces of silver recently detected deep in the Money Pit?
MARTY: There are all kinds of things of significance
in the swamp at this point.
We are finding bits and pieces in there from a ship.
So, is there a ship in the swamp
or are there bits of a ship in the swamp
that were used for other things?
We haven't got an answer to that yet.
- PETER: That one's really interesting. - GARY: Yeah.
- Yeah. Put them together. - GARY: Well...
Let's keep these to the side.
- PETER: Yeah. - Perfect.
GARY: God, this is fun.
NARRATOR: As the investigation in the swamp continues...
later that afternoon...
- ALEX: Hey, Carmen. - CARMEN: Hey, how's she going?
How are you? Good to see you.
Thank you for stopping by.
NARRATOR: Alex Lagina and his cousin David
are meeting with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge
in the research center.
So, here they are.
NARRATOR: to get his analysis on one of the team's
most recent finds.
So, for background, this is from Lot 4.
DAVID F.: We were just on the beach
at Lot 4, it was not buried.
It was just sitting on the surface there.
We'd be curious to get your thoughts.
ALEX: Hmm.
There seem to be some nail holes and other things.
ALEX: Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Ah...
ALEX: Very interesting.
So, is this the corner of the box?
DAVID F.: What would you use copper sheeting for?
DAVID F.: Were there certain practices
or certain, um, boxes that would consistently have
that type of sheeting on it?
- Treasure. - (chuckles) Right.
When you say, "very old," how old do you mean?
Um...
ALEX: Wow, that's pretty old.
- Yeah. - (laughter)
NARRATOR: Copper sheeting from a possible treasure chest
that could date as far back as 1100 AD?
Although the team has found a number of clues
believed to be of 17th-century origin on Lot 4,
they have also been searching the area for evidence
to support the research of the late author Zena Halpern.
In 2016, Zena presented the team with two maps
indicating that members of the Knights Templar
had visited Oak Island on numerous occasions
between the 12th and 14th centuries.
Could this potential piece of believed treasure chest,
just like the paved area discovered two years ago
in the swamp, which Dr. Spooner dated to as early as 1200 AD,
and the 14th-century lead cross found at Smith's Cove
all offer evidence that Zena's theory could have validity?
And if so, might it suggest that Sir William Phips's partner
Captain Andrew Belcher, a Freemason,
may have had secret knowledge
of an existing Templar treasure vault on Oak Island?
It's always been suggested that Oak Island was a repository,
perhaps over generations
by multiple people.
So these finds that are being made from Lot 4
may be some evidence that multiple people
may have deposited a treasure here on Oak Island.
I don't know that I'm correct, but it's a possibility.
Small.
See, that's more the size of what I was thinking of
as a treasure chest, because...
It'd be heavy.
Right.
ALEX: But it-it's on an area of the island
that nothing, in our records, happened there,
other than the Zena Halpern map.
- Right. - So...
Okay, well, that's tantalizing.
DAVID F.: It's incredible.
And it just kind of validates Lot 4
and the interest that we have there.
- So, we certainly appreciate you coming out. - Yeah.
Well, as always, we will go back out,
we'll look and we'll give you a call when we find something.
- ALEX: Thanks, Carmen. - DAVID F.: Thanks, Carmen.
ALEX: See you.
NARRATOR: As a new day begins on Oak Island,
and while Rick Lagina oversees
his search for clues and possible valuables
at the southern edge of the swamp...
RICK: You gonna go over it again?
GARY: Yeah. Just in case.
NARRATOR: in the research center...
MARTY: I got all the brains that we need right here.
We need them all for this project.
NARRATOR: Marty Lagina has called a meeting
with their partner Craig Tester and project Manager Scott Barlow
to discuss the current drilling operation in the Money Pit.
MARTY: Well, I have a theory
that I want to run past you guys, and it's about that hole
we drilled where we got the air-- what is it?
- AB-13. - AB-13.
I've been thinking about it.
So, we drill these wells and we hit this air,
and we're virtually sure that it's some kind of gas trap,
and it's not natural.
Got to be man-made, right?
- Yeah. - Okay. So, let's say I'm wrong
about the possibility that there's an offset chamber.
What argues against that is it seems
like we'd have more air, then, right?
If it filled up an entire chamber.
- Right. - Yeah.
You know I've been a flood tunnel doubter...
- CRAIG: Mm-hmm. - forever,
but maybe the flood tunnel does exist.
Right.
NARRATOR: One week ago,
when the team drilled into the mysterious
air-filled void some 70 feet deep
in the Money Pit area...
TERRY: What the heck?
they made a surprising discovery.
TERRY: It almost looks like grass,
maybe eelgrass or something washing in.
NARRATOR: Eelgrass, along with coconut fiber,
was discovered in 1850 at Smith's Cove.
These materials were covering five stone box drains,
and were believed to be acting as a kind of filter
to keep debris out of a man-made flood tunnel.
A flood tunnel feeding seawater directly into the Money Pit.
I mean, if you guys don't mind,
I'm gonna draw you what I think may be, as a possibility...
- Sure. - and then you tell me if I'm crazy or not.
MARTY: Okay, we got the elephant's nose, right?
Yeah...
Tell me if I'm about right, Money Pit-ish?
- Yep. - Smith's Cove,
here's our cofferdam.
If there was a flood tunnel, it would've gone more or less
the shortest distance, right?
- Mm-hmm. - And I believe
there's the Cave-In Pit.
Okay, if I do an elevation view,
here's sea level in Smith's Cove,
here's the Money Pit, original.
And let's say the flood tunnel
comes in down here somewhere, right?
Okay, so let's say, when they dug this flood tunnel,
all they would've had to do is have a bump in it like that.
You know, either intentionally, boulder,
for whatever reason you want.
This wouldn't have interfered
with its ability to function at all, right?
No.
- Mm. - MARTY: No. Okay.
Over the years, we put all kinds of air
down here, right?
We drilled all kinds of holes.
Now, if that air happened to find its way
into this flood tunnel, it would work its way up
and get caught right there just like a little bubble in a level.
And this would be an obvious place for introduced gas
to try and find its way out, right?
If there's still something that exists.
I mean, it's just, it's just perfect.
It'd start working its way up and get trapped right there.
So, here we come along and we just drilled into that, perhaps.
- That's my theory. - Hmm.
MARTY: If the flood tunnel came from the shore,
it wouldn't necessarily come down perfectly, would it?
Let's say it was constructed, they had to go up and over
a rock, whatever, any number of reasons.
And if it has just a little bow in it,
that would be a perfect place to catch air.
We introduced a lot of air into the Money Pit area
when we were drilling with air several years ago.
That air, if there is a flood tunnel,
could've encountered it, it would've went straight up.
When it got to that little bubble,
it would've gotten trapped
and it would've been under pressure.
NARRATOR: Could Marty be correct
that the team's drilling operations
over the past several years
caused air to be trapped in a man-made flood tunnel?
A flood tunnel connected
to the legendary Money Pit treasure vault?
I'm more of a believer after all that,
that the flood tunnel does exist.
Maybe we just found it.
I think that's very reasonable.
It's certainly one of the more interesting spots
that we've drilled into in the Money Pit.
MARTY: And it's about the only thing I can think of, honestly,
- that would be just designed to catch air. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: With the team's plans to begin digging
up to four ten-foot-wide steel-cased shafts
in less than two weeks,
confirming the location of the legendary flood tunnel
and cutting it off could greatly improve their ability to recover
the source of silver and gold detected earlier this year.
The difficulties in the Money Pit have always have been
associated with water flooding in from a possible flood tunnel.
If we can find a tunnel and block the ocean water,
that would be huge.
Do we have enough time for one more hole?
I would think so.
- I think so, yeah. - MARTY: Okay.
Sounds like a plan.
We'll just see how things unfold.
- CRAIG: Sounds good. - MARTY: Okay.
Well, thanks, guys.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
TERRY: Here it comes.
- I've got high hopes for this one. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: as members of the team begin a drilling operation
in the hopes of cutting off the flood tunnel
to aid their upcoming excavation of the Money Pit...
GARY: Next shovel, we go for glory.
at the southern edge of the swamp...
metal detection expert Gary Drayton
along with members of the team
continue searching for vital clues
that could also help solve the Oak Island mystery.
What do you think of this, Dave?
Oh, that's interesting.
- We should definitely show Gary. - PETER: Yeah.
- It looks like there's a pretty good hole in it, though. - Oh.
PETER: Gary, what do you make of this?
Oh, yeah.
That looks like a-a square hole.
Oh, that's interesting, mate, 'cause older fasteners,
especially iron, were square-shanked.
We haven't found that many pieces of wood with holes in.
So, do you think that's marine?
Yeah, I mean, we're right at the side
to the southeast corner of the swamp,
we're looking for, potentially, a ship.
That's the type of find you want to be pulling up,
wood with square holes in.
Circular-shanked fasteners
came in round about the early 1700s,
and then in the Industrial Revolution,
everything was round.
So it could possibly be earlier than the 1700s.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's actually the date range I'd put it in,
um, mid-1500s to mid-1700s,
with the square-shanked nails.
NARRATOR: Another wooden artifact potentially related to a ship?
And possibly dating to before 1700?
If Gary is correct, could this discovery
offer more evidence that the remains
of a treasure galleon really lies buried in the swamp?
And might it also further validate
Scott Clarke's incredible theory that Sir William Phips
hid a vast cache of silver on Oak Island?
GARY: That's fantastic.
Pretty cool find, Pete. Well done, mate.
- Yeah. - We got two more coming.
PETER: Hey, guys.
MARTY: Come on over, Billy!
We don't see any chests piled up.
GARY: Eh, no, and I wish I could reach
for my top pocket, but...
the lack of metal's a little bit frustrating.
I mean, you guys found some intriguing things.
So, we found some interesting things here,
but obviously there's still more on the search agenda,
so I'd be curious what-what's next.
MARTY: Well,
the reason Rick and I are here is--
I mean, we found all kinds of neat stuff.
You've done a great job,
um, but for this year, we're wrapping it up.
But we got cannisters coming,
and, uh, we need the water so we can use it at the wash plant.
So, I think we're running out of time in the swamp.
- That's frustrating. - PETER: Yeah.
NARRATOR: It is a difficult moment
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
and members of their team.
Despite all the compelling evidence
of ancient ship-related activity recently unearthed
in the triangle-shaped swamp,
they will need to suspend their search
of the area in less than two weeks.
MARTY: Unfortunately, we have to quit digging
in the body of the swamp because we're going to need water,
and lots of water, to run through the wash plant.
We can't use seawater, so we need fresh water
to clean all the stuff that's coming out
as we dig in the Money Pit.
NARRATOR: As Rick, Marty, Craig and the team
begin excavating the massive ten-foot-wide
steel-cased shafts across the Money Pit area,
the tons of earth, or spoils,
will be carefully sorted and sifted
for potential valuables in an industrial-sized wash plant.
The process, which the team hopes will reveal
tangible evidence of the gold and silver
detected earlier this year in the Money Pit
will require thousands of gallons of water.
Because the team is not legally permitted
to use ocean water for the operation,
the swamp, which today is fed by a freshwater spring,
is their only option.
The enormity of the work
that's about to proceed in the Money Pit,
I mean, it's all incumbent upon washing that material,
and... I think we need to let this refill,
to supply all the water.
Yeah, no, that's right.
So, finish up best you can, Billy, you know, and, uh,
we're gonna call it a day and move on.
- Yeah. - MARTY: It's been good stuff.
Good stuff came out of here.
A whole bunch of science has to be applied, yet.
- Yep. - A bunch of carbon dating.
I think we yielded some pretty interesting pieces.
Right.
GARY: And look how much material
you've moved, Billy,
in-in just a small area of the swamp.
- I know. - We, we'll never get out of here.
- (laughter) - This is a place we're coming back to.
MARTY: If you look at the percentage of the swamp we've dug,
even though we've done a lot of digging in the swamp,
I'd say percentagewise, certainly single digits.
Five percent, maybe.
And every time, I believe without fail,
every time, it's-it's yielded interesting things.
RICK: I don't know, necessarily,
that there's a treasure component to the swamp,
but I do believe that there's more information
in the body of the swamp.
And so, I don't think we're done yet.
Before we go, I do want to get to that area
where the railing came from.
- Right. - How close are you?
We're basically right on top of that now.
Okay. Well, let's finish up,
because we're running out of time
and we've got big work to do up there.
- Yeah. - You guys ready?
- I'm ready for that. - Yep. We're ready. - All right.
-Let's finish up here. -DAVID F.: All right. Sounds good.
NARRATOR: If Rick, Marty and their team can now be certain of anything,
it is that answers surrounding a 227-year-old mystery
could be revealed anywhere across Oak Island.
But even though they must soon suspend their search
in the swamp, where evidence of an incredible secret
has been unearthed, it will aid
their most historic dig ever conducted in the Money Pit.
There, they have found scientific evidence
of just what that incredible secret could be.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
BRENNAN: Looks like we got something, boys.
- Three pieces of wood. - TERRY: The only thing,
usually, that will give us that is a tunnel.
- So, we ran C-14 on it. - CRAIG: One time frame.
Old, old, old.
- (laughter) - (horn honks)
MARTY: We are about to embark
on the attempt to recover valuables
- lurking in the Money Pit. - DAN H.: Here they come.
MARTY: We've got ten-foot cans
coming in and we can dig it up.
There is definitely, without a doubt,
- gold down there. - (laughs)