NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
Looks like we got something, boys!
Two pieces of wood.
The only thing usually that will give us that is a tunnel.
So, we ran C-14 on it.
One time frame-- old, old, old.
(horn honks)
MARTY: We are about to embark on the attempt
to recover valuables lurking in the Money Pit.
CHARLES: 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)
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...
manmade 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.
MARTY: This is an important meeting.
Because we are about to embark
on the real beginning this year of the treasure hunt.
The attempt to recover valuables,
important artifacts, stories-- Whatever may be still
lurking in the Money Pit, we're, we're about to begin.
Yep. This is the year.
I've never been more excited in my life.
NARRATOR: As an exciting new day
dawns on Oak Island.
So, anyway, the dig is about to begin.
And I'm wearing my lucky toonie.
I'm wearing it for luck. And I hope it works.
NARRATOR: Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina are meeting
with their partner Craig Tester
and other members of their team in the war room
to plan the most strategic
excavation ever conducted in the Money Pit
since the treasure mystery began
227 years ago.
Basically, we have to have a, uh, an idea of who's doing what,
how the logistics are gonna work.
There's gonna be a whole bunch
of materials moved, a bunch of metal detecting,
a bunch of washing.
So I'm gonna turn it over to big brother here.
- So go ahead, Rick. - Well...
the first thing I want to speak of is
we all know Irving is coming in here, so...
I think what we need to focus on is
the selection of the caissons.
That's right. I think the consensus
- would be D-2 first. - Yeah.
Yep. I agree.
Yeah. Well, makes sense.
MATT: The depth of this one might be
- a better chance for getting some silver, right? - Okay.
NARRATOR: Three months ago,
the team conducted extensive water testing
in numerous boreholes...
and obtained heightened evidence
-of a vast cache -(rapid beeping)
Of both silver and gold.
- CHARLES: That's a big chunk of metal right there. - TERRY: Wow.
NARRATOR: Since those stunning scientific discoveries...
the team has conducted a strategic
core-drilling operation across a grid
of some 20 new boreholes,
searching for more tangible evidence of treasure.
- STEVE G.: That's a lot of wood. - CHARLES: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Among the most promising locations
was D-2, where they unearthed
not only evidence of wooden structures...
but also a fragment of metal
some 90 feet deep containing high levels of gold.
The sonic drill program has
indicated that there are substantial works
in that area, uh, i.e., a tunnel, perhaps
- a shaft. - Yeah.
Over the course of this week...
representatives from Irving Equipment Limited
and ROC Equipment will be transporting
massive amounts of heavy machinery,
including a 220-ton crane,
sections of ten-foot-wide steel casing,
and a 22-and-a-half-ton hammer grab
in order to excavate D-2
and hopefully solve the Oak Island mystery.
The speed and the pace of the work up there is gonna increase,
simply because of the volumes
- that we're dealing with, right? - That's right.
Last year, the five-foot can,
we were maybe extracting a yard of material.
Now we're gonna be pulling out almost five yards of material.
Gary, you know what your responsibilities are.
- Metal detect the entire thing. - Yeah.
- No small job. - MARTY: No.
I do have a concern that,
that we need to keep focus on the,
the zones of best interest.
If we could isolate, like in D-2,
from 70 to a little over 100 feet,
I think that would be very important.
Exactly.
JACK: I'm going off of what Craig
just said, and we're doing two
times as much... washing this year.
I'm wondering if everything's gonna be able
- to go through the plant? - RICK: It's all unknowns
- till we get into it. - Mm-hmm.
If we get behind,
- then we will adapt. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: As the team excavates borehole D-2,
the tons of earth-- or spoils--
Will be transported to an industrial-grade wash plant
near Smith's Cove.
There they will be carefully cleaned, sifted,
and sorted according to size,
then searched for any possible valuables.
Because of the scale of the work,
the most important issue is, as it always is,
- is safety, and... - Yeah.
There is one overriding concern and that
- is the Money Pit pad. - Right.
Billy's going to be entirely responsible
for the Money Pit pad and all the preparations
that need to be done
- before Irving moves in. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: Due to more than two centuries of digging and drilling
by generations of previous searchers,
the ground in the Money Pit area remains unstable
with the potential for dangerous cave-ins.
Therefore, before the dig can begin,
Billy Gerhardt, and his team
from Gerhardt Property Improvement,
will haul in more than 1,150 tons of fresh gravel
to not only ensure that the two and half acre area is level,
but also stable in order to support
all of the heavy machinery that is currently on its way
to the island.
BILLY: We have quite a bit of work to do to make sure
- that the Money Pit is stable. - Right.
But our success now depends on everybody.
- Yep. - Whatever needs to get done. - That's right.
- Yeah. - GARY: And what I want to know is,
where are we gonna store all the treasure?
(laughter)
MARTY: Okay... I think that wraps this one up.
Let's all get back out there and finish
whatever preparations need to be done.
- Yep. - This could be the year that we do find the treasure.
MARTY: Gold is what I'm hoping we find.
RICK: That'd be fantastic.
NARRATOR: Later that morning...
Got a little job to do here.
Gonna be quite a little job here, yep.
NARRATOR: while Billy Gerhardt and project manager
Scott Barlow supervise
the preparation of the Money Pit area...
BILLY: The Money Pit has to be strong enough to hold
a bigger can, bigger oscillator, bigger crane, bigger weight, right?
Yep.
TERRY: FTS-2 is underway.
FTS stands for "Flood Tunnel Search."
NARRATOR: just to the east on Lot 18,
- Terry. Brennan. - Hey, Alex. How are you?
NARRATOR: Alex Lagina joins geologist
Terry Matheson and members of the team
as they begin an operation that they hope will increase
the chances of success for their upcoming
Money Pit excavation.
TERRY: We've got quite a ways to go. We're only at 38 feet.
But this is the point at which we...
lost contact with solid ground
and dropped into a relative void in the previous hole.
CRAIG: Here's another one right here.
NARRATOR: Two weeks ago, while drilling into
a mysterious void on the eastern side of the Money Pit area
known as A-13...
the team made a curious discovery.
TERRY: It almost looks like grass,
Maybe eelgrass or something washing in.
NARRATOR: Eelgrass,
along with vast amounts of coconut fiber,
were discovered in 1850 at Smith's Cove,
acting as a filter for the legendary
two-foot by three-foot flood tunnel
believed to feed sea water into the Money Pit.
ALEX: How deep are we taking this?
- 120. - Okay.
NARRATOR: Now more than 170 years later,
after finding their own evidence of eelgrass,
the Oak Island team is drilling Borehole FTS-2
where previous searchers believed
the flood tunnel might be found at a depth
of nearly 120 feet.
Another sample is coming up shortly here.
- Seems pretty solid, eh? - Yeah.
NARRATOR: It is their hope,
that if they can penetrate
and compromise the tunnel,
it will cut off the flow of seawater into the Money Pit
and allow them to succeed
where so many before have failed,
giving them the ability to finally excavate
the original treasure shaft.
MARTY: Because we're drilling
rather near the Money Pit,
but between the Money Pit and Smith's Cove,
if we were to encounter a flood tunnel,
it would probably be near the point it entered the Money Pit.
So it looks to me like this could be significant
to help with our quest.
And where are we at, 48?
BRENNAN: 48 at the bottom of this.
This is...
relatively soft-ish and getting
into soft blue-gray till.
That means we might be
close to something.
If you're close to a structure, ofttimes
- we find that it gets quite soft, as you well know. - BRENNAN: Yeah, yeah.
I think we can be quite hopeful we're gonna encounter
the structure.
Time's gonna tell, I guess.
NARRATOR: As the drill operation continues on Lot 18...
RICK: This shovel's hungry.
It's hungry for top-pocket finds.
- Let's feed the beast. - Let's do it.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina and metal detection expert Gary Drayton
have arrived on Lot 32,
just west of the triangle-shaped swamp.
I like to call it, "The Giving Lot."
Every time we come back here, we find some coins and artifacts.
- All right, mate, let's see what we got. - I'm ready to go.
NARRATOR: Over the past two years,
the Laginas and their team have made a number
of incredible discoveries in the area,
including a lead cargo bag seal
that the team believes could be connected
to the Knights Templar...
ox shoes and also...
potential evidence of an ancient ship's wharf.
Okay, mate, first flag's here.
- It's a little bit rocky. - Yeah.
- Let's see what this one is. - (metal detector beeping)
I'm getting mixed signals.
But...
definitely enough signal there to dig.
- RICK: Seems a bit jumpy. - Yeah, it does.
RICK: Still in the hole.
Let's see if I can pinpoint it.
There it is! Oh, we know what that is.
- Your old friend. - Yep.
That is a broken ox shoe.
It's a fantastic find for this area.
You'd assume that you would find ox shoes in an area
where you think there's a wharf, there's been some unloading.
Maybe it broke because it was a heavy load.
Yeah, it seems thicker.
And it's heavy for its size.
- There's a lot of work in here to get you in, Gar. - Yeah, there is.
So the next flag's just over here, mate.
Let's see what this one sounds like.
(beeping)
Yeah, better.
Just there, mate.
Yeah, I'd rather take my time breaking stuff apart.
Whatever it is, it's out.
(whooping) Look at that!
NARRATOR: On Lot 32,
just west of the Oak Island swamp...
Rick Lagina and metal detection expert
Gary Drayton have just
made what could be an important discovery.
Ooh, a little copper piece.
- Copper or brass. - Yeah.
Ooh, it's got a little-- Am I seeing things
or is there a design on there?
I see what you're saying, yeah.
To me, when I look at it, it looks like "S" and "A."
GARY: Yeah. Kind of looks...
scripted, doesn't it?
NARRATOR: A copper artifact?
Possibly bearing part of an inscription?
Could it be a fragment of a container
or perhaps an adornment to an article of clothing?
And, if so, might it help identify
its original owner?
GARY: I like this, mate.
Because if there is any
cursive writing or any old-style
numbers, um, it would make it older
and probably date it to
- the other artifacts in this area. - Yep.
GARY: You can see by the look of it
that it's connected to all the other finds
that we've recovered in the same area.
Maybe there is a design on there.
Because I do, I see some kind of scripting on it.
There could be some kind of initials
on this piece, so we've got
to clean it up and hopefully glean
some information from this artifact.
Okay, mate, on to the next.
NARRATOR: As Rick and Gary continue
their search on Lot 32...
ADAM: 48!
- All right, thank you, Adam. - TERRY: Thank you.
NARRATOR: And while Alex Lagina and members of the team
continue drilling in search of the flood tunnel
near the Money Pit area...
later that day...
(Jared whoops)
JARED: You're good. You're good.
NARRATOR: representatives of Irving Equipment Limited
have arrived with the 220-ton
crane that will be used for the team's
Money Pit excavation.
RICK: It certainly raises the level of anticipation
and hope on the island when they come
across the causeway. We're all excited about it.
To see this big piece of gear, knowing that,
you know, maybe, finally, there might be some answers,
we can't do it without this.
SCOTT: There it is.
- I'm pretty anxious to see the first can go down. - Yep.
Don't get too anxious, it's gonna come fast enough.
BILLY: Yeah.
JARED: Pull straight in there.
That's it, buddy, come on!
NARRATOR: Although this is merely the first
of a total of 20 loads of digging equipment
- being transported from New Brunswick... - It's good!
in less than one week, it will enable Rick,
Marty, Craig and their team to conduct
the largest, most targeted dig ever attempted
to recover the treasure
people have sought for more than two centuries.
- Right here. - I don't know if you've got enough to pick it up.
MARTY: This is a big deal.
This takes a lot of moving parts
that have to work in concert with each other.
50% more spoils that have to be handled,
that have to be searched, that have to be washed,
that have to be metal detected.
That's a lot, 50% more.
- You're good! - Well, you've got your work cut out for you.
- Yep. Very good. - See you in a bit.
NARRATOR: While preparations continue in the Money Pit area...
later that afternoon...
GARY: We're having a good day so far, mate.
RICK: So far.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton
continue searching for clues on Lot 32.
This is the last flag I've got down here,
so hopefully this is a good one.
(beeping)
Another two-way repeatable signal.
That sounds like it's the center of the target, mate.
RICK: Okey-doke.
I think it's in the plug still.
Let's see if I can pinpoint it.
(whooping) Look at that!
- Ooh! - Is it? Is it?
- It is! - It's a coin, mate!
Sweet! Look at that, that's a beauty!
That is gonna have a design on it for sure.
RICK: Flip it over.
GARY: Oh... oh, Britannia!
That's "Britannia" sitting on the shield.
That's English.
Let's see if we can see a king.
I'm just gonna give it a light rub
with the soil.
We should be able to see a bust. Oh!
- Is that it? - RICK: There's something there.
GARY: There's definitely something there, mate.
The size of this, the thickness?
Feel the weight of that, mate.
- RICK: Oh, yeah. - That is a chunky piece of copper.
Yeah. That's very, very heavy.
GARY: That's an early one, mate.
RICK: Boy. That's in good shape, eh?
GARY: Yeah, that's fantastic.
- You think it's British? - Yeah, I do.
This so reminds me of the two British coins
that we found on the hillside.
That side of the swamp there.
GARY: Wow, look at that.
NARRATOR: In 2017, while searching just east
of the swamp on Lot 13...
Wow, David. You are lucky.
GARY: Oh, another one!
NARRATOR: Rick, Marty, Gary and Dave Blankenship
discovered two late 17th century British coins.
RICK: I see 1600-something.
MARTY: Looks like 1673.
GARY: Holy schmoly.
NARRATOR: The coins were impressive at the time
since they pre-dated the discovery of the Money Pit
by nearly a century.
- Yeah, I don't want to touch it too... - Brilliant!
We got another coin off of Lot 32.
Nice, old coin.
This well pre-dates the Money Pit.
NARRATOR: However, with the addition of this British coin
just recovered on Lot 32,
might they support a new theory
recently presented to the Oak Island team?
So Captain Andrew Belcher was intimately connected
to Sir William Phips.
NARRATOR: One week ago,
Freemason Scott Clarke met with members of the team
in the war room and shared his research, suggesting
that the 17th century English nobleman
Sir William Phips conspired with Freemason Alan Belcher
to hide a vast cache of silver
on Oak Island sometime after 1687.
GARY: You can see
- old-style writing around that. - I can see the...
I can see the writing more than I can see
- some sort of figure. - Yeah, yeah.
But, I tell you what, mate. Rick and Gary, shake and bake.
- Brilliant! - (Rick chuckles)
NARRATOR: Could Rick and Gary have found more evidence
that Scott Clarke's theory could be true?
And if so, could it also be connected
to the high levels of silver that the team has detected
and will soon attempt to recover in the Money Pit?
You know where this is going, even if it's in a bag.
It's going in the top pocket.
This is a top-pocket find.
RICK: The coin was a spectacular find,
just considering its condition.
It's well preserved, it's very heavy, you have to put it
into context-- the wharf,
other coins that have been found, the bag seal.
Um, Lot 32 is proving
to be a very interesting location.
Fantastic.
- What a day, mate! - (Rick laughing)
NARRATOR: Another morning has begun on Oak Island.
And as the drilling operation
continues on Lot 18...
Water's coming up.
- That's another good indication. - Yeah, exactly.
NARRATOR: and while more equipment crosses the causeway,
including the 22-and-a-half-ton hammer grab
that will be used one week from now
to excavate Borehole D-2 in the Money Pit area...
- MICHAEL J.: Hey, boys. - GARY: Hey, mate.
- PETER: Welcome to the party. - Thank you, thank you.
NARRATOR: metal detection expert Gary Drayton
and members of the team are conducting
one of their final searches for this year near the southern
edge of the triangle-shaped swamp.
GARY: The more eyes on this swamp muck,
the better. We need something
that is really... tells us that it's ship-related.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Over the course of this year...
despite new governmental regulations,
which greatly reduced the areas of the brackish bog
they could search, the team made a number
of compelling discoveries.
These included several pieces of believed ships' parts,
some dating to the late 17th century;
barrel staves in the southeast corner,
offering more evidence that potentially
valuable cargo was brought to the island.
And signs that the massive ship's wharf,
first discovered one year ago,
may not only be more than 500 years old,
but also of Portuguese origin.
GARY: All right, mate.
Let's get stuck in.
Come on, metal, where are ya?
NARRATOR: Unfortunately, because the team will need
a freshwater source to process the spoils
at the wash plant during the upcoming Money Pit
excavation, they have stopped running the pumps
that have kept the swamp drained.
However, as they await the completion
of preparations in the Money Pit area,
they are hoping to make as many
important discoveries as possible
before the bog, which is fed
by a spring, refills with water.
GARY: Not one piece of metal.
Hey, Gary?
What've you got, Michael?
What do you think?
GARY: That's definitely interesting.
That was out of the last bucket?
- Yes. - It looks like it's broken,
but this piece looks like it's shaped around there,
on purpose.
- DAVID F.: It's interesting. - PETER: Yeah.
Yeah. Very interesting.
It'll be interesting to see if we get this tested,
if it-it is the same date, or a similar date,
- to the ship's piece that we found last year. - Yeah.
Like my Uncle Rick always says,
and-and like Laird always says, I mean, it's about context.
Yeah, and that's a good point because they seem
to be one-offs, but we're finding more and more
irregular pieces of wood
that have been manipulated by man.
DAVID F.: If we can start linking them together,
that's where we can really start
to understand the story.
Yeah. We're finding more and more planking,
decking, or siding,
and shaped pieces of wood.
And I'm getting on board.
I really do think there's a ship in the swamp.
Very, very cool piece of wood.
Good eye, Michael. We'll put it to one side,
and one more for the pile.
- We'll find some more. - PETER: Yeah!
NARRATOR: While the effort to find important clues
continues in the swamp...
TERRY: All right.
Let's see if we can run into a tunnel, how about that?
- That'd be great. - Yeah, let's see what he's got here.
NARRATOR: Just east of the Money Pit on Lot 18,
geologist Terry Matheson, Alex Lagina,
and members of the team continue drilling
Borehole FTS-2 in the hopes
of intersecting the legendary flood tunnel.
Ah, what do we have here?
- ADAM: 88! - 88.
Oh!
We got some soft stuff, yeah.
Water's been at it.
Softening up like crazy, yeah.
Wow.
Very soft. Look at that.
We've got to be close
to some kind of an open structure
- with water in it. - Yeah.
TERRY: But no wood.
So we're not hitting that
same structure we hit in the Money Pit.
BRENNAN: So we technically should've hit it on...?
We should've. I would've thought
- we would've hit it, yes. - ALEX: If not this one,
- then the next one. - TERRY: Yeah.
- If not then, then we're just gonna cut it off. - Okay.
We have an indication possibly
that we're really close to a man-made tunnel
that filled with water.
And for us, that could be great,
because it could be the flood tunnel.
107!
ALEX: If we could hit this structure down there,
it is possible that we could block
all the flooding and everything.
So we're pretty excited about this.
(machinery whirring)
(sputtering)
Oh, oh, oh! What's that?
What's that? What's that?
Is that wood?
Looks like it.
Looks like we've got something, boys.
Really?
Maybe. Let's have a look.
- BRENNAN: What do we got? - 107.
Here we go, guys.
Swing into action.
Yep.
Nice wood here, guys.
- Oh, yeah, wood? - TERRY: There it is!
TERRY: There it is. Oh, smell that.
Smells like pine was cut yesterday.
NARRATOR: Just east of the Money Pit on Lot 18,
Alex Lagina and members of the team
believe they have made a potentially critical discovery.
- The aroma. - Yeah, it does smell like pine,
- doesn't it? Yeah. - You smell it?
NARRATOR: The legendary flood tunnel
that has thwarted all previous treasure hunters
who attempted to excavate the original treasure shaft.
- What's the approximate depth of that? - That's about 106.
ALEX: But isn't that kind of weird? I mean,
- look at the transition between there. - Oh, it's night and day.
TERRY: Interesting.
So below this maroon till,
we get into, somebody...
dug a little structure in place there for us.
BRENNAN: Yeah, it's cut on the bottom.
- ALEX: Yeah. - TERRY: So it is.
That almost looks like it was hit with an adze,
which would say "quite old."
BRENNAN: Yep.
NARRATOR: The possible tunnel?
Featuring evidence that an adze was used to construct it?
Earlier this year, the team discovered
one of these cutting tools on Lot 4,
located on the western side of the island.
One which blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge
believed was not only of British origin,
but also dated back to the late 17th century.
Is it possible that the team
has now found one of the features
that the adze was used to construct?
Is this the top of the tunnel?
Well, I'm thinking this is probably the top
and this is the bottom.
It's hard to say.
Yeah, I'd buy that. Yeah, they're not falling apart.
- Yep, and they're separated, clean. - Yep.
BRENNAN: I wonder if that was dry.
I wonder if there's water in the hole.
Well, this is what we're hoping. You could imagine
maybe they were a little bit akimbo to one another
and you might have some area for water to move through.
ALEX: I think it was, I think it was like this down there.
I think the water is just in here.
- I think it was open. - TERRY: Yes.
Well, I think we should call Rick, see what he thinks.
TERRY: Absolutely. He'd be interested in that.
Uncle Rick. Hey, we're up here
on the drill table and... we have hit the wood.
In this area, there's the legend of the flood tunnel and...
it's possible part of it had beams
and it's possible it's collapsed.
So we really need to get the carbon date from this wood
and learn what we can from this hole.
- Hey, guys. - MARTY: Hey, fellas.
- ALEX: We got wood! - TERRY: Feast your eyes, gentlemen.
ALEX: Hopefully from today's data
we'll be able to project
a direction for what we think is a tunnel.
TERRY: Hello, Rick!
- Hey, guys. - RICK: Good morning. - Hey.
- What's up? - How you doing? Hey, Dan.
- Right there. - STEVE G.: Hey, Dan. - Well, we got a...
Feast your eyes.
A miracle happens on Oak Island every now and then.
There it is.
Well, it came out like this.
Kind of two separate chunks.
And this was at the end of the run, about 106 feet.
RICK: What are the implications of this?
TERRY: I'm really quite certain that we've come down
through just saturated and loose material
into wood at the bottom.
And the only thing usually that will give us that
is a tunnel and we've intersected that.
I would bet we had a lot of water movement
in and around that open space
between those two blocks of wood.
Great.
(chuckles) It doesn't get any better than that.
Dan, you have more years here
- than all of us combined. - Yeah.
What do you make of that find?
Well, allowing for the elevation
where they tunneled probably from Smith's Cove.
That could be very close to the original
flooding tunnel that they discovered.
Well, if carbon dating should come up with that
very tight window of 1600s,
then I'd say that that's
definitively the original works.
Yep.
RICK: That's what that says to me because
there's only so much information you can glean from what's
been done in the past, right?
We have to think about how this affects us moving forward.
NARRATOR: If the team is correct
that they have, in fact,
drilled through the legendary flood tunnel,
and perhaps compromised its integrity and function,
it will hopefully mean that they have removed
one major obstacle that has thwarted the efforts
of everyone who came before them in the quest
to recover a potentially priceless treasure.
RICK: It was inferred that this might be
a very small tunnel in terms of height.
That's interesting because of the old description
of the so-called flood tunnel, was two foot by three foot,
and this certainly is no bigger than that.
That's important because it may have some impact
in terms of our caisson placement for the year.
Yeah, if it's depositor, great.
- That's right. - ALEX: At the end of the day,
- it just tells us where else to go. - STEVE G.: That's right.
It would be fantastic if we can chase it
to the Money Pit and it gives us
a direct line to where we need to be.
Everything is good information
- for us. - RICK: Oh, absolutely.
Here's hoping.
All right, thanks, everybody.
TERRY: See you later.
NARRATOR: Two days later,
as heavy equipment continues
to arrive on Oak Island for the upcoming
excavation of the Money Pit...
MARTY: It's results time, gentlemen, which is always fun.
Um, we have some results
on this particular piece right here.
NARRATOR: brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
along with their partner Craig Tester
gather with other members of the team in the war room.
It was found near the ship's rail.
- Yeah. - MARTY: Interesting piece of wood.
- You spotted it as different. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: After the recent discovery
near the southern border of the swamp
of a believed piece of ship's deck planking,
they have just received
an expedited carbon-dating report.
I'm gonna turn it over to Billy to describe where it came from.
- So go ahead, Billy. - That was, uh...
(clears throat) pretty close to the ship's rail.
I'd say...
probably 30 feet, you know, from it, it was in that general area.
And our immediate reaction was, hey, it looked like, weren't
sure, looked like the tip of an oar, maybe, but...
Are you certain that's...
shaped?
- It's a really thin piece of wood, so... - Mm-hmm.
And it just looks like the ends were tapered.
Craig has C-14 results on it.
This one's interesting. I mean, it...
it seems to have a fairly uniform
height and thickness.
Um, just got this information back in.
One time frame.
224 to 376 AD.
ALEX: Wow!
So old, old, old.
NARRATOR: In the war room, Craig Tes
has just informed the team
that a plank of wood retrieved three days ago
from the southern edge of the swamp
could be as much as 2,000 years old.
It tells a completely different story.
- Yeah. - That doesn't match anything else that we have.
- No. - JACK: All right, but here's the question though.
How is this wood related to the treasure?
ALEX: I don't know. I don't know,
- the date is so early. - MARTY: Yeah, I know. You've got
to come up with a convoluted answer because
- of the date's so weird. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: After the Money Pit was first
discovered in 1795,
one of the most common theories among searchers
was that whatever may lie buried in the treasure shaft
must be related to either 17th
or 18th century pirates
due to the fact that European pirates
from Spain, England, France
and Portugal had frequently been known
to sail through the waters of the North Atlantic.
However, over the course of the last decade,
Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
have found numerous artifacts and man-made workings
from every era between the 12th
and 18th centuries.
-Here's another piece of it! Look at that! -Look at that.
NARRATOR: Until now, the most perplexing discovery
was a piece of ship's railing also discovered
near the southern border of the swamp one year ago
that was dated to as early as 660 AD.
Could this believed fragment of ship planking
mean that the origins of this mystery go back
even further than anyone ever imagined?
- CRAIG: Everybody thought that was man worked. - Yeah...
We don't know what part of the tree this came from.
So if it was the inner part of a tree,
then it could put in the ship's
time period, which is around 600.
So both of them are super early.
- Yeah. - MARTY: I'm always saying, "Well,
show me some data."
Because otherwise I'm not gonna believe it.
And then I get the data, still don't believe it.
(laughter)
What's the probability... 95?
CRAIG: Yeah, a 95.4%.
MARTY: Whew.
I don't know what to do with that.
The swamp just keeps giving up answers
and more mysteries.
It's come up with some very amazing, tantalizing,
inexplicable, but significant clues.
And that's one of the real curses of Oak Island
is that you can't rule out almost anything.
Craig, don't you dare, ever,
bring another time period in here.
(laughter)
- We've got plenty. - STEVE G.: Just because the date
doesn't fit doesn't mean it wasn't used at a later date.
No, wood, wood kept dry does last basically forever.
So that doesn't mean it couldn't be
related to something else we've found-- let's use
the ship's railing. What are they, 300 to 400 years apart?
They could be related. They're just from different trees.
There's certain species that can last forever.
- Yeah. - DAN H.: The basic rule is
do some more analysis, wider range
of investigations, and see if you, uh, first of all,
can identify the wood-- What plant, what continent
it came from. Maybe a region, you know.
This is just step one.
My thought would be a species I.D.
Right.
NARRATOR: Although the team has had
great success this year
working with Nova Scotia
and Florida-based institutions
for certain testing such as carbon dating
and elemental analysis,
due to the ongoing global pandemic,
it will be several months before they are
able to test numerous wooden artifacts discovered this year
for possible species and country of origin,
which they intend to do at the University of Alaska.
All of this work comes about because we are
on a quest, if you will, to find answers
to a-a very one-of-a-kind mystery.
And, uh, that is, you know, what happened here on Oak Island.
But at the end of the day,
these dates indicated a period of time that is
decidedly and distinctly different.
The next step is to see if it's out of place on the island.
Is it native to the area?
If it's not, then how did it get here?
We can find the species,
and at least where it came from.
If it was from Europe or not.
That would make a big difference.
STEVE G.: We test the species
and we see if it's a wood that can last a long time,
especially a wood... typically used on a ship,
and that's really the first step from here.
- RICK: Mm-hmm. - Well, look-look, gentlemen,
this is informational only. I mean,
let's check for species,
let's redo the carbon-14 test and
- we can decide what, what next to do. - RICK: Yep.
Because I don't need any more mysteries.
(laughter)
So we will assemble again when we have more data.
ALEX: Okay.
- (horn honks) - (brakes squeal)
NARRATOR: Following the team's
astonishing meeting in the war room...
Well, guys, it's a beautiful day here in the Money Pit.
- It's a big day for us. - Yeah.
It's exciting. I mean, these are the biggest cans
- we've ever put down. - Yep.
BILLY: Here comes Rick and Marty.
NARRATOR: Rick, Marty, and members of the team
gather in the Money Pit area as the massive sections
of ten-foot-wide steel caissons
that will be used to excavate
Borehole D-2 have finally arrived on the island.
We're ready to find some gold!
There you go. That's the spirit!
We got a bigger shovel this year.
Yeah. I see that. That's a dandy, isn't it?
RICK: That's remarkable.
So what do you think?
Will this happen?
The amount of material
that we're gonna be moving,
we have, we've got a really fantastic chance
this year of holding a lot of things
in our hands. Not just the one thing.
The testing said there's gold down there.
- Yep. - Sourced from where, I don't know.
There's silver down there. Sourced from where,
I don't know. Statistically, it's a pretty big shot.
I know it's there. I know it's there. You just got to find it.
- Yeah. - RICK: Everything points
to something coming up out of there that will prove
the Oak Island mystery. Will all the answers come up?
I don't know. None of us know that.
Will proof come up?
That's all that matters to me. It's a very simple goal.
Find one piece of irrefutable evidence underground,
- deep underground. - With all the data,
-all the results from all the testing, -Yeah.
- This is the year! - MARTY: Let's go!
- Yeah. - (laughter)
- CHARLES: Here they come. - All right, here they come.
Here we go.
GARY: Wow!
- Look at the size of that can. - (Marty whoops)
RICK: When the caissons come across the causeway,
you know, there's some excitement in the air.
It's palpable, certainly. I mean...
it's not just the caissons, of course.
It's always about the people.
So it's great
to welcome back old friends.
- MARTY: Hey, Vanessa! - Hey, hey!
NARRATOR: Arriving back
on the island to once again supervise the dig
are ROC Equipment's owner Vanessa Lucido
and her heavy equipment operators Danny Smith
and Jared Busby.
They are joined by Michel Ouellette
and Andrew Beaulieu representing Irving Equipment Limited.
VANESSA: Y'all see this coming in right now?
Are you ready for this?
We're ready for this.
VANESSA: This isn't small cans.
- No. Wow. - VANESSA: Yeah.
We're gonna find it this year, right?
This year is the year.
VANESSA: I'm excited!
We're ready. (laughs)
MARTY: No, this is gonna be fun, it's gonna be exciting.
Uh, it's gonna be a lot of work.
You've seen the spoils come out from the littler ones.
Yeah, it'll be quite a bit more.
VANESSA: We know we can't do this without disturbing the ground,
but the grab operation is gonna be the less destructive.
Because you're gonna be encapsulating things
- rather than breaking them, right? - Yeah.
So we're gonna get like five cubic yards
with this grab, so a lot bigger.
NARRATOR: Once all of the equipment is in place over Borehole D-2
and the dig begins in the coming days,
the ten-foot-diameter caissons will allow
the 22-and-a-half-ton hammer grab to remove
as much as 11,000 pounds of earth per scoop.
That means that if Borehole D-2
is on target above the fabled Chappell Vault,
buried more than 150 feet underground,
the team could potentially recover it whole.
MARTY: We're gonna have a lot of investigative volume
in the Money Pit. Pretty exciting.
And here's what's very clear.
It's time to change our focus from the information hunt
all over the island to digging up
and beginning the treasure hunt,
the actual treasure hunt up at the Money Pit.
Do you know why we're so driven this year?
- I have no, no clue. - MARTY: Yeah, I'll tell her.
There is definitely, for sure, completely,
- without a doubt... - Based on science.
based on science, with no possibility of error,
gold down there.
- There is! - (laughing): That's cool!
(laughter)
- Well, I'm glad you went big. - RICK: So are we.
- We really couldn't do it without you, so... - That's for sure.
Well, team's here. We're ready.
MARTY: Okay. I think we've done enough
talking-- why don't we get this stuff unloaded?
- Let's do it. - MARTY: All right.
- Very good. - Come on, we'll meet down there.
NARRATOR: The months of waiting are now over.
The dig is about to begin.
And for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team,
the dream they have shared, to solve
a 227-year-old mystery,
may soon be fulfilled.
But as they reach into the underground depths
that have left so many before them vanquished,
what will they ultimately find?
Spanish silver and gold?
Priceless treasures connected to the Knights Templar?
Perhaps it will include them all...
and much, much more.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
This was a really early bag seal.
- TE, Treasury of England. - How about that!
RICK: The new premier of Nova Scotia is coming for a visit.
- Let's go find the treasure. - Get your shovels.
VANESSA: We've got an oscillator here.
Y'all are finally going big.
- ANDREW B.: Here we are now. - RICK: Wow.
- It looks like a battleship. - (laughs)
MARTY: Okay, let's make hole.
Let's find it! It's exciting.
It's probably the highest expectation
I've ever had because the physical presence of gold.