NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
This was a really early bag seal.
T.E., 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.
- (horn honks) - VANESSA: We got an oscillator here.
Y'all are finally going big.
- ANDREW: Here we are now. - RICK: Wow.
- It looks like a battleship. - (laughs)
RICK: Okay, let's make hole.
- Let's find it. - It's exciting.
Probably the highest expectation
I've ever had because the physical presence of gold.
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.
♪ ♪
DANNY: Just bring 'em on up.
MICHEL: Yep!
VANESSA: Are we good?
ANDREW: We're good!
Come on, pull.
Straighten it out.
Watch the other hook there, bud.
NARRATOR: Another exciting day has begun on Oak Island
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
and the members of their team as they prepare
for the most ambitious excavation ever conducted
in the fabled Money Pit,
in the hopes of finally solving
a 227-year-old mystery.
We're good right there, huh?
Good?
NARRATOR: While truckloads
of industrial digging equipment
will continue arriving on the island this week...
Yeah, just the bolt bin and the casing.
Vanessa Lucido of ROC Equipment
and Andrew Beaulieu of Irving Equipment Limited...
- Up. - are overseeing the preparation
of the ten-foot-wide sections of steel caissons
that will be used to dig up to four new massive shafts
across the Money Pit area--
Shafts where vast amounts of both silver and gold
have recently been detected through water tests
in previously drilled boreholes.
DANNY: You got to boom down a little bit.
MARTY: We're about to start
with the big ten-foot caissons in the Money Pit area,
but this is gonna be the most challenging because
we've done eight-foot caissons before.
These are ten.
That doesn't sound like that big a difference,
but it's 50% more per caisson.
50% more spoils to go through.
That's a lot.
So I'm hopeful
that this time we're gonna find some treasure.
Looks good.
For 227 years, people have sought a treasure
in the Money Pit on Oak Island.
Now we have hard evidence that there's gold
at depth in the Money Pit.
That's why I think a ten-foot can is very important--
Because it will encompass a large part of that area.
How long's the oscillator?
Well, so, the oscillator is 35 feet.
- Perfect. - Yeah.
- Slightly oversized. - Yep.
NARRATOR: When the 58-ton rotating oscillator arrives next week,
which is needed to drive the caissons into the ground,
the Laginas and their team
will begin excavating Borehole D-2--
A borehole where, following their promising water tests,
they unearthed metal objects containing gold
at a depth of some 90 feet,
as well as evidence of a man-made tunnel
dating as far back as the 15th century.
- VANESSA: Ready? - MICHEL: Good.
MARTY: We're gonna dig D-2 first because...
you just add it all up.
You have carbon dating
verified of very ancient wood.
You've got pieces of metal with, absolutely, gold bits on them.
So, the caisson that's going down over D-2
is really going down to perhaps recover the treasure itself.
VANESSA: Is that gonna be good with his boom angle?
- DANNY: Yeah. - VANESSA: Okay.
NARRATOR: While representatives from ROC Equipment
and Irving Equipment Limited
continue with preparations in the Money Pit...
- MARTY: Billy. - CRAIG: Hey, Billy.
BILLY: Hey.
RICK: Pull up a seat.
NARRATOR: Rick and Marty,
along with their partner Craig Tester--
Who is joining them via videoconference--
Have gathered at the request of Billy Gerhardt in the war room.
Well...
as you know, um,
we've had a recent election,
so there's been a change in leadership.
Just wanted to let you know that I was able to secure
a meeting with our new premier, uh, Tim Houston.
The premier is essentially,
in our type of legislative system,
the same as your governor.
- (laughs) That is unbelievable. - Wow.
- BILLY: Yeah.
MARTY: That's as high as it gets in the province.
That's as high as it gets in Nova Scotia.
He is directly responsible for
CCH, archaeology, environment, lands and forestry--
All the departments that Oak Island has basically dealt with.
That's fantastic.
And I've explained to him strongly
that I feel that Oak Island has done a lot for our area
and offers a lot of good things, and that if he'd like to come
and take a tour, and then we would like
to tell him a few issues that we have.
- Look forward to it. - CRAIG: Yeah.
That's amazing.
Wow.
- LIZ: What you got? - LAIRD: I have a piece of pottery.
LIZ: Okay.
NARRATOR: Earlier this year,
just after unearthing a mysterious cobblestone pathway
in the southeastern corner of the swamp,
which appeared to be leading toward the Money Pit,
archaeologist Laird Niven
discovered several pieces of indigenous Mi'kmaq pottery
potentially dating back 500 years or more.
You know what the discussion is related to,
the archaeological work.
NARRATOR: The discoveries,
while not believed to have been associated
with the construction of the feature,
led to a shocking mandate from the government of Nova Scotia.
Basically, Acadia First Nation
got hold of Community, Culture and Heritage.
And the archaeologists asked that we stop down...
where we were finding the artifacts.
I see.
NARRATOR: The order from the Department
of Community, Culture and Heritage
not only restricted the investigation
of a key area in the swamp...
STEVE G.: We need special permission to be inside of the red.
but also instituted new permit requirements for any digs
that the team wishes to conduct outside of the Money Pit area.
Our ability to work, function on our own island
is getting eroded in leaps and bounds.
God, that's great, Billy. And he's willing to come here?
Yeah, our legislature is soon going back in,
so he'd like to come tomorrow.
- (chuckles) - Wow.
Uh, really and truthfully?
That's great, Billy.
Well done, Billy.
Well connected. (chuckles) No, nice job, Billy.
- I don't know about that, but... - MARTY: No, nice job.
Seriously. It just doesn't have much downside,
because we're proud of what we're doing here.
There's n... there's nothing negative
to talk about, really,
except that we need a little help with moving forward.
We do have some regulatory issues.
We do have some difficulties with the search this year,
and perhaps we can express these concerns with the premier,
and we can enter into a dialogue with the, uh, powers that be.
I'm sure, I'm sure he'll have the ability
to listen to your issues and then bring them forward
to the right parties who can implement change.
- MARTY: That's a good point. - So...
I think his... merely his presence here,
his willingness to engage exemplifies
who he is as a leader, and I-I applaud him for it.
- And I'm grateful that he's going to come visit. - MARTY: Yeah.
Well, excellent job, Billy. Much appreciated.
- Yeah. - We'll make ourselves available for sure.
- Make it so. - Yeah.
CRAIG: Great, Billy. Appreciate it.
MARTY: Well done.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
DANNY: Just come up a little bit.
while preparations continue
in the Money Pit area...
GARY: Right, last day, guys.
I think positive.
I believe it was a heck of a lot of treasure
unloaded in this area.
NARRATOR: At the southernmost edge of the swamp,
Billy Gerhardt has joined
metal detection expert Gary Drayton
and other members of the team
to conduct their final search of the year in the brackish bog.
So, this is the last day we can dig in the swamp,
because we're gonna need the water in the swamp
to use on the wash table up at the Money Pit.
- Mm-hmm. - Basically, it's a trade-off.
We're going from looking for the ship
to looking for the treasure.
We need to put that thing to work,
and we need to find some metals.
Yep. Well, we got one more day.
One more shot at it.
- So let's get to it. - Okay.
NARRATOR: This year, the team has made
a number of compelling discoveries in the swamp,
including more evidence of a stone wharf
and numerous pieces of massive sailing vessels.
However, because they will need a freshwater source
to wash the tons of spoils
that will soon be excavated from the Money Pit...
All right, looks like Billy's gonna be dumping spoils here.
they have stopped running the pumps
that have kept the swamp drained for the last three months.
It's bittersweet, uh, to have to stop in the swamp.
Uh, it's-it's good, it's done,
it's, you know, we've-we've done a good job,
but it's not concluded.
It'd be better if we had more time
to continue digging in the swamp.
- DAVID F.: Find anything good? - GARY: No, not yet.
MARTY: But it's time to refocus.
It's time to start
the massive excavation up at the Money Pit.
DAVID F.: Ooh. That reeks.
- MICHAEL J.: Yeah. - GARY: Yeah.
- You ready? - DAVID F.: Yes.
GARY: Let's find some good stuff.
MICHAEL J.: It is mucky.
GARY: Come on, I know you're hiding in here somewhere.
What the heck is this?
Hey.
Look at that.
Wow.
GARY: Hey, look at that.
Well, it's definitely been shaped.
NARRATOR: At the southern border of the Oak Island swamp,
Gary Drayton, along with Billy Gerhardt
and members of the team,
have just recovered another potentially important clue.
PETER: Do you think it's modern, or it's...?
It's tough to tell.
I mean, it has been in the swamp.
It's well-preserved.
It looks like an handle to a tool.
PETER: Mm-hmm.
I mean, it is a small, little tool.
Maybe it was a, like, a ship's wheel.
NARRATOR: A wooden handle?
Potentially related to a ship?
It served a unique purpose, by the look of it.
- Yeah. - GARY: Yeah, first find from the first scoop.
- It's gonna be a good day. - PETER: Yeah.
We'll set it aside.
- GARY: I'll put it in my pouch. - Good find.
GARY: Let's get out.
RICK: The swamp just keeps giving
and giving and giving.
I've long believed that
there is some information in the body of the swamp
that will help us further the search agenda.
I don't know that there's treasure in the swamp.
I don't know that there are all the answers in the swamp.
But I do believe that there's reason to pursue
a search agenda to try to understand what the swamp
may mean in terms of understanding this mystery.
GARY: This is the scoop.
Here we go.
Whoa, look at that stake here.
- PETER: Yeah. - GARY: That's massive.
That is one big wooden stake, isn't it?
Look at that.
I mean, look at that.
You can see that that's been axe-cut.
I would a-assume that if it was more modern,
it would have been sawed.
Can you put that to one side, please?
I'll grab it.
There's a lot of stuff in this.
A little piece of planking.
It's the same thickness as all the other pieces of planking
or decking that we've found.
Wow.
There's a lot of wood coming out of this hole.
That's brilliant.
Keep that to the side.
All right, I'll get out of here.
NARRATOR: Could all of the mounting evidence
that the team has unearthed suggest--
As the late landowner and treasure hunter
Fred Nolan believed--
That an ancient sailing vessel
really does lie buried in the swamp?
And, if so, could it explain the 200-foot-long object
that was detected by seismic scanning back in 2018?
GARY: Hey, mate.
I want to know what you found, Gary.
What have you found?
Yeah, we got off to a good start.
- Do you want to show Marty? - PETER: Yep.
Cheers.
So, this is the three pieces. I mean...
- A couple of stakes. - A couple of stakes.
And then this piece,
- which could be... Yeah. - That's a shaped piece of wood, yeah.
I mean, there could be an entire ship,
if it's spread out like this.
Yeah.
The wood that comes out of the swamp
is-is pretty interesting because it seems to be out of place.
We're getting pieces of wood that just don't seem like
they should be in the swamp, so we'll track it down,
we'll get C-14, we'll have experts look at it.
Because much as I don't like digging in the swamp,
some of the things that were coming up
could have been clues to what in the heck happened here.
- I guess, guys, this is our sort of last hurrah here. - Yeah.
You look at this swamp,
and what did we just dig, two percent of it, maybe?
-DAVID F.: Yeah. -PETER: Maybe, yeah. And you think about
what we found, it's... from eyesight,
and we're digging through muck, how much more stuff we missed.
- Yeah, of course you missed stuff, yeah. - Yeah.
But, hey, we got some of its secrets.
- Yup. - But for now,
we need to let it fill back up
'cause we're gonna need the water at the wash plant.
Well, guys, you done a great job.
And we're not giving up on this swamp.
We'll finish up here, and then we'll go up there
and find the real treasure.
I want yellow, shiny metal.
(laughter)
NARRATOR: The following morning...
Yeah, yeah, you're good to go.
as preparations continue for the team's
upcoming excavation in the Money Pit...
outside the archaeology trailer,
Rick and Marty Lagina, along with Billy Gerhardt,
welcome two very special guests to Oak Island.
Welcome to Oak Island.
How are you? Happy to be here.
Welcome, Mr. Premier.
NARRATOR: Tim Houston, the newly-elected premier
of Nova Scotia, and his wife Carol.
- This is my wife Carol. - Hi, Carol. I'm Marty.
- Hi! Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you. Pleasure.
NARRATOR: They have come at the request
of their friend Billy Gerhardt to discuss
how Premier Houston may be able to offer assistance
with the search restrictions that were recently imposed
by the Department of Community, Culture and Heritage.
- You've made some progress. - Well, we think so.
And we'd actually like to show you a bit of that.
- Yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to. - Fantastic.
- Let's go find the treasure. - MARTY: Yeah, let's...
- Get your shovels. - (laughter)
RICK: This is a real big deal for us.
You're talking to the premier of Nova Scotia.
He's willing to take time
out of his busy day to come visit the island.
- Okay. Yep. - Onwards and upwards! - Yay!
RICK: What I hope to come of this meeting is
that the premier will listen to our perspective of our issues,
our concerns, how do we cooperate
with the regulatory agencies to-to make it beneficial
for all parties involved.
- MARTY: Here's the famous swamp. - CAROL: Yes.
MARTY: You know, the stinky swamp.
This is kind of an amazing thing right here.
So, this is the stone road, a very big find.
Completely underwater. I mean, what you see there,
that was completely invisible.
And yet somebody built a stone road,
- a very structurally-sound stone road. - CAROL: Very.
And when right there is upland...
- CAROL: Yeah. - there'd be no reason to do this
- unless you wanted to hide it. - What's the purpose of that?
- Yeah. - MARTY: What's the purpose?
And why build it through a swamp
- when it's right there? - Yeah.
CAROL: That's a significant road.
- BILLY: Oh, yes. - TIM: Absolutely.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It's really fascinating.
- CAROL: It's fascinating. - TIM: Yeah, yeah.
BILLY: This is only part of it.
It goes along the swamp 580 feet.
- 580 feet? - Now, we don't really know
where it starts and where it begins,
but with permitting, we-we couldn't look.
MARTY: Right here is the off-limits area
right now, which doesn't seem...
- So, you can't do any other work here right now? - We can't do anything here.
- No. Uh... - TIM: Really?
MARTY: Right over here is where we found
some First Nations stuff--
I mean, to get to one of the issues--
And ended up just sort of, more or less, immediately,
with a 40-meter-radius "don't touch" spot around it.
Which, I mean, 40 meters
- is a pretty big radius. - It's pretty significant.
- Yeah. - Th-There's also a problem with,
you know, we're-we're not citizens here.
So we're just trying to do everything as right
- as we possibly can, you know? - As right as you can.
Because we don't-- We-we know we have to be
better than, than the norm, whatever.
You're-you're already holding yourselves
to a very high standard.
We're-- But we got to. We have to. We get that.
This is important because we are getting to be
highly noticed and highly regulated.
And we want to do the right thing.
We always have.
We want to follow the law.
I'm a perpetual optimist.
I-I think there'll be a-a reasonable outcome.
Would you like to see the Money Pit?
- I would love that. - You would like to see it?
- I would love that. - Well, then, we're doing it.
(laughter)
MARTY: Yeah, let's get to the fun stuff here.
MARTY: This is the fabled Money Pit, which looks
- way different than when Rick and I first got here. - It does.
(both laugh)
NARRATOR: Following their tour
of the Oak Island swamp,
Rick, Marty and members of the team
arrive at the Money Pit area
with the newly elected premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston,
and his wife Carol.
- CAROL: Wow. - MARTY: Those are something, aren't they?
- (laughter) - TIM: A little big.
MARTY: We've got enough to go 180 feet here this year.
And we're pretty excited about what we might bring up.
- CAROL: Yeah? - TIM: Yeah? - This is Vanessa.
- She runs all this giant stuff. - Hi. - TIM: Hi. Tim Houston.
- BOTH: Nice to meet you. - MARTY: This is Carol Houston.
- Pleasure to meet you. - Nice to meet you guys.
Quite a buzz around the next, uh, phase of the operation.
VANESSA: There is, right? All of our casings are here now.
So we'll be here to hopefully help them
- uncover some history. - Yeah, I hope so.
So this should be a piece of cake for you, then, right?
- This is gonna be easy... - Except Oak Island...
- It is Oak Island. Yeah. - always-always throws its hook at you.
MARTY: Premier Houston, I think,
is suitably impressed with the scale of our operation here.
And being able to talk
to the-the new premier is wonderful.
He gets a sense of what we're doing.
We get a sense of his philosophy.
But if even once we can get through to him
and say, "Look, we have a real issue, could you help us,"
that's what's gonna be the most valuable today.
It would be so much easier to reconcile the issues
that we are now under or contending with,
if we felt that we had done something wrong.
- Yeah. - That you missed something, a mistake... whatever, right?
- Yeah. - In fact, we've exceeded,
by magnitudes, everything.
I mean, we have done everything that we felt was necessary,
- and thus the oversight is... - MARTY: Right, and to prove it,
I could say that I haven't always agreed
- with Laird's decisions. - (laughter)
LAIRD: I read a quote once, but--
"If you have everybody angry at you,
you must be doing something right."
- (laughter) - Something right, yeah.
TIM: I think the thing is,
is that there's no shortcuts in life.
That's the lesson that this, that this drives home.
And there's none being taken here on this project.
And anything that's worth doing is worth doing right.
- Agreed. - And, uh, you guys
- are doing it right. - We're trying very hard.
Yeah. I feel that way.
It's always a balance, right?
It's a, it's a balance, and-and it's-it's making sure
that you don't have, on one side of the equation,
"Well, we have to be, you know, we have to be cautious
and respectful," and all that stuff,
but that can't go so far that common sense is lost.
So the things that you're-you're talking about,
I can see both sides of it.
But now the job is to find the common sense
that is that respectful balance, and-and, you know,
I'm hopeful that-that that can be found.
And I think there's a, there-there's a will
to find that balance and that common sense.
And I think when people start talking...
- Yes. - and listening to each other
and learning from each other
- and understand the concerns... - Yeah.
that's when you'll find the balance.
And-and that's what I'd be an advocate for.
MARTY: I think
Premier Houston's reaction
to what we're saying is very favorable.
I think he very much understands what we need to function here,
and is willing to try and bring
the right parties together to resolve
these sort of no-dig areas.
NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty, Craig and the team,
this meeting could not come at a more critical time.
As they prepare to excavate up to four ten-foot-wide shafts
in the Money Pit, their hope is to find
what their treasure trove license
entitles them to recover.
However, if they should happen to unearth something
similar to what caused the restrictions in the swamp,
the entire effort to solve the Oak Island mystery
could be in jeopardy.
It's a big thing that's happening here,
and I think it's gonna have a happy ending.
- I hope so. - (laughter)
MARTY: Okay. Well, thank you for coming.
TIM: Thank you. Thank you, guys.
Laird, thank you.
NARRATOR: As Rick, Marty and members of the team
conclude their meeting with Premier Tim Houston
and his wife Carol...
ALEX: Looks a little different.
Yep. It's all been cleared.
NARRATOR: just west of the swamp, Gary Drayton,
along with Marty's son Alex Lagina,
are hoping to find both clues and valuables on Lot 32.
Okay, so how has this been working this year?
It's been working absolutely fantastic, mate.
- Mm-hmm. - This has turned into a really hot little area
with all the artifacts.
I brought all my positive energy today,
- so let's see if that works. - All right, mate.
- But let's get started. - Okay.
- All right, mate. First one up. - (clears throat)
GARY: What have we got here?
NARRATOR: Over the past two years...
Look at the size of that.
Lot 32 has produced
some of the most promising discoveries
for Rick, Marty and the team.
In addition to evidence of a ship's wharf on the beach,
they have also found ox shoes, suggesting an operation
to move cargo onto the island,
British coins and military buttons,
and even a lead bag seal
that archaeologist Laird Niven believes
could date back 300 years or more.
Lot 32, I mean, you can't deny the artifacts that we found
are very old and they're hard to explain.
The bag seal, lots of coins, lots of old stuff.
And so, we're really excited.
It's, uh, a great place to go back with the metal detector.
- Let's see what this sounds like. - (beeping)
- It's just there, mate. - Okay.
GARY: I was hoping it was maybe an ox shoe.
- Could be. - That would be great.
Especially if we believe there is a wharf here, mate,
and there was loading and unloading in this area.
(beeping)
- Pretty big. - Um...
it could be.
- Nope. - Maybe not.
GARY: It's not an ox shoe...
- No? - but it is a square ox shoe nail.
- ALEX: Oh, yeah? - No mistaking that.
- ALEX: Yep. - And I believe Michael John
and I recovered an ox shoe just up the hill there.
- So that might have fallen out of it. - Yep.
GARY: Someone was using oxes in this area.
- And this ain't farmland. - No.
So, more than likely, something to do with hauling,
- especially connected to that wharf. - Mm-hmm.
GARY: This is a nice ox shoe nail.
It's in great condition,
but it's out of place,
because this wasn't farmland, which begs the question,
what were people hauling in this area back in the day?
(beeping)
That sounds very, very good.
- It's just there, mate, yeah. - Right there? Okay.
And I would not have been able to detect that
- if the guys hadn't cut that tree. - Yeah, the tree's right there.
ALEX: Didn't you tell me a long time ago,
there are good finds at the base of trees?
Yeah, I always love it when I get a signal
next to a base of a big old tree.
Because old coins and artifacts
are often pushed closer to the surface
- by the roots of the trees. - Oh.
All right. Let's hope that happened here.
(beeping)
- You have got it out. - Yep.
A nice two-way repeatable signal.
Come on. A coin or a button.
It's out, mate. And I know what it is.
- Do you? - I can feel it.
The weight of it.
- What is it? - A musket ball.
- Oh. that's pretty cool. - It really is, mate.
- ALEX: Nice. - Look at that.
- That looks like it's been fired. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: A fired musket ball?
Found near the site where the team
has previously discovered evidence of a ship's wharf
and a possible operation to unload cargo?
Is it possible that this musket ball
is somehow related to those discoveries?
And if so, could it have been fired in an effort to protect
what the team will soon begin digging for in the Money Pit?
GARY: We don't find many fired lead
musket balls on Oak Island, but this is what we've got.
It's from the time of black powder weapons.
And I would say that this is anywhere
from the late 1500s to the mid-1800s.
We've also found some military artifacts out here.
Yeah, for sure, mate, and you'd have to associate
that, in this area...
- Mm-hmm. - with the military
for whatever was being unloaded at that wharf.
- And lost a few musket balls, or at least one. - Yeah.
Yeah. I'm hoping they lost some gold or...
- Yeah. Me, too. - silver coins as well.
Absolutely.
That's really cool.
- We're rolling again, mate. - Mm-hmm.
- Onto the next one. - Fantastic, mate.
Good find.
GARY: Okay, mate.
Go find some more treasure.
NARRATOR: The day that Rick, Marty, Craig and the team
have been waiting for has finally arrived.
- Morning, Andrew. - ANDREW: Morning.
- How are you guys doing this morning? - Good.
-VANESSA: Morning, y'all. -RICK: Morning, Vanessa. How are you?
- DAVID F.: Morning. - I'm much better.
We got an oscillator here.
(laughter)
NARRATOR: After more than three months
of drilling for clues in an effort to pinpoint
a legendary treasure buried in the Money Pit area,
the final piece of heavy digging equipment has arrived
that will help them attempt to recover it.
The 58-ton rotating oscillator.
So, what do you think, this year?
I'm excited as all get-out.
Every year I'm like, "Let's go big, let's go big,"
- and y'all are finally going big. - (laughter)
- ANDREW: Here we are now. - PETER: Oh, yeah.
Wow.
We're all highly anticipating
getting this project started,
so to see the oscillator arriving is exciting.
I want to find the answers.
DANNY: Good right there, straight back.
RICK: Let's get the party started.
It's good right there, brother.
Perfection.
RICK: So what is the difference between this one
and the 2.5?
VANESSA: It's gonna have more power.
It's going to be a heavier machine, because when
you're starting to get bigger cans, you want more weight
to ground it, so this machine
is more powerful, heavier, bigger in diameter.
NARRATOR: Designed to apply up to 1,185 tons of torque,
the oscillator will drive the ten-foot-wide sections
of steel caissons down Borehole D-2
to a depth of as much as 170 feet.
This will allow the 21-ton hammer grab tool
to excavate up to 11,000 pounds of earth per scoop,
along with any valuables buried within.
Coming down.
NARRATOR: As the tons of spoils
are removed from the D-2 shaft,
they will be hauled down to an industrial-grade wash plant,
where they will be cleaned, sorted according to size
and then sifted for any tangible evidence
of the gold and silver detected earlier this year.
DANNY: Ready? Okay.
DAVID F.: Ooh, here we go.
DANNY: Make it happen.
Bring it on up.
Up.
Here it comes.
Good right there, brother.
Just come up a little bit.
You got it. He's clear.
Up. Up a little bit.
RICK: That's pretty big.
It looks like a-a battleship.
It does. Yeah, no, I'm with you on that.
DAVID F.: You can feel the excitement up here at the Money Pit.
Uh, it's been a while since we were able to dig,
and this year we're going bigger than ever.
- DANNY: Coming back. - I, personally,
have never been part of a Money Pit dig before.
So, to be able to be part of this process is really exciting.
DANNY: Here it comes.
Two more feet.
Just touch down. It's good.
Give us about an hour, and we're gonna be, uh, flying
over that first can, so if you guys want to...
- Really? Wow. - Yeah.
Okay. All right, well, I'm gonna go get the boys going.
- All right. Thanks. - Okay. Thank you, Vanessa.
So, let's let the team do their work.
- Sounds good. - All right.
NARRATOR: While representatives from ROC Equipment
and Irving Equipment Limited continue the setup
for the excavation of the D-2 shaft...
RICK: I'm very interested in looking at probably
the most interesting but most confusing,
the so-called bag seal that Gary and David found off of Lot 32.
Thus, we reached out to Dr. Brosseau,
who kindly agreed to take a look.
- Okay, great. - NARRATOR: brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with their partner Craig Tester
and members of the team, have gathered in the war room.
Based on their recent discoveries on Lot 32
related to a possible ship's wharf
and an operation to move cargo onto Oak Island,
earlier this week they sent the cargo bag seal
discovered one year ago in the same area...
Hi, everyone.
NARRATOR: to chemist Dr. Christa Brosseau
for her analysis.
I'm excited to learn
what you may be able to tell us about the lead bag seal.
CHRISTA: Yeah, sure, so,
that's such an interesting piece
because it really speaks to history.
So, bag seals were used
for large, uh, bundles of cloth.
How big were these sacks?
- Really large. - Yeah, they were quite large.
My understanding, yeah.
It's-it's a large bale of cloth.
How do you know it's cloth?
How do you know it's associated with cloth?
Uh, that style's associated with cloth.
- Okay. - CHRISTA: Yeah, that's right.
So, bag seals were popular
from about 1450, and then, after about 1730, waned
in terms of their usage.
So this is really an old piece.
Well, that's pre-searcher.
Perfect.
Yep.
CHRISTA: As you know, the-the lead bag seal has
- really nice markings on it. - LAIRD: Yeah.
They're really interesting-looking markings.
There's a stylized 4, and it's flanked by initials.
Which would be the person who produced the fabric.
CHRISTA: Yeah, it would've been an important indication
that it had been inspected and was a-approved
to go out for trade.
So, the initials are a little bit hard to make out.
Uh, the left might be a "T,"
and on the right it does look like an "E."
Um, maybe Treasury of England, T.E.?
Wow.
CHRISTA: The initials are T.E.
Maybe Treasury of England.
Wow.
NARRATOR: In the Oak Island war room,
chemist Dr. Christa Brosseau has just presented her opinion
that the cargo bag seal
discovered one year ago on Lot 32
is more than 300 years old
and possibly connected to the Treasury of England.
CHRISTA: Of course, Canada, Nova Scotia, is a colony,
so there would have been a lot of transported goods
from England, for example.
And so, we would probably expect
lots of cloths, uh, being in trade.
But to an island? A small island...
- Yeah, that's what's weird, right? - in Mahone Bay?
RICK: I mean, that just doesn't seem...
That's the most exciting thing about it, I think.
- Mm-hmm. - It's not something people carry around.
- (laughter) - When you open the bale,
off goes the-the seal.
- Okay. - NARRATOR: Could Dr. Brosseau
be correct that the lead bag seal
might be more than three centuries old
and related to goods belonging to the Treasury of England?
If so, how did it end up on an island
that, beginning in the 18th century,
was known only to be inhabited by local farmers?
Could it be connected to a secret operation
to bury a vast cache of silver in the Money Pit?
I've found, I believe, significant information
that really strengthens, uh, the idea
of there being silver in this area.
Interesting.
NARRATOR: Two weeks ago,
Scott Clarke, a 32nd-degree Freemason,
presented his theory that the 17th century
English merchant and nobleman Sir William Phips
was behind the construction of the Money Pit.
SCOTT C.: Many people are actually familiar
with William Phips's discovery of the Concepcíon back in 1687.
We know that Phips found silver on the Concepcíon.
Well, there's no question about that.
NARRATOR: In 1687,
William Phips discovered the wreck
of the Spanish treasure galleon known as the Concepción
near the Dominican Republic.
After salvaging nearly 100 tons of silver,
he transported it across the Atlantic Ocean
to the sponsor of his mission:
the English monarchy, led by King James II.
However, later that year,
Phips conducted a second mission
to salvage more of the Concepción's sunken treasure
with a Freemason named Andrew Belcher.
But this time he reported much different results.
SCOTT C.: So, in September 1687, Phips returned
to the wreck of the Concepcíon.
And during the second expedition of the treasure,
Phips brought back to England what was only valued
at £10,000.
He literally found 1/20 of what he found the first time.
NARRATOR: According to Scott Clarke's theory,
Sir William Phips and Andrew Belcher,
who owned land near Oak Island,
used the English Crown's support and resources
to steal a great portion of the Concepción's treasure
and hide it deep in the Money Pit.
Is it possible that the lead bag seal found on Lot 32,
which Dr. Brosseau believes could bear the markings
of the Treasury of England, might offer evidence
that Scott Clarke's theory is true?
If you're off-loading a huge quantity of material
that rendered a...
the necessity of using a lead bag seal,
it was a massive amount of merchandise.
Now, one has to ponder greatly, why this type of material
in this quantity on a tiny island?
RICK: And Sir William Phips
retrieved an enormous fortune in silver.
And the bag seal fits well within that range.
So, is it possible? It's certainly interesting.
CHRISTA: I'm gonna allow you to see
some of the elemental analysis that I did,
and this does confirm that this is pure lead.
But it's important because some bag seals
were made of pewter.
The lead does not contain any contaminants.
There's no arsenic, there's no antimony.
And so, it's-it's really quite pure.
Does the fact that it's pure lead and not pewter
and doesn't have contaminants in it,
does that date it earlier or later?
I would say it probably dates it earlier.
Because later on,
more impure lead was used or lead became recycled.
MARTY: This bag seal is a very important artifact
because everyone who's looked at it,
including Dr. Christa Brosseau,
who doesn't get too worked up about things generally,
thinks it's very old, thinks it was phased out around 1730.
In other words, phase-- At least that old.
So it's significant,
because that much predates the Money Pit.
Dr. Brosseau, thank you very much.
And, uh, your time is appreciated,
and your analysis and your advice, so thank you very much.
Sure, you're welcome. Good luck.
- Have a great day. - ALL: Thank you.
RICK: Let's get back to the Money Pit.
MARTY: Okay, great. Let's do that.
- This is it. - We're about ready to dig.
The more we dig, the more we find.
NARRATOR: Following their meeting in the war room,
Rick Lagina and members of the Oak Island team
arrive back at the Money Pit area.
RICK: Just about ready, are we?
Yep. We're chomping at the bit, mate.
NARRATOR: Now, with the rotating oscillator in place,
the team's first large-scale excavation of the year
in the hopes of recovering a vast cache of silver and gold
is about to begin.
All right, guys, you are safe.
- Okay. - Danny's ready for you.
RICK: So, this is probably the most promising location
we've ever had, for all kinds of reasons.
You know, we talk about the Fellowship all the time,
and we're all here for the greater good.
We're all here trying to understand
what this place, this tiny island, means
in-in terms of history.
I think we all believe there-there's something here
that is somewhat historical.
So, to that point, Doug came up with a great idea.
I think we should name the can "The Fellowship 1."
TF-1. But I also want everybody to sign it.
So...
I don't look
at Oak Island as a succession of failures.
There have been some incredible people
in search of answers here. They moved the dial.
In the face of all kinds of adversity
and-and difficulties, they persevered.
Well done, Billy. Well done.
The hope is that we can, of course, solve this.
But we follow in some incredible footsteps.
I think it's for each of us-- Meaning the Fellowship
and those people who continue to be intrigued
about the mystery-- It's for each of us
to decide what our role is.
The Fellowship 1.
- (applause) - But-but one more thing.
One more thing.
Me, personally,
I'm fascinated and humbled by the fact
that we get to involve ourselves in a... an enduring mystery
that has lasted almost as long as the United States
has been a country.
When you think about that, it's hard not to appreciate
the unique opportunity that has been presented to us,
to solve the mystery completely.
"In memory of those
"who have come before,
we say thank you with respect and honor."
And I think that is very appropriate,
because, you know, we have learned so much
from the people that have come before.
And I'm gonna... put a kiss there.
(applause)
- Okay. Let's make hole. - I'm ready.
MARTY: Well, I'm hopeful.
TF-1 is probably the highest expectation I've ever had
because of the physical presence of silver and gold.
We've never had that before. I mean, it's exciting.
We've been at this for a long time.
We've had our ups and downs.
I don't want to get too excited,
and I want to do expectation control,
but, yeah, we could be close.
VANESSA: Who's doing the honors?
Who's starting this thing for us?
- Rick. - Rick.
- All right, sir. - Okey doke.
So, first you're gonna turn our oscillator on.
(whirring)
All right, now you're gonna go ahead and oscillate.
(applause)
There you go.
NARRATOR: For more than two centuries,
determined men and women have invested their time,
their resources and, in some cases, their lives,
trying to recover a legendary treasure on Oak Island.
Many did so based on the faith
that extraordinary secrets were hidden within the Money Pit.
And now, having found scientific evidence
of silver and gold deep below,
Rick and Marty Lagina, along with their team,
are making the boldest attempt yet to fulfill that faith.
The wait is over.
The dig has begun.
And the answers they all have sought
may finally be within reach.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
MARTY: Bring it, baby.
RICK: There's hard evidence that there is treasure
- in the Money Pit. - MARTY: Oh, boy, look at that.
- That could be part of a tunnel. - MARTY: We understand you have
- some results for us? - It's French lead.
Would that apply to our friend the cross, too?
- Most definitely. - No kidding?
ALEX: We can scan the area for any sign
of the stone road as it heads out of the swamp.
Look at that. I think we might have found it.
- A lot of wood coming out. - Yep.
GARY: We got a good signal here.
Ooh. Look at that.
That's beautiful.