NARRATOR: Tonight, on The Curse Of Oak Island...
MARTY: What a good day to find treasure.
Oh. Look at that.
- ALEX: Is that concrete? - JACK: Yeah.
We could be close to the actual vault.
- Whoa! - VANESSA: The hammer grab's grabbing on something
- that's too heavy to pull back out. - Wow.
There's got to be something in that clay right there.
- (detector beeping) - GARY: Oh, that's a screamer, mate.
Come on, baby. Come to papa.
Wow.
Let's see what the machine says.
Okay.
- MARTY: That's gold. - KELLY: Absolutely.
It's just amazing.
♪ ♪
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.
- GARY: Morning, Rick. - RICK: Hey, Gary.
Today's the day, mate.
To get to the bottom of this.
This could be the Money Pit.
- Yeah. - We'll just wait and see.
NARRATOR: A new morning has dawned on Oak Island.
There's nowhere else I'd rather be, mate. Really isn't.
NARRATOR: And with it comes great hope and anticipation
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
and their team
as they believe that they may have finally
pinpointed the location of the original Money Pit
and the hiding place of a vast treasure
that men and women have sought for 227 years.
- Morning. - Morning. Good morning, Vanessa.
So, we have advanced the can. We're at 104.
Can's advancing fine, still.
- What dig depth do you have now? - VANESSA: 92 feet.
- CRAIG: Okay. - Okay? Thank you. - LAIRD: Okay, excellent.
Thank you.
NARRATOR: Working with representatives
from Irving Equipment Limited
and ROC Equipment,
the Oak Island team is excavating
a ten-foot-wide steel-cased shaft
known as TF-1.
It was at this location earlier this year that,
at a depth of approximately 90 feet,
they discovered evidence of a wooden tunnel
dating back to as early as the 15th century
as well as trace evidence of both silver and gold.
RICK: I think we all are very hopeful that
we'll find something that, for once and for all,
tell us exactly what's happened underground.
So, if Doug is right,
all of this broken stuff-- We know it's a shaft.
Yeah. Do we know what shaft it was?
Well, it was Roosevelt's shaft, 1909.
But they thought they were on the Money Pit, right?
- Yeah. - But, look, the-the little bits and pieces
kind of add up, you know? The 1909 shaft,
- the boot, the date of the boot. - Yeah.
So, "it fits," but we've got a lot of things that fit.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, I thought that boot was like an old cavalier boot.
But, hey, if it's a ex-president's boot,
- that'd be just as good. - Yep.
Look at this! (laughs)
NARRATOR: Just one day ago, the team
made a curious discovery offering more evidence
that they could be digging in the original Money Pit:
a worker's boot dating to the early 20th century.
DOUG: So, up here it says Kaufman.
They were making these type of boots
in 1908 to 1909.
This might be the pit that FDR was digging in.
Well, that'd be pretty cool.
NARRATOR: In 1909,
the Old Gold Salvage and Wrecking Company,
led by Captain Henry Bowdoin,
excavated what was believed to be the original Treasure Pit
some 100 feet deep before their efforts were vanquished
by cave-ins and flooding.
It was an effort that was financed by a young attorney
and Freemason by the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
RICK: The boot suggests
we are into the Franklin Roosevelt workings.
They associated their workings with the possible find
of the original Money Pit shaft.
CRAIG: It's still bringing up wood.
RICK: If that is so, that's exceedingly interesting,
because it means if we're not on it,
we're certainly close.
I got some information I'll show you.
I was printing this out this morning based on
what we were talking about yesterday.
This is a letter from Duncan Harris to FDR.
I highlight some interesting things here.
It says, "We cleared out the pit to a depth of 107 feet,
"taking out large quantities of boulders and timber.
"At this depth we found a heavy platform
"across the bottom of the cribbing, from which
we were unable to take up."
So, they hit a platform they never took up.
Where are we right now?
92. That's 15 feet below us.
Yeah, yeah. We're close.
To me, this is encouraging, because they were also
seeing signs of a deep collapse.
We would have to have if
it was the original Money Pit.
We're seeing the jumble of wood,
so, I-I... you know, I find that really encouraging.
Probably we're on what they're describing.
I would... that, I would say, yes.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Because the Money Pit
suffered a catastrophic collapse in 1861,
could the massive amounts of broken timbers
mean that the team is on course
to make a historic discovery?
I mean, this is good information to have, for sure.
Yeah.
RICK: At this point, I think
- you just got to keep digging. - CRAIG: Yeah.
NARRATOR: As the excavation of the TF-1 shaft continues,
near the southeast corner of the triangle-shaped swamp...
MARTY: All right. Once more into the swamp.
NARRATOR: David Fornetti has joined his Uncle Marty
and his cousin Alex
to continue searching for evidence of a stone path
between the brackish bog and the Money Pit.
We ran a grid over the stone road.
So, from there we went to the uplands, did another pass,
and still, seems to show the stone road.
Okay.
First scan, coming up.
NARRATOR: One week ago, Alex and David
conducted a ground-penetrating radar scan
heading eastward from the stone road
discovered last year in the swamp.
DAVID F: I think the stone road might be under us, right here.
Oh, that's interesting.
NARRATOR: However, because the team
is currently restricted from excavating a two-acre area
near the southeast corner of the swamp
due to a government mandate...
DAVID F: Let's go for it.
it is Alex and David's hope
that they, along with Marty's help,
can trace the buried road outside that zone.
If they are successful, they can apply for a permit
to uncover it, determine where it leads,
and hopefully discover what might be hidden there.
MARTY: We have a decent idea of the general direction of the road.
We know massive things occurred at the Money Pit,
and a road would've been required. And
what would be interesting would be to find a datable item
along that road, and we've only unearthed,
you know, it looks like maybe a few percent of it.
- You think here? - Yeah, that's good.
And then see the nice path you got right here?
- DAVID F: Yeah. - MARTY: Right around that tree
- and all the way through there. - ALEX: Okay.
NARRATOR: The OKM Gepard GPR 3D scanner
emits radio waves into the earth
which can detect objects, structures, or voids
up to 130 feet below the surface.
I think you can stop. Go ahead and stop.
ALEX: Okay.
Yeah, see what it says.
Well... it's kind of surprising, actually.
We have an anomaly. Right in the middle.
Hey, that's pretty cool. And it's... that's roughly
- three feet, isn't it? - ALEX: Three feet deep, yeah.
- Yeah. - MARTY: That's pretty exciting.
MARTY: This road-- if it's only three feet deep--
I'm eager to dig it.
You know, we might be able to find some artifact
that helps us figure out who in the heck was here.
That's what I really like about this, is there's
- nothing on either side of it. - MARTY: Yeah, agreed.
ALEX: And it's the right scale and size and depth
- to be the road. - MARTY: Pretty cool.
ALEX: I actually kind of
- can't believe it. - No, either... me either.
Well, let's keep going.
- ALEX: All right. - DAVID F: Okay, yeah.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
GARY: Sure would be nice to get our hands on some treasure.
There are some perks, mate, to being wet and covered in mud.
We get to see the treasure first.
although the weather has turned,
the team remains hopeful that the excavation
of the TF-1 shaft in the Money Pit area--
Which has now reached a depth of 107 feet--
Could yield a major discovery at any moment.
Okay, Michel?
- All right, Billy? - Yep.
We're good.
You ready for some treasure, mate?
DAVID F: We're just getting to the target depth, so...
- Yep. - definitely not counting it out yet.
No, definitely not, mate.
- Hardly any wood in there, either. - No.
What the heck is that?
AGARY: can see, IWhat the heck is that? s.
NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area,
while searching the spoils unearthed
from nearly 110 feet deep in the TF-1 shaft,
Gary Drayton has just found a potentially important clue.
I think that's one of those wooden dowel or wooden peg.
-DAVID F: Could be. It's shaped that way. -Yeah.
This was probably used
for some type of construction in the original Money Pit,
because there wouldn't have been any iron fasteners in it.
They would've used wooden pegs like this.
- That's a good eye. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: A wooden peg or dowel?
Could it be related to the fragments of a wooden structure
found in this location earlier this year
that may date back to 1488?
If so, could that mean the team is also close
to finding the source of the silver and gold
detected in the area as well?
The older constructs that we've encountered have been
put together with dowels. And this is certainly a dowel.
So, it implies possible
original depositional work, because in the modern era,
dowels were not used as fasteners.
All right, Billy. Two thumbs up.
(detector beeping)
Definitely a signal here.
Just there, mate.
At least we got a signal.
- Huh. - Wow.
Some big, old fastener.
I can't really tell what shape it is.
I know it's heavy, but it could
just be the concretion on it.
I don't know if it's modern or old, round or anything.
I know it's iron.
- Well, we should get out of here. - Yep.
IAN: What you got, Gary?
Just found an interesting fastener
in that last bucket that came out,
and I can't tell if it's old or modern.
I've never seen anything like this
come out of the Money Pit.
Any ideas, Laird?
LAIRD: That's weird.
- IAN: Yeah. - GARY: That's exactly what I thought: that's weird.
- What is it? - Well, it looks like a round nail there,
but then you look at the...
- It's been hand-forged. - RICK: Heavy, though.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like hand-wrought or hand... hand-made?
- Yeah. - IAN: Wow.
NARRATOR: An iron fastener
that was hand-forged?
Because that could mean it might pre-date the discovery
of the Money Pit in 1795,
could this artifact be related to a structure
that was built during an operation
to deposit valuables deep underground?
The FDR expedition-- Let's say they were
right next to the original Money Pit.
We do know that, from the records,
that they only got to 107 feet.
We know the Money Pit collapsed deeper than that.
So, anywhere between 107 feet and 150 feet
where we might encounter the vault is also prospective.
- RICK: Oh, it's... Look how much wider here than there. - IAN: Yep. Exactly.
Well, I'll leave this little puzzle with you guys.
- I got to get back to the spoils. - LAIRD: Okay.
Find us some more, Gary.
GARY: Oh, will do.
NARRATOR: Later that same day,
as members of the team continue monitoring
the excavation of the TF-1 shaft...
- RICK: Hey, guys. - STEVE G.: Oh.
- Hey, Rick. - SCOTT: Hey, Rick.
Well, let's see what you got here.
NARRATOR: Near Smith's Cove, Rick Lagina
arrives at the wash plant
after being alerted by members of the team
of potentially important discoveries they have made while
cleaning and sorting the spoils from the dig.
STEVE G.: Let's see what we got.
- RICK: That's modern. - STEVE G.: There's a spike.
- RICK: Yeah, modern. - SCOTT: Modern spike.
STEVE G.: Here's something that looks a little older.
This looks promising. It has some weight to it.
Yeah, it does.
I mean, that's Gary's criteria, right?
- Old metal i-is quite hefty. - SCOTT: Yeah.
RICK: This certainly is.
- It looks like it's been hand-wrought. - SCOTT: Mm-hmm.
You know... I don't know what to make of it,
but it's a prime candidate for a CT scanner, so...
Yeah.
Basically, a CT scanner is like an X-ray machine.
It will look through the conglomerate
and the encrustation of the objects and you will be able
to see it as though it were just recently forged,
and my thought always was to acquire a CT scanner,
because this science can be applied to our needs.
That may turn into something
quite unique and quite interesting.
But we have a mountain of material to go through,
so I think we just
keep pushing forward, keep watching.
- SCOTT: All right, good. - STEVE G.: Thanks, Rick.
- SCOTT: Thanks, Rick. - RICK: Thank you.
NARRATOR: The following morning,
as the excavation of the TF-1 shaft
continues in the Money Pit area,
Marty and Alex Lagina,
along with David Fornetti, arrive at the research center.
- ALEX: Hey, Steve. - MARTY: Steve. - Hey, guys. How you doing?
Good. Did you figure it out?
I think so. It was pretty quick and easy.
- So I threw it up on the screen. - Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: They are meeting with surveyor Steve Guptill,
who has finished analyzing the GPR data
regarding a possible buried stone pathway
between the swamp and the Money Pit.
So, as you can see, I plotted your points.
They exist here, here and here.
- Oh. - Oh, okay. - Okay.
So, not perfectly straight.
But, just for reference, this is the stone road.
This is the pine tar kiln.
Based on the data we've collected so far,
I do believe it is a road coming off of the stone road,
or at least a path.
You can see here that they're not perfectly linear,
but that's okay. I mean, we live in Nova Scotia, nothing's flat.
- Paths don't have to be straight. - No, they don't.
- Right. - So, I think it's just
taking the path of least resistance,
and I suspect it's probably heading to the pine tar kiln.
Yes.
NARRATOR: One year ago, after noticing a feature
labeled as a possible tunnel entrance on a map of Lot 15
that was created more than 30 years ago
by the late Oak Island landowner Fred Nolan,
the team began investigating
what archaeologist David Maclnnes believed
was ultimately a 16th century
British military pine tar kiln.
A pine tar kiln that archeologist Laird Niven
suspected may have been used
to construct the original Money Pit.
Although the team has yet to find evidence
of why Fred believed there might have been
a tunnel entrance at the feature,
could finding out where the buried pathway ends
provide an answer?
MARTY: It's actually quite amazing. I mean,
we have evidence that
the English were active on this island
long before the Money Pit.
But I don't know why they were here.
This is not a significant historic place,
based on conventional history.
I mean, the only thing left to do is to investigate
north of where we've been, and we see if
- we can find a path that lines up. - Right.
And then if we do establish this,
- I want to dig it. - Yeah. - Right.
MARTY: I think we need to get Gary up there.
ALEX: I agree.
MARTY: What a good day to find treasure.
- Hey, Vanessa. - Hi, Vanessa.
- Hello. - Well, where are we?
- We are at 137 with the can. - Done deal.
NARRATOR: Following his meeting in the research center,
Marty Lagina has joined his brother Rick
and other members of the team at the Money Pit
to oversee the continued excavation of the TF-1 caisson.
VANESSA: So, we're gonna get ready to stack another can here soon.
Is there any area that we're looking for?
I mean, we're watching pressures the whole time.
The vault should be somewhere in the 150-ish range.
Okay.
NARRATOR: Although the team
recovered metal fragments at this location
earlier this year that contained
significant traces of gold
at a depth of just 90 feet,
in 1897, treasure hunters Frederick Blair
and William Chappell drilled into what they reported
to be a seven-foot-high box
at a depth of 153 feet.
It was during this operation
that the stunned treasure hunters recovered evidence
that the vault was encased in concrete
and contained both gold
and potentially historic documents.
VANESSA: All right, well, we'll keep going.
And if bedrock doesn't stop us,
- we're going to 160. - Correct.
- All right, we'll do it. - Make it so. Thank you.
NARRATOR: While the excavation continues in the TF-1 shaft...
Let's see what we can find.
at the wash table near Borehole 10-X,
Jack Begley, Alex Lagina
and surveyor Eric Valois
are conducting a final examination of spoils
that have already been run
through the industrial-sized wash plant.
JACK: Every year, things that make it past our eyes
just from the hammer grab
and even on the wash plant, even
the small little bits-- Whether it's parchment
or bookbinding-- They show up on the wash table.
We're moving at such a fast pace
that even Gary could miss something,
but the wash table will catch it.
Is that concrete?
JACK: Yeah, it is.
I'm gonna just bag it real quick.
Sweet find.
Whoa.
Look-look at that, look at that.
That might be more of that concrete stuff.
ALEX: Yeah, that looks like concrete to me.
It's got that little lip right there.
This is great. Put it with the rest of the concrete.
Might mean that we're getting into something.
We could be close to the actual vault.
Yep.
JACK: This concrete should be set aside,
it should be tested.
Keep your eyes peeled, guys.
In the original stories of drilling into The Money Pit,
when they hit the vault that was deep down,
they'd go through concrete.
It might be an indication
that we're close to
wherever the vault collapsed to.
Hey, guys, tell me you found something good.
- JACK: Well... - I want to hear it.
ALEX: We found a couple interesting things.
MARTY: Okay, so what do you got?
ALEX: So, here's the first piece.
We think that's concrete.
MARTY: It looks like it's formed
- right there, doesn't it? - ALEX: Yeah.
-Well, that's worth testing. Agreed. -ALEX: Right.
One more. There you go.
Hmm. That is quite interesting, guys.
- ALEX: There he is. - JACK: Spoon dog!
- What up? - (Ian laughs)
Hi, Jack. How are you?
That isn't how I was going to greet you,
- I know, I know. - But it'll-it'll do.
This is what these guys just found.
Because you know the narrative,
the narrative often talks about concrete, right?
Right, right.
That can't be natural, right?
Yeah, I think that piece, especially.
There's this razor-sharp edge here.
I mean, that's not natural.
NARRATOR: Could finding pieces of concrete in the TF-1 spoils
mean that the team could finally be close to locating the vault
that Frederick Blair and William Chappell
reported discovering more than a century ago?
- I would keep that. (chuckles) - Yeah, for sure.
- All right, bag it and we'll get it tested. - IAN: Yep.
- Okay, thank you, Ian. - IAN: Yep.
- See you. - See you.
All right. We will get back to it.
NARRATOR: As Alex and Jack continue
carefully sifting through TF-1 spoils at the wash table...
- RICK: We still have a few feet to go. - Yeah.
NARRATOR: and while Rick Lagina
and members of the team
monitor the excavation of the shaft
as it edges closer to the target depth
of some 150 feet...
later that afternoon...
GARY: All right. Let's get Lot 15 cleared up, mate.
NARRATOR: Gary Drayton and Peter Fornetti
arrive in the uplands on Lot 15
to search for important clues where the team believes
a buried stone path is running between
the swamp and the mysterious pine tar kiln.
All right, let's see what this one is.
(detector beeping)
That there, right there, mate.
NARRATOR: Now that the team has obtained
GPR evidence of the pathway,
it is Marty Lagina's hope that if Gary and Peter
can recover artifacts predating the discovery
of the Money Pit in 1795,
a special permit can be obtained
to excavate the feature and determine
just where it leads.
- (detector beeping) - PETER: Somewhere in there?
Let me try pinpointing it.
(beeping)
Wow.
Just there. Right on it.
There she blows. Wow, look at that.
- Is that a spike? - Yeah, that's a big spike.
You know, I'm not sure if that's square
or it's a rose head spike.
This'll be interesting when it's cleaned up.
PETER: I mean, it kind of looks like
there's even a little lip on it.
And what the heck's it doing out here?
- That is really hefty as well. - Mm-hmm.
So, wrought iron, you would say?
Yeah, and this is more than likely pre-searcher.
That's a cool find. I'll be interested to see
- what this is when it's cleaned up. - Yeah.
I'm hoping it's a rose head spike.
All right, let's bag it and tag it.
RICK: I hope we can find more evidence of
a path, a trail.
Then we have to make sure we have the proper
permits in place.
- Let's go to the next one. - Yep.
RICK: And at that point,
you know, we have to investigate it, physically.
We have to, perhaps, conduct a dig.
(beeping)
Oh, that's a screamer, mate. Just there.
You got it out, great.
We are very close.
- Yeah, let's see what we got here, mate. - (beeping)
Ooh, hoo, hoo, hoo!
Look at that!
GARY: Ooh, hoo, hoo, hoo! Look at that!
Another big, old chunky piece of iron.
It's heavy, really heavy for its size,
so you'd have to assume
it's hand-forged iron.
NARRATOR: On Lot 15, between the swamp and the Money Pit,
Gary Drayton and Peter Fornetti
have just made a potentially important find
along what is believed to be a buried stone pathway.
I think this is a nice,
crudely-made hammer head.
It could be a claw hammer.
And if it is, it's a small one.
It's very small.
This would've served a purpose, but to have this in...
- in this area and on this trail, mate? - Yeah.
Maybe it was made on the island for quick repairs
here and there and it snapped off.
- Be too small for farming. - Definitely.
- It's an old one. - Mm-hmm.
GARY: You don't get them looking like that.
I think a lot of this stuff that we're pulling up
in this area is pre-searcher.
I think we're in depositor era.
NARRATOR: Dating back to the early 16th century,
claw hammers were designed
for building wooden structures
and were originally made of hand-forged iron,
as opposed to modern versions,
which are typically composed of steel.
Since this iron claw hammer was found
near the believed 16th century pine tar kiln,
which Laird Niven suspects may have been connected
to the construction of the original Money Pit,
could Gary be correct that it was possibly
used during an effort
to deposit something of value on Oak Island?
I think the interesting thing is
if you look at our flags, it's right in this nice
- line that's what you would think a trail. - Yeah.
We got the Money Pit there.
I think we're on the trail of something good as well.
RICK: Lot 15 is, again, it's interesting.
These finds may indicate a path.
Well, that's what we're looking for: a path.
- All right, let's go to the next one. - Okay.
RICK: We need to come to a further understanding of it
and its importance.
GARY: Yeah, a more defined signal.
(detector beeping)
- Yep. - It should be right there, mate.
See if you got it out.
- (beeping) - Yep,
you have got it out.
Another.
That is a square one, by the look of it.
It's got a nice, square head on it.
PETER: So, what do you think this was used for?
GARY: They would've been used
for a wide variety of purposes on Oak Island,
and we got the Money Pit. Maybe it was
used for construction purposes as well.
And is this pre-discovery?
Pre-1795?
Something that heavy--
- Um, I'm leaning towards it. - Mm-hmm.
But, it's-it's tough to know until it's cleaned up.
Great little find.
- Another good one for the bag. - Yep.
- Let's follow the trail. - All right.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
MARTY: There's gonna be something in there, Gary.
In that clay right there.
Well, let's see if there is.
NARRATOR: Gary and Peter have rejoined Rick, Marty, Craig
and members of the team
as the excavation of the TF-1 shaft
is now approaching a critical depth
of 150 feet.
Nothing doing yet, mate.
MARTY: Whenever we drill a well, put down a caisson,
in the back of our minds is always the so-called vault
that was first discovered by Chappell.
Truly, a-a anomalous thing and probably likely,
if it exists, the very thing that we seek.
Water. This isn't looking so good.
No, it's not. Not at all.
ANDREW: Does it feel like it's slipping off, though,
when you're pulling it?
Yes.
So, something peculiar is going on.
Um, we have dug the shaft all the way to the bottom,
and the crane operator's going down and grabbing on something.
It is too heavy for him to retrieve.
The winches are not allowing him to come back up.
Maybe he's grabbing on bedrock. That would be unique.
But we want to switch grabs.
It has a little bit different jaw opening.
And we're gonna take two or three passes with that,
see if we can grab on and if we can
retrieve whatever this may be.
- MARTY: Great idea. - Got to do it. Got to do it.
- Yeah. - Yeah. Well, these operators,
they've been around, so they know when they're...
- something's different. - RICK: No, that's great.
We're gonna go play around with the hammer grab.
- Okay. - Yeah.
RICK: Vanessa said Michel feels
he's on something hard with the hammer grab.
Is it possible that it might be the vault?
Anything is possible on Oak Island.
We're certainly within the area of investigation
where, conceivably, it could be.
NARRATOR: The team from ROC will now switch to a smaller
16-ton hammer grab that is equipped with a wider mouth,
which they hope will be able to encase
and lift the potentially
massive object lodged
deep within the TF-1 caisson.
Look at that cute hammer grab up there.
Here we go.
MARTY: STEVE: Let's see if he We've pulls something up.today.
NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area,
the team from Irving Equipment Limited
and ROC Equipment
are attempting to retrieve what they believe
could be a massive object some 150 feet deep
in the TF-1 shaft.
PETER: That was mostly water.
GARY: Damn, that's a lot water and sand, isn't it?
No, there, I got nothing.
Well, let's... let's see what this is.
-It's this sandy pile here -There was just...
- and that sandy pile there. - Yeah.
It's these two bits, wasn't it?
All right, Billy, it's clean. Sorry, mate.
What does this mean?
So, nothing came up.
No.
What do you think it is?
I think it's rock.
Do you think it's natural?
Unfortunately, I do, yes.
VANESSA: You know, us pulling up all this natural stuff
and not getting any further-- I think we are in the bedrock.
I think this is gonna be as close to getting down there
- as we're gonna get. - If it were cement,
something would break off.
- Yes. - ANDREW: Yes. - RICK: If it were wood,
something would get scraped away.
- Yes. - We see nothing of either of those two.
So... I-I'm good.
We're done.
Okay, well, we'll put this one to bed
and we're gonna move on to the next one.
- ANDREW: All right, thanks, Rick. - VANESSA: All right, thank you.
- RICK: Thank you. - Yep.
NARRATOR: Earlier this year,
the team drilled the four-inch-wide borehole
known as D-2,
which yielded evidence of ancient structures
dating to as early as the 15th century,
as well as fragments of metal
that contained high concentrations of gold.
ANDREW: We'll wrap it up, start it fresh in the morning.
NARRATOR: However, the ten-foot-wide TF-1 shaft--
Excavated at the same location--
Has now reached bedrock
at a depth of 152 feet
and found no further evidence of treasure.
RICK: I'm disappointed. I-I really am. I thought,
"We're gonna find something. Maybe not the thing,
maybe not the one thing, but something."
We had the historical narrative,
the finding of the metals in D-2.
I don't know what to make of it right now,
but it will demand some serious discussion:
how to move forward.
But we will move forward.
- Hey, everyone. - Hey. - Hey.
So, we finished up down there and it looks like
you guys are about finished up here as well.
All right, so we didn't
expect to see a lot today, because we were
in the range where we knew that
we were gonna be in situ between 110 and 130,
but we did have some good finds. Here...
NARRATOR: Having just left the wash plant near Smith's Cove,
surveyor Steve Guptill
and project manager Scott Barlow
arrive to share discoveries just made
in the TF-1 spoils.
We've hit a lot of metal today.
That actually looks like, from what I remember,
the pieces of, uh, metal from D-2.
MARTY: Oh, yeah. Is this like, uh,
the stuff that had gold on it?
SCOTT: Yeah.
MARTY: Sure is shiny, isn't it?
- Yep. - MARTY: You know what I'd like it to be, but...
That's XRF candidate, there.
Yeah.
MARTY: Steve has pieces of metal that came off the wash plant.
So, we're gonna do something I always find enjoyable, which is
to use the XRF and look at the composition of some metals.
That's always exciting, and-and the XRF is such a fun tool.
All right. All this, XRF.
- RICK: Thank you, guys. - MARTY: All right.
Well, tomorrow's another day.
MARTY: Okay. Joan, Kelly.
- Hey, there. - We have been finding all kinds of stuff.
NARRATOR: Shortly after the discovery of mysterious metal
excavated between 110 and 130 feet
deep in the TF-1 shaft,
Marty Lagina arrives at the archaeology trailer
to have it analyzed by professional conservator
Kelly Bourassa
and archivist Joan Barker.
MARTY: This piece is very interesting to me,
'cause, of course, we've got this big can over D-2.
D-2 is where we found a piece similar to this
that for sure had gold on it,
- but let's see what the machine says. - Sure.
- It's got a little bit of shininess to it. - MARTY: Yeah, see if you can get
- one of those points right on the... - Absolutely.
NARRATOR: In order to conduct a preliminary scan
of the object for precious metals,
Kelly is using an X-ray fluorescence device.
- Okay. - All right, now we're ready to roll.
NARRATOR: By emitting non-destructive radiation, the XRF machine
can identify the elements that are present
in the object.
- MARTY: There's Au. - KELLY: Oh.
There's a bit of gold in there.
.035.
I mean, this is the sort of number of gold
that when Dr. Brosseau ran it she saw the actual flecks.
Okay, let's try something different.
I think we should try this one.
It's more or less a twin of that one.
But let's just see what our machine says.
KELLY (chuckles): Okay.
Then let's run it.
MARTY: There it is.
Well, gold is gonna pop up again.
It's... it's just amazing.
And that is.
MARTY: There seems to be
indications of gold again.
If it's accurate, I'd say, yeah, we're getting
close to a source for the gold.
And the upshot of all of that is
maybe we're looking at some of the detritus
from a real treasure trove a little... a foot or two away.
The XRF result from TF-1
could help us pick the best location for the next caisson.
It's time gather up the troops, the fellowship,
and have a meeting in the war room.
All right. I'm gonna take off.
- I'll go report to the team. - All right.
Thank you very much.
See you later, guys. Ladies.
- KELLY: Take care. - JOAN: Take care.
MARTY: Well, this is an important meeting
of the fellowship.
Everybody in here knows there's, uh,
good news and bad news, I guess.
NARRATOR: One day after discovering evidence
of gold in the spoils of the TF-1 shaft,
Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with their partner Craig Tester,
have called a critical meeting
with members of the team in the war room.
The bad news is we didn't hit exactly what we thought
we'd hit in TF-1, but the good news is
we hit a lot of other stuff. And, I think,
added some knowledge to this whole puzzle.
And I can't think of anything more important--
Regarding this quest--
Is to decide what we do next and where we go next.
DOUG: It was really interesting that TF-I was, at one time,
likely considered to be the Money Pit.
And if you did have a great collapse,
the great collapse was supposed to have happened to the east.
So, while TF-1 didn't bring up the treasure,
I think we were really close.
So, we were just a little bit too far west.
RICK: If it were me, I mean,
we have to go after things that are
more interesting and evidentiary.
If you believe the 1861 collapse story,
it fits right in.
NARRATOR: In 1861,
searchers attempted to retrieve
two 20-inch-tall stacked treasure chests
believed to lie buried some 100 feet deep in the Money Pit.
Hoping to avoid the legendary man-made flood tunnel
originating at Smith's Cove,
they dug an adjacent shaft nearly 20 feet to the east
and began tunneling westward with the plan
of recovering the valuables from below.
However, just two feet from their destination,
seawater burst into the tunnel,
causing a catastrophic collapse
of the original Money Pit,
filling the now-flooded tunnel
with tons of scattered lumber and treasure.
So, you would argue for just going right...
- stepping due east of C-1. - DOUG: Yeah.
Because if this is the original Money Pit,
then on the east side we should see signs of the collapse.
CRAIG: And there's a lot of wood to the east.
- So... - SCOTT: Well, if you look at the oldest wood that
we have brought up-- Hand-hewn wood-- uh,
that should be the earliest workings
that we know of in the area.
Well, that's significant.
So, between RF-1 and C-1
is the suspect area in my mind.
CRAIG: That's very close to CD-4.5 there.
That's the one at 75 feet came up with
the metal that had the gold on it.
Which was the same type of gold in,
- uh, D-2. - RICK: Certainly.
NARRATOR: Earlier this year,
during their strategic drilling program
in the area of the C-1 shaft
known as the C-1 cluster,
the team recovered additional evidence
of possible 15th century wooden structures
as well as metal fragments
containing high concentrations of gold.
Although the fabled seven-foot-tall Chappell Vault
remains elusive-- Somewhere below
a believed depth of 150 feet--
Could the team be zeroing in on a separate treasure cache
that lies much closer to the surface--
The reported debris field of treasure
from the 1861 collapse of the Money Pit?
We only have two places where we have verifiable gold.
That one and the one we just dug, TF-1.
So, why don't we try
one more spot up around C-1,
and then we have two cans in reserve.
- You want to hit CD-4.5? - MARTY: Yes.
Right there.
RICK: This is an area worth continued investigation.
These items with the gold signature are quite intriguing.
Because of the historical narrative,
because of the artifact recovery,
there continues to be reason to be hopeful.
There is more... more work to be done.
-Well, if no one has any other objections, -Okay, then.
I say we're-we're done.
That's where we're going-- Right there.
- Go stake it and make it so. - All right.
DOUG: I think we're really close.
NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty, Craig and their team,
what appeared to be a devastating setback
has turned into hope for an imminent
breakthrough discovery.
The Oak Island mystery has not persisted
for 227 years by mere chance.
It is now clear that it was the result
of a well-organized and ingeniously engineered operation
to hide perhaps the greatest secrets
and treasure in the history of mankind.
But with every clue that this team unearths
and with every ambitious dig that they conduct,
the answers are getting closer
and could soon be within their reach.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
- MARTY: So it begins. - VANESSA: Shaft number two.
MARTY: Come on, be something good.
- Oh, wow. - MARTY: That's incredible,
- that that's down there. - Wow, wow.
It looks like parchment, but it's got something shiny on it.
JON: You can see those very, very bright spots?
- Mm-hmm. - That could actually be some of the writing.
Some of the older inks were made of iron-based ink.
That is pre-1840s iron and has been known
- since the 1500s. - MARTY: Well, how about that?