Original subtitles

Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

The Portuguese found signs of gold here

-and needed a place to hide it away. -Wow.

CHARLES: If that is indeed Shaft Six,

we know there's a tunnel leading directly

to the Money Pit. You follow the tunnel,

it's game on, then.

GARY: All it takes is one good find.

What's that right there, Gary?

Well, that's interesting.

Might be a lid.

There could be a chest in there.

That's pretty amazing.

RICK: You'll hold in your hand

the irrefutable proof

that the story of Oak Island is real.

NARRATOR: There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for

an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it...

...man-made workings that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross whose origin may be connected

to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

trying to solve the mystery.

And according to legend, one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

♪ ♪

-CHARLES: Here we go! -TERRY: Yup.

-So, we're drilling here, HI-4. -Yup.

NARRATOR: As another exciting day begins on Oak Island,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, along with their team, believe

that they may be on the verge

of not only locating the original Money Pit shaft...

-We could be starting to chase Shaft Six. -Correct.

NARRATOR: ...but also a vast treasure

that people have been attempting to recover

for more than two centuries.

So, this hole will be drilled right in the heart of Shaft Six.

Yup. If that is indeed Shaft Six,

we know at 118 feet,

there's a tunnel going off of that,

-leading directly to the Money Pit. -Right.

CHARLES: You got wood.

Yeah, we've got some stacked timbers there, it looks like.

NARRATOR: One week ago, while drilling a borehole

within their strategic grid, known as G-2...

-That says to me, probably the shaft. -I would say.

NARRATOR: ...at depth of 80 to 90 feet,

the team obtained evidence of a wall believed to be part

of a structure simply known as "Shaft Six."

TERRY: Definitely not circular saw.

-This is relatively old. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Constructed by searchers in 1861,

this 118-foot-deep shaft features a lateral tunnel

that not only connects to the original Money Pit,

but is also believed to contain a debris field

full of valuables that resulted from a catastrophic collapse

that occurred during its construction.

We got a core coming!

NARRATOR: Now, as the team drills Borehole HI-4,

which sets just 12-and-a-half feet

from Borehole G-2...

Sixty-nine.

-59 to 69, coming at us, Charles. -Yup.

NARRATOR: ...it is their hope to recover solid evidence

of the gold and silver that they've recently detected

from water sample tests across the Money Pit area.

If they are successful, Rick, Marty and the team

will dig a ten-foot-wide steel-cased shaft here

to intercept the Shaft Six tunnel and recover the riches

believed to lie within it.

RICK: I've always believed that finding Shaft Six is the way

to really decide whether or not the Money Pit can be found.

Shaft Six was sunk to 118 feet, a tunnel driven 18 feet.

We don't know the cardinal direction of that.

So, delineate it,

see if the measurements of the shaft work, and then,

try to determine the orientation of the shaft.

What's the good word, Adam?

-75. -TERRY: Thanks, Adam.

69 to 75.

-Here we go. -Yup.

Charles, we have wood.

Maybe this will be the stacked timbers we've been looking for.

Yup, that's apparently stacked timbers.

Gives me a good indication of potentially a, uh, shaft.

Could be we're clipping the edge of a shaft.

That's what I'm thinking.

NARRATOR: Evidence of a shaft

found some 70 feet deep in Borehole HI-4?

Has the team possibly found a second wall of Shaft Six?

It could be a corner piece right there.

NARRATOR: If so, then they might not only be able

to determine the orientation of the shaft,

but also the precise location of the original Money Pit.

Hey, Rick.

NARRATOR: Arriving for an update

on the morning's drilling progress

are Rick Lagina, surveyor Steve Guptill

and Oak Island historian Doug Crowell.

What have we got?

HI-4 is in the southeast quadrant of our shaft.

We've come through a substantial portion

of the wall from about, what was that?

-71? -71 to...

To about 75 feet.

What we feel was

the outside wall of, hopefully, Shaft Six.

If we find the tunnel associated with that,

you'll hold in your hand the irrefutable proof

that the story of Oak Island is real.

is defined by one thing and one thing only:

hold the evidence in your hand.

Find the one thing. That's success.

Look, now we have a proper orientation,

and one could make a very good case

that the Money Pit-- it's certainly close.

It helps us with our,

you know, "where do we put a caisson?" decision.

-Yup. -Always.

Keep after it. Keep up the good work. Good luck, guys.

-We'll do our best. Thank you. -Thank you. -Talk to you later.

NARRATOR: As efforts to reach the tunnel

connected to Shaft Six continue

at the Money Pit, later that afternoon...

-Does that stink! -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina joins Doug Crowell,

metal detection expert Gary Drayton,

and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt

as they continue excavating at the southernmost region

of the triangle-shaped swamp.

Get me up to speed. What's going on here?

We're finding wood.

The wood that we're finding

is really, really interesting, Marty.

Mm-hmm. You found any metal?

No, no metal yet.

We're digging deep out here,

and we're working our way

towards where we found that piece of wood

-dated to 600, 700 AD. -Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: Over the past two weeks,

the Oak Island team has made numerous discoveries

in this area near the western end

of the massive stone ship's wharf,

which may be more than 500 years old

and also of Portuguese origin.

These finds include a mysterious tree stump,

offering more evidence that the swamp was once dry land,

wooden survey stakes and hand-hewn planks

that may be connected to the ancient wharf.

It was in this same area that, one year ago,

the team recovered a potential piece of a ship's railing

that was carbon-dated to the seventh century AD,

and also where they detected a massive, 200-foot-long

ship-shaped anomaly using seismic scanning

three years ago.

JEREMY: It's very unusual.

MARTY: Let's not just dork around it.

-Yeah. -Would it be S-H-I-P?

Would that be what everybody's thinking?

What do you think about having him go down three feet?

Uh, yeah. I'd like to do that because along this bank...

-Mm-hmm. -where the road is here,

we've found a heck of a lot

of wharf pins, ship's spikes.

-Yeah. -Yeah. I wouldn't mind going deeper.

So, while you're here,

here's a thought, Billy. It won't take too long

as long as this machine's so nicely situated.

Come by, take, like, about a foot of that sand,

put it to the side, metal detect.

Take another foot, another foot, get down maybe four feet

just to see if there's something in that sand.

-Yeah, now I'm definitely for that. -Okay. Thank you.

-Yeah, we're going to do it, Gary. -GARY: Yeah.

-Should be something in there. -Yeah, should be something.

MARTY: One thing that is just totally inexplicable

was a piece of wood carbon-dated

twice, uh, to AD 700.

Okay, well, that's... that's an outlier.

So, because it's such an outlier and so different,

we need to do more searching.

(clattering)

Whoa. Yeah, what's that, Gary?

GARY: Let's have a look. Wow.

That is a big piece, isn't it?

MARTY: Oh, baby!

That looks like it was cut.

NARRATOR: Near the southern edge of the triangle-shaped swamp,

Marty Lagina and members of the team

have just unearthed a potentially important clue.

-It looks like one of the old survey stakes. -Oh.

Hey, that might be. It might have been cut.

Yeah. What do you think it is, Marty?

It looks, sort of, Gary, like the stakes they used

-that would laid out the road. -Yeah.

So, maybe back to the 1600s.

-It looks sort of like that. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Another possible survey stake?

Could it be connected to the massive stone ship's wharf

which sets just east of this location in the swamp?

Or could it be related in some way

to the 200-foot-long anomaly detected

by seismic scanning in 2018?

One resembling the size and shape of a ship?

Come on. Just one good signal.

What's that right there, Gary?

-What? -That weird thing on the side.

That's planking.

Planking or decking or...

But that looks very interesting.

-Got that beveled edge on it. -Yeah.

Sure looks like...

decking? Wooden decking

-or planking to me. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Wooden deck planking?

Could Gary Drayton be correct

that the team has just found more evidence

of a ship in the swamp?

If so, might it also be connected to the piece

of believed ship's railing found one year ago

that dated to as early as the seventh century AD?

MARTY: I am surprised at how much stuff is in that swamp.

Interesting things. I mean, the paved area, the stone road.

All the artifacts in the southeast corner, and now,

as we dig along the beach, all kinds of pieces of wood.

Potentially significant pieces of wood.

-Yeah. That's shaped wood for sure. -GARY: Yeah.

MARTY: "What's it mean?" is the question.

After we clean it up, we might have a better idea

-of what it actually is. -Yeah.

MARTY: All right, let's keep digging.

NARRATOR: The following morning,

while operations continue at the swamp...

(whoops)

NARRATOR: ...and in the Money Pit area...

RICK: Doug has come up with a presentation which I find

intriguing, to say the least.

NARRATOR: ...in the war room, Rick Lagina

has gathered members of the team to hear a presentation

by Doug Crowell that he has prepared

regarding some of their recent discoveries.

What encapsulates Oak Island and the search for answers here,

of course, is the "who, what, where, when, why and how."

Well, Doug has taken it upon himself to address the "who."

So, Doug, we will turn it over to you, please.

Yes, well, so, what really kicked off

this preliminary report

is the finding of these two round stones on the island.

What was really interesting about these is,

these are not likely native to Nova Scotia.

GARY: Whoa! Look at that!

-It's a round shot! -RICK: Wow.

NARRATOR: Two months ago,

while investigating a possible ancient pathway

between the swamp and the Money Pit on Lot 16,

Rick and Gary Drayton

discovered a stone shot or small cannonball.

Incredibly, it was not only nearly identical

to one excavated from the Money Pit in 2019,

but when the team had them analyzed

by geology professor Dr. Robert Raeside, in his opinion,

one of the likely places they originated was the Azores,

a group of islands in Portugal.

These would classify as what they'd call "two pounders".

So, they'd be shot out of a-a deck gun

or a swivel gun, a rail gun off the side of a ship.

-Wow. -And the Portuguese were the very first

to put cannon on board their ships.

The stone shot came into play around the early 1400s,

and dwindled out of... out of use in the mid-1600s.

So, if these were from a ship

or individuals that visited Oak Island,

and they had this type of armament with them,

that narrows the range from, in my mind,

from the 1400s through to the very early 1600s.

-That's very interesting. -DOUG: The Portuguese

and their exploration along our shores

make them one of the early suspects,

I think, in our mystery.

-Oh, wow. -LAIRD: The Portuguese

have been coming over,

I'm certain, for years. Fishing.

The question is, what else might have they been doing here?

How else might have they been utilizing this area?

Hmm.

NARRATOR: According to documented history,

Portuguese explorer Joao Alvares Fagundes

arrived on the shores of Nova Scotia in 1520,

referring to the area as "The Land of the Cod Fish."

Other Portuguese expeditions would also lead

to settlements in Cape Breton and Newfoundland, in addition

to their colonization of large areas of Africa, Asia,

and South America where they collected vast amounts

of gold, silver and precious jewels.

However, over the past two years,

the Oak Island team has made numerous discoveries

that suggest the Portuguese also visited Oak Island.

These finds include the massive stone ship's wharf,

uncovered one year ago in the swamp,

a fragment of a cannon on Lot 4,

and along with the stone shot found in the Money Pit area,

evidence of wooden tunnels that have been carbon-dated

to between the late fifteenth

and the early seventeenth centuries.

You know, what's interesting about that is,

you know, we looked at French,

we looked at British, but we never looked at Portuguese.

-No. -No.

NARRATOR: If the Portuguese were on Oak Island

more than 200 years prior

to the discovery of the Money Pit,

it begs the question, was it merely

for the purposes of creating a fishing settlement?

So, what other evidence do we have that

the Portuguese were here on our shores in Nova Scotia?

DOUG: Well, Professor Ross Wilheim, in 1971,

he thought that, after 1526, the bulk of the gold and silver

shipped to Europe from the New World

was moved in guarded convoys of fleets of vessels.

So when these treasure fleets were making their turn

towards the Azores, if they encountered storms,

the ships were driven towards our coasts here.

And they would need a place to safe haven from the storm

and a place to repair.

Well, you know, we're finding items that suggest

ship repair, both in Smith's Cove and in the swamp.

JACK: Well, if they were looking for any place that was a great

area to harbor out for a while, they would have

definitely come around Oak Island and into Mahone Bay.

Yeah. Actually, one of the things we stumbled across

was maps through the 1500s into the early 1600s.

And if you look here,

if you see here on the coast of Nova Scotia,

this is Cape Breton, Newfoundland.

Here is some place called "Port of Refuge,"

which looks surprisingly positioned to match Mahone Bay.

The Portuguese, because of their early exploration

and looking for gold in the New World,

may have come to Nova Scotia and found signs of gold here

and were looking, actively exploring for that gold,

and needed a place to process it or hide it away.

-Interesting. -We know they were here,

-so that makes them a more likely suspect... -Yeah.

than the... anyone we can't prove was along our shores.

RICK: That's great.

NARRATOR: Could Doug's theory be correct?

Is it possible that while transporting vast riches

from South America back to Portugal centuries ago,

a Portuguese expedition landed on Oak Island

and constructed the man-made workings in the swamp,

as well as the Money Pit?

There's a lot of information here that needs to be looked at

much more in-depth, all right, because

who knows where this may lead?

And the one critique I have is,

we're supposed to be putting Xs through people,

-not creating more suspects. -(laughter)

There certainly is some historical narrative about

the Portuguese having been in the area.

The other evidence, really,

regarding a possible connection

between the Portuguese and Oak Island is compelling.

But I think there's a lot

of connective tissue that needs to be developed,

if we really, truly want

to understand the Oak Island mystery.

Oak Island mystery is all about the search for the truth.

And I applaud you for bringing this to the fore.

But eyes and boots approach, there's a lot of work out back,

-so let's get after it. -All right.

PETER: All right.

MARTY: Okay, Steve. Bring us up to date on the drilling.

So, as per Rick's instructions,

we wanted to focus on the western portion of the Money Pit

-where Shaft Six could be. -Right.

NARRATOR: After drilling into what they believe

are two walls of a 19th-century searcher shaft,

known as Shaft Six...

I've outlined this area. So, we've defined the shaft.

NARRATOR: ...brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

meet with members of the team in the research center

to pick their next drilling location.

One they hope will intercept a tunnel some 118 feet deep

that could potentially contain a debris field of treasure

that resulted from a collapse of the Money Pit in 1861.

STEVE G.: That's the next step. Let's find the tunnel,

-chase it to the Money Pit. -Given Steve's plotting

of the possible orientation,

the tunnel could be driven north right by F-4.

We know that F-4 has produced

high gold signature in the water.

If we move north, we can possibly

intercept the-the tunnel off of Six,

-if it's there. -Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: Earlier this year, the team conducted

water sampling tests for precious metals...

That's it.

NARRATOR: ...in a number

of previously-drilled boreholes across the Money Pit area.

Incredibly, several showed high concentrations

of both silver and gold, including Borehole F-4.

Is it possible that F-4 intercepted the tunnel

connected to Shaft Six and the original Money Pit?

MARTY: Where do you want to drill it?

We have to stick somewhere around F-4, maybe F-2.

Somewhere around there.

So, that's my hope.

I would go south a foot, and we'd call it F.25-4?

I agree. It-it makes sense.

-MARTY: Okay. -Yeah. -DOUG: Historically,

the Great Collapse happened, right?

And all that debris from the Money Pit came down

and flooded through the tunnel to Shaft Six.

So, if there's debris from the treasure chamber

in the Money Pit, it could well be in that tunnel.

That's coming into our zone of interest.

Heck, if that's the debris field, I mean,

that's a great spot for us.

RICK: Moving the drill rig to the F line

is important because F-4 is

where we got the highest gold and silver signature.

And that's where it becomes interesting,

because the linear line of water sampling,

one could possibly interpret that

as the tunnel from Shaft Six.

I've always said the debris field is

where you'll find the one thing.

I'm excited, so, uh, let's go, uh, bore that hole.

-Let's do it. -Agreed. Enough talking. Let's go stake.

-Yup. Yeah. -Okay?

-ALEX: See you out there. -RICK: Yup.

NARRATOR: While Rick, Marty and members of the team

head to the Money Pit...

STEVE. G.: We're getting close, guys.

-Remember, it's just up here. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...surveyor Steve Guptill heads

to Lot 4 on the western side of the island, along with

metal detection expert Gary Drayton and Jack Begley.

So, you think this is the detector

that's going to be able to sniff out the mag hit?

You got that right, mate. This is the big guns.

GPX-5000, mate, in combination with that Equinox is fantastic.

We're going from knee-deep to chest-deep.

NARRATOR: Gary, Jack and Steve

are continuing to search for evidence

of a mysterious feature labeled on a reported

14th-century map of Oak Island

curiously known as "The Hole Under the Hatch."

The map, which belonged to the late author

and researcher Zena Halpern,

is believed to have been made by members

of the medieval order of the Knights Templar.

Let's get stuck in. So, start here?

Yeah, let's start in the center position,

which is right in here.

I'll use a spiral search pattern.

I'll just keep going round and round and round

-until you hear me shouting. -All right.

GARY: All right, I'm off in the woods.

NARRATOR: Over the past three weeks,

while trying to verify if this feature could be in the area,

the team has discovered a number of compelling clues,

like a construction tool, known as an adze,

that could date as far back as 1620,

the fragment of a possible Portuguese cannon,

and a large metallic anomaly

detected with a high-powered magnetometer.

RICK: Lot 4, to me,

has played a prominent role to date

in this year's search agenda.

Given what Gary has found,

I think it demands that we see what else is there

and very thoroughly investigate all the targets.

NARRATOR: In order to find more evidence

that will help the team obtain a permit

to excavate in search of the hatch,

Gary is using the GPX-5000,

a high-powered metal detector with an 18-inch coil capable

of identifying targets up to five feet deep.

(high-pitched whirring)

Big target here, guys.

This is a screamer.

I'm going to say that's probably our anomaly.

Okay. Hopefully, it's something good.

I'm on my way.

-(high-pitched whirring) -It's here.

-That's the center? -Yeah.

Go on, mate. You can do it.

All right.

(high-pitched whirring)

Let's see if I can pinpoint it.

(beeping)

Oh. It's deeper.

Deeper, yeah.

(high-pitched whirring)

And that's where you're just getting the edge of it.

Oh, mate, should I check it?

Yeah.

(high-pitched whirring)

Yeah, it's out.

GARY: Yup, sounds like you got it out.

(beeping)

JACK: Now you're on it. Yeah.

Ooh, look at this!

-STEVE G.: What do you have?

-(beeping) -Oh!

Yeah, a very, very interesting piece.

What do you have there?

Metal. I don't know what it is.

NARRATOR: While searching for evidence of a possible hatch

or tunnel entrance on Lot 4,

Gary Drayton has just made a potentially important discovery.

Wow. Look at that, mate.

Actually, this kind of looks like a massive iron staple.

It looks like it's broken, but this is definitely something

that you would expect to be in an old hatch.

Oh! What time period do you think that's from?

More than likely, it's pre-1830s.

-This is what we're looking for. -Mm-hmm.

I don't feel there's a lot of manganese in this.

-For... -Fits in with over by the swamp

-and the Money Pit. -Yeah.

Chunky piece of iron.

And it's in such good condition, as well.

But to me, it looks like it's broken.

And if you was looking for a hatch,

uh, I'm assuming the hatch is... got some wood on it.

If it is a wooden hatch, it would have one of these

-in for sure. -Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: An iron staple or fastener unearthed on Lot 4?

Could Gary's speculation that it's not only ancient,

but also potentially connected

to the reported "Hole Under the Hatch" be correct?

JACK Well, we're gonna have to find some more

to figure out exactly what went on here.

GARY: Yeah, obviously,

-we are not the first people out here. -Exactly.

STEVE G.: We still have more locations to check.

-So, that's a positive sign. -GARY: Yup.

So, going to keep continuing the search, and hopefully,

there's some more items like this.

-Yeah. -JACK: This is something

-we need to bag. -Oh, yeah, of course.

I'll take it to Steve,

-and then you keep going, and... -Okay, mate.

Hope we have other finds like that, if not better.

GARY: Yeah. I think this is

a crackin' little find, mate.

NARRATOR: The following morning

in the Money Pit area...

TERRY: F.25-4!

-We're down 39 feet, Charles? -Yup, 39.

NARRATOR: ...geologist Terry Matheson

and Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse

are supervising the drilling operation

in the team's new borehole on their strategic grid-- F.25-4.

A borehole that they hope will intercept a tunnel

some 118 feet deep that is believed

to contain a debris field of treasure

connected to the original Money Pit.

TERRY: We're only about a foot away from F-4 there.

If that is indeed Shaft Six and the tunnel coming off of that,

maybe that could account for the high

gold and silver readings we're getting in F-4.

Exactly. Part of the smashed-up treasure

or a vault that has fallen and shot

-into the Shaft Six tunnel. -Yeah.

MARTY: There could be a tunnel

between the shaft and the Money Pit area.

So, we're looking for it.

And the collapse of the Money Pit.

The water samples show the most gold and silver right there, so,

we think we're zeroing in on potentially at least part

of the treasure.

-CHARLES: We got another core coming. -Yup.

-119. -119.

Yup.

Look at this, Charles. This is really mixed up.

In terms of constituents, it's all till.

But look at the wood and chips and chunks through it.

-Yeah. -That's not at the periphery or the outside.

It's right in the core and center.

This is definitely clumps and chunks

of material that was dug out, mixed with clumps

of sticks and twigs that fell in between the clumps.

It's partially backfill and partially

dug material.

So... we did not intersect a tunnel.

That doesn't mean it's not there. We just didn't hit it.

We just didn't hit it. That's right.

NARRATOR: Having now reached a depth of nearly 120 feet,

and finding no hard evidence of the Shaft Six tunnel

nor the treasure it is believed to contain,

it appears that the team has missed their target.

However, since they have discovered high concentrations

of both silver and gold in nearby Borehole F-4

through water testing, they may not have missed by much.

And when they begin digging ten-foot-wide caissons

in the area just a few short weeks from now,

perhaps the ultimate discovery

connected to Shaft Six still awaits them.

RICK: Look, it's a process, all right? It's incremental.

And I think we're going to stay the course and

continue to drill the grid, and hopefully,

from that work, we'll be able

to ascertain exactly where the spots are

to put large cans to solve this thing.

TERRY: At least we know exactly where it isn't.

So, we can move over and see if we hit it

-just a little further to the east or west. -Okay.

TERRY: Lots of good information.

NARRATOR: While Terry Matheson concludes

the drilling operation in Borehole F.25-4...

BILLY: We're getting down into this more important zone,

I think. You know, every time we move ahead,

I'm a little more confident that we might find

-more pieces related to what we found last year. -Yeah. Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...Charles Barkhouse joins Gary Drayton

and other members of the team to look for more evidence

of a possible buried ship, and hopefully valuables,

near the southern edge of the swamp.

But all it takes, mate, is one good find.

-Yup, that's it. -And let's get that good find today.

CHARLES: Laird and I

are gonna go over, and we'll observe as you're digging.

Just in case we see something that you're pulling up,

-we can warn these guys. -GARY: All right, mate.

I'll get stuck in.

RICK: We're finding a plethora of items,

what we deem to be nautical finds.

There's certainly some strange goings-on in the swamp,

and I don't think we're anywhere near, uh, the finality of it.

GARY: All right, mate. We need a ship's bell, don't we?

-Yeah. -Is that a...?

Look! That's a...

Is that a piece of planking?

Looks like it's cut, as well.

It does. Yup.

-It's worth saving and cleaning up. -Yeah.

Hey, you know what it reminds me of?

-Could be... -You see that curve?

It reminds me of a barrel stave.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: A possible barrel stave?

This is one right here, too.

I think we've found a barrel here.

NARRATOR: Over the past year,

the team has found pieces of cargo barrels

in the swamp that date back 500 years or more,

not only near the cobblestone pathway,

which may be heading toward the Money Pit,

but also near the eastern side

of the massive stone ship's wharf.

A ship's wharf that may also date back at least 500 years

and be of Portuguese origin.

Would be curious to see if this matches up with the others.

NARRATOR: Could this potential piece of a barrel,

found in the area where the team has also

recently unearthed parts of a ship,

be connected and provide more evidence

of an ancient operation to unload cargo onto Oak Island?

-Well, we'll save it. -GARY: Okay.

All right, mate. Better get out of the way.

Billy Buckets is coming in.

BILLY: It may be nothing,

but when I flick the bucket, just come ahead,

just come right ahead in front of the bucket.

There's a small little pointy piece.

-This? -Yeah.

GARY: Oh, wow.

Well, that's interesting. Look at that, Scott.

-Look at that, Scott. -That's a nice piece, Gary.

GARY: I mean, yeah, you can definitely tell

that's not natural. That's been shaped like that.

-No. For sure. -Laird!

NARRATOR: Near the southern edge of the Oak Island swamp,

metal detection expert Gary Drayton

along with Billy Gerhardt and other members of the team

have just made another potentially critical discovery.

The archaeologist is here.

Oh. What do you have?

Well, we don't know, mate. Some kind of wooden plug.

-Huh. -Or a pin.

Yeah. You can see it's square here,

and then someone's carefully tapered it.

Yeah. It's-it's just got a nautical feel to it.

Yeah.

-And you see the beveled edges on the side? -Yup.

GARY: I mean, if we're finding ship's parts,

that would be well at home.

Yeah, for sure.

NARRATOR: A possible ship's pin found

near the southern edge of the swamp?

Dating back prior to the 14th century in Europe,

ship's pins, or belaying pins,

were made of either metal or wood

and were used to secure the rigging lines

for raising and lowering sails,

as well as for docking ships.

SCOTT: Then there's potential for that to be quite old.

Yup, yup.

NARRATOR: Because wooden belaying pins

were replaced by metal cleats by the 19th century,

is it possible the team has just discovered more evidence

of an ancient ship buried in the swamp?

GARY: That's the good thing about the swamp.

It might be stinky, but it saves all the good stuff.

You know, it makes you wonder what else is in there, right?

-GARY: Yeah. -Or what-what we could be missing.

GARY: Yeah.

CHARLES: All right. Let's get back to it.

-Thanks, Laird. -Thank you.

(engine starts)

I don't know about that. Looks more like bark.

-Yeah. -I think we're barking up the wrong tree with that one.

What is this?

That's a pretty smooth piece of wood right there.

GARY: Oh, wow. It's interesting. Look.

That looks like it was cut.

But why would anybody ever cut something in that way?

GARY: It stood out, didn't it?

Hey, Laird!

-They're calling you in, Laird. -Yeah.

What do you got?

We're hoping you can tell us, mate.

First impression: it looks like it's a...

a knot broken out of a trunk of a tree.

CHARLES: Wow.

SCOTT: But it's clearly been cut.

You ever seen anything like that?

No. It almost looks carved.

Yeah. It looks like it's been cut on the top and the bottom.

Yeah. Could it be part of a tool?

-LAIRD: Could well be. -GARY: Yeah.

Almost reminds me of, like,

that wooden T square we found in the swamp.

-CHARLES: Oh, yeah. -LAIRD: Yeah.

-RICK: Check this out. -Oh, God. Wow.

NARRATOR: Last year, after discovering the pieces

of cargo barrels along the cobblestone path

near the eastern border of the swamp,

Rick Lagina and members of the team

found what they believe to be a mason's wooden

T square measuring tool.

Okay. We're gonna look at the wood mason's tool.

NARRATOR: When they had it carbon-dated,

they were more than intrigued by the results.

This one was from 1632 to 1668.

Whoa.

It's purpose-built, right?

-GARY: Yeah. -CHARLES: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Could it be possible

that the team has now found a similar kind of tool?

If so, just what was its purpose?

And could it be connected to the possible fragments

of cargo barrels, and evidence of a ship

that have also recently been unearthed

in this region of the swamp?

It is.

GARY: This is a shaped piece of wood,

and obviously, it had some kind of purpose.

And recovering pieces of shaped wood is important

because this area is very close to the area

where we recovered that piece of ship's rail last year.

BILLY: We are getting closer and closer

to, you know, the swamp road, right?

So, I mean, it's a fair thought to think

that the road was used for a boat of some sort,

and now we're just getting in the good zone.

-Yeah. -We're finding a lot of pieces

concentrated in one area.

Hell of a lot of interesting pieces, as well.

-Yes. -Yeah. I'd expect to find more.

GARY: I know Rick, Marty, and Craig are gonna be

-very interested in this piece. -LAIRD: Yeah.

-LAIRD: Hey, guys. -ALEX: Hey, Laird.

-RICK: Here he is -Three guys from the field.

-Three guys from the swamp. -What you got?

Well, these are all coming out from the same basic spot.

NARRATOR: After discovering a number of wooden artifacts

near the southern border of the triangle-shaped swamp,

archaeologist Laird Niven, along with Scott Barlow

and Billy Gerhardt, have called a meeting

with Rick, Marty, Craig and other members of the team

in the war room.

LAIRD: This one is a bit of a mystery.

Maybe as woodworking people,

you'll have a little more insight into it.

-What the heck is that? -Hmm.

Hmm.

(scoffs) I have no idea what that is.

When you first handed it, I said,

-part of a piece of furniture. -Yup.

No. You know, looks like something must've that stained

or something was around.

Could a rope maybe have done that?

Yeah, it does almost look like a rope rubbing on the...

that one portion, under the lip.

RICK: I'd say you're right. That's a rope burn.

-TOM: That's what I think it is. Yeah. -RICK: Yeah.

Yeah. That's quite possible.

Then it's not furniture. To me, that looks maritime.

BILLY: It's all in the general range of where we found, uh,

the ship's rail last year.

We're pretty darn close.

NARRATOR: Could it be possible

that what Gary Drayton, Laird, Billy and Scott

believed might be a tool is actually another piece

of a large sailing vessel?

It was used extensively, that's for sure.

Friction burn like that is gonna take a while.

Mm-hmm. I think that's a much denser piece of wood...

-BILLY: Yeah. -because it's-it's already dry.

Yeah, so we talked about C-14 dating,

-but maybe we should look at... -I think we should look

-at species on that one. -Yeah.

'Cause if it is some exotic species,

that might tell us something, too.

Yeah, for sure.

Well, we're kind of, um, overwhelmed

by the stuff coming out of the swamp.

You know, they used to use black locust

-or something really hard to-to wind ropes around. -Yeah.

MARTY: You know, they're pieces of wood.

They're human-shaped.

The swamp preserves them

for literally hundreds of years.

So we need to get everything tested

to see how old the old is and separate out the new.

Anyway, the last one-- it's a worked piece of wood.

Um, almost like it was meant to be inserted partway.

So, possibly nautically related.

BILLY: So, you know, it could've been,

uh, you know, to hang your rope on.

How deep was that, Billy?

Two to three feet, probably.

We're just getting into the original surface of the swamp.

I have to give you guys credit to find this.

-ALEX: Yeah. -In one of those big buckets.

I mean, it is a pretty interesting piece,

and it would have been very hard to find.

Well, I mean, every time we've gone into that swamp,

we've found answers. Unfortunately,

don't give us all the answers, but

you-you know, we can't find it if we don't look, so...

NARRATOR: For the Oak Island team,

these discoveries offer important clues

that they hope will help solve the treasure mystery.

However, for Tom Nolan,

they also offer something very personal.

In 1969, his father, the late landowner

and legendary treasure hunter Fred Nolan,

drained the swamp,

believing that it might hold important clues.

After finding a number of survey stakes and parts of a ship,

including a piece of a mast,

Fred became convinced that the swamp had been artificially made

in order to hide the wreck of a treasure galleon.

Based on what I've seen on Fred's maps,

I would say you're in an ideal location.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that by working with Rick,

Marty and the team, Tom is one step closer

to proving his father's theory to be true?

RICK: Good eye.

Yeah, your team is doing fabulous.

Okay. Go find some more stuff!

Be out as soon as we can.

MARTY: Yeah, we'll be out there to help you.

-TOM: Thanks, guys. -LAIRD: Okay.

NARRATOR: Another historic week has

come to an end on Oak Island.

And even though Rick, Marty, Craig, and their team

still struggle to decode the mystery of the Money Pit,

the discoveries that they keep unearthing all across the island

only strengthen their resolve to believe

it will all be worth it in the end.

As they keep drilling and digging for clues,

will their efforts lead to the vast cache of untold riches

that people have been searching for since 1795,

or are those efforts leading them

to their greatest challenge and test of will yet?

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

GARY: Fingers crossed on this one.

-(beeping) -Oh, yeah. Look at the size of that!

-MARTY: Wow. -That is crazy.

This is a tool that you would use for moving items.

Bring your heavy stuff to shore,

-then you move it with that. -Yes.

JEREMY: This tunnel, next with this

very square structure in the Money Pit.

-Oh, baby! -(laughter)

-Whoa! -Whoa!

STEVE G.: We pierced something that hasn't

been pierced in a long time.

-The famous offset chamber. -Exactly.

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