Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

-GARY: We've got wood. -ALEX: That's a lot of wood

-we're bringing out. -MARTY: Roman numeral three there?

-Yeah. -It's the oldest-looking wood we've found.

ALEX: We're close to something.

I've got a hit.

JACK: That sounds good.

-Here it is. It's right on top! -(gasps)

Whoa.

The book states that some biblical treasures

link to Oak Island.

EDWARDS: The feature on the map

is outlined exactly like the stone feature

found at the north end of the swamp.

JACK: This is big.

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.

♪ ♪

ALEX: The caisson's advancing pretty easily.

-KATYA: It is. -Look at that,

look how much it drops when they, when they turn it.

KATYA: Good progress.

NARRATOR: A day of unrivaled hope and anticipation

has begun on Oak Island for brothers Rick

and Marty Lagina and their team.

Vanessa.

What's going on?

JARED: The pressures are starting to drop.

It's definitely loose now.

Like we went through something.

NARRATOR: And that is because,

in the fabled Money Pit area,

they are conducting a massive excavation

that may soon reveal the answers

to the 230-year-old treasure mystery.

ALEX: Hey.

-Hey. What's up? -So, uh...

-The dig is at 95 feet. -ALEX: Mm-hmm.

-Right on. -So, about three feet away from that target area.

-The first of, the first of many. -Yes.

NARRATOR: After breaking ground

-one week ago... -VANESSA: Nice job.

-You're oscillating. -(cheering, applause)

NARRATOR: ...under the supervision of Vanessa Lucido

and her company ROC Equipment,

along with representatives from SB Canada...

MARTY: This is great.

-Let's dig. -(cheering)

NARRATOR: ...a seven-foot-diameter steel shaft

dubbed "True Believer 1,"

has reached a depth of nearly 100 feet,

and is believed, for a number of reasons,

to be located within the original Money Pit.

First, it is in this area where recent groundwater tests

have revealed high traces of precious metals

below the 100-foot level.

Second, it is near that depth

where the team has retrieved remnants

of a mysterious wooden tunnel.

This looks like the vault.

NARRATOR: And third, it is where

a previous core-drilling operation this year

recovered possible evidence, approximately 150 feet deep,

of the fabled Chappell Vault,

a seven-foot-high container

that was first reported by treasure hunters

Frederick Blair and William Chappell

back in 1897.

Really interesting, for the last four feet,

the casing has gone in ridiculously easy.

-Oh, really? -So, we are not oscillating.

-That casing is just going in. -ALEX: It's just dropping?

-It's just dropping. -Yes.

What do you think it might be?

VANESSA: This would either mean sand

or easy, soft soil.

-Mm-hmm. -Two, a cavity, right?

VANESSA: Some void or something like that,

that we are just installing it through.

TERRY: We're still only about three and a half feet away

from our very first target horizon.

And that is 98.5 to 99,

we hit the top of what we think might be a tunnel.

-Right. -So, we'll watch what the grab's bringing up

and what that material is.

Yeah, that-that's gonna be an imperative, right?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: As the TB-1 shaft

advances deeper towards the possible tunnel,

an 18-and-a-half-ton tool known as a hammer grab

is being used to bring the spoils,

and hopefully, evidence of man-made workings,

to the surface.

But at the end of the day, it's what comes out of the hole

that probably tells exactly what we're into.

-ALEX: Yep. -Patience will ultimately carry the day.

TERRY: For sure.

NARRATOR: As the excavation proceeds

in the Money Pit area...

...later that morning...

BILLY: I'll cut this down, you can dig that way

a little bit, maybe, and see what you see.

Yep.

NARRATOR: ...Alex Lagina

has joined Katya Drayton and Billy Gerhardt

in the northern region of the swamp.

We're right on the edge of the stone path.

Yeah.

I'll just pull off a couple inches and then

hope for something good.

NARRATOR: They are searching for additional sections

of a mysterious cobblestone pathway

that was unearthed in this area several weeks ago,

and which was bordered by a number

of wooden survey stakes.

We are really close to that brick and slate structure here.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: And what was most curious about the pathway

was that it led them

to a mysterious vault-like feature

made of brick and slate.

A structure which archaeologist Laird Niven believes

may have been created prior to the discovery

of the Money Pit in 1795.

-KATYA: Is that pottery? -ALEX: Yeah.

ALEX: Look.

Looks like maybe the handle to a jug?

Beautiful.

ALEX: There is the potential that this pottery was just used in,

you know, the domestic occupation and everyday life.

-All right. -And then there's the potential

that this was used by somebody

hundreds of years ago who may have put treasure here.

This could be pretty important to the search.

Here's more of that lighter pottery.

KATYA: Ooh. We're finding a lot in this area.

You never know what the littlest finds could be.

Hopefully, this could be the first clue

to finding a new structure in the swamp.

NARRATOR: Now, as the team finds more evidence of human activity,

they are hoping to also uncover new sections

of the pathway, and perhaps additional vaults

that may still contain something of value.

ALEX: Hey, Billy?

Why don't we do this side?

There's rocks in here.

I think, if we take another scrape,

it'll be obvious if it's a structure.

BILLY: Yep.

At this point, we're really just trying to follow

this stone path where it leads.

As far as it pertains to the treasure hunt,

to me, the most useful information is where it goes.

But this is on the edge of the permitted area,

and we didn't expect to find anything like this here.

So, hopefully more artifacts will bring it to light.

I think that is undisturbed.

Those don't look like stacked rocks to me.

BILLY: Yeah.

-We can go deeper, though. -Yep.

NARRATOR: While the Oak Island team has the freedom to dig

as much as they choose in the Money Pit area,

because the swamp is a wetland,

they must obtain separate permits

from the provincial government to explore its numerous regions.

-KATYA: Hi. -Hey.

What have we found?

Uh, we got some pottery...

KATYA: So far, lots of pottery.

ALEX: But no more of the path.

RICK: Okay.

I-I do think we're done here.

We're at the end of the permitted area?

Pretty much, yep.

RICK: Unfortunately,

we're not finding cobbles in this northern area.

We're at the limits of our permit.

I think we need to expand our permit

to do more work in the area.

We know for a fact the swamp was heavily manipulated.

I don't think we yet have even a competent understanding

of what the swamp is hiding.

Perhaps something associated with where X marks the spot is.

There's still a lot of work to do.

We've got to puzzle-piece what we think happened here.

And I think that there is still more to find.

Yep.

KATYA: Sounds good.

NARRATOR: After concluding the dig in the swamp...

MARTY: Hey, big brother.

You always ask me about Bravo Tango.

Is this Bravo Tango?

MARTY: We'll see.

NARRATOR: ...Rick and Alex Lagina

return to the Money Pit area as the hammer grab tool

is about to begin removing materials

from some 100 feet deep in the TB-1 shaft,

which is just above the team's target depth of 109 feet.

ALEX: So, the material

at the bottom of the can is very soft.

It does kind of speak

to a void somewhere.

SCOTT: Well, that's interesting

because we knew that we had a zone of interest here.

Anything could be in this caisson.

It could be something that is highly significant.

We're approaching the depth of the tunnel.

You should encounter a lot of wood

if it is indeed a tunnel.

There's a top, there's a bottom, there are sidewalls.

So, my hope is that this will be very definitive

in supporting the idea

that there was a tunnel at this depth.

MARTY: Whenever we the fellowship are watching the hammer grab,

we really have high hopes

that the very next scoop, every time,

is gonna be something hugely meaningful.

GARY: Ooh! Look at that.

-MARTY: Wood, baby. -ALEX: Yeah.

ALEX: Well, we're at about 110, 111 feet right now,

which is the very end of our first zone of interest.

And that's a lot of wood we're bringing out.

GARY: And it's all short timbers.

-Kind of like a tunnel. -Yeah.

ALEX: I agree, Gary, it looks like a tunnel.

GARY: Let's see if there's anything in that tunnel.

ALEX: That's a lot of wood we're bringing out.

-Gary, it looks like a tunnel. -GARY: Yeah, it does.

Let's see if there's anything in that tunnel.

NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area,

upon reaching a depth of nearly 110 feet

-in the TB-1 shaft... -That's clean.

NARRATOR: ...the Oak Island team has

just recovered evidence of a mysterious wooden structure.

GARY: What's interesting to me is

we ain't found any metal fasteners in there,

which leads me to believe

-that it's an older construction. -ALEX: Yeah.

TERRY: Look at this, my friend!

What do you got, Terry?

TERRY: Pretty sure that's a dowel.

(chuckling) Yeah, it is. It looks like it's broken.

-In place. Yeah. -Look at that.

Wow, this speaks to relatively old material.

GARY: Yeah.

Does it go through to the other side?

We'll have to wash it up and we'll have a look.

-Okay, mate. -I think we're going

-to show this to Marty. -Good catch.

There's more wood.

GARY: This is definitely an older style of construction.

They're using dowel pegs

and when we get this wood tested,

maybe it's original timbers

from the construction of the Money Pit,

which means we're getting closer to finding treasure.

♪ ♪

-Hey, Terry. -What do you got?

Found an interesting piece of wood, mate.

-Yeah. -It's got grooves and...

Look at that.

-Let's show it to Marty. -All right, mate.

What do you think of that, Marty?

-There's an interesting... -Yeah, that's marked.

-TERRY: Yeah. -MARTY: Roman numeral.

Number three there? Is that what that is?

TERRY: That looks like a pretty distinct three to me.

And look, we've got a dowel there.

MARTY: Same as the U-shaped structure.

It implies the same construction.

MARTY: Same construction methodology, for sure.

-I think that's really cool. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: In 2018, Rick, Marty and the team excavated

Smith's Cove in an effort to uncover the remains

of the legendary flood tunnel system

believed to feed seawater into the Money Pit.

During the dig, they uncovered

a massive wooden feature that was first discovered

by Dan Blankenship in 1971,

which he dubbed the "U-shaped structure."

You got a Roman numeral?

If it is, it's a seven. V-I-I.

NARRATOR: A structure that not only featured

carved Roman numerals and wooden dowels

but is also believed to have been built

as part of the booby trap system

by whomever buried valuables in the Money Pit.

Is it possible that the carved Roman numerals

and the nearly identical wooden dowel offer evidence

that the team is, in fact,

digging in the original Money Pit?

So if this is that old, then that means we are

very close to the Money Pit, right?

Which we've been suspecting forever.

It's basically the oldest looking wood we've found.

Could be the cribbing from the depths of the Money Pit.

MARTY: I think we've been fairly convinced

that the TB-1 area is roughly

the site of the original Money Pit.

There's a lot of evidence that there is still something here.

We're zeroing in on possibly finding the treasure.

ALEX: Hey, Vanessa.

-VANESSA: Hey. -Hey, Vanessa.

I got some new numbers for you, guys.

-What do you got? -We just took a measurement.

We're at 117 with the dig.

And then, what we're really chasing is

the treasure vault below at 150 feet.

NARRATOR: In the spring of 1897,

Frederick Blair and William Chappell

reportedly drilled into a seven-foot-tall vault

that was encased in concrete at a depth of some 153 feet.

After extracting their drill rod,

they were astonished to find traces of gold on the bit,

and an ancient piece of parchment

with the letters V-I written on it.

These discoveries have made people wonder

if the Oak Island treasure may include,

not only objects of great value but also

important historical documents.

We're picking up now.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

that the Laginas and their team

might soon be able to finally reveal the truth?

All right. Keep digging.

-Okay. -MARTY: Yeah, full speed ahead.

TERRY: Let's hope we come up with the goods.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

...as the excavation in TB-1 continues...

RICK: First of all, I'd just like to say welcome

to Scott Clarke and John Edwards.

I think all of us will learn some very impactful things.

Thank you very much, Rick.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina has gathered

members of the team in the war room

for an important meeting with researcher John Edwards,

as well as author and 32nd- degree Freemason Scott Clarke.

You all are well aware of them

coming here before and their areas of interest.

And today, they are going to enlighten us further.

So, gentlemen, we look forward

-to your presentation. -EDWARDS: Thank you very much.

Last year I came to Oak Island, Rick, as you know,

to present some books I had acquired in Israel,

um, in 2019.

And what interested me about the books mostly

was the hand-drawn images,

ciphers and Masonic symbols

and Crusader symbols as well as references

to biblical treasures from Jerusalem.

I've acquired two ancient books,

one was The Whole Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus.

The publication date was 1812.

And then, the second book has a publication date of 1763.

NARRATOR: One year ago,

when John first presented the team

with these books, which he purchased

from a private collector in Israel,

it was due to his belief that they may be connected

to the Knights Templar--

a medieval Christian military order

who some researchers claim

buried a vast treasure,

including religious artifacts,

on Oak Island between the 12th and 14th centuries.

According to John, these books are part

of a five-volume series,

one of which contained an image of Oak Island

and codes that John believed

pointed to a buried treasure cache

in the northern region of the swamp.

I can feel the rocks under my feet here...

NARRATOR: When the team investigated the area,

they did not find buried valuables

but instead, a man-made feature composed of boulders

that may have served as a marker

to indicate that something could be buried nearby.

EDWARDS: So what was interesting about the books

supplied to me by the seller

when I acquired them, is it has a map

of Oak Island.

And I felt that these were significant

to solving the Oak Island mystery.

And maybe even finding a treasure here on Oak Island.

So what's really interesting...

the map shows a square-like structure or a vault

that actually points to a place on Oak Island.

That place seems to be at the north end of the swamp.

And what's interesting about the map,

as soon as Scott and I both saw it...

...we both immediately remarked, it looks like

the vault-like feature found at the north end of the swamp.

JACK: Whoa!

That's pretty spot-on.

RICK: That's pretty cool.

The vault-like feature in the map is outlined

exactly like the vault-like feature found

in the swamp to a T.

JACK: All right!

NARRATOR: In the war room,

researcher John Edwards,

along with 32nd-degree Freemason Scott Clarke

have just presented the Oak Island team

with a potentially critical clue.

RICK: That's pretty cool.

NARRATOR: An image from a mysterious book

containing secret codes and ciphers

related to the missing sacred treasures

of the Knights Templar.

A book which also features a map of Oak Island

and a possible image of the brick and slate vault

that the team recently uncovered in the triangle-shaped swamp.

I think the map

and the book definitely suggest something is going on.

CLARKE: Somebody went

to a lot of trouble to encode these books.

If someone was trying to hide something,

they would definitely want to encode it.

You just have to figure out "who."

EDWARDS: Absolutely.

So we started to do a deep dive in the books.

Within the books are clues that are encoded

using a process of underlining specific letters

to spell out words, phrases and names.

One of the names is that of John Easson.

CLARKE: John Easson was a longtime Freemason

in Annapolis Royal,

which is the oldest lodge in all of Canada.

And this was a lodge where,

again, the clues all seem to point directly to Oak Island.

NARRATOR: Located 62 miles northwest of Oak Island,

the city of Annapolis Royal was originally established

by French settlers in 1605

and became home to the first Canadian lodge

for the secretive fraternal organization

known as the Freemasons in 1738.

So what's interesting about the name John Easson...

we see a lineage in his family of Masons.

John Easson's great-grandson, Thomas Easson Ritchie, was also

a member of the Annapolis Royal lodge

from at least 1818 onwards.

The Masonic lodge was held at a place called the Sinclair Inn.

So in the Sinclair Inn, there are painted murals.

There is one particular, uh, painting

of what many people think is a Crusader tent.

Some people are calling it a Templar tent.

It looks very much

like the tents used during the Crusades

and later adopted by Freemasonry.

Yeah. And we know the Crusader tent was used

when the Ark of the Covenant

-and other holy artifacts were traveling. -Yeah.

The books seem to suggest

that there's biblical treasures

connected to Crusaders going to Nova Scotia.

FIONA: So, what may be here

on Oak Island is those types of religious treasures?

Oh, yeah.

When we consider the image

of the Sinclair Inn, could be a Crusader tent,

when the Templars were officially disbanded in 1312,

their assets were given to the Knights Hospitaller.

The Hospitallers eventually became the Knights of Malta.

And they actually continue to this day, um,

as the Knights of Malta.

NARRATOR: In 1312, Pope Clement V

and King Philip IV of France dissolved and persecuted

their own military order known as the Knights Templar.

The Church claimed that the Templars, who had fought

for Christian interests during the holy wars

known as the Crusades

had become corrupt and committed acts of heresy.

However, some researchers believe

that the true reason for the disbandment

was because the Templars had come to possess a vast treasure,

which included sacred artifacts such as the Holy Grail,

the menorah from the Temple of King Solomon

and the Ark of the Covenant.

Many Templars were arrested and executed.

But others escaped, and their sacred treasures

have never been located.

While some believe that a group of Templars

fled to North America and hid a portion

of the priceless valuables on Oak Island,

it is speculated by researchers

such as John Edwards and Scott Clarke

that a large collection of the sacred artifacts

were entrusted to related organizations

such as the Knights of Malta,

a secretive fraternity with links to the Freemasons,

who are known to have had a presence in Canada

dating back to the early 17th century.

CLARKE: So, people may not realize that the colony

of Acadia, which is now Nova Scotia,

was actually founded by a member of the Knights of Malta.

So, his name was Isaac de Razilly,

and he was a Knight Commander of the Order of Malta.

EDWARDS: Yeah.

So, the five books also had several depictions

of this Solomon's Temple menorah.

The cross shown above the menorah

is an eight-point cross.

It is associated, modern day, with the Knights of Malta.

So, if you look at the page I have marked here in the back,

you can clearly see the location in the book

of the Malta cross is intentionally placed

referencing both the Temple of Solomon

and the Temple of Jerusalem.

CLARKE: And it literally mentions the word "Malta"

-right below it. -Yep.

SCOTT: We definitely believe that the books show

it is a multigenerational endeavor

linking biblical treasures to Oak Island.

EDWARDS: And we're finding

actual correlations with things

found here on Oak Island, like Lot 5,

and the stone-like structure or vault out in the swamp.

So, I'm pretty excited that we're actually finding

physical evidence to match what the books are telling us.

-Interesting. -NARRATOR: Could John Edwards

and Scott Clarke have actually uncovered critical clues

suggesting that different groups connected to the Knights Templar

have made repeated visits to Oak Island

in order to hide and protect sacred religious treasures?

If so, could that explain the vault-like structure

in the northern region of the swamp,

a mysterious round feature on Lot 5

where the team has found artifacts

dating to between the 14th and 18th centuries

and perhaps even the Chappell Vault,

believed to be buried in the original Money Pit?

RICK: It has always been my thought

that this was a multigenerational attempt

to focus on one singular objective,

and that is to hide something of significance on Oak Island.

It may have started with Templars,

and then some of these participants

were actually endeavored to keep it hidden

for later generations to come back and find it.

So, there is now an imperative to try to understand, uh,

the possibility of the Knights of Malta

having something to do with the work done on Oak Island.

The books have become increasingly important.

I think the Knights of Malta are

an incredibly complex organization.

They survived the Templar expulsion,

they inherited what the Templars had,

they were represented in Nova Scotia,

they survive to this day.

We might have a possible connection

to who, in terms of the who, what, when, where, why and how.

All of us have a lot of homework to do.

John, Scott, thank you very much for your presentation.

-Thank you. -Appreciate it.

RICK: Having said that,

we need to go to work.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon,

as Rick and members of the team

anxiously monitor the excavation of TB-1

in the Money Pit area...

-ALEX: Okay. Let's take a look. -KATYA: Awesome.

NARRATOR: ...on Lot 5,

located on the western side of Oak Island...

(device beeping)

MARTY: Hey, Gary, I like that sound.

GARY: Yeah, having a beeping good time.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina has joined

metal detection expert Gary Drayton

and Jack Begley to investigate an area

near the rounded stone foundation.

JACK: There's a lot more flags around here.

Okay. Let's do it.

NARRATOR: A stone foundation where the team has uncovered

not only man-made mortar that matches soil samples

from more than 100 feet deep in the Money Pit area

but which archaeologist Laird Niven believes

may have been constructed and modified

during different time periods prior to the 19th century.

Let's see

-the spoil piles down there. -Lead on.

NARRATOR: Following the team's meeting

earlier today with John Edwards and Scott Clarke,

Gary detected and marked

a number of mysterious metal targets

buried near the surface.

Now, after receiving permission from Laird Niven,

Gary, Marty and Jack are eager to find out

just what they could be.

GARY: I'll go on one side of this.

MARTY: There were at least two different occupations here.

The main one, that they keep finding artifacts about,

in the mid-1700s, but perhaps a much earlier one.

We're hoping Lot 5 can shed some light

on the story of Oak Island.

-(device beeping) -GARY: Ooh.

Great hit.

-Is that, is that nonferrous? -Yeah.

GARY: Yep, it's right there.

Brilliant.

(device beeping)

Ooh, ooh, something good coming up here.

Yeah, there's a lot of rocks here,

and stuff sticks to them.

-(device beeping) -There it is!

-It's right on top. -JACK: What?

-Where do you see it? -I don't even see it.

-Right there. -(Jack gasps)

GARY: Nice and round.

-What we got? -JACK: Whoa!

GARY: There it is! It's right on top.

-Wow. -Whoa, I thought it was

a coin or a button from the top of it.

That's a nice copper nail.

NARRATOR: On Lot 5,

located on the western side of Oak Island,

Marty Lagina, Jack Begley and Gary Drayton

have just made a potentially important discovery

near the mysterious stone foundation.

GARY: Yep. That's a copper nail.

I have found a few of these nails

on the treasure coast beaches of Florida,

connected to 1600s and 1700s shipwrecks.

These were from the inside

-of the ship. -Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: Due to their ability to resist corrosion in salt water,

copper nails were commonly used in the construction

of European sailing vessels

dating back to as early as 3500 BC.

If this copper nail made its way to Oak Island on a large ship,

could it be an important clue

that might help identify who constructed

or later modified the round feature on Lot 5

prior to the discovery of the Money Pit?

GARY: All right, got another pile here.

MARTY: As often occurs on Lot 5, we make a very significant find.

On shore, you have no real reason to use a copper nail,

so this very much suggests

a maritime, uh, influence of some sort, a ship.

So, Lot 5 could be a big part of figuring this whole thing out,

and what went on over at the Money Pit.

Oop. I got a hit.

-Sounds good. -Yeah, it sounds...

-Could be right, just right there. -Yeah.

Let's see if I can pinpoint it.

-(device beeps) -Ah.

-(rapid beeping) -In your hand.

-It's another... -(gasps)

It's another one.

Well, this is a little bit different.

-It's small. -It's smaller, but it looks like it's the same make.

Is that copper, too?

GARY: Yeah, small copper nail.

This is 100% boat-related.

JACK: I'm really hoping

that the metallurgy or just the overall style

will give us a definitive date, because that round feature,

it looks like it was built at an earlier time

than most of the artifacts that we found.

So, it could give us the original date

-when that was built. -MARTY: Yeah.

Well, here's the thing:

both copper nails speak of, uh, ships.

-Yeah. -And that's kind of new here.

We still don't know what the hell this is

and who made it...

-Yeah. -...and, uh, that may be a clue.

So, we need to get back to the lab and find out

what they say about it.

-Let's go. -Okay, mate.

-JACK: Great day. -MARTY: Yeah, that was good.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

TERRY: Today is treasure day.

GARY: Yeah, you got that right, mate.

STEVE: So, we're at 147.

NARRATOR: ...as the excavation in the TB-1 shaft

proceeds toward a target depth of some 150 feet...

-CARMEN: Hey, great to see everybody. -EMMA: Hey.

LAIRD: Hey, Carmen.

NARRATOR: ...Jack Begley

and other members of the team

welcome blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge

back to the Oak Island laboratory.

CARMEN: What do you got for me?

JACK: We recovered these two nails on Lot 5.

NARRATOR: They are eager for Carmen to examine

the two copper nails that were recovered

one day ago near the round feature

and determine if they could predate the discovery

of the original Money Pit in 1795.

Well, with this one here,

it has a very, uh, large head onto it.

Flat-topped, underneath is sloped

-to the shaft. -Yeah.

Square-tapered nail all the way down,

except for the-- right underneath, the head is round.

Fortunately, I know what these are,

and they're copper sheathing tacks, or "clouts."

These nails are very typical for...

...fastening the sheathing sheets

-to the underside of the boats. -JACK: Yeah.

Now these could've been used for other purposes

if they had a bunch on the ship.

But its main use

is for sheeting along the hulls of ships?

The underside of ships, yep.

These were major seagoing ships.

I would like to know

if there is any lead or arsenic content in these nails.

That would help me date it for you.

Those sound like questions for Emma.

NARRATOR: Earlier this morning,

archeometallurgist Emma Culligan scanned the copper nails

using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, or XRF,

a device that identifies the elements

in an object's composition

to help determine when they were created.

EMMA: So, it is a copper alloy, so it's a pure bronze alloy.

There is lead content. So, they're consistent in lead.

So, it looks like there's arsenic.

In my opinion, this is 1700s,

somewhere between 1720 to 1760.

JACK: Wow.

CARMEN: In my opinion, this is 1700s.

Somewhere between 1720 to 1760.

Wow.

NARRATOR: In the Oak Island laboratory,

blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge

has just given his assessment

that the two ship-related copper nails,

found one day ago on Lot 5,

could predate the discovery of the Money Pit

by as much as 75 years.

So, why was it there in that area?

It could be evidence of

who created the feature on Lot 5

and where they were from.

Well, is there any other people or, um,

persons that could be related to that time period?

Yes. Could be the Knights of Malta.

-Oh, really? -JACK: Mm-hmm.

-Wow. -More intrigue.

NARRATOR: Could Jack's notion be correct

that these copper nails offer evidence

to support the theory

that members of the Knights of Malta,

who were known to have been connected

to the medieval order of the Knights Templar,

may have visited Oak Island

decades before the discovery of the Money Pit?

JACK: There is a lot of speculation as to the relationship

between the Knights Templar and the Knights of Malta.

We know that they were in the area.

They were in the Nova Scotian area

during the early 1700s.

Maybe they were actually following the steps of Templars.

And maybe they were helping to make a deposit of their own.

Any artifact that predates discovery of the Money Pit

is really something special,

because this was left

possibly by the depositors of the treasure.

So, this gives me hope

that we're zeroing in on a whodunnit.

Yeah.

Thanks for coming by, Carmen, a-and weighing in your opinion,

because it really helped.

Yep, I'm glad I could help a little, you know?

I wish you good luck

-and anything I can do to help, I will. -All right.

We'll give you a call when we find some more.

CARMEN: Very good.

NARRATOR: As the meeting concludes in the lab...

JARED: Those pressures are getting pretty high right now.

We're on something.

NARRATOR: ...an intense situation is developing

in the Money Pit area.

Uh, what depth do you think the teeth are at right now?

I would say 160.

NARRATOR: Upon reaching a depth

of 160 feet in the TB-1 shaft,

where the team hopes to encounter

a concrete-encased chest, known as the Chappell Vault,

the steel caissons have hit a mysterious obstruction.

VANESSA: Is she cutting through it?

JARED: She's trying to. Come on.

NARRATOR: As eager as the team is to find out

what they may have discovered,

it could take some time for the caisson

to breach the obstruction,

and allow the hammer grab to bring more spoils,

and potential valuables, to the surface.

We want to get to depth.

So, we've got to get down there.

JARED: Ah, we'll get through it.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, near the wash plant,

located several hundred feet to the east...

Hey, Marty.

Let's go over there and you can show me what you found today.

NARRATOR: ...Charles Barkhouse and Marty Lagina

are inspecting artifacts that were found

in the recently unearthed TB-1 spoils.

Got a few things to show you here, Marty.

-MARTY: More leather. -CHARLES: More leather.

You think that's shoe leather or a glove?

Hard to say.

The stitching is quite broad on those.

Yeah. It's more like shoe leather, isn't it?

Yeah.

-Well, it can all be carbon dated, so... -Yeah.

...that could help solve something.

And we found this, and it might not be anything,

but it kind of looked to me like concrete.

MARTY: Look at that.

Yeah. It looks very like concrete.

Yes.

NARRATOR: A piece of possible concrete?

The same material that reportedly encases

the legendary Chappell Vault?

-MARTY: Good job. -Thank you.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that this concrete

could be a major clue regarding the obstruction

that has just been encountered

approximately 160 feet deep in the TB-1 shaft?

Keep up the good work.

Go on, we'll feed you plenty of material.

Okay. Sounds good.

-We'll find it. -MARTY: Oh, yeah.

NARRATOR: While Charles Barkhouse

oversees the operation at the wash plant...

...later that afternoon...

VANESSA: Our pressures are dropping.

So, that means whatever we're cutting through is hard at first

-but we're cutting right through it, so... -TERRY: That's great.

VANESSA: My dig is at 160 feet.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina has joined Rick

and other members of the team in the Money Pit area.

Now that the caisson has breached

the possible obstruction,

a breakthrough discovery could be just moments away.

-ALEX: Dig's at 160. -Yeah.

It could be the treasure vault.

We're about to get into totally new territory.

-ALEX: Mm-hmm. -Yep.

So, the normal high intensity is heightened in this case

because we're very close to the vault.

Now we're thinking, hey, the next thing is gonna be

a handful of doubloons or something.

You know? A chalice, something.

We really are thinking that. You can feel it.

(rumbling)

Are you feeling those tremors occasionally?

-No. -I just did.

Really?

(machinery whirring)

(rumbling)

(metal clanking)

-RICK: That ain't good. -It's caving!

Hey, stop. It's (bleep) caving in.

(hydraulics hissing)

Holy (bleep).

♪ ♪

JARED: Hey, stop! It's caving in.

NARRATOR: It is a critical moment in the Money Pit area.

VANESSA: Yeah. We're caving.

NARRATOR: As representatives from ROC Equipment and SB Canada

are inspecting a potentially catastrophic cave-in

beneath the TB-1 caisson.

-Hey, Vanessa. -VANESSA: Hey.

-MARTY: We got a problem? -We're having caving.

-What does that mean? -VANESSA: This place

has been Swiss-cheesed, right? And we tried to, you know,

make it as comparable as we could

before we started drilling, so I did expect

some sort of caving around things.

This one's a little bit bigger than I'm comfortable

with moving forward at the moment.

NARRATOR: After more than two centuries

of previous treasure hunting activities...

Let's go look.

NARRATOR: ...which have left abandoned tunnels

and backfilled shafts buried across the Money Pit area,

the ground surrounding and beneath TB-1

suddenly starts to collapse.

MARTY: This is a huge deal.

This is how disasters occur.

If you want to look up in there, you can see

-it's starting to cave. -Oh yeah.

Oh, my God, yeah.

MARTY: There's only a certain amount of iron

that's supporting that very massive oscillator.

And that is sitting on the ground.

And if the ground is caving away,

the whole thing can cave away.

I am very concerned about this.

This is not good.

JARED: It's 30-feet drop all the way right here.

RICK: Holy... That is huge.

-It's a lot of material. -JARED: Yeah.

It suggests there's something down hole

swallowing all that stuff.

As I'm peering down,

the situation appears somewhat grave.

Something's happening underground

that is taking an enormous amount of material

and swallowing it.

Will we be able to advance the caisson?

Let's just decide what we're gonna do.

RICK: Is this becoming unsafe to the point

where we have to remove the oscillator?

We have to move off of this area?

Which is our priority target, number one.

So, there are a lot of issues going on.

MARTY: Is it likely we are really going to advance this casing?

We'd like to proceed, if it's safe.

We're far from quitting right now.

-Yeah. -VANESSA: Yeah.

-So, we're going to backfill that area. -STEVE: Sure.

VANESSA: And then we're going to be monitoring,

you know, every couple feet, making sure

we're not having any caving.

But, um...

...it is setting us back a little bit.

We keep losing the material.

I can't guarantee we are going to keep advancing.

(machine beeping)

MARTY: If that stabilizes and we can do it, we'll keep going.

Just see what happens.

-ALEX: Yeah. -Yes.

NARRATOR: Just as the team

may be closing in on answers,

and a fabled treasure vault,

their most ambitious operation to reveal both

is now in jeopardy.

Will Oak Island prevail once again

and keep hold of its precious secrets?

Or can Rick, Marty, Craig and their team

outmaneuver a mystery

that has lasted for more than two centuries?

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

GARY: I've got a signal. Oh, look at that.

-CRAIG: Oh, yeah. -Isn't that amazing?

This I would actually date mid-1700s to late 1700s.

That could be pre-searcher?

-This could be pre-searcher. -(laughter)

It demonstrates wealth, nobility.

-MARTY: Wow. -JACK: Some prominent person

was on Oak Island, pre-Money Pit.

-Yeah. -CRAIG: That's great.

-MARTY: Where's the gold? -RICK: Whoa!

We could have just pierced the tunnel or chamber.

It could be a treasure vault.

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