Original subtitles

Narrator: Tonight on the curse of oak island...

Gary: Ooh, look at that.

Fantastic, mate! This is old.

Laird: Often the detail is really cryptic.

Rick: The only people who would do that would be templars.

- There has got to be more out there. ! What's that?

Sweet.

- Alex: Wow. -Ian: We took the samples to analyze

for silver, and we got a spike.

There is every reason to believe down in those holes

- there's treasure. -Marty: Baby!

Jack: No way!

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,

mysterious fragments of human bone,

and a lead cross whose origin may stretch back

to the days of 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.

rick: It is brisk up here.

Terry: Cross your fingers, dude.

It's only supposed to get up to ten today.

Narrator: It is the beginning of the final week

that rick and marty lagina,

along with their team, have to conduct major search operations

this year on oak island.

Now that the harsh north atlantic winter is setting in,

they are nearly out of time, at least for now,

to attempt to solve the 226-year-old treasure mystery.

However, in a year

that has seen more progress than any before it,

they intend to use every precious second they have left

to locate the fabled treasure vault

believed to lie buried deep in the original money pit.

The 1706 wood is right here, inside of oc-1.

-Yep. -And a lot of the early drilling we were doing

-for craig was chasing that. -Yeah.

So, based on our discussion last night, we've come up with

-this location, c-11.5. -Rick: Yep.

We still need a second, intersection point so we can

get some linear fashion to that 1706 structure.

Well, let's go to 118, see if we're chasing

anything at all, and then make the call then.

-Okay. -Rick: All righty.

- Terry: Bingo! -Charles: We've got wood!

Narrator: During their core drilling program this year,

the team has found numerous compelling clues

spanning an area of more than 50 feet wide

between boreholes c-1 and oc-1

that include evidence of wood tunnels

nearly 90 feet deep that all pre-date

the discovery of the money pit by as much as 150 years.

Hey, jack. Check this out.

Whoa. Good find, mike.

Narrator: However, it was in the spoils of oc-1

that the team discovered a hand-forged rose head spike

encrusted with man-made concrete.

It was this kind of material

that surrounded a seven-foot-high wooden vault

that treasure hunters frederick blair and william chappell

reportedly drilled into back in 1897.

Rick: Where is the money pit?

Right now, we have two areas that

we're significantly interested in, one around c-1

and one around oc-1.

We are finding shafts and possible tunnels

that are not delineated from any historical context.

Again, you have to stay focused.

And so, we'll take our time to develop

the x marks the spot for the vault.

So, we got our marching orders. We go to 118,

unless we see something, then we go deeper

-until we are out of it. Okay. -Yep.

-Rick: Okay, let's get after it. -Steve g.: Yeah.

Narrator: While the drilling operation in the money pit area continues...

-...Later that morning... -Marty: Hey, guys!

-Hello! -Narrator: ...Marty lagina,

his partner craig tester and jack begley

have gathered in the war room

for a meeting via video conference

with rick and geoscientist dr. Ian spooner.

Dr. Spooner, I understand you have a concept for us that

may help us with our sort of quest in the money pit.

So far, the drilling has been great, but it

hasn't found us what we are looking for.

Yeah, basically what we want to do is help you guys

-put an x on the map. -Okay.

So, the idea is

to look at water, down drill holes that exist

because the water in those wells should reflect

the chemistry of the ground that they interact with.

And so, I talked to dr. Matt lukeman at arcadia.

He's an excellent chemist.

And matt and I thought, you know,

well, how would we identify

whether or not there was treasure?

How would we help you with that?

And so, the bottom line is

silver in the day was by and large things other than silver.

It had copper, zinc in it, and silver itself does corrode.

So, the idea is

to basically to do a pathfinder study and look

for those elements in the water.

Great.

Narrator: As metals such as copper, zinc, and silver

lie submerged in water for long periods of time,

they will corrode,

and their particles will gradually leach out

into plumes that become less and less concentrated

as they migrate through open space.

If these types of metals do in fact lie deep

in the ground of the money pit area,

dr. Spooner's pathfinder water test of the flooded boreholes

as well as the man-made tunnels,

should be able to detect them.

I absolutely love this idea of dr. Spooner's.

If there's a massive amount of metal down there somewhere,

it should be leaching into the waters.

Let's test it for the very things which we seek.

So what I'm suggesting is just to take a look at 12 wells,

in the money pit area to see what we get.

Dr. Spooner, you said it-- it can find silver,

but can it test for gold?

No, gold doesn't corrode. It doesn't end up in water.

So that's why the idea was-- even silver is hard.

If we find any silver, I'll be quite amazed, really.

If you find silver, it is a treasure hunt.

Well, what is associated with silver in a treasure hunt? Gold.

So, I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about that.

Let's-let's do what the science is capable of doing.

-Jack: Yep. -We'll do the rest later.

Well, rick, you're firmly on board with this, aren't you?

This sounds like a great idea to me.

No question. Science.

-Okay. Well, let's do it! -Ian: That's great. I'll get

dr. Lukeman down here because he'll also run

the fluorescents on it, and we'll see what we come up with.

Okay, good. Well, as rick often says, "let's make it so."

-rick: Let's make it so. -Ian: Okay. -Craig: Okay.

Narrator: While rick, marty and craig

wrap up the meeting in the war room...

...Near the southwest corner of the swamp...

Gary: Ready for a great day at the beach?

Yeah, we got perfect weather, don't we?

Narrator: ...Metal detection expert gary drayton

along with rick and marty's nephew, david fornetti,

arrive at the shoreline of lot 32.

Gary: This is a good place to start, mate.

Anything we find in this area

is going to be interesting

if it connects to a wharf.

Great. Well, I'll let you do your thing.

Okay, mate.

- Doug: Look at that. -What do you got?

It looks like a piece of finished wood.

Narrator: Two weeks ago the team unearthed a possible piece

of wooden railing from a large sailing vessel

and encountered a massive obstruction

while excavating near the southern border of the swamp.

However, because the weather has now made it too difficult

to dig any more this year within the muddy bog,

it is rick, marty and craig's hope

that gary can locate more valuable clues

along the man-made beach

that could help solve the oak island mystery.

-Gary: Very quiet, isn't it? -David f.: Yeah.

All right, mate. I don't want to go too far away

from this area, so the next line up,

let's take this line,

we'll bypass these two rows of seaweed,

and we'll take these rocks along here.

Sounds good.

signal here, david.

just there, mate.

gary: Yeah, you got it out.

Nice one, david.

Is that it?

Let's see what we've got here.

My gosh!

Gary: There it is, it's brilliant!

Can you see what this is, mate?

That is a trigger guard

off either an old musket

- or a pistol. -David f.:

Gary: And that would date from

probably 1650 to 1750.

Narrator: On lot 32

near the southwestern border of the swamp,

gary drayton and david fornetti

have just found what could be an important clue.

The trigger guard from a firearm

that could date back as much as 150 years

before the discovery of the money pit.

I mean, this is fantastic.

And this is only our, like, second line across here.

I'm going to put this in my pouch, recheck the hole,

and let's find some more artifacts, mate.

Sounds good.

Marty: It's undeniable now that there was

substantial activity here in the late 1600s, early 1700s.

But was that some military expedition that we're unaware of

or was it the original depositors?

another good sounding signal here, david.

it's in my hand.

Very interesting.

Wow. Look at that, mate.

This is really, really special.

This is old.

This is an old lead cloth bag seal.

A lead bag seal was used when

-an old sack was sealed. -David f.: Yeah.

They tied the sack,

and they put a seal on it.

This is a very important find, mate.

We've just struck gold with this piece of lead, mate.

Narrator: Dating back as much as 800 years,

lead bag seals were generally rounded metal clamps

used to secure goods inside textile packaging.

What makes this seal

a potentially important discovery on oak island

is that they are uniquely designed to identify qualities

such as the manufacturer and also country of origin.

Could this seal be connected to other ancient discoveries

made in and near the swamp this year,

such as the pieces of 15th-century keg barrels?

Or the massive stone road

believed to have been part of a ship's wharf?

This is an awesome lead artifact.

This is a really old piece

but just the type of artifact

you want to be recovering

in an area where you believe is an old wharf.

Bingo. We have hit gold on this one.

We won't know until this is cleaned up,

but this is very, very, important.

This is the first lead cloth bag seal

that we've found on the island.

-David f.: Does that go in the top pocket? -Gary: Without doubt, mate.

This is a true top-pocket find.

I think this is so special we should take it

-to the research center. -Sounds good.

We'll come back here.

I mean, this is fantastic.

Let's show the guys what we've found.

-Let's go. -David f.: Sounds good.

Narrator: Later that afternoon...

-Gary: Hey, guys. -Laird: Hey. -Rick: Hey.

Just the chaps we want to see.

Narrator: ...Gary and david join rick lagina

and archeologist laird niven at the research center

to share their latest discoveries from lot 32.

Gary: We just had some finds cataloged.

Some metal detecting finds that we found on lot 32

on the beach.

So, you guys should take a look at these.

Rick: Love to.

How interested are you, gary?

Very interested mate, um,

-we found some spectacular finds there, mate. -Rick: Okay.

Gary: And here's one of them.

See what you think of that, rick.

-Rick: A trigger. -Exactly, mate.

Old trigger guard.

You can see that it's been broken a long time ago.

-It's not a recent snap. -That's--

-that's decorative too, isn't it? -Gary: Yep.

A decorative piece that might help identify it.

It looks like a little pistol trigger guard

or maybe a musket trigger guard.

What do you make of the little decoration there?

Laird: Well, I think that usually decoration

-means higher status, right? -Yeah. You got that right, mate.

Rick: There's books about everything.

Would there be a book about pistol guards?

-Trigger guards? -Yeah.

I mean, the beauty about gun furniture

is that it's very specifically sized.

-Yeah. -So, you can often get the model down

-and perhaps a date even down. -Yeah.

It's going to be a little challenge.

If we had a little more of it...

you're always saying that.

Some of these artifacts are just that, they're artifacts.

It's a trigger guard of perhaps

a wealthy individual's pistol because it is decorated.

But how does that connect?

Is it curious? Yeah.

I mean, we are on samuel ball's lot.

So, is there a possible connection there? I don't know.

But it's history come alive, and that's always fascinating.

We didn't just come in here with a trigger guard, mate.

-David f.: This is really interesting. -Gary: Yeah.

But we should have gloves on if we are going to handle it...

-Okay. -...Because it's made of lead.

Laird: Okay.

Thanks. I will not plant any seeds in your mind, mate.

-I'm fairly confident I know what it is. -Laird: Okay.

Gary: We'll see if you are in agreement.

Laird: Take this delicate thing out with my left hand.

I know what it is.

-Yep. -I haven't seen many of these.

Gary: And what is it, laird?

It's a lead bale seal.

Yeah.

- Laird: So, it's for a-- -okay.

Laird: A bale of cotton-- what used to be cotton.

-Now they are changing... -A sack.

-Laird: Yeah. Yeah. -A sack or a bag.

Laird: And, the merchant would put these on

or the excise tax people would put them on.

There's a corresponding piece like this. Here.

And it's put under, folded around, and--and clamped on.

So, that's why you have that round piece there.

Laird so this little object, this little bag seal,

would have been attached to a-- to a large bale

of fairly rough fabric like hemp or something like that.

But it wasn't meant for one person.

This was an industrial size bag that was

going to be used for whatever purpose.

Something we haven't figured out yet.

But it was for a large operation.

So, this is adding more questions to the mystery

and-and giving us more work to do.

- Gary: But that's got detail on it. -I see that.

So, that-- we should get some information off that.

And it's just the type of find that you want to be recovering

in an area you think there's an old wharf.

-Right, because it speaks to loading and unloading. -Gary: Yeah.

Rick: When did these start coming into vogue, if you will?

Laird: 1500?

Even before then, mate.

-1300s in England. -Yeah.

Again, it's about connective tissue.

You find this bag seal

in close proximity to the suspected wharf.

It's a great find,

and we know there was activity in the area.

We need to look into this further.

Hopefully we can find a corresponding one, and maybe

we can find the merchant, which would help a lot.

-Yeah. -David f.: I was just going to ask.

Is there like a book or something you can flip through

-where you can find some sort of example, or... -Yeah.

Yeah, there are a lot of references.

A lot of references. It's just going

-to take a lot of searching. -Yeah. I'm sure.

Look, I can't but agree, gary. This is indeed

a top-pocket find. Congrats to the both of you

for heading out there.

Especially, I-I think that

you find something like this,

and it accelerates the need to do another search agenda.

Laird, if you want to do the research,

I look forward to that, the outcome of that.

Yeah, I'll start researching.

-Rick: Okay, we have a plan. -Laird: Okay.

-Rick: Let's move forward on it. -Laird: Yeah.

Narrator: As another critical day of search activity

begins on oak island,

on lot 13

near the northeastern border of the swamp...

Aaron: Based on our limited time,

I think it's really important that we get the direction

-of this road or path. -Miriam: Okay.

Narrator: Archaeologists dr. Aaron taylor

and miriam amirault work to uncover more

of the mysterious cobblestone pathway--

a pathway that extends from the massive stone road,

or possible ship's wharf discovered earlier this year,

and which runs along the entire eastern border

of the man-made bog,

branching off further into the uplands.

Aaron: If this is continuing the way it looks like it's continuing,

you know, maybe this pathway is leading

-to the money pit. -Yeah.

So, I think we go over, put in a unit,

investigate, and see what's going on there.

-All right. Let's go string it up and get started. -Aaron: Yep.

Marty: We clearly have to follow the stone pathway all the way

cause it's interesting. What's going on with this?

-Aaron: Let's get rid of this debris. -Miriam: Yeah.

Marty: That is a well-constructed, hidden, massive road.

Heavy things were being moved around on it,

which suggests something important.

-Hey. How's it going? -Miriam: Hey!

Aaron: Well, we can use all the help we can get.

So, um, the path, what's your thought?

-Just continue this way? -Aaron: Yeah, um...

- So we just tried to leapfrog a little bit. -Rick:

- It's coming diagonally through the unit we did. -Rick:

So, we are just going to try and pick it up here,

but there are a couple areas I'd like to investigate.

Here's the thing: The time and weather

-window is closing. -Yeah.

So, if you want to continue here,

I could go down there.

If you want to just focus me on where I should...

-Aaron: Sure. Sure. -..Do the work.

That's a great idea.

Narrator: With time running out,

the team has decided to split up

and search two different areas.

While dr. Taylor and miriam search further uphill,

trying to uncover the next section of the cobblestone path,

rick will investigate along the path itself,

near the beginning of the uplands,

in hopes of finding any clues

that may shed light on who built this structure

and how it may connect to the 226-year-old mystery.

Rick: We are still struggling with an understanding

of what the feature represents, you know?

Is this part of the money pit story

or is it-- or is it uniquely a swamp story?

-You see where that stick is? -Rick: Yep.

Aaron: So, everything above the stick can be

taken off with the shovel.

Rick: And the only way to do that

is to continue the archeological pursuit,

and hopefully come up with an artifact or artifacts

that will tell us why it's here now.

Aaron: I really want to see what is going on here.

-Rick: Okay. Yep. -Aaron: See those stones?

This is where all the artifacts are coming from.

It's an interesting area.

-Rick: Okay. -Aaron: And shout if you see anything of interest.

Rick: If there is anything, I will call you immediately.

-Aaron: Thank you. -Rick: Yep.

Narrator: While the investigation continues near the swamp...

Steve g.: Mike, what do we have?

-Mike: 48! -Terry: 48. Thanks!

Narrator: ...And while the core drilling operation

in borehole c-11.5

continues in the money pit area...

-Ian: Hey, craig. -Craig: How's it going?

Narrator: ...Craig tester and dan henskee

along with dr. Ian spooner and his associates

dr. Matt lukeman,

nicole kirkpatrick and victoria hopper

arrive to conduct the water testing operation

that dr. Spooner hopes might offer

scientific evidence of buried treasure.

Ian: What we are trying to do,

I think, right now, is just sort of a pathfinder study.

-Okay. -So, get a bunch of samples.

Try to sort of get the circumference,

the perimeter of this area right here.

And that way get a good idea of--

if maybe we're seeing anomalous material.

-All right. Sounds great. -Yeah, so we'll see how it goes.

-Okay, good. -Matt: So, absolutely

there's a high chance that we are going to see

maybe some signals in there from more recent human activity

that might complicate things a little bit.

Which, I think, is why it's important

that we get samples from multiple locations.

So it could help point us in the right direction.

Okay. I think we are going to start

with c-1 here, but after that

there's a lot of wells all over the place

that you guys can sample.

-Are we ready? -We are ready.

So, we'll get our equipment, we'll head over,

and then we'll go and get our sample.

-Craig: Okay. -Good.

Marty: First of all, I love hard data.

It's hard to come by on oak island.

So now we have two phd scientists,

dr. Lukeman and dr. Ian spooner.

It's exactly nine meters to the top

-of the caisson. -Okay.

Marty: They are going to do a water analyses

from many of the wells found over near the money pit.

So, yeah, it's exciting.

I mean, let's say that scientists said,

"look, this is for sure, there's a big chunk

of precious metal down there." well, then we've got to find it.

Ian: We'll go as far as we can with the bailer. Great.

And, we'll get a sample.

At the very bottom is the open hole or...

-Yes. You can hear the ball valves in it. -Yep.

Narrator: In order to collect a water sample from the bottom

of borehole c-1, the team is using

a dual-valve sampling bailer.

As the device descends down the well,

the force of the water on the ball valves inside it

allows it to flow through the bailer.

Once the bailer reaches the desired depth,

the balls sink into place,

trapping the water sample inside the tube.

This will prevent contamination from other depths

while the device is brought back to the surface.

Ian: That's it.

-What depth are you calling it? -Ian: 183.

183. Okay.

I have always believed

that something of significance

lies within the bowels of the money pit.

And this water sample testing done by dr. Lukeman

and dr. Spooner can provide some very interesting information.

They might be able to put x on the ground.

That I found exceedingly interesting,

and I look forward to their analysis.

Good?

Just hold that up there.

We'll keep that sample. We'll keep that for sure.

-Okay. -Matt: Wonderful.

-Let's do another sample. -Okay.

Narrator: As craig, dr. Spooner, and members of the team

collect more water samples in the money pit area...

...Back in the uplands near the swamp...

-Hey, rick. -Hey.

Narrator: ...Rick lagina, along with dr. Aaron taylor,

miriam amirault and alex lagina,

continue their own search for valuable clues

along the stone pathway.

Rick: As this path appears to turn to the upland,

we're finding an incredible amount of artifacts.

What's that?

So, I don't know what to make of it.

Is this the centralized location

for the build of the stone path?

I don't know.

The more we look, the more we find.

-Rick: That might be stone. -Aaron: I think--

-rick: That's not. -Aaron: No, that's brick fragment.

This is nice.

That's a fragment of a pipe bowl.

Clean it up, maybe get a maker's mark on it, and then we will

-be able to tell where it was made and when-- -rick: What is that?

Aaron: That's annular ware. That's the early stuff.

Quite early 1760s.

Okay. I'll bag this up.

-Rick: Okay. -Aaron: Great.

I'm just going to go check on those guys.

-All right. Thanks, rick. -Okey doke.

Working with aaron and miriam...

It's like a little mini, mini treasure hunt.

You know, you're scraping away with the trowel

and all of a sudden there in front of you is

a little surprise-- a little, again,

a little piece of hopefully connective tissue.

So, it's somewhat intoxicating and addictive.

Wow.

That's interesting.

It's huge.

Narrator: ...Rick lagina has just made what he hopes

could be an important discovery.

Rick: Aaron will know what that is.

That's what I like to see: Three people hard at work.

Aaron: Hey, rick. Any breakthroughs?

Rick: So, here's what's down there.

There was one more find, which I found interesting.

Aaron: Sweet jesus.

This is really nice. It's a base,

probably a plate.

-There you go. -Aaron: Just looking at it now,

it looks like creamware.

Creamware comes in 1763.

The british bring it in when they arrive.

It might be yellowware, which is a little later.

Just because all the pieces we've been finding

are from that period,

I think this is a creamware.

But, you seldom find a nice base

intact like that.

Narrator: First produced around the 1740s in staffordshire, England,

creamware is a refined lead-glazed earthenware

named for its yellowish-white cream-like color.

Could this discovery be an important clue to help identify

who made the cobblestone pathway?

If so, might it also be connected

to the pine tar kiln located on nearby lot 15,

which blacksmith expert carmen legge believes

was of british design,

and which archaeologist laird niven believes

may have been used for the continuous burning

of materials in the construction of the original money pit?

Well, I've been waiting all summer

for a "sweet jesus moment,"

and sweet jesus.

--that is a nice base.

Now, let's find the rest of it.

But if that's creamware, that's a really nice early piece.

Well, I got about that much of a shelf to do.

That's still a work in progress, and as you see,

-there's things to be found out there. -Keeps giving.

-Okay. I'll bag these up. -Okey doke.

-Aaron: Good stuff. Thank you. -Cool. All right. Yup.

Rick: I shall return.

Narrator: As rick and the team

resume their investigation in the uplands,

later that afternoon in the money pit area...

Terry: We got the 78 in our right hand?

Steve g.: We've got 68 in our right hand, I think.

Terry: 68 in our right hand, okay.

Narrator: ...Surveyor steve guptill

and geologist terry matheson, continue to monitor

the core drilling operation

in borehole c-11.5,

just north of the oc-1 caisson.

That's kind of interesting.

Yeah, what? What's interesting?

There looks like there might be a little bit

of backfill or burnt material.

Steve g.: Well, that's good.

Terry: Yeah, possibly. I don't know what it is.

I don't know why it has an unusual--

almost look like ashes or something on it.

Narrator: Burnt backfilled materials

found in borehole c-11.5?

Is it simply evidence of previous searcher activity?

Or could the team be on the verge of a major discovery?

Steve g.: You know, we're in backfill at 68 feet.

And that just suggests that we're inside

or just outside of a shaft, so, again,

this is great information.

-Steve g.: Maybe the next core will tell us something. -Terry: Next run?

Marty: In the money pit area,

we're finding all these works

and all these tunnels, and then we're finding stuff

to the 1700s,

which is extremely encouraging, yeah.

It used to be the one thing.

When rick and I were talking, I used to say,

"I will change my mind about everything if you show me

concrete evidence of substantial works prior to 1795."

well, you know what? He did it.

So, we've already won that much.

Now the objective is to actually,

you know, find evidence of real treasure.

Terry: Let's cross our fingers.

-Steve g.: He's into something interesting. -Something going on?

We got a little soft right at 88.

-From 88 on. -Okay.

Narrator: In the money pit area,

representatives from choice drilling

have just encountered something out of the ordinary

in borehole c-11.5.

That might be our tunnel.

-106.6. -Mike: 106!

-Are you serious? -No, it just dropped, whatever's in there.

Narrator: A drop of the drill rod of nearly 18 feet?

Could it be a natural void of some kind?

Or could it be evidence

of the money pit treasure vault itself?

Terry: Get this one up, steve-o. Whoa!

Whoa.

-Let's have a look. -All right.

-It's pretty loose at the bottom. -Terry: Yeah.

Steve g.: Anything interesting?

Terry: Not so much.

See, here is what I think he was into right there.

This material here, when he hits it, it starts to slip because

-of all the clay in it. -Steve g.: Yep.

Terry: So, he finds that soft.

So, this section here is the interglacial phase,

and you get a lot of really dark clay in there.

So, when he hits it sometimes it slips through.

It feels sometimes he might have broken through

into an open tunnel or something.

But, usually, it's just this.

What about here? Look, this is the last two feet.

-Is that redrill? -Give it a hit.

Yeah, that's a redrill. And then what are we getting into

-down there? Some more of this? -It's tight again, yep.

Terry: So, that's just more of the same.

-Just a lot of ground-up maroon silt stone. -Steve g.: It's tight.

Terry: The tightness of it tells us we're probably not close

to a vertical structure, which is disappointing.

Not terribly interesting

in terms of treasure hunting.

Narrator: Unfortunately for the team,

what appeared to be a possible large underground

void where they hoped to encounter the original money pit

is simply a natural horizon of soft clay.

Although frustrating, especially given this late moment

in the year, it is at least useful information

to help inform their search moving forward.

So, c-11.5 turned out to be nothing,

which is good information because

it helps us really put an x through our money pit grid,

and we know that's an area of...

Really of non-interest for us right now.

So, terry's going to log the information,

I'm going to plot it in our 3d model,

and we're going to move to the next hole.

C-11.5.

- It's a bust. -Kind of,

died with a whimper.

It was tight. So, we are not close

-to any structures. -Terry: Doesn't look like we are very close. No.

So, we're done. We'll move on.

Narrator: While members of the team regroup in the money pit area...

-Laird: Hey! -Gary: Hey, guys.

Narrator: Rick and alex lagina,

along with gary drayton and david fornetti

meet with archeologist laird niven to receive

his follow-up assessment of the bag seal

found yesterday on lot 32.

Laird: It's curious. It's--

I was pretty excited to see it.

Often the detail on bale seals is really

difficult to interpret.

They're very cryptic.

-Rick: Wow. -Gary: Wow.

-That has got some detail on that, doesn't it? -Rick: It sure does.

Gary: Wow, look.

It looks like an "x" on the bottom.

-Laird: A double "x." -gary: A double "x." yeah.

But we can do a little explanation

of what we are seeing here.

This is actually the cloth makers,

what they call a privy seal.

These seals are family seals.

So, they'd be passed down through the generations.

And apparently, back in the day,

if you had a father and a son alive at the same time,

to avoid confusion you'd add--

the son would add an element to his seal.

So, they get more and more complicated over the years.

But this one, if you look here,

has initials.

I think it's an f on the left-hand side,

- and perhaps an e on the right-hand side. -Rick:

If I pull it down...

It's really faint, but...

What you can't see is

that's actually the shape of a four.

Rick: Yeah. Okay.

Laird: Apparently, that's an old symbol

used for a long time,

and it's not actually a four.

They think it represents, like, the sign of the cross.

Gary: Wow.

Rick: What is the significance, the sign of the cross?

You wouldn't think to find that

on a commercial enterprise, right?

Laird: I don't think it derives from family crests because

that-- that symbol is

used by multiple families, so this would have been something

carried down through generations.

It's just most curious to have that

religious symbol on a commercial item.

I-I find that to be very strange.

And the only people who would do that,

in my limited knowledge base, would be templars.

Narrator: In the oak island research center,

archaeologist laird niven

has just revealed to rick lagina and members of the team

what could be a critical clue on the metal bag seal

recently found on lot 32.

I'm going back, though, to the origination of it.

And you think back, right? The templars

were heavy into commerce.

I mean, they literally were

the bankers and the financiers

and the commercial operatives of the day.

You know, those were the people you dealt with.

Laird: Yeah. I just find it really evocative.

I find it really cool, you know?

It's a symbol that's old enough

that the origins have basically been forgotten.

Narrator: Could rick lagina be correct

that the lead bag seal found near the swamp

might be evidence connected to the knights templar?

Although the theory of a possible link

between the oak island mystery

and this medieval order of warrior monks

has persisted for generations,

rick, marty,

and the team have made notable discoveries

that potentially corroborate it

including pieces of keg barrels,

a hand point chisel and tunneling tools

that all date back to the 1400s or earlier.

However, the discovery of the lead cross at smith's cove

three years ago remains the most compelling

due to the fact that a scientific test,

known as laser ablation,

helped prove that it's at least 700 years old...

...And was made from lead

originating in an area of southern France that was once

a stronghold for the templars.

Could this bag seal now be another important clue

that could help prove this incredible theory?

I've got two words to say:

Laser ablation.

-We should get that tested. -Yeah.

Rick: Well, that is a good idea.

Gary: And maybe it matches up to other lead signatures

that were found on different lead artifacts

- on the island. -Rick: -Right.

So, you didn't mention a time period.

Some of them actually have dates on them.

But this one, the broad date is 1300-1800.

-That's pretty broad. -Laird: Yeah.

Rick: This bag seal in proximity to the wharf--

that's huge.

Is there a possible templar connection? Maybe.

We need to come to an understanding

what this represents here.

But it's the strangest thing I've seen

on this island in a long, long time.

That is very, very cool.

Yeah. Very cool.

Heck of a top-pocket find for sure, isn't it?

-Rick: Absolutely. -I actually agree.

Alex: You got him! Finally got him.

Welcome to the dark side, mate.

Marty: Welcome! One of my favorite times.

We get to look at some,

I believe, will be very interesting data.

Narrator: Two days later,

rick, marty, craig and members of the team

gather in the war room for the highly anticipated report

from dr. Ian spooner and his colleague

dr. Matt lukeman regarding the water tests

they conducted earlier this week

in the money pit area.

So, I've got one question to ask.

Do you think there is treasure in the money pit?

- Ooh, I like that lead-in.

no, you know, I'm serious.

-Do I? -Ian: Yeah.

-Small chance. -I-I do.

I absolutely do. I believe that what they drilled into

in 1897 is real,

-and I think it's still there. -Right.

So, doug, can you bring,

-bring up the presentation? -Doug: I can.

Ian: Great.

That image shows the wells. There were 12 of them.

We took the samples, and what matt did was

take the initiative to scan it through the whole spectrum.

And that's when some interesting things came up.

I'll flash right forward

to why I asked you that question about

do you believe in treasure?

Whether it was pieces of eight, maravedis,

anything like that, they were only about 20,

maybe 30 percent silver. The rest was zinc and copper.

And so I said, "okay, if there really is a ton of treasure

"down there, then what we might expect to see is elevated levels

of the alloys of silver."

and so, I have red arrows on...

What I was really looking for

- if I was looking for treasure, right? -Yeah.

But what we do see is

at the well we call ws-1, ws-2, ws-9.

Look at the copper and zinc levels.

This is not a minor little hill.

-Blip. -This is...

Ten times-- this is a spike, ten times peak.

I went, "wow." like, this is big news.

Not only that, we got silver

-in those as well. -Really?

Ian: At the end of the day, there

is every reason to believe

down in those holes that

there is something close by

that contains a fair bit of silver.

Doug: I guess I'm still trying to get a mental picture of how much

silver it would take to get to these levels.

Like, is it a handful of silver or is it

-a gerhardt dump truck load of silver? -It's a gerhardt dump truck.

- Marty: Baby! -Jack: No way!

Rick: Wow.

Narrator: Next time on the curse of oak island...

Steve g.: We need to connect the cobble path in the swamp

to this path that leads to the money pit.

-That may be our "x" on the ground. -Yes.

Narrator: It's the historic season finale.

- Gary: My gosh! -Steve g.: Wow.

-Gary: That's old. This is off a ship. -It's off a ship.

That might actually be the thing that solves the mystery.

- Rick: -Charles: What do you got? What is that?

-I've never seen anything like that before. -Aaron: It's incredible.

This is the first direct evidence of real treasure.

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