Original subtitles

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

a special two-hour premiere.

MARTY: This is gonna be the biggest year ever.

There's no more guesswork.

MARTY: We have discovered new technology.

Here it comes.

JEREMY: Right near the circle, there's a possible shaft.

We know there's a tunnel here.

Let's get to work.

CRAIG: They're gonna take a sample of the lead cross.

This has some story to tell us.

-(high-pitched whining) -Look!

It's another bobby-dazzler.

We did it again.

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.

♪ ♪

It is the beginning of another new year

on Oak Island...

MARTY: Okay. Big brother, here we go.

-This year the dream comes true. -Oh, yeah.

NARRATOR: ...and for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

it is also shaping up to be the most productive

and successful season yet in their quest

to solve a 223-year-old mystery.

How you feeling about this year?

Boy, we certainly have a box full of puzzle pieces.

-Yeah. -And it's about time we stepped up to the plate

and start putting the puzzle pieces together.

-Yep. -Okay, so, where's your belief

that something happened on Oak Island, scale of one to ten?

I'd say I am 70% convinced that something

-very, very out of the ordinary -Out of the ordinary.

occurred on Oak Island.

That's a long way from where you were.

Long way from where I started, yes.

-Long way. -Well, here's where I'm at, Rick, I mean,

this thing has been way harder than I thought.

-I know. -But it's exciting,

-the things we laid out on that table last year. -I know.

-And that drives me and that motivates me. -I agree.

We're looking at a display of the year's finds.

NARRATOR: Last year saw the Laginas and their partners

make some of their most astonishing discoveries

to date, including two 17th-century coins,

a brooch containing a hand-carved,

semiprecious gemstone,

and a mysterious lead cross, which appears eerily similar

to one carved in the wall of a Templar prison in Domme, France

and may date as far back as the 14th century.

I think the lead cross is the single most important item

found on Oak Island that we are absolutely sure of.

I think there's a lot more to be learned about that cross.

MARTY: Rick, I tell you.

Every year is, "This is the year, this is the year."

Well, you know what, it's made me feisty.

And I say we throw every damn resource we have

-at it this year. -Yep. Yep.

So, I'm feeling like this year is, it's go big or go home.

-(laughs) -Here we go!

Once more into the breach!

I have come a long ways towards being convinced

that something extraordinary happened on this island.

We're finding some things

that are really, really hard to explain,

so I'd like to see us do something

ten times as big as we did last year.

I'm just gratified to hear him say that.

(chuckles) So, I'm good.

MARTY: Here we are.

Oh, wow, that's very nice.

NARRATOR: Because of the increasing number of visitors

to the island during the summer months,

Rick, Marty and their Oak Island partners

have built a second, even more private, war room

on another area of the island.

Nice.

-You like that? -Yeah.

-There they are. -(overlapping chatter)

The fellowship of the dig. Yes!

Good to see you guys, good to see you guys.

NARRATOR: But even though the building is new,

the inside remains comfortably familiar.

Charles. David.

-Marty! -How goes treasure hunting, buddy?

-(laughs) Good. -Hey, Craig, Jack.

There's no question that this is a treasure hunt,

but it's not just looking for treasure.

-There's the man. -Hi, Marty.

Daniel. Good to see you, bud.

-You're looking younger every year. -(laughter)

RICK: It's also for the shared experience that we have,

the Oak Island family.

-This is the year? -MARTY: Oh, stop it.

(laughter)

RICK: I know that we're all committed

to pushing the envelope this year

in a variety of ways

and, you know, hopefully, it'll-it'll bear fruit.

Yes.

Well, look, the mission here today

is to talk about what we're going to do

and try and get organized.

I think we all have our ideas of what we do this year,

but I'd like to turn it over to Rick here

to talk about where we go.

Rick, why don't you lay out what that means.

Well, I'll lay out my ideas,

but I think I speak for all of us to this extent:

it's still the big three, right?

-Yeah. -Yep.

And it's the Money Pit...

-Yep. -Yep.

-Yeah. -RICK: ...the swamp...

-Yeah. -...and then the third big thing, of course,

Smith's Cove is still a target.

-Absolutely. Right. -Yeah.

The cross was found in, uh, in Smith's Cove.

-Yeah. -RICK: You know, what artifacts remain there?

What is the U-shaped structure that Dan found long ago?

DOUG: And you never got a chance to expose

the whole structure, did you?

I exposed enough of it to say, to tell what it was

and how it was constructed.

NARRATOR: In 1970, Oak Island resident and treasure hunter

Dan Blankenship built a massive cofferdam around Smith's Cove.

He was hoping to locate and possibly shut off

a network of booby-trapped flood tunnels

that are believed to have been constructed centuries ago

and which were designed to undermine searcher efforts

to dig in the infamous Money Pit.

But what Dan found instead was astonishing:

a massive, U-shaped, wooden structure

buried some six feet below the surface

and which featured a number of notched posts

on which were carved a series of Roman numerals.

Unfortunately, Dan was forced to abandon his investigation

when a violent storm destroyed the dam.

But I would like to get a...

You want to see it?

I want to see it; I want to stand on it;

I want to expose the entire structure,

and once and for all, figure out,

does it have any relevance to the original work?

CRAIG: You know, to really do a good job,

I think we're going to have to go

with a major type of cofferdam.

And so, we've been talking with a couple different companies,

with different ideas.

Yeah, well, the cofferdam is a pretty exciting idea.

You're looking forward to that?

Oh, yeah, it has a lot of potential.

How big are we talking?

-Big. -Big.

Even bigger than Dan's cofferdam?

Yes, that's what we are potentially looking at.

NARRATOR: In an effort to fully excavate Smith's Cove,

the Oak Island team is planning to build

what will be the largest cofferdam

ever constructed on the island.

This massive water- and weatherproof dam

will allow the team to not only uncover

any historically important artifacts

and the U-shaped structure,

but also the possible remains of the flood tunnels,

flood tunnels that could lead them directly

to the fabled Oak Island Money Pit,

a centuries-old treasure vault rumored to contain everything

from vast hordes of pirate gold

to the lost folios of William Shakespeare

and priceless religious artifacts

taken from the Holy Land by the Knights Templar

hundreds of years ago.

Uh, what else?

What else are we talking about?

RICK: So many questions still remain to be answered

-in the Money Pit. -Yeah.

-Yeah. -JACK: Yeah.

RICK: Because of the finds last year

of the parchment, the bookbinding leather,

the interest in H-8, what happened to the earthen plug?

MARTY: Solid wood coming up?

NARRATOR: Last year, when the Oak Island team

attempted to excavate the borehole known as H-8

located in the Money Pit area...

I'm hoping we're on the corner of the Chappell Shaft.

NARRATOR: ...they found what they believed

to be the legendary Chappell Vault,

a seven-foot-tall wooden structure

first discovered by William Chappell and Frederick Blair

in 1897 and which was believed to contain ancient documents

and objects made of solid gold.

Something was in front of the can

and we were pushing it for a while.

NARRATOR: But when the team attempted to reach the vault

with a 60-inch wide drilling caisson,

instead of penetrating it, they believe

it simply was pushed further down

to a depth of some 170 feet

and into what seemed to be a mud-filled void.

-It's still in there, then. -Exactly.

NARRATOR: But it was while examining the spoils

taken from this same hole

that the team made another astonishing discovery...

JACK: What is this?

NARRATOR: ...human bones, later identified

as belonging to two separate individuals:

one from Europe and another from the Middle East

and both scientifically dated

to be approximately 400 years old.

Well, it just underscores,

-we can't, we can't quit on H-8, not yet. -Yeah.

-MARTY: I don't think we're done there. -No.

RICK: There is some information that can be gleaned

and one of the ways, I'm hopeful, at least,

is that the application of the seismic

is really going to be a defining moment for that area.

-Yes. -Yes.

NARRATOR: Commonly used in the energy industry,

seismic scanning is a process by which a number

of strategically-placed dynamite charges

are detonated in order to produce powerful shockwaves.

These shockwaves, in turn, generate a highly accurate map

of what voids or obstacles may lie in an area

as much as six miles below the surface.

RICK: And if this really does work, it will be the first time

in the two and a quarter centuries of search

that we can actually look underground with definition.

If we can look underground in the Money Pit,

it's a game changer.

A company has contacted me about that,

-so I'm researching it more. -Okay, good.

-Th-That's really interesting. -MARTY: Mm-hmm.

RICK: There's one subject that kind of got lost

in this discussion and that is

the rhodolite garnet that you found last year.

Yeah.

Everyone believes it was significant.

-Yeah. -Mm-hmm.

GARY: Look at this, Rick.

NARRATOR: Last year, while metal detecting on Lot 8

on the western portion of the island...

We just found a jewel.

NARRATOR: ...Rick and Gary discovered a brooch

containing a rhodolite garnet, a semiprecious stone

that may date back earlier than the 16th century.

GARY: That is a bobby-dazzler.

MARTY: Gary's discovery of the gemstone

was not in any particularly important spot;

it was just on one of the lots.

So, it's not a great leap of logic for us

to say we-we would like him

to, effectively, do the entire island.

Who knows what he might find?

And, to that end, I think we should clear

lots one through eight and lots 21 and 22,

which you've never been able to access.

Yeah, it's just so thick in there.

You can't swing a metal detector.

Yeah, we'll get some heavy equipment in there

and we'll clear those lots.

-You can swing that metal detector. -Okay.

RICK: And then, who knows how many brooches

and/or other things you'll find.

I'm telling you now, guys, we're gonna need a bigger table.

(laughter)

-You ain't seen nothing. -You ain't seen nothing yet.

MARTY: So, gentlemen,

coming into this room, seeing this assembly

of brilliant minds,

I am nothing but rejuvenated.

We can do this! Can we not?

-Yup. -Are you ready to get after it?

-Absolutely. -OTHERS: Yup.

-Okay. -Let's get out of here.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: It is a day of great anticipation

for Rick, Marty, and their partners.

Today, they will begin

the process of mapping the Money Pit area

by means of seismic testing.

MARTY: Well, Craig, are you excited about this?

It's a long time coming, right?

Yeah. Excited and nervous.

-Are you? -CRAIG: Sure.

Mainly that the searchers did so much damage near surface

that we just can't get good data.

But it's exciting, I mean, if it does work, we get to see...

-See what's in the ground. -See what's in the ground,

which your dad's been dreaming about forever, huh, David?

Yup.

NARRATOR: Marty, Rick, their partner

Craig Tester and Dave Blankenship

have arranged to meet with representatives

from Eagle Canada,

a geophysical exploration company.

They will conduct a test

in order to determine if the application

of seismic scanning technology

will allow them to see what lies hidden

beneath the surface of Oak Island.

So, that's where we're gonna park?

-Yeah. -Yup.

So, Alex, this is a novel application, right,

-'cause it's so shallow? -Yep.

Have you done some of this before?

-Yeah. Two weeks ago. -Oh, okay.

And we did the exact same 2-D line that we're gonna do here,

and, um, we were having good image at about ten feet down.

-No kidding? -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Because of sonic interference

from environmental noises generated at ground level,

seismic testing was only considered reliable

in the mapping of very deep formations,

often miles below the Earth's surface,

but thanks to recent advancements,

seismic testing of more shallow areas--

like the Money Pit--

have yielded impressive and highly accurate results.

Well, what we want to do is start off

with the-the test line.

Right up in through here, that's the test line.

We know there's a tunnel you're gonna cross here.

The Halifax tunnel.

So that's gonna be the test, right?

-To see whether... Yeah. -Absolutely.

NARRATOR: Because a full-scale survey

of the Money Pit area will be very expensive,

the Oak Island team has decided to conduct a sample test

over an area where they know an underground anomaly exists,

the searcher shaft known as the Halifax tunnel.

Dug in 1867

by a team of treasure hunters working under the name

The Halifax Company,

the Halifax tunnel was a 110-foot shaft

located approximately 200 feet south of the Money Pit.

The location was chosen in hopes it would allow the team

to dig down to the Money Pit level

and then over to it in order to avoid the maze

of booby-trapped flood tunnels that protect the treasure site.

It didn't work.

As they neared the target depth,

the shaft suddenly began filling up with seawater,

forcing the Halifax Company

to abandon their search efforts.

Because the location of the shaft has been well documented,

having it show up in the test

will encourage the team

to invest an estimated $1 million

to map the entire Money Pit area.

Dan Henskee knows where the Halifax shaft was

and Dan Blankenship knows roughly the orientation,

so this is literally a test,

and I hope they pass with flying colors.

Based on our testing,

I think we should be able to see that, so...

Good. That's fantastic.

-Yup. -RICK: Just remember,

we do know where it is, so don't just pick a spot.

(laughter)

All right, I don't know as we have anything else left to do.

-Awesome. -Let's go find some treasure.

-For luck. -Yes, thanks.

Guys, let's get to work.

NARRATOR: In preparation for the seismic test,

the team from Eagle Canada will now drill

a number of two-foot-deep holes,

spaced three feet apart,

over the designated search area.

Each hole will then be filled

with a small blasting cap

containing 20 grams of dynamite that, when detonated,

will set off a sound wave through the ground.

They will also strategically place devices

known as geophones, which, similar to sonar technology,

will measure the sound waves

as they bounce off layers of rock

or underground structures.

The goal of the seismic, simply put,

is to image whatever we can image underground.

In the case of the Money Pit area,

it would be to find a vault or some other structure

that we've hitherto missed.

If we can do that, I think we're well on our way

to defining a hard target in the Money Pit,

but whatever information they can provide us

is surely going to be helpful.

EAGLE WORKER: Heads up, guys.

NARRATOR: Later that same day, as the team from Eagle Canada

continues to prepare the Money Pit area

for the test line operation,

and while workers begin clearing away trees and brush

on the unexplored western areas of the island...

MARTY: Okay, guys, here we go, brand new year, huh?

I'm curious to see how the island survived.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina and members of the team

head to Smith's Cove.

CHARLES: We had a series of storms over the winter,

so I would imagine that

that beach had took a pretty bad hit,

which means it's good for Gary and Laird

because it should turn up some things.

Yeah, beach erosion.

Yeah.

There's got to be some more good stuff, there.

NARRATOR: They are eager to know

if months of harsh winter storms...

Let's go.

NARRATOR: ...might have brought to the surface

any more important clues or valuable objects

like the mysterious lead cross

which was discovered here last year.

GARY: We'll go straight to where we recovered the cross.

All right, you ready to make history, guys?

-Yes. -(metal detector beeping)

Yeah, so what we'll do, we'll start here

and we'll go towards the water's edge

and, uh, just keep going out there.

Rolling up my sleeves and everything, Gary.

That's good, that means you're gonna be doing some digging.

-Okay. -What's that Gary?

Eh, it's too low, I think that's iron,

but because it's a deep target, I think we should dig it up,

just to make sure.

So this is the center where the target is.

MARTY: Okay, try.

Let me see if it's closer.

-All right, let's see. -(metal detector beeping)

It's an iron spike.

Oh, yes.

-We have a few of these. -Yeah.

-Yeah. -You think it's modern?

Yeah, that's definitely modern.

What do you say, Laird?

Yeah, it looks-- it's got a square shank,

cut-head nail, so... It's 19th-century,

-but later, the latter part. -Well, yeah.

Yeah.

Although this is only just a little insignificant find,

it isn't, because we pounded this area last year,

and we're finding, already, which is a good sign.

-Yeah. Keep going. -Yeah.

-(beeping) -We're digging this.

-Okay. -Okay.

Of course.

And, this is a-a clear, two-way,

repeatable signal.

So I think the best thing to do with the spoils

is put them up high.

Ooh, that looks like it, Charles.

-What's that right there? -Looks like Charles got it out.

-Look, right there. -Here, guys.

-Wow. -GARY: This is good!

-MARTY: Is that a piece of lead? -Yeah, a piece of cut lead.

Huh.

They used to put lead on the side of ships.

-They used to waterproof with lead. -Yeah.

Lead was kind of a ubiquitous thing.

It was almost like duct tape.

That's it, it's just basically

-a lead patch, isn't it? -Yeah.

GARY: From a Spanish treasure hunter's perspective,

this is interesting because this type of stuff

was used below the water line on Spanish galleons.

NARRATOR: Lead from a Spanish galleon

found on the shore of Smith's Cove?

Could it have come from one of the many Spanish galleons,

or even pirate ships,

that are known to have visited Oak Island

in the 17th and 18th centuries?

That's a thin little cut, isn't it?

-MARTY: Yeah. -It's a delicate little...

GARY: Think it was done with shears, by the look of it?

-It has. -GARY: So this could be quite old.

MARTY: You know, we're all talking marine origin,

which is, of course, is likely,

we're standing at the edge of the ocean,

but we know we have a mysterious structure under here,

the notorious U-shaped structure,

-maybe it had some role in that. -It's possible.

You mean like waterproofing on the outside kind of thing?

...'cause we don't know what that thing was yet.

We don't know what it did, what it was for, who did it.

I'm keenly interested

in the very significant U-shaped structure

that has never been analyzed properly

-o even revealed properly. -Mm-hmm.

The hope is that we can expose enough of that,

or all of that, where we can actually get a proper sample.

And, uh, hopefully, at the end of the day,

we'll have some answers.

First day, first significant find,

I believe.

I do, too. It's a clue, and it also shows

that you know what you're doing, again.

Another question mark, Marty.

Yeah, great, Charles, that wasn't supposed to happen.

-(laughter) -Well, unfortunately,

-we're filling in. -Yeah.

So we're gonna have to keep to the higher ground.

I think, uh, guys, we should keep going.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: After a successful day

spent metal detecting at Smith's Cove,

Marty and Rick, along with other team members,

gather at the Mug and Anchor Pub

in the nearby tow of Mahone Bay

to review their latest finds and plan critical next steps.

RICK: What do you make of it, Dan?

Well, first thing is to suggest--

is to estimate the diameter,

so this looks like it was part of something

-pretty large. -Yes, it does, yeah.

Where was this... was found, exactly?

Mm, kind of right around where the cross was found.

Very near that.

Maybe the same people that lost the cross lost this, too.

I mean, anything's possible.

But anyway, it's a nice way

to start off the season with something, you know.

Exactly.

I think we all acknowledge that Gary's find of the cross--

I like to call it Drayton's Cross-- was probably...

He likes that, too.

It was probably the most exciting find.

You know, I mean, we need answers from that.

So, at the University of New Brunswick,

they run this test; it's called laser ablation.

It's nondestructive.

And then we get what's called

lead isotope values off of that test.

And from that, the hope is that they can determine--

Give us, at least, geographic origin.

Wow.

NARRATOR: Much like a human fingerprint,

metals, such as lead,

have unique chemical variants known as "isotopes"

that are specific to geographic regions on Earth.

By using a process known as laser ablation testing,

a high-powered laser will cut microscopic samples

from the surface of the lead cross.

This will then be analyzed to determine

the lead's specific isotope value,

and possibly its geographic place of origin.

It is Rick Lagina's hope that if the test is successful,

he and the team will be one giant step closer

to finding out not only where the cross came from,

but how old it is.

And perhaps more importantly,

who may have brought it to Oak Island.

RICK: We have to get it tested. There's no question about it.

Mr. Blankenship has always cautioned us,

don't let your imagination run away from you.

Stick to the facts. You know,

be very objective in your analysis of anything you find.

So, at the end of the day, somebody needs to go

to UNB to get this test done.

Peter. I-I designate you to take it there.

-I can do that. -Okay.

I will bring a couple other peop...

a couple of guys with us.

Perfect. And I'm sure we're all aware

of the unaccessible lots.

Lots one, two, three, four, six, seven and eight

-are practically impassible. -Mm-hmm.

We've got a company to come down with a...

what they call a mulcher.

Gary can finally get into these areas,

which have been inaccessible all these years.

So... let's hope the lead is an auspicious start

to a great new season.

We got a ton of stuff to do,

but for right now, to the new season.

New season. Absolutely.

-Cheers, guys. -Salud.

EAGLE WORKER (over radio): Roger.

NARRATOR: The next day,

as the team from Eagle Canada finishes preparing

the Money Pit area for today's seismic test line operation...

RICK: Let's do this.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina, along with metal detection expert

Gary Drayton and archeologist Laird Niven,

head to Lot 2, on the western side of the island.

Look, they did a remarkable job of clearing,

but I think we should...

Keep expanding the search area.

RICK: You lead the way, you're--

You're the guy with the lucky metal detector.

NARRATOR: They are searching areas of the island

that have remained virtually unexplored,

in hopes of finding important artifacts or treasure.

This looks like a good spot, guys.

(metal detector chimes)

And we know we are the first people to search this.

Probably ever.

RICK: Well, all I can say is good luck.

-GARY: Let's do the big boulder. -LAIRD: Yeah.

Should we pull the moss off this?

Are we okay to do that?

Yep.

Wow, this has been on here a long time.

Up at the top.

(metal detector chimes)

GARY: Oh, was that a signal?

-(chiming) -And that's non-ferrous.

LAIRD: Oh, really?

(sustained tone)

It's quite deep as well.

Reading ten inches. Just there, mate.

(metal detector chiming)

Still reading deeper.

Give it a shot.

Oh, I've got it.

(beeping)

Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

Oh, baby.

GARY: Look at the patina on that.

RICK: Oh, my goodness.

-Now, that's a coin! -You tell me what it is.

That's a coin.

-Oh, man. -Wow, what is that?

GARY: That's King George III.

I know what this is.

That's a cartwheel two pence. A tuppenny.

This looks like it's from 1797.

NARRATOR: In 1797, a shortage of small denomination coins

throughout the British Empire led to the limited production

of some 720,000 copper coins known as "two-pennies."

Minted with the likeness of King George III,

the unusual size of the coins, combined with a wide outer rim,

earned them the nickname, "cartwheels."

That is freaking crazy.

What do you make of the lettering?

It should say "Britannia" on it on one side.

RICK: Yeah.

GARY: I mean, we got those King George coppers.

King Charles, up near the Money Pit.

We've got British presence on the island.

NARRATOR: Because it is dated two years after

the Money Pit's discovery in 1795,

the presence of a cartwheel penny on Oak Island

offers possible evidence of someone who may have

come to the island searching for treasure.

But if so, what is it they were hoping to find on Lot 2,

so far from the infamous treasure site?

It always buoys our spirits to find a unique item

that may or may not have

a significant impact

on the constantly evolving story of Oak Island.

It's always nice to have a small win.

And that's a small win.

Okay, I hate to badger you, but...

-what else might be in there? -Yeah. Okay.

Let's have a look, see if there's anything else.

NARRATOR: As Rick, Gary and Laird

continue their search for artifacts on Lot 2,

back at the Money Pit,

Craig Tester and members of the Oak Island team

eagerly await the start of the seismic test line.

We've hooked up, and then there's a line

that goes 30 meters to the pack that's charging up right now.

When they charge, you'll hear the tone come over the radio.

Okay.

NARRATOR: The team from Eagle Canada

will now detonate some 150 small charges.

This will generate a series of seismic pulses

deep within the underground test area.

Here we go.

Ooh, that went up.

JACK: I thought this year was gonna be

one of our biggest search years ever...

EAGLE WORKER: Heads up.

JACK: ...but I didn't understand until I got here

how big we were going,

starting off with this seismic.

I like it. We have good energy so far.

JACK: And after last year, the finds that we had

just from the spoils...

...it gave us enough indication

that there is something down there worth finding.

And if we have a really good target off the seismic,

it's not a guessing game anymore.

NARRATOR: One day after conducting

the test-line seismic scan at the Money Pit site...

We'd like to, first of all, welcome you to the war room.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina, along with Craig Tester,

Charles Barkhouse and Jack Begley,

meet with the team from Eagle Canada.

They are eager to find out if the operation was

successful enough to warrant further testing,

in hopes of finding out what may have been buried

deep beneath the surface of Oak Island more than 200 years ago.

-Hey, Jeremy. -Hello.

NARRATOR: Joining them via videoconference

is geophysicist Jeremy Church,

who will interpret the test line results.

RICK: We're looking forward to your presentation.

You've got some results that we very much look forward to,

to coming to an understanding about.

Yep.

We were super excited, stressed a little bit.

We wanted to make it work.

I don't think a seismic like that have been shot

in the world, like, that tight of a parameter.

I think we're seeing a page of history here.

You're talking about ground-breaking science.

-Yeah. -Great.

So I'll let Jeremy talk about the results.

Jack's going to bring the data on the screen here.

NARRATOR: Using the data from yesterday's readings,

the Eagle team has generated a virtual cross-section

of the ground beneath the test area.

It has allowed them to differentiate

not only the layers of rock and earth,

but also whatever underground structures

are buried within them.

JEREMY: I wish I could be there to see your faces,

because it's quite an impressive image

that has been created here.

I have an area circled in a little yellow circle.

I'm going to refer to that as a possible shaft.

You'll see that there is a nice blue reflector

that's broken at that point,

where I believe that shaft or opening is.

This typically indicates that you have a massive change

in the material that's there,

and it's a depth between about

90 feet and 120 feet or so.

That's the Halifax tunnel.

-So it would seem. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty and the team,

the success of the seismic test offers a historic breakthrough.

Here's some really good news.

NARRATOR: For the first time in the 223-year history

of the Oak Island treasure hunt,

they will be able to effectively create

an accurate map of what structures

or voids exist deep within the Money Pit.

The opportunity that's being presented to us by Eagle

is being able to look underground for the first time

in two and a quarter centuries of search; that's remarkable.

Because, as you look back,

the people that have come before us,

they had no idea of the complexities underground,

and still they labored.

They would have done anything to look underground,

to find the answers which they so long fought for,

bled for and, in some cases, died for.

That's a story in and of itself,

and it would be invaluable as any treasure.

This is ground-breaking.

You're gonna do something

that's never been done on this island.

The people that have come and gone

invested their lives, their passions,

their interests in this mystery.

Yeah.

You're now gonna give them

the best Christmas gift they've ever opened.

You're changing lives here, and that's pretty remarkable.

Again, we, I get choked up when I say thank you.

-You should be proud of yourselves. -Yeah.

Yeah.

I very much look forward to the continued "hunt"

for the information in the Money Pit.

Yeah, it was nice to hit the mark on this one.

You hit the mark. You hit the bull's-eye.

(soft laughter)

-No question about it. -CHARLES: Yeah.

NARRATOR: The next day,

the team from Eagle Canada returns to Oak Island

ready to begin preparations for the large-scale

seismic scanning survey across the entire Money Pit area.

Over the next few days, they will detonate

some 1,300 charges, which along with some

1,500 geophone receivers,

will allow them to create a virtual three-dimensional map

of the ground beneath Oak Island.

Where are you starting?

Uh, right at the edge of the Money Pit on the west side.

Yeah, we're gonna chew that Money Pit up pretty good.

-(laughter) -In a good way.

In-in a good way.

Right now, it's all about the data.

JARED: Yeah, exactly.

NARRATOR: Unlike the two-dimensional test line,

the dynamite charges and geophone receivers

have been strategically positioned in a grid pattern

around past dig sites,

including the C-1 and H-8 shafts.

The goal of the seismic in the Money Pit area

would be to find a vault

that we may have missed,

to find something that we haven't even explored yet.

I am realistically optimistic

about the results of the seismic.

I've seen a lot of seismic over the last, probably, 40 years.

And they should be able to delineate anomalies.

This is just one step forward in that search for the truth.

It would be awesome if we could get that, uh, the 3-D data

processed right away to actually see some of it

while we're still out here...

-Mm-hmm. -...but not likely.

Do you guys want to go up there and take a look?

Yeah, I-I'd like to go up there.

-Right, Dave? -Yeah-- yep.

Let's give it a look.

NARRATOR: As each seismic line is charged

and armed for blasting, it will be wirelessly detonated

from the inside of the command center,

located nearby on the South Shore Road.

Although only 20 grams of dynamite is being detonated

in each charge,

the team must remain at least 150 feet clear

of the blast area.

-Hi, guys. -Charles.

Alex. Boys. How's it going?

Very good. The guys are doing really well.

RICK: This is small-scale in terms of

what you normally do, right?

But this is incredibly labor-intensive.

I mean, I'm-I'm impressed.

Look, all of this work you've done,

-hats off to you guys. -CHARLES: Yeah.

RICK: You really did a heck of a job.

Hopefully, you're gonna do something

that's never been done on Oak Island before,

and that's pretty remarkable.

Yeah.

JEFF (over radio): Ready to go?

Roger.

Here it comes.

We're watching the detonations go off,

it somewhat reminds you of the Fourth of July.

Fireworks are going off.

I think we have high expectations,

all of us, about this year,

the scope of the project, because it's about

trying to put the puzzle together.

T-There's only one goal, there only has been one goal,

and that is to solve the Oak Island mystery.

There's no more guesswork.

You guys are actually gonna give us a playbook.

And that's pretty cool.

NARRATOR: As the team from Eagle Canada continues

their extensive seismic scanning operation

of the Money Pit area...

CRAIG: We'll see what they can do.

NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester, Dave Blankenship

and Peter Fornetti are traveling more than 300 miles

northwest of Oak Island to the University of New Brunswick

in the city of Fredericton.

They have come here to supervise a test

of the lead cross

that was found last year at Smith's Cove.

Holy schmoly, all right.

-RICK: It's a cross. -That's a cross.

NARRATOR: If successful, the test could shed new light

on its mysterious origin.

Well, guys, this should be interesting, uh,

it sounds like this laser ablation might tell us

what area of the world

this lead came from, and that would be huge.

-Ah, that'd be cool. -PETER: I'm pretty excited

-to see what the results are. -Yeah, me, too.

I believe this is our stop.

NARRATOR: The Department of Earth Sciences

at the University of New Brunswick

is one of the leading geochemical testing facilities

in North America for the study of historical artifacts.

Chris?

Hey.

NARRATOR: The team has arranged to meet

with Dr. Chris McFarlane,

a professor of geochemistry

who specializes in the study

of ancient geologic depositions and minerals.

Well, we've got something for you to look at.

Just wondering if you can tell us a bit

about the-the testing procedures and whatnot.

Yeah, so, we're gonna do, uh, laser ablation.

We want to get a really high precision

and accurate lead isotope number.

And from that lead, you can determine

where the lead came from?

As long as we get enough lead to analyze ratios.

Okay.

NARRATOR: Using a series of pulses

from a high-powered laser,

Dr. McFarlane will cut a sample--

barely the size of a human hair--

from the surface of the cross

and vaporize it into an ionized gas.

This gas is then superheated and funneled into a device

known as a mass spectrometer,

which will determine the lead's isotope signature.

Well, I have it with me.

Here's the box.

So if we can get it going, get it into the machine.

-Okay. -Let's go see it. -Appreciate it.

CRAIG: The laser ablation,

it's kind of like fingerprinting it,

and once you have a fingerprint,

then you can try to find out

where did that fingerprint come from?

NARRATOR: Assisting Dr. McFarlane

is lab technician Brandon Boucher.

So let's have a look.

So that is the cross.

Yeah, very nice.

CRAIG: How about the, uh., the corrosive material on it?

I mean, does that help date it or not?

I think for us, we are gonna avoid it.

We don't want any impurities that are possibly

going to shift the ratios at all.

CRAIG: I mean, what if this was

sitting in the air, for hundreds and hundreds of years?

Would it get that same corrosion?

You don't get deposition on an object that hasn't

been buried for, you know, quite a while.

-Oh, that's great news. -Yeah, keep going with this.

-You're doing good. -This is not something that was, you know, buried...

it wasn't buried a week ago or a year ago or even ten years ago.

-Yeah. -So should we proceed with mounting this up now?

-As far as I'm concerned. -Okay.

Because this is an irregular shape,

we have to use a, uh, sample holder.

This is called our universal holder.

All this stuff over here, these are all standards.

All right? So when we do isotopic analysis,

we always have to reference the measurement to a standard.

NARRATOR: To ensure that the data collected is accurate,

Dr. McFarlane will also test known samples of lead ore,

also called "standards."

This will give the mass spectrometer a baseline

to reference when analyzing the lead sample

taken from the cross.

CHRIS: So the next step is to actually put it in the machine.

CRAIG: Okay.

Not far away. Over here.

(machine chiming)

Now you guys should come and see this.

-CRAIG: Okay. -PETER: All right.

This is the coolest part of the whole day.

So this is where all the action happens,

so we have to get this guy inside the cell.

So now this guy is gonna go in here.

And, as I push it in, you'll actually see... bonk.

-Oh, yeah. -So the magnets grabbed it.

So what we need to do is actually go down to the cross,

and we need to find an area

that has some nice clean, exposed lead.

And here we can also zoom in.

So what we're gonna do is define

about 20 sample locations within that area.

And then we'll go and define the standards

to populate around them.

Okay, so that's our sequence.

So let's start the laser.

That's the laser pulsing.

Each pulse is liberating material from the surface.

And it's actually-- it's high enough energy

that it's making light.

So as the material's liberated

from the surface with each pulse,

the next pulse of the laser is traveling through that

and is actually ionizing it into its own plasma.

CRAIG: Everybody that we've talked to

thinks it's very old, so to me,

it brings up a bunch of questions that we don't

have answers for right now, but I'm eager

to see what kind of results they'll come up with.

Okay, so this is good. So, ready to go.

This is collecting now,

and we come over here and we start the sequence.

And now we wait.

Okay.

NARRATOR: As Dr. McFarlane continues

to conduct the laser ablation testing

on the lead cross,

Jack Begley and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

are continuing their search for important clues

and possible treasure on Lot 2.

The same area where the team uncovered

an 18th-century British coin just two days ago.

JACK: Well, looks like we have our work cut out for us.

GARY: Yeah.

This is a little higher up in elevation,

so there shouldn't be any trash that's washed in here.

Whatever's here should be good.

JACK: Since Lots 1 through 4

really haven't been searched at all by anyone in the past,

there's a really good chance that we could find evidence

of people who were here looking for something

or, possibly, depositing something.

It's a little bit quiet, Jack.

I'm just gonna keep zigzagging.

I'm hoping we can pick something up

in these little valleys.

Let's search over by this boulder, Gary.

GARY: Oh, I would imagine there's gonna be a depression

at the side of it.

And that's interesting, you know,

these are interesting features, these boulders and depressions.

All of these boulders have got some kind

of depression next to them.

Perhaps there is more underneath the boulder to discover.

JACK: All right, mate, I will have a little search

around here, see if there's anything close to it.

-Yeah, yeah, I'll-I'll get out of your... -(beeping)

Wait, really?

-You found something right away? -Yeah.

(Jack coughs)

GARY: Well, that's a really nice, sharp signal.

-JACK: What is it? Iron? -GARY: Yeah, it's reading iron.

Yeah, it's iron.

-(detector beeps loudly) -Screaming iron.

I don't think it's very deep. Let me see if I can pinpoint it.

Yeah, go for it.

This could be another

lucky find.

-There it is. -(machine beeping)

See, that's exactly why all this moss

needs to be taken off these boulders.

Yup.

-Wow! -What?

Would you look at this! Iron!

Oh, and there's a drilled hole!

There's a freaking hole!

What has someone been doing here?

Definitely, that is man-made.

Wow!

That is crazy.

The heck has someone been doing here?

NARRATOR: While exploring Lot 2

on the western side of Oak Island,

Jack Begley and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

have just unearthed an unusual object:

an iron spike embedded in a large stone

and with several holes drilled into it.

Why would someone

drill into this rock

and put metal in there?

Definitely, that is man-made.

Do you think that there were two, right next to each other?

Well, we don't know how many is in here.

I mean, look, Jack, you can see where this has been pounded in.

I mean, this?

It wouldn't surprise me if this is a ringbolt

you put a chain around or a rope and you pull things.

It's here for moving some other stuff.

And what do you haul up? Treasure.

(chuckles)

NARRATOR: Shortly after their discovery

of the Money Pit in 1795,

Daniel McGinnis and his friend John Smith

discovered a large iron ringbolt

embedded in a boulder on the beach at Smith's Cove.

They believed that this rock

was part of an ancient pulley system

where heavy cargo was moved on or off sailing ships

by means of a heavy chain

threaded through the eye of a ringbolt.

Could this stone found on Lot 2

have once been used for such a purpose?

And, if so, what exactly was being transported and why?

GARY: And look, if you look on here, there's, like, a tab

that comes around,

and-and it's obvious that these two holes are connected.

I think that we need to, at this point, just call Rick,

get him out here.

This is important enough for him to see.

Yeah, 'cause I've got a sneaky suspicion

that piece of iron is under there.

And who knows what else is under there.

Exactly! All right, I'll get him on the phone.

(line ringing)

This is a really big find.

If this is original stuff,

then this is exactly what we've been looking for,

more indications of original people and their activities.

-(phone ringing) -RICK (on phone): Hello?

-Hey, Rick. -Hey, Jack. What's up?

So Gary and I found something

that we think is really important

and you need to come see.

RICK: Whereabouts are you?

On the middle of Lot 2,

about halfway between the road and the water.

RICK: We're pretty close. I happen to be here with Doug.

-We'll be right there. -All right, sounds great.

RICK: When Jack and Gary called,

of course our ears go up, our heads come up.

What is it? If it's enough to make them think they've...

Well, they tagged it, "significant find."

Obviously, we're gonna go look.

GARY: Hey, guys.

This cleared area here,

we've been running across big boulders,

and this big boulder, here,

gave up a nice surprise.

-Really? -GARY: Yup.

We lifted the moss up, and that's what we saw.

JACK: You can see this boulder, with a drill hole in it,

and a piece of iron.

GARY: It looks like an old eyebolt.

Why would this be in this boulder?

And this isn't just an isolated boulder,

if you look down here, you can see them in a line.

There's a lot of big boulders.

RICK: It's certainly unique.

I mean, we've never found anything else like this.

Are there any other targets?

We might be able to get another signal

once that moss is removed,

and I get can get my search coil further down.

This is something I think Laird would call cultural.

Yup, it's an interesting find, there's no doubt about it.

You were right to stop

because Laird needs to render an opinion.

NARRATOR: As part of their treasure trove license,

the Oak Island team must first consult

with an approved archeologist before digging any site

that is believed to be culturally

or historically significant.

-JACK: Another hole? -Yeah.

NARRATOR: For this reason,

further exploration of the stone

and the area surrounding it will have to wait

until team archaeologist Laird Niven can evaluate it.

Well, kudos to both of you. I mean, it's a great find.

It's obviously something that we can't explain, as of yet.

We'll get Laird out here and move on from there.

And it's a new discovery on Oak Island.

RICK: Absolutely.

Any day you make a new discovery,

-it's pretty special. -RICK: Yeah. No, yeah.

Absolutely. Good job, guys.

NARRATOR: While Rick and members of the team

wait for Laird's arrival,

some 300 miles northwest of Oak Island,

in the city of Fredericton...

So this is looking good.

NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester,

Peter Fornetti,

and Dave Blankenship

are at the University of New Brunswick

where Dr. Chris McFarlane is about to begin

a chemical analysis of the samples taken

from the lead cross found at Smith's Cove last year.

CHRIS: So right now just monitoring

the signal that's coming from that standard,

and we're now measuring it on the mass spectrometer.

Okay, and so now this is the cross.

It's certainly noisier because it's pure lead.

That is a bit different.

The black line here is silver.

So this does have some silver in it.

NARRATOR: Silver?

Is it possible that the cross found at Smith's Cove

contains trace amounts of this precious metal?

As early as the Bronze Age,

silver was most commonly found mixed

with deposits of lead or copper ore,

which were actively mined across the ancient world.

The reason for this is simple:

both lead and silver are obtained

from the same mineral source, a mineral ore known as galena.

Prior to modern advancements

in refining practices during the 19th century,

most metal alloys would contain trace amounts

of other metals from which they were extracted.

Could finding traces of silver be proof

that the lead cross dates from before the 1800s

or even earlier?

CHRIS: I think artisanal lead,

which has not been smelted using modern techniques,

still has a lot of stuff left in it.

-Okay. -CHRIS: Okay.

So, that was the machine finishing.

Everything's done,

and so, the next step is data reduction.

-Okay. -We shut down the torch.

So there's our two ratios of interest.

There's the galena and there's the cross.

We can now compare that

to some of the North American deposits.

Okay.

I'll just put it into my spreadsheet over here.

There you go.

So the cross is not,

obviously, related to...

...North America.

(chuckles)

-That's very good. -Yeah.

-Okay. Yeah. -Yeah!

(laughter)

CRAIG: So, there's nothing in North America

that compares to that?

Yeah, North American-wise.

NARRATOR: Not from North America?

Could it be that not only the lead, but the cross itself

came to Oak Island from somewhere as far away

as Europe or the Middle East?

And could this news offer further validation

that the cross is, in fact, centuries old

and of Templar origin?

-That's great news, then. -PETER: Yeah.

-We want it to come from Europe. -Yeah.

So, hopefully, that's where it-it's pointing.

From my perspective, it's looking good.

I think that's great. Appreciate it.

Yup.

-CHRIS: Good luck. -CRAIG: Thank you.

NARRATOR: Shortly after receiving the results

of the laser ablation test

conducted on the mysterious lead cross,

Craig Tester has called together

his partners for a conference call

in the Oak Island war room.

-Hey, Craig. -Hey, Craig.

-Hey, guys. -MARTY: Make it good, Craig.

CRAIG: Okay.

So we had the laser ablation done on the lead cross,

and, so, what they did, they-they ran a test

to try to determine what mine

this lead might have come from.

The test results are very interesting.

Tell us.

Really, they just spit out a tremendous amount of data

concerning the isotopes.

And the-the very good news is, um,

you know, they have a very extensive, uh, database

for North America

and it doesn't match up with anything from North America.

-Wow! -So, the lead cross

is not from North America.

Well, that's gigantic. That's actually a relief.

-That's huge. -Wow.

I mean, look, I was always intrigued,

from the moment that cross came out of the ground,

it-it-it looked eerily identical

to the carving in Domme that we all saw.

Well, Peter, Alex saw.

JERRY: Over here is some of the most

well-known carvings at Domme. This way.

NARRATOR: While visiting a 14th-century prison

in Domme, France last year,

Rick Lagina, along with nephews

Alex Lagina and Peter Fornetti

were shown a number of carvings

known to have been made by members of the Knights Templar

during their years of captivity.

RICK: They obviously wanted to keep that symbolism alive.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, one of the carvings was eerily similar

to the lead cross found at Smith's Cove.

Now, with this...

this evidence, if you will,

that UNB is telling us

it's not North American lead,

it certainly doesn't eliminate the possibility

that this is, indeed, a Templar connection.

MARTY: We haven't eliminated it.

This would've killed it, is another way to say it.

This would've killed it, if it was North American.

-But it didn't. -MARTY: But it didn't.

The initial data is great.

Now we take the next step, you know,

further define when and where that cross was made.

Give us a really complete understanding

of what this artifact can tell us.

Wow, so this thing has some story to tell us yet, then.

If it was not made or mined in North America,

where the heck did it come from? Huh.

RICK: Did they give you any insight, Craig?

About where we go next?

Um, now, they suggested we, you know, we look to Europe.

Um, there's a lot of different places

that might have experts in different areas.

So I think we need to just start searching around.

Well, I know, for me, it-it just ramps up our interest

in doing the Smith's Cove work.

I-- Gary always talks about, surely, it has friends.

Okay, so, let's see where the data leads us.

-Let's proceed. -Okay.

-See you, Craig. -See you, Craig.

CRAIG: See you guys soon.

NARRATOR: After receiving the incredible news

that the lead found in the cross

came from somewhere other than North America,

Rick Lagina and archaeologist Laird Niven join Gary Drayton

to inspect the mysterious drilled stone on Lot 2.

GARY: It's right here, guys.

Okay.

I mean, this has been altered, but it's almost like it's been,

it's almost like it's impacted like this.

GARY: Yeah, 'cause if you look here, there's a mark here,

-where they started the... -Yeah. Started a hole.

No, well, that is strange.

It's just unusual to see that pin in there.

That's a unique feature we've never seen anywhere else.

-LAIRD: Nope. -Uh...

So I guess what you would like to do

is peel back the moss, and see if we can't

see more evidence that compels us to go down the road

of "Hey, this might be significant."

I'm eager to see what's under that moss.

Well, let's photograph it first.

Okay.

Ah...

Oh, look at that.

LAIRD: Big root, there.

Did we bring the snips?

RICK: We did, uh, yes, they're right behind.

Oh, yeah, there's more.

Yeah, look at that face.

LAIRD: Oh, there you go.

RICK: There's one there, there's one there,

there's one there.

We pull the moss back, and there's a bunch of, uh,

other drill holes and, uh,

you know, why were they doing that?

Why this specific rock?

But there's definitely...

Here, here, here, here, here.

GARY: And they're all the same diameter, as well.

Perhaps dating the spikes,

they'll be able to tell us when this work went on.

RICK: Yeah.

That is the one key,

the one interesting thing is how old is the metal?

And the hope would be that if we can give it to Dr. Brousseau

and she can give us a date range on it--

if it pre-dates the discovery of the Money Pit,

then-then it's very interesting.

Look at that.

Do you see any significance to this?

-See it? -This?

-Yeah. -Yeah.

RICK: Right here.

Is there a way we can clean that up a little bit?

LAIRD: Yeah, we can try pouring some water on it,

see what that does.

RICK: Yeah, try it.

(exhaling sharply)

LAIRD: Um...

It looks like a triangle to me.

I mean, it could be, it could be chiseled.

I know, uh, you know, Masons all had their specific mark.

NARRATOR: A carved triangle?

Possibly made by Freemasons?

For more than two centuries, the secretive fraternity

of builders known as the Freemasons

have left an undeniable mark on the Oak Island mystery.

Not only have prominent treasure hunters,

including Daniel McGinnis, M.R. Chappell

and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, all been members,

but well-known Masonic symbols such as triangles

and even the sacred letter G,

representing the great or divine architect,

have been found carved on stones all over the island.

I can't think of a single example anywhere on the island

where you see this type of rock deformation,

so we should look into it further.

This may turn out to be something connected

to the island and the mystery.

I'm curious to see if that really is a-a carving,

-or even an attempt at a carving. -Yeah.

Then that makes this significant.

Pushes one to: "Well, what was the purpose of that?"

They chose this for some reason, yeah.

That's the question we're left with right now.

RICK: Maybe they did this work to leave a message.

So, it's interesting.

Yes.

NARRATOR: As a new day begins on Oak Island...

Are you getting ready to set off

-another set of charges? -Yeah.

...and the team from Eagle Canada continue

their seismic scanning operation

at the Money Pit site...

MARTY: Okay, so, just real quick,

-tie it all together. -Fair enough.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina and his nephew Peter Fornetti

are about to conduct another investigation at Smith's Cove.

This is the port.

Joining them are geophysicist Mike West

and his associate Andrew Gillis.

-That's it? We're functional? -MIKE W.: Yeah.

Down the hill.

Yeah, you guys have done some work here.

Yeah. We're going to do a pretty massive excavation

-down at Smith's Cove. -Okay.

We're gonna put in a cofferdam.

-Right, right. -Just past Dan's old cofferdam.

You can see it already, coming into view.

We had Gary Drayton do normal metal detecting there.

And the EM61, which you're bringing, right?

-Yep. -Goes much deeper.

Yes, it's basically more of a high-power metal detection unit.

NARRATOR: Unlike conventional metal detection devices,

the EM61 device is designed to sense metal objects

at depths of nearly 20 feet.

Equipped with a GPS mechanism, it can pinpoint the position

of any metallic target to within centimeters

of its exact location below ground.

Let me get you lined out here.

It is the team's hope that the data collected

can be used to create a map of potential dig sites

for the major excavation planned

to happen here this year.

We're gonna be excavating about where

-that little pond is right there. -Yeah.

MARTY: That's where the U-shaped structure is.

What if you went from that metal deal...

What if you, kind of, tried to do this pie piece here first?

-MIKE W.: Yeah. -See what I'm saying?

To do this whole area, with this, will take some time.

-That's kind of what we want you to do. -Yeah. Yeah.

MARTY: All right, okay. Well, you got your marching orders.

Uh, Rick has some other stuff for me to do, Pete.

So I'm gonna skedaddle, but you know, get what you can

and then when the tide goes out, get more.

-Okay. -All right, carry on.

-All right, see you. -See you.

NARRATOR: While Mike West and Andrew Gillis begin

their deep scan for metal artifacts at Smith's Cove,

Rick Lagina, Craig Tester and Dave Blankenship

travel some 150 miles northwest

to the city of Saint John, New Brunswick.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm very interested in seeing

this technology they're going to apply to provide us

with a proper plan for the project in Smith's Cove.

CRAIG: Oh, absolutely. I mean,

I just got to believe we're gonna find a lot of things.

NARRATOR: They have arranged a meeting at the headquarters

of Irving Equipment, Limited, the company that,

for the past three years, has been chiefly responsible

for all of the major drilling operations on Oak Island.

Hey, guys.

-David. Good to see you again. -Welcome.

Good to see you, as well. How are things?

Good. Good, very good, actually.

-Good? Craig, good. -Nice to see you.

Dave, how you doing? So welcome to Irving Equipment.

-RICK: Thank you. Thank you very much. -CRAIG: Thank you.

Yeah, we got a couple tricks up our sleeve

we're looking to showcase for you guys today,

but hopefully, just have a good discussion about

Smith's Cove, what you want to do.

-Okay. -Perfect. -Let's go. Follow me.

NARRATOR: This year, in addition to the Money Pit,

the Laginas and their partners want to expand

the team's excavation efforts to include Smith's Cove,

where, last year, Rick and Gary Drayton

found the mysterious lead cross.

Because of its location at the ocean, digging at Smith's Cove

will require the team to first construct a massive cofferdam.

It will also require a large investment of money,

as well as numerous permits and permissions

from the government.

CRAIG: If we can get a proper cofferdam in place,

I think we can prove up the flood system

and which direction it goes and lead us to the Money Pit.

DAVID I.: Gentlemen, welcome to Lift Lab.

Here we have with us our engineering folks, as well as

-some of the folks from our pile driving department. -Okay.

Let's just summarize a little bit about what we talked about.

Sure. From previous discussions, we, uh,

understand the scope as being that you need a structure

that will hold back the water to permit excavation

and exploration around the Smith's Cove area.

So, uh, we also understand that you would like to possibly dig

down ten feet in the Smith's Cove area as well.

So, um, we have our proposal here to, uh,

-to review with you guys. -Great.

In order to, really, sort of, immerse yourselves

in the plan that we're presenting here,

we're gonna talk with this augmented reality technology.

It's not full virtual reality.

With VR, you're totally blocking out everything around you,

and you're just looking at a totally virtual environment.

What we want to do is be able to take the lift plans

that we've designed and then superimpose the equipment,

the structure, on a digital representation of the island.

The benefits of that are that you get

that immersive experience, without losing sight of what

we're really trying to talk about, which is the worksite,

and how what we're planning on putting on the worksite

fits together.

NARRATOR: With applications ranging

from the medical to engineering fields,

augmented reality is an emerging technology,

whereby computer-generated sensory data,

such as imagery and sound,

can alter an individual's perception

of actual, real-life environments.

Put simply, it creates a three-dimensional simulation

of the physical world.

-Julien, do you have a headset? -Yep, right here.

NARRATOR: Using a headset device known as a HoloLens,

the digital model can be manipulated

by simple hand movements.

JULIEN: What I'm gonna do now is load up a hologram.

There's cameras on the front of these HoloLens goggles.

So you're gonna see my output here on the screen.

The HoloLens technology uses hand gestures, so...

You can see it here, it's kind of small scale,

so we'll make it a little bit bigger and drag it.

That's amazing.

And I'm gonna to rotate it around so the cove

is facing you guys, so you can see the cove in the front.

And I'll grab it here and kind of rotate it around for you.

So there you can see--

you can't see it in front of you, but I can see it.

There's a cove right there on the table for you.

DAVID I.: That's sort of the starting point.

We can also now look at the CAD files

that we developed on top of this.

So, there we are there. There's your cranes.

Again, showing the range of the working profile there.

VICTOR: Okay, so, to summarize all the discussions

on how actually will we install this cofferdam,

we would start to construct a road

from the Money Pit area all the way right down to the beach.

It's a road that's going to be

about, approximately, 500 feet long.

Once we get down to the beach area,

then we would construct a crane pad.

What this crane pad is going to do,

it's going to allow us to crane back and forth, as required,

to drive the sheets from the center point

all the way back to the shoreline.

We also talked about the old cofferdam

that was constructed back in 1970.

As you can see, it's kind of like a darker, shaded area here.

That's, that will show you exactly the...

kind of like the footprint of the old, existing structure.

And, as you can see, we'll be outside of that.

So it allows us soil support inside of the cofferdam.

You know, we're-we're retaining back a minimum,

on high tide, of six feet of water.

So, the forces are-are significant, for sure.

It definitely gives you a sense of scale

because we know how big that crane is.

Look-look at the amount of earth we have to deal with.

It's intimidating.

Yeah, it is a big structure.

Certainly the biggest project we've undertaken so far.

Oh, yeah.

RICK: You know, it was very helpful to see

a bird's-eye view, literally, of the Smith's Cove work,

of the scope of it, the scale of it.

Here it is, in real time, what we're about to undertake,

and as I'm looking at it, I'm thinking to myself,

you know what?

Time waits for no one.

We have to get this started.

Is there anything else that we need to talk about here

or do we... do you guys think that we're good to go?

-What do you think? -I-I think we're good to go.

Good.

I think, I just want to affirm to you guys

why this project is so important to us, on a number of levels.

You know, everyone says that the puzzle,

the mystery, actually started

upon finding the Money Pit in 1795.

The truth is, my suspicion is

that the original depositors, this is where they started

because there was something they had that was so valuable

that they needed to protect it

and that's why they had to create this.

The other thing is, we found this cross,

but we believe there are other artifacts

in the area where it was found and in association

with this U-shaped structure.

So we'd like to get to the bottom of the importance

of Smith's Cove and the work that was done there.

Now, with your assistance, your help,

we think we're on the precipice of unraveling that mystery.

Um, will it find treasure? Will it find answers?

You know, maybe write a page into this ever-evolving story?

I think it will.

Well, let's seal it on a handshake, then, and...

I'm old school. Handshake.

-Done deal. -Sounds good.

-Thank you. -Thanks.

-Let's get it done. -Thanks, guys.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Following their trip to Irving Equipment, Limited...

-Let me give Marty a call. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester, Dave Blankenship

and Rick Lagina call Rick's brother Marty

to update him on their morning meeting.

Hey, Marty, you there?

MARTY (over phone): Yeah, Craig.

-Hey. -What's going on?

-We went to Irving's office today. -MARTY: Okay.

We discussed Smith's Cove, putting the pilings in.

MARTY: Oh, all right.

CRAIG: Rick and I felt confident

that they could do the job.

So, we said, "Sure, we'll-we'll do it with you guys."

MARTY: Yep.

David agreed as well, right, Dave?

-Yep. -MARTY: I concur.

I did see the pictures you sent, and it's exciting

to see that picture, and see that dyke

holding back the sea and then being able

to work in there in the dry.

I'm just hoping that could really happen, you know.

-Yeah, I agree. -Yep.

MARTY: The excavation at Smith's Cove is going to be

the biggest thing that we've done here,

uh, since we've embarked on this quest.

I have some trepidation about it.

It's going to be, it's going to be a lot of work.

This is more about eyes and boots on the ground,

getting dirty, jumping in,

making real finds, real discoveries.

So, I'm very much looking forward to it.

It's... finally, we're getting our hands dirty again.

It is a treasure hunt, after all.

MARTY: Well, well done, guys.

I'm happy with the result and yes, I'm firmly on board.

Okay.

-MARTY: Release the hounds! -Yeah.

-(laughter) -Smith's Cove, here we come.

NARRATOR: As Rick, Craig and Dave

make their way back to Oak Island,

Rick's nephew Peter Fornetti,

along with geophysicist Mike West

and his associate Andrew Gillis,

continue their search for artifacts at Smith's Cove.

(beeping)

There's certainly something right there.

-PETER: Right-right where you are? -Yeah.

Do you know any depth with that or...

No, but it's-it's a pretty big response, yeah.

PETER: Oh, yeah?

It's even, like, the millibel reading, uh,

is even off the scale.

We're up in the, you know, 3000, 3,400 millibels.

-Our baseline's right around zero -PETER: Mm-hmm.

and that's, you know, that's spiking

o-off the charts right there.

And I don't, I don't see any evidence

of any kind of metal on surface.

So, there's something really big deep?

MIKE W.: Yeah. This isn't a subtle response.

NARRATOR: A large, metal object

buried deep below the surface at Smith's Cove?

Could it be related to the lead cross found here last year?

That's one that

-I'd certainly take a look at. -PETER: Yeah.

MIKE W.: We'll create some maps. We'll find these targets.

We can come back at a later date and dig them.

We definitely will. (chuckles)

NARRATOR: Although Mike is certain that the EM61

has detected the presence of a significant metal target,

the team will have to wait until today's scans

can be properly analyzed before they can determine

the object's exact GPS location.

Maybe I'll get one more pass.

And then we'll hop to the other side?

And then we'll jump to the other side.

Awesome. Perfect.

NARRATOR: The next day...

-I think we just go right in here. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton...

-Start right here, actually. -Yep.

...continue their ongoing search

for important clues,

this time on Lot 21.

Well, this is 21. We've never been in here before.

You've got the McGinnis foundation over there.

Uh, let's see what we find.

Right.

-Let's go, lucky digger. -Let's go.

NARRATOR: Shortly after Daniel McGinnis and two of his friends

discovered the Money Pit in 1795,

the young man moved to Oak Island and built a home.

Here, he lived for the remainder of his life,

farming, raising a family and searching for treasure.

Three years ago, while visiting the island,

three of Daniel McGinnis's direct descendants

shared an incredible story with Rick, Marty and the team...

Now, I've been told they found three treasure chests.

And what is in this box is one of the things

that came from that chest.

NARRATOR: ...along with an amazing object...

Oh, my goodness.

NARRATOR: ...that Daniel reportedly found

some 30 feet deep in the Money Pit.

MARTY: Wow.

NARRATOR: Although the remains of Daniel McGinnis's house

were removed more than a century ago,

the rock foundation remains as a protected historical site.

Because of this, Rick and Gary are careful not to disturb

any areas within 100 feet of the foundation,

in hopes their search of the surrounding ground

will yield important information.

(metal detector whoops)

It's only reading three or four inches.

(beeping)

I'm getting readings over here, as well.

Ooh, look at that.

-Is that an oldie? -I don't know.

That looks old.

Let's have a look, see if I see any screw threads.

Yeah, I can... these are old screws.

-Mm-hmm. -So we've got an hinge.

-We need the chest. -Chest.

And that's how it is on Oak Island a lot of times.

Once you find one or two good things,

you find a lot of things in the same area.

Oh, come on, just one more nice, little signal around here.

Really, what we need to do is just circle this area

-a couple times. -Yeah.

(beeping)

Well, that doesn't sound too bad.

(steady beeping)

Just there.

You never, ever know

what's gonna come out of your next hole.

What do I always say?

Just win, baby, change your whole day.

Here we go.

(beeping)

Still sounding good, still looking good.

Oh, my gosh.

It's another bobby-dazzler. Look!

NARRATOR: While metal detecting on Lot 21...

Bloody hell.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton

have just made an astonishing and potentially historic find.

That's a stone.

RICK: That's a brooch.

GARY: That's a bloody brooch.

Look at that. That's a gem.

RICK: That's red, too.

NARRATOR: A jeweled brooch

found on the western side of Oak Island

and nearly a mile from the Money Pit?

It's heavy. You know, feel-feel the...

-We did it again. -(laughs)

RICK: Feel the weight on that compared to the other one.

-Oh, look at that. -Isn't that much heavier?

NARRATOR: Could it be related to the one discovered last year

on Lot 8, which not only contained a semiprecious jewel,

but which might also date as far back as the 16th century?

Gary reached in and, there it is, the brooch.

And, uh, you know, it's a "Holy schmoly" moment for Gary.

Wow.

RICK: And it is for me, too.

It was hard not to get excited because if it predates

searcher activity, it's absolutely an excellent find.

Look at that.

Is that some sort of ornament there,

some sort of ornament there?

I mean, a lot of work went into that.

That's why I'm thinking this could be special.

I just think the...

how ornate it is, is going to tell us something.

It's beautiful.

-That is unbelievable. -I-I think...

-The brooch brothers are back. -(laughs)

Lucky diggers.

Right, you know what?

-Top-pocket find. -Top-pocket find.

Just make sure you zip it up. (chuckles)

NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty and their team,

the discovery of what may be an actual piece of treasure

offers a momentous start to their new year on Oak Island.

But could it also validate their belief

that, at some time, perhaps centuries ago,

a group of people came here for the purpose

of hiding something of incredible value

like gold and jewels buried by pirates,

the lost manuscripts of William Shakespeare,

precious, religious artifacts

taken from the Temple of King Solomon?

Or could it be something small and modest,

like a simple lead cross, which, when analyzed,

could change history

and which was discovered on an area of the island

that waits to be explored?

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

We got two broaches and two red gemstones.

-Yes. -RICK: That's pretty amazing.

This is not your ordinary gem.

-It's super ancient. -DAVE: Now we're cooking.

These artifacts are pushing us back

farther in time than I ever thought.

-Here it comes. -RICK: For the first time

in two and a quarter centuries,

we can look underground in the Money Pit.

We can give you guys some answers.

MARTY: What are the lighter spots?

I would say it's pure gold.

GARY: Holy schmoly!

MARTY: We have found our first gold

on Oak Island.

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