13x05 - Keep on Rockin'

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] Tonight, on
The Curse of Oak Island...

[Marty] All right. Well, this
is the neighborhood, guys.

I mean,
this is treasure central.

[Rick]
There's mounting evidence

of something
happening here long ago.

[Gary] Hopefully, there's
some old gold and silver.

- [detector beeping]
- Oh, look at that.

[Terry] We've got
a stone structure here.

Somebody piled those stones.

[Marty]
So, somebody put this here.

[Rick]
Somebody went to some trouble.

[Laird]
It could be 1500s,

- hand cannon.
- [Rick] You were right, Gary.

[narrator] There is an island
in the North Atlantic

where people
have been looking for

an incredible treasure
for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found
a stone slab

with strange symbols
carved into it,

man-made workings
that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross
whose origin may be connected

to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

trying to solve the mystery.

And according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure
can be found.

♪

[Marty] Terry, bring me
up to speed, buddy.

Where are we?

Okay, we're on G-4.5.

Uh, right now, we're down


Seems to be dropping
in there quite well.

Yeah, okay.

[narrator]
A new day of excitement

and exploration

has begun on Oak Island

for brothers Rick and
Marty Lagina and their team.

For as far as our activities
in the solution channel,

we're just getting started.
We got 168

all the way to 215
in this one, Steve?



- 212 to bottom out here.
- Yeah, okay.

[narrator] Today, they are
drilling a new borehole

called G-4.5
on their strategic grid

in the Money Pit area.

The team believes
the treasure could have fallen

deep below ground here into
a water and mud-filled cavern

known as the solution channel.

If there was a great treasure
in the Money Pit,

and there still is a great
treasure in the Money Pit,

the clues are that

there have been
collapses in the past

and it fell down
into the solution channel.

I am more optimistic than ever

that we are going to find it.

All right. Well,
this is the neighborhood, guys.

- Yeah.
- If there was ever anything

in the Money Pit, and

I'm becoming a believer
that there was,

- with the Pitblado coin.
- Yeah.

[narrator] The team was
recently presented with

a 14th-century silver
Portuguese coin

possibly connected to a branch
of the Knights Templar,

and reportedly found
in the Money Pit

by drilling foreman
James Pitblado

in 1849.

Now, the team hopes to
find many more of these coins

as they drill in this area.

[Rick]
We've made significant

discoveries island-wide,
but it's the treasure component

that has made this mystery
endure for 230 years.

We're all here because
we're solely dedicated

to solving the mystery
that is Oak Island.

I want to know that last page
on the Reader's Digest article.

I want to know
what happened here.

What is the story?

We're on track right now

to get down into
the zone of interest.

Yeah, and how soupy is it
so far? 'Cause you know

- what I'm looking for.
- Yeah, there's, you know,

there's density here.

There's a little bit of water,

but basically there's
more rock and rubble

than there is water.

They could
get into better stuff?

Oh, no question about it.
We're just getting started.

[Marty]
Okay. I want to find

where it's as unconsolidated

as can be, where something

could easily, you could picture
it falling right in there.

- Yeah.
- Well, from the human heart,

hope springs eternal,

and it's springing
right now from mine.

I mean,
this thing should open up.

We'll see in this next one.

Hopefully, we'll
get into that slushy zone.

Okay. Now we wait.

Treasure central, right here.

[narrator] As the drilling
operation continues

in the Money Pit area...

[Rick] You know, I'm always
happy to be back in the lab

because we learn so much here,

but particularly invested

in this one because
the item before us...

Billy, Gary and myself...
we found that,

and we found it in one of
my most favorite places,

- the swamp.
- [laughing]

[narrator]
Rick Lagina and other

members of the team join

Laird Niven and Emma Culligan

in the Oak Island lab.

We found the item before us

in a very interesting place, uh,

right across from
the paved area.

So I look forward to, uh,

learning more about it.

[narrator] Emma and Laird
have just finished analyzing

a possible fragment of a firearm

found one week ago on
the western side of the swamp,

just a few yards from
a paved stone feature

uncovered back in 2019,

and that the team believes
is up to 800 years old.

When it first came out,
I'm thinking it's some

kind of weight, and then,
when it started drying out,

and you see
the way it tapered down,

I'm hoping
it's some kind of weapon.

Well, it was presented to us

as a hand cannon, I guess.

Which is a precursor

to flint locks and match locks

- and wheel locks.
- [Alex] That's gonna make it

pretty old, is it not?

- It could, if that's what it is.
- Right.

[narrator] Dating back to
as early as the 12th century,

the hand cannon, or hand gonne,
was invented in China

and is considered to be
the world's first true firearm.

By the 14th century,
variations on the weapon

were developed in
the Middle East and Europe,

until they were replaced
by flint lock hand muskets

and other firearms
in the 15th century.

[Laird] Maybe we talk about
the metallurgy first.

- Sure.
- Okay.

So, it's always hard to get
a swamp artifact's base metal

because of all
the minerals that kind of really

mold with or just
embed itself with

the, um, iron or the corrosion.

But I did get a few good points,

and from that composition

it's looking fairly clean.

Like, I'm not seeing
the wide range of impurities.

I am seeing a natural

spike in sulfur content,
and that's a good

sign of, you know,


Because of the minimum
impurities, like, it's not

forged in a modern

blast furnace,
and could be European in origin.

[Laird]
Yeah, and we should add that

by the 1500s, those are going

- out of fashion.
- Oh, wow.

- [Laird] Yeah.
- [narrator] Is it possible

that this hand cannon
predates the discovery

of the Money Pit
by more than a century?

If so, just how old could it be?

And who left it here?

Is there a touch hole in that?

So, I've done a CT scan.

- [Alex] Mm-hmm.
- [Emma] There was

- this thing right here.
- [Laird] Oh, yeah.

- [Gary] That's a touch hole.
- [Alex] You talking about

- this little hole right here?
- [Laird] Yeah, exactly.

A hand cannon

had just a little touch hole
where you would-you would

touch it to set off
the gunpowder inside,

and then your projectile
would fly out.

So, it's an unusual artifact
found in a very unusual area.

Looks gorgeous, doesn't it?

I've never been so
appreciative of the CT scanner

as I am right now
in this moment.

- Yeah, right?
- [Rick] That is really cool.

[Gary]
It bloody well is, isn't it?

You were, you were right, Gary.

[Rick] This is something for a
firearms expert to weigh in on.

So, what other secrets
are in the bog? I don't know.

But right now,
we're nowhere near done.

I look forward to what else
we can learn about it.

And I'm sure
your brother's gonna be happy.

We're spending
more time in the swamp.

- Especially now.
- [laughing]

- A major find, Gary.
- Yep.

We should aim
to find more, Rick.

[laughs]

[Peter]
We're gunning for it.

[laughing]

[Gary] All right, Derek.
Let's find some treasure.

[Derek]
Here we go.

[Gary] I'll wait until
you take a few scoops out.

Okay.

[narrator] Following
their meeting in the lab,

Gary and Billy return to
the western region of the swamp,

along with Derek Couch,
to search for additional clues.

All it takes
is one good find, Derek.

One good find.

The one thing.

[Gary] Whenever we've
searched in the swamp,

we have come away
with some really,

really cool, older artifacts,

but one side of the swamp

we haven't investigated a lot
is the western side.

Unfortunately,
no hits there, Derek.

[Derek]
Darn.

[Gary] We're gonna have a
really good scan around the area

and hopefully,
winkle out a good find today.

[Derek]
Oh, I hear a big rock.

[Gary] Come on, Billy.
Bring me a bucket of treasure.

- [Billy] Hey, Gary.
- What are you seeing, Billy?

Look at that!

[Gary]
What are you seeing, Billy?

- Is this a stake or a stick?
- Uh, looks like it could be

- a stake.
- [narrator] On the western side

of the Oak Island swamp...

- Yeah, look. Yeah.
- There you go.

[narrator]
the team has just uncovered

new evidence
of man-made workings.

[Gary]
Look it, there's a log here.

Yeah.

- [Gary] Can you pry that out?
- [Derek] Yeah.

That's in there deep.

Do you want to try
scooping it, just here, mate?

I'll try to scrape back
there a little bit, maybe.

'Cause it's in there.

[Derek]
Now, there you go.

[Gary]
That's it. Look.

There's our piece.

Look. It was on top of the clay.

Yeah, it's on top of the clay

and it looks
like it's peeled, right?

- The bark was peeled off of it.
- [Gary] Yeah.

The two ends are cut
and the limbs are

cut off of it,
so somebody might have

laid it in there for something.

Yep.

It actually looks like
it could be a road

'cause there's
a lot of cut wood here

and there's a lot of rocks
underneath it, in the clay.

Yeah. It's like a corduroy road.

Yeah.

[narrator]
A possible corduroy road?

First designed in Europe
during the 11th century,

a corduroy road consists of logs

that are placed tightly together

and used to transport
wagons and heavy cargo

across marshy environments.

[Gary]
We know

that these logs
were laid that way,

so someone is coming
this way into the swamp.

Right.

[narrator]
If Gary is correct

that this feature
is a corduroy road,

just who constructed it?

When? And what could they have
been moving into the swamp?

[Rick] We found survey stakes,
we found the stone road.

We found part of the stone path
on the edge of the bog.

We have the so-called vault.

[Derek] There's more
rocks here too, right?

- [Gary] Yeah.
- [Rick] Perhaps we should

follow this new road.

My hope is that there's
another vault-like structure.

[metal detector beeping]

Ooh. Yeah, what is that?

Coal.

Yeah, we found some coal.

Now, this is interesting because
the last time we found coal,

it was on
that Portuguese stone road

on the other side of the swamp.

I'm pretty sure we found some
in the stone path, too,

- yeah.
- Yeah.

[narrator] Is it possible that
the team has found another clue

that might be connected
to the stone road uncovered

in the southeastern corner
of the swamp,

and which may be
of Portuguese origin?

[Gary] Rick was interested
if we find some coal

because we'd be duplicating
what happened across

- the other side of the swamp.
- Okay.

- Yep.
- [Gary] It was just here.

Let me see
if I can find some more.

- [Derek] That's a big piece.
- [Gary] Yep.

[Billy]
We've got some good samples.

Yeah. [chuckles]
You've got that right, mate.

I'd be interested to see
if that's coal or charcoal.

[narrator] As the search
in the swamp continues

several hundred yards
to the west on Lot 5...

[Marty] What's this
exciting thing, Laird?

Well, it's kind of
an unusual rock feature.

And it appears,
initially, to be circular.

- [Marty] Yeah, it is, for sure.
- Yep.

[narrator] ...Marty joins
other team members

as they investigate
a strange stone feature found

one week ago.
A feature

located in the same area...

where six ancient Roman coins
were discovered in recent years.

[Laird] It could be
any number of things.

[Marty]
Yeah. Okay.

Well, we've seen things
like this turn into something

- very important.
- Yeah.

- I hope this one does.
- Yeah.

Well, I think the first
order of business is

to clean off the sod

and delineate it
a little bit more.

All right, well, let's get
after it. Give me a trowel.

Let's go.

[Laird]
All right, there you go.

[Marty]
Even though doing

archaeology
is not my strong suit,

nor is it something
I particularly enjoy...

- There you go.
- Thank you.

[Marty] ...I'm starting
to get intrigued.

We have found
Roman coins near it.

And so, finding any construction
where we found the Roman coins

almost by definition
is gonna be interesting.

We have here
a bunch of little rocks,

pointy little rocks.

What is that telling you?

[Laird]
To me, that's not field clearing

if you're a farmer.

[Marty]
No, you're not doing this.

[Laird]
They're not plowing that up.

[Marty]
Yeah, that's way too angular.

Yeah.
We've got this cleaned off,

- so we're ready to remove rocks.
- [Marty] Excellent.

[Laird]
It's really amazing for me

to think about when I first saw

Lot 5 so many years ago,
and seeing what it's

evolved into right now.

Not only how large and unusual
the stone structure is, but

how unusual a lot of

the artifacts we're finding are,

like the beads and the buttons.

It's turned into something

mysterious and amazing to us.

- [Marty] That's all one rock?
- Yeah.

[solid thumping]

[Marty] That's not
moving by hand, is it?

[Laird]
No, not even close.

- And it needs to go?
- I think it'd be interesting.

The soils covering it,
I found odd.

Okay, well, I'll go
grab the backhoe

and see if
I can find a way in here.

- Okay.
- Okay. Good.

The rocks are fragmented.

They look like they were
put in there

intentionally to keep

this feature very stable.

[Laird]
It's gonna be a tight fit.

[backhoe beeping]

[Laird] When I first saw this
feature, I found it very unusual

because it was
a split stone sitting upright.

It's pretty big.
It's lifting the other one up.

I haven't seen anything
like this split stone

anywhere else on
the island, so, to me,

the only explanation
is that it's

for marking something
or for reference.

And it's just adding another

intriguing page to the, uh,
the story of Lot 5.

Okay, it's out.

We'll have to come in with
trowels and just clean it up.

[Marty] Boy, these are
jumbled-up, pointy rocks.

[Laird]
Yep. Yeah.

- Like Lot 26.
- Mm-hmm.

[Laird]
Very similar to the wall,

- isn't it?
- Yeah.

[Laird]
Which is pretty cool.

It's all very odd.

[narrator]
Hand-cut rocks,

similar to those found
in the rock wall

on Lot 26?

It's an intriguing observation

for several reasons.

First, the wall on Lot 26,

located several hundred yards
to the southeast,

is much larger than
the numerous other stone walls

across the island
that were constructed

by farmers and settlers

after the discovery
of the Money Pit.

Second, carbon dating
of charcoal

found in the wall on Lot 26

suggests it was constructed

as early as the 15th century.

[Francisco]
The rock wall...

[narrator] And third,
according to researcher

Francisco Nogueira,

the wall may have
a distinct European origin.

No way.

[Marty]
So somebody put this here.

- [Laird] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
- Yeah.

[narrator] Is it possible
that the same people

constructed these two features?

It's worth continuing with
our little investigation,

and it could have been

- put there for a reason.
- Yeah.

All right,
let's get back after it.

[Laird]
Okay.

[narrator] As a new morning
begins on Oak Island...

[Laird]
Initial conclusions:

Someone dug a hole,
propped that rock up

in it and then

filled it in

- with smaller rocks.
- Wow.

[narrator] ...Laird
and Marty are joined by

Rick and other members
of the team to continue

investigating the strange
boulder and stone feature

on Lot 5.

So, for some reason, they needed

that showing.

[Rick]
Hmm.

And if you look at
the rocks themselves,

it's that same kind of rubble

that was in the wall in Lot 26

that was dated to 1474

- by charcoal.
- Yeah.

- Somebody went to some trouble.
- [Laird] Yeah.

What is the orientation?

Really close to east-west.

Isn't the Lot 5
circular feature east-west?

Yep. The long axis is.

[Rick]
And if you know

Templar freemasonry,
it's always east-west.

- East-west.
- Everything is oriented

east-west. The orientation of

the building, a structure,
had importance to them.

On these trips
to Europe and beyond,

every building
we've encountered,

every structure

that was Templar-influenced

or Templar-built

was oriented east-west.

And Laird is saying
that this stone face

is oriented east-west.

I find that
to be quite remarkable,

exceedingly interesting.

- Hey, guys.
- Hey, Katya.

- Terry, how are you?
- Terry.

Oh, and he's got his pick
with him. He's got his hammer.

All right, Terry,
we got questions.

Number one is:
What do you make of that?

[Terry] Well, something's
going on here. I would say that

- somebody piled those stones.
- That's pretty clear.

- Pretty clear.
- That was flipped up,

and then they
ringed it with rocks.

I would say yeah,
in that they've

put that up against the other.

We've got
a stone structure here.

[Rick] Did you take
measurements here, Laird?

Yeah, it's six feet in diameter.

- Yeah.
- [Rick] Six feet is 72 inches.

- Right.
- And we know the rule of 72

goes back into antiquity.

Nolan's Cross is based on

- the rule of 72.
- [Marty] That's true.

If we remember when John Edwards
gave his presentation,

he represented that the Templars

used the rule of 72.

Yeah.

The way to unlock Nolan's Cross
is built into the cross itself.

[narrator] In 2023,

researcher John Edwards

presented the team
with a potential link

between the order
of the Knights Templar

and the design of Nolan's Cross.

When you go and look at the two

arms of the cross, it's 720.

Everything was divisible by 72.

[narrator] The Latin Rule,
which is also known as

"Specific Behavior
for the Templar Order"

was written
in the early 12th century

by Hugues de Payens
and Bernard of Clairvaux,

two of the founding members
of the Templar order.

The document contained a set

of 72 directives
that all Templar Knights

were sworn to live by.

And curiously,

John Edwards' research revealed

that the symbolic number of 72

was incorporated
into the designs

of numerous
Templar-related structures

all across medieval Europe.

So, the fact that it is
six feet in diameter...

[Marty]
It might mean something.

It might be meaningful.

[narrator] Could Rick
be correct that this feature

and Nolan's Cross
represent further evidence

of a Templar connection
to the Oak Island mystery?

There was a purpose here,

- an intelligent design.
- [Laird] I'm also thinking,

how many more
of these are around?

[Rick]
Imagine that. Another puzzle.

[Laird]
Yeah, I think what we'll do is

we'll clean out
this side a little more,

and then we'll
clean off the rest.

[Terry]
Right on.

[Rick] What we should do
is have Steve come out,

make a line.
I'm quite fascinated

with the possibility
of numerical relationships

between this

and other stone features
on the island.

And, to be honest,

the only way
to find out is to do it.

- Correct. So... okey doke.
- [Laird] Right?

[Marty]
We'll get on to other things.

- [Rick] All right.
- [Laird] See you later.

[narrator]
As Laird continues uncovering

the new stone feature
on Lot 5...

[Gary] I've brought
a lot of bags, mate.

I'm expecting
a good day for artifacts.

- We'll try to fill them.
- [Derek] Here we go.

Get stuck in.

[narrator] ...over on the
western edge of the swamp,

Gary, Billy and Derek
search for more clues.

[beeping]

That's a little surface nail.

Nope. Let's begin
to begin again.

[Derek]
A lot of rock right there.

[Gary] You can see
the hard clay in the rocks.

Okay.

I'll have a detect.

- [metal detector beeping]
- It's in there.

That's a little bit stronger.

- [electronic whine]
- Just there, please.

There you go, mate.
Give it some welly.

Stuck between
a rock and a hard place.

This looks like
it's deeper down, Derek.

This has got a chance
of being older. Come on.

- [beeping]
- [Derek] It's still in there.

[Gary]
We're about to witness

a little bit
of Oak Island history, Derek.

I'll try and pinpoint it.

What is that?

The heck is that?

- [Gary] What the heck is it?
- [Derek] Heavy?

Yeah, it's heavy.

[narrator] While searching
near the log roadway

on the western side
of the swamp,

members of the Oak Island team
have just found

another mysterious artifact.

[Gary] A lot of times
when we find old iron like this

and it's really heavy
for-for its size,

it turns out to be older iron.

I have no idea
what it is, Billy.

You know, it doesn't
just look like

a piece of slag metal either.

You know, you got
the sharp angles cut there.

Right? Like, it's a something.

[Gary] Yeah. It was made
on purpose like that.

- That's good. We've got
some old iron coming up. -Yeah.

- Yeah. -Hopefully there's
some old gold and silver.

- Yeah.
- We'll put that in the bag.

Any time you find
an artifact on Oak Island,

it always has
more of a story to tell.

See if there's anything else.

- [beeping] -There's
a lot of iron around here.

And we've previously recovered

really good artifacts
in the swamp.

Hopefully we can find some more.

[beeping]

[beeping]

- [Derek] Something small.
- Yeah. -[beeping]

Talk about a needle
in a clay stack.

[chuckles softly]

We ain't missing nothing, Derek.

- No. Definitely not.
- Yeah.

I know it's only
a-a little iron needle,

but it could tell a story.

I'll put that in the bag.

Hey, guys.

- Hello, chaps. -[Marty] What on
earth are you guys doing here?

- We are digging the heck out
of this area. -And?

[Gary] We've got a couple
of interesting pieces of iron.

Here, I'll show you.

What'd you think of 'em, Derek?

- [laughing]
- This one

needled him a little bit.

- Wow. That is a needle,
isn't it? -Yeah.

- Little iron needle.
- [Marty] Wait, wait.

- Let me see it.
- Look how little that is.

[Marty] Boy, it shows again how
good you are at finding stuff.

- [laughing] You got
to be kidding. -Yeah.

I don't... It almost looks like
it has a patina, too.

[Derek] The other one, I
don't know what to think about.

[Gary] Now,
this was great, because

- it was deep down there.
We had to dig it out. -Mm-hmm.

And it's nice and heavy.

- Yeah. It is heavy.
- Um...

- That's cool. -[Rick] You
generally have an idea.

[Gary] You know what,
the more I look at it,

to me, it looks like
an old iron buckle.

And that's just one end of it.

That little area there

could come out these two ends.

- That'd be a big buckle.
- Yeah, it'd be a big buckle.

Could be off boxes.

[narrator] Could Gary be correct
that he has found an iron buckle

that may have once been attached
to a large chest?

If so, was it possibly related

to some kind of valuable cargo?

And could it also help explain

why the nearby corduroy road
was constructed?

[Marty] Well, I've always been
a swamp skeptic.

I've said for years

that one of the best ways
to hide a treasure

would be to flood it.

And flooding it in a, you know,

swamp-like condition
would be ideal

because there would be
absolutely no trace if you did.

So, yeah, it's possible that
what we seek is in that swamp.

Absolutely possible.

Well, that has Emma written
all over it, doesn't it?

- Oh, yeah. Probably a
really old piece of iron. -Yeah.

- You know what I'm gonna say.
- Yeah.

"That's good
but find some more."

[laughs]

[Rick] Well, keep going.

[Gary] Leave no stone unturned.

[Rick] Mm. There you go.

[narrator] As Gary,
Billy, and Derek

search for more evidence
of treasure in the swamp...

later that afternoon...

[Terry] Okay, we got a core
coming, guys. Here we go.

[Marty] It's perfect timing,
'cause Big Brother

just showed up.

[narrator]
Rick joins Marty

and other members of the team

in the Money Pit area...

[loud buzzing]

You know, it looks like
he got good recovery

or he wouldn't need that.

[narrator]
as the drilling operation

in Borehole G-4.5

approaches the bottom
of the solution channel.

[whirring]

- We're good.
- That's 208, Terry.



We hit the bottom at 206.


the bottom. All right.

All right.

G-4.5 is about to tell us
everything it's got to say.

[cover tearing]

There you go.

Unfortunately, it's, uh,

got quite a lot of, uh,

solid material
in amongst the water.

This is not the loose material
we're looking for.

Sadly, nothing to write home
about in particular, I guess.

- Who's got the pinpointer?
- Inside the box there.

[Rick] Well,
we're gonna have to get it

- on that table.
- Move 'em over. Let's go.

Okay. Pull her back.

- Nothing?
- Nope. -No.

[Marty] We were hoping
for a home run.

And by that, I mean we would
come up with a coin or something

and say, "Oh, there it is.
There's where the treasure is."

[Rick] Anything?

No.

No luck.

Sorry, Rick.

No joy.

But I really liked this.
I called it "treasure central."

I-I am disappointed here.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

I'm frustrated.

We were very hopeful
that the core would retrieve

something man-made
from those depths.

It's very troubling,
and I wonder if...

maybe it's gone.
Maybe it's lost forever.

I mean, uh, that's possible.

At this point, we don't know.

The fact
that we didn't bull's-eye

the target yet...
is that disappointing? Yes.

I don't know
what the next ones are.

They're all still in
and around here, aren't they?

- Right. Absolutely. -Yeah.
I mean, we're not done yet.

We have to find the void.

Nothing fell into this.

For right now, that's
the general bottom in this area.

[Marty] Okay.
On to the next one.

[Terry] Okay.

[narrator] At the start
of a new day on Oak Island,

members of the team
begin drilling a new borehole

in the Money Pit area

to continue exploring the murky
depths of the solution channel.

As new ground is broken,

Marty finds his brother

more than 500 feet away
at Smith's Cove.

- Hey.
- Hey.

You're looking a little pensive.

Yeah. A little bit.

[Marty] I happen to come down
to Smith's Cove,

and I see Rick sitting there,
kind of looking out

over the water.
He's looking discouraged.

We were hoping that we'd get
a sliver of a coin

or a fraction of a piece
of gold or something

that would absolutely pinpoint

where we needed to go.

Well, we didn't.

It's nice to take a deep breath

- once in a while, isn't it?
- Mm-hmm.

Are you disappointed
a little bit about the, um,

results so far

in drilling
in the solution channel?

- Are you disappointed?
- Yeah, I'm disappointed,

because I wanted to put,
you know,

some-something of supreme
monetary value on the table.

But I think
the theory makes sense.

I think it really makes sense.

You know, the early guys
find a vault at 90 feet.

Uh, and then everything
collapses down a little bit.

You know,
all kinds of things happen.

And then we know
that things fell again.

And we know the Money Pit
collapsed violently, so...

- it would answer everything.
- Yeah.

So I'm probably more hopeful
than I've ever been

because I got something in mind
that would explain everything.

The purpose of the...

of the deep drilling this year
was, really,

come up with a piece
of treasure.

But the second part was
to define the solution channel

to figure out
where it is big enough

and open enough for
this collapse to have occurred.

The second component
is coming in nicely.

We're defining
that thing pretty well.

We have a theory
that makes sense

and is still supported
completely by the science

that there are precious metals

still in the Money Pit area.

Couple those two things together

and it's still pretty exciting.

You know, I've always...

- always believed in the story
here, certainly. -Yeah.

And, uh, I think every year

we prove that is
probably more complex

and more difficult
than we had imagined.

That's for sure.

When you get depressed and down,
you'd have to say,

- "Who-who gets to do this?"
[laughs] -Exactly.

Who gets to take hold
of a great treasure story

- and run with it?
- Oh, absolutely.

Couple of Yoopers trying
to do kind of a cool thing.

- Yeah.
- [Rick] I'll be honest.

Marty is right.
We are absolutely committed

to defining the solution channel
as best we can.

My hope is that something can
be retrieved in the near term

that say, you know,

"Here-here we are. Come get us."

But for right now,

I think we should be patient.

Man, we've been so blessed

with the people we've met,

the things we've experienced,
the things we've done.

I mean, I could...
I couldn't last years...

uh, these last years, I couldn't
have asked for anything better.

- I really couldn't have.
- It's been a...

unbelievable quest to decipher
what the hell happened here.

[laughing]

Sempre avanti. Let's go.

It ain't gonna find itself.

[narrator] Later that morning...

- [Rick] Good morning, Matthew.
- [others greeting]

[narrator] ...Rick, Marty,
and other members of the team

meet via video conference
with Maltese military historian

Matthew Balzan

to discuss the possible piece
of a hand cannon

recovered in the swamp.

We very much look forward
to your analysis

of the item
that has been found here.

And I believe you have
the report in front of you

- that we have done here
on the island. -Yes.

- Hey, Matthew. How are you?
- Good.

[narrator] In 2024,

Rick and members of the team
met Matthew in Malta

while researching potential ties

between Templar-related orders
and the Oak Island mystery

and were stunned
by his assessment of a pickaxe

that they found deep
in the Money Pit area.

[Emiliano] Wow.

[narrator] Now,
given Laird and Emma's

preliminary analysis
on the hand cannon,

the team wonders if Matthew can
help them determine its origin.

Would this be
a possible 1200s artifact?

Wow.

♪

[Alex] Would this be
a possible 1200s artifact?

[narrator] In the w*r room,
Maltese military historian

Matthew Balzan has just informed
the team that the hand cannon

found in the swamp could be
as much as 800 years old.

It's interesting, Matthew.
Extremely interesting.

I mean, the likelihood
of finding

a hand cannon on Oak Island...

it sure seems an unlikely thing

- to find here, I will say that.
- [Laird] Mm-hmm.

- Exactly.
- Do you know, Matthew...

would the Portuguese
be more likely to use this

than the French or is there
any sort of correlation there?

Mm.

Yeah. We don't know.

[Rick] You wonder though,
in a... in a confined space,

like say a tunnel,
would this be more useful?

[Alex] It would probably be more
efficient than just drilling

a hole in the rock.
I'm guessing.

[Marty] It's the old
repurposing thing, too.

It's like, "Hey, use that."
You know? Why not?

- Right. -It's quick.
Probably quicker. -Yeah.

The rock-breaking thing is
a little interesting to me,

just thinking
of where we found it, right?

The swamp. But you think
of the paved area,

there's so much
broken pieces of rock

that really have to be
fitted and placed.

When we got in the paved area,
I said, you know,

you almost wanted
a quarry somewhere nearby.

But if you needed to get
certain size rocks

to make that perfectly level,

you might come with that tool

and try to start
to blast some rocks up

to build your platforms level, right?

- [Marty] Yeah.
- [Gary] Yeah.

[narrator] Is it possible
that the hand cannon

was fired at large rocks to
break them up for the creation

of the potentially 800-year-old
paved area?

If so, might the hand cannon
also be related

to the other strange structures
on the island

such as the wall on Lot 26

or the rock formation that was
recently uncovered on Lot 5?

[Billy] We've been surprised by

just so many things in the swamp
as being old.

And here's another one now
that stacks up,

being way before anything
in our history

that should be there, right?
So...

[Jack] Yeah, it's pre-Columbus.

If this is true, then it shows

that people were crossing
the Atlantic

much earlier
than what we thought.

Look, you've come a long way
and so has Peter.

So has Alex.

But there's mounting evidence

of something happening here
very early.

Where-where-where are you
right now?

- [Marty] Me?
- Yeah.

[Marty] You can't discard

evidence
that you find uncomfortable.

You can't discard it.
And there it sits.

So I think
there's starting to be

quite a lot of data

that strongly suggests
there were Europeans here

long before history
would suggest they were here.

- Yeah. -But it hasn't been
quite proven yet.

Hmm? Is that fair?

Yeah. We need that smoking g*n.

[Gary chuckles] Good one.

- Fire it. Fire it.
- Smoking cannon. -[chuckling]

When people think
of a treasure hunt,

they think
that every day is successful.

Every day is an "aha" moment.

That's not true.

But at some point,

there will come a moment
where you say to yourself,

"Yes, it is worth it.

And this is why."

The complexity of the Oak Island
story far and away exceeds

my thoughts as a young boy

reading it.

This was, as always,
really, really interesting.

- Yeah. -[Scott] Yeah.
- [Rick] Matthew,

we certainly, uh,
appreciate your time.

Uh, this was highly informative.

It's really quite something.
A very unique find.

- Wherever I can help. -Thank you
very much. -[Alex] Thank you.

- Many thanks. Many thanks.
- Very nice to see you again.

- Take care.
- See you.

[Rick] Well, we continue
to work away then.

So, having said that, I think
we all need to get back to work.

- Yeah. Amen.
- [others agreeing]

[narrator] A vast treasure may
still lie deep below Oak Island.

But once again,

through faith and persistence,

Rick, Marty, and their team

have found new clues
that suggest

the incredible truth
about this 230-year-old mystery

might be revealed
much closer to the surface.

So, as they forge ahead in the
murky depths of the Money Pit,

they must never stop looking
for what could be hiding...

in plain sight.

Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island...

The metal we're seeing
in the water is

- in the solution channel.
- Absolutely.

There's metal underground
that isn't natural.

We found gold.

- [Gary] We've got a signal.
Oh, it's here. -[beeping]

- [Peter] What do you got?
- The heck is that doing here?

[Peter] This right here
is the key to navigation,

but it might be a key for
the alignment of Nolan's Cross.

This road goes
from the beach to the Money Pit.

We just dug on the bottom
of the solution channel.

- Where are you, little gold
coin? Come on. -Do you see it?

There you go.