05x10 - The Signs Of A Cross
Posted: 01/25/22 06:12
NARRATOR: Tonight on
The Curse of Oak Island...
We're . We are definitely
sitting on something.
RICK: The oscillator is on
a flat, hard surface.
Could this be the vault?
I found a ship's log.
"It has been agreed
"that a deep pit be dug,
and treasure securely buried.
"The pit to have
a secret entrance
by a tunnel from the shore."
There's a trail, now, to follow.
It fits in every aspect.
-Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
-Holy...
I've seen that shape before
in the Templar prison in France.
NARRATOR: There is an island
in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking
for an incredible treasure
for more than years.
So far, they have found
a stone slab
with strange symbols
carved into it,
th-century coins,
even pieces of human bone.
To date, six men have d*ed
trying to solve the mystery.
And, according to legend,
one more will have to die
before the treasure
can be found.
NARRATOR:
In their determination
to find the spot where the
original Money Pit was first
discovered back in ,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
have chosen a site
known simply as "H- ."
RICK: Excavation depth
is right around feet.
MIKE J.: Yes. This wood slowed
us up... quite a bit, but
it almost looks like they were
right dead center on the shaft.
-Go ahead.
-And that's what fell in there.
NARRATOR: Because
the Money Pit's exact location
has been lost for decades,
and the area
around it has been compromised
by more than two centuries
of digging
and treasure-hunting,
the Laginas
and their partners decided
to locate their target
by employing
what is known
as the "Geotech method."
This involved the drilling
of more than three dozen
six-inch-wide
exploratory boreholes
down to depths
of as much as feet.
And it was by carefully
checking the spoils
brought up from Borehole H-
that the team found...
-...a wad of parchment,
along with a fragment
of what was later identified
as book binding,
a small piece of pottery
found below
any previously-recorded
searcher depths,
and two human bones.
Human bones that, when tested,
proved to be
from two individuals:
one from Europe
and one from the Middle East.
It's not advancing as fast as we
did yesterday, obviously, but...
NARRATOR: Now, with
the Geotech process completed,
the Laginas and their partners
have brought in a team
from Irving Equipment, Limited.
Using -inch-wide
drilling caissons,
they will excavate
the H- drill site
down to a target depth
of some feet.
If the Money Pit
is finally located,
the Oak Island team may be
on the verge of finding out,
once and for all,
if an incredible treasure
was buried here
more than two centuries ago--
a treasure that has, so far,
cost millions of dollars
and at least six human lives
to find.
MIKE J.:
We're rotating down,
but every now and then,
we have to come up
and clean our teeth out
because of the wood, right?
You'll get tired
of hearing this, but Oak Island
always seems to give you
a little bit of...
-Oh, yes, it can't be easy.
-It can't be easy.
Everybody'd be doing it.
RICK: It's nothing that
we weren't aware of. I mean,
-it's almost certainly
the Chappell Shaft. -Yeah. Yeah.
NARRATOR:
In ,
Oak Island treasure hunter M.R.
Chappell attempted to locate
a mysterious,
seven-foot-tall wooden box
that was first discovered
by his father,
William Chappell, in .
It was this box-- later dubbed
the "Chappell Vault"--
where bits of parchment
and traces of gold
were reportedly found
on a drill bit.
During an excavation effort
to retrieve the box,
the hole flooded with seawater,
and the project was abandoned
until some years later
when M.R. Chappell tried
and failed
to reach the box by means
of what is now known
as the "Chappell Shaft."
MARTY: Lots of wood, Charles.
I see lots of wood.
CHARLES:
You're right, Marty.
-The Chappell Shaft.
It's what it is.
RICK: It's been nothing
but wood. No dirt.
MARTY:
Solid wood coming up?
Yeah, I think
it's-it's shredded, and then,
-chunks, so then, no dirt.
-They're off their time...
They're off their timetable.
Slowing 'em down a bit.
Just a bit, because of the wood,
but once we get through this,
we'll gain it back.
So, hopefully, right?
MARTY: What we're hoping is,
we're on the corner
of the Chappell Shaft,
but they just missed.
-Yeah. -Do you see anything
that looks like that
We did, yeah. There was a couple
of timbers that we noticed,
-that came... -Couple
of corner pieces like that?
-Yeah. Yeah. -Okay.
-NARRATOR: If Marty is correct,
and the team is digging
through a portion
it might be a good sign.
A few weeks ago,
while searching through records
at a local historical society,
Oak Island researcher Doug
Crowell discovered documents
which indicated that, when
digging the Chappell Shaft,
M.R. Chappell had veered
some ten feet off course,
away from the last known
location of the Chappell Vault.
At the depths
in which the Chappell Vault
-was encountered...
-They would have missed it.
-They would have missed it.
-Right.
If we just dig
in the Chappell Shaft,
we have zero chance of hitting
the so-called Chappell Vault
because it would be explored.
So, we're hoping the shaft is
sort of going this way,
and our hole is going straight,
and we're coming down
half in, half out.
But eventually, we want
to get out of that shaft.
RICK: When we're in the moment
where we want
action, we want,
you know, the-the bit
to get down a hole
and get us some answers--
in that moment,
you realize that
this is a frustrating process,
and one must be patient,
and understand that, you know,
you're not gonna get
immediate gratification.
Hopefully,
before you get to ,
you go back
into undisturbed ground.
-That would be
the best situation. -Yes.
Yeah.
NARRATOR:
As the Irving team continues
to grind
the enormous steel caisson
deeper into the Money Pit,
Rick and Marty Lagina head
to the w*r room,
where they and their team
have arranged to meet
once again with Doug Crowell.
Okay, guys, so, Doug is back.
-I believe you've gone
to the Halifax archives. -Yup.
-Fill us in. -I found
eight pages of a ship...
what looks like a ship's log.
These eight pages that I found,
I made a transcript, guys, of-of
what the log actually says.
What's really interesting is,
it appears
to be a ship's log
that indicates that
they were here in advance
of the French fleet
that was coming over
in to take back Acadia.
NARRATOR: In ,
the French launched an armada
of ships and , men--
the largest fleet at the time
to have ever crossed
the Atlantic--
in an attempt
to seize Nova Scotia
and parts of
the Northern American colonies
from the British.
Under the command
of the acclaimed French admiral
Duc D'Anville, the great fleet
was bringing with it
not only massive
m*llitary force,
but also a vast treasure
of untold riches.
However, some of the ships
in the Duc D'Anville's fleet--
including his-- were delayed
and severely weakened
during the long, three-month
journey by violent storms,
as well as outbreaks
of typhus and scurvy.
By the time the ships
made landfall in Canada,
hundreds of sailors
and soldiers had d*ed,
including the Duc D'Anville.
The planned siege
was soon abandoned,
and the remaining ships were
ordered to return to France.
They came over here to take back
Acadia, to burn Boston.
You know, they were gonna come
over here and do as much
damage as they could.
Due to sickness and bad luck,
basically,
they-they didn't accomplish
any of those goals. Um,
interestingly enough,
the Duc D'Anville--
his real name was Jean-Baptiste
Louis Frederic de Rochefoucauld.
NARRATOR:
Duc D'Anville?
A member
of the Rochefoucauld family?
The powerful and noble
French family
dating back
to the tenth century
and with possible connections
to the Knights Templar?
Remember
the French Oak Island map
that Zena showed us
last summer there?
NARRATOR:
Two weeks ago, Doug Crowell
presented the Oak Island team
with astonishing
new information concerning
a reported th-century
Templar map of Oak Island.
If you recall, up
in the upper right-hand corner,
a loose translation
of what was written there was,
"A small gift for François
de La Rochefoucauld."
Well, I've been following up
on that name.
NARRATOR: It was this
information that prompted
Rick and two of his nephews
to travel some , miles
to Rochefoucauld Castle
in Southwest France.
There, they met
with Sonia Matossian--
a member
of the Rochefoucauld family--
whose translation
of an ancient map suggested
a possible link between
the Rochefoucauld family
and Oak Island.
RICK: Is that translation
accurately presented there?
"François de La--
François de La Rochefoucauld.
A little drink..."
It means "towards."
It doesn't mean "a drink."
-Towards the west. -Towards
the... towards the west.
NARRATOR:
Could the Duc D'Anville--
a member
of the Rochefoucauld family--
have also known about this map?
And, if so, might there
have been another,
more strategic purpose,
behind his voyage
to Nova Scotia in ?
They were waiting on
Duc D'Anville's fleet to arrive,
and if you go through
these eight pages,
they're actually talking about
the vast amount of treasure
they have on board.
They're worried about losing it,
because, basically,
they're in enemy territory.
So, this transcription
I've handed out to you,
I'm just going to read through
it really quickly here.
"September .
Enter a deep bay,
southwesterly of Chebucto Bay."
So where is Chebucto Bay?
-DOUG: Chebucto Bay is now
Halifax Harbor.
That was the original name
that the French had given
to Halifax Harbor.
So, on September ,
the ship's log was,
"Still no word of D'Anville,
"and the weather being clear,
"we set sail turning
southwesterly along the coast,
"passing many rocky islands.
"At midday, we reach a deep bay.
"With several hundred
small islands,
"wooded to the shore.
"The wind dying down,
we anchored for the night.
"The great quantity of treasure
on this vessel makes it unwise
"to jeopardize it in
any engagement with the enemy.
"September . It has been agreed
that a deep pit be dug
"and treasure securely buried.
"The pit to have
a secret entrance
by a tunnel from the shore."
On September ,
"Down feet.
"Pit seems damp
from seepage of seawater.
Have decided to go deeper
to dry soil."
MARTY:
Then it ends.
-And that's where it ends.
-CRAIG: But it is amazing.
I mean,
a great quantity of treasure,
and-and that they appear to be
in this bay.
In my mind,
there's no doubt that they're
pointing right to Oak Island.
DOUG: "It has been agreed
that a deep pit be dug
and treasure securely buried."
What troubles me
is how perfect this is.
NARRATOR:
While meeting in the w*r room,
researcher Doug Crowell
has just presented
Rick, Marty, and the team
with a transcript
of an th-century
m*llitary ship log
detailing the burial
of treasure on an island
with an eerily similar
description to that
of Oak Island
and its infamous Money Pit.
I mean, it fits in every aspect.
Exactly.
As the ship's log unfolds,
it describes a construction
of a shaft
very similar
to the d-descriptions
of the original find
of the Money Pit.
I think it's-it's... it fits.
The thing about this
that-that makes it exciting
is that it fits really well.
Could it lead to some more
investigative work? Absolutely.
Doug, this is, uh, incredible.
Incredibly fascinating.
And whether it ties or not,
it's a really interesting bit
of history.
Not only that, but there's
a trail, now, to follow.
You know where this came from.
You know there's-there's
an incredible amount of material
left to go through.
-Right. -So,
the information hunt continues.
NARRATOR:
Could this ship's log,
dated some years before
the discovery of the Money Pit,
be an account of the treasure
shaft's original construction?
And could the Duc D'Anville,
a member
of the Rochefoucauld family,
have chosen Oak Island
for his destination
because he had secret knowledge
that his family had been
storing valuables on the site
since the days
of the Knights Templar?
It's a Rochefoucauld connection.
The Rochefoucauld that was
leading the expedition dies.
-ALEX: Mm-hmm. -Duc D'Anville,
who was leading the expedition,
was a Rochefoucauld.
It's the Francis Rochefoucauld
on Zena's map
that's given information
about Oak Island
and-and what looks
like a buried treasure.
Was that...
Did that drive out of this story
of this-this French log
and that was drawn up
to send word back to the family?
That's what I would think
is most likely.
Again, the information hunt
is-is important.
It gets us from-from archival
to boots on the ground
at the Money Pit.
Absolutely.
There's a treasure trove here
of information.
Will it prove to be relevant
to Oak Island?
I don't know that. But in
my opinion, we must follow it.
Hey, Doug,
excellent job, as always.
It's very intriguing.
This is interesting stuff.
It leads
to a whole bunch more avenues,
as Rick often says, to explore.
-Well done.
-Yeah. Thank you.
-Okay. Let's go.
-Appreciate it.
*
NARRATOR:
As the massive excavation
of the H- drill site
in the Money Pit continues,
Rick Lagina arrives,
eager to find out
if the team has dug down
beyond remnants
of an old searcher shaft
and into soil
where they hope to reach
the fabled
Chappell treasure vault.
VANESSA:
Our team did it again.
We are exactly at all of your
marks that you wanted us at.
The casing is at exactly.
The grab excavation
is down to exactly.
Okay, can depth,
excavation depth.
The anomaly...
, give or take.
- . Okay.
-The next ten feet,
what we need to do
is really watch the pressures.
Okay.
NARRATOR: When Borehole H-
was first drilled
several weeks ago...
-Yeah.
...a large metallic anomaly
was identified
by a dual induction
metal detection device
at a depth
of approximately feet.
We're picking something else up
right here,
which would put it
very near the vault.
Because we don't want to break
through something aggressively.
The hope would be that it's in,
you know, to .
-We don't make a mistake.
-Yeah, for sure.
We want everyone's blessing
to proceed from here.
This is, you know...
We know this is really important
-to you guys and to this whole
project and research. -It is.
And we're gonna work
and go as slow
-and as gingerly as possible.
-Well, that's why...
that's why we're here,
to find it.
Great job.
-Okay.
-Thank you, Vanessa.
-Thank you.
RICK:
So, the hope is that,
because of the clues
in the small-diameter hole,
that, as the can goes down,
there will be s-something
to hold in our hands.
NARRATOR:
Now that the casing oscillator
has driven the -inch-wide
temporary caisson
to a depth of feet,
the team will begin
carefully searching the spoils
for what could be
valuable evidence.
As each load of spoils
are brought up
by the seven-ton
hammer grab tool,
they will be transported
to a designated area
where metal detection expert
Gary Drayton will scan them,
looking for artifacts.
Then the same spoils
will be carefully sifted
using the team's custom-built
four-by-eight-foot wash table.
JACK:
All right, open the valve!
That's better.
MARTY: We need to look
at what comes out
of the H- dig very carefully.
We need to look for metal.
We need to look for things
that are only visually located,
like pottery
or pieces of leather
or parchment
or things like that.
-Bone.
-Bone.
It's a work in progress.
We have to do it right.
GARY:
That's good. That's a signal.
Huh?
Now I'm having fun.
You are a...
indefatigable metal detector.
You never know what's gonna come
out with the next handful.
Hopefully you.
Yeah.
It's in my hand.
Let's separate it.
So, whatever it is, it's there.
It's a shard.
Some kind
of square, spike-type thing.
One little Hail Mary.
Well, that's a good sign!
That's a strong signal.
That's good.
That's another signal.
Wow!
What the heck is this?
MARTY:
What is that? Let's see it.
*
GARY:
What the heck is this?
MARTY:
What is that?
NARRATOR:
At the Oak Island Money Pit...
-Let's see it.
-...Marty and Rick Lagina,
along with metal detection
expert Gary Drayton,
have just made
an exciting discovery
while searching the H- spoils.
GARY:
That's a big, old chunky spike.
That's an oldie as well.
That's raw iron.
That came from .
That-that might be concrete.
You might want to leave that
on there.
NARRATOR:
Concrete?
On an iron spike found
at a depth of feet
in the Money Pit area?
When treasure hunters
William Chappell
and Frederick Blair
first drilled
into the so-called
Chappell Vault in ,
it appeared to be covered
in a concrete-like substance.
I mean, after all the work
that we've done here,
this is the culmination.
It may be the beginning
of finally, finally getting
some answers.
And that's the hope.
NARRATOR:
Could this spike be a piece
of the original Chappell Vault?
And, if so, could it mean
that the team is moments away
from finding actual proof
that they have at last reached
the Oak Island Money Pit?
MARTY:
Okay. Let's make some hole.
MARTY:
We're about to get
to the interesting stuff
here today.
Finally. You know,
it's been a long process.
The next ten feet, that's where
we start getting interested
in the spoils.
And we're looking
at all of them.
Get another load?
Well, how you feeling?
Ner-Nervous.
You know, there's got
to be something there.
By something, I mean
it could just be more bones,
could be more leather. But...
it's hard to think that that
dual induction log was wrong.
There's got to be... You'd think
there'd be s-something there.
What was that depth?
Aren't we there right now?
Yeah. , .
We're not there yet.
Just about.
JACK:
There's a lot more, uh,
hand-chopped wood in here.
-I see that.
-One of the big pieces had
a couple... hack marks on it.
GARY: I'm surprised
you could see anything,
going through this stuff.
JACK:
Yeah, that's coal.
Is this part of a bone?
You know something?
You're right. That is a bone.
-Yeah, that's a bone.
Good eye, Jack.
Hey, Lagina brothers,
I got something to show you.
Bone.
-Yeah.
-That is definitely bone.
Find a lot of it, or...?
JACK:
It's the first piece.
Everyone else is still looking,
but...
-Well, then... -I figured you
guys would want to see first.
-I'm coming over. I'm gonna
help. : All right.
NARRATOR: Bone? Could it be
another piece of bone
from one
of the th-century individuals
whose remains were found
in H
RICK: We found book binding,
we found parchment,
we found pottery at
great depth, and not only that,
but we have science showing us
there's an anomaly here.
JACK:
You guys find any more yet?
-Pottery and a piece of glass.
-All right!
GARY:
What the heck is that?
-JACK: I think it's an old nail.
-DAVE: We got pottery
right here, guys.
MARTY:
We haven't found a vault yet.
There's a lot more room.
That's the optimist part.
But the realist part says,
"Well,
a little less room."
GARY:
It was a lot in that.
-That big chunk. -JACK: Let's
keep our eyes peeled.
Aw. Might come up
with it, huh
NARRATOR:
Suddenly,
it appears that something
out of the ordinary
is occurring
with the oscillator.
-MAN: No.
Let's get Marty.
VANESSA:
So, uh,
we just came over
to check with Dan,
and he says his pressures
right now are up to ,
and he feels like
he's sitting on something.
-Yeah.
NARRATOR: The fact that the
oscillator is now circulating
at a torque pressure
of bar--
the equivalent of approximately
, pounds per square inch--
means it's operating at nearly
double its normal pressure,
and is unable to cut through
whatever lies beneath it.
DANNY: We're ,
pipe in the ground right now.
We are definitely sitting
on something that...
we haven't cut before,
since we've been on this job.
It don't feel like metal.
It feels like I'm on a whole
bunch of wood at once now.
NARRATOR:
A large wooden object?
Could the caisson have finally
located the Chappell Vault,
and in so doing, have found
the Oak Island Money Pit?
Let me...
let me go grab Rick real quick.
-He's at .
I really need to talk
to you right now.
Something going on down there.
He's on something. He's...
It's way different, he said.
He's at feet.
He thinks it's perfectly flat,
-and...
He thinks wood. He's not sure.
-All right, let's see.
-Yeah.
RICK:
The oscillator is on a flat,
hard surface.
That's exactly
what we hoped to encounter.
Is there a vault below that?
I don't know.
NARRATOR: Now that they have
found what could be
an actual treasure vault,
Rick, Marty and the team
must decide how best
to safely dig further
and reveal
what it might contain.
Okay, so what are you...
what are you feeling?
What's what?
So, since we...
since we started this shaft,
this is different.
I'm probably three inches into
-whatever I'm cutting on, but...
And it seems to me
it can definitely be cut.
Uh, it might take a while,
but like I was saying,
I'm exactly where I was supposed
to stop right now.
MARTY:
You're going to run out of pipe.
-This is just an idea.
-Yeah.
So, we leave this,
use the permanent
that has all the teeth on it
to saw through what we're sawing
through, if you guys want?
MARTY:
We're excited.
We know
that the Money Pit collapsed,
so this could be the vault
that has moved downward,
but we have to make a decision.
If we break through to a void,
what are we going to do?
Send a diver down?
Send cameras down?
The decision really comes down
to what's going to be
less disruptive.
-Hey, guys. -Hey.
-Hey, guys.
What a bloody-ass mess.
So, we ran out of water.
We went
through the , gallons,
-plus the extra , gallons.
- , gallons.
: What? You can't
take me seriously right now?
:
No. No.
Hey, I-I accomplished a lot.
MARTY: No. You did a hell
of a job today, pure and simple.
And every... everybody did.
Everybody had put in a full day.
-Yeah. -But we need
to have a w*r room meeting.
Just a quick one before
we call it a complete day.
You know, if you can get
cleaned up as best you can
-to be comfortable.
-Yeah. Well...
And then we can all meet
in the w*r room,
and just kick
a few things around.
A lot happened today.
Let's go talk about it.
Let's go.
NARRATOR:
After a tense and exciting day
of excavations
at the Oak Island Money Pit,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with members
of their team,
have gathered in the w*r room
for a critical meeting.
Now that the -inch-wide
drilling caisson
in Borehole H- has reached
what could very well be
the fabled Chappell Vault
at a depth of feet,
they must determine
how best to continue
their exploration of the area.
Gentlemen, it's been a long,
long day.
Everybody worked really hard.
So, let's have a little recap.
-We reached with the can.
-Yeah.
In true Oak Island fashion,
right at the end of the day,
at feet,
Danny, the oscillator operator,
said he had a marked change.
It was like nothing
that happened all day.
The torque went up,
it was hard to drive the can.
He thought, most significantly
to me, it was on something flat.
Something, you know, flat and
consistent like this tabletop,
like he was trying to drag the
can right across this tabletop.
-He thinks
-probably wood. -TERRY: Well,
the idea that we're on
something relatively solid--
that's great.
We're deeper than the...
right now
than the Chappell Shaft
ever went.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the team has finally excavated
below the remains
of the searcher shaft
installed by M.R. Chappell
in
and have finally located
the mysterious Chappell Vault?
What was the big hit at ?
What's that conductivity reading
that Mike West showed us?
-Should be still in that pile.
-Yeah.
We were most interested
in to , basically.
-Right. -Have we searched
those cuttings yet?
-Not all of them.
Do you know
which ones we have or haven't?
We just started on
when we ran out of water.
MARTY:
So, actually,
as we sit here around
this table, we don't really know
what we got in the zone
of interest yet.
Well, that's pretty cool.
MARTY:
Okay, so we haven't searched it.
David, your big bag of coins
-is still out there
buried in clay. -Yup.
So, we'll search those cuttings,
and then we'll know
if there's something not quite
so massive that we missed.
The real question is, Rick,
what do you want to do
about drilling H
I don't think we have a choice.
I think
we put the permanent down
and we...
slowly advance the casing.
I mean, there is
no alternative at this point.
-If you dig...
-And then hammer grab.
Unfortunately, yes.
There is no alternative.
We're committed.
NARRATOR:
To reduce the risks
of damaging any potentially
priceless artifacts,
the team has chosen to install
a permanent inner casing.
This will allow them to do
even deeper drilling
and possible human exploration.
Some of these things
that have been speculated about
are... are irreplaceable.
It could be priceless documents.
It could be religious artifacts.
And so, there's-there's
significant trepidation
on my part-- fear, if you will--
that we may damage something.
MARTY:
All right, what else?
Anybody have anything else?
I mean, we...
Tomorrow we-we get more answers.
I was hoping
-they'd happen today.
So did you. -Yeah.
We're hopeful
that we're close to answers.
We've spent an awful lot
of effort
to bring in
this massive equipment
and dig in this one spot,
following a well that produced
all kinds of tantalizing clues.
So, yeah, we're hopeful.
We're getting to the depth
where there should be answers.
Ten years ago, we were hopeful
and that hasn't stopped.
Gentlemen, it's been a long day.
Everybody worked really hard.
We've had the peaks and valleys
associated with Oak Island.
We need a bigger peak tomorrow.
Everybody needs some sleep.
Let's call it a day.
DAVE:
Meeting adjourned.
NARRATOR:
A new day begins on Oak Island,
and as a permanent steel casing
is installed
in the newly-dug H- shaft,
Rick Lagina and metal detection
expert Gary Drayton
are taking advantage
of an all-too-rare moment
of free time to explore
an area of Smith's Cove.
So much work has been done
down here,
between Dan, the Restalls.
Every... every company
that came out tried
to figure out what was going on
with the-the salt water
in the Money Pit.
GARY: I mean, this is
an ideal situation, Rick,
because, obviously,
it's low tide.
-Mm-hmm.
-We got these rock pools.
-See, if anything got washed
in and out of here... -Mm-hmm.
...it's going to get trapped
in these rocks.
-This is an ideal situation.
-So, you're thinking between
-the beach
and the old cofferdams? -Yeah.
This is a perfect spot?
So, let's see
if we can find something.
RICK:
When Gary decides
he wants to investigate an area,
I-I defer to him.
He has an incredible amount
of experience,
and the beach is fascinating,
the inner tidal zone.
Maybe the ground
in Smith's Cove has been
disturbed enough that maybe
something has come close
to surface.
NARRATOR: It was at
Smith's Cove where, in ,
searchers
from the Truro Company
discovered the remains
of five stone box drains,
each converging into
a single tunnel that appeared
to head straight toward
the Oak Island Money Pit.
They concluded that
these drains were constructed
as part of
an elaborate booby-trap system,
designed to frustrate
the efforts of anyone
who tried to search
in the area for treasure.
Last year, while trying to find
evidence of these box drains,
Rick, Marty,
and members of their team
found something
even more curious
and possibly much older
than the Money Pit itself:
a French drain,
a formation of layered rocks
used to divert
and control the flow of water.
I'm gonna put you
on the spot now.
Man
LAIRD: The sorting of the rocks
is unusual.
It's definitely what we'd call
cultural. Yeah.
-Um... -Okay.
You mean you're saying, with...
based on your expertise, with
certainty, this is placed here?
It's a man
-I believe so, yeah. Yeah.
-Wow.
What we'll do,
we'll go up and down
in this little area here,
-work our way towards the rock.
-Okay.
That's worth digging, Rick.
Wow, compared to inland,
this is like a picnic, digging,
-Yeah, really.
Ah, let's see what this is.
-It's out.
I'll use my pinpointer, Rick.
RICK:
What is it?
Yeah. Typical find on the beach.
-Yeah.
-Bottle cap.
It's the right color, but...
wrong material.
Another one here, Rick.
It's good depth.
It's saying ten inches.
Whoa! Whoa, whoa,
-whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
-I don't see anything.
-I see something.
Holy...
Holy schmoly, all right.
-RICK: It's a cross.
-That's a cross.
There's a square hole.
Yeah, right there.
It's heavy, too.
Oh, my gosh. I mean,
that is an old, old cross.
NARRATOR:
A cross?
Located in the same area
where the team found
French drains at Smith's Cove?
But how did it get there?
And how long did it lie buried?
RICK:
Gary was extremely excited.
-Sweet! -More excited
than anything he's ever found
on the island. And mind you,
now, this year he's found coins
from the late s.
Those finds pale in comparison
to this one,
in terms
of his excitement level.
So I'm excited
because Gary's excited,
and that's the truth of it.
Uh, it looks like it's lead.
I always ask that.
-Look at that.
-That is... Oh, my gosh.
That is...
That's really old.
RICK:
How old?
GARY: This is the type of thing
I'd expect to find in Europe.
When I first saw it, I thought
that looks, like, medieval.
A medieval cross.
I mean, you know.
I mean, this is old.
-This is really old.
-I-I don't, Gary.
I hear it in your voice,
but I don't.
How old?
I would say that is somewhere
between and .
-RICK: Holy...
-GARY: Holy schmoly, all right.
NARRATOR: While metal detecting
in Smith's Cove,
Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton
have just made
an astonishing discovery,
a small metal object that
appears to be a medieval cross
and which Gary believes
could date back
as far as the th century.
But, if so,
how did it get to Oak Island?
RICK:
It's really that old?
Yeah, that is old.
That is really old.
What makes you say that?
'Cause I...
-Just-just the crudeness of it.
-I mean, I...
And the style. I mean, you don't
normally see this kind of style.
I've seen that shape before.
I swear, that'll tell the tale
how old it is.
-That shape.
-Yeah.
Where do you think
you've seen it before?
You know, when I was in France,
I saw a carving like that
in the Templar prison in Domme.
NARRATOR:
A lead cross
matching carvings made by
members of the Knights Templar?
Just one week ago,
while searching for evidence
that might connect
various carvings found on
and around Oak Island
to similar ones made by members
of the Knights Templar
while they awaited execution
at Domme Prison,
Rick Lagina was shown a wall
on which was carved
an early depiction
of the Hebrew Bible's
so-called Tree of Life.
But just to the left
of the carving
was a Templar-era depiction
of a Christian cross,
one that bears
an eerie similarity
to the object just unearthed
at Smith's Cove.
Could Rick and Gary have just
found the first hard evidence
connecting the Knights Templar
to the Oak Island mystery?
Let's see what it registers at.
Yeah, rock solid. No, there...
Yeah, it's lead.
Wow.
That is a religious artifact.
You've got to have an expert
look at this.
And I'm sure
someone would probably know,
just by the style,
you know, where it comes from,
who made it, the date range.
That is unbelievable.
RICK:
It's beautiful.
-Mm-hmm.
I mean, we might have just made
history here, Rick.
Well, Gary,
let-let's call my brother.
Let me... let me see
if I can't get him.
Hey. Yeah.
Here's your present for the day.
It's not Bravo Tango,
but it's...
quite remarkable.
It's definitely worth
a bottle of red wine.
You see the shape?
I saw that in Domme.
Yes.
Smith's Cove.
RICK:
But Gary thinks to .
Not s.
to .
MARTY: It's one of the strange
things about Oak Island.
-In this particular case,
you go to France... -Mm.
...and you look at all kinds of
different carvings on the wall.
And then a cross comes out
of the earth on Oak Island
and you look at it and you say,
-"I've seen that...
-"I've seen that."
"...just recently.
"In France.
In a Templar prison."
What are the odds of that?
GARY: Yeah, I mean,
this-this is a really cool
religious artifact.
RICK:
Yep.
-Thank you.
-Okay. See ya.
Thanks.
If that cross turns out to be
between and ,
I'll become more convinced that,
no, something did happen here,
something significant
pre-Money Pit discovery.
So it's a big deal for me.
Look, it's very curious.
It's singularly out of place--
there's no question about that.
It's all the more reason
to follow
wherever the search leads,
wherever the information trail
leads regarding that-that cross.
Everybody but everybody
came here looking for treasure.
You come and you find something
possibly even predating
original depositors.
That makes it
all the more imperative
that we try to figure out
what that is.
I think it makes it
almost a foregone conclusion
-we have to get back out there.
-Yeah.
That's what I think.
Quite a day.
That was fantastic.
That was...
remarkable.
NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty,
and the Oak Island team,
the discovery of what could be
a th-century Templar cross
may turn out to be
not only a clue,
but the first step
in finding an answer,
perhaps the very answer
that has eluded
treasure hunters
for more than two centuries.
For if proof can be established
that members
of the Knights Templar
successfully made their way
to North America
as many as seven centuries ago,
it would change
not only the history
of a small island
off the coast of Nova Scotia--
it could change the history
of the world forever.
Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island...
-JACK: We got lucky.
-GARY: A bone.
RICK:
We're thinking a skeleton
will come out of there.
Literally.
Ooh!
-Ah.
-It's lead.
Laird, we've got something
to show you.
We think it's gonna knock
your socks off.
I... haven't seen anything
like that before.
DANNY:
What this is doing now--
unbelievable.
We're down
into open cavern void.
MARTY: It means we're in
the collapse of the Money Pit,
and we're gonna find
what was ever in there.
The Curse of Oak Island...
We're . We are definitely
sitting on something.
RICK: The oscillator is on
a flat, hard surface.
Could this be the vault?
I found a ship's log.
"It has been agreed
"that a deep pit be dug,
and treasure securely buried.
"The pit to have
a secret entrance
by a tunnel from the shore."
There's a trail, now, to follow.
It fits in every aspect.
-Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
-Holy...
I've seen that shape before
in the Templar prison in France.
NARRATOR: There is an island
in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking
for an incredible treasure
for more than years.
So far, they have found
a stone slab
with strange symbols
carved into it,
th-century coins,
even pieces of human bone.
To date, six men have d*ed
trying to solve the mystery.
And, according to legend,
one more will have to die
before the treasure
can be found.
NARRATOR:
In their determination
to find the spot where the
original Money Pit was first
discovered back in ,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
have chosen a site
known simply as "H- ."
RICK: Excavation depth
is right around feet.
MIKE J.: Yes. This wood slowed
us up... quite a bit, but
it almost looks like they were
right dead center on the shaft.
-Go ahead.
-And that's what fell in there.
NARRATOR: Because
the Money Pit's exact location
has been lost for decades,
and the area
around it has been compromised
by more than two centuries
of digging
and treasure-hunting,
the Laginas
and their partners decided
to locate their target
by employing
what is known
as the "Geotech method."
This involved the drilling
of more than three dozen
six-inch-wide
exploratory boreholes
down to depths
of as much as feet.
And it was by carefully
checking the spoils
brought up from Borehole H-
that the team found...
-...a wad of parchment,
along with a fragment
of what was later identified
as book binding,
a small piece of pottery
found below
any previously-recorded
searcher depths,
and two human bones.
Human bones that, when tested,
proved to be
from two individuals:
one from Europe
and one from the Middle East.
It's not advancing as fast as we
did yesterday, obviously, but...
NARRATOR: Now, with
the Geotech process completed,
the Laginas and their partners
have brought in a team
from Irving Equipment, Limited.
Using -inch-wide
drilling caissons,
they will excavate
the H- drill site
down to a target depth
of some feet.
If the Money Pit
is finally located,
the Oak Island team may be
on the verge of finding out,
once and for all,
if an incredible treasure
was buried here
more than two centuries ago--
a treasure that has, so far,
cost millions of dollars
and at least six human lives
to find.
MIKE J.:
We're rotating down,
but every now and then,
we have to come up
and clean our teeth out
because of the wood, right?
You'll get tired
of hearing this, but Oak Island
always seems to give you
a little bit of...
-Oh, yes, it can't be easy.
-It can't be easy.
Everybody'd be doing it.
RICK: It's nothing that
we weren't aware of. I mean,
-it's almost certainly
the Chappell Shaft. -Yeah. Yeah.
NARRATOR:
In ,
Oak Island treasure hunter M.R.
Chappell attempted to locate
a mysterious,
seven-foot-tall wooden box
that was first discovered
by his father,
William Chappell, in .
It was this box-- later dubbed
the "Chappell Vault"--
where bits of parchment
and traces of gold
were reportedly found
on a drill bit.
During an excavation effort
to retrieve the box,
the hole flooded with seawater,
and the project was abandoned
until some years later
when M.R. Chappell tried
and failed
to reach the box by means
of what is now known
as the "Chappell Shaft."
MARTY: Lots of wood, Charles.
I see lots of wood.
CHARLES:
You're right, Marty.
-The Chappell Shaft.
It's what it is.
RICK: It's been nothing
but wood. No dirt.
MARTY:
Solid wood coming up?
Yeah, I think
it's-it's shredded, and then,
-chunks, so then, no dirt.
-They're off their time...
They're off their timetable.
Slowing 'em down a bit.
Just a bit, because of the wood,
but once we get through this,
we'll gain it back.
So, hopefully, right?
MARTY: What we're hoping is,
we're on the corner
of the Chappell Shaft,
but they just missed.
-Yeah. -Do you see anything
that looks like that
We did, yeah. There was a couple
of timbers that we noticed,
-that came... -Couple
of corner pieces like that?
-Yeah. Yeah. -Okay.
-NARRATOR: If Marty is correct,
and the team is digging
through a portion
it might be a good sign.
A few weeks ago,
while searching through records
at a local historical society,
Oak Island researcher Doug
Crowell discovered documents
which indicated that, when
digging the Chappell Shaft,
M.R. Chappell had veered
some ten feet off course,
away from the last known
location of the Chappell Vault.
At the depths
in which the Chappell Vault
-was encountered...
-They would have missed it.
-They would have missed it.
-Right.
If we just dig
in the Chappell Shaft,
we have zero chance of hitting
the so-called Chappell Vault
because it would be explored.
So, we're hoping the shaft is
sort of going this way,
and our hole is going straight,
and we're coming down
half in, half out.
But eventually, we want
to get out of that shaft.
RICK: When we're in the moment
where we want
action, we want,
you know, the-the bit
to get down a hole
and get us some answers--
in that moment,
you realize that
this is a frustrating process,
and one must be patient,
and understand that, you know,
you're not gonna get
immediate gratification.
Hopefully,
before you get to ,
you go back
into undisturbed ground.
-That would be
the best situation. -Yes.
Yeah.
NARRATOR:
As the Irving team continues
to grind
the enormous steel caisson
deeper into the Money Pit,
Rick and Marty Lagina head
to the w*r room,
where they and their team
have arranged to meet
once again with Doug Crowell.
Okay, guys, so, Doug is back.
-I believe you've gone
to the Halifax archives. -Yup.
-Fill us in. -I found
eight pages of a ship...
what looks like a ship's log.
These eight pages that I found,
I made a transcript, guys, of-of
what the log actually says.
What's really interesting is,
it appears
to be a ship's log
that indicates that
they were here in advance
of the French fleet
that was coming over
in to take back Acadia.
NARRATOR: In ,
the French launched an armada
of ships and , men--
the largest fleet at the time
to have ever crossed
the Atlantic--
in an attempt
to seize Nova Scotia
and parts of
the Northern American colonies
from the British.
Under the command
of the acclaimed French admiral
Duc D'Anville, the great fleet
was bringing with it
not only massive
m*llitary force,
but also a vast treasure
of untold riches.
However, some of the ships
in the Duc D'Anville's fleet--
including his-- were delayed
and severely weakened
during the long, three-month
journey by violent storms,
as well as outbreaks
of typhus and scurvy.
By the time the ships
made landfall in Canada,
hundreds of sailors
and soldiers had d*ed,
including the Duc D'Anville.
The planned siege
was soon abandoned,
and the remaining ships were
ordered to return to France.
They came over here to take back
Acadia, to burn Boston.
You know, they were gonna come
over here and do as much
damage as they could.
Due to sickness and bad luck,
basically,
they-they didn't accomplish
any of those goals. Um,
interestingly enough,
the Duc D'Anville--
his real name was Jean-Baptiste
Louis Frederic de Rochefoucauld.
NARRATOR:
Duc D'Anville?
A member
of the Rochefoucauld family?
The powerful and noble
French family
dating back
to the tenth century
and with possible connections
to the Knights Templar?
Remember
the French Oak Island map
that Zena showed us
last summer there?
NARRATOR:
Two weeks ago, Doug Crowell
presented the Oak Island team
with astonishing
new information concerning
a reported th-century
Templar map of Oak Island.
If you recall, up
in the upper right-hand corner,
a loose translation
of what was written there was,
"A small gift for François
de La Rochefoucauld."
Well, I've been following up
on that name.
NARRATOR: It was this
information that prompted
Rick and two of his nephews
to travel some , miles
to Rochefoucauld Castle
in Southwest France.
There, they met
with Sonia Matossian--
a member
of the Rochefoucauld family--
whose translation
of an ancient map suggested
a possible link between
the Rochefoucauld family
and Oak Island.
RICK: Is that translation
accurately presented there?
"François de La--
François de La Rochefoucauld.
A little drink..."
It means "towards."
It doesn't mean "a drink."
-Towards the west. -Towards
the... towards the west.
NARRATOR:
Could the Duc D'Anville--
a member
of the Rochefoucauld family--
have also known about this map?
And, if so, might there
have been another,
more strategic purpose,
behind his voyage
to Nova Scotia in ?
They were waiting on
Duc D'Anville's fleet to arrive,
and if you go through
these eight pages,
they're actually talking about
the vast amount of treasure
they have on board.
They're worried about losing it,
because, basically,
they're in enemy territory.
So, this transcription
I've handed out to you,
I'm just going to read through
it really quickly here.
"September .
Enter a deep bay,
southwesterly of Chebucto Bay."
So where is Chebucto Bay?
-DOUG: Chebucto Bay is now
Halifax Harbor.
That was the original name
that the French had given
to Halifax Harbor.
So, on September ,
the ship's log was,
"Still no word of D'Anville,
"and the weather being clear,
"we set sail turning
southwesterly along the coast,
"passing many rocky islands.
"At midday, we reach a deep bay.
"With several hundred
small islands,
"wooded to the shore.
"The wind dying down,
we anchored for the night.
"The great quantity of treasure
on this vessel makes it unwise
"to jeopardize it in
any engagement with the enemy.
"September . It has been agreed
that a deep pit be dug
"and treasure securely buried.
"The pit to have
a secret entrance
by a tunnel from the shore."
On September ,
"Down feet.
"Pit seems damp
from seepage of seawater.
Have decided to go deeper
to dry soil."
MARTY:
Then it ends.
-And that's where it ends.
-CRAIG: But it is amazing.
I mean,
a great quantity of treasure,
and-and that they appear to be
in this bay.
In my mind,
there's no doubt that they're
pointing right to Oak Island.
DOUG: "It has been agreed
that a deep pit be dug
and treasure securely buried."
What troubles me
is how perfect this is.
NARRATOR:
While meeting in the w*r room,
researcher Doug Crowell
has just presented
Rick, Marty, and the team
with a transcript
of an th-century
m*llitary ship log
detailing the burial
of treasure on an island
with an eerily similar
description to that
of Oak Island
and its infamous Money Pit.
I mean, it fits in every aspect.
Exactly.
As the ship's log unfolds,
it describes a construction
of a shaft
very similar
to the d-descriptions
of the original find
of the Money Pit.
I think it's-it's... it fits.
The thing about this
that-that makes it exciting
is that it fits really well.
Could it lead to some more
investigative work? Absolutely.
Doug, this is, uh, incredible.
Incredibly fascinating.
And whether it ties or not,
it's a really interesting bit
of history.
Not only that, but there's
a trail, now, to follow.
You know where this came from.
You know there's-there's
an incredible amount of material
left to go through.
-Right. -So,
the information hunt continues.
NARRATOR:
Could this ship's log,
dated some years before
the discovery of the Money Pit,
be an account of the treasure
shaft's original construction?
And could the Duc D'Anville,
a member
of the Rochefoucauld family,
have chosen Oak Island
for his destination
because he had secret knowledge
that his family had been
storing valuables on the site
since the days
of the Knights Templar?
It's a Rochefoucauld connection.
The Rochefoucauld that was
leading the expedition dies.
-ALEX: Mm-hmm. -Duc D'Anville,
who was leading the expedition,
was a Rochefoucauld.
It's the Francis Rochefoucauld
on Zena's map
that's given information
about Oak Island
and-and what looks
like a buried treasure.
Was that...
Did that drive out of this story
of this-this French log
and that was drawn up
to send word back to the family?
That's what I would think
is most likely.
Again, the information hunt
is-is important.
It gets us from-from archival
to boots on the ground
at the Money Pit.
Absolutely.
There's a treasure trove here
of information.
Will it prove to be relevant
to Oak Island?
I don't know that. But in
my opinion, we must follow it.
Hey, Doug,
excellent job, as always.
It's very intriguing.
This is interesting stuff.
It leads
to a whole bunch more avenues,
as Rick often says, to explore.
-Well done.
-Yeah. Thank you.
-Okay. Let's go.
-Appreciate it.
*
NARRATOR:
As the massive excavation
of the H- drill site
in the Money Pit continues,
Rick Lagina arrives,
eager to find out
if the team has dug down
beyond remnants
of an old searcher shaft
and into soil
where they hope to reach
the fabled
Chappell treasure vault.
VANESSA:
Our team did it again.
We are exactly at all of your
marks that you wanted us at.
The casing is at exactly.
The grab excavation
is down to exactly.
Okay, can depth,
excavation depth.
The anomaly...
, give or take.
- . Okay.
-The next ten feet,
what we need to do
is really watch the pressures.
Okay.
NARRATOR: When Borehole H-
was first drilled
several weeks ago...
-Yeah.
...a large metallic anomaly
was identified
by a dual induction
metal detection device
at a depth
of approximately feet.
We're picking something else up
right here,
which would put it
very near the vault.
Because we don't want to break
through something aggressively.
The hope would be that it's in,
you know, to .
-We don't make a mistake.
-Yeah, for sure.
We want everyone's blessing
to proceed from here.
This is, you know...
We know this is really important
-to you guys and to this whole
project and research. -It is.
And we're gonna work
and go as slow
-and as gingerly as possible.
-Well, that's why...
that's why we're here,
to find it.
Great job.
-Okay.
-Thank you, Vanessa.
-Thank you.
RICK:
So, the hope is that,
because of the clues
in the small-diameter hole,
that, as the can goes down,
there will be s-something
to hold in our hands.
NARRATOR:
Now that the casing oscillator
has driven the -inch-wide
temporary caisson
to a depth of feet,
the team will begin
carefully searching the spoils
for what could be
valuable evidence.
As each load of spoils
are brought up
by the seven-ton
hammer grab tool,
they will be transported
to a designated area
where metal detection expert
Gary Drayton will scan them,
looking for artifacts.
Then the same spoils
will be carefully sifted
using the team's custom-built
four-by-eight-foot wash table.
JACK:
All right, open the valve!
That's better.
MARTY: We need to look
at what comes out
of the H- dig very carefully.
We need to look for metal.
We need to look for things
that are only visually located,
like pottery
or pieces of leather
or parchment
or things like that.
-Bone.
-Bone.
It's a work in progress.
We have to do it right.
GARY:
That's good. That's a signal.
Huh?
Now I'm having fun.
You are a...
indefatigable metal detector.
You never know what's gonna come
out with the next handful.
Hopefully you.
Yeah.
It's in my hand.
Let's separate it.
So, whatever it is, it's there.
It's a shard.
Some kind
of square, spike-type thing.
One little Hail Mary.
Well, that's a good sign!
That's a strong signal.
That's good.
That's another signal.
Wow!
What the heck is this?
MARTY:
What is that? Let's see it.
*
GARY:
What the heck is this?
MARTY:
What is that?
NARRATOR:
At the Oak Island Money Pit...
-Let's see it.
-...Marty and Rick Lagina,
along with metal detection
expert Gary Drayton,
have just made
an exciting discovery
while searching the H- spoils.
GARY:
That's a big, old chunky spike.
That's an oldie as well.
That's raw iron.
That came from .
That-that might be concrete.
You might want to leave that
on there.
NARRATOR:
Concrete?
On an iron spike found
at a depth of feet
in the Money Pit area?
When treasure hunters
William Chappell
and Frederick Blair
first drilled
into the so-called
Chappell Vault in ,
it appeared to be covered
in a concrete-like substance.
I mean, after all the work
that we've done here,
this is the culmination.
It may be the beginning
of finally, finally getting
some answers.
And that's the hope.
NARRATOR:
Could this spike be a piece
of the original Chappell Vault?
And, if so, could it mean
that the team is moments away
from finding actual proof
that they have at last reached
the Oak Island Money Pit?
MARTY:
Okay. Let's make some hole.
MARTY:
We're about to get
to the interesting stuff
here today.
Finally. You know,
it's been a long process.
The next ten feet, that's where
we start getting interested
in the spoils.
And we're looking
at all of them.
Get another load?
Well, how you feeling?
Ner-Nervous.
You know, there's got
to be something there.
By something, I mean
it could just be more bones,
could be more leather. But...
it's hard to think that that
dual induction log was wrong.
There's got to be... You'd think
there'd be s-something there.
What was that depth?
Aren't we there right now?
Yeah. , .
We're not there yet.
Just about.
JACK:
There's a lot more, uh,
hand-chopped wood in here.
-I see that.
-One of the big pieces had
a couple... hack marks on it.
GARY: I'm surprised
you could see anything,
going through this stuff.
JACK:
Yeah, that's coal.
Is this part of a bone?
You know something?
You're right. That is a bone.
-Yeah, that's a bone.
Good eye, Jack.
Hey, Lagina brothers,
I got something to show you.
Bone.
-Yeah.
-That is definitely bone.
Find a lot of it, or...?
JACK:
It's the first piece.
Everyone else is still looking,
but...
-Well, then... -I figured you
guys would want to see first.
-I'm coming over. I'm gonna
help. : All right.
NARRATOR: Bone? Could it be
another piece of bone
from one
of the th-century individuals
whose remains were found
in H
RICK: We found book binding,
we found parchment,
we found pottery at
great depth, and not only that,
but we have science showing us
there's an anomaly here.
JACK:
You guys find any more yet?
-Pottery and a piece of glass.
-All right!
GARY:
What the heck is that?
-JACK: I think it's an old nail.
-DAVE: We got pottery
right here, guys.
MARTY:
We haven't found a vault yet.
There's a lot more room.
That's the optimist part.
But the realist part says,
"Well,
a little less room."
GARY:
It was a lot in that.
-That big chunk. -JACK: Let's
keep our eyes peeled.
Aw. Might come up
with it, huh
NARRATOR:
Suddenly,
it appears that something
out of the ordinary
is occurring
with the oscillator.
-MAN: No.
Let's get Marty.
VANESSA:
So, uh,
we just came over
to check with Dan,
and he says his pressures
right now are up to ,
and he feels like
he's sitting on something.
-Yeah.
NARRATOR: The fact that the
oscillator is now circulating
at a torque pressure
of bar--
the equivalent of approximately
, pounds per square inch--
means it's operating at nearly
double its normal pressure,
and is unable to cut through
whatever lies beneath it.
DANNY: We're ,
pipe in the ground right now.
We are definitely sitting
on something that...
we haven't cut before,
since we've been on this job.
It don't feel like metal.
It feels like I'm on a whole
bunch of wood at once now.
NARRATOR:
A large wooden object?
Could the caisson have finally
located the Chappell Vault,
and in so doing, have found
the Oak Island Money Pit?
Let me...
let me go grab Rick real quick.
-He's at .
I really need to talk
to you right now.
Something going on down there.
He's on something. He's...
It's way different, he said.
He's at feet.
He thinks it's perfectly flat,
-and...
He thinks wood. He's not sure.
-All right, let's see.
-Yeah.
RICK:
The oscillator is on a flat,
hard surface.
That's exactly
what we hoped to encounter.
Is there a vault below that?
I don't know.
NARRATOR: Now that they have
found what could be
an actual treasure vault,
Rick, Marty and the team
must decide how best
to safely dig further
and reveal
what it might contain.
Okay, so what are you...
what are you feeling?
What's what?
So, since we...
since we started this shaft,
this is different.
I'm probably three inches into
-whatever I'm cutting on, but...
And it seems to me
it can definitely be cut.
Uh, it might take a while,
but like I was saying,
I'm exactly where I was supposed
to stop right now.
MARTY:
You're going to run out of pipe.
-This is just an idea.
-Yeah.
So, we leave this,
use the permanent
that has all the teeth on it
to saw through what we're sawing
through, if you guys want?
MARTY:
We're excited.
We know
that the Money Pit collapsed,
so this could be the vault
that has moved downward,
but we have to make a decision.
If we break through to a void,
what are we going to do?
Send a diver down?
Send cameras down?
The decision really comes down
to what's going to be
less disruptive.
-Hey, guys. -Hey.
-Hey, guys.
What a bloody-ass mess.
So, we ran out of water.
We went
through the , gallons,
-plus the extra , gallons.
- , gallons.
: What? You can't
take me seriously right now?
:
No. No.
Hey, I-I accomplished a lot.
MARTY: No. You did a hell
of a job today, pure and simple.
And every... everybody did.
Everybody had put in a full day.
-Yeah. -But we need
to have a w*r room meeting.
Just a quick one before
we call it a complete day.
You know, if you can get
cleaned up as best you can
-to be comfortable.
-Yeah. Well...
And then we can all meet
in the w*r room,
and just kick
a few things around.
A lot happened today.
Let's go talk about it.
Let's go.
NARRATOR:
After a tense and exciting day
of excavations
at the Oak Island Money Pit,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with members
of their team,
have gathered in the w*r room
for a critical meeting.
Now that the -inch-wide
drilling caisson
in Borehole H- has reached
what could very well be
the fabled Chappell Vault
at a depth of feet,
they must determine
how best to continue
their exploration of the area.
Gentlemen, it's been a long,
long day.
Everybody worked really hard.
So, let's have a little recap.
-We reached with the can.
-Yeah.
In true Oak Island fashion,
right at the end of the day,
at feet,
Danny, the oscillator operator,
said he had a marked change.
It was like nothing
that happened all day.
The torque went up,
it was hard to drive the can.
He thought, most significantly
to me, it was on something flat.
Something, you know, flat and
consistent like this tabletop,
like he was trying to drag the
can right across this tabletop.
-He thinks
-probably wood. -TERRY: Well,
the idea that we're on
something relatively solid--
that's great.
We're deeper than the...
right now
than the Chappell Shaft
ever went.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the team has finally excavated
below the remains
of the searcher shaft
installed by M.R. Chappell
in
and have finally located
the mysterious Chappell Vault?
What was the big hit at ?
What's that conductivity reading
that Mike West showed us?
-Should be still in that pile.
-Yeah.
We were most interested
in to , basically.
-Right. -Have we searched
those cuttings yet?
-Not all of them.
Do you know
which ones we have or haven't?
We just started on
when we ran out of water.
MARTY:
So, actually,
as we sit here around
this table, we don't really know
what we got in the zone
of interest yet.
Well, that's pretty cool.
MARTY:
Okay, so we haven't searched it.
David, your big bag of coins
-is still out there
buried in clay. -Yup.
So, we'll search those cuttings,
and then we'll know
if there's something not quite
so massive that we missed.
The real question is, Rick,
what do you want to do
about drilling H
I don't think we have a choice.
I think
we put the permanent down
and we...
slowly advance the casing.
I mean, there is
no alternative at this point.
-If you dig...
-And then hammer grab.
Unfortunately, yes.
There is no alternative.
We're committed.
NARRATOR:
To reduce the risks
of damaging any potentially
priceless artifacts,
the team has chosen to install
a permanent inner casing.
This will allow them to do
even deeper drilling
and possible human exploration.
Some of these things
that have been speculated about
are... are irreplaceable.
It could be priceless documents.
It could be religious artifacts.
And so, there's-there's
significant trepidation
on my part-- fear, if you will--
that we may damage something.
MARTY:
All right, what else?
Anybody have anything else?
I mean, we...
Tomorrow we-we get more answers.
I was hoping
-they'd happen today.
So did you. -Yeah.
We're hopeful
that we're close to answers.
We've spent an awful lot
of effort
to bring in
this massive equipment
and dig in this one spot,
following a well that produced
all kinds of tantalizing clues.
So, yeah, we're hopeful.
We're getting to the depth
where there should be answers.
Ten years ago, we were hopeful
and that hasn't stopped.
Gentlemen, it's been a long day.
Everybody worked really hard.
We've had the peaks and valleys
associated with Oak Island.
We need a bigger peak tomorrow.
Everybody needs some sleep.
Let's call it a day.
DAVE:
Meeting adjourned.
NARRATOR:
A new day begins on Oak Island,
and as a permanent steel casing
is installed
in the newly-dug H- shaft,
Rick Lagina and metal detection
expert Gary Drayton
are taking advantage
of an all-too-rare moment
of free time to explore
an area of Smith's Cove.
So much work has been done
down here,
between Dan, the Restalls.
Every... every company
that came out tried
to figure out what was going on
with the-the salt water
in the Money Pit.
GARY: I mean, this is
an ideal situation, Rick,
because, obviously,
it's low tide.
-Mm-hmm.
-We got these rock pools.
-See, if anything got washed
in and out of here... -Mm-hmm.
...it's going to get trapped
in these rocks.
-This is an ideal situation.
-So, you're thinking between
-the beach
and the old cofferdams? -Yeah.
This is a perfect spot?
So, let's see
if we can find something.
RICK:
When Gary decides
he wants to investigate an area,
I-I defer to him.
He has an incredible amount
of experience,
and the beach is fascinating,
the inner tidal zone.
Maybe the ground
in Smith's Cove has been
disturbed enough that maybe
something has come close
to surface.
NARRATOR: It was at
Smith's Cove where, in ,
searchers
from the Truro Company
discovered the remains
of five stone box drains,
each converging into
a single tunnel that appeared
to head straight toward
the Oak Island Money Pit.
They concluded that
these drains were constructed
as part of
an elaborate booby-trap system,
designed to frustrate
the efforts of anyone
who tried to search
in the area for treasure.
Last year, while trying to find
evidence of these box drains,
Rick, Marty,
and members of their team
found something
even more curious
and possibly much older
than the Money Pit itself:
a French drain,
a formation of layered rocks
used to divert
and control the flow of water.
I'm gonna put you
on the spot now.
Man
LAIRD: The sorting of the rocks
is unusual.
It's definitely what we'd call
cultural. Yeah.
-Um... -Okay.
You mean you're saying, with...
based on your expertise, with
certainty, this is placed here?
It's a man
-I believe so, yeah. Yeah.
-Wow.
What we'll do,
we'll go up and down
in this little area here,
-work our way towards the rock.
-Okay.
That's worth digging, Rick.
Wow, compared to inland,
this is like a picnic, digging,
-Yeah, really.
Ah, let's see what this is.
-It's out.
I'll use my pinpointer, Rick.
RICK:
What is it?
Yeah. Typical find on the beach.
-Yeah.
-Bottle cap.
It's the right color, but...
wrong material.
Another one here, Rick.
It's good depth.
It's saying ten inches.
Whoa! Whoa, whoa,
-whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
-I don't see anything.
-I see something.
Holy...
Holy schmoly, all right.
-RICK: It's a cross.
-That's a cross.
There's a square hole.
Yeah, right there.
It's heavy, too.
Oh, my gosh. I mean,
that is an old, old cross.
NARRATOR:
A cross?
Located in the same area
where the team found
French drains at Smith's Cove?
But how did it get there?
And how long did it lie buried?
RICK:
Gary was extremely excited.
-Sweet! -More excited
than anything he's ever found
on the island. And mind you,
now, this year he's found coins
from the late s.
Those finds pale in comparison
to this one,
in terms
of his excitement level.
So I'm excited
because Gary's excited,
and that's the truth of it.
Uh, it looks like it's lead.
I always ask that.
-Look at that.
-That is... Oh, my gosh.
That is...
That's really old.
RICK:
How old?
GARY: This is the type of thing
I'd expect to find in Europe.
When I first saw it, I thought
that looks, like, medieval.
A medieval cross.
I mean, you know.
I mean, this is old.
-This is really old.
-I-I don't, Gary.
I hear it in your voice,
but I don't.
How old?
I would say that is somewhere
between and .
-RICK: Holy...
-GARY: Holy schmoly, all right.
NARRATOR: While metal detecting
in Smith's Cove,
Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton
have just made
an astonishing discovery,
a small metal object that
appears to be a medieval cross
and which Gary believes
could date back
as far as the th century.
But, if so,
how did it get to Oak Island?
RICK:
It's really that old?
Yeah, that is old.
That is really old.
What makes you say that?
'Cause I...
-Just-just the crudeness of it.
-I mean, I...
And the style. I mean, you don't
normally see this kind of style.
I've seen that shape before.
I swear, that'll tell the tale
how old it is.
-That shape.
-Yeah.
Where do you think
you've seen it before?
You know, when I was in France,
I saw a carving like that
in the Templar prison in Domme.
NARRATOR:
A lead cross
matching carvings made by
members of the Knights Templar?
Just one week ago,
while searching for evidence
that might connect
various carvings found on
and around Oak Island
to similar ones made by members
of the Knights Templar
while they awaited execution
at Domme Prison,
Rick Lagina was shown a wall
on which was carved
an early depiction
of the Hebrew Bible's
so-called Tree of Life.
But just to the left
of the carving
was a Templar-era depiction
of a Christian cross,
one that bears
an eerie similarity
to the object just unearthed
at Smith's Cove.
Could Rick and Gary have just
found the first hard evidence
connecting the Knights Templar
to the Oak Island mystery?
Let's see what it registers at.
Yeah, rock solid. No, there...
Yeah, it's lead.
Wow.
That is a religious artifact.
You've got to have an expert
look at this.
And I'm sure
someone would probably know,
just by the style,
you know, where it comes from,
who made it, the date range.
That is unbelievable.
RICK:
It's beautiful.
-Mm-hmm.
I mean, we might have just made
history here, Rick.
Well, Gary,
let-let's call my brother.
Let me... let me see
if I can't get him.
Hey. Yeah.
Here's your present for the day.
It's not Bravo Tango,
but it's...
quite remarkable.
It's definitely worth
a bottle of red wine.
You see the shape?
I saw that in Domme.
Yes.
Smith's Cove.
RICK:
But Gary thinks to .
Not s.
to .
MARTY: It's one of the strange
things about Oak Island.
-In this particular case,
you go to France... -Mm.
...and you look at all kinds of
different carvings on the wall.
And then a cross comes out
of the earth on Oak Island
and you look at it and you say,
-"I've seen that...
-"I've seen that."
"...just recently.
"In France.
In a Templar prison."
What are the odds of that?
GARY: Yeah, I mean,
this-this is a really cool
religious artifact.
RICK:
Yep.
-Thank you.
-Okay. See ya.
Thanks.
If that cross turns out to be
between and ,
I'll become more convinced that,
no, something did happen here,
something significant
pre-Money Pit discovery.
So it's a big deal for me.
Look, it's very curious.
It's singularly out of place--
there's no question about that.
It's all the more reason
to follow
wherever the search leads,
wherever the information trail
leads regarding that-that cross.
Everybody but everybody
came here looking for treasure.
You come and you find something
possibly even predating
original depositors.
That makes it
all the more imperative
that we try to figure out
what that is.
I think it makes it
almost a foregone conclusion
-we have to get back out there.
-Yeah.
That's what I think.
Quite a day.
That was fantastic.
That was...
remarkable.
NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty,
and the Oak Island team,
the discovery of what could be
a th-century Templar cross
may turn out to be
not only a clue,
but the first step
in finding an answer,
perhaps the very answer
that has eluded
treasure hunters
for more than two centuries.
For if proof can be established
that members
of the Knights Templar
successfully made their way
to North America
as many as seven centuries ago,
it would change
not only the history
of a small island
off the coast of Nova Scotia--
it could change the history
of the world forever.
Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island...
-JACK: We got lucky.
-GARY: A bone.
RICK:
We're thinking a skeleton
will come out of there.
Literally.
Ooh!
-Ah.
-It's lead.
Laird, we've got something
to show you.
We think it's gonna knock
your socks off.
I... haven't seen anything
like that before.
DANNY:
What this is doing now--
unbelievable.
We're down
into open cavern void.
MARTY: It means we're in
the collapse of the Money Pit,
and we're gonna find
what was ever in there.