Narrator: Tonight on
The Curse of Oak Island...
- Steve g.: Look at this.
- Charles: What is that?
Steve g.: There's
something in there.
- This could be it, man.
- What's in that thing?
- Terry: Holy cow!
- Steve g.: Oh, wow.
The artifacts are pre-searcher.
- Marty: Whoa.
- What was going on here?
That is the question.
Oh, what the heck is that?
Aaron: Wow. That
is very badly b*rned
- part of a ship. - Alex: Wow.
Steve g.: He's getting close.
- Doug: Oh, look at that.
- Whoa! Whoa! -Hey! Hey!
There's a big timber
running this way.
- Rick: Oh, baby.
- Gary: Oh, that's fantastic!
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,
mysterious fragments
of human bone,
and a lead cross whose
origin may stretch back
to the days of the
knights templar.
To date, six men have d*ed
trying to solve the mystery.
And, according to legend,
one more will have to die
before the treasure
can be found.
♪ ♪
(phone ringing)
- marty: Hello?
- Rick: Hey. Good morning.
Marty: Boy,
this is early. What's up?
Rick: Actually,
it's pretty exciting news.
- Marty: Bravo tango?
- No. Not bravo...
(laughter)
- not bravo tango. No. - Damn.
Narrator: As another hopeful
and exciting day begins
on oak island, rick lagina,
along with oak island
historians doug crowell
and charles barkhouse,
eagerly place a call to rick's
brother marty to update him
on a potentially significant
discovery made one day ago
in the man-made,
triangle-shaped swamp.
Rick: Yesterday,
billy and doug were digging in the swamp.
I'm going to let them tell
you what has been found
and the potential of
what today might mean.
- Doug. - Marty: Yo.
- Lay it on me.
- Doug: I'm quite excited, actually.
We were nine to ten feet
down and we brought up
part of what looks like a,
uh, I'll say ship's railing.
- Really?
- Yeah. A very finished piece of wood. Rounded corners.
- It-it's... - No kidding?
Yeah. This has the
potential to be really old.
Charles: Also, marty,
when billy was excavating this hole,
he's riding on some wood.
And he doesn't know whether
it's a platform or-or, you know,
- long pieces of wood, but there's something.
- Marty: Right.
- He's not down to the bottom layer yet.
- Wowzer.
Wowzer.
Narrator: Although the oak
island team has made a number
of incredible discoveries
in the swamp this year,
including a massive stone road,
believed to have once
been part of a ship's wharf,
there is one tantalizing mystery
that has baffled them
for nearly three years now.
In , the oak island team
conducted a seismic
survey across the swamp
using more than ,
dynamite charges.
This produced astonishing
data that revealed
a -foot-long anomaly
buried in the center
of the brackish bog
that resembled the
shape of a galleon ship.
- Oh. Look at that.
- Billy: Yeah.
- What've you got?
- It looks like a piece of finished wood.
Narrator: Is it possible that the
believed piece of ship's railing
and the large,
mysterious obstruction
that members of
the team discovered
some ten feet deep in
the swamp one day ago
might be key evidence of
just what that anomaly is?
So the plan today is, uh,
we're going to expand the hole,
- and hopefully he can hook a piece of it up.
- Marty: Look.
Is this classic or what? I mean,
come on.
- Yup.
- What is with this bloody island? You know?
And the rain's closing in...
(laughter)
geez!
Yeah. But...
We have a reprieve
from the weather.
Today is supposed
to be beautiful,
but we're going
to take our time.
We have to have a
real understanding
of what this might mean.
Marty: Wow. That is something.
I mean, this is big,
I think, so...
Rick: We'll give you an
update at the end of the day.
Marty: That'd be great. I'll, uh,
I'll be on pins and needles.
- Thank you.
- Rick: Okay. Thanks. Bye.
- Marty: See you guys. Bye.
- Rick: Bye.
Well,
if it's a piece of ship's railing,
you know, the mind jumps
to the old deal that the swamp
was used as a disembarkation
point for treasure or something.
Or a ship was blown
in there and wrecked.
But along comes a piece
of data that supports it,
and you get excited about it.
I'm excited that they were going
back to the same spot to dig,
and I'm real hopeful
that it'll show something.
- Steve g.: Hey, guys.
- Rick: Morning.
- Billy draw that down or did the pump do it?
- It's been pumping.
Narrator: Now that the harsh
fall winter has begun to set in,
bringing with it a heavy
rainstorm last night,
the team has installed a
six-inch pump to drain the area
and allow the team
to continue digging
with the -ton swamp excavator.
Well, bill, what's the plan?
Well, the water's down some.
I guess,
we've got to bail it out and look at
every bucket that
comes out to see if there's
more pieces of the
wood from yesterday.
- Right? - Right.
You know,
we're at a depth where it should be
sand and gravel,
but it's not sand and gravel.
Look. If we found
something amazing,
we should take our time.
Go slow. Gary, metal-detect.
Steve, take all your elevations
and everything you need to do.
Charles and I will be
down here putting eyes on it.
Doug, if you want to get up there,
put your eyes
- on the bucket. - Billy: Sure.
- Okay. Well, let's not waste the beautiful day.
- Billy: No.
Rick: They believe that
the bucket was sliding
across a massive
wooden something.
So the hope is we'll
find something else,
but you don't put the
cart before the horse.
You don't start
dreaming of artifacts
until you actually
hold them in your hand.
He should be able
to put the bucket down
- and feel... if he feels here what he felt over there.
- Yeah.
You're pretty close to the
depth we were yesterday.
Yeah. And now you can feel it.
There's wood on the
bottom there. I'm sure of it.
Doug: It's almost covered with
water now. That's the problem.
Is there any way to keep that pump running,
scott?
No. It's all porridge
over here now.
Rick: You're just going to have
to dig it out and throw the slop out.
- Scott: Yeah.
- Rick: That's all.
Narrator: Although the team is
hopeful that they may be close
to a major discovery,
the heavy rains from the
previous evening have made
the muck and mud of
the swamp a frustrating
challenge for billy
gerhardt and the excavator.
The water level is
higher than it was.
The water is boiling
in down here now.
- You can just see it swelling in.
- Yeah?
- It's coming in from behind us there, right?
- Scott: Yeah.
Rick: Okay. Well...
- Every minute we waste, the more water's coming in, so...
- Billy: Yep.
- Doug: Let's find out what it is.
- Rick: Okay.
(wood creaking)
doug: Oh, look at that.
There's a... There's big
timber running this way!
I mean,
look at that. That whole side.
Narrator: A possible
wood timber?
Tony: I've got something!
- What is that?
- It's a large board.
Narrator: Four years ago,
while exploring in this same area,
professional diver tony
sampson discovered
what is believed to be
a piece of deck planking
from a large ship that was
dated to as early as .
Is it possible that
billy has just made
an identical find,
or could he be on the verge
of a much larger and
more definitive discovery?
Steve g.: He's getting close.
- This is undermined very badly here now.
- Yeah.
You can feel this
whole thing. You know?
Steve g.: Like jell-o.
Scott: Don't move for a second!
You can feel
that. You feel that?
Rick: Oh, yeah.
Steve g.: I would take it quick
because we're going to lose this!
Rick: It's just not stable.
It's wet, it's liquid,
it's muddy, it's black,
it's thick, it's...
(chuckles)
it's a nightmare.
That big piece is
going to go right now.
Look at that piece right
there. It's going to go.
Rick: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...
Steve g.: There it goes.
- Whoa! Whoa! - Hey! Hey!
Rick: That ain't good.
Rick: Well, keep digging.
It's all you can do.
Billy: Yep. We'll clean it out.
You guide us in.
Narrator: In the oak island swamp,
rick lagina, along with
members of the team,
are trying to uncover
what they believe to be
a large,
flat surface more than ten feet deep
in an area where they recovered
a possible piece of a ship's
railing just one day ago.
What's the plan?
Start here?
Yeah.
Narrator: Unfortunately,
the more billy gerhardt digs
with the swamp excavator,
the more the hole fills back in
with soppy mud and sludge.
I think we have to stay focused.
We have a piece of wood
that we believe
might be from a ship.
You're never going to
get a good look at this
with the amount
of water in the area
unless you pull it out.
That makes it all the
more important to come
to an understanding
of what this is.
Billy: It just caved
in over the top of it.
Charles: It's not even
draining out there now.
It's draining right into here.
Look at... look at that
water coming in right there.
Yeah.
Well,
I'm not sure it's worth continuing.
We need to fix this issue. Otherwise,
the water will
just keep recirculating here,
so...
Yeah. It wouldn't matter what you did now,
I don't think.
Rick: You're not
getting any headway.
Billy: We can't
advance through it.
Rick: What it tells me is,
putting in sheet out
there is a good idea.
Narrator: Because the rain-soaked
mud in the swamp keeps caving in
and also because the
weather is only expected
to get worse as
winter approaches,
the oak island team
will have to wait
until next spring
to continue this investigation,
when they will have time
to install a cofferdam system
similar to the one they
constructed at smith's cove
two years ago.
Using sheet piling,
which is hammered deep
into the mud and sediment,
the cofferdam will
create a watertight barrier
that will allow for a
complete excavation
of this area of the swamp.
You know, it's disappointing.
Again,
it's the emotional roller coaster ride
that is oak island.
But we still have chances
to answer questions
about this stone pathway.
To me,
there's going to be some answers there.
So,
for the remainder of the year,
that's our area of focus.
- I think that we're done here.
- Gary: Yeah.
Yeah. I think we are.
Okay, billy.
You're free to fill this in.
- Okay. Yep. - All right? Okay.
We'll get out of your way.
You know, we'll see
what the rest of the day brings.
Narrator: Later that day
on the western
end of the island...
Charles: This is a
massive root cellar.
...Charles barkhouse
and scott barlow
join archaeologists
laird niven and liz michels
at the th century
stone foundation
of the house that once
belonged to samuel ball,
a man who came
to oak island in
as a simple cabbage farmer
but who mysteriously grew
to become one of nova scotia's
wealthiest landowners
by the early th century.
Is it too much square
footage just to store
root vegetables and
that type of thing?
Laird: That's a good question.
Uh, if he's just storing food,
- this seems like a lot.
- Charles: Right.
Laird: Oh.
- Charles: What do you got?
- Laird: Got a hinge.
A hinge and wood.
- Liz: It's nice that it's right by the stairs.
- Yeah.
Yeah,
the positioning is pretty significant.
Narrator: A metal hinge
found in the stone foundation
of samuel ball's home?
Was it perhaps simply
part of a door in the house?
Or might it have come
from some kind of container?
Or chest?
Looks like the fasteners are still in it,
as well.
Laird: We've got some
wood coming up here.
Ooh. It's delicate.
Oh. There's a crosspiece.
Charles: Wow.
Laird: So,
this is the... kind of the working floor
right here.
- So it's not floorboards?
- Laird: No.
No. This is just
a plain dirt floor.
The floorboards were up here.
- Right.
- Laird: Yeah. So this...
This would have come
from somewhere else.
Liz and I came upon some
wood that seemed to be intact.
They're vertical boards
and horizontal boards,
so it looked like a door.
I actually hadn't seen
anything like that before.
I'm curious about this.
If they're floorboards,
they obviously would've
been above this level.
They wouldn't have
floorboards in the root cellar.
No. Maybe cobbles.
- Maybe rocks. - Okay.
Laird: That's great.
(laughing): Now we know
we have more work to do.
Narrator: While charles
and scott continue working
with laird and liz at
the ball foundation...
Rick: So here's what we found.
Ian: Holy cow.
Narrator: ...Near the
eastern edge of the swamp,
rick lagina,
along with geoscientist dr. Ian spooner
and members of the team,
are focusing their investigation
on the stone road and pathway,
looking for any more
evidence of a ship
or other clues that
could help solve
the oak island mystery.
Let's see how far these
stones go that way.
- Yep.
- Gary: I'll grab a detector.
Rick: You have to have context
for these anomalous features,
I.E.,
the possibility of
making artifact finds
certainly are near the shore.
So we're going to investigate it
and hopefully come
up with some answers.
Aaron: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
That's a good depth there,
billy.
Okay.
Aaron: Oh, look at that.
So we're getting more cribbing.
- Something's going on here.
- Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Rick! Check this out!
- What have you got, gary?
- That's unusual.
That came out
of that last bucket.
- Ian: That's one piece of wood.
- Rick: Yeah. That is strange.
- Ian: It's perfectly square.
- Rick: Yeah.
- Gary: Oh, it was made that way, by the look of it.
- Ian: Yeah.
Gary: Aaron!
- Rick: Check this out.
- Hey, guys. What do you got?
- Gary: We're hoping you can tell us.
- Oh, god.
- Wow.
- Ian: It's got to be a tool.
Aaron: Yeah. I was going to say,
like, something for...
- Architectural or...
- Gary: Yeah. Yeah.
- Yeah. Like a little carpenter's square.
- Yeah.
Narrator: A possible
carpenter's square?
Found near the stone pathway on
the eastern border of the swamp?
Could it be an important clue,
like the wooden survey stakes
and wood pieces dating
back as far as the th century,
that might be connected to
the feature's construction?
And, if so,
might it also help identify
just who built it?
Ian: The interesting thing
about something like that,
you can actually
date them. It's wood.
- Yeah.
- So this is probably more important than we think.
I will put this away.
- Aaron: Well, good find.
- Ian: Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Aaron: Thanks, guys.
Narrator: While rick
and members of the team
continue their
investigation in the swamp...
...Later that afternoon...
- Marty: Hi, guys.
- Gary: Hey, marty.
Doug: Hey,
marty. Thanks for coming down.
This is the item.
Well, that is cool.
Narrator: After
learning of the discovery
of the possible
carpenter's square,
marty lagina meets with oak
island historian doug crowell
and gary drayton in
the research center
to inspect the
potentially important clue.
At first I thought it was metal
because of the shape of it.
Yeah.
Marty: That is actually
kind of exquisite. Isn't it?
- It's one piece. This is not joined to this.
- Yeah.
Marty: What do you think it is?
Doug: I've looked
through shipwright tools.
I've looked through
old carpenter tools.
It came up as a
stonemason's tool.
Gary: Bloody hell.
Doug: It was a
stonemason's tool.
That's what it most
closely resembles.
Narrator: In the
research center,
doug crowell has just revealed
that the possible t square
may be an actual
stonemason's tool.
Well,
obviously its use is for right angles.
Isn't it? I mean...
Doug: That's the idea I ran
with 'cause they say that-that form
- follows function, so...
- Yeah.
Narrator: If the team
has actually found
a stonemason's t square in
the triangle-shaped swamp,
could it be evidence tying
one particular organization
to the oak island mystery?
Ever since the discovery
of the money pit in ,
the secretive fraternity
of builders known as
the freemasons,
who also descended
from the ancient order
of the knights templar,
have been closely
linked to oak island.
In addition to the
fact that several
prominent treasure hunters,
including daniel mcginnis,
m.R. Chappell, and even a young
franklin delano roosevelt,
were members,
numerous masonic symbols,
such as the letter "g" for
"god" or "grand architect,"
crosses and prominent triangles,
have been found
all across the island.
That is really cool.
This so-called mason's tool,
it's nicely crafted,
which seems to have sort
of masonic connections.
And, more to the point,
creates angles that are
very useful in a
practical sense.
-degree angles,
-degree angles,
-degree angles...
Those are very useful
in building and
laying out things.
So I want to get a date on it,
and I want to find
out what its use is.
Both those things are
very interesting to me.
Gary: It's amazing how
it's well preserved like that
'cause of the swamp.
That's a pretty cool find, gary.
Marty: I'm gonna say two things.
One,
which I've been saying a lot lately,
let's put it in the line
for carbon dating.
- Doug: Okay. - Oh, yeah.
And what's the second
thing I always say?
That was nice,
but go out and find some more.
That's right. Sorry,
gary. I hate to be so predictable.
All right, guys,
I'll let you carry on.
- See you. -Gary: See you.
- Doug: See you, marty.
Narrator: The following morning
on lot ...
Charles: Ha! Reinforcements!
Well,
I brought the person you need.
Narrator: ...Rick lagina,
gary drayton,
and rick and marty's
nephew david fornetti
arrive at the foundation
of samuel ball's
th century home
after being alerted
to another potentially
important discovery
by archaeologist laird niven
and other members of the team.
Laird,
do you want to tell them what we found?
Yeah. So,
we were clearing out the cellar floor.
- Rick: Mm-hmm.
- Laird: As we were working along, we found
some wood that
seems to be in situ.
- Perhaps a hatchway or a doorway.
- Gary: Wow!
Narrator: A possible doorway?
Embedded in the floor
of the ball foundation?
Just what might have been,
or could still be,
on the other side of it?
Rick: Would I
love it to be a door
to an opening in
the floor? Absolutely.
Who knows what it is?
How much of the door is
still there? Is it intact, all of it?
We've got a good
number of boards here,
but, um, it's pretty partial.
Narrator: Because the door
is embedded in the foundation,
laird and liz will
have to take their time
to carefully excavate around it
before they can remove it to
reveal whatever might lie below.
Rick: The wood appears
to be laid horizontally,
appears to be a door.
If this is an
opening in the floor,
that's a big find.
But, again,
it's the oak island roller coaster.
We want to make sure
that it's not explainable
in any other way.
We found a really nice hinge
that I want gary to look at.
Yeah. I'd love to.
Oh, wow! That's nice, mate.
It was found right here.
- It's small.
- Gary: Might be too small
for a cellar door,
though. I'm thinking this would be
the type of strap hinge
you'd see on a chest or a box.
Narrator: A strap
hinge for a chest?
One year ago,
while conducting an excavation
near the stone foundation
on the ball property...
Kelly: It's starting to look,
uh,
like a chest hinge of some kind.
...Artifact conservator
kelly bourassa
found a similar item.
Gary: If it was
a chest or a box,
you would need
a bracket like this.
Narrator: Is it possible that
these two discoveries are related?
And could they be further
evidence that samuel ball
may have hidden something
of great value on his property?
So many places to hide
something good in here.
Fantastic. You've done really well,
laird.
- Okeydoke. - Laird: Yeah.
- Rick: Good luck.
- Laird: Thanks, rick.
Liz: Thanks, rick.
Narrator: Later that afternoon,
rick, marty,
craig and members of the team...
- Hey, guys.
- Gentlemen. -Hey, guys.
...Have arranged to
meet with researcher
and oak island theorist
philip stephenson
via videoconference
in the w*r room.
Mr. Stephenson, welcome.
Narrator: After the discovery
of the possible masonic t square
one day ago in the swamp,
the team has invited
mr. Stephenson,
who contacted
them earlier this year,
to share what he believes
to be important information
that could help solve
the oak island mystery.
Doug: So, mr. Stephenson,
I'm looking forward
to what you have to tell us.
They sure do.
Rick: Wow.
Narrator: In the w*r room,
researcher philip stephenson
has revealed a masonic
cipher that he believes
is directly related to
the oak island mystery.
Alex: Wow.
So, this is amazing.
Marty: That's very interesting
and really mind-boggling.
Narrator: In , late author
and researcher zena
halpern presented the laginas
and their team with three
documents that she believed
had been created by
members of the knights templar.
Two of them contained maps,
which appeared to describe
journeys that the templars
supposedly made to oak island
during the th century and
again in the mid- th century.
The third document,
also known as la formule,
is a coded cipher containing
many of the same symbols
reportedly found on the
legendary foot stone,
which was removed
from the money pit
when it was first excavated
to that depth in .
Could the remarkable
similarities between la formule
and the reported masonic
cipher being presented
by philip stephenson
offer more evidence
tying both the knights templar
and the freemasons to
the oak island mystery?
It certainly gets your attention
when you come up
with a whole bunch
of correlative things:
The same symbols,
masonic connections.
So it has credibility right
out... right out of the door.
Marty: Did you just figure this out,
you know, using
the substitution,
trial and error?
Is that how you got to these?
Okay. In other words,
once you figure out
the substitution,
this is what you get?
- Yeah. - Marty: Wow.
It gives great credence
- to the la formule cipher.
- Philip: Yeah.
Narrator: Although no one
has been able to conclude
just what the megalithic
formation of six boulders,
that was discovered
by fred nolan in ,
actually represents,
many believe it symbolizes
that the oak island treasure
is of a religious nature
and may include
priceless relics such as
the holy grail and the
ark of the covenant.
It is for this reason that
many have suggested
a link to not only
the freemasons
but also their predecessors,
the knights templar.
Marty: Wow.
This is excellent.
So, we have a survey from
. It's the barringer survey.
It has four potential
nonferrous targets.
And your target
"z" lands fairly close
to one of them, I believe.
It's definitely a
spot of interest
that we haven't explored.
Narrator: Conducted
across the area
from smith's cove to
the money pit in
by dan blankenship and
his partner david tobias,
the barringer survey was a
low-velocity radio wave survey
that identified four
potential nonferrous targets,
meaning they could be
composed of silver or gold.
Although the team has not
fully explored the four target sites,
could mr. Stephenson's
research not only corroborate
at least one of them
but also mark the location
of something people
have been trying to find
for more than two centuries?
Rick: I don't like
to rush to judgment.
But, boy,
phil's theory is quite compelling.
There's an "x" on the ground.
He's suggesting that
it's only feet down.
Let's just put a rig
over the site and drill it.
Marty: Very interesting stuff.
I mean,
look. I can tell you right now.
There's nobody on this
screen or in that room
- who isn't going to want to go dig there.
- Yup.
Rick: It's more than interesting. I mean,
as I sit here,
my mind rebels
against the thought
that it's mere coincidence.
Alex: I agree.
There's a lot pointing
to the same place.
Let's get out there and mark "z"
- and find out what's down feet.
- Rick: I'm very hopeful.
Phil,
thank you very much for your presentation.
Marty: Okay. Every
man to his duty.
Narrator: The
following morning...
Terry: Ps- . Here we
go. This could be the day.
...On lot ,
near the money pit area...
That's it,
we're looking for a treasure chamber.
Okay.
- You think mike can get us there?
- I think so.
...Members of the oak
island team begin drilling
at the location provided
by philip stephenson...
- This could be the one right here.
- Yeah.
...Where he believes they will
find something of great value
at a depth of feet.
Well, let's peel this back
and see what's happening.
Charles: Pretty tight looking stuff,
terry.
Terry: That is in place.
I don't see any
evidence of disturbance.
Rick: It's always a great
thing when a theorist will say,
"here's your 'x, ' dig here."
he's saying that his location
is about feet down.
Well, it's a simple matter
of putting a rig over the site
and find out whether or
not there is a vault there.
Charles: What are we looking at?
- Brennan: ! - Charles: .
Yeah. It's kind of a
sandy blue-gray till.
This is actually the stuff that
you want over a treasure vault
if you're going in from a tunnel,
right?
- Oh, absolutely.
- You want this hard stuff over the top...
- No question.
- ...To preserve whatever vault
- or whatever treasure you're burying, right?
- Yeah.
This is exactly what we
want to see if we're looking for
- a treasure trove at depth.
- Yeah.
Our target horizon being
only ten feet away. It'll be
coming up in this next core.
- Charles: Look! What is that?
- Steve g.: There's something in there.
Charles: What's in that thing?
-Narrator: On lot ...
Terry: There's something
interesting in there!
I'll go take a look.
...While core-drilling
at a location east
of the money pit area,
members of the oak island team
have just recovered
something at a depth of feet
where theorist philip stephenson
predicted a cache of treasure
- would be found.
- Steve g.: One, two, three.
So,
that's interesting. What's that?
That looks to me
like a ground-up
something or other.
And, in fact,
it is a ground-up boulder.
So, feet,
all the way back up to feet.
This is the... pretty much
the fateful intersection.
This is what we
were looking for.
Narrator: A ten-foot boulder?
Found at the precise
depth where the team
was told they might find
something of great value?
Is it simply a
coincidence of nature?
Or like other massive
boulders that have been found
on the island's surface,
could it be a marker
placed there for some purpose?
Rick: There's all
kinds of possibilities,
and that's what's so disconcerting,
but you have
to follow where
the clues lead you.
It's typical oak island.
"here's a little clue, guys.
"you may want
to take a look at it
and see if you want
to go somewhere else."
- terry: All right.
- Steve g.: Unfortunately,
there's no treasure
vault right here.
Basically,
that's where we know where it isn't.
Marty: Every time you dig and
you don't get what you want,
you're discouraged,
but I think we're missing something,
though,
uh, on phil stephenson's theory.
And that is, I'm not at all sure
we know where the altar is.
I think it's deciphered brilliantly,
but you have
to start at the altar.
That's the problem.
- So, that's that.
- Yeah. That's that.
They're going to
pull out of that hole
and, uh, we'll update rick.
- But we'll let him know the results.
- Yep. Super.
Narrator: Later
that afternoon...
Gary: This is going
to be really soupy,
but we'll soon see.
...Along the eastern
border of the swamp,
gary drayton and david fornetti
continue scouring the
area near the stone pathway
for more important clues
and hopefully items of value.
- (beeping) - gary: We have got
a signal here, mate.
(beeping)
it's an iron signal.
- David: All right.
- Gary: Just here, mate.
- I'll get to the higher ground.
- Okay.
It's a great area
to find something,
when you think about it.
We've got all
these old boulders.
- See that? - David: Yup.
Gary: What the heck? Rick!
- Check this out.
- I guess I don't have to ask
- what you found. - No. I mean,
this is a really old piece of iron,
rick.
- Rick: Yeah. And huge. - Yeah.
Rick: That does look broken.
I mean,
it's bent in two directions, right?
Let's have a look.
Oh, it's broken all right.
If you could imagine
you complete the circle,
it would have gone closer to...
- that's what it looks like to me. Some kind of...
- There's a ringbolt.
Ringbolt. Ringbolt!
Hey!
Narrator: A possible ringbolt?
Could it be connected to
the others the team has found
this year along
the stone pathway?
Ringbolts that dated back to
as early as the th century
and offered evidence
of cargo being offloaded
from a ship and onto oak island?
Gary: I mean,
this has been under some stress.
I mean, was it in a boulder?
Rick: I don't know
what to make of it.
Look, we're-we're speculating
a lot about what this might be.
- David, why don't you take that to dr. Taylor?
- Yeah.
- And have him take a look at it.
- David: Yeah. Sounds good.
- That's fantastic.
- Rick: That is.
It's an inch and a
quarter solid steel bar.
That took some
force to bend that.
But why, why,
why? I have no idea.
But that's why we try
to apply science to it,
and we also have people
to take a look at it
and try to give us a greater
understanding as to its purpose.
-Hey. -Hey, dave. -Hi.
- What you got there?
- We found something in the swamp.
Aaron: Wow. That is very heavy.
Miriam: That's cool.
David: So,
what are... What are your initial thoughts?
What I first notice is
how black your hands are.
- Miriam: Yeah.
- Aaron: And that's not from swamp. That's charcoal.
And this thing has
seen intense burning.
- Alex: Oh, it's been burnt?
- Aaron: Yeah. Very badly b*rned.
So much so that it's
still adhering to the iron.
So, I think it was part
of a wooden structure.
Maybe something to do with
some large timbers on a ship.
That's good.
Narrator: The iron
object severely b*rned
and potentially related
to the wooden timbers
of a sailing ship?
Could it be related to the
possible piece of ship's railing
that the team found
three days ago
near the southern
border of the swamp?
And possibly the massive
ship-shaped anomaly
the team identified
with seismic scanning
two years ago?
All right. Well,
we'll go take this to the research center.
- I'll come with you.
- All right.
Aaron: Thanks for
showing that to us.
- David: Yeah. You bet.
- Aaron: That's great.
Narrator: Later that afternoon,
before the day
comes to a close...
- Welcome to the w*r room.
- ...Rick and marty lagina
gather members of
the team in the w*r room
for a videoconference
with craig tester
to hear a highly
anticipated scientific report
on the possible mason's t square
found two days ago in the swamp.
Rick: Craig has the c-
results from the swamp.
And so,
I very much look forward to that.
Okay. All right.
Rick: So, craig,
I'm going to turn it over to you.
Okay, uh, we're gonna look at
the wood mason's tool.
This one was from
to .
- Wow. - Marty: Whoa!
Narrator: In the
oak island w*r room
craig tester has just
revealed carbon test results
indicating that the
possible masonic t square,
found two days ago in the swamp,
could date as far back as ,
more than years before
the discovery of the money pit.
What do you make of that,
aaron? You're shaking your head.
Uh,
a lot older than I-I thought it would be.
I wasn't optimistic that
it was pre-searcher,
but I'm happily surprised.
Marty: Of course,
that mason's tool could
be in use for how many years?
Ten? ?
Laird: Yes. For sure.
The followers of a group
of scottish knights settled
in nova scotia during
the early s.
They were
the freemasons.
Narrator: Three weeks ago,
author and oak island
theorist james mcquiston
shared information
on his incredible theory
that a th century
scottish organization
with close ties to
both freemasonry
and the knights templar,
known as the knights baronet,
were behind the
oak island mystery.
James: Unfortunately,
the french att*cked nova scotia,
leaving the scots ousted
in the spring of ,
and I believe they took
shelter in mahone bay
and buried treasure
on oak island.
It's quite remarkable.
Narrator: Could the
carbon dating test
on the possible masonic tool
be corroborating evidence
that james mcquiston's
incredible theory is true?
I think we create this timeline,
and you're going
to see a grouping,
is what I think.
- Yeah.
- It happens to fit with just about everything.
Jack: You know,
luckily, we're finding
evidence of pre-money pit.
What is it about oak island
that made them choose
to build a huge stone path?
You know?
- What was going on here?
- That is the question.
- Yeah. - I wish I knew.
I think the carbon dates
are exceedingly interesting.
Rounding to the mid- s.
But the more important issue is:
That item had a purpose.
I want to know
what that purpose is,
and then the carbon dates
become even more interesting.
Marty: What is a
wooden instrument
from the mid- s
doing in our swamp
here on oak island?
- Marty: All right. Well, that's very cool and very old.
- Yeah.
And, uh,
we just have mountains of data
that-that something significant
happened on oak island
prior to the discovery
of the money pit.
- Yeah.
- Rick: I think we can all attest to that.
- Yeah.
- We have an agenda, right?
The southeast corner,
finding out
where "x" marks the spot,
where the pathway ends.
Yeah. I agree.
Rick: So,
we're very hopeful, and...
I thank everyone for
continuing to puzzle over this.
- So, I'm grateful to everyone.
- Marty: All right, then.
Let's get back to it.
Thanks to everybody.
- Craig: Bye, guys.
- Alex: Thanks, guys.
Rick: Take care.
Narrator: The
laginas and their team
often remark in jest that
the oak island mystery
is a , -piece puzzle
missing several hundred
pieces required to complete it.
If they have proven
anything in their quest so far,
it is that the analogy
is no understatement.
Because despite the
daunting setbacks,
sometimes caused by nature
and others by perhaps
more mysterious sources...
(bird squawking)
...Rick, marty,
craig and the team
have found a trail
of puzzle pieces
suggesting that something
extraordinary happened
long ago on oak island.
And if they keep moving
forward down that trail,
they may soon uncover
the ultimate piece
that will complete the puzzle.
Next time on the
curse of oak island...
This is typical of
something to do with ships
- or parts of ships.
- Charles: Wow.
Alex: There's a couple of wharfs
on samuel ball's property.
Yes,
alex. Right here's the second one.
We were to
feet from shore.
- Yeah.
- So that's a huge wharf.
- Yeah.
- Rick: Why do you need such a massive wharf?
Alex: Take a look at
this. We found a coin.
- Gary: Look at that!
- Alex: I think that's gold.
It's stunning.
08x22 - Be There or T-Square
Watch/Buy Amazon Merchandise
Follows brothers Marty and Rick as they search for the infamous treasure on Oak Island.
Follows brothers Marty and Rick as they search for the infamous treasure on Oak Island.