The Curse of Oak Island

Tonight, on the Curse of Oak Island...

I'd like to know who did it, why they did it.

Watch yourself. -Oh, baby.

Oh, no, no!

Hey! -Oh! Oh!

I see a big timber down there.

Oh, yeah. And I think this is a notch right here.

-Yeah. It's a big structure. Yeah. It's huge.

- -We got a signal over here, Jack.

We got it. All right. Look!

Wow. What is that doing in the swamp?

There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for an incredible treasure

for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

mysterious fragments of human bone,

and a lead cross whose origin may stretch back

to the days of the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

Those dates are bloody fantastic.

Yeah, those are good. Yeah.

It is an exciting moment

in the Oak Island war room,

as brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

along with members of their team,

have just received an important scientific report.

A wood sample obtained during a recent drillg operation

some 106 feet deep in the Money Pit area

has been dated to as early as 1626,

more than 150 years before

the original treasure shaft's discovery in 1795.

Could the Oak Island team, at long last,

have located the original spot where Daniel McGinnis

and his friends discovered what they believed to be

the entrance to a vast underground treasure vault?

Okay. So, real interesting numbers.

What would be the next step with regard to this data?

Well, I mean, it's so old, it's-it's definitely,

in my eyes, a-a good area to, uh,

look at for putting a big can down.

That's kind of crying out

for one of the caissons, then, perhaps.

Yeah. That's-- it's an outlier date.

That's for certain, but...

this certainly begs for further investigation.

Oh, I never have a problem

with that, Rick. Yeah.

Okay. I'll reach out to-to Irving

and to Vanessa, to ROC and see if we can't

line out some gear and-and put some large cans down.

Perfect.

Come on, baby. Let's make a hole!

Over the past three years,

the Laginas and their partners have attempted to locate

the original Money Pit shaft

by drilling dozens of deep exploratory boreholes...

...most as small as six inches wide

and some as large as 60 inches in diameter.

The most promising shaft, known as H-8, was dug two years ago

and produced astonishing discoveries,

including pieces of pottery,

shards of parchment and leather book binding

and even 17th-century human bones.

Now, with the recent drilling of borehole FG-12,

which is located just 25 feet from H-8,

the team believes they may have finally found

the original Money Pit shaft,

which has been lost for nearly 100 years.

We're gonna talk about the logistics and timing

and possibility and feasibility of putting down

one or more big caissons in the Money Pit area.

I want to be able to have the equipment

so we can eliminate that spot or find what's there.

Okay. Once again, it's time to dig.

-Got to follow the clues, see where they lead. -Yep.

-We go get them. -Let's do this.

Let's go kick some Oak Island butt.

Later that afternoon...

Hey, guys. Hey, Laird.

-Let's go talk with Rick. -Okay.

...as members of the team begin researching options

for a new excavation in the Money Pit...

Hey, Rick.

...Craig Tester, Jack Begley

and archeologist Laird Niven

join Rick Lagina at Smith's Cove.

Well, Laird, just looking for guidance

on how we proceed from here

to dig in front of that box structure.

Right. -So, uh,

is it a concern from an archaeological standpoint?

-No, probably not. -Okay.

Now that the recent hurricane damage to the cofferdam

has been repaired, they are eager to resume

their examination of a large wooden structure

that is located near the remains

of what was determined to be an ancient slipway.

It has recently been suggested that the structure

may have been built by a previous search team

in their attempt to shut off the flow of ocean water

to the Money Pit and to make digging in that area possible.

Every structure we found in Smith's Cove, we've surmised

that it might have been used to stop the flood tunnel.

The people who built those probably saw more

than we can see now.

Maybe they found the flood tunnel.

I mean for me, the curiosity,

right, is how deep does it go?

Well, I know. Exactly.

-Yeah. -So...

It'd be a big step to telling us why they were there at all.

Uh, could he dig a corner?

Try to take it down to see how deep it goes?

Oh, yeah. I think he should take the soil from the whole front.

-Okay. -I mean, leave about that much

in front of it and we can hand dig, you know what I mean?

-Push it down. -Mm-hmm.

-All right. Surprisingly,

there is no nails or anything.

-No fasteners, no nothing. Yeah.

As long as he stands off, you know, far enough

where he's not putting side pressure on it from the machine.

-Yeah. -I think just digging it out will be fine.

Yep.

Because the wooden structure was made without the use

of any metal nails or fasteners, there is a chance

that it may have been built not by searchers,

but by the original builders of the Money Pit.

If so, is it possible that it was done not to shut off

the booby-trapped flood tunnel system but to maintain it?

In order to explore it furthe,

without it being damaged or falling apart,

the team will need to exercise the utmost caution.

So, Billy, my thought is just clean off the front,

and hope the majority of it stays together.

And then just backfill the front of that so it doesn't collapse.

And just leave it alone.

-Yeah. -If all the flood tunnel work

was done out here, then it's down in the cultural area.

Yeah.

-All right? Let's go. -Okay.

As Billy Gerhardt clears

the heavy earth and debris blocking the structure...

-We're gonna knock part of that wall down? -Yeah.

...Rick, Craig and Jack will carefully try

to expose it by hand.

Oh, look at the bottom here.

Is that-- is that chunky peat?

Ooh, that stinks.

Is that the bottom right where you're at?

I think it might be.

Okay, let's step away.

We'll see if it goes any more for a minute.

Are you good?

Yeah! Just peachy.

All right. That's probably good for now, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Just want to clean it up a little.

Yeah.

All those beams in there, they've got cross beams

in the center that are hooked like this.

Okay. -So, I'm just looking at, a safety standpoint,

you've got all the ones cutting across that are holding the ones

that are sticking out on this side so...

-It could collapse. -Yeah.

Especially if we fully expose it.

Yeah.

Everything we've found in Smith's Cove indicate

that laborious work was done to-to some end.

Well, you have this rock feature outside of the boxes.

Was it possibly a way to shut off the water?

Oh, hey, Gary.

How you doing, mate?

-We're ready again, Billy. -All right.

Obviously, this thing was built at low tide

without the aid of any cofferdam, too.

Mm-hmm. -Having to wait

till that moment when it's low tide and slowly rolling down

these logs to put them in place.

I'm wondering how long it would take.

How many men did they have?

Be careful, Rick.

-Watch yourself. Whoa! Whoa!

Why don't you jump over here, Jack?

Billy! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! -

Yeah, that's gone.

As Rick Lagina and members of the Oak Island team

were excavating a mysterious log structure at Smith's Cove

in search of one of the stone box drains,

it suddenly collapsed.

Well, it's...

it's not staying now.

All right, unfortunately,

that's probably not repairable,

but we need to get some dirt back here to save this one.

It's starting to separate a bit, too.