Original subtitles

Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

I think our next target

is what we call Aladdin's cave. All right,

- here we go. - It's the genie in the lamp,

and all your wishes will be granted.

- It looks like there's something here. - Wow.

Look at the head on that thing.

That could have easily come out of a treasure chest.

These teeth are ready to bite on some gold.

I love it.

I think we're breaking through the cave.

- Agreed. - We're hitting something, right?

This could be the most important

hammer-grab in history.

There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for

an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

man-made workings that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross whose origin may be connected

to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

trying to solve the mystery.

And according to legend, one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

A peaceful morning has begun on Oak Island.

But in the fabled Money Pit area,

a sobering sense of stagnation has set in,

as more than 300 tons

of heavy digging equipment sits idle.

Okay, everybody,

welcome to an impromptu session of the war room.

Vanessa, you've been here before,

both in person and on the screen.

And of course, on the screen right now

is Craig, participating from Traverse City.

Here's the reason we're here:

The island, as usual, has thrown us a few curveballs.

We obviously have suffered

a... an event, we'll call it,

with TB-1. We've lost considerable amount of soils.

And there are legitimate concerns about the caisson.

- Correct. - Yeah.

Three weeks ago,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team

began excavating a seven-foot-diameter steel shaft

known as TB-1.

A shaft located in an area

where they have not only detected high trace evidence

of precious metals in groundwater

below a depth of 100 feet,

but also where a recent core-drilling operation

recovered possible evidence of the legendary

Chappell Vault...

This looks like the vault.

A seven-foot-high, concrete-encased wooden chest

that was reportedly encountered at a depth of 153 feet

by treasure hunter Frederick Blair

and his drilling operator William Chappell back in 1897.

However, after additional promising discoveries were made

in TB-1, including possible evidence

of the original Money Pit

and concrete at a depth of nearly 160 feet...

This collapse is just not stopping.

I just don't know where it's going,

but it's going somewhere.

The earth surrounding

and beneath the shaft began to cave in.

This has caused the team to believe

that more than 100 cubic yards of soil,

along with the possible treasure,

may have fallen into a so-called "solution channel,"

or naturally occurring cavern in the bedrock,

some 200 feet underground.

It really looks like the culprit for these collapses

is, so far, the-the solution channel.

The treasure could easily have fallen

to 200 feet plus, and we haven't really searched that area.

- Right. - If you had a chest of gold,

and it broke open, it'd be in the last inch.

With that having been said, I... I think we need

a very vigorous discussion about what we do next

and an update from both of you as to

what problems you've encountered and how to deal with them.

My biggest concern

is I don't want to set up on shafts we just drilled.

So where we're drilling right now,

I do not want to put the crane

or the oscillator on, right?

'Cause we're going to already have settling. We know that.

The area around TB-1 is clearly compromised.

If the solution channel, which we know is quite large,

can be swallowing 100 yards of sand and gravel overnight,

or during the day,

who knows how bad this could get?

If we're facing, you know,

the back of the crane over here now,

turning it over here might get us away from that.

We're going to have to wait for the material to settle.

It'll probably become

more stable, and we can come back close.

And I want to come back close.

We have a renewed determination

to get down into that solution cavity.

Or at least I do.

Okay, well, let's talk about

where are we going next, and what are the specifics about it?

So, I think our next target is

right there.

That's what we call "Aladdin's cave."

That's one that we had decided,

as a group, we'd like to do this year.

Okay.

Despite the devastating setback in TB-1,

curiously, the Laginas and their team

have discovered evidence that multiple treasures

could be buried in the Money Pit area.

And one of those additional targets

has been expectantly dubbed "Aladdin's cave."

Okay. Go real slow.

After drilling into this mysterious,

flooded cavern some 145 feet underground

back in 2022,

the team has not only collected

trace evidence of precious metals

and organic materials in the water...

Now we have another image coming in.

- Whoa. - That's a good opening.

It is. You can see the opening coming down here.

But they have also obtained

video and sonar evidence

that it could be a man-made chamber

with tunnels that may connect to the original Money Pit.

What is the dimensions of that cave, once we do

- break through? - So, you're about

20 feet by 20 feet,

so 20 feet north-south, 20 feet east-west.

You can see it here.

Right. And then deep, as much as 12 feet.

If you want to do Aladdin's cave,

I would say do that next.

I think there's enough room back here for us to sit

and be on competent ground.

Okay.

Yeah.

Craig, you're fully on board, yes?

Absolutely.

Okay, great.

I think, given the drill program,

the dendrochronology, the artifact recoveries,

and the water sample testing program,

there is a very good logic

to there being at least two treasures

in the so-called Money Pit area.

Aladdin's cave may be one of those sites.

All right, look, I-I hear broad consensus, I hear no "nays."

I hear everybody saying let's go drill Aladdin's cave.

Let's find the lamp.

And touch nothing else.

Let's see what happens.

Let's go.

Later that afternoon,

as representatives from ROC Equipment and SB Canada...

Bring it straight back.

Prepare to excavate the new shaft known as

Aladdin's cave-1 in the Money Pit area...

That looks better.

We're going to follow the path

of the cobble towards the water.

We're heading north,

and see what we find on this trail.

Rick Lagina,

fellow Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan,

and other members of the team

continue another critical search for valuables

in the northern region of the triangle-shaped swamp.

We laid out...

you see the red stakes?

That's the line... we believe

we'll find more survey stakes along that line.

If we find them out here, it may be

purposeful in terms of laying out this path.

What did we find on the other side of the bog?

What did you find?

- The... - The square structure.

Exactly, and I hope that,

at the end of this path, there is another one.

Yes.

While investigating this area

over the past several months,

the team has uncovered sections

of a believed man-made cobblestone pathway

that has led to a number

of potentially critical discoveries.

These include several wood-planked structures

and even an empty brick and slate vault,

which the team believes

may have once contained something of great value.

Okay, Alan, you're up.

As we continue to explore

the possibility of the continuation of this path

in the north, we need to reassess and look at it

in its totality.

The hope is, as this work proceeds,

we will find something

very definitive in terms of

why this end of the bog was worked,

and weave the story of what this represents.

Hopefully, there are full vaults

that we have yet to uncover.

Wait a minute. Hold up.

Wow. What do we have here?

I don't know.

It's a plank.

These wouldn't have been put here

by your dad would they, Tom?

With this amount of till

on top of it, I don't think.

While searching for a continuation

of the cobblestone pathway in the northern region

of the Oak Island swamp,

Rick Lagina and members of the team have just made

a potentially important discovery.

This looks exactly like what we found

right by the square structure,

where we also found

- the big stakes. - Yeah.

If Katya Drayton's suspicion is correct...

that this planked structure

might be related to the one that the team found

four weeks ago, just several yards to the south...

could she also be correct that other important clues

or structures might be buried nearby?

What's that there, Rick?

That's not a stake, is it?

Yep, that is a stake. No question about that.

We're kind of on the line.

We are singularly focused

on learning as much we can about the north end of the bog

and the line of survey stakes as we currently understand them.

And maybe this line relates to another possible vault.

Let's see how many more there are.

Okay.

- We'll take another swipe there, Al. - Yep.

This looks like another stake right here.

Yep.

What were they trying to stake out over here?

It seems to be leading away

from the end of that cobblestone path.

We're deviating way off the line.

You're right.

The line is here,

but these stakes are here.

They're off to the side.

Off, yep.

- Yep. - The question is,

are we seeing two different lines of survey stakes?

Two divergent lines of survey stakes?

Could that mean that there are additional sections

of the cobblestone pathway...

- Here's where we are. - Under the muck and mud

that lead to different destinations?

And those are... over here.

If so, has the team found more evidence

that additional vault-like structures

are waiting to be discovered in the swamp?

It's deviating, right?

It's... this line is here, this line is here.

It seems like there's two different

directions going here.

What's interesting, we have never found

two stakes side by side,

and I wonder if that's where they diverge.

Where does it go? Who built it?

It's a complicated environment.

We have a lot of clues,

we have a lot of data,

and we just have to sit patiently

and try to understand it.

Well, I think at this point,

what we should do is have Steve come out...

- Yeah. - Take a line,

pin those two stakes,

pin the lay of that board, and then,

I would pull the board,

have Alan dig a little bit deeper,

see what we find.

Yeah, let's do it.

The following morning...

as the investigation continues in the swamp...

Here we go.

And the dig now proceeds in the Money Pit area...

That's a full one.

Over on Lot 5,

located on the western side of the island...

So, you're in the gravel, Ethan?

- Yeah, I'm just coming down onto it. - Okay.

Jack Begley, along with

members of the archaeology team,

are excavating a 15-by-15-foot test pit

just to the south

of a mysterious rounded stone foundation.

I'm hoping that this area gives us a better idea

of what this feature was originally built

- and used for. - Yeah.

Since the team first discovered

the rounded feature in 2022,

they've unearthed numerous sections and artifacts

that suggest it may have been used as a campsite

by several different groups

between the 14th and the 18th centuries.

And while numerous suspects have been potentially

linked to the structure,

including the medieval order of the Knights Templar,

several iron tools have been found here

that were scientifically traced

to the birthplace of Sir William Phips,

the 17th-century English politician who some believe

buried a vast cache of Spanish silver

on Oak Island back in 1687.

One cannot refute the fact

that the preponderance of the evidence is indicating

some efforts on Lot 5 may be

associated with work in the Money Pit area.

One cannot dispute that.

What it speaks to is there are more clues

to be found on Lot 5.

Ooh.

What did you find, Fiona?

Well, I just pulled...

This piece of brick out.

It's unusual for us to get pieces

that have the glaze

on all sides,

so that's giving us a really good indication

of the actual size of the brick.

Is there any way that we could figure out

where those bricks originated from?

Yeah, we've been working on that, actually.

We've been building a database.

We're looking at the clay itself,

trying to figure out where the clay came from.

- Really? Okay. - Yeah.

So, we've actually been finding brick

all over the island, not just on Lot 5.

With the bricks that we find,

we do some specific analysis on them.

We're looking at the composition

of the brick and trying to actually trace where

some of the clay may have come from,

whether that it took place on Oak Island

or whether it was somewhere nearby.

It may just be a brick,

but every little piece can tell a part of a story.

- So... - Yes. Every little piece helps.

And that's why I'm gonna get back to sifting.

- Great job, Fiona. - Thanks.

While the team continues to search for clues on Lot 5,

back on the eastern side of the island,

in the Money Pit area...

A lot of wood.

Following the collapse of

their first caisson target, TB-1,

Rick Lagina and other members of the team

are anxiously monitoring the excavation

of their next target, called AC-1,

where a potentially important discovery has been made

some 100 feet underground.

Look at that.

We hit the jackpot with wood.

That looks like an old timber.

There you go.

All right, we're hitting something, right?

- Yeah. - Okay. We're at 96 with the dig.

So, what's this wood telling us?

Looks like we busted through a tunnel.

Yeah.

A possible tunnel

located nearly 100 feet deep?

That's impressive, isn't it?

Very impressive.

The team was not expecting

to encounter man-made workings

until they reached the mysterious cave

at a depth of 145 feet.

- Can you give me a hand? - Yep.

This raises two critical questions.

Have they merely discovered a structure

that was built by previous searchers,

or have they found a tunnel

built by someone who buried treasure

deep in the Money Pit area?

That looks hand-hewn, doesn't it?

- Yeah. You can feel it. - Yeah.

- These timbers look really old. - Yeah.

And there's no iron fasteners in them, which is interesting.

I think that's an older construction.

- Yeah. - Any ideas

- what tunnel this would be? - No.

Not with wood exhibiting those characteristics.

Yeah.

Ooh, look at what we've got here.

This could be the most important

hammer-grab in Nova Scotian history.

Look at that piece in there, the pile.

That is massive.

That's gonna be heavy.

An unexpected

but potentially critical discovery

has just been made in the Money Pit area.

Let me help you there, Rick.

I'm too excited.

While installing a shaft known as Aladdin's cave,

or AC-1,

which the Oak Island team hopes will encounter

a man-made cavern

at a depth of 145 feet,

a mysterious tunnel

has just been breached at a depth

of some 100 feet.

- Nothing? - No metal hits, no.

Could be really old.

Is it possible that the team has intercepted a tunnel

that was constructed by someone in order

to hide something of great value long ago?

And if so, could it be related in some way

to Aladdin's cave?

More wood, Rick.

My gut feeling and your gut feeling

says this is some kind of old tunnel.

Sometimes you've got to go with your gut,

and we're both hungry for treasure.

Hopefully, it's around this tunnel.

Maybe. Maybe.

The guys are really excited about finding this wood,

indicating a possible previously unknown tunnel.

It could be critically important.

As Dr. Spooner says,

the treasure will not materialize in solid soil.

There has to be a structure associated with it.

Hey, Scott, how are you doing?

Hey, guys. We're just finishing up

our spoils down there by the wash table,

and this beautiful spike

came out of those spoils.

Ooh, that's nice.

Look at the head on that thing.

- That's really, really old. - That's nice.

If I was guessing, I would say

1600s or even older.

- Wow. - Yeah, definitely,

it goes back.

- That's beautiful. - That's bloody gorgeous.

I would never expect them to find that in the spoils

- coming out of that tunnel. - No.

The tunnel wood, it had no fasteners.

This must have come out of

something else.

Can you imagine that in the side

of a chest? Or a lid of a chest?

Sounds good to me.

Could Gary Drayton be correct, that this spike

might not only date back to the 17th century or earlier,

but also be related

to a possible container?

If so, what else might the team find

at the bottom of Aladdin's cave?

That's exciting, guys.

We've had real great examples of wood before.

We've had great artifacts before.

We've never been able to tie the two together,

in the same hole, same location, verified.

We've got great dendro samples,

and we now have a real artifact that we can

scientifically analyze,

so there's wins across the board here today.

Yeah.

You're hoping to find

what happened here long ago,

or at least answers to what happened here long ago.

One of the Ws. Who, what, when, where, why?

That's why this is

a very interesting, if not a very exciting moment,

because we don't know

what might be down here.

- How we doing? - Good, good.

- Just want to give you an update. - Okay.

- What do you got? - My hole is at 115.

With the dig at 115, that makes it about

30 feet from the top

- of where we're hoping to intersect this thing. - Okay.

Wonderful. I will stop for the night,

and then I will see you all in the morning.

- All right, thank you. - Thank you, Vanessa. Appreciate it.

Two things I look forward to tomorrow:

One is what is at the bottom of that cave?

But the second biggest thing is,

there has to be a way in there.

If we can confirm that,

it makes it all the more exciting.

And remember, bring your sunglasses tomorrow.

We're gonna see some shiny stuff.

Hear, hear.

I hope you're right, Gary.

Keep our fingers crossed.

So, buckle up for tomorrow.

The following morning...

as the excavation in AC-1

proceeds toward a target depth of 145 feet...

You know, the bricks have been a puzzle.

Rick Lagina and Scott Barlow

meet with archaeologists Laird Niven

and Moya MacDonald, and archaeometallurgist

Emma Culligan in the Oak Island laboratory.

We've found bricks literally from Smith's Cove

all the way to the western side of the island.

Is there any connective tissue here

that we can make some sort of...

a greater understanding of their importance?

Yeah, so I brought some bricks out that we had

done some sampling on.

We have two Lot 5 bricks.

This is a sample from

the eastern drumlin, Smith's Cove area,

and then we have two bricks from the swamp, the vault bricks

that you guys found earlier this summer.

Moya and Emma have analyzed samples of the clay bricks

that have recently been found across the island

utilizing an X-ray diffraction device...

a machine that uses X-ray radiation to examine

the chemical composition and physical properties

of objects in order to help determine

the time period that they were created.

We did two runs

of each through the machine,

just to really cover our bases.

The Lot 5 bricks and the sample from Smith's Cove

were, compositionally, very similar.

And I did find a really interesting connection.

Both of them match, compositionally,

with a Brick Hill sample.

It's a local brick-making company.

It's a brick kiln, and it's from the 1600s.

That's remarkable.

It's a brick kiln, and it's from the 1600s.

So it's locally sourced,

which I find really interesting.

In the Oak Island laboratory,

Moya MacDonald,

Emma Culligan and Laird Niven

have just made a startling revelation

about the clay bricks that were unearthed near Smith's Cove,

and inside of the rounded stone foundation on Lot 5.

So, we have these two samples from Lot 5...

Both were locally made

and likely date to as far back as the 17th century.

When you say 1600s,

where are we in that 1600s timeline?

Is it early 16's, mid 16's, late 16's?

Or is it just a general framework of time?

It's just a general framework.

The Lot 5 bricks are coming from

the fill...

We haven't found a brick feature...

- Right. - Exactly associated

with the Lot 5, circular feature.

So they're in the backfill.

They're in the backfill,

so it may be that there's a brick feature close by,

and what we're finding is just debris from that.

The bricks,

they're not ubiquitous. They're not everywhere.

They're found in very specific locations:

Smith's Cove, Lot 5.

Why were they found in these areas

where a tremendous amount of work was done?

If they do indeed go back to the 1600s,

well, there is a connection with the historical narrative.

It's corroborative evidence.

So, we have the vault brick

that you guys found in the swamp.

It kind of fits more in with other local

1800s bricks that Helen and Laird

have also provided.

- Yeah. - The brick from the vault,

you're suggesting, is younger

than the other items here

- in front of us. - Yeah.

If this being the one from the vault,

this is a newer brick,

that probably better suits

the Anthony Graves timeline than before.

Given what we know about him

and going to town and buying things with Spanish coins...

Anthony Graves was a farmer

who purchased several lots on Oak Island in 1857,

and built his homestead just north of the swamp.

Although he never officially

took part in the searches for treasure in the Money Pit,

several years after he settled on the island,

rumors began to swirl

that he would often pay for supplies on the mainland

using Spanish silver coins.

Curiously, the team has found evidence

within the so-called slate vault in the swamp

that suggests it may have been constructed

in the 1700s or earlier.

However, could the bricks

that the team found on the vault's top layer

offer a clue that Anthony Graves discovered it

nearly two centuries ago,

and helped himself to its contents?

I think your results

have squarely placed this in the time

Anthony Graves would've known about it.

- Yeah. - And you know what that also says is,

if you really had something valuable,

would you put it only in one place?

You don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

Exactly. So on the other side

of the swamp, I would bet you,

there's another one of those.

Agreed.

We want to thank the three of you.

The lab has given us

such a unique opportunity

to advance the ball. So, again, thank you very much.

But, in order for you to do the work in here,

we've got to go out and find more things, right?

Yep. Thank you.

As Rick and members of the team

conclude their meeting in the lab,

and as the excavation of AC-1

continues in the Money Pit area...

Okay, guys.

I think we've got several directions here

we could go in,

based on what we're looking at out there.

In the northern region of the swamp,

Jack Begley, Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan,

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

are continuing to search for new sections

of the cobblestone pathway,

and additional structures that may contain

hidden valuables.

You've also got the cobble here,

so, I mean, this could be part of a,

could be part of a continual path.

I'm hoping that

it's artifact central waiting for us.

I think we'll fire up the machine...

- Yep. - And start digging.

Let's rock and roll.

Okay.

When looking at some of these cobblestones around here,

they kind of diverge in two different directions.

Is that a rock?

So, as we follow the lines of stakes,

we're gonna have to search a wider area,

just to make sure we don't miss any.

Yeah, definitely more of that cobble.

Looks like it, doesn't it?

Well, that doesn't

cleanly converge with

this other cobble path.

This isn't leading to anywhere.

If this is more cobble,

say a path, it stops.

Is it possible they stopped

and they built a platform to cross over

to the other pile of cobble?

A platform?

It looks like there's something here.

Could it be an extension of the cobblestone path,

as Tom Nolan has suggested?

Gary, do you want to come over

and give this area a sweep?

- I sure do, mate. Coming over. - Okay.

Or might it be covering something

that was hidden beneath it?

Yeah, try and get your...

Yep, there's a piece of iron there, by the sound of it.

In that area, just there.

Let's see if you moved it.

Well, let me try with my pinpointer.

- See the... - See if it's in that side.

Maybe there.

Whatever it is, Jack, it's just there.

That's pretty big.

- What is it? - Some type of metal object.

What is this?

It's got a head on it.

Here. You know best, Gary.

- Is it old, Gary? - Yeah.

It's really, really light.

- You feel how light that is. - Yeah.

Could that be some sort of a wharf pin, Gary?

Yeah, it could be. It's got mushrooming

on the other end, so you know

it's been wacked into a something or other.

It just,

got a really, really old feel about it.

- Predates your dad. - Yeah.

The team's inspiration to search the triangle-shaped swamp

came from Tom's late father,

the legendary surveyor and treasure hunter Fred Nolan.

After draining the swamp in 1969,

Fred discovered not only

numerous 16th-century survey stakes

but also parts of large sailing vessels.

These finds led him to believe that Oak Island

had once been two separate landmasses.

And that the swamp had been created in order to hide

evidence of where treasure had been unloaded long ago.

Could this possible wharf pin,

and the mysterious wooden structure

that the team has just uncovered,

be the remains of a dock

where valuables were offloaded onto Oak Island?

Yeah, we'll set that aside.

Yeah. Everything we find in here

- is going back to the lab. - Yep.

Good start.

You want to scrape it down just a little bit more?

- Yeah, maybe one more scrape. - Okay.

As the search for clues

and hidden valuables continues in the Oak Island swamp,

in the Money Pit area...

All right, John, where we at?

Pressures are spiking a little bit, then it drops.

I think we're breaking through the cave.

Agreed.

I'm gonna go let the guys know, and you keep going.

Sounds good.

The AC-1 shaft may have finally breached

its intended target some 145 feet underground:

a large, potentially man-made cavern

known as Aladdin's cave.

So there was no, like,

aha moment, like, there's no pressure.

- No fall down. - But...

while we were cutting all the way down,

we were at 150 pressure.

The last five feet today we've been at 120.

So that is a sign of either a cavity or a cave.

Yeah. Right.

So, the hope here, to me,

would be, if we can get a camera on that,

we can say definitively, yay or nay, what might be there.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

That's great cause these teeth

are ready to bite into some gold.

The hope is to get proper visual,

introduce a camera or the 3D Sonar and see what we see.

This is about getting as much information as possible

and using that information to further the search agenda.

Proof that human beings were in this void

where the treasure could be and then recover it.

Water clarity obviously is gonna be a problem here.

And I think you earlier mentioned

- that you had a flocculent? - Yeah.

You know, to precipitate the water

and get it down and get it clear.

That would be of immense help,

because the camera certainly would need that.

Yeah.

Flocculent is a substance

that causes loose particles in water

to clump together and float to the surface,

thereby increasing visual clarity.

There is a-a sense that having eyes on a target

could well and truly break this mystery wide open.

You know, my brother named it Aladdin's cave, well,

think about what Aladdin's cave means to you.

There's a genie in a bottle, in a lamp,

and all your wishes will be granted.

And I have but one wish,

find the one thing.

So we leave it overnight,

hope that the flocculant does its work.

Hope that, you know, just leaving it will help

clear it out and then we are ready for

the camera tomorrow morning.

Okey doke. Well, let's give it a try.

- Okay, let's do it. - Keep your fingers crossed.

Yeah.

- We'll pick it up tomorrow. - Yep.

Later that afternoon...

as the team from ROC Equipment begins

adding flocculant to the interior

of the AC-1 Caisson...

We are in AC-1 and

between 90 and 110 feet,

lo and behold, a spike was found.

In the war room, Rick and Marty Lagina,

along with other members of the team

are meeting once again with Emma Culligan.

Emma is about to share

her scientific report on the iron spike

that was recovered one day ago inside a mysterious tunnel

during the excavation of the AC-1 shaft.

Emma, I'll turn it over to you.

Okay, well,

first off, the XRMs, CT scans of the nail.

We see the wood-like grain structure,

so it is wrought iron.

We see the striking of the different angles

of the head, which... it is does indicate that it is a rosehead.

Cross section is square, means it's hand-forged,

not machine cut.

And the composition, it's really minimal.

We have a lot of sulfur and phosphorous content,

which indicates more of a likely English origin.

We see a potassium content throughout which does indicate

that it's a charcoal-fueled furnace and not coal.

So, all of these combined,

give it a most recent date of mid-1700s.

And possibly earlier.

- Great. - That's crazy.

- It's amazing. - Yeah.

That's great. What other data do we have?

We've got some data

from an old English metal detectorist, Marty.

I don't know how trustworthy that might be, but go ahead.

Emma, you said pre-1750s.

I'm saying 1750s, but could be earlier, yeah.

I've found a lot of these.

When you see this, this thick chunky spike

with that big rosehead on that, that's an oldie.

You go anywhere in Europe, you see this type of iron spike

in cabinets, doors,

and chests.

That could have easily come out of a treasure chest.

This is your typical 1600s spike.

I like 1600s.

That has to be depositor.

- Yep. - That is exciting.

It's quite amazing.

That could have easily come out of a treasure chest.

This is your typical 1600s spike.

I like 1600s.

That is exciting.

- Wow. - In the war room,

the Oak Island team has just been informed

by archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

that the spike recovered from some 110 feet

in the AC-1 shaft is likely of English origin.

Well, this is unexpected.

And could date back to as early as the 17th century.

This spike could be an important

clue, and it could be either pointing to an early

recovery effort or perhaps original deposit.

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, there are several theories

that fit that time frame, 1600s into 1750.

- Yeah. - It could well be William Phips.

Right.

When you say 1600s,

it fits the timeline for Sir William Phips.

We've found an incredible amount

of hard-to-refute evidence

suggesting Sir William Phips

had a presence within the round feature on Lot 5.

People associated with Lot 5

may have been living on the island

possibly for the original construction of the Money Pit.

Well, now we may have evidence of William Phips

depositing a treasure on Oak Island in the Money Pit.

In 1687,

under the direction of the English crown,

Captain William Phips located the famed wreck

of the Concepción, a Spanish treasure galleon

which sank off the coast

of the modern-day Dominican Republic

in 1641,

along with 100 tons of Spanish silver,

gold and jewels.

After recovering 34 tons of silver,

Phips was knighted and ordered to return

for the remaining valuables.

However, when he and his assistant,

a high-ranking Freemason named Andrew Belcher,

completed the second salvage operation,

they reported that locals had looted the wreck

and that they recovered

only five additional tons of treasure.

This is where my first discovery comes in.

I found a 1688 letter

that shows that Captain Andrew Belcher

was caught with one of Phips's ships

in the Mahone Bay area

at the exact time that Phips was coming back

from the second attempt, where he officially

did not find as much silver.

According to the research

of 32nd-degree Freemason Scott Clarke,

Sir William Phips and Captain Andrew Belcher

buried the missing Spanish treasure on Oak Island,

based on their knowledge

of an existing vault that had been deposited

in the Money Pit centuries earlier

by members of the Knights Templar.

Could this spike that was recovered in AC-1,

along with the tools and bricks unearthed on Lot 5,

not only help explain why the team has found evidence

that multiple treasures could be buried in the Money Pit area

but also suggest what might await them in Aladdin's cave?

It certainly fits with the Phips theory.

If it's from the 1600s, then it fits a lot of stuff.

But none of that matters to me.

What matters to me is that that spike

would indicate that somebody was down deep in the Money Pit

well before the discovery of the Money Pit.

That's the most significant conclusion.

The treasure could be below us yet, in the cave.

Mystery upon intrigue upon mystery.

Yeah.

That is what makes this,

ladies and gentlemen, a really beautiful...

story, mystery, treasure hunt.

Absolutely.

We're at the precipice

of opening the door of that cave,

and everyone around this table has high hopes,

of what might lie within.

I-I think together, all of us

will do the best job possible to see and retrieve

whatever might be in Aladdin's cave.

Open sesame.

Let's get out there and find it.

Agreed.

Well said.

What began as a devastating setback

in the Money Pit area

has now led to a series of surprising

and potentially critical revelations

for Rick, Marty, Craig and their team.

Is it possible that after 223 years,

the murky truth behind the Oak Island mystery

is on the verge of coming into clear view?

Or could there be something much darker lurking below

that will keep them at bay?

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

How does Lot 5 connect to the Money Pit?

This may be that pathway.

This could be the connection we've been looking for.

- Wow. - I don't know what that is.

This is very unusual.

Everything suggests an earlier date,

1600s to 1700s.

Here we go. Look at this.

- That could easily be off a box or a chest. - I agree.

When are we gonna find what fell out of those chests?

- Ready to go diving. - Let's go diving.

We want to see if there's treasure within Aladdin's cave.

My God.

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