Original subtitles

[Narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

Oh, wow. Check that out.

That's a great find. That could be really, really old.

[Carmen] This was used to build a wooden vault

or some sort of structure down below for safe keeping.

[Laird] You've got something big on your hands.

It's absolutely intentional.

It matches Lot 5 and the Money Pit.

And they were trying to conceal it.

Which makes it even more spectacular.

[Narrator] There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for

an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

man-made workings that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross whose origin may be connected

to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

trying to solve the mystery.

And according to legend, one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

♪ ♪

[Gary] You know what time it is?

-Treasure time. -[laughs]

[Narrator] A new day on Oak Island

begins with great excitement for Rick, Marty, and their team

as they are digging to historic depths

in the Money Pit area.

We're right at the bottom of Karma.

We're in the solution channel.

That's where the treasure's gonna be.

[Rick] Look, we've got as good a chance as any

to find it today.

And I hope it's gonna be right over there.

[Narrator] One day ago,

after excavating the seven-foot-diameter shaft

known as Karma-1 212 feet deep

to the bottom of the solution channel,

the team lifted the steel caissons to allow loose soils

and debris to settle overnight into a pile below.

They are now about to retrieve those materials

with a dig bucket and search them for evidence

of a large source of silver,

which has been detected through water

and soil testing in this area.

It is their hope that the silver is connected

to the 14th-century Portuguese coin

reportedly retrieved from the Money Pit

by foreman James Pitblado in 1849.

[Gary] All right. Let the sluice loose.

[Rick] Let's go take a look.

[Marty] All kinds of man-made things

are in that solution channel.

We've proven it. We've brought them up.

So, I'm very hopeful that we're gonna find some evidence

of the treasure that we think fell into that collapsed area.

Nope. No hits.

[Rick] Billy can get it all in the truck,

-get it down to the wash plant. -[Gary] Yeah.

-[Rick] See what's in here. -[Gary] Okay.

[Narrator] As Rick, Gary, and Terry wait to search

more spoils in the Money Pit area,

some 500 feet to the east, near Smith's Cove...

-[Charles] It's pretty muddy. -[Aaron B.] Yeah, a little bit.

[Narrator] ...Charles Barkhouse and other members of the team

are at the wash plant, searching by hand

through spoils that were previously removed

from the Karma-1 shaft and may contain

important evidence or valuables not found

by Gary's metal detector.

This process has already produced finds such as

a small, hand-forged iron chain.

It's a type of chain Gary has previously found

while metal detecting in Europe,

and he believes could've been used to lock a box or a chest.

Oh, wow. Check that out.

Look what I found.

Looks like a rosehead spike to me.

And it's hand-wrought,

to fasten different pieces of wood together.

That could be really, really old.

Any time the team finds something on the conveyor belt

at the wash plant, I mean, we're excited.

But finding that rosehead spike,

you know, in Karma-1

could be the indicator that we're looking for.

This could come from the 1600s, or earlier.

This could be from the original workings

of the depositors of the treasure.

That's a great find. That's gonna go to the lab, for sure.

Have Emma test that.

We'll keep looking.

[Narrator] Meanwhile, back in the Money Pit area...

[Gary] All right. This is it.

Looks like the last material.

-Let's check it out. -[Rick] Let's give it

-one more go. -[Gary] Okay, mate.

[Narrator] ...Rick and the team continue to search through

the final spoils retrieved from the bottom of the Karma-1 shaft.

-[Gary] Think we've gone as far as we can go. - Are you done?

-Yeah. -[Rick] So,

got one more chance down at the wash plant.

Yep.

-Wash plant it is. -Yep.

-Hey, guys. -Hey, there. -[Terry] How you doing, Adam?

Are we on bottom?

We're on bottom, and we're cleaned up.

[Terry] And bottom is?

-212. -[Gary] Miss by an inch,

-miss by a mile. -[Rick] Yeah, well,

we're not gonna miss the next time.

-Nope. -Nope.

[Rick] We didn't find it.

We just move on to the next location.

-Yep. -[Rick] Literally,

our Top Pocket location

-is the one we're about to move to. -[Billy] Right.

Yep.

Find some treasure, boys.

[Narrator] Two weeks ago, the team began excavating

a shaft, known as Top Pocket Find,

located less than ten feet northeast of Karma-1.

This shaft was positioned directly over an area

where water testing had revealed a massive source of silver

deep underground, making it their primary target

for exploration of the solution channel.

[metal creaking]

[Gary] That doesn't sound very good.

[Narrator] But unfortunately,

at a depth of just 25 feet, the caissons

were stopped by gravel backfill from a previous dig.

Now, using ROC Equipment's powerful rotating oscillator,

the team from SB Canada can resume digging

the TPF shaft down to the solution channel.

[Rick] On the one hand, Karma-1 is a little disappointing.

But you just keep moving forward.

The quicker we get started, the quicker we get down.

-Yep. -Right.

[Rick] Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Narrator] While the dig proceeds in the Money Pit area,

later that day...

-[Peter] Hey, guys. -[Laird] Hey. -[Fiona] Hi.

Every time I look at this, I don't know what to make of it.

[Fiona] It's getting incredible.

-It's really quite spectacular. -[Laird] Yeah.

[Narrator] ...Rick and Peter arrive on Lot 8

to check on the investigation of the cradle-like formation

of stones that were found beneath a 40,000-pound boulder.

How in the world was that made?

It's a 40,000-pound boulder.

If you were to drag it in, it would destroy this.

-Yeah. -I'm not thinking about

how they did it as much as the why.

I mean, this was definitely purposeful.

We didn't remove any soil from down here whatsoever.

It was filled with rocks.

[Narrator] After removing the boulder revealed this

mosaic-like stone feature,

archaeologist Fiona Steele

has begun removing debris and some of the stones

to determine what purpose it might serve.

Especially since the team has already detected

possible evidence of a shaft

and even silver in the soils below it.

[Rick] I've worked with stone most of my life.

And the labor that you see, uh, in front of you, is...

it was quite laborious.

It meant something to someone. I think we need

to do as much work as possible

to address one key question: what's underneath the boulder?

[Fiona] We had a lot of smaller rocks,

the ones that are these size, all in the center,

and they were very loose, so once

I started removing them,

I started seeing these other rocks underneath,

and you can see the ones underneath

are a fair bit larger in size than the ones

that were actually on top.

And they extend all the way down here.

-Hmm. -[Fiona] This is what's starting to

produce itself as we've been excavating here.

I will say this, that one there,

when I look at that, the way it's positioned...

Coming this way.

It-It's a very curious positioning of that.

Yeah. I still can't get it out of my head,

the shape of these boulders

that we had, which were very triangular.

We had this big one down here, and we had

another big one there and a big one there.

And it almost felt like there was a triangle

pointing down to this boulder.

[Peter] I mean, when you think about this area,

you think about Zena's map and the December Triangle.

This could also be related to that.

[Narrator] In 2016,

the late author and researcher Zena Halpern

shared documents with the team

believed to have been created by members of the Knights Templar.

One was a 12th-century map of Nova Scotia

and the other was a map of Oak Island

possibly dating back to 1347.

Astonishingly, it featured

several locations written in French,

but when translated to English,

they marked known sites on the island,

such as the Money Pit, the Swamp,

and a site called the December Triangle.

Could the stone cradle and boulder

align with a location on a possible Templar map?

[Rick] I've puzzled about whether or not

this area could be referencing

the so-called December Triangle on Zena's map.

I think we have to have a really proper look

in the area in the vicinity of the stone

and see if there's more information to be revealed.

That will help us understand the relationship

between the drawing on Zena's map

and this megalithic stone structure.

[Fiona] I came across this area here

of a blue-like clay,

and you can clearly see that there are chunks

of-of charcoal-like material mixed in with this clay.

I'm just not convinced that this

blue, um, gray clay is natural to this area.

Clay like this could be very similar

to the clay that we find at the Money Pit.

[laughs]

[Fiona] I'm absolutely mesmerized by this,

this blue clay. I wonder if this is very similar

to the clay from the Money Pit.

[Narrator] On Lot 8,

after removing some of the stones

from the cradle-like feature

that was covered by the massive boulder,

Fiona has made a potentially important discovery.

If you look at the way the stones are--

now, I've removed a few--

but it-it really looks like this clay material

had been used to mortar in kind of a-a rounded section

in the front of it.

It's absolutely intentional and purposeful,

and they were trying to conceal it.

-And we did find some on Lot 5. -Yeah.

-Makes it even more interesting. -Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so if this matches that, then, again,

more-more connections.

[Narrator] In 1804, the Onslow Company

carried out the first large-scale excavation

of the Money Pit and encountered

wooden platforms every ten feet down to the 90-foot level.

During the dig, they also reportedly found

a thick layer of hand-worked blue clay at the 40-foot level,

which they believed was used as a sealant

to keep water out of the shaft

in order to protect something buried deeper below.

Curiously, in recent years,

the team has discovered hand-worked blue clay

in the swamp,

and in the round feature on Lot 5.

If Fiona is correct that she has now found the same kind

of blue clay material in this stone feature on Lot 8,

could it be more evidence that this feature

was created to hide something?

This could be anything.

The reality is there are lead and silver

beyond baseline values within the structure itself,

possibly in association with a shaft or a tunnel.

So, we have to be patient at this point.

This has to be driven by the archeological process.

-Is there anything we can do with the clay? -Yeah.

We'll get a nice big chunk of that soil

and then take that back to the lab.

And then, we can run it through the XRD and see if it matches

the Lot 5 till or the Money Pit till.

-That's where it gets fun. -That's where it gets fun.

[Fiona] All right. Let's get the sample done.

There, that's a good sample.

I'd like to give you this little bit here.

[Laird] We'll need to get that to the lab

-as soon as we can. -There's a "why" here,

and hopefully, we can figure out what that is,

but I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it.

But let's keep moving this forward, because

we want to understand it, what it may mean.

-Yeah. -Yeah. -We've got a plan.

-Thank you. Appreciate it. -All right, see you guys.

[Narrator] The next morning...

[Rick] Is that the first can?

Yeah. Just started.

[Gary] If we're gonna find some top pocket finds,

it's got to be this can.

[Narrator] ...in the Money Pit area,

Rick joins other members of the team

as the TPF shaft is once again being excavated

in a location where the highest trace evidence of silver

has been detected more than 200 feet deep

in the solution channel.

Our first 150 feet is gonna be, you know, pretty benign.

But from there on, it's everyone on deck,

and everyone keep their eyes peeled.

Below 150 feet, everything's open game here.

[Narrator] Because the solution channel

ranges between some 150 to 220 feet deep,

where the team believes the treasure has fallen

after the collapse of the original Money Pit,

it may take several days before the dig

reaches its target depth.

Yeah, we're gonna have backfill out of here

down to about 150 feet.

[Rick] We are in the area where there is

evidence of deep collapse.

The area where we have retrieved significant items.

So I'm hoping, of course, that

this Top Pocket Find location will provide the answer.

We all look forward to getting down to the bottom here.

-[Gary] This is the one. -I sure hope you're right, Gary.

The Pitblado coin

strongly hints that something is down there.

And at the end of the day, we can

make this happen, and we will.

We've just got to stay the course.

We're just gonna chew through it

until we get to the treasure.

-All right. I'll be back. -[Gary] You'll see it, mate.

-Thank you, guys. -[Steve] See you, Rick.

[Gary] All right, mate.

[Narrator] Later that day...

-[Rick] Morning, guys. -[Alex] Hey.

-Hi. -Morning. -Morning.

So, we have Charlotte Wheatley here in the war room.

[Narrator] ...in the war room, Rick,

Craig, and other members of the team are

meeting with researcher Charlotte Wheatley.

[Rick] Charlotte, she has some new information,

and I think today should be exceedingly interesting.

So, having said that, Charlotte, welcome to the war room.

Thank you very much.

[Narrator] In light of a possible connection

between the Lot 8 feature

and Zena Halpern's believed 14th-century Templar map,

Charlotte, who is a colleague of Emiliano,

Judi, and Corjan Mol, has been studying the map

to look for more clues that may help verify its authenticity,

and how it may help solve the treasure mystery.

I came across this information

after researching the Zena map,

which I've done four years' research on.

I examined every name and place recorded on the map.

And one of them I found quite interesting.

I'd never heard it before, was Le Lionceau de Talmont,

which means "the lion cub of Talmont."

What was interesting for me is how

could Talmont connect to the island?

There is a place in France called Talmont-sur-Gironde, so

Talmont-sur-Gironde is on the west coast of France.

It is a small fishing port.

One of the nicest features of Talmont is a beautiful

medieval church, and it's dedicated to

a lesser-known female saint called Radegund.

It's got a very simple interior, typical of Cistercian influence.

It was built in the 11th or 12th century

by Benedictine monks.

[Narrator] The Benedictines are a Catholic religious order

that was founded in the sixth century,

and adhered to what was known as the Rule of St. Benedict,

a moral code for leading a faithful and productive life.

These writings inspired the formation

of an order of monks known as the Cistercians in 1098.

And one of their most noted leaders

was Bernard of Clairvaux,

who co-founded the Knights Templar in 1119.

The church was fortified.

So that actually meant that they used it

not only as a church but also as a, as a fort,

which is not a common thing on churches in France.

How is this connected to Oak Island and why

the Lionceau de Talmont, the lion cub of Talmont?

Really interestingly, there used to be a very intriguing

feature that resembled the Sphinx

and was actually known as the Sphinx of Talmont.

And as you can see, it is a Sphinx-like shape.

Sadly, um, it was destroyed in the early 20th century.

So, there's nothing left today?

There is nothing left.

And the church itself used to overlook the Sphinx,

so it makes sense that this could actually be the...

-the lion cub of Talmont. -Oh.

So, what interested me is that the church itself,

it actually used to be pointing towards where

the Sphinx was, at roughly a 292.4-degree angle.

And when you follow the line of the church,

going through the front door and continue

on a straight line, and you go across the Atlantic,

-you end up on Oak Island. -Hmm.

If that was one coincidence,

that's fine. What gets quite creepy is that,

about 60 kilometers away, I come across another chapel,

which is located in a place called Courant,

and it is also dedicated to the same saint, Saint Radegund.

The church itself is at an angle of 292.1 degrees,

and when you follow that line from the back of the church,

in a perfectly straight direction,

you arrive on Oak Island.

[Jack] Whoa. [laughs]

And again, this church was built by the same people

who built the other church.

And in between both churches,

there is another Radegund church.

And this is actually located

in a town of the same name called Saint-Radegonde.

And it's oriented at a 292.1-degree angle.

So, if you follow the axis

of the church in a perfectly straight direction,

we arrive again on the island.

It's odd, for sure.

[Charlotte] So, we have three churches

under the same patronage,

built by the same group of people,

located in a 60-kilometer radius

all on the west coast of France.

These three churches are pointing towards the island.

[Alex] It's interesting.

are pointing towards the island. [Chs

So, three points, dedicated to the same lady,

built by the same group of people.

[Narrator] In the war room, researcher Charlotte Wheatley

is presenting new information

about three potentially Templar-related churches

in the region of Talmont, France

that she believes are located on a east to west line

that leads directly to Oak Island.

It just can't be coincidence.

I have tested this theory on lots of churches in France,

-and this doesn't happen. -[chuckles]

So, I've asked other researchers to check

if the alignments seem correct,

and they all agree that these three buildings

seem to be perfectly aligned with the island.

Talking about, when was that built?

Same period. We're talking about 13th...

-12th, 13th century. Yeah. -[Emiliano] Yeah, so...

-[Charlotte] It's curious. -It is.

[Rick] The alignment Charlotte mentions,

that's incredibly curious.

Were the alignments with the churches purposeful?

There, perhaps, are alignments that we are currently

unaware of with other features on the island.

Lot 5, Lot 8, the bog, the Money Pit.

Is there a connection here?

So, I decided to take a look at the actual

patron of these churches, Saint Radegund.

She was born around the year 520.

And she actually wanted to dedicate her life

to becoming a holy woman.

She made a monastery, and she turned it into a sort of

place of learning, prayer, and pilgrimage.

[Narrator] Born into a royal family in the German land

of Thuringia,

Radegund became a devout Christian nun

and emigrated to France,

where she founded the Catholic Abbey of the Holy Cross

in the city of Poitiers in 552 AD...

...a sacred site which reportedly houses a piece

of the so-called "true cross" on which Jesus was crucified.

And this is the thing that really got me,

is that, when I did research on her, I noticed

that she's known to carry a book.

And she's known to carry a book with a four-dot cross.

I've looked at lots of iconography of saints.

This is the only saint I've found who's presented

with a book with a four-dot cross.

[Narrator] In recent years, the team has visited

numerous former strongholds of the Knights Templar in France,

Italy, Denmark,

and Portugal.

[Doug] What'd you find, Pete?

I think something pretty interesting.

-Oh. -[Narrator] And in each location,

they have seen prominent carvings of crosses surrounded

by four dots...

We have the four-dot cross there.

-Mm-hmm. -[Alex] Oh, wow.

[Narrator] ...that some experts have interpreted to signify

where the Templar order hid sacred, religious treasures.

Curiously, that same symbol was found by searchers

on the so-called H+O Stone in 1921 on Oak Island.

Has Charlotte found new clues on Zena Halpern's map

that may help verify a true connection

to ancient Templar-related sites in Europe,

and suggest it may be a key to locating where something

of great or sacred value lies hidden on the island?

[Craig] The, uh, H+O Stone

that had the, uh, cross with the four dots,

I'm just wondering if continued research on that end

can also tie those symbols with those churches.

Yes. And I think maybe that's worth looking into.

If the connection that you're suggesting does exist...

-Mm-hmm. -...then the map does have a piece of information

that is connected, possibly, to Oak Island.

That's right, yeah. So, it is possible,

-and it needs further developments. -Right.

It would be interesting to have a look on the island.

Maybe there's another H+O Stone out there.

That's fair. Yeah.

But the question is, what happened here?

I don't know. I'm gonna say the biggest mystery

in the universe, isn't it, really?

[chuckles]

[Charlotte] I would like to think what happened here,

that this is a sacred place, and it was chosen

for a reason, and I

obviously hope there's something buried here.

And I hope you're gonna find out.

With your help, we will.

We say thank you.

[Charlotte] Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Narrator] As a new morning dawns on Oak Island...

[Terry] Here we go.

-We're moving on down. -[Gary] Yeah.

We got another load coming up.

[Narrator] ...in the Money Pit area, Gary, Terry, and Jack

continue to monitor the dig in the TPF shaft.

[Marty] We're slowly nearing the zone of interest

in Top Pocket Find 1,

and I'm very hopeful that we're gonna find

clear evidence of the collapse of the Money Pit

and find something really valuable

down in the solution channel.

[clanking, grinding]

Ah.

[Terry] Oh, what the...?

[Jared] Stop.

It's caving.

Geez. There's material flopping in.

[Narrator] Because the ground has suddenly

begun to give way around the TPF shaft,

the team from SB Canada

and ROC Equipment will need to move the oscillator

to find out if they can safely continue the excavation.

[Terry] Wow.

This is not good.

[Gary] We felt the ground shake,

and you can see

that the ground around the oscillator has given way.

There's been a collapse.

-Hey, guys. -Hey, mate.

[Terry] Holy cow. It looks like we might've lost ground.

-Did we? -[Adam E.] Yeah. We're losing stuff

down below.

[Terry] Wow.

[Adam E.] We're losing stuff down below.

[Narrator] In the Money Pit area,

after reaching a depth of some 105 feet

in the TPF shaft,

the surrounding earth has suddenly begun to cave in,

meaning a dangerous collapse could follow.

[Adam E.] Going at this depth,

-it's a lot of wear and tear on everything. -Right.

There's a ton of friction,

there's a ton of stuff in the ground.

Like, we've seen settlement

on the outside of the casing.

We did see from the table

-the can was a little bit shaky. -[Adam E.] Yep.

It's more of settlement

from all the other work that's been done around it,

and the lighter material goes down

as we agitate all the way down with the oscillator.

-It's dropping all that material through... -Yeah.

...the bigger holes and slots.

[Gary] I remember the last time

there was a collapse in this area.

It looks the same.

Last year, the collapse went straight down

the side of the casing.

You know, it was running full depth.

-[Vanessa] Hey. -[Marty] We got a problem?

We're having caving.

[Narrator] One year ago,

the earth surrounding the TB-1 caisson,

located less than 20 feet to the northwest,

suddenly began to cave in, and for safety,

the team had to abandon the excavation of the shaft.

Now, SB Canada and ROC Equipment

must act quickly to prevent a larger collapse

and allow the team to keep digging

where they have found the most compelling evidence of treasure

in the solution channel.

This is only about ten, 12 feet up from the top.

So, perfect time to build it back up.

-We're backfilling. -That will solve that?

Yep. Yep, that'll tighten it up.

[Terry] You got large diameter, solid metal tubes

being driven down into the ground,

and we've got a lot of activity going on

where, basically, we have some cave-ins.

These types of things, they create a lot of havoc.

There's material moving

in and out and away from the actual caisson itself.

We have to, uh, mitigate those, we have to push material back

down into the hole because it's collapsed down in

and around the caisson as we're pushing it down.

[Terry] Now we've got this stabilizing everything

from 108 all the way up.

So, I see we're gonna pack a little bit

around it right now and then we move on, right?

Yeah. We're getting ready to transition between

the bigger casing to the smaller casing.

-Okay. Good. -[Adam E.] So, it's telescoping time now.

Essentially, you know, to avoid the problems,

we're splitting the hole in two, right?

-Right. -[Adam E.] Half the bigger casing

takes the top half out.

22 goes in, finishes it off.

What's the reason for changing to a smaller caisson?

See the material that we're going through?

We're going through hundreds of feet of this stuff.

So, it relieves all that tension.

Yeah, whatever it takes to get down there.

-Whatever it takes to get down there. -Yeah.

[Narrator] Once SB Canada fills in the collapsed areas

around the eight-foot-diameter TPF shaft

with gravel backfill,

they will continue the dig down to the solution channel

using smaller,

seven-foot-diameter steel caissons.

This will safely allow them to dig below the collapsed region

and reach their target depth.

Anything and everything to ensure that we're gonna

-get all the way down to 220. -[Adam E.] That's the goal.

-Whatever it takes, right? -[Adam E.] Yep. -Yep.

Get down there. Get deep.

-Find Gary's treasure. -I love it.

See some of those top pocket finds.

[Marty] When we get caissons down

very near the solution channel, things start to collapse.

I've seen it. I've seen it collapse and collapse again.

And every time, it was when we got close,

when we got close to the bottom.

So, that's why I think

it's entirely possible that's where a treasure fell to.

So, we absolutely have to get to at least

220 feet on all of these.

Yeah, it looks like they're almost done.

So, why don't we head back to the table?

-[Gary] Yeah. -[Terry] Sounds good. Yeah.

-See you guys later. -Thanks for the update.

-Absolutely. -Rock on.

[Narrator] As the dig operation proceeds

in the Money Pit area...

[Alex] Hey, Carmen.

Appreciate you stopping by.

-You got something to show me? -We do.

[Narrator] ...in the Oak Island lab,

Alex and members of the team

are meeting with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge.

They have invited him back to examine the rosehead spike

retrieved from the Karma-1 spoils two days ago.

[Alex] Carmen, this spike was found by the wash plant team

in the spoils of the Karma-1 caisson.

Emma, you have some analysis of this spike?

Compositionally, it's a kind of unique iron.

What's unique about it

is that it has an exceptionally high phosphorous content.

So, I categorize it as cold-short.

-Meaning it's brittle in colder climates. -Mm-hmm.

[Emma] Cold-short or cold brittle, it's when an iron

has a high phosphorous content,

which affects its strength in cold climates.

Cold-short iron is a great indicator for an iron age

because now, in modern times, we can control the effects

of phosphorus, as it's a trait that we just don't want.

Um, it does have some trace amounts of manganese,

but even higher amounts of sulfur,

so it's a weird mixture

within a composition,

so the most likely date

is mid-1700s at least.

Wow.

So, Carmen, what can you tell us?

Well, it's a square-shanked spike.

I'm gonna say it was probably

five or six inches long originally.

It's hard to see the head on this,

but it looks like it was very crudely made,

it doesn't have any form to it.

Uh, what does it show on the scan there, Emma?

Oh, it's just basically smushed down.

-Deformed. -[Scott] Mushroomed. Yeah.

[Carmen] But it's not formed. It was driven straight down,

and the fibers are all split out like a mushroom.

This is a piece of something larger,

and they took it and drove it into something.

[Alex] Mm-hmm. So, probably the reason they reused it

is 'cause it broke.

-So, an improvised spike. -Yeah.

I think they reused it and just smashed it into something.

And this came from where?

We do know for a fact it came from below 167 feet.

So, to me, that means that it's deeper than any

searchers have reached.

Especially in that area.

Which makes it very interesting.

Yeah.

These are typically used for planking, you know, uh,

not for the main structures of anything, but oftentimes when

they were making large boxes or vaults.

That leads me to think that this was used

to build a wooden vault or some sort of

structure down below for safekeeping something.

[Carmen] This is something that you would see,

oftentimes when they were making large boxes or vaults

for something they wanted to, um, uh, keep safe,

something valuable they wanted to keep safe.

-[Alex] That'd be good. -That is what we're looking for.

[Narrator] In the Oak Island lab,

Carmen Legge is examining

a potentially mid-18th-century spike

that was recovered from nearly 170 feet deep

in the Karma-1 shaft.

[Alex] If this is something that was reused...

You know, any effort here on the island

was obviously done in secret.

If there was a deposit made,

they had to use what they brought,

and this is sort of speaking to that.

[Doug] Emma, is there enough wiggle room

in that early date

-to include 1746? -Absolutely.

Well, that's interesting because that, uh, allows

for the possibility of the Duc d'Anville.

Because we're talking about one ship

-that got separated from the main fleet... -Yeah.

[Doug] ...then decided it most prudent to

bury what they were carrying

-so it didn't fall into enemy hands. -[Alex] Mm-hmm.

So, they would've had to work with what they had

on that one ship.

[Narrator] Could Doug be correct that

the team may have found a new clue

linking possible buried treasure in the Money Pit

to the Duc d'Anville,

an 18th-century French noble whose family had links

to the Knights Templar?

In 2017, Doug found part of a ship's log

in the Nova Scotia archives

that described the burial of treasure

in a deep pit on an island in this area

back in 1746.

The log was reportedly written

by a crew member under the Duc d'Anville's command.

[Alex] This little spike is maybe telling us that

our theory about the collapse is correct,

and that we're close

because we're picking up traces of something

from the original Money Pit.

So, we would be then looking at just remnants

of things that didn't make it all the way down there

in a collapse.

So, even though we didn't hit the treasure in Karma,

finding this spike tells us that we were close.

-Yeah. -[Rick] The hope is,

if it is something from the Money Pit,

if it is something from a chest or a box,

to me, it speaks to the possibility that

other things will be found.

That could be the source of the silver concentrations

that are indicated by the soil samples

and the water samples at this location.

And hopefully, there's something down there

in Top Pocket Find 1.

It's very interesting.

So, you know, thank you both for your analysis.

I think it says we're on the right track,

and we need to keep going.

So, that said, we will try to bring you guys

some more to look at.

Very good.

-[Alex] Thank you. -[Doug] See you later.

[Narrator] Later that day...

...while the excavation of the TPF shaft continues

in the Money Pit area...

[Rick] How's it going?

[Jack] Hey, Rick.

[Laird] We just lifted a couple more rocks.

Right.

And under those rocks, we're getting organics.

-I got to get down there. -[Jack] Go for it.

[Narrator] ...Rick joins Jack and the archeology team

as they continue excavating

the cradle-like formation of stones on Lot 8.

-No idea how deep? Yet? -[Laird] No, not yet.

No, but it's giving us a reason to keep going.

So, we're gonna try to expose the base

and then work our way up to see how it was built.

Do you think what you're calling the second level,

is that natural?

Or are those placed as well?

No, I think they're-they're still all placed.

Right now, this seems to be... firmly affixed.

-I can't get it out. -[Rick] We're all curious, you know.

I can give it a try. I'm not saying I can do it, though.

-What's und-- What's under it. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

You come this way. I'll go that way.

I'll disturb those.

Oh, no, that one's there.

Oh, there's no give to that.

That's amazing, they are locked in there tight.

Lot 8 presents all kinds of possibilities.

One of which has to include that

Zena's map may have some relevance here.

Oh, boy. That's in there.

Whether because this construction

was some sort of alignment,

or maybe there's something under there.

We need to figure out what this construction represents.

Oh, wow. That is definitely in there.

[Laird] Yeah, I think that's in there. I think that could be

redeposited and it's just...

-I think it is. -...it's embedded.

-Now I really want it out. -[laughs]

-They're fixed in there quite tight. -Yeah.

[Rick] Scrape this stuff.

Yeah, it almost looks like some sort of hard clay.

Yeah, it's, uh...

I would put a little chunk like that in some water

-and see what its consistency turns into. -[Jack] Hmm.

-[Laird] yeah. -[Rick] We might be able to reconstitute it,

-as it was used. -Yeah.

You have a little water there, Jack?

-Yeah. -See if it turns into anything.

Okay. Thank you.

Is it turning into, like, a clay?

[Rick] More like a...

Almost like, almost a little bit like cement.

Yeah, no, that looks like cement.

-[Rick] Cement. -Yeah.

[Jack] This is unbelievable.

-[Laird] Now that looks like cement. -[Rick] Yep.

That's why this held. Right?

-Yep. -[Rick] And this is just

-all filled in. -[Laird] Mm-hmm.

-That's what you see here. -[Jack] Oh, yeah.

[Narrator] On Lot 8, Rick has just discovered evidence

that the stones which were uncovered

below the massive boulder

appear to have been set in place

with man-made mortar, or cement.

Once it dries, I bet that adheres perfectly to that.

-[Jack] Really gritty cement. -[Rick] Yep.

And you wouldn't think. When you break it apart right now,

-it's just sand. -[Jack] Yeah.

[Rick] I bet there's a lot of calcium carbonate in here.

Mm-hmm.

When you compare this, elementally, to...

cement through the ages,

I think you're gonna get a fairly accurate date.

Like from Roman cement on forward.

Be interesting to see which kind of cement this matches.

Oh, yeah. That would be interesting.

-That would be crazy. -[Laird] Yep.

[Narrator] Because different types of concrete mixtures

have been used throughout the ages of human construction,

dating back as far as ancient Egypt,

could determining the contents of this material

help the team approximate when this feature was created?

I believe the mortar or the cement-like material

might reveal a-a when.

And maybe even tell us

where does it come from? Is there a cultural association?

Hopefully, there can be some answers

derived from this analysis.

That mixture might be quite revealing.

It resembles, uh, on Lot 5,

-on the semicircular feature... -[Laird] Yeah.

-Yeah. -...it looks a lot like

the clay we found there.

What turned out to correlate with the maroon till

-from the Money Pit. Yeah. -Yeah. It'll be interesting

to see how it tests.

Yeah. Well, if it corresponds to those two,

you've got something big on your hands.

Yep.

[Helen] Oh, look at that.

[Narrator] In addition to the blue clay found on Lot 5

and, reportedly, by earlier searchers in the Money Pit,

the Laginas and their team have also discovered

a similar-looking mortar-like material

in the round feature on Lot 5 that matched soil samples

from more than 100 feet deep in the Money Pit area.

[Rick] It's all smeared, all through here.

[Narrator] So, if the team can match this cement material

on Lot 8 to those structures,

could that mean all three may have been built

by the same people?

[Marty] To move a 40,000-pound rock

into a position on a nicely crafted rock cradle,

I mean, you have to come up with a theory

as to why somebody was moved to move that boulder.

And maybe they were trying to hide something very important.

What in the heck went on on this island?

Uh, it just raises the mystery to new levels.

There was a reason for this,

and it wasn't just to support that boulder.

-It could go deeper. -It could. -[Laird] Yeah.

-And the archeology will tell. -[Rick] Okay.

Well, you know what? I'm gonna let you two

get back to work.

-All right. -[Rick] I have a feeling those rocks are gonna

need a little bit of persuasion to come out of there. [laughs]

Yeah. I'll do my best.

-[Rick] Okey doke. -All right.

-Thank you. -Good luck.

[Narrator] By digging in the ground

and far back into history,

Rick, Marty, Craig, and their team

are finding mounting evidence

that people journeyed to Oak Island long ago

to hide precious-- and, perhaps, sacred-- secrets.

And through patience and tireless effort,

they may have identified not only structures

that those people inhabited,

but now, at least two other locations

where those secrets could lie buried.

So, as the team looks deeper,

have they uncovered the final barriers

between them and the ultimate answers?

Or will they encounter

something much harder to break through

than bedrock and concrete?

[Narrator] Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

[Marty] Heads up.

We've broken through into the solution channel.

That's what we're looking for.

The three churches have exactly the same stellar alignment

of Lot 5.

This could be a tunnel shaft entrance.

Maybe it's just right under here.

-A piece of wood. -What's wood doing down that deep?

Maybe this wood came from the original Money Pit.

[Craig] If there's wood at the top,

maybe there's gold at the bottom.

Possibly treasure on deck. [whoops]

What have we got here?

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