Original subtitles

Tonight, on The Curse of Oak Island.

This is my brother, Rick Restall. He's coming back to the island. Welcome back.

The Restall said there was a spiral staircase.

Oh, there's something.

What is it? It's the end of a gun.

He's in a void.

Could be the spiral tunnel. We're closing in. We're close.

Now we're at the cusp of proving this story.

Oh!

Somebody got hurt. You get close, then all of a sudden something happens.

Oak Island strikes back.

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 bits of gold chain, a stone slab with strange symbols

carved into it, even a 17th century Spanish coin.

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.

After a week that saw the Oak Island team overcome a number of frustrating

obstacles,

metal detecting is acceptable as long as we are very clear this does not include

excavation or removal of objects this is really bad this is the first step in

shutting down the whole island the business of trying to solve a 222 year

old treasure mystery has finally returned to normal

Where are we going? Right here.

Supposedly in the middle of the chapel shaft.

Today, Rick Lagina, along with Dave Blankenship and island historian Charles

Barkhouse, are overseeing the team's progress on their extensive search to

find the original money pit.

If you go at it systematically like we're doing, we can't miss it. But I

think we stay the course and work that area there.

To date, 16 of some 46-inch wide boreholes have been drilled using what

is known as the geotech method.

It is hoped that by drilling a large number of these strategically placed

holes down to depths of as much as 200 feet, the team will, after carefully

sifting through the spoils and then metal detecting the holes, be able to

find evidence of the original Oak Island money pit.

We went through a section of...

The chapel shaft, the wood cribbing on the side, probably the south side, I

would guess.

Today, the team is drilling down to what they believe is the site of what is

known as the chapel shaft, a searcher shaft dug in the 1930s by M.R. Chapel,

the son of famed Oak Island treasure hunter William Chapel.

By drilling into and then past the chapel shaft, The team believes they

will be able to find the location of the so-called Chapel Vault, the mysterious

seven-foot-tall wooden box that William Chapel first discovered in 1897.

A target object that might contain anything from pirate treasure to

priceless religious and cultural artifacts.

We find the original money pit, and at that point, we can unleash the hounds,

if you will.

expose the actual works of a 222-year-old treasure hunt.

The money pit is nothing but an educated guess.

So we hit bedrock.

Where are we at?

We're at 168.

I don't know if Terry wants information down at bedrock. Let me just check.

168, Terry.

They're at bedrock.

Yeah.

168. We want a case down there. Pretty deep.

So that's well below our 150 to 155.

Then you're advocating for a stop. Stop.

It's a consensus of opinion here. Let me give Craig a call and tell him.

Because the drill bit has struck bedrock at 168 feet, 15 feet deeper than the

last known location of the chapel vault, further drilling in this hole now seems

pointless.

We're fine. We're done.

But because the hole had held such high promise, I decided to call Craig and get

his confirmation that we should cease operations.

Yeah, Craig, we're in the second hole in the chapel shaft.

We hit bedrock at right around 168 feet.

Terry's advocating maybe we should cease on that hole.

I popped through at whatever that rock was, man. The last two feet of it, it

dropped right through.

It dropped right through?

They're looking for a void.

If you tell them that there's a void, they're going to keep going. Yeah, well,

I did.

Terry, Ivan just warned me that he hit a void.

He hit a void for sure. For sure, yeah.

That would have to be me.

known to her.

You know, she may be disinclined then at some point. Hang on, Terry's here.

Rick, Ivan says he went into a void.

At 166, he went into some rock, and then at 160, about 69, he dropped into

a void.

That changes things. It changes things quite a bit. I just think we keep going

here. Let's get him going then. Okay,

so we'll leave it at that. We'll just roll on that. Okay, see you later.

Ivan tells Terry that we've broken through into a void. And of course, game

on.

Encountering a void below the bedrock offers a significant development for the

Oak Island team.

It could indicate the existence of an underground cave, possibly one that is

man-made.

I just hit a branch. I just hit something right at that.

It's rough now, but it's a little softer.

179 and a half to hit that void that was there.

And I just got three feet there.

So I'll just keep watch to make sure.

He's in a void.

We're in another void.

We've been in an open void since we had a minor void at 166 to

169. And then we went into a second void at 179 down to depth right now, which is

215. Wow.

How high is that void?

It's at least about 30 feet.

A second void, some 30 feet tall, and more than 180 feet below

ground?

Could the Oak Island team really be dealing with a natural formation, or

something quite different?

What is it?

Could it be that spiral tunnel that Restall believes is there?

We'd be hitting that. What else can it be?

I don't know.

There's no other shaft that goes that deep.

No searcher shaft that we know of.

Something's down there.

In 1959, Robert Rustall and his wife Mildred, a couple who had gained

international notoriety as motorcycle daredevils, decided to move with their

two young sons to Oak Island and there pursue Robert's dream of finding an

enormous treasure.

I feel that the treasure is here and that we can get it and we're going to

stay here until we do.

But the Oak Island of the 1950s was not the same one seen today.

It was desolate and primitive.

There were no permanent structures or homes on the island.

There was no electricity, no running water.

There was also no causeway connecting the island to the mainland.

All comings and goings had to be by bone.

The wife has had a little rough time here.

Well, I don't think it's been too rough, really. It's been hard to adjust to it

first.

For six years, the Restalls braved these harsh conditions, all the while doing

extensive investigations at Smith's Cove, in the swamp, and at the site of

the money pit, where in 1963...

Robert Restall reported drilling through a series of mysterious voids separated

by layers of bedrock.

This discovery led him to the astonishing conclusion that he was not

drilling through a natural formation, but through a man-made spiral-shaped

tunnel.

They got into a part of it.

They would drill, they'd go in, they'd go out of it, in and out of it. That's

why they believed that there was a spiral one.

that led down into an offset treasure chamber. That was their belief.

Unfortunately, Robert Restall would never live long enough to complete his

investigation.

On August 17, 1965, while exploring a flooded 27-foot-deep

searcher shaft at Smith's Cove, Robert Restall, along with his son Bobby Jr.

and two other men, died tragically.

after being overcome by deadly h2s gas the event sent

shock waves throughout nova scotia and fueled rumors of a deadly curse

not surprisingly robert restall's wife

mildred and the couple's youngest son richard quickly left the island and

rarely looked back

The wood right there.

That's that cut again. Look.

It's got that same bevel cut.

You think it's an axe? I mean, it kind of looks like a low-angle axe. I mean,

it's not a nice cross-grain cut.

Axe-cut wood?

Found buried nearly 200 feet underground?

We're getting wood, so...

As me and Terry were talking about, you know, we must be in some sort of

structure, some sort of void next to a void, something like that.

Let's find this.

Somebody got her.

It is a tense and harrowing moment at the Oak Island Money Pit as Rick Lagina

and members of the Brewster drilling team rush to help injured crew member

Max Williamson after an explosion at the drill rig.

Just stay right there. Stay right there.

I like my... Calm down for a second. We're going to get you checked out.

Just stay right here for now.

Get 911 out here.

Can you bend it?

Running over there, he's laying in a prone position.

His arm appears to be in an awkward angle. His pants are ripped.

Your first thought is, you know, how badly is he injured?

He's got a broken wrist.

A bad contusion on his leg.

Your safety glasses saved your eyes.

Almost a seventh man, but...

That's not a positive way to look at it.

Man down.

There it is now.

Oh, there it is. Yeah.

Fortunately, it is not long before paramedics arrive on site to determine

the extent of Max's injuries.

Although it is their assessment that his life is not under threat, the paramedics

will transport Max to a nearby hospital for further examination.

and to monitor his condition.

The extreme nature of both the incident and Max's injuries has prompted Rick to

call his brother Marty, who is away on business in Michigan.

Hey, what up?

We had an accident here on site.

Wait a minute. What do you mean?

Max got hurt.

Hose blew out, blew off the coupling.

What? And, uh...

Hit him, knocked him backwards.

He's got a large contusion on his knee, but he's somewhat mobile, I believe.

But he may have a fractured wrist, I think.

So we called the ambulance. They came, got him.

We're certainly shut down until we figure out the mechanics of what

happened.

that pump was going to stop, and it let go like a guillotine, and it crushed its

skull.

So when high-pressure lines let go, it's bad news. Right.

And that's why we need to stay off the work area. Yeah.

When you're going around it, you walk around, not over. I mean, I can't tell

you how many times all of us have stepped over that same hose.

Yeah. All right, tell them, you know, get well.

Yep. Okay, just wanted to let you know.

Yeah, thanks for the heads up. All right, see you.

The seriousness of it and what it might have been has certainly made us much

more aware of the safety issues involving this process.

It's sobered us up, if you will.

The real lesson is how do we deal with that in the future? Have to deal with

it, absolutely.

You know, maybe it was an absolute worst-case scenario.

When she blew, she blew.

It was a violent, violent scene.

You know, he went over there, he probably bent down to pull the hose

away, and boom.

Yeah, I can see a few changes I want to make here for sure before we do anything

else right now, because we don't want this to happen again.

Absolutely.

That's how it...

That's how it ended up right there.

We're now currently shut down.

And then we have the issue of making sure that this doesn't happen again.

It takes several hours, may take several days. It doesn't matter. It will get

done.

The next day, while Rick Lagina and the team from Brewster Drilling work to

determine the cause of the accident.

Well, let's just dig some decent signals.

Jack Begley, along with Rick and Marty's nephew, Peter Fernetti, and metal

detection expert, Gary Drayton, are continuing their search of the area on

the eastern tip of Oak Island, known as Isaac's Point.

It's still a bit dead.

It is the same area where just one week ago, the team found a curiously cut 17th

century Spanish coin.

That's a little small piece of iron.

If it was good iron, it would be, you know, a stronger signal.

Yep. Right, so hopefully this is a hot little area.

Oh, there's something.

Fortunately, it's not very deep.

let me see if we got it out i didn't okay

what

is it it's the end of a gun

it's

the end of a gun

But like a play gun.

No, you're right.

It's a toy gun. It's the end of a toy gun. You're exactly right.

Well, that's a first.

All right. Let me just check it.

There's more? Yep.

The rest of it. Could that be the handle?

It is.

We found the gold, lads.

We found the handle of the gun and...

I put the barrel up to it and went, hey, look, here's the whole thing.

What make is it?

Sure shot.

Popular in the heyday of TV westerns like Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, and

Wyatt Earp, hubly sure shot cap guns were a big hit among kids growing up in

the 1950s and early 1960s.

But as there were virtually no children living on Oak Island during this period,

How did a toy gun manage to find its way to this remote spot?

This should go in the museum.

I wonder who lost it. Some kid who lost it. You imagine it's probably Dave or

Dan running around playing cowboys and Indians.

Probably. That goes in my good pocket. Yeah, I think it's a good find.

Across the island in the war room, Rick Lagina and Charles Barkhouse.

take advantage of the break in drilling operations to revisit their geotech grid

strategy.

You know, there's a little bit of good news here. I think we've got certainly

some stand-down time.

I think we laid it out, but it was months ago when we laid that out, and

now we have some more information. We have a greater understanding of the

areas of interest.

Although decades of exploratory drilling and excavation, had given the team a

pretty good understanding of which searcher tunnels and shafts exist below

ground. Only the geotech method can help them pinpoint their exact locations and

orientations.

So far, the spoils retrieved from the geotech boreholes have suggested that a

new drilling strategy is in order, as well as an increase in the total number

of holes from 38 targets to more than 40.

Nevertheless, there are limits.

both in time and, of course, money.

Given the fact that based upon some of the information from one-third of the

grid we've currently completed, we have significant interest in certain areas.

We can't just keep expanding the grid exponentially, as you can see. Head and

shaft outlined here.

We have chapel shaft outlined here. We've got the 1897 drill platform

outlined here.

And yet this area.

there are very few holes designated there this area i'd say from the g line

over right down to gal right here and then over and across probably within

that 20-foot grid we have nothing

and i intend to see hey guys hey jack hey jack how you doing

good good so i was out on isaac's point with gary and peter and we found

something

It's odd, but kind of cool.

A toy pistol.

Toy gun.

That's different.

Gary believes it's from probably the 1950s or 60s, somewhere in that range,

based upon the make of the gun. You can see the brand name on there. When you

mention the age, the period, I mean...

How can you not suspect that this might be Ricky Restall's?

The youngest son of treasure hunter Robert Restall, Richard Restall, known

at the time as Ricky, was only nine years old when his family moved to Oak

Island in 1959.

Because he was too young to assist his father and older brother Bobby Jr.

in their search for treasure, he spent much of his childhood with his mother,

Mildred. helping with household chores and playing by himself.

My thought immediately was, I'll bet that had to do with the Restalls.

The youngest Restall, Ricky, was a young boy at the time. I can imagine him

playing out in the fields, and he loses that pistol.

Sure shot, it says right there.

Mm-hmm.

Get a little star on it. It certainly would be amazing if that was his. Mm

-hmm. It's remarkable.

A little piece of history sitting there.

And you know how I feel about the history of this place.

Yeah. And here's the other thing.

You got a call from Leigh Lamb the other day.

She has expressed interest in coming back to the island to see the Finnish

Visitor Center.

Oh, wow. Be nice to see her again.

Absolutely.

During the nearly six years, her parents and two brothers spent living and

working on Oak Island.

Leigh Lamb, the eldest of the Restall's three children, was already married.

and raising a family of her own although she was not present on the day her

father and brother died her life has been forever shaped by the tragedy in

2012 she wrote a book entitled oak island family the rest all hunt for

buried treasure thank you she has also made regular trips to oak island to

provide important information about her father and brother's progress

and to share her father's stated belief that he was on the verge of a major

breakthrough just days before the accident that claimed his life and that

of her brother and two coworkers.

These are Bobby's journals.

Lee is the custodian, if you will, of all of the rest all information garnered

over the years, the maps, the photographs, all of the information that

they gathered.

Maybe she'll remember whether or not Ricky had that. Absolutely.

Great finding.

Yep, really great finding.

Two days after the sudden explosion at the Geotech drill site, Rick and Marty

Lagina, along with their friend and partner, Craig Tester, are heading to

the Money Pit to meet with the team from Brewster Drilling.

well it just underscores i mean really it brings to mind that oak island is a

dangerous place i mean what we're doing involves heavy equipment high pressures

cavities unknowns it's inherently dangerous they are eager to learn what

caused the near fatal accident and to find out about the condition of driller

max williamson

Marty and I were gone when the accident happened at the rig. So we're eager to

get out there, find out how Max is doing, and then what went wrong.

And lastly, what do we do to correct that problem?

We need to kind of take a deep breath and say, what does this teach us about

how we go forward, right?

Absolutely.

All right, well, I hope Max is fine. We'll find out right now.

I've been involved in a lot of heavy industries my whole career.

Well, there's always the chance when you've got people and materials and

heavy equipment for an injury. So all these things are going through my mind

when I come out here to the island. Not thinking about anything else, really.

Not thinking about treasure, not thinking about progress on these holes,

just thinking about getting this safety issue behind us.

Nice to see you, Kyle.

I want to know about Max first. How's he doing?

Well, they discharged him from hospital at 9 o'clock Friday night.

Radiologist called back the next day, said there was actually a small fracture

in his right wrist. But none of the things that you worry about, neck, head?

Nope. What about his knee? I mean, that was a huge contusion. Yeah, he's a

little tender there.

Swelling came down on that.

You know, when something goes wrong, it goes wrong badly.

Yeah. And quickly.

And quickly. Exactly.

Well, it's Oak Island, too. I mean, we were talking about that on the way over

here. You know, what we're doing here, it's dangerous stuff.

Yeah.

So I'm relieved that no one was killed. No one was hurt in a permanent sense.

I think there are things we can do to prevent it in the future. So a whole

bunch of things occurred at once to cause that line to fail.

And if it fails, it's going to fail pretty dramatically.

As each borehole is drilled, high-pressure air circulates what is

known as mixing mud, a combination of water and mud-making dry chemicals.

This stabilizes the pressure in the drill rig to force the cuttings or

spoils it produces up to the surface, where it is separated out by hand.

However, if debris from these spoils, such as wood or clay, build up in the

rig's high-pressure hose, it can explode with bone-crushing force.

This plugged, that plugged.

It's a combination of things that really led to failure of the hoses.

right when the hose separated from the coupling that allowed this to snake yeah

this is this is a safety right yeah this is coupling if the coupling releases

this this holds the two couplings together right yeah but even without the

coupling it should choke it yeah that should that should you know if there's

enough energy in that hose when it lets go that should that should snug up

against the hose and i mean in this in this scenario it didn't so what are you

going to do different

Yeah, we're going to change over to a different style of restraint. So that

would be a whip sock.

So that's going to act more like a... Yeah, because you put that there and

just pull on that. Like a finger trap.

Which is tighter and tighter. The hose has nowhere to go.

By using a stronger cable to secure the connection between hoses, the Brewster

drilling team will be able to safely resume geotech operations.

And the funny way the world works, then, we can count our blessings on this.

Yeah. And I'm really glad Max is, you know, sounds like he'll be fine. Yeah.

I think we move forward more intelligently.

Our main priority and the biggest part of our discussion was about safety. But

once we got that behind us and new protocols in place and the paperwork

filled out, it's time to go to work.

So how long to make your changes, Kyle, you know, to get this to where you're

happy with it?

And we get back to drilling. What are we looking at? For like a week, I'd say.

Oh, great. We'll be ready to hit the ground running. Just want to make sure

everything's in place before we get started. Okay, good. Thanks, guys.

All right.

As the drilling team outfits their rig with the new safety equipment, Rick and

Marty Lagina, along with members of the Oak Island team, have gathered to greet

Lee Lamb, the oldest child of legendary Oak Island treasure hunters, Robert.

and Mildred Restall.

But Lee is not alone.

Today, she has brought with her someone who has not been to the island in more

than 20 years.

Someone Rick and Marty Lagina have been eager to meet.

This is a huge moment in the history of Oak Island, as brothers Rick and Marty

Lagina and members of their team meet face-to-face with Richard Restall, one

of the only living witnesses to that fateful day in 1965 that saw the tragic

deaths of both his father and brother and two of the men who tried to rescue

them.

I'm Marty Lagina. Nice to meet you. Yes, Rick's brother. I've seen you in some of

the pictures.

It was real interesting to meet Ricky.

That's what we know him as, Ricky Restall, because in our mind's eye, he's

an eight-year-old running around this island.

That's how we know him from the literature.

So here comes a guy who's actually a contemporary of ours, and he is the real

Rick Restall, grown up.

Hi,

how are you? Good, nice to see you again.

Although in recent years, Lee Lamb has become a relatively regular visitor to

the island.

Richard Restall has returned to Oak Island only once before, during a

memorial ceremony held on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy.

It's amazing to have Ricky with me.

After the accident, he wouldn't talk about Oak Island.

And so I respected that and didn't press him for it.

And it's just nice that he's got to the point where he's ready to do this, ready

to be here.

I thought it might be time to deal with what came up when

my father and my brother died and we left the island.

It was kind of a sudden and unplanned departure.

So in some ways, I've never left the island.

Well, welcome back.

Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.

So what we'd like to show you is the museum.

great wonderful i was hoping we've got what we think is a wonderful display of

the the 222 years of search and you know the rest all there of course we have

paid significant and particular attention to and we're trying to pay

respect to the people that have come before us the rest all the family played

a very prominent role in the history of the search and to welcome lee and her

brother ricky back they have an intimate connection here why don't we go in and

take a look

No one suffered more.

Sacrificed more. Yeah, had put more of themselves into this search.

Plus, whenever they come back, we usually learn something.

Thank you.

Wow.

There you go. Big place.

Right.

Built by the Laginas and their partners two years ago, the Oak Island

Interpretation Center houses an ever-expanding collection of artifacts

and evidence of treasure discovered by the Oak Island team and their

predecessors throughout the centuries-long treasure hunt.

It is a place where thousands of visitors each year can experience

firsthand the 222-year-old mystery and the history it has inspired.

So, Lee and Rick, there's one more...

area in the museum that we have singularly dedicated to telling the rest

all story and that's right over here so let's go have a look great

this whole corner as you'll see is the restall corner it's a key part

of the museum and your family is a key part of the history great

that's bobby

And there's a picture of your mother holding the 1704 stone, Lee. Yes,

definitely. Well, and Ricky found it, so.

Oh, you found that stone?

I was with my mother when the stone turned up in a pile of washings. Oh,

okay.

Although rarely involved in his family's treasure hunting activities, Richard

Restall is credited, along with his mother, with making one of his family's

most significant discoveries,

a rounded stone found at Smith's Cove.

on which the numbers 1, 7, 0, and 4 are carved, indicating either a date

or possibly a code.

This is Ricky in your red shirt and your bug gear.

And that's Mum.

Yeah, yeah.

You really picked the right things, all of it. That's fantastic.

I just want to say that I'm really pleased that my brother's original maps

are on the walls here. Yeah, they'll be preserved here.

This will always be a part of the Oak Island story, so... I'm amazed.

Fantastic job you've done, really.

When we got to look around in the museum and Rick pointed out the Restall Corner,

I was just thrilled to death that my brother had...

hard evidence in front of his eyes of the respect that's being paid to the

rest all work on the island.

Here's another little treasure that we found.

We found this out on Isaac's Point.

And the thought was, because you were a young lad at the time, everyone said,

well, you know, this might be Ricky's.

Might that mean anything to you?

We found this out on Isaac's point Wow

looks uh yeah my friend my

gosh this this must be my gun i know i lost it and

well looks like it's here again after 50 odd years

while joining his sister lee lamb on what has been a rare and momentous visit

to oak island richard restall the youngest son of famed oak island

treasure hunters robert and mildred restall has just been presented with an

artifact of great personal significance it's got to be a neat thing that the

last time you handled that you were what 10.

to that the most 10.

and how much smaller my hands must have been to me it was interesting when we

showed ricky the the cap gun i think In that moment, certainly it brought him

back to his youth.

And my hope in that moment was that they were good memories, that that moment

would be a bit transformative, if you will, for him, that he could perhaps let

go of the past.

I remember arriving on the island with all the stuff that a city kid would

have, like the cowboy outfit, the hat, the holster, the gun.

And by the end of that summer, I think most of that stuff was gone.

Well, somewhere else on the island.

Actually, seeing a gun from that era was a reminder of what a carefree childhood

would be.

And it was a reminder of my time, my first summer on the island, in other

words, was fun and childish games and mostly imagination.

It was like a paradise in those days.

That's neat.

This trip was...

momentous for me because it draws my brother into his rightful place.

He's got a deep connection with the island.

This was Ricky's moment.

Okay, well, listen, we thank you for your part of the story. We thank you for

cooperating with us. We thank you for all the information you've given us. And

we thank you today for this visit. And it's just an absolute pleasure meeting

you, sir.

And of course, this young lady, it's always a pleasure. Thank you very much.

One week following Lee Lamb and Richard Brestal's emotional return to Oak

Island.

Marty, Rick, and the team resume their geotech drilling operation at the Money

Pit site.

You guys ready to make hole?

Ready to find treasure.

I like that.

Well, I think we're ready. Drill.

Today also marks the return of driller Max Williamson, who has spent the past

several days recovering from the worst of his injuries so

far the score is money pit 16 us

us i'm giving us one for

rick marty and their partners the events of the past two weeks have served as a

potent reminder of just how dangerous and deadly the search for answers can be

It also reminds them that the bond they share is a powerful one, not only with

each other, but with the hundreds of Oak Island treasure hunters who have come

before them, and whose lives have been irrevocably changed by the search.

Although the story of Robert and Mildred Rustall is only one in a growing number

involving Oak Island's families, the hardships they endured, both physical

and emotional, have ensured them a special place in the minds and hearts of

all who seek to join their incredible quest, the quest to solve a 222-year-old

mystery that has, so far, claimed six lives, and one whose legend insists will

claim one more before all's will be revealed.

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island.

They believe the money pit was over here. What we haven't got is what

direction they were drilling. We have to do more research.

This is quite a dock. Have you seen that before? No, I haven't.

Wow. I didn't expect there to be X marks the spot.

He's in some sort of void, but he hit something.

Hopefully it's what we're looking for. Okay, that's interesting.

Wow. How did we get it? I'd rate 190 feet.

We have one more piece.

What is that?

My immediate reaction is it's bone.