Original subtitles

Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

Lookee here, David. The oscillator! Yep.

- So, boys, we're here. - Make some hole!

There's some peculiar markings.

- It's a runic language. - This is the Vikings.

We're finding structure after structure

-in Smith's Cove. -That's the end of it right there!

There's another wall here.

Ooh! Check this out.

This could be a friend of the cross.

Has that got... It's got a design on it!

Okay, are we ready? - The real treasure hunt

- actually begins again now. - The hunt is on.

Here we go!

There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for an incredible treasure

for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

mysterious fragments of human bone,

and a lead cross whose origin may stretch back

to the days of the Knights Templar.

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

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

Try taking those boulders out.

I think it ends right here.

It seems to end. Yep.

It is an exciting time on Oak Island.

That's the end of it right there!

...as Rick Lagina, Craig Tester

and geologist Terry Matheson

continue to unearth

new and possibly important wooden structures

at Smith's Cove,

structures that might help them solve

a 223-year-old treasure mystery

once and for all.

- Think that's the bottom of it? - No.

This one here, these ones go much deeper.

Do you see how it's laid back up?

Yeah. It's all tilted this way.

Did you see that?

- Right there. See the opening? - Yeah.

Two days ago, the team uncovered

what could be a piece of a stone box drain,

one of five that are believed to feed seawater

into the Money Pit, thus protecting it

from would-be treasure hunters.

But today, while continuing

their careful excavation of the area,

Rick and the team were stunned to find

yet another mysterious wooden structure.

Looks like we have something there, Rick.

- No idea how deep that is, huh? - Got no feel for it yet.

I mean, you wouldn't think it'd just be one single wall.

Either there's another wall here,

or there's one over there.

It had a structure like that, didn't it?

- Yeah, more like an "L." - An "L," so...

- is that probably... - This wall,

and then it headed straight for the U-shaped structure.

-Yeah. -This is the L-shaped structure here?

Right like that.

The L-shaped structure?

In the early 1970s, while conducting

his own extensive investigation of Smith's Cove,

veteran treasure hunter Dan Blankenship

built a 400-foot-wide cofferdam

made of earth and large boulders.

After pumping the cove dry and beginning to excavate it,

Dan uncovered

not only a massive U-shaped wooden structure

but also a second formation running parallel to it.

Made of wood and small stones,

the unusual 50-foot-long feature

appeared to be laid out in the shape of an "L."

However, before Dan could fully expose

the so-called "L-shaped structure,"

a massive storm washed the cofferdam away,

forcing the operation to be halted indefinitely.

Could the wooden structure the team has just unearthed

be connected to the L-shaped structure in some way?

Does anybody have a clue on the, uh,

use of the L-shaped structure or what it might have been?

- No. Not-not at all. - We're not sure?

Just another structure we know nothing about.

- Yeah. - Whoever did this

went to a lot of work.

I'm wondering, as we expose it,

was it an abortive attempt?

Was it just too much work

for the result that they were attaining?

This is gonna be a very interesting enterprise,

trying to figure out what the L-shaped structure represents.

Oh. Look at that.

Oh, looking like it might be packed, doesn't it?

Lot of clay up against it, it looks like.

It looks like they might have packed clay.

Look at that.

It's not the good stuff, though.

It's quite granular. - Yeah.

Yeah, look, there's a lot of rock in it, too.

They might have just used what they had on hand.

I don't know if they drove it into the sand

and then took rocks up against it?

It sure seems that way, because, I mean,

it's an inordinate amount of rock.

Looks like they tried to pack it.

Similar construction.

- That is a lot of clay. - Yeah.

It's-it's definitely a clay-rich till.

You know, if one of the searchers

felt they were outside of the old cofferdam,

and it was mainly sand,

they drove it in the sand a little bit, then start...

But to what end, Craig?

It's an open-ended structure.

It's not connected to anything.

If this is some sort of water-prevention system

or water-infiltration prevention...

- Mm-hmm. ...then, like,

why couldn't the water have just come around that end?

- Or this one? - I don't know. I agree.

The more work we put into this,

the more and more questions there are.

- Yeah. - U-shaped structure.

- Yes. - Billy's wall. Now we have this.

We were hoping to get answers down here.

I was.

Welcome to Oak Island. Let's keep digging.

After a day of promising new discoveries

at Smith's Cove,

Rick Lagina and members of the team

gather in the war room for what promises to be

-an exciting meeting. The thing that I find exciting

about this stone is twofold.

One is the fact

that there are indeed carvings on that stone,

but the other thing is,

it appears as though there's another piece to this stone.

Joining them is gyro survey expert Tory Martin,

along with Rob Hyslop and Ryan Levangie

of Azimuth Consulting, Limited.

- Okay, let's see this. - It's just over here, guys.

Two days ago,

Tory Martin found a strange stone lying

in the woods near the Money Pit site.

That just doesn't seem natural to me, anyway.

- No. - Definitely not natural.

Look at that, Craig.

Upon closer inspection,

the team noticed what appeared to be

an inscription carved into the face of the rock.

It's not in a writing that we would recognize.

After performing a specialized laser scan

of the rock's surface,

Rob and Ryan have returned to present

an enhanced three-dimensional computer analysis

to the Oak Island team.

Rob, enlighten us. What are we looking at?

-Sure. So, I'll explain what we did. -Please.

So, we started with three individual scans,

and then we unified those scans

into a model of the entire stone.

So from there, two things stood out.

The first thing is this flat area.

It was an area that we did a little bit of analysis on

and found that it was perfectly flat.

Too straight to be natural.

Which leads us to believe that potentially this was

carved out and cleaved at one point.

We've done our best

to zoom in and create some kind of a pattern

out of these marks that go perpendicular to that flat area.

They have a relatively linear spacing.

We didn't notice any cross features

that would indicate English letters,

but, um, there's definitely some peculiar markings

along that face.

Doug, what do you think?

Um...

a friend of mine introduced me to, uh, futhark one time...

It's a runic language... And that's what I kind of see

in what Rob and Ryan have brought out on that,

is that type of runic language, so...

Runic carvings on Oak Island?

Dating back as early as the first century A.D.,

the runic language known as "futhark"

was a primitive alphabet used by the Germanic tribes

of northern Europe,

as well as in ancient Scandinavia.

Consisting of etched characters called "runes,"

the purpose of these inscriptions

ranged from everyday uses

to religious and superstitious reasons,

such as a prayer or curse.

Could the mysterious carvings found near the Money Pit

on Lot 16 really be a runic inscription,

one dating back hundreds of years?

The results are quite dramatic.

They do indeed appear to be some sort of runes.

Runic symbolism, if you will.

The hope is that we'll see these characters

in a new way and hopefully enhance them

to the point where we can have

an expert look at them.

You know, they have a runic stone in... in Yarmouth Museum.

It used to be in the library, but now it's in the museum

- in Yarmouth. - Have they come

to an understanding of who might have done it?

Yeah. They-they said the Vikings did it.

Vikings? Is it possible

that Vikings could somehow be connected

to the Oak Island mystery?

From the eighth to 11th century A.D.,

the seafaring warriors known as the Vikings

were active throughout the seas of medieval Europe.

Famed for their sailing and navigation abilities,

there is evidence to suggest their activities also spread

as far west as North America,

beginning with the Norse explorer Leif Erikson,

who is believed to have made landfall in Canada

sometime around 1000 A.D.

We know, because of the archaeological community's work

in the maritimes, that...

there are Viking settlements up and down

the length of Newfoundland and even in Nova Scotia.

So the possibility that Vikings were here,

it's not a stretch.

We've never seen another stone like this on the island.

It opens now up the door of possibility

to another entity being involved here, you know?

Vikings, which we have never really explored.

Anyway, Rob, Ryan, we thank you very much,

and if you'd be kind enough to leave us the information,

I think we'll follow up in a multitude of ways.

Absolutely. Yeah, I'd appreciate it

if this was sent to the experts and we get

something valuable back out of it.

Oh, you'll-you'll... you'll have an answer.

Very good. - I guarantee you.

And a bunch more questions. -And a bunch

- more questions.

Morning, Gary.

Morning, mate.

As a new day begins

on Oak Island...

- Any luck yet? - No, nothing yet.

...metal detection expert Gary Drayton

joins geologist Terry Matheson

and archaeologist Laird Niven

as they resume their investigation

of the mysterious wooden structures at Smith's Cove.

Well, those are more than two by eight, aren't they?

Yeah, they're not quite as thick.

Interesting.

Yeah. It's a little more extensive than we thought.

At least a little. Maybe a lot more extensive.

Well, as Craig pointed out,

it's kind of paralleling the U-shaped structure, too.

- Yeah. - I guess we'll just continue

to uncover it.

That seems to make sense.

As Terry and Laird work

to carefully expose more of the mysterious structure,

Gary will scan a recently excavated area nearby

in hopes of finding important artifacts

-or possible treasure.

It's a small iron.

Small iron.

Ooh, that sounds good.

Wow, nice bit of curved lead.

Laird!

Yep?

Check this out.

- Piece of lead. - Really?

- Not a surprise to find lead around here, but... No.

That really reminds me of, like, a bracelet.

- Any ideas, Laird? - No.

- No. - It looks like it's worked.

It looks like it's got sloped edges and a flat back,

-like it was made on purpose like that. -Yeah.

Has that got... It's got a design on it.

- At the end there. - Well, it certainly has

- the worked edges, right? - Look, you see that?

-Yeah. -It looks like a design, unless I'm seeing things,

on the end there. Looks like scrolling design down there.

Yeah. -I get excited when I find lead around here

-'cause this is where I found the cross. -Oh, yeah.

A lead bracelet? And found in the same area

where Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton

discovered a medieval cross last year?

Is it possible that these two artifacts

are somehow connected?

Yeah, it's nice.

-It's different, anyway. It's an unusual find. -Yeah, yeah.

You know that this came from deep down. -Oh, yeah.

- Maybe this is the money area. - Yeah.

Soon as I inspect the piece of lead,

I can see it's in the shape of a bracelet.

I don't know if this is an "holy schmoly" find just yet,

but this could be a friend of the cross.

So many decorate pieces of lead.

And that fact that it came out of this area near the U-shaped

- and the L-shaped structure... - That's right. Yeah.

We could be onto something, mate.

It could be significant.

That's true.

I'll have a little check around,

see if I can find any more of it.

Later that same day...

- Hey, Craig. - Morning, Craig.

-Morning. -Morning. -...Rick and Marty Lagina

gather with members of their team in the war room.

In light of their exciting discoveries

at Smith's Cove, they are hoping

they will soon make similar progress

at the Money Pit site.

So, as you know, you know, the point of this discussion

is ultimately to make a decision moving forward.

What are we gonna do in the Money Pit?

Because, to greater or lesser degrees,

we all know what has transpired

over the last several weeks.

So, what's the target depth on this one?

Go to at least 185 and maybe deeper.

So far this year, the Oak Island team

has conducted a series of core drilling operations

at the site in an effort to locate

the notorious Shaft Six,

a 19th-century searcher tunnel

that was dug in order to provide a kind of back door

into the fabled treasure vault.

- Oh, whoa! Oh, that's... th-that's a whole piece.

Six weeks ago, at a depth

of 109 feet,

Rick, Craig and the team

believed they found their target.

I think he hit the tunnel

from Shaft Six.

But finding Shaft Six

and pinpointing the exact location

of the original Money Pit are not the same thing.

The team will still need to drill several holes

around the Shaft Six site

before they will be certain they have finally found

the elusive treasure shaft.

What looms large in the near future

is putting down a large can

and/or several small cans to investigate

- these areas. - Oh, absolutely.

Craig, what would you do?

Would you target one singular area,

or would you take a shot at a couple three?

- I'd do multiple cans. - Right.

I like the Shaft Six tunnel,

following that.

Finding Shaft Six could really help us

- zero in on the Money Pit. - It could.

Well, you'd at least know the tunnel,

it has to be within that spot, so I'm okay with that.

The way to uncorkscrew the Money Pit

- is finding the Tunnel Six. - Yep.

Everybody's on board with Rick that we got to look for where

the tunnel from Shaft Six entered the Money Pit.

So, we've done as much as we can do

to come to a consensus

as to where to pin this tunnel, this location.

It's time to dig.

- So, brother? - Yeah.

Where are you going?

Well, you know what I want to do.

- I want to dig right here. - I know what you want.

Well, I know you started

with very focused on H-8.

I want to have a re-go at H-8

and see if that stuff we pushed away comes back in.

I don't know why it wouldn't. It should.

And then we can try and find the stuff we missed last time.

Yeah.

H-8 still remains the-the primary, if you will.

I mean, we just found too many things

to-to let that go.

Last year, Rick, Marty and the Oak Island team

made a number of incredible discoveries

while searching through the H-8 spoils,

including 18th-century pottery.

Oh, a bit of pottery. Look.

They also unearthed fragments of parchment,

leather bookbinding,

and even human bones, which, when tested,

were identified to be the 17th-century remains

of two different individuals,

one from Europe

and one from the Middle East.

We drilled the little H-8 and found all kinds of stuff.

I for sure think we're in the original Money Pit with H-8.

And then we put in the big canister

and didn't really get much of anything.

So we think we need to try and find

what was missing from last year.

So that's mission number one.

We now have a battle plan, surely,

or an outline as to what we want to do.

Now we need to get back to Irving and ROC

and see if we can't make this happen.

- Yeah. - Okay, good.

Well, let's quit jawing and start doing something.

Get something done. That's right. I'm with you.

- 100%. - Okay.

- Let's go. - Let's go.

It is the start

of another exciting day on Oak Island...

Lookee here, David.

...as brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

welcome back representatives from ROC Equipment,

the same company that has been working with them

for the past two years.

- How you doing? - Good. How are you?

Good to see you. Hello, Vanessa.

Hey, man. Welcome back.

-Thank you. -Good to see you. How do you do, sir?

- I'm Marty. Hi, John. - John.

- Nice to meet you. - How you been?

Bring that big oscillator thing?

- Yeah, we brought a parade.

I don't know if you noticed this, but...

Today, in addition

to bringing their first load of digging equipment,

the ROC team has once again brought

their 50,000-pound rotating oscillator to Oak Island.

Capable of applying some three million pounds of torque,

this powerful machine will allow the Oak Island team

to both drive down and lift up the massive

50- and 60-inch-wide steel drilling caissons.

Is bringing in the oscillator, and that's exciting

because we've put a tremendous amount of resources,

time, money, everything,

into gathering all the data we can.

And now, using that data, we know where to dig.

The treasure hunt resumes.

The hunt is on.

So, boys, we're here.

I'm about ready to break my crew loose

to go get their safety gear on, start unloading those trucks,

but what's the plan for this year?

Let's go over there and take a look.

You're gonna have to make the decision where we start, really,

because, you know, we all have interest in H-8.

We collectively were never able to explain what happened there.

Yeah, that was, you know, rather frustrating

- for us, as well, last year. - That's it right there.

We know that the Money Pit collapsed.

So, this could be the vault.

Last year, in addition to finding

human bones in H-8, the Oak Island team

located what they believed to be

the legendary Chappell Vault,

the seven-foot-tall wooden box first discovered

by treasure hunters William Chappell

and Frederick Blair in 1897.

We're 170 pipe in the ground right now.

We are definitely sitting on something

that we haven't cut before since we've been on this job.

Unfortunately, when the team attempted to penetrate

the object with a 50-inch-wide drilling caisson,

the elusive wooden chest was pushed down deep

into what they believe to be a mud-filled void,

located at a depth of some 170 feet.

It's still in there, then.

- That what you're saying? - Just pushed to the side.

So the hatch we dug through

- has been pushed to the side? - Exactly.

H-8 was a big enigma last year.

We had some peculiar things happen.

We think maybe the plug

that's supposed to come up in the canister

got pushed away into a void.

So we're going to start manipulating H-8 somewhat.

Pick it up, maybe go back down, try and get

whatever got pushed away to come back in so we can grab it.

Do you have a depth that we're thinking of pulling up to?

I would first hammer-grab inside it.

We don't know what might have come in, right?

- I agree. - So I'd first...

first hammer-grab it right to bottom.

- Mm-hmm. - Then I would pull it up...

eight feet, ten feet, maybe,

see what might reverse in. Right?

- Okay. - Because we lost,

we know we lost it.

We pushed the plug somewhere.

- Yeah. - Yeah, the sort of image I have

- is it went like that. - Mm-hmm.

In order to retrieve any important clues

or possible treasure they may have missed

during last year's H-8 excavation,

the Oak Island team will raise the 50-inch-wide H-8 caisson

up to a depth of approximately 170 feet.

It is their hope that this will create

a kind of underground vacuum, which, if successful,

will cause whatever might have been pushed aside

to fall back into the path of the massive shaft.

So, I think the idea is to grab

whatever might come into that pipe from the vicinity,

all up and down the hole, without spending...

the rest of the year here.

So, it's all about finding the one thing,

proving the Oak Island story real.

You know? I think we all want that, all of us.

Let's get back to work, then.

As the team from ROC Equipment

begins to set up the massive oscillator

at the Money Pit site,

Alex Lagina and researcher Paul Troutman

travel some 140 miles southwest of Oak Island

to the town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

They have arranged a meeting at the local museum

in an effort to find out more about the mysterious stone,

which Paul believes contains evidence of runic symbols.

Apparently, that runic stone is one

of three other stones that have been found in the area

with runic inscriptions on them.

-Mm-hmm. -But this is the most famous one.

Cool. Great.

Okay. Looks like we have it here on the left.

The potential rune stone that we found on Oak Island

is not the first stone with runes carved into it

that's been found in Nova Scotia.

There's something called the Yarmouth Runic Stone,

which Paul and I are gonna go take a look at today.

If we can compare it to the stone

that we found and there's a similarity,

obviously that's gonna really help us.

- Oh, wow. - There it is.

Yeah.

That's pretty cool.

It's similar to what we found on Oak Island.

Yeah. Wow, look at that.

That's cut really deep into the rock there.

Right.

Discovered in 1812

by a local doctor,

the so-called Yarmouth Runic Stone

has been the subject of controversial speculation

for over two centuries.

Although experts have attempted to translate the carvings

on the stone into numerous ancient languages,

including Greek, Norse, Basque and Japanese,

its meaning and true origin

remains a mystery.

It'll be interesting to find out

what type of language that they think this is

compared to ours, whether they're Basque

or futhark or another type

of runic language that we're unaware of,

compared to ours.

- Right. - Hi.

- Hi. - How are you?

Good, thanks. How are you?

- I'm Nadine. - Oh. Nice to meet you, Nadine.

- I'm Paul. - I'm director for the museum.

Welcome to the Yarmouth County Museum.

So, you're interested in the runic stone?

Yes, we're very interested. Yeah.

The reason we're so interested in this,

um, on Oak Island we found

a somewhat similar stone, actually.

- Okay. - And it looks similar to this.

It's got a flat surface,

what may be an inscription here.

We actually put it through some lidar software,

and we came up with something that looks a lot like that.

- LISETTE; Hmm. Mm-hmm. - Very similar.

We would like to hear a little bit more

about the language and the translation.

Is there at least a few languages that it's

been narrowed down to as possibilities for your stone?

- Norse. - Yeah.

Norse is probably the...

the one that's the most common.

That's what we thought.

- Yeah, for sure. - Yeah.

Well, the translation, I think, um,

at first was roughly "Leif to Erik."

Erik the Red, of course.

So that would lead you to the Vikings

and that they had visited this area.

Right.

Although little is known

about the possible activities of Vikings in North America,

historians and scholars now believe

they visited the continent

sometime during the early 11th century.

But if the Yarmouth Runic Stone

offers evidence that Vikings once visited this area

of Nova Scotia...

could the stone that the team found near the Money Pit

similarly suggest that they also visited Oak Island?

We're looking at Basque and futhark

as being a possible interpretation of it.

But it seems to be slightly different

from the one that's actually on your stone,

which is a little bit more curvaceous

than the ones that are on our stone.

Looking at the Yarmouth Runic Stone,

there are some similarities to the stone that we found, but...

the characters on the Yarmouth Runic Stone are...

a lot more complex.

They seem to kind of be much more angular.

So it is kind of frustrating to...

to have what could be a really exciting find

in front of you and not really be able to prove it

or get any answers out of it.

All right.

Well, this has been really helpful.

Thank you for your help. Thanks for letting us

-come down here and take a look at the stone. -You're very welcome.

- Best of luck. - Thank you very much.

- Nice to meet you. - Thank you so much.

Following his visit

to the Yarmouth County Museum...

- How you doing? - Good. Good to see you again.

...Alex Lagina joins his father Marty

at the Money Pit area to greet representatives

from Irving Equipment, Limited.

Is that the same crane as last year, too,

- or we got a different one? - No, it's a different crane.

It's a Liebherr 895.

- Mm-hmm. - 220-ton.

This is a service crane. Is that the word?

- Yes. Yeah. - Duty cycle crane.

Cool. So this means we're...

-on the verge of getting started down here, right? -We are.

Once the 170-ton crane is assembled,

it will be used to lower a three-ton digging tool,

known as a "hammer grab," down the H-8 shaft

to retrieve any spoils and, hopefully, treasure

trapped inside the 50-inch hole.

Between what we got last year

and then a whole bunch of research

and a bunch more data.

'Cause at least from Rick's standpoint,

he thinks he's zeroed in on it.

Very, very good.

I am fairly convinced...

more than fairly convinced...

Um, I was gonna say more than "fairly."

Yeah, quite convinced, yes... Quite convinced that H-8

is the original Money Pit area.

You know, where the original digs, uh, occurred.

So we are very eager

to start hammer-grabbing in H-8.

- All right, see you guys. - All right.

As the team from Irving Equipment, Limited,

begins building the massive 170-ton crane

at the Money Pit site...

Get the pump started down here and get it dewatered.

Looks like they might be already going.

...Alex Lagina joins his Uncle Rick at Smith's Cove,

where efforts to expose

the newly discovered L-shaped structure

- are well underway. - As we proceed,

uh, to uncovering the L-shaped structure,

we're hopeful that we'll come to an understanding

of what it represents, why it was put in place.

But right now we know nothing about it.

The U-shaped structure, I still...

I still have cofferdam in my mind.

- Cofferdam. - Yeah.

What about the question of age?

I mean, is there anything other than, you know...

Obviously, we can do a couple things

- with the wood. - Yes.

Is there any other way to figure out how old this thing is?

You know, this construction technique

is unique.

You know, the use of pegs, perhaps that...

- Uh-huh. - ...gives us a clue.

You know, the lack of iron fasteners is...

- It's weird. - It's really weird.

Gary and I were talking about that, too.

I would have thought they'd be all over this.

So, this, I mean, really what you're saying, though,

is that this is unique, this is not something

- you'd find anywhere else. - Oh, yeah. Yeah.

No, archaeologically,

I don't think anyone in Nova Scotia's seen this. No.

You know, we're finding structure after structure

in Smith's Cove of archaeological significance.

I was very glad to hear Laird say

that this one appears to have, you know,

some uniqueness about it.

Could be significant. Could be highly significant.

So we need to investigate.

And that's exactly what we're doing.

If it's original... And I don't think you're...

You're not at that point, right?

You don't think this is original.

You know, I thought, based on the U-shaped structure,

it was probably searcher...

until we hit the L-shaped structure or expanded

the L-shaped structure.

And now I'm on the fence.

- Really? - Yeah.

We're gonna let him just kind of peel this away.

- Mm-hmm. - And then we'll...

hopefully, expose it

to some... degree.

Pull up.

Billy.

There's a timber right there.

There's a timber right there.

While continuing to unearth

the mysterious L-shaped structure at Smith's Cove...

Wow!

...Rick Lagina, his nephew Alex

and other members of the Oak Island team

have just made another incredible discovery.

You want to dig that down a little bit, then, Bill?

There's another beam right there.

- Right here? - Yup.

That-that's odd. - There's another piece.

There is another piece there? -Yeah.

- These are notched. - Yeah.

Notched beams?

Have Rick and the team just found another,

possibly ancient, man-made formation

buried beneath Smith's Cove?

Look at all of those logs.

This is quite different

from what we've encountered down there.

Well, the logs are basically rollers, if you will.

It's like a slipway.

That kind of signifies there's quite a load.

Or quite a load expected.

This could be the Hedden Wharf.

In 1936,

Oak Island treasure hunter Gilbert Hedden constructed

a wharf at Smith's Cove in anticipation

of the massive excavation he would soon begin

at the Money Pit.

Because the causeway that connects Oak Island

to the mainland had not yet been built,

Hedden needed a place for boats

to safely dock and off-load their cargo.

While working at low-tide, Hedden and his team

were shocked to discover two large timbers

protruding from the rocks, held together by large wooden pegs.

Upon closer inspection, he also noticed

what appeared to be strange markings on the logs,

leading Hedden to conclude

that the structure had once been used

as an ancient boat slip.

Unfortunately, because Hedden lacked the resources

to dig below the low-tide mark,

he was forced to abandon his investigation.

As a result, the so-called "slipway"

hasn't been seen since.

Look at that thing!

- It's huge. - Oh, yeah.

That's quite intriguing.

Well, according to Laird,

construction technique is our best shot at dating this, right?

I don't know. That's very strange.

No fasteners. I suppose they may have rotted away.

There's a break right here,

and then it picks up again right there.

That seems deliberate.

When Hedden put his wharf in, he obviously found something.

He did.

Historically, Hedden built

his wharf on top of something that he found.

- And this is where that was? - Yes,

but he never, uh, sought to determine what that...

what he was building on.

So, are we standing on his construct,

something he built on?

From that perspective,

- we know very little. - Yeah.

Could the team have just found the slipway

first reported by Gilbert Hedden in 1936?

And, if so, who might have built it?

And for what purpose?

You know, we're confused again because

there are no fasteners associated

with the horizontal members of the slipway,

and, uh, it's the same thing with the U-shaped structure...

No metal fasteners.

The slipway, at this point, becomes

an area of significant interest.

But this is kind of right where the L-shaped structure

should continue to, right?

So, aren't we on path at least to intercept it?

Again, we don't know where it comes in.

I mean, I would say we probably call the engineers

and see if we can't dig this

right to the sheet pile to see where this goes.

And as this goes,

see if we intercept the L-shaped structure.

You know, if this is at the same elevation as

the U-shaped structure, wouldn't that imply

they were built contemporaneously?

It would certainly build a strong argument for that, yeah.

But they're both on the... the sea horizon.

That, to me, implies the same time, as well.

So, then, all we're left with is...

...when was that built?

This structure is heavy.

It's well-built, uh,

built with large-dimension lumber,

and, uh, surely meant for a specific purpose.

What that is, we don't have an understanding of that as of yet.

There may still be crosspieces that he's sitting on,

- so... - Right.

Well, you have no choice but to keep

- peeling this off. - Yeah, we'll just take,

like, an inch at a time, and do it again.

For brothers Rick and Marty Lagina...

- Hello! - Hey, Vanessa.

...today marks the start of the Oak Island team's

most ambitious effort ever to locate and excavate

the original Money Pit.

Okay, are we ready?

We're ready.

To aid them in their search,

they are using a 50-inch-wide drilling caisson

to excavate the site where, nearly one year ago,

they discovered ancient pottery,

17th-century human bones,

and possible evidence of the legendary Chappell Vault...

The seven-foot-high wooden structure

that is thought to contain the Oak Island treasure.

You have any serious concerns about that can

being in the ground for a year?

- Yes, I do. - #-

-Okay. -Serious concerns, but I'm confident.

It's gonna be slow at first 'cause we're gonna be twisting

right at the top of the can, and that's gonna take a while

to get it translated to the bottom of the can.

So, it's gonna be short, short strokes.

Probably up-heave up and down a little bit

to try to break that suction, and then just keep

- dancing it out of there. - Piece of cake.

- Piece of cake. - You run a tape in there

- to see where bottom was? - Yup.

-183. -183? -183?

That's quite a bit higher, eh?

- Yup. - What... where were we, and...?

You have about a 33-foot plug.

So, 33 feet of material up in the can.

Last year, when we left it, we left 15 feet of material

- in the can. - Something came in there.

-Yeah. It was sealed up pretty good, though... -Yeah, but

- where'd it come from, then? - Well, it was below grade level,

so a lot of rainwater

and muck and stuff could have gone in there.

- Well, let's try and empty it. - Okay.

Before their excavation efforts

can fully begin,

the team must first remove over 30 feet of silt and debris

that, over the long winter months,

has settled and solidified at the bottom of the H-8 shaft.

Once cleared of debris,

the massive steel caisson will be lifted

to a depth of approximately 170 feet

so that the three-ton hammer-grab tool can be used

to recover any important artifacts or possible treasure

that may have been pushed off to the side

during last year's excavation.

The real hunt begins in H-8.

H-8 was quite an enigma.

It was the emotional roller coaster of Oak Island.

You know, the disappearance of the plug,

the possibility that there's a void

and/or some sort of cave, cavern,

tunnel associated with the drop of the plug.

It's imperative that we... that we do this work

and retrieve whatever it is down below

in its entirety.

It's the silt, eh?

- A lot of clay in it. - Yup.

That doesn't look like it came in from the top.

Yeah, the top would have everything in it.

Mm.

That, don't you think, would have to come from the bottom?

Yeah. I don't think that poured in from the top.

Well, maybe not.

Squishing it through the bottom

is the only thing I can think.

Coming through a little crack in the bottom?

Just a tiny, tiny crack and pushing all the way up

- through, so... - We built a giant

clay-purifying apparatus inadvertently.

Treasure of a different sort.

It'd be really nice

if we get what we missed last year.

That's the whole purpose here, right, gentlemen?

It's not just what we missed. It's what we found.

What we missed from the first hole.

Oh, yeah.

- From the six-inch hole. - Yeah.

We were hoping we'd get this, that and the other.

All we got was a mystery.

So, the idea is to find it this year.

In a very real sense,

the treasure hunt has been in advance here on Oak Island

for a good part of this summer.

We've been doing the data search

and the information hunt.

Are we closer to maybe figuring out what happened here

because of our efforts this year?

Yes, very much.

All we need to do is find one thing.

Yeah.

Come on, baby!

After a week that saw the discovery

of new and mysterious structures at Smith's Cove,

the Laginas and their partners are more convinced than ever

that a 223-year-old mystery may soon be solved.

But as they now begin a new exploration in the Money Pit,

what will they find?

A fortune in pirate gold?

Priceless religious relics

hidden away by the Knights Templar?

Or could it be evidence

of a vast underground structure

built by ancient Vikings?

One thing is certain.

Rick, Marty and their partners

have found too much evidence

to walk away... empty-handed.

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

Ooh! Look at that tip!

- This is almost weapon-like. - Wow!

- Going down! - We have to have a look

at H-8, so we're going to run sonar down.

See that now? That is a clear,

- right angle. - Is it possible

that you're at the side of a rather large cavity?

Yeah.

It's a coin! It's no design I've ever seen.

It could be incredibly old.

It's concrete. - The Romans had concrete.