Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

RICK: It's the perfect size for a treasure chest.

KATYA: There's something there. We'll find it.

(detector beeping)

We found something already.

EMMA: The presence of arsenic could push the date

-back to the 1600s. -Wow.

TEDFORD: It got loose halfway through that run.

-ALEX: Could we be in a void? -Yeah.

That's tantalizing.

We could be heading through a treasure zone

-right now. -CHARLES: Absolutely.

STEVE: I'm gonna propose we put a caisson right there.

Let the caissons roll in.

-Proceed. -Let's go.

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.

♪ ♪

TERRY: Okay. Here we go.

CHARLES: Let's hope it's a good one.

NARRATOR: A new day

of energized optimism has dawned

on Oak Island for brothers Rick

and Marty Lagina and their team.

TERRY: So, Charles, based on the success

of the previous hole,

you know, we've got a whole lot of more work

-to do in this area. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: After more than a decade of searching

for the answers to a 230-year-old mystery,

they may finally be on the verge of a breakthrough discovery

in the fabled Money Pit area.

Intersecting wood at about 153 feet below grade.

That's incredible. It didn't put itself there.

-No. -It didn't get there on its own.

Oh, Charles, we have wood!

NARRATOR: Just last week,

while drilling a borehole known as H.5-10.5

in search of the original Money Pit...

TERRY: I'm seeing some serious chunks and slivers of wood.

CHARLES: Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...the team was stunned

when they obtained evidence

of a wooden structure some 150 feet deep

near the same depth where back in 1897

treasure hunters Frederick Blair and William Chappell

reportedly drilled into a seven-foot-high wooden chest

and recovered shavings of gold.

To bolster the team's spirits even more,

their latest discovery was made in the same area

where recent groundwater tests have identified

a large source of precious metals

more than 100 feet below the surface.

-Hey, guys. -Hey, Alex.

-Alex, how you doing? -It's going great.

-Where are we? -TERRY: This could be

a really, really important hole.

NARRATOR: Now, they are drilling borehole H.25-10.75,

less than three feet to the northeast

where they hope to once again encounter this structure

and hopefully confirm

that it is the legendary Chappell Vault.

If successful, they will install

a large-diameter steel caisson in order to retrieve it.

MARTY: My thoughts as we approach the target depth

where this so-elusive Chappell Vault

may have been encountered...

We got gold and silver in the water, so here we go!

Everything is adding up

that this could be it.

God, I hope so.

TERRY: I mean,

the idea that we caught the edge of something,

that's tantalizing.

We saw some shreds of wood and out-of-place material.

Well, what's the rest of this

potential treasure chamber look like?

No, this is good.

CHARLES: Well, I'm looking forward

to getting to the bottom of this.

TERRY: Absolutely.

NARRATOR: As the core drilling operation continues

in the Money Pit area...

...on Lot 4, located

on the western side of the island...

-GARY: Back to these spoils. -PETER: Alrighty!

You know what, mate?

There's only one way to find out what is in the spoils

and that's to get the old magic wand struck up.

-(detector chimes) -NARRATOR: ...Peter Fornetti

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

are continuing to search through a large pile of spoils

that were recently removed

from a mysterious rounded stone foundation

located nearby on Lot 5.

A foundation near the shoreline where the team has uncovered

a number of potentially critical clues.

These include

valuable 17th century Venetian trade beads,

a mortar-like material that matches soils

that have been recovered from over 100 feet deep

in the Money Pit area,

and iron tools that have been scientifically linked

to the birthplace of Sir William Phips:

the 17th century English politician

and naval officer who some believe

buried a massive horde of Spanish silver

on Oak Island back in 1687.

Keep back on the line.

-I was going this direction, wasn't I? -Yeah.

MARTY: Lot 5 could be

an absolute integral part of telling the story

-on Oak Island. -(detector chiming)

-That's a great signal. -Sounds good.

-And it is just there. -Right there.

MARTY: We have a lot of artifacts

that support that,

and that is why we continue to look.

(detector beeping)

GARY: Let me try pinpointing it.

Okay.

It sounds great.

(pinpointer beeping)

(beeping rapidly)

It's this.

-Ooh! What have we got here? -It's copper?

-Yeah, copper, yeah. -Copper, right?

That's what it looks like, mate. A piece of copper.

And you can see,

some reason or other, it got broke.

PETER: It's snapped. Yeah.

Oh! Look at that.

-See those rivets on the back? -Yeah.

Yeah. This is, I believe,

-some kind of belt plate. -Hmm.

Now it could've been off a bag, a satchel.

It could have been on a solider or sailor's uniform.

-Mm-hmm. -Back in the day,

a lot of military forces, they used to have

a lot of decorations on the uniform

and especially

on the bags that they used to carry.

Okay.

NARRATOR: A possible decorative military plate?

If so, could it be connected to the iron tools

that the team has found in the nearby foundation on Lot 5?

And potentially offer the team more evidence

of who created the feature,

and perhaps buried valuables in the Money Pit?

GARY: There's a really good chance

that there could be some military insignia

or regimental numbers on this.

Okay, mate, we'll put it in the bag

and we'll find those answers out back at the lab.

I know that we've found other military buttons

and things in and around the feature itself.

So, if that ties in

and we're able to get a regiment number,

-it might tell us who was there. -Yeah.

Okay, mate, that's in the bag and I'm looking forward

to seeing what Emma tells us about this.

-Perfect. -All right, mate.

-Let's keep grinding and finding. -Okay.

NARRATOR: As Gary and Peter continue searching the spoils

from the round feature on Lot 5...

KATYA: I would love to dig inside of it.

-CRAIG: Dig even deeper? -KATYA: Mm-hmm.

Since I've seen this, the only thing

-I've wanted to do is go inside. -Okay.

NARRATOR: In the northern region

of the triangle-shaped swamp, Craig Tester,

Billy Gerhardt and Gary Drayton's daughter, Katya,

are searching deeper

into one of the most extraordinary structures

that the team has ever uncovered on Oak Island.

A brick and slate vault-like container

that was hidden beneath the brackish water and muck.

RICK: Okay. Here's something.

NARRATOR: Last week,

shortly after uncovering the feature...

-What's that? -NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina

and members of the team discovered

three iron artifacts inside of it.

-A hook. -NARRATOR: One of which

may have been used to lower and raise heavy objects.

Okay.

NARRATOR: This has made the team believe

that the structure may have been created

to keep something of great value hidden.

Now, they are draining the remaining water from it

in order to look for more clues

that could solve the Oak Island mystery.

RICK: This square-shaped box-- we'll call it--

built out of slate and brick, I believe it was built

for hiding something.

And hopefully we will find

something more definitive.

Maybe even the one thing.

Hello.

Hey, guys.

(whirring)

(whirring stops)

-It looks really good. -Yeah. It's cleaned up nicely.

There are two things apparent here, to me.

One is this is, uh, someplace that you would put something

possibly valuable, because it's hidden.

And the other thing is that we have

a very mysterious individual possibly associated with this,

given the fact that Anthony Graves' house

was very approximal to this, right?

Yeah.

RICK: If you are watching over something

that you think is valuable,

you're gonna make certain that nobody comes snooping.

Well, Anthony's house is there. This is here.

NARRATOR: In 1857, a farmer named Anthony Graves

purchased most of Oak Island and built his home

near Joudrey's Cove, just north of the swamp.

While little is known about Graves,

curiously, after living on the island for several years

he reportedly began buying goods on the mainland

using Spanish silver coins.

Could Rick's notion be correct

that this vault-like structure may be connected

to Anthony Graves and his mysterious good fortune?

If so, might he have created it

in order to hide a cache of treasure?

Or could this be where he found it?

So I can get in there...

(detector beeping)

There's definitely something super shallow in here.

-Do you want to get in there? -Oh, I'll get in there.

That's the fun part.

If there's something there, we'll find it.

(pinpointer beeping)

Here we go.

CRAIG: Nonferrous hits.

LAIRD: Nonferrous is good.

(sustained beep)

I think we found something already.

-(pinpointer beeps) -CRAIG: What is it, Laird?

It's lead.

-Lead? Oh, okay. -KATYA: Definitely lead. It's heavy.

-Yeah. -NARRATOR: While investigating

the mysterious vault-like feature

in the northern region of the Oak Island swamp,

Katya Drayton has just made a possibly important discovery.

It's almost like the end of a lead weight.

Like a long counterweight.

-CRAIG: It's got a hole right there. -Yeah.

RICK: It's a strange thing to be in what I certainly think

is a place where treasure was kept.

-Right? -NARRATOR: A lead counterweight

found inside of a potential vault in the swamp?

In 2020,

the team discovered a lead trade weight

just 50 yards from this area,

which was designed for measuring amounts of coins.

-RICK: Here, Craig. -NARRATOR: Is it possible

that the team has found another type of lead weight

that may have been used for a similar purpose?

If so, could it be connected

to the Spanish coins that Anthony Graves

was rumored to have found on Oak Island?

KATYA: Yeah, that big signal is gone.

I think we got it.

Is there any reason to think

something might be deeper, or not?

My professional opinion

is that that bottom is not the actual bottom.

I still would love to dig it.

RICK: Hmm.

What do you think of that, Laird?

Oh, yeah, that's fine with me.

Craig? What do you think?

I-I'm fine with doing it.

-It's not gonna be easy. -(laughter)

KATYA: What a find.

NARRATOR: While Rick Lagina and members of the team

look deeper into the possible vault in the swamp...

...over a quarter of a mile to the west on Lot 5...

MARTY: Well,

-shiver me timbers. -Hi.

What on earth do you got going now,

-Fiona? -Well,

this is actually looking pretty interesting,

with the soils here.

NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina joins

archaeologist Fiona Steele and Todd Langseth

at the rounded stone foundation near the shoreline.

Even an amateur such as myself

can see that that's ash, isn't it?

Yeah. This has got charcoal in it.

We actually just found a clinker in it.

And a clinker is evidence of very high heat.

MARTY: Right.

There was a fire here.

There are folklores of people seeing lights,

-you know, from Chester. -I remember that.

-Yeah. -Could that have been the fire

-that was happening here? -Could be.

NARRATOR: In 1795,

when a young man named Daniel McGinnis

discovered the Money Pit with his two friends

Anthony Vaughan and John Smith,

it was reported that what lured them to the island

were local legends about mysterious nighttime fires

that had been seen from the mainland

more than a century earlier.

Is it possible that the team has found evidence

of those reported fires in the rounded feature on Lot 5?

And if so, could it be another clue

that whoever constructed this feature

may have also created the Money Pit?

MARTY: Well, I'll tell you what, Fiona,

I wouldn't mind helping out a little bit

if you got something you need work on?

FIONA: Actually, I do.

This does need to be cleaned out because we've been

trying to define the wall a little bit more.

This side of the wall or that side of the wall?

Well, if-- it's probably easier

if you access it from this side

-and-and... -Mm-hmm. What, are you trying to dig out

-the soil between the rocks? -Yeah.

FIONA: We've got buckets over there if you want

-to do that. -I'm on it.

MARTY: This feature could be

an absolutely crucial, essential part

to the whole Oak Island mystery.

We need to keep digging.

We only have so much time,

and that's where we'll get the real answers.

-Hey, Fiona? -Yeah.

I think there might be a big charcoal sample right here.

See that?

-FIONA: Oh, that is a good chunk. -I think that is a good chunk.

Mm-hmm.

FIONA: That's evidence of a really high heat source.

This actually could give us really good information

and some proper dates with this,

even after the construct of the building.

MARTY: Yeah. You know, that would be a great way

to hide this when you're done, right?

If you never wanted anybody to see it,

you burn it down.

There appears to be quite a widespread area

outside of the structure,

or the foundation of the structure,

of charcoal.

Burnt stuff.

And that could be very old

and it could be instructive and it could be why

it might be there.

It needs to go back to the lab

and get Emma to have a look at it.

You know, you probably could get a bit more.

MARTY: Okay, I'm a charcoal-digging fiend.

Let me at it.

NARRATOR: While Marty and the archaeology team

continue the investigation of the round feature on Lot 5...

-TERRY: Look what we got. -ALEX: Whoa!

-We got wood. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...in the Money Pit area,

Alex Lagina, along with geologist Terry Matheson

and Oak Island historian Charles Barkhouse,

have just encountered more evidence

of a man-made structure

some 130 feet deep

in Borehole H.25-10.75.

ALEX: We could be heading through a treasure zone

right now, as we suspected.

-Yeah. -TERRY: Exactly.

NARRATOR: The question now is,

could it be the legendary Chappell Vault,

which may contain not only a vast cache of gold

but also the long-sought answers to the Oak Island mystery?

In the next core, we should be into what we saw,

hopefully, in H.5-10.5.

We're hot on its heels here.

-The next core is gonna tell us. -Yeah.

CHARLES: We have a core.

ALEX: We're approaching target depth, and I'm pretty excited.

Hopefully, this borehole is the one that brings up treasure

from the original Money Pit.

LEIGHTON: There's 139 there.

Thank you. Oh, wow.

All right. Get a look at this.

We're getting into cobble and gravel here.

All right.

Look at this. More wood.

TERRY: Oh, wow.

-More of that wood, absolutely. -Yeah.

TERRY: Let's have a look here.

That's very much in situ.

But this is basically a broken run right at the bottom.

It's not very much recovery, so that is kind of odd, too.

I mean, I'm very surprised to see that.

Uh...

I think maybe we should have Mike talk to us about that.

-Yeah. -Mike!

ALEX: When we lose a stretch of the core,

that's very interesting to us

'cause there's a few possibilities.

It's either an open void or a soft area

that's indicative of a structure, a tunnel,

something that was excavated, which is exactly what we wanted.

It could be related to a treasure deposit.

-Hey. -TERRY: Hey, Mike.

TERRY: What do you make of this?

The bottom of this fell out.

So that's why you have a short run here.

TERRY: Oh, okay. I see.

TEDFORD: It got very loose

probably, you know, halfway through that run.

ALEX: Could we be in a void?

-Oh, yeah. -Yeah.

CHARLES: Wow.

ALEX: That's awesome.

-ALEX: Could we be in a void? -TEDFORD: Yeah.

It got very loose

halfway through that run.

-That's what we want, right? -Yeah.

NARRATOR: It is an exciting moment

for the Oak Island team in the Money Pit area.

-Great stuff. -NARRATOR: At a depth

of some 140 feet

in Borehole H.25-10.75,

they have just drilled into a possible void.

And in the same area where they may have encountered

the legendary Chappell Vault just one week ago.

ALEX: So, can you case the borehole

to 149 before you pull out?

I could do that, yeah.

ALEX: We want recovery

-rather than pushing through. -Right.

If there's wood in there at all,

it would be pretty exciting.

Yeah.

-All right. -ALEX: Thanks.

Recovery is critical.

We're in a potential void.

There could be material in here indicative of a structure.

But also there's a chance that this core

is gonna bring up treasure.

So, with all that said, uh, we're not gonna know,

one way or the other, what's here

until we finish this borehole.

Here it comes.

ALEX: Hope for material.

Thanks, Leighton.

163.

Go ahead.

Look at this, Terry.

Oh, wow.

That's deep.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

CHARLES: What do you got, more?

There's another chunk there.

ALEX: Is this material

loose in situ or is this loose disturbed?

TERRY: This looks disturbed right here.

This is really interesting.

CHARLES: We might've nicked it again.

NARRATOR: Could Charles Barkhouse be correct

that the coring drill may have once again

just cut through another edge of the fabled Chappell Vault?

This is probably meaningful enough

that I should give my Uncle Rick a call.

-Yeah. -Tend to agree.

ALEX: We're so close to the activity

of previous searchers, but this is unexplored ground

in an area that many qualified people

believe to be the location of the original Money Pit.

If it's not anything that we know of that's searcher,

then there's a much higher chance it's original works,

and that would be very exciting.

-CHARLES: Hey, Rick. -TERRY: Hi, Rick. How you doing?

I've heard a little bit of excitement

-up here. -Come on over.

ALEX: Mike advanced this casing down,

and just the bottom of that fell out.

If there was an empty space down there,

it's now full of stuff like this.

-My gosh, if you've hit a void... -Yeah.

It makes this area,

again, just based on this alone,

an area for a possible caisson.

This could be where we find it.

I'd like to go back

to the previous searchers' notes

because they denoted, roughly, where they were drilling.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

-It's all good news. -ALEX: And we have wood to test.

RICK: Yeah. Really good.

Kudos to everyone. Great job.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

-TEDFORD: Casing's at 149. -TERRY: Great.

That's perfect. Let's see what happens.

NARRATOR: ...as the team plots their next move

in the Money Pit area...

CRAIG: Want to take over?

RICK: Sure.

NARRATOR: ...Rick and Craig Tester

lead the effort to reach the bottom

of the mysterious vault-like structure

in the northern region of the swamp.

There's some serious rock down there, eh?

Yeah, it's...

RICK: We've reached the bottom.

I don't see much falling through that.

LAIRD: No.

RICK: Think maybe, Katya,

you might want to come down and have a scan.

-CRAIG: Give her one last try. -KATYA: Can always try.

KATYA: I can say that there are no more signals.

RICK: All I know is

it's the perfect size for a nice, little treasure chest.

Mm-hmm.

RICK: But unfortunately, it appears as though we came

-a little bit too late. -CRAIG: Yeah, it's gone.

-RICK: It's a curious thing. -LAIRD: Oh, yeah.

I mean, think about it, right?

Look at what we've found within, what,

a hundred-foot radius? The Eye,

the log platform, the cobble path,

and this storage site.

I mean, what else is

another hundred-foot radius away?

NARRATOR: In addition to the vault-like structure,

the team has also discovered several other

man-made features in this area,

including a platform of logs, a cobblestone pathway

that is still yet to be fully uncovered,

and the so-called Eye of the Swamp,

a circular feature that bears an eerie resemblance

to the Masonic symbol known as the All-Seeing Eye

and which geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner believes

was created in the late 17th century.

I would like to track back to the cobble path

and see where it's heading

because my suspicion is, there are two or three

of these around somewhere.

BILLY: I would agree.

If you don't have a bank,

you would spread it over multiple spots

for fear that... because if somebody found your cache,

you would be in big trouble, right?

Yep, maybe we find another one 20 feet away

-that is still full. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Could Rick Lagina be correct

that if the team continues

to uncover more of the cobblestone path,

it could lead them to other vault-like structures

in the swamp where hidden valuables

are still waiting to be uncovered?

KATYA: It's pretty big that something

this huge could stay hidden for so long,

so it begs the question, what else is here?

RICK: Yep. But in order to find that out,

we've got to get going.

-Right, Bill? -That's right.

CRAIG: Let's call her quits here

and move on to the stone path.

BILLY: Yep.

NARRATOR: Later that morning...

CRAIG: Hey, Carmen. Welcome to the lab.

-Welcome back. -Please. -Hi, Jack.

-Gary. -All right, mate.

NARRATOR: ...in the Oak Island lab,

Craig and other members of the team

meet with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge.

He has come to examine the mysterious copper plate

that was found one day ago

in the spoils from the round feature on Lot 5.

To me, this copper one looks like

it's a-a belt plate.

CRAIG: What can you tell us about that?

Well, it is copper.

You can see it has

-two little rivets on there. -GARY: Yep.

It doesn't look like

a uniform curve, so it could've got bent in the later years,

but it looks like a nameplate to me.

A riveted nameplate.

-Have you scanned this one, Emma? -Um, yeah.

NARRATOR: Earlier this morning,

Emma Culligan analyzed the artifact

with the Skyscan 1273 CT scanner,

a device that emits nondestructive X-ray radiation

in order to reveal an object's finer details.

She also scanned it

using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

to identify the elements in its composition,

which can help determine when it was created.

So, it is a, is a copper alloy.

It's a copper alloy of copper, zinc,

some iron, lead, arsenic is also in there.

CARMEN: The metallurgy indicates dates?

That arsenic does make it older.

-So, the presence of arsenic... -Good.

...as an alloying element

could push the date back to the 1600s.

JACK: Wow.

EMMA: So, the presence of arsenic

could push the date back to the 1600s.

I'm not 100% on that. However, it is

in the realm of possibility

because it is a metal that

starts to fade out, uh, throughout

-the later 1700s. -JACK: That's great.

NARRATOR: It is a potentially

historic moment for the Oak Island team.

According to the composition of the copper plate

that was unearthed in the rounded feature

on Lot 5, archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

believes that it may predate

the discovery of the Money Pit by more than a century.

I mean, if we are saying that that is

late 1600s, does it not fit in with the possibility

that Phips was on Lot 5 doing something?

Phips had discovered the Concepción,

which was a sunken treasure ship.

CARMEN: Yeah, seems like

you're finding more artifacts to lend to that theory.

Yeah, there is definitely plausibility for it.

CLARKE: Many people are actually familiar with

William Phips's discovery of the Concepción

back in 1687.

We know that Phips found silver on the Concepción,

and I believe some of the treasure

from the Concepción was secreted to Oak Island.

NARRATOR: Thanks to the research

of 32nd-degree Freemason Scott Clarke,

the Oak Island team has found a prime suspect

for who may have been behind

the 230-year-old mystery:

Sir William Phips.

In 1687, the English politician and naval captain

made two successful salvages

of the famed Spanish treasure wreck known as the Concepción,

which sank off the coast of the Dominican Republic in 1641

while carrying more than 100 tons

of silver, gold and jewels.

However, after recovering

more than 34 tons of the valuables

during his first mission,

when he returned to the wreck

with the help of a Freemason named Captain Andrew Belcher,

Phips delivered less than

five additional tons of treasure to the English Crown.

CLARKE: I strongly believe that Belcher

and his comrades were actually transferring treasure

from the Concepción to the Oak Island area.

-That is remarkable. -ALEX: Yeah.

If he was here in the late 1600s,

that's not out of the range of possibility

for construction of the feature.

The construction style seems hurried,

and it also seems like an older-style build.

NARRATOR: If the team can prove

that Sir William Phips and Andrew Belcher

are connected to the rounded feature on Lot 5,

could that also explain who constructed

the vault in the swamp,

where former landowner Anthony Graves

may have discovered a cache of Spanish silver?

And if so, might that also reveal

who created the Eye of the Swamp

as a secret calling card?

You know, to me, if this treasure

is associated with, uh, Phips,

it's an odd story that's going on in Lot 5

and in the swamp.

Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

To have all these significant clues, or important clues,

it certainly encompasses the Sir William Phips expeditions,

but there's no smoking gun here.

We don't have that yet,

but finding more vaults in the swamp

or on Lot 5 could be proof.

There's certainly more work to be done,

and-and that, in and of itself, is a little bit of the treasure.

CRAIG: Carmen, thank you very much.

Thanks, everybody, and let's get back after it.

-Yep. -Very good. -Let's go.

GARY: Thanks.

JACK: Thanks, Emma. Thanks, Carmen.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...

PETER: Hey, guys.

-You need help with anything? -KATYA: Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...Peter Fornetti joins Billy Gerhardt

and Katya Drayton in the northern region of the swamp,

approximately 20 feet from an empty vault-like structure

and just several yards south

from where 19th century Oak Island landowner

Anthony Graves built his homestead.

KATYA: We have a lot more to do.

PETER: Where you digging from?

BILLY: Going to do some where you are there.

NARRATOR: It is their hope

to find an extension of the cobblestone pathway,

as well as more man-made structures

that hopefully contain hidden valuables.

RICK: We may have found an empty vault.

So, hopefully, we can find more of the pathway,

and then there might be a vault,

either in the area or nearby,

that has treasure in it.

That's a big piece of pottery.

PETER: Oh, yeah.

It was beautifully designed.

Yeah. This is, uh, a piece of pottery,

but I think this is a print

and not hand-painted.

Look. There's a pile over here,

-if you want to come. -All right.

(Peter sighs)

KATYA: These are...

PETER: Got some blue glaze.

KATYA: This is what Laird called yellowware.

PETER: I mean, this is near the area of Anthony Graves' home.

If Anthony Graves was here in the 1800s,

as we go deeper, we might be able to find earlier stuff.

NARRATOR: Could Peter be correct that this pottery is connected

to 19th century Oak Island landowner Anthony Graves?

Beautiful.

NARRATOR: If so, might that also be a sign

that other buried structures containing valuables

are hidden in this area?

-KATYA: Let's move on. -PETER: Okay.

RICK: We found some clues that strongly hint

that Anthony Graves was doing something in this area,

and we hope to find some clues

that might lead us to a location of his supposed silver.

So I think we just need to continue to follow

this cobble path through to the end.

There's more work that needs to be done.

Send it over to the archaeologists.

-Okay. -As soon as we can.

-Keep on metal detecting. -Let's do it.

BILLY: While I'm on good bottom,

-I'll scrape the sod off here like Rick wanted. -Okay.

NARRATOR: While the search for clues and valuables

continues in the Oak Island swamp...

MARTY: Gentlemen, we are approaching

the real treasure hunt.

We set out at the beginning of this year

with the idea being that we're trying to locate a treasure.

NARRATOR: ...Rick and Marty Lagina,

Craig Tester, and other members

of the team gather in the war room

for a critical meeting regarding their search

for the legendary Money Pit treasure vault.

It's time to decide whether we have enough data

to bring in the caissons

and try and unearth this thing that's been eluding us

and everybody else for 230 years.

Or whether we don't.

So, with that, I'll just turn it over

to whoever wants to start.

Well, I think it's worth doing.

There are areas where the drills

just can't provide you with the information.

Okay. Dr. Fred, same question.

I think so.

You're getting

a-a larger sample and-and...

we're getting a better idea

of what's there geologically.

MARTY: Okay. Sounds good.

NARRATOR: In order to conduct the proposed

large-scale excavation in the Money Pit area,

which would cost millions of dollars,

a massive machine known as an oscillator

would be used to grind steel caissons--

with diameters of seven feet--

into the ground,

reaching more than 200 feet below the surface.

An 18-and-a-half-ton tool known as a hammer grab

would then be used to remove tons of earth

and hopefully the legendary treasure

that people have sought for 230 years.

MARTY: We know, ideally, we'd like to do five or six caissons.

And then, of course, the next question,

the obvious question-- if so, where?

IAN: If it's metal underground,

it's got to be in a shaft or a tunnel.

It's not just sitting in the-- in the dirt.

So, what we're interested in, I think, at this point

is, um, where did that metal come from?

Is there a connection to the shafts that we know--

the-the--the Chappell, the Hedden.

MARTY: Okay.

Let's talk about the drill program.

Scott, let's talk about possible targets.

Yeah. We have done some exploratory drilling

in and around here, and we did have

a few interesting results.

One of the big discoveries is potentially tunnels,

which is what you're looking for.

-STEVE: We have some good areas. -Okay.

So let's zoom in the area of interest.

Those two red circles are the soil samples

that Moya and Emma did very early in the year,

which matched the soils on Lot 5.

Really close to one of the most successful holes

in this area is E.75-5.6.

I believe we had wood at vault depth.

In that 156 feet, did we not hit wood?

We went all the way down to 159 with wood.

So, no treasure yet but potential vault location.

TERRY: Oh, yeah. This is a lot of wood.

We could be catching the edge of a tunnel.

NARRATOR: In recent weeks, while drilling boreholes

in the region of the Money Pit area,

where Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michel

believe a large source of precious metals

are buried deep underground,

the team has made a series of promising discoveries.

TERRY: This could be the bottom of our tunnel right there.

NARRATOR: One is a previously undocumented tunnel

located some 109 feet deep.

And on several occasions, including just one day ago,

at a depth of nearly 150 feet,

they have repeatedly recovered possible evidence

of the legendary Chappell Vault.

STEVE: All right. So, based on everything we've done...

So, the yellow circle is where

I'm gonna propose we put a caisson.

Okay.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the team

has now identified one or more locations

where the answers and reward

that they have sought for over a decade

will finally be recovered?

DOUG: It's not just the soil samples, though.

And I keep coming back to the highest anomalous gold

we ever had that I'm aware of,

where this spot sits.

-Absolutely. -MARTY: All right.

So, I happen to have in my hand here

a Canadian two-dollar coin.

And it is about the right diameter

for a seven-foot caisson.

So, would you place your first one, please?

-Sure. -I'd like to see where it fits on this.

STEVE: All right, so I'm gonna take the best shot

at the treasure being at depth

anywhere between 100 and 160 feet...

-right there. -MARTY: Right there.

So, there we are.

I think that's, potentially, that's worth a caisson then.

-CRAIG: Yeah. -MARTY: All right, well, we've heard a lot here.

Here's what I heard is, um, I think there's a--

quite a lot of enthusiasm to bring in the caissons.

-Absolutely. -RICK: Yep.

I agree that we should do this.

There is real enthusiasm around the table.

A-And so, heartfelt appreciation to everybody

for the teamwork and the ability to focus

on the greater good, the greater good being

trying to solve this mystery.

MARTY: Okay. Well, then, do you agree

with bringing in the canisters

and do you agree with this as at least a primary location?

You know, we do tend to look at things differently.

-Hmm. -RICK: Is caissons the right application?

In all honesty, I would tunnel my way around

the Money Pit ad nauseam.

RICK: Is caissons the right application?

In all honesty...

I would tunnel my way around the Money Pit ad nauseam.

But we're limited by reality.

NARRATOR: In the Oak Island war room,

Rick and Marty Lagina,

their partner Craig Tester, and their team

are debating how best to explore

deep in the Money Pit to finally recover

a vast and fabled treasure.

At the end of the day, we've put Xs on the ground

and now it's time to get this started.

MARTY: Okay.

We'll do it.

Yep.

It was a good year of drilling.

We've collected a lot of good data.

Not only the samples we've brought up

but all the water monitoring we've done.

We're constantly going back over the historical records

to tie into the new wells.

We've got a lot of information.

Now we need to take the next step: big caissons.

RICK: This has come as a result

of 230 years

of hard-won, hard-wrought search.

We have built upon all the previous searchers--

Onslow, Truro, Restalls.

This is a puzzle here in front of us.

It's eloquent. It's beautiful.

It speaks to 230 years of raw emotion.

And so my hope is that, as we apply

the science and technology,

we have real respect not only for the history of Oak Island

but for each and every one of ours' participation in this

'cause it has cost us all something.

And yet we persevere.

And that is emblematic and emphatically states

how important this is to us.

And I am grateful for each and every one of you

sitting around the table.

Because in order to complete this puzzle,

we'll all have to be at our best.

Do I want to find the treasure?

Yes, but

I want the story told.

And-and if the treasure helps us do that,

then let's get to it.

Let's get the caissons down there and find this thing.

MARTY: We've talked about the one thing--

Rick's favorite expression for 12 years now--

I want to find it.

I want it for Rick, I want it for me,

I want it for everybody on this quest,

I want it for the fellowship.

Maybe, finally, after all these years,

we'll solve this mystery.

You know, from the human heart hope springs eternal.

RICK: We're a part of something that will endure

forever.

We are a part of something that, hopefully, speaks to something

about history that we currently don't understand.

So, let the caissons roll in. Let's get after it.

Let's get it done.

MARTY: All right, so we're doing something important.

-Absolutely. -It sure feels like it.

Okay. I love it. Proceed.

STEVE: All right. Let's go.

MARTY: Let's go.

NARRATOR: As boys growing up in Northern Michigan,

Rick and Marty Lagina were tantalized

by the tales of all the people

who tried to unearth a vast treasure

in the Oak Island Money Pit.

And now, after more than a decade

of building on the progress of those brave men and women,

can the Laginas and their team

overcome the mysterious forces

that have guarded the island's secrets

for more than two centuries?

They are about to conduct the biggest

and most strategic dig ever

in order...

to find out.

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

RICK: Come here, look at this.

-KATYA: Oh, my gosh. -There's something here.

ALEX: Could this be a continuation of the stone path?

This is the Blair treasure map.

From what we can gather,

there were three separate treasure caches.

-I say we get after it. -Yeah.

Look at this.

So, this has got to be the stone.

There's an X here.

GARY: Ringing loud and clear.

Oh! Got it.

-JACK: Wow! -(Gary laughs)

JACK: Come see this.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS