BEGIN FORMATTED VERSION

It’s going to be really soon, people.
We’ll soon see.

Along the eastern border of the swamp, Gary Drayton and David Fernetti continue scouring the area near the stone pathway for more important clues and hopefully items of value.

[screaming]
We have got a signal here, mate.

It’s an iron signal.

Just here, mate.

I’ll get to the higher ground.

Okay.
It’s a great area to find.
So, if you think about it, we got all these old boulders.

See that?

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00:40

Yep.

What the heck, Rick?

Check this out.

I guess I don’t have to ask what you found.

No, I mean, this is a really old piece of iron, Rick.

Yeah.
And huge.

Yeah, that does look broken.
I mean, it’s bent in two directions, right?
Let’s have a look.

Oh, it’s broken, all right.
If you could imagine you complete the circle, it would have gone close to there.
That’s what it looks like to me.
Some kind of—

It’s a ring bolt.

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01:14

Ring bolt.

Ring bolt.

A possible ring bolt.
Could it be connected to the others the team has found this year along the stone pathway?
Ring bolts that dated back to as early as the 17th century and offered evidence of cargo being offloaded from a ship and onto Oak Island.

I mean, this has been under some stress.
I mean, was it in a boulder?

I don’t know what to make of it.

Well, look, we’re speculating a lot about what this might be.
David, why don’t you take that to Dr. Taylor and have him take a look at it?

Yeah, sounds good.

That’s fantastic.
That is—it’s an inch and a quarter solid steel bar that took some force to bend that.
But why?
Why?
Why?
I have no idea.
But that’s why we try to apply science to it and we also have people to take a look at it and try to give us a greater understanding as to its purpose.

Hey.

Hey, Dave.

Hi.

What you got there?

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02:17

We found something in the swamp.

[sighs]
Wow, that is very heavy.

That’s cool.

So, what are your initial thoughts?

What I first notice is how black your hands are.

Yeah.

And that’s not from swamp.
That’s charcoal.
And this thing has seen intense burning.

Oh, it’s been burned.

Yeah.
Very badly burned.
So much so that it’s still adhering to the iron.
So, I think it was part of a wooden structure.

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02:48

Maybe something to do with some large timbers on a ship.
That’s good.

The iron object—severely burned and potentially related to the wooden timbers of a sailing ship.
Could it be related to the possible piece of ship’s railing that the team found three days ago near the southern border of the swamp?
And possibly the massive ship-shaped anomaly the team identified with seismic scanning two years ago.

All right.
Well, we’ll go take this to the research center.

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03:20

I’ll come with you actually.

Thanks for showing that to us.

Yeah, you bet.

That’s great.

Dr. Lee Spence, Tony, thank you for coming.
What we’re about to undertake is important.

Rick Lagina, along with his nephew Alex and members of the team, have gathered in the war room to plan a highly anticipated dive operation with Tony Sampson and renowned underwater archaeologist Dr. Lee Spence.

We do have some data provided by CSR Geo Surveys.
Dr. Spence, you have had an opportunity to look at some of that data.

Very interesting.

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03:50

With more than 50 years of experience as a treasure hunter and underwater explorer, Dr. Spence has located more than 100 shipwrecks and discovered more than $50 million in artifacts and treasure dating back to as early as the 15th century.

What we ask of Dr. Spence is to look at that CSR data, that MAG data, and see if you can suggest to us what these targets might be and whether or not you saw anything worth Tony diving on them.

So, Steve, if you could bring that data up.

Sure.

So, there are the anomalies supplied to us from CSR.

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04:26

The reason for the dive, obviously, is to try to explain those two mystery targets up there.

Yep. Exactly.
And that’s the Frog Island Shoal one.

As you can see, there’s a number of targets around the island, but those are probably the two most interesting.

They should be.

We’re heading towards the Frog Island Shoal. Mate.

One week ago, Rick, Marty, and Craig commissioned representatives from CSR Geo Surveys Limited to conduct a magnetometer survey across the northern waters surrounding Oak Island.

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04:53

Oh, is that a hit?

That’s a hit.

Incredibly, the scans identified a number of compelling anomalies, including one adjacent to lot 5 and also a massive object near Frog Island to the east of Oak Island—one that could potentially be the wreck of a large sailing vessel.

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05:30

This area up here—if I had done this magging and I saw these targets, I would think, okay, looks like we have one or two shipwrecks right here.

That’s great.
Well, that’s exciting.
Here’s a man who really knows what he’s talking about.
Dr. Spence thinks that the anomaly near Frog Island is indeed a shipwreck.

For our purposes, it could be a shipwreck that helps us solve our mystery here.

This looks like a shipwreck to me.

That’s the one off of lot five.

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05:59

Yes.
Now, this is very shallow water.
You can have shipwrecks in extremely shallow water, but you also have all of this geology here.
And so there are lots of things that it could be.

Although Nova Scotia law restricts treasure hunting in open waters, it is the team’s hope that if they can find evidence of a wreck, they can acquire a special permit to investigate it more thoroughly.

So what’s your approach then?

Looking at the Frog Island Shoal one, I would take the handheld mag out, and if you’ve got a six-foot linear feature down there, then the heart starts to beat a little bit, because it might be a cannon or an anchor or something.

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06:27

Well, I think all that can be said at this point is—go find a shipwreck.

Okay. Yes, we will indeed.

So, we’re about on the spot now, guys.

Alex Lagina and his cousin David Fernetti join diver Tony Sampson and his team along with underwater archaeologist Dr. Lee Spence to investigate the waters between Oak Island and neighboring Frog Island.

What have we got for depth, Ryan?

19 ft.

19. Sweet.
    Great.
    Okay, let’s kit up and we’ll go and splash this one.

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06:57

We’re going to drop the anchor.

Jamie, Tony, and Dr. Spence will be conducting a dive in an effort to collect more data regarding the metallic anomalies that were detected during the recent magnetometry survey.

The target today is a cluster of magnetometer hits that could be a shipwreck on Frog Island Shoal.

However, due to environmental restrictions, they will only be able to perform a non-invasive investigation of the ocean floor using cameras and handheld scanning devices.

Okay, ready to go?

Away we go.

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07:30

If evidence of man-made objects or human activity is found, the team can apply for a permit to dig up as well as remove objects from the area.

Hopefully, they get a hit soon.

Because the ocean floor is covered with vegetation, Tony Sampson is utilizing an Aquascan DX200 handheld magnetometer, which emits magnetic pulses capable of detecting iron targets buried up to 23 ft below the ocean floor.

Surface to diver. Over.

Surface to diver, we hear you. Over.

Come across a large silty area. Over.

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08:16

At a depth of some 20 ft in the waters between Oak Island and nearby Frog Island, diver Tony Sampson and underwater archaeologist Dr. Lee Spence have just confirmed that some kind of large metallic object is buried beneath a thick vegetation on the ocean floor.

Copy you, Tony.
That’s great news.
Do you see anything sticking out from the bottom?
Anything prominent?
Over.

Over.

Copy.
Fingers crossed they see something.

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09:14

Really, we need permission to move the silt and see what they’re actually finding.
To get a permit, we need to lay eyes on something underwater that comes from a shipwreck.
A magnetometer hit is not going to be enough.
We need Tony or Lee to see something—
A cannon, a coin, timbers from a ship, something on the bottom.

Because the silt and vegetation is preventing Tony and Dr. Spence from seeing the metal object or objects they have just detected, they are now expanding their search area in order to look for any visible debris that could help determine just what they have found.

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09:56

We hear you. Go ahead. Over.

Another mag on a sandy area.

Another magnetometer hit.
Is it possible that Tony and Dr. Spence have found more evidence of human activity and possibly the remains of a shipwreck?

If so, could it be connected to the recent ship-related discoveries that the team has made in the Money Pit?

Copy that.
Nothing visible. Over.

Copy that.

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10:55

Mag hits in the silt and nothing on the rocks.

Copy you.
We’ll see you on the boat soon.
Over.

Well, there were actually two areas out on that shoal where we did find a reading that was buried that could be part of a ship.
But so much of the bottom there were large rocks and a lot of kelp growing, and it could have easily hidden a wreckage that’s there.

Very interesting dive.

Yep.

I’m absolutely convinced that there’s a shipwreck there.

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11:36

Hey.

Hey.

Hi, guys.
How you doing?

How’d it look?

Well, you know, there was a reef line there.
We could see it.
There was structure.

Good.

But everything solid had kelp on it.
And so that kelp could have been hiding part of a shipwreck—like a fluke of an anchor sticking up.

Right.
So you think maybe further investigation?

Oh, I definitely think that.
No question about it.
And I would not write off there.

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12:03

Okay. Well, that’s good.

I mean, I would love it, but whatever we’re getting is below the silt.

Yeah.
They’re never going to issue us a permit because it’s going to be buried and we can’t see it.

Right.
Right.

All of the evidence—and even the expert—is saying there’s a shipwreck here.
But none of it is enough to get an excavation permit.

Our only hope really would be to come back and hope that just the natural action of the tide and maybe some storms uncover some evidence of a shipwreck, at which point we could get an image of it and then apply for an excavation permit.

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12:26

It’s great.
This is our most promising spot, and if you go down there and you think that it warrants further investigation, I think that’s good.

Should we continue with the shipwreck investigation?

100%.
So, a continued dive program is warranted.
Late winter, early spring, because that’s when the water clarity is best.

Well, I think we’ll probably have to keep Lee here for another year, I think.
[laughter]

Okay, let’s pull anchor and get out of here, guys.

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12:50

What do you got?

It looks like a piece of finished wood.

While excavating at the southern border of the Oak Island swamp, Billy Gerhardt along with other members of the team have just unearthed what may be an important discovery.

It’s very smooth.
It seems really polished.
I mean, I can’t see that happening naturally.

I’m going to toss it into you.
It seems like a pretty solid piece of wood.
That’s beautiful, actually.

It looks like a handrail—
Over the top of some balusters.

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13:25

Behind the top of your ship, right around your rail, right?

Yep.

Part of a possible ship’s railing, discovered in the Oak Island swamp.
Could it be connected to the nearby Stone Road—believed to have once been part of a ship’s wharf—and also offer further evidence that the swamp was once an open harbor?

And you look at the rounded corners on that and everything.
That’s like it’s been sanded down.

That does look like a rail.

And Billy saying that we’re on something down there that we’re not getting down to the bottom.

We can’t get to the sand.
It’s wood or something at the bottom there.

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13:57

Something blocking us there.

Yeah, something down there quite deep.

A large object blocking the excavator’s ability to dig below where part of a possible ship’s railing was just recovered.

We’re good to go whenever you guys are good to go.
I’m more than ready.
I think the swamp has answers and I want them.

Two years ago, after conducting a seismic scanning survey across the entire swamp, Rick, Marty, Craig, and the team were astonished that a 200-foot long anomaly that eerily resembled the shape of a massive sailing vessel was detected in the same area.

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14:24

It’s very unusual.
So it’s not just dirt or rock.

Would it be ship?
Would that be what everybody thinks?

Although subsequent drilling was unable to reveal any definitive proof of what the object was—
Is it possible that the team may now be close to finding out?

This is pretty exciting.
Scott, why don’t you give Rick a call?

Yeah.

Here’s another piece of it.
Look at that.

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14:58

Look at that.

Found another piece of it, guys.

This is a nicely worked piece of wood.
This is crafted, and it looks like a railing.

There’s something down there keeping us from digging deeper.
The bucket is sliding along something and it’s not rocks.

If we can get eyes down there, I think we’re going to find a lot more.

Hey guys.

Hey guys.

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15:28

Hey.

So, this came up from quite a depth.
I mean, it looks to be quite a uniquely finished piece of wood.

You put your hand around it, Rick.
It has that feel, you know.

What do you think?
You’re the guy to ask.

This looks like a finished piece of wood.
This is out of place down there for sure.
It looks like railing.
It looks like ship’s railing.

And it looks kind of square-hole there as well, which is a good sign.
So there would have been a square fastener there—making it old, if it’s an old iron fastener.

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15:59

Virtually every time we dig in the swamp, we find something.
Haven’t found the answer we seek yet, but it clearly played a role in what happened on Oak Island—and not just in a small sense.

I have that at 10 ft below sea level.

That’s deep.

We haven’t been able to get by whatever’s down there obstructing us to get to the bottom.
We haven’t reached bottom yet.

You’re scraping on it right now.

Yeah.

Can you see anything in there?

No.

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16:34

You can’t get close enough to the hole.

Why not?

It’s all slumping in.
It’s really unstable.

Where is it in relationship to the hole?

The whole length of the hole.

We have to find out what that is.

I’ve always believed that there were some answers in the swamp.
It’s the keeper of secrets.

Even as a young child, I remember looking at the little map on the Reader’s Digest article and thinking, why is that swamp there?
You always wonder—what’s at the bottom?
What’s down there?

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17:00

I still feel the same way about the swamp.
What’s down there?
What’s it hiding?

Look, you guys are making a great case that there’s some answers down there.
So, whatever it takes.

Seriously.
It’s a great find and it presents all kinds of possibilities.

I wish it were 9:00 instead of the latter part of the evening, but it’s time to call it a day and come back with a plan tomorrow.

Very cool.

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17:30

Yeah, very cool.
Good eyes.

Tough pocket find.
[laughter]

Good, Billy.

That’s a big one, David.

Marty Lagina, Dave Blankenship, and metal-detection expert Gary Drayton have just unearthed a potentially significant artifact.

And that is commonly referred to as a ship spike.
I would say that is early 1700s.

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18:02

A spike from a ship, dating back to the early 18th century.

Oh, now that’s a good signal.

Could this spike be related to the others the team has found on the island?

Oh, look at that.
That’s nice.

Both in the swamp and the Galwan spoils.

Yeah, but it’d have to be the size of the Titanic to use a nail that big.

Well, that’s just the point, David.
That’s kind of exciting, actually, isn’t it?
It wasn’t any itty-bitty boat here.

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18:43

Well, that’s definitely old.
I mean, that’s an old—

Well, that’d be good.

You know, it occurs to me.
We do have an archaeologist running around here, don’t we?

Let’s let him have one.

This is not going to be easy.
We have to follow the clues.
And these spikes are clues.

When were they made?
What were they used for?
How do they interrelate with each other?

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19:10

And we’re keeping all this data.
And we’re going to go over it.

Gary thinks that the story is going to be told with things like that.
That that’s how we’re going to uncover the whole mystery here.

I do, mate.

So, what say you?

It’s a spike.

Spike.

Yep. Yep.
We’ve come to that conclusion.
[laughter]

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19:33

Leard Nans’ participation in the Oak Island treasure hunt has helped assure Canadian authorities that all island artifacts as well as culturally protected sites will be properly handled.

That’s nice.
That really is.

He is also an invaluable resource to Rick, Marty, and the team in their efforts to identify and date objects that may be not only historically important, but instrumental in helping them solve the Oak Island mystery.

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20:01

It’s a nice one.
Hand-wrought, obviously.
Nice rose head.

You do consider that a rose head on that?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And then the million-dollar question—how old would you say that is?

We keep asking you.

I know. I know.

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20:29

Well, it’s definitely within the 18th century.

Yeah, that’s what I figured.
1700s.

Yeah.

So, I was telling the guys: this is like a clue, you know—either a dock or a wharf here or even a shipwreck.

A wharf would make sense to me.

A wharf?

If so, who built it?
And what was their purpose?

Could it have been a place for a pirate to offload his treasure?

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21:02

Perhaps 18th-century privateer-turned-Oak-Island-landowner Captain James Anderson—whose sea chest was examined by members of the Oak Island team just a few weeks ago.

Check this thing out.

I think this is it.

Ah.

Oh yeah.

1700-ish.

Yeah.

Significant.

Yeah, definitely from the 1700s.

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21:38

Well.
[laughter]
That’s good.

Sure. We catch you drinking, huh?
We’re out working.
Catch you guys drinking.
They are.

Hope you have good news for us.

We do.

Following their meeting with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge, Marty and Alex Lagina, along with Gary Drayton, arrive at the Mug and Anchor Pub in nearby Mahone Bay where they are eager to share his report with Rick Lagina and other members of the team.

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22:13

Anytime you go show stuff to Carmen, you get a surprise.

Yeah.

What’d you end up showing him this time?

Kind of knew he would be excited about this.

And he turned it over and over and over.

According to Carmen, this is a brace from a typical 9-inch diameter ship’s timber—
And it’s broken.
And it would have been all the way round.

And he was really excited about this.

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22:38

And then he measured it, which was interesting.
He measured the distance—
And he went like this and he said:

“This is off a sailing ship.”

Yep.

That’s what he said.

An old ship as well.

So, you know what I’m going to ask you, Gary?
How old was it?

He said this was typical 1710 to 1790.

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23:06

Wow.

What’s the ship part doing there?

Well, we have got that ship anomaly in that area.

That’s true.
This seems to have come under significant stress.

He didn’t say anything about that.

It was burned as well.
It has signs of being burned.

He was certain it had been burned in a—
He said “in a fierce fire.”

What if it just ran aground?

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23:35

What if it’s carrying a bunch of treasure and it runs aground and you need to offload it and hide it because you can’t get it off?

And what better way to hide it—set fire to it.

One of the theories about the swamp is that the treasure ship was brought in, offloaded of treasure, and it either became grounded or they for some reason couldn’t get the ship out—and they either burned the ship or blew it up.

Say they needed the paved area—a working platform—to offload.
Well, you’re not going to get it precise, right?
You just needed it to be a working platform.

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24:01

So, they don’t fashion it perfectly.
They’re in a haste to get whatever’s on the ship off—
And lay down a bunch of rocks.
It doesn’t have to be smooth.

Look, the swamp to me was always interesting, right?
There’s certainly something there.
There’s some work yet to be done.
Maybe we find something that is highly definitive.

Agreed.

Well, Jack, I bet you’re anxious to quit sitting around and get back to digging.

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24:35

Oh, there’s got to be more pieces of the ship in the swamp.

That sounds like an end to this meeting to me.

Yeah.

Cheers.

Cheers.

For the Laginas and their partners, another week of hard work has ended.

But unlike most, this time they not only believe they might have found the location of the original deposit…
They have also obtained physical evidence that a ship—possibly filled with treasure—could have been deliberately sunk and then hidden in the triangle-shaped swamp.

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24:35 (continued)

Could Rick, Marty, and their team finally be on the verge of solving a 225-year-old mystery?

Or will they find that they’ve only just scratched the surface of a much larger and more profound history—
One that will challenge everything they think they know about a small, 140-acre island off the coast of Nova Scotia?