[Rick]
You know, I’m always happy to be back in the lab
because we learn so much here,
but particularly invested in this one
because the item before us—
Billy, Gary and myself—
we found that,
and we found it in one of my most favorite places,
the swamp.
[laughing]

[narrator]
…Rick Lagina and other members of the team
join Laird Niven and Emma Culligan
in the Oak Island lab.

We found the item before us
in a very interesting place,
right across from the paved area.
So I look forward to learning more about it.

[narrator]
Emma and Laird have just finished analyzing
a possible fragment of a firearm
found one week ago on the western side of the swamp,
just a few yards from a paved stone feature
uncovered back in 2019,
and that the team believes is up to 800 years old.

When it first came out,
I’m thinking it’s some kind of weight,
and then, when it started drying out,
and you see the way it tapered down,
I’m hoping it’s some kind of weapon.

Well, it was presented to us
as a hand cannon, I guess.
Which is a precursor to flint locks
and match locks
and wheel locks.

[Alex]
That’s gonna make it pretty old, is it not?

It could,
if that’s what it is.

[narrator]
Dating back to as early as the 12th century,
the hand cannon, or hand gonne,
was invented in China
and is considered to be the world’s first true firearm.
By the 14th century,
variations on the weapon were developed
in the Middle East and Europe,
until they were replaced by flint lock hand muskets
and other firearms
in the 15th century.

[Laird]
Maybe we talk about the metallurgy first.

Sure.
Okay.

So, it’s always hard
to get a swamp artifact’s base metal
because of all the minerals
that really mold with
or embed themselves with the iron
or the corrosion.
But I did get a few good points,
and from that composition
it’s looking fairly clean.
Like, I’m not seeing
the wide range of impurities.
I am seeing a natural spike
in sulfur content,
and that’s a good sign
of, you know,
1700s or older.
Because of the minimum impurities—
like, it’s not forged in a modern blast furnace—
and could be European in origin.

[Laird]
Yeah, and we should add
that by the 1500s,
those are going out of fashion.

Oh, wow.
Yeah.

[narrator]
Is it possible
that this hand cannon predates
the discovery of the Money Pit
by more than a century?
If so,
just how old could it be?
And who left it here?

Is there a touch hole in that?

So, I’ve done a CT scan.
This thing right here.

[Laird]
Oh, yeah.

[Gary]
That’s a touch hole.

[Alex]
You talking about
this little hole right here?

[Laird]
Yeah, exactly.

A hand cannon had just a little touch hole
where you would touch it
to set off the gunpowder inside,
and then your projectile
would fly out.
So, it’s an unusual artifact
found in a very unusual area.

Looks gorgeous, doesn’t it?

I’ve never been so appreciative
of the CT scanner
as I am right now
in this moment.

Yeah, right?

[Rick]
That is really cool.

[Gary]
It bloody well is, isn’t it?
You were right, Gary.

[Rick]
This is something
for a firearms expert
to weigh in on.
So, what other secrets
are in the bog?
I don’t know.
But right now,
we’re nowhere near done.
I look forward
to what else we can learn about it.
And I’m sure your brother’s gonna be happy.
We’re spending more time in the swamp.
Especially now.

[laughing]

A major find, Gary.

Yep.

We should aim to find more, Rick.

[laughs]

[Peter]
We’re gunning for it.

[laughing]

[Gary]
I’ve brought a lot of bags, mate.
I’m expecting a good day for artifacts.

We’ll try to fill them.

[Derek]
Here we go.
Get stuck in.

[narrator]
…over on the western edge of the swamp,
Gary, Billy and Derek
search for more clues.

[beeping]

That’s a little surface nail.
Nope.
Let’s begin to begin again.

[Derek]
A lot of rock right there.

[Gary]
You can see the hard clay
in the rocks.
Okay.
I’ll have a detect.

[metal detector beeping]

It’s in there.
That’s a little bit stronger.

[electronic whine]

Just there, please.
There you go, mate.
Give it some welly.
Stuck between a rock
and a hard place.

This looks like it’s deeper down, Derek.
This has got a chance
of being older.
Come on.

[beeping]

[Derek]
It’s still in there.

[Gary]
We’re about to witness
a little bit of Oak Island history, Derek.
I’ll try and pinpoint it.

What is that?
The heck is that?

Yeah, it’s heavy.

[Gary]
A lot of times
when we find old iron like this
and it’s really heavy for its size,
it turns out to be older iron.
I have no idea what it is, Billy.
You know, it doesn’t just look
like a piece of slag metal either.
You got the sharp angles cut there.
Right?
Like, it’s a something.

[Gary]
Yeah.
It was made on purpose
like that.

That’s good.
We’ve got some old iron coming up.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Hopefully there’s some old gold and silver.
Yeah.
We’ll put that in the bag.

Any time you find an artifact
on Oak Island,
it always has more of a story to tell.
See if there’s anything else.

[beeping]

There’s a lot of iron around here.
And we’ve previously recovered
really good artifacts
in the swamp.
Hopefully we can find some more.

[beeping]
[beeping]

[Derek]
Something small.

Yeah.
[beeping]

Talk about a needle
in a clay stack.
[chuckles softly]

We ain’t missing nothing, Derek.

No.
Definitely not.

Yeah.
I know it’s only
a little iron needle,
but it could tell a story.
I’ll put that in the bag.

Hey, guys.

Hello, chaps.

[Marty]
What on earth
are you guys doing here?

We are digging the heck
out of this area.

And?

[Gary]
We’ve got a couple
of interesting pieces of iron.
Here, I’ll show you.

What’d you think of ’em, Derek?

[laughing]

This one needled him a little bit.

Wow.
That is a needle, isn’t it?

Yeah.
Little iron needle.

[Marty]
Wait, wait.
Let me see it.
Look how little that is.

Boy, it shows again
how good you are
at finding stuff.

[laughing]
You got to be kidding.

Yeah.
I don’t—
It almost looks
like it has a patina, too.

[Derek]
The other one,
I don’t know what to think about.

[Gary]
Now, this was great,
because it was deep down there.
We had to dig it out.
And it’s nice and heavy.

Yeah.
It is heavy.
That’s cool.

[Rick]
You generally have an idea.

[Gary]
You know what,
the more I look at it,
to me,
it looks like an old iron buckle.
And that’s just one end of it.
That little area there
could come out these two ends.

That’d be a big buckle.

Yeah, it’d be a big buckle.
Could be off boxes.

[narrator]
Could Gary be correct
that he has found
an iron buckle
that may have once been attached
to a large chest?
If so,
was it possibly related
to some kind of valuable cargo?
And could it also help explain
why the nearby corduroy road
was constructed?

[Marty]
Well, I’ve always been
a swamp skeptic.
I’ve said for years
that one of the best ways
to hide a treasure
would be to flood it.
And flooding it
in a swamp-like condition
would be ideal
because there would be
absolutely no trace
if you did.
So, yeah,
it’s possible
that what we seek
is in that swamp.
Absolutely possible.

Well, that has Emma
written all over it,
doesn’t it?

Oh, yeah.
Probably a really old piece of iron.

Yeah.

You know what I’m gonna say.

Yeah.

“That’s good
but find some more.”

[laughs]

[Rick]
Well, keep going.

[Gary]
Leave no stone unturned.

[Rick]
Mm.
There you go.