06x08 - Unearthed

[bunniefuu]

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

RICK:
Let's get going!

MARTY:
The objective is to dig up

and see with our own eyes
that U-shaped structure.

-Hold up, Billy!
-RICK: Ain't that a beam?
-JACK: Oh, wow!

RICK: I always thought
Tunnel Six was the way

to unravel
the Money Pit mystery.

-TERRY: There's a piece of wood.
-There is indeed a tunnel there.

-MARTY: Look at that.
-RICK: Wow.

-JACK: Are those Roman numerals?
-GARY: Oh, my gosh!

Look!

MARTY:
I'd say that's a coin.

GARY: Oh, look at that.
That looks gold

-around the edges.
-PAUL: It's starting

-to look like gold.
-MARTY: Oh, my goodness.

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,

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 d*ed
trying to solve the mystery.

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure
can be found.

♪ ♪

RICK:
We're ready to go.

Right now, just scrape this off

-and start digging.
-BILLY: Yeah.
-Sounds good.

NARRATOR: For brothers
Rick and Marty Lagina

and their Oak Island team,

the hopes
of revealing the answers

to a 223-year-old mystery
have never been higher.

After completing
the construction

of a massive
525-foot-wide steel cofferdam

around Smith's Cove,
they are finally excavating

the nearly
12,000-square-foot area.

MARTY:
Look at that water coming in.

This is going to be
a project, gentlemen.

-Yep.
-It's gonna be dig

and pump and dig and pump and...

-There's a log right there.
-There's a log right there.

CHARLES: Billy, there's one
right over there. I see it!

-Yeah.
-Well, the old pictures

show a U-shaped structure

-quite a ways this way.
-Yeah.

CRAIG:
When Dan did his cofferdam,

there was wood along there.

-There's some pictures
I've seen that...
-Show the logs?

...definitely have
some logs in it, yeah.

MARTY: I would say
that's what that is--

the base of Dan's cofferdam.

NARRATOR:
In the early 1970s,

Oak Island treasure hunter
Dan Blankenship

conducted his own large-scale
investigation at Smith's Cove.

He was searching for evidence
of the stone box drains

that are believed
to feed seawater

into the booby-trapped
flood tunnels

that run
throughout the Money Pit.

After constructing
a large cofferdam

out of earth and rocks,

Dan was astonished to uncover
a 65-foot-long wooden structure

shaped like the letter "U"
at a depth of nearly ten feet.

Unfortunately,
before he could fully expose

the possibly ancient structure,

a powerful storm
destroyed the cofferdam,

forcing Dan
to abandon his search.

MARTY: I'm feeling
sort of a childish excitement

to see what we've only seen
in pictures,

to dig up and see
with our own eyes

what that enigmatic and
peculiar U-shaped structure is.

It's kind of nostalgic,
i.e., Dan dug it in '71.

And we are going to reveal it
in its entirety

and hopefully bring that data
to Dan and show him.

We're gonna start over here,

for digging
the U-shaped structure.

-The base log.
-Right.

We're gonna dig parallel to it
so that we don't

-compromise it in any way.
-Right.

Hopefully, we can find
the south arm of it,

-the corner.
-Yeah.

Once we define the structure,

-we'll proceed
to dig inside of it
-Right.

-and, uh, see what develops.
-Yeah.

No, that sounds like
a great plan. Yeah.

It's nice to have
something concrete.

You know? Something you can
put your hands on.

Right.

NARRATOR: After researching
old photographs and surveys

taken during
Dan Blankenship's excavation,

the team has identified an area

near the northwest end
of the cofferdam

where they believe the U-shaped
structure can be located.

MARTY:
Tell you this,

there'll be some stuff in there
for Gary to find though.

CHARLES:
If it's there, he'll find it.

No doubt about that at all.

NARRATOR: In order
to fully and carefully

examine the massive amount
of spoils

that will be excavated
from Smith's Cove,

the team has recently acquired

a large piece
of mining equipment

known as a wash plant.

As each load of earth
is fed into the machine,

it will be funneled through
an industrial-sized grate

to filter out large stones
and debris.

The remaining material
will then be transferred

onto a massive shaker deck,

which will separate
and sort the spoils

according to size,

as a series
of fixed spray nozzles

cleans off soil
and bits of sediment.

This will result
in uniform piles

that can be further searched
for important artifacts,

clues, or possible treasure.

GARY:
Oh, I see something.

Oh, there you go.

Bit of pottery.

That's-that's a piece
of pottery.

-ALEX: Oh, yeah.
-Right on the top.

ALEX:
All right.

MARTY:
The wash plant--

because we have
such a huge volume--

is really just a mechanized
and scaled-up version

of Jack Begley
with washing it on a screen.

It just does it mechanically.

RICK: I think,
with that structure, there'll be

a cultural influence, whether
it's construction techniques,

some association with,
you know, its purpose.

There'll be some answers
for "who"

and some-some answers
for "when."

-Yeah.
-CHARLES: Yeah.

CRAIG:
That'll be interesting.

NARRATOR:
Later that morning,

as the team continues
to excavate Smith's Cove,

area archaeologist Laird Niven

makes his way
to the research center...

-Oh, hey, Laird.
-Hey.

...where members
of the Oak Island team

are eager to show him
what they believe

could be
a game-changing discovery.

-JACK: This is the stone.
-LAIRD: Yeah.

-CHARLES: What do you think?
-It was pretty cool.

I mean,
the story was quite amazing.

It was kind of almost hiding
in plain sight, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Anything interesting, Jack?

Oh, I'm headed back over
towards you guys.

NARRATOR:
One week ago,

while searching the basement
of what was once

Creighton and Marshall's
bookbindery

in the nearby city of Halifax,

Doug, Jack, and Charles
found a large rock

that they believe could be
the legendary 90 Foot Stone.

DOUG:
Oh, look at that, guys.

Oh, look!

There's something carved there.

NARRATOR: Reportedly discovered
in the Money Pit

at a depth of 90 feet

by members
of the Onslow Company in 1804,

the stone measured roughly two
feet wide by one foot thick.

It was also described
as being greenish grey in color

and featuring a number
of mysterious carved symbols,

which were later
deciphered to read,

"40 feet below,
two million pounds are buried."

DOUG:
Have you seen

a conglomeration of marks
like this

-on-on stones before?
-Mm. No.

This actually looks like
it's been carved by a Kn*fe.

DOUG: So you think
this is a worked stone?

It's got a flat surface here.

Oh, I think the whole stone
is worked, yeah.

Yeah. And this almost looks
like it was polished.

DOUG: There's no discernable
pattern to it,

but it's just covered
with markings.

I mean, I only see
the one little bit of carving,

right here. It says "LN."

DOUG: Yeah, according
to Bowdoin's account

of seeing the 90 Foot Stone,

he said the only markings
that were left

legible on it were two initials.

Wow.

NARRATOR:
In 1909,

Oak Island treasure hunter
Captain Henry L. Bowdoin

traveled to Halifax

after hearing reports that
the so-called 90 Foot Stone

was on display in the window
of a local bookstore.

He was shocked, however,

to find
that the mysterious symbols

that were reportedly
carved into it

had been worn away after years
of it being used to b*at

and cut leather during
the process of bookbinding.

According to his account,

the only characters
he could identify

on the surface of the stone
were the letters "L" and "N,"

the same two letters
that appear on the stone

Doug and the team recently
brought back from Halifax.

PAUL: We were looking
at the design, Laird.

Uh, is there anything
that could-- you could use,

that you know of, that
could bring the-the design out

a little bit better?
Like, a type of material

you can put over it or anything
to just make it pop

-a little bit to...
-Well, I mean,

you could try just
that old-fashioned, manual...

paintbrush and white paint.

But the only problem
with that is

that doesn't necessarily
make it discernable.

-Mm-hmm.
-But if you could
do it digitally,

-you can 3-D model it, perhaps.
-DOUG: Yeah.

We can probably use lidar
on the surface.

-Really?
-Oh, yeah.
-To-to bring out the...

-the contours and the texture.
-Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Commonly used in archaeological

and geographical surveys,

light detection and ranging,
or lidar,

is a scanning technology

that measures
rapid laser pulses

as they bounce off
the surface of an object.

The data collected
is then used to produce

a three-dimensional model
capable of revealing details

as small
as one millimeter in size,

details that are undetectable
to the naked eye.

LAIRD: Looking at it,
it's really pretty cool.

I think we'll probably get
some clues from it, for sure.

-DOUG: Yeah.
-LAIRD: Yeah. Absolutely.

-As always, more questions
than answers.
-(chuckling)

CHARLES:
That's Oak Island for you.

NARRATOR: As efforts to unearth
the U-shaped structure

continue at Smith's Cove,

Rick Lagina,

Dave Blankenship,
Charles Barkhouse,

and Doug Crowell head
to the Money Pit area,

where the team
from Choice Drilling has begun

a new coring operation.

DOUG:
It's exciting, thinking about

whether we're gonna find
a debris field today.

I'm pretty much absolutely
convinced that it is a tunnel.

-The tunnel leading
from Shaft Six.
-RICK: It's as good a chance

that it's Six as
we've encountered up till now.

NARRATOR: In an attempt
to avoid the booby traps

that thwarted efforts

to dig deeper down
into the original Money Pit,

in 1861, a team
of treasure hunters dug

a second shaft
some 18 feet west of it.

They hoped that by digging
deep down in dry ground

and then digging
back toward the Money Pit

and under the treasure vault,

they could
successfully retrieve

whatever lies hidden there.

Unfortunately,
at a depth of 118 feet,

and just one foot shy
of their target,

the tunnel, known as Shaft Six,
suddenly filled with seawater.

Shortly thereafter,
a number of thunderous crashes

were heard deep underground,

leading the workers
to speculate

that the tons of wood cribbing

in the original Money Pit
had collapsed,

and that its treasure
must now lay scattered

across a massive,
flooded debris field.

I always thought Tunnel Six

was the way to unravel
the Money Pit mystery.

And I could be wrong,
that there's something

to be found in the tunnel,

and I think that thing
will be the one thing.

That will be the piece
of evidence that will prove

the Oak Island mystery is real.

NARRATOR:
Three weeks ago,

while searching
for possible tunnels,

the Oak Island team
made a discovery at a depth

of 109 feet...

CHARLES:
Uh-oh, that's wood.

...a discovery that suggested
they had located Shaft Six.

-That's the edge of your timber.
-Yeah.

Good morning.
And it should be a good morning.

-Yeah, let's hope.
-(laughs)

NARRATOR: If the team can verify
that the wood they found

came from Shaft Six,
they may be closer than ever

to locating
the original Money Pit

and, hopefully,
an underground debris field

littered with incredible
artifacts and treasure.

-What depth was this?
-108.

TERRY:
So, the ground is, as yet,

unexplored, really.

So if we keep that line,

we'll head down into untried
territory, which is great.

NARRATOR: Using a specialized
sonic drilling rig,

which generates
powerful vibrations

to pulverize earth
and other obstacles,

the team will extract
core samples

at intervals of ten feet.

The spoils will then be
collected into plastic sleeves

to be carefully searched

for any important clues
or valuable objects.

I'm really nervous. I mean,
I-I want it to be Six, you know?

You want it desperately
to be something.

DOUG:
That'd be the hope.

This next core will
tell us something.

Cross your fingers.

-What are we at, 118?
-Yeah.

-118, Charles.
-118.

This is the critical one,
right here.

Show me the money.

That don't look good.

TERRY:
We'd be just dying to see

something in here,
but I don't see any wood.

-Not a good sign, then.
-No.

NARRATOR:
The absence of wood,

or evidence of a tunnel
in the core sample,

is a troubling development
for Rick Lagina

and the Oak Island team.

Could it mean that they have
missed their target?

Or could they have been wrong
in their earlier assessment

that they had successfully
located Shaft Six?

RICK: Yeah, Craig.
Looks like we didn't hit it,

so I personally don't see
the need to put plastic down.

I mean, maybe it deviated
well beyond the... the tunnel.

Kind of caught
in a quandary, so...

Well, we're at 118-- I mean,

there's no point
in going deeper.

TERRY:
That's a piece of wood.

There's a piece of wood!

-CHARLES: Oh, yeah, look.
-TERRY: Oh!

TERRY:
It's somewhat vertical.

CHARLES:
Ah.

TERRY:
Check that out.

It's wood!

-CHARLES: Hey, Rick!
-Just a minute.

-Yeah?
-DOUG: Come take a look at this.

Well, I hope you got good news.

-Got a big piece of wood.
-Really?

-TERRY: Check that out.
-DAVE: Vertical, too.

RICK:
Well, that's great news.

TERRY: You know, we must have
clipped the edge,

just the edge of a tunnel.

-(chuckles)
-CHARLES:
Say, there's your tunnel.

Six. That's it. Six.

That's the saving grace
of the hole.

Yep.

NARRATOR:
Finding what the team believes

to be the western-most edge
of Shaft Six has offered

a much welcome breakthrough.

It suggests that, by continuing
to drill east of this site,

they will be able
to follow the tunnel

to the Money Pit's
precise location,

approximately 18 feet away.

Today was a good day
on Oak Island.

It's obvious
that it's the end of a beam.

So, we're in a tunnel,
and I'm very excited

to exploit this find.

I'm happy we found
evidence of a tunnel,

at a proper depth, which
correlates to the previous hole.

Well, now we have
three data sets that indicate

there is indeed a tunnel there.

This needs to be investigated.

DOUG: Which means we got
to go back and scrutinize

what Geotech there is around

where this suggests
the Money Pit would sit.

It supports
further investigation.

So, it was, it was a good day.

DOUG:
Count this as a win, today.

NARRATOR:
The next day,

Doug Crowell joins Jack Begley
and Paul Troutman

at the Oak Island
Research Center.

-Hi, guys. Hi, I'm Jack.
-Hi.

-Rob Hyslop.
-Nice to meet you, Rob.

NARRATOR: They have arranged
a meeting with Rob Hyslop

and Ryan Levangie
of Azimuth Consulting Limited,

who have come to conduct
a 3-D imaging scan

on what the team believes
could be the 90 Foot Stone.

This is the stone
that Doug had found.

There's several markings on it,
but we-we feel there might be,

uh, subsurface markings
or things that are obscured.

-ROB: Okay.
-JACK: So, you guys have lidar?

Terrestrial lidar.
It's on a tripod, yeah.

-Oh, okay. Cool.
-Yeah. Yeah,
a little more accurate.

But it should be able
to do the job

and get into
all the fine spaces, correct?

Absolutely.
With the setups we'll do,

we'll have millimeter accuracy
over the entire stone.

That's really,
really impressive.

-Yeah.
-DOUG: Gentlemen,
we'll get out of the way

-and let you do your work.
-Sure, yeah.

NARRATOR: Capable of collecting
over 66,000 points of data

per second,
the Trimble CX scanner

is an advanced
three-dimensional

surveying device,

which emits high-pulsed lasers
to simultaneously measure

360 degrees
of an object's surface.

This data can then
be used to create

a computer-generated model,
also known as a point cloud,

allowing the image
to be enhanced

by removing
any unnecessary details.

It is the team's hope
that this process

will reveal
any man-made carvings

that may still exist
on the surface

of the suspected 90 Foot Stone.

I hold out hope
that this might be the stone

that came out of the pit
in 1803.

-JACK: This could be it.
-Right, and it stands

as one of the earliest artifacts
in the whole mystery,

and it represents a message
from the original workers.

So this could get
very interesting soon.

ROB: So it looks like
she's about done now.

Now we can check out that data
and see how it looks.

-DOUG: Look forward to that.
-PAUL: Yeah.

We collected
40.5 million points.

There we have it.
There's our stone, in 3-D.

Wow. That's amazing.

ROB:
There we have it.

There's our stone, in 3-D.

JACK:
That's amazing.

NARRATOR:
After conducting a laser scan

of the suspected 90 Foot Stone,

Jack Begley, Doug Crowell
and Paul Troutman,

along with representatives
of Azimuth Consulting Limited,

are eager to see if the scan
picked up trace evidence

of the original
hieroglyphic-type carvings

that were reportedly
on the 90 Foot Stone

when it was first discovered
in 1804.

This is an initial look
at what we got.

This itself isn't powerful
enough to do any registration.

We'll come back at a later date
once we've had some hours

in the office, to make sure
that our stone is exactly 3-D.

And we'll give a deliverable
with that data.

Yeah, I'd love to see
the final product.

Yep. I think we captured
some good detail on the stone.

Yep. Thank you.

DOUG:
Really appreciate you coming in.

ROB:
Cheers.

DOUG:
We look forward to your report.

NARRATOR:
Later that same day,

while the massive
excavation project

at Smith's Cove continues...

MARTY: This is new to me.
I've not seen it. I'm curious.

...brothers Rick
and Marty Lagina,

along with archeologist
Laird Niven,

arrive at Lot 24, located on
the western side of the island.

Oh, my. Wow.

LAIRD: So, you can see,
by the large rock there,

where Gary was getting ceramics.

(beeping)

GARY: Ooh, a pottery!
Piece of pottery.

NARRATOR: It was while
searching this same area,

just one week ago,

that Alex Lagina,
Peter Fornetti,

and metal detection expert
Gary Drayton

made a number of unusual finds.

GARY: That's a frickin' bone,
isn't it?

ALEX:
Yeah, it looks like it.

NARRATOR:
It was also at this site

where Laird discovered signs
of what could be

a man-made structure.

Could be a shaft or a tunnel
that was filled in.

RICK: We're always looking
for clues about underground work

having been done
on this end of the island.

NARRATOR: Now,
after securing the necessary

government permits
that will allow them

to continue exploring the site,

Rick, Marty and Laird will work
to unearth what could be

an important
archaeological location.

So how do you intend
to proceed here, Laird?

-Usually what we do
is establish a baseline.
-Okay.

It really often depends
on what you're dealing with,

so I think the plan is to,
perhaps, concentrate in here.

RICK:
Okay, you guys set up the grid.

I've got to go make some
phone calls. Give me a call.

NARRATOR: In order to accurately
track the exact spot

where any important artifacts
are uncovered,

Marty and Laird will use
a grid system

to divide the area
into two sections,

each measuring
two feet by 20 feet.

MARTY: We're just not sure at
this point what this thing is.

But it's very interesting
to watch

how Laird proceeds
and how he does things.

I find that fascinating, really.

LAIRD:
We're in the honey hole now.

-MARTY: What do you got there?
-LAIRD: Base of a pot.

MARTY:
Well, how about that?

LAIRD: You'd expect
to find that in a house.

-Mm-hmm. Age?
-(chuckles)

Impossible, right?

Yeah.

MARTY: Well, this archeological
stuff is more fun

when you keep fishing stuff
out of there.

Yep.

MARTY:
Really? The old

"who was the last person to
touch this" is kind of cool.

Any idea how old, Laird?

Well, sa uh, 1750 to 1840.

-Oh, not before that?
-No, not that one.

I think that we're looking
at something that has to do

with Mr. Samuel Ball;
that's what I think.

NARRATOR: At the start of the
American Revolution in 1776,

Samuel Ball was
an 11-year old sl*ve

who had escaped from
a South Carolina plantation.

After winning his freedom

by fighting on the side
of the British,

in 1786,
he moved to Nova Scotia,

where he purchased one of
Oak Island's four-acre lots

and began a new life
as a cabbage farmer.

But by the time
of his death in 1846,

Samuel Ball was revealed

to be one of the wealthiest men
in Nova Scotia.

In addition to owning a total
of 36 acres on the island--

including Lot 24--

he also owned several more
acres on the mainland.

It was this change of fortune

that suggested to many
that Samuel Ball

might have found a portion
of the Oak Island treasure.

MARTY:
Have we uncovered anything

that makes you think
what this is?

LAIRD: The larger stones
could be structural.

It still has potential
as a cellar.

MARTY: This is previously
unknown, isn't it?

-Yep.
-Wow.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that this was

a cellar built by Samuel Ball?

If so, what was it used for?

And could something of value

still be hidden
somewhere inside?

Well, there's only one way
to find out.

-Dig.
-Yep.

NARRATOR:
Later that day,

as Laird Niven
continues to excavate

the mysterious stone formation
on Lot 24,

Marty Lagina joins his brother
Rick and other members

of the Oak Island team
at Smith's Cove,

where their massive excavation
project is well underway.

BILLY:
Here you go, Gary!

All right, mate,
I'll metal detect it.

Big old spoil pile.

-I'm getting a signal here.
-MARTY: Hold up, Billy!

(metal detector beeping)

-That sounds pretty good.
-GARY: Yeah, that sounds good.

GARY: Let me see
if I can pinpoint it.

-Yeah, so it's just there.
-(metal detector beeping)

See how it moved from there
to there to there?

Yep. Tricky little bugger.

GARY:
Yeah.

CHARLES:
See what we got.

GARY:
Oh, man. Now I'm seeing...

It's a nice old spike.

This spike's nice.

Got a nice old pin.

-JACK: Really?
-Yeah, right there.

It's hand-forged.

GARY: It looks like it's been
under some stress, as well.

-Look at the bend on that.
-Yeah.

GARY: I think we're probably
into the 17s with that.

NARRATOR:
A hand-forged spike?

Dating back to the 1700s?

Could it have been used
in the construction

of the U-shaped structure?

It's a unique design.

See, there's a bevel here
and a bevel here,

but not here and there.

Interesting.
I suppose you want

-to keep digging, huh?
-GARY: Yeah.

-Dig. Dig. Dig. Dig.
-(laughs)

My excitement really stems
from the fact that it's metal.

There can be metallurgical
analysis done,

compositional analysis,
and bring all...

all assets to bear and
figure out what this may mean.

(metal detector beeping)

GARY:
Nonferrous!

I got a nonferrous
hit here, Rick.

(metal detector beeping)

-RICK: Where is it?
-GARY: Just there.

RICK:
How deep?

Um, I didn't see.

MARTY:
Hey, Rick. Take a break.

Well, we want to see
what's going on.

-I'll do it.
-I'll pinpoint it.

Is that it there?

Oh, man.

Oh, man, now I'm seeing...

You're seeing Reals.

Yeah, I'm seeing Reals.

That must be out.

It's out in this lump.

MARTY:
That sounds like a nonferrous.

-Yeah, it does.
-Yeah.

-It is.
-(metal detector beeping)

It's nonferrous, whatever it is.

(metal detector beeping)

RICK:
Uh-oh, Gary's happy.

I'll let you do the honors,
just in case.

Wow, look at that.

-I can see gold color.
-Yeah, me, too.

♪ ♪

GARY:
Wow, look at that.

-I can see gold color.
-Yeah, me, too.

NARRATOR: While searching
the spoils excavated

from Smith's Cove...

-GARY: Is it heavy?
-MARTY: Pretty heavy.

...brothers Rick
and Marty Lagina,

along with metal detection
expert Gary Drayton,

have just made a potentially
significant find.

GARY: Yeah,
you can see it here. Look.

RICK:
It looks gold-colored.

GARY:
Yeah, it looks gold-colored.

RICK: I think it's got
a milled edge, doesn't it?

-I'd say that's a coin.
-Yeah, I think that's a coin.

NARRATOR:
A gold coin?

Could the team have found

their first piece of actual
treasure at Smith's Cove?

GARY:
And this is just the beginning.

I don't know about
a milled edge now.

No, I'm not so sure about
a milled edge either.

I think you're...

No, I don't think so.

GARY:
If that isn't a milled edge...

-MARTY: That's good.
-GARY: That's good.

Means it's older.

NARRATOR: During the late 17th
and early 18th centuries,

when coins in England
contained precious metals,

such as gold and silver,
the Royal Mint faced

a nationwide problem
of coin clipping.

This was a practice

whereby metal would be
cut off the edges,

so that the owner could
save the shavings

and trade the coin
for more than its worth.

Eventually, the clipped coins
became so damaged

that they were
virtually unrecognizable,

which, in turn,
encouraged counterfeiting.

In order to combat
this practice,

Sir Isaac Newton,
the famed scholar, physicist,

and Master of the Royal Mint,

designed coins with
ridged or milled edges,

giving them identifiable marks
that, if shaved off,

would make the altered coins
virtually worthless.

If the gold-colored object is,
in fact, a coin,

the absence of milled edges
is a likely indication

that it pre-dates the discovery

of the original Money Pit
in 1795.

It's not copper, either.

It's like, it's like
gold-plated.

GARY:
Yeah. Yeah, I can see sparkles.

This is, this is-- It's gonna be
interesting to see what this is

-when it's cleaned up.
-MARTY: Yeah.

-That's going in the top pocket.
-Top pocket.

Top pocket find.

All right, keep going. Proceed.

-We need to fill this pocket up.
-(laughs)

NARRATOR: On the heels of
their exciting discovery

at Smith's Cove...

...Rick, Marty, and Gary,

along with Oak Island partner
Craig Tester,

head to the research center.

They are eager to get a closer
look at their latest find

with the help of island
historian Paul Troutman.

Hello?

-Hey, Rick. Hey, Gary.
-Hey.

-Hey, Paul.
-Brings you to
the research center?

-A top pocket find.
-PAUL: Oh, another one.

Hoping you can try and find
something out about this

-under the microscope.
-All right.

Let's take a look here.

GARY:
Wow, that's a close-up.

NARRATOR: Using
a Grobet Digital microscope,

Paul is able to magnify
the gold-colored object

up to 2,000 times
its actual size.

-Gold wouldn't be encrusted,
would it?
-No.

Um, not high-grade gold,
but low-grade gold would be.

Can you stand it on edge?

I can tip it up a little bit.

GARY: It's got, like, a shiny
edge, a gold-colored edge.

PAUL:
See if I can get focus on that.

GARY: Oh, look at that; that
looks gold around the edges.

PAUL:
It's starting to look like gold.

NARRATOR: Could this coin,
found at Smith's Cove,

be another piece
of actual golden treasure?

-GARY: Oh, my gosh.
-(metal detector beeping)

It's another bobby-dazzler!

-Yes.
-Look.

NARRATOR: Two months ago,
while searching on Lot 21,

Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton
made an incredible discovery:

an ornate gold brooch,
which was later determined

to be more than 700 years old.

Mm, it doesn't look serrated.

GARY: I'd put this, if it is
an old coin, early 1700s.

-MARTY: It needs cleaning.
-GARY: Yeah.

It's actually quite beautiful;
just look at that.

The blues, the yellows,
little crystals.

GARY: And it's probably got
a lot of embossing on it.

The more intricate design on it,

the more likely particles
are gonna attach to it

and then, over time,
become even more encrusted.

RICK:
The old encrusted object--

of course it's-it's-it's...

you know, interesting.

There's all kinds
of possibilities

associated with that.

Could be valuable, a spendable,
but, you know,

it's too premature
to make an assessment.

We have to clean it

before we have
the "aha" moment.

-This might be
a nice little surprise.
-Mm-hmm.

-MARTY: Well, let's
get it tested.
-Yeah.

All right.

Onward. Let's go.

RRATOR: After finding
a possible gold coin

at Smith's Cove, brothers
Rick and Marty Lagina,

their partner Craig Tester,

and members
of their team continue

to excavate the beach area
in search

of the mysterious wooden
U-shaped structure

first discovered
by Dan Blankenship in 1971.

-Anything?
-Hey, Rick.

Pretty black,
nasty-looking stuff.

I think we're gonna run
into this as we go along.

There's gonna be
locked pockets of water,

and we're gonna expose it.

A lot of sticks
not too far down.

CRAIG:
Yeah, of some sort. Billy?

RICK:
Hold up. Hold it!

One way to find out.

There's a big log.

Is that a big log
you're standing on?

Yup.

Well, I wonder if it's...
if it's it's the one... the arm.

NARRATOR:
The arm...

of the U-shaped structure?

Could the team be moments away

from finally
uncovering their target?

Do you want a, uh... this bucket
for water, Rick, to help

pour on it?

-Oh, yeah.
-MARTY: Somebody order
a red bucket?

Coming at you.

So, what structure
is that, guys?

CRAIG:
Not sure.

MARTY:
What's to your left, Rick?

Is there another one?

-MARTY: Right there. All that.
-Here? This is a big beam.

-MARTY: Is it?
-About that thick.

You want to run
around the other side, Jack,

and start cleaning up that beam?

I'll just walk
right through there.

RICK: It all comes down
to anticipation.

I mean, we've all read
about the U-shaped structure.

We know it's there.

And the hope, of course, is

that we find
the Roman numerals.

Not very indented.

You should find a-a wooden peg
in there, too, at some point.

Here's a peg right here.

-Is it?
-RICK: I think.

-Hard knot?
-Or is it a knot?

-CHARLES: A wooden peg?
-No, knot.

This is cut right here.
This is... this is cut here.

That's cool.

You got a Roman numeral?

JACK:
Wait. Are those Roman numerals?

-CRAIG: Yeah.
-Yeah.

GARY:
If it is, it's a seven.

V-one-one.

JACK:
Oh, wow!

CHARLES:
Wow.

NARRATOR
The Roman numeral seven

carved into a wooden post?

Has the team just found
an important clue--

something that might indicate

when this structure was made
and by whom?

MARTY: I find it
absolutely astounding,

amazing how well preserved
that log is.

You're talking about pen Kn*fe,
sort of, engraving.

If that's original depositors,
it's several hundred years old.

You want to see if there's
an eight right on your...

under your foot?
I'll give you the bucket.

Should be right about
at the very end.

This is all eaten away
over here.

Is it?

Yeah.

Looks like
the worms got into it.

It's definitely the end.

MARTY: Think you can square up
to that a little better, Billy,

so that you can come right down
the side of that?

Yeah, just pull it this way and
get this stuff out of there.

-Yup.
-Okay.

JACK: And was it marked
number seven on the south arm?

CRAIG: No markings
that I know of from over there.

The only one that Dan's
describing is the "IV"

or-or the "III."

JACK:
But this is a new discovery.

No one's ever uncovered
this seven Roman numeral before.

-Right?
-Not that, not that I know of.

JACK: Oh, we've only
just started, right?

CRAIG:
Oh, yeah.

RICK: When you look at
the U-shaped structure,

and you see
these Roman numerals,

there's a hope, at least on
my part, that this is original.

I think it's rather exciting,

because perhaps
it will provide us a clue,

uh, to the purpose
of the U-shaped structure.

What we were hoping to find,
we found.

At this point,
I'd go over there and hand dig,

-try to find another notch.
-JACK: Yeah. Yeah, right?

MARTY:
All right. Let's keep digging.

Billy's gonna come over
and start digging that.

NARRATOR: After finding
a carved wooden beam

buried at Smith's Cove,
brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

along with members
of their Oak Island team,

continue to expose
what they believe

to be the fabled
U-shaped structure.

Any ideas what this
was used for?

MARTY: Well, ideas,
but they're all conjecture.

-Yeah, doesn't make sense,
does it?
-No.

NARRATOR: They are also eager
to see if the markings

that were first reported
by veteran Oak Island

treasure hunter
Dan Blankenship in 1971,

including notched posts

and the Roman numerals
three and four

can still be seen.

CRAIG:
Nothing yet?

A log down there.
A log is there.

The corner's there.

CRAIG:
There it is, there it is.

Yeah.

Not seeing any Roman numerals
offhand, though.

Billy?

Can you take a bucket of water
and dump it on that?

Yep.

-JACK: Oh, that worked.
-That's good!

Billy.

I'm gonna go down.

MARTY: You find any
Roman numerals on that, Craig?

CRAIG: No, but we haven't
really looked.

In fact,
I'll get that red bucket.

-This might be...
-Here you go, my friend.

-Do the honors.
-Yeah. I think I see it.

-TERRY: Another number?
-Yep.

TERRY:
Holy (bleep).

CRAIG:
Yep, three.

JACK:
You found a three?

-CRAIG: Yes. Yep.
-TERRY: Wow!

MARTY:
Let's see if the famous four

is cut in with four,
you know what I mean?

Yeah, there's the four,
"IV," right there.

TERRY: Wow, that's definitely
chiseled in, eh?

RICK:
Amazing.

This is awesome.

(laughs)

MARTY:
Very impressive.

Is this searcher or depositor?

Trying to figure it out.

I think we should dig that out.
Dan never did.

Who knows what's in there?

That's where your drains
are gonna be, inside that.

Maybe.

RICK: Quite a structure,
but what was it?

Okay, well, let's get after it.

Back to the search.

NARRATOR:
For Rick, Marty and their team,

the discovery of what could be
an ancient structure buried

deep below Smith's Cove offers
an important breakthrough.

If it can be determined to have
been built prior to 1795,

it may serve as an important
piece in an enormous puzzle

that could lead to
a centuries-old treasure,

one with a curse
that has claimed the lives

of six men so far,

and awaits a sacrifice
of still one more

before its secrets
will be revealed.

Next time on
The Curse of Oak Island...

GARY:
We're heading to Apple Island.

-JACK: Do you see what I see?
-TONY: Oh, my God.

-We're dead on.
-The star map theory
could be correct.

Hold the phone, boys!
The plot thickens.

MARTY: The Money Pit
collapsed in 1861,

and we're in the debris field.

ROBERT: This stone was used
as something in the past,

and it has caused certain areas
to wear off completely.

Those are letters inscribed
into the stone.

Without a doubt,
this is the stone.

-TERRY: Whoa!
-LAIRD: This definitely
isn't on any map.

This is
an undiscovered structure.