The Curse of Oak Island: GARY DRAYTON’S TOP POCKET FINDS | History

I got a signal over here, this is so cool.
It’s a ring that is a sweet fiber dirt.
Our pocket, this is a top pocket fine.
Mate, for sure. Hey, Gary Drayton, ear and

When I’m not on Oak Island,
I’m back over here in Florida, searching for
Spanish treasure on the Treasure Coast
of Florida. It’s called the Treasure
Coast because there’re benign Spanish
galleons that sank there July 31st, 1715,
and since then, treasure has been washing
in and out, and that’s how it’s got its
name, the Treasure Coast of Florida,
because it really is the Treasure Coast.
Now, I didn’t always search for Spanish
treasure.
I started off searching for old bottles
and clay pipes on riverbanks in England,
searching for these babies. Check those

out! What you’re looking at is a 1622
1640 Dutch onion bottle and a
reproduction of a Roman bowl, but it is
actually from the sixteen hundreds.
Check out those bottoms, guys, that’s what
I like—full-blown glass bowls. These are
absolute beauties, and these were actually
trash. What people used to do back
in the day, they’d go to a pub, they’d get a
pipe and a pint, or a pint and a bottle
of wine, they would sit fishing, they’d
throw it down the riverbank because
that’s all it was, trash. And along would
come Gary Drayton, pick their trash up
and be as happy as a pig in the
proverbial. You can’t beat stuff like
this, and if you call yourself a bottle
digger, you’ve got one—the black glass.
These are absolutely fantastic.
What these are are case gin balls. They
were made like this so that they could
be put in crates and shipped to the New
World.
Again, these were trash, people threw
these away, but whenever I picked up
these old bottles and clay pipes, all
that went through my mind was pirates
because they look like pirate bottles.
Yeah, I just imagined pirates coming into
my local area, having a pint and a smoke,
and going off to the New World and
looking for Spanish treasure. And that’s
exactly what I did. My parents said to me,
“Why Florida? Why Florida?” Because of finds
like this—Spanish silver. Check down that

is an eighth ray out. I know it sounds
corny, but when you find your first piece
of Spanish treasure, you want some more.
This is a silver religious artifact from
the early 1600s. This is one of my favorite
pieces of Spanish silver because it tells a
story. It was supposed to come ashore on
the top of a pole carried by the Spanish,
but it didn’t. It came ashore in a violent
hurricane in 1715 until I came along with
my metal detector. There’s another piece of

Spanish gold. You can actually see the
coral still on it. It’s a squashed ring,
and perhaps it tells a story of the
wrecks too.
I mean, what happened to this? Did it
end up in this shape? Maybe it happened
during the storm, but with all the
Spanish silver I found, all the coins, the
buttons, and buckles, there’s one top pocket
find that really stands out.
And that is my precious. It doesn’t get any
better than this: the best treasure ring

ever found in America—22 and a half carat
Inca gold with nine flawless emeralds. If
only this treasure ring could talk! I
really believe this was part of the
queen’s dowry. This was intended for King
Philip the theft’s betrothed, but it
didn’t make it back to Spain. It made it
back to Pompano Beach, Gary Dre and Zales,
whoo!
And this is the type of find that
motivates me. Not all Spanish treasure

is made of metals. I look for gold and
silver, but I’ll take these any day of
the week. This shell is full of 400-year-
old garnets, and at the bottom, you see
that nice green color? That’s my favorite
green—beautiful Columbian emeralds.
And that’s why I use my twin optical scanners,
because you don’t find these types of
finds when you’re metal detecting. You
got to keep your eye open for a min de
shell line. People say to me, “Would you

be on Oak Island for you?” No, there’s no
Spanish treasure there. I’m really expecting
Spanish treasure there, but I don’t
think so. In my opinion, what I’m looking
for is medieval—two words: Templar, baby.
Because when you pick up a medieval cross
on Oak Island—this is North America,
what is it doing there?
That completely changed my outlook for
Oak Island. I’m thinking French, Spanish.
Yeah, still might be French and Spanish
for hundreds of years before pirates.
We’re talking Templar. That’s my theory. I
believe there’s some kind of Templar
treasure there. So now you’ve seen a few
of my top pocket finds. I can’t wait to
get back to Oak Island. We’re going to be
searching for top pocket finds and Bobby
Dazzlers. Love that zone.