Curse Of Oak Island Season 13 Episode 8: 17th Century Shipwreck Finally Discovered Deep in Swamp?

Hey guys, for more than two centuries, the small wooded island off the coast of Nova Scotia has guarded its secrets with a resilience that borders on the supernatural.
It is a place where history blurs with legend and where the pursuit of truth often leads only to deeper mysteries.

In episode 8 of season 13, the search undertaken by Rick and Marty Lagginina reaches a critical inflection point.
From the deep waterlogged voids of the money pit to the ancient Pete of the swamp and the aristocratic debris of Lot 5, the team unears evidence suggesting a multigenerational effort to conceal a treasure of immense value and perhaps of profound spiritual significance.

The episode opens with an atmosphere of renewed hope and highstakes engineering in the money pit area.
The focus is singularly trained on a new borehole designated H925.
This is not merely another puncture in the Swiss cheese geology of the island.
It is a calculated strike against the solution channel.

This geological anomaly, a natural limestone cavern system running deep beneath the island, has long been theorized as the final resting place of the legendary Chapel Vault.
The narrative logic here is compelling.

In 2017, the H8 shaft struck a significant obstruction at 170 ft, potentially the vault itself before the object was pushed deeper by the drilling casing, vanishing into the soft, unstable Earth.
The team’s hypothesis is that the vault collapsed into the solution channel, a subterranean void capable of swallowing heavy objects whole.

H9.25 25 is drilled specifically to intercept this western side of the channel roughly 200 ft down.
As the drill descends, the tension is palpable.
The geologists and drillers are looking for a specific telltale sign, a transition from solid earth to loose, gooey material.
This material represents the slurry within the void where the treasure might have settled.

When the core sample from 21 and 12 ft is brought to the surface, it confirms their hopes.
The material is viscous and loose, indicating they have hit the targeted void.

However, the money pit is never one to yield its prizes easily.
The subsequent metal detection of the core samples offers a tantalizing but frustrating result.
The detectors scream with hits, chirps indicating the presence of metal.
But visual inspection reveals nothing but mud.

This leads to a dramatic conclusion.
The metal is likely present in microscopic flex or has been ground into the sediment itself, perhaps eroded from a nearby horde of gold or silver.
The decision to bag the entire 10-ft core for laboratory analysis underscores the scientific rigor now applied to the hunt.
They are no longer just looking for chests.
They are looking for the chemical footprint of treasure.

While the heavy machinery roars at the money pit, a quieter but equally significant excavation is underway in the swamp.
Here, the team is peeling back layers of history to understand the maritime infrastructure of the island.

In the southwest corner, near a newly discovered stone feature, Alex Lagginina and the team uncover a piece of shaped wood that defies natural explanation.
The artifact is beveled and curved, bearing the unmistakable marks of human craftsmanship.

Gary Drayton, the team’s metal detection expert, immediately identifies the plankish nature of the find.
The morphology suggests it is a piece of ship’s railing.

This connects to a previous startling discovery in the swamp, a piece of railing carbon dated to the 7th century.
If this new piece correlates with that date, it reinforces the theory that the swamp is not a natural wetland, but a man-made concealment designated to hide an ancient ship.

The intrigue in the swamp deepens with the discovery of wooden survey stakes driven deep into the pete layer.
These are not modern markers.
They are preserved in an anorobic environment suggesting significant age.

Dr. Ian Spooner’s arrival provides the geological context necessary to interpret these finds.
He notes that the stakes were driven into the pete before the sand layer accumulated over them.
This strategraphy implies that human activity occurred here centuries ago, potentially predating the discovery of the money pit by hundreds of years.

Spooner’s request to date the Pete itself is a master stroke of forensic geology.
If the pete is old and the stakes are driven into it, the intersection of those dates will reveal exactly when this mysterious engineering project took place.

Meanwhile, on lot 5, the archaeological investigation into the roundstone feature yields evidence that shifts the narrative from industrial recovery to aristocratic intrigue.

Lair Nan and his team have been uncovering pottery shards, cream wear from 1762 and pearlware from 1775.
These dates firmly place occupation in the mid to late 18th century.

However, it is the discovery of a small black gemstone that transforms the understanding of who was on the island.
Initially appearing to be a simple stone, analysis by scientist Emma Culligan in the lab reveals it to be a diamonte, a piece of highquality paste jewelry.

Specifically, it is a simulated black diamond made of glass mixed with manganese and calcium.
Crucially, its chemical composition lacks the high lead content of later iterations, dating its invention to around 1734 in France.

This is not a trade item used to barter with indigenous peoples.
As Culligan notes, this is a mounted gem, a status symbol worn by the upper class or high-ranking military officers.

The presence of such an item on a remote island in the North Atlantic is baffling unless viewed through the lens of history’s great conflicts.
The dating and French origin align perfectly with the expedition of the Duke Dunveil.

In 1746, the Duke Dunvil led a massive French armada to reclaim Nova Scotia.
The expedition was a catastrophe plagued by storms and disease.
Historical logs suggest one of Dunville’s ships carrying a large cache of treasure may have diverted to a wooded island to bury its cargo before the fleet was decimated.

The discovery of this specific type of French jewelry in the round feature provides tangible physical evidence linking lot 5 to this ill-fated crusade.
It suggests that the stone structures on lot 5 were not merely foundations for settlers, but perhaps a base of operations for a desperate French nobility hiding the wealth of an empire.

Yet, the most chilling discovery of the episode occurs not in the deep earth or the wet swamp, but in the spoils of lot 5.

Rick Lagginina and Gary Drayton sifting through the excavated soil uncover a copper artifact that is folded completely over.
At first glance it appears to be debris.
However, Drayton drawing on his experience in Europe identifies it as a folded coin.

This artifact transcends the material value of the treasure hunt and enters the realm of the spiritual.
The practice of folding a coin is a ritualistic act known as bowing a coin.

Dating back to the medieval period and persisting into the 18th century, a coin was folded as a votive offering to a saint, a talisman to ward off evil or a plea for protection.

The implications of this find are profound.
One does not destroy currency without cause.

If the people working on lot 5, whether they were Templars, French sailors, or English privateeers, felt the need to create a talisman, it suggests they were afraid.
They were engaging in a ritual to ward off bad things.

This aligns with the long-held belief that the treasure of Oak Island is not merely gold, but something of immense religious or historical power.
Something that required spiritual protection as much as physical concealment.

The discovery of the folded coin serves as a thematic bridge for the entire episode.
It unites the disperate activities on the island.

In the money pit, they are drilling for a vault that may contain the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.
In the swamp, they are uncovering a ship that may have carried these relics.
And on lot 5, they find evidence of the fear and reverence the original depositors felt toward their burden.

As the episode concludes, the viewer is left with a synthesis of data that points toward a multi-generational endeavor.
The evidence suggests that Oak Island was not visited once, but many times by different groups.

Templars in the 1200s, unidentified mariners in the 1600s, and the French in the 1700s.
They all seem to be participating in a massive coordinated effort to hide and protect something.

The loose material in the solution channel promises that the team is knocking on the door of the vault.
The survey stakes in the swamp promise a timeline of the island’s industrialization.
The French gemstone proves that high status individuals walked this ground.

But it is the folded coin that lingers in the imagination.
It is a silent testament to the human element of this mystery.

A reminder that whatever lies at the bottom of the money pit was buried by men who looked over their shoulders, fearful of what they were hiding and praying for protection from the very secret they sought to keep.

As the drill rig turns and the sun sets on another day of exploration, the Lagginina brothers are closer than ever.
They have the science, they have the artifacts, and they have the location.

But as the folded coin suggests, they are also walking in the footsteps of men who believed that some secrets are guarded by forces beyond the physical realm.

The mystery of Oak Island is not just about where the treasure is.
It is about what the treasure is and why so many have spent centuries trying to ensure it is never found.

The drilling at H925 continues and with every foot of depth, the past rises to meet the present, promising that the answers are finally within reach.

The implications of the drilling at H925 extend far beyond the immediate recovery of a core sample.
They challenge the very understanding of the island’s subterranean architecture.

For decades, treasure hunters have operated under the assumption that the money pit was a static container, a man-made shaft terminating in a vault.
However, the discovery of the solution channel introduces a dynamic fluid element to the mystery.

If the chapel vault did indeed collapse into this natural void, it suggests the original depositors were either master geologists who utilize the island’s treacherous hydraology as a final fail safe, or that the island itself has actively conspired to swallow the treasure deeper over centuries.

The gooey consistency of the recovered material is not just mud.
It is potential evidence of a liquefaction event that may have relocated the horde laterally, turning the hunt from a vertical dig into a complex 3D pursuit of a moving target.

Furthermore, the connection between the swamp and the money pit is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The wooden survey stakes found in the swamp, preserved perfectly in the anorobic pete, may serve as the surface level triangulation points for the deep underground workings.

If the stone structure in the swamp and the money pit are contemporaneous, it implies a level of logistical coordination that rivals modern industrial projects.

The survey stakes suggest that the swamp was not merely a dumping ground or a hidden harbor, but a carefully calibrated work site where every inch was measured to align with the shafts being dug hundreds of yards away.

This transforms the swamp from a separate area of interest into the potential control center for the entire operation where the blueprints for the money pits location were physically laid out on the earth.

The psychological weight of the artifacts found on lot 5 also warrants deeper scrutiny.

The juxtaposition of the high status French diamonte with the humble folded copper coin creates a vivid portrait of the hierarchy present on the island.

We see the commanders, aristocrats like the Duke Donveil, adorned in imitation gems that signaled their rank and power.

And the laborers, the men who dug the pits and hauled the stone, who carried simple folded coins in their pockets as desperate prayers for safety.

This stratification humanizes the mystery.
It reminds us that while the gold attracts the headlines, the story of Oak Island is fundamentally a story of human struggle where the ambitions of the powerful were built on the backs of superstitious, fearful men working in the dark.

Ultimately, as season 13 progresses, the team is no longer just chasing a legend.
They are dismantling a fortress.

Every bore hole that pierces the solution channel and every trowel that scrapes the pete in the swamp is an act of deconstruction.

The curse of the island has always been its ability to obfuscate, to confuse seekers with flood tunnels and false leads.

But the convergence of data, geological, archaeological, and chemical, is stripping away that camouflage.

The narrative is shifting from if the treasure is there to how it was hidden with such terrifying ingenuity.

As the Legas stare down the barrel of H9 25, they are staring into the abyss that defeated their predecessors.

But this time they are armed with the one thing the island cannot hide from, the undeniable truth of science.