Exploring 200 Feet Down… and Finding a Legend (Season 12) | The Curse of Oak Island

TERRY:
Here’s some more information for us. How you doing, John? Got the solid numbers there, do ya?

JOHN:
We’re at 142.

TERRY:
142.

JACK:
142.

NARRATOR:
Jack Begley and geologist Terry Matheson are monitoring the dig in the TOT-1 shaft as it heads deeper towards the solution channel and hopefully valuables over 200 feet underground.

TERRY:
And so I’ll take another measurement in about an hour and see what we’re gaining per hour.

JOHN:
Great. Thanks a lot, John.

TERRY:
All right. Thanks, guys. Gettin’ close.

JACK:
There’s a lot of wood coming up out of the hole.

TERRY:
There’s a ton of it, my friend. We’re chewing through the side of the Chappell Shaft.

NARRATOR:
In 1931, Melbourne Chappell, along with his father William and treasure hunter Frederick Blair, constructed a 157-foot shaft in the Money Pit in a bold but unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the believed vault that William and Frederick had discovered in 1897.

TERRY:
If we have to push it or chase it to, uh, 215, we’ve got all the caisson material here we need to do that.

NARRATOR:
The fact that the team believes they’re digging through the Chappell Shaft is an encouraging sign. But now the burning question is, once TOT-1 descends below 200 feet, will it encounter the legendary vault?

---

NARRATOR:
Later that afternoon…

MARTY:
What is that?

GARY:
This looks like it’s part of a tool.

MARTY:
Is it?

GARY:
Yeah.

NARRATOR:
It is an exciting moment for the Oak Island team in the Money Pit area.

GARY:
That could be a really old tool, mate.

MARTY:
Yeah.

NARRATOR:
After reaching a depth of more than 160 feet in the TOT-1 shaft, which is deeper than any previous treasure hunters have ever explored, Marty Lagina and metal detection expert Gary Drayton have just made a potentially important discovery.

GARY:
You could see the striations in it. Look at that. That’s some old iron there.

MARTY:
Yeah, it is. ‘Cause we’re below the Chappell Shaft.

GARY:
Yeah. Exactly.

MARTY:
This is good.

GARY:
Yeah. That could be a really old tool, mate. I bet that’s like an old pickax. A tip of a pickax, maybe?

MARTY:
Do you see how it comes down?

GARY:
Yeah. There’s a bit of a curve like that.

NARRATOR:
A possible fragment of a handwrought pickax? Found at a depth of over 160 feet in TOT-1?

GARY:
What a sweet find.

NARRATOR:
In 2019, while excavating a shaft less than five feet to the northeast known as RF-1…

GARY:
It’s an old pickax. A broken pickax.

NARRATOR:
…the Oak Island team recovered part of a similar pickax.

TERRY:
That’s something, man.

NARRATOR:
And just two weeks ago, while visiting Malta…

DOUG:
It’s just absolutely incredible.

NARRATOR:
…where the team was shown a vast network of 16th-century underground tunnels with features that matched the reported original design of the Money Pit…

DOUG:
This was found below 145 feet in the ground.

NARRATOR:
…historian Matthew Balzan suggested that these exact kinds of tools were used by the Knights of Malta.

TERRY:
This is the beginning. Yeah, I’ll just finish this little area.

GARY:
Yeah! Something.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that Marty and Gary have just discovered another ancient tunneling tool that may help the team identify who was behind the Oak Island mystery?

MARTY:
That is a very old piece of a tool of some sort. It’s all wrought iron.

ALEX:
Yep.

MARTY:
Perhaps the most significant thing from TOT-1, so far, is this big chunk of metal that Gary and I find. We’re well out of any searcher area at that point, so what is this metal artifact doing that deep?

GARY:
You feel how heavy that is?

MARTY:
Yeah. That’s older.

MARTY:
So this thing could tell a story. It might not be the one thing we were looking for, but it could be a sort of one thing that really matters.

RICK:
Here comes big brother.

MARTY:
I see you guys had all the fun.

GARY:
We got one thing worth talking about. We believe we’re below the Chappell Shaft a little bit. Considering we’re in a relatively modern shaft, this looks way out of place. Look at the handwrought nature of it.

GARY:
I know me old iron, mate. That might be depositor.

TERRY:
Really?

RICK:
That’s cool.

GARY:
So, that’s an oldie there. Can’t wait to see what Carmen Legge says about that as well.

MARTY:
It makes you think we’re on the right track.

SCOTT:
Absolutely.

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ADAM:
Hi, everybody.

SCOTT/OTHERS:
Adam. How’s everybody doing?

BILLY:
Hey.

ADAM:
Well, I’ll give you a bit of an update. I think we’re gonna call ‘er for the day here.

TERRY:
Yeah, that makes sense.

ADAM:
We’re at about 171 feet. So, that’s where we wanted to be.

MARTY:
Great. Tomorrow could be the day.

ADAM:
Yeah. So we’ll see everybody in the morning, bright and early.

MARTY:
Yeah, I imagine.

TERRY:
Bright and early.

ALL:
Thanks, guys. Thanks, Adam. See you.

TERRY:
Into the solution channel we go.

MARTY:
Into the void.

---

RICK:
I have every expectation, based on this location and all the history, all the narrative, all the things that have been found to date. We should be hopeful.

MARTY:
The quicker we can go to bed, the quicker we can get up and finish this.

ALL:
Let’s go. All right.

GARY:
We got a really good chance tomorrow.

TERRY:
Sounds good to me.

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CARMEN:
Well, look it here. H-How is everybody?

SCOTT/OTHERS:
Hey, Carmen. Good. How are you?

NARRATOR:
Rick and other members of the team welcome blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge to the Oak Island lab.

RICK:
This came out of what we’re calling The One Thing.

NARRATOR:
They are eager to have him examine the believed pickax that was found one day ago in the TOT-1 spoils.

RICK:
We have sought to find irrefutable proof of men working in the Money Pit at depth, and lo and behold, this item comes out.

GARY:
The interesting thing about this artifact is the depth. It was really deep.

CARMEN:
Okay. Well, it’s a fairly, uh, chunky, uh, piece.

RICK:
Mm-hmm.

CARMEN:
Broken off from some other piece that extended this way. A-Also, if you look at it, you’ll see the grains, and the grains are starting to fold on the end here. And when you beat onto it repeatedly, they do start to fold up in a nice pattern-like. So this was repeatedly banged onto something.

RICK:
That something, could you infer that it was stone versus metal, or not?

CARMEN:
Oh, yes, it was definitely stone.

OTHERS:
Definitely stone. Rocks. Hard ground, whatever.

EMMA:
Emma, do you have a scan on this?

EMMA:
Yeah. So, this is actually a cross section of that iron piece. So, there was, like, a crack.

CARMEN:
Okay. So, it is a tool. It could be part of a pickax. A very heavy, old pickax. There would have been something coming out this way, ’cause it broke off.

CARMEN:
The only time I see primitive mining tools that were this shape and this size was from the 1500s. Maybe early 1600s but not any more modern than that.

GARY:
So, it was a tool that was used for tunneling?

CARMEN:
Yeah, getting rid of rocks or smashing rocks up. Yeah. It’s a digging tool.

NARRATOR:
In the Oak Island laboratory, blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge has just shared his assessment that the pickax recovered from more than 160 feet deep in the TOT-1 shaft could predate the discovery of the Money Pit by nearly three centuries.

EMMA:
So, based on the composition, we got potassium, we got phosphorous, sulfur, magnesium. So, based on the impurities I’m seeing here, these are indicative of, I’d say, between 1500s and 1700s as well.

OTHERS:
Wow. So, it’s way before the story of the Money Pit. 1790s. Absolutely.

RICK:
This represents something very early, a tool such as this having been used in rock. The dates seem to line up with the Knights of Malta having a presence in Nova Scotia. It’s all possibly confirming that this location for the TOT-1 caisson is an area of original work. This could be a very important connection that needs to be followed up on. I think we may be close to treasure.

NARRATOR:
Has the team found a tool that was used in an operation to hide something of great value in the original Money Pit? If so, might it represent another critical clue that may connect the Knights of Malta and priceless religious treasures to the Oak Island mystery?

MARTY:
I mean, my big takeaway from that is the amount of work, the amount of abuse that that took. So, that really speaks to how much labor it took to do whatever it is they were doing, so…

RICK:
A long, long time ago.

MARTY:
Yes.

RICK:
Carmen, this is, uh, is quite revealing. I love the fact that your approach, your perspective and Emma’s perspective and Laird’s perspective has come together. It’s gonna take all of us to do that, so, Carmen, we thank you for your participation.

CARMEN:
Very good.

RICK:
Thank you, uh, but, again, we need to get back to work, so…

ALL:
Yeah. Thanks, everybody. See you later. Very good. See you later, mate.