Rare Iron Strap Leads to Big Clues (Season 12) | The Curse of Oak Island

-GARY: Here we go. Look at this.
-TERRY: Oh, wow.
-GARY: That looks like a strap, doesn’t it?
-TERRY: Yeah, that’s–
-GARY: Yeah, that is a strap.
-TERRY: Oh, my lordy.

NARRATOR:
It is a critical moment for the Oak Island team.
At a depth of more than 70 feet in the RP-1 Shaft, they are finding clues that suggest part of the fabled Money Pit treasure may soon be within their reach.

-GARY: That’s sweet, mate.
-TERRY: Absolutely.
-GARY: We’re on a treasure hunt, we’re looking for treasure chests, and we sure know they used to have iron straps around them. This is a great sign.
Now, this is really cool, mate. That is an old-looking strap. It looks like it’s wrought iron, and we don’t find many pieces like this that have got two straps put together. Overlapping, and there seems to be a rivet in there.
Wow.
-GARY: You’re right, mate. That’s for reinforcement.
If you found an old treasure chest or, like, a-a lockbox…
-TERRY: Yep.
-GARY: …you would have something like this, this strap around it.
-TERRY: For sure. A large box has to be reinforced.
-GARY: Yeah.
-TERRY: Imagine the weight of gold.
-GARY: Yeah. Love it, mate.

Now, I remember a piece of iron strap that was found on Lot 5. Maybe we have found another connection between the Money Pit and Lot 5.
We won’t know that until we have this tested, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
-TERRY: It’s tantalizing, my friend.
-GARY: Yep. I’m hoping Rick’s right, mate, this Rick Pick One turns out to be the treasure.
-TERRY: Hear, hear.
-GARY: All right, mate. I’ll put it in the bag.

NARRATOR:
Later that afternoon…

-MARTY: Okay. We’re here to talk about this item found on Lot 5, right?
-RICK: Yes.

NARRATOR:
Rick and Marty Lagina join other members of the team in the lab to receive a report on the believed nail that was found one day ago on Lot 5.

-HELEN: This one is different because most of the ones we find are, like, corroded bits of nail, very corroded. This one popped out of the ground looking almost perfect.
-MARTY: Yeah.
-HELEN: So, I brought it in for Emma to test and run her analysis on it.
-MARTY: And?
-EMMA: And it is older. I will concur.

NARRATOR:
Earlier today, archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan scanned the artifact using the Skyscan 1273 CT Scanner, a device which emits X-ray radiation to produce a three-dimensional image of its finer details.

In addition, she also examined it with the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, or XRF, which uses gamma rays to determine an object’s elemental composition.

-EMMA: It’s not entirely a nail. I’d call it more of like a pin?
-HELEN: They’re iron pins.
-JACK: Okay.
-EMMA: But the cross section is square, so it is hand-wrought, not machine-made.
-MARTY: Mm-hmm.
-EMMA: Compositionally, it’s very clean. There’s minimal impurities.
-MARTY: Yeah. Everything suggests an earlier date.
-MARTY: But in general, the purer the iron, the more it lasts?
-EMMA: Yeah.
-HELEN: Generally speaking.
-EMMA: I think the big indicator was the aluminum-silicon ratio. I’ve seen that characteristic in colonial American metals. So, yeah, late 1600s to mid-1700s.
-JACK: All right. That date range fits with William Phips, and the date range that would fit with him possibly being on Oak Island.
-RICK: Yeah.

NARRATOR:
In 1687, Sir William Phips made two historic salvages of the Concepción, a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of the Dominican Republic in 1641 while carrying 100 tons of silver, gold and jewels.

After delivering 34 tons of recovered valuables to the English crown from his first mission, curiously, Phips claimed that he only found five tons more on his second trip.

This has led many to speculate that he and a Masonic associate named Captain Andrew Belcher may have hidden the missing riches on Oak Island, based on their secret knowledge of an ancient vault that had been buried in the Money Pit more than three centuries earlier by members of the Knights Templar.

-MARTY: I mean, Emma, I would suggest, when you get time with everything else you’re doing, to compare the metallurgy there to the Phips collection. Let us know if that matches.
-EMMA: Absolutely.
-MARTY: Okay.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that this artifact might be related to the numerous iron tools previously found on Lot 5 that were scientifically linked to the birthplace of Sir William Phips?

But more importantly, might these discoveries, and older ones that have been dated to as early as the 14th century, help explain why the team has found evidence that multiple treasures could be buried in the Money Pit area and even in the swamp?

-RICK: We refer to the historical narrative of the island all the time, right? Well, let’s follow the possible Phips connection.
-MARTY: Okay.
-RICK: Anyway, we’ve got work to do.
-TEAM: Let’s all get out there.
-RICK: Thank you.
-LAIRD: See you later.
-RICK: We’ve got to be getting close.
-MARTY: We are getting close, I think.

NARRATOR:
Later that afternoon in the Money Pit area, Rick Lagina and other members of the team monitor the excavation in RP-1 as it closes in on the legendary Shaft Six tunnel some 118 feet underground.

-STEVE: This is what we’ve been waiting for.
-CRAIG: Yeah.
-RICK: That is a lot of wood.

NARRATOR:
It is a potentially historic moment in the Money Pit area for Rick Lagina and other members of the Oak Island team.

-STEVE: So this is probably Shaft Six.
-CRAIG: Yeah.
-CRAIG: It’s most likely Shaft Six.
-RICK: Yep.

NARRATOR:
At a depth of some 105 feet in the RP-1 caisson, they have just recovered evidence of the 1861 structure known as Shaft Six…

-RICK: Could these wedges be tunnel wood?
-CRAIG: It’s possible.

NARRATOR:
…and the possible remains of an adjacent tunnel containing wooden debris and potential treasure.

-RICK: When the collapse happens, it probably tore…
-SCOTT: Yes. Agreed.
-RICK: …some of the tunnel apart, and that would come first.
-RICK: The wood I’m seeing is fractured in itself, two distinctly different types. And so, I feel it represents a collapse feature, and that is exactly what we’re looking for.

Now, every time the hammer grab drops the material, your excitement goes up. And the hope continues to persist that you will find the treasure.

-SCOTT: There you go. Look at that. Adze-cut wood. This is early on. This-this could represent the first cribbing in the Money Pit.
-RICK: That’s cool.
-SCOTT: Certainly does not fit with that dimensional lumber.
-RICK: No, it doesn’t.

NARRATOR:
Although the team was expecting to encounter the Shaft Six tunnel several feet below the current depth of RP-1…

-TEAM: Let’s see what this is.
-RICK: Yeah, that’s a lot of wood.

NARRATOR:
…is it possible that they are closing in on the legendary riches that treasure hunters have been seeking for more than two centuries?

-VANESSA: Hey, guys. These ones just came out of 108 feet.
-VANESSA: So, Rick, what’s that telling us?
-RICK: Vanessa, if I knew, I’d tell you.
-VANESSA: (laughs)
-RICK: Well, you’re smiling.
-VANESSA: This is something.
-RICK: Yeah, it’s cool.
-TEAM: It’s-it’s, you know, it’s– yeah, it’s all a good sign.

-STEVE: So, this wood, we believe, could be original Money Pit