The Curse of Oak Island: STUNNING EVIDENCE of Centuries Old Cargo (Season 11)

[Rick] Bill, pull that back,
if you would.
[Billy] Yep.

[narrator] In the southeast
corner of the swamp,
Rick Lagina, along
with his nephew Alex,
Gary Drayton,
and Billy Gerhardt
continue searching
for important clues
near the potentially
500-year-old stone road.
Keep Gary busy. [chuckles]

[narrator] Since first uncovering
this massive feature in 2020,
the team has found
critical clues nearby,
such as ancient pieces
of wooden barrels
and a stone pathway,
suggesting that it may
have been used long ago
to unload valuable cargo
onto Oak Island.
Now the team hopes to find more
of the stone road
and any valuable clues
that may help solve
the 229-year-old mystery.

There’s more chain.
[Gary] Oh, look at
that chain, yeah.
More chain.
Good eye.

[dramatic music playing]
Yep, look.
That’s all connected.
And this looks old.
-That does, yeah.
-Yeah.

[Gary] This is definitely
not factory-made.
This is crude.
Hey, Uncle Rick!
You might want
to come look at this.
Seems like the larger one
would be maybe to anchor that
and the smaller ones’d be
for whatever you’re doing.
[Gary] Yeah.
It’s hard to tell because
of all the crusty stuff.
There you go, mate.
If we’re looking for signs
of loading and unloading,
you’d need some chains
like this.

[Rick] Wow.
Yeah, that’s very cool.
That’s a great find, but there’s
more here to be found.
-So…
-[both] Yeah.

[Rick] I got a few other things
to check in on.
You know, good luck.
-Okay.
-And, uh…
-Good hunting.
-Take it from here.
-See you soon.
-See ya.
See ya, mate.

[Alex] Okay, let’s go through
some more.

[dramatic music playing]
[metal detector beeping]

[Gary] I got an hit!
I think that could be
in that wood.
-[beeping]
-[Gary] On it.
-[beeping]
-It’s on top!
Yeah, there’s definitely
some iron.
You can see it.
Iron oxide.

[Alex] Yep.
-Might be the top of the spike.
-[beeping]
-I’ll set this aside too.
-Yeah, please.

[Alex] Let’s see what else
we can get out.
[Gary] Yeah.
[beeping]
Yeah, we still got another hit
in here.
Thought there might be.
See if it’s there.
[beeping]
[beeping and warbling]
That’s it.
[beeping]
[beeping rapidly]
-Oh, we got some…
-[beeping rapidly]
[laughs] Look!

[Alex] Oh!
[Gary] That’s the pointy end
of the spike.
Look at the black spike
in the wood.
This is one of those
old row’s end spikes,
by the look of the top,
that bevel on it?
[Alex] And that would
make it pretty old.
[Gary] Oh, yeah, yeah.
This is old. Yeah.
A spike like that looks like
it’s from the 1700s or older.
Great.

[Gary] This actually might be
a small lug ship’s spike,
a wharf pin.
This corner of the swamp is
the one that keeps on giving.
It might indicate that it was
part of a structure.
Yeah, it’ll help us
with our database.

[narrator] An iron spike
embedded in wood?
Could Billy Gerhardt be correct
that they offer evidence
of a buried structure?
Before his passing
in 2016,
legendary Oak Island
treasure hunter Fred Nolan
reported to Rick Lagina
that he had once found evidence
of a dam feature
in this same area,
a dam that may have been used
to artificially
create the swamp.
Could the team
have just found evidence
of what Fred believed is hidden
beneath the south shore road?

[Alex] This is gonna mean a lot
to my Uncle Rick.
So I wanna see
what we keep digging up.
Well, that was
a heck of a dig, mate.
-We got a shipload of finds.
-[chuckles]
We’re gonna be taking a lot of
artifacts back to the lab.
-[Alex] Absolutely.
-[Billy] Yeah.

[narrator] In the southeast
corner of the swamp…
Lots of good stuff.
…Jack Bailey has joined
metal detection expert
Gary Drayton
and Billy Gerhardt
to continue searching
for additional clues
and evidence
of buried structures
near the massive stone road.

[beeping]
That is worth digging.

[dramatic music playing]
[beeping and warbling]
[beeping intensifies]
Think it’s out.
It’s a little bit of some
scrappy signal, but…
[beeping]
See what we got.
[beeping]
-[beeping]
-[Gary] Coming out.
-There it is.
-Oh, wow!
And we have got
something really, really cool.
-Yeah.
-Look at the size of that.
I believe that that
is some kind of fastener.
-Yeah!
-That looks like it’s raw iron.
You know, we’re talking
1700s or older with this.
Brilliant!

[narrator] A potentially ancient
iron fastener?
Could it be related
to the stone road,
which may have once been part
of a ship’s wharf?
Or could it be more evidence
of the buried dam feature
that Fred Nolan claimed
to have found in this area
more than three decades ago?
I can’t wait until it’s
cleaned up in the lab
and we can see
what it really is.
That is a beauty!
Come here, me little beauty.
Oh! All right, we’ll bag it
and keep scouting.

[Jack] Sweet find, Gary.

[intense music playing]

[narrator] The following morning…
[Rick] Good day, good day.
How are you?

[narrator] …Rick, Craig,
and members of the team
meet with blacksmithing expert
Carmen Legge
in the Interpretive Centre
to get his assessment
of several artifacts
that had been recovered
this week
near the stone road
in the swamp.

Where would you like to start?
[Jack] This fastener
that’s inside the wood.

[mysterious music playing]
[Carmen] I’m looking at it
and I see one,
uh, two handmade nails
inserted along inside
of the bigger item.
Any idea on what it might’ve
been used for?
Just based on that?
A lot of times, uh, things were
driven into rawls,
where you needed to hang, um,
lanyards for light
in tight spaces,
like underground
to illuminate the space.

[narrator] Could Carmen Legge
be correct?
That this fastener
may have been used to aid
in the building
of a structure in the southeast
corner of the swamp?
If so, could it be
more evidence
that the brackish bog
was artificially made,
as Fred Nolan believed?

[Jack] It makes the next finds
we’re gonna show you
even more interesting.
This is a big piece of iron.
Okay.
This is not, uh, a spike.
It’s a tool.

[Rick] Oh. So is it a chisel?
-What is it?
-No.
Yup, yup. Might set planking
in a ship, perhaps.
In the timber construction
of the ship.
Yes.
What date would you give
something like this?

[Carmen] Oh, um…
I’m gonna say
16 to the late 1700s.

[Rick] There’s always been
the speculation that
a ship foundered in the swamp
and was covered up.
So why were they there?
And are there any artifacts
at a greater depth?
Maybe, Craig, you can help me
sort of straighten this out.

[Craig] Now, okay.

[Carmen] This hook is very old.
And why is that?
Because the…
hooks made in
later time periods
had a curve in the shank.
This has a straight shaft
coming down
and then the heavy curl
on the end here.
So I would say that is
definitely not past 1650.
-Whoa.
-[Carmen] Yeah.
[Rick] Wow.