The Curse of Oak Island: Uncovering Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders (Season 11)

[narrator] A new day of fresh excitement and anticipation has begun on Oak Island for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team.

“I guess we’re gonna get a look down the hole?”

“Yes, we are. We’ll see what the camera has to say.”

[narrator] They, along with underwater imaging expert Blaine Carr, are about to begin a two-step operation in the Money Pit area that they hope will reveal the answers that could help solve a 228-year-old treasure mystery.

“So we’re gonna enter the cave today at 140 to 142 feet. Aladdin’s Cave, as you deemed it last year. So what do we hope to see once we get to the bottom?”

“Treasure chests, doubloons. We want to know whether this cave is natural or whether it’s been influenced by people. Secondarily to that, we’d like to see a way in and a way out. The primary targets we were looking for were tunnels, vaults, and of course, any high-density anomalies that could reflect treasure.”

[narrator] One week ago, representatives from Ideon Technologies presented a stunning report on data that had been collected deep underground over the past two years all across the Money Pit area.

“Today, what we’re gonna be discussing are results from the Money Pit, targets of interest.”

[narrator] Five devices known as muon detectors had been placed at various depths in previously drilled boreholes to scan for possible voids, tunnels, and large objects. Incredibly, a number of potential targets were identified, suggesting that there could be multiple treasure deposits buried in the Money Pit area.

“Now, after drilling a new borehole into Aladdin’s Cave, the team will first investigate it using a high-definition camera to look for more definitive evidence that it may have been artificially created and also what it might contain.”

“Okay, lights are on.”

“-You good?”
“-You’re good. Just go for it.”

[narrator] If they are successful, Blaine will then conduct a comprehensive sonar scan to create a detailed map of the feature.

“Okay, we can see the water.”

“[Rick] I mean, we’re gonna run the camera down first. Why not put eyes on that void and see if we see anything, because if we happen to see a feature down there that we could orient off of with the camera, it will be helpful to the 3D mapping sonar. We should almost be to the water by the look of it.”

“Okay.”

“-Now you’re right there.”
“-Keep going.”

[Rick] “So hopefully, this photographic imagery will help us come to a greater understanding of what this cave represents. We’re still seeing the side of the caisson. This is going down. Where are we at?”

“Okay, right there. Stop.”

“-We’re right into it now.”
“-Yup.”
“-There.”
“That’s the edge of the caisson.”

“Okay, rotate around.”

“Yeah, those are the teeth right there.”

“You want him to lower it another foot?”

“Yeah, can you go down another six inches to a foot?”

“There we go.”
“A little bit more.”
“And… stop there.”

“So this would be the actual cavity here.”
“Gotta be a couple feet in by now.”
“Yeah, well, there’s the wall.”

“-Isn’t that the ledge?”
“-Yeah.”
“It is a ledge.”

[Marty] “As we break into the cavity, we can start to see the walls, the sides of this cave. So I would think there’s something else there, but that something else could be covered with silt. It might not be obvious. I want to get under that ledge. Steve, can you really slowly lower it like three inches?”

“There you go.”

[Rick] “That looks like it’s open, to me.”

[Blaine] “Yeah. Now you have a much bigger opening.”

“Good that it’s open because that means you can map it.”
“Yeah.”

[Rick] “The expansiveness of Aladdin’s Cave, it’s—it’s quite interesting, very exciting. We’d see some features. It’s certainly very plausible that the camera is not seeing something which may be on the floor of the cave.”

“Do you want to lower it down a little more and see what you can see on the bottom?”
“We need to see exactly where the bottom is without any doubt.”

“Go.”

“I think we’re facing down now. So, Steve, just very slowly, another six inches or so.”

“-Six?”
“-Yup.”

“That’s good. A little bit more. Same again, please.”

“-There. What—whoa, whoa, whoa.”
“-Hold up.”

“Spin it around, 360.”

“-There. What’s that?”
“-What’s that?”

“I can’t tell if that’s the bottom or…”
“-I’ll wait for it to settle out.”

“There we go, there’s something.”

“Visibility is actually better than we’ve seen.”

“What’s this over here on the right?”
“There’s something sticking out.”

“-Right there.”
“This piece right in here. The way the shape is. It’s kind of angular.”

“-That flat thing, you mean?”
“-Yeah.”

“That’s a piece of debris or something. This is a very exciting thing, and it’s important to see whether it’s manmade or not. I think there’s a chance the treasure might be placed there, which would answer a lot of questions.”

[narrator] After obtaining video one day ago of possible manmade workings some 150 feet underground in a large cavern known as Aladdin’s Cave…

“We can tie a rope to it. Let’s do that. Start putting it down the hole that way.”

“Yeah.”

[narrator] They are now scanning it with a sonar device in order to determine its exact dimensions and to also see if there are tunnels leading into the feature.

“Okay, Scott. Good. Okay, going in.”

[narrator] The EchoLogger DASS710 sonar device emits high-intensity radar pulses that reflect off of objects and barriers, such as the walls of a cavern, in order to produce a three-dimensional map of the underwater environment.

“One hundred and forty feet down hole right now. Going in and let’s look at this.”

[dramatic music playing]

[Blaine] “Got it in a position where it’s getting returns.”

“-Starting to spit out data.”
“I see it. Yup.”

[man] “What we’re seeing looks like the outline or perimeter of the cavity.”

“How long will it be before we have kind of a picture to look at?”

“I think what we’ll do is we’re gonna let it run, and when we come back in the morning, hopefully everything will be finished and we’re gonna see up into this cavity.”

[Marty] “All will be revealed. I can wait till tomorrow to get good data. Let’s let it do its thing.”

[narrator] The following morning…

“-Hey, Rick.”
“-Hey, Rick.”
“-Hey, everybody.”
“-We’re all eager to see what you’ve got to show us.”

“Okay, so the view that we’re looking at here is looking straight down.”

“-Okay.”
“So we’re gonna try to just slide it up into a 3D image.”

“-Oh.”
“You can see the yellow-green.”

“-Mm-hmm.”
“[Blaine] That’s sloping down. This darker red is the wall in between us and the floor of the cavern. That being said, we can’t see the bottom.”

“Uh, the aspect of the sonar looking out, the wall is blocking us from seeing any further down.”

“-Mm-hmm.”
“What I can see, see this blue line’s crossing over what look like two gaps?”

“-Yeah.”
“-Mm-hmm.”

“[Blaine] Looks like an opening through here. So I think you have the potential for manmade ingress into a natural cavern.”

“Right.”

“What’s the size of the cavity?”

“Without being able to see the bottom, I just don’t know the right answer, ’cause it’s on a slope. So, it varies. It does slope off in one direction, about 30 degrees. But if anything was gonna be there, I mean, gravity’s gonna take everything to the bottom of that slope.”

“Right. Something could be buried in there.”

“-For sure.”
“-Maybe the treasure.”

“I suppose it’s quite possible.”

[Rick] “I’m pleasantly surprised that there might be a way into the cave. It’d be even more interesting if we saw some manmade feature in there. Perhaps it’s buried in the silts on the floor. It’s an interesting thing to investigate. Something that makes you go, ‘Hmm, we need to see more.'”

“Yeah. There’s some indication that the cave has some things that aren’t natural cave-like. It could be some sort of treasure chamber. That’s why we’re spending all this money and time investigating it, and it checks a lot of the boxes. Let’s put it this way. We can’t walk away from this without knowing what it is. It’s unique.”

“So what I would do at this point if we’re really interested in seeing something else is we would move over about…”

“-five, six feet.”
“-Mm-hmm.”
“Put another hole down so the sonar can now see back into this area and tell us, are we indeed in an isolated cavern, or is there an opening?”

“-Right.”
“And see if this carries on.”

“Yeah.”
“I would dearly love to put a hole there, but I don’t know. Rick, what do you think? What do you wanna do?”

“I think you have to put another hole in to get a different perspective.”

“-Yup.”
“But you can’t walk away. You have to… we have to exploit it as much as we can.”

“All right. I think we’re all in agreement as to that particular point. Let’s get some more data.”

“-Sounds good.”
“All right, back to it.”
“Let’s go. We’re gonna find that treasure.”

“I agree.”