The Curse of Oak Island (2014–…): Season 3, Episode 8 - Phantoms of the Deep - full transcript

Tonight on the curse of Oak Island

there's a structure in the swamp fred

said it's somewhere between here and on

there let's find it what do you make of

that right there look at this oh yeah we

did find something thumb convinced it's

a record

look at all the targets in your head and

eyeline there's a triangle on top of the

triangle where was the point it's

actually pointing to the stone triangle



on the island

there is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for an

incredible treasure for more than 200

years so far they have found bits of

gold chain a stone slab with strange

symbols carved into it more than a 17th

century Spanish coin to date six men

have died trying to solve the mystery

and according to legend

we'll have to die before the treasure
can be found

into the wardroom we go I thought the

war room was a hint open this is the

original war room while the Oak Island



team continues their search for a

qualified diver to help them get to the

bottom of borehole 10x Marty lagina his

son Alex and his business partner Craig

tester have invited side-scan sonar

experts Mike Roberts and Dave Delaney to

join them for an important meeting at

Marty and Craig's offices in Traverse

City Michigan

they had interests in diving around Oak

Island so I thought we'd see what

they're thinking about doing and showing

us and then we can see if we can

incorporate it together I don't see why

we can't mm-hmm so it'd be great to see

what you got yeah well I'll show you in

a nutshell here Craig in addition to

being commercial divers Mike Roberts and

Dave Delaney have more than 50 years of

combined experience in the use of

advanced underwater visualization

technology and you guys ever run

sub-bottom profiler

oh yeah we're in some other profilers

all around okay what would a sub baton

profiler show you well

it's designed to show you anything below

the surface at the bottom you know down

to what depends on the bottom makeup

actually the one we ran was probably

showing us 10 15 feet down sub bottom

profilers send sound pulses that not

only bounce off of the ocean floor but

also penetrate the layers of sediment

below

creating a three-dimensional model of

natural features while also identifying

possible man-made objects a few years

ago this is where we did our diving here

and it's only around 57 feet

we were down scanning it and we did find

something on the bottom unconvinced as a

wreck of something now what it is I

don't know a wreck off the coast of Oak

Island is it possible that the Oak

Island treasure may not be located on

the island after all but just offshore

after we found it like a whole filing

typically does do you skipped here then

we would pack the next year

good annoying record if it couldn't find

it maybe because it gets melted over but

I know it's there self changes on the

bottom all the time then what I'm hoping

is it because of the winter we had down

there with the winds and everything and

live seas maybe it's cleared off the

bottom a little bit that way that would

be worth finding yeah it is well-known

that the waters of Mahone Bay where Oak

Island is located were once part of the

trade route between Europe and the new

world in the 16th and 17th centuries it

was also here during the height of

piracy that merchant ships and the

valuable cargo they carried fell victim

to attack and plunder

could finding evidence of a shipwreck in

these waters offer a connection to the

stories about buried treasure being on

Oak Island Mike and I teamed up and

we're hoping to go back there again this

year and located so what are you doing

different this time well we've got a

higher resolution sooner side scan sonar

we are trying to figuratively leave no

stone unturned out here

the fact that the island how it looks

today is not how it looked a hundred

years ago 200 years ago 300 years ago

the shoreline has changed markedly we

want to make sure we do everything we

legally can to search the seafloor too

and so these guys have state-of-the-art

side-scan sonar and their divers too so

we're going to you know try and gather

that data and see where it might lead us

okay yeah let's do it let's work

together let's figure this out look

forward to it Maceo Nova Scotia

back on Oak Island Rick lagina and

Island historian Charles Barkhouse have

begun the team's second joint drilling

operation with Island resident Fred

Nolan what do we got oh these are the

first course and it's very cool

last week shortly after forging a

cooperative agreement with Fred

which ended more than four decades of a

bitter rivalry between the 87 year-old

treasure hunter and dan Blankenship time

to quit the Rick Marty and their

partners explored a site on Fred's

property where based on his detailed

surveys friend believed a man-made

tunnel or chamber lies buried beneath

several feet of hard slate

although the search for the mysterious

void ended unsuccessfully the team did

uncover something of potentially great

significance a large wooden stake look

how nice and shaped it is definitely

man-made

today Rick has hired Logan drilling from

Stewie act Nova Scotia to drill at a

second spot on Fred's property just

north of the mysterious triangle-shaped

swamp where Fred believes an even

greater discovery could be made the next

hole has a curious history it's what

fred has come to call the old well he

had done some survey working the swamp

once they got out of the swamp

they were probing and they hit a hollow

sound they cleared the material away

there's about an inch inch and a half

two inches of slate covering this

depression it's actually a well rocked

up well

adding intrigue to their search is the

fact that the land they are on once

belonged to Anthony graves a mysterious

mid 19th century landowner who was known

to pay his debts with ancient Spanish

silver coins

that's number one

was that twenty to nine transitions to a

slate clay and then at twenty eight nine

she turns over in just slate and we're

in the slate all the way now these are

the breaks in the course

using a three-inch coring bit drillers

Harold Fraser and Jason pike will be

taking samples every six feet as they

carefully search for evidence of the

ancient Wow

and there really is a room a void a

tunnel it's exactly what we were looking

for void in the slate

fifty to four right there okay

beautiful stuff when it goes through the

slate doesn't

aesthetically it's pretty but pretty

it's not war luck or no Harold no voyage

Eddie

no boys no oh I don't know what a hit

one if I go through a void I'll see it

in in the drill string and plus the

gauge is right

unlike the eastern portion of Oak Island

which is comprised of bedrock made of

naturally porous and hydride the western

portion where the team is exploring

today is made up of hard finely layered

slave a substance not known to have

occurrences of natural voice beneath it

you might have what might have missed

you in her hands

okay let's hop that broke on bottom zabi

we've got a void see that that doesn't

even match Darren right right what's the

possible significance of that well that

tell you it almost tells me that there's

a void or something guys that parish

should match up the back right huh it

doesn't they don't seem to know has the

Oak Island team really discovered an

underground void on Fred Nolan's

property a void just below a layer of

hard slate

while searching for an ancient well just

north of the swamp on Fred Nolan's

property Rick lagina may have just made

an important discovery here we are we're

at 106 feet and then no core out of the

hole and then a small piece at add 111

add it up it's 5 feet of void

oh here's Fred we got some news for you

Fred come on here I hope it's good news

well

we need some for those yes we do

Harold thinks he hit a void between 106

and 111

yeah five foot boy this was the core of

that came out after the void

like that

it was like they took an elixir of youth

in that moment he was animated he was

reaching down looking at the core he

repeated several times five feet five

feet of boy that's incredible that's

incredible

if this turns into something the

breakthrough I know kind of that

everyone is long sought and long desire

that's a pretty wonderful date although

sharing the news of a possible

breakthrough with Fred Nolan brings Rick

lagina great satisfaction there is

another person is eager to tell his

brother Marty hello got something

strange happened here at 106 X it would

seem that we have a five foot boy yeah I

mean I asked Harold his word is it's

very unusual enjoy it for 30 years you

know would have been nice if there were

some kind of human artifact came up

there like you know nothing

look it's curious I mean that's what we

were looking for avoiding this late

great although it will take further

investigation to confirm whether or not

the team has located a man-made tunnel

or cavern one thing is for sure Rick

Marty and the team's agreement with Fred

Nolan is starting to yield results okay

no gold but surely interesting

after receiving evidence that Fred

Nolan's information could very well lead

to even more exciting discoveries jack

begley along with Marty lagina son Alex

and Charles Barkhouse travel 48 miles

north of Oak Island to the Bedford

Institute of Oceanography in Halifax we

got in contact with dr. Bob Gordon and

he's an oceanographer

he's gonna go over a sea bottom map it

supposedly shows artifacts on it that

mr. Nolan was talking about it'd be good

to get his opinion on I think so too

hi welcome to Bedford institution over

in Charles Bob Courtney hooks it's nice

to meet you Bob Alex I'm Jack Jack

pleasure to have you here

no thanks very much we're gonna go down

the library and take a look at the

materials great okay the way dr.

Courtney is an expert in recording and

studying bathymetric s-- the topography

of underwater surfaces Alex Charles and

Jack have come here to follow up on

information about the mysterious

triangle-shaped swamp that was shared by

Fred Nolan during a recent meeting in

the war room is there a point of

interest in the swamp oh yeah there's a

lot of interesting points but they're

hard to get to understand about the

swamp we do understand that yeah you had

made mentioned that at the point at

which you tried to drain the swamp that

you had seen these Timbers a timbered

wall now where exactly did you see that

on the beach itself it's it's back there

we're gonna find the entrance they

appear to be sawn Timbers about that

square one was on top of the other and

they went down for 12 feet did you not

expose any of it just a little top to

see that see that they were square how

wide did you think it was it looked to

me about 12 feet

a timbered wall between the swamp and

the beach could this be the irrefutable

proof the team has been looking for that

the swamp is in fact man-made I believe

this thing is there and it's findable

and if it's findable we corn we did it

has to be original works that

information is invaluable you had

mentioned the other day about your

belief about the salt shore you

mentioned that the shorelines was much

different than it currently is yeah you

look a picture of Oak Island mm-hmm

see presently the elements like that the

island used to be out here like this now

it's all water see this was all dug out

and the flood gate is out here which

floods this wall

what they did was they ripped it all

over and created the beach want it back

of the swamp and there are two berms

that run from me there over towards

Mahone Bay so you're saying that the

whole South Shore was out 300 feet and

they they tore it up and just dumped

land in lines no way from where the

island was yeah so what you see here is

a map of the bathymetry or the seabed

off Oak Island

the bathymetric or underwater

topographical map that dr.

Courtney is

showing Alex Jack and Charles not only

shows variations in the depth of the

seabed it also reveals several curious

shapes and anomalies on the ocean floor

surrounding Oak Island in the offshore

you'll see this colored map and it's

color-coded so the red tones are the

shallow water and the blue are tones are

deeper water but there's some features

here that we don't know when these

features were created we don't know who

did it but we can't recognize certain

features that would you know our

experience tell us they're not natural

for example you'll see ridges were

running perpendicular to the coast and

typically if it was a natural process

they parallel to the coast sort of a

shoreline feature but these would

probably have a man-made origin

that's what we'd be interested in yeah

yeah those are the ones that Fred Nolan

was talking about yeah there are other

features of interest that during this

feature here that would be typically a

shipwreck

at the Bedford Institute of ocean FA in

Halifax Nova Scotia Alex lagina jack

begley and Charles Barkhouse have just

received information from dr. Bob

Courtney that there could be important

evidence located just off the southern

shore of Oak Island this feature here

that would be typically a shipper

Wow really that's interesting that one I

didn't see that one yeah there is

supposed to be a shipwreck 2,000 feet

off the South Col well that would

probably be a good place yeah there are

also some very curious arguer type

features that we see in the in the basin

sediments a softer sediment offshore and

they're quite long there you know 600

meters long and we believe these are

real we don't know the origin of those

as well so that's simply be from an

anchor that could be a mooring field

would be my guess

a Maureen field could the area dr.

Courtney is referring to be the actual

place where ships laid anchor while a

valuable treasure was being buried on

Oak Island these two things here these

are look look like dredge spoils to make

like a skull

it does look like a skull it does look

like a skull yeah that's kind of like a

scone yeah that's a warning obviously

there's a theory that that there's a

mounds of spoils and that soil was

what's probably excavated from the

tunnels taken out and dumped into the

ocean and they're supposed to be - two

large mounds in this area well this kind

of looks like a yeah address falls in me

typically we see those things in

environments where there's a big slide

down the mountain but there's no

mountains here no it looks like somebody

had been dumping something but you'd

have to go that possible could have been

a dumping site possibly it very possible

yes we met with Fred Nolan he his idea

was that this was all land at one time

and it was actually dredged out or

cleaned out by the original depositors

to create this this dike or berm for the

swamp well we certainly land 12,000

years ago right

but was it land 300 years ago 400 or 500

yeah that's another question you look at

the depth chart here it's it's at

something like five meters water depth

and in the past sea level was lower

probably a meter or two lower 300 years

ago or 400 years ago so probably this

shoreline was both somewhat with

corroboree of evidence that several

man-made features lie in the water

surrounding Oak Island Alex Charles and

Jack are convinced that they are on the

verge of another important breakthrough

in the 220 year old mystery

well great I mean that's great it's

really interesting stuff so thank you

very much for showing us and it's my

pipe walking us through it

thank you very much money to meet you

take care thank you I can't you Lance

all good yep yeah oh yeah

excited by the information they learned

at the oceanographic institute Alex and

Jack have returned to Oak Island eager

to verify what they learned from dr.

Courtney joining them are Jack step

father Craig tester divers Mike Roberts

and Dave Delaney local diver Tony

Sampson and marine archaeologists

brought Peterson what are we looking for

first Smith's Cove for sure

and then this side of the swamp well

just did it as they're going across

there it was the high tide I just want

to get as close to the island as we can

okay day we RAM 18 feet of water if you

want to drop the fish okay sounds good

today we're gonna start exploring the

waters around Oak Island we're gonna use

a starfish it's a side-scan sonar and

basically what it's doing is taking an

image of the bottom of the ocean we're

looking for rocks we're looking for logs

we're looking for holes in the ground or

anything we can see that's coming in now

okay both sides yeah yeah

the starfish 990 F side-scan sonar

device will be towed off the back of the

boat using sound waves it will be able

to detect and obtain high-resolution

images of any objects or formations on

the ocean floor within an approximate

range of 210 feet

you gave a good each week we got a big

dead pundits like she's off the bottom

quite a bit can we slow it down I need

to let the fish drop yeah yeah three

point four a day is there any way you

can get to in order to allow the sonar

unit to scan deeper below the surface

Tony Sampson needs to slow down to two

knots or a little more than two miles

per hour

I'm bringing it down down to 49 2.4

how's that looking better much better

c41 how they looking got an amazing

image amazing give me how it's beautiful

think I could take a look

getting some awesome images we're coming

up on the boulderless beach now guys

okay one of the most curious features on

the north side of the island is a

stretch of beach that unlike almost

every foot of coastline has no large

rocks or boulders it has long been

speculated by dan Blankenship that the

so called boulderless beach might be

man-made but if so for what purpose

could it be to conceal another series of

box drains like the ones at Smith's Cove

that's probably a log of something a lot

of boulders in the water here so see

this this is really interesting see the

way we're seeing these lines like yeah

right what do you think that's wrong I

mean if you said what does a boat look

like on the water it looks like that

I mean if you said there's a boat look

like on the wall so it looks like God

just off the northern shore of Oak

Island Jack Begley Craig tester and Alex

lagina along with marine archaeologist

Ron Peterson and a team of professional

divers continue looking for clues on the

seabed

look at this see that oh yeah it's flat

on the back and then work it that that

looks just like a bomb to me during the

two hundred and twenty year old search

for treasure on Oak Island there are

many who believe that the answer to the

mystery lies not underground but

underwater in 1791 during the height of

the bloody French Revolution King Louis

the sixteenth of France and his wife

Marie Antoinette attempted to flee Paris

before they were imprisoned and executed

of the many stories concerning their

plight

there is one that suggests that the

Queen gathered up her jewels and other

valuables and sent him off ahead in the

care of her closest and Megan

the handmaiden is said to have first

taken the jewels to London and later

across the Atlantic to Nova Scotia

is it possible that the ship that was

carrying the jewels never made it to

land

could it have been sunk along with the

jewels

just offshore did you see the image of

symmetrical sides rounded Stan well look

at all the targets to see which one's

their best and go ahead and dive on

as Craig and the team continued their

search for clues by heading to the

southern shore of the island Rick lagina

along with Dave Blankenship and veteran

treasure hunter dan henskee arrived at

the southern border of the swamp in an

attempt to verify another of Fred

Nolan's incredible findings no they are

looking to uncover the wood timber wall

that Fred claims he located after he

partially drained the swamp back in 1969

long ago when he had a parcel brought

out of the swamp he probed the wall of

the swamp and he is saying that there's

a structure in that wall Fred said

between here and that clump of birch

trees down there is where he thinks it

is so well dig from the wetland area and

dig I think since he's saying it's some

work close to the road we'll dig from

there maybe a foot or two into the road

and we should be able to find it

although rick has a 40-ton excavator at

his disposal he must abide by several

very strict environmental regulations

good see again welcome to Oak Island

yeah he also has a permit which only

allows him to dig down approximately six

feet and requires that he stayed no less

than nine feet from the wetlands in

order to ensure that the swamp is not

breached the structures about ten or

twelve feet long my idea is we go every

five feet okay should hit it within this

distance here yeah supposed to be right

there let's find it okay

given the fact that the team has several

hundred feet to cover Rick knows it may

take a number of tries before he finds

what he is looking for

no idea

this is

it's definitely not what we're looking

for in any way shape or form

that's one what's that

after digging the six feet of soil that

is permit allows Rick must stop

so if we can move up to I'm thinking

right here yeah hopefully moving at the

road a few yards will produce better

results my brothers always on about show

me the data show me the proof he's a

hard science guy so today maybe there

really is hard day to hard proof he's on

about he wants to be done with this walk

but I think there's something there and

if this is the door that gets us back in

there I'm happy he's not oh well

Ulric

in this space you don't see anything

nothing there rock I think the next spot

will be right there okay

of that right there it looks like some

kind of a log or something

while excavating in the area near the

shoreline adjacent to the Oak Island

swamp Rick lagina may be on the

threshold of an important discovery

that's manufactured manufactured wood

found buried between the beach and the

swamp could this be part of the ancient

timber dam treasure hunter Fred Nolan

claims to have found more than 40 years

ago

I think it's pressure-treated lumber

because these gouges yeah if it is it's

not old

no it's not old curious that it's at

that depth but this is a modern piece

yeah okay next one I think will go on

the other side of that large pine tree

unfortunately the piece of wood is

clearly a modern piece of timber but

Rick lagina refuses to give up what do

you make of that right there

raisa stop brick

okay so in my opinion we're all four

five once again not yet

I say we do one on the other side of

those birch trees you in let me leave

anyway no I won't do this to you but I

hate giving up oh that's right not what

we've tried on the other side of the

birch trees yeah unfortunately it's on

four five so hoping you can make it one

four five well keep our fingers crossed

I'll keep all my

they'll settle for this last one being

the

it's baseball except over fellas over

definitely not at timber

it's a split log

first off

than I've seen so far after digging a

half-dozen holes along the southern edge

of the swamp Rick Dave and Dan have

found no evidence of the ancient

timbered wall Fred Nolan claims he saw

some 30 years ago could it be that the

wall lies just a few feet deeper than

Rick was legally allowed to dig

a legitimate shot given the fact that he

the city probed it he said he saw it he

could define the size of it

the length of it you know how all it was

I mean given all of that

information I thought we would be

so am I disappointed

Rick remains undaunted and determined to

return once he is armed with the permits

that will allow him to properly excavate

the area I'm thoroughly 100% committed

to finding that thing I can't for the

life of me think it's not there it's

there we have to do what Fred said how

he found it and that was he was in the

swamp so we have to get wet if it's

there I'm gonna find it okay Wayne we

gave our best shot that's right thank

you again appreciate it okay all right

take care

let's go home Brown time get out here

disappointed but just tomorrow

as Rick lagina suspends his operations

at the Oak Island swamp Creek Jack Alex

and their team are still hoping they

will have a breakthrough by searching in

the waters of the islands southern shore

that's good depth there Dave

a couple of good folders there let's

increase the range a little bit

that's probably a Lagos

look at that was that's interesting

look at the triangle to see the triumph

out see yeah yeah

so what we're looking at is see this

triangular shape stone and on top of the

stone is a perfect triangle

I don't think mother nature made that

Wow

I don't know what to say I mean it do

you ever see anything like that no I'm

good where it is it's almost too much of

a coincidence it was pointing pretty

much straight at where the truth stone

triangle used to be a triangle shaped

stone with a second triangle shape on

its surface and pointing to word another

triangle of stones used to live

before it was destroyed during a massive

excavation of the island by treasure

hunter robert dunfield in 1966 the

so-called stone triangle was thought to

be a key piece of evidence because it

pointed on the true North line directly

to the original money pit could this

mysterious triangle-shaped stone

submerged in the waters several hundred

feet off of Oak Island south shore be

another man-made marker

if so how did it get there

coming out to the water we're finished

here

it just made no sense to be natural now

we got to get exact coordinates to find

out for sure but it sure looked like

what's pointing right towards the money

pit okay guys I think we got quite a bit

done today we got a number of hits yeah

we found some pretty exciting stuff

today and you can go through the image

and you get the coordinates on the

latitude and longitude that's right yeah

yeah yeah let's do that

I'd love to get the pictures show them

to Marty and Rick Dan David all the

other guys yeah

pretty exciting

just be the place yep

upstairs up for you after a long day of

recording valuable data and side scan

sonar images in the waters just off Oak

Island Marty lagina joins his brother

Rick their partner Craig tester and

other members of the team at a nearby

pub to share the day's findings so guys

I was thinking we'd share the good news

with my dad here which is that the

technology we got to do the side scan

works really really well really no

glitches we've got some pretty exciting

stuff for you to do and you know how I

am you know I'm usually not super

enthusiastic about these things cuz I

always think oh well there's a

reasonable

I think we got something pretty

seriously it's a really interesting

stuff I do I do it's just one

interesting thing that we found before

you show me I mean you've seen a lot of

stuff near the water right I mean where

is this and this is Galen

Wow what's that it's pretty interesting

I've not seen it before

all right especially where we are

tell explain it to me though what am I

looking at the run in the side-scan

along the island and what we've got here

is what appears to be on the bottom

that's a stone triangle

with a triangle on top and it's all

symmetrical it's a triangle but what's

the dark mean what does the dark mean on

top there's another triangle on top of

the triangle

really that's significant Rick what do

you think of this you describe them as a

triangular like what Dan says pointer

rock yeah what was appointed it's

actually pointing to the stone triangle

on the island seriously

see it's definitely a triangle within a

triangle sort of thing isn't it yeah I'm

always skeptical of whatever we see and

so when I saw that at first I thought

all it's an equipment which it's

something and I just cannot come up with

an explanation for why that is so

perfectly triangular well that is very

odd I mean that is very I was I was sort

of prepared Alex you know we keep

hearing oh you got to see this I was

prepared to think yeah sure guys it's a

rock

well that's the thing is that I didn't

think you know tried to think that I

couldn't think that no it's very it's

very odd and they did come across

something that looked extremely

anomalous to my and I will say untrained

eye because I haven't looked at a lot of

side-scan solar but what they showed was

this triangular shaped rock which is not

that odd but that it has a perfect

inscribed triangle on the top of it well

now now you got something odd you know

that's a horse of a different color so

and it was a very diving depth is it

possible Alex or Craig that it was at

one time exposed there's that too deep

I think it's tinny it seems like it's

little too deep my board erosion yeah

rosin that's a big factor especially on

the south side that's where the most of

the erosion occurred so even though the

might have only been five feet lower

you know erosion will beaten in a way

over time so it could have been out

further yeah that was at high tide yeah

all right we gotta have a look at that

yes we need to we need to do further

exploration we want to do a jump

tomorrow sir what's the visibility we're

looking at the moment from what we were

getting today if we do it at high tide

you'll probably have ten ten maybe

fifteen feet if you're lucky if it's

just all by itself then maybe it'd be

easier to see so we're gonna have to be

right on it

could Rick Marty and the rest of the

team be less than 24 hours away from

locating a critical new piece of

evidence a piece that could help them

finally solve the Oak Island mystery all

right guys look I'm used to being

disappointed on Oak Island but we're

gonna put eyes on that tomorrow and

we're not gonna be disappointed - that -

the dive as another day ends on Oak

Island

several questions remain and several

harsh realities appear certain because

although Rick Marty and the team are

better equipped and better prepared than

any of the searchers that came before

them there is still much work to do many

riddles to solve and many more holes to

do and whether or not their efforts end

in success or failure is up to the

island

to decide next time on the curse of Oak

Island Christopher Columbus was

responsible for the ark coming to old

Island

I went down they got to the bottom I saw

the stone I swear that northerly bearing

and I came across another big triangle

Rock

you good okay let's go two dives away

from getting answers to a 40-year quest

he's under finished 10x what's in the

bottom Michael do you copy

Subtitled by Diego Moraes