The Curse of Oak Island: Drilling Down (2016–…): Season 9, Episode 6 - Behind the Quest - full transcript
It's another busy day
on Oak Island
as Rick, Marty Lagina
and their team
work to solve
a 226-year-old mystery.
As you can see behind me,
the crew
of The Curse of Oak Island
is just as busy
documenting every second of it.
Now, while this phenomenon
of a show is about real people
conducting a real process,
you may be surprised to learn
what our crew
and their team go through
capturing it on camera.
It's a place where the
unexpected happens every day.
- Sometimes it can be glorious.
- We just found a jewel.
That is fantastic.
Sometimes, it
can be near disastrous.
Oh, no, no! Oh!
So, tonight, we're giving you
an exclusive insiders' take
from members
of our intrepid crew
on how some of the most
memorable and iconic moments
in The Curse of Oak Island
were filmed.
This is Drilling Down.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
For nine seasons now,
the world's
longest-running treasure mystery
has been filmed,
edited and then delivered
to television audiences
around the world.
But while
The Curse of Oak Island
faithfully documents the quest
of Rick and Marty Lagina
and their team
to solve the mystery...
Holy...
Holy schmoly, all right.
- It's a cross.
- That's a cross.
The process of
following the real-life drama
that goes along with it
is a quest all on its own.
One year ago, I visited
the island during the production
of season eight
to witness a day of filming.
It's a coin, mate!
Boy, was it an experience.
But it was also eye-opening
to get a glimpse
at how the crew prepares
to be in the right place
at the right time
to get it all in the can.
- Pun intended.
- There you go.
Hey! There's the man.
So, I've come back
during the production
of season nine
to drill down on just that
with executive producers
Joe Lessard
and Jon Levy and, as you'll see,
other members of their team.
- Thanks for doing this.
- Oh, it's great
- to be back. Good to see you.
- Yeah, man.
The fans love this.
Getting to see
behind the scenes.
And, in fact,
um, before we go there,
I'm just gonna start
doing my job right away
- if you don't mind.
- Yeah.
Uh, why are we drilling
in what looks to be the area
of the stone triangle recreation
here?
- That's not the Money Pit. What's going on?
- Right.
It's actually using it
for some brand-new
cutting-edge technology
that they'll be bringing
onto the island later this year.
Once they use this technology,
it will solve
the Oak Island mystery.
- Ooh, wow.
- Right.
It was occurring to me
on the trip over here
how much this has changed.
How much
the operation has grown,
how much of a worldwide
reinvigoration there's been
for interest in the island.
But what I'm wondering
is has that affected
what you do in-in covering it?
Season one, we came out here
with a much smaller crew.
We had one small trailer
for the entire crew.
It's evolved in terms of scale.
It has remained
absolutely the same
in terms of principle.
- Right?
- Yeah. Our goal is to document
the best treasure hunt
in the world.
Now it's four or five trailers,
at least three crews
going on in the island
at the same time.
Because there's so much
search activity going on,
we want to capture it all.
Absolutely.
It is a real process.
Because Rick and Marty Lagina
did not pitch themselves
as TV personalities.
The deal was we're gonna
follow it as it happens.
We knew we had
a winning recipe for a show
because we had
great characters to follow.
- Yeah.
- We had a great story to follow
in Oak Island
and all of its history.
But as the guys started going
and-and doing
their explorations,
- there wasn't a whole lot being turned up.
- Right.
Here's where we're at.
Everything's in place?
Let's get it done.
Although it certainly
wasn't for a lack of effort.
Hit the air! Let's go!
Between airlifting tons
of sediment out of Borehole 10-X...
- Throw the switch.
- I hope number two works.
It better work.
And draining
the swamp for the first time,
no new major revelations
or discoveries had been made
heading into the final two weeks
of filming for season one.
It had everyone from the Laginas
to the crew
wondering if the show
would actually resonate
with audiences.
The brothers wanted to make sure
this show
had absolute integrity.
That was sacrosanct to them
and still is.
I'm wondering,
in those early days,
was there any ever...
ever any incidents of concern
over anything like that?
Oh, yeah.
- There was a major one, actually.
- Really?
It revolved around the finding
of the Spanish maravedi coin
that dated to 1652
because it was literally found
the last week of filming.
At the timing of it,
let's just say,
made some controversy arise.
Before I tell this story,
- Rick is right over there.
- Okay.
- Let me just go grab him.
- All right.
Because I think
you need his perspective
- to really appreciate the gravity of the moment.
- All right.
- Oh, I love it.
- I'll be right back.
Talk about a cliff-hanger.
I've heard the story.
It's a good one.
Whoa!
Is it a coin?
I believe this is a coin.
- No!
- You serious?
- What?!
- Reliving the Fellowship's
first major discovery,
a 1652 Spanish maravedi coin,
never gets old.
- What's that eight on it?
- What the hell is that?
It is an eight, isn't it?
For Rick and
Marty and their team,
it offered up hope
for the future.
How's that?
- How's that, brother?
- That's a good deal.
And for their
partner, Dan Blankenship,
it offered validation
for decades
of tireless searching
for possible answers
to the Oak Island mystery.
That's the first thing
I've held in my hands
since I've been here
almost 48 years.
- How you doing?
- Good. How are you?
Sorry to interrupt your work.
I was just telling them
about at the end of season one
when the coin was found
and what a... what a big deal
it was for everybody.
And we were just getting ready
to film
the very last meeting
of the year
where we were gonna
watch you guys
decide on what you'd learned
and where you go from here.
And Marty comes to me,
and he says,
"You better talk to my brother."
And I'm like, "Oh, why?
Is he okay? What...
What's wrong?" And he goes, "You
just better talk to my brother."
And, Rick, why don't...
why don't you explain
what happened next.
Look, it was such
a-an incredible find, right?
We had struggled the whole year.
We hadn't found much.
We had had high hopes coming in.
And all of a sudden...
Wow, an incredible find.
And then you go,
"Wait a minute."
- "Wait a second."
- "Is it possible
this is too good to be true?"
So, at that moment,
some uncertainty
is growing in my mind,
and there was only,
unfortunately,
one person to go to,
- and that was Joe.
- - Yeah.
I want to know
that this find is real.
I want
to make absolutely certain.
Right. The coin was not planted.
But i-in the moment,
I'm thinking,
"Okay, don't be offended,
because he's got a point."
- Right.
- And then I'm thinking,
"What do I say
to convince him otherwise?"
- Right.
- And, so, all I could do
was look them both in the eye
and-and just harken back
to the conversation we had
with Kevin Burns
to the start the whole thing.
It's gonna be a faithful
following of your process.
Okay, so,
the coin passed that test.
But what I have to know is
did Lessard pass
the Lagina polygraph test?
I do remember
that moment
like it was yesterday.
I remember Marty and I
both came around like this.
Marty was there,
and I got about like this.
- Right.
- And I said, "Joe?"
And then the questions proceeded
from there.
And what really struck me,
though, was
maybe you shrunk a little bit.
I don't think so.
- I think I was about this tall.
- But what... No, but... No, Joe.
What was impactful to me
was you stood your ground.
- Oh.
- It wasn't the words you said.
It was how you said them.
And that was what said to me,
no, the guy's real.
The guy's honest.
He's a stand-up representation
of what we're trying
to achieve here,
tell our wonderful,
remarkable story.
- Wow.
- Amazing.
- Well, it's great to hear that.
- Amazing.
I mean, that's exactly
what I wanted to convey,
'cause I-I needed you guys
to have that confidence,
especially you. Especially you.
That is behind-the-scenes
behind the scenes.
That is awesome.
Thank you, guys.
And-and that coin was
so important in so many ways.
And that coin has set us off
on a massive adventure,
a massive treasure hunt.
At times,
it can be very perilous.
It can be very dangerous.
And, uh, we'll meet up
with
our director of photography,
AJ Baca,
and we'll talk about it.
- Thanks, guys.
- Thanks, Rick.
- We'll see you soon.
- Get back to work, brother.
Fire in the hole!
The biggest and best moments
in The Curse of Oak Island
often involve massive drill rigs
and colossal digging equipment.
- Wow.
- But with all the excitement and discoveries,
there have also been
a number of close calls.
Wait, wait, wait. Stop!
Holy.
Whoa!
So, to get some
behind-the-quest insight
on how they strive to protect
everyone during production,
I met up once again
with executive producers
Joe Lessard and Jon Levy,
as well as director
of photography AJ Baca
and Jack Begley
at Borehole 10-X.
It's funny, guys, I've been
watching for years now firsthand
what you do, but this
is dangerous, hard work.
This is construction site,
you know?
Um, what are the protocols
that you-you guys
go through to keep
everyone safe?
Well, basically, before every
day we have a safety meeting
where we know all the
potentially dangerous activities
that happen.
We try our best
to always have spotters
or our camera assistants
right behind us
just watching our backs.
We wear hard hats,
yellow vests, steel-toe boots.
We try to prepare for everything
and be as safe as we can,
but there's...
There's been a lot
of dangerous moments as well.
Have there been moments
that highlights
how dangerous this is?
There was one instance
back in season three where
they were trying to get
to the bottom of 10-X,
and they had tried in season two
with a dive team.
That didn't work.
They had tried earlier
in season three
with another dive team,
that didn't work.
And then someone got the idea,
"Well, maybe we should reach out
to the best diver in the world.
Let's get John Chatterton."
If anybody can get us answers
to the long
sought-after question
of what's in the bottom of 10-X,
we believe that you guys
are gonna be able
to do it for us.
Putting a dive together
like this
is literally like
solving a puzzle.
I-It's not "if we can do it,"
it's "how do we do it?"
We're gonna get down there.
That I like to hear.
Ever since
Dan Blankenship drilled,
dug and constructed
the monumental shaft
known as 10-X back in the 1970s,
he and his partners had
struggled in vain to confirm
what a video camera had captured
in a mysterious chamber
at the bottom
235 feet below ground:
imagery of potential tunnels.
Tools, chests,
and even perhaps a human body
had Dan convinced that 10-X held
the keys to solving the mystery.
The problem was how to safely
get someone down there.
You see, 10-X is eight feet wide
down to a depth of 181 feet.
But from there,
down to 225 feet,
where it opens up
to the mysterious chamber,
it shrinks to a treacherous
27-inch diameter.
Oh, and that narrow section
also has a pipe lodged in it
from a past drilling operation.
So, like Joe said, who better
to tackle this task
than John Chatterton,
the man who made a legendary
career out of performing
death-defying dives on
shipwrecks all around the world?
Are we ready?
Going down.
So, I'm in that shack
right over there,
and we had a live feed on John
as he was going down 10-X.
He's wearing a Kirby Morgan
hard hat helmet,
he's got a surface supply
of trimix gas...
So it's like oxygen and helium...
So that he can
withstand the depths
and not have to worry
about the bends.
And so, it's just
this big web of equipment
that he has to go
down there with
and there's an old drill bar
stuck in the pipe
from past operations.
And who knows what else, really,
when you think about it, right?
Exactly.
Is the visibility
less than zero, John?
Yeah. I think we can
kind of see it.
Okay. Proceed down.
And so, I'm
watching the live feed,
and it's harrowing,
because we all know
the legends of 10-X,
right, guys?
I mean,
there's a chest down there,
there's a post down there.
There's tunnels coming this...
In and out of it,
is what, is what
Dan Blankenship believed.
There could be a dead body.
And so, on one hand,
you're focused on,
"What am I gonna see?"
We were gonna
see something finally
in the clear
through John Chatterton's eyes,
and as he's going down
that 27-inch pipe,
suddenly he says...
There's a list of some things
you don't want to hear
a diver say when
they're in a 27-inch caisson.
"I'm stuck" is probably
right up top of that list.
This is the worst scenario
unfolding right here.
And this is the best diver
in the world.
He's dove on Titanic,
he's dove on the Andrea Doria,
he's dove on so many things.
The guy survived Vietnam
and here he is stuck in 10-X,
and as I'm just thinking, "My
God, what's about to happen?"
All of a sudden, he's like,
"Okay, I'm free. I'm down."
John Chatterton
never worried for a second,
and it just makes
for an incredible TV moment,
but it just highlights
how perilous
this job can be but how exciting
and amazing it truly is.
How do you help him
from surface...
- Right.
- When you're just watching a monitor?
And luckily enough... and
I-I think, skillfully enough...
He was able to figure
his way out of being stuck
and then finished the dive.
It's incredible. You know,
this is a unique opportunity.
I want to ask you guys this.
The name of the show
is The Curse of Oak Island.
In a moment like that,
does-does the curse
run through your mind, guys?
A-a little bit,
you know, for sure.
It's a dangerous place,
things happen.
And quite honestly,
that's the toughest spot
of, like, Joe and I's job,
it's that balance of making sure
that we're documenting
everything that's happening,
i-including very dangerous
and scary moments,
and also balancing that
with crew and cast s-safety.
There was another dive, Joe,
that was maybe
even more dangerous.
You remember that?
I know exactly
what you're talking about.
- You're talking about C-1.
- Yep.
Just two years
after John Chatterton's
harrowing dive down 10-X,
the Fellowship brought in
diver Mike Huntley
to descend 170 feet
in the C-1 shaft
located in the Money Pit area.
It was here,
during season three,
that the team had recorded video
of a mysterious
gold-colored object.
I mean, what is it?
Looks like gold
that's bonded...
You know, fused...
To whatever's down there.
So, with Mike, when we actually
got him to the bottom depth,
he had, like, under ten minutes
or something like that
to explore everywhere.
And we're talking, you know,
estimating a 12-foot-wide cavern
in C-1 in complete blackness.
He couldn't see a thing.
And then we started getting
those metal detector hits
once he finally got
the metal detector out.
You know, I've
done a lot of metal detecting.
And if you're getting a really
good hit, and multiple hits,
and you are diving down
in the Money Pit,
you know how frustrating
it would be
to get all those multiple hits
in, like, a jumble
and just be trying
to recover the one?
He got bit by the
Oak Island bug hard.
- Bingo. That's-that's exactly right, Jon.
- You know?
- He-he wanted that treasure.
- That's right.
Okay, we're at 30 minutes now.
I'm gonna run you
for another three minutes
and then the dive is over.
So, the Divemaster
had already told
Mike Huntley
he needed to come up.
He was getting
metal detector hits;
he stayed down longer
than what our dive plan was for,
which means he needed more time
to slowly acclimate
as he came up to surface.
But what got crazy was that,
basically, as he was
coming to surface,
his breathing started
to get heavier,
which is the first sign
that he is getting tired
and he's getting hypothermic.
So, it was the Divemaster's call
to basically shoot him
straight to surface,
which, as you know as a diver,
that's how you get the bends,
which can kill you very, very
quickly if you're not careful.
So AJ and I, at that point,
are on the exact same page
of choreographing, uh,
where-where all the cameras
are gonna be as he's arriving,
while being on the same page
with the medical staff
to make sure
that we're not in the way
as he's trying to get help
and get into
the decompression chamber.
Okay, we're on the clock, boys.
And you can see, right
as Mike Huntley comes above
that C-1 lip, his eyes are,
like, huge, huge marbles.
And he was scared.
He was truly scared.
And that's where
the medical staff
and everybody comes in,
and we do our best
to keep that
fly-on-the-wall mentality
where these guys
are professionals,
they know how to assist him,
the EMT crew is there,
and they just need to get him
into the chamber.
As viewers, you know,
we share those moments with you.
We're as anxious as you are,
even though we're not on-site,
we're watching.
You know, it's-it's not
just dangerous moments
that you guys have
to live through, uh,
it's also very
emotional moments,
and I'd like to talk about
some of those with you next.
- Absolutely.
- Great.
Oh, my gosh,
it's another bobby-dazzler.
- Look.
- It's thrilling
to watch Rick and Marty Lagina
and their team
unearth clue after clue
on The Curse of Oak Island
as they work to solve
a 226-year-old treasure mystery.
We're in the collapse
of the Money Pit,
and we're gonna find
what was ever in there.
That's what it means.
But as they also
dig through the past
in order to learn from the many
searchers who came before them,
Rick, Marty and the team
have met many people
whose families not only endured
great struggles on Oak Island,
but in some cases, much worse.
Our grandfather Spotty was
never recovered or never found.
It's great you could
meet us here at Smith's Cove, Alex,
because we were talking
about the anticipation
of dangerous moments
or the anticipation
- of unexpected moments...
- Right.
And these guys
trying to capture that.
But that's different
than actual tragedy.
And standing here
at Smith's Cove
and-and looking
at that area right there,
I can't help but think
of the Restall tragedy.
I remember,
the first year I was out here,
Lee Lamb was on the island and
Andrew DeMont was on the island,
and they were talking
about the tragedy
that happened right here,
where-where four people died.
Robert and Mildred Restall
were a pair of retired
motorcycle daredevils
who took over the treasure hunt
in 1959.
Along with their two sons
Bobby Jr. and Ricky,
the Restalls persevered
for nearly six years
living in two shacks
with no plumbing or electricity.
Their compelling discoveries
included the 1704 stone
and a spiral tunnel
in the Money Pit.
But on August 17th, 1965,
Robert, Bobby Jr.
And two other men
lost their lives due to
poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas
emitting from the ground
in a shaft at Smith's Cove.
So, is that the remains
of Hedden's Wharf?
That's it.
In 2013,
Robert and Mildred Restall's
daughter Lee Lamb
visited the island to share
information with the team
and also to meet
with Andrew DeMont,
a man who nearly lost his life
trying to save
her father and brother.
I can still see it.
I heard cries.
And everybody, of course,
run to the pit to help.
The gas was so strong,
- Yeah.
- That once you got to it, you know there was no going back up.
Cyril and I proceeded
to go down.
The last I remember,
I had your brother
by the shoulder.
- Mm-hmm.
- And, uh...
- And passed out.
- He... Oh, yeah, I was gone within seconds.
So, they were still alive
when you passed out.
Just your brother.
I felt so bad
'cause we couldn't help.
Just to see them
coming back to the place
where that had happened,
to see Andrew
kind of process that event...
Oh, God.
You could see him
almost travel back in time
to when that happened,
and-and reliving a bit of it
was powerful.
Okay.
And it really kind of
brought it home.
Lee had never had a chance
to speak directly
to one of the men
who-who risked his life
trying to save
- her father and brother's life.
- Right.
It's-it's easy to get
carried away with, okay,
"What could there be here?"
"What could this mean?"
"What is the great treasure?"
A-And lose track of the
questions of, you know,
who came before us
and what were their sacrifices
that got us to this point?
And who do we have to thank
for advancing the search
to this point?
And another aspect to that day,
Andrew, um, expressed to us
that it-it offered him a chance
to get some closure
on that tragedy
because it was, it was
something that he had not really
been able to process,
uh, in his life.
- Yes.
- And that makes you just,
uh, appreciate all the more
how important it is
that we're documenting
something out here.
It's about the human story,
uh, the human element
of this thing that-that
transcends the treasure.
- Shall I show you?
- Sure. - Definitely.
That emotional visit would
lead to several more that saw Lee
not only share
some of the Restalls'
amazing discoveries
with the team...
It's the 1704 stone.
But also continue the quest
to find closure
for herself and another
special member of her family.
- Hello, Lee. Hello.
- Hi, how are you?
I brought you a present.
This is my brother Rick Restall.
Oh, great to meet you.
Rick Restall
was just 14 years old
when his father
and brother died,
and he hadn't returned
to the island in decades.
I just want to say
that I'm really pleased
that my brother's original maps
are on the walls here.
Yeah. They'll be preserved here.
This will always be a part
of the Oak Island story, so...
I'm amazed.
Fantastic job
you've done, really.
After sharing a new display,
dedicated to the Restall family
in the Oak Island
Interpretive Centre...
Might that mean anything to you?
Rick, Marty, Craig
and the team presented Ricky
with a curious find that
Gary Drayton recently made
near Smith's Cove.
Wow.
My friend.
My gosh. This must be my gun.
- I know I lost it.
- It's got to be a neat thing
that the last time you handled
that you were, what, ten?
At the most, ten.
This trip was momentous for me
because it draws my brother
into his rightful place.
He's got a deep connection
with the island.
This was Ricky's moment.
I thought it might be time
to deal with, uh,
what-what came up
when my father and my brother
died, and we left the island.
Uh, it was kind of a sudden
and unplanned departure,
so in some ways, uh,
I've never left the island.
The moment when Rick
presented this toy gun,
it was quite the amazing
experience both as a producer
and for Rick and-and the team
that were there.
And it's a great look into
not only how you guys cover
the day-to-day operations
of a real-life treasure hunt...
Which is awesome... but also
how you cover the history
of the island, the stories,
the families and the impact,
and you all do it
so incredibly well.
We can't wait to see
what's next.
Oh, appreciate it.
The Curse of
Oak Island got its name
from the legendary dark forces
that locals believe
have been guarding
a priceless treasure
ever since the hunt began
back in 1795.
- What have you got?
- It looks like a piece of finished wood.
And even though
the world is pulling
for Rick, Marty and the team
to safely and successfully solve
this mystery,
I met up again with
executive producer Jon Levy
and director of photography
AJ Baca
to drill down on some
of the more perilous things
that have happened
during production
that they never
could have expected.
AJ and Jon, I wanted
to come to the Money Pit,
be in the construction zone,
because I know there are moments
you can plan on
- that are dangerous and you can anticipate...
- Yeah.
- Like dives.
- Yeah.
But when work's going on,
things can happen in an instant.
Can you think of any moments
like that?
Yeah, I mean,
we are at the Money Pit.
This is the hotbed
of all of the search,
and this is where
all the big machinery comes in,
including the drill rig.
And I think season five,
we had probably
one of the scariest moments
we've ever had on this show,
when we had Brewster Drilling
here on the Money Pit.
In 2017,
while drilling
in the hopes of locating
the original Money Pit
and the fabled Chappell Vault,
the team thought
they might be on the verge
- of a major breakthrough.
- He's in a void.
How high is that void?
It's at least about 30 feet.
A piece of wood, right there.
That's that cut again, look.
It's got that same beveled cut.
But then, disaster struck.
- Holy!
- Somebody got hurt.
A massive
vacuum hose on the drill rig
exploded without warning,
injuring team member
Max Williamson.
- Just stay right there.
- You okay?
Geez. Oh, just...
Stay right there.
My leg might be.
Calm down for a second.
We're gonna get you checked out.
- Yeah, you're...
- Oh, my.
J-Just stay right here for now.
Don't put any weight on that.
Get 911 out here.
That was so frightening.
I-It didn't...
I remember him getting tended,
like, it was right here,
there used to be
a hill right here.
And he was sitting
on this little hill, right?
I think his knee was battered,
his wrist potentially
was fractured.
Nobody was aware.
The amount of pressure
that was coming
out of that thing sent him...
I think you saw his hard hat
just fly across the screen.
Like, it must have been
getting hit by a truck
the way it felt.
Yeah, but, you know,
we had safety protocols
in place, we followed it.
Now, we have to document
the action.
Everybody is safe.
Let's make sure
that we're not in the way
of the medical professionals.
He can get medical attention
while still being safe.
One of the things
that's really complicated
that we deal with on the island
is how to cover
all of the moving parts
of a machine
that could potentially kill you
if something goes wrong.
We try to cover, uh, aspects
of the drill rig, for example,
with specialty cameras
and lock-offs in the areas
that we just can't put
a camera operator.
And luckily, during that
moment in season five,
a lot of our specialty cameras
caught all of the moments
that led up to that while
our camera operators were able
to maintain a safe distance
and then jump in the second,
I think, Rick Lagina
ran full-speed in
to help the driller
when he was down.
And our camera operators
were able to cover those moments
without getting hurt themselves.
These things happen in a flash.
AJ, I know there was a moment
for you that happened
literally in the middle
of the night.
- Hey, Rick!
- Yeah?
It's still going.
- That ain't good.
- Nope.
Yeah, I was
actually on the island
trying to get a moonrise,
and so I had a couple cameras
kind of set up
around the island,
and I was actually
getting ready to go home.
I think it was walking back
to my truck in the parking lot
when I see Rick pull up and Doug
and everybody's just...
All this commotion
in the parking lot.
And I run over
and ask what's happening.
All around H-8, the
ground started to cave in.
And we're not talking
like pothole,
we're talking ten, 15 feet down,
and it just kept going,
into like what looked like
just a soupy mess beneath it.
Let's go take a look.
Let's do this.
- Eyes and boots.
- I agree.
A total cave-in of Borehole H-8
would have been devastating
for the team's search
because it was their belief
that it may have intersected
the original Money Pit.
It was here
that they recovered pieces
of ancient parchment paper,
just like previous searchers
had recovered
from the Chappell Vault,
along with gold shavings,
back in 1897.
So, it was more than eerie
when the ground surrounding it
literally began collapsing
in 2018.
- Oh, baby.
- Be careful.
Holy...
That is huge.
- What the hell...
- Rick!
Hang on one second.
Look out!
- No!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Come on. Okay.
Everybody,
that's enough curiosity.
Let's go.
So, I quickly was like, well,
all the main cameras
are off the island,
I have these little cameras
set up all over the place
trying to get a moon.
So, basically,
I grabbed my phone
and I sprinted with Rick
and Doug to the Money Pit
and I tied a rope
around my waist
- Ugh.
- And then to the...
With the hitch
on my pickup truck
as the guys were kind of
looking down the hole
and it was all just
being filmed on my phone
'cause that was all
I had at the time.
- So, it was pretty sketchy.
- That's...
That's incredible.
And when you watch that footage,
and I have, uh,
several times, you can't tell
that you weren't up here
with your real camera rig.
I mean, it's really impressive
what-what a phone can do
- and what you can do.
- Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, that story
really drives home the point
that there is danger
all around here constantly.
A-Absolutely, Matty.
One of the biggest dangers
that happens on this island
comes from the tiniest creatures
that wreaks havoc
throughout the production
every year.
And one of these creatures
knocked Rick Lagina
on his heels.
The person that we can
talk to and tell you about
how bad it was for Rick
is Marty Lagina.
So, maybe we should talk to him.
That'd be perfect. Is he around?
Can we do that now?
- Let's go grab him.
- Let's go get Marty.
Far be it from me to interrupt
the world's
greatest treasure hunt,
especially when
the Fellowship is digging
in the triangle-shaped swamp...
I see Marty. What...
Should we go grab him?
- Yeah, go grab him, we can talk about...
- Okay, great.
But along with Jon Levy,
one of the executive producers
of The Curse of Oak Island,
I wanted to get the inside dirt
from Marty Lagina himself,
on one of the most intense
incidents that occurred
during the filming
of season five.
Hi, buddy.
Sorry to interrupt.
- How you doing?
- Anytime for you, Matty Blake.
All right. I love it.
This is exciting.
But what-what I actually
came here to talk to you about,
uh, Jon reminded me of a story.
We've been talking about how
they cover what you do, right?
But then there's
these unexpected moments.
And there was one day
where something really
unexpected happened.
One day? -Well,
every... that's a great point.
Every day something
unexpected happens,
but one particular day,
your brother suddenly
wasn't here,
which never happens,
and you got worried.
It doesn't happen very often.
It's not only unusual
for Rick to not respond.
I mean, he-he would never
complain about,
- for instance, pain.
- Right, right.
So, you know, he's gone,
which-which...
which is, you know,
induces some trepidation in me
because I think, "Wait a minute,
this is a guy
who doesn't complain," so...
uh, I-I decided the first step...
And it's a crucial step,
when it comes to my brother...
Is to go look for him.
It wasn't just that Rick
was absent one day from the island,
it was that he was absent
just when the team
was reaching a critical depth
in Borehole H-8
in the Money Pit area,
where they discovered
possible evidence
of the fabled Chappell Vault.
- Rick.
- Hey.
- So, what is going on?
- When Marty got to Rick's house
to see what was up,
he found his big,
indestructible brother in need
of serious medical attention.
- You got a rash?
- Yeah, take a look.
Come on over here.
Come on over here in the light.
Right now? Even now?
Pounding headache?
Yeah, right now.
- Oh, yeah.
- You see it?
Yeah. Ew.
I mean, I don't know,
but that looks like Lyme disease
or shingles to me.
Rick had
been bitten by a deer tick
and was showing the
telltale sign of Lyme disease:
a massive
bull's-eye-shaped rash.
If not treated immediately
upon detection,
Lyme disease causes
debilitating symptoms
including joint pain,
muscle paralysis
and severe headaches,
just to name a few,
and can become a recurring,
lifelong condition.
Come on, let's go.
But you know I have
an aversion with doctors.
It doesn't matter.
We're going to a doctor.
Rick Lagina is a
unique guy, as we all know,
but his tough-as-nails fortitude
was thankfully no match
for his younger brother Marty
on this day.
The film crew jumped
into cautious action
to capture as much as possible
as Marty made sure Rick
got the treatment he needed
and staved off the curse
of Lyme disease.
- Had it not been for the rash...
- No, you wouldn't think.
You'd think
you just got something.
- You know, a bug.
- Yep.
I know. It's-it's scary.
And now here's the crucial
moment, though, from...
That I want to drill down on
in terms of you guys
trying to capture
a real live event,
a real live treasure hunt,
but then also,
personal things that happen...
- Sure.
- That-that affect...
Everything affects
the treasure hunt
- because it's your lives, right?
- Yes.
And so, do they say to you
at that moment,
"Hey, we're gonna follow you,"
and you say like, "No, not...
This is too serious," or...
No, actually I give them
compliments on this.
They-they say, we'll do this
any way you want, basically.
Yeah.
So that's what happens.
I mean, so, obviously, we have
to respect Rick's privacy.
- Right.
- You know, that-that's number one.
- Of course.
- You know, it's like, we... it's for the most part,
we always keep things
on Oak Island.
You know, we don't
really dive too much
into their personal lives,
but Rick was open enough,
understood that this affects
the treasure hunt,
that he allowed us
to-to go with Marty
as he went to Rick's house.
- Actually, you're leaving out one part there, Jon.
- Yeah.
That is that part of what
drives Rick, for sure...
Me to some extent,
them to some extent...
Is that this is a, uh,
this is a very... this is
a holy platform, right?
And, uh, part of this...
And I remember
mentioning to Rick... is to raise
awareness about Lyme disease.
- Yes.
- You know, as-as big and tough as he is, it can bring him down.
And so he was fine with that.
Cause it's an awareness thing.
People watch it and think,
"Hey, you know,
maybe we ought
to look-look into this."
And that incident with Rick,
in particular,
you talk about the emotional
side of the hunt,
- you could really see it in your face.
- Of course. Yeah.
- I was worried about him, yeah.
- Your concern for your brother.
Well, my final point or question
to you, Marty, is...
the making of the show,
them capturing what you do
and the dance between that
and an operation like this...
You actually trying
to get something done,
so here, we've brought you over
and interrupted you.
It may not be this, because
you're not here all the time.
- Right.
- It's more like repositioning cameras and stuff.
Yeah, when a machine
like that shows up,
I mean, I want
to jump in and dig.
- Right-right now.
- We try to minimize it the best we can.
We want to be able
to give the audience,
every-everything...
Every opportunity to see it
- and document in the best possible way.
- Yeah.
And I'll tell you this, Matty,
they don't miss much.
No, they don't.
So, all right,
well get back to work.
- Go find that ship.
- All right, buddy.
All right, brother.
All right, see you
soon. Thanks, Marty.
- Yep.
- See you.
You know, we've talked about
moments that you have to cover
that were dangerous,
you know, emotional.
Uh, but I'm wondering
about moments
that you guys had to cover
where it moved the needle
for you personally
that the Oak Island treasure
mystery's gonna get solved.
Oh, yeah, there's been so many
of them, I mean, over the years,
from the-the lead cross
being found,
and you see that artifact come
and then they follow that,
and apply the science to it.
Uh, scientific evidence of
silver being in the Money Pit,
followed up by this year,
scientific evidence of gold
in the Money Pit.
I mean, I-I don't know...
What about for you, Jon?
Well, for me,
last year at the end,
the final war room of the year
was one of the best moments
I've ever been lucky enough
to be a part of.
- Oh, absolutely.
- Last year we have
a man-made feature in the swamp.
- Yeah.
- A road in the swamp.
- That's right. That's right.
- Who would have thought?
Well, especially when,
season one, Rick's like,
"There's answers in that swamp,"
and Fred Nolan was always like,
"There's answers in that swamp,"
and we're all thinking,
"Well, we hope
there's answers in that swamp."
- Right.
- We found a coin in that swamp.
What else can we find?
And then they find a road
in the swamp and prove that it's
a man-made feature altogether.
And then, you know, obviously
the elephant in the room
- is the silver in the Money Pit.
- Yeah.
Wow, I mean, that just proves
the treasure is real.
The Money Pit is real.
And then, also,
beyond that, too,
the emotional aspect of the show
got encapsulated perfectly.
You know, it's when Marty Lagina
basically said to his brother,
"Brother, I love you.
"You've put this mystery
on the map for everyone to share
and we will follow you
to the end."
There are answers
in that swamp, for sure.
So, what does this
really speak to?
Uh, I think it really speaks
to Rick Lagina's persistence,
leadership.
You know, he has been
single-handedly
leading us into this,
and-and look what we have.
I think everybody
should be proud of what we did.
And, um, I know everybody
is thinking this,
and I just want to say it.
We are truly impressed
and honored
to be led by you
in this endeavor.
Amen.
Hear, hear.
Okay, well, now I'm not gonna
be able to talk anymore
because now I'm emotional.
So, now it's all on...
Now it's all on you guys.
It's all true.
I appreciate it. Certainly.
For me, I think
I can sum up how I feel,
two words:
humble and grateful.
Humble because...
for the kind words
that my brother articulated.
I really, really
appreciate that.
And humbled by the fact
that we've been, um,
lucky enough
to participate in this.
It's a wonderful story.
It always will be.
It belongs to each
and every one of us
because we have labored
so mightily to try and solve it.
And not only us
but Tom's father,
Dan, David.
The people that we have lost
and the people
that have come before us,
long ago,
who we owe a debt
of gratitude to.
And grateful
for all of you.
Uh, because Marty said,
you know, about leading,
but you can't lead
if people don't follow.
And, uh...
I appreciate...
- Yeah.
- And respect all of you.
We'll follow you anywhere, mate.
Yes.
That's why we're here.
I appreciate it.
More than you know.
Okay. Let's get it done.
- Yeah.
- Amen.
That one, I
remember seeing that footage,
going like, "They must
have just all been bawling."
I was totally choking up there
and trying to
- call shots and listen to everything as one.
- Yeah, yeah.
It was like something that,
where you just kind of see it
in the moment of how it's gonna
p-play across the world.
I don't know how you can
watch that and not tear up.
I mean, two brothers that have
been doing something together
since they were kids,
and then it-it all comes
full circle like that?
- I mean...
- It definitely felt that way,
like-like it was coming
full circle.
And you realize, like,
the-the collective effort
of these people
and-and the faith that then
leads to effort
that then leads to results.
So you just have
to ask yourself,
are these two brothers
gonna be the ones that do it?
- Is it their destiny?
- We want them to succeed.
And we want the Fellowship
to have that moment.
And I do know you guys
will be there
to capture everything they do,
so thank you.
- Well, you're very welcome, and...
- No-no problem.
We-we will continue
to follow everything they do,
and after we do that, you'll
be here to drill down on it.
I love it.
I mean, I don't know about you,
but now I believe
that just as many episodes
could be made about
the filming
of The Curse of Oak Island
as the actual show itself.
But that's only because
of the great efforts
of the Laginas,
the Fellowship of the Dig
and all the people out there
who share a special connection
to the 227-year-old
treasure mystery.
Stay tuned; something tells me
many more incredible moments
and discoveries
are still to come.
And this much I know:
our crew will capture
every single one of them.
Thanks for watching.
We'll see you soon.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
on Oak Island
as Rick, Marty Lagina
and their team
work to solve
a 226-year-old mystery.
As you can see behind me,
the crew
of The Curse of Oak Island
is just as busy
documenting every second of it.
Now, while this phenomenon
of a show is about real people
conducting a real process,
you may be surprised to learn
what our crew
and their team go through
capturing it on camera.
It's a place where the
unexpected happens every day.
- Sometimes it can be glorious.
- We just found a jewel.
That is fantastic.
Sometimes, it
can be near disastrous.
Oh, no, no! Oh!
So, tonight, we're giving you
an exclusive insiders' take
from members
of our intrepid crew
on how some of the most
memorable and iconic moments
in The Curse of Oak Island
were filmed.
This is Drilling Down.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
For nine seasons now,
the world's
longest-running treasure mystery
has been filmed,
edited and then delivered
to television audiences
around the world.
But while
The Curse of Oak Island
faithfully documents the quest
of Rick and Marty Lagina
and their team
to solve the mystery...
Holy...
Holy schmoly, all right.
- It's a cross.
- That's a cross.
The process of
following the real-life drama
that goes along with it
is a quest all on its own.
One year ago, I visited
the island during the production
of season eight
to witness a day of filming.
It's a coin, mate!
Boy, was it an experience.
But it was also eye-opening
to get a glimpse
at how the crew prepares
to be in the right place
at the right time
to get it all in the can.
- Pun intended.
- There you go.
Hey! There's the man.
So, I've come back
during the production
of season nine
to drill down on just that
with executive producers
Joe Lessard
and Jon Levy and, as you'll see,
other members of their team.
- Thanks for doing this.
- Oh, it's great
- to be back. Good to see you.
- Yeah, man.
The fans love this.
Getting to see
behind the scenes.
And, in fact,
um, before we go there,
I'm just gonna start
doing my job right away
- if you don't mind.
- Yeah.
Uh, why are we drilling
in what looks to be the area
of the stone triangle recreation
here?
- That's not the Money Pit. What's going on?
- Right.
It's actually using it
for some brand-new
cutting-edge technology
that they'll be bringing
onto the island later this year.
Once they use this technology,
it will solve
the Oak Island mystery.
- Ooh, wow.
- Right.
It was occurring to me
on the trip over here
how much this has changed.
How much
the operation has grown,
how much of a worldwide
reinvigoration there's been
for interest in the island.
But what I'm wondering
is has that affected
what you do in-in covering it?
Season one, we came out here
with a much smaller crew.
We had one small trailer
for the entire crew.
It's evolved in terms of scale.
It has remained
absolutely the same
in terms of principle.
- Right?
- Yeah. Our goal is to document
the best treasure hunt
in the world.
Now it's four or five trailers,
at least three crews
going on in the island
at the same time.
Because there's so much
search activity going on,
we want to capture it all.
Absolutely.
It is a real process.
Because Rick and Marty Lagina
did not pitch themselves
as TV personalities.
The deal was we're gonna
follow it as it happens.
We knew we had
a winning recipe for a show
because we had
great characters to follow.
- Yeah.
- We had a great story to follow
in Oak Island
and all of its history.
But as the guys started going
and-and doing
their explorations,
- there wasn't a whole lot being turned up.
- Right.
Here's where we're at.
Everything's in place?
Let's get it done.
Although it certainly
wasn't for a lack of effort.
Hit the air! Let's go!
Between airlifting tons
of sediment out of Borehole 10-X...
- Throw the switch.
- I hope number two works.
It better work.
And draining
the swamp for the first time,
no new major revelations
or discoveries had been made
heading into the final two weeks
of filming for season one.
It had everyone from the Laginas
to the crew
wondering if the show
would actually resonate
with audiences.
The brothers wanted to make sure
this show
had absolute integrity.
That was sacrosanct to them
and still is.
I'm wondering,
in those early days,
was there any ever...
ever any incidents of concern
over anything like that?
Oh, yeah.
- There was a major one, actually.
- Really?
It revolved around the finding
of the Spanish maravedi coin
that dated to 1652
because it was literally found
the last week of filming.
At the timing of it,
let's just say,
made some controversy arise.
Before I tell this story,
- Rick is right over there.
- Okay.
- Let me just go grab him.
- All right.
Because I think
you need his perspective
- to really appreciate the gravity of the moment.
- All right.
- Oh, I love it.
- I'll be right back.
Talk about a cliff-hanger.
I've heard the story.
It's a good one.
Whoa!
Is it a coin?
I believe this is a coin.
- No!
- You serious?
- What?!
- Reliving the Fellowship's
first major discovery,
a 1652 Spanish maravedi coin,
never gets old.
- What's that eight on it?
- What the hell is that?
It is an eight, isn't it?
For Rick and
Marty and their team,
it offered up hope
for the future.
How's that?
- How's that, brother?
- That's a good deal.
And for their
partner, Dan Blankenship,
it offered validation
for decades
of tireless searching
for possible answers
to the Oak Island mystery.
That's the first thing
I've held in my hands
since I've been here
almost 48 years.
- How you doing?
- Good. How are you?
Sorry to interrupt your work.
I was just telling them
about at the end of season one
when the coin was found
and what a... what a big deal
it was for everybody.
And we were just getting ready
to film
the very last meeting
of the year
where we were gonna
watch you guys
decide on what you'd learned
and where you go from here.
And Marty comes to me,
and he says,
"You better talk to my brother."
And I'm like, "Oh, why?
Is he okay? What...
What's wrong?" And he goes, "You
just better talk to my brother."
And, Rick, why don't...
why don't you explain
what happened next.
Look, it was such
a-an incredible find, right?
We had struggled the whole year.
We hadn't found much.
We had had high hopes coming in.
And all of a sudden...
Wow, an incredible find.
And then you go,
"Wait a minute."
- "Wait a second."
- "Is it possible
this is too good to be true?"
So, at that moment,
some uncertainty
is growing in my mind,
and there was only,
unfortunately,
one person to go to,
- and that was Joe.
- - Yeah.
I want to know
that this find is real.
I want
to make absolutely certain.
Right. The coin was not planted.
But i-in the moment,
I'm thinking,
"Okay, don't be offended,
because he's got a point."
- Right.
- And then I'm thinking,
"What do I say
to convince him otherwise?"
- Right.
- And, so, all I could do
was look them both in the eye
and-and just harken back
to the conversation we had
with Kevin Burns
to the start the whole thing.
It's gonna be a faithful
following of your process.
Okay, so,
the coin passed that test.
But what I have to know is
did Lessard pass
the Lagina polygraph test?
I do remember
that moment
like it was yesterday.
I remember Marty and I
both came around like this.
Marty was there,
and I got about like this.
- Right.
- And I said, "Joe?"
And then the questions proceeded
from there.
And what really struck me,
though, was
maybe you shrunk a little bit.
I don't think so.
- I think I was about this tall.
- But what... No, but... No, Joe.
What was impactful to me
was you stood your ground.
- Oh.
- It wasn't the words you said.
It was how you said them.
And that was what said to me,
no, the guy's real.
The guy's honest.
He's a stand-up representation
of what we're trying
to achieve here,
tell our wonderful,
remarkable story.
- Wow.
- Amazing.
- Well, it's great to hear that.
- Amazing.
I mean, that's exactly
what I wanted to convey,
'cause I-I needed you guys
to have that confidence,
especially you. Especially you.
That is behind-the-scenes
behind the scenes.
That is awesome.
Thank you, guys.
And-and that coin was
so important in so many ways.
And that coin has set us off
on a massive adventure,
a massive treasure hunt.
At times,
it can be very perilous.
It can be very dangerous.
And, uh, we'll meet up
with
our director of photography,
AJ Baca,
and we'll talk about it.
- Thanks, guys.
- Thanks, Rick.
- We'll see you soon.
- Get back to work, brother.
Fire in the hole!
The biggest and best moments
in The Curse of Oak Island
often involve massive drill rigs
and colossal digging equipment.
- Wow.
- But with all the excitement and discoveries,
there have also been
a number of close calls.
Wait, wait, wait. Stop!
Holy.
Whoa!
So, to get some
behind-the-quest insight
on how they strive to protect
everyone during production,
I met up once again
with executive producers
Joe Lessard and Jon Levy,
as well as director
of photography AJ Baca
and Jack Begley
at Borehole 10-X.
It's funny, guys, I've been
watching for years now firsthand
what you do, but this
is dangerous, hard work.
This is construction site,
you know?
Um, what are the protocols
that you-you guys
go through to keep
everyone safe?
Well, basically, before every
day we have a safety meeting
where we know all the
potentially dangerous activities
that happen.
We try our best
to always have spotters
or our camera assistants
right behind us
just watching our backs.
We wear hard hats,
yellow vests, steel-toe boots.
We try to prepare for everything
and be as safe as we can,
but there's...
There's been a lot
of dangerous moments as well.
Have there been moments
that highlights
how dangerous this is?
There was one instance
back in season three where
they were trying to get
to the bottom of 10-X,
and they had tried in season two
with a dive team.
That didn't work.
They had tried earlier
in season three
with another dive team,
that didn't work.
And then someone got the idea,
"Well, maybe we should reach out
to the best diver in the world.
Let's get John Chatterton."
If anybody can get us answers
to the long
sought-after question
of what's in the bottom of 10-X,
we believe that you guys
are gonna be able
to do it for us.
Putting a dive together
like this
is literally like
solving a puzzle.
I-It's not "if we can do it,"
it's "how do we do it?"
We're gonna get down there.
That I like to hear.
Ever since
Dan Blankenship drilled,
dug and constructed
the monumental shaft
known as 10-X back in the 1970s,
he and his partners had
struggled in vain to confirm
what a video camera had captured
in a mysterious chamber
at the bottom
235 feet below ground:
imagery of potential tunnels.
Tools, chests,
and even perhaps a human body
had Dan convinced that 10-X held
the keys to solving the mystery.
The problem was how to safely
get someone down there.
You see, 10-X is eight feet wide
down to a depth of 181 feet.
But from there,
down to 225 feet,
where it opens up
to the mysterious chamber,
it shrinks to a treacherous
27-inch diameter.
Oh, and that narrow section
also has a pipe lodged in it
from a past drilling operation.
So, like Joe said, who better
to tackle this task
than John Chatterton,
the man who made a legendary
career out of performing
death-defying dives on
shipwrecks all around the world?
Are we ready?
Going down.
So, I'm in that shack
right over there,
and we had a live feed on John
as he was going down 10-X.
He's wearing a Kirby Morgan
hard hat helmet,
he's got a surface supply
of trimix gas...
So it's like oxygen and helium...
So that he can
withstand the depths
and not have to worry
about the bends.
And so, it's just
this big web of equipment
that he has to go
down there with
and there's an old drill bar
stuck in the pipe
from past operations.
And who knows what else, really,
when you think about it, right?
Exactly.
Is the visibility
less than zero, John?
Yeah. I think we can
kind of see it.
Okay. Proceed down.
And so, I'm
watching the live feed,
and it's harrowing,
because we all know
the legends of 10-X,
right, guys?
I mean,
there's a chest down there,
there's a post down there.
There's tunnels coming this...
In and out of it,
is what, is what
Dan Blankenship believed.
There could be a dead body.
And so, on one hand,
you're focused on,
"What am I gonna see?"
We were gonna
see something finally
in the clear
through John Chatterton's eyes,
and as he's going down
that 27-inch pipe,
suddenly he says...
There's a list of some things
you don't want to hear
a diver say when
they're in a 27-inch caisson.
"I'm stuck" is probably
right up top of that list.
This is the worst scenario
unfolding right here.
And this is the best diver
in the world.
He's dove on Titanic,
he's dove on the Andrea Doria,
he's dove on so many things.
The guy survived Vietnam
and here he is stuck in 10-X,
and as I'm just thinking, "My
God, what's about to happen?"
All of a sudden, he's like,
"Okay, I'm free. I'm down."
John Chatterton
never worried for a second,
and it just makes
for an incredible TV moment,
but it just highlights
how perilous
this job can be but how exciting
and amazing it truly is.
How do you help him
from surface...
- Right.
- When you're just watching a monitor?
And luckily enough... and
I-I think, skillfully enough...
He was able to figure
his way out of being stuck
and then finished the dive.
It's incredible. You know,
this is a unique opportunity.
I want to ask you guys this.
The name of the show
is The Curse of Oak Island.
In a moment like that,
does-does the curse
run through your mind, guys?
A-a little bit,
you know, for sure.
It's a dangerous place,
things happen.
And quite honestly,
that's the toughest spot
of, like, Joe and I's job,
it's that balance of making sure
that we're documenting
everything that's happening,
i-including very dangerous
and scary moments,
and also balancing that
with crew and cast s-safety.
There was another dive, Joe,
that was maybe
even more dangerous.
You remember that?
I know exactly
what you're talking about.
- You're talking about C-1.
- Yep.
Just two years
after John Chatterton's
harrowing dive down 10-X,
the Fellowship brought in
diver Mike Huntley
to descend 170 feet
in the C-1 shaft
located in the Money Pit area.
It was here,
during season three,
that the team had recorded video
of a mysterious
gold-colored object.
I mean, what is it?
Looks like gold
that's bonded...
You know, fused...
To whatever's down there.
So, with Mike, when we actually
got him to the bottom depth,
he had, like, under ten minutes
or something like that
to explore everywhere.
And we're talking, you know,
estimating a 12-foot-wide cavern
in C-1 in complete blackness.
He couldn't see a thing.
And then we started getting
those metal detector hits
once he finally got
the metal detector out.
You know, I've
done a lot of metal detecting.
And if you're getting a really
good hit, and multiple hits,
and you are diving down
in the Money Pit,
you know how frustrating
it would be
to get all those multiple hits
in, like, a jumble
and just be trying
to recover the one?
He got bit by the
Oak Island bug hard.
- Bingo. That's-that's exactly right, Jon.
- You know?
- He-he wanted that treasure.
- That's right.
Okay, we're at 30 minutes now.
I'm gonna run you
for another three minutes
and then the dive is over.
So, the Divemaster
had already told
Mike Huntley
he needed to come up.
He was getting
metal detector hits;
he stayed down longer
than what our dive plan was for,
which means he needed more time
to slowly acclimate
as he came up to surface.
But what got crazy was that,
basically, as he was
coming to surface,
his breathing started
to get heavier,
which is the first sign
that he is getting tired
and he's getting hypothermic.
So, it was the Divemaster's call
to basically shoot him
straight to surface,
which, as you know as a diver,
that's how you get the bends,
which can kill you very, very
quickly if you're not careful.
So AJ and I, at that point,
are on the exact same page
of choreographing, uh,
where-where all the cameras
are gonna be as he's arriving,
while being on the same page
with the medical staff
to make sure
that we're not in the way
as he's trying to get help
and get into
the decompression chamber.
Okay, we're on the clock, boys.
And you can see, right
as Mike Huntley comes above
that C-1 lip, his eyes are,
like, huge, huge marbles.
And he was scared.
He was truly scared.
And that's where
the medical staff
and everybody comes in,
and we do our best
to keep that
fly-on-the-wall mentality
where these guys
are professionals,
they know how to assist him,
the EMT crew is there,
and they just need to get him
into the chamber.
As viewers, you know,
we share those moments with you.
We're as anxious as you are,
even though we're not on-site,
we're watching.
You know, it's-it's not
just dangerous moments
that you guys have
to live through, uh,
it's also very
emotional moments,
and I'd like to talk about
some of those with you next.
- Absolutely.
- Great.
Oh, my gosh,
it's another bobby-dazzler.
- Look.
- It's thrilling
to watch Rick and Marty Lagina
and their team
unearth clue after clue
on The Curse of Oak Island
as they work to solve
a 226-year-old treasure mystery.
We're in the collapse
of the Money Pit,
and we're gonna find
what was ever in there.
That's what it means.
But as they also
dig through the past
in order to learn from the many
searchers who came before them,
Rick, Marty and the team
have met many people
whose families not only endured
great struggles on Oak Island,
but in some cases, much worse.
Our grandfather Spotty was
never recovered or never found.
It's great you could
meet us here at Smith's Cove, Alex,
because we were talking
about the anticipation
of dangerous moments
or the anticipation
- of unexpected moments...
- Right.
And these guys
trying to capture that.
But that's different
than actual tragedy.
And standing here
at Smith's Cove
and-and looking
at that area right there,
I can't help but think
of the Restall tragedy.
I remember,
the first year I was out here,
Lee Lamb was on the island and
Andrew DeMont was on the island,
and they were talking
about the tragedy
that happened right here,
where-where four people died.
Robert and Mildred Restall
were a pair of retired
motorcycle daredevils
who took over the treasure hunt
in 1959.
Along with their two sons
Bobby Jr. and Ricky,
the Restalls persevered
for nearly six years
living in two shacks
with no plumbing or electricity.
Their compelling discoveries
included the 1704 stone
and a spiral tunnel
in the Money Pit.
But on August 17th, 1965,
Robert, Bobby Jr.
And two other men
lost their lives due to
poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas
emitting from the ground
in a shaft at Smith's Cove.
So, is that the remains
of Hedden's Wharf?
That's it.
In 2013,
Robert and Mildred Restall's
daughter Lee Lamb
visited the island to share
information with the team
and also to meet
with Andrew DeMont,
a man who nearly lost his life
trying to save
her father and brother.
I can still see it.
I heard cries.
And everybody, of course,
run to the pit to help.
The gas was so strong,
- Yeah.
- That once you got to it, you know there was no going back up.
Cyril and I proceeded
to go down.
The last I remember,
I had your brother
by the shoulder.
- Mm-hmm.
- And, uh...
- And passed out.
- He... Oh, yeah, I was gone within seconds.
So, they were still alive
when you passed out.
Just your brother.
I felt so bad
'cause we couldn't help.
Just to see them
coming back to the place
where that had happened,
to see Andrew
kind of process that event...
Oh, God.
You could see him
almost travel back in time
to when that happened,
and-and reliving a bit of it
was powerful.
Okay.
And it really kind of
brought it home.
Lee had never had a chance
to speak directly
to one of the men
who-who risked his life
trying to save
- her father and brother's life.
- Right.
It's-it's easy to get
carried away with, okay,
"What could there be here?"
"What could this mean?"
"What is the great treasure?"
A-And lose track of the
questions of, you know,
who came before us
and what were their sacrifices
that got us to this point?
And who do we have to thank
for advancing the search
to this point?
And another aspect to that day,
Andrew, um, expressed to us
that it-it offered him a chance
to get some closure
on that tragedy
because it was, it was
something that he had not really
been able to process,
uh, in his life.
- Yes.
- And that makes you just,
uh, appreciate all the more
how important it is
that we're documenting
something out here.
It's about the human story,
uh, the human element
of this thing that-that
transcends the treasure.
- Shall I show you?
- Sure. - Definitely.
That emotional visit would
lead to several more that saw Lee
not only share
some of the Restalls'
amazing discoveries
with the team...
It's the 1704 stone.
But also continue the quest
to find closure
for herself and another
special member of her family.
- Hello, Lee. Hello.
- Hi, how are you?
I brought you a present.
This is my brother Rick Restall.
Oh, great to meet you.
Rick Restall
was just 14 years old
when his father
and brother died,
and he hadn't returned
to the island in decades.
I just want to say
that I'm really pleased
that my brother's original maps
are on the walls here.
Yeah. They'll be preserved here.
This will always be a part
of the Oak Island story, so...
I'm amazed.
Fantastic job
you've done, really.
After sharing a new display,
dedicated to the Restall family
in the Oak Island
Interpretive Centre...
Might that mean anything to you?
Rick, Marty, Craig
and the team presented Ricky
with a curious find that
Gary Drayton recently made
near Smith's Cove.
Wow.
My friend.
My gosh. This must be my gun.
- I know I lost it.
- It's got to be a neat thing
that the last time you handled
that you were, what, ten?
At the most, ten.
This trip was momentous for me
because it draws my brother
into his rightful place.
He's got a deep connection
with the island.
This was Ricky's moment.
I thought it might be time
to deal with, uh,
what-what came up
when my father and my brother
died, and we left the island.
Uh, it was kind of a sudden
and unplanned departure,
so in some ways, uh,
I've never left the island.
The moment when Rick
presented this toy gun,
it was quite the amazing
experience both as a producer
and for Rick and-and the team
that were there.
And it's a great look into
not only how you guys cover
the day-to-day operations
of a real-life treasure hunt...
Which is awesome... but also
how you cover the history
of the island, the stories,
the families and the impact,
and you all do it
so incredibly well.
We can't wait to see
what's next.
Oh, appreciate it.
The Curse of
Oak Island got its name
from the legendary dark forces
that locals believe
have been guarding
a priceless treasure
ever since the hunt began
back in 1795.
- What have you got?
- It looks like a piece of finished wood.
And even though
the world is pulling
for Rick, Marty and the team
to safely and successfully solve
this mystery,
I met up again with
executive producer Jon Levy
and director of photography
AJ Baca
to drill down on some
of the more perilous things
that have happened
during production
that they never
could have expected.
AJ and Jon, I wanted
to come to the Money Pit,
be in the construction zone,
because I know there are moments
you can plan on
- that are dangerous and you can anticipate...
- Yeah.
- Like dives.
- Yeah.
But when work's going on,
things can happen in an instant.
Can you think of any moments
like that?
Yeah, I mean,
we are at the Money Pit.
This is the hotbed
of all of the search,
and this is where
all the big machinery comes in,
including the drill rig.
And I think season five,
we had probably
one of the scariest moments
we've ever had on this show,
when we had Brewster Drilling
here on the Money Pit.
In 2017,
while drilling
in the hopes of locating
the original Money Pit
and the fabled Chappell Vault,
the team thought
they might be on the verge
- of a major breakthrough.
- He's in a void.
How high is that void?
It's at least about 30 feet.
A piece of wood, right there.
That's that cut again, look.
It's got that same beveled cut.
But then, disaster struck.
- Holy!
- Somebody got hurt.
A massive
vacuum hose on the drill rig
exploded without warning,
injuring team member
Max Williamson.
- Just stay right there.
- You okay?
Geez. Oh, just...
Stay right there.
My leg might be.
Calm down for a second.
We're gonna get you checked out.
- Yeah, you're...
- Oh, my.
J-Just stay right here for now.
Don't put any weight on that.
Get 911 out here.
That was so frightening.
I-It didn't...
I remember him getting tended,
like, it was right here,
there used to be
a hill right here.
And he was sitting
on this little hill, right?
I think his knee was battered,
his wrist potentially
was fractured.
Nobody was aware.
The amount of pressure
that was coming
out of that thing sent him...
I think you saw his hard hat
just fly across the screen.
Like, it must have been
getting hit by a truck
the way it felt.
Yeah, but, you know,
we had safety protocols
in place, we followed it.
Now, we have to document
the action.
Everybody is safe.
Let's make sure
that we're not in the way
of the medical professionals.
He can get medical attention
while still being safe.
One of the things
that's really complicated
that we deal with on the island
is how to cover
all of the moving parts
of a machine
that could potentially kill you
if something goes wrong.
We try to cover, uh, aspects
of the drill rig, for example,
with specialty cameras
and lock-offs in the areas
that we just can't put
a camera operator.
And luckily, during that
moment in season five,
a lot of our specialty cameras
caught all of the moments
that led up to that while
our camera operators were able
to maintain a safe distance
and then jump in the second,
I think, Rick Lagina
ran full-speed in
to help the driller
when he was down.
And our camera operators
were able to cover those moments
without getting hurt themselves.
These things happen in a flash.
AJ, I know there was a moment
for you that happened
literally in the middle
of the night.
- Hey, Rick!
- Yeah?
It's still going.
- That ain't good.
- Nope.
Yeah, I was
actually on the island
trying to get a moonrise,
and so I had a couple cameras
kind of set up
around the island,
and I was actually
getting ready to go home.
I think it was walking back
to my truck in the parking lot
when I see Rick pull up and Doug
and everybody's just...
All this commotion
in the parking lot.
And I run over
and ask what's happening.
All around H-8, the
ground started to cave in.
And we're not talking
like pothole,
we're talking ten, 15 feet down,
and it just kept going,
into like what looked like
just a soupy mess beneath it.
Let's go take a look.
Let's do this.
- Eyes and boots.
- I agree.
A total cave-in of Borehole H-8
would have been devastating
for the team's search
because it was their belief
that it may have intersected
the original Money Pit.
It was here
that they recovered pieces
of ancient parchment paper,
just like previous searchers
had recovered
from the Chappell Vault,
along with gold shavings,
back in 1897.
So, it was more than eerie
when the ground surrounding it
literally began collapsing
in 2018.
- Oh, baby.
- Be careful.
Holy...
That is huge.
- What the hell...
- Rick!
Hang on one second.
Look out!
- No!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Come on. Okay.
Everybody,
that's enough curiosity.
Let's go.
So, I quickly was like, well,
all the main cameras
are off the island,
I have these little cameras
set up all over the place
trying to get a moon.
So, basically,
I grabbed my phone
and I sprinted with Rick
and Doug to the Money Pit
and I tied a rope
around my waist
- Ugh.
- And then to the...
With the hitch
on my pickup truck
as the guys were kind of
looking down the hole
and it was all just
being filmed on my phone
'cause that was all
I had at the time.
- So, it was pretty sketchy.
- That's...
That's incredible.
And when you watch that footage,
and I have, uh,
several times, you can't tell
that you weren't up here
with your real camera rig.
I mean, it's really impressive
what-what a phone can do
- and what you can do.
- Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, that story
really drives home the point
that there is danger
all around here constantly.
A-Absolutely, Matty.
One of the biggest dangers
that happens on this island
comes from the tiniest creatures
that wreaks havoc
throughout the production
every year.
And one of these creatures
knocked Rick Lagina
on his heels.
The person that we can
talk to and tell you about
how bad it was for Rick
is Marty Lagina.
So, maybe we should talk to him.
That'd be perfect. Is he around?
Can we do that now?
- Let's go grab him.
- Let's go get Marty.
Far be it from me to interrupt
the world's
greatest treasure hunt,
especially when
the Fellowship is digging
in the triangle-shaped swamp...
I see Marty. What...
Should we go grab him?
- Yeah, go grab him, we can talk about...
- Okay, great.
But along with Jon Levy,
one of the executive producers
of The Curse of Oak Island,
I wanted to get the inside dirt
from Marty Lagina himself,
on one of the most intense
incidents that occurred
during the filming
of season five.
Hi, buddy.
Sorry to interrupt.
- How you doing?
- Anytime for you, Matty Blake.
All right. I love it.
This is exciting.
But what-what I actually
came here to talk to you about,
uh, Jon reminded me of a story.
We've been talking about how
they cover what you do, right?
But then there's
these unexpected moments.
And there was one day
where something really
unexpected happened.
One day? -Well,
every... that's a great point.
Every day something
unexpected happens,
but one particular day,
your brother suddenly
wasn't here,
which never happens,
and you got worried.
It doesn't happen very often.
It's not only unusual
for Rick to not respond.
I mean, he-he would never
complain about,
- for instance, pain.
- Right, right.
So, you know, he's gone,
which-which...
which is, you know,
induces some trepidation in me
because I think, "Wait a minute,
this is a guy
who doesn't complain," so...
uh, I-I decided the first step...
And it's a crucial step,
when it comes to my brother...
Is to go look for him.
It wasn't just that Rick
was absent one day from the island,
it was that he was absent
just when the team
was reaching a critical depth
in Borehole H-8
in the Money Pit area,
where they discovered
possible evidence
of the fabled Chappell Vault.
- Rick.
- Hey.
- So, what is going on?
- When Marty got to Rick's house
to see what was up,
he found his big,
indestructible brother in need
of serious medical attention.
- You got a rash?
- Yeah, take a look.
Come on over here.
Come on over here in the light.
Right now? Even now?
Pounding headache?
Yeah, right now.
- Oh, yeah.
- You see it?
Yeah. Ew.
I mean, I don't know,
but that looks like Lyme disease
or shingles to me.
Rick had
been bitten by a deer tick
and was showing the
telltale sign of Lyme disease:
a massive
bull's-eye-shaped rash.
If not treated immediately
upon detection,
Lyme disease causes
debilitating symptoms
including joint pain,
muscle paralysis
and severe headaches,
just to name a few,
and can become a recurring,
lifelong condition.
Come on, let's go.
But you know I have
an aversion with doctors.
It doesn't matter.
We're going to a doctor.
Rick Lagina is a
unique guy, as we all know,
but his tough-as-nails fortitude
was thankfully no match
for his younger brother Marty
on this day.
The film crew jumped
into cautious action
to capture as much as possible
as Marty made sure Rick
got the treatment he needed
and staved off the curse
of Lyme disease.
- Had it not been for the rash...
- No, you wouldn't think.
You'd think
you just got something.
- You know, a bug.
- Yep.
I know. It's-it's scary.
And now here's the crucial
moment, though, from...
That I want to drill down on
in terms of you guys
trying to capture
a real live event,
a real live treasure hunt,
but then also,
personal things that happen...
- Sure.
- That-that affect...
Everything affects
the treasure hunt
- because it's your lives, right?
- Yes.
And so, do they say to you
at that moment,
"Hey, we're gonna follow you,"
and you say like, "No, not...
This is too serious," or...
No, actually I give them
compliments on this.
They-they say, we'll do this
any way you want, basically.
Yeah.
So that's what happens.
I mean, so, obviously, we have
to respect Rick's privacy.
- Right.
- You know, that-that's number one.
- Of course.
- You know, it's like, we... it's for the most part,
we always keep things
on Oak Island.
You know, we don't
really dive too much
into their personal lives,
but Rick was open enough,
understood that this affects
the treasure hunt,
that he allowed us
to-to go with Marty
as he went to Rick's house.
- Actually, you're leaving out one part there, Jon.
- Yeah.
That is that part of what
drives Rick, for sure...
Me to some extent,
them to some extent...
Is that this is a, uh,
this is a very... this is
a holy platform, right?
And, uh, part of this...
And I remember
mentioning to Rick... is to raise
awareness about Lyme disease.
- Yes.
- You know, as-as big and tough as he is, it can bring him down.
And so he was fine with that.
Cause it's an awareness thing.
People watch it and think,
"Hey, you know,
maybe we ought
to look-look into this."
And that incident with Rick,
in particular,
you talk about the emotional
side of the hunt,
- you could really see it in your face.
- Of course. Yeah.
- I was worried about him, yeah.
- Your concern for your brother.
Well, my final point or question
to you, Marty, is...
the making of the show,
them capturing what you do
and the dance between that
and an operation like this...
You actually trying
to get something done,
so here, we've brought you over
and interrupted you.
It may not be this, because
you're not here all the time.
- Right.
- It's more like repositioning cameras and stuff.
Yeah, when a machine
like that shows up,
I mean, I want
to jump in and dig.
- Right-right now.
- We try to minimize it the best we can.
We want to be able
to give the audience,
every-everything...
Every opportunity to see it
- and document in the best possible way.
- Yeah.
And I'll tell you this, Matty,
they don't miss much.
No, they don't.
So, all right,
well get back to work.
- Go find that ship.
- All right, buddy.
All right, brother.
All right, see you
soon. Thanks, Marty.
- Yep.
- See you.
You know, we've talked about
moments that you have to cover
that were dangerous,
you know, emotional.
Uh, but I'm wondering
about moments
that you guys had to cover
where it moved the needle
for you personally
that the Oak Island treasure
mystery's gonna get solved.
Oh, yeah, there's been so many
of them, I mean, over the years,
from the-the lead cross
being found,
and you see that artifact come
and then they follow that,
and apply the science to it.
Uh, scientific evidence of
silver being in the Money Pit,
followed up by this year,
scientific evidence of gold
in the Money Pit.
I mean, I-I don't know...
What about for you, Jon?
Well, for me,
last year at the end,
the final war room of the year
was one of the best moments
I've ever been lucky enough
to be a part of.
- Oh, absolutely.
- Last year we have
a man-made feature in the swamp.
- Yeah.
- A road in the swamp.
- That's right. That's right.
- Who would have thought?
Well, especially when,
season one, Rick's like,
"There's answers in that swamp,"
and Fred Nolan was always like,
"There's answers in that swamp,"
and we're all thinking,
"Well, we hope
there's answers in that swamp."
- Right.
- We found a coin in that swamp.
What else can we find?
And then they find a road
in the swamp and prove that it's
a man-made feature altogether.
And then, you know, obviously
the elephant in the room
- is the silver in the Money Pit.
- Yeah.
Wow, I mean, that just proves
the treasure is real.
The Money Pit is real.
And then, also,
beyond that, too,
the emotional aspect of the show
got encapsulated perfectly.
You know, it's when Marty Lagina
basically said to his brother,
"Brother, I love you.
"You've put this mystery
on the map for everyone to share
and we will follow you
to the end."
There are answers
in that swamp, for sure.
So, what does this
really speak to?
Uh, I think it really speaks
to Rick Lagina's persistence,
leadership.
You know, he has been
single-handedly
leading us into this,
and-and look what we have.
I think everybody
should be proud of what we did.
And, um, I know everybody
is thinking this,
and I just want to say it.
We are truly impressed
and honored
to be led by you
in this endeavor.
Amen.
Hear, hear.
Okay, well, now I'm not gonna
be able to talk anymore
because now I'm emotional.
So, now it's all on...
Now it's all on you guys.
It's all true.
I appreciate it. Certainly.
For me, I think
I can sum up how I feel,
two words:
humble and grateful.
Humble because...
for the kind words
that my brother articulated.
I really, really
appreciate that.
And humbled by the fact
that we've been, um,
lucky enough
to participate in this.
It's a wonderful story.
It always will be.
It belongs to each
and every one of us
because we have labored
so mightily to try and solve it.
And not only us
but Tom's father,
Dan, David.
The people that we have lost
and the people
that have come before us,
long ago,
who we owe a debt
of gratitude to.
And grateful
for all of you.
Uh, because Marty said,
you know, about leading,
but you can't lead
if people don't follow.
And, uh...
I appreciate...
- Yeah.
- And respect all of you.
We'll follow you anywhere, mate.
Yes.
That's why we're here.
I appreciate it.
More than you know.
Okay. Let's get it done.
- Yeah.
- Amen.
That one, I
remember seeing that footage,
going like, "They must
have just all been bawling."
I was totally choking up there
and trying to
- call shots and listen to everything as one.
- Yeah, yeah.
It was like something that,
where you just kind of see it
in the moment of how it's gonna
p-play across the world.
I don't know how you can
watch that and not tear up.
I mean, two brothers that have
been doing something together
since they were kids,
and then it-it all comes
full circle like that?
- I mean...
- It definitely felt that way,
like-like it was coming
full circle.
And you realize, like,
the-the collective effort
of these people
and-and the faith that then
leads to effort
that then leads to results.
So you just have
to ask yourself,
are these two brothers
gonna be the ones that do it?
- Is it their destiny?
- We want them to succeed.
And we want the Fellowship
to have that moment.
And I do know you guys
will be there
to capture everything they do,
so thank you.
- Well, you're very welcome, and...
- No-no problem.
We-we will continue
to follow everything they do,
and after we do that, you'll
be here to drill down on it.
I love it.
I mean, I don't know about you,
but now I believe
that just as many episodes
could be made about
the filming
of The Curse of Oak Island
as the actual show itself.
But that's only because
of the great efforts
of the Laginas,
the Fellowship of the Dig
and all the people out there
who share a special connection
to the 227-year-old
treasure mystery.
Stay tuned; something tells me
many more incredible moments
and discoveries
are still to come.
And this much I know:
our crew will capture
every single one of them.
Thanks for watching.
We'll see you soon.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.