NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
RICK: We're following all the clues
where they lead.
Hey, guys, come take a look at this.
CORJAN: (chuckles) Fantastic.
Holy cow. This is frickin' impressive.
I've never seen anything like this on the island.
DOUG: We found this on Oak Island.
EMILIANO: It's very old.
Probably a thousand years old.
-DOUG: Wow. -Wow.
ROGER: We are at the bottom of the Money Pit shaft.
MARTY: And very close to the actual treasure
-of the Money Pit. -Absolutely amazing.
-MARTY: How about that? -Wow.
MARTY: Oh, baby.
NARRATOR: 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 a stone slab
with strange symbols carved into it...
...man-made workings that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend, one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
When this first project was started...
-Hey, guys. -Oh!
-Oh, look at you. -CRAIG: Charles.
Got your Sunday going-to-meeting clothes on.
I got my Sunday go-to-meeting clothes on, yeah.
It's a pretty exciting day.
NARRATOR: For brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester and their entire team,
the dawn of another day on Oak Island
brings renewed anticipation
for a major breakthrough discovery
that could help solve a 228-year-old mystery.
-This is a dream, isn't it? -CHARLES: It's a dream,
and I want to thank you both, a-and Rick,
for the opportunity for allowing me to do this.
Roger, is he gonna, you know, is he gonna
-meet the grade here? Can he do this? -Well, I don't know.
But yeah, I-I think he'll be able to cut it.
(laughs) Absolutely.
-How deep are we? -So, right now,
we finally found the bottom of the shaft.
The bottom of our shaft is at 82 feet,
just a little over 82 feet, so there is no more timber.
NARRATOR: Although the bitter North Atlantic winter
is fast approaching, the reconstruction
of the Garden Shaft in the Money Pit area
is nearing completion, meaning that a legendary treasure
people have been searching for since 1795
may soon be within their reach.
MARTY: Charles, you're going below ground
on Oak Island, man.
Yeah, I know. It's a pretty select group.
Yeah. Well, I want to know if your, uh, Spidey-sense tingles
-when you get down there. -If I pick up any gold sig...
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. -...signals?
You'd be the first to know.
Okay. All right. Let's get this show on the road.
Yeah. We'll go to the camera and keep an eye on them.
NARRATOR: It has been five long months since representatives
from Dumas Contracting Limited began rebuilding
this 82-foot-deep dilapidated feature,
which, thanks to scientific testing
of wood and water samples,
has proven to contain high-trace evidence of gold.
However, it also appears to be sitting above a tunnel
some 95 feet deep running due west
toward the so-called Baby Blob, where water testing
in numerous boreholes has suggested
that the fabled Money Pit treasure vault could be located.
CHARLES: Wow.
When Rick asked members of the team
who wanted to actually go underground,
I think my hand was probably the first one that went up.
To me, it's very personal to go down there.
And that's the whole idea of us being here,
to find this thing, not only for us,
but for everybody that came before us.
-Is this him? -Yeah. That's them.
-CRAIG: That was quick. -MARTY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Now, after completing
specialized safety training, Charles Barkhouse is inspecting
the nearly completed bottom section, or set,
of the structure, in order to help the team determine
how the Garden Shaft may be related
to the possible treasure tunnel beneath it.
CHARLES: Very cool. (laughs)
Wow.
Holy God.
Wow.
(exhales)
RODNEY: This timber you see right here, that's...
-that's the last original piece. -That right down there?
Yeah. You got noth-- no more timber below that.
-CHARLES: No more timber below that? -No.
And this is the corner that was sinking all along.
-CHARLES: Right, yeah, I see that. Yeah, you can... -You can see the angle
-right here. -You could-- Yeah.
CHARLES: Wow.
(over video): I'm curious what made this corner sink.
You know? There is something beyond this corner.
There is a tunnel or something that caused this corner to sink.
The question is why was so much activity in this area
that we know nothing about?
The good thing is, we can get down there,
and there is a ton of things that can be done from this.
Well, we can drill from the bottom, right?
Yeah. So, we will do some probe drilling,
to see if we can try and intercept this tunnel.
MARTY: Dumas is about to begin probe drilling.
I don't know exactly what to expect, but I'm hoping
for treasure itself.
Maybe, uh, find this tunnel that could be
a tunnel to an offset chamber.
This is unexplored ground for us,
and it should be interesting.
So, when do we start drilling?
As soon as we get this set in.
This side here is not done.
MARTY (over radio): Hey, Charles. Surface to Charles.
Do you read me?
-(radio beeps) -Go ahead, Marty.
Okay, you know what I'm gonna say. Where's the gold?
Uh, I wish I could, Marty.
I wish I could tell you where it is, but it-- I'll tell you,
it's-it's pretty amazing down here.
Well, Charles,
here's the deal: I want to get down there,
and I will, in the next couple days.
And-and, but-but really, let's face it,
the, uh, utility of this thing has yet to be proven.
But I'm hopeful that it will be.
Me, too, Marty. It's time.
All right. Come on up.
You can't live down there.
Okay, coming up.
MARTY: I got to do my training, um, but couple days,
-I'm gonna be down there. -ROGER: Absolutely.
-I'll be more than glad to take you down. -All right, perfect.
That's a-- It's a date.
-It's a date. Exactly. Yeah. -MARTY: All right.
NARRATOR: As the reconstruction of the Garden Shaft
continues in the Money Pit area,
nearly 4,000 miles to the east, in Rome, Italy...
(Emiliano speaking Italian)
-Buongiorno. Rick. -Nice to meet you.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina, along with his nephews Alex and Peter,
Doug Crowell and researcher Emiliano Sacchetti,
are meeting with numismatist Umberto Moruzzi.
Do you have a specialty in the, like, a certain coin
or a certain era?
-Okay. -RICK: That's really why we're here,
because we're trying to understand the story
about Oak Island.
EMILIANO: Here there's another amazing underground cave system.
NARRATOR: For the past week,
Rick and the team have been visiting ancient sights
to investigate the theory of the late Zena Halpern,
who believed that between the 12th and 14th centuries...
RICK: Wow.
...members of the medieval Christian order
known as the Knights Templar
transported sacred, religious treasures from Italy
and other European strongholds to Oak Island.
-ALEX: Hey, Rick. -RICK: Hmm?
-Check this out. -PETER: That's cool.
We have seen this symbol before, on Oak Island.
-RICK: H+O Stone. -PETER: Yeah.
NARRATOR: So far, they have found numerous Templar carvings
in ancient cave systems
that have also been found on or near the island.
And incredibly, one of those sites,
located in the town of Camerano,
features a labyrinth matching the exact shape
of the 14th-century lead cross that was unearthed
at Smith's Cove back in 2017.
Well, hopefully today,
there will be an unraveling of our story.
DOUG: Yes. We've found
several coins on the island that seem very out of place to us.
NARRATOR: Today, the team has asked Umberto
to examine the Roman half-coin
found earlier this year on Lot 5,
along with another metal artifact
that was unearthed on Lot 7,
to see if his findings might help to further validate
Zena Halpern's incredible theory.
It could be half a Roman coin from the fourth century.
Wow.
EMILIANO: In his opinion, this could be the original one.
UMBERTO: Look.
EMILIANO: They have been in circulation for centuries.
And we could expect to find this up to the medieval times.
ALEX: Wow.
(laughter)
RICK: How do you explain
a Roman half-coin on Oak Island?
This is one of the earliest artifacts found on Oak Island.
That's huge.
I don't know what to make of it quite yet.
Doug, I think...
-next-next one up? -Yes. Yes.
DOUG: We have another item.
We're wondering if, uh, Umberto can have a look at it.
(Umberto speaking Italian)
So, uh, it-it-- that's not a coin.
Uh, it's made out of bronze and it's very old.
According to Umberto,
uh, probably a thousand years old.
-ALEX: Wow. -RICK: Wow.
(speaking Italian)
It's-it's a bit more than four grams.
(Umberto speaking Italian)
EMILIANO: He's saying, uh, this could be
a monetary weight.
Mm-hmm.
(speaking Italian)
EMILIANO: Probably, that piece of bronze
was used, uh, to make comparison between real coins.
Using the weight.
Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: From the times of Ancient Rome
up through the medieval period across Europe,
the value of silver and gold coins
were determined by their weight.
In order to prevent counterfeiting,
merchants would use trade weights
made of non-precious metals
as a standard for ensuring the true value of coins.
If this is indeed around a thousand years old,
why the need for trade weights on Oak Island?
Don't know, yet.
NARRATOR: If Umberto Moruzzi is correct
that this trade weight could date back
approximately 1,000 years, could it be a clue
that supports Zena Halpern's belief
that members of the Templar order
first visited Oak Island in the late 12th century?
RICK: The very word "trade" means
some sort of commercial activity,
or some sort of activity associated with money.
Um...
Well, money, generally in everyone's mind,
is associated with "treasure."
But it's the date he puts on it, a thousand years old.
Well, it rounds, again-- we're back into the 1200s.
Perhaps, uh, an association with a-a Templar treasure.
EMILIANO: It matches the weight of a golden
-Byzantine coin. -DOUG: Oh, yes.
Wow.
(Umberto speaking Italian)
And there's, uh, a Christ on it.
RICK: Wow.
He likes to think that that piece of bronze
was used as a monetary weight for that very coin.
Wow.
I always thought it was a wonderful story.
-ALEX: Mm-hmm. -But nothing like this.
Right? All of these outliers,
all of this new information
that comes to light and you've just...
continually puzzled by it, right?
Given legitimate artifacts from literally millennia ago.
-Mm-hmm. -So, I thank you for that,
because that impresses upon all of us
the importance of finds like this.
I'm very hopeful as we look forward.
-UMBERTO: Grazie. -RICK: Prego.
(bucket thuds)
NARRATOR: Back on Oak Island...
-How's it going, Laird? -Hey, Jack.
I see a lot of test pits in this area.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: ...Jack Begley arrives on Lot 5,
located on the western side of the island,
where archaeologist Laird Niven
continues his meticulous excavation
of a mysterious circular stone feature.
JACK: There's been a lot of work done around here lately.
LAIRD: (chuckles) Yeah, there's a lot to do.
Our first bit was to examine
what we thought was the exterior.
But then we found that there's this big circle
of stones around it.
NARRATOR: While the purpose of the stone-covered depression
remains unknown,
the fact that it has a 13-foot diameter,
matching that of the original Money Pit
when it was discovered in 1795,
and is located in the area where the Roman coin
and barter token were found,
the team suspects it may be a critical clue
that could help solve the Oak Island mystery.
You can see rocks coming up here,
so-- well below these placed rocks.
-JACK: Yeah. Yeah. -Right?
The occupation could be...
I mean, we're finding artifacts from the 1750s.
Wow.
Is there any chance that the top feature
was built at a later date than the rocks that are lower?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, this was at a later date.
Yeah, and there could be
an even earlier component under that.
Oh. So, this could be
a really old stone feature that was then rebuilt and...
-Yeah. -...and rock-lined back in the 1700s.
LAIRD: That's what we're hoping for.
-Hey, Laird. -Hey, Marty.
Talk to me. What have you found?
Why don't you come down and I'll show you?
-Well, I can be an archeologist then, right? -Yep.
All right. What you got?
Well, we have a big jumble of rocks.
-MARTY: I see that. -And it's very deliberately built.
So, what is this?
Well, so, we're speculating now
if this was once filled, with rocks.
-MARTY: The whole thing? -The whole thing.
And then at some point, somebody decided
to take some of these rocks out and create this thing around it.
I'd be keenly interested in any artifacts you find down there.
LAIRD: Yeah, We're getting artifacts from 1750 up top.
-Mm-hmm. -The hope is that, down below,
we'll find an earl-- an even earlier component.
That would be great. That would be exciting.
The round feature on Lot 5 can turn out to be significant
because it's so odd.
How can you not be
extremely interested into what exactly it is?
It's a thing not found elsewhere on Nova Scotia on Oak Island.
It could be very meaningful. We need to explore it.
Well, there are secrets here yet, Laird.
But I think you're gonna find them.
LAIRD: I hope so.
All right, you guys carry on.
-I'm moving to other parts. -All right.
-See you later. -See you, Marty.
NARRATOR: As Laird and Jack continue
their investigation on Lot 5...
-CRAIG: Okay, well, let's take her deeper. -BILLY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester, Billy Gerhardt, Steve Guptill
and Gary Drayton are conducting an excavation
in the middle of the triangle-shaped swamp.
CRAIG: Whoa. The water's sure starting to come in
that little spot right there.
GARY: We got a gusher now. Wow.
-That's some water, isn't it? -Yeah.
NARRATOR: After confirming the discovery of a stone ramp one week ago,
which connects the 800-year-old paved area
with a stone pathway running along
the eastern border of the swamp...
CRAIG: Let's keep going, see what the base of it looks like.
BILLY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: ...the Oak Island team
is now hoping to unearth
a large, potentially metallic object
that was detected during a magnetometer survey
performed earlier this year.
We're awful deep.
But the water came in so fast we couldn't really see it.
He's gonna try to get the water out so we can see.
All rocks now.
It's deep though, for that, eh?
CRAIG: Yeah, you can definitely see
-the rocks on that side. -Yeah.
-BILLY: Big rocks and little rocks. -GARY: Yep.
These rocks look like they're from the paved area.
CRAIG: Good.
STEVE: Oh, wow.
That's very much paved area type of rocks.
NARRATOR: While searching for a metallic object,
possibly buried more than ten feet deep in the center
of the triangle-shaped swamp...
CRAIG: Grab one more.
NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester and other members
of the Oak Island team have unearthed
what they believe could be a new section
of the massive 800-year-old stone-paved feature.
STEVE: That's a lot of rock at 11 feet.
CRAIG: Why don't you, uh,
get a little more water out of there,
-we'll take another good look. -BILLY: Okay.
CRAIG: Maybe this was more of the paved area in the swamp,
but we're not quite sure where it's going
or where it's coming from.
But that's what we're here for.
We're here to-to find out what actually was going on.
So, what do we got going here now, guys?
What mystery do we have today?
Yeah, the question is, is it a paved area or not?
Oh, yeah.
CRAIG: You can see the rocks down there, like it's...
-MARTY: Oh, yeah. Very similar, isn't it? -Yep.
MARTY: This could be sort of, uh,
adjunct to the paved area.
We already knew we had the paved area in the swamp,
we have the path, now we have a ramp connecting 'em.
The big question is why?
It must have been done for some reason.
What I'm thinking is, uh, Dr. Spooner's coming tomorrow.
Have him take a look at whether it's glacial or man-made.
For today, I think we're good.
MARTY: Yet another mystery on Oak Island.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
IAN: Hey, Billy.
Hey.
CRAIG: You'll see the rock layer
we found.
NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester accompanies
geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner to the swamp
in order to have him inspect the freshly unearthed
stone-paved feature.
CRAIG: So, I wanted you
to come look at it, you know,
make sure you're in agreement that it is man-made.
IAN: Mm-hmm. You know what's really important,
is we dug out there and we did not find
-that rock layer. -Yeah.
IAN: That rock layer, we have it in the paved area,
and it stops right there.
-CRAIG: Yes. -And it's-it's not over there at all.
Like, if it's a glacial feature, you expect it to continue.
There's some kind of human influence.
NARRATOR: While searching in the swamp over the past several years,
the team has found numerous pieces
of ancient sailing vessels
as well as parts of cargo barrels,
which have been estimated to date back 600 years or more.
Could Dr. Spooner be correct
that the paved area in the center of the swamp
and the stone ramp at its eastern edge
were used many centuries ago in order to transport
something of great value onto Oak Island?
So, when the paved area was here,
there was a lot of water right there.
One of the ideas is that they might have brought boats
over the beach, had them there, and the paved area
was some kind of staging area or something like that.
And that other ramp is the ramp to get up to the upland.
If you don't think there's anything else
we need to do here,
I think we'll get him putting it back in place.
IAN: Yeah. I don't think so.
CRAIG: Okay.
Okay. Well, thank you.
-CRAIG: Okay, Bill. -BILLY: All right. -IAN: See you.
NARRATOR: While operations continue on Oak Island...
RICK: Andrea, pleasure to meet you, sir.
A pleasure to meet you, and welcome to American University.
NARRATOR: ...meanwhile, some 4,000 miles to the east,
researcher Emiliano Sacchetti has arranged
for Rick Lagina and other members of the team
to meet with Professor Andrea di Robilant
at the American University of Rome.
This day is gonna prove to be most interesting
because it's our belief, and part of it
is based on some previous research
about pre-Columbian voyages to the New World.
Well, I have an interesting tale to tell you all.
-(soft laughter) -DOUG: Excellent.
NARRATOR: With nearly 40 years of experience
as an author and lecturer,
Professor Di Robilant has written extensively
about pre-15th-century European visits to the New World.
In the library where I was doing my own research
was an extraordinary little booklet
published in 1558 in Venice
about the narrative of Nicolò and Antonio Zeno,
Venetian sailors back in the 1390s.
They decided to leave Venice to sail up to the North Atlantic
and trade with the countries of Northern Europe.
And so, the two brothers
sail out of Venice, cross the Mediterranean,
sail up the Atlantic to the Faroe Islands.
There, they are eventually taken
to the l-- the-the lord chieftain
of the whole area, who was, uh, Sir Henry Sinclair.
DOUG: Henry Sinclair
is so interesting to us.
NARRATOR: Prince Henry Sinclair
was a Scottish nobleman, military leader and explorer.
However, he is also believed by some
to have given refuge to and joined the Knights Templar
after their persecution in France during the 14th century,
and then helped them move some of their treasures
to the New World in 1398.
The two brothers, instead of going back to Venice,
decide to stay and work for Henry Sinclair.
And Sinclair, uh, gives them ships,
with which they further their journey
and travel further north.
During this period of ten years,
they described in great detail the places they visited.
In 1558,
the grandnephew of Antonio Zeno decides
to publish all of this material and to print a map
of their journey to the North Atlantic.
And I have this, uh, the map.
Uh, I have it right here.
ANDREA: So, the Zeno brothers sailed further north,
and very, very possibly, to the coast of Nova Scotia.
-Hmm.
NARRATOR: At the American University in Rome, Italy,
Professor Andrea di Robilant has just presented documents
reporting that in the late 14th century,
Italian explorers Antonio and Nicolò Zeno
sailed to the New World with Prince Henry Sinclair,
a Templar knight, who some believe buried
sacred religious treasures on Oak Island.
ANDREA: They certainly mentioned
what is, to me, most obviously,
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
Those parts are included in the Zeno map.
And I have a-a very famous map
from the late, very late 17th century.
I think I have it here. Yeah.
-And lo and behold, it says here... -There it is.
-Yep. Yep. -...right there in Canada,
"Discovered by Antonio Zeno in 1390."
So, this, to me, was extraordinary, because it meant
that here we have a document which suggests
that the Zeno brothers had, uh, landed
a-and discovered this part of North America.
RICK: It truly is
-irresistible as you lay it out. -ALEX: Mm-hmm.
-Mm-hmm. -PETER: That puts a foothold
for the Zeno brothers in Canada,
so they could be associated with the Oak Island story.
-Yes. -CORJAN: And then Henry Sinclair
in North America.
RICK: We've got multiple timelines.
I've always believed that the work on Oak Island
associated with some sort of treasure deposition
was incremental.
A plan was devised, certain stages of it
were implemented over, perhaps, centuries.
I think we have to follow the possibility
that Templar treasure went from France to Scotland,
from Scotland to the New World.
We have a connection here,
let's follow the clues where they lead.
What we have heard here today is that maps tell a story.
And that this is certainly a connection
to a visitation to the New World long, long ago.
So, thank you for the day.
It's been highly informative and very, uh, impactful.
I wish you the best of luck.
-RICK: Thank you. -ALEX/PETER: Thank you.
-DOUG: Thank you very much. -CORJAN: Thank you so much.
NARRATOR: While Rick and members of the team
finish their meeting in Rome, Italy...
LAIRD: Hello, y'all. Two visitors.
NARRATOR: ...back on Oak Island...
Holy cow.
-No, I see what you mean by that. -Yeah.
This is frickin' impressive.
I've never seen anything like this
-on the island. -No.
NARRATOR: ...Dr. Ian Spooner joins Craig Tester
and other members of the team on Lot 5
in order to make his first inspection
of the circular, stone-covered depression.
I don't know, uh, circular things are so rare.
In my travels, circular things like this,
few things that I've seen are-- you know,
there can be fortifications that were circular.
And one of the best-known
circular fortifications are brochs,
are old, ancient Scottish castles that were circular.
I've also seen things like this where they have...
some kind of cannon or f-- you know,
that moves around a circle.
Hmm.
NARRATOR: The circular feature on Lot 5,
a possibly ancient fortification?
And perhaps of Scottish origin?
If Dr. Spooner is correct,
could this structure offer evidence
that the reported voyage of Prince Henry Sinclair
to Oak Island in the late 14th century
did, in fact, take place?
I-I mean, to me, it's really quite impressive.
-CRAIG: It's very interesting. -(laughter)
I mean, every time you guys are puzzled
-by something... -Yeah, it gets us interested.
Yeah, it gets me very interested.
-Very interested. -MIRIAM: Why does that happen
-a lot on this island? -I don't know.
I don't know.
-IAN: Thank you. -CRAIG: Catch you later on, then.
-IAN: All right. -MIRIAM: Yeah.
-LAIRD: See you guys. -CHARLES: Yeah, see you.
NARRATOR: The following day...
-EMILIANO: Hi, guys. -(overlapping greetings)
-GIANLUCA: Buongiorno. -RICK: Buongiorno.
-Benvenuto a Viterbo. -Nice to meet you.
Buongiorno.
Gianluca Di Prospero is, um,
Templar investigator,
and he's gonna show us a few things around Viterbo today.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina and members of the team
have traveled some 65 miles northwest of Rome
to the city of Viterbo, Italy.
EMILIANO: Viterbo was an important crossroad,
and for 24 years, Viterbo was the center
of Christianity in the known world.
NARRATOR: They have arranged to meet with Gianluca di Prospero,
an author who has spent more than two decades
researching the medieval activities
of the Knights Templar in this region.
What is the Templar connection with this area?
(Gianluca speaking Italian)
EMILIANO: Actually, he found
some, uh, interesting symbols in a church
that is very close to here, it's called Santa Maria Nuova.
There might be some Templar connection.
-I'd say let's-let's take a look. -Let's see.
Sì.
NARRATOR: Founded in the eighth century,
Viterbo became the temporary headquarters
for Pope Alexander IV and the Catholic Church
during a time of civil unrest in Rome.
During that period, the city also served
as a stronghold for the Templar order.
(speaking Italian)
EMILIANO: This is Santa Maria Nuova,
a church built in 1080.
As you can see, it's full of paintings,
carvings and symbolism.
It's hard-hard to believe this-this-- this
was built in 1080.
-Mm-hmm. -I think there's a lot to learn here.
So, let's-let's start an initial investigation
-and see-see what we come up with. -Okay.
-RICK: If you see anything at all,
-flag everyone else down. -Okay.
-Great idea. -Okay.
Let's do that.
RICK: The church is an incredible edifice.
It's beautiful.
Churches were, even though they were public,
they held secrets of their own.
And we need to learn as much as we can.
DOUG: What'd you find, Pete?
-I think something pretty interesting. -Oh.
-DOUG: Wow. -NARRATOR: In Viterbo, Italy,
Peter Fornetti has just made
a potentially important discovery
inside the Santa Maria Nuova,
a medieval church with historically documented ties
to the Knights Templar.
PETER: It's unmistakable.
Cross with the four dots.
-Same as the H+O Stone. -ALEX: Mm-hmm.
(Gianluca speaking Italian)
EMILIANO: He says that
these four-dots crosses are marking special places
that Templars used to be in and-- or around.
ALEX: Hmm.
(Gianluca speaking Italian)
EMILIANO: This is also present in places connected
with the Holy Grail or the Holy Shroud.
DOUG: If this four-dot cross
is only found in Templar-associated locations
or with Templar-associated articles
that they may have been safeguarding,
I mean, i-it speaks volumes for our H+O Stone.
NARRATOR: In the 1920s, a massive boulder
featuring a number of enigmatic carvings
was discovered by treasure hunters
on the northern shore of Oak Island.
Suspecting that it marked the location of buried treasure,
they destroyed it with dynamite in order to dig beneath it.
Nothing was found below the massive boulder.
However, is it possible that a fragment
known as the H+O Stone,
which featured a cross surrounded by four dots,
represented a key clue that sacred Templar treasures
are hidden on Oak Island?
If so, could that explain
the high-trace evidence of gold and other metals
that have been detected deep in the Money Pit area?
RICK: Every place we visit...
...it speaks to me
that there's an ongoing story here.
An ongoing message.
We need to look backwards in time,
and that's what we've done today.
And I think we need to continue to do that.
PETER: Yep.
Let's go.
RICK: We have seen that cross everywhere,
from Portugal to the H+O Stone.
And we know for a fact
that Templars used that representation,
but it certainly is a direct connection to Oak Island.
-Rick. -RICK: Hmm?
ALEX: Right here.
-Yeah. -Right there.
Hmm.
"H-I-C."
ALEX: I think there's an "A" even on the far side there.
There's an "A" here, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
In his opinion, this refers to a compass.
And if you take a look closely, there is also a square.
So, it could be a Masonic, uh, symbolism.
-ALEX: Mm-hmm. -Which is weird
in a church like this...
-Yeah. -...so old and so important
-here in Viterbo. -RICK: Hmm.
NARRATOR: A possible Masonic compass
carved in the wall of a medieval church
with known connections to the Knights Templar?
Many believe that the secretive fraternity
known as the Freemasons
evolved from the Templar order after their dissolution
by the Catholic Church in the 14th century.
Curiously, ever since the Money Pit
was discovered in 1795,
Freemasons have been involved
in nearly every single organized company of treasure hunters
that has tried to solve the mystery.
Masonic symbols such as triangles, crosses
and the letter "G," representing the divine creator,
have also been found all across the island.
Is it possible that Alex Lagina
has just found more evidence that these organizations
are directly connected?
And if so, does that also explain
what Freemasons have been trying to find on Oak Island
for more than two centuries?
ALEX: I just keep thinking about the H+O Stone.
And let me show you this.
So...
in the church, we saw this.
-Right? -RICK: Mm-hmm.
What does that mean?
-"Here." -If you do this...
...you get the H+O Stone.
And this symbol, we've learned today,
-means Templar-related relic. -RICK: Mm-hmm.
And what have we found that the symbol at the end means?
Some have interpreted it to be gold.
ALEX: Yeah.
If you put it all together, I mean,
there's the possibility that the H+O Stone represents
"Here, Templar gold."
DOUG: We know that in medieval times,
in Middle Age times, they really like their ciphers.
They really like their hidden meaning, so...
-...maybe. Yeah. -Maybe.
You may have just filled in the blank.
Or a blank or blanks.
I think it was incredibly insightful of Alex.
I think he and Peter work very well together.
I'm very proud of them as my nephews.
Hopefully this means something.
RICK: If he's onto something, that is fantastic.
We all believe the H+O Stone is important.
The circle and the dot could be a symbol for gold.
Is it possible that it hints at or suggests
that there's a religious relic associated
with the treasure of Oak Island?
Well, at this point, there's some strong suggestions
that that is indeed the case.
Well, what we did
is we took the eyes and boots approach
to the information hunt, which is absolute imperative.
And that's, that's my thought as we head back to the island.
DOUG: Appreciate you guys.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
RICK: Grazie mille.
We owe you a debt of gratitude.
MARTY: I-I'm excited to go down there. I really, really am.
It's-it's pretty neat. I mean, you're doing down
-underground in the Money Pit. -Yes.
Exactly right, yeah, and maybe, very close to...
-The treasure. -...the actual treasure of the Money Pit.
NARRATOR: It is a historic moment on Oak Island.
After more than five months of tireless effort
by representatives of Dumas Contracting Limited,
the reconstruction of the 82-foot-deep Garden Shaft
is now complete.
-Okay. Enjoy, guys. -Thank you very much.
NARRATOR: In the next week, the team will begin
a new probe-drilling operation to look for evidence
of precious metals just outside of the structure,
as well as a tunnel located at a depth of some 95 feet
that leads toward the Baby Blob, or believed treasure zone.
-Are you gonna lead? -ROGER: Yes.
-MARTY: The real excitement begins now. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: In the meantime,
Marty Lagina is about to make his first descent
into the structure in order to inspect it.
MARTY: I am physically going underground in the Money Pit,
in a shaft that may, in fact, lead us to the treasure.
It's pretty exciting from an emotional standpoint.
-This is a long way down. -ROGER: Yeah.
MARTY: The main feeling is a bit of awe
as to the people who did it 100 years ago,
200 years ago, maybe 400 years ago.
It's amazing to me what human beings can do.
All right, the first thing I want to do is look up.
-Holy crap. -(Roger chuckles)
MARTY: When we get to the bottom, the secondary feeling is,
"Hey, I'm underground in the Money Pit area.
Wonder what I'm next to."
I just can't help myself.
-I got to take a look down there. -Absolutely.
ROGER: Here, let me help you.
-MARTY: Oh, these just roll off? -Oh, yeah.
We didn't nail them in yet.
MARTY: There she is. The ground.
Geez, Roger. I wonder if we're close.
-(laughs softly) -I wonder if we're close.
MARTY: We want to see what that shaft was near.
It's in the treasure area, the Baby Blob,
where the scientists tell us
there's anomalous amounts of metals.
-Okay. -RODNEY: Do you copy, Marty?
Oh.
Yeah, I copy.
What's your thoughts down there?
It's incredible, okay? I mean, almost surely,
a tunnel right underneath us here.
Yeah. And-and what that thing means,
where it came from,
is it original, we'd like to know all that.
This is where the treasure hunt begins in this shaft.
-That's what it's all about. -You're right.
It begins now.
Okay.
MARTY: Okay. We're coming up.
NARRATOR: Despite the fast-approaching North Atlantic winter,
Rick, Marty and the rest of the Fellowship
remain undeterred in their quest
to unlock Oak Island's long-held secrets.
After scouring the island...
and making another profound journey across the ocean,
they have discovered more compelling evidence
that something of historic proportions
may lie buried deep in the Money Pit.
And now, with the completion of the Garden Shaft,
they just might have the means to finally recover it.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
JACK: We haven't reached the edge yet.
It's quite a massive structure.
This could fit in with Zena's map.
This could be the hatch.
GARY: Come on. Be something good.
Ooh, that's pretty big.
-Wow, that is sweet. -Whoa.
CHRIS (over video): Isotopically, it looks very similar
-to the cross. -No way.
That's brilliant.
-SCOTT: Oh, wow. -There's something there.
SCOTT: It could possibly be
an original depositor tunnel.
MARTY: You've done did it.
I feel good now.
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