In Season 6, Episode 3 of 'The Curse of Oak Island', the Fellowship of the Dig
returns to Calgary Alberta, this time to learn the results of the seismic survey
conducted back in Episode 1. In the headquarters of Eagle Canada,
geophysicist Jeremy Church shows the team three significant underground
anomalies indicated by the survey data. The first of these anomalies was found
in the area north of the Money Pit which Craig Tester calls the "Mega Bin". The
story of the Mega Bin begins in 1973, when Dan Blankenship drilled a series of
exploratory holes north of the Money Pit area. One of these boreholes, located 660
feet northeast of the Money Pit, yielded a 2-inch piece of low-carbon steel wire
at a depth of 110 feet. Immediately below this artifact, the drill chewed into what
Dan Blankenship was sure was a solid metal plate. Dan thought that he had
finally located Oak Island's elusive treasure. With the help of his son, Dave,
and Dan Henskee, he sank a shaft in the area, which is known today as the 'Triton
Shaft'. Using picks and shovels, the three men managed to dig down to a depth of 98
feet, where they encountered groundwater. To make matters worse, all three of them
suddenly contracted pneumonia. The treasure hunters were forced to abandon
the Triton Shaft a mere 12 feet from their goal,
leaving the mystery of the Mega Bin unsolved. The anomaly in the Mega Bin
area indicated by the seismic survey appears to be an enormous void at the
50-foot depth, measuring 164 feet in length and 7 to 12 feet in
height. The width of this void is unspecified. The second anomaly indicated
by the seismic survey data is a 10-foot-tall cavern in the Money Pit, the ceiling
of which lies at a depth of 160 feet. This cavern is located below searcher
depth in solid limestone, suggesting that it may well constitute
original workings. Interestingly, the fragments of parchment leather and human
bone brought up from the 162-foot depth in Borehole H8 were found at the edge of
this cavern. The third anomaly is a long, narrow gap in the earth which lies at a
depth of 100 to 110 feet. The narrator suggests that this
anomaly might be the Smith's Cove Flood Tunnel- a notion which appears to have
some credibility, at first glance. Back in 1862, the Oak Island Association
excavated the original Money Pit to a depth of 110 feet. There, the workers
found a 4-foot-tall hole in the side of the shaft, from which water gushed
violently. One worker reported that "the water hurled around rocks about twice
the size of a man's head with many smaller, and drove the men back for
protection." Although the depth of the third anomaly
corresponds with that of the Flood Tunnel discovered by the Oak Island
Association, the resemblance is almost certainly coincidental. In the late 1960s,
treasure hunter Robert Dunfield dug an enormous crater in the Money Pit area,
which ended up being 100 feet wide by 140 feet deep. This heavy-duty excavation
completely destroyed all traces of original workings in the vicinity of the
Money Pit area, including the Smith's Cove Flood Tunnel. At the end of the
episode, Jack Begley, Gary Drayton, and geophysicist Mike West discover a
strange artifact on the beach of Oak Island's Lot 26. Drayton tentatively
identifies this artifact as a crossbow bolt, and suggests it might be a relic of
the Knights Templar. Far-fetched though it may be, this theory is not untenable,
as some members of the Knights Templar are almost certainly owned crossbows. In
fact a 12th Century document called the Latin Rule, which outlined the ideal
behavior of a Templar knight, contains a number of passages which seem to
indicate that a crossbow was a common item in a Templar's outfit. In spite of
this, the crossbow is not a weapon that is typically associated with the Knights
Templar. These Crusaders were heavily armored horsemen who specialized in
smashing through enemy lines at full gallop. The sword, the lance, and the mace
were their weapons of choice. It may be that the Templars actually avoided using
the crossbow in battle, as the medieval Church considered it a cowardly
contrivance better suited to a lowly peasant than a monastic knight. Although
the Templar knights may not have used crossbows with any degree of regularity,
there is one a pendant body of the Templar
army that did. Like most Crusader forces, the Knights Templar often rode into
battle with large numbers of Turkish and Syrian mercenaries called Turcopoles,
who guarded their flanks when they charged.
Most of these lightly armored horsemen were archers and crossbowmen. Thus, if the
crossbow bolt found on Oak Island's Lot 26 truly has some sort of connection
with the Knights Templar, it is more likely a relic of a Middle Eastern
Turcopole than the possession of a European knight. Thanks for watching! If
you enjoyed this video and would like to read a more in-depth analysis of Season
6, Episode 3 of 'The Curse of Oak Island', please check out the link in the
description.