Season 7, Episode 12 of The Curse of Oak Island begins at the Oak Island swamp, which Hurricane
Dorian refilled with seawater the previous episode.
The crew members re-drain the wetland and resume the excavation of the Paved Wharf-
a cluster of stones which Tony Sampson discovered in the Season 7 premiere.
When the excavation is completed and the stones are completely uncovered, geoscientist Dr.
Ian Spooner, geologist Terry Matheson, and archaeologist Laird Niven all independently
conclude that the stones must have been placed there by man.
Dr. Spooner further observes that that the Eye of the Swamp, the Paved Wharf, and the
deepest part of the swamp all align, and suggests that the Paved Wharf may have served as work
surface used for unloading material from ships at a time when the swamp was an inlet connected
to the ocean.
This suggestion appears to be a tacit endorsement of the theory that the Oak Island swamp is
man-made.
Near the beginning of the episode, we learn that a sample of the wharf-like structure
discovered at Smith’s Cove in Season 7, Episode 9 dendrochronologically dated to 1741.
The treasure hunters express some surprise at this result, as many of them had expected
the wharf to be contemporaneous with the nearby slipway, which is believed to have been constructed
after 1769.
Doug Crowell observes that the most momentous event to take place in the area proximate
to the year 1741 was the first Siege of Louisbourg, which lasted throughout the spring and summer
of 1745.
This prompts Marty Lagina to remark that the wood’s date evokes Naval historian Chipp
Reid’s theory, introduced back in Season 7, Episode 5, that the wooden structures beneath
Smith’s Cove constitute the remains of an early 18th Century French artillery battery.
Although not mentioned in this episode, the wood’s dating is also reminiscent of another
related theory that the Oak Island treasure consists of the contents of a French pay ship
bound for the Fortress of Louisbourg immediately prior to the First Siege of Louisbourg in
1745- a theory which I will describe in detail in a later video.
The treasure hunters all agree that, in light of this most recent piece of evidence, a trip
to the Fortress of Louisbourg is in order.
Later in the episode, Rick Lagina and Doug Crowell drive to Louisbourg, where they meet
with historian Sarah MacInnes.
MacInnes takes the treasure hunters on a tour of the Fortress, showing them stone casements,
or bomb-proof storage rooms, through which runs a stone drainage system that reminds
Doug Crowell of Oak Island’s supposed Smith’s Cove flood tunnel.
After that, the historian takes Rick and Doug to the entrance of Louisbourg’s underground
stone-walled countermine tunnel- a defensive structure built to prevent British sappers
from tunneling beneath the Fortress walls.
The structure’s subterranean nature, coupled with the fact that it was built through marshy
terrain, prove to the treasure hunters that 18th Century French Royal Army engineers were
certainly capable of constructing the Smith’s Cove flood tunnel.
Rick and Doug conclude their tour in the Louisbourg’s archives, where Sarah MacInnes and her colleague,
Ruby Fougere, show them the Fortress blueprints.
They point out the plans for the countermine tunnel, which is revealed to be 180 feet long
and shaped like a cross, reminding Doug of Nolan’s Cross.
Meanwhile, Jack Begley, Peter Fornetti, and Gary Drayton go metal detecting on Oak Island’s
Lot 27, where the three of them discovered a rusted iron chisel back in Season 7, Episode
5.
In this episode, the treasure hunters unearth a lead artifact which Drayton identifies as
scrap metal from a sprue- a channel by which molten metal enters a mold.
In this case, the sprue appears to be from a musket ball mold.
The treasure hunters work their way from the forest down to the beach, where they unearth
what appears to be an axe head encased in an agglomerate of rocks and sediment.
Drayton suspects that the artifact might be the remains of a rigging axe, or a hatchet
with a hammer on the blunt end, and dates it to the 18th Century or earlier.
This is not the first axe to be found on Oak Island.
In 1931, Chappells Limited discovered an axe in the Chappell Shaft at a depth of around
116 feet with a wide blade and a three-foot-long wooden handle.
Treasure hunter Frederick Blair observed that this artifact resembled a 17th Century Acadian
axe head that he had seen at the museum at Annapolis Royal.
Others identified the artifact as an “old Anglo-American felling axe”.
On his website, Gary Drayton claimed to have discovered the heads of two early 18th Century
iron trade axes in the Money Pit area in the summer of 2014.
In Season 5, Episode 1, Gary Drayton and Peter Fornetti discovered a woodcutter’s axe at
Isaac’s Point, at the easternmost end of Oak Island.
Thanks for watching!
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