The Curse of Oak Island season 11 is off to a good start as work gets underway to reopen different areas of investigation.
The causeway to the island is again busy as more and more workers return to the island.
Tonight they started out in the Garden Shaft area talking about the recent bore holes and where the next one would be drilled.
Metal detecting was again conducted on Lot 5 with more interesting finds in the spoils of the circular structure. A lead shot and perhaps a gun sight were found and will be looked at in the lab.
The archaeology team found a small piece of cream ware pottery in a square that they are excavating that could be from the early to mid 18th century.
The core drilling in the Money Pit area continued on the east side of the Garden Shaft with a third hole to continue to chase the tunnel.
A meeting was held to share the results of the Carbon 14 testing of wood from the first hole and the date came back as depositor instead of searcher. The date could point to the French fleet that tried to retake Nova Scotia in the mid-1700’s.
When they reached the target depth in the third hole they brought up a long piece of wood that would have been place vertically. Perhaps the wall of a tunnel?
The wood is hand cut so is definitely old. The wood is also about seven feet long, so it would be a large tunnel.
Dumas gave a report on the progress of receiving permission to work again in the Garden Shaft. They are still working on two safety plans that will allow them to dig deeper and then laterally from the shaft, but they should be able to start work soon.

Back at the lab they took a look at the metal object they thought was a gun sight and it turned out to be a ramrod guide. They ran a scan and it revealed Roman numerals on the guide. The Roman numerals read VIIII which would not be a valid sequence for the number nine. Perhaps they are counting marks instead of an initial number. They showed some images from the wooden structure that had Roman numerals previously and they were all proper number sequences.
At the end of the episode they lowered a camera into the third bore hole to see if they could seen anything in the tunnel. Unfortunately the camera could not see anything once they reached water in the casing.
In the preview for next week they showed Dumas bringing in equipment and the reopening of the Garden shaft. They also showed more items being found in the square on Lot 5.
Some interesting developments this week as they continue to hunt for the slippery treasure.
Steven
WwRI – Written with Real Intelligence