"Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island..." "Have you ever seen anything like this?" "No." "That's very odd." "There's an opening in the ground." "Is this the back door?" "That's not natural." "We want to take a look at the well." "Down to the water!" "Might there be clues down there?" "What the hell's that?" "Do you see that?" " Wow." " Down slow." "This well may be associated with the Templars." " Whoa!" " What do you got, Tony?" "Right here on these rocks, I've got a triangle." "This thing's amazing." "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 bits of gold chain, a stone slab with strange symbols carved into it, even a 17th century Spanish coin." "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." "Jack, why don't you hack that tree out of the way." " Wow." " That's my big discovery." "Well, honestly, David, that is quite odd." "A few days ago, during a meeting in the war room," "Rick, Marty and members of the Oak Island team were introduced to New York based writer and researcher Zena Halpern by area historian Doug Crowell." " Hello?" " Hi, Zena, it's Doug." "I just gave everyone here a little overview on what your research involves, and that you have some pretty interesting documents." "During their meeting, Halpern shared with the team her discovery of three ancient documents, which she believes prove a connection between the Knights Templar and activities on Oak Island going back as far as the 12th century." "We have a map that shows Nova Scotia." "We have a map of Oak Island." "And then we have the cipher." "One of the maps, dated 1347, showed various sites and landmarks on Oak Island that match several of the places well known to Rick," "Marty and the team." "The hand-drawn map is clearly Oak Island." "And then there are several things, named in French, which have been translated for us." "One is called the basin." "Well, that clearly correlates to the swamp." "And then there's something on the map which points right about to where the Money Pit is." "And then we have two or three things that we don't know anything about." "One's called "The Anchors," one's called "The Valve,"" "and one's called "The Hatch."" "When Oak Island treasure hunter Jack Begley later laid a copy of Zena Halpern's map over a satellite image of the island..." "Look at the top of that." "It follows it perfectly." "The so-called "hatch"" "matched the location of what Dave Blankenship remembered as the site of a strange depression near his property." "This hatch lands kind of where David said..." " The hole is." " Yeah." "What would cause it to sink in like this?" "Something below." "Something gave way below." "If this is a hatch, it would be a way in, a vertical shaft to enter something." "That's very, very odd." "It's hard to explain what that is." "It's clearly, I think, a hole that's been chiseled into the bedrock by humans." "I don't see any other explanation for it, geologically." "All right, Jack, if you don't mind, shovel off that gunk down there, and let's see what's underneath there." "See that rock directly ahead of you?" "Does that look placed or is that just part of the bedrock?" "This looks like bedrock for sure." "This isn't laid rock;" "It's been, you know, chiseled away." "It sure looks like it's been chopped away." "It was kind of an "aha" moment, you know?" "Here-here's an opening in the ground." "Is this the back door?" "That's pretty solid there." "It doesn't sound like rock though." "No, it sounds sandy or something." "That almost sounded hollow." "Almost sounds like wood." "Holy smokes." "A hollow wooden surface?" "In a square hole cut through bedrock?" "Could Jack be standing on a secret doorway, perhaps one that leads directly to the Money Pit?" "Does it seem to be solidifying at all?" "Are you hitting a bottom or is it just bottomless there?" "I'm standing on something solid, but I-I honestly can't tell until we dig up the rest." "It's just mud in this top part, and could be anything." " Yeah, okay." " Keep going, Jack." "As you look around the sides, does it appear that they're nice and solid anywhere?" "Well, besides breaking off." "Besides knocking the rock out." "But no, no large holes or anything that you can see?" "Yeah, that's solid." "Yeah, pretty much." "The middle part kind of seems to go further." "It's too muddy to be able to tell if this is the bottom." "It seems to be narrowing, but at the same time," "I almost feel like it's slate mixed with mud continuing on." "I don't know if we want to come back with a different method, 'cause it... this is, this is gonna be real slow from here on out." "The shape is strange;" "I mean, that's a given." "Everything's strange about it." "It's not natural." "You know, even taking an excavator in here, it would be difficult because that's been chiseled down through." "You try and dig right there, an excavator isn't gonna pull that up." "It might break it up, get underneath of it." "It might." " Well..." " You can lose a tooth, too." "Not only lose a tooth, but if it really is something, do we really want to go that route?" "I honestly think we should have that archaeologist guy" " look at it." "Yeah, I mean..." " Come look at it?" "I don't know what that is, but an archeologist might." "To me, that is absolutely man-made and, um, obviously old." "Yeah, I agree." "I totally agree." "We should, we should get an opinion." "Because this so-called "hatch"" "could be an important discovery," "Marty and Rick's decision to bring in an archaeologist to examine it is a prudent one." "We're not done here;" "We-we need to figure out what's going on, but, Jack, for right now, you're done... nice job." "Canada has certain requirements for archaeological excavations." "This hatch could be significant, archaeologically, so we want to follow the rules, so we bring in an expert." "We're not sure what this thing is." "So, that's one reason to make sure we're doing the proper thing." "And the other reason is to see if he can explain it." "That was not a pleasant job and you did a nice job." "I don't mind getting dirty, Marty." "That is why I like having young people around." "While the team waits for the archaeologist" " to arrive..." " Here they are right now." "Rick Lagina and Jack Begley meet with representatives from Irving Equipment, Limited." " How's it going?" " Lorne Flowers." "Lorne, nice to meet you." "Having already removed all of the old casings from this year's two major target sites, the Laginas and their partners are now ready to begin the next phase of their operation:" "The clearing and preparation of the Money Pit area for what promises to be a massive excavation." "Okay, so, guys, this is the Money Pit." "This is where the activity is gonna start." "So why don't we get down and you guys can do what you need to do." " You want to go first?" " We going down here?" "There's large equipment coming in." "Different types of equipment need to be staged in different areas." "There's a lot of things to consider." "Because the Money Pit is susceptible to flooding, the Laginas and their partners have decided to drill two approximately 40-inch-wide steel-reinforced holes deep into the most promising sites." "It is an ambitious and risky strategy, and one which will cost the team in excess of $2 million." "That angle of incline getting down into the Money Pit I think has to be addressed." "And do we have a large enough area here for you to construct a crane?" "Like I say, you level that off a little bit. " "Level that off there." "How far back do you think?" "There's an old trail that comes in up over the hill right there." "If we come up that hill there..." "Right." "That'd be just wonderful for us." "We could come up here..." "But we'd-we'd have to push this bank out, wouldn't we?" "Well, take this stuff off the top, the stuff that's no good, and kind of push it to the corners." "Well, we got to set up a 100-ton over there," " and other stuff, too, so..." " Yeah." "Okay, wait, I just..." "Hang on, then." "100 tons sitting where?" "That could be a problem for a 100-ton set up." "Because excavating the Money Pit will require the drill team to bring in massive" "100- and 300-ton cranes," "Rick Lagina is understandably concerned about the stability of the ground in the area." "Two years ago, when trying to find the location of the original Money Pit," "Rick, Craig and the team encountered serious problems after a drill rig began sinking into the marshy ground." "That ain't good." "What will further complicate their efforts is the fact that the Money Pit area has been dug up, filled in and re-dug for most of the last 220 years." "So there's a concern about putting the 100-ton crane over here, then." " Absolutely." " Yeah, if we set the 300-ton right where we're standing and set the 100-ton perpendicular to it, they can work that hole simultaneously." "You're gonna need some surge rock, and maybe even like a..." "a geogrid, you know, to support the weight of the crane so it doesn't sink into this stuff." "The enormity of the task facing Rick Lagina is beginning to sink in." "The ground around the Money Pit will need to be leveled and then reinforced with layers of gravel." "A new access road leading to and from the Money Pit will also need to be constructed." "The idea of bringing the road in and coming in here, that's probably the best plan right now is, this is all your-your heavy lay down area." "So, this whole area here is gonna be a parking lot." "I'd like to keep this as less invasive as possible." "The troubling aspect, for me, is:" "They need a large footprint." "So, we want to make sure that we do things expeditiously, but also respectfully." "Look, we're not gonna inhibit the process, but I would ask you to be good stewards of the history, of the story, of the property." "We'll keep the footprint as small as possible..." "Yeah." "To do our work." "If you stripped all the topsoil off here, stockpiled it off to the side, when they're done, just pull it back and replant it." "So it'll eventually look like this again." "We don't want to repeat the Dunfield escapade and make a bombing area out of this." "We don't." "We want to be environmentally sensitive, but..." "I'm ready to get into it." "We're gonna dig there." "I think we have a general outline, a general understanding of what we need to accomplish." " I think it's workable." " Excellent." "It sure is gonna look different, I'll say that." "Coming up..." "If there's information down there, this is the guy and the crew to take care of it." "What do you got there, Tony?" "I've got what could be a triangle." "Okay, guys, today really is the extension of the trip we took earlier to New Ross." "I mean, we're all excited about the well." "When you put the camera down," "I didn't see much in terms of the sides of the well, but the floor, to me, looked very interesting." "While waiting for the team at Irving Equipment to begin prepping the Money Pit area for excavation," "Rick Lagina, Charles Barkhouse and area researcher Doug Crowell are traveling, once again, to the town of New Ross, approximately 20 miles north of Oak Island." "I definitely saw what I thought was a-a straight line, and it almost looked like it was engraved," " you know what I mean?" " Yes." "Last week, based on information provided by Zena Halpern," "Rick, Charles and Doug visited a site believed to contain the ruins of an ancient Templar Castle." "At the site, they found what appeared to be a weathered carving of a cross." "On the face of the stone, you can see a very faint outline of a cross." "No ordinary cross, but the cross of the Knights Templar." "And when they put a camera down an ancient stone well on the property..." "That look like flagstone floor?" "They found possible evidence that could link New Ross to the Oak Island mystery." "Now, didn't they find flagstone at the Money Pit?" "Yeah, they did, at two feet down, they did find flagstones, yes." "Maybe it's a ceiling and there's another chamber beneath?" "Might there be a false bottom?" "Might there be a carving in that flagstone, if you will." "Very, very much looking forward to Tony's..." "Tony's dive today." "Now, here they are, all set to go." "To further investigate the well," "Rick has enlisted the help of professional diver." "Tony Sampson and his support team." "If there's information down there, this is the guy and the crew to take care of it." "Well, we're curious if the well has something that's not visible..." "Just like the Money Pit had things underneath that were not visible on the surface." "If something is indeed hidden here, the well could be one way to-to reach it." "Okay, in my perfect world," "I would fall into the chamber below it... full of gold." "Okay?" "Why don't we head up there and take a look." "Yeah, let's get started." "Although proof of Knights Templar activity in North America has never been established, there are many who believe that not only was there activity, but that there is evidence that the Templars might have visited the New World as far back as the 12th century," "more than 300 years before the journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492." "In Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel..." "Which was built by the grandson of suspected Templar Knight." "Henry Sinclair in 1486..." "The walls are illustrated with images of corn, along with representations of a plant known as trillium, both unique to North America." "But even more curious are the testimonies of the First Nations people of Nova Scotia, the Mi'kmaq." "Their legends tell stories of a mysterious stranger known as Glooscap, who many believe to be Henry Sinclair himself." "But perhaps even more astounding is the eerie similarity between the Mi'kmaq flag and the battle flag of the Knights Templar." "They are nearly one and the same." "So, Tony, we'll probably have to remove this lid. " "And the water level looks a little lower than it was before." "Awesome." "Can you see the cut marks on the stones on the bottom?" "My impression was there was a couple stones down there, and it almost looked like a-a milled edge that sat really tightly together, and maybe was indented along the seam." "That was my impression of what was down there." "So, it looked like two fitted stones, with a crease quite a ways down the middle of it." "I mean, look, there's not a lot of space down there, so..." "how are you gonna orient yourself to take a look-see?" "What we're gonna do, Rick, is we're gonna set a frame up here... and we're gonna have a beam across the top, and we're gonna set up a Bosun's chair." "So, I've pretty much got my ass on the chair, going down." "I'm gonna video 360, going down the whole way." "Okay, what say you?" "Let's make this happen." "Okay." "To safely descend down the stone well," "Tony and his team are constructing what is known as a Bosun's chair." "Attached to a pulley system, the chair is manually controlled to stop, raise and lower Tony, as needed." "It will also enable him to rotate 360 degrees, allowing for a complete inspection of the well's interior." "So, Tony, what's-what's the rig set up here?" "It-it kind of looks similar to what Dan went down in..." "In 10-X." "Fill me in here." "What's..." "Okay, so what we're gonna do is I'm gonna go down there, have a 360 around, just doing a chair check... - before I get the hard hat on and suited up." "Checking out to see if there's any foreign objects, debris that might come down on top of me." "And then, once-once I've checked her out, top of the water level, um... then I'll, come back up and get suited up." " Okay." "Jump on." " Fantastic." "Okay." "Cool, buddy." "Let's give it a go." "Yeah." "Okay, up." "Okay." "Lower down." " Down slow." " That's good now, yeah." "Down four." "Slower four." "What do you got there, Tony?" "Loose one?" "Yeah, I've got a loose rock here, mate." "I want to take that out, um, before we go any further." "It's... if that comes down, it's, it's bad news, man." "Got it." "That could make a good day go bad really fast." "Okay, I'll take that hard hat back." " Here you go." " Thanks, Mike." "Take me down probably another two feet, Mike." "Roger." "Okay, hold fast there." "All stop." "Well, that's kind of weird." "What did you find down there, Tony?" "These, right here on these rocks here..." "Geez." "Rick?" "I've got, um... what could be a triangle." "It's got a line across the bottom, pointing straight up at you from here." "It's got some little pattern in the middle." "Coming up..." "See, here's an opening in the ground." "Is this the back door?" "That's not natural." "We obviously want it to be the entrance to a tunnel." "It keeps going for a bit." " You got that light, Nick?" " All right, here you go." "This thing's amazing." "Some 20 miles from Oak Island, in the town of New Ross, diver Tony Sampson has just found a mysterious triangle carved inside an old stone well." "Let's get a picture." "Let's get a real clear photograph of it." "It is located on a property believed to have been inhabited by members of the Knights Templar, more than five centuries ago." "Whoa, beautiful." "Okay, camera up, buddy." "There's something there." "You don't put a mark on a stone, you know, halfway down a well." "Why in a well?" " Yeah, exactly." "Yeah." " Right?" "TIM:" "Right." "Okay, Mike." "Bring us up, buddy." "Up slow." "Wow." "Rick, take a look at this." " Look at that." " What?" " No way." " That's carved, without a doubt." "Yeah, I would say so." "That's..." "doesn't look natural to me." "There's no doubt in my mind that that's etched in there." "It certainly has the appearance of being cut into the stone." "Yeah, it does." "Well, what is that in there?" " Like a little dot?" " Yeah." "It's like it's got an eye in the middle." "My God, yeah, I can see it." "A carved triangle?" "With an eye in the center?" "There are lots of triangular shapes associated with Oak Island." "The triangle shape meant something to the Templars." "Is that a connection?" "Perhaps." "The symbol of a triangle..." "Or pyramid... with an eye depicted in the center is known as "The Eye of Providence,"" "or the "all-seeing eye."" "It was adopted by the Freemasons in the late 18th century, although there are many who believe that it dates back much earlier to the days of the Knights Templar." "In 1935," "U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Freemason who had actually searched for treasure on Oak Island as a young man, instructed that the all-seeing eye be added to the design of the one-dollar bill." "It is also the shape of a triangle that appears in the carvings on the mysterious 90 Foot Stone, and which can be seen in the dimensions of the Oak Island swamp, which many believe to have been man-made." "Okay, yep, she's good, buddy." "So, next step, you're gonna get geared up?" " Yep." " Perfect." "Comms check, one, two, three, four, five." "Loud and clear on this end, Tony." "Roger that, buddy." "Let us know what you need." "Assisting Tony at the surface is safety diver and communications supervisor Mike Huntley." "If Tony encounters any kind of danger, or needs assistance underwater," "Mike will descend the well to help him." "You got to plant your ass on that board." "Okay." "Roger that." "Down slow." "Roger, down to water." "Down to the water!" "Yeah, roger, we have visual on the camera here." "Lower Tony down." "Down two more feet!" "Diver's in the water." " All stop." " All stop." "Actually, visibility's great." "Lower Tony down!" "Lowering down." "As I'm sitting there watching the monitor, you know, you're always hopeful." "No matter where the search takes you, you want so desperately to see something that answers a question." "Just give us a clue." "Just one clue." "Where is he in relation to the bottom?" "Are his feet on the bottom?" "Are you touching bottom yet?" "Roger, on bottom." "Is the bottom rough, smooth?" "Hey, Tony, can you feel with your feet at all whether or not the bottom is smooth or rough?" "Roger that." "How deep?" "Can you tell how deep it is?" "Okay, roger." "Two feet." "Okay, roger." "Visibility's not that great." "It that the same down there?" "He lost visibility because he's stirring it up." "Clouded up just like 10X." "We lost all visibility." "When the well got murky, it was more a sense of "not again."" "Another dive where we can't see anything." "Because I was absolutely convinced that it had been a fitted stone bottom." "Up five feet!" "All stop!" "Coming up..." ""If he says," That's an opening to the area below Oak Island,"" "that would be incredibly intriguing." "Have you ever seen anything like this?" "That's exactly what I was gonna ask." "No." "It's odd." "Diver Tony Sampson has just found another possible clue in an old stone well, which some researchers believe to have been built by members of the Knights Templar." "That's a Broad Arrow!" "I see something." "Do you guys not see that in there?" "Show... show me..." "show me what you're seeing." "Right there." "But when he comes at a different angle..." "Okay, okay, there I see it." " Yep." "You see it now?" " Yeah, yeah." "I see it there." "Right here, here and there." "You got her." "When it came to me, then I could see it." "The left side of the point, if you will, saw that well-defined." "Saw the-the stem, if you will, or the shaft of the arrow." "And you think that's the King's Mark?" " Yeah." " What they call the King's Mark?" "Yeah, no mistake." "The Broad Arrow, also known as "The King's Mark,"" "was first used in the early 14th century by King Edward III of England." "It was later adopted by the British government and used to mark government property." "But why would a Broad Arrow carving appear at a site believed to have been established by members of the Knights Templar?" "Roger that." "Up slow on turnbuckle." "All the way up." "Okay." "All stop." "If it's a King's Mark, legitimately, then I think where I would go at this point would be:" "Is that symbol in any way associated with the Templars?" "And that demands further research." " Welcome to the surface." " Thanks, guys." "So you saw the feed on from the camera up there?" " Yeah." " We did." "But I need a firsthand account here." "What'd you see?" "She's definitely, um..." "That's not a flat bottom down there." "There is hard, large rocks on the bottom." "And I'm guessing..." " Not flat though?" " No, no, not flat." "But there is a lot of debris down there." " Sure." " Most interesting thing probably was, um, what appeared to be that broad head arrow mark." "But it's one of those universal characters that, you know, it stands for the King's Mark." " Yeah, exactly." "What else can it stand for?" "A directional symbol?" "It may be an arrow that was used for a different purpose." "Exactly, yeah." "I mean that's..." "All that is, is my take on it." "That's my part of history that I-I know." "But, I mean, symbolically, is that symbol used by other people?" "I don't know." "Well, it's a symbol on the 90 Foot Stone." " Is that right?" " Yeah." "A triangle is on the 90 Foot Stone, an arrow symbol is on the 90 Foot Stone." "Is it possible that what appears to be a carving of a Broad Arrow, or the King's Mark, is something quite different?" "Could it be, as Doug Crowell insists, another important clue..." "One linking the carvings found at New Ross to the 90 Foot Stone found buried in the Oak Island Money Pit?" "Tim, you've taken the first step on a longer journey." " Yes." " Congratulations." "Welcome to Oak Island." "Okay, let's gear up and go home." "One day after the team's productive investigation at New Ross," "Rick, Marty and members of the Oak Island team meet with archaeologist Laird Niven." " Hello." " Hello." "They've invited him to investigate the strange square-shaped hole found near Dave Blankenship's property." "Okay." "Laird, we got something we think" " really peculiar." " Excellent." "A theorist named Zena sent us an old French map that has a bunch of locations that correspond to the island," " that are known." " Okay." "And one of them that's unknown is a hatch." "The map is a very rudimentary sketch, if you will, of the island." "You know, I mean, are we hoping that it's a trap door?" "Absolutely." "But perhaps you have an explanation of it." "And, really, the only way to do it is to set eyes on it, so..." "Yeah." "Why don't..." "why don't we take a look." "Could the so-called hatch really be evidence of an underground tunnel on Oak Island?" "Perhaps one that leads directly to the Money Pit?" "It'd be incredibly intriguing if he says," ""You guys really are onto something here." ""It's a possibility that it's a shaft, a tunnel, a man-made opening to the area below Oak Island."" "I don't know what he's gonna say, but perhaps he can give us some insight." "Just a hole in the ground." "It's odd." "Has it collapsed in, did you say?" " Some." " Here's the thing." "This is all flat, then sometime later," " all this earth goes somewhere." " Yeah." "That's what puzzles us." "It's just not a natural phenomena." " Yeah." " I don't believe it." " Definitely." " Not-not in slate." "I definitely agree with that, yeah." "So, it could have been a lot deeper." "Maybe there was a wood hatch, and then it rotted away, and that's what made it slump all of a sudden." "Jack, we can "what if" till the cows come home." "Exactly." "Have you ever seen anything like this?" "That's exactly what I was gonna ask." "No." "No." "Coming up..." " What's up with you guys?" " It's a..." "Well, I have some very sad news." "He is now gone, and I'll never shake his hand again." "That's strange." "Yes, it is strange." "On the western side of the island," "Rick, Marty and members of the team have invited area archaeologist Laird Niven to help in their investigation of a strange, square-shaped hatch." "If the hatch can be identified as man-made, and of ancient origin, then the brothers may have found another important clue to help them solve the Oak Island mystery." "It does seem like rocks have been removed." "That's been cut." "That's not natural, and this..." "this is pretty loose fill." "It keeps going for a bit, you can see." "You... so, you think it goes off to the side?" "At least for a little bit." "The thing we obviously want it to be is the entrance to a tunnel." "And there were some evidence of that." "He thought three of the sides were solid, but on... at least on one side, he thought it might go off, somewhat." "It warrants further investigation." "So, where should we go?" "Who should we notify?" "How do we do this?" "Well, if I was to investigate it as an archaeologist," "I'd get a permit, probably remove" " some of these small trees." " Right." "Is there any prohibition against if you're just digging it out with a hand shovel?" "I mean, we just don't want to get afoul with the rules, you know." "Right." "I couldn't do it without a permit." "Right." "I think this is a disclosure deal, then." "We just tell whoever in the government." " Yeah." " Yeah." "We're gonna go ahead and disclose it to the authorities, so we have some permitting issues to work our way through before we dig over there." "Rick and Marty's decision to involve the Canadian government will cost them time, but will be beneficial to the process in the long run." "There are many who believe that Oak Island is a national treasure, and quite possibly a sacred archaeological site." "Although two centuries of treasure hunting have seen the island dug up, bulldozed and even detonated, the Laginas and their partners have been determined to take a more responsible and scientific approach." "All right, I think we've done what we need to do here." "Well, we have a... you know," " a logical way to pursue it." " Right." " Thank you very much." " All right, no problem at all." "We got the three engineers here." "So, there are some logistical issues, I think, with... you know, boring down into the Money Pit." "You know, we have the targets, right?" "Yeah." "In the War Room, Marty Lagina, his partner." "Craig Tester and Marty's son Alex have gathered to discuss the next phase in their exploration of the Oak Island Money Pit." "So, once we get close to the target zones, I mean, they're gonna be bringing up a lot of material that we're gonna have to get a... at least a real quick look at... right away." "Yeah, I could calculate that." "Have you calculated" " how many yards per foot?" " I have not." "Let's do that." "We've got the resources, we've got the ability, and we have the drive." "We really hope this is the year." "We want to get to the bottom of this." "So... if you're interested from say... 115 to 135?" " Hey, Rick. 'Sup?" " Hey, guys." "RICK:" "Hey." "We're just going over, casing logistics." "So it's about... yeah, about a yard every three feet." "So, 30 feet would be ten yards." "It's not that bad." "I mean, it's a lot of material." "It's not if you're looking at... for a chest." "Yeah, that's the key." "Now, a different sized casing down hole will have a bit of a gap between, but that's where I'm starting to get concerned is that we're just gonna get too close." "What's up with you guys?" "It's... it's sad news." "You know..." "I just got an e-mail from Tom Nolan and..." "Fred Nolan has passed away." "The sudden news that 89-year-old landowner and fellow treasure hunter Fred Nolan has died sends shock waves through the Oak Island team, especially in light of the fact that they had hoped to work more closely with him this year." "How do you feel about that?" "I'm sad." "You know, I'm deeply affected by it, by the news." "I..." "You know, we came here..." "All of us..." "Came here with this sense of putting a stamp to the story." "Then, I think, you and I specifically, we came here with the quest." "Part of the quest, if you will, was to give the aging lions..." "Your father and Fred..." "A sense of completion, a sense of:" "Here's the proof for, between them, 110 years of search, legitimate, hard-won, hard-fought search." "A land surveyor by trade," "Fred Nolan spent more than six decades looking for treasure on Oak Island." "It was Fred who first discovered the mysterious collection of boulders known as Nolan's Cross." "He did extensive explorations of the island's strange triangle-shaped swamp." "And he also measured and analyzed numerous carvings, artifacts and other anomalies that he collected over the years." "I've been at it for so long now... - that if I didn't relate this kind of stuff," " who'd put it together again?" " Exactly." "You know, I'm not sure how your father is gonna take it." "Speaking of which, does he know?" "Not yet." "I think we should go tell Dan." "I'd like to." "Let's do that, guys." "Hey, Daniel." "Hey, Marty!" " How are you, partner?" " Good." "So, Dan..." "I have some, um... some... what I consider to be sad news." "Fred Nolan has passed away." "For most of their time on Oak Island, Dan Blankenship and Fred Nolan were engaged" " in an intense rivalry." " Sit down." "One which only seemed to grow even more bitter with the passage of time." "I mean, it was like the Hatfields and McCoys out here, so now, regretfully," "Fred's passed on, and it will bring change." "I mean, this has always been the Fred Nolan and Dan Blankenship story for 60 odd years and now it won't be anymore." "Do you remember when you first met Fred?" "Yeah." "I came up here in '65." "Fred had been on the island several years earlier than I was." "I had quite a few conversations with him over the period of time." "He's like..." "I guess like all treasure hunters, I mean, a little bit on the secretive side, you know." "You know, I don't know how Dan really sees Fred's passing." "But, look, they both persevered in the face of all kinds of adversity." "They risked, they sweated, they worked, they labored towards the common goal." "You don't get any closer than that." "So, to that end, I guess, they were closer than they thought." "You know, whenever Rick would talk about this place, it was always about, well," "Blankenship's doing this and Nolan's doing that." "But we always thought, or it was our hope," " that we could work together." " Yeah." " It was my belief that we could." " Well, we did." "We did work together." "Sounds like, to me, that you see it, and I think we all do really, we see Oak Island as a big giant puzzle." "I know that Fred told me once that that's how he saw it," " a big giant puzzle." " That's why they call it" " the Oak Island mystery." " Exactly." "So, you know, we got to get busy and start putting pieces into the right places." " Amen." " Amen." " All right." " Okay, Dan." "Okay, off we go." "We'll get back to work." "Yeah." "Hey, remember, you're not going anywhere." "Okay." "See you, Daniel." " See you later, Dad." " Okay, Dave." "Well, all I can say is, you know, it's a partial passing of the old guard, and I'm gonna miss him." "Okay, but we got to move forward." "We got to move forward." "Siempre avante." "My mom would always say "siempre avante"..." "Always forward, keep going." "How many years' work is this map represent?" " 40, 50 years." " Wow." "Fred's passing affected me in two ways." "One, it was the fact that he is now gone and I'll never shake his hand again." "I'll never know what he knew, and... it's impactful with Dan because now there's but one remaining." "And I want to refocus and re-energize and recommit." "Because out of respect for both of them," "I want answers." "For Rick, Marty and their partners," "Fred's passing is a reminder that life is short, progress must continue, and that the time to solve the Oak Island mystery is now." "Next time on The Curse of Oak Island..." "It's the actual start of this Money Pit dig." "The story of Oak Island revolves around this spot." "You're a part of history now." "So, these are the interesting targets in the swamp." "Let's get out there and get some answers." "The easiest thing is to put a diver back in there." " I've got something!" " What is that?" " Wow, it's huge." " What is this?" " What does that look like?" " It looks like an X, with a hook." "Is that symbol the Templars?" "CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS"