Show: The Curse of Oak Island
Season: 8 Episode: 23
Title: Old Wharf’s Tale
Original Air Date: April 20, 2021
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Synopsis:
Back in the swamp again at the square foundation and cobblestone road. Aaron specifies the artifacts that they are looking for to date the site. More pottery is found and dates to the 1700s and 1800s. Rick finds several pieces of it. It looks like the pieces might all be from the same piece. They’ve also been badly burned. Charles, David, and Dan Henske go to visit Carmen Legge, the blacksmithing expert. They taken the broken rod to him that was discovered in the swamp. He says its an inch in diameter and is consistent in size. The eyebolt is broken. It could be at old as the 1600s. He tells them the difference between an eyebolt and ringbolt. This item would be used for ships. Alex heads over to the Ball Foundation to help. The cellar has been cleared out now. Alex is running the sifter. Laird supplies Alex with all the dirt he can sift. He stops sifting as he has found a coin that may be gold. That afternoon, they go to the research center to take a closer look at the coin. A rainstorm has halted work at the swamp. The coin goes under the microscope. It does have a large anchor with two smaller anchors sitting on each point. Gary declares it is a British Navy jacket button. 1804 – 1825 is the time period it was used. The date range matches when Samuel Ball was on the island. It’s a military link for Ball that they have been looking for. This would have been on the jacket of an officer. The next day, Gary and David join the group at the swamp. Gary informs them they had not finished metal detecting the area and want to pick up where they left off. Gary gets a hit. As David digs more cobbles are found. Aaron takes over the digging with a trowel. He hopes its under the cobbles because then it’s older than the cobble. It turns out it is a seismic blasting cap from the survey done two years ago. Gary gets another hit. It’s a small nail, like an ox shoe nail. That afternoon, Stuart Wensell joins them in the research center. He worked on Oak Island with Dan Blankenship. He has knowledge of two wharfs off the Ball lots on Oak Island. He tells them about how he found a bunch of sharp-edged stones that made up two wharfs. The wharfs would have been made of logs and rocks. He said there was no wood left. He points out on the map where the two wharfs resided. The question becomes did Ball build the wharfs or where they already there when the property became his? He is going to go out with Tony Sansom, the diver to help locate the rocks. The next day, several time members and Tony Sansom jump on a boat and head to the area of the wharfs. They reach target one and Tony suits up to go in the water. He goes down and takes a metal detector with him. The visibility is good. It’s a silty, sandy bottom. He swims along the bottom looking for the flat rocks. He doesn’t get any metal detector hits. Suddenly, Tony comes over the radio sounding surprised. He’s found cribbing stones. He is just off of Lot 26. He leaves target one and starts to swim over to target two. Tony is at target two. He’s found a lot of rocks. No metal detector hits. He confirms it is an old wharf structure. Tony says the much larger wharf would be for something commercial or military. One could have been Captain Anderson’s. He owned Lot 26 until he sold it to Samuel Ball. They all head back to the war room to confirm the find to the team. In the war room, Alex loads up the video for target one. Then the video for target two, the large wharf. The smaller wharf Ball could have built himself. The larger wharf is over 100 feet long and 16 feet long.
Categories: The Curse of Oak Island
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