About This Structure
The box drains are five stone-walled channels arranged in a fan shape beneath the beach at Smith's Cove, discovered by the Truro Company in 1850. A detailed account published in the Yarmouth Herald in 1863, rediscovered by Doug Crowell at the Lordly House archives in Chester, Nova Scotia, describes each drain as sixty-six feet long, with the two outermost drains sixty-six feet apart. They converged within four feet of each other at a central collection point that fed into the flood tunnel running approximately five hundred feet to the Money Pit. Each drain was built from two flat stones placed on their edges in a triangular configuration, forming a covered channel, and the entire system was blanketed with layers of coconut fibre that acted as a filter to prevent sand and sediment from clogging the stone channels below.
The fan arrangement allowed the drains to draw seawater across the full width of the cove regardless of tidal angle, feeding a continuous supply into the flood tunnel. When the Truro Company attempted to block the system by packing the drains with clay, the first tide swept the material away. Coconut fibre recovered from the drains was carbon dated to 1260-1400 AD with ninety-five percent confidence. Eelgrass found alongside the fibre returned a narrower range of 1472-1650 AD, placing the construction firmly before the 1795 discovery of the Money Pit and consistent with several proposed timeframes, including Portuguese, Spanish, and Templar involvement.
During the Season 6 excavation of Smith's Cove, Doug Crowell spotted a triangular-shaped opening between two rocks near the U-shaped structure wall, matching the 1863 description, with a steady trickle of water flowing through it. Archaeologist Laird Niven and geologist Terry Matheson confirmed the construction was consistent with a drain system. The team traced the feature northwest toward the Money Pit, finding flat rocks resembling drain stones in several locations. A dye test conducted later that season, in which up to half a million gallons of seawater mixed with nontoxic red dye was pumped into borehole C-1 at the Money Pit, produced red-coloured water seeping from the ground at Smith's Cove, confirming the hydraulic connection between the two sites.
Historical Context
Truro Company discovery
Where It Was Found
Found at Smith's Cove — the north shore of Oak Island where the flood tunnel system was discovered.
