About This Artifact
An iron chain link recovered by Jack Begley from the spoils of borehole S-6 during Season 6, while he sorted material at the wash table with Doug Crowell and Paul Troutman (S6E17, "Clue or False?"). S-6 had been positioned using surveyor Steve Guptill's master map of historical survey plans, and the team believed it penetrated the 1861 Shaft Six tunnel at about 101 feet (S6E18, "Heavy Metal").
Gary Drayton examined the link and judged it old on two grounds: its oval shape, which he said is typical of older chain, and its weight. He considered it handforged and suggested it was probably used in a pulley system. He raised the possibility that it was original to the depositing of material in the Money Pit, while allowing that earlier searchers could have left it. Troutman mentioned a local legend that workers who dug the shaft were chained and buried alive to guard the vault. The program presented this as legend, and no evidence tying the link to it was offered.
Drayton said the link should be tested. No expert examination or dating result was reported in Season 6 or in later episodes. Minutes after the link surfaced, Crowell found a bone fragment in the same spoils. In the following episode, the narrator listed the iron chain alongside a hand-cut oak timber and possible leather bookbinding as the team's evidence for the 1861 collapse debris field.
Historical Context
Jack Begley, Gary Drayton, Paul Troutman; The Curse of Oak Island S6E17, S6E18
Where It Was Found
Found at Borehole S-6 spoils (Shaft Six tunnel target), Money Pit area. Location: the original 1795 excavation shaft on Oak Island, Nova Scotia.
