About This Artifact
The large log is a spruce timber approximately two feet in diameter and sixty-five feet long, recovered from beneath the shore at Smith's Cove. It forms part of the U-shaped wooden structure first identified by Dan Blankenship during the Triton Alliance investigations in the early 1970s. The log bears Roman numeral carpenter's marks carved into its surface, a feature shared with other timbers in the structure.
Roman numerals on structural timbers served as assembly instructions, indicating the order in which prefabricated components should be fitted together. This practice was standard among European shipwrights and military engineers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who routinely pre-cut and numbered large timber components at a workshop or staging area before transporting them to the construction site. The presence of these marks on the Smith's Cove log indicates the structure was not improvised on location but built according to a predetermined plan, with components prepared elsewhere and assembled in sequence on the island.
Dendrochronologist Dr. Colin Laroque analysed wood from the U-shaped structure and determined the trees were felled in 1769, twenty-six years before the discovery of the Money Pit. In Season 7, massive hand-cut timbers with matching Roman numeral markings were recovered from borehole RF-1 at approximately one hundred feet in the Money Pit area. Terry Matheson suggested the marks served as assembly instructions for the original builders, and the team noted the timbers did not match anything associated with the known Hedden or Chappell searcher shafts. The recurring presence of Roman numeral marriage marks at both Smith's Cove and the Money Pit points to a single coordinated construction operation spanning both sites.
Historical Context
Triton Alliance; Colin Laroque dendro
Where It Was Found
Found at Smith's Cove, beneath shore — the north shore of Oak Island where the flood tunnel system was discovered.
