About This Artifact
An iron ringbolt found lodged in a boulder at South Shore Cove, almost due south of the Money Pit, by Dan Blankenship during his excavation of the Hidden Shaft in the mid-1960s. In his own periodic reports, later compiled by Les MacPhie, Blankenship listed the ringbolt among a group of unusual finds at the site, alongside a second stone triangle, a flat rock bearing obscured writing, and a large semicircle of stones in the water. Blankenship argued the ringbolt and the triangle pointed to work done at the south shore by the original depositors, and stated the bolt had been authenticated at approximately two hundred years old, proposing it had been used to moor a ship whose tackle was in turn used with a windlass to excavate the tunnel beneath the site. Researchers Joy Steele and Gordon Fader note that no supporting documentation for that dating survives, and they question whether the boulders in the area are large enough to have moored anything beyond a small skiff, let alone the vessel Blankenship's tunnel theory would require.
Historical Context
Dan Blankenship's periodic reports, 1965-1994 (compiled by Les MacPhie); Steele & Fader, Oak Island Mystery Solved
Where It Was Found
Found at South Shore Cove, near the Hidden Shaft, almost due south of the Money Pit — Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
