About This Material
Among the objects Fred Nolan recovered from the swamp and showed to Crooker in 1992 was an old piece of wood which he identified as coming off the side of a sailing ship, bearing grooves through which ropes had once been passed. Nolan was clear on one point that later swamp theories have not always respected: he told Crooker that extensive probing carried out when he drained the swamp in 1969 showed no evidence of a ship buried beneath the mud. The timber therefore arrived in the swamp as a loose piece, whether as salvage, as building material, or by some other route. Crooker records no dimensions, species, or dating for the piece, and it was not submitted for analysis. Fragments of ship's timber and rigging hardware were later recovered from the same swamp by the Lagina team, and Nolan's piece belongs with that group of finds even though it was never examined. Its present location is not recorded.
Historical Context
William S. Crooker, Oak Island Gold (1993), chapter 23
Where It Was Found
Found at The swamp on Nolan's property. Location: the triangle-shaped swamp on Oak Island's southeastern quadrant.
