About This Artifact
A second whistle, separate from the bone or ivory whistle found on the shore of Smith's Cove in 1885, was found on Oak Island in 1901. Graham Harris and Les MacPhie, the engineers behind Oak Island and its Lost Treasure, record the two as distinct finds and give the only surviving detail about the later one: it was said to have been in the shape of a violin. They add that neither whistle can be attributed to the construction of the Money Pit.
The year places the find within the tenure of the Oak Island Treasure Company, the syndicate formed in 1893 by Frederick Blair of Amherst, Nova Scotia, who would hold the treasure rights until his death in 1951. The company sank and abandoned a series of shafts around the Money Pit between 1897 and 1899, so men had been working the east end of the island in the years just before, although nothing in the record ties the whistle to them.
Later retellings often merge the two whistles into one object, with the date given as 1885 or 1901. Harris and MacPhie's account keeps them apart. The material, size, findspot and present location of the violin-shaped whistle are not recorded, and without them it cannot be dated or compared with the boatswain's calls that the 1885 whistle is usually likened to.
Historical Context
Graham Harris and Les MacPhie, Oak Island and its Lost Treasure, third edition (Formac Publishing, Halifax, 2013), chapter 3.
Where It Was Found
Found at Oak Island; findspot not recorded. Location: Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
