Rick Lagina meets with Paul Cote of Dumas Contracting to check on the Garden Shaft reconstruction. Dumas is replacing missing timbers, sealing the structure with plastic, and preparing to pour a concrete pad around the shaft. Once complete, the 80-foot shaft will have platforms and ladders at eight-foot intervals, and if needed the team will be able to drill or tunnel off the main shaft to reach areas of interest. On Lot 32, Marty Lagina visits archaeologist Laird Niven, Emma Culligan, and Helen Sheldon, who have started investigating an area that has produced many artifacts potentially predating the Money Pit and could indicate the location of an old ship's wharf. Laird tells Marty they are finding evidence of unrecorded activity on the lot. The next day Gary Drayton and Jack Begley return to dig flagged targets: at the first flag Jack unearths part of a barrel hoop, and at the next he recovers what Gary identifies as a type of small scythe with a square shank that he dates to the early 1700s.
At the Money Pit, Terry Deveau, Charles Barkhouse, and Craig Tester supervise Borehole J15.25, positioned 54 feet south of the Garden Shaft. The team is attempting to intercept the tunnel found at a depth of 103 feet that contains wood carbon dated to as early as the 17th century and that video and sonar indicate could be heading toward the shaft. The first core from 102.5 feet shows no wood and appears natural, but the next sample contains wood sitting in undisturbed material, confirming a tunnel. The team leaves the casing in place for further testing. Paul Troutman, Scott Barlow, and Steve Guptill lower the Impact Subsea ISS-360 sonar device, which can detect underwater structures or voids up to 295 feet below the surface. At the bottom of the casing, the group sees what looks like a wall or the side of a tunnel, 15 feet from the last sonar reading and heading toward the Garden Shaft. The next day Rick arrives as the Inuktun Spectrum 120 high-definition camera is lowered into J15.25. As the camera pans at the bottom of the casing, the team sees pieces of broken wood, a beam, and support pieces, and is able to look beyond the debris into the tunnel.
In the War Room, Corjan Mol and Charlotte Wheatley present research on the Duc d'Anville expedition. Corjan explains that after the Fortress of Louisbourg fell to the English in June 1745, the French assembled a large armada in 1746 to retake Nova Scotia, led by the Duc d'Anville, a member of the Rochefoucauld family. The expedition failed, but Doug Crowell found part of a ship's log in the provincial archives indicating a second mission south of Halifax succeeded, with the log mentioning treasure buried in a deep pit with a secret entrance from the shore. Before the main armada was dispatched, King Louis XV sent two ships ahead: l'Aurore with a crew of 250 and Le Castor with 180. The ships arrived near Mahone Bay on June 4, 1746, but no documentation explains their mission. Corjan suggests they were sent to evaluate Oak Island as a possible location for the Money Pit. Commander Duvigneau's logbooks contain growing gaps over the two months the ships spent in the area, and upon returning to France he submitted a letter stating, "I will not speak to anyone about this place." Doug notes that much of the carbon dating done on the island returns dates from the mid-1700s.
At the Research Center, Carmen Legge examines the artifacts from Lot 32. The piece Gary thought was a tool turns out to be a large barrel strap, with a shoulder running from rim to band and two rivets. Carmen identifies the second artifact as a hoop from a barrel of approximately 200 gallons, designed for holding wet goods such as mead, rum, or whiskey, and dates the piece to the mid-1700s.
