Rick tells the War Room that an email from Dumas has pushed the Garden Shaft deepening into the fall. For three weeks the team has been unable to stop the flow of water, and weather and voids behind the shaft wall have complicated the timeline. Cameron Carter and Tony Linton join by video conference and report that Minova will assist with Geofoam, an industrial compound that can expand up to 40 times its volume to fill cavities and stabilize the shaft. The target remains a depth of 95 feet, with horizontal drilling and well plugging planned once the shaft is secure. After the call, Rick raises the idea of caisson work near Aladdin's Cave and Marty suggests pumping it out. Near the stone road in the swamp, Alex spots a crude handmade chain hanging from Billy's excavator bucket. Gary retrieves it and Rick compares the design to a multi-point hitch. Gary then pulls a piece of wood with what appears to be a spike embedded in it, followed by another containing a rose head spike he dates to the 1700s or possibly older.
At the Interpretive Centre, Laird identifies a carved stone from the Lot 5 foundation as a whetstone for sharpening knives, a tool made from sandstone or slate and in use since the 1st century A.D. Emma's XRF scan reveals iron residue in the groove where blades were honed. The decorative iron piece Jamie found appears to have originally been straight, and its aluminum-to-silicon ratio matches 17th-century English metalwork, similar to the growing collection of Phips-connected artifacts but not a perfect match. On Lot 5, Helen finds a piece of white salt-glazed stoneware from the mid-1600s to mid-1700s. Fiona then discovers where the foundation stones end, raising the possibility of a cellar entrance or staircase. Jamie recovers a small decorated glass bead, a significant find given that Venetian glassmakers developed mass-production techniques for such beads around 1470 and they were used across cultures for decoration, religious ornamentation, and as a form of currency dating back to the ancient Egyptians. Laird calls it an important artifact and hopes to determine a date.
Borehole KL15 penetrates Aladdin's Cave at 147 feet. The core shows a clear line of demarcation between fine and coarse material, and Terry warns that the worst-case scenario is a collapse from above. Mike agrees there may have been a partial collapse. In the War Room, Alex explains the findings to Marty and Craig by video conference: infill appeared at about 146 feet, but the damage may not be total, with perhaps only one wall having given way. The team will combine sonar data from multiple boreholes to get a clearer picture.
Carmen Legge examines several artifacts. A fastener embedded in wood shows two handmade nails driven alongside a larger one, a technique Carmen says was used to hang lanterns in tight spaces. The large spike-looking piece turns out to be a "set," a tool for driving pins flush or countersinking them, which he dates from 1600 to the late 1700s. The chain and hook from the swamp draw particular attention: the absence of a curve in the hook's shank marks it as older, dating to the 1500s and no later than 1650. The chain connecting the hook to its ring is from the same period and handmade, though three chains at the end are machine-made later additions. Carmen says the assembly would have been used to lift or drag cargo, or hung from a boom for loading at a harbor. Steve then presents compiled sonar and video data from Aladdin's Cave. The scans reveal a bolt on camera, a right angle Ian calls unnatural, and possible openings on both the east and west sides. The cavern measures 25 feet east to west, 15 feet north to south, and roughly 10 feet deep at a depth of 150 feet. Ian confirms the cavity is collecting gold, silver, and wood values, meaning it either contains wood directly or is connected to a structure from which the metals originate.
