Members of the team gather at the Garden Shaft to examine timbers removed from its bottom. Scott notes a puzzling absence: despite checking as each beam came out, no wall or ceiling timbers were found. The timbers and two large iron artifacts were recovered, but without structural framing the team concludes the tunnel either collapsed or was partially dismantled at some point. Laird examines a handwrought rose head nail extracted from one of the beams and dates it to the 1600s to 1700s. Rick requests that all nails be removed and multiple samples taken from the timbers for analysis.
In the War Room, retired Acadia University professor of psychology Dr. Doug Symons presents research on a Viking-Templar connection. Doug Crowell introduced the team to Dr. Symons through Dr. Spooner after discussing the dating of swamp features and the Lot 15 stone piles. In his 2020 publication, Symons proposed that the Templars and medieval Scandinavians may both be connected to the Oak Island mystery. He outlines how Vikings settled the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland around 1000 A.D., just 625 miles northeast of Oak Island, with the Viking Sagas suggesting they may have reached even further south. In 1099 the Crusaders, including the original Knights Templar, captured Jerusalem. Eight years later King Sigurd of Norway dispatched 5,000 men and 60 ships on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, leaving many men and boats behind when he departed. Symons proposes the Templars could have used Viking seafaring expertise to reach North America, and points to Oak Island finds that fall within this timeframe: the stick in the stone platform, the stick at the bottom of the well, the paved swamp area, and the construction of Nolan's Cross.
At the swamp's southern edge, Rick and Gary search for more pieces of ship wood following the 2020 discovery of a railing piece that dated to as early as the 8th century. Billy pulls a scoop and Rick spots a piece of cut, shaped wood that could be from a boat. Billy examines it and suggests it resembles a runner from the bottom of a hull, used to protect a vessel as it slides over rocks near shore. Steve arrives and identifies another piece as similar to the ship railing found nearby years ago. On Lot 5, Helen recovers a copper coin from the rectangular feature that she identifies as a George III half penny from the 1780s. She tells Marty the feature appears to be a cellar filled in during that decade, placing its construction even earlier. Helen then pulls a long square spike from the soil that the group agrees is too large to have been used in house construction.
In the lab, Carmen Legge examines the two shaped metal pieces Gary recovered from the Garden Shaft tunnel. He is initially unsure of their purpose, but after Emma runs a CT scan on the smaller piece and XRF on the larger, Carmen asks to see where the bigger piece was broken. Emma shows it was snapped rather than bent, leading Carmen to conclude it was not structural but could have been a chest fitting or a hook for hanging a lantern. The smaller piece is square and handwrought, and Carmen notes the layered "shingle effect" of fibers tapering downward marks it as very old, dating from the late 1400s to mid 1700s. Emma adds that the high sulfur content and absence of manganese point to an older iron source. Back in the swamp, Billy stops excavating when he uncovers horizontal and vertical boards resembling a shaft wall or retaining wall near the stone road. Rick and Dr. Spooner arrive to evaluate. Spooner notes that the red material around the structure matches what lies beneath the stone road, and says that if the two are connected it would push the dating further back in time. Steve asks whether the feature could be a loading platform, and the group agrees it is possible.
