Rick Lagina and Steve Guptill meet with ROV specialist Ken Deboer to inspect the cavity known as Aladdin's Cave. Flocculant was placed down the caisson days earlier to clear the water, but when the ROV is lowered, the camera returns only a black image and the sonar reads nothing. Unable to gather any useful data, the team decides to move on. The following day, Gary Drayton and Terry supervise the digging of RP1. Vanessa reports a depth of 69 and a half feet. Gary scans the next hammer grab and pulls out a piece of iron plate he describes as possibly a decorative strap from a box or chest, followed by a metal strap that appears to be wrought iron. Rick and Steve arrive as the dig reaches 78 feet. By that afternoon, RP1 is at about 97 feet, and Rick notices timber among the spoils. The team then recovers axe-cut-shaped wood, and Scott finds a piece of adze-cut wood. Vanessa confirms the most recent wood came from 108 feet, prompting Steve to suggest it could be from the original Money Pit. Digging will resume the next day.
In the War Room, the team selects a location for the next caisson. Rick proposes placing it where Shaft 6 once stood. In 1861, the Oak Island Association drilled through what they believed were two stacked treasure chests at a depth of 100 feet in the Money Pit shaft. The searchers moved 18 feet west and dug an adjacent shaft to 118 feet before tunneling toward the Money Pit. When they were one foot away, seawater rushed in, causing tons of lumber and the chests to collapse into Shaft 6. The team agrees on the location, and Marty Lagina suggests naming it Rick Pick One, or RP1.
On Lot 5, Helen, Moya MacDonald, and Todd work in a 15-by-15-foot test pit near the round stone foundation. Todd recovers what appears to be a nail. Helen examines it and notes remarkably little corrosion for an iron piece, almost as well preserved as copper. The piece is square, indicating it was hand-forged, and a magnet confirms it is iron. Todd produces a second old nail for comparison. Both will be sent to Emma Culligan for XRF scanning.
In the swamp, Jack Begley, Gary, Tom Nolan, and Dr. Ian Spooner continue investigating the northern section. Jack finds clay at the edge of the cobble, and once Alan Kostrzewa clears the adjacent area, more rock appears. Dr. Spooner suggests this is a primary pathway for some type of activity and wonders if it connects Lot 5 to the Money Pit. Gary then notices pieces of leather and pulls out three fragments that appear to come from a boot, along with additional pieces of a shoe. When Rick and Steve arrive, Gary estimates the leather could date to the 1600s, recalling a shoe found in the swamp the previous year that leather expert Joe Landry placed in that same period. Rick requests carbon dating. The next day, Jack, Tom, Steve, and Katya Drayton return to the swamp. Katya recovers an axe-chopped piece of wood that Jack says could indicate considerable age and be the remains of a structure. Katya points out that the wood is also burned, and Jack raises the possibility that the burning was deliberate, meant to conceal evidence. In the lab, Emma presents XRF and CT results on the nail from Lot 5, identifying it as a hand-wrought iron pin with a clean composition that would help it last longer. The aluminum-silicon ratio is characteristic of colonial American metals, and she dates the pin to the late 1600s to mid-1700s. With those dates aligning with the Phips theory, Marty asks Emma to compare the pin's metallurgy to metals from Phips's collection.
