The 60-inch caisson in Borehole H-8 grinds through thick wood that Rick Lagina and Charles Barkhouse identify as remains of the Chappell Shaft, the searcher tunnel M.R. Chappell dug in the 1930s. Corner timbers confirm the team is cutting through the edge of the old shaft as planned, and project manager Vanessa from Irving Equipment Limited reports the casing has reached 155 feet with the hammer grab excavation at 150. Metal detection expert Gary Drayton scans the spoils and recovers an iron spike coated in a concrete-like substance from the 150-foot level, a detail that echoes descriptions of the Chappell Vault, which was reportedly encased in concrete when William Chappell first drilled into it in 1897. Jack Begley and the wash table crew find additional bone, pottery fragments, glass, and hand-chopped wood in the spoils.
In the War Room, historian Doug Crowell presents eight pages of what appears to be a French military ship's log found in the Halifax archives. The log describes an advance vessel for the fleet of Duc D'Anville, which sailed 97 ships and 13,000 men to recapture Acadia from the British in 1746. The entries record the ship entering a deep bay with several hundred small islands southwest of Chebucto Bay, the original French name for Halifax Harbor. The log states that because of the great quantity of treasure aboard, the crew agreed to dig a deep pit and bury it securely, with a secret entrance by tunnel from the shore. The final entry notes the shaft reached 67 feet before seepage made conditions too damp. Doug reveals the most striking detail: Duc D'Anville's real name was Jean-Baptiste Louis Frederic de Rochefoucauld, connecting the expedition directly to the noble family whose name appears on Zena Halpern's alleged 14th-century Templar map of Oak Island. Craig Tester and Marty Lagina agree the description fits Oak Island in every particular, though Marty voices caution about how perfectly the evidence aligns.
At 170 feet, oscillator operator Danny reports a dramatic change. Torque pressure doubles to 150 bar, approximately 2,200 pounds per square inch, and the caisson settles onto something flat, hard, and consistent that Danny describes as unlike anything encountered during the entire dig. He believes it is a large wooden surface. Rick notes that the depth and characteristics match what a collapsed vault would look like, and Rick, Dave Blankenship, and the team gathers in the War Room to discuss next steps. They decide to install a permanent inner casing to allow deeper drilling and possible human exploration, acknowledging the risk of damaging irreplaceable artifacts such as the parchment, bookbinding, and bone already recovered from shallower depths.
While the permanent casing is installed, Rick and Gary Drayton search the intertidal zone at Smith's Cove during low tide, working the rock pools between the beach and the old cofferdams. After turning up only bottle caps, Gary gets a strong signal at ten inches and pulls a heavy lead cross from the ground. The cross features a square hole and crude construction that Gary immediately identifies as medieval, estimating a date range of 1200 to 1600. He tells Rick he has seen the same shape carved into a wall at the Templar prison in Domme, France, which members of the team visited just weeks earlier during their research trip.
Rick calls Marty with the news, and both brothers recognize the cross's resemblance to Templar-era carvings they observed in France. Gary considers it the most significant find of the season, eclipsing the 17th-century coins and other artifacts. Rick notes that if the cross can be authenticated to the 1200-to-1600 range, it would constitute the first physical evidence linking the Knights Templar to Oak Island, a connection that has remained speculative for decades. The team agrees that Smith's Cove demands further investigation.
