The Geotech drilling operation begins in the Money Pit area, with the team planning to drill 38 six-inch boreholes in a grid pattern to depths of up to 200 feet, using the GAL-1 shaft as a center point. Geologist Terry Matheson is hired to log the cuttings every five feet, and a shaker table separates soil from artifacts as each hole is drilled. At roughly 195 feet, charcoal appears in the spoils, raising the possibility that an ancient chimney-effect ventilation technique was used during the Money Pit's original construction. During drilling, a torrent of water erupts from the nearby C1 borehole, proving solid underground communication between the two shafts. The discovery confirms that a network of tunnels or channels connects the Money Pit area at depth, but the churned silt forces a postponement of any further C1 dive operations.
Rick and Marty Lagina and Craig Tester travel to Saint Mary's University in Halifax, where Dr. Christa Brosseau and Dr. Sean Yang examine the rose head spike recovered from the GAL-1 spoils. Using a Scanning Electron Microscope, Brosseau determines the spike is composed of roughly 90 percent iron and 10 percent carbon with no manganese and no sulfur. The absence of manganese indicates it predates the 1840s, and the lack of sulfur suggests it was smelted with charcoal rather than fossil fuel, pointing to an even earlier origin. Brosseau confirms the results are not inconsistent with the spike dating to the 1400s or older, a finding that places it well before the Money Pit's discovery in 1795.
At the Mug and Anchor Pub in Mahone Bay, historian Doug Crowell reveals his research into the ownership history of Lot 26. The lot once belonged to Captain James Anderson, a privateer and pirate originally from Baltimore who pledged loyalty to the United States during the American Revolution, then defected to the British, taking his ship with him. Charged with treason and piracy by Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson, Anderson fled to Nova Scotia, purchased Lot 26, and lived on Oak Island until selling the property to Samuel Ball in 1788. He died in the West Indies in 1796, one year after the Money Pit's discovery. Alex Lagina, Peter Fornetti, Charles Barkhouse, and Crowell travel 50 miles north to Wolfville to meet Steve Atkinson, a direct descendant. Atkinson produces Anderson's original sea chest, inside which they find a Masonic Lodge certificate dated June 24, 1791, identifying Anderson as a master Mason in Lodge Number Nine, and a purchase document for his privateer schooner The Betsy, acquired in 1778 for 67 pounds and 17 shillings. Four keys accompany the chest, prompting speculation about whether additional chests may have existed on the island.
At Isaac's Point on the eastern shore, metal detection expert Gary Drayton, Peter Fornetti, and Jack Begley search storm-eroded bluffs and recover a musket ball dating to before the 1850s and a cut Maravedi, a Spanish copper coin commonly used by explorers and pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries. The coin has been deliberately chiseled, a standard practice for making change, and Gary estimates it dates to the 1700s or possibly the 1600s. Its excellent condition suggests it was buried in soil with no saltwater contact, and the team sends it for cleaning in hopes of recovering a date. The find adds to a growing body of evidence that the island saw significant activity well before the Money Pit was discovered.
