At the Money Pit, the excavation of borehole RF-1 continues to yield significant material. From roughly 100 feet, the hammergrab brings up massive hand-cut timbers carved with Roman numerals, similar to those found on the U-shaped structure unearthed at Smith's Cove the previous year and scientifically dated to 1769. Terry Matheson suggests the marks served as assembly instructions for the original builders. Gary Drayton recovers a heavy handwrought iron tool from about 120 feet that may have functioned as an anchor for a lantern or pulley, while Jack Begley, Dave Blankenship, and Steve Guptill find rope fragments and what appears to be coconut fiber at the wash table. The coconut fiber, not indigenous to the North Atlantic, was famously discovered in both the original Money Pit in 1804 and at Smith's Cove in 1850. At 160 feet, a large metal plate emerges that Doug Crowell identifies as the protective shield installed at the bottom of the 1931 Chappell Shaft. The drilling then encounters severe resistance at 181 feet, with oscillator pressure climbing to 2,500 pounds per square inch, more than double the norm, snapping a steel brace on the crane and nearly throwing operator Jared Busby from the rig. After three hours of welding repairs, Vanessa Lucido reports the hammergrab manages only four inches per hour. The team opts to rest the 26-ton grab on the obstruction overnight, hoping its weight will push the blockage through.
Alex Lagina and Craig Tester take the iron tool and a pickax recovered from the shaft to blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge at the Ross Farm Museum in New Ross. Legge identifies the iron piece as a possible lantern or pulley anchor consistent with original Money Pit construction, and dates the pickax to potentially three centuries before the 1795 discovery of the Money Pit, placing it in the 1500s or earlier. Craig notes that if these artifacts can be confirmed as original depositional tools, the team has taken a concrete step closer to proving they are in the right location.
On Lot 25, Rick Lagina, archaeologist Laird Niven, Charles Barkhouse, and Jack Begley begin excavating the former property of Samuel Ball, the 18th-century landowner whose unexplained wealth has long fueled speculation that he found part of the Oak Island treasure. Ground-penetrating radar identified a possible tunnel structure roughly six feet below the surface. Conservator Kelly Bourassa uncovers a chest hinge with square nail holes indicating considerable age, and Jack discovers stacked stones concealing a void and an opening resembling a small tunnel. Rick, Marty Lagina, and Billy Gerhardt arrive to inspect the find, and camera operator Derek Hale feeds a pipe inspection camera 14 and a half feet into the passage, revealing a well-built flat stone ceiling. A large rock blocks further progress at around 20 feet, but Hale is confident the tunnel continues beyond it. The team concludes the structure is definitively man-made and resolves to hand-excavate further.
Meanwhile in the swamp, Alex Lagina and Dr. Ian Spooner investigate the massive paved area. Spooner identifies a well-preserved organic layer directly beneath the stones containing a tree killed when the swamp formed. By radiocarbon dating this specimen, Spooner expects to determine when the swamp was created and, by extension, when the paved surface was constructed, results that will prove pivotal in the season finale.
