Along the stone pathway near the northeastern border of the swamp, Rick Lagina, Dr. Aaron Taylor, archaeologist Miriam Amirault, and Billy Gerhardt continue excavating as Gary Drayton and David Fornetti sweep the area with metal detectors. The team recovers annular ware pottery that Aaron dates to the early 1750s, along with badly burned stoneware fragments from the mid-1700s, both pre-dating the 1795 discovery of the Money Pit. Gary also uncovers a small square-headed ox shoe nail, a fastener consistent with the theory that the cobblestone feature served as a working road for hauling heavy cargo. Separately, Charles Barkhouse, David Fornetti, and treasure hunter Dan Henskee travel to Northville Farms in Centreville, Nova Scotia, where blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge examines the burned iron rod found the previous week. Carmen identifies it as an eyebolt, typical of anchoring ships or securing parts of ships, and dates it to as far back as the late 1600s.
At the Samuel Ball foundation on Lot 25, Alex Lagina sifts excavation spoils alongside archaeologists Laird Niven and Liz Michels and discovers what appears to be a coin near the northwest corner of the house. In the research center, Alex, Laird, Rick, David Fornetti, and Gary Drayton examine the find under magnification. Gary identifies three anchors and a rope design on its face, confirming it as a British Royal Navy jacket button dating to between 1804 and 1825, squarely within Samuel Ball's time on the island. Traces of gold gilding suggest it belonged to an officer, raising the question of why a high-ranking naval figure would have visited the home of a man who arrived on Oak Island in 1787 as a simple cabbage farmer and former slave but grew to become one of Nova Scotia's wealthiest landowners.
In the research center, Rick and members of the team meet with Stuart Wentzell, a local treasure hunter who worked for Dan Blankenship in the 1970s and who had previously told Rick about the existence of two wharfs off Samuel Ball's property on the western shore. The team arranges a dive investigation, and the following day professional diver Tony Sampson enters the water off the island's western coast near the freshwater pond while Alex Lagina, David Fornetti, and Stuart Wentzell monitor from a boat. Tony confirms two distinct wharf structures built with cribbing stones, some of which appear to have been worked or cut flat. The larger of the two extends an estimated 75 to 100 feet from shore at a width of roughly 16 feet, far too substantial for a simple farmer's dock.
In the War Room, Tony, Alex, David, and Stuart present their dive findings to Rick, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, Gary, Doug Crowell, and Dan Henskee. The team discusses Captain James Anderson, a notorious pirate, privateer, and high-ranking Freemason from Baltimore who defected to the British during the American Revolution with a ship called the Betsy and its rumored valuable cargo, later purchasing Lot 26 on Oak Island before selling the property to Samuel Ball. The scale of the larger wharf, combined with the British naval officer's button found in Ball's foundation, suggests a military or commercial operation rather than anything a cabbage farmer would require. Alex notes that such a massive wharf would have been built to support repeated heavy transport, not a single transfer, and the infrastructure aligns with the stone road and pathway the team has been tracing through the swamp all season.
