Rick, Marty, Craig Tester, and Dan Henskee meet the team at the Money Pit to begin the second ten-foot shaft. Dan starts the oscillator and names the caisson Early Christmas One, or EC1, positioned eight feet east of TF1 in an area where evidence of tunnels was found at ninety feet deep, wood dated 1488 to 1650, and traces of gold and silver. The previous week the team stopped TF1 after hitting bedrock at 152 feet. Although no valuables were recovered, TF1 did reveal the remains of a shaft believed to have been constructed in 1909 by the Old Gold Salvage Company. In the War Room, Dr. Christa Brosseau joins by video conference with results on the spike and claw hammer head found on Lot 15. If pre-1795 artifacts can be confirmed there, the team will be able to apply for a permit to excavate an area where a stone path appears to run east from the swamp. The spike is wrought iron with a rosehead and square shank containing 0.3 percent phosphorus, placing it before the 1840s, while the hand-forged rosehead pushes the date back before 1790. The hammer head shares the same clean iron profile with no manganese and has been in use since the 1500s.
At the wash table, Alex Lagina, Peter Fornetti, and Eric Valois examine the final TF1 spoils from seventy to ninety feet. Earlier in the year, the core drilling program found metal fragments containing gold in this zone at ninety feet. Eric picks up a piece of leather resembling a strap, and Jack Begley discovers what appears to be a piece of parchment with silvery flecks. In 1897, Blair and Chappell found parchment bearing the letters "Vi" and gold shavings on their drill bit after boring into a seven-foot-tall wooden vault sealed in concrete. Craig and Marty arrive at the wash table to see the find. Rick and Alex then meet Bruker Corporation representatives Jon Giencke, David Sampson, and Sid Pharasi at the Interpretive Center, where the team from Billerica, Massachusetts, has installed a SkyScan 1273 CT scanner. Jon explains the machine works like a 3D X-ray microscope, using nondestructive radiation to produce three-dimensional images of a sample's interior.
Craig, Laird Niven, and Rick bring the parchment to the CT scanner. Jon's initial scan shows glowing rays that could indicate iron, possibly from writing. Older inks were commonly made from iron gall, a formula developed in the 5th century in Europe. Jon feels the sample is old and suggests a longer, higher-resolution scan. When the results are presented in the War Room, Jon shows the team striations in the parchment and glowing streaks in the cross section that are likely iron. David Sampson explains that if it were ink, the iron would appear as streaking across the material rather than a solid chunk. The scan also reveals that the sample is a cellulose-type paper product, and the green layer visible in the density readings suggests it may have been coated with wax to resist moisture, consistent with wrapping material for explosives. In the fall of 1909, explosives were detonated in the FDR shaft to clear debris from the 1861 collapse and to try to stop seawater entering through the flood tunnel.
Excavation of EC1 continues as the shaft reaches 76 to 85 feet. Craig checks the spoils and finds no wood or metal, but Gary Drayton notices a large piece of slate. Laird and Dr. Ian Spooner agree that slate should not appear at this depth. Oak Island's western drumlin is composed of hard slate, but the eastern drumlin where the Money Pit sits consists of anhydrite limestone, where slate would normally be found at 400 feet rather than 75. The following day, Andrew reports they are at 82 feet and have cut through something that was acting like wood without showing high pressures. Peter recovers an axe-cut timber from the next hammer grab, and at 86 feet an old square timber comes up bearing no saw marks. Rick examines another piece that Marty describes as very crudely worked. Additional wood from the next grab looks older still and is not dimensional lumber. The team agrees to continue excavating EC1 to 150 feet.
