Rick and the team continue monitoring the DMT2 shaft, which has reached an excavation depth of 72 to 74 feet. Dr. Ian Spooner notes that the wood pieces coming up have been significantly larger since they passed the seventy-foot mark. The team hopes DMT2 is on course to intersect the Chappell Vault, first reported at 153 feet in 1897 by William Chappell. Rick and Charles Barkhouse discuss the likelihood of soon cutting into the shield that Hedden installed to secure the base of his shaft. On Lot 8, Gary Drayton, Steve Guptill, and Jack Begley investigate the anomaly detected the previous week by an OKM Gepard scan. Steve provides coordinates and Gary begins scanning a depression, quickly getting a signal. Jack digs out a heavy piece of iron that Gary believes could be part of a chisel, and they bring it to the Archaeology Trailer for further analysis.
In the War Room, researcher and 32nd-degree Freemason Scott Clarke presents new findings about the rhodolite garnet brooch recovered on Lot 8 three years earlier and believed to be over 400 years old. Scott connects the brooch to a Masonic Royal Arch High Priest breastplate, explaining that in Freemasonry the 13th degree of the Scottish Rite is the Royal Arch of Enoch, or the Royal Arch of Solomon, and that the High Priest wears a ceremonial breastplate during a specific ritual. The breastplate is a duplicate of what the biblical high priest was believed to have worn, set with twelve precious and semiprecious stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, one of which is a carbuncle associated with garnets. Scott points out that the garnet found on Lot 8 closely resembles those stones. He adds that M.R. Chappell was a High Priest who would have owned such a breastplate and also held the deed to Lot 8. The Masonic symbols found on the island, combined with these connections, support Scott's theory that at some point the Masons may have hidden a sacred treasure on Oak Island. He notes that the ritual involving the breastplate was meant to mimic the retrieval of the Ark of the Covenant from an underground vault resembling the Money Pit, performed on the Day of Atonement, and suggests the ritual was carried out on Oak Island to pay homage to the Knights Templar.
With permission to excavate five feet at the Lot 8 anomaly, Marty, Gary, Jack, and others begin digging. The area is full of rocks and appears to have been filled in, resembling paved features found elsewhere on the island. Marty attempts to remove a boulder the team suspects could be a marker but cannot dislodge it. Laird Niven observes organic material beneath the boulder, suggesting someone dug in the area and then placed the stone deliberately. Marty excavates to the five-foot limit and Gary metal detects the exposed ground, but gets no hits. Nevertheless, the combination of metal objects found nearby, the paved feature, and the artificially placed boulder gives the team enough evidence to apply for a permit to excavate the deeper anomalies.
Back at the Money Pit, Rick, Marty, and Craig Tester arrive as Andrew reports the excavation is at 89 feet with the caisson at 104 feet and pressure running low. The hammer grab brings up large quantities of wood. Gary finds a double-cut wood chip matching those discovered along the stone road in the swamp. At 105 feet the oscillator makes an unusual noise, suggesting it is cutting through something substantial. Craig recovers a wooden peg from the next load of spoils, and Charles suggests a float test. The peg sinks, indicating it is denser and likely older than the wood used in the Hedden Shaft. Rick pulls an axe-cut piece with a groove where a dowel could have been placed, followed by a large center-cut block that is unusually heavy and appears older than Hedden-era material. Danny reports they are at 113 feet with the caisson at 124. Gary then gets a metal detector hit and Peter Fornetti digs out an unidentifiable piece of metal. The next hammer grab surfaces with a large piece of metal and spikes dangling from the bucket, which the team identifies as the shield from the base of the Hedden Shaft.
