Charles Barkhouse and Terry Matheson supervise the drilling of Borehole HI-4, positioned 12.5 feet from G-2 in the search for Shaft 6, which at 118 feet should contain a tunnel leading directly to the Money Pit. The previous week, stacked timbers were found at 80 to 90 feet in G-2, suggesting the team was hitting a shaft. A core from 69 to 75 feet in HI-4 reveals stacked timbers as well, and Terry believes they may be clipping the edge of a shaft wall. When Rick, Doug Crowell, and Steve Guptill arrive, Charles and Terry explain they appear to be in the southeast quadrant and may have passed through the outside wall of Shaft 6 between 71 and 75 feet. At the research center, Steve recommends moving south by one foot for the next borehole, designated F.25-4, as Rick focuses on the western side of the Money Pit where high concentrations of gold were found in the water near F-4. At 119 feet, however, the F.25-4 core shows only a mix of dug material and backfill, indicating they have not intercepted a tunnel.
On Lot 4, Steve, Gary Drayton, and Jack Begley continue searching for the Hole Under the Hatch marked on a map given to the team by Zena Halpern. More artifacts are needed to obtain a permit for excavation. Gary uses the GPX 5000 combined with the Equinox, allowing him to search for objects up to five feet deep. Jack digs out a broken iron staple that Gary dates to before the 1830s. In the swamp, Marty and the team continue working the southern edge, where previous finds include a tree stump, hand-hewn planks, survey stakes, and a possible piece of a ship's railing dating to the 7th century. Gary notices a piece of wood that could be an old survey stake, and Marty spots what appears to be deck planking. Gary finds another piece of planking with a curve suggesting barrel construction similar to what the team found the previous year. Billy Gerhardt pulls a pointed piece of wood from the muck that Gary identifies as a ship's pin, and Scott Barlow discovers a carved piece of wood that Laird Niven says he has never seen before. Charles suggests it could be part of a tool like the T-square recovered earlier and dated to 1632 to 1668.
In the War Room, Laird shows the team the artifacts just recovered from the swamp. Tom Nolan suggests the carved piece shows signs of rope burn. Marty notes the wood is already dry and could be a very dense species, recommending it be identified. The wooden pin draws consensus as a possible ship component.
Doug Crowell then presents research connecting the team's recent discoveries to Portuguese activity on the island. The stone shots found on Oak Island were used in deck and rail guns from the 1400s to the mid 1600s, and geology professor Dr. Robert Raeside determined they likely originated from Portugal's Azores Islands. Combined with the Portuguese-style stone wharf and the cannon fragment from Lot 4, the evidence suggests the island was visited by the Portuguese. Doug notes that explorer Joao Alvares Fagundes documented a visit to Nova Scotia in 1520, calling the area the Land of the Cod Fish. He also explains that after 1526, gold and silver from the New World was shipped by guarded convoys to Europe, and Professor Ross Wilhelm suggested in 1971 that storms could have diverted these convoys toward Nova Scotia. Maps from the 1500s to early 1600s show a place called Port of Refuge whose position matches that of Mahone Bay.
