The following is a Plot Summary and Analysis of Season 6, Episode 15 of the History Channel’s TV series The Curse of Oak Island.
[SPOILER ALERT!]
Later, Rick Lagina and Craig Tester meet with Lucido and Monahan in an on-site trailer. Lucido explains that they will be monitoring the ground in the entire Money Pit area in an effort to anticipate any further collapses before they occur. Monahan suggests that they shake the H8 caisson using a piece of a equipment called a vibro hammer; in all goes as planned, the vibration will cause the earth surrounding the caisson to settle. Monahan’s suggestion is adopted. A vibro hammer is attached to the H8 caisson and begins to shake, causing the sinkhole surrounding the caisson to widen, as anticipated.
While the vibro hammer operation is underway, Marty Lagina, Dave Blankenship, Gary Drayton, Jack Begley, Terry Matheson, and Billy Gerhardt meet at Smith’s Cove, where they proceed to hunt for the convergence point of the supposed box drains with a backhoe. They begin by excavating a trench fronting one of the mysterious wooden walls, which Gary Drayton then examines with his metal detector. Drayton quickly discovers a large metal bucket buried in the mud. The team digs a little deeper, finally hitting the C horizon (a rockier layer of earth) without finding any evidence of the box drains.
The next morning, the Oak Island crew meets in the War Room. It is revealed that the crew intends to conduct a dye test (similar to those conducted by the Oak Island Treasure Company in 1897, Erwin Hamilton in 1941, and Triton Alliance in 1988) in order to locate the entrance to the Smith’s Cove flood tunnel. We are reminded that Oak Island Tours Inc. conducted a similar test back in Season 2, Episode 6, in which they pumped non-toxic green dye into Borehole 10-X. They had suspected that the shaft intersected the supposed flood tunnels believed to feed the Money Pit, and hoped that the dye would show up on Oak Island’s shores. Unfortunately, the green dye failed to appear anywhere outside of Borehole 10-X.
Marty Lagina presents the team with red dye that he has acquired, which he hopes will be more visible than the green dye they used in the previous dye test. It is also revealed that the team will watch for the dye using boats and drones, the latter replacing the helicopter which was used during the previous dye test.
Later that day, Marty and Alex Lagina, Jack Begley, and Peter Fornetti drive to the town of Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, just east of Halifax. There, they visit the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS), where they meet with the team who conducted the underwater LIDAR scan in the previous episode. The COGS crew presents the crew with a 3D model of the seafloor off the South Shore Cove and points out two anomalies which appear to be “possible vent locations”. One of the anomalies appears to be triangular, and the shadow it casts points in a north-south line which, Marty remarks, “would be pointing, more or less, at the Money Pit”.
Later, the Oak Island crew prepares to inject red dye into Borehole C1– a shaft in the Money Pit area which they hope intersects the Smith’s Cove flood tunnel. They begin the operation by attempting to pump water into C1. As the hose fills with water, it becomes clear that a section of the hose is twisted up and will not allow water to pass through. They kill the pump, bleed off the pressure, untwist the hose, and carry on with the operation.
As soon as Dan Henskee and Terry Matheson pour red dye into the shaft, three flying drones equipped with high definition cameras are sent to monitor the island’s coastline. The Lagina brothers and Jack Begley observe the cameras’ live feed on a screen at Smith’s Cove. Meanwhile, Charles Barkhouse and diver Tony Sampson travel around the island’s coast by boat, scanning the shore with binoculars for any sign of the red dye.
After some time, Jack Begley, while monitoring the screen at Smith’s Cove, notices an anomaly in the water off the Bald Spot- an enclave in the Oak Island forest strangely devoid of trees, located just uphill from the Boulderless Beach on Oak Island’s northeast shore. Tony Sampson and Charles Barkhouse proceed to investigate the anomaly by boat, but find nothing of interest.
While the operation is underway, Marty Lagina and Jack Begley are visited by Dan Blankenship, who arrives in a golf cart. Shortly thereafter, Gary Drayton, while strolling around Smith’s Cove, notices red dye trickling from beneath a rock. Suspecting that they have finally discovered the entrance to the legendary flood tunnel, Drayton excitedly calls the crew over. Marty, crestfallen, observes that the substance is rust coloured rather than red, implying that it may not be the dye after all, whereupon Drayton suggests that the difference in colour might be attributable to the mediums through which the dye passed on its way to Smith’s Cove. Jack Begley collects some of the substance using a water bottle so that the crew members can determine its chemical makeup and confirm whether or not it is indeed the same dye that they pumped into C1.
Later, Jack Begley and Paul Troutman meet at the Oak Island Research Centre, where they use a fluorometer to compare the fluorescence of the substance that Begley collected at Smith’s Cove with that of red dye fresh from the bottle. The readings are comparable, indicating that the substance found at Smith’s Cove might indeed be the same dye pumped into C1. The treasure hunters phone up Rick Lagina and inform him of the good news.
In this episode, the Oak Island boys conducted a dye test similar to those conducted by several of their predecessors. They pumped red dye into Borehole C1 and later discovered the same dye at Smith’s Cove. This discovery, similar to those made by the Oak Island Treasure Company and Erwin Hamilton before them, indicates that the water which fills shafts sunk in the Money Pit area is connected with Smith’s Cove via some sort of subterranean channel. Whether this channel is natural or artificial has yet to be determined.