Summary of Activity:
 
In 1893 Frederick Leander Blair,  a twenty-six-year old insurance salesman living in Boston developed an obsession with Oak Island that was to last until his death in 1950.  He formed The Oak Island Treasure Company, and was originally from Amherst, Nova Scotia and as a boy had heard detailed accounts of Oak Island from his uncle, Isaac Blair and from Jefferson W. McDonald both of whom had taken part in the search during the 1860’s.   Blair moved from Brookline, Massachusetts back to Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1895.    In 1893,  The 1st task of this company was to start their search at “The Cave In Pit” area.  Blair suspected that the creator of The Money Pit may have installed a valve or gate somewhere in the flood tunnel to be shut-off the water.    They started to excavate The Cave In Pit. At a depth of 55 feet, seawater began entering it. By the next day the water was at tide level (about 15th feet from the surface at this spot) and it could not be lowered by bailing.  It was abandoned, but they group was still interested in this location and convinced it had been part of the original work. It showed evidence of having been hand-dug at and earlier point, and there was no record of previous searchers being in this area,  or creating a shaft.  Years later, other searchers would direct their attention to this pit with the assumption that if it wasn’t an airshaft, it would have been an access point for one of the treasure locations.  They also assumed that the pit wasn’t exactly in line with the Smith’s Cove water course, but was set off slightly to the side. For that reason, the caving in had not affected the flow of the water.  Today the Cave In Pit is a circular crater 100 feet deep and as many feet across. The water in still rises and falls with the tide.
In the fall of 1894 another shaft (SHAFT #13) was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet north
Of the suspected line of the water course.  Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an
Underground connection to the flooded tunnel  by previous searches.   This shaft was abandoned.   In the summer of 1895,  Lowden’s men began re-excavating The Money Pit, but they only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing when once more water drove them out.   The work as abandoned until the later part of 1896, when they started again.  They were able to drain it with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive.  So the old SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s.  But by putting their pump in this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
 
About this time, the 2nd death occurred on Oak Island on March 26, 1897. Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death.  One of his coworkers, Selvin Rafuse of Martin’s Point, told the story “We used to hoist the earth up with horses then and it was when Kaiser was killed in the pits.”  Following the accident, Rafuse and the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week. Many of them were convinced that Kaiser’s death was a warning and that some ghostly guardian of the buried treasure would kill anyone who tried to retrieve it.   The workers were eventually persuaded back and the deepening of The Money Pit continued.  Blair’s notes show that on April 22, 1897 when they reached a depth of 110 feet, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel.  They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see.    Blair says: “Water was boiling up through the bottom of this pit, and it proved to be the real Money Pit.  The pit [we] had worked in all winter proved to be the old Tupper pit” (SHAFT #3) dug in the 1850 to 109 feet and situated 10 feet northwest of the actual Money Pit.   Several months and a lot of money had been wasted in re-excavating the wrong pit. Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit.  On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit.   They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel.   And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove.  Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high.  Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit.    Blair Says:  “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.”   It was obvious to Blair and Welling that it would be impossible to plug the flood tunnel in the Money Pit itself; the force and volume of water rushing down from Smith’s Cove was too great. Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management et in Halifax to formulate a new plan.   
 
The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore.  This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good.   Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart.   The first at a point 30 feet south of the presumed course of the flood tunnel, and the last about 30 feet north of that point. All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water.    They were crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug.  When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air.  The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel.  At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level.   This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge.  According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.”    While it seems the third hole had hit the flood tunnel the drillers were perplexed by the fact that the seawater this close to the shore wasn’t encountered until a depth at 80 feet. They concluded that the tunnel didn’t simply run in a direct line from the box drains in Smith’s Cove to The Money Pit, but that it first entered a sump hole that was around 75 feet deep and just inland from the shore, and that the bottom of that hole the tunnel ran at a very slight gradient to enter The Money Pit at a depth of approximately 110 feet. This reasoning, however ignored two important earlier discoveries. The watercourse had apparently been struck at 35 feet by SHAFT #5 in 1850, and again at 55 feet down in the Cave-In-Pit in 1894. One theory that has been suggested to explain the inconsistency is that there are perhaps two flood tunnels at different levels running between Smith’s Cove and The Money Pit. But a more reasonable explanation was offered by W.L. Johnson. His opinion is that the third drill hole didn’t exactly penetrate but came very close to it. Then, while the
drill was at 80 feet, the water from the tunnel suddenly burst  across and into the hole at a higher level, creating the impression  that it had been struck at a depth of 80 feet.  But there was a bigger puzzle to contend with. The workers assumed that the huge charge of dynamite in that third hole had effectively choked off the water supply. Yet when the pumps were  subsequently run in the Money Pit, they were barely able to keep  ahead of the incoming water. The blasting had had no appreciable effect on the flow from the sea. Part of the answer to this riddle would be found the following year.
 
While the work at the shore was being completed another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100­foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. A full account of the drilling program is contained in notes prepared by Blair in 1900 and in an affidavit sworn to by Chappell in October 1929.  Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently dis­turbed ground all the way down to 171 feet. Blue clay, which Chappell said had the "characteristics of puddled clay," was en­countered between 130 and 151 feet and between 160 and 171 feet. Puddled clay is a hand-worked watertight preparation of clay, sand, and water. It is similar to putty, and it may have been this material that the 1803 searchers found (and identified as put­ty) on some of the original wooden platforms in the Money Pit.
 
The first hole was bored through wood at 126 feet. Immediately below that the drill bit struck iron, which it couldn't get through. The workers extracted the drill pipe and found it crushed on one side, indicating that it had only hit the edge of whatever that iron obstruction was. So a 1-inch drill was put down the same hole, and it was able to slip past the obstruction at 126 feet. It then went through blue puddled clay and at about 154 feet struck what the drillers first thought was sandstone, but which was later determined to be cement.
 
This cement was 7 inches thick, and underneath it was 5 inches of solid oak. The drill bit was replaced with an auger in or­der to bring up samples of this wood. Just below the wood was a 2-inch empty gap and then, according to Chappell, the auger "rested upon a substance the character of which no person would attempt to state."
 
The auger was twisted into his material and then carefully with­drawn. The borings were taken off the auger by Putnam who later brought them to Amherst for examination. The samples looked to him like a mixture of mud, cement, and chips of wood; but included was a tiny piece of Oak Island's puzzle.  When the auger was withdrawn, it was replaced with the drilling chisel, and this was dropped back into the hole, which was now down to about 155 feet from the surface. Here the drill seemed to be on soft metal. Chappell said it was found that this metal "could be moved slightly thereby forming a crevice or space into which the drill, when in alignment, would stick or wedge." This happened several times, and the chisel had to be continually pried loose. Driving the drill down 4 inches required two hours, after which the boring became easier. But even then the drill would go down only by continuously twisting the rods and apply­ing heavy pressure. And the workers noticed that the material being bored would fill up the hole each time the drill was raised. Blair says they "worked five and one quarter hours getting down the two feet eight inches" of this material "and the chisel came up as sharp as [when] it went down." The drillers were certain this material was metal in small pieces; similar to that which had been struck in 1849 between 100 and 104 feet in the Money Pit. At 158 feet the drill hit the same sort of soft metal that had been found just under the wood. The chisel stuck fast in this material and couldn't be turned or driven down, so the drill was withdrawn.
 
The conclusion drawn by Chappell, Blair, and the others was that below the oak wood the drill had passed through four inches of metal in bars, or ingots, which were pushed aside by the chisel. Then it went through 2 feet 8 inches of small pieces of metal, or coins, that sifted back into the hole each time the drill was raised. Below this were more bars of soft metal which, from the way it felt and from the way the drill bit retained its sharp edge, was not iron.  They decided to secure this hole by putting casing below 126 feet (3-inch casing was already down to the iron obstruction) and then to bring up a sample of the metal pieces. A 1-inch casing pipe was lowered through the 3-inch pipe and forced past the obstruction. The iron, however, deflected the pipe away from the course followed by the drill and it struck the wall of the pit in­stead of going down into the cement. The pipe was pulled out and the drill rods were again sent down the 3-inh casing. But they followed the hole made by. the smaller pipe into the wall of the shaft. Several more attempts failed, and the passage into the ce­ment and metal was lost.  The 3-inch casing was withdrawn and reset for a second hole into the bottom of the Money Pit. This time the drill struck wood at 122 feet. It then went through 7 feet of cement between 154 and 161 feet, and one side of the drill also encountered wood from about 154 to 158 feet. Below the cement the drill was driven through more puddled clay until it hit what appeared to be an iron plate at 171 feet.  Chappell said: "A magnet was run through this material and it loaded up with fine iron cuttings, thereby producing conclusive proof that it was iron we had been drilling on at 171 feet. No fur­ther attempt was made to go through this iron."
 
Among the many clues that have been discovered on Oak Island, one of the most interesting was included in the samples of bored material retrieved from that drill hole between 153 and 155 feet. Putnam had personally cleaned the end of the auger and the samples, as he was later to swear, were never out of his possession until they were examined at the courthouse in Amherst several days later. On September 6, 1897, Dr. Andrew E. Porter, a physician then practicing in Amherst, conducted the examination in the presence of about a dozen witnesses. Most of what he saw con­sisted of pieces of wood and the cement like material. But then he noticed something peculiar about what he first thought was a tiny piece of wood. It was a compact ball with a fibrous edge. He carefully untwisted it and flattened it out. After studying it under a strong magnifying glass he declared that "this is not wood and there is either paint or ink on it." He concluded it was a piece of parchment.  It was sent soon after to Pictou Academy in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and to experts in Boston. The unanimous verdict was that it was a  piece of sheepskin parchment on which were letters written with  a quill pen in India ink. The letters appeared to be either "vi,"  "ui," or "wi" and seemed to form part of some word. The parchment, no larger than a five-cent piece, was kept in Blair's possession for many years before it was given to Mel Chappell, William  Chappell's son.

The circumstances surrounding the discovery of the piece of parchment were sworn to by several persons who were present at its initial examination. Blair, in an affidavit, states that he was well acquainted with Putnam ("a man in whose honesty and integrity I would place the greatest reliance"), and that there was no doubt the parchment came from about 154 feet down in the Money Pit.
Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sam­ple had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to  the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of · the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd., a large chemical analysis firm in London, England. They replied: "We have carefully analyzed the two samples of stone received from you recently and have to report that we find them to be of the following compositions:
 
No.1                                                                               No.2 
 
Lime(CaO)                                                37.40%                                                                         37.18% 
Carbonate (CO2)                                  33.20%                                                                         34.00% 
Silica (SiO2)                                             13.20%                                                                         13.92% 
Iron & Alumina  (FE & AL) 2O3    10.19%                                                                          10.13% 
Moisture (at 120°C)                           0.34%                                                                            0.29% 
Magnesium etc.                                   5.67%                                                                            4.48% 
 
100.00%                                                                      100.00% 
 
"These stones are very soft and both of them have the composition of cement."
A. Boake Roberts & Co. was then asked to give an opinion on the probable origin of the cement. They reported that "from the analy­sts it is impossible to state definitely, but from the appearance and nature of the samples, we are of the opinion that it is a cement which has been worked by man."  In autumn of 1897, the directors of the Oak Island Treasure Company were more convinced than ever that a large and valuable deposit lay far down in the Money Pit. The results of their drilling program led them to believe that a cement-encased vault, perhaps 7 feet high, had been constructed. Moreover, they speculated that this chamber contained bars of a relatively soft metal such as gold or silver, wooden chests of coins and jewels, and even historical documents of some kind. Above and below the vault, they had encountered puddled clay, a material that appar­ently was artificial, since it hadn't been found at any depth other than in the Money Pit. Based on these findings, the company became almost a closed corporation with existing shareholders readily advancing the necessary funds to continue operations. In early October work was begun on a new shaft SHAFT #14 about 45 feet south of the Money Pit. The intention was to sink it to a depth of 180 feet and then tunnel to the Money Pit at a point well below the iron obstruction encountered at 171 feet in that sum­mer's drilling. This shaft would also serve as a pumping station to help drain the Money Pit and the latter could then be excavated ·down into the treasure chamber. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70-foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within roughly tide level. Work on this hole end­ed when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860's searchers was found only 3 feet away. It was responsible for the heavy volume of water entering the shaft. The workers then moved 30 feet southwest of the abandoned pit and began a new shaft SHAFT #15 in January of 1898. Work continued until the first of April when, at a depth of 160 feet, a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed, and it was finally abandoned.  In May the workers again decided to try to plug the water en­trance at Smith's Cove. In order to locate the position of the  drains, they put a pump on the south shore and pumped water from the bay into SHAFT #15 Their intention was to fill it above sea level and force the muddy water out through the flood tunnel and the inlet at the cove. They filled the shaft to the top and, as anticipated, the water started falling back to tide level. But the ex­periment yielded an unexpected and horrifying result: the muddy water was bubbling out not at Smith's Cove but at about the low water mark on the south side of the island about 300 feet from the Money Pit. The same thing happened the following day when red dye was poured into the pit.  The searchers now had two known flood tunnels to contend with. Moreover, the southern tunnel must have had several inlets, as the muddy water appeared at three widespread locations offshore. Presumably this had been the tunnel that had caused the sudden flooding of SHAFT #15 at a depth of 160 feet. The discov­ery also helped to explain why the dynamiting of Smith's Cove a year earlier hadn't checked the flooding of the Money Pit. It wasn't known at what level this second tunnel entered the Money Pit, but it was presumably lower than the 160-foot depth at which it was encountered in SHAFT #15 
 
The workers subsequently dumped large amounts of rock plas­ter and clay over and around the presumed inlets at the South Shore Cove. But Blair says this "failed to materially stop the flow of water." A proposal to build a proper cofferdam was rejected as prohibitively expensive, since the cove on that part of the island is about 1,600 feet across, considerably larger than the crescent shaped Smith's Cove. Besides, two cofferdams built at Smith's Cove in 1850 and 1866 had been destroyed quickly by Atlantic storms.  Between June 1898 and late summer 1899 four more shafts had been dug (SHAFTS # 16 to #19). These had all been started with the hope of driving them deep enough to tunnel through to the Money Pit’s treasure vault about 160 feet down. SHAFT #16 was abandoned be­cause of the rocky nature of the soil. The other three encountered excessive flooding. Moreover, as Blair and Chappell later observed, the water problem wasn't caused only by the two known flood tunnels. It was aggravated by some of their shafts striking lateral tunnels that had been made by searchers in the 1860's. These had created an uncharted labyrinth of underground streams through the eastern end of the island. Some later searchers were to  speculate that Blair and his associates had been a little hasty in as­suming that all of those cribbed tunnels they encountered were the work of previous treasure hunters. Oak Island's original un­derground architect had possibly constructed something even more cunning than a single treasure pit with two flood tunnels feeding directly into it.
 
The Oak Island Treasure Company was having trouble keeping its head above water in more ways than one. The euphoria that had followed the encouraging drilling results of 1897 was begin­ning to wear off as some of the group's principal investors found themselves close to personal bankruptcy.   T. Pearly Putnam, for in­stance, was out $20,000 on the venture, and much of this was money he had borrowed.  In early 1900 the company once more updated and reissued its prospectus in an attempt to inject much-needed capital into the treasury. This new pamphlet detailed the findings of the 1897 drilling program, but it withheld any mention of the discouraging discovery of the second flood tunnel. Funds were raised to contin­ue the work.  Still another shaft SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded, and abandoned, and in May and early June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface into the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. But because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. These probes went down to between 116 and 162 feet without striking anything significant.  By now the company was financially doomed. Creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers were demanding back wages. That summer saw the end of seven years' work by the Oak Island Treasure Company.
 
Blair and his group had been beaten, but they hadn't lost faith in the existence of the treasure. In fact, the deposit seemed more valuable than ever, because they now assumed that at least two separate caches lay in the Money Pit. The first, struck at about 100 feet by the auger in 1849, had apparently fallen to some deeper level when the pit collapsed in 1861. It was thought that the wood and iron encountered between 122 and 126 feet in the 1897 drill­ing program may have been part of this deposit. Those drilling re­sults had also convinced Blair and the others that an even larger cache rested below 154 feet in the pit and that the original work went down to at least 171 feet. In addition, the discovery of a sec­ond flood tunnel-though it increased their frustration-was also seen as further proof that no ordinary treasure had been hidden in the pit.  Blair would later learn more of Oak Island's strange secrets. One of these had been stumbled on by Captain Welling near the island's south shore in 1897, and he had pointed it out to Blair and Chappell. It was a large equilateral triangle made of beach stones. None of them attempted to figure out what it meant, and forty years passed before its significance was realized.  Toward the end of 1900, Blair acquired all the shares of the Oak Island Treasure Company from the other major investors. He retained a lease on the Money Pit area as well as treasure trove rights under his own name, and proceeded to see out other partners to continue the search on Oak Island.
 
Key Events:
 
[1893]: 

• Lorsque Sophia Sellers labourait l’extrémité est de l’île Oak avec des bœufs en 1878, lorsque ses animaux sont tombés dans un trou qui s’est effondré directement au-dessus d’un point, soupçonné d’être la route des tunnels d’eau menant des drains Finger de Smith’s Cove sur la plage à une convergence à la surface appelée « Vertical Shaft », puis descendant brusquement jusqu’au fond de Money Pit, à 350 pieds de là.    Cet endroit pourrait s’être effondré à cause de l’érosion du sol. Aucun travail de recherche précédent n’avait été enregistré dans cette région.   Appelée « The Cave In Pit » ou SHAFT #12, la Oak Island Treasure Company a concentré la première tentative à cet endroit. Le trou montrait des signes d’avoir déjà été creusé à la main auparavant. Ils ont creusé jusqu’à une profondeur de 55 pieds, jusqu’à ce que l’eau de mer commence à pénétrer.  Le lendemain, l’eau était au niveau de la marée (environ 15 pieds de la surface) et ne pouvait pas être descendue par renversement, alors elle a été abandonnée.

[1894]:

• Le PUITS #13 a été creusé à 30 pieds à l’est du Money Pit et à 8 pieds au nord de la ligne suspectée du cours d’eau.  L’eau a commencé à entrer dans ce puits à 43 pieds, probablement par une connexion souterraine au tunnel inondé selon des recherches précédentes.   Ce puits a été abandonné.

 
[1895]:

• En refouillant The Money Pit, ils n’ont pu descendre que de 55 pieds à l’intérieur de l’ancienne cage, lorsque l’eau les a chassés, et les travaux ont été abandonnés pour le moment.

 
[1896]:

• Les travaux ont repris dans The Money Pit, et ils ont pu le vider avec leur nouvel équipement de pompage et l’ont dégagé à 70 pieds avant que l’eau ne devienne excessive.   Le PUITS #4 (creusé à une profondeur de 75 pieds près de Smith’s Cove en 1850) a été dégagé à une profondeur de 78 pieds, moment où l’eau y est entrée par l’un des tunnels construits par le groupe Eldorado/The Halifax Company d’Oak Island dans les années 1860.  En mettant leur pompe dans ce puits, ils ont découvert qu’ils pouvaient vider le Money Pit, qu’ils ont approfondi à 97 pieds.

 
[1897]:

• La deuxième mort sur l’île Oak est survenue alors que les travaux de réexcavation du Puits à Argent se poursuivaient. La deuxième mort est survenue sur l’île Oak lorsque, le 26 mars 1897, Maynard Kaiser, de la rivière Gold toute proche, était hissé au sommet d’une des fosses avec des contenants de terre, lorsque la corde a glissé de la poulie de levage et il est tombé à sa mort. Après l’accident, les autres travailleurs ont refusé de descendre aux puits, forçant l’arrêt des opérations pendant environ une semaine, jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient convaincus de continuer.  Ils ont atteint une profondeur de 110 pieds dans The Money Pit, ils sont tombés sur un des anciens tunnels Eldorado/Halifax Company entrant à 108 pieds et ont remarqué que toute l’eau qui s’écoule dans la fosse passait par ce tunnel.  Ils l’explorèrent sur une courte distance et arrivèrent à un tunnel croisé au bout duquel se trouvait un grand puits à cris s’étendant dans l’obscurité aussi loin qu’ils pouvaient voir.  Ils avaient creusé le mauvais puits (PUITS #3).  Avançant de 3 mètres vers le sud-est, ils ont percé la couche arable et ont rapidement confirmé qu’ils étaient maintenant dans le Money Pit original.  Le 9 juin 1897, le creusement avait progressé à 111 pieds dans le Money Pit lorsque les ouvriers sont tombés sur un tunnel non nervuré de 2 1/2 pieds de large du côté est du Money Pit.   Ils creusèrent rapidement, remarquant que l’ouverture était remplie de pierres de plage lisses recouvertes d’une couche de gravier.   Et à mesure qu’ils creusaient, l’eau jaillissait à un rythme toujours croissant. Ils avaient localisé le tunnel d’inondation depuis la mer et Smith’s Cove.  Plusieurs récits affirment que le tunnel mesurait 2 pieds et demi de large sur 4 pieds de haut.  Welling a ensuite noté que la hauteur complète ne pouvait pas être vue à cause du volume croissant d’eau qui s’engouffrait dans la fosse.    Blair déclare : « Il est entré dans la fosse sous une forte pression et a finalement dépassé les pompes, rempli les fosses [Money Pit et SHAFT #3) jusqu’au niveau de la marée et paralysé nos opérations. »    Les travaux ont alors été temporairement suspendus pendant que le conseil d’administration de la compagnie de la Nouvelle-Écosse à Halifax élaborait un nouveau plan.   Les directeurs de la compagnie ont décidé que le meilleur endroit pour arrêter le flux était à Smith’s Cove. Leur plan était d’installer des charges de dynamite sous terre près du rivage.  Ils espéraient que cela démolirait définitivement ce tunnel gênant.   Cinq trous furent forés en ligne à environ 50 pieds au-dessus de la marque de haute marée à la crique. Ils étaient espacés de 15 pieds. (voir le diagramme des trous de 1897 de ces 5 trous et The Money Pit)  Tous sauf le troisième trou ont été forés à environ 90 pieds sans rencontrer d’eau.    Ils étaient tous remplis de dynamite et remplis d’eau, qui servait de bouchon.    Lorsque la dynamite a explosé, l’eau a été projetée à plus de 30 mètres dans les airs.  Le troisième trou semblait creuser dans le tunnel d’inondation.  À 80 pieds, la tarière a heurté des rochers, et l’eau de mer est immédiatement montée jusqu’au niveau de la marée.   Ce trou était rempli d’une énorme charge de 160 livres.  Selon Blair, lors de la détonation, l’eau dans le Money Pit ET dans le Cave In Pit « bouillait et mousseait pendant un temps considérable, et après que le trouble se soit calmé, l’huile de la dynamite apparaissait sur l’eau de ces deux fosses. »     Pendant que les travaux sur le rivage étaient terminés, une autre équipe de foreurs a commencé à forer le fond du bord sud du Money Pit, qui avait auparavant été creusé à 113 pieds. Avec les pompes maintenant le niveau d’eau à environ 100 pieds, une plateforme de forage a été installée à 90 pieds. Des foreurs expérimentés avaient été engagés pour ce travail, et les opérations supervisaient William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam et le capitaine John Welling. Plusieurs trous ont été percés, la plupart avec un foret de 2 pouces à travers un tubage en acier de 3 pouces, généralement dans un sol meuble et apparemment perturbé jusqu’à 171 pieds.

• ARGILE RETROUVÉE, VOÛTE EN CIMENT ET MÉTAL

L’argile bleue, que Chappell a qualifiée de « caractéristiques d’argile en flaques », a été rencontrée entre 130 et 151 pieds et entre 160 et 171 pieds. L’argile à flaques est une préparation étanche travaillée à la main composée d’argile, de sable et d’eau. Il est similaire à la pâte à modeler, et il se pourrait que ce soit ce matériau que les chercheurs de 1803 ont trouvé (et identifié comme étant de la pâte) sur certaines des plateformes en bois originales du Money Pit.     Le premier trou a été percé dans le bois à 126 pieds. Juste en dessous, le foret a frappé du fer, qu’il n’a pas pu traverser. Les ouvriers ont extrait le tuyau de forage et l’ont trouvé écrasé d’un côté, indiquant qu’il n’avait heurté que le bord de cet obstacle en fer. Une foreuse de 1 pouce a donc été placée dans le même trou, et elle a pu passer l’obstacle à 126 pieds. Elle a ensuite traversé une argile bleue formée de flaques et, à environ 154 pieds, a heurté ce que les foreurs pensaient d’abord être du grès, mais qui a ensuite été déterminé comme étant du ciment.  Ce ciment faisait 7 pouces d’épaisseur, et en dessous il y avait 5 pouces de chêne massif. Le foret a été remplacé par une vis sans fin afin d’amener des échantillons de ce bois. Juste sous le bois se trouvait un espace vide de 2 pouces et, selon Chappell, la tarière « reposait sur une substance dont personne ne tenterait d’évoquer ».  La vis sans fin fut torsadée dans son matériau puis retirée avec précaution. Les forages ont été retirés de la vis sans fin par Putnam, qui les a ensuite amenés à Amherst pour examen. Les échantillons lui semblaient être un mélange de boue, de ciment et de copeaux de bois; mais il y avait un petit morceau du casse-tête d’Oak Island.   Lorsque la vis sans fin a été retirée, elle a été remplacée par le ciseau de forage, qui a été remis dans le trou, qui était maintenant à environ 155 pieds de la surface. Ici, la perceuse semblait être sur du métal mou. Chappell a dit qu’on a découvert que ce métal « pouvait être légèrement déplacé, formant ainsi une crevasse ou un espace dans lequel la perceuse, une fois alignée, s’insérerait ou se coincerait. » Cela s’est produit plusieurs fois, et le ciseau a dû être continuellement détaché. Enfoncer la perceuse de 4 pouces a nécessité deux heures, après quoi l’alésage est devenu plus facile. Mais même là, la perceuse ne descendrait qu’en tordant continuellement les tiges et en appliquant une forte pression. Et les ouvriers ont remarqué que le matériau foré remplissait le trou chaque fois que la perceuse était levée. Blair dit qu’ils « ont travaillé cinq heures et un quart pour descendre les deux pieds huit pouces » de ce matériau « et le ciseau est monté aussi tranchant qu’au moment où il est descendu. » Les foreurs étaient certains que ce matériau était du métal en petits morceaux; semblable à celle frappée en 1849 entre 100 et 104 pieds dans le Money Pit. À 158 pieds, la perceuse a touché le même type de métal tendre que celui trouvé juste sous le bois. Le ciseau collait fermement dans ce matériau et ne pouvait pas être tourné ou enfoncé, donc la perceuse a été retirée.  La conclusion tirée par Chappell, Blair et les autres était que, sous le bois de chêne, la perceuse avait traversé quatre pouces de métal en barres, ou lingots, qui étaient repoussés par le ciseau. Ensuite, il passait à travers 2 pieds 8 pouces de petits morceaux de métal, ou de pièces, qui revenaient dans le trou à chaque fois que la perceuse était levée. En dessous, il y avait d’autres barres de métal tendre qui, à la sensation et à la façon dont le foret conservait son tranchant, n’étaient pas en fer.    Ils ont décidé de sécuriser ce trou en plaçant le tubage sous les 126 pieds (le tubage de 3 pouces était déjà jusqu’à l’obstruction en fer) puis de faire monter un échantillon des pièces métalliques. Un tuyau de tubage de 1 pouce a été abaissé à travers le tuyau de 3 pouces et forcé de passer l’obstruction. Le fer, cependant, a dévié le tuyau loin du parcours suivi par la foreuse et il a frappé le mur de la fosse au lieu de s’enfoncer dans le ciment. Le tuyau a été retiré et les tiges de forage ont de nouveau été envoyées dans le tubage de 3 pouces. Mais ils ont suivi le trou fait par le petit tuyau dans la paroi du puits. Plusieurs autres tentatives ont échoué, et le passage vers le ciment et le métal a été perdu. Le boîtier de 3 pouces a été retiré et remis en place pour un deuxième trou au fond du Money Pit. Cette fois, la foreuse a frappé du bois à 122 pieds. Il a ensuite traversé 7 pieds de ciment entre 154 et 161 pieds, et un côté de la foreuse a aussi rencontré du bois d’environ 154 à 158 pieds. Sous le ciment, la foreuse a été enfoncée à travers d’autres flaques d’argile jusqu’à ce qu’elle frappe ce qui semblait être une plaque de fer à 171 pieds.  Chappell a déclaré : « Un aimant a été passé à travers ce matériau et il s’est chargé de fines découpes de fer, produisant ainsi une preuve concluante que c’était du fer sur lequel nous forions à 171 pieds. Aucune autre tentative n’a été faite pour traverser ce fer. »
 

• ARCHMENT TROUVÉ

Parmi les nombreux indices découverts sur l’île Oak, l’un des plus intéressants a été inclus dans les échantillons de matériaux forés récupérés dans ce trou de forage entre 153 et 155 pieds. Putnam avait personnellement nettoyé l’extrémité du. et les échantillons, comme il allait plus tard le jurer, n’étaient jamais hors de sa possession jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient examinés au palais de justice d’Amherst quelques jours plus tard. Le 6 septembre 1897, le Dr Andrew E. Porter, un médecin alors en exercice à Amherst, a mené l’examen en présence d’une douzaine de témoins. La plupart de ce qu’il voyait était constitué de morceaux de bois et de matériaux semblables à du ciment. Mais il remarqua alors quelque chose de particulier dans ce qu’il croyait d’abord être un petit morceau de bois. C’était une balle compacte avec un bord fibreux. Il le déroula soigneusement et l’aplatit. Après l’avoir étudié à la loupe puissante, il déclara que « ce n’est pas du bois et il y a soit de la peinture soit de l’encre dessus. » Il conclut que c’était un morceau de parchemin.  Il a été envoyé peu après à l’Académie Pictou à Pictou, en Nouvelle-Écosse, puis à des experts à Boston. Le verdict unanime fut qu’il s’agissait d’un morceau de parchemin en peau de mouton sur lequel étaient écrites des lettres à la plume à l’encre de Chine. Les lettres semblaient être soit « vi », « ui » ou « wi » et semblaient faire partie d’un mot. Le parchemin, ne dépassant pas une pièce de cinq cents, est resté en possession de Blair pendant de nombreuses années avant d’être remis à Mel Chappell, le fils de William Chappell.

• Les circonstances entourant la découverte du morceau de parchemin ont été confirmées par plusieurs personnes présentes lors de son examen initial. Blair, dans une déclaration sous serment, affirme qu’il connaissait bien Putnam (« un homme en dont j’accorderais la plus grande confiance à l’honnêteté et à l’intégrité »), et qu’il ne faisait aucun doute que le parchemin venait d’environ 154 pieds de profondeur dans le Money Pit.

• Le Dr Porter a également témoigné plus tard sous serment que l’échantillon lui avait été remis directement par Putnam au palais de justice. Il est également notable que tous ceux impliqués dans le programme de forage de 1897 ont acheté des parts supplémentaires après la découverte et l’identification du parchemin. Et le Dr Porter, qui n’avait aucun intérêt pour Oak Island avant cette date, est devenu actionnaire à la suite de cette preuve tangible qui a été révélée. Bien que les examinateurs d’Amherst étaient certains de l’identité des échantillons de bois de chêne, il y avait des divergences sur la question de savoir si les copeaux de ciment étaient naturels ou artificiels. Les échantillons ont donc été envoyés à A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd, qui a déterminé qu’il s’agissait de ciment et qu’il avait la même composition chimique.  En octobre, les travaux ont commencé sur un nouveau puits (PUITS #14) à environ 45 pieds au sud de The Money Pit.  En décembre, les chercheurs avaient atteint une profondeur de 95 pieds lorsque l’eau salée a commencé à s’infiltrer au niveau de 70 pieds. Pendant la nuit, le puits a été inondé jusqu’à l’intérieur du niveau de la marée. Les travaux sur ce trou ont pris fin lorsqu’un tunnel creusé par les chercheurs des années 1860 a été trouvé à seulement 3 pieds.

[1898]:

• En janvier, ils ont déménagé de 30 pieds au sud-ouest du PUITS #14 et ont commencé un nouveau puits PUITS #15. En avril, ils étaient descendus à une profondeur de 160 pieds lorsqu’un grand volume d’eau salée jaillit soudainement du côté sud-ouest du puits et força les hommes à fuir.  Les tentatives de pompage ont échoué et il a été abandonné.  

• Le 2e tunnel d’inondation sur la rive sud, alimentant le Money Pit, a été découvert :

En mai, les ouvriers ont décidé d’essayer de boucher l’entrée d’eau dans Smith’s Cove afin de localiser l’emplacement des drains.  Ils ont installé une pompe sur la rive sud et pompé l’eau de la baie vers le PUITS #15.  Leur intention était de la remplir au-dessus du niveau de la mer et de forcer l’eau boueuse à sortir par le tunnel d’inondation et l’anse à la crique.  Ils ont rempli le puits jusqu’au sommet et ont anticipé que l’eau recommence à redescendre jusqu’au niveau de la marée.  Mais l’expérience a donné un résultat inattendu et terrifiant : l’eau boueuse bouillonnait non pas à Smith’s Cove, mais à peu près à la ligne de basse mer du côté sud de l’île (la rive sud), à environ 300 pieds au sud de The Money Pit.   La même chose s’est produite le lendemain lorsque de la teinture rouge a été versée dans la fosse.   Le tunnel sud devait comporter plusieurs anses, car l’eau boueuse apparaissait à trois endroits répandus au large.    On ne savait pas à quel niveau ce second tunnel entrait dans le Puits à Argent, mais il était vraisemblablement plus bas que la profondeur de 160 pieds rencontrée dans le PUITS #15.   Ils ont déversé de grandes quantités de plâtre et d’argile sur et autour de ces présumés estuaires à The South Shore, mais ils n’ont pas réussi à arrêter l’écoulement de l’eau.  Une proposition de construction d’un batardeau a été rejetée car trop coûteuse, puisque la crique de cette partie de l’île fait 1 600 pieds de large.
 
[Juin 1898 à été 1899] :

• Quatre autres puits avaient été creusés à ce moment-là pour tenter d’entrer dans le Money Pits Treasure Vault à environ 160 pieds de profondeur : PUITS #16, PUITS #17, PUITS #18 et PUITS #19.   Le PUITS #16 a été abandonné en raison de la nature rocheuse du sol.  Les PUITS #18, 17 et 19 ont également subi des inondations excessives causées par des tunnels latéraux réalisés par des chercheurs antérieurs dans les années 1860.

 
[1900]:

• Le prospectus de l’entreprise a été mis à jour et réédité pour lever des fonds supplémentaires, qui diminuaient alors que les investisseurs principaux étaient proches de la faillite personnelle.    Un autre puits, le PUITS #20, a été creusé, inondé et abandonné.  En mai et juin, plusieurs trous de forage ont été creusés à partir d’une plateforme à la surface du fond du Money Pit, désormais rempli d’eau.  En raison de l’état tordu de la crèche, seul le coin sud-est de la fosse pouvait être atteint depuis le sommet.  Forer entre 116 et 162 pieds sans rencontrer quoi que ce soit d’intéressant.  À ce moment-là, l’entreprise était condamnée financièrement, et les créanciers intervenaient avec des privilèges sur l’équipement, et les travailleurs réclamaient des arriérés de salaire.  C’était la fin de 7 ans de travail de The Oak Island Treasure Company.    Neuf ans s’écoulèrent avant qu’une autre tentative soit faite sur l’île Oak.