the oak island association 1861-1866
(a.k.a. the oak island syndicate)
Event Number: 4
Contributor: Paul Troutman
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Association
Also Know By: The Oak Island Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: April 3, 1861
Initial Company Shares per Price: $2,000 - 100 Shares at $20.00 Each
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
Years Active on Oak Island From 1861 to 1864
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 (A Unknown local man from a Steam Boiler Explosion at the M.P.)
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Samuel Rettie - President
Jotham Blanchard Mccully - Corporate Secretary
Adams Archibald Tupper -
James McNutt -
Jefferson W. McDonald -
Henry George Hill – Engineer
Samuel C. Fraser – Executive Committee
George Mitchell - Superintendant
Summary of Activity:
10 Years would pass after The Truro Company, before this attempt was made on Oak Island. They set about recribbing The Money Pit, which had caved-in. The water was bailed out easily and the pit reopened to a depth of 88 feet, where the muddy clay below seemed to be effectively blocking any heavy flooding from Smith’s Cove. A new shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit with the intention of intercepting the water tunnel, but it was abandoned at 120 feet after it had missed the tunnel. The workers began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet west of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. (This is a shaft often erroneously credited to the 1850 Truro group). A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits.
A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work.
The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to the fact that official government death records started in 1864, and the failure of J.B. McCully to record it the company records. The boiler explosion was mentioned in Author Andrew Learmont Spedon’s book “Rambles Among The Blue Noses” about the his visit to the island in 1861, the death was not. The note of death came from an essay by E.H. Owens of Lunenburg had written about the history of the county in 1868. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter. In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and re-cribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump.
McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet.
An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined. After raising a little money. They planned another assault on the drains of Smith’s Cove. Because of limited funds a proper cofferdam couldn’t be built, so work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866:
“About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced,
The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away.
On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored to raise more money. On August 24, 1863, the Nova Scotian reported that operations had resume and that “men and machinery are now at work pumping the water from the pits previously sunk and it is said they are sanguine that before the laps of one month they will strike the treasure.” The tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that. Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. That was it, The Oak Island Association was finished.
Key Events:
[1861]:
[1862]:
[1863]:
[1864]:
Contributor: Paul Troutman
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Association
Also Know By: The Oak Island Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: April 3, 1861
Initial Company Shares per Price: $2,000 - 100 Shares at $20.00 Each
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
Years Active on Oak Island From 1861 to 1864
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 (A Unknown local man from a Steam Boiler Explosion at the M.P.)
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Samuel Rettie - President
Jotham Blanchard Mccully - Corporate Secretary
Adams Archibald Tupper -
James McNutt -
Jefferson W. McDonald -
Henry George Hill – Engineer
Samuel C. Fraser – Executive Committee
George Mitchell - Superintendant
Summary of Activity:
10 Years would pass after The Truro Company, before this attempt was made on Oak Island. They set about recribbing The Money Pit, which had caved-in. The water was bailed out easily and the pit reopened to a depth of 88 feet, where the muddy clay below seemed to be effectively blocking any heavy flooding from Smith’s Cove. A new shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit with the intention of intercepting the water tunnel, but it was abandoned at 120 feet after it had missed the tunnel. The workers began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet west of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. (This is a shaft often erroneously credited to the 1850 Truro group). A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits.
A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work.
The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to the fact that official government death records started in 1864, and the failure of J.B. McCully to record it the company records. The boiler explosion was mentioned in Author Andrew Learmont Spedon’s book “Rambles Among The Blue Noses” about the his visit to the island in 1861, the death was not. The note of death came from an essay by E.H. Owens of Lunenburg had written about the history of the county in 1868. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter. In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and re-cribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump.
McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet.
An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined. After raising a little money. They planned another assault on the drains of Smith’s Cove. Because of limited funds a proper cofferdam couldn’t be built, so work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866:
“About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced,
The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away.
On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored to raise more money. On August 24, 1863, the Nova Scotian reported that operations had resume and that “men and machinery are now at work pumping the water from the pits previously sunk and it is said they are sanguine that before the laps of one month they will strike the treasure.” The tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that. Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. That was it, The Oak Island Association was finished.
Key Events:
[1861]:
- The Money Pit is re-cleared out again to a depth of 88 Feet. A New shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit attempting to intercept the water tunnel. It was dug to 120 feet with no sign of the flood tunnel, and was abandoned. They began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet West of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits. A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work. In The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to poor record keeping. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter.
[1862]:
- In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and recribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump. McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet. An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined.
[1863]:
- After raising a little money. The work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866: “About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced, The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away. On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored or raise more money. On August 24, 1863 operations had resumed and a tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that.
[1864]:
- Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. The Oak Island Association was finished.
Shaft Top View
Shafts Number 3, 4, 5, and 6 were from TRURO COMPANY |
Shaft Cross Section
Numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6 were from TRURO COMPANY |
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #1
[NOTE: This is from the 1893 Oak Island Treasure Company Investment Prospectus, So appears to be (so far) the best account of what happened, and may have been taken from the written account that Adams A Tupper later wrote. Portions of this Were used for H.L. Bowdoin’s Coller’s issues, the Canadian OITC and Snow version of the history, And in many books.]
"Nothing was practically done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcome the water and secure the long searched for treasure. On this occasion a power engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118 ft. shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the 12 ft. of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The object in view was to clear out the pit and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen when the cave-in above stated took place. The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy; and on account of this and other obstacles little progress was made, but as the water on is way from the "money pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100 ft. level. But the most remarkable thing in connection with this company (and to which your particular attention is invited) is the fact that while the pumping was being continued the water in the pit down by the shore, (No 5) in which the tunnel had been stuck, was kept at a much lower level than before or after, thus proving the existence of a subterranean water course. About this time the men engaged in the underground work, one of whom was Mr. A.A. Tupper before mentioned, got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was found to be in very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn and the shaft abandoned and work was suspended. The management were at their wits end and did not know which way to turn or wat course to take to surmount the overwhelming difficulty."
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #2 (Alternate version)
(Version from the Canadian Oak Island Treasure Company Files, Edward Rowe Snow Version)
WORK ABANDONDED UNTIL 1863
"The funds of this company in the meantime having been exhausted, nothing was done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcomethe water and to secure the long-searched-for treasure. This time a powerful engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118-foot shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the twelve feet of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The intention was to clear out the shaft and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen and the cave-in above mentioned took place.
The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy and on account of this and other obstacles, little progress was made, but as the water on its way from the "Money Pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100-foot level.
The men engaged in the underground work (one of whom was A.A. Tupper, before mentioned) got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was reported to be in a very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn, the shaft abandoned and the work was suspended."
[END]
[NOTE: This is from the 1893 Oak Island Treasure Company Investment Prospectus, So appears to be (so far) the best account of what happened, and may have been taken from the written account that Adams A Tupper later wrote. Portions of this Were used for H.L. Bowdoin’s Coller’s issues, the Canadian OITC and Snow version of the history, And in many books.]
"Nothing was practically done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcome the water and secure the long searched for treasure. On this occasion a power engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118 ft. shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the 12 ft. of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The object in view was to clear out the pit and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen when the cave-in above stated took place. The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy; and on account of this and other obstacles little progress was made, but as the water on is way from the "money pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100 ft. level. But the most remarkable thing in connection with this company (and to which your particular attention is invited) is the fact that while the pumping was being continued the water in the pit down by the shore, (No 5) in which the tunnel had been stuck, was kept at a much lower level than before or after, thus proving the existence of a subterranean water course. About this time the men engaged in the underground work, one of whom was Mr. A.A. Tupper before mentioned, got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was found to be in very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn and the shaft abandoned and work was suspended. The management were at their wits end and did not know which way to turn or wat course to take to surmount the overwhelming difficulty."
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #2 (Alternate version)
(Version from the Canadian Oak Island Treasure Company Files, Edward Rowe Snow Version)
WORK ABANDONDED UNTIL 1863
"The funds of this company in the meantime having been exhausted, nothing was done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcomethe water and to secure the long-searched-for treasure. This time a powerful engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118-foot shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the twelve feet of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The intention was to clear out the shaft and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen and the cave-in above mentioned took place.
The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy and on account of this and other obstacles, little progress was made, but as the water on its way from the "Money Pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100-foot level.
The men engaged in the underground work (one of whom was A.A. Tupper, before mentioned) got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was reported to be in a very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn, the shaft abandoned and the work was suspended."
[END]