Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Oak Island and the Roman Sword

After most of a season of just screwing around and doing nothing more than digging up more areas on Oak Island that yielded bits of wood, stumps and a hunk of cable, they finally moved back to Borehole Number Ten and set up a dive. This was to get them to the bottom of the hole where it is alleged that there is a box of some kind, the remnants of a hammer or ax and the possibility of human remains.

We did see them attempt to make the dive. They got in the water and disappeared into what looked like a thick, yellow soup. The lights they carried disappeared in seconds. As did the communications. The dive master called off the dive at that point for safety reasons. One of the divers reappeared quickly, but the second didn’t. We see some tense minutes, knowing that if there had been some sort of tragedy we would never see it and, of course, one of the alleged news magazines on television would have reported it. The second diver appeared after about thirty minutes.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m all for calling off the dive under those circumstances. Diving into that narrow tube that goes down a couple of hundred feet is an incredible thing to do and obviously neither man had issues with claustrophobia. I wouldn’t do it and from their discussions in the “War Room” there are plenty of other divers who refused the opportunity as well.

The next day, the divers were back, having fixed the communications issue but there was some trouble with the masks. They didn’t want to make another dive without fixing that problem as well. Everyone was disappointed but all agreed was that safety had to be the paramount issue. That seemed to be a sane decision to me.

Before the hour was over, the divers were back to make another attempt. This surprised me because the episodes rarely return to a point made earlier in the program. The divers had their equipment with them with the dive mask issues resolved and the communications working. They made the dive and according to them, one of the divers got to the end of the borehole but was stopped by a huge drill bit that broken off some forty years earlier. It was lodged in the borehole, blocking access to the underground cave or room or whatever that supposedly holds the treasures.

There seems to be no plan to remove the drill bit (this isn’t something small like in your handheld drill but a huge auger used to professionally to drill deep holes that are several feet in diameter). It is wedged at the bottom of the narrowest part of the bore hole which is something like 140 feet (or deeper) so the challenge to remove it might be overwhelming.

Rather than attempt to solve this problem, they retreat to the War Room to meet with a couple of guys that have something concealed in a towel. This turns out to be a Roman sword, which might be about 1500 years old… or it might be a replica that is only a few decades old. It was apparently discovered somewhere close to Oak Island in the 1940s and everyone seems to believe this has some relevance. Maybe the Romans had sailed to Oak Island centuries before Columbus.

Now, they’re off on another tangent, trying to find out how old the sword is and how it might relate to Oak Island. I would think, with the amount of money they have spent in their attempt to learn what is hidden (or not hidden) there, they would not be interested in a Roman sword that probably has no relevance to Oak Island and what might be hidden there.


Or, in other words, they’ve dragged this out long enough. For crying out loud, stop screwing around draining swamps, following dowsers, using esoteric maps based on all sorts of strange theories, and stop running sonar off the coast of the island so they can look at triangular-shaped rocks that might or might not be natural. Just figure out a way to get the drill bit out of the borehole or put a camera down there that has some sort of high definition capability to provide some revelation because I won’t wait forever and I don’t think many others will either. 

8 comments:

Brian B said...

Also they just started one of those ridiculous after the show discussion programs (like Walking Dead did) to rehash all the things that were quite obvious in the show preceding it. It seems like they really want to squeeze everything they can out of this series and them some. Still convinced there's nothing down there.

Sarge said...

This is what happens when Television clashes with business. Business wants to make progress and move forward, while TV needs to milk out all the advertising dollars it can.

Unknown said...

Did they show any video/photos of that "huge drill bit"? Or do you simply trust their word?

(I don't have cable)

...thanks in advance

KRandle said...

Tony -

No, the water was too murky and the bit was too deep but there is no reason to lie about this. Of course it might be a dodge to drag this thing out but we don't have to worry about it for the moment. They've got a Roman sword.

Rusty L. said...

I like these reports, but the show is so ridiculously I just can't stay interested. It reminds me of the comedian talking about the Loch Ness and bigfoot shows. Whatever happened to Jacque Cousteau? That was reality TV without the BS.

Woody said...

Another tool to drag out further interest in the Oak Island mystery. Holy shit it was gold chain links, a board of symbols (unavailable for inspection today), a sound like drilling into a coin stash which was actually identical to the sound of drilling into gravel ... what else ... coin(s), claims of images of a box/chest and a skeletal hand ... now we have a Roman sword (which may have been discovered nearby, or roughly in the area.)
I understand the fatigue that many feel toward the whole case.

All the best,
Woody

Brian B said...

I'm no expert on Bronze Age Roman swords, but just looking at theirs compared to authenticated pieces it appears to me what they have is not authentic.

Originals are more pitted and dark brown and with a different green vertigre of any at all. I checked out several pieces online that are authentic, and what they have looks more like a brass repro from someone's back yard, bright green patina and all.

The ones escavated on land look worse than theirs, and supposedly theirs was under water for hundreds if not thousands of years.

I might add authenticated pieces sell for $17,000 to $25,000, so if they bought it I feel sorry for them.

Based on just a little research that sword does not appear to be authentic, at least given the story and its general appearance.

Unknown said...

For those interested in the roman sword go to Andy White's blog.

http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog

Andy and J Hutton Pulitzer are having a running battle over the authenticity of the sword

Mark