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Edited by ninja boy at 7-3-2015 10:19 PM
Meh ai tepek
sumber: http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/OakIsland/index.html, dll
It has been the focus of “the world's longest and most expensive treasure hunt” and “one of the world's deepest and most costly archaeological digs” (O'Connor 1988, 1, 4), as well as being “Canada's best-known mystery” (Colombo 1988, 33) and indeed one of “the great mysteries of the world.” It may even “represent an ancient artifact created by a past civilization of advanced capability” (Crooker 1978, 7, 190). The subject of these superlatives is a mysterious shaft on Oak Island in Nova Scotia's Mahone Bay. For some two centuries, greed, folly, and even death have attended the supposed “Money Pit” enigma.
Oak Island is a 140 acre island just off the eastern coast ofNova Scotia, Canada located in Mahone Bay.
What lies at the bottom of the Money Pit?
Imagine yourself walking through the trees of a wooded island rumored to hide buried pirate treasure. Suddenly you come across a depression in the ground. It's roughly circular and there's a tree standing above it with a branch that has been cut and appears to have been used as a pulley. Your imagination is fired and hope soars. You run off to get your friends and digging equipment.
You and two friends return the next day, shovels in hand, ready to claimyour prize. The digging is easy. The dirt loose. Only two feet downyour shovel strikes rock. As you clear the dirt away you find a neatlyarranged layer of flagstone covering a circular area 13 feet in diameter.You pry the stones out, expecting treasure but there's only more dirt.
You begin again. Digging down 8 more feet with no luck. Suddenly youhit wood. This is it. You scrap away the dirt only to find a platform ofoak logs covering the pit. You pull out the logs and resume your digging.
Ten more feet and still nothing. Finally, you strike wood. This MUST beit. As you clear the area you find another level of oak logs.
Now you know there's something valuable here. Why else would anyonego to so much trouble?
Now 20 feet below the surface you heave to again. Another 10 feet. Anotherset of oak boards.
Disappointed, you and your friends decide that you can't go any furtheralone. You leave but vow to return to retrieve your treasure.
Now imagine that it's more than 200 years later. The pit has been exploredto more than 150 feet. The treasure, if any, that was buried is still there,protected by an ingenious booby trap that floods the pit with sea wateranytime someone gets close.
Group after group after group have tried to solve the riddle. Neitherbrute force nor technology have been able to overcome the problems. Six lives have been lost and millionsof dollars spent trying to uncover the secrets of what has become known as the Money Pit. Still, no one knows what lies at the bottom, who built it or why. There are numerous theories but little proof.
This is the story of Oak Island, Nova Scotia, one the most frustratingand intriguing mysteries of all time.
Join us as we explore what is known and what is theorized about thisenigma. Perhaps you will be able to find the one clue or come up with theright approach that will finally help crack this puzzle.
Timeline- 1795 - Daniel McGinnis finds The Money Pit. McGinnis, John Smith, and Anthony Vaughan dig to 30 feet temporarily give up.
- 1803 - Onslow Company along with the 3 original finders begin excavation. They get down to 90 feet put are flooded out.
- 1804 - Onslow Company digs parallel pit to 110 feet put this too floods when they attempt to tunnel over the Money Pit.
- 1849 - The Truro Company begins digging. They drill through 2 casks filled with "loose metal". Also recovered 3 gold chains links.
- 1850 - Subterranean waterway and artifical beach where found at Smith's Cove.
- 1861 - The bottom literally fell out as the items that had been at 100 feet feel farther down to hole thanks to weakening of the pit by several cross tunnels.
- 1861 - First life claimed by Oak Island. A man was scalded to death by an exploding boiler.
- 1893 - Fred Blair and The Oak Island Treasure Company begin their investigations. Cave-in pit investigated.
- 1897 - Second life lost when Maynard Kaiser fell to his death while being pulled out of the pit.
- 1897 - Cement valut encountered and parchment was found during drilling.
- 1897 - Triangle rock formation was discovered.
- 1899 - The 2nd flood tunnel, The South Shore Tunnel, was discovered.
- 1936 - 2nd inscribed stone found and more evidence of original cofferdam found.
- 1965 - In one day Oak Island claimed four more lives: Bob and Bobbie Restall, Karl Grasser, and Cyril Hiltz.
bersambung...
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The Discovery
One summer day in 1795 Daniel McGinnis, then a teenager, was wandering about Oak Island, Nova Scotia (see Geography) when he came across a curious circular depression in the ground. Standing over this depression was a tree whose branches had been cut in a way which looked like it had been used as a pulley. Having heard tales of pirates in the area he decided to return home to get friends and return later to investigate the hole.
Over the next several days McGinnis, along with friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughan, worked the hole. What they found astonished them. Two feet below the surface they came across of layer of flagstones covering the pit. At 10 feet down they ran into a layer of oak logs spanning the pit. Again at 20 feet and 30 feet they found the same thing, a layer of logs. Not being able to continue alone from here, they went home, but with plans of returning to search more.
It took the three discoverers 8 years, but they did return. Along with The Onslow Company, formed for the purpose of the search, they began digging again. They quickly got back to 30 foot point that had been reached 8 years ago. They continued down to 90 feet, finding a layer of oak logs at every 10 foot interval. Besides the boards, at 40 feet a layer of charcoal was found, at 50 feet a layer of putty, and at 60 feet a layer of coconut fiber.
At 90 feet one of the most puzzling clues was found - a stone inscribed with mysterious writing.
Note: For more information about the stone inscription and to try your hand at translating the stone's inscription go here.
After pulling up the layer of oak at 90 feet and continuing on, water began to seep into the pit. By the next day the pit was filled with water up to the 33 foot level. Pumping didn't work, so the next year a new pit was dug parallel to the original down to 100 feet. From there a tunnel was run over to The Money Pit. Again the water flooded in and the search was abandoned for 45 years.
The Booby Trap
As it turns out, an ingenious booby trap had been sprung. The Onslow Company had inadvertently unplugged a 500 foot waterway that had been dug from the pit to nearby Smith's Cove by the pit's designers. As quickly as the water could be pumped out it was refilled by the sea.
This discovery however is only a small part of the intricate plan by the unknown designers to keep people away from the cache.
In 1849 the next company to attempt to extract the treasure, The Truro Company, was founded and the search began again. They quickly dug down to 86 feet only to be flooded. Deciding to try to figure out what was buried before attempting to extract it, Truro switched to drilling core samples. The drilling produced some encouraging results.
First Hints of Treasure
At 98 feet the drill went through a spruce platform. Then it encountered 4 inches of oak and then 22 inches of what was characterized as "metal in pieces""; Next 8 inches of oak, another 22 inches of metal, 4 inches of oak and another layer of spruce. The conclusion was that they had drilled through 2 casks or chests filled will coins. Upon pulling out the drill they found splinters of oak and strands of what looked like coconut husk.
One account of the drilling also mentions that three small gold links, as from a chain, were brought up. Unfortunately no one knows where they have gone.
Interestingly, the earth encountered beneath the bottom spruce platform was loose indicating that the pit may have gone even deeper. A later group of searchers would find out how much deeper.
The Truro Company returned in 1850 with plans to dig another parallel hole and then tunnel over to the Money Pit. Just like before, as they tunneled over, water began to rush in. They brought in pumps to try to get rid of the water but it was impossible to keep the water out. During the pumping someone noticed that at Smith's Cove during low tide there was water coming OUT of the beach.
This find lead to an amazing discovery - the beach was artificial.
Artificial Beach
It turns out that the pit designers had created a drain system, spread over a 145 foot length of beach, which resembled the fingers of a hand. Each finger was a channel dug into the clay under the beach and lined by rocks. The channels were then filled with beach rocks, covered with several inches of eel grass, and then covered by several more inches of coconut fiber. The effect of this filtering system was that the channels remained clear of silt and sand while water was still allowed to flow along them. The fingers met at a point inland where they fed sea water into a sloping channel which eventually joined the Money Pit some 500 feet away. Later investigations showed this underground channel to have been 4 feet wide, 2 1/2 feet high, lined with stone, and meeting the Money Pit between the depths of 95 to 110 feet.
To the Truro Company, the answer was now simple - just block off the water flow from the beach and dig out the treasure. Their first attempt was to build a dam just off the beach at Smith's Cove, drain the water, and then dismantle the drain channels. Unfortunately a storm blew up and destroyed the dam before they could finish.
An interesting note: the remains of an older dam were found when building the new one.
The next plan was to dig a pit 100 feet or so inland in the hopes of meeting with the water channel underground at which point they could plug the channel. This scheme too failed. And this was the last attempt by the Truro company to uncover the secrets of Oak Island.
The Pit's Collapse
The next attempt at securing the treasure was made in 1861 by the Oak Island Association. First they cleared out the Money Pit down to 88 feet. Then they ran a new hole to the east of the pit hoping to intercept the channel from the sea. The new shaft was dug out to120 feet without hitting the channel and then abandoned.
A second shaft was run, this one to west, down to 118 feet. They then attempted to tunnel over to the Money Pit. Again the water started to enter this pit as well as the Money Pit. Bailing was attempted and appeared to work. And then
CRASH!
The bottom fell out. Water rushed into the shafts and the bottom of the Money Pit dropped over 15 feet. Everything in the Money Pit had fallen farther down the hole. The big questions were why and how far?
Over the next several years different companies tried to crack the mystery unsuccessfully. They dug more shafts, tried to fill in the drain on the beach, built a new dam (which was destroyed by a storm), and drilled for more core samples. They met with little success.
The Cave-in Pit
In 1893 a man named Fred Blair along with a group called The Oak Island Treasure Company began their search. Their first task was to investigate the "Cave-in Pit". Discovered in 1878 about 350 feet east of the Money Pit, the cave-in pit appears to have been a shaft dug out by the designers of the Money Pit perhaps as a ventilation shaft for the digging of the flood tunnel. It apparently intersected or closely passed the flood tunnel. While it was being cleared by the Treasure Company it started to flood at a depth of 55 feet and was abandoned.
Over the next several years The Oak Island Treasure Company would dig more shafts, pump more water, and still get nowhere. In 1897 they did manage to clear out the Money Pit down to 111 feet where they actually saw the entrance of the flood tunnel temporarily stopped up with rocks. However, the water worked its way through again and filled the pit.
The treasure company then decided that they would attempt to seal off the flow of water from Smith's Cove by dynamiting the flood tunnel. Five charges were set off in holes drilled near the flood tunnel. They didn't work. The water flowed into the Money Pit as rapidly as ever.
At the same time a new set of core samples were drilled at the pit itself. The results were surprising.
Cement Vault
At 126 feet, wood was struck and then iron. This material is probably part of the material that fell during the crash of the Pit. On other drillings the wood was encountered at 122 feet and the iron was missed completely indicating that the material may be laying in a haphazard way due to the fall.
Between 130 and 151 feet and also between 160 and 171 feet a blue clay was found which consisted of clay, sand, and water. This clay can be used to form a watertight seal and is probably the same "putty"; that was found at the 50 foot level of the Pit.
The major find was in the gap between the putty layers. A cement vault was discovered. The vault itself was 7 feet high with 7 inch thick walls. Inside the vault the drill first struck wood, then a void several inches high and an unknown substance. Next a layer of soft metal was reached, then almost 3 feet of metal pieces, and then more soft metal.
When the drill was brought back up another twist was added to the whole mystery. Attached to the auger was a small piece of sheepskin parchment with the letters "vi"; "ui"; or "wi"; What the parchment is a part of is still in question.
More convinced than ever that a great treasure was beneath the island, The Treasure Company began sinking more shafts in the attempts to get to the cement vault. They all met with failure due to flooding.
2nd Flood Tunnel
In May of 1899, yet another startling discovery was made. There was a second flood tunnel! This one was located in the South Shore Cove. The designers had been more ingenious and had done more work than previously thought. Though this find certainly strengthened the case that something valuable was buried below it didn't bring anyone closer to actually finding the treasure.
Blair and The Oak Island Treasure Company continued to sink new shafts and drill more core samples, but no progress was made and no new information obtained.
Between 1900 and 1936 several attempts were made to obtain the treasure. All met with no success.
Stone Fragment
In 1936 Gilbert Hadden, in conjunction with Fred Blair, began a new investigation of the island. Hadden cleared some of the earlier shafts near the Pit and made plans for exploratory drilling the next summer. However, he made two discoveries away from the Pit.
Fragment of Inscribed StoneThe first was a fragment of a stone bearing inscriptions similar to those found on the inscribed stone discovered at the 90 foot level of the Money Pit. The second discovery was of several old timbers in Smith's Cove. These timbers seem to have been from the original designers due to the fact that they were joined using wooden pins rather than metal. As will be seen later these timbers were only a small part of a much larger construction.
Mystery Deepens
The next treasure hunter was Erwin Hamilton. He began his search in 1938 by clearing out previous shafts and doing some exploratory drilling. In 1939 during drilling two more discoveries were made. The first was the finding of rocks and gravel at 190 feet. According to Hamilton they were foreign and therefore placed there by someone. The second finding came after clearing out an earlier shaft down to 176 feet. At this point a layer of limestone was encountered and drilled through. The drilling brought up oak splinters. Apparently there was wood BELOW the natural limestone.
Tragedy Strikes
In 1959 Bob Restall and his family began their attack on the island which ultimately proved tragic.
His one discovery was made on the Smith's Cove beach while attempting to stop the drain system. He found a rock with "1704" inscribed on it. Though others believed it was prank left by a previous search team, Restall believed it was from the time of the original construction.
In 1965 tragedy struck. While excavating a shaft Bob passed out and fell into the water at the bottom. His son, Bobbie, attempted to rescue him as did two of the workers. All four apparently were overcome by some sort of gas, perhaps carbon monoxide from a generator, passed out and drowned.
Heavy Machines
Bob Dunfield was the next to take on the island. In 1965 he attempted to solve the problem with heavy machinery - bulldozers and cranes. He attempted to block the inflow of water at Smith's Cove, and may have succeeded. Then on the south side of the island an trench was dug in the hope of intercepting the other water tunnel and blocking it off. The flood tunnel wasn't found, but an unknown refilled shaft was found, possible one dug by the designers of the Pit. The shaft apparently went down to 45 and stopped, its purpose is unknown.
Dunfield's other findings were based on drilling. It was determined that at 140 feet there was a 2 foot thick layer of limestone and then a forty foot void. At the bottom of the void was bedrock. This information matched with a drilling done back in 1955. There seemed to a large, natural underground cavern, something apparently common with limestone around the world.
Recent Discoveries
Daniel Blankenship, the current searcher, began his quest in 1965. In 1966 he dug out more of the original shaft found by Bob Dunfield in 1965. It turned out that the shaft did go beyond 45 feet. Blankenship found a hand-wrought nail and a washer at 60 feet. At 90 feet he met a layer of rocks in stagnant water. He assumed this was part of the south water tunnel but couldn't explore further because the shaft could not be stopped from caving in.
A pair of wrought-iron scissors were discovered in 1967 buried below the drains at Smith's Cove. It was determined that the scissors were Spanish-American, probably made in Mexico, and they were up to 300 years old. Also found was a heart shaped stone.
Smith's Cove revealed some more secrets in 1970 to Triton Alliance, a group formed by Blankenship to continue the search. While Triton was building a new cofferdam they discovered the remains of what appeared to be the original builders' cofferdam. The findings included several logs 2 feet thick and up to 65 feet long. They were marked every four feet with Roman numerals carved in them and some contained wooden pins or nails. The wood has been carbon dated to 250 years ago.
The western end of the island has also revealed several items. Two wooden structures, along with wrought-iron nails and metal straps were found at the western beach. Nine feet below the beach a pair of leather shoes were unearthed.
Borehole 10-X
The next major discoveries came in 1976 when Triton dug what is known as Borehole 10-X, a 237 foot tube of steel sunk 180 feet northeast of the Money Pit. During the digging several apparently artificial cavities were found down to 230 feet (see: drilling results).
A camera lowered down to a bedrock cavity at 230 feet returned some amazing images. At first a severed hand could be seen floating in the water. Later three chests (of the treasure type I would presume) and various tools could be made out. Finally a human body was detected.
After seeing the images, the decision was made to send divers down for a look. Several attempts were made but strong current and poor visibility made it impossible to see anything.
Soon after the hole itself collapsed and has not been reopened.
Today
Blankenship and Triton still continue the quest.
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Drilling Results
Below you'll find information about some of the major drillings that have occurred on the island.
Triton - 1967-1969
Determined that bedrock layer was at 162 +/- 10 feet
Between 172 and 224 feet found china, oak buds, cement, wood, and metal
Found tunnels that were cut through bedrock - under 40 feet of bedrock
Found 40 feet rock, inches of wood, layer of blue clay, inches of wood and 6-7 foot void
Carbon date of wood - 1575 +/- 80 years
Depression from 172 to 222 feet (beneath Hadden shaft) - 30 foot in diameter filled with layers of blue clay with small stone spaced at 18 inches!!!
186 feet metal and brought up piece of brass (high impurities)
212 feet brick-like material found - it had been fired
Cement found - worked by man
210 feet hard metal hit
Borehole X-10
140 feet found a 4 foot cavity
160 feet found a 4 foot cavity
Bedrock at 180 feet
210 feet hit a 2 foot cavity
230-237 feet a cavity
Handfuls of metal found at 165 feet - low-carbon steel - prior to 1800
Spruce found at 155 feet
155 feet eight pieces of steel chain - Swedish steel made prior to 1790
Wood at 180 feet
Metal in several places above and below bedrock
660 feet north-northeast of the Money Pit - 1973 - p220
110 feet a 2 inch piece of wire - dated to 1500s to 1800s
A solid metal plate
There are future plans to excavate
Artifacts Found
Below you'll find a listing of the artifacts found, or allegedly found, on the island. Many of the artifacts have been lost and are known only through writings left by early searchers or writers.
Copper coin, bosun's whistle, and iron ring bolt imbedded in a rock at Smith's Cover - 1795-1802
Inscribed stone
Gold links - 1849
Remains of the old cofferdam
Wood and end of a keg pulled out when the Pit collapsed
Blue clay
Parchment
Anchor fluke of ancient design - 1931 - since disappeared
Dump with thousands of broken pottery flasks
Rock with "1704" inscribed on it.
Nail, washer
Scissors, heart stone
Original cofferdam - logs 2 feet thick up to 65 feet long with Roman numerals marked on them.
Nails and metal-straps
Leather shoes
3 drilled rocks and ask piles analyzed to be burned bones!!!!!
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Edited by ninja boy at 7-3-2015 10:33 PM
Below you'll find brief summaries of many of the theories about who built the Money Pit and why. We'll delve into the details and possibilities in the first several issues of Enigma.
Theories - Who constructed the puzzle on Oak Island?
Captain William Kidd - the notorious privateer. Legends abound about secret caches of treasure buried by Kidd and his crew. Periodically maps have popped up alleged to be Kidd's showing the location of his treasures. There are many tales of old men on their death beds claiming to have been part of Kidd's crews and having knowledge of hidden wealth. Some of these stories point toward Oak Island.
Francis Bacon - there is a raging debate regarding the possibility that Shakespeare's play were not written by him. Some claim that Shakespeare was not educated enough to write his plays and they must have been written by someone else. Some people believe this someone else is Francis Bacon. Since no original manuscripts of Shakespeare have ever been found, the theory goes that Bacon has buried them somewhere to be found some time at some time in the future. This is a fascinating subject by itself that we'll explore under its own topic in the future.
The French - some theorize that the French may have buried money on the island as a safeguard against loss during the many battles with the English over the colonization of the Americas.
The Vikings - there is some record of Viking visitation to the Americas. Though no one knows what would have been so important to hide that such a complicated hiding place was needed, they have been offered as possible builders.
Bands of pirates - Oak Island acted as a communal bank for pirates. Each group would dig tunnels off the Money Pit shaft and bury their treasure. To retrieve it they could dig down through untouched dirt to get their cache.
Stranded Spanish Galleon - it's possible that a Spanish Galleon returning with gold and jewels from Central or South America could have been forced off course. Badly damaged, then stopped at Oak Island, hid the treasure while repairing the ship, and limped home with plans to return later with a more sea-worthy ship to retrieve their cargo.
British during American revolution - similar to the French theory. The idea is that the British hid money on the island to prevent it from falling into the hands of the revolutionaries.
Inca or Maya treasure - during the conquering of the Americas by the Europeans in the 17th and 18th centuries, much of the wealth of the Incas and Mayas disappeared. Usually rumored to have been buried or sunken at the bottom of lakes, some researchers believe that it's possible that a group of Incas or Mayas, possible with the help of sympathetic Europeans, stole away with the wealth and buried on Oak Island out of the reach of the conquerors.
Knights Templar treasureIt has been asserted that the pit may have been dug by exiled Knights Templar and that it is the last resting place of the Holy Grail or even the holy Ark of the Covenant. There also may be a Templar tomb on the island. There is a legend that seven must die before the legend is uncovered. [34]
FreemasonryMark Finnan in his book Oak Island Secrets[35] noted that many Masonic markings were found on Oak Island and pointed out that the shaft or pit and its mysterious contents seemed to replicate aspects of a Masonic initiation rite involving a hidden vault containing a sacred treasure. Joe Nickell identifies parallels between the accounts of Oak Island and the allegory of the "Secret Vault" in York Rite Freemasonry, similar to the Chase Vault, identifies many prominent excavators as Freemasons, and suggests that the accounts explicitly include Masonic imagery.[2] The most thorough and comprehensive treatment to date of the masonic aspects of the Oak Island Legend is given by Freemason Dennis King in his article "The Oak Island Legend: The Masonic Angle".[36]
Marie Antoinette's jewelsThere is a story that, like most others regarding the island, lacks adequate archival sources, or any quoted sources at all, which places the priceless jewels of Marie Antoinette (which are historically missing, save for some specimens in the collections of museums worldwide) on Oak Island. During the French Revolution, when the Palace of Versailles was stormed by revolutionaries in 1789, Marie Antoinette instructed her maid or a lady-in-waiting to take her prized possessions and flee. Supposedly, this maid fled to London with such royal items as Antoinette's jewels and perhaps other treasures, such as important artwork or documents, secreted away either on her person (one variation suggests sewn into her underskirts in the case of the jewels, though fails to mention artwork) or as her luggage; it is even said she was perhaps assisted by the remaining officers of the French navy during the uprising at the queen's behest.[26][27][28]
The story then goes on to say that this woman fled further afield from London to Nova Scotia.[29] Through the royal connections she would have had during her service to the queen at Versailles, she managed to contract the French navy to help construct the famed 'pit' on the island. This theory (as noted) lacks recognized documentation other than that which is folkloric in nature, involves the French navy, which (during the Revolution) had an uncertain level of authority, and would place the construction of the Oak Island structure very close to its initial discovery by Daniel McGinnis in 1795. Whether such a complex engineering effort could have been completed in that small space of time is questionable, though no official date of its construction exists.
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lain picca
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cerita ni dah di tayangkan di history channel, dah s2... haku follow...
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dah abis season 2...tunggu season 3 pulak...ntah apa diorg akan jumpa dlm tunnel tu..last 3D scan mcm ade kotak n chamber with pillar.. |
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suka2 rancangan nih
tiap episod, debar je rasa |
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Post time 7-3-2015 09:12 PM
变色卡
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