**ICE**

[GravelTeeth]

Just thought of something.

This pipe is running uphill parallel to and looks like within the property lines of lot 18. We know John Smith bought this lot in 1795 and.built a house on the island in 1824? presumably on his own property. So if this line existed in 1824 and Truro found the finger drains in 1850....

If it was exclusively grey water, such an outflow might work. With the filter system in place, however, any ... uh ... solids would just build up at the exit point until nothing could flow through anymore.

Also, presumably Anthony Vaughan (Jr.) would have had some knowledge of his homie's construction of such an elaborate sewerage, and he was still alive (according to my quick perusal of sources) in 1850 to have consulted on the matter. He was a member of Truro, even.

I like where your head is at, though. Keep thinking outside the box (drains).

--GT

 

[GravelTeeth]

Let's suppose it is a man-made chamber with treasure and Rick and Marty drop a can right on top of it all the way to bedrock to hold the water back.

Is there a way to get down there and preserve the treasure or do you think they'll just hammer grab it to the surface?

Unfortunately, the so-called "solution channel" is below bedrock already, and grows as the water erodes away the anhydrite. It's an open question how deep they'd have to sink the lined shaft before they got to "solid" with no further fissures or caverns undermining it. Significantly further than what they've done before, though. I think I read where the anhydrite eventually gives way to a different type of bedrock (something more impervious to water) at some depth.

--GT

 

[gjb]

With respect to the claimed or supposed flood tunnel, why is it considered necessary to state that it definitely didn’t exist and thus to declare that all secondary and primary sources reporting its existence must therefore be fake?

Reginald V. Harris, in his book The Oak Island Mystery reports on extracts from contemporary correspondence and operational journals observing that a water-bearing tunnel leading into or out of the Money Pit was encountered on two occasions.

The first was in 1866-67 when it was found at 108 feet and described as being 2.5 feet by 4 feet, clearly man-made and with a downgrade of 22.5 degrees. (See Harris 1958, 76)

The second occasion was as reported in an earlier message, at 111 feet with the same dimensions, clean-cut with sand and beach stones on the floor, again clearly man-made. We are even given the date, June 9th, 1897. (See Harris, 1958, 91)

It is reported that sea water poured out of the tunnel with great force. This would not be surprising if it was angled upwards. However, the question yet remains, was it a flood tunnel or had sea water leaked into a tunnel that was intended to remain dry?

We should bear in mind that just because there was water in the Money Pit when it was opened doesn't mean there was necessarily water present when the originator left the island. We don’t know, but assuredly those believing that there was a treasure in the Money Pit would have to declare that the tunnel just had to be water bearing. A dry Money Pit would be something not to be contemplated, but nevertheless it may have been. Again, we don't know.

However, I feel it’s about time that reports of the presence of the tunnel are acknowledged to exist and to be potentially true. Nevertheless, it should be wondered why the tunnel was angled upwards at 22.5 degrees which would mean that it would reach sea level well before it reached the shore.

Harris reports that a water bearing tunnel was found at sea level. So, could the assumed flood tunnel have been an offset gallery leading to another tunnel or dry (treasure?) chamber above sea level, thus not being a flood tunnel at all? Maybe the water got into the Pit some other way.

Edit: 22.5 degrees could have represented a 5,12,13 triangle meaning the tunnellers could easily determine where they were underground (every 13 feet on the floor representing 5 feet vertically and 12 feet horizontally).

 

[Armchair detective]

Never heard or read which direction the tunnel went from the MP shaft - does anybody have any info?

 

[Armchair detective]

Also, the bit about the flagstones lining the tunnel...

If water was coming into the MP shaft at a slow rate, these stones would be necessary to prevent the water from eroding the shaft wall. This further suggests that the inflow was slow enough to allow figuring out what to do, getting the stones and placing them.

 

[GravelTeeth]

The first was in 1866-67 when it was found at 108 feet and described as being 2.5 feet by 4 feet, clearly man-made and with a downgrade of 22.5 degrees. (See Harris 1958, 76)

I haven't read the Harris work yet, so forgive if this is covered there ... it seems odd that the dimensions of the 108 intercept and the 111 intercept are spot on the same. One wonders if perhaps this was not the same tunnel they are describing at two points in time, one with the benefit of better measuring? Or had the topside opening of the Money Pit gained some top soil as they built up a staging area, to make the later measurement deeper?

OR, if the 111 was in the east wall of the shaft, and the 108 in the south, maybe they were tunnels to two different coasts.

Nevertheless, it should be wondered why the tunnel was angled upwards at 22.5 degrees which would mean that it would reach sea level well before it reached the shore.

My napkin math from earlier said ~79 from the tunnel intercept up to sea level (or 76 from the 108 level), so a right triangle with smallest angle 22.5 degrees and height no longer than 79 feet would make a base of ~190.7 feet (with help from my good friend Perplexity). So if the tunnel kept its grade the same for its full length, you'd have a source nearly 200 feet away (presumably east) from the MP. The Smith's Cove coast is approximately 520 feet away, and let's call the merge point of the finger drains ~500 for simplicity. So you'd need at least one and maybe two inland cisterns (shafts or what have you) to make this a flood tunnel "system" fed by the finger drains.

And as long as we are spitballing, as elaborate and unlikely as it may be, perhaps the system was set up as a timed inundation. If the inland cisterns had to first fill to sea level before their egress tunnels were overtopped and triggered to fill the next one, you could have a staged, somewhat predictable timeline, all reliant on the tides, to finish the deposit at MP and get out of Dodge. Or there could have been a window of time where the depositors could come back to a dry cache spot and retrieve, but if they were delayed longer than planned, the "trap" would flood the complex and make retrieving much more difficult.

--GT

 

[Armchair detective]

For a point of reference...

If you look at a photo of OI, follow the southern shore line until you see a circular pool on the shoreline. Follow the road up the hill, near the top and to the left is the MP. Presumably it intersects with the surveyed lot 18.

From a google satellite photo saw a cassion in the middle of "tv town", which would be the starting point to see where a tunnel would lead you.

Scale is tough to figure. Good luck.

 

[gjb]

Never heard or read which direction the tunnel went from the MP shaft - does anybody have any info?

Naturally, people first concluded that the tunnel bore ENE from the Money Pit in order to connect with the water catchment at Smith's Cove. Rupert Furneaux, writing in 1972, judged the bearing to be about 14 degrees north of due east. My own assessment is 13 degrees.

After finding the tunnel in 1866-7, the operators concluded that there might have been a shut-off gate somewhere between the Money Pit and Smith's Cove. Why would they have thought this if the tunnel they'd just found had been dug in any other direction?

Similarly in 1897, after finding the tunnel they decided they'd be unable to stop the flow at the Money Pit so they chose to try to block it near the shore at Smith's Cove. Why would they do this unless the tunnel they'd just found actually ran in that direction?

It was also widely thought that the Cave-In Pit was positioned over the flood tunnel, in which case the bearing of the tunnel would indeed have been some 14 degrees north of due east.

Incidentally, the operators of 1866-7 believed that there might be a second 'flood' tunnel further down the Pit. It's not reported why they thought this, but might it have been that they were puzzled by the slope of the tunnel and exactly where it was going? How could it have been a flood tunnel at that angle (apart from the timed flooding suggested earlier)?

Later excavations did come across a possible water source lower down (I think at 180 feet, but don't quote me!) that seemed to be running to the South Shore. The dye tests seemed to confirm this (and maybe the ice holes).