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Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I'm as hyped as I can be. Maybe even more hyped than a late mid-aged guy that just found a weird looking rock in some Canadian mud.

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Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I know it isn't, but when you see the swamp all flooded out like that, the shoreline does look engineered.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


LaptopGun posted:

Some of Gary Drayton’s metal-detecting exploits tread dangerously into filler territory. The British army camp investigation was interesting but do we really think Oak Island was some military project? That also touches on an idea others have pointed out: was whatever hidden treasure already been found? We met those 3 sisters who claimed family stories said their ancestor (1 of the group who first stumbled on the money pit) already found all the treasure. That freed slave and British army veteran who bought a bunch of plots of land and local accounts said mysteriously earned way more money than seemed possible at the time. That would be an anticlimactic ending for the Oak Island answer to be it’s already gone.

This comes up so much and it drives me crazy. They keep talking to people that either imply or outright state someone got there first, but no one actually says "poo poo, what if there's nothing to find because of what we just heard?"

If you make the assumption that there was a hole in the first place and there was money inside the hole and that it was recently constructed in the 1780-1790 window, then it almost has to be somehow tied to the Royal Navy or British Army. There weren't a whole lot of people hanging around North America with the combination of technical skill, manpower, or hypothetical motivation to undertake such a project other than those two bodies (and their American equivalents (and why would they bury something in British Canada?)).

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I got someone to watch exactly five episodes of the show and without prompting or explaining anything, I asked her what she thought. Verbatim answer: so those McGinnis guys and the slave already found the treasure, right?

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


The bones came from two different people so clearly it is Hitler and Eva Braun.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I'm waiting for one of them to have a vision in a dream, which is then recreated with the cast of Knightfall, for perfect synergistic cross-promotion

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I want there to be something just because I want just one crazy theory in the world to have turned out to be right.

After watching the preview for next week, I'm doubling down on the idea that "a large military force buried their payroll in a hole and that former slave found it."

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I'm going to preface this by saying that I don't think there's even actually a pit. They've been digging up a sinkhole. But, here's how theories work, especially because my personal favorite was actually covered in the last episode:

The Duc d'Anville expedition really was the largest naval force to sail from Europe to North America before the American Revolution. This was a not-kidding-around scale invasion force that terrified everyone in British North America. They had orders to retake Nova Scotia, level Boston, and raid as far south as the West Indies, and they were equipped to do so. They had 11,000 men in the fleet and 64 ships. Importantly, a mixed force fleet like this, at the time, would have carried enormous amounts of cash. You had to pay your own men, of course, but you also needed money for various purposes along the way. For instance, during the march to Yorktown, Washington's army refused to leave Maryland until they were paid one month's pay and they didn't want Washington's worthless paper money. General Rochambeau lent Washington half of his gold coins. Rochambeau's army was walking around the East Coast with so many piles of gold coins that they could finance two armies.

So, d'Anville's fleet's crossing is an abject disaster. They're months behind schedule and losing men faster than battlefield losses would do and they're not even in Canada yet. By the time they even get to Chebucto Bay, they're already down close to ten percent of their manpower. Reinforcements are brought in from Quebec and the local population, but its not enough and losses to disease are mounting. They haven't even started military operations. d'Anville eventually has a stroke and dies himself. Eventually, between deaths to disease and men sick enough to be out of action, only 60% of the manpower is available and they've lost a third of their ships. Everything is beyond failure. This is all real, verifiable, actual events that really happened.

Now, in this context, the idea is that the captains are sitting around being like "we are completely hosed." They're still going to mount whatever operations they can (one will go so badly in the PLANNING PHASE that the commander tries to kill himself), but they have way more money than they ever need and are rapidly losing the ability to defend or just plain not lose it to the bottom of Chebucto Bay. Sending it back to France is untenable: you could lose it in the crossing and sending it back before the rest of the fleet returns means you are sending word that you have failed. So, logically, you've got to hide it somewhere on land. Pick out somewhere quiet in the area you're operating in (in case you need to get it back soon), dig a hole, put the money down there, and swear the officers to secrecy. You don't have to worry too much about the enlisted men, because they're probably not making it home anyhow.

Within a month, the entire invasion is called off and everyone sails for home. It is not outside the realm of possibility that everyone involved in burying the fleet's treasury is now dead or just lost track of where, exactly, they buried it. Besides, you can't go back for it anyhow. Your failure was so massive that you can't attempt a retrieval in hostile territory. Your attempts to safeguard it means you lost it. Good work.

Over time, like sunglasses left on a bus bench, no one knows where it went.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


VictorianQueerLit posted:

I'll admit it is a bit suspicious that they can go on the beach that has been searched for decades and find that super old cross in like an inch of dirt. They explained it away though by saying that storms are bringing new items onto the beach and I'm not knowledgeable enough to disagree with that I guess.

I do know that the best time to go fossil hunt is after flash floods go through an area, so it makes sense that rough weather could rework something.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


Elephanthead posted:

Why would there be confederate gold in the great lakes? This doesn't make any sense at all. The confederacy was broke as poo poo all the time.

Broke as far as governments go, but still a considerable amount to individuals. There are documented chunks of the treasury that have gone unaccounted for. Plenty got made off with by various CSA personnel that had been carrying it or the Union troops that came across it. But I'm not sure any of the documented thefts and losses ever passed a few hundred thousand in back then dollars.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


For instance, there was about $450k in gold and silver evacuated alongside the CSA treasury from Richmond area banks. The treasury itself has been largely accounted for (even as chunks were stolen along the way), but the bank holdings disappeared from the historic record in Washington GA, about a 150 north of Jefferson Davis capture location. The treasury is smeared over that 150 miles as payouts to soldiers, commanders, and various people that were supposed to hide it. Including a detachment of Ohioan cavalry that infiltrated Davis' entourage. But those bank holdings have never turned up, and that trail is impossible to follow.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


The Michigan guys trying to dig up a locomotive was so amateur hour that it makes Oak Island look as refined and practiced as an Apollo moon landing.

Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


I did feel bad for the dude breaking his hip or whatever it turns out to be when he was diving into the lake.

Also, finding the box full of keys was hilarious.

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Sash!
Mar 16, 2001


Clearly, they stole the Confederate gold from the other guys and used it to finance the Oak Island operation.

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