MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / REALITY TV

'The Curse of Oak Island' fans grossed out after Rick Lagina drinks 'salty' water from flood tunnel in Garden Shaft

'The Curse of Oak Island' fans troll Rick Lagina after seeing the archaeologist drink water from a flood tunnel

NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA: The crew from 'The Curse of Oak Island' have finally achieved their goal depth in the Garden Shaft, but there's a huge snag: they've found a possible flood tunnel.

This week's episode of Oak Island, 'Wet and Wild', delved into the challenges at the bottom of the Garden Shaft, leaving viewers yearning for the treasure once more.

Rick Lagina and Scott Barlow arrived at the Money Pit to supervise a new probe drilling operation at the foot of the Garden Shaft, which might help solve a 229-year-old treasure mystery.

Three weeks ago, after expanding the 18th-century Garden Shaft to an approximate depth of 100 feet, the crew was ecstatic to discover a likely 17th-century wood tunnel.

A tunnel that a previous cone-drilling operation traced westward into the so-called Baby Blob, where water testing revealed significant levels of gold and silver between 80 and 120 feet below the earth.

However, the crew was somewhat astonished to learn that the stretch of the tunnel they discovered between the Garden Shaft had been largely removed some time ago.

Now that the Garden Shaft has been extended to a total depth of 106 feet, Dumas Contracting Limited representatives will conduct a probe-drilling operation over the next few days to look for sections of the tunnel that may still be intact and pinpoint the location of the possible treasure.

The probe-drilling activity in the Money Pit region extended into the Garden Shaft, which is more than 100 feet deep.

Water began to rush into the structure when Dumas Contracting Limited officials were executing a horizontal probe-drilling operation to examine the probable treasure tube beneath the Garden Shaft, which is more than 100 feet deep.

Rick suspected that when digging into a tunnel that connects to a region where the crew has discovered significant levels of valuable metals deep down, they may have burst one of the famous flood tunnels that have defied treasure hunters for over two centuries.

Viewers swiftly took to social media to react to Rick's testing.

One user cringed on X, "WHY DID HE DRINK THAT ! GROSS !" Another user quipped, "Taste like flood tunnel." 

Trolling Rick for tasting the water from the flood tunnel, one wrote, "There he goes again, drinking nasty things." One joked, "Don’t drink that sh*t Rick! Or drink it, we need a 7th victim."

One gasped, "Rick just drank that without hesitation!" Others asked, "WTF Rick??"

'The Curse of Oak Island' team studies artifacts of French origin from the 17th century

In the Oak Island laboratory, Jack Begley met with archaeologist Laird Niven and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan, as well as blacksmithing specialist Carmen Legge. Carmen analyzed the suspected metal instrument and iron spike discovered just one week ago beside the odd wooden building.

Carmen concluded that an iron backing bolt discovered alongside the mystery timber construction and the stone path in the marsh may be of French origin and date back to the 17th century. 

'The Curse of Oak Island' team finds blue clay in Lot 5

Jack later joined archaeologists Helen Sheldon, Moya MacDonald, Jamie Kouba, and Fiona Steele as they continued to investigate a massive stone foundation. Jack then helped the archaeology crew by sorting through the items retrieved from the structure to hunt for further clues and potential riches.

The crew discovered blue clay in Lot 5's stone foundation. In 1804, when digging the original Money Pit, members of the Onslow Company uncovered a packed layer of blue clay at a depth of 40 feet, which they believed served as a sealant to prevent the famous flood tunnel from flowing seawater into the treasure shaft.

They felt the blue clay may be a further indication that the building in Lot 5 had a direct relationship to the Money Pit.

John Edwards helped 'The Curse of Oak Island' team find X to dig and hunt for the Ark of the Covenant

Rick and Marty Lagina, along with the rest of the crew, gathered in the war room with researcher John Edwards. Since John's first presentation, Rick, Marty, and Craig have enabled him to collaborate with surveyor Steve Guptill to study Nolan's Cross and the presumed sites of the other Tree of Life symbols, known as sefirot.

John had already presented them with his hypothesis that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden on the island. John has spent many years researching old symbols and emblems, and he has recently focused on understanding a masonic code discovered in two volumes from the 18th and 19th centuries.

John thought that these two manuscripts, which mention Daniel Dyson and John Easson, two of the first freemasons in Nova Scotia, included references to Oak Island and the Ark of the Covenant.

One of the volumes has a doodle of what John thinks to be the Ark, while another page appears to have a hand-drawn map of Oak Island, complete with lots marked out.

The scholar also stated that Nolan's Cross is most likely simply one component of the Tree of Life, a Jewish and Christian emblem found in Genesis and other Bible texts. According to the scholar, a monument of this size would have been created just to mark the site of a significant relic, such as the Ark of the Covenant. 

John requested permission to examine Nolan's Cross to determine whether his idea was true, and he promised to locate the men an X to dig. He placed Nolan's Cross on the Tree of Life sign and stated that he was looking for boulders or other markers to show that the Cross was part of the more complicated later figure.

Marty and Tom Nolan encouraged him to go for it. The crew received their green signal in the latest episode.

'The Curse of Oak Island' Season 11 airs on Tuesdays on History at 9 pm ET.