Oak Island Family

by Lee Lamb

  Dad and Bobby knew where Oak Island Treasure Company’s drill had been placed when it made that discovery and they knew how long the drill rod had been. It was now their intention to drill out from the bottom of the Money Pit at all levels and angles that possibly could have been covered by that earlier, flexible drill. They were confident that this would bring them to the cement treasure vault. In the midst of this, Karl Graeser paid another visit to the island. He stayed for more than a week and worked alongside the men as they devised a cooling system. Graeser also put in some money, but more importantly he promised to cover the $400 a month needed for general expenses (to cover food, naphtha, propane, etc.) until the end of December. What a relief! Money for big purchases or machine-shop work still had to be found, but between Tobias and Graeser, costs for nonstop work in the Money Pit were now covered until December 31, 1963.

  Dad and Bobby continued drilling at all levels and angles, and recorded all that they encountered. But one result was totally unexpected: while drilling down in the Money Pit, the drill entered a void (air space); then, a little farther down, it went through solid clay, then through another void and again more clay. Years earlier, William Chappell had found the same thing, but at different levels. Dad and Bobby at once realized that this must be a spiral tunnel. Chappell must have drilled down one side of the tunnel, and they had drilled down the other. The voids encountered created a pathway that spiralled down. At the bottom, and exactly due north, they found that the void widened into what they thought must be the walk-in tunnel. Before this discovery, Dad and Bobby did not believe that a walk-in tunnel existed. This evidence changed their minds. Dad made a sketch of how the spiral tunnel would look (see Figure 10, page 98).

  Late in July, the men noticed that the cribbing in Hedden’s Shaft had shifted drastically, and they were forced to stop drilling. A week’s worth of precious diesel fuel was wasted keeping the pump running while they repaired and replaced the cribbing. They were able to resume drilling after the repairs were made, but on September 17, the pump shaft broke, this time very deep down (110 feet).

  Figure 10: A spiral tunnel leads off from the bottom of the Money Pit.

  As Dad and Bobby removed the pump from the shaft, John Max, a soon-to-be-famous Canadian photographer, came to the island to take some pictures for a magazine article. He captured well the spartan existence, the grim determination, and the frustrations of the Restall search for treasure.

  Though Dad and Bobby had a few spare parts stored on the island, many that they needed to repair the pump (for example, bearings) had to be custom-made at Hawbolts Machine Shop in Chester. Still others had to be bought in Hamilton by Fred Sparham and shipped to the island.

  It was November 6 before the pump was finally ready, but it worked for less than 24 hours before seizing up and having to be taken apart again — apparently the new parts had fit too tightly.

  Around that time, Dad wrote to Fred Sparham, telling him about his plans to continue the drilling and tunnelling. He had been unsuccessful in locating the cement vault, but he was sure that he could at last pinpoint the location of the Truro Company’s Shaft #6 (the shaft where the wooded casks and boxes of treasure had spilled). In that letter, Dad enclosed photographs of hand-hewn timber (wood that was cut with an axe) made of spruce cut through by drill holes. He was sure that these pieces were from above and below the treasure of casks and boxes that had been discovered by the Truro Company in 1849 (at the time of the jewel on the auger). Dad and Bobby had come across these pieces of timber near Professor Hamilton’s tunnel.

  By the time Hurricane Ginny hit the east coast that year, the family had nailed lumber over the windows and taken other precautions, so they were spared

  Dissembling the pump. Photo by John Max.

  Evening in the Restall shack: Mildred, Rick, and Bobby. Photo by John Max.

  severe damage. The same could not be said for the wharf — every stick of wood was carried away and all that remained was a pile of stones leading out into the sea. Rebuilding would have to wait.

  By the end of November, the pump was together again and they could hardly wait to resume drilling. This time they would start from the floor of Professor Hamilton’s tunnel.

  But the diesel generator was still overheating, and despite repeated visits by the mechanics, they couldn’t get it to run the pump smoothly and continuously. It was clear that the electrical panel was contributing to this problem, but several visits from the electrical engineers failed to correct anything. There were more wires than there were places to attach them, but the engineers seemed unable to explain or fix the problem.

  By then the cold weather was fast approaching, and it was time to winterize again. Cedar boughs were wrapped around the shacks and banked around the top of the Money Pit to prevent freezing. Bobby made a note in his journal that

  A piece of hand-hewn timber that had been part of the spruce platform under the casks and boxes of treasure in the Money Pit. A drill hole, probably made by the Truro Company, can be seen at the top end. It would have weakened the platform, which might have been the reason the treasure spilled into the tunnel and deep into the Money Pit in 1849.

  Chappell seemed serious about letting the man from Oklahoma have a try at the treasure. It was a depressing time: the weather was against them, the machinery kept breaking down, and little progress was being made.

  Bobby’s journal entry from December 19, 1963, reveals the hardship of working through the winter: “Snow storm and wind 8 [inches] deep. Got six barrels on truck and part way up hill and engine broke down. Won’t turn over. Valve covers off and looks okay. Could be broken valve jamming piston. Got two barrels up via car and toboggan. Drained diesel to get messes straightened before we try again. Pipes freeze fairly fast.”

  Still they pressed on.

  Dad and Bobby had been able to drill out from the base of Hedden’s Shaft, but drilling from tunnels, or digging new ones, could not be done safely by Dad and Bobby alone. One man was needed on top, and one man cannot work alone underground. For safety reasons, and for speed, they needed a work crew. Snowstorms and bitter cold interfered with their first attempts to bring men from the mainland, but on December 28 they were successful.

  The group moved fuel drums up to the clearing, built frames for the tunnel, and started their work down in the pits. New Years Day came and went, and because they had plenty of fuel on the island, work in the shafts and tunnels continued.

  Bobby beside the new air ducts in the Money Pit tunnels.

  The work crew arrives at the surface after a hard day underground.

  My mother wrote the following about those early days in 1964:

  Winter was on us and it was too cold to leave the diesel shut off for five hours and expect it to start up without a lot of trouble, so we had to enclose it.

  The men built a room around the diesel and put a small space-heater inside to be lit when the diesel was shut off….

  While the others were working down the pit, it was Bobby’s job to do the running around. Check this, check that. Keep an eye on the diesel. Take the empty barrels to Chester by Boat. Order supplies, bring back supplies. And if anything was needed down the pit, he loaded it on the hoist and sent it down. Signals were arranged so that he knew what was wanted….

  Now that the ice was good and solid at the end of the island, the men could get to work without any trouble. But getting oil and supplies from Chester was another matter. Everything depended upon the weather. It was the deciding factor in getting the empty barrels to Chester to be filled with oil, and for the boatman being able to bring them back to the island.

  It wasn’t possible to carry full barrels in our small boat, so Bob arranged for a friend who had a 30-foot fishing boat to transport all oil and gas from Chester to the island. In order to carry as many barrels as possible, Gerald, our boatman, had put a deck on his boat and 12 to 14 barrels were loaded on top.

  When they got to the island, a line was thrown to our shore and the
barrels were tied on, then thrown overboard to be pulled in by our men. This was the only way we could get the fuel landed now that we no longer had a dock…. Several times the weather delayed delivery, and we needed a boat load at least every six days. We kept 500 gallons in reserve just in case and there were times when we dipped well into this reserve because of bad weather preventing delivery….

  The men had been working down the pit for about 10 days when we had our first spot of real trouble. It was after lunch and everyone was getting into rubber suits ready to go below. Bob made the rounds as usual, checking the diesel and everything, including the motor room where the big generator was connected to the pump. As he opened the door, a cloud of smoke poured out and a grinding racket could be heard all over the clearing. A bearing had seized up. That meant the pump had to be stopped and taken apart. Unfortunately, all the tools were down the pit, and on top of that, the tunnel they were working on had to be boarded up. It was a new tunnel and was across the pit from the hoist. To board up the end of the tunnel would take quite some time, but it had to be done, otherwise the whole end would collapse as soon as the pit filled up and the water started to wash soil in.

  None of the men fancied going down without the pump operating, with water pouring in at 450 gallons a minute. But they went. The trouble was lights. If the diesel wasn’t running there wouldn’t be any lights so it was up to Bobby to keep it going without letting it overheat.

  The cooling system for the diesel depended upon the water from the pit being pumped around the cooler. No pump, no water. Without the cold inflow the diesel got warmer and warmer. Bobby had cut down the revs as much as he dared but still it was getting too warm. He started to shovel snow in the cooling barrel. Then he called for his brother to help. They were barely holding their own, for Bobby had to keep running into the engine room to check the gauges. They used all the snow nearby and were having to go farther afield. Next, I was outside, shovelling like mad, heaping the snow inside the fence where it was in easy reach of the boys.

  Finally, the long-awaited signal came. Up came the hoist, up came the men … looking very pleased with themselves. It had taken forty minutes to block the end of the tunnel and load the tools. By that time the water was washing over the cat-walk they were standing on.

  Further Reading

  More of my mother’s stories about the family’s time on the island can be found in Oak Island Obsession: The Restall Story.

  A week or so later, they were forced to deal with another emergency down in the pits. Fuel ran out while the men were working and the pump stopped with a shudder. The horn sounded, alerting Bobby and Mom. Down in the pits it was pitch black. The men were calling for lights. Carefully, rung by rung, Bobby climbed down the long, slippery, ice-covered ladder to bring a flashlight to the men in the tunnels below.

  The crew managed to pack up and get out of the pit before the water caught up with them. But what about the backup lights — those new, battery-run, super-bright emergency spotlights? Well, one of the men had plans for the evening, so he had begun packing up early. First to be loaded on the hoist at the bottom of the heap — the emergency lights!

  Underground work continued until the end of January. During that time they got a fair distance in their freshly dug tunnel and probed out from it, but found the work too dangerous to continue. A couple of months earlier, in the middle of the night, they had been awakened by a loud boom. The next morning they could see the earth around the cherry tree had collapsed, leaving a large crater. The tunnel underneath the cherry tree, where fresh water had been detected, had collapsed.

  Now there were more signs of deterioration underground. They would need to put in a lot of time shoring up the tunnels if they wanted them to be safe. All underground work was stopped.

  Then an important letter arrived from David Tobias. He wrote that, as Dad knew, he had gone far beyond what he had promised to invest, but now it was time to call a halt; he did not wish to invest farther.

  The news was disappointing, but no one could question that David Tobias had done his share. He made no further investments of money, but he stayed actively involved behind the scenes.

  As long as they were on the island, Mom, Ricky, and Carney continued their explorations.

  In March, Dad wrote to Sparham to advise him that Mr. Chappell had decided to sell the island. If the Oklahoma man wanted to dragline the island, he’d have to buy it first. Chappell had set a price in dollars plus percentage of any treasure recovered, but he had changed the figures several times. It was hard to tell if he really meant to sell. Regardless, Dad headed for Hamilton, hoping to raise money to buy the island himself, but the response was not encouraging.

  It was May before Dad had a new contract — it had been extended until the end of 1964. A few investments came in, but not the kind of money that would keep the hungry pump fed. Dad and Bobby returned to work at the beach.

  Their careful drilling in the Money Pit in search of the vault was complete, but had failed to locate the treasure. It had yielded clear signs of where they should concentrate their next efforts, but repairs to the tunnels were essential before underground work could resume.

  In July they finally learned that the electrical panel for the new pump setup had been faulty all along. That was what had caused the overheating and other problems with the diesel generator. The manufacturer of the panel had finally found the correct schematic for it (a schematic is like a map for electrical wires showing which connects to what). With the schematic and their top trouble-shooting electrical engineer, the problem was finally fixed, but the error had cost my dad almost a year of precious time and money.

  Dad and Bobby renewed their efforts to find the inlet drain at the beach. They knew that the original five finger water inlet drain had been disturbed by

  China pieces found buried in a trench close to the shoreline at Smith’s Cove. Probably buried by pirates to hide evidence they had been there. Here, glued together.

  Bob Restall drilling at the Cave-In Pit after it had been pumped dry.

  too many treasure hunters, so blocking it off was no longer an option. They also believed that the pirates had put in a curving bypass drain at the edge of the beach to act as a second way to flood the Money Pit. This bypass drain originated near the Vertical Shaft and curved one way and then another toward the Cave-In Pit.

  During their search they came across a trench they were convinced had been dug by the pirates. In it they found pieces of china. Dad believed that pirates must have buried the pieces to hide all signs that they had lived on the island.

  My father sent the picture to Fred Sparham, commenting, “It’s interesting. But it’s not treasure,” and urged Fred to try to find one last big investor, for then they would be out of shares (of the treasure) to sell.

  That fall, having no money to run the diesel generator, they focused their attention on the beach. They decided to clear it down to the clay level on a line that started at the white granite hand-drilled stone at the beach, passed through the Cave-In Pit, and went on to the Money Pit. Soon the beach was a sea of mud. They then cleared a swath of brush from the beach up to the Cave-In Pit.

  In October, they set up the drill at the Cave-In Pit, pumped it out, and found what they believed was the bypass drain about 90 feet down. They spent several weeks there before they were forced to conclude that they would not be able to block the drain at this location. Many attempts by treasure hunters to cut off the sea water inlet drain had damaged this drain as well as the main inlet drain in Smith’s Cove. Enough sand had come in to spoil any chance of using concrete as a plug, but not enough to block the flow of water. A more undisturbed place on the inlet tunnel would have to be found.

  Dad and Bobby went back to the beach, where they worked until December, when Dad left for Hamilton in hopes of raising more money.

  Chapter Fifteen

  1965

  Back in May of 1964, a reporter had come to the island and prepared a lengthy piece about Oa
k Island that appeared in Reader’s Digest right after Christmas 1964.

  The new year began with no contract, no money — and mounds of mail. Ablaze with excitement after reading the Readers’ Digest article, hundreds of people wrote to my parents offering advice on how to raise the treasure. Some wanted a hefty portion of the treasure in exchange for their information; some asked for nothing but recognition.

  My parents found the uproar bewildering. Letters came in from students in Denmark, from miners in Africa, from engineers in Australia, Germany, Canada, and the United States, from housewives around the world, and, seemingly, from anyone else who could lift a pen. Some communications seemed dashed off in haste, while it was obvious that others had been prepared with great care, some even containing detailed diagrams drawn to scale.

  Many of the methods suggested were either impossible, had already been tried, or were ruled out as too costly (for instance, freezing the surrounding earth). Everyone had a theory about how the treasure could be raised. At first my parents answered each letter, but they just couldn’t keep up with the avalanche of mail.

  Many people who wrote were misinformed about the layout of Oak Island. To set the record straight, Bobby finished off his winter evening project — a map of the end of the island that contained the Money Pit, treasure hunters’ shafts, and other landmarks (see Figure 1, page 15). He had the map reproduced and sold copies for one dollar.