on the island.
Sunday, March 20, 1960
Gerald Stevens brought fuel oil and gasoline to island, and planks and barrels to Grandall’s Point. Made barrel bungs tight.
Monday, March 21, 1960
Built raft in 2–3 hours with 12 barrels, 6 logs, 27 planks, wire and nails. Loaded Plymouth and it floated like an iceberg (sank to plank level) to Smith’s Cove with speedboat. Very slow going. Towed it back to Grandall’s Point and staked it down so it floats at high tide and is dry at low tide.
Tuesday, March 22, 1960
Got 8 more barrels from Mader and trucked them to Grandall’s Point. Extra buoyancy needed for 5,000 lb. compressor. Did odds and ends rest of day.
Wednesday, March 23, 1960
Cleared everything out of compressor that wasn’t nailed to the floor. Fixed barrel bungs to be watertight. Sudden wind and we beached boat and puttered around with odds and ends that needed attention.
Thursday, March 24, 1960
Rigged braces for hoist at beach. Took hoist car from main pits and mounted in beach hole. Pumped out hole and started clearing ice and snow. Made record run to Chester. Uncovered and launched boat, scooted 2 1/2 miles to Chester by water, got mail, some groceries, newspaper and pics at drugstore, roared back and pulled up and covered boat in 45 minutes flat.
Friday, March 25, 1960
Cleared out beach hole. Set up generators and charged batteries.
Saturday, March 26, 1960
Put eight barrels under raft. Went to Chester by boat. Nearly drowned and froze coming back in 4 to 6 foot waves. Cold today. Seawater froze to deck.
Sunday, March 27, 1960
Cut poles to crib beach hole. Took them to Smith’s Cove.
Monday, March 28, 1960
Moved raft from Grandall’s Pt. to Government Wharf in Western Shore. Stored planks for loading it in gas station by dock.
Tuesday, March 29, 1960
Loaded compressor and towed it over and unloaded at Smith’s Cove. Took raft apart and stacked up barrels, planks, and logs.
Wednesday, March 30, 1960
Went to Chester and here and there. Got winch welded up. Rained all afternoon, got completely drenched coming back.
Thursday, March 31, 1960
Took barrels to Andy’s. Built runway and platform over hole and cleared out three wheelbarrow loads of sand, using hoist and winch.
Friday, April 1, 1960
Cribbed one end of hole after cutting up poles and clearing sand and building loading platform in hole. Rained most of afternoon.
Saturday, April 2, 1960
Went to Chester and returned barrels. General running around used up the day.
Sunday, April 3, 1960
Cleared out stones and sand (about ten hoist loads) and cribbed far end of beach hole toward the point.
Monday, April 4, 1960
Dug hole 6” deeper for pump.
Tuesday, April 5, 1960
Fixed part of caved-in cribbing near pump. Briggs and Stratton got a seized valve and we fixed it (luckily). Found two old beams just seaward of our cribbing. They are vertical, about 6” or 8” by same. Very old and rotten. Apparently part of an old cribbing. Later noticed 8” x 1” boards in a square shape at least 5’ long. Some kind of hollow post or trough.
Wednesday, April 6, 1960
Dug beach hole deeper. Went to Chester and wasted day getting Chappell [on phone].
Thursday, April 7, 1960
R.E. [Dad] went to Halifax to see Chappell. Met Harris [R.V. Harris, author of The Oak Island Mystery] and others.
Friday, April 8, 1960
Went to Chester. Learned a lot about the Teazer. One fellow will show us where it went down. Finished fixing cribbing.
Saturday, April 9, 1960
Deepened hole about 4”. Checked pump in Chester and bought it. [This was a huge pump previously used on the island to pump water from the Money Pit.]
Sunday, April 10, 1960
Fixed carburetor on compressor and tested it. Fixed carburetor on Lawson mill. Dug out about 1 foot in hole. Found it will be necessary to crib at least part of hole. Added one tier of planks.
Monday, April 11, 1960
Added two tiers of plank cribbing to hole. Total depth 11 1/2 feet.
Tuesday, April 12, 1960
Reached 13 feet in hole. Had considerable sliding in. Will have to abandon horizontal method of cribbing sides.
Wednesday, April 13, 1960
Went to Chester and ordered planks and beams for cribbing vertically. Worked on sump pump for awhile.
Thursday, April 14, 1960
Got planks over. Went to Chester and dropped coupling into machine shop. Put cribbing into place and tacked frame in temporarily.
Friday, April 15, 1960
Hole is just over 14 feet deep. It is cribbed to the 13 1/2 foot level.
Sunday, April 17, 1960
Reached about 15 1/2 feet in hole. Still previously dug.
Monday, April 18, 1960
Put gas tank from Fargo on Chappell’s pump. Went to Chester for flexible gas line. Went down about 1 foot in hole.
Tuesday, April 19, 1960
Reached total depth of 17 feet. Clay spongy. Encountering more rocks. We are roughly 6 feet below low tide.
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