Is the Money Pit a water reservoir?

[Pubmech]

Could the so-called "Money Pit" really be nothing but a man-made reservoir to hold some of the water from the Swamp when the Swamps plug is pulled?? And then to refill the Swamp using gravity AFTER those who created this ingenious system were done doing whatever they were doing in the Swamp? This is precisely why the creators of this unique "Bank Vault" or '"Ship Yard" - whatever, didn't even bother trying to hide the "Swamp Water Holding Tank Hole" - aka: Money Pit.

Also, the "Flood Tunnels" could have been used to let most of the Swamps' water in and out using the Tides.. The rest I believe the Money Pit could have handled..
Also, after reading other theory's about the Swamp as being an old British Navy Ship Yard and/or Ship Repair Yard, I think it makes more sense to me now that the swamp was used as a Dry-Dock in which they would have needed to sail a Ship in to the Swamp area - drain the water - repair/build the ship(s) - quickly refill the Swamp and then sail it out to the ocean - Repeat... Basically just how they do it today, accept they were using gravity, gaint water holding tanks and Tide Tunnels to move the water in and out instead of modern pumps.

It's not as glamorous as treasurer of course, but it seems to make a lot more sense after reading the some of the theories on OI being nothing more than a Ship Yard of some sort for the Brits most likely.
Does anyone know if someone else has already thought about this idea and brought it up on here? Thanks.

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

The tides in Nova Scotia are eight foot. Why would you need a 42,000 gallon "reservoir" (assuming 200 ft deep & six ft diameter) that close to an ocean bay? Gonna be awful hard to pump out the water 40 ft below the surface with "pre 1795" technology.

Here is an 1820ish canal dry-dock in NY. Note that the idea is that once you get the water out there are places workers can stand to work on the hull. Swamp mud would not be the best place. And to make a stable hole you need walls - that would leave rock or concrete structures as evidence.

 

[Pubmech]

The reservoir would have to be deep to drain the Swamp, and you would need "Fill and Drain Tunnels" built into the reservoir (aka: Money Pit) in order to drain and refill the drydock with water in a controlled manner. Plus, I believe that the Swamp holds far more than 42,000 gallons of water, don't you? But I do believe that 42,000 gallons of water would have been plenty to float any Ship of that time off of the Drydockings bed... After that point, it wouldn't have had to of been a "controlled" refill so long as everything with the Ship looked ok.

Also, who knows what's on the bottom of the Swamp besides mud?? It seems as if there's some sort of hard and/or dry material in which could have been used as a working surface for men. We will see soon enough I guess.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

The reservoir would have to be deep to drain the Swamp, and you would need "Fill and Drain Tunnels" built into the reservoir (aka: Money Pit) in order to drain and refill the drydock with water in a controlled manner. Plus, I believe that the Swamp holds far more than 42,000 gallons of water, don't you? But I do believe that 42,000 gallons of water would have been plenty to float any Ship of that time off of the Drydockings bed... After that point, it wouldn't have had to of been a "controlled" refill so long as everything with the Ship looked ok.

Also, who knows what's on the bottom of the Swamp besides mud?? It seems as if there's some sort of hard and/or dry material in which could have been used as a working surface for men. We will see soon enough I guess.

Ship of what time? It's pretty easy to figure how much water it takes to float a ship. They displace as much weight of water as the ship weighs (Archemeaies Principle - though they do have draft). But you have to have a space much larger then the ship's hull or it's just nestled in a dirt trench and even harder to work on than it would be in water. That's why the practice at the time was careening. They (the world) didn't have a portable pump that could move large volumes of water. Not until the steam engine (note the steam boiler in the image of the dry-dock I posted earlier).

I definitely believe the swamp would hold millions of gallons. I manage a water treatment plant that pumps 15,000,000 to 60,000,000 gallons a day. What I said was that the money pit, if 200 ft deep and 6 feet in diameter, would only have held 42,000 gallons. About three family size backyard pools worth of water. It would make no difference much at all to a multiple acre swamp.

 

[Pubmech]

The reservoir would have to be deep to drain the Swamp, and you would need "Fill Tunnels" built into the reservoir (aka: Money Pit) in order to refill the drydock back up with water in a controlled manner. Plus, I believe that the Swamp holds far more than 42,000 gallons of water, don't you? But I do believe that 42,000 gallons of water would have been plenty to float any Ship of that time off of the Drydockings bed... After that point, it wouldn't have had to of been a "controlled" refill.

Also, who knows what's on the bottom of the Swamp besides mud?? It seems as if there's some sort of hard and/or dry material in which could have been used as a working surface. We will see soon enough I guess.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Deja vu!

That was identical to you prior post. Perhaps you mistakenly think saying it repeatedly makes it any more convincing?

 

[Pubmech]

I'm new here and obviously I haven't quite mastered how this forum works.. I have no idea why or even how I managed to C&P this same exact comment on here! I certainly didn't mean to that's for sure..

 

[tokameel]

Pubmech, Welcome to T-Net!

Lots of luck with your treasure hunting.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

[Dave Rishar]

That's why the practice at the time was careening.

On a somewhat related note, my recent deep dive into commercial whaling taught me some new things about careening. One of the reasons why it was done in the first place was to remove marine growth from the hull, as most of us know. What I did not know is that if you selected the right sort of beach, you didn't actually have to assign sailors to do the scraping; the action of the waves, changing tides, and shifting stones on the beach would do that work for you. Shingle beaches were reportedly the most appropriate for this, which kind of makes sense I guess; the sea-rounded stones would tend to slide over the hull but would obliterate any projections, like barnacles or such. Give the ship a day or three on her side while part of the crew conducts repairs and the rest of them forage, and then turn her around to do the other side. It seems like a remarkably efficient method for cleaning up a hull while not wasting any manpower...and it likely seemed the same to them as well, which is why they did it when they could.

Does Oak Island have that sort of beach? I have no idea. I just found it interesting enough to share with you all.

 

[lokiblossom]

On a somewhat related note, my recent deep dive into commercial whaling taught me some new things about careening. One of the reasons why it was done in the first place was to remove marine growth from the hull, as most of us know. What I did not know is that if you selected the right sort of beach, you didn't actually have to assign sailors to do the scraping; the action of the waves, changing tides, and shifting stones on the beach would do that work for you. Shingle beaches were reportedly the most appropriate for this, which kind of makes sense I guess; the sea-rounded stones would tend to slide over the hull but would obliterate any projections, like barnacles or such. Give the ship a day or three on her side while part of the crew conducts repairs and the rest of them forage, and then turn her around to do the other side. It seems like a remarkably efficient method for cleaning up a hull while not wasting any manpower...and it likely seemed the same to them as well, which is why they did it when they could.

Does Oak Island have that sort of beach? I have no idea. I just found it interesting enough to share with you all.

It takes a good tide and I'm not so sure about Oak Island, but I know they still do that stuff along the Bay of Fundy with well over 20 ft. daily tides.

Cheers, Loki

 

[Pubmech]

I wouldn't exactly call it a "claim", it's more of a guess really. It seems a lot more rational to me than buried treasure worth BILLIONS of dollars that someone or group simply forgot about. Plus, I believe that my guess is just as good as anyone elses guess. Hopefully, we shall see very soon, because if these guys don't figure this thing out this season, then I don't see this show going on for another one! People are done being teased I think!

 

[Pubmech]

Thank you very much! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family as well! God Bless!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Please post by our rules, no insults.

 

[Pubmech]

I'm beginning to believe that I'm right about this being an old Ship Repair dry dock... Possibly for stolen ships by Pirates. Think of a chop shop for a gang of car thieves ha! I'm pretty much done thinking that there's any treasure on OI! *sigh

 

[gazzahk]

I'm beginning to believe that I'm right about this being an old Ship Repair dry dock... Possibly for stolen ships by Pirates. Think of a chop shop for a gang of car thieves ha! I'm pretty much done thinking that there's any treasure on OI! *sigh

Certainly seems more plausible then any of the wacko theories they have had on the show...