In the 1960s, Robert Dunfield rode the bucket of an excavator to the bottom of the Pit to examine it for evidence of the tunnels: he found none, and his dye tests indicated all but 15 gallons/minute of the water was coming from below the 140' level (natural infiltration from the underlying limestone bedrock).
Not that I am trying to get into this peeing match... But this is an interesting point. As I raised in the other thread about Dunfeild... (I also do not believe the flood tunnels) but for the sake of discussion.... It may be Dunfeilds efforts to plug the flood tunnels was successful when he bulldozed the beach.. But by this time others had already drilled through to the water that come from the cavities under ground. This would mean the water from there was now mixed in with the other water. So as soon as Dunfeild broke into an old shaft ie chappels shaft then the pit would flood from that lower ground water. Therefore this is not evidence that the flood tunnels do not exist. (personally I tend to support J.Steeles theory of soil liquidifcation for the origin of the water at 100ft that flooded the original pit - this water was also probably from the below bedrock source so that would also explain his findings). I also do not really understand how the dye test would actually show anything of much significance as it is only at most show where water is escaping to not coming from. There is no way the dye could of come back through the beach because Dunfeild had buried the beach under tonnes of dirt.
Possibly. Various people say they've held the parchment (if parchment it is) in their hands, but there's no way to confirm that (a) it's the original piece, and (b) that it wasn't planted in the Pit to provide a false lead.
Because something was made using materials and techniques common in the 16th century, doesn't mean the thing was made in the 16th century.
This piece of parchment is still owned by Dan isn't it? I think that chappels vault was probably a previous treasure shaft dug by truo company (or some on else) so I do not doubt the parchment exists/ed but do not think it shows anything really. It could of come from anywhere and got stuck in the drill head.
With the cross.. J.Steele take on this (which I found interesting and plausible) it was built by the slaves that were on the island making the naval stores. The group that was in control were the Jesuits. She offers some interesting (evidence) to support this view.
The problem really is that even if we except
a) That 'boys' finding the treasure just mean males
b) That there was a water source at 100ft that was not from the lower ground water (may be soil liquidification answer)
c) That some things were pulled from the previous drillings (may of been in the ground from other sources/ from entering previous searchers diggings/ remnants from other things on OI stuck in dirt and pulled up by drill head)
d) That a stone with etchings did exist (the treasure seekers may of planted it / the etchings we have now may not be accurate)
e) That Nolans cross is man made (could of been made by others that had nothing to do with the pit)
None of the above is evidence of treasure being on OI.
I would love them to pull treasure out of the pit. But there has been nothing found by treasure searchers that supports treasure ever was buried there.
(with the possible exception of the descendets claim but lets not go into that here)
Therefore an argument over the exact measurements of Nolans cross seems pretty pointless.....