In a journey stretching over 4,000 miles from Nova Scotia, members of The Curse of Oak Island team, including Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, and researcher Emiliano Sacchetti, traveled to Malta to investigate an intriguing theory: a centuries-old link between the Knights of Malta and Oak Island’s infamous Money Pit.
The team met with investigative journalist Jean-Paul Mifsud for a rare underground tour beneath Valletta, exploring a vast network of tunnels and cisterns constructed by the Knights of Malta following the Great Siege of 1565. These limestone tunnels, engineered for survival and secrecy, may offer insight into similar subterranean features on Oak Island.
“It’s a highway underground,” Rick Lagina commented. “Tunnels, cisterns, chambers… developed to sustain a siege. The skillset here absolutely mirrors what we’re seeing in the Money Pit.”
One standout revelation involved the use of blue clay — a natural sealant also reported in early descriptions of Oak Island’s Money Pit. “Waterproofing was one of the keys,” added Scott Barlow, drawing parallels between the underground aqueducts of Malta and the sealed shafts of Oak Island.
As the team continued their Maltese investigation, they traveled to the island of Gozo to visit the Citadel of Victoria. There, military historian Denis Darmanin analyzed a key artifact found on Oak Island: the mysterious starburst button recovered from Lot 5.
“It’s a Spanish pattern,” Darmanin confirmed, dating the button to between 1650 and 1675 — over a century before the Money Pit’s reported discovery.
According to Darmanin, the button’s style was favored by aristocracy and could have adorned the uniform of a Knight of Malta. Photos of similar buttons worn on ceremonial coats reinforced the possibility that high-ranking knights were present — or even active — on Oak Island centuries before modern history acknowledges it.
“This might explain what the Lot 5 feature represents,” Rick noted. “It predates the Money Pit, and may be a clue to who was really here.”
As speculation intensifies, the team leaves Malta not with firm answers, but with mounting evidence of an elite European presence in the New World long before the 18th century. The hypothesis: that the Knights of Malta, potentially tied to Templar traditions, safeguarded treasure — and possibly transported it across the Atlantic to the shores of Nova Scotia.
With every discovery, Oak Island’s greatest riddle edges closer to revelation.
