THE OAK ISLAND COMPENDIUM, NEW EDITION begins our “Artifact Alley” postings today. We will be discussing some of the finds and discoveries of Oak Island and give more information and any updates possible.
Today we cover a topic that has been stumping Oak Island researchers for a very long time:
The Oak Island Whistles
The Oak Island Mystery has produced at least four whistles that have been mentioned as being found on the island. The following accounts detail these objects:
"They Found Gold, The Story of Successful Treasure Hunts" by A. Hyatt Verrill, 1936. An excerpt from a story about McGinnis, Smith, and Vaughan after finding the Money Pit, “During their sojourn ashore, the tide had fallen and now, as the three approached the canoe they made another discovery. Left exposed by the ebbing water was an immense, old-fashioned, rusty ringbolt let into the seaweed-covered rock. Here was further proof of pirates having landed on the island, and as the boys searched about, they made two additional thrilling discoveries. One was a water-worn coin, the other an old-fashioned boatswain's whistle of silver.”.
“The Oak Island Mystery” by R.V. Harris, 1958, Pg. 73 (pictured on page 117). Harris writes “About 1885, a boatswain’s stone whistle was also found on the island, made of bone or ivory, of a very ancient pattern and peculiar design. It was last known to be in the possession of a Miss Mary Stewart of New York (now deceased), who in previous years was one of the searchers for the treasure. It was found in the soil of the shore between the cofferdam and shoreline.”
"The Money Pit Mystery, The Costliest Treasure Hunt" by Rupert Furneaux, 1972, pg. 40. Furneaux writes: “A whistle, made of bone or ivory, was found on the shore of Smith’s Cove in 1885. This was wrongly described as a “bosuns whistle, which according to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, ‘were always made of silver or plated’. Another whistle, about three in. long, was found in 1901. It was also made of bone or ivory and was shaped like a violin.”
“The Big Dig” by D’Arcy O’Connor, 1988, pg. 108. “In 1937 Gilbert Hedden had his crew scour the entire island looking for clues, and that's when they came across an old dump in which they retrieved thousands of broken pottery flasks, an old coin and an ivory boatswain's whistle on the north side of the island in the swamp near Joudrey's Cove (lots 9-13). This information is contained in records left behind by Hedden, and confirmed by my interviews many years later with Amos Nauss who was Hedden's foreman in 1936-37.”
Reported by the Oak Island Treasure Forum UK, 2008, “Boatswain’s whistle made of bone or ivory found at Smith’s Cove about 1901. The whistle was given to M.R. Chappell by J. W. Lewis who wanted it to be passed on to another person who appreciated and understood the Oak Island mystery.”
From the Oak Island Treasure Forum UK
Compendium Investigations is hot on the trail of these whistles. We will be sharing our investigation with you soon into what we have discovered.
