The Oak Island Interpretive Center
Last Season, Compendium Investigations conducted a three-part investigation into the legendary Boatswain Whistle that has been a part of the Oak Island Mystery for over a hundred years. Our investigation revealed that the whistle was a 19th Century French POW Pontoon Whistle most likely made in Halifax during the Napoleonic Wars. It appears that this whistle was substituted for the original stone whistle that was found on Oak Island in 1885, which was broken and discarded at that time. It is suspected that this substitution was for the sole purpose of adding intrigue and evidence of ancient activity into the Oak Island Mystery. It appears that the people responsible for this included Frederick Blair, R.V. Harris, and Mel Chappell. In fact, Chappell claimed in a newspaper article that the whistle was from the 17th century and was found by his father during his drilling operations. When questioned by author/researcher, D’Arcy O’Connor, Chappell changed his story and said he didn’t know where it came from or when it was found. R.V. Harris had a picture of this whistle in his 1958 book, “The Oak Island Mystery”, claiming it was the 1885 whistle, which it could not have been. The Compendium was aware of a picture of Chappell blowing this whistle and it being the same whistle that was in the Harris book. Unfortunately, the Compendium was not able to locate the picture until now.
The Oak Island Interpretive Center
The picture is part of a storyboard located on display at The Oak Island Interpretive Center. It confirms that the whistle is the same exact whistle that was pictured in the Harris book, which was printed in 1958. This is five years before Chappell acquired it from John Lewis, who had an interest in the Oak Island Mystery. The Compendium believes Lewis acquired the whistle from the Steward Family Auction in New York in 1959. Mary Bogert Steward had originally obtained the whistle from her proxy, John Talbot. Talbot appears to have obtained it from Frederick Blair on Oak Island in 1932, most likely as a token for Steward, who had invested in an unsuccessful operation on Oak Island. Steward and her family were active museum collectors and patrons. Letters from Frederick Blair indicate that he contacted Steward in 1933 and asked for a photo of the whistle to give to Thomas Nixon, who requested it while conducting operations on Oak Island at the time. That picture of the whistle acquired by Blair appears to be the same one used by Harris in his book. The whistle’s details were then fabricated, embellished, and falsified. Why would Harris, Blair, and Chappell lie about this whistle? Clearly to give substance to the idea of ancient activity occurring on Oak Island. If that is the case, how many other artifacts and features associated with Oak Island through the years meet these same criteria?
Please join us this Wednesday for our Season 12, Episode 1 summary of “The New Digs”. Followed by our Throwback Thursday article by the Original Compendium’s Block House Blog. This week’s article focuses on the mysterious Daniel Vaughan, as he and his family played a major role in the purported treasure on Oak Island.
Good day from the Compendium!