The Oak Island Mystery Solved: The Final Chapter
The Oak Island
Mystery Solved: The Final Chapter
by
Joy A. Steele and Gordon Fader
3 Stars
Oak Island is a tiny island just off the coast of Nova Scotia
that has been the site of what is perhaps the world’s best known treasure hunt
for more than 200 years. I’ve said in
other reviews that I have become convinced that something extraordinary
happened on the island sometime in the distant past, but that I truly have no
idea what that something was. Authors
Joy Steele and Gordon Fader have a very different theory of what occurred on
the island. They see it not as the site
of a fabulous buried treasure but as the home of an ancient manufacturing
operation. They contend that the island
was the home of a British naval stores operation in 1720; that is, pine tar and
pitch, two items essential to the 18th century British navy, were
produced on the island.
Steele and Fader contend that they have virtually proven their
naval stores theory. I don’t find their “proof”
to be any more convincing than any of the myriad buried treasure theories that
have been proposed over the years.
However, it is, like most everything about Oak Island, fascinating. In fact, based solely on how interesting I
found the subject matter of the book I would have awarded it a 4 star
rating. However, the writing and, even
more, the editing are so poor that I couldn’t give the book more than 3 stars
overall. As just one of many examples, a
discussion of the geology of the island states “the base bedrock of the region,
the Halifax slates, are 450 million years old and of Cambrian-Ordovician
age. On top of them are Windsor
limestones that are 300 million years old.”
However, just a few pages later we are told “the slates cover a large
part of NS [presumably NS is Nova Scotia, the text doesn’t specify] and are
very old sediments, approximately 300 million years. Overlying the slates … are limestones of 70
million years called Windsor rocks.” So
which is it? Do the bedrock layers date
to 450 million years and 300 million years or to 300 million years and 70
million years? If you’re going to try to
impress me of your expertise and convince me that your theory is the truth at
least be consistent with your facts.
Still, the theory is very different and certainly interesting,
and for that alone the book is worth your time.
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