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The Mystery of the Oak Island Whistle - Part 1

The Oak Island Compendium presents “The Mystery of the Oak Island Whistle, Part 1”, by Daniel Spino and Charlotte Wheatley. Our new series will be investigating the Oak Island Whistle which has been one of the most mysterious artifacts in the history of Oak Island. In the past, the Whistle and the Parchment, with VI written on it, have held the same importance as the Lead Cross does today. We will be looking at the timeline of the whistle and how it has been conflated and confused with other Oak Island whistles for almost a hundred and fifty years. Its identification and true story have been elusive up until this point.


The Oak Island Treasure Company Prospectus - 1893

The whistle is mentioned in, “The Oak Island Treasure Company Prospectus of 1893” written by Frederick Blair, Adams Tupper and others in the company. The prospectus was written to advertise the company’s treasure operations and to attract investors. In the report it states, “Only a very short time ago (1890), a young man found on the island a copper coin, weighing an ounce and a half, dated 1317, on which were various strange devices. Some years ago (1885), a boatswain’s stone whistle was also found on the island, of a very ancient pattern but it was accidentally broken by the finder and was thrown away.”

Collier’s Magazine – August 19, 1911

In 1911, H.L. Bowdoin wrote an article in Collier’s Magazine about his treasure hunting experience on Oak Island in 1909 called, “Solving the Mystery of Oak Island, The Hundred Year Search for the $10,000,000 Supposed to Have Been Buried by Pirates”. Bowdoin states that, in his opinion, the treasure hunt was a hoax, and nothing was ever buried on the island. In the article Bowdoin explains the founding story of the Money Pit by McGinnis, Smith, and Vaughan. In the account he states about the three, “When they returned with shovels, the tide was unusually low, and they discovered a ringbolt imbedded in a rock; a boatswain’s whistle was picked up and later a copper coin bearing the date 1713 was found.” It appears Bowdoin was conflating the events listed in the 1893 Prospectus with the founding story of the Money Pit. This spawned a series of later reports of whistles being found at this time.


The Oak Island Mystery – R.V. Harris, 1958, courtesy of Scott Clarke

The whistle is mentioned and pictured in “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 first thing that comes to mind is how would a stone whistle be made of bone or ivory as Harris described? If it was thrown away, how did Ms. Steward (Stewart) take possession of the whistle? Harris provides a picture of the whistle, and it looks undamaged.


The Secret Treasure of Oak Island, 2004 – D’Arcy O’Connor

We learn more about the 1885 whistle in D’Arcy O’Connor’s, ‘Secret Treasure of Oak Island’ 2004. He writes, “For some reason the Sellers heirs allowed another searcher on their land in the summer of 1932. This was Mary B. Steward, a wealthy New York City dowager. Under an agreement with Blair, she sent John Talbot, an engineer from Brooklyn to the island. He spent two months drilling a hole a few feet away from the Chappell shaft and brought up a couple of chips of wood from 113 to 150 feet. At that lower depth, his drill pipe broke, and he abandoned the project.”


The Curse of Oak Island, 2016 – Randall Sullivan

In “The Curse of Oak Island: The Story of the World's Longest Treasure Hunt” by Randall Sullivan 2018, he writes, “Early in 1932, a New York engineer named John Talbot, showed up in Nova Scotia and he was representing a “financial interest” headed by the wealthy heiress Mary B. Stewart. Talbot apparently offered the heirs enough to gain their permission to spend seven weeks on Oak Island drilling in and around the Money Pit. He found nothing of note and abandoned the effort when his drill broke at a depth of about 50 feet just northwest of what had become known as Chappell shaft. In the end, the most notable result of the New York concern’s foray on Oak Island was the disappearance of the famous ivory boatswain’s whistle that had been found in 1885. It was delivered to Mary B. Stewart (Steward) in August 1932 and has never been seen since.”


Daniel Jackson Steward – Ancestry.com

In ‘Oak Island Encyclopedia’ 2019, Hammerson Peters writes, “In 1932, the twelve heirs of the late Sophia Sellers, the daughter of Anthony Graves who had owned most of Oak Island, refused to lease their land to Frederick Blair... Instead, they offered to sell him their inherited Oak Island property for $5,000, an offer which Blair refused….Mary Bogert Steward, a wealthy spinster and amateur architect from New York City who hoped to solve the Oak Island Mystery using the small fortune she had inherited from her father (Daniel Jackson Steward, a successful New York wholesale dry goods merchant, artist, and philanthropist)…When Talbot’s exploration revealed little of interest, the Sellers heirs partnered with Thomas Nixon an engineer from British Columbia.”


Frederick Blair – Oakislandmystery.com

It's important to note that Thomas Nixon, the next treasure hunter after Talbot and Steward, inquired about a whistle to Frederick Blair approximately one year after the Oak Island whistle was obtained by Ms. Steward. The following is part of a letter dated Dec. 19, 1933, from Frederick Blair to Thomas M. Nixon, “Believing it will save time, I am writing to New York in an attempt to secure a picture of the whistle you mention, and if successful, will mail it to you immediately on it's receipt.” Was the picture of the whistle in R.V. Harris’ book the same picture that Blair was requesting from his inquiry? It should be noted that Mary Bogert Steward lived in New York at the time the letter was drafted.

Mary Bogert Steward and Family Gravesite – Ancestry.com

Compendium investigations confirms that Ms. Mary Bogert Steward was a wealthy heiress living on Fifth Avenue in New York City with her sister Sarah. Mary also spent time in her family home in Goshen, Orange County, New York. Ms. Steward had three sisters. Daniel Jackson Steward, their late father, was a successful wholesale dry goods merchant in New York City. According to "The History of Orange County" by Russell Headley, Steward was a founder of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Museum of Natural History, where he was a vice president for years. He gave the museum many fossils and Indian artifacts, some from Orange County, in addition to a collection of rare and beautiful shells. This may be where Mary acquired her interest in artifacts like the Oak Island Whistle. Her sister, Sarah Steward, died in 1953. Mary Steward died in 1955. Elizabeth Steward Burrill, sister and widow, inherited the estate. She died in 1958. Everything was then left to the last sister, Anna Jackson Steward Lincoln, also a widow. The furniture and other household articles were sold at auction in June 1959. We believe this is when the whistle was obtained by another owner.



Next week, we pick up the trail of the whistle and detail how it made its way back to Oak Island.



Good day from the Compendium.









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