Tony Sampson appears in The Curse of Oak Island as a cast member and also owns and operates Salty Dog Sea Tours out of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.
Read The Scuba News Canada article on Salty Dog Tours
Tony was taking passengers on a visit to Oak Island with Salty Dog Tours last June, (2020) and they had an experience they would likely never forget. They were in the “Oak Island Triangle,” as the region is called. Tony turned the boat around to recover one of his passengers’ hats that had flown away in the wind. They found something shiny in the water when they arrived where the hat was in the water. The passengers initially mistook this for part of the tour, but once they realized it wasn’t, they pitched in to help a man in the water (without a life jacket who had raised his hand up), board the ship. They got him on board and dialed 911 right away. Fortunately, there was a fireman on board, and he immediately took his vitals. He was taken to hospital and recovered.
The winds had shifted in the afternoon, according to Tony, and man’s boat had been swamped. The gentleman’s lifejacket was tied to the seat and it was his maiden voyage on the boat. When they found him, his eyes were rolling, the waves were washing over his face, and Tony thought he was minutes away from death. (as reported by Tony).
Oak Island, is where the saved man’s boat washed up. It was fixed, and the man was able to get back on the water, hopefully with his lifejacket on and not tied to the boat’s seat. It is unknown if he ever went boating again.
Tony was explaining the Oak Island Triangle as a place where weird things happen just before the rescue. If you think losing a hat in the wind on a boat tour weird consider it “gratifying” weird because a man was saved from drowning that day. Tony’s tour was in the right place at the right time.
