Oak Island as a French Forward Naval Service Base (c. 1690–1763) Logistics, Careening, and the Quiet Machinery of Empire Jerald Lee Harrah

Abstract Oak Island, Nova Scotia, has long been framed as a site of legendary buried treasure. This paper proposes a materially grounded alternative: Oak Island functioned as a French forward naval service and maintenance base during the century-long Anglo-French struggle for control of North America. When examined through the lens of naval logistics—careening requirements, hull fouling cycles, timber consumption, fresh water access, concealment, and command presence—the island’s features align precisely with operational needs of an 18th-century wartime navy. The site’s abandonment following the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) further supports this interpretation. Oak Island is not mysterious because it hid treasure; it is misunderstood because it hid function. 1. Introduction: The Problem with Treasure Narratives For over two centuries, Oak Island has been interpreted through a speculative framework: pirates, secret societies, and buried wealth. These narratives share a common flaw—they ignore logistics, the unglamorous but decisive force behind all sustained military operations. Empires do not run on secrets; they run on: supply, maintenance, concealment, and repetition. This paper reframes Oak Island not as a singular event site, but as a working system, embedded within the French imperial war effort in Acadia and New France between the late 17th century and 1763.