SS Central America is still the ”Ship of Gold” as treasure hunters recover more valuables
TREASURE hunters have claimed a $1 million haul from a shipwrecked vessel dubbed the Ship of Gold. Shiver me timbers.
TREASURE hunters have recovered booty worth more than $1 million from the “Ship of Gold”, a shipwrecked vessel sitting on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The SS Central America has captured people’s imaginations ever since it sank in 1857 while carrying 21 tonnes of gold.
Its legend was further deepened when the marine expert, who found the shipwreck in 1988, disappeared after being accused of failing to hand over all of the gold he found.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a US deep ocean exploration firm managed to recover last month nearly 1,000 ounces of gold, worth $1.3 million, as part of the first reconnaissance dive in almost 25 years.
Its successful haul has renewed speculation that treasure worth tens of millions of dollars remains in the wreck.
Gold worth $40-$50 million was recovered from the wreck in the 1980s and 1990s before the recovery effort became caught up in a decades-long court battle over rights to the treasure.
In the first dive since 1991, Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, Florida managed to recover five gold ingots, two $20 Double Eagle coins, an 1857 coin minted in San Francisco and an 1850 coin minted in Philadelphia.
The company managed to secure the rights to the shipwreck from the receiver of the first exploration company, led by marine expert Thomas Thompson.
Mr Thompson’s team located the ship in 1988 but the engineer later disappeared after his investors sued him, accusing him of not handing over millions in profits.
A warrant for his arrest was issued in 2012, but Mr Thompson has never been found.
The sinking of SS Central America claimed the lives of 425 people and also led to one of the world’s worst financial crises.
The gold was being shipped to New York to prop up its cash-strapped banks.
However, the treasure never arrived at its destination after the SS Central America was caught in a hurricane 257km off the coast of South Carolina.
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