Gary Kinder Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea

Annotation

';Titanicmeets Tom Clancy technology' in this national-bestselling account of the SS Central America's wreckage and discovery (People). September 1875. With nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, the side-wheel steamer SS Central America encountered a violent storm and sank two hundred miles off the Carolina coast. More than four hundred lives and twenty-one tons of gold were lost. It was a tragedy lost in legend for more than a centuryuntil a brilliant young engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck. Driven by scientific curiosity and resentful of the term ';treasure hunt,' Thompson searched the deep-ocean floor using historical accounts, cutting-edge sonar technology, and an underwater robot of his own design. Navigating greedy investors, impatient crewmembers, and a competing salvage team, Thompson finally located the wreck in 1989 and sailed into Norfolk with her recovered treasure: gold coins, bars, nuggets, and dust, plus steamer trunks filled with period clothes, newspapers, books, and journals. A great American adventure story, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is also a fascinating account of the science, technology, and engineering that opened Earth's final frontier, providing ';white-knuckle reading, as exciting as anything...in The Perfect Storm' (Los Angeles Times Book Review). ';A complex, bittersweet history of two centuries of American entrepreneurship, linked by the mad quest for gold.' Entertainment Weekly ';A ripping true tale of danger and discovery at sea.' The Washington Post ';What a yarn!...If you sign on for the cruise, go in knowing that you're going to miss meals and a lot of sleep.' Newsweek