Gold Rush

On 1 September 1857 the paddle steamer `Central America` sank some 200 miles off the coast of South Carolina during a hurricane.
She was one of the many packets which sailed between Panama and New York twice a week carrying passengers who had come on the railroad from San Francisco bringing gold from California. In fact the `Central America` was reckoned to have carried one third of all the gold mined in the Californian gold-fields.
On her final voyage she had, as usual, coaled at Havana, loaded some more cargo then, with 580 passengers, sailed north. September is the middle of the hurricane season in these waters and Capt. William Hendron found himself battling through the heavy seas on the fringes of one of them. For three days all the male passengers formed bucket chains to assist the overworked pumps until another vessel reached her. Women and children were rescued but more than 423 people were lost when she suddenly foundered. The amount of gold that went down with her was so staggering that it affected the financial markets causing an economic depression.
The approximate location of the ship and the value of her cargo had long been known but the depth in which she was lying, some one and a half miles, defeated all attemps at recovery.
In 1988 a team from Columbus, Ohio, located her while engaged on another project and the following year, using an ex-icebreaker `Arctic Explorer` and a remote controlled robot `Nemo`, they started bring gold bars and coins to the surface. The operations were conducted using underwater television. For an investment of about $4 million dollars a billion dollars worth of gold was recovered.

On a similar subject:- The London Times for 7 Sept. 1996 reports that more than 10.000 gold sovereigns have been recovered from the wreck of the Royal Mail Steamer DOURO, which sank after a collision with the Spanish steamer YRURAC BAT off Cape Finisterre, on a clear evening with a full moon, in April 1882. The British steamer was laden with coffee, diamonds and gold from Brazil. She sank within 30 minutes and 17 people lost their lives, The 49 passengers and 60 crew who survived found that the boats were jammed in the davits and rowlocks and plugs were missing. The survivors, completely destitute, were picked up by the British steamer HIDALGO.

Nigel Pickford of London and Sverker Hallstrom of Sweden led the team which located the wreck using sonar and a hydro-acoustic referencing system in a area containing many unidentified wrecks from the Victorian era. A powerful drill ship, the DEEPSEA WORKER, from an international salvage company was used to bring the treasure to the surface in 1995. The team then had to wait for a year to see if any claims were made on it.

In all 28.000 coins were raised including a 1,600 reis coin from 1780s Brazil and others from Australia. China cups, plates and two bronze dolphins were also recovered. The treasure will be on public view at Christies in London November 10-16 before the auction on November 20-21. The estimated value is 1.5 million pounds sterling.

The London Sunday Times for 27 Ocober 1996 reports that diver Colin Martin believes he has located the richest wreck ever found in British waters. She is the Packet HANOVER bound for Falmouth with gold worth 50 million pounds at today`s prices. The ship was driven ashore near Land`s End in a tempest on 13 December 1763 and sank in a deep gully which soon filled with sand. Colin Martin who found a gold ring which once belonged to the wife of Capt. Joseph Sherburn of HANOVER, has now secured the rights to the wreck in conjunction with the Post Office who, as successors to the Packet Service, are owners of the wreck. He his now seeking half a million pounds to fund the initial recovery operations due to begin next April.

In a letter to the London Sunday Times on 10 November 1996 Peter Earle and D. Hebb report that all the bullion on board the HANOVER was recovered in April 1765, a fact reported in an important insurance case of the time.

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