Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: The History and Discovery of the World's Richest Shipwreck

Amazing story about dedication, ingenuity, invention and adventure. This book is much more than a treasure hunt. It is well written and keeps you engaged as a reader through a lifetime of singular vision and dedication that ultimately results in the accomplishment of something that had never been done before. It is a story of success against all odds and it was fun to read.

It's such a cliche to say "I couldn't put it down!" but in this case, it's 100 percent true. I picked this book up at my friend's beach house thinking I'd read it off and on over the weekend and just leave it there, possibly unfinished. Well, I spent that whole weekend with my nose in the book, and needless to say, borrowed it to take home and finish. The book is fascinating. It has a great story -- really two great stories, connected -- and is well written, too. The earlier part of the book, which deals mostly with the wreck of the U.S. Central America during the "gold rush" period, is a detailed and fascinating slice of American history as well as a breathtaking account of a terrible disaster. It features memorable characters and true human drama as the ship's passengers fight for survival for themselves and their loved ones, and even strangers -- or, in some cases, struggle only to save their precious gold. The later story, the account of engineer Tommy Thompson's efforts to retrieve the ship and the gold that went down with it, is in its way just as fascinating and suspenseful. Thompson is an amazing real-life character, a sort of "mad genius" who drags a whole cadre of smart young people with him on his quest to do things no one has ever done before. The monetary value of the gold truly becomes irrelevant as the team fights to retrieve their treasure in the face of bad weather, limited funding, incredible technological hurdles, fierce and unscrupulous competition, and, of course, the might of the ocean itself. You will not be disappointed by this book. It truly "has it all."

Ship of Gold begins by taking you back to 1857 with a colorful narrative account of being aboard the steamer SS Central America leaving Havana for New York. From there, the book skillfully covers a ton of diverse ground. As the reader, you are treated to (deep breath here) a history of the California Gold Rush, a lesson in the haphazard approach used by most shipwreck hunters, insights into the mind of a truly unique genius, a very well-researched account of the sinking of the Central America that puts you aboard the ship as it goes down, a schooling in the difficulties of accomplishing work in very deep water and a schooling in the cut-throat business of treasure-hunting on the open ocean. (Breathe out) All of this is mixed together well and served up with some international salvage law and a helping of sonar technology for good measure. In the end, you get a really engaging and informative book. So what makes this a four-star, rather than five-star, read? Without giving too much away, 90% of the story gets told in the final 10% of pages. As a Star Trek fan, I always laughed at how the crew would always get themselves into a seemingly impossible situation that showed no hope of reversal even as you approached the point of just five minutes remaining in the episode; then, all of a sudden, something would happen and the whole thing would be worked out by the time the credits rolled. This book's pacing absolutely reminded me of that pattern. It almost felt like Kinder intended for the book to be another 200 pages but got tired of writing (he says it was a very long project) and just decided to wrap things up and move on with his life. As bad as that might sound, it doesn't detract much from what is a very good, informative and readable true story. Highly recommended.

I read this book because I saw it as a recommendation from my newspaper for a good read during the COVID-19 stay at home situation. I did no further research on the book before I downloaded it and started reading, but I remember thinking why have I not heard of this book. I had not read any of the reviews beforehand. I was surprised to see the copyright date of 1998 when I did open the e-book. Why would this old of a book be a recommendation now? It was an exciting read. As I got into the book, it was obvious the author admired the protagonist, Tommy Thompson, but some of the quotes lead me to think oh I bet he dies in his quest for the gold at the bottom of the ocean. As I was getting to the end of the book, as indicated by the percentage completed, I starting thinking there is not enough of the book left to tell me the story of what happens with all Tommy’s plans for the history, science and money found from this endeavor. And there was not. The book just ended and I had to google for the rest of the story. The rest of the story is a shocker. From the little in the public record, the protagonist appears to turn out to be the antagonist. The book deserves an epilogue or another book-that would also be a great read, but apparently the final story is still underway. But I will give my review 5 stars as it was a great read and I probably would not have read it if I had known the publication date and the rest of the story beforehand.

Author Gary Kinder spent over ten years researching and writing this book about the shipwreck of the S. S. Central America about two hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina in a severe hurricane. He devotes the first eighty pages of the book telling how the ship’s passengers were carrying gold which had been found in California during the famous 1857 Gold Rush. The ultimate tally of lives lost came to 565 while 149, mostly women and children, were saved. Kinder takes advantage of the survivors’ stories to give us the harrowing details of their rescue. Fast forward now to the 1970s when we meet Tommy Thompson, Ohio State University graduate in mechanical engineering, who also has a fascination with deep ocean exploration. After several false starts, he launches a project to locate the S. S. Central America and explore the possibility of recovering its artifacts. He encounters many problems along the way, the first of which is money, but he convinces a group of wealthy investors to back him in a limited partnership. Tommy gathers together a ship, a crew, a small group of technicians, and conducts multiple runs along ocean paths calculated according to statistical probabilities of locating the wreck. But Tommy and his intrepid group are not alone out there on the ocean. In spite of his enforcing tight security on the venture, they are badgered by treasure hunters who suspect that Tommy is onto something big. Once he finds something at the sea’s bottom of 8,000 feet below the surface, a new problem arises; he must establish the venture’s legal rights to conduct further undersea work at the site. There are several surprises along the way and they deal with the actual artifacts found and in what condition they are when brought up to the surface. The book actually has a plot and characters, like a novel, but it’s all an exciting true story. The added bonus for me was learning about deep water exploration, the technology of submersibles operating at extreme depths and pressures, and the discovery of biological life previously unknown to scientists and oceanographers. This is an excellent book and I recommend to everyone.

My Favorite Book of all Time. Easy Read. Fascinating Read. Have Purchased around 60 copies to give away.

Ship of Gold is a fabulous read. The author did excellently at wending in and out of the two time periods, as well as providing relevant back stories to each period. Though the deep sea recovery challenges were obviously complex, as were the required technological solutions, the author rendered descriptions clear and full of salience without burdening the reader with too much detail. He did a spectacular job of relaying the mission's natural urgency at several junctures. True to form in human relationships under pressure, he neither winced from relaying the characters' emotional challenges, nor did he ever subjugate the mission to the men's often, and understandably, overwrought emotions. To top it off, the author did a stellar job of his unfolding the spectacular final find. Ship of Gold was an exciting read. I loved it!

I enjoy non-fiction books, especially those that have a story to tell & "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea" was definitely one of those. The book begins with a relatively brief overview of the gold rush in California & the men & women that trekked west to find their fortune. By the time the gold has pretty much played out many of the immigrants from the eastern United States are ready to head home - and a large portion of them decide the trip back home would be easier by ship (San Francisco to Panama - unload the ship & cross the isthmus to a waiting ship - then Panama to New York) than to trek across the plains again. Thus the story is set for the experiences of the passengers of the USS Central America - a sidewheel steamer that sets out from Panama in 1857 carrying a massive load of gold. The story of the ship sinking is told in several bites - alternating with the background of the subsequent search for the ship in the 1980s. The description of the process of the sinking was difficult to digest - the passengers valiantly worked several days to save the ship from the hurricane it had steamed into and their efforts were heroic, though doomed. It was a nice break from the narrative of the ship sinking to the search for the wreckage. Tommy Thompson is a marine engineer that was fascinated by the possibility of finding and recovering gold from an extreme depth. His theory suggested that the ship sank in an area 8000 feet deep. Some of the challenges faced in finding & recovering anything from the ship were technical and not as interesting (for me), but it was impressive to read about the lengths Thompson & those he worked with went to in order to solve specific physics problems. Bottom line - a heartbreaking story of loss & the fascinating pursuit of success against almost in insurmountable odds. PS - I read it on my Kindle & had to find pictures of the wreck online. I hope the physical book contains pictures!

I gifted all who have a curious mind, including members of my own family with copies of this book. I am curious why this endeavor has jot generated the same touring spectacle of that of the recovery of the Titanic. It dazzle my mind how this unique adventure is not part of the international lore, having all the ingredients to generate films, exhibitions et.

Excellent true story

great factual book, with a fantastic historical story woven in.

Brilliant adventure

Vaguely interesting for those interested in the detail of the elements involved accessing and recovering from very deep sea wrecks but the story is far too detailed and the author's apparent hero worship of the Johnny is a joke. It's even funnier if you search for what happened next!