A Florida deep-ocean exploration company has recovered around 28kg of gold, worth £770,000 at current prices, during an exploratory dive on an Atlantic shipwreck.
Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered the gold from the wreck of the SS Central America, which sunk in 1857 off the coast of the Carolinas in a Category 2 hurricane whilst carrying an estimated 19 tonnes of gold.
When the ship sank on 10 September 1857 it took with her 425 souls and 14 tonnes of gold worth $2 million, which contributed to the country-wide financial panic.
The shipwreck was previously explored by a team led by Ohio engineer Tommy Thompson in 1988, who managed to recover gold worth $40 million before trouble between investors caused the effort to stall, and Thompson to go on the run.
Odyssey won the right to re-explore the site after a court battle over the proceeds from Thompson’s efforts two decades ago, and managed to recover their haul of gold during the two-hour exploratory dive in their underwater Odyssey Explorer vessel, according to Reuters. They now plan to return to perform a more thorough exploration of the site, and hopefully recover more of the lost treasure.
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From Meson Capital’s March report that fully and without question debunked the SS Central America:
After extensive analysis of the SS Central America and the seeded claims of a secret Army gold cache, I conclusively know that no secret cache exists.
1. I spoke with credible deep sea archaeology experts directly involved with the SS Central America case for over two decades and they universally dismissed the notion of a secret Army cache.
2. Tommy Thompson’s best friend and expedition ship mate stated without question: there was never a secret army treasure on board.
3. Multiple Judges and official court documents conclusively dismiss the possibility of a secret cache.
4. Direct source materials from 1857 we obtained also clearly prove there is no secret Army cache.
5. SS Central America estate’s own internal expert analysts show the SS Central America has no Army cache.
6. Eyewitness direct quotes from 1857 of Captain Herndon of SS Central America also clearly demonstrate there is no Army cache.
7. SS Central America tried to both raise their own money to excavate this treasure with their own crew directly experienced on the site and were not successful. They also explored selling the project outright with no success as well.
8. Even if there was anything of value left below, it would have been long ago stolen by other salvors the SS Central America estate knows have been going after the treasure while their insolvency has left the site defenseless and without oversight for over 5 years.
9. Even if an army gold cache existed, it would lead to a repeat of the “Black Swan” fiasco as there is no statute of limitations on government property under maritime law and the shipment would be forfeit like in the “Black Swan” case.