Product Description
Ship of Gold tells the story of the sinking of the SS Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, two hundred miles off the Carolina coast in September 1857. Over four hundred lives and twenty-one tons of California gold were lost. It was the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American history, a tragedy that remained lost in legend for over a century. In the 1980s, a young engineer from Ohio set out to do what no one, not even the United States Navy, had been able to do: establish a working presence on the deep-ocean floor and open it to science, archaeology, history, medicine, and recovery. The SS Central America became the target of his project. After years of intensive efforts, Tommy Thompson and the Columbus-America Discovery Group found the SS Central America in eight thousand feet of water, and in October 1989 they sailed into Norfolk with her recovered treasure: gold coins, bars, nuggets, and dust, plus steamer trunks filled with period clothes, newspapers, books, and journals. Gary Kinder tells this extraordinary tale of history, human drama, heroic rescue, scientific ingenuity, and individual courage.

Amazon.com Review
The full horror as the mighty Central American, a ship carrying almost 600 people and a wealth of gold, sank in a "perfect hurricane" in 1857 is brilliantly re-created in the audio version of Ship of Gold. Gary Kinder's book cries out for audio interpretation due to its abundance of dramatic descriptions from that hellish night. "The hoarse screams of 500 men rose as she began a slow watery spin--the water turning faster and faster and faster until the swirling vortex sucked the men into a suffocating darkness with the once majestic steamer." Bruce Davison delivers Kinder's rich, descriptive narrative with appropriate drama and flair. It is truly a delight to hear this incredible story read out loud. The chilling testimonies of passengers and crew are also convincingly re-enacted by Davison, who assumes the voices of frightened young women, exhausted crew men, and the steadfast voice of the brave Captain Herndon as he fights to keep his ship afloat. Davison is rather soft spoken, which makes for a pleasant listening experience, especially because the tapes run for five hours. It really is impossible not to become fully engrossed in this fascinating story of a ship's demise, and the subsequent operation to recover her treasure some 130 years later. (Running time: five hours, four cassettes) --Naomi Gesinger

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 207 reviews)

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by ACHumphreys (Florida)

5 Stars
November 14, 2009
Great story... History.... Adventure... Nautical... Scientific... Maritime Law... a lesson in life that is very inspirational

Every Entrepreneur Must Read! by Gesco (Atlanta, Ga USA)

5 Stars
October 16, 2009
Great book. It was exciting, informative, captivating and a superb lesson in smart persistence. As an entrepreneur this story is so relevant, no matter what industry you are in, because of the obstacles and trials you go through. The story has the adventure of a wild ride but the inside view of a methodical entrepreneur who maintains laser focus. Highly recommend.

Finely Crafted, Educational, Something to Savor by Little Me (Katy Texas USA)

5 Stars
September 18, 2009
There are over 200 reviews on Amazon for the 1998 hardcover and 1999 paperback editions of this book. I can't add much to that wealth of information. The Look Inside function is also available for the 1999 edition so you can read several pages of the first chapter. Perhaps this new printing will sync up with the older editions sometime soon. In any case, suffice it to say that Ship of Gold is a terrific book with an excellent historical narrative and lots of life lessons embedded throughout. Here are a few tidbits. The moral dilemma of the gold rush from a private in the military: "The struggle between right and six dollars a month, and wrong and $75 a day is rather a severe one..." (page 10). Quote from Tommy Thompson: "The more you understand about the world, the better your perceptions are the better decisions you can make" (page 112). The ship is going down. Imminent mortality and despair of biblical proportions: "Purses filled with gold lay untouched. Amid the shouting and confusion, some men stood topside in a resigned daze and tossed gold coins at the wind" (page 125). More gold on the Ship of Gold, a secret shipment: "...the Department of the Army recently had confirmed a story approaching myth... The letter, dated April 2, 1971,... verified that secreted in her hold the Central America had also carried... another thirty thousand pounds of gold" (page 156). Diversity pays dividends: "We began to realize... that the more minds from divergent areas of thought you can get to agree on a given subject, the sounder the idea" (page 222). Comment on the team's informal round table meetings: "It doesn't have anything to do with the gold itself. It was in discovering how to discover" (page 226). The humor of Don Hackman at Battelle: "You can't always be young, but you can always be immature" (page 288). The camera shows that the best target on sonar (sidewheel) is not the prize. The cold reality of exploration: "I had a feeling the minute I saw it that this wasn't the Central America" (page 330). Comment on Tommy Thompson, a driven man: "He's just so intense... He just goes and goes and never quits" (page 400). If you would like to see color photos (and read) more about the Central America, its sunken treasure, and the search for it, get a copy of America's Lost Treasure by Tommy Thompson. Thompson's book is apparently out of print, but you can buy a used copy on Amazon or try the library. Atlantic Monthly 1998 hardcover edition: Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea Vintage 1999 paperback edition: Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea Tommy Thompson's book with color photos: America's Lost Treasure History Channel documentary: History's Mysteries: Ship Of Gold The Ship of Gold's Captain wrote this book: Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon

A well written action book I found difficult to put down. by Donn G. Ziebell (Lake Barringtonm IL USA)

5 Stars
September 16, 2009
This book has a very talented, innovative, inventive and risk taking young man as the main character of this true story. At a young age he developed and practiced a discipline to always challenge his own way of thinking and that of others to achieve a goal he was self motivated to achieve. Very creative and proven experts where challenged by him to break through their own barriers to what could not be done and succeed in making a new frontier for exploring, finding and recovering gold from a wooden ship carrying 600 people and lost in 8000 feet of water in 1857 during a huricane off the US east coast. This book will put scientists, engineers, explorers, risk takers, entreprenuers, lawyers, sailors, psycologists and many others on the edge of their chairs. This story is about a human experiment in thinking and team leadership. And if most of the readers of this book were on this man's discovery team, they will have to ask themselves if they could have survived the many challenges of the preparations and participation in this historic search and recovery adventure. This is is the stuff of which men are made!

Where is Tommy Thompson now??? by James P. Buchman (Annapolis, Md.)

3 Stars
August 14, 2009
The story of the 1857 shipwreck of the SS Central America surpasses even that of the Titanic for drama, heroism and the struggle for survival; it reveals a bit of the worst, but far more of the best, of humankind in the grips of danger and despair. Captain Hearndon is rightly revered as a hero for doing the utmost to save his ship, and when it was doomed, to save as many passengers as he could, while sacrificing his own life. Likewise with the hundreds of passengers who bailed the ship for days during the hurricane; the boat crews who ferried women and children over miles of raging seas to other ships when they appeared; the captains and crews of those ships, themselves half wrecked by the storm, which kept station as best they could while rescuing those who could be saved. Truly an inspirign tale, and Kinder tells it well. The other story, set 130 years later, was of Tommy Thompson, the eccentric engineer who conceived of the project to find and recover the Central America, courted investors, used cutting edge sonar to map probable wreck sites, and invented a whole new way of working at 8000 foot depths to recover the treasure. Here, alas, the story often dragged, as Kinder spent page after page on Thompson's youth, and delved deeply into the background of many of the people involved with the Columbus America Recovery Group. He could really have used a good editor here. Once the story got rolling, though, it could be gripping and often suspenseful. It was a good sea yarn, but as with most yarns, it can stretch the truth to cast its heroes in the best possible light. Thompson is without a doubt a genius, and a purposeful man with a lot of charisma. He turned his personal energies on every aspect of the problem of recovering the ship, pushed technologies well beyond their accepted limits, conveyed his enthusiasm to investors to support the project, and to engineers and seamen to build and operate the craft he needed to see it through. To have recovered the treasure is a tremendous achievement. But looking at the story from other sources, it appears Kinder wrote a very one-sided view of Thompson; and in fact, one of the conditions on which he was allowed access to the recovery team and ship was that Thompson had final right to review the book and recommend changes. Thompson was obsessed with secrecy about the project. This was all very well during the recovery period (late 1980's) when he had to worry about competitors beating him to the wreck; but even now, twenty years later, a shroud of secrecy still clouds much of the discovery. The gold was tied up in litigation for over a decade after being recovered; but even after the courts passed judgment that gave 92% share to Thompson's group -- over $100 million -- his original investors, who put up millions to finance the venture, have not seen one penny of return on their money. Christie's advanced him $36 million for a deal to help market the gold, but are now suing him for the money's return because he found a better deal elsewhere. Crew members from the recovery voyages are also suing, saying he promised them a small portion of the gold. And according to a Forbes article from 2006, he has disappeared without a trace. If he has turned up in the public eye since then, Google doesn't know about it. When reading this book, I shook my head several times and said, "Man, I wish I could have invested in this project in 1986!" Now, I'm really glad to have never had the "opportunity!" Thompson appears now to be a man -- brilliant, no doubt -- with an Ahab-sized obsession. And apparently no scruples.

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	America's Lost Treasure by Tommy Thompson (Author) This volume shows the successful recovery of artifacts from a ship that sank in 1857 carrying gold from the rich California mines.
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	History's Mysteries: Ship Of Gold While returning from California in 1857, the steamship SS Central America vanished in a devastating storm off the North Carolina coast. 400 lives and nearly 21 tons of gold bullion were lost. 130 years later, a daring team of high-tech treasure hunters found much of the precious cargo. SHIP OF GOLD tells the dramatic story with the help of extensive footage filmed during the recovery and fascinating interviews with the engineers, historians and salvage experts who brought the treasures to the...
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